Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. You sound excited, Ray. Well, you told me to be more animated.

Oh, I see. Thank you for going with this. That's why I did it that way.

Okay, let's hear that again. I don't think I can do it again. I think I hurt myself.

Yeah, yeah, you pulled the muscle somewhere. I think so, I think so. I don't think I can get out of this chair for a while.

Well, I actually told you that we're meeting with the band Animation. That's right, we are. And we talked with them.

We talked with Tony and Julian or Jay and Joe. They are a tribute to Rush. Not Eminar Rush or Miami Rush.

No. We're talking Rush. We're talking Rush.

We're talking Geddy, Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson. That's right. So let's find out about Animation and how they got started and how they've kept the name alive for many, yo, these many years.

And what they're doing today. That's right. Let's go.

Let's talk to them and see what they have to say. How you doing, everybody? Today we're meeting with the band Animation. We're meeting with Tony Gurman, Joe Rocha and Jay Rocha.

How are you guys doing today? Hi, guys. Fantastic. So Animation is a tribute to Rush, correct? Yes.

And so tell us a little bit about, tell us a little bit about the band. Now, from doing some homework, I understand that you guys are the current formation of Animation, but it was, and the band actually started back in 87 or 80? Yeah, it started back in 1987. And yeah, the original members, let's see, it was Chet and Dan when drums and it wasn't even Jay, our vocals, it was some other guy.

Yeah, it's gone through, I think I'm the third or fourth guitarist in line. I can't remember. I think Joe's the third Getty.

And then I think I'm like the third Neil too. Are you the third Neil? Yeah. So yeah, because it was Danny.

Well, actually, wait a minute. Wasn't there? It was Roy. Roy was in there too.

Rich Matuka was the original drummer. Yeah. Yeah.

So there were two more people. And then Danny was actually the guy that actually brought the band forward. It was Danny, Chet and Jay.

Yeah. So I don't even know how to say Mr. Dan's last name. He's going to hate me for this.

Dan Van Schindel. Actually, Van Schindel. Yes.

And then so Chester Lyshon and Jay Spikes. Okay. So that's what some people refer to as the classic lineup.

That was the lineup I knew. Yeah. So all through the 90s and that was late 80s, early 90s, most of the 90s, that was the case.

And then they went through some different members about 20 years ago now. I know Jim Tomaselli was on drums. Jim actually was the one who got me in the band when Adam Gothridge, who was another guitar player, left.

And so yeah, I've been in, I guess, I remember I was the new guy for a long time and now I'm the old guy. So I've been around since 2009 or 10. I forget now, one of those two years.

Yeah. And so yeah, we've gone through quite a few different people, but we're still kicking. We're still playing.

So then our connection, like Tony was saying, Tony was in the band two or three years before I came in. I've been in like maybe eight, nine years, I think. 2011.

Okay. So 2011. So then yeah, Tony had already been like two, three years at that point.

Jay was the old guy. He had 20 some odd years or something like that. So then what, like Jay's been gone like maybe three, four years now, three years? Three years, I think.

Four years. Four years. Yeah.

And that's when Joe came on. Yeah. So then that's when Joe came on board.

And then, you know, it's about the music. I mean, it's unfortunate. I wish, you know, we could stay together like the for real band 40, 50 years, you know.

But, you know, it is about the music. It is about finding like-minded and like-hearted individuals to, you know, pay tribute to the greatest three-piece band that ever lived, you know. And there's such a point, there's such a poignant figure in my life.

I had the opportunity to audition for the band. And, you know, like it was said earlier, the band has been around since 87. I remember as a kid, 87, I was like maybe what, 12 years old or something.

So I'm looking at the Illinois Entertainer, going through all the gig sites and all the bars and then seeing the ads for animation, you know, Rush Tribute. And I was so into them at that point. Such a young player, so hot-blooded and wanted to get out there.

I said to myself, that's my gig, man. That's my gig. I want that gig.

And funny thing about how when we were auditioning drummers for Julian was that one of the keys that, because we videoed all the rehearsals, all the auditions, and when we were reviewing him, I knew instantly he was set for it because he just had this joy and this smile on his face. I don't even remember what songs they were, but there were a few of them. He just had, he was loose.

I was like, nope, that's the guy we want. And then Joe, Joe was supposed to be, was supposed to be temporary, right? We had a gig at Joe's Live and we had no singer. And so Julian's like, hey, my brother Joe could do it because I knew that you did some stuff online with the Rush stuff.

And I'm like, just come in and do it. Just do this gig. And after the gig was done at Joe's Live, I remember a whole bunch of our fans coming up to us like, you've got to keep it.

You are keeping it. You're just staying in, right? Right, right. So I'm like, well, Joe, the fans have spoken.

Yeah, it was one of those, I'm playing the gig and after the gig, the friends and friends and everybody came by. It's like, you're the guy, right? You're the guy, right? I went, I'd like to be. That was my answer at the time.

I didn't know what to say, but it was like, yeah, I'd love to. So now the two of you are brothers, correct? Yes, at least that's what we're told, right? Yeah, that's what we're told. We win bets in bars sometimes.

You know, they never really know if we're putting them on or not. We actually have pulled out our driver's licenses at some point and be like, see, it's true. Yeah, I mean, as kids, I mean, that's what we did.

I mean, we were fortunate our old man was a musician. So being fortunate of having a dad that was a musician. So we always had instruments in the basement and stuff like that.

It was always something we wanted to do. Not to throw my brother under the bus, but he's older than I am. So he was into the cool stuff a lot sooner than I was.

He was always like, hey, I got to show this guy this thing. So he would turn me on to the stuff. He brought around archives.

And then he was like, here, you got to check this out. Because at that point, Peter Criss was the man for me. Peter Criss had the gigantic drum set.

Like, oh, man, you know, that's what it was about for me. But then my brother brings around all the worlds of stage. He's like, no, man, you got to check this out.

I'm like, come on, you know, Peter Criss, come on. And then he shows me the drum set. And I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool.

But then he puts on the drum solo. And then I've been warped ever since. In a good way.

In a good way, right. So none of the original members harbor any inhibited feelings? Because you're carrying the name on, right? Oh, no, sir. They come and see the band? Yes.

And in fact, let me put this bit out there. Tony, I mean, I'm sure you can say more than I can. But I know we have had ex-members come back and be subs for the band.

I know for me, I was able to lean on Mr. Dan a few times. Because I had a couple of health situations come up and I couldn't make gigs. And he was more than happy to help me out.

And to be honest with you, I don't think I could have got this gig if I didn't have Chester's blessing. You know, because I was kind of in the family, sort of. I mean, I knew Chet loosely for a while.

He's the one that even let me know about it. I had no idea. I was jamming with him about something completely unrelated.

And then he just turns to me and he says, hey, Animation is looking for somebody, by the way. So, I mean, in my mind, I think it was him going, you know what? Yeah, you could do it. Go ahead and do it.

Yeah, I still communicate a lot. I still communicate a lot with Adam, who's the guitar player in between Chet and me. He was even willing to help out for some health issues I had earlier this year.

Turned out everything was OK. And then Jim, the drummer before you, Julian, was he's actually awkward. He's now into lighting.

So he's like, I can do lights for you. And so, you know, we're all most of us. Rich Matuka, I can't pronounce his last name, if he's listening.

Sorry, Rich, was the original drummer. And he's always been out there. I met him, actually, when I used to play for church a lot.

And he was there with a girl that I knew and I talked to him. And he's like, oh, yeah, I'm the original drummer. And he's giving me all these stories of how the band started.

I was like, wow, this is awesome. Because I didn't hear all these stories. Yeah, because apparently what they did is they, according to Rich, and he's according to him, they weren't originally going to be a Rush tribute.

They didn't set out to be that initially. But they were just like, hey, let him and him and Chet and I forget the original basis. But they they submitted like they just brought five songs to get each of them like, hey, let's just jam and let's figure out what we want to do.

And it turned out the vast majority were Rush songs. And so it's like, well, why don't we just do that? You know, because they all loved Rush. And then that's basically how it started, at least according to the original drummer.

Yeah, with three guys, you can only do like Rush or ZZ Top. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Or we could do like The Cream or something like that.

Yeah. Triumph for the, let's see. You guys all do have a love for Rush.

Otherwise, you wouldn't be doing this. Absolutely. Yeah, I've loved Rush ever since the first time I heard him.

When a buddy of mine, I wasn't even into rock, if you can believe this. And he said he had this Rush album. This was 2112.

He says, you've got to hear this, right? And he was really into the Carpenters, isn't that right? Actually, close. I was into bands like America when I was a kid. I still like, I still love their music.

But yeah, but I just really wasn't. I mean, I had a Boston album in Kansas. I mean, I had some stuff, but I really wasn't into the really heavy stuff.

And I was like, oh man, because my buddy was like into Black Sabbath, right? And I was like, oh, and it's like, all right. And so he puts the record, the 2112 out at first when it starts, right? I'm like, what the hell is this stuff? It's all this swirling music. I'm thinking, what is this? This is stupid.

And then, and that was it. That was in. Two chords.

That was it. Yep, that's all it took. You mentioned some of the other bands you were in early on.

But I was going to ask you, who are some of your other heroes or your other idols besides Rush? Do you have any? Oh my goodness. There were so many. For me, it started probably with my dad.

I thought my dad was like, he was a larger than life figure at like 5'7", not a big guy. But I would go watch him play, do gigs and all that kind of stuff. I was like, that looks like a pretty cool job.

Now, what does he play? He was a bass player and guitar player. And he would do a lot of dance gigs in Chicago and around the area. And you'd go and watch.

There were people moving to this music that he played. And like, that looks like a pretty hip gig. So that was one of my first heroes for me.

And then my brother can attest to this. The record player always had something on. And it could be like Latin jazz.

It was Jimi Hendrix. It was whatever was going on at the time. And I was blown away by all of it.

So then you start, you don't really know much when you're younger. You don't have, we didn't have the internet and all that kind of stuff to find all these things like, who is this on this album? Who is that on that album? And sometimes even the liner notes in the album didn't tell you. So you're just like being blown away by these musicians that you had no idea about.

And then later on, as you start doing the research, there's guys like Jack Bruce and Getty and Gene Simmons. I'm a huge fan of Gene Simmons. I'm a Kiss fan too.

But then it got, it was all over the place. Like I said, from my dad to Anthony Bruce, Getty League, Gene Simmons, to guys like Jeff Berlin or Jaco Pastorius, it goes on and on and on. But for me, I loved listening to guys outside of that.

I'd listen to piano players like Sonny Rollins. Or I'd listen to drummers. I loved Dave Weckl.

The musicality of all that stuff, all of that stuff influenced me. But I mean, if you were to ask me, bass players, that's a tough one to answer. There's so many.

There's so many. It's so varied. I love them all.

And I'll listen to everybody I can. Now, Phil, you also teach, if I'm not mistaken, right? I do. I do.

I have a few students that love to learn, and I love to teach. You know, I can't call myself a teacher. I call myself more of a coach.

Because I like getting people, you know, like when you take a kid and you put them on a bike and you start getting them to, hey, now the training wheels come off. You know, now I'll lead you off on that path. And then that's me as a coach.

I mean, I can teach people to read and all that stuff. You want to learn Mary Had a Little Lamb? Fine. You know, we can do that, too.

You want to learn to read? That's cool. But I think my biggest joy is to take a song that somebody wants to learn, and then they get into that sort of thing. And then they start taking off.

They branch out from there. Yeah, I could piggyback on that thought. Because one of my things that I do is I teach at School of Rock in Arlington Heights.

And I've been doing that for about six years now. And I see myself that kind of way, too. I'm not a teacher, per se.

I'm more of a hang. You know, like just a couple of my students have referred to me as he's the practical coach, because they know what I do. They know what I do.

They know what I've done. And so they look to me and say, hey, man, you've done it. So we'll listen to you.

And the cool thing is that kids will let you know what they want you to teach them. Oh, for sure. Or even if they'll let you teach them.

So that's why I kind of refer to myself as a coach or a hang, because they have to learn to know what you're all about first. And then they're like, OK, well, I think he knows what he's talking about. I'll go ahead and let him instruct me.

But yeah, I mean, it's spreading the love. Going back to that, we want to spread the love of music. I mean, to get serious for a second, a lot of schools are cutting music programs.

So a lot of these kids don't really have anywhere to go. So we offer that service to be able to be exposed to music. And the way that the system is at School of Rock, it's less about the theory.

Like, here's an eighth note. Here's a 16th note. It's more like, oh, hey, you like ACDC? Oh, you love Highway to Hell? Hey, do you want to play Highway to Hell by the end of the week? Basically how it is.

And it's just a fast track to get students on stage as fast as possible. I'm down with that, because that's the way I learn. I learn by modeling.

I learn by stealing. Almost everything I know. Huge Frank Zappa fan.

Absolutely. Huge Rush fan. The three guys listening to Rush music just made me want to be the best musician I possibly could be.

So listening to their interviews and reading their interviews, they would talk about that. It's like the best players of the world. That's who I learn from.

I listen to their albums. I listen to their stuff. And that's what inspires me.

So I was like, hey, I'm going to go do that, too. Let's go find the best players we possibly can. You know, for lack of a better description, steal as much as possible until you get to the point to where you'll finally mature.

Like, OK, well, I know where this is coming from. So let's not make this sound so Neil Peart-ish. Let's make this try to sound a little bit more like me.

I don't know. I think players get some backlash. Like, let's pick on poor Mike Portnoy for a second.

In the beginning, I mean, he would get a lot of flack because he would sound like old Peart. So then people would be like, oh, he's just trying to be like Neil Peart. It took a little bit, in my opinion.

It took a little bit for Mike Portnoy to really blossom and become, you know. I mean, I think every musician has to go through that in their own development. Yeah.

And it starts by trying to play and latch onto as much of the stuff that inspires you. That's what I tell my students. I was like, I don't want to assign you stuff.

I don't want to feel like I'm giving you homework. I want you to bring in what fires you up about music and what fires you up about playing. That's the easiest way to teach.

So you're already trying to learn something. You know, they're already trying to learn something. So my brother was saying, you know, they're coming in with what they want to know, what they want to learn.

Already, they're already fired up. So it's like, yeah, this is where I'm good. This is the easiest or the best way to learn.

So I was just piggybacking on what my brother would say. So for me, yeah, I mean, I teach also. And it's where I think we're all on the same page, is you got to meet people where they're at.

That's why you can never teach by a book, because a book doesn't, can't read what their interests are. You know, I teach kids and I teach mostly adults. But, you know, if they're somewhere in the country, I'm not in the country, but I'm going to teach them.

That's where they want to be. That's what they want to learn. I'm going to show it to them.

My background is a little bit different than you guys. I mean, I didn't, I really wasn't into the whole Zappa jazz thing and all that. I grew up pretty much a rocker.

You know, I was into UFO and Aerosmith and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then I, early, early days of hair metal. And then I got out of it because I hated it.

I hated hair metal. And I didn't want to wear the Aquanet anymore. I hate it.

It was the same stuff. I mean, but in the early days, I was influenced by a lot of the rockers, right? Alex Lifeson being Juan, Neil Sean, early Steve Vai. Man, I can't even go through the whole list.

Joe Satriani, one of my favorites. And then I morphed into the alternative new wave scene and went a completely different direction, which I was thankful for. It opened up a lot more creativity than just playing four power chords.

And it was a lot more interest there and then kind of grew from that. Yeah, I do teach too. And I own my own business, 6th Street and Corner.

And so I teach students. I'm pretty much online right now. But mostly adults, you know, and they just want to learn songs.

That's really what it is. I mean, some of them had an interest in theory and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, at the end of the day, most everybody just wants to play songs.

They want to play it for their wife. They want to play it so they can sit in the back and play their tunes. Or they want to play for a group of people.

Maybe somebody sings in a crowd. Maybe they get people over. COVID days, it's probably not as often.

But, you know, they just want to do that kind of stuff. So you just meet people where they're at. I learned on my own.

I was self-taught. I had nobody teach me. Nobody showed me anything.

I didn't have parents that were musicians, although my mom could sing really good. You know, I was groomed as being the engineer, the intellectual. And I'm the only one now that's still in music.

Can you read music? Can I? Yes. For the most part. It depends on what it is.

I can look at it. Sometimes I might have to think about it a little bit. But yeah, I can.

I know what it all means. I know what all those symbols mean and all that kind of stuff. Because I teach that.

I do show that to people. For example, guitarists are learning tabs. I accompany that with the sheet music.

Because tabs doesn't tell the whole story. Sheet music tells the whole story on guitar. So you want to have them both there and have them know both of those things.

So far, it's been working pretty good. Yeah, it took me a while to grasp tabs. I mean, it's a simple process and I get it.

But it was just like, it sat out there. I should also, Paul, I was thinking about this as I'm listening to everybody. Also, back in my high school days, there were a lot of local bands I went and gone seen.

A lot. A lot of really bands. One of my favorites was another Rush band, M&R Rush.

I used to follow you guys wherever we could get in. Whether it was, I don't even remember the schools. It was probably Richards, St. Lawrence.

I don't even remember all the schools. Oh, sure. Yeah, or Marist.

Wherever you guys played, we were there. Like M&R Rush, man. And I've been watching guys like you, right? That influenced me in my early days.

That's kind of like, I want to be like them. Because I mean, as a kid, I couldn't afford to go to big rock concerts. I just didn't go.

Because I couldn't afford to do it. But I could go see you guys when I was in high school. I'd shell out five bucks or whatever the ticket price was at the time.

And I still remember some of your songs. Like I still, if somebody were to play them, I would know who it is right away. That's cool.

That's cool. Thank you very much, Rick. One of which is our theme song.

Yeah. There you go. There you go.

I paid big money for that. Oh, yeah. And still paying royalties on it.

Well, we often get the, oh, you guys are a Rush tribute band. So no, no, we're not Rush tribute. We leave that to animation.

So what do you guys, who do you think, back to the Rush thing, what album should I say, do you think really set it up? Well, I think we know which ones really set it up for them. But which album do you guys like the best? Oh, boy, that's a tough one. For me, it's a tie between Hemispheres and Moving Pictures.

Hemispheres, to me, was so groundbreaking. I had never heard anything like that before. And even more so than when 2112 came around.

I mean, Hemispheres, just what the heck? It was just, I couldn't stop playing that record, right? I just couldn't stop playing it. And then Moving Pictures, I love the sound of it. It wasn't even as much the songs.

The songs are all awesome. But it was just the sound, how it sounded, how it felt. It had such a different tone than what I'd heard from them before.

So I would probably put those two right there at the top of my list. I remember when I got a hold of Archives. And being a young kid around that time, I had heard all of my friends, older brothers and sisters, they would play these things that I wasn't really aware of at the time.

Yeah, I had heard early Rush stuff, but I didn't know. I didn't make the association yet. When I finally got around to buying Archives, I think I wore Corrussive Steel out.

I mean, I dug deep grooves into that one. That had to be one that really stuck with me. It's a weird one for a lot of, or some Rush fans.

They're like, really? Even Rivendell? Yeah, I loved it. I absolutely adore that album. Because it wasn't quite the Zeppelini thing that they had started out with.

They were starting to come into their own right around that time. And it was like, they were still heavy. They were starting to get really progressive.

And that one really stuck with me. And I think one of the first solos that I played for my brother was Giddax and Arpets. And I was like, dude, you got to listen to this.

And it was just out there. It was way out there. But that was one for me.

That was one that really stuck out for me. And I agree with Tony that Hemispheres was a headphone album for me. And I'll still put it on.

Because I mean, it's just everything. Swirling around your head. And it's just amazing from a production standpoint.

So I guess the toss-up is between Caress of Steel and Hemispheres for me. But I mean, lots and lots and lots of great stuff, though. Well, they've got 20-some albums to choose from, right? And a special mention for me.

It's not like it's my top. But I like how they closed out. For me, I love Clapbook Angels, their last album.

I just thought that was another record, or whatever you want to call it, CD, with that I just couldn't stop playing it. So it was nice that they closed out with just the right tone. Because there were some albums, to me personally, that were kind of flat.

Didn't really do much for me. But I thought Clapbook Angels was a nice punctuation. This is it.

And then we're done. And they went out. And that tour, of course, all those tours and everything were phenomenal.

So that, too. Well, I think we can agree that 2112, probably their most popular, right? Or the one that put them over the top. It's the one that put them over the top.

I wouldn't say it was their most popular. But definitely put them over the top. Yes.

And they had two of those. You know, most bands are lucky to have one breakthrough album. They had two.

You know, 2112 and Moving Pictures. To be able to say that, I mean, that's phenomenal. But to get to... For me, it's more... I was introduced to the band, really, I was pretty young.

But for me, the identifying album will always be Signals. Because that was when I first wanted to get an album. I knew it came out.

I wanted to grab it. I wanted to possess it. That was like the first one I remember wanting to grab.

And we saw that tour. That was the first Rush tour that we saw. So to me, it's always going to go back to Signals.

I mean, I could go in and cherry pick. Like, I mean, I love Hemispheres. I wore the grooves off of mine.

And I still go back to that one. I still go back to Hold Your Fire. That's not Tony's favorite decade.

No guitar player likes that. Yeah, for me, that was formative years. I mean, I think I was eight years old when Signals came out.

And then every year for me, I was so attached to every album that came out. So the 80s, for me, are really like... You know, they're really attached to memories. And then for me, Counterparts is a really big one, too.

Because that is the year that I graduated high school. That came out in 94. So like I said, everything is really personal.

And, you know, those are two that are very, very near and dear and will always be. Counterparts and Signals. What would be your... If you guys get to play one song, you're going on stage, you only have one song to play.

Which one would it be? Wow. Wow. Wow.

Let's see if we get all three of you to agree on this. Wow. Thanks for making it so easy, Paul.

Okay. So I'll say Loveal Estrangiato because it goes... Dude, that was my first choice. It goes the longest.

That was my first choice. You get the most in. It gives you absolutely everything.

It gives you chops. It gives you song structure. It gives you absolutely everything.

The only thing it doesn't give you, it doesn't give you any vocals. It doesn't showcase getting in any kind of voice setting. As far as musicianship goes and pure badassery, you can't get past that.

Can't get past that song. You guys do mostly... You do a lot of the popular stuff, I'm sure, right? The Spirit of the Radio and Tom Sawyer. I was just curious if you guys could agree on one song that you would pick.

How about you, Joe? I agree. I agree with the badassery of Lovela. But I think I would like... I like doing Natural Science, too.

That one has some badassery, too. Yes, it does. And vocals.

There's a lot of good stuff. Yeah, that's a good choice. Most of their songs have badassery.

Let's just... But true, true. A lot of it's badassery. Almost all of it is badassery.

I would have to, I guess, put the question, too, to expand on it. I mean, if we wanted to go per era, like per era, what would be our favorite one to do? Because we do pride ourselves in... We hit every era. I mean, there's some bands out there, they only do certain things like, you know, up to Moving Pictures or Moving Pictures and on.

Yeah, we've played stuff from RBL. Yeah, we do try to do absolutely everything. To try to pick... I mean, I would be curious to see what Tony would say, because he would probably be here an hour trying to pick one from the 80s.

And then the 80s is my favorite decade. Not that I don't appreciate the early stuff, but I find myself going to early stuff very rarely. And if I do go to early stuff, it's usually the first album.

You know, Here Again is one of my all-time favorite songs, and it doesn't even have Neil on it. I mean, it's probably the closest you're ever going to get to Rush playing a blues song ever. So for me, that's the attachment to the first album.

And then, of course, I kind of fast forward to like 2112 and on from there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they know me too well. I like to bypass the keyboard era.

You know, power windows and hold your fire. There's a couple songs. The rest of it's their, you know, if they ever played on their bathroom songs.

So I have no interest in those songs. And you know what? When I watched their documentary, Rush's documentary, it was really comforting to me that I was in good company because all the guys who rock guitar players didn't like it, right? But the guys who were keyboard players and drummers and bassists, oh, they loved it. Well, even Alex didn't like it after a while.

So I'm like, good. I'm in good company then. Thank you.

It's not just me. Yeah, because for me, for me, it was like from the first album to Hold Your Fire was all that all of that stuff was needle drop for me. I could play the first song to the last song, first song to the last song.

Up until Hold Your Fire. And then and then after that, and I'm not saying I didn't appreciate anything after that. But it wasn't it wasn't a needle drop album for me after that.

I mean, it had it had its everything had its moments. After that, it's like when when I sit down and listen to an album, Hemispheres all the way through the first Rush album all the way through, you know, Permanent Waves, Movie Pictures all the way through. But that's like I said, not to negate anything after that, because there was a lot of great stuff after that.

So how are you guys surviving COVID? Obviously, no shows, right? Or have you been doing any show? Have you done any shows this summer? We did an online benefit for brain tumor awareness in July. We worked with that group of nonprofit group. And which actually raised a lot of money.

I don't remember what the final total was was quite a bit. That was nice. We got to we got I'm sorry, but we got to we got to brag.

We got them to their goal. They set a $50,000 goal and we got them to their goal. Congrats.

Yeah, we did. But we did a one hour show, you know, at a place in Brookfield. And they filmed the whole thing.

Just a handful of people in there. That was nice. That was really nice.

And what was amazing for us is that, you know, because our last real gig was February, I think. So we didn't have we didn't even practice. So we kind of just had to go in and play.

And the thing about Rush is you can be the greatest musician in the world. But if you're not playing it for a while, yeah, you kind of say, oh, boy, it's just like marathoners, right? I mean, they can be the greatest marathoner, but I'm not training for it. You can't just go and do it, right? Rush is kind of like that.

But we got in. Now, granted, we did mostly the hits, I think, except for one song. But we did.

We did the hits. But still, you got to play them together. And you know what? At Dark Knowledge, it came out great.

That was really the only show. That was it right now. We're probably going to be out of the I mean, now a lot of these bars and restaurants are closed now, so it may be a little bit of time.

So we've been discussing doing another online show. We've just started talking about it. So we're probably going to put something together, probably after this meeting.

We are talking about doing something just so we can, because I know it's tough out there. A lot of people aren't able to hear a lot of their music. You know, we can't play.

I know there's small bars or maybe open and stuff like that. That's animation. Can't play that.

Can't fit that. Believe it or not, the three guys, we got so much crap. So yeah, that's really kind of where it's at.

I mean, you know, for me personally, I've been surviving teaching online. I do play at a church. We do online services.

So in fact, I go to practice every night. So that's been kind of keeping me musically busy. Although strangely enough, the online teaching has been booming.

Like I have not felt the effects at all of Yekonic. If anything, it's been, it's improved. So that's kind of at least my story.

You know, I would like to play to gig, but you know, we got to be responsible too. So that's just my take. I don't know what you guys want to say, but.

No, that's totally right. I mean, we have put a couple of things in the books, but we had to rapidly pull back because I mean, we have some health concerns. I mean, we have people in our organization that can't be around anything that would jeopardize absolutely anything.

We have elderly parents. And let's be honest too. The demographic for Rush fans is, you know.

They're on the older side. They're on the older side and high risk group. And I know that they would probably still come, but we value our peeps and we want them to be around for a while, a little longer.

So we don't even want to put them even remotely at risk. Even if there's like a 2% chance, that's 2% too many. Too many.

So I don't want to go there with that. I mean, and some of our fans, a lot of them have been our friends of ours, you know. And they may be listening to this now.

And we do, we consider a lot of them our friends. And I don't want to, we just don't want to put them at risk like that. Well, speaking of online stuff, how do we find you guys online and social media? Well, we have our website, attribute2rush.com. Which we have to update, but we're pretty well active on Facebook.

So I got to just search this for animation, attribute2rush on Facebook. Don't just search animation, you'll get all kinds of other crazy stuff. But animation attribute2rush is on, we're on Facebook.

I know Julian does a lot of postings here, there, here and there. We do have, we're on Instagram as well. Did I miss anything? I think those are the big, those are the big.

No, we, yeah. Instagram, Facebook, Reverb Nation. I mean, a lot of these things are kind of, we're kind of in an influx right now.

You know, it's like, what's the next thing? You know, we need to, we need to keep on track. What's the next social media thing that animation needs to get on top of? Do we need a Snapchat? Do we? I don't think so. I don't know if TikTok's going to work for us.

TikTok, do we need a TikTok? Oh wow, we don't need a TikTok. I got it, I got it, man. I love scrolling through TikTok.

There's some funny stuff on there, I'm serious. I can't see us being a part of that though. No, we'll have to learn a dance or something.

I'm not, you know, I can barely walk a straight line, you know, so I'm not dancing. They make fun of musicians when they say, oh, you're a musician, I bet you can dance. I'm like, no, I can't.

I dance a lot. We're in the band because we're not song and dance men. That's why we're in the band, right? I can barely walk and chew bubblegum at the same time.

Well, thanks guys. It was fun learning about animation and we appreciate your time. Yeah, thank you very much.

Thank you for having us. Thanks for having us. Yeah, hopefully we'll see you, hopefully soon.

Hopefully we can get you guys out to a gig. That would be awesome. Yeah, it's, well, you know, this is, we're trying to keep some bands alive during this time, these hard times, you know, and keep you guys going and keep it a name out there.

Thank you. We're not going away. We're just, like everybody else, we're in hibernation.

So when this thing will pass and it will, once it passes, we'll be back and jamming again. So we just have to be patient. That's all, we just all have to be patient with it.

Well, thanks for joining us today, guys. Thanks a lot, guys. Thanks.

Thank you. Have a great week. Thanks.

So that was animation. Yes, it was. You're still animated.

I am still animated. That was fun. I had a ball.

Yeah, it was good. It was good talking with them, finding out some of their favorite Rush albums and their favorite Rush tunes, songs. And pitting them against one another to pick out which one song they would play.

That was good, Paul. That was really good. Start a feud.

Start a feud during this off time. Nobody's playing. I'm trying to keep the bands together.

I'm trying to grow them together is what I'm trying to do. Help keep the music alive and keep bands together. Grow together like Moss or Lycan.

Isn't that the guitar player, Alex Lycan? No. No, Lycan is the social media page. Lycan.

Oh, Lycan. Yeah, I got you. I knew I heard it somewhere.

Yeah. Something like that. I see there's a link there somehow.

Yes, I get it. So it was good talking with the animation and hearing about them and enjoyed them. Very nice guys.

Very good guys. Check them out on Facebook. And you know, while you're on Facebook, you know what you should check out? The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

Check out our page. Like it. Subscribe to our podcast.

Check us out every Monday. Every Monday night at 6 p.m. on the rotorockradio.net. Our podcast is featured on their radio program. So you can catch up with all your podcasts there too.

Okay, sounds good. And otherwise, have a great week. We'll see you guys next week.

Okay, thanks. Talk to you then. Easy to play with a rich, full balance zone available in many different gauges.

Great for all musical styles. So if you play, play with the best. Play GHS strings.

Road to Rock Radio is proud to welcome Paul Martin of M&R Rush and the Dancing Noodles and Ray the Roadie, the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Join Paul and Ray as they bring you weekly interviews from bands that have rocked Chicago. It's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

Monday night at 6 on Road to Rock Radio.