The following podcast is a Deer Media production. >> Okay, you hear this song right now, you guys. This song that you're hearing right now is the background track of the podcast. It's been the intro theme song since I first launched the show 2 years ago. And it's actually a piece of a song called Rolling Stone, which is a song written by my brother's band, East Love. I am so excited for today's episode of the show where I am bringing on my older brother Rob, his best friend, Lucas, and his other best friend, Alex. The three of them together are bandmates in a band called East Love. And in today's episode, we dive into everything from the making of the band, their history of meeting each other in elementary school and middle school, all the way through their modern-day lives. They're all between 35 and 36 years old. They all have kids and they are all still part of this band. Specifically because it's the holiday season. I don't feel like I could have possibly put out an episode that's warmer and cozier than this one. You guys know my family is everything to me. I will always do whatever it takes to support them in all of their endeavors. And you've likely seen me sharing about my brother's music on social media since I first started at Refinery 29 in 2015. and I will always continue to support him. And just having these three on the show was such a delight, such good vibes. You're going to feel it yourselves. If you have not yet listened to any of their music, please go over to Spotify, type in East Love, download their songs. Go listen. They have a lot of singles. They have some albums. They've even put out some covers. And honestly, their songs, I'm not just saying this because I'm a sister of a bandmate. Their songs are really good. And I hear from followers of mine all the time that you guys are loving their music and listening to it and you're sending me clips of hearing it play in the grocery store. And let it be known the whole reason that we did this episode is because a follower of mine wrote to me and said, "Can you bring your brother and his bandmates onto the show?" So this is a requested episode. I'm so excited to bring it to you. This intro can be short and sweet because the real goodness is coming up in the conversation. Let's dive in with the boys from East Love. All right, let's let's do a quick we're live on the recording. Let me get a quick and this will actually help the audience orient whose voice is whose. So Rob aka my brother, let's have you say something. >> Hello, this is Rob aka your brother. >> All right, let's have Lucas say something. >> Uh Lucas aka I don't I'm Lucas. That's it. I really had something. It's not >> It's not working. >> It's not good. I mean, honestly, I think it's pretty to edit that part out, you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry. I got you. And Alex. >> Hey, I'm I'm Alex, but recently I've been transitioning to Al, so um yeah, very progressive. >> That's me. And um this is my voice for sure. >> All right. Welcome to the Boys of East Love. Welcome to the Real Stuff podcast. >> Thank you. Honored to be here. >> Hi. >> I'm so happy to have you guys here. And I thought this was perfect timing for an episode with family. Obviously, there's only one biological family member on this call with me, but the two of you, the other two, feel about as close to family as outsiders can feel. >> Yeah. The the the phrasing of that, you know, outsiders, I mean, family >> as muggles can feel, especially around the holiday season. People are getting cozy right now, hopefully with their families. And whenever you're with family and you guys come back together for celebrations like this, I think people start to go down memory lane and reminisce about their past and childhood and our upbringings. And so there's truly no better time for me to bring the East Love Boys onto the Real Stuff podcast. And I It's high time that the world knows who you guys are. >> It's high time. >> Oh my god. It's high time. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Some >> happy holidays everyone. A little background for people who are unfamiliar with East Love. This is my brother Rob and two of his best friends in the world, Alex and Lucas. And they were all friends since middle school. I think maybe Alex, you were maybe Robbie's friends since elementary school. Is that correct? >> Yeah. Yeah. We got in a lot of trouble in third and fourth grade. For sure. And then I remember when you guys were sixth graders and I was a fourth grader. Rob went off to middle school and came home with a new friend, Lucas, and the rest is history. You guys have remained best friends ever since then. And then the three of you, sometimes more, you know, there have been floating members of the band that have kind of come in and out, but the three of you are really the core three of East Love that have taken this band from a friendship from elementary school to middle school all the way through to high school. and we're going to hear a little bit about how the band was formed in high school and now you guys are basically ancient dinosaurs. You're all in your mid30s. Uh you all have kids. You're all totally in. Yeah, Rob's got a lot of grays if you're watching on YouTube. Oh, Lucas. Lucas with the grays if you're watching. >> I invented the grays. Are you kidding me? Do you see this right here? And I really just want to give you guys the chance to tell us about, you know, not only the the new music, which we will get into, but the whole backstory. So, I think to make this clean, let me call on some people, have you guys, you know, one at a time. Let's just start with Rob. The audience knows you. You've been on the show before. Can you take us back to your early friendship with both of these two, and just talk about how, when, and how music became part of it? First of all, I just want to say it's an honor to be back on The Real Stuff. This is my second appearance, and since I I now have the stamp of of legitimacy of The Real Stuff being among my top Spotify podcasts of the year. >> Yes. >> So, a two-time um two-time guest and big fan. Alex and I, as he alluded to earlier, we go way back to elementary school and even possibly before that. I don't think music was necessarily a key part of our friendship back in those days, but um I think there was a hair braiding incident that led to some parents phone calls of of concern back in those early days, but you know, we we've gotten past that. >> Can you give us some more on that? >> Um I don't remember it at all. >> When you come around to me, I'll for sure I'll for sure pop in on that. >> All right. >> We'll c we'll circle back to the hair braiding. But to talk about more so our musical foundations, Lucas and I, like you said, became friends in middle school. And >> well, she she said as if you picked me up like I was on this like Yeah. She just came home one day with this with this young lass named Lucas, like I was walking the streets. >> It did kind of feel in hindsight, it did kind of feel like a a stray dog came into the house. >> Lucas was acquired when it's my turn. >> Lucas was acquired as a friend. I distinctly remember since I knew Lucas was a singer. He had done many a talent competition and um performances at our um our middle school for different festivals, talent shows. I I don't even know what to call them. But I only played guitar. I never really sang. And he started getting me into singing cuz he really wanted someone to harmonize with. So I remember early days doing some Beatles stuff and really singing for the first time and realizing that I could sing relatively on key which was a pleasant surprise. The first time that we started performing together was we would go around to old age homes in Westchester where we grew up and we would play covers for community service. That was really fun, really rewarding and the way that we started for the first time ever playing music in front of people together. So, those are those are the I don't want to like go through the full spiel of this led to this, it's to high school to college, etc. right off the bat, but I'll stop there. Those are the early foundations. >> All right, let's move on to Lucas's opinion on the matter. >> Yeah. So, um I spent a lot of time as a youth walking the streets as a stray as I was. So, I um I come from a family of uh of people who like to sing at varying at varying levels of uh of talent. And I'm not going to stack rank them because I'm my family. It's the holiday season. I I wouldn't do that. We would be one of those families that when we would be in the car traveling, there'd be a lot of singing. There'd be a lot of harmonizing. Um, and I so I thought to myself, you know, it would be great if I can take that the best part of my my family and I can find a non-family member to to do that with. And so I see this guy Rob who I actually the first time I'd ever become aware of Rob's presence. I didn't know who he was necessarily, but it was at a day camp way back in the day. And there was this guy who was uh you know who who was uh infamous or maybe just famous. I don't know what the infamy part is. It's just fame, regular fame, pure and simple. And he would you know go to the the public pool in the camp and his hair would turn green and it was like he was the guy whose hair turned green. Um and so that's all I knew about him at the time. And then so there was middle school and we were beyond the green hair. There was a guy who liked to play guitar. I don't know how necessarily we got linked up actually. Oh, I do know how. There's a longer story here and I'm prone to long stories so I'll leave this out. But there was another friend who then was friends with Rob. And by the way, it was always Robbie. He's transitioned himself from Robbie to Rob. That's true. That's what Al and and Rob. >> I'm still I'm still stuck on that transition because I think you will always always be Robbie to me. >> Yeah, it's really challenging. And the really challenging thing is that it's actually neither of those. It's Bob to me, but the listeners there can be confusion. There's too many things to focus on. I couldn't possibly introduce that. Anyways, we're friends. Okay, that's what happens. We're friends and then music is introduced. Um, harmonies are executed at a pretty high level. Garage Band is introduced as well because Rob Bob Robbie is a smart guy and he knew how to use Garage Band. And so we would record these very simple things. Um, and the beauty about these old age homes is that, you know, our first early performances is that it was a really, it was a high floor type of thing. Really low ceiling as well, but it was a high floor thing because if you were really bad or really good, and you know, old age homes are lovely. You're not getting much. And that's okay, you know, and it really boosted us. It didn't make us, you know, it kept us humble because no one was saying, "Oh, wow. You're amazing." They weren't saying anything at all. Um, but you'd get the occasional finger wag and knee bop and that's all you need when you're a young um, stray. >> We do have some pretty epic videos of of those those bopping people. >> We do. >> They're epic. >> And now Alex, also known as Al, also known as Goldstein, also known as Steen. Let's go. >> Yes. Yes. And Lucy, I hope you're ready for like a six-hour podcast cuz all of us are just going to rip for for long periods of time. Okay. So, let me let me just run back to the um let me run back to this braid infamous braiding story. Okay. So, when Robbie and I were in a fourth grade class together, Lucy, obviously you remember, but your listeners may not. Robbie had like a bowl cut with like very long blonde hair at the time. Kind almost like your hair now, Lucy. So, >> are you saying I have a bowl cut? No, it was like it was like long and it was the same it was the same color. So, >> all right. Got it. Got it. >> Lean, you said she has a bull cut. >> Yes, you have a bowl cut. Apparently, my mom got a call from our fourth grade teacher that said, "Your son is is very distracted in class. Every time I want him to pay attention, it seems that he's in the corner with Robbie braiding his hair." And my mom's like, "So, so, so, so we've talked about that. I think I even told that story at Robbiey's wedding. So, I was friends with Robbie in fourth grade, but then as we got into middle school, you know, Rob met Luke and Luke and Rob were were they were riding the fast lane, let me tell you. They were riding the fast lane. And um I was, you know, I was lucky to get the invite on a Friday night, you know, to to the to the cool kids party, you know, and I I'd always just be trying to like uh you know, stick my foot in the door with these guys. And then um eventually in high school at which time actually Lucy you and I were in a show together in the drama club also at the LA pinil which >> you can't forget Lucas. He was in that too. >> It's true. >> I'm I'm I'm living life in the fast lane. I'm in a show with him. >> Right. So, so now we're in high school and we had entered the, you know, I was inspired by Lucas's musical abilities and Lucas would always put himself out there at the talent shows and in the musicals and I knew I could sing, but I was I was a little bit shy. I was a little bit nervous to put myself out there. But there was this guy Lucas, Lucas Effman, who was putting himself out there and just like this like cool, fun guy who was also this amazing singer and he was friends with Rob and I was like, I need to get in with these guys. So then obviously we all joined together and started a band our senior year of high school and and I'm sure we can talk more about that. >> Wow, what a rundown. You guys all have such unique perspectives. >> Hold on. Can I can I just ask a question here? Yes. >> Am I Am I hearing this right? But am I the collective muse? Did I just inspire both of you to pursue music? Am I the heart of the band? >> I'm not I'm not sure. Uh that's my takeaway, but >> Oh, I thought that was >> I thought that was the take. >> The band wouldn't exist without Bob's bowl cut. I think >> I just want to quickly acknowledge how incredible it is that we're a half hour into this interview and have established how we've met. We're not a half hour in. We're about 15 minutes in. >> I'm rounding. >> When Michael and I were new parents, we got a lot of gifts from friends. And I will always remember the one gift that we got that we felt like was the most life-changing gift to us as parents. And it has since become something that we now buy for ourselves over and over again. And something that I give to every single person in my life who becomes a new parent. And this is MagneticMe pajamas. If you don't know about this brand, they are primarily known for their baby pajamas with those magnetic closures. So, there's no more zippers or snaps, buttons going through holes. It's just magnetic closures that snap closed. And they are a complete game changer when it comes to doing a million outfit changes a day for a baby. They've now expanded into toddler clothes and dayw wear and they just have so many amazing outfits and cute prints and things for toddlers. But the best thing about it is that the magnets make it easier for toddlers who are learning to dress themselves. It's very Montasauri inspired. Very helpful for kids who want to put on a sweatshirt but don't necessarily know how to zip the zipper. It just magnetically snaps closed. They've even expanded into outerw wear this winter. We have the cutest little sherpa jackets for both kids that just snap clothes magnetically. It is so much easier when you're bundling your kids up and trying to hustle and get out the door in the morning and it makes it so that they can get dressed and undressed by themselves. When I saw this as a parent, I just thought, first of all, this is the most innovative idea ever. And honestly, I'm like, how did parents do all these diaper changes and all these outfit changes for babies and for kids when this wasn't a thing? So that's why I continue to not only buy the products for my own family, but I gift it to everyone cuz I just think it's such a great gift. And it's like a dual gift. It's not just a gift for the kid, but it's a gift for the parent who now gets to save so much time. And not to mention, they even have magnetic me clothes for adults. This holiday season, I'm going to be giving these magnetic me clothes to everyone in my life that has kids. I continue to get so many compliments on my kids outfits whenever they're wearing these. And do not skip out on the family matching PJs because you as the adult will see these are the softest things ever. There's something in this fabric. I've never felt anything like it. Trust me, you need magnetic me to make changing time easier for you and your little one. And if you are a parent or if you're shopping for any parent, this will be a gift that they will love, they will cherish, they will thank you for, and then they will continue to buy for themselves. Go to magneticme.com. They're currently offering 15% off to new customers. They even have the cutest gift boxes and as I said, everything from baby to toddler to adult sizes. So, it really is the perfect gift across the board. Do not wait. Go to magneticme.com and shop for the holiday season. All right, you guys. Truly, one of the things I I actually forgot because I always think of Alex and Lucas, the two of you, as my brother's friends or as other older brothers to me in my life. But I did forget, unfortunately, I forgot that the three of us actually have something without Rob. We have the Scarsdale High School Drama Club experience of being together in shows. And it's such an amazing universe to grow up in in a town like Scarsdale in a community that we grew up in where honestly the grades get to mix so much and there's a lot of whether it's just making friends and hanging out and you know I'm sure you guys had a lot of friends in my grade and I had I was friends with you and your friends but Rob we're only two grades apart although we are closer to three years apart being a younger sister and having an older brother two grades older than me which meant that we overlapped for a year in middle school and and then also overlap for two years in high school was so amazing to me. I mean to be a fresh there's nothing quite like being a freshman girl and knowing all of the junior boys and feeling like they are older brothers to you and are protective over you. And I'm have no doubt my whole high school and middle school experience would have been different without you and your friends. And so I just love you guys so much and I'm so excited that we're doing this. And also part of the reason I I really want to bring you guys here as a band because outside of just our friendship and outside of you guys truly being, you know, other older brothers to me, the three of you have done something really special with East Love with the way that it's carried through your upbringings. You guys all now have full-time jobs elsewhere. You guys all have your own careers and your own full-time other passions, but East Love has become I don't even know if I would call it a side hustle so much as it is just like a side passion and a side project that you've continued to pursue. And I do want to get a little bit into kind of the decision behind having other jobs and not diving full-on into music, but let's kind of go around the table again, maybe in the same order, and have you guys all share what you do for your full-time jobs and how you kind of fell into that. >> Cool. Well, I'll go first then. So, I work at Spotify and in particular on the Spotify for artists team, which is the part of Spotify that is dedicated toward helping artists on the platform get the most out of Spotify, promote their music, build visual worlds around their music, um, and generally find success in their careers as artists. So it's quite uh relevant to this conversation because I kind of get to be the artist and also be on the side of the biggest technology platform that is enabling artists to reach listeners globally and connect with them. It has gotten to the point I mean it's obviously it's been depends on where you define the start of the band but you know let's say 20 years roughly of us making music together. It is clear that this is a mainstay in all of our lives. Whether you call it a side hustle or a side project or a passion project or whatever, the fact of the matter is it es and flows, you know, we've gone through many phases of life. Some phases where we're meeting in person several times a week to practice for big shows more recently all with kids, meeting a little bit more infrequently, but making sure to get the most out of that time together to record videos, write new music, record new music in my opinion. And I I would venture to guess that these guys would agree to agree with me or I hope at least. But this is a mainstay in our lives. This is something that I hope to continue doing indefinitely into the future. >> Love it. Who's next? >> So I for work do something that is completely not related to music at all. Um but I'm a I'm a sales leader. So I I manage uh sales managers at a tech company. And I suppose there's a performance element to it, you know, presentations and the like. Not singing much in the office. Um, probably for the best, even though I guess maybe not. Who knows? Maybe I'd make some new friends. I think that maybe Bob said this um years ago and I it stuck with me when people ask you you meet people, you know, um, out in the world and one of the questions is what do you do? Like what do you do for work? And I may be giving you too much credit here, Bob, but whatever. Let's just go with it. But yeah, I think well, you don't know what I'm gonna say yet, so maybe you don't want to take it, but we'll see. I may not be that good. Um, but anywh who, I I think uh he had mentioned that unless people specify um what they do for work, you know, he is um he's mentioning the band as a part of his general intro. It's like, hey, what do you do? Well, for work, I do this, but I also, you know, I do music. And uh that's really stuck with me because I think it it um it works well with the points he was just raising. This is something that we've done for a long time and we plan to continue doing for as long as we can, which I don't know. I mean, seems like forever feels like a good as long as we can. And I think that when you think about why some bands don't stay together forever, um there's a lot of different reasons, but I think one of those reasons tends to be that it um the the line between work and play, it it tends to skew in the wrong direction. I think for us, because of the fact we've known each other for a long time, and because of the fact that we're all best friends, the work and play dynamic is really unique and special. Not to get too poetic here, but you hear the shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars. For us, if we go and meet up to practice or to write, even if it's a, you know, a quote not successful um writing session or practice, the fact is that the very worst case scenario is we get a chance to hang out with our friends. It's just great and it goes a long way. As with anything that requires this much work, it's not always easy and fun. Um, but we have a really good job or we do a really good job at uh at working through challenges together. And it also helps that there's three of us because uh an even number might um lead to some some bipartisan challenges, >> but uh we do a good job breaking the split. >> Oh, that was that was really nice, Luke. >> Thanks, dude. >> That was nice. Yeah, we appreciate it so much. >> And now on to Alex who who I've had the pleasure of overlapping with amidst our careers. >> Yes. Yes. Um we've worked at the same companies at times actually. >> Yes. >> So I am a documentary filmmaker and producer. I am working on a number of documentary films. I've produced some films on celebrities for streaming services that that people may have seen. I just produced and partially edited a film on Liza Manelli that was in Tribeca Film Festival and it's now um on PBS. But I think it really my job has always completely over overlapped with the music in terms of just storytelling and trying to convey a message through whether it's a montage of footage or writing lyrics on a page. It's always been a way to express myself. The other thing that that we were touching on about how we've been able to all have our main jobs and also be a band together at the same time. I think it's a really interesting question. It's a really an interesting real stuff, real take because I remember this vividly. We sat down all together. I think it we were in in the Hamptons in the winter or something and and we we just finished a writing weekend and we had like a lot of a recent success with some releases and we kind of like all got together. We're like, do we want to like just like all quit our jobs and and hit the road and just like do this? I remember us like playing out our lives if we made that decision what things would look like and we decided not to do that which is like a little less uh cinematic but it it's definitely something where we didn't want to burn out. We didn't want to like end up hating each other by like all getting together in some kind of like like having this music get poisoned with like having to make money doing it constantly. We wanted our source of being able to support support ourselves and be able to make money being separate from this pursuit of music and friendship and this project. I think that's allowed us to like keep this going in a way that has been like pretty healthy for our relationship as best friends and also for the music. Um, and I think that's a really interesting thing a lot of people probably fight with. I would add I think when it comes to making music it is really important that any any creative person who's pursuing music in any way does so in a way that works for them. Um and I think for us it's happened to be the case that sort of disagregating the livelihood portion from the creative pursuit portion has worked really well for the lives that we've wanted for ourselves. more stability, less time on the road, more predictability, having kids and families, and you know, creating a certain type of life that I think being a touring artist might not allow for. But I also have to say, as much as I think that was the right decision, I also think it would have been incredibly fun to just kind of throw caution to the wind and just go full-time. I genuinely think we could have done it. Would it have been easy? No. But I think we've we've got that that kind of core thing going on. We we had this or we had and still have the spark. We have an audience honestly that I feel really grateful and lucky to have is something that many full-time aspiring artists strive to build. I just want to wanted to add that note in on what scene was just saying. Lucas, you mentioned that you come from a musical family, but Rob, you know, you and I know, these two know, and my audience knows, we also come from a musical family and our dad being a radio DJ and a personality throughout our whole lives. Him interviewing artists and knowing kind of the inner workings of the music industry. I don't know if we're thinking of the same inflection point that you just talked about, Alex, where you guys sat down and talked about this, but I have a very vivid memory of at some point in our life, you maybe having the discussion with mom and dad about this, kind of hearing their take on it. It was interesting coming from a dad in the music industry, not that he is an artist or, you know, in a band, but someone who is that close to it and has known of a lot of artists and knows the inner workings of it. Correct me if I'm wrong. I kind of remember him being the one to advise you that he did not think it was a wise decision for you all to quit your jobs and try to go in that direction. >> Yeah. You know what? It's an I think about this from time to time and it's an interesting thing to unpack because I think you could easily look at something like that and describe it as a parent being kind of discouraging or not supportive. You know, the typical thing that you kind of associate with a parent and supporting their child is kind of like you can do anything, you know, follow your dreams and that's great. >> I do think it's interesting because of the vantage point that he's had in speaking, literally speaking with musical artists at all levels for decades, for his entire career, and the perspective that brings. You know, maybe at the time I might have viewed that advice as a little close-minded or discouraging, but I think the reality is regardless of how much money you make, because people find success, many people find success in careers, as artists, as touring musicians, as you know, nowadays with social media and with live streaming and with platforms like Patreon and virtual communities, there's a million different ways to make money as an artist. There's no one path. So, it's not necessarily about the money, but in my opinion, it's more about the lifestyle. And when you pursue a career as an artist, obviously there are outliers, but chances are you're going to be spending a lot of time on the road away from home out there building a fan base brick by brick in different cities and maybe different countries. And for some people that like nothing could sound more appealing and more exciting. And I think from my perspective, it would be really fun for a time. But in retrospect, I'm thankful for that advice because I am thankful for the setup we have, it's kind of the best of both worlds. We get to make music together. We get to release it out onto digital platforms that allow people in Australia and Indonesia and Germany and like hundreds of countries to discover and listen to our music. But we also have the stability of um full-time salaries for our jobs and being able to be at home with our families and with our friends for most of the year. A lot of things that um would look very different if we were full-time touring artists. >> Yep. Did anyone have anything else to add to that conversation about this? >> Um what I like to say when it comes to uh our timing is we got good at the right time. And what I mean by that is by the time we quote got good, and I realize not everyone's watching the video, so you can't see the air quotes, but I feel you can hear the air quotes in the in the in the voice here, but we'd each been working for a decent amount of time in the corporate world. And so we'd been making steady money for a certain period of time, not necessarily a ton of money, but money enough to be able to live and understand that there is a more predictable path towards making a livelihood. So by the time we were having the conversation that that Al referred to, we were, you know, by by all definition sort of corporate professionals. It sounds super uh sort of um not sweet, but whatever. We were, you know, in the corporate world. So that's number one. So whether it's it's not the amount of money, but to be a successful artist from a from a monetary standpoint, you need to be like legit. To be making enough money to like live comfortably, you need to be pretty legit. And so that in itself was a was a data point. Not the only one, but a data point. The other thing was when you think about being an artist, some people, mostly entrepreneurs, see this idea of a of a day that is unstructured as sort of this blank canvas where they're excited by that. They can go and, you know, the world is their oyster. Um, you know, when it came to music, at least the way that I thought about it, the idea of waking up and then saying, "Okay, let's sit down and be creative." or the idea of waking up and saying, "All right, like let's write a song." That is so intimidating to me. You know, it's sort of like if you're really trying to go to sleep or the worst thing you can do is try to go to sleep, you know? It's like it's just really intimidating. The idea to sign up for that was really intimidating. And then the third thing, which may have been the biggest reason it didn't happen, uh even though the first two things were pretty big on their own, is that at the time it was four of us that were sort of the core members of the band. The way that the band worked was all of us needed to be bought in. So it wasn't just that each of us on our own would have to buy into it into these three major things, but all of us would have to do it because the idea of in theory three out of four of us saying we're all in and then we go to quote do it. We have to redo it at that point because you know somebody has just left. There were a lot of things working against us. But to echo Bob's point, what we have now, I and it's it's particularly appropriate because it is the holiday season, most wonderful time of the year, etc. I'm so grateful and um we text each other for holidays and and you know, Thanksgiving, whatnot, every year to acknowledge how grateful we are for what we do and this thing that we have. Uh and it's just the absolute best thing. I'm going out of segment here, but it's I'm I'm just so grateful for this and what we've been able to do and what we're going to continue to do for I think we you know to quote ourselves forever. So, um it's pretty great >> which I don't think I just to kind of put a cap on the statement from before. I don't think we could do this indefinitely if we had chosen to go out and do it 100% at that. I think we would have gone for a few years. Hopefully, we would have had some success, but it's such a competitive competitive atmosphere that I just I think the way that the the way we chose to approach it, I think we'll be able to do it forever and I'm grateful for that. >> So, it sounds like you all three of you have no regrets about the path you've chosen. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. Cool. I love it. It's it's great and I'm I'm really happy to hear that because to your point, Rob, I have also caught myself thinking about you guys and feeling that slight sense, especially when you guys were in your 20s before any of you had families to make the decision then must have been a hard one. Like you were saying, that whole concept of following your dreams and you could do anything. And you know, the fact is pretty much every successful artist that we all know of today was at one point at that inflection point and did take the risk. So clearly there are people that do it and then they have success and it changes everything and the whole world is impacted by it and everyone's grateful that they were, you know, that bold and courageous to do it. But it's also amazing to see people who can kind of just see the other side of the coin and say, you know, yeah, that would have been a choice and that, you know, could have been a direction our lives took us in, but even money aside, that's not the lifestyle we want to choose. And you guys are all fathers and husbands and family people. And you're also, you know, you guys are a tight-knit friend group of the three of you, but you guys have this huge group of, I don't know, what is it, 18 people that you talk to all the time? More. Robbie's doing a more >> probably 25. I don't know. >> Your your grade in in our high school was particularly unique in that you guys all stayed really close. You guys do Secret Santa every year. You guys have constant, you know, touch points in each other's lives. and you guys have so much happening here on the East Coast in your lives right now that I can see why this decision was best for you. >> And Lucy, I will say um as a part of those things, we have those traditions. We also have a weekly award ceremony for the friend who goes above and beyond to be a great friend to their friends. >> A who won this week? >> Oh, Bob won. >> What' you do? Tell us. It's not necessarily who's a great friend. It's really just celebrating. It could be, you know, someone who got married or had a kid or, you know, generally just celebrating someone. And with the song release the other week, which we'll talk about, people felt like uh giving me the award. And I'm actually in the process of getting ready to to hand it off to the next winner after this. >> Oh, so the the winner of the week chooses the next one. >> Well, there's a whole process. There's nominations that come from the group. They consider all the nominations. They then choose the winner. ideally give many shout outs to the to the noms who didn't win. And >> yeah, see, you guys are just the best. >> Even though we love getting cozy around the holiday season, I think it's also important that we stay active and we keep moving and we just do something fun. And I'm just popping into this episode to let you guys know that I have a very special gift for you this holiday season, which is 30 days for free of exercise classes. If you go to obeyfitness.com, which is obfitness.com, and you use my code, Lucy, all caps, luc, you will be prompted to a checkout page where you can use their app and see all of their videos and all of their workouts and everything for 30 days entirely for free. If you want a little taste of one of these dance videos, I just uploaded a new one of those dance choreo videos on my YouTube channel. So, if you go to youtube.comlucybefank and you just go to my most recent videos, you can't miss it. It's like neon pink and purple and it's a 25minut at home learn this dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance cororeo video if you like that there are loads of other dance videos just like that inside of the O fitness app. But they also have yoga bar pilates boxing hit. They even have stretching classes like foam rolling classes if you have kids. O, if you have kids, you need to do this because your kid, they have kids classes. So, kids movement classes. You can literally put the Obey app on your TV or on your device and let your kids watch it and learn the dances and it is so fun for kids. But honestly, this is for you. This is a gift from me to you. There's no excuse why you shouldn't go sign up for this because for 30 days, you are just going to get a huge library of hundreds of free classes to try. So, once again, that's obeyfitness.com. obbefitness.com and the code is lucy all caps 30 days free from me to you. You are very welcome. All right. So for people who are unfamiliar with the band as far as what is everyone's role in the band top level who wants to give that for everyone? >> Um I'll do it. Musically speaking we all sing. That's the first thing. Our our sound is kind of built on a lot of three-part harmonies and layered vocals. Historically, Lucas is the main lead singer, although in certain tracks I take lead. In certain t tracks, Al takes lead. But either way, we all sing. In terms of instrumentation, it's a little bit of musical chairs. I mean, I play guitar. Also plays guitar. Al has played bass and ukulele in the past. And then there's a range of different percussion instruments, shakers, tambourines, Lucas, Al kind of, you know, switch off on those. We've had a lot of other really talented um artists and musicians who have played with us and who have written with us and recorded with us over the years. In terms of the rest of the band, I kind of function as our manager. Um, I've been, especially with this new set of music we're releasing, spending a lot of time building out promotion plans, managing our kind of social content schedule. We have a network of curators and different contacts who we work with both from music creation standpoint and from a, you know, sync opportunities, different platforms where our music kind of lives and needs to be kept up to date, etc. So, everyone plays their part, but I kind of play the lead role in coordinating that. We recently set up a Friday standup call where we kind of go through the main discussion items and to-dos for that week. But yeah, that's a little bit of an overview. >> And now let's get into your newest single, Never Mind, which I posted about on my social. And if you follow East Love Music on Instagram, you've seen amazing videos around New York City. I'm gonna give you the floor, Rob, because I know you wrote this song because it was a personal story that happened to you. To whatever level of detail you're comfortable, can you tell us? Everyone's dying to know. I got so many DMs. How could someone ever possibly cheat on Robbie Fink, but it happened. So, tell us, take us back. Bring us inside the bedroom. >> Um, okay. So, first of all, I just want to I want to say that when it comes to being a songwriter and creating things, there's there's lots of different places where you might draw inspiration from. Some of them are happy, like getting married or having a kid to songs that I've written recently. Some of them are sad, like losing a friend or a loved one, another song that we have coming out soon. But in general, they all, not necessarily all, but I'd say for the most part draw from personal life experiences. And in my opinion, the best music by any artist is personal in nature. It's not to say that you can't sit down and write, you know, an amazing super catchy pop song that doesn't necessarily mean anything or isn't a real story or something like that, but yeah, in my view, the most compelling music is the music that draws from real experience. And so this song, Never Mind, is a story about a time in college when I fell head over heels in love with this girl who only a few months into the relationship cheated on me. And it's it's a lot more than just cheated. It was it's a very confusing situation. But before I get into it, I guess I what I want to say is this was just one of those experiences that I had obviously a a long time ago. what was like 15 years ago that really stuck with me. You know, it doesn't mean that I still have lingering feelings. I actually totally forgive this person and have no negative feelings toward her at all. You know, it's just something that happened to me that played a role in um kind of like who I became, I guess you could say. And so I always kind of had in my mind that there was a song waiting to happen there. I think again as a songwriter, one way to kind of like process and go through that thing is to put it down in a song. And this was one of those things that I always knew in the back of my mind eventually had to become a song. Don't ask me why, you know, it was written whenever I wrote it a couple years ago. It just that's when it was ready to come out and it did. Yes, the song is about a time when I was cheated on in college, but as I started saying earlier, it was a lot more than that. For whatever reason, I was just convinced in the beginning of this relationship that this was my future wife. This was forever. And I I would have bet a million dollars on it. And I just could not have been more wrong. As the the lead lyric in the chorus says, it was a summer in love. Or well, I thought that it was because we kind of got together at the beginning of the summer and I just spent that summer feeling like everything was perfect. I was the luckiest person in the world. It was just rainbows and butterflies. And then went back to school in in the fall and just kind of one step at a time. I could just tell things were not right. Responses started coming in uh a lot later. We were hanging out less. It was it was just it was an odd situation where I feel like she was clearly withdrawing but I was not willing to accept that that was happening until one day and this is I'm glossing over you know months of uh of anguish not dramatic but it really sucked. Um one day I was I think with some encouragement from friends at the time I was done and I'm like all right I'm she's clearly withdrawing from this relationship but is not being upfront with me about that. So, I'm going to finally like take back control of the situation and end it myself. So, I woke up one morning. Um the the events of the night before were really shitty and kind of led to this. I gathered her stuff that was in my room and I unannounced went to her apartment to drop her stuff off and kind of tell her it was done. I was running on pretty much pure adrenaline. So, I can't tell you exactly what happened, but some version of I knocked on the door. Her roommate answered the door, looked extremely surprised and confused. I kind of barged in, opened her bedroom door, ready to just kind of like chuck her her belongings and say something. And as I opened the door, I saw her in her bed with her ex-boyfriend, who I should mention, they were together for a long time before we were dating and they got back together afterward and are married and have kids and, you know, they have their own happily ever after story going on. so so thrilled about that and happy for them, but at the time obviously was was not what I wanted to see when barging into that room. Um, and so, you know, you'll have to listen to the song, but the second verse kind of uh details that that encounter. Yeah, we broke up and that was pretty much the end of that. >> Wow. Okay. First and foremost, I didn't know that you were in route to break up. >> I don't know that I knew what I was doing. Um I was it was a confrontation of some sort. Let's just say that. >> Wow. Well, wow. I mean, >> it's so it is really an interesting study in the fact that it's almost like a movie from whatever perspective the movie is told is often it changes the way that people hear the story. And so it's almost like any movie, if you think of any love movie, where a couple was together and then they had a breakup and in the interim she went off with some other guy, but then of course they were always going to come back together cuz they were meant for each other. Summer I turned pretty. Belly and Conrad. Did you guys watch that show? >> No, but I I'm just going to sit here and just wait for the punchline here where you justify what happened to me because it was true love. >> No, I'm I'm not justifying the cheating. I'm just saying, you know, from another perspective, it's wow, they they're each other's true love and they, as you said, they have their family, they have their kid, like that you were the side character in that story. But from this perspective where you're my brother, these are your best friends. >> Let's go >> that. How could she have done that? Okay, well, maybe we cut that out. >> Maybe that's that was a lot. From this perspective, we see this viewpoint of this innocent man who was in love with a girl and who got cheated on. And you know, I'm your younger sister, but I still feel a bit of defensiveness and protectiveness over you in the sense of when this happened. Although, you know, as I said in my real, thank God you got cheated on because you moved on and now you wound up with your now wife Hannah who we love and you know, you have a beautiful daughter with. So, it's a great song. For people who have not yet heard it, I will play a little teaser for you here and then you can go to Spotify and search for Never Mind by East Love and listen to the rest. It was a summer love. Well, I thought that it was I behind. She said nothing to worry about. So, I kept blocking it out. >> >> So I I have um I have an optimistic take on this uh and because I like this idea of in from the other perspective, you know, it's it looks a little different. Obviously, I support Bob. In many ways, you could make an argument that you are the without you, maybe they never would have wound up in their own happily ever after. You know, obviously it sucks for you. you you had a shitty sort of you drew the short stick on that one. But the fact is, as you've noted, you know, they have their happily ever after. You have your happily ever after. Uh and uh it's a rare um in hindsight, of course, a rare win-win because you learned a lot and so did they. >> Yeah. And and you know what, I also just want to say if you listen listen to the song, it's not a particularly sad or angry song. In fact, it it comes if you weren't listening to the lyrics, it sounds kind of like a a fun, optimistic, upbeat song. And I think part of that is just the time in my life when it was written. Like I was saying earlier, like truly genuinely harbor no hatred or anger about the situation. It just it's something that felt like it needed to be expressed. The song for the most part is really it's more of a personal journey. Obviously, it's it's a true story and it details the specifics of what I just walked through, but it's it's not an angry song. It is a it's a good point. You know, everybody is on their own journey and the story would look very different from a different perspective. This is just one of those perspectives. >> And East Love is not new, you know, it's it's not a new thing for you guys to be writing songs about relationships. I can name at least three other songs of yours and the girls who they are about. >> That said, Lucy, Bob did something, Rob did something very brave here because I think a lot of the time when we write our music, we kind of fall into this like into this trap of either being like super general or just like writing phrases that that no one can really understand and you have to pick apart. And I think over time we realized that our favorite songs were like very specific and very personal. And I know that in Rob's songwriting particularly, he's been taking steps towards being like a lot more vulnerable and personal in his writing. And I think that this is probably the most specific and vulnerable song that we have put out. Even though we have done a lot of songs about love and relationships and like cheeky stuff, but this is this really I think it took it took a lot of guts to write and and put out and um I just Yeah, I mean I want I personally want to give Bob props for putting him out there, putting himself out there for this story, you know. Thanks. On that note, I I did notice that the the woman in question is actually following you on social media. So, do you think she saw and listen? Do you think she's listening to this podcast right now? Do you think she's gotten this far? Has she reached out to you? Where has this led? >> There's been no outreach and I don't expect any. To be honest, I have no idea whether she's heard it or honestly whether she would listen closely enough to to realize what it was about. I guess we'll see. Nothing to report at the moment. >> Wow. >> For some reason, whenever I travel, my whole body gets thrown off and specifically my gut. Often times, I just like don't go to the bathroom for a few days and everything just makes me feel weighted down and uncomfortable. Honestly, sometimes in my normal routine, I feel this too, but it mostly happens when I travel. And this is actually what led me to Seed for the first time. So, a friend swore by their DSO1 daily symbiotic, and I tried it when traveling, and I totally understand the hype around it. This is Seed's daily symbiotic. So, a symbiotic basically is a combination of prebiotics and probiotics. Most time you take a pill, it's just a probiotic or you're just having prebiotic fibers. But this combines it and it's formulated with 24 clinically and scientifically studied strains to support whole body benefits. You just take two green capsules a day. 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And honestly, just knowing that I'm doing something like this to support my gut health, something that has so much data behind it, it makes me feel like I'm taking the steps that I need to help my body. So, if you've been thinking about your wellness goals for the new year, this is such a great time to start something that will actually support your body from the inside out. Get ahead of the new year with a routine that helps you right now by going to seed.com/real stuff and using the code oneword real stuff to get 20% off your first month. That's 20% off your first month of seeds dso1 daily symbiotic at seed.com/real stuff. Codereal stuff. You guys have some of my favorite East Love songs are about specific people and I'm thinking specifically of some songs you've written about your friend Johnny that passed away. Is that the song that you're talking about that's coming out soon? >> Yeah. Our the the next song that we're going to be releasing actually is a song called These Days which is about that situation. We've written a few others over the years. Some have been recorded in kind of more um casual capacities. Not going to find it on Spotify, for example, but we have some recordings. Others we likely will record in the future. Um >> what about the song? What whatever happened to the song? Um >> Stop and Think. >> No, not Stop and Think. The one that's like up there. >> Up there. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's it's on the list. >> Okay. I love that song. >> But thank you. I think yeah, it's we're kind of trying to figure out the right way to bring that one to life right now. >> I also I just wanted to say it's funny because I feel like in my mind like the intuition is kind of what we were just discussing which is like oh we have a lot of songs that are kind of about different relationships and girls and stuff like that. When I look at our list of songs, and we've released 30ish songs over the years, early on, I think one of the most obvious things to write about as a songwriter is love, heartbreak, the general topic of relationships. And I think early on, we probably had more songs that fit that category. I remember, I don't know if it was a specific decision or just a general kind of trend, but I remember kind of wanting to push ourselves to write about more than that. And you know, we've still got looking at our top songs, we've got Sunday Afternoon and Sweet Arizona, Better Than Being with You, but actually seven of the 10 top songs and just looking at on Spotify, our top 10 are not about relationships at all. And they've they've kind of been more introspective and have been more about, I don't know, the journey of life, let's just call it, and it's many iterations. So, I've actually it's been nice to over the years explore all sorts of different songwriting topics. >> Birds Walk Outside. >> Also, the intro song to this podcast, Rolling Stone. >> That's right. >> Rolling Stone. >> You guys did go I feel like the the music really has traveled with you throughout whatever season of life you're in because the earlier days, at least the songs I remember from the college time were really relationship girlheavy. uh breakup stories, even post college, a lot of the early songs, cute but psycho, I don't even know who that's about, but some of those songs were more, you know, party. And then maybe in your mid to late 20s, you guys started getting a bit more introspective. You guys uh lived together in the East Village, which is where I believe East Love originated from as a name. And I feel like you guys were all trying to figure this maybe was maybe around the time when you were deciding what to do with your lives and should we be musicians or should we get jobs and your careers were developing and I feel like that's when you went down more of the introspective path and you're writing a little bit about the East Village and New York City but like being carried away and being you know it's very timely with your lives and then you become parents and obviously Rob you wrote the song What's Your Name about your daughter Dylan before she was One thing Robbie said to me recently, we were looking at What song was it? Oh, Bones. Is that song out yet? >> No, that's it's >> So, we were looking at a song of yours that's not out yet that, you know, maybe I can talk about without playing it. But you were talking about how you your vision for the song. You almost see like an anthemic Pixar short type of movie playing that's very uplifting and positive and about a journey through time and through history and the passing of time. And I think that sort of led you into a place for a little while where you realized that your music is kind of really nice for kids and you you've you've gotten the feedback that a lot of your friends kids love the songs. Not that it's not that it is you know kids songs. You're not Raffy or the Wiggles, but the it's actually good music that kids happen to like and it's kind of this really interesting niche space that I mean I have a toddler who asks me to put on Sweet Arizona and he asks to play your song. So I I know and he knows the lyrics so I know that it's there's something there that not a lot of bands have. >> Yeah. Uh I have um there are including my own there are six grandkids in my immediate family and East Love um owes a lot of streaming to this group of people which is fantastic. We do get a lot of videos of people's kids just like rocking out to our music. Just like I feel like every month or two we'll just get a hilarious video of somebody's kid like running around the room to Rolling Stone or Sweet Arizona or Sunday Afternoon or something. >> And and isn't it true that there's been multiple East Love songs that have been featured in summer camp like Sleepaway Camp final color war songs or something? We got the most insane video this summer from a girls camp that there were hundreds of girls doing a coordinated dance to one of our songs. It was like the most Which one was that again? >> And it was Firefly, which we released like 10 years ago and is by no means one of, you know, our most popular songs, but yeah, it was it was pretty surreal to see, like Steen said, hundreds of girls, the entire camp. They had they knew every lyric. They had a coordinated dance or, you know, they had choreography. It was like the song of the summer, which who knows how that happened, but really cool to see. I'm not sure what it is about our music. I mean, I could kind of guess, but at the end of the day, it's no one thing that kind of makes it kid-friendly. We've had discussions about like should we just lean fully into the kid thing and like become some version of the wiggles, but trying to do it in a more, you know, in a in a way that's more palatable to adults. in another life. I could see that happening. You know, given the limited time we have for music, we'll probably just continue to pursue it in whatever way feels most just authentic to us. And if kids like it, then that's great. >> I mean, I I do think and Lucy, this obviously features you, but our closest true comparison to the Wiggles, which if you Google this, uh you'll see very colorful individuals, sort of Teletubbyes. I mean, not the people, but the colors. Um, and um, if you look at our Sweet Arizona music video, we un we unknowingly created a a a modern wiggles music video, >> which somebody on this call who is not any of us three happened to star in as well, by the way. >> Yes. And you know that that's really where I was going to round out this discussion cuz we're hitting time here and I want to be mindful and let people go spend time with family. But your guys music and your guys passion and what you've done has opened up so many creative portals for me. If people have not seen yet on my YouTube channel, I did partake in the Sweet Arizona music video as well as this cute but psycho music video where I yes am in my underwear and the top comment pinned is, "Oh, my brother's having a music video. Why don't I take my pants off?" Something like that. I've had so much fun joining forces with you guys and sharing your music with my audience. I get so many people responding to my content with how much they love your songs and really the ethos I don't even want to say it's like poppy fun but because I think that maybe takes away from as you guys said the three-part harmony vocal range that you guys have. You all three of you are really really talented singers and you all have such a distinctive tamber to your voice. Is that the way to say it? >> Yeah, that works. >> I think you sort of nailed that. Yeah, you have distinctive voices and sounds and whoever's singing, I mean, at least from a a trained ear, you can tell who it is. You bring something very unique to the song and then also there's the lyrics being good and so it's not just, you know, mindless pop music, but it's sounds good and then when you listen to it, it feels good. And maybe it's just me being, you know, a friend and a family member of the band, but I feel like a severe East Love groupy that just really feels your song, all of your songs in my bones. Uh, no pun intended, with the song Bones. I love that song and I'm still dreaming of how I can use it in some sponsored content and get you guys paid the big bucks for it. >> Let's go. Truly great, great great energy, great vibes, great music, and I've loved watching every step of this journey. You guys are just a dream team. >> Lou, I Well, first of all, a heavy praise from a heavy hitter. So, thank you. Um, I do want to um I just want to touch on one thing because we we spoke about it briefly, but I think it's important to our sort of origin story, our sort of taking music more seriously story because us three went to different colleges uh and did varying degrees of music at those colleges. Um, and when we came home, it wasn't a given that we were going to go from this high school band to this real world band. At least it wasn't a given in my mind. Um, and we mentioned our friend Johnny who passed away back in uh, 2013, but um, his passing really uh, really accelerated and reinforced our need to take this a little more seriously. You know, there's there's a lot of existential reasons for that, but from a practical standpoint, it was an opportunity for us to join together and create something together as friends, you know, and as as someone Johnny who loved music, it was such a no-brainer for us. I think a it's a really important part of our origin story. It's an important part of what continues to inspire us. But as we mentioned, the next song we have coming out is all about Johnny, our experience with his passing. We also happen to have found an awesome new producer who is local, which is amazing that we're working on even more songs with as well. And so, it's a really, really exciting time for us. Uh, and the fact is, I guess going back to all the way to the beginning of the podcast, we if this wasn't so fun and fulfilling, the amount of work and time that is put into it, it just wouldn't happen. I I guess I'll I'll end it by saying it's a a really rare set of ingredients and we are all super lucky to be able to do it and even luckier that people want to listen to it because we could do it. Uh and if no one wanted to listen to it, that's okay too, but it's also okay that they do want to listen to it. >> Yeah. Yeah. Just to add and Bob, I'll let you finish this out. I think ju just to add to what Chuck said I Lucas to add to what Lucas said we call him Chuck sometimes and Robbie Bob and me stains you'll if you're a fan you know if anybody listening has a chance to to get together with friends who have similar interests and just make something. I think it's just an incredible gift to give yourself and and anyone who you choose to to work with just to do something that you're both passionate about, whether it's writing or making a short film or or music or a certain hobby. It's just like it's so rewarding to have something like that outside of what you do for however you make your living. And um it really adds like a spark to to life. and and I just have tremendous gratitude for having kind of just by way of growing up in the same town and meeting these guys to be able to do this and to eventually one day be on the real stuff with Lucy Fank and you know just just live out that dream. So that's my parting words. Bob, >> there's so much more that I could say and that I would want to say. Maybe we'll we'll have to do a part two at some point when the next song comes out. But kind of drafting off what Lucas was saying with the gratitude and everything. I mean, first of all, just the experience of being in this band over the years has been so special. The creativity, the overnight sessions, the memories, the the shows, the preparation, the struggles. It's, you know, we've we've been truly all over the map. And just like reflecting back on the past 15 years or whatever it's been of East Love, it's truly just been such a huge part of my life and something that I place an extremely high value on. I love that we've been able to push ourselves musically and you know again just looking at our top songs. You've got so like songs that are written about the journey of life on a road trip. Songs that are you know just fun and light-hearted about being in a relationship. songs about needing to break the monotony and get out into the world. You know, really we've explored a range of topics that kind of connect back to our experiences and I'm really proud of what we've been able to create. I just want to acknowledge from kind of like a the success of the band standpoint. It's really, you know, I'll take a moment to kind of like toot our our horns, our collective horns a bit. It's pretty amazing what we've built. you know, as we're sitting here recording this, there's 70 people listening to us, and that's just on Spotify alone pretty much consistently, 24 hours a day. There's, you know, it's it's not uh it's not the numbers you would see from a global superstar artist by any stretch of the imagination, but to think that at any moment there's tens or even a hundred plus people listening to us in that exact moment is pretty powerful. >> I do want to note that speaking of the 24 hours a day. For some reason, consistently, three of our top five cities are in Australia. I don't know what we're doing, right? But down under, they're into East. >> Shout out to Australia. >> And and you know what? Speaking of Australia, um I'll use this one anecdote to kind of speak to one of the most rewarding aspects of doing this. We were on a trip in South America and we were doing a food tour in Peru and we randomly got paired with about like six other people, some older couples, some younger couples. And there was this young couple from Australia who just so happened to know East Love. They had gotten Sweet Arizona on their Discover Weekly or whatever and had become fans of the music. And so to be in a different country with people from the other side of the world and and have this point of connection is pretty special. I've had, you know, it's it's certain, I don't want to like overstate it. It's been a rare but special thing that's happened to me and I'm sure to Lucas and Al over the years where you kind of have this rare moment of like, wow, there's actually just people that we have no idea who they are out there having real connections to our music. somebody reached out to us like him and his fiance now wife like were obsessed with one of our songs and we we didn't know them and they they asked us or he asked us to come play the song live for his proposal which was super special. >> There have been people who have sent us their first dance at their wedding and it's an East Love song. >> I've had a couple of co-workers reach out and just be like, "Oh my god, I had no idea that you were in East Love. I've been listening to this music for years." which it's always just a total mind The fact that we're doing this independently on the side, just kind of putting into it what we have and somehow someway this music is reaching people around the world. And you know, at least some of those people are are forming real powerful connections with the music. And at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. And I love it. >> It's amazing. >> It's amazing. I just want to say many of my viewers are women and oftentimes they will play the episode again with their male partner. Whether you're male or female, whatever, I just want to acknowledge that the relationship that you guys have and I don't know if it's like the type of men that you guys are, just the way you interact with each other, I think should set an example for men everywhere with their friendships because it's a thing. It's just a known thing that men and male friendships, especially as we get older, they don't hold up to female friendships. And a lot of people in marriages, it becomes a situation where the social life of the couple is on the female partner's shoulders and she's making all the plans for the double dates and she's doing things with her friends. And it's like a trope of men as they age kind of receding into themselves and you know you hear about a man cave and just losing friends as you get older. And you guys have just been such a shining example for men everywhere about not only how to have real male friendships that are long lasting and deep and meaningful, but also how to have friendships where you guys the way you even just the way you guys are talking to each other on this call and acknowledging each other and feeling grateful for each other. And you know, I know it's the holiday season, so everyone gets sappy, but this this is so magical. And I have no doubt people listening to this are just going to be somewhat blown away by the way you guys are talking and I whether or not you know it, it's going to go with them into their lives and into their friendships and hopefully has some sort of positive effect ripple effect on the world at large. So thank you so much to the three of you for coming on. For everyone interested in following East Love down in the show notes, whether you're watching on YouTube or Apple Spotify, wherever, I'm gonna put links to their Spotify, their YouTube channel, their social media platforms. Send them a message. Let them know that you listen to them on the Real Stuff podcast. I'm sure they'll all be so excited about that. And the best way you could support them now and in the future is just by listening to and enjoying their music, sharing it with people in your life that you love. Happy holidays everyone from me, my brother, my brother number two, and my brother number three. I love you all. >> Love you Lucy. Happy holidays. >> Woohoo. >> Thank you so much for tuning in to the Real Stuff Podcast. If you're liking the show, please head over to Apple or Spotify and leave us a written review. If you're watching on YouTube, drop a comment down below and join in the conversation. And if you're feeling called to be a guest on the show, visit lucyfink.com/apply and tell us your story. Thank you so much as always for sharing your time and attention with us and we will see you next time on the Real Stuff Podcast. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this