Better To... Podcast with D. M. Needom

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This week Lars Triesch, stops by the show to discuss his collaboration with his latest project, Jack Grisham and the Life Undone with Lars Triesch. We also discuss how things fell into place, his design projects, his store, and future projects.
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Jack Grisham and the Life Undone is a new project by Jack Grisham and Lars Triesch.

Grisham is known as the frontman of TSOL and later The Joykiller. He has been active for over four decades—in literature, film work, and most importantly independent music—with more than 70 million streams and over 2,000 live shows under his belt. Grisham remains a constant figure in and beyond the American punk scene.

Triesch comes out of the German ’90s punk and hardcore scene, later moving into indie with his band Profession Reporter.

So how did these two end up making one of the coolest alternative rock records in recent years?

For the last 15 years, Lars has been running a store for vintage furniture and design in Berlin. He’s also involved in the occasional arts project. Last year he was in Las Vegas doing research for an Edward Colver photo book. Lars is friends with Edward, who is friends with Jack, who were together at the Punk Rock Museum.

If this sounds like one of those right-place-at-the-right-time things, it is.

Lars and Grisham started chatting it up, and somehow a “we should make a record” statement got tossed out. Now, there is some disagreement about who said it, but Jack swears it wasn’t him, because he’d recently “walked” away again from what Hunter S. Thompson called “...a business that is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.”

Ah, if only the addict knew how to stay away from things that hurt him—did I mention Grisham has been clean and sober for over 36 years? Apparently he forgot about the pain and suffering, and it was on…again.

But as you know, talk is cheap, and there are about 6,000 miles from Grisham’s home in Huntington Beach, California, to Triesch’s home in Kleinmachnow, outside of Berlin.

Enter Zoom and the internet.

Fuck the 9-hour time difference. Grisham and Triesch wrote online every day for the next few months. Although, the first few weeks were mainly spent on translation problems. The Germans don’t have a B note in the scale—it’s called an H—and they also don’t understand why Americans would call a bald man “curly”—“But he has no hair at all.”

Translation issues aside, the songs were written, and Grisham flew off to Germany to record at the Triesch residence.

Now before you start thinking that the record was tossed together in Lars’s bedroom, let me tell you about the house—a beautiful modern home designed by architect Ray Kappe (another strange California connection), with a basement recording studio space filled roof to ceiling with equipment supplied by Neumann.

Grisham and Lars were joined by Trevor Lucca—a guitarist known for his onstage work with Dick Dale and T.S.O.L.—and the whole project was guided by the production team of Kurt Ebelhäuser and Michel Wern.

Thirteen tracks were laid down in ten days—the bulk of the album—and additional vocal and keyboard recordings were done in Los Angeles at Kitten Robot Studios, engineered by Paul Roessler.

Now here is where I could blow smoke up your ass—telling you how great it sounds and where its influence lies—but why bother? You wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t going to listen. And who the hell am I to tell you what you think influenced it? That’s your call.

I will say this, though: you strike me as a smart cookie, and smart cookies know good music when they hear it. Enjoy.
The Album is available on 10/30.
Order it here: https://lostinberlinrecords.com/
This interview was taped 5/6/2026 and the album was due out sooner, before it was picked up by Lost In Berlin Records.
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If you would like to contact the show Dauna@betertopodcast.com
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This week on the podcast, Alex Alexander stops by the show to discuss his musical journey that has taken him from Chicago to Nashville, his album, and more.
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Alex is a versatile musician with a passion for creating music and performing. Playing five instruments including Drums, Guitar, Vocals, Bass, and Trumpet, Alex has a background in music notation and complex musical understanding of many genres which allows him to thrive in multiple music styles and gaining a wide rage audience in many markets. Alex delivers each song in the studio as he does on stage with pure heart and passion.
Alex started his musical career at an early age growing up in the suburbs of Chicago. He dreamed of being a drummer just like Ringo Starr from The Beatles. Alex joined his fifth grade elementary school band with intentions of playing the drums and percussion but the day before the students were to choose their instrument, his father called him upstairs to his office and brought down a case from his closet which held a trumpet that had been passed down from his step father. He explained to Alex that he played the trumpet as well as his stepfather before him and that it was important to the family. The next day at school Alex ended up choosing the trumpet which would change his musical life forever. Now he could read music notation and have the understanding of each instrument and why each instrument played the parts they played. That Christmas his parents bought him a drum set which sparked his love for playing multiple instruments. 
Alex played in many bands growing up and recorded an album with his band “Fairground” called “Can’t Be Found” that was released November11th, 2021. Since then Alex turned his sights on the big stage and going straight to the top. Alex moved to Nashville in May 2024 where he started recording his debut solo album and expanding his love for the music business and building amazing relationships with his followers, creating long lasting memories with each song he plays. 
Find Him Here:
Soundcloud-  
https://on.soundcloud.com/Z7Hel167oUar59EXY8
Youtube- 
https://www.youtube.com/@AlexAlexanderOfficialMusic/videos  
Instagram- 
https://www.instagram.com/alexalexandermusic/ 
TikTok-
https://www.tiktok.com/@alexalexanderoffi  
****
If you would like to contact the show Dauna@betertopodcast.com
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John Andrew Fredrick of The Black Watch and I discuss the band’s 27th release. ‘The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop’, creativity, Marilyn Monroe, and much more.
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The praise heaped of late upon John Andrew Fredrick's long-standing and astonishingly productive Los Angeles indie band--from the likes of Mojo, Shindig!, The Big Takeover and even Prog Magzine--has been nothing less than, well, remarkable.  Having made seven albums for ATOM Records (whom they signed to in 2018) plus one for legendary but now defunct A Turntable Friend and one for The Bevis Frond's imprint in 2026, the black watch have enjoyed a dizzying run, characterized by Mojo as having "indelible melodies unspooling across well-crafted songs with a mostly big-overcoat Bunnymen/Orange Juice aesthetic"; and by venerable Shindig! as "pop confections with psychedelic overtones, Beatlesque nudges and literary lyrics (Fredrick's a novelist as well) plus an host of great melodies."
 
"One of the most consistent and prolific writers in rock," crows Jack Rabid, Editor-in-Chief of The Big Takeover.  "Twenty-six albums and every one worth getting."  Though Fredrick himself mock-resents the aforesaid "p" word.  "It seems to me that pointing that out is terribly facile if not banal," he says from his studio in the all-too-hip Angeleno Heights district; "but songs do seem to pour out of me and I'm, in a not-superstitious way, not sure I'd ever like to find out why.  The same thing goes for studio wizardry--where we've spent so much time; I don't think I've touched the mixing board more than three times in thirty-eight years:  we work with such skilled producers and engineers, you know.  There are so many ridiculously talented ones in our corral, as it were."
 
One such producer/engineer is Rob Campanella, ex-of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who has produced four or so of the most recent TBW LPs and who plays bass live.  Another is master producer Scott Campbell (Stevie Nicks, Shelby Lynne, Acetone) who's been with the band, on and off, since 1991 and who produced Led Zeppelin Five, the band's whimsically titled, best-selling LP from 2011 (reissued 2020).  Yet another is Andy Creighton who joined up in 2017 on guitar and who played the lion's share of the instruments on The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop.  
 
"Andy had a record industry job doing statistics of some sort and he lost it suddenly and had the hardest time finding a new situation, so I thought it'd be advantageous to us both if we hired him to record the new songs.  He works so incredibly fast it's a marvel.  It was almost like we were under a mad sort of pressure to get the record done--and yet we weren't under any pressure at all.  It must have eventuated from overexcitement, the pace we kept; we just couldn't put a foot wrong, we didn't think," Fredrick chuckles; "though that remains, critically, that is, to be seen!"
 
Fredrick, who holds a Ph.D. in English literature and who taught Freshman Composition at such illustrious universities as USC, Loyola Marymount, and UCSB and who now teaches tennis for children part-time, has been quite vocal about quitting music--and not being capable of quitting.  He says that, as a convinced Freudian (not quite fashionable nowadays), he's fascinated by the idea of completion, of endings.  
 
"I do think substantial changes are nearing, as it were," he observes; "our time with Andy Creighton has run its course, but my son Chandler and I and Rob and Rob's drummer brother Andy Campanella are still pretty keen on seeing what we can do."
 
"I've declared that The Fuzzy End is really the end of TBW, but I've been wrong before," he laughs.  "And there are seven or so songs left over from these sessions, so..."  Speaking of laughing, the title of the new (and maybe final!) LP is taken from Billy Wilder's classic slapstick comedy Some Like it Hot, where the boys in drag meet up with Marilyn Monroe as "Sugar Kane"; she's drinking from a furtive silver flask, you'll recall, and when asked by Lemon and Curtis why she's glumly getting tipsy she declares that, as far as her love life's gone, she's gotten "the fuzzy end of the lollipop."  A metaphor for a band that's been a critic's darling without massive sales?  Hardly.  For Fredrick considers that his merry band "has had the sweet end for the duration," since he formed TBW in 1987 and rehearsed in after-hours campus classrooms at the university he taught at, UCSB. 
 
Have at The Lollipop, then--and prepare to get an aural cavity from its sometimes quite tart, often quite sweet flavors, and its (sorry!) licks.
Grab a copy of Fuzzy End of the Lollipop here: https://theblackwatch.bandcamp.com/
Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7F0pMIrR6GIb49HDXza8dn?si=iyaL9vZ3ThSpNxmmNeGyig&nd=1&dlsi=4de5ce0a9f504410
Follow on IG Here: https://www.instagram.com/theblackwatchmusic/
******
If you would like to contact the show Dauna@betertopodcast.com
Follow us on Social Media
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom
©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom

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This week Jack Grisham, vocalist for the punk rock band T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty) and Joykiller stops by the show. We talk about his latest project, Jack Grisham and the Life Undone with Lars Triesch. We also discuss his involvement over the last  four decades—in literature, film work, and most importantly independent music—with over 70 million streams and over 2,000 live shows under his belt. Grisham remains a constant figure in and beyond the American punk scene.
******
Grisham is known as the frontman of TSOL and later The Joykiller. He has been active for over four decades—in literature, film work, and most importantly independent music—with more than 70 million streams and over 2,000 live shows under his belt. Grisham remains a constant figure in and beyond the American punk scene. Triesch comes out of the German ’90s punk and hardcore scene, later moving into indie with his band Profession Reporter.So how did these two end up making one of the coolest alternative rock records in recent years?For the last 15 years, Lars has been running a store for vintage furniture and design in Berlin. He’s also involved in the occasional arts project. Last year he was in Las Vegas doing research for an Edward Colver photo book. Lars is friends with Edward, who is friends with Jack, who were together at the Punk Rock Museum.If this sounds like one of those right-place-at-the-right-time things, it is.Lars and Grisham started chatting it up, and somehow a “we should make a record” statement got tossed out. Now, there is some disagreement about who said it, but Jack swears it wasn’t him, because he’d recently “walked” away again from what Hunter S. Thompson called “...a business that is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.”Ah, if only the addict knew how to stay away from things that hurt him—did I mention Grisham has been clean and sober for over 36 years? Apparently he forgot about the pain and suffering, and it was on...again.But as you know, talk is cheap, and there are about 6,000 miles from Grisham’s home in Huntington Beach, California, to Triesch’s home in Kleinmachnow, outside of Berlin.Enter Zoom and the internet.
Screw the 9-hour time difference. Grisham and Triesch wrote online every day for the next few months. Although, the first few weeks were mainly spent on translation problems. The Germans don’t have a B note in the scale—it’s called an H—and they also don’t understand why Americans would call a bald man “curly”—“But he has no hair at all.”Translation issues aside, the songs were written, and Grisham flew off to Germany to record at the Triesch residence.Now before you start thinking that the record was tossed together in Lars’s bedroom, let me tell you about the house—a beautiful modern home designed by architect Ray Kappe (another strange California connection), with a basement recording studio space filled roof to ceiling with equipment supplied by Neumann.Grisham and Lars were joined by Trevor Lucca—a guitarist known for his onstage work with Dick Dale and T.S.O.L.—and the whole project was guided by the production team of Kurt Ebelhäuser and Michel Wern.Thirteen tracks were laid down in ten days—the bulk of the album—and additional vocal and keyboard recordings were done in Los Angeles at Kitten Robot Studios, engineered by Paul Roessler.
Novels: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jack-Grisham/author/B004P9TEDG?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1790530983&sr=8-1&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=8a9f548c-06f5-468e-b829-0e32b0beeb19

****
If you would like to contact the show Dauna@betertopodcast.com
Follow us on Social Media
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom
©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom
Support the show

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This week on the podcast, the fashion designer who is known as the “King of Pants,” Alvin Valley, stops by the show. We talk about where he picked up the moniker, how his first runway show came with a little help from Kathy Hilton, and so much more.
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Named the “King of Pants” by The New York Times, designer Alvin Valley's journey revolves around Miami and, of course, pants. Born in New York City, and educated at the University of Miami, where he studied architecture, Valley’s designer roots are firmly planted with Miami fashionistas. Back in 1995, Valley dressed Miami’s social scene with his eponymous label, which was sold at his Coconut Grove boutique nestled on Commodore Plaza. Best-known for crafting the best-fitting pants for women, New York socialites beckoned him to the Big Apple to open a SoHo atelier. “In 2000, I packed my bags and left for New York to pursue a wider audience,” Valley says of his move. And a great decision. Valley showed regularly during New York Fashion Week with a presence in over 250 stores worldwide. His doors included well-established retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Intermix, and Fred Segal.
Hollywood embraced him, too. “I’ve always interacted directly with consumers,” Valley says of his business technique. He forged close relationships with his clients, including Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Reese Witherspoon, Zoë Saldana, Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, Cindy Crawford, Madonna, Cher, Cameron Diaz, Celine Dion, Jennifer Garner, and more.
In 2007, the Moret Group acquired the Alvin Valley brand, expanding its distribution to Nordstroms, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and even QVC. 
“I’m going back to the basics and bringing back my amazing pants. I’ll be making visits around the U.S. to reconnect with my customers and I can’t wait to visit Miami — because my career started there,” Valley says. “I feel like my life is coming full circle.”
Check out his designs here: https://alvinvalley.com/
Follow him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alvinvalley/
*****
If you would like to contact the show Dauna@betertopodcast.com
Follow us on Social Media
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber
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Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom

©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom
Support the show