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Welcome to Nightlight, ladies and gentlemen.
I don't hate it that much.
Sometimes I like to do it.
It just depends on the person.
Hey, we got a great show.
Folks, I am live from Madison tonight.
It is so great to be in our state's capital tonight.
Overlooking State Street.
A beautiful night.
Gorgeous sun.
Conrad, yesterday, supposedly we switched into fall.
It is a beautiful night here.
and I can only hope it is beautiful in Green Bay as well.
Well, it was downpouring for a while today, you know,
this
morning, but after that cleared up, yeah, it was nice and warm and toasty, you know?
Didn't
feel like full.
Yeah.
It was like 80 when I got here.
Aaron Zombers is here tonight, folks, too.
Aaron, how are you?
Doing
You are always a champ.
I love when you're here.
You always help me get set up here because I'm not on my home turf.
But more and more, it feels like my home turf.
And it's so effortless because you're always here.
So big time shout out.
Thank you so much.
heard rumblings.
I don't want to.
I don't want to cast dispersions or speak for others, but it's nice to know I'm, I'm kidding.
Everyone's great here.
It's always fun to come to Madison and do, do nightlight and Conrad, we have a special, we've got some window love tonight.
Oh, for my nightlight studio south.
I'll just tease that it will appear on Facebook probably in the next hour, but I couldn't find a 19 foot tall person.
So I had to kind of look down at the street, but we got to taking care of so.
Conrad Krieger working the board tonight, folks.
Aaron Zommer is sitting in for a few minutes, helping us get started here.
And it is great to have you here.
We've got a great question.
I've got great guests.
Always fun to tap into the Madison area in terms of guests.
I've got two live and studio guests.
Our pal, Eric Jelen, will be here.
He is the frontman for the mascot theory.
We've featured their music before.
We've had Eric on the show before, but I will say this.
Since Eric was on the show last November,
He has had major drama unfold in his life and he has turned it into an amazing new record and we're gonna share some of the music from his newest effort He and the mascot there.
He's newest effort tonight when he drops by here at 635 He'll be in studio as he was during his last appearance and then my pal Jim Healy who is one of the programmers at UW Cinematheque and he is also a top dog at the Wisconsin Film Festival in a movie fanatic I will say this you guys how many Conrad how many
Movies would you say you watch in a given year if you had to guess
a Lot I don't I don't think I could give a certain number
if you had like ballpark
I'd say Around 250 maybe 250
movies.
Yeah, I think I it's
pretty good
I mean like cuz when I'm bored at home most like yeah, what when I just throw on something and I just toss
on
a movie, you know
You don't have to listen that that sounds great to me Aaron.
What about you?
I
every three days or so.
Yeah, I One of my roommates is big into movies as well So whenever it's just us around we'll watch a movie usually but the other one falls asleep every time and Or just about every time and so he's more into I don't know playing games or things like that And so I don't get to watch as many movies as I would like
But all right.
Well, you both that's that's a good number for both of you guys.
I couldn't even tell you.
I would say probably I'm closer to Conrad somewhere in the neighborhood of two to three hundred.
But some of those are movies I've seen.
They're like comfort movies.
I'll put
on
new movies.
I'm probably at a hundred.
Maybe I'm guessing the reason I ask is because my second guest tonight, Jim Healy, who will be here in studio at seven twenty.
A couple of years ago posted on Facebook that he watched 763 movies in one year.
Wow.
I mean, now part of it, that's his job for the Wisconsin Film Festival and programming Cinematheque.
But that was an incredible number.
If you just average them, double that, that's like 1500 hours a year of movie watching or probably more.
So.
We're gonna talk a little bit about Robert Redford our favorite Robert Redford movies and where we rank him as an actor and then maybe a little Peter Buck Donovich talk and Jim's gonna tell us what's coming up at UW Cinematheque folks if you don't take advantage of this great program and this great theater right on the UW campus You absolutely should go to the calendar and find out what's playing.
It's all free to the public.
So it's good stuff.
So two great guests We got a fun question coming up and I'm gonna tell you all about our new
uh, text-to-win contest coming up in just a few minutes.
And I will give you the keyword after the break in the second segment.
So you got that to look forward to.
And big prizes this time too.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Um, guys, I got some advice for you.
I'm, I'm older than both of you.
Um, but I'm young at heart and incredibly immature.
Uh, I went to Steven's point this weekend and we went out to breakfast.
My wife and my daughter and I, it was a chain place.
A place I've had, you know,
It's fine.
It's a chain Supposed to be moderately priced.
I cannot believe how expensive And I'll just say I'll do like a hot wire thing and say roughly what the restaurant was.
It's in the Perkins Denny's What else do you have there?
I
have
I hop family.
It's one of those.
Okay
Okay, so French toast with eggs and bacon was $17
I must be some good French toast.
It was fine French toast, but it was not worth Okay, our bill was like 70 bucks.
So here's my advice to you and I the guy that sad is It was like he purposely let his hair get really greasy and then he kind of did like a comb over type thing Obviously this guy who put some thought into it But it was greasy and it was just like really not appetizing so and then I go into the bathroom and
the paper towel dispenser, like you wash your hands and like four inches of a paper towel comes out.
Like, who can work with that?
That's not even, you got to do it like 10 times to get enough tolling to wipe your hands off and then use the rest of it to open the door.
Here's where I'm going with this.
Spend the extra money.
Go to a higher class restaurant.
Spend the extra, what is it, 20 bucks for cleanliness
No, that's my point.
Everything is so expensive now.
Just go top tier and spend the extra money I don't go out to breakfast a lot.
It's well worth it to spend 20 dollars Conrad you're laughing.
What am I?
Am I being curmudgeoning?
You know, no, no, I totally agree French toast should not be that pricey because it's not that hard to make Right.
It's
just
bread and egg.
Exactly
That's, it's not hard.
So here's the weird thing.
I walked in.
Oh, sorry.
Go ahead.
I
was going to say eggs are getting up there in price, but still shouldn't be 17 bucks.
No, and it's like one egg.
It's part of a combo.
It's not like I'm getting.
So I walk into this hotel to, to check in and I could not get a hold of them.
So all morning I'm calling to make sure or to see if I can get an early check in by like an hour.
Nobody's answering.
And I'm like,
Is this hotel still in business?
Like, it's a major chain.
I can't get ahold of anybody.
While I'm driving, I chat with hotels.com.
I hope I can say that.
In the chat, I'm like, can you guys just confirm to me that this hotel is still open?
The virtual chat person keeps coming back and say, our advice would be to call the hotel.
OK, well.
Everything that started this conversation was me saying, I can't get ahold of anybody at the hotel.
Can you help?
This is how I booked the hotel.
There were no help whatsoever.
I got there.
Luckily they were open.
I walk in.
No one's in the lobby.
This is what you get for 90 bucks a night.
This is me trying to save a few bucks.
And there's this voice like from the heavens that says hello.
And I'm looking around.
I have no idea who's talking to me.
Hello, sir.
I'm like, hi.
Finally this woman comes out.
I was standing in front of a virtual check-in.
Have you ever seen those?
I've never seen those this guy was in Madison and he was gonna check me in over the video and I'm like There was such a surreal experience the whole thing I
You're not, you're saving money, but you're not saving frustration or whatever.
Now what I saved on the hotel, I spent on breakfast and whatever.
It's just, I'm not a cheap guy by any stretch.
I'll go the extra mile, but I was expecting at a chain to get a decent meal and a hotel stay too.
And the hotel, the hotel stay ended up being fine.
But we've got bigger fish to fry guys.
Tom Holland suffered a concussion shooting Spider-Man, the new Spider-Man.
He's okay.
Rest assured.
I was worried.
I know you were Conrad, because you watched 250 movies a year.
I was
shaking in my boots, you know.
Hey, we are running out of time here in this first segment.
I want to tell you, folks, I'm going to tell you all about our text to win contest.
It's coming up, and then I will give you the keyword after a short break.
But first, we have to do our question of the night.
Let's talk about the question.
Okay question question question question Question question.
Okay.
I have a question questions this question.
Oh It's national diary day, you know, you all keep a diary.
I don't care what year it is What is the most embarrassing thing someone could read in your diary?
I'm asking for a little forthrightness here
I'm asking you to be an open book, pun intended.
Let me know what you would be embarrassed by if somebody read your diary.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC.
Let me know or you can text us on the app.
Or if you are watching on the stream, drop us a stream comment and let us know what you would be embarrassed by if someone read in your diary.
All right, I know.
I was on the fence about this question, because I know a lot of people.
I'm hoping people just make the leap and tell me what they might be embarrassed about if they kept the diary, because I don't think too many people keep a diary anymore.
You guys keep a diary?
I don't.
Me either.
All right, great question, Pete.
Well, we'll see where we get.
I know.
What about diary of a wimpy kid?
Yeah, I mean,
everyone
read that diary, so.
Yeah, that's
true.
I mean, I'll go first.
I'll start us off.
I would probably just say sexual stuff.
Well, yeah, if I'm insecure about something or, you know, if I had to apologize to a girl or something, I'm not even sure.
Actually, I might be too embarrassed to even share that with my diary.
So, you're saying you wish you had more to share to be embarrassed about?
That's
do
Okay.
Spend another night home alone, washing my hair, making a frozen dinner.
What about you, Con?
You
know, I don't have a diary now.
I used to have a diary of cheat codes for video games.
Nice.
that's kind of embarrassing you're breaking the law
i guess so so maybe maybe that's embarrassing i don't know
yeah i don't know i i feel like and i'm opening up here i'm an open book here i'm not saying like i mean i think anytime in your life you can find something to apologize to your partner for when it comes to intimacy you put your knee on their hair accidentally
I don't know where I'm going with this.
Conrad, why did you let me pick this question
tonight?
You seem like you really wanted to.
Well, it is National Diary Day.
I mean, what am I supposed to do with that?
All right, we're coming back, folks.
When we come back, I'm going to tell you about our new text-to-win contest here at Civic Media.
And I'm going to give you the keyword.
And it's a fantastic contest.
You're not going to want to miss it.
Be part of the fun.
Be part of Nightlight.
Text us and let us know what's up.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight live from Madison on the Civic Media Radio Network.
by me
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get
started.
I am Pete Schwab, it is great to have you with me tonight.
I am coming to you live from Madison, Civic Media headquarters tonight.
I have some PBS work to do here in Madison, and it is always a blast to come down and see friends at PBS, as well as here at Civic Media.
Always fun time to be in Madison.
I made a mistake, Conrad.
I'm not giving the keyword until the seven o'clock hour.
Yep, next hour.
And I am, I am, listen.
I am a rule follower.
I am not going to break from that, so I'm going to wait till the 7 o'clock, folks.
I hope you can hang in there, too, because I will give you all the contest details and the keyword in hour number two.
So Eric Jelland is here, the front man for mascot theory.
He will be along shortly.
He is in the bullpen Conrad, as they say, warming up.
I have to tell you I was thinking about you yesterday Conrad.
I know tons of Packer fans But since I've been doing this show you are front and center as a Packer fan in my life And the first thing I thought like I was listening on the radio driving home yesterday And I'm like well they got this wrapped up and oh my god I turned off the radio in the car and I just put some music on and then when I got home it was like
down to the wire and I thought, well, I turned it off again.
It said, oh, the Packers are going to make this kick.
What the heck was going through your mind?
Well, first of all, it's it's hard to win with all those penalties that we had.
It's the first time since 2000.
I think 10 that we had that many 2000.
Yeah, 2010 since we had that many penalties, it was like 18 or something.
So it's hard to win like that.
But I guess a Tucker Kraft phenomenal player.
huge mistake at the end of the game.
Missed that block.
The guy who blocked the field goal.
Tucker missed
that block.
Oh,
okay.
I still haven't seen the highlights.
I guess it's not just on him though.
It was the whole team.
It was Matt LaFleur.
It was, you know, our offensive line.
We had two injuries out of the gate pretty much.
So it's just a rough game.
We'll bounce back.
Here's what I can't wrap my head around.
in with the NFL You got 17 games.
That's why I love it all the more important.
Yeah, but it's amazing to me how
in one week and listen I've been lamenting my bears forever and they had a great game yesterday they choked their first game they got blown out last week I don't know what to make of that team because they look great yesterday but this was like a reversal now I feel
like
every Packer fan like and I'm looking at you how every all my Packer fan friends have looked at me it's just crazy but like
All of a sudden you're feeling great and I thought, oh my God, this is the Packers League right now with how they're playing and love and all that.
And a couple mistakes and all of a sudden you start second guessing.
Just like with the Bears, they're one and two now.
They play the Raiders.
Oh, two and two going into the buy.
Maybe they're still like, it's like a constant carrot and stick thing.
It's horrible.
It's any given Sunday.
It's the NFL.
There's not.
a team that's terror, you know, they could be have a bad record, but they're still football team in the NFL.
So
anything can happen.
Yep.
Um, so what do you guys have this week?
Well, we go to the Cowboys.
Oh, that's right.
I knew that.
Well, and, uh, huge CD lamb will not be playing.
So
we'll not be playing.
He only played like seven, seven plays or something like that.
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, for the Bears fans, like I say, it must have been nice to
Stick it to Maddie Perflos like that.
Oh my gosh.
He yeah, I mean I it's to me It's just like when you get a win against a team that you know It was probably close to a toss-up, but we have like four guys out on defense two of them are serious playmakers So when CD lamb went down, I didn't feel that bad for the cowboys.
Yeah, I felt bad for him All right, we've got a great show tonight folks Eric Jelen is here from mascot theory.
He's he is shared with me
New music from their new album called Cosmic Hit and Run.
It's a very personal album.
We'll talk to Eric about that at 635.
He's been on the show before, and he's always fun to talk to, and a great band.
If you haven't heard the mascot theory,
Google it, go to Spotify, whatever, but definitely don't miss this interview because Eric is a great interview as well.
And then my pal Jim Healey will be here at 720.
We'll be talking movies, famous directors and all kinds of stuff with my movie buff friend, Jim Healey.
Our question of the night and I, boy, I'm not, I've rarely bailed on a question and I'm not bailing.
But I just don't know just because diaries are so obscure I don't know what but you know what folks if you don't have a diary Just tell me what you'd be embarrassed to put in there or what you'd be embarrassed if someone read your diary Something vulnerable like what would you not want them to know about you or what you're writing in your diary?
Some of our social media answers Chad Fran Oh Chad yeah, he says that I am an older man who doesn't know how to express his emotions
for example, anger.
So instead of using a proven method of emotional relief, he would rather make fun of the thought of writing in a diary.
And then he wrote mic drop.
I don't think you can you can say what you wrote is a mic drop.
I think that's for other people to determine if what you said is worthy of a mic drop.
Exactly.
Daniel Wheeler, our pal, Danny Wheels says, Dear diary.
It was a it was late dinner with friends in Boston walking back to the subway the food poisoning hit me I wish I could say it was nausea, but it wasn't no bathroom.
No choice.
Those bushes were the real victim.
Oh Well, I'm just gonna assume that's a true story
because who
would and and I pretty listen I appreciate
The fourth rightness of Danny wheels are pal my pal Mike does it all says that I have a diary.
Okay.
There's obviously a couple guys here Not comfortable with their masculinity.
You have to rip on diaries journaling is healthy folks Don't you remember when Brandon Marshall used to do it on the sidelines during NFL games?
There's nothing wrong with keeping a journal So be part of the fun text us what you would be embarrassed to have somebody read it from your diary when we come back It's our first guest of the week
Eric Jellin will be here.
Jim Healey's coming by later.
Texas folks, be part of the show.
I'm live from Madison tonight.
It's great to be here.
It's great to have you here with me, so to speak.
Conrad working the board, all is right here in America.
It's Beachwabbit and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pete Schwab, and this is Nightlight.
And we are enjoying this beautiful Monday evening here in our state's capital, coming to you live from Madison tonight.
Great to have you with me.
Conrad is back in Green Bay, working the board and holding down the fort.
What am I missing?
Anything happening up there, Conrad?
Not really.
No?
OK.
Yeah, you're not missing much.
Whispering to everybody to keep it down while he talks to me on the stream.
All right, this is exciting, folks.
Listen, at the top of the second hour, act two as I like to call it, I'm going to tell you all about Civic Media's Go for the Green and Gold Text-to-Win Contest, and I'm going to give you a keyword.
It's our new contest here at Civic Media, and I'll just tease you with the, it involves Green Bay versus Minnesota.
That's all I'll say for now.
More details coming in hour number two, as well as Jim Healey at 720 Talkin' Movies.
Right now, I'm very excited to have this next guest on.
He's been on the show before.
Terry Barr, our mutual friend, introduced us.
And that's how I first learned of the mascot theory's music.
And I just love it.
And they're frontman.
And you're just a friend of the show at this point, Eric, I think.
Eric Gellin joins me here in the...
in the studio.
But I have to say, before I dig into this conversation with Eric, it is time.
Eric, is our first guest Conrad, did you know that?
He is.
First guest of the week.
So it's time to light it up, right?
With the Nightlight First Guest of the Week, brought to you by Chicken or the Egg Photography.
Chris specializes in food, event, music, and product photography for businesses across Wisconsin and the Midwest.
See what he can do for you at chickenortheegphotography.com.
Do you think he can photoshop out excess pounds, Conrad?
I think he could.
Conrad has no idea.
He's trying to make me feel good.
No, I think he can do it.
Of course he can, right?
But that might cost extra.
That's all I'm saying.
So but check out chicken with the egg photography comm Chris does great stuff Eric challenge is here.
It is great to have you here.
You were here last November Yeah, and that was that seems like forever ago, but also not really.
I mean I remember you talking about You brought in a great vinyl album of your last album and now you've you've I'm gonna show this on the screen Conrad check this out Eric brought in a copy of their new album
The cosmic hit and run and it's great.
We're gonna play some music from the from the album tonight during the interview Eric is here in the studio Thank you again for another awesome my pleasure.
Yeah, is that how you like to listen to music?
I liked
producing it that way.
This album was very specific to the vinyl format with side A, side B. It was kind of the first time we had created an album and we're like, okay, we have X amount of time on the one side and this technically.
18 minutes on one side 18 on the next before it starts to degrade a little bit So we really put a lot
into that
thinking of it that way.
It's on CD as well
But really
that was the okay we have this much to get done and we know someone's gonna flip that record at some point So
it was
made for it for sure.
I never even want to thought of that.
That's so interesting.
Yeah, all right, so
How was Max Inc.
the other night?
You were in with Terry and Rocker.
I was
right
here.
Literally
right here.
We had the band here.
We had
a full
drum kit out there.
It was a blast.
Yeah, we had it rocking in here.
Do you do that often on the radio perform live?
Not with the full band.
It's an ordeal with the full band.
We have to bring our mixer and kind of
get a
whole bunch.
We had in-ear monitors on our own.
And so I was over there and then when it was time to do the interview, pop over here really quick and try not to get tangled in my chords.
But it's always fun.
It's a blast.
So, all right, before...
we jump into your new album, Cosmic Hit and Run, we have to, you would have been on this show again since last November if you didn't have some health issues.
So you've had a pretty, a lot of trauma, drama, whatever you want to say, however you would categorize it over the last year.
Tell us what happened.
Well really not too long after I was here, so it would have been around that mid-November.
Um, I was having these headaches, these really bad headaches and kind of facial pain and other neuro pain, uh, vision loss, lots of stuff like that.
Super scary.
And we thought, well, maybe it's just, I'm a graphic designer and videographer.
So I, I work on screens all the time.
So we thought maybe it was just, okay, let's go to the eye doctor, maybe.
maybe there's something with that you're staring at screens and so we went in I got some glasses they did not help with the headaches or anything they just got worse and worse through December and we just decided at some point we should get an MRI done just to check out was having these blurry visions and dizzy things and they're like let's just make sure there's no like pre stroke or stroke stuff going on here so
Right around that time in December, we started doing that.
We did an MRI in January and then another follow-up one with contrast and they found this arterial.
What did I
say?
You call it, it's AVF, arterial venous fiscula.
There it is.
I always get that mixed up.
It is,
it is.
So they found that it's right in the smack dad in the middle of my forehead in the brain right there.
And so it's like this artery in this vein that are kind of connected.
And that should never happen because there's pressurized blood and non pressurized blood and the pressurized goes to the non part and it can it can blow up with an aneurysm and that's it.
So
is that one of those things where they caught it just in time or it was like a ticking clock like something could have happened at any
exactly they thought maybe.
you know, eight to 10 years, it probably had been there or been developing
throughout
that time.
So the headaches and stuff, we still don't know if that was all officially from that.
You know, we got the MRIs, they discovered this thing.
Four months later, I had to wait and then eventually got the procedure and they went and put some cement in to kind of block it off after four and a half hours of procedure and
And we just went in a few weeks ago and double checked with another MRI.
The fix worked.
Everything's good.
So that that possibility of an aneurysm is not going to happen anymore.
So that's fixed.
Just still dealing with a lot of those same symptoms, the headaches and stuff.
And we're just trying to figure that stuff out now.
But
yeah, I remember when you posted this on social media, I don't think I knew that you were going into surgery.
I think I just saw that you posted something after you had been out.
It was there's probably been 10 social media posts since I've been on it that maybe
You go whoa like you just didn't have any idea so I'm glad that worked out, but you when you when you play What does that do like you play music in bars sometimes or outdoors?
Does that affect your headaches or anything?
Well, it certainly was at the end of the year, you know flannel Fest was probably about we were
here
promoting and and that was around that time and it was like Fine at that show, but really after that it really the headaches just started getting worse So I didn't really play again.
I think I did one show
in December and was miserable.
Didn't know why.
Just it was headaches, but it's not just like your typical headaches.
It's like eye pain.
It's just
really bizarre, facial pressure type stuff.
And so I had a couple shows around that time that were not great.
And it was like, oh, but typically in the wintertime, we don't play much.
And actually our whole plan with the mascot theory was to record an album.
So we weren't going to be playing.
We were going to work on this album, which we did start doing.
And then this all kind of got diagnosed and we still were able to kind of work on the album.
I kind of just worked on it when I could kind of in my home studio with the guy, bring the guys over.
I'd be working on my laptop and just kind of working on stuff when I wasn't my head buried under a pillow from all this pain and stuff.
So
that's incredible that you went through that issue, had surgery and in that.
times since you've been recovering, you still have, I mean, every sign of life is what we were discussing last November.
You already have a new album out despite what you went through.
That's kind of a fast turnaround, isn't it?
Well, that every sign of life actually came out, I think in April.
Last
year but that album actually been recorded two years before we went down to Texas We recorded it we kind of shopped it around seen if we could there's any record labels what the industry was looking like at that time And we decided to release it on our own so it had been around for a while in our world not out in the world To everybody else so when we had that one done we still had a ton of songs that were ready for a next album already So it was just kind of waiting for the right moment, but then
kind of at the end of last year we were starting to think about well what do we what do you want to do for this next album we knew we were going to kind of do a hiatus anyway and we thought well let's let's
tackle something a little bit different.
We'll set even those other songs aside for now.
I had a song actually final hour that I think is on the list potential for playing tonight.
That was all dealing with my dad's passing back in 2020.
And he had two years of being in the hospital of he had a blood infection that led to from a kidney stone that led to I think his pancreas getting destroyed.
And then it was just
two years
of misery for him.
And then, you know, a pandemic at all.
of that so trying to to help him with the care and but also limited to who could go in and when the hospitals it was a real tough time and so I had all these lyrics that I'd kind of came up with specifically vinyl hour was kind of one of those main ones and then eventually was like okay let's try something different from a recording aspect let's just go ahead and and and do a concept album you know we were inspired by
Pink Floyd and some of those older those out the who you know the bands that did those concept albums where it's all thematically and musically tied together.
So
that was our plan for this even before the headache stuff.
That was what we were going to do and we were able to kind of start doing that and it just sort of worked because we were doing it in our own studios.
We could kind of keep moving forward with it when I felt good.
It
actually really helped me because I didn't have any I couldn't do anything.
They were like very specific don't do anything you know until this procedure happens or nothing.
Tragic happens.
That's incredible.
Eric Jellin is my guest.
He is the front man for the mascot theory, a great band.
Check them out, Google them, Spotify, whatever.
But right now, we're going to play one of their new tracks.
What
should we lead
with?
God of Grip is the one that we've been playing most so
far.
So that one.
Con, let's fire up God of Grip.
This is the mascot theory in Eric Jellin.
to me across the family dinner table separate the truth from fable my brain is drowning loud and free past that salty ocean to me across the family dinner table
You stare at the wall, you're tearing your hair out a day to carry it all The baggage you buried, it's there when you're wearing a fall Cause they don't care if you disparage to perish or stall The tank is empty, start to rush to the ambulance Tempting to break all the rules from Lady Justice has been and so saved me from all the lies and the maybes Cause maybe if he told the truth then all our lies would be gravy I'm going crazy but I'm saying enough to know that you made me
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which is so cool because Terry introduced us to Eric and Eric was on Max and Gradio with his band, Mascot Theory, Saturday night.
So we just heard get a grip, got a grip.
You have a little rap in there, kind of.
A little bending some genres here.
I love when people do
that.
We're doing this.
We decided to do this album completely on our own with no constraints.
We'll just do whatever we felt like fit the mood.
And a friend of mine, Tyler Durden, the rapper on there, had actually heard a demo of that song probably a year before.
And he had actually really loved the demo.
And then he wrote a whole verse for it and then sent it to me.
And I totally forgot about it.
And a year later, we'd pop it down on the album.
And I was sharing with him kind of where we are at with the song.
He's like,
I wrote a verse for that.
Oh, no, I forgot about that.
And I'm like, well, I don't know.
We've got like I said, we got these things timed down.
So
anything that goes in, something else is coming out.
But you know, if you want to send it to me, we'll see.
And we started working on it.
And it's like, oh, this is amazing.
This is going to fit perfectly with the theme of the album and everything and dealing with grief and loss and kind of the cosmic picture after what happens next.
So it just fit perfect.
So
yeah.
Talk about that a little bit.
You had this.
serious brain surgery and your dad passed away without sounding crass or whatever.
Does that make it easier to write material when you're going through such crap in your life?
Was it easier to write this as opposed to like every sign of life?
I would say, well, we'll see what happens with the brain stuff.
I
haven't written
anything after that.
All of
these songs were written through the lens of my father, which took me, you know, years to finally, final hour song was written years ago.
So that one was kind of the first one.
And then this year when we decided to do this kind of an album, I had some other ones that I that we're dealing with the same kind of theme.
So I think it was once we decided, okay, this is the theme of the album, I'm going to write it specifically about this topic.
Then actually it did.
just kind of flow out.
A lot of the songs were written towards the end of the year last year.
We're kind of right before we were about ready to start recording.
That's kind of how it goes.
Sometimes we have some older songs and sometimes we have just brand new stuff.
I bring to
the band
and they're not really ready for it.
And it's, it's a blast.
So we kind of just do it that way.
And that's, that's exactly how it happened for this one.
And with the brain stuff, it'll be interesting.
I think I'm one of my posts, I was like, I'm sure I'll deal with that at some point on the next album, you know,
right?
I, it's, it's interesting.
Eric Jellin is my guest from the mascot theory.
We just heard his song got a grip.
The new album drops October 3rd.
Yeah.
Okay.
So where can people find that Spotify, the usual outlets?
Exactly.
All the
streamers will have it on our, on our website, the mascot theory.com.
There'll be a link to our store, our band camp store.
So you can order it right from there.
We'll send you a CD or vinyl.
Versions and digital streaming
all that stuff and when can people see you it's October 5th You have a release party at the Atwood music hall here in Madison and when you mentioned one in Appleton as well
October 3rd the actual release day We're gonna be at Gibson music hall in Appleton So it's gonna be a blast and they're very different kind of shows that we would typically do We're kind of a rock folk rock band with this album We really felt like we wanted it to be the focus of everything that we're performing.
So it's actually a very intimate kind of sit-down
We're gonna do an interview Terry Barr is actually gonna be at the
Madison range and
do an interview on stage We'll talk about the album and the process a little bit and then we've got our friends into the music podcast up in Appleton will do the same thing
on your website you have a passage it says Where you describe this album peering jittery energy with a little self-interrogation
Can you explain that?
Yeah, I think it's especially with this theme.
I mean, when you're trying to tie in all the songs or all the songs are all in the same ideas, you really have to look into, okay, what was I feeling during all of this, specifically when my dad was passing away?
How was that really affecting me at the time?
How do I reflect on that now?
So you really got to dig deep on that.
What is that?
And then kind of the side B of the album is really more of the, okay, after...
after death what happens now how do we grieve from that lens now when it's it's the healing part right so it's like what does that look from a cosmic standpoint where where do we go after uh after we pass away all those kind of big big big ideas is kind of the second half of the album and that's kind of what we were shooting for on this one
so why don't we do this just to get as much bang for our buck as possible why don't we play a song into the break at the top of the hour then we'll
get the third song played in the first segment after the news.
So what should we go to during the break?
Let's do Constellation Prize.
All right, Conn, get that ready.
Eric Gellin is here.
He is my guest in studio coming to you live from Madison tonight.
When we come back, folks, Eric Song will take us to intermission.
We'll be back for act two.
And I'm going to tell you all about Civic Media's go for the green and gold text to win contest.
And I'm going to give you the keyword.
Great stuff.
You can win cash and jewelry and.
two amazing tickets to Green Bay and Minnesota.
I guess I just kind of told them about it, but I'll elaborate a little bit after.
I bet they could guess.
Here's Eric Jell in a mascot theory.
We're coming back for act two after
this.
It's clear So clear I've covered up in my feelings
But
I was not alone
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