[00:00:12] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the martial arts podcast. I'm Rick Marshall. In the last episode, I talked to tattoo artist Bridget Punsilang of bittersweet Blackbird tattoo Studio in Clifton park. In this episode, I sit down with award winning, locally based musician Brian Thomas, better known as Buggy Jive.
We discuss his music, the brilliant videos he creates for his songs, and the current crop of projects that have brought him out of his basement studio, back to the stage, and yes, into this podcast recording studio, Buggy. It's a little surreal to be sitting here with you. I'm not sure if you know this, but I started working at the now defunct Newsweekly Metroland. It was my first full time journalism gig about two decades ago, just a little while after your second album, ones and zeros, was named their album of the year, I was living above the music shack on Central Avenue, writing for Metroland, living that life, and I distinctly remember hearing your music for the first time in Metroland's newsroom. Someone was playing it on their computer, and even through those terrible tinny speakers of a late nineties PC, it sounded amazing. And it seemed like everyone around me was talking about it and playing that album and your first one, radio plastic Jennifer, during this sort of formative point in my life and career. So they have a certain importance to me as well. I don't think we ever met back then. So I just kind of want to start off by rewinding a little bit and asking you how the reception to those early albums resonated with you and shaped what was to come. Looking back at it now, it's funny.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Cause it's funny you say radio plastic Jenner for two. Cause I was always afraid of Metroland.
It just seemed like such a big deal to get written up in the Metroland. And the review for my first album was, I felt like there was a lot of sideways, left handed compliments because I'm me, I probably read it completely wrong, but I was like, they don't like me. I'm not one of the cool kids. After the first album. And it was.
I don't know, it kind of, you know, made me sad a little bit. I don't know. I don't know. But. So it's. It's interesting to hear you talking about.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: I clarify that I did not write no, no, no.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: And, you know, you know, the person who wrote the review, it's fine, or whatever. And again, I was probably reading too much into it. Everyone else who I talked to said, no, it was a good review. I'm like, oh, I don't know, because I am a sensitive soul or whatever, but it's. It.
Yeah. Ones and zeros. That. That's funny.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: That was album of the year.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I forgot that.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: I remember coming in, everyone was talking about Brian Thomas's new album. It's great. It's great. And I remember hearing it play all around there, and I had no idea, to be honest. I had no idea who you were at that point. I came in, I heard it, and I was like, whoa, who is this? So, yeah.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Well, thank you. Thank you.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Well, you've released a long list of albums since those days. I spent a little while down in New York City for a few years. A lot of your work, though, was still on my radar because I had a lot of friends upstate and the magic of that early Internet era.
But it was wild that a while later, at another big point in all of our lives, I really reconnected with your music. During the COVID lockdown in 2020, your song ain't going anywhere became one of my favorite pieces of art to come out of that weird, lonely time. And there was a lot of art to come out of it.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: How damn, it feels good to be hiding from all y'all how damn, it feels good I ain't even gonna call y'all.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: You hadn't been doing many live shows before lockdown, and I know when you were recording a lot from your basement, I'd been working from home for years, too, in my own basement office. So people like you and I were kind of doing that distancing thing all along. But the lockdown sort of codified it, and you really captured that in the song. Can you talk a little bit about the genesis of ain't going anywhere? Because for me, that song is the anthem for the lockdown year.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: So my.
[00:04:32] Speaker C: Plaque isn't going anywhere.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: It's funny. I mean, usually songs, for me start with the music. So I probably had the riff on guitar, and it usually starts with a mistake. You know, you play the wrong chord and you're like, oh, that sounds interesting. So I probably. I definitely had the groove first, but that is the first time I think I wrote a song where I had the concept for the video, so they kind of supported each other. Cause in the video, I'm going around, like, announcing the things that are in the room. Kind of like, I didn't think of it at the time, but it's kind of like the police when the world is running down, and he's talking about, you know, James Brown and the Tammy show. He's got his VCR and all these stuff that he needs, you know, almost like a post apocalyptic thing. And that's kind of what I was thinking of when I wrote that song, too. It's like this apocalyptic, you know, hiding out in my.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: In my basement window.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Yeah. In my little shelter.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: I love that little peek at your life, too, because it felt very similar to what I was going through at the time. There were these things that, you know, brought me joy. They sparked joy for me around my basement office, around my house. And you were giving this little tour in the video of things and singing about them, and there was this love for them that really came across. Yeah, these are things that keep me going.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah.
I don't like to call it a man cave, but I guess that's what it is. It's a home. It's a little basement studio. And I've got my, you know, my Joanie posters and Prince posters and, you know, memorabilia and stuff hanging around the room.
[00:06:10] Speaker C: Everything I need is in my basement, y'all. I got a signed dils print of Joanie. I got a Jony book sign by Joanie. I got a real deal password of a minor bird. I got the best damn records that you never heard. I got a planet eight record book prophecy. I got Richard prize, staying up philosophy.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Well, after ain't going anywhere, you recorded a song for NPR's tiny desk contest that I wanted to ask you about, too. Don't quit your day job. And in addition to it being another great piece of music, it also highlighted another element of your work that has always impressed me. Your videos for your songs. Yeah, the video for don't quit your day job, you play alongside four clones of yourself as the camera pans around your basement, and it's so cleverly done. Seamless. Can you give me some background on the song and the video for it? And maybe how you approach creating videos for your music, because that flexes different artistic muscles.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: And that is the second song where I had the video in mind as I was writing the song.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Really?
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, the part where it's like there's four of me, I mention in the second verse because there are four clones. There was gonna be five, but I couldn't make the fifth one work.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: I'm just so curious how you ended up filming that, because there's a seamless mask in there.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: It's the same camera that I use for the ain't going anywhere music video. It's a GoPro 360, so it's got a lens on the front, a lens on the back, and it captures the whole room.
And then in post, you can kind of pan around the room as if you're the cameraman focusing when it's really just me with the, you know, with one camera on a tripod in the. Don't care. And then I just carefully kind of split. As long as the camera stays in the same place, it works. But if the camera moves, all bets are off. Yeah.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Well, in making videos for your songs, I feel like I said, it flexes some very different muscles with these. How do you find that sort of relationship between song and video and bringing both of them together?
[00:08:24] Speaker B: It's funny, we were talking about MTV News earlier, and, you know, video killed the radio star.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: It's given me a real appreciation for. Cause many artists, they can do the song, but then maybe not so much the video, but you do a great job with both.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: I'm just another singer song, right. A ridge your navel gazing, angry belly buttons done in prance get all my friends every year this time is saying entertainment.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
Sometimes I worry that, like, the video. The videos are a great way of, like, getting out there and getting, you know, eyeballs. But it's like, there's also a song there. I want your ears, too, you know, your ear holes. And sometimes, like, the videos can, you know, supersede if they're too interesting, they kind of supersede the song.
But I do have fun making them. I never really know. Like I said, the two examples you gave were two where it's like, I actually wrote the song with the video in mind, but for the most part, if something strikes me, then I'll come up with a video for it. But it's usually way after the fact, and it's usually out of nowhere.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: So you didn't plan stole my ceiling from Elliot and say, you know what? I'm gonna make a video where I go to Albany and London and Paris, and then I'm gonna make a song about it afterwards.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: That was the craziest thing, to, like, write a song and mention the Louvre in it. And I had no idea. Like, we thought we were gonna go on an alaskan cruise for vacation that year, and for whatever reason, we just wound up in Europe and we did a tour of Paris. And I was like, I mean, I gotta. I gotta just make the most of this while I'm here, because it's like, this is what I was talking about in the song. So I just went for it. But that was all completely, completely after the fact. Yeah, that was. That was the happiest accident of my tortured musical career. I would say in my feeling, when.
[00:10:42] Speaker C: I'm telling it stole my steel.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Well, it turned out very well.
We talked a bit about this in setting up the interview, too. You recently began doing some more live shows and events and performances in venues that aren't your basement, which is a big deal. You opened for Macy Gray a little while ago, and you have performance at Universal Preservation hall in Saratoga on Friday, June 14, opening for Shane of Steele. I know from personal experience that getting back into the public eye after a long stretch out of it can be, I don't know, difficult.
What has that shift been like for you? Have these live public performances been rewarding?
[00:11:27] Speaker B: It's funny. That was also a series of happy accidents, like last fall. They were just kind of. I mean, I really don't like to play shows where, like, I'm the center of attention or I don't like booking gigs myself. But if, like, weird little opportunities, like, hey, come write a song about the Troy savings bank music hall and perform it. I'm like, okay, that's fun. One song, that's my kind of gig or songwriter circles. So I did the song city one, and they just, like, in succession, they all kind of came up and they were.
And the Macy Gray show, that was like, I got the call for that like a week before the show. Wow. And it's funny because if I hadn't had the song city before it, I don't think I would have been ready for it. Cause I had to kind of woodshed to get ready for, you know, even that was just like a four or five song. And I was. Yeah, but, yeah, it just all kind of, all kind of came together with the kind of shows that I like to play. Intimate spaces, listening spaces where people are kind of listening, you know, to the lyrics and as opposed to just, you know, being background music or whatever. Yeah.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: Well, how has it felt to sort of do these performances? How do you feel like, sort of after they're done or even while they're going on? Because there is a sort of back and forth with the crowd. Sometimes in these intimate settings, you're a lot more conscious of what's going on.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Yeah, it's always surreal.
It's funny. Speaking of carrying the goPro around before the Macy Gray show, I was holding the Gopro on the tripod. Cause I wanted to capture the show, and I don't have a roadie. It's just me.
So I was waiting at the door for them to let me on. And the guy counted down. He was like, three, two, one. And you can hear me on the video going, ah.
Like, I'm screaming as I. But I, like, ran out to just. It's kind of like jumping in the water when, you know, it's cold, but, you know, you just want to get it over with. But I was literally screaming my way onto the stage, and there's. There's video evidence of that. So it's nerve wracking up to the point. But once, you know, once I start playing and get into the groove, you know, it worked.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: The song you created for that Troy, the Troy music hall one was amazing. Elvis stepped away from the mic. That was. I had not been aware, to be honest, of some of the things that you brought up in that song. And it was. I think that's sort of a hallmark of a lot of your music as I've sort of immersed myself in it, preparing for this interview. I found myself jumping on Wikipedia after I listened to a song. Like pausing a song and jumping back into it. And is that an intentional sort of thing where you are? Where you are? You know what? I want to make sure that people are aware of these things. I want to make sure this is out there in the conscience, because I feel like is. You managed to pack so much into a song.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, especially with a song like that.
Not a lot of people know that story, but I remember reading that in the pages of Rolling Stone when I was basically a kid. And I pretty much say that in the song about him being the angry young man and having some incidents back in the day. But it was important for me not just to.
To demonize them, but it's more about me. Like, how do I navigate this? When your heroes disappoint you, and they will always disappoint you. It's more about navigating that when people are kind of awful.
I have been working on some new music, and a lot of the songs are kind of about that. Like your problematic faves.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: I feel like we've been exposed to that a lot more, especially in the social media era, where people just have this automatic way to speak to everyone, and sometimes we're finding out what they have to say is not what we were hoping.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: Yeah, the greatest. And then people can respond. Now it's funny. Cause people are like, we can't do anything anymore. We can't do this. It's like, people have always been criticizing that stuff. You've just never heard it before because, you know, awful. Twitter didn't exist you know, so.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: You're just hearing about it now. But, you know, I was that kid reading about it in Rolling Stone, like, you know, 30 years ago, going, what? You know?
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Well, another thing I've always enjoyed about your music is how organically, and dare I say proudly, you weave local elements into your song.
You have found more rhymes for Schenectady than I ever thought possible over the course of sort of just. Cause I've sort of immersed myself, like I said, and just going through your albums leading up to this and, wow, that's a. I almost wanted to make a checklist of how many different things you found to rhyme with Schenectady. So is that desire to connect a very specific name and place to your songs something you set out to do? Is that local element important to you?
[00:16:38] Speaker B: It is, and it isn't like my buddy Matthew Loyakeno. He's always like, when people, like, name check local stuffs and songs, he's like, oh, that's stupid.
That's pandering or whatever.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: That's what I was wondering. Cause there are very different.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: It's a fine line. It's a fine line, you know? And there's a song I recently wrote mentions Schenectady and rhymes with Schenectady.
There was the one song I did a couple years ago for the Eddies, and it was at Proctor's, and I was thinking, and again, that was, like, my first time playing since before the pandemic. And even before the pandemic, I wasn't really playing out much. But again, a one song gig, that's something I can handle.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: I can do this.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: But I was going through my songs and I'm like, I just need something a little different. So I wound up writing a song that kind of fit my mood and whatever.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Lord help me with blow, God make me water.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: I also thought it was a coincidence that I'd played on that stage before, but the last time was my high school graduation, and in my head I was like, well, I'll just, you know, maybe I'll mention it before. I was like, I haven't been here since my high school graduation. And, like, whatever I came up with just felt too corny or ridiculous. So I was like, oh, maybe I'll, like, do, like, a smoking word bit in the middle and just.
And that just turned into this whole kind of weird tribute to my relationship to Schenectady, which led to several rhymes, including vasectomy.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: Vasectomy and Schenectady.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
So I don't know. If it was the right way to go, but that was the origin story for that one.
Y'all can see how it's affected me. Cause I will cut you like a vasectomy if you're high that ain't big enough for Schenectady.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: In your song stole by stealing from Elliot, which we brought up earlier, you sing about your influences in life and music and identity.
That song, also a brilliant video. You name drop Ralph Ellison and Erica Badew. And Joni Mitchell, of course, who's always present. It's been a few years since that song was released. I'd love to know what's influencing or inspiring you and your art these days. Are there any new additions to the list that you would say there are?
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Like, who am I listening to lately?
See, that's my downfall, is I don't listen as much as I probably should. I was a friend of mine who wants me to start doing more with music.
He's a music producer in New Orleans, dragged me to the Folk alliance conference and was in Kansas City this year, and that was really inspiring.
Kaia Kotter, I saw there. She's amazing. She's got a new album out that's killing me.
Alison Russell, who I saw a couple nights ago in Kingston, is kind of killing me.
At the folk alliance, there was this conversation about, you know, black Americans and their relationship to more traditional music. Like, well, country music, especially, but also just generally folk and Americana. And there is quite a black mafia of banjo players that are coming for you.
Let's just say that.
And it's interesting.
A lot of our relationship with the banjo is, like, it was used in the 19th century to kind of mock.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: It's a complicated relationship.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: It's super complicated.
But I do like that people are breaking down walls. And it's always been interesting. It's always been compl. Even with rock and roll, it's like, very much so. You know, black people basically invented rock and roll. And I still have problems, like, explaining to people, like, well, it's kind of. It's. It's got soul elements, but it's rock. But it's. It's rock. You play electric guitar. It's like, what? Like, what century is this? Come on, yo.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: But, you know, I remember that even being in some of the. The early reviews of your work, there was very much a. And electric guitar, as if it was sort of this weird thing.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's. It's better now, but, you know, even 1020 years ago, let alone when I was in high school or college people were like, what? What are you doing? Yeah, but it is, you know, it's all of that I grew up with, you know, with everything.
Someone's asking me what, you know, what's the first music you paid for with your own money? Like, what was the first record you bought?
And I'm like, you know, it's kind of a tie because the first album I bought with my own money was AC DC Black and black and black when I was in middle school or whatever. But the first record I asked for was the cast album for the Wiz.
And that's like, kind of like the perfect summation of, like, what my music is. It's like, you take the cast album for the Wiz and you mash it with AC DC. And that's kind of what I do.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Well, some side note that you will probably be amused by is I show the Wiz to my kids a few years back. They have yet to see the actual wizard of Oz. They have only seen the Wiz, and they are very confused when wizard of Oz references come on because they have only seen the Wiz. And I almost don't want to show them the wizard of Oz because I find it so fascinating, like how they view the story of the wizard of Oz.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Now, see, as a fourth grader, I was a little bit mad at the whiz because I thought Stephanie Mills got slighted when they gave, you know, Diana Ross fought for that role, Jack. And that was my first Broadway show. I was, what, 2nd, 3rd grade?
That was, you know, a life changing experience to see that. But I do love that movie, as weird as it is.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: Super weird.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: That whole point.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: Keep it too weird for my kids, where they're like, what is going on here?
[00:23:25] Speaker B: Post apocalyptic New York City and the cabs that won't take them anywhere. I love it. The subway scene, still. I still have nightmares about that.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: Well, I just had to. I didn't even think about that until you brought up the Wiz. So I had to share that with you, and I figured you'd appreciate that.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: I do.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: Well, your most recent album was the ghost of Alexander, and it feels like we've come full circle in this conversation here because that album was so wonderfully received and won album of the year at the Eddie awards.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: It makes me sound like I'm actually doing something.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So what's next for you? What's on the horizon?
[00:24:00] Speaker B: I have a new album coming out. Yeah.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: I am very excited about this news.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: I didn't want to say anything.
You gave me a little preview of it, and I didn't want to spoil it.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: I think by the time this airs, I think the cat will be out of the bag. But I know we're supposed to have, like, a six month game plan and a rollout, and it's the Internet, so you gotta release singles and not albums or whatever, but, you know, it's like.
I just. I don't know, I just feel like I wanna get it out there. So it will officially be on streaming services, I believe, on juneteenth, June 19.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Excellent.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: I think I'll do a soft launch, like the day of the show at Universal Preservation hall.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: That's June 14.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: Yep. And introduce some of the songs there. Maybe I'll post some. You know, by the time this airs, maybe this will all have already happened. But I do kind of make it up as I go along as far as, like, getting the word out and putting it on social media, which I'm not, just not the biggest fan of social media lately.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: It's rough to juggle all of the things, both the actual apps that are out there and all of the baggage that they all carry.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: There's a lot of baggage. It turns people into their worst selves because people see outrageous stuff on there and then they comment on it, and then all of a sudden they're just amplifying it, really.
[00:25:30] Speaker A: I just had a conversation with my daughter on the way to school today about that included the never read the comments advice. Some of the best advice I can give you as a parent and just never read the comments. Like, as someone who has been writing in an online forum for. Yeah, I can't even imagine, I can tell you that you should never read the comments.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: They're always off.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Well, Professor Boogie Jive, it has been a real pleasure to talk to you. I can't say enough about how much I was looking forward to this experience because you have been this presence sort of in my life and career for so long now, just as a sort of music that's accompanied a lot of big moments, whether it was my first full time journalism gig, you were playing in the background there and then during COVID when the world was locked down, I was listening to ain't going anywhere. And so this has been wonderful, and this interview has made me certain that I don't want to quit my day job.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: See what you did there? I may still want to quit mine.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: Well, I can't wait to hear the new album, and I can't wait to hear all of the great things that you are going to be doing in the future here as you do more live performances and all of this sort of stuff. And I'm really looking forward to it.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Well, thank you. It's just been a trip. I can't believe we'd never met.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: That's crazy, right?
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Like, we have so many mutuals and stuff. I just don't.
It happens.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: Well, going forward, we'll stay on each other's radar. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Thanks a lot, buggy thank you.
This has been the martial arts podcast with guest Brian Thomas, also known as Buggy Jive, whose music was also heard at various points throughout the episode. You can learn more about Buggy Jive and his
[email protected]. dot thanks for listening to this episode of Martial Arts. If you like what you heard and want to hear more, make sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. For more coverage of the region's arts and entertainment scene, head to DailyGazette.com and Nippertown online.
This episode was produced by me, Rick Marshall for the Daily Gazette. If there's a local art story or artist you'd like to hear more about on this podcast, you can contact
[email protected] or via social media.
Thanks for listening.
