podcast John Ray podcast John Ray

Episode $4,050,612.99

Matt Sickels, aka The Hard Part, is our guest this week. We feature the second half of our conversation with him (check episode 3.x for the first part of the Hard Part) and Extra Special event today is the release of our new tune, Tidal Motion at the end of the podcast! We talk and jam in the studio with Matt for a while, about topics ranging from our cover bands to penguins to sex. Sometimes all three.

Matt Sickels, aka The Hard Part, is our guest this week. We feature the second half of our conversation with him (check episode 3.x for the first part of the Hard Part) and Extra Special event today is the release of our new tune, Tidal Motion at the end of the podcast! We talk and jam in the studio with Matt for a while, about topics ranging from our cover bands to penguins to sex. Sometimes all three.

You can (and should) check out Matt’s website here. He is an incredible musician and has some great music you can download.

You can download the new tune here if you don’t want to schlog through the 45 min podcast every time you want to listen to it. Or, you could watch this video:

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podcast John Ray podcast John Ray

Episode 3.x – The Hard Part

On today’s episode we have the fabulous Matt Sickles, aka. the Hard Part. He’s used to go with a faux hawk, but has recently shifted to a hard part to minimize setup time, and he usually plays the hard part on guitar with his many bands. Including, as we have recorded here, Mr. Haircut. We got some pretty nasty improvisations this episode, and some deep, inspiring, thought provoking, raucous conversation. I wrote out a script for Matt to follow, but once again, forgot it at home… so this episode is improvised. I think my squirrel already chewed on my script for next week, so we might have to improv that one too. You are in for a treat– biscuits, grandma guitars, speed picking, and cross sticking all make an appearance in this week’s Mr. Haircut.

On today’s episode we have the fabulous Matt Sickles, aka. the Hard Part. He’s used to go with a faux hawk, but has recently shifted to a hard part to minimize setup time, and he usually plays the hard part on guitar with his many bands. Including, as we have recorded here, Mr. Haircut. We got some pretty nasty improvisations this episode, and some deep, inspiring, thought provoking, raucous conversation. I wrote out a script for Matt to follow, but once again, forgot it at home… so this episode is improvised. I think my squirrel already chewed on my script for next week, so we might have to improv that one too. You are in for a treat– biscuits, grandma guitars, speed picking, and cross sticking all make an appearance in this week’s Mr. Haircut.

Here is a video of our first improvisation of the morning; I think we titled this one ‘Out of Time,’ a reference to the license plate on the car in Back to the Future. 

Throughout this episode, I used a live recording of our band Hifi-Wifi playing John Coltrane’s Giant Steps at a live show in Winston-Salem, NC. This is Jonathan and I on bass and drums with Daniel Seriff on guitar.

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