American Mile | Interview with Lyndsey Parker (LPTV)

Hello people of Instagram and people who are fans of Licorice Pizza. I'm Lindsay Parker, LP at LP, LPTV, LP squared. See what I did there? We're here with American Mile.

What's going on, y'all?

Thank you for having us.

Thanks for coming. You're about to uh rock out the joint. You brought Jack. You brought owl skulls. Apparently, no owls were harmed in the making of this interview.

It's true. This is a vintage owl skull uh fish and wildlife game. You cannot charge me for the untimely demise of said owl.

No Peter people throwing red paint at

I might be down for some red paint on me in a show. That'd be kind of cool. That that would probably go viral. I'd be all right with that.

It would be pretty rock. You're like in the middle of just singing and some dude comes up to the stage like meet his murderer just hits me with red paint. I'd be like all right like I'll own it. I'd probably still sing.

I mean rock and roll. I mean, Morsy wouldn't approve, but since you said meat is murder, and we were talking about

Find me in the comments, Morsy.

All right. So, yeah, this interview is off to a great start. I know it's going to be fun. I told you guys you didn't have to worry about censoring yourselves, and you've uh taken that memo right to heart, which I appreciate.

But what brings you Well, first of all, let's introduce all yourselves formally. Let's formally introduce the band, and then we'll talk about what brings you to the store today.

I'm Colton. My name is Eugene Rice. I'm from Wallingford, Vermont. My parents though are from Brooklyn, so I'm a little I'm a little unhinged.

They're a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.

Perez.

Did you get that reference or was that way too like Gen X? Okay.

Country, a little bit rock.

My name is Desmond Saunders. What's up, Marino Valley?

That's right. The local baby.

The SoCal Kid right here, y'all.

That's right.

All right. So, what brings American Mile to this American record store today,

dude. Well, first off, we love that you guys are a record store. Let's be real there. I mean, you not enough people listen to real vinyl and music anymore. Everyone's getting everything online. And you know what? There is a huge difference when you throw it on a turntable and listen to that needle spin across a record. Sounds It's always the best. It's the best sound.

High fidelity.

High fidelity. Yeah.

Could not agree more. Do you have your record American Dream available on vinyl? And if so, what colors and how many variants?

That's right.

Like Taylor Swift, it's all about the variants.

That's right. That's right. like Swift, like our show. What can I say? Swizzle.

We got a couple going. No, right now we have a uh we actually only have two left. We sold out of all of them. We have a a limited edition red, white, and blue uh splatter vinyl with a gate fold. And um I just ordered another pressing. So now it's only going to be black and black and blue swirled. But you know, if you got one of those hundred American Mile American flag vinyls, thank you. Thank you so much. We have two actually. I had two that I'd saved for myself. Um, and they are actually here today for sale. So,

is that like the red pea protest splatter?

Yeah, that's for 100%.

Yeah,

totally died in. So, yes, the album is called American Dream. You guys are called American Mile. Um, so yeah, I know before we get into more about what the record's about, speaking of the American dream, you all live in LA. I know you said you are from Southern California. You said you're from Vermont. I don't, but I don't think all of you are from LA. But LA is what I love about LA, and I'm an LA native myself, is it is a city that people come to to pursue their dreams. You know, they want to be musicians, they want to be actors, they want to just do something creative and cool that their small town doesn't have the opportunities for, or they're just weirdos and they're not accepted in their small town. They come to LA and they find community like Arizona.

It was the melting pot for sure.

True. Vermont was not the melting pot. I could

Neither was Arizona.

Neither was Arizona. I've been there. I've seen it. Seen especially have

So you're from Arizona?

I'm I'm from Lake Havsu City, Arizona. Havon. Woo. Southside baby.

So what brought the the three non Angelinos here in the mix? What brought you to LA? Was it rock and roll? We have a rich history here of rock

to play music.

It's true. This has come out. You're not going to find in Indiana. So,

oh, you're from Indiana. Well, the Jacksons are from Indiana.

Yeah, I don't want to talk about that.

I want to talk about the music.

Wait, John music. No,

John Cougar Melon Camp is from Indiana, I believe.

I still call him John Cougar Melon Camp.

After that, I can't think of anyone else. Maybe.

Yeah. Out of out of lots of

Well, I could give you a lot of roses at a couple guys.

Slash is SoCal. slashes like Izzy and Axel.

Axel,

Nick Mars.

Okay.

Um, there you go.

You guys got a lot of Indiana boys that came out here and played rock and roll.

Me.

Yeah, that's right. Joe

Joe Perez. Um, but yeah, you came here

to to play music and that's where I met Eugene actually. True. This is kind of where it all started.

Guama hanging out. You know what I mean?

Yeah. We used to go to the Mexican grocery store and buy the cheapest beer we could afford.

Amen. Dude,

I thought I've read that you guys uh met at GIT or Musicians Institute, an institution here in Hollywood.

We did. We did. Actually, I was I was doing carpentry in Vermont. And uh my brother just one day was like, I'm moving to California to do music. Do you want to come? And I was like, I'm so [ __ ] miserable swinging a hammer.

Let's do it. And I moved out here. I met Joe. Like I said,

I didn't want to bring it up because your boy here didn't graduate that school, but you know,

I failed out of MI.

Now that we're talking about it, you know, let's talk about it.

There was a lot of things happened and uh I did not graduate from musicians institute, but who needs a diploma to be a musician? Am I right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

You're right. You're right.

I mean, it's a school of life, the school of hard knock. That's true.

Etc. So, I know this band has been through a few lineup changes over

a couple um maybe not as many as uh Guns and Roses themselves or the Ra Chili.

Uh getting close.

Number seven,

like a spinal tap situation.

The last drummer spontaneously exploded.

Sure.

What number basically?

Have you seen Spinal Tap 2? Cuz I don't want to spoil that three, but I think Spinal Tap 2.

I'm not going to say how the drummer in that Well, I'm already spoiling that.

The drummer dies.

I hope he's all right. Yeah,

it's a she and she's not. She dies in the movie.

I'm not going to say how.

You said you weren't going to spoil it and then you did.

You have to watch it to find out how to not choke on someone else's vomit.

Just remember to watch Spinal Tap 2,

the retap.

Stay tuned.

I don't That should have been the name of the movie. We used to have a Stonehenge engine here, but apparently it's been crushed by crazy is I have the

plate for the Marshall that goes to 11.

The actual one.

Did they make them like filmed?

No, just one of them was I have the real one filmed for the movie. Yeah.

How?

Cuz um they were throwing out a bunch of stuff in Steve V's uh uh his his lockout

and it was there.

He threw away

Well, he Well, Steve V. He's like whatever way. And then my buddy Scotty was like, "I have this." And I was like, "Dude, I need that." So,

you know where the mini Stonehenge

now? It just hangs out now. It just hangs out in the in the you know, it's just hangs out with this hangs out. So,

that's I mean, you guys are rock and roll. That's pretty rock.

I'm going to I'm going to bolt it to a Fender a face of a Fender amp and really confuse everyone who's at the uh you know, the show one day and be like, "That's not a Marshall." Like, you don't know what you're talking about. Goes to 11. I feel

Joe's got an amp that goes to 12.

Yeah, the the champ or the pro junior.

Yes, it is actually Colton's Pro Junior, but it's mine now. But it does go to 12. Yours

does go to 12.

How long is this lineup? Assuming there's no spontaneous combustion or anything that happens to Colton.

Yeah.

How long is this lineup? It seems like it's pretty solid.

This lineup has been around for probably a year and a half, right, Col?

Oh, really? That's it?

I'm the newest guy. They stole me out of the middle of the desert.

Literally desert. Yeah, pretty much. They came out in the sand Arizona and hanging out.

We need a drummer and we have all these songs, you need to learn them. And

he was just hitting a cactus with a stick and I was like, "That guy's got good timing." I was like, "He would probably work out well for us."

And I ate their other drummer. So

yeah. And exactly. Yeah. They ate the other drummer and bam, one, two, three, we got Colton.

It takes a cut through world rock and roll. You got to do whatever it takes. So, like I mentioned, the album is called

American Dream.

I like that we said it together and you know, let's do it.

I mean, I feel like you have the authority to say it. It is your album, so you can

Thank you. Thank you.

American Dream.

Um, yeah. What do you want to know about it?

Well, I mean, we're saying a lot of funny stuff here and it's great, but there are some serious stuff on the record. You're talking about some real life [ __ ]

Yeah. Um, so I guess I initially I'll ask about what the American dream is to you or like why it's titled that.

The title of that record and the title track of that record American dream to me personally

as difficult as it has become in America to chase one's dream and and it has become more difficult. I think that's a fair thing that anyone would say. um

with enough hard work with like really just like you know you look back you think back at like the people who came to America during like uh like uh whatever the the Great Depression like like when when uh when people were coming to Ellis Island, you know, like

life was a Yeah, we we complain that life is hard now and it is, but life was a hell of a lot harder then. And I still think that the American dream is completely possible for your random [ __ ] Indiana boy coming out to Los Angeles trying to make a career out of music. All right. You just got to put your [ __ ] feet to the ground and work and work and work and and a lot of times people are afraid of hard work. I really I I think that like you know we would I the way that social media is and like the way that the world has presented itself, some people are [ __ ] afraid to swing a hammer. I mean, you've literally done that.

I know. And sometimes you got to do that. You got to be that guy at 5 in the morning on top of a roof laying shingles to do what you want to do.

Not Not shingles the disease. Shingles.

No. No. Well, I've had shingles. Doesn't care. Have you ever had shingles while doing shingles? Cuz it's awful.

I've done neither of those. Terrible. You're supposed to have shingles at your age.

How old are you?

Old enough to have shingles.

Oh no. Oh no.

This is a shingles commercial now.

Shingles. Shingles doesn't count.

Shingles. get the vaccine.

I mean, I agree with that in general, although we don't know to go, we don't have to go down that route, but to go back to the American dream, the album, as well as the concept. Um, you work, you guys work really hard. You gig I don't even know like this is this is probably not even your first 100 gigs a year.

This probably like your third gig of the day here at Lor.

I wish it was, but we were cutting in a van. We were we were [ __ ]

Yeah, we were working on the van before this. Yeah, we do 200 shows a year and we work so hard. We're like $30,000 in debt right now. That's how hard we're working. So, we need to keep working harder. You know what I mean? There's no slowing down at this point.

Rack up those credit cards, kids. You know what I'm saying?

Grow your business.

You've been saying I I mean, I do agree that it's important to work hard, particularly in music, like, you know, to get your name out there. But the kind of that old school thing where it's like, oh, get in a van, tour all the time, create word of mouth, pass out your flyers, play the scene, get mailing list, whatever, do street team stuff.

And then eventually you'll get a buzz and there'll be a bidding war and blah blah blah. Like that model doesn't really exist anymore. And you know, I don't know if you saw like maybe just a couple days ago, Shirley Manson from Garbage, obviously a band with a huge amount of success that plays Goodsiz venues. She's been saying on stage it went viral like she's like this is the last headlining North American tour Garbage is ever going to do cuz we can't afford to do this. How does a new band afford to do it? Well, she was saying because they were in Denver, she was saying that they can only do the coast now, which makes sense because on the coast, all the major cities are close to each other. If you go to Denver, there's nothing. I mean, there's like you got Salt Lake and whatever, but there's they're not as close. And with all the prices being so high now, it doesn't make any sense to to go to Denver anymore. So,

this is a band that has been up for Grammys, did a James Bond theme, has sold millions of records, one of them produced

Never Mind Butch V. you know, this is not a a nobody band. They play mid, you know, goodsiz venues and they're like basically like this is no longer a sustainable business.

It's not. And I actually

What do you do as a young band?

Well, I think it's a West Coast problem in general. You know, the cities are too far apart and actually we're going to relocate and go to the east coast um come next year just so we can be closer to different cities and different markets cuz cuz we're just burning our wheels right now.

Yeah. When you're going from Los Angeles to Sacramento, you and you're you're basically looking from going to you're going

eight hours.

Yeah. It's it's go it's like going from Florida to Georgia to you know what I mean? You're going through like three states just to get to your next venue.

And that's like horribly unsustainable.

You're still doing

Oh, if we could just focus on the music and do the music thing, that would be great. But even monetarily, it's so important to have the uh the social media thing happening, too. And so, there's a lot of time and effort that needs to be focused and allocated to that aspect of it as well. You know,

you're still kind of doing things the old school way, 200 gigs.

We Well, we run our business mean lean. I I think there's when you get to the size of like a band like garbage um you have so I Axel Rose said it once most of the time they were touring he was just touring non-stop with G&R at the time to keep keep roies keep front of house keep

guys that were under their pay

like living like it was not even for them anymore it's like oh I'm fine but now I got to keep my sound guy my house

sound guy has a mortgage aging kids.

Exactly. I got to keep him. I got to make us I love I love this dude. I got to make sure that they're, you know, they're surviving. And that that becomes when you're that kind of a business entity, it becomes a lot more difficult. We're pretty, like I said, mean and lean. We run everything. We do all our books. We we set everything. We I mean, you know,

it's

And you're totally independent.

Yeah, we're totally independent. And it it makes it so that all the money allocated really comes down to us and then we break it apart to where it has to go. And it makes it so that we can really we can pay a salary to everyone at the end of the week and we can pay what we have to pay as far as like if it's the the cost of the uh what's it called? The the uh cost of just living expenses plus band expenses separately.

All that kind of stuff.

I think people don't realize everyone gets a cut. The booking guy gets a cut.

And then we got to hire a sound guy for whatever gig and that's got to get a cut. And then there's merch that gets sold. We got to take a cut of the merch now. We got to re put in a different pile of money so that we can reorder more merch.

I think a lot of bands nowadays don't even think about that.

I don't know. I have no idea. I'm just stuck in this little universe here. Play music. You don't you don't get into it so that you're like, "Oh man, I can't wait to do the backend business stuff." But as soon as it starts to grow, you're like, "Oh, I need this to to be able to [ __ ] survive." I think more bands, younger bands, I think you have to put the business aspect of whatever your project is in front of your goals as an artist. And I know that that feels weird. It's like the first time I think in like in history for art that that has to be a thing. But you have to look at it like business structure-wise. How can I make this model work in today's America and take

four dudes around the country or whatever you are and play and still and at the end of the month be like, I can pay rent. I can pay my car. I can buy groceries. Everything's good. I have a a little bit of money I can throw into my savings. Things like that. Especially if you're coming like I mean most of us come from very uh I would say like meager standings as people like from like you know family-wise like you know my dad my parents are you know car my dad's a carpenter um

very like middle class to lower middle class kind of income and that I think that that becomes a really hard thing to navigate because a lot of kids don't even understand how to use a credit card correctly to like take you know you take a southwest card for instance and you open it and you use it to pay for band expenses and pay it off immediately to get points to then fly to a, you know, some kind of gig that you're going to do in Nashville. And you know what? All of a sudden that gig becomes a free gig.

Well, it doesn't matter because our travel expenses were all free because of how we set everything up to begin with. And a lot of people don't think about that.

I mean, this may not sound very rock and roll we're talking about, but look at someone like, since we're talking about Guns and Roses, Duff McKagan. That guy is a money genius and

cheers it up.

He's doing well. So you can be

man.

Um, but what I mean since we're talking about being independent, you did recently get a couple nominations for the Hollywood Independent Music Awards. So you obviously are doing something right. Congrats on that. But what keeps you going when there are times where you're like, "Holy cow,

can I keep doing this? I don't want to be another 30,000 in debt." Obviously,

well, you know, the American dream and the love of it, right?

Look in the mirror and I cry a little bit. Uh, What am I doing?

At least.

Yeah. Yeah. Gets me going in the morning.

I don't think any of us would be here if we didn't have the real passion for music. If you want to get into the business, hey, hey, hey guys, if you want to get into the business, love this [ __ ] All right. Yeah, let me tell you that right now before the glasses go back on. You got to [ __ ] love it. But

we do. And being

the struggle is real.

The struggle can be real.

The struggle is real. But when you get to get on stage and it's like I don't know your sixth gig in a row and you've traveled eight hours and then you get back on stage, you're like I remember every single time why I'm here and what I'm doing for the reason those reasons, you know.

Awesome.

Yeah.

So yeah, a lot like I said, we're talking real life [ __ ] and there's real life stuff on this record, you know. There's stuff about Yeah. wealth, inequity, immigration, uh, or opioids, I believe, like or drugs, drug epidemic, like, but it's done in a way where this album is by no means like a drag or like a heavy depressing record. So, like, I guess, how do you strike the balance, but writing about some kind of dark stuff, but also being anthemic at the same time?

Oh, man. I mean,

what's the secret?

Oh, you want our secret sauce? You say

you got to keep the party alive in a record. Like you have to have the songs that like people are going to listen to that like they're going to put on that give them they those positive I mean because a record should be a collage of your life you know.

Exactly. And like there are going to be time there going to be there's dips there's highs there's lows you know there's that's that's this record was really written to be a vinyl and like that when I roll a vinyl you listen to it from the first song to the last song and it takes it's an experience it's

the art that's the art of it you know that's the art of writing a record and and like

I think a lot of like in the single dominated world that we live in a lot of that art has disappeared you It has I mean you know there's there's a very big distinction between um you know the the artist side of music and like the commercial like you know whatever Spotify mega artists where it's like the same exact song over and over and over again. And that's fine. There's a time and a place for that. I get it. And like you know like cheers to them for making millions and millions of dollars on it.

I I I I'm all about it. I I love it. But that to me to them and how I look at it, that's like it's just a job,

you know? They could be Mark Cuban. It's the same thing. You know what I mean? There's just like it's like a venture business program that they're doing

as opposed to like if I'm writing a record.

Yeah. Okay. This song might not be a hit song. That's fine. Like it just has some

tie.

A lot of our favorite songs are just B tracks.

Yeah. really

off like deep cuts off like the old Aerosmith records and the old Rolling Stone records and that's like what we really love. So it's like we're not afraid to to like youird [ __ ]

I love all the weird [ __ ] Primus and we and all that weird stuff that nobody

like Rush. Are you excited that Rush are coming back?

I'm I'm stoked

as a as a drummer. I mean, you know, must be interesting that they're coming back with this new drummer. I'm just happy because now there's going to be at least one woman at the Rush show.

You're not the first person to make that joke. I'm going to go. So, there'll be two. There'll be two. Two.

Two girls at the Rush Show.

I said at least. All right. Guest Book of World Records Rush Show.

Joke has been making the rounds for the last week. Um, but when we're talking about these kind of, you know, darker or heavier songs on the album, they're a lot of them are story songs. Are they based on

Yeah.

your real lives or people you know? Are they composits of people you know or real life stories? real life experiences.

Yeah. I think there's there's just a balance of keeping it authentic and singing about what you know, but also keeping the listener engaged so they don't want to turn off the vinyl. Like you got to keep it interesting. You got to make people want to dance the whole time. And that's what we learned doing 200 shows a year is

Sure.

Keeping everything engaging.

Keep them moving and grooving.

Yeah. Keep that. The audience is not feeling what you're doing, you're doing something wrong.

You're not engaging with them. I mean, man, if there is We've always had this mentality. There's five people in the audience. It's Madison Square Garden.

Like last night,

you're stepping out,

dude. Yeah. Last night was

right.

Flip some tables. Flip some tables. Throw up some fingers.

There was like a good ass time.

15 people there last night and I was like, let's just go crazy.

Fingers.

Yeah,

we had everyone dancing last night.

We did.

That was a good time. I

felt bad for the people that followed felt really bad for everyone before immediately. They wanted us to go longer and we were like, "No, we have a 30 minute set. We're leaving right now. We're done."

Yeah. People wanting more.

You do.

You don't need to do some three hours.

It's true. It's true. I

Billy said people don't want to show today and Trina said, "Don't do that. Don't promote another show at the show." I said, "Oh, we don't care. We're rock and roll."

We're always happy to have you promote Licorice Pizza. That's what I said.

Complet licorice pizza.

Completely fine. Sorry. They don't. But they have licorice.

Licorice.

They do have licorice.

We do. That is a fact.

You guys ever think about a slice window?

What? Not the slice window. Just a slice.

We do have pizza parties here sometimes. Well, actual pizza, not not pizza made of licorice. Um, am I

eighth of a pizza?

Am I correct?

For the [ __ ] eighth of pizza for the window.

Yeah, it's actually a good idea.

Good idea.

Yeah,

this is a slice. You heard it here. Whoever said it first.

Yeah, I already copy wrote it. I already got the patent going and I already trademarked it. So, don't even think about taking it.

I mean, you guys are you guys are full of ideas, isn't am I correct in reading that ideas that you wrote a lot of songs for this record and a lot of them were written like kind of during the pandemic like the lockdown era.

Um, me and Eugene lived across the street from each other so there was nothing to do so. So, we would just uh party and uh write music every day.

I got yelled at one time for being at your house. Yeah,

they were like, well, he forgot it was New Year's Eve.

I forgot it was New Year's Eve. To be fair, we kind of went down the hole.

We were We were writing music and uh my lady at the time was like, "Where are you?" And I was like, "I'm at Joe's house.

I'm across the street.

I'm literally across the street writing music. I I didn't even realize it's New Year's cuz it was the pandemic." Like, you know what I mean? It kind of just all blended together at some point.

But I want to say we wrote 40 songs, maybe more.

Yeah. And then that that's that all got narrowed down. More songs got written and it all got narrowed down to like the nine or 10 or whatever.

I think we used five for the record

or four for the record.

I think four and then we

there was there was a a couple different batches of recording sessions that happened. One happened early, maybe 2022, and then the studio we were working out of moved and then we had a bunch of lineup changes and then the studio reopened and then we got back in there. And by the time we got back in there, we had a bunch of new material.

And I think even some of those we did with Keith, right? Didn't we do some of those recordings? Keith Nelson, shout out Keith Nelson.

Buck Cherry.

Buck Cherry. Yeah, that's right.

Cherokee Studios.

That's my boy right there.

We worked out of there for a little

He produced this record.

My older meaner brother.

Yeah. Keith Keith helped co-write and produce um some of the stuff on there. Yeah.

Yeah.

He's awesome.

Working on a couple new songs with him right now. Actually,

the shingles jingle that we

Jingles jingle. You know the shingles jingle? Oh, you've heard about the shingles jingle. I see.

Am I correct in re in I think I read some kind of crazy story that you were at the beginning of the pandemic in Mexico or something and you kind of almost didn't make it back to the US and you were like

was him. No way. And um I had just

signed a uh well not even it was like basically kind of pseudo signed with the booking agency we were working with in the beginning and I was like you know what after I'm going to go on vacation and I went with some friends to Mexico to San Poncho and I was in San Poncho fishing and I came home and uh

everyone was freaking out and I was like what's going on and they're like there's some crazy virus going on. We don't know what what what it is. No one knows what it is. And um we uh yeah, we basically

had to hightail it out of Mexico back to the United States because they were closing the border down. And then bam, all of a sudden I was walking around doing roofing again. Thank god my my uh good uh my good friend Scott Bedar and uh Patty Hillis and Noillis, they had set me up with a job doing roofing uh for a house they were building and uh

nice.

It's Yeah, it kept me afloat during the pandemic because there was nothing to do. It was insanity

and and I had had no income beforehand because the band had not made enough income to be an LLC yet. So, we were at this point where like it was this weird flip where I couldn't get money from the United States government cuz I didn't make enough money on books to get the stimulus checks. So, I just had no I had nothing. It was just like they're like, "Hey, you have to pay your bills." And I'm like, "I'm broke."

Are you an LLC now?

We We are now. Yes. We made it. We made it. You made it, ladies and gentlemen. Now you know you made it.

We now have to pay taxes to the government.

Go in debt LLC,

too. That's right.

You must have been when lockdown started to ease up and you cuz you guys play all the time. You play 200 uh gigs a year. When you were able to tour again and you hit the stage again, that must have felt so awesome and euphoric. I'll tell you, one of the biggest things we had going for us was our um our booking man our the manager of the booking agency that we were working with at the time, the guy who was working with us was like, "Hey, I need you guys to like get in a practice room and start practicing

for the next like couple like two three months. Get super tight."

Yeah. So, for 3 months, we just got tight. And this was with me and Joe and two other random guys. Mario and Dan.

Mario and Dan Knight.

Dan Knight.

Shout out. Shout out.

Dan Knight was the drummer.

Dan, what's up, bro?

We replaced really helped us out.

Dan's here right now with us

in spirit. Dan.

So, we were we were ready. We were very uh prepared. So, when the the first venues that open were the casinos cuz they're on your first gig at a casino native casino.

Which casino?

Uh, it was rolling hills. rolling hills

up in

they

cuz they have different they since they're owned by the tribes they don't have to follow federal laws which was the shutdown mandates so they said we need a band will you guys we had to like literally it would be like

30 feet from the audience like plexiglass in front of the stages with

Lewis Brothers

dude like you like

fencing

no like literal plexiglass

what

so like it would just bounce off the plexiglass right back into your face.

Like you'd be playing a guitar and it would just so it was so loud inside. You're in like this little you're like a a fish in an aquarium and some like 12-year-olds there just smacking on the glass. Like that's why they say don't smack on the glass at the aquarium by the way. Now I've been that fish. I understand it now. You know the signs are there for a reason.

How surreal. Well, it must feel good to now get to play like regular

rock. We did a car show, too. Remember?

You're right. We did a We did a driving one show in 2020 and it was Yeah, a drive-in show.

Driving car show.

Everyone sat in their cars and honked at us in between shows. In between songs to applaud. Yeah. They would honk at us. It was so weird.

But they had a big jumbo like Tron screens and and the big stage cuz everyone had to park and it was just like so weird.

Those are some crazy times. And we're still in crazy times as you mentioned. So what is the American dream and this album the American dream like what is its meaning in the fraught year that is 2025 or the fraught last 5 years even?

I I still think like with enough hard work you can make whatever whatever your ambition and dream is like the universe will provide it if you push hard enough for it and you believe in it enough. If you don't believe in it, if you don't believe in yourself and what you're doing and you're not willing to give 110% to what you're doing, it's never going to happen. It's not it's just it's it's not reality and you should do something else. I I wholeheartedly believe that. That's that's how it's always been. That's how all dreams that's how they like baseline. If you don't believe in yourself to the point where you would, you know, you're you're going to war for whatever you are you are doing, you don't believe in it.

Here's the cheesy part right here. Life's too short to not do what you want to do, ladies and gentlemen. So, just [ __ ] do it.

And that way, you don't have to live with the whatifs.

Strap them Nikes on. You know what I mean?

Look, just put your Nikes on.

Nikes on, baby. Just do it.

If Nike wants to endorse you, that is also for a Nike endorsement. What's up, Nike?

I played basketball for a while, y'all.

I need Nike boots. What's up?

Yeah, dude. Nike combat boots.

You guys seem to have your heads on straight. Not just in terms of your passion for what you do, but you you know, you know the business end of things.

Most people think so.

You know, for a rock and roll band, I think, you know, you you got your heads on pretty straight.

You should have seen us at Moonshine Flats the other day.

No, she shouldn't have. She

Maybe I should have.

I didn't even see what happened at Moonshine Flats. We had a great time. I woke up in my car on the street in San Diego at 8:00 in the morning and I was like, "Holy [ __ ] how did I get here?"

I'm just glad you stayed in the car.

I'm so glad I did not drive my car. I don't think I

don't drink and drive. Message from American Mile.

Can't find the ignition. You probably should.

Don't drink and drive. That's from American Mile right here.

Don't drink and drive. Drinking and driving kills.

It does.

Stay in school. Except if it's MIT, then it's not necessary.

It's not necessary. You drop out. Just don't drink and drive

or you don't. just drink and just drive, but do them separately,

right?

Yeah. Amen.

But like I said, you guys, you got your heads on relatively straight, right? Like a hydra.

You seem to know the business end of things maybe more than some other bands. So besides all the inspirational stuff, TED talk stuff you were saying just now.

What advice do you have for a band? Like it's kind of in a similar position for yourself, independent, doing rock, which isn't necessarily like the genre in favor with the kids at the moment. It's not

doing everything yourself, trying to make maybe not be millionaires at it, but make a living at it. Just, you know,

here's the thing. So, you have to buckle down and do the [ __ ] that's not fun.

Yep.

It's fun to play music cuz that's all that's everything that we want to do, right? Get good at doing that cuz it doesn't matter if you can't do that. But once you understand all that backend stuff, you can make music. Your ambition kind of has to be be a billionaire or a millionaire off of doing it, right? So you can get to any level that's going to be comparable for you.

Billionaire. I like billionaire.

Yeah. Billionaire with a B. That's with the B y'all.

You got to you got to really have your business your business uh practices strong. You have to know that going into this while it is a passion project. It's not an overnight success like very rarely. That is that is like you are the needle in the hay stack if that happens. It's the reality of it. You have to understand that there are going to be a lot of times where you walk into a venue and you're playing to the bartender and someone else. And you have to understand that when you do that, you're giving them the greatest show of their life, regardless of who's there. Because one person turns into two people, turns into four people, turns into eight. That's always how it goes. That's that is that is the [ __ ] music business in a nutshell. There's no quick way to the top. It just doesn't exist.

It's a long way to the top. If you want to rock and roll,

if you want rock and roll [ __ ]

see what I did there?

I like that.

Full of references. I like

I hope most of them people understand right there.

No matter what job you choose, there's always going to be some kind of [ __ ] no matter what that job is. So, it might as well be something you're passionate about so that like you can deal with that [ __ ] that comes with it.

And don't let that [ __ ] get you down.

You know, it's really easy to be depressed about that. You think your music is like not going to a spot where you want it to be or not you're not at a you think you're you have this, you know, this 10y year or whatever, what whatever it is, two-year goal of like we're going to be here, we're going to be there. Doesn't always get there. Okay? It's about putting in the day-to-day [ __ ] effort that you that you don't really want to do. It's about making those like, do I want to make Tik Tok content? Absolutely not. No, I [ __ ] hate that [ __ ] I really do. I hate it. So much fun. I hate it. I think social media is stupid. I don't really understand why.

I watch everyone on Instagram live.

Follow us on Instagram, ladies and gentlemen. American. Here we are. But you But you have to do it. You have to put the effort. You have

We do love you guys, though. I'm just saying.

You have to sit down with an acoustic guitar and record something that you didn't really want to do. You probably wanted to sleep or catch up on for a couple hours.

I remember that.

Yeah. Or like dehydrate apples, which has been my new passion for the last couple weeks. He makes great dehydrated apples.

Thank you. You know, I I've I've really gotten the time and the temperature down.

Good. I haven't like for eating

anything of the dehydrated mango yet because he eats it all before he goes.

The bananas though.

Thank you so much for that. Banana dehydration.

I haven't had them either.

Bring any dehydrated fruits?

No, they're in my car. I left them there in a bag, which is not good.

They'll just get more dehydrated. I guess

they're going to be very dehydrated by the time we get back from Arizona.

Yeah. Besides launching your own line of dehydrated uh fruits and owl heads.

Yes.

Owlheads and fruits RS. Uh what is what is the next goal for American Mile? I mean you say, you know,

you kind of have to be realistic and incremental, but what what do you want to have happen next for you guys?

Um I think the next big goal for us would probably be um a either a European tour or a bigger opening tour on one of the coasts. Um, and that's something to like listen put a pin in it as like this is the goal, but if we can get to here before that, that's all right, too.

And who do you want to open for if you had if you could

if I had to open If I had to open

I would love to open for two chains. Uh, he has a lot of I'm playing y'all.

Shut the [ __ ] up.

Blackberry smoke.

I would totally open for two chains.

All I need for my birthday is a big booty ho.

Not two chains.

Although we rock two chains all the time. Two chains if you're watching.

You ever watched a girl get power bombed to a twochain song? We did. We have two pants when she hit the ground.

That was crazy.

Shout out to the girl in the white pants in Bakersfield.

Oh my gosh.

Remember that?

This interview has taken an interesting turn.

That happened. That was a real life thing that happened.

All right. So, Two Chains, if you're watching this, but also Black Crows.

Black Crows. Blackberry smoke. Um, man,

Lenny Kravis, you said

I would I would that would be open for Lenny. I have the same birthday as Lenny Kravitz. May 26th. If you're watching, Lenny Kravitz, let's have a joint birthday party this year.

I'm Jewish. Lenny Kravitz, he's black. Come on, make it happen.

I'm neither, but we have the same. We got the combo.

There's three. Yeah, there's three common grounds right there.

That's right. Birthday Jewish black. Bam.

Joe plays guitar and Joe plays guitar. I mean, it just seems like

common grounds like four, count them.

It just seems like fade. So, watch the space. In the meantime, though, you're going to play to licorice pizzas.

There's already more than five people out there right now. I'm just letting you know.

There's six.

At least six. Once I'm out there, it'll be seven.

Count. Once I'm out there, it'll be seven.

Count to four.

I can only count to four.

You just got to see every face and rock them all.

Sometimes we play to large audiences, you know.

I was being facicious sometimes. No, no, no. This was fun for me sometimes,

but yeah, most of the time it's like six people.

It's fun for me as well.

It's always Madison Square Garden. I just hallucinate.

Yes.

Yeah.

Dare to dream.

I choke myself before we go on till I

naturally.

Do I need to

do I need to let you go though? So you can have a moment to do that. Hold on a second. We have the mother. It's not erotic, but it is auto affixiation.

If you wanted to do that on the Instagram live, it would probably get go pretty viral. But I don't know.

Somebody get me a a tie and a coat rack.

All right. We'll I'll see what I can do.

Yeah. And then watch. But watch me.

Don't try this at home. Don't try this at home. Stay home. Don't drink. Don't drink and drive. And don't

And don't

autootic

autooticiate yourself.

That's an embarrassing way for you to die.

Oh no. Cut that from the live the interview, please.

Too late. We were live. So we're live.

On that note, it's only rock and roll.

It's only rock and roll if you like it.

I am happy that you're here, though. This has been a lot of fun and um I'm looking forward to whatever you're doing.

And if you're ever going to get cancelled, it's tonight. So you're welcome. You know, I can see why you don't want to go on TikTok, but you know, I think this worked out well.

Yeah. Yeah. You have been great. So, thank you for having us.

Thanks for coming by. This has been fun. Thanks for bringing uh the the Jack and Coke as well. So,

Amen, baby.

All right.

And thanks everybody for watching.

And uh yeah, let's

Cheers everybody. Thanks for having us.

Rock out.

Let's [ __ ]

I don't even know how to end that. I'm just going to like

If you guys can follow us on social media, that's an Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and all that jazz. It helps us out very, very

more important than all of those things.

Join our mailing list. That's right.

If you join the mothership, you get 10% cooler. It's guaranteed. I checked.

Amen.

Mic drop.

Thank you guys. Shout out to you guys. We appreciate y'all.