Thank you for traveling with Amex Platinum. To your right, you'll see Oceanside Relaxation at a fine hotel or resort property. When booked through Amex Travel, you can enter a complimentary breakfast for two and four PM late check out. That's the powerful backing of American Express. In terms of why, learn more at americanexpress.com/withamex. Ah yes, the magnificent trolley sour bright crawler, also known as trolica sprite olus. The worms captivating neon color makes it an easy gummy prey. Trolley. It's a surprisingly sour, invitingly chewy, staggeringly snackable species, unlike anything else found on this planet. - Eat me. - Delicious. Visit trolley.com to shop now. - Trolley, eat me. (upbeat music) - Waterproof records with Jacob Diddens. (upbeat music) - Christmas is here. You might be thinking to yourself, Jacob, what are you talking about? It's summertime. How are we even remotely close to Christmas? - No, that's because my guest today is Julie Christmas. Julie Christmas is a New York Brooklyn based vocalist who started out in bands like Made Out of Babies, did the supergroup Battle of Mice. And then in 2016, she collaborated with the Swedish post metal band, Cult of Luna. In 2010, she released her first solo album called The Bad Wife. And she just released her second solo album called Ridiculous and Full of Blood. So I am so excited to bring Julie Christmas on the podcast today, so let's get right into it. It's time to talk to Julie Christmas. Let's go. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - All right, so there's one thing I wanted to talk about real quick if you are watching the show. Now I know the majority of my listeners are listeners. It's a podcast. They're meant to be in your ears while you're doing other things. But there are a small few of you who watch me on YouTube and see the channel. And then of course, when I share the links, you get to see the location that I film the podcast. Well, you may notice if you are watching that I have a new waterproof record set. Yes, I am so excited about this. I've been working on this for months and it is finally together. And I actually, I feel like I'm gonna build on it as we go, you know, add more things. But I have a cool creative space now that I get to do the show and record a lot of my videos. And so if you've never watched me before, go on to YouTube, check it out. You can see the location. I think it looks pretty sweet. So, but I wanna talk about before we get into the interview with Julie Distrokid. You know Distrokid has been supporting me for so long and I know you hear me talk about him from week to week. And if you haven't given him a look yet, you definitely should, especially if you wanna release music. If you're a musician, if you're in a band, if you're a solo artist and you wanna put music into the world, it really is the most efficient way for you to do it. Not very expensive at all, especially with my VIP link, which is in the description of this episode, it's waterproof, no, it's Distrokid.com/vip/waterproof. And if you use that link, you get 30% off, which is a lot, that's more than a quarter. Come on, 30% off your first year. So it's the easiest way for you to upload your work, your music, your sound to the world and get it heard right away. So use my link, Distrokid.com/vip/waterproof and get that 30% off. But it's time to talk to Julie. It's time to talk to Julie Christmas and I am excited about this interview and you should be excited about this interview too because it's going to be great. So let's get started. Welcome to waterproof records, Julie Christmas. I'm so happy to have you here. - Thank you for having me, Jacob. It's a pleasure, thank you. - Yes, this is the first time that Julie and I are actually getting a chance to meet face-to-face. And I was put in touch with Julie through my friend Chris Enriquez, who is just such an incredible, fantastic drummer. And so when Chris says, you got to meet Julie, you got to talk to Julie, I was like, hell yeah, anything you recommend me, I'm going to know it's great. And he was not wrong, you are great. - You know what, I'm going to agree with you, but also about Chris. Chris is a, Chris Enriquez for everybody out there who does not know our fantastic mutual friend is just one of the coolest guys there. You don't meet very many people like Chris. Chris is one of these people who like lives to connect other people on things they love. So Chris is a special, one of a kind, lovely guy and just one of the most talented people I've worked with. He's an amazing drummer. He's on tour with Spotlights right now. And then he's going to join us on the road too. - Yes, I'm so glad you set that up because Chris is one of these guys that we connected through mutual people on social media. And then when Spotlights came through last year, I think it was, it was, they were on tour with Mr. Bungle and Melvin's and I went and saw him and we got to hug in real life and it was epic. We filmed it, we filmed the hug, it was that epic. It was so great. - You'd never met in person? - No, no, no, 'cause I'm over here on the West Coast and we talked a bunch, I'm in Los Angeles. And so we talked a bunch, we'd messaged a bunch. He'd sent me music, I'd sent him music. And then when he was on tour, it was like this long time coming moment, where we saw each other. You might as well have put the hug in slow motion. It was, it was magical. But he's just, his energy's amazing. I loved watching him play with Spotlights and I really love that their latest album that he's on. But enough about Chris, this isn't your time to shine. You'll get your turn on waterproof records. Back to you, he played on your latest album that's coming out this month, June. Ridiculous and full of blood, exciting. And I've gotten a chance to listen to a lot of it. And it's, wow, it is, it's amazing. It's fantastic. Yes. - I'm so happy that you like it. You never, people always around me always seem like very confident and I just never feel that way. I'm just so, it's always a surprise to me. A nice, it's always a great surprise to me when somebody is like, ah, that was cool. You know, I don't, yeah, I'm like, really? - Yeah, I'll tell you what, I am a notorious, kind of goober, you know, live out loud, kind of goofy guy. So like, I've never been able to be like cool. Like if something's amazing, I will just be like, this is amazing, you know what I mean? - That's great. - Live hyperbole, you know. So, but I really was blown away as I dug through, you know, your catalog for my audience, Julie has multiple projects that she's worked at over the years, Cult of Luna, the made from babies, and that's really kind of where it all began, right? - Yeah, made out of babies. - Made out of babies, yeah. It was my first, my first band where we were making records, I would say. - Making records. And that was in the mid 2000s? - Yeah, no, we started earlier than that. It always takes, you know, it takes any new band, like a bunch of years to get up and running. It didn't take us that long, but yeah, we were playing together for a little bit before that. - Yeah, sorry for blowing the band name right out of the gate. Here I am, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm made from babies. That's just my dad, that's my parent brain. I'm like, babies, we are made from babies, you know, no. - No, that's a very common band other name. And, but that band name was, yeah. So yeah, that's common, don't worry about it. - Okay, go ahead. I was like trying to make a good impression here. Made out of babies. - Okay, just gonna, right, let me just write this down. Pause, hold on for one second. - Yes, Liz, please, please. - Demerit, Mr. Givens, Demerit. - That's right. - Waterproof records with Jacob Givens. - Are you feeling the back to school crunch? We all know that family dinners can be a juggling act, but Hello Fresh is here to help. From planning and shopping to prepping and cooking, they've got your back. Imagine having fresh ingredients and picky eater approved recipes delivered right to your door each week. That's what Hello Fresh offers. Their new build of plate meals let every member of the family create their perfect plate. No more making multiple dinners, just one delicious meal with endless options. With a routine menu of 50 delicious recipes every week, Hello Fresh makes it easy to find something that will please even the pickiest eater in your house. I love the versatility. I can swap proteins and vegetables to cater to everyone's tastes. It's a game changer for my family meals. And let me tell you, Hello Fresh saves me so much time. I can focus on quality time instead of stressing over what to cook. One of my favorites has been the one pop mexicali black bean soup with the works. Ready to solve your family dinners dilemma? With Hello Fresh, you get nutritious meals without the hassle. And for a limited time, kids eat free. Go to hellofresh.com/pantheonkids to unlock this exclusive offer. That's one free kids meal per box for two months while your subscription is active. Just by going to hellofresh.com/pantheonkids. Hello Fresh, America's number one meal kit. Enjoy home cooked meals with ease and bring the family together at the dinner table. Your musical journey, I wanted to kind of dive in on, you know, let's just rip off the subject of the podcast with just the waterproof record. And that is really that point where musicians, people who aren't musicians who come to the show, it's that album that really changed your DNA. You know, you're like, you're one day, you're one person. And then you hear the album and you're like, everything's changed. I have to get into music. I have to sing. I have to write. I have to perform or you'll tell everybody for the rest of your life that you just, that album was probably one of the most life-changing albums you ever had as a teenager. So for you, what would that be? Okay, so I think, so here's where I differ a little bit. This is an almost impossible task for me because I just, because I don't come from like, I didn't have a set group of, I grew up in like a really wild house and but none of the music was, all of the music was like old soul and like, you know, like, like Aretha Franklin, I grew up on like jazz, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, a lot of opera, classical music but really like, and then like a bunch of like Spanish music. I don't know, I grew up in like a neighborhood where I was the only white girl. So I have like a different musical foundation than a lot of people. And I had to kind of work my way like to find other people, to find music that was like, you know, encapsulated all of the stuff that I was feeling inside because that's usually why we pick music, right? It's like, you can relate in some way to something in the lyrics, something in the music is like, you can, it's not just that you like it. It's not just like, you like the way it's out. There's something about it that's like for you. And that's maybe why records are important to us at different points in our lives, right? Like what's going on and this one matches, right? So I don't have a teenage record that changed me that isn't made by, I mean like Bebe King and Aretha Franklin. - Sure, sure. - But here's another record that became very important. And I'm gonna preface it by saying, by telling you a little bit of a story about why this became such an important record. So I have a lot of friends who listen to lots of different kinds of music and do different things with their lives. And one of my friends early on high school was she was really into like, she was really into like, not Americana, but she was into like singer-songwriters that, and like she loved Leonard Cohen, you know. And so like she was into that. And you know, we would stay up all night drinking in high school. And she was like, would always try to play me. Tom Waits. And I would always shut that down really fast because I did not like the sound of his voice. I was in school for music at the time. And I was like, it was grating to me. Every other singer that I'd experienced, even like, like I love Cindy Loper's voice. I love a record. I like these strong, you know, voices and not a lot of people who can hit a high note and hit it hard. I like that, you know. And so opera, it's all about that. And then I started to get into like character singers like Louis Armstrong, who's a little bit more growl, but Tom Waits was like nails on. Totally, you are, what you're recounting for me right now is so my experience when I was introduced. So I'm excited to hear where this goes. Yeah, so I had, so I know I'm probably, you were probably not the only ones too, right? Exactly. So I went to, so she would always try to play it. I would shut it down. And then we went, I went on a road trip with my friend and my older sister, who is a first degree metalhead, right? Like real has all the patches from the first shows. Spikes, just fucking let's go metal all day, every day. She could school anybody on any point, you know, like at any point, like, you know, there's no. I love it. I recently got her top 10 medalist. And it was, it's like a badass. But I went on a road trip with my friend in high school who loves singer, individual singer, songwriters, usually a guitar, you know, like that. And then my older sister, who is like, Sephaltura is her, you know, is her number one, right? And then I was there. And I'm like a little bit all over the place. I was like liking punk music. And I was really into like jazz singers and still always going to see on my own classical music and playing with friends and things like that. And we all, we're all over the place. So we had a rule on this road trip. And here's the rule. And other people probably had similar thing. It was, you can listen to 30 minutes and you have to shut the fuck up if you don't like everybody else's 30 minutes. No, no cursing. No cursing. - No, no, no, no. I'm saying, I'm saying that's a wonderful rule. Curse away, fucking curse. I'm saying what a rule that you're in the car and you're like, you get 30 minutes, but you have to listen. You can't be talking over it. You can't be critical. You gotta just, this is, these are rules that I live by on the road. I love it. - Yeah, yes. And I was outspoken about music as I still am, but they, they, so we started our trip, right? And we were going through it and there were like a few problems. I'm not gonna lie, but for the most part, 'cause we're all music lovers, for the most part, it was pretty cool, right? I got to listen to stuff, you got, you get to listen to something, you know, you can't do anything about it 'cause your turn is coming next. And you don't want to mess up your turn. - Yes. - So, we all got to listen to each other's most, the vault, right? We got to listen to each other's musical vault. And so, I go to sleep in this, on this car ride and we were driving through to the south and she, her turn came up while I was asleep and she put in Tom Waits Rain Dogs. - There it is. - There it is. And so, I woke up, my face was like pressed against the glass and I opened my eyes and looked out the window and it was like raining very softly. And the clouds were covering the sky and it was really hot. And the balconies were all these different colors with all of the iron, the wrought iron, flowery wrought iron outside of every single balcony. And I opened my eyes and I was like, "This is better than the dream I was just having." - Incredible. - And the soundtrack playing to that was Chucky Full of Bourbon, on that record. - Yeah. (upbeat music) - I listened to the rest of it with my eyes open and just staring out the window 'cause it was still her turn. And that was it. I listened to that record like for the rest of the year and chased down every other single thing he did. All the musical, he's done a bunch of scores and he's done some things. And it wasn't just that I got, I was lucky enough to get pulled into the music that he makes and the stories that he tells in that. But it opened up a lot of other doors to places I belonged in. Like he did the music for this play called "Voytec" and "Voytec" is a classic story about a man who's in love with a woman. And he starts to, he can't keep her the way she is expected in the style to which she's a custom. So he starts to sell his organs to do that. - Ooh. - And then, and so Tom Waits is the score for this. He was also the score for Alice in Wonderland through the Looking Glass that this Danish troupe did and I went to see it. And those are the parts of my, those are those kinds of stories where, you know, where you go into, there's so much in his music and his writing, but it's like, it's these stories where there is an unhinged ladder to imagination in there, right? - That's a good way of putting it, yeah. - It's like not quite what, it's not safe at all. - It's not safe. - But parts of it are very, very beautiful. And it does, it is where we, where I belong. - What's so cool about this story and your connection to Tom Waits and the growth with that artist? So for my audience, usually when my guests come on the show, we talk in advance and we get a moment to kind of discuss like what was the waterproof record. And like Julie had mentioned, it wasn't the same for her because of her teenage experience and a galactic music house where, you know, she would discover things later in a different way. And a lot of ways I had a similar upbringing in terms of like, I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, my mother played classical and oldies and country. I didn't grow up in a cool, like mom's playing the rock and roll that all my peers were like saying, "Oh, I haven't you heard of this?" And haven't you heard of it, I just didn't have that. So my exploration was also on my own. But what I love about the fact that my guests come on, they tell me what the artist is. Me and Julie didn't get a chance to talk about it in advance. So I had no idea what her waterproof record was. What was that album? And the fact that it was Tom Waits, and I'm absolutely familiar, and I had such a similar journey with that voice. - Makes it work. - In his heart. Yes, yes, it's just, it's just, there was such a window of time when I was in high school where Leonard Cohen was the first, which you mentioned, which was somebody that I was introduced to his voice watching pump up the volume. You know, that's the first time I hear Leonard Cohen is I hear everybody knows Christian Slater playing and in the pump up the volume movie. And I'm like, who's this guy? And then I meet this buddy who brings me before his voice after 800 cigarettes and coffee drinks. You know, it's like, not as low. Not this way, it's like, it's an early Leonard Cohen where you got burnt on a wire and Suzanne and it's like this imperfect kind of, you know, folky voice. And at first, it wasn't, I wasn't prepared for it, right? And then I just got completely immersed in his music and his sound and his poetry. And then I remember around that same time, somebody's be like, if you like Leonard Cohen, you gotta check out Tom Waits. You know, you gotta do Tom Waits. And I knew Tom Waits at this point in time is, oh, you mean the guy who plays Renfield in Dracula? You know, that guy? That's how I'm thinking about Tom Waits. I'm thinking about the guy with the bugs and the glasses and the, and he lives for the master, you know, wonderful performance, by the way, wonderful performance. And so he, so somebody shows me Tom Waits and from the moment his voice comes across the speaker, I'm like, what the fuck is this? Like I cannot, I cannot, my ears cannot appreciate this. I can't, I just can't get my head around it. And there was a choir taste, right? And so many people would say to me like, oh, he's brilliant. And I just thought, is this like one of those stock answers that like super intellectual music lovers say? And I'm just like nodding on the joke? Like is that what they're, are they just messing with me? But the way that you set it up of that moment, of that car ride, and I advise everybody to try and exercise like that with your friends, with your loved ones who have different music tastes. There is something special about when you stop and you slow down the world and you let somebody else show you something that means everything to them and you don't speak a word and you let it happen. And Julie looked at that window, saw the rain, heard his voice and it clicked, it clicked. And that is exactly how you access somebody like Tom Waits. And that's how you access somebody that at first you go, this isn't safe, this is dangerous. I don't, I don't feel comfortable here. This isn't something that I understand or know. So I just, that was such a cool way of sharing an artist. And I want to know, does that, did Tom Waits' touch at that moment in life? Has that really infused and inspired your journey as a creative to be a little bit dangerous, not safe, try unusual things vocally and in your music? - Well, before we go on, I love that you just gave that assignment to people. - That, and everybody, I'm gonna add on to that because I did, like I was just saying, you know, in anticipation of like this and other questions like this, I did that. I asked my older sister, I'm not a metalhead because probably because she was such a big metalhead, right? You don't want to be exactly like your older sister 'cause she's bitch, you know? (laughing) 'Cause when you're younger, she sucks. - Yes, yes, I have an older brother. And when I was younger, he sometimes really sucked. - He did, you know, my sister was terrible, but you know what I did? - What? (laughing) - We're great friends now. - I love yummy too. - On her first day of high school, I cut her hair into an asymmetrical bowl cut. - Oh my God. - Right, right, knife before. - Wow. - Oh my God, savage. (laughing) - Savage. - Sibling rivalry was real in my house. - Sibling rivalry, oh yeah, my brother. He was terrible to me as a kid and I was so much smaller than him. But man, once we grew up, we became, I mean, he's like my best friend in the world. I'm so close to him, love him. - So I asked her, right, so I asked her, asymmetrical bowl cut aside. I asked her if, you know, I asked her for her top 10 and metal songs and it took her, I'm not kidding, like three months. - Sure. - Because she was constantly like, she's like bolt thrower. I don't, a world eater, you know, she's like these. But, so I had, once she gave me the list, I was listening to it and I was in the back of a car like in a lift going to practice actually. And just like you're saying, I, it's such a window into somebody else. When you ask this and can I tell you, it's such a leveling the playing field I'll cross the board when you talk to people about music. It really is because I was in the back of the car like staring somewhere and like listening to Sepaltura or was it, or yeah, or, yeah, Sepaltura Emperor, it was one of hers and the driver started talking to me. This was a black woman, shaved head, you know, like just to show like how different we are, you know, although, you know, who knows how we are together in whatever, but personality wise. But this, we're obviously, she's younger than me. You know, there's a lot, a lot of different. - From different, right, different planets. - Different corners of life, yes, yes. - Never met, you know, and she started talking to me and I took an ear phone, like a headphone off and I was like, I was like, what did you say? And she's like, oh, I didn't know what you were, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were listening to something and I go, I'm listening to my sister's top 10 in Metal Songs and I was like, it's amazing, right? She's like, oh yeah. And I was like, whoa, would you listen to? Like, I started getting interested in this exact thing and she started playing her like-- - Favorites. - Her favorites, right there. - Right there. - And she was so excited about it and in there were at least three stories, you know? So it's, that was a really good homework. Everybody should go do that. Go ask the person that you love what their top 10 is and then listen to it and let them talk about it, it's so cool. But I will say going back to Tom Waits that, that yes, it changed, it changed the way I wrote things because I think I was on the way but I didn't know there was, I didn't know there were, I didn't know that there was someone out there at that point who was like just giving them an masterclass on lyrics, lyrics every single time they go to pens and paper and so I think I was listening to all of this music where the lyrics were great but they were pretty straight forward, like-- - Sure. - You know, like messages to people from the first person and then like those like, I'm doing this or I love you or you know what a straight whole, a head lyric, so when you listen to Tom Waits, it brought all of the, like all of the reading I did when I was a child and I was like a reader when I was a kid and read every single book, like children's fairy tale, I could get my hands on and those two things when I heard Tom Waits and started to give it a chance and listen, the lyricism in any of his songs really, it is like, he's talking about so many different things that are echoes of those stories that are again, like if you listen to cautionary tales, like children's fairy tales, many of them were cautionary tales, keep your ass in line or you know, like a lot of them were that. So he had an element to that, but there was also like, you know, going overseas and people, I don't, I can't like, I'm not him, so I can't like-- - Totally, hey, it's more homework. The core of this episode is that Julie and Jacob are giving the audience tons of homework. You gotta go and read Tom Waits lyrics, listen to him and do the playlist thing with your loved ones, so-- - Yes, Singapore, I'm gonna make a recommendation on this record, Singapore is the one where I was like, this is a whole story that takes place in a different place and is so, it transports you to, you know, where he is. I was just reading, like getting ready for this, like sailors who were in the Navy at the time this record came out and their response to that song, I was reading a couple of them and they felt like when they listened to that, that there was a partner in adventure when they heard that, yeah, it's pretty good, you know? - That's awesome, that's awesome. Well, so it's influenced you and you have, this is your second solo album that you're putting out, Ridiculous and Full of Blood. And is there a storyteller element to this album? - I think I'm not as, you know, I'm not as gifted at crafting stories, I would say, like the, so many of the things that, you know, so many of the reasons that records get are like serious is because they contain some of your innermost feelings and thoughts and fears and loves. - Sure. - And so this one I think is, this one, this record, I think it does tell some stories because I'm pretty much seven years old in my brain and have like a story playing it all times, you know? Like, I can imagine that something fake is having feeling, like a personification is something I regularly think is happening, like I'm like out that poor door, you know? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It keeps getting slammed, you know, like I think things like that and so that comes into the music. But in this record, Tom Tierney is our, he makes all of the keys and the sounds and John Lemakia from Candiria is the guitarist. Your honest person from Cult of Luna is the other guitarist and he's a growler and then we've got Andrew Schneider who is the best engineer around and he is on bass and then we have Chris Enriquez, right? So it's Tom's Chris, yeah, so it's like these guys are, the level of play is unbelievable, but they are in this record because each one of them, like the way the process worked when we were making this was that one person would kick it off and it didn't matter who it was or where the idea came from. It was like, okay, this is the night. What are we gonna do with this? And we would all sort of throw on ideas and I would be like, you know, kind of like, you know, at the final say or whatever, but-- - But very collaborative sounds very collaborative and like a good creative space to be in for an album. - Yeah, and very respectful, like I would never tell, I would never tell a guitarist who, I can't play guitar, you know, so I also will say, you know, don't tell me what to sing, you know, like that kind of thing. - Sure, sure. - But they were mutual like, oh, this is this person's idea. So Tom Tierney is like the reason behind Seven Days, which is like the last song on the record and it's about, it's an open criticism of organized religion. - Ooh. - And then there's, and Johanna's person wrote, he started The Lighthouse and The Lighthouse is one of my favorites, but it's a story told from the perspective of this structure that sits on the hill, high up on the cliff. So I'm in there, but in the record, they're in there, like the whole way. So it sounds like me, it's under my name, but it's not my record, it's our record. - It belongs to everybody, but that's cool. I'm gonna listen to that song about the organized religion. That's something I get into quite frequently on this show. I was raised very religious Christian household 'cause I was raised in the Bible Belt, which is I do not participate that anymore in that anymore. So I have a lot of feelings. So when I listen to that song, I wonder how many things are gonna click and connect for me when I hear it. So probably a lot. I'm probably gonna be like Julie, I'm a mess, I'm a mess. But yeah, it's the sound of your music. For my audience that's not familiar, there's the places that you take us on this record and then on the bad wife. And I listen to your work on Mariner with Colton Luna and just the places that you take us, we go so many different vocal adventures. You go quiet, you get bold and you scream and growl and it's wonderful. It's quite an epic journey. I spent some time listening to the bad wife before this and I was so pleasantly surprised when I got to just destroy the world 'cause I was like, "Hey, I know this song." But I knew it as a, I don't know who the original author is. I knew Willie Nelson. I had heard his version, but when I was researching 'cause I was like, "Who wrote this song originally?" And it said Ray Price. So I don't know who's the first one to put it out, but I love that you covered that song 'cause I don't know anybody who knows just destroyed the world I'm living in. I'm like, "What a cool choice." - Yeah, right? That's like, that's one, that's a little, well that makes me feel like that was a little bit of a carry the torch song and that's pretty cool. I think sometimes just like everyone else you hear something or see something and it just hits you right in the neck. And that was one of those. It was just like, is there, and it does have to do with whatever you're going through or your mindset at that time in your life or whatever, but sometimes you just see things, you just know that's the right one. - Yeah, yeah. But this new album, it is yet another amazing journey of the heavy, the spooky, the ethereal. I guess I wanna hear, I don't know, some of the standout moments for you since this was such a collaboration with these other amazing artists, was there a moment where you really felt you're everywhere, obviously. It's yours, your name's on it, but where you really kind of like, this is the moment, this is the track, this is the song, or this is the beat of the song that I'm really feeling like this is it. - It was the lighthouse, it was Johannes's start, he started that, I mean, there's a couple, the ash was early, there's a song called The Ash and it's, and it's, we have a video coming out for it that I think helps to tell the story, but this is Andrew Schneider, he started this one and there is an Israeli dance troupe, Batsheva, and this is one of those things, I'm not a dancer, I don't know from great dance, but when you see this, this is one of those things, you're like, this is unbelievable, but in the last performance, we saw of them, there was a woman in the background and she was running on a treadmill, right? This is modern, it looks really hard to do, but there's also such a storytelling element, I highly, everyone check this out, Batsheva, if you like dance, if you don't, but if you, but there's a woman in the back and she's running for 40, she's running the length of the dance performance on a treadmill at the highest speed you can imagine. - What? - Right, the entire time, and it was like a message, right? You can interpret this in many different ways, but it was sort of like, well, no matter what's happening, there is an underlying similarity or there's something that is always there, however you, I had my own interpretation, but that it was ever present, right? And always hard, like that, and she did it and then Andrew saw that and his baseline is that, it's the same all the way through. ♪ These days I ♪ ♪ If you make me chill ♪ ♪ My head fills us with words ♪ ♪ I bend your wound ♪ ♪ And you're just gone ♪ ♪ You're just you ♪ - But the ash was one that's early on, the lighthouse with Johannes, I think was the one where I was, and ironically, here's what happened. We made four of these songs during like right before COVID because we were gonna go and start to play these live. And then we made pretty much the rest of the album in like the last eight months, right? So this is like, yeah, so this is like these, this talent of these guys is always there. They can always turn that out, right? 'Cause we did the rest of this record kind of fast, wasn't that hard? 'Cause we're all collaborative and we just made a record song after song that we thought was cool. But the lighthouse was, it was like the one that snuck in in the last minute. And so it's one of these things where you think this could be really crappy because there's no time left and you don't have any time to think about it. And ma'am, it was like the best thing. It was like one of my favorites. The story came out and I don't know if it was because we had gotten into some kind of rhythm and that was when we ended or I think we have these moments, right? You think you're pressed for time and you think you're not up to the task and then you pull through it and not just pull through, but you do some of your best shit 'cause you were not prepared, right? - Yeah, it's so true. I feel like this has been a tale that several albums and artists I've heard over the years, it's like the 11th hour, there's a need for one more song and they're like, I don't know. And that ends up being the one and there's a freedom, I guess, in this constraint that you have to. We gotta do this. And then your creative space has to kind of go to a place very, very quickly and the result can really surprise us. And so I think that's so cool that this is an example of that again, where you guys had really formed this great collaborative space. You'd had some time, they came in with the space from pre-COVID to the past eight months. You do it all together and here you are, you got this one thing and then boom, that's the thing that really excites you. One of the things, I mean, of course, the whole album excites you and I'm excited for people to hear it, but I really wanna go listen to the Lighthouse now with those ears and knowing kind of the story behind that piece of music. ♪ So light my cost ♪ ♪ Just get down low ♪ ♪ And get here fast ♪ ♪ The year and so ♪ ♪ You have a chance ♪ ♪ Just get down low ♪ ♪ And get here fast ♪ ♪ The breathy you breathe ♪ ♪ Might be your last ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Is it okay ♪ - That's cool. - I'm actually gonna tell you something else. I-- - I'm all ears. - I realized that this was, I didn't realize that this was on camera or actually I was just working up until the last minute before I jumped on here and I couldn't find anything to make myself look human. So my black eyeliner is actually sharpie. - I love that. I love that, that's so good. Thank you for being vulnerable and open enough to share that with me. I'll go put some sharpie on my eye too. - I'm like check it out. - You did a wonderful job. Yes, yes, absolutely. Well, it's so funny 'cause we-- - That's makeup secrets with Julie Christmas. It's sharpie and toilet paper. - It's amazing. So everybody listen up. If you're in dire need of some eyeliner, you can grab a sharpie, some toilet paper and you can look amazing. - Amazing. - So what if I can't see out of the one? (laughing) - I have another one. - Yes, it's so good. It's so good. You got two, you got two. - That's great. - You mess up one, the other one's still there. - One goes down, one goes down, you gotta back up. - You gotta back up, you gotta back up. So are you, are there plans to tour with this motley crew of bandmates on the road or is it hard to get everybody? - It's a little hard to get everybody, but I think one of the benefits of this is that a lot of us get busy as we become grownups. And it becomes very difficult to have time with your friends. And here's the thing is that this band is my friends. So it's not, we're not trying to make huge waves. We're doing like, we're friends and making music primarily and hope that everybody likes it second. - That's the way to be, that's the way to be. - That's the way to be. - I don't give a shit if anybody doesn't like it. I'm hanging out with my friends. - That's what led me to the stuff that I make on social media, to the podcast, everything. Like all of it never came from, I'm trying to get something out of this. It was literally just, this is what I gotta do. And then when people like it, I'm like, oh really, that's great? That's so cool. I'm so glad you like that. So that's how you gotta be, I think. So that's fantastic. (upbeat music) - Hey folks, this is Martin Popoff. - And John Gaffney from Kicked in the Teeth, an AC/DC podcast, part of the Pantheon podcast network. Every month we take a deep dive into an AC/DC album, giving you some history and trivia, along with a track by track discussion. - We also have episodes where we do rankings, lists, tackle all kinds of fun AC/DC-related topics. So tune in every month to get your fill of AC/DC in more at Kicked in the Teeth, an AC/DC podcast. And also, we talked a little bit off the air, we talked about obviously not only, it's hard to get everybody all together and manage the day-to-day, but we have these children of ours, these children. It take up a lot of our time and make it a little trickier to travel across the world and play music all the time, right? - Right, so. - So we're gonna go and we get to play, it is hard to get everybody together, but everybody wants to do it. So it makes it a little bit less. - Yeah, everybody wants to make it happen. - There's no pressure. There's no like, you gotta be here, you gotta show up, we need to do this. It's like, we all wanna go hang out and have fun and see people out there, but we're gonna play a series of dates and a couple of festivals. We're gonna play Health Fest and we're gonna play Roskilde, we're gonna play Oya and Brutal assault. - Across the pond, right? - Across the pond, across the pond. So nothing for, well, and I'm fingers crossed that something on the West Coast will have been at some point in time, so I can come see you play. - That would be awesome. - But I know that from all the people I know in bands that are on the East Coast, it's like getting all the way over there is a whole other process. It's like easier to tour in your region than it is to get across the country. - Yeah, and I think, yeah, I think that's definitely part of it, but that would be awesome. We just didn't, I think the way things are working is like, let's see how this goes. And then I know that's not the way you're supposed to work. Bands book year in advance, right? They book really far in advance, but because this project is a little bit different. So we're gonna do this group of dates and then we'll see, no idea what's coming next, but down for anything. - Down for anything. Oh, I love it. Well, I'm gonna be keeping an eye to see if there's ever a time when I see Julie Christmas come into the Los Angeles area or around, I'll drive, I'll drive a distance. - Thank you. - Yes, absolutely. - Not like you're not used to it. - Not like I don't sit in my car all the time. - That's right, just get your rain dogs out, do your homework on somebody else's list, then you'll be there. - That's right, that's right. I think that is one of the best things that we could have really imparted on to the listeners today. It's just that process and how special that is. I loved your story about the cab driver and how excited she was. And honestly, creating this idea of a waterproof record, which is tough to define. Like I had, I had Walter Schreyfels, quicksand, Gorilla Biscuits on the show. And when we were talking about his waterproof record, he was like, well, 'cause he sat there and he was like, well, there's two-- - It was a soundtrack, right? I looked at the list. - Yeah, and he said, well, look, if you wanna talk about, he goes, the way I thought you painted it was the album that inspired me to pick up the guitar. And so we were on the air and he was like, if there was one thing that inspired me to grab a guitar and start writing songs, it was the Rockin' Roll High School soundtrack, you know, the Ramones. And so it was in that moment that I realized it was like, this waterproof record, this thing that kind of changes your DNA, if you will, as a musician, is very different than somebody who's not in the career of making music and they're just a music lover. You know, somebody who listened to an album and they're like, this is my favorite album of all time, but it's very different when you're a musician, songwriter, drummer, guitar player, whatever, because our music is a creation of so many different chapters and moments of artists and musicians and experiences, right? Like not just a song, it can be a painting, it can be a dance like you talked about and it can inspire like what makes you an artist. And so it is a tricky question, but-- - It is, but I would posit, Jacob, that-- - Yes. - That, you know, because I'm a musician and Tom Waits showed me an avenue that I didn't know existed and definitely changed me, that my cab driver was changed by her Spanish Heartland Frythms. And I think that was like the name of the record, she's like, and I think it might have bled into her life in a different way, you know, or their life. It might have bled, I don't know if it's her, it might have bled into their life in a different way, and just because we're talking about music, it's a little more obvious and you can ask the question, that is, but maybe that's the question to your follow-up list and we're gonna add this to your homework. So how did that top 10? How did your waterproof record change your life? - Because somebody's probably like, I used to drive 40 miles an hour, and now I'm 75. - And it's because of this album. - Yeah. - Because this album right here, absolutely, yeah. - Art and music is like affects people and-- - In such different ways, it really does, it really does. And so, you know, in a lot of ways, I love the fact that a waterproof record is this thing that everybody comes up with what that definition and how it impacts their life and what it does. This idea of being something, you know, like I told you off the air, I was like, it's just a cute name that my son, when he was a babe, you know, a weed toddler said, and I was like, one day I want to call it my record store, I want to call it waterproof records, and then when I thought about this idea of like tunes being unsinkable, you know, this idea of a record like never being submerged, never lost in time. I almost had a visual of like, you know, a sunken ship in the bottom of the ocean. It would never be that. It would always rise above, and the image was a record, almost like a sun on the horizon where the ocean is, you know, the record, it raises victoriously. And so, it's just fun with every guest that I have on to kind of just, I don't know, give the concept to them and see where they go with it, and your story about Tom Waits and the window and that car ride was exactly what I hoped it would be. You know, it was exactly what I hoped that Julie Christmas would bring on waterproof records. - Oh, thanks, you know, I think you can see it, right? 'Cause that's where, that's his stomping grounds, right? So you can see it. - Yes, absolutely. - It was a lucky moment. Thanks to the 30 minute, 30 minutes. - Homework, everybody. We want you to report back. We want to hear from you. - Single spaced. We need the margins on the left, bitches. - Watch your margins. (laughing) - Don't give me any 13 point font. We know that trick. - I know it, I can see it. - I can tell. - Full paragraph. - Times New Roman. (laughing) Times New Roman. - No, a remote. - No, no, don't even do this. - No trebuchet. - Don't think about courier. Don't think about courier. This isn't a goddamn screenplay. We'd be hilarious substitute teachers, by the way. (laughing) I was this close to trying to become a teacher. My mother's a teacher. My brother's a teacher. Come from a family of teachers. - I could see it. - Yeah, I've got, so look, I have the face of a youth pastor. So I have this really awe-shucksy kind of way about me that I think that people would be like, "Oh, you'd be a great teacher." But in the few moments that I experimented with it, I was like, "I don't think I have the patience "for any mouthing back from a kid." Like a kid who's like, "No, oh, whatever, Mr. Givens, "you don't know how I would operate at that pressure." - Yeah, I know. It's tough. I am a teacher. - Are you ready? - Yeah, I own a bunch of businesses where you teach science to kids, hands-on science. - Oh, so you really, when we were doing the little exercise about the homework, you know what you're talking about. - No, I don't give homework, are you kidding? I don't do that. I have my own business. So I get to say how it goes and how it goes in my business is this. It's like, remember how you would be sitting in, I started this business and the whole foundation of the businesses that kids and other people really learn the best by doing, not talking. And so if you are, remember being in those classes where you would just do anything just to get the fuck out, and I remember that, but our classes are different. We do it where here we're gonna talk to you for four minutes and then here's your set of stuff and let's do, you know, like, and it can be very complicated. Like we just need like a replica of the hanging gardens of Babylon using like a potty, I don't know, potty something. - I would've done so well in a school like that. - You would've. - Oh, he struggled so much growing up in school because it was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was always, you know, I ended up getting into theater and music and things like that because I just needed to be doing. And so I loved that we're doing this. That's amazing, that's amazing. - Yeah, it's cool, it's cool. And yesterday, I'll remind everybody that the eighth, I don't know when this is coming out. I don't know either. I mean, it'll be coming out very soon, but I don't have a hard date yet. So it'll be this month. - That's cool. We just did something that's like, you know, ocean cleanup day is Saturday. - Yes. - And so we did like a whole lesson where kids had to make ocean water and test acidification and its effect on coral reefs. And then, you know, we have like a partnership with the UN where we're like going to, to Coney Island to clean it up. - Yes, my hometown beach. - That's amazing. - So it's like stuff like that that we get into. It's very cool. - Yeah, I do ocean cleanups as well. My job, my bread and butter, is I work in environmental education and technology. So yeah, absolutely. So, hey, hey, hey. So I am very passionate about that as well. - Now you just need your Sharpie eyeliner and your-- - I need my Sharpie eyeliner. - That's all set. We could do this together. - We could do this together. What a team, I love it. Julie, thank you so much for taking the time and come on here. And it was just this interview has been one pleasant surprise after the next. I've just really enjoyed your company and just your perspective and the stories you told and how you experienced music. And I highly recommend everybody to definitely go out and check out the new album, check out her first album and the work that she's done with a lot of these other amazing bands. And I'll be putting these in the description of the episode and links and let you check it out. But definitely follow what Julie is up to because it's very, very cool. And when you said to me, you were like, "I'm not a metal head, like my sister." I'm like, "But you get so heavy sometimes." You get so heavy, so for some reason-- - But we all do. - Yes, it's true. We all do. We all do. It's wonderful metal for someone who doesn't consider themselves a metal head. So, yeah. - All right, well, thank you very much for having me and everybody do your homework. - Do your homework. We expect-- - Simon. - We expect-- - We expect great things for everybody. - Give me your top 10 and I'm gonna listen to it. - Yes, yes. I wanna hear your top 10 and I'll give you mine. We'll send each other those over email or something. - I had to agonize. I did this for another interview. Oh my God. It's the hardest. - So hard. - Hardest thing. - So difficult, yes. - You realize as you're going through music in your life, just like everybody who's listening, you go through your moments of your life, they have a soundtrack. - Yeah. - And it's cool to like visit them good times and bad, right? - Good times and bad, good times, bad times. You know, I've had my share. - Yep. - All right, well, that's it. Thank you so much for joining me. - Thank you. - And I can't wait to meet you in real life and I'm looking forward, yes. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time with this new record and everybody else should as well. - All right. - All right. - All right. - Thank you. - June 14th, everyone. - June 14th. - Bye, Jacob. - Bye. That was fantastic. That was, I mean, you meet people all the time in these, you know, you get introduced to somebody and you're like, I hope this goes well. I hope this conversation goes well. And you have these kind of conversations. Like you saw it, you heard it. We couldn't, we would start on an idea, move down another idea, come back to the idea, return to this idea. It felt like friends that just can't seem to stay on one subject because they're so excited to talk about the next thing and the next thing. And then we circle back and I just loved it. I 100% feel like Julie Christmas is somebody that I would hang out with all the time, especially if we lived in the same city. So I can't wait to meet her in real life and you definitely should go check out Ridiculous and Full of Blood. It's awesome. It's just a soundscape of sounds that are heavy and dark and ethereal and she just takes you into a lot of different places. And so definitely go check it out and make sure to include the link to her album below. And that was such a cool conversation about Tom Waits and for many of you, Tom Waits might not have clicked in any way and still I'm not always in the mood to listen to a Tom Waits type record but it is amazing to see how an environment, how a moment, how scenery, how a meal company can influence something to become so significant and special. And I know many of you have similar experiences in your life where that piece of music takes you back. I've talked about the time machine before. I've talked about how our sounds that we hear bring us to different places and just think about how special music is to your loved ones, the ones that are passionate about it. I do realize that there are some people that you meet in life that are kind of like, "I just like whatever's on the radio." And that's fine to each their own but if you're listening to this show, you're probably like me and like Julie that we have such an incredible passion for the music that we love and so the people that you surround yourself with often do too. So I do truly recommend you take some of that homework assignments as much as we were joking around and being silly. It is a good exercise to understand the people that you love in your life, to really hear what means the most to them. So I highly recommend it. So thank you for joining me. That was a fantastic interview. I had such a good time and yeah, I would gladly go see her life and see her van life anytime she comes through LA and I actually, if she doesn't come out this way then, I just hope I get a chance to go to the East Coast and see some of the amazing bands over there. So thank you for joining me for Waterproof Records. Don't forget to check out districtid.com/VIP/Waterproof. Thank you again to Pantheon Podcast for making me a part of your network. I'm happy to be part of the family and I love being here and I love being in my new set and I'll see you next time on Waterproof Records. Bye. (upbeat music) ♪ Change energy with you just told me that I've got a problem ♪ ♪ Baby, you ♪ ♪ Waterproof Records ♪ ♪ Waterproof Records ♪ ♪ Waterproof Records with Jacob Dickens ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Change energy with you just told me that I've got a problem ♪ [BLANK_AUDIO]
Have you ever sat down with a close friend with completely different music tastes and asked them show you their favorite songs? Or do you remember the first time you heard an artist that felt dangerous and unsafe in the best possible way? This week on Waterproof Records I welcome Julie Christmas, Brooklyn musician and vocalist from bands like Made Out of Babies, Battle of Mice and Cult of Luna. On June 14th, Julie releases her 2nd solo album called 'Ridiculous and Full of Blood,' so I sat down with her to talk about making the new album, the importance of discovering music out of your comfort zone, and why we all get a little heavy sometimes.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
