 Okay, well, this is a song that I wrote the music for the lyrics are by the Ukrainian American poet Ilya Kaminsky And when they bought other people's houses We protested But not enough We opposed them But not enough I was in my bed Around my bed America was Invisible house by invisible house by invisible house I took a chair Outside and watched the Sun In the sixth month of a disastrous rain In the house of money In the street of money In the city of money In the country of money Our great country of money We forgive us we lived happily We lived happily we lived happily During the war we lived happily We lived happily, we lived happily During the war we lived happily We lived happily We lived happily During well, very good Thank you very much. Yeah, you're welcome Welcome to Friday p.m. My name is Luigi Scarcelli Glad you're all here. I'm happy to welcome John Elliott. He's coming down from the coast from San Francisco Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, great song. So let's just start out. Tell me about that song. It's a Ukrainian poet Yeah, that song is a the poem appeared across my Instagram feed When all this started over there recently or restarted or continued to go on and we suddenly were made aware of it by our media and I just was really struck by it. I Couldn't find the words to say what I was feeling about it and that Poem perfectly expressed what I was feeling. Sure. So I put it to music and I've been singing it. Is that a newer song? Yeah, that's brand-new brand-new. Yeah, I mean the last couple weeks So John is gonna be playing tonight at blue. But by the time you see this He will already have been back in San Francisco. I guess but Let's let's kind of talk a little bit about yourself your background You were born in Minnesota. I think is that born in Minnesota the suburbs of Minneapolis of Twin Cities Okay, that's where I grew up. Sure. And what was life like in Minnesota in those days and I think the 80s, right? Yeah, the 80s. What was life like? I Think of my childhood is the idyllic suburban upbringing of that time, you know I was mowing the lawns for ten dollars a lawn for my first job listening on the Headphones to the music cranked up and the music was guns and roses on cassette, you know, yeah Yeah, I played catch in the backyard with my dad. I He made hamburgers Kind of like the early days of like malls and things like oh, yeah I remember the mid days of malls. I mean, yeah, the arcade where I would go to the arcade, right? Yeah All that stuff and so you took off went to college That was where was that Northwestern? No Evanston Evanston Midwest. Yeah, okay, Illinois. That's a it's a pretty idyllic place, too Oh, yeah, I mean That's the thing is those are all curated lawns and landscapes and When I graduated from college and moved to Brooklyn Suddenly I was in the real world. Right. That's the way I think about it. Yeah Yeah How old were you when you moved to Brooklyn was that when you were 21 21? Yeah, and is that kind of where you started with the musical? I think we talked a little about that you did some music in college, but you were kind of doing other things, too I was in theater mostly in college, right? I mean, I started playing the guitar in a seven so I always played the guitar and was in bands and and Music was a big part of my life, but I was thinking that I was gonna be an actor. Yeah Yeah, I think that's what I mean What do you know? Yeah, I was thinking right the college is so funny because you can either pay a bunch of money and Have the the experience of those years of discovering yourself or not, but it's gonna be the same four years It's gonna be who am I? Getting to know yourself and other people and how you're gonna be and then you still don't know But then you at least got to try something and so you were you get to New York you get to Brooklyn Yeah, we and I was there and I was trying to write songs and trying to figure out how that was gonna work and Like I said I had friends in California as well and the first winter came and it just felt Like I wanted to try something different. I didn't last very long in New York, right? There's a year or two not even not even a year and so straight from New York was LA right after that Okay, yeah, I went well actually I always forget this. This is important detail Yeah, I went to LA with the idea that I was going to Portland or Seattle because I knew I mean at that time It's the early 2000s. I was into grunge. I know it's way too late now It's like grunge is already over but to me then that's where you go to be a musician. It's like smaller independent music Whatever I thought was true. None of which was true, but I got to LA and my friends there was we had this house that everybody lived in and The day that I arrived One of their roommates moved out. So suddenly I there was a room available to me. So it was like well, all right, maybe I Maybe I'll take this room, you know, so I took the room So I lived in but I didn't want to live in the room with everybody else So I took the basement room which no one had been living in in which flooded twice a year and was not climate control But it was fine. It was right, you know Well, and so this is when you kind of picked up more seriously the guitar very much. Well, that's I had been playing all along But that was where I in earnest That's what I was gonna make it go. I was like, I'm not gonna I don't think I'm doing acting I think I want to do music right and then I would go to the open mics and start playing shows around town and start meeting people and Yeah, I mean that for those 2001 to three four five six seven, you know, I played every venue there is down there I mean in LA this is LA every venue with with different bands and different. I mean every place we played every place so the interesting part is is that you're in LA and At the time the interesting part none of this is interesting I think I think what the viewer will find is just a very fun fact is that It's John Elliott. We're talking here today, but at the time you were going by a different name Well, not going by I was born I was born under my legal name. Yes, so this is news Luigi I don't know public John mayor is my legal name your real name show you my my Driver's license right named after my grandfather who was also John mayor. He's the real John mayor by the way any of this You know, he's John and so you're you're playing out as John mayor in LA Yeah, and people this is before the other John mayor kind of blows up, right? He was already kind of blown. He was already In 1999 or no 2000 the sum the winter of 2000 I went online to register John mayor calm and he had like a one-page website and I was like no way. There's this other guy, you know, it's like well, I guess well, okay The race is on who's gonna be the first John mayor. It's you know, and you go by John Elliott But yeah, I played this show in LA at this place called the crooked bar Which was underneath the coconut teaser and I mainly played there because I knew that guns and roses played at the coconut teaser Wow, and they put your name on the marquee. So it said John mayor on the marquee. This is 2001 and This table of people was sitting there as I was warming up and I was getting close to show time And in their minds John mayor has not yet appeared right, you know Yeah, one of them came up and asked me and I knew I was aware of his existence because of the website thing But I was like okay This is gonna be a problem and then then he blew up, right? And you can't I mean you can't you can't You can't launch a Burger can't you can't launch a hamburger business and called Burger King, right? Yeah, you can't be a singer-songwriter recall yourself you can't be John mayor John mayor to yeah, whatever. Yeah, I understand I mean, it's it's definitely such a weird coincidence, but so it's at that time You're a touring kind of or you know a coffee shop or what do we call I mean every possible place? You can imagine. Yeah, it's like bars clubs Caught there's this coffee shop in Pasadena. We used to play Yeah, yeah everywhere and so what happens though at that time is is that your song gets on Grey's Anatomy a couple of things Yeah, that was the that was a big moment because It was the first time that people who were that I didn't know and lots of them were expressing interest in What I was doing right and I was getting this feedback from people and that at that time It was my space was what right, right? It's crazy. You think about it. Yeah, like there was no Facebook then right there was no there were no smartphones then. Yeah, I mean no YouTube What yeah, I don't think there was you yeah, there wasn't really out. Yeah, that came along right about Facebook time Yeah, so it's my space and Yeah, the the my space numbers went crazy people were downloading the song and so that I think less That was less about Anything concrete that happened as a result of it and more about the confidence that it gave me at the time Okay, I think to feel oh people who don't know me Will respond to this right, you know, I mean Los Angeles is a really hard place. Yeah, there's so many other people doing it And they're all good right exactly, you know, I mean that's a really challenging environment to be young in To find that spot. Yeah, so at that time though You kind of became more doing touring and this became the other chapter of really seeing the nation I mean can you tell me a little bit about that? That was I mean, so that that's what followed was okay I've got this album now, right and What do you do with an album? I guess you book right gigs. Yeah, you know and I was in LA So I went online. I love this and I met this guy later There's a songwriter at the time Hans York, okay, and I went online and I found Hans York's I was just searching Acoustic music Seattle or whatever because that's where I'll go to Seattle. I'll go to Portland I'll try to figure it out and every time I search something that would get Hans York's web page would come up Yeah, so I go to Hans York's Shows and see where he's playing and then email those places. Okay, and I cobbled together a summer tour Kind of like you were on the tailwind of Hans York That's a great story for him, too It's like wow, you know yeah helps that he kind of broke the wind pattern away for you Yeah, I mean I that's funny to think I don't know how people do it now I guess they probably go to Instagram or something and see where people are playing but that's how you do it I mean, you know you just figure it out. Yeah, and you were driving around I think it like a Honda Civic or one of these cars you put some big miles on it named Glenn Right, is it I mean I lived in that thing. I I did not have an address for two years. Yeah, and so at that time I mean I don't want to jump ahead But you you did kind of burn through the car and decided it was gonna be another chapter which is gonna have more to Do with bicycling? Yeah, I mean that's a that's an evolving process, but Because I because it didn't happen that cleanly, right, but yeah when There's this beautiful moment. I kids hard to let go of a car. Yes an emotional thing Right, right you especially when you live in it and it you drive it all over the country your friends are in it You make your living with it So I wouldn't let that car go and it was like there were it was just it had it was time for it to go There was no reason to put another dollar into that right right and I brought it into this mechanic In the mission in San Francisco, and I was like what does tell me what I got to do to fix this You know tell me what's got to happen, and I come back an hour later, and he's like I will not work on this car. Oh It's time to let this guy right. Yeah, he really gave me that that was a gift and so For a number of reasons I mean for one thing I I couldn't afford a new car that was reliable and I didn't want A paint I didn't want payments because I just didn't want to have that financial burden I mean the nature of the independent songwriter lifestyles. You got to be free as a bird Yeah, you got to keep it keep it tight right budget tight, and so and you can rent cars You can get to places and rent cars for a week right, so I figured maybe I'll just that's what I'll do and I was Into the bike already. I had just Gotten back into the bike for transportation in San Francisco Right before Glenn died and Glenn is the car Glenn is the car Yeah, and it's also just a pain to have a car in San Francisco There's no place to park it right and thousands of dollars a year on parking. Oh, that's a mess So I kind of transitioning into your style of music because I was listening on Apple music about the that album we had live in Austin. It was really cool, and it was really live and Yeah, it's your lyrics are very dense You must have a photographic memory in a sense or some type of a memory to remember and they kind of add to each other Each kind of chorus to goes to the verse. They're not like the simple kind of rock-and-roll songs It's well, I mean do you find that that style that you picked that up from somewhere before? That's a great Yeah, yeah, I don't I mean I Think any artist is a combination of Who knows what everything that they get put into them from back to the future when I was Six to guns and roses. This is like the guns and roses interview but to M&M to what I mean that all of that gets in there, right? right, I Also, I don't know about photographic memory, but when I was doing theater I had to memorize Shakespeare right monologues and things soliloquies right so I think that's probably part of it, too Well, is it is any of that stuff freestyled? I mean we're talking about M&M. It's like was any of no no I mean very well in between. You know any banter or discussion is usually somewhat Improvised although not always but then the songs are written or by the time it's a song and the words are written That's it's done. That's what's exactly. Yeah, I mean you have a new album coming out Do you want to tell you have forthcoming? I mean I? I'll play a song from that to end our time together, but it was really I had I've had a bunch of songs developing over the last year Largely piano based and when I got back from a bunch of touring I was doing last fall I Did this show in San Francisco in Golngay Park and the sound guy was like hey I do this internship program at Hyde Street studios if you ever want to come in It's like free studio time and the interns are there and and the timing was just perfect because I Was thinking I guess I gotta start to think about the next thing I'm gonna make and then he said that Hyde Street It's like the classic studio where the Grateful Dead and Jefferson airplane recorded there. It's like in the middle of it So it's got really good gear and everything so it's like yeah This is Evan is my friend that that brought this up So they can't let's go in and do that and like you don't tell yourself that you're making an album because it's that's you Don't want to make that put that heat on it right, but once I got in there I did a handful of songs that day and I went back and listen to him. I was like, okay Yeah, let's do the other handful of songs right now that you are and that's the album I mean it's just live piano vocal in two days plus some overdub vocal stuff later that I did but Really the the bones of the album is just those two days. Well, we we also definitely do want to talk about you have a podcast too Yes Yeah, audiodes is the name of the podcast and I just did the 50th one 50th That's awesome anniversary of audiodes. So I just and I just brought the 51st So what would I didn't mean to interrupt you? What would you describe? Is this you talking to other musicians artists? It's pretty much It's kind of all kinds of things. I I describe it as a monthly collage audio collage of reflections of American culture news and events So the song is is some kind of feelings about San Francisco. Yeah, the song is called never had a home Yeah, and it's gonna be on the new album. Okay, I'll play on the guitar here, but yeah, it's on piano there and Yeah, it occurred to me Let's see. When did I write that last spring? Yeah, I think it occurred to me one day I was on a bike ride and I was just looking at where I was and I was thinking that I felt at home Yeah, I felt that I had that and I in all these this we really really like went through the whole story of my little Insignificant life here, but in my little insignificant life. I've never had that I didn't feel at home in Minnesota It was a place that I lived, but I never had that feeling Yeah, I've never felt that in Brooklyn and I felt in LA But I do feel it in this little neighborhood in that bizarre constantly evolving changing city in That state with no water. Yeah, exactly. It's drowsy. It's crazy There was a day in maybe this is why I feel that is Because I have been there for so long and I've experienced so much there There was a day in this in September of 2020 when the Sun did not rise Because of the wildfire smoke we woke up and it was still dark. Yeah, and we lived through that right and then when that smoke Came down we were dizzy in our apartment from inhaling the smoke Yeah, and we lived through that you live through it, you know, when you it's just when you live through those things you become Connected to the place right so by the way, John, I forgot to ask you how did you come up with John Elliott? What was the reason for John Elliott? I was a lot of different names in that attempt, but yeah, I settled on Elliott because my grandmother had dementia and one of her last memories was of seeing E.T. With me when I was very young and she got it confused in her head that I was the kid from E.T. Right Elliott so my whole childhood she would send me cards that would say dear Elliott and E.T. Figurines and things so I wanted to keep it in the family somehow It was it wasn't my choice to change it right John. There's a great name, right? Worked well, so Yeah, that's where that came from before you play John Just give us a chance to see the new album and tell us also about that digital download that you have. Oh, yeah So this is actually the last album that this is I'm vinyl. This is North Star and You can buy these on my website This comes with a beautiful booklet that has an original artwork for each of the songs that my friend Grace Rowland did in Austin and then this is the digital box set. Yeah, that's cool. What? It's awesome box set. How much what what do you think my entire life's work is worth is worth The whole thing everything I've done on this planet creatively. I don't want to say why what are you doing? What do you think? Well, what I think that would be it's got a day's worth music on it I'm gonna say you might be selling it for 50 bucks. Okay, that's good. I like you went high 40 40 Yeah, I like that to 20s right now to 20s and and by the way before I forget This is all on the website and it's John Elliot here is now Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly. This is the same thing with the problem with the name. Yeah, the hereafter is here And we'll write that at the bottom. Yeah, the hereafter is here and that's where you can find all of John's songs You can also Google John Elliot musician, yeah, and you'll find it if you Google John Elliot you will get a artisanal expensive Sweatsuit designer like $500 hoodies nice. So yeah, but that's not you that's not yeah But if you look at the the website, we'll write that down and you should definitely check it out You can get him on Apple music. I think you're on Spotify probably all of them Yeah, all of those platforms and in a second I'm gonna get out of the way so that John can play his song here and then we're gonna close out the show with that We had a great conversation. I'm glad that you guys stuck with me and I appreciate it Thank you, sir, and thanks for the song coming up. You got it. All right, awesome I've had chances. I've had luck. I've had friends who care for me I've had reasons to give up And a loving family I've had places where I live With a zip code and a bed But I never had a home Until now I've been all around this planet I've been hot and I've been cold I've been inside the offices Where lives are made in soul Had a lot of nothing And I've had some poor man's gold But I never had a home Until now When my arms were empty I had nothing left to lose No one to come back to Nothing left to lose How did I have something? I want to keep and own I understand how easy it was Just to be alone First I sat inside a church And I heard the preacher growl Then I traveled in a caravan And I heard Coyote's howl I lost myself in nonsense And I barely made it out Cause I never had a home Until now Then I lived inside the city And I learned the underground Then I made it to the mountains And I hated what I found I prophesized and plundered Through the valleys and the towns Cause I never had a home Until now I found the fancy scene I was cool and I was quick I learned their names They took me in I was thin and I was hip And I lost it all one summer And I really paid And I never got it back Not even close to what I had No, I never got it back Not even close All the stars are dead All the animals are dying All the news is full of dread There are reasons to be angry There are reasons to be scared There are reasons to believe in love That isn't even there I've had women treat me rough And women treat me well I've had women take their time with me And women kiss and tell I've had women scratch my skin And women tell me true But I've never had a home Until you No, I never had a home Until you