nothing,nowhere on Art, Music, and Mental Health Live from Warped Tour Montreal

0:04 Hi, 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.. Nothing Nowhere. Yes, but you are somewhere. We're here at fucking Warped Tour Montreal. How badass is that? It's amazing. I did three Warped Tours last summer. Nice. And so far, this venue, this area is my favorite out. Of all of them. It's beautiful. It's such a cool venue, too. I walked in. I'm like, shit, I wish I had my skateboard. It looks like one big skateboard park.

0:49 I know. I know. And even behind you, we're looking at the Lawrence River. We're looking at old Montreal there. It's gorgeous. It is. It is. One thing I want to say, too, your tattoo right there, love. Yeah. Okay? To me, that describes Warped Tour. Yeah. That describes this community out there. For sure. Like, with everything going on in the world, this is our escape where we all just love each other. Yeah. We need this more than ever right now, you know? It's like, it feels like it's the one place you can go and no one's judging you. Everyone's just here to have a good time and celebrate art and music and creativity. Exactly. Yeah. And I love that you, like, cross different genres everywhere. I think that's what's cool about today in music. Like when I was a kid, you couldn't even like one punk band. If you liked another one, you couldn't like a one metal band. If you liked another one, much less crossing into another genre. So I'm, I am so thankful for artists like you that just bring art and it doesn't matter what the genre is.

1:49 Yeah, no, thank you so much. It's just, uh, I'm just a music fan. You know what I mean? I, I listen to everything from deathcore to power violence to punk to post-hardcore to emo to rap to nu metal. You know what I mean? And I just love the process of making music, you know? Yeah. So, you know, why constrict yourself to one little corner these days. You know? Right. And that's the way it should be. Music is music and whatever, like, does it for you. And, like, I'll tell you a funny story you would appreciate. Like, near my studio is where Vanilla Ice lives. Oh. I've become good friends with him. Initially, like, somebody came up to me, hey, you should interview Vanilla Ice because he's, you know, in town. And I looked at him and I'm like, why? And then I met him. We became friendly and I used to do this event for him they did every year. And he was helping me bring my radio equipment out because I was broadcasting live and I had Slipknot blasting. And he started headbanging. And I looked at him and I eye-rolled him. He goes, no, man, this is my jam, man. Like, I love metal. I help them get signed. And I'm fucking sick of singing Ice Ice Baby. I wrote that when I was 16, man.

3:04 And I think people don't get that whole concept. When you're an artist, you do want to evolve. You do want to experiment. And you want to go beyond those borders of the box that they want to put you in. Sure. Yeah, man. I mean, I mean, I think we all start making music because we're a fan of music first and foremost, you know, always be a mega fan of music. I mean, I'm tripping out just seeing some of the bands I listened to growing up, you know, at these Warped Tours, you know, so that's so cool. Like, and like, yeah, like Vanilla Ice, just like being unapologetically himself is like, that's like, that's. What punk is. Totally. To be unapologetically yourself without worrying about, you know, how people will perceive you.

3:44 Exactly. A hundred percent for sure. So I have a, I have a very, you might think a funny question for you, but maybe it's serious too, is did you ever, do you ever think about going back to doing filmmaking in addition to music? Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. I mean, I went to film school, um, and I, I did some film slams and I did the short film thing for a while and, Um, I think nowadays I, I edit and shoot my own music videos and that's sort of how I use my film backgrounds. Um, and also probably save some money in the process. Right. Right. And hire a huge crew. Um, but no, I, I definitely like making an actual narrative film is something that's completely on the table for me.

4:30 And I've been talking about it for years. Um, it's just a matter of like, you know, when am I not in the studio? When am I not on tour? Like, let's do it, you know? So nice. Cause like, You remind me of, I saw this band in my high school gymnasium many, many years ago. Oingo Boingo. And now look at fucking Danny Elfman. One of the greatest composers of films ever. It's insane. I kind of look at it like you're the same type of path. Because art is art. And you want to spread out to all these different things and explore your creativity. No, for sure.

5:10 Yeah. I think like if you're if you're making music, you're already a little like off kilter. You know, we all have that mind. Yeah. I'm ADHD out of my mind. You know, I just love like art. My first, you know, introduction to art was my grandfather was a really good sort of illustrator and illustrator. he was great at drawing and I would just sit at the kitchen table, just me and him drawing all day. Nice. And then that just moved into music and photography and graffiti. And, you know, it's all the same, you know, I think Warped Tour really encapsulates that this is all just one culture. I agree. Like it is, and it should be art. It's art. If you're an artist, it's like all different things, not just one.

5:51 For sure. Which also what blew me, my mind is like, you were also a videographer for Ben and Jerry's. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very Vermont of me. Yeah. Is that kind of like what really prompted you into everything else or, or what was it in life that really like prompted you into this whole area of art? Yeah. I mean, I've, I've always, I love trying things, right? Like I love just like I love being a novice. You know what I mean? I think a lot of people, like it's, it's frustrating to start something that you're, you know, you're not, you're not amazing at the first time you try it. You know, when I first started playing guitar, when I was 12 years old, it was hard, you know? And it was in that struggle that I really enjoyed the process because it was like, you know, so many things in my life, you know, I'm really like most people prone to wanting instant gratification. But when it comes to art, when it comes to having an idea or a story, um, There's no such thing as instant gratification. You have to have a concept and you have to move forward towards the finished product. And, you know, at that time when I was shooting for Ben and Jerry's, I was also in film school and I was in an art history class.

7:06 And our final project, our teacher said, just make me anything that's art. Just make me anything. And what I made her was a song called Don't Mind Me. And that ended up being the first Nothing Nowhere song. Wow. So it was sort of like, you know, I'm in this film class and I'm starting. To make this thing. And then, yeah, that's how Nothing Nowhere was born. And I quit my job doing the film stuff not long after and just took a chance, you know. That's what it takes, man. Yeah. I think to really become a true musician that really has longevity is having nothing to fall back on. Like that is your only choice. Yeah, for sure.

7:47 And I believe in that because I'm a motivational speaker. So I always teach people like the only way to succeed is to not have something to fall back on. Because if you do, you'll always fall back on. And then that's where you're stuck. Yeah, like the plan B is like, Having plan A work. Exactly. Right. There is no plan B and there never really was for me. Like I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I knew that I'd be unfulfilled and bored with life if I didn't at least try. You know, I wasn't expecting to. have any type of success in music, but I just knew that I had to try. That's all I knew. See, that makes you a true musician because the true musicians, they don't set out to be rock stars. They just want to play music and create. And it's the best therapy there is for you, the artist, and for me, the listener. And if you don't have that kind of passion like you have, how am I supposed to have the passion for your music?

8:44 People can tell too sometimes. I mean, unfortunately, you know, you get some big artists that make that slip through the cracks and they're kind of just in it. Cause you know, it's what they're doing. They got a team working for them and writing their songs. And there's, you know, I'm not, I'm not, you know, fully crapping on that. But at the same time, like I grew up where, you know, you take your amps in your mom's car and you drive to the VFW and you play a show. To three people when you go home, you know? And it doesn't matter because I had something inside of me. I had a panic attack the day before. I've been depressed. This is an outlet for me. And I know within that hour that I'm playing music, everything's fine. Exactly. And you have had a little bit of history of that since you brought it up. And I look at it this way. When you're an artist or like me, what I do is you do have that... We'll call it anticipation beforehand. But once that mic turns on or once you get on stage... It's like an out-of-body experience.

9:42 You go into another zone. It's meditation. Totally. Yeah. It's fully, like... I don't even know what the rest of the day is. I don't remember what the morning is. The only thing you can do is just look at the crowd, look at your bandmates, and be present fully. There you go. And what is that feeling when you see like people in the crowd that are like totally into it or even repeating back your words to you? Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to really even put into words, really. I feel like I'm not even the one doing it. That's what I mean by the out-of-body experience. It's like weird, right? It's like you're an antenna for some sort of energy, and that energy is just shooting down through your body.

10:23 And I just like to think of just, I don't know, I'm just the one acting it out, and everyone's having this experience. And it's a beautiful thing. And I know what it feels like to be on the other side. I know what it feels like to be 12 years old at a show or, you know, me growing up watching Senses Fail or Boys Not Out or, you know, any of those bands and just being like, this is, I've never seen anything like this, you know? So it's cool. See, I love that you just said that because some artists don't put themselves in the shoes of the people in the crowd or who they were when they were that person in the crowd. I think that makes you a better artist because you can understand your audience and know how they're feeling. It's just like parenting. So many parents forget what it's like to be a kid. Yeah. Me, my kids always used to say, the older ones say to younger ones, oh, you'll never get anything over on days, two steps ahead of you. That's because I would always put myself back at their age. And what would I be thinking? I'd be no good. Exactly, exactly. Like, you're fucked now because I know exactly what you're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

11:33 so anything else you want to share with the listeners that we haven't covered array anything you got coming up or anything they should know. No honestly only thing is you know i just released a single called dying for attention and uh really stoked on that and i've just been in the studio so just if anything happens i'm sure they'll hear from me you know what i mean i'm gonna lay low for a second be in the studio and i'm excited to start a new era of nothing nowhere. Well, I'm excited for it, too, because you're a badass artist, and I'm glad you were here at Warped Tour, and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Thanks so much. You got it. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on W4CY Radio.