One take? And then, you know, we play that

whole...

Just like Julian said, this whole production and arrangement was a very happy accident.

Because I said before, it's cyclical, it's the same chords, you know, just a 6-4-5-1 repeat until you die.

And so these guys, I knew you could play that in their sleep.

And then it was just like, kind of God showed up, and that's what...

That was like the first jam.

Is that a technique or is that just something that you were born with?

but

yeah we had just beat the hell out of each other that was one of our first fights so my dad would fight So my first stage was a boxing ring.

That was the first place I ever became comfortable in front of a crowd.

I was a very shy kid, but I didn't have to talk.

I could just hit people.

So yeah, it was way, I love that.

And so this is me with a smile on my face because I just beat the shit out of my brother.

Was that the way you went in thinking, this is the way I'm going to do it?

'Cause at a certain point you do have some responsibility in it yourself, you know? Um...

Yeah.

I mean, I've, I've had a lot of thought about that and, um, you know, I grew up thinking the same thing as you.

Like, maybe, you know, things should've been different or, um, but at the same time, I, I, I tend to think about my parents as children because they had me as children.

They were like, it was a shotgun wedding.

My mom was six months pregnant.

They were teenagers having babies.

Yeah

and

the characters, as I call them, that I grew up with.

Because there was literal and metaphorical Gary's that could fix just about anything.

And I really tried to unpack that character because, you know, even though on the surface they come across as quite simple, I found that there was a lot more layers underneath them because they're fixers because the world is broken.

The world has been broken since the day they were born.

They got good at fixing things because they noticed the broken and not all all of us noticed the broken They just walked by it and hope somebody else will fix it someday and the Gary's Wouldn't let that slide and they they became fixers of everything because of a broken world and I think there's that that's art in a nutshell is a broken world and mmm I think those fixers deserve to be recognized, especially in an era where technology seems to be moving at an aggressive pace.

But at the same time, parallel to that, we're still running on conventional plumbing.

Why did you choose to do that? And what was it like for you?

When you write that song, what was the intention?

Well, it's, it was rooted in a tragedy, um, and the intention was to celebrate those blue-collar people.

That was, um, that became the, you know, the motive.

But it, it started with, um, a memorial sign on the side of the road of a highway.

I was driving down and driving home, and I saw this sign, and it said, "In memory of Gary," blank, blank.

I won't mention their name for their privacy.

Um, and it w- there was a picture of a boy that couldn't have been maybe sixteen years old in high school, and I would guess that he passed away on that highway in a car accident, perhaps.

[upbeat music]

When you write that song, what was the intention?

Well, it's, it was rooted in a tragedy, um, and the intention was to celebrate those blue-collar people.

That was, um, that became the, you know, the motive.

But it, it started with, um, a memorial sign on the side of the road of a highway.

I was driving down and driving home, and I saw this sign, and it said, "In memory of Gary," blank, blank.

I won't mention their name for their privacy.

Um, and it w- there was a picture of a boy that couldn't have been maybe 16 years old, in high school, and I would guess that he passed away on that highway in a car accident, perhaps.

Yeah, so as a kid.

What was your journey?

Like, right when I got outta school, I was, I was in this indie band.

My senior year, I started, called Audobon, and, um, they're still ...

You know, some of my dearest friends we met in, in college.

And, um-And yeah, we started this band and before I knew it, we had like a record deal and a manager, and we were touring with all these up and coming bands like Cage the Elephant, and...

And we got to, you know, go on all these huge tours, and I was a- a lead guitar player and songwriter in the band.

And so right when I graduated, the guys were like, "Hey, you want to just try to do this for a year and just see what happens?" We got like- we had like 80 shows booked.

Yeah.