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The Joe Rogan ExperienceThe Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan Experience #1648 - Reggie Watts

Reggie Watts is a comedian, actor, and musician who currently leads the house band for "The Late, Late Show with James Corden." Catch him live as part of HiFi Labs' virtual Friend Fest, which begins streaming on Friendfe.st May 14 at 7 PM EDT.

Reggie WattsguestJoe RoganhostGuest (third voice in NFT segment)guest
Jun 27, 20242h 57mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 2:50

    Black holes, Interstellar, and imagining cosmic sound

    1. RW

      (drum music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

    2. NA

      The Joe Rogan Experience. (drum music)

    3. JR

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music plays) We were just staring at-

    4. NA

      Rolling Stones.

    5. JR

      ... shooting stars-

    6. RW

      (laughs) Of course.

    7. JR

      ... and black holes. Imagine what a black hole sounds like. What do you think it sounds like, don't you-

    8. RW

      I think, didn't someone, uh, uh, they, they simulated it or something? Some physics, physicists simulated it or something?

    9. JR

      Really?

    10. RW

      Yeah, it's like-

    11. JR

      See if you can find out.

    12. RW

      It does make a, it does make a sound.

    13. NA

      Well, that's the best part of Interstellar.

    14. RW

      Oh, yeah.

    15. JR

      Wow.

    16. NA

      I mean, my favorite part of it-

    17. RW

      Oh, man.

    18. NA

      ... at Chinese Theatre, I mean, it was so loud and fucking awesome.

    19. JR

      Yeah. Oh, you want to see it there?

    20. NA

      I want to see it again there so bad.

    21. RW

      Oh, man.

    22. JR

      IMAX is the place to see it, right?

    23. NA

      That's what it... It was the IMAX theatre-

    24. RW

      Yes.

    25. NA

      ... he made it at. Like, he was testing it there to make sure it was to par and it was this, that way.

    26. JR

      That's a bold movie, man.

    27. NA

      (laughs)

    28. JR

      Very bold movie.

    29. RW

      Oh, yeah. Super sick too.

    30. JR

      Because think of all the, the, the elements that people have to follow along, especially the ending. Spoiler alert.

  2. 2:50 – 5:25

    Woodstock lyrics, classic rock nostalgia, and ‘music that’s good’

    1. JR

      What's that old song? << We are stardust. We are golden. >>

    2. RW

      (snaps fingers) Uh.

    3. JR

      << We're a billion-year-old comet. >>

    4. RW

      Oh, is that from the '60s?

    5. JR

      << And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden. >>

    6. RW

      It's like the Strawberry Alarm Clock or something. (laughs)

    7. JR

      Yeah, Woodstock. Joni Mitch- Uh, well, Joni Mitchell did a version of it, but I don't think, uh, she was the origin- Well, she, maybe she was original. Maybe she wrote it. I don't know.

    8. RW

      Huh.

    9. JR

      But...

    10. RW

      Joni Mitchell, artist, huh.

    11. JR

      Oh.

    12. RW

      Message to Love, Crosby, oh.

    13. JR

      Oh, Crosby, Stills & Nash.

    14. RW

      It's probably Crosby, Stills & Nash, definitely. When you were singing it-

    15. JR

      Yeah.

    16. RW

      ... the way you were singing it-

    17. JR

      Yeah.

    18. RW

      ... that's Crosby, Stills & Nash.

    19. JR

      Can you give us a little of it before we get in trouble?

    20. NA

      Sure.

    21. JR

      Gi- Give me a little taste. Give me a little taste.

    22. RW

      Give us 2.6 seconds of it. (laughs)

    23. JR

      Give me a little taste of, like, 1970s acid, (rock music plays) 1970s acid and, uh, marijuana grown in that Mendocino range where that Hulu series-

    24. RW

      The Emergence.

    25. JR

      ... Sasquatch was made.

    26. RW

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      There it is.

    28. RW

      Okay. (laughs)

    29. Well, I came upon a child of God.

    30. JR

      << He was walking down the road >>

  3. 5:25 – 8:02

    Trick shooting, ‘gun pilates,’ and why aiming can be meditative

    1. JR

      What were you gonna tell me? There was a lady you were gonna... I s- I stopped you. I said, "I'll save it for the podcast."

    2. RW

      Oh, yeah, yeah, right. Um, yeah, my friend Kirsten Joy Weiss, she's a trick shooter. Um, uh, she's, she's, uh...

    3. JR

      Like a pistol shooter?

    4. RW

      Yeah, pistol, rifle. Um, and she lives in Cody, Wyoming, and she is amazing. Um, just a really cool independent thinker, like, she loves sci-fi. But she sent me these... I'll see if I'll... I can send you a video. You can see. She did like this, I guess, a shot that hasn't been duplicated before.

    5. JR

      There she is. Look at this.

    6. RW

      Oh, yeah.

    7. JR

      (laughs) She's, she's leaning back. For people that not listen, she's got her shins down on the ground and leaning back behind them and she's shooting 30 yards behind her-

    8. RW

      Yeah.

    9. NA

      She's calling it gun pilates.

    10. JR

      ... backwards.

    11. RW

      Yeah, is that the-

    12. JR

      She calls it gun pilates.

    13. RW

      Was that the... Was that this one? Is that the long shooting or is it... Long Range Trick Shots that was called?

    14. ... uh, trick ... It says Gunplay's trick shot.

    15. Okay, yeah.

    16. Yousment 2 or-

    17. JR

      There's a whole market for hot girls with guns. Do you know that? Like, hot, the hot girl gun world?

    18. RW

      Not that one.

    19. Yeah. It's, it's funny. But you know what? The interesting thing that is different about her, she's almost like ... She's just a badass shooter that happens to be a-

    20. JR

      Hot.

    21. RW

      ... an attractive woman. (laughs)

    22. JR

      Right.

    23. RW

      Yeah. (laughs) I mean, she, she ... But she's like a ... She's the real deal. She was gonna be on ... Uh, she trained in the Olympics, uh, on the Olympic team. Um, and, uh, and I like her videos because she talks about ... I mean, it's called The Joy of Shooting, obviously, but, but I mean, it's a play on her name, but, but she really does mean it. She's just talking about like, "Hey, this is a cool exercise." And kind of like a meditative exercise, like, like shooting and target practice is meditative. And the cool thing about her, she does everything herself. Every video that you see is just her with a camera and a tripod, all her editing. She's super DIY.

    24. JR

      Oh.

    25. RW

      That's what I like about her.

    26. JR

      That's cool.

    27. RW

      She's, she's sick. And she's like-

    28. The video's playing on his phone.

    29. ... very philosophical. Very cool.

    30. JR

      What are you saying, Jim?

  4. 8:02 – 9:36

    Axe throwing, natural talent, and bodies being ‘unfair’

    1. RW

      Yes. Yes. I know it's ... I l- ... I, I went ax throwing in Great Falls, Montana, uh, recently with my friend.

    2. JR

      It sounds like a Great Falls, Montana activity.

    3. RW

      Oh, are you kidding? It's so great fun.

    4. JR

      (laughs)

    5. RW

      I'm with my friend Kelly. He's, he's awesome. His family's cool. I went with my mom. I brought my mom.

    6. JR

      Your mom was ax throwing?

    7. RW

      My mom ... No, my mom was like 83, just like sitting in a chair drinking wine.

    8. JR

      (laughs)

    9. RW

      And we're just ... She's like three feet away from people throwing axes at walls.

    10. JR

      That's hilarious.

    11. RW

      Just like, "Oh, this is so awesome."

    12. JR

      Sipping wine while people hurl blades.

    13. RW

      Yes.

    14. JR

      That's very funny.

    15. RW

      My friend Kelly was a re- ... He's so ridiculously good at it. I, uh, it was, it was stupid. He was ... He'd like not look, he'd turn around and throw the ax behind his back, and it would land on the target. He would take two axes and throw them simultaneously and they would land ... And he's not like ... He's just a natural at it. It's very strange.

    16. JR

      He doesn't practice?

    17. RW

      I mean, he's been there a few times, but he was already a natural the first time he went. So like the-

    18. JR

      Really?

    19. RW

      ... uh, people who work there are just like, "Hey, are you, are you on a league?" You know, like that type of thing.

    20. JR

      (laughs)

    21. RW

      He's like, "No, I just do it for fun." You know, it's like a movie, right? Right?

    22. JR

      So-

    23. RW

      It's about ax throwing. (laughs)

    24. JR

      Naturals are weird.

    25. RW

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      Like a natural in anything is a strange thing, when you see someone who's just really good at something right away.

    27. RW

      Yeah. It just makes sense, you know. It's like they just have this ability to like, "Oh, yeah. Like this." And you're like, "Wait, but I've been training for five years," (laughs) and you're like-

    28. JR

      Yeah.

    29. RW

      They just see it and they just, they just have it.

    30. JR

      Yeah, but it's annoying.

  5. 9:36 – 11:45

    Reggie’s musical upbringing and learning piano by ear vs lessons

    1. RW

      Oh, man. I mean, for me, like I always had a good ear. So like if I heard an accent, if I heard, um, you know, Olivia Newton-John on the radio or whatever, I could mimic them, the, her timbre and the m- and the texture and-

    2. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    3. RW

      ... really, really easily. And so for me, music came pretty eas- ... I mean, obviously the theory is the theory and that, and that's something you have to learn. But I, I had an ear, so even if I didn't learn theory, but I kept playing with musicians, I would have been fine 'cause I would have figured it out, just with my ear.

    4. JR

      When did you start learning music?

    5. RW

      Age five.

    6. JR

      Wow. That's a, that's a nice advantage.

    7. RW

      Yeah.

    8. JR

      So you grew up with a m- a musical mind?

    9. RW

      Yeah, yeah. I mean, I love ... You know, my, my parents, you know, we were in Europe for a while because of the military Air Force, and, uh, we moved around. And then, uh, so I was born in Stuttgart, and then we moved, uh, to, I think like Italy, ended up in Spain for two years, the final two years till age four, then we moved to Great Falls, Montana to Malmstrom Air Force Base. But, uh, in that time, you know, I just loved ... My parents loved jazz, Ray Charles. You know, my mom listened to French, a lot of French or European folk music, like Ana- Ana Mouskouri and, uh, Edith Piaf and things like that. So I, I was hearing that all the time, and I saw Ray Charles, and I loved the way he moved.

    10. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    11. RW

      And he had the sunglasses and playing piano. And so I used to sit at the edge of the table and pretend like I was Ray Charles. And they were like, "Oh, let's get him a toy piano," and they did. And then, uh, and then my mom was like, "Do you wanna have lessons or..." I was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." So I was like, you know, almost 6, 5, and I started studying, uh, classical piano, like private, private lessons. It was awesome.

    12. JR

      Is there anyone that's learned piano without lessons? 'Cause I know people who've learned guitar without lessons.

    13. RW

      Oh, yeah. 100%.

    14. JR

      Yeah?

    15. RW

      Uh, yeah. It's just by ear. The piano actually is an easier instrument to learn by ear because-

    16. JR

      Really?

    17. RW

      ... it's a grid. It's just a grid. It's not like when you have a stringed instrument where you have like a, a fretless board like a cello or violin or something like that, right? It's like there's no fret, there's no marking, so you have to really know where to put your finger, and you have to know the technique of bowing.

    18. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    19. RW

      There's a lot of complicated stuff.

    20. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    21. RW

      In piano, it's like, "Uh." You know?

    22. JR

      Uh-huh.

    23. RW

      Note, right? And so ... And then you, and then you start to notice, oh, it's a pattern. It keeps repeating, but it just goes higher and higher or lower and lower.

  6. 11:45 – 14:00

    Prepared pianos, synth history, and Moog vs Buchla philosophies

    1. JR

      Th- that's interesting. Does it feel more limited because it's just you're pressing buttons rather than the, the creativity that's involved in a musical instrument that has chords that you can manipulate?

    2. RW

      Mm-hmm. No, I, I would say that, uh, I think what's great about a piano is that, uh, yes, you have like the basic, these are chords and things like that, but you have dynamics. Um, then you have note combinations. And then if you really wanna get crazy, like j- John Cage or whatever, prepared pianos where they're putting screws in the string board, you know, or in the ... I forget what it's called, but the, the board where the strings are.

    3. JR

      What do you mean?

    4. RW

      Um, the soundboard, I guess. It's ... Uh, so they would put a screw next to a s- uh, a string, so that when you hit a note, it's, it ... (vibration sound) It would just vibrate against the metal.

    5. JR

      Oh.

    6. RW

      And they would have certain keys prepared, so they call it prepared piano. So John Cage wrote a bunch of prepared piano pieces where they'd modify the soundboard of the, of the piano. And, uh, as ... And then he would write music for it, and you would play the music and certain notes would have metallic sounds, and sometimes-

    7. JR

      Wow.

    8. RW

      ... notes wouldn't be there, a bunch of stuff. Um, so the piano is like ... It's a good basic instrument.... that's a good foundation.

    9. JR

      Now, when digital keyboards came out, well, there, a lot of people, like, resisted the sound of digital keyboards. Like, I remem- I remember when Jump on Eddie Van Halen played Jump.

    10. RW

      Oh, yeah. Huge deal, right? Revolt. (laughs) Yeah.

    11. JR

      People were very upset. Hugely upset.

    12. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    13. JR

      Like, "What the fuck is this? You guys were running with the devil."

    14. RW

      Yeah.

    15. JR

      "How did you get to this?"

    16. RW

      I know.

    17. JR

      But-

    18. RW

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      ... still a good song, man.

    20. RW

      Oh, it's an amazing song, but that's how things go, right?

    21. JR

      Yeah.

    22. RW

      It's like someone comes up... I mean, you know, essentially synthesizers, you know, they c- came from, what, like, the, the '50s or whatever, like, oscillators, things that made s- It's an a- all it, all it is just a sound going (imitates synthesizer) and then you have another sound which collides with it which creates texture, right? 'Cause they're battling each other. And you change the wavelength, the frequency, then multiply that and, and put it onto a keyboard. Now you've got a synthesizer, right? But then Buchla back in the day had... His idea of synthesis was just like, like, a, a strip of, like, random sounds you could manipulate, just move up and down. And so there was a... kind of this battle between Buchla's philosophy, which was a West Coast philosophy, and Moog's philosophy, which was an East Coast philosophy. But Moog was like, "We're gonna make the interface a, a, a really easy to understand one, which is the keyboard, the piano and keyboard."

  7. 14:00 – 19:38

    Can digital keyboards feel ‘real’? Sampling, Nord, and instrument modeling

    1. JR

      What I was gonna get to is, like, did, uh, uh... The current piano keyboards, like the current electrical keyboards, have they gotten to the place where they can actually recreate the sound of a great piano?

    2. RW

      Really close. Really, really close.

    3. JR

      Could you tell the difference?

    4. RW

      Um, uh, it's hard because it depends on the context. If you're listening to it just naked and, and then you're running through tests like the lowest note, um, a note in the middle of the keyboard, and then the highest note, I think someone who plays piano, they might be able to tell. But now the, the s- sampling is so crazy. They'll sample one note so many times and then they duplicate that all the way down the length of the keyboard. And, uh, when you hear... You can't really hear the difference, especially in a song. It just sounds like a real piano or it sounds like a real Rhodes. Like, um, Nord makes, uh, the Nord Electro, which is what I usually use. It emulates electric pianos, Wurlitzers, and, and, uh, also pianos, and I guess organs as well. Um, but the... It sounds so good. (laughs) It almost sounds sometimes better.

    5. JR

      Really?

    6. RW

      Sometimes. Just because it's, it's like... Imagine the optimal version of a Rhodes, like, Mark II or something like that or whatever, like, a very popular Rhodes. Uh-

    7. JR

      That's a type of piano?

    8. RW

      Yeah, it's a t- Yeah, so a Rhodes electric piano. It's what you heard the most in the '70s. That and Wurlitzer. Wurlitzer sounds more plucky. It's like a... You've heard it, like, (singing) ooh, you're making me miss-

    9. JR

      Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    10. RW

      ... (singing) being in America so... That's a Wurlitzer.

    11. JR

      Right.

    12. RW

      (singing) Boo-boo-beh, boh-boo-bay, tay-tuh-tay uh-day. Um, so you've got that, and then you've got Rhodes which more like, um, uh, Fly Like an Eagle, which is like-

    13. JR

      Oh.

    14. RW

      (singing) Bee-loo-loo-loo-loo-loo. All that stuff from the High South.

    15. JR

      (singing) Doo-doo, doo-doo.

    16. RW

      Yeah. (singing) Doo, doo, bah, bah, bah. Um, so... And the Rhodes is a little bit more versatile. Wurlitzer is very, "Oh, that's a Wurlitzer." But, uh, you know, all these pianos, it's like, imagine them at their peak condition, 'cause they're always... They're mechanical, right? So it's like there's always a... You have to send them to a tech to tune 'em up, you know. Maybe the pickups aren't working right, or maybe, um, you know, there's an element that's not functioning properly. So imagine the most optimal version of that instrument in, uh... Just that stays constant, and that's kind of, like, what a, what a Nord is. And I know that there'll be people out there going like, "Those n-" You know, there's a-

    17. JR

      Right.

    18. RW

      ... difference. But in general, uh, you know, keyboard players I know, they're very comfortable playing, like, like, my friend who has a Rhodes, Hammond B3, Clavinet, dude. He loved the Clavi-... And the Clavinet s- kind of sounds like a, like, (singing) ba, bah, dent, dun, dent, dun, dun, dun. (singing)

    19. JR

      Oh, okay.

    20. RW

      Uh, um, not the vocal part, but there's a keyboard and that's, um, and that is the, uh, Wurlitzer. Or, not the Wurlitzer, it's, uh, the Clavinet with a wah-wah pedal, which was very, very popular. But he played all of it, Rhodes, Clavinet, Hammond B3. And it was insane to watch him, like, drag this to all the gigs. Like, he dragged a full Hammond B3 and, and, uh, like, we're carrying it like a sarcophagus, you know, like, out of this van and then, like, into the gig, plus the cabinet, into the Leslie, the rotating speaker. So it was huge. I mean, it was huge. And then he would put his Clavinet on top of that and he had his Rhodes. And so every gig we had all those things. But then the Nord came out and he was like, "Oh, fuck it." (laughs) He started playing the Nord because the Nord sounded so good. And that was in the early days. And now it's insane.

    21. JR

      And it had everything.

    22. RW

      It, it had... Well, kind of. Yes, it does. You can... But you would still probably want to sep-... You'd get two. You'd get one that's, like, like a stage, which is for, like, piano sounds, and then there's one that's kind of, like, more oriented to Rhodes. And then you have an HP series which is semi-weighted, so it feels more like a Rhodes. So it feels... It's got a mechanical weighting as opposed to synthesizers which feels like you're pressing a nothing.

    23. JR

      Mm.

    24. RW

      Like, it's just super... You could, like, solo all over that thing with no resistance. But the HP series has, is semi-weighted. And then you got the Hammond, uh, version which has, like, stacks and drawbars on it. So it really goes... And then you can hook that into an actual Leslie cabinet. So they make smaller Leslie cabinets. So you have a small Leslie cabinet, a Nord organ simulator, and you've got a Hammond B3.

    25. JR

      So what these simulators do... Are they literally recording the sound of an actual piano?

    26. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    27. JR

      So it's not a, a sound that the thing makes.

    28. RW

      No.

    29. JR

      It's... You're just pressing a play.

    30. RW

      Yes. As far as I understand it, um, yeah, they're... Essentially they're doing oversampling or they're sampling, um, multiple, multiple times, uh, the instrument. It's like a... Think of it as, like, a super hi-res scan of the instrument.

  8. 19:38 – 23:39

    ‘Real vs simulated’ art: from instruments to artificial love and friends

    1. JR

      So it can recreate pretty much any sound that you would in a regular musical instrument, but is real important?

    2. RW

      (laughs)

    3. JR

      Is like- is real- it doesn't matter? Because if you know that what you're doing is pressing play on this thing and it's recreating the sound of a piano rather than actually that little felt-covered hammer-

    4. RW

      Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

    5. JR

      ... hitting the string-

    6. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    7. JR

      ... and creating that sound, is that important that that actually takes place?

    8. RW

      (smacks lips)

    9. JR

      Because there's implications to this kind of simulation of stuff that would apply to a lot of other things that make people uncomfortable, like love.

    10. RW

      (laughs)

    11. JR

      Like artificial love.

    12. RW

      Sure. Sure.

    13. JR

      Some robot lady-

    14. RW

      Yeah.

    15. JR

      ... that is, uh, "What we've done, we've recorded all the sounds your lover could make."

    16. RW

      (laughs)

    17. JR

      You know? And, you know, and if you-

    18. RW

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      ... spank her, like, maybe she'll like it, maybe she won't.

    20. RW

      (laughs)

    21. JR

      And you're like, "What? What are we doing?"

    22. RW

      Yeah, why?

    23. JR

      You know what I mean? But, I mean, if- w- we could-

    24. RW

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      There's implications here, right? Like-

    26. RW

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      ... we could get to artificial life and you could have a friend that's not really your friend, who, like, sometimes he flakes on you.

    28. RW

      Yes.

    29. JR

      But it's like, what is this fucking weird program this guy is running? What's a human?

    30. RW

      I know. I mean, you know, taking it to that level. I mean- well, you know, instrument-wise, there's people that argue, like, I have to have my- I mean, like, Regina Spektor is not gonna show up at a gig playing, um, a- a- she's not gonna play, like, uh, an electronic version of a piano. She's not gonna play an electronic piano.

  9. 23:39 – 35:11

    Producers, drum machines, DJs, and the shift from bands to pop systems

    1. JR

      I remember that. Um, obviously, um, there's a lot of people that have a lot of issues with a lot of these things, like-

    2. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    3. JR

      ... other musicians, but the first rumblings I ever heard about it was drum machines.

    4. RW

      Yeah.

    5. JR

      Like people that did not like a fake drum you could hear it in the background (imitates drum sound)

    6. RW

      Yeah.

    7. JR

      And they'd get mad.

    8. RW

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      Like, "Oh, it's a fucking drum machine."

    10. RW

      Yes. Yes. Of course they're gonna get mad. I mean, 'cause it, like, puts- it- they, they perceive it as a threat to, um, you know, perhaps an entire career based on, like, being a drummer, you know?

    11. JR

      Is it that or is it also that they are no longer appreciating someone's skill? Like, if you hear someone play-

    12. RW

      Mm. Sure.

    13. JR

      ... there's, there's skill to it and you-

    14. RW

      Yes.

    15. JR

      ... you enjoy it. You, you enjoy, like, "Oh, look at him go off." Like Bill Burr is really good at the drums and he-

    16. RW

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      ... fucking loves drummers and-

    18. RW

      Love him.

    19. JR

      ... loves to talk about drummers and he'll, he'll send me clips of guys going off with drums.

    20. RW

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      Like people who are really good with drums, like- and if- there's something, like y- you're getting a per- there's a piece of that person that's coming out through their playing. Like if Travis Barker-

    22. RW

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      ... goes off on the drums, like, that's Travis Barker-

    24. RW

      Sure.

    25. JR

      ... expressing himself.

    26. RW

      Yeah. Well, that's the cool thing about it, there is no threat, essentially. Oh, um, I mean, I'm speaking, going back to that threat k- kind of thing. It's like, there is no threat in that, that person's gonna be who they are, and no one's gonna replace a, a drummer. I mean, certainly, I used to play sampled drums on the keyboard live for hip-hop groups, you know? So I'd just be (beatboxes) but I'm just playing it. But because it has, it's a drum kit sound, and it's over sampled or it's, it's sampled so that each, however I hit it, if I hit it harder, the snare sounds a little bit harder hit. Or if it's softer, it resonates a little bit more. I would get into the, the feel of it. So I was kind of like a keyboard drummer, right? Um, but, uh, so there's that crossover element of it. But a lot of drummers, you know, when you're listening to music and you listen to a drum, a, a beat, you're like, "Wow, that's a really well done." They just like rhythm.

    27. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    28. RW

      So it's not really about like, um, "Oh, you know, fuck those guys. You know, it's a, it's a drum machine. They coulda just got a drummer." It's like people don't really think like that anymore. Now a lot of drummers program their own beats and, and because they just like rhythm. But, uh, you know, of course, a player playing it, you just can't... There is no substitution for that, you know? Hearing people play. And a lot of drummers started playing like drum machines. Like, remember the end of Erykah Badu... Or no, the Roots song, um, (singing) that whole thing, that whole song, it, it just starts cycling that melody. And then you hear at the very end, it's so tasteful. At the very, very end, it was when drum and bass was making a, was kind of on the scene for a little while, since '95. And you hear at the end, Questlove starts going (beatboxes) He's playing like drum and bass producers, uh, making drum and bass beats. So he's mimicking that. And then there was, like, a bunch of cats in my own town on our jam nights that purposefully would set up a kit where it would have two or three s- uh, snares, like this guy KJ Saka, monster drummer. Two or three different kits, so essentially, he'd just rotate this way and he'd have a different kit, different kit here, and a different kit there.

    29. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    30. RW

      So it'd be (beatboxes) So it would sound like sliced samples-

  10. 35:11 – 44:12

    Creative collaboration, ego, and Reggie’s Hollywood ‘sound-alike’ story

    1. JR

      It's gotta be so difficult to get a bunch of people that are really creative to agree how music comes together. Like if you get five people that are in a band and, you know, you got your guitar player, your lead singer, the drummer, everybody's all together, and they have to figure out how to agree.

    2. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    3. JR

      Right? That's gotta-

    4. RW

      Yeah.

    5. JR

      ... be so difficult because you have egos and different visions and different creativity and-

    6. RW

      Yeah.

    7. JR

      ... I think the drum solo should be longer.

    8. RW

      (laughs) Well, you know, i- it depends on the situation, right? 'Cause sometimes there's a songwriter, right? There's one songwriter in the band, or there's two songwriters in the band. The band's a five piece. So e- essentially, in a f- healthy functioning group of musicians, whether it's collectively created or whether it's steered by one or two people, they all agree that they're in service of what the music wants to be. So-

    9. JR

      Mm.

    10. RW

      ... so like when you hear something like, "Oh, that's dope." Play- "Can you play that again?" Like, "Oh yeah. Oh, that's do- hold on, I got an idea," it's, it's more like that. It's i- in a healthy situation, you're just, you're hearing something, you're inspired, and you're adding something, then someone's like, "Okay, great," and like, "Yeah, but we need a, we need a bridge or something." It's like, "Well, I was kind of messing with these chords and..." Like, "Uh, actually, I like that, but can you change that third chord? Oh, like this?" Like, "Oh yeah. That, yeah, yeah, that's it." That's kind of like, in my best healthy experiences, that's how music is made because you're not like personally generating the music. You're listening to something that wants to exist in the world and you're kind of in service of it.

    11. JR

      Mm.

    12. RW

      Is generally how I like to look at it. Some people will, yeah, their eagle will c- their e- their eagle. (laughs) Their ego will-

    13. JR

      (laughs)

    14. RW

      ... will come into it. Ra. But, uh, their, their ego will get into it and they start to confuse where they're getting their ideas from because they start to claim full responsibility for it.

    15. JR

      Right. Well, think about how many great bands fall apart because of-

    16. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    17. JR

      ... personality battles.

    18. RW

      Totally.

    19. JR

      You know?

    20. RW

      Yeah. Especially when they started in a great place.

    21. JR

      Yeah.

    22. RW

      You know, when a band starts and they're like, "Oh yeah, they, we were having so much fun." And then something happened, we got more-

    23. JR

      Yeah.

    24. RW

      ... fame, you know?

    25. JR

      Somebody brings their girlfriend into the recording sessions.

    26. RW

      Somebody brings their girlfriend to the re- to the recording session, or their m- a manager, you know, gets involved and starts-

    27. JR

      Mm. Oh, yeah.

    28. RW

      ... dividing people and going, "Hey man, you know, you're the real star." You know, that kind of stuff.

    29. JR

      Yes.

    30. RW

      Right?

  11. 44:12 – 46:20

    Late-night TV trust, improvisation, and building an independent platform

    1. RW

      Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it's just not, uh, there's no way I could do that. You know, the, well, first of all, I don't have a transcript.

    2. JR

      (laughs)

    3. RW

      So that's, that, that's, (laughs) that gives me a little bit of an edge.

    4. JR

      Yeah.

    5. RW

      They just have to trust that I'm... I mean, the first time I did the... Was it The Tonight Show? Or no, The Fallon Show. Well, before he had The Tonight Show, was it just The Jimmy Fallon Show?

    6. JR

      What was it?

    7. RW

      I think it was just The Jimmy Fallon Show.

    8. JR

      He had a show before The Tonight Show?

    9. RW

      I, yeah. It was just the... I think it was just Jimmy Fallon. Was it-

    10. JR

      Was it, like, late Late Night or something?

    11. RW

      Yeah, it was a, it was a late night show. I, I believe, I believe-

    12. JR

      Like, he had the Conan O'Brien spot or something?

    13. RW

      Is that correct? Uh, anyways... What... (sighs) Maybe it was the... I'm, I'm sorry. I'm confused.

    14. JR

      You thinking of Carson Daly?

    15. RW

      No, no, no. (laughs) No. Definitely not Carson Daly. It was, uh, it was when Fallon... He, well, I guess he's still in New York. But he was in New York, he was doing the show. The Roots were the band. And my friend Todd was working as a writer there, and they suggested I do a set there to be, to do a live comedy set. And, uh, the producers were, I remember the producers calling me. We had a phone meeting or whatever with my manager and stuff. And they were just like, um, "Yeah, do you have any examples of what you're gonna do?" And I'm like, "No." Like, um, "Do you have a transcript?" I'm like, "No." And they're like, "Well, do you... Are you... Uh, what? Oh, well, we'll get back to you." And then they, they let me do it. And I remember, like, the producer paging the curtain for me before I was going out, and he's like, "You're not gonna do anything, like, embarrassing-

    16. JR

      (laughs)

    17. RW

      ... to, to us." And I'm like, "No, man. No, it's fine." You know, whatever. And they let me go out, and I knew that they were, like, so nervous about it, 'cause they didn't have any, you know, there was nothing to verify what, what I was gonna do. And then I did my set, and it was totally fine, right? But, um, the thing is, like, I've built in the ability for people that you're either gonna, like, want me or not.

    18. JR

      Yeah.

    19. RW

      It's not like-

    20. JR

      Right, you-

    21. RW

      ... "Can you modify or..."

    22. JR

      You figure your way through the net.

    23. RW

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      Yeah.

    25. RW

      I mean, I mean if they say, like, "You shouldn't swear," I'll do that. That's easy.

    26. JR

      Yeah.

    27. RW

      That's, uh, super easy. I don't swear a lot. And when I do swear, it's just to be absurd.

    28. JR

      Yeah.

    29. RW

      But, uh, but, you know, it's funny. It reminds me of, uh, you were talking about, like, kind of people coming in and ruining ideas or whatever. It's like, my whole thing with, like, uh, you know, I started this, a little bit of a plug, but I started my own app called Watts App. Um, and, uh... (laughs)

    30. JR

      What is it?

  12. 46:20 – 58:36

    Volumetric capture, holographic displays, VR projects, and AR hype cycles

    1. RW

      It's a, it's like a... Think of it as, like, my own, um, uh, social media, uh, account, if you will. And so it's just like, essentially like a glorified website, right? But it's an app. You go on there. All my videos are on there, or videos that I want to be on there. My, I have this stupid web series called Drone, Droneversations, which is me interviewing people, but it's all shot on drones. And the drone-

    2. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    3. RW

      The drone, the drones are super loud and you can barely hear the conversation.

    4. JR

      (laughs)

    5. RW

      (laughs)

    6. JR

      How long did you develop this app for?

    7. RW

      Uh, we developed it for, like... So my friend, uh, Oliver Thomas Klein, who's a genius, um, it probably took maybe like a, maybe a year to build-

    8. JR

      'Cause it's-

    9. RW

      ... or less.

    10. JR

      It's a conversation, getting an app going. I-

    11. RW

      Yeah.

    12. JR

      ... uh, I was looking to get in an app going a few years back.

    13. RW

      Yeah.

    14. JR

      And I met with some people and the numbers they were throwing around-

    15. RW

      Oh, man.

    16. JR

      ... I was like, "Wait, how much?"

    17. RW

      Oh, yeah. I remember being quoted, like, close to 200 grand.

    18. JR

      Oh, I was double that, more.

    19. RW

      Really?

    20. JR

      Yeah, it was like half a million bucks.

    21. RW

      Oh, yeah. Yeah.

    22. JR

      And that wasn't even sure. They weren't even sure we could-

    23. RW

      Right.

    24. JR

      ... get it done with that. I was like-

    25. RW

      Like, "Here's the-"

    26. JR

      It's like if I was building a house.

    27. RW

      ... "Here's the initial estimate." Yeah. I mean, I was... You know, I worked with some really great people. My friend, Sasha, who's a, a brilliant, uh, creative, uh, advertising person. She now has her own company, but, uh, she sells this product called Period Pants, which is like period pants for, for women, um-

    28. JR

      (laughs)

    29. RW

      ... with like this no bullshit kind of thing. Like, like, whatever, "Women's hygiene can be simplified. We have a solution for it." And, and-

    30. JR

      What is the solution?

  13. 58:36 – 1:21:11

    NFTs, fungibility, Beeple’s $69M sale, and authenticity in art markets

    1. JR

      Explain NFTs to people-

    2. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    3. JR

      ... that don't know what you're talking about, because I don't know what you're talking about.

    4. RW

      It's great.

    5. JR

      I do, but I don't.

    6. RW

      Right.

    7. JR

      I know it's a non-fungible token.

    8. RW

      Yes.

    9. JR

      I'm not exactly sure what that means.

    10. RW

      Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's just not very fungible. You know-

    11. JR

      Oh. (laughs)

    12. RW

      ... tokens are super fungible.

    13. JR

      Got it.

    14. RW

      These aren't very fungible. (laughs)

    15. JR

      I don't even know if I could... If I, if I was on Jeopardy!

    16. RW

      (laughs)

    17. JR

      What is fungible?

    18. RW

      Yeah, totally. Fungible. Uh, uh, uh, fungible.

    19. JR

      I'm not sure what that means.

    20. RW

      Uh, fungible. I don't even know fungible.

    21. JR

      What does fungible mean? Okay, let's Go- let's Google it. I think fuckable, I think.

    22. RW

      Fungible.

    23. Duplicatable. Yeah, like duplicatable, maybe something.

    24. JR

      Let's Google it.

    25. RW

      Yeah, Goo- Google it.

    26. JR

      What is the... (laughs)

    27. RW

      (laughs)

    28. JR

      What is the...

    29. RW

      Juul.

    30. JR

      Or go to DuckDuckGo so they can give you the truth.

Episode duration: 2:57:24

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