TTMB Podcast - J and T

We welcomed the two-man band Jason and Trevor into the studio for a trip down memory lane all the way back to their first memories of hip hop. It was an absolute blast interviewing them and hearing about how much their music taste has evolved over the years. It’s safe to say neither of them ever thought they’d be in a super rad band making sick beats and spittin bars. But here they are! Please check them out, on Bandcamp or live here in Grand Junction, they play gigs all the time (there’s one the day after we post this episode!!). Head to our patreon where J&T are in the chat letting us know about upcoming shows!

Full Transcript

0:04

You know, when you hear a song and it triggers a memory, it instantly takes you back to a particular person or place or moment.

This podcast is all about that song and those memories.

Welcome to That Takes Me Back, where we share stories that connect music and memories.

We're your hosts.

0:20

Kellen, David.

And Maya Sage, did you know that there's a lot of our conversation that doesn't make the final episode?

If you want to hear full uncut interviews, you can join our community on Patreon.

Our website is thattakesmebackorg.

I had so much fun having a band in the studio.

0:41

Yeah, the two person band, Jason and Trevor came in, talked to us.

These are two people who grew up in the same small town together.

They knew each other tangentially while they were growing up.

Yeah, and it was just a really cool thing to reminisce as a band.

It was also just really awesome to get once again, an inside view of musicians.

1:00

Yeah, how musicians come together.

Yeah, because Jason played a clip of a beat that he had made, and Trevor was Helen impressed and decided I'm going to write some rap over this.

And then he did.

Yeah.

And Jason was like, hell yeah, man.

Yeah.

And then these people came together after knowing each other for a lot of years, but not yeah intimately at all.

1:22

Yeah.

And then now they're in a band and they're performing together.

And they make really awesome music.

Yeah, check it out.

It's great.

It's a great combination.

They're powerful duo, those two.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, it was fun.

We hope you enjoy listening and we hope you check out their music and we hope you go see a show of theirs.

1:39

Yeah, Jason and Trevor, we are today welcoming the duo, Jason and Trevor.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for being here you guys.

My pleasure.

Thanks.

For having us, yeah.

Would you please tell us just a little bit about yourselves, whoever wants to go first?

1:59

Well, I am a Grand Junction native.

I've lived here 37 of my 51 years.

I've been playing music in one capacity or another for most of my life, been a performing artist of some kind almost my entire life.

Let's see, what else do I want to actually tell you?

2:17

I think I'll just Fast forward to Jason and Trevor, but let's hear a little bit about Jason's.

I basically all of the same stuff that you just said except I didn't get borned here.

I moved here when I was like a little kid.

Where are you from?

I was born in Cheyenne, WY.

2:34

Wow, wow, that's why you said got borned.

Yep, it is.

I got borned by the Creek out there.

By the Creek, lived in other places, but yeah, I've lived here pretty much as long as Trevor has, and that's how we like, met each other and stuff.

We happen to both live in Portland.

2:49

We're again at the same time.

No way.

But we only saw each other once during that time.

For some reason.

I only lived there a year.

Wow, we.

Were doing different stuff probably.

But you knew each other.

Yeah, yeah, that's crazy.

We've known each other a long time.

Jason and I met sometime in our teens, and it was probably because of a mutual friend.

3:09

Kenny Anderson, Right, Jason?

Yeah.

Probably playing music with him.

Jason was in a band with him and this is the guy who got me into rock'n'roll.

Like I was only into hip hop.

And then he was like, here's Nirvana.

And I always loved the bands he played in and always loved seeing this specific band.

3:27

Lila's right, Jason.

Yep.

Oh yeah, 'cause I love you like a sister.

Yeah, I love Jason's drumming in it, and I would go to their shows a lot.

And we didn't actually get to know each other very well back then.

This is, yeah, in our teens, so early, early 90s, right?

3:45

Does that sound right?

I don't know.

Yeah, we'll just go with that.

We more like kind of knew of each other.

We probably talked occasionally, but yeah, yeah, yeah.

It wasn't.

We didn't really get to start getting to know each other better until Jason was hanging, doing things at the library, using library things.

4:04

Yeah.

That's I'm.

It's not a good way to explain.

It I was, I was here like every day.

And you were using the studio.

Right.

I was also here a lot too.

Yeah, they used to not.

Yeah, I used to come here all the time before I actually worked here.

We are at 970 W Studio, which is where we are and where I work.

4:22

We plug the studio big time on the outro of our podcast because we think it's really cool.

Only I'm not allowed to say 970 W.

Yeah.

It's 97-O W studio. 097 O and yeah Fast forward.

Sorry you you grew up playing music too then?

4:38

Oh yeah, playing since I was like 12.

I've been playing in bands and stuff.

So that's, yeah, 80 years ago.

Wow.

And then yes, when we finally both started working together, here he was in the studio recording with his other band.

And I like accidentally showed him a beat that I made.

4:54

I wasn't, I don't know.

I can't remember why but he liked it and then he like automatically wrote like 3 or 4 verses in a hook or something like that.

Just like going wow like.

Immediately collaborated.

Well, we weren't even trying either.

That's what I like about what we do now, because it came together super organically.

5:12

It's not like we were like trying to do this.

It just like happened.

We're like, hey, this is like fun.

This is how already happening.

Nice.

Like the best way?

Yeah.

For things to start, usually, yeah.

That's that's funny because Trevor was just talking the other day about how sometimes you get a band together and it's more about like the band getting together than it is about making music or anything.

5:33

Oh yeah, get together and you, you make.

Stickers.

Yeah, you have a cool name.

You come up with some cool song names, some chicks.

You.

Can talk, right?

Yeah.

You never happened to me, by the way.

I just say no, no.

Bummer.

Chicks thing.

Yeah, I know.

I'm like still waiting for that one to happen anyways, like go ahead.

5:51

Oh, just that.

So this is kind of the opposite of that, that that it started out like the music was organic and it was it was developed from the music and not from this idea of like, hey, we like each other, let's start a band.

Or like putting an ad in the paper and Craigslist or something being like, I'm trying to do this thing and then you got to like meet 300 people and a little more.

6:10

I have done that and it is interesting.

Like, we already knew that we were Bros, right?

You know, it was like, that's like, yeah.

It was like organic.

Yeah.

Very easy.

Yeah, I didn't know that Jason was making hip hop beats.

Me neither.

That's.

What this is?

6:25

News to me.

And then he he said, hey, do you want to hear the way?

The way I remember is he said, hey, do you want to hear this Dilla beat meaning it was inspired by Mr. J Dilla?

I said, yeah, absolutely.

And he played it for me.

And I just could not believe.

6:41

I was just blown away, blown away.

It was so good.

Thank you.

And I should probably go back real quick.

So when I was in my teen years, I rapped for a little while.

I was obsessed with rap music and I started rapping on my own, writing what were mostly really bad lyrics.

6:58

I still have them, looked through them recently.

And then I eventually got into rock'n'roll and then got into music theatre and, and stopped rapping and, and I didn't rap from then until recently.

So about 30 years in between and I, I had, you know, even friends had who found out I had rap.

7:16

They're like, why don't you rap again?

I was like, no, no, no, no, I have too much respect for hip hop to rap now, you know, I'll leave that to the people who can really do it.

And so it was a really surprising experience to be like, Oh my goodness, I didn't, I didn't think this right that day that Jason played me the beat, but I just, I loved it and it was great.

7:35

And then I think a couple days later I asked Jason if he could send it to me.

And then a couple days after that, I asked Jason if I could rap over it.

And then a couple of days more, I came in the studio and we recorded a couple of verses.

We realized we needed three, so I wrote another.

7:51

One Yeah, that's what happened.

And then we were like, we made a rap.

Song.

Yeah, that's awesome.

And and within a week I.

Basically, I don't know that it's exactly that is probably not the exact timeline.

It probably took longer than that.

It was fast though.

It was what I'm like.

You didn't go home and like.

8:08

Yeah, cook it up for months.

Yeah, exactly.

It was like, like it came to us easily, which was good.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And and that was how things went pretty fast our first few songs, and we didn't even know what the project was yet.

We were just having fun recording, not knowing are we going to release these?

8:25

Are we going to try to figure out to play them live?

We weren't really thinking about.

We may have been talking like who?

Maybe, I don't know.

What are we going to?

Do awesome, though, because then you're just doing what you're doing and you're just purely creating.

Yeah, and you're not like getting ahead of yourself or like limiting whatever where the song turns into it's.

8:42

True.

That is true.

You're still probably thinking about the chicks, though.

Always them but like I said it never happens but that's OK.

But.

So how long ago was this?

Two 2 1/2 years.

End of 23.

Years.

Awesome.

But I feel like it's worth saying that.

8:58

Like I was definitely not thinking that we were going to do it live because I had never done anything like that live.

I had always just played guitar or drums or whatever, never tried to figure out how to like make beats happen live and stuff like that.

So like.

You had to totally learn a whole new medium, almost like wow.

9:19

Which is good because since I work at the studio, we did we had some of the stuff to do it, like the little wiki wiki thing that like where you it's like a I'm doing this with my hand, but you can't see it.

It's like.

We scratching?

Yeah, DJ.

That's how, yeah.

So I had never used one of those or anything.

9:35

And I'm like, well, we probably need that.

I think a big thing that appealed to us trying it live was that we were just going to have to bring electronics and that's it.

Oh, right, you.

Don't have to lug your instruments you.

Don't.

I don't have an instrument though, You know, we expect the venue to supply my microphone because especially being drummers, like drum kits are such a pain.

9:56

Just all say.

Especially being drummers.

It's like, you know what?

However many 5 to 8 instruments themselves.

Now, of course, hauling really heavy amps is not fun either, but you know, you almost always have to help help the guitarists anyhow.

We have done a lot of that and we're both pretty tired of it.

10:15

And so the idea of like, wow, we, we've added stuff as as we've gone.

And I think it takes us more than two.

Well, I have bad shoulders now too, so I can't carry.

But in the beginning, when I had good shoulders and we weren't using as much stuff, we could go into a show on one trip, each of us having, you know, bags in both hands.

10:35

And then we were ready.

You know, it's easy to set up.

Of course I say it's easy.

Jason has to do all the setup because he knows all the chords and everything.

He makes it easy.

I like it, but it's way less stuff now.

That is awesome.

Do you do you have any sort of like visual element to it?

10:53

Well, we hope the venues we play have a good light setup it it can be tough knowing like how much to expect from the venue, especially since we come from DIY world and we like playing more DIY kind of shows, you know, like a show in a warehouse or something, right?

11:12

And if you're doing that kind of thing, there's probably not going to be much in the way of lights.

Yeah.

So you don't expect much, Yeah.

Well, we probably did a lot of not expecting much when we were younger and now we kind of expect more like what Jason was saying about there being a subwoofer, like, right, we need them to provide a good sound system, you know?

11:32

Totally.

Lights are optional, probably, but the sound, the sound, it's like just we're just playing our beats through a tiny little speaker.

It just doesn't have the same Genesee Qua no.

That makes perfect sense.

Yeah, that's important.

And that's also the entire thing you're doing there.

Yeah, so, but lights are cool.

11:48

Look at how cool the lights make this room that we are in.

So I mean, it, it is nice.

It's a It's an added bonus, we'll say, if the place we're playing has lights, but not required.

Probably so really quick.

This is a long shot probably, but I was kind of wanting to ask just in case there happens to be a song that takes you both back.

12:10

Do you have possibly a shared memory like of, I don't know, like after you guys did a gig, somebody did a horrible rendition of a Beyoncé song that forever burned in your mind or I don't know.

I was just wondering if there's a chance maybe you guys have a shared memory of the song?

12:26

Well, we were talking about how much we both love Run DMC, and run DMC was also one of the first groups that got us interested in listening to rap music.

Neither of us could come up with like first Run DMC or song exact song, but there are probably a couple that we could both say where you know like a first rap song or a first run DMC song or both that really grabbed us.

12:54

But that would have been at the time that you didn't know each other super well right back in your teens, is that right?

Yeah, yeah.

Because this is this for me would be like I was probably like 12.

It's around 86 or so.

I don't know.

Around the same time for you, Jason.

13:09

Yeah.

Oh yeah, probably here in Run DMC.

Yeah, that's, yeah.

Should we go down that road or should we?

Because I don't know if we, I don't know if we have anything that we have like totally shared.

That's fine.

I was just right.

Yeah.

I like that though.

I'll keep that like, yeah, percolating.

13:26

Yeah, keep it percolating because they're maybe.

The both of you like, yeah, you weren't necessarily at the time close friends and kind of exchanging music.

Like neither of you were like, oh, check out this Run DMC song I like.

But at the same time in your lives you were finding Run DMC and enjoying it.

13:43

Yeah, I think it was.

He was coming out come getting bigger at the time, right?

Yeah, they, that was right about when they really broke through, especially with the song Walk This Way, because that was such a huge hit with Aerosmith.

I I think that was probably right.

It wasn't that song that got me into them, but it was right around that time.

14:02

Yeah, but do you remember a specific song, Jason?

Like a first song or earliest?

Only I feel like kids in my school were hipper than I was and they knew some Run DMC stuff and it was like like Mary Mary when you're bugging or like maybe Christmastime in Hollis or whatever.

14:19

Or Hollis.

Was big, yeah.

I actually haven't heard that one, so I kind of want to hear.

Yeah, it's like a fun.

It's an actual Christmas song.

Yeah, so good.

Still totally a hip hop jam even though it is a Christmas song.

14:38

Like it's not wack.

It's got a bit of an intro it.

Was December 24th on Honda Sabbath the dog We're going to see the man chilling when his dog in the park.

14:57

I had proved them very slowly with my heart full of fear.

Look at his dog.

Yeah, so good.

I'm going to have to add it to my Christmas songs that aren't annoying playlists.

That aren't wack.

15:13

I was just I just checked it recently and on streaming it's still one of their most popular songs.

Like a third or fourth I've.

Done.

Fun, yeah.

It's up there, 90 million.

Dang.

Yeah, pretty good.

Video's fun too.

15:28

There's like a little elf like elf guy running around playing Run DMC videos or something, I can't remember, but it's a good video too, yeah.

Yeah, I dig run DMC-2, but I obviously found it at some point later on after it wasn't necessarily what everybody was listening to.

15:50

Yeah, that's OK.

I think I'm pretty sure the way I first heard them was I had a cousin from California and because he was from California he was so cool to me.

I'm not sure where I got it, but I just had this idea of California being so cool.

16:09

And he was a little older than me and he brought he visited Grand Junction and he had a raps greatest hits tape, which was the series put on by, I think, put out by I think profile records.

And that had I think that had King of Rock by Run DMC, which was one of their earliest hits.

16:28

And I don't know if it was another tape or what, but the other song that I remember being one of the first ones that made me absolutely love Run DMC was my my Adidas.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, it's, oh, it's so good.

16:46

Stepped on stage at Live Aid.

All the people gave and the poor got paid.

Wow.

Wait, did they really go to live?

Were they on live?

Oh, that's.

Yeah, it was kind of a big deal because that pretty sure they were the only hip hop and it was a lot of the time, I bet it was a lot of those people first time seeing anything hip hop because it was like a billion people watched that thing.

17:10

And you know, I'm sure that it rap was still kind of new or whatever.

Some it was like probably the first introduction for some people.

Oh.

Absolutely.

That's that's kind of cool.

Run MC were definitely the first like national or even international rap stars.

17:28

They were the first rappers on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Oh.

Wow.

They have a few other firsts that I'm forgetting right now, but I think they were a huge part of America's first introduction to hip hop culture and rap music.

17:44

And so I think a lot of people have stories like ours that are like, Oh yeah, that was.

That was the first time I decided I liked rap.

Yeah, right.

And I think I had heard, you know, I had probably heard some other things like I remember talking about breakdance music, which was probably some hip hop or some Electro that you may be seen in a movie or something.

18:11

But I didn't really know what it was or understand or anything or was that interested in in it.

But running MC was one of the first, if not the first that was like made me go like, oh, I really like this a lot.

Oh my goodness, I want to.

18:27

I want to know more about this and listen to more of this.

So did that just really solidify you for you that California was indeed the coolest?

Yeah, I still for a long time thought of my 2 sets of cousins from other sides of the family who lived in California and whenever they would visit they would have like cool clothes and cool secular music.

18:53

They were, they were.

Even though they were raised Christian like me, they were allowed to listen to secular music more than I was I guess.

Anyhow, I still think of California as being a pretty cool place, yeah.

That's fair, that makes a lot of sense, especially as a kid.

I feel like I just literally picture like surfer people.

19:09

Right.

You got the beach, I mean.

I remember figuring out that, like, some of those older movies that are in California, I, like, finally realized that part of why their schools seem so cool and different is because they're in freaking California and their schools are half outdoors.

19:24

Oh yeah.

And I was like, Oh my God, I like, duh.

But I didn't realize that.

That's why, like up here in the north, all of our schools have inside hallways, you know?

Yeah, well, right, you can get you enter the classroom from the outside, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, there's big like courtyards and yeah, yeah.

19:42

Like, yeah, it's like going to the one a motel.

Yeah, kind of.

Yeah, A nice sunny motel.

Yeah, I was just like, Oh well, that's why they their schools always seem so cool in the movies, right?

Totally.

So do you, Trevor, have then a particular memory of was this a tape that you were allowed to listen to at the time?

20:02

That's a good question.

Yeah.

I don't think our parents had a a rule that we couldn't listen to secular music.

We just never heard secular music other than, you know, at the time, if you walked into Kmart, you were going to hear Michael Jackson.

There's just no way you could avoid.

20:18

Totally.

Hearing Michael Jackson somewhere.

And it's not like your parents put earmuffs on you.

No, no, what?

And we actually did listen to a little bit of secular music in our house, like my dad had the vinyl record of American Graffiti soundtrack was, which is a really great compilation of 50s music.

20:36

Still some of my very favorite songs.

Ever.

Wow.

Yeah.

I've got Wolfman Jack on it too.

Oh yeah, say.

It the Wolfman coming in, get to play some Beach Boys now, whatever.

He's the DJ in the movie Wolfman, so no.

20:52

My parents were as as far as I remember.

My parents were cool once I started, like getting rap tapes.

And of course when I first started they almost never had any cussing on them.

And then eventually I would start getting tapes that were more violent and more cussing.

21:10

But I think I was careful about making sure I didn't play those where my parents could hear it.

So you did kind of know you were doing something a little taboo.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

I knew it was totally different than anything in Grand Junction.

Well, that that's how I felt.

21:25

You know, at the time I figured no one else in Grand Junction is listening interact, just me.

Was that was that part of its appeal?

Oh, absolutely.

And this is a little bit embarrassing because I was totally exoticizing African American culture.

21:42

Well, that's part of what the music industry relies on, if you're being honest.

That's how it that's a big part of what I think some of the bigger black artists that became popular during those times.

I think that's a lot of what their marketing was doing.

21:58

So it's not your fault.

I think some of that was happening a lot at that time.

Yeah, record labels knew how how they had to try to sell black artists to white America, for sure.

Suburbia or whatever.

But yeah, I, yeah, you know, Grand Junction is a very white place, and it was even more so in the 80s.

22:19

For sure.

But yeah, that is definitely a reason that it appealed to me that it felt like I was the only one who listened to it and.

Definitely made you cool.

Yeah, right.

And then when I did find friends who liked it too, that was that was amazing.

22:35

You know.

We were like totally instantly friends.

Going back a little bit.

I was a skateboarder when I was like 14 or so, really into it and had friends who were really into it.

And at the time, I don't know if this was said or if it's just something I thought you had to be into certain music to be a skateboarder.

22:53

Sure.

And it was punk rock.

Totally.

And it was like Suicidal Tendencies, worst band name ever, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys.

And so I pretended to like them.

Maybe some of them I liked a little.

And I would go home and listen to my salt and pepper tapes, but I wouldn't let my friends know about that.

23:12

Which is hilarious because 2 1/2 years from then skateboarding suddenly was completely about hip hop or hip hop was about skateboarding and you know, all the skateboarding movies, all the soundtracks are are skate are hip hop.

So that was kind of funny that it ended up being that way.

23:29

And I was like, damn it.

Like I could have been.

I could have been the cool.

Guy, I was a trailblazer.

They would have thought I was from California.

That's funny.

All right.

How about you, Jace?

May I call you Jace?

Is that all right?

Sure.

Yeah, All right.

I like it.

I know I've, I've been calling you Jace and I, I, I did ask Trevor if I can call him Trev, but I'd never asked you.

23:51

So nowadays.

Trev, are we going through rebranding?

Jason Trev Yeah, I will allow it.

OK, yeah.

So just maybe a memory of bringing you back to, you know, a, a song that brings you back.

24:08

OK, this isn't Run DMC, but as you were talking about, I have been trying to think this whole time of like maybe what the the very first any kind of rapper hip hop I could have been exposed to be it through like a movie or whatever because you know, they weren't playing it on the radio here for sure when I was growing up.

24:27

But I remember though that there's this old, so like Doctor Demento is a thing, right?

Where that's where Weird Al got his start.

And there's like these, there's like these novelty songs, right?

So.

Fish heads, fish.

Oh.

God, I love fish heads.

That's what that one takes me back.

24:44

Me too.

Yeah, Bill Paxton was in that by the whatever that band was called for some reason.

No, the Fish Heads guys.

Oh, the fish heads guys.

Yeah, the, you know, the actor Bill Paxton.

Anyways, he's an actor.

You've seen him, dude.

24:59

He's like, anyways, he was like in that, which blew my mind when I heard about that.

But Fish Heads is Brad.

But so if they had a compilation of all the songs back then or whatever, Fish Heads was on it weird.

Like, yeah, that's awesome.

Never.

Heard.

25:20

This before he's not good.

I think they're called Barnes and Barnes I'm pretty sure.

Oh, I'd never heard that, but that.

Wasn't their actual name and I'm pretty sure one of them's Bill Paxton.

Wow, the actor guy.

I don't even know how I heard that, but I have had it in my head for.

Decades.

Yeah, exactly that.

One and then there was the another song that comes to mind with this is I bet you they won't play the song on the radio.

25:43

I don't know, I.

Don't know that one.

But but anyways, this in the same genre or whatever and it probably like around the same time there was like some I don't even know who did this one, but it it was a rap song, right, But it was John Wayne being rap guy.

So it was like at the Ponderosa rapping to the beat and it's like so the hook is the da ha da ha or whatever.

26:06

That was probably like the first actual I mean it's not actually rap, right, But like that's probably like the.

Vedic rap that got Yeah, the first one you heard.

Which is probably like the first time I ever like actually heard any kind of like rap beat or anything 'cause I was like 7 or whatever.

But yeah, I am vilified or whatever redeemed Cause Biggie quoted that song and one of his, he's like, it's if you didn't know that song, you wouldn't know what the heck he was talking about.

26:30

But he totally says something like da ha da ha or something, 'cause he was like that, like he knew of that song, he says.

Rap and Duke.

Yeah, that's what it.

That's what it's called.

Rap and Duke.

Thank you.

I could not remember.

I never picked up on.

The reason cause John Wayne's nickname was the Duke or whatever.

26:46

So that's what it is.

It's rap and Duke, but he totally, I, I don't know what song it is, but he goes like Da Ha da Ha or something like that.

And it's like, that's totally what he's quoting right there.

That's awesome.

I was like.

Cool, Biggie liked that song too.

So like, even though it was like a horrible idea or whatever, that it's still kind of catchy and there is like some like, actual act, like artistic merit to it, but like, completely by accident probably.

27:09

But yeah.

Its way into your head.

It did sort of plant this like, Oh yeah, rap, rap sounds kind of cool.

Is this correct?

Probably sounds right.

He goes da ha, da ha because.

This is yeah, it's the artist is showing is Rapid Duke and HP.

27:29

This is it.

And if you don't know who John Wayne is, it's like, what?

But, you know, back in the day, we all knew who he was.

Yeah.

Wow.

See what I'm saying though?

27:46

Like even though there it was a parody and it's a horrible idea, it's still kind of fun like.

Oh, it's still dope in its own way, absolutely.

Yeah.

This Electro beat is fresh.

Yeah, I like it.

It's got some scratching.

28:02

Yeah, yeah, I used to love this song.

Did.

He ask his agent like is this going to ruin my image?

Probably.

28:25

Has 151,000 listens on.

Spotify.

Has 150,000. 150,000.

Incredible.

Yeah, he's got the other.

All the rest of his songs are like 1000 listens.

Oh wow, I didn't even know he had other songs.

28:42

By the Rap and Duke.

Album, album.

That's it.

Wow, I just somebody.

Was just like make a weird country rap thing and it was like a one off.

And somewhere in their back pocket or in the studio or with their group, they had somebody that actually kind of knew how to make beats and stuff like cover saying there's like the beat is actually pretty sick Electro and.

29:06

For 1985, like, yeah, this is pretty fresh.

Yeah, it.

Really is so they had somebody that knew what they were doing.

Probably why it sounds cool.

Album is que pasa really.

I like that I got to look this up.

That's awesome.

There you.

Go.

I had no idea he had other songs I was just heard it on like Doctor Demento compilations and stuff.

29:26

Wow.

Yeah, cool.

Cool some deep cuts on the podcast.

Really.

For playing that, I hadn't actually heard it in a long time.

Did it take you back?

It did.

It took me back to like grade school and where people would like, you know, we were just kids.

29:43

We thought that stuff was funny, man.

Like Weird Al and that guy and the Fish Head song we would like, right?

That's like, I don't know, maybe it was just me and my friends, but we like, loved that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

Run DMC.

I mean, I'm sure that then the next step would have probably been that I saw in a movie or something because like, yeah, I definitely, like I said, they weren't playing on the radio.

30:03

Maybe somebody at school liked them or something, but you know, there was, I definitely had HBO when I was a kid though, and there was always movies like Break In or like Beat St. and like Crush Groove and all those stuff.

So that's probably where I like started to see like actual real rap guys.

30:20

Yeah.

That's cool.

I definitely.

It's just crazy to think about a time when you couldn't get your hands on a certain type of music.

Oh yeah.

I'm old.

It, it was wild.

It was wild back then, man.

You couldn't just like go pull it up on the Spotify.

You had to like, figure out what it was and like find it and go get to the record store and order it like.

30:39

Wild West with the Duke it was I think that you're probably 1 of very few whose gateway into rap was John Wayne.

Yeah, the John Wayne like parody rap.

Yeah, weird goofy stuff.

Yeah, how could you not?

30:54

Weird Al especially, I mean, I'm not going to derail it, but he's like still amazing and he's still kicking butt.

He was here Day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was just here.

He just played like Madison Square Garden or something too, like a full house or whatever.

But, you know, music like that.

31:10

The Doctor Demento was like the guy with the top hat, and he's the one that all of that was kind of under his umbrella, all that parody music and like, yeah, we dig it.

We dug it.

Nice, I love Weird Al too.

I do think like sometimes I get pretty silly with our songs and sometimes I have asked myself is this getting a little towards Weird Al?

31:35

Even though I love Weird Al, I do not.

I don't want our songs to be parody.

You're not trying.

To go fully into like, comedy.

Music, yeah.

Yeah, I'm although I I shouldn't say I would never do that because, you know, I could see myself being like, fuck it, I this song is just going to be ridiculous and silly and I'm going full Weird Al.

31:58

I want people to say, Trevor, you were giving Weird Al on that.

I could see that happening.

But for now I'm trying to trying to stay at least on this side of going full.

Yeah, you do a good balance of that kind of stuff.

We got some serious issues and we got some fun, hilarious stuff.

32:16

I think you do great at that.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I, I often wonder if it's jarring for the audience or, or if it's weird that that we have some songs that I think do have like actual jokes in them or things that make people laugh.

And then the next song I'm saying fuck the patriarchy and I'm asking the the audience to say fuck it, to shout fuck it with me.

32:37

To be honest, I don't think you should be afraid of giving the whole spectrum because every single time that I see someone existing in all of those spaces, it just makes me happy because I'm like, I'm a complex person too and there are things that are serious and matter to me.

32:56

And also I might want to scream fuck it for fun and just be totally ridiculous like so yeah.

Yeah, I think that it is pretty darn typical to be complex.

Yeah, I, I guess, Yeah, I, I agree.

And, you know, I never know what is going to be on my mind at the time or what Jason's beats will make me think of or make me feel like.

33:19

So I just, I really have to go with whatever is speaking to me at the time or whatever is really weighing on my mind or my heart.

And so sometimes that might be cursing about the patriarchy and sometimes it might be talking about how, gosh darn it, isn't it hard to have glasses.

33:39

Well, that was another That was a friend's suggestion, but and.

Honestly, the experience of having glasses is I there's a reason I don't have my glasses on right now because they bugged me with the headphones on.

Right.

Yeah, totally.

And we have a friend who wears glasses and her husband doesn't.

And I think it was just she'd had a couple of days where she was frustrated with her husband, not understanding how frustrating it is to, like, have them fall off and have them break and have them always dirty.

34:06

Dirty, yeah.

And so don't they fog up?

Yeah, yeah, Fog.

Up man during COVID with the mess.

Oh yeah, but.

I had some foggy glasses.

Yeah, yeah, Cooking every time I like, open the oven, Yeah, too fast, stick my face in there.

34:22

And then I'm like, Oh my God, I can't see anything.

You know what?

I A funny thing about that song is I equated having glasses to being a nerd.

The song starts with, you know, it's Hard Out Here for a nerd.

I got to wear my glasses so I can read words.

34:38

But then I started thinking, I don't know if kids think of glasses being a nerdy thing anymore, right?

You know about that like I don't.

Well, it's kind of always been silly that it's considered a nerdy thing.

Like I have always kind of laughed at the trope in movies.

34:55

Like I'm the one that just crossed my mind is strictly ballroom, which probably none of you have ever seen, but I have.

Oh wonderful, I love that.

Movie theater.

Baz Lerman, theater kid over here.

Oh, of course I should have known.

Yeah, my mom's a big Baz Lerman fan.

But yeah, I just the trope where like, she takes off her glasses at one point and then all of a sudden she's gorgeous.

35:13

Beautiful.

Wow.

OK.

Wait, she probably also had a ponytail though and took that out.

She.

Did.

And then she.

Also, like started the movie with like, you know, goofy clothes and then and then eventually she's wearing the gorgeous dress.

It's the whole.

But the glasses are a major part of it.

35:30

And it's so silly because it's like, but you're right.

Yeah, I think it's not associated with that quite as much anymore.

But still the song translates though, you know what I mean?

Yeah, and it's supposed to be lighthearted.

So can we hear it?

Sure that exists, Yeah.

How do you do that?

35:46

How can I get to it?

I think you can just Google band camp and Jason and Trevor hopefully.

You heard it here, folks.

So you'll probably need to go to the first songs.

There's, there's a little, I guess you could call it an album that's called something like the first songs that we just compiled all of our first batch of songs.

36:05

Should be.

I like that that the whole thing started so organically and you didn't really have a direction and you started putting songs together and then your play album is literally called Just First Songs.

Hey Jason, I thought I would record you a message with my idea for the tempo in the glasses song.

36:25

So my idea is it's pretty slow do.

You know what's hard out?

Here for in that.

I got to wear my glasses so I can read words.

I got to read words so I can know things and soak up all that the information brings through my.

36:40

Eyes the stank on The Voice is so good Jason.

Jason put distortion on my voice and I just love how it sounded.

But knock.

My glasses off my noggin.

They fall to the concrete and break in three places.

If I wear them broken, my friends will make faces.

They call me a nerd.

36:56

A dirty ugly dork.

Can I disagree please?

Stick a fork into my eyes because I'm friggin done.

I'm saying wearing glasses isn't always fun.

Oh, there's a run DMC.

Reference here because DMC wears glasses.

Oh yeah.

Oh, ditch.

37:15

Well, it brings it brings it back around to run the.

MC they look it up, there's a sample from Run the MC.

Yeah, I get what you're saying with the possibly illegal sample.

Oh yeah, they're all illegal.

Sample.

37:30

That's why we can't put out a real record because it's like they all have samples that we would have to pay millions of dollars for.

That's what I like doing though.

That's the fun part.

We have at least one other song that references Run DMC, maybe two more, and then we also cover Run DMC.

37:47

So we like to show our Run DMC love a lot.

That's.

Awesome.

Yeah, it makes sense.

Where you guys, you know.

Yeah.

It's the reason you're in a cool hip hop band right now.

So, but how many John Wayne references do you have?

We're going.

We might have to sample that song.

38:04

I'll sample the da ha da ha.

I love it.

That's awesome.

Thank you.

That sounded cool.

I'd like to hear another song.

Is there another song that?

Yeah, which one should be here?

Don't know what's all on there.

One that popped into my mind was I Can't Wait.

That's one that we have a lyric video for on YouTube, and it's one we often start our sets with because it's really energetic.

38:25

Yeah, that's true.

It's one that I think turned out, I think we both, I think we agree that it's one that turned out particularly good, yeah.

There's not like a big old intro either, is there?

I think it goes right into it.

Yeah, I did like the intro, by the way, on the last song.

Wasn't that such a good idea?

38:42

Yeah, thank you.

He surprised.

Me with that too.

And that was a real message you left.

For him, yeah, he surprised me with it, which was so cool.

I love that.

Like voice memos and songs?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And that does take me back to when I was in one of my first bands.

38:59

My friend would be like playing his guitar over the phone.

What do you think of this?

And it's like, like, cool, dude, I can't hear it.

OK, awesome.

This one, I can't wait.

I can't wait.

I'm impatient.

I can't wait, dude.

It's a good one.

To kick it off with, yeah, that's a fun.

One to start.

39:22

I like it, people.

Seem to wait just fine but they must not have anxiety but.

All they.

Want to do is silence me.

I can't wait.

I can't wait when I want something I don't want to wait for it.

39:40

I can't wait when I want something I don't want to wait for.

It So you've created all of these beats just electronically.

Yes, yes.

Well, some of it I actually played too.

39:55

Like on this one specifically, I played that bass.

OK.

I was going to ask you that bass line was played because it's a good.

Bass Yeah, thank you.

I stole it.

But because this whole the whole thing is from an old Jane's Addiction song being caught stealing.

OK, I thought it sounded familiar but but I but I redid all the stuff.

40:16

Basically I did the bass and like resampled it all.

But he you can hear him going.

Don't want to wait for it and stuff like that.

That was from the original Jane's Addiction song.

Am I remembering right, Jason, that you started with sampling the song and then you decided it wasn't like big and fat?

40:34

And that's why I did the real just again, Jason blows me away a lot, but that really blew me away.

I came in and it was like that bass part was even more growly like.

How did you pull that bass out of there like that?

Oh, I played it.

Yeah, I just layered it in there.

40:51

Yeah, there's like 40 different songs and there's like a Kink song in here and like a socket to Twins, a bunch of samples.

It's always fun to see if people will catch the the references and stuff.

41:07

Yeah, the.

New shoes.

I can't wait.

Yeah, totally.

I we don't get much of that, to be honest.

People saying, oh, I like that.

That one part was in that song or I thought that reference.

Sometimes it's, but that's a good thing though.

41:24

Maybe.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

It's, it's just as a nerd as a music nerd.

It's neat when people catch them, you know?

Yeah, they don't have to.

And.

It's there for those that will catch it.

Yeah.

So yeah.

Yeah, all of the samples are my friends, so I like putting them all in the song and that's like fun Part 1 of the fun parts for.

41:43

Me.

Yeah, for sure.

But we'd never build.

That's why we'll never be able to, like, release an album, probably.

Yeah.

I'm so glad that Jason's into samples because that's definitely my favorite kind of rap music is the kind that uses samples.

41:59

And I'm sure that has to do with the fact that when I was the most obsessed, like 12 to 18, that was mostly what most rap music was was doing.

Is they this is before the songwriters of the original songs realized they could get paid for suing them or so it was just, you know, it was free reign Wild West and they were just sampling like crazy.

42:24

And that's just my favorite, just being creative.

I mean, they're basically collage artists.

They were taking something that already existed and using it in this really different, really wild way.

And especially, you know, it comes from it really has a lot to do with the beginnings of hip hop where kids didn't have instruments.

42:47

And there's a whole back story to that of like the schools getting music getting defunded and so they didn't have instruments.

I, I can't tell the whole history of that, but anyhow, it's something along those lines.

But they had turntables and they had records and so they started figuring out ways to throw parties and play records and then eventually finding break beats.

43:14

And what was my point to this anyhow?

Like.

You had to sample because you were using a record.

And yeah, it was brilliant.

They didn't have actual instruments.

Yeah.

So they made like a whole instrument out of it.

And it's like.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

That's such.

A good point, and I I really like the idea of comparing it to collage.

43:33

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

And then if you take that, if you take the sampling thing and then like elevate it and then Fast forward like 10 years or whatever, that's when you got like Beastie Boys, Paul's Boutique, right?

And De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising, which both of those albums would not be able to be.

43:51

We made this Day today because there's just so many samples on there that it would have cost like a billion dollars to clear them all, which they didn't bother to do when they made those records.

Or they're just like, let's just do it.

So like, there's even like a Beatles riff on a, on a Beastie Boys song, which if the band would even let you use it would be thousands and thousands, probably $1,000,000 or something like that.

44:14

But yeah, those two albums specifically are like.

OK, no one.

Make those these days, unless you're a billionaire.

No wonder why.

First of all, they still have such a unique sound, and second of all, it was such a big fucking deal at the time.

Yeah, I was not even alive at that time, but like, my mom was on the podcast recently and she was talking about a Beastie Boys concert and just what a great fucking show it was.

44:37

Yeah, it was.

Just like.

I bet I'm mixturing it and yeah, that that adds a whole nother layer to it that like you're hearing these dope ass samples that you're not hearing in music anywhere else.

So you leave a Beastie Boys show and you're just like blown away.

Anyway, I just wanted to ask you guys how it feels to sort of reminisce on kind of your beginnings of hip hop.

44:56

Like how does it feel to return to the time of like discovering this music for the first time that is obviously nowadays, like the stuff you listen to a lot probably and the type of music that you're creating now.

Like, like if you could talk to your young self back then, like, would you have ever pictured that, you know, you, that you'd have a cool band, you'd be making cool rap songs.

45:19

No, no, not at all.

Not me anyways.

I was metal Hard Rock guy after the comedy phase or whatever, it was all punk and metal and stuff after that.

Not that I didn't like it, Pop, I still like Public Enemy and all that stuff too, but I you were just.

45:35

Locked in with the Rock'n'roll.

Would not have thought I would be like making beats, but I'm glad I am.

I would say to young Jason, just try.

Just do it, man.

Put down those drumsticks in your long hair, everybody.

45:52

'S doing it.

What about you, Trevor?

Yeah, that's an interesting thing to think about.

I think once I got to the point where I was totally obsessed, you know, and it was like I thought of it if my as my identity, but it really wasn't.

46:08

And now I realize I was going through an identity crisis, which of course some, if not all teenagers go through.

I definitely was thinking very naively that this, this could be what I do my life, you know, that's.

46:23

Kind.

Of cool very, I think, I think probably just in my own head, I don't think I probably even voiced that I had a rap group that's in air quotes, a rap group because we didn't know what a rap group was.

So like there were people in the group, we did not know what their contribution would be to so.

46:41

This is sort of what we were talking about earlier, where you formed the group before you.

Exactly what exactly?

Yeah, we had a name and the the guy who was the DJ and I did perform I think two or three times where he just played an instrumental on the turntable and I rapped over that.

46:58

I'm getting off of the original question.

What could I, if I were to go back and tell that guy something else?

I would probably say open your mind to other stuff because I I also did not think that other music was, it was cool.

47:14

I I had barely heard rock'n'roll or barely knew anything about it, so it was very easy to be like rock'n'roll sucks.

That's why people's music.

That's funny that you guys kind of went opposite directions.

That little time.

But it's cool that Jason was able to be like, but rap is cool.

47:32

I'll listen to Public Enemy, whereas I was like, rock is not cool and I will not listen to it.

Occasionally things would breakthrough and I would listen to a little bit of music here and there that wasn't rap.

So yeah, I would probably tell him it's it's OK to check out some other stuff.

47:48

Some other stuff is cool.

I think probably the the thing that would surprise that young me about what I'm doing now with rap music is that Jason and I are doing it on a local level, on a DIY level.

That is exactly what we want, exactly what we have fun doing.

48:06

I think my younger self wouldn't understand why I wasn't a huge star.

If if I'm doing it at 50, then you know, you've had all these years.

Yeah.

Because of course that teenager hadn't had no idea about like, the DIY world, the punk slash indie world.

48:23

Where you where you aren't doing it for those reasons and you know, are doing shows where it's maybe all locals or the there's one touring band and you give most of the money to the touring band because they're trying to make a living off of it.

You know, that's the world we exist in for the most part now.

48:42

And, and we're mostly fine with that.

You know, that's what we think is cool.

I'm fine with it.

I like.

It and if you look around at a lot of the bands who are playing live at, you know, bars and and that kind of thing, they're a bunch of old dudes, you know who, you know, they just love playing, right.

49:01

And they've been playing guitar for, you know, 50 years.

Yeah.

And they're just out there because they love doing it.

And, you know, they can look back at their teenage self who may have said we're going to make it big, you know, and their teenage self may be looking at them and saying, well, this doesn't count as big.

49:17

But, you know, I think for a lot of those guys, they're doing what they love.

They're playing the music and and just having a good time.

Yeah, they're, they're letting that carry all the the value, like there's so much value in doing it and, and, you know, in those spaces and, you know, interacting with the people that you live around.

49:38

And I don't know, I personally would never be able to enjoy living like touring and just the lifestyle of having to keep up with that when you are that big of a deal sounds like hell on earth to me.

So.

I do think it would be cool for that kid.

49:56

I mean it might not be good for him, but it would be cool in a way to let him know like hey your your future self.

Play shows where people really love the music.

Like, people are cheering, people know your songs, people listen to your recordings.

50:11

You know, we play for pretty decent crowds.

People, you know, who saw our last show come to our next show because they want to hear our music again.

It's not absolutely enormous.

You know, we're talking about thousands of people, but we're probably talking about, you know, a few dozen people.

And, and that is a really cool thing.

50:28

And that would be something that I think that teenager would be surprised to hear.

That reminds me that so my wife had run into the other night and she said that her friend who was with her saw you there and was like, Oh my God, that's Trevor from Jason and Trevor and, you know, kind of kind of fangirl.

50:51

Wow, yeah, I'm sorry I didn't get a meter.

Trevor has fan.

He has, like, all kinds of fans.

And it's funny because a lot of times if people come up to me and don't know me, they'll call me Jason.

Oh yeah, Really?

That's funny.

Which of course is fine.

But yeah, 5050 chance and also the name of our group is Jason and Trevor.

51:09

So they might just be coming up, you know, saying the name of our group.

Because they have the.

Right, the beginning of the.

Yeah, yeah.

But that's all the old school dudes did it.

The the the DJ would be like the first name or like Eric B and Rakim or whatever.

Yeah, they wouldn't.

They would put the DJ's name first.

51:25

That's it.

I think that's why we did that.

Yeah, one of the reasons, definitely a throwback reference that I wanted to do like DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Freshman's Cash Money and Marvelous it.

Yeah, it's from the beginning of hip hop, where at first it was just the DJ and the DJ was this big star.

51:43

And then the DJ started having somebody come on stage with him so he could do the talking so that the DJ could just deal with hit the records and he didn't have to do the.

How's everybody doing?

Oh, I see, I I see Charlene out there.

You're looking to fly.

Who's in the house tonight?

51:59

Is Queens in the House?

Like a hype man, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And that's how it of a.

Hype man, Yeah.

Started, and then they eventually started rhyming a little bit.

Yeah.

So it's a throwback to that, you know, putting the DJ first.

Yeah, so you're the hype man.

Yeah, yeah.

52:14

Basically.

That's right.

I also like that it's alphabetical J before T.

Yeah.

And it's just a thing too.

It just flows.

Bounds weird the other way.

Ever Jason and Trevor flows a little bit better than Trevor and Jason.

I agree.

Phonetically, it's got yes.

Something in there?

52:30

Phonetically, that's the word I was trying to think.

Of it's got a better bite.

In English, anyway.

Is that?

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you so much for coming here, you guys.

Yeah, it was.

Fun to have a band on the pod, thank.

You.

It's totally our pleasure.

Awesome.

All right.

Thanks guys.

Thank you.

Oh.

My gosh.

52:49

Thanks for tuning in to that Takes Me back broadcasting from 97-O W studio in beautiful Grand Junction, Co.

Today's episode was recorded, produced and edited by your hosts, Kellen David and Maya Sage.

53:06

Did you know that there's a lot of our conversation that doesn't make the final episode?

If you want to hear full uncut interviews, you can join our community on Patreon, our website, isthattakesmeback.org, where you can find all of our episodes as well as a playlist of the songs we've had on the show.

53:23

Feel free to e-mail connect@thattakesmeback.org.

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