The Days Grimm Podcast
The Days Grimm, "arguably Indiana's most comical, thrilling, and controversial podcast", This three-pronged mandate acts as a primary filter for their guest selection. The "comical" aspect is reflected in its official genre of "COMEDY INTERVIEWS" and its history of hosting local stand-up comedians. The "thrilling" component is evident in interviews with individuals who have extraordinary life stories, such as people who survived shootings, rare medical conditions, and combat. Finally, the "controversial" element is demonstrated by Brian & Thomas’ willingness to engage in difficult or unfiltered conversations, touching on topics like homelessness, artificial intelligence, and religious hypotheticals.
A crucial element of the show's tone is its tagline, "Brought to you by Sadness & ADHD (non-medicated)". This self-aware and raw positioning signals a modern comedic sensibility that embraces vulnerability and finds humor in personal struggle. The podcast's brand is not built on polished narratives but on the authentic, often messy, intersection of hardship and humor. The most compelling guests are those who have navigated a "Grimm" reality and emerged with a story to tell, and ideally, a sense of humor about it. This dynamic is the core of the show's appeal and the primary filter for identifying a story worth telling.
The Days Grimm Podcast
Ep. 245 Billy Ray Wallace on Conquering Nashville, Soul/Funk Music, & Returning Home
In this episode of The Day's Grimm Podcast, hosts Brian Michael Day and Thomas Grimm sit down with Nashville-based Soul/Funk/Blues artist Billy Ray Wallace.
Billy Ray takes us on his journey from growing up in the small town of Lynnville, Indiana, to cutting his teeth in the competitive Nashville music scene. We dive deep into his transition from metal bands to mastering the soulful sounds inspired by legends like Stevie Wonder and John Mayer. Billy Ray shares the gritty reality of being an independent artist—from working 70-hour weeks to fund his dream, to the unwritten rules of never canceling a gig (even at a swinger's hotel!).
Key Topics Discussed:
- Nashville vs. Evansville: The reality of the Nashville music scene and Billy Ray's decision to move back to the 812.
- Songwriting Secrets: How songs like "Ease Your Mind" and "Why Do I" evolved over years of writing.
- The "No Cover" Nightmare: A hilarious horror story about a gig gone wrong at a swinger's bar.
- Finding Your Sound: How Billy Ray went from shredding in metal bands to delivering vintage soul vocals.
- Advice for Musicians: Why you have to be willing to "suck" at first to eventually succeed.
If you are a musician, a music lover, or just love a good story about chasing a dream, this episode is for you!
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro & Welcome Billy Ray Wallace
02:30 - Who is Billy Ray Wallace? (Elevator Pitch)
07:40 - Growing up in Lynnville & Early Music Influences
\18:25 - Playing in Metal Bands ("Torn Confidence")
21:52 - Moving to Nashville & Learning to Sing
37:40 - Finding the Soul/Funk Sound (Alan Stone Influence)
44:59 - The Story Behind "Ease Your Mind"
56:30 - The Swinger's Bar Gig Nightmare
01:08:51 - Moving Back to Evansville, IN
01:23:15 - Advice for Aspiring Musicians
LINKS
- Follow Billy Ray Wallace
IG: https://www.instagram.com/billyraywallacemusic?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7tW1gMWvoKnAMpZ905rDmU?si=yN2ZnVpNRIibY1QDIpSuqw
- Check out The Day's Grimm Website: thedaysgrimm.com
#BillyRayWallace #NashvilleMusic #SoulMusic #TheDaysGrimm #IndependentArtist #MusicPodcast #Evansville #Songwriting
[The Days Grimm Podcast Links]
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDaysGrimm
- Our link tree: linktr.ee/Thedaysgrimm
- GoFundMe account for The Days Grimm: https://gofund.me/02527e7c
[The Days Grimm is brought to you by]
Sadness & ADHD (non-medicated)
Even hello, hello, hello, everyone, and welcome to another thrilling episode of the Day's Grim. My name is Brian Michael Day. My name is Thomas Grimm. Hello, sir. How are you? I'm alright, sleepy boy. Yeah, dude, I don't feel great. I literally woke up, or I didn't wake up. I went to lunch, met a guy for lunch, just a quick narrative uh before we intro our guest, and I I met a friend for lunch, killed like two double-barreled fucking 40-ounce beers, and like within an hour, turned around, got in the truck, drove straight home, which was probably a poor decision, and then fucking got home and I was like, oh, I'm not gonna be awake very long at all. I just conked like straight out. So and then I woke up to this. So here I am.
Speaker 2:We intro our guests today, please, sir. Joining us in the Days Grimm studio, all the way from Nashville, Billy Ray Wallace. How are you?
Speaker 1:Good, man. I appreciate y'all having me on so much. It's it's it's gonna be a blast. I appreciate you.
Speaker 4:Vegas, dude. So is it true? Can you pee in public in the streets? Uh we talked to a friend of ours who also lives down in Nashville, and we uh it's inconclusive, I think. Have you seen a lot of people pee in the streets? I've never heard of that at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Okay. I'm not saying it's not true, but granted, if that's going to happen, it's gonna happen near Broadway. And I it's um part, yeah, it's part of my religion to like stay away from Broadway. Oh, no, I I'm joking. Like, I I hate I hate Broadway.
Speaker 2:Crazy things happen on Broadway. I gave a homeless man a nug one time. He's like, You got any money? And I was like, I got a nug. I'll give you that.
Speaker 4:Damn, that's so Christian of you. Also, uh Printer's Alley is where I think it would happen because there's some pretty sussy shit going down on Printer's Alley, dude. There is they had a they had a topless uh karaoke bar for years. I don't know if they still go and sing karaoke, but you gotta like pull your tits out, guy or girl.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wouldn't fucking wild. That's so funny. Wow.
Speaker 4:No, Printer's Alley was my jam for like a very long time. Anyways, for the folks at home who maybe don't know who Billy Ray Wallace is, uh maybe give us a quick uh 60-second or less elevator pitch of uh who you are and what you do, sir.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. So um my name is Billy Ray Wallace. What's camera right there? Um I play blues soul and funk in Nashville. I've been there for a little bit under a decade. Um I am the amp guru at Tone Central Station um in East Nashville, and and I also play guitar in bands and do some session work here and there. But um short of that, I play blues soul and funk and give you all of your funk needs and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:That's pretty neat because, like, uh, you know, for a white guy, I feel like like here in Evansville, we got monsters.
Speaker 4:Welcome to the day's grim, uh, where Tom likes to make everyone as uncomfortable as humanly possible.
Speaker 2:Well, that's why I didn't call you nappy boy, I called you sleepy boy.
Speaker 4:Oh, Jesus, Murphy. Um, no, that's neat, dude. And also, uh, on your resume, you didn't mention that you uh impregnate women with your sexy music. I'll tell you what, I was listening to it.
Speaker 2:Immaculate. No, what's that called? Uh what Jesus was? Something conception. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4:That's like uh what the fuck is geez, hair pin turn a hundred miles an hour.
Speaker 2:It's got like immaculate conception or conception. Immaculate you're talking about Mary. Okay, okay.
Speaker 4:The same thing, but with music. I'm still on the Old Testament, bro. Let me get up to speed. Uh no, but I was gonna say, like, I was listening to it on the way over. I was listening to the live album that you recorded at. Appreciate that. Shameless plug. Appreciate that. Where was the live album recorded at? Hop Springs. Hop Springs. I was live. Which, by the way, kudos to you for it sounding amazing. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Dude, that's what I was gonna actually like. We can go on a little tangent here on this.
Speaker 4:Because like also, he'll interrupt you. Like, I was just making a point.
Speaker 2:You will do that the entire year because it has it was amazingly recorded, like you could hear a few people clapping in the background, but like for a live recording, that was done very, very well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so big kudos to Hop Springs. Um, they are just a great venue. I've gotten the pleasure to play there a couple times. Um, and it's a really, really nice venue, like uh Saving Abel, if you're familiar with them. They played there like the week or so after me. So it's a nice venue. Um right into the mic. Um but yeah, it yeah. I I don't know if that answered your question.
Speaker 4:So they so they did, they were like kind of the ones that offered to, or you like like paid them to record, or how did that?
Speaker 1:No, so the the way I booked a show there and they mic the thing in Nashville is if you go outside of Broadway and you're like looking and you go and see a band, like let's say the underdog, which I love the underdog, I played there multiple times, which is also in East Nashville. Um, you go there and you play, they're going to mic the kick drum, mm-hmm and that's it.
Speaker 4:Nice, not yeah, not great, not a lot of situ not a lot going on there mic-wise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Hop Springs, they're micing everything. Hell yeah, that's how yeah. And then I had a buddy of mine uh who actually I don't know if y'all saw this, is the second podcast I'd been on. And the first one I was on um successfully unsigned, great another great podcast in Nashville. And um their I don't know what they could what their technical name from him, but he does all the behind-the-scenes audio stuff. I had him capture the audio from that night. Hell yeah. And I had him film it. So yeah, he he There's a fucking video somewhere, yeah, yeah. If you go to my so I have a YouTube channel that I'm like slowly trying to do like the YouTube guitar side. I have um Why Do Why and Ease Your Mind is both on Hell yeah, dude.
Speaker 4:Yeah, fucking nice. And what's your what's your YouTube? Normally we have a producer that could like pull all this stuff up on the fly, but what is your YouTube channel? Like social.
Speaker 1:So all of my socials, period, Billy Ray Wallace music.
Speaker 4:Nice, dude. Oh, keep it simple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I try to. True people like me. Yeah, hey, and myself, and myself, you know.
Speaker 4:Uh my website is Billy Ray Wallace Music, everything else is, yeah. There's a good chance I'll forget the music on the end of it. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'll just be googling Billy Ray Wallace for like an hour and I'm like, I can't find his fucking YouTube. No, I'm sure you'll find it.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've been there on any platform and it's in it's so crazy too because if AI, if you ask who Billy Ray Wallace is, yeah, it pulls it up, which was like the shocking thing to me. Yeah. Because I I'm a douchebag that has to Google myself.
Speaker 4:I'm the opposite. I think I may have Googled my whole name like a handful of times just to see if it pops up. Have you ever done that? Yeah, does it pop up for you? I mean, there's not a lot of not a lot of T A G threes out there, you know what I'm saying? So I don't know, wild stuff. But, anyways, all right, so let's let's rewind it back. We like to kind of get into a timeline. Where the fuck do they make Billy Ray Wallace's at? Where are you from? I'm from Lynnville, Indiana. Linville, dude. Like bluegrass area? Yeah, Lynnville. I I went to You sound ashamed. You're like, oh, I fucking hate.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no. I well, so I'm from Lynnville. Okay.
Speaker 4:I went to population 50.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like my my graduating cat uh class had like 64 kids and it was crazy. Oh yeah, dude. Went there, uh, went to Ducumsey until like my sophomore year, and then I moved to Boonville my junior and senior year and graduated from Boonville.
Speaker 4:Nice, dude. Yeah. Boonville, very large city. Very large city with a really dumb fucking downtown area. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you should. I mean, it's been it's been the fucking same for um for 60 years. They're like, we're gonna we're gonna put in something that's like a roundabout, but it's not. And if you have to go the other way, fuck you. You're gonna have to go. Yeah, it's thank you. Thank you. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:This is coming from a resident. Okay, hey, I don't wanna I don't wanna get back on because I want to have the mayor of Boonville on. I really, really do.
Speaker 2:Didn't he just have a better chance to get in the next one? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I was like, he did some really, really shady shit. That's why I want him on, dude. Yeah, that'd be an awesome conversation. Listen, tell me about the coke. Uh no, I'm just kidding. Not even the coke. It's not even that. It's just like somebody's car driving home, and I can like and then avoiding the cops and not answering his door because he knows he wouldn't get it.
Speaker 4:Oh, this is for real?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he hit he hit a fucking car backing up, and then he was like, I'm too drunk to deal with this, drives home, and then they see him on like uh like a security or something like that.
Speaker 2:On the flop cams. No, not flock cams. This is just on the bars camera.
Speaker 1:And then cops go to his house, knock on his door, and he never shows up. So they can't um test him for alcohol. Exactly. So he got off for it, basically. Dude, low-key, baller move. Hey, hey, it's smart. I'm like, I'm having I was like, where's my phone? Putting that shit in my notes. Like, you can do that?
Speaker 4:Like hey, Siri, make a note. Uh shout out to that. I want to I wanna have now you really want to be like no, but I just yeah, there's something about that downtown area, it just really fucking chaps my ankles. I don't, dude. It's like like you said, it's like a roundabout, but in a fucking square. It's like, why are we doing this? It makes no sense.
Speaker 2:So fuck. Being in Linville, what was it like growing up? Yeah, the youngin' days, dude.
Speaker 1:Um God, I I feel like I should have had a better. Well, let's uh let's change it up here. Uh, were your parents musicians? No. No, no, I I I'm the only one. My cousin who did produce my early um material, like the original Why Do I, everything, and playing hard to get, he was the producer on that. But he him and me were the only ones in our family who are musicians. Um, my great-grandmother played organ, and I remember yeah, I remember being because she died whenever I was like eight. And I remember watching her play at a young age, yeah. But like short of that, like I didn't get to talk to her as like um a musician now. You know what I mean? Like, I I don't even I started playing guitar when I was eight, so it's like there's not a conversation.
Speaker 2:Did you get that guitar as like a present, or like how'd you get into that? Uh uh Christmas, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You're like, I want a guitar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:How many guitars do you have now? Oh fuck. Like, is it less than twenty?
Speaker 1:Yes. Okay, yeah, yeah. Less than twenty more than ten.
Speaker 4:Okay. Somewhere in that neighborhood. Nice, dude. Yeah. So so what did you first start playing? Uh obviously guitar, but like what was inspiring you? Like, what did you learn to play? You know what I mean? So I grew up what were your like early, I guess what I'm getting at is what were your were your early inspirations? Sure.
Speaker 1:Um, so my dad and my mom have similar music tastes, but they were showing me different music. Also, my parents are split, and this will make sense because on visitation, my dad would pick me up, and or my mom would pick me up, and the CDs that they had in their car were entirely different. My dad had yellow, all the Johnny Cash stuff. Hell yeah, brother. You know, um, a lot of the old country stuff, and my mom had like straight blue stuff. Um Eric Clapton, SRV, John Mayer, um, and that John Mayer kind of thing is that set me into honestly, not much to look at, but god damn that dude can play the shit out of a guitar.
Speaker 4:Holy shit. Yeah. I mean, literally, like a modern day Stevie Ray Von. Yeah, like he's our generations one and true. You know what I mean? Like, is we'll get to that. Well, actually, we're on the topic. Is there one currently, or is he like the last true, you know what I mean? Like magical man with a guitar. Like, he really, I think he's the most contemporary I can think of.
Speaker 1:Right now, yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean, but there's some other guys that are Marson's pretty close, but I do you know Marson? I don't. That little Hispanic fella, he God, I wish we could pull it up.
Speaker 2:Well, that Crisper Chinese kid.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that little CRISPR Chinese kid's fucking nice, dude. But yeah, there's nobody like in the mainstream. Marson, uh remind me to show you Marson, dude's a fucking freak. Dude's a freak. Um, anyways, so that aside, so so you're getting kind of we're talking kind of you're jumping several decades of different music, but definitely like a lot of like heavy guitar-influenced music like the ELO and Yeah, I I didn't get into um where the soul and funk version of me until I moved to Nashville.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I feel like like Clapton's got some soul. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:I mean, like a different aspect, you know.
Speaker 1:He does, but like when I'm saying funk and soul like as an inspiration, I'm thinking Donnie Hathaway, Marvin Gay, um little little Al Green, you know, like Stevie Wonder. You know what I mean? Like Clapton absolute absolutely has but like in my head, you know. Nobody puts him in the soul cat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's has soulful playing is what yeah.
Speaker 4:Who told Clapton it was a good idea to write uh that uh heaven song? Tears in Heaven. Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, bro, don't do you know the song? No. Um He said I'm what so like learning guitar, we find that like a lot of musicians they try other instruments throughout their like years. So did you ever pick up like a bass guitar? Yeah, I mean same, same, but different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, god for you.
Speaker 4:Don't do it, dude. I'm trying not to. Um try and edit that out. I'm just kidding. No, but seriously, I might be able to. You were saying.
Speaker 1:Hey, um I so anything with strings on, I can figure it out.
Speaker 4:Okay. Fiddle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cello.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I'm just joking. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's within reason. Like now, do you want me to go play a two-hour gig on that? No.
Speaker 4:Yeah. But I can what are you what are you active with? You obviously guitar and bass, I can do the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like and also a vocalist. So I mean there's but other than that, is there anything else?
Speaker 2:Because like don't keys translate, though. Like, if you can read it, you can kind of so I don't read music.
Speaker 1:And that which is like if you say that to somebody who I assume neither one of y'all are musicians.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I play a little.
Speaker 1:Do you? Okay. So rhythm, very simple. Okay. Play a lot of Johnny Cash stuff in Jade Perry. Okay.
Speaker 4:A lot of train rhythm.
Speaker 1:Well you know, then just hanging out with other musicians and stuff like that, is most musicians, especially in the modern age, do not read. Right. Just at all. They don't read? Like read music. Oh, okay. Well, actually we're all illiterate.
Speaker 4:Now that you mention it, I don't know a lot of musicians that are, you know, well read, if you will. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Even in Nashville. Like, it's just not a thing. Because to be fair, like if you put a piece of sheet music up there, and let's just say there's a C, just a middle C, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that octave has four different notes on the guitar. One here, one here, one here. Or three. And then another one here. So it's you have to read it and figure out which one which one you need to hit. So yeah.
Speaker 4:That's a fucking nightmare.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so so it's the reason why like guitar players get chord charts. They don't get a lead line running. That's why there's a lot of good guitar players with really good ears, because that's really the only way they can do it. Is go into it and do it that way. Because you get a peep piece of sheet music in front of them. I'm not saying that there's guys who can't do it. There absolutely is. Yeah, don't tell Jimmy Page that, dude.
Speaker 4:When uh when you picked up the guitar. I don't think he reads. Yeah, for sure. That I'm pretty sure he's classical. Like he's trained classically. I I don't quote me. I could Google it right now in the comments.
Speaker 1:If you know if Jimmy Page roasted the hell out of me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, is Jimmy Page classically trained in music? I would I would be interested to know, but I'm pretty sure he when he started playing guitar, did you start singing then as well?
Speaker 2:Or what did that come from?
Speaker 1:Fuck no. So I I didn't start um singing until I graduated in 2016. I moved out out to Nashville.
Speaker 2:Let's pause there and let's go back. I don't want to get too far into the timeline before. Yeah, I'm just trying to think in my head what when so like going through school and stuff, like did you play guitar all through elementary? So all the way through, did you get lessons, or were you like self-taught?
Speaker 1:Yes, and no, I I was I was taught in like teaching me how to play like chords and like stuff like that, and they're teaching me how to um try to read music, um, which I can go on a whole tangent of teachers trying to teach guitar players on how to read. I I think it's really, really unnecessary.
Speaker 4:Um I'm having a blast with this in my head. Every time you say read, I'm like, somebody some poor bastard's just trying to learn how to duh duh duh, it's the Jimmy. It's the it's do re I'm just having a blast in my head. It's like some fucking extremely good guitarist who's just fucking has the tism.
Speaker 2:Um your early years were just like learning basically scales and like random.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it just learning songs, really. And um I put I cut my teeth playing in a metal band, actually. And I played in fuck yeah, yeah, brother. It was uh it was a band called Torn Confidence.
Speaker 4:A lot of bar chords and metal, a lot of just like the power chords, yeah. For sure. Did you play a lot of rhythm, or were you going into the lead role when you were there? I I was I was the lead player. You were the lead man.
Speaker 2:Torn confidence down here in Evansville? Yeah. Then uh I think we found a few members.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that oh shit. Yeah, that they they that band changed its name or create I don't even know how to say it, but then the before then did they come forthright? No, no, no, no, no, no, they they they they turn into a brighter end is a brighter end, yeah. That's what it was, dude. Brighter End's fucking nice, dude. Yeah, they uh so my cousin, Jacob Wallace, is the lead vocalist. See, we didn't meet no, we didn't meet Jacob Wallace.
Speaker 4:No, he was one of the ones we did and did not have the honor of meeting. Yeah, though, brighter end fucking nice, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, and like when I say that, like, granted, I'm not trying to none of anything I ever played made it to a record. So, like, me, Jake, Tyler Peterson, uh, Dakota Schaefer, Lucas Devault, the original group of that was w was was back in like 2016, 2017. We never put anything out.
Speaker 2:I, along with those guys, we were cutting our teeth and learning how to was that your first like recorded music though, or like gold to be recorded, or did you record stuff like before that?
Speaker 1:We we I I recorded stuff in bands that were that was Torn Confidence was the first time I took a band like really seriously.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. But you didn't sing in it? No. Okay, so you were just playing then. When did you like cause you have like an old soul like Vocal sound.
Speaker 4:Everything you're making is just like vintage as fuck. Thank you. It's very like Greta Van Fleet, but in the bluesy flunk funky way. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I don't know if you get what I'm throwing down. Not really, but you know Greta Van Fleet. I do. I do. They put out like a obviously a heavy Led Zeppelin vintage feel. You put out a very fucking I'm trying to think. You like your sound has so many different like sixties bands and singers. Beard me. Yeah, absolutely. Different kind of vibes that it's hard to pin you to one. But yeah, you have a very heavy, like, uh like 60s kind of vibe to you. Which I dig, dude. I appreciate that. It's fucking tasty.
Speaker 1:I have um, well, first of all, one of the reasons I left that band, and the reason why God bless you.
Speaker 4:God bless you. It's a thing we do. Sorry. It's don't worry, you're not in a cult or anything.
Speaker 1:I so I I left Torn Confidence because that band, they were go every weekend, we played everywhere but Evansville. That pissed my mom off. I was living at home. Like I was like still out of high school. She's like, You're not doing this. Hell yeah, I do. So I had to quit. And and and granted, at the time, I'm not. I listened to metal. That's if I had the choice of writing songs and stuff like that, it wouldn't have been that. It would have been closer to this. So at that time, I start diving into the craft of songwriting. Then I came to the conclusion I don't want anyone else to sing this shit. So I need to figure out how to sing. Then I started trying to learn how to sing and I took that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we're back. Alright, sorry. A little technical issues. We gotta stop having these. It's like every fucking episode now. You gotta figure it out, dude. Uh, but here nor there. Okay. I forgot where that's where I was where were we? Yeah, we were talking about you learning to sing. So did you learn, did you go to an instructor?
Speaker 1:So whenever I moved to Nashville, I I could kind of move right after you graduated? Uh a year after I graduated. So I I stayed in the Evansville area for a year and then I moved right after that.
Speaker:Okay, sick.
Speaker 1:Um, and mainly because at the time, um even now, but we can talk about now here in a minute. There's what I'm doing, no one's doing that here.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:And there's no scene for it at all.
Speaker 4:Oh, like this genre?
Speaker 1:Yeah, at all.
Speaker 4:Like I don't can make a case for like some instrumental dudes. Monty. Yeah, that's who I was thinking about. Okay. Monty's out here slinging that. Monty skeleton's about the only one that does. Okay. Yeah, but he does like clarinet type shit, dude. But he goes, he goes fucking hard.
Speaker 2:He plays like so many.
Speaker 4:Oh no, it's oh he's oboe is his his oboe and saxophone are like his main go-tos. But he'll go to a bar and just play oboe for like a fucking hour straight.
Speaker 1:Well, that that makes my heart full and makes me feel good. It's fucking hot, dude.
Speaker 4:I watched him play. It's fucking hot, dude. He blaze he blasts that fucking read, bro. What a little lick, a little what read action?
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's bro.
Speaker 4:Can I just fucking have commentary? I meant like it's hot, like it's good, dude. Anyways, Monty's dope, dude. I'm still trying to get him on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Um well back in 2018, whenever I moved to Nashville, there wasn't. There just wasn't anything.
Speaker 2:And is there a scene for that in Nashville?
Speaker 1:Does Nashville have like just all music except for hip hop? It is no, even hip-hop. Oh yeah, brother. Nashville is music city. Full stop.
Speaker 4:Yeah. You know. Um again, stay away from Broadway because it's like fucking all country.
Speaker 1:Well, it it's it's no, not even. Really?
Speaker 4:The last few times I've been there, like every bar is fucking country, country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's certain certain places. Uh the stage is pretty good. Um we'll we'll get there when we get there. Let's stay on topic. Sorry, I have y'all good, y'all good. I'm ADD too, so we're just, you know. We're just vibe. Yeah, we're just vibe.
Speaker 4:Um, the but you moved down to Nashville. How'd you how'd you learn to start singing?
Speaker 1:Uh basically, I got vocal coaches and just went through and learned how to properly sing, you know, all the uh cliches with the diaphragm and you know, go go through that.
Speaker 4:Your falsetto is very nice. I have to mention that there's a couple songs. Um, it was Ease Your Mind, I think, has a falsetto in it. Very, very nice. Uh, and Fool might have had one, or why do I? One of the two of those also had a falsetto. Honestly, and for dudes out there that don't, um I mean, obviously, if you're a singer, you understand what that is as a dude, but like for folks at home that don't, like, it's not easy to learn. Like, it's easy to get that whisper, you know. I mean, because that's all a falsetto is it's just like that, you know what I mean? You're just barely pushing any air out, and you're kind of clenching all this stuff.
Speaker 1:So my falsettos are loud as fuck. Really? Yeah, yeah. So and and my falsetto is stronger than my chest voice.
Speaker 4:Really?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's wild, yeah. Yeah, so it it if you're when you're teaching somebody how to do that, what you just just described is how you teach it. But once it's there and you know how to use it, it can be stronger. Because yeah, it's yeah.
Speaker 4:Can I ask him to give me a falsetto right now? Yeah, you just might want to screw that back a little bit. Yeah, screw that. Uh am I putting you on the spot?
Speaker 1:No, no, no. Uh just so like on my song, uh, what you trying to do. I go, in behind, you know, it's so fucking nice, bro.
Speaker 4:So fucking nice for the first one might have been pitchy.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying all day.
Speaker 4:But the hardest part is like getting there, right? Is to learn how to like get that as a male, like with testosterone, especially like bigger dudes, you know what I mean? Like, it's even harder because your voice is just that much deeper. So to get to that point to even learn how to make that noise is is one thing, and then get there and then make that note. Well, yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And being able to manipulate the voice and do that, it all starts with um are you familiar with what a falsetto flip is? No, I'm not. Cool. So, and you know the song Rocket Man by Elton John. Rocket Man, hell yeah, brother flips. Uh Rocket Man. That is a flick while you're holding learning to do that is actually the beginning of learning how to sing.
Speaker 4:Feels like it'd be a lot in your chest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is, but you know, and then you do that, and then you're able to start moving and hell yeah, brother. Yeah, and also going through scale. So you said the Doray Me thing, you're doing that with you know, and me having a guitar in my hand and already knowing uh music theory and stuff like that, moving up and down, you know, nice dude.
Speaker 4:And big shouts to uh big shouts to uh EJ, dude, big Elton John guy. Benny and the Jets slaps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long were you in Nashville before you got to play your first gig?
Speaker 1:Or like Oh, I I I hit the floor running. Like it what you're seeing now of me in the past like three or no, since really since 2020 is like me finally getting my feet under me and like learning knowing that I'm quote unquote ready. Hell yeah, dude. So it took a minute, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then like down there, is it like like I in one of your live songs you started shouting out the people that were playing with you? Is it more like plug and plug and play of like, hey, I've been practicing with these few people, like at like local events, and like no, the those are all my best friends in the world.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Yeah, and they all play music with me because they love me on my music.
Speaker 4:Who's the excuse me? Uh why that's so fucking anyways. Uh, who's the young lady in the background for uh Hop Springs? She's nice, dude. She's sweet.
unknown:There's no lady.
Speaker 4:There's not? No. There's a point where you're singing and there's somebody singing. Shouts out whoever's doing background. That's a man. Oh, is it really? Yeah. Very high-pitched voice.
unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 4:High pitched voice.
Speaker 1:His name is Harrison.
Speaker 4:Harrison, I'm so sorry, bro. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Harrison, yeah.
Speaker 1:He he is those vocals are nice. He is it was like the perfect touch. He's the best vocalist I've seen in Nashville. Yeah, dude. Perfect.
Speaker 4:Is he a longtime friend as well? Or just really? Yeah, he he from this area, or you met him in Nashville?
Speaker 1:From Nashville. Damn, dude, Nashville. He's actually it's so funny. So no one in my band is um or my versions of my band through the years. Uh, like obviously, me, I'm from here. My my normal keyboardist um is from Indianapolis. Hell yeah, dude. Um, my bass player is from uh Johnson City, East East Tennessee. My drummer is from Georgia. Uh Harrison, who we were talking about, is from Houston, Texas. So it's like in Nashville, no one's from there.
Speaker 2:So it's you know I feel horrible now, too. Harrison, dude. My bad thing. It's crazy that Nashville is like, like you said, music city, but it's so big and there's so many musicians that like we've had like what two people on that live in Nashville? Miles Connor and Kenneth Elpers. Miles is so fucking dead. And you've probably never heard of either one of them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, uh Kenneth Elpers. Um, I was you might know the Elpers name from this area. They're kind of a bigger family around here, but here in order, dude, her shit, honest to God.
Speaker 2:I mean it's just interesting to me about like Miles Connor, Kenna Elpers, but like neither one of them technically have a band, neither do you, you know what I mean? But it's like you guys have these like groups of friends, it's like all you're all in it together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so the keyboardist in my band, um I I played in his band too. So like he he would book gigs and I would go play with him and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:So you scratch my back, I rub your feet, it's kind of that situation like that, dude. Or however the saying goes.
Speaker 2:So do you guys like all live together in one place and just like music is your life? Or no, I mean, all like I live with my girlfriend in an in an apartment, and most of them do the same thing.
Speaker 4:Does she hate that you're as active as you are in music? I assume it takes up a lot of your time. Yeah, it does.
Speaker 1:Um, or is she just like no, no, no, she Yeah. Yeah, she doesn't hate it. Uh I wouldn't even but I mean, is there times that she's like probably wishes that I could stop overthinking myself on stuff? Because it it consumes me. So it's you know, doing this and doing it to the I put quotes up because it's gonna sound pretentious as fuck. Um the level at which I'm trying to do it, um it consumes you. You are basically running a business, which is you, yeah, and there's not any money in this.
Speaker 4:No, absolutely not.
Speaker 1:You know, so it's like there's no but you do you're doing this with the hope that something does on the back end, but you really do it because you love it and you do it anyway.
Speaker 2:Well, and you're always penny pinching to like, hey, you know, I'd like to get 50 CDs, I'd like to, you know, like I need shirts to sell at some of these shows. I need, you know, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:It's like, hey, I just put uh I just got my shirts back actually.
Speaker 2:Right. It's like hey, hey, we're gonna eat ramen for two weeks, but look at this six shirt. Yep. Hell yeah, dude.
Speaker 4:Yep, hell yeah, I get it, bro. Um, I was ramen dirt floor pour when I was in college, man. It's it's uh sh it sucks to live that way.
Speaker 1:It does, and you know, I I love it, but you know, it's just it's one it's it's the nature of doing this, you know.
Speaker 4:Now that we're in the timeline to where 20 uh 2018 you moved to Nashville, so you're starting to learn to sing.
Speaker 2:But you said you didn't really like take it, you didn't really feel confident until like 2020.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's that's accurate.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But so what were those first two years like? Is that what you're getting at? No, absolutely not. Fine. What were those first two years? Trying to get your feet in Nashville, trying to like connect or yeah, just uh it's chaos, really.
Speaker 1:You you're just trying to figure out you're you're throwing shit at the wall and you're seeing what sticks. That's all you're doing, you know, and you're talking to people, you're playing with people, you're um yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Did you have a connect there that was like kind of to guide you? Like, hey, here are the hot spots, here's who to talk to, yes, and you're who to avoid. Yeah. Go to this studio, don't go to that studio. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, so my cousin um runs Clearwater Studios in God, that name sounds so familiar. Trent uh uh Trent Waters is is my cousin, and he was him and his dad convinced me to move there and basically telling me that um nothing is here for me. And at the time, definitely was true. Um so I mean him got a place and he kind of showed me some of the ropes and stuff, but the the issue that even he he had um good intentions and stuff like that, but the issue was we're in an entirely different genre. He he's doing like hip-hop, like really predominantly. And I'm doing what Clearwaters is, is predominantly hip-hop. I I would say he'd probably argue it, but he or more pop pop or um or hip-hop, I would say 75%. Um, last time I was really involved in that studio was 75 plus percent.
Speaker 4:That's probably why it sounds so familiar. Somebody we know has been to Clearwater. I need to think on that.
Speaker 1:Well, and and there's different, like there's ocean ocean way studios there. So I mean, like, there's different okay. Yeah, there's a lot of studios there, but his is a popular studio, and to his credit, he's done, you know, a a killer job with that. But there was only so much I could do, and shout out Trent. Um there's only so much I can do with his um Right, but he's probably not like accustomed to like micing up a whole band. No, no, he is. He is. He went to school for it. Like he's a good one. Yeah, yeah. Well, and and he could help me on I'm I'm not an audio engineer. I never was trying to be. I'm not like all of this, I'm doing the performances and stuff, but I'm not the guy in there editing the EQs. I'm not that's not me. You're not mixing and mastering. No, that's not me. That's a tough job, right? Yeah, that that that's what he did. Yeah, you know, and kudos to him, bro. That's sure. So and then there's only so standby.
unknown:We're still going on this one we're gonna.
Speaker 1:Okay. Um there's there's only so much that I um he can show me in that aspect. So um anyway, so I had to like basically figure out my own way, and it was um, you know, on that because I'm playing gigs, I'm putting bands together, I'm doing that.
Speaker 2:So that that that's yeah, so that that was my travel guide essentially, as much as I, you know, have was that like your first two years, and then like you found other connections, like we were talking about like in 2020, or were you still working with Trent in 2020?
Speaker 1:I was st uh up until 2022. Gotcha, gotcha. Nice.
Speaker 4:Now going back to the question I wanted to ask. Yeah. Waiting for you, nothing. Son of a bitch.
Speaker:Don't you fucking do it. Don't you fucking do it?
Speaker 4:Uh so 2018, you graduated high school, you moved down to Nashville. No, 2016. Sorry, sorry, 2016 you graduated. 2018, you moved down to Nashville. A couple of years kind of getting your cutting your teeth in the in the Nashville Music City.
Speaker 1:I just want to make sure we're saying the same thing. I graduated in 2016, I moved down in 2018.
Speaker 4:In 2018, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I was talking really fast. Uh but in 2018, you get down to Nashville, Music City, you're having a time in your life, you're figuring this thing out, you're trying to cut your teeth, figure out where to be and what when to be there. Um what that being said, big city. Yeah, right? Yeah. What's your favorite thing about at that point? What would what stood out to you about living in Nashville? What was one of your favorite things?
Speaker 1:Um, the whole like just Nashville in general.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you're going from kind of like Poe Dunk. Yeah. I mean, Evansville is like a big city, but yeah, I mean, it it it is, and I don't want to shit not that this that question was even that, but I don't want shit on Evansville. I love Evansville, but um music. That's really it. It's just yeah, yeah. I mean now there's some dope food places there, but you know. Okay.
Speaker 4:I guess I didn't think that question all the way through. That's clearly gonna be music. Damn it. All right, dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I mean, I assume those first two years, you're like, oh, they got the what's what's the big hotel that God bless you that they you know what I mean? Like you got like the the records and like you get to see where like the excuse me, like Dolly Parton, you know, history and all that. So I'm sure like you're soaking in some of the culture that first two years and everything, but like did you know going into Nashville that like you wanted to do like funk and blues and all that?
Speaker 1:I knew I wanted to do blues. I didn't know I wanted to do soul and funk. So I worked at Nissan whenever I first moved to Nashville. The car place? Yeah, yeah, dude.
Speaker 4:Shout out to Nissan, bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so so like Toyota has a factory here, Nissan has a factory there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um I went straight there and started um, you know, working. I gotta pay for the shit somehow. And um were you working like as a mechanic or just building cars? Okay, okay, yeah. Nice, dude. Yeah.
Speaker 2:On the line. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And um fuck, I forgot your question. What was your I just like what what got you because you you went down there and like you were saying, you wanted to do like blues or whatever, but like how did you find your genre? Like, how'd you find your footing and what you wanted to do?
Speaker 1:So I was working at Nissan whenever I got off because I worked second shift, it was 10 30, you'd get off, and I went to B dubs just to eat and have a drink or whatever. And I heard a song over top, like in there in the Shazam it or whatever. Yeah, exactly. And I looked it up, and it was a guy named Alan Stone. I don't know Alan Stone. Oh, yeah. Alan Stone, he basically he's a white Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 4:I like that. Right.
Speaker 1:So he's blind, not well.
Speaker 4:Also, I need to hesitate real quick. You said white, and I answered way too quick. That's not why I like okay.
Speaker 2:I like that if I know if he's blind.
Speaker 4:You're like, yeah, he's a white Stevie Wonder.
Speaker:Like, nice.
Speaker 4:Uh you had me at Caucasian. No, no, no, it's big Stevie Wonder. Yeah, sorry.
Speaker 1:Anyway, you were saying he uh fucking killing me.
Speaker 4:Uh like that. Yeah, I like that. All right, go ahead. Um no, answer now. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:He he got me into funk in soul music, and then I was like, the same thing I did with John Mayer, where I traced his influences and got into those influences because not only do I hear it, what they're doing, I want to understand one why it works and where it came from. Yeah, so I can replicate it. That's the only way that you can do that. Is if you hear something, it's like that's cool. I need to understand one why it works and where it came from. Then you can replicate it. And so that took me to Stevie Wonder, right? Which I was already aware of Stevie Wonder, but once I heard him talk about Stevie Wonder, I'm like, you know what? It's time for me to go through Stevie's catalog and really dive in him. So I did.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Get into Stevie. That gets me into everyone in that time, right? Gets me into Marvin Gay. It reintroduces me to Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2:Uh, interesting question here. Did you did you like get uh like tapes or like were you just all Spotify?
Speaker 1:Well, it's just I resist. Yeah, I didn't know, you know. Number one, I'm a I'm broke and poor because I'm trying to do the shit. It's like I can't, you know, go buy records. I went through the whole survivor and vinyl, yeah, all that jazz.
Speaker 4:I went through the whole Stevie Wonder collection only on vinyl, and that's how dedicated to the cause I am.
Speaker 1:Funny now, I'm actually trying to grow a vinyl thing. But you know, but at the time, it's just like as I'm trying. Trying to like grow my uh music taste, it just wasn't in the cards.
Speaker 4:But um What was this gentleman's name again? The original, all the way going back to the case. Alan Stone. Alan Stone. I don't know why I was thinking Alan Jackson this whole time. Alan Stone.
Speaker 1:I'll show you his he's awesome. Fucking nice dude. And then that got me just going through, and that got me into the funk and soul kind of thing. I'm like, no one's doing that. And right now, you know, from what I can tell, I was like, let me um yeah, let me let me see what that's about. And that got me into how I pictured my music because when I first moved out, I was like, I'm gonna be a blues guy, purely blues, and with a little bit of an edge to it, but like that was it. And then um I was already into mayor, so I I liked his soul kind of stuff that he has in his plane, and to our uh thing earlier when you said Clapton, his soul tendencies that he had, but I didn't understand it, and I didn't know why I liked those aspects to him. Once I heard Alan Stone, I traced it back, and I then I listened to all those heroes when I say SRV, Mayor, all of those, right? Then it made sense. It was like the soul for the world. You're seeing the building blocks now.
Speaker 4:So you're like you were focused on like the pinnacle, you're like, oh, this is why I'm here, but now you're seeing the foundation of all the building blocks that led to Stevie Ravon or Elton John, you know.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Yeah, so and then it made sense, and then I was like, cool. Then I was able to go from there. I hope that answered your question. I don't remember the ritual.
Speaker 2:Um you mentioned in one of these live ones from Pomp Springs that uh you wrote a song for like somebody you wanted to open for, and it's changed over the years. Yeah, why do I what was that story?
Speaker 1:So there was a band here uh called um fuck, what was the name of that band? I can't even remember the name of the band. If it comes to me, I'll say it. But um, I was in a band in high school and we were like opening for them. Um, like this isn't like a touring band or anything, it's just a local, you know, band. And I really loved the music that they were doing. If I could stop burping, that'd be amazing. That's the latte. Yeah, that diesel. And um, I really loved their music and the band I was playing in. Um, I it was fun. I really loved being in that band, but I didn't love the music that we were doing at the time. I wanted to be closer to the mayor stuff, honestly what I'm doing, you know, and I listened to them and I was like, yeah, that's dope. They didn't have another guitar player at the time, or ever. And I was like, it would be really cool if I could find some way in to that band, or just if I imagine myself being able to play with those something like that, and like this would be the idea or the song that I would show them.
Speaker 2:Hell yeah. But I think it's interesting.
Speaker 4:It's like fantasy, dude. Exactly. Hell yeah, dude. I got a couple of those.
Speaker 2:Like uh on uh I mainly listen to hip hop, so like Pooh Shite. You got a lot of fantasies though. No, just kidding. You don't want to know. You spam upon that? So uh like Pooh Shystee just got out of jail, and he was talking about like when he was in jail, he wrote a song called FDO First Day Out, and like he wrote it, but then he got transferred to another facility, and this was like two years into like his five-year prison sentence or eight-year prison sentence. Did he kill somebody? I was gonna say, like, I think he was in for five. Um attempted. But while he was in, he wrote that song, and then like when he moved facilities, he like lost all those songs in the transfer. Ooh, gross. And but he was talking about like, oh, I shouldn't have wrote first day out when like I'm not even out yet. You know what I mean? So it's like I had to rewrite the song, but I was like, I think it's interesting how artists write these songs and then it evolves, like they completely change it. And I wanted to see like what you know, like what changed from that song, or like has there been other songs that you wrote that you then like are like a year down the road, you're like, Oh, let me let me readjust this, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I can so two songs on this the song Ease Your Mind and the song Why Do I off of my new live album, Live at Hop Springs, and on Spotify, on Spotify, and uh Why Do I? I started writing, um I can't even remember what it was, but well, let's just say it was 2015 because it was I was in high school, I don't remember what exact year I was, um, in the space and time at least. And I started writing it then and I didn't finish it until 2022. So it went through it actually in my head it was finished even multiple times. I had and I kept coming back and finishing it. Ease your mind did the same thing. I went back and finished and like and changed it because I thought the song that it was was too weak, and I went like the intro of Ease Your Mind, um the there's like a a guitar, like a slide thing wasn't there at all.
Speaker 4:That's the fucking 70-hour week job. No, no, it was another place, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's why I laughed. I was like, Oh, it's all registering to me. No, it was so and I'll I'll talk about that. And me and um the person who so I I used to manage a music store and I worked at a music store for three years and and I was working 70 plus hours at this music store, getting paid kind of shit for the hours I was doing. And I getting a nice discount on some supplies. Yeah, but I don't have the money to fucking buy anything, right? So it's like yeah, you know, um we're making fucking ramen at home. And I'm doing this at the same time. It's just like not working on the restaurant. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it and it was fun, and and I'll never take back because I learned so much.
Speaker 6:Right.
Speaker 1:But it's like I just felt that um, and I don't even know if if I was right about thinking this. My direct um, because I was the assistant manager, my GM, I felt like he cared about me, but he's also getting fucking hit himself.
Speaker 6:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's working more hours than I am, and I'm working 70 because we're paying these people dick because corporate wouldn't let us pay them anymore.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's the top that corporate dick is long, dude. Dude, it's so long. She reaches all the way to the top, bro. It's it's a bottom and out. Yeah, I swear to god, man. Just hitting the base of the mountain every hour.
Speaker 2:Corporate's a lesbian, you know. When you think it can't get any deeper, they pull out a bigger strap. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4:Dude, they keep that strap on them, bro. Uh no, that's intense, dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then it just Boy Scouts. Yeah, and I I I Boy Scouts. What the fuck?
Speaker:Intense.
Speaker 4:Nice, dude. Nice. Okay, God, what your hands look horrifying. Oh my god. Came from where? You just got a finger blasting a coal miner. Uh okay, so where were we at? Sorry. Uh away from the 70 hours a week job.
Speaker 1:So well, and that that's just what it was. So I wrote that song under so having to do with that. So, like it's you mentioned something about uh off air, you mentioned something that you're in management yourself.
Speaker 4:I am so I don't disclose who I work for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 4:I think even now at this point we've gone too far. Hey Brian, edit that out. Go ahead.
Speaker 1:You were saying, yeah, but uh you know that the behind the scenes thing, I don't know if you're married or you're with somebody or whatever.
Speaker 4:I am married. His name's Dave.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. Uh but you know the uh the pressure that a job can put probably on that. Yeah, so I'm dealing with that. This song is from her perspective.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's nice, dude. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:So it's like I know I'm doing this fuck shit. Yeah, and I and I promise you, I'm not trying to do what I'm doing. It's just I don't have an option and I'm scared to leave. Yeah, I'm at the end.
Speaker 2:Like, I got off work, I'm cleaning out rabbit hutches, I'm listening to this song, and I'm like, damn, I'm running like three podcasts right now, you know. It's like you're a fucking mess, bro.
Speaker 4:A day in your life would just fucking crumble. I would fall apart, dude.
Speaker 1:Well, and and what what you just said is like the biggest compliment to a songwriter. Yeah, it's because it's like you're listening to that and you're understanding it.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 1:You know, it's like for me, it's like bet. It's relatable. That that's what I want. That's all I want. I can die as a happy songwriter to Tom's credit.
Speaker 4:He's not right about a lot, like ever. Uh, ease your mind is 100%, I do agree, your most relatable song. Like you could play that to Oliver Anthony music got famous overnight on Joe Rogan. You guys are familiar. Yeah. Uh Ginger Cat from the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, West Virginia. Yep. Um, he had Hell of the Voice. Yeah, amazing voice. Uh, he had that song about uh the Rich Men North of Richmond all day.
Speaker 1:His wife left him and took all of his shit.
Speaker 4:Well, before that, what got him famous was Richm North of Richmond. So Rich Men North of Richmond. If you haven't heard the song, I highly suggest you listen to it. But it's the most relatable song on planet earth.
Speaker 6:Maybe I haven't.
Speaker 4:It talks about even if you're a guy or a girl that works 40 hours a week, Uncle Sam is still dicking you down, taking your money from federal, state, and municipalities, and what are they doing with it? Hashtag Epstein's Island. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, so no, he and he says that in the song. He references Epstein's uh island in the song. Like he's talking about all this crazy fucking shit. That's that's what art is, and that's what it should be. And I think you nailed it with ease your mind, is like find what matters to you and and like make it relatable, and like put it in plain terms. Don't try to put lipstick on a pig, which you didn't. I appreciate it. You know what I'm saying? So it's nice, dude. So kudos to you, Tom. That's a very good question.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say uh on another ADHD question here. Yes, fuck.
Speaker 4:Well, like uh the burps got me thinking of like Yeah, uh when you're like what well, like we've been thinking about gastrointestinal issues lately.
Speaker 2:I feel like I know where this question is like performing when you're ill, or like performing when you're sick, or like you know, like I mean, I'm sure you had to learn, like, oh hey, I can't drink when I'm on stage because the burps and this or that, you know what I mean? Like, I just what what's it like when you know, like you you're lactose intolerant or something and you ate some ice cream with your girlfriend and then you gotta go shit in your pants and you're just on stage.
Speaker 1:Well, the the well with that one, you just you just play with that shit a little bit, yeah. You gotta shoot your draws, though. You can't leave stage to drop a duke.
Speaker 2:But like, has there ever been a time where you're just like fuck, I feel like ass, but you gotta show and you gotta you gotta put on, and like what what brings you to the stage, you know?
Speaker 1:You um number one rule in Nashville, you do not cancel gigs.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Period. And the other thing, too, is you never apologize from the stage.
Speaker 4:Let's cover both of these in detail. Go back to the first one. You never cancel a gig. Where'd you hear that and what's the theory behind it? Is it reputoire type shit? You don't want to get a bad name for there's that, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then it's already hard to book when no one knows who the fuck you are. Yeah. And then you get a reputation of now you're canceling shows and you're not reliable. You don't want that mark on you.
Speaker 4:Okay, now go to rule number two. What was rule number two?
Speaker 1:I was about to ask you the same question.
Speaker 4:Um you say you don't cancel gigs and you don't uh apologize from the stage. Yeah, don't apologize. Why don't you apologize from the stage?
Speaker 1:Because it's backwards. I like if I am performing to you guys, it's not your job to entertain me, it's my job to entertain you. And you don't the moment I say that in your head, you almost start to feel sorry for me or you you you're on edge now watching me. That does, you know. You you at the end of the day, most times if you talk to somebody or something like that and you say, Yeah, I felt like shit, I feel I played like shit, the audience doesn't know what you're talking about. All it does is take away from their experience. Right. They don't know you missed a chord or something.
Speaker 4:I have a hypothetical question. Sure. Rabid nine-year-old comes running on the stage mid-show. You drop kick, said rabid nine-year-old off the stage. To protect your bandmates, of course.
Speaker 2:Right, I'm punting them.
Speaker 4:So you punt a nine-year-old off the stage. And honestly. You know what I mean? For the betterment of the group. Just as a defense measure. Okay. Do you apologize to the crowd then? God, this is so uh damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Speaker 1:No. No, you never. No, fuck that kid. Punt that night. Fuck that kid.
Speaker 3:Don't get on my own.
Speaker 1:Where's your mom?
Speaker 3:Why are you?
Speaker 1:Who checked this kid's ID? I have so many questions. Why are you in this bar right now?
Speaker 2:Who ID'd this dude? Uh, being in Nashville though, like when you went to Nashville, was there like a bar that you were like, I want to play here? Have you played there yet? Have you played Tootsie's? Tootsies is iconic.
Speaker 1:See, I don't play covers though.
Speaker 4:Oh, they only do covers covers?
Speaker 1:That's what they want. The the and to be fair, if you go to Broadway, you know what you're gonna get and you're going there for that. You're like, I want to hear Alan Jackson, I want to hear Brookson Dunn, I want to hear some fucking ACDC when I'm seven beers in. You know what I mean? I'm not I'm not gonna give you that. And I don't want to put myself or an audience member in that position.
Speaker 2:I wonder if like you were a band and you had like a tip jar in front of you of different songs. They do that. And like by the time money's raised to a certain one, you hit that song. Kenna does that. She passes the bucket around in the audience.
Speaker 4:Another question I don't have on skipped this one though, because he didn't really answer. Did I dodge it? He said that. No, no, no. He didn't answer your original question. So is there a venue that you've not? Oh, yeah. No, I didn't. I did I dodged the fuck out of that yet. I'm on it, dude. I'm on fire tonight, dude. I'm locked the fuck in. Let's go.
Speaker 1:We were weaving. So not really. We were weaving there. Yeah, I was weaving hard as fuck.
Speaker 4:Is there is there a spot that you've wanted to play that you've not yet? Not really. To fall to coattail off that question, was there a spot that you were like, I have to play there when you got to Nashville? And what was it like? Not really. Really?
Speaker 1:Not really. Um, because it it's either all of those spots are like I can tell you the obvious ones, but it's like, yeah, if I say that you you'd be like, duh. You know, if I say like the bridge stone, or I say like, you know, but other than that, it's like they're all relatively like small like places, you know.
Speaker 4:And it's they're all like shotgun bars with like a dozen dudes that are blackout drunk trying to get some for the night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 4:I uh I had a nobody is coherent in Nashville. I'm I'm convinced that no one there knows what the fuck is going on around them.
Speaker 1:They don't. They don't at all. And I love just blasted on bushlight and bourbon. It's just hey, I'm trying to get there slowly but surely, you know.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say, so like we had a local bar here in Evansville that got sued because the band that was playing like the bar didn't have the rights to play cover songs. Oh, yeah, that's a big thing. Is that like um like it's nationwide? Well, yeah, but I'm just wondering, like, as a performer, like, is it do you I don't eat that then? I don't eat that cost. That is for the venue to worry about. Because they're like, hey, this is our audience, these are like a song list, or no, okay.
Speaker 4:It's like a monthly bill, isn't it? They just pay like eighteen hundred dollars a month or like twenty thousand dollars a year, and you can play whatever copywritten song you want. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's for the venue, the venue to do. Like for myself, if I would post a cover song here, I would pay that because I'm selling it.
Speaker 2:Who the hell did we just talk to about that? Lawman. Because we were gonna do that. No, on the podcast. Oh, we didn't talk to anybody on the podcast.
Speaker 4:I'll be damned. I bet it was Clint. Shout out to the the episode before this one. I bet it was Clint from High School Saloon. That's what's ringing a bell right now. Maybe we might have mentioned it talking about High School Saloon because they want to do music and comedy. That's what it was, I think. Here nor there. Um, High School Saloon, while you're in town, check them out, dude. They're fucking they're fucking nice, dude.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:Um what else?
Speaker 2:Where were we going, dude? Sorry, I just I was just wondering about like performing local shows and stuff. You got any cool stories from like a show?
Speaker 4:Oh, I got a few dude, you gotta few.
Speaker 3:So well, I I played a swingers bar.
Speaker 2:Oh, just like dudes like Did you wear merch for that?
Speaker 1:Like pineapple shirts? No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 4:Did you get a pineapple for performing?
Speaker 1:No, I I like to to to be like like all jokes aside, I wouldn't have that would have been a gig I would have canceled.
Speaker 4:This whole bit that we're about to do is just gonna be jokes.
Speaker 2:So I gotta story for a bit approached by swingers?
Speaker 4:Uh no, I've not. And you know that's I have a follow-up story. Oh, really? I have a follow-up story as well. All right, settle down, fucking so let's get to the story. So you're at the swingers place.
Speaker 1:Well, and I I learned that it is right before we play, and I already have people come in. It doesn't make sense for me to do that. Do you have a manager or is it just you? I run everything. Okay.
Speaker 2:So you like a bar reaches out to you, I guess, or you reach out to a bar?
Speaker 1:It's it's me. Whenever I'm booking on. You didn't know there were a swingers bar. Yeah. Well, because I mean, whenever I'm in email mode and I'm like trying to play places, I'm emailing 30 venues a day. So it's like heavy, and I'm about to re-enter that right now for next year. So can am I allowed to ask the name of the place? Yeah, fuck that place. Murphy's uh Seasons of Murphreesboro. Like that place. Dude, Murfreesboro is such a crazy place. Yeah, Seasons of Murphy'sboro is the name of the place. It sounds like a place you would fuck somebody else's wife, dude. Dude, I got four seasons right there. Dude, well, hey, to your point.
Speaker:You want to pay by the hour around here, bud?
Speaker 1:Yeah. To your point, too, though, it's attached to a fucking hotel. Which I should, yeah.
Speaker 2:I should have, it should have made sense. Dude, there was like a building in front of Time Out that I was like, I want to buy it and turn it into a hotel that you rent out by the hour. Like right outside of a bar, you would get so much business. You are such a sleazy fuck. Oh my god. Yeah, but um This is who I've chosen to go into business.
Speaker 4:Yeah, hear me.
Speaker 2:If anybody, he's not in the business aspect of that, but if anybody around here wants to start opening hotels in front of bars that charge by the hour, I'm I will get in on that with you. Charge by that.
Speaker 4:This is the most unchristian thing we all right onwards. So definitely not. We are advocating for prostitution at this point.
Speaker 3:You know, you know what? Ladies of the evening, yeah, escorts.
Speaker 4:Yeah, uh, I see, I told you. It comes up one way or the other almost every episode. You know, uh, but anyway, so so did anything like fucking happening? No, it's just apparent. I can't believe you but you had friends show up to that show. Yeah, and were they just like, Billy, what the fuck?
Speaker 1:No. Well, I'm sure it's like a word. Yeah, it was just none of them were all of the people who showed up for me were not aware of this. Oh, good. As we weren't either, but it's like, you know, I had a couple people after the show approach me and like saying nice things, but also on the same end, I'm like, I can't tell if you're being nice or you're trying to fuck me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:But that's crazy to perform it like a like I understand what it's like though, because like sometimes, you know, like especially now with AI, you can have it do deep research, so you're like, hey, give me 50 bars that would fit this genre of music, and it shits you out of list with an email, and you're just pumping emails to the same one, Loki specifying them to them.
Speaker 1:Well, and it wasn't that bad, but like my girlfriend's there. I've had uh I've I I am as anyone is with their girl on protect. Especially in Nashville.
Speaker 4:I will actually murder somebody. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:I'm going over there.
Speaker 1:So it's it's like I don't like all like the joking aside is like I I'm not and I'm on stage. So what I can do on stage is like only so much. As fast as shit happens. You know what I mean? So yeah. Um and then the other well, the reason why I said fuck that. Um oh, the seasons of Murphy's bro, you didn't okay.
Speaker 4:So whatever.
Speaker 1:The reason why I said fuck them was because I told them no cover. You know, you don't you don't have to worry about paying me, you don't have to worry about anything. Um, because I was just trying to get as many people there because I was gonna it was gonna be filmed and it was going to be I was going to do this. This was my first attempt at this. Yeah, it was it was my first attempt at getting it filmed and recorded. Basically, what live at Hop Springs was it was supposed to be live at seasons of Murphy's borough. It was supposed to be that.
Speaker 4:Oh god, oh not great for PR, brother. Right. Let me let me just tell you something, man. Have you ever heard of Divine Intervention? Do you know what I'm talking about? Don't that's when the Good Lord reaches down and just Oh yeah, stops.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:The Good Lord reaches down and stops or prevents something from happening. Well, I know let me tell you. Yeah. I think that happened that day.
Speaker 1:Probably.
Speaker 4:I think the good lord reached down, he was like, listen, man, not for these hippies.
Speaker 1:This ain't the move. This ain't the move. This ain't the move. This ain't the move. Yeah. It wouldn't have been done as well as Pop Springs. Well, and yeah, it wouldn't have because I didn't have the same guy. And what's crazy about that story is the guy who was going to do it was part of another podcast. Because he was gonna film it, record it, and then have me on his podcast and talk about it.
Speaker 3:Hell yeah, dude.
Speaker 1:He fucking like ghosted the shit out of me after it. And then so I'm just like, fuck me, alright. And then the thing that really pissed because none of that had to do anything with seasons. What pissed me off with seasons is number one, just being cool with it being a swinger's bar. And then two is I said no cover so that I could get as many people in there as possible. Right. They started charging a fucking cover. And then I told him, I was like, yo, what's up? And the owner was like, Yeah, we gotta pay the sound guy. I was like, You're not even paying me.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:Like, what are you? I was like, whatever, fuck you.
Speaker 4:Fuck the sound, fuck John, dude. Fuck this guy, bro. I'm drawing these folks in and you're here fucking scalping, Brad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So it was like, I let it go because, like, what am I gonna do? Like, you know, it's like, am I gonna call the show off? Am I going to do like it's just didn't make sense. It was like, you know what, I'm just gonna do it. And if I get the audio, because eventually what I was going to do after it, because I didn't know that this guy was gonna ghost me and not give me any of the stuff until like three months later. I was gonna take the audio and just say, like, Billy Ray Waltz live. I wasn't even gonna like mark the the venue at all. Fuck him. Yeah, but then it ended up just being a fucking entire shit show, and I just let it go. Uh so this is actually the first time I've spoken about it.
Speaker 4:Have you talked that and have you spoken with that podcast fella that fucking took a stiff one right between your cheeks on you? No, he It's okay, we can talk about it. This is a safe, yeah, safe space.
Speaker 1:He ghosted me and then finally I like messaged him on Instagram, or then he finally texted me after it takes him forever, and then he says, Yeah, the sh the show is getting discontinued as we know it. He's like, it's done. And to be fair to him, it is, but it's like it took me annoying the fucking piss out of him to get to give me an answer.
Speaker 4:Just to tell me that you're a fucking Twitter.
Speaker 1:And then the thing and then the thing, I was like, cool. I was like, that's fine, man. I get it. I hate that that happened. Yeah, give me the footage and the audio, and I'll do it.
Speaker 2:He's probably like, I deleted it. No, he wouldn't respond to me. That's wild. Podcasting is not an easy game.
Speaker 1:No, it's not.
Speaker 4:And I I wanted to make another point on that too. So we do off offhand gigs as well. Yeah. So very far and few between will we like. We're just now starting to produce a second podcast here in the Evansville area here. Um, but that being said, uh, also big shout out to the watching the war, check them out, because it maybe has released by now. It's an interesting, that's an interesting name. I like the name. Um, The Watching the War. So check them out on. Yeah, it's right there, big dog. Anyway, you were already up on it. Look at that. That being said, though, uh, like he was saying, this is a tough gig. Like running one of these sons, bitches is not easy. It doesn't, it doesn't run itself. Sure. And you've got a schedule and the whole bit, and then when you start adding like supplemental gigs on top of that, like for cash, like we've done, like he was trying to do, yeah, or whatever. Maybe it was pro bono or whatever. God bless you. But yeah, God bless you. Um you're only further complicating the process. And if you don't have a fucking stud or a Thomas Alfred Grimm the third on your team, or a system, you're fucked flow. Sure. You're fucked. You're just gonna be overwhelmed, and it's gonna be too much. Yeah, so it's a it's a tough gig, man. So I understand where that guy was coming from. I think he bit off more than.
Speaker 2:I do like that you mentioned this though, because uh we're talking about like releases and stuff like that. So like over the years, you know, algorithms change, like different releases happen differently. So like uh Brandon Gabriel taught us about the waterfall.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um, so shout out to BG, that guy's great, he's down in Texas.
Speaker 1:Just real quick, I'm not saying the guy's name on purpose because I don't want because he's just starting to get going and it seems like he shit the better whatever. Just in future reference, guys, if that happens, just say that you lost the shit or something, whatever if he would have been entirely transparent on that.
Speaker 4:Just comms, yeah, just communication in general.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would have been like, cool. I relate to that too, because like I've I've been applying at marketing jobs around here, right? But I didn't reach out to him on email, I reached out to him on their social media platforms, and they couldn't even reply back to me. And I'm like, you're failing at marketing on your own company, you know what I mean? Yet alone, yeah, you know, like if I'm a if I'm a marketer and I'm reaching out to you on your social media and you can't reply on social media, what are you doing for these other businesses?
Speaker 1:I can when I booked, first of all, shout out Tiki on Maine because man, uh Todd Early, I think is the guy's name.
Speaker 4:I don't know the gentleman, but great. That's their DJ or their music booker and everything like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or he might be in with the owners as well. But um every single place I called here, like either uh basically just wouldn't give me an answer and just kept pulling me along. This guy didn't listen to my music, this guy didn't do anything, and he said, Um, yeah, we'll do it. Because I called him, I said, Hey man, I'd like to play at your place, and he was like, What do you do? And I told him, and then he was like, Cool.
Speaker 2:What's uh Bad Randy's new place he's opening? Is it Ray J's? Or Ray Ray something, Ray Leon, yeah, Ray Leon's. That's a spot. Once it opens, once it opens, definitely reach out. I guarantee you you'd be up that out.
Speaker 4:See, see are you familiar with the old Lamascos bar? I am. So it's changed hands now. Yeah. Are you familiar with the change of hands? I am.
Speaker 1:I I I've been in talk with uh with the guy who is Jeremiah?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. He's been on the show. Word, okay. Great fucking guy. Yeah, great fucking guy. He's actually been on several times.
Speaker 1:And and like to out to your point on that, yeah. I messaged him and I was like, hey, I love you to play your place. And I love the fact he didn't have me, but this is what he told me. He's like, We're not far enough to me to even be booking. It's like cool. Thank you for that. That's his like he didn't pull me along. He played the band for years around here.
Speaker 2:He knows how it is.
Speaker 1:I tip my hat that is professional to Jeremiah Gailey. You're a fucking stud. God bless you. I've never I've never met you, but just off the rip, I have so much respect.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he's he's a fucking gangster, dude. And makes he'll cook the fucking dog shit out of meat, dude. Oh, really? Any fucking dogs. I don't know if that's a great reference, man.
Speaker 2:But he he does phenomenal on food. He does. How am I wrong? What do you I just want to say dog shit when referring to food?
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, true. Because of like the FDA regulations. You get it, folks. But the whole point is uh that spot is gonna open in 2026, so retouch bass with him because he's gonna be busy. So circle back to Ray Leon slash bad Randy's.
Speaker 2:January 10th, Tiki at Maine. You'll be there.
Speaker 4:January, what was it? January 10th, 10th. January 10th. Fuck yeah, daddy. I gotta be there. Yeah, dude.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be fun. We're we're playing a lot of covers. We're um it's I don't know if Evansville has had a like soul funk blues thing in a very long time that wasn't in the 80s, to be honest. Yeah, you know. So it's gonna be fun. Um, and then the other thing too is um next year I'm moving back here.
Speaker 4:Really? Yeah. So oh, no more Nash Vegas back to Evans Villian.
Speaker 1:I'm I'm 29. Um I I hate to say like the whole like settling down thing, but it really is. Like, I I want kids, I don't have a support system. It's me, my girlfriend versus the world.
Speaker 2:There is your girlfriend from Evansville as well. So she moved with you and everything like that. So your home roots are here. Ballsy strat on her end, dude. She really rolled the dice on you, brother.
Speaker 4:She did. She did what uh can we can I ask her name? I can edit it out if you want to. No, no, it's fine. What's her name?
Speaker 1:Her name's Yasmin.
Speaker 4:Yasmin? Dude, shout out to Yazzy. Yeah, it's I'm a big nickname guy, too. So Yazzy, big shoots to you. I call her Yazzy. Oh yeah, dude.
Speaker 2:So you guys are gonna move back. That's uh that's nice because like now Evansville, like Evansville's kind of like um, you know, you hear like uh back when we were in school or whatever, Evansville's a black hole. It's not really a black hole, but like a lot of people come back for their roots, but it's like this music scene, like Evansville's five to ten years behind the curve. Yeah. And I feel like, you know, coming back, like it's almost coming back at the sweet spot. Like we were talking about like Bad Randy's, uh, you know, like where Lamasco's is. Uh what'd you call it?
Speaker 4:Uh it's Rayleigh Owns, if I'm not mistaken. Again, uh uh Jeremiah. I'm sorry if I'm fucking this name up.
Speaker 2:But like you have this restaurant opening that's like bar opening that's gonna be heavily focused on music, bar primarily, and then you have like high score saloon, like a lot of places are like they want local, like the more in the new six strings after that got taken over.
Speaker 4:Yeah, phenomenal, phenomenal folks there. The the gentleman that owns Hornet's Nest is the gentleman that owns uh which I've never met, but I've heard nothing.
Speaker 2:The bar that got sued, whatever their name is Chasers, no no no not Chasers. The one that got sued for music, um right down the street. Oh, okay. I forget the name of it. Some country ass name too. Oh Buds, is it? Yeah, Buds. Oh, was it Buds?
Speaker 4:Uh I don't know what's happening with them here nor there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a lot of local places, like, and then like you're actually probably gonna get paid for these gigs, you know what I mean? Like versus I mean, Nashville, they're probably just like, hey, we're giving you the opportunity. You may get a small cut. Here's a free meal.
Speaker 1:Well, I I take it as so what I'm doing right now, I'm gonna do for the rest of my life. I I can't not do this, you know. Um, and I feel like I went to Nashville like almost in the same way that people go to college.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I got an education for Mecca, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:What do you what?
Speaker 4:Yeah, like pilgrimage. Yeah, the pilgrimage dog. Oh, okay. For the Muslims, you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought that's what you were saying. Is that a bad thing?
Speaker 4:You gotta circle it seven times. Is that a bad reference? That's a solid fucking reference. Hey, I yeah, yeah, yeah. So you got it.
Speaker 1:I just didn't expect it.
Speaker 4:So Nashville, Nash Vegas, if you will, is your Mecca, and you made the journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You did the bit. The great thing about the day and age that we live in, and you're 29, so you're a little younger than me, and you understand that this world is heavily electronic. Yeah, you are tied to nowhere. You could go live in god dang Nebraska and record your shit like Oliver Anthony fucking did, and wind up on Joe Rogan in six months. It does not fucking matter. If you're if it and you are, before I say what I'm about to say, if you're worth a single shit, someone will find you. It may take time and it may take dedication and effort and struggle and strife and eating some ramen and playing at swingers fucking parties, but you will be found.
Speaker 1:I promise you that. And yeah, so it's like I'm gonna come here and I'm going to, you know, try to figure out my band situation here. I don't, I'm really out of touch.
Speaker 4:The boys aren't coming with you. No. It's all right though.
Speaker 2:I mean, you met people like us, and we've had several band members on. You can scroll through the catalog. Uh, there's also like Wes that runs Wally Opus. We'd be a good guy to get plugged in with here.
Speaker 1:Which and I know I'll figure it out. And I'm not really that worried about. I know it's just gonna be kind of a time thing, and like I think if I twist my band's like arm, I think they would come here and play a show if I wanted.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? Like the when I said earlier they're my best friends, I wouldn't exaggerate. Like, we are really tight. We hang out outside of, you know.
Speaker 4:And you can blackmail anybody to do anything.
Speaker 1:Sure, I can. I got these pictures of you, bro. Remember that one time.
Speaker 4:I saw you at that swinger's place, bro. Uh yeah, Roman sod ups things.
Speaker 2:Back to the God damn. Another place would be Mo's House. Mo's house, Fidel's.
Speaker 4:I was gonna mention that. Yeah, Mariah, who owns Mo's, is fucking sick, and that is the vibe there. What you're doing is the vibe there. Okay. Uh Mani plays there all the fucking time. That's actually where I saw him play. And he plays at Fidel's. Yeah, Fidel's be fucking nice for you too. Okay. Here nor there. You know that awkward age when you're like getting boners all the time? You know what I'm saying? Where are you saying? Well, I want to tie back to the original point about Evansville. Okay. You know that awkward age when you're like 12, 13, and you're just getting stiffies, and you're not, you're you don't get to uh, I guess I'll say ejaculate, if you will. You're just getting these awkward boners and you don't know what to do with them, and you're walking around, you're tucking them in the waistband, you're shoving them down your pant leg, you're just like, what the fuck is going on? Not realizing what is about to come, like what is George stepping into manhood at that point, right? You're like mature, maturing.
unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 4:That's what Evansville, Indiana is. We are an awkward boner, we are 12 awkward boners away from being like a real fucking city with real entertainment. Like that's that's what Tom was to Tom's point. Like, you're coming in as we're hitting puberty, baby. Yeah, you're coming in at prime time. This is prime time to get your foot in the door and and and make some fucking shit happen, dude. I'm real excited. There's a lot of good spots opening up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I I I was talking to uh my family and stuff. I was like, number one, as much as um of a presence or attention I've tried to like give into Nashville's music scene, yeah. I'm really excited to come and do that here. And also because like in the genres and stuff, I love metal music. I played it, I cut my teeth doing it. It's not what I do now, right? That scene is fine. It always has been, it probably always will be. But everything outside of that, original music is what I'm saying. Right, right. It's pretty terrible from what I've seen. And what I mean by that is we have probably less than 10 artists here who are doing something outside of metal.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a lot of them wind up. I mean, they'll And I'm not saying that's bad.
Speaker 1:I'm not shitting on metal. That's not what I'm saying. It's just like I would love to.
Speaker 2:The metal scene here is bigger than anything else. And it's great.
Speaker 1:Other than maybe hip-hop. Yeah, I was like, I'd like to see that scene, something else like the blues guys, the um fucking rat pack dudes in here, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 4:Let me get some Sammy Davis Jr.
Speaker 2:The beauty of it is is like Evansville, a lot of people are willing to work with other people too. So it's like, you know, like there's gonna be local hip-hop art guys that hear your stuff and they're like, hey, I want you to sing the chorus of this, you know, whatever. And then like it's a lot of networking and like all that. And like you've already built like a solid foundation, so it's like, hey, like, yeah, you can send your stuff down to Nashville to get you know, mix and mastered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I I I got my um we never even talked about this. Uh, the guy who mix and mastered all of live at Hop Springs, Jason Bobo.
Speaker 4:Oh, Bobo. I saw that name on the Spotify, yeah, and I was like, that's such a dope fucking name, dude. Jason Bob. I'm glad we talked about Bobo. Yeah. Nice, dude. And in my head, he will forever be Bobo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so dope. And he did a phenomenal job on Hop Springs, dude. And like he did I'll just wait, the song right below it. He did what you trying to do. He did um what you're trying to do is such a fucking funky name to what you trying to, yeah, it's it's it's about the moment where you get with somebody and you're like, okay, we're more than friends.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel something intense. What the fuck is this? And what are you trying to do? Are you just trying to be yeah?
Speaker 4:So that's dude fucking primo, dude. Yeah, dude, just I swear to God, dude, if you keep doing what you're doing and keep having these real topics and real things, sky's limit for me, brother.
Speaker 1:It's I appreciate that. I it's God given. I feel like I am a catalyst and a conduit to keep with my metaphor of of this music. Like there's certain songs I feel like I work for, but other than that, I feel like they're literally given to me. Yeah, like the mew's. Oh, okay, sure. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's just, you know, it's it's that kind of thing. And um I am just happy it keeps coming. Because sometimes it's when I'm writing this stuff, it's interesting because it comes to me at one point. Like what you're trying to do was came all at one time. So did the song Everything came when I was working at Nissan, the lyrics came to me all in one on a 15-minute break.
Speaker 4:I just counterintuitive too, because when you're writing something that's like close to home, you can be guarded or like insecure, might not be the best word, but like because it's relatable and personable to you, like or personal rather to you, you may have hesitance in putting that on paper and and then let alone putting it in front of a room of 150 people or more. Yeah. But just like sex, honesty sells, like relatability sells. It does. And there are 350 or 400 million people that live in the US, and I bet 250 million of them have can relate to the lyrics to at least two of your songs. I hope. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. At least two of them. Yeah. And that's what sells. Yeah. Making it sound good and pleasurable to the ear is that's what you're learning. I appreciate it. So just keep doing what you're doing with writing. I think you're fucking crushing it, dude. Thanks, man. Um, we'll we need to fucking we're getting up over an hour, dude. Uh, so one thing we do like to come down to at the uh at the very end, and this isn't the end forever, brother. We'll have you back in, especially if you're moving back.
Speaker 2:As soon as you move back, yeah. Like, one, we'll share all our connections that we've got in here. We'll tell you, you know, all these people to like reach out. We'll get you in connections with stage 321 so you can put on your own shows and book it out, and they work really well with artists on the rush. Slocum does some stuff like that. Rush is sick, dude. Yeah, shot. You know, we'll we'll just plug and play you in our network, dog. We'll we'll open up that Rolodex for you.
Speaker 4:Also, if nothing else, just hit me up when you get back into town permanently. Okay. Go out and have a beer and shake it, dude. Um, but that being said, we get to near the end of these interviews, and I we always like to ask like a motivational question, and where that leads us to is was there ever a time in this journey of music at any point in time from the you know, the age of eight all the way up into today, uh, that you wanted to quit. Just hang it up, be done with it. Smash the guitar, yeah. You know, uh punt a nine year old, whatever. You know, just really just be done with creating the art form. And then more I care about that moment, but more importantly, what I care about the most is what pulled you out of that moment. So what was that, what got you out of that dark hole that was like, I hate to you know what I'm gonna keep going.
Speaker 1:I hate to like not give you anywhere to like expand on, but the honest answer is I haven't.
Speaker 2:I've never, you know, like what about like when that song's not coming to you and you're like, fuck, I need to write something. Like, what pulls you through that moment? You don't writer's block, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you so okay. So just writer's block in general is writer's block is where the writer doesn't love the reader, or the listener doesn't love the player. It's not the inability to not write, or it's not the ability to not play. It's not it's it's where you're not liking this feedback loop, right? Yeah. So you gotta understand what that is first.
Speaker 4:You don't like the system.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Or or just what you are producing, right? Because you're trying to constantly challenge yourself to the point that you like it. Um, whenever that happens, there's no shame putting the guitar away for a while. Also, I can feel it when I am in connection to that quote unquote conduit I was talking about. Oh yeah. That it goes. You don't ever force anything, you don't get in the way of the music. You don't. It's just if you stay true to that, then this is what I've done. I've never been in a position where you know, I if I sat down right now, I could write something. Doesn't mean it necessarily be good.
Speaker 2:Trying to force it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Hashtag uh sleepy time tea. This episode was brought to you by Sleepy Time T. No, um, no, that's that's uh that's a very genuine and very analytical answer, and I like that a lot. Um, and honestly, you'd be shocked by how many people that are so intrinsically motivated that come in here and they're like, I've never had a moment where I wanted to quit this. We get those pretty frequently. Yeah, but every now and then you find a little nugget in there. Sure. And they're like, you know what it was for me? It was my pet gerbil. And I'm like, dude, that's genius. Well, I mark that down. Dock it, make a reel out of it, fuck it, put it everywhere. But if you've never wanted to quit, bro, that just means a, yeah, I mean, you're still young because you're gonna have a hiccup somewhere, and then what matters is that you keep that intrinsic for you know, that that that high energy mode or you keep that love for the game with you when that time comes around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's you know, I this is the thing I I like truly love doing, and um it's it would be really hard for me to find something else that um I like doing as much, and I don't know what the hell I would do if I wasn't doing it. Right. So it's just yeah music is yeah, yeah, yeah. And to be honest, it always has been. Like, ever since like there's not too many people who remember a time with me where I wasn't maybe I wasn't like known as a guitar player, but they knew I played. Right. You know what I mean? So it's yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, what about advice you would give to somebody that like wants to get into music or maybe has been playing music but's afraid to you know make a Spotify account and start releasing stuff?
Speaker 1:You are going to suck at everything when you first start. Hell yeah, brother.
Speaker 4:Thank you for joining us on another podcast of the Days Grim. Uh no, just I mean, that's just cut this show right now. Hey, listen, you're gonna suck a lot of dicks. Uh, all right, you guys have a great night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's it though. You do matter, as I'm sure. How long have you guys been doing the podcast now?
Speaker 4:Five years. No, going on six years now. We're at six years. We are cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you think you fucking sucked when you first started? Bro, we still suck.
Speaker 4:Um as we have long ago started. No. I'm you're your own you're always your own worst critic. So like I watch or listen to a podcast, very rarely, by the way, but when I do, I'm like, ah.
Speaker 1:Well, and you just get more into the the thing I really learned is no matter um what you're doing, 100% all in. Like no matter what. Down the clutch. Yeah, if if like, you know, if you're on stage trying to figure something out, if you're the first time you're getting in front of a microphone, all in. Don't be afraid. You know what I mean? It just you know um that's the only way to do it, and you're going to suck, and it's okay to suck. I made a video uh a while back about um because I had the footage from Why Do I Live at Hop Springs and the footage of my music video of Why Do I when I first released it, I put them side by side and stuff, and you can hear the difference in my voice. And I and I know how, and but you see the progression, you know. It's like it's not meant to be I can't expect myself to be what I was back in 2020 to what I am now, just because I the amount of stuff I learned within that time, you know, it's just yeah, it's just like you're gonna suck and not not starting it or not doing it is the thing that is fucking you, not the fear of it. Yeah, it's like it's like the Who's your lottery, bro? You can't win if you don't play, but yeah, and then the other point I would, you know, go go to that is and this is the thing that sucks that really sucks, that you have to like understand and be okay with. There are people who watch you who are going to think you suck, and there are people who watch you who are gonna make fun of you, just in everything you do. Oh, yeah, dude. You know what I mean? And you have to be okay with it, and you have to just not let it bother you. And that's tough because those same people might be people who um are close to you, and then you have to, you know, and then that sucks when you figure that out, but it's just like you have to be okay with it, and that's the tough.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we had a TikTok comment one time that uh somebody unnamed on this podcast uh replied to, and it did not end well, and I think that person still hates us and or stalks us. Uh Brian doesn't let me reply to half the comments. Not anymore. Not anymore. You you guys do TikTok too? Uh we're everywhere, brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just check us out, bro. If you find us, we'll we'll link about the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Um I was gonna say, so other than the show, January 10th at Tiki on Maine, you have any upcoming dates? Um, I I'm playing um a music store, but like short of that, I don't have anything.
Speaker 1:Doc, you know, but uh last minute shout outs, who's got you to where you're at? Who's keeping you going? Um I want to shout out Tone Central Station for the amp guru stuff, um, and them just being great, Jamie Jackson and um Todd Zilla, Todd Austin. Um they've just been great to me and helped me through the years. Um and my band um just for staying with me as long as they have and helping me, and um Jason for helping me release amazing music, and then should have said this first, but God. Hell yeah. Hell yeah, dude.
Speaker 4:And um a la for you. You know Lexi Lexi's his girlfriend or fiance. Uh she loves it when I like reference anything Muslim uh towards Tom. Yeah, big fan.
Speaker 1:But I'm sure there's a backstory to that. I oh yeah, we'll cover it later. Uh but yeah.
Speaker 2:Billy Ray Wallace, uh, it's been an honor. It's been a pleasure to seriously, brother.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much. You came all the way up from Nash Vegas. You could have done anything else on a what fucking day of the week is it? Tuesday.
Speaker 2:Can't wait for you to move back to the 812.
Speaker 4:So pumped. Hit me up. I want to get a beer, dude. Uh just sit and talk. I'm a big music head. I can go punch for you know punch for punch on anything.
Speaker 2:And I never leave the house. So Brian will hook you up with all our connections unless you reach out on social media.
Speaker 4:Yeah, autism. Uh dude, seriously, thank you so much. You could have literally done anything for the last two hours. You came in, hung out with us, had been two hours. Uh I'm out over an hour. So whatever. Okay, I was like, damn. Yeah, so seriously, thank you, dude. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Um, thank you, folks at home, for listening, watching, whatever. Like, subscribe, do the whole thing, tell your friends about us. And then is there a song you would like us to play of yours to outro on? Yeah, what do we want to outro on? Do we want to outro on a song? Do we not? We should have covered that pre-show. God damn it, Tom. Just uh falling off the rails.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do my number one right now. Let's just do jealous.
Speaker 4:And we are gonna outro on Jealous, uh, live from Hop Springs again by Billy Ray Wallace. Seriously. Thank you so much, brother.
Speaker:Please, and I'm hot.