 Welcome to Live in the Loam, KDRT, which is a portion of Davis Media. And you're here today with a special guest, Hans Eberbach, and Hans is in band locally called Hans and the Hot Mess. Hans Eberbach has released one self-titled album on Columbia, Sony with a band called Sweet Vine. One album called So Much Trouble with a band called The Nibblers and a solo album as Hans entitled Up is the Only Way Out. He has also released a self-titled EP with Joy and Madness, and currently Hans is working on a new album with Hans in the Hot Mess. Hans, welcome. Thank you very much for having me. You're more than welcome. So we've got a whole hour together. What are we going to do? Something fun. I think it's going to be good times. We're going to ask you to play something, but before we do that, let's just talk a little bit about Hans. You mentioned before you were born in Sacramento, but you weren't raised here. No. My dad was in the Air Force, met my mom here in SAC, and then about six weeks after I was born, we went straight to Germany, a little town near Wiesbaden. In my answer, my dad was stationed. I was there until I was almost five and learned the language and then came back here. Long story short, we ended up in, after two or three different states, ended up in Maine from second grade until I graduated from high school. A little tiny town in Maine called Dover Foxcroft. Shout out to Dover. Did you play music in the high school there? I did. I was doing, so it really, I grew up in church playing music. My dad played guitar, and we did a lot of, we grew up in this really hardcore Pentecostal church. We were speaking in tongues and dancing around in the aisles, the whole deal, and I got to start playing a lot of music. My dad was into music. We listened to a lot of the Beatles and Bob Dylan at the time got turned on, but it wasn't until my sophomore year in high school, between my sophomore and junior year in high school, I took a year off school and went back to Germany where we had lived and lived with the winemakers there. Is that a name or actual winemakers? Is that a family name? No, no, no. That's a good question. Because the family I lived with was called the singer-fishers. So, yeah, it's entirely possible they could have been called the winemakers. So they actually made one. That was their profession, yeah. They've done really well even in the years since I left, but I was in a band there. That was the first time I was in a rock band and learned some rolling stones. And you were the American. Yeah, exactly. And I came back and I knew that was kind of what I was going to start focusing on. I had a friend in that little town that actually had a really good recording studio especially for the times and would let me go in and just do whatever I wanted. And I started recording songs and trying in earnest to do something real. Very good. So how would you... And you've been in several bands since the 90s. How would you define your music? There's definitely... It's based in kind of a soul. A lot of times when I first came out here and I was 19 or 20 years old and I was playing out for the first time, I was playing with a blues piano player. I never grew up listening to the blues. I just grew up listening to 80s pop radio and that sort of thing. But for some reason, my voice kind of took to that kind of music and people told me, oh, you've got a really bluesy voice before I even really knew what that meant. So everything I do is kind of, I think based in kind of roots and soul, but I really dig a lot of electronic music and stuff too because I did come of age in the 80s. So it's kind of a mix of synth juice and organic roots. You know, your voice... Many artists as they age, and I'm thinking of like Dylan and Johnny Cash and people like that, their voices they age almost at a level of... I don't know if it's sophistication. I don't know the word I'm looking for. It's kind of a weathered world. Yeah, you pay more attention to these people. You have that at a relatively young age. Right? Are you older than you look? I'm 44. No, I'm talking to these people in their 70s. Yeah, I have that. Yeah, part of it might be the fact that I did actually injure myself over the summer. I found out I had ruptured my vocal cords, some blood vessels in my vocal cords. And just now... Yeah, I went to the vocal coach before I came here and I'm just getting kind of rehabbed now with that. So hopefully it'll be a complete trip back to recovery. Well, before we go on, can we ask you to sing something? Let's do it. Alrighty, what are you going to sing? This song is called Can't Stop Loving You. For a long time I was inspired by pain and frustration in relationships to write music. And I think once you crest 40, you start getting a little softer and you move on to the love songs. That's what I've done. Are you married, by the way? Yes, you do have children. I saw them going down a river on your road. That was one of them. I've got a 10-year-old girl named Liara and an 8-year-old boy named Eli. And I've been with my wife for 20 years. Wow. Craziness. Craziness. Thank you. Alrighty. And the song's name again is? Can't Stop Loving You. Can't Stop Loving You. That's actually on that record. On the CD. And I'm listening and you're listening to some two right songs. Call me in the center of the store. Ooh you leave me naked like a kick drum. Can't Stop Loving You. Loving You. Loving You. Baby. Can't Stop Loving You. Loving You. Set the loving, put your arms around me, got me back to what I know. Even when I lose my mind for a minute Take it found, lost in the center of the sound Oh, then you show me how you get down Ooh, ooh, loving you, baby Can't stop loving you, loving, loving you, loving you, loving You walk into the room real slow And I don't say much because I know right where it's gonna go I can't even try to look you in the eye When you're standing with your candle burning bright I know you're gonna love me all night La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la So that was Can't Stop Loving You and it's on your CD Up is the Only Way Out That's it? And that's a beautiful CD Did you draw this or how did this come about? That was kind of a joint effort It was actually put together originally by my cousin, Matt Rollins He's got a graphic design firm in downtown Sacramento called Lunea Blue Graphics This originally had a slightly different cover where this image was... If we can get a close-up of that CD cover here It was a little smaller and I kind of re-drew this stuff here and this stuff here and then added two songs to the reprint So it's kind of a little bonus if you buy the new one Yeah, all righty Okay, so, you know, when I saw you performing you have the whole package Not only is your song wonderful and your voice is great but you got the look You got the look That's good to hear, Matt Have you worked on that? I know, I was in Los Angeles You stand in the mirror and do your thing? No, no, no, that's high, man I was in Los Angeles in 2001, right before 9-11 We moved right by LAX And I was 31 and telling people I was 28 because I looked a little younger And even then, at 28, people in the industry were going Well, good luck with that, dude Yeah Grandpa Really? Seriously? Yeah, yeah So I was there for about two years You're a young 34, that's what you said Oh, yeah, sure, yeah I'm gonna come on here every week How do you feel you personally how you contribute to the music scene? You know, it's a good time for me right now I was in that first band and we got signed and we're gonna be the next, you know, big thing in Sacramento And I just, when that all fell apart I actually kind of went through a stage where I just wasn't even sure if I had anything to contribute, you know I felt like yesterday's leftovers I felt very out of place in the market that was coming up at the time in the early 2000s and stuff you were seeing, Britney Spears emerging and all the boy bands and stuff So coming to this place now five years ago, I quit my day job I was working for the Sheriff's Department in the jail in downtown until I was about to jump off a bridge Being in this place now I do feel a contribution to the scene and I feel that these things I did in the 90s which I thought nobody would care about anymore have come back and there's a legacy there To some extent in a very small town level that serves me well now and as I get out and play now there's this amazing scene in Sacramento happening a lot of other cities are talking about it it's very vibrant, there's a lot of youth, full energy happening and a lot of diversity in the music give guys like James Cavern bands like St. Solitaire we've got Sandra Dolores who's running an open mic a lot of strong women in our scene making a lot of really great music and I feel like I've come to a place now where I have this history but I'm almost to this elder state's been sort of role to these guys in their 20s and stuff And remember folks, I'm reading these and it's December 12th so this show's gonna be repeated several times in the coming week so be aware of that Hans, do you have a hankering? A hankering? Yeah, a hankering Often, probably too much If you have a hankering to sit in a big red chair okay, that graces the KDRT studio in the radio studio we can help you Thank God We're always looking for DJs and all you need to do is just go online go to kdrt.org and let us know what you're interested in we'll get you set up with the right people and you can become a DJ we'll train you so that's the hankering part I think there's an episode of Portlandia that talks about DJs I should probably check out first Oh really? I should check that out Okay Davisville is an interview show about people, issues, events involving the community of Davis Longtime journalist Bill Buchanan talks with local folks Monday afternoons at 5.30 Wednesdays at 8.30 Sundays at midnight and Saturdays at 7.30 and that show is awesome because he has some guests on there that really explain whatever issues they're involved in so that's a good one and I think they got your mic fixed up so we'll go back to our regular Scheduled program Scheduled program and we'll take it from there so you were saying that you felt you contributed to the music scene and how why is it that Sacramento is all of a sudden just bubbling with bands and singers? You know, I think part of it obviously is I think it's a number of things I think on a mass level on a kind of a larger level the whole for better or for worse the American idols and the America's Got Talent and the things like this are making people pursue music you know, some might say for the wrong reasons but whatever the point is that their kids are getting into music I think a lot of music video games have spurred kids on to start playing music but locally we have a lot more clubs opening up than we did you know, in the 90s beer is twice the price it was but there are more places to buy it and drink it and then just I think the population growth in Sacramento and then I mentioned James Cavern earlier and there's been a few other people I think that have been instrumental in actually creating a scene and you know, you have almost every night of the week now in downtown Sacramento you have an open mic that's actually a really vibrant platform for really good artists and not just a bunch of kind of hand-me-downs that can't play normal shows You mentioned people getting into the business for either the right or wrong reason I listened to an interview from Mary Folk singer, soul singer I forget her last name now and she said she's in the business because she needs to express her soul and she said if you're in the business to make money it'll show in your music and it'll never happen Yeah, well unless you have a lot of money behind that Yeah, I guess that you there's a lot of banal I mean, Nickelbacks has Nickelbacks sold millions and millions of records you know, and you've got a lot of rap music that's just obviously constructed just to make that dollar and get out of there quick and buy that Cadillac and you know, roll down the road but I think it does show I just think that there's a lot of people that just generally will buy what's in front of them if they don't have that in them to seek things out you know, so Business, about the business of music the 90s is certainly different than the 60s and the 90s is very different from today and you were signed with Columbia Sony right in the 90s so how would you say that experience relates to what people are going through today that want to produce their records you know, I make the joke about American Idol and stuff like that people going to music for the wrong reasons for one thing, I'm not really that elitist I just think anything that spurs people on to play music is probably, you know, a good thing but that said, I think kids are coming into the new era of music not thinking about oh, I'm going to make a million dollars I think they're still thinking oh, I'm going to be famous whether it's YouTube famous or Vine famous or whatever it is but they're not expecting to make millions of dollars and the access to it's a gear that's another thing actually for the last question too the access to cheap gear and the abilities for some kid for by gear you mean the guitar a laptop, you know all of that stuff a cheap guitar, one microphone a decent preamp, you know and then you know, even GarageBand or some of the programs out there a kid with really good ideas can make music and have it out there and distribute it immediately, you know on the other hand you're doing it all on your own, you know being signed kind of ruined me it for a while for the era especially as Napster and the internet and all these things were first coming in without the social platforms that were helping us as much I just was kind of like what I can I'm supposed to do all this work for kids that think water just or the music just comes out of a faucet like water for free with the label, of course you owe them everything lock, stock and barrel by the time you're done and they own your masters and all that but they're taking care of literally everything and it's all about what kind of person you are I guess whatever it's going to appeal to you but we just drank alcohol and made music made music you were the artist you didn't care about the business no, no it's my decision so talking about you were the artist as a kid when did you discover your voice that you knew you had a talent that people were actually interested in hearing what you had to say through a song I think it really fell into place when I moved to I moved to California and I started going to open mics here I think Fox and Goose on 10th and R Street had the same open mic they're doing right now they had when I started playing out in like 91 or 92 or whatever and that was when people first started going hey, you can really sing you know and not like, shut up you know so okay, so if someone wanted to look you up where would they go? you've got a Facebook thanks for asking yes I have a website HansRocks.com it's just H-A-N-S-R-O-C-K-S.com I say that first because you know in this digital age we forget like Facebook, Twitter all these platforms they own all that stuff right that's not mine right you know and in fact you know you can have 5,000 friends on Facebook but I recently tried to invite people to an event that we join Madness played at the powerhouse get this message from Facebook after 93 invites that's all you can do really we don't want you inviting any more people you're inviting too many people and this happened to me more than on more than one occasion I had no idea I'm like how am I able to have 5,000 friends but not be able to invite like a fifth of them without having like some kind of issues come up so the website haunzrocks.com there's a haunt in the hot mess Facebook page there's a join Madness website joinmadness.com join Madness you know Facebook page and then I'm on Twitter and Instagram as the soul and I know from your Facebook page you can go to any one of your other or not hauntzrocks page yeah you can go to Facebook SoundCloud yeah just go to the website join the mailing list and then you can jump on it there's even a weather page and you do the weather right yeah only when it's really important when it becomes very important only when there's imminent catastrophic danger okay can we can we ask you to sing one more let's do it okay which song is this gonna be let's do my soul and my song soul and a song okay my soul and a song my soul and and my song so once again oops about a girl I guess I need to find some new subjects from music but yeah my soul and my song if she is the one she's the answer to my prayer I don't even know what I ever did before I saw looking like a dream with dance undersaws singing along together you're my soul forever to her but I cannot say I've been struck by love ever since I saw her face I'm the sun and we'll fly together you're my nicely done yeah sounds like a lot of fun I want to get back to your little comment about Facebook because this is very interesting because social media is supposed to be where you connect with your fans yeah right but from your website it's hard to figure out who actually sees it and doesn't so I mean Facebook does contribute something you kind of get a feel for you know how people react in that that's true you know that's a good point I I mean I see who opens emails from my from my website to some extent it doesn't you can't track all of those and then you know you're I'm trying to get people to sign up on the mailing list there so I can right I send emails out like once every week or two it's not like a constant thing so but yeah Facebook more and more you know it's funny how time goes by and you don't even remember the way things have changed but it's stripping all of the things that made it useful to me as an artist it's starting to charge you for some of the things that it used to give you before you used to be able to create groups and send out mass messages to these groups and they used to not be advertising and all of that but it does provide a platform for me to go like this this the videos I put up about the storm right this is look at what people are reacting to right right you mentioned the storm video received more hits than a new song video oh god any every time Facebook's the same way if I get an app on my phone that makes it look like I'm bald um you know and put that up and go I'm I did this this is the first time I realized look this is a different platform and you have to kind of use it for what it is a couple years ago I put a picture of of me bald right and I was like I've been going bald since I was 30 I'm sick and tired of dealing with it I'm just I'm out and I'm proud and I and this is me you know when people it was it got like 150 likes which was unheard of for me at that point it was insane dude and people were like you go we saw for you and then it's like you know hey guys here's a brand new song about my dog that just died and it's a beautiful tribute to how much animals improve our lives and I spent $10,000 making it enjoy six likes my mom going it's beautiful haunts beautiful did the dog really die almost? no no my dog did die a couple years ago I'm over it Peter I'm a big man alrighty so you were you were signed with Sony and where were you the first time that you turned on the radio probably on an FM station and you heard your song and you if you were driving you stopped I think it was the Carolinas we you know the record because of the sound and it was kind of a record that warts influences on sleeve real really heavily and those influences were like the almond brothers and the black crows and things like that as you might expect it was you know popular in the Virginia as in the Carolinas and you know Texas and even Jersey and you know anyway it was I think it was in the Carolinas I think we were heading to a radio station to do an in on station performance kind of like this right and in our little 14 passenger van smelled like beer and flatulence we yeah the song called Mountain Side came on which was like the lead single I guess and it was pretty cool because that song does have a really definitive opening these big chords and as soon as you hear it you're like you know yeah so it was we did stop the car and you're dancing around on them we're gonna be done there's gonna be done there's gonna be done wow five years later I'm working at a jail and you're on live in the loam right speaking of that you're on live in the loam KDRT 95.7 in Davis, California and I don't think it's raining anymore no it was sunny and did you know that listening lyrics which normally is aired at this time as a Facebook page also oh and we also are on iTunes and I don't know about iTunes we're as a podcast oh cool I don't know if you have a limit on all these things either it's but if you go I wouldn't think so if you go on our site KDRT.org and go to listening lyrics or live in the loam you can hear all of these pot I've liked the page it was well worth my time you should do it too really wow yes you liked it I did okay I even stared at it for a while kind of uncomfortably did you ever take music lessons I grew up playing in school band and stuff like that I mean I did play I played trombone but when you're in school band they teach you to play right or not yeah yeah yeah I took some I played trombone so I learned kind of some music theory and I took choir and stuff like that but not really like in terms of I play a little I mean I play guitar marginally and then I play like a little piano I'm usually able to piece together what I need for a recording right and then in my bands I stick to either just playing some rhythm guitar or just not at all yeah okay so you mentioned bands how does that work for you when you say okay I want to form a band is that you meet someone that you kind of gel with and say let's form a band but how do you kind of select people and what are you looking for and you know it's not just the music it's also how you get along I would imagine absolutely yeah yeah it's all different you know it can happen a lot of different ways and I've kind of I'm so far into it now it's not really I guess I am doing some new things that have required me to hit Craig's list and seek some people out but yeah Craig's list you know putting an ad out there talking about what you're into you know you're going to meet some crazies it's kind of like match.com or something like that I imagine really you go to Craig's list that's kind of surprising yeah sometimes but or I just go you know locally I know enough people now that if I need something done I'm kind of putting the feeders out already right right um some things I wanted to try out that would maybe a different direction and I didn't really know where to go I've gone to Craig's list okay so let's say you're the lead guitarist right or rhythm guitar rhythm yeah rhythm okay at most so you're looking for a bass player what are you looking for me personally yeah groove melodic you know someone melodic someone with a groove I I am I'm lucky enough to play with Nixie my bass player Nixie who's also the bass player for Joy and Madness she brings so much the table beyond just being super funky on bass okay you know she's been a huge boon to both bands just because of her personality and I love watching the crowd because you have this group of dudes yeah that are all just standing there going like oh that bass player is totally hot dude and her husband's playing keyboards next to her so he's got to like go into the set breaks in between sets and listening to these guys going like I really want to ask that bass player they've fallen in love during the show oh my god yeah she's voluptuous you know but and she's just very very friendly too but also you got all these girls that are you know not just especially if you all ages shows you've got like you know these little girls that are like eight you know nine ten years old my daughter's age and they're going hey you know that I like her that's cool I could do that you know and that's I love that you know last week we were in woodland and I saw the one-eyed Riley band you know them just by name their bass player has one arm yeah and he does an exceptional job what he does is he cranks up his amp and then just fingers touches the notes yeah just fingers it and you couldn't tell the difference really except by looking then of course I had to ask the stupid question well it's called the one-eyed Riley is someone in the band really have one eye you know this is getting a little I think that's a totally understandable question yeah yeah but no they didn't but interesting yeah I so yeah putting bands together it's it's definitely about personal compatibility you know Joy and Madness came from a band called the Nibblers right and that ended up you know splitting apart because of that sort of thing it's all it's been two or three years now so we're all cool now but at the time it was it was quite an acrimonious split and it was me I got booted first and then and then the rest of the band except for the couple of guys followed you know about three or four months later so you got booted how did that happen did they call you text you no we met Pete's coffee by the Safeway on 19th one of the dudes brought his baby just in case anything crazy went down I guess that was what I was assuming or just no babysitter but again dude you know it's it's music and it's it is it really is water under the bridge we're all friends now both both bands are continuing the Nibblers have been playing out and doing a great job too they have a fantastic new singer and I've listened to some of your music and and even now your music seems to have a spiritual side yeah definitely tell me a little bit about that you know I grew up in a pretty fundamentalist Pentecostal church and in a really small town and so you know I was definitely deeply entrenched in that culture and I especially as a kid growing up felt a very vibrant connection to God or that you know spirit force you know that that is out there and coming to California of course you know and get seeing more cultures and getting older a lot of the things that were kind of particular to that church I call there the the the churchy entity you know that kind of things they believed I have had to shed as I grow older and obviously meter horizons expand but I think now more than ever people really need to seek that source and for me even now I think for me Christ is the figurehead for that I think he's kind of the culmination of all the things I want to try to be as a spiritual being or I think Buddha you know yeah dude all of these pursuits that are that are seeking love and balance and I think they're all worthwhile things I think there's wisdom to be found you know in all of these and do you when you're writing a song do you think about that or does that just evolve and come out naturally I think about it in the sense that I never want to approach a song with a kind of a preachy or a political kind of vibe so I have a song called Love and Change where you know I talk about it would that was inspired by Bush the last president Bush during after 9-11 right had him he had some quote was attributed to him that was something along the lines of they hate us because of our freedom the terrorists hate us because we're free or there's something like that which just was ludicrous you know to me and I I wanted to write a song about walking a mile in someone else's shoes that people aren't just born crazy because they're can you sing that for us you know I think I'm putting you on the spot here yeah you know what as soon as I mentioned it I was like yeah I should talk about this song I haven't played it forever I should never have done that but if you can would you yeah I'll give it a whirl and it's live TV so it's like I don't care we're on the air right now you won't know any better if it's if I botch it a little bit no no no you know then you just go with your umaz and whatever you do right yeah so that song is like a really good example and then this song forget what you know that I was playing earlier it also that line science can't explain words they cannot hear you know is a good example science can't explain words that they cannot hear okay very nice that song was directly born from a cousin of mine who passed a few months ago from lung cancer 28 years old never smoked in his life incredibly strong faith and he was very much he was you know because of his youth he was very much in social media his name was Sean Trank and he lived that whole experience out online okay and many of my friends who are not religious in any way um saw what he went through and were like inspired by him and his example and the way he died he died so amazingly well if you can say that yeah yeah that they really uh it turned something on in them to just a light you know and uh I was praying for a miracle basically the last two weeks before he died yeah and um it's not always about that but uh that's where that that line came from okay you know I I have I feel bad for people that that that feel completely alone in the universe right like that there's just literally absolutely nothing out there and that we just magically appeared on earth just from dust and elements and you know explosions and you know it all just here we are with these hands that do these amazing things and laughter and love and that all came from I feel bad you know so I I but at the same time like I said I'm not uh I'm not a Bible thumper I'm not gonna be knocking on your door man I just want people to have that sense of love and comfort and acceptance and a vibrant living and I've you sound like the Beatles now right good that's where it all comes from hit your guitar let's hear that song it all started with the Beatles for me and again the name of the song is love and change love and change so that's supposedly the title of the next the next EP it's the title song and I'm like reluctant to play it it's funny oh oh yeah I guess is the light to know what could it cause such a curious blinded and furious rage what if what you know is a lie that you've been told a story that they sold yet to keep from feeling long what you knew was suddenly untrue like a cancer coming through defiant and unbracing knowing that we're facing love can change your heart singing and change love can change your heart love can change your heart since a little cat Stevens there oh yeah I love cat Stevens yeah yep okay just to talk a little about what's going on in Davis I tried to say a few words about some of the people that support us Woodstock Pizza Saturdays has live open mic I don't know who's going to be there on Saturday but you can bet your boots that someone good he usually does Rowan McGuire who we've had on the show here is going to be at Armadillo's December 20th at 8 a.m and Rowan is an exceptional young man he's studying to be a architect for outdoor seating and all that landscaping yeah so perfect and then tonight and we're talking December 12th we're going to have at the wardrobe at EC at the East Street Plaza there'll be a female singer I'm not sure who it is from seven to eight and then from eight to nine a fellow that made his own piano out of wood he's going to be performing there so there's all sorts of things going on and then your regular places so where are you going to be performing next you know what we I'm kind of excited actually we're doing Lagunitas beer is having their Christmas party tomorrow on Petaluma and Joanne Madness is playing that party and spending the night and wow it's going to be fun in Petaluma yeah yeah hahahaha Petaluma uh what where did you say this was again I don't know if I know that venue Petal I know Petaluma but what venue you know what I think it's there uh onsite I think they have a performance space Lagunitas does a lot of like really fun kind of events I was hooking up with Chris Haney the guy that uh one of the guys that works dads you know that sandwich shop there's like three or four locations in Sacramento yeah yeah yeah it's kind of a funky cool little place um he's hooked in with Lagunitas of course uh because they serve the beer and he was telling me about all they do all kinds of cool stuff they don't have a circus that travels they you know you ever play in in uh Davis have you played in Davis we play you know it's always hard to kind of uh figuring out where where to play especially with the bigger band the hot mess though should definitely play yeah you've got two or three venues around here that yeah love to have you I've played the bistro 33 a lot solo back in the day a couple years okay yeah yeah okay but not I'm trying to think not not anywhere I was supposed to play a wonder bar right when I found out that my vocal chords had ruptured yeah talk a little bit about that so you went and and did you have to have an operation no thank god uh I went not yet I mean as of yet so this was over the summer I started noticing um you know yeah I started noticing problems problems with my voice in between the lower part and the higher part and it was uh I mean at points it sounded like Chewbacca going through puberty it was just like you know and um finally usually I you know I get a little tired out because my schedule is so hectic but after a while I was like this isn't getting any better right went to UC Davis got my throat scoped and um they said I'd ruptured blood vessels in my vocal chords no vocal nodes which would be a lot more serious but um they were talking about me taking three months off and I took like maybe a month I think okay and I'm so I'm trying I'm just working with the vocal coach now to try and strengthen that you know what's funny though is I put a picture of the inside of my throat on Facebook right uh it was from the scoping and it's just a still image that was on the screen and I got flagged for porn oh really I got flagged for inappropriate content because my throat was too sexy hmm my throat's nasty so they uh Facebook somebody tagged it was like this is inappropriate I mean it it looks freaky but you know yeah I got kids man did you uh before you had your proms did you ever have any voice lessons you know no um I did I remember back in the sweet vine days you know I was trying to kind of expand on my range or whatever and I think I went two or three times to this one guy it was really helpful but this vocal coach actually is is giving me a lot of really good stuff that's going to help with just the strength that's that's the kind of vocal lessons I need okay I'm already doing the wrong things right now I'm talking too loud and yeah talking too much yeah I keep asking questions and I'm gonna before we end here we're going to ask you to sing one more time so yeah just the horror going just keeps on going uh when you when you yes the throat is from the Sacramento co-op our own Sacramento national foods co-op this has aloe vera and gin journal kind of stuff in it you should I notice it helps and honey when you uh I'm assuming when you were with Sony and uh that you toured did you ever get to a point where every night you're singing you say wait a minute it's it's affecting things yeah I didn't know any better at the time though my method at the time for for clearing what I thought was on my vocal cords was to drink hot sauce because oh lord that's good for your vocal cords really and heat but yeah I'm kind of a fan of the spicier foods so but as a performer now let's just say you keep doing this year after year which a lot of musicians are doing how do they uh I guess they have coaches to train their vocal cords yeah you know what you reach a certain point I think and it's not just age but I think um you know the guy that I'm working with Eric Steele the doctor um is uh he was telling me you know it's it's like you're a high performance athlete you know I was watching this video of the repair work they did on Stephen Tyler's voice from Aerosmith and the doctor gauged how many collisions because your cords are like these little right little flesh folds that just kind of go like this and um they said during a normal concert his cords are colliding 87 thousand times over 87 thousand times so you know you get that impact happening constantly and I've just I'm going to be learning from this guy how to really I have to consciously make life changes and talk differently uh you do these exercises and so to just switch gears a little bit what uh who in today's music scene do you admire uh Hozier a guy named Hozier who I think is from H-O-Z-I-E-R he's going to be at Ace of Spades uh February 20th I think or to get tickets and and why is he special oh dude his you want to talk about a spiritual side his is a much more darkly spiritual side okay kind of more of a pagan spirituality but judging by the lyrics but um his voice and his lyrics are just really yeah they kind of take my breath away and make me just I could go that way just a little bit maybe for Hozier but uh yeah I don't know guys he's got the man bun going on too we're all we're all growing our little man buns now I didn't know that was a thing until recently who else um Hozier a guy named Martin Sexton although he's been around for quite some time now I mean honestly Bruno Mars for writing hooks you know uh and his energy and bringing a little bit of soul about you know back to the the music um I'm like blanking now you know the California honey drops are are somewhat local-ish uh there I really dig their vibe they're Stockton is it man I think they're the Bay Area I think more of the Bay Area but yeah they're doing a lot of soul kind of do you ever do house concerts I'm way way into doing house concerts really so everybody out there between a regular concert and a house so many benefits um okay first of all what people don't people that are hosting house concerts need to know is that it's not they're not paying me to play at a party at their house right in the background it's an actual concert situation all the host is doing is just setting up their house maybe maybe some food drinks if they want but most people do potluck for what I've done right um I got turned on the house concerts by a girl named Shannon Curtis who we actually wrote a little book on it that's on iTunes and Amazon I think it's called no no bartender no booker no bouncer it might not be in that order but those are the three uh for a person at my stage um that's doing I have a band it's it's a nine piece band that does really well but the financially trying to put together our touring is going to be tough right it's even with my other band so my options right now are are solo you know um I went to Seattle last month or or in October last week of October and did uh two house concerts and one regular club date club date had 20 people there or so I played it was a Wednesday night I played two hours I made 28 bucks uh the two house concerts first of all I made 500 bucks between those two house concerts from people just donating it's all donation right um it's a really intimate gathering so the people hosting are excited because they're really doing something special and their friends that come every single time have been really excited to have been a part of the experience because it is something a little different um for me I get to relate directly to people that are paying attention to you to what I'm doing yeah exactly I mean if I go play I love you know a lot of the places I play downtown they're all the torch club is a great club uh it's a great club across the board for Sacramento but you know if I'm playing solo acoustic people are sitting around they're drinking they're gonna be talking to their friends of course that's what and that's what we do we all do it you know size of a house concert 20 30 people it's good to get like uh you know again I go back to this book that Shannon wrote you know she she got real specific about certain things about that and then she said you know 20 is like a good kind of middle number um you know she had a lot of specifics about kind of how close people should maybe sit to you right how long we should go for about an hour hour and 15 minutes okay because people's attention I just went and saw uh Rita Hosking at a house concert who was I'm all about 2015 being a lot of house house concerts in fact she booked she booked an entire summer of house concerts and made 25 grand before taxes wow that's why she wrote the book wow okay look at we're running low on time here we're gonna ask you to sing one more song all right and I'm gonna ask you the name of the song I'm gonna do uh that song forget what you know that I wrote is that on this that is not on this this will be on the uh upcoming cd um I'm really glad we're doing this by the way because I recorded a this along with about four or five other songs uh and did video at a local studio and then all the video footage got lost oh wow okay so I was hurting we're we're gonna give you a little treat for christmas we'll give you an hour of video here huh see now I I look at that experience and I'm like god worked that out man yeah worked out maybe I'm just drinking all right and the name again it's called forget what you know this is for just briefly a tidbit about it yeah this is for uh my cousin shawn trank uh and anyone okay going through uh cancer or uh fighting an illness or just dealing with something that's completely changed the nature of their life sometimes a miracle can happen and sometimes um the miracle is just finding peace with where you're at perfect well said thank you this is about it's called forget what you know living dying hoping trying to figure it out this world is amazing even with its pain and sorrow we look for the light into tomorrow forget what you know forget what you know open your heart give up control but just let it go oh seeking answers we're needing for human behavior looking for saviors love is the only thing that has shown me how to erase these are lines that we trace forget what you know forget what you know give up control but just let it go oh forget what you know just letting there's only seen a little bit of what speak words they can trying to figure it out this world is amazing you didn't write that you're too rough and gruff a guy to sing such a delicate song my god that touches you that gets me emotional huh i got me it's me emotional i was like i kind of botched cow okay we're almost done i want to thank alex and sam behind the cameras for helping out today peter boom in the audio booth there and the director una thank you all for and then there's a whole group of other people that make all of this possible and davis on davis community radio kdrt 95.7 thank you thank you guys so much for having me if people are interested in your stuff just go to homes rocks.com and thank you for coming we've really enjoyed it you're welcome back anytime sir thanks so much pleasure thank you all for listening goodbye