Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)
Come on a ride along with a Veteran Homicide Detective as the twists and turns of the job suddenly end his career and nearly his life; discover how something wonderful is born out of the Darkness. Embark on the journey from helping people on their worst days, to bringing life, excitement and smiles on their best days.
Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)
Double Down Gig Gab; Memories, Sex and Four Guys!
Welcome back to another exhilarating episode of the Murders to Music Podcast! This week, our host Aaron with his guests, the musicians of Double Down, dives deep into the years of playing together, stories from the road and unveiling the therapeutic layers of harmonies that uplift our spirits.
Join us as we highlight the formation and evolution of our band, Double Down. With engaging anecdotes and heartfelt insights, we recount unforgettable gigs and show how the power of music creates joy, laughter, and emotional healing. Experience the laughter and bond that flourishes among us, emphasizing our love for music and shared adventures.
Through personal stories of triumph and moments of vulnerability, we illustrate how music is a bridge to deeper connections. Discover the stories behind our most memorable performances, highlighting emotional encounters with audiences that underline music's profound influence on our lives and those we reach.
We invite you to listen as we navigate the complex interplay of music, friendship, and community. Don’t forget to subscribe, share our stories, and leave us a review! Your involvement enhances our musical journey, allowing us to reach more hearts through the healing power of music.
Gift For You!!! Murders to Music will be releasing "SNAPSHOTS" periodcally to keep you entertained throughout the week! Snapshots will be short, concise bonus episodes containing funny stories, tid bits of brilliance and magical moments!!! Give them a listen and keep up on the tea!
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Murderous Music Podcast. My name is Aaron, I'm your host and you guys are in for another awesome show. On tonight's show we have some guests and we've got four people in the room, myself included. That means there's three more, and these are the members of my band, double Down. You've met a couple of them in the past. Back on episode eight, you guys met Mr Michael Key. That episode was the Grinch, van Halen and the Ramada Inn.
Speaker 2:If you remember, michael Key is a Hollywood makeup artist. That has been his career Literally wrote the book on Hollywood makeup artistry. He's got shows that every single one of you have seen and you've probably seen the Grinch around Christmas time. It's got him written all over it. So we're so happy to have Mr Michael Key back tonight. Thanks, michael, for being here. Good to be here, my friend, awesome. Also on the show tonight, you guys remember Mr Jeff Jobert, episode number 24. Jeff Jobert you remember him because he and I met on Farmers Only and that is how we started our budding bromance and then he got into the band. Actually, we met at church, but Mr Jeff Jobert has been playing with me since 2018 in Double Down and we've been playing together for about a decade between Double Down and church. So, jeff, thank you so much for coming out tonight and being here and being a part of this.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me back, buddy.
Speaker 2:Of course. And then you guys haven't met this gentleman before, but Mr Mike Koblantz. Mr Mike Koblantz is the bass player. He lays down that fat groove that keeps everybody on the dance floor all night long. By day he's an electrical engineer, by nighttime he's a pimp. And he's a great dude. He sells weed on the side. He's a great. I'm just kidding, he's a great guy. And so, mike, thanks for being here with us. This is 420 already. Shoot, I know seriously. So his word is dope. If we say something, he's like dope.
Speaker 2:So, hey guys, so the purpose of tonight's episode? Right, I want to talk a little bit about the music. So Murders to Music is a podcast that you all know by now. Talk about my transition from law enforcement into some other world that I'm just figuring out. But the music side of that. I've played music my whole life and even through law enforcement. The therapeutic thread that held me together in the absolute worst times was music, playing music, playing music in church, and then getting up and sharing that talent with other people and kind of, for just a couple of minutes, transposing them to a magical place. I think we could all wrap our minds around the fact that music. You hear that song and it brings you back and you can smell the smells, taste the taste, see the sights and remember exactly what you're doing on those moments, and I think it is such a blessing for the four of us, or anybody else out there that has the privilege of doing music, to be able to share that with those around us, and I just want to talk about that tonight. So we're going to tell some stories good stuff, bad stuff have some laughs, just kind of discuss music and, without further ado, let's get into the show. Thank you, guys, so much for being here tonight. Yep, good times, good good times.
Speaker 2:So we've invited all of our guests that are listening along on this journey with us, and I just want to talk a little bit about Double Down and how this whole thing started and then get your guys' input. So Double Down is a band that started back in 2018. And prior to that, I played music with all these guys in the church environment. That's how we all met and that's going to be a common thread that we talk about throughout the night. But I met them all in church about throughout the night, but I met them all in church and in 2018, I personally had been playing in bands solid since 2010.
Speaker 2:I had a breakup on a band and he wanted to do something different and Jeff Jobert and I got together and we put together a duo and Jeff plays the bass, which is what I knew him to play, and he played the bass really, really well. But I wanted to find a power trio. So we're looking for a guitar player, somebody that could keep up with us and do what we wanted to do. And we kept sampling people off Craigslist and it's like finding a date. It just didn't work out. It was always me and not them. And then Jeff's like you know, I sing and I play guitar. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not really interested. And he's like just give me a shot. So we do it. And he plays Change the World, eric Clapton. And you know, by the third chord in the you know second line, I'm like, all right, we're in, this is what we're going to do. So that's how Double Down got started.
Speaker 4:So thank you.
Speaker 2:Jeff, oh, so much fun. And then, about a year later, we got asked to put together a larger band for a special event, and Double Down had been a duo up until this point. Duo just means two, and we'd been a duo to this point. Learned something new every day. Yeah, every day, guys.
Speaker 4:I thought you sat in with them once before I did.
Speaker 1:I think he's doing the truncated version. Oh yeah, you forget, you played for my Christmas party.
Speaker 2:We played the power trio.
Speaker 4:Triple Threat, Because he's the one who asked me. Triple Threat, Triple Threat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, triple Threat. We played Triple Threat. So, michael, tell us about your party. Your party, we played for that. I forgot all about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was one of those things. It was weird. My company had a Christmas party and the place where we were supposed to have it was being expensive and we'd had a downturn in business. I thought I just can't spend this kind of money to do this thing. I knew Salud. I thought maybe we could do it there, and talked to them came together.
Speaker 1:By coincidence, you two were already scheduled to play, and so I'm renting the rodeo room or wherever that thing is called, I think, with the big barn doors and it's like, well, you guys are there. And so we thought, well, okay, I'll come play a couple of songs with you, because you wanted me to play with you before. But, yeah, the season of life it was. Well, okay, I'll come play a couple of songs with you because you wanted me to play with you before. Yeah, yeah, the season of life it was. My ex-wife was not thrilled about it, so I didn't do it. So I'm like, okay, we'll play it. So I played a few songs with you and those were kind of the highlights of that. That was more fun than me being part of my own Christmas party. So it's like after that we would once in a while just do this triple threat thing. And then, yeah, the salute thing, when they wanted to do the anniversary show and like, kick it up a notch, do the full whole band thing. Well, that's really where it all came together.
Speaker 2:And that's where Double Down Wired was formed. So Double Down Duo is acoustic, double Down Wired is we're all plugged in and it ranges from three to six people, depending on what we need for that event and who we can rather gather to play for us. So Michael key I don't know why I always say his last name, but I do so Michael key is it like the like the serial killers and, uh, you know all those people, you had the three names Henry.
Speaker 1:James.
Speaker 4:John Henry James on. At least you're not putting my middle name. What's your middle name? We need to refer to you as Kelly Thomas.
Speaker 2:Kelly, Thomas, George was with us. So Michael Key I had been playing with him in church and the first time I met Michael Key at church it was back in probably 2015. And I go into church that night to play and there's this dude playing guitar and I'd seen him on stage before and he's very eclectic. When you see Mr Michael Key, there's rings, there's jewelry, he is Hollywood. I mean, he is Hollywood and I see it and he's wearing a scarf and I'm like who in their right mind wears a scarf? Well, he's wearing a scarf tonight. If you guys could see, Just for you, my friend, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but he should have a shirt under the scarf. It's a little weird. It's a little weird sitting here next to him.
Speaker 1:I was going to bring the jumpsuit, but it's at the cleaners. That guy's more French than me, I know.
Speaker 2:So he's wearing this scarf and I'm like, dude, what a phenomenal guitar player, so like bendy notes and just atmospheric stuff, and it was phenomenal. And, uh, I'm like, all right, I gotta play with this cat one time. So over the years, over the next couple of years from about 2015 to 18, I'm like, hey, you know you interested. He's like man, not really interested, little did I know he had stuff going on in the background so, um, he just wasn't his right time of life. But then 2019 comes around 18, and we're playing for his company event uh, coincidentally, and he jumps up on stage and starts ripping it with us and we're like we got something. And then, like he said, we did that power trio a few times.
Speaker 2:And then in August, 8th of 2019, which was Double Down's one-year anniversary, also Salud, the location where we were the house band at the time. It was their anniversary on the same day and they asked to put together a larger party. And here we go I start collecting from people that I've played with over the years through church. We put this band together. We all have that common thread. There's no drama, it just works. Mr Mike Koblantz, phenomenal bass player, asked him to come along. He's like dope, I'm down down, so he's in it, and uh, jeff, and it just worked out. What do you got?
Speaker 3:yeah, but when it came to that crazy first time jam with michael key, we rehearsed, of course, guys, but having him come and play at his own christmas party, I think his employees were super stoked to see that side of him.
Speaker 3:I was like this is a very cool thing, pal, and your employees were like this guy is awesome, this is so much fun. The tone was killer buddy and you got to pick and choose the songs you wanted to jam and then go sit down and enjoy some wine with your people. It was really cool.
Speaker 2:We really liked that time buddy.
Speaker 4:It was good. It was good.
Speaker 3:The bar we used to play down the way, the times we'd go rip it up there with this guy Some of the triple threat shows and it was. It was always super fun. Halloween in costume the three of us Amigos playing a bunch of wild bar folk.
Speaker 1:Oh, that thing yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was definitely a couple of years. That was fun, that was super fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember that night I had two dates show up, two gals that I was trying to maybe connect with show up at the same time.
Speaker 3:That's not fun. Yeah, I was like I didn't think that one would show up. She did, they both did.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right. You had your iPad died, see, that's why it didn't work the other night. I wasn't there to pray for it, you should have been there to pray over it for you?
Speaker 2:Yes, so Jeffy remembers this. So we were playing this show at a place called Washougal Times and it's a little bar. They do all kinds of stuff. Anyway, I've got my entire show loaded into our iPad, all of the lyrics, all of the notes, all of the One hour before yeah, one hour before we set up for the show, I go turn on my iPad.
Speaker 2:It's completely blank, all my stuff is gone, and then it wouldn't power up it like froze and my iPad was dying. And this iPad at the time was probably 8 or 10 years old and I'm like like holy crap, so I keep going through it. It's not working. It's not working. And I'm sitting at this table and, if you guys know me, at the time I was a cop and I was super high strung like I can't think of a more high strung prick than I was during some periods of my life and, um, everybody around the table here is nodding their head yes, so, uh, agreed, I am. Yeah. So I'm sitting there and I'm pissed off and just frustrated and the blood pressure's up and I'm like we got to pray, guys, everybody's got to pray because we got to pull this together and we said some prayers.
Speaker 1:Oh man, the way that went down.
Speaker 2:Come on, you tell us.
Speaker 1:You're sitting there, you're kind of freaking out, and I come over there and you're saying this, and you're all frustrated there. And you're saying this, and you're all frustrated, and then I go, let's pray, and I think you were just like really we're praying now. Brought it before God, and then it worked out.
Speaker 2:Turn the iPad back on and all of a sudden all our stuff's there, which?
Speaker 1:had nothing to do with me. It's all about what God does. I think at the moment I was thinking you were probably like this is the last thing I want to do. I I think in the moment I was thinking you were probably like this is the last thing I want to do.
Speaker 2:I'm not ready for this. Oh yeah, why do I got to turn to God? I'm the cop, I'm the one that's in control of this, not him. Like I said, I had some bad times in my life, but here we go. I'm so happy to be out playing now and I'll tell you a little bit about that in a second. You know, where have you guys played like co-bonds? Where have you played in the past? What have you done? What was your musical history before double?
Speaker 4:down. Oh, I start playing guitar in like college and I grew up playing violin in Elementary, in high school and then high school I started playing a little guitar. I don't know why, I just thought it'd be fun to learn. Then went to college and I joined the worship team in our Christian fellowship group and then everybody the next year graduated and they didn't have a guitar player anymore and then it was me. So it was like trial by fire.
Speaker 4:I was like, ah, so I did that for like three years and then we had a killer bass player and I would borrow his bass once in a while when we traveled and I liked that more. And anyway I ended up at a church in the DC area. We moved there. They didn't have a bass player and I was like, well, I can do that and I've been playing that ever since I this is actually my first like cover band thing I just I love it. The music. I just never. Really I never. I guess the experience you had with um, what were you saying With the Craigslist or whatever, that was kind of my fear.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't want to do that Sampling everybody.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I didn't want to join some egomaniacs thing. There's no egos when you do church music. I mean you run into them occasionally. But that's kind of what I was looking for. I didn't think you could find it, so I didn't really bother trying.
Speaker 2:Awesome man. You've been absolutely amazing having you in the band over the last few years.
Speaker 4:Thanks for asking. It's the perfect melding. It's music I like with good buds.
Speaker 3:It's way cool. This guy plays upright bass too, on demand.
Speaker 4:Not well, but I think I can fumble through it, you do just fine the fact that he's playing bass.
Speaker 2:Do you still play guitar at all?
Speaker 4:Not really. I've lost my calluses and all that stuff. But I have an electric I mess around with occasionally but it's never really great. I could chord but Nothing.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 4:Awesome. Yeah, nobody can see me shaking my head, no, I just realized.
Speaker 2:This is audio. Yeah, this is audio. Only bro. Yeah, uh, jeff, what about you, man? What's your history look like as far as uh playing gosh, you guys, originally it was.
Speaker 3:You know, growing up in la it was like coffee house venues, small stuff. You know, just when you're young and dumb you just get some buddies together playing um, definitely church settings, youth group venues for for students, whether it was paid or not. And then I got to jam with a real cool, really intense Christian band for a while there that uh changed names a few times but eventually settled on soulified and they were really cool and I was playing slap, funk, wild bass for those guys and really pushed me hard and a lot of rehearsals. We'd pay money for studios in LA to go go rehearse. Uh, michael Ke key does what that's like. Um, you don't want the space, you got to go make it happen. And then we played it um at least twice in hollywood. One was a place called the coconut teaser, on sunset it was. It was a really great show. I was underage, um did my set and I was kicked out of the building to go see my folks and everybody who came to see us. It. It was really funny. Early days were just wild.
Speaker 3:Then just years and years of leading worship for church on the main stage for the big congregation back home in a church that was very large, kind of like your current one, over the years, just monkeying with guys Nothing serious as this. That's why these guys will smile. My commitment to Aaron was to come be with this guy, have a great experience, mainly play bass and maybe sing the whole thing. Be the singer and play bass or what have you with the power trio, and give this guy some musical therapy. But he's so intense that I got sucked in for like six years. That's awesome and I know a lot of great songs, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've got a lot. You said something that reminded me about playing underage, so I started playing when I was 13. Said something there that reminded me about playing underage, so I started playing when I was 13. And when I was 14 years old 13 and a half years old my mom got into this really bad car crash and she got in a head-on collision. A lot of bones were broken and she was listening to the song wipe out.
Speaker 2:When she heard it now, all right, so that's not the point of the story she was listening to the song Wipeout and during that song she was hearing the drum solo. And after she's in hospital recovery and traction for six months, she's like hey, I remember I want you to play that song for me and everybody else in the band. The name of the band was Generations. I was the youngest one and my mom surprised me and showed up for that gig and as soon as she walked through the door, I'm leading the show, I'm on drums. We stopped playing whatever we were playing and we went right into Wipeout and it was a really, really cool moment. It was awesome. So, talking about playing underage, dude, I was totally there with you.
Speaker 4:I can't think of a worse song to get to a car accident with.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry dude, let's think of a worse song right now.
Speaker 1:I don't know it's really bad Time to burn.
Speaker 4:I don't know. Oh, that one Eddie Vedder covered where the girl dies in the car wreck.
Speaker 1:Where can my baby be? Whatever that one that's like an old 50s tune, that'd be really bad. Highway to hell would be pretty bad Highway to hell would be, pretty bad.
Speaker 2:What about you, mr Key? What's your background? What? Where have you done musical stuff at? I've done.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't know what I wanted to do in life. And then at 14 years of age I went to my first concert, saw Peter Frampton and I knew what I wanted to do. I want to do what that guy's doing because he's having a hell of a lot of fun. And so for 10 years I went after that with everything I knew how to do. I got a guitar, started playing, got lessons, got really lucky and had a guy that became famous later to be my guitar teacher, a guy named Randy Rhodes, and it was a one kind of garage band thing for a real short time.
Speaker 1:And then, as soon as high school was done, I got into a Christian band and I'm gigging every weekend. We're playing these originals and me with all the older guys, I'm the punk kid at 18. So for about five or six years I played in various Christian bands and we were really unusual because we played in a lot of churches. But also I started playing in clubs, christian band playing in rock and roll. Hollywood clubs like the Troubadour and you know, played the rock scene, you know played places like that, and Christian bands didn't do that. In fact that was pretty frowned upon, thinking well, what are you doing there? Out there in the world, there's people drinking there, striper and those types.
Speaker 4:Were you in the metal Christian metal scene like hard rock.
Speaker 1:No, not the metal thing. I knew people and still know a few people that are into that, but it's not where I know Randy Rhoads is known for like metal thing, but that wasn't. You know not where I was coming from. I was loving, like you know, journey more melodic kind of rock things Played with a lot of people rubbed shoulders with a lot of folks that were famous. Just because if you're there, that ends up happening. So, yeah, I went after all that until I was 24, and then I realized, oh, my goodness, this may not pan out for me to make a living in this. Goodness, this may not pan out for me to make a living in this. And so I did about a 10-year hiatus in music. I was pretty bummed and then I quit doing that.
Speaker 1:Then, you know, after 10 years I started to play a little bit in church on that and started playing worship bands a lot. Then I hooked up with you guys and started doing covers. So that's pretty fun too. Actually, that's been really great. I really really appreciate that because it's given a whole other vocabulary of things to do. And I should say something about. You know, aaron, you said earlier, all of us connected at church playing on worship teams and one of the reasons I think that we all get on together because we've actually played real gigs. That's something that's changed in church, especially a lot of young folks. They've never played outside the church, they don't know, they think everything is in ears. I think it's all about silent stage and all about you know, you don't make eye contact and all the things that are kind of like Western church culture, things like that. But we, you know, we all have played out and played in all kinds of situations and I think that's one of the reasons why we get on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I totally agree. You know what, michael. You just said something that I want you to expand upon a little bit. You said in-ears. There's people listening to us right now that have no idea what in-ears are. Maybe they've seen them. What is in-ears? What is a wedge? The difference? What is a silent stage? Walk us through that little five-minute tech snippet.
Speaker 1:Sure, I know I realize I'm kind of doing inside baseball, you know, kind of talking. It's all good for IEMs, in-ear monitors, so basically it's like what earbuds are, and although they had been around for a long time, they were brought into the musical industry for doing that, so that you could have a wireless pack and be able to hear yourself without having to hear everything from speakers on a stage. That kind of cut the cable, figuratively and realistically, on musicians and singers to be able to roam the stage and be performers in a way and still be able to hear themselves.
Speaker 1:Because, you know, if you're a guitar player and you walk away from your amp and go on the other side, now you don't hear yourself anymore if you're just using those speakers. So in-ears were created for that, which is weird, because that's not the way the church uses it at all. The church doesn't want, uh, musicians to be mobile, they want them to stand in their place mostly. I mean, there's there's some exceptions, there's some more um, festive, uh, churches, that'll do that. You got a four-foot bubble. If that, yeah, that's your space.
Speaker 1:But what they do is they're trying to do that to create what's called a silent stage, which is, for the most part, not a thing that really ever happens. Because if there's acoustic drums, there's sound. That's not silent. If there's an acoustic guitar, that's not silent, that's not silent. If there's an acoustic guitar, that's not silent. But churches, really, they've become obsessed with. Is that too strong a word? Maybe I'll just use it anyway. What the hell? Obsessed with trying to make the band, the worship team, into a stereo so they can just kind of turn up and down. So the church lady and, ah, it's too loud, okay, well, we'll just turn it down, ma'am, let's see, we're so good.
Speaker 4:Well, some of that solves some problems because, uh oh yeah, I went to a church that was like portable, like we set up in schools oh yeah yeah absolutely where it was like concrete walls and tile floors, like the worst Sonic, and we were all wedges and what you're doing is you're you're fighting and you're always pushing front of house over the monitors, because everybody's got a monitor, the singers want it loud so they can hear it over the amps that are on stage and all this stuff, and before you know it, you got 100 decibels coming just from the stage and it sounds like mud, so you got to crank the mains over that to try to get. And then people are just like this is crazy loud, I can't. I can't live like this. That happens, yeah. So the easy solution to that is well, no amps on stage, no wedges, let's just go. Let's go monitor.
Speaker 2:It makes mixing a whole lot easier you know, I think technology has changed so much over the years. From when we all started this, it was bass cabinets and amps on stage and you put everything on the same sound stage. So your guitar hit the audience the same time the snare drum did. Usually the amps would flank the drum set and everybody stood in front of it and they blocked part of the sound. You know, and that's what technology used to be. And now, with silent stage and in-ears and everything else, it's really changed the way that we perform and we're all old enough and been doing this long enough to remember the old days of amps on stage. And now you know you don't see that very often. Wait a minute.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It's not happening very often. Where are you talking about Qualify that?
Speaker 2:So, dan, look at a church. If you're looking at a church, you're not seeing a lot of amps on stages. Um, they're usually behind the walls or in a soundproof box or whatever it may be mic'd and then piping in for that silent stage idea. But even in bands, cover bands that you know I go out and watch or see I don't see a lot of amps on stage. I see a lot of direct input bass, direct input, guitars direct input, pedal boards direct input.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're seeing something very different than I am I'm going to see like hit machine dance all days and they've all got amps and they're still using in-ears, especially hit machine, because they're. You got clicks going on and bart, now I'm way inside yeah, bart the singer, he's put together these things and has some extra tracks with it. Sure, and all of it. But yeah, I, I don't see. I did a poll too Not to be so contrary.
Speaker 2:No, it's totally fine. That's what we're on.
Speaker 1:I'm a heterodox by nature, so it's just the way it works. I don't know how to explain that word.
Speaker 2:I can edit all this out.
Speaker 1:Go ahead and have your moment I'll edit this.
Speaker 1:And I did. There's Facebook where everybody congregates, for you know worship players that are on it. I did this one group that I'm a part of. It's a really large one, I think there's 40,000 players in it and I did a poll because I do find this like. There's these people that are into the silent stage. They think everybody's doing silent stage and then you just start thinking, wow, everybody must be doing silent stage because they're saying it, Everybody's doing it. So I did a poll and it was only about 18% of churches that did not allow speakers on stage. It was a much smaller If you combine those. There were a couple of them, but it's really showing, if I can believe the data that's there, there's actually more churches that have amps on stage than the ones that don't. Wow, when was the last time you were at a concert where they didn't have any amps on stage?
Speaker 4:They all got in-ears. A lot of them are decorative these days, but it depends on like we run amps technically on stage. They're behind stage, though All of our electric guitar guys put them behind there, so if you ask them if they have amps on stage, they might say yes, they might except for me, except mine's on stage.
Speaker 2:So Michael before we move on from this topic. I just want you to say for editing purposes yes, Aaron, you're right. Just say that yes.
Speaker 4:Aaron, you're right. Thank you, that's a soundbite that's coming back.
Speaker 2:So let's talk a little bit about our memories. Right, We've all played together enough. We played lots of shows. I think Jeff and I played over a hundred shows one year. There was a ton. So let's talk about some memories. Does anybody have a memory that stands out to them?
Speaker 4:Of us playing together. Yeah, hmm, I had one when we started. Now it's gone.
Speaker 1:I love that wedding we did at the Black Rock. That was awesome. That was a good time. Black pearl, thank you for the correction.
Speaker 3:Well, that was just after covid and so like was it yeah it was during it was just loosening up, because there's 22 yeah, so they had to slam the door, but remember they're like this is a mask-free event, come on into your own risk.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I remember we were playing something like they're just dancing and going crazy oh, oh.
Speaker 1:They had such a good time. We had such a good time. It was great. I was worried about it, and that's actually where you were right. You were absolutely right about the venue. I was concerned about reflection, because it's a lot of concrete oh gosh. Yes, and that can be detrimental, and it being fine, I guess those rafters they're deep enough that like sound traps or something. Anyway, that was so, so, so fun. Uh, you did a great job emceeing it and you did a combo didn't you.
Speaker 1:You did a combo of us doing band and dj.
Speaker 2:You did some dj stuff too I did uh not at that show, but I did the dj when we were out in moving to the left and moving to the right.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got to do people dancing, yeah, so since I come out of law enforcement, my memory is completely shot. So thank you, guys. I hide my own Easter eggs sometimes, so, michael, thank you for reminding me of DJing that wedding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to steal that phrase. That's a good one, I like that.
Speaker 4:I remember being kind of somewhat emotional while playing it. It because everybody's just dancing and I was just like I thought we were. Maybe I'm pessimist. I thought we were doing good, but like I didn't think we're doing that good, like I was like this is going well, but these people are going nuts. They're just having a time. And then it hit me like oh, it's been two years, nobody's been able to do this.
Speaker 4:This is probably the first time yeah yeah, that these people are getting out and dancing and listening to live music Like man, that sucks. This is really special it was a super special moment for us. Yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 2:What about you, jeff? You and I have played the most shows out of anybody here together. Any memories that stick out? Oh gosh pal.
Speaker 3:You know I mentioned in the last cast the fact that you know, in this crew, even with us four or five, I have felt like the weakest link a lot of times and you know I've had to be kind of the Aaron's, like the manager. I'm going to be kind of like the band director, you know, making sure the keys are cool, we could all play together appropriately and I'm kind of leading all that melodic charge. But there's been times when this cat has called me and I'm at home rehearsing and he's like hey, buddy, you're coming down on the show. It's 10 minutes from now. I go. Oh yeah, I guess I should, uh, you know, put on a shirt and, uh, you know, you grab, grab my gear and come on down. So the early years I had to be, I had to be trained to be a better musician and, and, uh, an amigo, to show up on time and be super professional, because Aaron really wants such a killer show out of his bandmates that it made me way better. It did, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when he calls me, he's like hey, I'm on my way. I got stopped by the police and I told them that you're an officer, so they're going to let me go. Those kind of phone calls when they come in, I'm like thanks, bro, Appreciate you.
Speaker 4:That weird gig that we had at a field in Wilsonville At the park, oh that corporate thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where we showed up and nobody was there.
Speaker 4:And we were like is this the right park? We were supposed to start at like 11 or whatever we were there at like 10.
Speaker 4:Aaron's, like there's outlets, let's just plug in and set up, I know. And so finally it was supposed to be at 11 or whatever. And then, or something like 11, 50 people showed up from the company and we're like, oh, thank you, lord, like because we're there, like I guess we go for it and like it was a great set. Yeah, it really was, but it was so weird and those, uh was odd, those kooky yoga chicks came by. Yeah, they were like doing yoga by the river at like 6 am or something, so on that, so I'm the yoga chicks.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you that story. So on my board I have what's called virtual sound check, so we play it, records it, and then we can step away from the stage, listen to it back and adjust our levels. So we need more bass, we need more drums. So we have played a couple of songs. We recorded them. The band is standing out front of the stage looking at an empty stage, playing the music back, and the yoga ladies come by and they standing out front of the stage, looking at an empty stage, playing the music back, and the yoga ladies come by and they're like, staring at the stage, she's like they're really good, aren't they? Like there's people on the stage. It was empty, there was nobody up there.
Speaker 4:They just figured it out. I was like is that you guys? I'm like yeah, we recorded. She's like oh, you're not wearing instruments currently. Like what like?
Speaker 1:it blew my mind see. What's the problem, though, is they think we're millie vanillie. I think we're not really playing anything when he does that they're just miming the whole thing.
Speaker 2:I don't know so my memory so uh is it's a good memory. It was a memory of michael key. So michael key, we play a couple years ago, probably the last time the full band played at salute and michael key has had a hurt back for a couple of weeks and uh, so he's had this hurt back a couple of weeks and halloween gig.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was halloween it was a halloween show the henry the fifth outfit, yep that's it.
Speaker 2:And we're gonna play this halloween show and you know, I'm thinking to myself. I'm like man, you know, hopefully he can make it, but if he can't, what are we going to do? And he's like dude, I'm going to be there. So he shows up to the event and he's out there playing, or he's out there playing with us. And he probably had some pain medication on board, if I had to guess. And he was high, he was high, he was high. So that is a central nervous system depressant. And I'm watching Michael and Michael is usually just locked into everything and Michael is having so much fun that night that, well, he's not quite as locked in, as solid, as he usually is, but he's out front dancing and we had this dude at our show and he was drunk and dancing and just all over the place. And michael key, you remember stepping out dancing with him. Is that the scarf guy? No, yeah, we've got pictures of it. You totally stepped out and we're dancing with this really drunk dude. What you've got your guitar on, yeah yeah oh, and you're.
Speaker 2:You got your guitar on but you're out there because you're all wireless and you're dancing with this guy with the guitar and it's just the two of you and I'm like he's having so much fun. You know his back was hurt, but it was so cool to have you there and just to show your dedication to show up. It was pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:Probably combining the pain medication with wine was maybe not such a great Okay.
Speaker 2:So that was my politically correct version yeah, alcohol. And that was my politically correct version yeah, alcohol and wine. It's an additive effect on depressants and things went slow, but it's okay, it's all right. What?
Speaker 3:were you going to say, jocky? One of my full band memories when we had a lovely gal named Christina Estes-Jama with us a real professional in Portland. She came and did a handful of shows with us. She was part of our band for a little bit there and when the full band was locked in, with her doing a bunch of other tracks, we pushed ourselves to do some that were definitely harder for us to grapple because we didn't have that power. You know that power female vocalist until those gigs. But then we came together at one of our big party gigs, at salute, and we played um uh, shallow for the first time that was that was a very good moment for the band we all swelled in.
Speaker 3:I had to be Bradley Cooper, she was Lady Gaga. It was really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as soon as we hit the climax of that song, the crescendo of that song, everybody cheered. It was pretty awesome. We've got it on video somewhere. It was pretty freaking cool. Dude, I completely forgot about that.
Speaker 1:That was a great memory, great time. Yeah, that was a good one, that, and those weird eyeballs that she had on her car yeah, eyelashes.
Speaker 4:She has weird eyelashes, yeah that's right.
Speaker 1:Those eyelashes on her headlights Girl.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you guys this what is it like for you? Now we know why we. I don't want to ask this question what do you get emotionally from playing, or do you get anything emotionally from playing? Is there an emotional connection to it, whether you're playing in church or whether you're playing out at a bar, and what is the difference for you? Do you guys understand my question? What I'm getting at? There's a reason why we all do this. What's our why? So you know, koblentz, what's your why? Why do you do this and what do you get from it emotionally?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean for the church stuff. I don't. I don't like singing and I don't really like the sound of my voice singing. So, uh, maybe it's self-conscious, it just it doesn't occur to me. But I find that, like praising God and worshiping, I resonate when I'm playing and so that's just kind of how my soul sings. I guess you'd say it's a cheesy way to put it. That's awesome. For the double down stuff I mostly just tune out the audience because I feel weird about people coming to see me play. I think that's weird, but I enjoy playing with you guys in the tunes, so I just kind of tune them out and we just have a good time. When the energy gets going, then that's infectious.
Speaker 3:Yeah, totally, totally, dude, I could take or leave a crowd while we're playing this. There's definitely songs and artists that he does not like.
Speaker 4:Yeah, oh yeah, anything with Margaritaville or anything like that.
Speaker 3:I get a.
Speaker 1:Stan.
Speaker 4:Margaritaville.
Speaker 3:You're a big.
Speaker 1:Van Halen fan yeah.
Speaker 3:I'd play some Van Halen. No springs need for that guy, that's right.
Speaker 4:Oh, I was like yeah, I've come around on that. Yeah, originally I was like ugh, but the fire's pretty good.
Speaker 2:Fire's good, pretty good. What about you, mr Key?
Speaker 1:What a key. What do you get out of this? Uh, what's what's your passion, what's your drive? Well, to me, I think it's. It's a way you're wired people people are, have different strengths and weaknesses, and which is great. It's a good thing that we're not all everybody's the same, and I think anybody that is a, an actor or a musician or singer, anything like they're wired in a way to be able to have the capacity to do it. You mentioned that I wear jewelry and I do things a little different.
Speaker 1:I have the capacity to not look like everybody else. It's awesome, and I've actually read and studied some of this a long time ago because I was wondering like some people are. They have to look exactly like anybody else. If they have anything that's really unique or anything that's not the norm, they feel like their hair's on fire. If they're doing that, they feel like they're just being totally ridiculous. They can't deviate from that. That's just the way they're wired. And there's other people that have to look like a clown walking down the street. Otherwise they feel they're a conformist, and then all of us are in between that. Right, there's various levels of it, and I probably have a little bit more capacity to be me than maybe an average person, and I'm okay with it and I'm good with it and I think in the same way really is the way for us as players to get up and perform and do that. Either you're kind of wired that way to do that or for other people, like public speaking, yeah that's probably true.
Speaker 1:Public speaking is like some people. It's been said that some people to scare their ass, what's the scariest thing you could ever, ever do? And it would be you have to speak in public. For them it's like wow, that would be like, yeah, the number two fear is death, and one is public speaking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to be able to public speak, and it's like other people can speak to an audience and it's just fine and it's natural for them. So I think that we're different. So, for you know, for me personally I think I just have, since I've been doing it from an early age I have no problem in playing in front of people. In fact, the more people the better it is, you know. So it's when you're playing for five people's, when it feels a little odd. You're trying to, you know, to do a performance for five folks, it just feels awkward and wrong. But no, I really enjoy playing with people. I enjoy the interaction, if there is some, which is great, because I know our church is fairly stoic you don't get a lot. Yeah, totally. So when you do get some interaction kind of like Michael you were talking about at that wedding gig how people were so enthused that is just wonderful and fun. It's like, oh, people are enjoying what I'm doing. I think it's probably like sex you want your wife to show some enjoyment and some enthusiasm at some point.
Speaker 4:Wow, wait stop right there, you're just perverted Is it time for pizza yet?
Speaker 1:Yeah, is it time for pizza yet? There's an interaction there. It should be a relationship, a give and take, and hopefully there is that. I do enjoy playing music. I've been thanking God a lot more about it lately, because here I'm I can't believe I'm still playing out and doing all this stuff. It's way cool, man. I didn't know it was going to still be done, but I enjoy it as much as ever. It's a great outlet. I think it's something that's good. I think dancers are that way. I'm a little envious of that. I would like to be a dancer at some point, not dance for other people, but just dance more than just wiggle. I'd love to learn swing dance. People that are dancers always tell me dancers live longer. Really, yeah, that's awesome. I don't know if it's true. I guess, if you're physical and you move a lot, I guess that's good.
Speaker 4:Anyway, I don't know if I answered your question or not, but I said a bunch of stuff. Now that you've likened sex to play, I'm never going to play in public again.
Speaker 2:I'm never going to be able to play music. This thing Just don't stand in front of me when we're playing. What about you, jeffy? What's your passion, what's your drive? What are you feeling when you're out there playing church, secular, and is there a difference?
Speaker 3:You know, guys, for church it is that you know, it's that worshipful nature. You know, when you're up there playing your instrument, buddy, whether it's guitar, bass, keys or singing and having a good time, or drums Of.
Speaker 3:I love drums I love playing with you about um, but having that part of your life as the um the driver for for worshiping god is a been is a huge deal for me. It's um. A lot of people don't get it. They're just like you know, man, you're up there and you have this great commitment. You've been playing for the same church for years and years and years, um, and they don't really understand why You're like I just love it. It's a different family, right? So it's another one of our families. We're playing worship together and it's our cool band. Then we come together and it's like oh man, you have that super flow with Double Down.
Speaker 3:But, guys, when it came to the private stuff outside of church, I always felt like it was. I wanted to perform for people, but I also wanted to mean something and that's probably why I like those B B sides so much. Yeah, I always hand me everybody. They hand me for being a B side guy, um on the, on the real records.
Speaker 3:But I do like songs that are really intimate and powerful and I I could just play ballads all day. Aaron knows this. He has to break me off that, cause it doesn't work well with the duo when I'm making him play really softly or bringing in chimes and things. So, yeah, I'm always like, but I want to play these really intimate venues and get some of my favorite memories ever was me playing my acoustic guitar uh, maybe a party when I was in high school. And then I'd stop for a quick, you know beverage break and I heard someone say who turned off the music, who dropped the radio, and I was like, oh man, that's such a great compliment that is so cool singing and playing and playing and someone's like dude that was killer.
Speaker 1:Those types of things. What's a?
Speaker 3:B-side. It's a B-side.
Speaker 1:What is a?
Speaker 3:B-side. Good question, val, new generation. Thanks, mikey, it's B-sides, no-transcript going well, let's have another listen and you go there like. These songs are definitely the songs that the band wanted to play.
Speaker 1:they just they're not commercially as commercially available per se yeah, for clarity, for for the younger people in the crowd, they're probably familiar with a record album which usually would have something like about 10 songs, like five on each side. But they would put out a thing called a 45, and it's a very small record and they would just have one song on a side. So there would be the hit song that would be on side A and on the other side would be some other song that they want to try to get out.
Speaker 2:That's what's called a b-side, true, and when I and jeffy, when I say b-side over the years, uh, it's never been a negative connotation. So for me it's always been important in the band to play what I think and for us to play what I think the crowd is going to interact with and what is going to get the crowd either singing along or out of their seats and onto the dance floor. And so the B side for me are not necessarily songs that I don't think are good. They're just songs that I don't think were the most popular. They weren't in the top, you know, 50 and as far as hits go.
Speaker 2:And those are the songs that I try to pick and put out. I try to think what is a crowd going to do to this song put out. I try to think what is a crowd going to do to this song? They're not going to know it. They're likely could leave. You know, and I'm not saying there's not good gems there, but that's what I talk about when I say B-side. So for me it's not a negative connotation, it's just stuff that I don't think the masses will know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Just a Three Dog Night, just an old-fashioned love song. I think that was a B-side. My mom had that 45, and I think Joy to the World was the A-side. I listen to the B-side more, that's an incredible song. We should have done that for Valentine's Day. That's a beautiful song. We should totally do it. Paul Williams' tune, didn't he write that? Oh, which one. Just an old-fashioned love song.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what? Just an old-fashioned love song. Yeah, I think that. I think you're right. I think that is paul williams. Yeah, what that we just went nerdy? No, it's all good, we're gonna nerd out on this.
Speaker 2:So, for me, feelings, for me, feelings, feelings for me are this you know, I played music my whole life for the threat of therapy through the chaos of my job, and that has always been the route that brought me back. You know, and I remember playing when I was still a cop and I was high strung and an a-hole all week and those people from my office would come see the band play and they would see me on stage interacting with the crowd and doing my thing and they're like who the hell is this guy and where is he? Monday through Friday, you know, they didn't recognize it cause it was a different side of me. And then coming out of law enforcement, you know, if you've listened to the podcast, you know I've withdrawn and pulled away from not only friends and family and motorcycling and music. You know, we played three events last year, I believe, and that is totally not what's in my DNA. Um, but there was a weight lifted off of me when I severed ties with the city about three weeks ago and went through that mitigation hearing and you can listen back to the podcast about that. There's a whole show about it but that weight really opened up my eyes to wanting to do more and wanting to not only play back in church, which I haven't done in a year and a half to find that worship, to find that connection with God when I'm behind the drums and if you've ever seen me play drums at church, just look at my face and it's pretty obvious where I'm at mentally and then on the secular side of the world with Double Down, you know I just want to start giving back to people and I'm going to tell a story about this last show.
Speaker 2:This last show it was a Valentine's Day show. It was a trio it was me, jeff and Mike Koblantz on bass, and we were going to do a party show. All of the songs were upbeat, party fun songs and my idea was to hopefully get people off their butts and onto the dance floor. And it worked out. But prepping for that show, I started prepping for it prior to coming, prior to my mitigation hearing, and I was really down about it. I didn't want to do it. I was forcing a square peg into a round hole. And then mitigation comes after a couple days of, you know, adjustment, feeling better about life. And we started having these practices and it was pretty awesome and I was really excited about playing the show and some passion and fire came back and I haven't felt that in several years and that was therapeutic in itself.
Speaker 2:But then we get to the show and the place is sold out. There's seating for 40 people in there. Every seat is filled with a reservation, except for a two top table and there's a one open seat up by the band stand and I sit down and there's an older couple there in their seventies, a man and his wife, and they start talking to me about the band and I tell them who we are and how to find us on Facebook, at DDownDuo, on Facebook that's how they found us. And the lady says, hey, do you know a song named Moonshadow? And I had never heard of Moonshadow. I'm like I don't know Moonshadow. So I'm like who sings it? Cat Stevens. So I'm like Jeff will know. And I'm like Jeff, you know Moon Shadow. He's like, oh yeah, I know it. I'm like, all right, cool. So we get up on stage and we've got a set list planned out and I lean over to Jeff. I'm like, hey, jeff, let's play Moon Shadow as this first song. So he's like, all right. So he takes 30 seconds and he remembers it, pulls it out of the memory vault from 30 years ago and gets the lyrics and all that in his head and here we go. He's like follow me guys. So we play moon shadow. And they're really happy. They are the first couple, they are 15 feet from us and their eye contact the whole time and just smiles and it was really cool. And then, as the night goes on, the dance floor got packed, they're out of their seats, they're dancing all night long. That was super cool. And, uh, the night over.
Speaker 2:Now and she comes up to us, her husband walks away. She comes up and she's teary eyed and I'm still on stage, the adrenaline is still up, we're still pretty pumped. We've been done playing two minutes at this point. And she comes up and she says, hey, tonight was really special. And she's kind of teary eyed and I said, yeah, music hits people in really awesome ways. She's like that's not it. She says I have cancer and I've had, I think she said, 17 major surgeries and I'm not doing well, and she didn't have to say that it was terminal, but that's what she's saying. And by this time she's crying and she says, uh, you know, I've been trying to get my husband to dance with me for three years and he would never do it and we danced the entire night. Tonight she's like this was such a blessing.
Speaker 2:And it was just that moment where I wanted to start crying. I gave her a hug and, you know, it was God reminding me that the talents he's given us and what he does, it's to get that feeling in people. It's to sing that Garth Brooks song, the Dance that you haven't heard since your uncle's funeral 15 years ago, and it brings you right back into that moment, which was another thing that occurred when I sang that song several years back at Salud and it brings you back into those moments and that is why I do this. That is the passion, that is the reason why I push for, not perfection, but I definitely want us to bring out a good show, because I want to touch people in those special, special places. Not that special place, it's weird, but in something about your route?
Speaker 1:Yeah, not their special.
Speaker 2:I did grow up in Alaska.
Speaker 1:I grew up. I grew up in a double down selfie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I grew up in a small town in Alaska and there wasn't a whole lot to do. No, I've completely ruined the moment, but the whole point you guys got I'm done talking about this we know what you're saying.
Speaker 2:So real quick, guys. We're going to wrap this up here in just a second. But before we wrap it up, one thing I really want to emphasize in this band and we spoke about it kind of throughout the day or throughout this show but the friendships that we have, we're not just bandmates, we're friends. Our families are connected. We've celebrated losses, we've celebrated wins. It's been super cool. You know, I don't know how many times we've been at shows and whether it's my son dying in the hospital, which was actually five years ago today, that he almost died on the operating table. Wow, like at 8.25 pm, what time is it right now?
Speaker 4:8.11. Oh my goodness 8.11 pm.
Speaker 2:At 8.25 pm, five years ago today, my son nearly died on a hospital table and Jeff and I had a show a week later and he was still in the hospital. Obviously he spent 70 days in there, I believe, and Jeff and I have never canceled the show. So I went to this show. It was therapeutic.
Speaker 2:But I got this huge picture of my son, like 18 by 36 or something, and I got it laminated and put it on an easel and I told the story about my son almost dying a week earlier and everybody, including myself, was in tears and they all came up and they signed that picture for my kid and people I didn't know, and they gave him love offerings and that got brought back to my son and he still got it in his room and it's that kind of stuff that makes this band so freaking special. You know, we don't mind sharing our wins and losses with our fans, because they're not fans, they're family and that is what I love so much about this band and we couldn't do it without the three, you know, the four of us sitting in this room. So thank you guys, so much for your commitment to family over the last five, eight years, whatever we've been doing this, was this 2025? We've been doing this seven, eight years now. Wow.
Speaker 2:That's insane, it's a long time, bro. It was really well put. Wow, that's insane, it's a long time, bro. That was really well put. Yeah, so thanks, I really appreciate you guys. You know so, guys.
Speaker 2:As you guys listen to this, I really just wanted to talk about the band and what we do and the therapeutic side of life, and the murders to music Going from helping people on their absolute worst day and being a memory they never want to think of again, and every time I call them, I'm ripping the scab off that wound, transitioning, using the skills and talents that God has given me, with attention to detail and all that stuff. Now helping people on their absolute best days, when the four or five of us can come together and play a wedding and make memories for that couple from 2022 at the Black Pearl that they will never forget. Nobody's going to remember the poached salmon that they ate at the wedding, but they're going to remember how the music and environment made them feel, and that is why we do what we do. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for sticking around for this show. Thank you so much for being a fan. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, at DDownDuo we're on the web, doubledownduocom. We love you guys.
Speaker 2:That is the Murders to Music podcast.
