ifitbeyourwill Podcast
“ifitbeyourwill" Podcasts is on a mission to talk to amazing indie artists from around the world! Join us for cozy, conversational episodes where you'll hear from talented and charismatic singer-songwriters, bands from all walks of life talk about their musical process & journey. Let's celebrate being music lovers!
Season 5 ends soon for a nice summer break. Happy festival season!
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ifitbeyourwill Podcast
ifitbeyourwill S05E24 • M Ross Perkins
What happens when toxic furnace fumes accidentally become part of your album's creative process? M Ross Perkins shares this surreal discovery and much more as we delve into his methodical approach to DIY music production.
Growing up with a baseball bat as his imaginary guitar and the crushing disappointment of a shattered Chipmunks record, Perkins' musical journey reflects his systematic yet deeply thoughtful approach to song craft. He reveals how his latest album "What's The Matter M Ross?" came together under bizarre circumstances - with furnace exhaust pumping directly above his writing desk for months. When finally fixed, his bandmates reported sudden clarity during rehearsals, a strange twist that perfectly captures the unpredictable nature of artistic creation.
Perkins takes us behind the curtain of his unique production method, where he records all drum tracks across an entire album before moving to bass, then guitars, and finally vocals. This approach allows him to maintain consistency while maximizing efficiency in his small studio space. He demonstrates remarkable craftsmanship in how he handles tempo, watching a BPM counter while playing claves to allow natural fluctuations within a controlled range - creating recordings that breathe with human authenticity.
Beyond technical insights, our conversation explores deeper philosophical territory. Perkins eloquently dismantles the myth of complete originality in music, comparing it to claiming sole credit for your car while ignoring thousands of workers and generations of innovation behind it. This perspective frames his approach as a "lifelong learner" of his craft, constantly refining his systematic techniques while remaining open to new influences and ideas.
Whether you're a musician looking to improve your own DIY production or simply fascinated by the creative process, Perkins' insights offer a masterclass in thoughtful music creation. Listen now to discover how one artist balances methodical precision with creative spontaneity - even when toxic fumes are accidentally part of the equation.
Call a date with a state named Shane and Saul. So quick it can get. So sick and cold. It hits you when you're having fun, when you're feeling you're a lucky one, and all at once a sad cascade comes and says you're a lucky one, and all at once a sad cascade comes and says you're done.
M Ross Perkins:And now you can go and see
colleyc:Welcome back to season five here Coming to an end slowly, but we'll still have a few handful of episodes coming out, and today I have a great guest, m ross perkins, coming in from ohio. Is that correct, uh?
M Ross Perkins:that's right, yeah, that's right. Just across, just across the uh the border from you that's right.
colleyc:So we were just talking about that before we hopped on our long-standing friendship and our open border policy and how that is Neighborly love for each other.
M Ross Perkins:That's right.
colleyc:That's right, the extended love from Canada going down to Ohio.
M Ross Perkins:And it goes the other way too, believe me.
colleyc:Right on. So, I'd love starting these off just a little bit about how it all started for you with music and I mean, I read some stuff about how your your parents kind of like gave you that grandfather teaching of of great 60s psyched ale music, and I find that a lot in your music maybe a little less so in the in the latest record, and we'll get to that but where were some of your key points in in as you were growing up that you can remember where music was was something that you were always going to have to do I just remember performing you know, for pretending I was performing, so that that's like a key stage.
M Ross Perkins:I remember like locking the door to my bedroom, being maybe five or six years old, and, grab, I had like a baseball bat and I was playing it like a guitar, you know. And and I remember fantasizing that the uh, one of the neighbors back behind us was like a music producer and he was like hey, that kid over there has got, he's got he's got the chops, you know.
M Ross Perkins:And so I remember like make believing that when I was a really young kid so that's like a stage, but yeah, you know. And so I remember like make believing that when I was a really young kid, so that's like a stage, but yeah, you know. Coming across, uh, van morrison seems like a place where things really something clicked. Um, certainly magical mystery tour. I think I was in about the third grade when I came up, came upon the later beetle material. Uh, yeah, you know that stuff.
colleyc:There were always these little marks where it just felt like, yeah, this is just I could, I want to do what these people are doing right, and I mean I don't want to um unbury old memories, but I heard on a podcast that there was a record that you had that you dropped and it shattered into a million pieces and you had asked your older siblings can we glue it back together?
M Ross Perkins:Yeah.
colleyc:What? What was that record and what was your?
M Ross Perkins:I think it was a chip, it was a chipmunks record. I yeah, it was real. You're getting really into the traumatic stuff right out of the gate.
colleyc:Well, Barry, you answered.
M Ross Perkins:Yeah, gate, well, bury it after you answer it all, right, yeah, the the chipmunks, it was, uh, chipmunks a go-go. Um, yeah, that that record had all these 60s songs on it. It was cool and I I remember being really little, you know, like I don't even maybe four years old or something. It's one of my earliest memories is dropping that record and uh but yeah, the trauma that ensued yeah, and then it led to a lifetime of trying to piece that record back together.
M Ross Perkins:You know, figuratively, spiritually, psychologically, totally. I'm still working on it, chris, I'm still working on it.
colleyc:Well, I'm here to support you in that. Um, thank you I. I remember that record because I I a Chipmunk fan too, because I thought, the melodies were so like good Like it was like yeah, like.
M Ross Perkins:I mean sure their voices were sped up by a hundred.
colleyc:Right right.
M Ross Perkins:I think the foundation of it was Weirdly well-recorded and stuff, yeah, man, yeah, that got me into 60s pop music, you know. And uh, you know, yeah, there were just all these little things throughout the childhood where it was just like, man, I love that sound, I love that vibe Um, not that I really like set out when I sit down to write, like I want to write something that sounds like it came out, you know, in the six, sixties or seventies or something you know that's it's never. You know the 60s or 70s or something you know that's never. You know, I don't, I don't know that anybody should sit down and try to try to do that, you know, but it comes out sounding that way because you just people, you know we write and and produce what we want to listen to. You know that's what everybody is doing and so genuinely what I like is is you know, is the stuff that sounds like the music that I make, or at least I try to make music that sounds like the stuff that I like, you know?
colleyc:And when you first started writing songs, what songs were swirling in your head of I want to write this kind of song, or, you know, I want. I want it to sound like that. Like, were there songs in those first early writings that that you recall?
M Ross Perkins:oh man, I mean, I think, yeah, I remember wanting to sound like, uh, you know, a country, kind of a country artist, you know. I think they call it like neat new traditionalist country or neo-traditionalist country in the late 80s and early 90s. That was kind of, you know, for a period of time, when you know I'm a little boy, that's what I like. For a period of time I liked, you know, I wanted to sound like third eye blind or something. You know, when I was, you know when I was in like fifth grade or whatever. So, yeah, you know, it always kind of changed.
M Ross Perkins:I mean, I think at one point when I was in middle school or something, you know, you, I wanted to sound like Eddie Vedder. I thought, like ever, I wanted to make my voice sound real gruff, you know, and kind of like, you know, put this, this, you know, spice on it. It's kind of silly. Looking back, I mean, yeah, you try to imitate, you know, and, and there's nothing wrong with it, that's how kids figure things out, you know. Thank god I didn't have you know, that the internet wasn't what it, what it is now, because you know who knows. I mean I would have probably gotten trolled to death, you know, posting some of the stuff that I was doing, you know, and I would you know it was a little kid, uh, but yeah, that's how it all came, you know, came up.
colleyc:And how do you? What's your process like? Like, how do you get an idea or inspired, get the song kind of like you know, constructed it kind of down? Like, how do you go about that? Do you usually start with a riff, guitar, guitar, and then lyrics come, or do you have a line that comes to you like how do you go about building your songs?
M Ross Perkins:well, I mean honestly the best ones, kind of start with it. I I mean, I hate to give away my trade secrets here. This is proprietary stuff.
colleyc:You know well, don't really no secrets just for this show, I'll do it exclusive here for the first time.
M Ross Perkins:That's right, m ross, no, the best songs exactly, yeah, the best ones, I feel like sound like, uh well, they start with the title. You know if I can come up with a good title, or even just like not even the title but the main. You know line of the chorus Right, which doesn't necessarily need to be the title, but often it is. But you know that that's it. If I can do that, then the whole song gets built around that, and that's when it's like OK, this is a really effective composition. You know, in terms of pop, what pop music is supposed to do.
colleyc:You know, right, um, but yeah, you know there's a yeah. Is there a formula that you feel that your writing process follows, or does it tend to vary depending on the album? You know the time of the day you might write like outside influences. Do those come into play?
M Ross Perkins:there is, I guess I mean a bit of a formula in the sense that you know, when you're trying to write pop music, there's there, there's a um, there are sequences of information that work really well. So when you you know there are formulaic things that you do in that way, but that's just the craft. That's not really formulaic in the sense that, okay, I always sit down at a piano and I always start with this, or I always use a metronome or you know something like that, but it yeah, I mean things end up. You you learn little tools of the trade that um are really useful and they do make for really effective songwriting. You know, um, somebody that talks a lot about that is Andrea Stolpe.
M Ross Perkins:Andrea Stolpe is a, she's a songwriter, but she's also a professor. She teaches at Berkeley Um and, you know, just teaches songwriting, has written a couple of books too, and she talks about those like little formulaic things that you can do. So once I kind of encountered some of that, I did start using it, uh, cause it's hard not to it's it works so well some of that.
colleyc:I did start using it, uh, because it's hard not to. It works so well, right, right, and are those like kinds of things that you employ? Like, do those happen, like consciously, like are, or is it when you're kind of like hitting a wall and you're, you know, struggling around? Okay, am I getting this? Is this the right way? I should be doing it, like, how do those come into play? Like, is it when you're questioning, like you know, maybe this song is no, you know, I'll shelve it versus.
M Ross Perkins:I think that's why a lot of people go to formulaic type of you know, types of methods and stuff like that is like oh, when you're stuck, here's some tips and tricks to, you know, spur some creative thing. So they use it for invention, which is really cool. I mean, the invention stage is, you know, yeah, that is, it's hard to start that part, that part of a writing process, um, but I mean I guess, so it's a little bit of both. So it's what's unconscious is the coming up with the little hooky kind of line or whatever the lyric that's like oh, that's the song that is going to be based around this idea. That's what comes kind of just naturally while you're driving your car, right, and then when you sit down to really turn that into something, that's when you can employ these little kind of methods.
M Ross Perkins:I mean, I guess it's good to give an example of like what I'm talking about, because I'm being a little bit vague. But you know, like Andrea Stolpe talks about toggling, and this is something that is really cool that you do start to notice in pop songwriting when you listen to really successful hit songs, the toggling between either different speeds, for example, like you know, if your verse is like really rapid, like, then maybe your chorus should be really slow and you toggle to a like, the, the, the like, let the notes ring out, right. That's one form of toggling. You can also toggle in your lyrics so you can kind of toggle back and forth between zooming in on a subject and zooming out of a subject, and your verses might toggle back and forth. You know, in verb tenses you can toggle verb tenses. There's all kinds of things that you can do like that to show contrast. So that's like kind of just a little practical stuff you start doing as you're crafting it after you've got the initial idea. At least me, that's what I do.
colleyc:Yeah, no, I love it. I love that example too. It's great, um, because I often talk to starting artists right that maybe have a handful of singles out and they're trying to figure this stuff out right. So I ask a question like that to them and they're like well, I'm figuring it out. You know, like they're, they haven't had enough experience with it to be able to verbalize what they might be doing.
M Ross Perkins:You have to make it like a lifelong process. To constantly be figuring out new things in the same way that you know, like a physician or something needs to constantly be like abreast of the latest and most contemporary research on a given subject. I mean, like an artist should probably be doing the same thing when it comes to just craft, um, or whatever that means you know for the artist. But to always just be kind of in that process, I mean in that beginner's mind uh mentality of just like I'm, I'm a lifelong learner of this, this thing that I'm trying to do, you know.
colleyc:Yeah, oh, I like that, I like that and it's, it's, it's very um, it rings true also that it is something you have to continuously practice your, your craft and adjust, and maybe there's new things that come out, new technology or whatever, and and and being open to the possibilities anyway, um, not necessarily having to change all the time. So that'd be a bit exhausting. Yeah, it would. So. When you first started, you were very much a DIY artist in the sense that you did everything on your own. Am I accurate in saying that, amos?
M Ross Perkins:Yeah, and that's still true. I mean, as far as recordings go, now I play live with a backing band, cause I mean I did that by myself for years too, and that was okay and it was, it had its. You know, there were there were pros to doing that, but it it also was really limiting. There were just so many songs I couldn't perform because I was by myself. You know, not everything translates so well to an, to a soloist, you know.
M Ross Perkins:And so but yeah, in terms of the recordings, I've always been kind of a DIY type. I have made recordings with other people, though, and I've I've never, but I've never released any of those recordings. So I've made them, but I've never, but I've never released any of them. So I've made them, but I've never put any out.
M Ross Perkins:Uh, yeah, I prefer catalog oh it's not like terribly hefty it, you know, compared to man. There are some people I know who just write and write and write, but, um, yeah, I mean, recording has always been something that I really prefer to do by myself. I just don't really like. I don't mind having some help in the studio, but I don't want anybody around when I'm cutting anything. Um, I don't want anybody around during the mixing process to be torturous, to sit here and listen to me mix. You know what I mean. It's a nightmare. Somebody's sitting for nine hours while I'm like looping the same 25 seconds.
M Ross Perkins:Yeah, it's absurd, you know totally so there's really, you know, I just don't really see a lot of the, a lot of reason to have anybody around when I'm working on stuff in the studio right, right and and the latest, so it came out to this year, when we get the right month, may, exactly.
colleyc:Yeah, it was.
M Ross Perkins:Yeah, yeah, actually, yeah just a, actually a few weeks ago yeah, uh, what's the matter?
colleyc:m ross? Yeah, um, great record. I mean it really kind of reminds me a lot of teenage fan club.
M Ross Perkins:Like I listen to it, I'm like man, everybody keeps saying that and that's so cool. That's like really really cool. And I mean, truth be told, I've never really listened to teenage fan club and I so literally recently I was like I gotta see what what everybody's talking about. And I see exactly what everybody's talking. It's really a nice comparison. They're very good. So, yeah, no, that's cool, like all these I've had. You're like I don't know. There have been a number of people who've made that comparison with this album.
M Ross Perkins:Um, so that's cool. It like led me into some some kind of new stuff that I hadn't really checked out before but, it's always cool to like find things they're like oh okay, like I'm not the only person doing that for sure.
colleyc:Well, somebody had mentioned to me too. They're like there's so many musicians out there, there's only so many chords that you can create, right, like people are gonna be making music forever, like yeah, it's always gonna be a somewhat of a repetition, or uh, I mean, you're taking stuff from somewhere there there's. No, it's not an infinite possibility Borrowed?
M Ross Perkins:I mean, yeah, everything is borrowed.
M Ross Perkins:I mean, and you know, when I listened to teenage fan club, is somebody who is like never really gotten into teenage fan club?
M Ross Perkins:You know, when I listen it's like I hear what they're borrowing from you know, you know, and if I listen to that stuff then I'll hear what they're borrowing from you know, you know, and if I listen to that stuff then I'll hear what they're borrowing from you know there's, there's really I, yeah, I always talk about like how this kind of myth of creativity, this like you know it's, it's silly. In the same way that, like you know, to look at like your automobile and say like, well, this is my car, you know sort of neglects, and say like, well, this is my car, you know sort of neglects that like thousands and thousands of people's work went into the manufacturer of that car. And I don't I don't mean even on a physical sense, I mean going back in time, you know generations. I mean we're talking. Maybe you know you could argue that millions of people's labor went into production of the Millions of people's labor went into production of the you know.
M Ross Perkins:So to kind of call anything your own is pretty, you know it's a little naive, you know, and music works the same way, so it's like you know, to, to listen to my own music and not and think that that came, you know, solely out of my brain, like I'm God or something is just a little bit arrogant, great, great.
colleyc:You know, solely out of my brain, like I'm God or something, is just a little bit arrogant, right, right. And looking at this record with, maybe you know, a few weeks of like you get so saturated with it. The release date comes, the release date goes. Maybe there's a show. Like, how are you feeling now? Kind of like with that the big hunk of this journey, of this record, kind of you've done it, it's there it's in the world it's in the air.
colleyc:There's no stopping it anymore. It's not contained on a cd or an lp. It's, it's a part of the ether. How are your feelings about like? Did it achieve what you would hope to achieve with it?
M Ross Perkins:man, that's a. That's a. That's a really good question. That's like a. That's an intense question. I yeah, um, this part of the process I think a lot of artists would relate to this. There's like a part of your process where, yeah, after you've released something that took you like two years to make, um, you get this kind of brief glint of this magical, kind of celebratory feeling, but then, really quickly, that is replaced by, you know, like a number of other feelings that come up, and some of them are are kind of dark. You know, some of them feel a little bit. You know, it's, it's all. It's like a postpartum depression, not to, you know, compare it to something that's very I've heard that before I'll tell you.
M Ross Perkins:But you know it is it's totally, you know, yeah, I mean it's, it's an, it's an interesting comparison, so like, yeah, you, you don't really know what to do with yourself. Um, you, you wonder what this means. Now that it's done, you know, it's, it's kind of, yeah, it's, it's complicated it, you know. I think that if, um, yeah, if somebody listens to it and they kind of derive, you know, any kind of thing out of it that that brings um any kind of wisdom or peace, any kind of calmness to somebody's life, then I mean there it is, then it's done, then it's just go on to the next album.
M Ross Perkins:I mean that if you just set your bar, like right there, which is a great place to set your bar, you know some would be like, well, it's setting the bar really low. I don't think so. I think that's setting the bar just as high as anybody ought to set the bar for themselves, you know. And then, like, give yourself that grace and say, well, if that's what I get, if one person listened to it and had a great experience or something, or if it just supplemented an existing experience they were having in a way that that enhanced it, benefited it, made it more um dealable, you know, made it made it more, um, dealable, you know, made it, made it easier for them to cope with it. Um then, then there you go, that's it then. Yeah, then my record worked.
colleyc:I move on to the next one and try to do the exact same thing again, and that's just kind of where where I'm at with it right, and when you're creating records, do you you have a plan before with kind of like an overarching kind of package that you want to see it in, or is it really just come as the songs come out and it just builds over time? How do you approach when you're looking at a new project of okay, I'm on to my next record? Can you talk about that mindset?
M Ross Perkins:a bit. Yeah, it's, it's really systematic. Everything I do I try to be extremely systematic. It just works the best. For me it's, it's. You know, everybody figures out what works. I mean, for a lot of. For some artists, it might work to have like scattered notebooks full of stuff you know, and they're all over your apartment and they're laying all over the place and you got to dig through 10 of them to find, you know, that lyric that you're thinking of and that works and that you know whatever. And then you know, on my side of it, I like everything to be super systematic, in the same way that you know, like when you're doing the dishes, like it makes sense to wash the dishes in a certain order, and you find that 30 minutes of dishwashing. Actually you get a lot more done if you do it in a certain order, right, okay.
M Ross Perkins:So like I get that, that is a lot like what it feels like to put, to put a record together that, like when I'm doing it by myself, I have to take into account the most expedient or efficient way to do that, because otherwise I mean a record with 12 songs on it could be a nightmare to produce If I had to, you know. So imagine this. Imagine I'm like, okay, I'm going to play every instrument on this record on every song, okay, and I've got 12 songs. Now I want to start with whatever. Pick song number one, okay, and I'm going to do the drums, then I'm going to do the bass, then I'm going to do the guitars, then I'm going to do you know whatever, percussion, keyboards, vocals. Well, I'm going to layer everything up, okay, and then I'm going to then what, I'm going to mix it, and then then I'm done with that song, and then I moved to song number two. Just a nightmare to me. It sounds like a nightmare, right.
colleyc:Like having to do the same process 12 times, 12 more. Yeah, exactly and repeat.
M Ross Perkins:Yes, so by, like you know, time number, you know, by song five, you're like fatigued you know, I mean because so it doesn't really make sense.
M Ross Perkins:So some people then they say, okay, well, you do all the tracking and then you do all the mixing. But it's like, okay, am I going to do the same thing Sans mixing? And then I do it every. You know drums, bass, guitars, all of it. You know, do that 12 times. That to me is a little ridiculous. So what I do is I just I get my sequence, I know what songs are going to be on the record, and that part of the process is like, before an instrument really even gets touched, you know, I've got this idea. I mean for tracking, that is I. I have this idea of what the sequence is.
M Ross Perkins:So I know my 12 songs, whatever, I will sit down and do all 12 drums. So I have like two days, three, maybe three days where I just do nothing but drums. So you know my studio. You're also working in small spaces too, you know. So it's like you have to kind of take into account that. So, rather than tear everything down and have to, you know whatever you have to move things around. That you know I.
M Ross Perkins:I set my drums up and I get them dialed in exactly the way I want, and then I do 12 drum tracks over the course of two or three days. Then I've got bass day, and bass day I do 12 or 13 bass tracks. And then I've got guitar week and it's like a week of just doing all my guitars and I just do that until finally the vocals usually the last thing that I do. And that is cool too, because then you get your backing track sounding really nice without that vocal kind of you know, vying for your attention at all times while you're working on it, right, you know. And do you build it like around a click track? You know, vying for your attention at all times while you're working on it, right you?
colleyc:know and do you build it like around a click track, like you have, like you'll play the song and then that's the foundation on which you'll record the drums and like, how do you, if you?
M Ross Perkins:know, if you use a click you end up it. It sounds cool and everything, whatever, but it like it's. It's very robotic, it's just very. You know it's too locked and even if you don't perceive it, you perceive it. You are subconsciously perceiving that that did not mathematically get off track at any point during that three minutes. You just listen. I mean, it really feels constricted and you can feel the the kind of life get siphoned out of a recording really quickly when you record it that way. Um, but man, so what I do? Yeah, it's weird, I mean it's if you, you have to allow for certain fluctuation of time and so like, because nothing in in life, really in life, really doesn't possess this quality of ebb and and and flow, right, so, like you know, you want your recording to kind of sound like the world it exists in, you know, and so like. Um, what I do? Again, trade secrets here.
colleyc:I can't believe I'm spilling this my my team is going to be livid but here's you'll have to have a conversation with yourself after either yeah, I'm going to really regret this.
M Ross Perkins:I? Uh, so what I do is I put a little bpm counter on. Uh, like you know my on logic. I use logic. But I get a bpm counter and then I've got claves or something, just anything that can make a clicking sound. And I know roughly I'll use a click track to determine what general speed I want the song to be. So I'll turn a little metronome on and then I'll sing the song. I'll go take a very you know roughly that's where I want it and then I'll get rid of that metronome and then I'll sing the song.
M Ross Perkins:I'll go take a very you know roughly that's where I want it, and then I'll get rid of that metronome. And then I look at the bpm counter on the screen while I sing along the song and tick, tick, tick with it and I try to keep that bpm plus or minus three or four beats per minute in the range. So what ends up happening is, when I need to speed it up because it's intense, I can speed it up a little bit and I see that number go up and then I can kind of moderate it. So I'm doing that very, very intentionally as I build, and that is the first thing that every recording starts with is me performing the song with basically claves, just tick, tick, tick, while I sing, watching the beat counter. That's amazing.
colleyc:That's how I do it yeah, I love, I love your, your process for that like that's. Because when you're, when you're the only person right, like it's I mean, if you had somebody else there you could, you know, like you know how you could play along and they could do the drum, whatever but when you're doing it all yourself, you have to think about all these little things that you would normally just wouldn't even have to think about.
M Ross Perkins:Yeah, exactly, you take for granted that it's so cool. I love it.
colleyc:So, as we kind of come to a close here, we're going to listen to Spiritual Kick at the end. Based on what you were saying, can you share a little bit about this song how? How it was born and it's it's. It's one of the big singles off the record too, is that, is that correct?
M Ross Perkins:It is, yeah, it is yeah, I wrote this in a in my studio space. I have a rented studio space in Dayton and at that time, ok, I'd been in the studio space for several months writing this record and I'm spending long days in there. I'm in this like kind of unventilated small space at my desk, I'm writing this music and the whole time. I just moved into the space and it had kind of a weird sort of metallic smell to the space and I just thought it's an old building, it's just it. It's an old building, it's just it's old. What do you know? What do you expect?
M Ross Perkins:Didn't really think anything of it, wrote this entire album, right. And then one day I mentioned to the people who you know maintain the space. I said, hey, this is weird metallic smell up there. It's kind of odd. I think maybe you should check it out. They, uh, they call up a furnace guy. Furnace guy comes out and informs me that toxic furnace exhaust fumes have been being pumped directly into my space through a vent, literally above the writing desk. I mean, it is directly above the writing desk, talking for months Chris.
M Ross Perkins:So I'm in the middle of a furnace stupor, I mean you could call it, I'm on like a bender an hvac bender okay and did this add to the trippiness of? The yes, yes. Well, when they fixed it, my band came in to rehearse and they I I swear to you I had three other guys say they felt like they could see their lyric sheets better about midway through the practice. They were like I feel like I've got a certain clarity.
colleyc:That is wild man.
M Ross Perkins:Yeah, so that's the story of how Spiritual Cake was born.
colleyc:Well, when we listen to it, we'll listen for the yeah, listen for the fumes. Well, I just want to say I really, really appreciate your time. Um, I've loved these stories and the little technical and like I love that stuff. Um, and you just tell it so well. You're such a great uh, thank you a great storyteller, which makes you a great artist questions yeah, well, thank you, I appreciate it and and great record and and keep it up. Is there stuff um coming down the pipe for 2025 that you can share with us?
M Ross Perkins:um, maybe, on the road in ohio. We've got a lot of uh dates in ohio coming up and uh, you know we stick to. We stick to our beloved uh buckeye state down here, um, kind of you know, just because it's uh, it's a great place to be and we like it um, but we do. Yeah, we've got uh, hopefully some, we've got high hopes to one day uh visit the land of the free up there too with the north.
colleyc:So absolutely always the home of the brave. We will take you guys care of you.
M Ross Perkins:By the way, home of the brave, we're past the story. Yeah, yeah, we've. We're passing the torch to you guys. It's, uh, it's a heavy burden. Carry it well, my friends.
colleyc:Well, I appreciate you so much. I wish you all the best with this great new record and I hope to one day see a show, and if you have new stuff coming out and you want to chat ever again, it would be an absolute pleasure. This has been a great, great conversation, so thank you.
M Ross Perkins:Likewise. Likewise Looking forward to next time, Chris Thanks.
M Ross Perkins:Right on, he's a guy on a spiritual kick. His body's all out to market. He's got a little string of beats. Well, don't try till you knock it. Yeah, he's a newfound devotee. He's a guy On a spiritual kick. He's working on his bodhicitta. He's working on his reiki chi. He's digging the back of our guitar. Baby, it takes a lot of energy to be a guy. I'm a spiritual king. He's a guy, I'm a spiritual king. I'm a spiritual king. I keep trying just to find some kind of peace. And everybody's saying, oh my, my, so deep, so deep. Guitar solo. He's trying just to find some kind of peace. And everybody's saying, oh my, my, so deep, so deep. He's gone and transcended wanting. He's gone and set his ego free. He's gone beyond the wheel of suffering. Yeah, and all the girls are going crazy For a guy On a spiritual case. He's a guy on a spiritual care. He's a guy on a spiritual care. He's a guy on a spiritual care. He's a guy on a spiritual care. Spiritual Care is brought to you by God. On Spiritual Care.
