The Chainsmokers

[0] Welcome, welcome, welcome.

[1] To armchair expert.

[2] Were you going to try to sing it?

[3] I'm going to sing.

[4] Oh, I'm going to look away.

[5] We ain't ever getting older.

[6] The chain smokers.

[7] This was so fun.

[8] It was fun.

[9] And I had my opinions before we interviewed them.

[10] Alex and Drew, they're so fun.

[11] But they were.

[12] God, they're wonderful.

[13] Great.

[14] Yeah, I had a blast talking to them.

[15] I mean, if I've got to explain who the chain smokers are to you, you don't own a radio.

[16] You have not been on planet Earth for the last 10 years.

[17] My dad probably doesn't know.

[18] He does.

[19] Well, he does, but he doesn't know he does.

[20] And we get into that.

[21] Yes, he knows, he knows, but he doesn't know he knows.

[22] You can't know what you don't know.

[23] That's the message.

[24] I guess the message is you can know what you don't know.

[25] That is the message.

[26] This guy kind of disproves that.

[27] The albums, memories do not open.

[28] Sick boy.

[29] World War joy.

[30] So far, so good.

[31] Also, and this will blow your mind, they run a venture capital firm called Mantis VC.

[32] They are involved in everything.

[33] Yeah.

[34] And they're so fun.

[35] They're nice.

[36] Please enjoy the chain smokers.

[37] I want something just like it.

[38] Hi.

[39] Wendry Plus subscribers can listen to armchair expert early and ad free right now.

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[41] He's an armchair.

[42] I have an AMG station wagon, which I fucking love.

[43] It's like my favorite car.

[44] Drove that for a few weeks, I was like, I don't know, I might have to get this thing.

[45] Yeah, you love them too, right?

[46] Yeah, but I did just recently see at the gas station the EQ series, so that's electric.

[47] Okay.

[48] And it's gorgeous.

[49] Yeah, they're nice.

[50] Oh, how old are you?

[51] 33.

[52] 33 is really young.

[53] That's rough, isn't it?

[54] It's really young.

[55] I'm so happy now people are starting to be younger than you.

[56] A lot of them.

[57] I don't like it.

[58] No one was younger than Monica.

[59] And now many of our guests are younger.

[60] And some of them are multi -billionaires, too.

[61] I, okay.

[62] Okay, I'll get there.

[63] I'll get there.

[64] Are you a multi -billionaire?

[65] Not yet.

[66] Okay, okay.

[67] He's trying.

[68] The thing with a lot of the young multi -billionaires is if you wait a couple of years, years, the market's correct, and they're not multi -billioners.

[69] That makes you feel better.

[70] That does make me feel better.

[71] Oh, yeah.

[72] I like that.

[73] They'll lose everything.

[74] Right, right.

[75] Don't worry, they'll lose everything.

[76] I love.

[77] I hug.

[78] Nice to meet, too.

[79] We did a handshake, so I have to do this anymore.

[80] Don't get up, please.

[81] What did you drive?

[82] He is in a G -wagon.

[83] I just have an Audi.

[84] You're in an Audi.

[85] Both are great.

[86] It's your German options.

[87] Yeah.

[88] I used to have a Jeep Wrangler, which honestly I fucking loved.

[89] Why did you get rid of it?

[90] Well, the lease was up.

[91] And, you know, every car is, like, ridiculously expensive now.

[92] So I was, like, I'm paying way more than what I'm getting the value out of a Jeep Wrangler for.

[93] So I might as well just get an actual nice car at this point.

[94] Yeah.

[95] We both got, like, really nice cars at one point.

[96] And they just, like, this is such a waste of capital.

[97] And I feel like such a clown in it.

[98] I'm the guy who, like, pulls up the Craigs, though, and they're like, there's no parking.

[99] Because you're in a...

[100] Like a Wrangler.

[101] I'm like, no, no, no, no. You don't get it.

[102] You don't get it.

[103] Don't judge this book by the cover.

[104] of this Wrangler.

[105] I'm trying to remember immediately what comes to mind is Sean White, which is really funny.

[106] He went and bought a Lamborghini when he was like in high school at some point.

[107] A track.

[108] It's kind of like to his parents, a declaration like, this is my money.

[109] I'm going to have fun with it.

[110] Totaled that car really quickly.

[111] Got another one.

[112] He totaled the car.

[113] He totaled it.

[114] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[115] I was like 15 or something.

[116] Yeah, maybe 18.

[117] As long as no one got hurt, good for him.

[118] Oh, yeah.

[119] If you're Sean White, go ahead and throw a Lambo away.

[120] It just happened.

[121] Somebody else just.

[122] Someone was just in here talking about the same thing where they got some money.

[123] They bought a ridiculous cop.

[124] Oh, it was Jason DeRullo.

[125] Oh, yeah, I tracked.

[126] I have a really funny story of a friend that runs a tech company.

[127] And I guess he was, like, staying at Jason Derulo's.

[128] And I guess Jason was, you know, doing his thing with somebody.

[129] But I guess the way his house designed, like, he had trapped my friend in a certain part of the house he couldn't get out of.

[130] But also, he apparently has a python that just, like, roams around his house.

[131] Wow.

[132] Why didn't we get that out of here?

[133] Oh, man. I mean, unless my friend's full of shit.

[134] And then he was like, I'm trapped in this room with a python.

[135] Oh, my God.

[136] I don't want to blow DeRullo's opportunity, whatever that.

[137] He seems so unlike that.

[138] And our friend's really awkward, too.

[139] I would just be, like, banging on the door, like, cut it out.

[140] A tech friend.

[141] You know, he's like, oh, fuck.

[142] You know what I might get eaten.

[143] I'm going to have to look this cobra in the eyes at some point.

[144] I'll have to call him on the fact check.

[145] That's wild.

[146] Yeah, he bought a crazy car.

[147] He did.

[148] But then got rid of it in the same fashion of like, I look dumb.

[149] I know Drew bought a McLaren.

[150] What did you buy?

[151] I'm a big James Bond fan, so I got to ask the Martin.

[152] Which one?

[153] Vanquish?

[154] No, it was like a DB7.

[155] I honestly, it just sucked.

[156] Like, it was just an absolute shit car.

[157] And broke a lot?

[158] Broke a lot.

[159] And you want to connect your phone, just doesn't connect.

[160] It would be great if in one of the James Bond's, though, they did show 007 having to connect to the Bluetooth.

[161] That's great.

[162] Every time I rent a car, I just did an Oregon last weekend.

[163] I'm in the parking lot.

[164] I'm in a BMW.

[165] I've never really connected my phone to one of those.

[166] Tricky?

[167] 12 minutes, I'm sitting there.

[168] And my wife's just like, you know, just go.

[169] You're not going to be able to listen to your music for the 12 -minute ride at the airport or to the hotel.

[170] It's funny you say that I'm watching this lioness show on Paramount.

[171] I love action movies.

[172] We're not allowed to, no one can watch it, but we will continue to talk about it.

[173] Okay, okay, yeah, yeah.

[174] They did a great job, but it was funny because they're watching these special operators.

[175] You know, it's like a show about seals and all that stuff.

[176] And I was like, would it be funny to make a serious movie, but it has these honest moments where, like, the guy just has really bad guys.

[177] You know what I mean?

[178] Or like, you know, they don't ever show those moments where it's like, we're about to go, you know, kick in this door.

[179] Should I take this shit quickly, though?

[180] You know what I mean?

[181] Like, they're always just like so ready to go.

[182] It'd be funny to add some, like, humanizing.

[183] Well, you should watch chips.

[184] I was going to say it's full of those human moments.

[185] Yes, yeah.

[186] So I'm a cop in it, but I'm also a pill addict.

[187] And I also am really sensitive to smells.

[188] So when going to certain people's houses, I'm starting to get kind of sick and it's not a right time for it.

[189] But don't watch it.

[190] Yeah, yeah, you don't watch it.

[191] Definitely don't watch that.

[192] Definitely don't want that.

[193] We've met before really briefly.

[194] Where?

[195] You wouldn't remember.

[196] We were at some airport in, I don't know, could have been Atlanta.

[197] And we were both sitting at the same food court table.

[198] And you were like into some chick -fil -a or something.

[199] This was like years.

[200] This was probably like seven years ago at least.

[201] I was like, oh, shit, it's the heck shepherd.

[202] That's incredible.

[203] I can almost promise you it would have been like eight years and two months ago because I was in Atlanta a bunch because Kristen was working there and we had a two -month -old Delta.

[204] Monaco was there as well at that time.

[205] Oh, another thing we probably can't support.

[206] But they have a great Chick -fil -A at the Atlanta airport.

[207] Yeah, the Atlanta airport is stacked.

[208] Right?

[209] It is.

[210] It's really stacked.

[211] Like, I don't love it as a connection just based on where it is in the country.

[212] Almost worth the pit stop.

[213] Yeah, actually, yeah.

[214] It's huge.

[215] I'm from there, and so I take a lot of pride.

[216] Yeah, yeah.

[217] That's amazing.

[218] Every time you go to the airport, you just have options.

[219] So many.

[220] That's something I look forward to.

[221] I appreciate there's a big military base.

[222] We see a lot of military guys.

[223] I'm sure, like, a lot of connections go out of there.

[224] And it always kind of makes me, you know, God bless those guys.

[225] Yeah, yeah.

[226] You might have even seen me because in that spell, I went home really quick, got a vasectomy and came back.

[227] So you could have seen me. That was a really pivotal moment.

[228] Yeah, the end of my fertility.

[229] You might have seen me in my last fertile day, actually.

[230] And it's, like, funny when you're sitting there and you're like, you know, like, we're both just like eating.

[231] And, you know, you respect the rules of the traveler.

[232] So that's a fun question right out of the gates, which is there's, I would say an asymmetrical anonymity to you guys versus how enormously ubiquitous you are.

[233] It's awesome.

[234] A thousand X people are aware of something just like this.

[235] Then they are me. Right?

[236] I just look this morning, 2 .3 billion times it's been streamed on just Spotify.

[237] So certainly every single person in that airport had heard that song.

[238] And maybe one in every 50 people knew who I was.

[239] But is that golden?

[240] That seems kind of groovy.

[241] They know the stuff we've made.

[242] But like we are out there.

[243] And it's awesome.

[244] Look, when you're on the side where you're getting your picture taking a lot, you envy what you guys have.

[245] But I could also see where, if I'm you guys, I'm like, motherfuckers, I've got the biggest, 26 weeks in a row I've been top five and no one, you know, they tell me the restaurant's closed.

[246] Yeah, yeah.

[247] I definitely prefer it this way, I think.

[248] We have great lives, but I can go to Erwan and no one gives a shit.

[249] Literally, I was in New York last week and it was like the VMAs, did not go to the VMAs.

[250] But I went to like one of these lounges set out of an after party.

[251] And it was late, I'm not going to lie And definitely they'd been dealing with like Taylor and Selena and all these people I'm like literally lowest packing order And I roll up There's no door people, it's just like the security guards were so mean And they were like, no And I was just like, got it They didn't even try In those moments it has to kind of suck Well, I don't mind honestly Because I'm like maybe my shit wasn't together enough That's like past trauma of being a New York City kid And just not getting into clubs And just be like, you know what, it was my fault And it's like a sign.

[252] You're like, wasn't meant to be, I'm out of here.

[253] As long as I'm not like pandering, because I was like, do you know who I am?

[254] And they were like, no, you can't do that.

[255] Then you're like, really should feel terrible.

[256] I love that attitude.

[257] Getting stuff to the door is important for everybody every now and then.

[258] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[259] We always have that one friend that's like, we're good now.

[260] And I'm like, what did you do?

[261] And it's like, I gave him a thousand bucks.

[262] You're like, no, that's even worse.

[263] But if I was with you guys, I would feel like that was an injustice.

[264] An injustice.

[265] I probably would be like, hey, no, you're.

[266] bigger than those people.

[267] Yeah, yeah.

[268] To Drew's point, you need that sobering moment.

[269] And again, I really like it.

[270] We do a lot of calls with tech founders and stuff like that.

[271] And you know, some of these people are much older and they're just like, I don't know anything.

[272] And I'm like, you've heard it.

[273] And they're like, I don't think so.

[274] I'm like, you have for sure.

[275] Even against your will, whether it was a Walmart or Whole Foods or CVS, you've heard it.

[276] And then they're like, oh, yes, I am familiar with the song.

[277] You could not have been alive in the last decade and not at least closer or, I don't know.

[278] You name it.

[279] You just have to hear it.

[280] Music can be so omnipresent everywhere.

[281] You can be in your car.

[282] I've turned on the radio and I've heard the same song playing on all six stations once.

[283] And I was like, that's badass, but also I hate this song now.

[284] You know what I mean?

[285] Like, I hate this artist and this song, even though it wasn't there doing.

[286] I will say, though, if we compare it to some other breakout hits, this weird thing does happen was some of them you hear them four years later and you're like, oh, God, right?

[287] I'm not going to name them because I don't want to shit on anyone's stuff.

[288] There are ones that are mega hits.

[289] You hear it, and you're a little embarrassed for yourself that you liked it.

[290] There's songs that don't age well.

[291] I guess it's as simple as that.

[292] I mean, our first hit was selfie, which I hope you forgot about.

[293] But now that we're talking about, I guess I'll bring it up.

[294] I didn't even know selfie.

[295] My introduction to you guys is closer.

[296] And I have little girls.

[297] And that was probably the first song that Lincoln and I would sing passionately very loud in the car.

[298] And she was probably five years old.

[299] How old was that song?

[300] How long was that?

[301] 2016.

[302] Oh, my God.

[303] She'd been four.

[304] She knew the words.

[305] that song is a baby, basically.

[306] That's true.

[307] It sounds cool when you hear it those text stories.

[308] You're like, oh, nice.

[309] She might come to a concert someday.

[310] If we can get that next way.

[311] Totally.

[312] Okay, so there's so many things I find interesting about your pairing.

[313] I think first and foremost is just simply you guys didn't know each other.

[314] I think most of the bands that we interview Jonas Brothers, like, their family or all these people have known each other.

[315] Chili Peppers, they fucking knew each other as kids, you know, in high school.

[316] But yeah, this dude, Adam Alpert.

[317] Yeah, he's our manager.

[318] And you're at the time, how old are you?

[319] Yeah, I'm 21 or 22.

[320] I'm finishing school at Syracuse.

[321] What did you major in?

[322] Music business.

[323] But you two?

[324] No, I studied in art history.

[325] And business, but not music.

[326] Well, I was in the Gallatin.

[327] You kind of can do whatever you wanted.

[328] Oh, Gallatin.

[329] Galton comes up all the time on here.

[330] It's like a non -major major, major.

[331] Yeah, yeah.

[332] It's like the greatest thing ever.

[333] It's a college experience without the work.

[334] They're like, do whatever you want.

[335] You're like, I don't know anything.

[336] I can't mean for you to tell me what I'm going to do.

[337] Okay, so you were at Syracus, you were just graduated.

[338] You were an intern at Interscope.

[339] Yeah.

[340] So how do you come to know, Adam?

[341] How does this union start?

[342] I go to school, I think I wanted to be like an agent.

[343] I was so into dance music, but I didn't think being a DJ, like it wasn't big in America at that time, but I didn't think that would be a possibility.

[344] So I went the more practical route, go work at a label, management, agent, something like that.

[345] And then got on my senior year, America came around to dance music.

[346] And so this thing that I had been spending all my time in my bedroom, trying to make beats and be relevant in that scene was becoming the big thing here.

[347] So that kind of gave me the courage where, like, I could actually do this.

[348] And I remember I had this pivotal moment.

[349] My program in Syracuse had a program in L .A. Where you'd go and work in the entertainment industry somewhere.

[350] And so I'm interning in Interscope Records.

[351] And the kid who had just gotten hired there was managing this DJ that I had heard of.

[352] I won't name his name.

[353] But he was kind of bottom of the totem pole.

[354] Okay.

[355] And I remember, I was like, how much does that guy make?

[356] And he's like, he makes like 700 racks a year.

[357] And I'm like, so you're telling me. Like, I don't know if I can be A Vici, but like that guy's making almost a million bucks a year.

[358] and I'm here trying to get a job for 50.

[359] My passion is to do that.

[360] I think I'm all in on this.

[361] I didn't realize it was a possibility to actually do for a career.

[362] And I was obsessed with it.

[363] I was spending all my time.

[364] You were putting music up.

[365] You had a sound cloud.

[366] I had a different name.

[367] What was the name?

[368] You have to tell us.

[369] I hesitated even like, I'm not that bad.

[370] So I was obsessed with this book called Atlas Shrugged.

[371] And my favorite character was Francisco Duncodia.

[372] Why not John Gault?

[373] That's too hardcore.

[374] That's too like I'm making a statement with my name.

[375] But Duncania sounded like a cool thing no one knew how to say it it was actually a horrible name but i had some songs that were on sound cloud that i guess you'd know if you were paying attention to like the blog scene and i started ghost producing for some kids and doing my thing i graduated college i had like 150 000 in debt which i just didn't realize i was getting myself in that hole going to syracuse but i moved back home to main so i'm kind of in this point i'm like shit i got like till the end of the summer to make something work where i got to get a more practical job and then this kid that was interning for adam who's our current manager was like hey have you heard of the chain smokers and i was like yeah of course I had never heard of them right right and he's like this is DJ duo in New York City it's a duo but one of the kids is leaving the other kid wants to bring in some kid that makes music and he lied to me he's like they make this much money a year and at this point I'm like 150 grand in debt and I'm like I need something well I hope that what people are gleaning from this the advice here is like just lie across the board yeah it's like the fourth lie already we're getting closer to start let's check in with you Alex because you already had chain smokers with another person I would save this normally to the end, but just we're here right now.

[376] That guy is bummed, or he recognizes that Drew was part of?

[377] He was pissed.

[378] He left on his own.

[379] He wanted to leave.

[380] And honestly, like, I actually give myself credit because I was like very, you know, like, most people have just been like, oh, he left.

[381] But I was like, I want to find someone else.

[382] I believe there's value in this, in this brand that we've built, at least like locally, you know what I mean, to sustain something and maybe make it bigger.

[383] And I was like, I got to get him to sign something.

[384] So I had, who's still our lawyer today, went to college.

[385] with Drew, drop a one -page piece of paper, and I was like, I'm going to pay you, I think it was like $8 ,500 to be gone.

[386] All your money at the time.

[387] Yeah, like I was so broke.

[388] Yeah.

[389] After this, especially on just paying a guy to leave.

[390] But what was weird, it was like, you already left.

[391] I think he was like, what's up?

[392] Why are you giving me money?

[393] And I was like, I want to make it just official.

[394] You did help build this, so I feel like I should give you something, but I don't have any plans.

[395] So $8 ,500 seems like a very fair over the top thing for something that has no direction right now.

[396] I just want to know that it's mine and I can do what I want with it.

[397] And he was definitely fishy for a minute about it and was being like stubborn.

[398] And then I can't remember with the conversation.

[399] But finally, he must have just been like, yeah, $8 ,500.

[400] Sounds great.

[401] Nothing's happened with it.

[402] Yeah, yeah.

[403] And he signed it.

[404] And then literally the next day we changed everything.

[405] And he was like, what the, you know?

[406] But it wasn't like we got successful the next day either.

[407] I think he just kind of realized we had a plan in place.

[408] I don't feel bad for him because he left.

[409] What was crazy is he went into our Twitter the day we had our first gig.

[410] I don't know if you remember this, and started blocking everybody.

[411] And you can't see who you blocked.

[412] For us, as a new artist, he was blocking club owners and this and that.

[413] Oh, does he still, like, control of the account?

[414] Yeah, I mean, he went on really nasty Twitter tirades.

[415] Even racist and homophobic things about our team.

[416] And he really did not handle it gracefully.

[417] And his defense is your team super black or gay?

[418] Are you over -indexing in that?

[419] More Jewish.

[420] How would he love that off the table?

[421] I don't know what he's doing right now.

[422] Last I heard he was a dog walker in the city.

[423] That adds up if you're spending your time just wallowing and being rageful.

[424] Dogs are probably the best person that's that time.

[425] But I mean, dog workers, they make crazy money.

[426] They make like a $200 grand in New York City.

[427] What?

[428] No. There was a whole New Yorker article about it.

[429] That's a career.

[430] Oh.

[431] I was like, shit.

[432] Maybe one day when I'm fully done, you know what I mean?

[433] I just like walk a couple of dogs for $200 grand a year.

[434] I bet though you're going to have to walk more than two dogs to get to that $200 ,000.

[435] I got to have 10.

[436] One dog for each chains.

[437] Yeah, yeah.

[438] We guarantee each dog will have his own chain smoker.

[439] The lesson with this whole thing for me in joining Drew was, I think people often surround themselves with negativity.

[440] I remember being with the other guy and blaming everyone around us for our lack of success or progress.

[441] You know, it's constantly like, that guy's an idiot.

[442] He doesn't understand shit.

[443] And the second, that negativity was out of my life, first I personally just felt different.

[444] There was more opportunity and I was more motivated.

[445] But then obviously, once we linked together, it was like, it's on us.

[446] No one's going to do this for us.

[447] Let's empower each other and work.

[448] We always mark it as like the luckiest thing that ever happened too because we literally met one day and the next day was crashing with friends, walking two, three miles to get to his house in the middle of the winter and just grind it every day.

[449] And it was like fun.

[450] It was fun.

[451] Obviously, we weren't successful for a while.

[452] But I want to know about the first meeting.

[453] Did you meet a bunch of people?

[454] No, I didn't.

[455] I think through was really the only guy.

[456] And did you guys immediately feel something?

[457] Or was it a slow?

[458] That's what's so lucky because we were just like, yeah, you seem cool enough.

[459] You know?

[460] And like, you know, we are here 11 years later.

[461] We've had an amazing music career.

[462] We run a venture capital fund together.

[463] We own a tequila company and we're still best friends.

[464] So it's like, yeah, it's what are the chances.

[465] Well, I almost think it might be easier to do it the way you did it.

[466] Because I think what can happen is if two people are best friends all through childhood.

[467] And then when the spotlights on you and let's say they are drawn to Timberlake more than whoever, that can be stressful.

[468] And it introduces a new dynamic that didn't previously exist.

[469] where this one is like any dynamic that arises is the dynamic because there's no prior.

[470] Is there no prior?

[471] That's a really good point.

[472] I've never thought of it that way.

[473] You think of the Jonas brothers, the older brother.

[474] He's the boss.

[475] And then the younger two get more popular.

[476] That's an insane dynamic for brothers to handle.

[477] Well, it's funny in investing, one of the rules is don't invest in teams that don't have experience together.

[478] You want that rapport to understand the other one's strengths and weaknesses and fill in the gap.

[479] In some ways, this was the complete opposite of that idea.

[480] Yeah.

[481] But I agree.

[482] I think we wanted the same.

[483] thing more than anything.

[484] It was surprising how a line we were, in terms of the work we were willing to do to get there.

[485] I didn't know how he was really raised by his mom or I was raised by my mom.

[486] Are you both kids of single mom?

[487] Just me. I don't know.

[488] I just say mom, naturally for my background.

[489] But you're just always putting the bigger picture first and not yourselves.

[490] To me, if they're like, hey, we're going to throw Drew on the cover of Vogue, but not you.

[491] And it's going to be about the chain smokers.

[492] I'm like, great.

[493] We get more shows.

[494] Really?

[495] Your ego is very in check.

[496] How do you explain that?

[497] You would recognize that's abnormal.

[498] I don't care.

[499] I mean, sort of them calling me, like, ugly or something.

[500] You know what I mean?

[501] In the email, where they're like, we don't want the ugly one.

[502] Then I'd be like, that was just nasty.

[503] It's not like I had a personal aspiration my whole life to be on the cover of Vogue.

[504] Anna, if you're listening, I'll totally do it.

[505] Were you on the cover of Vogue?

[506] If you listen to this.

[507] No, what?

[508] This is all, like, hypothetical.

[509] But what's great is I was going to walk away.

[510] Did you not ask that follow -up question?

[511] That he had been.

[512] Yeah, yeah.

[513] This is a real example.

[514] No, we're like more likely on fishing and outdoorsman weekly.

[515] But just conceptually, to me, it's just cool, whatever, long as we're pushing our music forward, I don't really mind.

[516] But would you recognize that's kind of abnormal?

[517] Because let me just say, I'm you, and I don't know how it would break down if AI analyzed your guys' creativity and productivity.

[518] But let's just assume you guys are 50 -50 contributors to the music.

[519] Yet one person is 85 % of the face of it.

[520] Inately there, it feels like, this feels a little unjust.

[521] And I respect someone like Chris Martin for this.

[522] Clearly, Chris to the world is cold play.

[523] But he is so diplomatic about how.

[524] he handles everything split down the middle the band is the most important thing to him and i think for us that's always been the initiative but let me just say something that's lovely and i've hung with chris martin he has the luxury of doing that because he's fucking gorgeous he's gotten so much attention he's so talented that he can be so benevolent and gracious you and i are not chris martin like i want i want some recognition we got advice the other week from someone who's very wealthy that was like at the end of day, money isn't what's important.

[525] It's about the experiences that you have.

[526] And you're like, you're a rich person saying that, though.

[527] You know what I mean?

[528] Like, you're not wrong.

[529] It's like when you're sick, all you want to do is be healthy.

[530] You're not worried about money.

[531] There's definitely validity in that.

[532] But also, it's much easier to say that.

[533] In their defense, there's quite a bit of social science, lots and lots of studies that money does make you happier.

[534] To a point, it's been decided in America, on average, at like 160.

[535] It plateaus up to about two million, and then it goes, so there is data that says that's actually not just his whimsical observation, but I know what you're saying.

[536] It's much easier to have that look on life if you have the money to be able to be like, yeah, it actually doesn't matter that much all this money I have.

[537] All right, well, then get it to your money.

[538] And it's like, oh, no, I'd rather not.

[539] Money obviously creates the freedom for you to hopefully pursue the things that you love and care most about.

[540] But also it has created a lot of friction for people because we have a lot of friends that are successful and they can't find.

[541] good relationships because I think they're too distracted and have too much shit going on and I was joking with one of them and I was like, why don't you put your money in escrow with like a lawyer for three months and live off $2 ,500 a week, which should be enough.

[542] I guarantee you, in three months you'll have like a girlfriend because you'll be focused in on things differently.

[543] That's a good point.

[544] You'll go to different places.

[545] That tells me you do believe in what they're saying.

[546] Because what I've seen is we've interviewed a ton of these tech billionaires and it's insanely isolating.

[547] Everyone around you is so conscious of what you have, even myself.

[548] It's hard for me to not think about the fact that Brian Chesky has $12 billion while he's across for me. Yeah.

[549] I'm just like, I mean, if you have 12, if you give me 500 million, you wouldn't even notice that.

[550] Like, I'm thinking of these dumb things.

[551] I'm distracted by it.

[552] Ryan's interesting.

[553] We're friends with him and he's very motivated by not money.

[554] You know what I mean?

[555] Like the dude still sleeps in Airbnb.

[556] He's in pursuit of something larger than that.

[557] I agree.

[558] He's like the least flashy of all the billionaires.

[559] That's true.

[560] But the actual acquisition of the money changes the dynamic with everyone around you.

[561] For sure.

[562] Which is no fault of the person who made the money.

[563] But it's now an enormous element.

[564] Yeah, yeah.

[565] I've also been around Brad Pitt.

[566] No one in a 20 foot radius can think of anything other than the fact that Brad Pitt's in the room.

[567] Because he's hot, though, not because he's rich.

[568] Yeah, that is true.

[569] He transcends hot.

[570] There's other, like, still so hot.

[571] There's the cool factor.

[572] There's so much.

[573] But the point is, is like, I can't blame that guy for anything because he's living in the altered reality where everyone around him's thinking about him 100 % in like worrying about how they sound and self -conscious.

[574] And then it's infectious, that self -consciousness.

[575] To deny that it comes with this enormous price or that he probably wouldn't maybe be happier being just wealthy, maybe.

[576] It's like everything, you know, the good and bad of these different things.

[577] Like you can talk to the most beautiful person on the planet and they would say that's probably a huge burden and stressful and inside they feel super self -conscious.

[578] This is totally strange pivot, but my dog just shit all over one of our carpets.

[579] And normally this would have, like, ruined my day back in the early days.

[580] I love that carpet.

[581] I would just, like, throw it out.

[582] There's shit all over it.

[583] It's not worth it.

[584] And I just, like, move on with my day.

[585] I'm so glad that I'm in a position where I can just choke out this carpet versus going back and scrubbing it for 17 hours.

[586] I totally agree with you.

[587] So that is the beautiful thing of having money is that there are certain problems you can solve with money.

[588] The problem is you can ultimately solve nearly every problem other than health issues.

[589] shoes with money and people obviously do because what's the point of it if you're not going to do that and I do think it does something to not be stressed to not have to deal with these burdens I don't think people are at their best when they have alleviated all the stress from their life it's like living in reality you can't really connect with other people because they're living in reality you know those people too I can think of like eight of them that just came into my mind you're like this dude's out the lunch because everything's handled and even like okay so the shit on the rug I too I would have been like hunt get it out of here now Now, we saved ourselves that cleaning experience.

[590] But what we robbed ourselves of is we've cleaned it.

[591] It's back.

[592] We pop for me and NA beer and sit on the couch.

[593] And that enormous sense of self -esteem that comes from having dealt with the thing you didn't want to deal with and having completed it and now kind of rejoicing.

[594] So you also rob yourself of all the satisfaction of solving your problems.

[595] Yeah, I agree with that.

[596] I feel like we've always been really grounded.

[597] Part of that is that people don't reckon.

[598] You know what I mean?

[599] I feel successful, but I have imposter syndrome for.

[600] for sure.

[601] I take a lot of joy in those little small, like building something or not outsourcing everything that you have in your life.

[602] And for us, I think taking ownership in the work and that part is really the rewarding part.

[603] And when I think back of our chain smoker career, it's not the big pinnacle moments that I remember.

[604] It's really the nights grinding in our little apartment.

[605] Yeah, I would imagine receiving the trophy on stage isn't nearly as fun as you two actually finding the song.

[606] 100%.

[607] The moment of invincible.

[608] we'll call it where you're like I can do anything holy shit I have no more worries pure serotonin release is in making a song that you believe in and then when we learned that closer went straight number one on billboard or we want a Grammy or really awesome achievements just kind of felt like oh cool I'm glad that happened yeah like we were really was more money and I can I want to not lose that but that hails a comparison but like still to this day I'm not as happy of a person if I'm not actively in the studio, finding that thing that makes me be like, wow, this song just makes me feel like anything's possible.

[609] I can imagine playing it here and there and all these people reacting to it.

[610] It's a really magical thing that no other achievement or whatever can supplement.

[611] And that's interesting because everything's analytical today.

[612] And that's not like an analytical thing.

[613] That's really just as magic.

[614] Experience, you know, magic.

[615] Whereas like everything else, you know, you wake up every day.

[616] X, Y, Z has number one here.

[617] And this person has this many followers.

[618] Well, everything in our life has been quantified.

[619] Totally.

[620] Which kind of robs people of some of the magic that makes things special.

[621] Well, creativity can't really be measured.

[622] And that's what it is.

[623] The end of the day, is that sense of achieving the creative.

[624] Well, tapping into something that's maybe beyond what you thought you could reach is also an incredible feeling.

[625] I just had the simplest experience with it.

[626] I haven't edited video in like eight years.

[627] We've been busy.

[628] I've been busy.

[629] And I shot something that I wanted to edit.

[630] I re -learned how to edit.

[631] on a different program.

[632] I put together the fucking first two days, it sucked.

[633] And then Friday, it totally worked.

[634] And I just watched it like, I don't know, 12 times in a row, just make sure there wasn't one frame I wanted different.

[635] And then when it keeps landing perfectly, I don't want to remove a frame.

[636] No, I still know.

[637] That is so intoxicated.

[638] I have to imagine.

[639] However it works, like the final mix or whatever, and you can listen the closer, I would be able to listen to that song 30 times in a row, just going, no, man, yep, it's everything we want it's also a really hard thing to chase and i've been thinking about this a lot recently because we just put out the song last friday called summertime friends watch the video this morning well it's hilarious that that's the video and there's a lot of hesitant making that the video because it's just me and my girlfriend blacked out on this boat this summer and we were like let's shoot the video right now and our friend spencer who was also blacked out also oh wow wonderful like shot it three times and that's now the video i was like in my room being like They're shooting a video upstairs.

[640] Yeah, I can watch the song again and again.

[641] Anyway, but that's one of those songs that it's about something very real and personal to me. It has this moment of tension.

[642] I think if you've been a chain smokers fan since Don't Let Me Down or Closer Roses, it really captures that nostalgic feeling that you kind of come to us for.

[643] And it's funny identifying all of those factors.

[644] Like, it's about something real.

[645] It's got these types of chords.

[646] It's upbeat.

[647] It makes you feel something.

[648] I can give you a list of what makes a chains smoker song, but doing it, Even being the guys that just have done it and the only guys that can do it, it's still hard to do on command.

[649] You're not AI.

[650] Yeah.

[651] I mean, well, that's interesting to get in the eye.

[652] We'll throw that in the queue.

[653] But, you know, it's interesting.

[654] We put out eight songs.

[655] And only until this last song this year, we're like, oh, wow, this one's really getting reaction.

[656] And you're like, duh, this has all the things.

[657] But why aren't we aiming for it before?

[658] And it's crazy how you kind of step in your own way as an artist.

[659] We also relearn the same thing over and over again as a human, don't you?

[660] I have the same epiphany every three months.

[661] It wouldn't feel good if you could do it on command.

[662] wouldn't feel good if you could just turn it out.

[663] Yeah, it's because it's hard to do.

[664] To bring up Chris Martin again, he's given us a ton of great pieces of advice over the years.

[665] And he would always say, I don't write these songs.

[666] They're sent down.

[667] Which I thought was like a really kooky piece of advice at the time.

[668] The older I get, the more it makes sense to me, sometimes this song is just sent down.

[669] And the words, what you want to say exactly how you feel and say them in a way that people resonate with and you want to hear over and over again, you can't wake up and do that.

[670] I can't trade like an office job and get that shit every day.

[671] Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare.

[672] We've all been there.

[673] Turning to the internet to self -diagnose our inexplicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers, and strange rashes.

[674] Though our minds tend to spiral to worst -case scenarios, it's usually nothing, but for an unlucky few, these unsuspecting symptoms can start the clock ticking on a terrifying medical mystery.

[675] Like the unexplainable death of a retired firefighter, whose body was found at home by his son, except it looked like he had been cremated, or the time when an entire town started jumping from buildings and seeing tigers on their ceilings.

[676] Hey listeners, it's Mr. Ballin here, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast.

[677] It's called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[678] Each terrifying true story will be sure to keep you up at night.

[679] Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts.

[680] Prime members can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[681] Guys, it's your girl Kiki, and my podcast is back with a new season.

[682] And let me tell you, it's too good.

[683] And I'm diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest, okay?

[684] Every episode, I bring on a friend and have a real conversation.

[685] And I don't mean just friends.

[686] I mean the likes of Amy Polar, Kell Mitchell, Vivica Fox.

[687] The list goes on.

[688] So follow, watch, and listen to Baby.

[689] This is Kiki Palmer on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.

[690] I will say the way Chris said it does to me sound kooky.

[691] I've also heard him on Stern explaining that whole.

[692] experience.

[693] Yeah.

[694] But then we had in Rick Rubin, have you read his book on creativity?

[695] The way he actually articulates it sounds much more grounded in reality to me, which is an artist is just observing what's around them and allowing that to come in.

[696] And that makes sense to me. Not like some spiritual being in the heavens sent down the song, but just that if you look around you and you pay attention and you open yourself up to it, totally.

[697] These things do come in.

[698] That's a really hard thing to do too when you get to our level where we've been doing 150 shows a year for eight years when am I supposed to have those experiences again you know and especially now with our VC fund is pretty much our main job too now and it's like fuck you got to remember to get some inputs in here so I can make shit that feels like something you know I wanted to talk about the VC fund at the end but now second time I've resisted so from the outside what I would say is why on earth have a VC fund if you think of like David Solomon and the CEO of Goldman Sachs, who you guys have performed with, wants to be you.

[699] He wants to be a DJ.

[700] If you're mega rich, what you'd praise that you were a Jane Smoker.

[701] I don't understand why you would be focusing on venture capital when you guys are two artists who can do what you have demonstrated you can do so many times.

[702] For the David's part, having hung out with him a ton of times.

[703] I don't know him, by the way.

[704] I just know that he's a DJ.

[705] Greatest dude ever.

[706] DeSall?

[707] D'Sall, yeah.

[708] He unfortunately doesn't really do it anymore because everyone's so open.

[709] about the idea that you know like playing music but like it's his hobby it's his passion same way that people would play golf or guitar or anything and it just happens to be this i love him for that he really enjoys it and took it seriously whenever we played we've been asked the same question like no one is trying to go that way for the most part exactly you're like a salmon swimming upstream everyone's trying to go your direction and be a musician and travel the world yeah and i think for us it kind of goes back to even the first day that we met when we met obviously our intention was hopefully become one of the more influential electronic acts.

[710] We wanted to be up there with the Swedish House Mafias and Gettas and Tiestos.

[711] But also from that first meeting, we were very clear that we wanted to use whatever platform we created to branch out and explore other opportunities that were exciting to us.

[712] And obviously, unspunknown to us, we're just meeting.

[713] But we've both been pretty entrepreneurial in our own ways throughout our lives before we even met.

[714] Drew used to ship Timberlands to, like, China.

[715] Yeah, had eBay businesses when I was like 14 and that kind of little hard.

[716] hustle.

[717] And your dad's an art dealer?

[718] My dad was an art dealer.

[719] Yeah.

[720] So my dad was a car salesman.

[721] If you're into sales, you inherit that as well.

[722] I mean, we could talk all day long about the idea of what you're exposed to as a kid and how that shapes your actual identity.

[723] Because that really, like, threw me for a loop as I decided I wanted to go in on music.

[724] I never even considered it.

[725] Because you were working at an art gallery when you guys met, right?

[726] Exactly.

[727] And also, it was all I knew.

[728] I didn't know about becoming a doctor or a lawyer.

[729] It was just like art dealing.

[730] Yeah.

[731] I love art. Hard to hate.

[732] Yeah.

[733] And then as you, you know, get more into it.

[734] And my dad passed when I was younger.

[735] I only had like the good truth, probably not the stuff where he was like, this is what sucks.

[736] There's so much nepotism.

[737] You're dealing with really, really rich assholes all the time.

[738] Yeah, a lot of crooks, money laundering, tax evasion.

[739] Heist.

[740] Yeah, heist.

[741] Yeah, that's a fun part.

[742] I like that they have it as collateral.

[743] Thiefs steal shit, you know, like mafioso bosses will steal fame it so that they can barter if they ever get arrested.

[744] Well, I'll return the Mona Lisa.

[745] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[746] I mean, that like $9 million gold toilet thing was just recovered or something.

[747] What's that?

[748] There's some heist in London where they stole, like, a $9 million gold toilet from a museum or something.

[749] Right, like some king's toilet.

[750] And I was like, what a great story.

[751] I would love to just know everything from A to Z. You know, yeah.

[752] You guys hear about these people in L .A. that are going around to liquor stores and cutting open the roof and dropping in.

[753] They've stolen, like, $750 ,000 worth of wine.

[754] No. How cool is that?

[755] Like, I hate to endorse this.

[756] Yeah, yeah.

[757] No, I love Heist, too.

[758] That wine's got to taste real good.

[759] Oh, my God.

[760] You can't bite into some gold, but you can't bite into some gold, but you can't.

[761] You can just buy it, take a nice sip of some burgundy.

[762] Anyway, heist are awesome.

[763] Going back to the original point, so once we had built our platform as the chain smokers and we had some success, we had this platform that people were beginning to reach out to us about different opportunities to invest.

[764] And most of those opportunities were consumer -related stuff.

[765] But what was really eye -opening was just we really enjoyed bringing the experience and network we had to these different companies and opportunities and helping them succeed in different little ways.

[766] So someone might be like, damn, if I could just get in the Whole Foods, that's the inflection point for me and you're like oh well I know the CEO of Whole Foods right played a show with him or he came to Vegas do you want me to connect you and it changes the whole direction of this company you're like leveraging your vast connectiveness I think what was funny is musicians there's some great ones out there but it could be like pulling teeth getting someone to respond to a simple text about a mix can take four months you just raised your hand yeah and it drives me crazy because I'm very much like if we can do it now let's do it now are we not all trying to go to the same place yeah yeah so let's do it and let's all work towards that and I felt like in the tech community, those types of founders, that's all they were doing.

[767] They were like, I'm working 24 -7 on this ambitious idea.

[768] I think we found that really creatively inspiring and exciting to be working alongside those people helping do those things and hopefully bringing something to the equation that they were missing in terms of how they could get to where they wanted to go.

[769] We began to just keep pulling on that thread.

[770] And the more and more we pulled on it, the more we kind of enjoyed and were fascinated by what we were discovering.

[771] So if I could just ask you guys to compare, maybe it's not comparable.

[772] But let's just say for a second you guys have found some company you like it you connect them with the right people you've bought a stake in it and then it wins can we really compare that to the joy of creating closer or that feeling no is a short answer there is a similar high to it where you're like wow we found this company we invested time and effort and connectivity with this team and help them achieve something and it's working and anything's possible for them now you're connecting to them like you made a difference in like you made something that like people are now relating to that's a big part of the high with music you're always just trying to communicate in a way that you can't do through conversation or i mean it is conversation another way but it's a higher art form that allows you to have a deeper connection with people you're transferring an emotion and a feeling right in a song and when people get that that feels amazing and when you're bringing that not in the same way but to a company and finding out what their needs are investing time with them making their believe in this idea hiring the right team around them all these things that we like love helping them to do.

[773] And then you see it work, that's very gratifying.

[774] I could turn the same question onto myself, which is we have a diaper company and I have an NA beer company.

[775] I could imagine being critical of me going like, why do you need to do this thing?

[776] The beer company is like me and my two best friends from childhood.

[777] I named it.

[778] I write all the copy.

[779] I write the commercials.

[780] The thing I was editing was for that.

[781] I'm like, oh, it's actually not different at all from what I've already done.

[782] In fact, all I'm doing is bringing this thing that I've already done into this new kind of space.

[783] And it's almost more fun just because it's now novel.

[784] I already did the other thing for 20 years.

[785] And like going into the store and seeing that for the first time or seeing a kid, you know, to park and the parents are changing the diapers in the year.

[786] You know, companies like Uber or Airbnb with Brian Chesky, he's bringing a level of connectivity to the world that certainly didn't exist.

[787] I think also we're very competitive people.

[788] I think venture is like music in the same way we thought about our career, which is like it's lots of small victories that hopefully one day add up to this IPO moment or acquisition.

[789] or something like that.

[790] That's really exciting.

[791] It's not just about raising the fund.

[792] It's about finding the great company or founder to invest in.

[793] Then it's like winning into that opportunity.

[794] Then it's adding value so that someone else has now seen what is happening here is special and they put more money.

[795] And it just kind of keeps going in this way and each milestone feels like this huge validation and success in terms of how you think about the world.

[796] You can probably imagine those for the people that love you both.

[797] They want you to focus on music.

[798] I don't want Daniel Day Lewis per se.

[799] to become the great computer programmer of Scotland.

[800] He might be the best AI mind in the world, but when you love an artist, you just want more of what they put out.

[801] Can you see where people will be like, I don't want you focus on anything but this thing I cherish?

[802] And has it taken an impact on how much time you get to spend creating music together?

[803] I think it's been equal parts, difficult and beneficial.

[804] The thing is making music or any type of art, it's not an office job.

[805] Yes, you get more output, the more time you go into the studio, but great songs like the ones that we're really trying to write that we've done a couple times in the past those don't come every day even when we were working on the fun it was like 8 a .m. to 4 p .m. to 4 p .m. in the studio and this is during COVID so we didn't have shows.

[806] That was every day if you look at all the time that you spent making music and how productive you actually were versus how much time you were in the studio it's like pretty whack.

[807] Very low percentage.

[808] Yeah we probably spent that time like the inputs thing is the thing that you need to be conscious of like am I having experiences?

[809] Am I watching movies?

[810] Am I watching movies?

[811] Am I talking to interesting people?

[812] A lot of the fund does that for us, puts us in new rooms, gets access to new information.

[813] New points of view, new ways of thinking of things.

[814] We've always been cerebral in that way.

[815] It does satisfy a part of us, which is we like business.

[816] We like reading the news.

[817] We're very curious people.

[818] And I think having the opportunity to channel that into something that's hopefully meaningful for the world and for certainly other founders starting things, that's exciting to us.

[819] Definitely life is all about finding that balance between these different things.

[820] I think that's something we do extraordinarily well in terms of not having, ego.

[821] If I got to go do this meeting, I'm not pissed if he's in the studio.

[822] I trust that he's going to be handling that.

[823] And then we come out, he's not going to be like, this is my song.

[824] I'm not like, this is my investment.

[825] We're a team.

[826] You're a true partner.

[827] Yeah.

[828] And so I think that allows us obviously to cover more ground.

[829] And then Drew mentioned it, but we tore a lot.

[830] We're not married yet.

[831] We don't have kids yet.

[832] That's probably not too far in the distant future.

[833] And having a opportunity to continue to build something that allows us to be a little bit more home potentially is an exciting prospect and both of us have been musical in different ways for our lives but there's so much time in the day that's something that I really put a lot of value on as just your output.

[834] How productive can you really be if you want to be productive?

[835] And the answer is really fucking productive if you care about the things you're doing and we also really love this stuff.

[836] You don't feel like you're working.

[837] Yeah, I don't wake up at 7 and I'm like, God damn it!

[838] I like to complain so you probably will hear that like I'm just a complainee person.

[839] Well, you're from the East Coast.

[840] Exactly.

[841] Is L .A. wearing you out?

[842] Because it slowly infected me. I'm from Detroit.

[843] Yeah.

[844] I'm a lines fan.

[845] Newly?

[846] No, no, for a long time.

[847] Oh, wow.

[848] You got in at the ground floor.

[849] Yeah, yeah.

[850] We haven't really gone up much.

[851] I'm from New York originally and I finally have a place back there and I love going there.

[852] And everyone's like hustling and moving.

[853] There's shit going all the time.

[854] It's also fucking exhausting.

[855] We have a couple of buddies who are successful tech people that are like, I'm going to go to New York.

[856] And I was like, dude, how are you liking?

[857] I'm like, I'm so tired.

[858] I'm having so much fun, but it's so tiring.

[859] Yeah.

[860] And here, I don't do shit.

[861] I think the thing in New York is when you're there, you're out.

[862] You don't want to be sitting in your apartment because you're hearing it all out the window and you're like, I need to be out there.

[863] Well, so your apartment's this big.

[864] Yeah, even a nice apartment is big.

[865] Yeah, this is like a fire apartment.

[866] Yeah, exactly.

[867] You got a bathroom here.

[868] With no door.

[869] A hot plate.

[870] Two different coffee devices.

[871] I was going to say, though, I think there's a new generation now.

[872] You can't just be Daniel DeLewis or I kind of feel like Taylor Swift and Beyonce were like the last musicians who were just.

[873] musicians and that's it.

[874] That's all they put out.

[875] I mean, even I think Taylor had like a perfume or something.

[876] I don't know.

[877] But now you have to be involved in multiple things.

[878] I was just listening to something about Olivia Rodriguez and it's like, yeah, she's involved in this and she's an actor and she's this.

[879] And that's sort of the new wave is you're not just focused on one thing.

[880] You kind of have to have all these balls juggling.

[881] Yeah, exactly.

[882] It's exciting.

[883] I mean, I think, you know, going back to your points about taking in the world, I keep bringing this point up.

[884] We just had like a meeting yesterday where I mentioned this, but if you want to become a great actor, you shouldn't just sit there and read the script thousands of times.

[885] It's about going out, go to galleries, go to theater, go watch movies, go hang out with friends, go to concerts, and then you become the sum of all of those pieces and you're able to kind of like synthesize that into whatever this role that you're supposed to be in a really interesting, captivating way.

[886] Yeah.

[887] And I think that is a similar point of just how you're out here experiencing the world.

[888] You're meeting all these people.

[889] We've played shows for every Fortune 500 company on the planet, every wealthy guy's daughters, bar mitzvah at sweet 16 and we've never been transaction we're always collecting these amazing friends and personalities and so much of our lives they were like what can i do for you guys and you're like just be our friend we love hanging out with you we love hosting you and then finally we're find this thing and venture where we're like wait maybe we can weaponize this all and take all this value in these relationships we had and channel it into something that's meaningful not just for ourselves but other people out there hopefully and that might be exciting and interesting and it's hard venture is not for the feign of art. Well, even Brian said that Kutcher had called him like 25 times before he finally got on the phone with him.

[890] Oh, yeah, probably.

[891] Shout of the Brian.

[892] He's done so much for us.

[893] This isn't a negative.

[894] But I mean, I was like, Brian, will you invest in our fund?

[895] He's like, no, I don't think so.

[896] And you were like, what?

[897] You know what I am?

[898] So his point, and he was right.

[899] He was like, my value is in capital for you guys.

[900] It's my resources, my experience.

[901] This guy's done a lot of great, really helpful things for us.

[902] But it's funny.

[903] You know, at the time, I was like, you're wrong.

[904] This is what I need right now.

[905] But it's like a parent giving you a lesson.

[906] Also, we don't know what we need.

[907] We think we know what we need.

[908] 100%.

[909] Until we get it, we're like, huh, guess that wasn't it because I still feel restless, irritable and discontent.

[910] But music is the son of our solar system.

[911] I mean, there's no doubt about that.

[912] Like, music is given life to everything that we've been able to get involved in.

[913] If we have, you know, another successful record, that makes everything else infinitely easier.

[914] Priority will always be chain smokers.

[915] So can I ask some really dumb, basic questions?

[916] I probably should ask them at the very beginning of this, because I'd imagine some of our audience is equally ignorant.

[917] So when I think of a DJ, I think of Grand Master Flash.

[918] Like, I think of someone spinning two vinyl records.

[919] Yeah.

[920] Obviously, if you guys both DJ, like, what's physically happening when you two are both DJing?

[921] Because you do these insanely huge shows.

[922] You did a stadium tour.

[923] You had a residency.

[924] When I come see you guys, who's doing what?

[925] We have different formats of shows.

[926] When we do big festivals, it's both of us DJing, but mainly Alex, because I'm singing a lot.

[927] And our drummer Matt is playing with us too so Alex will DJ and play a couple of live elements to like add to the songs I'll be DJing and singing it sounds like kind of a crazy show yeah I know it's really fun and then Matt comes out and he's the most talent that changed Moker and just makes us look amazing if he gets sick I do drum at a two and a half out of 10 I'd say okay so we can keep it simple we'll just have you play over track or something it'll be cool yeah I'll just mime and you play a track then Vegas is really fun we've been at the wind for six years now oh that continued I know you guys had a Yeah, we have like two more years with them now.

[928] And are you guys there every weekend?

[929] Is that how it works?

[930] Every weekend.

[931] Basically, it was like 50 shows a year for the first four or five years.

[932] And now we're down to like 35.

[933] You're broke a lot.

[934] It actually feels like a lot less, which is amazing.

[935] Well, it goes from every single weekend to...

[936] Sometimes twice a weekend.

[937] It was like crazy.

[938] We're there tomorrow night and then we're there on Saturday.

[939] Okay, so here's the thing.

[940] I know you guys fly there.

[941] You can just take me one.

[942] Yeah, yeah.

[943] And me. Yeah, you guys can both come.

[944] We love bringing new people too.

[945] We have our consistent friends.

[946] They're like, dude, I'll come with you right now.

[947] And you're like, all right, we have an...

[948] But, like, bringing new people.

[949] I like how that was a Sergio impression.

[950] That was a surging isn't so much about...

[951] Yes, Grand Man for Flash, A -track.

[952] There's incredible turntablests.

[953] Is that what we call them turntableness?

[954] I would say that that's probably official type -trial.

[955] On the techniques.

[956] Yeah.

[957] 1 ,200s?

[958] Unbelievable.

[959] I mean, I started on 1 ,200s.

[960] It's hard, and it's an art form.

[961] But what experience we're bringing is very different because you can go to one of those people's shows.

[962] And some people are you can have a great time, but there's all the time.

[963] we were like, I'm just kind of trying to hear the track and enjoy my time.

[964] Yeah, that's like the biggest realization in Vegas because in Vegas, this club Hakasan brought, and this is like 2012, probably, 2013, they brought like Calvin Harris and Dead Mouse and David Getta and every big DJ at the time.

[965] Avichy and it became this like big EDM heavy thing.

[966] And then we just played so many shows there that we just forget about this whole EDM format thing and just started playing throwbacks and shit that we grew up on.

[967] And we were like one of the only American DJs.

[968] so we kind of tapped into that whole thing.

[969] And so now our show is just like a party.

[970] Are you guys old enough to have ever seen A .M.?

[971] Yeah, he was incredible.

[972] I mean, he was probably the best first example of that guy that took Elton John records and matched them up with a dance track or a hip -hop song.

[973] And, I mean, I saw him a bunch of times, actually.

[974] He was really special.

[975] Yeah, he was a friend of mine and he was so on another level musically.

[976] The act of DJing, it's like you're hosting people.

[977] You're coming into the world of music and energy that we're trying to create for you.

[978] So it's almost less the musical act of DJing and more the experience.

[979] Yeah, you're putting on a full thought -out show.

[980] Or sometimes not as thought -out, but you know who we are, the energy that brings, the vibe that brings in, like, I want to go see that.

[981] That was like Chain Smokers pre -Drew.

[982] If we're playing at One Oak, it's going to be probably like when everyone else DJs there.

[983] It's high -end club.

[984] But then you start adding in your own music to the mix.

[985] It really adds a dimension.

[986] What's interesting is we probably DJed for four or five years, pretty much straightforward.

[987] Drew didn't really start singing probably to like the third or four -endix.

[988] year.

[989] Yeah, Closer was weirdly the first song I ever sang on.

[990] I know.

[991] You had only done background, right?

[992] Yeah, I did background vocals on roses for the deep in my bones, I can feel you.

[993] That part?

[994] Yeah.

[995] And then Closer was the first.

[996] So yeah, that was one of my questions is I had to imagine taking that swing.

[997] I want to know what kind of internal conversations there were about it.

[998] There was never like, okay, one day I'm going to sing.

[999] There was never that prophecy.

[1000] You weren't a pestering Alex.

[1001] Yeah, it's like, fine.

[1002] Singers are annoying.

[1003] You know what I'm like, if we can bring this thing in -house, It's easier.

[1004] I'd say the evolution of our career in terms of going from producers to writers to perform with all of that.

[1005] I mean, we started doing remixes.

[1006] We'd go on hype machine, which is this blog aggregator and beg all the artists that were on the chart to, like, give us their vocal stem so we could make our version of the song.

[1007] And that's kind of how we cut our chops as producers and figuring out what would be a sound that was replicable, that would be the chain smokers that felt like us that no one else was doing.

[1008] And then we got the song Roses where we wrote it with this amazing songwriter, Roses, and she sang it.

[1009] I did background vocals, and there were a couple songs around that time where we graduated from just making the music to writing the lyrics too.

[1010] You know, and there was, Don't Let Me Down, and then by the time Closer happened, we were on tour.

[1011] Me and this kid, Freddy, who's in this band called Lewis the Child, were super drunk one night and made the beat for closer on the back of the tour bus.

[1012] I had written out lyrics to a song that I thought were very kind of like dashboard confessionally, like the very visual death care for cutie.

[1013] My favorite band at all time.

[1014] Love slash postal service.

[1015] I had this story that I was really excited to put over this beat.

[1016] And so I was kind of writing lyrics to this beat.

[1017] And then my friend was like, you should just sing this song.

[1018] I was like, I can't sing.

[1019] And he's like, trust me, I'm going to show you this little thing called Ottawa.

[1020] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1021] He finessed my vocal, and I think the vocal on closer is still the demo vocal.

[1022] And the whole intention was someone else is going to sing this.

[1023] I'm not a singer.

[1024] Someone else is going to do this.

[1025] This is a temp.

[1026] Exactly.

[1027] We're like, we need a feature.

[1028] What guy could sing this or whatever.

[1029] And then in the time that it took us to get off that tour, enough of our friends had heard it.

[1030] And we're like, this shit is fire.

[1031] You've got to stay on this song.

[1032] Halsey wasn't on it yet or no?

[1033] She wasn't on it.

[1034] But we're like, we should have a female singer do the second verse.

[1035] And we actually had Camilla Cabello sing the second verse before her.

[1036] She just left Fifth Harmony.

[1037] We had become friends and she wanted to do the track.

[1038] And it was crazy.

[1039] Like, we had the whole thing kind of done and thought she was going to be on it with us.

[1040] And then I think she just figured it wasn't the right move for her.

[1041] Oh, we know who convinced her.

[1042] Yeah.

[1043] Anyway, we've heard through The Great Fun who said to not do it.

[1044] But whatever, that shit happens all the time.

[1045] in the music industry.

[1046] Is she dogwalking?

[1047] No, she's doing great.

[1048] Yeah, yeah.

[1049] She figured it out.

[1050] We're trying to have her on.

[1051] She's amazing.

[1052] But that's a bummer of a song to have turned out.

[1053] Oh, my God, yeah.

[1054] That's your biggest song.

[1055] When we do have her on, we will be asking her about that moment.

[1056] That sucks.

[1057] I would be interested to hear her perspective on this story.

[1058] That's basically like you stepped up and you said, I'll take a random pick super lot omega ball.

[1059] And then a guy behind you was like, I wasn't lying before you.

[1060] Oh, yeah, then take this ticket.

[1061] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1062] I'll get the next one.

[1063] But it's really weird because who knows what would have happened if Camilla stayed on it.

[1064] Like, palsy was perfect.

[1065] It was the perfect timing.

[1066] Chain Smokers had two hit songs out.

[1067] We had Rosen, don't let me down.

[1068] She had a hit song out, and everyone was very excited about it.

[1069] It was a really cool.

[1070] You guys should do something together moment.

[1071] That was what it was supposed to be.

[1072] That song was life changing and career changing, obviously because of the success of it.

[1073] And then for me, personally, it was like, oh, shit, now I'm a singer.

[1074] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1075] That's got to be another lovely layer of like, God, not only you.

[1076] is this thing the biggest thing we've done in record setting like second longest song in top 10 ever 33 weeks or some shit and it's you and you didn't even plan on it it was also really crazy because then I had to figure how to be a singer and I have tried to get most of the videos taken down on the internet but there's some pretty painful moments still out there well you're also very young to be going through all this yeah this wasn't the plan like there's so many things in our history I remember when we got our number one for closer The VMAs were coming up and they were like, you guys have the biggest song in the world.

[1077] Are you not going to perform at the VMAs right now?

[1078] Like you have to do that.

[1079] We should not have performed at the VMAs.

[1080] This is like two weeks after I become a singer.

[1081] I know you guys know this so well and I'm certain you guys think everyone knows this, but I did not know this whole thing you're about to say until I read it this.

[1082] Okay, yeah.

[1083] So, you know, you get the call and everyone's like, you guys will be idiots not to do this.

[1084] And we're like, we have never performed on anything.

[1085] Yes, yes.

[1086] We have no experience.

[1087] All we have a childhood reference of like, oh, the VMA, this is a big.

[1088] deal.

[1089] Right.

[1090] You were like, we're DJs.

[1091] Yes, Drew Sings and Hossi sings, but where is the music coming from?

[1092] Are there dancers?

[1093] Are they not?

[1094] We didn't even know about the concept of in -ears.

[1095] In -ears, for those of listening that don't know, when you're playing a big room like an arena or a festival or whatever, you can't hear yourself on real time without monitors and so you wear these in -ear things, which this is my preamble to, if you ever go watch the VMA video, you'll see what I was suffering from.

[1096] Fucks up your timing, yeah.

[1097] Totally.

[1098] You can't sing on time without them.

[1099] You have like professional mows.

[1100] It costs like $2 ,500.

[1101] And they were like, Here's my ear pods.

[1102] What they give you on airplanes.

[1103] You know what I'm like, so stressful.

[1104] I know.

[1105] I'm having a panic attack to sing you about being in a situation.

[1106] So I get up there and I'm trying to sing through them which sounds so bizarre.

[1107] I've never done anything.

[1108] Also, I'm not a good singer.

[1109] So there's like two really big hurdles.

[1110] And big hurdles.

[1111] I can't hear myself and I can't sing.

[1112] Oh God.

[1113] Brought in to sing a couple issues.

[1114] I don't sing.

[1115] So you didn't have the thing in.

[1116] I put them in.

[1117] I was like, this is weird.

[1118] Took them out.

[1119] But didn't really understand.

[1120] This is so idiotic.

[1121] They were like, tomorrow and we're like what and they're like do it and i'm like what am i doing they're like just stand in front of a keyboard it's not even going to be plugged in and i was like uh is that unusual they're like nobody plays it everything's fake which is partially true that is true that was one of the most eye -opening things in music business for me was learning how to play piano really well and then being like we don't actually want you to play a lot and you're like wait what it's a variable they don't want well i might hear it you know what i'll just show up at 8 pm and they should put a standee's of you yeah it's just like most of it is bullshit unfortunately The policy was singing was not that.

[1122] I think everyone sings pretty much.

[1123] A lot of these shows, they don't.

[1124] I can't tell.

[1125] My wife can tell.

[1126] She's so good.

[1127] And even been at a concert where the singer was singing lots of the song, but they were fading beautifully in and out of different pre -recorded stuff.

[1128] And they're a master at matching that.

[1129] Yeah.

[1130] I mean, at the end of the day, it's about the experience for the fans.

[1131] And a lot of these shows, like the Super Bowl, you don't even think about who's in the arena.

[1132] You're thinking about everyone watching on TV.

[1133] Yeah.

[1134] When I was at it, I was like, damn, this is not fun to watch.

[1135] live but at home you're like whoa this is nuts so it's all these different considerations and trying to figure out who's the target exactly and i think that's the main point what you think about a lot who are we trying to connect with at our shows or through our music what is the experience we want to bring like we became a live band for three years there literally we were playing live like i was on synthesizer and keyboards you was playing guitar and singing our drummer did you enjoy that more or less i hated it i like playing the music you're locked in i'm not like elton john as you know so i'm not like fucking or like Freddie Mercury or whatever.

[1136] So it's like I don't have the chops that enjoy it as much as they look like they're playing.

[1137] Right, you can't throw it away.

[1138] Like an actor who learns their lines and they can throw it away.

[1139] Exactly.

[1140] It's really cool that we can do this.

[1141] If we want to go on a late night show or BMAs, we can play live and it will be really good.

[1142] But do our fans come to this show and say, I prefer that experience to the experience I was getting before and that's kind of where we landed at this hybrid show where it's like, this is us.

[1143] We create a certain type of energy and environment through our music and through our performance.

[1144] And it's unique to us.

[1145] And that's what we should be delivering.

[1146] Okay, I want to ask you a grody question.

[1147] I think it was 2017 or 19.

[1148] Forbes listed you guys as the third highest grossing DJs at $38 million that year.

[1149] And I want to know, A, who was number one and two?

[1150] And fucking what did they make?

[1151] Calvin probably made a lot that year.

[1152] We eventually got to number one.

[1153] I know this.

[1154] I know this.

[1155] It was my reverse way.

[1156] But also, they're like way off.

[1157] We have a great business manager and everything's very much in check.

[1158] I can imagine certain people they're getting audited.

[1159] They're like, I didn't make that much.

[1160] Friends are like, yo, what's up?

[1161] Let me get some money.

[1162] And you're like, no, this isn't right.

[1163] I've had it on both ends.

[1164] I've had it where they were way high.

[1165] Didn't like that because then I thought, my family must think I'm so fucking cheap.

[1166] Why haven't I bought everyone in this family homes?

[1167] And then it's been too low at times.

[1168] And then I'm like, my ego's bruised.

[1169] Yeah.

[1170] And then if it's right, you're like, fuck everyone knows.

[1171] Yes.

[1172] You can't win.

[1173] Yeah.

[1174] It's just such a like American thing.

[1175] It is.

[1176] Yes.

[1177] But tell me what you think.

[1178] the number one person back then was making.

[1179] Calvin was just unstoppable.

[1180] He was doing the biggest shows.

[1181] Every three months, there would be a new Calvin Harris song that was like the biggest song on the world.

[1182] He had the biggest residencies.

[1183] He's killing it.

[1184] Kevin was like our idol.

[1185] But it's not crazy for a DJ to go make a million dollars for a night, right?

[1186] I mean, it's crazy, but it happens, no?

[1187] Yeah.

[1188] Because I just know what AM made 12 years ago, and it was shocking to go to Vegas and play for the night or anywhere, really.

[1189] So it can be that much, though, right?

[1190] It can be a million bucks.

[1191] Yeah, it could definitely.

[1192] But it really just depends on the event.

[1193] You know, we just played this crazy show in Brazil called The Town.

[1194] Massive, like 100 ,000 people.

[1195] To put that on costs, I don't even know how much fucking money.

[1196] And they had the craziest line of it.

[1197] Like Bruno Mars, Post Malone, Food Fighters.

[1198] Everyone's got backline and gear and travel and managers, agents, business managers.

[1199] There's hundreds and hundreds of people getting paid all around.

[1200] 100%.

[1201] But DJing does have the best margins.

[1202] Yeah, yeah.

[1203] You don't have a ton of equipment.

[1204] But we do also put on a very elaborate show.

[1205] in terms of pyro.

[1206] I would imagine the residency, yeah, is easier for you guys to develop a really complicated show.

[1207] Having a residency is the most fun thing because you get to build almost like a branded party that kind of builds on itself over time.

[1208] And it's super fun.

[1209] You also get to know people that come back who experiment with the show and just do weird -ass shit.

[1210] Like, we make up the set every single time.

[1211] And it's so crazy.

[1212] And every now and that I'll be like, that was our best effort.

[1213] And people will still come up and be like, that was the sickest show ever.

[1214] And you're like, damn, I don't know if I'm jaded or what it is, but it's always fun.

[1215] The other great curiosity I have other than my greedy pig money curiosity is as an addict, I always think if ever there was a job that would lend itself beautifully to being fucked up all the time, it would be that one, maybe above all.

[1216] Well, it's taken down a lot of them.

[1217] Yeah, what is the pressure?

[1218] What's the experience?

[1219] What's your own personal journeys on that front?

[1220] Drinking especially, that's the place you go out.

[1221] And being in Vegas, like it's like even people that don't drink all the time, they're drinking that night.

[1222] So you're in that environment, which is really tough.

[1223] I've really struggled, especially with the balance of who I have to be on stage and who I want to be on Monday morning, like, rested, present with my family and our companies.

[1224] Not in a serotonin depletion.

[1225] Exactly.

[1226] And honestly, when you're younger, that's really not an issue.

[1227] But, like, this past year especially has been really hard.

[1228] The right old age of 33.

[1229] But, you know, like, I can't recover as quickly as I did before.

[1230] and you have to kind of weigh it, but those habits are so ingrained.

[1231] It's less of like, damn, I want to drink and more of, I just flew across the world and I have three hours before this show and then I'm getting back on a plane after.

[1232] Then I'm doing this five nights in a row in five different countries this week.

[1233] And every time I got on stage, I got to be the man. Yeah.

[1234] And I got to be happy and have fun.

[1235] And like, that's one thing that kind of gets you through it.

[1236] There are other ways, and there are a lot of DJs, especially now.

[1237] One of the beautiful things about this career is there's a lot of guys that are a lot older that are killing it.

[1238] again that are awesome you have to be really conscious of how you're treating yourself and you probably can't do what you're doing when you were in your 20s Calvin is one of those guys you know she's like I just wanted to stop drinking and you can tell he's like super healthy and he values different things and he's putting on six shows and making bangers you know and it's like okay so it is possible so I think that transition is kind of where I'm personally around it's like I don't want to be drinking this much anymore and I want to be focused and I want to do this and I want to be happy well it starts taking more than it's giving totally I mean it's a bad vice not as bad as drugs and other things but cigarettes literally called the chain smokers obviously we know your position yeah and i too was an ex chain smoker so i'm with you but i would smoke while i DJed the two were very connected and i remember one day i was just like i'm done smoking cigarettes that's disgusting habit i'm getting sick all the time it's too expensive you like in new york it was like 25 dollars a pack you smell your apartment smells everything i remember DJing and it was so weird in my head i was like what am i doing up here there's no cigarette you felt naked probably now i don't even think about it and it's weird how you have to break those habits of those things because it could be fucking sex, it could be booze, it could be drugs, it could be cigarettes, these certain things that you're like, oh, I can't do that unless I'm like this or unless I have this.

[1239] And it takes like a reprogramming in some ways of your own mind to know that you can kind of get past those things.

[1240] I feel really fortunate because I don't have a super addictive personality in general.

[1241] I love the drink, but I also like will not drink during the week at all.

[1242] I don't come home at the end of the day and think, oh, I just want like a bourbon right now or something, I'm the opposite.

[1243] I want to watch, like, an action movie and pass the book out or something.

[1244] Do I like smoking weed sometimes?

[1245] But it's hard, I mean, and you see a lot of that in our culture.

[1246] You know, luckily for us, we're not deep house guys.

[1247] Those guys are playing four, five, six -hour sets at the craziest hours of the night in the craziest places.

[1248] And everyone's rolling.

[1249] And everyone's, like, really fucked up.

[1250] And you see some of our friends that are really top of their game in that space.

[1251] They've got to take you to another planet for six hours.

[1252] 100%.

[1253] It really will get you.

[1254] It gets everybody if you're not careful.

[1255] We're lucky we have these other businesses and things that we're excited about because it kind of keeps you honest.

[1256] If your whole life only revolved around that, you didn't have any sort of interactions with people outside of that where you get to meet a Brian Chesky and be like, damn, this dude is like operating right now.

[1257] How do you maintain your creativity and that Junis Siqua that makes you special, a great performer, but also grow up and handle your business the right way.

[1258] And it's tough.

[1259] I mean, I don't think there's a right answer.

[1260] I have a cousin who grew up in New York and he's an amazing guy.

[1261] He was sober about time who was 16.

[1262] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1263] And I was like, dude.

[1264] That sucks.

[1265] I do believe that some of my best memories are nights that I was drunk.

[1266] Sure.

[1267] But I also think that's not the truth.

[1268] Especially if you're super successful, you can justify it away.

[1269] Like, well, I'm doing great.

[1270] I have this much money.

[1271] I have a girlfriend.

[1272] I have all these things.

[1273] Like, why would I stop?

[1274] Like, there's absolutely no consequences for stopping.

[1275] And you have to look internally.

[1276] I'm currently not drinking.

[1277] And it's really hard.

[1278] Yeah.

[1279] When did you stop?

[1280] Like six days ago or seven days ago.

[1281] And it is hard.

[1282] Keep it out.

[1283] Thanks for the honesty.

[1284] It is.

[1285] It is.

[1286] This is a very honest space.

[1287] It's hard.

[1288] And you do realize how often you're pairing it with something.

[1289] Right.

[1290] Do you like wine?

[1291] I love wine.

[1292] I love wine.

[1293] I love it.

[1294] That's my biggest place.

[1295] Should you guys maybe go grab a glass of?

[1296] No, I'm not bringing right now.

[1297] I think you guys should go grab a glass.

[1298] No, and I just got this plaque made at my favorite wine bar.

[1299] It has my name on it.

[1300] Oh, you really like wine.

[1301] I love it.

[1302] You have like a chair?

[1303] Yeah, it's this little plaid by my bench.

[1304] She's normal from cheers.

[1305] And it sucks.

[1306] The adjustment and realized.

[1307] what you're doing, and I recognize that I need it to play with time.

[1308] It both slows down and speeds up time.

[1309] Well, it punctuates as well.

[1310] There's a moment in the day where you switch.

[1311] You're like, I'm going to have this thing.

[1312] My thinking's going to shift.

[1313] But I mean, I'll edit and have a glass of wine.

[1314] And for me, that makes that thing I don't really want to do go faster.

[1315] Or if I'm with friends, it makes it go slower.

[1316] Vegas for that, it's like if you don't drink, I feel like I'm letting people down.

[1317] You know, in like some weird way where they're like, you're not going to have fun with me. I'm here to have the most fun night of my life.

[1318] And you're like, fuck, all right.

[1319] I wish you could, like, step out of your body in these different instances.

[1320] So I think that's the context you get when you see someone that's like your friend that's drinking too much.

[1321] And you're like, this dude is annoying.

[1322] Right.

[1323] And then you're like, am I like that?

[1324] I've never noticed he was annoying until I wasn't in the same situation.

[1325] Well, guys.

[1326] So a couple things, 19 years without a drink totally disappears.

[1327] Like you were saying, when you first quit smoking, it's like every movie you watch, you're like, oh, he looks incredible smoking.

[1328] When I first quit, I'm like, you're never more than 50 feet away from my.

[1329] alcohol anywhere in the country anywhere you stand it's like that store's got it that restaurant's got it that house has it that cupboard has it's fucking everywhere and you can feel it i haven't felt that for 16 years i don't even see it obviously i'm not insane i know it's everywhere but i have no awareness of it and it's only the things that i have more recently done or i'm like that guy just broke his arm i bet he's got percissette i'll be thinking about that because i haven't had the six years away from it again but it took like three years i know that seems What was that?

[1330] It's a long home.

[1331] It's like six months.

[1332] It sounds like a long time.

[1333] Seven days.

[1334] I just did 19 minus 16 and that's three years my guy.

[1335] Hold on, brother.

[1336] That was just random guess.

[1337] I can tell you the first year was fucking rough.

[1338] Okay.

[1339] And I can tell you that I feel like from about year two and on, it hasn't been rough.

[1340] It really hasn't at all.

[1341] So for one time I had diarrhea and airplane, food poisoning in Kuwait, 18 hours of flying, throwing up and puking and shitting.

[1342] And the final leg from New York telly, I was like, We might have to drink.

[1343] I mean, I really don't know how I'm going to get through this without something.

[1344] But that's the only time.

[1345] And that really would have been medicinal.

[1346] Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare.

[1347] The context of this is like the surroundings were in.

[1348] But how much of your lifestyle changed out of that from like a friend group perspective?

[1349] A, you stop thinking about it and you start recognizing that I'm having as much fun.

[1350] And in fact, I have more fun.

[1351] I'm more like a 12 -year -old sober because I have to make myself have fun, which means I have to have hobbies and I have activities.

[1352] But there are places that it's kind of a wrap -on.

[1353] Like, Vegas for me, I'm monogamous and sober.

[1354] What a fucking drag that places.

[1355] I know everyone's got coke in their pocket.

[1356] So, yeah, that's no longer a place that I'm dying to spend a lot of time at.

[1357] But that's okay.

[1358] And then, yes, people who I found engaging, I realized I can only be around them until 10 p .m. At 10 p .m., I got to bounce because everyone's going to start repeating themselves.

[1359] I'm not down for that.

[1360] Oh, that's the worst.

[1361] Oh, the drunk repeaters.

[1362] Or the ear talkers, like, real close.

[1363] Yeah.

[1364] The worst.

[1365] Okay, I had a couple of quick questions.

[1366] You referenced Blink 182 in closer.

[1367] So I was super in hardcore when I was a kid.

[1368] I never really was wild about any of the 90s, 2000s, the ones that got popular.

[1369] But Blink 182 for me is incredible.

[1370] That was like the only pop hardcore band I loved.

[1371] Why not do something with those guys?

[1372] We have.

[1373] You have?

[1374] Yeah.

[1375] They have a song called.

[1376] We have a song called P .S. I hope you're happy.

[1377] It's actually a great song.

[1378] I always joke that one of us is going to have to die for some of these songs to like...

[1379] You see the light of days?

[1380] Yeah.

[1381] These are good, well -written, cool songs.

[1382] Like, if you wanted a chain speaker...

[1383] I'm excited.

[1384] Blank song, this feels like a really solid version of it.

[1385] I mean, that's the crazy thing about music or any show.

[1386] You just don't know.

[1387] Wow.

[1388] So for the rest of the day, I'm going to get to enjoy that.

[1389] How many songs do you guys do together?

[1390] Just one.

[1391] Just one.

[1392] They're awesome.

[1393] Oh.

[1394] Travis came and did like closer with us at an award show at one point.

[1395] Came to our tech party and played.

[1396] Yeah, it was so crazy.

[1397] He played a party for our VC fun like three months ago.

[1398] Oh, my God, cool.

[1399] He seems very, very special and generous.

[1400] We had Machine Gun Kelly on and just watching that relationship too.

[1401] He seems like such a cool mentor to people.

[1402] And he's so calm and knows his craft and is kind, open -minded to everyone.

[1403] Mark is just also the biggest sweetheart.

[1404] When the time we did the song with them, they weren't back together with Tom.

[1405] But I did meet Tom at our show.

[1406] He brought his daughter to our show in San Diego one time.

[1407] They're all just awesome.

[1408] And have you been to the show?

[1409] No, I've never seen them.

[1410] They're new to us awesome.

[1411] And Tom and Mark are just ripping on each other the whole time, like, talking about fucking each other's moms and just doing like, like, what do you want them to be talking about?

[1412] Yeah, yeah.

[1413] It's awesome.

[1414] I'm really happy to see that.

[1415] A couple of things that I thought have helped you.

[1416] I already brought up one was the fact that you guys actually didn't come into this with all this history and baggage.

[1417] And it seems to have really liberated you from some of the, like the blink thing.

[1418] I'm sure that's rooted in so many things that are interpersonal before the band.

[1419] Do you think that you have benefited enormously from collaborating so?

[1420] much because i would imagine as well that such a great new source of energy point of view makes you want to impress the person you've invited in do you think that collaborating for you guys has been really useful absolutely we're so lucky to have existed at a time where people are down for this much collaboration and have been in a genre where that was almost the norm you're this producer and you make the song or write the song and then you get to have these fantastic other artists that bring in a flavor that you never get to have in your band without them.

[1421] At the end of the day, Alex and I are just massive music fans.

[1422] And this is all just an adventure for us.

[1423] That's what the chain smoker's career as an artist is.

[1424] It's just Alex and Drew's great adventure.

[1425] And we've gotten to work with some really incredible people and we will continue to do so.

[1426] I think more recently the best thing for us is maybe less collaboration, really tapping into that emotion that people really want for us or as long as we make sure that's the core because sometimes you do a collaboration you're like this person's a country artist and we're going to write a country lean in song now where we're at is to do collaborations but they need to be change some over songs do you have any outstanding dream collaborations so many a million everything he said is true but also collaboration it's like high school because you're like putting yourself out yeah it's like a first day that i really love and can be great on and they're just like nah you know or like they don't even answer The note across the table.

[1427] I mean, the music business truly sucks.

[1428] I'm not talking about so much the artist now.

[1429] I'm talking about the business itself.

[1430] It's a rough business.

[1431] People, like everyone is taking credit for everyone else's shit or thinks they're the best or doesn't even bring opportunities to different people.

[1432] We all want the same goal.

[1433] You know what I mean?

[1434] We all want to tell our story to as many people as possible in the most authentic way.

[1435] And it's tough because you have these songs that you're like, this person's so perfect for.

[1436] How do I engage them to share that experience with them?

[1437] And then you have 25 people on their side whose job it is to like, not let anything through.

[1438] That part can be really stressful and we've had things go to the one yard line and then fall apart for different reasons.

[1439] And these are songs that are so important to you or to us in different ways.

[1440] And that part makes it hard, which is probably why it's like, yo, let's not taint it all the time with that stuff.

[1441] All the heartbreak.

[1442] Sometimes these things just happen.

[1443] And also, I think this is why it's such a cool opportunity to come on a show like this.

[1444] You have such a wide base of listeners that really enjoy the conversations that you have and learn about the people that come on it.

[1445] And I think we're constantly fighting like a disinformation war about who we are and I think whether it's the fun and people are like what the fuck are they doing over there you can't really blame anyone you go on Instagram and you're like oh look there's them recreating the Mark Wahlberg Kate Moss photo but it's them too you know what I did that last week it was a big big hit big controversial hit and then you're like are they serious are they not are they cool or they know are they fucking with us and so it's tough I really obviously love who we are as people I'm not an insecure person in that way.

[1446] But I find myself doing it all the time.

[1447] I'm like, that person's fucking loser.

[1448] And then you meet them and you're like, damn, that person was really cool, actually.

[1449] That's this job, by the way.

[1450] Yeah, yeah, which is so great.

[1451] I'm such a fan of this format because we've done Britain Press and just it's never worked because they just fill in the cracks or fill in the Grand Canyon with stuff.

[1452] At some point in our career, probably around 2017, it felt like we were completely not in control of who we were from a public.

[1453] And there was like two realities we were fighting, which was like, I know who I am.

[1454] And my friends seemed to know who I am.

[1455] am yes but everyone else thinks I'm this and how the fuck do we consolidate these two things well you're going to inevitably be a victim of the narrative that everyone loves which is we're trapped in a we love a come -up story we love to watch people rise and then next chapter has got to be destruction we're just so hardwired for story we interviewed Ed Sharon and he's like oh yeah I'm hated here and we're like how could that be you're the biggest tour of this man He's in England.

[1456] People are brutal.

[1457] It's like the tall poppy syndrome.

[1458] It's anyone that's number one.

[1459] Eventually the other thing comes.

[1460] It's kind of unavoidable.

[1461] It's a total bummer.

[1462] Anyone who knows Ed can't hate Ed.

[1463] He's the sweetest.

[1464] He's like, you're saying Travis.

[1465] He likes to be around other musicians.

[1466] He likes to help people.

[1467] He likes to reach out.

[1468] People like Travis.

[1469] People like Drake.

[1470] They just keep parlaying the cool somehow.

[1471] They just pivot.

[1472] And you're saying, damn, how's that fucking so easy?

[1473] He's so easy for y 'all.

[1474] Jay Z, same thing.

[1475] just still apex cool after 30 years.

[1476] And I guess it's just like kind of settling into yourself.

[1477] I don't know if Travis cares that much.

[1478] No. Right.

[1479] He's just like I am who I am.

[1480] And I think that is part of just our own growth.

[1481] I think we had the fortune of going through college and becoming successful later in life.

[1482] So we had experienced a lot of things that I think have made as good people.

[1483] But also with that, we can't like lean on into the like, I was 17.

[1484] You know what I'm 20?

[1485] You know, but I feel like we have like matured so much.

[1486] We were fully adults when it all went down.

[1487] Fully responsible.

[1488] Can go to jail of adults.

[1489] You guys took a hiatus for, I don't know how long, but you took a hiatus from social media.

[1490] A, how long did it last?

[1491] B, what was that period like and what did you glean from it?

[1492] We wanted to do it because we just had been doing so much touring all day, every day, just having to put stuff out.

[1493] And then I guess it was January of 2020.

[1494] We were like, all right, let's take everything off social media.

[1495] And then two months later, everything shut down.

[1496] And some people say it's our fault, but it was actually pretty wild timing.

[1497] We needed to take a break and then everyone took a break.

[1498] But we did get off social media, which is actually when we started our first fun, when we worked on our album so far so good.

[1499] And it was a very weird time for everybody.

[1500] It was always good because like if you posted on social media doing anything fun, people were like, hell no. Oh, exactly.

[1501] Everyone was so angry.

[1502] Everyone's police.

[1503] But it was really freeing.

[1504] I mean, I enjoyed the non -responsibility of having to participate.

[1505] I mean, it is a real feeling.

[1506] When you post something and it does well, you're like, I'm having a good day.

[1507] When you post something, it doesn't do well, you're like, I feel like shit.

[1508] I'm no longer relevant, even though two days before something worked.

[1509] You're like, how do I middle ground this where you're like, I'm just going to throw it up.

[1510] Obviously, you can get rid of the likes and stuff.

[1511] But inside, you're still thinking, I guarantee those people who like remove the likes and comments or whatever are still like, did it do well?

[1512] I know.

[1513] I know that shit didn't pop.

[1514] Yeah, yeah.

[1515] Social media sucks.

[1516] TikTok was a phenomenon.

[1517] in the middle of all of this that has changed music and culture and relationships and the creator economy and the ability for anyone to have success overnight potentially.

[1518] Forget about us.

[1519] I don't feel bad at all for us ever.

[1520] But imagine being like 16 and having a video that has 25 million views.

[1521] I know.

[1522] I think about it all the time.

[1523] I would have driven a car off a cliff.

[1524] Yeah.

[1525] Or you've been like, this is my destiny.

[1526] I am going to stop focusing on any other skill because I've just done something that validates my 16 -year -old mind Yeah, because I got struck my lightning.

[1527] Right, exactly.

[1528] We go up on jackass.

[1529] They were like the pentacola.

[1530] I don't know if I want to be like, but really hard life.

[1531] But I love them.

[1532] You're just doing dumb shit as like a 14 year old, your friends on a VHS camera.

[1533] And I'm like, those tapes better be destroyed.

[1534] You know what I'm so glad there's no footage of this stuff out there.

[1535] And I can't imagine like everything's recorded.

[1536] And then getting validation for a dump thing you do.

[1537] And then like, oh, I guess I got to lean into this.

[1538] Be misled.

[1539] I've read the kids are less sexually active.

[1540] now than in the past, which is interesting.

[1541] You would think it would be like nudes flying around all the time and inappropriate stuff.

[1542] And now it seems like it's kind of had the opposite effect in some way where you're more discreet.

[1543] You're isolated.

[1544] You feel more connected because of these likes, but you're actually more isolated.

[1545] I mean, we're always like, who is the public high school next door?

[1546] Who are the babes there?

[1547] I have no fucking idea unless I went to borders in our town and walked around for fucking three hours and maybe spotted either one.

[1548] But now you're just like on an app.

[1549] There she is.

[1550] You can get some satisfaction through sexting, through sharing pitchers, and that can prevent you from pursuing the actual thing because it's satiating.

[1551] Whereas I was a kid, it was like, I need to get to your house and see you take your bra off.

[1552] Like, you're not going to be able to send me something.

[1553] I'm going to ride my bike over there ASAP.

[1554] Yeah, I mean, we're like lost in the woods after Kegas, looking for K phones to call my mom to pick us up.

[1555] There was a real survival instinct that kicked in there.

[1556] Okay, well, I just want to say for the record, when I push back about your VC, fun.

[1557] It was under none of the story of you guys shouldn't do it or your hacks.

[1558] It's more like I love artists and I want you guys to make sure you remember.

[1559] By way, I didn't interpret that.

[1560] Okay.

[1561] Good.

[1562] We just finished raising a new fund and the conversations that you have, I always say I started out with, you're thinking two things right now.

[1563] Why the hell are we doing this?

[1564] And how committed are we to doing this?

[1565] And it's a super fair question to ask maybe the two most fair questions to consider as you think about, you know, becoming involved in the work we're doing.

[1566] Is it mantis is the name of it?

[1567] Yeah, Mence is the name.

[1568] For us, it's always been all or nothing.

[1569] I think this is something that we're going to look back on really fondly in terms of hopefully have success through it.

[1570] But even just the journey of people we've been able to meet, the world of people that's opened up to us.

[1571] I was on a jet with a bunch of private equity guys flying back from New York.

[1572] They were kind enough to let me...

[1573] We get treated like hot girls sometimes.

[1574] You know, you know?

[1575] Join us on this plane.

[1576] You don't have to pay anything.

[1577] And we were talking about artificial intelligence.

[1578] And obviously, their perspective is what they read about Open AI and the news and Bloomberg.

[1579] And we're like ground level seeding these companies and meeting these founders.

[1580] And I was like, wow, this is so crazy.

[1581] I know way more about this stuff than they do at this point in time.

[1582] I'm not saying I'm smarter than them.

[1583] That's certainly not the case.

[1584] But maybe more informed.

[1585] But more informed.

[1586] That was like an interesting feeling to be at the ground level of a technology that could change everything as we know it.

[1587] Yeah.

[1588] And so it's cool to be a part of those.

[1589] You know, it's like a fountain of youth for us.

[1590] We're not motivated by the money.

[1591] It's really the opportunity to be a part of the disruption.

[1592] Yeah, yeah.

[1593] I want to give a compliment before we wrap this up, final compliment.

[1594] We had somebody on, I forget who, I think it was the guy, we had someone on who worked for the CIA and like get into mind reading.

[1595] He would like be able to understand what was going on in people's minds.

[1596] And he said something so specific about relationships that you can kind of tell how good a relationship is or how healthy or how committed one person is to another in the way they speak.

[1597] And if they say, we, that's what you want.

[1598] You're a we.

[1599] And if you hear a lot of people saying, I or me, that's indicative as well.

[1600] And I feel like in this whole conversation, you guys have said I, like four times.

[1601] And everything you have said is a we.

[1602] You guys are such a partnership.

[1603] And it's awesome.

[1604] Yeah, you guys are really beautiful soulmates.

[1605] Honestly.

[1606] It's a respect.

[1607] It's obviously a respect for one another and feeling very equal.

[1608] And I think it's awesome.

[1609] Just don't start fucking.

[1610] It'll ruin everything.

[1611] I think everyone's confused about that.

[1612] They're like, are they brothers?

[1613] Are they lovers?

[1614] Are they friends?

[1615] Are they brother lovers?

[1616] Yeah.

[1617] But it's really admirable.

[1618] Egos is a poisonous thing.

[1619] And I think if you can just push it aside and take ownership when you fuck up too.

[1620] I think that's important.

[1621] And we fuck up a lot, especially me. We all do.

[1622] We all do.

[1623] We fuck up a lot.

[1624] Alex and Drew, so fun.

[1625] I had zero opinion of you.

[1626] I didn't know about the VMAs.

[1627] I've never read anything negative about you.

[1628] I just love your music.

[1629] My daughters and I. He is awful at research.

[1630] No, today I learned.

[1631] of some stuff, but I just want to say sitting here, it's been such a delight and I like you guys so much.

[1632] You're so wonderful.

[1633] Thank you.

[1634] It's an honor for us.

[1635] You guys have so many amazing people on this show.

[1636] I can't believe you.

[1637] We've been throwing our high in the ring for a while.

[1638] We're like, whenever you're ready.

[1639] You're ready.

[1640] It was a blast.

[1641] We're going to rudely insist that we join you on a flight to Vegas and go.

[1642] I would love that.

[1643] I mean, we've had lots of, you know, sober of Chris Dalia doesn't drink at all.

[1644] He really let people know, though.

[1645] He's a comedian.

[1646] He's like, come on, have a shot.

[1647] He's like, no, I don't drink.

[1648] I think he has a whole bit about that.

[1649] They're like, never.

[1650] He's like, no, I don't drink.

[1651] He's like, not even one.

[1652] I'm sure you have to battle that all the time.

[1653] You're like, I am sober.

[1654] Like, I don't drink.

[1655] There's not a caveat.

[1656] I love it because I have so many go -toes over refining them.

[1657] We were flying back from England and this stewardess was just so bummed.

[1658] I wasn't having any of the many refreshments that she was offering, right?

[1659] Do you want the champagne right out of the gates?

[1660] No. Would you like this wine for dinner?

[1661] No. And she's like, you're really not going to drink.

[1662] And I go, I will drink if you know someone who's got cocaine on this flight.

[1663] And then she just looked at me Like she got it Or I'll say like I'd love to drink But we'll probably have to ground this plane early For me it's just a setup to say something funny Yeah, yeah, yeah And I come from a culture in Detroit Where it's like I'm way more embarrassed about not drinking So I would way rather you know I'm a fucking alcoholic Than just someone who just isn't interested in drinking My own ego needs you to know like No, I'm a junkie or I used to drink so much Yeah, I spill more of my shirt than you've drank.

[1664] Hold on, hold on.

[1665] I have a little thing I want to show you.

[1666] Watch this video of me right before I got sober.

[1667] You think that guy should drink?

[1668] All right, guys, so much fun.

[1669] And we are 100 % coming to see you play.

[1670] Excellent.

[1671] All right.

[1672] Take your chair.

[1673] Thank you guys.

[1674] Stick around for the fact check.

[1675] Because they're human.

[1676] They make lots of mistakes.

[1677] Chain smokers go chain smokers.

[1678] What are your plans in New York City, Missy?

[1679] Yeah, peace up.

[1680] New York City, the land of skyscrapers.

[1681] Do you know how you get to Carnegie Hall once you're there?

[1682] How?

[1683] Lots of practice.

[1684] Oh my God, I've never.

[1685] Yes, you have.

[1686] I think I've never heard that.

[1687] I've never heard that.

[1688] I learned it from Sean Hayes.

[1689] I want to give all props to Sean Hayes.

[1690] Wow, that's really funny.

[1691] I have some dinner plans.

[1692] What restaurants are you going to go to Emily?

[1693] You're not going to go all the way to Brooklyn, aren't you?

[1694] I do want to go to Emily.

[1695] I haven't been in a few trips, so I need that.

[1696] I'll probably try to do that when I'm closer, when I'm on the Bowery side.

[1697] Yeah.

[1698] So I'm going to shop, I'm going to eat.

[1699] Are there any items in particular you think you're going to buy?

[1700] No. Like, are you going there like, I'm on a mission for a purse?

[1701] Well, I do.

[1702] Do we even say purse anymore?

[1703] Oh, you can say purse, I think.

[1704] I don't think it's canceled.

[1705] I want a camel -colored coat.

[1706] Camel hair?

[1707] No, camel -colored.

[1708] I don't know, I don't know yet.

[1709] the um fabric yeah the the materials my dad had quite a few camel hair codes those were very popular okay and was it long long coat yeah oh was it long hair god no like a muscox just like long strands kind of imagine it with like long strands i can understand where you would think that but just imagine your normal coat but it's made of camel hair was it scratchy it wasn't like well in the way that wool is.

[1710] Okay.

[1711] It's not an alpaca.

[1712] No, or cashmere.

[1713] Or cashmere.

[1714] And then I want to go to this place, Ty Diner.

[1715] It's also cool.

[1716] Why didn't they name it Tyner?

[1717] Well, I'll ask.

[1718] Ty Diner.

[1719] You're almost there.

[1720] Ty Diner.

[1721] Tiner.

[1722] It's a hot spot.

[1723] Okay.

[1724] CNBC?

[1725] I don't know.

[1726] I bet.

[1727] If you heard about it over the transom and you heard it's a hot spot, it's got to be a CNBC.

[1728] CNBC.

[1729] CMBC.

[1730] MSNCNC.

[1731] And then Molly.

[1732] She's coming, which I'm so excited about for a couple days, which will be really nice.

[1733] She doesn't eat burgers, though.

[1734] Yeah.

[1735] That's the only, my only criticism of Molly as a human being is that she doesn't eat cheeseburger.

[1736] But we went to Emily Burger together.

[1737] I took her there.

[1738] There's pizza.

[1739] It's a pizza.

[1740] Delicious pizza.

[1741] And a really incredible broccoli salad, too.

[1742] Yeah.

[1743] So she has stuff to eat.

[1744] Okay.

[1745] Plus, there's a cake in New York that we love.

[1746] It's heartbreaking that someone won't be experiencing the burger.

[1747] Because great.

[1748] I've eaten all the other food.

[1749] It's fantastic.

[1750] Everything on the menu is great.

[1751] Right.

[1752] The burger's in a whole world onto itself.

[1753] She can't appreciate it.

[1754] We have to accept that.

[1755] It's like Cherry's Garcia.

[1756] When we were on that flight, we were discovering the pleasures of Cherry Garcia.

[1757] Can you imagine if someone cunit, they were allergic to cherries and Garcia?

[1758] More likely, they're allergic to dairy, which is a lot of people.

[1759] In fact, for a long time, me. Oh, my God, this is a ding, ding, ding.

[1760] What?

[1761] Also, if anyone from Thai diner, also.

[1762] Tiner.

[1763] Nope.

[1764] Via Corota.

[1765] I don't know if I'm saying any of these right.

[1766] If they want to, like I'm saying it now, I'd like to come in.

[1767] Oh, okay, great.

[1768] So if you see her, invite her in.

[1769] Let me in.

[1770] Wave her in.

[1771] Because I think it's hard with reservations.

[1772] Oh, and Molly and I have this special cake we love.

[1773] You're not going to like the sound of it.

[1774] Okay.

[1775] The sound of it is vanilla meringue.

[1776] Yeah, the meringue's a little off -footing.

[1777] Exactly.

[1778] Okay.

[1779] That's what I said when she first told me about it.

[1780] She's like, we have to go to this.

[1781] place they have this cake.

[1782] It's so good.

[1783] It's this meringue.

[1784] And I was like, oh, God, all right, fine.

[1785] I guess I'll sacrifice one.

[1786] This one dessert.

[1787] Yeah.

[1788] Yeah.

[1789] There'll be others.

[1790] And then it was so good.

[1791] She was right.

[1792] It's not the type of meringue you're thinking and that I was thinking.

[1793] Big yellow eggy meringue.

[1794] Yeah, it's delicious.

[1795] So I'll be having that with her.

[1796] I don't know.

[1797] But this is a ding, ding, ding because the chain smokers, we talk about Craig's, the restaurant in Los Angeles, Which I don't know about.

[1798] I know, which I find shocking.

[1799] Because?

[1800] Because I'm just...

[1801] Is it like Chateau or something?

[1802] Yeah.

[1803] Okay.

[1804] It's a CNBC.

[1805] Okay.

[1806] Big time.

[1807] Big MSNBC.

[1808] And I thought you would have known it in your days when you liked to see a TV.

[1809] Oh, it's been around forever.

[1810] It's not new?

[1811] It's not new.

[1812] Then maybe I've been there.

[1813] I wonder if I should look up a photograph.

[1814] Let's see.

[1815] Craig's restaurant.

[1816] In West Hollywood.

[1817] Craig's restaurant, Hollywood.

[1818] What if that's how I always talk to my...

[1819] photos you know what you've been there with a fancy pants person i'm sure it's going to be worse than that for you i think i went there with ashley wow is that like marrows in los anagena isish area yeah i think i think i went there with her did you have the honey chicken this is 20 years ago i can't remember i just know like i don't know i'm uncouth i don't know and she knew Oh, she knew.

[1820] Of course she knew.

[1821] Of course she's stylish.

[1822] Yeah, I was just along for the ride.

[1823] I didn't have any style.

[1824] What was she wearing to Craggs?

[1825] I don't know.

[1826] I can just tell you what her face looked like.

[1827] Broward features.

[1828] Undeniable beautiful.

[1829] Looked like Mary Kate.

[1830] Wow.

[1831] What does she look like?

[1832] Have you ever seen that actress Mary Kate Olson?

[1833] Yeah.

[1834] Okay.

[1835] Crags.

[1836] I went.

[1837] Well, I've been now twice, sort of.

[1838] Oh, my God.

[1839] You're there all the time.

[1840] Sort of.

[1841] Sort of.

[1842] I went to this bad event and it was across the street.

[1843] I was with, ding, ding, ding, Molly.

[1844] Yeah, we're back.

[1845] And we wanted to leave.

[1846] It was not a good event.

[1847] Right.

[1848] And we weren't eating enough food there.

[1849] We weren't being served enough food.

[1850] That's a sign of a bad event when there's not enough food for the guests.

[1851] Correct.

[1852] Craigs is across the street.

[1853] Molly said, we could try to go to Craggs.

[1854] Uh -huh.

[1855] It's like, oh my God, I want to go.

[1856] I've been wanting to go there.

[1857] I mean, I had never been there.

[1858] We leave and we decided to try.

[1859] And we figure maybe we could just sit at the bar.

[1860] I'll probably be way too hard to sit at a table.

[1861] This is like 8, 15 on a Thursday -ish.

[1862] Prime time.

[1863] I walk in, I walked past an insane amount of paparazzi.

[1864] I talked a little bit about this on sync.

[1865] So I walked past an insane amount of paparazzi, and I was really confused because they were talking to a person, and I didn't recognize the person at all.

[1866] Right.

[1867] Didn't ring a bell at all.

[1868] No, but the paparazzi was excited about him.

[1869] Perfect.

[1870] So I walk by, walk in, ask her, is there any chance you have a table for two?

[1871] No way.

[1872] For non -popperazzi people?

[1873] Yeah, exactly.

[1874] And she said.

[1875] You any tables for some non -pops?

[1876] She said no. What if she said, fuck no. She kind of.

[1877] She didn't, but she did with her eyes.

[1878] What if she said, come on.

[1879] Are you serious?

[1880] Come on.

[1881] But I looked cute because I was at this event.

[1882] Yeah.

[1883] So I was.

[1884] Dressed to the Niners.

[1885] But on top of it, I had.

[1886] had a ding ding ding row coat on oh my god this symmetry right now is outrageous it's too much really yeah so it's getting suspicious she's like you can try the bar there's probably a wait list there you can put your name on the wait list make sure you talk to a bartender to put your name on the wait list make sure you like make contact with that and it's like okay so i turned towards the bar it's packed i mean it is so insane i can't even get to it's too packed it's too packed The bar.

[1887] Do you think it's a fire hazard?

[1888] Like, would the fire apartment say there's too many people in there?

[1889] I don't want to send...

[1890] Yeah, you're trying to get in good graces of Craig.

[1891] Sounds like it was dangerous, but continue.

[1892] No, it's all on the up and up.

[1893] All right.

[1894] I'm like kind of trying to get in, excuse me, you know.

[1895] I have a mouse.

[1896] Do you have mouse food?

[1897] Can I come in?

[1898] I have human money, don't worry.

[1899] A lot of people were, what was funny, they're all faced out.

[1900] Oh.

[1901] They're, all the people at the bar are facing out.

[1902] They're not facing towards a bar.

[1903] Do you know why?

[1904] They're not, exactly.

[1905] CNBC, MS, CNBC.

[1906] They're trying to see who's coming in and out.

[1907] Yes.

[1908] They're not eating those people.

[1909] So there's people sitting at the bar.

[1910] Then there's like rows of people.

[1911] CNBC.

[1912] And so they also are seeing me trying to get through because they're facing me. You're being seen.

[1913] But they don't give a fuck.

[1914] And they are not trying to let me in.

[1915] No one listens to our show, obviously, at Craigs.

[1916] And so I was like, fuck, this is not going to work.

[1917] So I texted Molly, hey, it's...

[1918] This is a pass.

[1919] Oh, because she was putting money in her car.

[1920] So I said, forget it.

[1921] Get out of here.

[1922] Yeah, hurry.

[1923] This is embarrassing.

[1924] Let's go.

[1925] Let's go.

[1926] Let's go.

[1927] Before someone sees us.

[1928] So, you know, I hang my head down low.

[1929] I was...

[1930] Hold on a second, though.

[1931] That's worth exploring.

[1932] Yeah.

[1933] This is the tricky thing about being...

[1934] I don't care of any.

[1935] anyone knows who I am.

[1936] Yeah.

[1937] I don't.

[1938] Yes.

[1939] And if I go somewhere and I don't get any preferential treatment, I don't care.

[1940] It only gets embarrassing if someone does know me there.

[1941] Oh.

[1942] A bystander is like, that's Dax.

[1943] And then they see me get turned away.

[1944] Then I get self -conscious, like, oh, boy.

[1945] Oh, that's funny.

[1946] They're going to tell people like, oh, Dax Shepard, they wouldn't serve them or whatever.

[1947] That's when, again, if no one knows me, great.

[1948] If everyone knows me, fun.

[1949] It's when the right people don't know.

[1950] me, but a couple people saw me get shut down.

[1951] I can get embarrassed by that.

[1952] That's interesting.

[1953] I like your honesty.

[1954] Okay.

[1955] Because I don't have that.

[1956] If someone is noticing me, I'm like, oh, this is great.

[1957] Maybe then.

[1958] Tell the bartender.

[1959] Yeah, maybe they'll get me on that list.

[1960] Because I want to eat the honey chicken that Molly has been now talking up for two hours at the - Oh, getting your.

[1961] You know how my taste buds react.

[1962] That's right.

[1963] Salvating.

[1964] I probably were drooling all over the place.

[1965] I have to have it.

[1966] Yeah, insatiable.

[1967] Yeah, there was drool on my row coat.

[1968] So I was like, I really want that chicken bad.

[1969] And so that was really driving the ship for me. You can't rest until you've eaten.

[1970] Yeah, but I knew it was not going to happen.

[1971] Yeah, it wasn't your night.

[1972] So I...

[1973] You don't win them all.

[1974] I don't like that phrase because I like to win the mall.

[1975] That's true.

[1976] You have won them all.

[1977] That's what's misleading.

[1978] That's how that you're like, I've kind of got fucked a little bit.

[1979] It's not your fault.

[1980] So as I'm walking out, the guy who's being photographed is walking in.

[1981] We're literally crossing paths.

[1982] He's opening the door that I'm then about to exit.

[1983] In disgrace.

[1984] You're leaving in disgrace.

[1985] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1986] Yeah.

[1987] And so the paparazzi is all right at the door and it's flashing, flashing as he's coming in.

[1988] And then I, you know, I step out for that.

[1989] Uh -huh.

[1990] And then all they can't, you know, just cameras just...

[1991] Went dark.

[1992] Just, yeah, they drop and they run, run away.

[1993] Guys are gagging and throwing up.

[1994] Hate this girl.

[1995] She's not who we want.

[1996] She didn't even eat.

[1997] I saw her just walked in.

[1998] She's starving.

[1999] So I, and I still didn't recognize the man, which...

[2000] Shame on you, I think it was shame on me. I'm sure I would have recognized him.

[2001] But I also didn't want to stare and then on my eyes are so bad.

[2002] And I thought it was really funny.

[2003] Right, you had a little laugh at the whole thing.

[2004] And I really felt grateful that I could laugh at it because I do recognize at another stage in life I would not have been able to.

[2005] It would have ruined your night.

[2006] It would have hurt my feelings a lot.

[2007] Yeah, yeah.

[2008] Probably.

[2009] Or just like, oh, I'm just not.

[2010] This is never going to happen for me. Can I tell you, though, this has been a curiosity of mine for years, which is when I couldn't get into places, I never put myself through that.

[2011] Like there were nightclubs and stuff I wanted to go to as a drunk before I was on TV and I was like I'm not gonna go stand in this line and get rejected like I just would never do it I'll only go if it's gonna work out for me it's curious to me that people have such an appetite to go and get rejected you know I barely did that only if I was with friends who were doing that.

[2012] Drug you there yes because I hate that feeling yes like no place is worth that feeling of getting rejection or not good enough to get in yeah and you know what's worse is women have a different thing going on.

[2013] Oh, yeah.

[2014] Believe me, as a dude when I was young and I did try to do that, the girls are just blowing past.

[2015] If they're hot, they're getting in.

[2016] But I'm not.

[2017] You're hot, but let's...

[2018] No, no, no, I'm not getting in.

[2019] Therefore, I'm not hot.

[2020] No. I'm telling you what's happening in my brain and what the reality of what the series of events was, right?

[2021] So you're dealing with two things.

[2022] One, you're not...

[2023] I feel you.

[2024] You're not famous enough to, or like, You know, worth this fucking restaurant because you don't have a job that people like here.

[2025] You're a piece of shit.

[2026] And two, you're also not hot enough.

[2027] Like, there were two options and you don't have either.

[2028] I see.

[2029] This is, I'm going to, I see, this is very painful.

[2030] It's hurtful, yes.

[2031] Yeah.

[2032] You're right, because they weren't letting hot do.

[2033] I mean, they do let.

[2034] Exactly.

[2035] The guys that were getting in that weren't on TV were exceptionally hot, but I think they were also rich and they were greasing the guys at the door.

[2036] Yeah, that's a different thing.

[2037] in a bar.

[2038] You need hot girls.

[2039] They want the hot girls for the famous people there.

[2040] Yeah, you got to get the money with the honey.

[2041] You got to get the honey with the money.

[2042] Oh.

[2043] Yeah.

[2044] So, anyway, I felt...

[2045] I don't know where we're at.

[2046] We're in a nightclub somehow.

[2047] Well, I was just saying at some point in time, I would have found that experience very demoralizing.

[2048] Yes.

[2049] And I...

[2050] You shook it right now.

[2051] Didn't because I feel good about my place in the world, which is really...

[2052] lucky and I recognize that as being lucky.

[2053] That kind of thing can't knock you down.

[2054] Yeah.

[2055] I'm so happy for you.

[2056] But I still was upset about the chicken.

[2057] That's right.

[2058] It was just based on wanting the chicken.

[2059] Not the CNBC part.

[2060] No. So then I made a reservation for some weeks later so that I could have the chicken with Molly and two of our other friends and Kristen, but now she was too tired.

[2061] Right.

[2062] She's too sleeping.

[2063] So it was early.

[2064] It was like 545 maybe our reservation.

[2065] and we got in and we ordered the chicken and it was so good.

[2066] It is as good as she had advertised.

[2067] It was really good.

[2068] send me one over.

[2069] Send a car.

[2070] Send some chicken to the attic.

[2071] Send a bunch of chicken here.

[2072] Tons of the chickens.

[2073] It has pancake underneath.

[2074] Oh, you can't.

[2075] Oh, fuck.

[2076] But I'll eat your pancake.

[2077] No, still send the pancake.

[2078] I'll eat that.

[2079] Okay, it's so.

[2080] That sounds so perverted.

[2081] I'll eat your pancake.

[2082] Right.

[2083] Sometimes when you're in a reverse back, you end up eating some pancake.

[2084] That's what they say But Craig comes by I don't know if he comes by Oh, there's a real Craig?

[2085] Come on.

[2086] Yes.

[2087] Oh my gosh.

[2088] And I don't know if he goes by to every table.

[2089] I think he does.

[2090] Well, probably the popular ones for sure.

[2091] Well, we weren't.

[2092] Craig came by.

[2093] Craig is a hoot.

[2094] Oh, great.

[2095] He talked about our dessert choices.

[2096] Hey, how you doing, Craig?

[2097] Well, kind of.

[2098] Did you try the dessert?

[2099] Yeah, see you's had the chicken.

[2100] Did you like it?

[2101] It's a popular dish here.

[2102] He's a nice.

[2103] He doesn't...

[2104] Yeah, maybe he is.

[2105] Maybe he isn't.

[2106] I'll see him be seen.

[2107] You guys like a lemon meringue?

[2108] The vanilla.

[2109] Okay.

[2110] Okay.

[2111] So...

[2112] You ever had Vaughn's cake?

[2113] Oh my God.

[2114] So he was talking to us, and I felt that he was paying a lot of attention to Molly.

[2115] Okay.

[2116] Molly's, for people who don't know, incredibly gorgeous.

[2117] It's beautiful.

[2118] And so my feelings were her a little bit.

[2119] Okay.

[2120] Like old feelings were popping up at Cragg's.

[2121] This is a minefield this place.

[2122] I don't know why you are there.

[2123] The chicken.

[2124] The chicken.

[2125] We'd be damn good chicken.

[2126] So I didn't know that was going to happen.

[2127] It was like everything was great.

[2128] Everything's good.

[2129] We're at Craig's.

[2130] We're eating the chicken.

[2131] Here's Craig.

[2132] The dessert was great.

[2133] Craig comes by.

[2134] Oh, fun.

[2135] Hey, how you doing?

[2136] I bet he's really focusing his attention on her.

[2137] He didn't ask, and he's not Italian that I know of.

[2138] I don't want to offend him.

[2139] So he talks to her, or he talks to us, but mainly her.

[2140] But her slash her.

[2141] And keeps it moving, whatever.

[2142] We realize there is a celebrity siding next to us.

[2143] I think this is relevant to bring up.

[2144] The celebrity siding?

[2145] No, just to pause you for one second on Molly.

[2146] Okay.

[2147] To soften what your experience was.

[2148] Okay.

[2149] As you recall, Molly and Kristen were in France.

[2150] together, and they were taking this bicycle cab around everywhere.

[2151] Uh -huh.

[2152] And the bicycle driver completely ignored Kristen and was like, Molly, Molly, Molly, Molly, holding up condoms to Molly, like, you know, just to put it in all in reference.

[2153] Molly, I would say this is true.

[2154] Two out of every five times I'm out with her, some stranger comes up to us and tells her how beautiful she is.

[2155] Oh, right.

[2156] Can you imagine?

[2157] No. I can't imagine.

[2158] No, I cannot imagine.

[2159] It must be so fun.

[2160] Although I bet if it's happening to you, you're annoyed by it.

[2161] But for me, I would love that.

[2162] I don't think she's annoyed by it, but she's also always blushes and it's really sweet and cute.

[2163] It looks like it's the first time she's ever been told.

[2164] Which is so eye -roly for me, but it's very sweet and endearing.

[2165] But it does lower my self -esteem.

[2166] So celebrity sighting.

[2167] Yeah, then there was a celebrity siding next to us.

[2168] An old friend of yours.

[2169] Who was it?

[2170] Justin Thoreau.

[2171] Jay Thoreau.

[2172] Best style in the biz.

[2173] That's fun.

[2174] I know.

[2175] I know you love his style.

[2176] That's incredible.

[2177] And he was next to us with a big group of friends.

[2178] He's got like motorcycle street wear look.

[2179] Mm -hmm.

[2180] But it's like elevated.

[2181] Yeah, he's great style.

[2182] Yeah, really good style.

[2183] And he was there and then we left, you know.

[2184] He didn't say anything to Molly?

[2185] I don't know.

[2186] I'm sure he was thinking.

[2187] We get up and get ready to go, and we stop by the bathroom.

[2188] Then Craig stops us by the bathroom.

[2189] Oh, wow, in the round two.

[2190] Molly, Molly, Molly.

[2191] He's mad for us that we're waiting.

[2192] For the bathroom.

[2193] Yeah.

[2194] Well, that Molly's waiting.

[2195] And he's upset for her.

[2196] But.

[2197] And then that was that.

[2198] That was that.

[2199] We left.

[2200] Again, we walked by a whole.

[2201] bunch of paparazzi.

[2202] I was told that they give cookies at the valet but we didn't get any cookies.

[2203] You know, it's interesting though.

[2204] I've been in your situation more than I've not.

[2205] So like all my times in L .A., like 80 % of them were with Scotty.

[2206] Yeah.

[2207] And Scotty was just hands down everywhere we went, every girl's in love with them.

[2208] This is a fact.

[2209] That was with Coochard for a long time.

[2210] I get real.

[2211] No one's, you know.

[2212] I was fine with it.

[2213] I kind of But you have also had lots of girlfriends and lots of female approval.

[2214] That's very true.

[2215] That's very true.

[2216] Very true.

[2217] Yeah, that's very true.

[2218] The fear and insecurity is about not getting hit.

[2219] Yeah.

[2220] Yeah, yeah.

[2221] It's, I do feel fairly confident that once I'm in with a person that, like, I have things to offer them.

[2222] Right.

[2223] But it's that initial thing.

[2224] Initial turn your head.

[2225] That I don't have.

[2226] Well, hold.

[2227] Okay.

[2228] I don't accept that.

[2229] Well, you're going to...

[2230] Do you have it on the same level as Molly?

[2231] Nope.

[2232] I totally agree with you.

[2233] Are many dudes turning and looking at you?

[2234] Yes, that's also true.

[2235] Okay, great.

[2236] I'll accept it.

[2237] Okay, great.

[2238] We both accepted stuff.

[2239] That's great.

[2240] All right.

[2241] So, um, crags.

[2242] It was just so great...

[2243] Craigs, Gregs, Gregs.

[2244] Because...

[2245] Chain smogers.

[2246] Chainsmokers can't get into Craigs.

[2247] Yes.

[2248] Which is funny.

[2249] I have a weird update.

[2250] Tell me. So my friend Vincent's staying here.

[2251] Yes, Vincent Dinoffrio.

[2252] Yes.

[2253] Friend of the pod.

[2254] Friend of the pod.

[2255] Friend of the family.

[2256] Yeah.

[2257] I love him so much.

[2258] We've had such a fun time on his visit.

[2259] We hiked.

[2260] Do you know, we hiked.

[2261] This is insane.

[2262] We go hiking, me, him, and Jake Johnson.

[2263] Do you know me and Jake Johnson now are like hiking buddies.

[2264] Once a week, we go.

[2265] That's fun.

[2266] It's so fun.

[2267] And so Dinoffri is in town.

[2268] Why don't you come hiking with us?

[2269] He's like, okay, where are we hiking?

[2270] I go up to the observatory.

[2271] Donofria, you've seen him since you've been here.

[2272] He's in insane shape.

[2273] He's 64 and he fucking jacked in his incredible shape.

[2274] And he said, last time I tried, I didn't make it.

[2275] Really?

[2276] And I go, okay.

[2277] He goes like, but I'm in better shape, so let's go.

[2278] Okay.

[2279] He went right up to the observatory, no -ish.

[2280] And then Jake was like, let's just walk across the parking lot to the other trail.

[2281] Take a look, let's see.

[2282] We don't have to walk far.

[2283] We ended up walking to the very, do you even know where the very peak is up there?

[2284] It's above the Hollywood sign.

[2285] What?

[2286] It's two X of very long.

[2287] the hike up to the observatory.

[2288] Oh my God.

[2289] The observatory is one third of the way there.

[2290] Oh.

[2291] It was a three -hour hike.

[2292] That sounds impossible.

[2293] It was awesome.

[2294] Great.

[2295] And we got to the very top.

[2296] And I got to tell you, I know it's not your thing hiking.

[2297] You should put it on your bucket list.

[2298] The view from the very top is the craziest view.

[2299] It is, you see everything.

[2300] You see, you know, normally you can either see, you can see Hollywood in downtown L .A. Maybe you get a bit of the beach in the west side.

[2301] or you're on the other side and you see the San Fernando Valley this is every single thing you see the San Gabriel Mountains you see Glendale you see the entire San Fernando Valley all of Hollywood all of L .A. Long Beach the Catalina Island I'm like if you could have a house at the peak of this what a privilege that would be that's the point of my story it was a great hike so his daughter Layla came over who's a great actress as well and she brought her friend Ben who she was on a show with, this dude is radical, rode up on a motorcycle.

[2302] I'm like, God damn, this fucking guy, he's here to take over my life.

[2303] Oh, wow.

[2304] He's going to beat me senseless in front of my children and run off with everything.

[2305] Wonderful dude.

[2306] We were talking about Vegas, and then I said, I interviewed the chain smogers recently, and I shamelessly asked if I could join them.

[2307] And he said, oh, I'm very good friends with both of them, and I've done that trip a bunch of times.

[2308] Oh, fun.

[2309] He described it.

[2310] They were downplaying it.

[2311] He said it's the most magical evening you can have.

[2312] Like, it's the most special.

[2313] I'd love to go.

[2314] I so want to go.

[2315] Yeah, very cool.

[2316] I really like these guys.

[2317] Me too.

[2318] They're lovely.

[2319] Okay, a couple of facts, though.

[2320] They told a story that Jason Derulo had a python.

[2321] Were you able to?

[2322] I was really not able to corroborate that.

[2323] I'm shocked you left it in, actually.

[2324] Well, because I thought it was true, but.

[2325] I don't, okay, here's the thing.

[2326] Jason Derulo, I guess, had a quote scandal.

[2327] Oh.

[2328] He showed an Instagram picture, posted a picture showing off his dick print.

[2329] And joke that his penis is the size of an anaconda snake.

[2330] Okay.

[2331] And there was some.

[2332] What's a dick print?

[2333] That's what I'm a little.

[2334] The impression of his penis in his shorts.

[2335] Oh, in his shorts.

[2336] Yeah, like in his box or something on them.

[2337] Oh, okay.

[2338] So a bowl.

[2339] Like a...

[2340] Oh, see?

[2341] Can you hand it to me?

[2342] As big as his dick is, I can't see it from that.

[2343] It is actually looks big.

[2344] I mean, they're black panties, so...

[2345] Yeah.

[2346] Okay, yeah, it looks great.

[2347] I'm gonna zoom in.

[2348] You know, I love a penis.

[2349] So then, I guess his...

[2350] There's a little thing as Jason Drew Loz penis.

[2351] His girlfriend or something suggested that he then do a post with a snake.

[2352] Okay.

[2353] after this whole thing.

[2354] And so he did.

[2355] So I wonder if that snake was there.

[2356] For this photo shoot?

[2357] Yeah.

[2358] Okay.

[2359] That would be the only way it would be real.

[2360] Because I don't think that's true.

[2361] Okay.

[2362] How much does a dog walker make in New York City?

[2363] They said...

[2364] There was an article, right?

[2365] They said it was in the New York Times.

[2366] They said $200 ,000 a year.

[2367] As of October 4th, 2023, that's a mere few days ago.

[2368] Yeah.

[2369] The average hourly pay for a dog walker in New York City is 1928 an hour.

[2370] Right.

[2371] But if they have 10 dogs, that's $200 an hour.

[2372] You think, though, that they let you do that?

[2373] Oh, yeah.

[2374] When I see the Dog Walkers in New York, they have so many fucking dogs.

[2375] Ten's nothing.

[2376] So you think they're doing 10 an hour for like eight hours?

[2377] Well, let me do the math.

[2378] Let's see where that takes us.

[2379] Caller, what's your question?

[2380] If a dog walker made, what did I say, 1995 times 10 dogs times eight hours times 365 days Yeah they could walk dogs all day $5802 ,540 Okay Okay If you did 10 dogs a day every day for eight hours We'll make it like five dogs for 300 days Okay And not eight hours They're not doing eight hours Divided by All the neighbors are just lined up with their dogs.

[2381] Two times.

[2382] How many days a year?

[2383] 300?

[2384] 300, yeah.

[2385] Okay, that would be $239 ,400.

[2386] Five dogs.

[2387] Three hundred days a year.

[2388] For eight hours?

[2389] You got to walk them long and hard.

[2390] This is not.

[2391] I don't think so.

[2392] Can I tell you what I would do?

[2393] Yeah.

[2394] I would get a humongous van.

[2395] Oh, God.

[2396] I would drive around the city and just keep collecting dogs.

[2397] And I tell these people they're on walks.

[2398] Okay.

[2399] I just fill the van up with more and more and more dogs.

[2400] There'd never be any walks.

[2401] Just I would have the dogs in a van for an hour.

[2402] Okay.

[2403] And then I would like make my run and then I'd turn around and then I'd start returning the dogs.

[2404] And I bet you could get like 60, 70 dogs in this huge trailer.

[2405] And never do any dog walking.

[2406] Just pick dogs up and drop them off an hour later.

[2407] That's your master plan.

[2408] Yeah, because then you're...

[2409] That's 100 dogs an hour for every.

[2410] How many dogs do you think in New York?

[2411] It's not, you have to be able to get these clients.

[2412] You have to get enough clients.

[2413] You have to have 80 dogs a day as your client.

[2414] Uh -huh, no problem.

[2415] There's this city of 12 million people.

[2416] No. Every one of them has a dog.

[2417] Oh, my God.

[2418] Okay.

[2419] The UK heist of the gold toilet.

[2420] It was a $6 million toilet.

[2421] Ooh.

[2422] It was once displayed at the Guggenheim.

[2423] The Gug?

[2424] Yeah.

[2425] I've shot in the Gug.

[2426] You have?

[2427] Drove a little yellow car up the goog.

[2428] Oh.

[2429] Went in Rome.

[2430] And it was swiped nearly four years ago from Winston Churchill's childhood home, Blenheim Palace.

[2431] That's where it was.

[2432] And that's where it was stolen.

[2433] And that's where it left.

[2434] Okay.

[2435] Also the...

[2436] I wouldn't love a gold toilet.

[2437] You want to know why?

[2438] What?

[2439] If you peed in it, you'd have no sense of how dark your urine was.

[2440] That's a good point.

[2441] I love to know.

[2442] I want it clear.

[2443] Yeah, you need to know how hydrated.

[2444] And you'd have no clue.

[2445] Yeah.

[2446] You wouldn't know.

[2447] Two, I like to also be able to see how much duty I have.

[2448] And that wouldn't stick out as much against the white.

[2449] No, but the white background helps.

[2450] Oh, you like that.

[2451] Like if there's a brown toilet, it's harder to distinguish.

[2452] Actually, that makes me want one.

[2453] So that no one can see the call of duty?

[2454] Yeah.

[2455] That's what you're going to name your dog walking company.

[2456] Call of duty.

[2457] Oh, yeah, that would be good for that.

[2458] That would be really good.

[2459] We can't.

[2460] It's already taken as.

[2461] A dog waste management company.

[2462] Oh, is that what it was?

[2463] Oh, yeah, okay.

[2464] Professor Dutie.

[2465] Okay, the thief that broke into California wine shopped through the roof and steals rare expensive bottles, store says.

[2466] They knew about all the heists.

[2467] They did.

[2468] They stole around 600 bottles of wine and liquor worth over $500 ,000.

[2469] Okay.

[2470] That's a lot.

[2471] Well, not as much as a dog walker would make if he did eight dogs an hour for 365 days here.

[2472] It was Lincoln Fine Wines in Venice.

[2473] You're not going to like this opinion.

[2474] What?

[2475] You're not.

[2476] You're going to hate it.

[2477] Okay.

[2478] And people will point the finger right back at me and they'd be right to do so.

[2479] Okay.

[2480] So why is that car worth that?

[2481] I think this whole thing with wine being worth a bunch of money is absolute horseship.

[2482] I think it's a bunch of people sniffing each other's asses.

[2483] Yeah, I don't think it's fair.

[2484] I don't.

[2485] I mean, I think up to $100.

[2486] Sure, you could justify why the expense of getting this certain grape is from another country right but not 48 ,000 and all this it's it's sure it's a bunch it's just it's like um i hate to say it but it's the equivalent of people driving bentley's bentley's they're not it's not as good of a car as an s 500 mercedes it's just not as good of a car i'm so i'm talking literally it's not as good of a car longevity performance all this stuff it's 5x the price if that's this it's solely to say i got money that i don't I don't love that.

[2487] But the wine is better.

[2488] The good wine is better.

[2489] I mean, they are expensive.

[2490] 40 ,000 times better.

[2491] I've never tried it, so I don't know.

[2492] I will, though.

[2493] You should steal some and see if you like it as much.

[2494] I will.

[2495] It is similar to cars.

[2496] But there are some cars that I have the same opinion about.

[2497] And then there's other cars that's like, no, you can see exactly.

[2498] Like, it costs them X amount to make it.

[2499] But you know about cars.

[2500] I sure do.

[2501] And you don't know about wine.

[2502] I know enough to say that no bottle of wine should be $50 ,000.

[2503] No, you don't.

[2504] Because I think people would say no car should.

[2505] should be worth, blah, blah, blah.

[2506] If the grape was grown on Mars or the moon, I would maybe believe it.

[2507] I think you should accept that you don't know about wine.

[2508] About wine.

[2509] Okay.

[2510] And you don't have to because you're sober.

[2511] Right.

[2512] So you don't have to learn about it, okay?

[2513] Okay.

[2514] I think I said something, like, I said something that Taylor Swift had a perfume at some point.

[2515] It was a throwaway, but she did.

[2516] It was wonderstruck Taylor Swift.

[2517] It's on Amazon And she's had other endorsements too Oh used by her Which is 48 ,000 Yeah as much as that wine Okay Calvin Harris You were asking greedy questions about money Yeah they never did tell me as money I know I applaud them for it Me too I liked that But I did want to know Still want to know Between 2006 again This is on fucking celebrity net worth Which is a lie It's a lie It is Between June 2016 and 2016 And in June 2017, Calvin earned $49 million.

[2518] Between 2017 and 2018, Calvin earned $50 million.

[2519] But we don't, that's made up.

[2520] So he could buy, just really quick, he could buy a hundred of those wine thefts.

[2521] How long would a dog walker have to walk in New York to make $50 million?

[2522] He'd have to walk 100 years.

[2523] No, yes, 100 years.

[2524] Because each year he's making $500 ,000.

[2525] So every 10 year, he'd make $5 .8 million.

[2526] 500.

[2527] Yes, at 365 at eight dogs.

[2528] Ten dogs an hour.

[2529] Yes, that was five.

[2530] The first number is $540 ,000.

[2531] I know, but we made, that's so inflated because that's unrealistic.

[2532] No, that's eight hours a day.

[2533] Eight hours a day, ten dogs for every day.

[2534] That's right.

[2535] Okay.

[2536] So what would that person, that person would have to walk dogs for 100 years to get to $50 million?

[2537] Okay.

[2538] That person.

[2539] Great.

[2540] That particular dog walk.

[2541] Not net, though.

[2542] They've got expenses.

[2543] Not if you're using the van technique.

[2544] I'm proposing.

[2545] So bad.

[2546] It'll be nice for you, though, to have me take some heat about the dogs for a second.

[2547] Just enjoy.

[2548] Yeah, just so people know, I would never do that if I was a dog walker.

[2549] I'd walk those dogs.

[2550] I'd hate it.

[2551] Yeah.

[2552] But I'd walk them.

[2553] They'd bite you and stuff.

[2554] They would.

[2555] They do.

[2556] They bite.

[2557] Some of them bite.

[2558] One bit me. Okay.

[2559] You said money makes you happy until 160 ,000.

[2560] That was before you learned the new number.

[2561] that's right 500 ,000 man 500 ,000 keeps coming up these dog walkers nailed it although that does not sound like a good life eight hours 10 dogs a day every day they don't have a day off they're not going to be happy unless they get an immense joy out of walking dogs which I think a lot of people I think they would need some human companionship well they have 16 hours a day left 16 hours is a lot I mean it is but you have to sleep yeah you sleep for eight you have eight full hours to drink wine expensive wine You still.

[2562] Yeah.

[2563] Well, have a blast.

[2564] I'm very excited for you.

[2565] Kiss Nirmie for me. Oh, I will.

[2566] Okay.

[2567] Hug daddy for me. Kiss Neil for me. I'm not going to.

[2568] Don't you kiss your brother on the lips for you.

[2569] It's for me. It has nothing new with you.

[2570] All right.

[2571] Love you.

[2572] Follow armchair expert on the Wondry app, Amazon music, wherever you get your podcasts.

[2573] You can listen to every episode of armchair expert early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

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