SPEAKER_00 0:29

It's about the community we built together. So gravity is company and let's grow with creativity side by side.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

All right, here I am today in uh Ambler PA with Rich Stoller. Right? Yeah. Got it. Um, you are a video guy.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Video and audio, yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Video and audio. Okay. Um, so when did all this start?

SPEAKER_02 1:01

What what made you get into um I'd say uh I think 2014 was the first time I started recording bands out in the live environment. Uh I can give you a little history. 2012 was when I started a music page online on Facebook. My idea was to kind of provide a space where people could kind of get to know each other and look for different musical events that were happening out there and maybe connect and go see a show together. Um, so I'm an Ambler Live, Ambler long resident, and I started a page called Ambler Live Music Scene on Facebook. So I was trying to connect with people in the in bands and people in the area to go see music in Ambler. Then after a couple of years, I decided, you know, there's more of a larger space of bands playing. So I decided to change the name to something a little bit more um spacious of our area. And I took suggestions online and a friend suggested how about Seep Alive Music Collective? So like the Southeast PA area. A lot of bands were playing in this area. So I was trying to connect with bands and people like that. And I just started putting out different events um on my Facebook page, and then people started to connect and follow my page and go along from there. So that's kind of the basis of where it started.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

So you just started like at for fun, or was it with the case?

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Yeah, it's all for fun. I do it for free. It's just to this day, uh just having fun? Yeah, just having fun, enjoying connecting with uh other musical fans like myself and also band members uh in this crazy network that we have in this area, there's a lot of talented musicians. So I just kind of try to support the live music scene and put the word out there to kind of help encourage people get out of the couch and go see live music in our area.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Okay. Um, I love that. That's amazing. So do you also have a date like do you work too? Yeah, I have a full-time job.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

So I actually work from home, which is very convenient. Okay. Um, so I work from home. I actually work for a clinical research organization that um gets uh trials and drugs out to patients for on a clinical basis. So I've been doing that for probably close to 20 years. So oh wow. That helps offset the free uh hobby that I like to do is go out and record music.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

So yeah, and I love that you treat it as a hobby because some people, once it becomes a job, sometimes they don't like it as much. Yeah, unless it's the fun, the luster when it's not a hobby and something that you look forward to. Yeah, yeah. And you're not like expecting, like, oh, I'm only making this much money, I don't really want to do this gig, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Um, so what kind of things do you like capture? What what like some examples of you know what you've done?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

So, what I do is when I go out to see a band, I actually do three different things. Um I will stream the band uh through my Facebook page. So I'll go set up a uh mic stand with uh something similar to this but RNA mic stand that I can stream the show uh through my Facebook page so people can watch at home if they want to. It also creates um awareness of the bands that some people may not have heard of before. Right. Then I'm also doing audio.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Do you get a lot of people watching those lives?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

I do, depending on the show and the venue. Um, they can result in a couple hundred views for uh the next day, people watching at home. And sometimes people are out, like I'm usually recording Friday or Saturday nights, so people are out doing their own thing. And then the next day they might say, they've said to me, like, hey, I want to see where you were at, so I watched your stream the next day. So something they can't catch, they can't be everywhere, but they can watch the band the next day. So that's nice.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Yeah, I also do um audio recording, so I'll put microphones in the air depending on the venue, and then I record that to a microphone, to a recording deck, and then I also have a little 4K camera that I use here. It's a Panasonic, and I put that on on the mic stand. I'll capture 4K video of the full set, and then we'll put that out on the YouTube later. So people have a couple different mediums that they can watch the band or listen to it.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

All right. That is that's super cool.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

A lot to keep track of and a lot of buttons to push when you're out there seeing music. So but I enjoy doing it.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah. Um, and so you record you just with some microphones, you said you don't have you don't what do you do you end up matching the audio with the with the video and everything? Or what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Sometimes I do. I actually have a friend and I have to give him a shout-out, Bob DeYoung. We always got to give shout outs in this podcast. He's a West Coast guy, and we just connected online and he's retired and he appreciates helping me out. So it kind of takes a village sometimes doing this because I'm doing like streaming and audio, and audio is kind of where I really um got my start and doing taping things like this. So, what I'll do is I'll take the the 4K video and I'll put it up at night, and then the next day I'll send him the audio and he'll sync it for me. Okay, so he takes the time to do that and then I'll send it back, and then I'm able to put that up on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

So when you started, so you started this like early 2000s. 2014, somewhere. Oh, 2014, so it wasn't too long ago. Yeah. I was wondering if like your technology have you been using the same stuff the whole time, or did you like buy new stuff? Good question.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

I've processed I've progressed. So when I first started, I was using like$200 Rode M5 microphones to kind of get get to know the environment and things like that and what I was doing. Um, so then after a while I kind of um increased my budget and what I was able to uh afford. And I got a AKG microphones that I'll I use now for the most the most part. Um so the AKG microphones that I have, they come with three different caps. One's Omni for like kind of an out the outside, like wide range when you're recording where it's not real chatty. And then I also have cardioid and hypers, so hypers kind of shoot right through to the source. And when I record at Armore Musical, a lot I use those because those get a nice uh direct source from the micro from the speakers that are above you. So it's a couple different things. You're looking at the environment, you're looking at um the band and things, and what you're trying to get the best sound pull for people to listen to the next day.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah. Um so yeah, so you have all your mics, and then what do you have them going into a mixer? I guess. Um I just record the audio.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

I just have them go into a uh recording deck. So I actually have two of my recording decks here to show off. So this is the one I use when I have a four-track.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Oh, okay, one of these things. I've never used these.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

This is a Zoom uh H6. Okay. So it has uh four XLR. So these two I will put like the microphones into, and if I'm in a room that has a soundboard patch, I'll try to make friends with the front of house sound engineer and ask for a soundboard patch, I'll put it in there. So then I'll get both sources. And then if they're in the right spot, I can just kind of sync them together, or if they're different spaces of the room, I need to sync those together so they connect.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

You just sync what together?

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Um the sources. So if I'm far away from the stage and my microphones are far away from the stage, but I'm getting a soundboard patch, which is more immediate, the sounds can be two different weights, so they have to be synced together so there's no like clap back.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Okay, and how do you sync them?

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Do you have to move the I use a um no, I use a software program called Audacity. Oh, and that kind of just just kind of sync them together so they look good and then output that as a new product.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

So Audacity is the um it's free software, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

I use all free software to do my processing.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Yeah, well, you might as well. I mean, you're given your don't you're donating your your time. Yeah. So why not, why not? And that's nice that they have that Audacity. Do you ever make like so everything you do basically is live shows? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Do you ever cut videos and and do all that for bands, or is it just basically their show and that's um sometimes I'll pull a song or two out for a band if they are they're looking to kind of isolate a song. Um, that's not my favorite thing to do, but I can do that. And also sometimes uh what I do is I'll stream a set and then uh I'll take video from my phone of a song or two, and then that's good to go. So then the next day I can just put that up. So here you go. Yeah. Here's your song isolated of the second set. So depending on what kind of mood I'm in, I'll stream a set and then just put some tracks up so people could have like a single set. Because a lot of times I know it, it's like an hour and a half video. They're not gonna watch the whole thing. Yeah, a lot of times I'll watch like 10 seconds of it, you know. But it's out there for people who want to watch the whole thing. But sometimes it's just nice to have like a five-minute video of a song where they can watch and yeah, enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Now, these bands that you do this for, do they do anything like to show appreciation?

SPEAKER_02 9:37

They do, and I do have a few uh bands. So occasionally I do this for free and I spend a lot of time on gas driving around, but sometimes I'll open up my Venmo and my PayPal like twice a year and say, hey, if anybody feels inspired to donate, here's the links. Feel free to kick in. A lot of bands recently I've been kicking in a little bit as a thank you for my time going and uh doing the audio and video, which I always appreciate. All the bands that do that, which is very nice. It helps out.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Yeah, and it gives it that community feel that we're all kind of like trying to do.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Yeah, you know, I don't want bands to feel need to do good, I just do it for fun and free. It's like a hobby, but uh the donation link is there if you're inspired and you appreciate it. And a lot of bands are kind enough to put me on a guest list for shows, like hey, they know I'm coming and they appreciate they know when they're going to get out of it. So put me on a guest list and that's always appreciated as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah, yeah. And do they know, like, do you talk to anyone before? Do you just like show up to shows and then set up or uh sometimes depending on on the room?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Um, I'll like Ardmore is a bigger room, and I'm friends with a few bands that will play there, and I'll I'll say, Hey, I'm coming down. Do you mind putting me on the guest list? And they're always usually pretty accommodating with that. Um, but other times I just show up, like I I see and tape a lot of Grateful Dead tribute bands in the area. It's just something I do.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

And yeah, the the that shirt looks like a brand new shirt, is it? No, I've had it for a while. That is a good tie dye.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

It's fresh. This is from the Bridgeport Rib House.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Yeah, that is a good, I mean, it looks like it was just made, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:07

I've worn it a couple times.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah. Oh, that's it, though? It is kind of new.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Yeah. Uh six months or so.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

They gave this to me. Oh, the great the another thing is. The dead did uh or no the tributes. The Bridgeport Rib House. Bridgeport Rib House. I don't know what that is. That's it's in Bridgeport. They're they serve ribs and they have music there every Sunday for Grateful Dead Tribute Bands every Sunday afternoon.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Every Sunday afternoon they have they have dead tribute bands.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Four to eight o'clock. Wow. My favorite place to be. Wow. And they also book music for free Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Melissa is the owner of the Bridgeport Rib House, and she does an excellent job logistics of coordinating all these local bands to play at her venue.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

And so they must make like so is this place pretty big? Like, do they make uh I mean, so they got food and drink. So they make they it's free shows, but they pay the bands.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Yeah, so they're making money off the patrons coming in buying food and beverages and then compensating the bands a percentage, uh from what I understand, of how many people they bring in, how much money they bring in during that performance.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

All right, cool. Yeah, it's a nice shirt. Thank you. With the uh that's why there's pigs on it.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah, that makes sense. We should go there sometime. It's fun.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Uh, where is it? You're here.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

I don't eat meat. It's it's kind of on the way toward King of Prussia, so it's a bit of a drive for you, but it's a good space. And she's turned into a really nice Sunday afternoon. It gets pretty packed with a lot of people hanging out.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Maybe I can put her on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

She would love that.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

But I love that uh what we were talking about with the bands. I mean, it's kind of the same idea with this podcast that we were when we were I was setting up, you know, is it is nice, you know, you want to show your appreciation, cool, but I'm doing this regardless. But it's nice because that's my whole idea with this and is is the community thing because I say it in every podcast, like that's what we have is each other. We live in a mad world, and the more we all help out each other, true, especially in the arts, and just have fun. What is like a chaotic moment of like if there's anything that you can remember and you were recording and it was just chaos?

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Well, there's some venues in the city that are difficult getting your gear into. There's some larger venues like the Met, Fillmore, um that they're not too excited to see someone like me come in with a microphone stand because it could be a weapon. I'm not using it as a weapon. Then then they have to ask someone else questions like, is this allowed in? So it takes a while to kind of get to know the venue and get approval ahead of time to get your gear in. So I'm doing this for free, but I've also had times where I've walked up to the venue with my gear and they're like, No. So you have to kind of walk it back to the car. So that's a stressful, annoying thing. That doesn't happen very often, but it happens occasionally.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Is this something if you called in advance, or is it like venues that you can never talk to anybody?

SPEAKER_02 13:56

No one responds. They have emails, and it's like, if you have any questions, send us this email, but very rarely do they respond. So I I try to for the larger venues, I try to reach out ahead of time and get approval, but for the most part, it's non-responsive, so you just take a chance. But yeah, so that doesn't happen often, but it's annoying when it does.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah. What about stuff like lighting and um you know, is the lighting normally good, or how do you how do you work with the lighting, or is it just what it is, it is?

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Yeah, what it is, it is. I don't bring any lighting, so I just try to get in a good spot. I'm trying to some of the local uh spots, mostly like brew pubs, things like that. I try to get in front of like a post or something. So my gear isn't in front of other people's view. I want your it's your night out. I want you to enjoy yourself. I don't want you to be looking out all this stuff. You're trying to look at the band, you're trying to not look through my you know, my screen, stuff like that. So I try to keep that in mind when I'm going out and recording bands. Um, but I try to get in a good spot, central as possible for sound, and but the light is something that's out of my control. Just do the best I can with it.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, and a lot of times, I mean, I guess some shows have enough lighting and haze to make it look cool because you're just doing the live the live thing, so it's so it's not all complicated. Um, what's all this stuff? So you showed us two of these things, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Yeah, this is kind of a little tripod, it's pretty cool that I kind of suggested. A lot some of my friends, I love them, but they'll like stream a show and they'll they'll be dancing while they're streaming, and it's a little bit dizzy the next day. And I was like, I was like, I love you. Why don't you try to get one of these? You know, and then you can kind of put then you you can dance and just be relaxed, and you just kind of put your phone there. And I'm encouraging you to do video and stream if you're feeling inspired, but then you can dance and relax, and it's a better um experience for your friends at home the next day.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

But do they ever hold this? Because is there really tables to put? I guess. It depends on the show, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Yeah, it depends on the location, things like that. So I don't use this very often because I usually use my mic stand, and that's more freestanding. But that this is something I use when I first started getting started, and I would find like a little table to kind of put it on. Yeah. Um, to do streaming and video. Oh, nice gem here. Uh, my friend Jay from Crickets and Cicada showed me this thing goes six feet high. It's great. And and I can carry this in. What is it? This is a uh stand for your for your phone.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Oh, okay. So now you've advanced. So you got that after that.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Yeah, so this is this is V1, version one. And then I I was hanging out at a show and I saw this. I was like, look at that thing. And then this this goes all the way up. Oh wow. Isn't that great? So then you could and it goes up to six feet? Well, a little bit higher than that. But then you can just put your phone in there and then you can kind of keep it over to the side where you're hopefully not disturbing people. So it's not super high, you're gonna be, but it's it's a new well you said it's a little over six feet, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:49

So that's nice. That would be easier to carry around than that tripod.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

My wife likes this one because it's more compact. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Oh, these are date nights that you're doing this.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Not all the time. I know. Occasionally. We do we do recording on date night. We try not to do recording on all the date nights. So try to keep that separated.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yeah, yeah. Did we look at everything? Um got two other things here.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

This is my other recording deck I use. This is a Zoom F3, and this is the one I use almost all the time. Look at how cute that is. Yeah. Nice and tiny. So this is those 32-bit, so you can't clip on it. So you can basically set this up, hit record, and you're good to go. So you don't do any adjustments while you're recording. And then you do all the processing when you get home later. So you're not really maintaining like with this F6, you're checking all the levels, make sure you're not clipping and make sure everything looks good. This you just go and hit record. So I use this at Ardmore a lot. So I'll go in there, I'll set up my mic stand, I'll hit record, and then at the end of the set break, I'll just hit stop, and then you're doing processing at the end.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

So it automatically just doesn't clip.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

No, it doesn't clip. So then you can just kind of uh do your amplification and normalize and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Yeah, all these zoom things, I never used any of these things.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Yeah, it's a great little unit. So that's how I do most of my audio recording. And then what I do with that is when I get home, I put my recordings on a place called archive.org. And that's a another free website that holds all tapers um recordings. So they have different bands, collections set up there. So um that's another thing I've actually done, if I can digress a little bit, is connect with some of these bands and get them set up, uh, collection set up on archive, so they have a place to put their recordings. So a lot of these like um Grateful Dead Tribute bands that I've become friends with, they didn't have a presence on archive, and then I kind of connected with them, got approval, and then connected with the archive moderators to get a collection page set up. So then when you go and upload it, they have a page set up so you put it underneath there so they can go back and they can listen to their show they want to, or they can share it out with their fans, things like that. So it's all free.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

That's super cool. You are doing cool things. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Yeah, yeah. The band seem to appreciate the fans seem to appreciate, and that's what it's all about. So yeah, they can go back and say, hey, you know, what did we play at this venue two months ago? Instead of having like a uh set list, you have like an actual live webpage that has the songs present you can listen to.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

And you recorded the things on there.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Yeah, so I recorded and put that up, and then people can download if they want to, or they can the other thing that's interesting about Archive is it floats into uh an app called ReListen, and you have a relisten app, and you can take on your phone and you can go and click on any band. So other tapers can put all these recordings in this one place, and they the higher level bands float in re-listen, you can listen on your phone. So when I walk the dog or go for a walk, I'll take out relisten, I'll listen to one of my recordings I did a while ago and just go for a walk and listen to it the headphones. It's just great.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

I'll have to check all this out. So this is all so I know you have uh YouTube page. Yes. Is that have links to everything you're talking about? Or what how where is this archive thing at?

SPEAKER_02 20:22

So archive is www.archive.org and my taper name is Papa Funk with a pH, because I'm a papa and I like the funk. So you can go archive and search Papa Funk, and there are over 2300 recordings on the archive page underneath my name.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

And if I if if I forgot that or if someone, whatever, is this also like on your so you have a YouTube, you have a Facebook, and then do those have links to find this archive, or is this something we just gotta remember?

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Yeah, I have a link on my personal Facebook page to my archive page. So there's a link under there in the bio that you can click on it. You can see all the recordings there. And then on my YouTube page, so I also have a uh SEPA live. Some people pronounce it sepa live.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

I like it because it's almost like SEPTA. Yeah. Not that SEPTA's.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Trying to keep it separate from SEPTA, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, Southeast PA is what I was going for.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

There's a neep there's a NEEP alive that has a pretty big presence up in Northeast PA. Or it could be Southeast Pennsylvania audio. Oh, you're working on a logo? This is my branding. This is my logo that non-AI created my logo. Are you gonna use that actual thing or are you gonna put in a computer and that's my pick I took a I drew this, I took a picture, and that's my profile on my Facebook page. It's like cool to be a human these days. It's nice and simple. There you go. People say they can find it.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

It's not taking long for it to be uncool to AI. That's a beautiful logo.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

I made this one.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

That is very cool.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Back in 2021, I made that logo. I love that logo.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

Can we give Rick and Lydia a shout out while we're having this little moment here? Of course. Rick and Lydia, thank you for connecting us. We would not have connected without your network and your suggestion of us coming together. So I appreciate you guys and everything you guys do for the community.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Their festival, this will be my third year running the sound. It's my favorite time of year. Cool. It's all good vibes.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

I hope they get up there to share.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

But yeah, shout out to uh to Licky and Ridia. They know I like to say that. What's one of the most like special moments you think that you've recorded? If you have one. That's a big question. It is a big question. Because you've you have how many videos in your archive?

SPEAKER_02 22:46

There's a lot of videos out there. I think I'm approaching 4,000 videos. Not all full sets, but there's like 4,000 videos on my State Zip Alive video page, and then there's like 2,000 audio. So with the audio, it's mostly my recordings, but sometimes I help out other tapers. Some uh tapers, it's like a taper community. I'll just talk about that a little bit. So for some of the festivals that we go to, and one that poster right there, the Dell Fest poster, uh-huh. That's kind of where I started getting into a community of tapers where there was a bunch of people set up by the soundboard, other people. Like I wasn't the only weirdo like bringing my mic stand and stuff to go record the bands. There's other weirdos there too that like to do this. So we started talking, and then some of it had been doing it for like 20 years, and they taped the dead back in the day. And um, that's it's a nice like bluegrass community, and that's kind of where I got my start. Um, kind of talking to other tapers and getting a good feel and setting up at the soundboard. So I got some really nice recordings there, and probably one of my favorite recordings is uh Billy Strings, who I love. He's blown up and he sells out huge venues right now, like 15,000, 20,000 person venues. But way back in the day in 2018.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

And that's like blue. I never listened, I'll have to check it out.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Yeah, it's like bluegrass, uh kind of a high-paced bluegrass. He's a very talented guitar player, and he used to play, they have a late night at Dell Fest where they have like a separate music hall stage, so it's separated from the festival, and you can buy a ticket for$20,$25, something like that. And they play from like 12 to 4 o'clock in the morning. So they'll play two sets late night, and I recorded them two times there.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

12 a.m. to 4 a.m., yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Yeah, so midnight to four a.m. So the people that have been drinking and partying all day at the festival, they roll into this music hall. I love it, and it is a party, it's a good time. So it was back when before Billy blew things up, and you could see him in a I'd say maybe 500 seat venue. And I was the only taper there, late night record two of his shows two successive years. And those are probably my favorite recordings that I have out there. So they're an archive. They each recording has like 10,000 listens. You can also track how many um people have listened to your recording. There's like a little software program built in, so you can kind of go back in a couple weeks and a couple years later and see how many people have clicked and listened to it. So that's kind of a positive reinforcement. Like people are enjoying this. Yeah, it's 10,000 listens.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

So you got it like before he like got real big. Yeah, and that could happen more. So I wonder what would happen if anybody like blew up so much, and then they're like they're all of a sudden they got managers and stuff, and they'd be like, You gotta take this down. That'd be annoying.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

That would be annoying.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

I guess it hasn't happened yet.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Not yet that I know of. Because most bands see and appreciate the marketing that tapers are putting out there. It's usually really good products, it's not like we're taping crap and putting it out there. We're we're trying to do our best to capture the moments that we're sitting in the sweet spot between the speakers. We're trying to get a really good recording that people um can listen to in their cars and appreciate.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Um so it's I think that would be more like if someone went like major label. Like I think the bands and stuff that we're talking about are very community driven in their own way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

That they're not gonna Yeah, like somebody like like I don't know. I don't I don't know why tool just came to mind, but someone like large like that, like they they might not want tapers taping or stuff because they probably have their own like um musical engineering.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Well, at that point, it's because also it might not be the band, actually, it's it's everyone else involved in their career that's making money off of them. So they're like, you can't make money off of it, and you're not even making money, but yeah, you're gonna make a chance that people can see something that we don't calm down. Yeah. What if a band like want do you ever do you have bands reach out to you? Like if if a band was interested in in what you do, like it can they reach out and be like, hey, all the time.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Really? Every week. Really? Which is tough because a lot of bands have become friends with, like, hey, I didn't know if you're busy next Saturday, but uh, we got a gig here, we got a gig here, come on over and and tape our show if you want, which is very nice. It's nice to be reached out to. Yeah. But then you kind of have to make decisions of what's a good drive, a good venue, things like that. Because I want to support everybody, but there's a lot of bands in this area that are playing right now that I basically do this for free, which is fun to kind of capture the moment, so not to not to be cocky about it, but a lot of bands do reach out, which is nice. It's nice to be appreciated, but I'm only one person. I wish there was like a few of them five. And you're giving your time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

But if they reach out, they should definite like like I mean, you get a free ticket, but you know, yeah, you're doing you're doing a lot. Is there anything like different that you when you do when you do record these bands, like is there anything that you tell them to make a better, or is it all just like pretty natural? Like to make a better recording, or it's is it pretty natural? I feel like it's pretty natural.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Yeah, for the most part, I'm just kind of there and I don't want to affect a band's performance. Yeah. Like I don't usually request songs or things like that. Uh sometimes, like when I record at 118 North and Armore Musical, occasionally I'll get a soundboard patch, but that's more me interacting with the front of house sound person, and I'll just ask for like a soundboard patch. And if the band's cool with that, I always try to ask approval of the band. Um, most of the bands I'm friends with now always ask first, like, are you okay if I stream? Are you okay if I do video and audio? And they're always like, Yeah, yeah. Um, so that after I ask that the first time, it's just assume that they're cool with me setting up gear and taping and doing all that stuff. But the front of the house people is someone I try to have a good friendship with where I can kind of keep an eye on the levels coming in if I need to tweak it down, or but for the most part, the rooms in in this area that are the the sound's great. So I don't really have to do too much adjusting things along those lines.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

And I love that you just like are doing this because uh, you know, I really feel like this is an industry that like school's great. I went to school, I I paid$90 some thousand dollars in debt off, which means I'm getting older, but I paid it off. Um, but it's like really an industry that you learn by doing. So it's it's frustrating because school's not gonna go away, obviously, because it's a moneymaker, but it's like, you know, with recording, like uh audio and stuff that I do, you know, back in back in the day, you you went into the studio, you took the trash out, you you learned, whatever. Like, you know, you're just doing whatever you're learning as you go. You didn't spend all this money on school to go do this. And it just kind of like reinforces that thought that like you can just do these things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

And I'm not sure how I even got into it. I just started doing it, and now it's like every weekend. I'm like Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I'm out recording some sort of band somewhere. I just I don't even very rarely got to see music and don't record, like I don't know what to do with myself. I'm just out there like dancing. Yeah, it's like I don't have any buttons to look at, or and my wife's like, are you okay because you're not recording anything? I was like, it does feel a little weird.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Yeah, I know what you mean because as a DJ, I like for some reason feel weird. And it's like, why don't you just you know? And I'm like, no, no, I don't. I mean, I do dance, I act like I act like I don't dance, and I used to love dancing when I was younger, but now it's like I've been behind the board for so long. And yeah, I don't know what to do either. It's like that's where I feel comfortable, like pushing the buttons and doing this and doing that. So I I understand what you mean. Like she's like, Are you okay?

SPEAKER_02 30:23

It's a hobby slash addiction.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

It is, it's weird.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

When do we end up here?

SPEAKER_01 30:28

I don't know. The music thing is weird, like this right here.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

I know it's and it somehow we get it. It draws us and draws people together.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

And it somehow it does do something to our brains that and it's not even necessarily like yours is video. Like I, you know, now I'm getting back into the studio, and it's like I just want to keep going in there and and and like I like obsessed, like you get obsessed. Like, what is the obsession? I don't know, I don't know. Like when you're finishing a mix, like right now I have a mix, and it's like every day I've been thinking, like, oh, I should just go into the studio and finish that because I used to work from home and I would just go into the thing, but now I have to go somewhere, it's like a half hour away, and it's just it is crazy how you just get kind of obsessed with it. I don't know how it and the music is involved, obviously. No, but it's not, it's also the technical aspect. Like, do we get endorphined? Like, it's what's happening? Something's happening for that to happen to us. Like our chemicals are being played with.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

And that's the other thing. When I come home from a show, I'm I'm uh a little amped up from the experience, and like I want to kind of start things. So I'll like like each component do something like the audio and the video. So it's like, I want to hear how the sounds, you know. So sometimes when I come home at night, I'll put the audio on and the video, I'll get the video because each each 4K video set takes about three three hours to upload. So I'll start it and I'll put another video next to it, just like playing so that'll like go. And then in the morning that one's done, so I can share with my friend that syncs it for me. But sometimes I'll do the audio just like, yeah, just like amplify it a little bit and tune it in, and then I'll work in tomorrow. And it's like, well, I'm up, I could just track it out right now and just get it done.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

I know. So I'll be DJing and that'll be happening to be like it's like look, go get some sleep.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

Stop playing with this right now. It's two o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

But and it's gonna be better to get some sleep. Yeah, I'll do that like because it's like a lot of times. Sometimes I'm only 15 or 20 minutes away from the studio, and I'll be like, I could go to the studio right after I'm done DJing, and I could just and then it does start into Dry. Like, honestly, slow down, get some sleep, knock it off, and you're gonna be more a better work. You're you're gonna do better. Yeah. The next day, the next day or whenever you get some. I think I'm gonna go to the studio after after this, actually. I have to figure out how far away it is. It's in Port Richmond. So you on your YouTube channel, uh, obviously it's all these bands. So you can't really you can grow that channel, but you can't really monetize that channel.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Or can you could because everything's I have a little monet monetization in the background set up. Um, somehow I set something up and I make about a hundred dollars. Somehow? You don't know how to I I went and clicked some buttons and got it set up so to monetize my videos, but the videos have to be original music. And almost 90 per 95% of the bands I record are covers, so I can't click monetization on those videos. Right. So when I upload it, it it shows if there's if a content is being claimed by another party. So there's it's almost 95% of the time that uh another party is claiming that content because I record a lot of Grateful Dead music, that's all copyrighted. So I'll put up um there's videos, and sometimes an original song or two, or they won't catch it, it'll get through. So I get like a hundred dollars every six months off my YouTube channel. Oh, you do off my 3,500 videos. I just hit click and then it comes through. So that's how many you have on YouTube? Yeah, 3,500 videos up there.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

So wow. I love what you're doing. This is amazing. Like I am just so excited to meet you. I'm so excited to meet you too, because I haven't met anybody in this journey yet. Um, and every season, like this is the beginning of the season. You're this one will come out um if a Monday, if April 13th is a Monday. Yes, this is gonna come out on 420. Okay, perfect. Yeah, celebration. Yes, we don't we're we we had specific instructions for the wife not to talk about a I don't know why, but I like that day. So we're gonna actually put yours out on 420. It's gonna be perfect. Awesome. Um, that is awesome. Yeah, that is awesome. It's gonna it works out perfect, but yeah, so this this season's just starting out, and like last season I didn't know all the people I was gonna end up meeting in that season. And yeah, and I was talking to you about that event I want to have. So it's really exciting to have met you now because you're another piece of this puzzle of all these people. Our music network is thick in our area. Yeah, it's making me want to make a festival, but I don't want to compete with the grateful day trippers. We'll just collaborate with them. There you go. Is there anything? So, so you so okay, so you have your archive, you have your YouTube channel, do you do anything on other uh face Facebook? Um, do you do anything else on like TikTok or any of those? No, yeah, those three are simple. Yeah, keep it. That's what I learned.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Those three are pl plenty to maintain, so just enough.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

You just gotta get the word out. Like, I have a TikTok and a Twitter or X, whatever you want to call it. And when I first started this podcast, I was like, because I have to make the real the promo that that it's out. And then even just putting that, and I wasn't getting much like I don't I care about growing my Twitter or my TikTok. It's just I never really and I just cut them out. I even took the things I kept the handles because music is our hero. I just think is genius. So I just want to make sure I still own it.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

You might bounce back to them later.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

You know, yeah, it might you never know, and you never know where those social media platforms are gonna go because everything is like obviously always evolving, and it's it's it's you never know what's next. Yeah, so I might go back. Yeah, it's good to so I'm like, yeah, I'm keeping that, but I'm not posting. It's just too much. Yeah. When you when you start doing it everywhere, you're like, this is this is madness. And then people are like, oh, you can use this app and it can just go to all of them. I'm like, but then it doesn't look like authentic because it's like you could type something one way on Facebook, but it's another way on Instagram, like you know what I mean? You could tell, and then it looks like I I'd rather put the effort in and like do it right than just take the easy way out and be like, and then it not even be like right on everything. So, anyways, yeah. So, yeah, you have you have plenty of uh of whatever that that's a lot of storage space.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

So, yeah, so I so when I put the video up, the video, the 4K video is large space, so I pretty much put it up and then I delete it. I I don't have space to keep the video. You delete it, yeah. I delete these too, yeah. So once it's on YouTube, I'm just trusting YouTube will never go away. Because that has all my videos. Well, your archive does. So archive has, and I I save those like the the wave recordings. I I have like a little um external drive that I'll put all those on. So the audio you keep. Yeah, the audio I keep, so I keep that separate. Just in case some band gets big three years ago and they want they want their WAVE file from like three years ago, I have it. It's and that's when it's worth money. Hasn't happened yet, but it's there in case any bands want a full you could always let them like you could tell Billy Strings, like, hey, I have this.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Do you want this? I gotcha. You know what I mean? Just give me a shout. Yeah, um, yeah, I was thinking about how much because I know with these recording these podcasts, it's like a lot of space. And I've been keeping the final edit and the final audio. And so we'll see how fast hard drives fill up.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

Yeah, they're they're not that that expensive, but it's it's another expense where you're kind of saving that data somewhere. So just in case you need it, but it's good to have that backup.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Yeah, and I'm I'm and I'm definitely a hard drive girl. I refuse to like like the phone, the iCloud for the pictures. Like, oh, you want to pay? I'm like, no, I'm not paying. I do pay like a dollar a month for like 50 gigs or something. I pay something for something more. Uh-huh. Um, I just put everything on a hard drive. Yeah. These people that don't put anything on a hard drive, it's a peace of mind. I have a bunch of it. It is a peace of mind too because it's like chaotic to think about like everything on your phone. To me, it is. Yeah. Like, so I have to get like these pictures off, and I gotta get these things off because I can't function. It's just too much. And when are you gonna even look at all these pictures? And the next thing you know, you're then that's when like when you have your phone and then you just start sh you look you're looking for one thing, and now you're showing your friend like every picture. Like this was when, okay, all I wanted to see was the first one. Like, deep in my phone, all the time. You get deep, and yeah, that happens to people, they get deep in. All right, so do you have anything else that you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_02 38:44

I just wanted to show my one thing here, which is kind of cool. This is my Seep Alive set list book. So after the show, I try to ask the band for a set list. Okay, and I'll toss it in here afterwards. And it also helps me kind of track down the songs when I'm tracking them out. I have to name each song because sometimes I don't know the songs. This is my uh pass from Dogs in a Pile. They gave me a guest pass, which is very nice and awesome. That was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Wow, this is a lot of set lists. Do you have dates on them?

SPEAKER_02 39:15

This one is even a plate. Yeah, you gotta love the plate stuff. So I used to keep them in organized, and I just kind of toss them in there.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

But you don't have a date, like when they're all from?

SPEAKER_02 39:22

No. Like some of them have it on there. Yeah. But some those are the organized bands. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like Soul Live or something.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

This band, we can tell the difference between these two bands.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

But I wrote it down. That's good. You actually read it. A lot of times you can't even read. Like, what is that word? I thought it was just kind of something cool. I thought I'd show you. Yeah, that is super cool. So when I get to set when I ask you for your set list, it goes in here. Yeah. Has a has a special place in my heart.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Yeah, that is real cool. Oh, good. That's all I had to share. Awesome. Is that all the stuff? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

Yeah, I think I shared everything. These are microphones that I use too. These are kind of cool. These are little things that keep the uh wind they're outside, keep the wind away.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Yeah. Oh okay. Oh these are these con condenser mics or dynamics? These are condenser. Okay. So these are. They remind me of the little ones I've been using in the studio, the KM 184s. Oh, Newmans? Newman's, yeah. I just uh I'm like learning my way around, so they're letting me just like bring people in just to to uh to track, and I just brought a drummer in the other day, and like I had how many mics? I had like almost 10 mics on this kit. I was like, oh, this is gonna be overkill. We don't need this many. And uh it sounded fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Oh my god, but I did have the the but then you feel like you need to do that every time now.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

I will do it every time because it was actually really easy. Uh what I did, and I didn't expect it to be to sound so good, and then it was just another like reinforcement.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

Like I like the sound engineers and like the the drum kit because you can tell the difference. It's starting in the recording, you got a nice soundboard recording, you can tell all the the fills and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Oh, yes, if you're getting it from the board, you mean your sound? Yeah, yeah. There is a difference. I I've lived my life the last couple decades, like, oh, it doesn't matter. It I was always like somebody, like even when I was like 20, like when technology was coming out, it was like, oh, and then like and thinking it could just do everything, and uh now it's like I realize that it can't do everything. Oh, you do best you can. I don't know if you know what I mean at all. I've been into this stuff forever since I was a teenager. Like I had a four track, I had an actual four track in the 90s. Nice. I wish I still had it. That start somewhere. Yeah, it was awesome. I like could only record four tracks and then I would bounce it down. Like I was really into nine-inch nails and all them back in the day, and so like I was just like trying to make like nine inch nails sounding things, but you had to bounce the four tracks down, and then again, I wish I didn't sell it, but I did. I don't have any tapes anyways, I wouldn't be able to use it.

SPEAKER_02 41:56

You could probably find one on eBay for$500. I probably right. I don't know how to buy one.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

I don't need to buy one, then I gotta buy tapes.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

Yeah, you got enough going on.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

I know I don't even know if they sell, I know records are are coming back, uh kind of like in this indie community, anyways. And I think even in the majors, they're making records like, but I don't think tapes are coming back. No, I don't think they need to.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

I gave I gave a few. There's a younger guy, uh Lucas, who uh is collecting Grateful Dead tapes, and I had a bunch that I had in the basement that I just haven't listened to for a while. So I went to the rib house and I brought him all these tapes, and he seemed very appreciative because he listens to tapes and he's like them to the tapes. He's a younger guy, so I gave him my Grateful Dead tapes. Like, here you go. He seemed appreciative. They were just like collecting desks in the basement. So it's nice of you. Passing the music along, keeping it keeping it.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

That's nice of you that you did that, even though you have such a part for that band. Yeah, yeah. I have a whole boxes of some tapes, and the tapes are probably mostly like recordings of myself like when I was younger, and also like making like um mixtapes like when the radio like how cool is that mixtapes. How cool was that? You can record the radio um and CDs. I gotta get rid of these things. I they're just there. I'm not listening to them, but I haven't let go of them.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

So maybe it's tough to give them up.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Yeah, it's then it's like, but why I'm not gonna like a memory.

SPEAKER_02 43:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

It's like a that's why that's very impressive that you went and gave your dead tapes away.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

Yeah, well, he seemed to appreciate them.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

So and I have CDs, so there's plenty of other mediums that are still you have plenty of dead, dead related stuff. Yeah, look at it sunny.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

Yeah, it's turned to a nice day. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

All right. Um do we have any more shout outs? Do we have any more shout outs? Thank you for your time today. This is wonderful. Thank you for yours. Uh, I do have one more question. I don't know if you know about the last question.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

No, I don't. Okay. I didn't get to the end. Uh I'll give a shout out to the gem and Katie and Andrew. That's how I think shout out to the gem. That's how I found this. Uh, your podcast. You went up and interviewed them a while ago, and I really enjoyed that. So that's where I kind of got a good feel. And I thought this would be a good um sit-down. And chat from that. So good luck to the gem. I love you guys. I wish you guys well.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

Are you going to the show in a couple weeks? I forget what you said. Yeah. All right. So the last question is how is music your hero?

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Oh my goodness. It's gonna make me emotional. I don't even know how to answer that. Music is my life. I don't even know how to put it into words. I don't know where I would be without music in my life. It just takes me to a happy place. I've been to so many like local even in like a crowded group hub. The band will be playing something, they will cut through, and you can just focus on the band experience and everyone dancing around you. It's just something this tribe in this area and the mus the music fans that we have that go out and see the music together is just a wonderful thing. And sometimes it's not just going to see the band, it's going separate, going out and and hanging out with friends, catching up that you haven't seen in a while. That's like half the experience, you know. Yeah. And it's just the experience that we are so lucky in this area to have so many Italian musicians at venues that for the most part it's free. You can go every weekend. I could find five different bars that have bands that are playing for free, that they are kind enough to let us in and they're paying the band out of us buying beers and beverages. Like, how wonderful is that that we all make it work? Yeah. And some people I don't see for a while, and some people I see every week. And it it we give us stories to kind of connect an excuse to kind of get together and have a good time together. Yeah. That's a good question. Yeah. Emotional. You did it.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

You made it through. I don't know. Maybe it just really like even before you started doing video, was music a huge part of your like has it always been. Were you going to shows since you can remember?

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Yeah, I was going to shows like even like reflect back to Dolphest for a second. Like we went there for 10 years in a row. We have two younger daughters, and our family would go there and camp out. And that was like an experience where we got to camp with our kids, they got comfortable with camping and being around other people. And music was just a backdrop of us just kind of walking around and camping, hanging out with each other. We did it for 10 years. And we found other places that are nice like that. And there's one actually up your area, uh, in and out of the garden. It's up in like Morrisville, PA. And that's in June. And that's a Grateful Dead Fest that you can camp for three days, and it's a wonderful get together. And we see each other once a year. They have a lot of dead bands and other jam bands at play. First weekend in June. And it's just so great to see everyone, and everybody's so happy to be there.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

It's just like I think that's why you got kind of like emotional because because it is a uh it is like those experiences you're talking about. It's just they're just such good like experiences and like the happiness that you're talking about and the good vibes, and everybody just getting along and like living in peace, and all the people you meet along the way, and that you connect, and this and that. Like, I'm literally getting goosebumps right now. I don't know why I'm getting goosebumps, but I feel like maybe that's what got why that question was so emotional was because of like all those feelings just hit you at once when I asked you.

SPEAKER_02 47:16

You know, put all your work trouble away, you know, whatever. Everything away you don't have to worry about that. For three hours, you're out seeing music and you're having a good time. Yeah. So you don't have to worry about stuff. It just takes you to a nice, wonderful place.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

Yeah. Like I always say to people, whoever created us knew what they were doing with with uh with one of our favorite plants, two of our favorite plants, and uh music. Agreed. Anyways, all right. Well, thank you again, Rich Stoller.

SPEAKER_02 47:45

You got it. All right, thank you, Dragon. It's very nice to meet you. You too. This is a wonderful experience. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 47:50

Yes, and we are gonna see each other on our on our travels, I'm sure. You got it. And I'll let bands know if uh, well, you have enough bands, but you know what I'm saying. Put the word out, I'll give you a card later. Yeah, we'll get a card and yeah, and I'll promote your stuff. Awesome, cool. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

Until next time, keep creating, keep connecting, and keep building together. Remember, we're in this together, so let's keep each other.