Episode #60- John Merchant is the frontman for the new band, "Ghosts of Sunset." They have a new EP coming out soon on Golden Robot Records titled "Headed West." The first single is "Miles In-Between" and available everywhere.
00:00 - Intro
01:07 - Early Influences
02:20 - The Beatles
03:50 - Enuff Z'Nuff & Donnie Vie
04:30 - Music Partner - Todd Long
05:50 - "Hair Metal"
07:53 - Dutch Henry: Alt-Country Band
11:36 - White Rabbit - 60s/70s Cover Band
12:50 - Working Musician for 30 Years
16:50 - Opening for Big Bands
18:10 - Teaming Up With Other Bands
21:55 - Golden Robot Records
27:03 - Finding New Bands Now Vs Then
30:33 - Songwriting Process
31:50 - Inspiration For Songs
35:45 - Taking the Plunge
37:15 - "Headed West" EP
42:07 - Connecting With Similar Music Taste
44:43 - Arena Style Show at the Club Level
47:50 - Being Up Close With Rockstars
49:24 - Drugs, Alcohol, Fear & Sobriety
52:55 - Seattle Rock Scene
54:35 - MusiCares
55:50 - Wrap Up
Ghosts of Sunset Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofsunset
MusiCares:
https://www.grammy.com/musicares
Chuck Shute Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chuck_shute
Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!
Episode #60- John Merchant is the frontman for the new band, "Ghosts of Sunset." They have a new EP coming out soon on Golden Robot Records titled "Headed West." The first single is "Miles In-Between" and available everywhere.
00:00 - Intro
01:07 - Early Influences
02:20 - The Beatles
03:50 - Enuff Z'Nuff & Donnie Vie
04:30 - Music Partner - Todd Long
05:50 - "Hair Metal"
07:53 - Dutch Henry: Alt-Country Band
11:36 - White Rabbit - 60s/70s Cover Band
12:50 - Working Musician for 30 Years
16:50 - Opening for Big Bands
18:10 - Teaming Up With Other Bands
21:55 - Golden Robot Records
27:03 - Finding New Bands Now Vs Then
30:33 - Songwriting Process
31:50 - Inspiration For Songs
35:45 - Taking the Plunge
37:15 - "Headed West" EP
42:07 - Connecting With Similar Music Taste
44:43 - Arena Style Show at the Club Level
47:50 - Being Up Close With Rockstars
49:24 - Drugs, Alcohol, Fear & Sobriety
52:55 - Seattle Rock Scene
54:35 - MusiCares
55:50 - Wrap Up
Ghosts of Sunset Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofsunset
MusiCares:
https://www.grammy.com/musicares
Chuck Shute Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chuck_shute
Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!
Welcome to the show, john merchant front end for the new band ghosts of sunset, they have a new EP coming out called headed west. There's a song released from a now called miles in between. But I gotta tell you, I heard the whole EP, and it's great. I actually like the more rocking songs best, but the whole EP is good. And it was a lot of fun chatting with john and talking music. We talked about his influences, and his life in the music business. He's played in different bands for 30 years. It's pretty cool stuff. There are some deep cuts in this episode, some lesser known bands that we talked about, but if you listen to my show, you know my musical tastes. And even if you don't like this kind of music, I still feel like it's a good interview just talking about music in general and energy. tainment in the world, it's such an important thing. And I think you'll enjoy this interview with john merchant from ghosts of sunset. Check it out. Welcome, john merchant from singer from gosa sunset. How you doing? Yeah. Thanks for having me, man. I'm good. How are you, brother? Great, just great. So, yeah, let's dive right in. So you got 30 years in the music business you said
John Merchant :right there. This didn't you know, you don't get this kind of stuff. Just you know, starting yesterday. Right.
Chuck Shute :Okay. So let's start at the beginning. And so as a child, young child, you were influenced by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Little Richard, all the kind of the 60s stuff then. Right,
John Merchant :right. Right, even though you know, um, I kind of came up a fan of that style of music, you know, the roots of rock and roll. And I think what happened is I had a couple young friends growing up who like had I think they had an uncle or something who, you know, bailed out moved out of there, out of his house and left a bunch of 45 you know, little records. So we got into the Beatles and The stones and all the West Coast surf music. And so I was always out of step with my peers right away. You know, I mean, when you're in second grade and the 70s you know, nobody wants to talk about Jan and Dean, you know, they want to be G's or whatever, you know. Well, so I was always out of step.
Chuck Shute :Yeah, you said the rock and roll music volumes one and two from the Beatles. That kind of changed your life. It was a collection of covers of The Beatles had been playing. I don't know if I've even heard those songs.
John Merchant :It's really cool, man. If there were like Volume One and two, it was you know, albums, obviously, at that time. It had all these covers Chuck Berry covers, and, you know, the Beatles were covering a lot of girl group stuff, you know, everything from, you know, they were doing stuff like the Supremes and the Shangri LA's and Martha and the vandellas you they recover and all that kind of music. And so, now I'm hooked on the Beatles and I'm also hooked. On your music even prior to the Beatles, per se, so that's really what turned me on man. I loved it. I love that early rock and roll.
Chuck Shute :So you That was a game changer. Are you still a Beatles fan now? Like, have you seen the Beatles love shown Vegas?
John Merchant :No, I haven't. Oh, I'm, first of all, I'm a huge Beatle fan to this day. Of course, that's great. And, um, but uh, you know, there was something. There was something I saw not too long ago or a while back now that I think about it. But it was like some beetle and it might even even, it was like a movie about the Beatles, you know, where the Beatles music was used and they had dialogue and stuff. There's a lot of them and yeah, right. And um, you know, for me, the Beatles were so sacred. I could almost not, uh, you know, that was hard for me to take that sacred stuff, right? ground. No, I'm a Beatles
Chuck Shute :fan. I don't know if you can see the Abbey Road down, right.
John Merchant :Well, in your T shirt tells me you like some Beatles influenced is yes.
Chuck Shute :Yeah, no, Donnie v. I've had him on a couple times. And he's I love his songwriting. It's very Beatle influence for sure.
John Merchant :Well, and you know, those guys, you know, Chip and Donnie and enough's enough and and you know, those guys of course I picked up on that kind of music. It was the music of my generation. I mean, obviously that 1980s rock and roll and that Sunset Strip scene was really my thing. But I feel like a band like enough's enough I could connect with right away because they had that Beatle influence. So they had my ear already. Sure, melodic, very Poppy. So you've been writing and recording, performing and touring with your partner, Todd long who he was the drummer in that band, the verb pipe, he told me he's like, that was that the hit song was before I was in there, whatever. But still, it's cool that he was in that band. I mean, they have that song was called the freshman freshman.
Chuck Shute :Yeah, yeah. So for 30 years, that's a long time to be involved. How did you guys get together? How did you meet?
John Merchant :Todd and I met in high school. He's a couple years younger than I am. And we were, you know, we kind of moved in the same circles in high school. musicians and and you know back then it was really you know there were two sides of the road you know we had the kids who were into like alternative rock and you know we call the progressive music What a college rock whatever it was. And then you had the guys who were really into this what I you know, I no one's come up with a better term yet than hair metal unfortunately. Yeah but Todd and I were both into that and so we bonded right away over bands, you know, everyone liked the big bands you know, like motley and rat poison at the time and Todd and I were the we were the guys who were listening to faster pussycat and pretty boy Floyd and vain and all this stuff off the strip that we're you know, maybe not as as household as some of the other bands you know. Okay, so we bonded over that right away right? No, I love
Chuck Shute :all those. I know those are some deep cuts but I you're speaking my language. I mean, somebody might be like who behind but no, I love all those. A lot of the deeper but like rocks, gang, and like our All these like bands that I mean if you really keep digging, you can find a lot lot more of this corner. Like you said hair metal. There's tons. I don't know...
John Merchant :Do you have a better word for it? Well, has anyone come up with anything for us?
Chuck Shute :I asked Mark Gus Scott. I've had him a couple times. He's the drummer for Trixter. And I said are you offended by that term? He's like no, but like we just called it arena rock.
Unknown Speaker :So right but for like me, arena rock was Boston Journey. REO Speedwagon...
Chuck Shute :Yeah. Right. That's a lot of different to Yeah, for sure. No, I think Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what... I mean, glam rock, I guess maybe that's another term.
Unknown Speaker :Right? And you know, it's too bad. And that's this whole Ghosts of Sunset thing that really got us... we're paying homage to this kind of music... we're paying respect to it. It flows through us. It's every bit as important to us, as I'm sure you know, Chuck Berry and Little Richard and that stuff was two generations before. So the Beatles were to someone like Donnie Vie (Enuff Z'Nuff). Yeah, you know, he's his influence. Donnie Vie's influences is important to me as probably John Lennon's influence was to Donnie Vie. Right. Over the years, and this being a fan of this kind of music, we've taken some heat... there's been this, there was a... I don't want to say "comical element" to it, but you know, as well as I do it, it got overblown at some point. Right. Right. And what people seem to miss is how great the songs were, how good the songwriting was, how amazing the live shows where, and so our job, we think, is to, to celebrate that music, but also have the other influences we've gathered over the last 30 years of making music... 40 years of listening to music.
Chuck Shute :Yeah. So let's talk about that because you've been in some other bands, a Dutch Henry, tell me about that band. What was that? You were in that for? Quite a while, right. For years. Yeah.
John Merchant :Um and that was kind of now what they call Americana music or country music and basically, you know, it's it's rock and roll guitars with a little more emphasis on the you know the lyrical content the song you know the folk Enos and the songwriting and that musics been around I mean as long as you know since the 60s there were bands like the birds and the band and the Flying Burrito Brothers these were bands that were taking rock and roll elements and putting country with it the stones, you know, the stones Rolling Stones did that. Oh, man. Yeah, all of that. It was just for us. You know, just like ghosts of sunset. It's supposed to be a hybrid of everything you've ever loved. You know, you're supposed to hear if someone says to us, you know, hey, I hear you know, I hear some rocks gang in there, you know, which no one besides you might Yeah,
Chuck Shute :I did actually. Um, okay, so was that covers then? Or was it originals or both?
John Merchant :It was both mostly original, we toured, you know, behind a couple records, we had a couple releases. We toured behind those, you know, all original stuff, but we still, just like any struggling band, we were out playing some cover gigs to Toronto, and our covers might be, you could be everything from Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson to the replacements, fountains of Wayne, AC DC, you know, we were all over the map and I can tell you and, you know, in the mid 1990s, you know, people looked at you like you were from Mars, if you were playing Johnny Cash and AC DC, you know, just hadn't really. people hadn't come to respect that sort of, okay, you know, mixture of music. So
Chuck Shute :if you're in this band, it's kind of like a country outlaw kind of music. Right. And you're like fountains of Wayne in that kind of style is what you're saying.
Unknown Speaker :Right? Right. You
Chuck Shute :know, actually,
John Merchant :you know,
Chuck Shute :have you ever heard of a band called The meet me First and the Gimme Gimmes.
John Merchant :No, but I like the name.
Chuck Shute :Yeah, it's so it's like they're like a punk band and all they do is covers but they do all these different styles of music, but in their style of like punk it's like fast punk cool, and they just do everything country pop, you know, disco all this stuff and every album is a different style of me. It's pretty cool. So that's not I like that when people, you know, do different styles of music in their style, you know, like a country version of Stacy's? Mom, I've never heard that. So that'd be kind of
John Merchant :Great. Well, you know, there's a band deal social distortion, kind of an old old school punk band, you know, um, and they, you know, Orange County punk band that they were doing it to, you know, they were they had a cover of Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, they had all that influence. And, and that's kind of what we we did with Dutch Henry. And when we, you know, Todd and I started ghost of sunset. Of course it was its roots were in that 1980s. Again, the hair metal glam rock, you know, whatever you call it in a rock. But it was okay for us to open up you know lyrically and have the stories unfold more like, like you might hear singer songwriter stuff folk music even do you know real emphasis on story? The great songs from that era had an emphasis emphasis on story, whatever the story was, the story might just be Girls, Girls, girls, right? I mean, that might be the good subject, man. Great tune. Um, but the stuff that really survived had that had some strong songwriting and story, you know, and that's the stuff we liked the most.
Chuck Shute :Absolutely. So and then there wasn't. Yeah, I'm sorry. I was gonna say and there was another band you're in. Tell us tell me about this man, white rabbit. It was it was a wave of lag of old school rock and high and proud.
John Merchant :Yeah, and what that is, is basically 6070s rock and roll. Okay, so that's, that's a cover band. Actually, the guitar player was in a band on RCA Records called Papa Vegas. The bass player was in a band In Australia, cub screaming tribesmen who toured with the cult on the electric tour, and it's all covers, but it's 6070 so it's Thin Lizzy Deep Purple. Um, Bowie. Alice Cooper, you know, the who the real roots of and that's what I'm wired for, you know I yeah, I love a lot of music but I'm wired for rock and roll. I like four on the floor. I like guitars and amps, you know? Yeah. And are you still
Chuck Shute :doing away rabbit in addition to goes to sunset? Okay, you
John Merchant :bet. Yeah. You know, and right now, nobody's doing anything?
Chuck Shute :Yeah, true. Yeah.
John Merchant :But yeah, I still do that. And I still do solo shows where I'm, you know, I'm a singer songwriter guy, you know? So I'm doing the acoustic and the harmonica and pretending I'm Neil Young, and
Chuck Shute :that's cool. So yeah, tell me about this. You've had 30 years in the music business, explained to me or in our listeners, what is it like working in the music business? Like when you're not Aerosmith, right? I mean, you're not at the Aerosmith love No because I think a lot of people kind of think it's like all or nothing oh you're either a rock star or you're not and but you can still be a working musician you 30 years in the business and I mean just just do you have to have a day job and do other things I mean you don't have to quite a dream but so yeah, so explain that how that works I'm always curious
John Merchant :well you know for me it was there was that time in your life where you're going you know you're and that's again not to you know, not to push this so hard but the ghosts of sunset the EP we did is about these people who moved from their hometowns and went out west to to make it you know, you're a gold. I think that took a lot of guts I think, you know, yeah, see these poofy haired cats You know, when you're going on these, you know, in their interviews and they're you know, they seem bubble airheaded guys or whatever. But really they left somewhere and went. I'm all in. Yeah, I, you know, someone like me. I was more like hey, I was going to have I knew I was going to have have a day job there was a time when all I did was play music. That was cool when I was 2122 it was really cool. I enjoyed it, um,
Chuck Shute :and you have enough to pay the bills doing it and enough to pay the bills. But
John Merchant :you know, I was living pretty Spartan. I didn't have my wife and son like I do now I didn't have soccer cleats to buy or, you know, um, things like that I didn't have a car you know, nowadays I think if you're not Aerosmith you know, you can find there's more ways now to get revenue streams from music than there ever was before. You know, you have more access to to put music and film or you know, my band Dutch Henry had licensed songs to the outdoor channel to Ford Motor Company to Hewlett Packard computers, you know, so you had revenue streams coming
Chuck Shute :do they they use the song or they just buy it and then in case they wanted to use it or how
John Merchant :no like Hewlett Packard, they launched a new touchscreen. This is something years ago but like new touchscreen computers, and they pre loaded the album on the computers. So you know you get your computer and there's always like some music pre loaded yeah with
Chuck Shute :the iPhone did that with a YouTube album? I think that pistol on yourself in your phone. Yeah, I was like, I don't want this YouTube album. I don't care you're getting it. Well, that's cool, though.
John Merchant :It's just you know, back in and certainly there was a time in my life. When I was a dumber younger man where I would go well, I can't believe that bands sold out, right? They sold out because their songs in a donut commercial or whatever, right? Now as 30 years in the business, I can kind of, you know, I do appreciate the fact that, you know, there's mouths to feed, there's career, you know, just the simplest thing, you know, guitar strings cost money, you know, um, rent costs money. You got to find another way to do it. And now we live in a time where you can access those revenue streams in a way You couldn't. But there's also something to that. For a guy like me that grew up in that era, where you feel like, well, man, I'm, I'm am I not all in? You know what I mean? Am I not? But um, you know, I, I don't think that it lessens the music at all. I just think the opportunities like if, you know, if warrant called and said, Hey man, we're going out for four months and we want you with us. Then you start really weighing some options. You know, you're looking at things, how much money you're spending, how much money you're making, the audience's you're reaching that sort of thing. Yeah. Where at 21 years old, I would have went, Okay, what do I have to do? You know, do we all pile into, you know, you go and follow Warren around and play show? Cool. We'll do that. You know, it's not like that now.
Chuck Shute :Yeah. Have you had those opportunities where you've been able to open for bigger bands?
John Merchant :Yeah, yeah. Especially now. Um, and it's been cool for me because the accent To some of these shows, a lot of my favorite bands are touring at a level where where you first of all you get access to them and second of all, they'll they're a little more open to put on, you know, a lower tier band so we've done stuff you know Todd and I have played with everyone from lynch mob faster pussycat Tracy guns. We've also with Dutch Henry, you know, we open for bands like the Goo Goo Dolls and Coby callay and more country artists and I can name Um, so yeah, we've gotten a chance to do that
Chuck Shute :is that all you go on tours I just locally that
John Merchant :those are usually one offs. And they might be, you know, when we would tour ourselves we would go out headlining but we would be playing smaller festivals, clubs, you know, we were hitting major markets, but at our level, you'd have to hit that market. Again and again, so you'd you'd kind of get your You know, you'd get a thing going in St. Louis and then you'd have a pocket of fans in Nashville and Chicago and and we would just work that circuit you know,
Chuck Shute :Why not team up with another band like I had this band called The Compulsions this and I liked it. He sent me the record the new record, I heard it. I was like, This is good stuff. I was like, are you touring? He's like, Yeah, I just, I can't you know, tour on this. I don't have enough fans. I'm like, Why don't like some of you like if you're a smaller band, or newer band, why don't you guys team up together and do like three or four or five bands or is that just not economically feasible?
John Merchant :I think right now, even prior to this whole pandemic thing, the live music industry is... I don't think it's rock and roll is dead or live music is dead. But the access is such where, people aren't going out like they used to so and people's attention span. I'll be honest with you on a five band bill is, is nil... they'll either come in to see the band that they wanted to see like, oh, there's five bands on this bill and I like band three and they're gonna play here I'll come watch that. The days of going to the US festival or the Monsters of Rock and spending 13 hours, you know, people's attention spans aren't like that anymore.
Chuck Shute :Are you sure? Because they have the Monsters of Rock cruise and stuff. I haven't been on one personally, but I see the list of bands and I mean, it's just like a mile long. It's like and it's all day every day.
John Merchant :I think that's different. I think that's some that's a destination Yeah, it's destination marketing. So that the destination is the cruise and now you're locked in there and and then this thing is available to you all this is available to you the whole time. I think if you took some of those people went Hey, man, I'm Great White is playing in this town. And enough's enough is playing in this town and elegans is in this town. I want you to drive to each route.
Chuck Shute :Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's like maybe you're right, maybe and maybe that's the Rather than trying to tours is maybe start your own festival and try to design up all these other bands. Oh, have you done that?
John Merchant :I haven't No, but you know, a lot of bands that I look up to started that way. I mean you can go back to, I mean huge Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Oh yeah. And, you know, their original band. mudcrutch that's what they did. They had a farm, they cleared some area off. And they, you know, the first time they did it, they had 300 of their friends from Gainesville from the college there. Then it was 2000 and then it was you know, it grew so big. They couldn't do it anymore. I think there's still a market for it. Yeah, really? Do I think you're right, I think pairing a bunch you're grouping some of these like minded bands together and doing a new rock tour. I think that works. Um, I think the commerce in the business is so different now that you have bands that are buying on two tours where you know, someone's saying
Chuck Shute :like The Raskins, they paid a million dollars to open up for Motley Crue. That's crazy, right? Don't even get that money.
John Merchant :I was gonna say if I had a million dollars I would do it too so I'm not faulting them. Yeah, it's just I wonder how that works, you know, and some of it is, you know, there might be a guy in the band whose dad is you know, you know invented the post it note or whatever the hell it is. And he's got to go to go. Billy wants to go play his guitar with Motley Crue and I'm gonna pay for that, you know, um, even Kickstarter, things like that, Kickstarter, crowdfunding, no fun, you know, in my day, we didn't do that. You know, you made an album you either went out and played shows and got money for it or, you know, you came home and, and sold everything in the living room. You know, you went well, shit. I got my stereo and I got this guitar. me sell that stuff. You know? Yeah, I can remember being in a bar asking everyone in the bar if they wanted to buy a mountain bike, and it was because I had a mountain bike and I had a record to me, you know? And I needed that money.
Chuck Shute :So yeah, explain to me So you guys are on. You have a record deal. It's pretty cool. You're on golden robot records. Right shot have heard of because you got gilby Clarke from Guns and Roses on there dizzy read also from Guns and Roses solo record on there. One of the LA guns versions is on there. I saw today Brandon Gibbs who I've had on my show great and super nice guy seen him perform live great, great band. And then I saw Jefferson Starship. How's it that's pretty cool.
John Merchant :You know they so getting help for us you know that help is is immeasurable having someone like golden robot behind us I mean you just can't put into two words the value that is to us and to have people who get it you know, I mean there were other labels we talked to who liked the music, but they weren't quite getting it you know, golden robot understands what we're doing it's as much as I like you know, Steel Panther right I love love Steel Panther that's another thing you know, the ghosts of robot aren't sending up. You know, our I don't want to say mocking because I don't think Steel Panther is my 80s rock but they you know there's some tongue in cheek there we don't have that this is just this musics bound to come out of us because we were born and raised on it you know that's just who we are so golden robot got that right away and to keep company with a band like King Zach's who I've oh yeah did from day one you know they're on golden robot Phil x and the drills are on golden row
Chuck Shute :for Bon Jovi right
John Merchant :for Jovi. Right and you know pretty good even Riley's got Steven Riley and Kelly Nichols have their la guns there. They've got a they're pushing a single right now on golden robot. That's really good. I think they're supporting, you know, they're supporting this scene, whatever it is. Yeah. And for a band, like us who are coming up, we've been in the business forever, but in this particular band or coming up, it's just more value than we could ever have hoped for.
Chuck Shute :So how does that work? Like how did you get signed? Do you submit a tape I guess that tape but uh you submit the songs to them you you shop it the you made this EP you shopped it to these different record labels or
John Merchant :right and and and i i don't 100% know where the golden robot connection came in but they had gotten wind of it and what and what we were kind of hoping for was you know to maybe find they also golden robot kind of as an umbrella there's there's a lot of other labels under the golden robot name some subsidiaries I didn't know So, you know, initially it was Hey man maybe one of these subsidiaries will help us and then in meeting with them and discussing what we were doing they went we think golden robot itself is a good fit for you. And um, but yeah, it's shopping eat like you said do you send a tape right well, now it's files. Yeah, but I remember you know, when you did you took your cassette tape and you stuffed it in a manila envelope with your bio and an eight by 10 glossy and you send it out or you know, you went knock On the door and, you know, you went to the bar and in the middle of the day, you know, you open the door and it was dark and smoking, you know who books the entertainment and it's, you know, Frank, the bartender comes out and who are you? You know, well here's our tape. And you know, as soon as you hit the door, you throw it in the garbage. You know, it was just the access now is really advantageous for new artists, I think. Yeah, for guys like us who've been in the game a little bit. Um, it's amazing because you remember what it was like to work? You know, putting mailing envelopes on every mailing labels on envelopes all night long, you know, right? Because they had to print out on your printer. And so again,
Chuck Shute :yeah, how long have you been on this record? You guys get like, Is there like a company party where everybody all these artists come together like a Christmas party or something? And it is how do I get an invite to that because that would be fun.
John Merchant :There probably is and they're like, we're not inviting these dudes cuz I don't know. You know, nobody wants me and
Chuck Shute :I want to be one if you do,
John Merchant :yeah. Hey, you're in. Okay. And that cards coming.
Chuck Shute :Yes.
John Merchant :You know, it, uh, it's been a blessing for us to get this. The other thing that a label at Golden robot will do is just, they just widen the net, you know, they get out places that you can't get yourself to. And, um, but it's, it's also I mean, anyone will tell you it's not you know, it's not cocaine and set and jackets either. You know what I mean? No, no, not so
Chuck Shute :they help with the licensing for the TV shows and the commercials because that's a big part of how you guys make money now, right?
John Merchant :Right. Like even in the Dutch Henry days, you know, our labels 615 Records out of Nashville, they were always looking for that, you know, where we could place a song, you know, can we do it here? Can we do it here? You know, does this song fit? So golden robot will do some of that for us too, because now that's where songs are heard, you know? Yeah. 37 Have them at the tail end of a commercial.
Chuck Shute :Yeah. Or you can even wear them in your Instagram stories and stuff your social media
John Merchant :it's amazing man I you know, enough's enough. Rat Warren motley all those bands we came up on I saw, you know, a lot vein veins a great example kind of that lesser known band that I loved. You know, he just happened to be there video went by an Headbangers ball or whatever, you know, when you went, Oh, that's cool, you know, and I'll go by that. There's not that clearing house like there used to be, which was MTV. That's, I mean, make no mistake that's before that it was FM radio, right? And I think
Chuck Shute :disadvantage those it's harder to find stuff. That's like Headbangers ball, they would put like the best of the best. But and so now it's kind of like, there's so much every band has a YouTube or Facebook or whatever, but it's like sifting through and trying to find it. I mean, I interviewed a cow. Echo Cooper yesterday she's the she's Alice Cooper's daughter. She has a band beast. Oh Blanca. They've been around since like 2012 or something. I just heard of them like a year or two ago or whenever the the feed my Frankenstein song came out. But then I start went back and listen to these old songs and they're really good. And I'm like, how did I never hear about this? Because there's no who's the Headbangers ball now, like, Who's the one telling you? Right? Like, here's the you know, so that's why I'm trying to do my podcast. You are? Yeah, you are dude, but there's a lot of
John Merchant :really? Yeah, but that's who it is. Now, that's where we get this stuff from is these from podcasts and from, you know, someone who's curating music and sharing it and, and doesn't have, you know, the other thing is on your side of it, you can't really have skin in the game. You know what I mean? I don't want you pitch and stuff to me because, you know, it's your best friend's band. I want to pitch in something to me because you dig it. Yeah. And then I look at your enough's enough shirt and I go well, he likes enough's enough and he likes Be still blonko I bet he and I are connected there somehow I need to check out these though Blanca, definitely. I mean, that's just, that's what I did you know, is it's the same way, you know, we're playing live, you know, you're out on the road and you're meeting people and they're going, dude, you have you checked out this band, and then you you get back to the hotel and you YouTube it and shares, you know, there's 15 songs you didn't know existed, right? Um, so that's nice. Like you said, though, there's also the sifting process, the vetting process where MTV wasn't gonna play, you know, the video that you did in your basement, you know, with your mom and dad's video camera. Right, right. Nowadays, everybody's laptop comes loaded with some sort of recording software. And and they go well, I made an album in my studio. It's like, Well, no, you you know you recorded your voice and guitar in the basement. And and you didn't go through that process of learning how to do this where things sit, you know, where a guitar goes in a mix, how the drums work how, how you can, you know, you're panning a guitar here and a guitar here and there creating this third thing. You know that I mean not to be that, you know, guy going, whoo in my day. But in my day, you were on analog tape, you might have eight tracks, four tracks to work with, you know, and, um, and that gets lost because it's also easy and instant. Now, you know, let's,
Chuck Shute :yeah, let's talk about your process with the songwriting because you said you're 5050 partners with Todd, on. He's a drummer, though, right. So how does he How do you guys work with ideas that he must play the piano or the guitar? He doesn't actually write the music on paper, does he?
John Merchant :He's no, he's, you know, for lack of a better word. He's Dave Grohl. He's a guy. Oh, so he plays guitar. He sings he sings harmony he plays I mean, he plays bass on the ghosts, a lot of the ghost sunset stuff. He's the Music Oh, wow. So, so what he and I kind of do is he might have a riff for, you know, that's the beauty. He's in Alaska. I'm in Michigan, you know?
Chuck Shute :Oh, and you guys made this record and being in two different
John Merchant :we did. So, but what we both have his we both have Pro Tools, rigs. Um, you know, we both recorded a long time we we know how the system works, but that was it. It'd be like, you know, I get a file on my phone and I go, oh, okay, it's Todd's riff. We just are building. It's great. It's cool. It allowed us to do this. It's not the same and it'll never be the same as four people in a room together. It'll never be that way. Or you know, when you're doing it like that,
Chuck Shute :right? Yeah. So would you talk about you know, like songwriting and like what inspires you you'd said, you know, whether it's the Beatles or Motley Crue, it all boils down to like human experiences and emotions, like love, hate, fear, sadness, joy. loneliness. You know, so Todd, tell me about that. Like how do you what inspires you right now? Because there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world are you being inspired by all this craziness to write music? Because that's gonna evoke a lot of emotion?
John Merchant :It does in Yeah, I am inspired. You know, with with the ghosts with headed west or EP, we had a theme, it's it is a concept. It was that early 80s, mid 80s Rock and Roll scene and that whole story. And then on the other front, you know, like current events and things like that. Of course, you can't help but be inspired and informed by that. The I think the slippery slope is when you either become preachy, right? You know, you're preaching, you start pushing your agenda, um, or, or you simply are trivial trivially trivializing, thank you, um, true experience. You can't, you know, you know, my mother died and someone went on You'll be able to write a song about that. No, I can't, I can't write a song about my mother's death because I don't think I can write a chorus about losing my mom, I just don't. It's too close. And it's too personal and, and I don't know that I have control over the English language enough to capture that emotion. That being said, there are people who do and I, I take cues from them. And then I find subject matter that I have enough distance from that I can comment on it and form and form a story. So some of the stories or some of the songs might be pieces, little vision nets of these different experiences that the songwriter puts into, you know, into one coherent thought. Yeah.
Chuck Shute :Why don't remember like, when I was having
John Merchant :different things,
Chuck Shute :yeah, when I was a kid not to bring up Aerosmith again, but I just remember that song living on the edge, and they said it was written during the LA riots. That opening line There's something wrong with the world today. Something's wrong with our eyes. Like, I like that. So it still stands the test of time for today, I think that some of the Greatest Songs is it might be written about, you know, something political or war riots or whatever. But they don't say like, specifically, that's what it's about. It's more like a generalized. And it really brings everybody together. Because for some people that they might say, well, this fits this narrative and for other people might say, Well, I think I see it this way. And so every that's the whole cool thing about songs like that is like different interpretations.
John Merchant :The best songs, the best songs do exactly what you just said. They put out a framework, and then you take your bit yeah, you get in there, you get yourself inside it, you find your story. Um, and that's what I like, you know, you don't i don't want Steven Tyler sitting with me the whole time going. Okay, we're, you know, we're on two seasons of weather and that's about this. And that's what I yeah, yeah. You know, You know, I want to take that ride myself. And it's always weird. You know, it's when you hear that real upbeat song, good, Poppy, upbeat music and everything and then you listen to the lyrics and you're like, Oh my God, that's what that's about. And it's there's a darkness there or there's the contrasts. And, um, that's what songwriters want to do. They want to draw you in. That's what I want to do. That's what sunset want to do. We want to draw you in, you know, and have you start going well, I never moved to Los Angeles, California to be a rock star. But let's say there's someone listening who's a painter. And they are, they're making paintings in their basement all the time, and they've never shown anyone. And they go, Well, someone went out to LA to be a rock star guitar player. They took that plunge, they had those guts. I'm going to take this painting and I'm going to show it to one friend. It's the same thing. It's that same plunge right now. The song was written about rock and roll. But you took it and you applied it to your painting or you applied it to anything that you you know was going to take that level of
Chuck Shute :commitment. Exactly. No, that's just how I say it. That's what the best songs do. I agree. No, that just reminds me like every episode I am shoot for the moon because I always just say I think that's so cool. And people do that. Like I just had Shawn McNabb on he's a bass player and Oh god, he's great white quiet, right.
John Merchant :But he had played with him when he was with lynch mob.
Chuck Shute :Yeah, he's an lynch mob. He had the same story he was he was living in it was somewhere in the Midwest, it came from Michigan or whatever. And he just said, I'm moving to LA like I don't know how much you know, a few hundred dollars in his pocket. I don't even know if he had a car. I think he just like took us you know, guitar or bass or whatever. And he just had it out there. He just happened to meet this person at the the Tammy downs. Not the fast cat house at the cat car. And then sure enough, you meet the drummer choir. Right, right. They're like, Hey, we need a bass player. Why don't you try out and just like it click it's like, but if he was have never taken that chance and moved out west and never what happened. So I always just think that's so cool. Go for it. That's awesome.
John Merchant :That's it and that's the ghost of sunset that EP Headed West is telling that story. Yeah,
Chuck Shute :Let's talk about the the EP so you got some like, I mean, again these are maybe some of these are kind of deep cuts for some people but for me, I'm like I know all these bands. Tim Mosher from Junkyard is on it, Adam Hamilton from Tuff, Johnny Monaco from Enuff Z'Nuff. Stacy Blades from LA Guns, but he was also in Ratt for a little while.
John Merchant :He was in Roxx Gang...
Chuck Shute :Yeah, I love Roxx Gang I love and then Bruno Ravel from Danger, Danger,
John Merchant :Danger, Danger.
Chuck Shute :So yeah, and it's interesting because the first song is kind of more of a slow ballad, which I heard I was like, Oh, this is cool. Yeah, like this. Yeah. And then you told me the people that were on your album. And I was like, Yeah, let's do this interview. This will be fun. And so then I'm so glad you sent me the EP so I could actually listen to the full thing because the first two songs are my favorite. I was like, Oh, these are like the rockin songs I was like, and if it was me, I would have released one of those two as the first single because I love the whole album is good. It's Don't get me wrong, it's great. But the first two are my favorites. I was like, Oh, these are really great. And you sound like Tamie Downe from Faster Pussycat and it it Kevin Steele, is that the singer from Roxx Gang? It has that kind of vibe to it... It's really cool.
John Merchant :For Roxx Gang, Yes, it is. Yeah. Cool. Well, now for me, those are huge compliments and, of course, influences on what I do. And thank you, you know, in picking a single for us. Certainly, we let Golden Robot kind of run with the ball there. They have the experience and we're too close to it... you're too close to it. That's why I don't mix records anymore. Because if I'm mixing a record, you know, the parts that I want loudest are the ones I'm on right? It's
Chuck Shute :right. Yeah, sure, sure. Oh, yeah. You know what the horror story of that is not to interrupt, but just real quick If you go back and listen to ...And Justice For All by Metallica, and it was when the bass player the new bass player came in, and I don't think he had the balls to say, hey, when you turn the bass up on this one and you cannot hear the bass and it sounds like shit, but if you hear the remixed version, where they fixed it, oh my god, it's amazing. So
John Merchant :the what's the remix? One called And Justice For Jason is what
Chuck Shute :is really calling to YouTube. It was awesome.
John Merchant :Yeah, it's great. Yeah. And that's the thing is, you know, like singles and stuff like that those are hard for, you know, it would be like having four or five kids and going well, only one of these kids is getting an education who isn't going to be your only one of them's going to get to play sports only. And, you know, I'm glad you know the end Make no mistake miles in between our first single, you know, someone I was doing an interview and they reluctantly like sheepishly went well, it's a power ballad and I went, yes, it is. I grew up on great power ballads, , Living on the Edge, you know, All those huge Whitesnake ballads remember the
Chuck Shute :Sure.. "Is this Love" .. Yeah, ... Don't Know What You Got told so it wasn't
John Merchant :that kind of music. Yeah. I like zactly yeah and and I have no problem with that.
Chuck Shute :Yeah so the headed west that's the first song like a rock
John Merchant :songs the heavier stuff. Yeah,
Chuck Shute :the second one another What's another Roman rule show? It
Unknown Speaker :sounds like
Chuck Shute :I was just gonna say that one another rock and roll show it sounds like it could have been on the Motley Crue debut album. It's it's got that kind of like, kind of almost like punky vibe to it too fast for love. Yeah, it's got that kind of vibe
John Merchant :does and that's how we kind of wrote. Yeah, and that was just, um, if you listen to that EP, and when you go back and listen again, the songs as they develop, you know, like headed west and another rock and roll show. They're a little more raw. And as you get to like miles in between in the later songs, they sort of unfold, you get more instrumentation, you get a little more fidelity. It's to mimic the career of a band. You know your first that first Motley Crue album is raw, interesting, you know? And as you go as you go through our EP headed west as you get to the end now you have Oregon and piano and guitar and stuff, because you know Motley Crue doing too fast for love had guitar bass drums and vocals you know There you go. Hmm. Now go to doctor feel good. Oh, yeah, good. Doctor feel good. You have Bob rocks production and Sullivan both too. Yeah, that's consciously my man.
Chuck Shute :That's interesting.
John Merchant :That's really when we tried to mimic that Yeah, so October 2020 is when
Chuck Shute :it that's when it's gonna or sorry, that's when the second single will come out and then the EP will be out but before the end of the years I can single would you know what the second single is?
John Merchant :Yes. Yep. So when you say or? I do it's gonna be a song called never goodbye.
Chuck Shute :Okay. Which what that was one of the about lasers.
John Merchant :There's it's on the EP Yeah. That is a kind of a mid tempo thing- it's got Traci Guns on guitar
Chuck Shute :Okay. Wow, Tracy Guns- Who else did we miss any other names on that? Because I didn't know that one...
John Merchant :We had you Stacy Blades played on a couple songs. Brian Forsythe who you interviewed... Oh, yeah, yes. Um, he plays on one of the tracks. And Traci, Johnny Monaco all those guys. And again, it was it was our way of thanking those guys and letting them know I mean, I want a guy like Stacey blades to know that rocks gang in my you know 1980 whatever pickup truck I was driving around head full rotation, you know, I was listening to never no easy way out. It's a great song
Chuck Shute :that record Yeah.
John Merchant :And um, and so for you to even mention Kevin Steele is an honor to me and hopefully, someone watching this is gonna go these guys are talking about rocks gang. Yeah, who's that?
Chuck Shute :We might have lost some listeners too. But hey, that's okay.
John Merchant :There's always gonna be some Gun racks gang, you know, but Well, maybe the guys like us. If you and I were standing in line at a coffee shop and you were wearing that T shirt, and I were wearing this junky t shirt. Oh yeah, I know for a fact if very least, we would have that eye contact moment to go. Yeah, I get it. Dude,
Chuck Shute :that would be amazing. I know. I wear shirts like that all the time. And I don't ever get anybody knowing who it is. The only thing is like and it's funny because I'm, I live in Arizona, and I'm a Seahawks fan. So I'll wear sioc stuff and that's amazing that you know, that's a major league NFL team so that that I can read it but yeah, if I were like enough's enough shirt t shirt out and about, it's pretty rare that you know, if I do if I'm at a concert that's different then it's like my crowd. So yeah, that's totally right.
John Merchant :Well, the cool thing is, is when you're wearing your enough's enough t shirt in an element, that isn't a concert that isn't, and you connect with someone, someone
Chuck Shute :amazing. Yeah, then you have that,
John Merchant :you know, and I told the story on a previous interview, I'm in line at McDonald's, you know, I've got my window down and I'm waiting for my food. And there's a car blasting the trooper by iron made Nice. Yeah, I can hear it at blasting it. And I look over and it's a guy, you know, probably my age or something. And we don't even say anything I give him I give him some horn horns and we get our food. And I thought to myself, if we were stranded in this line for an hour, I bet he and I could eat up an hour talking about iron made Oh, for sure. We'd never talk about politics. We wouldn't have to talk about our worldview. We wouldn't have to talk about the things we disagree about. We would go to Iron Maiden rules. Yeah, there is no there would be going
Chuck Shute :that's the that's what the world needs. Exactly. We need more concerts. So if you if you guys do end up doing live shows you would you had an interesting quote about that. You said that because you grew up in an era where like club level bands they had to deliver like an arena style show at the club level. So how do you do that or if
John Merchant :you are going to do live shows. We will do live shows and The way you do that is really is you deliver a level of energy that, you know you what happens is these bands at our level on an even bigger bands, they punish they'll punish 50 people for not being 5000 that's what I call it. It's where you go into the club and it's half sold. And you're, you know, you're in that mood and the bands of my era were playing these clubs and they weren't always sold out. Remember, you know, the first night that the cat house you'd mentioned Ricky and Tommy's cat house, the first night at open, there were 30 people there. You know, there's going to be bands, there's going to be nights you're not playing to everybody. But there might be that one person in the audience in there, enough's enough t shirt, who's expecting you to deliver something. And that's what how we see it. That's how we always are going to see it. And that's how we've seen it since we were kids. When I was starting out in a band. Yeah, you have now in my area You had to play an instrument, but you couldn't, you know, you couldn't get by. If you're going to be in a cover band, you had to be pretty good because the parts were pretty good. You know, the Stacy blades and Tracy guns and Johnny, Monaco's and whomever are top level musicians on there. So you have to have that. But you can't just stand there. You're not a classical guitarist. Now you have to move about this stage. Now the stage is the size of a postage stamp, but you still have to have that because you're playing to people who have seen that as well. So that's how we do it. It's every night when we were playing, you know, can this country rock it was the same thing. It's always that thing. As you get older it just takes a little bit more wear on your body. But you know when we played with like lynch mob or pussycat or, you know, I saw Tracy guns, you know, we played with Tracy guns in the small club. And, dude, I want to see Tracy guns. He's the guy from the you know, the never enough video. Are the electric Gypsy video or whatever, you know, I'm here in a room with him. I want him to deliver. And he delivered, you know, and that's what these bands are out doing. So someone goes, You know, I can't believe band a is here playing this bar in my hometown and they're in a van. They used to be in a boss. Why would they do that? It's because this is what they do. Right? This is how they're wired. You never go, you know, God this this. You know, this doctor has been practicing medicine forever. And oh, here's, he's, it's not an open heart transplant today. It's a sliver. He's got to get out. He doesn't go and don't do slivers, right? No, he's a data doctor. Yeah. So in rock and roll. That's how it is. Absolutely. So 30 habit, you know, if you go
Chuck Shute :to say 3030 years, I skipped thing in 30 years in the music business. That's a long time have used what's the craziest shit you've seen? I mean, it seems like you've played with some pretty big names and stuff. Do you have some good stories to tell about anything like a Tracy Gunn story or lynch mob story or some of these rock stars like anything crazy, you know, you saw the
John Merchant :the coolest thing about those shows, I think at this club level is when you see the person who's getting a chance to see George Lynch and you see him. I mean, George Lynch comes out and you'll see dudes go in there all right there and they're just watching, right? They're staring and they're watching them play guitar. Um, there's a lot of that and the cool thing is back in the day, you know, on the Monsters of Rock tour, you weren't going to get to go hang out stand in front of George Lynch. The photo pit was 30 yards wide. So that's really cool for us for guys who grew up on it to get in the club and see these bands is faster pussycat was one of my favorite bands growing up, I mean, I flew that flag. And so to see him in a club and here bathroom wall and all these songs, I loved So that's always great as far as crazy stories, um, you know, even in a small club, there's still some, somebody wants to get backstage. Right. You know, there's still this, and I love it because I'm a child of the 80s. And, and it's always nice to see, you know, soccer moms still dressing out for the show.
Chuck Shute :That is funny. Yeah. So, I mean.... it's interesting, I interview a lot of these guys that are musicians and rock stars and things and so many I feel like it's almost it's becoming a cliche where it's like, they go through this party lifestyle, and then they get older and they're like, okay, now I'm sober. And so you have six years sobriety six years. Yeah. So congratulations on that.
John Merchant :thank you
Chuck Shute :but talk to me about that...because you know, just seems like it's so interesting. Like, why do why why do we need to have everyone keep going through this routine? Like why do you think it's, it's such a cliche, but it's so it's so true. It just happens so much like, is that just part of ... People need to kind of learn that lesson? Is that just life?
John Merchant :I think it's some of that and I think it's because if you're at our core, be it Steven Tyler or Bret Michaels or Jon Bon Jovi, or me or Sean McNabb... there's a lot of insecurity involved in this. It's funny you see someone on stage and you think they're the most confident person on earth, right? They're untouchable, they're bigger than life, right? But really, when you start writing songs and performing for people, you're really laying something out there, you're really opening up and for me, that made me fearful and fear is usually the root of most addiction. And I also grew up in an era where all my favorite musicians were a mess. The Nikki Sixx's of the world and going back to Johnny Thunders of the world and, the Sex Pistols and everyone was a drunken, drugged out mess, and I thought that was part of the deal. I wanted people to come see the band and be like, "that dude... he must drink 13 beers during that set," which was not uncommon for me. What happened is, I don't remember a lot of that. And, I never was able to admit the truth is, there's always an element of fear I anytime I do it you know... I think that's vulnerability and I think we're good art comes from
Chuck Shute :So what is the fear that people won't like you or people won't like your measure?
John Merchant :People won't like you they won't like your music You know, I call it the "Carrie syndrome", the movie "Carrie", you know where the girls that the dance and it's they're all gonna laugh at you. Right? None of us want that. I don't think any of us want to be booed. I don't think Motley Crue wanted to take John Corabi out on the road to half filled arenas and feel like they had somehow made a mistake or pissed away their career or whatever. I don't think Joe Perry wanted to leave Aerosmith and go play clubs, you know? Um, so there's that.... there's always that thing like, Hey man, am I and then if you get a little success of any sort, if you please one person, it's always in your head. Well how do I do that again? What if I don't please that person? What if I alienate this person? Like you said, well the Roxx Gang thing we might lose some people, right?
Chuck Shute :Yeah....
John Merchant :And you don't want to do that. But the second you don't say Roxx Gang because you're afraid of alienating someone. You're now you're cheating yourself.
Chuck Shute :Right...
John Merchant :And I had years where I wouldn't have I not wouldn't admit, but I wasn't jumping up on my soapbox going Hey man, I love Vain and Pretty Boy Floyd. You know or I Love Roxx Gang or and I did but you know, there was a time where I don't know maybe I wanted to be cooler I wanted to be you... and I did like a lot of other music and I referenced that....
Chuck Shute :Oh, no, check this out.. So the bands we talked about- the hair metal... I grew up in the 90s in Seattle, and I loved hair metal so you couldn't be in a worse place or time. You are. I liked the grunge too... But I meanI was more of a fan of Motley Crue and all that kind of stuff.
John Merchant :So yeah, I don't know. I just tell you what, Seattle. As far as bands I loved you know, there was the grunge scene. I never really held them responsible for killing hair metal. But Mother Love Bone man.
Chuck Shute :Oh, I love that.
John Merchant :Yeah, that's one of my all time favorite band.
Chuck Shute :I think I saw you though. You posted a record of that on your Facebook.
John Merchant :Yeah, I'm such a humongous fan of them and the grunge had some good stuff. I mean, you have to admit and I have to admit, I'm sure. Traci Guns or Sean McNabb or Frankie Banalli, rest his sould, they would have admitted it got to be too much. It got overblown they were playing characters. Yeah. You'd see these interviews you'd watch Decline of the Western civilization Part Two, The metal years and they'd interview these guys. And they all seem like these buffoons, and what I wanted for us and what Todd wanted for us was to pay homage to the guys and the true spirit of those people, not the person you'd see in the interview, not the passed out drunk guy, not the person in a cop car guy. But really the guy who left his small town and went, "Hey, man, I've got the guts to do this. And I'm gonna go do it somewhere where some of the best in the world are doing it, you know?"
Chuck Shute :No, that's great. Well, I end each episode with a charity I don't I hope I told you to use their charity that you work whether you want to raise awareness for
John Merchant :you know, right now, I've really been talking a lot about the music cares. They deal with addiction, recovery, sobriety, okay. And right now the other thing I can encourage everyone to do is really take care of your local venues, your your clubs, you see live music in it. bars that host bands they're hurting right now Dude, it's you know you think the touring musicians are hurting Think of all the venues that count on them coming through town and they're not coming right and they can't open their door so I I'd like everyone to at least do what they could to support those independent venues. Yeah,
Chuck Shute :I'm sorry What was that was music cares his music cares.
John Merchant :Okay. I think it's through the recording um the Recording Academy of America and it helps with the, you know, our business is littered with with addicts who need help. Absolutely. Yeah, I was one of them. And I was lucky enough to get it so I'm glad
Chuck Shute :that you got that. Yeah. And I'm loving the new album or they're sorry EP, I guess it is go sunset. Everybody should check it out. Follow you guys on social media and we'll look forward to new music coming out soon.
John Merchant :Thank you so much for having me, brother. pleasure. Thanks, john. like minded man. Yeah.
Chuck Shute :All right. Bye. Bye. All right, take care. So john merchant, the band has ghosts of sunset. You can hear the new song miles in between everywhere. The So the p Ep will be out soon follow ghosts of Sunset on social media follow me on social media. If you enjoyed this episode, take a look back at some of the other episodes that I've done. I'm sure there's some interviews that you enjoy. And make sure you subscribe to the podcast. I'm everywhere now iTunes, Spotify, I heart. You can even see my ugly face. If you're on YouTube. I suggest taking your glasses off, or having 13 beers like john used to do. I look a lot better that way. Thank you for listening. Have a great rest of your day or night. And remember, head west follow those dreams. shoot for the moon, baby.