1 00:00:00,270 --> 00:00:07,654 Cause you know, we also when you go on a forty city tour, you also have forty sound checks where you can iterate and rehearse and stuff, and that's how we treat sound checks. 2 00:00:07,654 --> 00:00:12,537 I often will be like, Hey, I know this is what we decided, but I'd love to try this other way. 3 00:00:21,454 --> 00:00:25,086 Hello and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles, a podcast for keyboard players. 4 00:00:25,086 --> 00:00:29,678 I'm your host, David Holloway, and I'm excited as always to be here with you. 5 00:00:29,678 --> 00:00:31,709 I'm really pleased to introduce Mr. 6 00:00:31,709 --> 00:00:33,160 Danny Silverston. 7 00:00:33,160 --> 00:00:37,161 Danny is part of the amazing outfit called Couch. 8 00:00:37,161 --> 00:00:47,380 If you're a fan of bands, and these guys sound different to these, but just talking about broad genres, you know, Wolfpeck, Snarky Puppy, Lawrence, just really 9 00:00:47,380 --> 00:00:56,856 Nicely integrated, beautiful sounds with a brass section, great keyboards, both analog and digital, then couch are definitely someone to check out. 10 00:00:56,856 --> 00:01:01,274 We talked to Danny about his career to date, his career prior to Couch and with Couch. 11 00:01:01,274 --> 00:01:08,403 he has some great insights on the challenges of translating what they do on record to the live environment. 12 00:01:08,403 --> 00:01:09,763 Yeah, lots to enjoy here. 13 00:01:09,763 --> 00:01:13,926 So yeah, I'll let you jump in and enjoy the interview and I'll see you after the show. 14 00:01:25,346 --> 00:01:27,856 Danny, it's an absolute pleasure and honor to have you on the show, sir. 15 00:01:27,856 --> 00:01:29,721 How are you this fine day? 16 00:01:29,740 --> 00:01:30,767 I'm doing great, David. 17 00:01:30,767 --> 00:01:31,763 It's an honor to be here. 18 00:01:31,763 --> 00:01:33,666 I'm I'm excited to chat. 19 00:01:33,666 --> 00:01:35,447 No, we're very excited to chat with you. 20 00:01:35,447 --> 00:01:43,864 So, um, I thought we'd kick off, Dave, just talking a little bit about your musical upbringing because I think I'd like you've had quite an interesting musical upbringing. 21 00:01:43,864 --> 00:01:48,558 Tell us about the early years and what got you into music in the first place. 22 00:01:48,738 --> 00:01:49,288 Yeah, sure. 23 00:01:49,288 --> 00:01:58,754 So I, you know, like many other little kids, started playing classical piano when I was maybe in kindergarten or first grade just because that's what my mom said I was gonna do 24 00:01:58,754 --> 00:02:00,415 and that's what my sister did, and so that's what I did. 25 00:02:00,415 --> 00:02:12,452 I think around maybe fifth grade or so, I started to become a little more interested in pop music and started to become more interested in like using my ears in addition to just 26 00:02:12,452 --> 00:02:15,273 reading whatever my piano teacher gave me. 27 00:02:16,418 --> 00:02:26,357 And I think once I hit middle school and early high school, that's when I got a lot more into jazz and it sort of took up a lot more of my time once jazz became a thing for me. 28 00:02:26,357 --> 00:02:32,533 And there was a period of time in high school when I was taking classical and jazz lessons for about a year or two. 29 00:02:32,533 --> 00:02:34,445 But ultimately I decided that jazz was for me. 30 00:02:34,445 --> 00:02:37,877 And so that's kind of what I ran with for high school at least. 31 00:02:38,286 --> 00:02:41,377 As you know, most teenagers aren't looking towards jazz. 32 00:02:41,728 --> 00:02:42,599 Yeah, it's a good question. 33 00:02:42,599 --> 00:02:46,441 I think, you know, in middle school was I played trumpet also. 34 00:02:46,441 --> 00:02:47,482 I don't play anymore. 35 00:02:47,482 --> 00:02:50,314 I don't have the, you know, breath support for that. 36 00:02:50,314 --> 00:02:55,068 But I was in the, you know, like symphonic band and that was all good and stuff. 37 00:02:55,068 --> 00:03:02,215 But there was also a jazz band after school, which was just our band teacher put together a group and it was nothing crazy. 38 00:03:02,215 --> 00:03:07,316 It was just like, you know, playing basic stuff and just dipping our toe into jazz. 39 00:03:07,376 --> 00:03:09,848 But I remember like actually 40 00:03:09,848 --> 00:03:16,323 digging it and thinking like, this is really fun and kind of exercises a different muscle than the other stuff that I really enjoy. 41 00:03:16,323 --> 00:03:25,511 And that prompted me to, there were other people kind of in my class who I knew who were into jazz at that point, like had ensembles outside of school they were going into. 42 00:03:25,511 --> 00:03:31,415 And so I joined one of those that was just this group that met I think once a week. 43 00:03:31,916 --> 00:03:35,279 And yeah, I was going to start playing piano with this little jazz group. 44 00:03:35,279 --> 00:03:39,092 And I remember after my first rehearsal with this group, 45 00:03:39,308 --> 00:03:40,298 I literally cried. 46 00:03:40,298 --> 00:03:42,700 I was like, I can't do this. 47 00:03:42,700 --> 00:03:46,801 Like they were just they dropped so many terms and language that I just did not understand. 48 00:03:46,801 --> 00:03:48,522 Even something like a two five. 49 00:03:48,522 --> 00:03:51,684 Like everyone knew what a two five was and I had never heard that before. 50 00:03:51,684 --> 00:03:56,058 But then kind of the learning curve commenced and uh you know, now I'm where I am now. 51 00:03:56,058 --> 00:04:04,879 Um but I think that I think, yeah, middle school, just like seeing that there was this thing called improvisation and and harmony, I think I found more interesting. 52 00:04:04,879 --> 00:04:06,440 And so yeah, maybe that was it. 53 00:04:06,538 --> 00:04:07,480 And and that's great. 54 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,514 And obviously the education around the playing the piano went well. 55 00:04:10,514 --> 00:04:13,481 So what were the things that you had good teachers? 56 00:04:13,481 --> 00:04:17,297 What was it that really, you know, kept your passion going for the instrument? 57 00:04:17,622 --> 00:04:18,983 That's good question. 58 00:04:18,983 --> 00:04:24,967 I definitely had great teachers who, you know, I never felt I think early on I felt like practicing was a chore. 59 00:04:24,967 --> 00:04:30,741 And I think practicing not to say that it's a chore, but it always is work. 60 00:04:30,741 --> 00:04:34,494 And I think it absolutely is work and there's no way around that. 61 00:04:34,494 --> 00:04:45,151 But I think I had teachers that kind of never made me feel too like, you know, you just hear about these like super intense classical piano teachers that want their students 62 00:04:45,151 --> 00:04:46,850 practicing for like, you know, 63 00:04:46,850 --> 00:04:49,973 five hours a day and that that wasn't me and that wasn't my experience. 64 00:04:49,973 --> 00:04:56,348 and I think my teachers kind of just wanted to foster my like musicality and interest without kind of being overbearing. 65 00:04:56,348 --> 00:05:03,787 I also think just like listening and just finding music that I began to really love also made me more interested in the instrument. 66 00:05:03,787 --> 00:05:05,205 And I'm sure we'll talk more about that. 67 00:05:05,205 --> 00:05:12,851 But but I think kinda once I unlocked this thing I could do, which is I could learn from listening to music that I like. 68 00:05:12,851 --> 00:05:16,428 And when I heard something I liked, I could learn that and like 69 00:05:16,428 --> 00:05:17,898 develop my vocabulary that way. 70 00:05:17,898 --> 00:05:24,852 I think piano and jazz piano and just music kind of took on a different like dimension for me. 71 00:05:25,046 --> 00:05:26,687 Yeah, no, absolutely. 72 00:05:26,687 --> 00:05:30,329 And so I'm assuming Danny was sort of late teens sometime. 73 00:05:30,329 --> 00:05:33,991 you spent a lot of time at a camp, um Crane Lake camp. 74 00:05:33,991 --> 00:05:36,192 And then this is obviously before Couch took off. 75 00:05:36,192 --> 00:05:45,717 So, you know, w as a song leader or leading music in sort of a community focused environment, how did that sort of help you in your development as a musician and as as a 76 00:05:45,717 --> 00:05:47,828 performer too, I'd probably argue. 77 00:05:48,022 --> 00:05:49,222 Wow, you did your research. 78 00:05:49,222 --> 00:05:49,712 That's true. 79 00:05:49,712 --> 00:05:53,384 That I went to camp, Jewish summer camp for eleven years. 80 00:05:53,384 --> 00:05:55,714 Um I was a counselor for a few years. 81 00:05:55,714 --> 00:05:58,835 Uh the skills absolutely translate. 82 00:05:58,835 --> 00:06:08,738 I think one thing that people take for granted about like just playing concerts and and stuff is that yes, you need to rehearse some music and you need to make sure that you're 83 00:06:08,738 --> 00:06:15,980 dialed in musically, but a big piece of it is just making sure that maybe the the biggest piece of it is making sure that an audience member feels 84 00:06:15,988 --> 00:06:18,920 engaged from the moment they step in to the moment they leave. 85 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:28,595 And it's about these like talking points between songs or it's about, you know, when do you choose to introduce the band or when do you choose to kind of put your slower songs in 86 00:06:28,595 --> 00:06:29,285 the set. 87 00:06:29,285 --> 00:06:34,788 Um and just you know, making people people connected to you throughout the whole thing. 88 00:06:34,788 --> 00:06:36,223 Besides like just I enjoyed the music. 89 00:06:36,223 --> 00:06:38,130 I actually feel connected to what's going on. 90 00:06:38,130 --> 00:06:44,918 I think being a Jewish song leader and actually Zach, who's our guitar player and manager, also was a song leader at his camp, the 91 00:06:44,918 --> 00:06:49,320 reason we met is because we were song leaders together at our synagogue that we went to growing up. 92 00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:58,516 Um, you know, he understands this too, which is that being a Jewish songleader for, you know, anywhere from like a group of kindergartners to a congregation of, you know, adults 93 00:06:58,516 --> 00:07:08,651 is challenging and that, you know, you you need to kind of grab the attention of these people that could have very, very limited attention spans and make them feel like, okay, 94 00:07:08,651 --> 00:07:13,666 it's worth my time to like be in this space and be singing or whatever it is that we're doing. 95 00:07:13,666 --> 00:07:14,546 That's really hard. 96 00:07:14,546 --> 00:07:18,078 I think like song leading in high school, I wasn't great at it at the beginning. 97 00:07:18,078 --> 00:07:22,770 Just like I could play songs fine on my guitar and I could sing okay. 98 00:07:22,770 --> 00:07:34,034 But the the act of like putting on kind of a variety of show of sorts of just like I'm gonna be the C for this thirty minutes that I'm in here with you eight kindergartners, and 99 00:07:34,034 --> 00:07:35,385 there's never gonna be a dull moment. 100 00:07:35,385 --> 00:07:40,757 We're gonna sing and the songs will be great, but also you're gonna feel like engaged and part of it the whole time. 101 00:07:40,757 --> 00:07:43,628 Um, I think that's a b a big thing. 102 00:07:43,828 --> 00:07:44,938 and Jewish songleading. 103 00:07:44,938 --> 00:07:55,351 And at camp it was I wasn't ever songleading kindergartners, but I was leading services along with some other songleaders who happened to be very formidable musicians, which was 104 00:07:55,351 --> 00:07:55,811 really fun. 105 00:07:55,811 --> 00:07:59,742 And we would kinda like spice up a lot of the arrangements to these songs. 106 00:07:59,783 --> 00:08:00,403 And it was fun. 107 00:08:00,403 --> 00:08:06,084 I got to we had like a keyboard, but I also would play guitar and I'd play this djembe drum that we had. 108 00:08:06,264 --> 00:08:07,835 So I got a lot better at hand percussion. 109 00:08:07,835 --> 00:08:11,142 That's one thing I I got better at with being a Jewish songleader. 110 00:08:11,142 --> 00:08:12,408 you know, I've even 111 00:08:12,408 --> 00:08:20,791 I don't think I have with couch, but with my last band I was in college, I would track congas and stuff like that on the record 'cause I just was good enough at that type of 112 00:08:20,791 --> 00:08:21,081 thing. 113 00:08:21,081 --> 00:08:32,845 But all I was saying was that, you know, for at at camp we were leading services for like the entire camp, which like includes kids from ages ten to eighteen basically. 114 00:08:32,845 --> 00:08:35,786 And that's a different thing entirely, but 115 00:08:36,226 --> 00:08:42,262 But also like, you know, the the feeling you get when like everyone's singing and like super engaged and having a great time. 116 00:08:42,262 --> 00:08:42,642 Exactly right. 117 00:08:42,642 --> 00:08:45,585 No, and it sounds like an amazing training ground. 118 00:08:45,585 --> 00:08:47,207 And I mean you've mentioned there yourself. 119 00:08:47,207 --> 00:08:51,912 So talk talk about sort of leaving high school and the early years before couch. 120 00:08:51,912 --> 00:08:53,623 You've just mentioned you're in a previous band. 121 00:08:53,623 --> 00:08:57,562 Tell us about that era and and what sort of you learnt from those years. 122 00:08:57,562 --> 00:08:58,142 Yeah. 123 00:08:58,142 --> 00:08:58,722 yeah, totally. 124 00:08:58,722 --> 00:09:06,705 So I graduated from high school thinking that I didn't want to pursue pursue music, or at least I didn't think that was the right choice for me. 125 00:09:06,705 --> 00:09:08,215 Whatever that means to pursue music. 126 00:09:08,215 --> 00:09:10,706 I think that's even kind of a reductive way of putting it. 127 00:09:10,706 --> 00:09:14,727 But I chose to go to liberal arts school because I also had these other interests. 128 00:09:14,727 --> 00:09:17,008 I studied math and I still do love math. 129 00:09:17,008 --> 00:09:22,890 And I also was when I was looking at schools, I was specifically interested in schools with a good jazz program because I thought like 130 00:09:23,032 --> 00:09:26,645 Well, I wanna, you know, study whatever I do, math, physics, whatever it is. 131 00:09:26,645 --> 00:09:28,326 I also wanna keep playing jazz. 132 00:09:28,326 --> 00:09:31,969 Although it wasn't like a I want to become a professional jazz musician. 133 00:09:31,969 --> 00:09:40,506 I think part of that comes down to like in high school, in the jazz programs, I don't know, like becoming a professional jazz musician doesn't feel like the most attainable 134 00:09:40,506 --> 00:09:48,332 thing in the world when even if you're good, but like if you're not at that like elite level, if you're not like the Joey Alexanders of the world, it feels like wow. 135 00:09:48,332 --> 00:09:53,684 you know, you can be so good and still just scraping by playing at these clubs wherever you're playing. 136 00:09:53,684 --> 00:10:02,916 But anyway, went to liberal arts school and I just so happened to in the like the first week, like first or second week of college, meet this group of folks and we started a band 137 00:10:02,916 --> 00:10:04,926 called Orange Guava Passion. 138 00:10:05,347 --> 00:10:06,937 Our stuff is still out in Spotify. 139 00:10:06,937 --> 00:10:07,948 You can totally listen to it. 140 00:10:07,948 --> 00:10:15,690 That was being in Orange Gava Passion and like being in kind of a, you know, music director role and and an arranger type role. 141 00:10:15,690 --> 00:10:16,460 Um 142 00:10:16,620 --> 00:10:26,999 was totally formative for me, just like learning how to play this style of music, which is like pop music, but with horns with elements of R and V and soul and stuff. 143 00:10:26,999 --> 00:10:29,260 And Orange Robin Passion was a great band. 144 00:10:29,260 --> 00:10:36,226 We had some really, really excellent musicians who still are playing music and doing it professionally in some capacity. 145 00:10:37,167 --> 00:10:46,424 and some of even like, you know, including all the couch gigs, still like some of my favorite musical memories are these like house parties we'd play that just 146 00:10:46,424 --> 00:10:50,626 were shoulder to shoulder and just like super sweaty and electric, basically. 147 00:10:50,626 --> 00:10:54,078 And I look back very fondly on Orange God fashion in those years. 148 00:10:54,078 --> 00:10:58,480 And we we made music, you know, like we made an EP and then we released two singles after that. 149 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:00,471 And the band sort of dissolved once we graduated. 150 00:11:00,471 --> 00:11:04,903 And I think people had just other projects they were working on and stuff. 151 00:11:04,903 --> 00:11:12,374 Um but I definitely think I I'm I'm not close the musician I am today without having that band and that in that experience. 152 00:11:12,374 --> 00:11:12,935 Yeah. 153 00:11:12,935 --> 00:11:13,515 Absolutely. 154 00:11:13,515 --> 00:11:14,246 Sounds like it. 155 00:11:14,246 --> 00:11:19,702 And so I mean, for you, Danny, what was the transition from that to what you're doing now? 156 00:11:20,042 --> 00:11:27,906 It I wouldn't say it was little awkward, but it was kind of like there was a a period of time when I kinda had a foot in both camps and that was definitely challenging. 157 00:11:27,906 --> 00:11:32,027 Like couch most most of the guys in couch are a year above me. 158 00:11:32,228 --> 00:11:38,510 and so I was still in college at the time that couch was starting to like pick up and actually like play gigs and stuff like that. 159 00:11:38,551 --> 00:11:43,983 Um and I was still committed to my other band, um at Brown. 160 00:11:43,983 --> 00:11:46,004 and so yeah, there were days when I would 161 00:11:46,242 --> 00:11:48,633 be in Providence, that's where I went to school at at Brown. 162 00:11:48,633 --> 00:11:52,844 And I'd drive up to Boston, which is about an hour, to go to rehearsal. 163 00:11:52,844 --> 00:11:59,686 And as soon as the rehearsal ended, I had another rehearsal scheduled for OGP that I would race back down to to go to that. 164 00:12:00,426 --> 00:12:02,396 and you know, I just did it for the love of the game. 165 00:12:02,396 --> 00:12:05,288 But I think at even at that point I didn't know what couch was gonna be. 166 00:12:05,288 --> 00:12:11,590 And so, you know, I knew that I love my bandmates and couch and I really like the music. 167 00:12:11,590 --> 00:12:12,750 Um 168 00:12:13,112 --> 00:12:18,273 But I don't think at that time I felt the same ownership over the product with Couch that I do now. 169 00:12:18,273 --> 00:12:24,145 I think since then, and that was like, you know, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two ish. 170 00:12:24,145 --> 00:12:37,049 Um since then with couch, I've gotten a lot more involved with writing, arranging, um, production, just more aspects of the musical product that is couch. 171 00:12:37,049 --> 00:12:39,949 And at the time I was more like, Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna come up. 172 00:12:39,949 --> 00:12:42,026 But I also still have this other band to worry about. 173 00:12:42,026 --> 00:12:42,876 So 174 00:12:42,966 --> 00:12:49,479 and so y you raise a good point there, Danny, about not even knowing what couch was really yourself in those early days. 175 00:12:49,479 --> 00:12:53,766 So for the sake of those unaware of the band, tell us what couch actually is. 176 00:12:54,008 --> 00:13:01,244 Couch is a band of seven individuals that met mostly in high school, went to different high schools. 177 00:13:01,244 --> 00:13:05,588 And at this point, Couch is an internationally touring band. 178 00:13:05,588 --> 00:13:14,378 We play certain kind of pop music that has horns and has elements of RB and soul and kind of live instruments. 179 00:13:14,378 --> 00:13:16,216 I mean our show is very live. 180 00:13:16,216 --> 00:13:18,278 There's not really tracks at all. 181 00:13:18,278 --> 00:13:20,760 And we've really just grown our live following. 182 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:23,394 Our biggest show ever was in Boston this past 183 00:13:23,394 --> 00:13:29,479 fall which was at a venue called Roadrunner for over thirty five hundred people or for thirty five hundred people. 184 00:13:29,479 --> 00:13:37,015 And we just played our second biggest show biggest headline show in London for around two thousand people, which was really, really amazing. 185 00:13:37,015 --> 00:13:40,107 Uh and we just wrapped up this forty city big talk tour. 186 00:13:40,107 --> 00:13:42,259 That was our debut album that came out in the fall. 187 00:13:42,259 --> 00:13:49,004 So yeah, we're a band and we're growing and we want to keep growing and playing more gigs and, you know, making music. 188 00:13:49,004 --> 00:13:50,216 Yeah, no, absolutely. 189 00:13:50,216 --> 00:13:57,084 And so tell us about um I know you've sort of covered that you had your foot in both camps, but what led to you actually joining CADS? 190 00:13:57,084 --> 00:13:58,296 What was the approach there? 191 00:13:58,296 --> 00:14:02,502 And did you have to audition or because you were known with Orange Gravel, you didn't need to? 192 00:14:02,502 --> 00:14:04,544 What what was the situation there? 193 00:14:04,750 --> 00:14:11,595 So I've actually been a part of Couch since high school, and Couch kind of was Zach, who've already mentioned, who I knew from the Temple. 194 00:14:11,595 --> 00:14:16,899 His kind of group collection of musicians he knew from the greater Boston area. 195 00:14:16,899 --> 00:14:18,310 And it was a random collection. 196 00:14:18,310 --> 00:14:19,591 It was me that he knew from Temple. 197 00:14:19,591 --> 00:14:26,330 It was, you know, other guys that he met through his girlfriend at the Times band or school or whatever. 198 00:14:26,330 --> 00:14:31,099 You know, Tema he met at a Lawrence concert and I went to high school with Tema. 199 00:14:31,099 --> 00:14:33,032 Eric Tarlin, our sax player. 200 00:14:33,032 --> 00:14:39,797 knew Jeff from the Allstate jazz band and Jeff knew Zach from this band that they were in at the time. 201 00:14:39,797 --> 00:14:41,729 Whatever, a bunch of different connections. 202 00:14:41,729 --> 00:14:48,983 And so early on, Zach was like, Danny, do you wanna record music for this song I'm making for this project? 203 00:14:48,983 --> 00:14:59,180 And I knew it was couch, but it was I guess the vibe at that at that point was less like I'm making I'm 204 00:14:59,180 --> 00:15:01,982 like having this band called Couch and we were gonna start by making the song. 205 00:15:01,982 --> 00:15:06,116 It was more like, I'm working on a song, you wanna help me with this. 206 00:15:06,116 --> 00:15:07,087 And I was like, Yeah, totally. 207 00:15:07,087 --> 00:15:15,364 And so, you know, I remember going over to his house and doing these like four to eight hour recording sessions just in his basement on my Nord at the time. 208 00:15:15,364 --> 00:15:21,489 And yeah, so I was kind of a part of Couch for all of college. 209 00:15:21,489 --> 00:15:24,422 Um, even though I just we didn't do that much. 210 00:15:24,422 --> 00:15:27,178 And so I think I was one of the 211 00:15:27,178 --> 00:15:29,939 more I was passively a member, I I s I suppose you could say. 212 00:15:29,939 --> 00:15:34,621 And just like Zach and Tema were writing over FaceTime and stuff like that. 213 00:15:34,621 --> 00:15:44,765 And I was just kind of, yeah, on keys whenever they would need a keys player, but that didn't happen necessarily until things got more serious. 214 00:15:44,765 --> 00:15:53,209 I think in in once COVID happened, that was also kind of a big step for me because I went on a on like a little COVID quarantine retreat with a few of the people. 215 00:15:53,209 --> 00:15:56,970 And that's where we, the four of us, which was me, Zach, Tema and Eric 216 00:15:57,022 --> 00:16:00,524 Um, Zach and Guitar, Tema on Vocals, Eric on Saks. 217 00:16:00,924 --> 00:16:04,607 that's where we wrote Blackberry Lane because that's a song of ours. 218 00:16:04,607 --> 00:16:09,671 And Blackberry Lane is the address of this house that we were staying at, which is Zach's grandparents' house. 219 00:16:09,671 --> 00:16:19,818 Um, I think at that point I felt, okay, now I feel like I have kind of more of a stake in this like musical product. 220 00:16:19,818 --> 00:16:25,502 Um, and I've I've recorded at that point on all the songs that had came out to that point, which was like, 221 00:16:26,284 --> 00:16:28,155 The Nana song was our first single. 222 00:16:28,155 --> 00:16:29,966 Then we released I don't remember the order. 223 00:16:29,966 --> 00:16:33,757 We released a cover of Conjunction Junction, which is pretty insane. 224 00:16:33,757 --> 00:16:35,958 And then Easy to Love and Fall Into Place. 225 00:16:35,958 --> 00:16:37,219 I don't remember the order. 226 00:16:37,219 --> 00:16:39,450 But I wasn't really that involved in writing those songs. 227 00:16:39,450 --> 00:16:44,212 I recorded keys, organ, clove on all those, but not so much the writing. 228 00:16:44,386 --> 00:16:45,166 You know, great. 229 00:16:45,166 --> 00:16:51,949 And I mean, I I think it's amusing that you said that w you know, one of the the meetings between people in the band was at a Lawrence concert. 230 00:16:51,949 --> 00:16:56,818 Because I mean couch couches is very distinctive sound from Lawrence and vice versa. 231 00:16:56,818 --> 00:17:03,094 They're very different bands, but there's also some similarities as far as makeup, brass section, stu stuff like that. 232 00:17:03,094 --> 00:17:11,117 But what was going back to that COVID um retreat or even prior to that, how did you decide what the sound was going to be? 233 00:17:11,117 --> 00:17:13,474 And I understand it's not a sound, but just 234 00:17:13,474 --> 00:17:19,016 What y you all just agreed from the start on what roughly this this project was going to sound like? 235 00:17:19,406 --> 00:17:24,479 Part of the reason that we bonded at the beginning is that we had these similar tastes in music. 236 00:17:24,479 --> 00:17:30,814 It's, you know, like me and Zach bonded over Snarky Puppy in Wolfpeck in high school and that was those were big for us. 237 00:17:30,814 --> 00:17:33,656 And then Zach was the first guy to introduce us to this band, Lawrence. 238 00:17:33,656 --> 00:17:41,561 I mean, you gotta credit Zach for kind of being a fan of Lawrence when they were kind of more on the ground floor, like from very early on. 239 00:17:42,121 --> 00:17:49,036 and so I think Lawrence was, you know, we know those guys and they're a great band, very, very talented, all of them. 240 00:17:49,036 --> 00:17:52,479 I think early on we drew a lot of inspiration from their music. 241 00:17:52,479 --> 00:17:58,104 I think, like you said, I think our paths have diverged a little bit in terms of the sound that we cr that that we make. 242 00:17:58,104 --> 00:18:06,992 But I think yeah, and you know, I w we we get asked this a lot, like in interviews or VIP sessions, whichever that happens before the shows, that's irrelevant. 243 00:18:06,992 --> 00:18:10,866 But we get asked this a lot of like how do you choose your sound or how do you form your sound? 244 00:18:10,866 --> 00:18:13,048 And and I I really think it's we don't go to it. 245 00:18:13,048 --> 00:18:14,419 It sort of more comes to you. 246 00:18:14,419 --> 00:18:15,704 And it's like we all 247 00:18:15,704 --> 00:18:22,657 have the musical tastes and sensibilities that we have, which are a product of the music that we listen to and we like and that that's kind of seeped into our bones. 248 00:18:22,657 --> 00:18:30,040 And that'll inform, you know, me when I say, actually, I want that section to go like this with this group or have these chords. 249 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:32,621 Less like, I want it to sound like this product. 250 00:18:32,621 --> 00:18:33,831 I want our music to sound like this. 251 00:18:33,831 --> 00:18:36,563 And more like, no, it feels feels right to me for it to sound this way. 252 00:18:36,563 --> 00:18:40,854 And I kind of think we were always following our hearts in that way and making that kind of music. 253 00:18:40,854 --> 00:18:43,885 It's just that our tastes have totally evolved. 254 00:18:43,885 --> 00:18:45,566 So in COVID, 255 00:18:45,566 --> 00:18:52,890 at the Black Bear Lane retreat, for instance, um, you know, definitely Lawrence is an influence. 256 00:18:52,970 --> 00:18:56,442 The the song Blackberry Lane has more of like a laid back kind of feel. 257 00:18:56,442 --> 00:19:05,537 It goes like And I think like D'Angelo is an influence for us still. 258 00:19:05,537 --> 00:19:07,258 That definitely seeps in. 259 00:19:07,258 --> 00:19:10,800 Stevie Wonder, there's like a key change up by a minor third. 260 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:11,563 Lots of things. 261 00:19:11,563 --> 00:19:15,222 But I think that that's what it's about is just, you know, we have artists that we 262 00:19:15,662 --> 00:19:22,603 really look up to that have influenced us and that we've kind of learned their vocabulary and and that just seeps into the music. 263 00:19:22,603 --> 00:19:23,404 Yeah. 264 00:19:23,638 --> 00:19:24,778 No, it absolutely does. 265 00:19:24,778 --> 00:19:29,102 And obviously I'm interested now about your actual role within the band. 266 00:19:29,102 --> 00:19:39,319 So you're one of those amazing keyboard players that I know I'm jealous even as a weekend warrior keyboard player where you never have to worry about playing a brass a brass patch 267 00:19:39,319 --> 00:19:42,501 on a keyboard as a general rule, I'm imagining, with a great brass section. 268 00:19:42,501 --> 00:19:51,497 So just tell us about how you approach playing keyboards because you have a great mix of sort of some great e electric pianos and then you've got some great synth sounds. 269 00:19:51,497 --> 00:19:52,502 How you approach 270 00:19:52,502 --> 00:19:57,041 Sort of creating your own sonic real estate within the band when it is such a big band. 271 00:19:57,410 --> 00:20:03,956 Yeah, I think the the approach is I kind of have several tools at my disposal that I feel like I know how to use and deploy. 272 00:20:03,956 --> 00:20:10,131 I mean, the first is, like you said, like e piano or acoustic piano or something like that, as like a bass layer. 273 00:20:10,131 --> 00:20:19,529 And I think a lot of most of our music at the beginning had this core layer of electric piano, like a Rhodes or a Whirly, even though it was just a sim on my nord. 274 00:20:19,529 --> 00:20:23,412 But there's that and that has a sound and a particular purpose. 275 00:20:23,412 --> 00:20:26,366 There's the organ and playing organ is 276 00:20:26,366 --> 00:20:35,863 is I think an area where I've evolved, particularly like in the last year or two, after receiving some feedback from a guy named Kevin Gastongwe, who maybe you're familiar with. 277 00:20:35,863 --> 00:20:39,336 I'm surprised. 278 00:20:39,336 --> 00:20:40,747 He is an absolute monster. 279 00:20:40,747 --> 00:20:45,781 I think he's one of the best like keys players, session players, gigs, keys players out there. 280 00:20:45,841 --> 00:20:51,586 And I got to know him because we opened for Corey Wong for a bunch of dates in the US and in Europe. 281 00:20:51,586 --> 00:20:52,226 And 282 00:20:52,226 --> 00:21:00,459 Basically at the time I would I was treating organ more like a patch and I was kind of like playing a chord on organ and then hitting the sustained pedal on my left foot and 283 00:21:00,459 --> 00:21:01,283 then just leaving it there. 284 00:21:01,283 --> 00:21:06,077 Um thinking, okay, great, I played organ and now we have that texture in the song and it's good to go. 285 00:21:06,077 --> 00:21:10,820 And Kevin actually brings a real, you know, B three to the gigs. 286 00:21:10,961 --> 00:21:18,232 And his biggest piece of feedback for me, just listening to our show night after night, was like, you gotta get a volume pedal. 287 00:21:18,232 --> 00:21:24,244 For the organ and you gotta hit the Leslie because it's not just this patch, it's this like breathing kind of living thing. 288 00:21:24,244 --> 00:21:26,484 And I was like, damn, that makes total sense. 289 00:21:26,484 --> 00:21:33,166 And so since then, yeah, I've gotten the volume pedal, I've gotten another little switch for hitting the Leslie on and off. 290 00:21:33,166 --> 00:21:42,649 I'm not still nowhere near to where Kevin is, and it doesn't really sound like an or I mean it sounds closer to a real organ player, but still it's not quite there. 291 00:21:42,729 --> 00:21:46,634 But all that's to say I have that texture to play with, and I think the organ. 292 00:21:46,634 --> 00:21:56,411 often can occupy the higher register in couch songs or it can just give it like more of a I don't know, like a warm, like John Mayri, like gravity type sound. 293 00:21:56,411 --> 00:21:59,643 That's kind of another place where I'll deploy the organ. 294 00:21:59,643 --> 00:22:01,885 And then you have synths. 295 00:22:01,885 --> 00:22:08,239 Um and I think since I've gotten still have a long way to go and I'm still totally intimidated by like everything that's out there. 296 00:22:08,239 --> 00:22:15,468 But I've learned a lot more about synthesis in the past year or two after getting one of these my 297 00:22:15,468 --> 00:22:16,938 Roland Juno 106. 298 00:22:16,938 --> 00:22:17,419 Yeah. 299 00:22:17,419 --> 00:22:26,261 and just starting basic, you know, just like ADSR and chorus and the envelope and stuff. 300 00:22:26,561 --> 00:22:37,124 And so the the synth sounds have started to make our way into the music a little more like since the early days, just as the music kind of takes on more of like a synth pop type of 301 00:22:37,124 --> 00:22:37,644 vibe. 302 00:22:37,644 --> 00:22:45,486 And I think I've gotten a lot better at crafting these synth sounds, whether it's kind of like a warm 303 00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:57,003 kind of pad that's gonna live underneath a piano layer, or whether it's more like a bouncy like square wave that's gonna be like a chord note layer, or if it's a leaf patch that's 304 00:22:57,003 --> 00:22:59,634 gonna be like super saw. 305 00:22:59,634 --> 00:23:01,515 Or if it's what else can you do? 306 00:23:01,515 --> 00:23:03,175 Whatever, whatever it is. 307 00:23:03,875 --> 00:23:13,358 I think if you like look at the couch set and and look at like the new tunes on the new album and how those work, there's a lot more sense in those. 308 00:23:13,358 --> 00:23:14,186 And 309 00:23:14,186 --> 00:23:21,772 Yeah, I think to answer your question just generally about like it's such a big band, how do you kind of carve out your space? 310 00:23:21,772 --> 00:23:32,391 I think when we record the music, it's it's very keys heavy and and super like keys driven and there are always so many layers and it's usually the challenge for me is less about 311 00:23:32,391 --> 00:23:43,586 like how can I make myself heard and more about like how can I effectively like translate all eight of these keys layers into my two hands and my two keyboards. 312 00:23:43,586 --> 00:23:48,589 without tracks and make it sound as full as possible, like of an arrangement. 313 00:23:48,589 --> 00:23:59,036 And so if you come to a live show, one thing you'll see a lot of me doing is playing a pad or an organ or whatever it is on one of my keyboards and then hitting the sustain pedal. 314 00:23:59,037 --> 00:24:03,580 And so that pad will just live there for the entirety of the four or eight bars or something. 315 00:24:03,580 --> 00:24:06,682 And then I'll play something different with both of my hands on the bottom keyboard. 316 00:24:06,682 --> 00:24:10,555 There's one s one song in particular on the new album that we play called Static and Noise. 317 00:24:10,555 --> 00:24:12,750 That's the most hairy 318 00:24:12,750 --> 00:24:18,412 keyboard like choreography that I have to do in the set because there were basically a bunch of layers that we cared about. 319 00:24:18,412 --> 00:24:25,135 There was this one kind of driving piano layer where it's a piano with a like phaser effect on it. 320 00:24:25,135 --> 00:24:30,017 Um and it kind of has this like that type of vibe. 321 00:24:30,017 --> 00:24:39,921 There's an organ, just like kind of an organ, maybe like a fourth or a fifth in the high register that's kind of just like a like a whistle, like a like that type of thing. 322 00:24:39,961 --> 00:24:42,842 And then there are these synth stabs on 323 00:24:44,014 --> 00:24:50,677 Uh on the four on the uh of fours before every like new chord hits. 324 00:24:50,677 --> 00:24:55,179 And that's three different patches on two keyboards. 325 00:24:55,179 --> 00:25:04,773 And so what I've done is basically the bottom keyboard has that piano, that driving piano like layered patch that has the phaser and whatever. 326 00:25:04,773 --> 00:25:09,205 The top keyboard and the Nord obviously lets you do the do stuff like this. 327 00:25:09,205 --> 00:25:12,246 I split into one of them is this 328 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:16,513 Like kind of screaming synth saw patch with some LFO. 329 00:25:16,513 --> 00:25:18,635 So it kind of has this little wobble to it. 330 00:25:18,635 --> 00:25:20,577 And then the upper half is just organ. 331 00:25:20,577 --> 00:25:25,601 The problem still is like I want to use both of my hands for playing that keys driving layer. 332 00:25:25,601 --> 00:25:31,145 And so what I end up doing is and and and so I need to sustain the layers in the top, right? 333 00:25:31,145 --> 00:25:32,146 Like I want to sustain the organ. 334 00:25:32,146 --> 00:25:33,267 I'll sustain it my left foot. 335 00:25:33,267 --> 00:25:37,440 I don't want the synth stabs to sustain, because those sound like and then it they're just off. 336 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:42,314 So what I've done is I've basically turned off the sustain pedal for the synth. 337 00:25:42,434 --> 00:25:49,497 which is like the first half of the top keyboard, but left the sustain pedal on for the organ, which is on the upper half. 338 00:25:49,497 --> 00:25:57,981 And then what I'll do is I'll just hit the organ, hit the sustain pedal, and then play the bottom keyboard for the piano like fader patch. 339 00:25:57,981 --> 00:26:05,084 And then whenever I need to hit the synth patch, I just kind of hit it and the sustain pedal doesn't affect it because it doesn't have the sustain function on. 340 00:26:05,084 --> 00:26:09,856 Um and with doing all three of those things, I can maybe get like 341 00:26:09,986 --> 00:26:12,017 forty percent to the way it sounds on the record. 342 00:26:12,017 --> 00:26:21,772 Like it's still just an uphill battle, but I think that's the best that I've come up with so far for like making it feel as good or close to as good as as the record. 343 00:26:21,772 --> 00:26:22,863 And amazing insights. 344 00:26:22,863 --> 00:26:23,854 That's really well put. 345 00:26:23,854 --> 00:26:24,364 Thank you. 346 00:26:24,364 --> 00:26:26,326 That's yeah, our listeners, viewers will love that. 347 00:26:26,326 --> 00:26:29,478 And so let's talk about probably briefly your rig there, Danny. 348 00:26:29,478 --> 00:26:31,560 So what is it that you do take out on tour? 349 00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:36,574 I'm assuming you back line on a larger tour, but just what are the core parts of your setup? 350 00:26:36,834 --> 00:26:40,486 Yeah, we actually don't really rent s a lot of back line, at least yet for me. 351 00:26:40,486 --> 00:26:42,317 It's I have two Nords. 352 00:26:42,317 --> 00:26:54,963 Right now they it's a Nord Stage EX, which is like the OG Nord, which it's an old keyboard and it's just, you know, I bought it a while back from a guy used and I haven't replaced 353 00:26:54,963 --> 00:26:55,363 it yet. 354 00:26:55,363 --> 00:26:57,034 'Cause, you these Nords are expensive. 355 00:26:57,034 --> 00:27:01,890 And while I consider myself a, you know, a good and accomplished keys player, I don't know 356 00:27:01,890 --> 00:27:06,292 how soon it'll be until I have the Nord sponsorship where they're just giving me the keyboards for free. 357 00:27:06,292 --> 00:27:15,256 Um, but I did recently replace for a while I was using the Nord Electro 2 on the top with like semi-weighted action. 358 00:27:15,256 --> 00:27:16,856 And I really like that keyboard. 359 00:27:16,856 --> 00:27:19,533 And that was like the actually the first keyboard I ever bought. 360 00:27:19,533 --> 00:27:25,600 I mean I used it for all of my gigs in college, but it started to kind of fail on me. 361 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:29,102 Things were breaking that seemed not super repairable. 362 00:27:29,102 --> 00:27:30,530 So I replaced that. 363 00:27:30,530 --> 00:27:40,633 with the Nord Stage 4 um compact, which is also semi-weighted action, like it's not fully weighted keys, but it's got all the new new stuff that the Nord Stage 4 has. 364 00:27:40,633 --> 00:27:42,653 And so I'll bring those two keyboards. 365 00:27:42,653 --> 00:27:49,125 I'll put the I have the stage EX, a fully weighted one on the bottom, and then the stage four on the top. 366 00:27:49,125 --> 00:27:59,286 And I think the rationale is like it's as if I had a piano, like a grand piano, where I put a synth on top of it because 367 00:27:59,286 --> 00:28:05,169 I play the piano or e piano patches on my keyboard that has weighty keys because I prefer the feel of that. 368 00:28:05,169 --> 00:28:11,271 Um where else whereas I'll play synth or organ or cloud or whatever it is on the top keyboard that has light keys. 369 00:28:11,271 --> 00:28:23,806 And then I bring um we ha we've gone through so many of these like apex stands or like I don't know the y you know the ones, like the kind of triangle ones that the the I don't 370 00:28:23,806 --> 00:28:27,938 know if I'm so attached to those honestly, because they just they just break and 371 00:28:28,012 --> 00:28:36,138 You know, we can get for cheap because our s our front house engineer production manager works for like a music gear distribution company. 372 00:28:36,138 --> 00:28:39,731 And so he his cost is often like way better than retail. 373 00:28:39,731 --> 00:28:41,472 But I bring that stand for now. 374 00:28:41,472 --> 00:28:47,709 I mean, and the nice thing about it is that it kind of folds up, I guess, and I can put it in a but I feel like that's table sticks. 375 00:28:47,709 --> 00:28:49,078 Your stand's gotta fold up. 376 00:28:49,078 --> 00:28:51,980 But in addition to that, I also bring a bunch of pedals. 377 00:28:51,980 --> 00:28:55,052 I have two stand pedals, one for each keyboard. 378 00:28:55,052 --> 00:28:59,004 I have a volume pedal and a little just like foot switch. 379 00:28:59,004 --> 00:29:06,088 And like I s mentioned earlier, the volume pedals for mainly for organ to connect to the top keyboard and the foot switch is mainly for Leslie. 380 00:29:06,488 --> 00:29:11,131 But I'll use the volume pedal as an expression pedal for other kind of synth patches and and other things. 381 00:29:11,131 --> 00:29:22,117 But yeah, and I have I basically for this past tour I just had a playlist of all the songs on both my keyboards and I'll just, you know, switch to the next tune and it'll have all 382 00:29:22,117 --> 00:29:23,938 my presets there for me. 383 00:29:25,356 --> 00:29:33,200 Yeah, there's some times where or often in the couch that we'll like directly transition from one song into another and so that can get a little dicey or I'll have to kinda like, 384 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,656 you know, find the knob and in the right time like switch over. 385 00:29:36,656 --> 00:29:39,068 But yeah, that's that's basically the rip. 386 00:29:39,510 --> 00:29:49,588 And I'm assuming at this stage that things like uh computer based MIDI control, as far as particularly as you said, those quick changes that is probably overkill given how organic 387 00:29:49,588 --> 00:29:53,674 and live the sound is, you actually are better off having that direct control. 388 00:29:53,836 --> 00:29:54,386 Yeah, totally. 389 00:29:54,386 --> 00:30:03,654 I I I think it's something I've thought about, like, you know, going all through a laptop and just like using a MIDI controller and or and yeah, or doing something like you're 390 00:30:03,654 --> 00:30:08,759 saying of like having MIDI switch the songs for me or whatever. 391 00:30:08,759 --> 00:30:19,148 But I think as a band, it's like, you know, we now use Able Set, which is so we can sync up the it's like an Ableton session that allows us to sync up the lights to time code. 392 00:30:19,148 --> 00:30:22,582 And so we've kind of done had that 393 00:30:22,582 --> 00:30:29,274 advancement, but I think we're all still hesitant to go the kind of overly like laptop logic session route. 394 00:30:29,274 --> 00:30:34,270 I think we still like the vibe of here's my instrument, this is my hardware, I'm playing the instrument. 395 00:30:34,270 --> 00:30:36,291 Like what you see is what you get, you know? 396 00:30:36,312 --> 00:30:41,325 And absolutely I can spend time programming ahead of the gig and do as much as I need to do. 397 00:30:41,325 --> 00:30:44,377 But I think probably it would be overkill, like you said. 398 00:30:44,377 --> 00:30:52,032 But that's the thing is I still like, you know, being a keys player, a gig and keys player is there's just so much you can do and 399 00:30:52,214 --> 00:30:58,896 You know, you have these keys players who show up with the organ and the Prophet and the Nord and the Juno. 400 00:30:58,896 --> 00:31:06,758 And like that does sound nice, but also we're trying to do this at scale and you know, there's every ch bag you check costs money and stuff. 401 00:31:06,758 --> 00:31:10,476 And I thought about bringing the the Juno one six on tour. 402 00:31:10,476 --> 00:31:12,790 I think I just got nervous about it with analog gear. 403 00:31:12,790 --> 00:31:20,950 Like already just being sitting in my room, it's like broken once and I've had to repair that and 404 00:31:20,950 --> 00:31:22,433 Just get nervous, I'll bring it on the road. 405 00:31:22,433 --> 00:31:30,588 Plus like I just I can get close to what I want it to sound like just if I spend some time programming the Nord synth synth engine. 406 00:31:30,588 --> 00:31:31,758 So yeah, that's what 407 00:31:31,758 --> 00:31:32,900 Exactly right. 408 00:31:32,900 --> 00:31:35,773 And I mean we've talked a a couple of bits about the brass section. 409 00:31:35,773 --> 00:31:43,042 So I mean I know on tracks like I think it was called Slow Burn, the piano and the trumpet you you know play off each other beautifully. 410 00:31:43,042 --> 00:31:50,796 C how do you arrange keyboard parts to complement rather than compete with those amazing brass guys? 411 00:31:50,796 --> 00:31:51,206 Yeah. 412 00:31:51,206 --> 00:31:59,079 That's an interesting question because usually what ends up happening, and I think our horn players have a bit of a chip on their shoulder about this, as they should, is the 413 00:31:59,079 --> 00:32:04,210 horn players are the final layer that gets added after everything else is already arranged. 414 00:32:04,210 --> 00:32:15,744 I think in the case of slow burn, that's actually one of the cases where at least for the for the bridge, which the bridge is kind of like more of a like a laid back. 415 00:32:16,408 --> 00:32:27,667 D'Angelo type of vibe and the horns have this line that goes like that was I had that idea before I had an idea for like the melody even. 416 00:32:27,667 --> 00:32:32,491 and so that was an example of a horn part that like kind of is core to that arrangement. 417 00:32:32,491 --> 00:32:43,771 Um but I think in terms of how I can play keys parts that don't stomp on the horns or that complement them, I think a lot depends on like what register I'm in. 418 00:32:43,771 --> 00:32:45,762 You know, it's like I think 419 00:32:46,624 --> 00:32:56,157 while I'm playing a lot of different stuff, mm, a lot of my playing for over the course of the whole song Lux Slowburn is kind of in lives inside of this register. 420 00:32:56,157 --> 00:33:06,454 That's maybe like I don't know exactly where it is, but nothing is ever like it's it's usually kind of like warm lower to mids and chords and the horns live on top of that. 421 00:33:06,454 --> 00:33:16,002 I mean sometimes I'll kind of harmonize the horns, um like deliberately, but I'm very rarely like playing 422 00:33:16,544 --> 00:33:20,838 a line or like a little flourish that is kind of i where a trumpet would play. 423 00:33:20,838 --> 00:33:24,011 It's funny, it's like I don't even it's not anything I would think to do now. 424 00:33:24,011 --> 00:33:29,566 I just like feel like when I would do that it just would sound like what's happening or or or what's going on. 425 00:33:29,566 --> 00:33:39,685 I think what's e more challenging is figuring out a keyboard part that complements guitar and trying to figure out a keys and guitar part that sound good together and that aren't 426 00:33:39,685 --> 00:33:43,688 redundant, but that actually like y you know, just like 427 00:33:43,714 --> 00:33:47,113 drive the section forward effectively and and yeah, yeah, yeah. 428 00:33:47,113 --> 00:33:48,705 There's lots to talk about there. 429 00:33:48,824 --> 00:33:50,615 No, that's absolutely agreeing. 430 00:33:50,615 --> 00:33:58,340 And I mean, as as writers across the seven of you, I mean, you're all credited with writing and producing, you know, on on the album. 431 00:33:58,340 --> 00:34:04,684 So as you as a keyboard player, what's the creative workflow from your perspective when you guys are coming together? 432 00:34:04,684 --> 00:34:08,167 Are you bringing in different ideas, working them up, jamming? 433 00:34:08,167 --> 00:34:09,407 Like what is the approach? 434 00:34:09,407 --> 00:34:13,780 I and I imagine it varies by the song, but yeah, love some insight into that. 435 00:34:14,060 --> 00:34:18,833 Yeah, it does vary by the song, but often it is like just 'cause we're talking about Slowburn. 436 00:34:18,833 --> 00:34:23,685 Slowburn started as an idea like a I had on my Juno right here. 437 00:34:23,685 --> 00:34:32,320 And I ha kinda had this I I had this these chores and I had the melody and I had this like kind of harmonic rhythm and and vibe, but I didn't have any lyrics. 438 00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:37,353 And Tema is our singer, is kind of the source of most to all lyrical content. 439 00:34:37,353 --> 00:34:43,326 we'll often help her write the lyrics, but they're all like her stories and and maybe, you know. 440 00:34:43,330 --> 00:34:48,852 She might have this poem she's been writing or these things she's been mu musing on and this content. 441 00:34:48,852 --> 00:34:51,292 And so with that song, I sent it over to her. 442 00:34:51,292 --> 00:34:52,362 I said, What do you think of this? 443 00:34:52,362 --> 00:34:53,633 She said, I like it. 444 00:34:53,633 --> 00:34:57,894 She came over um and we started writing the chorus of that song. 445 00:34:57,894 --> 00:35:06,456 And I had basically a melody, but we kind of tweaked it together and she, you know, looked through her massive notebook of little ideas and things she's been musing on. 446 00:35:06,456 --> 00:35:11,618 And she said, I think that it would be cool to write about this, like having a crush in high school and missing that feeling. 447 00:35:11,618 --> 00:35:12,268 And I Okay, cool. 448 00:35:12,268 --> 00:35:12,738 And let's 449 00:35:12,738 --> 00:35:13,819 We ran with that. 450 00:35:13,819 --> 00:35:22,456 Um, and then the song gets brought to the full band where, you know, it's anyone in the band can say anything they want about it and can take a turn trying to like mess with it 451 00:35:22,456 --> 00:35:23,146 or whatever. 452 00:35:23,146 --> 00:35:33,504 Um I think that's the thing that that's true basically across all the songs in the album is that basically everyone signed off on every single song by way of just having a group 453 00:35:33,504 --> 00:35:38,658 arrangement session with everyone there and people can kind of take turns. 454 00:35:39,288 --> 00:35:48,203 People kind of take turns MDing and if it's kind of your idea and you have ownership over it, like Slowburn was for me, for instance, you know, maybe you have the final call on 455 00:35:48,203 --> 00:35:58,230 certain arrangement decisions, but there's a lot, a lot of time spent just, you know, taking turns saying, I wanna try it this way, I wanna try it this way. 456 00:35:58,230 --> 00:35:59,540 What if we did 457 00:35:59,608 --> 00:36:01,919 guitar playing this way or whatever you got the melody being like this. 458 00:36:01,919 --> 00:36:09,181 And I think we all just there are a bunch of people on couch that have that skill set where they can music direct and they can try to execute a musical vision of theirs and 459 00:36:09,181 --> 00:36:11,421 that we want to honor that for everyone. 460 00:36:11,961 --> 00:36:14,342 So yeah, it made the album super collaborative. 461 00:36:14,342 --> 00:36:21,264 I think there are some other songs that there are a few songs on the album that, you know, two people or one person wrote basically the whole thing. 462 00:36:21,264 --> 00:36:24,815 And then it was basically just like, this is the song. 463 00:36:24,815 --> 00:36:25,225 Great. 464 00:36:25,225 --> 00:36:25,785 Let's play it. 465 00:36:25,785 --> 00:36:27,386 Let's not do too much to it. 466 00:36:27,386 --> 00:36:28,984 But most of the songs 467 00:36:28,984 --> 00:36:34,839 Kind of had this phase of like maybe two to three people working on it in a smaller group, bring it to the full band. 468 00:36:34,839 --> 00:36:40,905 It goes through this, this kind of round of full band feedback and iteration and stuff. 469 00:36:40,905 --> 00:36:50,934 And then yeah, once we recorded it, which we actually, this is the first time we record in like a proper studio that had nice gear and stuff, we make even more kind of decisions and 470 00:36:50,934 --> 00:36:55,197 and there's more creativity that happens there just with how the parts get recorded. 471 00:36:55,197 --> 00:36:56,328 It's like, you know. 472 00:36:56,428 --> 00:37:03,665 You can affect a song a lot just by being in the room, like being in the engineering room while drums are getting recorded, for instance. 473 00:37:03,665 --> 00:37:05,396 And I was there a lot. 474 00:37:05,396 --> 00:37:12,733 And so a lot of my kind of tastes and sensibilities with regards to drums are on the album just 'cause I was like there for a lot of those sessions. 475 00:37:12,733 --> 00:37:18,306 Um Yeah, and that's that's how songs get made these days generally. 476 00:37:18,306 --> 00:37:23,009 Which which sounds great on the surface, but I mean that's an incredibly challenging process. 477 00:37:23,009 --> 00:37:28,972 I mean, having seven people and I'm I'm not for a minute envisaging that you all agree on everything all the time. 478 00:37:28,972 --> 00:37:30,403 That's just not how bands work. 479 00:37:30,403 --> 00:37:34,025 I mean, obviously there needs to be debates and and contention and whatever. 480 00:37:34,025 --> 00:37:40,468 So how do you work through that as seven adults without it getting too contentious or too unsettling? 481 00:37:40,598 --> 00:37:42,640 It's a great question and it's absolutely challenging. 482 00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:44,702 And I think it's it I think it slows us down. 483 00:37:44,702 --> 00:37:53,751 Like, you know, you you think that, you have seven people in the band, you can efficiently allocate all your, you know, human capital so you can do parallelize and do so many things 484 00:37:53,751 --> 00:37:54,391 so much faster. 485 00:37:54,391 --> 00:37:55,722 And the answer is no, actually. 486 00:37:55,722 --> 00:38:03,310 Like, because we're seven people, it takes way, way longer to like get a song to the point where everyone feels good about it. 487 00:38:03,310 --> 00:38:06,292 There are absolutely some arguments that 488 00:38:06,562 --> 00:38:10,544 just I remember having with people over the course of writing this album. 489 00:38:10,544 --> 00:38:18,577 And sometimes, you know, people sometimes we just put things to a vote and say, okay, is this let me think of an example. 490 00:38:18,577 --> 00:38:21,989 Like, are the chords going to be like this or like this? 491 00:38:21,989 --> 00:38:24,340 Let's vote and see what happens. 492 00:38:24,340 --> 00:38:31,413 And there's also this notion in couch of of RCC, RCC, which means relinquish creative control. 493 00:38:31,413 --> 00:38:34,904 So if I RCC, that means I am creative 494 00:38:34,904 --> 00:38:38,956 kind of not part of this particular decision musically or creatively. 495 00:38:38,956 --> 00:38:44,278 And it also sort of means that I don't get to like have criticisms for it after the fact. 496 00:38:44,278 --> 00:38:53,682 Like, you know, if there's a particular rehearsal or writing session that I'm invited to, but I don't want to go to, I just have to RCC and say, hey, whatever happens, happens. 497 00:38:53,682 --> 00:38:59,615 And I think RCCing, I think some people in the band are better at RCCing than others. 498 00:38:59,615 --> 00:39:02,294 I think a lot of people just 499 00:39:02,294 --> 00:39:05,076 want to touch everything and just not in a bad way. 500 00:39:05,076 --> 00:39:09,908 They just like have that hunger and they just want they don't want to be a fly on the law. 501 00:39:09,908 --> 00:39:17,323 They want to like, you know, be able to like craft this entire product to be like as good as they feel like it should be. 502 00:39:17,323 --> 00:39:28,209 But I think I think I kind of found a lot of peace with just like for these several songs, this is kind of my brain child or this is like has a lot of me in it. 503 00:39:28,209 --> 00:39:30,680 But for these other songs, you know, I'm fine. 504 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:34,272 Taking more of the backseat and letting someone else just kinda execute their vision. 505 00:39:34,272 --> 00:39:35,331 It's different from mine. 506 00:39:35,331 --> 00:39:38,814 If if I were in charge, it would sound totally different, but that's fine. 507 00:39:38,814 --> 00:39:46,718 And I think if the general population was listening to an album that was just Danny, they probably wouldn't like it as much as a couch albums. 508 00:39:46,919 --> 00:39:59,025 Yeah, I just have a lot of trust for all those people on couch and and I like that I can kind of feel good about letting them write and produce a song that I might never touch and 509 00:39:59,025 --> 00:40:00,256 it's still gonna be a good song. 510 00:40:00,256 --> 00:40:00,598 So 511 00:40:00,598 --> 00:40:00,998 Yeah. 512 00:40:00,998 --> 00:40:01,508 I love it. 513 00:40:01,508 --> 00:40:03,999 I love the RCC's a a pressure relief valve. 514 00:40:03,999 --> 00:40:05,139 That's that's amazing. 515 00:40:05,139 --> 00:40:14,062 And I mean, I do need to ask, because I think we're all human, are there times where you've actually been incredibly directly involved in the creation of song, maybe not 516 00:40:14,062 --> 00:40:17,943 gotten the actual parts that you would have ideally liked? 517 00:40:17,943 --> 00:40:19,523 Does that tend to linger with you? 518 00:40:19,523 --> 00:40:27,686 I know if it was me and I was playing live six months later and I'm I'm playing a section of a song and go, No, I still think it should be this way, does that tend to happen to you 519 00:40:27,686 --> 00:40:29,014 or you just let it go? 520 00:40:29,014 --> 00:40:30,154 That's funny. 521 00:40:30,154 --> 00:40:39,358 It you know, on this on this last record, I I feel like I I feel like I tended to get my way most of the time. 522 00:40:39,358 --> 00:40:47,601 I feel like y usually like things ended up kind of the way I wanted them to, but and the cases where I didn't, I'm trying to think of examples. 523 00:40:47,782 --> 00:40:50,453 Yeah, I think totally i I don't let go of that. 524 00:40:50,453 --> 00:40:53,774 I think I every time we play it, I feel like I wish it were this other way. 525 00:40:53,774 --> 00:40:56,575 And yeah, I I might not take that to the grave. 526 00:40:56,575 --> 00:40:58,606 I might I might actually after 527 00:40:58,936 --> 00:41:06,330 Cause you know, we also when you go on a forty city tour, you also have forty sound checks where you can iterate and rehearse and stuff and that's how we treat sound checks. 528 00:41:06,330 --> 00:41:11,053 I often will be like, Hey, I know this is what we decided, but I'd love to try it this other way. 529 00:41:11,053 --> 00:41:18,277 Maybe we end up pivoting and we play differently fr on, you know, in the live stream than we do on the record. 530 00:41:18,277 --> 00:41:23,200 Yeah, actually come to think of it, there are several things that I wish were different about the record. 531 00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:26,486 And yeah, I think when I do hear it, like 532 00:41:26,486 --> 00:41:34,132 Whether it's listening back to the record or it's the live rings or whatever, I'm probably like, dang, like I wish that were different than it than it 533 00:41:34,444 --> 00:41:35,520 You're only human, Daddy. 534 00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:36,295 You're only human. 535 00:41:36,295 --> 00:41:36,759 Yeah. 536 00:41:36,759 --> 00:41:40,869 I think everyone in the band probably h feels that exact same way, honestly. 537 00:41:42,178 --> 00:41:43,029 No, absolutely. 538 00:41:43,029 --> 00:41:46,562 No, I think I think that's very healthy, um, again, normal behaviour. 539 00:41:46,562 --> 00:41:55,591 Um, and you mentioned way back when you're talking about initially, you know, growing up and practicing, and practicing is a chore, but it's hard work and so on. 540 00:41:55,591 --> 00:42:03,198 What is the practicing you do both in the lead up to the tour and I'm assuming when you're on tour, maybe not, but I mean, are you doing warm ups or you just the sort of person 541 00:42:03,198 --> 00:42:05,320 who'll just, you know, turn up and play? 542 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:07,772 What's sort of your approach to that discipline? 543 00:42:08,034 --> 00:42:10,306 Yeah, I'm not really doing warm ups as much anymore. 544 00:42:10,306 --> 00:42:11,106 Maybe I should be. 545 00:42:11,106 --> 00:42:18,241 I think I think more of the practicing is just about like first of all, like the full band rehearsals. 546 00:42:18,241 --> 00:42:27,787 That's you can practice as much as you want on your own, but like it's it's hard to get a sense for how it's gonna feel, especially when you're like coordinating all these 547 00:42:27,787 --> 00:42:37,954 different patches and stuff between two keyboards and like it's not so easy for me to like set up my two keyboards with like at my own home or something and 548 00:42:37,954 --> 00:42:41,917 And so I guess I don't have the luxury of just like grab my guitar or bass and shed. 549 00:42:41,917 --> 00:42:50,723 But I think like more of the practicing was like thinking about these arrangements and like the keyboard arrangements of these songs and like kind of messing around with stuff 550 00:42:50,723 --> 00:42:51,284 like that. 551 00:42:51,284 --> 00:42:59,330 Um even if it's like on my genome, just like, for you know, verse two of this song, what would sound the best? 552 00:42:59,330 --> 00:43:01,151 Let me kind of mess around with that. 553 00:43:01,151 --> 00:43:05,334 And th there were some parts that definitely required some 554 00:43:05,976 --> 00:43:06,886 Just reps. 555 00:43:06,886 --> 00:43:13,050 Um, there are some like just like there are a few parts of the set that are more physically ch like demanding as a keys player. 556 00:43:13,191 --> 00:43:17,094 I think I got those reps in just with the sheer number of fold band reps that we did. 557 00:43:17,094 --> 00:43:25,089 And yeah, but I think I I say this to a lot of people for the most part, like the the couch set is not that technically challenging from like a keys perspective. 558 00:43:25,089 --> 00:43:33,875 It's a lot more about just like the memorization of the arrangement and all the different kind of keyboard choreography they call it that you have to do across a song with like 559 00:43:33,875 --> 00:43:34,846 switching sounds and stuff. 560 00:43:34,846 --> 00:43:35,296 That's 561 00:43:35,296 --> 00:43:36,557 really the challenge. 562 00:43:36,557 --> 00:43:43,111 Like if we're hiring you as a key sub, that's the thing that you have to deliver on, not so much like being able to play like crazy synth lines and stuff. 563 00:43:43,111 --> 00:43:50,096 So yeah, I think I I also should practice way more than I do um for things like that. 564 00:43:50,096 --> 00:43:54,859 Um it's hard because, you know, there's lots of other stuff I've uh interest in whatever. 565 00:43:54,859 --> 00:44:04,916 I think more recently like the practicing is has been like taking just trying to l transcribe more honestly, just like taking artists that I like. 566 00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:08,672 Their solos, and I'm like, wow, I'd just like here's an example, like Anatoly Muster. 567 00:44:08,672 --> 00:44:09,712 Have you heard of him? 568 00:44:09,712 --> 00:44:10,573 Not. 569 00:44:10,573 --> 00:44:10,933 Okay. 570 00:44:10,933 --> 00:44:15,985 He's he's an accordion player primarily and a producer, but he's absolutely brilliant. 571 00:44:15,985 --> 00:44:18,556 He's I think he's London based, but he's a Swiss guy. 572 00:44:18,556 --> 00:44:21,777 And his I mean, his original music I think is so, so cool. 573 00:44:21,777 --> 00:44:26,039 And also when he dig solos, like he has this very unique sensibility. 574 00:44:26,039 --> 00:44:32,824 Um, and he kind of like the accordion, I think, allows him to kind of play these more angular lines that. 575 00:44:32,824 --> 00:44:38,959 feel a little pianistic but also feel very kind of I mean angular I feel like is the best word for them. 576 00:44:39,300 --> 00:44:42,193 and I just absolutely am in love with his playing. 577 00:44:42,193 --> 00:44:50,851 And so I've been trying to transcribe a bunch of his solos and often it's like not super pianistic like to play the kind of thing that he's playing. 578 00:44:50,851 --> 00:44:53,344 But like shedding something like that is something that I might do. 579 00:44:53,344 --> 00:44:53,666 Yeah. 580 00:44:53,666 --> 00:44:54,267 Yeah. 581 00:44:54,267 --> 00:44:55,308 No, that makes sense. 582 00:44:55,308 --> 00:44:56,970 And you just mentioned memorisation. 583 00:44:56,970 --> 00:45:05,792 I mean, is everything still in your head at this stage or are you having other means or starting to document stuff when maybe your memory starts to not be as good? 584 00:45:05,792 --> 00:45:07,373 No, everything is still in my head. 585 00:45:07,373 --> 00:45:15,658 I mean, we have some basically with couch we'll only make charts when we need to have a sub and we won't make them really before then because there's not a need. 586 00:45:15,658 --> 00:45:18,540 I mean, sometimes people reach out to us being like, Can you give us a charge for this? 587 00:45:18,540 --> 00:45:20,651 And we'll be like, We they don't even exist. 588 00:45:20,651 --> 00:45:25,134 Like, just, you know, you can try to learn learn it by year, I guess. 589 00:45:25,134 --> 00:45:31,338 So yeah, it's it's in our heads mostly and and it is sometimes a challenge when like 590 00:45:31,650 --> 00:45:42,246 You know, the our set night tonight was pretty was very, very similar just for this past tour, but we also do like a VIP session before the main gig where we take requests and 591 00:45:42,246 --> 00:45:43,747 we'll play whatever they want us to. 592 00:45:43,747 --> 00:45:51,671 And sometimes that's kind of fun and a little bit like, whoa, like when they might ask for us to play a song that we literally haven't played as a full band in like years. 593 00:45:51,671 --> 00:46:00,146 But I think we've just I feel like I've gotten so many reps in and I just know the music that viscerally that I will be able to play it for a long, long time. 594 00:46:00,146 --> 00:46:01,386 And also like 595 00:46:01,410 --> 00:46:06,693 The yes, it's memorization, but it's also it's also intuition, right? 596 00:46:06,693 --> 00:46:09,045 Like I know how this is supposed to feel. 597 00:46:09,045 --> 00:46:13,618 I know in my bones that this is going to the four or it's going to the flat six or whatever. 598 00:46:13,618 --> 00:46:20,862 So I can do that and have conviction that that's what it's gonna be, even though I might not have remembered that that's like the way it goes, you know. 599 00:46:20,908 --> 00:46:29,538 Do you do you tend to find I mean, this tends to be more I I suppose amongst those amateur players, but I know the the more I think about a part when it's coming up, the more likely 600 00:46:29,538 --> 00:46:32,914 I am to not get it right versus trusting intuition and muscle memory. 601 00:46:32,914 --> 00:46:35,596 Do you still find that at the level you're playing at? 602 00:46:35,596 --> 00:46:36,386 Yeah, I think so. 603 00:46:36,386 --> 00:46:37,457 I think that's definitely true. 604 00:46:37,457 --> 00:46:38,437 It's sometimes hard. 605 00:46:38,437 --> 00:46:49,940 Like when you play a set like forty times in a row where it's often the same, like it's so easy to just like drift into autopilot mode and like what do you think about in those 606 00:46:49,940 --> 00:46:50,430 moments? 607 00:46:50,430 --> 00:46:52,878 Like maybe your mind just wanders elsewhere. 608 00:46:52,878 --> 00:46:56,552 I mean, one thing Kevin told me is like, yeah, in those moments I just try to focus on time. 609 00:46:56,552 --> 00:46:59,193 Like time is an area where you can always improve. 610 00:46:59,193 --> 00:47:01,514 Definitely me is an area where I can always improve. 611 00:47:01,514 --> 00:47:03,454 And so I'll often focus on that. 612 00:47:03,736 --> 00:47:11,938 Something that I've that I've realized like after the show we played in London, it was just it was a big show, like we b way bigger than we expected. 613 00:47:11,938 --> 00:47:14,359 Like we sold out the first venue pretty far in advance. 614 00:47:14,359 --> 00:47:16,389 We upgraded the venue and that also sold well. 615 00:47:16,389 --> 00:47:17,650 And so there were just a lot of people there. 616 00:47:17,650 --> 00:47:25,272 And the other you know, the whole Europe tour was awesome, but the venues were closer to like five to eight hundred, and then London out of nowhere was just like two thousand 617 00:47:25,272 --> 00:47:25,866 people. 618 00:47:25,866 --> 00:47:28,913 So we were definitely a little bit nervous, and it was last night of the tour. 619 00:47:28,993 --> 00:47:33,322 And I found and we all found that, you know, when 620 00:47:33,322 --> 00:47:40,444 You're nervous, and when the adrenaline starts pumping, the set just like the songs just feel so much slower. 621 00:47:40,444 --> 00:47:42,104 And I was like, what the heck? 622 00:47:42,104 --> 00:47:44,285 Like this song feels so slow. 623 00:47:44,285 --> 00:47:53,988 It's like, and there's one part in the set where I mean, people who've seen us live know what I'm talking about, but we have this song called On On the Wire that for the live 624 00:47:53,988 --> 00:48:02,900 arrangement, there's this additional kind of section we tack onto the end that was the idea that. 625 00:48:03,458 --> 00:48:09,421 that like that section was born out of was one of mine and it actually existed before On the Wire was even a song. 626 00:48:09,421 --> 00:48:14,684 And it was something we were kind of jamming on in one of the early, early writing retreats for this album. 627 00:48:14,684 --> 00:48:20,448 But it's basically like a very, very fast insyncopated like keys part where I'm just playing these chords. 628 00:48:20,448 --> 00:48:29,393 It's like And it's very easy to cramp up and you know you need to kind of stay loose. 629 00:48:29,393 --> 00:48:32,114 But for that London show and and and 630 00:48:32,224 --> 00:48:37,768 You know, the vibe with that section is like we basically want to go as fast as I can physically go. 631 00:48:37,768 --> 00:48:43,862 And like I kind of set that ceiling as like I don't think I can go much faster consistently than this. 632 00:48:43,862 --> 00:48:47,945 And so we're like, all right, that's the tempo is I don't remember what the tempo is, but it was whatever it was. 633 00:48:47,945 --> 00:48:52,518 At that London show, I was like, I feel like I could go like so much faster. 634 00:48:52,518 --> 00:48:54,079 I feel like I'm slowing myself down. 635 00:48:54,079 --> 00:48:55,720 Like like it doesn't usually feel like that. 636 00:48:55,720 --> 00:49:01,922 Usually it feels like I'm like racing against the clique, but it felt like wow, this is so slow at the London show. 637 00:49:01,922 --> 00:49:03,774 No, adrenaline is an amazing thing. 638 00:49:03,774 --> 00:49:06,567 Uh it certainly affects our perception of time. 639 00:49:06,567 --> 00:49:09,189 So we're on to our last two questions, Danny. 640 00:49:09,190 --> 00:49:13,674 is there a memorable time something's gone spectacularly wrong on stage for you? 641 00:49:14,518 --> 00:49:16,739 Yeah, I feel like I've had plenty of those. 642 00:49:16,739 --> 00:49:23,961 Um there was you know, for what it's worth, I think my key setup is fairly dialed in. 643 00:49:23,961 --> 00:49:34,623 So it's it's not like like kind of electrical problems that maybe other band members have with like connections don't really happen to me. 644 00:49:34,804 --> 00:49:44,374 One time I can think of is there was a show where I um we we all have these apps called mixing station on our phones which allow us to like 645 00:49:44,374 --> 00:49:45,355 set or monitor mix. 646 00:49:45,355 --> 00:49:48,065 And I honestly like rarely touch it night to night. 647 00:49:48,065 --> 00:49:51,459 Like I feel like it might have had my mix dialed and the room might make it sound a bit different. 648 00:49:51,459 --> 00:49:53,460 And maybe I'll have to dial back drums or or boost them. 649 00:49:53,460 --> 00:49:55,162 But for the most part, I don't touch it. 650 00:49:55,162 --> 00:50:01,806 And sometimes, or most of the time when I go on stage, I don't even bring my phone like just I won't need to touch that mix. 651 00:50:01,806 --> 00:50:09,652 But sometimes when I'm feeling a little bit nervous and just like like something could go wrong or maybe I want to boost myself or something during the show, I'll just bring it on 652 00:50:09,652 --> 00:50:11,113 and I'll have mixing station open. 653 00:50:11,113 --> 00:50:13,144 And this is one of those shows 654 00:50:13,144 --> 00:50:13,784 Where was it? 655 00:50:13,784 --> 00:50:16,996 Was it um it was on the US tour? 656 00:50:16,996 --> 00:50:18,816 I honestly don't remember which one it was. 657 00:50:18,816 --> 00:50:19,877 It's they're all blunt together. 658 00:50:19,877 --> 00:50:23,458 But basically, at the last second I decided, okay, great. 659 00:50:23,458 --> 00:50:24,058 Okay, you know what? 660 00:50:24,058 --> 00:50:24,549 I'm a little nervous. 661 00:50:24,549 --> 00:50:25,929 Let me just bring out mixing station. 662 00:50:25,929 --> 00:50:27,040 I'll get my phone out. 663 00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:33,782 And I guess what I did was I'd got mixing station open and the UI on mixing station is just like a bunch of faders. 664 00:50:33,782 --> 00:50:42,840 And I must have accidentally clicked the mute button for my keys, like my keys one, like the main layer that I was gonna be playing at the top of the set. 665 00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:44,211 But I didn't know that I did that. 666 00:50:44,211 --> 00:50:48,793 And so then we play the first note of the set and it's like this whole there's this whole like intro. 667 00:50:48,793 --> 00:50:52,955 And then we all come in on these like big chords and I was like, nothing's happening. 668 00:50:53,116 --> 00:50:58,718 Of course, everyone else can hear what I'm playing, but I can't because it's just muted in my monitor mix. 669 00:50:58,939 --> 00:51:02,991 And because I'm being dumb, like my mind jumps to like Chris, like, what's going on? 670 00:51:02,991 --> 00:51:05,863 Chris is our front of house guy, like what's happening? 671 00:51:05,863 --> 00:51:09,384 And I was like plugging in the connections, unplugging them and stuff. 672 00:51:09,384 --> 00:51:12,430 And then I started to do this thing that was like, you know, when you're 673 00:51:12,430 --> 00:51:17,876 Testing to see if you have noise, like you just go like this and you know playing like the tune. 674 00:51:17,876 --> 00:51:25,747 And afterwards, like Zach or some of the other couch guys were clowning me, like, Danny, like even if that was happening, why wouldn't you just play the tune to check it? 675 00:51:25,747 --> 00:51:27,417 Why did you have to like do this? 676 00:51:27,417 --> 00:51:28,328 And I was like, I don't know. 677 00:51:28,328 --> 00:51:29,009 I wasn't thinking. 678 00:51:29,009 --> 00:51:31,192 I was like, Let me get my keys on. 679 00:51:31,192 --> 00:51:33,333 So yeah, that was kind of a a bummer. 680 00:51:33,590 --> 00:51:34,881 No, that is that is gold. 681 00:51:34,881 --> 00:51:36,332 No, that is gold. 682 00:51:36,332 --> 00:51:38,364 And I I would do exactly the same thing too. 683 00:51:38,364 --> 00:51:41,116 I'd be just testing the sound, not playing the actual song. 684 00:51:41,116 --> 00:51:41,937 Totally, yeah. 685 00:51:41,937 --> 00:51:43,538 Yeah, absolutely. 686 00:51:43,538 --> 00:51:47,611 And then last but definitely not least is the dreaded desert island discs question. 687 00:51:47,611 --> 00:51:54,266 So five albums that have had a big impact on your life that if you had to go to a desert island, what would you take? 688 00:51:54,946 --> 00:51:56,727 Yeah, the dreaded death rather question. 689 00:51:56,727 --> 00:51:57,877 These are in no particular order. 690 00:51:57,877 --> 00:51:59,428 They're just making they're just gonna come. 691 00:51:59,428 --> 00:52:02,449 I probably have to bring songs from the queue of life, best of you wonder. 692 00:52:02,449 --> 00:52:09,572 I'm sure a lot of people bring that one, but I think that album like really got me into this kind of music, honestly. 693 00:52:09,572 --> 00:52:12,273 I'll bring I Am by Earthwind and Fire. 694 00:52:12,273 --> 00:52:15,395 That's probably my favorite Earthwind and Fire record, one of my favorite albums ever. 695 00:52:15,395 --> 00:52:22,578 In terms of I mean, harmony and stuff is great, and also just the grooves and s like every song on that album bangs. 696 00:52:22,578 --> 00:52:24,120 Um and 697 00:52:24,120 --> 00:52:28,071 Totally influenced my like live sense sensibility interranging. 698 00:52:28,372 --> 00:52:33,173 In terms of the last three, I'd bring two star and the dream police by McGee. 699 00:52:33,173 --> 00:52:34,004 That's more modern. 700 00:52:34,004 --> 00:52:37,210 That's like from twenty twenty four or twenty twenty three. 701 00:52:37,210 --> 00:52:39,166 Um, one of my favorite albums ever. 702 00:52:39,166 --> 00:52:45,268 Um I'd bring I'm suffering from recency bias here, but 703 00:52:45,740 --> 00:52:52,523 At least right now, the way I feel is I'd bring this album by a guy named Daryl Johns, it's just the self-titled album, Daryl Johns. 704 00:52:52,523 --> 00:52:53,563 Shout out to Daryl Johns. 705 00:52:53,563 --> 00:52:55,474 He's incredibly underrated. 706 00:52:55,474 --> 00:52:57,165 He like plays bass for MacDamarco. 707 00:52:57,165 --> 00:52:59,776 That's like maybe how people might know him. 708 00:52:59,776 --> 00:53:05,758 But he makes this him and Chris Fishman, who's a keys player and a drummer also, made this record. 709 00:53:05,758 --> 00:53:09,670 Um it's so hard to describe this kind of music. 710 00:53:09,670 --> 00:53:14,732 Like kind of sounds like it sounds like eighties sitcom music. 711 00:53:14,744 --> 00:53:17,816 That also has like elements of jazz fusion in it. 712 00:53:17,816 --> 00:53:20,799 And, you know, like Daryl Johns, I think calls it champion pop. 713 00:53:20,799 --> 00:53:28,345 But it's it basically feels like it feels very nostalgic and also very fresh and and it just kind of scratches this itch in my brain. 714 00:53:28,345 --> 00:53:29,225 I can't explain why. 715 00:53:29,225 --> 00:53:30,716 But it's it's so freaking good. 716 00:53:30,716 --> 00:53:32,268 So I I'd probably bring that. 717 00:53:32,268 --> 00:53:35,732 And then for my final one, probably D'Angelo. 718 00:53:35,732 --> 00:53:38,554 I go back and forth between brown sugar and voodoo. 719 00:53:38,554 --> 00:53:40,768 I think right now I'm feeling more brown sugar. 720 00:53:40,768 --> 00:53:47,570 Actually I just got operated on for my ACL and they wheeled me into the operating room and said, We have Spotify, you wanna listen to music. 721 00:53:47,570 --> 00:53:51,221 Of course it doesn't matter because they hit me with the general anesthetic a second after that. 722 00:53:51,221 --> 00:53:52,221 So I can't listen to any of it. 723 00:53:52,221 --> 00:53:54,662 But I Yeah, you wanna throw on brown sugar by D'Angelo? 724 00:53:54,662 --> 00:53:55,422 And that's what they did. 725 00:53:55,422 --> 00:53:57,803 And we joked, like me and my friends were joking like that. 726 00:53:57,803 --> 00:54:01,464 As soon as I knocked, they're probably like, Yeah, all right, let's just switch it to something we want to hear. 727 00:54:01,464 --> 00:54:06,065 She told me like after the fact at my post op visit that, hey, like we actually really dug that album like we hadn't heard before. 728 00:54:06,065 --> 00:54:09,078 And I like, yeah, like you should check out D'Angelo. 729 00:54:09,078 --> 00:54:11,510 Um but yeah, I think those are my five for now. 730 00:54:11,510 --> 00:54:12,831 No, great picks, thank you. 731 00:54:12,831 --> 00:54:16,434 Yeah, look, I had the same assumption that as soon as you're under, they would have turned it over. 732 00:54:16,434 --> 00:54:19,837 So that's yeah, to them actually listen, that's amazing. 733 00:54:19,837 --> 00:54:20,948 No, Danny, thank you. 734 00:54:20,948 --> 00:54:21,929 They're amazing picks. 735 00:54:21,929 --> 00:54:24,571 And look, it's been really great speaking with you. 736 00:54:24,571 --> 00:54:30,716 Obviously, you're uh at the start of what will hopefully be a very long rocket ride with increasing momentum. 737 00:54:30,716 --> 00:54:34,830 And I certainly love the album and excited for what well, what is coming next for Couch? 738 00:54:34,830 --> 00:54:37,522 Probably that's worth a little bit of a final check out. 739 00:54:37,522 --> 00:54:40,214 What's, you know, the plan for the next year or so? 740 00:54:40,482 --> 00:54:43,244 Yeah, the plan for next year is to write more music. 741 00:54:43,244 --> 00:54:47,326 We as of now don't have plans to go on another big headline tour. 742 00:54:47,326 --> 00:54:51,918 I think we're gonna take our foot off the gas in that regard and try to write more music. 743 00:54:51,918 --> 00:54:54,442 We have a few festivals this summer we're going to. 744 00:54:54,442 --> 00:54:57,932 Um, but nothing like no long tours. 745 00:54:57,932 --> 00:55:06,296 I mean, we'll see what offers come in, but for the most part, I think it's gonna be writing music, thinking about that next headline tour, the next album. 746 00:55:06,296 --> 00:55:08,578 Um, so stay tuned for that. 747 00:55:08,578 --> 00:55:09,080 And 748 00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:13,932 We might be playing near you over the course of summer, so just check check that out. 749 00:55:13,932 --> 00:55:14,942 Yes, no, definitely. 750 00:55:14,942 --> 00:55:16,613 I I would love to see you down here. 751 00:55:16,613 --> 00:55:18,596 It'd be a pleasure to come and check out your amazing works. 752 00:55:18,596 --> 00:55:20,848 And I can't thank you aga again enough, Danny. 753 00:55:20,848 --> 00:55:22,890 It's been amazing speaking with you. 754 00:55:22,892 --> 00:55:23,880 Yeah, thanks a lot, David. 755 00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:24,780 This is a lot of fun. 756 00:55:24,780 --> 00:55:26,365 I'm so glad we got to do this. 757 00:55:34,868 --> 00:55:35,818 And there we have it. 758 00:55:35,818 --> 00:55:37,620 I hope you enjoyed that chat with Danny. 759 00:55:37,620 --> 00:55:38,821 I know I did. 760 00:55:38,821 --> 00:55:43,415 And I'm hopefully going to see Couch land down under at some stage in the future. 761 00:55:43,415 --> 00:55:45,247 They certainly deserve to be heard down here. 762 00:55:45,247 --> 00:55:46,648 So fingers crossed. 763 00:55:46,648 --> 00:55:51,522 So thank you as always for listening and an enormous shout out to our supporters to date. 764 00:55:51,522 --> 00:56:01,590 And as I always mention now, we have sort of rationalized all our premium offers, offerings, as you would call them, across Substack, Patreon, and YouTube membership. 765 00:56:01,590 --> 00:56:04,502 So if you join either of those options, so 766 00:56:05,044 --> 00:56:15,182 If you're watching the video, you'll see a join button or our patreon.com forward slash keyboard chronicles, or if you look for keyboard chronicles on Substack, you get early 767 00:56:15,182 --> 00:56:17,884 access to episodes, snippets of episodes. 768 00:56:17,884 --> 00:56:22,608 So for example, this one was recorded about six to eight weeks before you see it. 769 00:56:22,608 --> 00:56:31,254 If you're not a member, our members have seen snippets and key components well and literally hours after we record, which is always fun to do. 770 00:56:31,308 --> 00:56:33,199 And we have some chats about those. 771 00:56:33,199 --> 00:56:36,470 So do consider it really does help us keep this little boat afloat. 772 00:56:36,470 --> 00:56:41,363 It's it's a costly exercise, and we do appreciate the support that we get. 773 00:56:41,363 --> 00:56:46,235 And so those supporters that currently support us include the lovely Tammy Catcher from Tammy's Musical Stew. 774 00:56:46,235 --> 00:56:47,965 Thank you, Tammy, as always. 775 00:56:47,965 --> 00:56:50,296 Derry Evans from Wales, thank you, good sir. 776 00:56:50,296 --> 00:56:52,527 We always appreciate your support. 777 00:56:52,527 --> 00:56:52,868 Mr. 778 00:56:52,868 --> 00:56:57,730 Paul Heaton or the Dreamscapist, do check out the Dreamscapist YouTube channel. 779 00:56:57,730 --> 00:56:58,350 Paul 780 00:56:58,350 --> 00:57:02,492 creates some amazing music and I'm proud to say he used to live in my hometown here. 781 00:57:02,492 --> 00:57:09,665 I know he's he's relocated, but he's another Australian musician that creates amazing stuff and definitely worth a check out. 782 00:57:09,665 --> 00:57:11,275 So thank you, Paul. 783 00:57:11,276 --> 00:57:14,877 Dave and the team from the MusicPlayer.com forums and the keyboard corner. 784 00:57:14,877 --> 00:57:16,058 Thank you, team. 785 00:57:16,058 --> 00:57:17,418 And last but not least, Mr. 786 00:57:17,418 --> 00:57:19,379 Mike Wilcox at Midnight Mastering. 787 00:57:19,379 --> 00:57:22,820 Amazing work on mixing and mastering original works. 788 00:57:22,820 --> 00:57:24,531 I've used him for two of my albums. 789 00:57:24,531 --> 00:57:26,912 Cannot recommend him highly enough. 790 00:57:26,978 --> 00:57:28,250 So they're our great supporters. 791 00:57:28,250 --> 00:57:30,723 We'd love to have you join them join them. 792 00:57:30,723 --> 00:57:32,095 You don't have to have a shout out. 793 00:57:32,095 --> 00:57:35,049 If you prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine as well. 794 00:57:35,049 --> 00:57:39,485 But yeah, we do thank you all for your support and we've got lots of great shows coming up. 795 00:57:39,485 --> 00:57:41,908 And in the meantime, keep on playing.