328. The Showco Archive Project

If you’ve been around the live sound industry for more than a few years, you’ve almost certainly heard of legendary sound company Showco. And if you’ve been active at all on LinkedIn or other social media lately, you’ve very likely seen a lot of activity from the Showco Archive Project. This online catalog of all sorts of amazing bits of Showco history caught our eyes, and we knew we had to get the rest of the story! This episode is sponsored by Allen & Heath and RCF.

This week, Sean and Andy are joined by Indigo Kretzschmar-May, founder and curator of Showco Archives, an ongoing preservation project dedicated to documenting the people, stories, artifacts, and backstage culture behind one of the most influential live sound companies in music history. Indigo grew up in and around Showco alongside her father, Showco sound engineer (and Lynrd Skyndyrd plane crash survivor) Donnie “DK” Kretzschmar to share a look at Showco’s history, the archives, and more!

Joining Indigo is Mike “Dr. Funk” Ponczek, also of Showco, whose career in live audio spans nearly five decades (and counting!), including mixing for The Who, The Kinks, Eric Claptop, and Paul McCartney, and continues today working at Dallas’s Kessler Theater.

Episode Links:
Showco Archives (here and here)
Showco Swag Shop
Episode 328 Transcript

NOTE: Mike Green, the artist who performs “Break Free” that opens every episode, has released a new album — Hang The Moon: Part One — available on all streaming platforms as well as DSPs that support spatial audio. Mikegreenmusic.com will direct folks to the vinyl release or allow them to purchase digitally. And, Mike is hitting the road with Whitney Tai for “The Record Store Tour” starting May 23 in New Orleans. Find out more here.

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Transcript

Episode 328 - The Showco Archives

Indigo Kretzschmar-May and Mike Ponczek

Note: This is an automatically generated transcript, so there might be mistakes--if you have any notes or feedback on it, please send them to us at signal2noise@prosoundweb.com so we can improve the transcripts for those who use them!

Voiceover: You’re listening to Signal to Noise, part of the ProSoundWeb podcast network, proudly brought to you this week by the following sponsors:

Allen & Heath, whose new dLive RackUltra FX upgrade levels up your console with 8 next-generation FX racks – putting powerful tools like vocal tuning, harmonizing, and amp simulation right at your fingertips. Learn more at allen-heath.com 

RCF and TT+ AUDIO.... Delivering premium audio solutions designed for tour sound and music professionals for over 75 years.  Visit RCF at RCF-USA.com for the latest news and product information.

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green

[00:00:58] Andy Leviss: Hey, welcome to another episode of Signal to Noise. I'm your host, Andy Leviss. With me, as always, the guy who's waiting anxiously to see what joke I had here, but I don't actually have one today, and that's the joke, Sean Walker. What's up Sean?

[00:01:11] Sean Walker: Hey, buddy. How are you?

[00:01:13] Andy Leviss: Good. I mean, you're, you're relieved I didn't have a bad one today.

[00:01:15] Sean Walker: Totally, dude. Totally. I was, I was on pins and needles over here. Like, what's he gonna say

[00:01:20] Andy Leviss: Yeah, I, I was too, and then I was like, Nope, nope. Just gonna embrace it. Just don't have one today. It's all

[00:01:24] Sean Walker: right. All right. I love it. That's awesome. What's new with you?

[00:01:27] Andy Leviss: uh, you know, more of the same old, same old, you know, a little bit of a memorial holiday, uh, last weekend. Got away for a few days. Uh, although it was up here in the Northeast, it was a wild temperature drop, but it, uh, it had been like super hot in the eighties and like breaking out the AC units for the windows, like every day leading up to when I went away.

And then it was like dropping into the thirties at night while I was away. I was like, but we were gonna go hiking and do outdoorsy things and now it's raining and cold, so.

[00:01:56] Sean Walker: brutal.

[00:01:57] Andy Leviss: Yeah, that was, uh, but it was still nice to, nice to get away. Nice to have, have a day off and all that, so.

[00:02:03] Sean Walker: That's cool. I used my days off to, uh, hop in one of our box trucks with my wife and drive from Seattle to Las Vegas to go rescue 10 puppies from a high kill shelter and bring 'em back to their homes that were here.

[00:02:15] Mike Ponczek: 10.

[00:02:16] Sean Walker: What, which was a long drive. It was cool 'cause I messaged the team and said, Hey, uh, do we have a truck available for these, this date to this date?

And they were like, yep. What do you, what do you need it for? And I was like, told 'em what we're gonna do. By the time I'd gotten to the shop to pick it up, they had already installed an inverter, installed a swamp cooler and some stuff to keep the puppies cool. And the Vegas heat. They were all on board and, and like got their MacGyver on.

It was cool. So we went down and got 10, 10 puppies. I'll share pictures later, dude. And, uh. Man, what a crazy trek home that was. I don't think I've ever driven that long or had that much coffee in my life. And we work in production, you know what I'm saying?

[00:02:55] Andy Leviss: Yep.

[00:02:56] Sean Walker: For those that aren't here in the United States, Las Vegas to Seattle and a box truck is about 22 hours or so.

[00:03:03] Andy Leviss: And what's that a metric, Howard?

[00:03:05] Sean Walker: God, it's fuck all the, all the hours. It's all the hours. But we, we were up for like 29 and a half hours from when we got up to when we got to go to bed. It was brutal. 'cause you can't stop, like whatcha gonna do, you can't leave the dogs in the truck overnight, right? Like, you know, so you just had to, we just had to go.

But we sa we saved 10 lives. They all got happy little homes and we're sitting to get pictures from the, from the rescue of the new homes and the people in there. They're excited. So we're, it was worth it. I'd do it. I would do it again about hour 22. You're like, fuck one star. Do not recommend. You know what I mean?

And when you get home and you actually get some sleep and get back, you see the pictures, you're like, five stars would do it again. You know?

[00:03:39] Andy Leviss: Yep. Yeah. Well, well before we keep blathering on longer, we should, 'cause we've got two guests with us today, so we should, we should introduce them real quick and we're gonna do the thing where I asked them to make sure I was pronouncing their names right before we started and now I gotta actually make sure I remember it after like five minutes of bantering.

But, uh, joining us today, uh, we have Indigo Kretchmar, may and Mike, uh, Pontac. Did I get it right? Alrighty. Who are, so Mike is a Choko alum and Indigo is, uh, the daughter of one of the, one of the Choko alums. Correct.

[00:04:14] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yes. Yes.

[00:04:15] Andy Leviss: and is responsible for, uh, the SOKO Archive Project that I know if particularly if, uh, folks listening are on LinkedIn and like tuned into the live audio community on LinkedIn.

It's, you've probably come across, uh, indigo on this project, and I saw it a while ago. And just like lots of like photos coming up and just like stories and, and just all sorts of things from the history of show code that seems like both a really cool project to be doing and just lots of awesome live audio history.

So I reached out to Indigo and said, Hey, you know, we'd love to have you come on and tell us all about, you know, how that started. Maybe we can talk a little bit about Choko. And she, you know, in insisted on dragging Mike along with her. So tha thanks for, uh, humoring her and, and joining us. Mike. Um, I dunno, do you, uh, do you guys wanna start with a, a little of your background history?

Maybe start with Mike and then Indigo. You can kind of jump in and tell us where you fit in and where the archive project fits in and we'll go from there.

[00:05:15] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Absolutely. You, you can start, Mike.

[00:05:18] Mike Ponczek: Okay. So, um, I migrated down from Indiana where I grew up in the Fort Wayne area. And, uh, we had a Prague rock band called Ethos A Door, and two albums on EMI, uh, capital Records lived on a farm. We had a typical, this was in the late seventies, mid seventies, late seventies, typical farmhouse type studio and gardening, things like that.

And we also had a few Prague bands that stopped through there. 'cause we did have a pa so we, we'd see the likes a lot of the early Genesis group when Peter was just in the band towards the end and King Crimson. Yes. Kansas would come over, come out to the farm and that. Well anyway, there was. One of the guys I went to school with, he says, you know, I, I heard of this company called Soko.

I think I'm gonna go, he wasn't in the band. He was like our, uh, advisor for sound equipment to get us going and that. And he said, I'm gonna go, uh, check it out down in Dallas. Next thing you know, he's going down there. And, uh, the band was going through a kind of a transition after a second album. We had an injury, a major, not a death, but in the, So a number of us went down there, a couple in the lighting. And then I ended up going, uh, down there because I had this double E background from Purdue as well as playing on stage and, um, interviewed. And next thing I know is, and, uh. Went out to the Beacon Theater. The first show at the Kinks with Buford Jones's, front of house at the Warren Cunningham is la uh, lighting.

And I think a guy named Kenny Pein was doing monitors at the sound at the time. And that was, that was the beginning of my stint there. And, and they said, well, if you, uh, we'll talk to you again in a year and see how it goes. And we got $11 a day per diem. There you go. So that started my career there and then went on to, uh, do, uh, more work, which maybe we'll get into more with, uh, some r and b bands and then monitors, because I knew more about the stage.

And so things grew well, all this was analog days, and then delve deep into the British rock scene and, uh, did monitors and then front of house for the. The who first Farewell Tours, and then Onward Again with The Kings, and then Clapton for about 10 years through 13 different bands. And we'll keep going.

[00:08:08] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Paul McCartney.

[00:08:09] Mike Ponczek: Paul McCartney, yeah. The Give the Movie. And then later on when, uh, he decided to do Beatles songs, he did a quick interview coming back from Israel with Clapton and started, Linda says, well, let's come on over and we're gonna start doing rehearsals at our, our place in, uh, I think that was 89.

And then we, we continued on with that extravaganza there for a couple years. Yep.

[00:08:39] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: We'll have to interject though. Yeah. That from Show Co.

[00:08:42] Mike Ponczek: Yeah.

[00:08:42] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Then it went to Crossroads.

[00:08:44] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. Afterwards. Yeah.

[00:08:46] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: And then now back,

[00:08:48] Mike Ponczek: back to now.

[00:08:49] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. Yeah. And he's still in the industry, so

[00:08:51] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. He's still in the industry at a great theater.

Kind of Americana music called the Kessler Theater here in Dallas area. And uh, we do, in fact, I think we got Stuart Copeland coming up as a kind of a meet and greet, but we do other, mostly Americana music. Sean Copeland. I'm just looking at a few things. Anyway, that's it. Yamaha concert, uh,

[00:09:16] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: what did you say?

It's a Yamaha

[00:09:17] Mike Ponczek: console. Yeah, it's a Yamaha console there that we, when we,

[00:09:21] Andy Leviss: to hear and should you ever have issues with it, I'm sure we'll chat.

[00:09:23] Mike Ponczek: the, on the touring side of it, it was almost all, uh, either Shoko super board or, uh, the, uh, Harrison. Hm. Five SM five series and, uh, analog and then Midas when I would do a lot of the European tour or we'd carry our own. 'cause those, the top level tours were, uh, you're capable of, you know, bringing your package with you.

Yep. There you go.

[00:09:51] Andy Leviss: That's, that's such a, such an amazing list of list of folks you've worked with and continue to work with. That's

[00:09:57] Mike Ponczek: a lot.

[00:09:57] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: That's just half.

[00:09:58] Mike Ponczek: Yeah, there's still quite, I spent a summer over at Fisher Lane Farm, which is again, part of Genesis. The Fisher Lane Farm was located, uh, is their studio directly in between the three, uh, members of Genesis at the time, including Clapton. They were all kind of, I'd say a long bike ride away

[00:10:18] Andy Leviss: all right.

[00:10:19] Mike Ponczek: in Sury Guilford.

Yeah.

[00:10:22] Andy Leviss: So in when you, when you were working like on the show co console, were you ever involved in like the development of that stuff or you were just using it as, as a user and employee freelancer, a any of them.

[00:10:33] Mike Ponczek: Um, funny you ask. Uh, but, uh, with Jim Horst, who also developed, uh, a lot of the, uh, very light, he developed, uh, he and a couple other people developed the, uh, Choco Super board. Um. Which there's eight of A, B, C, D, E, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Right. Three. They were all made about the same time, but they had a little different wood on it.

Yeah. And, uh, that the chip in that, I didn't get into the electronics of it, but when something went wrong, I'd call up Jim or John Covington, somebody and say, well, what do I do? And they'd say, put in a larger fuse and see what burn up.

[00:11:22] Sean Walker: I like.

[00:11:23] Mike Ponczek: the same applied for the Harrison, except there's a lot more, uh, to go wrong. So, no, I didn't really develop that. We did do, uh, uh, live guys did do a lot in developing the, uh, the monitors because in ears were not heard of during the eighties. And that, so you, you, you were trying to make a better monitor 'cause another company had a great monitor out there.

And, uh, we wanted to have 'em too. And we didn't choko, to my knowledge, we didn't sell much, but we did sell a package of wedges to the who, so they had 10 of the early B fm one hundreds. Bobby Prien. Yeah. Anything else?

[00:12:09] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I could, if you

[00:12:10] Sean Walker: what is.

[00:12:10] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: to someone that was part of that. Yeah. I mean, Chuck Conrad

[00:12:15] Mike Ponczek: yeah.

[00:12:15] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Would be a great person to speak to. And he has, um, a Texas broadcast museum in Kilgore, Texas where he has, uh, one of the super boards, the James Taylor Shoko super board and I, we just went and donated a six channel mixer to him. Uh, so he has a lot and you definitely should talk to him sometime.

[00:12:40] Andy Leviss: We would love to, and I, I, this is the first time I've ever had reason to say like, oh, I gotta add, I gotta add Kilgore, Texas to my, uh, my vacation list at some point. That sounds really cool.

[00:12:52] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yes.

[00:12:52] Mike Ponczek: Yeah, he's, it's a,

[00:12:55] Andy Leviss: So

[00:12:56] Mike Ponczek: gem, gem out there.

[00:12:57] Andy Leviss: that's, yeah. No, I'll definitely, I'll sync, I'll sync up with you once we're, once we're done recording and, and maybe get in touch with him. That sounds cool. Uh, indigo, do you wanna give us a little bit of your, your background and how you fit into the Shoko picture, and then we can kind of go from there.

[00:13:11] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Uh, sure. And,

[00:13:12] Mike Ponczek: and well go ahead. I wanna interject one thing as her, her dad, Donnie, and she'll talk more about that was probably my, well, he was my best friend when I came down, migrated from the Midwest down to here. So that's, that's very important to me.

[00:13:29] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Well, yes. 'cause my dad started at SOKO in 74. Um, and you came 77

[00:13:37] Mike Ponczek: 78.

[00:13:38] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: 70 78. Yes. Um, and, and Mike here and his wife Tony are, uh, godparents. Uh, I don't, I don't know how that came about back then.

[00:13:51] Sean Walker: That's awesome.

[00:13:52] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: ago, but, you know, um, okay. So yes, I'll start with my father, Donnie Kretchmar, who was a sound engineer at Choco from 74 until, um, until he passed away in 86. And, um, he and my mom took me everywhere.

Uh, I'm an only child. Um, my dad would drag me and I wouldn't say drag. I went willingly to rehearsals and to many, many of the show co parties and gatherings. And so, and I was really kind of like the. I don't wanna say the first child born into show co, but I was one of the only ones brought around to everything.

Um, so I was always there. Um, no, I'm going to, you'll probably have to edit some of this 'cause I'm gonna get lost on stories. Um, I'm trying to think. Okay, jump ahead. Um, my father was touring with Leonard Skynyrd. Um,

[00:15:07] Mike Ponczek: prior to that though.

[00:15:08] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yes, he was. Oh yes, yes. Well, his first, I think it was Lee Pickens group, right?

Was the first group he did. Um, and then several others. He was on Led Zeppelin, 1975. I'm not sure if there was some before that, but, um,

[00:15:28] Mike Ponczek: he was their monitor man.

[00:15:30] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. Yes, he worked. Right along with Rusty Bruchet on, uh, running Sound or monitors with, um, Zeppelin and then with Benji Lafe. Yeah. Um, but then I'm gonna get off on there.

[00:15:48] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. Robert Plant

[00:15:50] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: and Robert Plant, um,

[00:15:51] Mike Ponczek: they were closed,

[00:15:52] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: but he, he was on the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash. He was a survivor of the plane crash. And, uh, Artemis Pile actually, uh, pulled him out of the plane 'cause he was pinned. His legs were pinned up under the seat and, um, Artemis pulled him out, leaned him against a tree, and whatever happened after that.

Um, and so I, I do have a relationship with Artemis. I talk to him often. Um, let's see that. Of course my father was, um, out of commission for a while. Went back out on the road, uh, with Zeppelin in 77. Um, now I, I gotta go back to his injuries that he had a punctured lung and some other injuries which later contributed to his lung cancer, which, uh, is how he passed away.

Um, okay, let me jump forward in how this started. So in about 2010, 2011, going through a divorce, my mom gives me the majority of my father's things, and that's when I kind of realized the magnitude of stuff. And, you know, it's cool and, you know, I'm starting to wear it. And so I started cataloging it. Um. Between that and 2017, there were talks like somebody was trying to write a book about show co and then there's documentary talk and all these things were happening, um, which I and the alumni were a big part of trying to make happen. When all of those fell through, um, I, I had such a catalog. I mean, that's when I really realized something.

This story still needs to be told. Um, and I still, I need to rewind actually, um, in 2017. Um, Sherry Short, who I, I, I guess some will refer to as the Queen of Choko. She has kept, you know, the, the Choko family together in touch and organizes the gatherings, the reunions and such. Um, she had kept my father's briefcase that survived the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash and, uh, a Samsonite briefcase and with his passes all over it and everything.

And she kept that, uh, for quite a while and gave it back to me in 2017. And so that kind of started, uh, some cataloging too and, and going through even more ephemera that my mom has, you know, keeps finding over the years when moving and stuff, and attics and closets. Um. But during this documentary book talk, I was working really hard, um, in getting testimonials from, uh, former soko clients, like interviewing Leland Slar, Mike, uh, Rutherford and I had put a lot of work into this and we were at the phase of having to, uh, ask for donors, like looking for donors to put money into the project. And I felt in order to do that, we needed to have a landing page, like a website, something to show like where this money would go to and where I could put these interviews and all the research I've done. And, uh, so then the documentary fell through for whatever reason. Um, and then I had this website. So I had the idea to turn it into an archive to, because there was just so much, I'm like, what am I gonna do with all this?

This people wanna see it. People, you know, uh, want to hear these stories. And that's kind of how the website grew. And, um, sorry, something's happening with our wireless mics. Um, can you still hear us?

[00:20:42] Mike Ponczek: Okay?

[00:20:43] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Okay. Okay. Um, so yeah, I, I just, I created a GoDaddy website. I outgrew that I couldn't add any more content, so I had to move o over to another platform, which is where I'm at now, at show co archives.com.

And, um, it's just really grown, um, into something. Crazy. I mean, I love it. Um, there's only probably about 30, 40% of the content on the website. I, since I'm a solopreneur, it's just me uploading and doing all that and running social media. Um, it's completely self-funded. Then there's another side. I have the, um, swag shop, the shop, Choco archives swag shop, and that's to raise funds for alumni and uh, music industry professionals.

And there's a story how that got started as well. When you wanna hear that part, I think that answers a lot of that.

[00:22:01] Andy Leviss: I think so. I mean, I mean, don't, don't tease me with a story and then not go those. So yeah, why don't we, why don't we tell that story and then we can kind of see where we wind back to.

[00:22:09] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Well. I mean, it, it's kind of, I have so many of these grand ideas to, um, get shoko recognized and, um, go ahead, interject.

[00:22:27] Mike Ponczek: Oh, not only recognized, but the whole industry of North America and sound development. That, that, that whole part of it plus keep the momentum is, is snowballing.

[00:22:42] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yes, yes.

[00:22:42] Mike Ponczek: That's right. I don't know how she does it.

[00:22:45] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. Um,

[00:22:46] Mike Ponczek: I mean, you do have help, but, you know.

[00:22:48] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yes. No, I mean, I, I, yes. I mean, I have the alumni of course, in helping and I wouldn't be able to do the swag shop without them. But really to go back to how the Swag shop started, um, a lot of it's kind of emotional or sad, but. W we've lost a lot of the show co guys, um, and gals, but several to suicide. Um, and I, I kind of, it, it, they didn't realize that there was resources out there to help them. And, um, you know, like music cares or sweet relief, you know, there's all these funds out there to help people in the industry that even, I, I don't think you guys realize that they still matter. And even if they're not working now, and they were working back in the seventies, that that counts and they qualify for this help with these, um, uh, charities.

And I, I was just, you know, and then I see the widows left behind with all this. Ephemera, uh, the t-shirts and everything, they don't know what to do. They, they don't realize this stuff is important and it ends up thrown away or deteriorating in attics. And so I was trying to find a way to help in that way, uh, with t-shirts, um, and swag, um, and raise funds.

And so my grand idea was to have an auction with all this stuff. And I went to Julian's, I went to Heritage, and I, I didn't really get anywhere. I mean, yes, they were interested, but they're like, oh, it's not enough. I, there, there's a lot, there's hundreds and there's still hundreds of items I haven't even uploaded 'cause it just takes a lot of time.

Um, so that's what I would like to auction it all and raise that. You know, those funds, and so then I can focus more on the archives and finish that. Um, I don't know if I'll ever finish it because it keeps coming in. I mean, I have people emailing me weekly with more stuff contributing to the archives, which is wonderful.

I love the stories. I love hearing stories about my father that I haven't. Um,

[00:25:28] Andy Leviss: Well, there's like so many years 'cause it was, what, it was founded 1970 is that

[00:25:33] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: well, so it was originally, Soko started in 65 as a, um, band management production with Angus and When, and Jack k and then I guess in 70 is when Rusty and the two Jacks, Jack, Jack of officially formed it as Choco as a production

[00:25:57] Andy Leviss: copy And then when

[00:25:58] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: it went, it

[00:25:59] Mike Ponczek: a garage building co, you know, built it out of the garage, you know.

[00:26:02] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah.

[00:26:03] Andy Leviss: yeah, so, okay, so it started like 65, 70. And then when did, like, when did it. Did kind the, uh, wrap up as it were,

[00:26:11] Mike Ponczek: Yeah, I was there till 94. But you would know.

[00:26:14] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Well, I mean, sold to Clare Brothers in 2000,

[00:26:19] Mike Ponczek: right?

[00:26:19] Andy Leviss: early days of Claire acquiring the world.

[00:26:22] Mike Ponczek: Yeah.

[00:26:23] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yes. Yeah.

[00:26:23] Mike Ponczek: Now, the one thing bear in mind is with Shoko and when I was there we probably had nine or 10 or 11 companies within that little ones you had, uh, my manufacturing. Oh yeah. Lasers, trucking, lighting, the chrome, you know, they chromed all those lights for the BGS spirit having flown to her.

[00:26:46] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:47] Mike Ponczek: Uh, prior to very light. Uh, what else? Lasers, a trucking, uh, a wood shop.

[00:26:55] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:55] Mike Ponczek: Uh, install. And, uh, star Wars came out, so we had theatrical speakers to launch that. There was several departments went up to Buford, to New York to put that in for the launch of that.

[00:27:11] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:12] Andy Leviss: Oh, that's really cool.

[00:27:13] Mike Ponczek: cool. But most what I was told, and most of those didn't do so well, it was the sound company that drove, drove us, you know, trucking certainly did.

[00:27:28] Andy Leviss: Sean has opinions there.

[00:27:32] Mike Ponczek: So yeah, it takes a little, but, uh, yeah. And then, then the very light was being developed at the same, uh, time, those early eighties, uh, with the VL one. Yeah. Keep going though. Didn't,

[00:27:46] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: well, no, I mean, I

[00:27:46] Mike Ponczek: just, I just wanted to make sure you understood that Choco was more than just sound.

[00:27:50] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I, yeah. I mean, I have, we have rehearsal

[00:27:52] Mike Ponczek: space too.

[00:27:52] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Very, I have several goals. I mean, first it's just. To get this stuff out there because people wanna see it. Um, and to educate this generation of the industry to, you know, see, I mean, 'cause it has changed quite a bit. Um, and raise awareness, um, and to get recognized by the city of Dallas somehow to get a plaque.

Just, you know, Angus Wynn was able to get a plaque for the International Pop Festival, which he did in Louisville in 1969. And uh, and that's kind of how the whole Choko company came about, was from that event, if I remember correctly.

[00:28:43] Mike Ponczek: Yeah.

[00:28:43] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: But what I love about that event is so many of the choko uh, employees attended that event.

Not knowing each other, not knowing what was in their future that they would be working at Choco. But you know, like my mom and dad were there. I know Sherry was there. I mean, there were, you know, a lot of Choco alum there. So that, that's kind of cool. Um,

[00:29:11] Andy Leviss: Yeah, that's like almo, almost like a scene out of a movie. Like it starts up and you see all the characters introduced and then they come together later. That's really cool.

[00:29:18] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. And I mean, that's even, I think that's when Led Zeppelin realized they wanted show code to do their sound. They wanted,

[00:29:26] Mike Ponczek: they wanted,

[00:29:27] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: yeah. 'cause they sounded great.

[00:29:29] Mike Ponczek: Rusty would say, I needed to make something loud, louder than mountain.

[00:29:35] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yes, yes, yes. And there's, gosh, there's so many,

[00:29:37] Mike Ponczek: there's a story,

[00:29:38] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: story that

[00:29:39] Mike Ponczek: we'll get there.

[00:29:40] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Um, and then I would like to have Shoko recognized by, uh, rock and Roll Hall of Fame

[00:29:48] Mike Ponczek: that's coming.

[00:29:49] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: They really, if you put. All the inductees from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and how many Choko went through and very light. I mean, yeah. So that, that's my, I'm, I'm trying to get recognition and raise money and awareness for, for these guys and no profit.

It's, it's nothing, it all goes right back into, um, to the project.

[00:30:24] Andy Leviss: And I mean, I'm even flipping through it now while we're talking. I wanna encourage everybody to check out the shop. 'cause like when we say swag shop, it's, it's a lot deeper and, and, and broader than I think people may necessarily think from that term. It's, I mean, there is some, what I think I'm looking at here, that's like kinda new stuff with like choko logos and stuff that you're doing.

But most of this is like, we're talking actual vintage swag from the collections of all these alumni, right?

[00:30:50] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: yes, so I do, so I have under Shoko swag, I have the reproductions, which, um,

[00:30:57] Mike Ponczek: well,

[00:30:57] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: which I started that in getting the trademark protected because of all the fakes out there on eBay and Etsy and all of that. And I was tired of seeing it too. I was tired of them butchering it. So finally got that taken care of.

So I'm reproducing official show coat shirts. Um, but in that is also crew closets where several of the alumni have contributed their swag, uh, with Soko on it. Some just, you know, band just from their touring years, from t-shirts to laminates, to set lists, itineraries buttons, guitar picks. Um, a cattle prod.

[00:31:53] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. Well,

[00:31:53] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: yeah. Will it? Yeah. I mean, uh, a, a guitar, Carlos Santana's guitar pickup, um, or whatever.

[00:32:00] Sean Walker: has to be a good story with the kettle prod.

[00:32:02] Mike Ponczek: Yeah.

[00:32:02] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yes, there is. We'll, and I, we'll have to bring that guy on to tell that story, so Yeah. To

[00:32:09] Mike Ponczek: get it from the, get it from the horse as well.

[00:32:11] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. But. So yes, that's, I have all those crew closets on there, so it's the real deal.

Um, and then I have a collector's vault, and that's where there's very special pieces, and that's, those are the ones that I'm wanting to auction off. And, uh, whether it be, uh, Julian or Heritage or myself holding the auction, uh, once I get enough an audience built, I'm collecting, you know, uh, contacts for that.

And, uh, then I'll hold, I want at least 500 people signed up before holding an option. So that's my

[00:32:56] Andy Leviss: we can get you a bunch more folks. You know, everybody go, go sign up while you're listening. 'cause there's some really, really neat stuff here.

[00:33:04] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Oh, yeah. And, and there's, that's not even half of it. I mean, I, I have so much to still upload. I just, I, you know. I, I need three of me to,

[00:33:17] Mike Ponczek: you know, back to the live sound bite. I was just, it just brought up the fact that you said that there's a lot of people, like you mentioned Pooch and Night Bob, some of these other people that weren't, you know, they didn't get their paycheck from Soka, but they used a lot of the gear, you know, out there.

Um, you're still around of course. Yeah. And, uh, I was there till 94 and it only took a little hiatus that one summer to document, uh, a bunch of the live things we did with Clapton. But, um, yeah, there's a lot of that and most, now that I'm thinking about, one more thing I should add is I have a feeling that most of the people like myself, you weren't, you didn't really quit.

You just got, you know, Hey, we're changing regimes. We don't need, uh, you know, mixers anymore, but we just need foreman. Kind of things. That's the truth, you know?

[00:34:14] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah.

[00:34:15] Mike Ponczek: To a certain extent.

[00:34:17] Andy Leviss: Well, and it's like what you were talking about, like all the different aspects of what Shoko had. And it's, I mean, there was that era where that's if you were gonna have a sound company, you were making everything yourself. 'cause it didn't exist on the mass scale. And it's, you know, in the, in the, you know, 50 something years since then, it's been such a shift from that to, you know, there's, you know, a handful of manufacturers that you can buy.

You know, I need, I need 200, uh, 200, you know, of this type of speaker. You know, can you get 'em to me on a truck tomorrow? And.

[00:34:45] Mike Ponczek: John would know that.

[00:34:48] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. No, I mean that's stories I hear them, um, talk about when they would go to Elliot's hardware to, you know, pick out looking for parts to fix something

[00:34:59] Mike Ponczek: and

[00:34:59] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: create Yeah.

[00:34:59] Mike Ponczek: And try to make it in America. And, and you've got two great companies in North America at the time. You've got CLA Claire Brothers at the time with the 12:00 AM monitor.

'cause we're still talking about monitors. You had these BFM one hundreds and then somebody would come along and say, you know, I need a double 12. You know, the PA's fine. I just need this. So you try to satisfy that, uh, the best you can.

[00:35:23] Sean Walker: BF M1.

[00:35:24] Andy Leviss: does, oh,

[00:35:26] Sean Walker: No, go ahead Andy.

[00:35:27] Andy Leviss: I was gonna say, I gotta ask, does BFM stand for what I think it stands for

[00:35:30] Sean Walker: Badass. Fucking monitor. 100 a thousand percent. That was, that's where I was going too.

[00:35:34] Mike Ponczek: I think I had to ask that too by floor monitor.

[00:35:38] Sean Walker: Uhhuh. Ours is better. Ours is better. They took a big old rip off a dub and were like, yo, man, we're gonna call this a badass fucking monitor. 100, bro. And that was it. It was done.

[00:35:48] Mike Ponczek: better, um, after lunch on a Friday.

[00:35:52] Sean Walker: A hundred percent dude. A hundred percent.

[00:35:55] Andy Leviss: That's

[00:35:56] Sean Walker: Didn't everything.

[00:35:56] Andy Leviss: the studio rule. Never do your reverb when you're, when you're high.

[00:36:00] Mike Ponczek: Yeah.

[00:36:00] Sean Walker: Totally, dude.

[00:36:03] Mike Ponczek: made me think. Yeah. So we were talking about reverb the other day and we said, you realize that, uh, quote, I hate to say it, back in the day, most reverbs were mono five. You know, they're, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm well, analog reverbs, I'm thinking.

[00:36:23] Andy Leviss: I mean, even digital, like I remember in the early days, like when I was coming up, they always taught you like it'll have a stereo input, but everybody was like, save the cabling. It's just summing it to mono to put it into it. Anyway, there's a little bit of stereo on the output side, but.

[00:36:36] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. And for live song, we're speaking live song too. Yeah. But, okay.

[00:36:41] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. I,

[00:36:43] Mike Ponczek: yeah,

[00:36:44] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: there's so many stories and stuff to talk about. I mean, could go all day and hours. Um, yeah. I mean, just ask away

[00:36:56] Mike Ponczek: the, um, one thing about, uh, I think the, uh. Auction, not the auction, but when we, for instance, if I have a, a Robert Plant jacket up there is, we kind of choose, I know my other, the other friends of mine too, that are, that are, uh, posting equipment, you can donate the money entirely, you know, to the, uh, to the cause.

[00:37:22] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:22] Mike Ponczek: Some can come back to us. Uh, it, it's just a decision you make,

[00:37:28] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: uh, amongst alum. Uh,

[00:37:30] Mike Ponczek: the alumni. Yes. The alumni.

[00:37:31] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah,

[00:37:32] Mike Ponczek: yeah, yeah. Those that have,

[00:37:34] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: yeah. For instance, so like 80% of the sale of like a tour jacket would go back to funk and then 20% goes to the charity of their choice, or whichever one I'm doing at that time.

Um, and that's how that works.

[00:37:53] Mike Ponczek: And. Try to make certificates of,

[00:37:57] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: oh yes, I have created, um, certificate of Authenticity that people can add to their purchase. Um, and, uh, you know, I write on there what it, the, the provenance of the items. And that's been a fun part. 'cause of course, I can't get the history on every item, as you know, as I've been collecting it.

So I try to get it as I post it. Or if a customer ask, Hey, was this guitar pick played by so and so, then I'll just text Bruce Jones or Funk and say. Was it played, da, da da. And so that adds to it. Um, and it's been a lot of fun hearing those. Has it been watched hearing those stories too?

[00:38:45] Mike Ponczek: Does it have a microphone in it from adultery?

You know, that's all been smashed up.

[00:38:50] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I know. I mean, unfortunately, you know, I, we don't have a lot of the instruments and those hot items that people want. They want the stuff that was touched and played by Ronnie Van Z or Eric Clapton and

[00:39:07] Sean Walker: Yeah, you got a last Paul left over. You let me know. I'll, I'll slice a check for that for sure.

[00:39:13] Mike Ponczek: I know nothing.

[00:39:14] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah.

[00:39:14] Sean Walker: Yeah, right, totally.

[00:39:16] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Um, you know, and I have offers coming in all the time for stuff that's not for sale. Uh, you

[00:39:25] Sean Walker: we want the stuff you don't wanna sell. That's the whole point.

[00:39:29] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: yeah. Like my dad's briefcase. Uh, Jimmy Page's bow, um. So, yeah, it's, you

[00:39:38] Sean Walker: Page's bow probably funds the entirety of your project.

[00:39:41] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: if, if I were to sell it, yeah, Jim mail

[00:39:44] Mike Ponczek: it back.

[00:39:45] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I, so I have a, so I have a shadow box of all those Zeppelin things that, uh, that my dad had or that I actually got as well. So my first concert that I remember was at n Worth, um, I was seven, I think years old, and that was the first, um, show or tour that my dad actually took.

My mom and I too was to this Led Zeppelin Networth show. And, um, very memorable. Uh, Benji Lafe took us out on a canoe around, I can't remember the name of the river there, but took us around there. There's a picture on the website of that. Great picture of Benji with his Zeppelin shirt, uh, on the boat. And, uh, I was there with, uh, during rehearsals and I played drums on the drum on Bonham's drum set with Jason.

I think it was him, it was a, a boy a couple years older than me. Um, I remember that. And I have a drumstick, I have Bonham's drumstick from that

[00:41:07] Andy Leviss: That's cool. And yeah, that's the thing you don't part with.

[00:41:09] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: No. And then a broken bow of Jimmy Page's. I'm not sure if it's from that show, but my dad did bring that back. Um, so yeah, no, that, that was a pretty cool, cool, uh, event.

[00:41:26] Sean Walker: What a cool childhood dude.

[00:41:28] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Oh,

[00:41:29] Sean Walker: fricking awesome.

[00:41:30] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I was musically spoiled. That's what I. Say, um,

[00:41:34] Sean Walker: you miss school on Friday? Ah, I had to go play drums with Jason Bonum. Sorry, dude. I'll, I'll be back on. I'll be back on Tuesday when led Zeppelin's outta town. Don't worry about it, man.

[00:41:45] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I, I mean my favorite was going to rehearsals, um, at Las Colinas Studios with my dad. Uh,

[00:41:53] Mike Ponczek: that Las Colinas is based in, guess Dallas?

[00:41:59] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: It's around Irving,

[00:42:00] Mike Ponczek: Irving, Texas.

[00:42:01] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. Yeah. Close to here. Um,

[00:42:03] Mike Ponczek: it's a full sound stage.

[00:42:05] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. That David Bowie went there. I mean, a lot of, uh, artists used that studio, but I was there for the Mama Genesis, mama rehearsals and, you know, I was pretty young.

What was that? 82? Was that 80?

[00:42:22] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. And they were, or

[00:42:23] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: 80.

[00:42:23] Mike Ponczek: Was that the very light, the first 320 put all your eggs in one basket?

[00:42:28] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. And I would sit there 'cause I was only like 10 or so. I remember, uh, Phil singing Mama with the light up under his chin. And I mean, I still, to this day, when I hear that, that's all I remember in picture.

It was pretty creepy as a child, uh, singing that. But I love that album. Um, that's, those are some of my favorite memories.

[00:42:57] Mike Ponczek: Again, not this is lighting, but to put that tour out with

[00:43:02] Sean Walker: I'll stop you right there. No, no, I'm just kidding.

[00:43:05] Mike Ponczek: yeah, no, but I, I brought this up because somebody that knows more about it than me brought it up. Uh, put Genesis was so into that 'cause they kind of said, you know, we're not that good looking kind, you know, we need moving lights, whatever.

And, and my good friend Alan on was a lighting designer, so we'll put out 320, I think it was moving lights. Does that sound right?

[00:43:25] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: You don't, you're at, I'm not going that, I'm going

[00:43:28] Indigo and Mike Ponczek: by

[00:43:28] Mike Ponczek: the last little interview. All right, so. Put all your eggs in one basket, some extra spares and extra console out there. Um, and boy, when when they hit move, you had to make sure you were playing some music.

'cause it was noisy, but it was functional and it rocked the world. It, the lighting rocked the world back then it

[00:43:50] Sean Walker: that's awesome.

[00:43:51] Mike Ponczek: yep. That's all I can tell you about.

[00:43:53] Andy Leviss: That's, uh, I've, I've, I've heard more than one story from somebody either in production or in lighting who was like, yeah, I was like a teenager at like that Genesis tour, and when those lights moved, I was like, I want to do that.

[00:44:04] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. And it was, yeah, it was, it wasn't just the visual, it was the audio too. But like I said, you wanted to make sure it was pretty noisy and that improved quickly. But, but those guys were into it as was the management. Okay.

[00:44:21] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Well no, and I'm. I'm pulling up, you know, going back to how fun this is, going through the archives and people coming to me.

So I received an email this week from, um, sorry, I have to go back to this. Um, are, he sent me this email talking about, again, I'm no expert at this, but this was at the beginning of the Genesis 78 with the Mirrors tour and these road boxes, uh, which you, I don't know if you were building boxes then three or four, I heard two KA Axi Kos were in them and they were bought for the mirror tour to shine up on the mirror to top light the band.

But they were, they weren't powerful enough and were replaced by a number of arcs. Someone saved these. Well, he says I saved them from a London store 30 years ago. Now they're with a guy that does major sound recreations with old and original PA in the uk. I

[00:45:35] Andy Leviss: Oh, I've seen that guy on Facebook.

[00:45:36] Mike Ponczek: Yeah.

[00:45:37] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: And so, and he sent all the pictures of 'em, um, still in the box in the show co boxes, these lights.

Uh, and the email thread is kind of cool because they went and tried to verify it with, um, Tom Litre and Jim. Wait,

[00:45:58] Mike Ponczek: these are lighting gauge. Great

[00:46:00] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: one. Yeah. Yeah. And um, anyway, it was just cool. So he sent these pictures for the archive

[00:46:05] Mike Ponczek: that connect.

[00:46:06] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: So it was a really neat, um, that's the kind of stuff I'm always getting neat pictures and,

[00:46:15] Mike Ponczek: yep.

[00:46:15] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: So,

[00:46:16] Sean Walker: So cool.

[00:46:17] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: yeah. Um, I'm trying to think of one more. My favorite other memory. Um, there was a bar called the Greenville Avenue Country Club, referred to as the gac, uh, here in Dallas that the crew, uh, hung out at. And actually Mike's wife Tony worked there and someone else. Karen shirts

[00:46:44] Mike Ponczek: for a while. Yeah.

[00:46:45] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah.

Craig's shirts worked there, but anyway,

[00:46:48] Mike Ponczek: shirts was Genesis. Sound engineer in those.

[00:46:50] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. Craig shirts was Genesis sound engineer

[00:46:52] Mike Ponczek: Fort, as we say at Fort Wanker.

[00:46:54] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Fort Wanker. Um, they would always hang out there. This was a bar that had food, alcohol, and it had a swimming pool in the back.

[00:47:05] Mike Ponczek: Little one, but a pool.

[00:47:06] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. Uh, I,

[00:47:09] Mike Ponczek: general,

[00:47:10] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: of course, was always with my parents and so I was always at the g. And, um, to entertain, and this is where, uh, Phil Collins, Robert Plant, I don't know if Bowie went, but a lot of the artists would go

[00:47:25] Mike Ponczek: there. We could go there and not worry about much. Kinda like the Golden Lion is in London.

[00:47:29] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. So it, it was a great, it was a band Hangout too. And I remember bouncing on Robert Plant's lap was quite a memory. Um, but as I got older, would get bored with it. And I went across the street with several of my elementary school friends and we had learned to break dance. And I started, we were, we were break dancing in the Snuffers Burger joint parking lot across from the G.

And at first it was with cardboard boxes. And um, and I was the only girl and it was three other boys from my class. And um, and then my cousin would walk around with a hat getting tips, money or whatever. And then my dad ended, I was like, the boxes weren't working out as we were getting better at break dancing, you know, doing head spins and stuff.

We needed something better than cardboard. And so I don't know where my dad got this, but it was a big roll of black rubber matting of some sort. Maybe it was for drop, like a drop.

[00:48:50] Mike Ponczek: Mar Marley. Marley is

[00:48:52] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Marley. That's, he brought me a role of that and we started using that to break dance and, um, yeah, that was.

[00:49:01] Mike Ponczek: I thought you were gonna say across the street. That's where the Vaughn brothers were playing. And Jimmy was,

[00:49:06] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: well that was, Nick's

[00:49:07] Mike Ponczek: was across

[00:49:08] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: the

[00:49:08] Mike Ponczek: street. Yeah. Right. So his and Stevie was 15 then

[00:49:11] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I think I went into that. That was the first time I saw go-go dancers. 'cause they had go-go dancers in this club where Stevie was playing.

Yes.

[00:49:19] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. And that

[00:49:21] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I saw a lot. I, yeah,

[00:49:24] Andy Leviss: And like 40% of it you'll talk about.

[00:49:27] Mike Ponczek: I, yeah,

[00:49:28] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: yeah.

[00:49:30] Sean Walker: If the other 60%, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Kind of a vibe.

[00:49:34] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Kind of

[00:49:34] Mike Ponczek: kinda,

[00:49:35] Sean Walker: Totally.

[00:49:35] Andy Leviss: Yeah. What, what's the statute of limitations? Uh.

[00:49:38] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: there. Yeah.

[00:49:42] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. It's all good.

[00:49:43] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. But I mean, we're

[00:49:45] Mike Ponczek: here today.

[00:49:45] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: People wanna hear these stories. Um, and then there's those willing to talk about, about 'em and, um. I

[00:49:54] Mike Ponczek: wanna hear the truth if you can too, you know?

[00:49:56] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Well, yes.

[00:49:57] Mike Ponczek: So that it doesn't kinda get lost in translation. Yeah. A bit about the industry.

[00:50:05] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah.

[00:50:05] Mike Ponczek: And I think you forget how much the your, the soko.co is international. Uh, you run into that. I don't know if you do. I know I do. Uh, still from my Japanese friends in Haino. Sound over there.

[00:50:23] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah,

[00:50:23] Mike Ponczek: there you go. I'm sure some of the other engineers out there are still out there on the road, uh, can relate to that as well.

[00:50:32] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. And I've made a lot of connections with other, um, archivists that are starting to do their own, you know, uh, and, and that's been really, really neat, uh, connecting with them. And it, it's just exciting. It just seems like. Well, actually yesterday is when it should have all been out, but, um, it, it's all out there right now.

There's just so much talk about the, the music industry, all this classic rock and I mean, it's crazy to think the nineties are vintage now. Um, but yeah, I

[00:51:13] Andy Leviss: Say as, as a child of the eighties and nineties, I, I feel that painfully right

[00:51:18] Sean Walker: To totally,

[00:51:19] Mike Ponczek: in,

[00:51:20] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: it's crazy. Yeah,

[00:51:22] Mike Ponczek: especially that Seattle scene too.

[00:51:24] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Um, so yeah,

[00:51:26] Mike Ponczek: Northwest.

[00:51:27] Sean Walker: still living it. We still can't get past it like we should be. We should moved on from that decades ago, and we're like, no, we're just gonna just wallow in that forever.

[00:51:35] Andy Leviss: Yeah, but half of that is 'cause just with that terrible weather, what are you gonna wear other than

[00:51:38] Sean Walker: Dude, seriously. Seriously. Today's gorgeous, by the way, but usually you're absolutely right.

[00:51:44] Andy Leviss: Yeah.

[00:51:45] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: you

[00:51:45] Mike Ponczek: know, yeah. Indoor games.

[00:51:49] Andy Leviss: Well, so, so Mike, I mean, you've, you've had a long career. Like, is there, I mean, are there any, any cool stories like, uh, you wanna share that we haven't gotten into while, while we've got you here?

[00:52:00] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Do you have any about my dad and you? Like any funny,

[00:52:04] Mike Ponczek: well, let's, what were we talking about? It could be

[00:52:06] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: funny stories.

[00:52:07] Mike Ponczek: Well, let's talk about, uh, is it live aid?

[00:52:11] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah, do live aid.

[00:52:13] Mike Ponczek: We'll bring live aid into it.

[00:52:14] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. Yeah. Live. It's good.

[00:52:18] Mike Ponczek: Well,

[00:52:18] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: any of them.

[00:52:19] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. That was, so I was with uh, 'cause Donnie was there.

It was with Clapton. Well, no it wasn't. He passed. Uh, well let's do that anyway. So, uh

[00:52:32] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: oh, for that Clapton.

[00:52:33] Mike Ponczek: Yeah.

[00:52:34] Sean Walker: that would've been a hell of a show.

[00:52:35] Mike Ponczek: yeah, so it was in Philadelphia, but I was with, uh, doing front of house for Clapton at the time. But just before us. Was this Led Zeppelin deal going on, right?

[00:52:49] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: You remember that the Led Zeppelin at Live Aid,

[00:52:52] Mike Ponczek: so I don't know if you know about, but really when Paige and came over, they opened a guitar case, the double neck guitar, and I don't know if they tuned it or not.

John was a tech, but besides that, this was when the Phil Collins was trying to do both at the same time. So he came over via Concord to there and he says, oh, by the way, buddy Eric, we're gonna, I'm gonna play drums with you. Let's open with white room. Right? So here we go. We, we got done with the Zeppelin, uh, deal.

Uh, Benji's out there with me had Claire, uh, Claire console, uh, the kind, the fold up, kind two drum kits. They micd them up and they start playing. Now, it's not really that important when you have that many drum two great drummers up there, Jamie o Decker from. Tulsa and uh, at that time. And then Phil's over there as the guest drummer and they start playing.

And we realize quickly on headsets actually, that the drum kits are backwards. Well, that doesn't, you got professional drummers doesn't do too much. 'cause like you would know Sean or both of you, you're gonna mix the money, right? So you get, make sure the vocals are there, guitars there, the solos are there and everybody's smiling and having a good time.

And, uh, so that's kind of a funny story to me. But,

[00:54:18] Sean Walker: That's.

[00:54:19] Mike Ponczek: awesome. And also, voltage was a problem there, uh, going up and down. 'cause it was in the classic, I think they've torn it down. Philadelphia Stadium, whatever it was called,

[00:54:33] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: didn't, wasn't there some issues with Robert Plant's, monitors and Oh yeah.

Was that my dad's fault? No, because he was

[00:54:41] Mike Ponczek: okay. There was nobody.

[00:54:42] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Okay. It's just, well, because I thought somebody had said at one time, when you hear, I think Robert maybe complains Oh, yeah, yeah. Or says something. Yeah,

[00:54:52] Mike Ponczek: he would be,

[00:54:53] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: and

[00:54:54] Mike Ponczek: yeah, I would be,

[00:54:54] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: it's, somebody said it sounded like Donnie. Yeah. And, or Don.

And I

[00:55:00] Mike Ponczek: could've

[00:55:00] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: been, but I don't.

[00:55:03] Mike Ponczek: Um, that's, you know, a lot of the equipment, you know, it's talking about equipment here for a bit, uh, that I used then and in into the nineties was analog. We were, I know Midas was working on, I think they called it flying Faders at the time, over when I was rehearsing in Shepparton over in London a lot.

So they'd say, we're not gonna touch anything except these first six channels, I'd say. Okay. So they'd pull 'em out, put 'em back in the next day, I'd come in and they really were good guys. They, it was all, all well done. But two of the key effects units were a MS units, a reverb, and a delay.

[00:55:40] Sean Walker: So those never worked, but when they did, they sounded amazing. Yeah. Yeah, totally.

[00:55:43] Mike Ponczek: Right? Yeah. That's it. You got it. You know,

[00:55:47] Sean Walker: A hundred percent. Ours has been at the shop more than it's been on Freak on a show,

[00:55:51] Mike Ponczek: for nine, $10,000, you know, what are you saying Birmingham? It's like, anyway, so I had four, two of each so that when, you know, one didn't work, of course if you had four, they'd usually stay working pretty good, but Yep. Yep. There you go. Those were

[00:56:07] Sean Walker: but nothing makes that sound like nothing does non lin like that does. Right. So like you, you had to find one that worked to get the thing you needed.

[00:56:14] Mike Ponczek: Yep. In the air tonight. There you go.

[00:56:17] Sean Walker: Totally.

[00:56:18] Mike Ponczek: So I wanted to bring up the, the gear factor and, and I tried as a mixer for those and, and, uh, with a little bit of my background playing, uh, multi keyboards and things and just the stage and thinking ahead that I try to put myself with just. I know you hear it all the time now of just using your high pass or your low cut filter and your gain stage.

And if you can do that, um, I mean, I, I tell you the truth, Beaufort taught me that too when it comes to lifestyle and then putting you in the position no matter what the room. 'cause it could suck of being in the audience 'cause they probably paid to get in. Now, if you don't like the gig, don't be there.

You know, find another occupation. But you gotta try, you know, you really just have to try. And if you do that with those two tools, um, to start with, even if you don't know the band, you're gonna be there, work the room, know those two functions and there you go.

[00:57:23] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: You know what, I think we, we should bring up

[00:57:26] Mike Ponczek: what

[00:57:26] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: before, um, we're done these, uh, show co pyramid speakers that.

[00:57:33] Mike Ponczek: Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[00:57:35] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: We have to go back to the, I gotta test story of how they, um, came about.

[00:57:40] Mike Ponczek: Do you mean the, the

[00:57:41] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: the build of them? Yes.

[00:57:43] Mike Ponczek: The little guys. Yeah. The home theater ones.

[00:57:45] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yes.

[00:57:46] Mike Ponczek: Yeah.

[00:57:47] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Because there were only so many built,

[00:57:49] Mike Ponczek: right.

[00:57:49] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: So we're talk, there are home theater speakers.

[00:57:54] Mike Ponczek: They're,

[00:57:55] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: they're

[00:57:55] Mike Ponczek: towers.

[00:57:56] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: They're towers, uh, Shoko, pyramid Tower speakers. Is that what those, is that the proper name? Yeah,

[00:58:03] Mike Ponczek: that, yeah. Because

[00:58:04] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: it's the,

[00:58:06] Mike Ponczek: there's two pyramids in it. One is at the bottom that your 10 or eight inch speaker faces into, and the other one is in the top. And there's some other elements in the top of them.

Yep. Go ahead.

[00:58:17] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: And so these were always in, uh, in

[00:58:19] Mike Ponczek: walnut,

[00:58:20] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: in Yes. And it's walnut around them. Um, they were in growing up, that's what we listened to at home. And, but there were only so many of them made. For the crew. It, they weren't being sold or anything. And so some of the crew got dibs on getting some, and my dad was one of them.

Funk was not. When I, I ended up with these speakers, uh, in 2010. I blew them out and uh, and I gave them to funk.

[00:58:58] Mike Ponczek: They're blown out.

[00:58:59] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I when I gave them to you? Oh

[00:59:00] Mike Ponczek: yeah, they were

[00:59:01] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: one of them, yeah.

[00:59:02] Mike Ponczek: Okay.

[00:59:02] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Um, yeah. And so he took 'em then that was 2011. 'cause I know he never had a pair and

[00:59:11] Mike Ponczek: I put $50 in, but Donnie got mine, so

[00:59:14] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah.

So he, you know, so now he gets 'em. Um, but now I'm trying to get 'em back 'cause now I have a plan. Yeah. I have a setup. So. Um, but they're beautiful speakers. I'm sure you could find some online. I might have 'em on the website. Um, but I wanted to ask where you are on that.

[00:59:36] Mike Ponczek: We're in the, uh, we're near done.

[00:59:40] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Okay.

[00:59:41] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. Yeah. Now that we went on the record, but yeah, they're for once we do a little patch job. I

[00:59:49] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: But you had them housed in your office? Yeah. Crossroads for some time. Yeah. At another office. Yeah.

[00:59:57] Mike Ponczek: Yeah. Okay. Moving on.

[00:59:59] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Moving on.

[01:00:00] Andy Leviss: I mean, I'm, I'm looking up pictures of these things while we're talking about it. There are some really cool, funky looking.

[01:00:05] Mike Ponczek: yeah,

[01:00:06] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: the tower, uh, walnut ones,

[01:00:09] Mike Ponczek: well there could be called P pyramid, uh, PA speakers too. There was also that

[01:00:17] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: I, going back to, uh, speakers and pyramids and my father, um, on the website, on the page about my dad. There's a couple of letters and, uh, photographs regarding the pyramid. Blue Pyramid Number one speaker. Is that the proper name?

[01:00:42] Mike Ponczek: Yeah.

[01:00:43] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Okay. When

[01:00:45] Mike Ponczek: No, prism.

[01:00:46] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Prism, sorry. Prism number one speaker

[01:00:51] Mike Ponczek: and Blue meant it was full range

[01:00:54] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: when my dad passed away. I'm not sure who created this plaque, but they created a plaque in memory of my dad with, you know, the silver plaque with his name and then the a blue number one.

And they were placed on these certain speakers and anytime that they were out on tour, for instance, this one was the Rolling Stones and Benji Laev was the front of house. He would insist that they were placed center, uh,

[01:01:31] Mike Ponczek: in a, in the array storage

[01:01:32] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: rage. Yeah.

[01:01:33] Mike Ponczek: Or the array or wherever it was. Yeah. He

[01:01:35] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: decided.

Yes. And, um, and there's a picture and a letter explaining all of this from Greg Smith at Claire Global at the time when he sent this to me and I was tracking down, I was trying to track down these, the, this plaque, the speaker or whatever for, it took me a year or so to track it down, but I finally did get my hands on it and I have it now.

Um, but there was also the loading of it unloading. Blake Berry was talking about it, uh, before that. Not just anybody could unload it or load it, handle it, handle it. It, it was a special, I, I don't know how they called it, but only

[01:02:25] Andy Leviss: Was that a logistics thing or a We wanna keep prying eyes away thing.

[01:02:30] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: It was just an an, an honor Yeah, an honorary thing. Uh,

[01:02:35] Mike Ponczek: it was a, a brotherhood thing.

[01:02:38] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: A brother. There you

[01:02:38] Mike Ponczek: go. A brotherhood, sisterhood thing. 'cause there were some sisters too, but,

[01:02:42] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: yes, yes. Um, so yeah, no

[01:02:46] Mike Ponczek: silly things like that. Even if you did get fired from a choko, it doesn't matter.

[01:02:54] Sean Walker: Hey. I said I was sorry. It was one time. All right. I won't do it again.

[01:02:59] Mike Ponczek: I will promise to get those expense reports in from last year.

[01:03:03] Sean Walker: Right, totally. And I promise I'll strike the booze off it. It'll just be the food. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

[01:03:09] Mike Ponczek: Right, right.

[01:03:13] Sean Walker: Oh, that's funny. Well. It's been about an hour or so and this is a great time to wrap up. Unless you've got anything left, left that you need to chat about. 'cause more than an hour people are gonna start going cross-eyed.

[01:03:25] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah. No, I mean, we're good. If, if there's anything else you wanna know or ask.

[01:03:30] Sean Walker: We, we could do a round two another time if you want. We, we got time. It's just by the time we're over an hour, people are like, dude enough, this is great, but I got, you know,

[01:03:40] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: we could, we'll just have to do another one.

[01:03:41] Sean Walker: let's do it. I'm into it. Into it.

[01:03:45] Mike Ponczek: focus on the tech side or the, the, uh, we'll come up with three or four topics.

[01:03:50] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: Yeah,

[01:03:51] Indigo and Mike Ponczek: yeah.

[01:03:51] Mike Ponczek: You can stop recording And

[01:03:52] Sean Walker: that sounds awesome.

[01:03:53] Mike Ponczek: two 'cause we're not, she's better at it than me, but I watch sport podcasts a lot, so I just, no, I don't actually a lot.

But

[01:04:04] Indigo Kretzschmar-May: no, this is my first podcast, so,

[01:04:06] Sean Walker: well,

thank you for doing it. We appreciate you guys being here, and thanks to Allen and Heath and RCF for letting us yap about audio and talking about cool rock bands for the week. That's the pod y'all. See you next week.

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green