Slade Coulter

Full episode transcript, auto-generated from the audio and lightly formatted (verbatim, not edited).

I'm gonna do a little name dropping here with Zach Brian send me that message on Instagram I'm talking about how much you love my song He's like dude I'm I want to fly you up to Seattle come stay with me let's shoot some videos together I was like do you realize what's going on he's like I've got people sending me hate mail

every day I didn't mean for this to happen it's like I just put some videos on Twitter [Music] did you dip stuff growing up no when did you start out uh starting College it was uh I was like a vapor you know oh that was like yeah I missed it and uh yeah I had a buddy that used those and uh I

think the first time I tried one uh it's like in class with them and put it in my head so let's see him I've never even actually spinning dude are they uh but you didn't dip it you just but did you smoke cigarettes no you just did Vape just did The Vape did The Vape do you still Vape no is it bad

for your voice vaping probably I'm gonna hope and this is just like a regular you gotta line up the arrows on the side what dude they're great so complicated so it's not like a regular snuff can no but I've I have friends that'll dip or that do dip and they'll put in one of those and spit it out after like two minutes

dude I feel like too strong for me I'm like whoa what yeah I feel like I'm the person that this is designed for to not open it [Laughter] am I a child what do you mean you gotta line up the arrows see the little arrows on top and bottom no I 100 don't see the arrows this is pathetic does it have more

nicotine than uh snuff I did dude I feel like the whole place so my bad thing is I can't uh I used to smoke cigarettes um not a ton but I chewed red man too oh yeah if I take one dip of snuff I'll throw up in five minutes really yeah like I shouldn't do this but it's just a pouch huh yeah

it's just nicotine powder this is non-tobacco I would never open five minutes doesn't stain your teeth doesn't give you cancer what do you mean the nicotine buzz it's like non-carcinogenic that's what it says nicotine in it yeah but I don't know does nicotine itself cause cancer or is it all the other chemicals uh no I don't think so but for sure not

the guy to ask but here's what here's the Spiel I'll give you on the nicotine I think it's bad for your arteries really yeah I think it causes artery arterial damage well plaque buildup we'll see but that would make sense because there's not actually you pop one in to I do I'll throw up I can almost guarantee he could spin it up

yeah but once I get the spins then you're like yeah you're right okay just come on your podcast and pure pressure yeah I know right uh but here's the deal I could always do loose leaf tobacco all right now we got to go through this freaking process again I always used to do loose leaf tobacco and uh this is unbelievable where's the

area okay there's a little noshes yeah right there what see on the top and the bottom will not oh it's like a big Arrow yeah Oh I thought it was going to be I think it was gonna be more concealed oh it's too obvious put in my lower lip top lip top y top lip I don't know it's just what it says

on the can that's not everybody does upper decky I didn't need any lunch either so oh yeah one of my buddies always sticks in it can you swallow are you would you swallow yeah you swallow it you don't spit nope huh it's great it's all minty that seems weird have you ever done one you want one I feel like putting everybody feels

like I looked at like in the camera did you ever do one yeah Zen hit me up sponsor me here give him one out here spreading the word um hmm I don't know I so like one of my buddies does it like he always sticks it like right here and right in the middle in his upper lip yeah he always looks like

he's got like you really don't spit no I swear it's so weird I said dude I have one in 24 hours a day pretty much that's not good yeah I know but so you're on a bridge you drink a lot of cats not much I mean a couple cups of coffee in the morning yeah that's about it I don't do many energy

drinks maybe like one a week maybe you know day before show or something I'll have one but that's something that's changed for me big time is uh energy drinks because like you get nervous to play it all uh depends on the show okay sure most the time no but like you know we've got the opportunity to be on shows like a couple

shows like Parker McCollum and that is just a different level of shows uh we've done I think just two with him but that one was a Dickies one that was a Dickies Arena I bet that was nuts and insane and it was like thanks man it was like the day before that or two days before that we were playing a club show

for like 90 people you know and then we go and we're opening for Parker 14 000 people in Dickies Arena and the whole time I was just like you know trying to build my confidence for the show and I'm not nervous I got this no big deal and we weren't on ears the idea that we're on wedges and then stepped out from

behind that curtain and it's horrifying really terrifying dude my part it's just like how nervous were you were like were you before it I wasn't and then because that's the thing yeah I was just psyching myself up I got this you know I've been I've been training for this is what I've been trying to do then you get out there it's 14

000 people staring at you and you're just like don't mess up don't mess up real mess the whole time I was just telling myself don't mess up once uh once I got a couple songs in though and kind of you know got in the groove it was good after that it was a blast did you feel it in your voice for sure

okay oh even going back and I listen you're giving I'm getting anxious now yeah I was listening to people like that took some videos and stuff of us and you're just like in my voice assistant first song yeah stuff like that is I definitely got a little nervous but I don't know if people fully understand it's not actually how many people are

there is what makes you nervous it's the fact that they're there for Parker that too if all those people were freaking Slade fans you'd probably be I mean sure you'd have some nerves but it would be like excitement like for sure all these people are here but it was so much cough I mean if all those people are singing the words to

your songs yeah it's no big deal you get up there and it's just blank faces as far as you can see and it's just yeah or definitely like when you first start playing uh I know you got huge like immediately right when you started playing so you probably have you probably haven't played for as many empty rooms as I have so uh

but like playing for an empty room is way more nerve-wracking yeah than or just like a few people then yeah it's just like three people sitting right in front of the stage yeah or I'll tell you I think maybe the most nervous I've ever been for a show is Hometown stuff for like people that you know really well you really care what

they think yeah so yeah because I mean it's one thing if it's strangers you're like oh I'm never gonna see this guy again in my life but like you know people that I grew up with and my teachers from school and my hometown friends and stuff yes stuff like that's nerve-wracking still what do you do to like combat it so um just

do it because I mean are you like a uh substitute like it's you know you don't want to get drunk or anything I mean no not for stuff like that anyways but uh because a lot of people I talk to they usually find something it's like I'll just get hammered yeah no it's never been my thing it gets super high or they

get super drunk right uh I've heard about some of them doing uh beta blockers what is that I think it's um like a Xanax oh I got you right yeah I hadn't tried that next is a beta blocker hadn't tried that uh but I've heard my work I've heard well so I heard they give you uh like dry mouth which would suck

for singing yeah um and then uh like a lot of solo musicians I've heard about them using I've heard a lot of golfers use them too it slows your heart rate that makes sense I'm probably saying a lot of stuff that's inaccurate I think it's a beta blocker I think it slows your heart rate so it just calms you down but there's

a conspiracy on uh I went down like a YouTube rabbit hole one time uh on like Tiger Woods and one of the I think it was maybe a masters he was in when he was walking towards 17th hole or something like that he like took something from maybe it was even the caddy it looked like he took something so people were saying

they were because he was like coming down the streets or something I don't pull them out for that last one some just chill you out yeah I don't know how I feel about some of that stuff because there for a while I was uh I've gone through stretches where like maybe I've never been the type that I like get up there I'm

gonna be like drunk like sloppy or something like I have some probably a couple too many before I go on yeah and on stage you know you have a couple shots or something because people buy your buy your shots yeah uh and like when I would go on stage I might not be as nervous when I walked up there but about three

or four songs in you just I don't really feel in control yeah right you know I don't like that no I would I do not like that feeling yeah and so I've never been one to you know get real drunk or high before a show yeah it's not my thing I just like 95 of the shows we play I'm like Stone sober

yeah that's just work what works best for me it's like acid always been like that uh I mean for the most part yeah right because I think the big thing is I've played a handful of shows where I was just I had no business being on stage you know sure I had way too many drinks before the show you did last time

all day at Blue Light you did a I don't know what you call it I mean you chugged a beer so you did the uh it was your birthday that was my birthday that was and I do appreciate it no recollection of that really oh you were like we sang together I yeah I saw the video the next day dude but no

recollection of that really yeah well you did you spun the beer spun the beard of the beer tornado yeah it was fun yeah I think it was for sure yeah it was it was a good time yeah you like sprayed it yeah but I've done that a couple times like when I'm playing the show and I remember specifically we uh bro I

can't do it you can't do it I can't I told you man they're strong it's kind of dude it'll like I mean it'll thump you yeah let's say one of the first times I did was an 8 A.M class hey did you do one oh my gosh Trends over there yeah planet dude but I remember specifically we just show it T-Birds and

out at uh Melody yeah and uh as me and steli doing like a co-headlining thing out there and uh I think we ended the night but we just had a ton of our friends come from all over he brought up like you know 50 or 60 people from College Station and I had all of our friends in the area come out and

so like from the time we got there like noon we just started drinking and like all of our friends were like camped out there it wasn't during ljt or anything it was just a show and so you know Larry Joe let us set up tents and stuff out there and uh I got on stage that night and we're going the first song

and it starts with me just playing guitar riff and the band comes in and I turned around to the band I'm like why are you guys playing so fast like you are going like twice as fast as we're supposed to be are y'all on click no this is before we were on yours are on click okay and they're like no you are

playing like so slow yeah right I was like oh this is not good and I was forgetting words oh and that's the word stumbling all over the stage oh really oh it's bad work of art yeah actually Dalton came up to the stage and was like just make it through one more song and be done oh really oh man this is not

good oh no yeah it's bad yeah I've had a couple experiences like that one at filthy mcnasty's there's some just some places you have to do that you know but uh yeah I don't like that feeling of not being in control and I'll always wake up the next morning and I'm just like why did I do that yeah like I look like

such an idiot probably yeah so yeah I don't know I prefer to I prefer to do it sober and be able to soak in the whole experience you know yeah it makes you so much more in the moment for sure because a lot of this stuff that you know people do is to avoid feelings in the moment yeah but like the whole

the whole Endeavor of like performing live for people is to be in the moment and to for sure like make people feel things and you feel something yeah it's like I don't want to block out those feelings exactly even if they're like the bad feelings it's gonna make a good song you know yeah or you I just man the intuition of people

is pretty strong and uh I think we're putting out whatever you want to call it not to be like too uh ethereal but like you know you're putting out like certain Vibes and stuff and like they can sense when you're not totally there for sure and it's probably less believable yeah I just like I like being in the moment and feeling it

but that's something I've discovered like in the last you know few years yeah is not trying to avoid it no for sure and I mean it works for some people though I mean some people that's what they built their brand on yeah it's just you know I'm get [expletive] up and go party right that's cool you do you but that's not my

thing you know yeah we definitely have gone through a stretch here in uh like I guess in the Texas country thing where it you know I it's always been pretty heavy where it's you know about drinking beer and partying and stuff but sometimes it gets to a point that it's like is this even about music anymore right yeah or is this just

like a Booze Fest which is cool and I mean I yeah I mean it's people eat it up though I love it and uh you know it's I think it's okay to do every now and then but it's just you see some of these guys doing it four or five days a week I'm like dude how do you function like how do

you function can do that for a long time no and I don't know we'll see yeah they might you're uh and they can do it how long have you like really when did you put out your first record uh we did that first CP in 2019. yeah so it's been it's been quick yeah it's been good that's the one that Kurt helped

us out with for sure yeah we have the mutual buddy out there shout out to Kurt Ron Kurt Reinhardt he's the man Snyder Texas dude yep farmer got like a thousand kids yeah you just had a kid too I did I did got a four month old little girl and that has been the wildest life change you can imagine because you know

I don't know man with being a full-time musician and touring as my main source of income it's just like made me reevaluate everything it's like man do I really want to be gone this much okay you know and I love touring I love playing shows but it definitely makes you take a step back and see the more important things you know and

I'm Gonna Keep touring and doing it because it is my main source of income and I absolutely love doing it but uh yeah it's definitely a game changer for sure and like I was talking about earlier and like tonight I'm leaving after the show get back home as soon as possible you know so that's awesome though man yeah it's awesome what's loving

it yeah what like what specifically has it changed for you man so just I find myself I find myself missing home a lot more for one or you know missing her for sure and uh you know anytime I've got free time I'm calling her face timing you know let me see her how's she doing and uh but I think the main thing

has changed is when I'm home so I'm home before you know it's like oh I've been gone four or five days you know I'm gonna drink some beer and lay on the couch for three days and not do anything and now it's like there's no free time whatsoever it's like you're always doing something always tending something taking care of her and but

it's been great it's like the most rewarding most rewarding thing I've ever done for sure has it made you more focused on certain things yeah definitely and uh it's definitely given me a reason to I think pursue music Harder because before is like you know I'm doing this because this is what I love to do I'm having fun doing this and now

it's like [expletive] I got a family to provide for like I've got to do the best I can at this to yeah to you know provide for my family yeah and uh so yeah it's definitely given me incentive to work harder it's a it's changed the style of songs I write that's been a big thing I feel like because before uh I'm

a huge heartbreak song guy for whatever reason and now it's all like I'm just like writing happy songs and love songs and that's weird man it's been a big change but I'm enjoying it yeah I'm enjoying it so do you have are you trying to make an effort are you resisting writing some of that stuff are you leaning into it more writing

like the love songs and stuff yeah oh I'm leaning into it okay cool yeah because I mean before I was I was already kind of getting burnt out on doing just the sad sappy you know same old song but and don't get me wrong I still write a bunch of those songs but you know I've definitely been wanting to change it up

a little bit yeah you know incorporate some more of those happier feelings into the songs for sure so we'll see yeah I think I've got some good ones some good ones ready to go so we'll see how they do yeah what's like typically you're right are you writing like all the time or now it's just whenever I get a free moment yeah

I mean most of the time like most of the stuff I've written since she's been born has been either when we're on the road in the hotel room or you know once she's asleep and I'm laying in bed just like thinking through lines trying to make stuff match up but yeah I don't have just a ton of free time to just sit

down and force myself to write anymore so like any free moment I get I'm thinking about writing a song is the start of a song does It kind of just change it like every ties it different every time or do you have a process see I don't really have a process for it I don't know about you or what's yours is but

I have several songs where it's based completely around a guitar riff I come up with and then I have other songs that are based off of one line that I think of midnight or something you know so it's never no song is that I've written has ever started the same or it's been I don't think I've ever sat down and said hey

I want to write a song about this it's like I'll have a catchy line hit me or a guitar riff or something and then I'll build the entire rest of the song around that what about you what's your process like it's different every time but I'm very Melody driven yeah so like I mean I just you know you're probably the same way

I just have mountains of stuff in my phone like on voice memos just like Melody ideas and like for me it's just it's really rare that I'm gonna I'm not a super technically proficient like guitar player so it's very rare that I would just pick up the instrument and play something I just never played before yeah so Melody but your mind will

go places that maybe your hands won't for sure um and so a lot of times if I just let my mind chase down a Melody then when I try to put some like chord arrangements to it uh it'll be something really unique that I just like wow okay I never would have done that before interesting but it is kind of different every

time that's what's fun about it is it's so different every time yeah and I don't I don't know if I've ever written a song like that just like the thought of a melody and then we based a song around that really yeah it's usually I'll usually get a chord structure first or the line itself and then put the music to that okay

but uh but even when you come up with a lyric like maybe like the hook to a song or something right that doesn't naturally like even sometimes when I say the hook it sort of has like a Cadence I see what you're saying you know what I mean yeah and you naturally kind of want to sing it a certain way for sure

and I can see that but like I don't ever imagine a Melody without the words to it you see what I'm saying oh just humming them it's humming a melody and then putting music like putting chords and words to that yeah I don't know if I've ever written a song like that I might have to try that it's pretty cool well I

get yeah I guess I am like probably singing vowels and stuff like Google gaga type stuff yeah for sure so it always has a little bit oh I am not a great guitar player by any means either but that is something I have been working on because you know I uh ditched the acoustic last year I think and so I've just been

playing Rhythm electric on stage full time really and uh yeah and it definitely changes up the way I play and uh has made me want to become a better guitar player so I don't look like an idiot sure and uh so I've been I've been working on solos and stuff trying to write solos and play solos yeah and I did using your

voice for that I think is like the biggest tool 100 if you sit down and you can hum a solo and then figure out the notes to match it I think that's the easiest way to do it well that's the exact same way of like writing a song yeah just fixing that Melody which is weird that I've never used that approach for

writing a song but for writing a solo yeah but because you will I'm yeah I yeah because it'll make you it'll just make you play something that you wouldn't you would normally be so limited for sure by what you're gonna play dude and that's another thing too it's I feel like the more you learn how to write a song and how to

play guitar the harder it is to write a song you know what I mean because like when I first started like with the songs on the EP and stuff it was oh I know four chords I'm gonna write some songs with these four chords now it's like I've learned I've learned you know what chords are in a key and you know all

these different changes and it's like oh I could do this or I could do this or I could do this oh so like having so many more options yeah like how do you I don't know how to narrow it down now because before I was like oh I only know how to do this so I'm gonna do that it was easier with

the Simplicity for sure so how do you feel about a lot of your early stuff you wrote do you still like really like it or some of it yeah some of it some of it I you know you get burned out on once you play a song five thousand times and uh especially if it's you know a song with three chords in

it man I kind of want to play something fun but I don't I feel like that was the most I don't know I feel like those had the strongest message almost because like I was limited by what I could do on a guitar so it was all just what can I do with the lyrics you know yeah what can I do with

the message of it now it's just like there's now that I know more yes there's so many options and with social media like we were talking about earlier and listen to all these different styles and all these different artists and trying to incorporate all these different things it's easy to just get lost in it and not know where to go so I've

been in like a huge writer's block uh I'm like just now getting out of it but for like six months I could not I couldn't write a line almost hmm I don't know what it was but uh you know I just sit down and just play with the guitar for hours and just never write anything to it I don't know if you

ever get that but I guess it's I write so much so often yeah but I don't try to write a song that's a good approach to it I think I think the pressure is what creates the block yeah it's like this doesn't I'm just writing down something that means something to me right and it doesn't have to fit into something right now

yeah and so like later on if I'm buying a cool melody or cool chord progression I just refer back to that some of that stuff I wrote and then maybe you can and then I still might not even use it but it inspires something else in like the next song I don't know I mean it feels like if I if I stop

doing it though it's kind of like a muscle that you have to constantly work at for sure and if I shut it down it's gonna you know I'm not gonna be as fertile that's a weird word to use but you know what I mean no I know I think man it's hard not to not to get complacent to because like with the

with the record we put out you know eight or nine months ago it's like it was like a year and a half went into you know writing those songs and getting in the studio and recording and everything before release it was like this year and a half of build up and work into it's like we finally put it out and it was

like I can just relax now I'm gonna take a month or two off you know then you do you do a month or two without writing anything or trying to write anything and you come back and it's like man you almost forget how to do it you like lose the groove of things I feel like and then I get sucked back into

the loop of basically writing the same songs I've already written you know so I don't know but I've been I've been writing a lot more recently and trying to kind of break that mold and especially with having the kid and my life changing so much it's opened a lot of doors for different uh different writing styles and different directions to go for

sure so yeah what would your next music like what you said kind of more love song type stuff but would it be musically pretty similar to what you've done uh yes and no uh that being said I don't I haven't got with the band to rehearsing these new songs or you know work out all the real music behind it but uh I

think it'll be you know fairly similar to the stuff we've done just because like we talked about earlier I when I go record I take the whole band with me and we go record you know as our band then each guy has their own individual style that kind of contributes to our sound and so I don't think our overall sound will change

too much but definitely I think the message behind some of it and uh and yeah just the feel behind some of it I'm kind of burned out on doing the sad feeling sorry for myself songs you know what I mean and so I don't know we'll see how it goes once we get in the studio and lay the songs down but I'm

excited to definitely incorporate some happier stuff into our music yeah you had mentioned to me that in previous recording scenarios you're like writing those songs like on the way to the studio I'm sure my band's been pissed off at me yeah that terrifies me for that but yeah and a lot of it was sometimes deadlines like you were talking about the pressure

causes the block but sometimes it creates the songs too oh because it's like oh I have two days to finish this song because it we would book studio time you know three months ahead and I'm a horrible procrastinator I'm like oh I've got three months to finish this song that's no big deal and then I'd look up and it's like oh [expletive]

it's a week till we go into the studio and I don't have this song finished yet and uh so yeah the band would just be learning the song in the studio and which is great because we worked with Serato and stuff and he's a magician and uh you know would give us recommendations and stuff what to do what direction to go and

so it worked out but that is a position I don't want to put myself or the band in anymore you know because it's definitely stressful yeah because like I'm paying a lot of money for the studio time yeah dude why am I doing this to myself you know I should add these songs you know ready and rehearsed and so that's another thing

I'm working on but uh yeah we'll see uh when did you actually start playing so that's a good question so growing up uh I mean I remember being real young like you know probably seven or eight and my dad teaching me chords you know gcd on a guitar and uh I just didn't have interest in it yet or the attention span to

have interest in it but my dad played to us you know growing up and would sing songs to us and uh when I turned I think of 16. and uh I started you know playing my Dad's guitar and learning some songs and uh I've got a huge family I got six sisters and a brother I didn't know that yeah so and we're

all spread out ages so I got two sisters that are twins they're five years older than me and uh they would sing a lot my sister Kelsey is incredible singer and uh it started out me playing songs while she would sing I'd play guitar and she would sing and you know we just make little videos and stuff and then it got to

I would sing back up for and uh we'd sing do a couple Duets here and there and uh I just really started to enjoy it and uh so I started writing songs like just before I graduated high school I started writing songs and uh got up to school Texas Tech went for my freshman orientation and uh you know Grant Gilbert his little

brother was my roommate in freshman orientation and I was just getting into music and he's like hey my brother has a band yada it just kind of clicks we became great friends I went on the road selling merch for grant for like a year and a half and uh this whole time I was writing songs and stuff and playing little local gigs

for beer money on the weekends basically and I was going to engineering school at the time and hated it and uh it just made the decision I was like I'm gonna I'm gonna change my major I'm gonna go to Business School I'm gonna really focus on I'm gonna try to get a band together you know I'm gonna try to I'm gonna try

to do the damn thing and uh worked on that all throughout College writing songs and recorded the EP and it just so worked out that right as I graduated college I was you know full-time on the road pretty much did you drop out no finish oh really trying to drop out ah mom was not happy but yeah I got my degree good

old business marketing degree and uh yeah my diplomas in the back pocket of seeing my truck to this day yeah and you've used it a lot a lot a lot yeah that market actually talked to Jamie at Blue lot about hanging it up behind the bar there you go okay this is where it gets you my office yeah the man Lubbock is

a wild place for music it's like one of my favorite places to go play it's such a hot spot man for whatever reason I guess because there's nothing else to do there and it's so far away from everything but the music scene there is incredible it really is it's one of the best in Texas by like by far yeah oh yeah and

like with blue light being there it was it's like these songwriters been you know yeah and with them doing songwriter night and so many musicians coming out of there it's I'm super thankful I decided to go up to Lubbock for school and I kind of just fell into it you know it wasn't something I'd ever was intending to do full time really

like I said I was going to engineering school because my plan was to you know get my mechanical engineering degree and you know go work in an office somewhere and make a bunch of money and but then you started playing music and I was like this is way more fun yeah and it all worked out so it's been good man yeah I

was a lot of people dog on the whole streaming thing like there's no money in it but I mean it's changed my life and uh for sure it's interesting for Indie artists a lot of us like love streaming yeah oh yeah like I mean you put out your first thing and sort of just rocket it up yeah man and I mean a

bunch of people like you know scoff at it but it's like I remember when I was first starting to get those the streaming checks in and it wasn't much but I'm into a bro college kid who's eating ramen noodles every night it's like I got like a 300 check this month totally like that's life-changing yeah and you know that was just more

incentive to keep writing songs and keep doing it you know definitely but I think it's awesome man seems like the growth on it has changed though like there was a window of time where like and still you can you know there's people that really blow up but like even when I first started putting some stuff out like the run there was like

a quicker run that I had and now it's like I knew if I put out some music I would have a certain amount of growth and now it doesn't seem quite as easy to grow yeah I could see that it's just it's so unpredictable man yeah so unpredictable and I've said this a thousand times too it's you never know who's going to

take off especially now with Tick Tock and all the social media and stuff you'll have the most talented person you've ever seen you know go and sell 10 tickets to a show because they have no social media following or anything and then you'll see a band that's just like cannot keep it together can't stay in time can't stay in tune and but

they have this huge social media following and they'll be selling 500 tickets a night it's like it's so unpredictable it is the freaking Spotify monthly listeners thing yeah it drives me nuts like I get it that it's a it's a decent metric for like how somebody's probably doing but seems like a lot of people are like addicted to the idea of this

like Spotify monthly listeners and uh it just doesn't tell the full story not even close because there's some like there's some big touring bands that are crushing it yeah and they don't like have that many no but there's a lot of other music on the internet other than Spotify for sure like got apple and you got YouTube and you got yeah with

yourself like streaming services that are just as big you know but for whatever reason Spotify is just that is the metric that everybody wants to use for some reason why but you're right it wasn't yeah what I guess just because it's the biggest streaming service I guess and then you're running the ones that I've put The Listener count on there yeah I'll

have people that text me and they're like man you went up ten thousand and it's like what really I sold the same amount of tickets this week if it goes down 10 000 are you gonna be like oh man he's falling off right what come on yeah I don't know man it's uh it's a weird thing like you said it doesn't it

means something and it's and it's good uh to be able to somewhat keep up with progress or whatever you want to call it but it does not tell the full story by any means it's does it like psychologically have an effect some of those numbers like I mean social media numbers yeah YouTube Spotify yeah it does on me it does for sure

yeah because that's something I want to be the guy that doesn't care about any of that you know but with as like they go hand in hand now the music business and social media it's like it's such a big part of what I do now that it's hard not to care about you know senior numbers drop a few thousand or but like

you said it sometimes it doesn't mean anything but you know it's not something you like to see I know it's like and it's vicious little thing where it can allow like some doubt to creep in for sure and they're like kind of arbitrary numbers because like when you're when you're dealing with numbers that you are it's like you drop a couple thousand

multi listeners and stuff like in the grand scheme of it not a big deal at all right but it's still just pokes at you for sure and it's like you just gotta you have to be to see those numbers keep growing you have to be constantly putting out music which is something I've been trying to do but it's tough man unless you

own your own studio and yeah are able to just be you know recording Non-Stop it's or have the money to be paying for studio time non-stop yeah it's hard but yeah I think it definitely does have a little bit of psychological impact on you yeah we had talked about this a little while ago about because you played Sports growing up and I

did too I was like always in very competitive environments and uh the thing that attracted me so much to music was the fact that I could just sit around with my buddies and play the guitar and sing and just be in the moment and feel something just feel good and enjoy it but there was not a competitive element even if you were

sitting around playing and like one of your buddies shreds a solo he's a way better guitar player than you when you're sitting around with everybody you can watch him do it and just enjoy it yeah it's never a moment of uh oh damn I wish I could do her like man that's you know that's [expletive] that he can do that right you

would never think that like when you're just jamming with your buddies it's great I am saying I wish I could do that but added him from exactly that exactly and then so but I guess it comes with the territory of it being a business which sucks but it's necessary but I've always resisted the competitive nature to it because this stuff is not

like it's not winning and losing and there's not a right way to do it there's not a wrong way it's a song it's like how even the idea there's certain types of music that I really don't like but for me to make the statement that music sucks man that's that you know how does anybody like that is like useless energy and who

am I to say if people like it people like it right I don't have to listen to it but it's not really up for me to decide whether it's good or not it's freaking music like there's no objective standard I can and like especially in like in our scene it's like I people have horror stories about you know the bands they're open

for being [expletive] and stuff but it's like just about every single person we've ever played with has been like the coolest dude pretty cool yeah it's been great to us and you know I consider myself friends with like all these bands in our scene now and like see one of them pop off and you know have a song that goes crazy that

makes me excited for them yeah you know and it's whether they're passing us up or not like I'm excited for them yes do I want to be in their shoes yeah maybe but I'm not gonna you know diss them for being successful so we're all trying to do you know I know but it is like a weird human natural human psychology where

it's like wow I know why it's so frustrating like why is that our like default position I don't know man it's almost like you have to really be aware of it and actively fight against it yeah and then once you do I started doing a uh um a thing I guess about a year ago where you know if I'm just on something

and I see somebody that it could potentially be music that I don't like or somebody that just kind of blows up and has a lot of success or something yeah and if I have even remotely that feeling of I call it what it is jealousy or Envy my grandpa called it Jegs disease jealousy and being greedy uh if I even get that

at all I'll send him a message on uh Instagram or something really and I'll just be like hey just congrats on everything going on and it's incredible how instantly it like reframes my mind and now I'm like on their team almost yeah and it sounds kind of petty and stupid and I'm not being insincere because I know how difficult this is for

sure no firsthand it's insane sure that's just it'll break you out of that yeah and it's amazing that like I just I'll do that and most all it's kind of funny too because like a lot of them don't even like respond which I also find to be bizarre because like if somebody sends that to me I'm like wow thank you that's awesome

uh but that's a separate thing uh but it's amazing how then when I see them pop up again or whatever they sell out a show or something I'm like yeah good on you dude good job but it totally reframes my mind for sure which is exciting and one thing that I think changed it for me was uh I'm gonna do a little

name dropping here I got my boots oh no it's a with Zach Bryan yeah I was gonna bring that up actually so you know when he was first starting to pop up I was already kind of involved in the scene and stuff and you know already hearing people's jealousy yeah oh why is this dude popular yeah what and you know and then

still happening yeah still happening and then he uh I was kind of dissociated from it yeah whatever I didn't know anything about the guy then he sent me that message on Instagram I'm talking about how much he loved my song He's like dude I'm I want to fly you up to Seattle come stay with me let's shoot some videos together it's like

yeah absolutely and I go up there and he is just the most like down to earth normal guy you've ever met and it wasn't like lost on him you know what's what was happening I was like do you realize what's going on he's like yeah man this is insane he's like I've never played a show he's like I've got people sending me

hate mail every day because I haven't been busting my ass in bars for 10 years gross you know he's like I didn't mean for this to happen it's like I just put some videos on Twitter I know yeah you know now I'm going to record with Dave Cobb next week yeah it's like it's insane and I was like well you know what

reason would I have to be upset at him for that I know like especially when he's doing this for me now yeah you know it's cool that he would do that because it's yeah there's the issue of like looking up and trying to no they don't deserve that there's that issue but then there's another side of it too where when guys are

at the top they get a little bit protective of it yeah and they don't want I'll tell you this just recently uh I had the first guy ever to um message me and ask me to like come play a show with them really like open a show for him I've never had anybody ask me to do it not one time really never

yeah it was John Bauman he messaged me you probably actually know John yeah he messaged me and was like uh you want to come we should play a show together you want to come play a show and I was just like dude it made my day yeah it's never happened and I was like man you have no idea what that means that

you would even yeah just say like hey like spread the love around you're doing well like you know that's cool as hell to me so but there's so there's another side of that where some guys like get really protective of what they have going on and they don't want to help anybody out for sure like below them I guess if you want

to call it sure so that's dope that Zach would be that way or dude and Parker is freaking Parker is great about it man it's unbelievable it's so cool throwing us on those shows that we had no business being on he does it a little man he'll just shout out somebody's song or like just bring people on the road or that's cool

I think that is yeah that is the coolest way to be because he dealt he dealt with do you know Tyler his brother I don't he lives here in Fort Worth you need to meet him he's a he's a cool kid we've written a couple actually I just put out uh that new record I just put out I have a song on

there that I co-wrote with him oh really and it's just yeah it's amazing he's like a killer Rider um but uh I think Parker dealt with early on he dealt with a lot of that stuff where people talk trash about him and didn't really want to help him a whole lot yeah because it's like well you know he's good looking and he

like has it all going on so they kind of like resisted him a little bit until he blows up and then everybody wants to jump on the bandwagon yeah that's the way he goes man yeah but yeah he's great about it I mean like he's shouted us out on social media a couple times I was like what yeah what is going on

yeah and like it's crazy he knows because he you know he came up organically he wasn't just one of those overnight you know blow up Stars not even close and so he knows the struggle of it you know and knows how much even just that one little tweet can do for somebody you know yep and I think it's so cool to see

those guys you know still supporting the little guys out here yeah I'm pretty well tired of everybody talking about a community and like we're all in this together and then behind closed doors and not a lot of people actually act like that for sure I'm kind of over it I get it honest I get it's like I love the Texas format and

uh I love the genre that we're in um it's probably not isolate I know it's not isolated to Texas it's just the industry stuff that makes it weird and it makes us like we're all pitted against each other which I find to be bizarre which is why I'm also super excited about uh playing out in Lubbock we're doing that is it a

festival like it's two days isn't it yeah three days and you're putting it on three days yeah along with everything on the street damn family Jam where is it I don't even know where it's actually at it's a blue light oh it is that blue light okay that's what I thought yeah so first night's gonna be inside and then Saturday and Sunday

are gonna be a Street show uh with Fridays inside uh yeah okay yeah I think so Friday's inside Saturday Sunday also I'm outside yeah oh cool yeah well first time did the street shows of the move I know three shows are so much I saw some video of the one that you all did recently yeah the one last year yeah it was

the first one we put out this is pretty popping man it's so fun yeah it's gonna be cool so much fun who all is I know uh Braxton's playing yeah we got Braxton you drop tons drop tons Parker Ryan uh a treaty Oak Revival oh I didn't know treaty Oak was on it yeah I hope they're headlining Sunday night oh okay yeah

that was a good move yeah those days are great man I don't know they're great come on Odessa okay which is wild because there's like no bands come out of the Odessa yeah you know and then at first I had some one of their songs come up on just some random playlist I was listening to one day and this was like two

years ago or something like right when they first started dropping music and you know nobody had heard from them or and I was already a fan like I was I was jamming I think it was uh their song missed call yeah dude it's a jam yeah Jam I was playing all the time didn't know anything about the guys and the next thing

you know you know we had we played a couple shows with them and then and met him and they're just like the nicest most down-to-earth dudes and a bunch of West Texas boys you know they're great man great so it's another band I'm just like super excited to see the successful they're getting they're on a rocket ship yeah they are they're crushing

it yeah so it's treaty Oak and then who and then park around dude Parker Ryan first time I was around him I was blown away that dude I've known Parker for two or three years now and he's a really good guitar player stupid good guitar player and songwriter too killer boys he's really good dude and like when I was first playing shows

with him he was like I think he just turned 20 maybe he's either 19 or 20. it was you know playing these crazy intricate guitar riffs and Soulful lyrics and stuff and I was like who is this dude and now he's starting to get some traction and I think when people you know find out about him I think he's going to take

off yeah because Parker is he's legitimately one of the most talented dudes I know I only hung around him one night and he played a couple songs and he it was Unreal yeah he's so good great man yeah him and Jordan Nicks too I don't know if Jordan Nix is really cool yeah Jordan's really good I saw him recently in Stephenville uh

I met him for the first time I think in College Station it's but I think he was like it was like at 3am or something yeah that makes sense like they're two of my best friends so I'm a little biased I'm sure but yeah like especially when they're doing Duo stuff together they'll play acoustic sets together and just riff off each other

and hit harmonies with each other and never miss a beat either one of them Jordan did Jordan just put out a new song yeah I think he did yeah shout out to Jordan yeah Jordan next man yeah heck yeah and Parker just dropped some music here recently but yeah those dudes are great man great dudes yeah and we're all kind of in

the whole honcho thing together so okay I get to spend a lot of time with those guys yeah so what's the plan on like some new music coming out when it was there like any sort of timeline so I've got probably a couple months we'll have the live album coming out oh okay did a live album at Blue Light in I think

it was in April it was uh the weekend after I had a baby whoa yeah so we're literally went and had the baby and uh brought her home the next day I think that night I went to rehearsal because I was like we rehearsed all week long before the live album I bet that was over well yeah I was like hey man

sorry I gotta I really gotta go do this so like but no it worked out great and uh so y'all are putting that out when we're still uh I think we still have one more studio session to go back and buckle up a couple yeah sour notes and stuff but uh so probably a couple months and it'll be uh yeah I hear

you on that timeline for sure man I don't know if people fully understand the whole like independent artist thing yeah uh because like you people at our level get compared pretty often to maybe like a Parker where it's like you know you guys at that level you have major labels involved you have multiple booking agents you have management companies like there's a

lot of moving parts to make things happen even just like with booking shows you know people will send stuff to me on social media where it's like well why don't you play here like man you need to get out here and it's like man you yeah I would love to I would love to but like me and like one other guy are

like pull like trying to make all this happen yeah you know like there's not really like a team of people doing this whole thing and there's a big difference between a being an indie artist like us and then having all of those moving parts to make stuff happen for you and like even just putting out a record it's like I love to

say like man I got new music coming out next month but when the graphic designer doesn't get you the artwork in time and then the mixing something happened there and the mastering the engineer can't get to it until later than he told you it was going to and it's like this stuff just gets delayed and always but at the in the same

token because we have our hands on everything every like the album artwork like we're so involved in every aspect of it like I do think sometimes the independent artist work is maybe a little bit more Artful and maybe like more of a true representation of themselves because they're involved in every aspect of it's not just a media machine pumping out right all

this content but it's not quite as efficient this stuff just goes wrong yeah you know not at all yeah and man I like starting out I am like so thankful now so we're at a point where we have somebody else booking shows for us so that was the biggest game changer yeah because before like when we first got the band together and

you know plan sets for 200 bucks every weekend and it was like I was literally cold calling businesses or restaurants hey can we please come set up on the back patio it's like sometimes they say yes sometimes they'd say no 100 and you're living off tips half the time and stuff and so to finally now have you know a little bit of

traction and just a little bit of room to breathe and it's like oh okay we for sure have this show booked yeah like it's nice totally it's nice yeah like when you first have the other spur shows roll in that you didn't have to book it's like oh my gosh incredible yeah it's the best face like I made it yeah well hell

yeah man well you're playing tonight uh that mags I'm gonna go over there and watch you play yeah man yeah I'm excited and then see the news September 1st second and third first second third Lubbock Texas Lubbock Texas yeah blue light live Big Damn Family Channel well here's to the Indie artist man absolutely let's keep doing it sounds good see you all

in September adios thank you [Music]