Freddy Jones Band Featured by NASA as “In a Daydream” Wakes Artemis II Crew - PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you have done to censure? Wow, crazy young. Ro Scus colors color coll out over. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio. And I'm excited about this next interview. We got with some crazy good musicians and uh, some great stuff we're going to talk about.

0:46 So let's welcome to the show. Rich and Marty from the Freddie Jones Band so. Much. My first question I have to ask, and I already know the answer, but I have to ask, just for shits and giggles, is how come Freddie's not on this interview? Oh? Man, I knew that was coming. You know a funny thing, you know, a funny that this reminds me a funny thing about that when we were, you know, starting out on Capricorn Records and first going out and starting to tour around and having to visit radio stations every morning, and they put a press release out ahead of time telling people whatever you do, don't ask them about the name of the band. And so think about how genius that is. They thought. They're like, oh, the guys will think that we're trying to look out for them. Meanwhile, it's genius. What is it to everyone? Asks the question, and so there we were. There's the real story, and then there's all the stories we told.

1:52 That's the part I love is the story because I never ask about band names. Okay, I know better than that. Too many friends that are in bands, Like it's the worst question ever. But I just think it's so funny that you have a band with the name of somebody and everybody thinks that person's famous, and not even anybody in the band. Yeah, it was. It was a college joke. There was a band before us, and they named the band after a buddy of theirs that wasn't in the band. So he was big man on campus and these guys they were friends of ours, and they laughed and it was our turn. So we just took it a step further and we're like, well, let's just invent somebody and everyone in town will be wondering who this person is. And so so we thought that story was very boring. And so when when when people like you would ask us when we were out on tour, we would instead come up with all these outlandish stories. And it was the first Canadian to cross like Michigan in an inner tube.

2:49 That was one of them. Just the craziest stories. So I go and I do a lot of festivals and this one band I said to him before the interview, I'm like, hey, I don't ask you stupid questions like how you got your band name. And they're going, well, you're lucky then, because you see that girl. Sitting next to you. We totally fuck with everybody that asks that. We different story every time. And the story we told her you had to see the look of horror on her face. And so this band, they're called August Burns Red, and so they're like, yeah, well, when we were teenagers, my sister she got this dog. We named it August.

3:33 We were out in the in the street partying. We thought it would be funny to light the dog on fire and watch it run down the street. Ergo August Burns Red. And they're like and we say it was a straight face totally, And I'm like, that is the most brilliant shit ever, because like, I'm all for messing with press people that ask stupid questions, even if it's me no, it's. Just it's just so funny, especially when you read it in print and like you pull into town. He did a phoner ahead of time and you're reading this crazy story and you're like, oh my god, they printed it. You know, we. Had someone introduced us recently that read something we can't update our Wikipedia because everybody changes it back. And he got up and he introduced us as a comic strip or whatever it says on there, which is a complete BS.

4:26 And then he was walking off. He said, did I do He was a famous radio DJ and he said did I do? Good? I said, dude, all that's wrong, but you did great. And it will be a sound check. And this sound guy's always like, hey, can you get Fred? Like Fred who you know? And uh, oh, well Marty his name is Marty, And they're like the look of confusion. They're like, what Fred, who's Fred? Oh, let's see. You have to have fun in this industry because you know, playing music's fun. Doing that stuff's fun. Every thing else is probably shit, you know. The rest is the business end of it. So yeah, you definitely have to, especially when you're doing a whole bunch of interviews. Like I know, if I was an artist, like after the first or second time, I'd be like, you know, fuck this, I'm just gonna fuck with people.

5:17 Yeah, well, get you get a little looney out there. That's that's for sure. When we were playing two hundred some dates a year and just on a bus, and I mean you we were like, we're basically a submarine. Crew out here, right totally. You start losing your mind. I mean you really do. And see now you're a moon space crew. Oh my, like, oh my god, how does that happen? I don't know. I really don't know. I actually know how it happened. Somebody likes the band that's up there in space. Right, that's what I saw, Like they requested your song, and yeah, it is such a cool song to I thing to wake up to in space. Like if you're gonna wake up in space to a song, that's a good song to wake up.

6:07 To because you're out there, you're like daydreaming, like it's not can't be real. When you're up there in space, Like it has to feel like a day dream for sure, or good drugs, one of the two. It can't be caught, Like I can't even conceive it being up there. So that's the perfect song right there, I think. And I think it probably at that stage where they were somebody I read this, someone wrote something about it, and there they said, what a what a great song to be looking back at Earth when they were around at that point, you know, and the photos that were used for you know, the images for that that third day, that morning Friday.

6:47 Yeah. I and then I, you know, I peeled the song off of Spotify and you you can choose which part of the song, and I chose kind of the outro, and I thought, you know, it does it has a pretty vast feel to it. And so I kind of got it, you know, like, oh, I get it. You guys are like the real life soundtrack to Star Trek. I thought, you know, my phone started. I started getting these texts like, hey, what's what's all this about? You know, those guys and the astronauts are listening to you in space And I'm like, oh oh, like, oh my god, who put an April Fool's joke joke up? Like a couple of days ago. People are just getting around like finding it or something. And then I someone sends a link and like are you kidding me? Like I literally almost fell off the chair sitting next to a friend of mine, like you gotta be kid me, right?

7:50 It just blows my mind too, that like this song is in a brand new song, like the fact that they pulled something out of your catalog from in a different century. You know, that's I think they're in the same age, you know, bracket as you know a lot of our fans, and you know, we have a very white, diverse audience. I mean, we're thirty five and up, and you know, Marty and I are in our fifties. And you know, it was funny because Friday, I was sitting at lunch and the text message that I received says from a number I didn't have in my phone, says so cool that the astronauts are listening to in a daydream.

8:35 And I was like, what is this? You know? And then I set my phone down started having a conversation with my friend here in Nashville, and the phone just started buzzing and buzzing, and I look and I somebody sent the tweet a NASA And then I started to send it to Marty and he sent it to me first. So it was happening. We're both at lunch on different parts of the US and texting each other, and I was like, it's it was so unreal. I'm like, is this real? And then that's the messages I've gotten all weekend. You know, you see the you know, the representative's a NASA talking about the song, and people are posting it saying is this real because that's a crazy thing with that AI.

9:24 You just never know, yeah, exactly. Wow, Like so you didn't even really know until other people were telling you. Yeah. And like for some reason, maybe because of where the mission was, you know, day three, early on, it was something to talk about, like, hey, they send music to the astronauts, so it's just like a new kind of thing to talk about. And I don't I mean, it's just people were sending me videos of themselves watching CNN, you know, with and it wasn't just like they were talking about General U and genlemally you know there we were.

10:05 I get really party on that. They just they just they just kind of grabbed onto it and it became this thing, you know, like the nightly news NBC, like people were seeing it on global stuff, you know, crazy. I think we've had every rock star friend of ours reach out and say, what is this? What is going on? And you know, it's just so surreal, and you know, it's awesome for what Marty wrote this song when he was eighteen years old or something. I mean, this is crazy, you know, and we're still going the bands that we're out there, we go out and do fly dates now and we're playing and this is the song they come to see, you know, so it's very special for us.

10:46 That's so cool. And then of course you're lay this single I relate to a lot because I've made a lot of bank deposits that don't get withdrawals in Las Vegas. Okay, I saw that. I saw the cover behind you, and that's a funny story in itself. And this song is is so cool and I don't know, Marty tell them what it's really I mean, this. Is I want to hear the story of what. The song's about. And then you know, Marty writes the lyrics, I'm like, hey, what is this really about? You know, it's just like, oh, it's this. You know. It makes sense well that that song came from a batch of songs which before this one, a song Connected came out, and a song called Mirror Ball, And these were all part of.

11:35 A group of songs that I was delivering for an album, and that for whatever reason, we were going to tuck them away and use them for something else. A different kind of project, and then that never came to fruition, and Rich started reaching out to me kind of one at a time, like let's go back in and do another one, and then time to do another one, and we're like, he kept pressing me on this song. He's like, we got to do no money in Vegas. He's like, we got to work that up. He's like, that's there's something there. And you know, the writing of it was really about, you know, of all places to be with with you know, you don't have much. It's a relationship. Yeah, you're looking at you're looking at your hotel window, at at all of that glitz and all of the you know, all of that, and yeah, you're perfectly happy without any of all that stuff because you've got each other. And that's that's really what it's tries to capture.

12:41 I love that because the whole thing came together in a month. By the way, Wow, everything the release of the song, everything, I mean it, it was the song. I mean Marty's demos from years ago. It's almost like you woke up from a day dream. Yeah, you know, and and that girl on the front cover, everybody thinks that's a that's our friend Andrea Wit she plays with Moby and Shania Twain, and you know, she's a friend of mine that just happened to be on the phone with me one day and and somebody text and said, man, we need a really good looking girl for the front cover. Oh she is totally hot. She's whispering in my ear as we're interviewing, like she's she's telling.

13:23 Me what to say to you guys. Literally literally I was on the phone with her and I said, hey, do you have any photos that we could use? And so that photo is actually just a photo that was taken backstage at. A mobile That's such a Vegas photo though. Right, Yeah, it's perfect like that. You couldn't have like had her if you coached her done better, you know, like it was perfect. I love it. I love it. So now how do you top all this? Like there's a lot of twenty twenty six coming, you know, you have some high bars to now top.

14:03 Well, there's always, right, there's always Mark, Yeah. Yeah, I mean we are playing some shows this year. Yeah yeah, well I know one way the top it is that you just found out that you're playing Summer Fest yep, right. In June. So that's pretty. Badass, because that's a badass festival in Milwaukee. We've played it a lot, and we have a great relationship with the Summerfest people and they are fans of the band. They've been so supportive of us in every way. Our time slot this year is amazing. Saturday, I think we're at seven thirty pm. Oh my god, that's like prime time right there.

14:44 Yeah, yeah, yeah, normally we play Thursday or Friday or something. But I mean that we've never had a bad Summer Fest. It's incredible. That's see. That's cool, like. When it's kind of still in that you know, the Wheelhouse, the geographically it's in that that zone is close enough to Chicago, and everyone goes. Up the totally totally. And I always love to hear when artists praise festivals because there's people that run good festivals and there's people that don't run good festivals. So I always like to hear when the artists like have nothing but good things to say, because if you treat the artists right, I think that's when in arts, when a festival is a success.

15:31 Yeah, they've they've been not only wonderful to us, I mean it's tough we're independent band the past eleven years. Yeah, and to get on some of those festivals, you know, you have to have that, you have to have that big management or that that agent that's got the poll. And we we can go with any band. I mean, we could play with rock bands, we could play with we could play with anyone. I mean the band is we definitely take this serious and you know we're excited about it. We go there to rock out. I mean, bands changed a lot since the initial and a daydream, right, but without that song, we wouldn't be. Here right now. And yeah, I know it, and I think Marty. Knows it, and yeah, well every band has that song, right, there's at least that one song that everybody just remembers, you know, and everybody's like they associate you with that song.

16:21 Or I love when I'm at festivals and I'm with people that they're like, oh, I know they played that song. They the Incubus. That's one of those bands that I've been with people and it's like every song that comes on, oh that's Incubus, Oh that's Incubit. And it's like, I don't know ten different songs they'll say that about. And I'm like, see that. To me, that is a great song because like people just never forget it. Whether they forget who it is or not, it doesn't matter. They just don't forget the song. And that's what's cool. And now you're up in space like I don't no, that's I'm sure you guys are on cloud nine when when you started hearing that, after the confusion settled and you realize it was real.

17:11 Yeah, somebody somebody said, you know, for that one day, man, we might have been the most talked about band on the planet. For one day. Actually, our publicist said, I think you were the most famous or most talked about, you know, been in the past twenty four hours ever. I mean I could tell you what I got. Every news I turned on talked about us. I was like, what is this a dream? There we go? And then I got the email from SHAWNA. I'm like, you don't even have to ask me, go. Ahead, booket, Like, it's just such a cool story.

17:55 How many bands can you interview that their music was played on the way the moon? Just saying I've done over three thousand interviews. I think this is the first. Yeah, you know, I sang the national anthem at Wrigley Field in twenty seventeen that summer, and it was fourth of July weekend and I was in the middle of singing that song and I thought to myself, because they've won the World Series the year before, and I thought to myself in the middle of singing it, I'm like, how many people can say that they've sang this anthem for the world champion Chicago Cubs. And I'm thinking in one hundred and eight years, only the people that are doing it this summer. And so this feels so similar to that, but on obviously a scale that's.

18:46 Like, well, and then Wrigley Field, I mean, like I'm a Yankee person and I'm still like, you know, given props because it's Wrigley Field. Like there's certain place at fields. I don't care what team, there's certain fields. If you sang at that field, that's iconic, and Wrigley is one of them for sure. Yeah. So yeah, it was amazing. We did the first pitch there as well, and I think we're doing something this year for him. Some of the people there in the owner of the Cubs, mister Ricketts, is a fan of the band, which is really cool. Nice Now, see I was a pitcher for nine years, and if I had to throw the first pitch, I'd probably be so afraid that I was gonna beam the umpire or something or some fan in the stands, because I was like, you know, it's a whole different story, like pitching in the game compared to being called out the pitch the first pitch, where the whole world is watching.

19:45 I'd be like this. There. And we walked out there onto the field and I looked at where the mound is when you're standing out there, and looked to where the catcher was, Marty, can you throw that far? Oh my god. That's a long way it is. I'm standing there on the third base line like looking over at it. I'm like, that's nothing, man, that's I don't see the big deal with this at all. And the guy, our guy Max, who runs all the field activities, comes over to me and he's like, so have you been practicing and everything? You know, because I had sang the anthem before that the somewher before and I was terrified.

20:25 I mean I was absolutely shaking terrified before. But this time I was like, oh, that's nothing. You know. He's liked, well, have you been practicing. I said, what do you mean practicing? What He's like the pitch. Have you been practicing throwing a baseball? I'm like, oh, I have been throwing a baseball since I was a kid. Oh my god. He's like, I'll be right back, and he runs over to the bucket the balls and grabs a ball and throws it to me. I'm gonna run down there and you're gonna throw it to me. And I whipped it at him. He's like, oh my god, thank god. But I got out there on the mound. They announce it. I walk out there and I looked at home plate and I I'm like, you gotta be I'm shaking my head at the guy, like you gotta be kidding me. That's so far. And he's like, I got it to him.

21:10 It was all right. But yeah, he did it. He flung it. I was impressed. Man, he flung it. Yeah. Man, that that would be that would be like one of the most nerve wracking experiences. And it's funny for people like us saying this, because you know, with the things that we do, you would think we're always nervous and stuff like that, and you or we would never be nervous for something like that because we're so used to gain on stage or gain on mike. Fuck no, man, I'd be like, I hope I don't throw this ball behind me. I talk about I talk about that all the time. People think, oh, well, you're on stage in front of people like all the time, so you must be great at public speaking. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, you don't understand.

21:57 That's like scripted. That's almost it almost feels like you're hiding behind the music on stage and you're just it's just going through. Well, you go in zone. You go in zone, like just like me anytime I go onto the mic or I'm also I am a public speaker. Anytime I get up on stage and I'm doing speaking. Right before I go on stage, man like, I don't know I'm going to say, I'm going through my head blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And then as soon as the mic turns on, like some switch turns on in my brain and I'm in a zone. And then I get off and you'll recognize this. I'm like, man, I really sucked saying it in my head and people are coming up to me. Oh, that was really good. That was really good.

22:39 I'm like, really, I think people don't realize that like most of the musicians I've been friends with have the worst stage fright ever. Like my bro that was a head engineer at my station here. He was a country in country rock duo. He was in a metal band in the eighties, and I to go and have the pre game with them before every gig because that's the only way he could get himself to not have stage fright, to get up there. And he was really good. But you know, that's I think we're all our own worst critics, is what it comes down to. For sure. I remember us having stage fright a little.

23:21 Marty was remember when we were doing the iHeart thing with with Maclamore and there was like this big long delay. We're standing there waiting to play one song or see that would suck. Marty and I got together and Marty goes, are you nervous? I go for some reason, I am a little, because it's like, what because. You're not just walking out on stage now, you like you were ready to go and wait hold on, So I could totally see that it happened. It happened. To me, I don't know, a few summers ago, and it was it was Big Head Todd and the Monsters. It was US and the Samples, and it was at Levett Pavilion in Denver, and kind of unexpectedly, you know, our three bands got together and we realized that we hadn't done this three of us in so many years, and kind of unexpectedly, like thousands and thousands of tickets sold and it sold out, and I'm standing there on stage and i didn't really recognize what it was and I'm like, I feel kind of weird, and this is a really funny, weird feeling, and I'm like, oh, this is stage fright. You know.

24:33 Oh that's what that is. It happened so. Good, dude. I didn't even know. See there, there it is there, it is. Well, you guys rock. I love all the like. I love all that you're doing right now. Everybody's got to go check out your website, Uh, the new song, everything got going on, your tour dates, got a few dates coming now, and then we have. Yeah yeah announcing a ton of stuff for the summer and fall. So it's gonna be awesome. So everybody make sure you keep up with these guys because if not, you can't listen to my show.

25:14 Love it. Thanks a lot for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Thanks appreciate you. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Main on w for CUI Radio