#SKOASelfCare: Wilderado Shares Their Mental Health Maintenance Tips From The Road

Wilderado outside of Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, CA. Photo gently lifted from their Instagram.

Touring is often looked at by musicians as a necessary evil due to how taxing it can be on their mental health. No matter your tour budget, finding moments of self care on the road can be tricky to come up with when you’ve only got so much time before load-in, so I’ve decided to start asking around for ideas from bands while they’re mid-tour.

Since I’m seeing them tomorrow night (10/27) at Music Hall of Williamsburg, I decided to hit up Tulsa rockers, Wilderado (who you hopefully checked out in this week’s diSKOAver weekly playlist) to see what’s been working for them on their tour with other SKOA favorites Sure Sure. Gotta say, I am loving the tips that singer Max Rainer sent through! From my brief stint in tour managing I can tell you that some of these are a hard agree from me.

This is “Thieves”...it smells pretty awesome and supposedly makes you less susceptible to germs. Our drummer’s wife sells this stuff and i dump it on everything (my bag, backpack, arms, neck).

Buy: Young Living Thieves Essential Oil 15ml

Reading books helps me not think so much.

Buy: Fight Club: A Novel

I’m not so sure if this stuff actually benefits me in any way other than tasting great and feeling good. I just like having it around, the name says it all.

Buy: Cold & Flu-Lemon Echinacea Throat Coat

I currently have bronchitis, so maybe i shouldn’t be the one doing this, BUT, these multivitamins are amazing. This is the first time I’ve been sick on the road, and these things are keeping me alive.

Buy: Source Naturals Wellness Formula Wholefood Multivitamin With Vitamins & Antioxidants

Listen to something other than your own music that you’re playing over and over and over. Sometimes I’ll even just hang out listening to the calm app... it sounds so real.

Grab the Calm app on iOS & Android

NY fam come hang with me tomorrow night (10/27) at Music Hall of Williamsburg to catch these guys live. Should you need a refresher of their sound you can find their latest single, “Sorrow” in this week’s diSKOAver weekly playlist below!.

[SKOA PREMIERE] + [SONG OF THE DAY] Niki Black - "Not Coming Up"

IT’S FRIDAY, WITCHES!

Just in time for a weekend that will be undoubtedly be full of Halloween parties I have a song from LA siren Niki Black that is nothing short of supernatural. “Not Coming Up”, the debut single from her forthcoming EP, wastes no time in allowing you to get to know Black, who studied feminist theology in college, as she cries out, “don’t forgive me father”, which I assume is derivative from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Whereas Christ was crying out for God to forgive those crucifying him for sinning against God, Black does not wish to seek for forgiveness, as the song is ultimately an arresting ode to her first queer relationship, which as we know, one does not need to seek any forgiveness for. “I felt the church to be central to the song’s idea of being denied entrance to heaven because of your sexuality,” explains Niki. Spoiler alert / non shocker here: Black is also tremendously involved in women’s rights and LGBT initiatives.

Her forthcoming EP, which is slated for an early 2019 release, offers up Black’s perspective on femme sexuality through her feminist theological lens. “I was enchanted by old Judaism, namely the mythology of the female demon Lilith, and how she mirrors Eve,” shares Niki. “The thousands of years of interpretations of the myths of the religious texts are goldmines in the way that they illuminate my creativity and thoughts, and also how they inform so many of our modern generation's conscience, especially when it comes to sexual politics.”

To a certain extent, the EP is like Dante's Divine Comedy, describing the journey from heaven to oblivion, or hell. “I wanted to retell that descent from a modern feminine perspective, one of the damned, which some of us may feel like sometimes, or all the time....whether it's from religion directly, from a relationship, or from yourself,” shares Niki.

Before today I didn’t have a playlist called “Songs To Sin To”, but here we are…

Have a safe weekend, fam! Happy sinning ;)

[SONG OF THE DAY] HEDEGAARD - "Back To You (feat. Stolar & Ylva)"

Normally I hate shuffle but today it completely derailed my morning. I thought I had a Song Of The Day all picked out and then from the depths of my Release Radar the blessed algorithm delivered Copenhagen producer HEDEGAARD back to me. I tumbled into him late last year courtesy of my well trained Discover Weekly playlist but got distracted being on tour to really spend some time getting to know him and my gateway song, “Ready To Love You”.

Upon the first 15 seconds of his latest single, “Back To You”, I was completely enthralled by the combination of the tight production and the vocal stylings of New York’s very own Stolar (who I will admit I was clueless about until this song but plan to get better acquainted with later). But wait! There’s more! The Dutch DJ also enlists newcomer Ylva to contribute a verse and duet with Stolar. Fun fact: the now 18 year old singer had her breakout debut on the Norwegian talent show The Stream two years ago where she ended up in second place on the popular television show.

In my frantic excitement today I’ve poured over HEDEGAARD’s biggest hits and was consistently impressed at how carefully crafted each song is. It’s definitely worth your time to check out tracks like, “Need You Right Now”, “Salvation”, and “Go Back”.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Pizzagirl - "body part"

Photo Credit: Pizzamum

Pizzagirl (AKA Liam Brown) is the bedroom pop artist of your memes. Over the course of 2018 he’s been releasing music from his Beatzzeria (better known as his bedroom) and has been gaining traction with every release. After releasing his debut EP, An Extended Play, in April, he’s now gearing up to release his sophomore EP, cleverly titled, season 2, which is out on November 30th. “body part” is the third offering from the EP and is a hazy glitched out nostalgia number designed for fans of John Hughes movies and people who used to obsess over their Angelfire pages. It’s a bit more melancholy than previous season 2 tracks, “gymnasium” and “highschool” but still would fit in nicely during the credits of your favorite Brat Pack movie.

For UK folk, Pizzagirl will be taking his show on the road in early December, so be sure to bring your AOL trial CD with you for an autograph.

Pizzagirl Tour Dates

1st Dec – Sound Basement, Liverpool
3rd Dec – The Louisiana, Bristol
4th Dec – The Chameleon Arts Café, Nottingham
5th Dec – The Hope and Ruin, Brighton

[SONG OF THE DAY] XO - "Cherry"

One of my favorite finds from 2016, Stoke-On-Trent-based producer XO (born Sunil Heera) has resurfaced after taking a bit of a musical sabbatical following the release of his debut full-length, Those Who Wander last summer. “I had to sorta take a step back and re-evaluate what it was I wanted to do,” Heera relayed via Twitter DM earlier today. Thankfully he’s opted to come back in full force, kicking things off with a brand new track, “Cherry”, as well as an arsenal of songs he’s been stockpiling during his hiatus. XO first grabbed my attention with his James Chatburn collaboration, “Divine Disaster”, before solidifying his place as someone I’d be prepared to brag about finding first before he blew up with tracks like “No Games”, “Flames Of A Phoenix”, “Keep Pulling Me Under” and “Somethin’ About U”.

Given that XO has decided he’s here for the long haul, you have plenty of time to catch up as he preps to ramp things back up at beginning of 2019. In the meantime, keep an eye out for his name on upcoming releases from some noteworthy UK acts that he’s collaborated with recently.

[Interview] Goo Goo Dolls Bassist Robby Takac: "Life's Good In The Bubble, Man"

Robby Takac @ Beacon Theatre 10/15/2018. Photo credit: Angela Cranford/MSG Photos

After speaking with Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac the Friday before their show at Beacon Theater as part of their 20th Anniversary Dizzy Up The Girl Tour, I can confirm that he is indeed Some Kind of Awesome. The music community, not just Goo Goo Dolls, are truly beyond blessed to have someone so passionate about music the way that he is. In addition to his rhythmic duties in a band whose career spans across more than three decades, he's also been running the music non-profit Music Is Art and the boutique record label Good Charamel Records for over 15 years in addition to owning the recording studio GCR Audio in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. "You know, owning a recording studio is very akin to owning a boat," Takac jokes over the phone last Friday, "You do it because you enjoy it. It's not necessarily a cash cow, that's for sure."

Some people would find keeping themselves so busy to be exhausting, especially given the extensive amount of touring that Goo Goo Dolls do (including the tour they’re currently on), but it actually has the opposite sort of effect on Takac. "All these things, Music Is Art included," he explains, "helps to exercise parts of my brain, my emotions, my creativity, that probably might have driven me crazy to not be able to exercise." 

He went on to detail the beginnings of the Goo Goo Dolls from a business standpoint, " We did everything, you know, Johnny [Rzeznik] and I did 30 years ago. Everything. We had this hilarious briefcase that we used to carry around with us like all our papers, and it was pretty much our whole world was in that briefcase." As the band became more popular obviously the briefcase became an inefficient form of handling the band's business."Little by little we let started letting go of parts," he recounted, "It took many many years, but since then we found people who did it better (...) and all these people took a little piece of what we did in the beginning and started doing a much better job of it, but that didn't mean that those things weren't still inside me, you know, clamoring to be exercised, and so I think that that's why I still keep up with all of this stuff. Because it allows me to be better at being in the Goo Goo Dolls if that makes sense at all."

Of his three side passions, Music Is Art is by far his biggest focus outside of the Goo Goo Dolls. The most admirable part about his approach to the non-profit is his acknowledgement for the need for art/music comes from personal experience. As he shared:

“(...) There are some people (and I was one of them) whose lives could not be shaped correctly if they weren’t exposed to these things because that’s just where your mind operates. Their minds don’t operate in the classroom all that well. You know, they’re not debate team folks. They’re not gonna star on the college basketball team or even be able to dribble a ball for that matter, you know? BUT, you put a paint brush or a guitar in their hand and they realize that they can move on. So they have that. I think if you rob young people of that then you’re really doing an unbelievable disservice to a huge amount of kids out there.”

— Robby Takac

To be clear, Music Is Art does incredible things for the music community. In addition to its yearly cornerstone event, the Music Is Art festival, which boasted 20 stages this year, they also organize a variety of battles of the bands both in corporate and public settings. Most importantly, they've been doing instrument drives and to date have donated a half of a million dollars worth of both new and refurbished instruments to schools and communities in the Maryvale School District in Buffalo, New York. While the organization never has an issue with finding volunteers from both musicians and the general public, even with it's rockstar affiliation they share the same struggles that arts-centered not for profits have when it comes to funding. "The hard part is actually keeping it going, you know," he admitted, "and all the realities that you have to face when you go to a lawyer or an accountant. As the festival grows bigger it becomes more and more of a responsibility."

It's not often that I get to speak with someone who has been in the business of music for as long as Takac has, so obviously the conversation drifted to technology. Like any music lover who was  actively collecting music pre-iPod, living in this new era of streaming services is the biggest change in music that has him buzzing with excitement. "(...)Coming from a guy who collected records when I was younger like that is MIND BLOWING man.(...)If you and I are talking about something I could play it for you right now just on my phone. That is MIND BLOWING. Seriously." 

He also had nice things to say about our friend The Algorithm™. He even shared that Discover Weekly had gotten him into The Heavy and Beach Slang recently. He raved, "(...) The ability for Spotify to build algorithms and like expose you to things that it's discovering that you might like, I think that's unbelievable." A kindred spirit, he too has mixed feelings about how algorithms like Discover Weekly are lessening the emotional connection that is made between people when they share music with each other. "(...)It's a little bit sad because I used to have those same experiences but I would have it with my friend Gary Sperrazza down at Apollo Records in Buffalo, or I would have it down at The Record Mine with my friend Dave, you know? It's sad that human interaction is taken from it, but I think the resources that are at hand with music is just unbelievable." 

Another big difference is obviously the way social media has shaken up the music landscape. To an extent Goo Goo Dolls were pioneers in the early age of fan interaction, dating back to the early America OnLine days. Now the band has amassed a massive online fan base, with over 3 million fans on Facebook at the time of print. When they started, fan engagement was primarily about promoting a single, album, or tour. These days Takac observed that having a digital presence has a different impact on musicians, specifically when it comes to access. "You know, we always laugh about guys like Jimmy Page, like you've got this image of Jimmy Page living in his castle somewhere, you know, like whatever," he observed, "Or this weird image of what Led Zepplin was like or all of these bands cause there was a mystique to them, but this current social atmosphere of immediacy, you can't really be that way anymore." He's also a realist when it comes to fans having their smartphones at concerts, as he noted, "It's all out there and it's all out there in unprofessional, unairbrushed, you know, like 'here's our pimples' kinda world. It's changed."

In Takac's mind the archetype for the modern day musician on social media is Kanye West. He further clarified: 

"Kanye makes some cool music but like it's not so much about that with him, you know? A little bit of it is, but it's more about everything else, you know it's about his social media. It's about his wife. It's about his wife's family. It's about their TV show. It's about his sneakers. It's about like all these things that the music is sort of in the background as something that he sort of does, you know? It's why he's such a big star, 'cause I don't think the music can make you that big of a star anymore... It's all this stuff, you know, that figures in now that, you know, didn't figure in when I was thinking about Jimmy Page in his castle. I never thought about any of that stuff with him. He was just that dude in Zepplin. That's what he did, you know? It's way more than that now."

“I don’t think the music can make you that big of a star anymore... ”

Things that are also very different than when Robby and Johnny started Goo Goo Dolls over thirty years ago: the two are both sober, with Robby over ten years sober and Johnny around four years sober. It's easy to assume that backstage while on tour is packed with opportunities to slip back into substance abuse, but Takac was quick to shut that fallacy down:

"It is what you make it," he said, "It's your bubble man. You're in a bubble when you're out here [on tour] but it's your bubble. Like we say 'life's good in the bubble, man'. You know, for a lot you get to choose what's there and what's not, you know? So we just kind of keep it sane back there, and there's not a lot of parties and that kind of stuff. Not that there's not but there's not a lot."

“Like we say ‘life’s good in the bubble, man’.”

— Robby Takac

While they've admittedly had a few decades to get heavy partying out of their system, it was refreshing to hear that there are legacy musicians that acknowledge their ability to be personally responsible for the toxicity level of their touring environment. These days Takac's number one tour essential is his teapot, which is his way to bring a piece of home with him while he's out on the extensive touring schedules with Goo Goo Dolls. "It's just you need those kinds of things to keep you warm, you know, keep you happy," he offered, "It's tough but you try to get a little bit out here." 

Make sure you catch Robby Takac with Goo Goo Dolls while they're still out on their 20th Anniversary Dizzy Up The Girl tour. I can attest that it is an energy packed night that you won't want to miss even if you're a casual fan. 

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Yoste - "Blue"

Today in Damn Maybe I Really Should Move To Australia For Their Music Scene we have Brisbane-based chanteur Yoste (pronounced like 'lost’)’s “Blue”, which is the second single from his forthcoming EP try to be okay, which is slated for release on February 19th, 2019 courtesy of Akira Records. The title is an excellent representation of the song itself, which is gentle little melancholy-filled electro-pop tune. Yoste’s vocals are perfectly delicate and earnest, which further builds on the song’s sad but soothing vibes. “Blue” is a follow up to the lead single, “Arc”, which was released earlier this year and worth checking out as well.

[SKOA PREMIERE] + [SONG OF THE DAY] Stalking Gia - "PTSD"

F - R - I - D - A - Y

Proud to be going local today for this Some Kind of Awesome Premiere. Today NYC-based alt-pop powerhouse Stalking Gia has unveiled her brand new single, “PTSD”, an infectious poptastic little number that touches upon the aftermath of an emotionally traumatic experience. Gonna be honest, it’s been wild to watch Stalking Gia climb the ranks since the first time I saw her open for Dragonette at Bowery Ballroom back in 2015. Fast forward to present day where the songstress will be supporting blackbear at The Red Rocks Amphitheater this very night! That was almost 3 years ago to the day.

In addition to opening for blackbear tonight, “PTSD” is the first release from her upcoming project, which was executive produced by blackbear and released on his label, beartrap. As you’ll recall, the two met collaborating on blackbear’s “Digital Druglord” album with his song “Wish You The Best,” which sampled Gia’s “Second Nature”. The two have highly anticipated duet, “Miracles”, which will be on her forthcoming EP which drops later this year.

I’m so excited to see what this new era of Gia brings! She’s certainly earned all the good things coming to her!