Episode 1: Josiah Mazzaschi & Leslie Sisson

Josh Caldwell: Hi, my name is Josh Caldwell, and this is Atypical Daydream, a podcast about life on the road. I got the name from a Grateful Dead lyric from the song Truckin'. "Chicago, New York, Detroit, it's all the same street. Your typical city involved in a typical daydream."

But I like the idea of an atypical daydream. If you're stuck in an office, then you dream about getting out and freedom. But if you're stuck in a van or a bus, then your daydreams are gonna be about, I don't know, something else. This is what I'm here to find out. I wanna know what it means to be a modern nomad. I'm here to share these tales of people twisted, surprised, changed, shook, and delighted from their time on the road. Rich experiences and tiny sweet vignettes. I think these stories reveal the everyday magic we all long to feel.

Welcome to Atypical Daydream. I'm Josh, your host, and this is actually my first episode, which is awesome. It's been a long time coming, like two years in the making. My first guest is Josiah Mazzaschi. He's a musician, writer, producer. His bands include Light FM, Bizou, and his most recent project, Child Seat. Josiah has been in this game for a while, and he reminds us that touring is not an easy path to travel. And sometimes others' misfortunes might get you the money you need for your next meal or a place to sleep.

Josiah Mazzaschi: Yeah, I've been in bands for a while. I had a band in Chicago called Motorhome in the 90s, kind of like a noisy shoegaze band. Our biggest influences were like My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver and Lush. But we kind of got lumped into that whole Chicago signing spree. I had a friend who got a $2 million record deal, which is unheard of these days. We actually got offered a major label deal through Warner Brothers and we ended up turning that down because it was like DIY, indie rock, do it yourself, fuck your corporate music. But looking back now, I was like, man, I wish I grabbed that whatever $50,000 advance.

But it was like "sign your life away" deals that bands were getting, and a lot of those bands were getting signed, but they were like a tax write-off for the record companies and their record would never come out. They’d basically be in debt forever to these large corporations. I went to the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. I would make cassette demos. That's how I got into recording really, was just on the four-track set. Our drummer at the time, she went to high school with James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins. We actually went into the studio with Billy Corgan to produce our first single.

I used to go over to Billy Corgan's house and play him some of my demos and he'd show me his gold records. It seemed pretty surreal to him, the success that the Smashing Pumpkins were having. I think it was right when their second record, Siamese Dream, just came out. Because of that, we were able to get a booking agent. This one booking agent, he booked Megadeth, some pretty big bands. He basically told us that, hey, you guys should probably quit your jobs. Our record label bought us a van. Yeah, you're just going to go on tour forever.

I was way into the idea. I was ready to go because I was working at Whole Foods at the time. We were scheduled to do a four-week tour. That was our first US tour. One of the very first shows of the tour was opening up for Alanis Morissette, which we were a very odd match for, just because we were more of a noise band. We thought it was really strange, but it turns out the booking agent just wanted to see us for his own enjoyment and didn't really care if it was like a weird fit.

When we hit the road, we made all this merch and we weren't very well off. We didn't have credit cards. I don't think we even had cell phones then. And we didn't usually know where we were going to sleep. We didn't even know if we'd have enough gas to get from one gig to another. Our show was in Cincinnati, Ohio. We had driven from Chicago to Cincinnati to play the show. It was at a place called Bogart's. And it was completely sold out. Alanis Morissette had just put out Jagged Little Pill, which was her hit record. A couple of the dudes in her band—I think it was Taylor Hawkins, I think he was playing drums—that guy was really cool. He was really friendly, the rest of the band was not.

I was a guitar player, I remember. I actually just re-met him recently. But he was like, "You see these cables on the stage?" He had all these guitar cables taped down to the stage. He's like, "You see this line? Don't fucking step on that." He didn't even say like, "Hey, how's it going? Nice to meet you." That's how I was introduced to him: don't fucking step on this cable. I was crazy nervous opening the show. It was the most people I've ever played to, maybe four or 5,000 people. I just remember my whole body was shaking and you could hear the shaking in my voice when I was singing because it was doing this weird waver. I couldn't see the audience because the lights were so bright. I couldn't see anything. But I was just like, man, I can't wait to get off the stage because it's so uncomfortable and weird.

The audience was really cool. People were clapping. We got off stage and then all these kids were fanboying us. I didn't really know how to respond to that. They all wanted to buy our shit. We were ecstatic because I don't think we were guaranteed much money to play that show. It was like, you get to open this sold-out show and get the exposure. Maybe 50 bucks to open the show, 50 or 100, something like that. Anyways, these kids, they bought all our merch, all of it. And we're like, holy shit, why do they buy our stuff? They must really like us.

We're like, oh yes, we got gas money, we got a place to stay. But it turned out, the reason why the kids were all buying our shirts... it was a white t-shirt and on the front it said Motorhome, which was our band. On the back, it had a planet with a palm tree and it said, "Aloha from Uranus." Our album was called Sex Vehicle, so it said Motorhome, Sex Vehicle, Aloha from Uranus. We just sold every single T-shirt. This one kid came up to me and he's like, "Man, can I get my money back?" I was like, "Are you serious? We just made money to stay at a hotel." He's like, "Well, I'm sorry because I thought this was Alanis's T-shirt. I thought it said, 'Aloha from Alanis.'"

So then all these kids wanted their money back. You know, we just made money to stay at a hotel and we didn't give it back to them. We were like, "No, sorry, no exchanges."

Josh Caldwell: This next story comes from another singer, songwriter, and bandleader, Leslie Sisson. Her current project is called Moving Panoramas. She's also played in Wooden Birds, Matt Pond PA, Western Keys, and Black Lipstick. I love this father-daughter story, but it wasn't Leslie's first choice. She'd already told me some great ones. But when I asked about a guitar sitting behind her, she mentioned having one more story, and I'm really glad she did.

Leslie Sisson: He's my best friend and he's always been very supportive, but always been the voice of reason because he was a working musician for a long time. When he found out I was starting to be in bands as a teenager he was like, "Oh, are you sure? Don't do it." And he even shooed a punk rock band off my lawn once. He was like, "She's not gonna be in your band. Bye guys." He's like, "They just want to get in your pants, darlin'." And I'm like, "Well, okay," but he was right.

But I wanted to be a rocker and I did it behind his back for a while. He thought I was out drinking and partying and I was at a community college doing a demo tape. And he followed me one night. But once he heard me, he was like, "You got the voice of an angel, darling." So you want one more story, but it's not my tour story. It's this guitar's tour story. It is a 1950s Gibson Country Western. It was my dad's. He said, "Do you know that I have a guitar that belongs to a very famous country musician?"

I guess it was in the 80s, like the mid-80s or so. I was a little kid and he used to own a used car lot. And it's just this really modest used car lot on the corner in Irving, Texas. And it was next to this repair shop and they repaired big rigs and buses. And my dad has been a musician all his life. One day he gets a phone call from a tour manager that found out about him through a circle of music friends and then realized that he was right next door from the bus. So he was like, "Hey,"—his name's Weldon Sisson and everybody calls him Bud—he's like, "Hey Bud, our bus broke down on tour and it just happens to be next door to your shop. The entire band and crew flew onto the next show."

This is in the 80s, by the way. There's no Venmo. There's no way, unless you Western Union something. And he's like, "Our bus driver stayed behind to get it to the shop. But we need to get him to the next city because we're just renting another bus. And we were wondering if we could borrow 500 bucks cash from you and we could give you a guitar from the bus to hold as collateral." And my dad was like, "Sure." And so the bus driver comes over, gives him this guitar. And my dad gives him 500 bucks.

So my dad gets a phone call like years later and he's just kept it in a case in his closet, safe and sound. And it's the same tour manager and he's like, "Hey Bud, you still got that country western?" And he's like, "Yeah, yeah, I do. You guys finally want it back?" "Well, actually, we wanted to thank you for your help and we wanted to put you on a cruise because the musician that it belonged to was on a cruise performing. I wonder if you might want to come on the cruise with us and hang out."

And my dad was like, "Sure. Should I bring the guitar?" And he was like, "Nah, you can keep it. Don't worry about it." So my dad goes on the cruise and meets this famous country western star, tells him about the guitar. And he's like, "Yep, that's my country western. I've written a lot of songs on that. That's just the bus guitar. It doesn't have a pickup in it or anything." So he's like, "You take good care of that. I hope you name it Conway." So this was Conway Twitty's guitar. Isn't that crazy? And my dad... he just kept it. Eventually he had a safe room where it was in. These strings are so dull on it. It probably... it even still smells kind of like cigarettes. These probably have Conway sweat and cigarettes on them still. So anyway, so this is Conway. This is my friend. It's not my tour, but it's a tour story that has affected me magically.

Josh Caldwell: Well, that's it. I want to thank Josiah and Leslie for sharing their experiences. Josiah's current bands, Child Seat and Bizou, are playing and touring this fall, so go check them out. He also has a recording studio in Los Angeles called The Cave. You should also check out Leslie's current band, Moving Panoramas. They are a fantastic Austin "boot-gaze" band.

This podcast was created and produced by me, Josh Caldwell. Music by Visual Aid, general support, and copy editing by Miranda Caldwell. If you like the show, don't forget to follow and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening, and I hope you come back next week.