Episode 132 features Dave Hulegaard the person behind Twelve Days in June.
We discuss his almost two decades hiatus from music, and how he’s not only back, he hit the ground running. All that plus learning guitar, hitting publish, returning to things you once loved, and much much more.
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
Twelve Days in June Linktree
Twelve Days in June on YouTube
Twelve Days in June on Spotify
Twelve Days in June on Amazon Music
Twelve Days in June on Bandcamp
Twelve Days in June on Deezer
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
Photography Credit: Sara Wright Photography.
–End Show Notes Transmission–
–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:03 – 00:00:28:10
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent Palmer dot com. Fear and loathing on the Campaign Trail 72. Nine innings with the Church of Baseball. And yes, I’m already more than a season into deep Space Nine. This is The Palmer Files episode 132 featuring Dave Hulegaard, the person behind 12 Days in June. We discussed his almost two decades hiatus from music, how he’s not only back, he hit the ground running and learning guitar, hitting publish, returning to things you once loved, and much, much more.
00:00:28:12 – 00:00:45:21
Agent Palmer
Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:00:45:26 – 00:01:00:52
Agent Palmer
Here’s. Some.
00:01:00:57 – 00:01:20:46
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to The Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic, also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 132nd episode, we go behind the music with Dave Hulegaard of 12 Days in June. That’s the best description for the conversation you’re about to hear, which contains stories about Dave’s first guitar, his long hiatus for music, and how he came back and hit the ground running.
00:01:20:51 – 00:01:45:44
Agent Palmer
As you’ve seen, if you visited the 12 Days in June Spotify page, we also get into some process what it’s like to release music, publicly, listening habits, touring versus creating, how to listen to an album and well, all of that and a whole lot more is coming your way shortly. But first, remember that if you want to discuss the episode as you listen or afterwards, you can find all related ways to contact my guest, Dave and myself in the show notes.
00:01:45:58 – 00:02:11:13
Agent Palmer
There you can find all of Dave’s music as 12 Days in June, streaming on Apple Music, Spotify, Bandcamp, Amazon Music, Deezer, YouTube and anywhere else you stream your music. Don’t forget you can see all of my writings and rantings on Agent palmer.com. And of course, email can be sent to the Palmer files at gmail.com. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
00:02:11:17 – 00:02:21:40
Agent Palmer
Dave, you recently put out a single, but you’ve also got a few albums from the last few years. Was putting out an album always a goal?
00:02:21:45 – 00:02:50:55
Dave Hulegaard
It’s funny because when I was younger, that was like the dream, right? Like if you were in a band in the 90s, it was you got to get a CD out because that was like the mark of you made it. That was that was what you want to do. You hear your music on CD. And then, you know, as technology has evolved and tools are much more accessible to anyone and everyone, it’s like, I, I think like a lot of people, I hit that kind of pandemic wall where I’m like, what am I doing?
00:02:51:00 – 00:03:17:01
Dave Hulegaard
Or what am I going to do? And it was really good timing for me to kind of rediscover my love of music, which had been dormant for a while, and seeing what was available like, how easily you could get back into it with some very, very basic equipment. And I really only intended to do one song, and I had so much fun with it that it just it completely reignited everything I loved about making music.
00:03:17:01 – 00:03:19:07
Dave Hulegaard
And then from there, I was just off to the races.
00:03:19:07 – 00:03:41:49
Agent Palmer
Okay, so I, I a lot of questions pop into my head, but the first one’s going to be this right? I’ve played music on and off more on in the last decade than off, by myself. I’m not. I haven’t played in a band since college. I haven’t played in front of an audience since college. Like. And that was 20 years ago.
00:03:41:53 – 00:04:07:49
Agent Palmer
But when I find myself like, very busy with life for a few months, I’m like, I haven’t picked up a bass or a guitar in a while. I’ll pick it up. So, like my dormant periods are not like grand, but when they happen, I pick up an instrument and I’m happy again, I don’t go, maybe I should write an album like you don’t like it, I so I don’t want to put you on the spot.
00:04:07:54 – 00:04:26:03
Agent Palmer
But Dave, that’s a jump, right? Like you wanted to get back into music. I mean, talk about taking a big leap. It’s not just though. Maybe I should play a little bit more, you know, stuff. You know, what was the dormant period like? Like how long was it? I guess first.
00:04:26:08 – 00:04:27:30
Dave Hulegaard
It was about 20 years.
00:04:27:32 – 00:04:34:35
Agent Palmer
Okay. So substantial. Yeah. If we go back 20 years ago, were you. What were you playing?
00:04:34:40 – 00:05:01:08
Dave Hulegaard
So I was in an actual band, in my teens and early 20s. Okay. And, like, actually had. I wouldn’t call it a success, but, like, a reasonable amount. More than than, like a young teenage version of me would have ever thought possible. Okay, so. So I got a taste for it, you know? And unfortunately, it all started to fall apart about as quickly as it was coming together.
00:05:01:08 – 00:05:21:08
Dave Hulegaard
So it was it was a very short lived run, and I had a batch of songs that I was just very pained and sad about, that were never going to be heard. And so I thought, okay, if I’m done with music. And at that point I really felt like I was I was so frustrated and I just felt like it was never going to happen for me.
00:05:21:13 – 00:05:46:59
Dave Hulegaard
The times were changing, right? The millennium was an interesting time, so I decided I was going to go into the studio with this batch of songs that that I just wanted to have for me. I wanted to have them as like an archive and and that’s what I did. And I recorded all of those, and it’s this demo that I’ve kept with me all these years, and once in a while I pull it out, you know, listen to it and just be like, wow, like, I missed, I missed doing this.
00:05:46:59 – 00:06:10:31
Dave Hulegaard
But there was never, to your point. Like, never a good time, right? Life gets busy, things happen. You got to work, you got to pay bills. You know, every everything that we all, you know, face, that gets in the way of our creative endeavors. And, I just I hit a point where, my mother passed away and, you know, that was such a, kind of a pivotal moment because she was, we were so close.
00:06:10:31 – 00:06:31:17
Dave Hulegaard
I mean, she really was my best friend, and she had always encouraged me, you know, to keep pursuing my arts, whether it was writing, doing music, performing, whatever that would be. And so it kind of felt like this was like a really cool way to reconnect with her as best I could, given the circumstances. And getting into music again just kind of gave that to me.
00:06:31:17 – 00:06:45:53
Dave Hulegaard
But it really just kept evolving. Like, I just all of those memories I had from my teens and 20s just came rushing back, and it felt like it felt like I didn’t go away. I just hit pause. And this was my opportunity to unpause.
00:06:45:58 – 00:06:53:02
Agent Palmer
Okay, so I want to go back. Did you what was it like? I’m paying to get in the studio and lay these down.
00:06:53:11 – 00:06:54:57
Dave Hulegaard
Yes. Okay. Absolutely. Yeah.
00:06:54:57 – 00:07:14:01
Agent Palmer
Okay. Because, I mean, I, I oh, we should have been friends back then. I would have been like, just come over. I got my I got my porta studio. We can, just record it, in a basement, you know, or whatever. So that’s that’s amazing. And now I get to ask the question. I ask everybody who played in the band.
00:07:14:05 – 00:07:17:41
Agent Palmer
Did you get to do the band tour?
00:07:17:46 – 00:07:41:16
Dave Hulegaard
Not like a full tour. I was originally from, from Portland, Oregon. And so the major kind of thruway across the, the Pacific Northwest is I-5. And so you would you could do everything from kind of Seattle down to northern California, like, very, very easily and sometimes into British Columbia if you if you were so lucky.
00:07:41:21 – 00:07:44:54
Dave Hulegaard
So I did that, at least once.
00:07:44:59 – 00:08:11:05
Agent Palmer
I would consider that a van tour. I mean, that’s, it’s it’s it’s not just the next town over, right? Yeah. Okay. And I, I, you know, do you do you remember much of it? Like. I mean, when you get back into music now, you’re doing it for the creation. Not so much the touring. Yeah. And back then you’re doing the touring to me to to to, you know, fulfill.
00:08:11:10 – 00:08:19:29
Agent Palmer
Maybe we’ll get signed. Very different, I get it. Yeah. But, like, do you think about the touring aspect anymore?
00:08:19:34 – 00:08:46:20
Dave Hulegaard
Not so much anymore. I think, just the way that life has kind of evolved. It really is, like you said, just like it’s an outlet of creativity. It’s it’s expression. It’s a side of me that doesn’t get to come out in my day job or anything like that. And, I’m so glad that I have it, you know, because there there’s just days where, you know, you you kind of mentioned this, too, right?
00:08:46:20 – 00:09:11:20
Dave Hulegaard
Where it’s like, you just want to just pick up an instrument and just dabble. Right. And it kind of satisfies that initial dopamine hit. But but yeah, it was I think I hit a point where I just realized, like, maybe this isn’t going to happen anymore. Like maybe this isn’t possible anymore. But what I’m learning is that there’s a lot more possible than I realized when I kind of pick back up four years ago.
00:09:11:25 – 00:09:19:59
Dave Hulegaard
So I’m I’m never going to rule anything out. But, you know, if the odds are against me, then at least I’m having a blast just making the best possible music I can.
00:09:19:59 – 00:09:44:51
Agent Palmer
So then, if you only really picked it up four years ago, I have to give you a lot of credit because you. You you hit the ground running like you, your Spotify has. It’s not like an album and a few singles like you have albums, like, so you picked up, started writing and never stopped, basically. Right.
00:09:44:51 – 00:09:46:26
Agent Palmer
Are you still writing now?
00:09:46:30 – 00:10:03:57
Dave Hulegaard
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. You know, and like, you know, like I said, after hitting, hitting on pause after 20 years, I think there was just a lot of that that had been built up because I, I missed I missed playing guitar, I missed writing songs. And for a long time I just didn’t feel like I had much left to say.
00:10:04:02 – 00:10:22:23
Dave Hulegaard
And so when I got got back into it, you know, during the pandemic, it was like there were a lot of songs that had been in bits and pieces over the years, and I wanted to sit down and like, actually see if there was something there to work with. And that was really kind of the first, I would say the first two albums, that I put out.
00:10:22:28 – 00:10:45:39
Dave Hulegaard
And then when I hit La Luna, it was like, now I’ve kind of hit this gear where I’m doing the music I always wanted to like, like La Luna was kind of me discovering what 12 days in June had, always what I’d always wanted it to be. And yeah, I’ve got a new album already in the works. It’s I’m just keeping busy and just kind of keeping that, that moving forward.
00:10:45:44 – 00:10:48:37
Agent Palmer
So I before I forget.
00:10:48:42 – 00:10:49:21
Dave Hulegaard
00:10:49:21 – 00:10:55:38
Agent Palmer
And you know what’s coming because you had to know I was going to ask why 12 days in June?
00:10:55:42 – 00:11:17:10
Dave Hulegaard
Now I get asked this question a lot. It’s a really, kind of boring story, but when I was, when I was younger, like mid 90s, I was, involved in a in a summer fling that just felt like the most amazing time of my life. Right? It’s it always does. And I had found this this girl that I thought, this is the one.
00:11:17:10 – 00:11:41:02
Dave Hulegaard
Like, this is who I’m spending the rest of my life with. I don’t care about anything else. Like she’s the one. And like this was going to be the relationship that would last a lifetime. But it was actually just shy of two weeks. Before before we realized maybe we weren’t actually right for each other. So it actually spanned, the end of June, just past the 4th of July.
00:11:41:07 – 00:11:59:42
Dave Hulegaard
But I always tell people 12 days in June. July doesn’t sound like a good band name. Okay, so. So I just dropped the July. So it’s just 12 days in June, and, years later, I did reconnect with her very briefly and just long enough for her to tell me how much she hated the name.
00:11:59:42 – 00:12:33:52
Agent Palmer
So that’s. Hey, you know what? Yeah, but but but you know what? As long as you like it, that’s all that matters, right? Like she doesn’t have to tour under it. She doesn’t have to release albums under it. That’s you. And that’s, you know, that’s that’s good. I mean, I yeah. So the the other question that begs is, you know, music isn’t a part of your day job, but is writing like, because I understand that music can be and, you know, because I’ve gone months or years without picking up an instrument and it is like riding a bike.
00:12:33:57 – 00:13:01:56
Agent Palmer
But writing is not creating is a very different animal. So like, how were you able to not only pick up the instrument, but also go, oh, and oh yeah, I can write again, like, because that’s not just something. I mean, it can lie dormant, but you got to practice like you got. I’m sure there was a lot of, you know, to for the old, person in me, there was a lot of ripped out paper crumpled up and thrown in the in the basket.
00:13:01:56 – 00:13:08:38
Agent Palmer
Right. Like. Yeah. Was it, was it a it was the music. Must have been easier I guess is what I’m asking.
00:13:08:43 – 00:13:31:04
Dave Hulegaard
You know, it’s funny because I, I didn’t have an active plan to come back to music. And you my, my day job is, is marketing. Right. So like it’s, it’s a, it’s a creative field but it’s a different type of creativity. I mean it definitely scratches a particular itch, but it’s not the same thing as, like creating something that belongs to me most of the time.
00:13:31:04 – 00:13:57:06
Dave Hulegaard
I’m creating things to help, you know, partners who are trying to sell products. But like I with music, I get to create something that’s absolutely mine, at least until I release it. So what happened was, again, like, not to not to bring the tone of the show down, but, you know, after my mother had passed and I was, I was just outside walking my dog, and there was the most beautiful sunset.
00:13:57:10 – 00:14:16:12
Dave Hulegaard
And I would just never forget just just pausing for a minute, like, just staring at the sunset. And this melody just kind of materialized in my head. And it was one of those things where it was like I had to get home as quickly as possible, get to my guitar, and start figuring out what this melody was in my head.
00:14:16:12 – 00:14:19:04
Dave Hulegaard
And it’s the the melody that eventually became The Lighthouse.
00:14:19:09 – 00:14:43:20
Agent Palmer
I love lighthouse, by the way. It is. Thank you. It it it might be I and a lot of I don’t want to I don’t want to say this as a general statement, but it is a general statement. And I, I kind of like it as a general statement. A lot of the pandemic albums I’ve heard from indie artists are saying the things I’m not hearing anywhere else.
00:14:43:25 – 00:15:12:33
Agent Palmer
Right. You’re talking about the anxiety of the pandemic. Yeah. The unknowing this of the pandemic and the questioning of the leaders. It’s it’s very similar to like if you, if you listen to Bob Dylan from the 60s and the Byrds when they’re not covering Dylan and like all the other like artists from that mid to late 60s era, they’re all doing that same thing.
00:15:12:37 – 00:15:44:21
Agent Palmer
They’re talking about politics and race and religion and society in a way that I all, our generation only has the pandemic in that kind of way. Only because no one wrote about 911 and in that way and our generation lived through it. Sure. But nobody really wrote about it in that way. And so a lot you know, I can I can tell when you’re writing this, right.
00:15:44:21 – 00:16:06:39
Agent Palmer
Like, I, I’m there with you. It’s almost like you were with me during that time. But the lighthouse is something very different. That hit me. I still have my mother, and that still hit me. It was like, oh, this is. Oof! This is a lot. Was that the first song then that got you back into writing?
00:16:06:44 – 00:16:08:00
Dave Hulegaard
Yes, absolutely.
00:16:08:12 – 00:16:20:34
Agent Palmer
Okay. I mean, that’s a bad I mean, it’s good to like, you know, it’s that’s that’s quite, I mean, did you think, like, this is as good as it gets? I had one left.
00:16:20:38 – 00:16:52:38
Dave Hulegaard
Honestly. Yes. Okay. That was that was my thought. And I kind of. I swung for the fences. Right. Like I thought, if this is just a blip, if this is just me getting this inspiration that I need to get out of me, and it’s just a song that was, you know, thrashing around, begging to get out, I thought, if this is the best possible song that I can write and this is where I hang my hat, then then I’m I’m at peace with that, you know, I, I was able to work with some very talented musicians.
00:16:52:43 – 00:17:12:32
Dave Hulegaard
I was able to do things that were never possible when I was younger, you know, like, I can’t even imagine trying to work with somebody that can arrange strings and perform, you know, cello and violin and all that. So it was all these components coming together that I’m like, if this is it, I’m happy.
00:17:12:37 – 00:17:35:24
Agent Palmer
Okay? And I mean, this is probably the most personal question I’ll ask today, but was it cathartic? I mean, you had just lost your mom. You’re writing this, you’re in it like you’re not only writing it, you’re singing it, you’re recording it. So you’re it’s not like you wrote a poem and put it on the shelf. Like you kept revisiting this until it was good enough.
00:17:35:29 – 00:17:37:40
Agent Palmer
What was it you know.
00:17:37:54 – 00:18:09:37
Dave Hulegaard
It was an interesting approach for me from a songwriting perspective, because lyrically, the song is is very linear from a storytelling standpoint, which is not something that I typically do, but for this particular song, for this particular story, it kind of had to be like, it just felt like this was the right direction. Like, if I’m going to bring the listener into the story with me, like they have to go through it in the same order that I did to fully, you know, hopefully tap into the emotion that that I’ve got in the song.
00:18:09:42 – 00:18:34:36
Dave Hulegaard
But I also knew when I was done that it wasn’t going to be the last time that I would revisit the subject. Right? Like, like my mom again, just my best friend in life and suddenly trying to figure out how to write the ship, you know, without her was was very challenging. And I thought, there are more stories to tell.
00:18:34:38 – 00:18:48:35
Dave Hulegaard
Like she was such a special human being. Like there are more stories that I want to tell. And that was why I was very happy with the way the lighthouse was told, you know, kind of end to end. And I thought, that’s okay. There’s more stories I can tell later.
00:18:48:40 – 00:19:07:00
Agent Palmer
Now, I, I listen to a lot of your music, in prep for this, but I didn’t pay attention to how. Right. I basically went Spotify. Give me all of it. Right. So is is the lighthouse a single or is it part of the first album?
00:19:07:13 – 00:19:26:54
Dave Hulegaard
It was my first single, and then it did actually wind up as part of anhedonia. My first album. So I, you know, I try to do that same thing where, you know, like you start releasing kind of waterfall singles and it jumped out to me immediately as like the one that I really needed to go out first with.
00:19:26:54 – 00:19:47:10
Dave Hulegaard
It was it was the one I was definitely the most emotionally connected to. And I was really excited that at the end of this whole project, there was there was a whole album again, like, I really didn’t anticipate that, that that was the direction it would go. But when the idea of an album started to come to fruition, I’m like, lighthouse has to be on it.
00:19:47:10 – 00:19:48:10
Dave Hulegaard
It just has to be.
00:19:48:15 – 00:20:09:23
Agent Palmer
And well, I guess what was like, I mean, you know, what was it like hitting publish? What was it like? You know, share it like, I mean, I come from a very privileged place. I’m a blogger and I hit publish four times a month. I’m a podcaster, and I hit publish twice a month. Six times a month. I get my victory.
00:20:09:28 – 00:20:30:56
Agent Palmer
But I’ve also been doing this for like ten years. And, you know, like, I, I’ve, I’ve had these little successes over and over and over again. You were so far removed from the last time you, you know, played in front of anybody. Were you, were you nervous, like, what was it like getting ready for like, all right, it goes it goes live soon.
00:20:31:01 – 00:20:33:50
Agent Palmer
Like what was what was that like?
00:20:33:55 – 00:20:57:42
Dave Hulegaard
Honestly, it it felt like just something that I had to do. And I was prepared for no one to ever hear it. Honestly, I, I thought, I’ve been out of the game way too long. My style of music is, is exactly where I left off. Right when I stopped making music in the late 90s, and I started making music again in 2020.
00:20:57:42 – 00:21:25:53
Dave Hulegaard
At 2019, 2020, it’s just a continuation. It’s a more evolved version because I have grown as a as a musician since then, but it’s the same like same overall sound sonically. So I thought, okay, I’m playing music that’s way past its expiration date. Nobody knows who I am, nobody would remember me. And so I was like, if the song dies on the vine and I’m the only one that listens to it like, that’s okay, right?
00:21:26:04 – 00:21:52:17
Dave Hulegaard
This one was for me. And honestly, that’s how it started. I think it it took quite a while, to actually eventually find listeners. And then from there, it was just like an addiction. Right. Like then the, the excitement level of, like, putting out the next song and the next song, like, starts to just grow with that anticipation of, like, do I have another, another good one in me, right?
00:21:52:17 – 00:21:54:42
Dave Hulegaard
Or did I peek at the first one?
00:21:54:47 – 00:22:20:10
Agent Palmer
What is your listening habits in between? In those 20 years off? Right? Like, are you still listening to the same stuff from the late 90s, or have you were, you know, I mean, obviously there are bands that have released music in those 20 years since then and they’ve evolved. Right. But what are you still listening to and has that changed in those 20 years?
00:22:20:15 – 00:22:41:13
Dave Hulegaard
Yeah, I mean, that’s that’s a great question because I think that since I was very, very young and I’m going to date myself here, but the first song I ever heard as a child that hooked me in a way that put me on this path of of chasing music was photograph by Def Leppard. Great sound, great.
00:22:41:17 – 00:22:41:46
Agent Palmer
Great album.
00:22:41:46 – 00:23:06:35
Dave Hulegaard
It’s such an amazing song and album that I will still listen to today. Like it. It’s it’s absolutely a classic album. So, that was it, right? And then from there I just kept consuming more and more music, but it really wasn’t until I hit 1991 where my taste in music really started to, like, develop in a way that has shaped what I listen to going forward.
00:23:06:35 – 00:23:31:38
Dave Hulegaard
Like my first kind of albums, if you will, were, The Cure’s Disintegration and Depeche Mode, violator. Those were were like the albums that just a massive light bulb went off. You know, in my brain that led me to the Smiths, you know, that led me to so many other things in that early 90s, you know, kind of post-modern, I guess the tail end of New Wave, right.
00:23:31:38 – 00:23:49:34
Dave Hulegaard
There was a lot kind of going on as we were transitioning. We’re starting to get exposed to what was happening in the UK with, like, shoegaze movement and things like that. And I was just like hooked in. But as much as I love music, right. And it it is like all consuming for me. I’m always listening to music no matter what I’m doing.
00:23:49:34 – 00:24:20:47
Dave Hulegaard
Okay. But a lot of it is still kind of rooted in that decade, right? Like, like the vast majority of what I love is definitely there. But I have picked up, you know, like different bands from I would say, the 2000 and forward. It’s just it’s slowed a bit. And one of the things that has really influenced me these days is, I know you’re you’re a part of of threads, on social media and like the community of artists that have been built on threads is nothing short of spectacular.
00:24:20:47 – 00:24:36:10
Dave Hulegaard
There are some of the most amazingly talented artists that I have I’ve ever personally come across, and that has become a soundtrack for me. That kind of keeps me, you know, like dialed in to what’s happening, you know, in contemporary music, just fantastic stuff.
00:24:36:10 – 00:25:01:29
Agent Palmer
It’s it’s the most connected I’ve been since, like, I want to say, like the glory days of Twitter, which, you know, and I know people will shit on Elon and I’m, I’m one of those people that will do that. But I also think that he purchased it well past its prime. Yeah. But the early days, that’s what current threads kind of reminds me of.
00:25:01:29 – 00:25:38:29
Agent Palmer
But I’m also like, I spent a lot of time building up a Twitter thing that died. So, like, I’m still more of a a lurker than I am, like, in in it. But I will also say, like, where are you? In the 90s? And I only ask because you mentioned the Pacific Northwest. Yeah. And your music in that, in that in that late 80s, early 90s era that you would have had access to in the Pacific Northwest would have been very different than what I had over here on this coast.
00:25:38:34 – 00:25:40:51
Agent Palmer
So were you still over there?
00:25:40:56 – 00:25:47:22
Dave Hulegaard
Yeah, absolutely. I spent the first 33 years of my life, in and around the Portland, Oregon area.
00:25:47:28 – 00:25:52:30
Agent Palmer
Okay, so you you kind of where you were on the ground floor of grunge and.
00:25:52:34 – 00:25:53:29
Dave Hulegaard
Yeah, absolutely.
00:25:53:29 – 00:26:32:49
Agent Palmer
Alternative, stuff, that I, I only say it because I can kind of hear it a little bit in, in your music, like, it’s there, like, and I, I kind of like it because it’s so I’m slightly younger than you, but not when it comes to music. When it comes to music, I’m probably older than you, you know, because for me, it was Aerosmith, which was not, you know, when I, when I’m buying my first albums, the first new Aerosmith album that I experienced as a consumer was Nine Lives.
00:26:32:54 – 00:27:15:39
Agent Palmer
But that’s not what I fell in love with, right? Like, I fell in love with the classic stuff. And then it was Def Leppard and and guns and, Metallica. And then I got further back with the Stones and Creedence and like, it kind of just goes further. I, I’m in my 30s by that. When I really go back and listen to the alternative grunge stuff and even then, like, I want to feel like in the late 90s, I was still not listening to what was current like, I, I, I hit my 30s and rediscovered Matchbox 20.
00:27:15:44 – 00:27:41:02
Agent Palmer
Even though I was like, but this was on all the time. Why didn’t I get it then? But I just didn’t. I was just always looking backwards. And so like, I, I’m, I’m trying to change that now, in that and I have no problem saying this, but it sounds weird. I owe a lot of this to Taylor Swift.
00:27:41:07 – 00:28:07:31
Agent Palmer
Mainly because I had a friend who’s a big swiftie, and I was like, it’s time to educate myself. And I listened to her entire discography. Now, I didn’t listen to it all the way through, like in one sitting. Like it was like the first album. And then a few days later, the second album or whatever. But I listened to it because I was like, I want to be educated because, like, I know Michael Jackson, he’s not my favorite, but I know all the Michael Jackson stuff and it’s like, well, I should I should at least know what’s going on.
00:28:07:36 – 00:28:37:12
Agent Palmer
And it was, it was that listen through that reignited my love of the album as an art form by itself. And I’ve taken some other journeys since then of like listening to other things, and it’s just like how, like the album is like, I like when you can give me a story through 12 chapters, like, that’s great. Like, let’s go.
00:28:37:16 – 00:29:01:31
Agent Palmer
Do you? Because we are from that era, like when you put your albums together, are you mad if I hit shuffle like I like, everybody’s going to listen in their own way, and that’s fine. But as you, the guy who’s hitting publish, I put out these 12 tracks today. This is the album I’m releasing. Do you want me to, like, do you want to hit me when I go?
00:29:01:31 – 00:29:09:10
Agent Palmer
Like, I’ll just hit shuffle on this, it’ll be fine. Or do you want me to sit down and listen to it from 1 to 12 or whatever it is?
00:29:09:15 – 00:29:29:07
Dave Hulegaard
I’m going to be honest, I know a lot of artists say this, but once I hit the publish button, it doesn’t belong to me. Right? It now belongs to you. And I want. First of all, I’m flattered that anyone would listen to my music in the first place, but I want them to experience it the way that is most enjoyable for them.
00:29:29:07 – 00:29:52:04
Dave Hulegaard
Right? If it’s if it’s a sequential 1 to 12 like you can, you can be rest assured that I’ve put a lot of thought into that track sequencing, and I hope that it conveys the type of journey that that I’m trying to create with it. But if if you’re the type of person that would rather take him in small doses or hit shuffle, it’s like, that’s okay with me.
00:29:52:08 – 00:30:06:12
Dave Hulegaard
I am just so I’m endlessly flattered that there is anyone in this world outside of my house that that would take the time to listen to my music. So however they consume it is the right answer.
00:30:06:17 – 00:30:22:36
Agent Palmer
That’s fine, but you really want me to hit. But but I mean, but yeah, I mean, you say all that as, like, the political correct answer, but you said you spend a lot of time in sequencing, so you really want me to hit play and listen through because that’s a, that’s a journey.
00:30:22:41 – 00:30:40:29
Dave Hulegaard
More that it’s there for you if you want it. Okay. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t say that. It’s it’s kind of my hope. Right. But it’s there for people that, that prefer to take that journey because I, I meet people of all different age groups. And, you know, I’ve noticed that we kind of live in a, in a single driven.
00:30:40:34 – 00:30:40:58
Agent Palmer
Sort.
00:30:40:58 – 00:31:02:11
Dave Hulegaard
Of society. Now, when it comes to music, that people like to make mood playlists. Right? And you might say, hey, I really like 12 days in June, but I don’t like 60 minutes or 12 days in June in a row. Maybe I’m just going to pick and choose like my favorites, put them on my playlist with these other bands and like, that’s awesome.
00:31:02:16 – 00:31:22:23
Dave Hulegaard
I’m just I know it sounds like I’m just happy to be here, but. But I am, right. Like, I, I, I just love that I could write something somebody would want to listen to. And when people tell me that my songs make them feel things or whatnot, and it’s like, to me that’s that’s the reward, right? Like how they consumed it, but that they did.
00:31:22:32 – 00:31:56:21
Agent Palmer
I’m just happy you came back at all like and not, you know, not that I like the music. I do like the music, but that’s not I just, you know, I don’t know what I’m missing from 20 years ago. But you give me hope that whatever that might be may come back, you know what I mean. Like, because that is I think I’ve talked to a few people recently that have especially musicians that came back to it after a time off.
00:31:56:26 – 00:32:18:45
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean yeah, I wrote songs when I was 14 and 15 and they’re absolute horrible things. But like of late I’ve started toying with some new thing because which is odd for me because I’m usually a guy that’s like, I got my bass playlist, which I got to because I don’t want, you know, I don’t want to have to tune.
00:32:18:45 – 00:32:43:02
Agent Palmer
So it’s like, this is my regular bass playlist and this is my tune down a half step, this playlist, this is my acoustic playlist and this is my electric playlist. And that’s usually what it is like. I will play along with the stones or Def Leppard or Aerosmith or whatever. The fact that I’m even toying with the idea of a few, like, riffs or like new things is is unique for me right now.
00:32:43:02 – 00:33:05:41
Agent Palmer
It’s something that has been gone for over 25 years, that’s come back and I don’t I don’t have a want for it. And I think part of it is I get to play around with knobs and dials here and I get a creative I have. I already have a creative outlet. I don’t crave another one. I’m not missing it.
00:33:05:41 – 00:33:28:39
Agent Palmer
But I do like the idea that it’s there for me. Yeah. And your story is inspiring in that way because it’s like, well, you. But you can go back like, it’s not. This isn’t like you can’t go home again. That’s not what this is. If that passion existed at any point in your life, you can find that you can be like the match, basically.
00:33:28:44 – 00:33:30:09
Agent Palmer
And I like that.
00:33:30:14 – 00:33:52:19
Dave Hulegaard
I honestly think that that is the one kind of key message is that there is no age cutoff. Right? Like, you can you can feel like statistically if you’re past a certain age, maybe it’s tougher. And I, I think there’s probably reason enough to believe that there’s some argument there. But I also think that good music is good music.
00:33:52:19 – 00:34:11:47
Dave Hulegaard
Right? And at the end of the day, that’s just what we’re doing, right? We’re just trying to write the best possible stuff we can. And there’s there’s no expiration on it. Right. Like, I’ll get I’ll get crap from people. Sometimes if they want to, you know, be negative on my music. Say, it sounds like classic rock. That’s the stuff my dad listens to.
00:34:11:52 – 00:34:18:01
Dave Hulegaard
I’m like, cool, man. Tell your dad to follow me on social media.
00:34:18:06 – 00:34:38:43
Agent Palmer
But it’s also it’s also what you grew up with, right? It’s you have your influence. And I know everybody wants to be different, but, like, you can’t run away from your influences. Like you just cannot do it. Yeah. I want to ask you about, your preferred instrument. Right. And your guitarist.
00:34:38:50 – 00:34:39:44
Dave Hulegaard
Yeah, absolutely.
00:34:39:53 – 00:34:41:38
Agent Palmer
Electric or acoustic?
00:34:41:43 – 00:34:43:07
Dave Hulegaard
Mostly electric these days.
00:34:43:20 – 00:34:45:28
Agent Palmer
Okay. What what was your first?
00:34:45:33 – 00:35:07:15
Dave Hulegaard
My first guitar ever was an acoustic. A very, very cheap, poorly made one that my dad found in a clearance band at, like, some market. But he knew that I was interested in music, so his heart was in the right place. And, honestly, I, I played the crap out of that thing because it was the only, only thing I had.
00:35:07:20 – 00:35:24:56
Dave Hulegaard
So, you know, there’s always that soft spot, you know, for just a cheap old $25 guitar from Fred Meyer or Kroger or whatever. But it was it was awesome. I felt like, you know, like I was doing something meaningful, and I can’t even imagine how poor it sounded.
00:35:25:01 – 00:35:29:49
Agent Palmer
But but but I mean, did you take lessons? All self-taught?
00:35:29:54 – 00:35:55:50
Dave Hulegaard
I, I am all self-taught, which probably shows in my music, but, but I didn’t have an alternative, right? Because my parents had eventually agreed to buy me a much nicer guitar. The the, agreement was that I would learn to play it. I would take lessons for the instrument and right after I got the guitar, like, signed on the dotted line, have it in my hands.
00:35:55:55 – 00:36:16:52
Dave Hulegaard
And my friend who was going to teach me tells me he no longer has time. So here I am in fear of this agreement. I’ve just been with my parents and all the money they’ve just spent on this guitar, and I’m like, there, I can’t not learn this instrument. So I, I got my hands on as many chord books as I could, anything I could find.
00:36:16:57 – 00:36:39:26
Dave Hulegaard
And I learned things like, like immediately like learned like triads and things like that, that you don’t start there. That’s something you learn over time. But I started with basic chords, triads, like all kinds of different things, and I would play until my fingers bled because it was just the most amazing thing I’d ever done. Up until then, the coolest thing I’d ever held in my hands was like a Super Nintendo controller.
00:36:39:30 – 00:36:44:50
Dave Hulegaard
Okay? And I got to tell you, man, a guitar was like a thousand times better than that Super Nintendo controller.
00:36:44:55 – 00:37:12:15
Agent Palmer
I mean, it it tracks. I mean, I had, I still, I, I regret getting rid of my first bass, I really do, but it it it paved the doorway for my dream bass, which I now have. So it’s I like it worked out right. But I, and I still prefer the bass. Although as I’ve gotten older, the acoustic guitar gets a lot more play than the electric.
00:37:12:22 – 00:37:35:50
Agent Palmer
Yeah, just a ton more play. And I don’t know if that’s where maybe my music always was. And maybe I’m just gravitating towards it. I don’t know if it’s because I’m bassist at heart. Secondly, I’m in a rhythm guitarist. I will never be able to play lead to save my life. Right. So I.
00:37:35:50 – 00:37:36:21
Dave Hulegaard
Feel that.
00:37:36:33 – 00:37:47:18
Agent Palmer
Maybe it’s maybe it’s that that’s kind of part of it. But I just, I now actively make time in my schedule to make sure I pick up an instrument.
00:37:47:22 – 00:37:48:04
Dave Hulegaard
That’s awesome.
00:37:48:04 – 00:38:15:02
Agent Palmer
It’s just I again, we’ve all been there, maybe not 20 years, but like it ebbs and flows. It really does. Like you will go weeks because life happens and you get busy and, you know, my, my pandemic thing was I bought myself a very cheap electric drum kit, because I was like, well, back in the day, I used to have a drum kit.
00:38:15:02 – 00:38:21:49
Agent Palmer
That’s why everybody came to my house. I had I had the task import studio, and I had a drum kit. Oh, somebody.
00:38:21:49 – 00:38:22:19
Dave Hulegaard
Was getting.
00:38:22:19 – 00:38:40:56
Agent Palmer
Rid of that. I that I was like, yeah, I’ll take it. And I had like, I mean, I could, I could you could come over to my house and I mean not late right. But like, you know, come over to my house and jam because I had everything. I had a guitar, I had a bass. And, you know, it’s fine.
00:38:40:56 – 00:39:02:49
Agent Palmer
Like, I had a, I had a microphone that went through an amp if you somebody wanted to sing. Singers were always like the one you couldn’t find. By the way, at least in my particular neighborhood slash circle. But, I was like, I want to. I want to be bad. The drums again, it’s fine. I like, I do like, I’m not horrible.
00:39:02:49 – 00:39:36:12
Agent Palmer
I’m bad, you know? And so that was my thing, but I also realized, like, as time went on, it was like, oh, but I haven’t been in the basement. Like, I haven’t picked up the sticks in, like, a month and, like, my bases are in my office, but I look at them or like, my acoustics in the living room, and I just haven’t been so now it’s like, I don’t know, I’m not like, every few days, just for even if it’s just two songs like Let’s Go, like Don’t Let It Go.
00:39:36:12 – 00:39:39:48
Agent Palmer
And I think part of it’s a mental health thing.
00:39:39:53 – 00:39:40:49
Dave Hulegaard
Yep. Absolutely.
00:39:40:49 – 00:40:04:53
Agent Palmer
I think if you ever played an instrument I don’t usually try, I try to stay away from categorical statements. But if you’ve ever played a musical instrument and were remotely proficient you don’t have to be good but remotely proficient. Your mental health will be improved by going back to that instrument. I don’t care if it’s the saxophone, the tuba, the guitar, whatever the piano.
00:40:04:58 – 00:40:31:08
Agent Palmer
If you were, if it was enjoyable once, it will still be enjoyable. And I feel like for me, like that revelation has been like, oh, well, no, don’t just, just don’t be an idiot and like, pick it up. It’s there like I don’t none of these aren’t in closets. These aren’t buried away. They’re not even in cases like I, I’m looking at my face like there’s no reason I shouldn’t pick it up.
00:40:31:13 – 00:40:39:23
Agent Palmer
And so I, I just feel like. Yeah. Do it. Get out there. We don’t we don’t have to release albums. Things.
00:40:39:28 – 00:41:07:22
Dave Hulegaard
I have a question for you actually, related to this. So, you know, you’re you’re describing a lot of, I think what a lot of a lot of musicians experience over time. Right. And so I’m wondering if this has ever happened to you where if you, if you go too long without touching a guitar, without picking up drumsticks or whatever that is, do you start to feel that like that, that mental absence like that, like a longing that you can’t describe?
00:41:07:27 – 00:41:32:37
Agent Palmer
No, I don’t, I don’t think I, I don’t think I feel it in that way. But like, it’s kind of like, being on a train. Eventually you will come to a stop. And I think it’s, I don’t know how long in between the stops is going to be, but when the stop happens, meaning I finally pick up that instrument, I go, oh, what have why haven’t I done this?
00:41:32:41 – 00:41:41:18
Agent Palmer
Like, that’s what it is. It’s it’s I don’t really ever feel the longing until after I’ve started picking it up again.
00:41:41:23 – 00:41:42:25
Dave Hulegaard
Okay.
00:41:42:29 – 00:42:05:45
Agent Palmer
So it’s, I guess. Yes, it’s there, but it’s not like, oh, something feels off and like the mental checklist of am I sick? Did I sleep well? Have I picked up an instrument recently? I don’t have that. But like, if I do go too long and now because I’ve made such an effort for it, too long is like a week.
00:42:05:50 – 00:42:34:24
Agent Palmer
Like if I go a week in this house without picking up any of the instruments, that’s now too long. Yeah. Whereas when I was a full time marketer for a nonprofit organization working my 40 hours and I happened to get into podcasting, and I’d come home as a single guy and make myself dinner and then jump on the mic with friends and then go to bed, like, and that was ad infinitum for a while.
00:42:34:26 – 00:42:55:57
Agent Palmer
Like you, you kind of lose the idea of like, oh, well, like I could just pick up a guitar and then all of a sudden you go like, oh, like, that’s a I should, you know? Yeah, I should really do that. That was probably my longer stretches, but like, I, I don’t think I’ll ever, I don’t, I don’t think I’ll ever get that bad again.
00:42:56:06 – 00:43:15:46
Agent Palmer
I think it will always be within a week. That’s good. I mean, do you ever see yourself putting it down again? I guess would be my question to you. Because you had 20 years in between, and it seems like based on your release schedule, you haven’t been able to put it down since.
00:43:15:51 – 00:43:44:03
Dave Hulegaard
Yeah. I think the circumstances that led me to put it down in the first place, I was just at a really bad place and I think that it took a lot of growth, maturity, you know, all these things to put me in a better position to want it again and now that I’ve reached this point, I, I’m, I’m disappointed.
00:43:44:03 – 00:44:08:07
Dave Hulegaard
It took 20 years to get here, but also happy that I got here at all. Is just realizing like, this is what it was always about. All the petty stuff that made me angry, frustrated, sad, whatever that made me stop in the first place. If I could go back in time and slap that younger version of myself and be like, don’t give up.
00:44:08:07 – 00:44:35:12
Dave Hulegaard
Don’t do that. Like, you’re going to miss 20 years of this thing you love. And that’s what’s been so inspiring for me to pick it up again four years ago and keep going is that this is what I was. I always felt like this is what it was, what I was meant to be doing, whether that’s like, heard by heard and adored by thousands or by, you know, the cats outside my window, whatever it is.
00:44:35:12 – 00:45:01:44
Dave Hulegaard
Right? Like just just being able to do this again is is such it’s it’s really added this level of enjoyment I didn’t know I’d ever feel again. And so I don’t foresee myself ever stopping if I can avoid it.
00:45:01:49 – 00:45:30:34
Agent Palmer
So here’s the deal. For those of you who listened to every episode, Dave story is familiar to you. Very familiar to you. You heard it here in this episode. 132 but you also heard it just two episodes ago from Theo Smith on episode 130. Now, of course, I didn’t know these stories and their similarities when I started each of those respective conversations, but I find myself in an interesting conundrum of having to recap a very similar episode so close to another one.
00:45:30:34 – 00:46:01:57
Agent Palmer
So I’m going to do that by talking about them both. They both stepped away from music, something they both loved for different reasons, but they didn’t just step away, they were away for decades, and the both of them came back not just to playing, but writing, recording. And they both released and continue to release new music. Some of it, like they never stopped and at the same time, some of it making up for lost time.
00:46:02:02 – 00:46:23:58
Agent Palmer
Both stories are unique in their reasons for stopping this thing that they loved, and the circumstances around their respective returns are also different, but once they were back, it was both familiar and wonderful. Now, I usually like to tell you listeners to do the thing. If you’re thinking about doing it, just do it. You don’t have to release it to the world.
00:46:23:58 – 00:46:56:55
Agent Palmer
You can keep it for yourself, but just get on with it. Both Theo in that previous episode and Dave in this one, remind me that you can go back to the things you once loved. It doesn’t have to be something new. Not everything surely, but there may be something you left behind that you shouldn’t have. And perhaps it is the fact that both of them return to music after so long away, and that it’s not just a singular incident which makes me wonder what I’ve left behind.
00:46:57:00 – 00:47:19:19
Agent Palmer
It’s not music per se, but it could be writing and recording music. It could be something else entirely. But very much like many things, I’ll know it when I find it, and I take comfort that things can come back to us, or that we can find our way back to them. And you should take comfort in that, too, because it’s not just poetic in a way.
00:47:19:30 – 00:47:51:28
Agent Palmer
It’s also beautiful. And on that note, thanks for listening to the following files. Episode 132. And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays. If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can find all related ways to contact my guest, Dave Hulegaard and myself in the show notes. There you can find all of Dave’s music as 12 days in June on streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, Bandcamp, Amazon Music, YouTube, Deezer and anywhere else you may stream your music.
00:47:51:32 – 00:48:13:40
Agent Palmer
The music for this episode was provided by Henno Heitur. Email can be sent to this show at The Palmer Files at gmail.com. And remember, you’re home for all things. Agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
00:48:13:45 – 00:48:48:46
Agent Palmer
You.
00:48:48:51 – 00:48:50:51
Agent Palmer
All right, Dave, do you have one final question for me?
00:48:51:02 – 00:49:24:54
Dave Hulegaard
I do, I thought we had a really fun conversation earlier talking about influences and kind of how we cut our teeth getting into music. So what I was curious about when you were mentioning kind of like the, the bands that you got interested in, like Metallica, Aerosmith, Def Leppard and then kind of working backwards from there. And I’m curious what what motivated that was that you started with these bands that you loved and then started seeking out the bands that influenced them, or was there maybe an outside influence, like your parents listen to cool music and introduce it to you that way?
00:49:25:06 – 00:49:46:07
Agent Palmer
It, I mean, so I, I, I feel like so music was always a part like my, my parents are boomers, right. Like and my parents are, my dad’s a fan of all music, but I like to split my parents by saying my dad’s the stones and my mom’s the Beatles. Right? My dad also likes the Beatles.
00:49:46:07 – 00:50:25:21
Agent Palmer
Like, I can’t I should really stop saying that. That’s the split. But that’s very much, the split I remember. Right. And so, I think it was a combination of the two things. I think it was, you know, at the time. So I’m 15 and mowing lawns for 20 or $40, which at the time would have gotten me a CD and I was buying, which I still have a collection of all of Aerosmith’s back catalog, which is how I got to really experience all of it.
00:50:25:23 – 00:50:52:07
Agent Palmer
And, you know, I know there’s people that would be like, I can’t believe you spent hard earned, you know, teenage money on like night in the ruts and rocks and gems and like these, but like, that was what I wanted. And it doesn’t take much from that to an early internet where you get to start researching a little bit more about these bands.
00:50:52:12 – 00:51:18:43
Agent Palmer
And you go, all right, well, the jump from Aerosmith to the Rolling Stones is not very far. And it’s not very hard because everything written about early Aerosmith compares them as the American Rolling Stones. So. And I was already in a house where I was familiar with the stones. So going back, that was almost felt like a no brainer, in a way.
00:51:18:43 – 00:51:52:48
Agent Palmer
But it was also, I was listening to classic rock stations so occasionally like Boston or like, CCR you know, so and again, probably CDs that my dad had, and I started stealing, borrowing, stealing music from my dad and, you know, and so it was, it was, it was a combination of all those things. I’ve actually recently, for the last eight months, basically, I’ve been on a, a musical journey to really discover my roots.
00:51:52:48 – 00:52:24:14
Agent Palmer
I made a list of, like, 18 artists. Wow. And I’ve people have heard this and I apologize, but I will tell this story and I as I’m almost at the end of my journey, it’s like I know the stones, but how much of it do I really know and what do I know about it of the era? So I was like, all right, well, we’ll go with the stones, The Beatles, Dylan, the Byrds, Tom petty, the Allman Brothers, the two he brothers, Frank Zappa, David Bowie.
00:52:24:14 – 00:52:43:27
Agent Palmer
There were all these. And I was like, all right. And I just made the list. There’s a few others I’m forgetting. I think Creedence is in there. And I was just like, all right, from the first album to the last album, let’s listen to these in chronological order. The band is another big one, right? And it was like, okay, all right.
00:52:43:27 – 00:53:08:02
Agent Palmer
This is interesting. Now, and I’m almost done. Like I’m in the 20 tens or 20 twelves of this and I started in the 1960s and it was just and, and part of it was again listening to an album. I was making time to sit down every day, maybe a few times a day, especially in the early things, was like, you know, 60, 45 minutes an album.
00:53:08:07 – 00:53:23:49
Agent Palmer
And it was like, I’m going to listen to this. I’m not going to do anything else. Maybe I go for a walk, but I’m not going to do anything else. This isn’t me putting an album on in the background. This is me actively listening to all this stuff. But I think I’d been doing that little by little all along.
00:53:23:53 – 00:53:52:34
Agent Palmer
This was just like the culmination of like, all right, well, what have I missed? And how does it relate to other things. And I, I, you know, I’ve learned a lot specifically that like, I was right to idolize Dylan and the stones and, you know, maybe more so than like any of the other bands because Dylan, the stones didn’t care about what else was happening.
00:53:52:39 – 00:54:16:50
Agent Palmer
Right. Like there are some Dylan albums that you don’t. Maybe with the exception of his voice, you would not know when this was released. And the stones, maybe even more so where, you know, some of their 70s stuff sounds like the 70s stuff, but like their most recent Hackney diamonds could have come out in the 70s, like, you don’t know, like.
00:54:17:04 – 00:54:42:05
Agent Palmer
And so putting it all together. But I was on this journey all along. I don’t know how, but like putting it together now. Like I was always interested in what else there was, and where it came from. And so it was always kind of like there, but not like I don’t think I knew I was doing it at the time.
00:54:42:10 – 00:55:16:05
Agent Palmer
And like listening to the classic rock station where it’s like, how come I don’t hear my favorite songs from these bands? And then it’s like, all right, well, now I need the CD and I’m going to listen to the CD and, you know, whatever. And, and, and so it’s a lot of things, but I think I was always looking backwards in some capacity also, if I’m being completely honest, as a player who just plays along with music, some of that stuff is easier to play when you go back further.
00:55:16:11 – 00:55:41:04
Agent Palmer
Yeah, than when you go forward. That’s true. You know, maybe, maybe Dylan rhythms are a lot harder, but like, I can play early Aerosmith a lot better than I can play latter. Aerosmith. But then I’m I’m an enigma because, like, my favorite bass players, Duff from Guns and Roses and it’s just kind of like that came out of nowhere.
00:55:41:08 – 00:56:09:25
Agent Palmer
I think that came out of liking Metallica and Aerosmith and Guns was in the middle. It’s just just kind of happened and it’s just like, then I was on a guns kick for, you know, a long I mean, my guns kick coincided with their release of the live era, double album, which I know Spotify is great for, for that journey, because I wasn’t going to be able to afford to buy all of those things.
00:56:09:30 – 00:56:37:25
Agent Palmer
It’s also like the anticipation, the horrible, like cellophane wrapping that was either really easy to get off or impossible to get off always, you know? So it’s like, I don’t know. I, I still have a I haven’t gotten rid of my physical discs. I don’t know if I ever will, but I’m just. Yeah. I mean, I think I’ve always been looking backwards in some way.
00:56:37:25 – 00:57:05:20
Agent Palmer
I don’t I think I don’t want to say it’s because I’m like, standing on their shoulders because I’m not. But I think it is because everything I’ve listened to started back there. And then, you know, it passed the internet. I became a reader again, and it was like, oh, well, I’m going to read the Aerosmith biography and the the slash and like, you just kind of and then they go like, oh, well, I was influenced by this, this and this.
00:57:05:20 – 00:57:07:01
Agent Palmer
And you go, I gotta listen to that now.
00:57:07:06 – 00:57:07:24
Dave Hulegaard
Yeah.
00:57:07:25 – 00:57:31:10
Agent Palmer
Like it just happens. I just don’t know. It’s so in a weird way, it’s almost like scholarly research where, like, you read one paper and you go, this is great. And then you go look at the references and it’s like, oh these are three other papers I should read. And it’s like, no, like if you, if you like a musician, pick any musician, read their biography autobiography.
00:57:31:10 – 00:57:57:09
Agent Palmer
It doesn’t matter if it was written by them or someone else, they’re going to mention their influences. And then you’re going to go, oh yes, yes. Listen, I should listen. Yeah, I yes, I should listen to that. I should, I should definitely check it out at least. Right. Yeah. I don’t know. How often do you look backwards, you know, how often do you go back to, you know, your Pacific Northwest roots and, like, listen to, like, that stuff or the stuff that came before it?
00:57:57:09 – 00:58:22:55
Dave Hulegaard
You know, I got to be honest, that’s a that’s a whole other podcast. But, to abbreviate, growing up at that time, in that area was the best musical education I could have ever hoped for, because she had what was going on in Seattle was like, international. Like everyone knew what what bands were coming out of Seattle and, and it just felt like one after the other after the other.
00:58:22:55 – 00:58:57:37
Dave Hulegaard
But while that was happening in the shadow of all the stuff happening in Seattle, Portland was really growing and there was a lot of really cool music that was starting to, you know, kind of get rooted out and get discovered. Elliot Smith, obviously, is is a massive one that came from Portland. The spinning ones were, you know, one of my favorites, and really inspiring because it was just two people, just Rebecca and Scott, and you would go see them play, you know, at like, any, any random club in Portland.
00:58:57:37 – 00:59:18:46
Dave Hulegaard
And they were just cool. They’d be out there talking to you while they were waiting to go on. But there was just so much it was happening. And like, I think that there’s a lot of music in that era that is still kind of new to me, like just things that maybe got overlooked because of, like the bigger acts that were, you know, kind of swallowing up all the attention.
00:59:18:51 – 00:59:39:01
Dave Hulegaard
And that’s been fun for me to go back and say, here’s a band that I’ve heard about. And like, you might hear one of their songs in an indie movie or something. And I’m like, okay, one of these days I really got to check this out. And like, Robin Guthrie for me was like that. I had heard all about Robin Guthrie.
00:59:39:01 – 01:00:05:14
Dave Hulegaard
And, like, I think anybody who does dream pop, shoegaze, ambient, whatever, they’re always going to reference, like Brian Eno, they’re always going to reference Robin Guthrie. And so I went back and I’m like, of course I’ve heard of the Cocteau Twins. Of course I have. But could I name you a song? No. So I that was one where I sat down one day and I’m like, I want to know, like when people are trying to have an intelligent conversation with me about music and they’re naming somebody like this, like, I want to know.
01:00:05:29 – 01:00:26:33
Dave Hulegaard
And then it was like, okay, cool. I just got a crash course in the Cocteau Twins like I am in. They are awesome. I get I get all of the hype now. And it’s so weird, stuff like that. Like, I, I love that now I’m a little older, music’s a little bit more accessible and like, being able to go back and revisit stuff that just passed me by in the moment.
01:00:26:38 – 01:00:52:16
Agent Palmer
Yeah. And I, I, I will say anybody who’s out there is going like that, I don’t I don’t have to I don’t have anything like that. You’re lying to yourself because even if, even if you’re just a fan of a band, there are very few bands out there that don’t have side projects. Yeah, right. Like I, I, you know, if you light as an example, right.
01:00:52:21 – 01:01:30:17
Agent Palmer
If you like guns N roses, okay, slash, Duff and Izzy all had solo things. And I’m not counting velvet Revolver like, they all had solo things, right? Yeah. Metallica has had solo things. The Rolling Stones have done solo things. Aerosmith is done solo things. The Beatles all did solo things, right. Like, it’s just if you don’t think you missed something, check out your favorite band and see, like if anybody did any solo stuff, it’ll be similar.
01:01:30:19 – 01:01:57:48
Agent Palmer
It won’t be the same by any stretch, but you’ll be like, oh, that’s that’s what they’re talking about. I missed that, but that’s also cool because there’s two kinds of new music and we both know this. You. Well, Dave and I know this. There’s new music and there’s new to me. Music. Right. And they’re both equally cool. So just fine find either, and and enjoy.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).