Hey, this is Paul Martin. And Ray the Roadie. For the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

What's up, Ray? I am so excited that we're going to New Orleans. Yeah, you said this week we're having a crawfish boil. What do you mean? No, no, no, no, no.

What do you mean? No, no. You misunderstood. I said we were going to be talking with the crawpuppies.

Crawpuppies? Are they like baby crawfish? Well, they could be, yeah, yes. But the crawpuppies are a Northwest Indiana band, and we were talking with them. Oh, so we're not going to New Orleans? No, it's not in the budget yet.

So I should probably unpack? Yeah, well, if you want to live out of a suitcase, that's fine. Okay, I guess I'm sure the crawpuppies will be a lot more fun than the crawfish boil anyway. Well, I'm actually having a shrimp boil on Sunday.

Well, thank you. Thanks for the invite. Well, it's just probably going to be me and Kim.

But we're speaking with the crawpuppies today. It's crawpuppies. Okay, the crawpuppies.

I've seen them. They are one heck of a band. They're a great band.

I got to meet them back in about 2005 and worked with them periodically. It's a blue chip, quite a bit. It's a blue chip, as a matter of fact.

And they quickly became one of my favorite bands. So we're talking with them today. And we'll talk with two of them, Aaron Hedges and Chad Clifford.

And, you know, we're going to get some insight into them. All righty. Well, I'm going to go get myself a bowl of jambalaya or some etouffee.

And I want to hear this podcast. Let's go listen to it. Let's do so.

We're meeting today with Chad Clifford and Aaron Hedges of the Crawpuppies, Northwest Indiana's own Crawpuppies. How are you guys doing today? Hey, guys. Good, good, good.

Nice to see you guys. How are you guys surviving this COVID-19 thing here? Are you surviving it? Yeah, it's been it's been crazy, you know. I would say for me, it's weird if it gives you some time to kind of reevaluate maybe what's important and what's, you know, maybe not as important.

I miss seeing people. But it's nice to I've been enjoying playing and doing some of this technology stuff, you know, some live streams. And I feel like I'm still playing music.

But it's it really does make you appreciate getting in front of people. We've had the chance to do that a couple of times and and maybe gigs that we would have kind of been like, I would say less than excited about. We're real excited about.

I mean, it's really kind of made you realize how lucky we are to be able to do what we do. That's my opinion. Yeah, it's it's definitely definitely a tough time for music and for music, for the music industry.

And and I know that even even even as you get back into playing, a lot of the clubs aren't allowed to have as many people. And and so but I understand what you mean by by appreciating the audience that you have in front of you. Yeah, it's it's changes.

I mean, it's wild how you in a lot of ways getting ready. We had we had our first kind of gig back last weekend. And, you know, we play so much that you get used to looking at your watch and say, OK, I got to be there.

Then you know where everything is. Well, this time it was kind of like being in middle school and having a gig. You know, you thought about it all day.

And you're like, you're looking around saying, do I have pics? Do I have extra strings? All this stuff that that when you get when you're in the routine and in the zone, you it's you're not thinking about it as much because you all the stuff still in the car from last night. But now you're kind of scrambling around like a scavenger hunting around your house saying, oh, yeah, I got to put you grab this. So it was it was nice to have that non gigging all the time excitement about a gig, you know.

And that really made me remember being like I was in high school when I'd have a gig. You know, it was that's all you thought about all week. You know, I got a gig, you know.

So I it was that was kind of a fun refresh of that of that mentality for me to as far as I agree with everything with what Chad is saying. And and, you know, it's a double edged sword with with us having more time to be on our technology, too, because there's there's just a lot of, you know, you know, being musicians, we're very we're very, you know, emotional human beings. So seeing a lot of what's being, you know, posted out there and everybody, you know, just just clawing at each other and going off on each other, that part has been really tough because we're allowed to be on social media more.

We're using social media to communicate. And it's really hard to communicate with people right now. You know, so so so that's the that's been kind of the bad side.

But, you know, I think I think we as people need to we need to breathe before we say some things, you know, and just be conscious that not everybody's on the same the same page, you know, you know, taking a stand or not taking a stand. I mean, you're going to be you're going to be bludgeoned for whatever you say. So so that's been for me, that's been the biggest challenge.

I totally appreciate playing like Chad said. I mean, some of the gigs are, you know, the benefits. We got together the first time.

What was it, Chad? Back in April, whenever we did that first live or whatever. Yeah. You know, we weren't obviously getting really paid to do any of that.

We didn't even put a tip bucket. I don't think or consciously did. So we really just excited to play with each other, which which we really are.

But it was really more so that night, you know, to play for each other. And but I think that's I think that's the challenge, you know, as musicians and as as us in general, that we really need to be conscious about not getting too wrapped up in, you know, arguing with each other, you know, about stuff. I mean, we all have our opinions and I don't you know, I don't need to hear them on Facebook.

I'd rather pick up the phone and say, hey, Paul, you know, I see you see this. You know, what are you thinking, buddy? You know, I think we really need to talk to each other. I think social media has gotten us too far away from talking to each other versus, you know, versus just posting behind a keyboard.

Well, we see that in young kids today. I mean, my kids, I can text them and text them and text them and and they don't answer my text. But then I call them two minutes later and they get it.

They don't answer the phone. I go, how do you not answer the phone? Yeah, right. Yeah.

Well, Aaron, I'm glad to see that you have problems with Paul, too. It's not just me. I don't answer your text on purpose for a lot of people.

I think that that they're finally feel like they have a voice. You know, there's a lot of people that never felt like they had they were ever heard. And now people feel like they've got a voice and they've got a platform.

So they better come up with something to say. So they say things without even necessarily thinking it through a lot of people. But, you know, we are we are lucky because being in a band and you guys know this, I mean, it's not like even even in a in a local band like like Crop Puppies are.

I mean, people do kind of care a little bit about what you say. And you have to be careful and you have to value that. And you have to be listen to other people's opinions.

I mean, none of us are in any position to lose fans over something that we don't have any control over, you know. And there's there's a lot of times I have to bite my tongue. And a lot of times I did, like Aaron said, you know, I'd really much rather talk to somebody and and get it.

You know, I don't want a one liner here. And then I'm going to up you with one liner. But let's have a serious debate and discussion.

And I'm all for that. In fact, I like talking to people that I technically disagree with much more than talking to people I agree with. What do you get out of talking to people? You know, just reinforcement.

I mean, I don't need that. You know, you and I talk about taping our thumbs. You know, we have to take my thumbs because I don't want to respond to this.

Yeah, there's always some of that. I mean, it's one thing to respond to it if you're going to give it the time that it deserves to have a back and forth debate. And you're not going to let it get personal.

But people, you know, people are on edge right now. Everyone's everyone's in a you know, no one no one's got any real answers. We've never dealt with anything like this before.

And we're bored and we're frustrated. And I think everybody's on that that that spirit. And they're all in this different gray of this is a complete scam versus this is the end of the world coming.

We're all somewhere in between. And everyone wants to fight about where they're at in between. Makes absolutely no sense, really.

You know, it's we're all in between. And whether you're here and I'm here. What's the point in arguing? We're both in the middle of the middle of the middle.

So so have you got any gigs lined up coming up come July? Yeah, well, you know, for the ones. Yeah, well, you know, it definitely can be right. You know, 4th of July, we're at Valpo doing the fireworks.

You know, I've got a few solo things that have opened up, which are good because they're nice and kind of me tucked in the corner. And it's not quite, you know, the same as. But but the band's got a few things.

You know, we got some private parties coming up. You know, we played last night and it was another virtual show that was in Illinois. We did Michigan last Saturday.

And that was at the at the Round Barn. So it's slowly coming back. Everyone wants to book October.

I don't know. They might have to add a couple of weekends into October because there's there's only four, you know, but everyone keeps calling. Oh, well, we'll have you in October.

And I'm like, October's going to rock because everyone's, you know, all every June, June, July and August gig is something October. That's why they call it Racktober, right? Right. That's right.

Where did the name Crawpuppies come from? Yeah, I wish there was a better story, you know, I'd say. You can make one up if you like, but I should make up a good story. We were playing at this place called Angelo's Sicilian Cart, which is this place in Merrillville.

And the band kind of formed out of a jam night. My friend Mike Moore and I would play acoustic. And one day Aaron just kind of came along and sat in and he knew every song that we played.

So I looked at Mike and Mike looks at me like, do you know this guy? I'm like, no, but he was great, you know, so he just would show up. And so we started he just started kind of being there all the time. So we just said, well, let's let's start doing some gigs outside of this.

But we needed a name. So we booked a gig at Angelo's and right next door to Angelo's was this Popeye's chicken restaurant. And they sold some dish called Crawpuppies.

And it said tonight, Crawpuppies on special. So when the bar owner said, what's the name of your band? We're like, well, you put it on the wrong side. And he looked over there and it says Crawpuppies tonight.

And so that was just kind of like the joke of it. And then we kind of always wanted to change the name. But then people started getting tattoos and stuff.

So, you know, we don't have any tattoos, but we had a couple of fans that got our logos tattooed. So I've got one. But, you know, and then it was just, you know, the funny thing is, is there's, you know, in band names, you can get cool band names.

But when you have a really, really cool band names, there's always a thousand bands named, you know, Sabotage or whatever. You know, so you never but there's never been another band named Crawpuppies as far as I'm concerned, as far as I know. So you search us, you either get a really killer Cajun recipe or you get our band.

So it works out all right. Very good. So when did when did the other members join in? Didn't you have somebody before Mike? Yeah, before Mike was a guy named Angelo Chico, and he was in the band for about eight years.

And then it's been it had been the four of us for a long time. And then last year we got Truman on board on drums. So so, Chad, you're doing some you're doing some some stuff from home, I notice some some acoustic stuff.

You said you had some solo shows coming up. Yeah. You know, I I counted them up.

I've done about thirty five live streams from my little basement bar, which has been fun for me, because honestly, you know, Paul, as a singer, you know, you get out of shape and and you get not used to singing for a long period of time and you go to sing and it's just not there anymore. So I was a little bit afraid of that. Not to mention my you know, my hands not being able to do what they they need to do.

So I started I started saying, well, you know, once once a week, I'll sit from home and I'll play a couple of songs and I'll just tune in. And I was really impressed and honored by the amount of people that would join me. So I you know, and then when you know you've got 20 to 30 people sitting there watching you, it's real hard to let it go.

So a lot of those little shows turned into three hour gigs that I ended up doing that really, in a lot of ways, helped me get through this whole thing that I don't know that I would. You know, it's really I felt connected to people and and it was giving them things because I would get little notes from people saying, you know, I had a terrible day, but you played blah, you know, whatever, stand by me or whatever. And boy, you know, or people saying we had a big bonfire and you were on our TV.

And I mean, I'm honored by that. You know, it's that's the coolest thing is to think that what I do can make someone's ability to get through this a little bit better. I mean, that's amazing to me.

That's a three hour, three hours of time, too, that you don't have to be seeing stuff you don't want to see on Facebook, do you? Well, there's a lot. Yeah, there's a lot of that. And it's funny because, Aaron, that you say that because I get these people that are all like, oh, you know, Chad, well, we like Chad.

And we should all get together. And I think once these two people get together, I'll stay posted on Facebook. They're either going to change their views on life or they're going to hate each other.

But it's weird. You know, it does unify people. It's it's crazy how people when they find something in common, you can maybe grow from there.

You know, so even if liking the same kind of music allows those people to grow and maybe even think about each other in a different way, I mean, I think that's very valuable. What about you, Aaron? You have any problem keeping your licks up? I'm kind of where buddy guy is. I saw an article that he basically hasn't played in like two months.

I've always you know, I don't really practice anymore. I probably should. Right.

But but but with the band playing as much as we played, the habit was, as you know, if we wanted to learn something, you know, I might learn a song or something or a Beatles tune or something. But for the most part, we just played so much. We never had to practice.

So I really only play anymore to to play the gigs or play the you know, play the you know, play the gigs for the most part. So no, I haven't really played much at all. I wish I could play solo and sing solo guitar for three hours.

I can probably do it for 20 minutes. But I don't know that anybody would want to see that for for that long either. But probably could.

But yeah, but it does. You know, you do see I've seen a lot of people kind of start. I was in a pretty lucky place when I started doing this because I I'd done some live things like that and I'd done solo shows.

There are people that are just trying it now for the first time. And they I realize how lucky I am that I've got years of of a catalog that I've established and a level of comfort in playing songs and also the ability to bail out when I know it's going. I got a parachute.

Someone might ask for a song and you're thinking, oh, this is nice and easy. But then you forgot about that chorus and you're like, oh, my God. And you see it coming up and it's like parachute parachute.

OK, and that I'll just do it one more time and get the hell out of it. You know, but that's the one thing when you're just by yourself, you're like, oh, yeah, if you don't know that chord, you don't play it. But when you're playing with others, I know it goes here.

You know, shut up. It doesn't go here. Not this version, you know.

Well, Aaron, you mentioned you mentioned the Beatles. Tell us how the Mega Beatles get started, because you guys are obviously the main drive behind that. And then tell us about that.

That's that's a Chad story right there. Yeah, well, the Mega Beatles is just the Chris and Lou band and the Crawl Puppies. You know, I've known Lou Samaniego for a long time.

And we always talked that someday we would put some kind of Beatles thing together. And it just took just took a little time. And then we just continued to find people that were like us with the Beatles, you know, and we did our first thing, the first Beatles in the barn that we did.

It was the Crawl Puppies and the Chris and Lou band. We knew it would be inevitable that we put the two bands together because we're all good friends, you know. So so what ended up happening is we just said, let's combine these two bands.

And because it was nine guys at times, it was it was mega. So we just we started doing that. And it's really unfortunate because we had a killer, killer show for County Line Orchard this year.

One night we were going to do the Rubber Soul album. And the next night we're going to do the 50 year anniversary of Let It Be. Oh, it's going to be a two night show.

Two night show. Yeah. Oh, we had two killer sets.

I mean, they were hopefully we'll get to do those shows. We're talking with the folks at the room about doing a show. So hopefully we'll do those virtually.

But virtual is another whole thing. You know, it's like I was nervous last night at a level. I don't get nervous when I play.

But when the when the music dissipates into the air, you know, you're not as responsible for it as when it's recorded and broadcast because it's preserved. You know, I mean, I can screw up a chord here and there. And unless you were standing right there in that minute, you're not going to hear it.

But you you once once it's it's preserved, I mean, that adds a little bit of pressure. The best the best part of preserved it, Chad. I got to post that video clip.

I'm thinking about it and I'm crying. I'm laughing. Chad is, you know, he's singing it.

You know, we're doing a Zeppelin song. He's into it. And it's the back of the corner of the riser.

And I start to go down. Thankfully, they they cut the and they edited it right there. There's a nice cut there.

But I'm like, yeah, I start to you can post it. I was harmed. I thought I was going to bite the dust, but I don't think I missed the chord.

I think I got to the right chord. But it was it was challenging. I'm just thinking, oh, God, I hope they didn't catch that.

But, you know, it's I didn't even know what happened. You got to have bloopers. Watching the replay.

And I'm like, did I just see it? So I rewound it was preserved, preserved forever. That's the problem with these video things. So the Beggin Beatles have kind of taken on a life of their own, haven't they? Like you said, if you had to.

Yeah, we got pretty lucky. You know, we've been able to play some of these. You know, I've been a Beatles fan since I was a little kid and I used to go to Beatles Fest in high school and we've gotten to play there.

You know, I mean, how cool is that? The one thing about this whole covid thing that's really disappointing is I was supposed to go to Liverpool in London and play Beatles at the International Beatles Fest this year. And it wasn't the whole band because it was, you know, get nine guys to coordinate their schedules kind of challenging. But I was just going to go do it this year and check it out.

But, you know, this whole this whole thing kind of took you over that Simpsons episode or the Seinfeld episode where it's going to be the summer of George. Remember that? And George was standing up everything. This was going to be the summer, Chad.

I had all these things planned and Covid had other ideas. So, yeah, yeah, this would have been our what? Our 11th year doing Beatles in a barn. Yeah, it would have been our 11th.

Yeah. And, you know, it's it's really that that's built into something. We were going to do the Hammond Beetle Fest.

We had another show at Wicker Park planned. We still have the Acorn Theater for Mega Beatles in October where everything else is going to be so. So so hopefully that will that will end up being a real that will end up happening, which is a great you guys.

You guys have played the Acorn before, right? Yes. Yes. It's a cool little place.

Yeah, it is very cool. Little room. Very cool room.

It's all about fitting nine guys up there. But yeah, it was a little packed. But we're tight.

Well, I don't know. We're not going to have to violate the six foot rule a little bit. But yeah, yeah.

Well, hopefully by then we're all back in the in shape and playing where we want to play and do what we want to do. I think a lot of it just depends on, you know, really what the numbers do. You know? Yeah.

I mean, I my store is is really slowed down because we can't we do some of this virtual lesson stuff. But as far as getting people in a lesson room, I mean, that's still everyone's still a little weary about that. What's up a little bit about front porch music? It's been there since 1991.

It's a little music store that's, you know, in addition to selling things, we teach lessons, we repair. We've got a little venue in the basement. That's a coffee house.

And we have open mics on Thursdays. Or we did for many, many years. They're kind of on hiatus now.

And then we get touring acts that would come and play in our little coffee house down in the basement. 1992, I stopped in there just as a guy to play at the open mic and I fell in love with the place. So I just said, you know, I got it.

I got to work here, you know, because everyone there was just kind of great people and everything about it was appealing to me. So I started working there in ninety five and I worked there for a long, long time. I worked my way up to the manager of the place.

And then in 2007, I bought the place from the original owners and then the whole economy crashed. But we kind of built it back up a little bit. And it's never been the most lucrative venture.

But spiritually, it's very lucrative. You know, it means a lot to me. But and it's meant a lot to people.

I think it's awesome to think that the little store I'm involved with has taught tens of thousands of people to play instruments. I mean, how how cool is that for a, you know, to do something like that with your life and be able to share what music has given so much to me? So it's awesome to have. And when you said when you started there, did you teach guitar? A little guitar.

Yeah. I just taught kind of beginner guitar. It was a far cry from working at Blockbuster Video, right? Yeah, it was far cry from working.

I actually worked at Blockbuster. The music, the music department, it was much better than that. Yeah.

You know, I liked it a lot more. And it was just I don't know. For me, you know, I'd gone to I went to Columbia College for music business.

So it was a perfect fit for me. And I didn't like Aaron said I'd worked in the corporate world a little bit and realized that that wasn't the where I wanted to go. You know, I didn't like that idea.

Well, Blockbuster is gone now. Yeah, exactly. Music is still there.

I'm still there. So, yeah. So we'll be right back.

But we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, Front Porch Music, 505 East Lincoln Way, Valparaiso, Indiana. Give them a call. Two one nine four six four forty seven hundred.

Now back to the show. That's that's the best I've gotten all week. Thank you.

So tell us a little bit about I mean, what would you guys call your genre of music? I mean, I guess it'd be classic rock to some degree or some alternative rock in there, kind of mix it up. It's been called power pop, which is like, I don't know what they call that. Is it catchy melodies? What would you say, Chad? Well, I think, you know, power pop tends to be a word that gets tossed around.

You know, it's I would call it music that's inspired by the great music of the 60s and 70s and a little bit of the 80s. I mean, it's I try to try to make sure our music doesn't sound particularly dated or in a of a particular time, because I've always kind of liked that aspect. Well, you know, growing up and when I was in bands before the crop of these, we always tried to write songs that were of a specific time.

And that you could hear what else was going on. But, you know, when you're like us and you've been playing for so long, you don't want you don't want the songs to to not kind of run their course before the band has, if that makes sense. I'm not one for really labeling it as much as, you know, as far as the covers that we play.

I think most most of the covers that we play match the originals that we play. It's it's hard. It's hard to know.

I think if people like bands like The Replacements and Big Star and Cheap Trick and The Beatles and Sweet, R.E.M. and U2, they would like us. Tell us, you've got two CDs out, correct? Correct. And the first one was called Peaceful Amnesty, right? And and the second one is World's Much Bigger.

Right. So tell us a little bit about those. About the about the songs on there.

Yeah, I know. I know. And I have a couple of favorites myself on those.

Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, the first one was songs that, you know, I had accumulated for quite a few years, you know, playing even with as much as we played, you know, and when you're when you're playing a lot, it's sometimes hard to break in originals because when you're an entertainer, you kind of know what the strongest songs for getting people on the dance floor, getting people to respond to you are. So so breaking in originals isn't always the easiest thing to do.

So when you do it, they better be kind of worth doing. You know, does that make sense? You know, like I always felt like, you know, if you got to pack dance for it and they're all singing along and going and you break into an original, it better be able to create that same kind of energy. So I think the first album really has mostly songs that we had kind of true tested in an in an audience sense a lot more than the second album.

So the first album we wrote of songs that people were kind of had come to see us play enough times that they were waiting for those songs. That makes sense, because they'd already kind of heard them live for a couple of years. Then the second album gets a little more artsy.

You know, we actually have some songs on there that we don't play live because, you know, they're just not. I mean, they're more listening kind of songs, I guess. But it's hard for me to really, you know, they're they're like my kids.

I like some of them more than others on certain days. But I love all my kids, you know, some days it's like, oh, this one is under my skin. But I I'm proud of both albums.

I sometimes need to step away from a little bit and then listen to them again and say, oh, yeah, you know, it's it's hard because you always hear when you when you write a song, you always hear every little thing that you wish you maybe would have tweaked this way or that way. But after a while, you get to listen to them more objectively, like with your with with strangers ears. You know, I mean, you get to hear.

So but I'm proud of both albums. I would like to do more. I've got plans to do more.

I don't know. The industry is so weird right now that I don't I don't know exactly what to do with with songs. You know, you did most of the writing, right, Chad? Or did you do all the writing? Well, I did.

There was input from everybody, but the melodies and, you know, the words and the structures of the songs are pretty much mine. I don't want to say that it was all me, but they're they're from my brain. At least the ideas came and then, you know, we all as a team, you know, collaborated on them.

You know, not to say that there weren't great ideas from everywhere, but I tend to be the one that does most of the writing. And Mike Curtis has written some some really cool songs as well. But we haven't gotten any of he hasn't gotten any of them completed at this point.

The best part of both of those albums and when people ask me, you know, what to expect and I say, sit down and listen, because each song is going to be really different and provoke a different, you know, some of the songs are like you would think that, you know, on somebody's album, like, you know, world's much bigger. I want to know. I mean, they're just they're just right in your face, rock and roll songs.

But then Chad will do a song like we or or, you know, my wife or something. And it's just like, where did this come from? It's like it it's like it doesn't belong on one album. But that's the crop up is the crop up.

These can play so many different things and play so many different types of events that that's kind of where the original music goes, where, you know, Chad has an idea. And it's not like he's looking for it to fit on that album. That's the part that I love the most about it, is that you can listen to one album and get a lot of different a lot of different emotions, you know, stirred up.

Yeah. If you remember, you know, in the in the 80s and 90s, you guys would probably remember you'd shop your music to people and they would always say, well, we're looking for a sound. You know, everyone always wanted every band to have a sound.

And I was terrible about that because I'm like, I didn't ever want to hear an album that sounded the same to me. You know what I mean? I didn't want to. I tried to make an album that you could listen to 10 years from now and it would still be musically, at least relevant.

And, you know, you listen to some of these, you know, you listen to a Def Leppard album and the songs could be great. But those drum sounds eventually you're like, OK, God, I wish you would have just played regular drums because, you know, because they become a distraction, you know what I mean? So I do think being able to do these albums self-produced without a label and someone, you know, that's a double edged sword because it is good to listen to other people's opinions sometimes. But those both of those albums were self-funded.

So we kind of got to to completely decide how they would come out. And the fact that they're, you know, this, you know, Aaron mentions the song, My Wife, I had that song before The World's Much Bigger album. And I was so proud of that song and I really liked it.

And it didn't really belong on the Crawl Puppies album, per se, but because, you know, it's me and like a string quartet. I'd written that song for my 10 year wedding anniversary to my wife and I gave it to her as a gift, but I was proud of it. So I kept thinking to myself, you know, I just keep this and this is our private little thing.

No, I should share this. You know, it's kind of like, why would you not? You know, if you're a painter and you've got all these great paintings and you got one of the nicest paintings you ever did at home, why wouldn't you put it in the collection? So I felt like we needed. So The Crawl Puppies has always been a real good avenue for me to be able to do that.

You know, I model what I do kind of after guys like Jeff Tweedy and Neil Young. You know, you see, you can see Neil Young play solo acoustic. You can see him with this band.

You can see him with Crazy Horse. And every time you see Neil Young, it's a little bit different. But if Neil Young writes a song with Buffalo Springfield and wants to play it with Crazy Horse, the band just plays it.

You know what I mean? It's, you know, I have always never liked this compartmentalizing who you are. So I think The Crawl Puppies albums do a good job of showing the diversity of the band and our ability to play different different types of songs. You know, we were told that we should sound more like back in 1982 by a major record producer.

Yeah, so that we need to sound more like a flock of seagulls. And that is a terrible move. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, yeah, then we, you know, before Crawl Puppies, we never really shopped The Crawl Puppies that much because the record industry had already kind of taken its turn and you could get more out of doing it independently. Not that we wouldn't have considered a deal had one come along. But when I was shopping for things, they would say things to me like, well, at times, you know, my other bands, there are times I hear stuff like U2 in there.

Then there's times where it gets a little bit more hard rocky. You know, like the Digital Hair Band was confusing because this was the early 90s where they were saying it sounds kind of alternative, but it's also very rock and roll. We don't know what to do with it.

And I laugh because that's when everything was kind of poison-esque, warrant and poison. And I'm shopping this label and all the labels, they're saying, yeah, this is good stuff, but it's it's kind of in between alternative and hard rock and we don't know what to do with it. Well, they were idiots because it wasn't long before Pearl Jam and Nirvana and others, Alice in Chains came along, which was alternative but hard rock.

Had they known that that was kind of the trend that was going? But I mean, back then, the labels wanted to simply pigeonhole you so they could market you in a formula. They didn't want to redevelop a marketing plan. They wanted to be able to take you guys and turn you guys into something you weren't right and be able to easily market you guys.

You guys have been miserable. I'd like to see you guys do a flock of seagulls. Yeah, no, I can go for the hair, though.

The hair looks good. Yeah, well, I had some of that going. So I'd be remiss if I didn't say that probably my favorite one of my favorite Crop Puppy songs is Three Little Things.

I mean, I know what I want it to be about, but is there a story behind it? Yeah, there's there's a story behind it. It's really about it's about addiction, I suppose. It's about it without getting too personal.

It's it's it's a lot about the dynamic of the crop puppies at the time. I would say it's about, you know, band members and people change. And, you know, there's things that work for a while and then they stop working.

But it's really about not wanting to tell somebody how to live their life. But at some point, your path and their path become irreconcilable. You know, and you can you don't want to blame the person, but you can blame three little things or things about that.

That person's personality that really just shot a hole in it. You know, and I wrote it vaguely about, you know, people that I knew. But it's also people in a relationship that everything's going great.

But there's these little things about the person and these little obstacles that get in the way. And it's and it's not really something that people can necessarily help. It could be that someone's got a terrible temper.

It could be that someone's got a drinking problem or someone's got could be a little pet peeve. It could be a pet peeve. It could be anything.

So I leave it vague and open. And a lot of people like that song. It's ironic because when we first wrote that song, I didn't think it was necessarily a crop up song.

You know, so I thought to myself, well, you know, maybe I'll give this song away to to another band. And I remember I just mentioned giving that song away. And Chris Karp at the time was like, you're not giving that song away because, you know, he really liked that one.

I like that one, too. I mean, I'm proud of that one. I think that one stands up, you know.

But I leave it open ended for people. But the concept is loosely there's all there's always obstacles. And sometimes those obstacles get hard to reconcile.

But I love the tune. It's a great song. Great song.

Thank you. You know, as a songwriter, you go through phases where you I mean, everyone kind of starts writing songs like I love you and you love me. And let's go to the movies and you know, and then eventually you start listening to all your songs and you think, gosh, I got nothing to say.

And then then you get philosophical and deep and you write crazy, you know, spiritual lyrics that really are just B.S. gibberish. And then somehow you find your way in between those two. And that's where you can write some good songs.

At least that's been my experience. And I think that, you know, lyrics for me is always the most important part of a song, in my opinion, but always the hardest part, you know. So where can we where can we find any of you guys social media wise speaking of social media or find you on the World Wide Web? Crop Puppies is just Facebook dot com slash Crop Puppies Crop Puppies dot com.

And then as far as I'm not sure what Chad's Facebook URL, but mine's Facebook dot com slash Aaron dot K dot hedges. You know, I'm just I'm just Facebook dot com. Chad Clifford, I think I got in there just in time.

I didn't have to put my political in. You have a website, too, don't you, Chad, or no? Yeah, it's it's Crop Puppies dot com. And then I have Chad Clifford Music dot com, which is I kind of use that as a hub for Front Porch, the Crop Puppies, my old high school band, Digital Hair and my solo gigs.

I just kind of have a little place where you can kind of get involved in all that stuff. So Megabeatles was open, too. So we got Facebook dot com slash Megabeatles as well.

Crop Puppies music is on iTunes and all those avenues for people to download. If you're lucky, you can ask Alexa to play some of them, too. Yeah, she will.

But sometimes she gets confused. Yeah, I tell you, this is a great time to be for music when you can just ask for a song and hear it like this. It's not like the old days.

We had to go by the 45 and or, you know, all that stuff. You know, my son has just recently gotten into vinyl and I have a little bit, too, again, kind of the fun of playing a record. You know, I mean, but it is highly inconvenient compared to just speaking and hearing the song on command.

It is. But I remember the days of sitting and being able to read the album as you're listening to the music and especially a double album or ones that opened up and reading the front and the back and the inside and everything else. I kind of miss that.

I do, too. I mean, it can still be done. You know, it's amazing.

I, I was looking, I put on my copy of the wall the other day to listen to the Pink Floyd album in its entirety, and it skipped so badly that I said, well, maybe I should just get a fresh new copy, you know, a nice copy of the wall. And it's like forty five dollars for the album. I'm like, oh, I'll stick with my scratchy old copy of Alexa to play.

Because I mean, remember, remember, when you think about vinyl, I mean, vinyl was what would you give like four to six bucks in the 70s for an album, which is a lot of money when you're a kid. Had to mow a couple of lawns for that. And then, you know, you vinyl became they couldn't they couldn't give it away.

So they stopped selling it. And now they remastered it, you know, and made it a little bit thicker and quadruple or, you know, I don't even know how many times the price, just ten times the price. And it's selling again, which is crazy.

That is crazy. You can speak in a vinyl mic. My dad's forty five from back in nineteen fifty nine.

You can find one on eBay for about three hundred bucks. That's a shame. And Alexa will play it, which blows my mind.

I can't get it to play Crop Puppy sometimes, but I can get it to play Tornado by the Giants. That was your dad's band. Yeah, that's very cool.

What did he play? He played guitar and bass that I know of that his song Tornado by the Giants with a J is the first song I've ever heard with a tremolo on it as the main tempo drive of the song. You know, that was that was pretty early on in the in the effects world in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame or like that. Yeah, he's he's in the the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

But what's what's what's weird about it is back then, I still didn't think it was that big a deal because, again, I never heard him play. Nobody had ever heard of the songs. But now it's in it's in a Kia commercial.

It's in a it's in a 2017 Shirley MacLaine movie. You know, and it's and that that song Tornado is is like the brown eyed girl of Europe. So you can find bands all over the place covering it.

And he never he died back in 2004. He never got to see any of that. Mm hmm.

You know, so it's, you know, the thing with vinyl and the old music. I mean, that's a time and genre that we're that we're never going to get back. And thank heavens for, you know, technology when it comes to that, because it's preserving a lot of that and a lot of the people that are old enough to remember those times, which obviously I'm not old enough to remember the 50s, but I was at least old enough, you know, in the 70s to be able to be somewhat close to that that decade or those decades.

And and things like this podcast that you're doing and all of that stuff is just it's just helping to keep a lot of that music alive, which I think is amazing. I just brought it up. Yeah, it's on YouTube.

The Giants Tornado. I'll have to take to take a listen to that. Yeah, there's a stripper version.

So if you're offended by the song, it's kind of about a girl that's kind of crazy. I don't know who did that, but it's fun to go YouTube. A lot of the people that covered the song.

And I think it was probably around the time when my dad passed that somebody from from France sent me a cover of some band in France playing the song, but I hadn't heard that song since I was a kid. We used to take those 45s that were worth about 300 bucks these days. We used to throw them around as frisbees.

We had hundreds of them at the house. I wish I could. I saved a few.

Tom Lounges has one at his record shop. So that was cool. I like that.

Part of my dad was saved in time, and everybody will now remember, you know, him as a guidance counselor, as a teacher, as all of those things. And, you know, I think that's the best gift that he could have left for me was was his music, because everybody identifies with it. You know, Chad's got kids.

And, you know, whether they appreciate his music now or not later on life, they're going to they're going to think twice about it, because their dad's probably going to go before they do. Yeah. And that's going to and that's going to be the only thing, you know, that'll be the only thing, you know, that they have tangible is, you know, in their hand is those memories.

And and music is a really important thing when it comes to to our lives and our memories and things like that. Yes, it is. So true.

So true. Yeah, you know, I did the same thing because my dad recorded an album with his band in the 60s, and I was lucky enough to get a copy of it. And they recorded and it was played on WLS like two or three times.

But, you know, it was not nowhere near as as big as the single by Aaron's dad. But I mean, just getting that and holding that forty five and just thinking about all the work they put in. I mean, that's the thing about music is back then you really had to go all out.

It was a big endeavor to record and cut a piece of plastic. I mean, nowadays, anyone with a microphone and an interface can or a computer can write a song and publish it and get it out in the world. But it's not quite the same endeavor that it used to be.

And I'm glad that that we live in a time when all that older stuff can be preserved, because it's definitely it's definitely worth. You know, it's definitely worth preserving that stuff and seeing it and being able to appreciate it forever. You know, that's the one good thing about the technology is once it's digitally copied, it's it exists forever.

Yeah. Well, thank you guys for joining us today. And thank you very much.

Yeah, well, I appreciate you guys doing this. I look forward to seeing seeing it. Yeah, it'll it'll it's been a lot of fun talking with you and in talking with you, like I said, talking with a lot of the bands to get an insight into into their careers and how they've gotten from where they started out to where they are now.

You know, and and you guys are no exception. So thank you very much. Thank you, Paul.

Thanks a lot. Hopefully we'll see you guys real soon. All right.

Nice. Nice. Nice.

Thanks for being here. Thanks, Ray. Thanks, Paul.

Thank you. Well, that was the nearly world famous Crawpuppies. And, you know, you were right.

They are more fun than a crawfish boil in New Orleans. That was a ball. Yes, it was.

And it was great talking with them and getting some insight into them and into the Mega Beatles as well. The other group that they kind of put together. And it's they're a great, great band.

Very talented guys. Most definitely. You know, and just as with many of our past interviewees we've had and stuff, if it wasn't for this COVID thing, they're all busy.

They got so many things going on, you know, they're involved in the different different bands and different things. It's it's crazy how much stuff, you know, they're doing. And now it's just come to a screeching halt.

Yes, it is, unfortunately. By the way, how was your etouffee? It was fantastic. It was the spice was just right.

And I got a big bowl. It lasted the entire podcast. Awesome.

Yeah, it was it was great. It was great. OK, well, I'm glad you enjoyed that.

I have to I have to maybe stop by Popeye's Shikki and get some myself. There you go. There you go.

I just made mine in the Instant Pot. No, that's good. I'm quite the chef.

I know. I know. Yes.

I've sampled your breakfast. That's right. That's right.

Would you cook it in the Instant Pot too, I think, wouldn't you? Probably. I probably did use the Instant Pot. Yeah.

Or the or the George Foreman Grill. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

OK, well, it was great seeing the guys this week. We'll see you guys next Tuesday for another installment of the world famous Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. OK, that was great.

Talk to you then. See you next week. Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music that's played on this podcast.

The music is used to promote the band or musicians that are interviewed. 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 six on Road to Rock Radio.