Music, Polarization and Perseverance with Nick Lutsko

[Music] Welcome to Synchronicity. My guest this week is Nick Lutsko. Musician Nick Lutsko, funny guy Nick Lutsko, cool individual Nick Lutsko. So, you're going to enjoy that conversation. We talk about a whole bunch of stuff. If you're not familiar with this stuff, go check him out. He's on Spotify. He's probably best known for a lot of the work he's done with Super Deluxe, the now defunct Super Deluxe. I think it was a Turner who ended them. What's going on Turner? Ted Turner. Well, okay, come on. What's going on, bud? But he, truthfully, there's something about his music. He's done really incredibly cool.

If you haven't seen them like, emo Trump, and then there's the Alex Jones, Bonivare thing. There's just a lot of really good kind of creative ideas. Musical comedy, if you will, but, you know, I'm not someone who loves like, you know, when a show goes into like the musical episode, like, and it's funny. I'm not super into that. But the way he, you know, it's like Vic Burger ask that this, but very musically proficient and technically well done. I mean, he gets into some of his methodologies about how he made some of these things and it's pretty fucking awesome. And just like a very thoughtful dude. So, yeah, man, we get into a lot of that. But if you haven't checked out his stuff, go do that. Go do yourself a favor. You can do it now, or you can do it afterwards.

So you're jogging. You're driving. You can't. You don't have a choice. Yeah, put something else on. Let's do it afterwards. I think you'll really enjoy it. So, yeah, that's what this episode is. Don't have a lot to say up front. I am what I will say is this. Anyone else have a shitload of stuff going on right now. I feel like I went from pretty much. Oh, I got a second to breathe. And then immediately filed by like, holy shit, so many things going on. Oh, I wanted to mention something. I am not getting paid. This is not an ad. This is not a promote. It is a promotion, but it's a heartfelt one with nothing tied to it.

I picked up a book by Julianna McCarthy called The Stars Within You, a modern guide to astrology. And it's really, really, really good. I heard Julianna on Mara James's Unbroken Chain podcast, which I highly recommend to check out. It's on Mindpods Network. She's awesome. The podcast is awesome. And something struck me about the way Julianna, Julianna, fucking her name up, probably talked about astrology. And it's just there's something about it that resonates very deeply. And I think it's also something that her in her book, she's explaining this in a way that is introductory for those of us who really are maybe aware of astrology, but don't know a lot about it.

But it's also deep enough that it keeps you going. And I like how she attaches the myths to all of the signs. There's a lot of good stuff going on here. It's what I'm saying. And she mentions Jung in like the first 10 pages. There's nothing wrong with that. So go check that out. It just came out. The Stars Within You, a modern guide to astrology. If you're like me and astrology seems to follow me wherever I go, and I'm not even seeking it out, this I have found to be a helpful companion. I have it in my hand right now. So go get that because it's good. That's it. This episode is brought to you by relaxing on the train. I highly recommend if you're able to do it. If you live in an area and a train is accessible, trains are everywhere.

Listen to Rockefeller and all these other barons who dominated the train industries and Carnegie and all these people, Commodore Vanderbilt, all this stuff. There's trains everywhere. Go on a train. Put on some headphones. Look out the window at your beautiful landscape. It's the best thing. I highly recommend it. So go thank you to relaxing on a train for being a new sponsor. Very much appreciate that. A reminder. If you want to support the show, tell a friend. That's all. It's something I can't measure. Not really measuring too much these days related to the podcast. It was going well last I measured. I'm assuming it's going well based on the feedback that I'm getting.

But go to the friend. If you like it, I think it'd be good for them. So that's it for this intro. Nick, you're going to love this episode truthfully because he's just a really cool guy. This is someone I'd put in like the realm. We talked about it specifically kind of how we got to start. But if you're a fan of Vic Burger, if you like really well done music stuff, that is just fucking awesome. You like creative people. You're going to love this episode. So that is it. And without further ado, here is Nick. Let's go. [Music] Hey, what's up now? Nick, what's going on? Not a whole lot, man. How are you doing?

I'm doing really well. How are you? I'm doing great. That's awesome. It's going this Tuesday morning. Yeah, it's nice. Is it nice where you are? You're in Tennessee? No, it's not nice. Yes, I'm Chattanooga, Tennessee, and it's not rainy, but it's overcast. Yeah. Almost rainy, like drizzly, I guess. What's the temperature though? 40s is my guess. Yeah, it's 30s and rainy here. It's just kind of one of those days, I guess, on the east coast. You're in New York? Yeah, I'm in upstate New York. I'm like an hour and a half north, north of the city. Okay, cool. Cool, man. Thanks for coming on and doing this. Definitely. I'm a big fan of your music, not only the stuff you've done for Super Deluxe, but you're pretty damn good, man.

Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yeah, so I mean, I'm ready to get started. You good to go? Yeah, for sure. Cool. So, yeah, I wanted to get some background. I did. You know what's really cool about when you YouTube you is that PBS documentary that comes up on Chattanooga artists? That's like it's PBS is so cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like the local Chattanooga affiliate. Yeah, so I found out I got some insight into what you're doing and the puppet stuff and all this, but I found out that you went to music school to be a songwriter. And I love that you said that you learned exactly how not to write a song. I went to Berkeley, so I kind of know exactly what you're talking about.

But I'd love to hear like how did you get into being, you know, a pretty prolific artist in terms of getting your stuff out there and having a vision and doing that. How did that evolve from like when you were younger to where you are now? Yeah, man. Well, I was in bands through like, you know, pretty much always. I mean, they weren't like, I started playing music in fifth grade and had like garage bands, you know, through like middle school and I had my first real band in high school. And I think since I started so young, we kind of had like an edge over all. I feel like a lot of people get into music like around high school age.

Yeah. And since I'd already kind of been doing it a little while. The band that I was playing with, we were able to get pretty decent gigs for our hometown. Like we have like a yearly river bin festival and we got on that we all the little like local music series we got on pretty easily and had a lot of extensions because of our age. And I think it really warped my mentality of like how music works because we were so young and it was almost like a novelty in a way. And I just kind of thought like, you know, you write songs, you play shows and people show up and, you know, this is just how it goes.

As each year we got older people, we got better, but people paid less and less attention and eventually got to the point where I was in college. And I went to school for commercial songwriting at MTSU. And I graduated, I didn't really pursue music in college at all. And I think I just kind of like was sitting around and waiting for someone to like discover me or something. And I realized like, if this is something I'm going to do, I'm going to have to work really hard at it because I had no prospects. And I realized pretty quickly that songwriting isn't something that you can show someone a piece of paper and be like, Hey, look, I got a degree.

Yeah, they want to see what you've done. And so it was around that time that like I just treated, I moved back with my parents when I graduated. And since I wasn't, you know, paying rent, I just utilized that time just to put every cent I had into trying to make, to develop a brand and get a band going. And yeah, man, sorry, I know I'm kind of just like giving you the whole. No, I love it, dude. This is like, listen, I just so you know, I went to a music college with, it attracts a similar type of person I feel like because on one level, it's like we've chosen to pursue music. As a theoretical career, which we quickly find out when you graduate is like, Oh, that's not something that is a thing.

Like, you can move to a city and like, you know, try to get in with the creative scene or like something somewhat related to what you're doing. But I mean, it's not like, you know, you've decided to become a doctor or a lawyer or work at like a corporate job or whatever it is. So, I mean, it attracts a certain type of person who kind of on one hand knows that maybe this isn't the most practical things or just generally doesn't have an awareness of that, which is probably more of us. But also shows some acknowledgement that like, I'm going to college, like I'm getting a degree. I have to take classes.

And if you graduate, it takes, it proves some type of commitment. So I totally get and like, it's not, it's not rambling at all, man. Like, I think it's, it's really cool to put it in context because like a lot of people listening are creative people. I know that from listeners of the show. And, you know, there are various ranges on the spectrum of like, you know, successful artists. And to me, you already hit on what a successful artist is, which is it's someone who just decided like, I got to take this seriously. Like, I'm going to work at this because I care about it. And that that's truthfully the definition of successful artists.

I mean, dude, how many talented people did we go to school with where it's like, those people should be way more popular and way more successful. But like, you know, talent isn't the only thing that drives it. So I think it's really important that you cover this stuff, man. Not at all. You're not rambling at all. Cool. Yeah. And I think the thing that people need to recognize, like that's the, that's the, that's the light bulb they need to go off. It's like, this is more than just writing songs and performing. And it sucks because a lot of creative people usually aren't good at, you know, developing themselves as a business or, you know, like, so.

But I think recognizing that is really the, you know, obviously there are other situations and luck and, you know, who you know and stuff like that. But I think part of it is just trying to be everywhere at once. Yeah. And that means just, you know, playing the right shows, putting, you know, your stuff online. Uh, I don't know. You're, you're, you're, I mean, you got lucky and you did it. Like one of the reasons I got to know Vic, who I know you're associated with and Tim Heidegger, which is kind of like how your, you know, success story started there in terms of mainstream attention. Like, I just saw one day that Tim Heidegger retweeted like years ago, something by Vic that I thought was like the funniest thing I had ever heard or watched.

It was just hilarious. It was like one of Vic's really early videos. And I was like, oh my God, this dude has no followers, no attention. And he's like, amazing. So you did that too. Didn't you do it with like something with on cinema? Like you, you did, was it that or was it the election special? It was the election. Yeah, tell that story. Yeah, so basically I was doing, I was pursuing my own music thing full time pretty much. And this is kind of like a rabbit trail, but I've been with my, my now wife for close to 10 years. Oh congrats. That's awesome. Thanks. Yeah. Started dating like right towards into high school.

And when I graduated college, I kind of had like a three year spell where I just weren't really hard pursuing, you know, my original music and performing and developing the live show, but not records and all that stuff. And it was on a great trajectory and everything was really going well. But I was kind of getting to the point where it was like. Every, all the money I make goes back into making what I'm doing better. Like it wasn't sustainable. Like I wasn't. Yeah. I was making no income. Like, and it was kind of the point where it was like, you know, like I'm ready to get married and start a life.

Yeah. But I, like, need to figure out a way to monetize this. And it's, you know, I was doing that by booking more like, you know, the typical, like restaurant gigs and like brunches and, you know, we're playing cover songs. Totally. But I was really trying to figure out like how to like, you know, and I was following Tim and Vic's election special time. They're doing a lot of like Facebook live and Snapchat stories and stuff and it was just hilarious and a lot of fun. And I was sitting in my bed and I just had, was like playing bass and had this big convention, Republican convention pop in my head.

And I was like, oh man, I really want to record this and send it to them. But at the same time, I had this really guilty feeling. I was like, but I can't tell my at the time girlfriend, Beyonce. I don't know what she was. Because this isn't productive. And I like, I stayed up all night recording that song and I like scoured the internet for these Alex Jones clips that make up some of the vocals as well. And I finished it and tweeted at him and kind of felt dumb about it thinking like, oh, they'll probably never listen to this and I could have been spending my time actually like figuring out how to like make some money.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then ironically that ended up being the catalyst for all of my work at Super Deluxe long story short because Tim retweeted the next morning said I really liked it. And then later that evening someone from absolute productions reached out and asked if they could use it as the official theme song for the special and I wrote the DNC. They did the RNC first and I wrote the song for the DNC as well. And then from there the Super Deluxe guys who were producing special reached out and said, I think they needed like some me to sign some stuff to give them over, let them use it or whatever.

And I just let them know like I write songs like this is what I want to do for a living. I would love to contribute anyway if you guys ever need anything else. I think we bounced off ideas for a few weeks or maybe a couple months and then eventually my producer Super Deluxe had that idea from the first emo Trump video. And that did really well and really just kind of snowballed from there. Yeah, and we'll we'll talk about some of the other stuff you did too but I do want to zoom zoom in on I love that the mindset at the time and like who hasn't been there. I've been there recently where you're like, I gotta make, I gotta make money, I gotta be practical, you know, I gotta be productive is the word you use productive, right?

And while you're doing this, probably just to decompress what we're all doing or watching the election special because it's just hilarious if anyone didn't get it to see it. And you have a jingle in your head like I mean if you're plugged into the stuff that just comes and you can't stop it, you know, you do those little funny songs all the time. And you just pursued it and there's no real good reason to be doing it in a practical sense. It's not really going to be leading to anything even if you have the kernel of the thought that it could lead to something. Like you said, you felt like weird when you tweeted it out at them and that's that feeling is one of my like favorite feelings because to me I've learned over the years like when you send something out or you pass something on creative that you've done and you feel like vulnerable and exposed more often than not unless you know it kind of sucks more often than not like it comes it comes back and like oh shit I got like a really a really cool thing just happened there so that I love when that happens man that's that's that's fucking awesome for sure that's one thing is I really like I learned a lot from that specific experience to like lean into those moments and like like if like worst case scenario you don't hear anything back and then you know if you do it again and then maybe next time you know like there's not really a downside exactly kind of instinctual spurts of inspiration are like some of the most important to like really explore and see where you go with it.

Yeah because you're not trying to do anything you know what I mean it's not like you sat down like you know this is a songwriter as anyone's put out any type of creative work the second that you become like meta aware of trying to create something. It's like that that's when you know the solo isn't as good as it could have been that's when like it gets a little clouded by the kind of this observational role whereas if you're just pursuing like the fun hilarious shit and I feel like that's why you know Tim Heidegger is is a good vessel and kind of like amplifier of this stuff because I feel like that's where a lot of it comes from it's just like pure like this shit is funny this is just works this is a cool creative outburst so yeah it's really important to remember that I mean it always is as you know this like it's an interplay of balancing that kind of like impractical with all the also like somewhat of a realization that like yeah like I live in the world I'm married I gotta do stuff you know so it's interesting I mean I want to get into your videos and all the things you've done the creative aspects of it but I'm also curious to hear kind of what your thoughts are now super deluxe kind of went belly up which was like a huge shock I think they could mention to me a little before I think but like he was a surprise to anyone like what what happened there and like is there are there pieces being picked up by any people who are involved what's your sense of kind of what's going on yeah I don't know man so I was a freelance contributor so I mean I'm here in Chattanooga they're based out of LA so I was about as on the outskirts as anybody and I learned probably the same way you did I saw someone tweeting about it yeah it's fucking crazy yeah man and it's um yeah it's been it's been tough I don't really have any more info than anywhere else I've heard whispers of some people affiliated maybe starting other things up I don't know how much crossover there will be there yeah but yeah man I wish I did have a little more info but it's just wild it's because it's even though I was a freelance contributor it was my mate like I kind of toward the end there I was doing bi-weekly videos yeah I was gonna say you're prolific like I you know I think a lot of people probably associate you with the videos that you've done for super deluxe you know what I mean it's like right yeah it was definitely towards then it was like my full-time thing yeah and it's a tricky spot because musical comedy is not something that I ever pursued in any real way until it fell in my lap right and I got a point where I felt like you know really confident and passionate about the work I was doing and I would like to continue doing it but now I'm in the position where it's like okay do I lean into this and try to find another outlet and really lean into this thing that I never really set out to be or do I kind of take a step back and I know it's been an interesting time to try to figure out you know what the next move is where are you in that process I mean for a money standpoint I would love I mean I really do enjoy creating the video types of videos that are doing super deluxe yeah financial reasons are the biggest ones that are pointing me in that direction right now just because like that's literally how I was making a living yeah but I mean I've still I never stopped working on a regional stuff I have a new album that's like 80% down that will be releasing next year yeah I'm really excited about that as well but yeah I don't know man I've been trying to I've released a few like little shorter videos like just on Twitter and stuff like the Pikachu thing yeah no that was actually that's no thing I've been doing is I've been going back and just kind of highlighting things I did that was one of the first things I did which was a dog filter song yeah but yeah over the years there's been a lot of stuff that was like either got shelved or just kind of slipped through the cracks and I've been trying to like either revamp some of that stuff or I don't know I know I know Vick's been kind of doing similar stuff with his YouTube channel yeah yeah yeah I'm hoping to kind of use that until I find another you know outlet to push this stuff out well I mean I'm I'm happy to hear that you have an album almost completed and you're still working on that because I just found like even if something falls into your lap that you know and like just to be clear this is not the same thing is like a corporate job fell in my lap and I'm just going to ride that money train like it's clear and evident that not only do you enjoy making the comedy music stuff like the Trump stuff and Alex Jones stuff but it's it's also genuinely you're like you're good at it you know what I mean so that that's something that I think is evident to a lot of people who have seen these and yeah man like I I my hunch is I had this hunch with Vic before like truthfully like anyone anyone was had any type of exposure to him at all it's like me and like 30 people following him like do like I guarantee this is going to be something that you can do like I don't know the permutation no one knew that super deluxe or Tim or anyone would associate with him to that degree but like I'm telling you man like your your stuff is a cut above of not only just the stuff that you know is out there but just like the general kind of like internet fodder that people you know put out every day and I think enough people have exposure to you at this point that you know I think you're gonna I my hunch is you're definitely going to be able to do you know and some veins will open up for you and some lanes will open up for you in the future dude because it's it's it's good shit man it really is yeah thanks dude yeah it's just a tricky it's a tricky spot because super deluxe really I can't think of anyone else who is doing what they were doing and they appear to be doing it well so for them to have yeah it was weird right yeah so it's just a yeah I'm I also made something will come along yeah I mean you have you have exposure now well so let's talk about some of the videos and kind of not only conceptually how you do them but also technically you know one of my favorites is the Alex Jones bonnet bonnet you for one it's just incredible so what how do you go about do you source the material before writing the song do you have melodies like I'm curious your actual process for this stuff yeah man it's pretty convoluted really perfect I love it with that Alex Jones one it's funny because I had I actually pitched it is doing a I'm so glad we ended up doing what we did but I originally pitched like a Alex Jones metal song and we kind of real like we gone back and forth on it we realized it would be funnier to take some kind of like sweet somber melodic song and places you know like insane yeah yeah it's in like the juxtaposition would work way better and so we decided on bony bear and um yeah man it basically consisted of me just watching way too much Alex Jones is definitely the work part and surprisingly it's most time consuming usually it would take like three to four days just full days of just like watching clips well keep in mind also I've gotten way more efficient at this stuff when I first started I was not a video editor and I took some classes in high school on Adobe but now I had on my computer was I movie so I was working in I movie um the other thing I didn't know how to do is how to like isolate you know if I need a five seconds of a clip right I didn't know how now it's like the easiest thing in the world but at the time saying if I'm working on like emo Trump and there's a five second clip I want to come over to speeches that's how I'd be downloading two hour clips and just for a five second oh shit yeah import all that into iMovie and also like a ten year old version of iMovie that's like it's so counterintuitive and like it was everything took way longer than it needed to take that's crazy but anyways back to the process I would just kind of scoured the internet and try to find these clips and um I would write down all the best lines and then I would basically try to form some kind of narrative like it while also finding like a rhythmic like sense of rhyme scheme or I don't know depending on the song like you sometimes it'd be more rhyme heavier sometimes it'd be like a like what message are we trying to send it out right?

Like thematic in content was right right yeah so that that takes a while like most of the time I would probably have like after I do all my research and have like six to seven sheets of paper I'd print them off and just lay them all over the floor like a madman with highlighter trying to like connect the dots and figure out which lines kind of make sense together and what work is a hook and what would work better for chorus and and that that usually took a while and then once I got to there I would record like a scratch track like demo basically but to a click so like it's all like in place like it's where it needs to be right right you're not screwing yourself later having to go and figure out the tempo and from there I would take that and then I would take all the clips that I downloaded and I would match them to the words I was singing and I would speed up or slow down the video to match you know exactly right and then from there I would go back to the song and I'd produce it and that was a it was really cool Super Deluxe had like a really strict legal team that didn't want for some reason they didn't want to do any straight parody like weird Al type stuff right right same melody same you know instrumentation um I mean I'm not an expert or anything but I think they were being like overly worried there because I don't know why but I liked it I don't play too much because I like there was more of a creative fulfillment from right there's more sound alike stuff so it was like challenging myself to like get into the head of this artist and write a song as through this artist as a vessel using the words of some insane person really cool so like for that bony bear song like I there's actually a lot of really cool articles about that record that bony bear did for him to forever go about what he used to record it so I use like all the same microphones and like the same positioning of microphones oh that's so cool man and yeah so like I really like that aspect of some some songs I got more into or not sometimes I had a hunch and I just lean into another time to do more research I'd usually find like one or two songs that I really wanted to emulate and I would just study like how different instruments are panned you know the tone the you know I would just get really deep in the weeds on that kind of thing and then I'd spend time producing the track and then basically by the time I finished the track I'd plug it in the video and from there I would send it to Super Deluxe and then Super Deluxe had a designer Jesse Benjamin who did all my videos who would add the lyrics and any kind of filter animation and that's pretty much the lifespan of one of those songs well it's cool about it man that's that's really awesome what's cool about it is like I'm I'm not totally surprised to hear the attention to detail in terms of the recording and everything but like I don't think people realize like that it's not a super easy thing to replicate like a style like you're nailing this shit you know what I mean like it's like truthfully like and that's why I reached out to like I'm not only is this stuff yet the juxtaposition of the House Jones is hilarious but like there's real creative like it shines through the overall project you know what I mean like it's it's very clear and I think that's fucking awesome if you're looking at miking techniques that's so cool so I mean like what what are what are you some of your like favor I know you're probably a pretty eclectic I can just tell from from who you are and just kind of what you're able to cover but like what are your summer who are some of your biggest musical influences that kind of got you on the track and that you still kind of like hold special closer heart these days mmm man that's pretty tricky I feel like I'm always kind of going in and out of different you know artists but I think some of the ones that like haven't you know changed at all or like the Beatles and I know that's kind of like very obvious answer but they're you know I got into them like early high school and like Bob Dylan Paul Simon Neil Young those guys I feel like more recently I've gotten into more eclectic stuff like Tom Waits hmm and wean wean love wean yeah they're one of my favorites man the mollusk is one of such a good yeah yeah so many great albums yeah so many I've always really been into primus I got really into them in high school in a bunch times man I could talk about me I know I know man I know it could quickly just go and devolve into just a very nerdy musical discussion I'm sure yeah yeah dude so let me there's another thing that struck me that prompted me to reach out and it was a tweet of yours where you were talking about when recently Alex Jones dressed up like a frog and in this whole ridiculous even for Alex Jones standards like over the top for Alex Jones if anyone could imagine what that would look like that's what it was and but your take on it I thought was really insightful because I think you saw through the kind of the obviously it's the shtick to some extent obviously arranged as well but like you pointed out like this is not something that really needs our attention this isn't something that's adding any value and you know either chastising or encouraging it is not something that I think is that important and I'm obviously paraphrasing a tweet that yeah but what's your what's your kind of take I mean like what what are your leanings for the stuff like this because obviously like super deluxe because of Vic inadvertently kind of inserted themselves into this alt-right discussion because some of the content of Vic's videos like where do you fall on kind of like all this stuff that's going on well I feel like I mean so many things especially now like deserve to be chastised I think that video in particular it just seems so obvious to me like it just seemed very desperate like he was placing the bait and he wanted people to take it like he knew that everyone made such a big deal about his gay frog rant and it's just funny because right now he's not in the public eye right she was he's been from almost every platform right almost seems like a desperate plea of like talk about me talk about me talk about it's like I just didn't seem you know with the the original gay frogs ran at least seemed like he believed what he was talking about and this is like I don't know it just really felt like I just felt disappointed in seeing so many people like oh my god look what Alex Jones is doing right but he's wanting you to do this like and it's just it felt more obvious to me so I mean that yeah that wasn't so much a statement or blanket statement on giving or not giving attention to these psychopaths but it I mean I do think probably you have to take some medicine and apply that to some other dudes I find myself getting mad at almost everything Mike's garbage posts and having to respond to everything he says and I don't think that really contributes too much it's there's this weird point like if there's one thing I've learned from being on Twitter for a really long time at this point it's like you have to be very careful with who you're willingly subjecting yourself to and obviously if you have you know a core group of people you're following and they're in a certain role or cultural perspective you're going to see stuff that maybe you didn't sign up for but that said like I remember it was very clear for me one time it was someone who's like a friend of a friend and every tweet he made just like it just made me so mad and I realized like I more often than not I tweet something back and I'm like holy shit I'm the asshole I was like I just figured it out like I'm the asshole like I am the one who's perpetuating this like he's going to do this no matter what why am I engaging obviously though is a balance between being kind of like okay I don't want to engage with these people but then when it comes to people on the alt right who are just like blatant Nazis and doing terrible things like you also have to be like yo this is bullshit which is why I'm grateful for people like Vic and Tim and other people who like call it out in a funny enough way where it's not like you're giving it it's kind of the credit it deserves you know what I mean like this is ridiculous yeah it's interesting I mean so like what we're politic I'm not asking politically where you stand so much but what do you how do you deal with I mean this is a relevant question for everyone like how do you deal with kind of what's going on culturally everywhere it seems in terms of like your talk you spoke about it with Alex Jones I mean oftentimes I think you know people like Trump and stuff like that say these things just to do exactly what you said like they're putting on their gay lawsuit and hopping around whether it's actually a gay fraud suit or not you know what I mean like what's how do you deal with this shit because you seem like correct me if I'm wrong but you seem like a pretty creative you know in touch with the maybe more esoteric aspects of reality that you can kind of tune out but I imagine you know you get subjected to it like all of us like how do you process all this stuff damn it um I don't know I don't know I mean I don't not well you know before before Trump for whatever reason I just wasn't very politically engaged and I always I mean I still to a lot of extents consider myself pretty middle of the road like I'm not really black and white on a ton of things I think yeah I mean other than like obvious like social issues but like I think most things I feel like there's a lot of gray or it's like reduced into like this is the one true way and this is the one true way totally but I mean obviously to me at least Trump is just like in a whole other world of just like corruption and like a more at immorality and I just I don't I'm not the best at articulating it but I'm I'm baffled by how the GOP is just towed the line yeah yeah I wish there was like a real especially being like the party of evangelicals and totally it's just something that I just can't wrap my head around and strategy crazy also especially being the Bible belt and having some people here that I love and respect right agenda and total line just kind of makes me sick well it's interesting you mentioned that because you know my wife has a lot of family from Houston and not only are they from Houston but they're also Jewish and they're huge by and large Trump supporters and I'm just like what like so I can only imagine living where you live which is not a blue state it's not particularly liberal and progressive in most people's minds although they're obviously are on place people like that everywhere but it must be weird and relatively disconcerting and like I try to look at this stuff not just from a political standpoint because that we can easily fall into the trap of exactly like you're saying it's a binary choice good bad yes no which is like very few things are like that unless it's like oh don't murder people you know it's weird when like one of those you know kind of ideologies can drift into like oh like let's not put children in cages they're like no I think maybe that's okay it's like holy shit like so I try to look at it from like just like a perspective type of you rather than a political one like what is it like like what is your sense because I'm sure you know people who are Trump supporters and like just to be clear if anyone I know there are actually a few people who like Trump who listen to this podcast like I don't shit on Trump supporters at a general group because that's ridiculous like that's it's it's also ignorant like you're not understanding circumstances and where people come from whether it's sound or not like how do you kind of reconcile that with people you know kind of because you seem like pretty attuned to like yeah like maybe some things are morally flexible or like fiscally flexible and you know strategy flexible but like certain things like no that's not okay how do you how do you kind of deal with that shit though I don't know man I feel like the one thing that really like I can totally I feel like I can have a conversation with anyone who is like I think Trump's an idiot I don't know if he's the best leader but I believe in X and Y and he's doing that and I like him for that rather than folks who just blindly are like Trump is bringing back Christmas and he's a man we got a man of God in the white you know like it's like we at least have common ground where like we're seeing reality and like from your viewpoint he's doing things that you feel like are making the country better rather than just turning a blind eye to like the constant lying right now like I don't know if that really even addresses what you were you know it does and it's actually more of what I was asking I've had a shitty way of raising it it's kind of like a reality breakdown right and I think that's what that's what everyone is kind of struggling with right now like it's framed because of the media and other people just kind of you know this is how we've naturally looked at things through the lens of culture which is like this is a good thing to do this is something we do do this is something we don't do that seems to be breaking down and get into your point that like a lot of people who are in the GOP are either tacitly or overtly condoning this shit and that's crazy so for a lot of us whether no matter where you fall in and what you're saying makes total sense if there's someone who has like cogent responses based on issues or maybe they're not even that well thought out but there's some proof that they're saying like this is better at least you can kind of understand even if you don't agree but for someone who's just convinced like double-headedly stubborn they're just biting the propaganda hook hook line and sinker like that is a very scary thing to kind of process to me this is kind of how I look at all this shit just so I you know because I'm I'm weirdly very optimistic even though it's clear to see the horror that's being inflicted on people's psyches every single day is that I think this is a very clear example of people seeing some people for the first time that like shit isn't ever the way we thought it was we were being presented an image of something that enough people kind of collectively were deluded enough to believe in it never really worked for everyone like this society is Western society is built on the backs of like horrible things and most people are much more comfortable not acknowledging and that always comes back to bite you it's like you know this from a creative person whenever you're writing a song and like you feel it like you know that there's a deep kind of like soulful connection to what you're pulling from or what you're tapped into that's that's a palpable feeling and if you turn away from that or you kind of don't pursue it you're gonna kind of get a modified weird version of something so trying to stay in tune with that like soulful thing is very important and basically what's going on here is collectively everyone's kind of got to face their individual and cultural shadows and that's not what's happening it's easier for us to say hey it's someone else's problem it's Trump's problem he's the only piece of shit that's ever done and we've all done Trump like stuff probably not to the degree he does it but we've all done shitty things at one point in our lives and I think people's inability to kind of focus and recognize that is really kind of just like blowing up our whole image of what life is supposed to be especially in this country and I think everyone that's why I like to ask the question like how are you processing and dealing with it and like do 90% of people are like not well like I'm not it's like because no one has been taught to how to process any of this shit so it's very very weird times but yeah man like I always like to ask creative people kind of how they process this stuff because I find the ones who are you know maybe not totally politically engaged still feel this stuff pretty heavily you know what I mean right yeah it is it's interesting too because I didn't do like my first project in the line of work that I'm pursuing was the election for victim right since then I've been consistently like that like I'm hanging on every word he says because I'm thinking like okay how can I turn this into right content or whatever and I wonder I mean I still think it got me just saying it does now but I don't know if I do this like neurotic effort I don't know if I'd be in a better place like I wasn't having to like be so tuned in you think with it yeah yeah man that's I spoke to Vic about this briefly because I like I I got to know Vic before any of he was known he didn't do any political so it was like chubby checker videos and like just like silly little things that were like nothing to do with politics but it's weird that you know when you have to when you're doing things like emo Trump like you do kind of have to be tuned into the ridiculousness of what he's saying like truthfully it's like drinking poison you know what I mean to make something funny it's like how do I drink just enough of this to pull out the funny thing that's going to make people feel better about it without like killing myself by drinking too much of the poison that's really really interesting I never thought about that I mean I talked about with Vic briefly but I didn't I also didn't think about that you started kind of this pivot to musical comedy from the election special I never really thought of it either it's a weird time it's a weird time man so what so I know you're kind of like still figuring out what you're doing what what's your new album like like content wise what are the songs what can we expect to hear yeah man so it's actually it's 11 songs it's called swords every song starts with the letter s and that's where swords come from like swords that's what it's weird because it wasn't intentional originally I'd written like half the record and every single song started with the letter s and my drummer is like a joke it's called swords it's originally to be called side show and the record is actually very much influenced by like post-Trump America and I feel like each song kind of deals with like a different facet of the culture right now and I think the title swords kind of like reflects how we weaponize these like whether it's technology or ideology or the I haven't I haven't done the polishing on this this thesis no but dude is but this is like this is way more awesome than I thought it was going to be with the name swords I'm like that swords are cool and you're like no no no this is my cultural deconstruction of post-Trump the income like this is like an awesome man and like so like and it's just weird because it didn't it didn't start out like okay this is what I'm like it just kind of became what it was like revealing itself no that sounds no that's cool man I get it well it's cool because the first song is called side show and it's just all about like how we kind of just like fell asleep at the side show and let the freaks take a hold of the show and now they're like running things and like I feel like it's very much like a finger-pointing song from the left point of view pointing at the right and like the next song is all about like xenophobia and told from like the right point of view and it kind of like it's showing these like opposite sides of the of the same point and both both sides unwillingness to understand the other and there's a lot of that through the record where it's like kind of the same story being told from different perspectives and I don't know dude I mean I'm really glad I asked this question and I'm glad that I kind of you know talked a little bit about what's going on culturally because we that's awesome man that's that there's not there's too much of this us first them paradigm which I get like when your Nazis are the them you can consider yourself the us but like most of the time it's just that's not it's not as simple as that and I mean you're you're fortunate and I'm probably unfortunate in some ways to live in places where the general view like dude all of my friends for the most part the vast majority and I've lived in outside in the suburbs of DC I went to college in Boston I lived in New York City for a long time and now I'm in New York like it's all East Coast liberals and they're shocked every time some horrible thing happens or something passes or Kavanaugh's confirmed I'm like listen you're not in touch with enough people outside of like your little filter bubble like right I think when you get that perspective from being kind of embedded in it but also being sensitive to kind of other viewpoints and perspectives like you clearly are like dude that's a powerful that's a powerful sword to wield no pun intended like or pun totally intended actually I mean but like that's really fucking cool man I'm really excited for it do you have a tentative release date and I'm thinking late March maybe early April I think is sounding about right it's almost so it's interesting because this is the first record where I've had a band like my last record I put out in 2015 and I recorded and performed every instrument the drums are all like midi drums and I actually formed the band because that record because like the songs make sense playing like I was doing the mccusic for a little while but I just felt like totally different songs yeah so I put together my band and it's funny because we still we didn't ever go like into a studio records a band I still did the record exacting right in the last one but my drummer is actually much more like still I feel like I kind of have a good natural instinctive ear for mixing and recording or whatever but like I don't have like the technical understanding of like how sound works and like audio fundamentals and all that so I'll record everything and make the best my ability then I'll send him the project file and then he'll retract the drums and mix it and so like where we're at right now like this album is 100% written and I've recorded everything and now it's all in his hands to like mix and then we're also like going into a studio and like adding horns and like more production type stuff but it's like I think we have like six of eleven songs done and the rest isn't far off it's just a matter of getting like a good actually have like the four what I think will probably be like the singles from the record totally finished and I'll send you a link when we're done chatting so you can check yeah man I was going to say I'm please do and like any any help you need any assistance in terms of getting the word out please let me know I'll use all my networks to the fullest of my abilities because like one of the cool things about having this podcast and having some attention is that I get to highlight people who are doing really fucking cool things and you're definitely one of them that's awesome you have a whole band now that you're kind of recording with to and gonna be corn span if you're adding horns the shit's gonna be good that's really cool man let me ask you one last kind of vein of questions have you done any psychedelics I actually have not I saw that you've that's kind of like a common threat to your stuff it is it is no no that's okay do you anticipate a lot of people ask me if I have well it's interesting because like listen there's there's there's multiple types of creative people like on one end of the spectrum you have like the Mick Jagger's and the fucking Jimmy Hendrix's who are just delving into like you know Dionysian levels of drug use and then on the other end you have like Frank Zappa who is not only not done drugs was like very anti-drug like he wouldn't allow people to do a collaborate with Captain Peafart but still you know he basically was very strict about it and like people don't realize that you don't need to be doing psychedelics or any other substances to be a creative person cool have do you ever have any interest in doing psychedelics?

not really I just kind of feel like I've missed the boat like the time has passed you know like I don't you'd be surprised I'm sure I would didn't do it probably too much and that's kind of my thinking and like Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's not I wouldn't put it in like the heroine like don't do heroin because you're gonna Get too much right now. I totally get and I don't I don't have any bias against them. It's anyone doing it all like of course I it's it's weird man. I've always I feel like it's kind of maybe comes from like a prideful place It's actually kind of embarrassing and lame and that like in high school. I This is this is so dumb, but now I have to hear it pretty young in like middle school I smoke some weed and my parents found out and they got really upset and I just felt I didn't like how like Disappointing I know that's such a let go like I took pride and like I don't need that stuff like and I was It like being in high school being like the one dude who was like very creative But also was like one of the dudes who wasn't experimenting with drugs a lot and like for some reason I just never really Grew out of that and I'm at a place where I realized like that was like a prideful thing that yeah Make a lot of sense, but I don't really have any big Reason to yeah, man if it ain't broke don't fix it. I think that's cool. Dude. I really do I don't think that's I don't think that's that's corny at all Man, I think that's cool when you make a conscious decision to do it. I think when does your decision even if it's born I'm like well. I didn't need it. That's right like not some people, you know They don't need it, but like I think that's cool dude. I really do. I definitely think I hit the point I mean, I think most logical people hit a point and they realize like Why do I believe in what I believe is it because I've been fed? This is what I'm supposed to believe versus like what do I actually?

You know, I mean like I definitely hit that point. Yeah and I really I don't have any like I don't think like I Play with so many musicians who are on psychedelics like No, you have no, I know I get it dude. You're Listen if you're playing the music that you're playing and there's puppets involved the chances are there's gonna be I totally get it man. I think that's fucking really cool though I heard enough times like I like it like I don't know if I already articulated this well, but like Having enough people saying things like how much how much drugs do you do? Put on the cash show you do like it something about it felt good like being like none. Yeah. Yeah. No, I get it I think that's really cool I mean like the thing is is if you don't need it and you're just kind of already plugged in to that like I think you hit the nail on the head a lot of people They're first it's mine. Certainly. I did acid when I was like 15 But that taught me when I was 15 to be a free thinker You know I mean and there's many many more stumbles on the path But if you hit that point without any assistance, why would you need to like, you know outside?

Unless you had a specific interest and I think there's really no reason to to modify what's going on I think it's cool shit, man. Like you're just a naturally created person which is awesome All right, so I end with three questions and then one kind of open-ended question This has been a lot of fun, man It's been it's getting a pleasure to kind of like get to know you and understand where you're coming from them So last questions What's your favorite color? Oh? Wow You know man, that's another weird thing like I mentioned how I have a lot of musicians of like I get really really into yeah Yeah, and then like they just kind of like in a corner. I'm like, I don't know if I like these guys I get it I've been that way with colors like I feel like my my favorite color really wants to try I don't think it happens, but I think I tell people I have a different favorite color like every time someone asks What's your answer now?

I don't blue maybe It's funny because like I was in this band infinite orange in high school and orange was like My color. Yeah, infinite of it. I don't know if it's my favorite color. Why don't I tell people this move? Maybe green maybe green or blue. I don't know. Okay. All right. I love it. That's my actual favorite color What's your favorite number? 11 cool why 11? Got you what November what? 29 oh happy almost birthday in 16 days. Yeah, thanks man in 2 plus 9 is 11. Oh nice 2 plus 9 why 2 plus 9? Oh, right. Oh Jamacha a very very interesting 1990s at one plus nine plus one. That's 11, right? Yeah Wait, no, no, that's that's nine plus nine plus one which is 19. Well, it's one nine What is your favorite animal?

Man, that's a good question too. That's another one where I feel like I've kind of come back and forth When I was young, I really appreciated chimpanzees and ostriches. Mm-hmm My wife and I just got our first pet wave of kitten. Oh, it is currently my favorite animal. What's the kitten's name? Loki girl or boy? It's a boy. Love the name Loki tricks to archetype. Love it. Love it. Um, so cool. So we'll go with kitten Loki So last question What's a practical tip that you've learned in your life? That you could share with people listening. It could be anything mundane sacred anything anything at all Yeah, man. I think honestly like the the thing with I'm thinking how to word phrase this. Yeah, I guess we go a couple different eyes with it But really that that moment of that that tweet that song I tweeted at Tim and Beck Change the trajectory in me to this point of my life like a total one Mm-hmm and for the better like and Just taking those chances like taking what may seem like a dumb, you know I mean like a probability of there's a one in a thousand chance that this could turn out to be something cool like do more of those things I feel like a lot of people aren't doing them just because they They think of odds, you know, like they're worried about like Wasting their time or it might not coming out the way they want it to come out of person Not ever being able to see you know, I mean like totally I've had so many moments like that in my life And more often than not they don't paint out the way you want them to but like I Don't know like if you have something that you feel like compelled to do that you feel passionate about that You don't see anyone else doing you think could have like I Don't know some kind of effect in your life like just go for it like It's the same thing with pursuing music with everything you've got like yes, I Think a lot of people like are worried about looking silly when people don't like take to it the way they want to Or as soon as they want them to right like if you feel compelled to do something like go for it and on the flip side Even though I don't know how much overlapping these two things really have to do with each other, but like um little things helping other people like The Tim retweeting that song Vic putting that in his special like set me up on a trajectory that like You know what I mean? Like I want to be able to be in position to pay that back to other people yeah And I mean I might not have the resources to do that in the same level. They do but like I You know I'm so appreciative that That happened and I'm kind of indebted to them Well, you know what's cool man is and this is this I think carries through on a lot of stuff We see from those guys is like they're they're people You know what I mean? Like they're actual people. They're they're normal people. They just happen to be nice and good people So they do stuff like that. They're not looking to kind of appropriate or take or you know Do something that's self-serving like they probably saw what I saw when you sent that to them Which is like you're a talented creative person who probably deserves lighter exposure So I mean I think I think your practical tips are fucking awesome dude And I think more people especially if you fancy yourself an artist if it's something you can't not do You got to put yourself out there like you have to and I think weirdly a lot of people who should be putting more of Themselves out there have an overly critical kind of viewpoint on their own stuff They see other people putting out stuff that maybe they don't think is that good probably because it's not that good Not everyone has that filter, but don't be too harshly critical with your stuff because also like maybe it's not good Maybe you get better because you didn't get the results you want. So dude. I love it. I love it Nick. Thanks so much for coming on man. I'm I'm glad to get to know you Thanks, man. Yeah, same. I really appreciate you asked me to come on Yeah, quickly before we go let people know where they can find you and listen to your music Yeah, so my music is on Spotify and iTunes and all that good stuff Twitter and Facebook are the two things that I update most frequently Twitter is more like jokey kind of stuff and then Facebook is more like what my band is doing Trying to get a little more synergy between those two worlds. Cool man. Um, I'm I'm thinking about starting a YouTube channel. Well, I have a YouTube channel with my Music videos and like promotional stuff for like my original music, but now that like Super Deluxe is done. I Want to have like a place where all my stuff can live so I'm gonna upload a lot of that to my YouTube channel Which is also Nick. Let's go. So Facebook.com slash Nick. Let's go Instagram is awesome. I love it. Awesome, man. Thanks so much for doing this man. Have an awesome day. Yeah Oh Thanks for listening to that episode Go check out Nick like I said Spotify all of the places that music is released people know how to do that now I did if I figured out how to do it assume that people like Nick have figured out to do it anywhere you're gonna get music Go check it out tune into them listen if you got stuff and you can use his talents I I am willing to predict this very confidently that Nick will have a successful career doing something in this vein because yeah, go check it out I'll hear it. So go check him out. Go check this out. Check it check check check check check Thank you for listening, and I will see you next