Power Take Off: Father-Son Band Talks Family, Farming, and New Music on Pipeman Radio

0:19 This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures of Pipe Man W4CY radio. And I'm here with our next guest, who not only has some killer new music, but I like what they're all about. So let's welcome to the show, Power Takeoff. How are you? Well, very good. Thank you for having us, Dean, on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Appreciate it. An honor to be here. I'm Scott. My pleasure. Scott and I interrupted you. No, no. My son. Aiden. Aiden. And so that's. Why I want to talk about first and foremost, pretty killer your story of how you started this project and like you have a father son gig going on. That didn't happen often back when. It's something that's really cool to me nowadays. Even I go to shows and there's fathers, sons, grandchildren there. Most of the shows I went to, my father would never get caught dead there. And I wouldn't get caught dead to anything he'd want to see either.

1:23 So tell the whole story of how this came about. Um, well, I, I, I can pretty much start, uh, my, my, my music career. I mean, I was a drummer for 35 years. I'm the lead singer in power takeoff and, uh, Aiden, my son is the drummer. Um, but, uh, at one point I, you know, I turned 49 years old. I'm the dad of the group. I'm the old guy, you know, um, Aiden's 19. We have a guitar player, Ethan 21, Jacob, our bass player is 23. So I work with younger guys, but, um, at one point I just kind of, some friends called me and said, would you like to be a drummer and try out in our band? And I'm like, you know, I'm 35 years of drumming. I said, I'm just a little burnt out on it. I said, I'd really like to try singing. So we did one or two jams and they're just friends, friends of mine for years, just people that I knew. And I kind of enjoyed singing for the first time ever. And I, I didn't think I was too bad at it. Um, But then right away, boom, COVID hit. And Aiden, who at that time you were a freshman in high school?

2:30 Somewhere around there. Yeah. And he wanted, he's a great little guitar player. He's always my little boy, right? But he's a great guitar player and a very talented drummer and just knew he had something special from the age of two years old. So just always been interested in music. And I kept saying, you'll get to high school, you'll meet these guys and you'll jam and you know, and, and, and I just started singing. I, you know, but what ended up happening was COVID and then high school shut down and we just found ourselves together in a basement for, you. Know, I mean, good year, you know, a little longer than that. So we wrote some songs together and kind of by the end of COVID, we kind of had a five song demo and we're just going to start putting a band together for the first time and kind of the rest is history and just found some guys and we really enjoy and Aiden had some, some friends from his older brother that played a little bit in a band and they kind of came in and stuff. So it's kind of, it's been a great adventure and I just enjoy my time with my son and we have a blast and just love playing for people. So it's just a trip for me and I'm, I'm honored and I know it's not going to last forever, but I enjoy my time I have with him and I can still give it the gas and let's, let's do something. So we're just having a blast.

3:50 Nice. And, and, I, it is pretty cool. And I have said, which you're an example of, if one good thing would come out at COVID time is that maybe some of the best music would be made because artists get to jump off the hamster wheel and decide what they really want to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. No, absolutely. So, and for us too, yeah. What, I mean, I guess a blessing in disguise, would it have happened? I, I, I did an interview, um, couple of days ago. And somebody said, would the band have happened if it wasn't for COVID? And I don't know if he would have started, you know, sowing his own oats and would have found some younger guys.

4:33 And but but, you know, we're not ruling that out yet either. But like I say, I just I'm enjoying my time and I just feel like him and I between the songs we're writing and stuff, they're just a little there's something something there, some substance, you know, there's totally. And so what do you think about working with your dad? I love it. I mean, like, he's like my best friend. Like, yeah, he's my father. But sometimes, you know, I consider him as my best friend. And sometimes, you know, best friends argue because they're so similar. So me and him are very similar. Similar. That's how you say it. Yeah. Well, and too, I always bring a song in and it's slow. And I'm like, what do you think? Is this deep? And then he's just like, I think it, you know, miles an hour. So it's kind of. Yeah, oil and water at some times, but we do get along, and he does.

5:26 I mean, I appreciate his input and his outlook on music being a younger person. You know, appreciate that. I don't always know everything, you know. I think it helps the band to have two perspectives based on two different generations. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Because it's so true nowadays in music. There is a difference between the older generation and the younger generation because of the technology alone. Yeah. We play, you know, depending on where we're playing and stuff. And sometimes, you know, you get an afternoon slot at a festival or something like that. I mean, we've had about 110 eight to nine-year-old kids all bounce into power takeoff.

6:15 And the next weekend, you know, we go to a resort or something like that. and it's, it's all older people, you know, and, and, you know, it's funny, 60 and 80 year old people, you know, and I don't know if it's the message that we're sending out, try to create positive life is good. We need to celebrate life is short, you know, be good to your neighbor. You know, we don't always get along, but yet at the end of the day, we all share the. Same earth, you know, exactly. So, I mean, we, I, and I don't know if it's the message, but, At 55, you know, I'm being a farmer, fourth generation farmer. I'm a pretty grounded individual, you know, not always the smartest kid on the bus, but kind of just have stories that I just enjoy sharing.

7:03 And Aiden being a fifth generation farmer, I think can appreciate that. Well, and that brings me to another thing that I really appreciate because you're spreading the message that's right up my alley. Like it kind of pisses me off that first of all, anywhere I go, they start taking away nature to build these stucco buildings that stay empty. But also the fact that like, so I'm originally from New Jersey, which most people don't realize has a lot of, or had has a lot of farmland, you know, and I knew a lot of farmers and I used to go stop at the farm stand on the way home to bring dinner and, Wasn't that long ago.

7:47 And, you know, like that's getting smaller and smaller. And like, I don't know. To me, I look at things like GMO and stuff like that, driving away the real farmers. Yeah. I mean, and certainly I, you know, as being a farmer and that's what we definitely, you know, around our family farm. And at one time it was in a rural community called Middleton, Wisconsin. And Middleton, Wisconsin is, grew and the city of Madison grew and they're kind of, you know, used to be a little separation, but and our farm was kind of, you know, in the middle of them.

8:28 And now our farm is actually in the city of Madison now because it's pushed that far. And so we're kind of the last family farm ownership operation in the city of Madison. So it's kind of a dying thing a little bit, but I. Always kind of look at it, you know, or I live in Verona, Wisconsin, and my parents always say, be proud of where you come from. And we do, and we love our farm and stuff. But, you know, everybody maybe, because we love it, wants a little piece of that paradise too. And I can't blame them for that. You know, urban sprawl happens. And, but, you know, as time, like, like you say, it's just, It's probably just a string in your heart that you drive past and you go, that used to be a beautiful green cornfield. And now it's a four-story apartment building with all the town infrastructure, city infrastructure. And in our farm, too, we have fire hydrants on the corner of our farm.

9:33 We have sidewalks. But it used to be when I was growing up, we were in the country. Yeah, out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. Yeah, it really does. You know, and so I and I love like the picture in the background I have as my background, you performing the video right in the middle. Of the cornfields. That's of course it's called cornfields at midnight, but it just makes such a statement doing the actual video in the cornfields. Well, thank you. And that was, yeah, that's just the kind of the whole vision of that video and the song and just to try to just bring awareness to that stuff and just make people think about it, you know?

10:18 I mean, and again, it's not right or wrong. I mean, somebody, you know, probably there's money made somewhere down the line and, you know, and that's their personal business. But just as far as, you know, as you get older, you just, you appreciate things a lot more in your past. And you go, that was really a cool time in my life at that point, you know? So it's the memories. And I think about like, even other places. It doesn't have to be just here. Like I go to Costa Rica a lot. And one of the places I normally go, it was like an hour and a half bad dirt ride to get there. Okay. Now they paved the road and now they're building multimillion dollar things. And like something that was this like gem that was off the grid. That was really cool and had lots of nature is becoming more and more concrete in a.

11:10 Place like Costa Rica, which should, Not big. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, no, it's crazy. Yeah, these rural communities and stuff, too, and just bigger corporations. But it, too, and it brings more tax dollar to the community and the community can thrive in the schools. And I mean, you know, there's just so many ways to look at it and so many opinions and there's no right or wrong. It's just, you know, how does it affect us. I guess. Exactly. Exactly. But it's good to put the message out there so that people could form their own opinions. Yeah. Yeah. And then I kind of, I really dig too, that one of the things you guys do in live shows, uh, I don't know if it's all the times or sometimes where you switch roles.

11:55 Yeah. Me being the drummer for 35 years and Aiden, um, comes up and belts out a couple of tunes and he does a great job. And then everybody's put the kid back up again. Yeah. I guess they want you to play another song, Aiden, you know, but, but yeah, it's great. And that just gives him experience and just, you know, working a crowd and just, you know, learning it. And we're pretty high energy and Aiden drumming. I mean, who's your, who's your drumming. I mean, you know, who's your go-to, you know, and I, yeah. A lot of the eighties drummers show them in drummers. And if he could have a drum set on a roller coaster, he would have it in a heartbeat. Nice.

12:36 And I did see Motley Crue in the beginning, like even before they had an album. And I did see Tommy Aldridge play with Ozzy. Okay, cool. So yeah, like I. Think musicians in general are more musicians back then because they were forced to kind of have to play the instrument and not, you know, like, not like use all these tools that help you. No, we were on the road and it's amazing from town to town. I mean, we were going, I think we did 13 weeks and it was amazing that, you know, we went to clubs and people are like, you don't have any tracks. And I'm like, no. And they're like, that's weird.

13:18 And I'm like, what? He's got tracks. And I'm like, we don't have tracks, I guess. But, but, you know, I mean, we. we belted out live. It is what it is. It's, it's, it's the Ramones. I mean, you know, we're pounding it out and we like speed and power, you know, we're into it. That's what live should be like. It doesn't need to be perfect. And that's where you really try and find out the musicianship because a band, you can make them sound any way you like in the studio, how they play live whole nother story. Yeah. Yeah. So, what else do you have coming up that you want to tell everybody about?

13:59 Um, I guess just, you know, the release of the cornfields video, uh, a song was released, uh, August 18th and the video actually came out on yesterday. And, um, and it's, it's a cool video and like your background picture there, that's my family farm. That's a 210 acre cornfield that we own. Um, and it was cool. Just, I mean, we couldn't, we wanted to get a drone up in the air, but because we're, In the city of Madison, we couldn't, but you can, there's. A line behind Aiden there, you know, it. Kind of goes over the hill and then the city of Madison starts. And in the video, you can kind of see a TV tower and stuff. But right now we're, we just finished recording four songs and we're kind of excited about some new releases that we're hopefully going to do here right after the holidays.

14:47 It seems like. We'll probably do the cornfields at midnight thing here up till Thanksgiving time. And then it seems like the music business between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve, there's. Just not a lot of action. So we're kind of hopefully like first of February, we're going to be releasing some new music and then hope to get out on the road too. And, you know, support that too. So new music coming. We always try to be six months ahead, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Try to keep moving forward. So but Sean and Holly and through Sean, we've met you and she's been just doing a dynamite job as public relations and we appreciate her. And we've met her through our friend Holly and Holly's been doing a great job.

15:32 And we're just kind of excited to tell the story, you know, and, you know. Dig it. If you do appreciate it and if you don't like the story, that's cool. Keep it to yourself. I dig the story. I think it's a cool story. And, you know, when you do go out on tour, if you were, both of you, I want to see the difference in the generations. If you were to pick any band to go on tour with, who would it be? You want to go first? No, you can go first. I need a second. I don't know. There's a lot. Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of, I mean, as far as anything going on right now in the world, I mean, I'm kind of, you know, Youngblood, I think, is really kind of paving a way.

16:20 Machine Gun Kelly. I mean, any of those, I mean, that I feel that we would work well with those bands. I mean, we kind of get labeled as the pop punk rock band. But I mean, we're I'd like to think we're more like any just hard rock band, two guitars, bass and drums, little tempo bands. Maybe a little punk attitude, the energy. There you go. But I always tell people, yeah, and that would be like my kind of, as far as like a tour to hop on, like right now would be awesome. Go ahead, Dave. Cool. I would say for like our sound, I would say I would love to tour with Ransom because I really love Ransom. But like my dream, oh, I don't even know. I would say Motley Crue, but.

17:08 There you go. you know, stadiums. Yeah. Yeah. Aiden's mother is a Motley Crue head and has been since. You know, 13 years old. So I've seen him probably eight times. Aiden, you've seen him probably five times. My wife's seen probably 13 times. So that's a huge influence on all of us here. Nice. But we'd like to think, you know, we're not, I mean, no disrespect towards 80s music or anything. I just, you know, and that was just kind of the party anthem stuff. You know, I think there's a little bit more substance to Power Takeoff, but definitely the 80s music, yeah, our influence.

17:54 There definitely is. And yeah, I was 13. I was hanging out with the crew at the Rainbow. Oh, yeah. We were just there about a year and a half ago. We were at the Remo. We didn't play. We were recording there. Nice. Yeah, walk the street, you know. It was neat. Yeah, it was a wild time back then. But, yes, and you do have definite substance there. I agree with that. Tell everybody how they can check out everything going on with your band on your website, socials, all that. Yeah, I always pretty much just any social media, the Power Takeoff Band, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram. It's pretty much, I mean, across the board. And we're just trying to, yeah, I mean, just get our name out there. And, yeah, I don't know if anybody's, you know, appreciate you, Pipe Man, and anything that you can have somebody listen to our stuff and give a thumbs up.

18:51 We'd appreciate that. Absolutely. And I look forward to seeing a lot more of you guys. And I love what you're doing. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Thank you for having us. Honored to be here, my friend. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on W4CY radio.