Down The Highway

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjunjrkToAI)

DTH MIKE WATT Interview

This exclusive and rare performance of Alain Whyte performing one of his rarely heard original tunes is part of a full interview Ian did with Alain and will be up later this month. This special preview of Alain's performance will only be up this week and then it will be taken down and come back later along with the full interview. Use our special Password to watch. MOZCLUB We Hope you Enjoy it! http://vimeo.com/downthehighwaytheshow/specialpreview

Down The Highway: Music, Travel and Motorcycles...the coolest music based reality how out today!

Mike Watt & Ian Harrower Party With me Punker We want to keep giving you all great interviews of amazing artists. Donate and pass around our link. Donate here: http://bit.ly/1sYaVFI

Where The Highway meets the music Combining the raw power of American music and the thrill of the open road, Down the Highway is a new music interview web show hosted by musician and motorcyclist Ian Harrower. Riding city to city on a 1967 Triumph TR6C, Harrower drops in on such mainstays of American roots music as Social Distortion guitarist Jonny Wickersham; poet, artist, and X vocalist Exene Cervenka; and former Black Flag frontman / OFF! vocalist, Keith Morris and The Blasters lead man Phil Alvin. The palette of American music is rendered wide and includes jazz, punk, blues, country, and folk. Interviewees are not solely limited to musicians, but include influential guitar makers, studio engineers, and painters and photographers who are inspired by the rhythms of music made in the USA. Interviews present a complete picture of these musical legends and include windows into to the musical, historical, and artistic influences that shaped them. Viewers discover the artists' respective inspirations and gain an understanding of the significant social issues of the time as well as the subjects' take on current social, political, and musical climates. Show host Ian Harrower can't remember a time in his life without music; his father built custom instruments and hosted jam sessions in the family living room. At age 13, Harrower discovered punk rock and started playing live shows, later widening his musical education with country, bluegrass, blues, Cajun, soul, and early pop. A one-man rhythm section who's performed with various outfits as percussionist/bassist, he's also proficient with the dobro, up right Bass, autoharp, mandolin, banjo, accordion and trumpet. In his 20s he started writing music for film and television. Down the Highway melds Harrower's gift of gab and lifelong love of all things musical, infused with the enticing lure of the open road. www.downthehighway.net

DOWN THE HIGHWAY - T-Model Ford INTERVIEW

It was a real pleasure to have Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham on Down The Highway. There are many interesting things about Jonny as a player and a person, but what I find the most interesting is how our lives are very similar. Jonny’s solo record that has been finished recently reflects how all types of music have influenced his song writing. There’s a definite Americana and roots feel to the record along with rock-n-roll. Those are forms of American music that I seem to have gravitated toward as my music matures. We have in common growing up in the same basic area of Orange County, CA and share a similar start to life. We both grew up in very musical households with our fathers being musicians. This made it very easy for both of us to start playing music. This similar background made it easy for me to talk with him about his start in music and the role that Orange County may or may not have had in his path with music. Jonny has been in several of my favorite Orange County bands, big and small. On one hand we’ve played on the same bill here and there over the years and on the other hand I’ve seen him play on huge stages in front of staggering amounts of people. That right there is something that I find most interesting about a musical career in general. There are several bands from Orange County that defined my buddies and I growing up and defined our home. Social Distortion is definitely at the top of that list. That band has been there from the start of punk rock in southern California and is still absolutely relevant today. Jonny landing that gig is something that most of us could only dream of. He deserves it and is doing a great job! I remember thinking how great it was for someone that I used to play shows with in small clubs landing the Social Distortion gig. It kind of makes you feel that YOU may have a shot at something great in music as well. Maybe that things are possible to you that once seemed impossible. Jonny put in his time with music and some great bands prior to Social Distortion, but being that I’m a guy from Orange County, so is Jonny, and so is Social Distortion, it becomes a union that I am very proud of and I can’t wait to see what’s next for the band and for Jonny!

Jonny and Ian just after preforming "Clay wheels".

Iʼm super excited that my good friend Alain Whyte was able to take the time to do an interview and performance for Down The Highway. Not only is Alain the nicest guy in the world, but he is an immense talent. Alain plays guitar riffs that I could never do on my best day with no effort at all! He and I have played in a band together and have done some songwriting/recording together. I have to tell you that his knowledge of music and how it works is vast. Itʼs an absolute pleasure to work with Alain in any capacity with music. I will say that when I first started working with Alain, I was absolutely intimidated by his talent, but he is so humble about his ability that you just simply forget who you are working with. Alain and I have very similar taste in music and I think that makes it very easy for us to produce songs that make us both excited. He is very complimentary about my “ability”, but I always think to myself, “Who the fuck am I for Alain Whyte to compliment me?” Whatever my insecurities are, doesnʼt matter! Alain is a fantastic person to work with. I wanted to include Alain in the “Los Angeles” episode, because he is originally from England and spent most of his music career living there. It wasnʼt until just a few years ago that he decided to make Los Angeles his home. For someone to move across an ocean to be somewhere they think is the place to be for their career is very interesting to me. Alain will sum it all up for you in the “Los Angeles” episode of Down The Highway!

Sitting down with Mike Watt was an amazing experience! We met him in his studio that heʼs had for many, many years and I have to say there couldnʼt be a better location to have a creative space. The studio sits atop a hill in San Pedro, CA. If you look off to the west, nothing but blue Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. When you look down south, a complete view of San Pedro harbor and the Port Of Los Angeles. Of course, a perfect ocean breeze is blowing steady. Mike has been a steady figure in the L.A. and American punk/rock scene for a long time. Many great bands and albums have come from Mike. So, I was more than excited to have him be a part of the show! The interview with Mike was particularly memorable for a few reasons. The format of filming segments for Down The Highway usually has me interviewing the person first, then doing the musical performance afterward. I feel like after we talk and warm up to each other, it makes the playing part a little easier and gives us a certain connection.  The second we walked into Mikeʼs studio, he plugged in his bass and started playing “Party With Me Punker”. Thatʼs the Minutemen song we decided to do. I just sat down and started jamming it with him. Why not? After a few minutes of messing around with the song, I said something about him singing the song and getting a take of it later. It was then that he informed me that I would be singing the song. Holy shit!!! First off, I didnʼt prepare for that at all, and I wasnʼt really a singer at that time. I begged and pleaded with him to sing it......he refused! The funny thing is that I actually had all of the lyrics written down as cues for when we played the song. There really arenʼt any chord changes in the song, so I needed some kind of reference point. I decided to suck it up and do it. We made it through the song pretty flawlessly. If you watch that performance on the Los Angeles episode of Down The Highway youʼll see me glancing down at the lyrics sitting on the floor while we were taping the performance! I never bothered to learn them all the way through, because up until the moment I was in the room with Mike I thought he was singing the song. Thatʼs a very terrifying position to be in. Filming a show with someone that youʼve never met before, performing a song with someone youʼve never met before, and learning that you have to do a major part of the song right now, on camera, with no practice. Terrifying! We made it through and the reason Iʼm telling this story is the compliment Mike gave me after. He said great job! D Boon would have loved that version! D Boon was Mikeʼs singer/guitar player in The Minutemen and best friend. D Boon passed away a while back, so getting that compliment was amazing, but also very heavy and I feel Mike actually meant it.  This leads me to the interview itself. A conversation about music can take any turn it wants. Mike and I had a great talk about music, but there are some dark things that Mike has dealt with in his career and life. Our conversation took that turn and became very intense and real. He has dealt with losing his best friend and band mate, dealing with serious illness which almost took his life, and everything in between. Make sure you watch this segment of the show carefully. Itʼs quite a roller coaster of emotion. I thank him very much for letting us into his life.

Mike Watt Interview

Big day tomorrow back to back interviews with Jonny Wickersham from Social Distortion and from Echo Park Guitars Craftsman Gabriel Curry. Awesome!

Getting the opportunity to interview Exene Cervenka was unbelievable! I have been a huge fan of her music since being introduced to punk at age 13. Whatʼs interesting about her and the different bands that sheʼs been in is how different each band is from the next. X is a staple in any good record collection, but Exene also has been doing a band for many years with John Doe and DJ Bonebreak from X and Dave Alvin from The Blasters called The Knitters. They are a totally roots based country, americana, blues-y outfit. I really love The Knitters. It was funny to see these punk legends playing stripped down acoustic country when I was first getting into punk, because I just wanted to slam dance and be pissed off like punk is supposed to make you feel. I was instantly drawn to what The Knitters were doing, though. I donʼt think I could fight my love of americana roots music from the start! Exene was so easy to be around from the second Down The Highway arrived at her door. She made us feel like old friends stopping by for a visit. We received the grand tour right away. Exene brought us straight into her art studio (which is where we did the interview for the Los Angeles episode) and started telling us about her art and different collections of items. A studio like that and the possessions inside are all very private things to most people, but Exene let us right in to her world. That is something Iʼll never forget. Exeneʼs story and stories are great to listen to. Sheʼs full of information that youʼll see in the show. We had some of our most interesting conversations before and after the cameras were rolling about conspiracy theories and other things unrelated to music.  She definitely knows exactly who she is, what she wants, where sheʼs been, what she believes in and she doesnʼt mind telling you about it!

Iʼm super excited that my good friend Alain Whyte was able to take the time to do an interview and performance for Down The Highway. Not only is Alain the nicest guy in the world, but he is an immense talent. Alain plays guitar riffs that I could never do on my best day with no effort at all! He and I have played in a band together and have done some songwriting/recording together. I have to tell you that his knowledge of music and how it works is vast. Itʼs an absolute pleasure to work with Alain in any capacity with music. I will say that when I first started working with Alain, I was absolutely intimidated by his talent, but he is so humble about his ability that you just simply forget who you are working with. Alain and I have very similar taste in music and I think that makes it very easy for us to produce songs that make us both excited. He is very complimentary about my “ability”, but I always think to myself, “Who the fuck am I for Alain Whyte to compliment me?” Whatever my insecurities are, doesnʼt matter! Alain is a fantastic person to work with. I wanted to include Alain in the “Los Angeles” episode, because he is originally from England and spent most of his music career living there. It wasnʼt until just a few years ago that he decided to make Los Angeles his home. For someone to move across an ocean to be somewhere they think is the place to be for their career is very interesting to me. Alain will sum it all up for you in the “Los Angeles” episode of Down The Highway!