Speaker 1: But right now, and this is the gentleman who is
responsible for that song Cops on Acid. Plague Dad is here.
Let me get that mic up there. Frank Gallagher, better
known as Plague Dad. Hello, sir, how are you doing?
Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, we're very happy
to have you here. We're going to play some of
your other tunes today as well. But I do have
to ask you right off the top, is that song
Cops on Acid? Is that based on an actual experience?
Did you encounter a member of law enforcement who was
on acid? Well?
Speaker 2: No, not so much that that was more the speculative part.
It is actually based on an incident though a former life.
I used to be a bike messenger back in San Francisco, Okay,
So I rode around the city delivering things, picking up
things and dropping them off for money. So one day
I had picked up a filing that needed to make
it to city Hall by it for thirty a deadline,
you know, and need to get there quick quick. It
was on my way. I was riding up Marcus Street
as quickly as I could, and I ran into a
police officer who was the doors of his cruiser were
wide open and he was directing traffic, but blaring out
of the He was listening to the dead out of
the out of his cruiser while he was directing traffic,
and I was like, okay, that's just interesting that you
don't see that every day, and it stuck with me,
And then later that night wrote that song.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I know, I thought, maybe, so what about
the shooting of the dog, because that that does happen.
Speaker 2: As you know it does. That was something that was
literally torn from the headlines, so to speak. So that was,
you know, I mean, with with songwriting, you try to,
at least my approach is to try to start from
something personal, whether it's deeply personal or superficially personal. I mean,
I guess really is a judgment call, but then try
to establish some connections and broaden the universality of it.
At that point, and given everything that's going on with
our police these days, that seemed to be actually because.
Speaker 1: They will if you have a dog who needs to
be put down, they will they will do it for you.
Oh yeah, you just have to have a you know,
like if you have a warrant for something, they'll show
up at your house. Well they're well, they're they're they're
if you know, if you have like Old Yeller or something,
you don't want to do it yourself. Yeah, anyway, but
you're not. But just to be clear, you're not you're
you're not pro law enforcement on acid.
Speaker 2: You're I assume, well, you know, I always think that
drug uses a personal choice. Yeah, you know, while if
if somebody who holds that position wants to do that,
that would be fine. I probably while they're not on right,
you know, right, but in what they do in their
own time is their their their business.
Speaker 1: It is a it is a fun song though very
catchy is and then it's fun and it's uh, it
makes me laugh when I listen to it, and we
should say, so you're getting some traction with this, you're
getting an airplane?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Uh do you know? Uh, do you have any idea
how many stations at this point have picked it up?
Speaker 2: Eight or ten that I know of, Yeah, you know
throughout New England. And then there's something califun one of
the just started to play it as well. You know.
I mean it's funny because you look at you know,
technology these days, like Apple Music. You know, for the
artists now, if you're on Apple Music, they have started
to track radio plays, yes, and they will tell you
what stations. So it's gotten some play, and it's amazing,
Like the Midwest, it's gotten some play out in the Midwest.
It's gotten some play in Brazil, yeah, you know. I mean,
it's gotten some play in Japan. It's so it's it's
starting to get subtraction. And you know, I've noticed that
shows now, I play a lot of shows.
Speaker 3: For me, that's the essence of music.
Speaker 2: I mean, I love making records and I love radio,
but music to me is and essentially it's a it's
a very deeply personal experience. Yes, and so at shows
now when I play that song, people are actually starting
to sing along.
Speaker 1: Oh that's great, blows me away, excellent. Yeah, that's very cool.
That's that's awesome. We should mention too, And I'll put
the camera back on me for a moment for people
watching online on the face spook or YouTube so people
can see it. So you brought this, yeah, I'll kind
of hold it up. You can't can't zoom in unfortunately,
But so this is now, this is vinyl.
Speaker 2: It is it's a seven inch record, very cool for
songs on it, very cool.
Speaker 1: Yes, So a seven inch for for those who don't know,
young people might not know, uh that is it's like
and this will you can put this on on a
regular turn take absolutely obviously. Yeah. But for people who
don't know, you know, because Vinyl has had such a resurgence,
but to see a seven inch like this, that's unusual.
Speaker 2: Well, it's very I pressed two hundred copies of these,
I've sold more than one hundred of them now, I
just realized, which is amazing for me. I mean, to
sell one hundred and seven inch records is just and
again getting back to that deeply personal experience. I mean
I listened to music through all sorts of medium. I
listened Spotify, I listen to band camp, I go to shows,
I listen to records. But what I'm finding out is
that for a growing number of people, they want some
sort of physical connection to the music and a record
or a cassette or to a lesser extent of CD.
We'll provide that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean that's the first fifty copies of that.
Speaker 2: Come with a comic book as well that you can
only get with this record. And it was done by
the artist named Paul Kurt John who did the cover
art as well, and he's a fairly well known comics
underground comics artist in the UK. And I ran into
him online because on this record is a cover of
a tune by Black Flag called six Pack, and we
can't play it here today because it's a heavy laden
with profanity and just isn't appropriate for the audience on
a Saturday morning here. But yes, he came. He's a
Paul is an enormous Black Flag fan, and he came
across the song and we hooked up and we talked,
and he's offered to do the cover of the record
because he just really dug the tune and I was like,
oh yeah, man, absolutely so. And then he said, well
could you you want to do a comic book too.
I said, I'll draw comic book and you could just
give it away.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So he sent me the files you know, from the UK,
and I printed it here and I printed fifty copies.
I have eight left. I keep forgetting to bring the
comics to the shows when I the records, so you know,
mail order you definitely get the comic book you come
to a show. If I remember to bring up I
did bring him today. I'll bring one in after the
show Okay, all right, thank you. Yeah, it's uh, it's
a it's a it's a it's a very offensive comic
book to some people. Yeah, it's it's it's it pushes
the boundaries. Okay, okay, which is read up my alley?
Speaker 1: Now? Where do you record? You know?
Speaker 2: I record wherever I can. Honestly, this record was recorded
at Monaco Studios in Falmouth, Maine, and it was engineered
and mixed by a by a man named Dan Capaldi,
who is an absolutely gifted producer, engineer, musician. This guy
has some of the best ears that I've ever run across.
And he also plays drums and sits in with me
sometimes it shows if I.
Speaker 3: Need a drummer.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, So he's played with me a couple of times.
He plays with everybody in Portland. If you've seen a
band in Portland, you've probably seen Dan Capaldi play drums
or bass or guitar.
Speaker 1: Or you know, well, every every drummer I know, I
mean it's a consistent theme on the show. Every drummer
I know is in like multiple multiple bands.
Speaker 2: Indeed, So this one was recorded there at Monaco Studios.
Now Dan has his own little studio. Now that he's
just set up in Portland. I don't even know what
has a name yet, but I hope to do some
recording there. I also, do you know, I'm touring part
of it. I play a lot of shows with a
band called Vice's Inc. Who are supposed to be here
this morning. They couldn't make it. That's by virtue of
their absences. I guess that's how I sort of walked
into this. But they have a studio, so I'm gonna
be doing some record there. I've done some recording with
them as well, excellent, so really wherever.
Speaker 3: I can sit it in. I also just record up
in my attic.
Speaker 2: I have a little home studio that I demo things
up there, and I try to record as many live
shows as I can, really, yeah, because every live show
has a different feel. So I just did a tour
in August with Vices Inc. And I recorded a bunch
of those shows. And I have another set that I
recorded at the tody In Theater in Portland where I opened.
Speaker 3: Up a film festival.
Speaker 2: I was the opening act for film, so I recorded
that that was with a full band, very much the
sound that you heard with this track that you played,
you know, bass drums, mandolin, vocals, guitar. So I have
a half hour set of that sound and then I
have another show this a half an hour that's solo,
just me and a foot drum.
Speaker 3: And and you know, and and it's.
Speaker 2: Very different field, but it's the same songs. Yeah, I
mean literally, I mean it's almost the same set list.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to release that on a cassette only release. Okay,
So you're gonna get you know, the full band on
one side and the solo set on the other side,
and I'm gonna print one hundred copies. They're in production
right now, and Paul is going to do the cover
right for that as well. Okay, and those are going
to be available on my website Plague dot Dad. Yeah,
and on my band camp page as well.
Speaker 1: By the way, I think it's so cool that your
side is Plague dot Dad because a lot of people too.
You know, I'm a web designer, so I know this,
but a lot of people probably don't even realize that.
You know, you can get a lot of different you know,
you know, it doesn't have to be dot com or
dot net or you know, at this point, you can
get almost anything. If you're willing to pay for it.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, you know it's funny. I kind of
backed into this one too, because I do a lot
of this myself. So I built the website myself. I
did you know, I came to the U r L
myself them all the marketing. I mean, that's sort of
the nature of the music business these days.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I went through I'm going to name and shame
here went through go Daddy to buy my domain name.
I had plague dad dot com. Yeah it was you know,
which was fine, and I got it for a year
and it went to what it expired.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 2: And Go Daddy has created a company now and they
bought the thing out from under me and offered to
sell it back to me for six hundred dollars. And
I was like, you know what, I'm done. Not only
am I done, I'm actually gonna just, you know, whenever
the opportunity comes up, I'm gonna talk smack about you.
So here we are talk a smack about go Daddy,
because if that's their business model for independent artists, then
they are going down the wrong road. So now I
found somebody else. So I've learned how to do this myself.
I change the domain plague dot Dad.
Speaker 3: It's much better.
Speaker 1: Who do you own the we should plug? Who do
you own the domain through?
Speaker 2: Now you know it's uh, I believe it's through banned
Zoogle I think is yeah. Yeah, And they help with
the website and make it really easy and set up
the store to sell the records. I mean, it's just
sort of a one stop shop. And for a musician
who is really trying to, you know, do everything themselves,
they have a suite of tools that makes it just
as easy as it can possibly be.
Speaker 1: Absolutely one hundred Yeah, No, that's that's that's very cool.
Uh So where does the name come from? Playing dad?
Speaker 2: And people can probably guess indeed.
Speaker 1: That you know, they're there. We we did go through
a little bit, people might remember, Yeah, a bit of
a pandemic.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, well, in fact, that is where it comes from. Yeah,
you know, when the pandemic emerged, Like a lot of folks,
I lost my job at the time, so I had
a lot of time on my hands. I ended up
in my attic just writing songs. And I've always been
a musician, you know, yeah, and writing some songs and
recording them and I would send them out to friends
or post them on you know, snippets on social media,
and it started to get some traction and it's like, well, wow,
that's kind of cool.
Speaker 3: So the name just sort suggested itself.
Speaker 2: I mean, we during that time, we sort of all
for better or worse turned inward. I mean it was
very you know, you were alone and with your family.
In my case, I have actually I am a father,
I have you know, three kids, and it's just sort
of emerged as a in that in a time like that,
you know, you're you're at least for me, family was
one of the most important things.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 2: It's just sort of captured everything that was going on
at that time, both personally and culturally for me in
a in a bumper sticker, if you will.
Speaker 3: And I'm from a marketing.
Speaker 2: Perspective, I was like, all right, that that really conjures
up everything that I would need a band name.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: It does what it needs to do as a band.
Speaker 1: Name, right right. Yeah, No, it's great. And I regular
listeners hearing me say this all the time, but you know,
but I always say, you know, the pandemic was an
awful experience for us all but you got to find
these silver linings where you can And one of the
big silver linings is, you know, just broadly, is it
really kind of forced people to be more creative and
find ways to do things or expand on existing ways
to do things. But you know, for example, you saw
a lot of like bands, you know, doing online performances
where they're all in separate places, that kind of thing. Yeah,
it also opened people up to people who may have
been you know, because I always I ask every guest,
you know, where do you record? Because you have so
many options now, But it really kind of I think
the pandemic opened people up to people who maybe were
resistant to you know, just sending files back and forth
and recording that way now found themselves in a position
where okay, well I guess I better figure out how
to make this work. So it really kind of I
think expanded the boundaries that people have in their minds
in terms of how to be of how to make
music or anything else.
Speaker 2: Oh indeed, no, no, no, no question. And you know
it's interesting some that with all the technology that exists now,
it provide it there's a toolbox that is unprecedented, I mean,
from from a musical perspective, power that we have available
to us now as musicians is exponentially stronger and more
robust than it was even just a couple of years ago. Yeah,
ten or twenty years ago. Curiously, though, I used that
technology too. I wanted to create a sound and and
some material that could be played should that technology not
be available. You know, I mean, what can I just
do with a voice, right, some wood and some guitar strings,
you know, wooden instruments that don't have to be amplified.
You know, a foot drum, you know, these these tools
that are there regardless of whatever the technology situation is.
And again it gets back to that connection, that deep
personal connection. I'm not saying that, you know, you can't
forge that connection through technology, but I was looking for
something a little more primal. Yeah, and so I really,
you know, you made an artistic decision to base this
in acoustic instruments, and that acoustics sound filtered through that
punk rock ethos that brought me into music in the
first place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so so prior to this, so prior to plague, Dad,
what what were you doing musically before? Were you in
a band or were.
Speaker 2: You Yeah, this is a long sort of tale. How
much time we have time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's only nine twenty, we have time. I love
a long sort of tale. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I started playing you know, a lawn back in
the ties, you know, into this.
Speaker 3: I'm in my fifties. Okay, so I started playing.
Speaker 2: My first band was a band called Scouts on Her
and I went to the Berkeley College of Music and
was with a couple of Berkeley students who happened to
be from San Francisco. Oh and we, you know, we
gigged around Boston. We played the rat we played T
T's you know, you know, we're doing some things like that. Yeah,
and then these guys said, you know what, let's just
move to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Man, let's just Yeah.
Speaker 2: So we bought a school bus, ripped out the seats,
threw all a crap in, and moved to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, now what what year was this?
Speaker 2: This is in nineteen eighty seven, okay, eighty seven. So
we started playing around there and did pretty well, put
out a record. We were We ended up playing a
show with Nirvana, No kidd, playing a show with the
Google Dolls. We ended up playing with a couple of
you know, bands like Alice Donut and Primus and mister
Bungle and I mean we were going up and down
the West coast, playing from La to Seattle, doing that
whole thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and uh you could you know.
Speaker 2: It's still a copy a couple of copies of that
record around subware. I'm sure you could find it on
eBay or discogs or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But uh, it got to the point where that just
wasn't fun anymore.
Speaker 1: What did it become more like work?
Speaker 2: It did, Yeah, and it became you know, it's a grind.
Speaker 1: I mean people think, you know, people think, oh, you
go on tour and oh my god, it's just uh
wine women in songs I writ someone say once and
it's it's not right.
Speaker 2: Yeah no. And beyond that, there's just sort of the
emotional aspect to it as well. You know, I've a
I've come to understand on the deeply personal level that
comparison is the thief of joy. And at that point
in my life as a young person, You're all about
am I doing?
Speaker 4: Am I?
Speaker 3: Am I? Is it successful? Is it going to be successful?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: Am I?
Speaker 2: You know? I mean it's all about that competition. And
one day we had booked a show and we were
going to open for Helmet at the Kennel Club, which was,
you know, a club in San Francisco at the time
on the Visitarro Street. And the guy we had played
there a couple of times and the shows great. And
the club owner called me back a couple of weeks
before the show and he said, you know what, you
guys are off the show?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 2: He said, well, you know, we got to call. Helmet
was on amphetamine Reptile at that time, before they had
gotten big huge, and he said, you know, the label
called and they said, we can't get Helmet unless we
take these two other acts promote as well. Sorry, and
that was it. I could just feel something just snapped.
You know what, I'm done.
Speaker 3: This is it. I just can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I went back. I left San Francisco. I went
back to school.
Speaker 1: And did you go back to Berkeley or no.
Speaker 2: I went to orn I went to U Maie and
became a journalist, reporter. I was a reporter for a
long time reporter, columnist.
Speaker 3: And an editor.
Speaker 2: Made my way back to San Francisco, where I actually
covered city hall politics in San Francisco for for quite
a while. And what's fascinating to me is that the
folks who are merging into the national power structure. Now, Yep,
Gavin Knwsom, who was the governor, Kamala Harris, Who's are
these were the folks who were holding local offices when
I was covering that, Oh wow, city Hall. I remember
when Gavin was appointed to the city council by Willie Brown.
A good friend of mine was Kamala's chief of staff
when she was the district attorney. So you know, I
did that for a very long time. Yeah, and wow,
the background of prince.
Speaker 1: Journalism, oh wow.
Speaker 2: And got married, raised some kids and just sort of
set the music things aside for a while to concentrate
on journalism and raising my family.
Speaker 1: And yeah, you know, wow.
Speaker 2: When the pandemic rolled around again, though, the opportunity presented
itself to get back into some of the music.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and you know, three and a half four
years into it, it just keeps rolling, which is you know, yep,
I'm thankful for that every day.
Speaker 1: Oh excellent, excellent. We should uh, well, let's play another track. Sure,
I'll I'll let you pick.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's like there's four songs on this
record the Uh there's the there's one.
Speaker 3: Called Slip the Leash, which really speaks.
Speaker 2: To sort of my love hate relationship with technology.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, in a minute and a.
Speaker 2: Half, very short, which mix should we go with? Well,
you know, let's let's do that. Let's do the Monoco
mix and then talk about the you know, because I
like to remix tunes and.
Speaker 3: We've done that with someone.
Speaker 1: Right right, Okay, so we'll play the Monaco.
Speaker 2: Uh, Monica being the studio where we recorded it, which
is why it's got that.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah, and uh yeah, great great sound coming
out of there.
Speaker 3: Fantastic studio.
Speaker 2: Sam Monico, who was the host of the Locomotive Show
on w Mpghay Portland, is a fantastic support of the
local music scene in and he's just a great guy.
Speaker 3: And it's a it's a that studio is remarkable.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, let's give this a listen. So this is
called whoops. Oh there it is Slip the Leash, the
Monico mix, and play Dad, check this out.
Speaker 5: It's all got smartphones and a wish to christ.
Speaker 2: I didn't have mine, but I need it for work.
Speaker 5: I need it for work. We've all got lap office.
Dad's how we all in the world stay. That's how
we can next.
Speaker 4: At least that's what they say.
Speaker 2: I live near the airport, right under the night Dad.
Speaker 3: I hear the engines.
Speaker 4: And I see the things you take the kids the airport.
Speaker 5: Still get the nights.
Speaker 4: Week talking about where we might go Stata.
Speaker 5: Smartphones and a Wesh Christ.
Speaker 3: I didn't mind.
Speaker 5: I need it for work. They hate job.
Speaker 1: That is slip the leash. That is a Plague Dad.
We have Frank Gallagher of Plague Dad here with us
alive in studio. That uh, that song in particular, I
think is relatable in that Uh. I think probably a
lot of people feel that. Well, I shouldn't even say probably,
I know a lot of people feel that way because, uh,
people talk about it all the time on on Facebook.
You'll you'll see and hear people well, I shouldn't say
you'll hear, but you'll see people talking about in post.
You know. I hate uh, I hate all this technology.
Speaker 2: Well it's funny. I mean this of one company now
has made at the centerpiece of their new ad camp Pain.
It's the ads featuring Atlantis Morse that yeah, or talking
about how we all have to use our phone and
people it's this sort of this love hate relationship with technology.
And it's fascinating to me from a cultural and a
personal perspective, because you know, the promise of the internet
was that it would create community and that it would
bring us all together, right, and in some ways it
absolutely has done that, But in many other ways it
has done exactly the opposite. It has fractured communities, it
has destroyed communities, and it has very much provided people,
you know, this illusion of community when really they're just
in their own cocoon with that with that phone, and
they interact and people I shouldn't.
Speaker 3: I don't say that.
Speaker 2: I'm as guilty of it as anybody. But we interact
these days through a screen as opposed to intentionally and personally,
which is it is what it is.
Speaker 3: We we make our own decisions about how we deal
with that.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, And people say things to online that
they would never say in person, you know, And and
the way people treat each other online, I mean, you know, yeah,
like some of the things that have been said to
me online. It's like, you know, sometimes I think, uh,
you know, I'm not a violent person by any stretch,
and I'm no tough guy, but if this person said
that to me in real life to my face, I
probably punched them.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, the facade of anonymity that that we either believe
in or you know, construct is Yeah. It allows that
to happen and encourages that.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, time courage, Yeah yeah. And I also hear
people say too, you know, well like you so you
you stepped away from Facebook, absolutely, and from a mental
health perspective, you're probably a lot better off. But at
the same time, it's like, you know, because we were
kind of talking off there about how the you know,
it does, but it does put certain constraints on you
in terms of promoting what you're doing.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent, no question. I'm read I will reach
fewer people because I'm not on Facebook.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But in the balance, if you make a list of
the upsides and the downsides, upsides of beating off of
Facebook vastly outweigh the downsides.
Speaker 1: In my yeah, yeah, see, I'm doing this radio show
and everything, there's no way I can oh yeah, you know,
like I'm I'm I'm locked in. But I but I don't,
you know, I don't engage much in terms of you know,
like the way that I use it. You know, I'll
share out things related to the show or promote other
things that I'm doing, and I use it for my
hypnotherapy practice and all this, you know, is to let
people know what I'm doing. But and sometimes I'll I'll
I'll post, especially in the last couple of years, I'll
post things that might be more personal or that I
just think are funny. But when when people start commenting,
if because the thing is too We live in a
in a time when you don't have to be you
don't have to be even remotely. Like I posted something
recently about about getting vaccinated, and you know, i'd gone
to write eight and you know, got my flu shot
COVID booster, and so of course and I just posted
something funny about it. How you know, the pharmacist said,
you know, go sit down and for fifteen minutes, and
then you know, as soon as he's not looking, I
sneak out, you know, because you know, it's not my
first time with it. I know, you know, I am
going to have a side effect, but it's going to
be later when I'm exhausted. But of course, you know,
so I just post something like that because I think
it's funny and of course, you know, anti vaxxers and
everybody's make it a totally political thread. But what I
do is I don't engage because because I just I
don't argue about politics or anything. I just I don't
argue with people on social media. I refuse to. I
find it both just unenduringly just it's it's so tedious
and it's entirely pointless, and and uh so I just
I actually learned to kind of enjoy when that happens,
because people start posting all this mean, angry stuff at
me over what I thought was just a funny post.
But instead of engaging, I actually take pleasure in not engaging,
knowing that it's making them crazy that I'm not engaging
because they want me to argue with them, right, and
uh they want me to fight with them, and I'm
not doing it, and I know it bothers them indeed.
Well yeah, and I actually get a laugh out of
knowing that it bothers you. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, there's there's a lot to be said for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just yeah, Emotionally, I just like I said, emotionally,
intellectually just didn't have the bandwidth for it. And again,
it's do I want to give an hour to these
people and Mark Zuckerberg, or do I want to spend
an hour in a meaningful time that you know sar Joy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: I'll choose my time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly, choose Joy, choose absolutely absolutely. Come on,
Well now no, so let me ask you this. So,
how how have you Because you know, as we discussed,
I mean you're having some success. You know, Cops on
Acid is catching on, and and you know you're you're
selling your music. What because a lot of a lot
of people in the industry listen to the show, A
lot of a lot of musicians listen to the show.
Like what advice do you have for for anyone who
maybe doesn't want to have to do? You know, you
utilize Facebook? Like how are you what is your approach?
How are you doing this?
Speaker 2: Play as many live shows as you can.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Music is all about being heard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know, it's like that old if tree
falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it happen?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: You know, I mean if you write a song and
nobody hears it, did it get written? Go out and
play show, go to open mics, go play wherever you
can you know when I when this project first started
to come together and seemed as if it would have legs,
we couldn't play shows, that there was no place to
physically get a get a gig because the pandemic had
taken care of everything was shut down. So I literally
went out into the streets and played. I started busking.
I would absolutely and I still do it.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: I go as often as I can if I don't
have If I'm in Portland and at home and I
don't have a show on a Friday or Saturday night,
you will typically find me down in the Old Port
between six and nine playing music.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I use what's called an.
Speaker 3: AMP that is a roll in tube street. This thing
runs on batteries.
Speaker 2: It runs on eight double a's and it runs for
six hours on eight double as pushes fifty watts.
Speaker 3: It has three channels.
Speaker 2: I can run my guitar and my vocals and my
little foot drum through it and I will just go
play for three hours. And I've met some amazing musicians
just just doing that, and people will gather around, and
you know, I'll bring a crowd. You know, and that
I love busking because you will know immediately, what works
and what doesn't. You know, if people stop and are listening,
then you're doing something right. If people are walking by,
you know, I mean the thing I'm looking for, reaction.
You know, what works, what doesn't work, what makes people happy,
what pisses people off. The worst thing in my mind
is ambivalence. That's what drives me nuts. Hate being ignored, right,
And maybe that's a personal thing, and I fully cop
to it, you know, call me an attention or whatever. No,
I think, so I don't if you hate it, you know,
but a reaction is what I'm looking for, and busking
provides that immediate feedback. And beyond that, you know, part
of being a music is learning how to perform and
make no mistake. That is a skill set that is
separate and apart from learning your scales and your modes
and how to solo and how to improvise, and that's
there's an element of showmanship that you need to develop.
And the only way to do that is to get
out there on the stage and play in front of people. Right.
And so I'm thankfully I'm fortunate enough at this point
where I'm I'm actually getting a lot of shows indoors
but if I, like I say, if I genuinely love busking,
because I don't have to be there at eight fifteen,
I don't have to load in at eight twenty five.
I don't have to play twenty two minutes. You know,
I don't have to I can play whatever a damn
well please. I can play the same song four times
if I want, you know, and I use that to
go workshoping new material. Okay, and you know some of
these songs that we're playing today have evolved dramatically. Out
there on the pitch is what us buskers call where
we play.
Speaker 1: Okay. I didn't know that I've heard that phrase.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, and it's uh so I'm uh you know,
if it's warm tonight, I may actually go out because
you know, I have some shows coming up next three weekends.
But I'm actually off tonight, so I may be out
there in Portland.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious, do you need any kind of a
permit or anything, or do they just let you do
it or you know, you're.
Speaker 2: My understanding is that you're supposed to have some sort
of permit if you're amplified, and I often am amplified.
That said, I've never had somebody stop me and ask
me for that permit. And I'm Dan in the old
Port where you know, on a Friday or Saturday night,
where there is a police presence, and those officers down
there have actually come to know me because I'm there frequently,
and like what I do they know? I mean, I'm
a sort of a known commodity and I've so I
haven't had that problem yet. That said, I've heard from
some other buskers in Portland that they've had some some
run ins. Yeah, some uh, you know, some of the
compliance staff. But every town is different. Like in in
Boston you don't need a permit across the river and
Cambridge you do. Yeah, oh yeah absolutely, so really, I mean,
if it's something that you're want, if you're a musician,
is something you want to try, hey do it absolutely
because it's just fantastic experience. It's it's so much fun.
But look, check into it, you know, make some calls,
do the research, sure, figure it out.
Speaker 1: Sure. And you know, I don't even know what the
I don't know what the laws are on that or
rules are here in Manchester.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny you say that to you, because
I was coming in this morning, and coming over the
bridge and.
Speaker 3: It's like, wow, I bet I could.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's like whenever I come into a town, that's my
first thing. It's like, there's a pitch where where would
be the best pitch?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I see them on Elm Street, but not much,
not as much as I used to. It seems like,
so I don't know, I have no idea what the
what the rule is? But uh, was that when you
first started doing that?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 5: Was?
Speaker 1: It intimidating at first, but you.
Speaker 2: Have to you know, there's a couple of things going on.
I'm at the point in my life now where i
just don't care what people think anymore.
Speaker 3: I'm just beyond that.
Speaker 2: You know, I really don't.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the few good things about getting older.
It's a short list, but as you get older, you
just naturally become less self conscious. It's more like, you know,
who cares what people think?
Speaker 3: Exactly? Beyond that it's.
Speaker 2: People you're not you're not hurting anybody, you know, you know,
just people can ignore it if they want, right, you know, right,
So it's it's as long as you're not blocking the sidewalk.
That seems to be the you know, you don't want
to cause anybody any problems. But if you're just out
there doing your thing, you know. Yeah, now, man, I'm
a ham.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got to work to show me up now.
Speaker 1: In the uh you know what about in the winter,
do you? I mean, is there anywhere where you can
do that indoors, like in a mall.
Speaker 2: Or well you know, it's it's it's it's it's funny.
I don't know about the mall, but like last winter. Uh,
there's a there's a pub in Portland called bram Hall
which is on Congress Street and I just walked in
there one night and guy behind the bar had to
be the manager. I said, hey, how about you just
let me play here every Thursday night? And he's like,
what do you mean? And I said, well, here's what
I explained to him. You know that bost and what's
going on?
Speaker 3: I said, getting too cold?
Speaker 2: And your place to play? Yeah, I said, you know,
to pay me and there's no amplifications, just me and
my acoustic guitar and my drum. So there's no laws
about entertainment, there's no permits or anything like that. How
about you just let me roll in here with my
tip Jart Thursday night. Yeah, on Thursday nights and play
and if people are digging it, fantastic. If they're not,
I'll move along and he's like all right, And I
did that for six months.
Speaker 3: It actually turned out really really and.
Speaker 2: It got to be a thing. I mean, if people
start to hear about this, if you're any good, I mean,
that's why I encourage people to play live. If you're
any good, you will find traction because people like live music.
Maybe not so much, you know, because but I was
fortunate enough that people would would come around and people
would come back. There were regulars. They'd come in, you know,
because they knew what was going on, and they people
like live music. So I would start to have friends
come by and you know, people other other musicians that
I know from around town sit in, do a couple
of tunes. You know. It got to become a thing
and it was actually pretty cool. And then the places
changed ownership and the new manager came in, it just
the vibe wasn't the same, and I was like, yeah, okay,
this was played.
Speaker 1: So yeah we moved on. Yeah, But I mean I
think the broader point, though it sounds like they you're making,
is it's it's so important to build a relationship.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and uh that's the currency, you know, so you you.
Speaker 1: Can get around Facebook, oh yeah, you know, or other forms.
Speaker 2: Of uh, but play live and when if you're a
young musician or a musician who's young in your career
and you're just starting out, play as many shows as
you can and stay for the other bands. Yeah, listen
to those other bands and talk with those other bands
and create and nurture those relationships, because that's how you
find your audience, and that's how you develop your audience,
and that's how you grow your audience. I mean, you
can have ten thousand followers on Instagram, but if you
can't put twelve people into a club that any does
that have any meaning?
Speaker 3: Does that any value?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: What are you know?
Speaker 1: Good?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, that's a great point and an important one because
of the club or the bar or the venue. You know,
they the promoter, they don't it's you know, they're impressed
if you have a lot of Instagram followers, but what
they really care about is how many of them are
going to show.
Speaker 3: Up exactly exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So now you know it's getting to be
I'm looking around and again I'm thinking okay, well, maybe
I need to find another bram Hale because it's getting colder.
And that said, I also just need to take some time.
I've been playing so many shows and touring and I think,
you know, this past summer I played probably seventy.
Speaker 3: Five eighty shows, no kidding, Wow, it was, which is fantastic.
I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not complaining of what I'm saying is I
have about twelve to fifteen songs. Have a disturbing amount
of songs that are half done. Okay, I really just
need to finish, you know, So maybe I take six
or eight weeks and just take it down a notch
and finish those songs.
Speaker 1: You know, And when you play live, is it always
just you? Do you ever have guest musicians or I.
Speaker 2: You know, I do. I will play with I look
at the show and what the venue is and who
I'm playing with and pull together. If it's a tour,
it's probably gonna be me solo because the cost musically
these days, and you know, the business of the music
business is so fundamentally broken now that a touring band
is very difficult to pull off. Oh yeah, I mean
you're gonna a They're gonna low ball you on the gate.
You're not gonna get if you get paid, they're gonna
take a cutting and merchet, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's just you. You can't do it.
Speaker 2: It's it's very difficult. So off, when I go on tour,
I'm solo. When I'm playing locally or you know, regionally,
I will pull together a band.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: I played a show at Genos the other night with
the band called Euphemia, who, for my money, is the
best local band in Portland right now.
Speaker 3: These guys are fantastic.
Speaker 2: They'll oh God, their new record self released. It was
It's been the number one local record at Bull Moose
now for a long time.
Speaker 3: These guys are amazing.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I open for them at Genos and I
pulled together the punk rock trio for that.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I had Dan Capaldi played drums, and a guy named
Mike Berkowitz who plays bass with a couple of jazz
bands around town, sat in on bass, and you know,
and we just ripped it for half an hour, man
together a thirty minute set that you know, when I
go bust now I have I'll play for three or
four hours at a time. I mean, I know, one
hundred songs. Yeah, you know, a bunch of covers and
a bunch of my stuff, and I'll weave that together
and sort of pull a set together in the moment
based on what's working.
Speaker 3: You sort of read the room.
Speaker 2: Yes, but when I do a club gig, it's thirty
minutes of unrestrained mayhem because I know what works, because
I've put that time in and I've road tested this material,
and I can put together a set list that will
it's contoured, that is just relentless and it rips. And
that's what we did and hell of a show. Yeah,
I really enjoy those kind of gigs. There's a lot
to be said for those, you know, busking aside this.
You know, coming in and doing a set like that,
that's that powerful and you know at the end of it,
people were just cheering.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean because I do.
Speaker 2: Have that element of showmanship that you know, I'm I
enjoy that. That's part of being on stage. Yes, it's
got to be you know, you have to leave leave
it all out there, man.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, these people are paying good money for a show.
I'm gonna make sure they get what they came for. Yeah,
you know, speaking and paying good money. I mean, you know,
I went to a club the other night. I couldn't
twenty dollars cover charge. Yeah, that was just to get
into the door twenty bucks in Portland. Yeah yeah, and
that's it was worth it because there were five bands
on the bill. But that's a lot of dope sure
coming in, you know. But yeah, this is where we are,
yeah these days. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean there's there's major touring acts that have canceled yeah,
oh yeah, canceled tours because they can't afford to do it,
you know. And Live Nation has things.
Speaker 2: Their predatory Live Nation I just have Yeah, we've we've.
Speaker 1: Talked about that a lot on the show. Yeah. Absolutely.
I think they're getting sued again. Good yeah, no kidding,
uh yeah no, these these monopolies. Let's play another track.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, let's play one off what I call the
Mayhem Mix, which is so for there's an interesting story
behind these these So I took the songs are on
this record, and I gave him to a friend of
mine named Chuck Gonzalez out in San Francisco, who was
again another very talented engineer, and I said, Chuck, go nuts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just play with it.
Speaker 2: Have fun. And his sound and his approach is very
different than Dance who did the initial mix. So he
gave it this sort of psychedelic edge. Yeah, and uh,
you know, for for example, there's a guy named New
York Mike who's a DJ on WMPG and he plays
the Psychedelic show. Yeah, and he didn't like that Monico mix.
But oh hell of of the Mayhem. Oh okay, so okay,
you know it does have a very different feel. Yeah,
which track, Well, let's play you know what, play play
this this the Cops may the Mayhem mix the Cops.
Speaker 3: Okay, because that's the It's got a whole different vibe
to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're at you know, it's funny too. That's the
first one I listened to when I listened to the
tracks that you sent me was was that mix of
Cops on Acid? Yeah? All right, check this out. This
is the Mayhem mix of Cops on Acid. And this
is a plague Dad, Dad, I.
Speaker 2: Woman know what this man said?
Speaker 5: He said, cockball last, come said come ball man last.
Speaker 2: Talk comedy.
Speaker 5: He was listening dude bream did said, hey man, what
showed that? He said, show my hands? Then shot my dogue.
Speaker 1: That is the Mayhem mix of Cops on Acid by
Plague Dad, mister Frank Gallagher here with us alive in studio.
No dogs were harmed in the in the actual one, yes, yes,
but uh no that is that is very cool, Frank.
This has been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining
us this morning, pleasure.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoy radio.
It's a medium that I keep turning back to because,
particularly community stations and college stations.
Speaker 3: I like to hear what the DJs you have to
say and what they what they play.
Speaker 2: I mean, the algorithm is fine, but I I have
heard so much and been turned on to so much
cool new music by listening to college DJ as a
community station yew days.
Speaker 3: That's it's unbeatable.
Speaker 1: I'll mention this briefly. My father who listens to the show,
Hi dad, if you're listening. So he lives on the
sea coast here in New Hampshire, and he's in his seventies.
And I only mentioned that because you know, most people geez,
I don't know by the time they get to be
thirty or forty, they kind of just say, okay, I've
heard all the music I'm ever interested in and I'm
not going to like anything that I anything new that
I hear from this point forward.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: My dad is the opposite of that. He still loves
new music. He's always been like that. Like you'd never like,
if you got into a car with my dad, you're
not going to hear the oldiest station coming out of
the stereo, right right. And he so he lives on
the Sea coast and he loves listening to wunh oh
fantastic because he loves hearing new music and he loves
college radio.
Speaker 3: No, no, it's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah it really is.
Speaker 2: And you know to that, and yes, I do this,
play dad. But I also run alay little blog in
town called that Portland Sound. Oh really, where I try
to bring some attention to bands that I like. Yeah,
so I'll just write up little pieces about bands I
like and I'll put that out there. Oh and you know,
I was a reporter for a long time, so I write, oh,
I totally want to read this. Yeah, yeah, it's you know,
I updated infrequently. I'm thinking I really need to start
making that more of a regular thing. And I'm actually
toying with the idea of making it a print thing.
You know, really remember the old school with zines. I'm
going to make this into a zine.
Speaker 1: We have a here, we have a paper jam magazine. Yeah,
we've had them on the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm going to do that with this. There
is a market for it, and I'm gonna you know,
I've started, I've costed it out. I'm going to print
up two hundred and fifty copies, probably twenty four pages,
and I'm going to put together a compilation CD and
just glue it into.
Speaker 3: The back page awesome, and just drop it around town.
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know so though, like you'll find ten copies
in a cafe, you'll find ten copies of Geno's. You'll
find ten copies a Hi fi in in in Portland,
which is one of my other favorite venues. That place
is fantastic.
Speaker 1: Oh I love it. That's so yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna start doing that as well.
Speaker 1: Fantastic, fantastic. And of course the website is Plague dot
dad bleg dot dad.
Speaker 2: Dad, and I'm on band camp as well if you want,
you know, and you can buy the records there. I
have other merch I have T shirts and bandanas. A
lot of stuff is sold out, which is crazy.
Speaker 3: I gotta. I gotta up my awesome totally.
Speaker 1: Oh I love your music because it makes me smile.
Speaker 2: Well, that's great, fantastic, that's one of the best things
that anybody has ever said to me.
Speaker 1: And and for those watching online too, let me hold
this up again, the seven inch final. I love this artwork.
You can see that. Yeah, the artwork is very very.
Speaker 2: That's like I said, Paul court John is the artist there.
Speaker 3: You like his stuff.
Speaker 2: He's gotta. He's just got a crazy amount of independent
comics that he produces.
Speaker 1: And you're playing You've got shows this week?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we're playing with The next one is in Ellsworth.
So there's a new place in Ellsworth called the Black
Moon Public House. And this is my new favorite place
in Maine because it is a pub and it's a
record store together you can like go in and and
they're having live shows there. So I was there, you know,
back earlier this summer and at the place had a
soft opening and I walked in and I saw that
they looked around. I found Steve, Steve Pierce, the Empressario,
and I said, hey, do you ever do any in
stores here? He's like, yeah, sure. So I just started
playing there and so I've played there a couple three
times now, but now he trusts me a little bit.
Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, whether better or for worse.
Speaker 2: So this weekend, Saturday, November second, I'm bringing up a
couple of friends of mine from Portland and we're gonna
just Portland comes to Ellsworth, So Plague Dad will be
there crying. Caleb is going to be there, and a
gentleman named Fine Pioneer Okay, and he's got a new
single out that's just amazing as well. It's called both
Sides of Sleepy and it's a fantastic song. So we're
gonna take that show on the road. We're gonna go
up to Ellsworth on the second and we're gonna play
that Okay. And there's a couple in uh in Scout Hegan,
there's some there's there's some young people that are organizing
shows there now, house parties and other venues. So that
they they reached out to me and asked me if
I come up play a couple there.
Speaker 3: I said, of course, I will, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2: And then the Spring Point Tavern in South Portland's Okay,
is right across the street from uh SMCC from Southern
Main Community College. They're doing live music now and cryon.
Caleb got a show there and he asked me if
I would play that show with him.
Speaker 3: He said, hell yeah, of course.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we're playing there on I want to say
the ninth. These are all on my website, plague dot Dad.
Speaker 3: I put every show, every.
Speaker 2: This is on, this is on there, you know, and
there's a mailing list if you want to stay up
with things. I promise I won't spam yet, but uh,
you know, there's a lot of really cool stuff going on.
Speaker 1: And drop a line outstanding. Well, thank you again, plague Dad.
This has been amazing. What should we close with. I'll
let you pick.
Speaker 2: Oh, let's play let's play the one tune we haven't
played yet, which is what ran us off. Right. There's
actually a video for this on YouTube as well.
Speaker 1: Ran us off. I don't see that one.
Speaker 3: That's the I don't have the record for me. I
can't remember.
Speaker 1: I've got I've gotten there just as well, just as well.
Speaker 2: No, that's not that's not the right.
Speaker 1: Oh that's one of the ones you sent me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know what, play that. Go ahead and
play that. That's a great little tune.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, I like that one. Yeah, it's more of
a country. So we'll give okay, yeah, we'll give this
a spin. And then if you are listening live on Saturday,
of course, coming up in the second hour, in just
a couple of minutes, we've got October Sun's uh Dave
Wally is here in the building, and I think he's
got how many is it just uh Dave and Chris
or is four people?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 1: Okay? All right? Very good? And uh these are these
are some some old old and uh some old and
dear friends of mine, so I'm really looking forward to that.
And then in the third hour today we have Rebecca
Turmel so stick around. But uh here it is plague. Dad.
This is just as well, and.
Speaker 5: It's just as well it would have ended up and
heart egg either way. Now that enough for either one
of us to say. And it's just as well. I
always thought to be would have a self another day
about your drinking tea way faith away and you saying back,
and it's just as well. You would have been it
up and audis a ways so I could drink into
your me marine bays a ways, And it's just as well.
I always thought that you would have a sealesan us
A days now.
Speaker 4: There's nothing that for either one of us to say
except back, and it's just as well we would have
ended up in hunted years away. That is nothing up
for you, the one of us, to say, and it's
just as well.
Speaker 5: I always about to see you. What to have Celsan
does A days so how to drink into your M
or we fades away M saying about
Speaker 4: M