The Return of the King, Geoffrey “The Reigning Lunatic” Welchman

Episode 179 features the long awaited return of Geoffrey Welchman, The Reigning Lunatic himself, from all the way back on episode 7.

We discuss his complete journey back to music after the end of The Reigning Lunatic. Plus we talk about playing bass, young person music prejudices, local music scenes, and much much more.

Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode

AgentPalmer.com

Listen to Geoffrey’s first appearance back on Episode 7 of The Palmer Files

The Reigning Lunatic: A Flattering Review for the Medieval Miniseries from the Kingdom of Welchmania

The Reigning Lunatic on SoundCloud

The Reigning Lunatic on Apple Podcasts

Geoffrey Welchman on Instagram

–End Show Notes Transmission–

–Begin Transcription–

00:00:00:04 – 00:00:19:32
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent Palmer. Despite time gap, Brand Gap still holds relevant marketing truths, and addiction to coloring books lent itself well to a blind date, and since last episode, I’ve just continued to be more and more comfortable acknowledging not having goals. This is The Palmer Files episode 179, featuring the long awaited return of Geoffrey Welshman from all the way back.

00:00:19:32 – 00:00:34:05
Agent Palmer
On episode seven, we discuss his complete journey back to music after the end of The Reigning Lunatic. Plus, we talk about playing bass, young person, music, prejudices, local music scenes and much, much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.

00:00:34:09 – 00:00:53:27
Geoffrey Welchman
I found that it was really easy to play behind people and I enjoyed it. Back in the day, I was not somebody who, like, wanted to play along with other people. I just wanted to do my songs with my band and have them play what I told them to play.

00:00:53:32 – 00:01:00:05
Geoffrey Welchman
Hey, I’m starting a Beatles band. You want to? Do you want to join? I said, yes, of course.

00:01:00:10 – 00:01:07:22
Geoffrey Welchman
The best audiences are always little kids and old folks.

00:01:07:27 – 00:01:13:05
Geoffrey Welchman
That was the reason I became a bass player, because the bass became available.

00:01:13:10 – 00:01:36:48
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to The Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic, also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 179th episode is the long awaited, at least by Me, return of the reigning lunatic himself, Geoffrey Welchman. Of course, he’s not here to discuss podcasting. He’s here to talk about what he’s done since that mini series. His journey back to music starts with a polite shove from his wife, and, well, you’ll hear what transpired since.

00:01:36:49 – 00:01:55:43
Agent Palmer
Plus wanting to be a beetle, open mics, a bunch of oldies playing oldies, parents and children and music and much, much more. But first, remember that if you want to discuss this episode as you listener, afterward, you can find all related ways to contact Geoffrey and myself in the show notes. Don’t forget, you can see all of my writings and rantings on Palmer.

00:01:55:43 – 00:02:06:26
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.

00:02:06:30 – 00:02:09:42
Agent Palmer
Geoffrey, you will always be the reigning lunatic.

00:02:09:47 – 00:02:20:22
Agent Palmer
Thank you. I want to establish that right off the bat, and I. I address you as Saya in every email missive over in the last seven years.

00:02:20:25 – 00:02:22:20
Geoffrey Welchman
That’s true. You do.

00:02:22:25 – 00:02:28:15
Agent Palmer
Because it feels like you need that kind of. I need to show that kind of respect.

00:02:28:19 – 00:02:33:48
Geoffrey Welchman
You and almost no one else. But thank you. Thank you.

00:02:33:53 – 00:02:56:32
Agent Palmer
And I know that personally, I have badgered you about more reigning lunatic. But but that aside, you have very successfully from from from afar. Been a a a band member, kind of gigging around. So you’ve, you’ve, you’ve traded.

00:02:56:32 – 00:03:08:43
Agent Palmer
In your podcast for your gigging band stuff and so you’re still getting your creative outlet in. Is it, is it equally as fulfilling as making me laugh?

00:03:08:48 – 00:03:44:03
Geoffrey Welchman
It’s. Well, that’s a pretty high bar, isn’t it? Agent. It’s it’s a great outlet, actually. It’s a it’s a different outlet. I don’t write anymore the way I used to. I don’t write songs as much. I do occasionally write a song and I don’t. I haven’t written a podcast script or that kind of idea in in years, but luckily at my job, I kind of do write scripts because I’m in training and I do a lot of e-learning.

00:03:44:05 – 00:04:08:37
Geoffrey Welchman
And so what is training? But sort of, you know, presenting a scenario and saying, how do you deal with it? And so I get to make kind of cartoons with voices. I’ve been doing voices for. I’ve been doing narration and stuff for the company for years now, so much that people actually recognize my voice when I’m talking at the company, they’re like, oh, I just took a I, I just took a training about harassment.

00:04:08:40 – 00:04:12:11
Geoffrey Welchman
I recognize your voice.

00:04:12:16 – 00:04:48:06
Geoffrey Welchman
And so although with AI coming in, AI voices are replacing replacing me completely, which is kind of freaky, but so I do get to write occasionally, look little sort of sketchy kind of bits for for that, for that job. And that’s kind of my, my creative writing outlet. But as far as creativity, I mean, yeah, the music, I wanted to be a beetle since I was four, and it vexed me to no end, that I didn’t become famous on the steam of my own songs and performing.

00:04:48:06 – 00:05:12:53
Geoffrey Welchman
And I continued to not become famous as I sort of changed and went in different directions and moved across the country and blah, blah blah. But now I am playing Beatles music. I’m literally playing the Beatles for people. And when I started playing in this cover band, I was just like, so blown away that people just welcome this music because it’s so beloved, you know?

00:05:12:55 – 00:05:32:54
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah, you see people light up when you start playing something like get back or, or whatever it is, you know, a ticket to ride two of us, you know, lots of great songs. Something, something gets a great reaction. But but you’re playing stuff that people already love, so you’re over the hump of whether they like it or not.

00:05:32:56 – 00:05:55:33
Geoffrey Welchman
You know, when I was playing my own stuff, you know, I had occasional fans, but it was like it was so hard. That’s the thing about, you know, playing music and especially original music, it was hard to get people around to care a lot. And so. So yeah, now it’s just pure joy. We play music. I play bass for this band.

00:05:55:33 – 00:06:11:37
Geoffrey Welchman
It’s called Hey Bulldog, we’re in Baltimore. I know there’s another Bulldog Beatle band in new Jersey because I’ve texted with them on Instagram, started following them and said, hey, how are you? We’re in Baltimore, but we won’t be up your way. Don’t worry.

00:06:11:47 – 00:06:18:42
Agent Palmer
And so are you officially. I mean, are you also the Paul when it comes to singing or.

00:06:18:46 – 00:06:45:04
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh no no no no, just listen to me. I, I am a George. Probably. And no, actually his voice was higher too. They were all higher singers and had. And of course, McCartney had the craziest range ever. So no, I, I sing occasional Paul songs, but mostly I’m doing John and George. Okay.

00:06:45:09 – 00:06:46:35
Agent Palmer
So I.

00:06:46:40 – 00:06:47:18
Geoffrey Welchman
Was yeah.

00:06:47:21 – 00:06:57:03
Agent Palmer
I’ve talked about this on the show, but not in detail really is. I’m currently, as we record on my third musical Journey.

00:06:57:06 – 00:06:58:03
Geoffrey Welchman
To Tell.

00:06:58:08 – 00:07:22:19
Agent Palmer
My first musical journey included The Beatles, and it was basically like a list of 20 formative bands that either were formative to me or were formative to the bands. Like, as an example, say, like Aerosmith was pretty big for me and guns N roses were pretty big for me. But who influenced them? So it was, you know, and it was just trying to I was just trying to learn more musically.

00:07:22:21 – 00:07:45:05
Agent Palmer
Right. And it was the stones and the Beatles and like Frank Zappa and the band places where, like I, I knew I liked the Adele in, like, I knew I liked these people and these artists, but I didn’t know everything. And so the idea was I’d take 20 people, 20 bands, artists, and I’d listen to every album in the order it was released.

00:07:45:05 – 00:08:13:42
Agent Palmer
So I got to hear, you know, what the stones were doing and what the Beatles were doing in 1968. Right. And then and, and how that and how that was playing off of what Dylan was doing. I’ve now I’m now on my third journey because I, I listen in doing this, I listen to about one album a day, sometimes 2 or 3 when I’m in my third journey now is trying to fill in some gaps.

00:08:13:42 – 00:08:35:38
Agent Palmer
I have as far as like some 70s music of of. I try not to make any journey more than 500 albums which which is a lot when you know. But I’m also trying to fill in some of my 90s gaps as well. And so the interesting thing about doing this is, like, I do get to listen to an album one a day again in the 60s and 70s.

00:08:35:38 – 00:09:02:01
Agent Palmer
I can listen to about two because I can get an hour, and a lot of those are in that 35 to 40 range. When you get to the 80s, especially in the last two journeys I’ve had, it’s been very weird as far as like, oh, people just did longer things because they could and some of them were able to work within, like Bowie was able to work within the space, but some sometimes it doesn’t quite work out.

00:09:02:03 – 00:09:27:06
Agent Palmer
Right. And so I have a greater appreciation for the Beatles that I loved revolver and I love Sergeant Pepper. I couldn’t have named like, outside of the hits. Yeah, I, I didn’t know that much. And this was my first time and and obviously I’ve this is all in the last few years or maybe maybe longer, I don’t know, but it’s it feels like it’s all been the last few years.

00:09:27:06 – 00:09:47:53
Agent Palmer
So I’m an adult while I’m listening to this stuff. So I, I have a greater appreciation and, and as a person who dabbles in music, a greater appreciation for what I’m listening to, and it has allowed me to create my own personal radio station based on only including albums that I think are track. Perfect.

00:09:47:55 – 00:09:48:10
Geoffrey Welchman

00:09:48:12 – 00:09:50:11
Agent Palmer
And,

00:09:50:16 – 00:09:51:41
Geoffrey Welchman
Is that like a Spotify thing?

00:09:51:53 – 00:10:03:11
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I just if I, if I think an album is track perfect, I will just add the entire album to that playlist and then I’ll randomly play it. And that’s what I call Palmer am.

00:10:03:14 – 00:10:07:28
Geoffrey Welchman
Well, all right, I hesitate to say I have two albums on Spotify.

00:10:07:30 – 00:10:18:18
Agent Palmer
But it is. It’s amazing how people are like, well, what’s what’s that like ten albums? I’m like, no, it’s I’m, I’m over 100 track perfect albums because I, I, I find that I.

00:10:18:18 – 00:10:23:34
Geoffrey Welchman
Have two recorded two albums. I recorded. Well Spotify.

00:10:23:36 – 00:10:28:53
Agent Palmer
All right. Well then I’m going to have to. You’ll be on my next musical journey then I.

00:10:28:58 – 00:10:31:00
Geoffrey Welchman
I hope that’s a good thing. I hope you like them.

00:10:31:02 – 00:10:53:06
Agent Palmer
But but I it’s been kind of this thing where I’m rediscovering my own love of music. And that’s kind of where it started. I wanted a reason. I’m, I it’s a lot of I’ll be honest. It’s a lot of work to come up with the bands, find all the albums, then put them in a spreadsheet and put it in chronological order.

00:10:53:11 – 00:11:19:04
Agent Palmer
A lot of things are not very well documented. This came out in June of 1970 when I don’t know, some of them are just like this came out in 1970 when and you’re like, go I. But after that’s all done, I have officially banished the the scrolling problem of what do I listen to? I have a list. Well, I’m in a journey.

00:11:19:04 – 00:11:41:37
Agent Palmer
I always have a list. This is the album I’m listening to today. I always try and hit one, and ironically, it hasn’t made me necessarily want to pick up my instruments more. But I do like listening to music more. I don’t know if that’s because I’m listening to more of it or what. I do try and pick up an instrument every day, not necessarily to practice.

00:11:41:37 – 00:11:51:05
Agent Palmer
Sometimes I’m noodling. Sometimes my. My child loves listening. Well, love smiles when I pick up the guitar.

00:11:51:14 – 00:11:51:48
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah.

00:11:51:50 – 00:11:57:48
Agent Palmer
Is very happy for like the first few chords and then very much loses interest.

00:11:57:50 – 00:11:59:24
Geoffrey Welchman
Yes. One year old, remember?

00:11:59:26 – 00:12:19:10
Agent Palmer
Yeah. So okay, okay. But I’m in this place where I, I but I but I, I and I follow you and I see some of the videos you guys post when you’re out at stuff and I, I remember the last few serious bands I was in were all cover bands.

00:12:19:13 – 00:12:19:46
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah.

00:12:19:58 – 00:12:32:53
Agent Palmer
I can’t imagine doing it like, I, I don’t know what it is. I can’t imagine going back to it. Now. I’m going to ask you this. Was there a break in between when you were like doing Raining Lunatic? You weren’t out there gigging?

00:12:32:58 – 00:12:36:45
Geoffrey Welchman
Yes, I that is to say, you are correct. Okay.

00:12:36:50 – 00:12:45:28
Agent Palmer
So how long was it in between like, you know, we’ll say post podcast when you’re gigging now to like beforehand.

00:12:45:30 – 00:13:15:02
Geoffrey Welchman
Okay. I may have said some of this seven years ago because the podcast thing came out of a, you know, sort of late night conversation with myself where I said, you know, the music never really took off, it never really landed. It didn’t get me anywhere. And maybe there’s something in that. And I started thinking about my father’s retirement party, which was held where he worked, obviously at a college in Connecticut.

00:13:15:05 – 00:13:38:58
Geoffrey Welchman
And a bunch of people commented about his voice, about how he spoke. Now, my dad had an accent. He was born in England, in Cambridge, England, and he sounded like sort of an educated professor type. Right? Yeah. And he he did, you know, he had a nice voice and people loved his accent. And everybody thought, you know, he was a genius because he spoke with an accent.

00:13:39:01 – 00:14:05:04
Geoffrey Welchman
And people love English accents. But I was thinking about that. They all mentioned his voice and how he spoke. And people are always telling me or have have often told me throughout my life, oh, your voice is very soothing or or whatever, very calm, soothing, so on. And I’m a person who sort of does funny voices anyway. Like I just kind of break into them, imitate people, whatever.

00:14:05:06 – 00:14:23:24
Geoffrey Welchman
I’m a mimic. And so I thought of all of those things and I thought, you know, maybe I should concentrate on the voice. That was literally the conversation I had with myself that turned me into a podcaster, because a friend of mine had mentioned podcast, oh, you should do podcasts. They’d be like, you know, the tape letters you sent me in in college.

00:14:23:24 – 00:14:46:54
Geoffrey Welchman
And I thought back to that and I thought, well, yeah, yeah, I, I could do that. I know how to put songs together and I know how sounds go together. And so I wrote the first sketch like kind of on a whim, which was the The Walrus sketch, and I liked it and I thought, hey, this is, this is funny.

00:14:46:57 – 00:15:13:57
Geoffrey Welchman
And it was sort of based on an old idea that I had with a, with a guitarist friend in New York. And so that just kind of started it. And I had started listening to Kevin Pollak, Marc Maron, and Doug Benson’s podcast because they had all started like a few months before. And so this was 2010. I started mine and like, yeah, for the next 4 or 5 years, I did not really do music much.

00:15:13:57 – 00:15:15:45
Agent Palmer
So that was so it.

00:15:15:50 – 00:15:39:56
Geoffrey Welchman
That that became my outlet. I was I was all in for the inverse delirium part, which went for for three plus years. Then I was just so exhausted I stopped. Then I did the rating lunatic as a sort of really a treat for myself, not thinking, wow, I’ve built up this audience. I really shouldn’t just go with some other project that has a new name.

00:15:40:05 – 00:15:50:00
Geoffrey Welchman
I lost all the steam of having an audience or whatever, but but I had a lot of fun with it. But even then I kind of ran out of steam again.

00:15:50:00 – 00:16:19:13
Agent Palmer
And so what brought you I mean, obviously, yeah. I mean, obviously reigning lunatic, you know, had an end. And look, obviously inverse delirium eventually hadn’t end, but you started raining lunatic as a mini series and as someone with an ongoing show. Yeah, I envy like the mini series, but obviously that ends how soon. Like, do you do you take some time and go, hey, now what’s next?

00:16:19:13 – 00:16:20:34
Agent Palmer
And then pick up the bass again?

00:16:20:34 – 00:16:43:26
Geoffrey Welchman
Or that’s a good question. Okay, so what happened was the writing lunatic wasn’t was was fun. But I was back in the cycle of, you know, like trying to find people to do voices for me and, and trying to publicize it and, and really starting from scratch, kind of as far as building up an audience or, you know, what is this thing?

00:16:43:26 – 00:17:06:00
Geoffrey Welchman
And so I just stopped at number nine. And, yeah, I was kind of up in the air for a bit. My wife and I were having dinner at a Mexican restaurant nearby and talking to the host. You know, we pointed at the stage and said, hey, did you have music? Live music here? You have a little stage. And he said, oh, no, we don’t really do anything.

00:17:06:00 – 00:17:32:37
Geoffrey Welchman
And we’re, we’re thinking about, I don’t know. And, and my wife just piped up, would you have an open mic? And, you know, meaning like that? And I looked at her like an open mic and she said, yeah, you could host it. I was like, wait a minute. What? I had hosted one like ten years before, briefly, and it was kind of a wild experience because I thought it was too good for open mics and hosting one.

00:17:32:37 – 00:17:56:12
Geoffrey Welchman
You just it’s a totally different experience because all these people come and they’re kind of your, your flock, you know, you’re trying to let them have a good experience. You’re trying to help them and set them up with the mix or whatever the instrument they’re using. That totally turned me around to seeing, you know, it was kind of fun, just the characters that came in, kind of like on a, you know, a cheers sort of level.

00:17:56:14 – 00:18:14:42
Geoffrey Welchman
You know, the characters would wander into this place and want to sing a song or a couple. And so she must have thought of that. And she said, yeah, you could do it. And I said, well, yeah, but who says I want to? And, but he was like up for it. And we started to talk and you know, it became a why not thing, you know.

00:18:14:44 – 00:18:41:40
Geoffrey Welchman
So so we started that it was going really slow. But we met some people who were local and I was playing guitar, but I was also playing bass on stage, and I would offer to play bass behind people, because a lot of people just end up being guys with guitars. You know? That’s the open mic stereotype. It’s often true, often true gals with guitars will show up, usually less so.

00:18:41:40 – 00:19:00:01
Geoffrey Welchman
And then you get, you know, maybe you get a banjo guy, you get a dulcimer woman who knows, you know, we had this and the old thing, we had this wonderful old woman, she was like 80 or something, and she was tiny, tiny Jewish woman who had come and wanted to sing hello, my Baby. Hello. I mean, it’s the kid.

00:19:00:05 – 00:19:20:00
Geoffrey Welchman
And I would play behind her because she didn’t, you know, she just came in. Oh, what do you know? What could I sing? You know. So, like who love I really, you know, that brings you down to to to earth. And just so the Mexican restaurant place that went for a few months, but then we had to move because it wasn’t doing well enough for them.

00:19:20:00 – 00:19:44:20
Geoffrey Welchman
And we moved down the street a block to a different to a cafe that was opening up. And people started to come. And again, I was meeting local musicians and really having fun, and it kind of changed. There was a wonderful open jam thing. Now, you know, I’m sorry. Forgive me for going on at length, but I’ll just keep going.

00:19:44:24 – 00:19:55:43
Geoffrey Welchman
As a younger, you know, original musician, I had so many opinions, so many harsh, you know, opinions about other musicians as one does, I guess. You know.

00:19:55:50 – 00:19:58:12
Agent Palmer
Well, every. Cover band.

00:19:58:16 – 00:19:58:35
Geoffrey Welchman
Part of.

00:19:58:36 – 00:20:15:11
Agent Palmer
It, everybody like you, you you aren’t out to make friends, right? Like when you’re younger, everybody’s competition. If they like him, they won’t like me. If they buy his CD, they won’t buy my like, it’s very much a a me versus the world, right?

00:20:15:15 – 00:20:15:54
Geoffrey Welchman
Well, yes.

00:20:15:56 – 00:20:16:30
Agent Palmer
Yes. At that.

00:20:16:30 – 00:20:21:17
Geoffrey Welchman
Time, it was very much me. Me. It was all about me and my stuff.

00:20:21:17 – 00:20:26:27
Agent Palmer
And so coming back to it, you lost a few of these preconceptions, these notions.

00:20:26:29 – 00:20:50:32
Geoffrey Welchman
So the idea that cover, you know, cover bands were evil. It was the devil. It was these guys were posers, blah, blah, blah. Although interestingly, I distinguish between cover bands and wedding bands because I knew that wedding bands were full of like, jazz musicians who could play rings around most of us. Right? Because that’s the real deal. They get up there, they play a chart that maybe they’ve seen once and it’s got to come out perfect, right?

00:20:50:35 – 00:21:10:31
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah. I’m a guy who picks up stuff really fast, even for musicians, like within a song. I mean, and it is bass. I’m, you know, this is not as hard as playing guitars and picking chords and stuff, but in a song, if we start playing something, I don’t know, probably by the end of the second verse, I know it.

00:21:10:43 – 00:21:37:18
Geoffrey Welchman
I’m playing and and I finish well or whatever. So. So that’s the kind of thing, you know, I come from, you know, I learned by ear, I don’t read music, but I have this skill of picking stuff up quick. So that helped me out when I was playing behind people, I sort of know structures. I’ve written hundreds of songs back in the day, and so I know how songs kind of go, you know, and I’ve listened to so much music.

00:21:37:18 – 00:21:59:24
Geoffrey Welchman
I used to review albums. I probably told you that back in the day to. And so I found that it was really easy to play behind people, and I enjoyed it. Back in the day, I was not somebody who, like, wanted to play along with other people. I just wanted to do my songs with my band and have them play what I told them to play.

00:21:59:28 – 00:22:21:49
Geoffrey Welchman
And here I was. There was this open jam in a beautiful setting in this, a place nearby that had this Victorian house that was they were playing, selling crafts and stuff, and they had this little courtyard and it was all lit up with, you know, Christmas lights and stuff. And 1st August they had an open jam every Friday for, for the month.

00:22:21:49 – 00:22:40:31
Geoffrey Welchman
And it was a true jam. And this was something again, like like cover bands. As a, as a young person I was anti jam. I was aunty, I don’t want to get together and hear nine minutes of solos, you know. I mean that’s how I thought of it, you know, like the Grateful Dead kind of long soloing, noodling kind of thing.

00:22:40:33 – 00:23:07:08
Geoffrey Welchman
I’m not big on that. But now, you know, just getting up and playing a bunch of oldies, frankly, with a bunch of oldies like me, you know, I’m getting to be an oldie. And we keep saying, oh, but we feel young. But, you know, I look older than that. And yeah, it was just the best, best feeling. And so along around that time, a friend asked me somebody had met through these open mics, hey, I’m starting a Beatles band.

00:23:07:08 – 00:23:30:59
Geoffrey Welchman
Do you want to do you want to join? I said, yes, of course, and that became a band. And interestingly, she ended up dropping out after she’d collected us together as a band. She decided. Oh, yeah, I’m sick of it. Get it? Trying to get gigs and stuff. She didn’t think things were going quick enough, and so the rest of us kind of went, oh, okay, well, we’ll keep keep going.

00:23:31:01 – 00:23:53:00
Geoffrey Welchman
I think so we’re a quartet, I play bass, we’ve got a guitar who does amazing leads and all the great leads. He does so perfectly. It’s like he’s like, I always say to this to people. He’s like a scientist, you know? He’s just like, he just stands there and he plays and it sounds great. And then our keyboardist plays, he plays guitar as well.

00:23:53:00 – 00:24:17:30
Geoffrey Welchman
So in certain songs he’s giving us that two guitar attack. He also plays melodica, which is a great element, like he plays the sax part in tequila on the melodica, you know, and people always perk up and look and I’m like, what is that? You know, because it sounds sort of is it a harmonica? But then they see he’s playing this thing with a keyboard on it and it’s it’s weird.

00:24:17:34 – 00:24:43:26
Geoffrey Welchman
And so, so that’s, you know, that’s the joy of it. We started playing and people instantly were like, oh, wow, this is great. And of course there I realized responding to the music, it’s not me necessarily, you know, that’s so great. It’s the music that’s so great. We’re delivering this music. They enjoy it. I love playing it, and it’s like they dance, which is something I always wanted to see.

00:24:43:28 – 00:24:46:38
Geoffrey Welchman
And so that’s the happy ending.

00:24:46:42 – 00:24:47:47
Agent Palmer
It is a happy ending.

00:24:47:49 – 00:25:10:29
Geoffrey Welchman
It’s like I’m older and wiser or I’m just older and have shifted my thinking. I don’t think the same way I used to about music when I was busking in the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. So around 2008, say, this was kind of before I finally just kind of decided I was going to quit the business. That’s what went into podcasting.

00:25:10:31 – 00:25:44:10
Geoffrey Welchman
I did notice, and I’ve noticed this before, that the best audiences are always little kids and old folks because they don’t have preconceived notions about what’s good or not. They just respond to something that makes them move. Okay. And so if it sounds good, it’s like, oh, okay, good. Now people in their 20s, like we were talking about, you know, you’re so consumed with creating your identity and defining what you do like and why you don’t like what you don’t like.

00:25:44:24 – 00:26:10:40
Geoffrey Welchman
You know, then, you know, it’s hopeless. Hopeless. You like what you like and that’s it, the 30s. You start to, you know, maybe you’ve started to loosen up a little bit. 40s. It gets to be more amorphous by this time. You’ve probably had kids or maybe had kids, and you’re listening to what they listen to. This will happen to you, by the way, I, I predict you’ll have years of Raffi and other children’s music.

00:26:10:40 – 00:26:14:08
Geoffrey Welchman
I don’t know what’s popular, The Wiggles or whatever. Whatever’s popular. Now.

00:26:14:14 – 00:26:30:43
Agent Palmer
I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m there have already been playlists made. Hopefully with They Might Be Giants heavy stuff where it’s like, oh, I this is something I already like, and I feel like even the adult stuff could work for kids.

00:26:30:48 – 00:26:33:26
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah. And the weird thing is you don’t I mean.

00:26:33:31 – 00:26:43:30
Agent Palmer
But I don’t know, that’s that, that’s that’s a hope, right? Like, there’s no guarantee that that that’s going to work. It could be like, I don’t like this.

00:26:43:35 – 00:26:54:30
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh no. Totally. Yeah. And my son was was not shy about saying he didn’t like something. I mean, I’d have some music on in the car and he just said, dad, dad, you and your weird music, you know.

00:26:54:35 – 00:27:17:21
Agent Palmer
Well, the only thing I can actually play on the guitar right now, or the riffs that I play are some Dylan, some Tragically Hip, some Tom petty and some Creedence. This is this is where I’m at right now. So maybe, maybe noodling some stairway. I’m not really good, but like enough.

00:27:17:26 – 00:27:22:40
Geoffrey Welchman
So is that your main instrument? Because I see an orange back there.

00:27:22:45 – 00:27:32:44
Agent Palmer
I prefer bass, but I don’t have an acoustic one. And so if I’m going to play for a kid, it’s pull out a guitar and.

00:27:32:47 – 00:27:42:05
Geoffrey Welchman
I have an acoustic bass, I recommend it for bassists. It is great to play on your couch while watching TV. It’s just the best.

00:27:42:09 – 00:28:09:42
Agent Palmer
So I’ve been I always picked them up, but like, I’ll go to Guitar Center with my dad and we’ll like noodle around on seven. I always pick up the acoustic bases. Yeah. And I still in my heart. And I know this doesn’t solve the issue that an acoustic bass like you’re talking about wood. There is still a part of me that once one of those minimalist cellos or the minimalist upright bases or it’s just.

00:28:09:45 – 00:28:30:50
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but but again, the problem is you need an amp. You need a you need headphones, you need some. You’re not going to just noodle with that on the couch. That’s the same as me picking up one of the bases behind me and doing the same thing. You need the acoustic nature of it, and of course, I’m not going to go out and buy a full upright bass.

00:28:30:50 – 00:28:42:55
Agent Palmer
That’s not I don’t have that kind of space, but I always like the idea of playing one and buying the minimalist one. However, it’s cheaper to go come back to just buy an acoustic bass.

00:28:42:57 – 00:29:02:13
Geoffrey Welchman
It would be. Yes, I admire that because. Because I am somebody who is so intimidated by the upright that I just don’t even approach it. I mean, every once in a while in a store, my wife will say, oh, you know, look, you know, big upright or one of the like. You say the, the thin, thin line ones or whatever you call them.

00:29:02:13 – 00:29:10:14
Geoffrey Welchman
And I just, I pluck at it and I think, no, no, the actions crazy. I don’t understand it.

00:29:10:17 – 00:29:34:30
Agent Palmer
Yeah. No, it was my fascination started in high school when while I didn’t play the cello in the band or anything like that, I was still at that point a tenor saxophone who enjoyed playing bass and guitar on the weekend, so to speak. Oh, yeah, but we had a cello or an upright bass. I don’t I don’t actually remember which it was that no one used in storage.

00:29:34:32 – 00:29:42:34
Agent Palmer
And so occasionally being the band geek that would just hang out, I would just noodle around on it when I was hanging out in the band room.

00:29:42:37 – 00:29:46:12
Geoffrey Welchman
Is a cello really tuned like a bass guitar?

00:29:46:17 – 00:30:12:35
Agent Palmer
I mean that it must have been an upright bass because I was able to play it without really messing around. So okay, but I but that was where. But I had no stakes, right? It was, I was me in a big closet just noodling around. And so I was like, this always felt like a lot of fun. Now, granted, at that time I was playing a lot of bass, I was practicing in cover bands, and we were gonna, you know, eventually write our own stuff.

00:30:12:35 – 00:30:32:58
Agent Palmer
And so my fingers were a lot stronger. So even the heavy action on an upright bass maybe not as much as a cello, but definitely more than, say, my Fender P bass back there. Like my fingers could easily do it. I think now I there would be a lot of exercising. Yeah, yeah.

00:30:33:00 – 00:30:54:20
Geoffrey Welchman
No it’s it’s so well it’s like yeah, it’s just an area I, I’ve never really seriously thought about going because I did have a fretless like back before 2010 that I liked playing, but I didn’t play it enough to sort of really get the hang of it. And then I sold it.

00:30:54:25 – 00:31:02:56
Agent Palmer
So let me, let me ask why bass? Like, obviously when you’re busking, you’re probably playing acoustic guitar. Yes. Okay. So where’s bass coming?

00:31:02:58 – 00:31:33:30
Geoffrey Welchman
Acoustic was my first instrument. Acoustic six string guitar and bass came in because I started high school and I met a, you know, like one of the rock musicians who was doing a band because long story short, I ended up buying his base because he was borrowing it from somebody who had stolen it out of the back of a van in New York.

00:31:33:32 – 00:31:53:33
Geoffrey Welchman
And this was the story that I got. So. So it was like, do you want to buy it for like 200 bucks? And like it was a Rick and Barker bass. So it looked the part, you know, and it was like it was really clunky and it was heavy as hell. But that was the reason I became a bass player, because a bass became available.

00:31:53:33 – 00:32:18:25
Geoffrey Welchman
Okay. And I, I, I reasoned that I was always seeing in, you know, like guitarists wanted or musicians wanted ads. Lots of guitarists. Not a lot of bassists. So I figured that they’d be more in demand know than guitarists, which are sort of, yeah, we’re a dime a dozen. I am a guitarist. So I started doing that and I just liked it.

00:32:18:25 – 00:32:44:28
Geoffrey Welchman
And I never had a real problem with after the first couple of months. And I started to get used to it and started playing with my friends, I didn’t have a trouble that a lot of bases do, or seem to that with singing and playing bass. At the same time. Because of the rhythmic, rhythmic aspect, you’re often playing parts sort of counter to what you’re singing.

00:32:44:30 – 00:32:56:15
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah, rhythmically they’re different, you know? And so maybe if you’re playing guitar, you’re strumming, you know, it’s that’s easier. Whatever. Whatever the reason, some people some basis to just find it.

00:32:56:30 – 00:33:21:21
Agent Palmer
Now I’m going to have to think about I. So I’ve only ever done like, like the very minimalist of backup occasionally but I’ve never I’ve look, I’ve, I’ve sung while playing guitar. I, I genuinely can’t remember if I’ve ever sang like a song while playing bass. I may have to try it.

00:33:21:26 – 00:33:44:08
Geoffrey Welchman
It’s not surprising. I mean, like I say, it seems a lot of bassists do have an issue with that, and I, I now that I’m playing McCartney lines while singing Beatles songs, I am realizing that, yeah, that’s it is a skill because because his part some some of them are so wild and and sort of all over the place.

00:33:44:10 – 00:34:12:56
Geoffrey Welchman
And that took some, some learning when I, when I started with this Beatle project, I knew how to play most of the songs already, but on guitar. Okay. And so I, I hadn’t played Beatles songs on bass since high school, and once I started learning them, I was realized that it is a challenge I did have to work to, you know, first play the part enough to to feel comfortable with it, then starts singing over it.

00:34:12:56 – 00:34:31:36
Geoffrey Welchman
I don’t have to like, you know, be perfect on one to get to the other. But but I did have to prepare. I did a lot of practicing. I did like three months of practicing Beatles stuff, figuring out, and my voice was coming back to I had had pneumonia in. Oh, that’s. Yeah. I don’t know if you knew about that.

00:34:31:38 – 00:34:32:24
Geoffrey Welchman
I think.

00:34:32:29 – 00:34:40:57
Agent Palmer
I think I did. I think we caught it through some of the emails back and forth. Okay. Yeah. Because we have stayed in touch. We just haven’t.

00:34:40:59 – 00:35:04:39
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah. No. Yeah. I don’t remember when. Yeah. So that happens basically just before the pandemic I had pneumonia, almost kicked the bucket. I was in the ICU, blah, blah, blah. And so I came out of that and then I got actually I got it again, which happens a lot. And so years went by, we’re at Covid, blah, blah, blah.

00:35:04:41 – 00:35:34:01
Geoffrey Welchman
We’re going on and on. And I was singing music. But once I got into the Beatles thing, I realized my range is not what it used to be. I’d lost like 4 or 5 notes or something that over the last two years I’ve slowly expanded my range up like one note at a time, so I can do some of the parts that I couldn’t do, like two years ago.

00:35:34:11 – 00:35:35:42
Geoffrey Welchman
I’m singing much more easily.

00:35:35:44 – 00:35:44:10
Agent Palmer
So here’s my question to you, which is you. You’ve already mentioned a few other things, so you clearly play more than just beetle. You’re not only.

00:35:44:24 – 00:35:45:27
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:35:45:29 – 00:35:55:36
Agent Palmer
And so you’re playing to move the audience. So you’re playing I, I don’t want to sound cliche, but I get you’re playing the hits.

00:35:55:38 – 00:36:17:08
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I am in an oldies band. I joke about this being the equivalent of like when I was a kid, when my wife and I were kids, it would have been, you know, the Guy Lombardo Orchestra or or, you know, Duke Ellington, you know, the Cab Calloway, not Cab Calloway, Count Basie orchestra.

00:36:17:10 – 00:36:17:34
Agent Palmer
Well.

00:36:17:39 – 00:36:24:00
Geoffrey Welchman
They were on the road into their 80s and 90s, and that would have been around when I was a kid.

00:36:24:03 – 00:36:52:11
Agent Palmer
And you’re playing well, I guess. I mean, like, if I can say this, I feel I feel comfortable saying this. You’re playing the new standards, right? Like, I mean, what what what was what were standards even for you and me, like maybe 20, 30 years ago, I feel like the Beatles and some stones stuff has, like, kind of creeped in to be like, these are the new standards.

00:36:52:16 – 00:36:53:04
Agent Palmer
Yeah.

00:36:53:08 – 00:37:10:05
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh, yes. Definitely. The whole the what I’m talking about is like the end of the sort of the jazz yeah, orchestra era and that kind of sort of pre rock pop, which continued, you know, you had Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra singing into the 70s.

00:37:10:07 – 00:37:13:33
Agent Palmer
I think they were still performing into the 80s. I mean, as.

00:37:13:33 – 00:37:14:17
Geoffrey Welchman
Long as.

00:37:14:21 – 00:37:17:40
Agent Palmer
They were basically going as long as they were alive.

00:37:17:45 – 00:37:23:17
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah. But the the audience is shrinking. It’s getting more special. Specialized.

00:37:23:30 – 00:37:25:35
Agent Palmer
But yeah, specialized.

00:37:25:40 – 00:37:48:24
Geoffrey Welchman
And, you know, somebody like Tony Bennett, I remember when I was in, oh, I was in New York and I was trying to struggling and try to be in a band and playing at the clubs in the East Village and stuff. I remember Tony Bennett playing this shitty place on Houston Street. I think it was downtown. No, no, it wasn’t there.

00:37:48:24 – 00:38:09:18
Geoffrey Welchman
But it was not a great spot. Right? But he was doing a very brilliant thing. He was doing a comeback and he was starting small and it took off. I mean, it got great press and suddenly he’s on the map again. You know, Tony Bennett, young people are going to see Tony. I mean, this happens with older artists.

00:38:09:18 – 00:38:30:14
Geoffrey Welchman
Sometimes they get a boost and then it sort of revives things. And then people are paying attention again and they’re releasing, oh God, this guy is great. He was always great, you know. And then so that goes on. And his career just took a whole new turn, you know, and ended up with lots of collaborations. And, you know, the Lady Gaga thing just incredible.

00:38:30:17 – 00:38:41:23
Geoffrey Welchman
I mean, he’s he’s one of those one of the greats who sort of wrote out, you know, almost I don’t want to say the death of but the, the decline of his art form. Well.

00:38:41:28 – 00:38:42:26
Agent Palmer
You say that.

00:38:42:28 – 00:38:45:59
Geoffrey Welchman
I mean, in terms of not in terms of its quality.

00:38:46:09 – 00:38:46:45
Agent Palmer
Popularity.

00:38:46:47 – 00:38:49:25
Geoffrey Welchman
Value, but just. Yeah, sheer pop.

00:38:49:30 – 00:39:20:21
Agent Palmer
So but but but so my third musical journey includes two guys who are basically bringing that back in, Rod Stewart and Van Morrison, guys who were clearly were rock stars at one point in their career that are now. And look, I’m still in the 70s in this journey. So like I listen to my favorite Rod Stewart album, Every Picture Tells a story.

00:39:20:21 – 00:39:47:48
Agent Palmer
And two of my favorite Van Morrison’s were recently in Moondance and Tupelo Honey. But I’m when I was putting the journey together, I’m like, wait, wait wait wait wait. You’re telling me that Rod Stewart and Van Morrison have been putting out, like, 1 or 2 albums every few years up until this year? It’s in and they’re doing it feels like they’re doing more.

00:39:47:51 – 00:40:10:42
Agent Palmer
They’re going back and they’re doing their standards and the stuff that they grew up on for new audiences that it. I just go like, oh my, like, I get it. Like, if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life, right? But these guys don’t have to record, which is the that’s the thing that that boggles my mind.

00:40:10:47 – 00:40:26:34
Agent Palmer
These are two names. These are guys that and I don’t know what they did in the 80s necessarily. I mean, I know a little bit of what rod did in the 80s, but from the 90s, in the early aughts and even now, I when I get to that part of my journey this time around, it’s all going to be new to me.

00:40:26:34 – 00:40:46:18
Agent Palmer
But they could have just toured, stopping anywhere from 1970 or 75 or 80 or 85. They could have stopped and just toured. They didn’t have to record. They didn’t have to make new stuff or rerecord old stuff. And so there’s a part of me that goes like, I’m I’m very curious to see what what any of this means.

00:40:46:21 – 00:40:48:06
Agent Palmer
Like, what is this really?

00:40:48:09 – 00:41:04:53
Geoffrey Welchman
Well. Well, Rod Stewart is like a perfect example of, of a career path in, in professional music, you know, because he basically in the 80s, I think. Or was it the 90s he did the songbook move.

00:41:04:56 – 00:41:05:29
Agent Palmer
Oh yeah.

00:41:05:34 – 00:41:27:04
Geoffrey Welchman
This is something that that people have been doing. You know, Ella Fitzgerald famously like just put a put a buzz in her career by recording like the Cole Porter Songbook album, whatever the first one was. I don’t know if it was called Porter, but it was. But he she started doing classics by the great composers, great songwriters, and they took off like, like hotcakes.

00:41:27:04 – 00:41:50:36
Geoffrey Welchman
They were they were great sellers. So. So as times gone on, you got Rod Stewart. This happens with lots of artists. I mean, Linda Ronstadt to somebody who conquered pop and rock music and really, you know, at a certain point she was kind of getting aged out in the 80s. She was still getting hit singles, but she didn’t get the kind of attention she used to.

00:41:50:41 – 00:42:14:08
Geoffrey Welchman
And that’s when she started doing stuff like trio with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, because they wanted to. Yeah. And then she did the album, The Mexican songs of her, of her father, because she wanted to. Nobody wanted them to do this. Nobody wanted her to do the Mexican album, especially the Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris. That makes commercial sense.

00:42:14:11 – 00:42:31:29
Geoffrey Welchman
Even if it’s weird, if they’re just doing little bluegrass songs or whatever that took took off. But Canciones was something that she actively had to say, no, I’m doing it. I’m going to do it. They were like, this is going to no, this is not going to work. Your audience is going to not going to like it. And it was the biggest selling.

00:42:31:34 – 00:42:58:27
Geoffrey Welchman
It maybe still is the biggest selling Spanish album music album in the States, I think ever so. And then she went on to do Nelson Riddle classics like we’re talking about with Rod Stewart. He did the songbooks, he started to do songbooks, revived his career. It’s the kind of thing that just makes sense, because at a certain point, what are you going to do?

00:42:58:30 – 00:43:14:54
Geoffrey Welchman
You’ve been recording for 20 years. Yeah. And like, you know, maybe I just want to do a blues album or something, or maybe I just want I used to look at this cynically and saying, oh, now they’re doing the blues album, you know, like, oh no, I’m getting back to my roots. It’s the blues album. I’m going to, you know, Pat Benatar.

00:43:14:54 – 00:43:29:06
Geoffrey Welchman
I did one with with her husband, and I was all snotty about it, but no, it’s like she’s proved her point. Yeah. Linda Ronstadt proved her point. Van Morrison proved his point. You know, he could do whatever the fuck he wants.

00:43:29:09 – 00:43:29:57
Agent Palmer
Yeah, no.

00:43:30:01 – 00:43:30:54
Geoffrey Welchman
I not.

00:43:31:06 – 00:43:38:37
Agent Palmer
I remember. God, I don’t know what. I don’t know what year it was. Aerosmith did Honkin on Bobo, which was there.

00:43:38:42 – 00:43:39:18
Geoffrey Welchman
They did a blues.

00:43:39:18 – 00:44:06:52
Agent Palmer
Album, a blues album, basically, and I and I loved it, but. And it very much was all right, this is our thing. But they again, that’s after they’ve come back from the dead twice. Like again they have. You’re right, you’re right. It’s this point where we’ve got nothing left to prove if we’re going to record an album. And I think some of that stuff was still in the studio days where, like, you owe us an album.

00:44:06:52 – 00:44:10:59
Agent Palmer
Well, we’ll just put it. We’re just going to give you what we want to do.

00:44:11:08 – 00:44:21:34
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah. And the other part of it is, is business. I mean, you ask, why would they do an album or why did they why keep doing albums? I mean, McCartney still does albums.

00:44:21:37 – 00:44:22:03
Agent Palmer
Well.

00:44:22:17 – 00:44:33:14
Geoffrey Welchman
He’s listening to them. I mean, not a lot of people are listening to him. Again, I don’t want to dismiss or sound dismissive of the music, but he’s going to keep doing albums until he dies because that’s just who he is.

00:44:33:21 – 00:44:39:31
Agent Palmer
So Dylan’s the same way I would say, you know, although, you know, there is a oh, but wait.

00:44:39:36 – 00:44:59:22
Geoffrey Welchman
To finish my point. But like a Van Morrison. Yes, they’ve proved their point. Yes. Now they’ve done all these album. Yes. It’s five years in. Do they really need to put an album out? No, but commercially it gives them a story. It gives them something to go and to the press and say, hey, it’s my first album in five years.

00:44:59:22 – 00:45:07:00
Geoffrey Welchman
Here’s something I can talk to you about. It gives us the press, something to talk to him about. It gives him an opportunity to go on talk shows. And so.

00:45:07:05 – 00:45:16:57
Agent Palmer
Again, as long as he enjoys the touring aspect, if recording an album every two years, three years helps them to stay on the road, then.

00:45:17:00 – 00:45:19:36
Geoffrey Welchman
Just part of the part of the the grind.

00:45:19:40 – 00:45:35:08
Agent Palmer
Yeah. And I mean more power to them, I guess. So is this does this mean that, you know, if anybody’s in the Baltimore area will, we’ll find you playing bass as long as you possibly can.

00:45:35:13 – 00:45:40:05
Geoffrey Welchman
Well, first off, I don’t I don’t know that about 80.

00:45:40:10 – 00:45:42:15
Agent Palmer
But as long as you can I guess.

00:45:42:29 – 00:46:11:04
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah, I guess I mean, I’ve been thinking about that recently because our band is, is in this weird sort of state where both the drummer and the guitarist are in other bands, and the guitarist plays quite a lot already with his main band. You know, this is common, as you know, in sort of local music scenes, the typical stereotype of drummers are in seven bands.

00:46:11:08 – 00:46:34:36
Geoffrey Welchman
Usually that could also be true of basis and whatever I think about it, I’m in this band, I’m 62, I’m, you know, maybe this band is going to last for a while, but, you know, as you age, you start to kind of consider the possibility that one of us is, you know, going to have a health issue or whatever.

00:46:34:36 – 00:46:59:03
Geoffrey Welchman
And, you know, that’s just real life. And it gets more common as we get older. And I was thinking, what would I do? Because one band that I did play bass with is sort of started my playing in bands again, which I hadn’t done. They have now moved on and so they were providing a gig every month or two for me in addition to what I was doing.

00:46:59:03 – 00:47:23:40
Geoffrey Welchman
So now I’m only doing the the Bulldog band, a bulldog. And I was thinking, well, what happens if this, you know, has to go? Because we we just can’t keep it going. What would I want to do? What? I want to go back to playing like open mic, kind of acoustic guitar, playing my songs. Or would I want to join another band of geezers and, you know, try and go back into the grind?

00:47:23:42 – 00:47:25:30
Agent Palmer
Can I give you a third option?

00:47:25:33 – 00:47:28:04
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh, what’s that?

00:47:28:09 – 00:47:37:13
Agent Palmer
Bring back the reigning lunacy.

00:47:37:18 – 00:48:06:21
Geoffrey Welchman
I’ll only say that it recently occurred to me I could. I’ve had this fantasy of turning the rating lunatic into a cartoon of, like, somebody, but, you know, doing a cartoon based on, you know, using my my podcast as a soundtrack. Basically all the voices are already there. And with some of the new software that’s out, you can create stuff based on, you know, I’m a terrible like artist.

00:48:06:23 – 00:48:08:30
Geoffrey Welchman
I can’t draw very well.

00:48:08:45 – 00:48:12:24
Agent Palmer
Don’t worry, I can, I can find I’ll find one for you. Oh.

00:48:12:30 – 00:48:14:27
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh, I’m not pitching it. I’m just saying.

00:48:14:27 – 00:48:15:15
Agent Palmer
That I know.

00:48:15:18 – 00:48:35:55
Geoffrey Welchman
It’s just an idea of, like, if I got beyond software or something and just tried to make a set and have the people talk to each other in sync with the show, you know, but. And then that leads to the thing of what would I do? Another one if would I do another? At least now I’m open to the possibility.

00:48:36:00 – 00:48:39:12
Geoffrey Welchman
Maybe after I stopped working.

00:48:39:16 – 00:49:02:46
Agent Palmer
But I mean, I guess the thing would be the real question would be given the and we’ve talked mainly about music this time only because the last time you were on, we talked mainly about the rain lunatic. I don’t I don’t mind forcing people to go back and listen to episode seven, but I ask because we’ve established your love of both clearly.

00:49:02:46 – 00:49:16:50
Agent Palmer
So now, if something were to go away, you’re on the other side now. So would it be a you know, it? Music is obviously there’s a live performance that you’re not going to get out of the podcast.

00:49:16:52 – 00:49:35:32
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah. I mean it’s it’s really hard to think about going back to trying to do one because nobody really knows about rating lunatic itself. So coming back and saying, hey, I’ve come back, nobody will. Who, who who were you in the know?

00:49:35:32 – 00:49:42:51
Agent Palmer
It’s fair. Look, there’s a there’s a lot from that our circle that have I didn’t know I’d ever outlast people. Okay.

00:49:42:53 – 00:49:46:12
Geoffrey Welchman
So I was going to ask, are you still in touch with the Jason?

00:49:46:12 – 00:50:08:18
Agent Palmer
Ginger’s the. I’m still in touch with them, but they’re not that most of that crew is not podcasting anymore. So to the same extent, if any of them came back, it would be, hey, we’re back. And again, outside of, you know, maybe people still being subscribed to feeds that people were paying for, it would be like, oh good, you’re back.

00:50:08:18 – 00:50:09:59
Agent Palmer
We didn’t. Who are who are you?

00:50:10:01 – 00:50:10:25
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah.

00:50:10:28 – 00:50:35:26
Agent Palmer
Yeah, that’s that’s that’s not new. But I feel like having just from this conversation there is going to be you still need to get out there. You I don’t know that even if you could find a suitable way to get out a new story, you want to perform, you’re really enjoying that gig. Nature.

00:50:35:29 – 00:51:05:17
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh I see. Okay. Yes, I yeah, you’re onto something. I, I’m afraid you’re wrong that even if I, if a band dries up that I wouldn’t then think oh well maybe I’ll do a podcast. And I haven’t looked I haven’t looked at the scripts in years. I mean as I, I told you, I, I did have scripts for ten through 14 or 15 I think.

00:51:05:22 – 00:51:26:02
Geoffrey Welchman
And so like 4 or 5 shows and maybe ideas for another 1 or 2. And I know that I liked 1 or 2 of the ideas a lot, and I wanted to do them. One of them was about a ghost haunting part of the castle. And, you know, one of us.

00:51:26:04 – 00:51:33:11
Agent Palmer
Well, let’s put it this way. I, I, I wouldn’t say no to producing and editing it for you.

00:51:33:13 – 00:51:55:53
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh. Oh, no, I that is very generous because I could never let go the editing. That is my primary talent, I realize, and all of it. I’m a good editor. That’s you know it’s true with video, too. It’s like I realized that I can I know how things should go, and I don’t know what that skill is. Maybe I’m a.

00:51:56:00 – 00:51:59:43
Agent Palmer
Well, you’re a storyteller. I mean, it really is. You’re a storyteller, actually.

00:51:59:45 – 00:52:21:39
Geoffrey Welchman
But even more than that, I’m a I’m a story improver. I’m I’m a okay. Because because I can do it with other people’s stuff. I can see, oh, no, you need to cut this. You need to work this. This is funny. Do more of this. I mean, I’ve, I remember speeches I’ve given to people where I’ve told them how to improve their work.

00:52:21:44 – 00:52:28:58
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah, yeah. I’ve done so much editing in my life that it comes in handy as a skill. Yeah.

00:52:29:00 – 00:52:41:02
Agent Palmer
Well, I’ll say this, I, I, I need to do better and not email you once every two years. I feel and and.

00:52:41:07 – 00:52:42:31
Geoffrey Welchman
Been busy, my friend.

00:52:42:33 – 00:52:48:04
Agent Palmer
Yeah. And next time I’m in the area, we have to. We have to have a meal.

00:52:48:06 – 00:52:50:37
Geoffrey Welchman
Sure. No problem. You’re where again?

00:52:50:42 – 00:52:52:56
Agent Palmer
I’m just a few hours north of you.

00:52:52:59 – 00:53:03:17
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on down anytime you like.

00:53:03:22 – 00:53:04:27
Agent Palmer
I don’t disagree with.

00:53:04:27 – 00:53:25:42
Agent Palmer
Geoffrey that the best audiences are little kids and old folks, but it has been sitting with me since he said it on and off. Because how can we, as anyone in between those age ranges, be better audiences and not just for music? In a world where hot takes are mostly just clickbait, and an honest opinion is likely only to be found in person, from a friend, and rarely in any online arena.

00:53:25:42 – 00:53:49:19
Agent Palmer
How can we ensure we are coming at the world? But let’s just narrow the scope down to entertainment. With open eyes, true open eyes. Little kids don’t have those preconceived notions. Old folks just don’t care. I’m sure those of us in the middle may not be able to shed those notions once we have them, but we can stop caring about those notions and just be more open.

00:53:49:24 – 00:54:12:08
Agent Palmer
This podcast and the guests I talk with often encourage myself and you, the listeners, to be open to things, usually opportunities. But we should be open to movies, music and books. We should be open to art. I don’t know that there’s any more to say on the matter except for this, and perhaps this is self-serving, but you can get reviews and suggestions from the internet.

00:54:12:11 – 00:54:34:43
Agent Palmer
My blog is full of them, but you must consider the source. My blog is full of mostly positive reviews and suggestions. If I have a very strong negative opinion, I will share it. But most of the time I just don’t write about it. If your internet sources are mostly negative or even 5050 negative positive, get new internet sources.

00:54:34:45 – 00:54:56:46
Agent Palmer
Even if 5050 split is much too negative. At that point you have to ask why are they doing it? And if that’s the case? Find new sources and in the meantime, go back and listen to the reigning lunatic. For those of you in the Baltimore area. Be on the lookout for Geoffrey on his bass with hey, Bulldog. Thanks for listening to The Palmer Files episode 179.

00:54:56:46 – 00:55:15:02
Agent Palmer
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 Geoffrey or myself in the show notes. You can find links to the reigning lunatic, Geoffrey’s previous episode, and my review of the Reigning Lunatic in the show.

00:55:15:02 – 00:56:11:16
Agent Palmer
Notes. The music for this episode was provided by Henno Heitur. Email and comments can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files gmail.com. And remember your home for all things. Agent Palmer is Agent Palmer.

00:56:11:20 – 00:56:14:18
Agent Palmer
All right, sire. Do you have one final question for me?

00:56:14:27 – 00:56:20:37
Geoffrey Welchman
I do, I want to know about what you’ve been doing over the last few years, including your child.

00:56:20:39 – 00:56:48:16
Agent Palmer
So we we sped run, you know, the the the the life stuff, right? Yeah. You know, obviously we didn’t wait. She moved in from across the country, you know, pre-COVID. Yeah. And then, you know, we lived in sin for, you know, through through a pandemic. Oh the horror. And then, you know, we decided to try and have a child.

00:56:48:21 – 00:57:11:14
Agent Palmer
And then at some point we decided to get married. I, I, I say it this way because it, it was like it was it was fairly unromantic and I, I, I probably could have done better, but at some point I think we just started talking and like, well, maybe now’s the time. Yeah. And,

00:57:11:19 – 00:57:34:25
Geoffrey Welchman
That’s not so. I mean, don’t don’t kick yourself for that, because I remember a time when literally I was 26 and I thought, you know, it’s probably about time I get settled. I mean, like, it was there is a time in your 20s when you notice everybody’s already kind of hooked up and you’re kind of hanging out and, and you get this feeling that like, geez, you know, maybe I should really well, maybe, maybe it’s 30s.

00:57:34:35 – 00:57:47:03
Agent Palmer
I was going to say it didn’t happen to us until I’m 30, but changed. So let’s see, we got married and then six months later the kid came along and nothing.

00:57:47:05 – 00:57:47:27
Geoffrey Welchman
When was.

00:57:47:27 – 00:57:54:12
Agent Palmer
The marriage? That was, in October of 25.

00:57:54:17 – 00:57:54:45
Geoffrey Welchman
Five?

00:57:54:48 – 00:58:12:28
Agent Palmer
No. Four? No. Four. October of 24. Because the kid was born in 25 and it’s now 26. Yeah. And so that’s why I say we speed ran it, because it went like marriage. Six months later, we’re changing diapers. Yeah. And now we’re off and running.

00:58:12:32 – 00:58:19:24
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah, but you’d already got that good foundation of being together and working out. You know whose toothbrush is where and.

00:58:19:28 – 00:58:52:20
Agent Palmer
Yeah. No, we that that we done. And and so the rest of it has been a very weird mishmash of, like how so? I was before the wedding and after the wedding, but specifically before Steph got pregnant, I was underemployed. I’m still kind of underemployed. I edit podcasts, a few podcasts for money right now. Yeah, and that’s a decent part time job, which allows me to be a stay at home dad.

00:58:52:20 – 00:59:10:41
Agent Palmer
But before I was a stay at home dad, I was a podcast producer and editor and someone whose job other job was maintaining, trying to maintain the sanity of my wife and my best friends, all three of whom were overworked.

00:59:10:46 – 00:59:13:56
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh, now, what was she? What did she do? I forgot.

00:59:13:57 – 00:59:34:42
Agent Palmer
She worked, for all intents and purposes, in relocation. And she’s worked from home since she moved in. Right. So even before everything shut down, she worked from home. So she maintained her job when she moved across the country. Oh, wow. So she’s always, you know. So when when everything shut down and people were working from home, she got a lot of calls about, like, how do you do this?

00:59:34:51 – 00:59:36:32
Agent Palmer
She was already doing it.

00:59:36:35 – 00:59:36:54
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah.

00:59:36:56 – 01:00:05:11
Agent Palmer
But I was in this position where like, all right, I love my friends. I love my now wife. I loved her then. And it was like, I’m the one who’s like, okay, it’s time to stop working. And most of this was a post Covid thing because a lot of people, when I was still full time employed, I would come home and that would kind of be the signal for Steph to be like, all right, if I’m not stopped by now, I need to stop soon.

01:00:05:26 – 01:00:30:02
Agent Palmer
But when I’m home all the time, there is like, there’s no, you know, there’s nothing there. There’s no real meat to like the bell of, like whatever. And so, she was overworked and my other friends were becoming overworked. And I was trying I was doing sanity checks on everybody. You know, I bother Steph in the middle of the day when she wasn’t on a call and be like, hey, what’s going on?

01:00:30:12 – 01:00:56:23
Agent Palmer
How you doing? And I’d call my I’d call my friends up. One of them would pick up all the time. One of them was very anti phone when he was at work. But I’d still check in these mental health checks, which I’m still doing even with a child. It’s just not as regular. And so that’s kind of been it where it’s like, all right, I’m maintaining my own projects and trying to keep everything going.

01:00:56:27 – 01:01:17:43
Agent Palmer
The blog still hasn’t missed a Thursday in years. At this point, I think. I don’t know where I don’t know what my streak is up to, but it’s it’s pre-pandemic. Well, pre-pandemic, and which, you know, in a weird way, yes, we have a one year old as we’re recording, we’ll have an 18 month old by the time this release is.

01:01:17:43 – 01:01:21:16
Agent Palmer
But at the same time.

01:01:21:21 – 01:01:23:07
Geoffrey Welchman
You’ve got that many stacked up.

01:01:23:09 – 01:01:30:56
Agent Palmer
Well, so this is. Yeah, I mean, well, I but I’m every other week. Okay. So it’s, it’s only half as good as you think it is.

01:01:30:59 – 01:01:32:25
Geoffrey Welchman
I was too I mean.

01:01:32:28 – 01:01:33:04
Agent Palmer
That’s okay.

01:01:33:06 – 01:01:36:06
Geoffrey Welchman
Okay. That was my brilliant idea. And even then I got back.

01:01:36:11 – 01:01:57:55
Agent Palmer
But the thing about it is the blog and the podcast are enough. Like it’s six pieces of stuff I have to work on in the course of whatever. And while that’s going on, I’m trying to maintain a I mean, this is the thing podcasting gave me a wife and a kid and a lot of wonderful friends, you included, but everybody scattered to the wind.

01:01:57:55 – 01:02:21:32
Agent Palmer
So without a phone or an email, I’m not connected in a way where, like, I can walk to your house and knock on the door. So I, I, I became the all right, I’m calling everyone or I’m texting or I’m just trying to make sure I put in. I know that I have the ability to talk on the phone and it’s not for everybody.

01:02:21:34 – 01:02:59:39
Agent Palmer
Right. And I know that I have the ability to check in, which is also not for everybody. So what have I been that I mean, maybe like, maybe more so, you know, there’s still a lot of napping going on. Right. And. And luckily the kid sleeps through the night. So I have the ability to check in. And while time zones suck for my West Coast friends, I’m, you know, sometimes I’ll send an email or leave a text and the response will come when I wake up and that we all understand how that works.

01:02:59:39 – 01:03:34:51
Agent Palmer
But that’s been it. I’ve been trying to, you know, sometimes it’s I in order to talk to somebody, I have to schedule them to be on the show. And sometimes it’s just we’re going to play phone tag for six months and eventually we’ll hook up. But for me, that’s really been it. Like I, Steph and I before the pandemic and even during because we had a slightly big circle, but especially after started trying to host a dinner once a month because I still am riddled with anxiety, I won’t call it social.

01:03:34:56 – 01:03:59:24
Agent Palmer
Sometimes it manifests in that way, but just generalized, you know? Hey, this could be debilitating sometimes, but if I’m hosting, I can get through. Like, if it’s a comfortable place, whatever, you know? And we wanted to we wanted to be more sociable. So we started inviting once a month. Now we’ve fallen off. We have a child and you know, we don’t want to we’re we’re we’re in a rhythm.

01:03:59:24 – 01:04:24:56
Agent Palmer
And, you know, hopefully we’ll be able to kick that up again. But I’ve basically turned into, in a weird way, my grandparents where they would host people I know, they would host people for dinners. They would do elaborate dinners with multiple couples where having like maybe 1 or 2 couples over, and the rest of it is a phone relationship with people because we don’t travel as much.

01:04:24:58 – 01:04:48:59
Agent Palmer
And so but but I’m, I’m, I’m happy about it. I’m not necessarily the hub, you know, because it’s, it’s a, it’s different circles. So yes, there’s the old podcasting circle that I’m socially kind of talking to some more than others. And yes, sometimes depending on who I’m talking to, it’s like, oh, hey, how’s Bill? How’s Grant, how’s Jay?

01:04:49:04 – 01:04:49:45
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah. Graham.

01:04:49:47 – 01:05:23:38
Agent Palmer
But there’s other people where it’s like, oh, how is so-and-so? So and so and so and I don’t mind that. I just want to put out the effort because I don’t want maybe the circle is gone and it’s just me having five different relationships, but I don’t want to let them fall. And so really, aside from being a husband and a father and an editor and a podcaster and blogger, that’s my a lot of my energy and time is trying to be like, all right, I don’t have a schedule.

01:05:23:40 – 01:05:48:00
Agent Palmer
It’s not written down, but a lot of energy is put into. I haven’t talked to Geoffrey in a while. I should email him now, like, you know what I mean? Or like, write it down and do it within 48 hours. So I don’t forget. And it doesn’t wait another six months or whatever. And that’s really where I’ve been spending a lot of my time, because I feel like that’s the best place I can put it.

01:05:48:03 – 01:06:10:30
Geoffrey Welchman
Well that’s awesome. It makes you a bridge as as a friend of ours describes herself, actually, she was somebody through whom, like, we met her when I was doing the podcast to Keaney. Hey, when I was due to the podcast, I went to a center stage, a big theater in downtown. They had this thing that’s like the moth.

01:06:10:32 – 01:06:33:12
Geoffrey Welchman
They call this the Stoop. So it’s like, you know, people telling stories in front of an audience. And I talked about the podcast because I was trying to drum up, you know, interest and stuff. And I met her and we started to hang out. And she’s an old hippie and she’s great. And we would start to get together, my wife and I, with her and just hang out and sing songs, stuff.

01:06:33:12 – 01:06:57:03
Geoffrey Welchman
And through her we met other sort of musically inclined people who have become great friends. So we became sort of friends through her with other musicians. Then when I did the the was doing the what I should say, we did the, the open mic because Betty was like co-host. She was the public face and friendly person who said, hey, come sign up.

01:06:57:08 – 01:07:23:07
Geoffrey Welchman
Welcome. You know, so doing the open mic, we met a whole new group of friends and they were also local and musical. So we knew different groups of musicians who we started to bring together. And so it’s like every, you know, we’re all sort of, you know, I’ve never been in a community this long and I’ve never been in a city.

01:07:23:11 – 01:07:54:21
Geoffrey Welchman
God, this is the place I’ve lived the longest. Okay? The house we moved as I think I told you to a house just. Was it two years now? But we we were basically in the same kind of neighborhood. So, you know, maintaining these relationships was important to us and being part of different circles, like you’re talking about different groups, you know, you’re you’re the bridge or the link or or really they’re your circles.

01:07:54:24 – 01:08:20:22
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah. You know, and so even if they’re not connected, they are through you. And in a weird way, things can circle back where you end up meeting people who knew other people, you know, or whatever it is, you know, especially with like, I mean, it’s hilarious. It’s Stephanie. You guys are like the total success story of kind of the gang, I think, you know, getting together, getting married, having a kid.

01:08:20:28 – 01:08:28:53
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah, yeah. Well, now the podcasting is is the work drying up? Is it because. No already knew what they know what their.

01:08:28:58 – 01:08:51:47
Agent Palmer
No, it’s it’s really just finding a podcast that’s making enough money to pay me is a bit. And you know, I’ve, I’ve hitched my wagon to some guys that really kind of know what they’re doing, or at least they’re willing to try a lot of different things. And so we’ve had sponsors for the show and there’s been money coming in.

01:08:51:47 – 01:09:20:02
Agent Palmer
We might not be at a plus, and I am probably in editing and producing their biggest expense, but I don’t think they’re losing. If they are losing money, they’re not losing a ton and probably close to breaking even, give or take. And so that’s really the key is like, yeah, I mean, I, I talk to when you talk about those circles, I talked to a lot of people that are like with, with, with your skills, you should be making more money.

01:09:20:07 – 01:09:46:53
Agent Palmer
It’s like, well, there’s the opportunities are there to do stuff, but the opportunities to make money are not there. And so there’s that weird kind of thing. And, you know, I’m in this weird place because my skill set and look, I’ve delved into video loosely, but my skill set is I can make your audio sound really good. Yeah.

01:09:46:55 – 01:10:15:06
Agent Palmer
If you want me to do video in the at the same quality. I need so much B-roll. I need to be able to cover so many cuts that we can’t just do two talking heads, or I have to lower my quality standards. Because if you look at one of my edits, whether it’s for money or for myself, I would make people throw up if they had to watch video that were that many jump cuts, like in that way, now you don’t notice them.

01:10:15:06 – 01:10:26:36
Agent Palmer
That’s the brilliance of being good at what we do as editors. But it means that I thrive in an audio only place where I don’t. My only cover is, does it sound good?

01:10:26:39 – 01:10:43:54
Geoffrey Welchman
I yeah, I mean, that’s ultimately is that’s my home base is is audio. I do like doing I just put a video together of, you know, sort of pond five clips of rivers for a song that I recorded, an old song I wrote called the River.

01:10:43:54 – 01:10:44:38
Agent Palmer
I really liked it.

01:10:44:38 – 01:10:48:49
Geoffrey Welchman
By the way. Oh, thanks. That’s nice of you. And so.

01:10:48:54 – 01:11:02:41
Agent Palmer
That’s how I build my stuff, by the way, I go to I’m using Pexels right now, and it’s just like, how much without paying any money, how good of a video can I make with other people’s free stock?

01:11:02:46 – 01:11:26:54
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah, yeah. The stuff I mean, we occasionally do a shoot at work, like at the the Office. I mean, I’m full time home, but I will go in and do a video shoot. Basically. I’m I mean, the great thing is I have a photographer on our team and he’s got the video equipment and the knowledge visually setting up with lighting.

01:11:26:59 – 01:11:57:09
Geoffrey Welchman
So when I was doing it myself, I was doing one stop shop stuff where I was recording video, directing actors or talent or whatever, and doing audio at the same time. And you know how crazy that can be. And so just being able to concentrate on audio and directing, which is what I’m also good at because I’m good at helping people through stuff and trying to make them sound, to make them as relaxed as possible, you know, try and make them sound comfortable.

01:11:57:09 – 01:12:19:44
Agent Palmer
So I’ve well, I mean, I can say this can put myself on the fire, right? I, a friend of mine put out a book a long time ago, a book of poetry. We’re still working on book two as we record this. Maybe by the time it releases, it’ll be. Book two will be out. It’s been in. The book two has been in the works since before Covid.

01:12:19:49 – 01:12:49:52
Agent Palmer
But one of the one of the poems in the first book is basically about a Hot Pocket. Spoiler alert. Right. And I said we should I, I’d like to get, you know, I want to work more in video. I need videos to work on. So I’m going to I’m going to shoot this with all of our cameras for multi shot and whatever, and I’m going to then edit it together.

01:12:49:52 – 01:13:08:12
Agent Palmer
I had him come over and read the poem. So it’s not like I have to line up thing. I can, you know what, as we sit and record right now, the only thing I’ve done is I took all my footage a year and a half ago. I took all my footage and put it in the order where it belongs.

01:13:08:12 – 01:13:27:47
Agent Palmer
And then I need obviously some stock and be roll in in for cutaways and stuff. And I have not gone back to that project in at least a year now. I could say, yes, we had a baby, but I had plenty of time because we shot it like two and a half three years ago. Right? Like I had plenty of time.

01:13:27:47 – 01:13:48:51
Agent Palmer
And I think part of it is having put it all together once I know where I screwed up in the principal photography, which, by the way, was in my old kitchen because I had my, my, I had some stuff die where reshoots are now impossible unless I just reshoot it all. So I have to.

01:13:49:00 – 01:13:49:19
Geoffrey Welchman
Oh.

01:13:49:27 – 01:14:10:44
Agent Palmer
I see, but some of it is like, Yeah, I got a new stove. Since then, that’s how long it’s been. But I do feel like. All right, it’s time to either reshoot it or do it. But all of that is to say, I really don’t know what I’m like. I, I’m good when you give me this stuff.

01:14:10:49 – 01:14:36:02
Agent Palmer
Let the getting of it be. I might be able to direct, but I can’t also shoot and light. It’s a, it’s a maybe. Maybe if I did it on a regular basis and I can build up the skill set. But as I’m sitting here right now, like wanting a project to work video on, I should have somebody give it to me, not I’m going to go shoot it.

01:14:36:05 – 01:15:09:29
Geoffrey Welchman
Like I can. Totally. I totally relate to that because I’m. Well, like I said, I’m much better with audio and I’m I’m really a good video editor. Shooting is fun and interesting and stuff, but I learned enough about lighting to know I don’t know enough about lighting, you know that I know a little bit. And I’m I can like, look and say, okay, that works because X it’s got your back lit, you got your, you know, angled here and you’ve got less here and a little contour, whatever little depth.

01:15:09:29 – 01:15:15:55
Geoffrey Welchman
But setting it up and then thinking about audio and all that stuff is too, too crazy.

01:15:15:57 – 01:15:16:55
Agent Palmer
We just need to find.

01:15:16:57 – 01:15:18:07
Agent Palmer
That bridge for.

01:15:18:07 – 01:15:25:47
Agent Palmer
Us and then, well, find that project and we’ll be, we’ll we’ll be famous in other ways.

01:15:25:50 – 01:15:31:06
Geoffrey Welchman
If you ever get hooked up with a horror movie or something. Oh, I’ve got I love horror movies.

01:15:31:08 – 01:15:34:23
Agent Palmer
All right, well, that’ll be my homework.

01:15:34:30 – 01:15:39:22
Geoffrey Welchman
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yes. So thank you for answering my questions.

–End Transcription–

This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).