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Matt Scannell (Frontman, Vertical Horizon)

Published on Mon, 8 Oct 2018 10:00:00 +0000

This week, we're speaking with "Vertical Horizon" frontman and friend of the show Matt Scannell. He's joined by an all-star panel of HODINKEE editors featuring Cara Barrett, James Stacey, and host Stephen Pulvirent. The chart-topping musician talks about everything from selling CDs out of his trunk to his iron-clad rules of watch collecting (that he loves to break anyway). Enjoy.

Synopsis

This episode of Hodinkee Radio features Matt Scannell, lead singer and guitarist of Vertical Horizon, in conversation with hosts Stephen Pulvirent, Cara Barrett, and James Stacey. Recorded live at the UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles, the discussion explores Matt's journey from childhood guitar player to creating the number one hit 'Everything You Want' in 2000. Matt shares stories about the band's early days selling CDs from the back of their car, touring relentlessly as an acoustic duo from Georgetown University, and eventually signing with RCA Records.

The conversation shifts to Matt's passion for watch collecting, which began with a Hamilton khaki field watch from his father and expanded when he purchased an Omega Seamaster 300 after signing his first publishing deal in 1997. Despite establishing strict collecting rules—no dress watches, no gold, no chronographs, no stick hands, no date windows—Matt admits he constantly breaks them. He discusses his collection including vintage Rolex Submariners, Speedmasters, and his appreciation for brands like Tudor. The episode also touches on Matt's other collecting interests including vintage guitars (particularly a 1960 Gibson Les Paul burst), Marshall amps, Japanese denim, and his Porsche 911. Matt emphasizes the importance of authenticity in songwriting, noting that he no longer worries about relevance but focuses on truth and honoring his creative inspiration. He expresses deep gratitude for fans worldwide who have embraced his music and made it part of their lives.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown A few weeks ago, while we were out in Los Angeles for our pop-up at the UTA artist space, we recorded the first two live episodes of Hodinky Radio. You've already heard our conversation with comedian and car guy Spike Farriston, and if you haven't, it's episode 11 and, you should totally go back and check. it out And today we've got the second one ready for you. Matt Scandal is the lead singer and guitar player of Vertical Horizon, a band that you've definitely heard. All you had to do was turn on a radio for a few seconds between 1999 and 2001, and you'd be greeted by their number one hit, Everything You Want. But Matt's actually been a musician since he was a kid and he's still making music with his band to this day. He sat down in front of a live audience with Cara, James and me to have a fun conversation about selling CDs out of the back of his car, collecting everything from watches to rare guitars to Japanese denim, and his strict rules for watch collecting that he's constantly breaking anyway. He even sings for Kara a little bit. Like I said, this is a fun one people. I'm your host Stephen Pulverant and this is Hodinki Radio Live. This week's episode is brought to you by Hook and Albert. Stay tuned later in the show to learn more about this global travel brand and their range of travel accessories. You can also learn more at hookandalbert.com. Thanks everybody for coming out on a Sunday morning. Uh this is Hodinky Radio Live. I'm your host, Stephen Pulverin. I'm Cara Barrett, editor at Hod
Unknown inky. Thanks for coming today. I'm Matt Scannell from the band Vertical Horizon. Uh I'm James Stacey, senior writer with Hodinky
Unknown . Matt is somebody who's been a part of the Hodinky family now for I guess a couple of years. Um Yeah. we first kind of I think roped you in at an event out here and you just kinda introduced yourself and no no turning back from there, right
Unknown ? No, yeah, I mean for me, you guys have been a part of my life for a lot longer than than uh we've known each other I um you know late night searching the internet about this crazy watch passion that I have and trying to find uh information and insight from different places and it seemed like a lot of places were kinda dodgy as far as maybe um well certainly uh it's but what first attracted me w the f the photographs on your page were always so beautiful and the writing was so great and I felt like I I could could trust at least if it wasn't something to my taste, I could trust that I'd be learning about something in a good way from your page. So um I would always I'd go check your site every day. So when I met you guys, I was you d know, well and truly a fan of what you guys do. So um I've known
Unknown about you guys for a long time. Let's let's kind of go back to the beginning. Um you have a pretty great story that starts with some kind of very uh kind of heroic like early band sort of stories and then uh up through where we are today. So do you want to like take us back to the beginning and and kind of tell us how your career in music started?
Unknown Sure. I mean I I started playing guitar when I was seven years old and I had a my father had a guitar in the house and and I didn't know he didn't so I didn't know how to play it so I'd put it across my lap and I just plucked the open strings like a harp. Um and I actually learned how to play my best friend's girl by the cars by just playing the open strings like a harp. It's my main claim to fame, actually. But um I uh uh was incredibly passionate about guitar. I wasn't a very um uh it wasn't easy for me as a kid, as I'm sure is not very uncommon, to discuss my feelings, talk about why I felt the way I felt, so I turned to guitar as a as a means to uh sort of heal some of the stuff that was kind of broken inside of me and um or at least attempt to do that and music then and guitar specifically over the years has really come to mean just that. It's a way for me to express myself and it's a way for me to keep myself feeling whole or at least more whole. I started uh with my uh dear friend Keith Kane, a band of my band Vertical Horizon back in ninety one. Uh we went to Georgetown University together there and uh um would play gigs on the weekends as an acoustic duo um which was so much easier than the band now because you just have one case and that's it. You know, now there are laser beams and drum sets and martial stacks and stuff. But um uh yeah, and then we toured the country incessantly. We printed up a thousand copies of a CD called There and Back Again. Um we thought for sure that we'd be giving them away, you know, from that original printing to our great grandkids, you know, but actually they sold people purchased these records and supported us. Uh and so we made records to follow and uh eventually um signed with RCA Records, um, had a record that come out in ninety-nine, I believe, called Everything You Want, uh, which was uh the title track was a song that you guys were playing as we started this. And um yeah, the the music has sort of gone uh all the way around the world. Um and we travel the world and hear people sing my songs. And it's uh it's incredibly humbling, it's also incredibly exciting. And when I was a kid, I went to see Billy Joel play at Madison Square Garden. And I had, you know, the the last seats in the last row. And when he played piano man, he had to stop singing because we were all singing so loudly. And I thought even back then, I think this was on the storm front tour. Um, I thought even back then that that would be the highest honor for a songwriter to feel like the people had his the audience had taken the the you know his or you know the his or hers songs so deeply into the hearts that they sang louder than the performer could with a million watts of PA system uh supporting him. So I've I've had those experiences
Unknown now. Um and it's unbelievable. What is it like in those early days when you when you're hustling, right? Like you're you're selling CDs out of the back of a car, you're thinking that that one pressing is gonna go forever. And you're just trying to get people to hear what you're doing. How how do you do that? How do you get that out to people? Well I think the main th
Unknown ing back then and even it's sort of uh the record business has changed so much over the years that that I've been doing it. Um the main thing back then was going to different places, give you know getting as close to your fans as possible, meaning play every single town in this in this country and and we certainly did that um and continue to do that. That that's been the most important thing. For the for the years when we were on our major label, things kind of changed a little bit where it we were almost uh the the concept was hey let's pull you back a little bit make you m a little bit less available um but that was never our um sort of ethos from the beginning we were a group this a passionate fan base supports you and lifts you up and enables you to do this thing that that you love um and I think sometimes maybe artists of all kinds and maybe people of all kinds can kind of lose sight of that and I desperately try not to because uh the only reason I'm still doing what I love to do so desperately as a career in a profession is because
Unknown There was also I I think a really interesting moment kind of in the late nineties and early two thousands at at Georgetown and in DC of creativity. And what what was it like to be a
Unknown part of that that scene? Well you know it was in it was interesting our sort of closest parallel as far as a band that was really starting to crush it and make things happen, uh we're Dave Matthews band. Um and you know just such a nice group of people, great organization. Our producer, uh a guy named John Alasia, who has gone on to do incredible work? Uh, and his partner, a guy named Doug Derryberry, who actually lives in New York City now and has the Sesame Street gig. He plays in the in the Sesame Street band. Um, these guys sort of uh introduced us to a lot of guys in the in the Northern Virginia sort of Maryland DC scene. Um and and Dave Matthews band were really the the band that were just shooting into the stars. Um and Carter Beauford, the drummer from the band, uh, when we were making our second studio record, a record called Running on Ice, he kinda we we were I was desperate to bring a bit more of a band feel to the record, uh, whereas our first record had been largely just a two experience And I was talking to Carter about it and saying I wanted to have a you know a drummer play, and he said, Well, I'll play. And this, you know, this is unbelievable. This is one of the best drummers in the world um joining us and playing on our little record. And we've over the years m uh we've we've done well with drummers. I've become great friends with Neil Peart, the drummer from Rush, and he's played on two of our records. Uh, and he and I have co-written a song together. And Rush is my favorite band. When I you know was growing up, I just loved and continue to love that band. And so uh we've done very well with guest drawer situations. We're gonna have to talk about rush af
Unknown ter this. Oh yeah. We can talk about rush now. I mean we could. I don't think I know who rush I don't know who that is. So is that embarrassing? Now this is definitely what we're talking about. Modern day warrior mean mean stride day stamps me
Unknown an mean pride. Okay, maybe I recognize it. I recognize it now. You weren't expecting that, were you? I wasn't. Okay, good. I don't know who you are. All right, what we're where were you going now? I was gonna ask some other bands that you inspired you at the time that you really looked up to. Um so you know, growing up in New England, James Taylor was a huge influence. Uh the cars were a huge influence. Um, but I also loved Iron Maiden. Um I loved Brian Eno, uh, you know, who was an incredible producer, worked with lots of great artists like you too and Peter Gabriel. Um or did he work with Peter Gabriel? Um Brian Eno uh did a bunch of uh ambient music soundtracks that he has a record called um uh music for airports that is a completely this is the antithesis to a rock record. And so I t so good though. Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah, that's actually uh something I'd recommend to everybody if you haven't heard Brian Eno's music for Airport's record, go out and give it a spin or a Spotify or Apple music or whatever you do. But um it's great. So I tried to listen to all different kinds of music and learn from everything. Who are you listening to today? I like uh there's a band called Francis uh Francis and the Lights, I think it's called The Song with Bonnie Vere. Yes. So good.. Beautiful. Yeah, yeah It's great ahead of playing us playing it this morning. Were you really? Yeah, yeah. Well the song I'm obsessed with is a song called Can I Have This Dance? Great track. It's incredible. It's incredible. I love this song. Peter Gabriel is is maybe my favorite singer songwriter. Um and he sounds the It's a very similar sound for sure. And it just knocks me out. I I think it's so beauti
Unknown ful. And so we'll bring things a little bit towards watches. So your your love of watches started while you were on tour, right
Unknown ? My love for watches really started. My father gave me a Hamilton khaki field watch that was sort of co-branded with LL Bean. He bought it from the LL Bean catalog. Uh it was a manual wine maybe thirty is it thirty-two thirty-four millimeter? Um and it's uh I still have it. Um just got it serviced and new crystal for it, keeping it honest. And I just was fascinated with it. I I would stare at the second's hand and listen to it when I when I was winding it. I still have the little sticker on the case back, you know, all these years later. And that was that was my first real um you know uh that that watch w was my first sort of entree into into watches in general. Um but when we yes, what when in nineteen ninety seven when I signed my first publishing deal, I bought this watch, which is uh omega c master 300 uh and it's a uh uh uh it is the Pierce Brosnan era James Bond watch the full-on like you know and it was funny because I was kind of priding myself on not being a Rolex guy at the time, you know. Oh I I wouldn't get a submariner. I'll get the you know the Omega Speed uh Seamaster rather. Um and uh and so yeah, so I've I've I've worn it off and on over the years. I'll I'll I'll never you know, I'll never I'll never let it go. I remember signing the publishing deal, get a getting a little bit of money, and that day walking into a mall in North Carolina, I think it was in Raleigh, and just seeing it in behind the counter. And you know, I had been lusting after this thing for a long time, and I was just like, I'm buying myself a watch. You know, it was this huge moment of victory. It felt like it was really great to celebrate a a significant accomplishment with a timepiece and uh that's obviously been done for however long as we probably as as watches have been around. Um but I loved sort of investing in that and you know for myself. And I've tried to continue that too, so you know, over the years so that when significant things happen, maybe another watch makes it into my world. But you know it's funny when I was thinking about what I was gonna wear today, um, you know, I have a lot of watches that are more, you know, expensive, more uh collectible or whatever you wanna say, but this is the watch that started me, you know, to you know, really led me to become a passionate collector. And everything about it, you know, the the the the wave pattern on the dial, which you know, maybe isn't absolutely my favorite thing right now if I were to purchase it. I remember just being mesmerized by the fine details of it. Um and so it's a special it's a special thing to me. And what are some of the other milestones since that you've kind of marked with with watches? Well the the ironically um I I don't know if you guys have had this experience. I know people talk about it a lot where y you resist being a Rolex person because it feels like it's the the the you know peop it's people aren't necessarily even thinking when they make the purchase they just they know they need a Rolex so they go buy the latest submariner. Um and I I didn't want to be that guy, um, but I desperately wanted a submariner because I thought it was the coolest watch in the world and ever since seeing James Bond and uh um uh Goldfinger, I think it was in the intro, Goldfinger on that the you know, maybe it's an 18-inch uh 18 millimeter rather NATO band with the the red and and and black stripes and uh gold stripe or whatever. Um I I thought, well, that's the coolest watch. A friend of mine in uh New York owned a guitar shop called 30th Street Guitars. His name's Matt Uminov, and Matt was upgrading to a C dweller uh and uh and he had a 5513 serif dial that he uh I would see every day when I'd go in to get my broken guitars fixed and I'd just stare at his wrist as he was you know working on my guitars and uh eventually, you know, I said, hey, if you ever sell that watch, I I I'd really like to buy it Great. I love it. And you're also something of a speed master guy, right? Well yeah, I mean I am. Uh in that I'm I've been fascinated by the story of the watch. I'm I I love the design of it. It's interesting. I have a few rules in my col for my collection. Uh one of them is no chronographs. Uh another is no stick hands. Um and I break these rules all the time. Uh I I I I don't like date bubbles, so I prefer not to have a date bubble and yet I just uh a year or so ago bought a sixteen fifty five with a big old date bubble on it, the cyclops. Um but uh but the speedmaster um yeah you you look at that and you're gonna break all your rules for that watch because it's perfect. Um I just recently got a um a nineteen sixty five um was it the one five five oh one two is that right with the I think so yeah with the eight six one or 3321 uh movement. And uh so I have now I have the Meister, the speed meister that that uh Eric Wind helped me uh get through um the the Christie's auction. And then Eric actually helped me find this uh this other nineteen sixty-five watch. And it's really neat to think that you know while uh the Gemini missions were going on uh up there in space, the guys were just wearing effectively the same
Unknown Is there a watch that you're right now kind of like lusting after like the thing that's like the next thing for you well uh so the other n
Unknown ight at the at the gathering here uh gentleman was wearing the new uh rolex gmt um st in steel with the Jubilee. And I I I wanted to think I've I've wanted to think that that watch was no big deal. I wanted to I wanted that to just bounce off of me and have it be like, oh I don't I don't want one of those. No. And he was so cool just wearing everybody else was kind of dolled up. He was wearing just a white t-shirt and jeans. Got like this guy super cool gray hair. And he's just so bad like he had a Steve McQueenness about him. And I just and then I looked at his frickin' wrist and it was that damn new Rolex GFT. And I thought it was fabulous. I I don't wanna jump into that that market but I it's it's amazing in person. I was when I saw it at Boswell for the first time I wasn't expecting to like it. I really liked
Unknown it when I saw it in person. And I saw I talked to that guy as well. He was very, very cool. He was very laid laid back and just kind of very casual. Keegan said something really similar uh when we recorded with him over he was saying that he wanted that one to essentially not affect him. And then the more he saw it, the more it was like he couldn't really get out of his mind. And he said he figured he would probably loop around back to one pretty soon. So Yeah, well
Unknown I I mean it's it it's got a thing. It's really got a thing. And I've always liked the Jubilee bracelet. I you know, we were talking about your uh James is wearing a sixteen seven fifty, right? Uh 16570 on a uh polar a polar GMT uh Rolex uh with an aftermarket Jubilee band that you were say
Unknown ing was like sixty dollars or something. Yeah it's like Hadley Roma makes it and I think it looks really interesting because the watch didn't come with uh Jubilee originally from uh from the brand. But I think it looks pretty good. It's pretty comfortable. It's a killer. Yeah, it's so the
Unknown Jubilee blade bracelet, it even though the if you were gonna choose maybe one I think the oyster bracelet is arguably the greatest piece of jewelry, quote unquote, that for certainly for me as a man that that that a man can wear. That's my argument. I I think there are plenty of arguments against that, but I'll stick with the oyster bracelet. But the Jubilee has a thing that's really amazing. Like the way you're wearing that right now we'll we need to do a James Stacy picture when this is all done for sure. But it's like he's kind of like just like green tones. He's relaxing and yet he's wearing this like you know marginally
Unknown blingy. Yeah, it's got some bling. Yeah. There's something a little bit aggressive about wearing a Rolex sports watch on a Jubilee bracelet. That's just like it's cool. You see people wearing Daytonas on them and like it's it's something else.
Unknown Yeah. I and as far as what am I lusting after there's one other new watch that I really want to see. I want to see that Tutor 58 I did and I have one on order too. Yeah, it's it's killer. It's really, really good. I love the size and I love the the height. For me the, the black bay as it stands now it feels a little too for me it feels a little bit too tall or you know it's a robust one. Yeah, there you go. And for bigger I have small wrists, so for bigger guys, I think it's perfect, but I I like the looks of that. Does that have drilled lug
Unknown s? Uh I don't think it does. I don't think it does. But it it honestly, it's the closest thing you can buy now to a vintage sub. Right. It it feels like wearing a vintage submariner. And uh this will come out in our review coming soon, uh which may be out by the time this runs. But uh it it really you put it side by side with a vintage tutor sub and you measure all the dimensions, it's actually smaller in a couple dimensions than like an old M N uh snowflake. That's cool. Yeah, it's it's pretty crazy. So what do you think of the Tudor G M T versus the Role
Unknown x G. Well so I just saw James had uh a watch roll with both of those watches together. Um and okay, so I don't do brown. I don't mean you don't like or whatever? Yeah. I have no brown in my life. I'm kind of the same way. So I have to do I get what you're saying, but it's wanted to be able to do right, fair, sorry. That deserved clarification. I have no brown color in my life as far as stuff goes. And uh so I I like black uh bands and you know blues and et cetera et cetera. Um so it was on this brown leather band and the first thing I did what I thought to myself, well what would it look like on a black, you know, or a steel band? But it's it's beautiful. I do I did notice and I've seen this watch. I spent five seconds with this watch. Um I did like the color of the the bezel. Um I thought it was really cool. Uh but the GMT um the the the Rolexes it's h it's hard that's that's tough to have them sitting next to each other 'cause in the metal that Rolex is was w crazy. But for the price, that's the thing about Tudor right now. I mean, for enthusiasts who want to get into this world, I mean in house movements, um, you know, the heritage that they have, the design language, the snowflake hand is a is a wonderful uh uh uh you know aesthetic. It's so cool. But the last thing you said are there any other grails? I have to mention I I definitely want a big crown sub and I really, really want one with the explorer dial with the three six nine. I do. I want one of those. I could see I could see you rocking that. That's a pretty great watch for that. I want to rock that. For sure. Or a Milsa and or a mill sub with the sword hands. I so if you guys can help me make that happen, we can help you find something. Yeah. Just maybe by the time I leave if I could have one of those. Yeah, that's that's what you get for coming on the show.
Unknown Matt, you were saying earlier that like uh referencing the wave dial on your uh Seamaster that it may not be something you would buy now, since you bought that, how would you say your tastes have changed? Do you think it's more of like a refinement or y it's wider now? I
Unknown think generally speaking, I I I prefer slightly simpler designs now. Um but having said that, I the case of this watch, so I have a 1967 uh C Master 300. It's not the big triangle. Um, it's actually been featured on the Hodinki Instagram feed, and it was one of the greatest moments of my life. When you when you guys love to hear. I'm telling you, I was jumping up and down around the house. I'm like, yes, hoodinky. Um, but this watch is incredible. And and for me, if I'd never were to get a mill sub, this qu this thing scratches a lot of the itch. Um but the case actually is similar to this case. Um it's similar to the speedmaster case. And that's a beautiful. I mean, I love all the little nuances that you kind of discover when you're holding this thing in your hands. Um the helium escape valve, like really, I don't know. I it's I haven't needed to use it. Really? I have not needed to use the Helium Escape as far as I know. Um but uh yeah, no, I I say things have my tastes have become a little bit simpler. I absolutely adore the watch that Steven's wearing, which is 1016. Yeah, 1016 Explorer. Guilt dial. So it's it's a perfect scalar. There's nothing unnecessary about that watch. And I I do generally think like if I don't know the date, it doesn't really matter. It's fine. Yeah. You'll be okay. I can look at my phone or I can ask my friend Cara what date is it? Because it's there on your amazing Royal Oak. I
Unknown love the idea of you wearing a no-date watch and just texting Cara
Unknown for you, you know, but it needs to be at a similar voice memo. A little bit of rush. Yeah, little di every day a different rush song for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah dad now I have to download Rush. Uh yeah. We we gotta fix that. It is all about rush, let's pretend. No, you shouldn't try. No no no no no you shouldn't at all. I mean you're m you're young for I I'm of the generation when it was just they were just killing it. And uh so no don't you should there's no no bad feelings on Hodinki Radio. That's a good that's a good motto. No bad feelings on Thank you Radio. I like that. Although we were debating earlier as to whether or not James and I should be like arch enemies. Yeah, because you two are the two nicest human beings I've ever met.
Unknown There's not a bad vibe between the two of you. You can't be in the same room with that guy. Steve and I are the meaningful guy. Yeah, I know. It makes me feel terrible. These guys are so nice. You mentioned earlier you have rules for collecting. Yes. Can you go over your rules? What what are your rules?
Unknown Okay, so uh no dress watches, because why? These are this is gonna this is this is gonna offend people who are are much more knowledgeable than I am and I'm okay with it. Like no no dress watches. No gold. No rose gold. I don't care, James. I don't care. I don't care. No date windows, no stick hands. So no rainbow daytona at all. Never a rainbow. No, or actually rainbow Daytona gets a pass on every level. Yeah. If I had a rainbow day Daytona, I'd probably bring it up. I'd want two and I'd want to do it Morgan King style. Um Yeah, no stick hands, no chronographs, uh no dates if possible, definitely no days. And I unfortunately I break these rules all the time. So I was wearing yesterday I was wearing a Seiko I'm gonna get the reference wrong, but a Seiko sixty one oh nine, the blue one oh five yeah six six one oh five is it yellow six one oh f this is this doesn't matter, but I I want to say that the sixty one oh five is a is a dive watch because I just bought a six I think a six one oh five eight thousand which is the transition model before the sort of apocalypse now watch that everybody it's everyone knows with that slightly this is a visual motion that I'm making to everyone in podcast land. But uh it's sort of an asymmetrical case. This one is a very symmetrical case. Regardless, the i the watch I was wearing yesterday is the blue version of the pogue essentially. Um and it's got stick hands, it's a chronograph, and it's got a day of the week and the date.. Yeah So all rules broke. Sweet. Yeah. If it if it only were gold and was on a leather strap. That's another rule, no leather straps. Sorry guys. I mean I I don't I I I'm in I'm on the wrong podcast.. Sick burn I no, I like NATOs. I like I like cloth, but I don't own a leather strap and I don't own anything that's brown. And I really don't have I really honestly don't have much rationale for any of this. But you asked me what my rules were. That's fair. And I'm gonna answer them. Great. I get it. Do you? I don't like wearing leather straps that much either. And I don't like brown. And I make rul
Unknown es and then I break them. And now for a look at this week's sponsor. Dopkits might not be the sexiest thing to talk about, but for anyone who travels regularly, you'll know they are super important. Hook and Albert is a modern travel brand built Last week I showed you their Garment Weekender bag, and this week we've got their dop kit. It's built almost like a piece of architecture. You unzip the center pocket and when you open it up there's a rigid structure that holds it open like a doctor's bag so you can really see deep in and not lose anything. There are also two side flaps which fold down so that for neurotic people like me, you don't have to place your toiletries directly on a hotel countertop. There are tons of color and material options that match all of Hookin' Albert's larger bags so you can really build out a full kit. To learn more and to see all of the options, check out their brand new website at hook andalbert.com. All right, let's get back to the show. So we alluded to it earlier, but you're you're
Unknown also Well I've been a car guy for a very, very long time. I I always have read the magazines and poured over them and nerded out on which car would be faster than which car, assuming that I could drive it as well as the guy who was driving it to post those numbers. Um but yeah, over the past couple of years I've done some stuff here in town for KTLA and more recently on headline news where I'm I'm doing some car reviews. Um and uh I I I I really I absolutely adore cars. It is uh so when I was born, here's the short story ish, short ish. When I was born, my mom and dad had a Porsche 912, which is the four-cylinder version of the 911, slightly smaller engine. A lot of people that car is coming back in a lot of ways because people say it's a lighter car, maybe it's in it might not have as much acceleration and get up and go, but it might be a a driver's car that people sort of skipped over for a long time. Anyways, um I actually have a picture on my phone of me when I was a kid. I'll buy the the you know the Porsche logo just like that beautiful leaf green nine eleven T. Have people talked about this car on this podcast? No, you should do that. Well here in the in the UTA artist space, uh everyone has so beautifully set up here at Hodinki, there's this like mind-bendingly beautiful leaf green Porsche 911 T um that w was kind of an infamous car here around LA. I don't know if it's gonna continue to be uh But uh it's stunning. The color, I guess Ben was telling me yesterday that the color was only made for one year. Um, and it's just an exquisite car in an exquisite color. Um but bringing it back to to my um to my story, um they uh my mom and dad had this nine twelve and so when I was born they they put me on the back parcel shelf of the nine twelve to take me back from the hospital in Boston to my home in Worcester. So the first engine that I ever heard in my life was a Porsche engine. And so all these years now I've owned other cars, but I finally bought my first 9-11 and I love this thing. It's incredible. And you can see the singularity of purpose. I admire the fact that the Germans are so, you know, stubborn that they're like, no, look, we know the engine's in the wrong place and we don't care. And we're gonna continue to work on this thing until it's, you know, not that dangerous you know it's dangerous ish um and uh no but and I'm able to use it every day it's my car that's that's my car and I stick my guitars in the back or in the front or wherever I can. And when I'm going on the road, my the luggage that I take actually just fits perfectly in the frunk, which is what they call the trunk in front because the engine's in the back. So you stick your bag in the frunk and you're off to the airport. So I I bought the two th I bought a two thousand fifteen Carrera S. So it's the last year of the normally aspirated engine for the the basic uh cars in the range, the non uh uh GT cars. And um it's the PDK box which you know living in LA you got it makes a lot of sense but I I can also really see at some point uh you know getting a manual car. But the the the the car that I'm kind of currently sort of lusting after is the that new GT3 Touring I think is a a very, very cool car. So that's a um that's a uh um it's a manual shift only GT3 so super high revving engine, super, super huge performance, a little bit more like it harkens back to the nine eleven R that came out a couple of years ago that was selling for bonkers cr prices and then Porsche kind of came in and said, Okay, hold on everybody, you know, let's not panic. For sure. You know
Unknown . And a great card. I mean with uh the touring package where they drop the wing and it contains kind of the body lines of a more street ready nine eleven. And I love that front uh the front bumper is is so aggressive on those cars. I don't I don't want the wait list is or what the lineup's like that scenario. So maybe it's a little bit easier in LA, but uh certainly a great car for around here up in here. Yeah, totally. James, have you gotten to drive that car? I've not, no. No? James has driven a lot of cool cars. James drives a lot of cool cars. You have a cool car out front right now, don't you? Uh it comes tomorrow. Comes tomorrow. McLaren seven twenty s no big deal. James is really casual like that.
Unknown I drove a Yukon this morning. I'm a man of the people. Actually, we were in a McLaren last time we were in LA, weren't we? Um were we in? Or we saw a McLaren. Probab
Unknown ly opposite. That's very different. But like we were in a cheap rank or something. We were in a cheap rank. You were in a car when you saw McLaren, so we saw one. There goes like on the road.
Unknown Matt Farrell. We were at Matt Farrh's place in uh the smoking tuck. Oh yeah, sure. We didn't see one on the highway. We were like, no, we were with someone who had a McLaren.
Unknown One quick question. First first car. What was your first car? My first car was a Ford Explorer. Okay. That my mom and dad? Sorry? Eddie Bauer? Not the Eddie Bauer version. We weren't that posh. My mom and dad bought me, uh bought me that car, truck, whatever it was. Uh and that was the car um that we drove all over the country and and sold our records out of the pop-up tailgate after shows. Um I don't still have it. They were great though. It was great. It was green. It had tan interior. So it was ace. I know it was very close to the Eddie Bauer edition. Okay, but here's another thing: logos. I don't wear t-shirts with logos on them. And the Eddie Bauer edition could not say Eddie Bauer more times. Eddie you're a man after my own heart. Many logos. Eddie Bauer, stop it, Eddie. What Eddie? What badging details on the logos. So the car, so I bought my car, my Porsche used. One of the things that's really, really cool about the Porsche is you can you can tell them to badge delete things. You can have them take some of the verbiage off of the car. And but but since my car was used, I just it it is what it is. It says everything back there. It could not say more things back there. So can you actually do that? They'll debadge the car for you? Yeah, you can spec it when you're ordering it. In fact they they even said you could do it now, but since it's lived a life for a little bit while a little while underneath the paint it might you know have a little shadow of of the stuff that's been hiding it hiding the paint, fresh paint from the sun. This is not interesting for a lot of people. I'm sorry. Wow, deep dive into debadging cars. Come on
Unknown . We we try to bring the heat, right? I love it, man. So other other than cars and watches, do you collect anything else? Do you collect guitars or or anything? I do. I mean that that's
Unknown really what I do is is collect uh I I use them, so I'm not sure how much of a c well I use my watches too, but so yes, I I when I first started um getting a little bit of money, I bought a lot of great old uh uh musical gear, uh specifically Marshall amps from the 60s. Um, you know, a lot of my favorite guitar players played these wonderful old old guitar amps, and I kind of got in there before it was really crazy, and now it's now they're a lot of money. Um the vintage guitar bug is also really hit me hard uh and I've um I've been for very fortunate to to get some uh incredibly special instruments that I use every day, you know, to make these records. So I'm I'm a huge vintage Gibson fan. I tend to be more of a Gibson guy than a Fender guy. That's you know, as much as when you meet someone and people say, Are you Rolling Stones or Beatles? Uh you'll, you know, guitar players will often sometesim say to each other, Are you Fender or Gibson? Um there are many other great companies out there. I when I tour, especially I use a company out of Maryland called Paul Reed Smith. I use their instruments. They're wonderfully, I mean incredibly solidly built so much so we do a lot of shows for the troops around the world. Um it's my real passion uh as a performer to try to give back to people who have incredibly difficult jobs and do do the tough work um and the politics of everything I just put it all aside and I try to go um you know give my fellow countrymen a smile and a break. And so we go to places like Afghanistan and Iraq and places When it's time to actually play the gig, d the wood hasn't shifted, the instrument isn't, you know, bro the electronics haven't melted. Um so they make uh great instruments in there. It's a you know a new uh newer company than these heritage brands like Gibson and Fender? The PRS are the one that has the birds and the fretboard? Yes. Yeah that's their uh really great gu
Unknown itars. Do you do you have a Grail guitar, a guitar that you would love to own someday that you haven't been able to track down?
Unknown I actually uh yeah it's funny, I haven't really told this story yet, but um uh I've been meaning to and uh this seems as good a time as any. Um so the the the the the the the sort of holy grail for guitar collectors is the uh the Gibson Les Paul burst or sunburst guitar, sunburst finished Les uh Les Paul. Um to humbucker guitar, everyone knows what a Les Paul is or it's an iconic instrument, let's say. And um and yet to find an actual burst of which were maybe sixteen hundred were made between nineteen fifty eight and 1960, towards the end of 1960, they're incredibly difficult to find. They know the whereabouts of about, I think, 900 of these things. And I was incredibly fortunate to be able to purchase uh a 90 early 1960 uh uh burst les paul from the original owner um and i'm gonna be doing a story about that for our website and and talk Does it play as well as you hoped? It really does. Uh it's it sounds it sounds amazing. Um and the frets, it's i i it had been sitting in its case effectively since 1974. Oh wow. Um so it the wood n needed to be played. Um, you know, w the when the vibrations of the of the notes that you play go through the instrument, they kind of the instrument if it's been lying dormant for a while. I don't know the science behind this, I just know the the the practical experience of it that the guitar almost needs to be w uh wakened up and uh and that's what's happened with this instrument. It just I play it every day, I work with it, I'm working on a new vertical horizon record now. And every day I just bring it to the studio and let it do its thing and
Unknown Is is the world of vintage guitars and specialty guitars similar at all to the world of of watches and cars in terms of there being specific dealers who specialize in certain things and kind of a community of people who are sort of trading these things around? Yeah, there is.
Unknown I've been amazed both in the vintage guitar world and almost on some levels more so in the watch world to find a group of people who are super passionate and also uh willing to teach and and share their knowledge and experience uh with people who are learning. Um I was kind of intimidated or I thought when I was when I was really um coming into this hobby that it might be an elitist and uh exclusive club uh and and I have no problem asking the question uh when I when I don't know something. And that means a lot of t I spend a lot of time asking questions. Uh and that can be annoying in in a conversation when the person's going, Hey, wait, hold on, I'm sorry, double underline, what what? You know, exclamation point, all these things that you hear. Um but I've really been fortunate to c to get in with a great group of friends, uh and you know, people like Eric Koo, Eric Wind, Morgan King, these guys who are and you guys, I mean, you know, uh thank you for for helping me as I learn, you know. And and so much of that has to do with uh this sort of there there is a um a community uh that is uh it's a sharing community. You know, when people get something that's really cool, it's kind of a celebration. And for me in the vintage guitar and amp world, that's certainly the case. Um a good friend of mine uh works works for Gibson and he helped me through uh the process making sure that it was authentic and all that. And uh and an uh an another guitar player, incredible incredibly talented guitar player and and guitar collector named Joe Bonamassa was also uh a huge help for me. And he he likes watches too, so he's cool
Unknown . We might have to meet him. I he's a good guy. Um so in just a couple minutes, we're going to open up the floor to questions. Uh if you would like to ask a question, there's a microphone right there. We ask that you use it just so that it shows up on the recording. Um but for now we're gonna start with our Hodinki Radio questionnaire. We ask every guest uh a series of five questions. Uh they're kind of quick, short answers. Oh boy. And then we have a special question just for you, if that's all right. Yes. Uh so question number one. Uh what is the best place you've traveled in the last year
Unknown ? We do so much travel, it's hard to say. Uh I I I love going to Tokyo. I was just in Tokyo. I'm a huge denim fan. I love raw denim. It's a very I can I can tell. It's a nerdy thing. But um I love raw denim and and and Tokyo, Japan in general is uh is is you know they make maybe the b the best fabrics, all this fabric I'm wearing is Japanese. Oh that's so nerdy. Um but uh so yeah, I went there and had a great experience. They love watches too, you know. So I love that culture. I love the food there. I'd say Tokyo.. Great That wasn't a quick answer. I'll get qu
Unknown icker. No, that's that's great. Um number two, what's the best piece of advice you've ever received and uh who gave it to you? Well, I think it comes from
Unknown my parents originally, but I've told people so many times in my life that I almost feel like it just comes from me. Um but saying please and thank you, that's the best piece of advice anyone can give you. I talk about it all the time uh in our world you know uh the in the in the in the world of of musicians we have we can have a tendency to s to act in a somewhat entitled fashion you walk onto a stage and you've only been there on that stage for five minutes, but the crew who have put the stage together have been there since six A.M. and worked all day long to get this thing ready for you. So if you walk on like it's no big deal uh and that you're entitled to just move forward from you know on the backs of all these people who have put in this time. You know, I just think it's wrong. And so I try to make a point uh uh every day that we're working to to meet everybody the road, you know, like it just you use your indicator on the road because you want to be polite, right? You want to let people know what you're doing. Um say please and thank you. It's it's gonna make everybody's life better. Uh number three, what's your guilty pleasure? It's a good question. T Swift? What's that? Taylor Swift. Oh. Um not not so much. Not so much, Taylor. Ta-te. That's a good question. I have a hard time of thinking as p of pleasures as being guilty. I I sort of feel like if you're enjoying something, you're enjoying it, and there's nothing wrong with that. So have a bar of chocolate or listen to a Tay Tay record. Yeah, my shorter answer is I c I'm not sure that there really are any guilty pleasures. All right. That's fair. Uh I if I can think it's i it's not fair because you wanted something totally fair. But but I'm not giving it to you. But I if I think of something guilty, I'll give it to you in a sec. Sorry. Perfect. Uh number four, if you had to do something else for a living, what would you be doing? Well I studied psychology in college. So so I was on the path to become a therapist. I realized after working for a year in an adult daycare center uh in Maryland uh with Alzheimer's patients that I didn't at the time certainly have the skill set to kind of take all this in, all these difficult things in and process them and sort of keep myself whole. You know, it really weighed heavily on me. I've sun I've since then talked to a lot of people who, you know, explain that that well it's something you do you kinda download it then to uh someone else who helps you. You don't necessarily just take all this stuff in and hold it. Um so it's possible that I would I would go back and and give that a try. I I love the idea of exploring why we feel the way we feel. I mean, as a songwriter, it's my it's my craft largely it's focused inward from myself. Um but I do find and it's incredible that when when I write a song, even if I think it's the most esoteric um and and sort of uh circumspect subject, I find, well, we all have the same feelings. And if it may it may not be you know wrapped up in the same wrapper that I put it in, but the at its core, we all feel the same feelings.
Unknown Great. Number five, what's the thing you're looking forward to the most right now
Unknown ? I think having that fist fight with James Stacy that we've like we planned, I think it's gonna be good. And I think we would do it right in front of the 9-11 T and who knows, maybe some body panels suffer as well. This is very impressive. Dude, it's getting full on, man. Perfect
Unknown . What is your desert island record? You get one record for the rest of forever. Yeah.
Unknown Right. It's an impossible question. It should be a vertical horizon record because I should just be that guy who names his own band. I do believe, by the way, I do think after I said I don't wear any logos, I do I love guys who wear their own bands t-shirts. And so many of my friends are like, no, dude, you can't do that. But I do love that. Like when I look up at Metal Metallica or Iron Maiden, then they're wearing their own. Metallica's jump to mind. For some reason I feel like I've seen those. And you guys are the coolest guys in the world. So like there have been a few times where I've worn a vertical horizon shirt and I realized what I really realized is I'm not in Metallica and I'm not in Iron Maiden. And so maybe I can't do that. But I wanted to, so I did it. Uh but um what was the question. Does it record right? Thanks, Car. No, I'd I'd I guess I'd say so by Peter Gabriel. It kind of gets every mood that you might possibly be in. He's he's just a he's a unbelievable writer, producer, piano player, dulcimer player. I don't know about that last thing.
Unknown Probably. He may not play the dulcimer. All right. Let's open it up to the audience. Who would like to ask a question? Thanks, Matt, for being here. Your curiosity and passion is
Unknown super uh inspiring and contagious as well. Thank you. Um I'm curious as someone who's been in the music industry for a while, uh, if you could speak to like maybe the nerdy bits of songwriting and in particular, like your process and how that's changed, you know, t like today what you do and then like how that
Unknown was Yeah, no that's a good question. I I for me it always started with the guitar. I would sit down with the guitar and play sort of noodle along uh and let a song sort of reveal itself to me. I would sing and continue to sing nonsense words and phrases, which is um as a musician I'm sure you're familiar with that, um, and almost let some lyrics r reveal themselves. As time has gone on, I've actually felt sometimes like when I sit down with the guitar, I start having conversations that I've already had with the instrument. And that's something that I'll never stop doing because it's really my passion. I love that. I love that uh the guitar the most of anything. I just wanted to be a guitar player originally um and then you know realized well if I write songs and learn how to sing, then I might be a little bit more in control of my destiny here. Um but um what I've been doing lately is I've been writing songs on piano on keyboard and I find mostly because I'm fairly ham fisted um and not technical with that instrument, I wind up sort of diving into a slightly more emotional place rather than a technical place. Um and uh the last record we did, which was called The Lost Mile. Almost every song was written on the keyboard. Um it's a very different sounding record for us, and I don't know what comes next. You know, we may go back to doing more guitar-driven stuff, but um we might not. Um I guess for me it's all about uh uh trying to not let your process um um dictate your musical output. So as much as you can as well, as much as I'll just speak first person, as much as I can change that up so that I feel like I'm never truly comfortable or the next step down from there is bored uh with the process, then I I I I'm I'm engaged in it. I also think, you know, for a there was a short period of time for me where I found myself thinking, well what do people want to hear? Actually I was at a dinner last night and uh uh uh guy I was sitting next to asked me, how do you how so do you worry about staying relevant? And it was really interesting because 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I would have said, Yeah, I I'm really worried about that. But what I've realized is I don't care in the slightest about relevance. What I care about is truth. I care about honesty. I care about honoring the inspiration that comes to me. I'm 48 years old and I still wake up every morning wanting to write a song. That's a miracle, right? So I want to honor that and I want to stay connected to that in any way that I can. And a lot of that has to do with not thinking about what someone wants to hear, but thinking about what I want to say. And very often it involves what I want to say to myself. So it's as small a circle as it could possibly be. And at the end of the day, the amazing thing, the interesting thing is like I was saying earlier, is that it turns out we all share the same feelings. So I'm when I write a song for my the little broken piece that I found inside of myself to try to band aid that bad boy up, you know, you may f you may hear it and say, Yeah, I I know that. I feel that too, you know. I'm not sure if that explains it, but yeah, it's part of it certainly. Good luck in your process, like the whole thing. It's beau
Unknown tiful. So this this this is one comment and two questions. Uh the first comment is I would suggest you reconsider who you're asking for the date, because it's not the eighth, it's the ninth, cara. Oh whoops. Yeah. So there's that. Burn. Ouch. Burn. I love how long he's been waiting for. It's the eighth. It's definitely the eighth. It's the eighth. And then to kind of continue on my my tradition of asking really kind of basic but but obvious and and kind of fun questions, you've had a world number one song. What is that like as as a songwriter? Yeah. Um
Unknown well it's it's interesting. The song came to me it's the song's called Everything You Want. It was the most played song on the radio in the year two thousand, um which is a long time ago, but it's funny I I was having dinner last night and there was a twenty twenty year-old girl at the woman, young woman at the table, and I was thinking for sure she wouldn't know this song. And and uh she was asking, What what you know, would I know anything that you wrote? So I sang her this little snippet, and she started, she finished the song. She just kept going and she loved it. But uh so how does it feel you know so what like I was saying I when I was writing that song Everything You Want I the last thing I really thought about was how does it resonate outside of this apartment? I was living in the West Village in New York City and feeling pretty down about some stuff. And um uh when it finally when the record was released and it it got out there in the world and started to blow up literally. Um my mom, when she was driving from Worcester to Cape Cod, which is a two and a half hour drive, she called me every time she heard this heard the song. And I think it was I think it was in that two hour drive on different radio stations. She called me nine or ten times. It was it was it's you can't imagine it. Um it was a true the the the greatest honor on some levels. Um it's beyond my rec beyond my uh capacity to sort of understand on others. We did a gig in India uh two years ago with something like 9,000 people there singing that song at the top of their lungs. And I've had that experience all over the world. So I don't know how to put it into words, other than to say that my gratitude to people for taking my music into their lives is boundless. I I am I am humbled and I am truly thankful. And another interesting point, or maybe the first interesting point, I um I run into people frequently who don't want to play their biggest hits anymore. They're tired of them. Um they don't like that song or they had a bad experience when they were writing it in terms of a relationship with the record company or the producer or the way the record came out or whatever. And I'm also thankful that I happen to love that song and those songs. I I learned early on that if you don't like a song, don't put it on the record, because then it's it's gonna be a hit, and you'll be asked to play it forever, you know. Um it it was the it changed the the short answer, Ben, and I I would imagine you can kind of relate on some levels, because you started this thing as this little, you know, blog where you're just writing down thoughts on watches and you've built it into this thing. People all over the world know this. People all over the world come and and and have an affinity for for what you guys have built and what you guys have done. And for me with that song in particular, Everything you want, it's it's become part of the air that we breathe in some small way. And that's beautiful.
Unknown Thank you to Matt, Cara, and James for joining us. This week's episode was recorded live at the UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles and was produced and edited by Grayson Korhonen. Please remember to subscribe and rate the show, it really does make a difference. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next week.