The Sailor Jerry Podcast
Inspired by Norman 'Sailor Jerry' Collins' Old Ironsides radio show on KTRG, we present THE SAILOR JERRY PODCAST! This is a wild homage to all our favorite things – Music, tattoos, travel, spiced rum, and more. Partnering up with our pal Matt Caughthran, the frontman of The Bronx, we're spilling these tales in our own damn style. Brace yourself for biweekly episodes, dishing out killer interviews with musicians who fuel our fire. Buckle up for The Sailor Jerry Podcast – where the coolest stories come to life.
The Sailor Jerry Podcast
70 - Bobby Nerves of Bad Nerves
Bobby Nerves is the singer for the latest and greatest English garage punk sensation, BAD NERVES. In this episode, we catch up with Bobby to discuss their brand new album, Still Nervous, which drops on May 31st! We also discuss Bobby’s path in music and songwriting, touring in the big bad USA, sonic manifestation and the ancient powers of the pyramids, Prince Harry vs. Prince William, who’s the most iconic punk rocker, and much, much more! As always, brought to you by Sailor Jerry!
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https://sailorjerry.com
Big bad Bobby Nerves, thank you for being a special guest here on the Sailor Jerry podcast. My man, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm doing very well, thank you. I'm suffering from jet lag slightly because of well, because of the jet. It wasn't a private jet, though, it was British Airways economy. We just came back from America yesterday, so I'm a little bit whoa. Other than that, I'm pretty good. Yeah. And how many times have you guys done the States? Now? That was our third time. We first went out there with Royal Blood in when? Was it August last year? They invited us to come out, which was very kind of them to do so. They were the first band of their size, you know, to sort of say come and play with us. You know, in America we were like like what the fuck?
Speaker 1:um, but yeah, it was great so that was the first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then we did. We went back out there for a little headline run with a band called lily, like a co-headline thing she did on the west coast, and then, yeah, and then, and then this big month is crazy man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's awesome, man. Congrats on everything you guys got going. You know, I remember very specifically in the early Bronx days the first time we went to the UK and it was such an incredible experience. But I kind of feel like it's nowhere near as cool when an American band goes to the UK. It's always the cool thing is always the English band.
Speaker 1:You know coming to the States and I just wanted to get your kind of take on that because at least for me, I think going back to England was. You know, it's a smaller place, there's more tradition and it's more of a specific type of place and vibe and I was so stoked to witness it and to be a part of it and the shows there were so crazy. You know just the music history in England is incredible and obviously you know the punk rock scene, you know, in London and Manchester and all those different pockets. We had the best time. But for you, for the band coming over to America for the first time, I feel like when you come over to America it's just like it has to just be insane because it's so huge, it's so wide open, there's so many different things happening. What was it like for you guys the first time you came over?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, yeah, it was crazy. I feel like England. There's like a level of snobbery here a little bit, at least to me that they don't seem to have in America. In America it feels like the way people act in America at the shows I've played is how you'd expect people from England to act, because you know they've got the Beatles coming from there the Clash You'd think there'd be, but it's almost like there's a bit more of a snobbery, like I said, in England, whereas in America it was not like that.
Speaker 2:It felt like everybody was just really excited, Mainly that we're from England, but also you, you know, and they like the music. I think I hope, um, no, it's been great. I think it's, probably it's. It might, might be our favorite place to play. I mean, europe is great as well. Um, they were the first, that was the first place. Um, that people understood the band, you know. But, uh, but yeah, no, it's, it's mad. We never thought we'd get to go to america. It feels like it's big as well. Holy shit, it's big. You know, these drives, man, like you drive. You drive for like 10 hours and you've just you're not even moved on the on the map.
Speaker 1:It's pretty wild, getting used to that um now, do you have a driver or is someone in the van driving?
Speaker 2:oh, this is our john, our bass player. He does absolutely 100 of the driving. Yeah, we do have. I know it's crazy. I think he I don't think he trusts any of the rest of us to drive and I don't blame him, although he did say to me recently that if he was, if he had to trust anyone else with it, it would be me. So there you go.
Speaker 1:So I'm safe as well, everybody yeah, we had, uh, we I've done a little bit of driving in the uk before and it was like, oh man, I mean the streets are so small and I was scared out of my mind. You know, I've almost got, you know, run over, crossing the street over there so many goddamn times. But yeah, it's, it's a trip when it's when it's the other way around your streets here are fucking huge, like we've got the same.
Speaker 2:We have the same fear when we're here, like so let's cross over the road to go to walmart, and it's like this five carriageway, 10 lanes or five on each side, and it's just like I always forget which way to look and it's just oh, I should just be, I stay in the hotel, stay in the hotel and the venue. I can't, I'll get hurt. Oh, man.
Speaker 1:well you guys. You guys have your second album that's about to drop here, may 31st and congratulations on the upcoming release. What's the vibe like in the band right now, man? I mean, you guys got a calendar full of great shows, festivals coming up the rest of the year, new album out. How's everybody feeling?
Speaker 2:I think, you know, we never thought we would get to do a second album. We weren't even planning on being a band when this started. It was meant to be just one album, you know, for fun, just for the sake of it, because what else are you going to do, you know? And yeah, so to have made it to this point where we're doing a second album and people, some people, are keen, keen to hear it, and we're playing these amazing shows with so many amazing bands, it's this. Yeah, I mean we're all, we're tired from a lot of gigs, but we're very excited. Um, it's yeah, it's like a I don't know, I don't want to say dream come true, but I mean it kind of is. You know, we're just doing the thing that we love against literally all the odds. All the people tell you not to do it, all the financial strains which are, you know, very real. Yeah, it's brilliant. We just love it, you know. So we're excited for people to hear this new album and then to do another one.
Speaker 1:I'm already thinking about the next one.
Speaker 2:you know I want to do another one. I miss the writing.
Speaker 1:It is exciting to have you know, and you just reminded me of a feeling of you know, because I think, especially in the punk rock world and in the underground music world there is such a you know, there's an idea that you basically you're going to get one album. You know the band will implode or things will happen and life will go different ways, but at least you'll be able to have this time where you got together, you made some music, If you got lucky enough, you got a record deal, you got to put it out, you got to play some shows, but there is this kind of ideology that most bands are never even going to get to a second album and so what you do, it's a big feeling. It's like, oh shit. It's kind of like, oh man, we're an actual like, we're an actual band. Now we got two albums yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 2:It's like it's uh, I don't know the first one, as you know, like when you do the first one, you're not thinking about anything other than just your sort of uh passion for doing it. You know like. So then when you, when you make it to that second one, it's sort of like going into the studio again, right, you're like everything's different because there's this weird expectation now and you're like it can really get in your head if you let it. You know, um, it's so. It's kind of like it's bittersweet because you have to, like you have to figure out how to sort of I don't know focus and and do what you did before with the same passion and energy, without letting the distractions of the expectation and things get in the way.
Speaker 2:That was, that was kind of strange, but I think we kind of did that in the end. Like I, just what I realized was that when you're doing a second album, you just have to do what you did the first time around, but not as in try to copy the songs, but you're trying to just write from the same like kind of sense of freedom. You know, just like, what do I want to write?
Speaker 1:what do I like, what do I think sounds good and hopefully it still sounds relatively within the genre, you know, unless you want to just go full blown and do, uh, do what you guys did and do a mariachi, no mariachi, or a sergeant pepper, you know, just do something completely left yeah, well, you know it's crazy with with the second bronx album it was a total head fuck for me, like like everything you're talking about, like, okay, the first album was just kind of an explosion of of nerves and energy up to that point and, uh, it came out and it was amazing. And then it was like for us we had, okay, this is like our major label record, we had this big producer and man, I just mentally I was like for us.
Speaker 2:We had okay, this is like our major label record.
Speaker 1:We had this big producer and man, I just mentally I was not ready for that. I was, just like you know, some punk rock kid just like wanted to, you know, scream into a microphone and I wasn't ready to take that like next step, like you know, mentally, in the studio and dude it was, oh God, it was a fucking nightmare dude. It was a nightmare in the studio and dude it, oh god, it was a fucking nightmare dude, it was a nightmare. I I listened back to that record and I and I I love it but still it's like, oh, it was so crazy. And then, on the opposite side of that, with the l bronx band, we wrote that first record and it felt so good that it was just a complete natural flow into the second record. Like we just kept writing and it was like all of a sudden it was like boom, our second. Just kept writing and it was like all of a sudden it was like boom, our second record's done.
Speaker 2:And it was like before we even blinked, way better to do it that way I was reading a interview where you were talking about that whole thing, that process like, and just how how natural it felt and how freeing it was to do something you know like something that nobody would have ever in a million years expected you to do. And it's like I found that when I was in the studio doing this, this second one, like most of the songs on this record, came from obviously we didn't it's not like a complete change, but they came from me going I just want to do something that makes me feel creatively satisfied, rather than worrying about it being this or that, and it's a sort of similar, similar energy in terms of just being free to just explore something creatively, you know, because there's nothing worse than getting stuck, you know, when you're like, oh, I've got to write something that will fit the band. What the fuck does that even mean?
Speaker 1:you know, like it's just, it really can stunt your, your mind you know, yeah, it's tough man like any any sort of confines in a creative realm. There's nothing worse like you're saying that, being in the studio and feeling like you have to write a certain type of song, make a certain type of record, be a certain type of band it's just like fuck all that man I put a little bit of like uh in the beginning of one of the songs on this album.
Speaker 2:There was I built this like huge, like brazilian samba, like intro to like try to make it sound like it had been recorded like on the streets of brazil. I did all these samples, built this whole thing because I wanted to. I was just so desperate to do something else. You know, and I've been to brazil and like, the music in brazil is so amazing and I did all this whole thing and the band were like no, you're not doing that, but I was like it did. It made me think of, uh, of what you guys did with the Mariachi band.
Speaker 1:That was the classic second album. All right, hear me out, guys, hear me out. We're going to go Brazilian street drums.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, and I think they were probably right. It did sound cool, but they were like everyone was just looking at me like I think this is a bad idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah you got to save that for the third record.
Speaker 2:You got to save that for the third record, you gotta say yeah, well, I think third record, yeah, oh god, it's so funny, man, I just yeah just like creative process but yeah, third album is gonna be just all brazilian samba. We're gonna say, we're gonna copy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, that's like you know. The first album is like the first album, the second album is supposed to be like the best version of the first album, and then the third record is when you go full experimentation.
Speaker 2:Yeah the third record is when you really start getting weird disco tech house something really heavy. I'm on ram's side maybe, I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah. So, uh, you know you guys have been around for a while. The band is is kind of just getting discovered right now by a lot of new people, which is really awesome, awesome and perfect timing with the album getting ready to drop here, but just kind of going backwards a little bit for our listeners before the band kind of got together. What's your background in music? When did music kind of first become a thing for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think for me it came from my parents, particularly my mom, because she was a music teacher, basically a secondary school like a high school music teacher. Oh awesome. You know, I was just exposed to loads of music, like musicals as well. My mum's really into that sort of stuff. So from a young age I was kind of like singing along to various musicals and things like that. Various musicals and things like that. Um, so that's sort of where it came.
Speaker 2:But then when I went into um, when I, when I went to high school, I sort of discovered like nirvana and stuff, and uh, nirvana was like the thing that got me to play drums. Um, and being able to play drums I found to be such a valuable thing for me. When I'm like writing a song, you know I can, just because I played drums, I can just play and I don't have to think about it so much. So I can think about the song you know in my head while I'm sort of playing. So that's ended up being a really valuable thing for me. But so I listened to like Bowie and stuff growing up in the car on the way to school, because it was like my dad's music. I was almost like rebelling against it, like I liked it at the and I was like, oh, I don't like this. I found Nirvana and Slipknot and I was like, there, this is my stuff. Although then, as it turns out later on in life, I was like, oh wow, I love all my dad's music, but no, so it sort of came from that really, and then just played drums in a few bands in high school and joined a metal band, played in a metal band for years on drums and then I sort of tried to do like more poppy stuff.
Speaker 2:This is the funny thing bad nerves came along right when I was like I got to this point where I I felt like I hadn't found the music I wanted to make. I felt like I could. I had some of the tools to be able to do it, like you play a bit guitar, do whatever, but I hadn't found like the genre, if you like, that I really liked. I was trying to do like some like, uh, electro stuff, electronic, like chilled out stuff, because I was smoking a lot of weed, just trying to do some really slow like beats, you know which was cool, like you put melodies over it, but it didn't give you that adrenaline of, like you know, metal that I'd had before.
Speaker 2:And then I found all the power pop, the power pop and the punk stuff which I hadn't really listened to loads before, and it just, uh, it just clicked. I was like, wow, you can do melody and you can do anger and you can mash it into one, and it's like you know. And then I basically haven't stopped since then and that was it. Light bulb went on. I was I don't even have to be good at the instruments, I can just play a beat and just play some chords, you know like, and it's yeah, that's basically what we've built on. The same thing that, uh, it's like ramones, you know, you can't. Uh, we're not necessarily great our instruments, but we, we try hard and we uh, yeah, I don't know, we just try to write as many songs as we can hope that a couple of good ones come out hell yeah, when.
Speaker 1:So how did you make the transition from drumming to singing?
Speaker 2:well, I was kind of like I'd always I because I'd always sang. Since I was a kid. That was like my you know first instrument, if you will, but I, um, I kind of wasn't very cool. I didn't think when I was going to high school, I don't want to be some singer. I was playing clarinet as well. I forgot to mention that I was playing clarinet for like five years nothing cooler than clarinet so when I started high school, I was like I didn't do any of that.
Speaker 2:I was just gonna play drums, you know, in nirvana and all that stuff, like it's like guitar, yeah. And then I played drums for basically 10 years, you know, and that was my main thing. And it wasn't until I was like in my mid-20s, I guess, or early, like 23, 4,. I was like you know, I want to try writing my own songs. And then did that for a couple of years and yeah, and then me and will basically just started this band. He texted me on. He actually texted me christmas 2014 and said let's do a band. And I thought I was thinking like refused, you know, that swedish band refused, kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Let's do something like that and then, uh, and he was like nah, nah let's not do that. No, disrespect to that, he loves them, but he's like, no, I don't want to do that, uh, and he sent me jay. Jay re Blood Visions album.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah classic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he sent me Radioactivity's first album, which is obviously the Mark Men's sort of spin-off, if you like, and those two albums just blew my mind. I hadn't really heard that sort of kind of garage punk kind of thing. If I had, I didn't remember hearing it. You know, because I came from the metal side. I used to be very much into this whole. Everything has to be so tight and like, well played, whatever that means.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I came from that world and like, and once I got into this punk thing, you know, and I started to realize how much I actually loved the scrappiness of it, it was like everything changed. I went from thinking you had to play everything perfectly and everything had to be complicated to realizing that I'd been like tricked. You know that, actually, that that is not the way it is at all, like you know, obviously, that music is what it is and it's great, but like there's something in that, the essence of people playing. It's almost better when they can't play, you know it's always better when it's just baby fast yeah exactly, and that's just that just blew my mind discovering that.
Speaker 2:You know, I was like holy shit, this is so much more fun. You know, the pressure's kind of off, it's like just go, follow your gut. You know, you don't have to worry about being so great or anything like that, as long as you're you put your all into it. It's, that's it, you know, and that means something.
Speaker 1:It's great yeah, that's awesome, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, one of the things that I really love about the band are the vocal melodies uh, you know whether whether it's a super fast song like antidote or a mid-tempo song, like you should know by now, vocal melodies are always insanely catchy. Um, where, where does that kind of come from? You know what I mean. Like, I know melody is an important thing for you, um, but when you're writing a song, you know, like you're saying multi-instrumentalist here, uh, we got drums, we got clarinet, we got vocals, we got you know, we got it all. Uh, like what, what's your kind of writing process? And where do you put like melody and lyrics?
Speaker 2:um, you know, on the sort of totem pole of importance in a song yeah, I mean, for me I feel like melody is the number one important thing, to be honest, like because you know you could take the most basic uh, you know, riff, you know, or whatever chords. You know just three chords where two chords, even if you're feeling like it, if you're feeling really lazy, and if you find a, if you find a melody that, um, that works, that hits, well, then the music can be so basic, you know, you can, the beat can just be the same beat, the whole, like antidote. That is literally. I. I recorded, I think, maybe two bars of the of the beat and there's one bit where it opens the hats up and it's like get and get and get and get a symbol and then it repeats, and then I pasted it and I didn't change it. I thought I wanted it to be completely robotic, not not no, like variety at all and um, and that's like a good example, like, and that's just a, that's a couple. But then I found a melody that worked and it ended up being probably one of my favorite songs in terms of melody on that album.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but no, so I find like when I'm writing stuff sometimes I'll just try and get like a verse and a chorus idea, super rough you know, on, like guitars and drums or whatever, and then I'll sit there before I go any further and see if I can catch some sort of melody over it. And then, if I do, then I'm then I'm like, oh okay, this is. Then it gives me that sort of like the encouragement to to go forward with it, because there's been times where I've like worked on the music, got this whole song all laid out and and I've left the vocals till the end, and then I get there and I can't, I can't find something that is that I like enough. So I uh, yeah, I think melody is the most important thing. That's why I just find that's what makes you want to go back and listen to a song. You know, like it's not to say that everything has to be super cheesy. You know, abba beetles kind of like pop melodies all the time. There's loads of music I like which isn't hasn't got that constant, like you know hook on the top.
Speaker 2:But for me personally, with this sort of music, I I just want it to be instant. If I'm in the mood for listening to this kind of music, I want there to be hooks, you know, so yeah, so I spend a lot of time just trying to find those hooks. Really, you know, I don't want the verse to be less catchy than the chorus, I want it to be catchy from the minute the vocals start to the end of the song. You know, because I just I don't know, it's like the, I like, I think from listening to the beatles so much, I, I just love that almost all of their songs, certainly the sort of latest albums, like it's just all catchy. You know there's like there's not one, there's not one bit that doesn't hook you in. You know the verse of this song, the middle eight of that song is all has a hook and I just I just find that so great yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:That's awesome man. That's a good point. If the chorus is catchy, why can't the verse be catchy? Why can't the whole fucking song be catchy? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can.
Speaker 1:And you feel that when you listen to Bad Nerves, you hear that, you feel that and the songs stick in your head. And from the first album in 2020, and you know you guys released live in london 2023 and and now with this album, I really feel like uh, the song so far off of uh, still nervous, like you guys have kind of found, you know, your spot as a band and and the songs, man, they're so, they're so good thanks, dude.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate that. It's been, uh, it's been, a weird process this one, because I did a lot of this one on my own, so it's been a little bit more scary. You know, I know that I like it. It's just always that thing of will other people like it? You know, you don't really know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the kicker right. It's like okay, it's great to make an album that you love, but it would be awesome if some other people enjoyed it as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does help. I'm not seeking validation and then I get it and I think oh, it does feel nice actually.
Speaker 1:Awesome man. A couple questions here from the internet. We got a lot of questions from the internet, oh shit. Oh, no, yeah, watch out, here comes the internet. Who wins in a fight between Prince Harry and Prince William? In a fight between Prince Harry and Prince William.
Speaker 2:I mean I, I I prefer Harry to William, I think, cause he's at least Harry's tried to sort of, he's tried to, he's tried to distance himself a little bit from some of the fucked up shit. That I can't go too deep into the Royal family stuff I was just turning to a conspiracy podcast. I'm going to go, I'll go with, I'll go with Harry, even, um, I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1:I'll go with you know, I'll go with harry, even though I'm not too sure. Harry's the special forces, right? Harry did, harry did, uh, yeah, okay, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't mean special forces in quotes yeah, yeah, sky news were there to film him doing the special forces. That, there you go, let's just get you some film?
Speaker 1:yeah, that video him like running, running to the helicopter or whatever. That viral video is great when he takes off his mic and runs uh all right, you're going, harry, I'm gonna give it to william just because of older brother power. I feel like, yeah, as a younger brother, I can attest that older brother power is very real and I it's, it's, it takes. It takes a miracle for a younger brother to beat the older brother. It's there's, just it does not happen miracle for a younger brother to beat the older brother.
Speaker 2:It's there's just it does not happen. I think I must be, I'm gonna have to disagree, because I have a younger brother and I used to I would always win the fight somewhere younger, because he was he's three years younger than me. He was a lot smaller for like the first 20 years and then I feel like all of our fighting and play, fighting, fight made him a lot tougher than I am and now he's like way physically stronger than me, he looks better than me and I just if we got in a fight, I think I don't think I stand a chance.
Speaker 1:The student has become the teacher. I don't know, though. Yeah, you'd be surprised. Yeah, actually, maybe you're right, maybe I am really strong.
Speaker 2:Fuck it.
Speaker 1:That's the thing. What's so frustrating about being the younger brother is, even if you know, like you're saying, you know you've been beating him up his whole life. He's got a chip on his shoulder. He's super buff now, but there's still. There's that one thing where it's just no matter what. He's never going to be able to get over on you.
Speaker 2:It's just not. It's just like a law of the world I like that. Yeah, I'm gonna start. I'm gonna start manifesting that and then I'm gonna challenge into a jewel all right.
Speaker 1:Who is the most iconic punk rocker?
Speaker 2:I mean for me, for me probably joey ramone, oh, then again I don't know joe strummer's quite high up there as well, for me. I mean, I think the pistols were pretty iconic, you know, like with what they did with that one album and just the timing of it all um, my initial thought was sid vicious, just because poster boy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you think about the word iconic, the look, you know, we've all seen the photos and it's like he's just one of those guys of people who don't know what punk is. They see a picture they're like're like ooh, what's it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Sid's up there for me I think I was in America that show, wasn't it? They got Bob Williams, yeah, yeah, and it's just the blood. It's like the first, real well, I mean probably not the first, but that picture of him just there, just with the blood and the bass guitar.
Speaker 1:It's just this. It doesn't really get much. Uh more punk rock does it than that? Uh, what's your uh favorite song to perform live right now?
Speaker 2:funnily enough, probably, uh, usa, just because it it's so fun, and that's that's also the song that weirdly, like had such a weird thing with that song, because I wrote that in this room again and I was like really imagining what it would be like to go to america and play this song, almost like just as a bit of a joke, like this would be funny, like what can I do? Like I was thinking, let's try and write a song where I only say you, usa and united states of america. That was the initial idea, to only say those words and not say anything else. And and I did put a few other lyrics in at the end. And I was sitting here making this song, like really imagining like us going to America and playing this song, like just because it was helping me just visually. It was a bit of a laugh, you know. And then it was so weird because it was like two weeks later, royal Blood called us and asked us if we wanted to go to America. So we had no plans to go to america.
Speaker 2:Then we did this song and I just remember being in here having like sort of just visualizing this happening. And then it happened and it was like the first time where, you know, I've read stuff about manifestation and all these kind of things, you know, but, being from england, I'm very cynical and very skeptical. I try not to be, I'm quite. I'm like I'm very open-minded for an english person, but I come from pure cynicism, you know and like. But that was like a thing where I actually made me think like I wonder if in some way that that I helped that become reality just through. I don't know, it's so weird. So I have this weird attachment to that song because I'm convinced that that somehow some somewhere in the universe, someone, someone made it happen. Yeah, in a weird way and it's so. I don't want to sound like a crazy person, but it felt so like. That felt so real. It's bizarre.
Speaker 1:You got to test it out. You should write a song about like going to prison or something and see if you get arrested.
Speaker 2:I was going to say winning the lottery. It seemed a bit nicer, but maybe going to prison. That would toughen me up. I'll come back and beat the shit out my brother.
Speaker 1:Oh dude did anything in the states rub you the wrong way at all, have you? Have you had any weird experiences?
Speaker 2:a girl asked me if I wanted to have a shower with her directly after playing a show. That kind of threw me off. That's why that was my first experience of uh, something like that.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I would throw that in the bad category. I think that a little forward, but that's good. That's good.
Speaker 2:That's the worst thing I can think of in America. Isn't that brilliant?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're doing all right.
Speaker 2:You never guess what happened, this awful thing. I'm traumatized.
Speaker 1:Now, what about when it comes to being in a band? What's something you love about being in a band and what's something that you hate about being in a band? What was something you love about being in a band and what's something that that you hate about being in a band?
Speaker 2:the thing I love about is that you, like, you don't feel I don't know, you don't feel like you're wasting your time. It feels like it satisfies your soul. You know, like, uh, just playing with, going on. It's like being on a permanent kind of adventure with, with, well, ideally with your mates. You know, I feel like it bonds you as a group because you, you have to see the best and worst of each other and it kind of you do become like, as you know, you become like a family, like your friendships become much deeper. You know, because, uh, yeah, with with with a lot of friends, I've found like you're only really friends when you're having a good time. You know, like you're not. You don't see the sort of the other side of people's personalities when you're in a band. You have no choice, you know. But I like, and that's not a bad thing, I think it's actually a really good thing because, I don't know, it teaches you patience. You developed your, you know your skills of how to deal with other people Hell yeah, that you might not otherwise have and I find, like that's all really valuable. You know stuff that you can take into back out into the world. You know, it's just a great adventure. You know, I feel like if I were to die tomorrow I'd feel like, oh, you know I really I at least tried to do something I enjoyed as much as I could, you know, and, yeah, just have a good time.
Speaker 2:But bad things about being in a band, I'd say, the only bad thing it's not necessarily a bad thing, but a hard thing is it's just, I guess, trying to sustain yourself. You know, like that, that's the hard thing in the early days. You're trying to. You know you have to if you're going to do it seriously. The band has got to kind of come first, and not only does that mean your jobs, whatever that might be. You know it's hard to have a job and do a, do a proper full-time band. It's hard to have, you know, a girlfriend or boyfriend and do have a full-time band as well, because you're always away. You know, like you, sort of there are struggles, like real world struggles, if you like, um, that are challenging, but also I feel like they can't.
Speaker 1:That's kind of part, weirdly, it's part of the fun and there's something to be said for, you know, people who never fade from that, like nothing will ever come before the art, it doesn't matter, they, they will. You know, they will blow up their world time and time again, um, you know, in the name of of creativity and and pushing themselves to their limits, uh, artistically, and that's a crazy life yeah, man, it is because everything in the normal world gets kind of destabilized by it, you know.
Speaker 2:But the thing is I've found, like writing and and performing, but but particularly writing like it's, it's like therapeutic, you know, it's like it's yeah, you know, if you struggle to talk about how you feel and a lot of people do, you know, especially men like but a lot of people struggle to talk about how they feel and I find, like for me in a song, like I can, I can say things I perhaps wouldn't bother saying in the real world and it and it makes me feel better. You know, it's like I can put things, instead of having to put it into a person or something like that, I can put it into songs and it does. It's quite kind of healing in a weird way. And uh, like I've found I've had like the classic breakup song. I remember years ago we first started the band going through like well, my girlfriend dumped me basically, and rightly so, because I was a terrible boyfriend, but um and uh and it really like knocked me for six. I was kind of like, you know, quite upset about it and uh and I and I put it in a song. It's on the first album it's called wasted days and literally the next day I felt infinitely better and I remember that being like such a like oh fuck, you know just saying what, literally exactly what I felt, but into a song, it almost took it out of me and put it somewhere else, you know, like it was quite, um, that's quite, quite powerful, I think, yeah, so I mean, I, I would, I would never, I would never tell somebody that being in a band is easy, but it is definitely, as far as I've experienced, one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.
Speaker 2:I guess pursuing anything that you really love would be the same. You know, um, it's just that we happen to have done it in bands, you know, but it is, I just can't imagine doing anything else. I try to do normal things as well and be a normal person a bit, but I do struggle mentally because mentally I'm always thinking about music. You know, I struggle to switch that off. I'm trying to learn to switch it off, to be honest, because, as we said, it's catastrophic for, like everything else outside of the band environment. You know, like, um, yeah, it's good to find that, find a balance, but that that's that.
Speaker 1:That's hard all right, bobby, a couple hypotheticals. All right, uh, say you walk out your rehearsal studio right now and there's a time machine there. Okay, and yeah, time machine opens and you know, let's say someone super cool, jimmy hendrix, comes out of it. Okay, he's like yo, bobby, you know, jump in this time machine anywhere you want to go in the world anytime. Where are you going to go first and why?
Speaker 2:pyramids. I think I'd. I think I'd have to, I'd buy, I'd go. The first thing would be I've got to see, I've got to put an end to this debate. I need to know. I need to fucking know what the hell is going on, because if there's powers that they had, I want to, I want them, I want to be able to levitate shit with my fucking hands I like that I would love.
Speaker 2:I want to know about the technology that these ancient civilizations had. You know, like, well, you see all this shit. I mean maybe I'll just watch too many TV shows, I don't know, but like you know, you hear about all that stuff and it's just so fascinating, Like how, how did they build the fucking pyramids? I was taught my whole life that they were tombs, but they're not tombs. Anyway, that is another subject.
Speaker 1:All right, you get back from Egypt.
Speaker 2:You get back from exploring the pyramids you can levitate.
Speaker 1:You've got all these secret powers. You go back to your flat, you crack open a drink and a genie comes out of the bottle. Okay, there's no beverage no beverage inside, just a genie comes out of the bottle. Okay, yeah, there's no, no beverage, no beverage inside, just a genie, genie comes out he says hey, bobby, nerves, big fan, I'm gonna grant you one wish, oh, what's your wish?
Speaker 2:oh well, I mean the really obvious one wish, in my opinion, and it's very cliche, but I almost don't want to say it's so cliche but I'll say anyway, maybe I'll have a second stab, but it's got to be world peace, surely. It's got to be everybody to have the minimum requirements to have a good life, you know, and no fucking war, none of that bullshit, you know.
Speaker 1:I don't know if that's like multiple wishes in one, but no, no, I think world peace means no war.
Speaker 2:I like that you know, I mean that's it's.
Speaker 1:It's cliche, but I'll tell you what it speaks to your personality, that you wouldn't mind given. You know, instead of hey, I want a bazillion dollars, or, you know, I want this, I want that you're thinking about? Yeah, I know, that was right, but first but at least first, you're thinking about, you know, you're thinking about the planet, you're thinking about the big picture.
Speaker 2:So we, yeah, I mean, I think you appreciate that yeah, there's too much.
Speaker 2:There's too much fucked up shit going. When you look at what we can do as human beings, like the technology we can, you know everything that we do, that's great. And then, like we're doing all this awful shit as well, it's like why are we doing that? You know been living on this planet of abundance. You know which we're you know destroying, depending on what news station you watch um, you know, like we could, uh, I feel like we could do better. You know, like all the shit that's going on, I feel like I feel like it's you know ever.
Speaker 2:I feel like, if everyone had their basic requirements met which shouldn't be impossible when you got fucking a geezer runs Amazon's got more money than you know, it's crazy. I'm not saying he hasn't worked for it, but like you know surely, like I don't know if I could sleep at night having like hundreds of billions when, like people, people ain't got a pot to piss in. You know, like it's. It's crazy how people are living in some parts of the world like we're, we're, we're rich compared to most people and we must be honest, like the way living over here in the west there's not. There are obviously, obviously in the west as well. But, like you know, I feel like we could do better. I don't know, I don't know how. Don't ask me to figure it out, but someone very clever could come in and figure that out, hopefully, hopefully.
Speaker 1:I like that. I like that. All right, last hypothetical here. We've been to the pyramids, we got world peace and you know, let's just say, after this podcast is finished up, you get a call from your manager and he says Bobby, you're never going to believe this. Okay, I just got a call from Coldplay and Chris Martin is out of the band, he's quitting, he's joining the Peace Corps. He's gone, him, and Harry, the band, yeah, the band is carrying on and they're looking for a new singer. You got to be. It's all or nothing. There's no more bad nerves, there's no side project. What do you say? Do you do?
Speaker 2:it. Do you step up? Oh God, do you hope? Nah, no disrespect to them, though, but not in a million years. I'd rather be skint and doing the band that I like than joining some famous band, although I probably would join Slipknot on percussion, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Just for the mask.
Speaker 2:For the mask. How much fun would that be? Absolutely, that's a running joke. At the moment we're saying I keep joking that I'm going to join Slipknot one day, that I'm going to join Slipknot and I don't know if I might write a song and see if I manifest it happening well, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I mean, you're obviously dealing with some sort of supernatural power there's something here in the room it's, there's something. There's something there. So just be careful.
Speaker 2:What you wish for, that's all I'll say with great power comes great responsibility world peace and slipknot awesome man, all right last question here, bobby.
Speaker 1:Last question what to you is the meaning of life? Cool, bloody, hell, that's a big one, isn't it right? Last question here, bobby. Last question what to you is the meaning of life? Cool, bloody, yeah, that's a big one, isn't it big?
Speaker 2:last question the meaning of life I think, uh, it's hard to say if it's the meaning, but I think, um, finding out what makes you feel good and, uh, like we were saying earlier, pursuing things that satisfy your soul, I think, as on an individual level, I think, is, uh, yeah, very meaningful, you know. I think, because I feel like if everybody was encouraged to pursue the thing they love, then they'll be living in love, you know, they'll be living in joy, and, and when you live in those things, that spreads, you know, and then we will have world peace eventually one day, you know, but whilst you know, I think, if everyone's given equal opportunity and stuff which, again, you know, and then we will have world peace eventually one day, you know. But, whilst you know, I think, if everyone's given equal opportunity and stuff, which, again, you know, is something that I think we could do with, and who knows how many joe's drummers are sitting over in some country where they haven't even got clean water, you know, who knows was that? Imagine if we had that equal opportunity for everybody, like, and they were encouraged to follow the thing that makes them feel good, like.
Speaker 2:Imagine, like, the vibration of the world, how good that would feel, you know, like there wouldn't be any fucking war. As soon as I'm trying to start a fucking war, we'd be like get, get rid of him, get him out, you know, um, but I think I think that's that's the thing. It's just you've got to follow your. Follow what makes you feel good and life will be good. It'll be tough, but it'll be good. It'll be tough in a good way.
Speaker 1:Awesome, bobby Nerves. Man appreciate your time here on the. Sailor Jerry podcast Still nervous out May 31st. Congrats on the new album.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:Super stoked. You're playing shows with the Hives in September. You've got Reading and Leeds Festival in August. Ohana Festival that's coming up too. A lot of good stuff on tap for the band. So congrats on all your success, man.
Speaker 2:Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Thanks so much, honestly. We, as the band, really appreciate people like yourselves taking the time to talk to us about it. It's great. Hell yeah, man.