Jimmy, the journey has just begun was
Nady Nation's first album and they were actually the 12th cover of maximum
music magazine. That very year, it was December, 1996.
Wow. Wow. There's some history for you right there.
That's right. We're just a small knit family here in the music scene of Madison,
Wisconsin. A Aaron Conkel is the long time keyboardist for Madison,
reggae legends, Nady Nation.
And recently his equipment was stolen from his automobile at a show up in Minneapolis.
Now with a GoFundMe in place, which will never replace a prized instrument,
Aaron Conkel is here to give us information to keep our eyes and ears open and tell us about it.
Aaron, welcome to Maxing Radio. Thanks so much for having me. What's up, Madison?
How are you doing?
You know, it's just a terrible situation, something that all musicians almost fear.
And we wish you you were here under better circumstances, but you experienced
horror that all musicians worry about. In some face, it's a reality of gigging.
In simple terms, just tell us what happened.
Well, I played a gig at Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis with the people,
brothers band sold out phenomenal show.
It was just an absolutely great venue, the staff, food, everything was beautiful.
It was great night, went out, went to after party at a rooftop, and it's great.
I went to Pizza Lucia for some kind of pizza.
Yeah, it was just one of those like great nights.
And I played the night before with Natty Nation and in LaCrosse at the popcorn tavern.
So it was just like a great weekend of music on the road, classic,
and then went and stayed at a hotel that just right by the Dakota Jazz Club,
fancy hotel and got there about 230 in the morning, went to sleep, woke up, got a late check out,
one o'clock, who's like, you know, a luxury in our world.
Since we get there so late, you know, and yeah, that's all that my tailgate was a jar,
opened it up and wow, it's just all gone.
Now you said that they had a really nice parking garage and you were actually parked
in the parking garage. So they've got film.
Nope, no cameras, no cameras.
But yeah, you would think so, man, such a helpless feeling.
I mean, we've, I don't know if we've all been, but I personally have
witnessed or have been part of, you know, my house being robbed once, walk it and see and stuff gone.
It's a horrible feeling, man, when you're, when your stuff has been stolen and you're,
you know, you've been invaded basically.
Yeah, it's just, it's like a deep sense of like violation of personal space.
And yeah, there's, there's really nothing, no, unless you've been through it,
there's really no way to explain it.
Tell us about the instrument that cannot be replaced.
Okay, well, so it's a moge prodigy, but yeah, it was broken in a way.
Like the, the pitch bend as was actually like it, for whatever reason,
it didn't do the pitch bend.
It did a different thing where it like kind of like changed the, the timbre of it.
So it was kind of like, well, so like even if I get another moge prodigy,
it's not going to be the same.
And I had that since, since I was, since 1999, I got it the early days of eBay.
Wow, that's heartbreaking.
I've had it forever since before, way before I joined that nation.
Yeah, and it's, it's like my favorite thing.
Like I just recently posted a video of me playing it, you know, because I was like,
you know, the mama insta, or synthesizer player of the year last year, whatever.
So I should probably try to say that.
Well, that video could come in handy then.
Well, right, yeah, it's exactly what this thing looks like.
Yeah, yeah, it's right on my Instagram at a key Z, a K, E, Y, S, Y.
Well, I'm, I'm sorry to hear all all that.
That just, that's just syncs all the way around.
Thank you.
So, uh, fellas, fellow keyboardist in the music scene, Joe Burby,
quickly set up a GoFundMe campaign to help you out.
So thanks, thanks for that, Joe.
So what does it mean to have, what does it mean to you to have that kind of support?
At there, there's really no words like the most humbling thing.
I just called him because I knew it happened to him when he was in Chicago a few years ago.
And I was like, what do you do?
Like I just like, you know, my mind's kind of jumbled like I made the police report,
filed the insurance, like did all the things.
But I was like, you know, hey, like what else is there to do?
And then, you know, he was like, well, yeah, you know, like we'll take care of you.
And I was like, okay, whatever.
And then like by the time I got home, he had posted it and it set it all up.
Because I was five, a week, five hours away.
I spent all day doing the police report and everything.
By the time I got home, I was already a bunch of money.
People were donating.
It was like, that's wonderful.
And like at this point, it's like so much money, it's insane.
And I'm like, so humbled.
The amount of support and love that comes from our music scene.
I mean, we were talked about this last week with the American dead
with that go fund me or Kickstarter.
And this is amazing when people give like that.
Yeah, I mean, it's like
you know that people support you, but to actually like see like
and like just like the messages that I'm getting, the personal messages
from people I've never heard of, people I haven't talked to in, you know,
decades, you know, just like sending in a bunch of money and just saying nice things
and sharing it and like, you know, just talking about what I mean to them.
You know, it's like you usually don't hear that stuff.
Right. Right.
That's a huge blessing.
How do we find the go fund me?
What's the name of it?
It's called Aaron Stolen Keyboard Fund.
Perfect. Perfect.
So what else got Stolen besides the moque?
My Nord Electro 2, which had all kinds of saved sounds in it.
Like especially like I used to be in a bank called Starpersons and we had like,
you know, like two full banks of sounds that I have only only used for that.
All that labor, all those hours.
I'm just like the comfortability of like being on stage, playing your own
rig and like knowing which button to press.
Like when you want to do a certain thing like like, yeah, I'm gonna like, you know,
learn new instruments and it's, they'll be great.
And you know, super thankful for all the money.
But and the resources and the ability to rebuild my rig,
but it's just not ever going to be the same.
And you know, that's just brutal.
Right now the go fund me is at 208 donors and the amount raised so far is $11,940.
Out of 50,000 for a goal.
That's pretty amazing.
And all you have to do is just, I just went to Google.
I typed in Aaron Stolen Keyboard Fund and it popped right up.
If you can, if you're listening to the show tonight, help a brother out.
Maybe pitch in a couple of bucks.
We'd like to be very nice of you to do that.
Aaron, what's coming up with Daddy Nation?
What kind of shows do you have coming up?
So our next show in Madison is 420.
It's our what 420?
I know who never would have thought at the high insoloon with dub foundation,
polyrhythmic roots, which is my other band, dub foundation.
Job buggy just did a lead singer of natty, just did a solo album with the foundation.
Yeah, what's your guys have featured here?
And then also DJ track room.
And I noticed that your sponsors are very familiar to us yet.
Honeybee cannabis.
And also a night-classing gift.
I wore a go.
And let's legalize Wisconsin, indigenous cannabis industry,
association, and the great Midwest hemp fest as well.
Nice.
That shows where again, I didn't catch that.
At the high noon.
What was the date again, I didn't catch that.
420, which is a Saturday this year.
Which is a tradition for natty nation to play the high noon on 420, isn't it not?
It is.
It's not quite the annual tradition like Black Friday is or Bob Marley's birthday,
which we do those every year.
420 just generally when it lands close to a weekend.
I like your two examples.
Black Friday and Bob Marley.
Two things that could be.
Black Friday and green Friday.
I mean, Black Friday is like, you know, it's like our antithesis.
This is like the anti-Black Friday show.
So another little factoid about 420.
Yes.
So April 20th in Madison is Ben Mays L day.
Yes, it is.
And we played the first Ben Mays L.
That's right.
That's very, very important.
Aaron, thank you so much for coming in tonight.
Tell sharing your story with us.
I'm sorry this happened to you, but I think the community is rallying around you
to get you back in your feet and get some new instrument.
I super appreciate it so much.
Thank you guys for having me and thanks to the whole Madison community.
All right.
Let's do some more natty nation right now.
Spray new world.
It's almost 420.