Kody West

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

the cany that's where I'm not going to I'm not going to put his name out there but you know who you are yeah uh God I wish you would I mean his name is Andrew sure God what if I nailed it your eyes get big yeah we'll just yeah we'll edit it we'll just edit it to me going uh so but did

you guys kind of not tour her as much once she had the kid it's funny because it just kind of happened that way this uh this past year um my the booking agency I was with got bought by a bigger agency oh yeah and uh so oh yeah you well yeah you were with red 11 that's we had the same guy for

a long time yeah um and he killed it dude for six seven years I mean killed it for us kept us busy um but you know the w acquired red 11 um and then I mean bigger fish tank I'm a small fish going into that tank so things just kind of slowed down a little bit so um not it wasn't anyone's fault

or anything it was just you know it's just the nature of the Beast so we uh we switch gears and uh sorry about that what my watch just was just going off oh I couldn't even hear it I have pretty exciting news I started doing this podcast just for fun we just wanted to talk to cool people uh still do but apparently

now we're getting offered some pretty wild sponsorship opportunities so this episode of the Jared mois Vibe is brought to you by Dupont together we're transforming Industries and improving everyday life their community of scientists engineers Visionaries and all of their partners are working everyday to turn possibilities into real world answers that help Humanity Thrive explore how dupon is shaping a better world you

can uh what go to the link in the bio uh for like your discount code on any of the DuPont products that's d p o n t discount code JM Dupont um it's a crazy world but uh yeah thanks Dupont back to the podcast uh but we switch gears uh and so things are picking back up touring wise um but yeah it

kind of got a little slow um I kind of uh for good or For Worse um my personal life this past year just kind of exploded with having the kid we you know got moved into a house up in Collinsville so uh it was just uh it was a lot to take in this year my wife really um you know just working

with having a you know both of us working and having opposite schedules I mean me and my wife probably see each other like two or three times a week it's crazy just because uh she works you know majority like 12 to 12 or 2 to2 shifts at the ER and then I'm you know gone Thursday through Sunday pretty much so you say

12 to 12 is that all like 2 to two is that all during the day p.m. to a.m. p.m. to a.m. okay so I mean dang though that's like a that's still a gnarly schedule yeah but like last night you know I played a gig in DFW we kind of get home at the same time because yeah just so it uh it

works out we've got family that can watch the kiddos so it makes it super easy uh it's convenient but we're uh we're blessed to have that infrastructure what does she do she's an ER nurse oh an ER nurse yeah she likes yeah she loves it she loves trauma and or like uh like medical trauma oops Yeah uh she likes medical trauma for

sure like she'll just I don't know she'll come home and start telling me stories I'm just like I'm trying to eat right now thanks does uh do humans bug you more than like animals my wife's like she can't deal with humans but with animals uh yeah probably so like if I see a dog sneeze I can still eat if I see a

human sneeze I probably like I'm with you I'm probably going to check out like uh the Four Christmases Vince vongh where the baby throws up on Reese with get I'm going to do it too you got to get out of here get out I love you but you need to get away from me dud that's me to a te yeah but like

the baby though when like my kid sneezes I'm like I'm grabbing it you know that's just it's such a different response I don't know it's so weird well yeah it's your kid yeah like I used to not understand that I used to be like what are you talking about a booger a booger there's no way I'm going to like there's no way

but and now you have your instincts kick in child's feces on your hands yeah 100% or in the bathtub and now you got to clean it out cuz they decided to take a [expletive] in the bathtub oh no it happens I think it's the warm water I mean we've all been there yeah we have well at that age or yeah sure well

yeah speak for yourself it's last year I drank too much yeah for sure yeah I can't I can't do uh humans all that well but yeah hats off to her I can uh see there I'm just so bad D we just flew to or we went to Vegas last week and on the I think it was the flight there oh did you

go to NFR yeah is that still going on how long is it tonight's last night it's like a month long Rodeo no it's 10 days okay I you've played out there no really I've never done I was just telling my guys last I was like I'd love to go play NFR I think it'd be great it' be fun I don't know how

like I don't know how much of fan base we'd have at NFR but I mean I'm sure we'd have some people that yeah for sure you'd be surprised uh most of the rodeo people that I mean a lot of them yeah they listen to country and stuff but yeah like the rodeo people they're kind of all over that's you know and that's

what Chris leuk tapped into he was playing like dude I was just I was just thinking um like on my way here I saw that you had like a bearback rider on your uh on your podcast yeah like if some of those Rodeo guys like nowadays could write halfway decent songs Crush absolutely Crush dude if like if there was like some kid

out there that could like you know could you know go ride a bull and then hop on stage and like I don't know they'd probably kill it yeah cuz on that I'm sure that's happened I'm sure I'm sure I'm just like just don't know or not up to speed on someone that's doing that currently there's a few of them cuz I do

think people are kind of Yearning For authenticity yeah so you know they could write really authentic stuff and like nobody could really argue with like the cultra wall stuff absolutely guy works on a ranch and lives it yeah he's the real Yellowstone yeah there's actually a few of those Rodeo guys that we're planning on so like that day after that podcast that

was the his name is Leighton Barry and he's like second I love and I just love that you had to put third number three World bearback Rider yeah I just I love that cuz there's so many people that just wouldn't know that yeah I mean and that's no like you know shade to anything like that but it's just like that would interest

a lot of people if they just saw that like oh what's the number three bearback Rider have to say oh cool well I'm glad you said that uh yeah cuz it's such a niche Community very much and like if you're if you don't know anything about it you obviously you're just not going to know anything about it yeah it's crazy but like

us being growing up in north Texas and just this whole like part of the country that's so pre it's so it's so relevant to us growing up I went to high school rodeos over in uh it wah hatche or whatever it was growing up we used to go to that all the time so I mean yeah you can't avoid it no you

can't well like I grew up here even going to a big 5A school you can't avoid it no I mean you are in kind of one of the epicenters of a lot of it and like I grew up here in decar and so the guys I went to high school with were like literally world champion yeah C Ropers absolutely so yeah it's

you couldn't avoid it and I didn't grow up rodeo in but I was I was so closely around it uh it's like an interesting way to be brought up it also keeps you from like I just stay in my Lane like I know what I do and but I'm not like trying to be any thing outside of that cuz yeah I mean

if you grew up here and like if some like I'll just I'll be kind of maybe other places it's parts of the country and stuff and somebody will be you know I'll be like oh cool you're like into Rodeo or whatever and they're like yeah totally man you know I grew up rodeo and I'm like oh cool what do you like you

rope or what whatever yeah I lasso yeah exactly yeah and they're like oh yeah totally and I'm like you can't do that here because if you're like oh yeah I wrote pretty good and they're like all right let's go tomorrow and you're like you're going to like have to freaking yeah here it's just like all right bring your horse yeah so you

just it keeps you from uh anyways I don't know how I got on that but it yeah it makes everybody kind of a little bit more authentic like if you're not into that's okay like half the rodeo guys if you met them on a daily like just out at lunch or something like you probably wouldn't know what they do for a living

right if they're not dutt it up in their Spurs right yeah it's just not which the rodeo thing is a little different than like actually cowboying for a living like if you're well I feel like it's kind of like a musician almost uhhuh just like definitely just it's pretty much the same kind of Lifestyle uh a lot of waiting around for that

you know short window of go time and then it's a lot of waiting around again till the next night or till next week Kinder souls for sure yeah so we were thinking about uh there's like three what I was going to say is so after that episode with Leighton he we hung around like had some beers and smoked a cigar and he's

super into music and so we ended up he was like man I can't leave without you playing something and I was like well I'm not going to sit here with just two of us and play you a song yeah so I was like why don't we write something and he was like for real and so we just sat here and picked around

and like started working on something and ni I just kind of like it was fun cuz you know and he had like some like really cool like ideas and Concepts CU he just lives a cool life perspective that you know we wouldn't even think about yeah and then I'm able to kind of draw some stuff out of that and he's like damn

that's pretty good dude so anyways I want to get some like big time Rodeo Cowboys and do like an EP with them where we just write the songs together that'd be cool I think that'd be pretty dope and you I could do like featuring you know so and so oh because I mean and I mean they already have fans because there's so

many fans in the rodeo world I mean that'd be cool I'm sure they would also love to hear that yeah all right well I'm it's a good idea yeah where do you record at like when you want to go do something what do you go I got um there's a guy that works with me now like solely with me like I hired

him I guess a couple years ago his name is Wyatt lenford cool he's from Oklahoma he's my drummer too um but he's got a studio uh like I invested in a studio with him and in Oklahoma yeah and then we just he just moved to Austin so we moved to down there so I basically go to Austin and it's like a um

we can track some drums but it's mainly to do like a lot of overdubs and a lot of like pre-production and all that type of stuff and but like musically my stuffff it's a lot of just me sitting in a room and tinkering you know and then we can go track with a full band uh but he's just like solely devoted to

recording my stuff mixing and I've been on that Journey for like a couple years just trying to find Unique Sounds and that's awesome you know it just takes a lot of time to and you can go in and cut a bunch of songs pretty quick but you always just feel like did we really get like we didn't have that much time to

really like Tinker with these sounds that's always been like a big thing for me is just like you can go record a song in a day and then I always have the thought the thought of like okay did we spend enough time on that did we really does everything I mean I'm not one that's going to be like you know are the

drums perfect but like is you know is the arrangement correct I mean is you know I've just yeah there's a lot of but sometimes you just you know the more you think about it the worse it can get sometimes you just got to put it out I agree with that to a certain extent like with the song the actual song um I

don't know it's like it's all just in stages like they're all kind of almost SE separate components you could have a super dope song that you wrote in 10 minutes you didn't overthink it and then you go in and cut it um and you tried not to overthink the production and like the arrangement of it from like a recording standpoint yeah and

then it's like it doesn't come out unique enough like you should have spent more time like some I don't know it's tough like some things you should think about you know like we had talked about earlier like going to Nashville and going to some of these writing sessions and I was mulling over like a lyric that we just couldn't get right and

the guy was like man don't overthink it and I go I'm thinking like I'm like it's better than not thinking yeah like just because I'm thinking about it doesn't mean I'm overthinking it correct yeah you know and some people get paralysis by analysis and they think about it too much sure yeah I happens yeah I'm but there's some songs I'm about to

put out that we cut two years ago and then we just now redid the drums on it cuz I just listen back to it and I'm like there's just something not right like this thing just doesn't Groove mhm and so we just redid the drums and now I'm like oh yeah but if I hadn't stepped away from it for like a year

and a half I just wouldn't have that objectivity I guess that separation from it and then listening to yeah I cuz you get excited yes yeah and because yeah because when you first do something it's badass it's great it's the coolest thing you've ever made and then and then yeah when you go back you know couple you know even if it's a

couple days later a couple weeks later uh or could be a year or two later and it's just like oh there is something there's an ingredient here that is missing and I think I feel like we could go back in the kitchen and tweak it a bit 100% that's cool and I don't think that's overthinking you can but that's why it's kind

of fun every single song and recording is just like a little puzzle yeah starting from just writing it to recording it every element of it is a puzzle absolutely I'm I've been in such a like a uh God damn watch dude this is going to piss me off how do you how does it what does it do it's oh is it like

an Apple Watch yeah it's my damn I'm not that hip it's my uh it's my camera's going off camera yeah what does that mean uh like my game camera you don't have to I don't think you can hear it oh your game cameras are going off on your I can't even hear it just uh I can't well don't stick it up underneath

there oh yeah you're right you know is it going to vibrate uh yeah we might have to we might have a clean up thank you Steve uh you were about to say something about like maybe music that you're making or something uh yeah so like I've been I've been in such a mode lately where like I'll write a verse and then paralysis

I don't know what to go I don't know where to go from there and I've it's sometimes I feel like what am I doing I can't I can't move past these three lines I get I'm stuck after three lines so do you typically start like on a verse yeah probably so I mean first thing for me is music I have to have

a chord structure and I've been real bad lately about I'll I'll come up with just you know I'll write a song to two chords and the verse will just be you know lighter and the chorus will be heavier and I've been such a you know I feel like it puts me in such a box sometimes that you I've written a couple of

cool songs that are you know just two chords but God I feel like every time I pick up a Guitar I'm just two cords yeah and I'm just like why can't I get away from this why can't I go on because I'll start coming up with these Melodies and then I'm just like oh wait I'm here at two chords again let me

see if I can add a third chord well that doesn't that doesn't go with any Melodies that I'm already tied to a little bit uh yeah songwriting is such a puzzle because you can start coming up with something cool and then get in your head about something like why do I only have two chords and then you're sitting there you know stuck

you're just like well do I add a third chord do I just keep going and lately and I've just been like I just need to just keep going just whatever song I'm writing just write that song and then you know I just I feel like I you know writing songs has been such a I feel like it was easier when I was

younger why I don't know uh probably like the imagination or something I don't know it's sometimes like writing songs can be stressful just because like the weight of it all yeah uh do you think it has something to do with already having some success is there something creeping in of like this has got to be sure I mean yeah I mean our

first album green did Super well for us and like people love it I mean every show or I'll get a message like every week like do more green stuff or but we have people that love like our alternative or alternative rock stuff uh um yeah cuz like one of the top stream songs isn't it the it's a million miles million miles which

is I mean it's the heavier song on green on that album so I was like okay but it still has that all country yes very much so but it was heavier so I was like maybe we should you know kind of lead into like some heavier stuff CU people really liked that um and people love like our newer stuff but there is

a there is a fan base that is tied to that green album for sure I mean but that's I mean every artist has a fan base tied to an album I mean that's just that's just the way it goes I mean there's I'm tied to some artist's first albums it's one of cplay being like parachutes by cplay one of my favorite albums

totally absolute top five albums for me and like it's just you know I love their I love cplay but it's just like you know that album does it for me for sure yeah it's a weird phenomena where when somebody discovers you like the first stuff that you made like it's because they discovered you with that like your second or third album could

maybe technically be better or something yeah but it's like even if they're different it's like well it's not as good as this first one but if you're second and third stuff that you put out sounds just the same as the first people will be like yeah they're like oh well he just does the same he just sounds all the same but if

you do something different it's like oh well he changed he's it's like an impossible it's an impossible thing to serve that's why you just got to do what you like absolutely what you enjoy and then lean into that at least that's what I try to tell myself I've been and me and my guitar player have been writing a lot of songs recently

and a lot of them have been more acoustic driven rather than you know slamming guitars like you know the past two records have been so I just think it you know I what I love about like this Texas scene is like you just have so much Freedom down here you're not tied to like someone telling you like hey we need to we

need to we need to start cutting these you know I do love the structure and I'm starting to have more structure of like releasing music because like you can you can easily not release music for two years like I have and then look up and go like oh [expletive] I need to put something out oh um so like that's nice having that

you know guys that have like record labels andu stuff like that cuz you know they have a schedule like we're going to be putting music out here's our plan here's when you're going to go right and all that kind of stuff so being independent has been uh it's been cool cuz we've been able to do whatever we want but we kind of

lack that schedule of like you know so uh we've I've got last June we went and did some songs um hoping to get back in and finish up some other ones what are you doing that stuff at so I record with a with a friend of mine Taylor Kimble oh yeah he uh K did you do that after green or was that

after green I did I did green with Ben hussy and Josh Dorado over at Melody Mountain y um that's where I did my stuff yeah uh and dude I loved working with it that was so much fun dude Josh is a freak Josh is the [expletive] yeah cuz he plays with Co now I played with Will green for a long time he's

a he's a Josh has been you know original six Market Boulevard League guitarist I mean he's a legend dude he's an absolute Legend uh so doing that record with then was I mean that was that was absolutely insane that was so cool especially for a young kid I mean I was I was like 18 or 19 at the time maybe 20 I

don't know I forget now but that's so insane that you were that good too and it's the same as some of these guys I see now that are 18 or 19 I'm like gosh dude I just was not I was so bad I was just trying to figure out how to sing I was so bad I had I was really unique and

creative from like a musical standpoint but it was bad and they're just y' are just you were good like they're all just so good I'm like how did you get that good and you're like 18 it's crazy I'm happy for like it's wild I it might I think it might be a product more of the internet though I think we can like

learn quicker maybe I mean but like when I started playing guitar and stuff like I mean I started playing guitar when I was like nine I started taking lessons and then I didn't really start playing and I D I didn't start playing guitar like singing until like I was in high school and that was just because I was just covering Randy Rogers

songs yeah or you know Casey Donahue songs because that was the cool thing you know we'd all sit around at a you know at a house party or something and play music you know that was just the thing to do back then so I kind of got started doing that and you know Texas country was such a that was that was I

feel like that was so predominant in everyone's High School age you know cuz I was just you we'd all go to Lone Star Park or we'd all you know you know try to sneak into Billy Bob or rock and Rodeo and Denton when I was you know still there was a neon a thing Neon Moon in Fort Worth yeah in the Stockyards

uh I didn't really go to the Stockyards a whole lot okay but um well yeah Rock and Rodeo was in Denton huh yeah uh but there was just you know that was just so I didn't really start playing like music and singing till like high school and then I started playing gigs at like fuzzies tacos and any coffee shop that would hire

me that like dude that I was just thinking today the first time I met you do you remember when we met for the first time I don't think so it was at a wedding we both dude you were you had a Bose tower speaker and wait did we both play so I was I was so confused when I walked in I couldn't

I couldn't even tell you oh yeah that was the first time we met yeah cuz those were like friends of mine or something I couldn't even tell you whose wedding it was like I'm just that bad like I don't I was just I forget but I walk in you're already set up yeah and you're playing a guitar you're sitting on a stool

and you got your Bose's tower speaker behind you they have also hired me this like six years ago five years ago probably longer than that no this is definitely longer than that cuz I didn't even have like a band yet this was probably like 18 but you were already like no you didn't have any music out maybe the EP that I maybe

the six song EP maybe but I definitely like this was way early and I walk in I also have a Bose tower speaker and a guitar I walk in and I see you in the corner set up with your boat I'm like oh no did they hire someone else am I supposed to be here what a hor I was dude I was

so confused cuz you were set up you had the exact same [expletive] that I had and I was just like maybe they hired someone else that had all the same [expletive] like they didn't tell me and I go sit down or I walk up and I was like hey man uh I get like I don't even know like what we I think

we song swapped or I played like for 20 minutes and then you played for 20 minutes but I was so thrown off I think he just played after me cuz I'm pretty sure it was a buddy of mine and he cuz he just came up to me he was like hey he was like you play you play and then Cody's going to

play after you uh I remember him saying he was like yeah you're he's going to play after you's he's way better than you but he's like my buddy he was giving me a hard time dude I don't even remember where the wedding was whose it was but I remember walking in and just like I was just like did maybe they hired someone

else and they didn't tell me kind of traumatizing it was dude I was I was I was I was so and not to mention you're already just setting up your bow speaker in the corner of a wedding reception and having to do that thing and so it's already kind of I had to I played this private gig probably like a year and

a half or two years ago down in Houston and uh I took my bow speaker down there and it was like for this corporate event how long ago was this probably a year and a half ago okay oh well it was the it was one of the last ice storms cuz I drove I drove to Houston like while DFW was frozen uh

and I don't I just remember it being super icy but I drove down to Houston and I played this gig it was probably like it I was background music to the max dude I you know you show up and you're just expecting like okay I'm just you know I'm going to be like you know it's acoustic people probably just going to sit

there and listen to me bro this was this was so humbling bro this D I sat there I played I played shine out like three times I played did you do it just to see if they were paying attention probably I just I was just so after like the first 15 minutes I was like okay I got another 75 minutes here uh

it's like 90 minutes and I was just like oh [expletive] these people don't give a single [expletive] that I'm here can I C what's really interesting is um doing was it kind of a favor or did you get paid good no it was decent pay and that's what also made me think like uh okay people are like this is like maybe they're

expecting Music These I was I was no more than just a guy playing piano over you know like in a hotel or something yeah some people might take that as I've I have yeah I've been there million times it was just it was whenever I say it some people take it as like I'm being it's like whoa they think I'm like being

pretentious or something but I guess it does get to a point where you have enough going on and you play shows where people are super into it and you sell a lot of tickets and you're doing the thing with your own music and then you it's just jarring you go into these situations where people are just like so what's your deal like

who what just go over there and play and then you know any Toby Keith and you're just like as a matter of fact well yeah actually I would jam it but it was just it's just like oh yeah well we like this so if you just play that and you're just like wait but it makes it's weird because you don't want to

be like pretentious but then at the same time if you don't like it's like hey no like I don't do that I've already done that for years but I don't have to do that anymore yeah Backyard Barbecue for the birthday party yes I did a lot of those I did a lot of those yeah you're telling me I still do honestly I

might I mean might need to pick up a couple extra here before Christmas if anyone if anyone's listening if this is released Before Christmas time give me Hol you're having a barbecue I'm down to do it I did a wedding a while back and it was a favor the reason I was asking about if they paid you good is what I found

is when it's kind of the favor gig and you don't charge them really anything those are the ones where I show up and they're like um yeah just set up in the corner over there and you know it's like okay or those are the ones where people expect the most from you exactly because yeah oh you're done playing yeah what do you

mean this has been an hour and a half yeah and you're like uh I was doing your favor but then the ones it's like I mean you know you play Private events where they pay you really well and I mean it's the whole thing and production they spend a lot of money on it and uh and they treat you like freaking you're

a king yeah which I don't expect that but it's just like a level of decency and respect it's just very counterintuitive it's like wait I charged you a lot and then now you but I guess that's they value it more maybe yeah well and I mean for corporate stuff I mean they have a set budget so I mean a lot of that

is just like okay we have this much who can we get for that much and then cool uh I had Mike Ryan on here um a little while back we're going to put that episode I love mik he's cool man I never really gotten to like actually sit down and talk with it's always been in the whatever yeah and it's like dude

it's weird i've really got when I first started I used to be a little bit more judgmental when I would meet people in passing like whatever at a festival or something cuz you know and I'm like real like hey man what's up you know I'm like a Labrador or whatever or a Golden Retriever and if they're not like that I'm like what

was his deal yeah but some people are just like they're just quiet or shy or there's a little awkward or something or I don't know and um or they're just doing their thing and they're kind of in a different element sometimes with that and so I've had to get better at like you know not like prejudging somebody because of that interaction yeah

um and so you know he's one that I've only like met like in passing or anything and then but I've never like gotten to just sit down and talk to him and he's just like chill as a cumber like down home genuine honest kind of guy yeah we had a good time yeah we went hunting um last SE not this not this

season but last season um he's a great he's a great hang man why did I bring that up I was about to tell you something uh oh yeah cuz when we were talking he was talking about going to uh it was a show that he played that was sold out it was just great it was awesome trying to remember oh it was

Billy Bobs it wasn't sold out but they uh they sold like a lot of tickets it might have been sold out or something but he had a huge show and it was just like such a massive bucket list for him and he was just flying high and then he said they went out the next night went out to East Texas and played

some gig and there was like 15 people my first time at Billy Bobs was that exact same experience dude where did youall play the next night I couldn't even tell you bro but it was bad oh my God it was the worst dude it was like the Billy Bob Billy Bob's curse I don't know but since then I don't play a show

after Billy Bobs I just ride I just I if it's I just ride High On That Mountain for that week and then you know whatever's next weekend then we'll deal with it but if you know if we play Billy Bobs on a Friday I'm not playing a show Saturday holy cow I'm going home I'm going to live I'm going to live on

that mountain for at least one more day dude yeah you got to yeah cuz what a nightmare oh you just look at but at the same time it gives you a level of confidence if you're just getting crushed every night and you're not selling any tickets yeah that's far more difficult than at least the night before CU you can look out to

an empty audience and be like something's odd here you know I just crushed last night yeah so you know you can have a little bit more confidence at least yeah no Billy Bobs is fun but it definitely has that I'm glad I'm not the only band that's experienced that of having a great night and then go into [expletive] oh [expletive] oh it

made me feel good cuz yeah I mean I guess we all just we're all kind of Lone wolves to a certain degree so we suffer on our own but we succeed on our own yeah but then everybody's kind of going through the same thing for sure and at the end of the day look at what we do it's absurd it's the greatest

job ever to complain about any of it is but I mean it's like that with a lot of cush jobs but I mean there are there are things that you know there are standards I mean when venues don't you know have a bathroom for the for the band to go you know if I got to walk through the whole building to the

other side go take a [expletive] you know I you know what the you know I can complain about that you know it's just there's some things they're just like I don't know I wish I wish I W I wish there was like a committee of people that when people go to open a music venue they go to this committee first and then

they make sure you have all your all your all your boxes checked I think it's maybe gotten better on well like blue light and lovic they have a green room now yeah uh it's Game Changer dude it is I mean L's are great I love blue light I've played there for since 2017 well it just goes to show you how awesome of

a place that is and how awesome the people are yeah cuz like six is the man dude yeah cuz it's not like the facility they didn't have a green room it like there's nowhere to go to bathroom there you just parked right out front I mean you could go to Narnia there yeah there was a little part of it that was kind

of uh I don't know had a little Mystique where it's like you have to walk through the crowd and get on the front of the stage getting off that stage was the most difficult yeah it's like you just immediately are just hanging with everybody yeah just you're just in the crowd but I mean that's what's cool though I mean there's and you

know playing in Texas and being a band starting in Texas you get so much hands-on experience yeah cuz you can go play Houston Dallas San Antonio LC Amarillo bont uh College Station Waco you can go play so many markets and get so much experience on stage me and Colby were talking about this like there are there are so many guys that I

feel like start out on Tik Tok or social media and the next thing you know is they're playing Arenas it's just like dude well and I see that's when they get off like how do they recover when they get off on a song cuz they just don't that experience like when I forget lyrics like at least I have like a little bit

of like a base of like know you know sometimes you know I can get you know but if you don't have that experience You Can Crash and Burn hard bro and like what yeah run there's so many in tangibles like how do you oh my gosh like if you've never used in ears before how do you even talk to the monitor like

engineer about like what you want in your ears like how do you lead a band how do you talk to your drummer about no I want you to do this differently like how do you how do you look at a deal sheet at the end of the night and know you didn't get ripped off how do you like how do you sell

merch how do you keep your merch guy motivated like how do you do t-shirt design there's so much stuff that you that are intangibles I really don't envy the exploding over one song like overnight kind of thing no without like putting in some of that work it's not that I'm bitter because they didn't put in work it's that I think the work

is valuable like the perseverance and the learning you get better in certain areas and the only way you can get that is just through like a war of attrition it's just doing it yeah what does your voice sound like after you played three shows in a row and what's it going to sound like on that fourth show and then that third show

you guys had to drive eight hours through the night and then your whole band slept and your one guy who said was going to drive didn't drive he got like drunk or something and couldn't drive so you had to drive through the night you got no sleep and then you have to sound check that next morning and then what does your voice

sound like then and then how do you handle it and then how do you also not get pissed at everybody then how do you hang out after and smile and take pictures and enjoy your good time like it's a lot of it's dude it's a lot of D it's a lot of dynamic for sure but here you have the opportunity to go

do all that yes and people support it like I it's huge man so even maybe you know there's places you go play that are you know dump hole in- thewall kind of places and they don't treat you all that great but you know like they're opening their doors to you yeah and they're letting you come in there and do your thing and

play original music yeah not a lot of yeah not a lot of people get to you play original music every night uh a lot I mean nowhere else in the country yeah for sure I say that all the time like if we were from like if we were from Wisconsin or from New Jersey or from Maine or from you know even like

Mississippi I mean I don't know it just seems like it's harder when you're not in Texas to just to get going and play shows I don't know there's just so much infrastructure down here it's a great launching pad for sure yeah um well and like you and I's music like there's some similarities but like we don't make the same type of music

really but yet we have a lot of the same fans and we get put ultimately and we get put in the Texas country I mean just because just cuz we're from down here but it shows you how kind of how open they are to like a lot of that different stuff right like people are down to hear a lot the Texas fans

are they really are they are they're so open to a lot of things and you know sure there are some people you know wow this doesn't sound like Stony laroo or you know whatever but I mean there's there you know there they are very open-minded for sure when it comes to music because there are I mean from Parker to co to Colby

Cooper to Dylan uh to Reed South Hall to You Know Jack Ingram they're so there're so the landscape is huge there's so many people covering so many different parts of it um I do think that Vibe kind of the infrastructure might not be there that we're talking about but like people's uh like personalities kind of those that personality kind of exists all

through up through in my experience all through up kind of the West like into Wyoming and Montana and up into like Alberta even yeah like they're down to hear a lot of stuff but I think that's starting to change at Large because of the internet and you can get exposed to so many different types of music for sure like the kid I

was showing you know before we started you know there's so many good songwriters on Instagram yeah and he's got like a like a kind of you know like emoy Punk kind of thing to the way he does Melodies and stuff yeah but yet and that's the way some of your stuff is too but then you're in like the sort of this quasi

country genre as well which I think is freaking super cool yeah I the thing is a little bit weird like you have to have it to a certain degree and like if somebody says like I play traditional country music I have a sound in my head and if it's not that I'm like oh well that's not it's not even I could like

it but if you're just calling it that I'm like well it's not that I like it but it's just not that right I don't know so or like recording music in the studio if you're telling a drummer like I'm looking for this whatever swung little high hat Dwight Yokum thing yeah and then he just starts playing like this whatever Like a Rock

you're like yeah you're like well that's not that yeah it's not what I ask for I like that but so it's important but at the same time like creativity is just I think a lot of people would be surprised the influences that made some of their favorite songs that they think are like man this is this is tried and true country music

yeah don't get it twisted and it's like if they were in the studio when they were making that music they'd probably be surprised at the influences that the producer was bringing up or that you know the lead singer was actually like well I used to listen like Otis reading and I you know I like the way that this sounded like on those

yeah they'd be shocked the public would be surprised at if they if they saw how the sausage was made on any level whether it was Ariana Grande or it's uh Zack top or if it's anyone there they would be they would be so shocked at how music is made I just had one two days ago I was working on one of my

favorite songs of all I love Christmas music so okay all right so I my favorite Christmas song of all time is uh the JZ nuts roasting on an open fire and the chord progression of that thing is insane dude I it's insane but Nat King Cole Sayang it which is also one of my favorite voices of all time um but just the

quarter I just sit there and play it and I'm fascinated like it changes Keys like three times you never know though the melody just flows but the chords are all over and they're super Jazzy uhhuh but it doesn't sound like pretentious it just flows just F it's super pretentious but it's fascinating so anyways I'm just sitting there playing that because I've always

been fascinated with that song and I was like all right well what if I just kind of so I just start singing my own thing over it right and then like and then I move on to another thing anyways like the thing I ended up kind of Quasi writing like sounded dude like it's maybe the polar opposite of that song sounded nothing

like it at all like I ended up in like a different key and just it was a different Groove and different CHS but the way that I got there was the freaking Christmas song by Nat King Cole you know and nobody would ever know that there's no way you could ever hear that but that's kind of how creativity works well dude my

drummer we were just talking last night he was like sometimes when I write stuff like he was like I'll just put on movies and just listen and just have like the score in the background it's like the score of a movie like there's a lot of like you know if you're not watching the movie you're just listening to the score you can

pick up on a lot of ideas of like you know composition and stuff so who did you say did that my drum my drummer yeah Tyler huh that's a slick one yeah I honestly I'm going to go watch Lord of the Rings when I go home kidding or listen to it yeah that's a really interesting one um yeah a prime example of

what we were talking about with like these weird influences um you know the song Run by George straight baby run C aath across the Blue Sky if there's a plane or a truck leaving Dallas I'm sure if I heard it I'm not going to sit here and act like oh yeah I know every GE straight song ever oh dude hey is my

phone in here anybody got my phone uh it's but you've heard of the police yes sting dude it's uh this freak is it one of their songs bro this is like when Johnny Cash does hurt by 9inch nails like it's just totally different um so well that was technically a cover song Right wasn't it yeah it did sound totally different though yeah

sry did George do a police song no this is his song run but if you know the police so anyways you have to know this song this is a jam this is George Straight this is one of my favorite George Strait songs Okay goes hard dude but that Vamp at the beginning that uh little [Music] Baseline um it's just like a vamp

over the one so anyways listen to this freaking there's a song called every little thing she does is Magic by the police okay this is so fun I love the we're doing this [Music] uh that wild that is wild D but if you showed a real George Straight person that's Country yeah dude this song came out hey Steve you know when every

little thing she does is Magic came out 70s 80s 80s and then George's came out in like the 2000s or something yeah so but and that's I love that song by George Straight love it's one of my favorite s but you'd never know that there were techniques used on a on a on a 80s or 70s you know and the guy that

wrote that song um I want to say he's actually written I don't know if that's that nestler guy uh he also wrote like Just to See You Smile by Tim McGraw Just to See You Smile it might be the same guy but it might be a different guy uh anyways he's written some stuff I think he's written some stuff for Parker too

but I would not surprise me if he's a big like Sting fan or something or the producer that was in there was like o or one of the musicians like you don't know the freaking pedal steel guy could be like oh what if we started it with like a vamp kind of like everything little thing she does in Magic that'd be cool

yeah but then you get some dude that's just like if it ain't George Straight you know it ain't Country if it ain't Marl Haggard yeah and you're like well I can get I love that stuff but you guys don't even you I'm sure those guys like were fans of every of other things too I'm sure you'd you know Marl hagard didn't listen

to Marl Haggard all the time I'm sure you know what I mean Hank did though Hank probably listened to Hank yeah or so I've heard dude what happened to Hank theii I just listened to the uh does he have new music in the Mississippi Mud yeah dude clad I used to listen to his stuff in high school all the time I don't

know what happened to him uh that's actually interesting you bring I was just jamming him the other day yeah there's a there was a lot of songs that by Hank theii that like live in my brain rentree as the kids say that I don't know why but yeah that know what happened to him Hank the third he's badass honestly he just kind

of seemed like a like a bit of a drug addict but I mean maybe a little maybe a little maybe a lot maybe I mean who's to say but uh but yeah dude it was he's got some he's got he's got a cool thing or had I don't I mean I don't know yeah it was weird Hank the third this um I

don't know man it was like a rockabilly very much a rockabilly for sure uh and like his bass player played a stand up base it's like that was cool yeah they kind of reminded me a little bit of uh Dirty River boys yes right oh dude I was just thinking yeah those guys what where did they were so cool they were the

coolest but they lived in El Paso so at least I could be totally wrong but I think they lived in El Paso so anytime they played a show they had to drive halfway across the country yeah I mean that bass player was a wild man though he was wouldn't he like jump off stuff or I saw them I think at Dan Silver

Leaf and Dent one time uh I bet that was cool yeah that was a that was that was a bomb show they are they are like a they are just a Bluegrass rockabilly band and that's what like I love watching videos it seems like my YouTube My algorithm is just like Billy strings concerts oh cuz Billy strings live is great dude I've

never seen him live but the YouTube videos do it justice at least uh Billy strings is awesome yeah it's like uh Grateful Dead needs Blue Grass yes very much so he's and he's like a gear nerd and I nerd out on like watching like those rig rundowns and stuff like that oh you're a Guitar Rig guy oh yeah really yeah I'm building

a new pedal board or about to have one build here in next couple weeks or so while we got some downtime I dude I yeah I probably need to come jam with you cuz that is that is my weakness I don't have the attention span for it and I'm not like a um like a techie kind of uh person like I just

gear I don't no matter what I whether I'm golfing or whatever it is I'm doing I just don't care about I just want to go do the thing yeah and but it's I'm like that with some things like uh but like when it comes to like music gear like I am an absolute nerd like when I was first coming like starting to

you we'd go open for Randy Rogers or William Clark green or whatever I am staring at their stage like how do they have it set up why are the cables run on the outside oh so no one trips over him so that it looks clean like having a clean stage was like I never even thought about that until I started like playing

music and so like I'm I'm pretty anal about like what's our stage look like when we're playing like I don't I just like all the cables going around the perimeter I like you know knowing where everything's patched in um we have a front of house guy now so I mean a lot of a lot of our stuff you know some of it

I don't really know a whole lot about but I just you know I'm a big you know where's the snake for each guy where's you know I'm just I don't know I just I could I could I could be a stage manager for a band if I you know if I had to be I just I get off on that I mean

I was a I was a tour manager for a little while before I started playing music yeah who did you do that with uh Dalton Domino that's right my buddy Dalton I'm dude Dalton I love him to death he's such a he's a great songwriter too Dalton can write some much some great songs I met Dalton um I think like Whiskey Girl

in Fort Worth yeah you remember whiskey girl yeah I think I'm is it rhineston now yeah it's R we just did like a charity event there last or a couple weekends ago uh yeah rhinestone Saloon now um but yeah dude I was teaming for Dalton so like I learned a lot from that of just like you know how to how to logistically

move around the state as a band you know that was so had a lot of experience you know just from doing that so that helped out tremendously when I started doing my own stuff yeah talk about another example of things that just don't get considered when you sign an artist that's never been on the road before yeah like how booking hotel rooms

and like yeah dude booking hotel rooms uh that's something I wish yeah that's I'll never a beating every time I go in there to get dude a beating and like when you want someone else to go check in it's just like no matter what cuz my name's on the card I have to be the one or they got to take my ID

or yada y especially like we're not on a tour bus but we have ever rented a bus and gone on a on a couple of uh runs with him when it's made sense um dude 7 o'clock in the morning you park in a venue the bus driver goes to the hotel it calls you at 730 when he gets there I can't check

in it's under your name it's just like oh my God how do people do this obviously there's a step that I'm missing here that why do I have to be the one to go check into the hotel room or just because you have so many people on the road it's like well I mean we don't really have that I run pretty lean

yeah I run we have four guys on stage um front of house and merch so six but when you go and you think you booked like Queen hotel rooms and then there's like one of them is a king yeah and then they the hotel so now you're snuggling with your bass player yeah and then the hotel's booked out and then it's like

you got to go to the other because there's some event in town that you had no idea that's the other thing is prices yeah it's dope to go play the big event in town and then you look at hotel prices you go oh $270 for a night in [expletive] College Station Motel 6 what yeah you're like oh I see what happened here

I got paid more to play this gig and now I just spent it on hotel rooms yeah dude I mean honestly if it's a Saturday night um and we're playing in Texas and it's within eight hours drive back I'm coming home yeah I'm I love driving at night I could be a tour bus driver I just I love it's it's so much

fun um I say it's so much fun like I like I mean just driving at night like it's just something I've just had to do like in this career you know and do you do you write a lot just like get creative and it I when I'm when I have like musical demos like I'll sit there and think in my head over

and over like I've written a couple songs while driving uh or just at least finish songs while driving like I'll have a melody in my head and you know I'll just be thinking like oh was words here you I'll just and so that helps I like windshield time for that for sure yeah you just do the little puzzle isn't it crazy how

sometimes it'll be a long drive yeah and then you just get in that little puzzle and I mean four or five hours will go by go by like before you know you're in you're an amarillo yeah and then you then you like yeah your mind is like just freaking you don't even realize how much energy you're even burning too then you get

you get done you like get in a bed or something you're like holy cow I'm exhaust exhausted yes and you were just like firing for 5 hours that happened to me last night I was literally I got home from the from our show and uh you know baby was asleep on the monitor so my sister-in-law watched the kids or watched the kiddo

yesterday so you know she left and I'm just sitting on my on my computer I'm just like till like 2:30 last night and then my wife got home you know then you know we had like a in the middle of the night snack cuz we're both hungry she just got off work from a 12 hour shift and she didn't eat and you

know I was like well the last thing I ate was at Chick-fil-A at 4:00 before our sound check so um yeah let's eat so you know we'll we'll we'll hang out at you know in the middle of the night some nights but uh what are we talking about how do I get I don't know just being so exhausted you don't even know

so yeah so last night I'm just on my computer and then she gets home and then we eat something and then yeah 3:30 last night I just crashed and then you know it's just yeah it happened so fast and dude I was and literally on my way here today I was like dude now that I'm 29 I now have real headaches I

used to I used to have headaches that I thought were headaches when I was like in high school and like in my early 20s I now have real headaches and like I don't it's just it's just weird the things you notice as you get older I think you become more in tune with your body for sure because like I notice Advil works

on me more than I did when I was 17 oh dude I take why I be profen and it's dude it's like I did hard drugs yes I feel amazing I didn't like I don't know surely I'm not the only person but when I was when I was younger like I felt like medicine just didn't work on me like I don't know

it was just so weird I don't know maybe you're just because you think you're so big and bad when you're young I don't know but I definitely like you become way more in tune with yourself like as you get older especially like having a kid too is just like doubled it almost I can definitely tell especially with my voice yeah like it's

crazy the food I eat how um like how tight I am like in like my upper back and my neck and stuff like I if I eat a spicy Slim gy in the van before a show like if it's like 2 o' in the afternoon we pull out a gas station and I eat a spicy slim gym that afternoon that night is

going to be like the worst night on stage for me I've put that two together I can't eat any more spicy [expletive] like sausage or like beef jerky before a show just cuz like I don't know what it is and like it used to not be like that I used to just go eat a whole meal before the show now I'm just

like dude if I eat like an hour before show like I'm just like I feel blow I just I don't know you just you want to go lay on a couch yeah it's probably because of what I'm eating too but I mean it's just like you know as you get older you start to be like I can't do that I can't go

eat a chicken parm and then go play a that's totally another Primadonna thing that I worry about cuz unless you sing profession Al and you're having like you're singing three or four nights in a row um and I sing pretty hard too and then I've already got some like kind of things with my vocal cords so it's like and we're talking about

like two little rubber bands that just vibrate together you know this isn't about because I've had gigs where it's like I can't sing like I cannot sing I'm sick or whatever I can't sing and people are like man you got to tough it out and I'm like this isn't about being tough yeah like I the thing's not working like it's not rubbing

together to make the noise there's no being tough about it yeah they're just really delicate little things some are more delicate people that aren't vocalist really don't understand that no because they don't have to rely on their voice like when like this my wife totally understands it I'm not saying this but like last week she was she was horse all last week

if I was horse all last week luxury yeah maybe I don't get maybe I don't make any money over the weekend you know because I gotta you know reschedule shows and so I don't get paid that weekend so I gota wait you know another three months before we can play those shows again so I can get paid you and comedians talk about

bombing on stage being a musician and bombing like where you sound bad yeah like that I don't know if there's a worse I do listen to a lot of comedian podcasts I do give it to comedians there's no way I could get on stage without a guitar and a band behind me and just start talking I'm a huge kill Tony fan I've

been uh I had a buddy that was uh marketing for deep Edy vodka and deep Edy sponsored Kil Tony for like a six week or 8 week stint or whatever and so they had a table so we would go to kill Tony to this is before they moved to the Mother Ship this was when they were at the Vulcan gas company but

dude I am there's no way uh Drew nickens uh he's on he's on kill Tony uh he's a he's he like lived in College Station he's come out to shows he came out to our Show recently in Austin I dude I was telling him I was like dude there's no way I could get on stage he was like dude you have a

minute you should sign up for kill Tony I was like absolutely not dude I would just Bank on like yeah I play guitar during the interview and then like try to play a song try to play Oh but that would be fun you would crush well I don't I mean people I don't know but it actually might be funnier what an interesting

way of actually getting a lot of it's acting like bombing on Kil Tony yeah but bomb but acting like you're a comedian and then it's like you bomb obviously and then they get you to well you have any special talents cuz I suck at talking on stage in between songs I'm the worst at it why do you think that you're not it's

not like you're not a sociable good I sound like an idiot a good talking guy yeah I don't I don't know man I just feel like cuz I because there's been times where I'll say things during a live show that I think is funny and then there's no reaction from the crowd so that is already input in my brain where I'm just

like dude if I was a comedian and I did that's a [expletive] bomb well why don't why don't you think you talk fit yeah you're during your shows though like why don't you think you talk more I do I just say you know I'll be like you know thanks for coming out tonight I know this is a busy time of the year

and everyone's got [expletive] to do but appreciate you want to spend your Friday night with us like that's you know and that makes people clap but when I but then like when I when I when I think I'm saying something funny no one it's like the mic is off you know it's like no one hear it's like no one heard me I

look around at my band they're all just looking down at their pedal oh no and I'm just like okay [expletive] y'all oh no I tell my guys they have to laugh at me make me seem good dude there's some old school guys in the Texas scene I won't say any names but apparently they would uh like they would make everyone quarter towards

them right which I guess is show business like but they wanted to make sure yeah like everybody had to be kind of facing them on the band and then nobody could be like taller than them cuz he was a pretty big guy so nobody could be taller than him they would have to like they wouldn't let them light up the band around

them like there was some pretty like I don't even have a lighting yet so I'm not wor you telling me I'm not worried about that we're trying to play songs like that's like not pretty low on my uh on my thing but so I wouldn't put it past them that they were like if I tell a joke you need to laugh I'm

telling you right now you need to laugh and I mean bust your gut laugh and if you're not laughing hard enough we're going to talk about the end of the show that's five we're going to talk about it that's $5 yeah it's like uh if you're not crying hard enough with the North Korean president dies they send you to the North Korean

Camp yeah it's a it's a dictatorship in some of those camps for sure yeah uh the talking thing where yeah I'm just I don't know I've just never been that's why like I don't do a lot of videos on social media because I feel like I look stupid oh stand up but so do you think you could do standup or you couldn't

no I mean if I had someone write my if I had someone the material I'm not I don't I don't know I'm not that I'm it's hard enough for me to write songs so me to I couldn't think about writing jokes right now dude I try to because I've been writing down a I want to do it like I want to try

not kill Tony necessar you know who I think should be a comedian John Balman I've never met him we've only texted him John Balman is the funniest [expletive] guy in the world man he is so funny and he's got like the perfect like he's a comedian yeah yes uh some man some people do have it some people are really funny like they

can come up with like really funny jokes and stuff but the way they present them just doesn't it's the performance element of it yeah uh I want to I want to do it I don't think I'm particularly funny or anything I want to do it from like a like it scares me it's a yeah same so you have the balls to go

do it because it scares you I don't have the balls to do it because I'm just like I don't want to I don't want to face the consequen I still haven't done it like I'll write stuff down uh and then when I'm driving I'll try to think about like okay you are walking on stage right now like what's the first thing that

you say when you get up there how do you hold the mic like what do you do who do you look at how do you look at people what's the first thing you say cuz it's all already happening the second you get up there and you just even make eye contact with anybody and then what are they thinking about you know because

that can be part of your joke too like taking away some of their yeah I love what a comedian goes on and they're just like so I look like and then they just and then they just all out of the audience the audience you know they're vulnerable right there so from that moment on they've got the audience because they're already on their

side cuz they just said the thing that the audience is thinking boom put it out in the world now we can now self deprecating yeah now we can go down the road and now people are warmed I do a little bit of that um in my live show because there's some stuff dude some of my closest friends they know uh like going

out to bars and stuff with me it's been like my whole life if I go out somebody's going to try to fight me like it doesn't matter when I was 18 why 20 dude it sounds like BS until we go CU you're not a fight I mean you don't you don't strike me as the type of person to start fights well when

I was younger I would poke at people maybe a little bit more but in generally speaking now I've just gotten over it like I'm like it's fine what like I want everybody I just want to hang I want to have a good time and like just smile and have just have fun yeah um when I was younger I kind of probably went

into it a little bit more like I know somebody's going to mess with me but whatever I don't know what it is or why but like we I've been going out to Nashville for the last year like once a month every time I go like every time I've been to Red Door Saloon like I go out in the patio and like somebody

tries to fight me just walks up says like just kid you and your and then I'm like what's the problem they're like I just want to punch you and I'm just like all right well Mike is kind of giggling he's been around it's it sounds like a lie it's insane uh so in that context like what is it about you think that

makes I don't know I don't know I have a really punchable face maybe not to I mean not to me I've never thought that about you thank you Cody that's the strangest that's out of left field for me yeah but it's uh it's fascinating um so in my live show I will sense at times like I'll see the guy you know you

can see people talk who would fight you if you weren't on stage 100% so how do you what do you do I usually try to do the thing where I take because there's been similar things where people will like I dress a little different so that kind of bugs people cowboy hats also just generally speaking like get people kind of fired up

sometimes not here not I know that so last time I was in Nashville there was a guy that came out to me on the patio and he just walked up to me he goes this is a direct quote so he goes you in that [expletive] hat and I go are you in that [expletive] you don't know this guy at all don't know

him and I and I just I just L kind of giggled and uh that is funny yeah it is a little bit funny and I go yeah man I don't know it's just the thing and he was just like I just want to hit you and I was like yeah I don't know some people have said that but whatever dude you need

security with you and he just kept he just kept like kind of chirping at me just kept going kept going on he was like and I go do you think it is you really think it's the hat like what so I like start to like try to unpack it like do you think it's the hat or do you think it's something else

like let's really get down to the bottom he's like it's just the jacket the hat like I just I just don't like you and I was like so he just kept poking at me and then finally I told him I go man I was like where you from and he was from like Boston or something I go you know if you came

in like around some of my buddies and stuff we'd be really cool with you like we'd treat you like anybody else we'd have a good time and that really like threw him off I was like we can be friends like right now I'm totally cool with it or we can go down this road and what a strange yeah the balls some people

have so I will like I'll try to like maybe address some things that might bug people initially I'm like I know you guys see me like wearing tennis shoes uh where I come from you know being Cowboys a little bit more about wearing Nike tennis shoes right now yeah exactly I'm like it's a little more about like what's on the inside and

what you actually do for a living than what you're just wearing so but also down here like the rodeo fashion and I this just an outsider looking in because I mean I've been to high school rodeos I've been around it I mean it's very much like I mean Punchy to I mean it's there's very I mean kids have been kids have been

riding horses and wearing Vans down here since yeah the early 2000s I mean that's nothing you know and like when I look at your cowboy hat I don't wear cowboy hats but I know what a real one's supposed to look like and so like when I see someone outside of Texas that has a hat and it doesn't look like that you know

it doesn't have that shape I'm just like dude this these people just don't know they just don't get it CU When you see a hat shaped like that the person wearing that hat nine times out of 10 it grew up wearing hats that look like that I mean that's just my that's just my perspective like cuz you don't wear hat shaped like

that unless you've been around unless you've been involved in the scene or grew up around you know your dad and his brother wearing hats like that you know that's just that's the that's culture right there and yeah someone from Boston's not you know why the [expletive] do y'all turn yall Harbor Green like yeah I don't know dude that should have been my

response it's like you're just yeah you're not even y'all aren't even Irish like what are you what are you doing maybe so maybe you need to go out with me you can like be my uh yeah emotional support animal come dude I'm down dude I'm down yeah so yeah the comedy thing I think is a lot about taking away some that's kind

of like the eight M the 8 Mile image M thing like tell me something about me that I don't already know yeah go for it try to find it you know I heard a comedian the other day it might be the guy you're kind of talking about but he crushed it he would like did a minute and uh and he walked up

and he his face he wasn't particularly badl looking but he did just he looked like beavs and Butthead and he was like he was like man I know you guys are just sitting here like wondering like how does somebody look exactly like beas but also exactly like budhead yeah and they just died yeah the crowd at the crowd ate it up so

from on they're on your side you could say anything and they're probably going to laugh just because they're already they're like okay this guy gets it this guy is thinking the exact same [expletive] we're all thinking yeah I'm a huge I'm a huge comedy fan but yeah I just don't have the balls to get up there and do it I don't think

yeah when I really sit there and think about what is the first thing I'm going to say and do I just collapse mentally I just fall apart there's so many things you can say or do I'll even say it I'll even start and just I do even right now like I can't even if I were to walk up there and I would

just be like oh God like I don't know what I would do dude I would have to have some sort of like I don't know it's like developing a character in a way you would have to like okay because me and you I mean we both know when you walk on stage go play music yes it's but you're putting on a little

bit of a of like this Invisible Shield of just like I've got to play these songs you know this is part of the show this is a show we're putting on you know yes I'm very much Jared Morris I'm very much Cody West but there's a little bit of a thing there's a little bit of a veil here that I have to

like kind of get into so I can I can I canot worry about what those people over there are talking about maybe sit at the table because I need to sit here and focus on playing this song sure so there's a little bit of like that disconnect of like it's like a focus yeah I can't I can't engage really I mean I

can wave I can wink I can hide you know I you know I can engage a little bit but you can't be I can't be engaging as Cody while I'm on stage performing I know what you're saying I definitely know what you're saying cuz there is like a there's like a focus sort of it's like going into like game time mode yeah

that and then I'll catch myself in the middle of the song I'm just like you know it's like driving and it's like I don't remember those last three stop lights and then I'll be halfway through a song it's just like did I sing everything right oh my gosh did dude it happens all the time it does but I guess I never really

dude there will be times where I'll start the intro song and I'll be in my head going what's the first word what's the first word what's the first word what's the first word what's the first word boom then it comes as soon as you get to the mic but you're freaking out going freaking out dude cuz you're kind of looking around you're

just going like God I wish someone would just hold up a card with the lyrics on it right now dude I'll ask my guys don't know the lyrics no I'll ask like people oh I'll be like hey what's the first they kind of like it they're like yeah no for acoustic stuff like yeah that people I have so much fun playing acoustic

shows but I dude I've had that where it's like what's the word what's the word what's the word when I like and I mean right yes right when you touch the mic yes it I don't know I don't know if I've also had it where I don't remember oh a lot a lot sometimes I'll just sing the same verse you know I'll

sing the first verse twice happens all the time on you know on songs you know that I it's just like how am I forgetting the words right now crazy there are certain ones though I consistently have a harder yes there is a song that I didn't play for probably 2 or 3 years sorry cuz I just had so much issue with it

cuz I bombed um I was doing a uh acoustic set at Steamboat and I mean room's probably there's probably 200 people in this room it's quiet as a mouse and I'm up there playing and I'm playing the song and I just go blank dude and I'm just like oh this is the worst ever because like I'm sure I made it through I'm

sure like uh you know what I mean you know to us it's the worst ever but I'm sure someone didn't notice I'm sure and I'm just like dude I'm not doing this song anymore I can't do this song I how bad of a blank are we talking dude I've had some bad ones uh well that one specifically that one specifically it's just

it's just like I would just forget like I would just like mix up the verses and I would like I would I would sing the first half of I would sing like the last half of the first verse on the second verse and I switch it all around one time we played White Oak Music Hall in Houston and inside not outside but

inside and we were opening with a song Melody and we played the entire song instrumental cu the opening song the verse song yeah oh the opening song instrumental it's experience like that where that I'm talking about where it's just like kids that go straight to like this stardom and like these big shows it's just like what are you going to do in

front of [expletive] thousands of people when that happens I fortunately I got to experience that in front of hundreds of people and so I was able to like kind of recover but it's just like having that experience you can't you can't pay for that CU you still have two hours yeah that was the first one so that was the first one how

do you not spiral out of control for the next song how do how do you keep your head in on you know it's just like okay that's over with oh my god dude that was the worst that was yeah that was terrible cuz like my guitar player had family out oh so this like you have like band member families and they're just

like you know and I'm you know like I'm thinking they probably just thought it was just like a Jam song or something dude that's an interesting one I've never really heard anybody talk about was as kind of the front guy the leader of the thing you want your band members to like be really be into it uhhuh um we deal with when

you're first starting out you deal with a lot of you know the whatever you're like at a Family Reunion where it's like so you still doing the little music thing or you know sure which I get it like cuz it's an outlandish thing to do and most people fail so you know people kind of poke at you a little bit until you

have something going on then you playing with Justin Timberlake tomorrow or what yeah until you have something going on then they're like man you're crushing it you know but like five years prior to that they were kind of making fun of you a little bit Yeah but we so we deal with that but dude band members like think about them like when

they go to the family room reunion and they've just been playing with like different people and then the family comes out and like some of the people they have to play with they might not be into their music that much yeah and they're not that good but they're like trying to pay the bills and so they have like a different level of

embarrassment and so it's huge for them like for their family members to come out and they tell them like hey this guy's like really good I really like that you're with him like you guys crushed and for band members that's like a huge thing and so if they have I actually get a little kind of nervous when they have family there cuz

I want so badly to be like you know they picked me like that was a good one for the yeah know it's like meet the teacher night it's totally meet the teacher night it's but like but you're the but you're but yeah it's just there's yeah I try to but I love meeting i've never all my band's family they're all great so

like I've never had a bad interaction with them you know I feel like I'm pretty good when I meet family when I meet parents I just I want to make him proud yeah I want to like I'm he's taking care of like we're having a great time like we're all good like I you know like yeah but so I was just referencing

that probably did make you feel horrible yeah that I yeah that first song but you know you can meet the teacher night you're the you showed up drunk yeah I'm just you were the drunk teacher I just smoked a big old spoon of heroin right before this and I'm just a yeah dude there was a thing on Netflix about like uh or

it could have been on YouTube it was like functioning heroin functioning heroin addicts how is that a thing people do it I mean I don't recommend it I've never try no I've never done heroin but like there are people that just you know there people just smoke heroin it's insane and then just go to work how I don't there was a guy

there I watched the documentary guy that can't that doesn't I mean come on that lasts like a month or two I think he did it for like five years oh my gosh but yeah uh anyways that's insane is say on Netflix uh I should have brought it up yeah it was on one of the one of the many streaming platforms see you're

really funny so you just need we got to figure out how to like I'm trying to think about that's I'm funny yeah you're really funny uh and so it's like H they but in like live standup comedy it's like how do you that's a whole another thing I know but you there's a like a spark of that and then it's like how

do you get that but like I like my favorite kind of Comedy is like a like that super just like dry and kind of vulgar stuff uh Brian Holtzman do you know who have you ever heard of Brian Holzman Brian Holzman is this like 60-year-old man okay who started I don't know where he's from but he was in LA for a long

time and then when the whole comedy scene kind of moved to Austin he moved to he I think he lives in Texas now but he's this old guy who would just get on stage and just go you know what I think about family [expletive] family okay so just extreme oh just the most and the crowds hate him but that's but I love

you know all the comedians love that because they're just like this is the guy [expletive] sending it he is going for it he is saying the absolute like worst stuff possible these people hate it and he is still just screaming at their faces the most absurd things well it's probably more about they love that he's just so confident in who he is

yeah like I hear them say like he's your favorite he's your favorite comedian's favorite comedian okay you know like it's like it's like our uh it's like our uh Jack Ingam or our Ray Wy hubard it's like those are our Rio we anything those guys would do is cool CU it just we just respect the [expletive] out of them dude there's a

big part of me right now with comedy that I like I like super clean stuff I cuz it's tough clean's harder the shock yeah the vulgar shock Factor thing it's like I've kind of heard be easy because you can just say you know bad stuff I'm just like I'm kind of over it's like oh wow another freaking wiener joke yeah another jack

off joke about some kid jacking off with a VPN or something the joke about yeah like maybe a little bit of Truth just a life observation and you just kind of find a way of saying it differently that's just so funny those are the good ones super clean one of my favorite clean jokes uh was you know how to if you want

to be alone in America you know how to do that just take the stairs that was that was that was one of my favorite clean jokes dude because it's just observations like that and things like that you know and I feel like some of those guys could be good songwriters very much so you know they if you cuz you have to have

some sort of perspective that's a that's a popular song that's kind of like a Casey Musgraves esque style yeah right like observational little be alone take the stairs yeah quirky sort of uh yeah I would agree I think they def they the spark of creation and how they work it out is very similar to songwriting the thing that I wish songwriting had

more of and it's so heavily ingrained in comedy is that like you can't develop standup comedy without an audience correct right like you can write good jokes and everything but you don't know if it works until you perform it in front of a live audience that's so true and we don't apply that same standard to songwriting you're right and I'm a little

I get that you're right and I don't know why and I and I think and I wish it actually wasn't this way I think songwriters and music creators are too sensitive and comedy because it's just jokes man and it's like if you get your feelings hurt it's there's always a tinge of like it's just a joke take it easy but in music

like we are just like so dramatic and like if somebody just said you suck that song sucks it's like but this is my art yeah it's like you can't say that it's like yeah they can or like what if it's just halfway a joke like I like the song but you sing you're not a good singer like you know we just couldn't

take that kind of criticism think about a kill tonyp CU you're so vulnerable I think in songwriting and I mean You're vulnerable too doing comedy but exactly it is yeah you're right why isn't that applied to music too I think it should be it's just a song oh man I think one of the health just a song it's just a song like

nobody's going to die or live no it's a song it's words with a Melody take it easy you're right I think to a degree we take it a little too serious to a degree I'm serious about it but I don't I don't I don't know I'm saying that from like would I want to get up there with three judges and then have

them just eviscerate me after I perform a song for them no but we've all done a songwriter competition yeah but they don't but they don't in real time just destroy you yeah they're not all Simon Cals yeah and they're I know but there's a part of it that would be healthy like actually hear the like bomb like have the audience not clap

like I don't want to pity clap well that's why I love kill Tony cuz I mean those a I mean when someone goes up there and [expletive] bombs yeah Tony's quick to be like that didn't go good did it so I one of the best things for me and it wasn't out of any sort of like virtuous nature it was out of

a family member just being a jerk you know so it's like they weren't doing it because they thought it was good for me they were like actually trying to be mean but it ended up being good for me was the idea of like family get together go me into playing like oh come on play and then I get halfway through a song

and they just like shut me down and they're like that sucks that's terrible don't ever do that again you start hear people talking it's just like oh you know or like perfor they get me to play a song that I wrote and then just stop me halfway through it and be like that's not good and it's just like ah but here's the

thing it wasn't a family member did this to oh 100% yeah a couple but the but look uh they weren't good songs okay and I didn't perform it good and so it was like okay but here's the thing when I played him something that was good they I got to play it all the way through and they sat there and listened okay

and then they got done and they and they went everything in me wants to tell you suck that would make me happier but that was actually really good that was good and so it wasn't a Pity clap at all cuz you know they would just destroy me if they didn't at least they're being honest with you I know but they weren't doing

it in like a virtuous way right so that's where it kind of stings still for sure still kind of but there was a takeaway and I and it was like oh okay I need to get better and I there's a part of that you know like you show a song to your parents or something like that's so good okay confidence is important

got it but there's a part of it too that you need some like re like a reality check yeah just because you put some words together with a Melody doesn't mean it's good no it does not and audiences are typically really nice and sometimes you still put those on an album sometimes they'll still end up on an album as like filler uh

but sometimes those filler songs end up being someone's [expletive] I know someone's Jam I mean I probably I'm probably a fan of some of my artist filler songs mhm I mean that's a lot of them and I hate to call them filler songs I'm not that's not a that's I'm not meaning to downgrade any you know any artist or whatever but I

mean every album has a couple of songs that maybe could have been iffy of like are this going to make the project but if this doesn't make the project this isn't going to be 10 songs or 12 songs so maybe we just you know keep them on there I don't know yeah cuz it's still all just opinion I guess that's the thing

it's like if somebody tells you suck well I mean you suck to them yeah that's 100% accurate yeah the dude that's just your opinion man yeah well they absolutely do not like you but some other people might sure so that is where it's I mean it's subjective yeah is this joke funny well not to them it's 100% not funny to them they

just told you they didn't think it was funny yeah that doesn't mean it's not funny it's just not funny to do that's art you know that's the tough part about it's just like totally subjective and that's why I don't think we should take it so serious because it's subjective yeah the only the only the only part it's just like when you it's

just like the part that gets to me is about like you know trying to trying to take it serious is just like knowing that like you when it comes to a band it's just you got guys that like kind of depend on like you know you know at the end of the day you know my guys probably thinking like well I let's

I hope he's taking this a little serious cuz you know this is how we're also surviving this is how we're playing so that's also like when I write a song like sometimes those thoughts will creep into my head of just like this better be good this better be good because like if it's not like [expletive] yeah so like and I'm like I'm

I mean well but try your I'm sure it's like that on every level I mean but even just like me like I think about that kind of [expletive] I'm just like you know yeah we don't we're not you know we don't play soldout shows every show but I mean I could I could imagine like if you're a band that has a lot

of success there's even more weight to when you write sit down and write a song so like we like you were saying earlier like yes you do kind of at the beginning of the podcast we like you know there's you do kind of compare yourself to like your previous works and like your other stuff you do think about that and it's just

like well what was I doing so different then what was I doing what how was I so different when I was 18 or 19 than when I'm 28 or 29 yeah there's 10 year difference but what was what was how was I able to just do how was I able to do that was it because I didn't have you know a lot

of stuff going on in my personal life and I was just so consumed with just you know being Cody West and playing shows and doing stuff like that um so yeah there's just it's there's so much like there's so much back and forth I guess of just like am I is this good enough is this not am I going to please everyone

I don't know at the end of the day also you just can't think really I don't know you can't overthink it you can't overthink it but yeah that's the part you can try your best yeah but overthinking it in a way is like is taking it a little too serious you know I mean there's like a dose of uh no one's going

to die if I write a bad song right you know even I cringe a little bit when people say like a great song can change the world and I'm like dude like for that person that it changed the world for but it changed their feelings but not for not for the guy that's you know not for the guy that's working behind a

gas register or gas station you know clerk gr yeah you're not changing the world for him no like not the person that has some like catastrophic illness that they're going to die on 5 years and they're suffering at the same time like feelings matter and emotions matter and like giving somebody a reprieve from a bad time in Life or like making him

think about a different perspective as healthy was that word you just said reprieve a brief reprieve okay um I like it reprieve means uh like a sort of a break okay right I think it's my SAT word for the day I was just about to say dude that's a SAT word for sure you think so is that a big word it's not

one I hear weekly uh yeah gosh I probably that's probably why people want to hit me right there no i' love it I love it I love it but song's not going to change the world and fancy words aren't going to change the world but they will make people think differently about certain things yes they do yes they do and like but

I mean a song could change the world for one person but it doesn't for the other CU that person you know it's just so like yeah at the end of the day it's so subjective but there I mean there's people winning the Nobel Prize and doing all sorts of clinical research and like really super important stuff moving the needle on some really

big issues well I'm not going to get into the Nobel Prize but oh yeah a little bit of conspiracy huh on the old Nobel well I mean there is some uh yeah there's some funny there's some literature about it yeah there is yeah well before we go too far into the conspiracies uh do you have music done now are you about to

put stuff out uh I've got some stuff recorded uh I think our loose plan I hate saying this on a podcast because people are going to hear this but I think our loose plan is like probably releasing some stuff in March cool uh we're I think we're going to we're going to be playing in some shows uh um with a friend of

ours um so we'll uh it we're going to release some music just to kind of coincide with that I got a manager so uh I'm going to actually like have strategy in place for when releasing music rather than just record stuff and then all right let's pick a Friday MH uh so like actually I'm going to have like you know for the

first time and that's and I could have you know I've only had I've never had real manager I've I had a manager in like 2019 to 2020 Co hit and I just couldn't afford to keep you know paying people you know I was I not making money so any money I can make it was tough to Shell that you know percentage out

so wasn't doing that at the time well your success I mean it speaks volume to how much your music resonates with people cuz you don't do a lot on social media like we were talking about that earlier you know that's not something you like have which I'm about to change just because like you know that can only it's not going to hinder

me in any way if I'm if I'm more prevalent on social media if I just post a video of me playing a cover song or one of my songs or stuff like that cuz I love it when I see my when like when I see an artist that I like Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra when I see him do something like you're

in it you love it yeah so like why can't I do that for my fans I agree so like then I have those thoughts of like why can't I sit here and record myself playing a video and put it up you know maybe someone think it was cool yeah you know you know that come that comes from a really great place though

cuz you don't think you're that cool no that's essentially where it's coming from no I'm I've never thought I was cool D yeah which is that's awesome no I so don't ever lose that Furthest Thing from I mean but some people do think you're super cool and like sharing your stuff with them is awesome my point was it speaks volumes to how

much your music resonates with people cuz like you didn't have any traditional like manager you didn't like Focus heavily on social song like your music just ripped with people and so it's like oh shoot well and that's you know I just the manager we just got on with he was just like dude I'm shocked you know and surprised at like what you've

been able to accomplish by yourself you know all I've had is a booking agent so like the fact that we've been able to sustain you know going on almost you know six seven eight years of playing music um but so he was like so now that you now that you know we're involved you know now you know now what we what can

we do for you I mean how can you know so now I'm actually going to have strategy behind releasing music when are other people releasing music let's not release on the day that someone else is releasing music that might you know Christmas day yeah I mean so like I'm actually just going to have like people like looking into like you know how

can we capitalize you know with every release how can we make the most you know gain out of it you know how can we get the most people involved how can we how can we campaign this for x amount of weeks before it comes out which is a big thing now it's about teasing songs before they even come out um and I

know like some labels they'll make an artist tease a song and if it doesn't get enough likes or repost or whatever they're not releasing that song I know so then you know people just you know they're just left forever with that 20 second or 30 second clip of whatever song um but I mean I'm just actually just going to start promoting myself

more you know and I think that's just it's just especially in today's world I mean I mean we kind of see that like with ticket sales it's just like how do how can I how can I make all the people that follow me on my socials how do I you know how do I make sure they all know that I'm playing a

show without being of without being a digital Marquee because I don't want every post being about hey we're playing at such and such bar come out hey and then next week I have two more of those same posts I know that's so I hate that but and then but every venue is asking can you make a video can you make a video

can you know can they do something can they push more just like well then I've got to do that for every gig we play and we play 115 gigs a year yeah and the venues aren't focusing on it no and like I'll do it where they'll be like well we need to do some promo for it and so I'll do like a

video that I know will do well it's authentic it's real like I'm shoo a horse or something I'm talking about I'm like this is and I send it to them and then they'll just do like their standard little whatever concert poster post that two likes and I'm like guys I sent you the real thing yeah so it's like whoever is running their

stuff and I get it's hard I understand it's hard to run social media and how to how to do it and how to make videos and stuff but I guess it's interesting that the venues some of the venues aren't as interested like they think it's like solely on us it's partially on or we'll get a request from a venue can they post

about us plan and you go to their page and there's nothing yeah absolutely nothing it's like what are you all doing what are you all telling people that we're coming what are you what like what do you mean like yes we can tell our fans but then you know I it's just like I don't know it goes both ways it does there's

so many venues but the but the venues that ask us to do that are venues that they're new or they just don't know or you know it's just some guy who just has a lot of money and he's just like why is this working you know they need to you know do something they do this and this it's just like well dude

first of all you don't even have a bathroom back here all right so can we just go back to square one dude like let's start over but dude shots fired dude that's going to be the one clip we clip that's fine that's fine let him hear it let him hear I know I love it dude I'm proving all about it well I'm

glad we got to do this man I really enjoyed it I haven't really gotten to sit down and we had breakfast like one time accidentally yeah chitch a little bit have me out anytime man and let's write we need toite I'm definitely down I had talk we had Kobe on here and uh we had talked about going down there maybe to col's

or something and writing down there he lives in Tyler yeah um maybe we should all we should all get together I would love apparently he also I guess he's buddies with Paul cin Colby Cooper yeah it probably I mean East Texas a lot of those East a lot of those East Texas guys are very close-nit and I've just I don't know in

the last like year or so I've gotten like super into Paul cin I love Paul coffin dude I will admit when he first came out I was like the voice I know the I thought the voice was a stick I know I thought it was a I thought I thought it was a thing until I saw him we opened for him live

at Peacemaker it was it was us Paul cin then Co Wetzel I saw Paul CN go out there and put on the best show I have ever seen live bro I still think about that and dude he had he had this like this gospel Keys player who is murdering I mean just like no Beyond levels of any comprehension in the crowd no

one in the crowd could comprehend things that were happening on that stage and it's just it's just [expletive] that me and you would notice or see yep dude I'm standing there I look like even CO's right behind me CO's just Co like just watching it's just like dude this is [expletive] sick yes Paul C did prate event with him and opened for

him and I just never had heard a Rhythm Section like dude it like changed my cuz I was never like a big rocker type like I just wasn't really into it I was kind of like had that folky thing is what I really liked and uh and like when I saw his live cuz typically all I had seen is smaller bands trying

to rock and it was just like too much and it was just like a lot you know but it was like tight and just grooved so hard I was like H so there's some sort of little freaking pixie D he sprinkles on a band that just makes him Groove like he knows how to pick the right guys dude I don't know so

it was so special so anyways we all need to freaking try to get together yeah I think that'd be sick absolutely if not with him then for sure with Kobe yeah dude I yeah Kobe's the man I we did those acoustic shows uh last week or two weeks ago with him and ab him and his Camp I mean everyone that everyone that

he's hired everyone that works for him topnotch they're awesome I can't say enough good things about him yeah all right well let's do it dude yeah let's do it yeah thanks again let write some songs uhhuh I'm in I'm for sure in not just saying that I mean when we get off camera I'm going to be like yeah hey dude I'm no

actually no but no I'm [expletive] about it dude yeah I've got some time like I we don't have a show until like January 23rd okay so I've got a little over a month off like I'm chilling all right I'm chilling yeah cool yeah me too I'm just working on finishing some music I got music coming out in 2025 so cool me too

2025 is going to be a cool year that's why I just do the blanket statement 2025 yeah not March 2025 there we go that's where we go out OS Amigos [Music]