945. - Rostam

26:47Jason Stewart:You want to come check it out? You're like, whoa, this studio's sick. Really good natural lighting. Y 'all are funny. I don't know if I want to do that. I don't know if I want to do that. I don't know if I want people. Don't do that. You don't want those Claro freaks knowing where you live. You might get doxxed by some Claro heads. You got to be careful. Period. I think her fans are pretty chill people from what I think. There's just a lot of them. That's all I'm saying. By and large. But when you're that big of an artist, there's always going to be some freaks, freaky snakes in the grass. People collect.

27:19But have you been having fun? Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because in this day and age, it does seem like how people consume stuff is with vertical videos. And the stuff that's coming out about podcasts, people going up to host a podcast being like, I'm such a big fan of your podcast. And then it comes out. he's like oh no i i don't listen to it i just watch the clips yeah but like that's maybe a little bit more of the reality so it's like yeah you can get this amazing profile with amanda petrusich in the new yorker and go deep about like how lyrics can change with a different melody and like but i mean i'm i'm that's the voice of the world not us amanda's an amazing writer we love

28:06Jason Stewart:for a great How Long Gone, guys. Yes. So me and Amanda need to make some vertical videos together, basically, if we want to reach the maximum number of people. But yes, it's been fun to pop out different in 2026. Look, I agree. Your boy popping out different. He acting different. I told you he was on the Drake album. I told you. I knew he'd been hiding it. Okay, so do you like that you can go along with How Long Gone or a New Yorker profile for those of us who still have an attention span that hasn't been severed off at the root? No, no. Is it a bummer that – I like you guys. This is fun. I think it would be fun for us to do some kind of vertical video type shit down the line.

28:52Remember what I suggested, Rostam Week on How Long Gone. We would love to pull Rostam Week. Look, we're down when the – We're talking about Rostam Week. That was a cute pitch. When the schedule's lying. But are you guys going to pivot to vertical video? What's up with that?

29:09Jason Stewart:Well, we're filming video stuff that's going to live horizontally like a standard YouTube video. But, you know, the idea and the goal is to clip that out into, you know, if it's a half an hour video of us talking shit, you know, maybe get, you know, six to ten clips out of that. That'll go video and, you know, spread the good seed of how long gone throughout the nation. It's just it's just it's just sort of like it's it's a lot more work. Like a lot more work. No, I get that. And I, but I also, I think the benefit, I think the benefit, it's obvious that it works. It's not like it's like, it's not your, you're not shouting into the void if you spend the time and effort to do it.

29:46I do think it works, especially when you're in our position, you're somewhat established. It's not like we're starting from scratch. For those who are just listening to this and can't enjoy the video feed, Chris is lying down on a bed. He's got two comfortable pillows behind him. He's got his laptop seemingly on his lap. it's on a pillow on my lap i gotta protect the stuff you know oh okay and he's got he's got his airpod max those big apple headphones that i do not fuck with and he's holding a microphone he's got a nice foam pop filter on that microphone it's a very professional setup over here give me a beat rossum give me a beat i'm ready bro give me a beat i've never done i've never used a mic stand on how long gone in my entire life okay i've never i always do it like this and i don't know if it's better or worse it's probably more annoying for jason but i always do it like this because i'm usually somewhere i'm rarely at home i guess actually this is good while i have both of you

30:41Jason Stewart:all here in a safe space in a couples therapy kind of way rossum you're a producer of music you've recorded a lot of people vocals over the years true you know professional singers declares of the world what do you do when when the person vocalizing can't keep the distance of the mic from their mouth in a consistent distance what do you do is there a trick or a tip i would use a multi-band compressor the one that i like the most is made by mcdsp mcdsp and it's the m404 it's amazing you'll get amazing results because look just like look i'm just like danielle from high when i hit the high note i pull back you know i just pull back a little bit that's what we got to do that's what my that's what my problem is when you hit the the high note is not the issue It's your low note because your voice has a lower frequency.

31:27Jason Stewart:So sometimes we lose a lot of dynamic range when you get excited. I see. So I'll be looking at the waveform. Everything's looking all nice and perfect. I say one of my classic hilarious TJ lines. It's just a black bar of audio. It's clipping. It's limiting. It's all messed up. It's flattering to me because I'm getting such a great response out of you. But it's tough. I'm writing the volume for the whole hour. Yes. you got it right yeah i get it i get it chris is a very dynamic he's dynamic that's called yeah that's how i'm described yeah that's really how i'm described often described as dynamic thank you for that plug-in tip i was hoping we were getting a few from you at for free out of this you know what i mean of course because you you've done one of those like you did like the breakdown the song what what's the popular thing where it's like real studio mixed with the masters these two french guys yes yeah in paris how gnarly do they get listen i feel like it's fun to make those videos knowing that the people who are going to watch them are people who do this day in and day out and like yeah like i understand it you don't have to hold back you can like show the plugin and show how you adjusted the settings and you know you like want to learn everybody everybody in that in that game wants to learn more from other producers and yeah we had we had um we were talking with um i'm gonna mispronounce his name jason can you say it uh as soon as you tell me who it is uh song exploder song oh rishi rishi cash rishi cash here way rishi cash i i said it right the whole episode and i just blanked but um and he was great and i really like him i really like that show but he was actually telling us that sometimes the artist will get emotional hearing the stem because they they've like almost haven't heard it in so long or maybe have never heard it yeah like a raw vocal or something and i i've have you ever because that's fascinating to me and i feel like that is a very rare experience i've had the experience of being like oh wait what the fuck did i put in this session like oh jesus this doesn't even make sense but like it's kind of working like yeah yeah sure the piano's playing different chords than the guitar but but i like it yeah we just kind of duck the volume on those a little bit i'm gonna give you some real crazy information about Rishikesh and the song Jealous Guy by John Lennon.

33:51John Lennon actually started writing that song on a trip to India with the Beatles. Okay. But he didn't finish it until after the Beatles. But the original version, the first lyric was, on the road to Rishikesh, I was dreaming more or less. On the road to Rishikesh. I was dreaming more or less.

34:22Jason Stewart:Damn. Rishikesh, a podcaster and a place? Yes, I believe so. Wow, that is actually great. I feel like the crossover of people who understand that or knew that is you. And maybe him. and his dad and yeah there's a lot of beatles and you have a beautiful voice very a lot of beatles super fans out there oh yeah i know that that's true it's it's just like yeah you're not going to get doxxed if you like john too much luckily the stands stay away it's a different culture i am a john i'm a john person let's put that on the record i i don't i don't know if i'm i'm not really a paul guy i'm a george guy i'm a yeah we're george people on this pod i love him george harrison's soul album best by far to me like untouchable he's the john for shante of the beatles he's low-key beasting his tones his melodies are insane he he sits back in the cut long hair probably hung uncut he's looking good apparently when coldplay was finishing a rush of blood to the head they had some someone who's like very close to them in their team who played chris martin isn't it a penny which is from that album all things must pass yeah and he and he was like can you chris maybe write a song like this and it's like that those kind of like simple piano chords like dun dun dun yeah yeah yeah and then chris wrote the scientist it was like one of the last songs for a rush of blood oh hell no not the scientist you're gonna get jason and i crying if you start talking about the scientist that's an all-timer right there let me fire up my soul seek here i go but i love the idea i love the idea of somebody being like hey could you just write a song like this great george harrison song for the album before we finish could you just try record we can use it as a reference track all things yeah why don't you try this just before we close up shop.

36:04Jason Stewart:George Harrison. Okay, I'll give it a try. Yeah, like the story with A Rush of Blood to the Head is apparently, they felt like they were close to done with the album and at the last minute, 11th hour, Chris Wright's clocks and the scientists. Whoa. They were like last minute. Really? Yes. That's like Benny Blanco with California Girls. Same shit. We thought this thing was in a can and then Benny said, what if it wasn't this? Do, do, do, do, do, do. And they're like, what the fuck? I mean, that is, that is, I mean, getting told that at the last minute and being able to pull it out. I mean, that's why Chris Martin's one of the greats, you know, besides his shirt, besides his T-shirts, he's one of the greats.

36:44Jason Stewart:Hold this clock really quick. I gotta go buy another fucking yacht right now. Okay. Let's talk about, let's talk about cropping shirts because this is something I've gotten recently into. Pause. There's a guy in the Lower East Side. His name is Ramon. He only takes cash. Bro, you don't, you don't think I know Ramon? I know, but I want the people to know because Ramon is special. Is he verse? How does it work? What's going on? He's old school. He's basically, he's kind of retired now, Ross, to be fair. I don't think he's touching much. You know what I mean? I think he's run the operation. Retired Ramon.

37:15Boss style. But he's in there. And his daughter runs the business. She's great. Yeah, so one thing that I love is to buy like a Comme des Garcons shirt. I've done this a couple times now. I take it to Ramon. Yeah. You take the Garcon to Ramon? I take the comb to Ramon and I just get him to take an inch off.

37:34Jason Stewart:Okay, you little yachty bar. Take an inch off the bottom and the shit is fitting me in a next level way. I don't have to worry about tucking or being untucked. There's no tucking versus untucking drama in my life. No dilemma. There's no dilemma there. It's just I feel good. like i can no more tucking drama in your life the doll has had a successful surgery yeah on the other side of it i you know i could i can tuck i like to do a french tuck sometimes oh i know you do i know you do the height of your torso and the way clothes are cut you're saying your body is kind of a tweener where like it sits right in between will it tuck should it untuck and and ramon says problem solved now everything is perfect though i think just in general i don't like a full tuck I've never been a full tuck liker.

38:28You know, like. It can be restricting, but I do like it when duty calls. I wouldn't do it on like a Monday afternoon. You know what I mean? But I think that there's a.

38:36Jason Stewart:With a jacket. With a suit. Without a jacket, it can be tough. Because you'll wear a shirt untucked with a blazer, which I think looks cool for other people. But I cannot do that. I feel like I'm like committing a crime against like preppy culture. Something that horrific is cute for you, but I would never. And that's how I feel about loafers. Yeah. No, I know. I know. Period. That's what I'm saying. Rossum said loafers are way too gay, even for me, period. Moving on. Well, I mean, I think that - He's not even talking about the chunky Pradas. He's talking about the bass, regular shit. You don't want to get into a footwear battle with me, but go ahead.

39:11Go ahead. No, I'm joking.

39:13Jason Stewart:Yeah, Rossum, could you expand more on your thoughts about loafers? This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by BetterHelp, H-E-L-P. and Jason, we're getting into May and it is officially Mental Health Awareness Month, which I didn't know. Whatever you're going through, this is just a little reminder that you don't have to do it alone. Life is a damn journey. Some days feel great and others feel completely overwhelming. Whatever's keeping you up at night, it's easy to feel like you have to figure it all out on your own. But the truth is, no one has all the answers, Jason. Not even me, not even God.

39:44And no journey should be alone. That's real talk. Having someone with you to listen, to understand, and to support you can make all the difference.

39:51Jason Stewart:Yeah, let's say you've got an upcoming trip to Europe and you don't have anyone else to talk to about it. BetterHelp is there, man. With therapist match commitment, they'll do the initial matching work for you. Find somebody who knows you and you can focus on your specific therapy goals. And if it doesn't work out the first time, you're not happy with the match, we'll switch to a different therapist at any time with more of our tailored recs with over 30 ,000 therapists. therapists better help is the world's largest online therapy platform you do not have to be on your journey alone find support and have someone with you in therapy sign up and get 10 off at betterhelp.com slash how long that is better h e l p as in pistachio.com slash how long all right jason let's get into this one we got car gurus our new homies over here how long gone and I'm sick and tired of car shopping, Jason, and I know you are too.

40:48I need a better experience, and thanks to CarGurus Discover, a new search feature where you can look for vehicles based on the way you think, using your own damn words. No more being boxed in by those pesky pre-made filters. Or do you want great gas mileage for road trips or extra trunk space for your golf clubs? Simply type it in, and CarGurus Discover will give you real shoppable listings that match. It's the smarter way to find a car that fits your twisted life.

41:14Jason Stewart:Yeah, I mean, I'll type it in, hey, I'm looking for a car that'll stop getting me beat up at the office or whatever, you know. Sure. I want a car where my friends respect me or whatever. Maybe I play hockey and I need a little extra storage space in the Honda Fit, whatever it could be. And I think this is really cool and interesting because not everyone is just looking for a blue car that costs$4 ,000. We all have specific needs and wants and lifestyles and it's great that we've sort of broken out of your grandma's filtration systems. I'm sick of that shit. I need a brand new CarGurus system. It's no wonder CarGurus is the number one most visited car shopping site according to similar webs estimated traffic data.

41:54Buy or sell your next car today with CarGurus at CarGurus.com. Go to CarGurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S.com, CarGurus.com. i just feel like there's like a lot of like white guys with hairy legs and like wearing like no show socks with loafers and it's like a weird scene it's like very like georgetown university circa 1999 hey don't look your your your sexual trauma around around white guys with hairy legs is not my problem okay bro that is your that's i'm sorry what he did to you but that's not my problem now

42:32Jason Stewart:you can fuck them now go right these wrongs rossam all these guys that wouldn't give you i got no trauma i just i just feel like there's cooler things that you could like you guys know i like a little bit of preppy style here and there like i just feel like there's cooler things that you could do than wear loafers you know oh it's not about but it's not to me it's not about cool or not it's about the it's the most traditional and functional shoe in the closet that's it's not about and the operative slip it on the operative part of that sentence being in the closet yeah it's giving operative you're all right oh he gave it he gave it to those how long gone boys he gave it to he fed them back okay slow down slow down so yeah this kitten's got claws how do you feel about a pleats please rostam i i think some of the shit is dope and some of the shit is not dope when people i gotta say something very controversial fair i think i rarely like it when a suit and pants match.

43:30I think it's a very weird look. You mean with pleats, please in particular? Yes. When people wear the full suit with pleats, please, it crosses some kind of line. If you're going to do it, then switch up the pant color. That reminds me. It's a little bit of the white boy version of the jersey match the hat match the shoes. Oh, God. You know what I mean? Like Nelly era. You know what I'm saying? It feels like that to me. But I think pleats please on men is really tough. Really tough. It depends how you put it together, right, Chris? It's all about context.

44:04Jason Stewart:You get a nice gray pleats please top and bottom matching, a nice white McQueen sneaker on the bottom, a little no-show. I think we've got our Sunday look. You have a funky little pleats please hat, I feel like, that is a wild piece of clothing that you somehow pull off. Because if I saw it on the shelf, I'd be walking the other way. but it does it i got i had a moment with those hats i got them in a few different colors i got my mom one because my mom is who got me into issei miyaki like she that's like her shit she loves issei it's great it's it's the ultimate alex's mom is into that too it's it's the ultimate mom to me like a mom with taste that's the ultimate brand there we go moms with taste hashtag mom it really is hashtag yummy mummy

44:49this mummy tastes good yes exactly that part but um okay but yeah i i feel you i think i think one one component of an outfit being please please can can work nicely how much were the hats running for how much were the hats running for because i know you're a guy that buys multiples you're if i like it i'm getting every color type of cat there's only a couple things i feel that way about and visvam is one of those things and what's the hoodie you've been wearing probably with the with the strings that's visvam right okay so i'm gonna go deep with y 'all on this one you custom the strings don't tell me you custom the strings you're going he's going emil haney on us right now you're going to meal on us right now hard body the strings are from you know how like now nowadays with with high-end shoes they're giving you two sets of laces right of course so the strings that i'm putting in these visvam hoodies and and they actually come with no string they're just yeah yeah yeah they come stringless chris knows about this because he's been researching hoodies for hanover yeah honestly i know a lot about hoodies and i don't even wear them that much okay so i use the alternate uh shoelaces that you get with these apc white leather sneakers you've done this twice yes wow okay and you so you take it to ramon and you're like weave this in for me actually laura who's my housekeeper she was able to do it i i never i don't know how but she did it i asked if she could give it to me i said i i said laura could you help and then the next thing i knew it she made it happen i don't know how she made it happen that's actually cool because that feels like something that is oddly complicated like when the string comes out of the workout shorts i'm i can't i can't put that back this is the thing that you can just look on any

46:34Jason Stewart:online anywhere and there's a way I think you can get like a long coat hanger, a long pen or a pencil and just kind of boom and stick it through weave it through but what about these white shoelaces on the APSE sneakers? Are they different than just a standard white shoelace? No they look like climbing they look like climbing rope. Yeah they have like a navy sort of wrap around pattern like a subtle navy thing. Wow you're really getting accustomed that's a lot that's a lot of work to be cropping the shirts and well i've cropped one t-shirt because it was too long and i got it back and i was like i fucking hate this i'm never doing this again i just it didn't it was wrong as soon as i got it back i was like this doesn't fit and it was amazing counting crows amazing counting crow shirt and unfortunately you know you look august and everything after white with black print simple nothing on the back happens in your crop chris let's gotta sit in the archive let's discuss maybe maybe there's a maybe there's a five nine king that would fit perfectly in your i didn't know do you respect the crows i don't know that about you oh yeah but i have not seen the doc yet but i mean when i went to the first guitar teacher i ever had actually kind of my only guitar teacher his name was eric ulrich i asked him to teach me four songs on the first guitar lesson one of them was mr jones by the Counting Crows.

47:57Classic. One of them was High and Dry by Radiohead. Oh. One of them was Machine Head by Bush. Better than the rest. That shit slaps. Machine Head, he's been playing it too and it kind of still slaps. And the fourth one, I feel like maybe the fourth one was one he wanted me to learn which was an Eric Clapton song that had bends in it. And he was like this is a good song for you to learn because you'll learn the bends. What's that song called? It's Wonderful Tonight. You weren't because you weren't Clapton proficient. That wasn't your shit. I liked some Clapton, but like, yeah, he like expanded my taste a little bit.

48:35The guitar teacher, he was getting me into more like guitar stuff. Go from Ipanema, Little Wing by Hendrix. There's he was like, I'm going to teach you everything you want to learn, but then you should learn a few things that I want you to learn. Yeah. Two for you. One for me type shit. That's fair.

48:50Jason Stewart:You said, OK, sensei, let's do this. the counting crows renaissance i was hoping for is it feels stalled i was really on i was really pushing the narrative and the documentary the thing about the documentary is and and this is unfortunate nothing happens really like the rise to fame is pretty crazy and they're so normal but then like there's no od nobody dies they still get along it's it's just sort of like boring i have a treacherous dreads were fake i have a treacherous question which is what is Adam Durant's ethnicity. You know we ain't answering that. I don't know. White, bro. He's from San Francisco.

49:25I mean, there might be some Spanish. Jason, look it up. I think there might be some like.

49:29Jason Stewart:Looking it up. He's half white and Russian Jewish. Okay. Born in Baltimore, Maryland. Raised in a reformed Jewish household. Rabbi Jones and me, he said. The best story in the documentary is when he gets really famous. He kind of starts to feel like crazy living in Berkeley. and he moves to LA and sort of like works at the Viper room as a bartender to like give himself some like normalcy and then it's like the first night there it's like Kate Moss's birthday and he's hanging and then Johnny Depp's like his best friend that that shit's cool but like there's no tragedy I want tragedy I for better or worse I want something bad to happen to you in a rock doc but also I just looked it up um the very first line on the song Mr.

50:14Jason Stewart:Jones he famously references is his cultural background first line i'm a russian jew american impersonating african wait that's not the first line of it's down at the new amsterdam yeah i was talking to this yellow-haired girl okay sorry sorry sorry not the first line not the first line it was but it's in that it is a lyric in mr joe that that is very verbose for a lyric i don't remember that i could be wrong i don't know if i know every word but i feel like i if i yeah okay wait sorry i looked it up it says that famous lyric is from the song 1492 this is ai being wrong again you motherfuckers 1492 i'm not from i'm not familiar with that but because mr jones is the biggest hit by far i i think oh no actually the joni mitchell cover is the biggest biggest that makes sense that was a very trl era it was from a movie too it's like a movie soundtrack thing yeah because vanessa sang on that vanessa carlton sang on that you guys used to watch trl bro are you kidding me i fucking I've lived it bro cartel we did TRL a handful of times it was my favorite thing in the world wow that's cool I didn't know that so it was so it was so sick because it would be like you backstage with your homies and then it's like the other guests are soldier boy and Natalie Portman or some shit and everybody's just kind of hanging out together it was just a very different time wait Jason since you're looking stuff up what was the what was the date range of TRL was like what 95 to 2005 or it feels later it feels later it feels 98 to 2006 1998 to 2008 oh wow obviously the last few years it was kind of you know fizzling out but i think you know the hot the sweet spot was right around you know the sweet spot was like boy band prime like backstreet boys in sync like that era was the prime and we you could cheat you know i mean you could pay the way that the way that all these bands are paying for the clip farms we would pay for a voting farm oh shit that's how trump won the election exactly same thing same kind of thing you would just you basically like i would have to i mean i don't know maybe i should save this but basically we would you would the label would i would have to pay and then the label would i would invoice the label for some like innocuous fees and they would pay me because they couldn't have the paper trail but that's like a pot that was like a very known thing wow it was like the payola thing you know It was the same kind of thing.

52:30Marketing expense. Yeah, it was just a classic marketing expense. Classic marketing expense. Wow. But I think that now that that's happening for every person on earth, it seems... When you say, Chris, when you say you want to save it, do you mean you want to save it for your book? No, I just feel like I'm like, have we ever talked about this before? Is this bad for me to say? But then I don't really care. I mean, whatever. It's not. I think this is a pretty common practice. Enough time has passed. How is the book coming along? Oh, great question, Ross. I love to talk about this. I can't tell. Are you being sarcastic?

53:00Yes, I'm being sarcastic. No, it's fine. It's actually fine. I think I've said this to Jason before. It's the troubling thing. And maybe this isn't dissimilar to making an album. But you're sort of like, you finish all the stuff you got to do during the day. Like, oh, I ran my errands. I went to the gym. I responded to all my emails. We recorded how long gone. But you're never really done because that shit is looming over your head. No matter what, no matter how much you accomplish in a day, you didn't do the thing that is the most you know that's the the north star the most you know as

53:32Jason Stewart:they say chris with the ai discourse don't be a writer if you don't like writing you know yeah no it's real i mean it's you gotta learn how to like it one thing that could work maybe is what if you inverse that order and you try to do the writing right at the top of the morning just like yeah a lot a lot of people no a lot of people do that a lot of people do that it's just and i think that is valuable i think that's probably a valuable approach i just think that would throw off my shit so much that i like don't even know i don't know how long it would take me to acclimate to that for it to be positive do you know what i mean throw that shit off brother throw it off yeah i probably need to throw it off yeah you can work out in the afternoon until you finish your book it's fine you can go back working out in the afternoon unfortunately is is one of the most diabolical things that people can do it fucks me up so bad it fucks me up so bad because i i also need to work i'm one of those people i have to work out on a totally empty stomach i cannot have food same unless i've like traveled and i have no choice i'm with you and you can't i can't not eat till 3 p.m also jason that's that's promoter that's promoter that 3 p.m hour is like the the darkest people on earth are in the gym okay so i don't i don't go i don't go to the gym to look at other people chris i go there to kind of do work on myself i'm not look i'm not looking at other people i'm saying the energy you feel is different it's like these like this is a different vibe at 3 p.m.

54:49like 8 a.m. is when you're in there with the people that are like getting after it 3 p.m. is like no offense to my photographers you know that's when i see kobe that's when i see people i know and i'm like oh yeah you guys you guys you're talking to a 3 p.m.

55:00Jason Stewart:motherfucker you're on demon time you're getting bodied by a 3 p.m. or christ i love all right let's go let's go slightly deep on on working out stuff so do you work out with the trainer still or no are you solo only when i'm in la okay so in new york you're solo and you like the equinox on prince street or another one no i tribeca now is is closer oh chai becca chai becca and and i would say less populated i would say i have i have an update for you i went to a club last night that was like right across the park are you talking about um uh what's it called gosh gosh yes gosh jason new york's hottest club is gosh it really is okay wait wait wait let's finish finish the workout and then i want to do a a deep gosh dive okay oh yeah because i want to hear about jason jason are Are you Equinox Glendale?

55:47Jason Stewart:No, I canceled my Equinox, I would say, maybe a year, year and a half ago. And I work out at home and then I do Pilates twice a week. So I sort of switched my outdoor group fitness that costs money from Equinox to Pilates. I find now I only use Equinox in New York. So maybe I might switch my membership because when I'm in L.A., I just don't bother with it. If you're going to the places I'm going, it's there. You can't really beat it. What's the place you like in LA? It's like Easton or something? Yeah. Rossum, you're more of a high mat guy. You're a bougie bitch. You pull up in the fucking Porsche.

56:25I tried high mat. I tried high mat. And the drive was just very brutal. It was like the worst drive you could imagine. That's far. On Santa Monica Boulevard in the middle of the day or middle of the morning. It's never pretty. you know it's never it's it's always traffic so you want you want spencer pratt to clean that street up is what you're saying yeah exactly oh gosh oh my response you could ever said oh gosh yeah but i also i don't i just i don't really touch the west side in la like i don't touch them i don't even touch hollywood like to me to me the west side is everything west of the arc light which doesn't exist anymore which is crazy but the arc light used to be my like that that's as far as the train goes i really want the arc light to reopen i really i feel like that's part of when when la started going downhill when we lost the arc light i think spencer could bring that back together i think spencer could bring that back too if spencer ran on that save the arc light platform you would no no no no no brett ratner's gonna buy it and then they're gonna get they'll do it together they'll get this thing back on its feet no brett no brett i want that arc glade back they're gonna get this thing back on its feet what do you mean i don't see a problem here they only play melania let's get that i have so many memories of the art glade i mean it's just such a beautiful space so many good theaters it was really like a gathering place where every

57:49Jason Stewart:class type neighborhood all came together famous celebs random poor people every person all walks of life all came together in that one lobby they had the car caramel corn and we all enjoyed a film together and then uh then covid came ruined it all i have a friend who has a theory that that now hantavirus is about to kill it for the second time that la never recovered from the pandemic but new york did i think that's a that's not an unpopular theory what do you what do you guys heard that before jason you just spent a week in new york as a bi-coastal podcaster i have thoughts on this but yeah i think because new york with everyone everyone wants to be out all the time Everyone's having their meals outside.

58:32Jason Stewart:Everyone's going out and doing things every day. You're leaving your small abode to explore the world. The city is where you live. So it had to get back to work. Whereas LA, you can just get your little PPP loan check and never come down the hill from Laurel Canyon and order your goop kitchen. And we're all good. I don't need to go. There's no cool clubs to go to in LA outside of a few random warehouse things downtown. There's no social culture happening in LA anymore except for group fitness classes no don't say that there's several wine bars where you can sit outside there's several eight I can think of by name I did it last night I went to stir crazy last night our friends um from Rita's the restaurant in London Missy and Gabe they did a pop-up and who was there but Adele and Rich Paul Lil Rich oh wow that's big that's big I've never seen Adele IRL yeah I I've never talked about this but I did write two songs with Adele in 2015 and we never finished them I've never talked about this damn because Tobias Jester Jr.

59:34came in there with the elbow he said excuse me sir not at all not at all not at all because I love to I love Tobias he's he's amazing I didn't know he I didn't know he worked on your record until I was reading press but one thing about Adele I gotta tell you guys is like she's so the real deal and like she's she played someone like you on guitar for me like just she's the real she like can write she can write a song backwards for she she's the real thing everything her problem is that everything she sings sounds like a classic song like it sounds like it's existed forever as soon as oh you can't you can't tell because there's too many it's just too good i mean i remember when emil worked with her he told me he was like that's the craziest shit i've ever seen i've never like just become like blow you away yes like chills vocal like just like whatever i can sit down i can lay down i can stand up it's gonna sound good no matter what.

1:00:24It's pretty crazy. It's pretty crazy.

1:00:25Jason Stewart:Yeah, she's an amazing person. She's a Scott Storch of the vocal booth. We get it, you guys. Exactly. Where are the songs? Which Rostam hard drive we got to go through, bro? No, no, no. They'll see the light of day if ever she wanted to finish them. Of course, I'm down to or maybe our paths will cross. Life is long. But I keep shit locked. I keep shit locked tight. How much unfinished shit do you have? It's so surprising to me that you'll do like spend a week with someone and there's sort of it's like ideas but there's nothing like finished finished not that much i don't or i actually i don't know i don't know maybe if i were to like really look at it i'm like oh i did a song with that person jesus yeah because i'm sure there's i'm sure there were phases where it was like every week it's some you know some other shit and it's like oh okay i totally forgot about sean mendez i never worked with sean but i don't really do too much of that like what people call like what do they call the conveyor belt or something like well not anymore i'm in at one phase i'm sure it was more like that it's interesting because when i moved to la at the end of 2013 i really thought that i might pursue a career as like a pop producer which is a thing that i don't think is really my path but i've intersected with that life and i've done songs with pop artists in my career but it's like more specific it's there's like a genre of pop artists like a charlie or carly ray that's also a writer or like an adele like who's also a right like also writes their songs like those those are kind of like a very specific cut of of the pop world and i and i music that's good and listenable don't say that but you also like money you also like money and that's where you and get a fucking nice little sink, right?

1:02:15Jason Stewart:Uh-huh. He makes all his money with Hamilton. He doesn't even have to go to these pop shit. He can go to fucking, he can go to Hamilton's house in the basement and they can do their little thing. It's pretty good. 1-800-CARS-FOR-KIDS. I think we got it. Jason, wait, I did see a weird thing about that today. Jason, Jason, I gotta say, any time I've ever sniffed around, like, should I do this thing? Like, this will be a pay, like and I don't do those things because it doesn't really it's just it doesn't I don't think I've ever really gone all the way there but if I've ever dipped in the toe of like am I gonna do this for them it's not nah it's not good I don't know that's not how I that's not how I can make money it's like I feel like I make money when I'm like so excited about something that I like go all the way in on it and it like consumes me and maybe it's like a up and coming artist but maybe it's just like whatever something that i believe in well sometimes you're on bring a trailer and that g-wagon pops up that you just gotta have and you say you know what mr mendez i will come to the studio this week you know what let me let me know i'm fine what is this new apple show called sure wait let me put you guys on to something about being a producer you know you really have to finish the song before you send it right and and you do not get you do you do not get paid for finishing the song until they want to put the song out yeah yeah i know i know you're waiting bro you're always waiting so i just want to say like it's not what you think it is and being a producer like you really have to you you have to put in the work because you believe in it you're telling me it's not like hip-hop maggie rogers doesn't bring 50 bands over in a louis duffel and just drop it off before you got once you give her the beat tape it doesn't work like that damn you got me fucked up i thought everybody how much for a feature we the we the rostum feature i can do it for 10 i can do it for 10 i'm in the lab with molly santana all week people people do sometimes dm me and they're like can i send you loops and i'm just like what do i do what would i do with that you're like bro i make my own loops that's the whole fucking thing bro that's my job that's my whole fucking thing they want to be You're like, damn, Rossum said one of my loops was good.

1:04:31All right, so when are you – you're going – you're about to hit the road, bro. I can't even imagine. Are you doing a sprint or are you getting a bus? What's the vibe? Yeah, we have a bus. We have like a couple legs of different sections of the tour. I'm excited to play. My band is like fun to play with. We're like live. There's so much talent in the room. These guys could like – they could like switch instruments in the middle of songs and like cover each other's parts. That is nice. that is nice it's really fun and i feel like i guess maybe because i've been in the studio so much in the last 10 years there's something really thrilling i gotta say the word is thrilling about putting on a show that feels like something that you have not never seen before musically seeing like pedal steel violin real drums like i don't know i'm i'm just excited about it i think it's gonna be fun when does the concert when does the film come out we're figuring that out because there is a thing with YouTube where it's like if you drop a 30 minute YouTube like it's kind of hard to get people to watch a 30 minute yeah no shit yeah no shit bro

1:05:41Jason Stewart:the algorithm doesn't shine upon they like 30 second not 30 minutes well I think 30 seconds is a little short too well you know what I mean you know what I mean Rossman I think probably between now and the middle of next week or between now and the tour we'll we'll drop the whole concert film it's really it's really good and it's i like how you my favorite part of it was when you had to show him that you could play drums for like 30 seconds jason the whole thing he's playing all he's he's walking around and then there's there's just a 30 second part where him and the drummer set up face to face like playing at the same time like this motherfucker i had to let him know there's i had to touch every tenacious d shit yeah yeah yeah he's like i had to let him that's really that's me taking the advice from my manager dalton sim who is a legend and a wonderful very wonderful man everyone who knows him and is managed by him is like this is the best manager and i really love dalton he has said to me he's like i want to see you show your musicality i want to see you show people how many instruments you can play yeah it's like kid rock you go kid rock will do every instrument during one song he'll do turntables he'll do drums i actually did not know that i did No, Kid Rock's really about that shit, bro.

1:06:54Kid Rock's got it. Don't sleep on Kid because of his problematic... He can breakdance, too. Five elements. Have you guys ever seen a John Bryan live show?

1:07:03Jason Stewart:Yes. Not in person, no. He'll do a really cool thing where he'll sit at the drums, and he's got it so dialed in with his sound man that he'll just start playing drums, casual style, and his sound guy knows when to start the loop, or maybe he's doing it in a subtle way that you can't see, Oh, that's cool. So then he'll get the drums going. He'll get a loop going, and then he'll walk over to the piano, and he'll do the same thing at the piano. And the next thing, he picks up the guitar, the bass, and he's building a track live for you. That's really next level. Hey, I don't want to talk out of turn, but John Mayer was doing some shit like that at MSG, if I'm keeping it 100, with a double neck.

1:07:42Jason Stewart:Okay. He was doing it with a double neck. Also, if you just go to Santa Monica Promenade, there's 11 motherfuckers doing that too. you ever heard of a little artist named ed sheeran rostam i don't know about he's a famous looper as well i actually it's not as sexy but it's not as sexy as john bryan of course i actually did go to an ed sheeran show just because i kind of wanted to check it out and i'm i'm published by the same publishing company which i love sony give it up for sony they're awesome but we give it up for our sony family shop at a culvert called sony i'm just really loving them lately actually now when now they have a new offices and studios on like sycamore which is like the cool street now you know it's like yeah yeah yeah where all the cool stuff is happening over there but i love when cool stuff happens shut to jacques marie mosh yeah yeah by the bode store um oh yeah and and your faves so crazy melrose is it melrose hill i guess no that's not melrose hill that's more that's more melrose and western and this is more kind of la brea ish okay but here's what i gotta say about the ed sheeran show there's these monitors i don't see i'm looking at these they're not oh they're like yeah they're lcd walls but they they have a very specific shape and like i'm trying to figure out what this shape is i'm like watching the whole show shape of you no let me tell you let me tell you what the shape is it took me a while but i realized these LCD monitors and there's tons of them filling out SoFi Stadium they're in the shape of guitar picks that's fire hell yeah Ed's got taste I knew it bro I knew what Ed was doing Ed said I'm like a hard rock cafe this whole fucking place don't test me of all the shapes he went guitar pick which is not even really it's just like a round triangle that's not even identifiable by most people you know what I mean like most people aren't like oh that's a heavy Ernie ball you know what i mean they don't know what the fuck that is there's like it looks yeah it looks like a triangle with soft edges jason you're right you're absolutely right bitch ass triangles oh i had one one more question i wanted to talk to you about okay jason has a real question merchandise no he doesn't don't get your hopes up sweetheart um i wanted to talk about uh well the the album has an american flag on it it's it's american stories you made a and you made a hat with the artwork on it and you sort of i don't know you use your fashion sense to make the first kind of non-binary tactical gear where it has you know it has a hat it has a velcro patch with the american flag on it the american flag is in more of a baby blue canary yellow color story and not the red and red white and blue but you can turn that flag upside down or right side up depending on what part of LA I'm hanging out in on any given day.

1:10:28Jason Stewart:And I look forward to kind of code switching with your headwear. Jason's going to wear it right side up when he's in OC, when he's in Echo Park, upside down. I see what he's doing. Exactly. Don't forget that it's a real tree hat. Yeah. This is controversial for you. And have you received any blowback from this? No, it seems like people who've been wearing it out there in the world, like my brother and and Anthony Mews, the director that I worked with, they're like, I'm getting compliments all the time. People are just stopping me and being like, that's a cool hat. It is noticeable. I mean, it's noticeable.

1:11:03That is good to hear because I feel like - People be rocking with it. People be rocking with it, yeah.

1:11:07Jason Stewart:I mean, it's a tough hat because right side up, you're a person who's walking around town with an American flag hat on, which used to not be a big deal, but now it's more of a loaded garment. Not for me, bro. I can separate the art from the artist. You know what I'm saying? But then when you wear the hat upside down, then you're a guy walking around with, you know, America spelled with three Ks. You know, you're giving rage against the machine. Fuck the government. Energy, which you might not always be wanting to put out into the world. So it's really you're making a decision when you put that hat on your head.

1:11:40Jason Stewart:That's true. Well, one thing I thought about is like, I don't know, maybe there'll be a point in American history where like, you know, if we got a president, Zoran Mamdani. And I do know that the laws would have to be like a constitutional amendment to make that possible. Good, because I didn't want to bring it up. I didn't want to kill your dreams. But I think about it every day that he can't be president. Well, Trump is amending some of those rules for a third term. So maybe the door can swing both ways. Exactly. Let's see what's possible. But you know what? I'm going to start changing. I'll change up my artwork on Spotify.

1:12:11And I'll change the vinyl sleeve, too, to be a flag right side up. and then you know what's going to happen to those upside down flag additions those prices are going to go up so discogs i'm putting my i put my kids through college with the rust of discogs so i'm unloading so everyone who if you made it to this deep into this podcast y 'all need to get get on my merch y 'all need to be cop the hat cop the hat now cop the cd we went we went crazy on the cd itself design it's good it's cool it looks cool it looks cool reminds me of some uh maybe

1:12:46Jason Stewart:2001 2005 ish era new order with some of the color new order color choices that's an amazing that's the highest compliment yeah i didn't i don't need to tell this couple guys that the band the killers was named after the fictional band in a in a new order music video from that era oh i i do know that i do know we'll talk was that crystal i don't remember we'll talk off mic about the new brandon flowers because it has a lot of a lot of pedal steel his new solo album it's great and it's i'm saying it's all happening we've talked to it's all happening maybe he can open for you on tour next time yeah yeah something small something light all right american stories in stores everywhere that you listen to music uh i love the album rostom it's great i listened to yesterday driving from Tucson to Phoenix.

1:13:31The perfect, you know, really deep in America, I would say. I listened to it twice as I signed about 150 copies at the Rough Trade store, which is now in Rockefeller Center. I've been. I did not know it was there. When I agreed to do this in-store, I thought it was in Brooklyn, but it is no longer in Brooklyn. But it's a really cool store, and the people who came out were really cool people. I was like, oh, fuck. I like my fans. I fuck with my fans. All right. Thank you, Rossum. Good to see you, bro. And we'll see you soon. Thank you, guys. Bye-bye.

1:14:27A part of me believes in fate and a part of me thinks that you can't plan.