The Future of Music: Embrace or Avoid? | Rick Barrio Dill DSH #778

Summary

Digital Social Hour: The Future of Music: Embrace or Avoid? | Rick Barrio Dill DSH #778

Release Date: October 3, 2024

In this engaging episode of Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly delves deep into the evolving landscape of the music industry with renowned musician and entrepreneur Rick Barrio Dill. The conversation spans a multitude of topics, from the rise of independent creators and the transformation brought about by streaming platforms to the intersection of art and social progress. Additionally, Rick shares personal anecdotes from his extensive career, explores the future of music technology, and offers his perspectives on spirituality and contemporary politics.

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1. Empowering Independent Creators

Rick Barrio Dill emphasizes the importance of fostering independent creators who merge art with social progress. He highlights the platform Slightly Power as a space aiming to support creators who wish to express their authentic voices without fear of backlash.

Rick Barrio Dill [00:00]: "We're looking for people that are interested in crossing art with social progress in any kind of way... Let's start with honesty."

This sentiment underscores Rick's commitment to creating environments where artists can thrive without compromising their integrity.

2. Evolution of the Music Industry and Streaming

The discussion shifts to the dramatic changes in the music industry, particularly the surge in content creation facilitated by streaming platforms. Rick notes the exponential increase in song uploads, making it both an opportunity and a challenge for artists.

Rick Barrio Dill [04:31]: "It's close to a million songs a week... It is, it is, it is something to also not, you know, to be very sober about."

He acknowledges the democratization of music production but also points out the financial disparities arising from streaming royalties, where the majority of revenue accrues to the central figures rather than independent artists.

3. Content Creation as Continuous Engagement

Rick advocates for artists to engage with their audience through consistent content creation, such as podcasts, to maintain a continuous connection beyond traditional releases.

Rick Barrio Dill [08:02]: "It's something that you can do on a continual basis with your fans or with your art."

By leveraging platforms like podcasts, artists can share their journeys and build deeper relationships with their listeners, ensuring sustained interest and support.

4. Advancements in Music Production: Spatial Audio and The Sphere

A significant portion of the conversation centers around technological advancements in music, particularly Apple's Atmos and immersive venues like The Sphere in Las Vegas. Rick expresses optimism about spatial audio, which allows for a more immersive listening experience by utilizing numerous independent audio tracks.

Rick Barrio Dill [12:00]: "It's complete different from anything you could ever get in just a two-dimensional sort of flat earbud speakers."

He believes these innovations will rejuvenate the music industry by offering listeners a novel and more engaging way to experience music.

5. Modern Music Appreciation and Live Performances

Rick shares his appreciation for both classic and contemporary music, highlighting performances that resonate with authenticity and musical prowess. He references his admiration for bands like Bruno Mars and the significance of live performances in creating irreplaceable connections with audiences.

Rick Barrio Dill [14:10]: "I like anything that's good... It transcends language."

He underscores the universal and spiritual nature of music, which bridges cultural and linguistic divides, fostering a sense of unity among diverse audiences.

6. Spirituality and Personal Journeys

Transitioning from music, Rick delves into his spiritual experiences and the impact of personal journeys on his worldview. He discusses the transformative power of substances like mushrooms in enhancing spiritual awareness and fostering a sense of oneness.

Rick Barrio Dill [17:20]: "It gives you a sense of the internal, the third eye. It gives you a sense of however you want to get to that kind of spirituality."

Rick underscores the importance of introspection and spiritual growth, advocating for open dialogues about personal development and mental well-being.

7. Political Perspectives and Social Media Influence

The conversation takes a fervent turn towards contemporary politics, with Rick expressing strong opinions about the current state of American governance and the influence of figures like Donald Trump. He critiques the manipulation within political systems and the role of social media in exacerbating polarization.

Rick Barrio Dill [20:49]: "Social media is designed that way to get more engagement... They keep us at each other's throats as close as possible."

Rick warns of the dangers posed by corporatism and the erosion of democratic principles, emphasizing the need for informed and engaged leadership to navigate these challenges.

8. The Importance of Fostering Positive Energy and Leadership

Rick calls for the cultivation of positive energy and the emergence of thoughtful leaders who prioritize the common good over partisan agendas. He stresses the necessity of unity and shared values to ensure a prosperous and equitable future.

Rick Barrio Dill [21:56]: "We need to be in charge of our own future... We need leaders out there and thinkers that are, that are, you know, that realize."

He advocates for grassroots movements and young voices to spearhead social progress, leveraging technology and creative platforms to drive meaningful change.

9. Conclusion and Future Outlook

As the episode wraps up, Rick shares his excitement about future projects, including the launch of SLAP Studios in Beverly Hills and a collaboration with 360pod to support podcasters at all stages of their journey. He reiterates his commitment to empowering independent creators and fostering environments where art and social progress intersect seamlessly.

Rick Barrio Dill [42:32]: "It's not hard to do a podcast. It's hard to do it consistently and hard to do it well. That's what we just try to make that remove the pain points."

Rick's vision encompasses a future where artists have the agency to create, connect, and contribute to societal advancement without undue constraints or limitations.

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Notable Quotes:

• [00:00] Rick Barrio Dill: "Let's start with honesty."
• [04:31] Rick Barrio Dill: "It's close to a million songs a week."
• [08:02] Rick Barrio Dill: "It's something that you can do on a continual basis with your fans or with your art."
• [12:00] Rick Barrio Dill: "It's complete different from anything you could ever get in just a two-dimensional sort of flat earbud speakers."
• [14:10] Rick Barrio Dill: "I like anything that's good... It transcends language."
• [17:20] Rick Barrio Dill: "It gives you a sense of the internal, the third eye."
• [20:49] Rick Barrio Dill: "Social media is designed that way to get more engagement."
• [21:56] Rick Barrio Dill: "We need to be in charge of our own future."
• [42:32] Rick Barrio Dill: "That's what we just try to make that remove the pain points."

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This episode of Digital Social Hour offers a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted future of music, interwoven with personal insights and broader societal reflections. Sean Kelly and Rick Barrio Dill provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of how the music industry is adapting to technological advancements, the imperative of authentic content creation, and the profound impact of cultural and political dynamics on artistic expression.

Transcript

[A]

I love the independent creators, the independent political creators. You know, reach out to us on Slightly Power, please, because we're looking for people that are interested in crossing art with social progress in any kind of way, as opposed to. For me, for the longest time it was like, you need to not do that because you want to be afraid of the backlash. It's like, no honesty. Yeah, yeah, let's. How about, let's start there.

[B]

All right, guys, Rick barrio Dill here, 1/4 vintage trouble and founder of Slot Media. Thanks for coming on.

[A]

Hey, thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.

[B]

We just met and this was unplanned, but.

[A]

I know, I know you don't, you know, that's what happens when somebody dips out. It creates a vacuum for somebody else to jump in on the opportunity.

[B]

Absolutely. That's why I like studios. You never know who you're going to meet in a podcast studio.

[A]

Absolutely. That's why we created this space. There's a slap. Studios la. We created the space kind of after the Pandemic to, To have more of a convergence of independent creators coming together and to pool their resources, you know, to make sure that there was no limitation or the limitations or the pain points are minimized as much as possible for making better and better content. And we realized we're, we're selling agency here. Agency for independent creators and agency for anyone that wants to lift their voice and, you know, have it heard. So your props to you for, for, for what a cool show. And just your whole team is so on point. It's inspiring because. Yeah, no, it's great.

[B]

Yeah, for real. No, that's cool. Because you've been in Hollywood a while, so you've probably seen a lot of gatekeeping.

[A]

Tons. Yeah. So me, a little bit of background about me. I've been in Los Angeles about 20 years. My wife is, she's in the Marvel universe. Her name is Angeli Bomani and we have a. It's an incredible relationship in that we are both in the entertainment industry. I'm a musician by trade. We're world touring the world and been, you know, blessed to have to do that with, you know, my brothers in a band. But it's different than the acting industry. Right. So if you're pursuing an art, we're very, it's very complimentary. And now post Pandemic, there's just so much content is art to me. And so our worlds have kind of come together. This, in this situation now where we have all these productions that started to merge and we were like, oh, well, let's have a production studio that. We do that also. You know, we, we open it up to people like yourself and. But have a place where you can do anything from tabletop role playing games to, you know, to do a masterclass, to do or to do podcasts. It's just empowering people and that actually feels like giving them agency. It feels, you know, that, that's inspiring to me.

[B]

The power in the creator hands.

[A]

Right, Exactly. Yeah, it's inspiring to me. So.

[B]

Yeah. Because it probably took you a while to penetrate the music space, right?

[A]

It did, yeah. I mean, my entire life, I've been playing music Since I was 5, I think we toured with Lenny Kravitz, for example, and he said something that was, that sticks with me and. But it's that certain musical moments have brought me closer to the creator than any other time in existence.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

And he's like. And I just go after as many of those moments as I can in one lifetime. Right. And I was like, yeah, that, that explains it. That's kind of why what I got into music for, I didn't get in it for the music business. Right. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's also a lot different now, which I, which I love. But it gets back to content, you know, to me. We toured with last year. We had this amazing tour. We started on Saturday night in Glastonbury. It's a. One of the biggest festivals on planet earth. And Saturday night we're one of the top five stages and everything like that. And it kicked off a two month tour. It was all over Europe and everything. Amazing we've been, you know, doing and. But then when you're done, you're kind of done, you know, and it creates this. Well, no, you can, you can then focus towards America and you can kind of do things and keep it going. But when you're done, a vacuum is created that some, something else is going to jump into nowadays. This is what I love about what you're doing in content creation is it's something that you can do on a continual basis with your, with your fans or with your art. Just getting it out there on a continual basis. It's not a, it's not an old school paradigm where five years to make this movie or documentary, Right. And there's this long promo cycle and stuff like that. We wanted to go live today. It took us 10 minutes to decide to do it.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

How cool is that? Yeah, it's fucking best.

[B]

And I want to talk about the changes in the music industry because before this you said there's a million songs uploaded a week now.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, so. And you know, double check the, the, the edges. But it's close to a million songs a week. It's about, it's 120,000, I heard last time. 120, 125,000 a day uploaded to Spotify. And five years ago it was 60,000, you know, and you could. And that's great in the sense that obviously, you know, we, we have this joke around here. It was, it's, it's amazing because when Steve Jobs put GarageBand in every computer overnight. Right. It was, you had just millions of producers and engineers were born. And I think this is the healthy result of it. But it is not, it is something to also not, you know, to be very sober about. You know, it's a, it's so it's gotten difficult in streaming because, you know, a lot of the money is in the center. It is, it is, it's going to the people in the center. But the same problem is what the studios are now having in town right now. Post pandemic, post two strikes. It's what Adam Conover says all the time. It's, it's plain. The, the model doesn't work on streaming, which is why you're seeing advertisements now come to streaming, which is just cable.

[B]

Right.

[A]

That's what it was called 10 years ago, 15 years ago. Right. And so the music business is kind of, kind of the same thing as things get aggregated into a streaming model. Once you have a, that model for the artist, it is, you know, it's a, it's a different paradigm. This is why taking your own content into your hands, creating it and going straight to your audience is the way to go. If you got the goods, it doesn't matter. A million songs are uploaded a week. Right. I truly believe you got the goods. You stay at it. It's it, it happens.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, it will, it will happen.

[B]

Do you feel like your space in the music industry specifically is making a comeback?

[A]

You mean as far as like rhythm and blues and you know, for us, rhythm and blues was, you know, kind of like at the time when we started the band in, in like 2010, it was, it was we, we. It was right as around that Amy Winehouse kind of time and our early 50s or 50s and early 60s kind of rhythm and blues, Ike Turner, you know, but really, really dope ass stuff like Otis Redding and stacks and Motown and so much of that. And I think with when you do partnerships nowadays with something like that, that's where the mix ups, you know, or you know, mashups and, and that's where you do like if we're playing a festival, we always are going to look for, for somebody to sit in off the cuff. Right. Because we want to kind of create some sort of magic hybrid of that because that's where we did with our music because we just kind of came out and did that. We were very fortunate to play one of the biggest music shows on planet earth called the Jules Holland show and are in the UK and an amazing show by the way, Shout out to Jules Holland, a taste maker kind of in the world of music. But our lives changed before we left the BBC parking lot, you know, and, and that. But that was in 2011 and as you've seen streaming in the last 13, 12, 13 years, the best thing to do now for us. The reason why I brought up the Glastonbury comment was because in, after doing two months on the road, it was amazing. But we, we would also be better to do a year's worth of podcasts to accompany, to accompany our music. Yeah, we played with the Chain Smokers not too long ago. They were for the, in front of the SoFi for VIP, for the super bowl and they were promoting their podcast.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

You know, and of course it makes so much sense, right, If I was a musician now, you ever, you got a 10 song record, make a 10, 10 episode podcast and have everybody or everything that's done. Right. There's a, there's a great, great, great anecdotal kind of thing about it. But it's a, I don't know if you're, your listeners are familiar with a, with a rapper by the name of Connor Price, I believe, but he's got this fascinating story on how his same thing, he was touring. And it's cheaper than for one guy to tour than it is for, you know, like a, you know, we had 10 of us in a band. Yeah. But nonetheless it was still expensive for him to tour and his wife had this brilliant idea and they basically made this kind of skit. She was coming home one day and he had been in the pandemic, had been working with a bunch of artists from all over the world as we were figuring out ways to, you know, expand and kind of feel connected through all over the world. And that was where the, I think the good part about the Internet and just being able, you know, to connect with people that way. So he did a bunch of content and Everything. But what he did is put it together with its. I think it was called the Spin the Globe series. And he would. He would go and. Because the TikTok algorithm at the time was, you know, they wanted first three seconds, and he was like, I'm going to spin the globe and I'm going to work with any artist where my finger lands and boom. And it would be, I think it was like Ghana or something like that. Right. But he had already been working with this artist and. But it was just. It was just a way to kind of skit base the intro to his music, because then he was like, oh. And he lands on Ghana. He goes, oh. And then he tells you this story, but he does it through, you know, a low kind of this great kind of the way you do, but. And then it falls in to the Spotify page. It falls into the produced music and it. Or it falls into the produced video. And so you get sort of this in to the story that you just don't get into any kind of traditional way. You're not going to get it by uploading your music only to Spotify. Right. Yet it expands the story or the ability to catch and connect with people in a way that so much more powerful than just, you know, putting a record together and having a promotional team and thinking about, oh, cool, everywhere we're gonna do it. It's like, no. Make some fucking cool podcasts.

[B]

Yeah, Podcasts are super personal.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

I feel like fans never got that connection with their. Their people they liked before.

[A]

I. I know, I just tripped over this too, but I don't. I don't know if you guys, if you're old enough to remember this, but. But there was a time when, like, you too, put their album on everybody on Planet Earth's iPhone. It just showed up one day and the world would lost its mind. Right. Because it was like, how dare you automatically put your art in front of me? Right. And now everybody, you know, it's kind of like done sort of willingly. Once you say yes to, you know, something in a podcast, it's like, there we go. We got it. We got a channel to deliver our message and our art, and I just think that's really empowering for content creators and for independent artists of all shapes. Absolutely. That's inspiring.

[B]

Performing a lot in Vegas.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

At the Sphere.

[A]

Yeah. No, my partner went there. He went there for Fish. I don't know, the older.

[B]

Older school bands. I noticed.

[A]

Yeah, no, no, but. But it's. I rib him about Fish all the time, but they're amazing. But the I, I looking forward to going there because that's a full sensory experience that I think is kind of the future. We have a friend of ours, Matt Wallace, he's one of the biggest producers on Plan. He produced like Maroon 5 Songs about Jane and tons of these massive records. But he's leading in the Atmos space, which is the way that Apple's kind of doing now. And, and Atmos mixes are. It's insane. It is, it is true spatial mixing. It's. I think it's something on the order of like 190 independent tracks inside an audio, a. An Atmos mix of something. So that means you can throw it to 180 different speakers or 109 different speakers, right. And they'll have different effects on things. And when you put that in the 3D space, it gave me hope for music again. We had a demo at Matt's studio at Sound City and he would play old records that you've heard, right, that have been redone in Atmos. And it is a completely different experience and it's way different than anything you could ever get in. Just a two dimensional sort of flat earbud speakers or coming out of your laptop speakers and stuff like that. So that's why the Sphere interests me, is because it's, it's incorporating that. I was, I was forever moved when I had, when we had the Atmos demo. And Matt Wallace is like one of like 30 guys like that really know this space, you know, that kind of high level, you know, mixing and, but, but it changed my life. I was like, I was like so re. Stoked in music again as a, as a commercial thing. I know how it works to the heart, to the soul. Right. That we talked about that. But as a commercial viable thing, it makes me hopeful for the future. And then you add in real immersive venues like the Sphere, and that is the future.

[B]

It is exciting. I heard they use sound beams, so you actually can't lose your hearing in the Sphere because it's only a certain sound level.

[A]

See, that's, that's awesome.

[B]

Yeah, because the problem with concerts, it's awesome to be front row, but if you don't have the earplugs. Yeah, ears are ringing for hours off their.

[A]

As a guy who's in a band with, you know, guitars and drums that, you know, my drummer like, beats the drums like it owes him money. So, yeah, I know volume and decibel level, we, you know. But I can't wait to go to the Sphere.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, exciting, man. What do you think of modern day music? Do you even listen to it?

[A]

I do, man. So I have a show podcast called Slap the Power and my co host, the incredible, insanely dope Maya Sykes, one of the top three singer back BB's in this town. She's out with Ray. She just did Coachella with Ray and she was. Before that she was out with Billy Idol. But she's done. She was out, I think with doa. There's all kinds of stuff she's been out with. But my, she turned me on to Ray and I saw the Ray performance on Saturday Night Live. My mind was, I was like, even me and my, me and my girl were like holy snacks. Like, and I don't even get like that. Like it's hard, you know, it's hard to, to. But I liked that her band was smoking. I mean the band was just killing. So I, I, I like, you know, I like the fact that some of the biggest tours have the baddest bands on them, you know, and that makes me really. Because you, that's way different than the experience of a recorded. You know, every frame of it's meticulously put together live. Especially if they're letting it run and not all like, you know, all on backing tracks or something like that. Like letting the band run it. There's nothing like it, man. Yeah.

[B]

Can't deny that.

[A]

No.

[B]

You said you were inspired by 50s and 60s music. What is your favorite decade to listen to?

[A]

Well, I'm a. So I would say 50s and 60s was, was where. And I only say that from a rhythm blues standpoint because that was kind of where the birth of like so many everything else was sort of a subset of that because I'm a Prince disciple all the way. My favorite, I would say I'm a Motown guy because I play bass and, and something like Sly in the Family Stone and, and more like, you know, that music but modern now like Bruno's band is ridiculous. Bruno Mars. Yeah. Yeah. Ridiculous. So, you know, and everything they put out is jamming, you know. And I mean, I love all kinds of stuff. There's, that's the thing is I like anything that's good.

[B]

Okay, so you just appreciate the art of music.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. Again, you know, it does something that is really, it's, it's beyond. So we've, you know, we play in Japan a ton and that's the thing about playing a place where they're, they'll sing back our lyrics to the verses and it's not even their Language, you know, but it's a connection with, with music and it's a connection, I think, with their, the people around. And that's why it's, it's so special. It transcends language to me.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is why you go with your friends to the festivals and stuff like that, because it's more, it's more the thing it does that we can't explain.

[B]

It's universal. It's spiritual. Right. That's a good segue into the next topic.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Spirituality.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, sure.

[B]

Have you had some journeys there?

[A]

Oh, my God, man. I was on a rock and roll tour bus for 10 years, man. I'm writing a book about it, so put a pin in that. But I, yeah, I think if, if the former President of the United States would take mushrooms, for example, I think all of our lives would be fucking so much better. Yeah, well, 45 Donald Trump. Yeah. I mean, that man needs a, a mushroom trip like nobody's business. But that's why, kind of one of the reasons why we started Slap the Power, the show. That's what I do with Maya. And it's the On a Journey tip. I, I, you know, I've done plenty. And, you know, Steve Jobs said it when he, when he went in his book, he was like, you know, he's so thankful that he did LSD because it completely changed his life. And I was in college when I did LSD for the first time. But I was doing, I was, I thought I was going to be a studious, and I was doing my paper on it, you know, so I could really get, you know, kind of get into it. I got into it and I, I always look at that event as I was one guy the day before and I was a different dude forever the day after, because it gives you a sense of the, of the internal, the third eye. It gives you a sense of however you want to get to that kind of spirituality. But we're going to find out in generations past ours that, you know, there's so much in mushrooms that are, that are, they're, they're us. You know, it's like with Terrence, Terrence Howard the other day was like, you know, it's like, we're all God, we're all the same, you and I. You know, we're all brothers, we're all sisters. And I love that, that, you know, on, on journeys or mushroom kind of things that I've done. One of the things that always tells me is I always get a message if I'm, if I go on if we trip on mushrooms or something like that. And most of the time it starts stand up straight. Yeah. Because I'm 64 and I saw you talking about it earlier. I was like, all the time. It's that message of stand up straight. Because all the. I just feel so much more empowered when I stand up straight. But it's a. In a world where, you know, you just get kind of used to slashing.

[B]

Stuff like that from school, man.

[A]

Yeah. So I get the littlest things from mushrooms like stand up straight to the, to the most deepest. You know, I mean, life. Yeah. My mother in law, I'm very, very fortunate. My mother in law, she's one of my best friends. 85 year old Indian woman. She speaks six languages and. Yeah, during. And she's learning her seventh right now. Spanish. Right? Yeah. And she does the crossword puzzle every day, like just, just on point. But there's a. We talk about it, the Bhagavad Gita. And you know, from an Indian and from an Eastern perspective, it's. It's a lot of the. It can almost after a mushroom trip, like, like you read that and it. And you put it. I've put it together with just other sort of personal. And Kabbalah and spiritual practices and stuff like that. And you're like, oh, it's kind of like what Terrence Howard was talking about. Right. There's just a oneness that sort of transcends even you and I here. Right. You know, and if we can get in touch with that and relax, you know, and treat each other like we are the same and we are one, you know, that's where we can all transcend and. And so, yeah, that's kind of why we created this space here. So I want to, I want to create stories like that and opportunities to talk about that. You know, I don't think we. There's enough talking about it. It's easy to distract us with so many things that are insanely important right now. You know, I say all the time, and I stole it from my hero, John Lovett from positive America and love it or leave it. But everything is insanely stupid and incredibly important right now all at the same time.

[B]

What a quote.

[A]

Right? And it's the truth. It's like some of it is so stupid. The guy who's the front runner is facing 91 felony counts and, and it's like, yeah, I saw it the other day that the Supreme Court kicked a kick to the case on whether or not classified documents that he stole and is Putting on the, allegedly putting on the open market. That should be a subject that we should kind of. Why is this guy even able to run? Right. But we, we are in a situation now where we're in a various degree of cult and algorithmic control. Right. We live in two different. Where we live in very algorithmic. Yeah. Polarized. It's designed that way. It's designed to keep us at each other's throats as close as possible. Right. And yeah, it's concerning to me because it's not, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a little concerning.

[B]

Do you think social media is designed that way to get more engagement?

[A]

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. We know for a fact and we know that they've known a lot of this data for a decade and it's kind of like it reminds you of client like the oil and gas companies in the 70s. They would do studies to say gee I wonder if this is really hurting the planet. And then they'd find out, yeah, this is really fucking hurting the planet really bad. But just hide the information. And you know, teenage female suicide rates. Right. Right around the time of the invention of Instagram and the front facing camera, just hockey stick. Right. You know, and now we there, we've gotten control of that in a way and now we, we react. But we're going to be in charge of our own future. You know, there's not some bunch of septuagenarians and you know, 90 year old people in Congress is going to know what to do with AI or so we need, we need, we need leaders out there and thinkers that are, that are, you know, that realize, okay, yeah, this is maybe not the most perfect system we have over here, but this is the system that we all need to make work right now. And which means we need to feed into that with the right positive energy.

[B]

Absolutely. Who do you think wins the upcoming debate?

[A]

The election.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So I'm not hesitant at all to say that I, that the US remaining what you a con, us remaining a Democratic, what I consider a democratic nation, relies on Donald Trump not getting into office because he's fighting right now for what he was unsuccessful doing on January 6, which was overturning a free and fair election. We know this to be true. And yet because of the limited media, the way that it can get controlled through, you know, through right wing propaganda networks, to be frank and left, there's some on the left, but it's in no way equal at all. There's a right wing propaganda network that's that's dedicated to the top 1%. Bernie Sanders is out there every day talking about this very thing. Every day. The guy does every day. The billionaire class is out of control. When, when our old manager shout out to Doc McGee, one of the biggest managers on planet Earth, he had a saying that was when the cat shit gets too bigger than the cat, it's time get rid of the cat. Which I thought was great. And, and in so many ways that you know, we have, we have industries that have take. That are bigger than our government.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So they, they have control the government. There's you know, pharmaceutical industry and that, you know, they have 10 lobbyists to one in Congress. Right. That's, that's what we call, it's not capitalism, it's corporatism. So. And that's, and that's, you know, that's it one issue to deal with. But the election, I think there's almost nothing that we can be more focused on is making sure that Donald Trump does not steal this, the entire country, because if he gets in, he's not coming out. The only reason he's out last time is because a gentleman by the name of Mike Pence at the last minute did the right thing. That's the only reason Donald Trump didn't invoke the Insurrection act and bring in whom he had part of the Pentagon set aside to do it. And he, on January 6, he was going to do it. The reason why he sat there for three hours and didn't say shit while the Capitol was getting attacked on is because he was going to try and see if it was going to fucking work. And to me, we can't be animated enough about not letting that dude back in because by the skin of our teeth he got out. Whatever you want to say about Joe Biden, you know, Joe Biden has done more for progressive policies in this country than any president in my lifetime. And that includes Barack Obama. The problem is he's old and it's. And Democrats are shitty at touting their own victories. Right. And there's a lot of problems that can be dealt with. But there's one side that actually wants to deal with problems and there's the other side that just to tear it all down.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that's not, that's not governing, that is, that's just tearing it all down. If that's your thing, then let's, let's stop, let's have a good faith argument and say that's your, that's your angle. You're coming from your, you want to tear it all down. Yeah, let's start there. But to get me to start talking about, you know, you know, using Ukraine and the way that everything is getting leveraged nowadays, it's not a good faith argument. And that's the problem is what's going on in the media, what's going on in Congress. And so it's not even a good faith argument. Right. They're holding the entire United States economy hostage over the last several years because of one man's wish to use it for political power. Right. Donald Trump's. So he tells his minions in Congress to do this or gunk up the works. And it's one man's agenda that is making life harder for millions of people. And that's why people are so frustrated with Joe Biden is because at the end of the day, does it shake out to the bottom, Right. You know, does it take it to the bottom? And some of this stuff does the student loan forgiveness, you know, the investment in the CHIPS act and how much it's paying off right now in our economy. We're leading the free world in the economies right now and rate of economic growth, yet you would not know it because it's so easy to sell a misinformation or disinformation campaign on how shitty things are. Now, we can talk about objective figures that are questionable, but in all sense of the world, we're leading post pandemic of any industrialized nation in the economic. In the major economic sectors. And that should be the thing that people should concentrate on. If you don't like how old he is, if you think, whatever, there's a list of accomplishments that they've done that is so impressive. It's just, you got to get good at. They're busy doing the work rather than making signs and saying how the other side sucks so bad, you know, that's impressive.

[B]

I didn't know we were leading compared to other countries.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And in. In on many indexes where, where post pandemic, we're. We're killing it. And a lot of it has to do with the investment that has been made begrudgingly. Like the right wanted to shut down things. You know, Bernie wanted a bigger. There was all we could.

[B]

He's not right, though, right?

[A]

No, no, he's left. But I'm saying he wanted a bigger bill. When we had a shot to get the Inflation Reduction Act, I think it came down at like 3.6 or something like that, which it had 1.8 for climate in it. Right. But it started out as a 9 trillion dollar bill and would had a lot more for climate in it and it would have a lot more for helping kids with school, public schooling with, we've already got a great infrastructure act going through. But that's a, that's something that Joe Biden's gonna be dead, you know, by the time that reaps its fruit. Right.

[B]

He's looking. Yeah, he might have to.

[A]

Well, but the thing is everything he's doing right now is because he's trying to do as much good as he can before he gets off planet Earth.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

With, with respect to the hand that he's dealt. And the other guy is just trying to stay out of jail. Right. And that's, it's ridiculous. Why, you know, why, why aren't we talking about, you know, that should be, it should be, that should be the kind of the end of the conversation. He's not, Donald Trump's not qualified to be given the keys to the nuclear codes again. He's still trying to fight for being able to overthrow the election that he was unable to overthrow on January 6, 2020. And if this, so what the reason why the Supreme Court is letting him go kicking it down the court is because they want to know if he happens to win. They work for him at that time. Yeah. Think about it. Even though it's, even though, you know, but, but they were appointed by him, which is why they're kicking it down the court. Because if you rule against him and it's a federal case, he's going to pardon himself if he wins and then he's going to go after the Supreme Court that put him, that said that what he did was illegal. So rather than answering that question, what they're doing is they want to push it down past November when in all reality, as voters, we should want to know right now the truth on it should not be legal to steal the election, to not give up to the lawful and peaceful transition of power is baked into our agreement. Whatever you think, Red, blue. Whatever you think. And that motherfucker is not interested in giving over power. The only reason he didn't do it last time I circled back to Mike Pence, which is why you can't give the guy the keys to the castle this time because he's still trying to say that stealing the election last time was legal. And I just, we're not having a good faith argument if we're not talking about that.

[B]

Damn, I didn't know you were this passionate about politics.

[A]

Well, it, you know, man, I, I, it's one of those things. We're lucky. I've traveled the world, I've seen governments fought. We. We had. During one tour, we had three. Three shows canceled for terrorism.

[B]

Whoa. On one tour, which country was that?

[A]

So the first one was the Battle Clan in Paris.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

When that was, that was shot up by ISIS terrorists and over 100 people died. It was one, a friend of ours in the band. It was traumatic. The second one was we were in the air trying to land in Nice and there was a bus or a van that had come and mowed a bunch of people down on the Cote du Jour. And the third, we were. When we were there in the same tour, Istanbul had a coup, and it was. The military took over in Istanbul, and we were on our way there. But I only say that to say it gives you perspective when you see these things and you get to go and you see, you know, Norway and Iceland, you see these, these kind of, you know, New Zealand, you. You get a perspective and you bring it back to America. The American experiment is not perfect. It's never going to be perfect. It's built on an original sin. And we, we can, we can all come to an agreement on what we think it should go, but right now, we don't agree on what it is. We're there. The. The interpretation of being able to be white nationalists or Christian nationalists, it's just rebranded. To me, that is. That's just a rebranding of something that do. Let's start here. Do we believe in a multicultural, multiracial democracy?

[B]

Right.

[A]

And if you can get a yes or no question there, then I think we can. Then you can figure out where to go from there on a conversation. But if you can't have a similar answer on that, there's no reason to push forward with the conversation because we want completely different agendas and we have totally different ideas on what America is about. So I say that because in Los Angeles, this is La La Land. This is why I live here. It's. To me, it's the greatest city on planet Earth. 8 million people on top of each other. I can go from little Russia to, you know, Little Tokyo in, you know, 15 minutes in this.

[B]

Depending on the traffic.

[A]

Depending on the traffic, Right. No, but it's everything. The weather, the beach. We've got, you know, other countries that are just south of us. Right. Mexico is just south of us. We could, you know, you could hop to. There's just everything in Los Angeles. It has every color I've ever seen on planet Earth in One place at one time. And in a way that, because we're spread out and because we have nice weather, I actually believe, as opposed to like a New York kind of grind state of mind, it where we rev on a little lower frequency, which allows us to come. You know, we have a different. We have a West Coast, a little bit of a different perspective, but we deal with. I think we have two of the largest ports on planet Earth next to each other. You go down there and you see the amount of just life and commerce that comes through those ports on any given day. There is no bigger than Los Angeles. So we're kind of. We're kind of, you know, jaded a little bit here because we're also Hollywood. And this is where we create. We, we. This. It's delusion that we create all this shit, but delusion is what creates all this cool stuff. Right. And so I think, you know, I just, I think Los Angeles is great. And we have, we have. I think we have a. In all things considered, a great governor and we have a. We have a super majority in a Democratic state. So I think this is a lot of the reasons we get to enjoy the freedoms that we do here and that people flock here. I live in West Hollywood. It's one of my favorite cities on planet Earth. It's, you know, and. But we have that here. The rest of the country is not like that. So we, we need to circle back onto what is our agreement on what the deal is. Right. Yeah, because. And that's fine. Bill Maher has it and he says, look, there's city mouse and country mouse, and there's two different agendas, and we need to figure out, can these two agree on what America is? Is it multicultural, multiracial democracy? Is that okay, where everyone is equal? Are we starting there? Because if we' that.

[B]

Yeah. So some states, that's not the case.

[A]

Absolutely. Right now in Florida, if you have, if you're six weeks and one day pregnant, you can't control your own body. In Florida, if you're a female right now, an abortion. No. And, and there's other states right now that I'm. I might be wrong, but they're either pushing for it or they have it with. No. I think in Arizona, well, they, they walked it back. But Arizona walked. Had it where there was no you. Even if you. If there's no abortion at all in certain states is what they're pushing for. If Donald Trump gets in, they're, they're the, the, the party that put him in there, that Ultimately controls him. We were talking about earlier, the corporatism. They're going to push for a federal abortion ban. Makes make no mistake about it. Yeah. The writing's on the wall. You can listen to. They don't like courts in the supr. I mean, they don't let cameras in the Supreme Court, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But they record the audio and if you take the time or if you follow people that listen to the audio, they're telling you what the game is. They've been telling you what the game is for 30 years.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

You know, which is they've been go, they went after Roe, they got their guy with Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell at the time blocked Barack Obama from being able to put in the Supreme Court justice that he wanted for an entire year, which is unheard of. Right. Because to Mitch McConnell and the Uber rich. Right. The justices are everything. That's if you're playing chess, that's the whole game.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So you get Donald Trump in there, even with the help of Russia and unwillingly, most Republicans at the time didn't want him in there. But once they get in there, everybody, they bow, they kiss the ring or they'll be removed. Do you remember Dick Cheney, One of the worst, like most, most hated Republicans. His daughter is no longer. She's Persona non grata in the Republican Party anymore. Liz Cheney, she was, she was senator and they kicked her out. Right. Mitt Romney, one of the preeminent sort of middle Republicans from Utah. No longer he's Persona non grata in his party because of, because Donald Trump and the MAGA movement has kind of taken over. And again, I think at the core of that movement, if we were able to, you know, live in a world where we shared the same information over the course of periods of time, there's so much more there that we could agree on, you know, on then we would disagree on. But the money is in the fighting. Right. The money is in the agitation. The money is in outrage. So that's what. You know, I think it's going to be interesting to see how the news channels cover Donald Trump because we only because all these judges are afraid that he appointed. They're afraid to rule. There's only going to be one case that we'll know by the time of the election and that's going to be this Stormy Daniels case, you know, with him paying off an adult.

[B]

It's been going on for years.

[A]

It has been going on for years, but they finally got it. There's going to be a, there's going to be A ruling. So it's conceivable that he'd be a convicted felon by the time that we get to vote.

[B]

So if he's a felon, he can't run.

[A]

No, he absolutely can't.

[B]

Got it.

[A]

Yeah. But here's the thing. There's not a provision that says you can't actually run president from jail, to my, to my knowledge. So we're going to deal with. In the, in the same way we're dealing with a lot of things we've never dealt with before as humanity, be it climate change or AI or, or the fact that the Supreme Court has been stacked with conservative judges that they wanted Roe versus Wade. That was, you know, that's what they wanted. Now they got it and it's like the dog that caught the car. They kind of don't know how to deal with it because it's unpopular. You can't have women have rights for 50 years and then go take them away from them. It's ridiculous, absurd that we're in America and we're even talking about it. Yeah, Right. But it's because of Donald Trump and it's because of the manipulation by the Right. So now this is the thing to. This is the thing where I feel like, you know, concern of that should be our concern in November is it just can't. Donald Trump will usher in a federal abortion ban, without a doubt, you know, in addition to tons of other things. If you're curious, go to Google Donald Trump 2025 plan. It'll frighten the. Out of you. If you're anyone like us artists, anybody even remotely wanting to, you know, live in a, in a big tent and have as many, you know, views but, but respectful and peaceful and everything. Yeah. That is not that 2025 plan is not that. That has. Not that they don't give a. They give a. About any Democrats to them are worse than the enemy then, you know, it's worse to be a Democrat to a lot of the. The super right than it is to be Russian, you know, right now, which is any intelligence will tell you Russia right now is one of. They just two days ago launched a satellite into space that's designed to shoot down our satellites.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Russia did.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Holy crap.

[A]

Yeah. So maybe they're not. Maybe Joe Biden and the Democrats, you know, aren't as bad as that. That. Yeah, I don't. I'm just, I'm just going out on a limb.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know what I'm saying? I mean, one side is actually trying to help Albeit, you know, it's. It is. It. Look, Barack Obama said it best. You know, every decision that gets to my desk is 51, 49. And they're both shitty.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or else somebody else would have solved it by the time it got to my desk. Right. So there's a lot of problems right now. And one guy is a good man, has heart and, you know, and hit. The people that work for Joe Biden are some of the best you could, could possibly want in, in both government and, and brain trust. We want smart people, not just lawyers who are interested in making laws for, for their, you know, for their, the people that are paying them. You know, we need, we need thinkers, scientists, you know, innovators. That's what would be great for the future to me, for our lawmakers in Congress and stuff.

[B]

Why do you think these big companies want to push this abortion bill through?

[A]

It's not big companies. Big companies want nothing to do with it. This is a far right agenda that there. It's the evangelical right that in, even in theory. I think this is interesting because 10 years from now I'm sure we'll have many, many books that have been written about it because it's only been a two years since the Dobbs decision went down. But they'd been going for this ever since Roe vs. Wade because they had something to fight against. Right. They wanted the right to life, which I understand, I understand wholeheartedly. And there's all kinds of discussions to be had on that. I would like to live in a world where there's a right to life and a right to have a women's choice. And I do think there's a Venn diagram there. It's not a binary thing. Right. But the reason why they were concentrating on Roe vs Wade is because they wanted to chip at it. And when, when, when Trump got in and they got the justices they want, they put it up in front of the court and lo and behold, they, they, they got rid of it. Right. And so now we're dealing, you know, for ever since then, the Republicans have been losing most, most of the elections. Rightfully so. Because women are pissed off. Rightfully so. They should be. You can't take away rights. That's not what America's supposed to be about. Right. It's supposed to add rights. You know, we could. Yeah, but. So I think it's, it's a far right agenda that now they're trying to deal with the, they're trying to do damage control to some degree because there's a lot of hard line that really want this, but they actually don't represent what the majority of Republicans represent, which is a decent right, you know, right for women's. Women's right to choose. And to some degree. And you can kind of have where that. Where they're drawing that line, but I don't even think they should draw it anywhere. Let the women and the doctors decide. Right. Let. Let old white men stay out of women's decisions. But you put Donald Trump in and I. They're going for a federal abortion ban. So the choice to me is pretty easy. And that's why I appreciate you, even you even providing a platform to talk about, you know, across generationally, it makes the biggest difference because the future has to be built by, you know, by the young. And there's been, you know, there's been some things that are horribly, you know, off track, but there's also opportunity in a lot of the kind of things that are the pieces that are laying by the side of the road. Right. You know, and this is why we talked about earlier. Agency, creative agency with voices. I'm seeing some political voices on Tick Tock. Young, super, super young kids that are, you know, meeting with Biden and hanging. These kids are going for it. But their content is amazing. And that gives me crazy hope because it's much truer and it's from the bottom up as opposed to, oh, we're getting all of our information sprinkled down by the media giants that determine. You know, John Oliver had that great piece where it was like they took hundreds of local news stations all over and they took. And everybody was saying the same thing. I saw that. Yeah. You put them on top of each other. Right.

[B]

Followed a script.

[A]

Yeah. That's not a voice. That's a corporation.

[B]

That's not authentic.

[A]

No, no. So this is why, you know, I love the independent creators, the independent political creators. You know, reach out to us on Slap the Power, please, because we're looking for people that are interested in crossing art with social progress in any kind of way, as opposed to. For me, for the longest time, it was like, you need to not do that because you want to be afraid of the backlash. It's like, no honesty. Yeah, yeah, let's. How about. Let's start there.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Rick, it's been fun, man. Anything else you want to close off with, bro?

[A]

I. I appreciate you coming down. I'm looking forward to the. The future. And yo, check out. You know, my wife's always got so many things going on. I like to throw her a shout out to @Sweet EE3 Sweetange online with three E's, but it's Anjali Bhumani. And then for us, we have, we just launched SLAP Studios here in Beverly Hills. It's slapstudios la.com and we're teaming up with another company to create a kind of mega company that's called 360pod, where no matter where you are in the arc of your podcast journey or anything, where we have a team that can kind of wrap around you and help in that respect, because it's not hard to do a podcast. It's hard to do it consistently and hard to do it well. And that's what, that's what we just try to make that remove the pain points.

[B]

Absolutely. Link it below. Thanks for coming on, man.

[A]

Bro, thank you.

[B]

That was fun.

[A]

Yeah, definitely.

[B]

Thanks for watching, guys. See you tomorrow.