026: Mike Harmeier of Mike and The Moonpies
On Episode 26, we catch up with Mike Harmeier, lead vocalist and chief songwriter in Austin’s honky-tonk revivalists Mike & The Moonpies. During this one, we talk about their stellar string of albums like The Real Country, The Hard Way, and Mockingbird, preserving honky-tonk and country music, songwriting, and paying their dues across Texas.
Interview Transcript
Note: Transcripts aren’t always accurate since they are computer automated and haven’t been edited for spelling, grammar, etc.
Thomas Mooney 0:09
Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 26 of the new slang podcast. I'm your host on Thomas Mooney, the editor in chief of new slang here in Lubbock. On Episode 26, we sit down with my car, Meyer, Austin's Mike in the moon pies to talk about all kinds of honkytonk 80s 90s country and you know what they're going to be doing next? We are, I guess, up and coming soon stuff for them. They have this like, live record they've been working on. And Mike's been writing some some songs for their follow up to Mockingbird. So we talked a lot about that. A lot of 80s and 90s country stuff, which I know everyone loves just as much as I do. Mike's a big fan of that music. And obviously, if you listen to any of Mike in the moon pies material, that they're big fans of the George Strait, George Jones, Keith Whitley, when you travel this kind of country that was massive in the 80s and 90s. Yeah, I know. It's been a while since there has been a podcast. But seems like we've been stockpiling them here. After this podcast comes out. We're going to be getting worn out from the songwriter competition. That'll be just a stream the entire show. is too
much. Winner on the on the star of the mountain.
But you're trying to push for two or three episodes. Probably to some time though. Start up.
Mike Harmeier 3:04
Let's do it.
Thomas Mooney 3:06
So you guys read medicine stone last week, right?
Mike Harmeier 3:09
Yes, it was awesome. Yeah, we were there for three days. We we went a day early and filmed a cooking show for Red Dirt nation with grant from Bowens band. Well, yeah. And when we played the next day on that Thursday, right then, Friday, I just, we just took the day off and got hammered with everything.
Thomas Mooney 3:31
Yeah, what would you guys cook?
Mike Harmeier 3:34
Gatlin our guitar player shout a jack rabbit and use it and so that's what they looked at. They made like jackrabbits do or something? Yeah, it was right.
Thomas Mooney 3:44
jackrabbits, you bowtie. Yeah, that's hotter than hell down there. Yeah, it is, man. Yeah. Okay, so if you guys were doing a few if you I guess like would the medicine stone it's bowling and Turnpike right. Due to or I guess what are they like curating that? Yeah,
Mike Harmeier 4:02
I think so. You had
Thomas Mooney 4:04
to pick another band to curate to your own little festival? Who's picking?
Mike Harmeier 4:08
That's a good question, man. That would kind of do it as like a maybe like a conglomerate of like a bunch of bands in Austin that we like kind of came up with like Leo Ron do and like the guy Paul nipper, who's opening for us tonight like that kind of crew of people to honkies authors in Austin. Get it's kind of a tight knit community with those cats anyway. And I've wanted to do that for a long time. Just haven't really gotten everybody's schedule. And we've been touring a lot. So yeah, I'd like to do it. I thought about doing an Austin then we went up to Wisconsin recently. And we were in like Illinois or Iowa area for a while. And my buddy Sean molar who used to run daytrotter was talking about doing a festival like that like kind of what we're talking about. He recommended or thought it'd be a good idea to do it up there and like Davenport, and I thought that's Got an interesting idea? Yeah, because we go up there and like, you know, they're kind of they get a lot of national touring country acts, but they don't get anything a lot like this, you know? So I'm talking about maybe still doing that maybe next year trying to start off, you know, the first year of a country festival like in Davenport. Yeah. Just give it a shot.
Thomas Mooney 5:19
Yeah. I don't know. Like, okay, so what are the people up there? Like, what are they? Is it basically North Texas? Or is it a little bit more cheese?
Mike Harmeier 5:33
Once you get it from Dallas, they're all the same. Now, man, it's there. Really. It's like, really, Wisconsin was almost the people were uncomfortable, the nice. I kind of felt weird. Like, I kind of it kind of made me mad. And they were so nice to Yeah. It's just really good people. And they're really into this kind of music man. It's crazy. And it's not, you know, there's not like dancers or stuff. There's not a whole lot of dancing, but it's one of those things where you go up there and people are like, you know, they're front and center to abandon ever heard of, you know, they're standing at the front of the stage. And they're just listening to the songs, man. It's really cool. I like we're gonna go up there. Again, like we that was like, maybe our third time in a year to go up there. So it's kind of we're building something up there. Yeah. So hopefully, there'll be a good spot for us to go back to
Thomas Mooney 6:24
Yeah, dancing. I feel like it's something that's just died since the 80s.
Mike Harmeier 6:30
Yet, not an Austin. dance. Yeah, man. Like, that's our little small. That's our thing, man. Like, we, when we started doing it, we became like, all of a sudden, we became a dance band. And like, there's a huge circuit of people in Austin. They have like groups on Facebook. And they just, you know, they post shows and they all go out dancing. And they'll drive a couple hours, like a dance hall out in the middle of nowhere. And do it and they'll take like a party bus out there. And whatever. It's like they live and breathe it. Do it every single night. Yeah. And so we kind of became like one of the bands that they would wear on their regular schedule.
Thomas Mooney 7:02
Yeah. It feels like a peer. Like, just the the dancing crowd is no more like, it's not really, let's see. And you know, to me, places you can go.
Mike Harmeier 7:14
I'm kind of torn about because I like the dancers. And they're very supportive, and they come out all the time. But really, I don't think they really care. You know, what we're singing about are the songs. They're just there to dance. Yeah, they like a good beat. Yeah. So if we're doing something swing, and then they're all about, yeah. Which kind of frustrates me, man, because I like to, I want to do more shows where it's just people standing in front of the stage and like listening and like singing along and stuff like that. But a lot of times in Austin, the dancers push those people out of the way. Yeah. So it's kind of frustrating, because we'll have a packed room, when we start the show, and the dancers will start to squeeze in front of the stage and everybody gets pushed back. And like by three or four songs in everybody's way back at the back of the room, it's actually there to see the show.
Thomas Mooney 8:01
Yeah, it feels like here, like at blue light, which is always like a standard room. Yeah, like a bar, kind of,
Mike Harmeier 8:08
I think, pretty much everywhere else other than Austin that we go to people are just more into the songs and into the music. Which is where I want to kind of head towards Yeah, I never intended to be that dance band thing. But it was working for us. So we ran with it. Yeah. Yeah. But I kind of I'd like to play more shows, or it's just standing. Yeah, right there in front of stage.
Thomas Mooney 8:30
I found this book. I guess it was at a garage sale or something. And it was about like all the best honky tonks and rap and dance halls in Texas, and it was like, written in 1980 or something like that. It was kind of like, split up into regions. And, like, it's kind of funny, because like, the front cover is like, you know, dude, he's, I guess he's in his mid 40s. And he's got a beard and he's got the Lonestar in his hand and he's got the he's got like the, like the, I guess, like the Johnny Lee with like, the big O feather stuff in the front and like Urban Cowboy, right. Absolutely. And, you know, he, he talks about, just like these different dance halls, a lot of them are gone, obviously. And it's like, slightly racist and always like, felt like, you know, down in San Antonio, there's not really this kind of music cabinet. It's more like Mexico might not Mexican American is like just straight Mexican. You know, that's what he says. It's just like, Whoa,
Mike Harmeier 9:37
that's funny, man. Like I hear Johnny Lee like, has told me some stories about stuff I got back in that day then. And he that's like, really terrible stories about like, rampant
Thomas Mooney 9:48
racist. Yeah. That's,
Mike Harmeier 9:52
I mean, and those places like there's still a handful of those places that are still running, you know, I've played all of them. I think yeah. You know, there's a lot of these places, they're just tucked in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, they're just out in the woods, man. So like these people, they would go there and take their families on a Sunday and have like a, you know, a potluck and have a dance at night. And that's just the way it still continues to be in very small corners of the state. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 10:20
I don't like the mains brothers, you know, from appear. They started out as like that dancehall band, because, you know, there's these, like, a Cotton Club out here. Right. Obviously, there's not one anymore, that kind of thing. But, you know, he was, Kenny's always talked about how, you know, they started out playing covers, you know, Bob wills, covers and whatnot, and slowly started, like, you know, throwing in an original here and there. And as long as it had like that Dansby like, they could do that. And you know, there was these gigs that were, you know, three hours long, three, four hours of work just straight, you got to play.
Mike Harmeier 10:58
Yeah, that's, I mean, that was the first that was like, the first four or five years of us doing this was like, we got into the broken spoke really early on. And we started doing those long four hour shows, you know, there would be like a dance lesson first. And then it'd be like an hour worth of dance lessons. And then we would go on and just just play and just keep the floor the whole time. So you're sneaking in covered. I mean, you're sneaking in originals, but you're mostly filling space with covers, because you know, you can get them on the floor. You got them out there dance and do another swing of yours. You know, right in the middle of it.
Thomas Mooney 11:29
How many how many songs you have to like, do have in your catalogue? If you guys had to, like just play for four hours tonight? How many songs
Mike Harmeier 11:38
we I mean, we could easily do we've done a six hour gig one time without a break. And it's just, you know, you get into doing haggard stuff and like, like, we do a lot of George Strait stuff, too. And we started out when I started the band and we needed to fill that time I put a lot of George Strait songs on the setlist because it was like the only songs I knew all the words too. And so that's kind of, you know, it just happened that way. Yeah. But once you did, honestly, once, you know, like, two or three of those songs, you know, all of them. If you know if you can remember the words, or at least a verse in a chorus, you're probably going to be good, man. It's three chords in the truth kind of stuff, you know? Yeah. So it's really not that.
Thomas Mooney 12:15
Well, I mean, I don't know, like, okay, from personal experience. You think like, you know, all these songs, you can sing to the radio, but like, you're not singing to the radio. Like, there's not like George Street in the background, or it still
Mike Harmeier 12:31
happens to me all the time where I can't remember the lyrics to the songs all the time. And I'll freak out about it. Like, if I mess up once in a song. We won't play that song again for like months, because I'll be I'll be like, I mess it up last time. I'm never gonna.
Thomas Mooney 12:47
Yeah. What do you think? What do you think it is that? I guess like Texas? And I guess Really? You could say, like, Americana country kind of thing. What do you think it's gone to more being like a standing room? Not necessarily even listening room, like standing room like that? I guess the
Mike Harmeier 13:08
more I mean, it's just kind of like that. It's like the everybody kind of the people that were dancing that age bracket is kind of gone, you know, and I remember when I was in high school, there was like, one day where they taught like dance lessons. Like it was like back then like line dancing was a big thing. Yeah. So you learn that kind of stuff, you know, and back and at that time, you could put on like Tnn or something and they had like, line dancing like contests like every night.
Thomas Mooney 13:36
Yeah. You remember that one show? I can't remember what channel was on it may have been Tnn or it may have been like CMT was like dancing like this one place in
Mike Harmeier 13:48
yeah cool. Yeah, it's like a whole slew the silver horn or something like that. I can't
Thomas Mooney 13:52
remember where but like I remember watching that as a kid or seeing it not necessarily watching the show like seen it on TV. Yeah being on for like,
Mike Harmeier 14:00
it was a hugely cultural unpopular thing. Yeah. And that actually it's funny because around that time is like the same time that even pop music like all had like dances and stuff, you know, like maka Reyna and stuff like that. You know, like all these kind of like dates it used to be a lot but and it wasn't that long ago. Yeah, it was like a really popular thing you know? I'm okay with it fading out yeah. I mean, like, like the big aspect to boots Gutenberg Boogie right was that actually yeah, and then they even had like a dance remix
Thomas Mooney 14:38
which is so strange to me like it's I was talking to somebody the other day about like the I guess the the remix versions right as through time has gone by like there was like the disco just kind of thing. Now you're saying like the club like that's the the middle one. And then like there for a while, like everything had like a dubstep. Yeah. Remix
Mike Harmeier 14:59
was the Think about it really now like mostly country music, pop, Country radio is all like, like a dance beat. It's Yeah, the club makes it's like that's just the standard thing now is basically what bricksburg was doing remixes of.
Thomas Mooney 15:15
I want to do like we're gonna start up a, like a, just a 80s 90s country Podcast, where we just talk about certain specific subjects throughout the last two decades. One of them I want to do is Brooks versus done. Like just have like that argument with him or you versus done. Man.
Mike Harmeier 15:38
I'm probably a Kix Brooks guy.
Thomas Mooney 15:40
I feel like that's what everyone's answer is and that's, I think the problem will be finding someone who's like, Ronnie done
Mike Harmeier 15:47
yeah, I think it's gonna happen man. Like you saw what happened with his career.
Thomas Mooney 15:51
Yeah, that's a
Mike Harmeier 15:56
I guess slick kicks books was always throwing the party then. Yeah. Ronnie down was like, just there with feathered haired and and hitting the high notes.
Thomas Mooney 16:05
Yeah. Which give like a huge Brooks and Dunn fan,
Mike Harmeier 16:10
dude. I mean, I'm a I'm an 80s 90s. Country fencer. Yeah. I mean,
Thomas Mooney 16:13
yeah, I always feel like Lost and Found is still like that.
Mike Harmeier 16:16
Yeah, that's, it's a great song.
Thomas Mooney 16:19
I'm not gonna say like underrated because it is probably like a lot of people love that song. I think it's like,
Mike Harmeier 16:24
like one of their first hits. I think, if not their first single,
Thomas Mooney 16:27
I think it's like it's on their first
Mike Harmeier 16:29
record. It's an early sign. That's one of the that's probably one of the best songs ever. Right. But I mean, and another thing about Kix Brooks is Kix. Brooks was a songwriter from like, back in the 70s. Man. Yeah. So he, I mean, he was around with like, I think he was writing songs for like poco and stuff. Yeah. He's a pretty talented dude. Rather than just playing guitar.
Thomas Mooney 16:48
Yeah, I know. He had a, a, like a solo record before they became bricks and done. And, yeah, like, I guess that's, that's the one thing about them is that they're, they were at least writing at least half of those songs. Sure. You know, and I think we'll come at first, that first solo record, like he had, you know, co writing credit, at least on all the songs, which is, you can't really say that now.
Mike Harmeier 17:17
Yeah, that doesn't really happen. Yeah, it's not like a George Strait thing where he hasn't read any of those, you know? Yeah. But good for them, man.
Thomas Mooney 17:25
Yeah. George Strait. Like that's, I think that's the I don't know. Like, I'm not gonna say like, that's what, like my on the tally marks of like George Strait being awesome and being bad. Like, I don't think that's necessarily like a just the bad tally mark. for him. But it is an interesting thing, where like, he only had like, one. Yeah, one or two songwriting credits.
Mike Harmeier 17:51
Yeah. The one that he did anything was I can't see Texas from here. That's like the only one that he had. I know
Thomas Mooney 17:55
he had a another co write, like in the last 10, like five years or something?
Mike Harmeier 18:00
Yeah, I know. He's been writing recently. Like in the last couple of records. He wrote some with his son. Yeah. And I think him and his son Andy and Dylan got together and wrote one of those hits that for the one of the last things he had,
Thomas Mooney 18:11
yeah, it's just it seems so weird. or strange that he could. Like, I wonder what like, what he thinks about that, you know, to mean, like, on the bank, at some point, like, he just is like, I don't have to write the songs.
Mike Harmeier 18:26
Yeah. Or he did. I will say me he has a talent for choosing some great songs like he does actually choose those, those his you know, but when you get somebody like Dean right before you all the time, it's not a very difficult task at that point.
Thomas Mooney 18:40
Yeah. He does make the songs. Absolutely. You know, like they you could just play a snippet of a George Strait song and like, everyone would know, that's a George Strait song.
Mike Harmeier 18:53
I had no way fault him for, for not really writing. I mean, it's working. It was it worked really, really well. Yeah. And it almost is like, you could kind of consider him and Dean kind of a songwriting team, because, you know, he was writing all these things. And like, if it wasn't George cutting it, you know, I mean, there are some other ones I've heard, like, what was the one? I was like? Nobody in his right mind. And Keith Whitley had recorded that like prior to that. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah, I heard it like for the first time a couple months ago, and I was blown away.
Thomas Mooney 19:26
Yeah, I've not heard that. You got to hear it. No. I don't know. Is it on Spotify? YouTube?
Mike Harmeier 19:32
It probably it probably is. I think you can really cut it on and record it,
Thomas Mooney 19:36
put it on record. And that's a great song. Yeah. Yeah. What's your favorite? Like, what's your favorite era of George Strait?
Mike Harmeier 19:48
I would say like 8990 or like, whatever that record number seven came out. I think that was the one that like, I really attached myself to and it had a Couple of covers on the head like deep water, a bob wills thing on it and yeah. And it had like three or four Dean songs on it. That's I think that's probably my favorite record. So whatever, whatever year that was,
Thomas Mooney 20:13
yeah. Number seven. Yeah. Number seven, I would say, based off of him, like have any record out? Yeah. One a year. Yeah. That probably came out in 87.
Mike Harmeier 20:24
Yeah. You would think I would think maybe, I don't know. Maybe add something around there. It was late. 80s. Yeah, it was before 90, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. I think like oceanfront property is right before that. Yeah. Yeah. I always forget that. Like, that's an older record. That one seems like it was further down the line. Yeah. Because it was, it was a huge, hugely popular.
Thomas Mooney 20:48
Yeah. It really is like with him, or actually, with any artist that was making music before you're born nothing. Basically, anything that you've heard from them, right when I guess like the first time you heard them to when they first started out? Like you could you have no like time? Sure. I guess points for that. So it's just like all at once. He's like, Yeah, he came out with all of that at one time. You know, and it's hard to get a reference point.
Mike Harmeier 21:18
Yeah, it really is. Man to
Thomas Mooney 21:20
me that Yeah. 8687 I guess it like what do you start as far as like getting record
Mike Harmeier 21:26
at I think, yeah, country came out. And he had his big break at the Houston rodeo. I think that was like, that was 81 or 82. I think 83 was like his big breakout year. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. You know the story about that with with him in the in the rodeo were like, not the regular thing he had. Eddie rabbit was supposed to play the Houston rodeo that night. And he got sick or something like that. And so they called in George Strait. And I think it was, you know, sold out show up at that time. Eddie rabbit, you know, was Yeah. And that was his like, the big the big night. was George Strait, filling in for Eddie rabbit at the Houston livestock show. Really? Yeah. I didn't know that. That's pretty cool. Yeah, you got to hear these. We're gonna get off on this George Strait thing, but you ever have you ever listened to like that Wolfgang's vault app, or whenever they had like all of these like old concerts like bootlegs, I think that they have from like, it goes anybody you can name they have it. Oh, really. And I looked at George Strait one time and they had about six shows of his for like really early 80s. And one of them is in like Boston or something like that. And half of his set is is Bob wills covers
Thomas Mooney 22:39
Yeah. Is it that website that has just like what does it go on with? gangs? Vol. Wolf kings. Well, I know there's a there's one site that I was going to for a while that I was just downloading old shirts. Yeah. Like old. Like not Grateful Dead. Sure. Like that level of needing every show. But like, checking out old shows of different people. It's super interesting. I can't remember what it's called, though. It may be the same one.
Mike Harmeier 23:08
That's the one thing that's the one I know. Yeah. Okay.
Thomas Mooney 23:11
I don't know. I yeah. But it's really cool to see the them do that, like that one. Cover that one. Like, what what they sound like and it gave especially through like early shows. They gave
Mike Harmeier 23:22
me a lot of hope. Yeah, it was like, man, he's doing like the show. I'm doing. Yeah, it's like cuz I mean, there's, I mean, right now we're with with, with like, three records out. Now we pretty much do you all have our own stuff at the shows. I still, there's at least one covering every show. Yeah. But like we were talking about before, like, when we started out doing it. It was? Yeah, 85 90% covers. Yeah. But still to that point. I think that's how we learned how to play. You know, it's like you just play a bunch of George raisons. Much of haggard songs. And that's how your band ends up sounding. Yeah, after a while. That's the way you that's the way you approach everything that you write. Yeah, you know.
Thomas Mooney 24:07
Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. We're, I think, like some, some people they undervalue the, like, become up. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like some people, I think, think that you just become a musician and you're ready. I don't know. Like, why, but like, you know what I'm saying? Absolutely. Like, I think there's been this like here in Lubbock, you know, love. It's been a commodity. It's the last it's popping
Mike Harmeier 24:37
off quick here. Right. And, you know, we've
Thomas Mooney 24:41
had some people move here, where it's like, oh, why I'm gonna go start playing blue light and I'll be next in line. It's like, well, that's not how it fucking works. Like,
Mike Harmeier 24:52
yeah, that just, it just must be that easy, man. We're gonna we're gonna pick up a residency for a month at blue light and then They're not going to be opening
Thomas Mooney 25:04
it. I don't know. It's so weird, like, because we've had some people move here in the last year, that are not necessarily going to school either, right? Just move in, like, Hey, I'm gonna start a band. I mean, like, that's a really cool move to Lubbock trying to start a band. I mean, like, it's a good place to start a band, because you got to play some you got some places to play? Absolutely, that we're like, people are going to either a pay attention, or absolutely ignore you. So that like, that gives you a balance of like, what to expect?
Unknown Speaker 25:40
Yeah. And,
Thomas Mooney 25:45
but like, I don't know, like, some people will like they've, it's just like, well, I've spent six months in Lubbock. Now it's time to, you know, go to Nashville, or Dallas or something like, yeah,
Mike Harmeier 25:56
make the jump make the beat? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 25:57
I don't know.
Mike Harmeier 25:59
I mean, I'll be I mean, I'll be honest, like, when I moved to Austin, like, that was my whole intention was to put together because I had beds in Houston. But nobody was like, a career person. You know, then when I was playing with my drummer was because we were going we went to high school together, but really, it didn't take long in Austin to have a band. Yeah, you know, but, and then that evolves, you know, different players coming and going and stuff like that. But it you know, it takes years to like, find the right group. Did you play in the right stuff for the right amount of time? Yeah. That just it has to evolve that way. It has to be like a natural thing. Yeah. You can't just go in there and force it and say, Okay, this is the group. And then these are the songs. And now we go. Yeah, it just doesn't work that way. For me.
Thomas Mooney 26:47
Yeah, it's a I guess, like Dan and Austin, you're, you're talking about some of your contemporaries. There is more that honkytonk. Yeah, like more of a traditional country says
Mike Harmeier 26:58
there's like a revival of that 70s culture there that outlaw culture. Yeah,
Thomas Mooney 27:02
there's not really that much of that. I feel. I don't know. Really even happening anywhere else in the state as far
Mike Harmeier 27:09
as grade. I feel like that's why, you know, with our band, like we kind of stick out like a sore thumb. And a lot of the shows that we play, that we're playing with other bands, because we're doing like we're doing Texas swing stuff. And we're like, you know, we're just we are kind of doing that 70s revival thing. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, everything now is, or that's popular in our areas is becoming popular. is more of, you know, like a singer songwriter real like in grain Texas country roots thing, you know, but that's okay. And yeah, I I like being those guys. Yeah. And I think every, you know, everybody digs it. So like, the other the other bands that we play with is like, it's easy to make friends because it's everybody likes that kind of music. Yeah, especially if you're playing this then like, you're, you may not play it. But you know what it is? Like, you probably grew up on something that sounded like that.
Thomas Mooney 28:01
Yeah. But it is a thing, right. So that all these bands who are doing other stuff, like they're hit the hit the door over there. Anyways. Yeah, like, their parents. Sure. Raise them on this. Or like, they've got, you know, record collection of
Mike Harmeier 28:22
data. I had people tell me all the time. I like I don't like country music, but I like your band. And I was like, Yeah, I think you do like music.
Thomas Mooney 28:30
I feel like that's what, like the one thing that so many people say yeah, to bands, or it's like I don't even know if it's necessarily like a backhanded compliment. If it's just like, no, you're you're wrong. Like you do like country music if he liked us.
Mike Harmeier 28:46
Like, you're just mistaken. Yeah. So that's what that's what I used to listen to my dad's truck all the time. Yeah. Yeah. It's an aesthetic. I think for most people, you know, that kind of thing.
Thomas Mooney 29:00
I find like the nostalgia factor with music to be so interesting. As far as, like what you grew up with. Because I guess like, I've kind of learned over time that as long as your parents weren't musicians, or like artists, or in the art scene kind of thing. Like you're all like, we're all kind of just like, raised on that top layer of culture, like the, like the 90s, Country radio, and TV, all that kind of stuff like that. And so then it took it took it takes time to find that other stuff that yeah, go. Well, then I'm putting this on the radio. Yeah.
Mike Harmeier 29:45
I pause for a second.
Thomas Mooney 29:46
Yeah, that sounds good. I know what we're talking about, but I forgot. You did a tailgater that year.
Mike Harmeier 29:57
Yeah. I did a two hour tailgate show. I was That it was a two hour tailgate. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was it was cool. I had never been like a actual tailgate party before. Oh, really? Yeah, that's my first time. And it's funny because I just booked another one for a UT game coming up, but it's gonna be full band. Now to our own stuff by myself. Yeah, yeah. I was really digging for songs to play was or food. But now I could smell food. But now. Now I had to fight to find a beer. Really? Yeah. Jesus stuff.
Thomas Mooney 30:32
Yeah. Last. Last tailgate. I went to like everything. Don't do the tailgate thing. Yeah, I go to the game. Last one, though, was last year. It was in Dallas or in our at Arlington? Yeah, technically, Baylor vs. Tech was a lone star, like, I guess sponsored tailgate. So it was like Lone Star and free food and shit like that. We lost big time against me there. But there was a shit ton of Lone Star. That all got drinks, somehow. And we're at the end. I was in the know dry county guys here in Lubbock. And, or at least two of them that were waiting for them the rest of them to pick us up. And like the only beer left was the not your not your grandma's root beer. Yeah. Yeah. Which is good. But like you can't drink. Like, more than one at a time after. It's just like, holy shit. This is not dripping. Yeah, exactly. It's like, Oh, my God. Like I said, it's good. But it's one of those like, it's a dangerous thing. That one is. I mean, like, if it wasn't just so damn sweet. You know what I mean? Yeah, I don't know. You have to like cut it with something. But it's too thick, man. Yeah. So like, we drink one of those. And then it was, we can't have another so let's go and find something else. Because I'll take
Mike Harmeier 32:01
at that point. Yeah, I'd say I'll drink a bush light or something.
Thomas Mooney 32:05
So we went searching. And my buddy Trent, who? Yeah, his, I guess like his idea for like the icebreaker on how to get another beer was. Mind you. We also have like all of our stuff with us. Because we had stayed at somebody, I get transferred to Trent's buddies, and they had stayed somewhere else, because we were going to the game, they were going somewhere else that night before. So we had all of our bags, and we're walking in trance idea to I guess it's an icebreaker to say, Hey, can we get a beer? You guys look like you have a lot of beer was too. There was like four people playing pass. And he tried to like intercept the ball. And that dude just was like, out, you know, just like was way more athletic and like, way less drunk. And just like, soared above him and just took it away. But we got to be here. So it was fine.
Mike Harmeier 32:57
We were flooding the we were flooding the freo a couple months ago. And we thought we took enough beer to get through the whole flow. But of course, we ran out like halfway through. And it was getting pretty dire. Because there's like 10 of us trying to float together. We all had a beer. And we got near the end of it. And I just kind of accepted we weren't gonna have one. And as we were floating by somebody else out Mike in the moon buzz, and I immediately like jumped out of my duvet like went over to where they were at. And I was like, I just need to be here. This guy's gotta be good for one period. I think it was a nick ultra that was like kind of strike out on.
Thomas Mooney 33:33
Man I've been I'm not gonna floater to river in forever did it's so much fun. What my parents like this is one of those like, it's either your, like, your least favorite part. Or like your favorite part is when you've been floating. And you don't really know how much you've drank. And then like that first day is like it's either hit or miss. And it's typically like, you know,
Mike Harmeier 33:56
if you miss a thing, you're standing up in the water and you fall back into it. Yeah, it's one of those. I remember.
Thomas Mooney 34:05
I don't know how to be like six years ago, at least where me and some friends went down to the freo. And we camped out floated like two days. And we, I guess, like, we built up a rock pile. Yeah, we're like, we could sit in the river. We built it up high enough to like have a fire on top. And like people were like, stopping by and being like, What the? What's it maybe we had to like see if like why there was a fire in the river
Mike Harmeier 34:37
or the river? Yeah. So we did a nightclub for the first time. I'd never done one of those before. Yeah, I've done a nightclub too. That was epic. Yeah, I was like halfway terrifying and like halfway relaxing.
Thomas Mooney 34:55
Yeah. It's a it's it's very much a text. This thing Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 35:02
I don't know. I
Mike Harmeier 35:03
mean, it was you know, it was it was. The sky was gorgeous. But you can't see five feet in front of your face. Yeah. But you're floating it. Yeah. Just go where it's good. Yeah, yes. Just Just get into it, I think is the key. Yeah, I mean, think about it. Wherever the river takes me.
Thomas Mooney 35:22
Yeah, well, I mean, it's only gonna go really one place.
Mike Harmeier 35:25
I mean, hopefully it goes back to where my camp is.
Thomas Mooney 35:30
You guys had a record last year Mockingbird? Well, I guess like, where are you at right now? Are you? Are you guys even thinking about doing the next record? Am I thinking about? Are you? Yeah, I
Mike Harmeier 35:42
mean, it was hard for me to talk for me to write. I don't write on the road. I just had to be like, in my little zone in my house. So I'm always nervous when it comes down to that, that I had a maybe a week off. It was very recently. And my wife had gone to Burning Man with her parents and her sister. And so I was basically I didn't Sue. Yeah. And parents. Yeah. Yeah, they dragged her last year. It was awesome. So they were gone for like that whole week. It was like two weeks ended up being two weeks, they were gone. And I just wrote and wrote and wrote a read. And it was like that faucet was turned back on or something. So I'm feeling really good about the sounds we have now. So I'm ready to go in. But we just recorded a live record that we did, we had three nights at the winstar casino and thackerville Yeah, and we recorded all three nights and then pick the best of the tracks. And so we're just now like, I'm getting, I just got the last mixes of it back now. So I'm kind of like, you know, focused on that record right now. Basically, I wanted to have something new to sell and like have and promote during steamboat. Yeah. So we're gonna put that record out for pre order on Thanksgiving. Try to make it go live on like December 30. Play in New Year's show, and then go to steamboat with the record. Yeah. So pretty much after that comes out. And I'm done with that. I'm ready to go in the studio. And Adam oder did our live record, which blew me away. It was amazing. And it mixes are great. Like, I don't know, I can't say enough good things about it. So we had a really good report going with him. So I think I'm probably gonna do a record with him out in Wimberley. Yeah. Coming up, you know, probably I would say early on the year, man, like January, February, I'll start working on it. Yeah. So I know it probably been in like another late summer release or something like that, you know?
Thomas Mooney 37:38
Yeah. What do you what do you, I guess uses the basis for like a live record. Do you even have like a couple ideas? Like what you think? Let's try and make our live record Like this? Like, what do you? Well,
Mike Harmeier 37:52
I thought about that. But, you know, my deal is, I listen, I listen to a lot of live records going into the recording of that one. Yes, I kind of want to get some sort of inspiration to it. And there's, I have a lot of my favorite records. I mean, there's probably three or four that are like Live albums that I just love. But I quickly kind of realized, like, I didn't want to really do that. Like, that's why we did it. I was in a casino like I wanted, I haven't heard one at casinos. So like I wanted to, like hear all the jackpot noises and stuff in the you know, in the slot machines going off. Yeah, and we definitely have that on the record. So I kinda want to take a different approach to it. I call it a duty glide record. It's like, I described it to somebody today as like, if David Lynch had a Honky Tonk band, and he recorded a live record.
Thomas Mooney 38:40
Man, David Lynch, the Twin Peaks.
Mike Harmeier 38:44
Yeah, man. It's pretty good. It's kind of off the wall. And like, I mean, that the set, we kind of played the set, we had been playing that for the past couple months, because we had it locked down. And, you know, a live record is supposed to be that kind of a time capsule of where you're at and what you sound like. Yeah, so, you know, I had that in mind. I knew we were going to just do no overdubs, just straight in. You know, there's mistakes all over it, of course. But I did that, man. I mean, it's like, all those like the the J Jeff stuff live, like green and all the stuff they did looking back. Yeah, like, I just liked the feel of it. You know, like, nobody cared if there was some flubs or whatever. Yeah. And so I kind of took that and ran with it. I mean, we didn't make mistakes on purpose, obviously. But yeah. didn't care if we did. Yeah. You know,
Thomas Mooney 39:28
I always love going back and listening to all the, I guess, like, the Bootleg Series By Dylan. Sure. Because like those first, not the first one through three because it's really just all outtake kind of stuff. But like four or five, six. They're like, just live shows. One with the band one with like, Rolling Thunder. And then one, like a, like Joan Baez, right? Bad era. I don't think she's on all the songs but you know, sure. That's really cool seeing cow Like a guy, obviously, it's Dylan he's able to do show different phases of his career. I think that's really cool to see if you know how bands are able to. If you're like, if you, I don't know, like so many bands just do like that one live record. Yeah. But if you're able to get like three, oh, I'm already ready to do your for some like that, like you're able to show the differences, you know?
Mike Harmeier 40:24
Yeah, I mean I have I have some bootlegs of some old shows that we did like years and years ago, we first started like, that would never make the cut to be like a live record, but you know, seeing the progression for sure. Yeah. And hopefully in five or 610 years, maybe again, dude, Allen, probably sooner than 10. But yeah, yeah. It's, it's, I want to have a catalog like that, where you see the development of the band.
Thomas Mooney 40:49
Yeah. Now, I know. Like, well, Greene, who just had that right.
Mike Harmeier 40:53
today. It's awesome.
Thomas Mooney 40:55
Yeah. And, you know, we talked a little bit about how that first one, this one right here, he wanted to be a, this is what the band sells lives. And, you know, even though it does have some special guests on it, some cameos. He didn't want it to be like be like the all star studded kind of thing. But he has it like on a list. You know, like, I want to do a record where it's like, I do, you know, drunk on desire with Charlie shafter. And I do. I can't even think I guess like remedy with Brandon Adams.
Mike Harmeier 41:31
It's like, you know, he's
Thomas Mooney 41:32
like, words, you were able to get those 10? Guys 10 you kind
Mike Harmeier 41:36
of turn it into a conceptual live album.
Unknown Speaker 41:39
Yeah. I
Mike Harmeier 41:39
mean, and that's that's like a that's a really cool way to think about it. Because, I mean, yeah, you can do so many different things with a live record. You can have it all guests like, like right now, like we did you know, we were at the winstar. So we kind of had like to throw a party for the night. Yeah. But we have a lot of balances that we just don't play at the show. So like, I already have an idea that I want to do on like a DVD taping, like intimate thing. And we basically play all the ballots. And we kind of do like a really slow hockey talk thing.
Thomas Mooney 42:05
Yeah. Um, but yeah,
Mike Harmeier 42:07
so it's like, you know, another concept you can do?
Thomas Mooney 42:09
Yeah. It really is cool to see. Because there's so many ideas for the live record. Right. You know, there is that intimate setting is like, if you're the song swap. Sure. You know, like, just the, like, the cameo and then also just like different places. Yeah. You know, it all depends on where you're doing it.
Mike Harmeier 42:31
Yeah. I never thought my first one would be. Yes. You know, in Oklahoma. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 42:36
Which, you know, when he said, like, I don't think anyone's done it. You know, I'm going through my head like now, I don't really think there is like, there's not a casino record.
Mike Harmeier 42:46
I'm all about it. Like, I posted something on Facebook. The other day is like, when you hear the live record. And if you think your phone's ringing. It's not really your phone ring. It's just like some lucky grandma winning a jackpot. Yeah, like across from the stage.
Thomas Mooney 43:01
Yeah. The I guess it was a couple of weeks back, me my grandma went gambling in Hobbs or at in, I guess, in hubs at hubs, at the hubs, casino, whatever it is. And, like, I fuckin lost all my like, just like that quickly. And I go and find her, which is also one of those strange things like you're like, you can find your grandma. Easy. And because no, you can. It's just like, gogue grandma sitting there. Like, is that hurt? And I really, I was like, Oh, my God, like, I had to put, I don't know, put her in the hat or something. I don't know. But anyways, like when I found her Finally, like, she had like four or five tickets, which she had, you know, cashed out on and they're all you know, I guess like, one of them was, like, 901 was like, 350 or something like that. And she like, you know, I was like, Yeah, like, yeah,
Mike Harmeier 43:57
I live with a ticket for like, 35 cents.
Thomas Mooney 44:00
Yeah, that's what happens, man.
Mike Harmeier 44:02
I always know. Like, how much I'm gonna get paid that night. They were playing the casino. And that's about how much I'm willing to lose. Like, I'll just do the show for free. Yeah. and have a good time, basically. Yeah. I mean, it could work out where I doubled my money. Yeah. But if I lose, at least it's just one free night of playing guitar for an hour.
Thomas Mooney 44:19
Yeah. Me and Charlie stout went to I guess it was Hobbs as well. Like we're on our way back from Alpine. And we had stopped in Hobbs and he's like, Hey, you want to go game? I was like, Yeah, I don't have like, really any cash. And I'm not gonna pull out cash to do this. But sure. And so I think I had like, four or five bucks, just like in cash. And that went that quickly for Shane. Like he had, I don't know, you'd went to the restroom or something like that. And it was already gone, you know? And he was like, Well, you know, is that Oh, you're gonna play it. I was like, No, I'm not gonna go to an ATM or anything. So he I was just watching him play, which basically what I did was I bought like a $7 cup of coffee. Right? And then I watched the data and watched it play. Yeah. I guess we were there probably an hour or something like that and was like, well, let's just go.
Mike Harmeier 45:12
Yeah, more self control than I do again. I see those ATMs and I'm just gonna do it. Yeah. Especially with because I go to there for three days for that live record. Like, it's like, go lay in the hotel room, and then you just lay there for a while. I was like, man, I gotta get back down there and try to get my money back. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 45:26
That's the problem. It's like you just start thinking, man. It's a difficult situation, man. Yeah, I was fun, though. It is the part like I think like people you
Mike Harmeier 45:37
have to remember it's like, going to a casino is like going to like an amusement park or like a waterpark is on it's like, you got to pay a lot of money. But just go there for the experience and have a good time with it. That's just what that was the cost of admission? Yeah, you know, and you can kill a lot of time, you know, just sitting at a slash
Thomas Mooney 45:54
Yeah, my parents they were once I'm went to Rio del so on, like vacation and like, they had never really ever gone gambling. So like, we drove up to the the casino and I had to like, wait in the car. They both like had like, 220s or something like that. I don't know, like, wasted that money and like 20 minutes came out. And they're like, Yeah, well, I guess like, that's like, it's run its course, like for us like we don't have to go gambling again.
Unknown Speaker 46:24
You know, I'm
Thomas Mooney 46:25
like, whatever I go, I don't. Looking back on it. I'm like, Well, okay, I guess fun. I mean, my dad did not look like he had fun at all. That's for sure. I don't know he. I don't know. It's but looking back at my childhood to like they they were the they played the same lotto numbers. Yeah. So they had like the four or five lines. And they played those numbers every time somebody is bearish. But like five years, or something, I don't know. Maybe not five years, but like four or five years in a row. And
Unknown Speaker 47:01
he's gonna hit it.
Thomas Mooney 47:02
I mean, they got like, four or five numbers a couple of times. Just gotta go. Quick pick man.
Mike Harmeier 47:05
Quick.
Thomas Mooney 47:08
Whenever like the Powerball gets, like, high up. And like everyone's playing. Yeah, like, I'll go and buys like a lot of tickets. And when if you don't play again, like that's, it's one of those things those like, you get it already in your head like, well, you start like mapping out shit is not gonna happen. Then you're disappointed, right?
Mike Harmeier 47:30
Man, that jets gonna be awesome.
Thomas Mooney 47:34
Yeah, you start like reading advice online. Remember, like, the last time we got so high. I don't remember what the numbers were. But like Mark Cuban was talking. And it was like, my advice to anybody who like wins this. Like, don't think like, you're gonna be taking this money and investing, right? Like just put it in the bank. And like, just leave it in the bank. And like, you'll make more money that way. Yeah, my interest, then you think off of like, investing in companies. That's like where you're gonna mess up.
Mike Harmeier 48:06
I love how that first part. The first thought that most people have when they talk about like winning that lotto is like, but I won't win all of it because of taxes. They're gonna take some Yeah, that's really the big concern. Yeah. The tax government's gonna.
Thomas Mooney 48:19
We're like, Well, you know, there's so many people playing. I'm gonna have to split it. You
Mike Harmeier 48:24
know? My luck. There's gonna be 10 people. If that's your luck, did you find like, Oh,
Thomas Mooney 48:32
yeah, man. It is a gambling, gambling.
Unknown Speaker 48:41
It's a it's fun, though.
Mike Harmeier 48:43
I love it. I got it. I got it. We have so many gigs coming up. But the winstar There you go. Yeah, they I mean, basically we play there for free. Well, we give them we give it all back then. Yeah. But it's all worth it in buffet vouchers.
Thomas Mooney 48:59
Yeah, what do you what do you how do you even had you set up the like the live recording there? Did you have to get permission? I did. Yeah.
Mike Harmeier 49:07
We had to go like all the way to the top to like the as it I can't remember what Indian nation it is. But like they had to sign off on it. They had I mean, we have a contract with them now. Like, I still have to submit artwork to them to approve on what it's going to be and I think it was like a no cursing thing on there. And the contract Really? Yeah. I mean, they were really cool. I mean, they were back to us in like a day like they were all about it. Yeah, I play there a lot and and the people that book it really like us and we because we play there all the time. But I was like, super stoked. That was like a nervous day when we submitted that. No, they didn't even let us come in there and do that. Yeah. But yeah, it went all the way it's we have a contract now with like, whatever Indian nation that is that owns that thing. Yeah, it's pretty cool actually. And they also say that if every lawsuit comes up with something dealing with the album, like if we get sued or something like that, based on that record, that the Indian nation will represent us and really
Thomas Mooney 50:06
just have to record all the records.
Mike Harmeier 50:09
Yeah, that's working out pretty good for me. I need to like set up a studio or something, then we might do another one there. I don't know. That'd be interesting.
Thomas Mooney 50:17
Yeah. Going back to like your, you were saying, I guess, the new material that you're working on? How have you grown as like a songwriter? How do you when you look back on what you're writing, not necessarily at the beginning of your career, but like, even just two years back?
Mike Harmeier 50:43
It's weird, I noticed a little progression. And like, I really, and I used to say it all the time. It's like, I like to write country cliches. And like, I kind of like, stuff that's timeless. You know, I could, George Jones lyrics. They worked there. And they work now. You know. And so I always kind of stuck that and thought about that when I was writing. I think, since then, I've kind of gotten away from it. Being so stuck to that. I find myself writing more story songs now. I guess I have more life experience that I can put into that kind of thing. Now. I used to never write anything, any stories where they it was always just like a beer drinking, you know, either a sad bastard song or something like that. I tend to think I'm writing more about other people to create an outsider's perspective, I guess I'm kind of developing a different kind of style. But I hope that evolves to Yeah, you know, I mean, I would hate to be writing the same kind of thing forever. Yeah. So I mean, that's kind of with the Mockingbird. With that record. Those songs were all kind of based on cliches of songs that I grew up listening to. So I kind of fit that into the whole idea of the album. Even with the music. Yeah, with the band. kind of played on those things. Like Steve Earle sounded thing, like we're gonna have this like baritone guitar thing happening. Yeah. So yeah, I just feel like, it's just different now. I think I'm getting better at it.
Thomas Mooney 52:12
Yeah. What do you even do? Show the songs to
Mike Harmeier 52:16
the band? late, late in the game, dude. A couple of people, a couple of the guys in the band have heard it just from like, I did a couple of song swaps this week, or this week, and then I'm trying them out and song swaps? Yeah. I got in trouble with the last record. Because we started, we need a material basically. And so we try to play in the songs a lot live. Which was awesome. But it took us like over a year, maybe two to make that record. So by the time we The record was out, we've been playing those songs for two years. Yeah. So I don't want to find myself in that same position. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm kind of trying to hold off to late late, late in the game. And another thing is, is I want to, we're probably going to bring in another outside producer for the next record. And I, in the back of my mind, I really want to just go in with the band hasn't heard anything. We walk in there with a producer and I just play the songs and then it just happens naturally. Yeah, instead of us trying to work it out beforehand. And trying not to I'm trying not to write. I guess that's kind of a lie. I say that I'm trying not to write to the show. Because I don't want to get in that groove either. Yeah. As it happens, sometimes it just happens. Because like, you start playing a song. It's like, how is this gonna work at the show? Yeah. So I think this kind of helped me from that too, and will play more to the song rather than just like what I think it's going to work on. On stage. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, probably. I won't show it to him until the day we get rehearsal time or studio time. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 53:45
Like I was gonna ask, like, how do they feel about that?
Mike Harmeier 53:48
I think they're into it, man. Like, you know, we never rehearse like, we just play. If we're gonna if we're going to play a new song if we got a new cover or something. Even we are learning songs for Mockingbird. We just did a soundcheck. Yeah. So we like we haven't been I don't think we had a rehearsal. This whole all of 2016 like we never been in a room that wasn't onstage. Yeah, just plan. So I don't know how I don't know if that makes them uncomfortable or not. But I think it works to our benefit. I'll just leave them in the dark. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 54:24
I think it'll work out.
Thomas Mooney 54:26
Well, I mean, they're gonna have to adapt somewhere. Yeah,
Mike Harmeier 54:29
yeah, they'll dig. There's another gig coming. There's another paycheck. Yeah. Just Just trust me. Yeah. Well, you want to go grab a beer. Yes, please.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai