Craig (00:00.078)
here. Hey everybody, this is Craig Garber. Welcome to Everyone Loves Guitar. I got a great guest today with Tyler Armstrong from the band Feel. They are a up and coming band and these guys, you’re going to be hearing a lot of them. They play great, great rock and roll music. I mean, just period in the conversation. I want to give a big shout out to our mutual friend, Greg Martin from the Kentucky Headhunters, probably one of the kindest, nicest human beings I’ve had the pleasure to meet.

Greg, thanks for hooking us up. He’s always been so supportive of you have a wing named after Greg Martin in the back there. So Tyler primary songwriter and guitar player for the band feel like I said, they’re an up and coming band and I assure you I’m really happy to be getting them because you know, moving forward, I’ll have to go through the layers of people and you know, but they’re going to be making waves very soon. Honestly, it’s a really good band. And I wanted to turn all my listeners on to them. If you like old school rock and roll with a unique style that includes blues, rock, some jazz very tastefully done.

great long jams and lots of breakups on natural breakup on tube amps. You’re going to love these guys. Feel has an album out, an EP out actually called Live in St. Petersburg, which was made right down the road from me here at Janice Live in St. Pete, Florida. I was also lucky enough, Tyler shared a sneak preview of some of the band’s new tracks and excuse me. All I can say is we’re all in store for some really good music down the road. I apologize about that, my son. Um,

Okay, let’s do this. Thanks, Todd. I appreciate you coming on the show. Sorry for that interruption, man. I’m really sorry. Thank you, man, for coming. So Springfield, you grew up in Springfield, Illinois. Describe Springfield and what was your childhood like?

Oh, right on.

Tyler Armstrong (01:40.962)
Uh, I was actually just there yesterday visiting my mom. Um…

Oh, how far is that? It’s not that far from you. Oh, I didn’t realize that. Okay, cool.

Two hours Yeah, no, it’s pretty close it’s probably six from Nashville, but yeah It’s about to you But man, I don’t know. It’s a classic thing of all your high school friends like man. I can’t wait to get out of here I can’t wait, you know, then when everyone leaves they’re like, yeah, they kind of miss Springfield. So I Always love Springfield growing up it, you know a town of 120 ,000 you go somewhere you

Oh wow, okay cool.

Craig (02:16.462)
Oh wow.

You’re likely to see someone, but you don’t run the chance of seeing someone all the time. Not everyone knows your business, but you gotta be careful. But it was a dream, man, especially in my younger years. Just growing up, baseball, every day was like a summer night, just laid back. A lot of seasons here in the Midwest, well, obviously we have four, but really…

small.

Craig (02:24.75)
Yeah, yeah.

Craig (02:29.614)
Yeah, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (02:45.922)
Intense extremes of each side of the seasons and I just loved it all it is eclectic and you know There’s not like a ton to do but it was a Midwest man. Like that’s alright you find you ride your bike you play ball You just hang out man, and I loved it I would love to I’m begging my mom to always keep a house in Springfield because I always want to go back. It’s It’s home

Yeah.

Craig (03:08.622)
You want to go back? That’s nice, man. Yeah, it’s interesting. You grew up on the East Coast. And I mean, I’m very grateful that I did. And I grew up in New York City, but it’s so much more dysfunctional. Like everybody that I’ve met from the Midwest is so much more balanced of, oh, you know, we played baseball. We did this. We went fishing. We went hunting. We go to concert. It’s just like a much easier, less stressful life there. Everybody’s a little more balanced. Yeah, definitely.

Okay.

Tyler Armstrong (03:34.434)
It’s slower man, that’s for sure. I spent some time on the East Coast and specifically in the Richmond, Virginia area. And I love the history, I love everything, but then you start to go north to like DC and man, it’s like, whoa, this is too fast for me, man. And it’s cool too, but yeah, the Midwest is just…

Maryland DC, yeah.

Craig (03:55.758)
Right.

Tyler Armstrong (03:59.49)
laid back man it’s you know the hometown of it’s not where he was born or grew up but it’s the hometown of Abe Lincoln. I have a lot of family connections to the Lincoln story and stuff so growing up there too is just like uh it um prompted my love for history which is a huge part of everything I’m about with music and otherwise so yeah man growing up in Springfield was it was great it’s a great place to raise a family I always say that.

That’s right. Yeah, that’s right. I remember that.

Craig (04:19.982)
That’s awesome.

Craig (04:27.566)
You just posted something the other day about, didn’t you revive an old festival?

Well, that’s actually down in the St. Louis area from 1969. I could carry on about this from 1969 to 1980 in town called Edwardsville, Illinois. The university there is a university open in there, Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. There’s one in Carbondale too. That’s a little bit more well known.

Anyhow, to promote the opening of the school, they’re like, well, let’s do a concert series. And they would have the St. Louis Orchestra and the, excuse me, the first year they had Joni and Arlo, the band, actually Bob Dylan’s third public appearance back after the bike wreck was at this festival. And it dude, it’s legendary. Everyone who, I can’t say everyone, because a lot of people are stoned. They wouldn’t remember, but most of the people that played there like,

Oh my god.

Craig (05:22.99)
No.

Yeah, man, that natural amphitheater, there was always a ton of people. The Who played there on August 16th, 1971, it’s your 30 ,000 people. It’s a natural bowl and from mid May to early September from 69 to 80, there was two to five concerts, sometimes seven concerts a week.

like it was all the time it was there is nothing like it before there’s been nothing like it since and it was always substantial acts and the cool thing about it is that the tickets even back then were cheap the tickets were dollar fifty to three fifty you can bring your own booze and whatever else and you know it was just the university was being very cool it was a very laid -back period they lost a ton of money but

Wow.

Tyler Armstrong (06:16.93)
It was just a very community, everyone, people from everywhere came. But if you mentioned the MRF, Mississippi River Festival in St. Louis, people would be like, oh man, yeah, I saw yes there three times, I saw Joni there three times, Eagles. And so basically what we’ve done is, um,

Yeah, revived it. And this is the first year, it’ll be June 22nd. And we just announced the lineup. I didn’t have anything to do with the lineup. So there’s no, you know, I’m not the festival director or anything like that, but I am, this won’t be my official title, but it’s a keeper of the vibes. I’m the legacy guy. I’m like, well, let’s look back and see how they would have done it.

But you revived it though.

Tyler Armstrong (07:03.073)
Um, because if it doesn’t fly with nowadays or how it did back then, um, it’s not the right vibe. Uh, we can’t do five shows a week for four months with the way that bands cost nowadays, but it’s, um, but yeah, I, I, I played a part in it. I’m not going to take credit. It’s, it’s a bunch of us, but, uh, it’s pretty doggone cool, man. It’s, it’s thanks.

Yes.

Craig (07:25.422)
That is cool. Congratulations. That’s a really nice thing to participate in. See, that’s what I’m saying. You guys in the middle, you’re all balanced, you know, in the East coast, we’re just like, oh, just like it’s just leaving your house and coming home. It’s like so exhausting to just survive the day. You know, you have time to like give back and think about things. We’re just like, please don’t shoot me, you know.

Well, I think it’s weird sometimes, you know, but yeah, for the most part. The coolest thing, in my opinion, about the MRF related to my story is that the last show was ZZ Top in 1980. They were the last people to play and feel, you know, my band was asked to open up the festival. So essentially, it’s something I’ve been passionate about for five or so years. And yeah, I’ll be the first one to step on stage and since…

That’s so cool.

Craig (08:14.542)
And when is the show, when is it?

June 22nd in a town called Alton, Illinois, which I’m in right now. Yeah, cool. It’s good. It’s an AM.

Awesome. June 22nd, man, check it out. The Mississippi River Festival. That’s awesome.

Yeah, it’s an outside amphitheater right on the Mississippi River. And it’s, dude, it’s cool. It’s cool. Thanks, man. Yeah, we’re excited about it for sure. Thanks, man.

That sounds beautiful. Congratulations, man. That’s a job well done. Yeah, man. You should be. So you mentioned baseball. I know you were really serious about playing baseball when you were a kid, like very serious, but what prompted you to switch passions over to music?

Tyler Armstrong (08:49.762)
Um, well, I was always interested in music, but not in the degree of seeking out playing it. I, you know, kind of just started to pots pans, whatever. I had a little CB drum kit when I was like four, you know, whatever, and like stab the drum heads with pencils and crap. But I always love music. There’s always rhythms and melodies going through my head. Um,

Hahaha.

Tyler Armstrong (09:16.898)
and just music going on all the time anyway specifically my mom listened to a lot of contemporary christian music but there was always melody based music going on so anyhow yeah i played baseball from ages 4 to like i guess i would have been 18 and uh i love baseball i love playing it i was i can’t say i’m athletic anymore because i’m like

That’s a hell of a long time. Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (09:45.378)
out of shape majorly, but as far as when it comes to being able to run super fast and compete, but I loved being outside of the playing baseball, running around playing football, basketball, anything. And, but what Switch did is just simply the fact of me getting a guitar when I was 11, 12, I think something like that. And I just loved it, man. I just.

Got addicted to it.

It’s the first time that I wasn’t doing my homework. Well, not the first time, but like really was not doing my homework because I was literally playing eight hours a day when I first got it. I just could not stop. My parents would ground me for not doing homework, but they worked. So I just sneak in the room and get it and just keep. But I started to miss practices like baseball practices. I hardly ever miss games, but I did definitely miss some games for.

Oh, that’s so nice, man.

Craig (10:30.83)
Sure, sure.

Tyler Armstrong (10:42.946)
gigs when like I became like 13 and then into high school and that’s not cool I mean admitted it’s very uncool but um music’s pretty cool so I just I just um I might have known back then too that I um didn’t have as much of a future in baseball so I’m short.

No.

Tyler Armstrong (11:06.946)
I’m a small guy, which doesn’t mean everything, but I was also a pitcher and I had wicked breaking balls, but I didn’t throw very fast. You know, clocked out at like maybe 70, 72. Maybe 72 is my house. Oh yeah. But I had a wicked 12 -6. Good luck with it. But you know, people on the next level can hit that all day long. But I was also a shortstop. I was just, I just, I…

Right.

Craig (11:19.502)
That’s tough for nowadays, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (11:33.25)
I don’t think that applied to it, but looking back I probably knew. But it was just fun. I was doing it for fun. But I’m serious about the things I have fun with. I just love music, dude. With baseball, you have the friendships, the brotherhood, the camaraderie. That’s awesome.

Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (11:59.65)
But I’m not really like creating anything. There’s not a ton of innovation with that. So I think I like too that it’s like, I’m making something. This is creative. I don’t know. But to answer the real question, there wasn’t really one thing that happened except that I just had a guitar in my hand now. And yeah, that’s pretty much it. And like I said, I’ve always been a drummer.

Right.

Craig (12:21.742)
And you just fell in love with playing it. Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (12:29.058)
not like a practicing drummer, but I can hold my own and I think in drum parts and rhythms and stuff. But there’s something about the guitar man that just like, I don’t know, you know, it’s awesome, man. Everyone loves guitars.

Oh yeah. It’s, you know what? It’s interesting. Cause I’ve only been playing seven years and I really am starting to get into playing more over the last year, eight to 10 months. And I’m realizing that there’s going to be limitations on me because I don’t, I didn’t have the opportunity to sit in my room alone for eight hours a day and playing. I mean, I would love to do, you know, outside of hanging out with my wife, honestly, I, I, I love guitars, number two and.

you know, if I’ve had a shitty day and I pick up the guitar at seven o ‘clock and I play for a couple of hours, it’s like, it’s everything’s better. You know, everything’s, you know, my head is just in so much of a better spot. So I really wish I would have had that. I shouldn’t say I wish I would have had that time, but I could see the, you know, you need that time to get good bottom line, you know,

Yeah, I mean, it was not a, um, it was not a casual, you know, occurrence for me. It was, it was everything. It’s all I thought. Yeah. It was purposeful. Like I was playing it and I don’t know if I had any dreams of, I mean, yeah, I’m sure I was like, I was for two years of my life. I was in the WWE and I, yeah, that’s your.

It was very deliberate. Yeah. Yeah.

Craig (13:54.062)
Are you serious? Like a professional wrestler?

I wasn’t in it, but I was into it. No. No. Oh man.

Oh, you were into it. Oh, okay. I thought you said you’re in it. I’m like, Whoa, this guy’s you’re a Renaissance man. Baseball WWE music.

I would have literally like… I would have been destroyed. There’s no way. But, yeah, I have a friend. His name’s Austin Connolly. He just goes by Connolly back to my hometown. He’s kind of making strides in professional wrestling. And I think it’s the coolest thing ever. Like, yeah, I buy all of his merch and stuff. So anyway, I… You know, in wrestling, they’re like, yeah, the Piledriver. Oh, that move. Whatever. I remember sitting in my room…

Yeah, those guys are monsters.

Craig (14:24.43)
Easy.

Tyler Armstrong (14:36.77)
playing fake songs and being like, oh, Tyler Armstrong band played like, it was just, I could picture in my head, like, you know, some excitement within and people watching and stuff. But I don’t know if I was playing guitar deliberately, like for that. I don’t think I don’t know. So yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Like I’m trying to think back as to like what made the switch.

It’s such a good feeling to play music though, man. I mean, it’s such a good feeling.

Tyler Armstrong (15:04.578)
and why but I literally just think it’s because I had it. Yeah.

That’s awesome. Cool, man. But then you started what this was interesting. You started writing your own music shortly after you’ve been playing and that’s extremely unusual for like a nine or 10 year old child. What, why do you think you did that? Like what motivated you? How did that even come about? That’s just not like common.

Well…

Tyler Armstrong (15:31.586)
Well, so the stuff when I was like nine or 10, I don’t know if I would have had a guitar then, but I was still, I still had fake bands. My first band was called Michigan. And it was with these two dudes I went to elementary school with. And I knew that, well, it was like, I knew Boston, I knew Kansas and Chicago and stuff. So, and I liked Michigan football, like the Wolverines. So I was like, might as well.

That’s actually a cool name for a band, man, to be honest.

Yeah, Michigan.

Craig (15:58.286)
Right, yeah.

And I was writing fake songs. My Wolverine fashion doesn’t go that far back, but it’s just kind of a weird area of Michigan football. But I mean, he’s kind of the greatest of all time, but I don’t want to get it. He whatever. I don’t know if he’ll ever hear it. So it’s kind of like a when people become a personality in sports and stuff like that, it just weirds me out. Like it’s like.

Are you like a Tom Brady fan?

Craig (16:09.518)
Ha ha.

Craig (16:15.63)
Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (16:30.818)
Just play I mean Yeah, so anyway, um But I would write fake songs and then but I didn’t know how to play anything I saw that little drum kit and I had an acoustic guitar when I was little but I took two lessons and Nothing happened of it little meaning like four or five. So I had that kind of Banking around it was broke. The neck was off of it, but I still faked it and I will say that

Just play.

Craig (16:49.934)
Oh, okay.

Tyler Armstrong (17:01.346)
the first day I got a guitar I remember writing something it was just open strings and I guess now thinking about it as open E G B E so it was technically like an E minor chord right or like some sort of C major seven weird thing but like I remember my mom saying okay Tyler time to eat and I’m like wait no give me a second I’m figuring this out and I guarantee it was crap but like

Sure.

Tyler Armstrong (17:26.882)
from the first time I had the guitar, I was thinking like, wow, I’m putting something together. But when I was younger, I was always like, you know, general childhood imagination stuff, like writing short stories. I was creating characters and like acting them out either in my head or like outside while I was playing, you know, we literally had like had a sandbox that I would like.

you know, do little things. And so I think just the idea of creating something and music was just a natural thing. I mean, music is very natural. It’s anything that makes a sound of frequencies music, even if it’s a jet, you know, it’s that is sound and that’s music. So it’s just existent anyway. Um.

Yeah, frequency, absolutely.

Craig (18:13.038)
So this is the second time you mentioned about creativity. You said you, the thing that didn’t, let’s say put you off baseball, but the thing that was more of appeal to you about music was the ability to create something. So obviously you’re just inherently like an extremely creative person. Like if it wasn’t music, it would have been like you said, right. You said writing short stories or, you know, painting or doing something creative.

Yeah, I mean, yeah.

That’s a blessing and a curse. Cause when you’re like that, you always have to do it. And then, you know, you’ve got a million projects going on at once. Yeah.

Yeah, it’s been helpful. Yeah. Yeah, no doubt with that part. I used to play video games like Madden football and in VG baseball and stuff like that. And I always created a franchise. So there’s always something I was putting together and someone might call me a control freak or something like that because of it. But I don’t know. I just I mean, we all start with creation. Yeah.

Sure.

Craig (19:02.51)
What do you mean?

Craig (19:12.654)
Yeah.

Like, maybe it’s just a celebration or an extension of just life in general. Yeah, I mean, that’s getting a little hippie -dippie, but like, you know, maybe. I don’t know.

Could be, yeah, for different people, yeah, definitely.

Craig (19:25.774)
I don’t know either. Who the hell? I don’t have the answers, trust me.

It’s fun to think about, yeah.

So then you start doing sessions when you’re the ripe old age of 15. How the hell did that happen? And like, how did you get gigs? How did people find out about you? And after that, what was the most important thing you got out of?

So, I start, I had to really think about the timeline, but I started playing in jazz band when I was 12. Jazz, yes, yeah, my middle school jazz band. My middle school had like award -winning bands. We were like a technology school for Apple and stuff like that. So it was very much a like a arts -focused thing. Yeah, it was awesome experience for sure.

In school. Yeah.

Craig (20:12.75)
Right on, man.

Craig (20:16.462)
Yeah.

so i started playing jazz band i say that in quotes because like it was basically like standards like satin doll louie louie that kind of stuff um but i knew a guy named

It’s like if it had a saxophone in it, it was a jazz band. Because I played saxophone as a kid, and we didn’t really play jazz, but it was just you had horns and stuff. So it was a jazz band. Yeah.

Yeah

Tyler Armstrong (20:37.506)
Yeah, exactly. So just stuff like that. And I didn’t know how to play most of the chords that were on the charts, but kind of faked it or just I would say the best thing about electric guitars, it’s got a volume down band and I’m not up. But I met I met a dude named Kyle and I went to middle school. He played bass and I met a guy named Caleb who eventually played drums. We’re all real close. And we started a band called Midnight Rush and we loved Rush and Zeppelin.

Hahaha!

Craig (21:04.27)
Another good day.

Yeah, well I was like, man, we need a band name. It’s like, what are we doing right now? And we were watching the Rush’s Fly By Night video. But it was midnight. I was like, midnight Rush, might as well. So there’s that. And I mentioned all that to say, like, we were, I mean, as well known as you can be in Springfield, Illinois for being a, basically a novelty of, we’re playing 2112 and, you know, you know, a whole lot of love, like, not necessarily stuff. Yeah, I don’t know if we played it too well.

There you go.

Craig (21:30.862)
That’s pretty cool. Yeah.

but we certainly tried and so the word got out and I guess um I don’t know how I got I met up the first session I ever did was with with a guy who was my age named Zach Fetter and he kind of played um I guess Americana kind of folk -based stuff and um at the time I was like Eddie Van Halen Dell I was just like

So two things there, that’s how I first got it, that’s how I got into it and what I got from it is that, oh, I can’t do that on everything. I can’t, you know, it was the cliche of playing for the song, but that’s the big thing I learned from it. And then also just expanding, it’s around the time I got into The Beatles and when I got really deep into The Beatles, I realized that…

Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (22:23.81)
pop music since 1964, everything was based off what the Beatles did. So it was like all these, you know, I hate to say weeds, but like all of these, you know, things stretching out to each other. So I was listening to all different kinds of music at that point. So what Sessions did for me was expand my listenership and how I viewed playing. It wasn’t about…

a lot of it.

Craig (22:49.006)
Right.

I guess what I can do anymore is what I can like provide.

Yeah, what you can add. Right. I totally get that. Man, you just said something before that was pretty profound for me anyway. You said we were playing 2112 and…

whole lot of love. I think you said, right. And you said, I don’t know how good we were, but we had a lot of fun. That’s what you have as a child player that as an adult, you know, I have to, I wrote this down here because my teacher said it once don’t overthink, just play it. And as an adult, I’m, I’m too preoccupied with, I wouldn’t say getting it right, but understanding what I’m doing and

Mm. Mm -mm.

Tyler Armstrong (23:39.138)
Mm.

Like my teachers always like Craig don’t just, he goes, you have a great ear, just play the music. You know what to do. And so I have to, I’m, it’s like a mental game getting over the con. I don’t, I’m, I’m trying to get confidence the wrong way. I need to get confidence by playing not by, Oh, okay. This is a, you know, an a minor seventh or, you know, a, a, a B seven sharp. It doesn’t matter. I just need to play. And that’s, I think what you get as a kid, cause you don’t give a shit.

Like being right, why would that be important to a 15 year old? You know, it’s, yeah. But you have fun and that’s the whole point of music. Yeah. Good lesson for me to learn. Thank you.

wrong

It was fun. Most of the time. We were pretty serious and we thought we were going to take over the world. That sort of thing. So it also caused issues. So early on I learned that, whoa man, like different personalities, it doesn’t always go with what I write, isn’t always going to be how it ends up sounding. And, you know, a lot of the times what I write, it ends up being the case, but…

Craig (24:29.518)
Ha ha.

Craig (24:40.238)
Interesting.

Tyler Armstrong (24:48.738)
yeah this strong personalities in this sort of thing you know just passion in general even the quiet guy has an opinion going on but it was a lot of

Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. But sometimes I would assume it comes out better than you thought as well. When someone else at Yeah, that’s cool.

It definitely can.

Yeah, it definitely can.

So talk about the band, talk about feel. How long have you guys been together and what’s been the biggest challenge for the band in navigating what’s definitely a very difficult music business nowadays.

Tyler Armstrong (25:20.258)
Yeah, well, so the band, I was in another band. I own the studio with a guy named Nick Bufano. We’re also associated with the MRF, the music festival together. We’re super tight. We were in a band together and TJ was asked, sorry, TJ the drummer of field was asked to join that band. I’d probably been in it for a year, year and a half.

Mm -hmm.

I just started writing all the material and the majority of it. And it just wasn’t the same style as the previous music was, previous output was. And that stuff was great, but it just became the point. It was someone’s name and it’s like a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers thing. And I was like, we just have to change the name. We have to have a redesign of everything. And from there,

that turned into fell apart but that’s what turned into feel. TJ was that first band I was like 19 so that was like 8 years ago, something like that. But the actual formation of feel like as it is now when we had like released music to the public like 3 years I think.

And how long ago was that?

Craig (26:25.934)
Okay. Nine years ago. Yeah. Okay.

Craig (26:41.998)
Oh, wow. So you’ve done all this. You guys have built this momentum in three years. That means you’ve been working your ass off.

Well, not to pat ourselves on the back. Yeah, we are very hard workers to make anything bigger than what it seemed. Really, any… So we had played regionally with Cheap Trick, Rival Sun, some local stuff. And honestly, you know, dinner… We made waves with some people. Like, KC is a big legendary radio station.

Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (27:14.114)
and we got played on there. I have some friends, you know, friend named Vaz who’s a DJ there and just other people kind of knew what was up, but really locally they sound like they weren’t digging us. I just don’t think people were coming out to see us. So with that said, things really started happening for us in sort of September of 2023, but really November of 2023.

That’s only six months ago. You know, 11. Yeah, that’s six months ago.

Things have been happening pretty quick. I mean, we’re not the biggest band on earth, but it has been progressing rapidly.

Dude, you did like a, how many shows did you open for Blackberry Smoke?

We did two runs with them. There was six shows total, but it was like outside of our area.

Craig (27:56.814)
Yeah.

How’d you get that gig, the opening slot for them?

So long story short, I’m very into vintage guitars. It’s a big part of my life. I admit.

Hey, let me take this opportunity to plug something actually that Tyler won’t plug. He actually owns or is involved in a vintage guitar clothing and vinyl shop in St. Louis. It’s called Blue Note Vintage. So for those of you in that St. Louis area, definitely check it out. And he knows this, my movie spoke pretty extensively before this. He needs like a vintage guitar wizard, you know, like a hold on a minute, man. He’s a vintage guitar. Watch this.

Whoa, holy frick.

Craig (28:41.358)
That’s Tyler on with vintage guitars. I know it’s not me. It’s it’s someone did it the other day by I’m like, what the hell I thought it was like, you know, like spirits in my computer. It’s just the thing Apple. But yeah, so check out check out his store. Blue Note vintage if you’re in the St. Louis area, it’s got vintage guitars, vintage clothing and vintage vinyl. So sorry, man. That being said,

That was awesome.

Tyler Armstrong (28:53.186)
You ain’t a boob.

Tyler Armstrong (29:04.354)
Thanks. No, no. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Yeah, so through that, I met Charlie Starr in Blackbird Smoke. And he was coming, they were coming through town and I don’t know. No, no, no, no, no, no. This was, I worked at another, I worked at a vintage guitar shop called Killer Vintage.

Wait a minute, through your shop?

Craig (29:29.422)
Oh, okay, and then Charlie came in.

Well, no, we just… I think we knew each other through Instagram, probably. And they were coming through town and we were just chatting a little bit. Basically, he invited me out to the show. And we were hanging out on the bus and I brought some guitars for him to check out. Just to like, my personal guitarist, I was proud of him. I have some cool stuff.

Okay, okay.

Craig (29:55.278)
Yeah, yeah, he’s a vintage guitar, Gibson vintage guitar nut. Yeah.

And TJ, drummer was there as well. So I met Binging that night. I also met Britt. And Britt was the best dude ever. That guy was so, so cool.

Yeah, I was a young guy to pass.

Yeah, and unfortunately, not any of it’s unfortunate, but it’s the same thing my dad did. I appreciate it. It’s around the same age too. My dad was 59. It was weird. Weird stuff. Anyhow, so TJ and Britt hit it off, you know, drummers and stuff like that, but we all stayed in touch and when…

You had told me that and I’m so sorry about that. That’s just, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (30:34.658)
Garrett the new singer of the band we had a different singer, but Garrett joined in April, but we released music this past April of 2023 we released music August of 2023 and With him Yes, yeah his name is Garrett and When Garrett joined the band we kind of had no shame or like we’re getting this ball rolling man like we’re doing it and we just reached out and Basically like

Was that with the new singer or the old singer? Okay.

Tyler Armstrong (31:04.354)
What would it take guys? You know, like we know we’re not doing like a whole lot to make it beneficial.

Dude, you actually reached out? Holy shit, man.

Well, so it started off with TJ and I TJ kind of was like, you know, I want to take the the handle on, you know, sending all the emails and booking and stuff. I’m like, cool, man, I’ll focus on the music. Like we’re a really good team in that regard. And so, yeah, we both were just like. Yeah, and. He’s he’s a driven dude. We’re a good team. We. Ahead, but it’s like.

Yeah.

He’s a drummer? Oh, that’s unusual.

Craig (31:39.406)
That’s great, man. Happens for the greater good of the relationship, you know? Yeah, yeah.

It’s a 100%. It is a, I welcome it. So, but anyway, um, we both agreed. We’re like, man, if we got to send these people 10 emails, we’re going to do it. And we’re just going to annoy them so much that they get back to us. And sometimes it worked, but anyhow, it was like, yeah, talk to our manager and, um, we got to run set up and they took a big fat chance on us. And, um,

Right on.

Tyler Armstrong (32:11.618)
they loved it and so did their crowd. I mean the Blackberry Smoke fan… Yeah, we’re not super southern but I mean Blackberry Smoke’s a rock band.

It’s totally compatible. Yeah.

Craig (32:20.878)
Yeah, there are vintage guitar tones. Yes, definitely.

So I mean it went as simply as that but it was years in the making of just like forming relationships and just being cool and we didn’t expect anything from them. We just asked and that’s not, that is rare.

that is super rare that you get a chance like that but they liked it enough that we got another run and they want to do more in the future they are the coolest dudes on earth I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of folks and music and guitar and stuff like that and a lot of my people I look up to and those guys are the best dudes no ego

They’re all very nice guys.

Craig (33:03.246)
Very nice guys, both of them. I don’t know Benji, but you know, I know.

I mean, Benji is, dude, if you talk about someone who’s laid back and down for anything, Benji is the coolest man of all time. I just saw him the other week and talked to him about some stuff we had going on and he texted me the other day, he’s just like, hey, how’d all that stuff go? I’m like, come on, man. Yeah, they’re not Charlie or Benji and Blackberry Smoke, they’re my friends Charlie and Benji.

Hahaha!

Craig (33:25.87)
What a nice guy, yeah.

They’re people.

Craig (33:35.214)
Right. All right.

And it’s very cool and their mindset about things relates very much so to my Midwest mindset of living. It’s like, cool man, right on. So anyway, that’s how those shut up.

Yeah. Hey man, no, but let’s, let’s take a step back for one second. You said three magic words. We just asked and people are so, especially musicians. They’re so afraid to do that. And it’s unfortunate because you know, it’s that old, um, what comes to mind is that I’m not a hockey guy, but Wayne Gretzky has this famous quote. You miss a hundred percent of the shots you never take. You guess what?

All you did was ask if you didn’t, you might not have got it, but if you didn’t ask, you certainly never would have got the gig, you know? So you, I mean, you guys literally changed your entire life.

Yeah, well, you know, it helped that they were aware of the band and they were fans. Um, you know, and all of that, but, you know, it’s, uh,

Craig (34:34.318)
Yeah.

Craig (34:38.094)
But if you didn’t ask, they probably wouldn’t have called you. Management probably wouldn’t have called you.

Yeah. Yeah, I’ll say it again. It’s a rare thing. I encourage everyone to do it. I will say 99 .9 % of the time, it’s not going to happen. But it was just one of those things, man. And it’s that’s cool. I, you know, I’m not somebody of, you know, got to talk to my manager and I hope I’m never that way. I don’t think I would be. But you know, there, so I’m saying I’m not at a, um,

Absolutely.

Tyler Armstrong (35:09.09)
a societal level of note to be able to be like, you know, anyway, but there are folks who want to know about like my gear and stuff like that. And I won’t tell them all the secrets, of course, but reach out, man. Like I, I, I reach out, I, I look at all of my Instagram requests and stuff like that. So.

Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (35:30.242)
It was just encouraging too, it’s like, smoke is at a level that they’re essentially doing the same thing. Like, they owe me nothing. And it’s just cool, man. I mean, there’s so many cool things going on. There’s so many things on a spiritual level of, wow, not like stair -step like on people, but like, wow, this is adding up, this is adding up. And it just, you know, I don’t know, we’re just people, man. So, yeah, some of us are just playing to…

Right.

Craig (35:41.614)
That’s great.

Craig (35:55.342)
Yeah, man, one step at a time. That’s it.

quite a few people with a guitar in our hands, but like I view every gig that I’m at the stagger in in Edwardsville, Illinois, just 150 college students with sticky floors and playing almond brothers. It’s like, if I’m not getting, if I don’t feel the same way about Madison square garden, maybe someday as I do stagger that I’m just walking on a stagger stage, like I need to get a grip.

Yeah, yeah.

and the the smoke dudes are the salt of the earth they’re they’re so cool man and you won’t hear anyone say anything bad about them not a single thing they’re as cool as you

Nope, never. They’re all nice guys. Yeah. Well, it’s interesting. I, I saw this, uh, I was thinking it was on Instagram and this guy was talking about, he was a celebrity, he was an actor and he was talking about it. He goes, listen, make no mistake. Once you get popular and once you’re well known, everybody’s going to like you. Everyone’s going to want, everyone’s going to want to buy you a drink. Everyone’s going to want to shake your hand and everyone’s going to want to know your story. But

Craig (37:01.902)
keep in mind, this has nothing to do with you. It’s about the power that you have, the celebrity that you have and the attachment that other people have to that power and celebrity. He goes, they don’t know you has nothing to do with you. He goes, please keep that in mind. And I, and I, I think it helps if you’re, if you’re like that to be, you know, like, as you just said, you mentioned.

You’re going to have, as you go up the ladder, you’re going to have less inclination to deviate from that. You know, whereas if you’re like a big ego guy to begin with, forget it all hell is going to break loose for you when you get up that ladder.

Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (37:44.29)
You know, like… Specifically after my dad passed three years ago, yesterday actually, I was just like, you know, this isn’t everything. This is what I’m doing, this is my vehicle to talk about what I’m wanting to talk about.

Oh wow.

Tyler Armstrong (38:02.402)
You know, the, you know, the truth that’s been given to me and all of these things and like my dad made, he was a, he ran all the networking for the state of Illinois. And yeah, he was, my dad was, he was, he was a bamf. He was in my opinion, you know, kind of, you know, from that standpoint, a little bit nerdy, but like he was the coolest dude ever. I could go on and on about my dad. And, um,

Oh wow.

Tyler Armstrong (38:29.474)
but he worked in a cubicle, he worked in work calls on the phone, he’d drive to Chicago to work on the switch and back, he’d go to things to train people, and after he passed, not as much anymore, it’s been three years out, but I was getting calls from people I didn’t know, Facebook messages, texts from numbers I didn’t recognize, just saying like, Joe made such an impact on me, I use it in this area of my life, I’m literally like over a thousand times

thousand people and so my mindset is like if I can’t view this my you know my dad did this in a cubicle man if I think I’m great because I’m playing in front of all you know people

I mean there’s so many people else that are like there’s always a bigger gig there’s always whatever and like if my if what if my vehicle through music is to preach about myself I mean I can do I can look in the mirror and do that I don’t gotta be on stage no so it’s an it’s an interesting it’s just an interesting thing it’s psychology you know

Right.

Craig (39:33.23)
Yeah, right, right. I get you.

Craig (39:40.526)
Yeah, no. And you got to be on top of that stuff. I think it’s like funny. I remember when I took my, my kids, I have three kids, two sons and a daughter and they not the, my daughter just didn’t pertain to because she didn’t care about lifting heavy weights. But I, when my kids, you know, the boys are young, they want to lift heavy weights. And I said, listen, there’s always going to be somebody here who’s going to kick your ass. I said, just have fun, do what you need to do and don’t pay attention. And thank God they, they are both dead. They weren’t like,

you know, no, I want to be the best. I want to be the biggest, you know, whatever. But yeah, I think that’s important to just, you know, be in the moment, be happy and you know, what you’re saying.

Yeah, man.

Tyler Armstrong (40:16.194)
Holy man, my dad, two things that stuck with me majorly that my dad said when I was younger, when I played baseball, I was obsessed, I was fast, man. I was like really fast. But I was obsessed with being the fastest. And I knew I was the fastest on the team, but I remember asking one time like, dad, do you think I’m faster in Austin? And he was like, uh,

care if you’re faster in Austin just be the fastest you can be and and he also said um I don’t even remember what we were talking about but ended with him saying you know just be worried about filling your own shoes dude like don’t don’t fill mine don’t fill anyone else’s there’s no legacy to live out you know just fill your own shoes yeah man

Yeah.

Craig (40:56.27)
Mm -hmm. Yeah. Be happy. That’s cool, man. Was there like any particular was was the I guess my question is, was there any kind of break that helped you guys get your name out there? But I got to believe it was opening for the Blackberry Smoke guys. Yeah.

That certainly helped. Yeah, so the first run was awesome. And we released an EP from one of the shows that you mentioned, St. Petersburg. That was a very hot, sweaty night.

Yeah. Yeah.

Dude, it’s hot and sweaty every night there except for maybe two months a year. I stopped going to Janice for that reason. It’s like when they oversell it and you got, I’m not really a beer drinker and everybody’s like drinking beer and spilling shit. And like, I’m like, I’m too old to deal with that now.

Good. It hurts.

Tyler Armstrong (41:41.378)
Smoke shows are like, uh… I mean, they’re, you know… You don’t see fights, but like, it’s like, people are hyped to be there. But that specific show, because you’re surrounded by all those brick apartments and buildings and stuff, it’s super hot anyway. Yeah, oh, it probably sucks. You got that weird club going pts pts pts right behind it.

Yeah.

Craig (41:56.942)
You imagine living there?

Yeah.

And on the Friday nights or Saturday nights, because we hang out in St. Pete once in a while, we’ll go down there for a Saturday night or Friday, they have that, that booming to like one in the morning, man. It’s like not fun when you’re trying to get some sleep in your hotel.

Yeah, and it’s weird. There’s a picture of it. We’re waiting to go on stage and to get… I don’t know what it was, but I don’t know if it was a bathroom that was back there or like extra stock that the club had, but they went through right behind the stage to where the stock or the bathroom was and we were just thinking like anyone at any time could walk out of there and just go on stage, but they’re probably so messed up they don’t even know it. But anyway…

Man, that show was just crazy. And I don’t know how many people we ended up counting, but there was like six different incidents of people getting escorted. This lady was fighting cops. She was drug out and she was like, I’m never coming here again. I love Blackberry Smoke. It would do it. They have a video of it. It’s insane. But so yeah, so that first run with them was great. I mean, that really…

Craig (42:56.654)
Wow.

Craig (43:01.55)
Hahaha!

That’s funny.

Tyler Armstrong (43:12.802)
not only introduce folks to us, but it kind of…

gave us some confidence of like, well, we thought good, but like, man, we’re, we’re up there and like, we’re controlling, commanding this crowd. Like they were with it from every low and high point of the set. And it was great. Um, then we did another run with them. Um, I guess it was in February around that time, there was some things going on in social media land that just like took off and, um, started bringing us some more attention. And.

Hell yeah.

Craig (43:44.654)
He, you know what? It was clips from that video because that’s how I found you. I heard these clips. I’m like, cause I’m always looking for, you know, to check out new music. And then if I like it, maybe that, you know, have the individual on the show, if they’re open. And I heard those ones like, who are these guys, man? So I was part of that. Whatever you, I don’t know if they were paid ads, but if they would paid ads, they were money well spent because it, it.

Cool.

Tyler Armstrong (44:11.266)
Yeah, we’ve done, I mean, maybe done one or two, but that was, we did it after everything kind of started to catch some attention. So those first ones were just organic.

It was great. And then I was frustrated because I saw them playing here in St. Pete and I didn’t know about it. Funny story, I saw Blackberry Smoke open for government mule at Janus quite a while back. Yeah, yeah, it was quite a while back, at least 10 years ago.

Oh cool. Oh really?

Well I had asked him if Paul Jackson in the band, I was like, you guys played here many times? He was like, yeah, I bring two extra fans for this gig. I was like, that’s really hot. Yeah. I like, I love to play in there though. From on stage, like an energy point of view, all man. It was great. I’d play there again for sure. I just bring more talents and whatnot. But.

It’s gross there. That’s what I’m saying. I stopped going. It’s so hot. I’m like.

Craig (45:01.102)
Yes, I could. I could see that.

Yeah.

It was, yeah, around that time and we have a great team, man. Like our media team is got him Cameron Alvarez. He owns the shift agency here in town and all the professional videos you see that are cut are from him. He is world class. Now we do all of our, we do all of our own audio, all of our own mixing is in -house as of right now. So anything you hear is done by us, which also helps.

Yeah, he did a really good job.

Craig (45:34.318)
When you say us in your studio in Harbor.

yeah or at where TJ lives which is not far from here TJ has an audio background I have a lot of studio background so it’s been a great marriage with that and yeah so anything you see with that I don’t know if there’s one thing that has been doing it per se it’s just I think people have kind of found us organically and they’re starting to they dig it we’re very authentic you know I’ve been saying lately that

Okay.

Craig (45:48.238)
That’s great.

Tyler Armstrong (46:08.034)
When I thought about being in a band when I was 13, I didn’t know it was this, but this is the band I was thinking about.

That’s really cool. That’s it.

dynamics the you know it’s people think of the 70s as like when they think about rock bands like maybe later on the 70s it was a little bit harder but like all the time but man you want to talk about zeppelin like they can’t yeah stuff like that it Crosby Stills and Nash was a rock band even though they’re mostly like there is dynamics there was the ups and downs and

Cream?

Craig (46:37.102)
Absolutely.

Tyler Armstrong (46:43.714)
all different kinds of music too. So.

I think that’s something we nail is that even though the stuff we have released right now is on the heavier side of things, it still has dynamics that though all rock music is still great. I’ll stick by that. But I don’t think there’s many bands doing it quite like that that bring the dynamic experience of, you know, why I think it relates to people so much. The dynamics in music, specifically rock music, is because rock music is the culmination of all genres.

Like when you listen to, you know, jazz, there’s not rock influence in it. But if you listen to rock, jazz, blues, R &B, all this stuff. So, you know, I think about it as like the emotions of life. You have good days, you have bad days, happy times, sad times, funny times, whatever. And rock music at its core, the best kind.

It’s jazz, right?

Tyler Armstrong (47:44.29)
lets you live within that escape. Like, I can relate to that. So yeah, I just think people are digging that, that we’re authentic.

Well, I think the music’s great. And that’s, I mean, if, you know, I don’t care how good your video production is, if the music wasn’t that good, it would just be like, you know, that’s your response would be, you know, in line with that. But the closest, I mean, to describe to people listening, you don’t sound anything like the Allman brothers, but you’re, they’re the closest band I would relate to because they’ll spin off and they’ll do jazz R and B.

And it’s very hard to incorporate that authentically and you guys are doing that on a very consistent basis. Yeah, man.

Well, I appreciate that. I mean, we, it’s one of those things when you write music and release it. I, when I was growing up and still like listening to music, I would listen to our just minute details of things. I would always catch them. Like, excuse me, here, there and everywhere, the Beatles. One time where the harmony that Paul does,

Mm -hmm, Beatles, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (49:04.034)
Shifts it’s ascending and descending and if somebody does not nail that when I hear them do it it kind of aggravates me so like when I’m releasing music I want to know that people are hearing like man. I love that specific delay you did or you know this sounds like We have a song I won’t say what song it is because I don’t want I want people to find it themselves But it’s a song that has a very specific

title that if someone who’s deep into music especially 60s and 70s stuff would relate it back to another very specific title that came out in 1969 and I’ve had a couple people say did you call it that because of this song I mean like you got me you caught me but I love that

Now I wanna pull up your, let me just pull up, I shoulda had it here.

I’ll tell you, I won’t tell you.

Okay, you can tell me afterwards.

Tyler Armstrong (50:08.13)
I actually got to plug my charger in one day.

Yeah, man.

Tyler Armstrong (50:30.306)
Sick. Okay, thank God.

Awesome, thank you.

Tyler Armstrong (50:36.738)
But anyway, yeah, I love that stuff.

Well, now you’re talking about tracks. Let me talk about a few of the field tracks. I really dig. So the first track is brother, incredibly cool blues jam and you in particular, just like ripping it up in there, man. Tell me about that track.

Okay.

Tyler Armstrong (50:55.074)
students. So.

Tyler Armstrong (51:02.498)
I’m not into like, uh, political statements. I mean, obviously people need to make political statements to make things happen. But me personally, I don’t need anyone to know my views about anything, but I will say I’m generally, um, middle of the road. I think that’s a pretty Midwest cop out to say, but I am pretty, pretty middle of the road.

Yeah, I’m the same.

Craig (51:24.43)
Who wants to take a side and if you’re like have any kind of celebrity?

Well, yeah, that’s for sure.

I mean, unless that’s your unless you’re like gonna pound that drum and then and I think it is good if you want to do that because you get a lot more like I’m I’m the same way I never discuss this and I know if I started discussing it, you know, probably more people would want to hear like outrageous opinions, but I don’t give a shit about like I don’t just don’t feel like discussing. I don’t even I’m not I’m not even.

Yeah.

particularly educated in politics, so I don’t really feel comfortable discussing.

Tyler Armstrong (52:03.394)
Yeah, I stayed pretty clear of all of it, but even in the middle of the road, I can generally see the point that each side is making in general. And so Brother came about.

Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (52:21.954)
when some stuff was happening in the media and some stuff with you know

some people were dying. People weren’t sure if it was justly done or what. And the way that it was handled by a lot of folks was very civil, but also when you have outrage, people, how should I word it, act in great passion. And…

You act like assholes?

Well, they want to be heard, but it might not be in the way that I would do it, maybe. Two Ends of the Spectrum. So essentially, Brother came about when I was sitting on the couch one day, and there was a serious unrest, right? I mean, this would have been…

Yeah, okay. I get you.

Tyler Armstrong (53:35.586)
2019 -20 something like that and I think and Anyhow I Just wrote it from that middle perspective, you know, it’s um, it talks about you know Sunshine colors and rain on the world today Questions of skin in the human race to live as one can it be done if you can’t go outside and make it home?

So before COVID.

Tyler Armstrong (54:05.25)
So that’s definitely one. Thanks. And I wasn’t even high. I don’t smoke weed anymore. It just happened. But I was, I just don’t anymore. But because if I did, it probably wouldn’t have been like mushrooms are gray and trees are green. But so.

That’s heavy, man.

Yeah, that’s good. It doesn’t make you a bad person.

Craig (54:25.39)
Ha ha!

Craig (54:29.134)
I don’t know how people do much if they’re stoned. They gotta be honest with you.

I had my time when I was young. Anyhow, but then, you know, on the other perspective, you know, I can just run through the lyrics. It helps me to think about it too, you know. You know, love is a notion and let’s sink down. Let the love flood in when your brother’s on the ground. The second verse kind of comes from the other side of things of like.

Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (54:57.666)
the people that have been hurt and what I feel I had to say to them or whatever. It’s, my friend walked down the street with your sign held high, but let the only fire be in your heart and mind. It, you know, let this be the day, you know, conjoin and all this kind of stuff. It was my way of just saying what I had to say without getting on Facebook and all of it. It’s, we are all trying to get to the same, even it.

Yeah, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (55:27.266)
outcome whether somebody’s doing outcome from themselves or for a group they do want the same outcome which is peace it just might look differently to different people and that it’s people have you know related to it with issues of race people have related to it of you know your brother being on the ground of military things and I think that’s cool I know what it’s to me

Yeah, just.

Craig (55:52.238)
Yeah.

And I know it’s a cliche of like, whatever you want it to be, man, that’s what it’s about. But hey, man, like, yeah, either way, it’s a song of unity and peace. And, you know, there is a lot going on out there. They’re always happy.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Craig (56:08.942)
Way too much going on. I know and social media just sticks it in your face. That’s the problem So people are reminded of it 24 7 and it’s like nobody should be you should detox from that shit

yeah but it related as far as the guitar stuff goes I guess intense song calls for intense I appreciate that it’s it’s definitely a fun song to play but it’s definitely a song that’s a you know it’s up and down the dynamic it’s an emotional song and it’s a

Yeah, your playing was great on that, man.

Craig (56:43.662)
Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (56:49.314)
I like it. I hope we always play it. It’s, you know, it’s kind of a note, you know, musically, you know, a lot of people say it’s like free and it’s like, well, I love free, you know, I’m never going to back away from someone saying it’s like this, but we put our own thing on it. We get pretty intense with it. And I’m glad you like that song. Like, thanks.

Yeah, Free is amazing. Yeah.

Craig (57:10.446)
Oh, I love it. It’s great track. I also loved There You Go. I mean, it’s I love songs that are put together like that. It’s basically like an 11 minute jam. Everybody gets to shine. And I was curious, is that your because it’s a great closing song. Is that your usual closing song?

No, is it last on the EP?

Yeah, I think it must be otherwise I wouldn’t have asked you. Yeah, there you go is last correct.

It’s actually, if we do like a headlining set, it’ll be the song before the acoustic stuff, because it’s like so intense and then we make it change. But it’s always in the middle. And it’s a…

Yeah.

Craig (57:49.39)
It’s interesting. It’s such a good song to close with.

Well, it’s cool. We have another song, you know, when you see a Ciela, you might see why. We in pretty intensely. It’s kind of sick. We don’t want them to go home.

either energized because of the set or super tired because of it. So yeah, we put in the middle of the set there and it’s a really great transition because the set usually starts off with the rockers and this journey of this jam goes through, you know, you’ve heard it. It depends. Well, we switch things up sometimes, but it’ll go from a really kind of rock to.

Right.

Craig (58:14.574)
It’s a.

Tyler Armstrong (58:29.602)
So what the Miles Davis tunes in there? You do the Joe Cocker thing or the Beatles however you want to look at it. It’s just a kind of a journey that doesn’t let you know what’s coming. So we put in the middle of set kind of as a well there you go and you know as an opening set too if we’re playing for bands well if you didn’t like those ones we’ll show you what we’re about like what we can do.

Yes.

Craig (58:55.758)
Yeah. Yeah. If someone like listens to that and you and you’ll, and they’re like, nah, not that, I mean, you got nothing left, man. I mean, what are you going to, you know, how much more you can’t give more than that song, to be honest with you is would you consider putting that as a studio? Like, you know, like you think about something like in memory of Elizabeth Reed and it wasn’t the same as when it’s live, you know, uh, but I was wondering how that song would be in a studio.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, sure.

Tyler Armstrong (59:16.13)
Well, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (59:20.258)
Totally. No.

I don’t think in the studio, one, because we quote so many different songs. And secondly, it kind of comes together differently each time we play it live. The thing about Elizabeth Reed is like, it’s that song. And there you go is we have plans of like substituting certain things in and out. It’s kind of like, you know,

Mm -hmm.

Craig (59:42.158)
Right.

Tyler Armstrong (59:50.594)
I guess that’s like the Dead fan in me too, or like you could say the same thing about Zeppelin, but like I love that the Dead, like if you went to the show the night before, you are not gonna get the same story tonight. And it’s just a, and even if they do play the same tune, which rarely that happened, it’s still gonna be different.

Yeah, totally.

Tyler Armstrong (01:00:10.978)
So I think we like to keep some things live because it’s also incentive and I think attractive to come see our shows because you know it could be different. We are happy people follow us like hundreds of miles now to each show. It’s nuts. It’s a great feeling. Thanks man.

Yeah, yeah.

Craig (01:00:28.558)
Dude, that’s so cool. I’m happy to hear that. You deserve it. Yeah, that’s very cool.

And they’ll say the same thing and it’s like, oh, like if they’re a guitar nut, they’ll be like, I heard you quote this on, there you go that time. I’m like, ah, you got me or whatever, you know, that sort of thing. And so I don’t know. I mean, we’re game from trying anything. I think, I think we can. Thanks, dude. That just kind of came about with a, um, I, uh, originally I had that main riff thing that’s almost kind of like a.

Great track. I love the track.

Tyler Armstrong (01:01:02.562)
I think about it like a Ted Nugent thing. I’m not like the biggest like Ted Nugent disciple, but it’s kind of like a mid 70s Midwest rock riff and I was working on making it a song.

And then so we I brought it to the dudes TJ Roger and I, however many years ago and said, OK, well, this is the tune like let’s learn the music and then see what happens from it. And then like we would just jam on it and it’s like, well, let’s just keep this a jam. And there’s a ton of jam bands out there, you know, goose and you know, great jam band. But again, there’s that side of.

Definitely.

Tyler Armstrong (01:01:41.89)
rock, like specifically rock music like us, that doesn’t really do it like that anymore.

No, you don’t see a lot of tracks like that.

And that’s not me saying like we’re better because of it. It’s just me saying like that’s another authentic nature of it is like we’re going to do it like, and we do it for open people will comment and say like, wow, very pretentious to have a drum solo or a big long jam when you only have 45 minutes to set out. I’m like, we’re here to show you who we are, man. Oh, yeah.

It’s just not, you don’t, yeah.

Craig (01:02:14.286)
Do people really say that? I tell you, no, people’s lack of shit to do, though, never ceases to amaze. No, because people like they’ll leave. Look, I’m grateful someone watches a YouTube video. I really am. And 99 % of the comments are like, that makes sense. But sometimes people will leave this like.

You know, they need to get a blog and just express themselves on there and like this whole thing. And I’m like, wow, how do you have the time? I mean, like even it’s not even like wrong or right, but more like why? Like I gotta have something better to do.

Man, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (01:02:53.89)
Yeah, it, you know, it’s dirty something. Yeah. Luckily, man, especially as of late, I would say 95 % of the comments and, you know, has been great, like super positive. And, you know, I think the older generation views this as truly authentic and the younger generation did not live it. So they’re like, they’re starting to fall in love with it for the first time. Like not to say that we are these guys, but like we could be their Led Zeppelin.

Yeah.

Craig (01:03:11.534)
very much.

Craig (01:03:17.71)
which is wonderful.

Tyler Armstrong (01:03:22.338)
we could be there, you know, Mackie or whoever, you know, just, so that’s something pretty beautiful in that sense that we’ve seen. It’s pretty much mass acceptance of who’s found us so far.

Sure. They’re free. Yeah.

Craig (01:03:31.022)
Yeah!

Craig (01:03:35.918)
But it’s weird when someone says to you, someone’s calling you pretentious. You’re like out there writing original music, getting this shit done. Like what did they do? But what, it doesn’t matter. But what does somebody, you know, usually I like, someone told me in a business seminar, maybe 30 years ago even, or 25 years ago probably, they said something like, the.

Well they don’t check out anything else though, you know? Like they…

Craig (01:04:03.822)
people who criticize are always on the ladder below you. Cause the people who are on the ladder, your level or above, they know what it took for you to do that. And they’re not going to criticize cause they know it’s part of your journey and whatever it is. And they’re going to give you a helping hand to get up to that next rung. But you know, you get criticism like, what are you doing? Like, you know, you’re like probably living in your mom’s basement or something.

It’s one of those things… I’m not too concerned about it. Like… I’ve been a hater before. I haven’t gone as far as taking my time to comment on it. But, you know… Yeah, you know, when Greta Van Fleet first came out, I don’t listen to them religiously or anything. But I was… I disliked them purely because I was envious. So like, I’ve been there, so I get it.

That’s like, I just don’t get that.

Craig (01:04:50.19)
Right. Good for you for for recognizing your emotions on that at least.

I mean, we’re all gonna die someday, it is what it is. So like, you know, if those people wanna say it, cool, for two reasons. One, America, I guess you can say whatever you want, even if it’s in different countries. Yeah, it does not bother me, I’m still gonna do this tomorrow. Second thing is though, um…

Hahaha!

Craig (01:05:07.31)
Price you pay for freedom, I know.

Craig (01:05:13.39)
Yeah.

I don’t like to feed into it, but it is just the case. People love drama. And you know, the second somebody says, you know, they’ve been, I mean, they’ve done it forever. Even if we’re just talking about music, you can’t tell me that Sabbath didn’t get some, you know, popularity because the crazy Christian people were saying they’re Satanists. It’s like, well, for a 13 year old boy, it’s like, yeah, I love horror movies. It sounds awesome.

Oh my god.

Craig (01:05:43.022)
Yeah, let me check that out. Right. Oh, there’s, yeah, because you got such intense curiosity behind a lot of these things.

Yeah, so it’s.

Tyler Armstrong (01:05:51.138)
Yeah, I mean, back in the greater template, I don’t want to talk about them forever, but like, I think, I think their music’s good. I think that they have worked very hard to where they’re at. Like I know the story, like a lot of behind the scenes stuff just now I do talking to certain people. And it’s like, wow, man, they’ve really just taken over, which that’s a beautiful thing for them. But.

started when people are like they’re trying to be zeppelin they’re trying to be zeppelin blah blah blah first off their music doesn’t sound anything like them especially now and secondly it’s like well you guys are just you know you’re gonna burn Beatles records you just bought it man you’re helping them move on

Right, right.

Anyway, I don’t care about bad comments. I don’t want them to be hurtful. I don’t want them to be like, um, purposely like, um, whatever. I can deal with it, but like, you know, if you don’t like it, just say you don’t like it. You know, or just shut up too. You know, whatever. It’s all cool. It’s funny, man. It’s most specifically with there you go. There’s been a couple of people with this one guy was like,

Yeah, it’s weird.

Craig (01:06:47.854)
Yeah.

That’s weird.

Tyler Armstrong (01:06:59.65)
He’s like, really? You’re doing a cover of a cover? And it’s, I just like, man, it’s, it’s just kind of funny. I’m like, well, yeah, I guess he’s right, but whatever.

Yeah, but you’re doing it. That’s the difference. You’re on stage doing it. You know, it’s easy to comment when you’re doing nothing. That’s all my point.

It’s awful man. You know, Dwayne Allman Dwayne and Greg Allman lived in St. Louis for a brief period of time in 66. So I know a lot of people who rub shoulders with them. And one of the guys said, you know, there’s this band that I can’t remember what club it was, but they were not good. And they was with Greg. And this guy that I know was saying that.

He’s like, man, this band is just not good, man. I wish you were playing, which I was playing. Dwayne said, you’re having fun, man. So it’s like, I just keep that mindset. Just whatever. And if you’re doing nothing, whatever that means, it’s all whatever. I don’t care. That’s there you go.

Yeah, they’re doing something. Yeah. Yeah.

Craig (01:07:55.982)
Yeah, yeah.

Uh, last song I want to talk about is you were kind enough to give me a sneak peek at this. What have now? So the first thing that track reminded me of is, and I don’t even know if you’ve ever heard of this, but when I was a kid, I used to go down to the Hayden planetarium in, in, in down in the city and they had this thing there. It was Pink Floyd laser rock. And then later on they had Led Zeppelin laser. So basically you go down. Yeah. You basically go down there like,

Yeah, laser fire.

Craig (01:08:27.502)
this is back in the early to mid seventies, buy a bunch of loose joints from guys hanging out in the park and then get high and go and just, you know, be stoned for an hour and a half and just like watch the, you know, listen to dark side of the moon with lasers and then maybe some other music. Yeah, man. Right. That’s exactly what it, right. And, um, but that song,

Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (01:08:38.498)
Watch the show.

Tyler Armstrong (01:08:45.506)
Well you’d see that thing when you went like that, Pop -Up.

Craig (01:08:53.613)
It starts with like the synth stuff and then it explodes with so much. I mean, it’s just phenomenal. I thought it was great. And my comment here was very few guitarists can mix jazz licks into a rock track without it sounding sort of like bougie and pretentious. You know, I mean, but I really thought the stuff you were doing was great. You know, the subtle jazz stuff you put in there, it really rocked and um,

So tell me about the backstory to that song, which is another great long jam. And will you be releasing that?

Yeah, well first thing, I think the version I sent you is live. Thanks. So there will be other, you know, for my production mind, there’s going to be even more cool stuff on the studio track. Yeah, we’ll definitely release it someday. I don’t, the origins of it, I mean, I don’t really like purposely sit down and write.

Oh, you’re welcome. Yeah, it was. It was phenomenal.

Craig (01:09:43.95)
Good.

Tyler Armstrong (01:09:52.322)
most of the time, I guess. Not for feel, at least. It’s usually just when I’m messing around. So I think that just came out of a riff, the thing in the beginning. Oh, that. Well, I’m just…

The synths though, you don’t, that was like, after, yeah, after listening to the EP, I’m like, where did that come from? That was really, I wasn’t expecting that.

Well, that’s cool to hear. I mean, like, we… What I’m looking forward to is releasing more music so they can hear my origins mixed with TJ, Roger, and Garrett’s origins. Like, it’s… This is… I want this band to be a culmination of pretty much everything I’m into. For the most part, I love synth. I love, you know, I have a mini -mode, you know, I’ve got, you know…

You know, it’s not a synth, but Rhodes and Whirly’s and stuff like that. Arp, you know, string ensemble. Just the cool stuff, like nerdy stuff. And I don’t know. I just. I love that stuff. I love early Genesis, like love, love, love early Genesis, the weird stuff. And I love BS and, you know, King Crimson and I don’t know. I just I just like it. I’m not just a guitarist. So I was just.

Right.

Tyler Armstrong (01:11:04.514)
I don’t know, I kinda put it together and it’ll sound a little bit different on the record than what I sent you, but same idea. But anyway. Thanks. Um, that’s what’s cool too, when we do it live, that’s just like a, I don’t bring that stuff out. So that’s like, that is a track that’s played over front of house. So you don’t know what’s going on and then all of a sudden, pow! People will know when they hear it. But um, but yeah, I, you know, I don’t know how things –

Sounded great, man. Really cool. I really enjoyed that track.

Craig (01:11:21.678)
Okay.

Craig (01:11:25.326)
Yeah.

Craig (01:11:31.534)
Just even the title is cool. What of now?

well yeah, Garrett the singer came up with that and we’re still figuring a few things out with melodies and lyrics and stuff but we were like, well yeah that sounds cool man like right on, just like Midnight Rush it’s like, well yeah let’s do it, sounds good but as far as like the arrangement and stuff that’s very much from my love of prog there’s not really any like odd time signatures but

It’s the arrangements themselves. You know, you’ve heard it goes through, you know, how the guitar only instrumental it has, you know, 12 string parts and, you know, kind of a Liz Reed kind of jam sort of thing. And then it all comes back together. It’s, it’s just, you know, why?

But that’s not easy to do. I mean, you really got to be on top of your arranging to make it come back together like that deliberately, you know, it’s because you can get lost in the weeds pretty easily when you’re going off like that. And that’s what I liked about the track. You did a good job tying everything together. And it wasn’t like you had awkward things buffering up against each other. It was it was very well done. And for a long track like that, again, that’s not, you know, pat yourself on the back, man, for that compositionally. That’s really good.

Well, I preach.

Craig (01:12:49.038)
Yeah, that was great.

Yeah, I call it our pretentious song. I’m glad you dig it. I think a lot of people will. And again, it’s not something that active rock bands have done for a really long time. And from the other standpoint too, like, you know, a lot of the seventies groups didn’t do it exactly like that, but I’m looking forward to combining the straight ahead rock to kind of the weirder proggy, you know, stuff.

No, it’s great, man.

Tyler Armstrong (01:13:18.978)
I think people are going to like it just because it’s us and seems to be people are digging it and I have fun with it. It’s just a fun thing and it’s just such a joy to hear people like you and others say like, man, that’s a cool track and like young people saying it too. I’m like, great, man. Cause like, I love this. Like it’s, it’s just, it’s a good feeling, man. I don’t know what else to say too much about it.

Yeah.

Craig (01:13:34.83)
awesome.

Craig (01:13:44.974)
Well deserved. You know what? You just remind me. So I’m going to send it to my son. My oldest son would love that for sure. Thank you. Uh, any plans for you guys to release another, like a studio album soon or.

Well, we’d love to and that is there are plans for all of that. Just where we’re at with the band right now, there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff happening with, you know, as far as business goes. So great stuff, like really, really exciting stuff. But it’s not in our best interest right now to release something so substantial while things are still growing. It will happen.

Good.

Tyler Armstrong (01:14:23.842)
But as of right now, just from a logistics standpoint and business, like it’s, um, we don’t want to release something so substantial right now that our current fan base will hear. We want our current fan base plus as we everybody, cause an album, you know,

plus a new fan.

Tyler Armstrong (01:14:41.218)
People saying in this new world of ADHD, it’s like, we’ve always had ADHD, we just have phones now. So like, it’s just so much new information. If you release an album, it’s going to be listened to probably the same amount of times, if not less than an EP or a single. So it just, I hate to say it this way, it just doesn’t make sense. But really important to hear it.

I would agree with that.

Craig (01:15:05.326)
No, you want to do the work for a reason. Yeah, you don’t want to.

Yeah, man. And I’m an album guy. I have an extensive vinyl collection. I think I told you, I’m an organized hoarder with the things I collect. I’m very much into certain pressings and all this, just because it’s fun. And…

I like that.

Tyler Armstrong (01:15:23.202)
So yeah, I’m an album guy and I’m looking forward to releasing that and releasing vinyl and having little Easter eggs on each of them and stuff like that from a collectability standpoint. And yeah, to answer your question, we’re into it for sure. And I think that with the way that we come off authentic nature and it’ll in the kind of songs we do and the fan base we’re growing, I think when we release an album, I think it’s going to be a…

so funny.

Good.

Tyler Armstrong (01:15:51.17)
awesome new thing for the folks that are new to this kind of music but for an older generation it’s going to be an awesome like yes like not to just like talk highly of ourselves but i know if we do that we’re going to do it right just because we we’re just not following a ton of the rules at the moment luckily luckily folks uh it’s what folks are wanting right now and it’s what i would want so

Yeah.

Craig (01:16:05.934)
Good.

Craig (01:16:10.542)
Dude, you guys are really good bands.

Tyler Armstrong (01:16:19.746)
I would listen to us. I do. So I feel good about that. It’s one of those things I should mention that anything that I have output with, anything I create, it’s just an extension of like…

Very cool. That’s a good sign.

Tyler Armstrong (01:16:35.65)
experiences I’ve had or you know it’s not coming from me like there’s I’m on the shoulders of giants so to speak and you know spiritually and you know metaphorically and so when I talk Kylie saying like I’d listen to my band I don’t feel as weird saying it because I made it it’s like man I’m a fan of the people making this music and it’s a big community.

Hold on a second, I’m gonna move this little hazel here, she’s gonna tear my spot up. Come here.

I’m going to go ahead and close the video.

Craig (01:17:16.27)
Sorry man, I knew that would come.

she wakes up. I want to you, you mentioned something you’ve mentioned spirituality a few times. Where I mean, to whatever extent you’re comfortable, where are you at with spirituality in in in your life? Or how did you become a spiritual person? Or what does that mean to you? Again, to whatever extent you’re comfortable.

Oh, sorry.

Tyler Armstrong (01:17:40.066)
Well, yeah, I mean, it makes a lot of people uncomfortable and it’s unfortunate because humans have, humans have ruined humans. So, so I, yeah, so I follow the, you know, the teaching. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Literally everything.

Hahaha!

And pretty much everything else, the world, the earth, yeah. Animals.

Tyler Armstrong (01:18:06.21)
But I follow the teachings of Christ and I grew up going to the Christian church and walking away from it and having to create my own foundation and coming back to that. It’s when I say my vehicle, what I’m here to express, it’s really that in my opinion, no matter what you believe.

what’s next is the most important thing that exists. Not that this is a waiting period or anything like that. We’re here for a reason. But if I think to myself, if I think baseball or music is the number one thing in my life, that just doesn’t make sense.

To me it’s it’s the number one thing I should be talking about and if it’s through music, it’s through music. It’s through a podcast as through a podcast is Spiritually what I’ve come to know is true and what’s happening next I? It’s a it’s a weird. It’s a hard thing to explain It’s a hard thing to put in the words without making it seem like I just don’t care about anything because I do but I care so much about

what’s next that everything else takes a backseat.

So what changes did you make in your own thought processes as you went from, let’s call it for lack of better terminology, a lapsed Christian? Is that okay to say that? Okay. No, I mean, I don’t know, but you said you moved away from, what’s that?

Tyler Armstrong (01:19:44.258)
Mm -hmm. Sure. I don’t you can call me what I was not Yeah, I was not into it at one point

Yeah. So what changes or adjustments or, um, how did you reframe how you looked at things so that when you came back to spirituality and Christianity, which are two different things from, in my opinion, anyway, um, what changes did you make so that you could find a place of like, yeah, my happy spot in those things?

Well…

And again, that’s a heavy question, man, if you don’t, just to whatever extent you’re comfortable answering.

I’ll talk about it and if you want to keep it in there you can, whatever is fine with me. Like I said, it’s the most important thing. It’s quite literally the only thing that matters. And family goes into that, you know, all that kind of stuff. Human life. So anyhow, you know, I don’t know if you can get away from spirituality.

Craig (01:20:29.166)
Okay, no, definitely. It’s interesting. I find this very interesting.

Tyler Armstrong (01:20:48.642)
When I say I was not into Christianity, I was in high school and early college and I just didn’t like Christians. And I used that as an excuse. It needed to happen, but I used that as an excuse to not be involved. I’m not of the belief that you need to go to church to be a Christian, any of that BS, but church is great.

Yeah, so I was just, you know, I would, if I were to call myself a Christian at that point, I would, I would have felt like guilty and shameful. All of that to say everything I just stated was because of humans. I don’t, I cannot think of a situation, and I’ve talked to people about this extensively, that

somebody is a Has been against the idea at the very least idea of God because of God It’s generally because a human messed it up, you know, it’s it’s because a something was taken out of context biblically something was and when I say out of context, I mean like

If you have a, for example, my dad had a friend that’s sister was born with special needs and just like not, you know, very, very not great situation. And the church told him or told his parents is because of their family’s past sins that his sister had special needs. That’s what I mean by taking things out of context. It’s like, wow, man. Yeah, exactly. Bye.

Wow, like it’s their fault. Yeah, so now they gotta, imagine having to carry that around.

Tyler Armstrong (01:23:46.946)
Yes. And you know, there can be – you can bring up anything. Why, you know, why is this thing like this? Why is this – why did this catastrophe happen? I – I can’t answer everything. Hardly anything. But when I realized that it was – I did not like what people were using God for, rather than me not liking God, um, that’s what kind of opened my eyes to… Okay. I’ve never been, um…

really against it, I’ve been against its followers. It’s like my friend’s wife says she liked the Grateful Dead a lot more if they didn’t have deadheads.

Right, I understand that.

Craig (01:24:27.566)
Dude, I know that, man, that’s true. Oh my God, yeah. It’s, yeah.

But, um, I’m not against deadheads. We have a lot of deadhead followers. So like, I – I – Yeah, but anyhow.

Yeah. No, but I know it’s, I’m not against him either, but I get what she’s saying because there’s a whole, there’s a, yeah, there’s a whole, uh, culture. It’s just different, you know? And if you’re not into that, it’s just, yeah, I get, I get that. I don’t have anything against that is, but I understand her comment. Yeah. Okay. So you, you came back in part two understanding or with the mindset of, okay,

Did you sell them or messed up?

Tyler Armstrong (01:24:57.794)
Yeah, so yeah.

Craig (01:25:07.15)
what I was uncomfortable with, you had a better perspective on what made you uncomfortable. And it wasn’t God or whatever the higher power or Jesus or you know, whatever, I’m just trying to blanket this for everybody for the higher, wherever your higher power is, you had a, you came back with the realization that it was people’s maladaption of what that is or something like that. And so you framed your own.

Yeah, and the fact, you know, shame and guilt are huge words in anything, but specifically with Christianity is that, um, you know, the fact that I felt shameful that I was considering myself a Christian, but I really wasn’t acting it out is, is not something that, um, Christ taught. It’s again, it’s a, it’s a Christian. It’s a, it’s.

Mm -hmm.

Craig (01:26:01.902)
human thing.

follower thing. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I think what’s beautiful about the teachings of Christ too is that it’s for everyone. It’s not for us, even in the times of Christ. The existence of Christ cannot be, you know, I mean, that’s been proven at this point. It’s obviously if the dude rose again, which is kind of the, you know, the big thing that can be debated in that time, you know, like Jesus was kind of a rebel.

He’s like, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is not the way we should be doing things. You know, this God that you’re worshiping our God is not just for the Jews. If he’s a creator of all, he created all of this, right? So just going in that and that’s just a surface level. But really, when my dad passed, my dad, you know, again, whether you’re a Christian or not, the example of Christ,

is amazing you know Christ was original peace and love original hippie right so it didn’t really did talk about some sin and things but really you know the greatest role of them all what is it you know you know love God but love your neighbor as yourself sounds pretty awesome to me so my dad um as close I uh through like therapy and things like that I describe my dad as God.

Yeah, right, right.

Craig (01:27:16.782)
Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (01:27:29.826)
He was my god here. I could rely on him for anything. He knew all the answers, all of this. So when he passed away, my foundation was absolutely destroyed. So it was almost like I was on a psychedelic experience for a while. Like just being like having no idea what’s going on. I recognize things, but you know, just purpose was not thing. Like whether it was myself or just the normal, you know.

things of life. It’s like, well, what’s what purpose is this? So it just took more experience and it took community and just personal exploration, I guess you could call it to realize that I had never really gone away. I just.

It might have looked different for me than it did other people. And I had been back into practicing as a Christian. I hate to say practicing, like, because it’s not really that. It’s just like, it’s just what you do. It’s like, it’s, it’s, it’s my opinion. Exactly. Yeah. To me, the teachings of Christ. Yeah.

Yeah, you practice, you practice guitar, right? I get what you’re saying. Yeah, I get what you’re saying. But that’s it. But that’s the word. That’s the word I get. Yeah, it’s just the word that’s used. Yeah.

So, you know, it’s really not that different from just the natural things of life. Treating people well, sacrifice is the biggest thing that somebody could sacrifice so much for me. I am less than. So I never really went away from that. But then when my dad passed, you know, it…

Tyler Armstrong (01:29:11.266)
it forced, I don’t think it was a normal case of finding God during grief, but I was forced to find out why I believe what I believe. And a lot of it had to do with fact and searching, because I’m kind of like a, you know, why is two plus two four? Why?

Yeah, you like to intellect. You’re an intro, you’re a bright guy. So you’re curious. And so you try you intellectualize things. I totally get that.

I think I’ve tried to prove it wrong. And that’s what I was doing. I was trying to prove it wrong and I haven’t been able to. So I think that’s where I’m at.

Thank you, man. Thank you for sharing that. Just a couple of comments. I really am very nice to hear how you looked at your dad and I hope my kids, you know, whenever my time is, and I certainly hope it’s not anytime soon, I hope they have that same sort of reverence for what I was able to give them. And I hope so. And, uh,

I’m sure.

Craig (01:30:13.07)
Also, I it’s a very it’s not uncommon. I’ve talked to a lot of people, you know, with almost a thousand guests and I I’m interested in in spirituality and to a lesser extent religion but and a lot of people grew up in the church where the sort of brimstone and fire stuff made their lives pretty miserable and they either left. Yeah, and they either left totally.

I think I got church trauma.

Craig (01:30:42.702)
and have no spirituality anymore, or they left and then did what you did, came back and said, you know what, I want to have a God that this is my relationship and this is what we do. And they just worked out their own relationship with whatever higher power they have. So I think that’s not an uncommon journey that you went on.

Well, another reason why I viewed my dad as gotten, not literally, I wasn’t on my knees worshipping.

No, no, I get what you’re saying. He’s like he was everything to you know, he was there.

When I started to get deeper, not even deeper, just like just just being me again. When I when I was not when I was trying to prove all this wrong at a deeper extent, you know, we’re humans. We even, you know, nobody on earth can tell me that this guitar pick exists because who knows, you know, maybe I did smoke too much with that. But. But.

Mm -hmm.

Craig (01:31:43.118)
I think that exists. Sorry. Yeah.

I know, but like I know it does but like you know it’s like there’s a there’s a part of you that’s like It’s like we don’t know what any of this is so like you know I could ask anything I always said the most powerful question on earth is why? Because eventually you’re gonna get to some point no one can explain it to you so that and Faith does not go together very well. I’ll tell you that but I

Yeah, that’s true.

Craig (01:32:10.414)
Yes, you’re 100 % correct. Yeah, because that faith is it’s there is you can’t intellectualize that. That’s the that’s why it’s called faith.

even the most faithful person is only 99 .9 % it’s it’s it just is what it is but that’s okay and that that’s what uh goes into what i’m about to say i knew i could go to anything with my dad i told him things i never told anybody else very things i was super embarrassed about things that i knew that um

Yeah

Tyler Armstrong (01:32:44.13)
Maybe that I knew if he found out about he would be mad, but since the fact that I brought it to him and it was just like…

Yeah, you always want to hear about it from the kid, not from an outside source. That’s what I’ve always told my kids, you know, like, you know, you’re especially now they’re older, they’re not kids anymore. Like, you know, whatever you want to tell me is fine. I just no judgment. You know,

Yeah. Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (01:33:05.698)
This is how I view God. There is one time in a previous relationship that I am now that is pretty intense. Just something bad, really bad had happened. Not even really anything with our relationship itself, but just it was not good.

and I didn’t know what to do and my dad was working in the garage and I just went to him and I stuck my head in his chest and he hugged me and I was hugging him and I just started bawling and he didn’t ask a single question why he didn’t whatever you know he gave me the time and eventually you know when I was done I told him what had happened but now when I view my

viewed my dad as God. That’s how I view God is not what I had necessarily been taught by some people in the church that do this and you go to hell. It’s um, here I am, man, you know, like, I’ve got you wrapped up. So it’s less of a, I hate to say that God is not my God or God in general, but God is not God to me. God is

Yeah, right.

Tyler Armstrong (01:34:24.098)
my friend. Yes. And um…

healthy, loving parent. Yeah, that’s how I try to look at it.

And I do think that there are some quote unquote requirements for certain things, but I think that they’re all related to the natural flow of what this is. It’s sacrifice that I am less than, you know, and that’s beautiful. You know, it’s the same thing I was talking about earlier. Like if I have to be on the stage of a thousand people to get my point across. You know.

I should probably think about something else.

All right. Thank you, man. I really appreciate you sharing that.

Tyler Armstrong (01:35:04.642)
Sure.

How’d you get good on guitar? Like, did you take lessons? Because you’re a very talented player and you seem like you have your hands on like from a, I don’t know, from a theory standpoint, but from an application standpoint of many different genres. How’d you sort of get there?

Thanks, man.

Tyler Armstrong (01:35:22.626)
Um, well yeah, thanks again. Um, yeah, theory, I mean, I understand some of it, apply some of it. I need to learn more, but I’m self -taught. I will say that, you know, being in band middle school and stuff, you know, I was percussion and learning the general, you know, way things worked.

was nice but I didn’t I haven’t taken any formal lessons except when I said I was two or not two four or five I took like two lessons and I quit because the guy I was kept looking down at my fingers depressed like AC like first fret of the B he’s like no don’t look you can’t look I’m like even then I’m like I’m five man like yes yes

How are you gonna? Yeah, that’s like saying when you’re at when you’re at bat, don’t look at the picture.

Yeah, totally. It was super weird. So I just like, mom, damn, I’m not doing this right. But anyway, so yeah, I never took lessons. I mean, YouTube was a great thing. But I will say the downfall or what’s not good about videos is videos do not teach you anything except where to put certain things.

Very weird. Yeah, this isn’t, yeah.

Craig (01:36:32.27)
Yeah, there’s a lot of subtleties like with tone and stuff like that, or even how to control your amp and get the sound you want that I’m learning through my with my guitar teacher that, you know, I mean, I’m sure this is on YouTube, but man, how I mean, how much time do you have to scour for everything, you know, and then you’re listening to, you know, whereas you got a guy right there and I want to do this and goes, oh, just, you know, turn your master volume down to your guitar up to seven. I’m like, oh, OK, that was easy.

Mm -hmm.

Tyler Armstrong (01:36:43.17)
Yeah, totally.

Tyler Armstrong (01:37:01.826)
Yeah, and no, I definitely use it and I still use it not really like for learning songs and stuff But like there is great information out there like I always say I know more about the Beatles lives and they know about themselves, but it’s like I just Yeah, I love information. I love reading stuff. So I spent a Plenty of time playing and I also spent a ton of time

Oh yeah.

Craig (01:37:13.614)
That’s so funny from YouTube. Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (01:37:26.754)
getting out of bad habits with guitar because I did teach myself. Like I said, I was Eddie Van Halen like, you know, disciple and Eddie Van Halen is one of the most tasteful what I would call shredders, but he wasn’t playing country licks. He wasn’t playing, you know, R &B, you know, maybe some influence, but I just eventually when I got into the Beatles expanded and I would listen to everything.

I said I hated The Beatles just because everyone loved them. Even people who don’t like music had an Abbey Road shirt on. I’m like, man, that’s so blah blah blah. But once I got into them, I was like, yeah, I’m probably wrong about a lot. So I just expanded and I learned a ton of songs. I learned like…

I mean, I probably don’t remember a lot of them now, but there I probably had known 500 songs note for note, just like learning because, you know, monkey see monkey do that sort of thing. And I do think that I have developed my own feel like unique to myself, but only because of everything I’ve combined because I’ve learned so much many songs.

Wow, that’s awesome.

Tyler Armstrong (01:38:40.802)
But I guess that’s what you would say how I became good, but I expanded my mind musically. And that’s what I tell people all the time. It’s like, if you’re going to get into this, learn everything, man. Because you can learn stuff from things you don’t like. Because you can’t tell me that, oh, who’s a country?

Absolutely. Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (01:39:01.122)
guy. I think country, yeah I was gonna say Brent, country is the most country in the 90s because it was so exaggerated a lot of the times and that’s when all that’s when the really fiery licks start coming out and there’s great players before them like I love all that stuff too. Someone like Brent Mason, I would have heard him when I was 13 being like, country blah blah blah. You can’t tell me that guy’s not amazing. Oh that’s great.

Brent Mason.

Craig (01:39:25.646)
No, he is. And I had him on the show. He’s a very nice guy, too. Yeah, yeah, he’s a good guy. Yeah.

So yeah, I think that’s how I got good. I don’t know what to call myself, but I do know that I excel at the guitar in some fashion. That’s how I got to it. I’ve just spent a lot of time doing it, man. It’s like a relationship, too. It’s only going to be good if you spend time with it.

Yeah.

Craig (01:39:49.326)
Totally, absolutely, 100%, yes, 100%.

And not just doing the same things, because like I have friends that, you know, I grew up with that like… They just wouldn’t even like practice. They like, they keep a guitar in their car, like in their house. It’s just like… I don’t know, I have fun with it too. I mean, it’s sometimes a chore.

Oh, you should have fun with this music, man.

But.

But I don’t, it’s not like I’m always in, I’m always in feel mode. I sound wrong, but like the band feel mode. But I’m always listening to other stuff and doing stuff for myself. And it’s not like when I sit down, I’m like playing a feel riff or like playing, you know, I don’t know, a deep purple riff. You know, maybe sometimes, but like I’m just sitting there playing and like.

Craig (01:40:22.734)
Yeah, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (01:40:43.938)
Curtis Mayfield stuff, a lot of R &B and I don’t know, I’m just constantly going. I don’t think I’m very good at practicing. But I think I’ve just played so much that I eventually made something that made sense. I don’t know.

funny you just mentioned Curtis Mayfield I’m working on People Get Ready that track he did yeah he’s one of my favorite R &B guitarists phenomenal what a great songwriter my god

Oh man, Curtis is… Wow. Oh god.

Move on up is one of my warm -ups because the long version is 12 minutes or so long, at least 10 minutes. It’s literally just… How does it go?

Great, great track.

Tyler Armstrong (01:41:28.93)
Oh crap.

It’s 16th notes, so literally for 12 minutes long.

That’s what all a lot of these R &B guys, it’s not easy music to play by a long shot because it’s the same thing. You know, you got you’re playing rhythm guitar, you know, you got to do pretty much the same thing for a long time. It’s not easy at all.

Yeah, and there’s still feeling in it. It’s not just like robotic. It’s, you know, certain accents and like it’s it’s very much.

So now I gotta learn that track, move on up. Thank you.

Tyler Armstrong (01:41:56.898)
I mean it’s four chords the whole time and that’s another great track too for inversions. That’s what I do with it because you know you could do it down here. I just messed it up but you know.

Tyler Armstrong (01:42:11.714)
You can just go all over the board all day long with it. It’s really good. It’s kind of like one of those things.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, let’s talk about guitars right now. What’s your go -to guitar right now? What other two would round out your top?

brick.

I never saw you playing the telly either. That’s interesting that you

This is a, I mean, this is a, I can talk about cool guitar. I don’t know if I ever got to, this is a guardless black card. It’s a 53 Tele. Yeah, I got it from a guy who in Chicago that either him or the guy he got it from shortly before he got it found in a trash can in like the 60s.

Craig (01:42:43.022)
It is.

Craig (01:42:57.902)
Why? Why? Yeah, I always wonder why doesn’t shit like that happen to me? I’ve heard stories of guys like, you know, stumbling across like, you know, a $5 ,000 guitar in there, like they moved into this new house and they were up in the attic one day and this dusty thing. And it’s like, you know, like a, you know, an old vintage SG or something.

Uh…

Tyler Armstrong (01:43:20.45)
I’ve had some crazy stuff happen to me. I’m a unique case or a rare case when it comes to that. But as far as the guitar, do you want me to get them? I can do some. I don’t have go -to’s per se.

We’re an old vintage strat. You’ve had stuff like that?

Craig (01:43:36.11)
If you want to, totally up to you, man.

Craig (01:43:42.574)
Bring your number one, bring your number one.

Tyler Armstrong (01:44:30.114)
So I don’t have like a go -to per se, but I would say like if I had to like pick one specifically for what we do in feel, it would be this. It’s a 69 custom. So no volute. I got this guitar.

them.

Craig (01:44:46.062)
Wow, when did you get that?

Tyler Armstrong (01:44:53.186)
summer of 69 the summer I think it was 2019 so it’s got a do you want me to talk about like the story with it and stuff or so a guy told me that he had one and I was like oh man that’s super cool like I didn’t really have any vintage stuff at the time

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (01:45:21.058)
by the time he told me. Not a bunch of guitars at least. I had had some but not really. So anyhow, it ended up it was not his. It was somebody he knew but he had it. But they were selling it and I was like, well how much man? It’s like I don’t got any money. And he told me the price. I was like, I can get that somehow. It was just a insanely good price. I went over and played it. I was like, wow. And I did like payments on it for a while. And

Oh, cool.

Got it. But this is a crazy story. So the back is stripped. That’s not like factory or anything. Someone did it. Somebody played the crap out of this guitar. Like, I mean, it’s played. So anyhow, I was… Not really. It’s pretty light for a custom. I’d say, I think it’s like 9 .4 pounds. It’s not over 10. I mean, some people that’s very heavy.

What? Is that must be super heavy.

Craig (01:46:15.694)
Okay. What year was that guitar issued in?

So this is technically a reissue because it’s not making them and the last customs you see originally are 61, really early 61, before you see the SG shape. We call those era of SGs that are known as, they’re Les Pauls, we call them Les Gs.

Yeah, yeah.

Craig (01:46:40.654)
last season.

So a 68, actually the first Les Pauls popped out of the factory, really, really weird time in 67, but 68. So you hear about the 68, 69 customs and.

So that’s not a reissue. That guitar dates to 69. Oh wow.

Yeah, this is a 69. But they’re technically a reissue because they had stopped making them at that point.

Yeah, but I thought that would be heavy. That’s interesting that they’re less than 10 pounds.

Tyler Armstrong (01:47:09.442)
Um, well not all of them are man. I mean I

Yeah, because I talked to guys that have like early 70s and mid 70s. They’re like, I got I got I had to stop playing it. It’s like a boat anchor.

So this is a… This is a 7D. And this is probably 2 .5 -3 pounds heavier than this. Now the cover is just off. It’s not all original, but it does have that. That was my…

Okay.

Craig (01:47:25.966)
And is that, does it got P90s on there? I can’t really see the pickups. Oh, okay, okay.

Craig (01:47:36.814)
Well, you’ve got, you really have the whole Gibson tone dialed down really. I mean, I like, I’m a more of a humbucker guy in the strata. I have a strap, but, but, but I prefer playing humbucker.

Thanks, man.

I’ve got old fenders and stuff too. But yeah, for this. But anyhow, long story short, so it’s got the backstrip. I was watching a YouTube video one time, this local, they were local back in the day in St. Louis. I’m just a history freak and wherever I’m at, my girlfriend, she’s from Richmond, Virginia, so I find out everything I can about Richmond. In St. Louis, I find everything about, and I just love music history with that stuff.

Okay.

Tyler Armstrong (01:48:15.074)
And so there’s a band called Jake Jones and they were kind of like the legends at this point in St. Louis. Quite a few of them were passed. But anyhow, there’s a guy named Chuck Sabatino. He became Michael McDonald’s writing partner because Michael McDonald’s from St. Louis. Yeah. Yeah, he moved out there, I don’t know, early 70s, but he was in a band here called The Guild.

Interesting. Oh, I did not know that. I figured he was an LA guy. Interesting.

Craig (01:48:40.302)
Hmm.

and uh they were like massive at the time so anyhow um check sabatino the legend all these dudes but joey marshall was um

Okay.

Tyler Armstrong (01:48:53.73)
guitarist and Joey had been in a band called truth and acid set in the late 60s and There is an area town called the gaslight square and they had all the clubs and stuff and that’s where like Albert King cut his teeth I can Tina little milk like all these bands. So the almond joys Greg and this band Spent time there and Joey got to know him I did not know Joey cuz he passed but when Dwayne died Dwayne’s common -law wife Donna

got one of his guitars down in Macon and it was the Fillmore Burst and she gave it to Joey. So that guitar is in St. Louis for about five years. Yup. He gave it before Joey passed, he gave it back to Dwayne’s daughter. Anyhow, so I’m watching this video and I pause it to get the phone or something like that and I go back and I mean Joey was playing a Les Paul Custom.

gave it to him.

Tyler Armstrong (01:49:47.042)
but in this video of Jake Jones. But just right where I turned it, it had a strip back. And I was like, that’s pretty weird, isn’t it? And because it’s not like these guitars are rare, but it’s not like you see a ton of them. And it just had some things. So I started thinking, and I knew people that played with Joey back in the day and all that. So can’t prove it. But basically what we gather is that when Dwayne…

Wow.

Tyler Armstrong (01:50:15.906)
past this video was in 72 Joey got the guitar from Donna in maybe 72 probably early 73 people I know who were playing with Joey at that time he did not have this guitar anymore well I just kind of gave it away but he didn’t have the Les Paul custom anymore so Joey sold it or is it stolen?

I like to say sold, but it turns up that we’re 99 .9 % sure that this is Joey’s guitar. Well, how’s that all? Yeah, and I kind of look like him and I, you know, apparently play a lot like him and he’s a very cool guy, I guess. And wish I could have met him, but what’s even cooler.

Oh, that’s so cool that you have the history of it.

Tyler Armstrong (01:51:03.17)
if it could get cooler, is that the brothers when Dwayne was in the band did not play in St. Louis. They played one time in the area in a town called Winsville. But they were after the Almond Joys. They’re in a band called the Hourglass and they played in St. Louis. But they always they would stay with Joey and hang out with them and jam and stuff. Well, it just makes me think like, man, if Joey had this guitar when Dwayne was alive and came through town, I have no reason to think that Dwayne did not play this guitar.

Right, 20 did not play, right, right. That’s pretty cool history, man.

So who knows, but like it’s it is what it is and it’s hard to it would be hard to think that it’s not the guitar but I love it. I’ve played a metric crap ton of 68, 69, Les Paul Customs, plenty of 70s, to be the least. I’ve played probably about 40 or so bursts and this guitar is destroys any of the other 68, 69s I’ve played. It’s just something very specific.

the because i don’t really keep guitars i don’t like unless they’re crazy like rare valuable so but there’s something about the neck that’s different it sounds different the way it sits on me is different it responds differently i mean it’s been played a lot so that’s probably it too but this thing holds up to most of the verse that i’ve played there’s been a couple of birds that i’m like wow this is god’s guitar but i mean this is this is definitely probably in the top five less falls i’ve ever played and it just happens to be mine

Right. No, I don’t either.

Craig (01:52:34.158)
What kind of pickups are those? What were they issuing back then? Just original? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Very cool, man. That’s a good story, though.

I know when back then they were chocobuckers, but they’re teetops.

Tyler Armstrong (01:52:44.034)
Yeah, so there’s that. Another, probably my favorite acoustic that I own is, this is a rare guitar and most people probably haven’t heard about it, but it’s a, let’s tune in. So this is a Stahl Model 6. Stahl Model 6.

STALL, S -T -A -L -L.

S T A H L and that was a music store. Sounds really good. Sorry.

Okay.

Craig (01:53:11.278)
Dude, your hands or your fingers are massive. You’re like reaching like way more frets than I could ever even imagine.

Let me show you something. My hands are actually pretty small. Let me show you what’s weird though. This is proof of evolution. So I always showed people this when I would teach back in the day for a very short period of time. When they say, man, you got huge hands, I’m like, not really. So I don’t know how I’ll be able to, I can do it like this. So this is how far I play acoustic so much that my thumb is all messed up. So.

This is how far I can stretch this hand. I’ll just go like that. Whatever. Because I’ve been playing so long, and how much I’ve played, I can stretch this one substantially further. So this is how far I can do this one.

Right.

Craig (01:54:03.982)
Oh.

And that’s like… And even if I can’t straighten it out, this thumb’s messed up too because I hold the guitar, but like… That’s an inch and a half.

That’s pretty dramatic.

Craig (01:54:14.574)
That’s like almost, yeah, an inch and a half, I was going to say at least. Yeah, that’s pretty. Wow. Yeah, that’s pretty awesome.

So like, I usually go like that. Show it. I don’t really have big hands, but this is evolution, so thanks to Darlin. But anyhow, so Stahl was a music store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I don’t know, they might have had a catalog too.

But you just, yeah, that’s awesome.

Tyler Armstrong (01:54:46.306)
But this guitar was specific, it was made by the Larson brothers in Chicago. So there are these two brothers that came to America around 1900 and they were working building guitars. They branched out on their own and they were like, well, we can be Larson brothers guitars and try to compete with Gibson and Martin, or we can build guitars for stores and one offs and stuff catalog and still make a little money, but not have to worry about it. So no, as far as I know, no Larson brothers,

guitars Seth Larson brothers. There’s about 3 ,500 instruments they made. Most of them are big back mandolins, harp guitars, like big big stuff, turn of the century kind of stuff, you know. They made, I don’t know, 500 guitars. Most of them are parlor size. But this is, I mean, this might be one of…

not very many because they didn’t make a lot of bigger sizes or a ton of them but what they are known for was they were one of the first brands to expand on them because this is a big size this is from 1935 this guitar is pretty big yeah let’s go home

Oh my god, so that’s almost 100 years. It’s 90 going on 89 years old now.

I like old women.

Craig (01:56:03.63)
Wow, that’s pretty impressive. So where did you find that?

uh… basic marketplaces and joseph msd and is regional owner yep this is stall but if you look up larson brothers that’s where but anyhow yeah man like uh… this is very old and their biggest claim to fame you know they’re known as martin killers but gibson and martin took a lot this looks like an old 28 that’s essentially what it is

S T A H L

Craig (01:56:22.894)
L -A -R -S -O -N or S -E -N.

Craig (01:56:36.238)
Beautiful guitar.

Yeah, it’s great. I don’t know if it translates, but it sounds amazing. And its integrity is there. Their biggest claim to fame, Marsin, is that they were the first brand to patent a patent bracing that supported steel strings. So if you think about it, steel string, you know, guitar.

I just can’t believe it’s almost 100 years old. That’s pretty.

Tyler Armstrong (01:57:06.658)
It’s pretty much modern music. You’ve got keyboard, you got piano and guitar. Those are pretty much the two things for pop music. They…

Yes.

Craig (01:57:14.574)
So they were the first ones in manufacture that made acoustic guitar bracing that supports steel strings. Oh, interesting.

least patented. Yeah, I mean, because at this time people are doing all sorts of experiments with certain truss rods and all sort of stuff. But yeah, before then, not really. So this is, it’s a super special guitar. It’s, to the right person, they’re worth a lot of money, but you know, they’re niche, so it doesn’t really matter. But it’s not going anywhere anyway. It’s a beautiful sounding guitar and it’s a…

That’s nice, man.

Tyler Armstrong (01:57:51.458)
It’s crazy. It spent most of its life next to a heater. But surprisingly only had bat cracks and needed a neck reset like they all do. But it came from the original owner’s family in St. Joseph, Missouri. Oddly enough, William H. Stahl, the guy with Store Milwaukee, was from St. Joseph. So either he had still sold from a store down there or I don’t know. I don’t know if.

it just came from his family or what. But it was just a random person who faced with marketplace.

You ever, you ever watch roadshow antiques, I think it’s called to you. You remind me of that guy. Cause you’re like, you have this history down. I’m like, cause I don’t watch that a lot, but once in a blue moon, I’ll say any of it’s something like, I’m not really interested in like a dish or, you know, a plate, like just to hear the history of it. It’s like really interesting. It all of a sudden it’s like, yeah, that’s kind of that.

Yeah, anti -crochet, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (01:58:38.594)
I love that.

Craig (01:58:44.782)
That’s why I wrote that like I’m not even into a clue. I don’t play acoustic guitar. But I’m like, you know what, here in that history, I got to look these guitars up. And who knows what I would find maybe locally or something like that. That’s pretty cool.

Yeah, I mean, people who know acoustics, I mean, that’s a specifically that style is like, yeah, it’s what it’s what you want, man. It’s cool. I’m I’m super blessed. It’s just a freak thing. I’m a I’m known as a bloodhound for guitars. They sometimes just pop up. I mean, sometimes.

No, that’s cool.

Craig (01:59:15.31)
Yeah, but that’s not a freak thing. If you’re a bloodhound for guitars, and that’s why shit happens to you, you know, it’s not like random, like it wouldn’t happen to me because I’m not, you know, bird dog and things like that, you know.

Yes, sir.

Tyler Armstrong (01:59:25.506)
Sure. Yeah, it just started out small and then now it’s referral. I just could call it.

Give me your top three desert island discs, Tyler.

Just for this moment, I mean, cause that changes a lot.

Yeah, you asked these impossible questions. Um, off the top of my head, I’ll say Beatles revolver. I’ll say Bill Withers live at Carnegie Hall. Oh, I love that. It’s just like fan painting. Three left hands. And the story he tells before that about being in the church. Yeah, that’s great. Um.

Mm -hmm.

Craig (01:59:51.15)
That’s a great record.

I love Grandma Says. Grandma Says, isn’t it? Grandma’s Hands, yeah. He does a great, yeah, right. That’s a, it’s really good on that record.

Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Curtis Mayfield’s First Record. That’s a lot of stuff I’m listening to right now. I’m listening to a lot of Chopin as well, Chopin. I don’t know, those are some right there that I’m listening to right now.

Cool.

Tell me a strangest or most unexpected thing that’s ever happened.

This is another strange thing happening. So with our old singer, like I said, we did some cool gigs, like very cool gigs. And one of the times we opened up for Cheap Trick and I was fortunate enough that they asked me to sit in. I did the, I played Surrender with them. So being from Illinois, I’m like, this is the boys. Yeah, Rockford. And so I’m like, wow. In fact,

Craig (02:14:30.126)
Oh wow.

Craig (02:14:34.414)
That’s yeah, that’s where they’re from, aren’t isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Rockford.

Rick had said, he was pointing at his guitar during I want you to want me and I went, and my girlfriend and bandmates were there and they’re like, what are you doing, man? This is like, I’m like, oh crap. So I went and stood side stage and he looked at me and he’s like, okay, the dude’s thinking straight now. So I got Robin’s Rickenbacker, 1959 Rickenbacker that.

Yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (02:15:07.234)
He played on VoodooCon. It was actually owned by Johnny Ramone. And so I’m playing Surrender and stuff. It did. It was surreal, but it was also natural feeling. It was so great. And I’m like, wow. Like, I learned the song when I was 13, man. This is great. And so anyhow, I’m just sitting there, and this is after my dad had passed. Probably a year and a half after.

Wow.

Tyler Armstrong (02:15:33.122)
So I’ll always be going through grief with it, but it was much more intense than it’s deeper now. But it was just an intense experience back then. And while I’m playing, I felt so serene and just relaxed. And I probably had an insane amount of dopamine into my body is what it was. But I just felt so good. And man,

If I looked out and my mom was in the front row, they let her in the photo pit, which is nice, and my uncle was there. So I saw them, I’m like, hey, that’s my mom and uncle, that’s cool, man. But if I looked out and I swear to you, if I did not see my dad standing right there in the middle, just like.

That’s really nice.

Craig (02:16:16.59)
Really?

just smile and my first thought was like we did it man like his dream he grew up really poor so his dream is always have a guitar but you never could afford it or you know they need money for other things it’s like the oil crisis era right so like no money my grandpa was a postmaster crazy stuff going on so no money he always wanted to be in boston or kansas or sticks and cheap trick was probably one of them too and um yeah

That’s nice.

Tyler Armstrong (02:16:48.546)
It was cool, man. And it’s like, I know he wasn’t literally there physically, but just like the fact that I visually saw it. It’s like, all right, man. It’s like I’m doing it. My dad always viewed our relationship as not that he was a king, but King David and Solomon, you know, biblically, David wanted so much.

That’s cool.

Tyler Armstrong (02:17:11.714)
But in the story, God’s like, no, this is not for you. And everything he wanted became Solomon’s temple and things like that. But David laid the groundwork, and that’s what David needed in the end of the day. So my dad, people ask, like I said, his death anniversary was yesterday, three years and.

Right.

Tyler Armstrong (02:17:33.602)
Like, your dad’s watching your dad’s scenes, like that’s all great, but my dad saw my future the day I was born. Maybe before. He set me up in that way. So, it was cool, man. It still makes me smile. It’s, uh, yeah.

Wow.

Craig (02:17:49.646)
Yeah, that’s a great story, man. Thank you.

Do you have any, what are your hobbies outside of music?

Well.

science history.

Yeah, history. And I’m pretty, I’m not super specific, like I’ll learn about any history, but American Civil War era is a big one for me, as it was my dad’s. So Abe Lincoln stuff too. So my family, like I say my, you know, we, my family in the 1800s, new Lincoln and.

Craig (02:18:21.294)
Yeah, you had said that. That’s interesting.

Yeah, like, provide early on provided him law books. There’s letters in the family from Lincoln when he’s at the White House. They met when I met him at this place called New Salem is outside of Petersburg, Illinois. It was like a hub and he had a general store there and he like, you know, I’m.

I’ve heard differing stories on this, but might have borrowed some money from my family to start certain things. He defended one of my, I think it was my sixth great grandfather, his name was Duff Armstrong, in a very famous trial called the Moon, the Almanac trial. Long story short, this dude gets accused of killing somebody, and the witness says he saw him kill him because it was a full moon that night. Lincoln comes to court, proves him wrong by using a farmer’s almanac saying,

That’s wild.

Tyler Armstrong (02:19:15.234)
It wasn’t a full moon that night. There’s no way you could have seen them. Well, the guy that was accused of killing somebody just happened to be my grandpa, like my sixth grade grandpa, Duff Armand. So they were very tight. Yeah, anyway. So yes, history. But I’m a very, very, very big Illinois fighting Illini basketball fan.

That’s wild.

Craig (02:19:42.317)
to fighting a lion eye, okay.

Yeah, I watch, you know, last year I would watch 40 games. I’m very into it. Yeah, I’m into it. That started when 2003 during the Bill Self era. But yeah, it’s kind of like being a Cubs fan. It’s ups and downs. It is as of late. The past five years or so have been great. But yeah, I have friends that are…

Oh

Craig (02:20:01.998)
Not that rewarding.

Tyler Armstrong (02:20:11.522)
specifically don’t know anything about music whatever we’re just a line i fans together um yeah i want to

That’s cool. It’s like a separate life. I think it’s important you have a separate.

Totally, and it’s something I truly love and not that I need to escape music, but I don’t need to be around the dudes all the time. I don’t need to do, and you know, it keeps it fresh. It keeps your relationships good. Cause this is like, you know, maybe besides like, kind of like you and your wife, like, you know, there’s still annoyances, you know, there’s still like, all right, I need my time, you know? And so, yeah, I just love all my basketball anyway, but it’s great.

Yeah.

Craig (02:20:43.47)
Yeah, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (02:20:50.21)
different part of my life. It’s something that my mom and I relate to as well. So we don’t have like a ton in common, but obviously I would do anything to defend her till the dying breath. But so we were, I have an older sister and she lives in South Carolina. Yeah, she’s not into Elmwood basketball at all, but.

That’s nice.

Craig (02:21:04.878)
Are you an only child?

Okay. Okay.

Tyler Armstrong (02:21:16.609)
My dad wasn’t either. So I mean, he kind of watched the games, but he’d like skip out there and half of it. So my mom and I love it. My goal one day is to like have, you know, courtside season tickets to Illinois basketball. Like that’s that’s what I want.

Even if you could take her to a game court side would be nice. You know, that would be cool. Oh, you have cool. That’s nice.

Yeah, well, we’ve done it. We did it last year for my birthday, and it was… God, dude, it’s great. I wear the same Illinois sweater for every game. I don’t wash it during the season. Luckily, I’m not super stinky. Yeah, I always say like Michael Scott from The Office, I’m not super stiches, I’m just a little stiches. But anyway, so, Illinois basketball I love, I just collect…

know a lot of guys who do that so funny.

Craig (02:21:55.118)
Hehehe.

Tyler Armstrong (02:22:01.153)
things too like vinyl but unrelated to music um i love the fish fishing is an escape yeah yeah we don’t we don’t have a lot of options besides but um yeah but i i just like to go out by myself i’ll go out with friends too but i really enjoy going out yeah

Fresh water. Yeah, it’s a really nice relaxing thing.

Yeah, I’m just thinking that. Yeah. No, no ocean. Ocean in Illinois. Yeah.

Craig (02:22:25.518)
Oh, it’s so relaxing, man. Catching bass and shit like that. It’s so much. I like fishing too. It’s very relaxing.

You know, and I’m sort of, I know I sound like an old man, like at this point, but I’m, I’ve started to get into golf as an escape too. I’m, I suck. I love going with people who also suck. My, my really good friend just bought a golf course. Um, so it also has. Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Craig (02:22:50.478)
But a golf course? Wow.

He’s the coolest guy of all time. He doesn’t have an egotistical bone in his body. He’ll leave it for his daughter, is what he’s doing. It’s very, very cool. So anyhow, he’s going to build on that. So I’ll spend a lot of time there. It’s kind of in a hippie community too, which is kind of fun. And yeah, it’s a serious course though. And…

Yeah.

Craig (02:23:13.838)
That’s fun.

Tyler Armstrong (02:23:18.786)
But there’s ponds on there that haven’t been fished in like 15, 20 years. So that’s where all the fish are.

Oh man, that is you should have a heyday there, man.

Oh man, I’m just like so beyond blessed for the people that have been placed in my life. Not anything I’ve worked for, just that they naturally came into my life spiritually or just like I have the best community on there. The most supportive people. I mean, there’s always some people that you kind of pseudo cut out because it might be a little toxic, but I, um, I have no, I just, I literally have nothing to complain about. Even if music wasn’t going well, I just have the best people on there.

That’s good that you feel that way, man. It’s good to have gratitude about your life about the simple things. I think anyway.

So, yeah.

Tyler Armstrong (02:24:02.018)
Sure, oh you got to, for sure. So yeah, I guess those are my hobbies. I guess my biggest hobby is doing nothing. I love doing nothing, because I’m always doing something. Yeah, I’m not very good at it. I have a hard time with it, but I do try to get one rest day a week, but it doesn’t always turn out. A Shabbat, essentially.

Do you? Congratulations. I wish I could do that.

Craig (02:24:26.382)
All right, man. Last question, Tyler. What is the thing in your life that’s making you happiest or giving you the most joy or satisfaction right now?

Tyler Armstrong (02:24:42.274)
I think right now to make me the happiest I’d be sitting on Libby Hill in Richmond, Virginia with my best friend. But the thing that is currently making me the happiest is I guess that those things are an option and that there’s something else beyond this point and if this is pretty good I would assume the next thing is pretty good too.

There you go.

Craig (02:25:12.078)
Thank you, man. Hey, listen, I want to first of all, thank you very much for your time and for being so cool and so open. I want to wish you a ton of continued success and I hope you’ll come back on here again after you release your next record or at some point in time in the future so we can look back and talk about, yeah, you had just come on here after you released the EP from St. Petersburg and now you’ve got three other records and you know, life is different. So I would really like that and I hope that happens for you, man.

Yeah

Tyler Armstrong (02:25:37.41)
love to.

Well, I appreciate it.

Let me tell people, oh man, my pleasure, honestly. I love your music and I wish you nothing but success with you and the rest of the guys in the band. Everybody, I would love you to check out Feel’s music. It’s the URL, their website is the band called Feel, F -E -E -L, but if you just go on, like I use Apple, I don’t know, Spotify is probably similar, just enter Feel and you’ll see it come up. And right now, like I said, it’s just this EP live from St. Petersburg, but I’m…

Peace, man.

Craig (02:26:08.43)
suspecting in the next six months to a year, you’ll have other other things up there to listen to. If you are also follow the band, they’re on Instagram, they’re on TikTok, and they’re on Facebook, all at the band called feel. If you are in the St. Louis area, go check out Blue Note Vintage for vintage guitars, clothing and vinyl. And if you are in Tyler, we didn’t talk about this, but Tyler does a lot of production and he really enjoys that. If you’re interested in working with Tyler in a

producer standpoint and at his Harbor studio, where he’s at right now, do this, DM him on Instagram on Instagram. You could follow him at Tyler Armstrong music. I can’t read my writing. This is just awful. I’m like, I’m like, I’m like, I had to look up at Armstrong. Like I couldn’t, I butchered your last name. I don’t even know what it looks like. It’s like a, like Albanian or something. I wrote it. Um,

Anyway, so if you’re interested in working with Tyler as a production capacity, DM him on Instagram, send him a link to your music and you know what you’re looking for, what makes you reach out to him today? What do you think he could add in the mix? And if you do all those things, this way he can get back to you with an intelligent and you know, competent and caring response, you know, please send him music at a minimum and let them know what’s up. Cause if you don’t send him your music, how the hell he’s going to know if you’re a fit and um,

That’s about it. Anything else we could promote, man?

Um, nah. I don’t… Not anything I need to promote by myself, but even if it’s not related to production, if you just got anything to say to me and want to chat, just please reach out. Like, um, I look at everything that’s sent to me. I don’t, uh… It’s cool. Just, let’s chat. Sounds good.

Craig (02:27:50.478)
Yeah.

Craig (02:27:59.342)
Good. There you go. Like don’t expect him to give you a response if you say I love your album. You just don’t have a response time for all that stuff. But it’s nice that you’re welcome to that stuff.

I’ll do it. I will respond. I respond to every single thing. I really do. I do.

Do you really? That’s cool. I respond to most things. I don’t respond to like a lot of, and I’m, this is a blessing. I get a lot of pitches for people to come on the show. I just can’t respond to all of them. And I’m very, but don’t get me wrong. I’m so grateful to that people like the show, but I can’t respond to everybody. All right, man. And thank you for any final words of wisdom.

Yeah, I accept.

Sure, man.

Tyler Armstrong (02:28:39.746)
Hmm. My dad lived to be 59 and not 60. And then as eulogy I said, he lived like he was going to be 59 and not 60. So I guess live like you’re going to be 59 and not 60.

Right on man and sorry about that. No, I know it’s been heavy for you. So thanks for sharing all that stuff

It’s cool, I love talking about it.

Man, thank you for everything. I appreciate it. Everybody. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoy this, please share it on your social media channels. We appreciate your support. Thanks very much to Tyler Armstrong and best of luck and continued success to the band called feel another thanks to Greg Martin for always hooking me up with some amazingly cool, nice, kind people. And most important, everybody remember that happiness is a choice. So choose wisely, be nice, go play guitar and have fun until next time. Peace and love everybody. I am out Tyler. Thank you so much for everything, brother.

Awesome, man. Thanks.