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Jonah Matranga of FAR!

This interview originally appeared on Icons Of Punk.com back in March of 2009 right on the cusp of the recording sessions for FAR’s “At Night We Live” album.

March 20, 2009

Whether you’ve heard of them or not, FAR has easily become one of the most influential bands of the last 10 years, even more so since they disbanded back in 1998 after sharing the stage numerous times with frequent touring mates the DEFTONES and INCUBUS. You can do a quick search on You Tube to find bands such as THURSDAY and FINCH covering FAR songs. Even bands like BLINK 182 & BIFFY CLYRO often cite them as a major influence.

Singer/frontman Jonah Matranga went on as a solo artist under the moniker of ONE LINE DRAWING & later played in the bands NEW END ORIGINAL & GRATITUDE. Guitarist Shaun Lopez formed THE REVOLUTION SMILE, while drummer Chris Robyn & bassist John Gutenberger played together in the band MILWAUKEE. (Robyn also played in WILL HAVEN, while Gutenberger played in TWO SHEDS & JACKPOT).

After 10 years apart, the band recently got back together & recorded a cover of the GINUWINE single “Pony,” intended for their fake My Space page as a tease for a handful of reunion shows they’d planned. Much to their surprise, “Pony” became a radio hit, and eventually led to a full on FAR reunion. Now, the 4 original members are back together and working on a new record for Vagrant. Considering my personal long term history with the band, I was excited to catch up with singer Jonah Matranga to talk about all things FAR. He spoke candidly & honestly in this exclusive, extensive interview that essentially has been… 10 years in the making. Read on! – By Rob Galluzzo – 3/09

Rob Galluzzo: Firstly, I have to thank you for talking to me because my history with the band FAR goes back many, many years. I don’t know if you’ll remember this but about 10-11 years ago, I used to work at one of the Tower Records here in New York, I was the artist that did the giant “Mother Mary” mural for “Water & Solutions” that hung in our local Tower Records in Long Island.

Jonah: Oh my gosh, that’s you?

That was me! (Laughs)

That’s amazing! I totally remember that. That’s fucking crazy.

I just remember around that time seeing FAR play in NY at Coney Island High with INCUBUS, and me & my buddy Steve got to meet you before the show and you’ve always been really great with chatting to fans before & after the shows. It was the first time I’d seen you guys live and I was so blown away by your live performance! You opened with “Boring Life” and half way thru, my friend Steve tackled you on stage to sing the chorus with you.

That’s so, so awesome.

Yeah, so I have wonderful, wonderful memories from back then.

Those are great memories. That’s one of my favorite things about sticking with this for so long, and really not just music, but just everything, just growing up and running into people. Like, I remember meeting you and it’s amazing to think of all the things that we’ve done since then. Just life! It’s crazy!

One of the other beautiful things, you guys came to play on Long Island, my band got to open with you, which was great. I remember talking to you beforehand and you were so supportive. I was leaving Tower Records at that time, and I remember you saying, “Well, you’ve got your band, so as long as you’re sticking with art somehow.”

Awe!

I’m glad you were always supportive of that!

Well, it’s all I’ve ever known so.

With all those memories, there was nothing more exciting for me to learn that FAR got back together and started playing shows again. How’d the reunion shows and the recording of “Pony,” the Ginuwine cover all happen? Did you guys keep in touch over the years?

Well, basically, the start of it was when I re-released two of our really old indie records, because people were just paying way too much for them on eBay, which is kind of silly. So we all talked about that and I ended up just paying for it and putting them out. Basically from the conversations we all had around those, we just… I don’t know. I think the crux of the decision was… it’s kind of now or never? It’s been long enough. Let’s at least get together and play this music together and get to know each other again. Just because, with life you never know & we’d already waited a long time. It was never like we hated each other, we all just shot off in our different directions. That’s how it started, hanging out at Shaun’s and playing a few tunes. Of course, we got all goofy about it and when we decided to play a show, we were like “Let’s play it under a fake name!” just to keep it really personal and strange and just for the people that really want to find out about it as opposed to this sort of hyped up thing. And so, we thought of this name and made a fake My Space page for it. “Pony” was literally recorded as a tune for our fake My Space page.

(Laughs)

It wasn’t even a FAR song. It was this thing that we did at Shaun’s house. We did it really fast, it was a song we all liked. (Pause) Honestly? That’s where the story… stops being even comprehensible to me? (Laughs) That’s where it got weird, but weird in a good way! I’m really, really grateful for it, but it definitely puts the thing in a whole different light. At first, this thing was just going to be a few shows and us hanging out and saying hi to anyone that ever cared kind of thing. That’s the basic gist of it. But since then, it’s just been nutty!

There’s a great You Tube video from one of the 1st two LA shows and it’s you guys closing the set with “The System” and it’s just totally bonkers! Obviously, it’s now been 10 or so years since you guys have played those songs. Did you have any inkling at the influence that FAR had on so many bands of today?

No, I mean… definitely, definitely not. It… when we were doing it, we were just misfits basically. What we knew that for a band that had sold so few records, we had a sort of surprising number of fansites. This is when fan websites were new. And we knew that we had a lot more fansites per record sold then any other band we knew, so we knew that the people that liked it really, really cared about it. So that was interesting. And then we’d run into other bands, and they’d be really nice & stuff, but it was egh… Short answer is no. We had no idea… We just knew that we were trying to make rock that was interesting and personal and like a lot of the bands that we loved at the time. Not copying anyone, but just going for that same spirit, which as far as we were concerned was just not being afraid to be super loud & aggressive, but also not being afraid in the same breathe to be quiet and introspective and sweet. It was a very simple for us. There was… (laughs) There was no big vision as far as our impact on the world. There was just a big vision in ourselves, that we wanted to make something that we thought was good. We all loved music so much so all we wanted to do was make music that we were really, really proud of and that could come on after our favorite record and would hold up to it at least in spirit, if not in talent. (Laughs)

I’ll occasionally You Tube FAR stuff, and I discovered the band FINCH plays a kick ass version of “Bury White”! They apparently played it every night on their recent tour.

We’ve been hearing about that. We hear over the years things like that happening. BLINK 182 talked about us on some DVD of theirs. Just a lot of weird bands that we never would’ve expected! And there’s a lot of bands from the UK actually who have been super, super complementary over the years and that’s been nice. I kind of learned about this influence as I kept going around & playing solo. The years would keep going by and it almost seemed as if the music that FAR made was getting more popular then, which was strange. But it’s great! I’ve always thought that one mark of music that’s worth something is that it lasts. So I’m really happy that ours has.

I’m really excited that you guys did re-release the first 2 records, because for a while they were really hard to find. As a musician, it’s always tough to evaluate your early material. You’ve written probably a hundred songs at this point! So what was it like to revisit some of your earliest stuff on those first 2 FAR records?

Well, ya know… they’re terrible. (Laughs) It’s not… I think they’ve got the spirit. I think that we were trying to find something interesting. It’s totally clumsy and ridiculous, and it’s hard to even listen to my singing. I think I was very self conscious at the time about the studio. It’s nothing that any of us sit around and listen to and go “Wow, those were the days!” Ya know? (Laughs) But we’re proud of what we were trying to do.

Well, I have to ask… in the liner notes for the very first record, you’ve got the…

Ah, the thing about TOOL.

Yes! It reads, “Thanks for nothing… TOOL (remember the good times, opening for us at the Cattle Club… hey guys! Let’s trade shirts!)” What’s the story behind that?

Um… in short – Their first EP was coming out and they came and opened for us and a band called Fallacy, who were a Sacramento band at the time. So they were the 1st of 3 bands on the bill. They were… just… such unbelievable assholes to pretty much everyone there. To the people that were there to see them, to the bands that were playing with them. It was… (Pause) I don’t know.

Well, I take it you never forgot that show, I guess!

Yeah, and a lot of people haven’t, which is so ironic that they ended up being so big, because they were not big at the time. That was just me being a dick (in the liner notes). (Laughs) But I went up to them in my own stupid, innocent way after the show, and they’d already been jerks, but I was still trying to be cool, and I offered them a shirt. I said, “Hey, you guys want to trade shirts?” And they just all looked at me like I was the biggest loser in the world. It was such a bummer moment for me, because I was just so idealistic about rock and about touring and they were one of the first touring bands we’d played with. So we were totally naive and green, but they were just jerks. And it’s uh…

Well, that’s a shame. There’s always got to be one band like that, but it makes it worth it for all the great bands you do tour with who are appreciate & are beautiful about going on that experience…

And honestly, they taught me a lot about how I didn’t want to be. They taught me that – it’s great to meet nice people and learn from them and learn ways I do want to be. But it’s almost equally important to meet people that exhibit a behavior that makes you think “Yeah, ok. That’s what I want to avoid.” I’ll always give artists the benefit of the doubt when I hear something about them. I’ve heard so many rumors about me over the years. Um, when I hear a rumor about someone being a jerk or them being whatever they are being, I try to remind people to remember that that was one moment in their lives, you have no idea what was going on for them personally at that moment. Or it could be any number of things! So to sort of judge them and their whole personality. And so, as much as I was a brat and put it in the liner notes, I’m sure the guys from TOOL are fine. Or maybe they aren’t, I don’t know? I’m certainly not trying to say I know them, and I actually do know people that have become friends with them and say they’re really sweet. So for all I know, they were having a really hard night on tour that night, and they took it out on us. They probably don’t even remember that night. And frankly, if I… oh, no I’ll always remember it just because it was instructive to me as an artist of if I’m ever opening for someone and traveling around, just to be grateful, whatever mood I’m in. I’m not claiming to know them or whatever. They are who they are and that was just one crazy night 15 years ago.

Enough about TOOL then!

It is really funny. Obviously, none of this would matter if they hadn’t become this massive band. There’s plenty of other bands we reference in our liner notes that no one ever asks about, so obviously it’s kudos to TOOL. For being so huge.

It’s just funny to see way back in the liner notes of your very first independent record.

Believe me, it’s ironic on so many levels. But I like that! I once met Moby, and I don’t know if you’ve ever read his liner notes, but they’re pretty crazy. They’re sort of him pouring his heart out in the notes. So, I met him and told him, “Hey, I just want to let you know I really appreciate how open you are” and he said, “Well, yeah, because I want to write how I feel at the time, because if I don’t then I won’t have anything to look back on,” which is true. I really admired that. That was years after my liner notes, but it really felt like “Oh wow, there’s someone else that thinks the way I do.”

You’ve played with so many different bands, you’ve done ONE LINE DRAWING and solo stuff. How do you approach your music lyrically? Do you approach it differently for each band and who you’re working with? Or is it more a moment in time & what’s going on with you personally when you sit down to write lyrics?

I try not to be honestly. I try to let ideas come. It’s funny – having FAR writing new songs. All of a sudden, there’s this strange – I mean, I woke up this morning actually with something I don’t want to forget, in my head. Just some words, and it was this funny thing thinking, “Oh wow. Is this going to a FAR song? Is this going to a me song?” Who knows what this is? So, yeah I try to not think about that, because it gets in the way of anything coming out that wants to.

I wanted to ask a bit about the producers you worked with on the latter FAR records, because they’re people I greatly admire. On TIN CANS WITH STRINGS TO YOU, you had Brad Wood who had done the first 2 Sunny Day Real Estate records, he worked with HUM, and Veruca Salt and Liz Phair. He’s done a bunch of records that I love, so I was just curious what the recording experience was like with Brad? What’d he bring out of FAR for TIN CANS?

The main thing that I remember about Brad Wood, well he was a really, really sweet person. At the time, I think he was probably a little bit too sweet? I think he should’ve been a bit harder on us, because we were this very young band. We were very hyper-insular and into our little world and defensive about anyone who wanted to change it. And I wish he’d been a little tougher on us, because I think he could’ve broken us out of some molds and probably made that record a better record. Outside of that, the thing he taught me the most was – when I’d be singing a song, he would have a piano in the room with me, and I’d do a take and he’d say, “Ok, now plunk out the vocal notes your singing – plunk that out on the piano.” I would do that and then I would do another take and it would really, really improve my pitch and my phrasing. I’d have the melody much more in my head. It was just this little trick, I don’t know where he learned it, but that was what I really remember that he really changed about my singing; to really be reminded of the melody. And that was cool. I’m forever grateful. Also, he was really sweet. Him and his lady were so nice to us. They showed us around Chicago when we were mixing. They were so cool.

I love TIN CANS.

Oh, I love it too! I love them all in a strange way. To me, we can re-record a lot of songs off that record and they’d… be a lot better. (Laughs) A lot of people love TIN CANS. A lot of people like TIN CANS more then WATER, which is strange to us, but we totally get it.

One of the things that stands out for me personally on TIN CANS is the lyrical content on just about all of those songs. “Girl” was a song I know you’d had for a while. “Love, American Style,” I took that as your take on TV celebrity, or better yet people that are made into celebrities on TV. Even something like “Joining The Circus,” which could either be literal or a metaphor for touring & just always being on the road. These are things that I took away from those songs. Anything in particular that stands out for you from TIN CANS? Something that you’re proud of, lyrically or musically?

There are! That’s the whole thing. There’s some songs on there that I think are really neat. I think the centerpiece of the record is “Job’s Eyes”. It’s one of my favorite lyrics I’ve ever done, and as a song it’s just a big, intense song. A lot of those lyrics. “Punchdrunk”, “Seasick”… Actually, ya know? When you say it, words? Lyric wise? I think there’s some really neat stuff on there. “Boring Life” is a really neat & strange song. “Girl” is one of the most enduring songs. That’s the song that still gets asked about and really got to a lot of people.

It’s all great stuff there!

Well, thanks! I haven’t thought about that record in a while.

At the time that it came out, those songs really meant a lot to me. I love WATER & SOLUTIONS just as much, and of course the stuff that you’ve done after, but TIN CANS is just a moment in time for me personally and a lot of those songs speak to me.

Absolutely. And me too. No question.

For “Punchdrunk”, you give credit to Simon & Garfunkel for the little bit towards the end where you sing the “lie la-lie”. Did you guys have to give credit? Because it’s not that noticeable that it’s the melody from that song! I always wondered about that!

Yeah. That’s the funny thing. That was me being all… If I did that these days, I would never even bother, because no one had noticed it. And I don’t think anyone ever would of, frankly. But I made the mistake of asking someone at Sony “Hey, is this OK?” It was sort of the chain of people trying to cover their asses, I think? Because no one wanted to be the person that was told about it, but didn’t do anything about it. So, I really wish I’d kept my mouth shut, because it turned out to be a huge pain in the ass. (Laughs) And it was fine, in the end. But I wish I never said anything because then it would’ve been our little secret. (Laughs)

WATER & SOLUTIONS got re-released with a DVD about 5 years ago, and the thing that stood out for me was how overly complimentary you were with D. Sardy in the liner notes, and specifically on how important he was in making that record…

Absolutely.

He’s worked with everyone from HELMET to SLAYER to THE ROLLING STONES and OASIS, just so many different artists. It’s always interesting to see what D. Sardy does with each artist…

I feel sort of like we found him before anyone knew how brilliant he was! He was just working with his band BARKMARKET. That’s why we worked with him. The first song off of “L Ron” is one of the greatest rock n’ roll songs ever recorded. So you should get that record. But yeah, he’s incredible. He’s such an incredible artist and that was the record where I think we learned the value of a producer. That’s what I mean about Brad – we weren’t ready for a producer when we had Brad, which is too bad. I’d actually love to make another record with him some day. Because he I think had a lot to offer that we weren’t ready to hear, because we were all into our little crazy world. So, Sardy, we really let him in and he was fucking amazing.

Now, this was also the first record where you guys didn’t come in with completed songs? Whereas the previous one’s you had demos and songs you’d worked on, etc? WATER & SOLUTIONS was an album you guys kind of wrote in the studio?

Well, it wasn’t that we wrote it in the studio. Again, Sardy just came in and just kind of chopped up our tunes, in a good way. He just really got to the center of the songs in a way that I think we and the band, we were too close to the songs to see. We couldn’t see it the way he could see it. So yeah.

It also seems like you guys did a lot of experimentation on WATER & SOLUTIONS. One of the tracks that I love is “In 2 Again”, which is just totally different from anything FAR has ever done…

Yeah, that has another one of my favorite lyrics. That was one that I wrote back to front. There’s a few of those over the years in FAR where I just wrote all of it, and the band brought what they brought to it playing-wise. And it’s been a little bit tense sometimes within the band. But I’m really grateful when they give them a shot, because I think they make for interesting moments in our lives. The end of “In 2 Again” where it drops up and the new chord progression starts, the little BEATLES “She’s So Heavy” chord progression, when the drums come back in there, it’s one of my favorite moments on any record. It’s one of those moments that I can’t believe that I was a part of making it. And that was all Sardy. I remember when he brought us into the room and said, “Check this out, you guys.” We just all lost our shit! I sang that song in Belgium the other night because someone wanted to hear it. I’m really proud of that song.

NEW END ORIGINAL, a lot of people know that it was an anagram for ONE LINE DRAWING. And a lot of the songs on “Thriller” had existed in one form or another. 14-41 for example was a ONE LINE DRAWING song that you guys had re-recorded. I was wondering, did you guys ever get as far as starting the 2nd record? Did you ever get to the point where you got to write some stuff together with that particular band?

Well, NEW END as it existed in that first record was done way before we started writing anything new, as far as I remember. It ended pretty fast, which was sad. Me and Norman (Arenas) started working on a couple of other things after Scott (Winegard) and Charlie (Walker) left. So, we started writing some things. Actually, there’s a song called “Are You Sure?” that I ended up recording as a B-side for my last record? And that actually may end up on the new FAR record, because I still think it’s a really, really great song. So we’ll see.

My favorite song on “Thriller” is “Hostage”. It’s a song you get requested to play quite often on your solo shows. It’s a song that really stands out for me, I love the lyrics. I was just curious the history of that song. Was that something that existed for a while? Because, dare I say it, it felt easily in line with your work with FAR?

Yeah, that’s one of those songs that was almost on a lot of records. I wrote that song in 1994, probably? I tried to get FAR to play it, and we practiced it. And they just didn’t like it. (Laughs) So, we didn’t play it with them. And it just kept being the song that I kept enjoying. Then I showed it to Norman when we were making the NEW END record, and he was really into it. I think the arrangement of it on “Thriller” is beautiful. Charlie played these drums on it that are just astonishing. That song is one of my favorite things.

It’s awesome. (Laughs)

Yeah, I love playing that all the time. It’s a song that’s been through a lot for me. And it’s one of the most asked for songs.

You’ve always had a lot of interactivity with your fans, so I just wanted to know now with the internet – how has it benefited you as an artist, especially in the last several years?

It’s hard to even quantify. The main thing that it’s done and I’ve thought about this a lot. It’s allowed me to communicate really directly with anyone that cares enough to communicate. And that matters a lot. Because there have always been a lot of entities that seek to make their money in between the person who makes the stuff and the person that wants the stuff. Weather that’s chairs or music or anything. You pick the profession or the idea, and the people that make the most money are the people who run the distribution system. Which is fine. God bless ‘em and it’s a hard thing to run a distribution system and all that. I’m not mad at them. But there is a level in which it kind of gets in the way. Because basically, if someone in the distribution system for some reason decides that you don’t sell enough or do enough to make it worth it for them to put it in their distribution system, they’ll either A) not distribute it or B) give you a really bad deal. None of this is personal, it’s just the way business works and I wished more artists understood this. So, what the internet has done on every level – it’s opened communication. But even with communication – Facebook? My Space? None of us are making money! But we’re providing 100 percent of the content that people are making hundred of millions of dollars on. Not that we should make money for writing to our friends, but the whole point is that someone built this thing that yes it allows us to talk to our friends, but… that’s something we can already do ourselves. You don’t need a special new interface just to talk to your friends. Now, the internet itself is one of the miracles of history. The fact that I can type a few words here and all of a sudden a kid in Ireland can read it, it’s remarkable. Completely remarkable. But – once that technology is there, what I want to do is I want people, artists, whomever to take that simple technology and make it their own. And what happens when we don’t make it our own is that someone else comes in and says “Here’s how this should look.” My Space isn’t the internet. Facebook isn’t the internet. Those are places with a lot of rules. And a lot of blocks to doing really interesting things, but they do a lot of great things too. I’m on them all and I’m not hatin’. I really prefer the direct communication, so that’s what the internet has meant for me is the ability to talk to people with no one in between. With no managers or labels or stores, or portals or anything in between.

Imagine if we had that when we were kids? For kids that are fans of yours to have access to you personally and your music, it’s amazing.

That’s the thing. I think everyone’s complicit in this sort of comodification of that. Ya know, our friends band is a big band – They were talking about something where kids get to call some number – basically it’s just a voice mail number. Or they text or whatever it is to a certain place and leave their number. And then the band, from this sort of special phone line calls people at random. Which is great, that’s really, really sweet. But A) what’s the big fucking deal? Yeah, I understand that a really popular band can’t talk to all of their fans, I know I can’t talk to all of my fans. I mean, but – making a big deal about it and having another separate company that gets paid one way or another to set up all of this infrastructure, just so a band can call someone that likes them, I mean… how about a mailing list at a show? How about the band gets a cell phone that’s just the band’s cell phone and –

Leave it in the rehearsal space, and whomever’s in there can answer if they want. (Laughs)

I mean, whatever! (Laughs) It’s not that hard! I feel like there’s a lot of stuff where artists forget about their own power and own ability to affect people and maybe to avoid a little bit of work or hassle, they end up not only giving a lot of money away, but kind of giving a lot of the spirit away, I think, of what is interesting about this stuff. Ultimately, rock n roll – I know it’s huge, big business now and all that stuff, but it’s also a very internal thing, those connections. If anyone’s as much of a music geek as I am, they know it’s a really, really special connection. And I just really treasure it, and the experiences I’ve had over the years & the people that have liked what I do, are those same kind of geeks. I want to treasure that, weather it’s through unique recordings, or through playing weird little shows, on whatever scale! Or if I sell a gazillion records, like – the important part is the 15 year old’s dream part. That’s what keeps me going honestly.

So, what’s going on with FAR at the moment? Now that you’ve accumulated the fanbase that you have over the years, will the internet be the way you get these new songs out?

We’re just playing catch up. All we’re focusing on right now is writing the tunes, and just hanging out with each other and just being good to each other. We’re actually going to release the record through Vagrant. Actually it’s ironic, the guy that signed us to our very first Immortal record deal in 95, he just started a little management company, so we’re working with him which feels really good because he’s a familiar face. And he actually is the one that talked to Vagrant. It makes sense. It’s a very collaborative partnership sort of arrangement. I think it’s really cool for the band in our situation.

I’m looking forward to a new record from you guys or whatever you guys do next.

There’s going to be a new record. For sure. We’re writing songs that we really, really like, so yeah.

Are they in the vein of what you’ve done before? Is it a different approach to songwriting for FAR now? Or is it more of where you guys left off?

Um, (Laughs) I don’t think we’ve ever had a specific approach, so, it’s similar where we’re just throwing out ideas to each other and they’re all really, really different and we’re all sorting through them. I guess on that level, it’s similar, but honestly, we never had a way that we worked. Whatever came out, came out. Generally it’s kind of mess, and it still is a bit of a mess, but it’s fun!

Are you documenting all of this?

Yep. I never documented as much as I wanted to. That’s one of my big regrets in a way is that there’s a lot of neat stuff that’s happened that’s not on film. I sort of rely on people being there with their recorders at shows & then I get to hear it again years later. So, no there’s not as much documentation as I would like going on, but ya know, documentation changes everything.

Well, Jonah, I’m looking forward to everything you do and I hope you’ll make it out to New York soon. Thanks for talking to me.

Thank you! It’s really sweet to talk to you again. I like talking to anyone that cares to talk to me, but it’s cool that we’ve got sort of history, and so I’m really happy that you’re still excited about being creative.

The funny thing is – I hold you and FAR and that period from 10 years ago very close to my heart. Around the time that you guys broke up, I had fallen out of music. I was working & seeing every aspect of the music industry and it just kinda broke my heart after a while. So, I went back to movies because it was something that I genuinely loved as a little kid and it was something still pure to me. I launched Icons Of Fright about 5 years ago, just for my genuine love of these movies I enjoyed so much as a kid. So, I’ve been more focused on horror movies for the last 10 years because it’s something that’s from my childhood that meant something & is innocent and is untainted by any record label or anything like that. So now that we’re launching the music version of ICONS with Icons Of Punk, I’m rediscovering my love of music and catching up with bands and it just feels so fitting that FAR got back together at the same time that I got back into music. You guys got back together when I needed you to most! You know what I mean?

Yeah, it’s funny how that stuff works. And for me, it’s been music for me the whole way through. But weather it’s a horror website or being a teacher or being a lawyer, or whatever it is, I think the important part is doing it with heart. And so, whatever it is you’ve done, I’m just happy that you’re still doing it. And weather its music or movies or whatever it is – I’d love to write books some day. I’d love to make movies. I got to get killed in Mel House’s new movie.

Oh cool! That’s awesome! I didn’t know that!

It’s just fun! I just love making shit. (Laughs) So here’s to that!

Hells yes. Jonah, again, thank you so much for your time. And I’m fairly confident that our paths will cross again at some point.

Me too, man. Take care of yourself.

All my best.