Josh Zimmer Interview

0:18 Luke F. Walton What's up, everybody? I'm Scoobert Doobert. Welcome to Love Music More, and I am joined with Josh, who's going to tell us all about his awesome musical project, Instagram, TikTok, adventures of the modern musician, and kind of everything that goes with that. So welcome, Josh. I'm so excited to meet you.

0:38 Josh Zimmer Very glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

0:40 Luke F. Walton Yeah, for sure. And then what's your project's name, the Atlantic Project? Is that correct?

0:44 Josh Zimmer Project Atlantic.

0:46 Luke F. Walton Project Atlantic.

0:46 Josh Zimmer Yes.

0:47 Luke F. Walton Thank you. Sorry,

0:47 Josh Zimmer Nope.

0:47 Luke F. Walton swapped around. Yeah, man, I was just listening to that before I just on my run. It was super nice, put me in a really good space.

0:54 Josh Zimmer Awesome.

0:54 Luke F. Walton And so I'm excited to talk about your music and kind of your journey. One of my favorite ways to start off is to ask people, how'd you get into this? Why did you pick music? When did you pick music or did it pick you? How did that, how did the love affair begin?

1:11 Josh Zimmer So I was about 13, even

1:15 Luke F. Walton Cool.

1:16 Josh Zimmer before I started playing a musical instrument, about a year before I started playing a musical instrument, never really into music that much when I was a kid.

1:25 Luke F. Walton Nice.

1:27 Josh Zimmer My dad was always playing oldies music. I didn't like it. I thought it was old people music at the time. My mom loved country, didn't like it. I'm still on the fence about that. But. When I was 13, I spent a summer with my uncle and he was selling fireworks out of a parking lot in the middle of North Carolina.

1:52 Josh Zimmer But afterwards, after I spent a week doing that with him, we were at his place and he was telling me about this album that syncs up with a movie. and I was like oh

2:03 Luke F. Walton Oh,

2:03 Josh Zimmer that

2:03 Luke F. Walton that's

2:03 Josh Zimmer sounds interesting and he told me it was the Wizard of Oz I'm like I know the Wizard of Oz and then he told me the band was this band called Pink Floyd and I was like okay cool like I never heard of them let's you know this sounds good cool concept let's let's try it out and so I was 13 he put on the movie he put on Dark Side of the Moon with it and after that opening song

2:26 Josh Zimmer my whole perception of what music could be was absolutely turned around and

2:31 Luke F. Walton Cool.

2:32 Josh Zimmer I knew okay there's music out there there's music that's interesting there's music that makes me feel something really really strongly and then after that it was it was I want to I want to delve into this band all the bands from the era and then About a year later, I had a friend who was putting together a band as a lot of kids do when they're 13, 14 years old, first getting into guitar and stuff.

2:55 Josh Zimmer And so he said, I need a bass player for a band that I would want to make. He was a guitar player. So I was never a big.

3:05 Josh Zimmer sports kid growing up i was never into a lot of hobbies i tried like karate skateboarding soccer baseball my parents were always trying to get me you know into something and i never found quite found that thing that stuck and

3:18 Luke F. Walton Mm-hmm.

3:18 Josh Zimmer then uh my friends said about you know needing a bass player i looked into getting a bass uh my dad was like super into that idea i got a bass that christmas and then ever since then i'm i'm An all-around musician. I went to college for music. Very big on theory, but I'm first and foremost a bass player. When anybody always asks bass, bass, bass, that's what I learned on. That's my...

3:44 Josh Zimmer instrument that i'm most passionate about yep love it i love it and i feel like everybody's got one even like everybody's a multi-instrumentalist but it's a very rare thing like i talked to one guy and he picked up like piano and saxophone at like the age of four so he was like one of those rare people that actually had like two main instruments but i

4:01 Josh Zimmer that's mean i amazing still at think that early it's hard of an age too yeah now he's a genius like loki um so i i would love to kind of dig into um A few things in that. So the theory part I think is super, super interesting. When did you start to get into like theory and kind of the, I don't know, the compositional tools, the kind of the nuts and bolts of music? When did that spark kind of ignite?

4:31 Josh Zimmer Um, very little over the course of like my high school years when I was taking private lessons, and I had like a basic foundation of theory. And then I went on to study in college. So I majored, my college story is a very long, crazy one, but I did study for a few years in Miami.

4:50 Josh Zimmer And when I was studying music, it was just the pre-theory theory one theory two theory three theory four and then once i learned those concepts from those classes the whole world of music opened up to me and i was absolutely enthralled by music theory itself the

5:09 Josh Zimmer Yep. fact that there were these things in music that were making me feel a certain way or would sound kind of off or why why can the beatles play a song in the key of e major but they're also playing a d major what What is

5:21 Josh Zimmer Mm that called? -hmm. Why does that work? Because that's not in the key and Yes. all these different things. And so when these, they're not quite rules, but when these explanations of these phenomenon that happen in compositions started getting explained to me, I absolutely fell in love with it. And a lot of people I think on my socials think that I'm just into music theory and that if something isn't like.

5:48 Josh Zimmer harmonically or rhythmically complicated that would require a lot of theoretical explanation it's it's like less than or i don't like it but it's kind of the opposite i love the fact that music makes me feel something and then you can kind of dive into it and see what's going on that makes it sound that certain way that makes you feel that certain way

6:07 Josh Zimmer Oh, yes. That's really good point. And I also think that there are a few schools. I think that the people that, I don't know. get to your level like that if are in it professionally i

6:19 Josh Zimmer Mm think that -hmm. they transcend those schools a little bit but the theory scares me and music isn't math camp and then the like it needs to be complicated it needs to hurt my brain camp um and then yeah when you become a professional that all those lines kind of blur

6:36 Josh Zimmer um Yes. but i'd love i'd love like to hear your take on on both of those camps like like for the for those i don't know music theory just doesn't get it or music theory is just math or like silly like i shouldn't invest the time like i'm not going to get anything out of it it's going to ruin my pure musicianship what would you say to people like in that world

6:57 Josh Zimmer So... Music theory, I can't speak for everybody. For Yeah, of myself, course. though, music theory made me become a much stronger musician. It made me break out of, you know, the little boxes that I was in as far as even being a bass player and playing. When I was in college and I was studying jazz, when I first started out, it was just all.

7:20 Josh Zimmer outlining the chords going up and down the scale until I learned voice leading and

7:25 Josh Zimmer Hmm. it was really funny how that happened where because I was learning it in my theory class and then I would go to my private lessons

7:34 Josh Zimmer So how did just for people that haven't taken theory classes or whatever, how did that work? Like, what were you learning? And what is like voice leading to you?

7:42 Josh Zimmer um real For the lane, like explain it like I'm five kind of situation. real real uh simple uh voice leading you have uh more than one uh melody going at the same time kind of uh or you have more than one voice so um two guitars playing two different lines um voice leading though is normally four voices soprano alto alto tenor bass um

8:11 Josh Zimmer all doing different things and those different notes and rhythms all locked together in a certain way.

8:19 Josh Zimmer Yes. And some of them are moving up, some of them are moving down, some of them are staying the same, all that stuff. So once you understand kind of the parameters to work within that and what rules... I don't want to say rules though,

8:37 Josh Zimmer Right. because the rules No, can sometimes totally. mean to be meant to be broken, but right.

8:40 Josh Zimmer Yeah. But what like what things add interest and flavor and texture and like the counterpoint idea of like making two things that both sound cool on their own, but they sound even cooler together, you know, that kind of world.

8:53 Josh Zimmer Yeah. So once I've learned about chromaticism and Yes. leading tones, Yes. like, oh,

9:00 Josh Zimmer So you don't adding have to. that spice. Yes. Yeah. Yes. The big thing, especially when I was playing my walking lines, was the leading tones and getting that pull towards your next note that

9:11 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

9:12 Josh Zimmer you're So adding, going to. adding a note that's not normally in the scale, usually,

9:15 Josh Zimmer Correct. that pulls you to another center point that feels more expected. Absolutely, yeah.

9:20 Josh Zimmer Yeah. So yeah, once I was learning those concepts, it was... whoa there's more to this than i thought um

9:29 Josh Zimmer totally more yes than seven notes more than five yes notes yeah and and um so yeah when i got into that um that opened up a whole new world to me um but going back to your original question about like the what was it the uh overly complicated it stifles your creativity um

9:51 Josh Zimmer yeah like like you're gonna lose who you are by learning the rules Yeah. or something you know yeah yeah

9:56 Josh Zimmer Once I quote unquote learned the rules, I was given just so many more options to express myself.

10:02 Josh Zimmer I agree yeah And it was amazing. So I don't I don't quite get that sentiment of if I learn theory, I'll be stifled creatively. There's an insane amount of theory and tricks to use.

10:25 Josh Zimmer I don't like to think of theory as rules. I like to think of it more as a vocabulary to build.

10:32 Josh Zimmer cool yeah i like that and Yep. and that's a good way to put it because it's like yes you can learn that vocabulary without learning the theory but a lot of times that's the long road

10:43 Josh Zimmer Yes. You know, yes, And the best thing about theory, though, is it was something that enabled me to express verbally musical ideas

10:54 Josh Zimmer that's to a great point too. other people or hear about different ideas verbally.

11:00 Josh Zimmer Yeah. And once you know the terms for different things and all of that, it becomes more. easy to communicate between another musician and yourself and

11:14 Josh Zimmer totally exactly also just hearing a piece of music and transcribing it and saying oh they they were doing whether intentional or not this is what's going on kind of thing

11:24 Josh Zimmer exactly like you mentioned the beatles and it's like i don't they were intentionally trying to do something interesting and whether or not they knew like i'm gonna borrow from the relative minor and pull it in here it doesn't really matter but it's like it is instead like

11:40 Josh Zimmer overlaying different concepts at the same time and then it becomes more complex theory even though like the two common things like a d chord in a in a e major song is like it's like a flat seven it's like you don't need to know it's a flat seven but it's a heck of a lot easier to tell the bass player oh no i'm i'm doing a flat seven thing like it's a it's a major third so like when you're doing the walk up like don't hang on that minor third like that's really you know whatever that kind of stuff yeah

12:03 Josh Zimmer absolutely yeah and going back to the like Cool. the beatles didn't from what i've researched the beatles for the most part didn't know a whole lot of theory um there's a great little scene in the get back documentary that came out a couple years ago where george harrison is asking uh billy preston about like oh i have uh you know this chord but what if it was like an f major but what if i move the f up to an f sharp what is that and he like explains it to him so they had very limited knowledge but

12:31 Josh Zimmer If you look at John Lennon's chord progressions in some of his songs, they're so out there, but they work. They totally work.

12:37 Josh Zimmer Totally. And once I was able to, I'm sure he did not know all the barred chords he was doing and everything like that. But once I was able to understand those are barred chords, this is how it works in context. And this is theoretically why it sounds good.

12:56 Luke F. Walton Totally. And it makes sense why Paul McCartney would be able to write a great bass line because he can write a great melody.

13:02 Josh Zimmer Mm hmm.

13:03 Luke F. Walton So while you do this, I'm not ignoring you. I've got to look up this thing that got me sparked on theory because I want to say it right.

13:11 Josh Zimmer Okay.

13:11 Luke F. Walton But I want to ask you about writing bass lines against melodies. Use

13:16 Josh Zimmer Okay.

13:16 Luke F. Walton it kind of that counterpoint idea, but how do you dance with a melody, so to speak,

13:21 Josh Zimmer Yeah.

13:22 Luke F. Walton as a bass player? curious are

13:25 Josh Zimmer yeah oh

13:26 Luke F. Walton you your take

13:26 Josh Zimmer we

13:26 Luke F. Walton while while

13:27 Josh Zimmer hung right up

13:27 Luke F. Walton you yeah while i look at while i look at this it's this this beatles thing that literally got me hooked on music theory and i don't want to quote it wrong it's so sick

13:35 Josh Zimmer yeah so it's almost as and i've done this in my my own music where i have a vocal melody and when i'm thinking about it i want to stay thinking about a baseline i want to stay as far away from that vocal melody as i can

13:52 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

13:52 Josh Zimmer Um,

13:52 Luke F. Walton Okay,

13:52 Josh Zimmer as

13:53 Luke F. Walton cool. That's cool.

13:53 Josh Zimmer long, yeah, as long as I'm working within the confines of the chord progression and the key and, you know, I am conscientious not to create any notes that clash, which is always. thing you're looking out for when you're doing counterpoint but

14:13 Luke F. Walton For

14:13 Josh Zimmer yeah

14:13 Luke F. Walton sure.

14:13 Josh Zimmer it's almost like you're creating another melody and the fun part about the base is that you're making a connection between the harmony and the rhythm so

14:21 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

14:21 Josh Zimmer you can

14:21 Luke F. Walton yeah.

14:22 Josh Zimmer you can make it very rhythmic and melodic at the same time and i think paul mccarty was like an absolute genius at that um if you listen to

14:33 Josh Zimmer the one song that's coming off coming up off the top of my head is while my guitar gently weeps

14:38 Luke F. Walton Mm

14:38 Josh Zimmer the

14:38 Luke F. Walton -hmm.

14:39 Josh Zimmer vocal melody and the bass line are two completely opposite things but they're so completely melodic and they fit in that song so well when you listen to a lot of Paul McCartney's isolated bass lines they're sometimes unless it's like really one of his iconic ones they're sometimes hard to pick out like what

14:58 Josh Zimmer song this is from like kind of uh trying to figure out what the structure of the song is to kind of guess what it what it is uh because it was just so unique it had such a unique voice to his bass lines i mean they still do so yeah okay

15:16 Luke F. Walton yeah and so with that i found i found the thing that i was looking for so it's alan w pollock notes on series this is what literally got me addicted to music theory i found this in high school and i was like excuse me it is transcriptions of everything the beatles ever made in the entire anthology with

15:33 Josh Zimmer Wow.

15:33 Luke F. Walton music theory notes from a music professor and it blew my mind and it was talking about like all these things that i never thought of as a songwriter like chord palettes of like

15:44 Luke F. Walton to make something feel more like a cohesive song you kind of have a set of chords like

15:48 Josh Zimmer Mm

15:48 Luke F. Walton like

15:48 Josh Zimmer -hmm.

15:49 Luke F. Walton paint brushes and then for like different sections you can pull out different shades and different colors and or or change and like invert stuff and

15:57 Josh Zimmer Mm.

15:57 Luke F. Walton that was what always blew my mind was like the ways that they'd be like okay now we're gonna take take this and then make it minor or we're going to take the same chords and then put it from a 4-4 thing to like a waltz kind of vibe and just like these like subtle tweaks that end up making massive

16:11 Luke F. Walton massive end changes in the vibe and the feeling of the songs and that notes on series was like my light bulb moment of like i get it it's not like i i because before then i was trying to memorize like okay ionian dorian frigid

16:24 Josh Zimmer Yeah.

16:24 Luke F. Walton like you know i was in that world of like i've got to learn these vocab words otherwise i'm not a real musician and this is the first time it was like no it's not really about that it's about like learning these colors learning these flavors these spices the chromaticism the you know using the notes that are a little bit out of the box to make everything else pop yeah yeah

16:43 Josh Zimmer Yes. That's awesome. Yeah, I've never heard of that at all. I'll have to check that out.

16:46 Luke F. Walton it's

16:46 Josh Zimmer Yeah.

16:46 Luke F. Walton cool yeah i'll send it to you i'll also throw it in the in the description so that people

16:49 Josh Zimmer Yeah,

16:50 Luke F. Walton can find

16:50 Josh Zimmer definitely.

16:50 Luke F. Walton it and search for it but it's super rad um yeah uh so so with that i feel like this naturally kind of goes into some of your social media um so i i think the first thing that i saw from you was looking more on the

17:03 Josh Zimmer on the rhythm side trying to find you know odd odd time signatures or odd bars i'd love to talk to you first about kind of rhythmic harmony and and like kind of the the relationship as a bass player we're talking about the you know voice leading and whatnot and now we can talk about the rhythm and then after that i want to talk to you about kind of finding your social media niche and that whole adventure as a musician so but first uh odd time signatures odd bars um you know i'm just i'm just curious kind of

17:32 Josh Zimmer What excites you about it? What would a layman not know about things that they're normally just used to being 4-4 and bobbing their head along?

17:44 Josh Zimmer Yeah, so the time signature thing, as most people know, common time is 4-4. one two three four this is what most of our western music is in uh if there's a time change or added beats subtracted beats you might hear a one two three four one two three one two three four um and any variation on that a measure of two a measure of six eight or you know the the whole section of the song will completely be in a different time signature um absolutely

18:15 Josh Zimmer Like the Beatles thing we were just talking about, the Uncle Paul. oh yeah uh we can work it out is that is that yeah

18:19 Josh Zimmer Yeah, yeah, exactly, um so Oh, yeah when i was first learning music i had a friend uh his name is andy and he would always point stuff out like that to me in songs and

18:33 Josh Zimmer cool. That's great. yeah That's a great mentor. um Yeah. so i can't take credit for you know i just stumbled upon this obsession i was around someone who was very much like that um and i started doing that myself and the fun thing i think about those ones especially um time signature changes that are just like a bar a

18:52 Josh Zimmer Mm-hmm. drop beat an added beat uh Yeah. they're usually so subtle and it's almost like a fun little discovery when i find something like that um for some reason i i get geeky about it i i nerd out and that i can't really put into words why that is i just think it's it's fun it's cool it's it's something that's a little uh uh like a little left turn that you

19:20 Josh Zimmer Yeah. don't expect in a song um Right. Little surprises, yeah little surprises. and and sometimes they're in some of the songs that you least expect it and

19:29 Josh Zimmer Cool. when it's always in or when it's in a song that i least expect that's when you know i'm i get even more excited so the first video i did on a time signature change was i haven't been doing this for a whole a very long time i started them back in may i think and this was one that i always noticed was the um PBS show dragon tales the theme song has a measure of three four and

19:51 Josh Zimmer Cool. that was just something i think i pointed out to my wife one time when we were in the car like i put it on for some reason trying to be silly um and i made that video and it like blew up and i was like oh i'm not the only one who thinks little time change signature changes are interesting um so yeah the the big thing though that gets me excited like i said is if there's little things that kind of

20:17 Josh Zimmer make my ears perk up like oh what was that for like a for like a split second right uh it's it's nothing like major it's not a major jolt or change in the song which is very can be very obvious and i i like those also too um you know rush has some amazing time

20:34 Josh Zimmer Yeah. signature stuff that Yep. they're all over the place Every dream theater everybody's

20:38 Josh Zimmer is cool yeah tool, yeah, tool, everybody's in your comments everybody for the tool

20:41 Josh Zimmer everybody stuff. wants me to do tool and dream theater and um all that stuff but yeah it's it's it's just another one of those like things that i was talking about before where You discover this little thing in theory and then you know what it is and you

20:58 Josh Zimmer Mm hmm. can pick it out and Mm hmm. you notice it. Yeah. And I think it's I think one of the reasons why it works for a broader audience to not just like music nerds, but just like people see that and they're like, oh, that's cool. Is that like there's this. feeling that pop music is actually simpler than it actually is and

21:18 Josh Zimmer Mm hmm. i think anytime that you're able to point out a moment like nah there's stuff going on here uh it gives people some chills

21:25 Josh Zimmer Yeah, definitely. And that's that's a little thing, too, that I would want to break is the stereotype of like.

21:33 Josh Zimmer pop music or commercial music because i know for a fact that people the vast majority of people who are working on those songs are incredibly talented musicians um they know their stuff they're not just some amateur off the street that's you know able to put a song out uh people work on songs that get radio airplay whether you like them or not the people behind them are extremely uh talented and very um

22:02 Josh Zimmer well versed in their craft their instruments their song songwriting everything like that yeah

22:08 Josh Zimmer No, totally. And I agree. And I think that it's kind of similar to movies to me where it's like there can be a bad movie, but some of the people working on it are the best in the business, like the best colorist, the best cinematographer or whatever.

22:23 Josh Zimmer but they're you know they're a lot of times they're not in charge of which ones get the most promotion or get the radio budget or like i've produced stuff and then people just take it away and add add more and mix it with someone else and then master it i don't even hear it till it's out and go that's kind of what i did i mean your name's attached so it's like yeah you know it's cool that it's out but it's a little bit of a weird representation of what you do but if if it's a big artist like i talked to somebody that

22:54 Josh Zimmer somebody that um you know uh did a song uh for beyonce it was a super interesting obviously it turned out awesome but like this web of like that's why there were 10 songwriters and producers and stuff on it because it went from this camp to that camp to this camp to that camp and by the end he's like yeah my guitar is still on it but it's like totally different tune they added a bridge and like you know um i think that's that's one of the one of the things that people also don't know is like

23:20 Josh Zimmer there can be extraordinarily talented people working on songs that you might think don't sound very good but

23:25 Josh Zimmer Mm it's not necessarily those talented people's fault sometimes it's the process or the business or the whatever you know um it doesn't mean that the people behind it aren't aren't good yeah yeah it's it's a funny it's a funny thing and um and i think it's also interesting the

23:43 Josh Zimmer amount of people that have music education like deep music education working on this stuff like people really invest to in their chops um even like making children's music and stuff like i was talking to somebody who did that and and he's a savant man he's a crazy incredible musician and that doesn't make it honestly that just makes me like children's music more because it's like hey that's that's a somebody really invested in themselves and they are distilling it

24:12 Josh Zimmer you yeah know absolutely into it into a yeah different and channel yeah so the thing the thing too is like any

24:16 Josh Zimmer yeah any sort of music that gets put out they're made by musicians and i've i've never come across like a musician i've met in person that i've like there's there's maybe one or two exceptions but

24:28 Josh Zimmer there's always exceptions yeah yeah but like for the most part musicians are always really into music in in one way or another um and the people who are making this stuff are musicians

24:41 Josh Zimmer Right. No, that's a great point. And on that point, I'd love to talk to you about your music, Project Atlantic. I'd love to kind of hear.

24:49 Josh Zimmer what your musical journey has been as an artist and kind of like what you envision for yourself like what what leads your songwriting your production um what are your plans for the future would just love for you to talk on that a little bit and share that with the listeners too yeah

25:04 Josh Zimmer Yeah, I've been doing the independent make music from my bedroom thing for 10 cool

25:11 Josh Zimmer years and I'm still doing it and I have no plans on doing anything other than that as far as. making music um

25:18 Josh Zimmer Uh-huh. so i i started just making stuff in college little instrumental tracks um just on garage band and uh from

25:26 Josh Zimmer Cool. there moved to logic and yeah i've put out uh for the longest time i was just doing instrumental music and

25:34 Josh Zimmer yeah and i like that i like that you release the instrumentals as well i think that's that's nice that's

25:39 Josh Zimmer yeah like that's kind of inspiring i admit looking at that i was like man i maybe i should do that too because it's i don't know it's just a different window into the music

25:45 Josh Zimmer yeah and that's um what i was doing for the longest time was just instrumental i didn't do vocals and project atlantic over the years i don't i don't i have no idea where it's going to go um if it if it does go anywhere as far as the music

25:59 Josh Zimmer but it's just always been a way for me to experiment and and kind of learn as i go from

26:05 Luke F. Walton Yes.

26:06 Josh Zimmer recording and songwriting and guitar playing and singing and um

26:10 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

26:11 Josh Zimmer the only thing i'm comfortable with on any of my project atlantic stuff is the bass playing everything else is like such a struggle for me um and it's all been

26:25 Josh Zimmer For the most part, just a way for me to branch out as a musician and try things that I'm usually not used to.

26:34 Luke F. Walton Yeah, man,

26:35 Josh Zimmer And

26:35 Luke F. Walton I love that.

26:36 Josh Zimmer slowly over the course of, you know, a decade now, I've gotten a little bit better at recording, a little bit better at singing, a little bit better guitar, all that stuff. So songwriting as well. Uh, so I just wanted an outlet for my own stuff. And

26:52 Luke F. Walton Yes.

26:53 Josh Zimmer the thing that I really enjoy about it too is I've been in tons and tons of bands, but this is like the thing that could be my thing.

27:01 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

27:01 Josh Zimmer Um,

27:02 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

27:02 Josh Zimmer which I think is probably important for a lot of musicians, um, whether you're no matter what your role in like a band might be or anything else just to have like something to say that's just your own. I think when I started it, I just wanted that really too.

27:18 Luke F. Walton Mm

27:18 Josh Zimmer um

27:18 Luke F. Walton hmm.

27:18 Josh Zimmer here's a song that i you know that's just me and

27:21 Luke F. Walton Yes.

27:22 Josh Zimmer i can show that to people and um

27:23 Luke F. Walton Yes.

27:24 Josh Zimmer you know i can show people stuff of uh here's me playing bass on this band that i'm in or you know here's something that was just me in a bedroom for for a few months trying to work something out um

27:37 Luke F. Walton Right.

27:37 Josh Zimmer yeah that's all really project atlantic musically has been for me is just I still always want to continue it. It's just like a guy trying out stuff in his bedroom.

27:49 Luke F. Walton Perfect.

27:49 Josh Zimmer DIY.

27:50 Luke F. Walton And that's, I love it. And I, and I agree with that sentiment of the value to all musicians to do that, like to whatever degree that you want to and release it or not, whatever. But like, just if you're a musician doing something that you're just on your own, you grow so much in every like, I feel like it just just it's like a nucleus that just expands like

28:12 Josh Zimmer Mm

28:12 Luke F. Walton you're better at everything now like you're saying like making a record is super hard you have to like get better at mixing and producing and arranging and using the programs and thinking out of the box and playing drums or programming drums like all of those things that now you're going to be better at your main instrument as well um as well as like having a cool thing that you can share and be like this is me it's like a courageous uh difficult but worthy kind of choice i think for every musician

28:37 Josh Zimmer Yeah.

28:37 Luke F. Walton Right.

28:38 Josh Zimmer And I love to like those songs and albums and singles and all that stuff that

28:42 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

28:43 Josh Zimmer I've made have been something that I get to keep now for the rest of my life

28:46 Luke F. Walton Yes,

28:46 Josh Zimmer too,

28:46 Luke F. Walton exactly.

28:46 Josh Zimmer for me. It's like whether

28:47 Luke F. Walton Exactly.

28:48 Josh Zimmer other people listen to it or not, it's always great when other people do listen and they respond well to it.

28:53 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

28:53 Josh Zimmer But also those things are like really personal and sometimes they're just. something might have very little amount of streams on Spotify but I put it on my car sometimes I'm like oh yeah I wrote this when I was you know at this point in life and

29:08 Luke F. Walton Yes.

29:09 Josh Zimmer this really sucky thing happened but now I'm over it but I remember like where my headspace you know was at at the time and it's almost like a time capsule too for yourself I used to journal a lot too at the time I was writing a lot of my music

29:24 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

29:25 Josh Zimmer Um, I have since thrown out the journals. I hated going back and reading them.

29:29 Luke F. Walton Oh,

29:29 Josh Zimmer It just

29:29 Luke F. Walton sure.

29:30 Josh Zimmer makes me cringe at some of the stuff that I was thinking about or feeling about and I was a grow up dude, like get

29:36 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

29:36 Josh Zimmer a grip.

29:37 Luke F. Walton right. It's

29:37 Josh Zimmer Um,

29:37 Luke F. Walton a different

29:37 Josh Zimmer but

29:37 Luke F. Walton person.

29:38 Josh Zimmer that's

29:38 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

29:38 Josh Zimmer a different thing. But like going back to the music I made at those times,

29:42 Luke F. Walton Yes.

29:42 Josh Zimmer that's that's much more special to me.

29:45 Luke F. Walton I agree.

29:45 Josh Zimmer Yeah.

29:46 Luke F. Walton I agree. And I think that that's a much more like durable goal because streams can come and go. Popularity can come and go. go but if you're like making it thinking hey like i want to be an 80 year old man listening to the stuff that i made in

30:00 Josh Zimmer Mm-hmm.

30:01 Luke F. Walton my 20s and smiling and like remembering and being impressed being like dang like i did something um i want to you know

30:10 Luke F. Walton like 50 years from now i want to be able to like look back and be like that's what that was and that's what that felt like it's it is it's a time capsule but it's and it's even more potent than any like physical object it's it's it's bigger than that i'm

30:23 Josh Zimmer yeah and that's

30:24 Luke F. Walton with you yeah

30:24 Josh Zimmer one of the great things about art in general especially music

30:26 Luke F. Walton yeah

30:26 Josh Zimmer because it's much more of an abstract thing it doesn't unless you have like a you know physical album it doesn't exist in a physical medium it's just

30:36 Luke F. Walton Yeah, it's just there.

30:37 Josh Zimmer You can't see it. You can't smell it. You can't taste it, but it's there and it's something that you've made. And there's

30:44 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

30:44 Josh Zimmer just sound that you've put together that means something to you. It's a very odd concept that I am still trying to grasp why I gravitate towards it so much, but it just is. And it's meaningful, especially when... Like you said, you can look back on it, you know, 50 years from now.

31:07 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Yeah. And it has that emotional weight, just like music fans, you know, like music fans, like I've got tunes that I didn't make that have a ton of emotional weight because they take me right back to that time. I heard it so often when I felt a certain way or when I was going through a certain thing.

31:23 Luke F. Walton It could be ours, it can be others, but I think that that's a that's a potent thing that music that a lot of other art forms uh did not to devalue them but they don't quite have the same like emotional staying power at least for me that

31:38 Josh Zimmer yeah yep

31:39 Luke F. Walton the music does it puts me right there yeah

31:42 Josh Zimmer yeah and it seems about like every 10 years or so not that i've existed for a lot of 10 year periods but um i go back to the music from like about Eight to ten years ago and

31:54 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

31:54 Josh Zimmer that's that

31:55 Luke F. Walton for sure.

31:55 Josh Zimmer always makes me feel that nostalgic feeling and and remember certain things that I was going through in life because that was the music i was listening to at the time um

32:04 Luke F. Walton yeah dude that was so big during covid everybody everybody i feel like that's what changed music to like go to the more pop punk and uh kind of like that world is i think a lot of people during the pandemic were just like i want to listen to stuff from like back when i felt really good or whatever like or at least i remember feeling that good

32:21 Josh Zimmer yeah

32:21 Luke F. Walton back

32:21 Josh Zimmer yeah

32:21 Luke F. Walton then yeah

32:21 Josh Zimmer for me and i've i've still been listening to it since has been like the a lot of the indie stuff from like the early 2010s

32:29 Luke F. Walton yeah

32:29 Josh Zimmer like for vampire

32:29 Luke F. Walton sure for sure

32:30 Josh Zimmer weekend's

32:30 Luke F. Walton totally

32:30 Josh Zimmer second album or um gosh the postal service or you know which is a little bit older than that but um yeah like it

32:39 Luke F. Walton it's modest

32:39 Josh Zimmer takes

32:39 Luke F. Walton mouse for

32:40 Josh Zimmer you me now it's a nice mouse too yeah um

32:42 Luke F. Walton gonna go see them pretty soon i'm so stoked yeah

32:44 Josh Zimmer oh nice there's still ones i haven't seen yet um but yeah it takes you back and it makes you remember like Especially after the pandemic, the times when there is maybe a little more joy going

32:57 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Yeah.

32:58 Josh Zimmer on.

32:59 Luke F. Walton Appreciate that. And so this kind of takes me to the little final segments. This is the last question. The show is Love Music More and the end is Love Music Why? And so basically this is a chance for the guests to talk about why music.

33:15 Luke F. Walton is worthy of like sacrifice and participation it's almost like a like a pitch to like a 10 year old it's like hey don't just play the music because like your parents say it's going to give you a better math score like

33:27 Josh Zimmer Mm

33:27 Luke F. Walton this is the gift that it brings to your life should you choose music so i just i just want to pass it over to you why why why did you choose this or how to you know what like what how would you put the value

33:42 Josh Zimmer That music is given to you. Hmm. I never felt like I was very good at a lot of things or very interested in a lot of things. Once I discovered music, that was my thing. And that was I don't

34:04 Josh Zimmer want to say it became my identity because I don't want to put my identity in just music.

34:09 Josh Zimmer But that was the thing that I felt like I was going to have for the rest of my life and be my thing that was personal to me. I saw so many other people get into sports and that was their thing and everybody knew them as, you know, whatever, the star soccer player, baseball player.

34:32 Josh Zimmer But when I discovered music, it was like that that could be something that I excel in and that I like. Yeah, that just could be a constant outlet. Music is so broad, too. I've done jazz. I've done my own indie rock stuff. I composed music for a video game once.

35:01 Josh Zimmer I've written music that was a score to stuff that I filmed when I was studying film in college.

35:12 Josh Zimmer Music is in commercials and is on the radio and is in movies and is in TV and is in restaurants and is in doctor's offices and is in, I mean, it's pretty hard to find a place where there isn't music.

35:31 Josh Zimmer So it's an art that I think is, I don't want to say it's the thing that we consume the most because I can't make that judgment because it probably differs from person to person, but it is a thing that is everywhere. Music is absolutely everywhere.

35:52 Josh Zimmer and to be able to partake in that and to learn about it and to put my own music out there into the world that people may or may not hear, the fact that I get that opportunity is very, very special to me.

36:13 Josh Zimmer I really like that. Yeah. It is a really special thing to, because it's like you're saying music is ubiquitous.

36:22 Josh Zimmer and important at the same time like it it's a cultural tool it's a communication tool it's a vibe shift it's it's something to entertain you or free you from boredom or it's all of the things and

36:35 Josh Zimmer yeah and that is that that's a really good take yeah yeah and it's like you just touched upon it's it's there's a there's something about it too that transcends culture that transcends

36:47 Josh Zimmer uh you know ages like you could go to you know pick pick your artist uh any artist's concert and you'll see a huge variety of people from all walks of life and there's this thing going on in front of them that's a bunch of sound that's been organized in a certain way and they all said i like this i connect with it in some way i'm

37:13 Josh Zimmer willing to travel and wait in lines and you know pay high price tickets for this thing that means so much to me um and i would say you know everybody does that at one one point or another is goes to see live music because it connects with you

37:32 Josh Zimmer Yeah, and it connects you with the rest of the audience too, which is that it's such a cool self-selection thing.

37:39 Luke F. Walton we're like unlikely pairings and whatnot and then but you have this common ground so like i've met friends at music festivals or at concerts or whatever i've just like talked to somebody getting a beer it's like yeah i like i feel like we already kind of get each other because we are into the same thing or like we listen to the lyrics in the same way like already we have this this common ground i think that's really special yeah

38:01 Josh Zimmer Absolutely.

38:03 Luke F. Walton Well, thank you so much for joining Love Music More. Josh, how can people get in touch with you? Where's the best place to follow you or reach out? What would you recommend?

38:14 Josh Zimmer You can follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Project Atlantic Music. Those are the two places I'm probably the most. My music is on Spotify, Project Atlantic, and I think that's about it.

38:27 Luke F. Walton Perfect.

38:27 Josh Zimmer There's other other links in those places too. You can follow see what else I have awesome

38:32 Luke F. Walton I'll throw that in the bio as well. Thanks again. Really appreciate you taking the time, Josh.

38:37 Josh Zimmer Appreciate you having me