PipemanRadio Discusses The South Florida Fair with Given to Fly - The Pearl Jam Experience

0:04 Hey, you have done to censure. Wow, crare, you. Young ro. Wake up America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four c Y dot com. West pomp Beach is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man, and.

0:48 Oh so we jase double. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with our next guest. Also, I'm going to be performing here at the South Florida Fair. Very exciting, So let's welcome Ryan to the show. We're going to talk about giving the fly the Pearl Jam experience. Yes, sir, so that's pretty cool. You know, it's funny because he sounds just like Eddie Vedder and give his vocal lessons to where I'm going to bring that up because anybody out there might want to use his skills to learn how to sing, because I'm here to tell you, unless you have the techniques and skills, it's going to be very hard. Yeah, even if you know has sing, if you don't use the proper technique, you blow out your voice.

1:50 Yeah, for sure, that's the truth. He's got a really great baritone voice and he knows how to use it. That's a lot of technique to it. He nails Eddie Vedder. For and that's not an easy one to nail, you know, No. No, it's not right. You have to pick a difficult one. I know, right. And then I think that seems to be the theme this year at the fair, because like he's a hard one. And then I was interviewing Ode to the Cranberry's and Dolores is definitely a hard one, right, you know. So I'm always like very impressed with people that have the courage to sing other people's songs like them, especially when they have a voice like Eddie Vedder or Dolores or you know, an Amy Lee or Stevie Nicks.

2:38 You know, some of these voices, they're like you talk to artists that didn't do it for a living that would say, yeah, I wouldn't sing their songs. Okay, yeah, yeah, that's true. Right, there's a lot of sport in the ones that these folks are picking. Maybe it picked him, right, I think it probably did, you know, because I couldn't sing like any bedders right right, you know. And so you guys started up in New York. I'm from the northeast too. What brought you down to South Florida. The reason that Bob ended up in South Florida is because his parents were here. They had already migrated south before him, so he came down to be near them and left the band that had been working already for eight nine years up there, very popular, won the tribute band contest up there for the whole region.

3:41 The capital region of upstate New York. It was voted on, and so he left that and a lot of fans and followers and came down south. But we understand why, right, because we're in paradise here. Yeah, right, you know what even you know it's funny because I was doing radio coverage on this thing called ship Rock, which is a rock cruise, and my youngest story who lives in the Pandandle was texting me videos of the blizzard there, right, And she's been trying to get me to move to that part of Florida. That is the north, that is the North. Yes, listen, if I tell her, like, listen, if I want that kind of weather, I'll move back to New Jersey.

4:26 I'm not like to me, it goes against my religion to live in Florida and have that weather same. You have to be south of Stewart, right, the tropics of the subtropics start at Stewart. That's as far north as as I want to live. We'll travel and play north of there. But we will come home exactly. And a lot of people don't realize. Okay, So a lot of people that came on this cruise and got off the boat in Miami and it was cold here, you know, they don't realize it actually gets cold here, colder at the same temperature like Jersey. I could wear a T shirt and forty degree weather, not South Florida. Right right, your blood has been for sure. I just said Bob last night, our lead singer. I just said to him last night a rehearsal, do you look at the weather? He said, no, no, right, that's my job to know the weather and report it.

5:19 Right. I said, well, it's going to be eighty three while you perform two o'clock. He said, no problem. Right. I was a little bit worried about a uh I New York. He's been down here a handful of years, and he actually went to college here. He has a degree in music business, so he went to college here. So he's he's actually a Floridian at this point, but I did bring up. I'll never claim that. I'll never claim Floridian ever. Now I've lived here since two thousand and I'm still a Jersey boy. I don't yeah, I don't claim yeah, And you know what, like to the humidity when it's cold, that's what makes it colder here because like it's like that wet cold, but that eighty three degrees and humidity.

6:03 My hat's off to any musician that performs in that. Like I have a you know, I go and I do all these festivals. I have a lot of friends that I'll be like, how are you out there in like a long leather overcoat. Yeah? Right, it's right to something where they really have to. Yeah, it's like it's brutal, you know, so. It's part of it. The show must go on. That's it. That's it. Well, you listen, you know how it is. A musician will get up on stage and basically they won't give themselves permission to die till they get off stage. I wouldn't give them permission either, right if I.

6:44 Run around here, there you go. I love it. You're you're really the magic behind the band. I think, Well, I appreciate that, but you know, I think it's very uh, very give and. Take, you know, Yang and Yang. I couldn't do what I do without a killer product. I just wouldn't want my name on it. And in many ways they need my skill set, you know. So it's symbiotic. That's nice. And you guys got a bunch of other gigs. I also know it's like, Okay, so my studios are in Wellington, but I live on Singer Island, so I know it's you're playing at the Malts. Yeah, so that's cool. Yeah, that's a good one. It's a cool venue.

7:25 Actually, yeah, it is nice people, well run, good. Sound, yeah, exactly, and that's not always easy to find in South Florida. I find Palm Beach County to be better than Broward County me personally, Yeah, as far as how they treat the bands, how they treat media, how their sound is. And I think Palm Beach County is really cool, but South Florida Fair is really like all I hear from only artists is great things. And I've been covering for years and there's always great stages, great sounds. I've been to fairs all over this and to me, there's no better fare for music than the South Florida Yeah.

8:06 Yeah, yeah. Woody the stage manager has it dialed in and Kayla the entertainment director. I mean, it's you know, it's second nature. It's they're pros. So it makes it easy on us for sure. And I like saying that because some people may think, oh, that wouldn't be the case at the Fair. But yeah, it's a first class operation. Matt Matt Wallsmith, the new CEO that's come in there, has done a great job. We're excited about it. Yeah. Yeah. So have you guys played the Fair before? Is this your first time? No? No, we haven't. Wow, I have another tribute act and not done the Fair. No. So you're going into this competition here and you could take it all without ever even have ever played the Fair.

8:52 I think that's cool as can be. Yeah, that's that's the plan. Let's uh, let's see if we can manifest it. So how did it happen? How? You know, how did it happen that you ended up competing in this classic rock competition that the South Florida Affair has every year. So you're like the cream and the crop if you're in that. Yeah, thank you, thank you. Uh, you know, it just came on my radar, and we applied for it and waited and ultimately got the good news that we're able to compete. So we did the traditional process of applying, and I love that you got picked because you know, people like to say that people.

9:33 Aren't really like in other things that are put on here in South Florida. People aren't really into rock music in South Florida. You show up to fair on Saturday and watch this competition, and you will prove all those people wrong, because that is the biggest lie ever told. You was saying that we need to correct. You can't really say, I can't really say, but let's put it this way. They there are a music festival in South Florida that may no longer be a music festival in South Florida. Ah okay, I'm with you. Well, probably because of that thought process, right right. It all starts at the top, right, So if that's if that's the ideology at the top, it's going to flow all the way down and maybe out.

10:20 Well. The thing is too, I think like you gotta be relative to what's now, not what was two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago. It doesn't matter, it's what's now, and you know, so you have to evolve with the times. And I think that's what's great about the South Florida Fairs. They make changes, They evolve with the times, you know, instead of doing the same thing you're in, you're out because eventually that becomes a dinosaur. Yeah, for sure, it's great leadership that does that. Right, just evolved And. We're lucky to cover Pearl Jam because they constantly evolve. I mean, they have been a. Working charting touring band. This is the thirty fifth year and in their forty thirty fifth year, on this album, they've had two number one hits already, right, right, So they're just going with the flow and delivering what the people want, and we're trying to keep up with that as well.

11:15 It was pretty cool too. You guys were hired to play at the premiere of the Pearl Jam documentary film Let's Play two, and you've been promoted by Pearl Jam on the shles and the official event and everything like. So, how does it really feel when the band you're paying tribute to is promoting you. Yeah, that's that's big, right, That's that's pretty much the Holy Grail. They did it organically and they also did it in paid ads, so they've put they put their money where their mouth is. You know. It's it's a big it's a big win. And the guys in the band are die hard Pearl Jam fans, especially Bob. You know, he's been to a dozen a dozen shows, and so it really doesn't get better than that, right, I know?

12:01 Right? The only thing that could be a little better is if both bands get up on stage and perform together. Yes, let's do it. Can you help me? Maybe? Yeah, I'm putting it out there right now, Like you know, don't just promote social media bring him up and do it like a double show that would. Because yes, right, yes, amen, amen. I love it. So besides being a big fan of Pearl Jam, what started the whole brainstorm to do this tribute band? It was just being a super fan. You know. Bob, like I said, he just loves them.

12:43 He's been to a ton of shows. He's he's been a ten Club member. So ten Club is a paid membership only fan club that Pearl Jam runs. It's on Pearljam dot com. He's been a ten Club member since its inception. So and then he had the voice, right, he had the voice, loved the music, and that's that's another holy grail, right. If you can sing what you love, if you can perform what you. Love, Yeah, I can't. I can't off to them, you know. Yeah, the audience feels that. They if you are connecting with the music and the content, they will see that. And it just really resonated for Bob. And so he turns his in his talent into a business and here we are ten eleven years later.

13:33 Wow, And you know it is true because basically the audience can tell if you're just going through the motions or doing it as a gimmick, opposed to do it because you have the passion for it. Yeah right, there's there's definitely no gimmick in what we do. It's it's not overly theatrical. It's not pearl jam circa nineteen ninety. Two, nineteen ninety threat. You know, it's much. More two thousands pearl jam. There's no climbing on the rafters anymore. Yeah, right. They wouldn't like that to South Florida Fair anyway. No, I heard I got that memo. I got that memo. So you know, it's. Really all about the music, just being true to the music and honoring it.

14:16 Like for Lick, Yeah, and so did he naturally have that voice. Or yes, yes, yes he did, he did. He had very little formal training until he started, uh, you know, teaching others. But he's he's he's largely self taught. I find some of the best singers, that is the case, or the best musicians. I think it's kind of because, especially talking friends of mine, there musicians, it's like you don't put and get put in this box, and you can when you're self taught. You kind of experiment and find your sound opposed to what somebody else tells you do. Like I remember when I was taking guitar lessons. I freaking hated that for months a all the teacher wanted to do is teach me scales. I just want to make sounds.

15:05 Yes, that's so funny. Bob talks about that all the time, being a vocal coach. So he says, you know, I don't do a I don't do forty five minutes of warm up with these guys, and there's not a lot of you know, kind of Miss Mabel in the back room on the piano right, he's a more modern coach. You're here to sing, let's sing, you know, match pitch, and he kind of goes about it a different way and certainly has a lot of very happy students because of that. You know, he's like the favorite uncle teacher type thing. Yeah, yeah, I think I think that's brilliant because you'll keep more kids into music and the arts right now, because when we're a kid and we're taking music lessons, we don't want to do all that boring crap. We want to learn how to play a song or sing a song or whatever. You know.

15:52 Yeah, yeah, any as adults too, So it's like they're getting that rock star moment when. They're exactly exactly. So, how do people reach out to you guys on socials? On the web? Check out everything about you? Yeah, So, given to fly Tribute dot com is the web address. Given to fly is a song Pearl Jam song and Eddie Vetter also has a tattoo on his arm given to fly. So given to flytribute dot com is the website. Facebook is at PJ tribute and Instagram is at given to Fly Tribute. Nice and do you have anything else you want to share with the listeners that we haven't covered array that they need to know that's either coming up or anything.

16:40 Yeah, I know that you're Palm Beach County based. We have some great shows coming up. You mentioned the Malts. We also have book a black Box, we have a studio at Meisner Park and if anybody's hearing this out there in central Florida, we have a killer show coming up at Tofies, which is a little concert hall. So check out the schedule online and subscribe to get. Some emails with new shows when we add them. Nice support. Keep live music alive. Right, Oh, no doubt about it, because that is the only escape we have from insanity right now, in twenty twenty five.

17:23 Right now, back then, and in the future. Right music is a dealer and a unifier. The unifier and the best healer, therapy all that. So I'm so happy I'll be able to check you out at the South Florida Fair this Saturday on the first, and let's see if you win the whole competition. Yeah, thank you. We go on at two o'clock. We're the first fan, so nobody can be late. There you go, Well, I'll be there and everybody else should be there too. Because you're not going to want to miss this. So thanks for entertaining us and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Appreciate it. Seane, thanks so much, good bye.

18:05 Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on w for c u I Radio.