945. - Rostam

All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week. Jason, does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that. We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcast. or watch on YouTube. How long gone? Happy Sunday to you, Jason. The Lord's Day. It is overcast in Los Angeles, but I'll take it. uh how are you feeling yeah you take it you little bitch take it it is yeah it's been gloomy it's been overcast but you'll you'll notice around noon time that things will really start picking up in terms of sun I'm familiar with the system here. I just don't. I reject the system. Well, that's not the, I'm just letting you know, that's not the daily, everyday system. That's just what's happening right now. Okay, got it. Thank you for getting into your... Sometimes sun happened in the morning. I guess post... And you don't have to wait. Post-Arizona when I would crack the blinds at 6.30 a.m. and it was 85, seeing an iguana dying, you know, in front of me. Look, we all don't get to live in Arizona, okay? Some of us have to be here. It was only a couple days, but I sort of got the... Damn, I... I get it. I get the appeal of this, at least weather-wise, but I'm sure it's unbearable as the summer trudges on. Well, that's why God invented a little place called Palm Springs, where you can enjoy all of that stuff that you said without having to live, no shade, some parts of Arizona. I think, I don't know, the food in Arizona might be better. That's real talk. That's real talk. Think about it. Better than what? Better than Palm Springs. Oh, Palm Springs, yeah. I mean, it depends on the city.

Palm Springs has some of the worst restaurants in California. It's psycho how it happens. And I think that one day, it's going to take a straight man to come in there and show him how it's done. That's right. Sorry, I'm looking at a picture I sent to the group chat. It's a Michael Jackson thriller album cover, but they've put him in Denim Tears puffer, which is something nice. Just something nice for the squad. This is very similar to when I used AI artwork generation tools to create. I think it was the Don Draper doing the meditation at the last episode of Mad Men, but he was wearing some nice denim jeans. Yeah, I do remember that. Remember who did it first? First is them jeans and then Michael Jackson. Well, this person on Twitter is saying, just seen the Mexican homie post this like MJ really wore denim tears for real laughing emoji, crying emoji. Also, the best part about this is it seems that... Michael Jackson wearing a fake denim tears puffer has a pocket square in the puffer. Oh. Seems like a little pocket with a cheetah print, like an animal print pocket square on the puffer. Somebody said, hey, Claude, make a hot pink puffer jacket with flowers all over it. Somehow gayer. Yes, animal print. Give me a cheetah. kerchief. Yeah. I was just, I was just, I was so surprised by that. I was so surprised. Honestly, we were talking about this yesterday with our man, Joe from amplify. And he was saying like, guys, you know, a place where you can get a good kind of crew neck sweatshirt, but it has the hoodie pocket in the front. Only place you can get that on is AI. That's the only place you can get it. Thank God. Well, we, we sort of did throw him on the hibachi grill and, uh, cook them nice. Well done on both sides after proclaiming that. He took it in stride, but this reminds me of something like that where somebody was like, what if there was a puffer jacket that had a front pocket as if it was my blazer where I could put things? Is that an innovation that I'm actually paying attention to? Oh, no, no. I'm sure there's some.

some bad there's probably been several bad Italian brands over the years that have done this I don't think this is AI innovation I think this is something that is I mean all that is to say I guess my question to you is you're looking at this pink puffer jacket with the denim tears print over it and it has a little front pocket in there in terms of like weird hybrid mutant fashion designs like a hoodless hoodie this is not that bad right like having just a single slit pocket there's not any weird stitching to draw attention to it if you didn't have a square in there you might not even notice it i'm kind of not mad at it but then again i was asking you about suspenders last episode so you know i mean it's not it's not with a grain of moldon it's not the most offensive but it's also completely useless so it's sort of like it's innovate i wouldn't innovation is giving it too much credit i think is what i would say ultimately i think i would say innovation is giving it too much credit right um I was unable to afford paying for the Joe Budden member tier on Patreon to hear them talk about Drake. Maybe for the better. Unfortunately, there's something about I don't subscribe to any podcasts on the Patreon platform. And it feels like if I had three to five more hours of Joe Budden per week, that might actually cause me mental damage. Right. Things are already not going well for you. Not great. And you're just consuming the free tier. If you jumped up to the Discord and you did five hours a week of it. It would be bad for me. I would be doing a welfare check on you. But from what I can tell from online, it does seem like some quote unquote glazing is going on. um read these three drake albums so i you know i i will um i i think the i think glazing has gone too far not not as an act as a term like if you like something not as an act like when you like go all the way down and like you fit it all in your mouth you don't mean it like that no i i mean it more the only i wasn't going that far i was talking more i was thinking more crispy cream but you do your thing bro but i'm saying oh that feel when the glazing goes too far

I'm saying that I think now that anytime someone says they like something, it's like, oh, you glazing, bro. It's like, dude, I don't know. I think there's a line there that we have to be a little more aware of. Because I think this Drake stuff, there's way too much music, and there's plenty that's good and plenty that's bad. Is that glazing saying some of it's good, maybe from Joe Budden it is because he's such a hater? And I don't know. I just don't know where the line is anymore. I don't know where the line is anymore. I like that you said it's too much music. Is that a Drake? canadian bar reference to much music the iconic canadian music and pulp culture channel you already know much like drizzy i'm fucking i'm always working with the triple on time come on bro you already know haters say i release too much music but i just release my shit on much music the music flows through me mutually with the music Okay, shit, Jason. All right, shit. Give him a beat. Rossum can give you a beat. I know he's got some shit in Fruity Loops open right now over in Dime Square. I know he's got some shit ready for you. Yeah, but I mean, I tried to, because I was in Arizona at the running retreat with Satisfye when this came out. And unfortunately, that crowd... was not rushing back to their rooms to listen to Iceman at 9 p.m. You know what I mean? Everyone stopped giving themselves a stick and poke tattoo of the hardcore band Speeds logo on their upper thighs. They were able to sprint in their recovery slides to see Drain play, but they couldn't go listen to Drake. Tell me, what's track 47 say again? I forgot what that one was about. Are you familiar with Caribbean club music? Oh, you're not? Okay, well, we have some time. So I had to listen to it. We did this psychedelic race around a fucking pump track, like a skateboarding pump track that felt extremely dangerous. But basically during the prime window, I was unable to listen to Iceman. You know what I mean? So I felt like I was running, I was doing all this shit, and then I would look at my phone, I'd see all this stuff, I'd see all these memes, and I was like, I'm missing out on this. And I still really haven't had time to process it the way I would like to. I'm keeping it a buck. You had Habibi FOMO. It's been going around, and I think that you had a hard decision to make. Do I choose Outdoor Running Club, or do I choose my one true love, the music of Aubrey Graham? I chose fitness. I got to say, the Polymarket.

predictions were skewing the other way i chose fitness and i i don't regret it you know what i mean i don't regret it i don't want to see the pictures of me on lap 40 um you know sucking wind uh but you know i i yeah i was looking at some videos of y'all running around that bmx track and i saw a couple people and i was like is that chris no i don't know he wouldn't be acting that like happy to be there no no they were like it was a yeah that was i'm sure he didn't do any little jumps I didn't do any flare jumps. I did slight jumps to make it over some of the humps, but I wasn't adding any sauce to it. Of course. Because also that Arizona, you know, the heat, the fucking, the altitude, I was sucking wind. You know, you do four laps, you're like, oh, this is fun. And then, you know, at minute 22 of One Step Closer set, you're sort of like, all right, can somebody hand me some electrolytes or something? I need some nutrition, as they call it in the running biz. But I haven't had time to, but Alex is in LA. So she's going to force me to listen to Iceman in the Range Rover. You already know. That's every white girl's fantasy. So I don't have much of a choice in this case. I see in the Ice... Is that an ice gray range that you were pushing yesterday in Burbank? It is. I said, do you guys have the Iceman rental at Enterprise? And they said, oh, Mr. Black, right this way. Please, please come to our – they said you're actually – you are a subscription tier when it comes to – you're the paid tier when it comes to Iceman rentals. So I'll get a chance. I know you've probably not digested either because you don't really care that much. So I would assume. There is some stuff. I was trying to listen to it in my natural environment, which was in my garage kind of doing – and some kettlebells, and I had some moments where I was feeling it, and I still haven't really gone in all the way. You know, I think some of the Caribbean-flavored club tracks, some of that Calypso rhythm, Alize and My Cup, kind of Batty Boy bops. There's moments where I'm like, this is going to have some legs. We're going to get the right remixes for it. I think all in all, it's positive, but we do have our guest here right now, and we can...

We don't have to stop talking about all this cool stuff because this person just put out a new record. We're going to talk only about other people's music for the next hour. Well, look, Rostam works on a lot of other people's music. I'm going to try to get to the bottom. Is he buried in the Drake credits somewhere? We don't know. You know what I mean? We don't know. Because I think Drake could hit a Persian swing maybe somewhere in the next six months. He loves to explore cultures, and I'm sure he's had sex with several Persian women. So maybe Rostam can introduce him to that freaky little sitar. Okay, Persian swing. that's not a setting for like... you know, do a little kind of shuffle quantization on the Ableton. That's not version swing number 12. That's not a preset for what I want my drums to sit in the pocket a little bit more. Okay. No, no, no. I don't think so. All right. But yeah, Rossum's new album, American Stories, in stores everywhere. I obviously love it. I'm a Rossum head on the record. Well, not yet. Not yet. We have to go pay some bills first. But all right. Let's give him a call. Rossum's in New York. He was at Rough Trade yesterday, really feeding the streets. But Rossum, put some headphones on for God's sake. Come on. You know the drill. All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Quince. Jason, the temps are warming up. It's getting hot out there. Summer always changes how I get dressed. I need pieces that feel lighter, more breathable, and that are just easy but still put together. I don't want to look like a slob. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They focus on high-quality essentials that feel and look amazing. Breathable linen and soft organic cottons. Well-made basics but without the luxury markups. That rare balance where everything feels elevated. but still effortless. Yeah, Chris, linen season is here. I wore a linen blazer to dinner a few nights ago in the warm California sun. But, you know, you got that Italy trip coming up this summer and quality European linen pants and shirts. Upgrade that look starting at just $34. You know, if you get a nice linen suit, a little t-shirt underneath it, some chill shoes, you're looking good, but you're staying cool. The inside of your special areas are nice and dry as you turn up with your besties. So elevate that summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com slash how long for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns, even on a nice holiday now available in Canada.

That is Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash how long. That'll get you free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince punto com slash how long. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Squarespace. Obviously, Jason, you and I spend a lot of time on the World Wide Web, sort of our peers, our listeners, our friends, our colleagues, maybe even your parents if they're freaky. And if you're doing anything in the world. writing, taking pictures. I do topless boxing. You need a website. Exactly. A website that works, that does what it's supposed to do, that allows you to be creative, but also business-minded. Jason, there's one place to go for that, Squarespace. Yeah, Chris, I'm over here. I'm modifying calculators and putting Claude inside of them so you could cheat at school. And I just want a place where I could have everything all in one place. I can have the SEO tools. So those future graduates can find me and, you know, I'm able to accept quote unquote donations for my services that might be gray area. You know what I mean? And then email campaigns. Hey, I got a new, you know, 2.3 version upgrade. Boom, boom, boom. Get the analytics going. Raise some money. Show your investor all of your cool analytics of what's going on. They're going to want to get in early, and we can use Blueprint AI to make your website look as professional as your competition, if not more. Head to squarespace.com slash howlong for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code howlong to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. All right, we clapped. All right, Rostin, what's really good, baby? All right. We make it clap. We make it clap. You're in New York, right? You're in your second home. Uh-oh. We're going to have to talk about my bi-coastal elite lifestyle. This bitch. Damn, here we go. Oh, no. What if we talk about my multiple residencies? Do you want to talk about my built-ins? I'm happy to give you guys the tour. Wait. I actually thought about something. This podcast is billed as a bi-coastal elite podcast.

Last time I checked, which was six years ago. I would say tongue-in-cheekly, yes. Yeah, to let you know, the podcast is bi-coastal in terms of Chris lives on one coast, I live on the other. The podcast itself is elite. The product that we produce is elite. We don't consider ourselves to be elitist. Oh, sure. I didn't say you guys were elitist. That's a whole other thing. Oh, sure. I didn't say you said that, but I'm saying what we said is what that could be sounding like to be said. But what are you trying to say, Rostam? What are you trying to say? I think I know what he's trying to say. When I did this podcast for the first time, which was October 2020, I believe. Oh, wow. It was a long time ago. Yeah. Great memory. Yeah. I can't believe it's been this long. I can't either. Pause. Especially because I didn't know you guys. And now I'm like friends with y'all and your wives and shit. And I love them. And I feel like they're all good. Everyone's good people. Yeah. We went from me saying, hey, can I call you Rost Man? And you saying, yo, can we dead that? Now you like our wives more than you like us. No, I didn't. I like everyone equally. But I haven't done Pilates with you and I have done Pilates with your wife, Jason. And I got to say the way that she can do a plank is inspiring to me. Like I can't like she just is. It's amazing. Like 45 seconds side plank. No problem. for carolyn period i don't mean to i'm not and i'm not shitting on carolyn but you can't do a 45 second side play i think i don't know for whatever reason on my shoulder i hate it i hate it to be fair i i don't like i also you know because this is gonna i'm gonna get roasted for this but because of like the music stuff i do have to worry about my wrist sometimes i don't want to put too much strain on the wrist as a cellist Chris, I don't think you know how to play a mandolin and kind of what it requires. In the oboe space, we really have to prioritize wrist help. But I've talked to several musicians, though, who are like...

I'm fucked up because I was wearing a guitar on my left shoulder since I was 12. You know what I mean? And now my shit is just kind of permanent. Doctors say I need a bachyotomy because the fucking jazz master fucked me up. Do you have issues? No, but I can also do eight pull-ups with a 45-pound weight vest. I've been like... Okay, well, that was just... You were leading me to what I wanted to say. I'm heating up that side of my life. But wait. He's heating up. I do want to say... Apparently, Joni Mitchell, she plays this Parker Fly guitar, which is like a crazy-looking guitar. You'd be like, wait, why is Joni Mitchell playing this guitar? It's literally like David Bowie's guitar player from the latter era Bowie is playing this guitar. Parker Fly? It's the craziest-looking guitar. It's not Joni Mitchell aesthetically. No, it's just crazy shape. It just feels like Fifth Element aesthetic, which I love. Guitar player of living color would play it. Sure. I'm not going to put this on Joni, but why? Because it's incredibly light. It's made of carbon fiber. It's totally hollow. It's like your new iPhone, Chris. Thin. I did get the iPhone Air. It's changed my life. I have a friend who has this freakish nature where he buys every Apple product and returns it within the time just because he wants to experience every Apple product. What? Yes, freak. He's a total freak. That's cool. He went from novelist to corporate lawyer, but he did get tripped up by the iPhone and the iPhone Air because when they came out, he bought the top of the line for both models. And then he could not figure out for the life of him. which one to return so he kept them both wow so they stumped him finally they gave him too much heat at once see what see what happens when an autist plays with fire you get burned you're like i'm just gonna buy all these phones and return all the ones i don't want and then you're like oh my god i can't pick that's actually really did you say art artist or autist autist door number two brother man okay door number two all right so you're all right so you're okay so jonie mitchell plays this but why wouldn't jonie mitchell just play an epiphone or something look cool like a hollow body is that

That's still heavier. This is the lightest. This is the absolute lightest. Like if you saw this guitar, Chris, you'd be like, this guitar looks freakish, but it's incredibly light. Interesting. That is interesting. Because it feels like something people would choose for stylistic reasons, but the lightness is what's bringing Joni to the table. Yes. Yes. So yeah, which brings me to when I was like 14. I really wanted a Les Paul because my favorite guitar players, get ready for this, were Joe Perry from Aerosmith. Okay. Living it up while it's going down. And Jimmy Page. And they both were Les Paul devotees. You were on your suburban white boy swag 100-100. And for our non-guitar listeners at home. Les Paul's a heavy ax. I am not a suburbs person, Chris. Please don't lump me in with that group. I've always lived in a city since childhood. I was born in Washington, D.C. I've lived in a city since childhood. No, actually, today I was really feeling it. I mean, I'm this person who loves cities. I'm with you, bro. I'm with you. I'm with you. Okay, so he's city maxing. He loves buildings. So me and my dad at 14, we go to this... guitar store called chuck levins which is in maryland it's in like great name it's in like wheaton maryland somewhere real it's out there okay so you are a big city dweller i stand corrected go ahead and i'm like i'm like what is the cheapest les paul that you guys have and it's this 1980 black Les Paul with like this yellow binding. It's been yellowed from like nicotine. It's been so fucked up and it's a solid mahogany body. The thing weighs like 30, 40 pounds. It is crazy, but it also has the word second. like first second second written on the headstock on the back of the headstock and if you don't know what that means it means it should not have left the factory there was some flaw it was maybe a minor flaw but there was some flaw it shouldn't have left the factory anyways irregular item this guitar if i ever played it on a stage it would probably give me like back trouble for life but it was a secret weapon we used it on the first vampire weekend record almost all the electric guitar on that is that les paul

From 1980, Gibson II, mahogany. And because the wood is so dense, it has great sustain. Oh, okay. Can you explain what that means to our lesser-knowing listeners? Okay, so the wood is like, the mahogany is like really heavy wood and really dense wood. It's like, because of that, when you like play a note, it rings out long, you know, and it just has like a beautiful mellow tone. We love that. Anyways. But you were in the lab sitting down with that shun in your lap like a baby. You couldn't be rocking out with it. No, it was not a good, yeah, it was not a good guitar. I think I, yeah. The one time I played it on a stage was in eighth grade where we did. Do you guys remember the All About the Benjamin's Rock remix? Of course. Yes. We did a live performance of that with like, it was like a ragtag crew of us. And we did a very, very authentic recreation of All About the Benjamin's Rock remix. Jason's got to play that for our audience. Gonna be ballers, shot callers. Yeah, it's all about the Benjamins rock remix featuring Lil' Kim and the Locks. Wow, I didn't know that. It's known as the Shotcaller rock remix. That's a great use of the one time on stage with that guitar. Because the Les Paul and the SG were the most popular hardcore guitars. And that was like, those were very, right, Jason? Because no one played, like, Telecasters and Stratocasters were not part of that. It was very much Les Paul SG. Way too gay. It was Les Paul SG and then also you would get some like Freaky Jackson or Ibanez. Yeah, metal leading. Like reverse headstock, you know, like crazy. Apparently Rivers Cuomo, like he actually plays Gibson guitars on his records, but he doesn't like the way they look. So he has like other more like Strat looking metal looking guitars for stage, but he prefers the way the Gibsons sound.

You know, this reminds me of when I found out that professional tennis players, like their rackets look like the model we can buy, but they're completely different specifications because they're so much heavier because they have so much power. Yes. And they usually play a rack, like the actual specs are like the racket they played when they were like 15. That's interesting. Because that's what they got used to. That's fascinating. It sounds similar to that. Or similar to how when you're doing the pull-ups with the 45-pound plate around your waist, it says 45 on there, but if you put it on the scale, it's more like 20. No, actually, you know what? The vests, that's where I really took my game up. using the vest. Weighted vest. I have a 45-pound weight vest. That's big. You're telling me you're pulling up to Equinox. You're pulling up to Equinox in the Porsche and you pop the trunk and you get that out? You reach in the convertible. It's in the back seat. You just get out, reach in, and you pull the 45 out? Interestingly, I started working out at a gym that's very close to my house. I won't reveal what other Notable people work out at this gym, but it's a low-key gym. It's a local gym, and I don't work out with a trainer anymore. You just go to this local celebrity safe gym. Is it Rodeo or is it Faro's? Rodeo or Faro's? We'll bleep it. We'll bleep it, honey. Faro's is gay only, so Rodeo might be... Do they allow women? It's very queer. It's very queer. Most gyms are queer-coded. Thank you for letting us in. Speaking of queer coding, I've been invading everyone's reels' economy, and I did this letterboxd where they transcribed the words queer coding as queer... coating like c-o-a-t-i-n-g yeah i got a word for that too but it's c-u-m is what i is how i spell it so it's a little that comes right after the glazing process you know that's actually that's really funny yeah you've been i've been queer coated exactly you've been going you've been going it kind of smells like that one tree you've been going you've been going hard in the paint i have to see i haven't seen this much rostom content in years besides in our group chat or you know a text yeah a quick round of applause for your pr team you really hit every

Yeah, give a shout out. Give a shout out to her. I mean, hopefully it's just getting started. The plane's about to take off. We're still on the runway. This is lap one of the marathon. How much raw stem can we take? That's the question, America. You know what I mean? Sit down. Sit down. I think we've reached the limit. Now that I know. This is about it for me. Oh, Jason being slightly dickish on how long I got. Not Jason being slightly dickish on how long gone. Let's get the program. Let's get the clips going, bro. Let's farm it. Yeah, we got Letterboxd, Subway Takes. What else are we doing? House tour yet? Wait, what's- What's your body count? What's house tour? I don't know if that's for me. Where I go up to you on the street and I'm like, hey, how much do you pay for rent? And you're like, Actually, I own. You want to come check it out? You're like, whoa, this studio is sick. Really good natural lighting. Y'all are funny. I don't know if I want to do that. I don't know if I want to do that. I don't know if I want people. Don't do that. You don't want those Claro freaks knowing where you live. You might get doxxed by some Claro heads. You got to be careful. Period. I think her fans are pretty chill people. There's just a lot of them. That's all I'm saying. By and large. But when you're that big of an artist, there's always going to be some freaks, you know, freaky snakes in the grass. People collect. But have you been having fun? Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because in this day and age, it does seem like how people consume stuff is with vertical videos. And like the stuff that's coming out about podcasts, like. like people like going up to hosts a podcast being like i'm such a big fan of your podcast and then it comes out he's like oh no i i don't listen to it i just watch the clips yeah but like that's maybe a little bit more of the reality so it's like yeah you can get this amazing profile with amanda petrusich in the new yorker and go deep about like how lyrics can change with a different melody and like I mean, that's the voice of the world, not us. Amanda's an amazing writer. We love her. Great How Long Gone, guys. Yes. So me and Amanda need to make some vertical videos together, basically, if we want to reach the maximum number of people. But yes, it's been fun to like...

pop out different in 2026. Look, I agree. Your boy popping out different. He acting different. I told you he was on the Drake album. I told you. I knew he'd been hiding it. Okay, so do you like that you can go along with How Long Gone or a New Yorker profile for those of us who still have an attention span that hasn't been severed off at the root? No, no. Is it a bummer that... I like you guys. This is fun. I think it'd be fun for us to do some kind of... vertical video type shit down the line. Remember what I suggested, Rostam week on How Long Gone. We would love to pull Rostam week. Look, we're down. I forgot about Rostam week. That was a cute pitch. When the schedule's lying. But are you guys going to pivot to vertical video? What's up with that? Well, we're filming video stuff that's going to live. horizontally like a standard youtube video but you know the idea and the goal is to clip that out into you know if it's a half an hour video of us talking shit you know maybe get you know six to ten clips out of that that'll go video and you know spread the good seed of how long gone throughout the nation it's just it's just it's just sort of like it's it's a lot more work like a lot more work no i get that and i but i also i think the benefit i think the benefit it's obvious that it works it's not like it's like it's not you're not shouting into the void if you spend the time and effort to do it i do think it works especially when you're in our position you're somewhat established it's not like we're starting from scratch for those who are just listening to this and can't enjoy the video feed chris is lying down on a bed. He's got two comfortable pillows behind him. He's got his laptop seemingly on his lap. It's on a pillow on my lap. I got to protect the stuff. Oh, okay. And he's got his AirPod Max, those big Apple headphones that I do not fuck with. And he's holding a microphone. He's got a nice foam pop filter on that microphone. It's a very professional setup over here. Give me a beat, Rossum. Give me a beat. I'm ready, bro. Give me a beat.

i've never done i've never used a mic stand on how long gone in my entire life okay i've never i always do it like this and i don't know if it's better or worse it's probably more annoying for jason but i always do it like this because i'm usually somewhere i'm rarely at home i guess actually this is good while i have Both of you all here in a safe space in a couples therapy kind of way. Rossum, you're a producer of music. You've recorded a lot of people vocals over the years. True. You know, professional singers, declares of the world. What do you do when the person vocalizing can't keep the distance of the mic from their mouth in a consistent distance? What do you do? Is there a trick or a tip? I would use a multiband compressor. The one that I like the most is made by McDSP, MCDSP, and it's the M404. it's amazing you'll get amazing results because look just like look i'm just like danielle from high when i hit the high note i pull back you know i just pull back a little bit that's what we got to do that's what my that's what my problem is when you hit the the high note is not the issue your it's your low note because your voice has a lower frequency so sometimes you know sometimes we lose a lot of dynamic range when you get excited I'll be looking at the waveform. Everything's looking all nice and perfect. I say one of my classic hilarious TJ lines. It's just a black bar of audio. It's clipping. It's limiting. It's all messed up. It's flattering to me because I'm getting such a great response out of you, but it's tough. I'm writing the volume for the whole hour. Yeah, I get it. I get it. Chris is a very dynamic, he's dynamic. That's called dynamic range. He's a very dynamic guy. Yeah, that's really how I'm described, often described as dynamic. Thank you for that plug-in tip. I was hoping we were getting a few from you for free out of this, you know what I mean? Of course. Because you've done one of those, you did the breakdown, the song. What's the popular thing where it's like a real studio? It's called Mixed with the Masters, these two French guys in Paris. How gnarly do they get? Listen, I feel like... It's fun to make those videos knowing that the people who are going to watch them are people who do this day in and day out. You don't have to hold back. You can show the plug-in and show how you adjusted the settings. You want to learn. Everybody in that game wants to learn more from other producers. We were talking with... I'm going to mispronounce his name. Jason, can you say it? As soon as you tell me who it is.

Song Exploder. Song Exploder. Oh, Rishi. Rishi Keshe. Rishi Keshe Hirwe. Rishi Keshe. I said it right the whole episode, and then I just blanked. And he was great, and I really like him. I really like that show. But he was actually telling us that sometimes the artist will get emotional hearing the stem because they've like... haven't heard it in so long or maybe have never heard it. Yeah. Like a raw vocal or something. And I've, have you ever, because that's fascinating to me. And I feel like that is a very rare experience. I've had the experience of being like, oh wait, what the fuck did I put in this session? Like, oh Jesus, this doesn't even make sense. But like, it's kind of working. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. The piano's playing different chords than the guitar, but I like it. Yeah, we just kind of duck the volume on those a little bit. to give you some real crazy information about rishikesh and the song jealous guy by john lennon john lennon actually started writing that song on a trip to india with the beatles okay but he didn't finish it until after the beatles but the original version the first lyric was on the road to rishikesh i was dreaming more or less Damn, Rishikesh, a podcaster and a place? Yes, I believe so. Wow, that is actually great. I feel like the crossover of people who understand that or knew that is you. You know, and maybe him and his dad. Yeah, there's a lot of Beatles. And you have a beautiful voice, by the way. A lot of Beatles super fans out there. Oh, yeah. I know that. That's true. It's just like, yeah, you're not going to get doxxed if you like John too much. Luckily, the stans stay away. It's a different culture. I am a John person. Let's put that on the record. I don't know if I'm not really a Paul guy. I'm a George guy. Yeah, we're George people on this pod. I love him. George Harrison's solo album, best by far to me.

Like, untouchable. He's the John Frusciante of the Beatles. He's low-key beasting. His tones and his melodies are insane. He sits back in the cut. Long hair, probably hung, uncut. He's looking good. Apparently, when Coldplay was finishing A Rush of Blood to the Head, they had someone who's, like, very close to them in their team who played Chris Martin, Isn't It a Penny? Which is from that album, All Things Must Pass. Yeah. And he was like, can you... Chris, maybe write a song like this. And it's like those kind of simple piano chords, like dun, dun, dun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then Chris... wrote The Scientist. It was like one of the last songs for A Rush of Blood. Oh, hell no, not The Scientist. You're going to get Jason and I crying if you start talking about The Scientist. That's an all-timer right there. Let me fire up my soul seek. Here I go. I love the idea of somebody being like, hey, could you just write a song like this great George Harrison song for the album before we finish? Could you just try? I found this old record. We can use it as a reference track. All things should pass. Yeah, why don't you try this just before we close up shop? George Harrison. Okay, I'll give it a try. Yeah, like the story with A Rush of Blood to the Head is apparently they felt like they were close to done with the album and at the last minute, 11th hour, Chris Wright's clocks and the scientists. Whoa. They were like last minute. Really? Yes. That's like Benny Blanco with California Girls. Same shit. We thought this thing was in a can and then Benny said, what if it wasn't this? And they're like, what the fuck? I mean, getting told that at the last minute and being able to pull it out, I mean, that's why Chris Martin's one of the greats, you know? Besides his shirt, besides his t-shirts, he's one of the greats. Hold this clock really quick. I got to go buy another fucking yacht right now. Okay, let's talk about cropping shirts because this is something I've gotten recently into. Pause. There's a guy in the Lower East Side. His name is Ramon. He only takes cash. Bro, you don't think I know Ramon? I know, but I want the people to know because Ramon is special. Is he verse? How does it work? What's going on? He's old school. He's kind of retired now, Ross, to be fair.

think he's touching much. You know what I mean? I think he's run the operation. Retired Ramon. Boss style. But he's in there. And his daughter runs the business. She's great. Yeah, so one thing that I love is to buy a Comme de Garçon shirt. I've done this a couple times now. I take it to Ramon. You take the Garçon to Ramon? I take the Comme to Ramon. And I just get him to take an inch off the bottom. Take an inch off the bottom. And the shit is fitting me in a next level way. I don't have to worry about tucking or being untucked. There's no tucking versus untucking drama in my life. No dilemma. There's no dilemma there. It's just I feel good. There's no more tucking drama in your life. The doll has had a successful surgery. We are on the other side of it. You know, I can tuck. I like to do a French tuck sometimes. Oh, I know you do. I know you do. The height of your torso and the way clothes are cut, you're saying your body is kind of a tweener where it sits right in between. Will it tuck? Should it untuck? And Ramon says, problem solved. Now everything is perfecto. I think just in general, I don't like a full tuck. I've never been a full tuck liker. It can be restricting, but I do like it when duty calls. I wouldn't do it on a Monday afternoon. You know what I mean? But I think that there's a... With a jacket. With a suit. Without a jacket, it can be tough. Because you'll wear a shirt untucked with a blazer, which I think looks cool for other people, but I cannot do that. I feel like I'm committing a crime against preppy culture. Something that horrific is cute for you, but I would never. And that's how I feel about loafers. Yeah, no, I know. I know. Period. That's what I'm saying. Loafers period. Rossum said loafers are way too gay even for me. Period. Moving on. Well, I mean, I think that... He's not even talking about the chunky Pradas. He's talking about the bass regular shit. You don't want to get into a footwear battle with me, but go ahead. Go ahead. No, I'm joking. Yeah, Rossum, could you expand more on your thoughts about loafers? This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by a new podcast from The Guardian.

Stateside with Kai and Carter. This is covering a lot of our bases, Jason. It's trying to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's happening in the world. And I know you particularly have quite a lot of questions. A lot of questions, but how often? Because we do this podcast three times a week and that's a sweet spot. How many times do they do? Three times a week. And I have a feeling just based on the platform and these talking points that they're maybe going to be covering different stuff than we do. That's just a guess. The Guardian is not some billionaire owned. They're not afraid to say what they want to say, brother. Yeah, Rupert ain't sniffing around in what journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are up to over there at Stateside. But yeah, listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch it on YouTube. It's three times a week. And who couldn't use more news? Especially when it's not from here, let's say. Give it a listen. Give it a listen. Oh, this is huge for me personally. This episode of How I'm Gone is brought to you by TaskRabbit. Oh, baby, let me tell you something. This is not a joke. I use TaskRabbit a lot because I can't do anything. You need some art hung? TaskRabbit. You need something put together? A cabinet? Got to reach that cheese grater on the top shelf? TaskRabbit. Anything you need, TaskRabbit can take care of it for you. How it works, TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers in your area. They can help you move. They can assemble furniture, repairs, yard work, mounting, and more. You can search for a tasker based on cost, skill set, availability, and past client reviews so you know exactly who's showing up and can have confidence that they know what they're doing because taskers have assembled over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs. handled 1.5 million moves, and the numbers are just going up, Jason. Yeah, throw a little money at the problem. It's not so expensive. And that job that you really don't want to do is something that another person out in the world is very good at doing and would gladly do it in exchange for a little bit of money. So when life happens, your to-do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get $15 off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or grab the TaskRabbit app using promo code

How long taskers book up faster, especially for same day tasks. So book trusted home help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code how long with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. I just feel like there's like a lot of like white guys with hairy legs and like wearing like no show socks with loafers. And it's like a weird scene. It's like very like. Georgetown University circa 1999. Hey, look, your sexual trauma around white guys with hairy legs is not my problem. Okay, bro? I'm sorry what he did to you, but that's not my problem. You can fuck him now. Go right these wrongs, Rossum. All these guys that wouldn't give you the time of day. I got no trauma. I just feel like there's cooler things that you could, like, you guys know I like a little bit of preppy style here and there. Like, I just feel like there's cooler things that you could do than wear loafers, you know? Oh, it's not about, but it's not, to me it's not about cool or not. It's about the, it's the most traditional. and functional shoe in the closet that's it's not about slip it on the operative part of that sentence being in the closet yeah it's giving operative you're all right oh he gave it he gave it to those how long gone boys he gave it to he fed them back okay slow down slow down so yeah this kitten's got claws how do you feel about a pleats please rostam I think some of the shit is dope and some of the shit is not dope. When people... I got to say something very controversial. Fair. I think I rarely like it when a suit and pants match. I think it's a very weird look. You mean with pleats, please in particular? Yes. Yeah, when people wear the full suit with pleats, please, it crosses some kind of line. Like, I want... If you're going to do it, then switch up the pant color. That reminds me. It's a little bit of the white boy version of the jersey match the hat match the shoes. Oh, God. You know what I mean? Like Nelly era. You know what I'm saying? It feels like that to me. But I think pleats please on men is really tough. Really tough. It depends how you put it together, right? Chris, it's all about context. You get a nice gray pleats please top and bottom matching a nice white McQueen sneaker on the bottom.

little no show. You have a funky little pleats please hat I feel like that is a wild piece of clothing that you somehow pull off because if I saw it on the shelf I'd be walking the other way. I had a moment with those hats. I got them in a few different colors. I got my mom one because my mom is who got me into Issei Miyake. That's like her shit. She loves Issei. It's great. It's the ultimate. Alex's mom is into that too. It's the ultimate mom. To me, like a mom with taste, that's the ultimate brand. There we go. Moms with taste. Hashtag moms. It really is. Hashtag yummy mummy. this mummy tastes good yes exactly that part but um okay but yeah i i feel you i think i think one one component of an outfit being please please can can work nicely how much were the hats running for how much were the hats running for because i know you're a guy that buys multiples you're if i like it i'm getting every color type of cat there's only a couple things i feel that way about and visvim is one of those things. What's the hoodie you've been wearing with the strings? That's VisVim, right? Okay, so I'm going to go deep with y'all on this one. Did you custom the strings? Don't tell me you custom the strings. He's going Emil Haney on us right now. You're going Emil on us right now, hard body. The strings are from... You know how nowadays with high-end shoes, they're giving you two sets of laces, right? Of course. So the strings that I'm putting in these VisVim hoodies... And they actually come with no string. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They come stringless. Chris knows about this because he's been researching hoodies for Hanover. Yeah, honestly, I know a lot about hoodies and I don't even wear them that much. Okay, so I use the alternate shoelaces that you get with these APC white leather sneakers. You've done this twice? Yes. Wow. Okay, so you take it to Ramon and you're like, weave this in for me. Actually... Laura, who's my housekeeper, she was able to do it. I don't know how, but she did it. I asked if she could. Laura said, give it to me. I said, Laura, could you help? And then the next thing I knew, she made it happen. I don't know how she made it happen. That's actually cool because that feels like something that is oddly complicated. Like when the string comes out of the workout shorts, I can't. I can't put that back in. This is a thing that you can just look online anywhere and there's a way. I think you can get like a long coat hanger.

A coat hanger, a long pen, or a pencil, and just kind of boom and stick it through, weave it through. But what about these white shoelaces on the APSE sneakers? Are they different than just a standard white shoelace? No, they look like climbing. They look like climbing rope. Yeah, they have like a navy sort of wraparound pattern, like a subtle navy thing. Wow, you're really getting it custom. That's a lot. that's a lot of work to be cropping the shirts and well i've cropped one t-shirt because it was too long and i got it back and i was like i fucking hate this i'm never doing this again i just it didn't it was wrong as soon as i got it back i was like this doesn't fit and it was an amazing counting crows amazing counting crow shirt and unfortunately you know you look august and everything after white with black print simple nothing on the back happens in your crop chris let's gotta sit in the archive let's discuss maybe maybe there's a Maybe there's a 5'9 king that would fit perfectly. I didn't know. Do you respect the Crows? I don't know that about you. Oh, yeah, but I have not seen the doc yet. But, I mean, when I went to the first guitar teacher I ever had, actually kind of my only guitar teacher, his name was Eric Ulrich, I asked him to teach me four songs on the first guitar lesson. One of them was Mr. Jones by The Counting Crows. Classic. One of them was High and Dry by Radiohead. Oh. One of them was Machine Head by Bush. Better than the rest. That shit slaps. Machine Head, he's been playing it too and it kind of still slaps. And the fourth one, I feel like maybe the fourth one was one he wanted me to learn, which was an Eric Clapton song that had bends in it. And he was like, this is a good song for you to learn because you'll learn the bends. What's that song called? It's... uh wonderful tonight you weren't because you weren't clapton proficient that wasn't your i liked some clapton but like yeah he he like expanded my taste a little bit the guitar teacher he was getting me into more like guitar stuff go from ipanema

Little Wing by Hendrix. He was like, I'm going to teach you everything you want to learn, but then you should learn a few things that I want you to learn. Yeah, two for you, one for me type shit. That's fair. You said, okay, sensei, let's do this. The Counting Crows renaissance I was hoping for, it feels stalled. I was really pushing the narrative. The thing about the documentary is, and this is unfortunate, nothing happens really like the rise to fame is pretty crazy and they're so normal but then like there's no od nobody dies they still get along it's it's just sort of like boring i have a treacherous dreads were fake i have a treacherous question which is what is adam durance's ethnicity that's not you know we ain't answering that i don't know white bro He's from San Francisco. I mean, there might be some Spanish. Jason, look it up. I think there might be some like. Looking it up. He's half white and Russian Jewish. Okay. Born in Baltimore, Maryland. Raised in a reformed Jewish household. Rabbi Jones and me, he said. The best story in the documentary is when he gets really famous. He kind of starts to feel like crazy living in Berkeley. And he moves to L.A. and sort of like. works at the viper room as a bartender to like give himself some like normalcy and then it's like the first night there it's like kate moss's birthday and he's hanging and then johnny depp's like his best friend that that shit's cool but like there's no tragedy i want tragedy i for better or worse i want something bad to happen to you in a rock doc but also i just looked it up um the very first line on the song mr jones He famously references his cultural background. First line, I'm a Russian Jew American impersonating African. Wait, that's not the first line. It's down at the New Amsterdam. Yeah. I was talking to this yellow-haired girl. Okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. Not the first line, not the first line. But it is a lyric in Mr. Jones. That is very verbose for a lyric. I don't remember that. I could be wrong. I don't know if I know every word, but I feel like if I, yeah. Okay, wait, sorry. I looked it up. It says that famous lyric is from the song 1492. This is AI being wrong again, you motherfuckers. 1492. I'm not familiar with that. Because Mr. Jones is the biggest hit by far.

I think. Oh, no. Actually, the Joni Mitchell cover is the biggest hit. That makes sense. That was a very TRL era. It was from a movie, too. It was like a movie soundtrack thing. Yeah. Because Vanessa Carlton sang on that. Did you guys used to watch TRL? Bro, are you kidding me? I fucking... I lived it, bro. Cartel. We did TRL a handful of times. It was my favorite thing in the world. Wow. That's cool. I didn't know that. It was so sick. Because it would be like... You backstage with your homies, and then it's like the other guests are Soulja Boy and Natalie Portman or some shit, and everybody's just kind of hanging out together. It was just a very different time. Wait, Jason, since you're looking stuff up, what was the date range of TRL? It was like, what, 95 to 2005? It feels later. It feels later. 98 to 2006? 1998 to 2008. Oh, wow. obviously the last few years it was kind of you know fizzling out but i think you know the hot the sweet spot was right around you know the sweet spot was like boy band prime like backstreet boys in sync like that era was the prime and we you could cheat you know i mean you could pay the way that the way that all these bands are paying for the clip farms we would pay for a voting farm oh that's how trump won the election exactly same thing same kind of thing you would just you basically like i would have to i mean i don't know maybe i should save this but basically we would you would the label would i would have to pay and then the label would i would invoice the label for some like innocuous fees and they would pay me because they couldn't have the paper trail but that's like a pot that was like a very known thing wow it was like the payola thing you know it was the same kind of thing marketing expense yeah it was just a classic marketing expense classic marketing wow but i i think that that now that that's happening for you know wait every person on earth it seems when you say chris when you say you want to save it do you mean you want to save it for your book no i just feel like i feel like i'm like have we ever talked about this before is this bad for me to say but then i don't really like i mean whatever it's not i think this is a pretty common practice enough time has passed how is the book coming along

Oh, great question, Ross. I love to talk about this. Are you being sarcastic? Yes, I'm being sarcastic. No, it's fine. It's actually fine. I think I've said this to Jason before. It's the troubling thing. And maybe this isn't dissimilar to making an album. But you're sort of like, you finish all the stuff you got to do during the day. Like, oh, I ran my errands. I went to the gym. I responded to all my emails. We recorded how long gone. But you're never really done. Because that shit is looming over your head. No matter what, no matter how much you accomplish in a day, you didn't do the thing that is the most, you know, that's the North Star the most. You know, as they say, Chris, with the AI discourse, don't be a writer if you don't like writing. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, it's real. I mean, it's real. You got to learn how to like it. One thing that could work maybe is what if you inverse that order and you try to do the writing right at the top of the morning? Just like walk in. No, a lot of people do that. A lot of people do that. And I think that is valuable. I think that's probably a valuable approach. I just think that would throw off my shit so much that I don't even know. I don't know how long it would take me to acclimate to that for it to be positive. you know what i mean throw that shit off brother throw it off yeah i probably need to throw it off yeah you can work out in the afternoon until you finish your book it's fine you can go back working out in the afternoon unfortunately is is one of the most diabolical things that people can do it fucks me up so bad it fucks me up so bad because i i also need to work i'm one of those people i have to work out on a totally empty stomach i cannot have food same unless i've like traveled and i have no choice i'm i'm with you and you can't i can't not eat till 3 p.m also jason that's that's promoter that's promoter that 3 p.m hour is like the the darkest people on earth are in the gym

Okay, so I don't go to the gym to look at other people, Chris. I go there to kind of do work on myself. I'm not looking at other people. I'm saying the energy you feel is different. It's like this is a different vibe at 3 p.m. Like 8 a.m. is when you're in there with the people that are getting after it. 3 p.m. is like, no offense to my photographers. That's when I see Kobe. That's when I see people I know, and I'm like, oh, yeah, you guys are on demon time. You're talking to a 3 p.m., motherfucker. You're on demon time. You're getting bodied by a 3 p.m.-er. Chris, let's go. slightly deep on on working out stuff so do you work out with the trainer still or no are you solo only when i'm in la okay so in new york you're solo and you like the equinox on prince street or another one no i try becca now is is closer oh chi becca chi becca and and i would less populated i would say i have i have an update for you i went to a club last night that was like right across the park are you talking about um uh what's it called Gosh. Gosh, yes. Gosh, Jason, New York's hottest club is gosh. It really is. Okay, wait, wait, wait. Let's finish the workout, and then I want to do a deep gosh dive. Okay. Oh, yeah, because I want to hear about Jason. Jason, are you Equinox Glendale? No, I canceled my Equinox, I would say, maybe a year. year and a half ago and i work out at home and then i do pilates twice a week so i sort of switched my like nice outdoor group fitness that costs money from equinox to pilates i find now i only use equinox in new york so am i gonna have maybe i might switch my membership because when i'm in la i just don't go i just don't bother with it if you're going to the places i'm going it's there it's you can't really beat it what's for the like i don't what's the place you like in la it's like easton or something yeah yeah Rossum, you're more of a high mat guy. You're a bougie bitch. You pull up in the fucking Porsche. I tried. I tried high mat. I tried high mat and. The drive was just very brutal. It was like the worst drive you could imagine. That's far. On Santa Monica Boulevard in the middle of the day or middle of the morning, it's just, it's never pretty. You know, it's never, it's always traffic-y. So you want Spencer Pratt to clean that street up is what you're saying? Yeah, exactly. Oh, gosh. Oh, my gosh. This is the most rostom response you could have ever said. Oh, gosh. Yeah, but I also, I don't.

I don't really touch the West Side in LA. I don't even touch Hollywood. To me, the West Side is everything. West of the Arclight, which doesn't exist anymore, which is crazy. But the Arclight used to be my... I get that. That's as far as the train goes. I really want the Arclight to reopen. I feel like that's part of when LA started going downhill, when we lost the Arclight. I think Spencer could bring that back, too. It brought everyone together. I think Spencer could bring that back, too. If Spencer ran on that Save the Arclight platform, you would vote. No, no, no, no, no. Brett Ratner's going to buy it, and then they'll do it together. They'll stick back on its feet. No, Brett. No, Brett. I want that Arclight back. They're going to get this thing back on its feet. What do you mean? I don't see a problem here. They only play Melania. Let's get that. I have so many memories of the Arclight. I mean, it's just such a beautiful space. So many good theaters. It was really like a gathering place where every class type neighborhood. All came together, famous celebs, random poor people, every person, all walks of life, all came together in that one lobby. They had the caramel corn, and we all enjoyed a film together. And then COVID came and ruined it all. I have a friend who has a theory that... And now Hantavirus is about to kill it for the second time. LA never recovered from the pandemic, but New York did. I think that's not an unpopular theory. What do you guys think? Jason, you just spent a week in New York. As a bi-coastal podcaster, I have thoughts on this. But yeah, I think because New York, with everyone... Everyone wants to be out all the time. Everyone's having their meals outside. Everyone's going out and doing things every day. You're leaving your small abode to explore the world. The city is where you live. So it had to get back to work. Whereas LA, you can just get your little PPP loan check and never come down the hill from Laurel Canyon and order your goop kitchen. You know, we're all good. I don't need to go. There's no cool clubs to go to in L.A. outside of a few random, you know, warehouse things downtown. There's no social culture happening in L.A. anymore except for group fitness classes. No, don't say that. There's several wine bars where you can sit outside. There's several. Eight I can think of by name. I did it last night. I went to Stir Crazy last night. Our friends from Rita's, the restaurant in London, Missy and Gabe, they did a pop-up. And who was there?

but Adele and Rich Paul, Lil' Rich. Oh, wow, that's big. Amazing. That's big. I've never seen Adele IRL. I've never talked about this, but I did write two songs with Adele in 2015, and we never finished them. I've never talked about this. Damn, because Tobias Jester Jr. came in there with the elbow. He said, excuse me, sir. Not at all. Not at all. Not at all. Because I love Tobias. He's amazing. I didn't know he worked on your record until I was reading press. But one thing about Adele I got to tell you guys is, like, she's so the real deal. And, like, she played... someone like you on guitar for me like just she's the real she like can write she can write a song backwards for she she's the real thing everything her problem is that everything she sings sounds like a classic song like it sounds like it's existed forever as soon as oh you can't you can't tell because there's too many it's just too good i mean i remember when emil worked with her he told me he was like that's the craziest shit i've ever seen i've never like just become like blow you away yes like chills vocal like just like whatever i can sit down i can lay down i can stand up it's gonna sound good no matter what it's pretty crazy it's pretty crazy yeah she's an amazing person she's a scott storage of the vocal booth we get it you guys exactly where is the where are the songs which which rostom hard drive we gotta go through bro No, no, no. They'll see the light of day if ever she wanted to finish them. Of course I'm down to, or maybe our paths will cross. Life is long, but I keep shit locked. I keep shit locked tight. How much unfinished shit do you have? It's so surprising to me that you'll spend a week with someone and they're sort of... it's like ideas, but there's nothing like finished, finished. Not that much. I don't, or I actually, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe if I were to like really look at it, I'm like, Oh, I did a song with that person. Jesus. Yeah. Cause I'm sure there's, I'm sure there were phases where it was like every week. It's some, you know, some other shit. And it's like, Oh, okay. I totally forgot about Shawn Mendes. I never worked with Shawn, but I don't really do too much of that. Like what people call, like, what do they call it? The conveyor belts or something like, well, not anymore. I meant at one phase, I'm sure it was more like.

It's interesting because when I moved to LA at the end of 2013, I really thought that I might pursue a career as like a pop producer, which is a thing that I don't think is really my path, but I've intersected with that life and I've done songs with pop artists in my career, but it's like more specific. There's like a genre of pop artists like a Charlie or a Carly Rae that's also a writer. Or like an Adele who also writes their songs. Those are kind of like a very specific cut of the pop world. It's a pop music that's good and listenable. Don't say that, bro. But you also like money. You also like money, and that's where you can get a fucking nice little sync, right? Uh-huh. He makes all his money with Hamilton. He doesn't even have to go to these pop shit. He can go to fucking... He can go to Hamilton's house in the basement and they could do their little thing. It's pretty good. 1-800-CARS-FOR-KIDS. I think we got it. Jason, wait, I did see a weird thing about that today. Jason, I got to say, any time I've ever sniffed around, should I do this thing? And I don't do those things because it doesn't really, it's just, it doesn't. I don't think I've ever really gone all the way there, but if I've ever dipped in the toe of like, am I going to do this for them? It's not, nah, it's not good. I don't know. That's not how I, that's not how I can make money. It's like, I feel like I make money when I'm like so excited about something that I like go all the way in on it and it like consumes me. And maybe it's like a up and coming artist, but maybe it's just like. whatever something that i believe in well sometimes you're on bring a trailer and that g-wagon pops up that you just gotta have and you say you know what mr mendez i will come to the studio this week you know what let me let me know i'm fine what is this new apple show called sure wait let me put you guys on to something about being a producer you know you really have to finish the song before you send it right and and you do not get you do you do not get paid for finishing the song

until they want to put the song out yeah yeah i know i know you're waiting bro you're always waiting so i just want to say like it's not what you think it is and being a producer like you really have to you you have to put in the work because you believe in it you're telling me it's not like hip-hop maggie rogers doesn't bring 50 bands over in a louis duffel and just drop it off before you got once you give her the beat tape it doesn't work like that damn you got me fucked up i thought everybody how much for a feature We the Rossum feature. I can do it for 10. I can do it for 10. I'm in the lab with Molly Santana all week. People do sometimes DM me and they're like, can I send you loops? And I'm just like, what do I do? What would I do with that? You're like, bro, I make my own loops. That's the whole fucking thing, bro. That's my job. That's my whole fucking thing. They want to be like, damn, Rossum said one of my loops was good. All right. So when are you, you're going, you're about to hit the road, bro. I can't even imagine. Are you doing a sprint? Are you getting a bus? What's the vibe? Yeah, we have a bus. We have a couple legs of different sections of the tour. I'm excited to play. My band is fun to play with. We're live. There's so much talent in the room. These guys could switch instruments in the middle of songs and cover each other's parts. That is nice. It's really fun. I guess maybe because I've been in the studio so much in the last 10 years, there's something really thrilling. I got to say the word is thrilling about putting on a show that feels like something that you have not never seen before musically, seeing like pedal steel, violin, real drums. Like, I don't know. I'm just excited about it. I think it's going to be fun. When does the concert, when does the film come out? We're figuring that out because there is a thing with YouTube where it's like, if you drop a 30 minute YouTube, like it's kind of hard to get people to watch. A 30 minute. Yeah, no shit. Okay. Yeah, no shit, bro. The algorithm doesn't shine upon 30. They like 30 seconds, not 30 minutes. Well, I think 30 seconds is a little short, too. Well, you know what I mean. You know what I mean, Rossman. I think probably between now and the middle.

of next week or between now and the tour we'll we'll drop the whole concert film it's really it's really good and it's i like how you my favorite part of it was when you had to show them that you could play drums for like 30 seconds Jason, the whole thing. He's playing all these things. He's walking around. And then there's just a 30-second part where him and the drummer set up face-to-face playing at the same time. I'm like, this motherfucker, I had to let him know. I had to touch every instrument. Tenacious D shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had to let him know. That's me taking advice from my manager, Dalton Sim, who is a legend and a wonderful, very wonderful man. Everyone who knows him and is managed by him is like, this is the best manager. And I really love Dalton. He has said to me, he was like, I want to see you. show your musicality. I want to see you show people how many instruments you can play. Yeah, it's like Kid Rock. Kid Rock will do every instrument during one song. He'll do turntables. He'll do drums. I actually did not know that. I did not know that. Kid Rock's really about that shit, bro. Kid Rock's got it. Don't sleep on Kid because of his problematic... He can breakdance, too. Five Elements. Have you guys ever seen a John Bryan live show? Yes. Not in person, no. He'll do a really cool thing where he'll sit at the drums and he's got it so dialed in with his sound man that he'll just start playing drums, casual style, and his sound guy knows when to start the loop or maybe he's doing it in a subtle way that you can't see. Oh, that's cool. So then he'll get the drums going, he'll get a loop going, and then he'll walk over to the piano and he'll do the same thing at the piano and the next thing he picks up the guitar, the bass, and he's building a track live for you. That's really next level. Hey, I don't want to talk out of turn, but John Marrow's doing some shit like that at MSG if I'm keeping it 100 with a double neck. Okay. He was doing it with the double neck. Also, if you just go to Santa Monica Promenade, there's 11 motherfuckers doing that too. You ever heard of a little artist named Ed Sheeran, Rostam? I don't know about it. He's a famous looper as well. It's not as sexy, but it's not as sexy as John Bryan, of course. I actually did go to an Ed Sheeran show just because I kind of wanted to check it out. And I'm published by the same publishing company, which I love, Sony. Give it up for Sony. They're awesome. We give it up for our Sony family. We'll shop at a Culver.

called sony i'm just really loving them lately actually now when that when now they have a new offices and studios on like sycamore which is like the cool street now you know it's like yeah yeah yeah where all the cool stuff is happening over there but i love when cool stuff happens shut the jacques marie marsh yeah yeah by the bodie store um Oh, yeah. And your faves are crazy. Is it Melrose Hill? I guess. No, that's not Melrose Hill. That's more Melrose and Western, and this is more kind of La Brea-ish. Okay, but here's what I got to say about the Ed Sheeran show. There's these monitors. I'm looking at these. They're LCD walls, but they have a very specific shape. I'm trying to figure out what this shape is. I'm watching the whole show. It's the shape of you. No, let me tell you what the shape is. It took me a while, but I realized these LCD monitors, and there's tons of them filling out SoFi Stadium. They're in the shape of guitar picks. That's fire. Hell yeah. Ed's got taste. I knew it, bro. I knew what Ed was doing. Ed said, I'm like a hard rock cafe, this whole fucking place. Don't test me. Of all the shapes, he went guitar pick, which is not even really, it's just like a round triangle. that's not even identifiable by most people you know what I mean like most people aren't like oh that's a heavy Ernie ball you know what I mean they don't know what the fuck that is there's like it looks yeah it looks like a triangle with soft edges Jason you're right you're absolutely right bitch ass triangles oh I had one one more question I wanted to talk to you about okay Jason has a real question merchandise no he doesn't don't get your hopes up sweetheart um I wanted to talk about uh well the the album has an American flag on it It's American stories. You made a hat with the artwork on it. And you sort of, I don't know, you use your fashion sense to make the first kind of non-binary technical gear where it has, you know, it has a hat. It has a Velcro patch with the American flag on it. The American flag is in more of a baby blue, canary yellow color story.

and not the red and red, white, and blue, but you can turn that flag upside down or right side up depending on what part of LA I'm hanging out in on any given day. And I look forward to kind of code switching with your headwear. Jason's going to wear it right side up when he's in OC, when he's in Echo Park, upside down. I see what he's doing. Exactly. Don't forget that it's a Realtree hat. Yeah. This is controversial for you. And have you received any blowback from this? No. It seems like people who've been wearing it out there in the world, like my brother and Anthony Mews, the director that I worked with, they're like, I'm getting compliments all the time. People are just stopping me and being like, that's a cool hat. It is noticeable. I mean, it's noticeable. That is good to hear because I feel like- People be rocking with it. People be rocking with it, yeah. I mean, it's a tough hat because- Right side up, you're a person who's walking around town with an American flag hat on, which used to not be a big deal, but now it's more of a loaded garment. Not for me, bro. I can separate the art from the artist. You know what I'm saying? But then when you wear the hat upside down, then you're a guy walking around with America spelled with three Ks. you're you're giving rage against the machine fuck the government energy which you might not always be wanting to put out into the world so it's really you're making a decision when you put that hat on your head that's true well one thing i thought about is like i don't know maybe there'll be a point in american history where like you know if we got a president zoran mamdani and i do know that the laws would have to be like a constitutional amendment to make that possible. Good, because I didn't want to bring it up. I didn't want to kill your dreams, but I think about it every day that he can't be president. Well, Trump is amending some of those rules for a third term, so maybe the door can swing both ways. Exactly. Let's see what's possible. But you know what? I'm going to start changing. I'll change up my artwork on Spotify, and I'll change the vinyl sleeve, too, to be a flag right side up.

And then you know what's going to happen to those upside down flag additions. Those prices are going to go up. Discogs. I put my kids through college with the rust of discogs. Okay, I'm unloading. So everyone who, if you made it to this deep into this podcast, y'all need to get on my merch. Y'all need to be perfect. Cop the hat now. Cop the CD. We went crazy on the CD itself design. It's good. It's cool. It looks cool. It looks cool. Reminds me of some maybe. 2001, 2005-ish era New Order with some of the color. New Order. That's an amazing, that's the highest compliment. I don't need to tell this couple guys that the band The Killers was named after the fictional band in a New Order music video from that era. I do know that. Was that Crystal? We'll talk off mic about the new Brandon Flowers because it has a lot of pedal steel. His new solo album. It's great. and it's i'm saying it's all happening we've talked about it's all happening maybe he can open for you on tour next time yeah yeah something small something light all right american stories in stores everywhere that you listen to music uh i love the album rostom it's great i listened to yesterday driving from tucson to phoenix the perfect you know really deep in america i would say i listened to it twice as i signed about 150 copies at the rough trade store which is now in rockefeller center i've been i did not know it was there i when i agreed to do this in store i thought it was in uh in Brooklyn but it is no longer in Brooklyn but it's a really cool store and the people who came out were really cool people I was like oh fuck I like my fans I fuck with my fans alright thank you Rossum good to see you bro and we'll see you soon thank you guys bye bye Maybe the greatest start is never completed We only have to leave it knowing we tried But there's a part of me that's waiting And there's a part of me that ain't looking back A part of me believes in fate and A part of me thinks that you can't plan