March 28, 2025 • 23 mins
Join @thebuzzknight for this episode with Chadwick Stokes, the musician known for his work with bands like Dispatch and State Radio. He is a prominent advocate of social change using music as a tool for activism with his non-profit called "Calling All Crows."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We could never really bemoan our whatever lack of help
we didn't get, just because people were showing up to
shows and listening to the music, you know. So that
was all all we had dreamed of was happening. So
it's not like we were ever like too begrudging.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to another episode of the Taking a Walk Podcast
with your host Buzz Night. Buzz speaks with a wide
range of musicians covering all genres and eras of music. Today,
Buzz speaks with the true original who's based in the
Boston area. Chadwick Stokes is an incredible musician and activist
known for his work currently with The Pintos, but he's
(00:41):
also known for his incredible run with the wildly successful
indie rock bands State Radio and Dispatch. He's here to
talk about his calling All Crows Benefit and his new
rock opera nineteen seventy two. Chadwick Stokes joins Buzz Night
on the Taking a Walk Podcast right now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Chadwick, welcome to take on a Walk. It's so nice
to be with you virtually.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Thank you boys. It's good to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
So since it's called taking a Walk, Chad, I have
to ask you, though, first, before we talk about April fourth,
your seventeenth annual Calling All Crow's Benefit weekend. Since the
podcast is called taking a Walk, if you could take
a walk with somebody living or dead, preferably music oriented,
(01:31):
but doesn't have to be who would you be taking
a walk with and where would you take that walk?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It's a tough one. A number of people come to mind,
but that would all be wonderful to talk with. My
I guess if I had to choose, I would one
that I think would be great would be walking with
Patti Smith in New York City or Paris, one of
(02:02):
the one of the two. Yeah, hopefully she'd do most
of the talking.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Well, she loves to talk, so I think she would.
But you'd be asking her questions too, You'd be talking
to her. She would leave some room for sure, But yeah,
she would be a great one. My god, what a
what a life? Well led you know?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So, I don't know, so poetics, so musical, so kind
of anti establishment.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
The photographer Lynn Goldsmith recently put out a book focused
on Patty from her work with Patty. Actually had Lynn
Lynn on the podcast talking about it. But it's a
beautiful it's a beautiful book. By Lynn Goldsmith. But so
(02:51):
do you remember the earliest moment that you knew you
would be connected with a life that was in music.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, I never would have thought it was realistic, and
I think I that that sentiment probably carried on pretty
far as much as I would as a teenager writing songs,
would have thought would would have liked it to happen.
I certainly didn't entertain it as a as a reality,
(03:23):
So I think I think it was it was probably
you know, a year into playing with Dispatch, you know,
when we were about nineteen or so, when and and
people kept coming up to the keep coming to the
shows with more and more of their friends, and you know,
we kind of looked at each other and said, well,
(03:43):
you know, we could this is this could be our job.
So I think I think I always wanted. You know,
music was always in my house growing up, a lot
of singing, a lot. My dad plays piano, we all
play horn instruments, so it I knew it was always
gonna My uncle lived with us too, and he plays
the flute in some low brass as well, so there
(04:04):
was always going to be music in my life. I
just I just probably until those the early probably you know,
just when I had dipped my a little further than
my toe into the dispatch career, did I really think
that I could do this? And you know, it would
be kind of my life, you know, and beyond, not
(04:25):
not just something I do for fun, but it would
be something that would be my job as well. So
so it's probably a few a few months, if not
a year into the into the Dispatch, into the growth
of that band.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And who were the earliest influences first of all for
you and musically, and then who were the early mentors
for you?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Musically? There was a lot of We listened to a
lot of classical music coming from my dad, but then
we listened to a lot of the Beatles, you know,
grow I was born in seventy six, so it was
you know, that was they weren't a band anymore, but
a lot of the Beatles, a lot of the musical
(05:14):
hair played constantly in our house and so but really
it was a lot of the It was a lot
of looking back at I loved to listen to the
old the oldies station back in the day one oh
three point three. That was my real I think I
was too young to like get into the eighties, and
(05:34):
so I kind of leaned back into the sounds of
the sixties and seventies and then kind of almost missed
the eighties, and then was a young teenager in the
nineties wherein when Alice and Change's and Nirvana and it
was kind of rock bands kind of hit me in
(05:54):
a way that all the hair metal hadn't hit me
till that point, so it was more like it was
like CCR and Jethro Taal and Marvin Gay and then
you know, Fast and then it was just a big
skip to nineteen ninety one and Rage against the Machine
(06:17):
and Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I was thinking about the current times where it's a
more frequent occurrence for bands to break out or musicians
to break out kind of on their own through their
own channels and stuff, and then happen upon this great success.
Do you reflect though on your career and specifically on
(06:44):
you know, dispatch and state radio and go, my god,
we this is what happened to us, and now it's
more frequently happening to others in terms of finding audiences
in this incredibly unique and independ't weigh.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, we were just on the edge of that with Napster.
We were coming from a very unequal playing field. If
you weren't signed, it was very hard to do this
or this and that, and yeah, so we were just
on the edge of what you speak of kind of
this more egalitarian, outside of the box, come out of
(07:22):
left field kind of thing that can happen today.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
And I'm a little part of this history. You're you're
the story. But where I was working at that time
was in Boston for the Greater Media Radio stations, which
included ninety two nine WBOS and our mutual friend who
(07:49):
synced us up for this interview, Adam Klein. I remember
dear Adam coming in and saying, Hey, this band wants
to do it a free concert at the Hatshell, you know,
can we promote it on the station? And so we
(08:10):
were like sure, but we didn't really know, you know,
what was going to happen and how to embrace it
or to embrace it or whatever. And then suddenly, holy moly,
you know, I don't know what the crowd size was,
but do you remember that that moment and that story
at the Hatshell show?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
For sure? I mean, that's it's indelible for me. I
think we woke up that morning and we heard that
thirty thousand people had were already there and it was
you know eight a m.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
That was dispatch, right, that was that was dispatch.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, And I think we had you know, we had
two cops on security detail, and we had a few
interviews in the in the basement of the hatshell from
like Carlisle High School and just these like kids like
no one from the no one was interested in us,
you know, from kind of the powers that be. It
(09:08):
was all like no one cared except for kids, you know,
and so and I think that's kind of cool now.
And then you know, and then so many people showed up,
you know, one hundred and ten thousand or whatever. So
just a kind of crazy day really, you know, for
my life, you know, one for the books.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, and I would love to say that, you know,
the radio station could take some credit for the event,
but we could take little or no credit for the
event really, which was the astonishing fact. And we would
often talk after the fact, going, man, did we freaking
blow it with that? Not figuring out how to embrace
(09:48):
this not only event, but this band and the direction
that things were going. I think it was a real
miss for us, A big miss.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's nice to say. I mean we always were, you know,
coming from we were so not in the mainstream that
and we were young, and so we we did, you know,
we'd want to do ourselves. Why don't we ever get
played on the radio? You know, and a bit naive
maybe at the time, but we did. We did have
those discussions and wish that someone had kind of taken
(10:22):
us on. But at the same time, you know, we
we could never really bemoan our whatever lack of help
we didn't get, just because people were showing up to
shows and listening to the music, you know, so that
was all all we had dreamed of was happening. So
it's not like we were ever like too begrudging.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Well, that makes me feel better. I was like, man,
I was gonna I was thinking, do I ask chat
about this? And then I'm like, yeah, I have to.
It's part of his history, and and I was, you know,
at least remotely. Yeah, that's cool intersecting with it, you know.
But I'll never forget the Adam coming in and asking
the question, so where did you get your first impact
(11:09):
from somebody? And who was it that influenced you as
far as being a champion of social causes.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I guess growing up with Hair, the soundtrack of Hair,
and then seeing the movie and seeing how songs were
woven into a story with such power, such emotional power,
but also with a social bent on it, with a
political message that really had a huge effect on me.
(11:41):
I thought, Oh, this thing. Music is so powerful on
its own. It can be emotionally so powerful, but it
can also be part of movements. And we had it
in town in Sherburn where I grew up, there was
a Piece Abbey which was a church dedicated to peace
and music and passivism. And the man the family and
(12:02):
the man who ran it, Lewis Randa, was constantly getting arrested,
but had pictures of Martin Luther King and John Lennon
side by side and mother Teresa. So it's just this
shrine of activism that's kind of where where my heart
felt like the most alive. And so I think that
(12:23):
that also. I think so my parents and then Lewis,
who is my parents generation, and we've teamed up over
the years to do things. But having someone close by
who gave a shit, who gave a shit about the world,
didn't give a shit about what people thought of him,
you know, and was out there to make a difference.
That was very inspiring.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
So seventeenth annual Calling All Crows Benefit Weekend. It's Friday,
April fourth at the Somerville Theater, the Great Somerville Theater.
Tickets available at Chadwicks folks dot com. And you're going
to be performing select songs from your forthcoming rock opera,
(13:09):
nineteen seventy Two's that's amazing? Can you talk about nineteen
seventy two?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, Since I was a kid, I always wanted to
write a rock opera like Hair or Jesus Christ Superstar,
and I talked about it. There's interviews, dispatch interviews, and
even when I was like twenty when it was brought up,
you know, I guess the guys in the band knew
I had this in my sights. I just had been
(13:37):
kind of kicking it down the line for years, and
finally in the last couple of years I had enough
material and an idea and where it kind of came
together and to really kind of get down to it
and start trying to formulate a two hour ish concept,
(14:00):
you know, sung through story. So we did it actually
last year at Somerville Theater, but it's a very different
musical or opera. Now. The songs are the same, but
it's been whittled down and it's been refined and the
characters have kind of come to life. We've been performing
it for about a year and a half and I
(14:21):
usually do like a little narration between each song to
let the crowd know what's happening. And now it's just
all sung through, and it's done with some great friends
around here. My brother Willie is in it, and my
old some of my old classmates from elementary school are
in it. And some great artists in younger artists here
(14:42):
who I've been playing with here and there my friend
Tommy who plays in Jesus Jesus the Dinosaur, local Boston band.
Tommy also plays in the Pintos. So it's a great
group of people and it's really fun to keep kind
of whittling at it and honing this thing. We have,
(15:04):
this kind of this story that we're trying to tell.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
And calling all crows. This is the organization that you founded.
It was back in the mid two thousands, that you
founded in two thousand and seven eight, Is that right? Yeah, yep,
You and sybil Ye. And this was designed as a
(15:30):
way to engage music fans, you know, with social movements, right,
that was your vision from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yes, music is such a beautiful gateway into different things,
and it can be it's a moment where we all
gather and we're together. And that feeling that you have
when you're in a venue where you're with people and
you're listening to the same music or you connect with
the same music, you know, it's almost like anything can happen.
It's such a nice connection. And I think you know,
(16:00):
we saw with State Radio that was so topic driven
or message driven. We had this opportunity to really combine
service and activism with the music and I think that
so that had that's where things got kind of got
first started getting rolling.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
And you've had others other musicians from this area or
outside of this area who have also joined on to
engage in What the organization is about is that right now?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, we have we basically run. We're here for any
band they can reach out to us and we can
help them with a campaign that they can kind of
take on the road with them, you know, could be
whatever they're interested. One thing that's been the most broad
based for us in terms of other bands hiring. Calling
(16:56):
All Crows has been our here for the music campaign,
which is which is a campaign to curb and to
help stop sexual assault and harassment in the music industry.
You know, mostly at shows, but it could could be anywhere.
That's been taken on by Boy Genius and Claro and
these awesome bands like you know, really kind of accepted
(17:19):
into their touring culture, which was which was you know,
all we could have hoped for was to kind of
help change the power dynamics of the touring culture because
it's there's so much misogyny and it's there's a lot
of power dynamics so male dominated. Here for the music campaign,
it's really taken on a life of its own, and
other bands have especially taken to that campaign.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah, I feel like people look at someone like you
and people you're around, and they say, my god, if
we could apply ourselves in our craft with an eye
on all boats rising when something good is happening first
and then think about the rest of the business side. Secondarily,
(18:07):
I think it seems like a natural thing, but most
people don't do it. Why don't you think people think
that way?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I mean, like other bands. Yeah, yeah, Well everyone approaches
art differently. You know. I really think that it's our
responsibility to with the platform, we have to really use
it to the best of our ability. But you know,
there's are like, hey, I just make art for art's sake,
or you know, I like to sing about my love
(18:38):
life or you know whatever. So there's it's a little
hard to get. I think that's what calling ol Crows
is here for for other bands, because they might not
know where to start, and it's really easy to write
us or call us and be like I want to
do this, or I've been thinking about this, you know,
and we can really plug them in, you know, across
the country or even globally to like different organizations where
(19:01):
they are, where they're touring, where they could have people
coming table. So if anyone, if other bands are interested in,
you know, having that arm to their business where it's like,
you know, they're taking a stand or or they want
a certain message to take a get out there. It
is it's a little intimidating because they're worried about this,
(19:22):
they're worried about the setlist, they're they're worried about getting
to the next next gig. You know, and for them
to kind of reinvent the wheel. It's easier for artists
just to be like, oh, I won't deal with that.
I'll just concentrate what I need to. So, but Calling
All Crows is here to kind of help that mentality.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
You know, in addition to your great work. That I'm
so impressed with. Another person who's got his mission and
that it's very focused on doing doing good is Adam Ezra,
who was on the podcast at one point, and yeah,
he's great. It's just it's wonderful seeing you know, leading
(20:02):
with the heart, you know, first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You know. Yeah, yeah, he's done a lot of great
stuff and he's said great singer. That's cool.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Tell me what's going on with Chad, with Stokes and
the Pintos.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well there right now all the Pintos have been folded
up into nineteen seventy two the Rock, So okay, that's
kind of all hands on deck. So because the nineteen
seventy two is the Pintos in myself and five others,
so everyone's involved in that and those those you know,
(20:40):
great musicians, and it's fun to it's fun to have
this little adventure. You know, it's a little bit of
a little bit tangential adventure with the Pintos. It's it's
been quite a ride and they've been great. Basically, when
we play a show, a nineteen seventy two show, the
next day we'll meet up for four hours and we'll
(21:02):
make four hours of changes, and then we'll do the
show again, and the next day we'll meet up and
we'll do four hours of changes. So I got to
hand it to them for really being open. Because it
has to tell a story, a clear story from starting
to finish, and because it's a different kind of animal.
There's been so many revisions, and they've been amazing about about,
(21:24):
you know, being open to it constantly changing.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I love it. Before we close, I also produce this
other podcast. It's called Music Saved Me. It's about the
healing power that you know, just that power of music
and what it means on so many levels. Do you
think music has therapeutic healing powers?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Most definitely. I think that's what it's for. It has
amazing potential to heal ourselves, to heal each other, to
be part of a revolution or movements. I strongly believe
(22:08):
that in the power it's really potent, and I think
That's why I feel so lucky to be to play
music and continue to play music with with my friends
and to and to have a musical about a young
woman riding freight trains to find someone who will give
her an illegal abortion. You know, can be heavy stuff,
(22:32):
but it's but the music kind of takes it all
like a wave, you know, and it's really become something
else than you know, if you're reading a book or something.
So it's it's really fun to be on that on
that wave, even when or especially when the topics are
prescient and urgent.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Well, Chad, the seventeenth annual Call On All Crows Benefit
weekend is coming up. Good luck on it Friday, April fourth,
Somerville Theater. People can check out tickets at your website
Chadwickstokes dot com and it'll be an amazing performance of
nineteen seventy two. You'll keep revising it, I'm sure, right
(23:17):
down to the very end. But that's what makes you
so great at what you do and calling All Crows
the great work there as well. Thanks for all you
do and continue to do, and thanks for being on
taking a walk chat.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Thanks buys, nice to see you, Thanks for listening to
this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this
and other episodes with your friends and follow us so
you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get
your podcasts.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We could never really bemoan our whatever lack of help
we didn't get, just because people were showing up to
shows and listening to the music, you know. So that
was all all we had dreamed of was happening. So
it's not like we were ever like too begrudging.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to another episode of the Taking a Walk Podcast
with your host Buzz Night. Buzz speaks with a wide
range of musicians covering all genres and eras of music. Today,
Buzz speaks with the true original who's based in the
Boston area. Chadwick Stokes is an incredible musician and activist
known for his work currently with The Pintos, but he's
(00:41):
also known for his incredible run with the wildly successful
indie rock bands State Radio and Dispatch. He's here to
talk about his calling All Crows Benefit and his new
rock opera nineteen seventy two. Chadwick Stokes joins Buzz Night
on the Taking a Walk Podcast right now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Chadwick, welcome to take on a Walk. It's so nice
to be with you virtually.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Thank you boys. It's good to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
So since it's called taking a Walk, Chad, I have
to ask you, though, first, before we talk about April fourth,
your seventeenth annual Calling All Crow's Benefit weekend. Since the
podcast is called taking a Walk, if you could take
a walk with somebody living or dead, preferably music oriented,
(01:31):
but doesn't have to be who would you be taking
a walk with and where would you take that walk?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It's a tough one. A number of people come to mind,
but that would all be wonderful to talk with. My
I guess if I had to choose, I would one
that I think would be great would be walking with
Patti Smith in New York City or Paris, one of
(02:02):
the one of the two. Yeah, hopefully she'd do most
of the talking.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Well, she loves to talk, so I think she would.
But you'd be asking her questions too, You'd be talking
to her. She would leave some room for sure, But yeah,
she would be a great one. My god, what a
what a life? Well led you know?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So, I don't know, so poetics, so musical, so kind
of anti establishment.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
The photographer Lynn Goldsmith recently put out a book focused
on Patty from her work with Patty. Actually had Lynn
Lynn on the podcast talking about it. But it's a
beautiful it's a beautiful book. By Lynn Goldsmith. But so
(02:51):
do you remember the earliest moment that you knew you
would be connected with a life that was in music.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, I never would have thought it was realistic, and
I think I that that sentiment probably carried on pretty
far as much as I would as a teenager writing songs,
would have thought would would have liked it to happen.
I certainly didn't entertain it as a as a reality,
(03:23):
So I think I think it was it was probably
you know, a year into playing with Dispatch, you know,
when we were about nineteen or so, when and and
people kept coming up to the keep coming to the
shows with more and more of their friends, and you know,
we kind of looked at each other and said, well,
(03:43):
you know, we could this is this could be our job.
So I think I think I always wanted. You know,
music was always in my house growing up, a lot
of singing, a lot. My dad plays piano, we all
play horn instruments, so it I knew it was always
gonna My uncle lived with us too, and he plays
the flute in some low brass as well, so there
(04:04):
was always going to be music in my life. I
just I just probably until those the early probably you know,
just when I had dipped my a little further than
my toe into the dispatch career, did I really think
that I could do this? And you know, it would
be kind of my life, you know, and beyond, not
(04:25):
not just something I do for fun, but it would
be something that would be my job as well. So
so it's probably a few a few months, if not
a year into the into the Dispatch, into the growth
of that band.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And who were the earliest influences first of all for
you and musically, and then who were the early mentors
for you?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Musically? There was a lot of We listened to a
lot of classical music coming from my dad, but then
we listened to a lot of the Beatles, you know,
grow I was born in seventy six, so it was
you know, that was they weren't a band anymore, but
a lot of the Beatles, a lot of the musical
(05:14):
hair played constantly in our house and so but really
it was a lot of the It was a lot
of looking back at I loved to listen to the
old the oldies station back in the day one oh
three point three. That was my real I think I
was too young to like get into the eighties, and
(05:34):
so I kind of leaned back into the sounds of
the sixties and seventies and then kind of almost missed
the eighties, and then was a young teenager in the
nineties wherein when Alice and Change's and Nirvana and it
was kind of rock bands kind of hit me in
(05:54):
a way that all the hair metal hadn't hit me
till that point, so it was more like it was
like CCR and Jethro Taal and Marvin Gay and then
you know, Fast and then it was just a big
skip to nineteen ninety one and Rage against the Machine
(06:17):
and Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I was thinking about the current times where it's a
more frequent occurrence for bands to break out or musicians
to break out kind of on their own through their
own channels and stuff, and then happen upon this great success.
Do you reflect though on your career and specifically on
(06:44):
you know, dispatch and state radio and go, my god,
we this is what happened to us, and now it's
more frequently happening to others in terms of finding audiences
in this incredibly unique and independ't weigh.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, we were just on the edge of that with Napster.
We were coming from a very unequal playing field. If
you weren't signed, it was very hard to do this
or this and that, and yeah, so we were just
on the edge of what you speak of kind of
this more egalitarian, outside of the box, come out of
(07:22):
left field kind of thing that can happen today.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
And I'm a little part of this history. You're you're
the story. But where I was working at that time
was in Boston for the Greater Media Radio stations, which
included ninety two nine WBOS and our mutual friend who
(07:49):
synced us up for this interview, Adam Klein. I remember
dear Adam coming in and saying, Hey, this band wants
to do it a free concert at the Hatshell, you know,
can we promote it on the station? And so we
(08:10):
were like sure, but we didn't really know, you know,
what was going to happen and how to embrace it
or to embrace it or whatever. And then suddenly, holy moly,
you know, I don't know what the crowd size was,
but do you remember that that moment and that story
at the Hatshell show?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
For sure? I mean, that's it's indelible for me. I
think we woke up that morning and we heard that
thirty thousand people had were already there and it was
you know eight a m.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
That was dispatch, right, that was that was dispatch.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, And I think we had you know, we had
two cops on security detail, and we had a few
interviews in the in the basement of the hatshell from
like Carlisle High School and just these like kids like
no one from the no one was interested in us,
you know, from kind of the powers that be. It
(09:08):
was all like no one cared except for kids, you know,
and so and I think that's kind of cool now.
And then you know, and then so many people showed up,
you know, one hundred and ten thousand or whatever. So
just a kind of crazy day really, you know, for
my life, you know, one for the books.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, and I would love to say that, you know,
the radio station could take some credit for the event,
but we could take little or no credit for the
event really, which was the astonishing fact. And we would
often talk after the fact, going, man, did we freaking
blow it with that? Not figuring out how to embrace
(09:48):
this not only event, but this band and the direction
that things were going. I think it was a real
miss for us, A big miss.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's nice to say. I mean we always were, you know,
coming from we were so not in the mainstream that
and we were young, and so we we did, you know,
we'd want to do ourselves. Why don't we ever get
played on the radio? You know, and a bit naive
maybe at the time, but we did. We did have
those discussions and wish that someone had kind of taken
(10:22):
us on. But at the same time, you know, we
we could never really bemoan our whatever lack of help
we didn't get, just because people were showing up to
shows and listening to the music, you know, so that
was all all we had dreamed of was happening. So
it's not like we were ever like too begrudging.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Well, that makes me feel better. I was like, man,
I was gonna I was thinking, do I ask chat
about this? And then I'm like, yeah, I have to.
It's part of his history, and and I was, you know,
at least remotely. Yeah, that's cool intersecting with it, you know.
But I'll never forget the Adam coming in and asking
the question, so where did you get your first impact
(11:09):
from somebody? And who was it that influenced you as
far as being a champion of social causes.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I guess growing up with Hair, the soundtrack of Hair,
and then seeing the movie and seeing how songs were
woven into a story with such power, such emotional power,
but also with a social bent on it, with a
political message that really had a huge effect on me.
(11:41):
I thought, Oh, this thing. Music is so powerful on
its own. It can be emotionally so powerful, but it
can also be part of movements. And we had it
in town in Sherburn where I grew up, there was
a Piece Abbey which was a church dedicated to peace
and music and passivism. And the man the family and
(12:02):
the man who ran it, Lewis Randa, was constantly getting arrested,
but had pictures of Martin Luther King and John Lennon
side by side and mother Teresa. So it's just this
shrine of activism that's kind of where where my heart
felt like the most alive. And so I think that
(12:23):
that also. I think so my parents and then Lewis,
who is my parents generation, and we've teamed up over
the years to do things. But having someone close by
who gave a shit, who gave a shit about the world,
didn't give a shit about what people thought of him,
you know, and was out there to make a difference.
That was very inspiring.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
So seventeenth annual Calling All Crows Benefit Weekend. It's Friday,
April fourth at the Somerville Theater, the Great Somerville Theater.
Tickets available at Chadwicks folks dot com. And you're going
to be performing select songs from your forthcoming rock opera,
(13:09):
nineteen seventy Two's that's amazing? Can you talk about nineteen
seventy two?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, Since I was a kid, I always wanted to
write a rock opera like Hair or Jesus Christ Superstar,
and I talked about it. There's interviews, dispatch interviews, and
even when I was like twenty when it was brought up,
you know, I guess the guys in the band knew
I had this in my sights. I just had been
(13:37):
kind of kicking it down the line for years, and
finally in the last couple of years I had enough
material and an idea and where it kind of came
together and to really kind of get down to it
and start trying to formulate a two hour ish concept,
(14:00):
you know, sung through story. So we did it actually
last year at Somerville Theater, but it's a very different
musical or opera. Now. The songs are the same, but
it's been whittled down and it's been refined and the
characters have kind of come to life. We've been performing
it for about a year and a half and I
(14:21):
usually do like a little narration between each song to
let the crowd know what's happening. And now it's just
all sung through, and it's done with some great friends
around here. My brother Willie is in it, and my
old some of my old classmates from elementary school are
in it. And some great artists in younger artists here
(14:42):
who I've been playing with here and there my friend
Tommy who plays in Jesus Jesus the Dinosaur, local Boston band.
Tommy also plays in the Pintos. So it's a great
group of people and it's really fun to keep kind
of whittling at it and honing this thing. We have,
(15:04):
this kind of this story that we're trying to tell.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
And calling all crows. This is the organization that you founded.
It was back in the mid two thousands, that you
founded in two thousand and seven eight, Is that right? Yeah, yep,
You and sybil Ye. And this was designed as a
(15:30):
way to engage music fans, you know, with social movements, right,
that was your vision from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yes, music is such a beautiful gateway into different things,
and it can be it's a moment where we all
gather and we're together. And that feeling that you have
when you're in a venue where you're with people and
you're listening to the same music or you connect with
the same music, you know, it's almost like anything can happen.
It's such a nice connection. And I think you know,
(16:00):
we saw with State Radio that was so topic driven
or message driven. We had this opportunity to really combine
service and activism with the music and I think that
so that had that's where things got kind of got
first started getting rolling.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
And you've had others other musicians from this area or
outside of this area who have also joined on to
engage in What the organization is about is that right now?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, we have we basically run. We're here for any
band they can reach out to us and we can
help them with a campaign that they can kind of
take on the road with them, you know, could be
whatever they're interested. One thing that's been the most broad
based for us in terms of other bands hiring. Calling
(16:56):
All Crows has been our here for the music campaign,
which is which is a campaign to curb and to
help stop sexual assault and harassment in the music industry.
You know, mostly at shows, but it could could be anywhere.
That's been taken on by Boy Genius and Claro and
these awesome bands like you know, really kind of accepted
(17:19):
into their touring culture, which was which was you know,
all we could have hoped for was to kind of
help change the power dynamics of the touring culture because
it's there's so much misogyny and it's there's a lot
of power dynamics so male dominated. Here for the music campaign,
it's really taken on a life of its own, and
other bands have especially taken to that campaign.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah, I feel like people look at someone like you
and people you're around, and they say, my god, if
we could apply ourselves in our craft with an eye
on all boats rising when something good is happening first
and then think about the rest of the business side. Secondarily,
(18:07):
I think it seems like a natural thing, but most
people don't do it. Why don't you think people think
that way?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I mean, like other bands. Yeah, yeah, Well everyone approaches
art differently. You know. I really think that it's our
responsibility to with the platform, we have to really use
it to the best of our ability. But you know,
there's are like, hey, I just make art for art's sake,
or you know, I like to sing about my love
(18:38):
life or you know whatever. So there's it's a little
hard to get. I think that's what calling ol Crows
is here for for other bands, because they might not
know where to start, and it's really easy to write
us or call us and be like I want to
do this, or I've been thinking about this, you know,
and we can really plug them in, you know, across
the country or even globally to like different organizations where
(19:01):
they are, where they're touring, where they could have people
coming table. So if anyone, if other bands are interested in,
you know, having that arm to their business where it's like,
you know, they're taking a stand or or they want
a certain message to take a get out there. It
is it's a little intimidating because they're worried about this,
(19:22):
they're worried about the setlist, they're they're worried about getting
to the next next gig. You know, and for them
to kind of reinvent the wheel. It's easier for artists
just to be like, oh, I won't deal with that.
I'll just concentrate what I need to. So, but Calling
All Crows is here to kind of help that mentality.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
You know, in addition to your great work. That I'm
so impressed with. Another person who's got his mission and
that it's very focused on doing doing good is Adam Ezra,
who was on the podcast at one point, and yeah,
he's great. It's just it's wonderful seeing you know, leading
(20:02):
with the heart, you know, first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You know. Yeah, yeah, he's done a lot of great
stuff and he's said great singer. That's cool.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Tell me what's going on with Chad, with Stokes and
the Pintos.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well there right now all the Pintos have been folded
up into nineteen seventy two the Rock, So okay, that's
kind of all hands on deck. So because the nineteen
seventy two is the Pintos in myself and five others,
so everyone's involved in that and those those you know,
(20:40):
great musicians, and it's fun to it's fun to have
this little adventure. You know, it's a little bit of
a little bit tangential adventure with the Pintos. It's it's
been quite a ride and they've been great. Basically, when
we play a show, a nineteen seventy two show, the
next day we'll meet up for four hours and we'll
(21:02):
make four hours of changes, and then we'll do the
show again, and the next day we'll meet up and
we'll do four hours of changes. So I got to
hand it to them for really being open. Because it
has to tell a story, a clear story from starting
to finish, and because it's a different kind of animal.
There's been so many revisions, and they've been amazing about about,
(21:24):
you know, being open to it constantly changing.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I love it. Before we close, I also produce this
other podcast. It's called Music Saved Me. It's about the
healing power that you know, just that power of music
and what it means on so many levels. Do you
think music has therapeutic healing powers?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Most definitely. I think that's what it's for. It has
amazing potential to heal ourselves, to heal each other, to
be part of a revolution or movements. I strongly believe
(22:08):
that in the power it's really potent, and I think
That's why I feel so lucky to be to play
music and continue to play music with with my friends
and to and to have a musical about a young
woman riding freight trains to find someone who will give
her an illegal abortion. You know, can be heavy stuff,
(22:32):
but it's but the music kind of takes it all
like a wave, you know, and it's really become something
else than you know, if you're reading a book or something.
So it's it's really fun to be on that on
that wave, even when or especially when the topics are
prescient and urgent.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Well, Chad, the seventeenth annual Call On All Crows Benefit
weekend is coming up. Good luck on it Friday, April fourth,
Somerville Theater. People can check out tickets at your website
Chadwickstokes dot com and it'll be an amazing performance of
nineteen seventy two. You'll keep revising it, I'm sure, right
(23:17):
down to the very end. But that's what makes you
so great at what you do and calling All Crows
the great work there as well. Thanks for all you
do and continue to do, and thanks for being on
taking a walk chat.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Thanks buys, nice to see you, Thanks for listening to
this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this
and other episodes with your friends and follow us so
you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get
your podcasts.
Host
Lynn Hoffman
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