Crossing Borders and Breaking Walls: K-Man and the 45s on Tour

0:04 Hey, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio. And I'm here with K-Man from K-Man and the 45s. And Frankie from K-Man and the 45s. So here's my first question here at Warped Tour. Do you have 45s in your merch store? We refuse to answer this question. We already have trouble getting into the states of the American border. They held us up in isolation rooms the last time, screaming in our faces and drooling on me, saying, are you trying to kill me with your fentanyl holding up this much weed?

0:48 Hey, brother, how you doing? Oh, my God. I have a hard time going back into my own country, too. Have you seen this guy? Try crossing the border with him. I know, right? Yeah, yeah. It's always stressful to cross the border, but we always manage to do it. So, yeah. Well, there you go. And you're here at Warped Tour in Montreal. Yeah, man. The last one was, what, 2013? Is that it? Wow. Isn't that crazy? It is. It just blows my mind. And MySpace is coming back. I heard about this. Like, what the fuck is going on? Are we just reliving everything? I think somebody just finally figured out, hey, it was better back then. Right? Let's do it. Warped Tour, OzFest is coming back. MySpace is coming back. Yeah, fuck Facebook. Get rid of Facebook.

1:31 Okay? Yeah, man. You know? And let's bring that MySpace. I hope Tom's still my friend. Yeah. I remember that so much, man. Our MySpace was off the hook back in the day. I know, right? What a great platform for musicians. It's so great to have it come back. Hopefully it'll be like what it was, but better. Exactly, exactly, man. Because that's... I think it's better for artists than TikTok, because TikTok.. In Canada, man, not so much. That's what I'm saying. In TikTok, it's like... Yeah, you could be an artist on TikTok, but are you really an artist or are you just a TikTok artist? That's it. You know, I always say I'm pretty convinced that there's probably three bands in Canada that tour as much as we do. We've done cross, coast to coast 25 times now, every city in Canada. But all the bands that come up on TikTok, they explode, right? And they're super huge, but they disappear as fast as they come up.

2:29 Exactly. When you do our plan, and this has always been since day one, is just road work. And you see the same faces every time you roll through town. You have a built-in crowd every time. Guaranteed good time, you know? So I'm all about, man, put in the road work. Exactly. And you know what? That's the whole thing, I think, with all the generations of ska, is that's what keeps it going and keeps it going. Like, you can't just be a flash in the pan and, To me, ska bands are true musicians. 100%. And I think that's what it takes. It takes being a real musician, not somebody that's just trying to be a rock star. Exactly. And if you're five or more in a band, why don't you share one hotel room, two on each bed, a couple on the floor?

3:10 It's all good, man. Right, right. If you haven't lived that, you just haven't lived. Yeah, it's funny. People look at you and are like, oh, you're living the dream life. okay well why don't you go with them on that dream life and see the one hour of the dream every. Day exactly and it's like when you're playing thunder bay and then the next day winnipeg so you drive 13 hours through a snowstorm on the ice pulling a trailer falling off mountains and shit like that coming out of bc and then still play that same night right. Right right and then I was interviewing Colin from GBH one time at this little tiki bar in Florida near where my studios are. And I was like, so what's it like being here? And I was being funny because it's a shithole place we're at in Stewart, Florida. And he's like, well, one day you're playing to a million people in Mesopotamia and next day you're playing a tiki bar in... In Stewart, Florida.

4:07 Everybody thinks it's Saturday night. Every night, right? But they forget that sometimes they play Sault Ste. Marie on a Monday night. Right. Exactly. And I love my people in Sault Ste. Marie, you know, but it's still kind of the butthole of Canada. So, speaking of which, okay, so now that answers one part of the question. I was going to say, since you've toured all over Canada... Where's your favorite place to play, and where's your least favorite? I think we just heard the least favorite. Well, I'll tell you, the bartender says I can turn your cocaine into crack for you. No joke. They said that. Wow. Yeah, man. Respect. Favorite place, though, Frank? It's a hard one. Like, we love.. Golden BC. We love Whistler. Yeah, Jasper. BC and Alberta is pretty great. If not, Gaspésie.

4:53 So east of the country. That's like our own private BC in Quebec. Gaspésie is amazing too. But our absolute favorite, Montreal, baby. Let's get it on. Especially Montreal Warped Tour and this island here. Like, this is the coolest place. I didn't even know this existed, and I've been to Montreal. That's it. Like, the setup here is absolutely amazing. We just walked around the whole thing. It's absolutely off the hook. I was pissed I didn't bring my board. I looked like when I walked in, I just walked into a huge skate park. Yeah, yeah. It's definitely the vibe here. It's great. Like you were saying, bring back MySpace and skateboarding at shows. Exactly. I have.. Three skateboards. I have my trick board, my long board.

5:35 I also have this stick for my long board. It's like paddle boarding on your long board. It's cool as shit and like a full body workout. And then I have the surf skate because I'm a surfer. But I live in South Florida where during summer it's flat. So I'm on my surf skate instead. And that thing's pretty badass. Let me tell you something. I've been skateboarding since I'm like 11 years old. And like, I've taught my kids, taught my grandkids. When I got that surf skate, I ate shit within five minutes. And I was like, Maybe I should wear pads.

6:16 That's right. Yeah, man. But you know what? Eating shit and stuff, that's all part of the story. If you didn't have that, it'd be one hell of a boring story, man. That's how you learn, too. Like my ice skating coach used to say to me, like.. You're so American. My ice skating. Right here is just skating. Right. Well, we have both there, you know? Yeah. I saw a sign here when I walked in that she showed to me penguins. I'm like, I've never seen that at a festival where I have to worry about crossing penguins. So here we are. But yeah, he goes, you never fall. And I'm like, well, thanks. He goes, no, that's not a good thing.

6:58 That's it. You're not falling. You're not learning. It's the same thing as touring. If you don't have all these mess-ups and all this chaos and stuff, where's the story? And I always say, huge show or small, every night has to have at least one story, right? One million percent. So if you were to pick one story, good, bad, crazy, insane, whatever... in all your musical career, and you might both have different ones, what would that story be? Okay, craziest story. On the way to play in Thunder Bay, a place we love incredibly, there's a snowstorm, and they blocked the whole highway. The Trans-Canadian Highway was closed down, and we're still 12 hours away. And we're like, if they open up now, we can show up by midnight. Okay, if they open up now by 12.30, We were in communication with him. They opened up the highway. At the bar, they had a countdown of when we were going to show up. We only showed up at like 1 or 1.30 in the morning, but the whole crowd stayed, unloaded our truck, all our gear, helped us set up and stage, and we all played until like 3.30 in the morning. I mean, that's what, you know, we were talking about building up your fan base. That's what it's all about. I just love that.

8:07 Yeah, that was a great night. And also that night, the opening act played two sets, just to make sure the party was going on until we got there. Oh, that's cool. That's a good one. And now let's talk about the worst. I think you mentioned it before. The first time we crossed to the United States, I think that's in 2018, we got detained for hours in separate rooms, me and K-Man. And... They did like the good cop, bad cop thing. Oh, yeah. One was nice. The other one was yelling and drooling and calling us like a drug trafficker and stuff like that. And he told me, came in, told me everything. Stop lying. He told me the truth. I'm like, what truth? We have our visa. We're supposed to be here. Anyway, they just gave us the hardest time and we managed to cross.

8:50 We're three hours late. We're going to Buffalo. And same type of deal. We kind of just arrived, jumped on stage and played like with their guitar, not even our own instrument. We just jumped on stage and and play it right away. Yes, never, never. And you know what? That makes me miss the old days when you didn't need a passport and me and my bros would come into Canada, the party, we would drive in, drive out, no issue, teenagers with drugs and fucked up beyond belief. You're in the glove compartment. Yeah, exactly. And like, Have a nice day. Those were the days. You know what? The generation right now that's 18 to 20 or whatever, they have.

9:31 No idea it was like that. Pre-9-11, right? Oh, man. I was Sunset Strip in the 80s, and me and my friends used to drive down to San Diego and walk over the bridge to Tijuana to go party. Wow. As a teenager. Let's go. Let's go. Now, there's a stupid wall. Like, I don't want to climb a fucking wall. I just want to walk over the bridge. It's like nobody ever learned from history. You know, they keep saying, know your history. No. changes anything. I mean, no, Berlin had a wall. What did we do to that? Bitch down, you know? Now, that was my thing. Like, I'm a Jew. We took down the Berlin Wall. Why are we building one in the United States?

10:14 Yeah, man. I'm 100... I don't even get it. We have a new album coming out in October, all right? Actually, we haven't even told anybody that. New album's coming out in October. We're all about that. What day? The 9th. My birthday is the 11th. Oh, brother. I know what to get you. But yeah, we play in Berlin, right? And we took a bunch of band pictures at the Berlin Wall. We're like history. But it seems to me these days like we're just putting up new walls everywhere. What the hell is this? Yeah. Because like... When I went to Berlin a few years ago, I'm like, this is the coolest city ever. And it's not what you imagine. And I've been to other parts of Germany where it's like, okay, this is old school Germany. But then you go to Berlin and it's the most progressive place on the planet.

10:56 They have a little Jamaica. Raves start at noon. Let's go. Cool underground music scene everywhere. And everybody goes to shows. We did 16 shows in 16 days. Every show was packed. Everyone. And older people dressing up full punk. We're talking 60 years old, the green hair. Nice. Everybody wants to party. We love playing in Germany. See? And they do. I just got back from Wacken. And oh my God. Those people, they love music. Yeah, man. And they don't even care what... I was in a mosh pit with dinosaurs. Okay? That was the most fun shit ever, man.

11:36 And next thing you know, the crowd's making pyramids and rowing some imaginary boat. Exactly. But here we are, Warped Tour Montreal, man. I'm so excited. I'm glad Warped Tour's back. There was nothing ever like it. And there never will be anything else like it. And that's why there is only one Vans. 100%. I mean, check the vibe. Everybody's so happy right now. It's awesome. No doubt. I just want to see it go bigger and bigger and bigger and go back to what it was. Yeah, man. And get rid of corporate America bullshit. And put back the DIY shit. Exactly. Corporate America, you're not invited to our party. There it is. You heard it from me and him.

12:17 That's it. Anything else you want to tell the listeners we haven't covered yet that you want them to know? Absolutely. K-Man the 45's new album is dropping October 9th. Check it out everywhere. We're so stoked on this album. And we're already booked. We have 60 shows booked. Europe, Canada, USA, we're coming as well. Just stay tuned and hang out, man. Check it out. Yeah, stay tuned for the first single. It's coming out next Tuesday, I believe. What date is that? It's the 25th, Tuesday, August 25th. The first single of the new album is coming out on Stomp Records, so check it out. I do love that. I think I'm going to have to get me a Stomp Records shirt, too, because I keep seeing them. I got you, brother. Oh, my God, I love that shirt. Okay, this is the second time this has happened. Yes. You know, that's not even the first time that's happened.

13:08 I love that. So during an interview once, the oxymorons, and I have that shirt with me, traded shirts during the interview. That's the way, man. So do you want my Mosher shirt? Of course I do. What are you talking about? This is a special shirt. Let me tell you what this is about. This is from a festival. Sophie Lancaster, this punk rocker got attacked in London And killed. So there's this foundation, the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. Oh, I feel honored. Right? And this festival, there's a lot with it. And these shirts, the money goes towards that foundation. So punks and goths don't have to worry about what they look like and getting the shit kicked out of them by idiots. So here you go, man.

14:03 All right. They're actually trading shirt for real. There you go. Awesome. Yeah, you can do it, guys. All right. There it. Is. There you go.

14:44 Well, that was fucking awesome. You guys are fucking awesome. And I'm so glad you're here at Warped Tour. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Thank you, brother. I think we're going to get along just fine. Thanks for having us, man. My pleasure. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pikeman on W4CY Radio.