The Toadies Talk Unity, Anti-Hate, and Recording With Steve Albini at Louder Than Life

0:05 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. Donovan Blair of the Toadies and Mark Reznicek, also of the Toadies. I love it. I am most excited about this interview all day because even though I couldn't leave my hole here to go to your set like I wanted to, I was watching it on the screen. Awesome. And when I walked out of an interview and walked up, the first thing I saw was the anti-Nazi shit.

0:51 Yep. I was sold right there. Yeah. I mean, I love your music, but I wouldn't have cared if you sucked. Okay? I was sold right then and there as a Jew who's very upset with the anti-Semitism going on in this world. Yeah. And then I get to look up at that because I do a lot of festivals and I'm a little nervous at festivals sometimes because I sit in the crowd watching thing and I hear shit like death to the IDF and I'm like, but I'm not like that because I open my big mouth I was with a girl one time I forget which festival and we were out there after I was done with my interviews and this band was like saying all this anti-Jew shit and I looked at her and she was chanting with them and I looked at her and I'm like you do realize I'm a Jew right and her answer was well then fuck you too like what the fuck is wrong with this world Blame the leaders, don't blame the people.

1:54 Yeah, there's a shitload of wrong, you know. Right? Yeah, don't blame the people, blame the leaders. Exactly. You're not making those decisions. You know. Exactly. Yeah. I don't get why people don't separate that nowadays, like. There was a point in time where we could all get along even though the idiots were trying to get us to not like each other. Now it works. Well, it works because certain dipshits are playing upon that. Yeah. That fear and that... They like that schism. It helps. Even though it's... They know it just divides people. Exactly. Divide and conquer. It's the oldest trick in the book. Yep. We need to all unite at a music festival, get in a mosh pit, and hug it out.

2:35 All right. Kevin Second said it better. If the kids are united, we'll never be divided. That's right. And what were you going to say? Yeah, instead of fighting left versus right, it's like the rich motherfuckers up here trying to get us fighting down here. Exactly. The peons on the bottom of the totem pole. Like, why are they calling the shots? Of course. And I've always said... They're two sides of the same coin. They're all on the same team, and it ain't mine. And I'm talking about. All those people. Like, left, white, right, red, blue, doesn't matter. We're all human beings.

3:15 We're one race, the human race, and we need to start figuring it out so we can get rid of those assholes. Right? Agreed. So, now I guess we'll talk about music. Sweet. But music is the unifier. That's why it's important. It is. You know? Yeah. Like. I don't think anybody out there right now is left or right, red or blue. No. They're all here for people like you. Exactly. I didn't even know I was going to do that right there, that rhyme. That worked out well. Just came out. Nice one. Right? Yeah. And I have to say, you had initially complimented me on my Venom shirt. But I'm more in awe of your Cliff Burton shirt. Thank you. As somebody that was at Metallica's first show ever and was there up in the Bay Area when Cliff made them go up there and join him, You know, I lived in L.A.

4:10 Yeah. Them and Slayer left L.A. So me and my bro started hitchhiking up to the Bay Area to get away from the L.A. Scene to join the real scene in the Bay Area. Yeah, it's where it all started. Right? But as a kid growing up in a small shithole town, discovering Metallica, and at that point it was just hair metal, glam metal. Yeah. And my brother and I wanted to play music, but we didn't want to do that shit. You know, like, well, I guess we're going to have to wear spandex. And then Master of Puppets came out, and I saw Cliff Burton, and he was wearing, you know, the Canadian tuxedo, and his ability, and. The band was like, oh my god, I dress like this anyway.

4:53 Great. You know, I don't have to change anything. That guy... Just a huge inspiration, you know. A monster he was. Oh, my God. Like, unbelievable. Incredible musician and bass player. And thank God you didn't do what I did, because you're still here at Lighter Than Life. But I was very involved in the music scene, and I wanted to make that my life. But I sat backstage as a teenager and watched all these bands get signed by record labels and get told, okay, now you're going to dress like this. This is how you're going to play your music. And I was like, fuck this shit. I won't pose out on a passion. Yeah. So I went a different direction. I came back, you know, but now we're a different world.

5:38 Yeah. Now you go out to a place like Louder Than Life, 240,000 people expected here this weekend, and we're all here as one people for one purpose, music. And it doesn't matter what the music is. It's just music. Yes. It's all it's always been. Make more music, make less war. That's it. That's the famous words right there. So how did it happen that you ended up at Latter-day Life? Because I've been doing the DWP festivals for years, and I was super excited when I saw you on the lineup here. We've been talking about wanting to get on these forever and I think just the stars aligned and our agent Andy and these guys have known each other forever and I think that they had some good slots that opened up and they welcomed us. They asked us if we wanted to do this one and Aftershock.

6:36 I'll get to see you at Aftershock, too. Yeah, we said, of course, we would love to. And so we built a tour around these to promote the new record. It all just kind of worked out perfectly. And tell me about the new record. I'm sorry? And tell me about the new record. Yeah, we found ourselves without a label. And so we talked about it, and we decided to. Uh, skim from the top of our next two tours, um, save our pennies and go record an album that we financed ourselves. You know, we don't, we're not beholden to any label now. We were kind of free for the first time.

7:22 Congratulations. So, and who do we want to record with? We all said Steve Albini, like we've been wanting to work with him for like 30 years. And, uh, So we called him up and, you know, it was as easy as that. Yeah, when are you available? So, yeah, we got to record with Albini, our hero, like several months before he died. Wow. The last thing he saw was Donnie's ass. Ha, ha, ha. That's probably what killed him. That's what I was about to say, okay? The eye of Sauron.

8:08 Wow. What were you saying? Oh, no. We don't want that. No, we're good on that. So, how, what was it like recording the newest album? Like, How is it, I'm always in awe of artists like you that have been around for so long that can still write music, you know, and come up with something new. We went with, like, our, we're really a prolific band. I mean, we'll maybe go a long time without writing, and then all of a sudden, it's just, it starts happening. And usually, Vaden will start bringing riffs, you know. Some of the songs, one of our songs on the record was Rez Prada. came up with a drum beat, sent it to Clark. Clark wrote some riffs over it, and then Baden finished it up.

9:01 And just... We worked really hard on. Writing it and making sure we had it before we went in with Steve. Because we knew it's... Once it's on, you know, tape, it's never coming off. So we wanted to. Also, we knew that Albini liked to record, like, the band live in the studio, basically. So we. really rehearse the songs, you know, to where we really knew them before we even went into the studio. Nice. And there's a lot of times on other albums where we'll have some ideas for songs and kind of work them out in the studio and sort of, you know, record a section at a time or an instrument at a time. But on this one, it's basically all of us playing together, you know, looking each other in the eye and playing and Steve Albini just pressing record. So he really captured, you know, us playing together as a band, which, you know, probably we haven't done since our very first album Rubberneck.

10:04 I was going to say that's so old school and I love. It yeah he was incredibly old school and very easy to work with it was all on tape yeah he had a, Steve had a different, like a kind of an acerbic wit. He had a reputation that was garnered, you know, he was very honest guy, but we liked that. We like people being very. Honest and telling us if something's good or not and being basically like Steve. We loved him. I agree with that. That's somebody that's originally from the Northeast. It's like, If I suck, tell me I suck. Don't tell me, oh, good job. We want to know. We don't like to have our asses kissed at all. It gets us nowhere.

10:46 It doesn't accomplish anything. We're not paying him to bullshit us. Right. It doesn't accomplish anything good, and I'd rather know where I stand. I mean, if I suck, then it's not going to be good for the album. Exactly. We've got to know. Oh, well, then I need to make it better. You know? A hundred percent. Yeah. So it was a treat to work with Steve. It really was. We learned a lot. And I think it made the album even better. You know? So, yeah. It was just a great experience. One story, good or bad, from both of you, in this whole musical journey, what sticks. Out in your mind most? You go first. Steve?

11:28 From Steve? No. Your whole musical journey. Oh, God. My whole musical career. Huh. Yeah, see, that one makes you think. I would say getting the gig. Yeah. Louder than life? Yes. This moment right here. This moment right here. Right here. Right now. Getting in the band. Finding out about it and practicing. And then going and just feeling that I botched it. Like, well, didn't get that gig. And the next day they called me at my job. I was in my khakis at my desk, you know, in a cubicle. And they called me and... They were talking to me and saying, so we made a decision, like, okay, and we're all.

12:18 Going to go have lunch. Like, hey, here's the deal, man. If I got the gig, tell me, because I got work to do. Or not, because I'm going to get in trouble. I got to keep my job. Right. Yeah. So I should have known what was coming down the pipe forever. Right. I had them fucking with me. But it was a great moment, you know. I think that's one of the coolest moments. That's the chemistry, though, when you fuck with people. Oh, yeah. I always say, if. I don't fuck with you, I don't like you. Oh, I think we like each other. Right? Right. Exactly. Oh, man. Now you had some time. You should have one by now.

13:01 Okay, I kind of remember this moment. After we recorded Rubberneck, then we went on tour, and we'd never really done a tour before. We'd played around Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana. But this was like a full-on national tour. We're in a van and everything. We're having the time of our lives. Never been to most of these cities. So then cut to like two years later, and our record has already gone gold. It was on the way to going platinum. And we're opening a tour for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who were red hot at the time.

13:46 Pun intended. The first show of the tour was at. The hockey arena in Chicago that I can't think of right now. Playing to this huge expanse of people, larger than I'd ever played in front of before. And we're playing, and I looked up, and there's the Jumbotron up there with my face. Every time the camera was on me, it was me smiling, looking up at the fucking Jumbotron up there. Nice. The hick from the country in the big time all of a sudden. Oh, my God. That was an amazing feeling, though. And probably also like, oh, shit. You know, you see that.

14:34 Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's great. I didn't know that one. Well, there you go. That's awesome. It's amazing. Well, I'm super excited you're here at Lowriden Lake. I almost said Aftershock. In a few weeks. It's coming up. But yeah, now I'll just record and I'll just take the same interview and I'll edit out this and I'll put in Aftershock and we can have two interviews for both festivals. Aftershock. Right? Just splice it in. Aftershock. So. Louder than life. You guys rock. I love that you had the anti-Nazi shit. Especially since tonight's Yom Kippur.

15:21 Yeah. At sundown's Yom Kippur. It would have been even better if you were playing at sundown and that was there. Right. Like, that would have been so cool, right? No shit. Exactly. So, thanks a lot for being on Adventures of Pipe Man. We appreciate you. Thank you so much. My pleasure. Hey, this is Mark from the Toadies, and you're listening to The Pipe Man on W4CY Radio. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pikeman on W4CY Radio.