MN Music Note - Ep25 - Bass Was Always the Plan with Shane Twohy

Some musicians play bass because the band needed one. Shane Twohy chose bass because it was the only instrument that felt right from the very beginning.

In this episode, Will sits down with Shane Twohy to talk about the decades-long journey that took him from learning bass at 14 to playing in bands across Minnesota today. From ska bands and jazz influences to balancing family life, a corporate job, and a packed performance schedule, Shane shares what it really looks like to build a life around music without losing the passion for it.

• Why bass immediately felt like “his thing” and how bands like Pink Floyd and Steely Dan shaped the way he plays
• The story behind his first ska band, years at Perpich, and meeting the drummer he's been playing with for 25 years
• How stepping back to raise a family actually helped him reconnect with the music scene in a bigger way
• What makes Blackout different from other cover bands and why the band is “firing on all cylinders” right now
• Shane’s honest take on chasing the dream of touring full-time versus building a more balanced life around music
• The songs, bands, and deep cuts that still get him excited to step on stage every night

If you've ever wondered what keeps someone playing music for decades, even without the fame, the tours, or the money, this conversation is proof that passion alone can still be enough.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:17

All right, man. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you for having me. Great to have you here, man. So I saw you, gosh, I think I saw you play on stage one time at Ziggy's Hudson. Might have been with Justin or something like that. I don't think it was with Blackout, but I just love the yeah, I love your performance, man. I love what you do up on stage. Thank you. I used to have a band in Qatar called um Richard Cranium. Uh and I just tell them the story on the last episode that I did, but our bass player, Mike Wright, you guys remind me of each other. Just a lot of energy, a lot of bigness, you know, happening. Yeah, I love that in my bass player.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

So I actually remember that story you told me at Ziggy's that Rafana, I think what drew drew you to me is exactly introduce yourself. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yeah. Yeah. So Mike is the uh cool thing, Mike and Charles who used to, we all the three of us were in a band in Qatar many years ago. They're actually flying here during this summer, and we're gonna do like a one week and just try to play as many shows. Richard Cranium reunion tour, if you will. That would be really cool. Yeah. So I don't know where we're gonna get in yet, but hopefully we'll get in somewhere. Anyways, I know who you are. Yeah, why don't you introduce yourself to the audience? Tell me who you are.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

My name is Shane Tooy. I'm a bass player. That's what I do. I love it. It's just uh it brings me so much energy and joy as you've seen to play on stage for people, and it's really, it's really just my passion. I can play other instruments, but bass is kind of my bag. What else do you play? I do play guitar. I've written, you know, quite a few songs on the acoustic guitar. Okay. I can hack away on the electric, okay. Um, working on drums at home with the kids. Um did a little bit of formal piano lessons and stuff through school and uh saxophone. Grew up playing saxophone.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

That's cool. That's cool. I played saxophone for a very short while when I lived in Korea. Did you decided to take sax lessons when I was in the army? Yeah, I love that instrument. Yeah, me too. So um, yeah, of all these choices, it sounds like you're you're you could potentially have gone in any direction, but you chose bass. Why?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

I don't know. I was always drawn to it. Actually, um, kind of started on, like I said, sax phone and then went to guitar at 12 years old. But there was something about the Pink Floyd records my dad would spin and Roger Waters' bass lines that influenced me heavily. Steely Dan too, Chuck Rainey playing on, you know, a lot of those songs. Just I don't I don't really know what it was, but it was it was the bass that I wanted, and it was unique to me. And you know, I didn't really know a lot of bass players at the time. There were a couple guys in high school that were a few grades ahead of me that I that were influential, and I just they were different. You know, they weren't the guitar player, everybody played a guitar, everybody played a piano, everybody played a saxophone, so it was kind of that drive to be a little different, but I was really influenced by the feeling too. I mean, I really was that the note that kind of drove the song, you know, from behind. So I just loved that. That's how it started.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

That's pretty cool, man. Yeah, there's so many bass players. Uh they've had quite a few of them on the show, right? Yeah. So many of them started out as a guitar player. Yeah. And then they wanted to join some band, and they're like, they already had a guitar player. So, like, okay, I'll try bass, and then they stuck with bass, but it sounds like you from a very early age just kind of were drawn right down that.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Uh I never really got good at guitar. I mean, I took lessons, but it just it just didn't feel right. I don't know if I was just kind of clunky on it or whatever it was, but um, it was the bass from the beginning. Yeah, that's pretty neat. And it really helped knowing notation, you know, playing saxophone before that. So once I got into the bass, you know, learning the bass clef was simple. There wasn't much to go on, you know, the four strings. Right. And it was I just knew I could conquer it. I just I just knew right away that it wasn't gonna take me long. My 14th birthday, I got a P bass. My dad bought me at the music connection of Force Lake. And by the end of the or by the beginning of the next school year, I was already playing in the concert band for high school. So it was really cool. So it didn't take long for me to you know at least get the basics down. So you're one of those guys that like 14 hours a day, you're just going going at it. It was crazy. Very passionate about it at that time and still am, but you know, had a lot more time on my hands literally to practice. Right. That's that's awesome, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

So what what are some of your uh I mean, obviously you said Steely Dan and Pink Floyd were some early influences, it kind of came from your dad, but when did you find your music? And like what what was what was that?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

It was it was then. I mean, and here's the thing I kind of have a identity crisis when it comes to music. Guys that really know me, I listen to all kinds of music. There really isn't much I won't listen to. So, even alongside you know, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, like I said, there was um Paul Simon's albums, you know, that really kind of brought some of that Afrobeat and African music influence in. So that and actually I should say, so high school was really pivotal for my influences. My teachers, Mike Savold and David Hale out of Chissago, um, were some of the best teachers I think you could ever have. Mike Savold, Mr. Savold, was uh a multi-instrumentalist, but he played saxophone in the band Power of Ten. So, right away, we were playing um Tower of Power. We were playing What is Hip in school, you know, the jazz band that we also were a part of. We were doing uh Chick Korea stuff, we were doing Herbie Hancock. So right out of the gate, I was I was heavily influenced by funk, RB, soul. Um also, I should say, you know, it wasn't just my dad's records that influenced me, it was my mom's too. And she was really into what we would consider the oldies and my age group, so 50s and 60s, you know, Bebop and rock and roll. And so it was really a plethora of everything. And I didn't shy away from anything. I played it all. I played it all when I got the uh BMG or Columbia, whatever it was, you know, just like Aaron Cole talked about. You still owe them money. I probably do, but but seriously, at our age group, that was big, you know, because we could send whatever little money we had away and just get immersed in music. And I remember the first few times I did that, you know, I'd come in groups of 10 or 11 CDs and it was all over the map. I mean, I had things from Bob Marley to Pantera to Marcus Miller to Miles Davis, and um yeah, so I I really of course I plan a rock band now, but my influences come from all angles. Yeah, that's pretty impressive. My first band was a ska band, my first band. Really? Yeah. Tell me more about that. Yeah, so the name of the band. So Free Ambition. Free Ambition, okay. So we basically uh my influences young, you know, from starting on bass at 14 to doing the jazz and concert bands, led me to church too, which is a great influence I know from a lot of people. One of the drummers that I used to play with, um, Al Nimmo, used to play a tour with a band that uh went around the world with Miles Davis. And so, and he's a phenomenal drummer. And and so he had a lot of influence on me too, like watching the you know, watching his bass uh bass drum foot and just locking in with the hi-hat. And so anyway, church led me to meet a bunch of other musicians there, and we were heavily into ska, so this is you know 2000 era, so ska was big, yeah, Christian punk and things like that, and we were all listening to that, and that was a major influence of the time too. And for me to blend my influence of RB and soul and of course rock, punk rock into a ska band, that was that was that was the perfect, you know, soup for what we were cooking, and it was just amazing. So free ambition was kind of a you know, a couple year project, and then of course we all kind of grew up and went off, and then I ended up at Perfect Up on Center for Arts here in Golden Valley, not too far from here, to finish high school. That's where I met my current drummer, so that led me down many paths as well.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Wow. So you guys have been playing together for 25 years, 25 years. Wow, that's impressive.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

So did you guys start blackout together? We did not start blackout together. So blackout is uh, I think uh almost a 20-year-old band in itself. And so I don't even know the original members. I've met, you know, a few of them here and there, but Jeremy Newton, who you've met, our guitar player, is I think 15, 16 years in that band now. So he so he's the longest time member. But long story short, blackout now is um basically a new band, you know. So we've kind of reinvented ourselves after uh Brett left or Brent left, and um so we got Justin in and we've got Dylan, my drummer, came in, and then myself and Jeremy now. So it's really cool, it's really cooking. So what do you what did you and Dylan do together in in the meantime? Yeah, so we met in high school at Purpich. He uh is actually from Robinsdale, and so he Is he really? Yep. Does he still live out here? No, okay. No, he's in Ham Lake now, but okay, but anyway, so him and I actually did quite a uh variety of songs too while we were in a band called Broke Down Velvet at uh purpose, and we did we did Tower Power, we did Dave Matthews, we did uh yes, he I'm telling you, as a drummer, Dave Matthews, uh Carter Buford is just wow, just love listening to that guy play. That's who Dylan, not all the time, but you know, he he really sounded like him a lot. It's how it influenced by that. He could do things on the drums that nobody else could do. So knowing Dylan and his technical expertise led me into listening to dream theater, you know, uh Danny Carey with Tool, things like that, and really driving me into more of a progressive rock um genre. You explore all sorts of things when you can play that way. That's amazing. That's right. The other thing I should mention, um, I went to school in California and I got to play with a punk band out there too. Actually, it's kind of a pseudo punk funk rock band called the clams, and they've been around for 30 something years, and they have influences of like red hot chili peppers and bad religion, even kind of an amalgamation of that. So um, yeah, and then when I got back from there, uh started playing with Dylan again in a band called Deuce, and Deuce is a 45-year band now. I was gonna say, Yeah, they still exist, don't they? Um, I think I heard the name out there. We've we've retired the name. Okay. Um Chris Olson Ole passed away a few years ago, and he was the last original member of that band. So we, in respect to him, um, we retired the name, and now we call ourselves the sellouts because we're just kind of hanging on to the shirts, you know, the the coat sleeves or whatever, the coattails of uh of Deuce, and we're just kind of riding it out however we can, you know, in memory of the original band, but still just doing new songs, doing our own thing. So that's the other band that I'm doing, you know, a few shows with throughout the year.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

So you have down periods because it sounds like literally from 14 years old until now, you've been playing non-stop.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

I've been playing a lot, and I'll tell you, it was kind of down for a little bit when my kids were real young. Um, now they're eight and ten, and they love what I do. They love they're they're influenced by it. We have a music room in the basement, drums, keyboard, guitars, and they're allowed to go down there and just do whatever they want. And so nice. Um, my wife is really supportive of what I do too. As long as it doesn't eat into you know the family priorities, right? I I'm allowed to chase this passion. And of course, it comes with a balance. Sure. But but I do that well, I think, you know, and I think my family would say the same. So, what's the other side of the balance? Like, who are you outside of music? I work for uh a corporate pipeline company as a corrosion technician and project manager, and so that's uh 14 years now I've been with that company. And um, yeah, so I'm kind of a blue-collar guy, yeah. You know, through the week. Um, started my career doing, you know, diving and welding and things like that. Just always been kind of a you know, outside the box kind of person wherever I fit, you know. That's cool, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

So you got you got the chops. Have you ever had long hair? Were you ever that guy?

SPEAKER_00 12:46

No, no, always a short hair guy. I I had long hair maybe when I was 12, 13, you know, maybe down to here. That was about it. But no, I it gets in the way, it's thick and it's hot in the summer. So for sure. I've always had short hair, you know, and the chops just kind of came along with this territory of of rock and roll. You know, I um it's fun, you know, it's fun to kind of look the part and play the part, and it's a part of me, you know. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

So so I I want to go back to like the reason I came up and talked to you the first time, right? Is that stage show that you put on so I can't imagine, maybe I'm wrong, but I can't imagine 14-year-old you was like balls to the wall and up at the front. Like, what what kind of what how did you build that? How'd you build that confidence and decide that that's who you want to be on stage? It's always been that way. Really?

SPEAKER_00 13:35

I've never you're just not a shy baby. You weren't born with a shy bone in your body, yeah. I don't know if it has anything to do with whether I'm shy or not. The music literally consumes me sometimes. I'm not even lying to you. I it I thought about this, you know, because a lot of people ask, you know, how do you do it? And I it just happens naturally. You'll see it ebb and flow, you know. If I if we play a really heavy set and it's getting late, I might I might be a little tired, but I'm still trying to move. But right, you know, it's just it's a passion. I really just enjoy it. Yeah, I really just like you know, moving to the music. I really do. That's exceptional, man. I'm a terrible dancer, but I will dance, you know, because it just music is just my thing, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

I love it, it moves me. That's cool. Yeah, awesome. So um talk to me a little bit about the band, about blackout and like what what what are you guys doing now? What are your ambitions as a band?

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Blackout is so much fun right now. I'll tell you, you know, and I've played in a lot of bands, and a lot of them have been really good and great and everything, but it just seems like at this stage in the lives of the band members, we are all doing it for something more than money because you know, there isn't a whole lot in it all the time. We're really doing it because we love what we're doing, honestly. Um, we all want to play these songs that we that we love, that we grew up on, things like that. Or, you know, like in Justin's case, he's bringing in songs that I've never even heard before. You know, I I I there's a whole genre out there I really don't touch that much, but we we you know, we feed his you know influences too. And so we're doing things like Chris Stapleton now. And I'm introducing things to him that he's never listened to, like Dan Ziggs, social distortion, you know. So it's a lot of fun. Jeremy, of course, he's like he would say one of his best record years was like 91 or 92, you know, and I'm 94 kid, you know. So we so he's kind of stuck, you know, somewhere where that 80s blends into the early 90s, and a lot of that early Pearl Jam stuff and that early grunge. And so I love that too, you know. So yeah, there's just so much there that this band is willing to do. We call ourselves a rock band, but the reality of it is is we we encompass rock in all its genre. You know, we'll do country rock, we'll do punk rock, we'll do pop rock, well, of course, we'll do heavy rock, you know, and some rock and roll. So it's a lot of fun right now. We're just having a lot of fun. We have a lot of big things coming down the pipe. Some things I'm not ready to divulge yet, okay. But um, so one thing we're doing here this Sunday, we're actually gonna go to curbside productions with Corey Denson into an EPK. Oh, nice. We're we're gonna finally, you know, get in there and you know, get on a stage and get the cameras rolling. It's not necessarily our comfort zone, right? You know, because we just like to play. We're kind of a stage live band type of thing. But we understand that you know, the current um, you know, market where we play really does look for that, and people want to kind of see it from that point of view. Yeah, so we're gonna drop into that and then we're gonna come out swinging hard. So we've got a lot of big shows planned for the summer, some new festivals we've never played. We're going back to Grantsburg, the water the Watercross National Championships, which is so cool. That's a fun show.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

So played there before then. Yeah, we did the Friday night gig last year. Cool, and we're doing the Saturday night spot this year. Cool, which is is cool. Thousands, thousands of people. Nice, so it's just gonna be a lot of fun. That'll be a great show, yeah. Yeah, so blackout has a lot of cool things coming, and I'm just so excited to be a part of it. Really am. And it's and everybody gets long in the band, you know. That's what everybody's wish is really for the band is just to be able to be friends, yeah, you know, just avoid the arguments and the yeah, you know, the things that will hassle or drag down a band of right now. It's just firing on all cylinders, and yeah, so it's like marrying three other people, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:35

It really is.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

And in the process we're in close quarters together, and no, we I just gonna say it's like um, you know, it just really helps to get along and it creates better friendships and better relationships. I mean, we do we call each other brothers because that means something, you know what I mean? It really does. So it's not just people passing in the street anymore. We're doing something together that really matters to us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Very nice, man. That's cool. Yeah, it is. I think every band, yeah, like you said, every band kind of aspires to get there. And it is it is difficult when you get into a band and it becomes business, and you're not really you're very platonic and not very friendly with each other. Yeah, um, I don't think I could be in a band like that. So I am still trying to do this for fun. I'm not that great of a player. Yeah, and I'm super serious about it, you know. And obviously, we're not making that much money at it. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

It's not my day job. And you know, I kind of thought at one point in my life I would maybe end up doing that as a day job, but that really came and went pretty quickly when I realized that I didn't want to kill the passion, even you know what I mean. A lot of things that you end up doing, you know, nine to five end up becoming pretty mundane. And I think I knew that young enough to kind of avoid making this a day, and I who knows if it would have ever even really turned out, you know. Sure. And I knew musicians that had a lot of struggles because that was their day job too, you know, and that and I could see that it was it was a really tough road for a lot of guys, and even though I was passionate about it, I understood that I didn't want it to ruin my life either, you know what I mean? And I it could have gone either way, you know. Yeah, so but anyway, I I think I'm I'm I'm I'm happy with how it all turned out, and I'm really excited, like I say, about now. And especially now being in this community with you, your band, you know, we're meeting a lot of people, we're doing a lot of cool things, there's a lot of shows happening, and everybody's really supportive. And that's another great thing that's really come out of being uh, you know, a member of Blackout is just this new community that I was maybe on the outskirts of. I feel like it's just all a big family now, and it's really cool. Yeah. So what changed that? How do you think you kind of connected with all those people? Like well, I think I think a big part of it was, you know, kind of backing off from the scene for a bit to raise my my kids, you know, when they were real young and really having the time to do it while still playing in Deuce, you know, doing a couple, three, four, five shows a year, things like that. But um, that's really what changed, you know, a few years ago when when I could kind of when my family was encouraging me now to continue that passion in a deeper way and get down there and do the ziggies, do Route 47, whatever it was. I'm just I was hoping. And really, I was always doing a jam in Star Prairie, Wisconsin. I'm not sure if you know where that's at, but right out there like the Osceola. So that's where I met guys like Rick Vogelpole. Okay. Then we we got into a band called Crude. Actually, he had the band and then asked me to join. So cool. Played in crude for a while. That was a lot of fun. And um, then through that jam that expanded out to Peewise and Osceola now, where I'm playing, you know, uh once a month with Eric Bulow. Oh, nice, yeah. Yeah, so Henry and I live in the same town and and then he Oh really? He lives out that way too. Yeah, so he got me in his second chair, you know, next to Jim Lusky as the bass player in gel. And so, you know, Jim couldn't make a show or you know, wanted to spend a weekend away with his family. They gave me a shout. And so it's it's just been growing. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

I'm really interested. You know, you talked about um the common dream, you know, I think that many young musicians have is like, you know, when you first start getting into it, you have these big ambitions that you're gonna be the next big band, the next big player in a big band. You're gonna get out there and you're gonna get on the road. I mean, have you toured?

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Have you done like the tours thing going around the United States and that sort of thing? No, I've never been to the United States touring, you know. Okay. I never had that opportunity, I should say. Yeah. Um, the closest I got was with a band called Sheeped I was in. We were out of Minneapolis, jam band, and we did, you know, some some running around kind of, you know, the Midwest here. But actually, Blackouts brought me a little further than than even that band did. We've been up to, or we've been up to docks in Willow River, you know. So yeah, I mean, I don't know. At this point, it's not really something I really want to do, to be honest with you, because I still my kids are still young. Sure. You know, and the band doesn't really need that right now. There's plenty of gigs right here in Minnesota, Wisconsin that we are, you know, happy to be a part of. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

I guess where I was going with was just you know how how you made the choice at some point that I think, you know, as a as a lesson, maybe to some of our younger musicians out there that are in that space of thinking they really want to do that. It's there's a there's a tremendous amount of sacrifice. I mean, you're sacrificing the opportunity for family, you're sacrificing you know a lot of stability, and you go through this whole period of just like you can be the literally best musician in the best band putting on great performances, but nobody's coming yet. You know what I mean? Nobody's really seen it, you really haven't quite hit it yet, and you're having to do all this where you're paying your own way to kind of go do these tours around the United States just to hope that you get there. And then when you get there, the grind doesn't stop.

SPEAKER_04 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Um, even you know, some of the bands uh that kind of play like you know, uh uh play literally the same set, you know, that kind of build their set and play the same sets over and over again. Yeah. You know, to me, I don't I don't know if I could make that choice to do that because I feel like I would just get I would get bored with my own stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

And things change the older you get. So I mean, I I mean I guess if if I was to encourage my younger self, if looking back on it now, I would have said probably just go for it, really dig in because I I you know I kind of just like I said, I had doubts about how it would end up for me. But okay, but you know, statistically, the fans that make it biggest, they start when they're 18, 19, 20. They're they're young and they're ambitious, yeah, and they're hungry for it and they're creative. Yeah, you know, that that mindset when you're when you're that young is um it's dynamic, you know, and it's powerful and it can really breed a lot of great things. So I would say, like I said to my younger self or anybody that wants to do it, what do you got to lose? I mean, once you hit your 30s or whatever, I mean, life life does start to get more complicated. Again, and so you know, I I'm I I I would just say, do it, you know, try it. What do you got to lose, really? You know? Yeah, awesome. I wish I would have done it. You know, there's a lot. There's sometimes I go to bed thinking, like, man, I wish, you know, the clams and I would have or sheep. I really miss that band because we were it was all original, it was all very creative. Um, we weren't your average jam band, you know, it wasn't all Grateful Dad and Fish. I mean, this was like cutting edge, you know, jam stuff, you know. And uh I really miss that part of my life where I was really to be, you know, really able to be creative with bands too. And like blackout is a cover band, so um, which is fine. We're really, we're really enjoying it. But there's uh but I have this whole other creative side of me that I I just want to unleash again someday, you know. So I think that's coming, you know. Maybe it sounds like it, yeah. Yeah, I just uh you know what we're doing right now is is getting us around town and and uh keeping us happy, keeping your chops up. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Yeah, yeah. I like it, man. Absolutely. So um what's what's in your what are you playing right now that that really excites you? Like what what are you learning? What what's some some music out there? You're just like, man, this is cool. I'm so glad I'm tackling this.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yeah, well I'll tell you what, it blew my mind. So I didn't really I shouldn't say it like this, but it's kind of how it is. I didn't really like Foo Fighters for a long time. It just whatever, it was just another band out there, you know what I mean? Um then we're now we're playing Asking for a Friend, which they just released. And and it it just helps me to realize how technical that band really can be and how talented they really are. So that is a really fun song that we just learned, and it and it's it's in it's in six, right? And then Dylan counts parts in four, if not the whole song. And so I hear them counting four, you know, and it it'll kind of like throw me off. But it's just it's just fun to have a techno, a really technical song. Of course, we've played the pot by Tool, or those are technical songs too.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

Every bass player I ever tried to play that song with is like, holy crap, this is hard.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

It it really is because that's another poly rhythm, you know. And so it's it's uh those are some of the fun songs, but you know what? At the at the end of the day, I like keeping it in four. I love playing the danzig tunes, you know. They're they're fun, they rock. I'm passionate about them. I like them. I like playing. Uh we we of course we play a couple uh um sublime songs, which are really fun. And that's the other part of the music too, even if like it might be just a simple bass line or whatever, seeing the crowd react and then move again you know, in turn moves me. So there's some fun ones that we're doing right now, but there's you know, there's we we play, we've got over we're probably approaching 200 songs in our catalog, you know, rotating, you know, not even a fraction of that really in a night. But the fun thing about this band is we can go we could do a Thursday, Friday night or Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you know, three-day run and not barely play the same song. So that's really fun. Have you done that yet? No, but we hope to. We have been side by side on nights. Okay, luckily it's in different towns, you know, and we'll mix up 10, 12, 15 songs, you know, sometimes. Sure. I mean, just to know that we have the ability to do that, but you know, we're playing songs right now that we've found the crowd really identifies us to. We're not always playing the same songs other rock cover bands are, which there's a few because you got to keep them interested, but then we'll throw a wrench in their spokes and we'll do a deep cut from Alice and Chains. You know, that people are like half the crowd's going, I really like this, but I don't know what it is. And then the other half the crowd's going, Oh, I've man, I've never heard anybody play that song. I love this song. Cool, you know, so it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Yeah, we like to do that too. Yeah, yeah, I've noticed that. Sometimes the songs that are just slightly different than what people are expecting you to play. It's a lot of fun. You guys do it well. You really do appreciate that. When you guys played Deft Tones, I was like, Hey, that's cool. And you nailed it. Yeah. That's that's interesting because I actually pulled that song out of our sets for uh this coming Friday.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

But good to know that somebody loves it. Yeah, you know, that's a tough selection, you know, when you're thinking about your crowd and what it might be. Like, do are they gonna be into Deft Tones? Are they not? You know, so I'm passionate about it. I like Deft Tones, but you know, sometimes when you see the crowd sort of fade away when you're playing a song that you really like, yeah, it can bum you out too. So yeah, you kind of put that one back in your pocket and go, you know, I like it, but you know, sometimes you gotta bend a little bit, play some songs, you know, for them, and then play even more for yourself.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Yeah, I mean, that's important, right? I think when you've got different members in the band, you gotta pick things that you guys actually enjoy. Absolutely. But mix them in with things that the crowd are gonna enjoy. Absolutely. Then you built a good set list. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

So we're yeah, we play Justin's voice is deeper, you know. It's it's pretty deep. So we do try to, you know, play. We play Chris Stapleton. We do a lot of Pearl Jam, you know, we do a lot of we do some Creed, we do things like that that really fit his voice well. But then here's the thing I just realized this a few weeks ago, and maybe I'll save it until somebody comes out and sees the show. But he has this falsetto that just blew my mind. He's all right, probably four octaves um up from his normal voice, and it was uh it blew me away. It blew me away. So, and we're putting a song that he's gonna utilize that well into our rotation. Interesting, okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Yeah, so he's he's dynamic too. So now the hook is in, so yeah, and I gotta bring in the people. That sounds interesting.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Yeah, now that's we know his you know true range, and he's stretching it, and I it's just so cool, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Awesome, man. All right, so I love to wrap these up. The same question for everybody. Yeah, who should be next on this show? Man, who do you recommend?

SPEAKER_00 30:19

I thought a lot about this, and this is a really hard question, yeah. Because you never want to single anybody out because I've had a lot of influences and a lot of great friends in this, right? Maybe a couple people, it doesn't have to be only one, but I'm gonna pick one and then I'll maybe I'll lay down two honorable mentions. All right, sounds good. So and and it seems selfish, but but it is Dylan Maline. So he's my longtime drummer. I've been with him a long time. We played all kinds of music together. We do and he's just a really good dude. He's he's just got this character about him that makes you happy, you know. And I think that's also a good part of you know the community is having people that are are happy, you know. And so I think he'd be a great, and you could talk to him about Carter Bruford and his yeah and his other the guy's a maniac on drums. He can, you know, you're you being a drummer, you know how it is. I don't know how your mind works.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

I don't know why, but I keep having drummers on this show, so yeah. Maybe it's because I'm a drummer. I love it. Yeah, sort of drummers and basses, yeah, and then honorable mentions.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

So I'd like to bring I'd like to see Eric Bulow do it because he's been around. Oh yeah. And I know he's another drummer, but he's he's uh he's got a uh voice like an angel, too.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Yeah, you know what I mean? So maybe every time I go to Route 47, yeah, like where the hell are the backing vocals coming from? He's like hi behind the speaker. He's got he's very good.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

So maybe hit him from that angle. Okay, have him in as a as a singer, yeah. And then uh Rick Vogelpool. Okay, you know, so he he's uh we've been playing together for a long time too, and so nice. I could mention dozens of people, but that's just kind of what came to my mind. That works good, man.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

It's a good start. So thanks for being on here.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Well, thanks, Will, for having us, and it's really neat that you do this for the community.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Yeah, I'm having a blast with it, man.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

To join me on the Minnesota Music show. I'm Will McLeod, co-founder of the podcast crew here in beautiful Robbinsdale, host of the show, and the guy behind the kit for the band, It's in the Mrs. I started this podcast because I want to get to know the people who make our scene tick. Whether you're fronting a band, spinning hip hop, running sound, booking shows, running shows, or teaching the next generation of talent, your story belongs here. We've had everyone from videographers to festival organizers on the mic, and we're just getting started. It doesn't matter if you're playing arenas or just making magic in your basement. If you're part of the Minnesota music community, I want to chat. Slide into my DM or hit the email below, and let's hang out and talk about it.