 So, Nick, as we get close to the end here, something that you have recently done, which is just incredible, and I have seen the movie, but you have a very, I mean, a pretty big part in the end sequence of Killers of the Flower Moon, the recent Martin Scorsese movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, a bunch of other actors are in it. Tell us about that experience, man. What happened and then maybe talk about your scene? Yeah, it all started with an email to my website, which is not that often. If you're out there, I encourage you to email me and say hi, because I get like three emails per year on my website. It was just a very polite email that said, you know, we're making a movie. I think they had a name of the movie in there, but, you know, we're making a movie in Oklahoma, and my job is to find props for the film. And we're in need of these vintage sound effect instruments for the film. And if you're interested in either selling or renting them, you know, please let us know. And it was just very cut and dry, very polite. And the crazy part of the story is that I didn't really think much of that email. I was biased. I said, I don't think they make very big important movies in Oklahoma. I learned now that they've made several just lately. But I thought, like, it can't be a real serious movie if it's kind of like made in Oklahoma. Maybe it's a small student film. I don't know who these people are. And I didn't respond to the email. So I think I planned to eventually. But I didn't respond right away. And 48 hours later, they emailed again, and they said, Hi, again, Nick, like we really hope that you found our last email. Again, the movie is called Killers of the Flower Moon. And please get back to us. And so I said, Okay, let's, let's, it sounds like an obscure name when you first hear it. And so I said, Okay, let's Google search, you know, the name of this movie. The first thing that pops up is Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese's face. Oh, my God. Oh, boy. I was in my car. Oh, my God. I immediately replied. And they were very nice about it. Everything was super humble. They didn't say we're big hot shots or anything like that. So my first contact was a guy who was just looking for props. And the more I got into talk with him and with some of the producers, I was basically saying, you know, I don't really rent out these instruments for anyone else's use. And if you want the instruments, your best bet is to hire me to play them on screen, which is a very brave move on my part just to be like, cast me. But it's true. It was true. If you're going to have somebody playing these instruments, it would be really difficult for me to teach an actor to play these instruments. So why not just use me? And they told me, OK, send photos of all four sides of your body, toe to head. And it would be great if you could get those to us in the next half an hour. We're going to show them to Marty. And I was like, that Marty? The big Marty. I mean, this is all in my memory, but I'm pretty positive that's what they said. And it terrified me. And I dressed up in a suit. I was telling my wife to hold the camera. Oh, don't hold it like that. It's for Marty. I was sweating. They told me to do this in half an hour. We had to move our kitchen table so that we had like a backdrop, like a clean wall as a backdrop. And we were just running around like crazy. And I sent them the four pictures of all sides of me and I didn't hear back for a grueling like three days. And I was thinking, oh, man, they maybe they don't like that I'm like losing my hair or something. It was making me feel really bad about myself. Like, oh, it's something about my appearance. I'm sure. Not good enough or something. But that's just a me issue that everyone goes through. Every guy, everyone has. As a musician, we're not used to our appearance being judged for something. We're just used to how do you play. So they got back and there's a voicemail on my phone that I saved that says all the details. And then he says, well, it sounds like you're going to be a cast member in the film. Wow. And, you know, I was just jumping up and down. I was working at a swim school just to get by at that time. And I had to run back to my classes and just take a break to hear this voicemail. And it was the most obscure thing. I ran out of, you know, during my 10 minute break, I would talk to a producer from London and then go back to teaching a four-year-old how to swim. It was very obscure. The true Hollywood story right there. The hard thing about doing something like this pre-production like two years before anyone will see it is that people think you're crazy. I had to tell my boss, you know, there's someone from a movie calling me and they'd be like, oh, all right, all right, whatever, man. And for the longest time, I was telling people that, you know, I'm going to be in a Martin Scorsese movie and they were like, all right, Nick got hired to like, you know, ride a bicycle in the background somewhere. You know, I've heard a story like that before. It wasn't until I think 2022 in February that we filmed it and it got delayed a lot. It was during COVID and they had originally flown me out. This is the cool thing about big budget things. They mentioned that, you know, if you're going to be in the 30s, you can't have a buzz cut. I had a buzz cut at the time and they said, well, you're going to have to try on different wigs for you. And they say things that only movie people say. They're like, you know, how's tomorrow? Can we fly you out in the morning tomorrow? And I didn't fly out in the morning tomorrow, but they flew me out right away. And they had a rental car ready for me at the airport to drive to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where they just had this huge caravan of trailers and they were filming the movie in what looked like 1900s, early 1900s aircraft hangars made out of brick. Sound stages, basically. They had turned aircraft hangars into sound stages. And I sat with a really nice lady who was, her name was Kay, who was trying on different wigs with me. And they were going to fly me out on the same day. Fly me in, fly me out. And so she was frantically trying to find, you know, hair pieces to put on me that fit. And that was the whole issue. They have to measure your head by putting saran wrap on your head and taping the saran wrap. And I was only there for a few hours. So they had the entire props team, which is like seven people around me, interviewing me with questions about different sound effects. What is this? Oh, it's a train whistle? Okay, all right. They had a binder with photos from my website being like, all right, what sound does this make? Would that be used in radio days? Okay, all right. You know, and because it was only two hours and it was lunchtime, they also had me eating. They brought me like this beautiful salmon to eat. And so I'm having my head, my head's wrapped in saran wrap. I'm eating salmon and there's like a team of people who I'm just meeting for the first time, like barraging me with detailed questions. And then jump, jump in a rental car and fly back. Like it was crazy. So it was delayed, delayed, delayed again. So they said, okay, just grow your hair out and we'll call it like the thirties. So the wig was never needed, but it turned out to be a great story. Yes, yes. So without being too long, we filmed the radio scene in Martin Scorsese's high school, which was a Catholic high school in the Bronx, Cardinal Hayes High School. And they chose it because it had a convincingly 1930s, 1940s stage. And they built the sound booth for the radio engineers. They brought in original ribbon microphones from the RCA era. And they dressed us all of course. And we had spent months on Zoom meetings with the production team to design a 1930s radius to do that would look realistic. Not just a bunch of props scattered around. They wanted it to look really authentic. And you're like a consultant. You're not just a guy standing there pretending to like play a trumpet or whatever. It sounds like they're actually, they are real musicians in this case, but you are beyond just a actor, performer. You are a consultant. Yes, I mean, I'm not credited as one, but I was consulting. We were doing Zoom meetings. And so we designed that scene. We rehearsed at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn. And that was the first time that Scorsese came in and he, you know, came up. And he came up to me and we met. We shook hands and he just started pointing to instruments on the table. Demonstrate that. What sound does that make? Incredibly detailed for a director making a three and a half hour movie to care about like what sound does this make? What sound does that make? All right. Interesting. Is that period correct? Really great questions. And there was another sound effect man as well, who was actually a modern day Foley artist. So he had the skills, but I was teaching him a little bit. And one of the funnier things is like my coffee grinder, the car imitation. He was like, oh, play that for me. And he goes, ah, sounds a little bit like a projector to me. He was just kind of like, you know, making these observations about these sounds and whether they sounded real or not, which is really cool. We rehearsed it and we filmed it with these, some props were made. They had a giant wooden gravel pit, which was not only made, but made to look old and aged and stained and scuffed up to look like it was used. Fill with gravel. Like for Foley, for Foley like walking. More of a Foley type of thing. And they use that in radio a lot. And we had sent photos from books of exactly what you should make it look like. And it was cut from the movie, but there was a scene of me with huge magical chains on my hands, stomping in the gravel, trying to sound like a prisoner in a prison yard. And another cool prop that I actually made, because if you haven't noticed, I have silent film stuff and this is radio. And so they used a couple of these things in the radio era, but I also had to make things. Radio era, they were making more things at home back then. They had space and resources. So I made a doorbell with a doorbell battery. And I found online, they actually make replica batteries from the 30s. And it's filled with D batteries, but on the outside it looks like a 1930s battery. I got the old cloth wire. I got the doorbell button and the buzzer. And the cool thing about that is that Scorsese signed it for me. Oh, he signed it. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. Man, that's cool. So that's like my prized possession now. And just more found props. I think pretty prominently towards the end right before Scorsese's cameo, actually. I'm typing on this typewriter, which is I'm also a typewriter collector. So convenient there. So I used my typewriter for that. And we filmed it in two days. And it was very white. I mean, it's another story there. I didn't know he was Jack White at first. I was talking to him like, oh, you're a musician. Oh, cool. And it's Jack White. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's kind of interesting. I recommend people see this movie. It is like three and a half hours long without going. I'm sure it'll be on HBO at some point soon. Or whatever. Apple, my wife rented it and paid for it, which it's, you know, January, January 12th, 2024, it'll be streaming on Apple TV. Okay. Good. All right. Now I'm angry at my wife for paying $20 to rent a movie that'll be out in eight days. But no, I'm kidding. Sorry. But the portion you're in for folks who haven't seen it is very different from the entire movie. It has nothing to do really. I mean, it explains it and it talks, it's related to it, but like the setting and everything is totally different from the rest of the movie. So I was kind of just like, I kept being, because I knew Paul was in it. Well, before you were in it, I was like, where is Paul? And then I, and I remember also then like that day or the day before seeing that you were in it. And I was like, oh my God, I know two guys in it. Where are they? Yeah. Three hours. I was like, where are they? And then it's like, boom, the whole ending. It's just this cool like sequence. It's Oklahoma for like three hours and 15 minutes. And you're wondering when is a New York City radio studio going to factor into Oklahoma here? And it's a very, very brave and sudden move. But it's kind of what makes exciting filmmaking is to do kind of swing for the fences type of move. I remember the first time I saw it in theaters. I knew that some scene with me was coming, but I didn't know exactly how. But as soon as I knew the end of the movie was coming, my heart just started pounding out of my chest, which had never happened when I was in AMC before. My heart was just pounding out of my chest because I knew like, I'm finally going to get to see this after, by the way, two and a half years. That's true. Wow. Yeah. Man. You know, at least when you bake a cake, you get to see it an hour later. You know, this is two and a half years later. It was one of the longest post productions for any Scorsese film ever. I'm not a film expert, but I've read a lot about it. The ending is meant to kind of break from reality a little bit, be a little bit surrealistic. And it has some anachronisms in it. Like, for example, it describes somebody's death in the 60s, but we're in the 30s telling you that somebody died in the 60s. So it's intentionally surrealistic in that way. And the purpose of being surreal in that moment, and for Scorsese himself to come up and tell you, is that he's supposed to tell you that, you know, I'm responsible here for just telling a tragic story with, you know, actors and makeup. You know, this is all fake. These are just actors and makeup. And we're sensationalizing tragedy for entertainment. And they did it back then with old radio shows. And we're doing it right now. And so it's just very real moment of like, you know, you know, this is all fake. This is all fake. But the tragedy is real. And yeah, I think it was a very beautiful way to end the movie. And I would agree. And I don't think in any way, shape or form what we are talking about now spoils or ruins the movie. Like we said, the movie is completely different in this end sequence. That just kind of comes out of nowhere in a good way. But watch it. Enjoy the movie. Then know that Nick is over on one side of the stage. And then Paul from the Neil Peart series, the Tony Williams series on here is in the back on the drum set. And it just feels different to be like, oh, I know those guys, which has never happened with a Martin Scorsese movie to me. I should mention though, if any, you know, there might be people listening who have been a drummer in a movie or in a scene. They always make you, you know, fake, fake it. And in that scene, when you're watching, you can kind of be informed that the orchestra had prerecorded that. And so they are fake playing a little bit. Paul plays the timpani like really convincingly. But the cool thing with the sound effects is they had these antique ribbon microphones that they had rented and that were functioning and restored. And they told me that, you know, this microphone on your table is a functioning microphone. So when you play your drum, you know, lean into the microphone because it's a real microphone. And they had like really amazing sound experts, a lot of which had just finished making Spielberg's West Side Story, who were leveling the vintage microphones because they genuinely wanted a vintage sound, which is so cool. And then to pick up other instruments, they were taping microphones behind my table, taping microphones behind my instruments, just like hiding microphones everywhere. And so with the exception of this Chinese Tom Tom, which I had to fake play, and I'm really proud of how close I can get to that head without hitting it. I was proud of that. I was like, it's not going to look like this. Or you're like completely missing it. With the exception of this Tom Tom, they recorded everything as it was realistically on that stage. It was just like the ultimate authentic cool touch. And hopefully for people hearing this, they can appreciate it more knowing these fun details. There's even a couple of magazine reviews that mentioned sound effects. And I think Variety magazine called me, described me, they called my sound effects goofy. I think another review called it cheesy sound effects. But I think that was supposed to be the intended feeling of kind of radio shows back then, like just kind of turning a tragedy into a cheap entertainment. Yeah. Well, now you're a celebrity in the public eye. You got to let it roll off your back. The tabloids and the celebrity magazines and stuff. But that's awesome, man. And this may sound cheesy to say, but I feel proud of you from someone who's been on the show. Like I said, 200 episodes ago to be like, you're still doing it. You're still passionate about it. You know, more than ever, you're now literally doing this in movies where you're the go-to guy. So I think that's pretty amazing and something to be very proud of. And it's good for our community of drummers and musicians that you're kind of representing us and people taking us, taking drummers and trap instruments and performers serious. So great job. Oh, thank you. That's super cool. Awesome, Nick. Well, I think that's it, man. I think this has been an awesome episode. I think it's really unique. Back when we recorded in 2019, I wasn't on YouTube. So I'm glad to have this element of it where we can see these things now. So this is a really cool episode. So why don't you tell people where they can find you at your website, social media, whatever you want to plug here at the end. Yeah. I have a website just for traps and sound effects called vintage percussion sound effects dot com. I don't have social media for sound effects, but I have a page just for my playing xylophone and percussion called tiny dot xylophone. Tiny dot xylophone. Awesome. All right, Nick. Well, I appreciate you being here. Thanks to everyone for listening and watching and hope everyone's having a great 2024 so far. And that does it for this one. So thank you very much to Nick White for being here. And Nick, I appreciate it, man. Thanks for sharing all this info and the great stories and all that stuff. And we'll have you back again some other time, I'm sure. Great. Wonderful. Thank you, Bart.