DUE to popular request I will try to limit the 
emojis in this interview.
Okay, now that they're out of my system:
Interview with John Berry:
TT: It’s good to be back — how have you been?
JB: Hanging in there and excited to be here!
TT: Something that occurred to me when watching your public access interviews was that I’m unsure if anyone has ever asked you this - but how would you describe your drum style.
JB: Portnoy with a side of Cheese. Richard Cheese.
TT: There’s been a lot of rumors… tension and compromises that had to be made between Galore and Travelin’ Again, would you like to talk about those?”
JB: “Well, I think it goes beyond rumors. Some of our tension was well-documented and was as accurate as Ringo to a Starr. But, I certainly can be blamed for a lot of it. I was so upset Greg take out my songs from a set that I’d play freeform and solo in songs that really didn’t need them. I knew I went too far one time at a joint in Lake of the Ozarks. I played a second drum solo after “A Remembrance for my Best Friend, Fluffy this goes out to you.” Wait. Scratch that. It was Walkie’ Shepherd. Anywho. At the end of the song I told Negut, “Sometimes I let my drumming beats carry me away.” And Negut responded by saying, “And sometimes I want a drummer who can keep a ****ing tempo.” I started thinking that maybe I might be causing some of the problems too - all in all, the break was good for everyone.”
TT: Describe any moments with Greg that stand out?
JB: Hahahaha. To be real, this is a hard question to answer. I hadn’t spoken to Greg in about a year - and after getting fired from the band I got my construction job back. And one day, I had gone out drinking’ with the boys after we polished off one of our hard jobs. At around 2 A.M., I got an uber home and none other than Greg Olsen and a dummer named Bucky were there waiting for me. Greg had just watched the film Whiplash, and I shit you not, had dressed exactly the same as J.K. Simmons character and said he now subscribed to the “Whiplash” style of management. He challenged me to a “duel”, with the winner being the new drummer for TGOE. Now, at this point I hadn’t played in over a year - not since the Shimmy and Traverse recordings went so poorly. But before I quit drumming, I had used part of Greg’s salary to take a Jazz class. After Nugget’s criticisms I realized I needed to sharpen up. Anywho, Greg wanted Bucky and I to do a drum off in my basement. I took him up on it, because Greg didn’t know about the classes and I wanted to see where this would go. Even though Greg wanted Bucky to go first, I started playing “Caravan” (even though Greg tried to wave me off as I was drumming). About halfway through Bucky told Greg “he thought he needed a ****ing drummer” and stormed off. Greg was bummed. He said he needed a drummer, but he needed a drummer for “his band” but that Rold couldn’t hold drum sticks after applying lotion to his hands. But lemme tell you, after 12 months of construction, I was finally ready to try to be the drummer he had always wanted. We had a couple drinks, talked, laughed, and by the end I was back in TGOE.
TT: Matt Negut once intimated that Greg has large amounts of money. Can you speak to that at all?
JB: Well, you know we all draw a salary just for being in the band. It's almost like running a business. Greg is the big boss. Now, I'd be lying if I didn't say he must be doing well, but the dude eats a sleeve of Pringles and Big Gulp sized lemonades every day for lunch. Not exactly the pinnacle of sophistication if you ask me. In the end, his money is just a fun part of this whole story. I used to think TGOE was like if Ringo had total control of the Beatles. But if Ringo fires George, everyone calls George, George gets a job no problem. But once I was fired, no one was calling John Berry, and I realized that maybe I suck ass and am lucky Greg got me a job at all.
TT: So, you’re saying that Greg’s music isn’t very sophisticated?
JB: Not at all! He actually is, no shit, the most talented pianist I have ever known. Some of his best arrangements are in Westward to Nowhere. His Dad just tortured the man with the piano. Lessons every day, so much so that he vowed to never, ever play again. I think Westward to Nowhere itself is a symbol for the pain he felt while playing the piano. While it’s haunting and beautiful, he had to smash other genres haphazardly over it and ruin it.
I’d say he always wanted to be a rockstar instead. But because of his Dad he can’t work with constructive criticism so well. It’s why you might hear a kickass riff followed by some sad trombone and a symphony. In the past, we would fight this, but as you’ll hear in this album, we finally embraced his style.
TT: Do you still feel Greg is the Ringo?
JB: I think he’s more like Brian Epstein. If anything as the drummer I’m Ringo, looking for my own Octupuses’ Garden.
TT: You’d put Ringo’s work above something like Live and Let Die?
JB: Yeah. If you look at who’s songwriting and catalog improved the most since leaving the Beatles - it’s Ringo with George being a close second. I tend to listen to “Drowning in the Sea of Love” on my drives to my construction work each morning. Ringo broke out of his shackles there and became the “Starr”
TT: Did you ever believe you'd compare yourself to bands with the statute of The Beatles?
JB: I always knew we had the potential to break out. Once we were being asked to headline events like the Bannock County Fair, I had begun dreaming of the band and its rise to fame. I think we're lauded just as The Beatles speaking strictly about our experimentation. Possibly even more so!
TT: WhatIthought189 is skeptical of some of your answers here He thinks this reunion happened only because the band (namely you) got Greg to make some serious concessions.
JB: Ho, ho! Actually no. I think the reunion happened because we all realized our 8-5’s sucked ass and we didn’t realize how lucky we had it with Greg. And honestly, I’m proud of how the album turned out. In the past we would sometimes go to war about the “sad trombone” moments and end up with Frankenstein songs like Worldly that featured a mishmash of unfinished ideas. This time, we all worked to embrace Greg’s ideas and make his vision real. As a band, tried to make every moment as good as possible. Heck, Greg even got so happy with us he even wrote a piano lick on “Bermuda Joyride” that Pilsby covered to perfection.
The proof is also in the pudding for WhatIthoughtwrong69 or whoever asked that question. I don’t have a single sole writing credit on this album compared to the others, though Greg was kind enough to give me co-writing credits on "East African Shimmy, "“Moscow Boogie” and "Bermuda Joyride"
TT: My squeeze Amanda, her and I are an item teehee, has a less combative question, some have wondered whether Greg really writes anything - or if he just comes in with ideas and then you write out the ideas to make your music - is that the case?
JB: Oh no. Greg definitely writes quite a few of the TGOE riffs. In fact, many of the riffs now considered to be “quintessential Greg”, like the opening to Celtic Tango, Mating of the Hounds, and that little solo/riff in Birth of the Collie, Pacific, were all Greg. I think what causes that perception is that Greg traditionally has little to no interest in following traditional chorus structures or the basic rules that have become standard in popular music. He really wants to start a musical revolution (as he’s said in several of his songs...now in English and French with the upcoming album). But sometimes he doesn’t know how to get to point A-B in his music, and that’s often where we come in, or we have an idea for Part B, and if he likes it, he’ll give it the “Olsecles Roar of Approval”.
What caused a lot of the friction in the past is that we would often try to go in our own direction because of the unpredictability of his ideas. Now we have fully embraced the ride and are going to give it the best we can... and I hope you all like the change.
TT: French? Tell me about that.
JB: Greg put out an add for “Good French Speaker. Must not have taken classes in high school. HELP NEED.” A young gal who was born in Quebec named Delphine Gaffe showed up - and she was so bewildered. She figured someone needed a translator for something important - but she handled it like a champ. In 30 minutes she was playing guitar with MDN (they never played before) and singing French into the microphone. As it turns out, she’s an experienced cello player and you’ll hear that on the album. There’s even a chance Greg will make her a full time member.
TT: This last question comes from the Top Tunehead. Me! Give me your favorite story about the new album.
JB: We were near the end of the the album - and all of the sudden, Greg comes in one day with an old bag of food from Taco Bell. I mean OLD. Old logo and everything. He found it in one of his uncles old fridges in his garage. He sits it in front of us and goes, “I want you to write a song that represents this bag of food. I want to TASTE this when I hear this music. We threw out riffs, first Latin inspired, and Greg would smash packets of fire sauce and say “NOT TASTY ENOUGH”. He dumped chips inside of his acoustic and shook the guitar while playing, put sauce packets on my kicks so I’d “feel” the explosion of sound. Anyway, after 12 hours, we wrote probably our most standard song ever, called Out Back Steakhouse.”
TT: Because of course you did.
JB: Because of course. Still no clue how it really happened.
TT: It’s been great, John. Remember as we say goodbye - you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish. Keep up the great drummin'!
JB: Always - thank you for the opportunity.
emojis in this interview. Okay, now that they're out of my system:
Interview with John Berry:
TT: It’s good to be back — how have you been?
JB: Hanging in there and excited to be here!
TT: Something that occurred to me when watching your public access interviews was that I’m unsure if anyone has ever asked you this - but how would you describe your drum style.
JB: Portnoy with a side of Cheese. Richard Cheese.
TT: There’s been a lot of rumors… tension and compromises that had to be made between Galore and Travelin’ Again, would you like to talk about those?”
JB: “Well, I think it goes beyond rumors. Some of our tension was well-documented and was as accurate as Ringo to a Starr. But, I certainly can be blamed for a lot of it. I was so upset Greg take out my songs from a set that I’d play freeform and solo in songs that really didn’t need them. I knew I went too far one time at a joint in Lake of the Ozarks. I played a second drum solo after “A Remembrance for my Best Friend, Fluffy this goes out to you.” Wait. Scratch that. It was Walkie’ Shepherd. Anywho. At the end of the song I told Negut, “Sometimes I let my drumming beats carry me away.” And Negut responded by saying, “And sometimes I want a drummer who can keep a ****ing tempo.” I started thinking that maybe I might be causing some of the problems too - all in all, the break was good for everyone.”
TT: Describe any moments with Greg that stand out?
JB: Hahahaha. To be real, this is a hard question to answer. I hadn’t spoken to Greg in about a year - and after getting fired from the band I got my construction job back. And one day, I had gone out drinking’ with the boys after we polished off one of our hard jobs. At around 2 A.M., I got an uber home and none other than Greg Olsen and a dummer named Bucky were there waiting for me. Greg had just watched the film Whiplash, and I shit you not, had dressed exactly the same as J.K. Simmons character and said he now subscribed to the “Whiplash” style of management. He challenged me to a “duel”, with the winner being the new drummer for TGOE. Now, at this point I hadn’t played in over a year - not since the Shimmy and Traverse recordings went so poorly. But before I quit drumming, I had used part of Greg’s salary to take a Jazz class. After Nugget’s criticisms I realized I needed to sharpen up. Anywho, Greg wanted Bucky and I to do a drum off in my basement. I took him up on it, because Greg didn’t know about the classes and I wanted to see where this would go. Even though Greg wanted Bucky to go first, I started playing “Caravan” (even though Greg tried to wave me off as I was drumming). About halfway through Bucky told Greg “he thought he needed a ****ing drummer” and stormed off. Greg was bummed. He said he needed a drummer, but he needed a drummer for “his band” but that Rold couldn’t hold drum sticks after applying lotion to his hands. But lemme tell you, after 12 months of construction, I was finally ready to try to be the drummer he had always wanted. We had a couple drinks, talked, laughed, and by the end I was back in TGOE.
TT: Matt Negut once intimated that Greg has large amounts of money. Can you speak to that at all?
JB: Well, you know we all draw a salary just for being in the band. It's almost like running a business. Greg is the big boss. Now, I'd be lying if I didn't say he must be doing well, but the dude eats a sleeve of Pringles and Big Gulp sized lemonades every day for lunch. Not exactly the pinnacle of sophistication if you ask me. In the end, his money is just a fun part of this whole story. I used to think TGOE was like if Ringo had total control of the Beatles. But if Ringo fires George, everyone calls George, George gets a job no problem. But once I was fired, no one was calling John Berry, and I realized that maybe I suck ass and am lucky Greg got me a job at all.
TT: So, you’re saying that Greg’s music isn’t very sophisticated?
JB: Not at all! He actually is, no shit, the most talented pianist I have ever known. Some of his best arrangements are in Westward to Nowhere. His Dad just tortured the man with the piano. Lessons every day, so much so that he vowed to never, ever play again. I think Westward to Nowhere itself is a symbol for the pain he felt while playing the piano. While it’s haunting and beautiful, he had to smash other genres haphazardly over it and ruin it.
I’d say he always wanted to be a rockstar instead. But because of his Dad he can’t work with constructive criticism so well. It’s why you might hear a kickass riff followed by some sad trombone and a symphony. In the past, we would fight this, but as you’ll hear in this album, we finally embraced his style.
TT: Do you still feel Greg is the Ringo?
JB: I think he’s more like Brian Epstein. If anything as the drummer I’m Ringo, looking for my own Octupuses’ Garden.
TT: You’d put Ringo’s work above something like Live and Let Die?
JB: Yeah. If you look at who’s songwriting and catalog improved the most since leaving the Beatles - it’s Ringo with George being a close second. I tend to listen to “Drowning in the Sea of Love” on my drives to my construction work each morning. Ringo broke out of his shackles there and became the “Starr”
TT: Did you ever believe you'd compare yourself to bands with the statute of The Beatles?
JB: I always knew we had the potential to break out. Once we were being asked to headline events like the Bannock County Fair, I had begun dreaming of the band and its rise to fame. I think we're lauded just as The Beatles speaking strictly about our experimentation. Possibly even more so!
TT: WhatIthought189 is skeptical of some of your answers here He thinks this reunion happened only because the band (namely you) got Greg to make some serious concessions.
JB: Ho, ho! Actually no. I think the reunion happened because we all realized our 8-5’s sucked ass and we didn’t realize how lucky we had it with Greg. And honestly, I’m proud of how the album turned out. In the past we would sometimes go to war about the “sad trombone” moments and end up with Frankenstein songs like Worldly that featured a mishmash of unfinished ideas. This time, we all worked to embrace Greg’s ideas and make his vision real. As a band, tried to make every moment as good as possible. Heck, Greg even got so happy with us he even wrote a piano lick on “Bermuda Joyride” that Pilsby covered to perfection.
The proof is also in the pudding for WhatIthoughtwrong69 or whoever asked that question. I don’t have a single sole writing credit on this album compared to the others, though Greg was kind enough to give me co-writing credits on "East African Shimmy, "“Moscow Boogie” and "Bermuda Joyride"
TT: My squeeze Amanda, her and I are an item teehee, has a less combative question, some have wondered whether Greg really writes anything - or if he just comes in with ideas and then you write out the ideas to make your music - is that the case?
JB: Oh no. Greg definitely writes quite a few of the TGOE riffs. In fact, many of the riffs now considered to be “quintessential Greg”, like the opening to Celtic Tango, Mating of the Hounds, and that little solo/riff in Birth of the Collie, Pacific, were all Greg. I think what causes that perception is that Greg traditionally has little to no interest in following traditional chorus structures or the basic rules that have become standard in popular music. He really wants to start a musical revolution (as he’s said in several of his songs...now in English and French with the upcoming album). But sometimes he doesn’t know how to get to point A-B in his music, and that’s often where we come in, or we have an idea for Part B, and if he likes it, he’ll give it the “Olsecles Roar of Approval”.
What caused a lot of the friction in the past is that we would often try to go in our own direction because of the unpredictability of his ideas. Now we have fully embraced the ride and are going to give it the best we can... and I hope you all like the change.
TT: French? Tell me about that.
JB: Greg put out an add for “Good French Speaker. Must not have taken classes in high school. HELP NEED.” A young gal who was born in Quebec named Delphine Gaffe showed up - and she was so bewildered. She figured someone needed a translator for something important - but she handled it like a champ. In 30 minutes she was playing guitar with MDN (they never played before) and singing French into the microphone. As it turns out, she’s an experienced cello player and you’ll hear that on the album. There’s even a chance Greg will make her a full time member.
TT: This last question comes from the Top Tunehead. Me! Give me your favorite story about the new album.
JB: We were near the end of the the album - and all of the sudden, Greg comes in one day with an old bag of food from Taco Bell. I mean OLD. Old logo and everything. He found it in one of his uncles old fridges in his garage. He sits it in front of us and goes, “I want you to write a song that represents this bag of food. I want to TASTE this when I hear this music. We threw out riffs, first Latin inspired, and Greg would smash packets of fire sauce and say “NOT TASTY ENOUGH”. He dumped chips inside of his acoustic and shook the guitar while playing, put sauce packets on my kicks so I’d “feel” the explosion of sound. Anyway, after 12 hours, we wrote probably our most standard song ever, called Out Back Steakhouse.”
TT: Because of course you did.
JB: Because of course. Still no clue how it really happened.
TT: It’s been great, John. Remember as we say goodbye - you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish. Keep up the great drummin'!
JB: Always - thank you for the opportunity.
Last edited by Bridges on Fri Apr 02, 2021 1:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
