Madison is "Biggest Small Town in America" according to Alex White

Welcome to Wisconsin's local music scene.

This is Max, Inc Radio.

We are local music.

I'm pretty excited about this because

our good friends, Alex White.

And the friends are in the studio here.

I think everything is going all right in there.

How you doing tonight, Alex?

I'm good.

Thanks a lot for having us, guys.

Great to have you.

Rocker,

everything OK, brother?

Everything is OK.

We were doing a last second headphone check here.

Excellent.

So

we're good.

We're good.

Best known as founding member of the Midwest jam funk band pine travelers songwriter and guitarist Alex white has played in dozens of bands in his 20-year career as a professional musician Elf lettuce is one that comes to mind and during those years He toured with much of the US extensively and had the privilege of being the weekly opening act for Clyde Stubblefield the legendary funky drummer did the drummer song

Alex White and Friends perform shows steeped in funk, rock and Americana blended with a healthy dose of improvisation and we are ready to jam in the lair with Alex White and the Friends.

Alex, Ashish, Dave and Matt, welcome to Max Inc Radio.

Yeah, thanks for having us.

Alex, you know, before we learn about your band and your friends, let's start with your backstory.

I mean, how did you get started playing music?

Well, uh, I played trumpet in high school before that.

My parents actually had a folk band and they would sometimes rehearse in our living room.

Really?

Yeah.

Early memories were, uh, you know, staying up, past my bedtime at that point, listening to the band rehearse and then being put to bed and my mom having to drag me away because I just didn't want the music to stop.

So what, like, what kind of music?

Uh, what kind of artists were they like covering or was it original?

Or it was like, you

know, drum

set.

It was, uh, no, they really didn't have much percussion.

My mom would play a little tambourine, but it was like mostly acoustic based.

It was like, you know, kind of like sixties folk stuffs, uh, Crosby stills, Nash, Peter, Mary, um, Simon and Garfunkel, some of the old, you know, sixties

folk stuff.

How much of that stuff that you grew up listening to, how much have you drawn that into what you write?

Well, I mean, it's always an influence from me.

I'll always love that stuff at every good songwriter.

I love variety.

But yeah, definitely.

I mean, a lot of that.

I mean, harmony wise, I'm lucky to, you know, have Ashish and other singers sing with me to get like a good two part harmony.

Yeah.

But I know my limits.

So, you know, I'll never have the harmonies of that.

But songwriting, I mean, I anything I can glean from all that stuff, I'd still try to carry it with me, you know.

but also other stuff too, obviously.

Right.

And what did you grow up listening to?

Well, I mean,

It was that stuff.

And then, you know, when I'm getting into middle school and stuff, it's a lot of grunge, nirvana, green day, all that stuff.

Oh, all right.

Got into high school later, got into, you know, the dead and some jam stuff.

But, you know, second, second time the dead has come up tonight.

The grateful dead.

I mean, come on, Jimmy.

They're all pervasive, even not in Madison, you know.

for better or worse, mostly better.

Even not in Madison.

That's actually kind of funny tongue in cheek.

Uh, you know, tell us something insightful about Clyde's double field.

You, uh, we're opening up for the band with elf lettuce every week, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We got an opportunity.

Our friend Brett, he knew Clyde and he really believed in us.

And we had a good soundboard recording from one of our shows at high noon and he played it for Clyde.

And he's like, yeah, have them come.

Well,

try him out, you know, one week and he apparently really liked our live sound.

So then he let us, he's like, y'all want to do this?

Like we're like every like house, yeah, house opener, house band.

Wow.

We're like, yeah, thank you, sir.

May we have another, you know, uh, it was amazing.

We did it for like about a solid year.

We're his opener.

Best musical internship I've ever had.

What can you tell me about Clyde, something insightful that you may have learned over the year of opening for him?

Well, one of the main things that I can think of is that he's just such a pocket drummer, quintessential, like a human metronome.

And you think of, you know, the crazy drum solos, the flair and the flash, but he, they really stuck with me that he was one of those cats that was so well respected, not for the flash and the flair, but for the pocket and being so good without being showoffy.

But the people who knew just, he just had that thing.

And it was, he was so respected and sampled and adored for it.

And it was subtle and awesome.

This would be a good time to remind everybody that Clyde's Double Field should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Absolutely.

Can we get an amen on that?

Amen.

Amen to the drummer stuff.

Let's get the

movement going rally.

Wow.

Well, let's get to some live music here in the lair with Alex white and the friends presented by the Aaron Weber group The first song you have for us tonight.

It's called papa la funk And it's from your north of center EP.

Tell us about this song before you play

Well, this was one of those ones that was basically, you know

It got written organically.

It was just a funky dance groove and B minor.

I fleshed it out with some lyrics that ended up working after a couple of drafts and then an instrumental bridge.

And then I had actually a rap verse that I thought was really good.

It had a good flow, but it didn't have a home.

It needed a song.

And it turns out I tried it with this and it ended up working as the third verse.

So it's basically that kind of fleshed out two things fused into one.

I think, I think it worked out.

Well, let's dive right in here.

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Take a dip in

Say!

I know

Yes.

Very nice, very funky Alex White and the Friends live in the layer here on Max, Inc.

radio.

I love the guitar solo and I love the bass rocker.

So good.

Hey, if you want to be a part of the show, if you want to ask Alex White and the Friends a question or a comment, you can do that right now.

844-967-2789, 844-96 Party.

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Alex.

The Pine Travelers, they performed on Max, Inc.

Radio on April of 2021 in the middle of the pandemic.

And it was

a

special show.

I remember that.

And the band featured a songwriting partner of yours, Nick Clutter.

Tell us about the Pine Travelers and Nick Clutter, if you

will.

Well, that was, you know, I had a great time with opening for Clyde and athletic and stuff, but that was like the next step for me.

We, uh,

We did the most extensive tours.

I'd done East Coast a bunch Rocky Mountain region a bunch and Had a really you know, I met Nick in the alphalates days You know just jamming we first when we first jammed we was like playing a ween song on acoustic at like an after party or something and I was like this kids got something we are really on the same page and into a lot of the same music and then that band broke up and my my brother used to play in

Pine Travelers with us on bass and guitar too.

And he and Nick formed a good songwriting bond as well as, I mean, the three of us would, we'd bounce stuff off each other and, you know, my brother has kids now and he left.

But anyway, me and Nick, we had a really solid songwriting partnership.

We could pound stuff off each other.

And when we would like have writer's block, you know, we could sit on it.

And then the other one would come up with something, see it from a different perspective that you wouldn't even see, which is to me what.

great songwriting partnerships and body and stuff.

And yeah, we wrote a lot of good stuff.

We did three albums and a couple of EPs and had a lot of great times.

And unfortunately, he passed in 2022.

It's actually, it's like almost two years next week.

anniversary, not the right word, but rest in peace, Nick, you know, all the whole community misses him and his impact has felt.

And we dedicated this whole EP to him, to his memory and stuff.

And yeah, we had a great time, did a lot of good stuff, did some stuff that I wasn't as confident about.

And we helped push each other and put out some good stuff in the studio and put on some good tours.

And he really, he really learned so quick.

He

was not the most confident guitar player for some of his early times.

And he really, he progressed and excelled at a rate that a lot of people don't.

He really stuck to his guns, got his, he taught me a lot about effects pedals and stuff.

I'm not a gearhead.

He was so good at that.

So we had a lot to teach each other and we learned a lot from each other.

And it's just, it'll always be in my heart.

And, you know, a lot of the community's heart, you know, some people don't realize

how much they are loved.

And they, you know, they, we all have an impact,

even though we don't realize it often.

One of those great memories of Nick and the Pine Travelers was the year they played outward fast on the Madison Heritage stage, I believe at that time, what was it, 17 or something like that?

Maybe 16.

I don't remember.

I think that was one of the best Madison outdoor.

Yeah.

events we have ever played.

There was literally it was amazing.

Thousands of people were in front of the stage.

There was a lot of great energy and it was such a

great show.

And it was special for us because we've we've me and Nick had always been East Siders since we've lived in Madison and that's really a lot of our haunt.

So

Yeah, it was it was really special that that that was an amazing time.

Yeah, I'll never forget that one.

You know, we're going to talk with your bandmates in just a couple of minutes.

But how did Alex White and the friends, the band, where did that come from?

Well, I was basically, you know, kind of parting ways with with Pine Travelers and starting to write a lot, a lot more music on my own.

And my friend, good friend, another guitar player Ashish brought on here.

We

our ex-girlfriends introduced us.

And they're like, oh yeah, you guys love playing with the guitar with each other.

And we're like, oh yeah, I mean, yeah, it's cool.

We'll probably jam a little bit.

And they weren't kidding.

We took to it.

It was amazing.

So the ex-girlfriends

introduced you guys.

Brought us together.

Yeah, I mean, hey, I couldn't plan for that, but I'm glad for it.

Good things came from those relationships.

Yeah, we've been playing informally, not really out at first, obviously.

Actually, I'm like 14, 15 years probably.

I mean, we had been playing together for a bunch and, you know, had always kind of meant to do more of a project together too.

So he was immediately right.

Like, yeah, let's, let's absolutely do that.

And I had met Dave the year before or a couple of years before, but he was, but he was, you know, looking to,

One of your old bands had broken up and you kind of had some more time and wanted to do some work on some original stuff and be more active.

And Matt was in one of Burby's other bands.

They had some great original music called snafu.

And we had talked on and off.

He was like, yeah, you know, Ben, our bass player is moving away.

And I'm like, well, you got more time.

I would love to play more.

We've been talking about it.

So it kind of coalesced with timing, which doesn't always happen.

And I was grateful for that, you know.

Wow, so they are friends.

They're

friends.

Indeed.

They are the friends.

Not the only ones, but some of the best,

yeah.

Well, let's get back to live music in the layer with Alex White and the friends presented by the Aaron Weber group.

The next song you have for us today is by the Pine Travelers, and it's written about Madison.

Tell us about the biggest small town.

Yeah, this is Pine Trailers and

one of my and Nick Clutter's quintessential Madison songs.

It was a co-write with him.

I was practicing with my brother one day at his old place on Dickinson Street and kind of he went to the bathroom or something and I was like, I just came up with this chord progression out of the air, out of the ether and had that was working on a little bit.

And then I was doing a little writing session with Nick a couple of weeks later and the song was in the key of A and

I was, I was doing that.

Oh, there we go.

And I, I was, um, boy, I lost my train of thought.

No, I'm sorry.

I was, uh, sometimes I don't think about my, uh, musician's language here.

Um, I was, uh, we're working on that.

He had this section that was in a also and.

it fit we were like well let's try it out with with that chord progression and it fit perfectly as an intro so the intro to the song nick completely wrote brought to the table i wrote most of the lyrics and the hook and stuff and he wrote a lot of the solo section instrumental but basically like the theme of it the lyrics it's an ode to madison because it's sort of a tongue-in-cheek commentary on how madison's a small city and it is a city but we all know that from day to day sometimes it can seem very very tiny

and close knit in a good way, but also sometimes small town in a weird way.

So possibly could qualify as the biggest small town in America.

It's definitely

my favorite song for the pine travelers.

We played

a lot here on

Maxine Cridio.

And the note I gave you is because I know the song.

I know the lyrics.

So.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The, um, yes.

And that's the good thing.

And you,

Dave, MCC compliant.

Yes.

I was thinking that I had already like said an F bomb and I didn't realize which, you know, that's what I was.

Musicians, right?

I didn't hear one.

I didn't hear one either.

No, thank you.

That's a good preemptive thing.

But the good thing about the, the sections in between verses is it's very improv friendly.

So oftentimes with live versions, we would, we would change it from show to show lyrics anyway.

So we'll do our

best.

Alex White and the friends live in the layer presented by the Aaron Weber Group, you're live on Max, Inc.

Radio.

When you're living in the biggest all town in America Down to the nitty gritty Feels like you ain't going nowhere Living in the biggest all town in America Living in the biggest all town in America

The city

Took a walk with Garrett, David, Pankin, and Art Paul.

Sloser, living in the biggest small town in America.

Playing for them tourists down at State Street and Library Mall.

Living in the biggest small town in America.

Alex White and the Friends live in the layer presented by the Aaron Weber group.

Stick around, we got more live music on the way.

Broth,

brandy, cow chips.

And great local music.

This is Max Sync Radio.

We are Local Music.

Alex, let's get to know your band.

Ashish Pradhan, guitars and vocals.

Tell us your backstory.

What is your musical journey to the Friends?

Hello, yes.

Yeah, the journey to the friends.

But as you said earlier, we go back a little bit, about 10, 15 years or so.

I think when you said exes, I think we were dating them at the time of the meeting.

They weren't exes at that point.

It

wasn't nothing nefarious or anything like

that.

Yeah, me and him go back a long way, play music on couches with friends.

How did you get into music?

Personally, growing up here in Madison, I'm from the town, grew up on the street right here, Stays Street.

Was it guitar, the first thing you grabbed?

The first thing was violin.

Violin?

Violin, classically trained as a kid.

Really?

Some choir on the side as well.

Was

that

in school?

Private lessons and in school as well?

Like, what role did your parents play in your musical upbringing?

Dragging me to lessons, I would say.

Kicking and screaming, you know.

Did they suggest violin?

I

mean, how did you pick violin?

I was thinking about that, how the violin was chosen.

Maybe, you know, kicking and screaming, you know, sticking with it over time.

But you ever have a

shift?

Do you ever think about bringing in the violin into the friend somehow?

Yes.

Yeah.

We've talked about that for sure.

Yeah.

I still have one.

I still practice it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We got to pick up here.

Yeah.

Me

and his current girlfriend.

We got to get on the microphone there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're going to pick up and yeah.

Hopefully moving the violin in the first love of mine.

What other bands have you played in?

Let's see.

Yeah, we were talking about Clyde earlier.

I did open when they're at the frequency.

This is like 10 years ago or something.

Blue Monday.

Blue Monday with Terry Daly.

We were called T.R.A.

We only did a little stint there like a few months, but good times.

Great people, great folks there.

And you got the play with Clyde.

I did.

What was that experience like for you?

It was amazing.

I mean, it's kind of starstruck.

I mean, those guys in that band just...

Yeah, it's amazing.

Really good.

Nice.

Let's see.

Alex, let's get back over to you.

Tell us about the Halloween high noon saloon in Madison on October 21st.

I saw that soul symmetry is attributing the almond brothers.

Yeah, that's actually a chat.

He's a

Another bass player who plays with the friends also were kind of a collective, but he's Chet's in a lot of bands too.

He's in a band called Cruisin' Round.

Soul Symmetry was kind of his precursor band to Cruisin' Round.

It's kind of a reunion show for them.

They got...

Two drummers, two guitar players, they're getting Bobby from People Brothers to guest keyboard with them.

Wow.

So they're going to flesh it out full album Brothers Band style, big ensemble.

They're going to do like a 75, 80 minute set.

Just I'm sure it's going to be great.

Twin guitar leads and our band.

Project that we're doing is played off legit.

It's a tribute to the wacky wild and crazy band Ween and Dave is the lead singer in that band.

Our bass player Dave sings lead in that.

It's a real good.

I can see that.

He does.

He kills it.

He does a great job.

Osh also plays in that band and Mark from Co-mingle and Novel Folly.

brilliant young keyboardist and our friend Elmer and then Logan Undrums from Lamp House Blue.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

It's crazy.

We did it last year.

Also at High Noon Saloon on Halloween, we're kind of making an annual tradition of it.

Halloween literally, like play on words.

And November 10th.

at the Gamma Ray here in Madison.

It's a benefit for a Palestinian Children's Relief Fund.

And

the show features a fun lineup with Alex White and the Friends, Wild Violets, Brighter Days, Gamma Ray owner Kevin Wilmot is going to be doing a solo, I think, and Meggie Shays.

That's right.

Yeah, that's that's going to be a great event.

It's going to be an early show.

It's a Packers by week, so there won't be any conflict there.

We tried to plan that one right.

And it's going to doors at

330 show starting at 430.

Um, it's, you know, obviously for a really good cause, um, no matter what end of the political spectrum you're on, you know, we're all, uh, about human rights as, as much as we can be.

Um, so, uh, that's something we can all agree on.

And there is going to be a raffle with amazing prizes.

Greg Ginter from the guitar shop.

I was hoping to get like a $50 gift card or some dinged up consignment guitar, something he's like, yep, stop on in.

I got, I got a brand new Oscar Schmidt.

Spruce top this thing is beautiful.

I mean, you know, it's it's it's it's like a mid-grade along guitar But it's a really good for that end and it's brand new it sounds good.

I've strummed on a little bit

that's going to make the raffle prizes real sexy.

But we got other sponsors, the Sylvie, the Willy Street co-op, Stoughton Opera House.

I mean, there's going to be amazing raffle prizes and a lot of amazing bands.

And it's going to be a great time.

Tell us about the the Relief Fund itself as far as when this money's raised, where's it going?

How's the help?

The PCRF is the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund.

You know, obviously in the title, you know, it's focused on, you know,

for kids and families over there, whether displaced or...

Is the money used to buy supplies?

Is it food?

clothing, shelter, the essentials to live the life,

basically.

As I understand, it's mainly living essentials.

Food, medical clothing.

Yeah, and medical stuff too.

Yeah, good.

I mean, yeah, it's an umbrella kind of.

Well, let me just say that you have Greg Ginter down.

Oh man,

Greg.

That's a good impersonation of Greg.

Yeah.

He's one of my favorite characters in town.

You know, everyone's got their stories about Greg, but man, what a guy.

Like, since I first moved here and didn't really know anything from anything, and he had that tiny shop on Atwood, I'm like, this is my guy.

This is my shop.

Yeah.

He's just a character, man.

Well, let's get back to live music in the layer with Alex White and the friends.

The next song that you have for us tonight, it's called River Road.

And you wrote this while jogging, but it's about swimming.

Well, not necessarily about swimming, but it's in my favorite swimming spot.

I love swimming in natural bodies of water in the summer when I can.

So there's like, it's outside Arena, Wisconsin on the Wisconsin River.

It's a canoe and boat launch and there's just sandbars.

for miles.

I know

exactly where you're talking

about.

Yeah, it's such a beautiful spot.

And the road that goes there, generically, it's called River Road, but fittingly.

But when I can make it out there and when I'm being self-disciplined sometimes, I'd go take a jog.

This is during COVID, where I had more time to do that and isolate.

But I was taking a jog, and I'd swim after the jog, cool off.

But like I've just got my pace going and I'm not even listening to music or anything, but I just get this this riff in my head.

And I just don't lose it, you know, till you get back to the car.

And then I get my my phone out, my voice memos.

I didn't have a guitar or anything there.

And I just hummed it into the voice memos, built it around that.

But then it was a good like lesson for me over COVID because I.

I'm a word guy.

I was like an English major in college, but like that's a blessing and a curse because I can write too many lyrics a lot of the time.

So I did so many rewrites on this song over COVID and thank goodness I had the time to but I learned a good lesson about like the less is more with like lyrics and stuff.

Sometimes you just

Let that one syllable ring for like a whole note or a bar to and, hey, you scrap these lyrics.

Sure, they're great, but put them aside for another song.

And I whittled this thing down like eight to 10 times or something, a bunch of drafts.

But I finally got it.

It's like, you don't need that many lyrics.

And then it finally worked.

So quality over quantity.

Yeah, right.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Alex White and the friends live in the layer presented by the Aaron Weber group now powered by Compass.

Give us a call.

Ask them a question if you like.

844-967-2789.

Call or text from the Civic Media app.

Live in the lair with Alex White and the friends.

Music playing

Follow me around Silence the voices Still you hear the sound Echoing lightly Down the endless halls Crescendoing brightly

goes forever.

Many trails worth trail.

These judge

I love the Jam Rock and Rolls.

Excuse me, it's Alex White and the Friends, live in the lair.

Sounds good real quick.

You know what, we only get about four and a half minutes here before the hard break.

How long is the last song here, Alex?

We got another question here to ask.

I want to know about this bass player here.

Get up here.

Let's

rap with some bass.

That'll be our encore.

Yeah, David Wyatt.

What's your backstory quick?

How did you get into music?

Because you play a pretty mean bass over

there.

Thank you.

I really appreciate that I Essentially like yeah, I came to be brief please pretty musical family.

My dad was my dad was a very Classical oriented like almost fascist when I was growing up to demanded that all of his kids Were raised with some classical instrument which I hated practicing so once I had my own freedom I Chose bass and I think the reason I stuck with it was because no one was telling me what to do

So I became my life, became my identity.

And honestly, before I met Alex, I had gone over eight years without, well, being like inactive yet practicing.

So I just, I mean, I was hurting, I was hurting for some action.

I needed a gig.

I was like dying for it.

And you ran into

these guys.

You know, Alex just sort of.

Blessing or curse Alex landed in my life and and it's never been the same since What was the

transition?

What was the transition?

You mean you play metal a

lot?

Oh, I have yes, I have

so going from metal into a jam band like this talk about that

Well, so the way I started I decided I wanted base because I wanted to be like less clay pool sure Primus was like and just destroyed me and then I was like, oh nobody wants less clay pool in their band so

How about we go, oh, then I learned Flea.

And I'm like, oh, no one wants Flea in their band either unless you're the chili peppers.

So then I was like, oh, let's learn Iron Maiden and stuff.

And then Cliff Burton and so many other.

And honestly, it's just like the first band I was in was a fucking, sorry.

Sorry, don't do that.

The first band I was in was a Led Zeppelin tribute.

I was 18 and then I had to learn JPJ.

way harder than I thought.

I will say you are one of the most entertaining people to follow on Facebook.

You're

too kind.

You're my to-go comic relief

for sure.

You know, I just want to bring levity to this dark world we live in.

Thank you.

I

appreciate it.

I like that.

Thank

you.

Oh, let's give the drummer some here.

Get up here, Matt.

Get up here,

Matt.

Matt Hunt.

Matt, how did you get into music?

What's your journey?

get in with these guys.

We only got another minute or so.

Well, I'll make it brief.

I had been playing about 20 years.

I got my degree in music from UW Whitewater.

And I've been playing professionally and also teaching.

I taught at Drums & More in Manon.

Oh, yeah.

Of course.

Ran.

Over 15 years.

And every time I was waiting for a student or had downtime, I was reading Maxig.

I'm

the one that put the

papers in the upstairs door.

And I gotta tell you that the first time I saw one of my bands listed in Max Sink on the upcoming shows, that was a milestone for me.

What

band was that?

The rotation, a bunch of fronts from back home in Stoughton and we've been playing for about 15 years now.

I

familiar with the rotations, kind of a poppy punk, rock and roll type of band.

Yeah, we play a

little bit of everything.

We play at Taste of Madison here and a lot of bars locally around town and clubs and stuff like that.

Wow, very cool.

That is

so awesome to hear.

So what's on the calendar for you guys?

A bunch of shows coming up.

Alex, what's in the immediate future for you and the friends?

Well, we got one in Sun Prairie at Full Mile on November 9th.

And then we've got, well, of course, the Halloween show, which played off legit at the High Noon actual Thursday.

October 31st at high noon for Halloween.

And then we got the last waltz and beyond tributes.

That's Saturday, November 30th at high noon saloon.

So that's always a great time tribute to the band in the last waltz concert.

That's going to be a big show.

And I bet you that will be a cello show, I bet if it will.

Yeah, it'll be close.

If not, probably you want to get your advance tickets right now at high dash noon dot com.

Absolutely.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for coming to play live in a layer.

Unfortunately, we're not going to get to the last song.

That

just no worry.

We have long songs, we know that.

That just means the preview shows.

We

prepared for that.

Yeah,

that's awesome.

Well, Jimmy, we have a lot of good layers coming up.

Real quick, dude.

Let's see, Black Willow Starling on the 2nd of November, 11-9 is Dogtown Hollow, the 16th of November, Bing Bong, the 23rd of November, Paige Kleber, Sarah the Red on the 7th of December, and the Trembling Giant.

on the 14th.

And don't forget, join Terry Barr next weekend at the high news saloon for freaking hollow weekend.

It's going to be a great show.

Hope to see you there.

I'll be on the air with hopefully E-Dub.

It's back safe on Civic Media.

We are local music.