Episode 50 - Sterling Elza

[00:00:21] Speaker A: Hey, we're back here with Tailgate Beers podcast here. Day three, Tailgate and tall boys, Bloomington, Illinois. We are here with our old friend. We sat down with him. It's been a month or two ago and. Yeah. Yeah. Sterling Nelza. Sterling, thanks for joining us. [00:00:35] Speaker B: What up, y'? All? Thank y' all for having me playing. [00:00:38] Speaker A: The stage tonight in Bloomington, Illinois. Back in Illinois. I know you got several trips in Illinois here coming up. [00:00:43] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, we. We're beating up Illinois this summer and they've treated us good so far, so. I can't wait for tonight. [00:00:50] Speaker C: The headline of the side stage. [00:00:51] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:00:52] Speaker C: Going right before Kit Moore. That's it. [00:00:54] Speaker B: Feels good. Yeah. [00:00:56] Speaker C: Have you. Have you played with Kit more before? [00:00:58] Speaker B: And I know we had a little discrepancy with the lineup and had to figure that out, but. No, we're pumped. We're so excited. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Oh, it's been a hell of a weekend between Clinton, Illinois or Clinton, Iowa, and now we're in Bloomington two weekends in a row. It's been my. My liver and my body is almost about to shut down. [00:01:17] Speaker B: I can't even imagine how you guys. [00:01:19] Speaker C: Feel right now, especially because the first, like three days here, even like in my voice, it's a dust bowl. So you guys are lucky that it's all still kind of wet. [00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:28] Speaker C: Give it just till this afternoon. It starts becoming dusty. Dusty and holy crap. But yeah, that rain felt good for a second and then it was this monsoon last night. So luckily you're gonna have badass weather in that side stage. [00:01:41] Speaker B: Yeah. I've been checking the radar all day and it looks like we're in the clear for now, so. [00:01:45] Speaker C: So it's the Surfside stage. The. You're headlining. And that thing is. It was jam packed last night for Lake View. The first night was. I don't remember. [00:01:58] Speaker A: It was the first night. I. My days are all mixed together. I didn't even know. Now, come on, guys. [00:02:02] Speaker B: Come on. [00:02:03] Speaker C: I dropped the ball here. But either way, on Thursday, so that was co Wetzel day at like 4 o'. Clock. This place had 8,000 people in here already. Yeah, I'm like, what do you guys do for work? How is everybody? How's everybody here already? But yeah, no, the side stage has been a happening place because there's. I mean, a 3 o' clock slot on a Thursday is not a. Not an easy gig. [00:02:27] Speaker B: No, that's rough to play. Not rough as in I wouldn't do it. That's just, you know, people are getting. [00:02:34] Speaker C: Off work, trying to get here. It's a long day because headliner doesn't go on till late. And even as the days go on, I mean the campsite people start dragging a little bit more, a little hungover. [00:02:45] Speaker A: But I've, we've been out a little bit today and, and people are lively. I mean we had a lot of rain here last night. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Everybody got a chance to rest up. [00:02:53] Speaker A: So they, they, I mean they still partied all the way through that rain though. And, and you can see out here in front of us here in the set. I mean it's, it's a little bit of mud, A little bit of mud out there, but people are still, still lively. [00:03:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:05] Speaker A: So you doing a lot of festivals this year, are you man? [00:03:08] Speaker B: A few. A few. And this is kind of our first summer of kind of doing a festival run. So we're pumped. We're having a badass time. We're kind of as a band. I know a bunch of my guys have played a ton of festivals and stuff before, but kind of our first time as a crew, you know, running, running the summer festivals. So. [00:03:28] Speaker A: So you got to go out and just cruise around. I know Austin offered it to your team earlier, a side by side ride out through the campground. Just kind of see what's happening out there. [00:03:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:03:38] Speaker A: One of those things for me, I mean I'm, I'm. We talked about this before on podcast, but I'm from that fan perspective and I, I remember, you know, a few of the, the artists of my first couple of years coming to tailgate and tallboys coming out and playing beer darts with us that we just hung out, piles of cans we just hung out with last week again. And I mean that's, that's. Those are memories that they will never Forget. [00:03:58] Speaker C: It was 2022 year. It was Lakeview and Dylan Schneider. We went out and. Yeah. And hit the, hit the campsites playing beer dye and, and beer darts and what a blast. [00:04:10] Speaker B: So yeah, it seems like a great atmosphere. I mean so far, like it just feels comfy, you know, everybody's nice. We're having a great time. [00:04:19] Speaker A: This is that Midwest. Everybody's friendly. Everybody is like welcoming. I've walked around with a microphone and be like, you know, everybody's hey, come have a beer. You know. Yeah, play beer pong or whatever else. [00:04:30] Speaker C: It was Vincent Mason. [00:04:32] Speaker A: There you go. [00:04:33] Speaker C: Vincent headlined on Thursday. He crushed it too. He got on the pod. He was having a fun time. Yeah. Because then it's Sterling tonight and then Taylor Holder on Sunday headline on the side Stage. [00:04:46] Speaker B: Nice. Good. [00:04:46] Speaker C: Good lineups today. And so what else is new in the life of Sterling? [00:04:50] Speaker B: Man? We just put out a bunch of new music, I guess. Not a bunch. Four or five new ones, I guess. Last night. Night before Friday. No, Thursday. [00:05:01] Speaker A: Thursday night. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Thursday night at midnight. So, yeah, sure. Yes. [00:05:04] Speaker C: You got new songs as of, like, today? [00:05:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we did that on purpose. I wanted. I wanted to drop it, and then I wanted to come party with you. [00:05:11] Speaker C: Yeah, perfect. [00:05:13] Speaker B: I texted my manager and I was like. I didn't even notice. The deluxe comes out right before tailgate. And he was like, no. [00:05:23] Speaker A: We got this. We got this. That's what he said. [00:05:25] Speaker B: Exactly. No. So, man, I'm excited. Just kind of play those for the rest of the summer. I spent the week in Nashville just working on a bunch of new music, so. Already back at it. Getting ready for whatever's next, which I don't know what that will be. I already want to put all the new stuff out, so. No, we'll see. I know we got some headline stuff this summer, opening stuff. Just kind of hang out, have a good time. [00:05:54] Speaker A: Surfside's got real vodka, real iced tea, and real lemonade. You know what's not real? That excuse you gave to skip the tailgate, grab a Surfside and redeem yourself, champ. Now back to your regular programming. Yeah, so I mentioned it just before we jumped on, but you're. You're back in Illinois. I forget the date exactly, and I apologize for that. But sometime in August. Early August. [00:06:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I think first weekend. [00:06:16] Speaker A: Yeah. With Aaron Lewis, which I'm a huge fan of. I've seen him, and I'm looking forward to that because Streeter, Illinois, is only maybe, what, 45 minutes. [00:06:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:27] Speaker A: Playing in Streeter. [00:06:29] Speaker B: Oh, nice. It's close to here. Oh, yeah, you're. I ought to just get a house. [00:06:32] Speaker C: Up here at this point. You might as well. [00:06:35] Speaker A: You got a whole friend group right here. We can, you know, figure it out. [00:06:38] Speaker C: But have you ever met Aaron Lewis before? [00:06:40] Speaker B: I haven't, no. No, I have not. And I'm a little scared. [00:06:45] Speaker C: Lakeview said it was. It was interesting. [00:06:47] Speaker B: It's gotta be intimidating. [00:06:49] Speaker C: Just like. Hello, Mr. Lewis. Hello. Thank you for allowing us to play. [00:06:53] Speaker B: He's got the coolest bus in the world. [00:06:55] Speaker A: Yes, he does. [00:06:56] Speaker C: Oh, he brings a toy hauler. He's got the motorcycles. He's got everything. [00:07:00] Speaker B: I would, too, if I had the money, you know? I mean, I would love to have, like, today, if I had my own side by side, this place would be right. Right. [00:07:10] Speaker A: You'll Be out here. Out here in this mud right here. [00:07:12] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:07:13] Speaker C: I can't believe somebody doesn't end up in that mud. It will happen. [00:07:17] Speaker B: Whenever we pulled up this morning, they were still pulling cars out of the parking lot out front, so. [00:07:23] Speaker A: So what else is on the, on the horizon here and the rest of 2025 for you? [00:07:28] Speaker B: Man, I don't quite know. I know kind of the summer is a little more relaxed for us, and then we're kind of going to just bust it through the end of the year. I probably could have chose better words there, but, yeah, I think just work on a whole bunch of new music. I got a bunch of rides with a bunch of guys that I've looked up to for a long time and that, you know, I've written some of my favorite songs. So. No, I'm really excited. It's going to be cool. Start, start working on chapter two now. Yep. [00:08:03] Speaker C: I, I, ever since we interviewed you and you came and played, I, I listened a lot of my music through Pandora. [00:08:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:08:10] Speaker C: I, it. I think it's a great way to find new artists and keep that adversity. I don't think Spotify and some of them. I don't like Apple's random generated playlist. I think it pushes very popular music. [00:08:22] Speaker B: I will say Spotify's new DJ or whatever, the AI dj, I love it. I mean, whenever I'm driving, I just throw that thing on. Sometimes it'll get into like a section I don't like. Skip those. Keep going. Yeah, it's great. [00:08:35] Speaker C: I just still like that. I can. Thumbs up, thumbs down. I can say I want to listen to Aaron Lewis radio, but I can add Luke Combs, Merle Haggard, and, you know, whatever artists I want. [00:08:48] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:49] Speaker C: But what I was saying is this Treaty Oak. I do Treaty Oak Station, and you've been coming up like crazy on it, and we are pregaming some of the music here today and stuff, so I'm pumped to see Ripped out side stage, man. [00:09:00] Speaker B: Yeah, dude, it's great. And we've got an hour ton, so we're gonna use it. Yeah, we're gonna use it. I'm gonna earn my, my hangover for tomorrow, so. [00:09:09] Speaker C: And you said you got, you got bus. Are you gonna be able to stay for the whole set? [00:09:12] Speaker B: You guys, I'm gonna figure it out. We're supposed to leave at 10:30 and I don't know. [00:09:16] Speaker C: Set that bus time. [00:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know, but I don't like it. [00:09:20] Speaker C: I'd run it out. [00:09:21] Speaker B: I'm Staying. And I'm gonna hang out with you all tonight and we're gonna have a badass time. I will be wandering around this place until further notice. [00:09:29] Speaker C: Somebody get some tracker on him. [00:09:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I need a little air tag. Ye pocket. [00:09:35] Speaker C: There's a kid running around the campsite looking for his parents. And it's funny, he's got one of those, like, baseball necklaces. Yeah, but it has an air tag. [00:09:42] Speaker B: That's great. I need one of those. And I don't know where my drummer went. He wandered off. Exactly. He needs a air tag, too. [00:09:49] Speaker A: Austin put one on me, probably. Jason. [00:09:51] Speaker C: No, Jason Brown needed an air tag in Iowa. One of our buddies. [00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah, but so you mentioned, you know, you're. You're set tonight and new music coming out. Do you build some of those new songs into your set and start to get those introduced out there too? [00:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah, we're playing a few of the new ones, but honestly, man, not all of them. Just because as a band, we haven't had even a day to sit down and get together. Everything's been moving pretty quick. We picked a date quick for. For the. For the deluxe to drop. And so now whenever we. We've got this week, that's actually what we're doing this whole week, is we're going to start mixing in some of the new ones and some of the new ones that aren't out now. So we're gonna throw a couple of those in and just kind of see what people like, you know, just get crowd reaction and see what the next move is. [00:10:44] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:10:44] Speaker C: So this thing has. This deluxe thing, has 26 total, but 20 songs on it. [00:10:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep. Wow. Yeah, it's big. Whenever I saw the number for the first time, I was like, damn, 20 songs. And actually one of my buddies texted me and was like, holy shit, 20 songs. That's big. And I was like, well, I didn't even notice that. Yeah, that is big. [00:11:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:05] Speaker B: But no, I'm proud of it. It's interesting because, like, some of those songs, like, you know, Throwaway, for example, one of the very first songs I ever wrote, and, you know, 16 to 21, that's kind of closing the book on that chapter. I wrote all those songs, so we'll see what happens now. You know, it's weird. I feel like people love that and I feel like I gotta back it up. But, you know, the stuff we've been making lately, I like a lot, and I think everybody else will too. I'm pumped, excited. It's gonna be a big summer. Do you A big night. [00:11:39] Speaker C: You guys come out. [00:11:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:41] Speaker C: Will you put this out in a vinyl ever? Do you like vinyl? [00:11:43] Speaker B: Actually it's on sale now. It's on sale now at my website, sterlingelsa.com. you can get vinyls, you can get hats that we don't have on the road. You can get shirts that we don't have on the road. And thank you all for the shameless plug right there. [00:11:56] Speaker A: That's what it's all about. [00:11:58] Speaker C: And see, I think sick. I mean that's what I love about our festival merch that you can also get online. But the. It's just this, the designs of it and then seeing your brand out there, you know, that's got to be pretty cool. People love wearing the Sterling Elza brand. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And I've got plans and I don't know when it's going to happen but we've been talking about it for a couple months now. But I want to drop like my own clip clothing brand separate from our merch and stuff. And like I like to carry it at the shows and stuff but so we'll see. [00:12:26] Speaker C: What's the brand called? [00:12:28] Speaker B: Midnight Friends. Just named it after one of the songs. I was looking for a name and then I wrote that song. It just felt good. So cool name. Yeah, that, that'll be the name for that. And we're subtly, very slowly working on it. [00:12:42] Speaker C: So just an MF line. [00:12:44] Speaker B: That's exactly, exactly. [00:12:48] Speaker A: So when I think of Midnight Friends, just the term, and you probably have your own interpretation to it too is something like this. I mean we've been out here till 4 or 5 o' clock in the morning at these festivals just hanging out by a campfire. Bullshit. And kind of the same concept as tailgate beers overall, you know, just that Midnight Friendship just. [00:13:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:05] Speaker A: People to sit around and kind of BS with. [00:13:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And whenever we wrote it, I couldn't really decide what I wanted it to be about. So we left it a little open ended. You know, kind of take it however you want. Yeah. You got a group of Midnight Friends or whatever it may be. Yeah. You know, drugs, whatever. [00:13:24] Speaker A: Gotcha. Got you got, you gotcha. [00:13:27] Speaker B: Whatever your vice of choice is. [00:13:29] Speaker C: What's a funny, what's a funny late night Midnight Friend story that you have? [00:13:34] Speaker B: Oh man. [00:13:36] Speaker C: It's a memorable story that the night got maybe a little out of hand or it's just a funny moment. [00:13:42] Speaker B: I am trying to think, let's come back to it. I'm gonna thank Wes. You think too. [00:13:48] Speaker A: And Wes, I was not bossing you around earlier. [00:13:51] Speaker B: I was trying to boss him around. [00:13:53] Speaker A: I was trying to boss him around to get pictures of like B roll. [00:13:57] Speaker C: But Jason, not you. Our midnight friends are slowly just. They're. They're drifting off. They've had two weeks, two weeks of grown ass men hangovers. And they're. They're over it. [00:14:09] Speaker A: They got man colds. [00:14:10] Speaker C: Yeah. First. The first weekend I could kind of snap my fingers and be like, hey, let's get this done. Now they just look at me and they're like, dude, just. And I'm done. [00:14:17] Speaker A: Somebody else. [00:14:18] Speaker C: I'm over it. I'm over it. [00:14:20] Speaker B: That's funny. [00:14:20] Speaker C: I don't know. I mean, midnight friends are to me like. And even that's again, like he said, the tailgate beer saga. I mean, me and this buddy, I remember back in the day, actually, he's here from Texas. It started off as a simple, let's go to get dinner. He's in town. Which turns into us picking up a couple 30 racks. And back in the day, where I grew up, we would drive on all these back roads and hit all these places. So we start back roading. Yeah, this is like flip phone, flip phone, BlackBerry days. Okay. Because I'm in my 20s and we're back roading it, doing all this stuff. And then we had to put it in four wheel drive. one point, as we're headed back, he was like, hey man, my car's at the end of your drive. Like, don't hit my car. I'm not gonna hit your car, dude. Okay, but I forgot still in four wheel drive. And if you've ever made a turn on pavement. [00:15:08] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:15:08] Speaker C: So I'm just like. [00:15:11] Speaker B: Boom. [00:15:12] Speaker C: Smoke. His car just wrecked the back of his car. And I drove a truck, so it didn't do a lot to mine, but it did like $7,000 of damage to his car. We just rolled in, went to bed, next morning he's up and he's like, oh, yeah, hey, by the way, at the time, you know, he's like, you know, your husband smoked my car last night. And I come back to just a full blown shit show. But that was one where do. We were out. We talked about everything in life. We had a great time. And that was, I don't know, those. Some of the best nights I've ever had or those types of stories. [00:15:46] Speaker A: Yeah, dude. [00:15:46] Speaker B: And like, I mean, I think the reason I can't think of one is just because there's so many. I mean, it's every day, like I basically live with nine of My best friends, and it's the coolest thing in the world. And so it's just. They don't stop, you know, it's just one big story, basically, and it all runs together. I need to sit down one day and write a book just for me, so I can remember, you know? [00:16:11] Speaker C: Do you guys ever do, like, behind the scenes stuff? I mean, I saw, like, which Charlie will be here tomorrow, but like, Charlie on a Friday. His. He just did that documentary or like behind the scenes of his whole tour and stuff. I always think those things are fascinating. Maybe it's not worth the. The effort that's put into. [00:16:29] Speaker B: I love that stuff and we need to get better about it. We honestly just forget. And I know Wesley also doesn't want to be the guy just with a camera in everybody's face the whole time, and I get that. [00:16:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:39] Speaker C: But you got to find an intern. [00:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:42] Speaker C: You guys just need to find a couple, you know, hey, you want to do this? Couple of weeks that and then I don't. Just for your own. Someday it'd be cool to look back on, like, part of your career to, like, moments like this to. [00:16:53] Speaker B: Yeah, we document a lot of stuff. If we ever put out a documentary one day, if we ever get that chance, we'll. We'll have a lot of cool footage to throw in there. But the Snapchat memories is probably really where we need to dig for documentary footage. Memories. Yeah. [00:17:12] Speaker C: No. Dude, we're so pumped to have you. I'm gonna. I'm gonna go check out Joe. Joe Stams on the stage right now, and we're going to be out there for you. I think we're going to do west coast interview right before you go on, and then we'll be side stage hanging out with you. [00:17:25] Speaker B: Nice. I love it. [00:17:26] Speaker C: I'm excited, man. So cheers to you, man. Here's to you and your career and the second time on the podcast. [00:17:31] Speaker B: Dude, let's do it.