Bahamas

0:03Hey, thank you so much for doing this. Well, do you want to call you Avi? Do I'm gonna call you Bahamas? I don't know how this call me. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so well, how come Bahamas? Well, I was more just like you need a band name. Yeah, you know, I have a weird name and I grew up and you know going to school and Went through all the things that people with weird names go through mm-hmm and the idea of just like trying to yell my name And a loud bar, you know three or four times I've just been doing that for my whole life. So I kind of thought you know I'll just call it something else and call the band something else. I mean, you know, I guess it is me It's my songs and it's sort of like I'm in charge when we're you know making records and stuff But there is like a big group of people. I mean all these guys that I'm on tour with included, you know That are kind of almost circle, right?

0:49Yeah, must be different for you now being on the road with your own stuff because you've been doing Sideman work for years Yeah, I mean, I've always been playing my own tunes. I've always kind of been so this isn't the first record Well, I think it's the first record under this Bahamas name I've always been writing my own and you know my old band was Jay's backing band and But you know, I was just really busy for a lot of years playing other people's music and this is the first time I've kind of just said no a lot of things and now I have all the time to play my own music and it's just been great I really been enjoying it and you're also kind of playing other people's music too because I hear this whole show is Everyone kind of plays together. Yeah, I mean for the this whole tour is kind of Really different from a you know a regular show and we're just constantly switching around and and Playing each other's tunes. You're all clean shaven too. That just happened

1:39Yeah, it's like it's funny another guy in the van we everyone's kind of was looking a little bit very Road worn very Canadian other ask and we just walked out of the hotel this morning lifted each other like did you hear me shaving? Yeah, you know, so you sometimes just got to change it up right fair. Yeah, so the record pink strat and owed to your guitar In a way Yeah, it's more it's more like a I know to a time when those songs were born, you know I wrote that guitar was with me the entire time I was away playing I mean I've had it forever And I've written a ton of songs on it while I was away and I've played on a lot of records with it and it was kind of just I Don't know. I guess I I got pegged as a guitar nerd some time ago and

2:28I guess it's just my way of embracing it or something why the strat not I give something That was the one that I could afford at the time and it just kind of ended up being the one you know I'm sure I'm sure most people you know most musicians Make the same kind of choices Basically of what you can afford So now that the record is out is that guitar retired almost in a way is it going back into the table? It's not retired It's just it's just you know, I kind of now I have several guitars Yeah, so I've you know that one was the first one but I kind of I've been after this real cheap sound I like these real old cheap guitars and so I'm playing those a lot these days But it's definitely not retired. I'm gonna use it on recordings and I'm sure I'll bring it out on tour again But just it's really heavy, you know, I'm getting older so yeah the guitars to have you worry

3:16I'm not that old. Well the show the show though is like three hours, you know, so it's kind of like it's a long time So I kind of fact is picking out The tools the lightest one of all the water something exactly I hear you're working on a record and you found yourself like reinventing or like it's coming back to you Yeah, I mean I guess my first record I You know way I kind of like after years of really playing a lot of guitar and a lot of guitar solos and stuff like that I kind of I didn't really do any of that on my last record I just sort of played the songs very straightforward and tried to get to the point quickly and and and So yeah, and this this I've been doing some new recordings and it kind of like a lot more electric guitar a lot more improvisation and

4:02Just kind of finding you know finding that spirit again. Yeah, right an electric acoustic both Yeah, both. I mean on tour I don't I don't tour with an acoustic all that much just because it's just one more thing to carry Yeah, fair enough so oftentimes I just find myself in the hotel room sort of writing on a electric isn't plugged in So it's more just like a vehicle to sing over, you know, so you're one of the musicians that find it easy to write on the road I know some people can't do it and say and some can I do I mean You don't get all that much time, you know, but this group of guys I mean I've played with these guys forever and we're just kind of like always playing someone's always doing something you know, so you're just around music all the time and Really good environment for kind of a very inspirational because you must get ideas from other people's lyrics and think well

4:48I could take that lion change it and kind of make it my own Yeah, I mean it doesn't it doesn't really work that way but definitely being around people that you respect and you know that are making work that you think is heavy is Is is inspiring it's challenging, you know, and in a really good way Cool. I hear the Zeus record is almost you're doing in a way in the fact that you brought them to Jason Well, I guess it depends on how you ask I mean I just I played in J's band and he was kind of looking around for a Band and I suggested these guys, you know and they were in my band and we were all from Barry and we went to high school together and and We played together for many years and then I was away playing with feist for a long time and

5:34It was kind of in that time that I was away that the Zeus record kind of Yeah, there and every time I would go home and sort of just stop into the studio and check in There was like a new song or new part or something new is happening and I Think they the first part of the record they kind of made without even knowing they were making a record, you know Which is sometimes the best thing to the I thought more spring is no pressure exactly Just kind of not thinking about that at all just having fun with your friends Which is great on the topic of pressure makes me think you were probably with by stirring the whole like the blow up with Apple and everything like everything Blew up for her. Yeah, absolutely. Well, what was their pressure there? Did you feel pressure being in the band? Is she well? I mean I can only speak for myself, right? You know it's definitely for me not at all and I think I think It's such a different experience when you're on the inside

6:23You know and I think a lot of that when you see someone on TV see sort of all this bombast around them and hype or whatever other word you want to use It was really like the band and the very small crew that we had it was the same gang sort of for many years Right and we kind of went through all that together and we traveled together and we did everything together And so in a way, we're kind of isolated from it, you know because we were just Doing things together all the time. Just like bigger rooms kind of like yeah, and Yeah, there were moments for sure when I was like wow we're at Saturday Night Live or we're at Wood Bowl or something amazing, you know but Yeah, you always had that constant of those friends and those people that like had been with you the whole time So it went through all together, which I think is really good. Do you ever get you must have gotten kind of sick and playing the same song over

7:13Well, I mean I think everybody goes to that it doesn't you know it at any band you're in but She she's kind of constantly re-eventing things changing arrangement and Exciting you know fun for everybody absolutely. What did you grow up with? What were you listening to as a kid? I? Think my if you know my influences are probably as younger The same as any other kid growing up within a classic rock radio station So ACDC and all that but I'm very different music than ACDC though Yeah, but I went through a heavy phase where you know I was really trying to do what they were doing But I mean you know when I was younger is just a lot of East Coast bands, you know in the 90s that were that were

7:59Happening and putting out records and our coal kind of group, you know look to those guys and and I guess we were from a small town and we kind of wished that there was something and and I guess even of us from Barry We might have like three three or four bands between five or six guys, right? you know, it's like I'll play drums or band and you'll play bass in my band and Do you play anything else? I think all of us kind of play everything like in less is band I played piano And you know I played a lot of guitar but I played drums and you know Kind of plays a little bit of everything on this tour So there's a lot of switching around nice What does the next record sound like that when you're working on is it like the first Bahamas record kind of you in a guitar? No, not at all. It's it's I played this next record is basically me and Jason Tate from the week of then oh, yeah

8:47He's gonna be well. Well, that's kind of how I tour I mean him and I have been touring together now since my record came out in July. He really plays with everybody and works Yeah, and I've really been fortunate that he hasn't been that busy and then we've been able to play together a lot and so yeah, we just we did this new recording together and another friend of mine Darcy played bass great bass player and It's much more of a cohesive thing because my last record I recorded two songs The Zeus guys and a couple songs here and a couple more songs here and they've got to piece it all together but But yeah, this record was made in six days basically. Oh, it's finished. Well, it's recorded right it's recorded Yeah, and I'm gonna be on tour and sort of for the rest of the year pretty much So when I'll get a chance to finish it and mix it and do all that stuff

9:33I mean who knows but I really like it now. Let's hope I still like it six months from now Nice. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you