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TTP #13- Bassist Pete Shand: Purveyor of Heavy Low Frequency in a Groovy Style
13 Plays6 years ago
This episode's guest is bassist Pete Shand from the New Mastersounds. Pete is a road warrior and has been through the hard partying cycle of touring and now is striving to create a more sustainable way of life on the road through a plant-based diet and daily stretching routines. Physical issues with his back also forced Pete to take a hard look at touring lifestyle and search for answers on how to continue to keep bringing his talents to the world.
In this conversation:
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His daughters influence on going vegetarian and finding a healthy way to maintain on the road
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Making the most of your time offstage while on tour to improve your show performance
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The importance of stretching for his back problems and physical issues
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Daily plantbased protein shake w flax/chia seeds coconut water and garden of life greens
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Avoiding burnout over years on the road
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Getting back to show ready before tours
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Discipline of being in the military and transferring those skills after discharge
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Perspective gained from traveling
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Link of simplicity and vegetarian diet
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Preparation for gigs and constantly feeling like you have to work harder than the next guy
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The role of the bass player
Recommended
Transcript
Balancing Life as a Musician
00:00:04
Speaker
I pay for a life in England, I pay for a life in Spain and I look after people in Jamaica and bro, I'm not breaking the law. It's all coming from that four string piece of wood. So why wouldn't I want to look after myself to keep that going instead of numbing myself?
Training and Music Career of David Bayless
00:00:19
Speaker
This is David Bayless, your host. Hope everyone out there is doing well. I'm a few days away from my next triathlon, which is an Ironman 70.3 race. It's been a bunch of training and I've been putting in work on the bike, running, and my swim training in the pool. It's been really cool to push my training to this level and maintain it while I'm on tour.
00:00:37
Speaker
I often get asked about how I keep up my diet and training on the road, so check out my insta stories to get an idea of how I find that balance. Also be on the lookout for my new solo album, which will be released July 20th in partnership with previous podcast guest Adam Ahuja's label, Infinity Gritty, and Ropodope Records.
00:00:55
Speaker
Before we get into this episode, I just want to take a moment to thank everyone out there that has taken the time to check out the podcast. Please let me know what you think by commenting or rating the show on Apple Podcasts. And also just a reminder, I'm now on Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:01:11
Speaker
In the show, I speak with touring musicians about how they live a healthy lifestyle on the road. While many of the episodes are about how and why my guests live a plant-based vegan diet while on tour, the content of these conversations has a diverse and holistic approach to focus on health of mind, body, and
Pete Shand's Journey to Health and Music
00:01:27
Speaker
spirit. My guest this week is Pete Shand. Pete is the bass player for the New Master Sounds, who have been touring extensively for nearly 20 years.
00:01:35
Speaker
He has had an awesome career laying down the low end recording and collaborating with many great artists. Pete has a serious pocket that has kept crowds dancing and his dedication to keeping a heavy groove at all times is an inspiration to me every time I hear him. Pete has a great story to tell about what he has overcome and continues to work on through his years on the road. From the sex, drugs, rock and roll days to finding a path of sustainability and health.
00:02:00
Speaker
Pete has struggled through physical issues with his back and has been able to hone his diet and stretching routine to make it possible to continue to bring his talents to the world. Pete has had some tough times on the road and he explains first hand how he's been able to turn that around and the effect that that has had on his bass playing and overall mind state while on tour. It's super cool to hear Pete explain how his daughter has been able to inspire and guide him on a course to be more healthy through a vegetarian diet. We start this episode getting into how that happened.
00:02:33
Speaker
All right. Yeah, dude, thanks for rolling through. No, it's all my pleasure to do it, man. Awesome. I'm glad I got a chance to do it. Yeah. Yeah, I've been checking out the organic stuff since we met in Jazz Fest a while ago. Right on. And my daughter who's in England, she's kind of, you know, she actually helped me to go the vegetarian way a few years ago.
00:02:54
Speaker
And leading up to that, because I'll just tell you my age, I'm 55, leading through my 40s, I wasn't really looking at what I was eating too well on the road. Because you know what it's like, you're moving around so much, and we're doing tour bus tours, which are even harder to keep, you know? Yeah. And I have like a thing every morning. It's not crazy, but the thing is, if I don't do my stretches every morning, and the other thing is to keep liquidized, drinkers, you know,
00:03:20
Speaker
Drinking water is more important than anything else to me. I sound ridiculous to that, but the thing is, I don't gulp water, but I like to sip water constantly and go through four or five bottles a day. And my daughter put me onto that, and I've gotta say that with my stretches every morning, and I can do my stretches in bed if I want to, there's no excuse, you know what I mean. The odd time if I miss one, I actually, maybe because of the age I'm at, everything drops.
Lifestyle Changes and Vegetarianism
00:03:50
Speaker
You know what I mean? It's not just guilt. It's like if you see your bass guitar in the corner of your room and you're at home for a week and you don't play it for a few days, you feel a bit anxious. Right, right. I'm kind of like that with my stretches and just my general fitness while I'm on the road now. And to me, that's a big deal, man, because I'm enjoying my shows more. I'm more away for longer. And I'm not waking up during the night with unsettled stomachs like I was getting before. I cut coffee, caffeine, all that stuff. I cut it all out at the same time.
00:04:19
Speaker
as going vegetarian. And I have to say, my insides feel like I'm in my twenties again, man. Okay. So yeah, let's take it back. Sorry, man. So yeah, there was, you're basically for years, you're, you're rolling on the road and, um, you know, just doing what you can. And then what I can, when I can. Yeah. You know, which is how most of most people out there are doing it. And then it was your daughter who initially kind of approached you and, and
00:04:42
Speaker
So that's such a cool kind of flipping of the scenarios. Most people think about how they influence their children, but it's really amazing to see how you're feeling. And I was humbled. This is what I really wanted to tell you that, you know what I mean? Because I was humbled by it because she's been doing it for some years and she's actually moved away onto veganism.
00:04:57
Speaker
and she cooks very well and thankfully she comes to Spain where I live on the island Minoka she comes for seven months a year and so I you know the routine is perfect she work we work out together because I'm not when I'm at home I'm not touring I'm not digging her I'm not working or anything I'm just you know with my children and I really get it then I go on the road and she's checking up on me every day and she's actually yesterday she looked at your torgonic you're thinking she's already made three
00:05:21
Speaker
juice recipes from your ticket. She said, dad, there's this one here. She's so excited. And she makes me excited about it. You know life on the road, bro. You know what I mean? It's easy to drop and get carried away with everything what's around you. I'm so glad, even though I came to it late, I'm glad that I did. And I also tried to encourage some of the younger guys. It's something really worth doing because road life, we know, is not healthy living generally. If you just go down the line and you focus on your shows and nothing else. But your shows have two or three hours every night.
00:05:50
Speaker
And then there's another 22 hours for that day.
00:05:54
Speaker
It dawned on me how incredibly important those 22 hours are to make those two-hour shows really something. Maximise. And now I've got that. I'm nowhere near where you're at, because I know exactly what your workouts are like. Now, in my younger years, I would have been right there with you. But I have got one health problem, which has also been helped by my change in putting aside some of the more aggressive
Managing Health Challenges
00:06:21
Speaker
eating patterns and coming back coming into vegetarianism but but mildly and soaking it into my system because on my vertebrae my c7 the musicians union in the uk they sent me away for an MRI scan and it came back quite bad because my c7 vertebrae i was getting pains around my heart and coming through into my little finger wow and i'm just thinking it's because of having the base on for so many years yeah and they said that it's degenerated into powder
00:06:46
Speaker
And there's nothing they can really do. But they said, what you should do is look at your diet, you know, make sure you're doing the best. And I've got to tell you, man, you know, you don't always need operations and things like that because I've still got that degenerative C7. Yeah, David. But it doesn't affect me. Yeah, I'm aware of it. You know, before it was there every day and I was taking I was popping pills, man, like very heavy ibuprofen to do a show. Wow. You know, I was in that mode for a year or two. Yeah. And then if you change what's what you're putting inside,
00:07:17
Speaker
It can only, but, you know, manifest itself in a positive way. And now I've got that bass on, I get the other twinge now and then, but none of the pains are there. And I think it's because I'm hydrated constantly. Yes. And when I go to sleep, my stomach and my, you know, my organs are not having to work so hard to rinse lots of toxins out of my system like they used to be. Yeah. Which means I'm getting restful sleep. Yeah.
00:07:45
Speaker
You know, my daughter says to me, dad, just because you might go to sleep for eight or 10 hours, if all your stuff's working so hard, you're not getting restful sleep, that's why you're agitated and tired in the daytime. And, you know, I come from my daughter, you know what I mean? I was quite humbled by it. But I went down there, man. And I'm just going to tell you, you know, like with what you're doing, I'm now sneaking onto your sites now, dude, and I'm passing it around to because there's no excuse now because I know some of those places that you mentioned. I had a good look.
00:08:11
Speaker
Yeah. Like Tahoe. Yeah. I mean, I can't do 10 mile runs around the hills like you're not. And I'll just tell you, I can't. Yeah. I could do slow two or three miles. That's good, though. Exactly. And I'm with the stretchers and keeping hydrated and watching what I put in with me. I actually feel like...
00:08:27
Speaker
although it's late on in my career, I've actually grasped it just at the right time. And touring now doesn't feel like an uphill thing to me anymore. And people say, yeah, but how can you, you can't always have vegetarian food. Well, you're not an hour riders. I asked for my coconut water. I asked for all the stuff that I need every day on my riders. And it's all cheap stuff. And if they can buy tequila and whiskies and all that stuff, then you can definitely get healthy food for cheaper. And my time manager is really down on it. And I have to take plant-based proteins every day. Do you know about that?
00:08:56
Speaker
I do know about plant-based proteins. Yeah. It took us some time to find the right one. What's the one you use? It's Garden of Life. Garden of Life? Yeah. Okay. Greens with just plant-based protein like a powder.
00:09:08
Speaker
And it's quite expensive. If you think, when I say expensive, I mean like, it'll last me for like eight or nine days, and it's like 50 bucks. But the thing is, and I take two scoops a day, which actually is a meal replacement, but I don't use it as a meal replacement, I just use it, and I also put chai and flax.
Touring, Diet, and Family Life
00:09:30
Speaker
I powder it up in this thing and I shake it. Now dude, I have not missed one of those for two years and eight months. That's the truth. That's like your superfood. It really is. And I wake up, man, and I'm cramming for it. I need it. And once I've had it, I feel quite full. Then, then I want my light breakfast with some berries and you know, some fruit, a little bit of cereal or something like that. And then I'm good until my dinner. I don't actually need the three, I don't do the three meals a day, three heavy meals.
00:09:54
Speaker
because I grew up having one meal a day through necessity, you know what I mean? And I don't really need three meals a day. I need to eat three times a day with one of them has to be a proper meal and the other has to be the proteins and has to be all the kind of like where I get my fruit, you know, constantly. And even on the road, they present a lot of that stuff in the dressing rooms. And I take my plant-based protein with coconut water and a big shaker.
00:10:21
Speaker
Like I said, I put all the flux and everything in. And then when the band's going out, as you know, you got sound, right? Let's go to a restaurant where everybody goes out to eat. I still go with the band because I know that I've had what I really need. My body's the protein wise. And then I can go in there and I'll get my greens, potatoes, stodgy food. I like to feel full. I like Jamaican food, like yam, sweet potatoes, green bananas. All cheap, heavy food. You know what I mean? That's where I'm at, dude. Because it's simple.
00:10:49
Speaker
Yeah, very simple. Simple preparations, whole foods. Yeah. And so how did your daughter get on this whole trip that eventually influenced you? Well, yeah, she's 30 now. And I remember when she was like 25, 26, she's a nurse in the private nurse in the UK. She just works half a year. Then she goes to Spain for the rest of the time, like I said. But she joined a gym. And then the friend that she was hanging out in the gym with,
00:11:17
Speaker
He kind of like says, well, you know, because she's quite tall and she's always been very healthy and sort of fit anyway. Yeah. And introduced her into some different type of workout. She was just doing all the normal kind of stuff, you know. Yeah. And he made a ticket. Look at what she was doing so you can work and focus on certain parts of your body.
00:11:34
Speaker
great which she wasn't really doing she was just anyway she sort of went through this stuff and then he said you know you should really look at diet as well and stuff she's always she's never really been a big meat eater anyway but she decided to i remember at the time i was sort of blinking thinking she's oh dad i'm really moving to like telling all this stuff i couldn't keep up with it because i was just on the road so heavy in them days man yeah
00:11:53
Speaker
And I was happy for her, but I couldn't really dig into it. And then as I started to slow down, a while before I met you in the Jazz Fest, you know, she sat me down and she said, look, dad, it's really easy. It's da da da da da. And I thought, yeah, she's right. So she essentially like she was kind of coming up through the lens of fitness and a real health perspective and seeing that the gains that she was able to make.
00:12:16
Speaker
and the balance she was able to achieve. That's right. And she loves me too. We love it. She's my daughter. She's the closest person in the world to me. And she wants her dad. She knows all about music. She's born into this, you know what I mean? But she wants her dad to obviously be as healthy as possible when he's away doing this stuff. And she's a big part of it for me, man. You know what I mean? I've got to give her props for it. Because if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have actually taken that route. I just know I wouldn't. Because I would always go for the easy option. I want to feel full, and I want to go to sleep.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yup. And did the whole kind of stretching thing, did that come about right around the same time?
Discipline and Overcoming Excessive Habits
00:12:49
Speaker
The stretching came after I had my MRI scan. The surgeon in the UK, up in the north of the UK, says, because he said there is an operation they could do, but they have to go in through the front neck and all that kind of stuff. I've got to tell you, man, I just, I've never had an operation and I'm quite nervous about them. Understandably so. And I went to go and have some, you know what, you go to a special doctor, they show you some exercises and she said,
00:13:14
Speaker
Um, you know, if you're really not looking at an operation, which I don't, I didn't want to do, you know, she showed me some stretching exercises, which I've always done it. So anyway, cause I'm quite tall and like, I always have to stretch because otherwise I don't feel good, but she's made them a bit more intense for me. Where, um, a bit more of a routine and occasion routines as well. I mean, doing that slowly, 10 times that we're keeping the back straight and knees straight and everything.
00:13:39
Speaker
and slowly coming to the front and slowly going back again like that and pulling right on what I have to do but the thing is you have to take the time to sit down it's almost like meditation you take your deep breaths but when you're living the fast life on the road even to grab 20 minutes to
00:13:55
Speaker
do that there is a problem sometimes because we've all got stuff going on about the next thing haven't we? I've even spoken to many musicians about it and it's there's a fast carrions on what all we have to do the gigs are still going to be there what we have to do is just
00:14:11
Speaker
you know, think about our individual self a bit more. Yeah, and it's worked for me. And those stretches that I do, like I said, if I don't do them, I can't believe how down, it's almost like I can't start my day without the protein and the stretches. But if that's the only thing, penalty I have to pay for being healthy, then I'm quite willing to do that till my dying day. And I think that's a key to it is just that you found
00:14:35
Speaker
You need to create that time on the road. For a lot of people, I think it's the mornings, but other people, who knows? Everyone's kind of on their own rhythm on the road. But it's creating that time and finding that time and getting into that routine and the rhythm of it on the road is the way to really maintain.
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, looking at some of those hikes that you've done around America, my girlfriend in Denver, I turned her onto your target as well. And she flies around America with me sometimes. Yeah. And now she's already ticking this stuff off right when we're there next time we're going to do it. I said, Lisa, because she's only quite young. I said, Liz, there's one thing, love. Don't be thinking, she's the gym workout every day and all that stuff. I said, look, there's no way we're going to be attempting some of that stuff. I can't just go running up there because he does. He's not me, you know what I mean?
00:15:23
Speaker
No, but we have a joke about it. But I like where you're coming from, Dave. Yeah, man. You've actually made it accessible.
00:15:29
Speaker
and realistic for musicians that are touring around the world all the time. Because sometimes we use it as an excuse as well, oh, I'm a touring musician. Yeah, you know, this is just the way it has to be. You know, you think, you know, I was in that headspace too, you know what I mean? And nobody, but because you are one of them touring musicians yourself, I think you're more likely to get touring musicians kind of like really wanting to check you out. Yeah. Because we all experience the same things. Totally. I mean, and what you put in, even when you're, I read about your stuff, when you're on the road, what you do.
00:15:59
Speaker
I mean, that's pretty staggering stuff, if you know what I'm saying. By any level, do you know what I mean? And even just to take part of what you're doing could keep people touring for longer.
00:16:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's the idea, man. Instead of running into brick walls when you get to generally my age. Right. You know, people slow down, man. They burn out. They do, man. And right now, I've got more energy than I've had for years, Dave. Yeah. That's the truth. Yeah. I go to bed. I wake up. I don't have to stay in bed all day. I'm up at seven, eight o'clock every morning, whether I'm on tour or not. Yeah. You know, when I sleep, I feel like I'm waking up. I feel refreshed.
00:16:53
Speaker
You've been able to see physically because of that, the vertebrate thing, but also a clarity of mind too, in terms of living that lifestyle and the diet has been able to affect your playing. Absolutely. Without a diet man. Seriously. I mean, because
00:17:08
Speaker
I have an activity for a month or six weeks when I'm at home. I've got to work into exercise, get the muscles working, you know, it's like before you can stay away for a month and come back and do a show. Yeah, I've got to work into it. But that work that work it into it used to be a bit uphill for me. Yeah, I just would have to. It was like digging a coal mine. Yeah. Getting preparing for a talk. And I didn't enjoy it too much. I've got to be honest with you. I love playing. Right. But you can't just say, oh, I'm going to go play at my age. You've got to work yourself back into the physical side of it.
00:17:38
Speaker
I was having severe problems with that before man. It was just almost depressing at times thinking because you know you've got to where you're going and everybody expects that every time and you've got to bring it every night. You can't say oh I feel a bit low today. You know what I mean? Whereas you know with a change of diet and vegetarianism to start off with just it's easier on my system to the point where
00:18:02
Speaker
It's not an uphill battle, dude. When I'm working out before, I'm prepared and I'm ready to go as soon as I get here. So there has to be some truth in the fact that whatever you put in and how you live, I mean, I'm not 100% healthy. I know I'm not, you know, like on a level like, but for me, where I'm at really has helped my playing and my concentration for longer. Yeah. How do you mean your concentration? Concentration is like,
00:18:29
Speaker
You know, if you've got a set of music and there's always going to be something thrown in or something thrown in, like, you know, I just have a quick glimpse. Yeah, whatever. We'll figure out what happens along the way. Now, when I look at this and every night, it's something different. Every night is something different. It's three hours a night. So there has to be a level of concentration there somewhere.
00:18:45
Speaker
And whereas now, the thing is, once we get into an area of a set where maybe you don't know what's going to come next. I don't know. It's almost like it's a bit more, you know, it's like it's clearer. I'm more transparent. Bring anything. It doesn't matter what's on there. Yeah. Because that thing where I think, oh, what am I going to do? It doesn't come in anymore. Yeah. I'm almost like I'm a bit more lucid, more lucid, more focused.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm allowed. I find it easier to focus. Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. I find it easier to focus, David. Yeah. And it has to be because of, you know, how I'm what I'm putting in and how I'm trying to live a bit, you know. Yeah. And other other other musicians notice when you're trying. Right. So it's good for other people. It's good for other musicians who are like younger musicians. You know, I mean, I've been on the road for maybe 35 years, literally. Yeah.
00:19:38
Speaker
And some musicians have been on the road for maybe five, six, seven years. They're a lot younger than me. And they're just getting beat up, man. But the thing is, I got caught up in that too. Of course I did for two or three years, some years ago. I'm just glad that I was old enough to come out the other end. Yeah.
00:19:53
Speaker
I know that I don't want to go back into it. So when I see those other young guys into it, I know how it feels. Of course it's exciting, but it's not going to last. Because physically you won't last, dude. You'll break down. We go on the road and it's all about the music, right? That's why we're there. At the end of the day, that's why else you leaving home and all your stuff. Exactly, leaving your kids and everything.
00:20:15
Speaker
responsibilities and whatever our music our careers that are happening at home in New York or you know, wherever anyone's from there's like a lot to, you know, going on at home and we're leaving all that yet, and it's only a couple hours of the day. And I love what you said about how the other 22 hours or whatever,
00:20:32
Speaker
How you approach those 22 hours has such a great impact into how those two are going to turn out. Totally. I feel like a bit of a blunger sometimes because look how long it had to wait before it dawned on me. But still, with an honest heart, I still say that it's the right thing to do.
00:20:54
Speaker
And I'm not saying that everybody's going to get there quickly. So I never got there quickly, but I'm a complete advocate for it. It totally makes a difference. You got to look at that extra the rest of the day instead of us all thinking that we always do as musos, that few hours is what it's all about. Because it kind of is in our souls. Yeah. In order to project that three hours the best we can.
00:21:12
Speaker
You have to look at the other 22 hours, 20 something hours. And it's like, however you're living through that 20 something hours, David impacts that three hours. Absolutely. I mean, I went through a plan. I was drinking tequila and doing all kinds of stuff to play a gig, David. Yeah.
00:21:27
Speaker
And I actually come to the end of that period of my time and I hated myself. I was kind of falling. I was losing my relationship with my base, which I've had since I was nine and I'm 55. No, I was 49 then. And it was leaving me quite depressed at the end of tours. And I just couldn't grasp and change my ways. It took me like two years, two and a half years to get out of that stuff. What do you think was the root of that? I think it was first, just a couple of things. Firstly, it was just getting carried away.
00:21:57
Speaker
with the moment. You've got big crowd, everybody wants to party with you. And I'm thinking, I'll speak for myself, but with the band generally, we were just like, wow, we haven't, don't forget, there's nowhere in the world like the live music scene in America, the touring scene. It's not about the record companies, it's stuff about fans on the ground traveling around to see you. Well, that made us excited. I mean, some of us in the band, we got a bit carried away with certain things and the lifestyles weren't really
00:22:23
Speaker
I wanted to sample a bit of it and I got carried away, but I couldn't stay like that. And what it is, it's just excitement. That's what it was. Like, we'd never experienced it before. But now I'm polite. Anybody wants to talk to me about the music. I will give people time, but it doesn't mean to say I'm going to jump in a car with you and just run into the dark and anything can happen. I've had enough of that, man.
00:22:43
Speaker
You know what I mean? I love horror stories. But they make me change my way. I've changed my way because of a lot of that. And since it's also just been a bit thinking, oh, somebody likes my stuff. You just get carried away with it. It's a good thing when people like your music around the world. You know yourself. Yeah, it's a blessing. But how you deal with that, you've got to be a big man and deal with it properly. Not like a kid, like sometimes we are. Right.
00:23:07
Speaker
But I don't stay in it. I got out of it. You know what I mean? And also just thinking when stuff's on the rider, you've got to drink it. There's a bit of that in the dressing rooms. All these people coming from all over the place and you think, oh, yeah, I have a shot. And you just before you know it, man. And because you're doing maybe seven shows a week for six weeks. Yeah.
00:23:27
Speaker
You're damaging yourself, man. And I think back to the times when I was laying down in bed and I must have been tequila in my kidneys, all this stuff going round my body. I'm just really grateful, David, that I've actually managed to come out of it and I can look back and talk about it. Because some people don't come out of that stuff. And I still think they're doing great.
00:23:46
Speaker
I don't sometimes like to think about the shows from them times, because I might have been thinking I was doing good, but I know in my heart, I could have done better when I look back. And I don't want that anymore. I don't want no regret, just because of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Nobody's ever going to change sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But it's been there since day one. And many people have had battles, and deaths, and problems with all that stuff. What you have to do, like, sometimes some of these dudes say to me, what you got to do, you just got to ride it, man. You pick your battles, and you just ride it.
00:24:13
Speaker
and be careful with yourself and it's true I'm happy to tell lots of youngsters the same thing you know I can tell them if you want to hear some horror stories I'll tell you some if you want dude I'm just really grateful that I managed to come out the other end and I'm unscathed I'm not you know I'm not like twisted up because of it right I've got memories of it you know I mean but that's enough to keep me from there
00:24:36
Speaker
Yeah. It's almost like, it's like you are scathed, but like, yeah, that's like, like, that's what you wouldn't be where you are. Do you know what I mean? I speak to your man, Brian about it. Sometimes me and Brian wrap about this sometimes. Yeah. And, um, it's true. Yeah. I mean, it has affected me. Um, and if it hadn't affected me, I'd probably still be doing it if you know what I mean. So the fact that I can think about some things keeps me from wanting to just be out every night going crazy. Like all that stuff on the road I'm talking about. Cause when I'm at home, none of that stuff figures.
00:25:06
Speaker
nothing figures and I'm at home for two months and the thought of a drink wouldn't even come into my mind always when I was in this zone. That's a really special thing that you have happening that you've created in your life that you have this break where you go to Mallorca and you have a life there you can focus on health and with my little boy on that there and I'm thinking
00:25:28
Speaker
You know, he's nine years old. When I'm there, man, he's a soccer player. He's a very healthy guy. He's in the sea, he's cliff jumping, all that kind of stuff. You'd love it, you know what I mean? But like for me, you know, I was a bit apprehensive about some things. And I'm thinking, has I changed my way of living? Dude, I'm on the pitch with him every day. I'm running him and his boys out. Seriously, when they're all tired and no more sprinting, I will go the extra sprint. That's because, and that brings me joy, man. Yeah.
00:25:54
Speaker
Because if I'd have stayed as I was, I wouldn't even be in the park playing soccer and basketball and swimming with them every day. I just wouldn't be doing it. I'd be just kind of, oh, I feel a bit bad today. That pain's killing me today. And it used to depress me. I wouldn't tell anybody about it. I'd just pop painkillers there. And it would just mask it for a while. But it's not right. It's not the right way to do it, man. And it's not expensive to be healthy, is what my daughter told me, showed me. I always thought, oh, you can't really be vegetarian. You won't be able to eat anything. It's going to cost too much to do.
00:26:24
Speaker
And looking at your blog as well with all the some of the restaurants you found around America. Yeah. I've been to one of them in Denver. A couple of them are in Colorado's Denver area. And Brooklyn both just now as well for my dinner, you know, the feed you in the bowl. Yeah, of course. Usually it's all that big dark chicken, white chicken, all this stuff going on. And I kind of just looked at the thing really closely, you know, like the buffalo wings. It's basically cauliflower.
00:26:50
Speaker
And I just sort of tasted one of those and I'm thinking, hang on a minute, that just proves to me that meat doesn't really mean anything to a degree. Because people when they're eating meat, I may be wrong, but you're not saying, oh, that's a lovely taste of chicken or whatever. It's whatever the flavor it with that you say, oh, I like the taste of, makes you like the taste of the chicken or whatever. Because those cauliflower,
00:27:15
Speaker
or whatever they call them, chicken wings or whatever, dude. That is just, if everybody could just taste that, I reckon 50% of people would just stop eating chicken wings. For that bit of extra, you know what I mean? So, I've got to learn to cook a bit better, that's what I have to do. I don't cook very well. I'm a very basic cook. Just like emergency cooking. It's because I've had it done for me all the time. Partly because I'm on the road and when I'm at home, my daughter or something's doing it.
00:27:42
Speaker
But I think what you said about it not being expensive, that's a big misconception, I think. People are intimidated about being vegan or vegetarian. They're like, it's expensive and what do you do? And you're saying that it's really true. It's simple, man. Eating vegetarian and vegan can be really simple too. If you break it down to just like whole foods and simple dinners and it can be
00:28:05
Speaker
totally nutritious and tastes amazing. Yes. I mean, everything you just said is absolutely right. But me leading into this whole process a few years ago, I wasn't seeing it like that. Yeah. I was having to think, my daughter's gonna say, come on dad, crank it down. I'm thinking, oh yeah, whatever. This is just gonna be, and then I start melting to think, hang on a minute, this really is cheaper. And do you have a thing about eating in terms of before you play or not eating before you play? I can't eat too close before I play, not too close. But I remember years gone by,
00:28:34
Speaker
I would just kind of like not really get on it and I think, oh yeah, I'll eat something in the dressing room. I'll eat just the sound check. And then I haven't made it and I'm doing the gig and I'm all drawn out. Well, I don't do that anymore. I like to eat and then maybe have a little, not a deep sleep, but like a siesta. Oh, nice. Lie down, which I have in Spain every day.
00:28:53
Speaker
My body's become used to the siesta, which is like in Spain can be up to two hours. But man, it'd be like four in the afternoon and it becomes the most relaxing, deepest sleep that I have. It's my siesta. It's my dreams. You know, you wake up at six in the evening, right? You're ready to go. Because everything's like that in Spain. You wake up at six and then you go again. Even the kids are in the restaurants at 1am and stuff.
00:29:18
Speaker
It's such an interesting aspect of the culture that Americans completely don't have. Just imagining people taking naps in the afternoon and that being like an accepted part of culture. I know. It's hard to even... In England you'd be classed as a lazy person if you were sleeping in the afternoon. Yeah, definitely America. But the thing is, if you look at the society of what we're talking about and then look at the society where I live and then you will see just why society generally benefits from everybody just chilling out in the afternoon for a couple of hours. Hey, everybody slow down.
00:29:48
Speaker
then in the evening, rest that again. And there's less stress in the society where I live, Dave, as opposed to the societies where I come from, like England and parts of America, even.
00:29:59
Speaker
It's just, you know, it's just more relaxed than a general, you know, even with the kids, the teenagers, which can be, you know, there can be very fraught nowadays, living fraught lives, young teenagers, just because of the way the world is. Yeah. It wasn't like that in the 70s. Media and devices. Totally man. It wasn't like that when I was in the 70s, bro, you know, and, um,
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah, I like it in Spain, everything's a bit more relaxed. My son, he's stopped having siestas, but he's old enough to still let me have mine, because he knows when I'm helped, when I wake up from not siesta, I'm energised again, then he's ready to go again. Yeah, you're charged, you're recharged. Yeah, it's like a little recharge, dude. Yeah.
00:31:03
Speaker
And I'm curious just to get into it, and I think I understand, but when your daughter approached you and you had this change in your life, and was that at the same time you'd been doing the whole tequila thing? All this kind of... And the back problem, it all kind of happened at once. And was that the motivation for your daughter approaching you?
00:31:22
Speaker
massively, massively dude. Yeah. And, um, I didn't know at the time it was happening like that, but I had the MRI scan. I couldn't hide my pain anymore. Basically I had to come clean with it. And my daughter came to the surgeon with me and she was like, dad, you know, cause if I'd have gone by myself, I would have maybe just hidden it again and it wasn't happening. I mask it with all that. It's like we were just talking about tequila and whatever, you know, to get you through the culmination of Ashton, my daughter, really making it realistically for me to look at what I'm doing with myself.
00:31:52
Speaker
personally what I'm putting in my system and being able to not depend and then for me once I'd started getting into that I found that it's hard to describe it but I found that I mean I know in my heart of hearts I don't need any tequila and stuff to play I mean I know that but on the night at the time I still did it David yeah
00:32:16
Speaker
Do you know what I mean? And I've always been quite disciplined with myself. But life on the road was just slowly chipping away at my discipline. And my daughter noticed it. And I think that's why my C7 was starting to play up, giving me pains in parts of my body. Because once I addressed all that stuff, which took six months for me to actually address it, I didn't just turn overnight. And then I stuck at it. And I have seen the rewards. And it hasn't cost me any money.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah, this is just discipline that you have to look at yourself, you know, where do you think that discipline comes from in your life?
Influences of Military Background
00:32:49
Speaker
Was that from as a young kid is I can tell you well, I was brought up quite quite disciplined by my parents. My dad's my father's Jamaican on my real mother's from she's Jewish. Okay, but when I was 16,
00:33:02
Speaker
And we were brought up like in a Jamaican neighborhood, quite poor, you know, like seven siblings, one meal a day. Not just my family, everybody around us was the same. So we didn't even think we were poor, we just thought we were normal. But when you look back, we were very poor. And when I was 16 and a half,
00:33:19
Speaker
I mean, when you get to a certain age, you leave school, you either stay in the ghetto, as you probably know, you know about all this kind of stuff, and you get, my brothers and all, you get into a bit of hustling here and there, a bit of this, that, and you think, and that becomes your life, but that's fraught with danger, and you're never going to forward anything you're doing in your life if you just kind of take the easy option to try and make a quick buck.
00:33:38
Speaker
I think, well, that's the kind of way I was looking at it. And somehow my mum suggested that I would join the, I should join the Royal Air Force. I was 16 and a half and I was above average fitness. And I joined the RAF when I was 16 and a half, six years, and I was a physical training instructor. For how long? Six, under six years. Wow. I did one year under as a boy. And then when I was 18, they start putting the years on, you know, um,
00:34:05
Speaker
So five years as a man when I'm 18, if you know what I mean. And I did the training down in Wales for this, but my fitness was natural. Now in those days, all the stuff you're doing now, your 20 mile rides and all these hundred pull-ups and all that kind of stuff, that was just the norm for me in them days, obviously. And I found the training for the physical training instruction so easy, a three-month course in Wales. And then that was it. They put me some stripes on, but they were false stripes because I was an NCO officer, but I wasn't really, but I needed the rank.
00:34:34
Speaker
so i could tell the the lesser ones that were right we're going on a cross-country run get out of bed we're doing that nobody likes me dude nobody likes me i just left i mean i was playing or i've been playing since i was nine years old but what i did do what i did do with being in the air force i had to you can't say one day oh i don't feel like it today
00:34:55
Speaker
It was every day for six years. And some of the things that it's like you have to do, you know you don't feel like doing what you have to do, but because you have to. And to this day, there's disciplines from that. I would never do it again. And I wouldn't encourage none of my children to join any services because I'm completely against that cannon fodder. It's just not for me. But I was a kid and it got me out the ghetto and I started getting some money.
00:35:19
Speaker
You know, bought my first orange. You remember the orange base cabs with the orange valve heads? Definitely. I bought one of them in 1978, dude. It was the pride of my life. Wow. You know what I mean? But that's where I get a lot of the discipline that's come from. From that time in the service? Definitely, man. Because we were wayward. People couldn't tell you stuff from where we came from in the ghetto, man. It's like, no, it was just this thing, which is wrong. But nobody could tell you anything. But when I got in there, man,
00:35:48
Speaker
I let them trip all the blocks off me and I was a much more rounded person and I didn't realise at the time it was preparing me for a worldwide existence, literally a worldwide existence. Yeah.
00:35:59
Speaker
I've been in so many different societies around the world, parts of Africa, where I've been working with kids. We complain. We have people complaining and stuff. I did six years every January in South Africa with a band, not this band, but some of the musicians from the UK. And we used to go into the townships. Man, we were in one house there.
00:36:22
Speaker
the grandmother's HIV positive, her daughter's HIV positive, two children like your lovely little girl here, that kind of age, all HIV positive, David. And you know what? They're all eating out of a big thing of this maze and they're inviting me to eat. And I have to eat it, but I don't even want to eat the stuff, dude. You know what I mean? But you know what? They're all smiling at you. And then I think, what do we complain about in the West? And I go there every year, man.
00:36:49
Speaker
And it doesn't change, but just the fact that somebody's showing them a little bit of, I don't have to go there, and I don't get paid for going there anymore. Do you know what I mean? I don't know what I earn. I'll leave it there. The thing is, when you go back the next year and you see what they've done with that two, three thousand dollars or whatever it would be, rows and rows of cabbages, rows and rows of potatoes, and it's humbling.
00:37:13
Speaker
It humbles you, man, you know what I mean? All the fast, aggressive living that we get used to doing just in order to get through life on a daily basis. You know, coming back to the vegetarian simpleness again, everything's just based on simplicity, really. We kind of make things too complicated, man.
00:37:32
Speaker
Do you know what I mean? I mean, as people, just generally as human beings. And we're all just lucky. Like me and you are sat here right now. I mean, we're doing all right. Yeah. And we're also doing what we love. True. Entertaining and playing our four string basket to ask brother. We love doing that with people like me and you, you know, but.
00:37:52
Speaker
When you can be grateful and be thankful for it. It makes you want to help other people to try and get there a bit. It's not always about yourself. The more you look after yourself, the better you are for anybody else I've noticed.
00:38:07
Speaker
Definitely. You know what I mean? Yeah, if you don't, you know, and it comes almost to like, if you don't truly love yourself, you can't love others. You know, you can't truly know what that love is. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Care for people. If you don't care for yourself, you can't really care for other people. It's hard to, you know, complete the circle. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's empathy as well. I feel like empathy has been eroded out of humanity at the moment.
00:38:33
Speaker
It's just some things with the way the world's going and stuff. I know that's the way it is, whatever, but doesn't mean to say you just got to say, oh, that's normal. No. Right. You know what I mean? Something jazz with me that I'm going to say it. Do you know what I mean? And I feel sorry for a lot of people, but the fact that we're here, that we were born geographically where we were born, we're lucky.
00:38:52
Speaker
Yeah. You can turn your tap on, you can switch the light on. You know what I mean? So we're lucky man in my world and I know what it's like to have absolutely nothing. Right. And I've still got people around me that I take care of who I love in my family in Jamaica and England who have nothing. Yeah. And it's because they're in a poor scenario and it's not good for them. Oh, look at Pete. Pete's doing good to go around the world.
00:39:10
Speaker
Dude, I've got two pairs of trainers, I've got like 10 of these shirts, three pairs of jeans. But I pay for a life in England, I pay for a life in Spain and I look after people in Jamaica and bro, I'm not breaking the law. It's all coming from that four string piece of wood. So why wouldn't I want to look after myself to keep that going?
Music and Personal Philosophy
00:39:30
Speaker
Instead of numbing myself.
00:39:32
Speaker
in order to make that happen, do you know what I mean? It left me depressed. And I've always loved my bass, you know. I mean, the actual thing. It's like a relationship you have with your bass. And I was kind of losing that for the first time ever in my whole life.
00:39:48
Speaker
I was like, yeah, whatever. And I was starting thinking, yeah, I could still play, but I don't know. It was my thing that was my closest thing to me, that bass guitar all my life. And when I was going through that rubbish, I was just telling you about before, I know that that bass was suffering. Yeah.
00:40:03
Speaker
because of that. Yeah, the connection was... Yeah, the connection wasn't there with it. It's hard to describe, man, but I don't want to get there again. I don't ever want that to happen again. Do you know what I mean? And I think that's the important part. Without struggle, it's really hard to have the true motivation to make yourself better.
00:40:20
Speaker
Yeah, exactly, because you've been there. Yeah. Yeah, man. You can know where you were, and then that's the true motivation that's going to ignite that flame in you. Yeah. And also seeing what you young dudes do. Guys like you, man. You guys are just on, you know, Simon, you know our drummer. I do. So yeah, you took your place, Ted is with you. He's quite a fit guy. I saw. Yesterday, he cycled with Neil Sugarman. I saw that on Instagram. You see that? Yeah. I don't look at all that stuff, Rob.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah, I saw it. I was like, oh man, I gotta go on a ride with those guys. Yeah. I mean, that's the kind of stuff you do, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, definitely. Yeah. No, I mean, Simon's not, Simon often tells us like when you play tennis, you do in time. And I thought it was just a joke thing, you know, and he said, no, no, no, he's proper.
00:41:06
Speaker
I played three hours today before. Seriously? Oh yeah, like intense match. And who you playing with somebody who's good? Amazing, yeah, yeah. You know tennis is one of the hardest spots that I've tried in my life David.
00:41:21
Speaker
It is hard. Timing, quickness, fit. There's a lot of elements. Yeah. It's a true workout, isn't it? Yeah. What's your favorite spot? Tennis for sure. I'm a tennis nut. Yeah. Oh my god. How has that been? I play in a league here with awesome players. So you could have been pro tennis if you really wanted to. Well, no. Not pro on the level of made a career. The guys that are actually on the touring circuit,
00:41:49
Speaker
they since they were like kids have spent six hours a day playing tennis all day every day a lot of them didn't go to school they were homeschooled like that's what it is now and and
00:42:03
Speaker
There's thousands and thousands of kids doing that and maybe a hundred and like the top 150 are able to really make it. That's the way though in the sports, isn't it? In my family, my nephew in England, Raquel, he's 18 now and he's gone pro soccer.
00:42:22
Speaker
He was playing for Huddersfield Town but he's been licensed to another team and he's going to go the full way. He's had it since he was five, six years old and they took him out the ghetto, took him to this kind of place where he has to do his schooling, eating, training and he's still there now.
00:42:38
Speaker
at some point, he's going to go to like Chelsea or something like that for the big bucks. But the thing is, man, it's just it does hundreds of guys around him going for that. But it just shows you that one and sometimes one of them can get through. Well, my nephew has gone through and he's now shining a torch on my son, who's a great soccer player, mid defender. He's in the Menorchian team. He has been for two and a half years and he's only nearly nine years old. And he goes around playing soccer matches and I go and watch him when I'm there.
00:43:07
Speaker
He's a big guy, you know, defending people off the ball and stuff. So just before I came on this tour, I just decided to take him into Barcelona from the islands, like a 20-minute flight. His heroes are like Messi and Neymar Jr., the Alpha Barcelona team.
00:43:20
Speaker
I got tickets for the Barcelona Football Ground for Barcelona v Juventus European Championships quarter-final. And just watching these... You see them on TV and they're all big muscular guys, but when you're watching them, they're just little dudes. The thing is, they run around nonstop for 90 minutes.
00:43:40
Speaker
And if you see the ground, they cover. And I'm just glad my son's into it just because of general fitness. Totally. I don't care if he's not a pro or a soccer player. No, fitness, but also discipline, as we talked about before, commitment to something, and realizing, I say this to my students, I teach music. And I say this, these kids might not go on to want to have a career in music, but just as a kid, just realizing the importance of
00:44:09
Speaker
practice and discipline and getting better and getting better and when you actually put in what you put in you get out and starting to feel that oh wow I'm improving like those are incredibly important things that then they can put in any facet of their life that's right you can use it in other facets of your life which is true very true yeah yeah it's a great thing yeah I hear you dude yeah
Transition from Military to Music Career
00:45:04
Speaker
You came from that area of England and then you went to the military and that was sort of your, you said like your path out of the ghetto essentially. Yes, absolutely. And what happened when, how did you leave, you can just leave the military or? No. How did that happen? I got out of the military because I was doing quite well as it goes in the military. Yeah. And I could have, I had some friends that stayed there for 24 years. Wow. Do you know what I mean? I came out after just under six, but I couldn't just say, bye, I'm leaving because I'd already done exams for a promotion. Right. I'm thinking, you know what, I want out of here.
00:45:34
Speaker
And I'd already had to put a band together that was in Leeds. So I was driving from Oxford, which was like three and a half hours, every weekend up to Leeds, just to rehearse with my two brothers in the band. Maybe do a very local gig in a bar, then drive all the way back to Oxford. I'm thinking, you know what? It's got to be the other way around now. But what I had to do was buy myself out.
00:45:52
Speaker
physically give them money to lead. Really? Yeah, several hundreds of pounds in them days, like 1981 maybe it was. That's how it works? Yeah, you can actually buy, you have to have a reason. And my reason was like, I've got my band, my band's ready to start doing things. And they'll let me go, because they don't want to let you go if they think you can do well for them. It's like anything else, you've got to kind of,
00:46:14
Speaker
either you've got to have a really good reason through death or something in the family, or you have to pay money to leave. And that's what I did. But I was still glad. It's like I paid a few hundred dot pounds just to get some discipline and keep myself in shape. Because if I'd have had those six years in the ghetto with my boys and all that kind of stuff, I don't even think I'd be sat here talking to you now. Very possibly I wouldn't, man. That's the truth. Was there a turning point when you were doing your service, the military service, where you realized that you're ethics?
00:46:40
Speaker
Like what happened? How did you kind of come to that realization that you needed out of there? One of the things was, because I was young in those days, I was in my late teens. So the world political thing didn't really mean much to me. Do you know what I mean? But I remember that England went to war with the Maldives, the Falkland Islands, Argentina. And all I was looking at geographically wise,
00:47:05
Speaker
Those islands have nothing to do with England, so why are they? And I had a friend of mine from Sheffield, a big black dude, he was in the Air Force with me, and he actually got sent to the Falklands. He never got damaged or anything, but he could have been, because they went to war, you know? Right. I'm thinking...
00:47:19
Speaker
Why are there fair to go get some local guys killed for a tiny bit for 200 people who say they're English on somebody else's I mean just look at the map you can see it's not England but they went to war and now if you look at today I mean that was one of basically going back that was one of the things that made me kind of look at I mean I never went but if it all went crazy over there I would have had to go
00:47:40
Speaker
And then think you have to maybe pull a trigger on somebody. That does nothing to me. You know what I mean? But I wasn't really in that side of it. I wasn't in the fighting military side of it at all. But unless things get really worse, then they say to you, you have to train twice a week anyway, just in case you go with all the weapons and stuff.
00:47:57
Speaker
And thankfully, I never had to, I don't think I would have, that I've had to kick me out before putting a gun in my hand and saying, go and kill them foreign people. I just wouldn't do it, David. It's not image, you know what I mean? And I would have happily have been rebuked and thrown out. Right. I mean, going now, fast forward to where we are now. Imagine if your lovely child, little lady there, and she's a little teenager and say, right off you go into the military for Mr. Trump. I know.
00:48:21
Speaker
I mean, just look at where we're at. I was going to do that to the children anyway. Yeah, it's a reality. I mean, for all the service people that are in the military and, you know, the political climate's getting crazy. My stepbrother is in the military and he's being shipped off to Korea, South Korea. Oh no. Just like that's starting to.
00:48:39
Speaker
That's what I'm saying. I don't know how to characterize it as relaxed because he's in the military, but he's had a stable life near Seattle at this base for a few years, and I think he was really happy there. But then it's like you get word. It's like the balances of the world are starting to get uneasy. You're going to Korea.
00:49:00
Speaker
You see, it's real. But it's a big part of our lives, this, because we've all got children. Yeah. And actually, I mean, in my mind, you can tell me if you think I'm wrong. I don't mind, dude. But it's like in my years that I've had and I was experienced, I have to say when I travel around the world, there is more good people than bad people in the world. Right. The media will have you think something completely different. Right.
00:49:22
Speaker
And if you've got kids, by the time we get really old, your kids are going to be screwed. You know what? The world is actually a lot better than we think. And it's a mindset. These people in the political heavyweights, who I used to think, they're such clever people because they're looking after us or whatever. It's the opposite. You've got to find your own way, without breaking the law, be happy and fulfilled, and bring your children up through what you've created.
Personal Fulfillment and Happiness
00:49:50
Speaker
That's the way to do it, because I've done it. I didn't know I was doing it. I've done it, man. And it's nothing to be scared of. You know what I mean? And if we are fulfilling what we really want to do, our offspring, we don't have to depend on the likes of Trump and all these kind of people. The only scary thing about it, in my mind, is that I don't know about Hillary Clinton. I'm not saying she was a great person or anything. Everybody has their own thing about it. But the thing is, she was not an obvious psychopath like this dude, in my mind.
00:50:17
Speaker
There's definitely all this darkness, but I'm like, I'm not going to let that infiltrate my being. Absolutely. You know, I'm going to keep doing what I do and keep trying to shine the light in the way I can do and just be the best I can be. You know, absolutely. And I'm right down there with you. And you're a young man, you're a young dude, but you seem to be very advanced in your years and stuff, right? And you're shining light for quite a few people out there now. What you've got to do, everything that you're doing with like your target and just your general interest in
00:50:47
Speaker
Because we have to keep what we do going, like bringing it to people, but with our souls. Because if this starts getting rubbed out, everything's going to go a bit dull, man. We have to keep... And in order, like you said, this is why you're right with what you're doing. In order to keep doing what we're doing, we're not robots. You've got to take care.
00:51:09
Speaker
with ourselves, which means we can keep doing it for longer, which is just going to make the whole world healthier. And I firmly believe it, man. I really do, you know.
00:51:37
Speaker
Looking forward, are you the type of guy, like, do you set goals for yourself? I do, yeah, quite often, yeah. Big goals, small goals, how do you go about that? Yeah, I generally set goals for myself, like, I always like to have a certain amount of really, musically, for instance, I like to have a certain amount of writing that's already done with a proper international release every year. Nothing to do with the master sounds. I have to have my own thing going out all the time. Cool. And it's been like that for many years. But long-term plans,
00:52:04
Speaker
I do see a time when I'm going to retire from the road. I'll never retire from being a musician because I always have been and I can't do anything else anyway. I'm quite lucky because I make a decent living from publishing every three months. That's the work that I've been doing for the past 30 something years.
00:52:21
Speaker
And that's music that's been written in every genre you can imagine, except bebop. You know what I mean? And I mean it to make a living and releasing stuff. And that's outside new master sounds? Oh yeah, mostly like country music, bluegrass, all of them I did produced and written and played with all, so much of that stuff over the years. I've been with the master sounds for 20 years now. Wow. And we've got a heavy catalog. But I would say that all my other stuff, you know,
00:52:47
Speaker
Master sounds pales into significant as far as royalty-based comeback and publishing this concept. I mean, we do well out of it, don't get me wrong. But it's really about being on the road and delivering your goods with the band. That's a good, that's a real part of music, don't get me wrong.
00:53:03
Speaker
And that's something that I always strive for. But I kind of attained that to a degree. There's always further to go, I understand that too. But I'm just talking about for me personally, I feel like I've attained something. Now the real side of music is what I'm gonna leave to my kids when I'm not here. That's what music really is. And I've done that. I've prepared for my children for 70 years after my death. Because I keep adding to it. And I'm living off that now. Well, we're all living off it now. And every three months, it's never the same amount.
00:53:32
Speaker
you don't know what you're going to get. And if I stay in bed for the next 50 years, I still get it every day. Do you know what I mean? But that doesn't make me lazy. If somebody maybe just said that to me 30 or 40 years ago, I'd be saying, oh, great, I can just lie around all day, then I'm going to get my money. Don't work like that. Because when you're in it, it's not like I'm trying to make my money, Dave. You can't suddenly stop writing music, can you? You know what I mean? And because you keep doing what you love,
00:53:58
Speaker
Eventually it does pile up into something and because I don't need a lot of money to live happily, I can do things like, which I would never dreamt I could do with my children and stuff in different parts of the world and just do things. You know, it's a nice feeling man.
00:54:14
Speaker
But it's also, I'm not like I'm just throwing money away and stuff. I'm very frugal when it comes to money. It's just been a part of my system since I was born, you know what I mean? I don't need a lot of money to actually exist for me. It's for the people I love, man, you know what I mean?
00:54:29
Speaker
Without breaking the laws, another big deal as well, because I'm always in and out of prison and shit like that. I've got no time for that, man. I hear that. If I had two weeks in prison, my life would fall to bits mentally. Just looking back at like a younger version of yourself when you were in your 20s, just kind of getting going into the music career. If you could go back and just say some advice, can you think of some things you would kind of impart?
00:54:53
Speaker
Well, from my perspective, David, one of the most important things was, because I'm self-taught, people around me say, right, pizza, music, pizza, is that, is out of the air fast, please just do music now. It sounds good, you know what I mean? But the thing is, people used to see me on top of the pops and stuff in England.
00:55:11
Speaker
I'm miming percussion. I can't even play percussion. Do you know what I mean? I'm just miming. It's just for a money job, like 500 bucks. But because you loved one, see you on top of the pop. Oh my God, Pete's made it. I was the furthest away from making anything. But that's the way people, your loved ones perceive you.
00:55:26
Speaker
But the thing is, I've always said to people, right, because the only way I could make my way from being back in my 20s to 30s and 40s, when I wasn't even, you know, I was having to really put the work in with my ears to learn the damn thing, you know what I mean? To learn what to do with this thing. Yeah. Is to the advice is to just play as I'm coming out of a ghetto, which is predominantly either heavy Pentecostal Jamaican music or reggae. Yeah.
00:55:50
Speaker
Right. That's it. You have to step outside that reg is a very natural music for me to play as it's kind of funk. But you see, you could start coming out of that into kind of proper country music or bluegrass or hip hop commercial nightmares and wax type sound and stuff. Okay. Uh, thrash metal, which is what me and my brothers were into. Dub metal, metal music.
00:56:12
Speaker
And we open for bad brains twice and stuff like that. You can't go there pretending with that stuff. The thing is, I always believe because I can't because I can't even like I don't read music and I don't. My only thing was. I'm playing as many different genres as I can, mostly to make some money, though. When I say money, I'm talking like 30, 40 dollars pounds in those days. But I was I was with five or six bands at the same time. Each band had a different genre.
00:56:37
Speaker
And that's how I made my way through. Whereas now, I don't really have to, I don't want to do that anymore. I'm quite, I'm blessed because I'm actually, I can play music I love and towel around with it. Music that I really personally love. I suppose that, oh, I better go on the top road with that. I need the money at the end of the thing. But I still encourage young musicians
00:56:57
Speaker
You know, we all maybe have got one or two types of music that we grew up with that we really love and that you would consider natural sort of fear. But that's I always encourage younger guys step outside that and take on all the stuff that has come. I didn't know what country music was when I was growing up. But if you listen to me playing on country music albums, that album sounds like a country album. Yeah. Well, to me, that's my success. I mean, I don't want to sound the fact it sounds real and right. It just makes me feel like I've done my job right.
00:57:27
Speaker
And I actually prepare for stuff a lot more than anybody in my band, for instance, The Master Sounds.
Musical Process and Preparation
00:57:32
Speaker
I prepare for stuff. Like coming out for this tour, I had so much different stuff to learn. You know, not everybody prepares the same way, I understand that, but the reason why I do prepare is because I have always got this little thing in me that I'm not really supposed to be doing this.
00:57:46
Speaker
It's something that I can't rub out, David, you know what I mean? I actually want to rub it out because it's what's made me go that extra bit further to be ready. Yeah, that's extra motivation. Totally, man. Yeah. I don't feel qualified to be doing this. I've got to put extra work in, whereas somebody could just write a lot of stuff down. Oh, that's what I'm doing on this gig. I can't do that. I just haven't got it in me. Yeah. And I respect people who can do it. You know what I mean? But for me, it's extra time. Use my ears.
00:58:13
Speaker
and prepare more than the other people would actually prepare. And it always gets me through. Always gets me through. That's good advice. There's not one time it's never failed me, dude. Seriously. To the point where other people have been like scratching their, I mean, named players, who I would look at as advanced readers and all that kind of stuff. The scratching their heads.
00:58:32
Speaker
What does that do when it moves from there to there? And I'm like, dude, I can't tell you the name of the card. You should come to some of our sound checks. You'll see what is happening. And I'll say, I can't tell you what the card is. And she goes like that. Eddie's like, the sandwich just sat back watching. Because he loves when I'm in that head space. Because it's the truth. I can only do it one way. And I can't pretend it's either right or wrong. And it's not until the right card is trying all this different stuff. And I said, stop. That's it.
00:58:59
Speaker
That's it. And they actually take my word for it. Yeah, he found you. Yeah. When I clear it, that's it. That must be right. Because the thing is, it's either right or wrong to me, Dave. Simple as. No one I don't think has ever said, I prepared too much. No. You know what I mean? Maybe like, Oh, I didn't, I realized I didn't have to prepare so much, but you still went through that process of the preparation.
00:59:19
Speaker
Once you get there, you think, oh, I didn't have to prepare as much as that. That's a blessing then. It's not like, oh my God, I've got to get up to there. You've got to say, oh, I can kick back a bit now. It's even easier than I thought. That's why I take it back to my favorite spot, which has always been boxing. And boxing training. I've so been into boxing training through my life. Oh, heavily. I can't do it too much anymore. And going back like the 15, 16 years, Eddie, our guitarist, got me into some of that. Eddie was an astute boxer and trainer. And now with the band's early days,
00:59:48
Speaker
He would train hard, really hard, do all the bag work and everything. And there's elements of how you prepare for boxing one-on-one. There's something quite Neanderthal, but basic. But once you're in there, it could be game over if you don't get the preparation right. And because I follow boxing so closely,
01:00:09
Speaker
I always have done for many, many years. I'm not a boxer. I can't even fight anymore. Just in the way that the solo, it's just you. I know you've got people training with you and stuff, but you knowing your heart of hearts, all that superfluous, because when that bell ring is just you and this dude, it's all down to preparation.
01:00:30
Speaker
you know, there's a real link between boxing and tennis in that way. And people have analyzed it and said tennis is almost like boxing where you're like a hundred feet away from each other. Yeah. You know what I mean? Wow. Yeah. Like there's a lot of similarities in terms of the dance and how how reactionary it is and how, you know, one person's dictating. Yeah. You know, another person is more reacting. Yeah, man. And, you know, whereas one guy might seem like he's on the attack the whole time and another guy's getting beat down, then boom, the other guy.
01:00:59
Speaker
changes that momentum flow, you know? I think there's a lot of similarities. I hear you, man, yeah. I remember when I was at... One good thing about being the Air Force, I'll just go back many years, is what we used
Athleticism and Fitness in Music
01:01:10
Speaker
to do once a year. I only got to do it once, and you know Wimbledon. Definitely. Yeah, and you see sometimes the RAF guys or the Army guys just stood there, ushering people to their seats and things like that. And I got that one year. It must have been very late 70s or early 80s.
01:01:29
Speaker
I remember being standing there and it was a bog, biog, tennis player, guys. I was watching that guy play. I'd only ever seen him on TV and I'd actually only ever seen tennis on TV. But to stand there, I was just like stood there for about a good hour.
01:01:49
Speaker
And then somebody else will take my place. I go sit down, have a cup of tea, then I come back again. And I said to my guy who was going to take over, I said, no, let me do two stints, please. This initially was the size of the pitch. Yeah. The size of the tennis court. Right. That was a surprise to me. Yeah. And when they're both doing baseline. Yeah.
01:02:07
Speaker
and then a drop shot might come. And the muscle and the strength and the awareness that you have to get to sort of, it's like a workout in the gym. It's like you're working out in the gym when you're playing tennis. So me and my son, you know, Nadal, he's from Mallorca, the next island. So my son's a bit like, yeah, when he sees him on the news, it's always like, yeah, Nadal, Balearic Island, you know. Well, he's got, he showed me him working out, Nadal working out.
01:02:34
Speaker
with a couple of dudes in the gym. And it's just staggering, man. He's a beast. The preparation that they have to do. And then there's also the knack of just the return. I can't actually return a ball, you know what I mean? I learnt once to serve proper and I lost it within weeks. Just couldn't do it.
01:02:55
Speaker
It's a complicated motion. It keeps you really fit tennis, doesn't it? It must keep you really fit. It does. I mean, I really mix up all my, I'm triathlon training right now. So I'm doing swimming, running, biking all the time. I'm doing the weight training. So I think it's really important no matter what you do to continue to mix it up. If you're really into fitness, like I don't think the guys that only do, like you can see, you said Nidalis in the gym. Like if you just did tennis,
01:03:23
Speaker
I don't think that's going to be a real all-encompassing way to be fit, but, you know, mixing it up and then you can see your tennis levels rise as you start to really get more into the fitness aspect of it. When you wake up first thing in the morning, what do you put down? What do you eat? I drink water. Yeah. First thing I do in the morning is I drink like 20 ounces, like I drink a big glass of water. From the tap or a bottle of water.
01:03:50
Speaker
I have a really awesome filter that actually is like alkalizes water. So I drink alkaline water alkaline water Yeah, so I drink alkaline water and Yeah, my mornings is like basically getting my alkaline going and I work out first thing in the morning before breakfast before a minute you do definitely Yeah, yeah, and I'll do heavy I'll run sometimes 10 miles on one glass of water dude 15 miles on one glass of water Are you tripping when you get back sweat?
01:04:16
Speaker
Yeah, but sometimes, I'm not a big sweat, I don't naturally sweat that much, but sometimes, but yeah, I work out, even weight training tennis, whatever, I do it a lot on an empty stomach, yep. And you know, maybe if I'm playing tennis and it's epic, like I'll have a banana or something. Yeah, I see tennis players having a little bite of a banana. Yeah, and that's it. And then after that for me, the next thing I do, and this is pretty much every morning is a smoothie.
01:04:43
Speaker
And I mix, I change the smoothie. You make it yourself every morning. Definitely. Yeah. And like I change it up, but often like a green smoothie and there's, it's a mix of vegetables and fruits, but pretty heavy on fruits. Yeah. And then I'm mostly just doing fruits until like around noon. And then maybe I'll after, at that point I'm pretty hungry. I've had a pretty serious workout in the morning and then I'll have oats. Oats. Yeah. Like, uh, I do raw oats and like blueberries and berries, you know,
01:05:11
Speaker
Wow. And seeds and stuff like that. And yeah, and then I'm pretty much eating like that. Raw fruits, vegetables, salads until dinner and only at dinner is when I have cooked food. Oh, that's your first cooked meal. Yeah, that's the only time I really- About five o'clock.
01:05:27
Speaker
usually later seven, eight. Yeah. Oh wow. Yep. And if you're touring to the same kind of vibe. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. I'm big on smoothies and sometimes I do like the juice bars too. Um, all that stuff. So yeah, that's how my body, I pretty much feel like my body functions at a time cycle. Yeah. If you're comfortable like that.
01:05:48
Speaker
Yup. And these days when I'm in New York, I'll do my morning workout. I usually do another workout between one and like sometimes in that time of day, whether at that point I'll run or I'll go swim laps. And then I'm also cycling throughout the day. That's my only means of transportation. Yeah. So I cycle everywhere. Around here, that could make a few miles a day, couldn't it?
01:06:13
Speaker
20 to 30 miles a day on the bike. And then sometimes I'll also do like an evening session. An evening workout? Yeah. Wow. I feel like I'm in the best shape and I feel as young as I've ever felt, you know what I mean? Yeah, you're beaming, man, you. Every time I see you, man, you're just radiating. Sometimes I see you, I'll be in a lobby of a hotel after a night or something, and I'll see you guys wandering by, and you're just like, hey, B, what's up? Me and Simon are there half dead. Makes me feel like a loser, dude. Oh, no, man.
01:07:03
Speaker
Yeah and you know one really cool thing that you said that I think was really inspiring and cool was you feel like you almost don't belong and that motivates you and keeps you hungry to really go the extra mile and prepare. I bet you that's a common thread amongst people that are highly successful in sports and music and stuff is that feeling like you're just so hungry that you in order
01:07:29
Speaker
to function at your highest, you gotta stay hungry. You can't get complacent if you really wanna excel at something. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? No, no, I'm just working the hour you sent me, yeah.
01:07:42
Speaker
The dudes who are like the top athletes in the world, you know, the basketball going on right now, they don't get to the conference finals. They're like, oh cool, I made it, I'm good.
Motivation and Industry Reflections
01:07:50
Speaker
They know they still have something to prove. Always, there's more to prove. They're always still hungry. And I think that's a really important
01:07:59
Speaker
attribute to have in order to excel and I think there's also an element of feeling like you belong like you got to have confidence but I think that goes without saying once you've worked and you've done the work like you have confidence but that feeling of that you stay hungry because I definitely have that yeah always wanted to to perform at my best that's right yeah I mean and that's what I was saying earlier on when I think back to some of the Madaka years and in America and stuff I just like thinking
01:08:23
Speaker
oh crap I didn't want to think about those shows I mean everybody's still would have had a good time in the audience don't get me wrong my talk about me totally you know I mean it's like when I think back and think oh crumbs whereas now I've just done like jazz fest um where are we Brooklyn ball yeah
01:08:38
Speaker
Completely drinking, I know, even that ginger ale's not good. It looks a bit fizzy, but I just wanted that with ice on stage. Yeah. Right. Through all the gigs, enjoying myself lucid. Yeah. You know, and afterwards, actually feeling good. And when I wake up the next day feeling good, you know, now I don't, I will never, ever, I'll stop, I will actually stop touring before I go back into that darkness again. That's the truth. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm glad I had a bit of it. Cause that's some interesting times. They'll get me wrong, but those are done.
01:09:10
Speaker
This thing is never going to leave me, and I don't know what it's called really, but it's like...
01:09:17
Speaker
I wasn't just one of the lucky ones who would just be born with all that talent and you just go ahead and you're good to go. That's never been good enough for me. Even though everybody I play with, the bloody great players, the majority of the people I play with, I would consider them advanced players. Advanced musicians with all that they can do around music, not just their instrument. It's like you, you play bass, but you do everything else, all that other kind of stuff, teaching, reading, writing, all that kind of stuff. That's a big deal in my world. It really is, Dave, you know what I mean? And I applaud it.
01:09:46
Speaker
But because I haven't got that, that extra bit of something for me wanting, I need to be, you know, because if I'm not accepted with my role, it's almost the worst thing that could happen to me in my life. Probably worse than even injuring me.
01:10:02
Speaker
Honestly, because it's wounding. It wounds you. And I'll only be wounded once, and I'll never go back there again. And what do you mean by not accepted? I mean, I want to be accepted. I've always wanted to be accepted with my role. Even though I haven't been through all the channels like lots of the other players, musicians and stuff have been. Because I think at any point, somebody could say, hey, you. Dude, you. You go home, because you got me back. All my heroes, I play with them all. Yeah. When I was importing vinyl from America,
01:10:31
Speaker
in the mid-70s as a teenager. No internet. I was looking at magazines, I mean Blues and Soul. I like the look of that album. I like the look of that album. And I would import them to my sister's house so my dad wouldn't see them. And then when he was at church on a Sunday, I'd play them on his radiogram. And they're all my friends. I actually play with my heroes. I put bands together with my heroes.
01:10:55
Speaker
And that acceptance has been a real stamp to me, to the point where I don't want to let anybody, you know, the way I was living before, like we're just talking about on the road and stuff.
01:11:06
Speaker
I can't let, I can't, you know, I have a tent, something. Since I cleared myself up, there's more stuff happening around me. Maybe it was happening around me before, but I wasn't aware of it, David, you know what I mean? Whereas now, I don't miss anything. It's actually really simple, and it's really gratifying, but I will still never lose that thing, especially for the instrument that we've chosen as well. You're wielding a lot of force with that low frequency. And if you don't wield that power,
01:11:34
Speaker
with respect and I said you know keeping the house right there's always something at the front taking the glamour you know I'm saying but I'm talking about you just listen I'm gonna send you somebody sent me an article a while ago about the pro the role of the bass I'm gonna send it to you on a link David please you'll be staggering you're gonna you know and it's like the
01:11:54
Speaker
We can't afford to wield our power wrongly, you know what I mean? It's like I said to some of the best magazines in Japan and stuff, when they say, yeah, what do you consider yourself? And I sort of thought about it. And I'm like, yeah, I'm a bass player, but I like to think I'm a purveyor of heavy low frequency in a groovy style and pattern. That's what I do, you know what I mean? Because once you're rolling that thunder, you roll that in the wrong direction. There's nothing worse for me, dude, than watching a band, though, the bass player just rolling shit, not really getting down and I'm like,
01:12:23
Speaker
spot even if it's a great singer and a great guitarist and a great drummer if that part's not right for me in other words fulfilling the role just for that time just for then in that context that's the shit dude you get that right man it's better than bloody sex sometimes for me i just when i'm on that when everything becomes so easy on stage and i can just see that's when i feel like i'm living
01:12:48
Speaker
And also, I'm happy to put it to bed after the gig and not try and continue it until I'm on stage again. Slightly more beat up and patted out. But you think, oh, you can do it again because gradually you're getting worse and worse. I want to stay on top, man. Beautiful. Got to stay on top, David, bro. Stay on top. That's a good place to leave it.
01:13:10
Speaker
Fred Alfie, thank you so much for coming here, man. Hey, you know what? I know you're doing all this for your podcast and stuff like that, but even away from all that, it's just nice for me to sit down and talk to the bass man who's holding down one of my favorite bands in America. That's what I'm talking about, man. It's the truth, David Berliss, man. You are holding it down. Right on.
01:13:28
Speaker
Lots of people I know, especially around Colorado, I don't even, you obviously do social, I don't do any social networking. I got people who do a few things to me, but I don't actually do anything. But you keep popping up on stuff with your pimps and all the stuff that you're doing in that man. And also your guitar playing, not just bass playing. Ah, you see, you think I'm not, I know what's going down.
01:13:47
Speaker
I love what you're doing David, man. Thanks, man. You're a positive guy and you make things, you make things real. You keep things real, man. You know what I mean? Because we're all in this world together and we're all trying to find our way ultimately. And what we've chosen for our paths is not for everybody. I understand that too. For sure.
01:14:07
Speaker
And it's not do or die. There's a middle ground now that I've learnt, you know, like this kind of stuff you're portraying here.
Evolution and Gratitude
01:14:13
Speaker
You know, there is a middle ground where you can still have a great time. I used to think back some years ago when I come to America and I walk on the road with like the Grey Boys, Carl Dents and all them. And I see some of their musicians and that and they do the gig, like three sets, 2000 people on each set. We play to 50 people to open up. We did this for a year. It was soul destroying 11 years ago. Wow.
01:14:36
Speaker
and then Cal would come on and we were just like, we'd never seen anything like it though. I remember then, and then afterwards, they would just all go to the hotel and go to sleep. And I'm like, where's the fun in this? Do you know what I mean? Whereas look at where I'm at now, we're starting out all them same places and I go to bed after, I wouldn't have dreamt I would have been like that. So your time comes round. Yeah, the cycle. It's all about the cycle, brother.
01:15:00
Speaker
Right on, man. Well, thank you so much for taking the time. Oh, it's a pleasure, man. It's a pleasure. It's been great. Great to hang. It's been great to hang with you, too. Right on. Seriously, man. Good luck, and keep doing what you're doing, man. And let's stay in touch. Yes, for sure, brother. Right on, man. All right, peace.
01:15:15
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Torganic Podcast, and please comment and rate the show in iTunes. It really does help. The musical interludes in this episode are from Pete Shand. Come visit Torganic.com and my Instagram page for regular updates on my triathlon training, vegan diet tips, and my musical life. Big thanks to Pete. Until next time, peace.
01:15:50
Speaker
And that's why I want to remind you that flowers, by their sales, have no power whatsoever other than the power of men and women.