Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, this is Tim DeLauder from the Polyphonic Spree and Tripping Daisy, and you're listening to the Son of a Blitch podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:22

Hey Tim, how you doing today. Man, I'm doing good. Thanks for having me, man, it's a pleasure Listen. I've been a longtime fan of your music, all the different bands you played in, all the different art you put out there, and I really wanted to kind of explore all that. But I figured, for the listeners who may not be fully familiar with your Rolodex of art that you've put out, can we maybe start at the beginning, talk about a little bit of where you're from and maybe you know rewind down to that day at Blakewood Elementary that really kind of spawned your love and desire to play music, live and kind of take this and run with it for your life.

Speaker 1: 0:55

Sure, well, I'm born and raised in Dallas, texas. I was born in Oak Cliff, texas, which is right it's in Dallas but it's right on the edge, it's in the Dallas area, but a little small town. Born there and, gosh, you brought up Lakewood Elementary. That is kind of like where it all started, although, you know, my aunt was a musician. She was in an all-girl band when I was a little kid, in toddler, kind of walking around and I'm finding my way, and I'd sit in on their. She'd be babysitting me and I'd sit in the middle of their band practices, these girls rocking out. And uh, the name of their band was hot ice, which was a, a trip, but um, so I think it came from that and also from my grandmother who sang in the choir.

Speaker 1: 1:47

My grandfather was a preacher and she sang up there hymns every day. I'd be church with her on, you know, Wednesdays and Sundays and basically being there with her singing. So it's like music was kind of always around. My dad was always singing. So it's like music was kind of always around, my dad was always singing.

Speaker 1: 2:07

And but yeah, I like, one day I was in my music class at Lakewood, third grade, and my music teacher, miss Simons came in and this was completely out of the blue and not characteristic of her at all. She was a very staunch kind of real, dry, conservative woman. And she goes we're just going to listen to a record today and she put this record up on the chalkboard and it was I didn't know at the time but eventually, after it played, it was Emerson Lake and Palmer, it was the trilogy record. And she goes we're just going to listen to this record. And so she puts this record on and I'd never heard music like that before and it just blew my mind. I remember it to this day. It was so vivid and I'm just looking at this album cover as I'm listening to this music and it's this profile of these three dudes with long hair and and I'm like that's all I could see, that's all I knew about him is the picture of the cover. And then listening to it and, um, I don't know, but he's had a profound effect and I was like I remember going this is what I want to do, I'm going to, I want to make music.

Speaker 1: 3:20

And um, a friend of mine in the class, his dad, had a Les Paul and he said, why don't we start a band. So he went up, asked his dad to borrow his guitar and we went over to his house and I would just kind of play drums on books, school books in the bedroom. And then we had told our music teacher we wrote a song called Sing Along With my Tambourine. We told our music teacher, hey, we'd like to come in and play this song that we've written, and she said yeah. So I went and got some ice cream buckets from the Baskin Robbins and I built myself a drum kit and I had, and they were painted black and white and I bolted them together and had these X's on them where I hit them and it was like my drum kit and we played for the class and the class loved it and everyone was clapping. I was like this is it, man, this is what I'm going to do, and the rest is history. And I ended up doing that.

Speaker 1: 4:21

I moved to Duncanville history. And I ended up doing that. I moved to duncanville and, um, I met a dude there that was, you know, playing um, uh, rolling stones songs all the time, and so he and I started a band. My dad bought me a, a drum set it was a 1968, uh, ludwig blue sparkle drum kit and I played, uh uh, we played stones covers and I was a drummer for that band. He sang, and then I eventually got into this metal band called Saint, where I was playing drums.

Speaker 1: 4:50

And then one day I come over there just to visit my friend Kendall, who played guitar in the band, and as I'm approaching the garage I'm hearing the band play and I'm like but I'm not in there, and I hear the drums. I'm like what's going on, man? And I kind of looked through a little sliver of the glass that was painted, but I could see a little crack and I saw this dude in there playing a double bass, ludwig Chrome kit, huge kit, and he's just killing it. I'm going, oh my, I just my heart dropped. I just turned my back to the garage and slid, slid down and sat on my ass and I was crying, man, and the band had stopped, unbeknownst to me. I was just in complete bewilderment and kendall comes around. He sees me. They were coming out for a break. He's like dude, what are you doing? I'm like, what's going on, man? Like what, what are you doing? Like what, how could you do this? He's like tim. He just, you know, he's got a great kit. He's really good.

Speaker 1: 5:54

I had a blue sparkle kit like a killer, you know, like today. It's great but didn't really scream of like heavy metal and it just didn't look the part. And Joey had this double bass Ludwig, but Kendall goes. Man, why don't you try singing when you know I don't, I'm not really good at singing and and you've got a good voice and maybe maybe once you try to be the singer and I'm kind of like dry my eyes a little bit, I'm like all right, I guess I could do that. And I get in there and I knew the songs, and so I just started singing and it just like a duck to water man, I just like, wow, this is what I guess, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And so I became the singer of that band. And then it became another band called Regency and then I took a break from music. That's how it all started.

Speaker 2: 6:47

How did Tripping Daisy form? I believe I heard a story. It was your girlfriend at the time. Now wife introduced you to us. Then it formed the ethers of all the artists came together. What year was that?

Speaker 1: 7:00

Walk me through the beginning stages of that that and kind of walk me through the beginning stages of that. So, um, I'd been, I took some time, moved to california when I was 18 and just kind of bummed around with a friend, um, scott burman, who eventually became the guy that did all the visuals for tripping daisy um, and then, uh, I kind of I came back from california. Then I moved to color. I lived in Crested Butte and I worked at a ski resort there, at Crested Butte Ski Resort, and I had to ski to work every day. And I had a friend there, stephen Burrill, who we lived up there together. He played guitar and Stephen and I would always kind of jam together. He would play and I would just improvise lyrics and melody and sing. And so there was an open mic in town in crested butte and we were like, dude, let's just go up there and do this thing. And we didn't really know what we were going to do. And we get up on the stage and um place is packed it's a black box theater there in crested butte, in the town and I said, just play whatever, man, I'll just make it up and see what happens. And so he started playing and I closed my eyes and just started singing about what I was seeing and hearing and just tuned everything out. I was in my own world and I remember we finished the song and I opened my eyes and it was like quiet and then all of a sudden the whole place erupted. It was like holy shit. It was like everyone stood up, they were applauding and it was like crazy screaming, whistling, or like I'm looking at him, he's smiling at me, I'm looking at him, oh my God. And for me it was like what am I doing? I know what I need to be doing. I need to get back, I want to start a band. And it was so clear like that. It's literally on that stage listening to everyone applaud. I've got to start a band and get going.

Speaker 1: 9:02

So I moved back to Dallas soon after that and Julie and I lived together on Ross Avenue in Dallas and I lived in an area that was not. It was at the time it was a really shady area. Now it's all been gentrified and it's, you know, great around here, but back then it was kind of drug houses and a lot of musicians and artists live here. So I'd bounce around and try to meet as many artists as possible. I'd jam with Kenny Withrow, who was in New Bohemians. He went to school at Lakewood, so I knew Kenny from back in elementary school and he was playing music back then and so whenever he would have a jam he and I would always go to his place and jam and meet different musicians. And there was always things like that going around going on here in Dallas and we just have these all-night jams with different people, people from Fever in the Funk House. I would jam with them and then other musicians within our collective orbit would just get together and party and then have these all-night jams where people would just switch off on instruments. So I got to meet people along the way and julie was going to acting school at katie's studio and she met wes um, wes bergeron, and she goes.

Speaker 1: 10:20

This guy plays guitar, I think, think I think you might, you know, like, like it. Just try to try it out, you know. So Wes and I met up and I said just play something, because I just kind of make things up, so you just kind of play and I'll see if I can kind of contribute, you know, and see if we can get some chemistry going. So he just starts to play something and literally we just start writing songs, like right. Then I just start singing, I'm putting the melody out there. He's looking at me going, where are you getting this from? And I'm like, but from you, I'm there's kind of like reflecting off of what you're doing and we could fought, we, he and I there was.

Speaker 1: 11:00

I never had such a like a chemistry of like arrangement, because when you ride, when you're improvising, it's like he's got to be able to listen to you, to where you're going, that he knows he's, he's he's kind of putting out there what's going to inspire me to respond. And then he's got to. We both have to meet in the same spot to ride together, like okay, so now he's, he's now going to a chorus here, and now we've got it. There's a verse, there's a chorus. I know what he's doing. I'm going to go back to the, the beginning, to like a verse, and then I would fill in the part and then then I would change the melody a little bit, for, like a bridge, and he would change accordingly in the same key structure, and then now it's time to go back to a chorus or wherever it felt like it should need to go, and we just, we were just, it was like that. It was so connected and we both just looked at it and go, holy shit, man, this is it great fuck. Do you know anybody? You know a bass player and he goes. I know this guy at North Texas that I'm in school with. His name's Mark Pirro. He plays bass and I'm like cool, get him over here.

Speaker 1: 12:09

And we had Jeff. Balk was the first drummer of Tripping Daisy and he's the first person I met at a jam around here, around here in the neighborhood in Dallas, and so Jeff and I hooked up. Jeff was great, real, fluid, organic drummer, was a lot like me as far as improvising, and so Jeff was first drummer. Wes came along, wes knew Mark, mark came over and we jammed with Mark and it was the same way Mark just kind of like picked up with us because the songwriting was such an organic thing and you have to be able to kind of follow that. And mark was the same way, kind of picked right up and and jumped in and before we knew it we had this band and happened really fast.

Speaker 1: 12:56

And I told you earlier about my friend scott burman who, um, I live with in california he was. I called him up, said man, I want to have visuals for this band, kind of reminiscent of like the Fillmore Light Show. So I went out you know I'm a dumpster diver and I went out and found some slides that had been ruined by the elements of sun and shit that had been on it. There was a house that flooded and these slides got ruined, but they looked really cool, they were real psychedelic. So he went and got a slide projector from Goodwill and that was our first show.

Speaker 1: 13:40

We played an open mic at Club Dada here in Dallas and it was the same thing. We had only had eight songs and the place went crazy, so much so that we just ended up playing our songs over again because it was just. It was just went really well and one of the owners of trees the biggest venue around in Dallas at the time, across the street was over there. It just happened to be over there and offered us a Thursday night at Trees. That was only our first show and all we had were those eight songs and we're like, yeah, ok. Well, thursday night there blew up and the band literally just started to take off. It was like nothing and I've been around here I've never seen anything like it the way that people responded to Tripping Daisy in this town was nuts man. It was just an immediate embrace and it almost seems like it happened overnight, because it kind of did and it was was nuts.

Speaker 1: 14:43

We weren't even prepared for the amount of like response we were getting. We were so young and green as far as our songs and like we only had eight of them and that became a regular thing where we would repeat songs. But then that's also where we started to like use our gift of improvising. We didn't have any songs, so we just start making things up in front of the crowd just to keep it going, because we needed to keep playing. And that's what made us actually get better as a band and kind of like go these places, um, in front of people where it's like the pressure's on so we can't. We got really good really fast, um, but it was. It was kind of frightening at the beginning, but yeah, that's kind of how it started.

Speaker 2: 15:28

Well, I mean it's, it's quite the history and I I was in bands during the nineties and I know about that electric. There's a lot of bands that kind of hit and had a few, you know, successful, you know albums or tours. But man, you guys had four albums that you put out. You toured all around the country, obviously got a lot of airplay. You know, I Got a Girl is a single that many people may have seen on MTV or even on Beavis and Butthead. You know, I was curious about that. What was that like when you guys saw that? Was that like a moment like wow, we made it in a different way that you know what was it like to see it?

Speaker 1: 16:02

uh, rise to that it's so weird when you're in it you don't really, uh, it's just kind of another thing that's happening. Like when things are happening, that's like, oh, that's another thing, you know. At first when they said zip, he goes zip it up uh, beavis said that or something. Or the other one said I don't know if it's butthead, but they go zip it up when they unzip the thing on the thing, and I took it as a diss. I was like god, that's mean, why the fuck they do that.

Speaker 1: 16:29

You know, I wasn't like excited about it and it wasn't until years later that I really appreciated, as part of pop, pop culture, that tripping daisy was on. There was a big deal, but at the time it was just another thing because we had so much going on. The band was. You know, before we we signed to island records, there was a massive bidding war for tripping daisy. We had every major label in the country trying to to sign this band and that was a thing in itself. You know we had one label, mca um. We told them we were cowboys fans and they flew us to Pasadena to the SuperR guy. We're sitting in the 50 yard line, five rows up from the bottom and watching the Dallas Cowboys and play the Buffalo and Michael Jackson was the halftime show, but yeah, things like that happening with us.

Speaker 1: 17:41

And so it was a crazy, crazy time in the beginning of of tripping daisy. It was just kind of it was just I don't. There was something about that band that was really magical and people picked up on it and and to be in the band and been a part of it was just you're kind of in awe, you're kind of you know, but I did. I knew tripping daisy was special. I knew that. I just knew it because I felt it with the guys in the band. I felt it when I connected with wes. I knew it was special, um, but you just don't ever know how the public's gonna take to it and you know they found it special too.

Speaker 2: 18:21

So it was kind of great well, you kind of had this meteoric rise and I was kind of curious if you kind of, you know, go back in time there what was that level of fame like for you in the sense, where is it just kind of exciting, embracing, or was there a point? Because I know what you go. You deal with all these record companies, things become corporate, there's all these different things you have to do and you're traveling, there's all sorts of promos and it's the dawn before the internet age, so it was kind of a different animal. What was that like for you, as that was kind of as you guys were progressing up those you know charts and the ladders of success.

Speaker 1: 18:53

It was, you know, like I said earlier, just kind of going along with it in the beginning because you don't know any different. Um, when I first started to really understand that this is commerce man, they're trying to sell records um is when all the focus was going on with I got a girl. That's when I first kind of like, wait a minute, wait what? Why are we? There's other songs on this record why are we just focusing on that one particular record? Well, because it was the quote hit and even though I thought other songs were a hit and eventually were on that record, but all the eggs in the basket were in, I got a girl, and so that's when I first kind of like started to pick up on it and it was like things, decisions that I would have made um weren't being made. They were being made on another level of like promoting and pushing this song and, um, I kind of battled with those guys quite a bit in that because I didn't understand it. Um, I'd want to do things a lot differently, a little bit more organic, and spread this out and not just hit like this is the only song we've got, and it's kind of like they were just trying to cash in on one song. That was what I was feeling and that would kind of. That was kind of a drag, you know, but it's on on their. In fairness to them, that's exactly what they're supposed to do. They're trying to market the song that's going to be able to to, you know, sell records. They've got to get their money back and I get all that. Um, I just think they're at the time I thought it could have been done a lot way, uh, across the board and get more longevity for the band and not really burn people out on one song. There's a real art to being able to, like, make that transition from your hit single to the next one and kind of keep it going, rather than just burning people out on that one kind of quirky song. It's a great song but, um, it's, it's kind of quirky and it's it could, you know, burn some people out, which ultimately, would you know, it's negative on the band. You know so it was. It was tough. I had a lot of uh, um, you know, negative times with those guys.

Speaker 1: 21:07

But you know it's like then the regime changed and we Chris Blackwell, who was the owner of Island Records back then he actually came down because Rose and James, james Dowdle and Rose Noon to try to find a band. Well, they found us. We were the first band and they stumbled on us and it was like I loved Island Records because of Chris Blackwell. I knew all about Island Records and Chris Blackwell had built that label from the trunk of his car and it was like you know, I love that story of people like grinding it out and kind of being an entrepreneur, that story of people like grinding it out and kind of being entrepreneur. And he he was the biggest major label in within all the major labels that started as an independent. Him you know personally and he's still running it. The rest of them are kind of, you know, corporate corporations and not that he wasn't, but he was running it. And so he even came down here and to see the band and sign off on it, because james and rose said we're not doing this unless you see this band and because they wanted him to be invested in it. And he came down and he was and we ultimately had creative control.

Speaker 1: 22:18

We negotiated that with island records but I didn't really didn't get, I didn't really exercise it until the uh, the next uh record with them, which was jesus, hits like the atom bomb and um that, unfortunately, you know, we got that record and two weeks after it was um released, we got dropped because, chris, while we were making that record, chris blackwell calls me in the studio and um tells me, tim, I've decided to sell island um to this company. And I'm like, what? Like dude, we're making this record and he goes. I wanted to talk because I just got the phone with bono goes, but I wanted to call you and let you know personally so you wouldn't hear it from somebody else. And I'm like, wow, I mean he goes, but everything's going to be okay, they're fully aware of you. You don't have anything from somebody else. And I'm like, wow, I mean he goes, but everything's going to be OK, they're fully aware of you, you don't have anything to worry about. I'm like, ok, so I didn't have anybody watching over us during the making of Adam.

Speaker 1: 23:18

I mean of Adam Bomb studios in Woodstock making this record, having this amazing experience with Eric Drew Feldman and um, but no one was there watching over us, unlike Firecracker. When we had everybody up in our shit and we had to do, everything was like you know this, we gotta practice, we gotta really work this song, which was I Got a Girl, gotta make sure this everything's great. It's like they're always on your ass to make sure the hits are there. Well, since there was so much stuff going on in Ireland, they just even they're like let them just make their record, no one's watching. So we made this beautiful record without any, made it exactly the way we wanted it it was. It was such an amazing experience of like let the kids play, let them record, let them do whatever they want, and, you know, no one's watching over you and it's paid for, and it was like you couldn't have asked for a better experience. And then, when we released it two weeks later, we're dropped and we're like this is like the best thing we've ever done and it, you know, we got dropped, so it was.

Speaker 1: 24:29

That was really debilitating. That was my and that's when I really like I'm I'm not down with these major labels, you know. And so it was like every time I went into any sort of deal with anybody in their major label, I was always skeptical. I knew what was what I was up for. It was it. It was a trip, you know, and you know we'll talk about Spree in a minute.

Speaker 1: 24:52

But yeah, that band's been in on eight different labels. It's just kind of now I've been on a label, I'm on Good Records label for quite some time now, but anyway. So yeah, I kind of ran the gamut. I've learned. I came in adult, I kind of learned about a lot about business with Tripping Daisy and I learned the ins and outs of labels and I had the best experiences with labels and the worst experiences with labels, and the best experience was with, you know, the higher ups and the worst experiences with the higher ups. And so art and commerce, man, it's a thin, it's a thin line, it's a tight rope and you got to learn how to. You have to walk, walk on it, you know Certainly.

Speaker 2: 25:34

Well, you know that. That brings you to the idea of your. The final album that you guys had was self-titled and I believe that I saw you know that was good records as well. Was this an independent thing? Was there other groups that were a part of that, and what did that look like when y'all were recording? And if you can kind of walk us through, you know maybe what happened and and you know where the band hit. Pause for a little while yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:54

So we were, um, tripping daisy. I mean, we were a kind of a road dog band. We, once we started touring, we stayed on the road pretty much, you know, probably 10 months out of the year. This band would tour in a van for years and it's just like pounding it, pounding it and pounding it. And I think at the end of firecracker, when we were just completely done, we were so spent because we toured our ass off on bill. And then now we're doing, you know, firecracker.

Speaker 1: 26:29

We toured really heavily on that record and we needed a much. We needed a break really bad right when we were about ready to take a break, like we were so burnt out, um we get a call to go on tour with def leopard and so now we're, like you know, we're out for three months with those guys and we were already so spent and which was an amazing tour in itself became really good friends with those guys. To this day I'm still friends with those guys. It was a great experience, but, man, it was. It was rough because we were so burnt out, but we got back and we decided, you know, we took a little time off and we did a small tour with with Adam Bomb, just to kind of do it, but we really didn't tour that record came back and said you know, it's time to make a record. Same guys, um me, mark ben curtis, wes and phil carnatz, and we made the self-titled record, um, which was interesting. It was kind of another deal, another experience that we had. You know, we did it on our own because we did it with good records and then another label called sugar fix. That sugar fix that was out of um california and um, but again, after experiencing the kind of full creative control that we had on atom bomb, we did the same thing with with the self-titled record and you can kind of hear the beginning stages of the beginning stages of the polyphonic spree and um, that's kind of uh, what started to happen.

Speaker 1: 28:12

But we were in the middle of making that record and wes uh passed away and um, that was first time I really had anybody that close to me, um pass and it, it just completely gutted me. I was like I just it was. It was a sad, sad time. Um, he was, you know, I had a really good connection with him, um, spiritually, musically, he was a dear friend and it was uh, it was rough and I just didn't think I could continue doing Tripping Daisy without him, so I just decided that I was done with that band, which was really, really difficult, but that's kind of what happened. But Wes's dad came in, don Bergeron, and finished the, the, um, the one of the songs which was soothing jubilee. Um, he's the one playing the, uh, the electric piano on that particular track and we finished the record and, um, that was it. And uh, that was in the end of two, uh one, uh, 1999, and uh, yeah, that was the end of tripping Daisy.

Speaker 2: 29:28

Well, you kind of picked up there with some of the same fellas and a bunch of other people I mean I think there's like 28 people. At the time I saw you on stage with polyphonic spree and I mean, you guys just did another album last year which, uh, we'll jump into in a minute there but I, you know, I wanted to talk about like that transition of then. I mean, you're an artist, you want to go out there and play. Was there any kind of difficulty and roadblocks in getting back out there with polyphonic spree or was that something that was like healing for you to go ahead and go through that, those motions on stage with your friends and family and kind of moving forward in that in that way?

Speaker 1: 30:08

and you know, just kind of curious what that was like for you well, I mean, when it first happened, um, when west passed, I was completely, uh, debilitated. I could, I wouldn't even. I couldn't even think about being in a band. I mean, I couldn't think about doing Tripping Daisy, I couldn't think about playing music. I went through a rough time. It was weird timing because we also had the birth of our son, oscar, in 2000. So it's like I'd lost Wes but then I had this brand new baby boy and it was such a weird time. I think Oscar saved me in a lot of ways, me and Julie, from that, because that was devastating what happened with Wes. But I, honestly, I was like I thought I was done making music and one day I picked up the guitar because I hadn't been playing anything and I just picked it up and I think I wrote it might've been Light and Day, I'm not sure it might've been the first song I wrote Um, I can't remember, julie would know I can't remember. But um, and then I kind of wrote another song and I didn't think anything about it. But then it's like, as I wrote another one, I was starting to hear other instruments other than just the guitar, bass and drums. It's like then I'd start to think, you know, man, if I do make music again, I mean I'm going to do like what I thought about in Tripping Daisy.

Speaker 1: 31:44

You know, I thought about polyphonic spree back in in Tripping Daisy when we were recording. Like I wish I had strings here, I wish I had a horn section instead of me just singing. I wish I had about 10 people singing. These were arrangement ideas that I had in Tripping Daisy, but we didn't have that stuff. And that's why a lot of the sounds on Tripping Daisy are kind of experimental, because it's almost like we're trying to create more than what our instruments would allow, trying to reach different sounds and stuff. So that's why you kind of hear the birth of it.

Speaker 1: 32:17

In tripping days the sound was changing. You can. You can hear it. Um, there's just the alignment with the sun that's happening, a kind of a birthing that's getting ready to happen, unbeknownst to me, but it kind of rekindled itself when I started to write for the first time and my song started to change. Songwriting started to change and became a bit more adventurous and more of a journey. And so I thought, when I was writing these songs that I didn't know even were for Polyphonic Spree, I just started to think, wow, I wish I had this and why don't I try to find this? And so Chris Penn, my dear friend who recently passed away, he was our partner on Good Records, the, the record store.

Speaker 1: 33:10

We opened a record store in 2000 and um, um, he knew that I was writing these songs and you know, I, I guess about four months earlier we had gone out on a road trip with um, uh, granddaddy, the band this was in 99, no, I'm not, yeah, or maybe teeth early 2000 and um went out on tour with those guys on the west coast just to follow them around. The beachwood sparks was opening up and um, we came friends with those guys and then chris had them come down and play the gypsy tea Room and he goes you've got two weeks to put a band together. You guys are going to open up for Granddaddy. And I'm like what? So I had two weeks to put together a band, the Polyphonic Spree for a show, and immediately I just kind of started calling friends and family and find out who played any symphonic instruments. I didn't know anything about that world. I mean, I literally went to the mall and saw a guy playing cello in the mall, at North Park Mall, and I said, man, I'm starting this band. I really need, you know, some symphonic instruments and I love the way you're playing right now. Would you like to, you know, come jam with me and see if we can do something? And he played at the uh dallas symphony. Was this long hair, he looked like freaking, like a js bach is like a, a big composer or something. Was older than me and, um, his wife played the uh violin for the same company and, um, he said yeah, and so I had him, I had her, and then I started some other people I put the word out, people kind of started contacting me, knew that I was, you know, looking for folks and, um, one guy.

Speaker 1: 35:02

I had so many failed attempts with people because, um, it was like I write everything out of improvisation, like I was telling you about tripping daisy, so I don't like write music and then have people read it. So most of these people in symphonic world, um, they're, all you know, classically trained theory and so they read music and I thought that everybody could do what I did, which was improvised. And that's when I found out that not everybody does that. So I'd kind of like say, just play something and I'm going to sing. And they go what do you mean, play something? I go, I don't know, just play anything, a melody of something, just make up, and I'll just kind of go along with it. And they didn't know. And I said, well, I'm going to play something on my guitar, and then I just want you to play along with me. And they go well, do you know what chords? And I go, no, we're not going to talk about that, you just play. And um, and I'll, I'll play and I'll just hear how you respond. And they couldn't do it unless they had the music telling them what, what was happening. Then they couldn't do it.

Speaker 1: 36:08

So it's like these had these little failed attempts within those two weeks. And then you found people that I play with that didn't even know they could do it, they just tried it. And they discovered that out about themselves in front of me for the first time and they were equally excited. So then you know, that kind of happened and then it was like, wow, okay. So then I knew the two worlds I'm dealing with and and I've collected enough people to be able to do that show, and um, it was a trip. It was uh, granddaddy, um, bright eyes, and the polyphonic spree was our first show.

Speaker 2: 36:46

The heck of a nice first show. I mean, I remember seeing you guys. I think it was your first um, it's the holiday extravaganza. I think you guys played at lakefront I think it was lakefront theater maybe, or I'm trying to remember it was in in that dallas port. Well, yeah, okay, I just remembered there was an amazing show, yeah, and, and we still doing that today. Yeah, you'd like 24th or 25th or something. Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 2: 37:13

Well, this this last year, I kind of want to jump forward to that um is talking about what the experience was for a salvage enterprise and your as far as the planetarium experience there too. And then I want to jump back to kind of what's happening with the Tripping Daisy tour. But I definitely want to talk about that a little bit and what that's like for fans and how you went about approaching this. Uh, you know, the visualization and the album full-on concept album, listening, the things that you were trying to get into people's heads and ears and eyes. And, if you wouldn't mind, you know we can chat about that for a minute and kind of move on from there.

Speaker 1: 37:53

So salvage enterprise was a record that there I was, faced at another point in my life where I thought I was done and couldn't write any more songs. I went through a major drought where I just couldn't write. I just wasn't feeling inspired. I was kind of depressed and just not in the headspace of anything uh creative whatsoever. It was rough.

Speaker 1: 38:17

But um tripping, or salvage enterprise was born in the pandemic, um, where I kind of forced myself to learn a software called um oh gosh, what's it called Logic and um, I, uh, I had never recorded my own stuff. I'd done it with I have you know, my phone and things, but never like seriously. It's not my bag to be an engineer and um, but I was forced to do it. I've learned how to do it through just fumbling my way through it and trying to try to like record. I would play something. Well, when I was playing something, it kind of like, you know, wow, I, um, it's just me and a guitar and I'm recording and I'm learning how to record and at the same time I'm playing and it would provoke a feeling and then I'd start singing and I'd write a song and it was like, and the first song was Give Me Everything, and it was. It was like a revelation. It's like, oh my God, I'm not in my back, you know, I can ride again. It was freaking me out. I was like so inspired and it kept provoking other things and so I wrote open the shores and all these were by myself and I recorded them and those are what you're hearing. On the record is actually my recording of me. There's three songs um recorded, that I recorded here and the rest I did with um casey at valve studios. But um, yeah, so I had this very personal record that was different from anything we'd ever put out, which you know, it's not saying much because every record is kind of different but, um, this was more like the beginning stages in a lot of ways, but, um, something, something different, way more personal record for me than I've ever done before and the approach was extremely different and also the hardest record I've ever made, but nevertheless.

Speaker 1: 40:23

But when it was finished, um, I knew I wanted people to hear this as an album as a whole, and so I struggled with the record was done for a year and I just couldn't find my heart to in my heart to like release it because of the times we live, live in. People don't listen to albums anymore. It's all about you know, the jukebox in your pocket. You go from song to song and sometimes I didn't finish songs anymore, they just switch to another song. It's just a real drag as an artist, especially when you write a body of work that you want people to take this journey.

Speaker 1: 40:56

So I decided, in order to for people to hear this, that I was just going to go travel around with the sound system and, you know, basically have a captive audience where they just have to sit there in the middle of this circle that I built with speakers and under the stars and listen to the album. That was my way of of like, uh, doing it. So I had a certain amount of money to spend. I rented a sprinter van and I had 12 speaker sound system on tripods and two generators and I just head out on the road, went up and down. I started in Joshua Tree, I did two nights in Joshua Tree and then head to Ojai and then I just went up and down the West Coast and pop up listening experiences and I'd tell people I'm going to be at this location on social media at this time and then, if you show up, it's free. And I had these moving blankets and people would lay down the circle and I'd play the record, um, from start to finish. And um, that's how I did it, that's that was how I was going to get people to hear it. So I did that until I ran out of money. And then I came back and I said, all right, I guess it's time to go ahead and put this out there. And so, um, I, at the same time I was talking to my friend, scott Berman, who did the visuals for Tripping Daisy back in the day, and I said, you know, he and I had been talking, he was a big fan of this record, I'd shared it with him, um, early on through voice memos and and he's like Tim, this is some of the best stuff you've done and he was just majorly behind it. And he and I had talked about doing a planetarium experience back in the day with Tripping Daisy. It just never happened.

Speaker 1: 42:39

And then we started talking about making an immersive film with this particular record, and so that's where the, the birth of resolution, came about, and we got some funding from a friend and started to go down that road, something we didn't know anything about. It's kind of like a polyphonic spree, not knowing anything about the symphonic world and jumping in. We did the same thing about making a film for a dome, which is completely different than making a film for flat screens. Um, it's, you have to use a different camera. The technology is not even there at the at the time. So it's uh, there was a lot of like trial and error that we had to go through, but we found some people and scott um pretty much took that whole thing on and took off and met some animators and went to his first choice, anthony Shepard, of an animator that he always loved and even used his, his work. You know, in past shows that we had done for for Spree and kind of jumped in and we we did it through, you know, almost two years of making that film.

Speaker 1: 43:49

But we've made this film.

Speaker 1: 43:50

It's an immersive experience that recently just won South by Southwest the audience award there and we are now kind of being requested to go to London and do the film there. It's going to Venice Film Festival. It's kind of taken off in a world of its own, but it's basically a film that takes you on a journey of that album. It reimagines the way to listen to an album and you're fully immersed in these visuals from nine different animators from all over the world that have contributed their work per track. So you're listening to every song and every song has a different animator and it's from 2D animation to 3D animation and it's pretty incredible. And so right now we're at the Omni Theater, which is the best theater in the country. It's the largest hemisphere LED 8K theater in the country. The only thing bigger than that is the Sphere in Las Vegas. So we got picked up there and it's there for the next year and it's playing in Denton at the Planetarium there and it's going to start playing in different planetariums kind of all over the country and eventually abroad.

Speaker 2: 45:07

I cannot wait to check it out. We're actually going to be heading up there and hopefully finding the time to check it out the Omni there in Dallas and I've heard wonderful things. Congratulations on the award there and the continued success with that. Jumping into now the idea of what's in front of us here it's about to embark upon the first nationwide tour of Tripping Daisy in quite a while I mean in 2017,. I know you played a handful of gigs, kind of did some regional stuff and there's been some shows that have happened New Year's gigs and some things but when did you guys decide to go ahead and take this by storm? I mean, obviously we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of I Am an Elastic Firecracker. I know you guys are going to be playing this in its entirety, as well as a bunch of other hits, and I was kind of curious when this start and how did that decision come about, with the guys to, hey, let's go ahead and do this and let's hit the big tour this time?

Speaker 1: 45:57

So, um, chris was, chris had, um, Chris Penn had, um, people get together to play some Alice Cooper songs for a film that he made when he got the original Alice Cooper band to come play good records live from the AstroTurf. He was doing a night of Alice Cooper songs and had different bands and he had tripping daisy play because we happened to be in town and um, so we, we did that and then the next day, since we were all there, we decided to play a surprise show at the kessler. Well, it was, it was great, had a really fun time, and we actually did, for the first time ever since we've reconnected, did kind of some improvising, like what I used to do back in the day, and it just felt so good to me. It was like, wow, this band, we can do this. I had this. Like it was reinvigorated for me to like get back to it, because I so much love that feeling of that spontaneity and being able to like just being on the spot and go there. And we did it that night, and so I left her that night. I told Chris I go, man, I, I, I'm like charged, I'm like I could go do this again. I want to, I want to play. I love that feeling. It was awesome. I want to get back at it.

Speaker 1: 47:24

So I knew that we were going to eventually do it and um, chris and I talked about it and we, uh, the time came, we found a booking agent and um put it out there and chris actually kind of put the dates out there and we booked the tour. It was like two and a half months and chris had a had his fall, um, where, uh, it put him in the hospital. It was debilitating, but the tour was booked. It was for two and a half months and I told Chris, I was like, dude, I can't do this tour with you like this. I don't know what's going on yet. And he's like, you got to do the tour and I said, well, I'll do half of it. So I committed to a month of it. So we had to cancel the the back half a month and a half of it and so I committed this first month and so, um, we're doing it.

Speaker 1: 48:16

You know, um, and unfortunately, you know Chris passes and you know now I'm all alone and I've got this tour that he kind of like spearheaded with me, and so I'm trying to find the way of making this thing work, and so I'm. It's weird, I did all this stuff when I was in my 20s, but now I'm like back at it again. This seems like the world's changed and I'm trying to put this tour on and you know I'm dropping the ball left and right. But you know it's booked, it's happening, it's out there and people are buying tickets and that's all I know. And the band's rehearsing and we'll be ready for it. But it's going to be.

Speaker 1: 48:55

It's a challenge for me. I miss my friend terribly and so rough dealing with that. But he insisted that we go and but, um, he insisted that we go and, um, I'm gonna do it and he'll be out there and it'll be cool and it'll um, it's gonna be bittersweet because he was going on tour with us and but, um, I'm just so, I don't know. I'm thankful that we're doing it and I'm also thankful for Chris, but it's been really rough on me. So it's kind of, it's been a kind of a nice distraction working on this tripping Daisy, because it kind of keeps my mind, you know, geared on that.

Speaker 2: 49:43

Sure, oh, I understand and I'm I'm sorry for the loss and, you know, for his family. They've been in my prayers and you know, I know that there's a lot of people who have kind of rallied around to support his family and do whatever they can. And I know that there's a GoFundMe out there and I'll throw the QR code here for all you know, viewers and listeners I'll have in the show notes below so you guys can go and kind of contribute and help out there, uh, you know, and give whatever you can for for his family yeah, please, do they're.

Speaker 1: 50:12

They're amazing. Um, his boys are special to me. And um, yeah, please, if y'all, if you feel so inclined to, yeah, donate a little something. If the qr code's there, I really appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 50:29

Well, and I know with Good Records that you guys co-founded, you got the record store there and I know you guys have a lot of different releases coming up, If you want to kind of talk about them. I know there's some pre-orders, some Tripping Daisy LPs as well as there's, you know, the Bill and I know the Polyphonic Spree has one that just kind of came out, some limited edition stuff. What are some of the things that are coming as far as those to the table soon, and when should people be ready for those to be released?

Speaker 1: 50:55

So we're doing another order of atom bomb for anybody that didn't get to get, and it comes with all the same things that the first one came with. Um, all of our good records releases have always been pretty amazing. If you've never, if you've ever, bought a vinyl release from Good Records, we go all out. You get things that no one else is going to get because we have all this personal artifact that we've had through the years that we've accompanied with and Chris, as being a music fan, would make records and releases in a way that he would like to get If he could get a record from one of his favorite bands how he would like to have it. So that's kind of how we've gone with it.

Speaker 1: 51:50

Our good records releases are pretty amazing. It's really in depth, usually get a poster or slip disc cover in there, you get stickers, you get photos that never been seen before. You get a lot of artwork and a lot of things that that make it unique and all on its own that you won't get anywhere else, and it's kind of a standard that he started because he's such a fan of music that all of our records kind of have that. So, really looking forward to it If you get a chance to get one, get it, because there's not that many that come out. But so yeah, you have Firecracker. That's available right now and it's a pre-sale. It's being manufactured right now and it's a pre-sale, it's being manufactured right now. And then atom on jesus. It's like the atom mom as well, but we it's our first time we've put out um elastic firecracker under good records oh, right on.

Speaker 2: 52:38

well, I'll have the links for everything there below. Um, you know I thank you so much for joining me today and for you know, you know, kind of walking us back through some of the history and some of the tough spots. I appreciate being, you know, open and honest and vulnerable about that, and you know it kind of lead me to my final question. I ask a lot of the people who come on and that's one about legacy and I was kind of curious of what your, you know, thoughts are. Is that something that you think about often? And the idea of how you hope to be remembered in your body of work personally and you know what it is that you'd like to leave? You know, your stamp on this world and just some of your thoughts about that.

Speaker 1: 53:16

Well, you know, I hadn't really thought about that until recently. You know, when you lose someone close to you you think about. You know, mortality can't help it like leak in there and and I, you know, I've never. I, you know, I got an award, probably six months ago, kind of a lifetime achievement award that I've. I couldn't even believe I got, but it was bizarre but and I thought, you know, I've really thought about what I've done, um, I'm always thinking it forward. I never, never, go backwards, it's always forward. And so I just always, you know, I'm always like onto the next thing and on the next thing, that I don't ever think about what's in my wake and what's happened until it's brought up to me and then I think, wow, I've kind of done a lot, you know.

Speaker 1: 54:05

So I don't't know, I look at the body of work and I look at the core. I look at overall the intentions of what have that I've been a part of, of trying to put out there, and it's always been um, it's always been this hopeful kind of um overcoming mission that has tended to resonate with me, because I've found the things that I sing about are basically to convince me. Those times I was telling you I'm improvising and whatever comes in my mind, and usually it's all about overcoming and reaching, and you can get there and this, this thing of seeing my way through, and and that's usually what's on my mind. So I think a lot of my music um, I know it does, I've been told it helps a lot of people and I never even thought about that because it was always for me and so I kind of hope that I'm, you know, the. The legacy is that you know my output has helped people overcome a lot of things, because it's helped me overcome a lot of things.

Speaker 1: 55:11

My music has saved me personally and I hope that for other people. I hope that they get that and also the intention of taking people on a journey and finding an escape and musically, like going to these places that they wouldn't normally go to and having space in their life to take something like that on, know that the intention is for them and and to take these people on a journey. And hopefully we've done that. We've given them a good show and I've given them some things they can lean on from time to time when we need it, like music and the message and knowing that we can get over it. Like I'm going to make it through this with Chris.

Speaker 1: 55:53

It's, it's the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my life. I can't lie, this has been. This is the topper it's. But I know I'm going to get through it, I will get through it and, um, but I don't know, I guess. I guess that, yeah, my legacy is that, as humans, we want to be happy and we want to get through it. We want to be good, we want to make it and we can and we will. You know, you just have to remember it. So I guess that's my legacy.

Speaker 2: 56:27

Well said, tim. Thank you again for sharing that and for sharing all of your music and your art. I will have all the notes below where people can go ahead and, you know, get a ticket for the upcoming Tripping Daisy Tour. It's starting very soon, next month, and it's going to be going around the country. I know you got like 22 dates or so and can't wait to check that out. And thanks again for joining. And as far as folks want to follow your journey along the way, socials, what's the best way for them to go ahead and kind of follow along with this and, you know, maybe your shows that are coming up.

Speaker 1: 56:59

You can go to trippingdaisycom. That'll show you where we're playing. You can even buy tickets to particular shows of different cities. I'll send you something you can post, maybe put up shows, the dates. But we'll do more legs of it. Just this leg just goes up the Midwest to makes its way up to Montreal, toronto, then back down the east side, but we'll be coming back out there and hitting places that we didn't hit this time in the future. But trippingdaisycom will kind of give you everything you want to know and then the polyphonic spreecom will get you where you want to go, if you're interested in that as well. And then also resolution films. You can check that as well on Instagram to find out where resolution is playing.

Speaker 2: 57:50

Wonderful. Well, I can't wait. Thank you again so much for joining me today and appreciate all that you're doing, man.

Speaker 1: 57:56

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate you having me. Sorry, I get long winded man, I kind of get to talking about it and just kind of rolls. So appreciate you hanging in there.

Speaker 2: 58:05

I think everyone's going to thoroughly enjoy it, man. Thank you All right, cool Take.