Dave Gambone | Filmmaker, Writer, Musician

Dave is a Massachusetts native who served 5 years of Active Duty in the United States Army as a Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic from 2013-2018. He was medically retired from the army after sustaining injuries during a training incident in which his neck was fractured.

Dave lives in Central Massachusetts with his wife and 3 children and is a musician who also enjoys video gaming in his off time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Did we start yet?

unknown 0:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:07

We're trying.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

We're rolling. Once again, let me help you with your words. Okay, thank you. Omnidirectional. No, I can say it. I didn't like it.

SPEAKER_05 0:17

Omnidirectional. Oh, okay. I just didn't know what it meant. Because I was giving our guests instructions about being the the mics are omnidirectional, and that's not true at all.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

No.

SPEAKER_05 0:30

We're the opposite of omnidirectional. And what word would that be? It would be directional. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 0:38

That's so boring.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Shotgun. They're not shotguns. Shotgun mics. I doubt, but these are like very close. I I can't remember. Uh condenser mic, maybe?

SPEAKER_05 0:48

I'm not an audio person. I am not either. Anyways, welcome to the short event.

unknown 0:53

Welcome.

SPEAKER_05 0:55

Um, I'm Tony. Rochelle. And we are your co-hosts for this next I don't know how long. Next. The next several minutes. The next 24. But yeah, you know, we we love to invite people on to talk about their films, filmmaking, um, and you know, get down to the short of it. Yeah, that's it. The short of it. That's right. Right. Yeah. We should get a theme song. I know. I mean, we have theme music.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

I got a guy for you.

SPEAKER_05 1:31

Oh, oh, okay. Okay. All right. Well, we'll we'll get a theme song for for next season. We'll have a theme song. That'd be cool. Yeah. Yeah. Should we appear in like the song? Well, we wouldn't appear. Should I have voices be part of no? I can't sing. I mean you can. I can't sing.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

I'm just oh you can rap though. If you can.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Is there a video somewhere?

SPEAKER_05 2:01

Anyways, um, introducing our guest, Dave Gambone. Do not call him Gamboni. He will flip your lid.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Oh mad. He gets so angry. It's sort of logical. Gamboni is Italian and it kind of looks like it could be Gamboni when you see it, right? So you prefer Greg?

SPEAKER_05 2:22

His name is Dave.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

By the way.

SPEAKER_05 2:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

I do prefer Greg. He's very nice and gentle.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Oh, good. No, you're good. No, you're good. You're good.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Um, and I don't I don't make that big of a deal that man. I'm sitting over here trying to tell you all I'm trying to get out of being typecast as the angry dude. He gets so mad, bro. This guy over here, he gets so mad about his name. Truth. Bro, my whole life people have been pronouncing it's Gambone. If you're gonna say it in an Italian accent, then it's Gambone. Okay, it's not Gamboni. There's no I on it. It's the E.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

It's Americanized, see? And then I know I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

But but it's it's not proven. It's not, it's not anybody's fault. All right, because well, actually, it is somebody's fault because I met a plumber a couple years ago and his last name was P-A-V-O-N-E. And I'm like, hey, you're like, yeah, I'm Pavoni. It's you. Yeah, so I've been doing that my whole life. So uh I try to I made to try to make it simplified for people, you know. Um, I usually tell people like, no, it's Gambone, like bones. So a lot of my names and stuff, I usually just say bones because it's easier than me having that conversation with people, especially like live on the air, you know.

SPEAKER_05 3:40

Like we are now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah, but I would hate to like have to, you know, like I never want to be that guy live on like a radio station. Like, it's Gambone. Like, ooh, like listen, I used to get yelled at for a living, so I've been called way worse things. Like, I'm really not that offended by it, but it's just one of them little things like it's an E, bro. Yeah, it's an E.

SPEAKER_05 4:02

Yeah. Not an I, not a Y.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

It's an E. But I've been called way worse, so it's fine.

SPEAKER_05 4:07

All right.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

It's fine. You can call me whatever you want.

SPEAKER_05 4:09

Well, Dave Gambone, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Thank you so much for having me. I like I like being here.

SPEAKER_05 4:14

Thank you for being a part of it.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

I'm grateful that people like you are doing things like this for people like us.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

All right, I like that. We need to make that into a promo.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I'm a promo machine. I got you. I'll remember that.

SPEAKER_05 4:27

Okay. So we can just use that.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

I forgot we could clip it. Sound bite.

SPEAKER_05 4:33

Yeah. V's not on his game today. No. You gotta get on the game.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

I gotta get on the ball.

SPEAKER_05 4:43

Um, anyways, so Dave, um and you know, I always feel like I have to like announce my film because that's kind of like how I got to know Dave is when he became um a really integral character in Do You Remember Me? And not a character that people liked at all. But it was um, but it was it was great. Um, you'll have to watch the movie to see what I'm talking about. You won't be able to miss him.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Nikki Collins, right?

SPEAKER_05 5:17

And in action. Um, and that's not even like your first go-to use your word sweetheart passion. Is acting, but gosh, can you do it well?

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Thank you. Yeah, actually, so acting is actually where I got my start. That's what started me into I mean, like filmmaking, filmmaking. Like me and my cousins found a camcorder when I was six and did all kinds of dumb stuff in the woods, you know, like, oh this will be cool, you know, but now I don't call that acting. Um, but uh I started out acting. I always knew that I I enjoyed acting and I wanted to. I never I was never part of uh of like clubs or any of that stuff. But in high school, I uh I did become part of like the film group, and they would they would force us force us to be as part of this group to run the school news, you know. But then they'd give us the cameras after hours. So I'd just do that to go take that. You know, I still have some of those old creative projects and stuff too, which is cool to look out on like look back where we started, you know. But um I really wanted to get into acting, and so I was at a point in my life, uh this is back in 2012. Um I was out of high school, I had done a year of college and absolutely despised it. I hated everything about academia, not much has changed. Um despite what you might hear about me. Uh I don't love it, but I do it because it's a means to where I'm trying to go. Um, but I was at a precipice in my life where I was like, you know, I really want to do this, and so I really wanted to try. And so I went to um I went to a Pro Scout uh Pro Scout, they're one of those agencies that comes around every couple years to Boston and all these places, and they they do tryouts and talent tryouts and stuff for people, and you can do uh a monologue and do all these things and whatever. And uh, you know, I'm one of those people that like if I set my mind on something, I'm just gonna jump in. Like I I had no I don't know how to talk to agents. I didn't know I'd never done a monologue before. And so as you know, 2012, they're like, Oh, you're gonna do a 30-second monologue and we're gonna cut you off at 30 seconds, so make sure it's tight. And I'm like, it's like the day before. And I'm like, everybody else has a prepared monologue, and I'm like, Well, I better go get to writing. And so I actually wrote my own monologue, and everybody was afraid to like, you know, speak. And then you got all these, like, there was probably 16 different girls, there's probably 250 talent people that are up there trying to, you know, be actors and and pursue their dreams and all the power to them. But there's like probably 16 females up there that all did the exact same easy breezy cover girl ad monologue. Like the amount of the amount that I can recite that ad because I heard it so many times. I'm like, what are y'all doing? And like that was one of the things for me that I've always appreciated about filmmaking is having your own voice and telling your own story. And like, I just love storytelling in general of all kinds. Um, and I love the creative writing process. Uh, I like the challenges of it, so I'm not really afraid to try to delve into new aspects of creative writing. But the thing for me was I wanted to be able to show what I could do because I knew I could act. I've always been able to act because I felt like uh I was uh I was a kind of troublesome kid growing up, so I did a lot of acting. Uh, I feel like everybody should take an acting class in their life because it's beneficial, you know. Like no, officer. Uh, you know, uh like everybody should try at least once, you know what I mean? Like it should help. But uh I I had a I had a couple opportunities, so I did that. I was the last one to go at pro and it was because like all these other kids and stuff at the pro scout thing were like, I'm gonna go first, whatever. It's like, I don't care. Like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna do my best. And uh and I went up there, uh, I killed it. I didn't stutter, I didn't stammer, I didn't nothing in time, whatever. And uh I got five callbacks from different agencies.

SPEAKER_05 8:58

It's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

And uh my mom and my girlfriend at the time, my wife, they all came, like we everybody stayed in Boston, they're all asking me about it. They didn't get tickets to the event, but you know, it was like a whole big thing. And I'm I'm really appreciative of my family always supporting me in what I want to do. And I had those conversations with these agencies and stuff, and they're all like, So, when can you move to LA? And I was like, uh, well, I guess whenever, but like, I don't really want to go to LA right now. And like, well, let us know, we'll give you a tryout, we'll we'll figure it out. Uh, you can do like um actors boot camp and all this other stuff, and um, and so there's uh uh shout out Chambers Stevens. Uh, he does run actors boot camp, he's still out there and he's a big time actor, he worked with Pro Scout, that's how I met him. Um, and so my cousins lived in Huntington Beach, and so I went out there for two weeks and stayed there, and I went to this actors boot camp. And um, I loved being able to interact with other actors that were on the come up and passionate as me and whatever else. Um, I absolutely despise the business of acting and what it's become for the creatives now and how bottlenecked it is, and how many people would be willing to just stomp on your entire existence, throw you under a bus, and set you on fire just to possibly sniff a different role. Like it's so ridiculously cutthroat, and like everybody treats you like a number. I was like, I didn't like it. It felt fake, it felt disingenuous. I made I met a lot of nice people. It was um, I think it was very good for understanding that. Um, but that right then and there told me that uh I want to be in control of my own destiny. Um there's a lot of people out there that when you start out in film and acting and all this stuff, like, oh well you have to go do this and you have to go do this and you have to F that straight up and down. F that. Like um I really didn't like the fact that uh because I am, I'm I'm you know, I'm kind of a oh, I'm a strong personality, whatever I look like a cop or an a-hole or whatever, and I can I can play those roles, I can. Um and I can play any role, but I made the decision after that experience. Um I I wanted to find like a a mentor or something, and I couldn't find that locally. So I started doing research on people, like different actors and things, and like how did other people navigate this? Because it just didn't feel right, it didn't feel organic, it didn't feel like I belong there. I felt like a fish out of water, and like I'm not as like cold-hearted and mean as these, I'm not miserable. Like, I'm here because I love this and I want to put 100% of myself into this, yeah, but I want to make sure it's conducive for me too, and that I'm not just gonna give my like everybody can find like, oh, you fit in this box. Look, like I don't give a shit about your box. I don't want to fit in your box, I don't care, you know, what what you think I look, you know. I I I I just I wanted to be very um I wanted to stand up for myself in that way. And so doing research, I found that you know Heath Ledger was extremely selective in the roles that he took, and he turned down a lot of roles, and there's not a lot of people that do that because yeah, roles mean paychecks, and paychecks mean you know, your livelihood, whatever. And it's and it's so I think it's so sad that so many people are kind of pigeonholed into that to have to do. I mean, it's it's like spoken in the industry too, like, oh yeah, they're doing that films because they got to keep their health insurance and they gotta do that. It's like, yeah, it's a rough film, but their performance was it's like I just disagree with the whole business aspect of how Hollywood's been run in the last few years. And I think we're seeing that right now. There's so many agencies that are just shutting down, their debt is gone, like they're closing out. Editors have no work right now, and we're seeing this bubble pop from all these passionate people that have the drive and want to be in filmmaking and around filmmaking, but now the parameters are closed off because they got greedy with the business model. And like I felt that years ago, and I'm not saying like I told you so, but like I'm just grateful, even the small time things that I've been able to do now, the fact that I can do them on my own, and I don't mean on my own because I have a team and I have people that I work with and hire, and I'm grateful that people are even willing to work with me. Um, but uh, you know, I just think that it's so important to be able to have a project and have, you know, at whatever scale you want, but have it representative of you and your art form, regardless of if it's polished to your technique. It's never gonna be perfect, right? And so I I'm just a big, I'm a big supporter of independent films, independent filmmakers, um, and kind of sticking it to the man and not letting anybody put you in a box, you know. I don't want to be uh you can put me in a box, but I better not be breathing, you know. Um like that's that's how I look at it. Uh I don't, I I think I'm a firm believer the only three things that separate any one of us is circumstances, opportunities, and choices. You know, at the end of the day, we're all human. At the end of the day, we're all trying to figure it out. Nobody has any idea what we're doing here. Uh, and we can all point to a different book to say we know the way, but somebody else wrote that, Mofo. So I nobody really knows, you know, and I think that's a beautiful thing to kind of set in and explore, especially as a filmmaker, because it's like, you know, Oakley say, the world is your oyster. It's like, well, you can literally step out there if you get the equipment or know the people or network and and start filmmaking, you know. And I feel like a lot of us kind of start out that way.

SPEAKER_05 14:07

You're also an incredible writer. Thank you. I mean, like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Yeah, very much so. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_05 14:14

Yeah, we we had the opportunity to be in a class together. Um, shout out FSU. I feel like we shout out FSU a lot. They should be giving us money. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 14:27

So a perseverante a crossover.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

You made the joke before I could.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Yeah. Oh, don't worry, that episode will be out in a decade. Oh, wait. Too soon. All right. And we're back. That's what we say on my podcast all the time. And we're back when stuff gets awkward. It's not just a classic cut to line, man.

SPEAKER_05 14:51

But but help me out, Michelle.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

I love writing. I really do. I've always loved writing. Is there I I'm just I just as a uh I'm curious, like, is there something that stands out to you about my writing or like a I I feel every character in your story.

SPEAKER_05 15:07

I feel them. Like I I it's like I know that person, or I want to know that person, or I feel compelled to feel what that character is feeling. You really have an exceptional way of bringing these people to life that are attainable. Um and and that's that's a gift because um, you know, and and Michelle was our um professor for that class. Um, you know, and you had just like nothing but extraordinary things to say about it. Yeah, it was good. It was it was good, like yeah, we kept wanting more. Yeah, really, yeah, hooked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Dang. So that means y'all read episode three, right? Yeah, oh, this is awkward now. Oh, what's up? How long has that been sitting in y'all's email, huh?

SPEAKER_03 16:00

And we're back.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

All right, I'm just playing. I I know hey, listen, it was like a 58-page script, like reading it. No, but I uh I really do enjoy creative writing. I've always uh well, I guess so. I guess that's where I got my start because I started writing short stories uh when I was pretty young. I want to say I was like eight when I first started. I remember uh you know, fighting for time on the family computer. Uh what date is it? No, no. Um and uh when I write a story, I'm not I love the creative opportunity to write because if somebody gives me an idea, I paint the picture in my head. And it's not Joey sitting on a couch in his apartment. It's like, okay, well, the apartment wallpaper has that nasty red flowering on it. Yeah, and the couch is orange, the end table has an ashtray with a half-lit cigarette in it. There's a half-drank beer on, you know what I mean? Like I start building the set in my head, and then because I can see it, well, now I can be like, oh, well, what's that half-empty beer smell like? Because it's a day old. Oh, well, that's that's verbiage you can add to to paint the picture for your reader, you know, and really put them in that room. That's what I like to do is to is to put readers and stuff in that room and and try to make you feel exactly like what you said, you know, that you can connect with those because I think at the end of the day, as creatives, we want to connect with other humans. Like that's that's what we're celebrating. We're celebrating the beauty of connection through creativity, through filmmaking. And uh that passion for me is just never gonna die.

SPEAKER_05 17:28

So talk about some of the films that you have done already.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Uh so my first film, my first official film was an independent film called Pacemaker. Uh funding got jammed up. I had a lead role in that and it fell apart. Um, and so it never it to the to my knowledge, it's never been released. Uh, shout out Dan Torado. I don't know if he's still around here, uh whatever. I think he went to FSU. Anyway, um, I have no idea what happened with all that. And then uh I was at the point in my life where I was um self like uh self-supporting, you know, all the way after high school and everything. And uh I hated college. I did a year of criminal justice and just absolutely hated it and everybody my whole life, and that's why I like, oh you look like a cop. Like, yeah, I I bought into that for a year and hated it. Like, I'm not going back to that. And uh, and so but I got to a point where it's like, well, stuff was getting serious with my girlfriend at the time, and like I'm a pizza delivery boy, and it's like I'm gonna go try this acting thing, but it's not jiving with me right now. Like the passion's there, but I don't think this is the route for me. I don't feel that. And so after that whole acting camp there, I turned down the agency stuff because they all wanted me to move out there. And I'm like, I'm just not prepared to move out here, you know, I'm just not there yet. And uh a lot of people, like all the agents you could tell they were like it was like ex-girlfriend type energies, like, oh wow, you'll be back. Like, I don't think I'm gonna be, bro. We you still holding your breath. Uh so uh girlfriend Yeah, it was like it but I and like I I do, I and I don't know, it's not like an ego thing, but it's like I take offense to people who help themselves to me. You know what I mean? Like, oh, you're gonna help yourself to what I do? Like, oh, you'd be great in my film. You know how many times I hear that? And it's not, and I don't say that like, oh, because I'm great. That's not it at all. It's the fact that I can be, you can see me doing it. That doesn't mean I want to do that. That doesn't mean that that fits me. And so at this point in my career, I'm like, you know, very selective. I won't take any role. But obviously, if my friend's gonna reach out to and be like, hey, I need you and you gotta play a jerk, got you. Like, too easy. And especially because of the uh that story specifically. I'm gonna tell you right now, Tony, in front of God and everybody, live on the air. If it wasn't you, I wouldn't have done it. I just I wouldn't have done it. You know what I mean? Like, I would have, and that's why I called you on the phone. I told you on the phone, like, hey, listen, whatever you need from me, like, don't pay me, don't nothing. I'm gonna show up, I'm gonna do whatever I can for you. Um, and I don't, and I'm not saying like I don't do that often for people because I like to reserve that for projects that I do believe in that I do want to see get somewhere.

SPEAKER_05 19:58

Um I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah, no, absolutely. But it so after all the acting stuff, I was at this part where like, where do I go? I'm not making money. I got I want to go acting, but I can't. I had an opportunity. Um, Adam Sandler started filming Grown Ups 2 in Marblehead. So I'm in Grown Ups 2 as an extra in the background at where they filmed the high school portion uh at Marblehead. If you can find the scene, I'm wearing it, and I got the pictures, I'll I'll give it to y'all and every y'all can put it up for reference. They uh I had a beard back then too. They made me shave it, so I only had side and I had like sideburns like down to here. I'm like, dude, they give me this bright yellow golf shirt that I swear to god is like a 4XL. And so uh and I it was like the weirdest experience. It was cool because it was like, oh, you're gonna get paid to be an extra. So essentially I got paid 250 bucks to stand around for 10 hours on a set in Marblehead, and catering came through and went. Uh, I met Peter Dante. Um, yes, he still smells like weed. Um sorry, Dante. Yo, it's true, bro. Uh, and then I actually uh met Nick Swartzen, but it was not it was not ideal. So they're filming at this at this school, right? And they bring us all in there, and like it's like herding cats, man. Like nobody knows each other, all just kind of congregated, like they promised us a check. And uh, and so they send us downstairs and they're like, oh see, Tina, she's the wardrobe lady, whatever. Like, all right, like go down there and she's like, go in there, and you go in, and this lady hands me this like 4x2 big shirt, and go in there and change. All right, and like it's a basement, and there was like a circle staircase in this school, and there was a closet under the staircase, and you go in there, and it looked like something straight out of like Salvation Army, like there's just old retro clothes everywhere, and there's like nobody else was in there changing. So I go in there, like take my shirt off, and I'm shirtless standing there, and the two double doors just rip open on the other side of the wall, and it's Nick Schwartzon. And I'm like, Hello, anyway. Looks up at me and he's like, Where the f are the sandwiches? And I was like, yo, I'm like, I'm like, I you know, uh, like it I wasn't like I wasn't starstruck, it was just awkward. It was like, uh, I don't, I don't, I and he goes, This sucks, and he slams the door, and I was like, what the f what just happened? Like, what? And then I go outside with this ugly yellow shirt and I'm like, Sammy's with these girls taking pictures all happy. Like, slam the door in my face, I end up a peanut butter and jelly in my back pocket. My band dude. And uh, but it was a cool experience, and so I was in that um in that scene. The scene is uh the high school's in the hallway. There's a unfortunately the uh the actor from that film passed away. Uh he was really young too. Um but it's a scene with him in the hallway, and there's a big bully character uh where the big camo jacket. I don't know if you've seen the movie, um, but he uh he comes down and he's like, statue, you look like an ass too. And like that doesn't even make sense. And I'm right in the background right there, big yellow shirt. So um that was my first intro into act, was uh was growing up to there. And then uh after that, I was like, yeah, that was cool. That was a cool experience, but um, I'm not gonna make my bills getting paid$250 a gig for 10 hours a day. Yeah, so uh I went in the army. Uh me and my best friend signed up, and uh I was like, listen, I want to be able to provide for my family and do what I want to do, but I'm okay with investing in myself right now while I don't know what's going on to at least do something that's gonna help me in the future. And uh, and that's what I did. And so um, you know, I did that for uh five and a half years. So I left in uh January 2013 and uh I got medically retired from the Army in 2018 after fracturing my neck in a training incident. Um and when I got out, I knew that I wanted to get into film and I wanted to pursue all my passion projects and stuff, but I had a lot of stuff to unpack from my military career that I did not necessarily take seriously at the time that I didn't give myself credit for. Um I do have I I never deployed anywhere, but I do have some PTSD related things from some incidents that uh I experienced in the military. We don't got to get into all that. Um, but I'm finally like recognizing like, hey, this stuff was not good for you, and it's okay to talk about and not feel good about. You know, and so uh, but it it's it's helped me because you know, now I'm using my GI Bill to go to Fitzburg State uh as a triple major to be able to finish my degree and then start my own production company and do exactly what I've been planning to do for the last 10 years.

SPEAKER_05 24:32

I I see a lot of um that experience portrayed in your work, you know, whether it's your writing, um, you know, um, and you are an amazing um singer as well. And um, and we're gonna play a clip of um your song in a minute, but you know, you even put that into your video, your music video. And so, you know, using um something that is so kind of traumatic for you in bringing that through creatively, how how hard or good is that for you?

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Um, I don't think I don't I don't necessarily think it's hard. Um obviously things are difficult, and I'm not saying like, oh, it's easy, nothing's easy. Um, I think when you simplify things into steps, it makes it uh digestible. So I um lit them to the I don't think it's necessarily difficult to um kind of submerge myself in those projects. I love storytelling, and honestly, my favorite form of media ever is music videos. Like, and it's because like growing up, you know, VH1 MTV, when it was really MTV, you know, watching all the all the music videos and stuff, and like the stories, like you're you're telling a story, but that's coupled with a beautiful song. And music has always really moved me. Um, thank you for saying I'm a good singer. I I I took vocal lessons and stuff. Um I've had the ability to sing since I was saying first grade. Um I was like the tough kid in school, so I was always like, I don't sing. I was like, I always had the ability though. And uh and uh be a rock star? I could so see you wanting to be a rock star. No, I mean I never um and like even like my my wife now even calls me a rock star, and I'm like, I don't I don't feel that like I feel like so much of society now is so reliant on titles, and I'm not a big title person. Um I title all my my different projects individually with different titles, but that's honestly just to keep it compartmentalized in my own brain. Like I do a lot of stuff, you know, and I um I I just I feel like I'm gonna go way off topic, so uh be be sure to keep me between the navigational beacons. Um I started so I started writing country music back in 20 or actually probably 2010. Um I wrote my first song with a friend of mine, and I didn't write my own first song until 2015 before I could ever even play guitar. I was sitting in a uh truck uh over in Hawaii, and uh I heard I had this song like stuck in my head. I'm like, that's a good song. And I'm like, I remember like singing it the whole time I'm out there, and when you're out in the field, you can't have technology, you can't have your phone, whatever. And I remember getting back out of the field and like looking up the lyrics for that, and it doesn't exist. I'm like, but I can hear it so vividly, and it's like like, oh, I need to write this down, and and it started that way for me. And so um, She Wouldn't Go was my first release. Um, and I I'm big on on music video and storytelling, but I'm not big on lip-syncing into a camera. That has gotta be the most cringy thing that is so popular right now. Hey, let's go get the studio version of this song and then go get a picture of me in the woods singing it, but I'll be lip syncing in perfect pitch and heart. Like, you people make me sick. It's it's disgusting, like just be yourself, dude. Like, either play the live version or play the studio version, but stop trying to fool us. Yeah because all us film people see right through it and it just seems disingenuous and crappy. Like, stop it. Sorry. All right, rant over. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Oh thank you. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Let's go. Um that's how you know it's a good take. Yeah, and that was something, and that was something I've always like. I appreciate different artists. Like, I appreciate um NF. NF has done some storytelling stuff uh with his music where it's not you know him singing, it's like I can't. I I live by the old adage that my grandmother told me because when I went to basic, she's like, listen, if somebody takes the time to write you a letter, you better take the time to write them a letter back, right? If I'm gonna take the time to show you my music, it's not gonna be me sitting in a grass field doing nothing but like sing I'm not gonna do that to you. Like that's such a waste of resources and time. And it's like, and does that does that honestly do justice to your artwork, to your song? Yeah, even if somebody else wrote it, like you released it under your name, like and you're gonna you're gonna you want to sit in a field and just hey, let's go in circles. Like, why like why do you do this to your fans, man? Like, take some creative control of your, you know what I mean? Like do anything, like you don't need to recreate the wheel.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Wait though, I just watched a documentary last night, I didn't finish watching it, about this guy who he's good looking, and I think maybe it was during the pandemic, he started lip syncing to like wearing download socks, and all these uh middle-aged women start following following him, and he starts making his living off of all these women.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

And you can do it, you can do it. Look, there's a lot of ways I'm not saying you can't make I see why they do it, I know why it's popular. I'm just saying it's I look at that, I I look at the lip syncing thing like the same way I know I'm not built for OnlyFans. You know what I mean? Like, hey bro, that just ain't me. That just don't jive with me. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 29:59

So, like what about if it was just your feet?

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Uh well then he better be gentle.

SPEAKER_05 30:05

Um one music video, and I just had to make sure I got the right person on this, but one music video that I will watch and I will cry every single time is Lee Bryce's I Drive Your Truck.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:23

And um, and you and I have talked about that um before, and you know, it it's it's a the lyrics, it's you don't even have to watch the video, just listening to the lyrics. Go and check that out, Lee Bryce, I drive your truck.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Not only that, but did you see the the film that they made in Nashville about the creation of that song? Do you know how that song was written?

SPEAKER_03 30:46

No.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

So that song was written, um, and I might butcher you know the full details here, um, but I watched a very interesting, I want I want to say it was called uh Making Making Uh Music or Making the Song or something like that. But it was uh it was a collaboration with numerous writers from Nashville, like award-winning writers, uh Mickey Echo, uh from his song with Rihanna Stay, and a whole bunch, and it just gets into like how people, how Nashville chews up and spits people out, just like the acting world, right? Like Nashville is like that for musicians and for artists and stuff, and people that are you know struggling trying to make their dream alive. And um, there was a uh a woman who was driving home one night and she heard a father call into the radio show and he had said he had lost his son in combat. And she said, you know, hey, like uh the radio person said, What do you do? And he said, Sometimes I drive his truck. And she said she pulled over and she broke down and immediately started writing the song and getting people together to write the song. And when they wrote it, she reached out to that man that had called in and they actually met and and and learned the story of his son and the truck, and every and so it's that's a so I interviewed the father, yeah, the one who called in.

SPEAKER_05 31:54

Um yeah, me and my former um uh host, Emily Rooney, um, a father's story. Um, and he tells that story just as it is.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Yeah, very powerful.

SPEAKER_05 32:08

Maybe I'll put a link up to watch that. But yeah, it was it it just kind of like people gather and it it is probably one of um because we saw the truck, we were able to go into the soldier's truck and and look at it. And um, and what was interesting is that you know, when you watch the movie video, a lot of that stuff was the same things that were in his truck. He had like a Red Sox baseball cap or some baseball cap in there, he had his um military tags in there, he you know, there was um waters kind of like bottles of water, and the father has kept everything in the truck. Um, and I think that that's what the real power of storytelling can be is just being able to, you know, I don't have any military background. I don't, you know, I I haven't lost um a son in the military, but to be able to use a story that can touch people from all walks of life. Um because you know, it it really is. It's just like, you know, I just this is how I get close to you. I drive your truck, you know. And um, so yeah, it that that was that was a very powerful song, and that's that's really cool you got to to interview.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

I the thing that I love about music is that uh any song I so first of all, good music is timeless, right? Yes, and obviously that's subjective. I don't I don't know good music, I'm not I'm not some critic. I don't everybody has their own taste and flavors or whatever, but um I love that music captures a moment in time because when you hear that song again, it can bring you right back there. And uh that nostalgia, it's how we connect. I I just think it's so powerful. I think music just in general is just so powerful, you know. Um being able to revisit songs as they were and like appreciate them for as they were. Like, and this is I mean, I don't I'm not trying to I'm not gonna talk about that. All right, um I was gonna because uh it's just I just I think about like well, like back in the day, we don't need to name names, right? But back in the day, Mac Miller dropped a song that was the hottest, right? It was the hottest. Well, then that name turns into something very different, and it's like, but that song nostalgia is still there connected to that, but it's a very different future now, yeah. And it's like Mac's not here no more, and this has all changed, and like the way this world has gone is insane, but that song, but even with it still captures that moment in time perfectly, you know, and that's just something I've always really appreciated about music is that it can take you right back there. And so for me as a writer, I've always tried to go back there and write from those places because I have such a vivid memory and a vivid creative mind. Um, and so I always try to, you know, use those details about how it's it's a form of therapy for me to be able in in some ways to be able to describe and kind of give homage to certain losses in my life, you know. Um love is pain, you know, life is loss. Um it just is what it is. And you know, uh, if you don't talk about it, if you don't let that stuff out, it can eat you alive. And so I've tried to uh do my best to do myself justice, uh and just whatever I do put out that I'm proud of. That's that's the only measurement for me. I don't really care if it blows up or not. Um I'm gonna keep making music for as long as I can because I can't stop. I don't know where it comes from. Some songs I just pop it. Like, I call them lightning bolt songs, I'll get I get jingles, I'll get anything. Like my ADHD brain will just like take an idea and it's like, I need to write this down, you know, and um, but being able to write from those places, it kind of gives healing to those those places in me, if that makes sense, you know, to be able to go back there and say, like, yeah, well, I had this perspective and that sucks, but at least I can put this into this now and I don't need to carry it anymore.

SPEAKER_05 36:06

As we start to w wind down, and he's probably gonna yell at us because we're going over time, but this is such a great conversation. Um what what what story do you want to tell that you haven't told yet? Whether it's writing it, singing it, what what's that story look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 36:26

I wrote a song um that has made a lot of people cry, uh, myself included. So I used to cry when I it used to be too hard for me to perform. Um and then sometimes if it's the right day, uh it still is. Um but I think that's beautiful, you know, to be able to be vulnerable in that moment and to just put out like I don't I don't care. I'll cry in front of anybody. Like I held so much stuff in for so many years. Um, I don't care anymore. Like I'm the one carrying this meat suit, dude. Like, you know, I I'm trying to do the best for me. And when I bottled everything up, it literally almost killed me. Yeah, and so I it's it's not up to me how people interpret my presence. Um, I'm not gonna concern myself with that. I'm just gonna try to do my best in the moment. And um I like I thoroughly enjoy being vulnerable because it doesn't feel vulnerable, it feels real. You know, and when you're operating, like I think it's so freeing to be like I can I just get to show up places and be myself. Yeah, I don't have to think about what's gonna come out of my mouth. I don't have to, and I do obviously, but like I don't, you know, I don't have to stress about that stuff. And since I've been performing these last couple years, I've had some really good opportunities. Uh I was featured on Country 1025 in Boston, I was uh featured on 98.7 up in Keene. I got to play Winkfest uh this past summer up there with them, and that was awesome experiences and stuff. And people usually ask me, like, oh, are are you nervous? Are you ready? And it's like, well, I'm not nervous, and and I am ready because I'm gonna either rise to that moment or I'm not. But I'm not gonna stress about it, right? One of my favorite quotes to live by right now is I've suffered many tragedies in my life, and most of them never happened. Why would I put myself out there? You know, why would I do this to myself before I even get out? Like, you don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. They don't know what they're doing, they don't even know who I am. Like, that's like the most freeing thing in the world. Like, yo, I'm about to sing y'all a song and it's an original, so y'all can't tell if I'm messing up. Let's go. Like, you know, um, the three songs are Grief, a song called Here, and a song called Wait. Um, and they all have um very they're they're all very, very personal to me, and they're all very much tied to some very difficult losses in my life. Um, but I know that I'm supposed to release them because these songs have already touched people that I have shown them to. So in 2019, real quick, 2019, I lost uh five soldiers in that year alone. Um, that was really hard for me. And so from that point on, I knew I had to do something in the military community and just help people. And so one of those things was staying in touch with all my soldiers, making sure they get all their stuff, like they're good to go, you know. Um, and so one of my soldiers came back to Massachusetts. He was from Mass, and I always I took him under my wing while he was there, you know. I was like, hey, when you get back, let me know, I'll help you out, whatever. He was going through a divorce with his wife and all this stuff. So I was like, look, like I'll help you out, I'll get you into the VA, all this stuff. And so I met with him and and it was uh it was really good. And um he um he sent me a picture of his um his VA award letter for his disabilities finally going through because like I finally we you know four months, four or five months of fighting the VA, and uh he sent me a picture of the letter. He said, Hey man, it's finally coming in, like we did it, and I'm like, I can't thank you enough.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

And uh I was like so relieved, you know, like hey, like I got one and he took his life shortly after that.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

And um I couldn't make heads or tails of it, you know, and uh it shook me. And then on top of that, because uh and and listen, family lives are tough, I'm not I'm not throwing judgment, but um you know how certain family members made decisions directly affected me because uh somebody in his family said nobody from the military is allowed to show up to the services.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

Um I um I never got to say goodbye. And that you never want to anyway, you know?

SPEAKER_01 40:35

But having that opportunity taken just really didn't sit well with me. And uh before my soldier passed away, my roommate from Hawaii that that weekend right before that, his mom passed away unexpectedly. So this weekend leading up to this, um, I was helping my old roommate plan a funeral for his mom, you know, like because he had no help, it was unexpected and whatever. And then my soldier passed away, and I I just I was a mess. I didn't know what to do. They they made that announcement that you know, no military people to funeral. I I really that didn't sit well with me at all, but nothing I can do about it. I'm gonna respect their wishes. Um I should have done like the Captain America incognito, you know, like I'm aware of the hoodie and the ball cap. They'll never see it coming. I love every Marvel, every Marvel superhero. It's like hoodie ball cap, they'll never notice. Should have done it. Um, but I didn't. And um what's really even more unfortunate, unfortunately, is that that following Monday, uh, really close family friends of ours, uh, their 10-year-old daughter was hit and killed by a drunk driver. And so, in a span of about six days, I I I just I started spiraling. It was like, it wasn't good, and I knew and I could feel it, but I didn't acknowledge it, and I wasn't going to acknowledge it. And I said, you know, we made a decision as a family. I was like, well, listen, we can't go to one funeral, so we're gonna go to the other one, you know, and um and while that's never it's not a good experience, you know, it's not an experience you ever want to give your family or your kids or whatever, but at the same time, it's like, hey, it's real life out here, you know. Um, and I'm a big, I'm a big believer in being very real with my kids, but that also means that I also recognize, appreciate, and balance the fact that it's my job to make sure that they stay kids for as long as possible. Um, and so we as a family made the decision to go down there and supported the family, and I'm so grateful that we went and did that and that we were there for them. They're still great friends of ours. We stay in touch all the time. And when I came back up, they were down in uh North Carolina, when I came back up, I didn't feel any better. I felt like I just got put through a meat grinder, like I couldn't I just felt like a shell of myself, and um I took my guitar and went outside watching the kids play in the yard, and it's like uh it felt like a fall day in the springtime, you know, like that like that change where it's still kind of cool, but it's like there's leaves and stuff, and um I just remember the sun was like so beautiful, and and I remember like sitting there, like I'm feeling all this stuff, I have all these emotions, and here I am like watching this beautiful scene in my backyard, and my kids playing with neighbor kids on the swing sets and whatever else, and I still I can't even enjoy this moment right now because I'm not here. Um and uh all at once I had a I had a lightning bolt song hit me and I wrote it, and when I wrote just the music part of it, I started crying, just the music of it. I I could listen like I say this to this day like uh the song Grief is probably my proudest song I've ever written in my life. Um when it does come my time, like that instrumental, like just play that, bro. Like just like that's that's where I want to be, and you know what I mean? Like um, and uh and when I wrote the lyrics, I I had to uh I was so at this point, and I I still kind of struggle. I don't consider myself a real musician. Um, because I couldn't pick and play at the same time, or pick and sing at the same time. Pick and play. Can't do that. I couldn't, I couldn't like strum, uh I had I had trouble picking, not strumming, but picking and and singing at the same time. And so what I did was I played the whole instrumental all the way through, recorded on my phone, went into my car, played it back on the Bluetooth, took my phone out again and sang the lyrics over it so I could have it all because I need to have some kind of demo. Yeah, like I need to get this out. And when I I showed it to like three people, and uh like I I remember sending I showed it to my wife and I sent it to two people, and I so I gave it to my wife to listen to, and I sent it to two people, and those two people called me immediately, and my wife came back in the room, was like, What is this? Like, this is beautiful. And I was like, I I I have no idea where that came from. And grief is my description of grief. You know, it was everything about that moment and everything, you know, those six days leading up to that created that song. And um, it was very hard for me to kind of tap into that uh vulnerability, I guess, but at the same time, it was so therapeutic to get it out and to really speak about, you know, what are we really saying? You know, when we lose people, like why? Why why aren't we exploring that hurt? What does it mean? Where's it come from? Where are we gonna put it? You know, and um and that song I gave I I gave to our friends, and uh she said she listens to it every day. And um to be the owner of a song that's that's helped one person in the world, I could hang it up right now. I could hang it up right now. Like that's that's worth it to me.

SPEAKER_05 45:46

You know, it's everything one thing I can say about you is that what you see is what you get. You have been so incredibly honest and vulnerable with every part of your life. Um, I think that that makes you um approachable, you know, and it also makes me feel comfortable to be able to listen to your story because I know it's coming from a real place. You know, there's nothing else that is, you know, what you've gone through has so much um sadness and um an unbelievable hurt that it it's just it's just kind of an honor to be able to be a part of who you are because I think that what you have to offer uh creatively is extraordinary.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

Thank you. Seriously, thank you. I um I uh I really just uh again like uh just trying to submit myself to the moment, you know. I just always try to be in every moment and I I don't want to be anywhere that I'm not gonna be presently myself, you know. If I can't be myself somewhere, I'm not gonna be there. I'm done with that part of my life trying to uh force myself to fit into the different shapes that people want me to, you know. And um, and I think music is a beautiful place to explore that because like I'm not signed, I don't have a label, I don't have I can do whatever I want with my music. And I have I have three albums worth of songs right now that I could release and I've been trying to and I I've been on my own butt, like we gotta get it out. But at the same time, it's like, hey, take the time for it and let it be what it needs to be. And um I'm really grateful because so I I did the country project. I started the country project because when I got home in 2018, I actually was in a metal band with uh uh one of my oldest friends, and we had a big blowout band imploded. Like we had a whole album ready to go and whatever, and it imploded. I couldn't write music for a year. It took I and that was my outlet. So, like to not be able to do that, it was crushing, it was like horrible. And so I merged from metal music to country music because it was just coming out. I didn't know where it come came from. I I I don't, but you know, it's like that kind of sounds like a country song, you know. And my whole mentality has always been like, you know, like I if it if if it's my voice, then why do I care what it sounds like? Yeah, you know what I mean? Like if it comes out sounding like then I'm gonna, you know, I uh just as a creative. And um what's really cool about the song Grief is that we're actually gonna be doing a dual release. So uh my metal band is back together now. So um in Enough of Me, which is our new metal band, and um, you know, part of Jeremiah Bones as a country project, and I'll be releasing the song Grief both as a metal version and as an acoustic and country version. Wow, okay, and it's um it it truly is uh the proudest song I've ever written.

SPEAKER_05 48:44

Um, but can you sing a little bit of it?

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Uh you're trying to make me go a cappella right here, bro? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

I I should have brought my guitar. I'll uh I mean we could I mean hey, you want to do I'll do a three-song release session with you right here. You want me to put all three songs out? I'll come back this week. You know, we don't have to do it at the studio, we're gonna do it at we can do it down here if you want to. But the two so the two other songs that uh, you know, here and wait, um have very interesting ties as well because I wrote the song here uh about my soldier um in 2019. Uh he he took his life and um he had four daughters and the army um intentionally and toxically put him out uh unceremoniously and uh you know tied an arm behind his back and uh threw him in the water. And uh it never sat well with me. And and uh so 20, you know, 2019 uh I lose four people that year, and by the time summer had rolled around, so uh in 2019, January, my team leader took his life, February, my roommate took his life, March, Doc uh took his life, and then in June, uh Billy got hit and killed on his motorcycle coming home from deployment. And I looked at my wife and I was like, we need to like go, let's go. I don't care, like sell the house, refinance the house, sell the car. Like, we're going somewhere. I don't care. Like, and we had said, like, hey, let's go back to Hawaii because like we were there for five and a half years, but while we were there, we're in the middle. We didn't really get to explore and like hang out, like be civilians and be off duty, you know, like let's go back there, just you and me, 10 days, leave the kids with the grandparents. And that's what we did. And uh it was a great time. Got to see my soldiers out there and stuff and check in with everybody. And um, and my soldier sent me a he sent me a picture of a uh uh Sam Adams Boston lager in a Patriots koozie. And he's like, Hey, am I doing this right? You know, he knows I'm a diehard Pats fan, you know. And uh we're out at the we're out at a club, uh a jazz club down there in Honolulu with uh another friend of mine from the army, me and my wife, and so I saw his message and I got distracted, whatever, and forgot to respond and everything. And so we get back from the trip, I'm like, dang, like I didn't, I gotta respond to the and uh I should have responded. Because he took his life shortly after that, and um I remember going through and like you know, uh I say whenever that's it sounds like horrible to say whenever I lose someone, but I've I've lost the uh I mean total 19 people from the military alone, uh 12 of which were suicides. And after losing so many people, it's like the first the first thing I do, it never fails. I always go back to how'd we leave it? What's the last message I sent you? Like, and going back and like, but then it becomes like almost like a it or it started to become like an investigation. And it's like, bro, you're not gonna get answers. Like, you're just not, you're you're just not. Um, and that's something I've had to I've had to make peace with. And one of the things that I uh have found solace in in this whole process of losing my soldier and speaking to him just before and all these things, is that one of the last things I said to him, I was like, man, you gotta get to the VA, you gotta get your stuff straight, whatever. He's like, No. He's like, they screwed my brother, he deals with the same stuff, it's not worth it. And one of the last things I said to him was like, Yeah, that's true, but it doesn't mean you should quit. And uh And so I wrote the song here uh because all of those emotions from from that experience uh the concept behind here is literally like yeah, you're gone.

SPEAKER_00 52:44

And and I'm still here and I was always here whether or not.

SPEAKER_05 52:54

I mean we c we can talk to you for hours and hours, but yeah, y'all on a time crunch.

SPEAKER_01 53:00

I'm gonna take one time.

SPEAKER_05 53:01

Part two.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

All right.

SPEAKER_05 53:04

Um quadruple threat, writer, director, producer, singer, great husband, great dad. That's more than four. Yeah, that's that's what's now a Quinn Chuffle.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

He's the omni threat. I'm bad. I'm bad at man.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

We're back to omni threat.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

I call myself a renaissance man, you know, because uh it's not renaissance, I'm a nuisance, and I'm gonna get on your ass. You get in my way, you know.

SPEAKER_03 53:30

Like I like that.

SPEAKER_05 53:31

Dave, thank you so much for just sharing just a little part of your story and um and you know, continue to create because what you're doing is really important. Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 53:44

Thank you so much. And I do make happy music too, just for the uh I did release a summer banger this this summer, uh, got a whole line dance to it and everything. And like 250 people showed up to the release party at Wachusha Brewing to do it all and did a whole line. It's great. It was awesome. Shout out to Granite State Stomp. They do all kinds of line dancing and stuff. It was great, it was a great time. So Jeremiah Bones and Enough of Me and Grub Buds and all the other stuff I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02 54:09

Awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 54:11

Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Great seeing you.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

Thank you for coming on meeting with you all so much.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

Anytime you're uh you're willing to have me back, I'll I'll uh make sure I you know set the guitar. Yeah, I'll make sure I bring my guitar and I'll make sure Bale's set at a reasonable amount. Thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_05 54:29

Thank you. Thank you. Oh, that that was that was just incredible. Yeah, I mean, it's just you know, and it's conducive to the storytelling that we talked about, which is so important because you know, music is nothing but stories, movies are nothing but stories. Um and to be able to just capture that the way um Dave has, it's it's incredible. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

And um, and he's funny as hell. Yeah, he's awesome. Like, even though he makes me cry.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

How much of that did we lose? Yeah, we're good. Cool.

SPEAKER_05 55:10

B, you messed up our clothes again!

SPEAKER_03 55:14

I'm having a panic attack, guys. I don't want to lose footage again.

SPEAKER_05 55:19

Oh my gosh. Anyways, um, alright, yeah. Like, I I just I don't know what I wanna go have a good cry myself in my backyard. The sun's gone though. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

That's yeah. Um daylight. Okay. Peggy says there is daylight. Daylight so out we go.

SPEAKER_05 55:42

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