Proxima Parada

I sit down with Nick and Kevin of Proxima Parada to discuss going TikTok viral, the meaning of Proxima Parada, and what it means to just celebrate success

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the following is a discussion on music and social media with two members of a band I got to know recently Nick Larson and Kevin Middlekauff of Proxima Parada. I got to know them after their song Must have been a ghost. My viral on my TikTok account. Proxima. Parata, has been together since 2012, making music that makes you feel good. While promoting Human Connection, they recently released a new song, so Many Ways to Get Downtown, a Single Off their upcoming album. Approximate Parada is set to tour in a few weeks with Wild Child. I hope you enjoy this conversation I had with Nick and Kevin. All right. So with going TikTok viral, right? So that was that was something new for me. I imagine that was something new for you guys. So we kind of talked behind the scenes about what that looks like and what that meant to you guys. But is there, could you guys take us into a little more in depth of what. that meant short term and what it kind of means long term for you guys. Cause obviously you've been around for a while, but, you know, just interested to your, your perspective on it. Yeah, yeah. I think there's so much we could probably spend the entire time talking about this one saying everyth things. So le let's just talk about the things that come up first and Yeah. And see what happens. I'll say first, first thing for me was like the experience of. Being like doing this for as long as we've been doing it. Like, you know, we technically started in 2012 as just like a group of friends playing music together, and it got increasingly more serious. And it was such a cool experience to feel like we're a brand new band. Like, I kind of liked that, that like all these, like 13 year olds are reaching out to us and they're like, I just found you guys like my favorite new band. I'm like, hell yeah. I love that. Like it's, it's really cool to, it made me feel like very fresh. You know, and especially a song from 2019 going viral three years late after its release. It's like it gave all this new life to this song as if it were brand new again. You know? Right. Because you guys, you had said that that's not like a song you play on tour, but it's not never really been one of your most popular songs. Right. It's just kind of something that I love most popular song. No. Yeah, no, but it is a song we love to play live because it's just. People get into it. But yeah, now it's like made the song feel new to us again too. You feel that way? Yeah, absolutely. Like, oh, I started listening to it again too. Yeah. right? Yeah. So obviously that's increased your guys', you know, like you said, you have a ton of new listeners, a ton of new, you know, eyes and ears on your guys' music. Yeah. Is that kinda like, has that kinda renewed your. I don't know, your drive, like you said, you've been doing it since 2012. Has that kind of put a little new energy into it? I think it kind of just like maybe slightly shifted it or altered it. It's kind of funny, like the timing was, was interesting cuz I feel like right at the end of November, early December, we had kind of just gotten down a sort of game plan for what we wanted to do the following year. Both like touring wise releasing music-wise. pretty much on all, all the fronts of what we could do. And then this happened. So we kind of already had this game plan, but now we're like, now we can do this game plan within this new environment. Kind of right. It ba it basically like gave us more firepower for what we were already gonna do. So it kind of, I think what it really did is it reinforced like, okay, we're not crazy. Like, yeah, let's keep, let's keep pushing this, let's keep going. feel like we were, we were pretty fired up like early December on what we were gonna try to do the next couple months. This just like, yeah. Brought it to another, another level. Sweet. Yeah. And, and then I think the, on the other level is like, you know, we wanted to reach out to record labels and be like, Hey, we got this new album, and then this TikTok video comes out and they're all reaching out to us. and, and it's not even, it's people, it's labels that we wouldn't even have reached out to at all. Right. Right. Like, we wouldn't have had, we wouldn't have been bold enough to reach out to some of these. Right. And they're calling us up. And so that was a crazy experience to just even begin to form these relationships. I think it really helped us just, just get on some people's radars, you know? That's a big change. I, I, yeah. I felt we were we're still a super niche band. Less so. I mean, at least there's like people at Spotify that are well aware of us now and like Right. You know, people at labels that actually pay attention are, are fans now and that's really cool. Yeah. I think, I think it's led to us, we finally have a manager and a management team and that's something we've been managing ourselves this whole 10 years whole, yeah. This whole 10 years. So that's changed. And. we have a lawyer now too, and like, it's just like, it's forced us to kind of level up. And we, it was all these things that we were, we had plans of making happen. But we probably had those plans maybe six months or a year from now. Right. It was a huge catalyst two months ago. Yeah. Yeah. And I know from from my side, like I had had a couple videos go, you know, a little viral here and there, hit a couple, hit a couple million views, but like, that one for me. I knew it was gonna be something when it, I think in like two or three hours, it had a million views already. And I'm like, yeah, it was, it was unbelievably fast. How, how quickly. I knew it was gonna be bigger than anything that I've done before. And it was cool. I got to talk to you guys. I got to, you know, Just so many different people reached out to me because of it and yeah. Yeah. Hear your side of it too. What was that experience? I know this is like, maybe, I don't know if this is supposed to be a one-sided conversation, but I'd love to hear you. No, yeah. Yeah. I mean, for me it's yeah, I mean, obviously it boosted my, my following on TikTok pretty significantly. I was. you know, stuck around probably like 500,000 for a while, but that yeah, boosted me well up over like 700. Wow. Pretty quickly. Wow. And the amount of different people reaching out to me, like I had labels reach out to me just talking about, you know, starting conversations about, the music they have and things like that. So yeah, it put me on the radar of a lot of different people and. Yeah, I got, you know, is opened the door to, speaking with other bands and other artists and definitely been a cool development for me as well. Definitely a new territory. I'd never had something like that happen. So, yeah, it was A different experience, but definitely one that renewed my want to continue to do this. You know, I haven't even been doing this a full year, but it's really easy to get burnt out really fast with it. But yeah, it's, it's super cool for sure. Like, you, you put out a lot of, you have to discover so much music, weed through so much stuff, and then also presented in a, in a really like original way every time and Yeah. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's easy to, Real easy to get burnout. Especially like, so when I had started, I was getting messages from like 10 people maybe a week, right. And now it's like 15 to 20 a day that I'm, that are like, you know, listen to my music, listen to this. And I, and I try to, it's hard, it's rough sometimes to get through, but yeah. You know, you, you work through it. yeah. 20 songs a day. That's, that's, I mean, even just in terms of time, that's just a lot of time. But then the capacity to listen and actually be there for it and not just be like, yeah, yeah. Okay. Boom, boom. Next, next, next. Actually that's, that's, that's intense. So, so I am curious, so you guys been around since 2012? You know, I feel like the question a lot of bands get is like, your inspiration, but I'm, I'm kind of looking at it, who's someone in the industry that you kind of like look up to? Oh yeah. Yeah, because we definitely watched some bands come up. We watched some bands that we were like, oh, I'm a big fan. But like, how come people haven't caught on? And then people catch on and you're like, oh my God, this, okay, cool. You're getting like, Khruangbin in is a perfect example of that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. of like listening to them in like 20 14, 20 15 and like, this is who I'm, this is a groovy band. I love it. I'm telling everyone I know. And then like they're just, they blew up. They're playing all around the world and. and they're like the, the coolest band ever. It's so cool. Yeah. So is that, is that like a different obviously it's a different perspective for you guys being a band and seeing another one kind of blow up a little bit or get bigger. Is that Again, does that put you in like a, in the drive category or is that more of like a, you know, you can appreciate their success while kind of striving for yours as well? Right. I mean, yeah. I think the parallel with Khruangbin is that like they're, They have like an unorthodox way of doing things. Their band name is called Khruangbin. It's hard to spell. It's hard to remember, hard to pronounce. Right. And like, you know, we've got a little bit of that proxima parada, the amount of people who have told us to change our band name. Oh my gosh. Really's doing it. So, so they kinda give us Exactly. So obviously for those of people who don't Proxima Parada means next stop. Is that correct? Yes so just, you know, walk us through the story of that. Oh yeah. Oh man. Yeah. You sure? Yeah. You know, better. So I, I it's really funny actually, the, I had a friend that I met who was living in San Luis Obispo where we live. So he was, we were both in college and back in the day. So Kevin and I were roommates and. We used to always host couch Surfers, you know, like couch surfing.org. Like people travel around the world, be like, oh, someone from France's coming through San Lu Obispo and they need a place to crash. Like, we got, we got a couch for'em, you know? Yeah. and one day I got a, a message from someone and it said that he lived in San Luis Obispo. We're like, who is this guy? Couch surfing in his own city? Like, that's weird, I gotta meet this guy. And as I messaged with him a little bit, he's like, yeah, I'm, I'm a Cal Poly student. I'm, I'm subleasing my room so that I. I can travel more. I'm trying to save some money. Yeah. And to, I'm in class and stuff. I'm, I'm just trying to couch surf So he's like, I got a trumpet and I got a paella pan, like, let's hang out. And I was like, okay. Like cool. And his name's Miles and so we hang out with miles and totally hit it off. He crashes with us for a while. We're playing music together. He's, he's an awesome guy. And this is like November, December of 2011. Yeah. And then one day he goes, Hey guys we're just like, we've just been like playing music as friends, you know? And he is like, Hey guys, I booked us a gig. What outta nowhere. I was like, we have no music, no material, no plans of playing shows. None of that is happening. It's not a, it's not like a dream. Right. Right. And so he booked us this gig at a donut shop in our city. Okay. Called and. It's not like a concert venue, it's just a donut shop. Right. You know, And so don't, we're not getting paid. We're getting paid donuts. It wasn't for money. But anyways, we need a band name for this donut shop gig. Cause we gotta put up flyers and we gotta tell our friends about it, right? And so we're just like riffing on names and, and he is like, you know guys, I've been sitting on this idea for a long time. This is Miles again. I've been sitting on this idea for a long time. Like, I think we should go with Proxima Parra. And we instantly laugh because in our city, If you take the bus to school, which we all did, at every single stop, there's a recording that says, no broaching and then like whatever the street is. Got it. Right. We heard that. Next stop. Thousands. Thousands of times. oh my god. It's brilliant because it's like free marketing in our city. All the Cal Poly students are gonna be like, oh, that's hilarious. Proximal, right? Like, and so that's how it started. We're like, oh, that's a funny name. and then it just stuck with us. And then we started to think like, oh, it's really cool to like not be focused on the end of the journey. Not be focused at the, like what happens later? It's right here, right now. It felt like a call to the present moment. It's like, yeah, it's started to philosophically get really into the name. Right. And then it's so funny cuz like as people moved on, people moved away. Miles doesn't play music with us anymore, but he is on some recordings, like mm-hmm. I'm in a circle, he's playing trumpet. Better now. He's trumpet. You know Hannah? Hannah? He's, yeah, he's on, yeah, he's on some stuff. But anyways, it's, yeah, it's just funny how it started as a joke. And then That's funny. Now. Now we love it and we definitely got a lot of pressure. Like Kevin said, to change our name a million times. Oh yeah. Like so many times. Funny. Just call it next. Funny stop. Funny. What are we? A boy band. Like we're not gonna be next. Stop. That's funny. That's funny that you get that pressure, that external pressure to change it. When like, you know, obviously like the basis of of music is the artistry and is like being individual and unique and they want you to change completely away from that. That's kind of it's kinda ironic. We also had a brief, I mean, I don't know, we had a brief moment in like 2015. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 2015 I think where Oh yeah. This kinda like original formation of the band we had that created the first version of approximately 12. Kind of, kind of like disbanded in a way. Mm-hmm. And it left just Nick and I deciding on like, we definitely wanted to keep playing music together and make Yeah. Working figured out. But we really were having conversations of like, should we. Continue on as pro, like start a new, maybe this is time to, because it's gonna different, this is the time we changed the name and make it a thing. But we both just love it so much. We're like, why would we, let's keep doing our thing, change thing, and that before heard our music, you know? So, That time was really critical cuz like we could have, yeah, we could have just like totally started something different and who knows what would've happened. Right. And I'm so glad we stuck with so our gut of like, no, this, I don't care if this is hard to pronounce, hard to remember. We like it. Yeah. Like this is our name, you know? Yeah. This thing. Yeah. I love that. Cuz like, so for me personally, like my last name, Firestine. Yeah. People mispronounce all the time. My life has been a life of fire. Steins. Yeah. Firestones. And Steiner. Yeah. So it's, it's been, I've heard so many variations of it. It's it's, it's hilarious. So I love that you guys stuck with it and I love the, how unique it is. Super cool. Your handle, though is fantastic. I love, it's amazing. Yeah, that's, that's an even funnier story. So college I, you know, a bunch of friends, you know, then they, I mean, everybody usually just calls me fire stine. No big deal. Like it just called me my last name. And you know, that's always just been my nickname. It's never been anything more than that, anything less than that. And then I had a friend in school who was like, you know, we need to, we need to get your nickname. I'm like, you know, I tell him Good luck. Like, you're not gonna get anything to stick. Like never has, never will. And then he starts calling me Fugo, right? Calls starts calling me Lee Fuego Stein just literally just to play on my last name. And he's, he, he successfully got the stick and it is literally my handle for everything anymore. So he will gladly tell that story anytime anybody asks him. Yes. Love it. So rad and I love that like Fugo Stein is responsible for making proxima parada go viral. I love this like Spanish connection that we have. I love that. Yeah, that's legit. So there are there are a lot of bands I think are some that I see that kind of shy away from the social media aspect of, of what music has become and the, the marketing behind it. Do you guys enjoy that side of it? So prior to kind of blowing up, do you guys enjoy that side of it or is it just kind of like a necessary evil type deal? That's, I think we could go either way with that. I think it's a mix. Like both there's, yeah. I think what's enjoyable is if we can just be ourselves, then it doesn't feel like so much work. If we have to like, oh, what's the way to try to get people to listen to this new song? Or like, how do we get people to come to this show? Like, that can be really exhausting. Like, what's a creative way to do this? Yeah. If it feels like we have to rely on it for success. Then that, that doesn't feel like great, but if we can just enjoy it and have fun and like share with followers and like interact, then that, that feels really fun. Yeah. If we can just say like, Hey, this is something we're excited about, Hey, this is who we are. That doesn't that, I don't mind doing that. You know, I, okay. That's, yeah. Yeah. I just really don't wanna be a persona. I don't wanna. Try to bullshit anybody, you know? Right. Kind of staying authentic to, to who you guys are and what what you are. Right. Yeah. And I know everyone probably says that, but I, I will also say that makes sense. I mean, and, and I think you guys are, you know, from just the conversations we've had and what I've seen you guys put out, I think you, you stick to that pretty well. You're not trying to be anybody you're not, and that's, that's all that matters. I think we're trying to do on and off stage. There's no. Persona, no difference. There's no character that we're playing. It's like, I wanna be exactly who I am. Everywhere and right. And it's scary. Cause it, it, you have to acknowledge that like, okay, then that means who I am is enough just as I am. Yeah. It's hard enough to do that sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. yeah, I mean that, and that kind of breaks into the whole like, Mental health side of everything, right? So like mm-hmm. me personally, I struggle with a lot of that stuff and I, you know, as most people do nowadays. But is that harder for you guys as, as musicians or especially when you were managing yourselves, right? Like, does that, obviously that plays on a little more pressure where you're kind of really super reliant on yourselves. Does the, does the manager lessen that? Does that kind of take something off of you guys? Or what's, what's the whole situation look, Manager thing is, I think we're still finding that out, but I think it's gonna help a lot. The manager thing is, as of Thursday, it's gonna reduce it's few stress levels. Yeah. The manager thing are brand new, but I, I think, I mean we've put an incredible amount of pressure on ourselves and sometimes it does get overwhelming. I think those can be times to either isolate or times to lean in and like, you know, with the amount of work we're doing because of this virality, like, I, I kind of thought it might be a time to rest a little bit. Like and I haven't, we talked about worked harder. I haven't worked harder since vacation time. Yeah. Yeah. Because we had just finished a tour and so we're like, cool, I'm, I'm exhausted, let me chill for a couple days. And then like, you know, you went and made a video that. Like busier than ever. Like, damn, you you changed my life. I mean, I know, and I both have this shared perspective of throughout our, this, this like, 10 years of doing this band. There's also been big chunks of time where we've both had other jobs and worked full-time jobs and been in different careers and and done different things. And then we decided to go away from that and just do this full-time. Yeah. And that transition made it be like, okay, well from here on out, whatever things feel hard, I feel stressful. Stressful. If it's. Overwhelming work or if touring gets really hard or long drives all this stuff. We know that we, we chose this version of hard for our lives. Yeah. True. What we want. So it like, it makes, yeah, those stress levels, even though we know we're, it is hard. We chose that. So we want to do it, and it makes it doable. And I think we do a good job of acknowledging the hard instead of just be like, oh, it's fine. Everything's great. Oh, this is, we're living a perfect dream life and everything's great. It was like, yeah, yeah. Right. This drive sucks. Yeah. That show last night was hard. Like a, not as many people came as we hoped or whatever it is just like acknowledging it head on. Yeah. And that way we. That's really cool. That's really good for us. I think one, one of the hardest things that we're learning now, and I like your video, has helped us have to really confront this is learning to celebrate too. Yeah. It's really easy to just lean into like, okay, things are going well, let's work harder than ever. We know how to do that, but like, how do we let ourselves feel the joy and acknowledge like, oh my God, we've worked hard and things are going well. Right. That's like arguably scarier that like Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah. Right. You had a dream and it's working out and it's like, well, how can I sabotage this? Cause this is too, this is too hard. Yeah. I completely agree. Like this was like in that same boat, like I, it's easy for me. I had one go viral and like I'm just like, Lean into it as opposed to, you know like work harder. It was super hard to like sit back and celebrate that. Yeah. I had one go crazy and that, you know, a year ago I would never would've thought about being here, having this conversation. See, it's easy to get really lost in that, in that, you know, I'm here but I can keep pushing or I'm here, but I can enjoy it and continue pushing at the same time, dude. Exactly. Yeah. It's so, so cool how that experience is paralleled for. We all, we, it's, and I, I've been trying to be bold enough to talk to people about it, and I find that a lot of people are feeling the same thing. Totally. Experiencing that. It's like it's for some reason intimidating to let yourself go to that level of joy. Like, oh my God, we did it. Yeah, no, we're just getting started now. Let's now begins, let's go. Yeah. Yeah. Like I bring it up to, so like, obviously I have a full-time job outside of this and. You know, I bring it up to people. Everybody at work kind of knows it's a thing now, so it's kind of, we're past that point, but sometimes people don't know what's going on and when they find out it's like, wow, that's crazy. And for me, there's times where that hasn't set in either. Like on what, what I've been able to kind of do in a year or less than a year. And So, yeah, definitely just trying to take time to appreciate it and take time to look back on the journey that has been and look forward to what could be so super. Exactly. I didn't merge a year for you. That's a remarkable amount of growth. Yeah, it'd be a year in April. Yeah. Wow. Dude, congratulations. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. I appreciate that. It means a lot, like truly does. So I like to with you in person. Yeah. Next month, one year anniversary and then our, our first time hanging. That'll be legit. Yeah. I'm excited for that. So in terms of, so you write you guys write your own songs, obviously. What, maybe for both of you, what's the favorite song you guys have ever put out? So not, maybe, maybe not your most popular, but what's the favorite song you've put together? Yeah. You know what's hard is it's like you know, there's so many different types of favorites in terms of like, oh, this is a song that like, who really get hits me deep in my heart. Or like, this is the song that I just, is my favorite. Cause it's the most fun thing that we've done. Or like, you know what I mean? It's like, right. There's so many things. One of the first songs that question. Yeah. I, you know, I, I think that once we have this whole new album out, I think we might, the answer might change. But now for what we have out there's a song that I wrote called Paying for It. And the reason why it's one of my favorites is cuz it's like, it was a song that was really like the most personal song I felt like I'd ever written. And I was like super scared to record it and put it out and share it and just, it felt like such a vulnerable act and. And it's cool cause to see people, you know, it's like I said, really not our most popular song by any means, but I've heard people say like, Hey, that song paying for it, like really resonates with me. It like, it feels like you're telling my story. Yeah. And so that feels really powerful to like the stuff that feels most individual to me, most personal, like I'm only talking about me on this. and yet I'm not, I'm not talking about, I'm talking about everybody. And, and it's, it's really cool to see that. It, it, it it made me feel less alone in my experience, you know? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I respect that. What about what about you, Kevin? Is this a really tough question? And maybe this is not the best way to answer it, but I think it's, right now it's a song on the new album that's not out yet. But this song called Tiny Steps. Hmm. Yeah. Something about it Both. Just like love listening to it for for pleasure. Just like, I love how it sounds. Lyrically also love playing it. I think it's really fun and interesting. And yeah, that one just, I don't know, it just really does it for me. Mm. I'm excited for people to hear it. It's really wild that psalm, because like the verses are at one tempo and the chorus jumps up like 15 beats per minute. Yeah. Much faster. So, It's like we have to like be really on it to Yeah. Get that shift. So like, and it also changes keys for the course. So there's like, it's like two different songs basically glued together and, okay. Really fun. It's a crazy journey. Takes you on a journey for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so you guys new album is set to come out middle of April, is that right? You know, no. We don't have a release date yet. No release date. Okay. We've got that. We've got the first single out. So many ways to get down is out. And what we're trying to do is we're still having these conversations with record labels, trying to figure out like, what's the best release strategy for us and this album. Okay. And so it really depends on, you know, how these conversations go with labels. And you know, now that we have management to help support too, I think that's gonna also change the convers. But we know we can totally do this independently cuz you know, you found our music through us doing everything independently and, you know, it's Right. Super. It's, it's really exciting that to continue like that too. But I don't know. Yeah, we're just trying to like now that we have a slightly, slightly new, bigger team, just all trying to get on the same page and feel like do what's what's best for the music. Yeah. And you think there's, there's probably less pressure there now too because like, so you guys are used to being independent. So you kind of have that ability to sit back and, and kind of pick where you wanna be if you wanna be somewhere. Right. We'll see. Yeah. It's just, yeah, some, it might not feel like an option if the, if the like terms. Good for us. Like we don't want, we don't wanna like sign away our music. Yeah. We very much operate our, like something really has to feel absolutely right. Like we're not really just like, Guessing or like, yeah, not rushing into it because we know we can do it ourselves. So we, we've taken a few leaps of faith early on that weren't super favorable to us. So now we're, I think, more cautious with like, who we, who we work with. Unfaithful leaps. Un. Yeah. Yeah, I've had, I mean, not that I've had that experience and like I've, I've heard that the music industry can be rough like that. But obviously I don't have a ton of insider experience in any of that. So what, what about a song you guys have been, you know, really enjoying lately? A song you've had on repeat lately? Oh, nice. That's fun. Cool. With anybody? Yeah. Could be, could be anybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. Our own stuff. No. Let's see. I'm sure there's a lot. I'll, I'll say, I'll say mine. It's, it's not one song. It's the, I Ima, I know you love this band too. I've seen your videos, but I've had how Mouth's Good for You album on since it came out pretty much on a repeatable thing. Yeah, definitely one of my favorite bands for sure. you're, you're half straight now pretty much. It's really cool that you guys have that, that pretty obsessed hound mouth connection. Yeah, that's great. Whenever it's my turn to drive in the van, in the van. Put it on. I'm mic. Sorry guys. Yeah, it's really like such good driving music. It really is. It really is. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. What about what about you, Nick? I'm gonna be honest and say I've been listening to a ton of Theo Katzman's new music. He's got, he's got a new album out and I just, I love what he's doing. I love that he. Boldly leaning into who he is. Just like, kind of a take her, leave it. Just, this is me baby. And Okay. I just, I love that. There's a couple of tracks, like, be The Wheel. I know you heard that one. That one's really good. And then there's a song called She's In My Shoe. And that one, I think that one's really, I don't know, tugs at the heartstrings for sure. There's like a little. in his voice where he, like, he, he's doing all the recordings live, so, okay. Playing with the band, full vocal takes, everything's happening in real time, which is not something that bands do at all, you know? Mm-hmm. and so you can hear. How real he is being and how vulnerable he is being with like, no matter if I mess up or not, this is the take and he's recording straight to tape, you know? And when, yeah, when he, there's a moment towards the end of the song where he is just like, I hear him push his voice in such a, like, he's putting so much of him, his heart into it and like there's a, this tiny bit of breakup and I don't know, it just like, it gets me every time. I just like listen to that. So much. Yeah. So Theo Kaman. Got you. So what about you guys? What's up, what's up next for you guys? So you have a tour coming up, you have your album coming up. What, what can, what can Proxima Prada fans expect from your, your album when it does come out? I got an answer. Oh, go for it. Go for it. I think. They can expect that we're not a band that has a singular sound. We are not expect the unexpected. Yeah. We're not like, we're not like this album. This album is so not one thing. Mm-hmm. If people are like, oh, I heard so many ways to get to Outta Town. I love that song. I hope every song is like that. Right. No, it's not the, like the next song we're gonna put out, you might call a folk song like it is, it is Acoustic. We're all around One mic. Recording it live in one take, like it is the opposite of the last song we did. And then there's a song that is in Spanish. Then there's, you know, there's just like so many vibes, so many different flavors of us that are all us, and I think it feels really good to just show people like, all of these parts of us are us. This is really who we are. Yeah. So it's gonna be a song for every. Cool. Appreciate that. so what do you guys take a lot of influences from? So I'm not super familiar with like, the geography of California myself. Mm-hmm. Do you guys take a lot of influence from like Spanish music or do you think you all each bring your own kind of influence to the, to the table? Hmm. We definitely have a lot of common. We definitely, yeah, we definitely have a lot of common, we definitely bring our own influences too. I think there's a wide range of things. Like and listen to. Yeah. Big overlap. Also some things that we don't I don't think we have like, or any like Spanish influence technically, like from being in California. Hmm. Like there's a lot of Spanish music we both like, but that's from like, I don't know, finding it elsewhere. Like I don't think we're like around it a lot. Yeah. I. I, I somewhat, yeah, cuz I, I've definitely like, I don't think like a lot of our friends listen to a lot of music from Mexico and stuff, but I do, I really love Mexican music. There's this artist Natalia, that I've list, she would be another one. I, I keep on repeat. Okay. Totally obsessed. And so maybe influential in some way if I don't even if I don't realize it right. Probably Carla Morrison too. Car's been like, yeah. Super into her. Been listening to her for so many years. Like a decade. Yeah. So, but it's not culturally like, oh, like everyone's listening to music from Mexico, but there is, I mean, there's definitely People that are doing that for sure, right? Mm-hmm. we don't really listen to like northern, like, you know, like more traditional Northern Mexican music. You know, I haven't put much time into that. Okay, gotcha. I get music yet. So Tour next, right? You guys are touring with Wild Child that starts here in a couple weeks. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we'll be April 13th. April 13th. Through February through 20 some odd. May. What did I, did I say February? Wow. Let's go. Let's go forward in time Well, no, it's just a really long story. It's a really long, yeah, I say it's a really long story. I'm learning my months. It's like, yeah, April 13th to May 23rd, I believe. And then we still, we got like play some festivals after that we'll play like. We'll play Summer Camp Festival. We'll play Floyd Fest. Hi Sierras in California. Hi Sierra. Some really cool festivals we're excited about. And we'll do some headlining and then we'll get, do a little headlining on the way too. And then you can be on the lookout for the end of the year. We're gonna have a a big headline tour of our own in the fall. Yeah. So we'll coming back through the East Coast, all over the states. Yeah. Love that. Is there a, is there a venue or a place you guys, or a festival maybe, that you guys have played? That you really enjoy and maybe like a, a dream festival if you had to get on a lineup somewhere. Nice. Be to get on one. Yeah. That's a good question. Well, I think one that we're super. into like I'm excited, I'm excited to play some of these ones that we haven't done yet. Like, hi Sierra's. A bit like we've been talking with that one for years and years. I'm trying to, so it'd be, so that's exciting. But so I'm trying to answer the question of a dream festival. Yeah. Hmm. That's a good. I mean, everyone talks about Bonnaroo. That's, it's like sometimes I just wanna know what all the hypes about. Like, is this actually more fun? Cause I've, we've never been to Coachella. We've never been to Bonnaroo. Like, I don't know. Maybe it sucks. Yeah. But outside lands, You know, festivals in California and Northern San Francisco are very fun in Golden Gate Park. Okay, that's true. That sounds great. Outside lands. Yeah. hardly strictly Bluegrass Festival. Yeah. Yeah, that would be a really cool one because that's in Golden Gate Park, like outside lands. So it's like, yeah, we had some good experiences attending it. Yeah. So that, that'd be fun to play it. Huge attendance. Hardly strictly was, I don't even know if. Gonna do it this year? I have no idea. I know, but it was like this ginormous. I don't, you've never been to San Francisco, have you? Nope. Negative Golden Gate Park is massive. Yeah, it's huge. And so it attracts like, I don't know, a hundred thousand people or something. Some crazy enough people, and it's a free festival, so it's just me. Oh, okay. Yeah. It'd be cool to play something like that, but even outside lands, which is, you know, a ticketed festival, that would be, that would be a dream. Yeah. Yeah. We're working on. Okay. Yeah. Love that. Honestly, I don't, I don't think I have anything else, but it was an absolute pleasure having you guys here first first attempt at this first episode of this. So thank you guys enough. Sure. Yeah. Who's, who's like a, a dream artist for you to do an interview with? Nice. Geez. That is a good question. See that like, outside of. I share on my TikTok, so I'll, I'll give two answers cuz I, I have, I, I do enjoy a lot of like hip hop music. I don't share a lot of it on my TikTok cuz I kind of got niched into, you know, what I do indie r and b rock type stuff. But man, I'd love to sit down and one day, and not even an interview, just, just have a full on conversation with kid Cuddy at one point or another. Like, so when I was in college, like man on the moon. Like the album I listen to all the time. So that would be, that'd be super, super cool. Nice. Just, yeah, I just love what he's almost everything. I love that he's done. So that'd be a cool conversation to have. In terms of the space I'm in now, man, that's a tough one. I have so many favorite bands currently based off of what I've found recently. Man, I don't wanna be a prisoner in the moment, but I usually end up being that way. I'll probably go, I've really been enjoying Briston Maroney lately. I've been on a huge Briston Moroni kick. So him, or even like Father John Misty, love all the music he puts out. That'd be, those would be super cool to do. That would be great. Yeah. That be rad. Yeah, let's make that happen. You gotta do that. Yeah, that'd be sweet. That'd be awesome. Soon we'll let him know. appreciate up Again, so cannot I thank you guys enough for me doing this with me. Thank you. You're so good to hang with you and anytime, like even Absolutely. Even off recording, always happy to chat with you and it's just, yeah, it's just fun. Yeah, absolutely.