In Conversation: AARON OLSON

Summary

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Jokermen Podcast – In Conversation: Aaron Olson

Published June 29, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of Jokermen is a laid-back, spirited conversation between hosts Ian and Evan and their recurring guest, Aaron Olson, on the occasion of Olson's new release, Songs Album 2. The episode centers on Olson’s creative process, musical influences, and the whimsical, eclectic spirit of his songwriting. The trio delves into the specifics of Aaron’s new album, shares musings on LA living, album art, and music fandom, and offers plenty of deep-cut references sprinkled with the show’s trademark dry humor and digressions into rock ephemera.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to Aaron Olson and Songs Album 2

• [00:00–04:31]
  Ian introduces Aaron Olson, noting his extensive CV in film scores, cover bands, LA indie groups, and his “jack-of-all-trades” status. They kick off with playful banter about Olson’s home—described as quaint and possibly “a fairy tale type shoe”—leading to light-hearted jokes about the whimsical elements present on his new album.

  "Some of the music on this record sounds a little bit like it was maybe made by someone who lives in a fairy tale type shoe." — Evan [03:57]

• Aaron gives an overview of Songs Album 2, explaining it features mostly sung songs (a shift from his usual instrumental work), conceived as a personal, unembellished project with no dramatic origin story.

  "There isn't like, you know, I wasn't, like, kicked in the head by a horse and then all these songs happened..."
  — Aaron [05:00]

2. Creative Process & Collaboration

• [07:28–09:35]
  Olson describes his self-sufficient recording style—doing most of the tracking himself, then collaborating with select musicians for elements like drums and 12-string guitar. He name-checks his collaborators: Robin McMillan (drums, bandmate in Other Delights and Bedouin), Bart Davenport, Wayne Failor, and Tara Milch (flute).

3. Whimsy, Balance, and Influences

• [06:27–07:17]
  Discussion about the presence (and limits) of whimsy in modern indie music.

  "I hope there's whimsy in it. I hope it's not too whimsical, but I hope there's a healthy balance, I guess, of whimsy and whatever the opposite of whimsy may be."
  — Aaron [07:00]
  "Pain." — Evan [07:16]

• [09:35–13:17]
  They discuss sonic references, especially apparent on the opening track ("More Than A Life's Work"), which calls back to Brian Eno’s Another Green World and Robert Fripp’s harmonized guitar work.

  "On More Than A Life's Work, that's Such a Green World. Exactly. Guitar that you kick into... and it's just like, oh, this. This guy knows what he's doing here."
  — Ian [10:09]

• Sidebar on Robert Fripp’s hospitalization and a viral headline adds comic relief.

  "Robert Fripp doesn't know why nurses shaved his testicles...I thought it was for sure a joke."
  — Aaron [11:19]

4. Song Inspiration and Thematic Depth

"More Than A Life's Work" and Social Movements

• [13:17–16:29]
  The genesis of the first track was an awe-filled experience at Newgrange, a Neolithic Irish monument whose generational construction symbolized for Aaron the idea of working for something bigger and lasting than oneself—analogous to social justice movements.

  "...the fact that it took multiple generations to build this thing and...we don't know why they built it still...I couldn't help but relate that in my mind to like social justice movements..."
  — Aaron [15:15]

LA Songs, Everyday Observations, and Empathy

• [28:40–32:57]
  Several tracks are anchored in LA specifics—both physically (references to traffic and LA neighborhoods) and emotionally (the grind and lack of empathy in big city life).

  "Is it the first? The second verse is my comeback at honking down the highway... it captures LA driving so well inadvertently..."
  — Aaron [30:13]

• The hosts and Aaron have a spirited critique of “Drive Like Your Children Live Here” yard signs and their condescending nature, broadening into a discussion about empathy versus self-interest in society and politics.

The Punisher

• [18:10–21:36]
  Discussion of the song “The Punisher,” which riffs on the universally familiar “punishing” conversationalist in social situations (not the Marvel character). Aaron offers a twist of true empathy for the “Punisher” character.

  "I can't write a song that's just like mean. And I do. I really, I feel for the Punisher. And just to be clear, I'm not talking about Marvel Comics character Frank Castle." — Aaron [18:54]

5. Musical Touchstones & Lyric Sources

• [22:21–25:16]
  Aaron reveals his deep love for Richard Harris’s albums written by Jimmy Webb, particularly for their orchestral arrangements and “bizarre...truly psychedelic lyrics out of truly mundane things,” noting a shared affinity for “off” singers.
• The subject of Van Dyke Parks, The Beach Boys, and John Cale recurs throughout as inspirational sources.

6. Love Songs & Inside References

• [37:13–39:09]
  “Jennifer,” a love song to Aaron’s wife, is a collage of lines from songs important in their relationship, including a John Cale reference:

  "...you know more than I know is like a big one for us...that song, Jennifer, is essentially just like an amalgam of. Of. Of songs that are special to the two of us."
  — Aaron [37:49]

7. Album Art & Physical Media

• [25:53–27:02]
  The album’s cover is a painting by a family friend, with its gravity-defying imagery chosen to reflect the album’s uncertain, slightly surreal themes. The back cover, discussed later ([45:00–46:46]), features a 1993 photo taken from a family trip to Canada—emphasizing the personal, grounded nature of the project.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Process and Self-Deprecation:

  "I'm not trying to be. I don't even know what. But yeah, I'm just. Just saying what it is."
  — Aaron [05:00]

• On Musical Collaboration:

  "My general way...I play everything that I can myself and then, and that might mean like temp drums that aren't fully there. And then I get friends to roll through and replace the things that are not up to snuff..."
  — Aaron [07:38]

• On Whimsy and Pain:

  "I hope there's a healthy balance, I guess, of whimsy and whatever the opposite of whimsy may be."
  — Aaron [07:00]

• On Songs About Neolithic Monuments:

  "I think that it's a great thing that we're. We're, we're starting, we've got at least one megalith. Music is. I hope it becomes a trend."
  — Evan [17:23]

• On Driving in LA:

  "Everyone's trying to get in front of each other. And it does. It means everyone doesn't get in front. I mean, it just fucks everything up."
  — Aaron [30:13]

• On The Beach Boys' “Pet Sounds” Title:

  "There's a solid six ways to read into it that actually makes sense. None of them describe what is on that album."
  — Aaron [55:10]

• On Spotify and Music Consumption:

  “I’m not here to tell anyone how to live, but I can tell you how I live. And that is by not using Spotify and not using Amazon.”
  — Aaron [39:46]

• On John Cale Collaborating with Charli XCX:

  "The concept of, like, Charlie xcx, you know, featuring John Cale is. I'm all for that. I think that's, you know, bringing John Kale to a wider audience, potentially."
  — Aaron [64:03]

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• [01:49–02:21] – Poetical intro (Narrator–evocative poetry/readings)
• [10:09–11:00] – Early influences: Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, King Crimson, and the “Frippy” guitar sound
• [13:17–16:29] – Origin and meaning of "More Than A Life’s Work" and the Newgrange connection
• [18:10–21:36] – “The Punisher”–narrative, inspiration, and universal appeal
• [22:39–25:01] – The impact of Richard Harris/Jimmy Webb, the “off”-singer ethos
• [28:40–32:57] – LA geography in the lyrics, societal empathy, and critiquing “Drive like your children live here” signs
• [33:41–35:48] – Song title etymology and the famous "Who Do You Think You Are? I Am" bowling meme
• [37:13–39:09] – “Jennifer,” personal song as shared nostalgia and hidden references
• [39:43–46:46] – Physical album details, back cover photo origin, and show logistics
• [48:01–55:21] – Rapid-fire pop-culture “Jokerman points”: Beach Boys art, “Pet Sounds” title interpretations, Birds album titles, deep-cut trivia
• [68:16–69:01] – Kokomo trivia: Terry Melcher, “Get there fast and take it slow” lyric origin

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Tone and Atmosphere

The episode is characterized by the hosts’ and guest’s playful, self-aware banter, warmth of genuine camaraderie, and deep musician-to-musician empathy. There’s a freewheeling embrace of music nerdery, with long digressions into trivia, cultural references, and affectionate ribbing over “shoebox” houses or “punisher” conversations. Olson is generous with his process and feelings, inviting listeners into the intimate, slightly magical world of his songwriting.

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Additional Highlights

Cover Song: "There Comes a Time"

• [40:28–41:19]
  Aaron covers Tony Williams (jazz fusion drummer), transforming the chords and style into his own, delighting in non-singer-singers.

Transportation and LA Life

• [44:47–45:00]
  A paean to LA buses and public transit, with Aaron describing taking buses to gigs and sharing practical city-living details that ground the conversation.

Deep Music Nerd Reference Section

• [48:01–55:21]
  Olson runs through a list of favorite album covers, trivia about The Beach Boys, The Birds, Bruce Johnston’s disco moves, and more, demonstrating his outsider-insider status in music fandom.

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Conclusion

The episode serves not just as an album plug, but a lively invitation into Aaron Olson’s creative headspace—fueled by idiosyncratic influences, LA’s quirks, and genuine indie-culture camaraderie. The hosts ensure that while deep musical references abound, the focus remains on music’s personal, communal, and slightly whimsical nature.

Aaron’s Songs Album 2 is positioned as an eclectic, heartfelt work—recommended for listeners seeking something gentle yet substantial, whimsical yet grounded, and always quietly inventive.

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Listen to Songs Album 2 on Bandcamp (not Spotify!) – link in show notes.

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Transcript

[Ian]

Jokerman podcast is brought to you by Distrokid and their new direct to fan tool. Allowing any artist to sell merch. Distrokid Direct allows artists to create a merch store in minutes without any upfront costs or any technical skills or know how they'll take care of all the logistics and the nitty gritty. And as with distribution through Distrokid, they never take a cut of the proceeds. You, the artist, keep 100% of your earnings. Once again, that's Distrokid Direct. Open a store [e-mail] direct. Welcome back to Jokerman In Conversation. I'm Ian. Today hanging with our good friend Aaron Olson, who has joined us on the pond for several episodes before here today to talk about his very own set of songs, a collection titled, appropriately Enough, Songs Album 2. It is of course the sequel to Songs Album and maybe the precursor to a Hypothetical Songs Album 3. And it is full of just great rock songs. For anyone who doesn't already know, Aaron is a true Jack of all trades. Film score composer, Grateful Dead cover band maven, part of the great Richard pictures, and also like a go to sideman in like 11 different Los Angeles indie rock outfits, really lengthy CV. But he's not always one for just putting together his own rock lp. Fortunately for us, he's. He's done just that here. One of the nicest guys around, not to mention most hard working here, is our pal and yours, Aaron Olsen.

[Narrator/Poet]

Connection is made that pyramid falls the thunderous clap echoes the hall

[Evan]

the moment

[Narrator/Poet]

builds up it breaks through the dam and chaos. Who do you think you are?

[Aaron Olson]

I am.

[Narrator/Poet]

Who do you think you are?

[Ian]

Well, as we were just saying, I don't know. I don't know if you guys heard so much about FIFA, but they're actually very interested in the concept of world peace. And they in fact awarded our president the first ever, I believe, FIFA Peace Prize just earlier this year.

[Evan]

Wow.

[Ian]

So I know you were saying that it's an evil organization, Evan, but maybe you want to rethink that a little bit.

[Evan]

Well, I'm glad that wasn't caught on, Mike, because I've already changed my opinion.

[Ian]

It would be a very embarrassing thing to come out if you had just been saying that FIFA is of the most evil organizations on the planet.

[Evan]

Granted, Trump did just stop that war that he started.

[Aaron Olson]

Oh, boy. I mean, that's like, yeah, Nazis giving someone a peace prize. And then, yeah, I don't know. Maybe. I don't. Anyways, we may hear some World cup leakage but probably not just emanating from the park, which I may not be for FIFA, but I'm all about parks and the city presenting things in the park. And yeah, it's nice. It's a nice concept, so I'm here for it. If I wasn't so busy with work, I'd maybe walk the one block down to the park and catch a game.

[Evan]

But, yeah, not to dox you, but you. You live in a very quaint and cute and I mean, quaint makes it sound like I'm saying you don't live in a nice house. You have a nice place and it's near the park and you live in

[Ian]

a little graham cracker house.

[Evan]

You live in a shoe. Yeah. Some of the music on this record sounds a little bit like it was maybe made by someone who lives in a fairy tale type shoe to me.

[Ian]

Is that what you were going for, Aaron?

[Aaron Olson]

I potentially take more offense in that than in my house being quaint, but as of now, I'm not taking any offense. I'll. I'll take everything as a compliment.

[Ian]

Okay. Yeah, wait, wait and see if you should be taking offense. Why don't you tell us a little bit about Song's Album two, the collection of music that we're here to discuss today.

[Aaron Olson]

It's an album I made that consists of mostly sung songs, and it is the second collection of which being that I normally make a lot of instrumental music either for my band, L.A. takedown, or as a composer for film and television and among other things. So it's an album of songs, and it is the second one, and it's called Songs Album two.

[Ian]

Great title.

[Aaron Olson]

I'm not. I'm not trying to be. I don't even know what. But yeah, I'm just. Just saying what it is. I don't know. There isn't like, you know, I wasn't, like, kicked in the head by a horse and then all these songs happened

[Ian]

and then I kicked in the head

[Aaron Olson]

again and then they all disappeared or something. You know, there's no, like, fun story.

[Evan]

Well, when was the last time that you decided to make a song's album? When? How long has it been?

[Aaron Olson]

It's been a few years. I made the first Songs album kind of during quarantine time, and it came out, I want to say, in 2022, I think. So it's been. It's been a while. And I guess one thing that I noticed is that the songs tend to kind of spill out of me after I've had Covid. So Songs Album One kind of happened just like, you know, came to me quickly after a brutal bout of COVID and then this one kind of similarly picked up.

[Ian]

Just an exercise in keeping yourself sane while you're locked up there in your little shoe house. By.

[Evan]

All right, I already feel bad about saying that. I'm going to clarify and say that certain moments on some of the instrumentals sound slightly whimsical. How about that?

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, I'll take it.

[Ian]

There is whimsy on the record. I, I, I think we can all agree on that.

[Evan]

And maybe I'm just like reacting to the, the great dearth of whimsy in music today. And so when I'm encountering any at all, I'm like, oh, this is so whimsical. But actually, I think that this record simply has, is in touch, has a strong contact with a gentler side of life and of music than I. Maybe we're also listening to a lot of Death Grips these days on the podcast.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, this is. Well, thank you. I hope there's whimsy in it. I hope it's not too whimsical, but I hope there's a healthy balance, I guess, of whimsy and whatever the opposite of whimsy may be.

[Evan]

Pain.

[Aaron Olson]

Pain. Yeah.

[Evan]

I don't know.

[Aaron Olson]

I mean, yeah, there, I don't know if there's much pain on the album, but there is, you know, there's dark thoughts.

[Ian]

How about the. I'm curious about the music. Are you playing most of these songs like all on your own, or do you have homies coming through and cracking them out with you? What's the deal?

[Aaron Olson]

My general way of doing most music, either songs, albums or LA takedown albums or scores or I play everything that I can myself and then, and that might mean like temp drums that aren't fully there. And then I get friends to roll through and replace the things that are not up to snuff or that I had to like use midi for sure. So on this album, I play the majority of everything. I do not play the drums on it. They're all played by Robin McMillan, who is an amazing drummer. We have a band together called Other Delights, kind of an exotica ish group. We're also the backing band for Bedouin on the current tour cycle. And then there's a couple anytime there's acoustic 12 string guitar, that is Bart Davenport and Wayne Failor. And then any like Wins or strings would be other folks.

[Ian]

Sure.

[Aaron Olson]

And yeah, I recorded the drums and acoustic guitar, acoustic 12 strings at Luke Temple's spot, which is nearby. Do you guys know Luke?

[Ian]

I know I know him by name.

[Aaron Olson]

He's great. His. His solo music's fantastic, and he has a nice studio in his back of his house. So, yeah, we recorded like. Like, half the songs, basically. We, like, tracked stuff there, and then the rest was tracked in my quaint shoebox house.

[Ian]

Yeah, I mean, I think that if there's going to be whimsy on this album, to the extent that there is whimsy on this album, I locate it more in the music itself than the words that go into the songs because I just. It's been. It's been very fun listening to it. And to me, it. Like, there's so many different sonic signifiers scattered all throughout that are, I don't know, like, winks or nods or references to other artists or records that I love. Like, I mean, on the very first song, I would imagine it's intentional. Maybe it wasn't. But on More Than A Life's Work, like, that's Such a Green World. Exactly. Guitar that you kick into, like, a minute or two into the song and it's just like, oh, this. This guy knows what he's doing here.

[Aaron Olson]

Cool. I mean, I frips one of my absolute favorite guitarists and, I mean, I don't even think about it anymore at this point with like, a frippy tone that's just like. Especially with my band Alley Takedown, that's like. I just love harmonized guitar leads. And I mean, Michael Rother as well. Mikael Rother. Yeah. I'm such a big King Crimson fan. And yeah, his guitar playing, especially on Another Green World, is like. I mean, the solo on St. Elmo's fires. Oh, come on. Come on, give me a break.

[Ian]

Can't beat it.

[Aaron Olson]

Did you guys see the Frip headline recently?

[Ian]

I saw something about it, but I don't recall exactly what it was.

[Aaron Olson]

Remind me that Fripp was in Spain and he had to go into a hospital for maybe a heart thing.

[Ian]

Oh, the balls thing.

[Aaron Olson]

And it's like Robert Fripp doesn't know why nurses shaved his testicles. Yes, it's a real. It was a real headline. I thought it was for sure a joke.

[Evan]

The man shaving my balls didn't tell me. Robert Fripp says he's still baffled by his bizarre hospital.

[Aaron Olson]

So that's. Maybe he's more of an influence in that way.

[Evan]

An advocate for those whose balls have been mysteriously shorn of hair.

[Ian]

Honestly, it's a pretty. That's a pretty good bit. If You're a nurse there and you're just trying to have fun with. Someone comes in. Just nothing wrong with the balls whatsoever. We don't need to go down there at all. But just like, you know what? He's knocked out. I got a few spare minutes before my shit's up. Let me just. Yeah, let's just take it right off.

[Aaron Olson]

I mean, he also said in that article that he pulled down his pants for someone who came in that he thought was a nurse who was just actually trying to take his lunch order. So I'm guessing it's his fault that his balls got shaped and like his fault for not knowing Spanish and being in Spain anyways.

[Ian]

Boy, well, I hope nothing like that happens to you or to anyone else for that matter.

[Aaron Olson]

I wouldn't mind.

[Ian]

Is there. Do I hear recorder on this album also?

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, I played the recorder.

[Ian]

I love the recorder. I love a little bit of recorder.

[Aaron Olson]

It's on. Yeah, Just on the first song. More Than A Life's Work. Yes. And yeah, it's doubled with a flute played by Tara Milch. But yeah, she played it very well and I kind of wanted to have that pitchy quality, so I doubled it on a recorder. I don't know how much I should say about, like, why I wrote a song or not, but that kind of folds into like the genesis of that song.

[Evan]

Please. If you're comfortable with saying that type thing. I loved. I always am interested.

[Aaron Olson]

All right. I mean, yeah, I guess since you guys are so graciously took the time to listen to my album. I'm also curious for your unadulterated thoughts on it, but I will tell you. Yeah, that first song was I wrote after visiting the neolithic site called Newgrange in Ireland. That's like.

[Evan]

Hey, is that a cairn? Is that what you call it?

[Narrator/Poet]

It's a.

[Aaron Olson]

Like a mega cairn. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it might be larger than what we consider cairns, I guess, or. Or dolmens, but it's like gigantic and it's incredibly old and it was so impressive. And you can walk down this hallway to the. There's like a cross, like shaped end of the hallway that. On the equinox. No, on the solstice. Sorry, I changed it for the rhyme. But on the solstice, like the light shines through this like stone window and it hits directly at the end of the hallway on this like triple spiral shape, which is a. Wow.

[Evan]

Yeah, I know what this is. I've seen this before. It's insane. It's like it's really wild. It's a massive like sort of just dome like structure.

[Ian]

Looks like an alien spaceship that's been like crash landed and grown over and

[Evan]

there's all these incredible spiral carved stones.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah. So yeah, it's beautiful and it's like just covered in. It's a big grassy mound. It's actually a building technically because it isn't subterranean. But I was just so inspired by it as just a thing and the fact that it took multiple generations to build this thing and like, we don't know why they built it still. And like people like, imagine your grandparent like and then your parent like, yeah, we're stacking these stones, building this thing that's gonna have a light shine on some spirals. I won't live to see it done, but you know, maybe your kids will and you just go ahead and keep building it. And I think that that's amazing. And I couldn't help but relate that in my mind to like social, social justice movements and stuff where it's like, yeah, I know, you know, this thing isn't going to happen in my lifetime yet I still work at it and I hope that like the next generation will too and so on. So that was, that was kind of, that was the inspiration for that. And so that's why I wanted kind of like this like mandolin and like recorder kind of nod to Ireland. Like it's a very inaccurate Irish nod. But I wanted a little bit of that like folksy tinge in there and now I've given away.

[Evan]

No, it makes a lot of sense.

[Ian]

It's your Irish heart meat song.

[Evan]

Yeah, yeah. Inarticulate speech of the heart. I think it's great. I mean I think that, that I'm, I'm ashamed to say almost like if you had a, an Irish type accent like, like one of those or you know, British maybe like those many folk singers and, or folk inflected singers we love. I would probably sooner have picked up on any references to any kind of megalithic structure in, in a field like that's, that just feels it's not something that enough. It's probably because we don't have many around these parts, but not many are writing songs about this topic. And I, I think that it's a great thing that we're, we're, we're starting,

[Ian]

we've got at least one megalith.

[Evan]

Music is, is. I hope it becomes a trend.

[Narrator/Poet]

At the heart of the pyramid down the hallway of rocks Sunshine strikes on the equid night.

[Ian]

I love the Penultimate. I mean, I love many of the songs on this record, but the one that stuck out to me on first listen and that I just keep cracking a grin every time I hear it, is the Punisher. Fantastic concept for a song. And you have a very nice little twist on that at the end where I don't want to spoil it for people, but who the Punisher is, you know, it might not be who you expect it to be initially at the beginning of the song. I imagine that this comes from an actual experience or two with a Punisher in your own life.

[Aaron Olson]

I mean, endless experiences with Punishers.

[Ian]

We've all been there.

[Aaron Olson]

We've all been there. We've all.

[Ian]

We've all been the Punisher.

[Aaron Olson]

Exactly. And yeah, I didn't, I really didn't want. I mean, I can't write a song that's just like mean. And I do. I really, I feel for the Punisher. And just to be clear, I'm not talking about Marvel Comics character Frank Castle.

[Ian]

We don't like that guy, the skeleton guy. No, no, no, not that guy.

[Aaron Olson]

No, I don't care for that. I don't care for him or how he's been co opted.

[Evan]

But.

[Aaron Olson]

And that is not what this song is about. But yeah, I. You know, when you're, when you're taking in a Punisher, in a social situation or when one is. It's punishing, obviously, but I also just feel bad at the same time.

[Evan]

Well, it's all, It's. Oh, it's a bad feeling all around. It's many layers of bad.

[Ian]

The Punisher I don't think is feeling bad. I guess it depends on who it is that's doing the punishing. I don't think some of them feel bad.

[Evan]

Well, it's bad to feel like I hate this and it's bad to feel. It feels bad to hate it sometimes. Like I, I'm. It's a bad feeling about oneself. You know, like I, I wish I could be nicer to this person, but I can't.

[Aaron Olson]

I think I kind of just grin and bear it, but. And then write a song about it. But yeah, it's. It's an affliction that is, I think, probably a global affliction. And just, you know, everyone, everywhere's got them.

[Ian]

I feel a great deal of sympathy for the Punisher. You know, as someone who makes his living these days, such as it is, by just talking into the computer endlessly about the same, like four subjects, you know, I'm very lucky to have an outlet for all of this stuff. And so in situations that others might, you know, otherwise become a punisher, I'm able to just put it in my back pocket and wait till I get on Zoom with Heaven and then subject him to the conversation and he can do the same back to me. So we have sort of a healthy outlet for this urge.

[Evan]

Yes, it's true. It feels like, okay, well, we can't. I don't know if you feel this way, but I suppose you do that. It's not fair for me to even label someone a punisher because I get to put it somewhere where it's socially acceptable.

[Aaron Olson]

So true. It's like. It's like if you, like, steal, you know, you guys, I don't know. This is not. It doesn't even make sense. But, like, you have a place to funnel your punishing and you're celebrated for it. Whereas if you're punishing out. Out in the world on the streets,

[Evan]

do you mean still little and they throw you in jail still a lot

[Ian]

and they make you king?

[Aaron Olson]

That's what I'm talking about. Thank you. And, yeah, I. I mean, I'm out there punishing, like, you start talking about. I mean, yeah, if you bring up the Eagles or I don't know what, anything, I'll just. John Caleb, it's lights out.

[Evan]

I actually am due to get punished by you because we've. You were telling me, and I'm saying telling, not punishing. You were telling me about Richard. What's his. Yeah, the Richard Harris albums, of which I only know one. And I still want to know more about Richard Harris's other records.

[Aaron Olson]

Come on. Come on over, buddy.

[Evan]

I've got to come over to the house.

[Aaron Olson]

I love Richard Harris so much. And. Yeah.

[Evan]

Was he an influence at all on. On this music?

[Aaron Olson]

Absolutely.

[Evan]

Can you maybe just tell, like, tell the listeners more about Richard Harris? Let's do it now. Like, please.

[Aaron Olson]

Richard Harris was an actor, I believe. Irish British actor. And he started out in, like, what they called kitchen sink films, the British kids and kitchen sink films. And he. His big break was being in Camelot, the musical film where he sang. And that kind of somehow positioned him to start making albums. And he linked up with Jimmy Webb, who's one of my favorite songwriters, and Jimmy Webb wrote an album for him and arranged it and produced it. And that album was called the Tramp Shining, and that has the massive hit MacArthur park that we've all heard, as parodied by Weird Al's Jurassic park later

[Evan]

on, of course, and as recently showcased in the Olympics with That figure skating routine.

[Aaron Olson]

Exactly, yeah. Covered by Donna Summer.

[Ian]

Someone did figure skating to Jurassic park by.

[Evan]

No, no, no.

[Aaron Olson]

MacArthur Park.

[Narrator/Poet]

But.

[Aaron Olson]

And so Jimmy Webb made a second album with him called

[Evan]

the.

[Aaron Olson]

The Yard Went On Forever, which is even deeper. They're both bizarre albums and they're like. I don't. I have no context for, like, who was buying them and listening to them at the time. They're really arranged, very orchestral.

[Narrator/Poet]

He's.

[Aaron Olson]

The lyrics are bizarre in the most bizarre Jimmy Webb kind of way, where it's like he takes these, like. He makes truly psychedelic lyrics out of truly mundane things. And I feel like that's kind of a thing that's come back around a little with, like, maybe, like. I mean, in very different forms, but with, like, Dear Nora or, like, Mount Yuri, where it's like, describing normal things, but because of the context and the way that things are juxtaposed and presented, it becomes very trippy. Yeah, all of that influences me all the time. Especially the. I'm not like a. I don't consider myself a strong lead singer of my

[Ian]

own

[Aaron Olson]

or of things that aren't in a character. So I really relate to, like, kind of off, quote, unquote, off singers. And he's definitely up there.

[Evan]

How many of the songs on your record would you say are character based? Or. I don't need a number, but are

[Aaron Olson]

some of them six?

[Evan]

Yeah. Okay, great. Next question.

[Aaron Olson]

This whole album is, I would say, as the character of me. So maybe it's like a slight character of my actual self.

[Evan]

Speaking of which, the COVID art. I don't see a mustache on this gentleman. So that's the first thing that tells me perhaps this is a version of you that doesn't quite exist in our world. Because you do have a mustache.

[Aaron Olson]

Well, I do, yeah, currently. And I have for, I guess, a long time. But I mean, that is not a painting of me. I will say that.

[Evan]

Well, I can see that because he doesn't have a mustache.

[Aaron Olson]

Yes, very astute. That's a painting. I don't remember when it's from, maybe the early 80s, but it's by a family friend of mine that I've known since I was born. He's a muralist named John Worley. He lives in Richmond in the East Bay, and he's done a lot of murals around the Bay Area. And if you've been over in Richmond, he did a large mural under an overpass in Richmond that is like the Richmond City mural.

[Ian]

Oh, this must be why there's the chevron horse in the Background on this painting, like on the wall, because that's Richmond is like the. I think former. Maybe not currently, but former like California headquarters of Chevron. Not that that's anything to celebrate, but.

[Aaron Olson]

Oh, maybe I didn't even think about that. Yeah, that's interesting. Like the Pegasus.

[Ian]

The Pegasus, yeah.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah. Maybe I should ask John about that.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Aaron Olson]

He also did the mural in downtown LA on the 101 that has been covered in graffiti for a long time of like columns floating in space.

[Ian]

Oh, I love that one. Yeah, that's right. By more. My dad lives. I would drive by that 10,000 times. Those are beautiful murals there. Like on the. Like the. The sunken part of the freeway when you're going. Yeah. In like coming in. In between like Chinatown and like City hall area.

[Aaron Olson]

Exactly. And it. That was made. All those murals on the 101 there were for the 84 Olympics.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Aaron Olson]

A citywide project. Yeah. That's what's going on with the COVID I thought that it's. I mean, it's not a concept album per se, but there is so my mind. An underlying theme of kind of uncertainty and whatnot. So I thought that this image of things kind of losing their gravity felt fitting.

[Narrator/Poet]

I was driving through town the other day and I saw a sign and I swear it said drive like your children live here. But I don't have any kids and I don't need to imagine that I did to drive. Like, I care about not running over the kids here. The kids here. Oh yeah, the kids here.

[Evan]

I'm curious because LA has come up now. Like, it's understood now. The first track is not a Los Angeles song, but I feel like a bunch of the other ones feel very Los Angeles. Certain ones are very explicitly Los Angeles type songs.

[Aaron Olson]

What jumps out to you?

[Ian]

Gilded Lawns of Summer to me.

[Evan]

Yes, definitely. Even the last song, the endless list of anything. I think there's a lot. I mean, there's obviously some LA things, but even just some of the instrumentals. Like I was walking around listening to this and it's a beautiful Los Angeles day, temperate and slightly breezy. And it was. It was feeling very. In line with the. Feeling very part of the. The landscape as I listened to.

[Aaron Olson]

Awesome. Thank you. Gilded Lawns of Summer. This. This is very Jokerman. So I'm glad you caught that. It's very. That it's LA based. You're in the right place is partially. I mean, it's a larger. The. There's a larger concept in the song of being disappointed in the lack of empathy in the world. But it's the. Is it the first? The second verse is my comeback at honking down the highway.

[Ian]

Wow, I did not catch that.

[Aaron Olson]

I think, I mean, it's not. There's no way anyone would know that. It's a personal thing. But honking down the highway, I think captures LA driving so well inadvertently because he's saying, honking down the gosh darn highway, trying to get past them cars. Which to me is exactly what's wrong with driving in la. Everyone's trying to get in front of each other. And it does. It means everyone doesn't get in front. I mean, it just fucks everything up. And I think that that song inadvertently captured the essence of LA traffic.

[Evan]

Everybody is thinking and feeling hunk, I am the one honking down the highway.

[Aaron Olson]

Everyone's thinking, I'm getting. I got to get past these cars. It's impossible. You're in a stream, you need to move with the stream. And so that. That is what that verse is. I was. I was actually thinking about honking down the highway when writing those words and how to like counteract that idea. And then, I mean. Yeah, so that verse in particular is very LA based. And the one before, I'm sure you know, those signs exist everywhere that say, drive like your children live here.

[Ian]

I hate those signs.

[Aaron Olson]

I hate them too.

[Ian]

I'm all for driving safely, of course, but the condescension of those signs makes me want to drive unsafely.

[Aaron Olson]

The notion that as a childless man, I need that rather than just asking me to drive slower. You would have. You would want me to imagine that maybe I'm not even married, that I get married, I have kids, I live in this neighborhood. And now my kids are out here running around and I don't want to kill them. So you want me to do that before just asking me to drive slower.

[Evan]

It's a tall order to just be like. It's also just. Yeah. So presumptuous to be like, only able for. They can only imagine other people driving have the same type life as them. They're like, well, you know, you know what it's like to live in Bel Air. So if you lived on this particular

[Aaron Olson]

street, you know, it's the same, the same fucked up mentality as like when senators are like, talking about women's rights and they're like, I have a sister, right? So I care about this. And it's like, you could just care about other people. You don't need to like personalize it, like. And that's why the Whole song. I mean, the last verse in the song is about Israel. So it's like. I don't know. Yeah, you just shouldn't. I don't live in Israel, but I. I hope.

[Ian]

I hope not.

[Aaron Olson]

I can care about not bombing people.

[Evan]

Like the mix of, like these sort of moral. Moral contemplations and then like very specific details. It did strike me as Beach Boys, Ian. And I didn't make the connection of honking down the highway, but I actually was thinking about, like, some of the stuff from that period of Beach Boys.

[Ian]

I got more Van Dyke Parks than Beach Boys, just, you know, with. Which is not to say that the Beach Boys comparison is off known either, but between the inventiveness and the playfulness, the whimsy of some of the music. But then also like. Like, who do you think you are? I am. Just feels like something Van Dyke Parks would say.

[Evan]

Well, you know where that comes from, don't you?

[Aaron Olson]

It's from the Internet.

[Evan]

You don't know.

[Ian]

Do I not?

[Evan]

That's a famous. That's a famous thing.

[Ian]

Oh, right. It's the bowling guy. Of course.

[Narrator/Poet]

Yeah.

[Evan]

Strike to claim it.

[Aaron Olson]

A strike to claim it. And he got it.

[Narrator/Poet]

I did it.

[Aaron Olson]

Guess that is right. I did it at number five. Are you kidding me? That's right. Who do you think you are?

[Evan]

I am.

[Aaron Olson]

That phrase has stuck with me so much as it has with many, but I just found it to be such an artful combination of words.

[Ian]

It is.

[Aaron Olson]

The phrase came from a bowler on ESPN or something. I can't remember his name, who had a lapel mic, I believe, and he. I don't know the total context. I've heard that maybe some kid was heckling him or something. So it was extra pent up. And there was a lot riding on this game. And he won the game. And then he screams. It's a very Howard Dean moment, if you recall that, where. Yeah, yeah,

[Evan]

man.

[Aaron Olson]

And he. He kind of just started going off and he says, yeah, that's right. That's right. I did it. I did it. And then he yells, who do you think you are?

[Narrator/Poet]

I am.

[Aaron Olson]

And it's so loud and clear and it's so confusing and it doesn't make any sense, but it gets a feeling across accurately. And so, yeah, that just. I mean, like, I. I love. Like, I love. I mean, I love clunky, confusing phrases. I guess like a working title for this album was Is it is what it is?

[Evan]

Is it Is what it is?

[Aaron Olson]

Because when people say it is what it is, I always Want to be like is it Is what it is. But you know, that kind of stuff. Even Song's album is, you know, a purposefully kind of clunky combination of words.

[Ian]

I like that album is in the title of the album because I'm imagining like a British rock doc guy talking about this album in the future and he's got to say like, oh, when, When. When Olsen made the. The Songs album two album.

[Evan]

The Songs album two album.

[Aaron Olson]

Yes. I love that. It's perfect. So yeah. That was what the bowling source was. And then the re. That song. The melody and kind of chords. I came to me in a dream for the chorus and then it just kind of built around that it wasn't. The lyrics weren't there.

[Ian]

It's a very rockin number.

[Aaron Olson]

Thank you. Yeah. I was trying to harness some kale energy.

[Ian]

I hear that.

[Aaron Olson]

His classic one note piano thing.

[Ian]

Yeah. There's almost like a Waiting for the man type of thing to the chorus.

[Aaron Olson]

He does it on Waiting for. For the man. He does it on I want to be your dog.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Aaron Olson]

He does it on. I mean Paris 1919. He loves pounding a single note and I love it too. And so that was a little. I mean. Yeah. I'm forever kale inspired and like. Yeah, those.

[Evan]

There's another lyric on one of the songs, I think on Jennifer that you say you know more than I know, which is a kale. I. I heard that as being a sly kale reference.

[Aaron Olson]

That is. It is, yes. I'm glad you caught that.

[Evan]

And that's a love song on your record. And I think that that's like a. I thought it was sweet that it's a. I think of the song, you know more than I know as kind of like the opposite of a love song. But in this it feels very like an. Like a. It is a love song.

[Aaron Olson]

It.

[Evan]

It doesn't feel as well.

[Aaron Olson]

The song Jennifer, which I wrote for my wife Jennifer. Most of the lyrics are referencing songs that are special between us.

[Ian]

Wow.

[Aaron Olson]

And you know, more than I know is like a big one for us. I mean, it is. Yeah. I don't. Lyrically, it's like. I don't know that I've ever actually dissected it. But he does say some weird shit like something for us. The Rats.

[Narrator/Poet]

Yeah.

[Ian]

It's a little obscure.

[Evan]

I don't pretend to. Yeah. Be an authority on any John Cale lyric.

[Aaron Olson]

Right.

[Ian]

Says the John Cale podcaster.

[Evan]

It's a beautiful sounding song if you

[Ian]

are just one of the great John Cale songs. Easily.

[Evan]

Yeah. One of my Favorites.

[Aaron Olson]

Love it. Love it. You know, more than I know it's. So. Yeah, that song has. Has always kind of been special between. Between me and Jen and. Yeah. I don't know if you could. If you caught the other songs that are referenced in that song. But that. That song, Jennifer, is essentially just like an amalgam of. Of. Of songs that are special to the two of us. I love that. My goal in making songs music is that is one, to exercise them from myself, but two, that. To give them to the world that might want to hear them, I guess, and make them available. That's. That's basically it.

[Evan]

Well, our goal is to make sure everyone knows they are available and you can listen to them right now. And you ought to. You have to purchase the album.

[Aaron Olson]

Thank you.

[Ian]

You absolutely should. We'll put a link in the episode description to the Bandcamp page. Not the Spotify page. Not available on Spotify. Go consume it from a reputable source.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, yeah. It's by choice, not on Spotify. So.

[Evan]

Yeah, we should get rid of Spotify. Right, Ian?

[Ian]

I mean, this is a conversation for another day.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, I'm not ready to.

[Narrator/Poet]

Yeah.

[Aaron Olson]

I mean, everyone should do whatever they can and what they feel comfortable doing. And you know, I'm not. I'm not here to tell anyone how to live, but I can tell you how I live. And that is by not using Spotify and not using Amazon.

[Evan]

And it doesn't seem like music is a very big part of your life.

[Aaron Olson]

Not at all. Yeah.

[Evan]

Just kidding.

[Aaron Olson]

I had some. Some things. I know we're probably gotta wrap up soon or something, but I feel like I had a little list of Jokerman esque points of interest, I guess late on us. Unless there's anything else from the album we should touch. I mean, there's a cover on it.

[Evan]

Well, my.

[Aaron Olson]

What's the COVID It's called There Comes a Time.

[Ian]

I don't think I realized that was a cover.

[Aaron Olson]

It's a cover by jazz fusion drummer Tony Williams.

[Ian]

Okay.

[Aaron Olson]

It's. It's one of the rare songs that he sang. He doesn't really sing, which again, I love like non singer singers and yeah, my. I changed the chords entirely and I don't know, it just kind of came to be in our live set and then it made it onto the album.

[Ian]

Wow.

[Aaron Olson]

Check out the original. It's on an album called Ego by the Tony Williams Lifetime.

[Ian]

Probably the best drummer in the world according to Robert Crisco in 1970.

[Aaron Olson]

He was a fantastic drummer.

[Ian]

Damn.

[Aaron Olson]

Absolutely.

[Ian]

Very sick.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah. And you'll notice there are no drums on my cover of his song. Did we talk about the record enough? I don't know.

[Ian]

I think we listen. You are the interview subject here. So we talk about what you want to talk about. We can talk about the record more if you want to talk about the record. But, you know, I know a lot of musicians like to say, hey, the record is the record because it needs to speak for itself. I don't want to speak record.

[Aaron Olson]

I've already spoken so much for it. I mean, I hope.

[Evan]

I don't know.

[Aaron Olson]

I don't know if it's like whatever we live in, like a post. Post information, time or something. I don't know. Like the majority of. Of information we take in is people talking about information that already exists.

[Ian]

Right.

[Aaron Olson]

And so I don't know if, like if I'm divulging too much or not about why I wrote songs or what they're about. I don't know if it matters.

[Ian]

I don't think that there's a right answer to that. To that question. I can tell you that, you know, Bob Dylan, for instance, probably would not be divulging quite so much information about why he writes Bob Dylan songs. But that's Bob Dylan, you know. You're Aaron Olsen.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, I'm not Bob Dylan. I love Bob Dylan. But also, he seems like a dick too.

[Ian]

Bob.

[Aaron Olson]

I mean, I don't want to go out and play a show. I don't want to troll an audience.

[Ian]

Interesting.

[Aaron Olson]

And it seems like he does sometimes.

[Ian]

Interesting.

[Aaron Olson]

So in that same breath, I don't mind divulging the secret sauce. I don't know. For the record, love Bob Dylan. I play in a Bob Dylan cover band.

[Ian]

Well, this interview is over. No, I'm kidding. I did just. I did just see Bob at the. At the Greek up here the last couple nights. And it was. I wouldn't. I wouldn't classify it as trolling necessarily, although I think other people probably would classify it as such. So I think you're in relatively good company there with.

[Narrator/Poet]

Yeah.

[Ian]

With such an opinion. And I think you're about to see him. You're seeing him tomorrow, right?

[Evan]

Dylan tomorrow? Yeah.

[Ian]

I can't wait to hear about it.

[Aaron Olson]

And I'm trying to. Trying to go see Bruce Hornsby tonight, but I guess it's sold out.

[Evan]

Damn. I should have. We should have tried to pull some strings.

[Ian]

Yeah, I wanted to hit the Bruce show last week, but I had too much going on.

[Aaron Olson]

I'm. I might check in on StubHub, the rest of Richard pictures is going, so you can hop in the car, but they all got tickets in advance.

[Evan]

That's probably going to be a great show.

[Ian]

Where's he playing?

[Aaron Olson]

The Troubadour.

[Ian]

Oh, wow, that's a great. Well, I know you're anti troubadour, Evan. I like the Troubadour.

[Evan]

Oh, I'm not anti troubadour. It's just. It's not. I feel like there's venues in LA that I've maybe thought, like, oh, it's not like a classic one. And then I realized, like, you know what? Sometimes the crowd at the Lodge Room is like a better crowd than at the Troubadour.

[Ian]

Interesting. I'm trying not to pay too much attention to the crowd when I'm at a show, but I guess sometimes it can't be helped.

[Aaron Olson]

The Troubadour is fine. I don't like parking around there. Classic la.

[Evan]

It sucks.

[Ian]

Take the bus. Take the bus right down Santa Monica Boulevard. It drops you off right there.

[Aaron Olson]

My wife and I took the bus to the Palladium to see Bell and Sebastian a couple weeks ago.

[Ian]

There you go.

[Aaron Olson]

So easy. Yeah. Just right down.

[Ian]

Yeah. And you're right by Echo Park. Yeah. You just get on the two on. On Sunset. It drops right there.

[Evan]

Straight.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, Straight shot. So easy. Yeah, Love it.

[Ian]

Buses. What a wonder.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, yeah, go. Public transportation. Yes. So, yeah, that's my album. Buy it, listen to it. Buy it. And then you can see on the. The beautiful back cover has a photograph from my childhood of. Oh, God, bring up the record.

[Evan]

Yeah, I want to see the back. Yeah. Let's turn around.

[Ian]

Let's see. Wow, look at that. Is that a. Hang on. Okay, so we got a seagull eating something out of your hand.

[Aaron Olson]

Eating a hot dog out of someone's hand.

[Ian]

Okay. Not your.

[Aaron Olson]

I don't think it was my hand. It might be my stepmom's hand. It's a photo I found. I got a bunch of old photos from my parents, and there was a bunch from a trip to Canada in 1993. And that photo really stuck out to me and it somehow seemed to relate to this album. So it's on the back cover. Seagull beautifully grabbing a hot dog out of a hand on a boat.

[Ian]

What a great image. It looks like it's taken like POV style, like through the eyes of the person.

[Evan]

First person.

[Aaron Olson]

It's very first person esque. I think it's the person next to the first person. But yeah, if you want to see that photo, you Gotta buy the album.

[Evan]

Pick it up.

[Aaron Olson]

Pick it up. Yeah. Dragcity.com is where you can get it. I think that's their website. Or you can come to the release show if this or not. If this is in the future. The release show happened. Yeah. I'm very happy with this album. I just. I hope it reaches people who might be interested to hear it. You know, I. I maybe wear some influences on my sleeve a bit, but maybe not. Hopefully not too much.

[Evan]

I don't think too much. I think it has a voice of its own.

[Aaron Olson]

Thank you.

[Ian]

I think it's an eclectic collection that, you know, any one influence does not predominate. It's a well, well rounded course of music from beginning to end.

[Aaron Olson]

Thank.

[Narrator/Poet]

You.

[Evan]

Sa.

[Aaron Olson]

I'm gonna run down my list of Jokerman, please. Points of interest.

[Ian]

You're in the right place. You're in the right place.

[Aaron Olson]

Starting with the most recent thing. Saw that you talked to Mike Campbell. That's cool.

[Ian]

It is cool. He's a great guy. Very down to earth dude. He. He's just very chill. Exactly what you think he would be.

[Aaron Olson]

I mean, I'd love to hear his demo from Boys of Summer. He's talked about it before, but you know, I mean he wrote that song.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Aaron Olson]

And it has a. He has a demo somewhere or it maybe exists somewhere. Would love to hear the demo.

[Ian]

I'll drop him a note and see if he. See if he can forward you the wave file.

[Aaron Olson]

However, that wasn't what I was going to say about him. And I don't mean this as an insult, but I'm just curious about how and why Mike Campbell, Don was. And Linda Perry have all turned into the same person.

[Ian]

Like physically, you mean? Yeah, physically have, you know. I know. Yes. I know what you're getting at there.

[Evan]

What is going on?

[Ian]

There's something about just being like an aging rock star. You know, like once you get to.

[Evan]

You gotta pick one of the four looks.

[Ian]

Exactly. There's a couple classes of aging rock star and you have to select one. And for whatever reason they've all selected the same class.

[Evan]

And I don't know what that floppy hat and.

[Ian]

Floppy hat, the long hair, the. The circular sunglasses. On indoors.

[Aaron Olson]

Complicated all times complicated neckwear.

[Ian]

Necklaces, bracelets, rings. Exactly.

[Aaron Olson]

Dyed black hair.

[Ian]

Yep, yep. It's. It's cool. I think it's just odd that there's three.

[Aaron Olson]

I mean I would love to see the three of them in one place at the same time.

[Ian]

I'm looking forward to you graduating to such a look. Yeah, you just got to 30 years.

[Evan]

Keep the mustache, but then grow a beard or even just some stubble around it. And then get some aviators and an accusing hat. Big old hat, like a velvet.

[Ian]

A velvet shirt that you wear unbuttoned to your navel. But it's also got, like, sort of like a bow, you know, like a strappy bow component that you also wear on your neck.

[Evan]

It's the John Varvatos effect of it all, which, you know, that store, that style that, you know, they turned CBGB into a John Varvatis. And it's like the. What's you. What you imagine like Johnny Depp wearing in, like, 2000, the mid-2000s, kind of. That's. That's that look, which is very closely related to the Don Was and Mike

[Aaron Olson]

Campbell type look and Linda Perry. Yeah, I. Yeah, I was wondering, maybe they're all styled by the same person, but maybe they all just shop at this store. Okay, moving on. Just quick note that the. The first Beach Boys record I ever had was my parents. Like, I don't know who made it, like, Time Life Collection or whatever. There were those blue box sets, and it had this, like, cartoon. Not cartoon, but, like, illustration of the Beach Boys, like, standing on a beach, like, checking out a girl walking by. And they're all ripped.

[Ian]

Yes, I know exactly the one you're talking about.

[Aaron Olson]

None of them look like any of them.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Aaron Olson]

And it was such a misleading cover to grow up with.

[Ian]

They all have washboard. They all have washboard abs. I think Mike is maybe not even in. I think it might just be the Wilsons and Al.

[Aaron Olson]

I think Mike's in it. I haven't met it a while, but

[Ian]

the great Beach Boys bootleg T shirt guy, Favorite vegetable, made a T shirt including that in it. So that's an iconic bit of album art.

[Aaron Olson]

It is, yeah. So, yeah, I just had to. Had to give my nod to that. While we're on the Beach Boys. I know you guys have talked about how later, Brian kind of resembles Dr. Steve Brule at times, especially in his spoken word parts on Lucky Old Son, which I totally agree. Those little poetic moments are very scrap board and like, whatever. Yeah. But I've always been struck by, you know, 80s onward, how much he sounds like Bill Murray and Caddyshack, you know?

[Evan]

Oh, yeah, that's close. That's not far off.

[Ian]

That's a good one. I hadn't made that connection, but you're totally right.

[Aaron Olson]

It's always struck me as like. Like, even to the point I was like, I mean, I don't know if it would line up, but, like, is Bill Murray, like, doing Brian Wilson?

[Ian]

Especially not, like, right down to the. Like, talking out. Out of the, you know, side of his mouth like that.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, it's like doing the. Yeah, it's. It's interesting. I don't know if you guys have talked about all of the different meanings to be gleaned from the two words, pet sounds, but I have a list.

[Ian]

Oh, let's hear it.

[Aaron Olson]

Of very many. And some of them are questionable. And I was just very struck by how all the Beach Boys, whenever they talk about it, say pet sounds.

[Ian]

Pet sounds. Yeah, the pet sound.

[Aaron Olson]

They say pet sound.

[Ian]

Yeah. I love the enunciation there.

[Aaron Olson]

And I've always grew. I grew up saying pet sound.

[Ian]

Pet sounds. I'm totally with you on that.

[Aaron Olson]

Which, yeah. Just got me to thinking, like, wait, what are. What. Where. Where is the emphasis? And what does it mean? And. Okay, so there's pet sounds. Sounds are pets. The sounds are your pets. There's pet sounds, the sounds of pets created by pets.

[Evan]

Right.

[Aaron Olson]

There are pet sounds, which are favorite sounds. Well, I was gonna say sounds that have been pet.

[Evan]

Oh, I. I see.

[Aaron Olson]

Like, you've massaged a sound.

[Ian]

Yep.

[Evan]

Right.

[Aaron Olson]

There is pet sounds, which is an action or a command to pet sounds. Oh, massage sounds.

[Ian]

Interesting.

[Aaron Olson]

There is pet sounds. The sounds of the action of petting.

[Ian]

Of petting. I like that one.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Aaron Olson]

There is pet sounds where a sound is a body of water, like a bay.

[Ian]

Wow.

[Aaron Olson]

And then you can just apply all of the above to that.

[Ian]

To that.

[Evan]

You're really making a separate category.

[Aaron Olson]

That's a separate category. There's pet sounds, as in to sound, which is like, to dive in water.

[Ian]

A sounder.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, A sounder. Yeah. So, like, the pet sounds or sounds by a pet, and then we're getting a little more abstract. And then, you know. Or there's also sounds is like to measure the depth of water, I believe. So you can apply those all over. But I think there's, like, solid. There's a solid six ways to read into it that actually makes sense.

[Ian]

I've never been convinced with this. They all seem to have settled on the story that it's called pet sounds because these are Brian's pet sounds. The sounds that Brian really loves.

[Aaron Olson]

Sounds are his pets.

[Ian]

Yeah. I've never been convinced by that. And I don't need there to be one specific actual meaning behind pet sounds. I almost like it best if it doesn't mean anything. And it's just this kind of abstract connection of Two words that can't help but fail to describe what you're about to hear on the album. Like, that's the most kind of significant meaning to me. But the official, or seemingly official canon Beach Boys story, that's always been fishy to me.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah. I mean, it's. There's a lot of ways to read into it, and none of them describe what is on that album.

[Ian]

Right.

[Aaron Olson]

And nothing can. Like, yeah, it's a perfect album title for that album because it's doesn't just. It's not too full of itself.

[Ian]

It completely fails to prepare you for the music and get anything about it across in a way that many other Beach Boys out, like, all summer long or summer days and summer nights. Like, those are very apt and accurate. Titled Beach Boys Party. Great title for that album because that's exactly what you're about to hear.

[Evan]

You should have just called your album Pet Sounds, but just been like, it's. But it's different. It's a different way.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, it's Pet Sounds.

[Evan]

You could call all of your albums Pet Sounds.

[Aaron Olson]

Like six albums or something.

[Evan]

Yeah. It sounds like there's almost infinite possibilities.

[Aaron Olson]

I think that's a great idea.

[Evan]

This would be a great. I want to see this kind of go, like, to the Supreme Court as like a copyright case where they're like, no, it's not that.

[Ian]

I'm talking about the body of water.

[Evan]

Yeah, my favorite Bodies of water. Or the sounds of Petting. You'd have to make a case for. I think the actual one that you're doing. They'd be like, which. Which songs reference this? And is there plausible. Cause that this is. You know, is there. Is there proof?

[Aaron Olson]

I. Yeah, I mean, I think the. The beauty of the title is that the Beach Boys own all of the meanings, even just by accident.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Aaron Olson]

And, yeah, the Beach Boys Today. Not a fitting album title.

[Ian]

That's right.

[Aaron Olson]

But I mean, that could have been called Pet Sounds.

[Ian]

Honestly, I like the Beach Boys Today as the album title also, especially, you know, in conjunction with the imagery of the Beach Boys Today, because it, again, is so. It just. It utterly fails to capture what is. What is going on in the two sides of that disc.

[Evan]

They should be switched. I think we did talk about this once that, like, Beach Pet Sound should be called Today. It does have a song where they say today.

[Ian]

I think we.

[Evan]

Tomorrow. It's here.

[Ian]

I think what we said was that the Beach Boys today should be called the Beach Boys Tomorrow, because that's what Pet Sounds is. And in some ways, the Beach Boys Today is proto pet sounds, but.

[Evan]

So they make what you're saying the one that comes before should be tomorrow, and then the one after it is called Today.

[Ian]

That's right.

[Evan]

Brilliant.

[Ian]

Thank you.

[Evan]

We have to go back and tell them.

[Aaron Olson]

Album. Are you guys Birds fans?

[Ian]

Yeah, Depends on which. I'm not like, 100% conversant in birds. I'm a huge Sweetheart of the Rodeo fan.

[Aaron Olson]

Okay. Well, they. I mean, I'm a huge the Birds fan and they have some of the worst album titles in the history of album titles.

[Ian]

Isn't there the one that's called, like, Birds? It's called, like, birds Untitled 2 or something like that.

[Aaron Olson]

There's. Untitled is one of the album titles.

[Ian]

Right. It.

[Aaron Olson]

Which I think they were just like, ah, it. I mean, this. That comes after albums with titles such as Dr. Birds and Mr. Hyde.

[Ian]

That's good.

[Aaron Olson]

The Notorious Bird Brothers.

[Ian]

Oh, Bird Maniacs. That's the one that I'm thinking of. B, Y, R, D, M A, N, I A, X. All one word. And it's got that freaky cover of all of them in, like, silver.

[Aaron Olson]

Silver.

[Ian]

Like colloidal silver or something.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, they were. They made, like, life masks and dipped them in silver or something. It's so bizarre. Love that album, though.

[Ian]

Very good.

[Aaron Olson]

Anyways, just thought that was a side that wasn't. I wasn't planning to mention that. I think until I die that there is a quote from the song Pipeline, and I feel like no one's ever talked about it. And maybe it's not. Maybe it's an unintentional. But the Beach Boys did cover Pipeline at some point. It's a huge surfing classic, of course. But there's a moment in, like, an instrumental section in the. Maybe, like, last third of the song where you hear do, do do do do do do do do, which is the Pipeline melody. But I've always wondered if that was, like, an intentional musical tip of the hat.

[Ian]

Wow. I wouldn't be surprised. Brian obviously would have been well aware of Pipeline. Although in our context, I think our primary Pipeline conversation came in our discussion of the Bruce Johnston.

[Evan]

The immortal Bruce Johnston cover Disco Pipeline.

[Aaron Olson]

Oh, man, I wasn't even thinking about this. But yeah, the Bruce Johnston album. That song. Someone to Dance With Me.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Evan]

Oh, God.

[Aaron Olson]

Is that what it's called or something like that?

[Ian]

I know the one you're talking about, Greg.

[Aaron Olson]

You and I texted a little bit about this.

[Evan]

Greg.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, it's a cover of a song by this woman, Lindsey DePaul, who is amazing, and her version's so good. It doesn't have Doug, Doug, Doug, Greg. No guy comes up and says, hi, I'm so and so. Do you care to dance? But her version is amazing and her. Her first album is really good. I highly recommend it and those accompanying singles such as that. Just throwing that out there.

[Ian]

Okay.

[Aaron Olson]

This is. I don't know. I mean, this is. Sorry. This is going to go on forever.

[Ian]

Keep it going.

[Aaron Olson]

The band. Okay.

[Ian]

Heard of them.

[Aaron Olson]

Do you guys know from. I believe it's from Comedy Bang Bang. This is just something I've listened to on, like, tours. But the character Bob Duka.

[Ian]

No, I can't say that I do.

[Aaron Olson]

Okay. He's a character that lists. He makes lists and the humor lies in his lists. I recommend you check them out.

[Evan]

This.

[Aaron Olson]

I guess this is just for the listeners out there who may be aware of Bob Duga. I have a theory that the comedian who came up with this character was directly inspired by. By Garth Hudson's Rock and Roll hall of Fame acceptance speech, where Garth Hudson famously, like, the silent member of the band, in my opinion, just, like, starts naming people in this, like, super deadpan tone and, you know, names including, like, Thumbs Carlisle and. Who was a guitarist. But that's my theory. Just throwing it out there. If Bob Duka hears this someday, maybe he can confirm that.

[Evan]

I'm gonna have to do some homework on this before I can comment.

[Aaron Olson]

Great acceptance speech, by the way. Garth Hudson, I don't think I've ever

[Ian]

seen it or heard it. I gotta watch that.

[Aaron Olson]

It's comedic in how deadpan and unending it is from this guy you've never heard speak before.

[Ian]

I love Garth and I love the fact that you don't ever hear him speak. And he just. He always just looks like Garth Hudson. So hearing Garth Hudson speak, there's something a little unsettling about that. But this sounds. It sounds like a fun experience.

[Aaron Olson]

I mean, it's.

[Narrator/Poet]

No.

[Aaron Olson]

Mike Love acceptance speech.

[Ian]

Oh, boy, I hope not.

[Aaron Olson]

That was. Might be all my notes for now.

[Ian]

I got a question for you. On the note of Mr. Kael, a favorite subject of all of ours. What do you. What do you think about his appearance on what's the album called? Music Fashion Movies, Film from Charlie xcx.

[Evan]

Music Fashion, Film.

[Ian]

Excuse me.

[Aaron Olson]

What do I think about it?

[Evan]

I guess the album's not out yet. We don't even heard.

[Ian]

I don't think he's on the album necessarily.

[Evan]

I'm certain he is. I mean, he's.

[Aaron Olson]

I've just seen through, like, Instagram that, like, they did something together and maybe I heard a clip of something.

[Ian]

Well, they did do a song.

[Aaron Olson]

He was.

[Ian]

He did like, a spoken word bit on one of her songs from the Wuthering Heights soundtrack.

[Evan]

I'd be shocked if. If he wasn't on the album.

[Ian]

Well, but it's not like Martin Scorsese or Marc Jacobs are going to be on the album, like, playing Zydig. Like zither or something.

[Evan]

Well, I don't know. Well, perhaps.

[Ian]

I guess we'll find. What just. What do you. What do you think about Charlie XCX bringing John Cale to the masses?

[Aaron Olson]

I think that's cool.

[Evan]

I don't know.

[Aaron Olson]

Like, I think I probably. I mean, the concept of, like. Of Charlie xcx, you know, featuring John Cale is. I'm all for that. I think that's, you know, bringing John Kale to a wider audience, potentially. I don't know if I will. I mean, I don't know that I won't, but I don't know how I will enjoy the music they make together. As I probably said on a. On my John Cale appearance, it seems like in real time, I need, like 20 years. No, maybe 10. 10 to 20 years to catch up to the sound of John Caleb. Like, whatever he made. Yeah. Around in the early aughts maybe is like. Maybe that's gonna start sounding good to me.

[Evan]

Perfect. His song. Perfect. It's like pop punk.

[Ian]

There's the pop punk song. Exactly.

[Aaron Olson]

I don't think I've. Wait.

[Evan]

You're perfect but you're not perfect but you're perfect for me. Yes.

[Aaron Olson]

I know that song.

[Evan]

I can't help it. I want Charlie to cover that. That's what. That would be great. I feel like that's some actual synergy.

[Aaron Olson]

That's. It's Locust.

[Evan]

No, it's.

[Ian]

It's. It's either black acetate or Hobo Sapiens.

[Evan]

Yeah, it's black acetate that.

[Aaron Olson]

It sounds so mid-80s to me. Like mid-80s kale.

[Ian]

Sure.

[Aaron Olson]

Like, it's so, like, that is totally in the, like, Caribbean Sunset, artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence style.

[Evan]

Yeah. Yeah. Via, like, Fallout Boy.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Aaron Olson]

Right. Basically.

[Ian]

Man, this record is so crazy. Black acetate.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, it's. That's a bizarre one. Did you guys do Eat Kiss on the show?

[Evan]

I think we didn't.

[Aaron Olson]

Oh, man, that's. That album's awesome.

[Ian]

I had that on the long list. I had, like, all of the movies that John Cale has done. Music for. Scores for on the long list. And then at a certain point, and we reached this point at the End of the Beach Boys series. Also. It was just like, you know, we need to wrap this up sooner rather than later, so we're gonna have to leave a few stones unturned, unfortunately. Yeah.

[Evan]

You just came on this podcast to find the one thing that we didn't do and hold our feet to the fire. But it's true, we didn't.

[Aaron Olson]

Oh, wait, you know, you did talk about his, like, Drone Works collection, right?

[Ian]

We did, yes.

[Evan]

Yeah, we did. And we also talked about, like, Metal Machine Trio.

[Ian]

We talked about Metal Machine Trio. We talked about Circus Live. You know, I think we did a. Not in a 100% exhaustive John Caleb study, but, you know, I think we put in. Put in. Put in our time on that one.

[Aaron Olson]

Oh, yeah. I mean, come on. There's a lot. There's a lot there. I love it. I love it all. I mean, even if I don't love it, I still love it.

[Ian]

Well, maybe we're gonna have to, you know, open the. Open the kailh box back up to do music. Music, fashion, film. If. If there's John Cale features on there.

[Aaron Olson]

If you. Yeah, if you guys get back into Kale, I'd gladly talk about Eat Kiss music, some great, like, yodeling, scatting on there.

[Ian]

I feel like you're challenging yourself to come on this podcast and just talk about ever more obscure. We started with Words for the Dying, then we did the Brian Wilson Gershwin thing.

[Evan]

You really are the. The man for this, like, the. I was getting into, like, stuff that the artists themselves don't even know they did.

[Aaron Olson]

I would love to talk about a classic album if ever that comes up. But, yeah, I mean, I'm also. I mean, I'm here for those albums.

[Evan]

Well, we talked about one today. We talked about a new. An instant new classic Aaron Olsen album.

[Aaron Olson]

Oh, well, thank you. Oh, man. I just thought of another thing to talk about. I'm sorry, but I don't know if this came up when you guys talked about Kokomo, but I'm pretty sure that Terry Melcher has a songwriting credit on that, because on his solo album, he has a song called Mexico where he uses the line, get there fast and take it slow.

[Evan]

No way.

[Narrator/Poet]

Wow.

[Aaron Olson]

Wow. And I think that's why he has a songwriting credit.

[Ian]

That's incredible.

[Evan]

All right, that's fair, though, because that's, like, one of the only lines that is even a little bit, like, clever

[Ian]

in that song, and it has been stolen from Terry. From another Terry Melcher.

[Aaron Olson]

Well, I mean, he might have been there on the session. And contributed it or something, I don't know.

[Evan]

But what would he have said instead? We'll get there and then we'll relax and that we'll get there at a normal speed and then we'll. Then we'll slow down from there.

[Aaron Olson]

From there we will slow down. Yes. Well, yeah, I. I'm not a big Death Grips head, but I did see them once and. And it was disappointing. Great.

[Evan]

It was.

[Aaron Olson]

I was, I played at. I think it was the last all tomorrow's parties in is in England. And I was stoked because Death Grips was supposed to play and I'd heard them a little bit and I was a big fan of HELA at the time. And when we got there and Death Grips was going to go on, it was revealed that Zach Hill didn't make it. So it was just the rapper.

[Ian]

Oh, so wait, so Ride still performed just alone?

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, with like a laptop.

[Ian]

Wow.

[Evan]

I've never heard of this show. That sounds insane.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it sounded cool, I guess.

[Evan]

I don't know.

[Aaron Olson]

I think.

[Evan]

No, that is disappointing.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, it was disappointing.

[Ian]

That seems tailor made for the classic Death Grips move of just not showing up to your performance. If Zach Hill isn't even there, just like, don't even do it. And then that's, that's, that's classic Death Grip shit.

[Aaron Olson]

But I mean, you'd think, you'd think it must have been a big paycheck or something. But I can verify that the band I played in never got paid for playing there.

[Ian]

Oh, geez.

[Aaron Olson]

Well, and hence it was the last all tomorrow's party.

[Evan]

Maybe they got your share. Maybe they. Maybe you didn't get paid because Death Grips.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, it's full circle.

[Evan]

They were like, all right, we'll do it, but we want to be paid double. And then they're like, all right, we'll take it from Aaron.

[Aaron Olson]

Yeah, it's full circle. It's the Spotify method of payment where they just funnel up the money from the low ranking artists.

[Ian]

All right, well, I think we've.

[Aaron Olson]

I'm sorry, guys.

[Ian]

We love it. We appreciate it. We appreciate the good music and we appreciate hanging out with our friend Aaron Olson, who, thank you guys. Once again, out either now or soon, depending on when this episode comes out. Songs, album 2. Some great songs on the album.

[Aaron Olson]

Thank you.

[Evan]

Thank you, Aaron.

[Narrator/Poet]

That kind of chaos can't succeed again yet here we stand. Captain Ham. Remember last time how he cornered me Going on about how things used to be endlessly Then I could see that he was a punisher Cooper up the

[Evan]

party

[Narrator/Poet]

Bound to make you sorry sorry that you ever said hello hello to the Punisher. A distant cousin or a movie star it really doesn't matter who they are, blah, blah, blah Goes on to too far, too far with the Punisher Pooper of the party.