Intro / Daredevil talk / Cincinnati energy [00:00:00]

Nicky P: Welcome everyone to another edition of We Came From Celluloid. I am Nicky P. Here as always with my brother from another mother, Mr. Brian Pritchard. How are we doing there, Mr. Drummer Man?

Brian Pritchard: Wonderful. I'm wonderful. My, my son, texted me this morning that a new Dare- I've talked to two people in Cincinnati already today.

That's, that's an odd, now that I, I say that out loud. I did a, I watched the newest episode of Daredevil with my son, and then we just recorded, a Future Proof podcast with, Greg Snyder, who was also out in Cincinnati. So I've just got that, I don't know, that direct, that direct line- Cincinnati

Nicky P: Vibe?

Brian Pritchard: Yeah, I guess so. I guess it's a Cincy kinda day.

Brian's tracks arrive and the Puma Thurman backlog problem [00:01:00]

Nicky P: How's, how has the morning been otherwise? I, I, I'm still a little bit abuzz with the, the tracks that you sent me yesterday. I'm feeling, feeling pretty high on that. How's, how's that working out for you?

Brian Pritchard: You know, I, I, I, I need to still listen on a couple other, systems, but no, I feel great about them.

I'm, I'm eager to have those, those, pushed out into the world. And, yeah, we haven't released new Puma material since what? Was it 2017 or '18 that volume one came out? I

Nicky P: Think it's 20 s- I think 2017.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah, which is kinda crazy. You know, I, I, I... Th- th- there's the drum tracks. I remember even at the time that we released that, I was like, "Whoa, it's crazy that I recorded and released, this Puma EP while Dome Album 3 was still unfinished," right?

Because we'd gone in and I tracked drums at Annie Up, which is Seaford's old studio downtown, 15 years ago now, or you know what I mean? That I, I think I, I, I did, the Dome Album 3 drum tracking sessions. I did the Dome Album 4 drum tracking sessions, about a month before Levante moved to Europe, okay?

You didn't even know him at the time, right? That's, you know what I mean? But, like, Levante, mo- moved to Romania. It was gonna be a permanent move. It ended up being shorter term, but we wanted to, I wanted to make sure that I was, like, recording everything that, that we had, like- up until that point written together.

You know what I mean? I was like, I want to capture all of this stuff that we'd done. There's an album that I wrote with that Joe Petrich during a different time that Levante was in Spain. Back in the day, the dome days, he also bailed on us to like bike, bike around Spain for like a year. And TJ was If you

Nicky P: Want to know the truth, me and Levante had a conversation about all of this yesterday.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah, and, and, and, uh

Nicky P: He was apologizing to me that like, you know, the bass player stuff, it's always like, yeah, that's kind of on me. I keep leaving the country and I'm training Brian to like have other people around.

Brian Pritchard: Well, it led to Cul-de-Sac Jones. That to me was actually a positive thing, but it is another unfinished album.

There's some really great live recordings. In fact, we should watch it together sometime. It's, you know, 45 minutes long or whatever. Literally, I point to this Cul-de-Sac Jones performance. That was the name of the band we had where Joe Petrich was playing bass and doing like heavier vocals with Noel as like they were co-vocalists.

Cul-de-Sac Jones and the freedom of writing songs you don't care about [00:03:30]

And the songs were, if Dome songs were like five, six minutes long and maybe had a lot of movements in them, this was writing stuff that was like quick and punchy, you know, and like three minute songs. It's like basically what made me capable of ultimately writing a track like Beetlejuice. Because prior to that, it was like more of that, you know, Metallica kind of songwriting foundation, Dream Theater, right?

Where it's like, yeah, you might have 10 movements in a song or something like that, you know? And yeah, like Cul-de-Sac Jones, you know, really was an interesting chapter as far as even feeling this freedom of like not having to write stuff for the Dome project where I felt like it had to like live up to a certain standard.

You know what I mean? It was interesting for the first time to like be writing songs where I was like, oh, I don't care. You know, I don't care about this song. And how like not giving a shit could make for like great material and a big light bulb moment there, you know? But yeah. A lot of unfinished shit, including Puma Thurman.

Nicky P: Well, I mean, Puma Thurman, I was, I was actually talking to a friend of mine today. I sent him the demos to kinda get a, "Hey, what are your thoughts, man? How's everything sound on this?" And, one of the things was- we were talking about is, you know, how far behind on, like, recording all of our actual material we are.

The dad band recording problem: writing faster than you can release [00:06:00]

He's like, "Oh, yeah, man. We're in the same boat." Like st- apparently, I think it's the part of the dad band thing. It's like eventually when you have other shit you need to worry about, it's tough to crank out, like, recordings at the rate that, like, you actually write the material. Certainly at the rate Brian writes material.

It's like, 'cause we're, as we're wrap- like wrapping up songs now that I've like... I know, like it's, it's interesting thing 'cause, like, I, I'm excited to, like, finally get, like, vocals on tracks like that are, that are, like, from our first EP that, like, showcase, like, the band that we actually are. Like, I, I'm excited about that stuff.

Meanwhile, we've got entire other EPs of material, like, recorded not out yet. Other recorders, o- other, like, full EPs of material that haven't even been recorded that are still way in the back. And it's just this, it, to me it always feels like this endless stream of content kind of at this point. It's like, oh my God, when am I gonna get all the, all these cool songs, like Beetlejuice we're waiting on.

We're, I, I wanna do, you know, redo vocals for, this past, Saturday we did a session covering, Ray Ray's Full Service, Brown Coat Man and, what do you call it? Their... Yeah, New Soul. A- a- I was actually sitting down with the tracking from New Soul just last night, kind of going over the o- the old guitar tones and, like, bumping in new, like, newer tones that match, like, the way we p- we sound now.

And it's like, oh my God, like I, I can't wait to, like, send the tracks off to Seafort so I can hear what he does to them. 'Cause, like, m- in particular, New Soul has always been the one that's been a s- a s- it's been a chink in the, in the, in my craw or whatever you'd call it. 'Cause-

New Soul, the soda incident, and recording an EP twice [00:07:30]

Brian Pritchard: Only because I fucking love it, and it's the weakest recording, and it's a great, like, one of the, to me, the best songs

Nicky P: Well, i- i- and more than, more than that is, you know, for, people listening to podcasts that don't understand the history of like the, that EP, that whole EP existed once and then my daughter poured a soda onto my laptop and we lost everything but the drum tracks.

And so we recorded the entire thing twice. And the version of that song that existed prior to, like, the soda inc was, it was s- i- i- it just, everything was fresh in it. And when we came back and re-recorded it, it, it just didn't It didn't have the same freshness to it. But, like, listening to, you know, what we have now, the tracks I have now kind of, like, put together on top of, like, what we- the n- the new vocals sound like, I'm getting, getting excited like I was about it that first time through that we recorded it.

Because it's like, ooh, we are starting to sound like something really special again. And, like, to me, that song is a really special song. It's a very, it is a well-crafted song. And so to kinda finally have things where, like, I'm, I'm excited to show them off. I'm not like, "Yeah, it's okay. It's, it's all right," but it's not like what I know this can be.

So it's a nice place to be in, frankly.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking about, like, how that song was built around the discovery of

The tablature, I suppose, explanation of those opening chords, right? Is that you're going five, six, seven, eight from the top down, right? If you're holding a guitar and you, y- you know, use the high E string, put your finger on the fifth fret, and then string below it, sixth, then string below that, seventh, then eighth.

Brian breaks down the guitar discovery behind New Soul's opening chords [00:09:30]

And then you slide all of that down to one, two, three, four. I, I just remember, like, I, I don't really have classical training at all in the guitar, and so the guitar sometimes continues to be this, process of, like, discovery. You know what I mean? Where, where these happy accidents, take place. And yeah, New, New Soul is one of those, like, where, like...

And you hear it in the beginning. The, it's, like, it's just the excitement of, like, that pattern. That like, like, it reminds me of, the score for, NeverEnding Story is, like, really foundational to me, that Vangelis score. And, and I don't just mean the, the, the, the, like, rousing theme. I, I'm thinking of specifically when he's, like, on, like, this night, moon, desert landscape with those horses that shoot lasers out of their eyes.

Neverending Story, Vangelis, and the ethereal electric guitar [00:10:45]

You know what I mean? If you're familiar enough with, NeverEnding Story to know the sequence that I speak of. There's, there's some kind of ethereal stuff that happens out there, and, every once in a while your simple ass electric guitar can somehow get into this twinkly, ethereal kind of space, still.

It's kind of a magical instrument after all. I was watching Jack White on SNL the other day- Just be like a fucking rock star, you know what I mean? Like, playing rock and roll, you know? And, and just being like, "Man, I like the fucking guitar. It's cool. The guitar is really cool." Well,

Nicky P: He, he did that documentary a couple years back with, like, a bunch of the other, like, big rock gods, as you'd put it, called It Might Get Loud.

Jack White in It Might Get Loud and the two-by-four pickup [00:11:30]

Brian Pritchard: Hmm. Sure. Sure.

Nicky P: That... If, if, if, if... Do you remember that one? Yes. Do you ever watch it?

Brian Pritchard: Yes, yes. Yes.

Nicky P: I just r- I just remember him taking, like, a piece of two-by-four and, like, hammering a pickup into it, and then running some strings over it and, like, start playing slide off of a two-by-four. And like, I, I'll be the first to say, I'm not a big fan of Jack White.

Like, I've kind of always thought he was a little overrated, but, you know, there's something just cool about the, the idea of just taking it all the way back to its roots and being able to, like, make that into something. You know, it, it, it is, it definitely shows off the versatility of the idea of a guitar.

You know, I've, I've had some friends here in, some friends here in Cleveland that make, you know, that do, like, cigarette c- cigar, cigar box guitars and stuff like that, and they build their own. It, and it's always impressive to... The, like, it's, it's, it's, it's easy and yet there's so much to the process in some ways.

Cigar box guitars, jug band bass, and the banjo's drum origin [00:13:00]

It makes it in- impossibly complicated.

Brian Pritchard: Well, even, even I'm trying to think of which materials I've encountered, 'cause every once in a while I'm, I'm, I'm trying to think of something where, like, a piece of yarn or whatever, like, something that you could pull taut enough to, like, get that, like... Like, you know what I'm saying?

Like, like it, it, it, it... It's fun because, like, it, it exists in the world, you know what I mean? The, the acoustic guitar obviously has been refined. The, the, the instrument has been refined, but, the earliest versions of it, right, it's sort of just like, yeah, that, that, that you can pull things tight enough that they produce a sound.

I mean, I know we... I, I feel like we've talked about it, definitely talked about it on other episodes, that, that, that whole resonant frequency concept of, of just, you know, sounds existing in the world already and, and, the i- the idea of that, like, vibration effect creating noise and, you know, all, all of that is, it's, it's, it's magic.

It's magic. It's communication t- as well.

Nicky P: It's magic in ways that I don't think people think about, 'cause like, I don't know. Well, my favorite Christmas movie of all time is Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, and I, I'm not sure, like, how familiar you are with jug bands, but, like, you ever, you ever, like, you ever seen, like, a jug band bass, like how it works?

Brian Pritchard: Not necessarily. I mean-

Nicky P: So, so jug band bass is w- it's one string But you have like, you have your, like a, be like a broom handle on the top of a, like what do you call it? Like a big wash basin. And then literally one string, and like, you, you, you get the tone of the string, the note, by how much pressure you pull, put on the string using the handle of the broom.

It's like you, you get... So you get your notes by like how tight you pull the string. It, it, it's, and it's, it's an iconic like instrument. Like anyone who's ever, you ever heard a jug band, like know that was the sound of it. And, but it's like, you know, once again, it's taking that, like concept of like the stringed instrument back to its roots.

One of my favorite instruments is the, i- is the, what do you call it? The banjo. And the banjo's cool 'cause it's like somebody said, "Hey, let's take a guitar and build it out of a drum." And you literally, you got a drum head with a guitar strung over the top of it, and that's like the sound of a banjo.

You know? There's different ways that they, they make them, but that's, that's the idea behind it. It's you, you, you have that percussive sound because they literally built it out of a drum. And I, it's, I, I don't know, it's endlessly fascinating to me, like just the way stringed instruments are. Like that's, in the world of guitar, man, like before you go into stuff like, you know, classical, a lot of our classical instruments, like the, you know, those stringed instruments, double bass, cello, viola, violin, whatnot.

Mark Sandman, Morphine, and the fretless two-string bass [00:16:00]

And like think about just the different ways that you play like those instruments between like the bowed versus like plucked and all that stuff. You get the, the shamisen and all that, the, you know, you got koto and all that out of, Japan. It's, I don't know, it's just wild.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah. You a Morphine guy?

Mark Sandman had that two-string bass.

Nicky P: I literally have a bass that like, a, a one- I sanded, I took all my frets off, sanded down my neck, put some flatwounds on it that I, I, you know, keep around the house because I, I watched a video of Mark Sandman in like 2008 and was like, "Oh, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen in my entire life."

THE ROOMMATE REVELATION: Sandman and Chris Ballew [00:17:00]

'Cause it was like dude completely reinvented the instrument in some ways. And you know what's, what's always funny to me is that like, you know, in that same vein, you know who his roommate was- No... While he was doing all that stuff? It wa- it was Chris from, The Presidents of United States of America.

Brian Pritchard: Hmm.

The

Nicky P: Guy who notoriously was playing-

Brian Pritchard: Similarly stripped down sound. Fuck. Whoa. Okay...

Nicky P: Well, who was, who was similarly pulling strings off of guitars- Yep... Screwing around with necks, and like, yeah. It's like these, these two dudes just happened to like say, "You know, let's-" To try things. It's, it's run with it. I think, like, in both their cases, like, you get a more traditional sound obviously out of The Presidents.

Like, you play their songs on normal instruments if you want. But what you end up getting out of Morphine, like, he wa- he was dead set on just reinventing music. Like, "We don't need a guitar player. Let's bring in a sax player and have him play bass, and I'll play guitar on this two-string bass." Oh, like, yeah, the only thing traditional about that group was that they have a drummer.

Morphine's "greatest band in the world" moments [00:18:00]

Brian Pritchard: Du- there, there's, there's times, where Morphine, like, manages to elevate to, like, greatest band in the world status for me. You know what I mean? Like, they, they, they captured something really, really magical, with that little trio, you know? That Buke & Gase group that I, sent out to you, about Hudson, you know, I, I, I saw them open for Tomahawk in Chicago in, probably 2014, I'd say, memory serves.

I walked into the venue with Noel, and they were the opening act, and I'd never heard them, and I was just captivated, man. They, they are a two-piece that, again, builds their own instruments. So they have these bizarre little, like, modified handmade instruments. And, so the one guy's playing an, like, a bass/guitar, which is the gase, where it's, like, alternating, like, bass string, guitar string, bass string, guitar string, bass string.

Buke & Gase: handmade instruments and a final show in Hudson, NY [00:18:30]

Like, it, it's, it's a weird, weird instrument that he built. And then he's got a bass drum, like a kick drum, at his foot, right? So he plays this bass guitar hybrid, and, and plays a kick drum. And then she plays, she sings and has this amazing strong voice, has, like, a tambourine foot that's kind of like a snare drum-esque thing.

At, at a certain point they start involving, like, triggers and other stuff into their, their performance. Eh, but she's-

Nicky P: I was gonna say definitely what I listened to of the band sounded different than that. I was getting a very electronic feel with what I listened to the other day.

Brian Pritchard: Their, their, their final album, Scholars, that they put out in like 2021 definitely, they, they were incorporating.

It, it's worth watching some live stuff of, of theirs in particular. Like, and they put out a documentary that, that, that was really good. During, during the pandemic they, like, booked a venue and, like, filmed a, a documentary, like a live concert in an empty venue, and, and put that out. And that's a, a pretty cool f- performance.

But anyway, I, and, and the documentary shows a lot of them in the lab, like, like how they came up with their instruments and stuff. I, I think you'd find it really, really enjoyable. But, that show that they, they announced that it's their final concert, that, They're both named Erin, and, and the female Erin is, pregnant and starting a family, and I, I, I read in her blog that she's also, like, a, a volunteer firefighter.

Brian's tickets and the math of an 8-hour drive [00:21:00]

I don't know what all is going on in her life that she is, stepping away from music. And they announced that these are their final, concerts. They're doing, One show sold out quickly in Brooklyn and became two, and then the actual final show ever is supposed to be this, Saturday in Hudson, New York, and it's April 25th.

And, so I got a couple tickets, 'cause the tickets were cheap, and I was like, "Fuck, I wanna go to that." But then I've been sweating it as far as, like, it's an eight-hour drive, gas is expensive, hotels are expensive. We've got the tour coming up. So yeah, I know I texted you about it, but I'm gonna ask you about it live on the air.

Nicky P: So ge- geographically, it is not in a place that I know anyone, honestly. Like, I, I've got, like... Well, I've got, my little brother lives, like, a couple hours outside of it. So, like, you know, we could stand, like, I think maybe o- like, two hours of drive after the show and, like, crash there, like, might be doable.

Brian Pritchard: I do two hours of drive all the time.

It's just a question of how, how actually, like, plausible is it? I, I say all the time, like, tours skip Cleveland, right? We're doing Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and driving home, afterwards to Cleveland, Avon. Like, I do that regularly. So, so yes, the notion of, of a couple hours after the show is certainly achievable.

Not great necessarily to do, like, eight hours to the venue, watch a show, and then do... But if it's two hours towards home, I guess that's not the end of the world. So, I don't know, we could talk more about it. But I, I, I like to keep the possibility open, and until the date has passed, I don't wanna totally rule it out.

I do have tickets.

Nicky P: What is, what's interesting to me is that, like, it, it's where they're actually playing is so close to New York City already. It's like they're- Oh, but they live in Hudson... They've been playing-

Brian Pritchard: So it's, like, their hometown, sort of.

Nicky P: Is that w- you... I don't know. Okay. Yeah, I was gonna say, it's like they're playing a jazz club Like two hours outside of New York City.

So it's like-

Brian Pritchard: Yeah...

Nicky P: They must be very regionally located.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah. Yeah, that, that, that one maybe is, like, as the true final show, it's like a week after the Brooklyn shows, and it's like, yeah, I guess because that's where they- they've made their homes, maybe more of a s- semi friends and family ki- kind of thing.

But I reached out to them because I was like, "Hey, I don't think I'm gonna make it," and I saw that this, this show is sold out. And they posted on their Instagram, like, with my blessing, like my, my... They took a screenshot of my message, and they're like, "We'll, we'll offer up the tickets, if anybody wants them."

Tour prep, the shirt is real, six dates [00:24:00]

'Cause I even said, I was like, "I don't, I don't need the, the money back, so much as, like, if there's somebody who got locked out and really wants to go," you know what I mean? Like, then I'd at least feel like, okay, I did something nice for somebody. That's happened to me before, for different events where I've been kind of overzealous and, d- you know, had, had, FOMO around like, well, i- if I wanna go later, and I, you know, I can't.

Like, I don't know. I don't know why I thought the Buchanan Gaze... Well, it did fucking sell out, you know what I mean? But, yeah, eight, eight hours away, so close to our tour, I just, I can't justify spending that money, you know what I mean? But, but three cheers to whole great instruments. That's the spirit of that, my friend.

Nicky P: Yeah, for, for real. It is getting a little, a little surreal in that we are getting so close to tour time. Things actually are coming together quite nicely. The schedule is actually filling up good. I, was working on the poster last night or the T-shirts, whatever, the, the combination of that. So it's, it was pretty cool to, like, see, oh, hey, here's all of the cities in a little list on the back of the shirt.

That's gonna be fun. Yeah, we're at

Brian Pritchard: A point of what, having like six dates? That, that, that to me starts feeling like, a tour T-shirt I can be fucking proud of, right?

No, I'm, I'm counting that Lakewood show, dude. Yes. There's the tour kickoff that's not even a real show.

Yeah. It counts. It counts. I'll tell you what, the rule is if you're there on vocals and I'm there, ideally Noel should be there too, man. That really was the foundation. Like, it's weird that we won't have Noel, but we will have Levy and, and, and then James is just the wild card, but you know, it'll be fun And we might as well get used to it.

Puma Thurman as an art collective vs. a band [00:26:00]

If we're gonna be more of a touring act, I, I know this isn't gonna be the last time. Like, I, I could absolutely see a scenario where our, like, road act involves, you know-

Nicky P: Well, and, and there is a certain degree of I've watched, I've watched the, you know, Eagles of Death Metal enough times live that, like, he never, and Jesse never has the same band there ever.

Like, the only guy that I think I'm used to seeing more than once is Dave Catching, and, like, he's not even all there, all there anymore. So I don't know. We'll, we'll, we'll see. It's definitely... I know it's, it's when you, when you get used to, like, thinking of the band differently as, like, the, an art collective more than, like, just, like, a band, it makes more sense.

Kind of like in the, like GWAR, you know? Who, who shows up on stage, who shows up on stage. In that one it's easier 'cause they're all playing characters, but

Brian Pritchard: Well, no, it's funny because, like, th- th- there's actually... It's a weird way to put it. Like, Noel plays a more exciting lead guitar than I'm capable of doing.

Like, he's a more exciting stage presence and, and lead guitar player. But I wrote those songs, you know? Like, a lot of those songs, right? And so the way that I'm going to play that stuff and the way that Connor and I are gonna function as a guitar duo is actually kind of fun to me and cool. Like, the way New Soul's gonna sound that night is gonna be, like, really tight with the harmonies, you know what I mean?

Like, you're gonna hear more, like, tight harmonized guitar riffs than usual and less solos and, and, like, the drum parts are gonna be totally different.

New Soul live: tight harmonized guitar vs. solos [00:27:30]

Nicky P: Well, even bringing back up, like, listening to New Soul last night, like, man, I forgot, like, some of the stuff that was kinda buried in that track. Like, there's, like, I think three different guitar parts that, like, I played on that song that are in the mix, that are...

Like, and nothing I did w- it was, it's all was, rhythm and, like, texture kinda stuff. It's, like, I think one lead line I do during the, maybe during, like, the c- chorus section that, like, builds up something there. But it's, it was interesting going and listening to what's actually there. You know, it's always a, a- an experience going through old stuff and hearing, like...

'Cause when we record we always do a, you know- Record it. We don't use it. Rather need it, have it and not need it than need it and not have it. That's always been my method. And it's kind of like, let's, let's look through everything and strip it down to see what like, part like for me, like what I like to send off more tracks than anyone would ever know to do with to the producer or engineer and say, "Hey, I want you to carve a song out of this.

The joy of sending more tracks than anyone knows what to do with [00:28:30]

Tell me what you hear, what like, what makes the song a song by your ears." And just see what they come back with. It's like so much of the joy in songcraft for me. Like sometimes, you know, it comes back a little different than you imagined it and there's always that, you know. But, you know, most of the time you get something back that's even better than you expected.

Brian Pritchard: Well, it's what I imagine. Again, there's part of that relationship between, the director and the editor, right? Of, of going like, "I'm gonna capture these moments," you know what I mean? On, on, on set day of, you know? And, and I'm looking to you, editor, right? And, and that's where some of those great relationships, right, like, Martin Scorsese and Thelma Shoemaker, you know what I'm saying?

Recording as directing: the Scorsese/Thelma Schoonmaker relationship [00:29:30]

It's like that he keeps using her because she knows how to assemble his material in a way that he likes, you know what I mean? And, and of course she's not using everything that he shot, you know? It's, it's, it's knowing how to take that stuff and yeah, sculpting is a, is a great analogy, you know what I mean?

See, see the statue inside the, the, the granite block as it were or whatever. So, yeah.

Nicky P: Well, folks, it has been another fun episode. Please stay tuned. We got more, obviously more release information and more tour information as things go on. We're absolutely going to be having on some of the, bands to promote the shows out, out in the, Midwest.

Be talking to some bands. We're gonna be talking to some bands in Cleveland just for the hell of talking to bands in Cleveland to, to see how things are, are going and moving forward in our own little scene here. So lots of new stuff coming up. Stay tuned. Take it easy.

Outro / Cleveland bands coming up [00:31:00]

Brian Pritchard: Celluloid. And we're turning it into music and podcast for

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