My name is Andrei Awad and I am 23 years old and I go by he/him.

 

And what do you play in the band?

 

Mostly guitar but everything like drums and bass and piano. I'd like to explore my other options in playing other instruments soon as well. I'm open to other stuff to play.

 

What is Dres and Friends, how did you come up with it? 

 

Dres and Friends was kind of like a sporadic thought because for a while when I started playing music, I was often like by myself since most of my friends didn't have the same hobby. So, I'd be jamming and then I came to Kalamazoo. I met you and Andrew and that sparked interest and we were friends and having this interest come together and then we met all these wonderful people who live in our house and live in this neighborhood and who live in Kalamazoo and they've become our friends. I thought it was really nice to just have that support with you guys coming in and making these songs come to lif and Dres and Friends came from that because I was like, "Okay, what do I do? How do I get a live project together?" I started off by asking you and Andrew and Griff and I was like, "Okay, guys, like I have these songs, right?" And they're like, "Okay, let's do it," and I was so nervous because I never had brought these songs to life before. So, did it. I just really liked the structure of how Dres and Friends is, when I write my stuff and then, I come to you guys and you guys give something a little different that I may have not like thought of at the time and it gives it that umph like what you did in Unlaced Shoe. That's a perfect example of what Dres and Friends is. It's like getting my own style down and then coming to you guys and then just blending it and yeah, having you guys play on it. It's really cool. And all the people who played on it, man.Yeah, we got Haley Steinkamp has been a part of Dres Friends a couple of times. Andrew Theehs, who also has been a part of Basement Window too. We got Grayson Barbone the saxophone player who's currently sitting not too far away from us. Fred Gordon, he's been on there one time so far at "Doom City" a month ago. Parker, Chase and Austin from Mushroom Jam. AJ, most recently at the Bell's Show. Henny, Headband Henny. Griffin, Griff Paws. Kyle and Matt from Dark Boiler, Connor from Means of Entry, Rain Jackson, a vocalist around the neighborhood. Ethan Scissors from Glowhouse and from Muskegon, Michigan. There's so many people. I think that's all who's played in this. Oh and Ryan Fluke, oh my gosh. What the H, dude? Okay. Ryan Fluke. He's played on there and Collier, Collier, Hillman, Lynn Hillman. All these people who I've mentioned have played and I've really liked what they've done with the songs because it's so much different each time. And that's like a constant for me personally with music is I don't like it to be the same every time because it would just feel staged and wouldn't feel natural. I wanted like a solid group but I knew for a fact that nobody had the time at the time to be a solid group since there's so many other projects like your project, Witches Wedding and Griff Paws' own project and Fluke's own project, Future Misters and Headband Henny, his solo project, so like everybody's projects were a thing so I had to like schedule in people when they were free. I like that better because my original thought was to get a solid group of people, but then the inconvenience of time schedules actually really helped it out because it expanded what things could sound like and what we could do and make it more possible to have everything so different each set. So I think it was a blessing in disguise to have everybody be so busy and then come together when they can and play these songs like they do with me and then like you Andrew and Griff that's like a whole complete different sound than me and Fluke or Henry and Grayson or it's a complete different sound from me and Parker and Chase and Austin or me Ethan and Collier. No I like it. I really like it like that. I never expected it to turn out like that.We have a show this Saturday of June 24th at Davis Park. There might be a cold one cracking like that over there.

 

Have you been in any previous projects before?

 

I have. Those projects weren't as extensive as Dres and Friends, so back home had a couple of friends who would meet up and jam regularly and then we decided to form a band. Our band name was Redline because most of us in the band liked cars and there was this car place in Lansing called Redline so we said Redline and our bio on Instagram was we said we were just trying to tell Adrian that we did it because we had that Rocky motivation of climbing up the steps and trying to level ourselves up musically and friendship-wise too because it made our friendships stronger and then you know some thing's happened I went back to college, didn't have as much time. Before that, my first ever band I was in, I was in this like I don't even know what it is it was a cross between funk, metal and jazz and I didn't know what to call it at the time we thought we were just garage rock but now looking back at it we played so many different styles at that time and it was me, Isaac Norberg and Brandon Paisley who are two friends of mine from school, the first solid group like band I had and we would go to my grandma's basement and she was obviously so encouraging of me to play and like we'd make sure to play when it was you know light out so that was that was really fun because it gave me the opportunity to feel free and play something on my own rather than looking at a music chart. That was the first ever project I was a part of and we didn't have a name but we had this song that ripped off Jimmy Hendrix. It was called Wack and we would like go through the verses like a funk bass and then we would scream Wack! All of us and that was a song.

 

How long have you been actively playing and making music?

 

Between the ages of five and seven so I would like play with things but I wouldn't know how to properly play but I would mess around with them and like really enjoy just messing around with them and that's what really kicked the interest and then my mom and dad signed me up for piano lessons and then they got me Beatles rock band and then they're like we're getting you a drum set and I took lessons before just so they were sure that I really liked and I really did. My drum instructor, his name was Ben, Ben Goshien that guy's nuts. I love that guy. He was like he was like a different total level of comfort of what I've like felt outside of like school and like like outside of extra curricular activities and I would go in there and I'd feel this big sense of peace because it's like I'm just sitting down with this guy one on one he's teaching me the basics of how to navigate like around a drum set and giving me things to help out for a better like drum progression in the future. At the time, I thought it was pretty boring because I wanted to play like all this heavy stuff and like doo doo doo doo doo all that like flashy stuff, but the discipline of like looking at a drum pattern book and spending hours just like doing that really is concrete for any musician especially if they're on the drums or whatever, like even the jam we had earlier right like we there was a pocket and like everybody was in the pocket and we were playing and like would throw some licks back and forth and I guess the point is it just it just taught me how to like stay in pocket and how to have a solid groove and then maybe do flashy stuff when it's time, just like the discipline of like getting yourself to get in the groove and then okay I'm warmed up now let's like move here, but yeah. Shout out Ben Goshien 

 

Was drums the first instrument that you got comfortable with then? 

 

Piano was first, but then I was tired of piano because I just thought it was boring and I was you know playing all this like classical stuff, which now I really appreciate but back at the time I was like I want I want something that goes harder than this, but my piano teacher was really patient with me. Apparently, my mom and dad and her said this that I picked up things a little bit more quickly, which I didn't get because I thought I was just trying to play and I thought I was screwing up, but they said I was going through perfectly and then one day I just said no I'm done. A couple of years later, I picked it up again after I was playing drums because in drums or my journey with drums I joined jazz band and being in the rhythm section really allowed me to kind of get a music theory from a third person view, so like when my friend would play those piano chords and charts along with like the brass or the woodwind section, you could tell when somebody was out of tune since you've heard that tune so many times or that song and it really like heightened my musical senses even though I was on drums because you'd look for cues for certain people like the pianist or the trombone player or the saxophone player or whoever was in the band and that really helped out just like being a part of that and looking at that from an outsider's view as a percussionist and then coming into playing guitar and bass and then trying to like deviate all the things I've taken in from jazz. That's one thing that's really critical I think in my musical journey has been jazz. The importance of you know playing with feel but still somehow going off a structure a little bit when you start out, just to get a bass as of where you're going and then go from there.

 

How do you feel like Dres and Friends differs from the previous projects you've been a part of?

 

I don't want to sound rude when I say this, it's a lot more enjoyable. When when I was doing this stuff with my first bands and everything,  I felt lost almost because it's like guys like I get that we want to play rock but there's gotta be something else that's out there that could be a little bit more experimental or something and that was my issue with projects for like the longest time before I moved to Kalamazoo and met you guys was that there was no like experimentation, there was no like let's push this further like let's go somewhere else and like leave this genre that's already been overplayed so many times. I think it's just more the experimentalness and the more like freedom and relaxation that it has with Dres and Friends and everybody in Kalamazoo who I've jammed with and played with, rather than like back home when I was starting to play with them. My first band though it felt free, it felt freeing but like we were just like stuck and like we all just had differing opinions so like that's why it kind of faded out because we didn't reach on a common goal. The second band same thing happened too, but I might have not been as vocal about it as I would have been because I was a little bit shy and reserved because I didn't know how to like do this and I didn't want to sound like a complete asshole, like trying to be like, do this or do this you know I just wanted to let things happen but then I got tired of it I was like okay, not the biggest fan, but when I go into practice with you or Andrew or Griff or anybody who's been in the part Dres and Friends set it feels like okay there's something like else here that we can do not just the same thing over and again like hey let's switch that up let's do that up and people are more receptive to it and especially with other projects too like when we did Ditch Witch at the at the Dreamland show that was so fun because we all got to pick out one song and we all played and it just flowed like really well. 

 

I will never forget your minute and a half long drum solo at the end of Crockpot, that shit was so epic. I just like stopped playing anything and just turned around and looked at you.

 

I didn't even look up at first I was like, what's going on I was so glued into it.

 

I think I want to ask about that like I think some people who have seen perform would say that there's definitely this persona or this seemingly different entity that comes over you in a way, like it's still you but it's a performing side of you.

 

It's just a feeling of like feeling free you know and feeling like there's no room for judgment or resentment there's only room to just belch it out and do it. It's literally do or die like I would rather play my heart out 24/7 then be secluded and not be able to do that at least for now. I just love the feeling of being up on there and just feeling like I can just do something that I feel at the moment it's like the improvisation I said from jazz earlier and it just feels really freeing just to like do that and like get out some emotions I've had that I can't really process normally and that's what's great about it too is just a stagemanship and the showmanship like that, it just gives you like more motivation to go out there and do it. That's why I do it, just to go and go hard.

 

If you have any words to describe the sound of the music that you make what would they be? 

 

I don't know like any words specifically but there's a little bit of everything, that's what I really like about it because Dres and friends what makes the friends part so important is that gives it more of a little bit of everything because if I was just giving solely my little bit of everything, it would sound a lot different but when you guys come in and like give that extra touch or extra one note or whatever it is, then that's everything and that's what I like is to try and involve everything into a set so it's not just sounding the same for seven or eight songs

 

Would you say that it's genreless?

 

It could be, someone could categorize it if they really wanted to, but I've jumped like my last three projects I've dropped from or jumped from alternative to breakbeat to rock, so expect more genres I guess.

 

What are some of your biggest influences?

 

The Beetles, the all-time number one in my book, the Beetles. Every time I look at them playing or talking about something there's always something new that is brought to my mental table because like maybe I'll listen to George Harrison a little bit more, maybe I'll listen to Paul's stuff a little bit more or Ringo or John and like just kind of branch off from there, and then just like look at their evolution between when they started and when they stopped. That's like one been one of the most concrete things about music for me too is that you don't have to stay like the same. There's this notion that some people have that like you have to stay the same or you have to put out the same kind of thing all the time, but I'm not the biggest fan of that because if I put out the same thing or like something that sounds the same all the time I would go crazy. I'd be pretty upset too because I wouldn't want to limit myself from experiencing anything that could be a real eye opener or just something that's so refreshing. It's a sense of like FOMO like a genuine sense of like musical FOMO. If I don't do something like that like man I'm like missing out like I should branch out to this and see what's going on and if I branch out and I don't like it, I don't like it. That's the most important thing is just branching out and least trying it, then you have a concrete opinion of saying no I don't like this because I've actually tried this and I've actually tried to incorporate it somehow in my style and maybe it doesn't fit, but then it then it does and then you're like oh my gosh. I don't regret looking up type beats and freestyling, I don't regret looking up like samba jazz drum tracks and playing Spanish type guitar, I don't regret like that one time when we had the couch jam and when I played your cello like I was like yeah let's play cello, let's try it you know, but yeah I guess experimentation would be that one word it's just experimentation and no limitation to what can be done is would be a good answer for that. The Strokes, love the The Strokes just recently like probably almost two years ago, I remember I think I told you that Andrew sounded like Julian Casablancas, like he does. There's just one part I remember like this is a core memory in my head that Andrew sounds like Julian Casablancas when he screamed and when I heard Soma off of Is This It I was like what! It made me appreciate more of where you guys come from too and like so The Strokes and then the White Stripes have recently been a big, big, big inspiration for the past year, credit to my friend John Desmond for putting me on to that. The two piece said that we do with Dres and Friends obviously is inspired by that but it's taken in a different direction obviously because who wants to just straight up copy a band that's already existing? Black Keys, no I'm kidding, I'm kidding but no uh I'm kidding but then like different music like you've shown me like Sonic Youth I've got on the Sonic Youth because you and then Andrew's shown me like some more like deep cuts in the rap genre. AJ and me actually have some similarities like he was listening to Boy Pablo last night, Every Time and that's one of my favorite songs by them and he I heard him playing guitar by them and I was like I had to stop by his door and sing along with him while he was playing. He probably didn't know that, but he'll know that. Then Ethan has got me into a lot of like deeper shoegaze and metal cuts, stuff like Vegan Reich, Lower Species, Seventh Generations, Mono, this album called One Step More and You Die. He was playing it in the kitchen one time and I was like what is this? I think the most influential genres I've had in my musical time have been The Beetles, The Strokes, The White Stripes, little bit of hard rock here and there with like vocal wise like Def Leopard and then like coincidentally enough how Paul McCartney does his interpretation of Little Richard and then my interpretation of doing Paul McCartney like Little Richard.

 

I want to hear a little bit more about how those influences kind of shine through in your music.

 

For songwriting, inspiration is definitely John or Paul. There's this quote that John said, he says if you have a thought write it down on paper and write down as much as you can until you feel like you finished it in that very moment and then come back to it later. Where John Lennon stands on like songwriting that's been an important piece to me like how to like song write and like go about it. Then Paul, Paul with arrangements has been like a real inspiration ever since he thought of Sergeant Pepper and brought it to the other Beetles and like had that big arrangement like that's been a huge inspiration to try, because that's what I'd like to do in the future you know is get more like concerto like symphonic arrangements of certain pieces together and make them go like a big grand opening and like George's stuff with inspiration has been more like branching out like more culturally so like let's say for example, Indian music. I speak three languages. I speak French, which is the primary/secondary language I have and then Hindi and Arabic and a little bit of Spanish, sorry four. That has been like an influence on me too is like learning about different cultures and seeing their sides of music and how they go about it and like how they arrange stuff. I remember sitting in my grandma's living room when I was about five or six and like she was always watching this Arabic channel that had like the old time music on there like Umka Fum who's this really old Egyptian artist and Abdell Halim Hafez um and I like the way they put their orchestras together and did their songs and that sort of arrangement has been like stuck in my head and it's like okay there could be something else like with that. So going on with The Strokes, so The Beatles are covered with arrangements and songwriting, the same goes with songwriting and the arrangement with Julian because he's the sole writer of The Strokes and he gets together with all the four of the other them and like vocalizes it so much to where they get almost exactly what he's talking about and I think that's a really crucial skill to have as a songwriter in a band or just in a solo project is to be able to express how much you want your sound to be there, like that's what I found with Tristan to it WSS when we're recording Dres and Friends album like I was a little bit stumped because I like had to get it out, I was like okay what do I want? Just the way that Julian does it and he like writes it on his own and then like how Jack does it to, Jack White, where he'll just maybe improvise with Meg the whole set like he'll only let her know a couple songs and then just improvise the whole thing and ask her mid-set like what do you want to do now? Or Meg says let's do this now. Just all three of those things blended together has really been like nice because when you go play live we can do that since we've had like a concrete group of people who've rehearsed these songs before we could just like improv say hey let's do this one or with the arrangement type stuff, like we did with the first Dres and Friends show with Tristan, shout out Tristan by the way, Tristan Beck Torres. He was in the first group of the Dres and Friends project and what we did with Tristan like that was great too because I wanted to get as much sound out of everybody as possible so we could just like belt it out and make it this whole experience, especially with the Hey Jude at the end. That was great. That was with Sick Switch, the old project oh yeah, I forgot to mention I was in Sick Switch and then Mushroom Jam was there and I think, did you guys play? No, it was Pointless Painters Club and Griff Paws.

 

Let's talk about your song writing process.

​

There's no starting point. It just depends on what I'm doing and how I'm feeling. I've forced myself in the beginning to have a specific starting point and get routine with it, but I've noticed when I do that it causes a lot more pressure and block into what I want to express because it's like you have to express this, or you have to express that. I don't have to, but I desire to and I think there's a better way to do it then forcing myself to do that instead of just feeling it out, giving it time. That's what was bad about my first ever songs, some of them were alright. Some of them were catchy to me because I'm biased for someone who writes their own songs, you obviously have to like your own stuff, but going forward writing songs it just would depend on what I'm doing like I remember I was sitting on a plane one time and I wrote down a bunch of these song titles that I had in my head on notes on an iPhone and then I would just separate those and put them in the header and then I would write down the lyrics about what I was thinking about each specific song and Lemon Haze and Love Plane came out of that. It's gotten better over time because I've had more resources and more like friends like y'all to like help out with the process and not feel as stuck because like that's one thing I didn't budge with when I was writing songs at first because I had nobody to talk to about it. I'd be like how do I do this? Let's watch another Beetles clip, let's watch a Strokes clip, let's watch a Tyler, the Creator clip and see how he does this in the studio and makes up a beat with Taco or Travis. Or just like how anyone has been doing it that's what I was looking to at first, is getting the outside perspective how these people who have had a lot of success with their creative ambitions go out there and write a song and then you take some of it in and then you take some of the out you don't like and then it just gets better over time because somehow you find, or luckily I found people like you guys to get that stuff out. Yeah it just it just changes every time with all the people surrounded by me and like what I'm surrounded in and what I'm going through that day or that week or that month or that year.

 

So you released an album recently, let's talk about it. 

 

So Dres and Friends the album came out on June 9th, 2023. It's a six track EP. It features Haley from The Void on there. It also features Andrew and Ethan and Fluke and Grayson and a homie from California named Chin Maya, shout out Chinmaya. It features Tristan Beck Torres, the amazing producer who made most of this possible and then the engineers in LA, Tim Horner and Evan Taylor and Ace. I don't know Ace's last name but shout out to them. So the whole album started, was just like I collected all those songs I was like okay I think these songs are ready like let's go into a studio and try and nail them out. So I started with Unlaced Shoe at Loanica Studios in Los Angeles, California. It's downtown district right by the flower district and so we went in there. I had a original plan of writing out these songs it would be four songs I wanted to complete in one day and luckily I got two done. I got Unlace Shoe done there and Lemon Haze done over there. Those were sort of like the first time I heard my music professionally recorded and I was like stunned. I was like what the- what I like about this album, it blends with everything, like even on the album cover there's a picture of you and Andrew and Griffin and all of our friends on there and it blends throughout our house and shout out Cole for that Cole is my graphic designer. He took a picture of our house on Google Earth and put our images taken by Jango Ravioli, Mr. Josh Randazzo, shout out him. He also does merch too, so look out for Josh for merch on that and then Ryan Fluke also took a couple of those photographs. I remember talking to Josh about it and he was like legit so happy that his pictures made it on somebody's album cover and we had a little heart to heart about that. I'm thankful that he's made the merch too, but getting back to the album. The favorites I think I have right now is definitely Laced Shoe. Laced Shoe is the strung up, no emotion, let's just go with logic anger type beat. It's more of like a release of these intense emotions that are just like okay let's get it out of the way. I really like Laced Shoe because Ethan came in the studio one day when we were recording this whole project and I was like Ethan you want to try something? Just play the these Unlaced Shoe chords and we'll try something, so we did that and made Laced Shoe. Then a couple months later we went to The Backrooms, the craziest venue ever, and we rerecorded it and it sounded so much fuller and Grayson was on there, Fluke was on there, I was on there and so was Ethan. That was one of my favorite processes of making up a song on the spot and it really connected well with how Unlaced Shoe was, because Unlaced Shoe's idea was more of like this somber, more emotional, like I've let out all that stuff it's time to decompress and meditate on how I just felt and calmed down. That's what I like about the relationship between Laced Shoe and Unlaced Shoe is that after you listen to Laced Shoe, it's almost like you've like calmed down and drank like five glasses of water and are just more coherent toward your emotions that you were trying to suppress earlier. My favorite though, it's hard to say because they're all my my songs and I can't throw any one in the dirt or throw in any one up higher than the other, but I'm really on Take Off the Edge. That one I made up randomly too and I couldn't find out the lyrics for the longest time and I remember you and Andrew, we went to Mike Failing's house, Mike Failing from Ficus. We were trying to jam on that and I still couldn't find the words. I had every chord, every lick ready, still couldn't find the words. Then one day, I think it was really mad at something and I said I have to take off the edge now, I have to step away from this ledge now, I have to make some amends now and got to make a deal with myself now and I said you know I was thinking I know there's time to do it but sue it we'll go and take off the edge because that's how I felt, I was just like sue it, like let's play this Dres and Friends show live, let's give him a taste of what this is and how hard we've worked to build it up and how much help you guys have given me to showcase that. So there's no really favorite or non-favorites of this album. That whole album has my has my whole entire heart so I can't diss on any track or can't put any track higher than the other one.

 

Where did you record it, with who and what are some memorable things from recording it?

 

So I did two sessions. The first session was with Tristan Beck Torres at WSS, which is Western Sound Studios and that was more of like okay what do we want? How are we going to arrange this? It was more of like getting the bricks laid down to have that whole house be there. So, what I remember from the first session, I was so excited. Griffin what came in, Andrew came in and I think you stopped in at one point too during that first three-day session and it was nice because these things were coming to life and I had so many of you come in and like watch and support and like get an extra ear. It was nice because you guys always had fresh ears. I'd be too tired and be like okay what like what do I want on this and then you'd say something, Andrew would say something, Ethan would say something, Tristan would say something and everybody who came in had like a fresh ear to offer and that was what as really nice about the first experience there because we stayed up to like six or seven in the morning trying to figure it out and there'd always be a fresh set of ears that would come in to help us like navigate, like okay that could be cool or that could not be cool. 

 

So that was the first session I ever had and then I went to Luantica the next week and I was so nervous because I don't even know these guys like that because I just reached out to em one day I said hey you guys gotany sessions available? So, turns out they did. We message back and forth and I was originally going to go visit my cousin Izzy, shout out Izzy man. Went to go visit him originally and I was just looking for studios at the time to see if I could get some stuff laid down, luckily Luantica picked up and they were like yeah let's do it. So I go there. I get dropped off. They have this really cool entrance to their studio, so you walk in to the flower district like the block right and between those blocks there's this little garage that they put some of the flowers in and then there's this little staircase that you go up to, it's like this kind of like balcony feel, and you go in there you turn left and then you turn another left and then on your right is the door to the Luantica studios which is like this nice small but feels so big studio with every guitar, bass, drum set, piano possible and like they had a lot of cool pedals in there too. 

 

During all these studio sessions that I've had, I kept a journal and kept down my thoughts and time docked it, so it would go from like 7:30 to 10:30 to midnight to five and like I would just write how I'm feeling about the tracks and like what would go on specifically. That help me kind of like process like okay this is done, this needs to be focused on more or this is going good but there's a little bit of work need to be done right here. That happened throughout the third session too when we went back to WSS for the last final mixing and mastering sessions and just doing overdubs. The whole experience really was just nice because I felt so at home and I felt like there was really nothing to worry about besides if the XLR cable was going to work for my pedal or if my strings were restrung just right or if somebody had a glass of water or a dab pen on them, I don't know. That's what I really liked about the studio was it's just like getting in there and then feeling like I had time to really process and like have you guys help out and come in and even if it was just like the short half an hour or even five minutes anyway like just coming in and chilling and getting my mind off of it and just talking about what we've been doing and then coming back to it and then be like hey this is what we got like oh.

 

This is the last thing I'm going to say about it, there's this one story where me and Ethan were recording, we were kind of sleep deprived and we did two takes of the song so we step out of the second take and Ethan's like don't worry about it dude like it's okay if you can't like do it I'm not too pressed about it. I looked him in the face I said Ethan we're doing this third take whether you like it or not, like I'm going to get these drums for you. You're gonna like it, we're gonna have fun, we're gonna do this. You're not deterring me from doing this right now. He's like okay and then we come back in and I look at him the third take I'm like you ready? He's like, sure and by the end of that third take he's like, what dude like that was exactly what I wanted for the drums. I was like, I told you. That's what was really good about it too is the challenges, the challenges that I put towards Ethan and Griff and Andrew or frickin anybody who just like played and the way that Cole shot it, the film, which you guys will be seeing in a little bit here the extra behind the scenes studio time and I think that's what made it really exciting too because like challenging Tristan to put a live recording in using piano and drums at the same time because we put the piano that they have at Western Sound Studios in there, that grand one, and then we put a booth around Griffin's drum set when he was playing. I told that the Tristan he's like wait like what are you talking about I was like dude let's do a live recording, he's like I've never done that before so let's try it and he was nervous, but it worked out so well because we took the time to be like okay that's gonna be there, that's gonna be there, let's test it real quick. He told me after he was like I'm really glad you said that because it like it challenged my abilities as a producer and challenged the way that I think about recording stuff and it gave me the like motivation to try it out and see where it goes and it went really well. Just pushing his boundaries a little bit, not in the bad way, but like pushing his like creative boundaries and saying okay let's do that, let's try it, come on, like come on! I think the most important thing about those studio times were just the enjoyment of making those songs and then having them come to life with you guys and the challenges that were put into that to make it even more worthwhile.

 

Do you feel like there's a theme to the album?

 

Friendship, friendship. It feels like a time traveling machine since like these songs are so old like some of them are three, four years old some of them are two, three months old and it feels like a time machine kind of like going back into that moment and just making improvements on how it sounds to me in the present, enough to put it out on streaming services. I think that's the theme is just friendship and yeah collaboration, friendship and experimentation have got to be it. 

 

Any fun show memories you want to share?

 

When we played Lace Shoe at Bell's, I was so like warped inside that song. I didn't want to get off the drum set. I was so upset when I had to get off the drum set. I was like, damn dude like let's keep on playing this. Oh yeah, oh my gosh okay so, when we played The Backrooms, this was with Chase and Austin and Parker, Mushroom Jam this was in February and that was when you guys had the Chicago show with Basement Window and Gigawatts and uh...

 

Fugaz... no not Fugazi! It was Fujiko!

 

Yeah Fujiko! Me and fluke surprised everybody since we did a Spongebob rendition of a Stove is a Stove. He was Mr. Krabs, I was Spongebob and everybody put their phone lights up and someone said to me after the show they were like, that was so emotional man like thank you for playing that. I was like yeah of course!

 

A stove, is a stove...

 

no matter where you go.

A

t that same show, because I played Trouble by Coldplay, somebody came up to me and was like that was really powerful. Every time I play when people connect with emotions like it's hard not to break down in front of them because I'm feeling the same thing that they are so it's just like like I'm glad that they share that same emotion through that and that's been the greatest part of shows too it's just like having people connect with you on that saying like I get what you're saying or like I really like how you're like formatting this like that spoke to me. 

 

Why create music in the first place?

 

Do you ever think that when you create your own music there's like something new to listen to? I know there's so many availabilities of listening to new things constantly, but making your own music is like something new and it's putting it out there into the world and adding to the newest collection of what's being out there.

 

What are some of the goals you have for this project?

 

The goal is just to like express myself more and more each time to where it feels so right and to have people listen to that and spread it out and just collaborate with people from all across the world. I'd really love to play a bill with Skeggs, this Australian punk band. They just toured America not too long ago, I remember I saw a post about them being in Wisconsin, they got snowed out and had to play like a couple days later, but they're really cool I'd really love to work with a couple people like oh Le Jadon dong this is like this french band that switches in between Spanish and French, Le Jadon who I found through apple playlists about foreign music and just working across the world, going to France and making French music and having another audience overseas and connecting with them with their own native language or even in India and speaking their native language and just connecting with people across the world so it doesn't feel like the expression is limited to the only people who speak that language, but I mean it's not limited in actuality because music is the great communicator, said by Anthony Ketis. My goal is just to go all over the world and play and immerse myself in different cultures and see everything that I can that I'd like to, to just have that time because you don't know how much time you really have on your life and you just got to take advantage of it and work hard to get where you want to get and sometimes it's hard obviously nobody said it was easy. You have to take the hardships with the the good stuff and it makes it even more rewarding. The other goal I have is to potentially get signed to a record label, Third-Man Records especially Jack White's record label. I really like the artist that they have put out recently and Jack White's direction of putting those people under there and giving them a chance to open for him, go on tour for him and change the band constantly is what he did. He changed the bands up like the opening bands up so much in his tour to have those guys be able to get a chance to share the stage with him, especially because they're signed to his record label you know and he's obviously a fan of them if they're signed his record label. I'd really love to be a part of Third-Man records and hopefully meet Jack one day and just tell him obviously thank you about how much he's inspired me to chase my own musical dreams and just helping me realize that this is possible. Just Third Man and like going on to play like that on a record label that's like with music that I feel so like gravitated to and then just traveling the world, meeting people like, just doing different things with music like even maybe scoring a film or like maybe playing underwater if that's possible. I thought about that ever since Nirvana did Nevermind and that picture of them in the pool, like wouldn't that be so cool? Or just like just doing like stuff like playing on rooftops, I mean the Beatles already did that you know but like just expanding what can be possible, just getting out there.

 

Was music your first form of self expression would you say or did it start somewhere else for you?

 

It started a lot in sports. When I'd get really mad at something I'd go kick a soccer ball, I'd go shoot some hoops, I'd go you know play some tennis or just like throw something so like that came in hand with music because it's like I did that first a lot more because I was really into like athletics and everything and somehow over time I was like okay it does help you know get like you know your bodily functions going and keep you like shape and stuff but sometimes it just wasn't doing it for me. With the music, it's so much more different of expression because you're using your brain a lot more. You're heightening your senses and using your brain to where you figure out all this stuff and visualize it like a map that's like a projector in your eyes and it's 3D and you just go there, but sports and music and a lot of writing like I really wanted to be a journalist when I was younger. I wanted to be like a paper reporter, work for the Los Angeles Times. I even told my mom at one point I wanted to be the mayor of LA but that's uh... I don't think so, but like I loved english class because you would write stuff about things whether it's bias or non-bias. I really liked the biased stuff because you could throw in your own two cents about what you were reading. Recently even like stand-up like comedy just to get like some jitters out and just be silly. I wanted to try and paint especially sunsets like this, but my hand wasn't too apt to being symmetrical so I was like pretty demotivated. When I learned about Pablo Picasso I was like, this is great dude like Pablo Picasso sign me up. Abstractism is that how you say it? Abstractism or abstractness, I guess. I don't know.

 

What does music as a medium provide for you that maybe other creative outlets don't? 

 

It feels a lot more amped up. It feels a lot more in touch with myself. I feel like I'm actually getting some stuff out in a healthy way and attacking emotions that I'm not a big fan of in a healthier way and like that's what music has been for me it's like it gets me closer to becoming my higher self and having the visions of if you do this man like it's gonna pay off. Just having faith that it you know everything works out and if something doesn't work out it might have been for the better, but I definitely feel there's a spiritual medium and music and it's definitely through God, like I've had a lot of experiences with religions in my my life so far because my mom was raised christian as a Catholic and my my father was raised Islamic.

 

What do you want people in the scene to know about the music that you make?

 

It's a joy to have people come and want to see these shows. It gives all the more motivation to keep on doing it. I'd just like people to know that there's a lot of things that go into this music and I know that may sound cliche but it's definitely not false.

 

Is there anything you care to share about yourself or the project or whatever?

 

Yeah so I'm from Romania. I was adopted when I was six months old in June and I've never been back there before. I've heard some stories about my mom. Her name is Persilla. I think her last name is Patranko, don't know my dad's name. I potentially have a brother or sister out there who speaks a completely different language than I do, maybe they might know english who knows, but that's my background. Growing up in East Lancing and Lancing, there's a lot of musical experiences that I had especially with my dad he's responsible for like my musical upbringing because he showed me The Beetles, The Police, The Scorpions. The Police, I forgot to say are huge influence too especially with Stuart Copeland drumming and how he changes it up every song like in Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, he has this like samba groove going on, but then if you listen to let's say Canary in a Coal Mine it's kind of like a funky do do do do do do do do do, but my dad was really responsible for like the first ever of musical experiences I had and then you know taking piano lessons and doing choir in school, playing clarinet which I didn't really enjoy in school kind of taught me about some music theory and how to read music in a treble clef and bass clef blah blah blah and then just all those musical upbringings that I thought were really small and I was always wanting more, but now I appreciate them more and I was a little bit regretful of how I wanted things to move faster and like not have like the patience as much and that's what it's like kind of grounded me on is a little bit more patience, especially being an only child because I grew up a little bit kind of sheltered and being an only child that's like a double whammy so when you know going out in the real world you know you have to expect things aren't always going to go your way, you're not going to get everything handed to you on a silver platter, you have to work for it. No matter how mad it made me at the time I still had to process that and be more mature about that and that's what music has been really good for is that it gives you that perspective of waiting for something and like working towards it and building it up slowly each day or each hour or each month or each year or something and just gravitating towards being patient and being comfortable with the results that you're putting in especially when you see it reflect from the work ethic, sometimes that's been a disappointment to me because I know I'm not doing the work ethic that I can.

 

Any final thoughts?

 

I want to thank you, Haley Steinkamp, for interviewing me for The Void this has been like a really cool interview, as well as mother house music for some upcoming collaborations that you guys have, that's going to be sick. I have a Motherhouse music video shoot soon, don't know what song yet, but expect that out sometime soon. To everybody on the Dres and Friends album who worked on that thank you, to everybody who's played in a Dres and Friends set thank you, to everybody who supported Dres and Friends and everybody in the vine neighborhood who I've met and have collaborated with and seen their versions of what music is to them, thank them.  Thank you Haley because like you've always like pushed me to do better and even though you might not realize it sometimes you tell me stuff that really like sticks and like resonates with me, I'm like that's what it is, and you know and like you've pushed me to become a better like musician in person and help me grow in a way that I'm really like thankful of and I appreciate you being my friend and counseling me through some things and like helping me gravitate towards a more sensible approach to how to deal with my emotions or how to deal with like a problem that may not seem as big as it is, or just hanging out, just sitting down and talking about life or whatever but like seriously I really appreciate you like consoling and just giving the best advice you can and to everybody who's given me advice about anything in my life, whether it be bad or good, you know. 

 

Like that one kid on the street who told you to do crack earlier? 

 

I guess so he steered me away not to do it, so thank him. 

 

Are you sure? I think he said do crack 

 

Oh he said do it, oh because it steered me away not to do it because he said do it and he's younger than me and I'm like okay that's obviously a sign not to do it, well that goes for crack.

 

Any final thoughts other than crack is wack?

 

Merci, Shukran, Dhanyavaad, Gracias, thank you.