AlyV the Worldwide Explorer · Music, West Coast Road Trips & "Life Is Short, Let's Go See Something"

0:00A: I love --

0:00B: Okay, you wanna tell a story?

0:02A: I mean, I got tons of stories. I just like -- I like adventuring with people, you know? I’m like, let’s go out and do shit. Life is short. Let’s go see something cool. Let’s go, like, get your heart pumping a little bit, you know? Like, get outside, connect with people, breathe some clean air.

0:18B: How was the drive here?

0:19A: Oh my God, it was crazy. It was beautiful. It was really beautiful. The West is really cool, especially having grown up in like just the East Coast, and I’m definitely sold on being out west. You would never know, I’m right there with you, man. So yeah, I honestly like, I kind of planned out this route where I could kind of just -- that’s what I want to try to do, you know, like see cool parts of the world like as I travel for music and stuff, and show people that, like, take them along the journey. Because, you know, it’s like not everybody has the -- you know, we all have like shit. I had like a 9-to-5 before, you know, in a career and stuff. And it’s like it gets to -- it will consume like your entire life, you know. So hopefully I could tell a story that resonates with people and like show people cool parts. Yeah, like, you know, just show people that stuff.

1:17B: So. You’re like pretty well traveled, yeah?

1:20A: I’d say so, yeah, yeah.

1:22B: How do you feel like that informs how you see the world now? And like, like what you’re doing?

1:27A: Man.

1:27B: You have like a bigger picture now?

1:28A: Yeah, dude, it’s -- that’s exactly -- it’s just that. It’s like it gives you a greater perspective, like connecting with different people, different cultures, different races, like ethnicities, sexes, genders, whatever. Like, right, so it’s like, that’s like, that’s so fucking cool. And it’s really cool how we can connect with so many different people now that we never could have. before.

1:51B: That’s awesome.

1:51A: So, you know, and I feel like music -- I feel like anytime I go to like a music event, it’s like a family reunion. And just making friends and having places anywhere you go, you know, to just like reunite with people is probably one of my favorite things, you know, about music and just like being out on the road in general, you know.

2:18B: Traveling, is there music that stood out to you most in other parts of the world?

2:22A: Man, dude, when I was deployed in Kosovo at Camp Bondsteel, there was this guy that -- there’s this tiny little guitar shop on this camp we were at, which is pretty out there. His name was Ilya, and he had this little guitar shop, and I just would like go talk to him when I was on deployment. We would just like hang out, and he would just play. And I just think it’s so cool how people like -- it’s like he like knew like all the old like classic rock songs and stuff, you know what I mean? And he’s like living in some really like tiny like corner pocket of the world, you know what I mean?

3:08B: And it’s penetrated, like the music’s penetrated. Right, you know what I mean?

3:10A: So I’m like, damn, that, you know, like all by heart. He’s like an amazing guitar player. guitarist, and he like, you know, we connected over music, and he like would invite me over to his little shop, you know, and like we had like bread and cheese and like fruits and stuff he’d get from the market. And like, I don’t know, man, like that’s, that’s pretty cool to like go to a foreign place, you know, which is like, feels like you’re in some like alien land, you know, and then there’s somebody that you just connect with who you like -- Walking on the street, I’d be like, oh, I probably don’t have anything in common with this dude, but --

3:41B: Mm-mm.

3:42A: You know, right? And then we like fucking, you know, we were like a little mini family over there, you know? So that’s, again, dude, that’s just fucking, that’s like, that’s music. That’s freaking music, dude. So yeah, like more of that, that spirit, that like adventure traveler spirit. Keep that alive. For sure. Human connection.

4:06B: Do you keep up with a lot of people that you’ve met traveling?

4:09A: I do. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and, you know, like I said, we reunite at like festivals and, and all that kind of stuff. And anytime I’m traveling through towns, I’ll be like, yo, I’m, I’m coming through or whatever. And yeah, just getting to see people that you haven’t seen in however long and It’s really nice. I’ve made some of the -- like, met some of the coolest people through music and like become some of my best friends, you know what I mean? Like people who, again, I maybe never would have met without music or like a festival or, you know, specific artists playing. Like, so yeah, dude, that’s what a gift for real.

4:51B: Hell yeah.