PipemanRadio Interviews Gooseberry About Bourbon & Beyond 2025

0:04 Hi, you love one to the censure. For se Wow for you young. It is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm actually back in the studio from both Bourbon and Beyond and Louder than Life, and uh, we have a band right now that we're going to talk about that performed at Bourbon behind It. In fact, they're like right behind me there performing at Bourbon Beyond.

0:54 You know. So let's let's welcome to the show ASO from Gooseberry. How are you good? Thanks for having me, Oh my pleasure, and so first, right off the bat, tell me about your experience playing at Bourbon Beyond. Yeah, I guess, in one word, it was incredible. It was definitely the largest festival we've ever played, and we've played a couple before, but the scale of Bourbon Beyond was just far beyond anything that we had done, and they still treated us like royalty, you know, Like I feel like we got the same kind of treatment that you know, Pixies or Jack White or whatever is getting, which is a testament I think to what Danny and his team are doing over there.

1:38 But it's just really cool. I don't know, I you know, even just like hopping in an artist transport to get from one stage to another is just like a unique thing that you don't recognize when you're just attending a festival, you know. I've been to many, just like as a as a fan just walking around and seeing bands. Yeah, there's just so many little things about what going on at the festival that were really cool for us to get to do and get to see and get to meet people and just see a lot of amazing bands. Play nice And yeah, I already answered one of my other questions because I always like to ask the artists at the Wimmer festivals how does he treat the artists? And then, like sixteen years of doing his festivals, I've never heard an artist say one bad thing.

2:22 I mean, yeah, I guess the only bad thing I can say about Danny is that after he was very gracious and I met him the day before on Friday, and we were lucky enough to get to hang out in his little backyard party area. He had mentioned to me that he actually has an old whiskey that he's been aging since the start of the festival, and I made him promise that he would give me some if we earned it. You know, from our performance, and then I guess Saturday was so busy. I only saw him briefly that day, so unfortunately, you know, we had to keep on with tour and we left Kentucky without my getting a taste of the aged Bourbon and Beyond whiskey.

3:08 So well, then that means one thing. Yeah, that means you're gonna have to play it again. And that's what I That's what I was trying to tell him. I guess we'll see if that lands. You know, we're also if he doesn't want, you know, us to be back to back at Bourbon and Beyond makes total total sense, Louder than life. There you go do that. Yeah, I love it. I love it. And that's what's cool about bands like you and some other band on the Bourbon Beyond ticket is they could play either festival. Yeah, yeah, Like the range of acts that they had at burb Beyond was pretty crazy, right right, Like we were playing the same day. Obviously, you know Ringo's playing, but then you also have Jack White, you also have like their bluegrass bands, you have like I know there was like pop stars you have like you know, Benson Boone.

3:56 At some point in Noakan like being able. To see all these different things and have a stage that has music for anyone who's coming. It's pretty incredible. Yeah, So I love that because the United States was never liked that europe festivals were like that, and I think that that's the page that Danny took out of the European festivals, you know, like where it doesn't have to be boxed into one genre. It can be because listen all of us, you know, like different kinds of music, and like, sure, I am a total metal head, but I also was totally pumped to see Blues Traveler, Yeah, Gooseberry, you know, Fish and like a whole list of artists on Bourbon Beyond.

4:46 You know that. You know, some people think, well, he's a metal head, he listens to that. No, we all listen to different types of music and have different vibes man music's music. Yeah, and particularly finding good music. I think like that is something that a festival like this that has. Such a wide range of acts. I think the element of discovery is great for people who like obviously people are coming to see Fish, to come see you know, Stugel Simpson wherever it might be, right, that's the headliner. That's the point of the headliner, but having strength top down, which like I'd like to think we're you know, adding to that, but the reality is a lot of the bands that are on our level, a little bit above our level, that are playing earlier in the day. I got to catch a bunch of them, and they were also incredible. So like to be able to have not just headliners that you've locked in that allow people to go, wow, that's crazy that you got, you know, I mean, fish playing in festival like this is insane, you know, right, but.

5:46 Then to also have that as you move down the list is pretty. Cool, well, you know. And the thing is is that, you know, there's so many different stages, there's so many different bands that you know, people pop can come and see who they want to see, and you know, it still doesn't take away from the other crowds because like you're set, and even sets a lot earlier than yours, Like there were crowds and crowds of people. Yeah, yeah, I was not convinced anybody would show up for us to play, you know. I kind of think that pretty much anytime we walk on stage, anytime that somebody is there, I'm kind of just just grateful that somebody decided to show up. But you know, we were playing at two pm on a Saturday, and it was the hottest day of the festival.

6:33 It was like eighty eight almost ninety degrees. Yeah, and we were playing at the Revival Stage, which is one of the main stay I mean, it's a big stage, but it's the stage where. It's just concrete. Like there wasn't the turf for grass or whatever they have. It's the other ones which can at least, like you know, take any heat and spread out. This was like concrete. So not only is there no shade, the sun's beaten down on you. It's like the hottest time of the day and is nowhere for it to go. So I was like, no one's coming on this, like they're going to just go somewhere else. But you know, when we started there were probably like a couple hundred people. By the time we ended, they're probably close to a thousand like that. That was awesome. Did not expect that, and I think people enjoyed it, and so we enjoyed it.

7:14 I think that's a testament to your talent, because like if you start at two hundred and end up at a thousand. Yeah, that means you drew people over at that point. I'd like to hope so, or you know, maybe they if they thought they were walking towards the third eye blind and then went. Back, OK, we're here, we're here. We might as well stick around for a little bit and see what this is all about. Well, see, what I love about festivals is that's where I find all the new music. Okay, yeah, So, like I'll be walking through a festival if I'm not working, which is kind of hard to do, but I'll be walking through and I'll hear sometime like, oh, let me check that out. And there were so many bands that I caught parts of, you know, because I was working in the media a tempt but I caught parts of that.

8:00 I never even knew the bands existed, you know, because I'm so involved in the other Wimmer festivals and other festivals around the world that like, this is something like what was it that I went to that was pretty good? It is something salmon leftover salmon? Oh, leftover salmon. Yeah. I mean, so I've never listened to them, and I went over and I'm like, oh man, they're pretty cool, you know. Yeah, yeah, I mean Leftover Sam has been around for a minute, right, I've known them for a while, just like because for what I have an extensive knowledge of jam bands that I guess pertain to food and or animals.

8:43 And we have to constantly explain to people that if we were talking with Peter Shapiro, and obviously Peter Shapiro goes all of these jam bands and is great at it, and his big one right now is Goose And so you know, having to just make sure Gooseberry but not not jam we can jam it were not Jampan, you know, just having the dichotomy there, you know, we have to start saying, like there's goose the jam band, there's a Geese and I'll turn to rock band that we know. From New York City, and then there's Gooseberry, and it's. Like there's one more that played that Louder than Life though Oh yeah, silly goose. Oh now now it's a it's a quadrant at this point where we fall on it.

9:24 Yeah, And you'll love the story of them because okay, so they're basically like a punk band and they crashed one of the Wimmer festivals. It was incarceration won at Shawshank Prison. Okay, and they were playing like the old school thing that you did. They were playing in the parking out in the parking field, you know, they pulled up their trailer and Wimmer was in out there watching them. Wow. And they didn't they didn't know, they didn't know he was there, and he just watched them. Next they played on on a real stage, and they've been playing a bunch of Wimmer festivals ever since. So, yeah, you might get a lot of times bands like you.

10:11 You'll play one and you'll play a. Bunch of them, you know, especially since you can go on both sides of the fence at the different festivals. Look, anytime, anytime he wants us back, as far as I'm concerned, we will be there. So if you if you got a word in with the with the boss man, we're definitely down. But I mean, I also say I. Saw Danny a couple of times in his backyard area, but more times I saw him. We're just walking around the festival, which I think is so cool that he is. He seemingly is just constantly on the move checking out the you know. He just wants to make Yeah, he just wants to make sure everything's running smoothly, everything's good forbody. Just like you said earlier, like it doesn't matter which band you are, you're getting treated like you're the headliner.

10:55 Yeah, absolutely, I mean, yeah that was Maybe it's to be the case, but it really was such like a revelation. And maybe it's because that kind of respect for all people is rarer than maybe it should be. But he had it in space and it made us feel comfortable. Frankly playing this gigantic festival where I certainly was kind of just you know, jittering and you know, freaking out as I am pretty much all the time anyway. As I want. I'm glad you bring that up, because it doesn't matter who you are. It's like say, I'm also a speaker, but yeah I'm on the radio, and you know, you get nervous every time until the mic turns on, and then you go into the zone once the mic turns on.

11:41 It's so much easier once you're doing it right, Like the anticipation, the build up right beforehand for this festival, because everything is so neatly taken care of. For us, it was a little bit less. It was more it's kind of just like, all right, how do I make sure I'm amped up and ready to go for a two pm set kind of thing. But like for a show that we're playing out on tour, there's so much logistical. Stuff that has to happen between a coordination of us and our team manager Asia, etc. Than with the venue, then with the opening bands and making sure we have merch set up, making sure we have you know, photography set like all these different pieces that kind of fall on us to make sure happening smoothly. Instead of just show up, get all your stuff situated, they had stage hands to help us move everything.

12:25 Sound is great. You know that there's going to be a crowd, Like all of that is just kind of taking care of for you, and you just show up and you can go. I might as well just play right. And I say it all the time too, you know, like it's stressful being an artist when all those things go wrong. So it's kind of cool when you go to a festival like a Wimmer festival and basically you have no stress and that makes it a lot less nerve wracking. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean everything was so like meticulously detailed too. I mean they had they had so screen in the bathrooms like nice. That's a crazy flex in my opinion, to just have that ready for people. So you know, it's amazing the small things you take away, Like we ran into a lot of cool artists we got to hang out with, like my morning jacket. But the thing that I have repeatedly told people about this festival is that they had sunscreen in the bathroom.

13:19 And I don't know what that says about me or about the festival, but I think. It says you're a true artist. And I'll tell you why. One of my best friends was the founding I wanted to founding members and lead guitarist of Anthrax, And he always tells me when they were like touring really big, He's like, man, I went like with interviews. He'd say, I wish instead of them asking me how I got and we got our band name, if they asked us what kind of skin condition we use on tour? You know, Oh, that's that's why he said. It's awesome And in hand with what you're saying with the sunscreen. That's incredible.

13:59 Mean, maybe Anthrax and Gooseberry can do just a full hour on our skincare routines, right, I'd be happy to We've been trying to get La Roche Poise to sponsor us for years, so maybe this is what it takes, you know, to get there. But you yeah, that was a key detail for me, and right, yeah. And for all this and that's why, that's why when you said that, that's exactly where my head went to whether that's a conversation, you know, because like who thinks of musicians has given a shit about any skin products or sunscreen. But yeah, but you're humans, so over humans? Well okay, so here not to not to break out the pitchtick, but what what I tried to explain to some of these sunscreen companies was that not only are we humans, but who.

14:50 Else, aside from say, like you know, cross country truck drivers, who is spending as much time in a car with windows that are open faced where sun is beating down on you. We played plenty of shows at like festivals or outside events or breweries wherever it might be sun everywhere. Right, you're just getting beaten down on. You're doing that for hours, Like we are a primary demographic that's being underserved and underutilized by. The great like especially like a place like Bourbon, and beyond that, sun was like, that was brutal. I lived in Florida, and I think that. Yeah, I mean honestly, we played a show at the end of June in Vermont and Burlington, Vermont. It was like as a beautiful day.

15:31 We played it outside like a scenic little backdrop and the sun was just the whole time. We like, you know, we split it up into two sets, and halfway point I just had to run back to the truck, talk the way around and like get you know, some more to reapply. This is a core issue, you know. Of course everyone wants to talk about how you know, musicians will get paid as much as they used. To or streaming and AI is ruining a lot of it for us. But our platform will be first and foremost sunscreen for musicians. I think that is I love it's number one. Then then the AI streaming stuff. So it's funny like in the beginning this year, well this season, back in May, I was doing another wimmer festival Sonic Temple, and you know, I live in Florida.

16:15 I'm a surfer. Yeah, you don't know, Ohio. I don't need sunscreen, you know, I'm thinking, That's what I'm thinking in my head. I never get burnt in Florida, and I got burnt at Sonic Temple because that sun is just beating down on you. You don't even know it's beating down on you, because you know, if you're playing or whatever, anything you're doing, it's like you're so immersed in that. It's not like you're laying in the sun and you're like, oh, maybe I only get out of the sun. You know, you realize until it's too late. Yeah, but you know, worst case, if you do get too badly March, you can always cool off with some skyline Chile.

17:01 There you go. Yeah, Ohio is fun though. We love going to Ohio. We were just we were in Cleveland recently on this tour and that's always it's always a good time. Nice. Yeah, it shocked me, like, you know, I don't get burnt in Florida, but I got burned in Ohio in May. So Yes, that son is strong there too. So Yes, the musicians, wherever you play in the world, you need sunscreen. Yes, Yes, this is the PSA. I hope everybody needs our caution. There it is, And every festival promoter could learn a thing or two from Danny Wimmer for providing that. Sun Absolutely, I agree.

17:41 So what else you got going on for the rest of the year, Maybe a begame of twenty twenty six that you want to let the listeners know about. Yeah, we are as I guess we record this. We are about to play our last show of this year. We're playing in Austin, Texas, and then from there we go into the recording studio. So the rest of this year and probably early next year, we're probably going to take a bit of a break. From shows and just focus on working. On the new record, where we've been working on a lot of these songs on the road and we've been touring pretty extensively since April of this year and playing over fifty plus sixty some odd shows and been able to work on a lot of like the new material through that test some stuff out, see a work, see what doesn't. And we've probably got like ten to fifteen songs or something like that that we're going to now put through the ringer in the studio and if all goes well and we don't hate everything that we've done and each other, hopefully come April of next year so we might have a first single to release, and the idea would be.

18:52 Get back out on the road. We're hoping to get out to the West coast. This tour we went out to Colorado, that was kind of farthest west we've been as a band. We're hoping to do, you know, the West Coast tour from sort of like Seattle, Portland on down through California and also hopefully into Mexico because I know you got folks throughout Mexico that that dig our music. So yeah, I guess new record and more extensive touring to some new places. I think that's those are the goals for next year. And of course to play as many Danny Wimmer Presents festivals. And there you go. Gotta throw that in for sure. Yeah, just making sure he knows you know, right, And. You know, I love that you said you're stop doing shows and do music because yes, what you said after that, it is like artists nowadays they have to rush like an album while they're on the road, and I think there's something to be said of like stopping your shows, chilling out and just being in creative mode, because I think all the other noise can inflict that creative mode.

19:58 Yeah, I think that's definitely one piece of it. I think also we are. I would argue fortunate and particular, I think others might say stupid in that the way that the model has changed for putting out music, it encourages artists to have something new as frequently as possible. So I think that if we were strictly playing the algorithmic game, it would actually be more prep We would never play a show again effectively, and you would just come up with music and release it every other you know, month or every other week. Even because it's a law of large numbers game.

20:39 It's just like how much do you put out there and how much can you direct traffic to that? And that'll feed itself. Yeah, And if that were the end goal for us, I don't know. Maybe that's what we would do, and I don't begrudge anybody for doing that. But the reality is we have the great luxury of a being what I would refer to as a live fan. First, so the desire to go out and play in front of people and to feel confident that is better than a record, or maybe not even. Necessarily better, but just it's a separate. Entity that people want to experience, and it gives us something that's life affirming. So we're going to continue to do that. But then we also have no interest in just like cutting a single, to throw out a single, to just have something and feed that, which again I've had so many discussions with people in this industry, whether they are on the business side or other artists, and everybody has a different opinion on and that's fine. The position that we have taken is we're very deliberate about the art that we create, and even if it takes a little bit more time, I have no intention of rushing out a single or an EP for the soul's sake of having something out there. So our last record, our debut album, came out last September, and if you know, hopefully everything goes well, this new record, which will be another full length record, will probably come out September of twenty twenty six.

21:52 So there's two years between that where we're not actively releasing music, and that's something that I've accepted and I've gotten the guys to see that our team and everybody's you know, at least in Team Gooseberry is behind that. But it's very different from the way that the model works now, which I think is really interesting, and again I don't I don't blame anybody who is playing the game how it's effectively been made to be played at this point. It's just for whatever reason, I just I don't work that way, so I can't write in that way. We can't put stuff together in that way that meets the quality that we expected to And for the other part of it is just like the hearkening of nostalgia. Like all the bands I loved growing up, they were putting out a record maybe once every couple of years, but it was a big events, you know, Yeah, when they're putting on your record, like oh, I need to like my week, like my week is gone. I'm going to get this record. I'm going to sit down and pour through this, listen to this. I want to read through the you know, lyric leaflet. I want to understand what the situations were that led to some of this stuff.

22:52 That is how I want us to create. And I know that the guys feel this way too, Like that's how we want to create things that we create, and we want our fans to feel like they know that's what they're getting from us, that that much effort and precision is going into it at the expense of there's not gonna be as. Much of it, right. Well, you know what, I'm a hundred million percent in agreement with you, because, like I think kids today are missing out on a big part of music because, like you were saying, I would go buy an album and I'd put the headphones on and I'd study every part of that album. Well, I'm listening to the album over and over and over again. I wouldn't skip a track.

23:33 You would put on and played a whole thing. Imagine if Pink Floyd put out one one song at a time, like, yeah. You just got one song from dark Star every month and you just had to then eventually piece it together. Yeah, unfortunate, you know so. And I think also, yes, there's two sides to it. There's benefit to a band because you're in everybody's face all the time. But I think that this band too, when you're only putting out like a single, I don't think the people remember who the band even is. Well, that's a huge issue with today's environment, right, is that because of the way the algorithmically generated model works, it is not incentivizing you going deep into one catalog.

24:19 It is incentivizing you having a base level or a service level understanding of many different things, right, and I think there's I can talk about this stuff for days, but like, there are so many good pieces from like, you know, journalists on how we have lost critical culture and we have lost the idea of people being very well versed in a particular area specialist as opposed to generalists, and the fact that everyone has become a generalist. Sure there are advantages to it, where music discovery is better now than it ever was, but at the same time, we have lost the kind of like fervor that certain people had. You know, you'd walk into an old record store or something like that just be like that was the rock guy or that was the right that you know, like that and that.

25:04 Kind of specialized knowledge for oh, I want a really good recommendation that feels catered from a human to a human because they have put in that mileage. And it's not just oh, well, this genre sounds like, this genre's band sounds like. It's more like, well, look, there's this emotional element that I connected from this nineteen ninety two release, and you know this twenty ten band is actually heavily influenced by that. But the way they approach is reference. This is like, there are these connections that an expert in a field can make that a machine, I guess at. This point, maybe at some point won't be able to make. But it's not going to feel the same way as getting it from the. Person's great conversation. It's a great connector you feel like you're part of the music instead of just listening to the music.

25:48 Yeah, there's a community element that gets developed that you you lose when you are listening in isolation. No doubt. So tell everybody how they reach out to you guys on socials, on the web. But get all your tour DAIDs, check out your music, buy your merge, all that good stuff. Yeah, we are at Gooseberry Band pretty much all the places you know. I usually tell people though that if I had to choose where you'd find this, you would come to our website, which is gooseberryband dot com. From there you can find all the things that I just mentioned, but it's a little bit more curated. We got stuff like our set list archive. There's you know, tabs for people want to learn how to play the songs. And then we have a newsletter called the Gooseberry Gazette on substack that if you really want to hear me ramble about useless stuff like this, that is the place to do it.

26:40 I love it. And see you are a jam band because you have set list archive. Okay, Pearl Jam does too, though. Okay, so you know it's not just jam bands, but there is a lot of that ethos I grew up I really love. I still love a lot of those jam bands. I don't listen to it as much as maybe I once did, but like you know, bands like Fish and Dave Matthews band Grateful Day, like they were very formative for me in the same way that bands like Soundgarden and Nirvana were. Well. Yeah, and again going back to the beginning, like we have different vibes, different music. So I used to go to a Slayer show on Friday night and Dead show on a Saturday.

27:20 That's awesome. I love that. The dully of man, right, I know, right, you know, some people may want to call that bipolar, but I like to do aality better. Hey, yeah, certainly interesting is what it is. Well, you guys rock. You killed it at Bourbon Beyond and I look forward to seeing a lot more of you at the Danny Wimmer Festival's hint hint. Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you, thanks for being on the Adventures pipe Man. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on w for CUI Radio.