Revolutionizing the Concert Experience: Vattica's Plan for an Inclusive Music Festival

Brian (00:00:00) - Alex, it is absolutely fantastic to have you back on the show. How are you?

Alex (00:00:05) - I'm well. Thank you again for having me back.

Brian (00:00:08) - I'm delighted. I'm delighted. So how was life been since we last spoke? I think it's just over a year, year and a half.

Alex (00:00:15) - Yeah. Uh, I mean, good and bad. We're all here. Well, all in the world, we're living in a dystopia. But it's especially prescient here in Los Angeles. Have you played the game Cyberpunk 2077?

Brian (00:00:31) - I haven't, but I've seen lots of clips of it. Are it?

Alex (00:00:34) - Yeah. That's basically what it's like here, except without the cool. Cyber augmented tech but like it's still like a. Tech poverty future. Like there's there's all these giant high rises being built where all the rich and privileged lived and then on the streets, as the rest of us and all of our unhoused neighbors. There's a huge. Homeless crisis here, which they absolutely the city absolutely has the money to to deal with but doesn't and instead spends it on cops or robots or drones.

Alex (00:01:15) - But the thing like everybody still has a phone, so you'll instead of somebody having a cup for a change, it's now like they'll have their Venmo or their cash app written and you like digitally give them money. But since we haven't addressed the problems that exist societally is the same shit just in a like different sci fi package. So it's bizarre, but. Yeah. I don't know how how the capitalist hellscape is doing over where you are.

Brian (00:01:48) - Yeah, it's kind of picture that only about 15 years behind.

Alex (00:01:53) - Behind.

Brian (00:01:54) - Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So basically exactly that without the technology. We haven't quite caught up with the technology.

Alex (00:02:04) - I don't know if that makes it better or worse.

Brian (00:02:07) - I don't know. I don't know. Kind of better, I suppose.

Alex (00:02:11) - To the security cameras and traffic cameras. Monitor everything you do yet?

Brian (00:02:16) - Oh, yeah, we have those. But the homeless people don't have Venmo or, you know, they probably still have phones, but they don't have the cash. Apps are still pretty analog.

Alex (00:02:26) - Yeah. Yeah. What a lot of I've noticed what a lot of restaurants here even like coffee shops have started doing this they'll have a sign on the window that says cashless. So everything's like Apple Pay or PayPal or some digital currency. But that's another way of being exclusionary because one of the challenges you face if you're homeless is often you can't get a bank account. So unless they have like a direct cash app transfer QR code, they can't go in there. So it's really another way to prevent a whole subset of human beings from getting access to basic services.

Brian (00:03:05) - We actually have a couple of shops around the country now that are trying to push for cashless, but there's lots of people fighting back. Like there's on Facebook you'll see that people are starting to try organize protests and everything against the government were for it and now they're kind of backpedaling a bit about it. But what's interesting is our largest music venue, the Tre Arena in Dublin, has gone totally cashless and there's a couple of sports venues going cashless as well.

Alex (00:03:34) - Yeah, yeah. Here just about everything is down to the parking meters, so it makes the odds that somebody's walking by. We'll have money to give, even if you want to. Very low. So. It means you have to. In a weird way, it means you have to stop and have an interaction with the person because you have to ask them, What's your cash app? If they don't have it written down or you're using them interchangeably, Venmo, Zelle, whatever. But and how many people are afraid of talking to homeless folks or view them as some sort of subhuman category? Since I spoke to you last, I was able to quit my horrendous. Uh, teaching job at this college. That was. Will still is located in the middle of downtown Hollywood, basically the major intersection of Sunset and Sunset Boulevard and. Oh, I forgot the cross street. At this moment, it's like. But it's like, right, right there next to the Netflix building and all the studios and stuff.

Alex (00:04:47) - And while I was teaching there, a large percentage of the student body was homeless. And while while they were going to school, because the way that this institution worked is that they target primarily. Like 90% of their outreach goes to people who are veterans who are on the GI Bill. But the problem is that the the. Requirements of the GI Bill when you're going to schools, if you fail a class that kick you off. So let's say you moved here from Mississippi and you fail one class, right? Yeah. Then they kick you off and then suddenly you lose access to housing, you lose access to the school. So there's a large percentage of people I taught who are living in their car or classes over, and now they walk outside and that's where they're going to be until tomorrow. So once I discovered what a and the school didn't care is my point. I tried to rally to have they have the money, another institution that has the money to try and help. But I tried to rally that, but I was just one person.

Alex (00:06:09) - So I did what I could. But I was fortunate that I qualified for a grant that has gotten me out of that job, enabled me to to pay my bills, to leave that job and not be a part of that exploitative system, which is great, but which we could talk about in a second because it's a grant that's going to enable me to create something really, really cool concert wise. Oh man. Which is why it's applicable to this, to your podcast. But but the. The heartlessness of the city sort of has affected. I'd say a good part of my of my mental condition because everywhere it would be work, it would be driving to work from work, walking around, going anywhere, doing anything. Everywhere you go are unhoused folks. And. Instead of creating any. There's many plans that have been put forward that could help. And instead of acting on those, it's like, well, how about we just give the police like $30 billion and then criminalize homelessness instead? So it's I didn't want to be a part of that system in any way.

Brian (00:07:34) - Geez, how do you actually deal with that much negativity on a daily basis then?

Alex (00:07:41) - Somebody much smarter than me. I forgot who it was. It was an indigenous activist that TikTok said that. To the effect that we're all influencers in our own communities. And so, for example, even if you're a relatively solitary person like my vampire self, when you go out in the world, how you behave as a ripple effects, right? So let's go to the cafe and I treat the barista like shit and then that person might be, you know, a little a little more angrier with their coworkers or the next person or and it creates that kind of ripple effect, right? Whereas if I treat them like a human being, let alone tip them because they don't make a living wage. Uh. That is positively affecting the environment and I try to move through the world. With that mindset like how can I be of service around me to what is put in front of me on that particular day, whether that's humans, animals, whatever, whatever you want to call it, God, the universe, the source or whatever puts in, puts in front of me in that day.

Alex (00:09:03) - Because if you try to. I've learned that if you try to feel like it's all up to you to fix everything. Not only is that overwhelming, but and impossible, but it's another byproduct of our white supremacist systems. The idea that you, the individual, are responsible as opposed to collective community action. So it definitely affects my mental state. There's. I wish I had the resources. I don't know if you saw recently. Excuse me, Twitter. Twitter has become, of course, a dumpster fire ever since the billionaire apartheid trust fund kid took it over. But. He did a photo op recently with DeSantis at the border where he wore a cowboy hat backwards because he's a fucking idiot and was like in front of all these migrants that are trying to get in. Right? And do you see that you know what I'm talking about?

Brian (00:10:08) - I seen something about it. Yeah, I'm not overly familiar with it.

Alex (00:10:11) - So there's this amazing picture of him standing there looking like an idiot for like, a photo op.

Alex (00:10:17) - Basically the world's richest man and all these people. But it's only like 100 people that they've sort of assembled for this photo op. And he could help directly, every single one of them. It wouldn't make a dent, you know, And he actively wakes up every day. Him and the other, what is it, 400 billionaires or something? Something like that. We wake up every day and choose not to help. That's a choice every day that they make. And it it's maddening because if I had those resources like there's so much that I could fix, you know, and the people that have the resources seem hell bent on condemning all of us into the most dystopian timeline. It's like they watched all the dystopian movies from the the mid to late 90s and were like, That's a great idea, Let's do that. Right So it's. So to answer your question, it. Pacing. You have to. You have to pace yourself, I think, because everything is so dark all the time. That.

Alex (00:11:25) - If you completely deplete yourself, you can't be of service to anybody, let alone the immediate people in your life. So pacing.

Brian (00:11:39) - Very good. Very good. And before we chat about the music, you have to tell us about this great grant you got and how it's changing your life and the plans you have with us. Yes.

Alex (00:11:51) - So I was fortunate to get a grant by the Community Arts Council here in Los Angeles that is specifically for artists. Uh, but basically what it does is it provides living expenses for a year and then gives me a project budget for a year. And the project that I proposed to them is what if which is being developed this year and then is going to happen in July of next year? 24. Um. What if we. Built a mini festival that in instead of prioritizing. Abled and neurotypical people like every single festival, right? We made one that was specifically designed around the needs of the neurodivergent, disabled, queer, non-binary and trans communities. So like our most vulnerable populations.

Alex (00:13:01) - What if the event was built around their comfort and access in mind? And also the people that were performing were members of that community, and the merchants that were selling stuff were members of that community. And so it's called neuro Night. And it's if this one in July is a success, then it's a model that I want to use for to happen to take it on the road, basically, because it's it'll be a proven sustainable model. And then also use it as a means for me as the artist fatica to perform and also not perform. So like maybe a neuro night is happening in Dublin and. It's not appropriate for me to perform because it's going to be all traditional Irish music or something. Right. But. But that doesn't mean that I can't be involved in the facilitation of it. So it can be. A like offshoot, like part of the constellation of things that I do, but also actively making the world better by having a concert where like if you're. Um, and I'm going to be working with.

Alex (00:14:28) - A consulting agency because while while I'm neurodivergent, I have obsessive compulsive disorder. I don't know what it's like to have autism. So, like, what if I was if I was prioritizing? A show around someone who had autism. What would be nice, you know, or someone who has a really huge sound sensitivity, but they still want to go to a concert. So is it simple as having special earphones or someone who's in a wheelchair or someone who uses crutches or that doesn't mean that they are neurodivergent I'm saying I'm doing. The intersection sex intersecting identities of neurodivergent and disabled and queer and trans and so. Is there. If someone's a huge germaphobe, maybe there's a designated space where it's like there's no touching in this area. You know, like I don't know what all the things are going to be. Specifically, there's a partner organization that I'm going to work with, but. To walk into that kind of space and still be able to experience quality entertainment, live music and good, you know, good artists.

Alex (00:15:36) - I don't think there's any one that's doing that, creating that, any promoter that's doing that. So it's kind of revolutionary. So I'm really excited for it. And we're in the planning stages of it, of it right now. So. Uh, as far as like website and marketing materials and stuff that's going to be happening next year, although the, the domain name is Nit Dawg, but there's, there's nothing there right now. I just own the domain. So but everyone involved in it from the designer that's going to work on the website to the person making the logo to the person making the merchandise, to the artists that are being booked, to the people that are hired to staff the event, like everyone. It's prioritizing neurodivergent, disabled, queer, trans and black indigenous people of color. So and everybody's being paid because I have the money from the grant to actually pay everybody for their time, whether it's a month of website development or eight hours of work at the show, like everybody, everybody's getting like actually what their time is worth as opposed to like, Oh no, it's an internship for exposure, which is real common here in LA.

Alex (00:16:54) - Yeah, Yeah.

Brian (00:16:56) - That's. That's crazy though. It's such a good idea. But what strikes me is why hasn't anyone done it yet? You know, it seems like something that's. It's not exactly hard to come up with, but it's and like it seems like such an obvious thing that should already be happening, you know?

Alex (00:17:15) - Yeah, well, my partner definitely helped me come up with it. And she recently became disabled herself, but has long been active in the disabled community and has lots of disabled friends and stuff. So when I was coming up with like, I want to apply, first of all, she brought me the grant because I know like Fuck All About Grants is the first grant I've ever applied for. And so she. She's like. We're a team, like we help each other, not just in our relationship, but in our working relationship. Our. Strengths complement each other's weaknesses. So we're really strong together. So. Uh, she was like, Here's how you apply for a grant, sweetie, and then.

Alex (00:18:12) - And help me come up with the idea. Uh. And I think even the name. So I. Oh, it's not like me. The genius. I'm just the one promoting it and talking about it and I'm facilitating it. I'm doing the work to facilitate it. But. But to answer your question, the reason people don't. I don't think anyone's done it, or at least not done it on a large scale is because these are the forgotten people, right? If you're disabled, you're broken. So we don't we don't market to you. If you're neurodivergent, you're crazy. If you're queer, you're directly under attack in most in a lot of states, even in California, there's it's. We if you're lucky, if the place has gender neutral bathrooms as opposed to like there are men and their women. That's about it. Damn it. Um. California is considered like this liberal place, but it's really like a specific part of LA and then a specific part of the Bay Area, and then that's it.

Alex (00:19:17) - And everywhere else is like. Moderate to like right wing conservative, and that's the liberal part. So when you go to California, like it really depends where you are. If it's. If it's a safe place for you and then, you know. What does liberal mean in the United States? Because we don't actually have a left party. We have the Democrats, which are sort of center, and then we have the Republicans, which at this point are literal Nazis. So it's like there is no like no one's advocating for universal basic income and free medical care and, you know, education for all and basic housing for all and all those kind of like, no, there's nobody running on that platform. It's like, what if we make small incremental changes? Maybe that's the good platform and then the does the best we have. And then the other one is like, what if we put everyone in a cage? So it's it's rough times. But, but yet you know people that are. That aren't basically.

Alex (00:20:32) - White hat cis dudes. And to some extent. White hat cis women. Although like right away, if you're a woman, you still get discriminated against like everybody else is, has some form of marginalization and society was never set up with them in mind. So even though, yeah, it's like a no brainer, right? Like somebody has to actually just do it as opposed to. Every other model of concert that I've ever been to or played in my life, you know, just like there there is this place in Berkeley. That's a that's near Oakland in San Francisco that just to load in. You used to have to load in your amps and stuff down two flights of like 90 degree stairs. Right. And there's no elevator. So you can't be any kind of like, disabled musician. Yeah. And then what about what if you're in a wheelchair and you want to see the show? Like, what are they like, hoist you down the stairs? Like, how does it work? Right? Like, there's so many places aren't designed with thinking about everybody.

Alex (00:21:48) - Yeah. And one of the things that the disabled community has taught me is that it's not that there's something wrong with their body. Like if your chair and your legs don't work. Human beings come in a variety of different.

Brian (00:22:03) - Shapes and sizes.

Alex (00:22:04) - Sizes, methodologies have arms, some people don't. But society built around one body. So what if we just built a city to be as rebuilt? It is accessible as everyone. It can be as simple as Are there stairs to get into this place? Okay. Make sure there's a ramp for wheelchair user to not a shitty ramp, not one at like a 91 degree angle, but like a nice one for one or, you know, door handles that are not just set at one height. Right. Because like if one of the things like if you're a. Short person. Like, there's like, hard. Those are hard to reach or like the automatic doors like won't even see you because the laser isn't panning at your height. So you have to jump up in the air and to activate it, which is an indignity or the general height of zinc in a restroom.

Alex (00:23:08) - Right? Or you can just go on and on and on. So if we were designing stuff with the endless. Uh, variant of the human being in mind as opposed to there's one right way and everyone else is broken. It's like, Well, by that logic, then we should be designing only for the broken people because there's a lot more, quote unquote broken people than the quote unquote right way. You know, and we don't have to get into this conversation. But then you look into where does the right way come from? And shocker, it ties back to white supremacy and scientists. Building the, quote, ideal white body, which they did. No white person has ever even looked like you go in the doctor's office and there's the chart of the guy and he's like, he's like, super fit and like, all that, like that. That comes from not that long ago, like the 1800s. And it's designed it was designed specifically for the, quote, advancement and superiority of the white race as directly juxtaposed against black people.

Alex (00:24:18) - So it's. The very beginning of the medical industrial complex prioritizes this what they thought was an idealized version of a white man, basically, that has also never existed. So even it doesn't even help white people because it's like no one.

Brian (00:24:38) - Born like.

Alex (00:24:38) - This. Right?

Brian (00:24:40) - So something I have to ask or that I keep thinking over and over when you're telling me about it, is what sort of kickbacks do you expect to get? You know what I mean? People shutting doors in your face kind of nose and stuff like that, you know, because I feel like whenever someone is trying to spearhead something that will help minorities and other groups, they will come up against objections and people just telling them no. So what are you expecting?

Alex (00:25:08) - Well, it's funny. In in America, the word kickback means, like, pay off.

Brian (00:25:15) - I taught that halfway through. Yeah.

Alex (00:25:18) - You mean. You mean, like, pushback? Pushback. Uh. I already know most. I can't say yet because it's not the contracts aren't signed, but I already know the organizations that I'm going to be working with who are already down for the ideas.

Alex (00:25:39) - So it's not like I'm starting from. Nowhere. And being in Los Angeles, there are a lot it's it's much more artist friendly than say. Bakersfield, which is a sun drenched town in California, about an hour and a half out of Los Angeles. And it's real conservative, Right? So so. The pushback that I expect is going to be more when it comes to really boring stuff like. Modifying a stage to make it accessible or. I don't have a. I haven't secured a partner space yet. I want it to be outside because of Covid. And so that means largely in the area that I'm working in. I have to work with the city. So then the city has a whole bunch of rules when it comes to permitting and stuff. So boring, pushed back or not even, but like hoops and stuff that I'll have to jump. But. As far as the people in the humans involved. I don't. I don't really. Trouble. Perhaps I'm being naive, but I don't.

Alex (00:27:08) - We're not working with anyone that. Would have an issue with what we're doing. And it's not like it's as you said, it's not it's innocuous. It's revolutionary, you know. If I was doing it in. Florida. Maybe it would be different, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen the footage of the literal Nazi like in Nazi garbs, like styling on the bridges and stuff out there? No. No. Oh, yeah. And the governor? DeSantis won't denounce that because he knows that large part of his base. So the the. There are openly Nazis in Nazi garb. Whether they're doing sea killing on the bridges or they're like crashing drag queen like story hour stuff or drag performances and coming in and armed and stuff and. So the the US is. Careening headlong into fascism, which. Which makes it for a fun time. Fun time.

Brian (00:28:26) - You should. Well, I was going to say, you should just, like, pack up and come to your boss is probably not any better over here.

Alex (00:28:33) - It depends. Ireland's better than the US. The Netherlands are better. Germany. They just elected a far right. Person. So we'll see how that goes. Italy just just elected a fascist, liberal fascist. So that's not great. So it depends where you go there. There are there are options, though, as opposed to. Most of the United States. Because we have this illusion of a two party system. It's like, do you like. Fascism lite with the Democrats or do you like full on fascism? And that's it's like two it's like a two headed beast. It's the same system they serve their corporate masters. So there's yeah.

Brian (00:29:23) - The more and more the as time goes on and more and more stuff that happens, it reminds me of this thing. Did you ever hear of the Seven Ages of Man?

Alex (00:29:32) - I've heard that phrase, but I'm totally blanking right now on what that means.

Brian (00:29:36) - Yeah, so it's kind of like it looks at the Roman Empire and everything, and it's like the first few steps are like, everyone is happy, everyone has enough.

Brian (00:29:44) - You get to the top and then it's like a landslide straight down. And it feels to me like we're in the last part that civilization is just headed one way.

Alex (00:29:55) - Yeah, I read a fact to that effect that the average empire lasts about 250 years in the United States is 247 years old. So it's like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

Brian (00:30:10) - Better start.

Alex (00:30:11) - Preparing. Yeah, exactly.

Brian (00:30:13) - And on a lighter note, I suppose you've released new music since we last spoke back in July. You released Is It Enough? And you have more music coming this month. Would you like to tell us a bit about it?

Alex (00:30:27) - Yeah. So is it enough is about sort of what we were just talking about. Is it enough to to be. Is being alive a revolutionary act in a system? Capitalism is a death cult. So is it in a system that's designed to destroy and extract until the point of death everybody except the 400 richest families or whatever it is, 500 at the top. Is it enough to just like, hold on, basically.

Alex (00:30:59) - That's what I wrote about. The lyrics are I always write my lyrics to be a little bit. Ambiguous so that you could make it about something more personal to you. Because once you release a song out into the world, my goal is always to have whoever comes across it, personalize it and make it part of the like, the soundtrack of their life. So if it ends up meaning something different to that listener, that's totally fine. That's what it means to you. But that's what I wrote it about. And it's a big like. As usual, the big, big, catchy chorus, lots of hooks and big guitars and stuff. And then I'm totally changing direction for this release October 20th, which is called Playing With Ghosts, which is a song about loss and. I originally wrote it about the the fact that all my life since I was in. Let's see. I started playing in bands professionally at 14 and only stopped. When the pandemic first started, because like everything, the people that are playing with, like we're all from different parts of the country and had to move back and all that stuff and stopped.

Alex (00:32:20) - And then the people I was one of the personal things that I've been going through is I realized that like, oh, I don't I don't know how to make friends. Like because my all my friends have always been the people I've been playing with in a, in a band, in a project because that's what I spend all my time doing. And so when the world temporarily ground to a halt and then at least as far as the US goes. Even worse, started pretending that the pandemic just was over and doesn't exist anymore. And so we're just grinding along. So playing with Ghost is about how when I create music now. Uh. I'm literally playing with. Phantoms with digital musicians because I do all of it. I. I sing it. I play all the physical instruments that I know how to play. And then everything else I program. And that I'm produce it myself, mix it myself, engineer it myself, master it myself, put it out myself, promote it myself. So it's like.

Alex (00:33:30) - That's literally what it's about. But. But. It's also about. Loss of community, loss of friends. Loss of people. It's sad. It's. It's one of the most personal songs I've ever written. But again, I wrote it, the lyrics to Be. It'd be pretty hard to to. Interpreted as not about loss, but what that loss is for the listener. They can decide, you know, and what I'm doing is I'm releasing an EP of that song. So the first on the EP is the regular single version that I do. Then the next one is the single version, but with an extended giant rock opera outro thing. Then the third one. Third version of the song is going to be a duet with this awesome creator named Eli Arnold. You can find him on TikTok. He's like the amazing singer and does a lot of good political commentary. The fourth one on the EP is going to be an A cappella and piano version. And then the fifth one is like a cyberpunk, like Netrunner burner remix of the song that I'm doing.

Alex (00:35:00) - So it's going to be like these different interpretations of feeling within one song, which I haven't done before, which is going to be cool. So all that comes out on the 20th of this month, right? In time for Halloween. Nice, Nice.

Brian (00:35:19) - And have you any plans to gig with the new songs or play them live?

Alex (00:35:25) - So, yes, that's where night is coming in, because something I've been struggling with is even though I could be booking shows. How responsible is that of me? To participate in every show is a superspreader event at this point, right? Because there's no masks. There's no no one's being checked at the door. There's nothing. And an interesting fact I learned is when big artists suddenly cancel like a string of dates for about a week or two weeks because they'll they'll say like fatigue or they're they are having vocal issues or whatever. They never say Covid because the insurance companies because the big artists have like touring, insurance and stuff. Yeah, don't cover that. They made sure to not cover that right away because they know that they're going to get it because they're interacting with fans and huge masses of people and stuff.

Alex (00:36:20) - And even like even a huge artist like like Green Day or something, maybe they can run. Their bubble safely, so all their crew and them are safe, but they're still facilitating the gathering of thousands of people. They play like 50,000 person shows. You tell me no one out of that audience is going to get Covid and then spread it to other people. So I was dealing with like ethically, obviously, I'm not drawing 50,000 people. You know, a good show for me would be like a thousand people. But. Uh. How can I? How can I play? This is the longest I haven't played on stage my whole life since I've been performing, which is, let's see. I'm 41, so I've been playing since I was 14. So I was like, what? Like 27 years? So I haven't played a show since January 2020. Uh. And that's a whole part of myself that's missing. So with neurons, I'll be able to create an environment where I can perform safely and the people there are being taken care of too, and are safe.

Alex (00:37:35) - And so that's my plan. To start playing live again is to do multiple ones of this. After I prove that the first model is successful, not just with attendance and artists, but with all the boring stuff, the numbers on the back end that you need to get continued grants and sponsorships and stuff. So. So yes, I will be playing, but only when it's safe for everybody because. I feel like that's the. That's the only way I could. I could live with myself, you know?

Brian (00:38:12) - If every other artist in the world was as conscious as you were about the health and the public and everything at your gigs, it'll be amazing, you know? Although I feel like artists would be the people behind the artists probably that wouldn't allow them to be.

Alex (00:38:28) - Yeah, I mean, I feel like you're only as effective as the amount of power you have. So really the only bands that have any power or what at this point, our legacy artists, you know, whether it's the. Whether it's the Green Days or the Who, or there's all these bands that I thought were Metallica, Metallica, Limp Bizkit, Korn Fighters, Foo Fighters, Yeah, they they could say, We're not going to play unless these things are done.

Alex (00:38:56) - But. I don't know them. I can't speak for them. I don't know if that occurred to them and they couldn't do it or like because like Ticketmaster is not interested in that. Ticketmaster is interested in let's hey, we, we didn't have revenue for oh God, we didn't have revenue for like one year. So we need to like pump as many shows as possible. All the festivals are interested in that and to be fair, it's a huge logistical. How do you figure that out? Do you have a show like Rock Ring? How how do you have a 50,000 person show and make that safe? I don't think there's any way to make it 100% safe in that scenario. But you could have mask requirements, you could have mandatory testing. You have to present your test strip at the door. You know, these things are possible because the rich do them, like, for example, the Academy Awards to get in you as a celebrity, even, you know, Brad Pitt or whatever, you have to show a negative Covid test and you get a if you refuse to at the door, like you have to do it at the door.

Alex (00:40:08) - And if you refuse to do it, you're not let in. And if you do it and you fail it, you're not let in. If you do it in, you pass, you get a wristband and then you can go into the event. So that's why they're all so comfortable. Not having masks on is because everyone that's in there has been cleared. It's the same thing that the Center for Disease Control did at the recent public health summit a couple of months ago. Like they have like top tier everything, like the Hvac filters, like everything. So if the rich, you know, health, health and access shouldn't just be for the rich and privileged, it should be for everybody, but it costs money to do it. Now, I think that that's a worthwhile cost because. Uh, there's no set of people that are less important than other people. But of course, that's not how our society is built. People balk at. Uh, well, but, you know, it would cost this much money.

Alex (00:41:10) - So even though we'd still make a profit this quarter, it wouldn't be as much of a profit. And it's like, Oh, poor you, Ticketmaster. Oh, for you Live Nation like you made. You still made a profit but you made like slightly less of a profit because you would have done, you know what I mean. So what.

Brian (00:41:27) - It underwriting.

Alex (00:41:28) - Yeah. So and as far as the celebrity bands go, you know they've been. In wealth bubbles for so long. I don't know if it occurs to them because everything in their life around them, the pandemic is essentially over.

Brian (00:41:44) - Yeah, true.

Alex (00:41:45) - Actually true.

Brian (00:41:46) - Never thought that that part actually. They don't know what real life is really like.

Alex (00:41:50) - So even my I mean, I love Green Day, right? That's that's the reason I started playing music. You know, 13, 14 year old Alex loves Green Day's music and also doesn't realize they have a crush on Billie Joe. But. But, you know, they've been rich now for longer than they haven't been rich.

Alex (00:42:10) - So even though they started out working class, their lives don't reflect punk rock or anything like anymore. Right. And neither does Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters, and neither does most of these bands. Like they live these kush little Nerf lives and. It doesn't seem to occur to them. To use their privilege and power to not only. Make the world better, but to help bring in the next generation of artists like. Think about the power of just like if the Foo Fighters want to go on tour, every place that they tour, they they bring in. You know, 1 to 2 local opening acts, just like they choose them. They choose the ones that they like. And what a career boost that would be for those acts. Right. And that can also be part of their legacy is like, look at all the bands that we've launched, you know? Yeah, exactly. But instead it's like, No, Dave, Girl's got a new book coming out. Do we need more of Dave Grohl's thoughts? Like, feel like we've covered it? Yeah, yeah.

Brian (00:43:30) - And are you going to concerts then, If you feel like that, Have you attended any? You know.

Alex (00:43:35) - I've been to a couple. Uh, like like performances and shows of, like, friends and stuff. And I where I where I have a special actually, I'm going to. I'm not endorsed by them, but there's a company called Soft Seal Masks. And what it is, is a silicone seal around a regular N95. So what it does is creates an airtight pocket of air on your face. And they're really comfortable. Like I used to, I was teaching in a I had to find a solution because a regular mask cuts into your face if you're trying to actually use it correctly. So soft seal masks, each one lasts for about their disposable and lasts for about 40 hours of use like high traffic use. So if you're looking for good ones like they ship worldwide, just go to their website. But. So that's how I would go to to shows or to concerts. But I've seen.

Alex (00:44:34) - Little stuff because. It's overwhelming because no one else is taking those precautions here anyway. So I feel like I have to constantly be on alert all the time. And that's before you get into access. My partner has. Is that a change in their mobility and so, so many places just can't. Either you can't get in or you can get in. But it's like prepare to be constantly bumped and kicked like the entire night, you know, like so. So, no, I don't. I haven't been to any. The biggest thing I saw recently was. That goes wrong show. Do you know what that is? No.

Brian (00:45:24) - What's that?

Alex (00:45:26) - It's not musical at all. So it's a it's. The gag is you can find. It's a show. You can find the first two seasons on Amazon, but. The gag is they're a they're a theater company that is trying to put on a play, Whatever that is, it'll be a scary play or Peter Pan or whatever it is. But from the beginning, things start to go wrong and it escalates, but they try to keep the play going.

Alex (00:45:55) - And so it's it's pretend that's the actual play is it's like stunt work and pretty amazing. Like line remembrance. I don't know what that'd be called. And I've seen.

Brian (00:46:07) - Clips on TikTok where a scene where they're coming through the door and the door falls. And to have to ignore that the door fell or something.

Alex (00:46:14) - Exactly. Yeah. And so they they're touring and they they came to LA like the cast came to LA and put on a show. So we went and saw that because me and my partner loved that show. But, but in terms of music like the idea. Full disclosure, I've never liked being an audience member, but the idea of being surrounded by a bunch of bros, drinking Monster Energy, not wearing any masks and screaming and everybody's screaming when the band's on. So the amount of air that's in the place, like it just starts to freak me out too much because. We've just accepted. Or we. The powers that be have just decided that this is the new normal. We have your.

Alex (00:47:01) - It's fall. So you've got your regular Covid strain, then you have RSV, and then you have whatever flu is going around and possibly whatever other things. So just get all the shots at once, which we promise won't have. They won't interact with each other in any way. You'll be fine. And you just do that forever. But just keep going out. Just keep spending. Just keep consuming. Please, Capitalism. Just keep going. And if. Hey, if you die, you die, you know? Um, I don't know if you know what? We've stopped all. Tracking here, like the CDC just like stopped. So in that way, there are no more cases. But if you're not tracking them. Of course there's not. So it's really hard to get numbers on how much of a spike we're going into in the winter here. The only tracking we have is wastewater tracking. Right. And that that also is only in some counties. And so it's sort of the. It's just another layer of dystopia.

Alex (00:48:01) - As we were talking about before when we started the the podcast. Is that the. And the the government and the regulatory powers and stuff, and even the institutions like CDC that are supposed to keep us safe are all bought and paid for. So it's like whatever they have to say and do to keep the gears running of the machine basically is their priority. And it's up to us to form communities to take care of each other. So. It's a dark time, but there's like hopeful spots because. The idea of community building has never been stronger than than now, or at least in the last 100 years. Of course there was there was a whole there's a whole society and community of people here in America before. Our ancestors decided to come over, and we've discovered it. Okay. There's people here.

Brian (00:49:04) - Yeah, to just ignore that fact. You know, they were.

Alex (00:49:07) - The first people. Yeah, obviously.

Brian (00:49:09) - Yeah. And someone didn't ask, you know, is how is TikTok going? Last time we spoke, you were doing self-made as a toxic mate.

Brian (00:49:16) - I see. Now that you're doing nothing is neutral.

Alex (00:49:20) - Yeah, So I still do the self-made one sometimes. I started to get tired of. Basically on any video that I have that goes viral. Just an annoying expression. Any video I have that does well, you get the people that are pro the video, the people that are con, the video, the people that are in between. And then each one of those groups has like five basic arguments and I try to interact. I don't like creators that don't engage with their audience. So I react and try to react to just about everybody. But like once I start seeing the same talking points, repeat, I'll, I'll respond to that particular talking point like three times. And then I just leave it alone. So with because I feel like I've explained my position on it, especially if you didn't get it from the video. And so I, I got tired of. People just wanting to know who's rich and who's not basically is. I felt like what people were starting to take away from that series as opposed to the fact that.

Alex (00:50:27) - Nobody is self-made people have asked me like, okay, well, what about this artist? And I was like, No, okay, well, what about this artist that started from poverty? No, no, no. The concept of self-made is American propaganda started by I did a video on who it was started by. I tried to make a video to show them I forget his name. He's the guy that. That rebranded Benjamin Franklin as a self-made man. Whereas, hey, if you if you are a human trafficker and they're doing all the work on your giant estate, you are not self-made, are you fucking dipshit? But. So I started switching to nothing is neutral because people when I say people, I mean white folks think so many things are neutral that aren't. And it also allowed me to sort of expand beyond just musicians. And that series has done well this year. So my TikTok is going well. It's just I'm sort of it goes well, except for when I post music, because it doesn't the way the TikTok algorithm works is it like once it thinks it's figured out, what type of videos do well on your account, it rewards you for posting that and that only.

Alex (00:51:45) - So then you become sort of locked into one content model. So there's so many musicians that I know that have become sort of like amateur social commentators because what are the things that drive engagement base emotions. So either you got violence, which I'm not going to do. You got lust, which isn't you don't want to see me with my shirt off that no one cares. There's anger, right? Which I don't. Traffic in anger for anger sake. But sometimes the things I post make people angry. But what are what are the things that are going to cause a person to take interactions on the videos? So the way the basic way the algorithm works is. If you have however many followers when you post a video, it doesn't just go to all those followers every time it goes into the Explorer queue and it sends it to ten people. And those people have to take every action that you can take on a video. So currently that is watched the whole way through like it, comment on it, share it and download it.

Alex (00:52:50) - And then if you do that, it sends it to like 25 people. And do those people do all those actions and then it sends it to 100 people. ET cetera. So the thing that's going to drive something like that is the oh my God, can you believe this factor? Whether that's can you believe this idiot or can you believe this amazing person or can you believe this thing I just found? So every successful TikTok video actually follows the format of a magic trick, which is, Hey, I've presented you this thing, but here's a switch regardless of what the actual content is. And that's not great for music because because music is like, Hey, come on this emotional journey with me that takes a certain amount of time and depending on the type of song might not hit you right away. It might build right And you have the 1 to 3 seconds to catch the average person's attention unless you're known. So that's why you'll see even successful, like way more successful than me. Artists who have like bands who have less of a following than I do and are verified.

Alex (00:53:57) - And I'm not because there's no application process or anything because their social media manager is having them like just post music and it's like, well, they're fans like that, But then it won't go viral because there's no like, quote unquote wow factor. So it's a really frustrating thing, like on the one hand. My videos have been like my silly face has been seen by millions of people. But on the other hand, that does not translate at all to my Spotify numbers. The only thing that helps with Spotify is getting on playlists. So like, if you want to talk metrics, I have like over 200,000. Followers on TikTok, but I have like 12,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and like. And just because I post a video, it doesn't mean 200,000 people see it. It means I have some videos that were it's like a thousand people saw it. And then the other video where a million people saw it and then like everything in between. So it's frustrating, especially with like nothing is neutral or a self-made as a toxic myth because each of those videos takes a lot of research.

Alex (00:55:07) - I'm not just making that up, so I have to do like an average video takes 6 to 12 hours of research. And when you do that, like I did one recently on Joe Rogan and it got like 100,000 views, which is nothing to sneeze at. But the one I thought it would get a lot. And I'm making a very important point about him, which is that he directly enables white supremacists. So I figured this is a good hook because one, people that don't know that I'll help them understand and to the his fan base will get mad at me. And so those people will like clash in the comments. Whereas the video I did on post Malone got like 1.5 million or something and I have no control over which one does well. So it's frustrating because I have an audience, but at the same time I don't. It's because I can't directly reach them because the algorithm prevents it and then that's the best option. That's TikTok. So if you go to Instagram, it's like nothing you get.

Alex (00:56:11) - Facebook's completely killed that platform for growth. And then if you go to YouTube, like unless you got in on YouTube in like 2012, I've posted the same content there to like their their shorts, which is their TikTok competitor and. I specifically tried a video that got a million views on TikTok and on YouTube shorts that got four views. So it's like it's not it's not the content that's the problem. It's that the platform's gating it. Yeah. Which they all do. So it's like this constant race to the bottom to try and create quality content that is aligned with my values and is in this sphere of what I do, but is often music adjacent, not music itself. Because if you post a video saying like, Hey, I've got a new album coming out right away, TikTok suppresses that video because they don't want people leaving the platform to go listen to a thing somewhere else. But if I post my own music on the platform, I get a takedown request, a copyright request, a strike against myself.

Alex (00:57:21) - Because because TikTok identifies that it's music that's been uploaded to a distributor. So it's like this. It's it's a weird catch 22 of fuckery. Yeah.

Brian (00:57:32) - Yeah, it sounds. Sounds. And have you, uh, have you made peace with the fact that it's impossible to get people get music fans from socials?

Alex (00:57:45) - If I made peace with it most days, sometimes sometimes I get frustrated because, again, it's it's another system. That's corrupted by capitalism, you know, like if you just made. A platform where if people want stuff from you, they press follow and that's all you have to do and then they see your shit. Yeah, that would be revolutionary at this point, which is how it was in the early days of the internet when we were like kids, you know, like it would be, I want to follow this band. So I pressed follow and now I see their updates. The idea that follow is just the entry point. Then you have to like and and comment and add hearts and then share it and download it and sleep with it and put it inside of your mind and tattoo it on your body.

Alex (00:58:34) - And it's just like, Oh my God. Like, there's plenty of shit that I watch that I don't engage with because maybe I don't have something to add to the conversation. Or maybe I just because I bookmark something also doesn't mean algorithms that I want for. I was searching for a sofa on Amazon because my beloved demon cats destroyed the sofa that we had. So I found a sofa. And bought a sofa. And now I get nothing but sofa ads. And so do you think I want more sofas? Like how many fucking sofas do you think that I like? Have I got it accomplished like you did? But it's like being alert. We found a new sofa and it's like, No, that's a that's a one time thing. So. So, yeah, most days I'm at peace with it. It's enough for me to. To create and to try and find new revolutionary models. And as we talked about last time, it's important for me to be doing. Things on my own terms as opposed to the record label that was sung with before.

Alex (00:59:43) - But that means that. I take a huge hit on reach. I'm able to reach. But in the contract that I you know, the opportunities that I had in the contract that I was under, I was reaching no. One anyway because they were suppressing my shit. So yeah, um, that's been my particular journey. Most, most, most labels right now are interested in the younger, the better because the younger you are, the dumber you are so they can sign you to it exploitative stuff and manage your image and write all your songs for you and stuff. That's why you see people like, you know, Yungblud or or even Billie Eilish back in when she started. Like no 13 year old just writes amazing music and becomes famous that she had a she had a. A family that was in the industry and then worked with top songwriters and stuff and built an image around her. And that's like, no. Shade on her. It's just. The model that you and I grew up with, which is like, put in your dues, write good music, get in a van with your friends and play some shows, and then a record label might be interested in you.

Alex (01:01:00) - And then that record label just helps you do that on a larger. Scale. That hasn't been true for like 20 years. So, yeah, that's for sure.

Brian (01:01:10) - That's like never going to come around again, unfortunately, because that takes the that was the fun of it as well, you know, touring around, jumping in the van.

Alex (01:01:19) - Yeah, Well, it's funny because even bands that. People hold up like so. Motley Crew. I'm not particularly a fan of. But they. They got signed by selling out the whiskey. Go go here in Hollywood over and over. Well, as someone who's played the Whiskey Agogo, it holds 280, maybe 300 people if you crush them in there. So today. They wouldn't be viable because 300 followers is nothing, right? Selling out a 300 person show is nothing they want. The label wants someone who's already doing. You know, got 10 million followers and has their own merch line and has done their own to basically done all the work for them.

Alex (01:02:06) - And then they want to come in and take 90% or more of what the artist does because that's the only way you can get access to the really top tier systems, like, you know, everything Live Nation program like Coachella or all the big festivals. Yeah. So it's just funny to me that like. I would say that current and RS have no idea of what is good because they're being told to find things that have. High numbers. So it's like, well, this artist has 10 million and this artist is 25 million. So 25 million must be better. Yeah. And it's a time where people care even less about the content of the actual art than ever before. It's the same thing that movie studios are doing. Every movie needs to be franchise. It needs to make $1 billion. And it's like, Well. That means that that movie has to appeal to the most amount of people as possible and work in the widest variety of languages is possible. So you can do money overseas. So that means we get big like rock and sock and robot smashing superhero movies with less and less and less plot because it's the easiest to translate and all meaningful art gets gets lost.

Alex (01:03:28) - In the service of of profit. So no matter where you look at, capitalism is destroying it.

Brian (01:03:34) - Without a doubt. And I suppose before we dive into the last couple of questions, I usually ask for future plans, but I feel like from the start you've told us your future plans. Is there anything else you want to plug or tell us about?

Alex (01:03:47) - Yeah, my my.

Alex (01:03:48) - Year is planned out in terms of what I'm working on. I will be releasing music through it again. My next stuff comes out October 20th. And I will be releasing TikTok content through that time, but I'm also going to be focused on creating. Uh, neurons. So in terms of. New projects. I think that's all I can handle this year. Yeah, that's for sure. Although who knows? But. But yeah, that's all I have to plug at this moment. It's brilliant.

Brian (01:04:27) - And you know what? The closer gets to your nicer. Even when you get up there, turn it and you're moving through the different stages of it.

Brian (01:04:33) - Please keep me updated. And I'm hugely interested in.

Alex (01:04:37) - Absolutely. Yeah. We're one of the ways we're making it accessible is we're going to live stream it from at least two camera angles. So even if you're because some people there's an activist that I follow. Actually you can find them on Instagram. They're called pained and confused. They are someone who lives with chronic health conditions and most of the time they can't leave their bed to go to a place. Well, for all those people who are in situations like that, I want them to be able to be a part of it, too. So I want a live stream, but so many live streams like suck. It's like a camera duct taped to a corner. And you see like, well, there's the singer's ear. So in the budget for the show, I've written in like two people who are going to have like actual steady, like iPhones streaming, but Steadicam so they can. Yeah. Actually move around. So. So you'll be able to see it as my point when it happens.

Alex (01:05:32) - Of course, for you, you'd have to stay up late or early time. How does it work? I'm not sure.

Brian (01:05:37) - It is 8:45 for me now at 9 p.m.. Yeah.

Alex (01:05:42) - Okay. So you're. So you're nine hours ahead of me. So it would be. Way early morning for you. Right? Because that's another thing. Time is also an accessibility thing. So I'm probably going to have like the actual music start at seven, have it be three acts. Each act gets like a half hour to 40 minutes, ten minute changeover. So have the whole thing done by like nine, nine, 930. Some people can go the fuck home. I think that is also something that's important, especially in LA, where like so like where I live, you know, there's no assigned parking. It's street parking. So what that means is that. If you leave basically any time past 2 p.m.. Good luck parking for the rest of the day because there's too many people. So if you go to a show and it's not over till one in the morning, like you better get ready to sleep in your car.

Alex (01:06:47) - There's nowhere to park. So that's another thing.

Brian (01:06:51) - Oh, man. And I suppose as well, it goes without saying then with street parking, if you're leaving a show at like one two in the morning. Safety is a concern as well.

Alex (01:07:00) - Oh, for sure. Yeah. Especially. Yeah, absolutely.

Brian (01:07:04) - So you know what? It's definitely something to look forward to. I'm genuinely intrigued about now. I can't wait to see even just the stages of how we are going to get there and when it's finally on, it's it's very exciting. And yeah, me too. We'll dive into the last couple of questions. Now, I know I asked you to use the last time, but I'm intrigued to see if your answers have changed.

Alex (01:07:24) - Well, that was the that was a year ago, which in pandemic time is a decade. So I don't remember at all what they were. So we'll see.

Brian (01:07:31) - You know what? I probably should have checked that episode to see what your answers were so I could tell you, um, if you could see any performer from history in concert for one night only, who would it be?

Alex (01:07:44) - Any performer and it's always one.

Alex (01:07:47) - People ask this question, so any performer. I think this I have a different answer every time. This time I'm going to choose Prince. I never got to see Prince while he was alive. I think he's. A transcendent musician responsible for. Not just his career, but so many other people's career and his altruism, which we only learned about after his death because he never did any of it in his name or anything. Just an incredibly inspiring. Person. So I would have loved to have. Being in a room with that with that energy once. Been amazing.

Brian (01:08:28) - It would have. It would have. And nice segue to the next question. If you had to spend 24 hours locked in a room with any musician from history, who would be.

Alex (01:08:40) - Any musician from history locked in a room. There's a lot of things to consider with that because like. Do we establish a bathroom corner? Is there. Is there food? Are we trapped? Is it like a saw situation where we're trying to get out? Like I'm just going to go with somebody else who I really would have liked to have met, which is Sister Rosetta Thorpe, who was the person that invented.

Alex (01:09:14) - She's a queer black woman who invented electric guitar distortion by literally just like, Hey. What if we just turned it up real loud and no one had thought of that before? And she's like, if you look her up, she's like, she shreds on the guitar. And this is. It's got to be over like 100 years ago or something. So it was like the idea of being like all of those identities, queer and black and larger person and like just like talk about marginalized. And she's responsible for like the rock and roll sound. So I'd love to just be in her presence, but like, I have many questions for her. Yeah, Yeah. So I choose her.

Brian (01:10:01) - Good choice. Good choice. And the final one. So what song would appear on the soundtrack to your life?

Alex (01:10:08) - What one song would appear. One. You know these questions are impossible, right? One.

Brian (01:10:22) - Keep the hard ones for last.

Alex (01:10:24) - Yeah. I.

Alex (01:10:29) - Today I'm going to recommend.

Alex (01:10:31) - I'm blanking on the artist, but it's the song's called All My Favorite Colors.

Alex (01:10:37) - Have you heard that song? No, no. If you if you look it up, it's a song about. About waking up and sort of settling into. Your place in the universe for the day. And. And sort of vibing with the the Earth. It's a it's a very pretty poignant sort of. Almost melancholy, happily melancholy song. And sometimes it's called All My Favorite Colors, and I can't remember who sings it, but that won't be on there. I love it.

Brian (01:11:16) - Brilliant. I'll have to start.

Alex (01:11:18) - It starts off.

Alex (01:11:21) - Woke up with the morning sun.

Alex (01:11:23) - Something like that. And so that's all you know if you found the right when you Spotify it.

Brian (01:11:28) - Okay. Okay. I'll have to have to take a listen to it. So listen, Alex, it's always a pleasure and I'm already looking forward to the next time.

Alex (01:11:36) - Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. And yeah, yeah, me too. Looking forward to speaking with you again.