The Musicians Guild with Steve Choi

This week we welcome Peter Tsouras into The Musicians Guild. Peter is a guitarist from Washington DC and plays in Be Well and Fairweather among other bands. Peter is also a museum technician in the museum wonderland of DC, and his museum focuses on Byzantine and Pre-Colombian art. Among many other things we discuss his museum work, what he likes to listen to in his workshop, the Gibson Goldtop Les Paul, when Fairweather and RX toured together in 2003, old guy skateboarding, seeing Fugazi at the 9:30 Club, the Rock n Roll Ramada in Detroit, Green Jello (the band), how the Be Well record is a youth crew record for grown-ups, Jawbox, and sleeping positions for his old man body. Thank you so much for all the kind reviews and feedback. I can never say it enough; THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the support, the DMs, and the kind words about the podcast. Just you listening is more than I could ever ask for. Wishing you all love and stable happiness.

This week The Musicians Guild welcomes Charlie Saxton into the forum of discussion. Charlie is a musician and fronts his band Much Better. Charlie is also an actor and stars in Netflix's Troll Hunter Trilogy created by Guillermo Del Toro as well as being in production for the Troll Hunters feature-length film. In addition, Charlie has also starred/appeared in HBO's HUNG , New Girl, and Silicon Valley among many other popular shows and films. It's always nice to hang and/or chat with successful humans who are down to earth and just plain cool, and Charlie epitomizes those values perfectly. Among many other subjects, in this conversation we discuss what it's like to make a feature film remotely recording himself, Charlie getting rescued from the pit at an RX show in Philly, his parents being musicians, practicing bass to Jackson 5 songs, moving back to NJ, making kimchi waffles, and his love for warmed up frosted mini wheats. Thank you so much for listening and supporting the show!

This week's guest is my very close friend Vinnie Caruana. Vinnie comes from Long Island, NY but now resides in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. In addition to being in I.A.T.A. and The Movielife, he is also in Constant Elevation and is a bandmate to me in Peace'd Out. Vinnie was out in CA working on a project for some friends and I traveled to Bright Mountain studios where we caught up and had a good time hangin. Among many other things, in this conversation we get into The Movie Life's first tour to the west coast, the truth about food in the UK, boring old guy youtube videos we like, English footballers and their horrible taste in music, how the newest I.A.T.A record was written to be the listener's companion, the joys of peeing outside, and his headphone technique while recording vocals. Thank you so much for all of your support! The positive feedback has been overwhelming and I can not express the heights of my gratitude. Thank you so much for listening.

Augusta Koch is a singer/songwriter based in Philadelphia. Her old band Cayetana opened for RX back in 2015 and I've enjoyed her vocal stylings ever since. We catch up from her studio/creative getaway in the Pocono Mountains and in this conversation we discuss being prolific out of insecurity, Gladie releasing 2 eps and a full length in 2020, her getting into making stained glass, feeling like the Celestial Seasonings bear, quitting drinking, how she met Mike Park and signed to Asianman Records and good/bad memories from listening to our older works. We also get into a lot more than that. Hope you enjoy, thank you so much for your support and for listening.

The Musicians Guild welcomes Jon Sortland. Jon is a musician and drummer extraordinaire and plays in The Shins, Broken Bells, Cigar, EV Kain and Hot Summer. When he isn't touring or recording he also makes amazing music videos . In this episode we discuss his recent heart attack, his surgeon playing The Shins on the stereo while operating on his heart, his early days in Grass Valley, his first band in Bones skate parts, zoning out while on stage in Australia in front of 15,000 people, his low sodium diet, and the latest video he put together for The Shins performance on The Late Late Show with James Corden. We also talk about a LOT of other stuff as this is the longest conversation inside The Musicians Guild so far. Thanks for tuning in and supporting the show, you are wonderful.

In this Musicians Digest I chat about people who blast music in public spaces, my panic disorder, and becoming what I used to resent.

Kam Franklin fronts the band The Suffers from Houston, Texas. She got her start singing in the churches of Houston as she honed her gospel chops but quickly branched out into every aspect of music she encountered. When she's not on stage with The Suffers she stays busy working on music and all the business required to run a band. In this conversation we discuss how she and her band collected 70 (YES SEVENTY) songs to choose from for their current record, the advice Dave Chapelle directly gave her, pre-show and post-show routines, performing on David Letterman, gross backstage veggie trays, and my process of becoming a recovered hater. Yet another friend/guest I could talk to for hours so I will ask her to come on the show again sooner than later. Thanks for all your support and thank you so much for listening.

Ed Breckenridge is the bassist of Thrice and plays in many other bands you've heard of. He is an exceptionally kind and thoughtful human who takes pride being the best he can be in his many crafts outside of music. In this episode Ed and I discuss capturing our inner child when rocking out on stage, a twisty timeline of Thrice from beginning to hiatus to present, being socially anxious on tour, musicians we miss, skateboarding, and many other things I'm forgetting. Although I can say this for everyone that will be on the pod, I love talking with Ed. Edward and I have a particular resonance that happens when we get into longer conversations and I appreciate the energy it creates very much.

In this first installment of The Musicians Digest I began with intention of sharing some thoughts on tour and what I missed about it. I didn't get into the working parts or details so much as that is better done with my future guests and their expertise and experiences. However, this episode became a bit of a therapy session for me as I realize how much time I spent on the road not appreciating it or the gigantic amount of satisfaction I got from it. Like clockwork I feel super insecure about being so open and vulnerable even about something innocuous like this but if you remember what Matt and I discussed in the last episode, you'll know the type of energy I'm trying to evoke. Thank you for being you.

For the first full length episode of The Musicians Guild I wanted to stay close to home, and there are few people I've shared my musical home with longer than my brother and bandmate Matt Embree. Vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, and deep thinker are just some of the many trades and titles he has collected over the years. In this conversation we discuss early touring days of RX, songwriting and creative habits/tendencies, Frank Zappa, Metallica's use of subpar drumming and many other things I'm forgetting. It's not uncommon for Matt and I to have phone conversations that last an hour or two so this conversation was just a fraction of all the things we normally discuss. I can already tell that I'll have to have him back for more episodes. Enjoy.