Butch Vig (producer: Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Garbage) and Brett Newski chat about finding a calm head space, weird Russia tours, the importance of side projects, Wisconsin life, and making up band names for catharsis.
More on Butch: https://twitter.com/butchvig
Support the pod: https://www.patreon.com/brettnewski1
SNIPPET:
Brett: When you guys got signed, you started to get on the rocket ship to fame, you still had to do shows, if just to shake the rust off. Did you ever do any secret shows under fake band names, so the label wouldn’t find out? Any funny fake band names?
Butch: Yeah, when we started Version 2.0, we played three shows under a fake name. Stupid Girl, obviously that’s a Garbage song, but that’s what we went with.
Brett: Is that before the song came out?
Butch: No, “Stupid Girl” came out on the first album, and this was for the second album. We started off with some pretty high profile shows, and we realized we needed some warmup gigs, but we didn’t want to play under Garbage, so we kept it pretty low key.
Part of it was that we were using some new technology on stage, and were playing new songs for the first time, so we played three shows as Stupid Girl, and it was pretty funny. Some people in the crowd knew it was Garbage, and knew what they came to see, and other people had no idea, but still came to see a band called “Stupid Girl” anyway.
Brett: I love it. You know, one of my favorite things to do, especially over a Happy Hour coffee, is to come up with lists of band names. I just have pages and pages of them on my computer. Tell me what you think of these, I just came up with them the other day.
“Vanity Metric.”
Butch: That’s good, yeah. You know, I agree with you, making up band names is kind of stupid, but it’s fun, and can really entertain you. I’ve been doing that in the studio lately with Silversun Pickups, where every other day it’s like, “Let’s make up a band.”
I also do that with my daughter. She came up with a name recently that I really like. “Evaporating Cats.” I like that a lot. From Kansas City, ladies and gentlemen...Evaporating Cats!
Now what kind of music would Evaporating Cats do?
Brett: I feel it would have to be female-fronted power pop.
Butch: I think so, yeah. Another band name my daughter came up with that’s pretty awesome is “Mouse Cream”
Brett: *laughs*
Butch: Mice Cream, to me, is a power trio, really heavy, sludgy.
Brett: That’s punk to its core. What about “Explosure”?
Butch: *laughs* I love that. Explosure.
Brett: It’s so bad it’s good.
Butch: That could be sort of metal. Could be prog too! Explosure. Yeah!
BOOK $20 - CD $14 - BOTH $30 - Comes with new stickers & magnets -
*Europeans Can Now Order here for cheap shipping!
Blending humor with mental health struggles, alternative songwriter/illustrator/podcaster Brett Newski makes fun of his own depression by offering mental health boosts in his first book " It's Hard to be a Person: defeating anxiety, surviving the world, and having more fun."
“I love how easy Newski makes it to plow through the dark stuff with some well placed humor and grit.” -Stelth Ulvang (of the Lumineers)
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BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Years ago, somewhere on the Internet, I posted a few dumb drawings making fun of my own anxiety and depression.
The response to them was warmer than anticipated, and people kept asking for more. Blending humor with pure depression seemed to strike a chord with a decent amount of people. So I kept going, and after about three years of drawing, I had enough dumb drawings for a book called It's Hard to be a Person: defeating anxiety, surviving the world, and having more fun.
*special thanks to Ramshackle Press, Anna Sacks and Nomad Union for helping get the book out.
Includes “Dave Grohl does not listen to Brett Newski” sticker.
“Life Upside Down” was produced by Hutch Harris of Sub-Pop & Saddle Creek legends The Thermals and engineered by Beau Sorenson (Death Cab for Cutie, Superchunk, Bob Mould), Life Upside Down is a beautiful catharsis to a happier brain and sense of belonging. If you frequently find yourself stuck in your own head traffic, this record might help get you free.
Brett Newski has certainly kicked his own ass over the past 6 years, touring infinitely (mostly alone) and wandering down the rabbit hole of anxiety, depression, and wallowing self-doubt. All of these negatives have blossomed into positive creative energy on his third LP.
