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#4- Saxophonist Johnny 'Bones" from The California Honeydrops- Drops Some Knowledge About his Vegan Diet, Living healthy on the Road and Staying "Aligned" with Mind, Body and Spirit on Tour
9 Plays7 years ago
My guest this week is saxophone player Johnny 'Bones'. Johnny has been touring with The California Honeydrops for close to decade and he displays some serious skills on the sax. His solos are memorable to anyone attending a Honeydrops show. Johnny's approach to touring, his diet and his focus on health of mind, body and soul are an inspiration.
In this conversation:
- Johnny's path and why/how he went plant-based and how that decision has affected his ability to thrive on the road, overall wellbeing and happiness.
- Thee crucial role that meditation, mindfulness and yoga have played in his life.
- When Johnny began to feel that classic 'run down' feeling after years on the road and how living a plant-based diet helped to turn that around.
- Connections between musicians and athletes as performance based mindsets where you must be at your highest level night after night and the discipline that it takes to maintain that consistency
- Books, Documentaries and other sources that have significantly changed Johnny's life and provided inspiration along the way
Please take a moment to rate and review the podcast in iTunes and visit www.tourganic.com for more info on this episode and living healthy on the road
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Transcript
Introduction to the Torganic Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Torganic Podcast. This is the Torganic Podcast. I am David Bayless, your host. In the podcast, I speak with touring musicians about how they live a healthy lifestyle on the road. While many of these conversations are about how and why my guests live a plant-based vegan diet on the road, the content of these conversations will have a diverse and holistic approach to focus on health of mind, body, and spirit.
00:00:25
Speaker
Whether you are a musician, a fan, traveler, or a person interested in living a healthy lifestyle, my goal is that this podcast will offer you some insight that will inspire you.
Johnny Bones' Journey with Diet and Yoga
00:00:36
Speaker
My guest this week is Johnny Bones from the San Francisco-based band that California Honey Drops, who have been touring relentlessly in the US and worldwide for years. I'm psyched about this one. Even though we had crossed paths at festivals and shows over the years, me and Johnny had never really met prior to the recording of this episode and we made a great connection. He has a lot of wisdom to offer about his path, where he is on his journey, and how he got to this point.
00:01:01
Speaker
In addition to his vegan diet, we get into his yoga practice, breath work and the importance that those things have had in maintaining a healthy life on the road. Johnny spoke about the clarity he has been able to achieve and how he beat the classic feeling of being run down on the road by changing his diet, getting deeper into his yoga practice and improving his overall mindset with a commitment to health. I caught up with Johnny when the honey drops were playing in NYC at the Bowery Ballroom. I made it at the end of the show and it was a party in there.
00:01:31
Speaker
What up, man? You said you were going to do yoga this morning. Yeah. Appreciate you taking the time out of your yoga schedule to come hang. Cut it short. I actually got a little in. I didn't think I'd wake up that early, but for some reason I was up with plenty of time. So I like to stretch out in the morning and stuff. You just do your yoga kind of practice yourself. Like, do you go to classes or is it kind of you've got a child in? Yeah, because we're on the road so much. It's been I'm not that advanced. It's pretty new to me, really.
00:02:00
Speaker
I sort of came around to it more through meditation. And I had done some yoga when I was younger, just different classes, and I hadn't really found myself able to keep consistent at it. And maybe I was, I don't know what was going on in my own head with it, like as an exercise or as a, maybe I wasn't sure how to grasp it, but then once I kind of got more into kind of,
00:02:30
Speaker
kind of meditation with my state of mind. Then when I went back into the yoga, I had a different focus on it, just sort of like to try to kind of heal my body. And I kind of thought of it strictly from a Hatha perspective, like from a health perspective. You know, that's how my mind kind of approached it.
Yoga Beyond Exercise for Musicians
00:02:51
Speaker
Wasn't like kind of daunting with the combinations that you have when you go to yoga classes with kind of way of thinking or a meditation. I just was like, this is,
00:02:59
Speaker
kind of for my health. Cause I was starting to get some soreness from playing whole, you know, playing music. You can have, tweak yourself different ways. Definitely holding that saxophone for hours every night. I mean, I was getting a little bit like kind of pinch on my right side of my neck and stuff. So I said, I gotta, you know,
00:03:15
Speaker
I'm 42 now and I'd like to be able to play and live long playing music. I could just imagine being one of those hobbling old sax players leaned over and I was like I just feel some direction I wanted to go. So I'm just trying to kind of take it in my own hands and do a little each day. So actually you know it's great when through music you meet a lot of
00:03:35
Speaker
I don't know people that motivate you. So we have some friends in the Bay who are yoga teachers and stuff. And one of them is just real healthy looking guys, like 55, and just always good energy. So I actually called him up. I said, his name's Baxter. I said, Baxter, I really want to start a little bit of personal practice. He recommended a book by Rodney Yee. And that book kind of takes you through from nothing. So it's just a book. What's that book called? Oh, man.
00:04:04
Speaker
That's okay. Yeah. I'm blanking on it, man. It was like my Bible for like the first six months, really. He really sets up, um, kind of gets you in the right head space as we're going to do, you know, make the commitment to do an hour a day, six days a week. The last day is mostly just breath work and meditation. The first five are like, he'll focus like for six days, one whole week will be more focused toward standing positions and one week will be more backbends and one will be, you know,
00:04:30
Speaker
So it's really like step by step, but really nice instruction and pictures. And so that sort of was my gateway into getting started and getting a regular practice. And now I'm trying to kind of progress from there. So when I'm in different towns, like in Carbondale, I just went to a class while we were on tour. Colorado. Yeah. Have you played out there? Somebody's guitar, Steve's guitar, Rick's guitar is a place that does shows there.
00:04:55
Speaker
I don't know. We've passed through Carbondale because we do the Colorado Circuit. There's so many markets and so many awesome towns in Colorado. I'm not sure if we've done Carbondale to play, but I know of it. Yeah, it was fun. It was like a little shop or guitar shop or something that they just convert for shows and put a little stage in the corner and people sit at chairs that they just fold out in there.
00:05:17
Speaker
That's funky. He was funky and funky. And a friend of the guy who has a shop has like a loft kind of half a block down. It puts people up, music lovers. So really nice loft. So we just went and crashed at the loft and I was talking to him after the show.
00:05:30
Speaker
And when he had all these yoga books in the house and I mentioned it, he goes, we got a great studio, like a block away. I go to classes at, I forgot, he says, you know, eight or 10. And I said, oh, god, I'm definitely going to miss it.
Personal Growth through Lifestyle Changes
00:05:42
Speaker
And it didn't set an alarm. And for some reason, I woke up like 10 minutes before the class. And I was like, hey, I'm going, man. And that was cool, because she had a little different perspective. That teacher recommended another book that I'd been reading by Deska Char, was kind of out of there.
00:05:57
Speaker
son of Krishna Machari, kind of the whole yoga. So it kind of got me into the whole history, which I hadn't been into. So that's been interesting lately, trying to kind of understand where the whole practice comes from. Yeah, man. I'm impressed. An hour a day, six days a week, that is a commitment. Yeah. That's what it was, right? For that first, the ye book that you mentioned. Yeah. So I mean, that says something just about your general commitment to yourself.
00:06:24
Speaker
There's a lot of people who are like, oh, I'd love to do yoga. I'd love to learn saxophone. I'd love to play piano. I'd love to play this sport.
00:06:36
Speaker
but they don't have the discipline to say commit to an hour a day because that's really where you see results. If you fully commit to things in life, whether it be your health, your music, practice at a discipline, I mean, you're really going to see results an hour a day. And so how long have you been into that getting an hour a day, which I'm sure is difficult on doing that?
00:07:00
Speaker
um, nine months or so, something like that. And you've been seeing results. It's been kind of like that for in my life over the last, but, uh, but I wasn't like that when I was younger. I had a lot of trouble, you know, making clear decision and sticking. So even practicing music, I would start one type of exercise on the horn and say, I got to do this every day or these long tones, or I got to do these overtones. I got to do these scales. And then a week later I kind of drift into,
00:07:28
Speaker
some other interest on the horn. I still be playing the horn, but I've become a lot more focused like that in everything. You know, when I've been vegan for about two years and vegetarian two years before that, those were things where we just kind of made the decision like, boom, kind of like with the yo-yo, just something clicks in my head. Like, at least that's how everybody works different. So I don't know how other people work, but for me, it's been, okay, this is, you know.
00:07:52
Speaker
And certainly everyone in life has their own kind of timetable that they work at and finding their balance with all the things that's going on in their life personally and things that our endeavors and our work and all these things, it's a tricky balance. Yeah, just how you're approaching everything. I think a lot of it is in the mind. I think when the mind becomes clearer, you know,
00:08:15
Speaker
And what can we, I'm sure it's difficult, but can you think about pinpointing a few things that happened in your life that enabled you to make the jump from someone that was sort of distracted in a sense and having a more difficult time committing to segue into a part of your life where you're taking these things more seriously and, and really committing yourself
00:08:44
Speaker
No, I don't know where that, man, that's a good question. You caught me here. It's good because it's reflective. It's making me think. I would probably say, to be honest with you, that it was really through difficulty with my wife and my relationship.
From Vegetarian to Vegan: A Personal Journey
00:09:05
Speaker
But knowing I loved her a lot and trying to kind of look inside myself a lot deeper,
00:09:13
Speaker
that that process started. We took a couple weeks apart. And there's a cat called Marshall Rosenberg that has a kind of an interesting approach to a lot of things called nonviolent communication. And I read a lot of his books, and they were kind of like got into kind of just looking at myself and my needs and just what's going on inside. He has a kind of some interesting ideas that kind of relate. And through that kind of
00:09:43
Speaker
kind of like turning the lens in more. It's just opened up more and more from that starting point. More and more things have opened up. I mean, I would say I've always been sort of a
00:09:54
Speaker
personal focused person not kind of like I can talk to people about what's going on with them themself but when they start talking about like all everybody's talking about politics now and you know what's going on and I can offer a couple of ideas but I'm not so much into like how should we organize our society or telling anybody else what to do but I'm very into like
00:10:16
Speaker
kind of like what you're dealing with inside and how to kind of overcome what's holding you back. I've always had that in me a little bit, but it's definitely been more focused over the last like four or five years. Yeah, it's interesting how sometimes these things in life that are trials and difficult periods
00:10:40
Speaker
that really seem like hurdles and can seem like unfortunate things in the moment can, they force us to look inward, force us to kind of answer questions about ourselves and in the long run can really benefit us. Right. Right. Yeah. In a way, like sometimes
00:11:01
Speaker
even just giving up or just that surrendering, you know what I mean? You have these ideas about who you are or maybe being right or being wrong or labels on you, I am this or I am that or I am this kind of person, I am that kind of person. And then sometimes just something happens, it just kind of breaks you down and you're just kind of blank.
00:11:25
Speaker
you know, and you can sort of rebuild from that or just kind of see things different once you stop all these identities. Yeah, you release these expectations of yourself. And when you do that, it can be a bit more of a blank slate to create and just be more open.
00:11:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think that a little bit. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, not something I've thought of before, but I kind of agree in the moment that that's I think it's that's true for myself or that's been true, you know.
00:12:51
Speaker
Everybody gets broke now. Well, everybody.
00:12:56
Speaker
How did your whole path to veganism or living a healthy diet start? Is this something that has been in your family? Did it happen when you're kind of in your 20s? This has been a long process I'm interested in. Has it been a sort of ever evolving process or was there really kind of an aha moment? No, definitely evolving. Definitely evolving. I mean, my family was like I grew up in Berkeley and they were sort of
00:13:24
Speaker
you know liberal um you know around the diet for a small planet era parents so they had they were trying to feed us a lot of you know we couldn't get sugary cereals blah blah blah so we had a healthy food growing up but we weren't like nothing no no vegetarians in the family or um or vegans and it was never
00:13:45
Speaker
a nutritional, it wasn't a big deal. I didn't even like all that food growing. I was jealous of my friends and their frosted flakes and everything. I wasn't that into it. I wasn't like, oh yeah, I love this whole wheat bread and this blah, blah, blah. But we're really on tour, man. I was getting kind of run down on the road. And I talked to my wife on the phone one day and I said, man, and we both decided, let's do a vegetarian diet. Let's just cut this meat and this stuff out.
00:14:11
Speaker
We did it for like a week kind of hurt home me on the road. She's on the road with me But we were like in it together cool, and I felt great. I just felt great I felt really energized and then I got home and she was she's like I don't know I can't you know I can't really keep this up
00:14:29
Speaker
So I wanted to stay together on our diet. So I went with her and we started eating everything again, meats and whatever for like three days. And I started feeling again, this kind of feeling of rundown that I didn't like. So then I said, you know what?
00:14:45
Speaker
I'm just going to do the vegetarian thing, but you eat whatever you want. But I really liked the way I felt. So I kind of went solo, you know, for about two weeks and then, yeah. And then, you know, she joined, she ended up joining me. She, after like two weeks, she was like, you know, kind of like we would make separate meals, blah, blah. And then she said, no, no, no, no, I'm into this. Let's do it together. She got kind of.
00:15:03
Speaker
So I kind of pushed it along. Then she jumped in. So then we were both vegetarian for a while. And she's always been very interested and very compassionate toward animals. My wife's insanely compassionate toward their suffering and what goes on with animals. Outside of the vegan issue, you should go up in Greece and when she would see the people whipping the donkeys to make them work. Or in Greece, a lot of people chained their dogs on very short
00:15:31
Speaker
one foot chains and she would go you know bang and talk you know she's very assertive about what people are doing to animals and so through I think being vegetarian somehow kind of linked us into this community of people and we started just getting more and more information.
00:15:48
Speaker
about what's going on with animals ethically. So outside of the feeling of health we were having, that sort of caught fire. And then we watched different movies. I read the China study book. The China study book made a huge difference for me. Me too. That was a breaking point for me of saying,
00:16:06
Speaker
OK, I can be healthy. It's healthy. It's healthier. And instead of thinking, oh, I'm going to miss out on something really important in my diet, because a lot of people around, there was a lot of vegans from the 60s in the Bay Area that sort of got unhealthy because there wasn't as much knowledge about nutrition. Yeah. And maybe needing some B12 or, you know, different things. And they wouldn't be doing that. Yeah. The nutritional information wasn't that strong. And so my parents generation of people saw that. So they saw me being vegan.
00:16:35
Speaker
in a worried way so it wasn't malicious but they were like kind of not encouraging in a way like you're doing this vegan thing but I was like after I read the China study it's so convincing um the science behind it it's just a very intelligent book and so
00:16:52
Speaker
that and then Animal Liberation, you know, on a different front reading that by Peter Singer and just different books that from the ethical perspective, from the health perspective, from the environmental perspective on all that kind of coalesced, it was kind of like a no brainer. It was very easy decision. It was like,
00:17:12
Speaker
I don't know. In the way my brain works, it's kind of like we have so many pleasures, I mean, in a way. Or, you know, I get so much joy from playing music like you do. And I mean, you can do so many things. You can go see movies. Do you need every every I mean, there is a little pleasure you miss out on. You know, I mean, I liked me and I liked.
00:17:33
Speaker
you know, cheese was hard to quit, you know, but it's like, it's not that hard. Like people are like, how do you don't like just, you know, it's like, first of all, there's great vegan food.
Holistic Veganism: Health, Ethics, Environment
00:17:43
Speaker
It's gone wild now. The vegan cooking is like off the hook. But even when I started, I didn't know how to make any, I was eating boring food, but I just made the, it's just a mental choice. You just say, hey,
00:17:52
Speaker
I'm just going to eat to eat. I'm not going to make a big deal about it. You know, it's food and nobody's knowing it was getting hurt. Does it not feel good? And I feel healthy. It doesn't have to like, yeah, everything. You got to be, you know, healthy and it's got to taste amazing. It's got to be this juicy steak. And well, it's like, come on, you know.
00:18:11
Speaker
And what period of your life was this when you were kind of figuring all these things out? Because you've been on the road, was this when you were on the road with the honey drops? Yeah, we've been on the road because we've been together for, I've been with the group since a year into the group. So the group's about nine years old. So I've been with the guys eight years. So yeah, all this is kind of, and we've been, yeah, all this is during, because we tour about maybe almost half the year or a third of the year.
00:18:40
Speaker
Really more like a half. So all of this has gone down kind of within that kind of tour life Yeah combined with home life, you know, yeah, and so it's cool because I find a lot of people Either are from the health perspective. Yeah, they're from the ethical perspective, right and and
00:19:00
Speaker
I like that your story sort of has a, it's a holistic approach. It's sort of you, you felt a certain way. You start to acknowledge and start to be aware in your body. Okay. I don't think I feel as good when I'm eating meat. Now that I've eliminated that from my diet and the dairy, I'm feeling better. Yeah. Step one, let me research this more, get into the ethical aspect. Yeah. And, and that's really all those things together. This holistic approach is what really pushed you along and made you turn that corner and
00:19:31
Speaker
be 100% all in, which is a really important thing. I find that's also like a release as we were talking about before. And it's kind of a relief when you fully committed to something. Yeah.
00:19:45
Speaker
You're good with your decision. You don't have people, oh, it must be a struggle. And not to say that there isn't struggles along the way with all aspects of life. Nevertheless, I think that if you've really committed to a decision, there's a real relief in that. It's like, oh, I'm good. I'm going to be good. I know I'll be fine.
00:20:05
Speaker
on tour, at home, we're gonna figure it out. I know that I'm not gonna starve and it's gonna be cool and not only am I gonna be feeling better about myself, I'm feeling better in my body. I'm doing something better for the world, the earth.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. But like how I said, I think it helped my wife become a vegetarian because I got it started.
The Importance of Support in Lifestyle Changes
00:20:27
Speaker
But I'd say on the other flip side of that, since we've been vegan, she works with a group called Factory Farm Awareness Coalition. It's a great organization, and they do these wonderful presentations in the school about an hour long.
00:20:42
Speaker
for kids and it shows a lot of factual information about factory farming and environmental situation, ethical situation, health situations.
00:20:57
Speaker
It's helped me to have that ally who's very passionate because I see some people, if you're like alone and going in, if I was alone without her kind of keeping me on track, I think it would be really hard because it's like at home, it's one thing, living at home, you can go to the Whole Foods or you can cook really nice things, but on the road, and us being like a New Orleans man, people are constantly like,
00:21:24
Speaker
Oh, I made you guys this killing brisket or this riz, and they bring it on our bus. You know what I mean? There's like this community kind of blues and soul music that's all around the barbecue and the meat. And it's just like always in your mind, oh, this is so good. But having an ally really keeps me strong. I have somebody to tune my brain towards. So it does help having a community outside of just my own convictions. Yeah, I think there's a great lesson there is for people that are trying this lifestyle out or trying to
00:21:54
Speaker
are interested in getting into it, find a support system. There is a support system out there. Find a network of people, whether it's through social media and Instagram and Facebook or people that live in your communities. You could go down to the juice bar or the co-op and just meet people. And just ideas and the excitement that's happening around the health movement can really be a good kickstart.
Sharing Dietary Choices without Judgment
00:22:22
Speaker
And for me, it helps a lot. I hate the idea of advising anybody in a way. I can only say my own experiences and if they help someone or don't. But for myself, I've definitely found that...
00:22:41
Speaker
kind of accepting what other people are doing too, because I think a lot of people, especially from the ethical side, get in the veganism and they would have trouble, say, sitting at the table with a bunch of people eating meat. They start, you know, getting very... Judgmental. Very judgmental, you know, don't you know what's going on? Why aren't you...
00:23:00
Speaker
making some, you know, these commitments, how could you be ignoring, like, what is doing, environment, you know what I mean? You know, you can go through a lot of stuff in your head, and I don't know, I find it for myself really kind of creates a division I don't like with other people, and
00:23:22
Speaker
it's just not a very understanding place, you know, because, you know, myself, I was eating meat, you know, five years ago, you know, everybody comes to things in their own time or, you know, and me and everybody has just like, uh, it's like politically, right? You know, you just have to kind of be understanding, like you can't control people. You can only kind of inform people. Maybe you can drop a little bit of information and see if they
00:23:46
Speaker
catch hold with somebody or they're interested in their own mind, but you can't say, I don't find it's, you know, able to faciously, you know, everybody's going to eat this or, you know what I'm saying, or do this. It doesn't seem like that's worked throughout history of people. You know, information is what changed me. So you hope that information will change
00:24:07
Speaker
Other people if they get the information, you know, so we totally agree and I think on every podcast episode I've we've kind of in our conversation come to this a little bit of Saying that's part of torganic. My whole thing is not an exclusive thing It's not meant to make others feel like they're inadequate in their life or the choices that they've made a wrong Yeah
00:24:32
Speaker
and in the same way of connecting with what you're saying, just hoping that what we do, people can find inspiration that's just gonna maybe shed a little positivity in their life and maybe make them make some right decisions and kind of help them in their path to finding whatever's gonna be the best balance for them. And I know as on the flip side, as a vegan and you're mentioning the ethical thing, and sometimes it's tough,
00:24:59
Speaker
sitting at a table and someone's like oh where do you get your protein and starts to grill you and I'm like hey I'm not coming at you with you know my notions of your diet and I'm on the defense but I really agree that
00:25:15
Speaker
the best way is sort of to just, I like that you said information. You know, rather than say, start rattling off facts and, you know, tell them that what all the choices that they've made are wrong. Say, hey, like, have you checked out Cowspiracy? You know, like, you know, suggest that to whoever you're hanging with that might be interested into why you're doing it or asking you questions.
Documentaries and Awareness: 'Cowspiracy'
00:25:41
Speaker
And, you know, that's a good way. I think Cowspiracy is great.
00:25:45
Speaker
because they're grounded in fact. These guys have really done their research. Kip and Keegan, those guys, I have so much respect for what they've done and that movie and it's really, it's not the type of movie that is like,
00:26:04
Speaker
Scary to like earthlings or something like that. Yeah, that's like, oh my god. Oh, yeah, I barely made it through that. Yeah, but and they frame it in a way that's just informational and really is I Feel like has the best For humanity. Yeah in mind not trying to push some agenda right not being preachy and just being like hey, I
00:26:31
Speaker
No, it was really well, yeah, good spirited movie. Like, I was shocked when I watched Blackfish because there was such a kind of,
00:26:42
Speaker
story around what was going on from this movie, Blackfish, and the protests at SeaWorld, and it just had ignited a whole kind of awareness in a whole movie. So I said, oh, so my wife, Daphne, maybe said, oh, let's watch Blackfish. So we pulled it up on Netflix or wherever at home. And it was, to me, very mellow. It was not very aggressive or extreme. Extreme.
00:27:11
Speaker
And I was kind of processing that in my mind, like, well, it's interesting how something...
00:27:17
Speaker
kind of gentle, but very factual and very peaceful can have such a really move people. Profound effect. Yeah, it's so cool. And then when I watched Cowspiracy, I had that similar spirit. I said, well, this is a really interesting movie because, yeah, you can sit through this, which is very interesting. You don't get all angry or it's not confronting people in a harsh way. It just sort of shows you some things in a cool, cool way to present thing.
00:27:49
Speaker
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Veganism's Impact on Music Performance
00:28:40
Speaker
I want to just take a step back and You mentioned you're on the road you may be feeling as you put it run down and You transition into this plant-based diet. I'm wondering if your transition into veganism and health Had an effect on your playing That's funny, you know You know it's it's
00:29:06
Speaker
It's something I don't know. I mean, I definitely feel a lot of growth musically over the last few years. So I never really, you know.
00:29:18
Speaker
You know, I mean, everything is sort of a confluence of many things. So, you know, you know what I mean? Like us being here today, it's like you could say, it's because, you know, you emailed out or, or somebody said, oh, Johnny, you know, or why we're in New York right now. Why did the tour land here? Or, you know what I'm saying? Like you could try to pin it down to one one thing causally, but
00:29:48
Speaker
everything sort of causes everything. I hear you. So I don't know if I would think of it that way. But I've been really enjoying playing lately. So it could be part of it. I mean, it definitely is part of it, I think. And I would imagine just on a level of the saxophone is a physical instrument to play. Oh, definitely. And elements of stamina could be affected by health. And also in terms of your yoga practice,
00:30:17
Speaker
elements of breathing, practice. Yeah, breathwork has really been helpful for me. Yeah. I think just I've been really getting more into that lately and just sort of it's been really helpful. I think something I hadn't studied a lot or put into my awareness a lot, you know, the effects I could have playing. So it's been really useful, definitely. You know, I'm still kind of I wouldn't say
00:30:44
Speaker
something I've done for long enough to like master or you know if you if you do master that stuff but I have been working you know daily on different breathing things and so it's like a growing
00:30:57
Speaker
interest of mine and I do definitely see that correlate with playing the horn. Yeah I always kind of find all these things in my mind sort of all interconnect in some way.
Parallels between Music and Athletics
00:31:08
Speaker
For sure. But I don't know how to like quantify their interconnection but definitely the yoga and the body awareness because playing instruments is very athletic and I think I wasn't that aware of that when I was younger how I just kind of like wanted
00:31:24
Speaker
play certain notes and I would just kind of do it and I wasn't approaching it kind of athletically like a sport but a lot of people who are very athletic become very good musicians you know I mean Mike Finnegan who was playing with Bonnie Wright on the last we just did that opening tour was like on a basketball scholarship at Kansas you know he's an older cat now but he's talking about like
00:31:42
Speaker
40 years ago or so and then he kind of went into music and you just hear a lot of stories of you know champion Jack Dupree Xbox or become pianist blues singer and there's an intersection there of like athletics and music a lot of athletes get into music and I think sometimes they pick it up quicker because they have that body awareness, you know, because there is a between the imagination of a note or a phrase on an instrument there's a
00:32:10
Speaker
There's something physical that has to happen to make it happen. Make those notes pop. So you have to have something, whatever instrument, whether it's the fingerwork on the guitar or the breath and the tongue and the embouchure with the saxophone and the fingers. There's something physical happening. And so the more I've gotten more into body awareness,
00:32:34
Speaker
through the yoga and stuff it definitely translates you know and I'll notice when I'm twerking myself in weird positions to play higher notes or lower notes or you know different registers or fast and I'll say why am I doing that and try to
00:32:45
Speaker
that's probably not helping. So I've been kind of centering to have these other practices that you can kind of then bring into your playing. Yeah, it's a cool comparison. And you're totally right about athletes. And you see athletes that are great musicians and musicians that are great athletes. It does seem to be
00:33:08
Speaker
a connection there and I like how you put it and I kind of see it as the synapses that are firing from the brain to the body in both music and athletics need to be happening at a pretty high level to do it successfully.
00:33:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a fast rate and like a high level. Yeah, for sure. And then, of course, just the element of someone who's reached a high level as an athlete certainly understands the discipline required to be proficient at something. Right, right, right. Yeah, to work on something consistently and also just, yeah, and they've kind of, athletes or music have all dealt with, like,
00:33:54
Speaker
you know, relaxation, you know, tension and how it slows you down and how to get more relaxed and how to be efficient. You know, as an athlete, like if you need basketball, you need to cut that way and you need to do fishing and burst. And they've kind of kind of studied themselves on why am I slower than other guys or, you know, and the music if you need that, you know, you need your thing, you know, to hit, you know, bam. You kind of struggle with what's holding that back. Why do I have it in my head, you know?
00:34:22
Speaker
coming out a certain way, but so you kind of work with your mechanisms, whatever's involved in the instrument you play, you know, on the drums and trying to get this, or you know what I mean? I don't know how to play drums. Whatever instrument you spend your time with, you sort of kind of work through these things. And you practice and you practice and you develop the foundation. And then in sports and in music, you're functioning at the highest level
00:34:50
Speaker
when you're not thinking about it, when you're just doing, you're just completely in the moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:34:58
Speaker
I'm sure, you know, Michael Jordan or whoever, you know, the best athletes, they're not thinking, oh, like, if I put this foot in front of that one and then jump us, you know, and then I'll do this dunk. It's just, boom, it just happens. They're feeling it. They're totally just flying in the moment. And music is like that too. You can't be overthinking, oh, this, if I play the sharp 11 here, it's going to sound really hip because then it's not, it's not going to work.
00:35:26
Speaker
Nope. You know what I mean? So there is another really cool... I've definitely been there though. Well, it's a never ending path of hills and valleys and uphill and downhill. Even with the greatest athletes, you can see when you watch a game, they falter. And the greatest musicians, you don't have your best night every night because it's art. Oh man, yeah.
00:35:54
Speaker
Well, that reminds me, just everything you're saying reminds me of so many different things, you know? I mean, it just rung so many bells, you know, because you were talking about not thinking. And Sonny Rollins is probably my biggest hero on the saxophone. And he and he always says, you know, don't you can't can't think while you're playing. You just play. You know, so it was like just dead on, you know, the same type of
Practicing vs. Performing: Insights and Spontaneity
00:36:17
Speaker
things. It just kind of reminded me of that. And Les, our band leader, has always just been he's been kind of a great.
00:36:24
Speaker
and kind of mentor to me being in his band. And he always used to say that to me, because maybe I'd be working on something specific on the horn, a certain type of thing. And he'd see me kind of like working on that during the gig. And he'd say, hey, man, practice what you practice. But on the bandstand, we just got to be present and just respond. So it's kind of a person that could always kind of keep me, because he's a very present musician. And so he kind of always kind of something I could lock into
00:36:55
Speaker
keeps me on track in that way of not kind of getting mental on something that I'm trying to work on. But just, you know, practice is practice and you can kind of zero in on some work things you're doing. But when you're on a show there's like so much that needs to happen.
00:37:11
Speaker
it'll just slow you down if your mind's somewhere else, you just gotta be ready to respond. And so he's always been great at pointing that out whenever I do waver, get a little bop on the head, you know, from the boss man. So that reminded me just you talking about that stuff. And how is the dynamic in the band of you being a vegan and how like you guys are from the Bay, I'm sure people are pretty,
00:37:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's nice. We're just a silly group, you know, and everybody just has, you know, everybody just jokes with each other and we keep a light spirit about things. So, you know, I don't get in in their face. And, you know, I've talked with different guests at different times and they're all, first of all, very, very much environmentally caring people, you know, so they love the nature and the outdoors and the environment. So we have that.
00:38:09
Speaker
you know, connection there, you know, and yeah, you know, and they they respect what I'm doing. And, you know, they haven't made those commitments themselves. But, you know, I've had different guys in the group, you know, try at different times, you know, cutting back a little or, you know, say, oh, when I get home, I'm not I'm going to not eat any meat for a couple of weeks. You know, so they've kind of dilly-dandyled in it. They haven't like nobody in the groups like all the way. I just don't you know, I don't it's not really my place to like
00:38:39
Speaker
You don't get overly at I was like, you know, but we'll pull up pull up somewhere like on the road. They'll all hop out like we're in like where is like Memphis or some Memphis man, and we pulled up to this barbecue spot and I'll hopped out and I just just popped up on my phone real quick, you know on the Yelp and there was like two blocks away was the school vegans by which I wouldn't expect in Memphis, but since I started being vegan, there's more and more everywhere. I mean, New Orleans or places that
00:39:07
Speaker
aren't traditionally known for that type of diet or myth. And boom, there's a whole community. So I said, oh, guys, I'm just going to run over there. I ran down a couple of blocks, got a cool meal at this little house that had become a restaurant, like a Victorian. I love places like that. It was awesome. And I just had a good meal. And they just swooped me up about an hour later. And you can make it work. You just be on your toes with what you want to do.
00:39:34
Speaker
It's not really a division with us, you know? Yeah. And that's kind of what the whole Torganic blog is about is just pinpointing these cool places like in Memphis and trying to be a guide, um, and a helpful resource for people that jump out of the tour bus or jump out of the van
Torganic Blog: Healthy Touring for Musicians
00:39:50
Speaker
or what have you. And they're like,
00:39:52
Speaker
What can I do? That's a good choice for my body right now. And hopefully the blog can just be one less hurdle and boom, I know. And like New Orleans, you mentioned, man, when I used to go down there, I would struggle. I would really struggle. And it's so exciting to see. There's like a pretty awesome health community happening. Growing, right? Yeah. So now I go down there and I'm dialed. I have my spots and I have my friends down there that own cool places.
00:40:22
Speaker
That's cool. Yeah, that's cool. It's been a cool transition. Like on a day to day basis for you, is there a way that you guys tour that enables you to live this lifestyle in a more easy way? Or are you really kind of just fending for yourself out there? I'm just always kind of tweaking things and trying to see what works. I mean, lately I've been trying to, you know, eat a little less.
00:40:46
Speaker
So just have a couple of meals a day. That's been good. I've been feeling actually healthier. Yeah. And I like that. And I personally really like just the whole foods. Beans, grains, legumes, vegetables. You know, a lot of the vegan people like go crazy for all these. It's kind of like junk food, vegan junk food, you know, all this processed fake.
00:41:10
Speaker
Steak fake, you know what I'm saying? And the new it's expensive, you know, it's by some company and Processed yeah, it's soy based or gluten based. Yeah shiggers in it and also I don't know It's like it's not really any yes way I think you see just as many unhealthy vegans as you see unhealthy non vegans because you know
00:41:30
Speaker
You know, in a way, I mean, if you can, you're not eating the animal protein. And so there can be some health benefits that but you can eat really bad as a vegan, you can be very un nutritional. So I think I'm really into the whole foods. Yeah, you got to be in touch with a nutrition aspect. However, you're eating. Yeah, it's important to explore nutrition and
00:41:50
Speaker
a little bit yeah for sure. To feel the best you can feel because at the end of the day everybody wants to feel good right? Yeah totally but for myself I kind of I'm not my nutritional knowledge is probably not as good as it should be. You're making me think it was for me it's been more like what you said earlier when you said when you just kind of make a commitment and you just do it. I was just like I'm doing this like I probably some days I probably don't have
00:42:17
Speaker
as much nutrition as I should, but I never put it in my consciousness or something. I'm just like... Yeah, but that's cool. I'm just like whatever. You can swing on both sides of the pendulum there. You know what I mean? It's like if you feel good and you're like, I'm good, man. I feel great. Maybe you don't need to be like...
00:42:39
Speaker
counting all the grams of this and checking all this and start obsessing over it. Because you can be on both sides of that. You can get pretty heavy, man. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly. That's the thing. You're kind of saying, yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking. It just never worked out well for me. I guess what was funny, I think when you were asking about all these things, the transitions that have happened,
00:43:06
Speaker
over the last years with the veganism, with yoga, with music.
Trust, Meditation, and Personal Growth
00:43:11
Speaker
One of the things I think happened, it just came to my mind, kind of, with a meditation book I was reading called I Am That, or not a meditation book, it's a kind of spirituality book, or, you know, kind of, he's kind of a guru, and one of the things, he's describing many things, and then one of the things he sort of ends up, he's kind of,
00:43:35
Speaker
Sri Maharaj Nisargadha is his name, and he was somebody people come to see in India, you know, like 1930s or 40s, and somebody stayed with him and recorded kind of questions, people would ask him questions and answers, and then it was translated. So it's not really like a book he wrote, but a recording of kind of,
00:43:55
Speaker
his philosophies and spiritual teachings. And he kind of talks about different things and then eventually he sort of tells these constant questioners like,
00:44:06
Speaker
just do what I'm saying and see the results. Just do it, you know, trust, kind of a trust. And I think that's kind of something that happened over the last years. I think I wasn't very trusting when I was younger, so I wouldn't trust different saxophone teachers or trust this or that. And I think something happened where I was just kind of like,
00:44:28
Speaker
like I started just doing the meditations he said to do just out of trust and I started feeling better and I said okay like just that's cool like you know and I called a yoga teacher and he just he said this book I'm just gonna try this book and I'm just gonna trust this book you know I mean maybe I make sure it's speaking to me I like how I did I trusted this
00:44:50
Speaker
Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta because he was speaking to me, something about it made sense to me. But it's just being willing once you believe something, you just kind of turn yourself over to it. You know what I mean? Somebody's different exercise in the horn, just like, okay, that makes sense, I'm just going to do that. You know what I mean? Do you have any sense of what might have been the catalyst for
00:45:13
Speaker
your sort of lack of trust at an earlier age? Oh, God, I wish I had known to kind of something like that. I think people are just ready for different things at different times, like you said earlier. So I mean, like when I see people who are like,
00:45:30
Speaker
just amazing musicians. Stuff you buy records of people that are just in the back in the day, more I guess back in the day, but sometimes now 17 or 18 and just so musically developed or so artistically developed in other arts or just
00:45:46
Speaker
as a person, any kind of worker or as a human, but some, we all have like different hurdles individually, that we have our own little personal mission, our personal things. Who knows? Who knows? And there's still like tons of other things that I'm still trying to, you know what I mean?
00:46:16
Speaker
just kind of grow, I think. That's what I'm saying, it's just like, for me, it's always kind of a... Yeah, the journey's never ended. Yeah, a personal thing of kind of just, yeah, just kind of, yeah, kind of getting rid of things. Really emptying, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
Performing at Festivals and Gaining Confidence
00:47:31
Speaker
kind of looking forward in your life
00:47:37
Speaker
Seems like the band's doing great, so congrats on that. Right on, right on. Yeah, it was good to see you guys at the Hardly Strictly. Ooh, that was a ball, right? That is a great festival. Yeah. We've been wanting to play that for you. It's so fun as an audience member. Yeah. Just the fact it's just like free and people are just streaming in from all over the place. It's all throughout the park and it's just pretty awesome, so.
00:48:01
Speaker
Just like you guys, I'm sure. We do festivals virtually every weekend, May through October. That is a special one. For me this year, that was probably one of my top ones. Such a good vibe. Golden Gate Park. We were blessed that the weather was just amazing. Beautiful, yeah. I love the variety of artists and music. It was a really cool vibe. It's free. What an amazing thing that
00:48:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's the thing is like, wow, you know, that that kind of changes the whole dynamic in a real really cool way. And whether it's the band or sort of your healthy yoga practice, do you have goals that you're working towards that you've thought about that you are you that type of person that kind of has like goals and you set them or is it more about the journey and kind of a day to day thing?
00:48:57
Speaker
Yeah, a little of both, I guess. I think that if there isn't something that you're going toward, it's a little, you might not be able to get it going. But then you kind of forget them while you're in the work, going toward them. Like maybe you make them sometime or in your sleep or somewhere you make them.
00:49:22
Speaker
I must make those kind of goals somewhere, but they're vague goals. I have like vague goals. I got to feel strong and healthy in my body, you know? So I know like if I'm lifting an amp or something and I get and I'm not, I think I'm as strong as I should be. Or if I'm getting sore or can't lift what I think I should be like, but I don't have an amount in my head that I should be able to lift 70 pounds. But I know that I should be
00:49:52
Speaker
able to do certain things, you know what I mean? Or it wouldn't be very healthy, you know? And so if I get soreness in my shoulder or something playing, I say, well, I must be doing something wrong when I'm playing. So the goal is to just not have that feeling, but it's kind of vague, you know, it's not a specific, um, like for many years I've just been saying, I just want to get to where I'm just communicating through the horn. Um,
00:50:16
Speaker
exactly like like nothing's in the way, in a way, just like whatever is in my spear and whatever notes and whatever phrasing or, you know, that I want to come out, you know, with is happening without bear. So it's a vague thing when you say that. It's not like, oh, I want to be able to hold a high C for three minutes or, you know, it's a it's a more of a vague goal.
00:50:45
Speaker
And then when you're doing certain exercises, you make little goals. Like if you're doing, you know, you know, in the horn, they say, okay, I got the metronome set at a certain tempo. And in a week, hopefully I can go up two beats to, you know, you know, faster, you know, like, um, these kinds of goals can happen, but they're not really the big goal. They're like, yeah, yeah. You've got your big picture goals and then you've got your more incremental.
00:51:12
Speaker
yeah goals yeah and they're all connected yeah you know it's all it's all connecting i think what you say about just being on that path and having the idea of almost having no filter and just expressing yourself
Self-Expression through Health and Practice
00:51:31
Speaker
in a pure way. I think that's most musicians would agree that's our big picture for your head. That's like the experience that you hope for. And then in different ways, whether it's
00:51:53
Speaker
your yoga practice, your health, practicing 16th notes at a fast tempo, practicing your triads, long tones, new chord voicings, new fingering techniques, all these little incremental goals, but they're all sort of part of that big umbrella pyramid of just trying to purely express yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like you need to learn all those things.
00:52:22
Speaker
It's like you're not filling yourself up. The more you know, the more you're emptying. You know what I'm saying? Because then it's all available to you. And so you're just more free. It's not like, oh, now I don't want burden by knowing more chords or more things with my breath. And hopefully all that stuff just lightens you.
00:52:51
Speaker
your feeling, you know, it seems like it seems to be the case. It's a weird thing that music is a weird world, right? You know, it's always so fun thing to get, you know, locked into, you know, as far as
00:53:11
Speaker
like if you call it a career, because probably for you, it's like you don't feel like you're really working. When you're playing, you're just like a kid again. It's not so much, I'm at work. When you see people going to work and most people don't have that same connection to what they do for work, that it's something so personal and so
00:53:36
Speaker
you know, connected to their spirit, they're just kind of going to work. And that seemed like that would be really hard. You know, once you do music for a while, you just, it's like, I wouldn't want to do that. Yeah, I think it's always so important to remember that. And
00:53:56
Speaker
really keep that in the forefront of your mind because being a musician can be a struggle. Being on tour can be a struggle. Being healthy on the road can be a struggle. Being a musician in New York can be a struggle. I don't care if you're on the road. There's struggles, but I think it's always
00:54:16
Speaker
really important to at the end of the day, break it down and be like, man, I'm so thankful to be able to do what I love. Yeah. Yeah. And make music every day with the people I love with such amazing musicians and be building these relationships in a musical context is like, I mean, that's beyond invaluable, right? Right. Yeah, exactly. Definitely you can get
00:54:46
Speaker
You can, you know, but it's kind of like that with, man, it's like that with a lot of things. It's just easy. The mind is so restless, you know, so it can just get locked down all these tunnels, you know what I mean? In anything you can just, a lot of it is just perspective and like the mind is going great, you know, so you can go and place it on tour or just go into like,
00:55:07
Speaker
doldrums of mental, just like you could. If you weren't a touring, or in a normal job, you can go to a job every day and get in these head spaces, too. For me, fitness is such a crucial aspect of pulling me out of
00:55:26
Speaker
if I'm in like a funk or I miss my little daughter, you know, or I'm in bands here in New York and I'm missing important shows, you know, just being able to get away and do a 10 mile run and just escape into the mountains, you know, that is so therapeutic for me.
Fitness, Mental Clarity, and Self-Awareness
00:55:44
Speaker
Yeah. Working out in any way, just kind of just getting in touch with myself. Realize, like. Realize. Get you back where you need to be. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
00:55:55
Speaker
That's all kind of part of like a self-awareness. You know what I mean? Like, oh man, it's like, you know, right? It's like, oh wow, I'm aware that I'm not in a good state of mind and I'm gonna like, you know, fix this. Like, I don't need to go to a therapist or a...
00:56:12
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Knowing yourself. It's like knowing your body if you're sore. Oh, this hurts and I'm going to do this and this to exercise it out or fix it or knowing that your mind's in a bad place and I'm going to do this and this to straighten it out. It's just like taking that time to check in with yourself. I think we can just
00:56:32
Speaker
be outward so much, but if you can stay self-aware, and like you were saying about health, if you see that, oh, eating this makes me feel certain, you know, that self-awareness, you know, to know that this is working for me or this isn't, or, you know, I think people just, a lot of people aren't that self-aware.
00:56:53
Speaker
You know, they're just eating food. They're already full. They're still eating. They're not even checking in like, well, I'm full. Why am I still stuffing food in my face? You know, like, you know what I mean? Like, it's easy to become desensitized to. Yeah.
00:57:05
Speaker
to your body and to things in the world. We have so much going on. It's not even a situation of casting blame or a criticism. No, no. It's the way our society in America and probably globally, but America, especially because that's where I live and that's what works. Absolutely, dude. It pushes you in this everything's moving so quick and we have our phones and we have our computers and social media. There's all these distractions.
00:57:34
Speaker
definitely pulling us away from simply being able to be aware of what's happening in our body. Yeah and that's like at shows that's like the pinnacle man I mean I just think that only now at 42 or so I'm starting to have like self-awareness on stage in front of a lot of people because you're dealing with so much like as you said like in life you deal with a lot on stage you got you know this crowd and
00:57:58
Speaker
whatever energy they're given either they're all quiet and they're staring at you and you're wondering what they're thinking or they're super excited and you like feel you have to meet this like massive amount of excitement somehow and then you've got the sound you're dealing with the you know minor sound the main sound the sound of the room and your horns and sounds different than it normally sounds and the people in the band are in different
00:58:18
Speaker
head spaces and you know there's many things going on and you don't even realize say that you're in some completely tight body position or you know or you know or doing something completely that you never do when you're playing music at home you know until you're able to kind of like you know breathe and kind of like be self-aware no matter what's going on
00:58:42
Speaker
and say, OK, oh, OK, I'm not taking deep breaths right now. So my phrases are really short, and my notes are really pinched. Or you have to settle into yourself, even with all the stuff going on, to learn. Do you know what I mean? It's a hard process when there's a lot going on. I mean, that's when you see these athletes making shots. It's like the fourth course.
00:59:12
Speaker
zoned in even though there's like this crowd and it's on TV and media is saying this about them and that and they've got you know all this hubbub but if they're just like in their body awareness in their self-awareness and they sometimes it's just like it's like no problem you know but other times it can just crumble not crumble but just kind of like dominate your
00:59:34
Speaker
Psyche. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it's like, it's an interesting battle, but I guess we all have to, you know, wage, you know, like you said, I mean, in America, but maybe everywhere, you know, just maybe just part of being a person or something. It is, you know, it is. It's a battle, but it's also a balance and it's, and it's just, it's a beautiful thing. It's if you can find
00:59:59
Speaker
What works for you? Even New York is really telling to me because I came here. I went to NYU for one semester and I was like 18 I think 718 and Wow, I was pretty you know pretty hypersensitive to things but it wasn't something I was that conscious of but like coming from the West Coast and like the
01:00:21
Speaker
the energy of this big city, the ferociousness, the activity, the big buildings, the dirt in a way. All of these various factors externally were making me really out of balance, but I really wasn't as self-aware being younger.
01:00:40
Speaker
So it was really hard to function in the city. So I left really quickly. Now when I come visit, I really enjoy how vibrant the city is. I can enjoy it and still keep centered. And it's like, well, this is a really different experience than I had in this town before. Yeah, it's interesting and telling to see how
01:01:04
Speaker
We go to so many different places on tour. And it's like, of course, places change. San Francisco's changing. New York's changing. But you can see how you've changed and grown in different ways in relation to cities. As musicians, that's a unique kind of perspective.
Evolving Perspectives on Touring and Performing
01:01:20
Speaker
It's like, oh, I remember being in Dallas seven years ago and how different my life was. And I was doing something completely different with my day than I would be doing today.
01:01:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Definitely. And venues, right? Venues, you play at the same venue. And our bands had that so many times with larger venues. The first time we played at the New Parish, we were playing a lot of 200-person bars and clubs. And then we were playing a 500-person venue. And we were just like, oh. We froze up. It just seemed like a mass of people. And we didn't know what to do. And then we played there now 20 times at New Parish.
01:02:00
Speaker
our home venue and so now it's so comfortable and it seems small compared to like the film war and the first time we played the film war we were on that stage and we were like what oh my lord look at all these people and then now we've been there a few times we're a little more comfortable but and hardly strictly it was another mind-blower when you walked on stage and there was like 15,000 people out there or however many it was just a man so deep you know just heads just you know up on the mountain here and I was like whoa
01:02:29
Speaker
I just literally always looked at each other like, you know, each, and so it's like you're saying about your perspective, kind of changing on something. So cool, man. I want to just thank you for coming.
Conclusion and Gratitude
01:02:41
Speaker
And I want to thank Heather Newman, your fearless manager. Thank you, Heather.
01:02:47
Speaker
She's an old friend, and when I saw her in San Francisco last, I was telling her about Torganic, and she mentioned you. Yeah, I'm real glad she helped make the connection happen. It feels like a really nice connection, and I'd like to just check out the other podcast and stay in touch with you too, you know? Yeah, for sure. Which is just so much interesting information. I got to pick your brain. I get to ask the questions next time. I want to know your rituals.
01:03:16
Speaker
Before we wrap up, do you want to just shout out for the listeners any links where they could check maybe you out individually or the California Honey Drops? Yeah, wow, man. Everything kind of goes through our website, www.cahoneydrops.com. That's kind of our headquarters. You can get to videos through there, but we have a lot of videos up on YouTube.
01:03:44
Speaker
I'm on Facebook, our band's on Facebook. You could like the band or see listings of shows, events on our Facebook, which is also just at the California Honey Drops. You know, just look that up on the Facebook. You can look up Johnny Bones and find me either through the, you know, Facebook. I don't have my own website. I'm pretty much full time with the Drops. You know, occasionally I'll play a swing dance or something with a small throw together band with friends just to play some songs I've been working on.
01:04:10
Speaker
and enjoy that. But I don't have any postings up of anything else. But, you know, the band, that's where it's at. Cool, man. Check us out. Definitely check out California Honey Drops. A lot of energy. Great band. Super fun. Come party. Yeah. Come party with Johnny and the crew. Yeah. Say what's up. It's good if anybody's into the vegan thing or anything. It's always nice if you come up, you see me at the show.
01:04:34
Speaker
come say what's up and I hand out flyers at our merch table we have a kind of an informational flyer of compassionate choices flyer that Claudia Lifton made she works with FFAC because there's these vegan outreach flyers that they've made in the past that have athletes and this and that but she did she wanted one with
01:04:55
Speaker
with some musicians in it to try to kind of people at festivals and stuff who are into music would be maybe inspired to say, oh, this guy in this band, you know, so we have those at the table so you can help me pass those out. If you're vegan and you want to do some.
01:05:08
Speaker
outreach at a show, you can go to the merch table and grab some pamphlets and hand them out to people. How awesome is that? But it's nice to make that connection for me, because like you said, you might not run into like just us running into each other. And if we find a restaurant nearby or, you know, it's like somebody, it's like a community. It's nice to to feel that togetherness, you know, beautiful, the bomb.
01:05:31
Speaker
Alright man, Johnny Sacks, the Torganic Podcast man. Thanks again brother. Alright man, awesome, thank you. Thanks man.
01:05:42
Speaker
Big thanks to Johnny for joining me for the fourth episode of the Torganic Podcast. Johnny has a lot of wisdom to offer and hopefully you guys are inspired by his story. Please comment, review, and subscribe to the show on iTunes and you can see the show notes and more info on how I live a healthy lifestyle on the road by visiting my blog at torganic.com. Looking forward to next week's show and until then, peace.