Ep 57: Josh T. Pearson

home of End of the Road. Now if you don't know it, it's an amazing festival and I particularly enjoyed this year, not just because the sun was shining and that at Loud and Quiet we got to kick the whole thing off with the opening night party, which was really fun, but because I got to see so much good music.

Both of those are still available to listen to their episodes twelve and thirty three in the archive if you do want to go back and check those out. This year, my guest was Josh T. Pearson. He played on the Friday night on the main Wood stage and joined on Saturday lunchtime at the Piano stage for this conversation. If you don't know Josh, he found cult fame with the Texas based band Lyft to Experience in the early two thousands. They made the seminal post rock album Texas Jerusalem Crossroads,

and then split up and did separate things. Josh went away promised he'd grow a beard until he made a second album, and eventually emerged a decade later with a very Big Beard and his first solo album, which was Last of the Country Gentleman in twenty eleven. But to bring things right up to speed, he returned this year with his second solo album, The Straight Hits, which marked a different sound and a different, clean shaven appearance for Josh.

This came as lift to experience, played their first show together in fifteen odd years at Guy Garvey's Meltdown in twenty sixteen, and they also did Primavera Sound in Barcelona this year. Just to paint the picture of this podcast you're about to hear, a few hundred people gathered at the Piano stage, which is located in the woods at the festival and is decorated like an old person's living room with lampshades and vintagey chairs and obviously a piano.

Josh was running on rock Star time and arrived triumphantly about two minutes before we started recording this on one of those festival buggies that you see because his keys player had a broken foot. Josh had a cigarette in one hand and a glass of white wine in the other and settled in for this conversation. I'm fairly confident that he'd had a late night before, and he was putting the blame squarely on his vegan sound guy who

smokes a lot of weed. Apparently. Anyway, as you're about to hear, Josh is less of an interviewee and more of a storyteller. What my mum would have afectionately referred to as a bit of a character. This is one of the more unruly episodes of Midnight Chats that we've recorded, but also one of the most honest, endearing, and entertaining.

But just quickly before we get into that, if you didn't catch Stu announcing the news on the last podcast, we are now officially available on Spotify, So if you prefer to listen to your podcasts on Spotify, you can now search for us and you'll find all the old episodes and all the new episodes that we make over there. So let's get into the conversation. Thank you and the road festival. Thank you, Josh T. Pearson. Thank you to all of those who came to listen and those of

you listening now. Of course, this is Midnight Chats episode fifty seven. Please were you joined me in welcoming Josh T.

let's do it again. But two weeks ago we played Larude of Rock, which is in some malo in Brittany, and we pricked practiced with a new drummer on Thursday, Alie from the Duke's Spirit, and then a new guitar player on Friday, Laurent who was a Frenchman, and then we played Saturday right before Patty Smith, which was pretty cool. We fist bumped oh way out. I was pulling for Patty Cakes, but she wasn't having it. I'm kidding. None of that happened except they're playing before Patty Smith and

the practicing anyway. Yeah, so it was good. Yeah, but I feel if we did it again it'd be better. Now it's a big stage. I was thinking we were doing the garden stage. I was just telling the stories. I was in my head in my practicing, and I was playing the garden stage and just killing it, you know, and let me get to the wood stage, like shit, this is a little bigger. I wasn't fair for this, but I think it was okay.

I don't have enough followers to get the actual official thing, you know, so maybe y'all should follow me and then I could just be official.

gonna it's going to be a crazy interesting time. And I really do think that something like Instagram really is biting the apple and tasting, tasting the fruit, and there's you have all knowledge of good and evil. You can't look away. It's it's really something.

they knew that Hillary was gonna win. They just knew that. They knew that was the reality. And when the reality started switching, like oh good god, this cannot be happening, it was like night of the Living dead, you know. And there were just there were like packs of women in corners weeping, like hands in the air, like this cannot be happening. Like, man, this is really getting serious.

You know. America just elected a gambling casino owner. His sole purpose is to make money off the weakness of man and have a sort of flesh what do you call contests with women's based on their aesthetic feeling only things that they had nothing to do with anyway. Well, this we got to do something about this. And it was an interesting response. I'm an American, I really I had never really felt that before then fell in allegiance to it. It wasn't xenophobic or jigorist or anything like that kind

of until then. It's like, with this information, this confirmed bias that we're in with technology is getting really serious, where you're just your realities are becoming so separate and there's you can't even talk about you can't have a dialogue. And so part of the controversy stuff was trying to use humor as a device just to poke fun at all sides, and we need to be able to talk about this. Yeah, this is this is serious and kind

of break down some of the social constructs. There's one song and they're really proud of called boy Names Straight, which is like my my modern version of boy Name Sue. And then it's about a Rednick who gets really drunk one night and he goes to the bar and this other Rednick is there and kind of looking at him, and he's not really sure what's going on. I think he's kind of hitting on him, and they start playing pool, and he wakes up the next day and he's alone

in his room and there's broken glass everywhere. His butt's real sore, and he's sore all over. Sorry kids, and Broke Back Mountains playing on his computer on repeat, and he has what he calls a Texas Angel crisis. He just doesn't know what happens. And there's a little twist at the end, really playful and silly, but I really think that, you know that old adage, if if you want to speak the truth, you got to make him laugh, you know so, And then something in the last ten

years are spent more time investing. When I came out of that last of the Country Gentleman thing, I've been so focused on just introverted to bear and down this really heavy uh, taking all the energies upon you. And I'm trying to turn the corner where I try to tap into humor more. And that seemed they say that's the hardest art for him. So I don't know if I'm getting there, but I think with some of those songs,

I arrived at a good place. And if you can make somebody laugh, even if I realize I'm burning down the whole thing had before, like integrity and stuff. But if I can make somebody giggle and feel good, like that feels all right. Laughter, It really is the best medicine and it heals people.

So it's split down the middle demographically as the rest of the country. Houston's I think it just eclipsed Chicago for the third biggest city, you know, and we don't even think about Houston up and Dallas for worth You forget, it's in Texas. So it's New York La Houston used to be in New York, La Chicago, Houston anyway, somewhere. There's twenty eight million people in Texas. It's just a little bit bigger than France, which I like to remind French people when I'm there. So Ray, Yeah is Ray?

you know, generate luck of energy and stuff. I always do that thing with my friend's always bitch about gentrification and stuff. I don't play devil, not Devil's advocate. I'll just I'll use these coin these phrases that are in their skill set with gentrification and say, man, this can't believe another new thing moved in here. And then I'll say, like man, I like all this life and this growth, you know, it's nice to see movement, and yeah, people healthy. Anyway,

the whole world's flipped over man gentrified. It's really something.

for the joke I say. I'd like to think each and every one of you, So if you could just form a line here on the left, I'd love to. Yeah, we'll do it, how much?

went a little crazy. But we'll see what's around on the bin. I'd like to see what happens with the comedy record. Yeah, Like if I could tickle America's fancy and like really kind of win them and then you sneak up behind him with this really scary ass shit, that'd be awesome. That's crazy. I like when people change, you know. I just don't know what's coming out next in life and in love, and that just keeps it exciting. But with art too, it would have been selling out

for me to make the same kind of record. I have so many heartbreak songs, staggering stuff. But I needed to try this other way for a second, just to kind of burn down myself, to not be stifled or drafted by it. But that wasn't your question at all.

is let's try this. It's fun. And there was the offer there because it's a public festival. They had a budget that would allow three men and separate states, to separate countries, to get together and practice for a couple of weeks and then fly us over higher the gear as international flights and pay for the you know Lee from Leeds for his him and his marijuana. And we had a light guy. Uh. That was awesome. They'd really treated us like stars at that little uh at the

Royal Festival Hall. What's a I love South Maccenter. It's one of my favorite. I played all those rooms, so it was really nice and I'm glad we pulled it off.

It was a lot of pressure because it's such a boutique, little niche band, you know, and we had fallen over here in Europe on two thousand and one, but even in Texas it's just like I know, it's the small demographic, So there was a lot of pressure on us to play as well as it was in the minds of the people from twenty years ago, because it was really a special thing, and we realized playing those teams like

this is really special. We just worked so hard on those tunes, beat them up for a year, and just put such grace in between the notes, and it was really a joy to revisit. It was like time travel going back to that place in your head, you.

four months ago. It's so stupid. That's quit for ten years. It's a terrible drug. It's awesome.

You know, I quit drinking for seven years, seven of the worst years of my life. Mom, I didn't raise no quitter stupid. Thank you all, Good night. Sorry I interrupted you again.

what that chord was. And here's another thing that's kind of interesting, some of the parts because it was so intricate, so many little parts he played just one time. It was you know, composed really specifically. And I couldn't get a couple of things. I was playing acoustic running practicing, and then I couldn't get it until I plugged in

the pedals. And I guess because the way the synapses are connected in the brain, and it would start coming back to me because you're hitting all those things at once, and as we link things together in our mind, as we do with language and stuff. That's pretty cool.

And then I wanted to explore everything of poverty and even I say fame, even in that sort of level, Like I wasn't willing to pay that sort of I couldn't afford to pay that price, you know, in my own growth. It just couldn't do that. And I felt like I rounded a corner where I kind of gathered enough of what I needed to experience and then I can put that back. So now I would love to put out and I was gonna put this into the universe. If I could put out a record a year, or

two records a year, I definitely have the material. But it may just be time too that I'm I'm older, closer to death in my forties now, and you want to see a physical mark. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know why I do anything, truthfully, but it's not without concerted effort. And I ride every day, and even just for you know, self help. I try to write a little something each day. It's not for a lack of songs. But if I could try to put out a couple of records a year and make some

people smile, that'd be really neat, neat for me. But if I help, there's still time.

kind of the longest I've ever booked a show. Actually, the Lift show was the most advanced we'd ever said, I will be at this place and four months from now, you know. So I don't say that as a good thing or a bad thing. It was just, oh yeah, it was what it was.

those foreign countries because Man needs community. No, Man is an island all that, But you could be around community in a foreign country where you don't speak the language, but you're still around people, so you're not taking out of your headspace with all the simple you know, mundane stuff people say all the time on that tube or whatever. And I was like, and she was like, and they were like, you know that sort of thing. So you

can be alone and still be around people. But the last few years I kind of felt a call toward home, like to be around the familiarity of my youth and the humor. Really, the you can say one line even just in a certain inflection and it's agreed upon that, you know what it is Actually that two years in Berlin without going back to the States, where you really started to feel just like a foreigner. And after that you're you're a foreigner everywhere. You You're never never at home.

And that was really neat to feel like a foreigner. I need just to developed other levels of compassion and understanding. And it was interesting, like I grew up in Texas, never learned these Spanish that took French for some dumb reason because I attracted to art, crap and stuff. There

are no French people in Texas. But after two years, that one two year stint straight, when I came back to Texas, the first thing immediately it's like, shoit, I even learn some Spanish, and a lot of Spanish people like just without even thinking about it, and got some Spanish books. Just pleasantries, you know, making them giggle and laugh and make them feel wanted and helped that they're not alone. And it means a lot. And I always

still try to do that. Like in London, you always learn how to say thank you in like ten different languages, just to tell the whatever. The Polish girl behind the counter chinquia, you know, they light up, just say they're working hard. And if you go to another country, did to get a job like that sucks? Anyway?

question about family. He said, Well, the good thing about being at my level, if anyone recognizes you on the street, chances are high that if they recognize you for your work, they're going to be in the pretty cool stuff. So you want to kind of talk to him. And that's that's the blessing of choosing that other path where you don't played by the system and where it becomes your

boss and then your slave driver. And I haven't put out a record now and put you know, you have to wait here, blah blah blah and all that stuff. But the people you meet, fellow travelers drawn to those vibrations that are really searching, seeking for some sort of help or to help others to deal with their own life or translate their life experience into something.

a real neat blessing. You know the people you meet along the way, and then you think, well, I must be doing something right if i'm you get to meet your heroes. I like to meet Bob Dylan, but I don't think that's gonna happen. I never met Willie Nelson. I like to meet Willie Nelson. I actually wrote a hit song. All my friends have met Willie Nelson, so why can't I what's available on YouTube? All my loser

friends have met. Well, like anyway, I'd ask the Lord if I could meet Bob Dylan, but I know that he's he's still limited with certain you know. Anyway, how are y'all doing? They're good? It's so happy. I'm so I like, I can't even believe her here it's really neat. Makes me super happy. We're playing here at five fifteen and there's a signing at three o'clock that I say that already a rough trade.

But had a nice moment six months ago in Texas where I'm working this construction gig where I'm just clearing the site and then loading a big one of those canisters, those big containers, you know, with all the shit that's around. And I realized that it's thirty years later and I'm doing the exact same gig the work that I did when I was twelve years old. You know, I'm clearing shit off construction sites. I guess this is a neat

little loop. That's cool. And I was standing on top of the because I filled the whole container and I was standing on there to rearrange crap to get more so if you know the big like the train containers. So I'm standing there and just start laughing. It's like, this is what you're doing when you're twelve. That's cool. I worked a lot when I was a kid, a bunch of different jobs, and then twenty seven, when lift happened,

we started to move. And I was a carpenter before that, so I'm really handy with wood, so that's my fallback stuff. But I also I was clear seater sometimes our friend's dad. It's just it's hand to mouth stuff. Like we did these two months of gigs, and I think we're man I shouldn't say this in front of the band member, but I think we'll manage to get the whole band paid. But I'm not I'm gonna make I mean, I've had five pounds and I got here my card wasn't working.

So it's not a yeah, we gotta keep putting You gotta keep putting out records if you want to. You know, you gotta build a profile, building and all that, and I just never did that. So I'm paying for it now, which is fine. I'm happy to be here and happy to pay for it. That's the preceure paid to go with that other route. Working's good for you doing that other work too. You just think, man, I really should be doing music instead of load of trash. After a

lyft went well, I went out to the countryside. I was a janitor at this Christian nonprofit. Just donate my time for a couple of years and I fix it. Man. Really good at plumbing too, electricity. I'm not very good at invisible stuff that kills you. Stay away from that, but pretty much everything else, I'm really handy and the you know, really good at chainsawng super good and uh weed eating. I like butter with those electric weeds, chainsaw.

I like, I think the trees really tell you what the cut, you know, and they're really grateful once once they're cared for. They really were like in two days with rain. They're just a whole new tree, full of life. Gardens like to be tended, you know, I really do. I hate plants. I played this festival See Changed a week ago. I played alone and there was a place called dark dart Teen Tin Darting Tin Hall. It's awesome. It was really old. But they said they had gardens

there that have been kept for a thousand years. And I started laughing because I can keep a garden for a week. That's not good. I got better ones.

Texas legend here icon. He's in his eighties, a big gray beard, and he's just actually a jazz player that plays country music, but a voice from God. And anyway, so the joke is, ladies, what's the worst thing to hear when you're giving Willi Nelson the blow chop? I'm not really Willie Nelson. I'm just some old guy anyway. Thank you, good night.