 Alright, welcome to another episode of Let There Be Talk. This is episode number 742 on the Monday, March 25th. I'm out here in New York City, getting ready to do some shows for a few days. I'm at the stand. I'm at the cellar tonight and tomorrow night. So come on down if you're in town. And also I want to give a good shout out to Standard and Strange, which is my favorite store in New York City. I will be heading over there today to see what they got and see my buddy Neil and Jeremy. CenterAndStrange.com, your one stop shop for all of your denim, leather, and boots needs. Japanese high quality products. You know, I'm talking about the Real McCoys, Y2, Momotaro denim, John Lofgren boots. Oh man, everything in there. Check it out. StandardandStrange.com. Hope you guys are doing good and hope you had a great weekend. I've been out on the road nonstop here, working and telling jokes. Feeling good and I'm glad that you're here. Thank you so much. I also want to welcome a brand new Patreoner to the show, Chris Doherty. Thank you for joining my Patreoner. And also Stanley, Stanley, two names, both Stanley. Welcome to the Patreoner. Patreon.com slash Dean Del Ray. You want to join the Patreon. I just put up another bonus episode. And on that bonus episode I dive into, what do I talk about on that? The new black crows record. I talk about old school Benji the dog movies when I was a kid. Yeah, I'm getting edgy on you. And my six year anniversary of being past at the Comedy Cellar, which was yesterday. March 24th. Six years ago. Wild. Anyway, check that out. Bonus Let There Be Talks, 154 of them on Patreon. Today I sit down for a very rare something I don't do a lot on Let There Be Talk. I don't have people back that much because usually I have them on and we cover kind of their body of work. But there's few people on over the years that have done it two, three times. And this is a man who has done it. This is his third time, Mr. Neil Francis. And I think back to years ago when I first heard Neil Francis, I was blown away and had him on the podcast years ago. His story is insane. He had hit rock bottom on drugs, lost his band, moved into a church in Chicago. I was playing B3 Oregon at the Sunday and what Thursday, whatever those things are called, the church gatherings. What is that? The ceremonies, the congregate, I don't know, congregation, whatever it is. I don't know much about church because when I was growing up, I know that my mom would make me go so she could just get me out of the house for a little bit. And, oh man, it just bugged me. And then she just knew, I can't go there anymore. And we weren't religious at all, so I was like, why am I going if you're not going, mom? Anyway, his story blew me away. Years ago, 2019, he released a record with a song called Changes that just blew my mind. And his whole record blew my mind. And we became really good friends and it was just so fucking bizarre because I had him on the podcast and then a couple years later, we're touring around America together with Marcus King. The three of us out there, all three of us met through podcasting and music. And there we were doing 33 shows across America. I absolutely love Neil Francis. I love his music and I just love everything about him. He's one of those people that I really hit it off with. And we could just talk music and life, everything for hours. His album from 2021 in Plain Sight is out there. But we sat down and we really dug into the newest project that he released, Francis Comes Alive. Don't forget about his 2022 record, Sentimental Garbage. This guy puts out records. But we talk about his live record out right now that is just an incredible, incredible record. Francis Comes Alive, a little spin on Peter Frampton's Comes Alive, of course. And it was a huge thing that he filmed and recorded and it was just awesome to see that. He's going to be doing the Full Francis Comes Alive one more time out at Bonnaroo. Anyway, I love the guy and I want you guys to check out his music. If you have not heard the first two episodes, we did one years ago on Zoom when he was living in Chicago. We did the second one on the tour bus somewhere in America on the tour last, what, a year and a half ago or something. And then we did this one at my house. He's in town recording a new record. This guy writes and records all the time. He is the real deal, man. He's not one of those people that just throws out a fucking costume and wants to be a star. This guy lives and breathes music. And man, he was killing it on the Marcus King tour. There were nights where Marcus, myself and him were all singing and it was just so much fun. I love you, brother. And I love all you guys. Thank you for supporting the podcast. I'm going to say this one more time. I've been saying it over the last few weeks and it seems to have been working. Please leave a review of the podcast on iTunes. There's thousands of you listening. If you just take a minute to leave a review, it really fucking helps the show. And I got some new ones here. Let's see here. Let there be talk and punch it in. You go to iTunes and then you check out the fucking reviews, buddy. Here's some reviews. I'll read a couple just because they're pretty fucking cool. Myself came upon Delray with the Dark Fonzie thing years ago. Then proceeded into his own personal podcast episodes and fell in love with it. I enjoy everything about Dean and what he does and represents himself. Thank you for everything, Dean Delray, you rock my friend. There you go, right there. That's from Smitty Man, 1970s. Let's read one more right here. Best Music Podcast, hands down from Nimble9. Great interviews with great guests. Rock on, Dean. Dean not only knows music, he knows the music making people. There you go, man. It's that easy. Just go to iTunes and leave a review and also while you're at it, subscribe to my podcast on YouTube. Tour dates are at deandelray.com. Lots of tour dates coming up. The Greek June 8th in Berkeley, Belco Arena two nights in Denver with Bill Burr. A run at the Comedy Cellar in Las Vegas July 8th through, I don't know, the 17th or something. And then I return back to Acme after the fucking Mystery Illness. And that is July 27, 8, 9 or something like that. It's on the website. I don't know what the... But it's in July. I return back to Acme. Candles late, my friend. I love you, Neil Francis. Thanks for coming by and doing the show. Can't wait to hear the new record. And thank you guys for tuning in every Monday. Candles lit, Neil Francis. All right. Here we are. Another episode of Let It Be Talk. This is a rare, rare thing on Let It Be Talk. A three time visitor. A three timer. You've been on three times. Yeah, man. Yeah. When did you do... Oh, you were living in Chicago. Yeah. And it was during COVID, right? In the Pando. Fuck. And then on the road with Marcus. Yeah, we did that. In the tour bus. Yeah. And now here. Yeah. Los Feliz Live. The new headquarters. Yeah. New headquarters for the podcast. Yeah, yeah. Fucking great to see you. You're out here working on a new record, right? We're working. It's just me out here with Sergio Rios, our producer. Is it an album and EP? What are you working on? It's a full record. Wow. How many songs? Man, I got like 18 songs, but we're probably going to release maybe half that. Right. So... Were you writing those when we were on the road together? Yeah. I mean, we had been touring pretty consistently for like two and a half years. And so every time I was in between, I was just going for it. How is the writing process? Do you write on the piano or guitar or what? It depends. I mean, I always write on piano, but this situation is just kind of dependent on like, you know, whether I'm collaborating with someone. Sometimes I'm doing like a full blown demo with all the instrumentation. And I play everything myself in those instances. This time around, your band members are going to play on the record, right? Yeah. And they were on the last one too. So it's the same guys I have on the road with me. And then there were on the last EP and the last studio album. So... Since I saw you, I mean, we did that two month tour. And, you know, you had been touring and myself the entire time. There's not really any downtime with an artist these days. You do three times as many shows as I do. But still, like it's like, you don't work. You don't eat. Right. You know, there's no money from record sales. Yes. So it's all live money. So it's hard to say no to gigs because you're like, well, shit. Exactly. Right. And that's this year. We're not doing very much because, you know, we're in between records. It's still the same cycle. You know, you kind of have to have new material even as a kind of in response to that model where like you're providing a live experience. And so just by virtue of wanting to present something different every time you go back as like, you know, part of the agreement with your fans is that it's not going to just be the same old song and dance every time you go back. Yeah. That's same with comedy. Right. Like I just did a venue this weekend for Collins. And you know, half was new, but half was old because there's that weird fucking fine line where people are starting to find you. And you're like, well, I don't want to go do a new hour. We've got a bunch of people here. You want to see the greatest hits and well, no, I haven't seen you yet. Oh, yeah, yeah. And so you're like, well, I still, I still want to do this stuff. A couple bangers in there. Yeah. So yeah. And, you know, eventually you want to get the other stuff as big as that. But yeah. And also I was shooting some of it. So I was like, well, let's shoot some of the old stuff. And there's a ton of people there that are just finding me just like you over the last couple of years are starting to find you and they find you from like, you know, your records and they want to hear those tunes. Sure. So you got to play the old stuff and that stuff is really polished too. So we know it's going to hit. It's like, you know, we got that in the can. Yeah. But then, you know, do you ever go to a club and kind of treat it as like a workshop? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, like I'm just going to do new stuff tonight. A lot of what I do is open with like something I know is going to work really good for about 10 minutes and then just switch into new shit for a while and start working it out on the road. Yeah. The better I do it, the better it gets. And if you don't do it, if you have that fear of not doing it, you never grow. Right. And then you're like, well, what am I doing out here? You know, I want to get, you know, if I go somewhere for a weekend, I want to get the new stuff in there. Even if it's not doing good, I know I could just like you, you could just throw one of your hits in and get the crowd back dancing. Yeah. It was tricky for us just having such a busy schedule, you know, there wasn't really like a lot of energy or even time to just rehearse in between tours. So any, any new stuff we added was just like, all right, we got to commit this sound check to brushing up on this one, you know? And so that's how we would prepare covers and new tunes and everything on this record we're doing is like brand new. There's only a few instances we've ever played any of this stuff live. Oh, wow. Yeah. Now let me ask you, since I saw you last, you did the Francis Comes Alive and you did a full, what was it, 11 piece band and you filmed it and recorded it, right? Yeah, yeah. And you did that in Chicago. Yep. Let's go through that because that became pretty, pretty successful. People really like it and it looks beautiful. Thank you. Thank you, man. I'm really proud of it. It was like huge team effort. And I had this, this is going to get a little woo-woo, but you know, to your California audience, they won't, they won't be offended, but it's, I was like in this like breath work ceremony where I was literally on some sort of a psychedelic plane as a result of this 40 minute breath work thing I was doing. Is that that guy on YouTube? What's his name? Wim Hof. Yeah. It's, I don't know what he does in comparison to this because I haven't really checked out his stuff. Right. But the guy who ran it was like, you know, there's a lineage about trying to achieve this altered state through breathing, you know, without any sort of plant medicine or what have you. And as a result of this experience, I saw a vision of what ended up being the concert, you know, and so I came, came out of that, like came back from this retreat I did. And I was like in a total manic state. I just went to my manager's like, we got to do a huge band because prior to that, we knew we wanted to do a live record, but it was, I was going to like play it conservative like, we'll just do the four piece, you know, we won't really do any new material. We just like, I want to get it right. And then, you know, I came back from this week and I'm like, nah, man, like go big or go home, you know, we're going to have everything's going to be coated in like white and black. And it's just going to be insane. And he's like, all right, cool, like you've sold me, but like, how are we going to do this? How are you going to pay for it? Exactly. And it was, you know, two months until the concert, which is it ended up coming out really well just because the director, Alec Bassey, who I've done four music videos with at this point, you know, he has great vision and a great talent for like taking a concept that was pretty abstract when I presented it to him and interpreting that and then being able to source materials economically, et cetera, you know. And he hired his crew. I hired a lot of, you know, old buddies for the audio crew and the band was all people I've played with, you know, over the last decade in and around Chicago. So it was a real kind of like a family experience, which was sweet. And what was the venue? It's called Talia Hall. Yeah. In Chicago. And what did it hold? I said a thousand cap. Oh, that's cool. Sold out two nights, which is two nights. Really great for me. Holy shit. And it was right down the street from my apartment, too. So like the second night I just walked. It was like the coolest thing ever, man, you know, just being able to walk to the theater and that was a great gig, you know. But yeah, everything we recorded, everything to two inch 24 track tape, including a dress rehearsal that took place, you know, the night before we started the shows. And so we had like five hours of audio and sat and listened to all of it the Monday after the shows. And we ended up using all of night too. So everything you see in here is from. Wow. One shot. Yeah, man. That's cool. Yeah. Now was the two inch, was it a, was it a little truck or somebody bring in a two inch? We brought in the machine. Yeah. And we brought in a mixing console and something. Was it like a studer machine? It wasn't a studer. I'm trying to remember what tape machine it was. It might have been a Tascam. And then how many rolls of tape? Because they're 15 minutes each, right? No, we weren't recording at 30 yet. So we were recording at 15. Oh, so you had 30. Yeah, yeah. So we had probably 10 reels. Damn. Yeah. So did you do that when you came down to the end? Would you be like talking while they changed the reel real quick? Yeah. So we actually had to stop the show. Yeah. And they made this like sign that said tape change with like a little reel to reel uptake reel on it. And they just like held that out to the audience. That's fucking cool. Yeah. And then Alec was able to work that into the movie too. Because that was like, that was something we were proud of, you know, because it's not so many people do anymore. Right. And it just like even right after the show, we'd be listening to what we just recorded and just faders up across the mixing console. It just sounded like a record right away. That's cool. You know, which is what I love about tape. And that's why I'm still making records that way, even though it's kind of like, every time I go back to doing it, I'm like, is this, is this how I should be doing things? And then I like have listened to it. I'm like, yeah, this sounds rad. Like, there's no way around it. So I'm still a tape guy. You know, it's fun. It's interesting. France has come to live a play on obviously Frampton Comes Alive, which is one of the, probably the one that really kicked everybody into doing live records. I mean, we had the Allman Brothers live at the Fillmore stuff. But the Frampton Comes Alive became this format where bands, it was weird like Kiss Alive, Frampton Comes Alive, ACDC, If You Want Blood, Cheap Trick, you know, Live at Budakon. These were all records that spring loaded these bands' careers when their studio albums were really just kind of laying dormant. That was definitely true for Frampton. Of course. Frampton Comes Alive was one of the top selling records of all time. I think until like Thriller overtook it. Yeah. But that was like a long time. Thriller, Back in Black, Eagles' Greatest Hits. Eagles' Greatest Hits, of course. But still, Frampton Comes Alive is still in their top 10. I'm going to see him this year, finally. I've never seen him. Sweet. And he's playing at the Greek. Oh, okay. Yeah. Because Frampton Comes Alive was at the Marin County Civic Center. Yeah, right. That was a Frank Lloyd Wright. Yep, Frank Lloyd Wright. And I saw many concerts in there. Nice. And including like... How big is that room? It's small as shit. I don't know, maybe? It's 3,000? I think it's 3,000. Okay. Yeah. It is a crazy building, blue roof. And next to it is... It goes across the highway, too, right? No, no. Well, next door is like the Marin County Courthouse and the jail and everything. And the whole thing is just Frank Lloyd Wright, you know, like growing up in the Bay Area, drive by it every day on the way to work. He'd be like, look at that kooky building. Yeah. It's just wild. So cool. He did part of it there. And I think he did part of it somewhere else. San Jose or something. I can't remember. I didn't know that. But he, you know, he really was the blueprint of everybody. And it was interesting that here you would have the same songs, do you feel like I do? And show me the way and stuff like that on a studio album. And I couldn't even tell you the last time I listened to Frampton Studio album. Oh, no. And that's what I heard growing up on the radio was the live version of, do you feel like we do? Of course. And just like the way they incorporated the crowd into the vibe, you know, very subtly. It's, you know, they had, you could tell that they had a lot of control from an audio standpoint because it still sounds like a very, you know, 70s warm kind of like studio sound, plus a little bit of room verb, plus you can hear like the crowd going ape shit when he starts, you know, ripping that solo at the end. Talk box. You know, the keyboard solo is great on that too. Yeah. That guy just passed away. Bob Maill. Bob Maill. Bob Maill. Bob Maill. I always thought he was saying John Maill. Yeah, John Maill. What? John Maill is like a great jazz keyboard player. Yeah. But yeah, that was pretty influential. And so it was a joke. Obviously at the beginning where we're all just like, oh, we got to call this Francis Comes Alive. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we should, you know. Yeah. And then Peter Frampton ended up catching wind of the whole project because my good buddy Tom Cusimano is connected with Peter and he was like, hey man, check this out because the big paper in Chicago that sometimes did a story about the shows. Yeah. And he like sent him the link. He was like, oh, I wish Neil all the best of luck. You know, congratulations. And I was like, I got that text the day of the first show. So I was like, all right, you know. Yeah. Yeah. We got a blessing from. And also we need to fucking kill it because if it didn't kill you'd be like, look at these dicks. Francis Comes Alive, you're doing a spin off the greatest fucking. Right. I know that's what that was what was scary about doing that too because, you know, if you fuck it up, you look like an asshole. So, you know, I think we did it all right. You know. So it came out. And now you're going to do Bonnaroo, which we talked about your first time you went to Bonnaroo. You were 17. He had a backstage pass and you're back there just drinking beers going crazy. It was like tool and police and the roots and just a killer. And now all these years later, you're going back, you're playing Bonnaroo and you're bringing this Francis Comes Alive lineup and you're going to do it. And it's a dream come true to play at Bonnaroo. And we were supposed to do it. I think we were booked in 2020 and then we were booked in 2021 and that one got rained out. I don't know if you remember that. I do remember that. So this is like a long time coming, you know, and we've been really excited about it. And so to be able to present the 11 piece there, which will be the, it will be the last big man show for a while because, you know, I'm going to present that concept again with new material, but as far as the Francis Comes Alive band, this will be the last time we do it. So it's going to be really special. Now, since I toured with you, it was Marcus King myself, you and... Ashlyn Kraft. Ashlyn Kraft. Yeah, Ashlyn Kraft out on the tour. One thing I've noticed about you and I wanted to tell you what your thoughts on it is. You have seemed to climb to this headliner status now in a good kind of, you know, I would say five to a thousand, maybe a little bit bigger headline and all over and selling them out. And what do you think? There's multiple things to get there, but what do you think's really helped word of media, the music? What do you see is the real key? I really think it was, you know, our commitment to touring as heavily as we did, but actually getting in front of people. And then obviously presenting the music at, you know, a high level of like execution was essential to getting people to spread the word of mouth. Because we never had a big hit song. My last studio record had a couple tracks that were getting play on AAA radio. Changes. Right, but no, that was even... Changes did really well streaming and also on like college radio. And then when we released in plain sight I had a couple tunes like Problems and Can't Stop the Rain that started getting circulated on like AAA radio and like satellite radio stations. But, you know, I never had like a big hit in those spheres and also just... There was never like a big social media moment where like a lot of bands I know will just have something go viral on whatever platform, you know. And that's a great boon to their success. But it's just been, you know, kind of brick by brick for us and I feel like that is a good key to longevity just because, you know, those people are there for the thing that we're providing, you know, the live experience. Yeah, it wasn't like viral when you go viral a couple weeks later. And they're there for that one song. Yeah, somebody else goes viral a couple weeks later and they forget about you. Yeah, so like, you know... Dopamine hits. I'm not gonna, you know, turn down that viral moment. Of course. It's gratifying to know that you can still just beat the pavement and chip away at it and succeed because that's really the the only idea we had. Yeah. It's just like, all right, guys, get back in the van, let's go. And, you know, it was a long tour. I mean, you know, I'm only asking because I understand it's amazing when you see the word of mouth working because in this ADD world, it's so weird where you could go kill somewhere. Let's say you killed what you were every night open for Marcus, but then people leave and they don't even remember the next day. Right, right, right. That's a weird fucking thing where they're like, you were incredible. We're at the merch booth, you know. And then the next day, they just go about their life. Yeah. And that's an interesting animal. I don't take it for granted. You know, it's a pretty unique thing that I get to devote my life to music this way. You know, I haven't worked a straight job in years. Yeah. And if you haven't heard his first episode on here, basically had burned it all the way down to the ground with drugs and alcohol. And your first band was just done and you've kind of risen and you're still clean. You still got the band members and you're riding like crazy and you're getting bigger and bigger. Yeah, man. That's, you know, we're just, as they say, one day at a time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Clocking in at the studio and just, you know, I got to put my blinders on and just focus on, because dude, I mean, you know, I'm just like everybody else in terms of, you know, comparison, becoming distracted by what other people are doing. Yeah. You know, kind of like, should I be going after this, you know, X, Y, Z? Right. And every, you know, word of wisdom going back 3,000 years or whatever, you know, like the length of recorded human writing is just like, no, just stay in the moment. Yeah. Do what's in front of you. I think you just got to do what you love to do and if it hits, it hits, because I'm the same way. I'm out there and, and I can't really look at other people, every, you know, as they say, as cliche as it sounds, as everybody has their own path or journey. And if you're enjoying what you're doing, then who cares what's happening? Yeah. And to me, I always am just, all I want to do is work. I want to do the thing. So that's my fear, because if I can't do the thing, I'm like, oh, fuck, like you can do your thing at home. You can record. You could be in a studio with me. If I can't get gigs, I can't just do comedy. You know what I mean? On Zoom with no, hey, comedy here, you know? So that is the only. Unless you're like recording skits or something. Right. Right. Well, that's different. Yeah. Go man on the street, you know, doing, doing pranks. You can wear a wig and like make a video with yourself playing two characters. Right, right. You can do all that shit, but the energy that I love of the audience was stand up. Oh yeah. Is why I get up every day. That's what, you know, that's what I'm after too. Yeah. The first time I played piano in front of my family at like a Christmas party and everybody was clapping for me and all of a sudden I was important and, you know, validated. And it's like, you're still chasing that in some way. Yeah. Yeah. I said it on a podcast recently. Little League was probably the first time I was performing. Sure. You're up there and you get a hit and they're like, yeah. Yeah. I didn't have many opportunities to be praised in my Little League career, but, you know, that's why I stuck with piano, you know? Well, the thing with Little League though, it really sets you up for also failure. You strike out. Yeah. It's like when a joke doesn't work, I go, I struck out tonight. Well. That's why the term striking out happens with anything dating. Yeah. You know, comedy music, whatever. It's like, ah, I struck out. Yeah. It's the first, I think the first, that's why I fucking laugh at these fourth place trophies. You know what I mean? It was like, you're not setting them up for letting them, you know, take in failure. Participation award. Yeah, that's fucking lunacy. Yeah, but if you're a kid, you know. You know. If you get the fourth place trophy, you're hiding that. I know. Yeah. You know it ain't shit. Yeah, yeah. You're putting that fucking in the back of the closet. There's still a plenty of shame going around for the kids. All right. Nobody's mounting up in their house a fourth place trophy. What's that? That's my fourth place trophy. Yeah, Billy. Fourth place. My son went fourth place. Although, you know, guys like Kurt Vonnegut would frame their rejection letters. Yeah. You know, that's kind of a good motivator sometimes. I think he might have started doing that, you know, after. Yeah. Yeah. Well, those are the, there's two different ways to look at that. You could put it up and just be surrounded by your failure. Yeah. Or you could put it up after you get successful. Yeah. I'd be like, there you go. Remember that? Yeah. Remember that? That's why a lot of people like, you see the Academy Awards last night. I was watching it. You know, there's Robert Downey Jr. You know, and he's just kind of like holding the trophy like, fuck all you know, you wouldn't hire me. Christopher Nolan gets me. He brings me in and look at this, you know, I'm one of the best and you want one of the best, but you're also going to get some fucking lunacy. You know, artists are lunatics. Yeah. And then when to become lunatics, then the industry's like, well, I don't know, he's hard to work with. Well, that's cause he's fucking real. Yeah. He's the real deal. Yeah. Yeah. I like Robert Downey Jr. He's great. I read a Rolling Stone article that was, you know, it was just an interview of him one day when I was recently sober and he's like, man, at this point, if I don't try to live a righteous life, I'm not doing enough, you know, cause he's, he's burned it down several times, you know. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You're with the prison. And it was like super important for me to see people like that early on, you know, Pete Townsend is sober, you know, like, that is, you know, less consequential to the fact that they're, you know, cause when you're getting fucked up, there's a part of you that's like, still convinced that that's the only way you can create that some part of your muse is connected to using. Yeah. Which is just like a total fallacy. Totally. It's that Keith Richards mythology. He's like the only guy who can do it somehow, you know. Yeah. You know, maybe it benefits you on an extent at a certain time, but just, yeah, it was a very clear negative aspect on my life. Oh, it's awful. You know, it's awful. And also the amount of high I get from walking on stage sober. Oh yeah. And getting this energy, it doesn't even come close to the cocaine. Well, and I knew that while I was using two and that's why I would get fucked up after the show because I'd want to keep feeling good. Right, right. Because nothing compares to that. No. Yeah. But, you know, back to your point of like remembering those like humbler times is like, I have my UPS name tag, my UPS store name tag on my fridge. It's like this little magnetic thing I used to wear. Yeah. You know, at the counter. Yeah. And I just like, that's always on my fridge and I'm like, all right. I got a photo of the last day I worked at the motorcycle shop. UPS store and yeah, we're doing all right. And like, that's it. You see it. I, you know, that was a good gig too. You know, that was an important gig for me to have too. But I'm, I'm happier doing this. I walk around and I see people working construction in the morning and I'm like, oh, that's that's what I did. Swinging a hammer, man. Swinging a hammer and the fucking sun commuting for an hour in traffic. Good bread. But it's, you know, yeah, but man, your fucking body speed up. Dude, your hands are all fucked and at the end of the day, you're like, now I got to go rehearse. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Having the energy for anything after that, after working any sort of labor. Yeah. Cause I was a, I was a telemarketer like after I was working at the UPS store and I was doing that for, like 10 months. And I'd be, you know, smiling and dialing making like 300 phone calls a day and like, you know, people just fucking hate you. I hate you. And so like, I'd be calling like businesses. Just like, hey, can I speak to the owner of the business? Like, hey motherfucker, did you go to, did you go to college for this? I hope to God you didn't go to college for this, man. Like, you'd make more money swinging a hammer and I'm just like, yeah, you're right. What were you slinging? Toner? No, man. We were slinging. It was like a debt consolidation service. Oh fuck. It was, it was pretty gnarly. That's the worst cause you're calling somebody and they're already, you've gotten some credit reports. Yeah. So you know, they're already fucked. And now you're calling I'm going, hey, look, dude, we can, yeah, we can consolidate your debt. Fuck it. Man, yeah. The cold calls is the worst. You ever get one? Now you're like, I don't answer the phone ever because of all the AI scams and everything. But once in a while, they've got it down now where it just shows like your friend's name. You know, I got a nails calling. Hello. Shit. Hi, Dean. That's fucked up. Oh, it's fucked. Cause I have, the shit calls I get are all from the same area code. Oh yeah. I grew up in. Yeah. Or if I'm out here for long enough, calling from an 818 or like a 323 area code. And you think it might be like a, you know, and it has someone's name. You're like, you're saying, you know, yeah, it doesn't say scam likely. I seen one. It came up and it said fucking, I don't know how they do. It was a comedy club. Yeah. I was like, you got to take that call. Yeah. You got to take it. And then it's fucking a scam. Oh my God. Fucking life is crazy. I don't know, man. It's about to get weirder. Now do you, I know, you know, tell me about it. Shutter. Yeah. It is about to get weirder. Now, while you're working on the record right now, are you thinking about artwork for the album cover because you, you released vinyl. Yeah. I mean, tell you the truth. No, I haven't thought shit about artwork or even really an album title just because I've been so focused on completing all this material. And we haven't even chosen what's going to finally make the record yet. Yeah. So that's going to probably determine a lot of like, you know, the packaging and what I want to name the whole project and everything, you know. How are you going to pick the tunes? Are you going to have like people listen like friends and go, oh, I like this song. I mean, I've already, I already know what horses are kind of the favorites right now. Yeah. But I always open it up to collaboration. You know, the band's definitely going to hear it. And I appreciate their input more than almost anybody. But, you know, my manager is another trusted person. And then I've got several, you know, musician friends around the country that I share things with and probably you. Yeah. You know, kick some stuff your way. And how about rival Sunstyle? They did a lot of songs and then they released two records in a year like the 70s. See, I want to do that kind of shit. Yeah. And like, I'm kind of inspired by watching bands like King Giz. Oh, yeah. They're like, they're releasing something every two months. It's crazy, right? Which is nuts. But like, I kind of see how they can do it. It's like, if you've got your own studio rig and you know how to use it and you're a slammin' band. Yeah. It's not like, instead of like a rehearsal, it's like, okay, I've got a song. Call the guys. We come in, we cut it in a day. Put it out. It's in the can. Yeah. You know? And then you send it to the mixing engineer rather than this like process which I've been adhering to for the last five years, which is like, okay, I'm writing the song in my apartment. Then I make a demo. Then, you know, we book the recording session months down the line. We show it for the recording session and there's all this pressure because you're spending so much bread. Yeah. And then like, you know, you're recording this, you're re-recording the song and you're trying to capture some of the magic that may have been on the demo too. Yeah. Which is so hard to do. That's another thing, man. That's another thing. It's crazy. Yeah. Especially for this record too because I've got something I was like, so stoked on like the demos and, you know, I'm in the studio and I'm like, oh, we got to do it like this because it was like the demo and I'm like, it's like hearing myself do this thing that's so stupid which is just like, it's just so stuck and it's a mind-fuck, man. Demo-itis is so real, man. I mean, it's so real that a lot of bands eventually use the demos on some of the records Exactly. and remix them and add stuff to them because that original fire and that original of no pressure. Yeah. Because you're like, well, I was just tracking that in my house You deliver a great performance sometimes. Totally. Totally. That's a lot with comedy too. You write jokes sometimes spontaneous on stage. Those are great jokes. Yeah. And then you go to do them a couple of weeks later and they're not as good. Yeah. Because it was just so in the moment and organic. It's crazy because that happens in every single medium or like aspect of art that I've tried to engage in like when I was in architecture school, for example, I would do a sketch and then trying to turn it into the real thing is like, like this sketch and it would look brilliant, etc. And then like you spend so much time trying to like clean it up but also capture the energy of the original you know, off the cuff thing and I think there is something in the to be said about that the unconscious being involved in the creation of the initial whatever it is demo. Yeah. And like it goes that goes back to Carl Jung just like being accessed in that moment you know where it's not being forced it's just coming through and that's like where the real stuff that we can all get connected to that's the real sauce you know. That's the real shit man. When you're not sitting down going, okay, let's do it. Yeah. It's just when you're just sitting there like organically working on stuff that's like you know where all the songs come from you're just drumming away and it's like oh shit something happened same with the jokes it was that famous thing I was telling somebody I can't I can't even believe it fucking this joke just came out of nowhere and then the guy goes well don't they always all and I was like he's right you know just sit down and I'm writing a joke I mean the the joke technician type of one-liner guys or the late night people they're doing that but when you're really just up there finding it and it comes out it's like wow so do you like for your process are you throughout the day just writing everything down making voice memos and just like kind of doing it as you go along or like I just kind of like as I'm leaving my like recently I went to a Benny Harness and I hadn't been since the 90s oh shit and then it's just in a gulf of like oh here's a ton of jokes yeah yeah that's why there's so many like airplane jokes probably yeah we're always on the road but it's mostly just kind of you know you see something and you you put the bullet points in your phone like let's just see here I got my phone here I just write something down in the notes you know um and then I go back to it and go well what is this you know read it in the New York Times yeah yeah I put that in there I think that you can just say any bullshit to somebody at a party just add that and you add that and then they believe it you go like yeah you know like fucking water is bad for you it turns out they go well you go yeah I read it in the New York Times and then they go oh well that you know New York Times has all this weight so it is now you can just full be full of shit yeah because it was quote unquote in the New York Times that's like strange love at the end whereas he's asking like the Russian spy how he found out about the doomsday device and he's like our source was the New York Times yeah that's it you know what I mean and it's so fucking real so look I just put that in the phone read it in the New York Times so you know then I'll go on stage and I'll be like you know I feel you can just these days especially you can just say any bullshit there's so much bullshit out there it's so much bullshit it's scary and they're not reading the New York Times they might be but those people you know what I realize you know who I'm talking about they're not reading the New York Times I fucking wish they were you wish they were but that's a Libertard paper yeah Libertards at New York Times it's fucking weird man it's and I even get I found myself caught twice this week being caught with clickbait and I was saying you know eating breakfast and I was like yeah well such a sense and they're like nah that's not true and I realize oh I'm fucking an idiot here because I just read a clickbait and then didn't dive in well you'll be on the New York Times app or website and there will be some like you know paid clickbait shit now you gotta see it and it's like that's like a real meta moment man there that's what happens and that's kind of why I'm just like I'm usually pretty careful about what I read man and you know like we were talking about at lunch and like you know I read a couple different like periodicals and you know and I just like read old fucking literature and you know I don't know just I think if you read both sides you know and then just fucking look down the middle this is some bullshit yeah and these guys have some bullshit and you gotta just kind of decipher what I mean yeah who knows what's really going on I'm floored by when I was growing up if you printed something that was a lie you'd get sued like the the National Enquirer got sued all the time all the time in the 70s they'd be like hey that didn't happen we're suing you for two million dollars they're still going man they're the originators of just quickbait yeah you know they invented quickbait these fuckers yeah and now you can just say whatever you want and it could be total lies and there's no repercussions yeah I don't know is that crazy seems like it's a problem sounds like we can write some lyrics about it today Jesus you know what I mean it's fucking it's a crazy world man it really is and is this the record or demos or both this is the record wow I'm making the record right now wow that's cool the demos are already in the can yeah and like you were saying some of those might make the record just you know with my new vocal pass or whatever but yeah you know got like 18 songs I'm working with is it a different vibe from the last couple it's all over the place man this is kind of a challenge right right there's there's a part of me that desires like you know let's make this coherent let's make this like a thread makes sense right or is it just like well these are the ones that I like the best and they're kind of all over the map and then I was just thinking about like parliament oh god a bunch of records in the 70s that you know one song is like an old kind of like vaudeville tune and then there's like this weird like classical experimental thing that Bernie while I was just doing instrumental and then there's like a couple funk bangers and then there's like a straight-up rock tune you know and so I'm like well if George Clinton you know one of the greatest geniuses in music can get away with it then you know yeah say well what's cool about that is you're going to get different people there I love the funk stuff and the other guys like I like this weird psychedelic shit yeah and the other person's like I like the soul balance right right I'm not afraid to dab on any of those and I've also like I've also got some stuff that's not going to come out in this record but you know we did a remix we had a this like OG legend of Chicago house music Derek Carter he remixed our song Bunny Love and we released it as a 12 inch 45 and so like I'm really into you know I've been creating things with like drum machines and sequencers you know still in the analog workflow you know still very much you know true to my uvra whatever and but just like a completely different sound and so you know I'm interested in maybe releasing some of that separately after this but yeah it's like the stuff I'm working on now spans all the way from like hard rock to like kind of like pub disco you know like Ian Durian the block heads or like the clash almost killer and then there's like some straight up you know like parliament you know riff funk kind of stuff you know so it's all over the map and then there's like you know some shit that's like Steely Dan or something oh yeah speak of my language yeah you know I know you know Steely Dan oh you played Red Rocks FM yeah oh yeah FM I told you that was my song I didn't even know that was a movie God you played Red Rocks since I had talked to you I remember I was going to try to fly out and sing Nazareth dude we still got to do that we got to do that son of a bitch yeah kill that that'd be so fun Red Rocks is magic huh so cool man God who'd you play it with Shakey Graves oh yeah that's right yeah we did do that tour with Primus that was Rad but that was like the Shakey Graves run and they're sick super nice dudes but yeah that was that was a great great concert how great are Primus man oh dude you know I was most aware of Primus and all of Les Claypool's bands in college when my roommate Tommy was like always playing that shit you know you know while we were smoking weed yeah of course of course shit is wild you'd be playing like these music videos that they used to make in the 90s were just like so gonzo and like scary you know it's like like psychedelic but like a bad trip kind of vibe yeah like race car driver you know you know just like weird fucking you know fish eye lenses yeah man in and out and animation it's almost like a weird speed high yeah yeah so I mean you know that was like the impression I had and then what these guys went out with it was Sean Lennon oh god I love it and Les Claypool that delirium that shit is that shit is my favorite yeah I mean you know they incorporated some of that material they did some primus stuff and then they played oh animals animals oh fuck yeah by Pink Floyd in its entirety and it was like to a T you know every sound because Harry Waters who's a Roger Waters son he was in the band playing keyboards yeah because his son his dad fired him well I don't know he kicked him off yeah that's right now Robert Walters is playing keys with him yeah yeah Harry had it dialed and it was just like and that was so important to that material too because there's all those synths and everything but we got to watch that every night and it was like it was just that was a really fun time because those are all like really cool rooms too and we played the one I remember is the Masonic Temple in Detroit it's like those old Masonic temples are sweet man oh I love those such beautiful buildings it was like this huge building from the 20s we did one with Marcus yeah and Sam Fredt remember that remember the lobby yeah it was so beautiful oh my god beautiful right they don't make them like that anymore but um that was a really great tour we did this one show that was on a rotating stage it was like an old dinner theater it was probably like an 1800 cap maybe 2000 it was like out on Long Island and the whole stage rotated oh shit so it's like you know moving along and you know I think it made like one circulation every half hour or something yeah they had one of those where I grew up called circle star theater okay and it was between San Jose and San Francisco that sounds about right and like I saw Jerry Seinfeld there you know oh yeah and so throughout the show you know at one point you're just looking at his ass yeah but you know Frank Sinatra would play this fucking place yeah and it was famous man yeah those are cool right yeah it was really cool I loved the vibe and it actually sounded really good in there too I don't know how that worked out but well man it was great to see you again I'm glad you're out here and I'm looking forward to hearing this new record I know it's going to be a long time that's the process of waiting to get it out but in the meantime I'm looking forward to hear how Bonnaroo goes going to Bonnaroo people make sure you go see Neil Francis Francis comes alive it's the only time he's going to do it again and follow him on Instagram TikTok and you got a website you got TikTok right oh yeah yeah website Neil Francis with an A NEAL and NeilFrancis.com yeah and good to see you and I love this friendship that we have because we randomly get to see like I'm home from the road you're here making a record in LA yeah and you know I saw you we you and I ate lunch at all time I don't know six months ago a year ago or something that was great it was pouring fucking rain and then you know the tour and just all this long period of seeing each other randomly which is great so congrats on your success and yep I'll send it your way alright guys everybody go follow Neil and go listen to his other records and check out Francis Comes Alive and spread the word man it's it's just getting bigger and bigger see you guys candles lit