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Speaker 1: So I got a great KEI we self made story

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Speaker 1: for you this morning. You most likely have not heard

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Speaker 1: of Black Smoke Trigger. It's a band. It's been put

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Speaker 1: together by Charlie Wallace. Wallace I got successful after he

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Speaker 1: dropped out of school and started an online guitar lessons

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Speaker 1: website that made him a multi millionaire, which allowed him

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Speaker 1: to explore the idea of a band, which is where

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Speaker 1: managers and producers from groups like Foo Fighters, Lincoln Park

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Speaker 1: and Corn get involved. It has resulted in their debut

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Speaker 1: album and Charlie Wallace is Willis Charlie morning to.

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Speaker 2: You morning, Mike hol.

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Speaker 1: Ay, good, thank you have. I got that story about right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it in a nutshell fantastic.

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Speaker 1: Why'd you leave school early?

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Speaker 2: It just didn't work for me. You know, I knew

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Speaker 2: exactly what I wanted to do, and that was to

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Speaker 2: be successful playing the guitar in one way form of another.

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Speaker 2: And you know, before I dropped out, I was doing

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Speaker 2: pretty good. But you know, I literally left school. In

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Speaker 2: the next year, I was teaching guitar school. So it

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Speaker 2: was a pretty weird transition, you know, going from being

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Speaker 2: told off in the principal's office to hanging out in

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Speaker 2: the staff room, different school.

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Speaker 1: But that's funny, what were your parents telling you?

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Speaker 2: My parents are telling me just just absolutely go for it,

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Speaker 2: you know, they were they could see the work that

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Speaker 2: I was putting in, and you know, and effectively, you know,

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Speaker 2: if you work hard enough it's something that you want

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Speaker 2: to do, then you know, I don't think you can

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Speaker 2: have anyone to tell you that you know you're doing

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Speaker 2: it wrong.

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Speaker 1: I'm interested in the Guitar Mastery one oh one. Was

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Speaker 1: it instantly successful or was it a slow burn on

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Speaker 1: the knees?

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Speaker 2: Definitely a little bit of a slow slow burn. So

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Speaker 2: Guitar Mastery one o one was the first course that

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Speaker 2: I ever released in the company which then became Guitar

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Speaker 2: master Method. And funny story is actually yesterday to ten

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Speaker 2: years through the day was the first day I actually

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Speaker 2: put that course up for sale. So I had like

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Speaker 2: released like ebooks when I was you know, just after

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Speaker 2: I left school, like ebooks online with audio clips it

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Speaker 2: with different guitar exercises and that kind of thing, and

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Speaker 2: had a little bit of success, and so I thought, well,

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Speaker 2: what if I was just to go full out and

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Speaker 2: make you know, a full video course, And that was

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Speaker 2: what I had no idea I was actually starting a

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Speaker 2: company into what has now become one of the biggest

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Speaker 2: guitar lesson companies in the world. And then so it was,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's just one of those things that I

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Speaker 2: just worked incredibly hard with that, and you know, I

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Speaker 2: just kind of really leant into the gym r. Own

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Speaker 2: quote of if you help enough people get what they

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Speaker 2: want in life, then you can have anything that you

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Speaker 2: want in life. And that's you know, really starting to

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Speaker 2: come to fruition.

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Speaker 1: Now that's super cool. Did you make your money from

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Speaker 1: the income stream or did you make your money from

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Speaker 1: the sale of the company.

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Speaker 2: So I still own the company? Oh yeah, yeah, So

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Speaker 2: it was it's just your money coming in and you know,

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Speaker 2: just putting it in the right places as well, you know,

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Speaker 2: just different different properties that I've owned that have gone

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Speaker 2: up on value. You know that all that stuff difn'tely helps.

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Speaker 1: Because how much of its timing, Because I mean, you're

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Speaker 1: going back far enough, are you not that the net

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Speaker 1: and all of that sort of stuff was new wish

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Speaker 1: and if you got in early enough, you were one

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Speaker 1: of the first. Because I mean the nets dowb it's

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Speaker 1: inundated with people playing guitars and teaching how to sing

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Speaker 1: songs these days.

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Speaker 2: Well, it didn't feel like that at the time because

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Speaker 2: at the time, of course, you know, everything always feels

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Speaker 2: you know, competitive, and everything is always difficult. But you know,

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Speaker 2: for instance, the reality is the cost of online advertising,

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Speaker 2: as you know, continuously increased year over year every year.

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Speaker 2: So there were definitely elements of right timing. You know,

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Speaker 2: I could see where the market sophistication was within the

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Speaker 2: world of guitar lessons. The whole thing was kind of

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Speaker 2: boring at the time online, so I was like, right,

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Speaker 2: a lot of this set up, but you know, the

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Speaker 2: local music when you hear the kaba and I'll get

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Speaker 2: the rock you know, stage lights on and make it like,

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Speaker 2: you know, look kind of cool. And then so you know,

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Speaker 2: and I just really developed a really strong relationship with

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Speaker 2: the you know, with the people who were joining. You know,

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Speaker 2: we've had guitarists from all around the world flight to

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Speaker 2: New Zealands to you know, to hang out and to

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Speaker 2: you know, do guitar clinics here in first of then,

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Speaker 2: you know, and of course we've got you know, seventy

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Speaker 2: percent of our members that are in the US, and

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Speaker 2: pretty much everywhere in the world I go, I get

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Speaker 2: recognized and they say, you know, hey, you're the guitar guy.

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Speaker 1: Was this some means to an end? So, in other words,

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Speaker 1: the idea was I'm going to make my money at

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Speaker 1: this at that point, I'm going to be able to

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Speaker 1: fund a band. Is that how it worked?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well what happened was we as the band that

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Speaker 2: I was in when whan To banned competition here in

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Speaker 2: Hawk's way to take us as a nationwide thing. But

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Speaker 2: we got to go and play some shows over in

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Speaker 2: Europe and got promised the world came back and I

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Speaker 2: was twenty one twenty two at the time, and I

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Speaker 2: had like literally no money. I remember going to the

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Speaker 2: supermarket needing to get food for me and my girlfriend

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Speaker 2: at the time, food for the cats, toilet paper, and

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Speaker 2: petrol and looking at my wallet and I had two

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Speaker 2: dollars to forty and I was like, Okay, this is

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Speaker 2: not going to work. Because I thought, okay, well, I'm

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Speaker 2: going to get the cat food because I don't deserve

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Speaker 2: to know that I'm for And I remember thinking I

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Speaker 2: am not going to be able to make my music

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Speaker 2: career success without some means. And then so so that

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Speaker 2: was the spark that just really has made me just

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Speaker 2: go full at it. And then you know, obviously it

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Speaker 2: just wasn't until twenty nineteen that you know, for instance,

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Speaker 2: I was able to start putting at least a full

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Speaker 2: time effort and to what becomes Black Smoke Sugar fantastic.

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Speaker 1: So let's continue the story, Charlie. So as a model,

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Speaker 1: is it something that you can recommend or is it

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Speaker 1: an idea? So in other words, you raise your money,

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Speaker 1: you make money doing somewhere else with a view too,

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Speaker 1: funding a band as opposed to just being a town

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Speaker 1: and hoping somebody comes your way, like a record company

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Speaker 1: or a manager and funds you into success. That way.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think that the music industry is right now,

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Speaker 2: in this current stay inherently broken and the way that

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Speaker 2: you know, at any time that a record company or

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Speaker 2: anything like that is going to invest in you, you

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Speaker 2: have to pay one hundred percent of that money back anyway,

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Speaker 2: So you effectively are funding yourself one shape form or another.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's not like, for instance, sport, where if

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Speaker 2: you are the best at something, you can quite obviously

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Speaker 2: you know show that with music and art, it's subjective,

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Speaker 2: which makes it a little bit trickier. So I definitely

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Speaker 2: think that, you know, if you have the skills and

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Speaker 2: you have the dedication to put a decade into it,

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Speaker 2: then you know, building a business getting enough money so

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Speaker 2: that you can actually, you know, be able to fund

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Speaker 2: it is definitely a good idea.

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Speaker 1: I feel right with managers and producers, so food fighters,

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Speaker 1: Lincoln Park, et cetera. How did they come into the mix?

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Speaker 2: Well, I keep on going to the US for different

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Speaker 2: business stuff. And I had a friend, Brett Barker, who

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Speaker 2: was Taylor Swift's first manager, and he said to me,

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Speaker 2: you keep coming to the US, but you haven't been

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Speaker 2: to Nashville. Nashville is the music capital of the world.

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Speaker 2: You're going to come visit me. I'll show you around.

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Speaker 2: So while I was there, I was catching up with

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Speaker 2: another friend of mine who said, do you want to

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Speaker 2: meet Michael Wagner? And I'm thinking, all this guy effectively produced,

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Speaker 2: you know, all the records. I grew up with the Metallica.

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Speaker 2: I was osborn Motley Crowe. And then so I go

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Speaker 2: to his studio, see all the gold and silver records everywhere,

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Speaker 2: And my friend says, oh, Charlie plays in the band.

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Speaker 2: And so at this point he says, well, I'll send

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Speaker 2: me some tracks. I'd love to hear them. After he

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Speaker 2: heard them, he said that this is this music is

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Speaker 2: right up my alley. If you ever want to work together,

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Speaker 2: then let me know. So effectively, that's what really started

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Speaker 2: Black Smoke, Trigger and the Tirety, because then we just

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Speaker 2: went full out writing and went over to Nashville recorded

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Speaker 2: with Michael and then one of the songs that we

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Speaker 2: recorded there we actually had Mick Mar's Fromotley Crew play on,

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Speaker 2: and the lead single was a song called Court in

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Speaker 2: the Undertow, which I came up with the idea to

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Speaker 2: train and film the music video underwater, and we did

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Speaker 2: that and it got a lot of attention, and through that,

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Speaker 2: through the pandemic, when everything was a little bit quiet,

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Speaker 2: we landed on the desk of Andy Gould, who is

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Speaker 2: our manager, who's La based and he's managed everyone from

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Speaker 2: Lincoln Park to Lionel Ritchie to Rob Zombie Guns and

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Speaker 2: Roses and stuff. And then when we wanted to, you know,

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Speaker 2: for instance, get this new record that we've just released

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Speaker 2: just this past weekend, he said, who do you want

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Speaker 2: to work with? And we said Nick Raskillex just because

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Speaker 2: of the incredible albums that he had done with Bansley Allison,

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Speaker 2: Chains and Food Fighters, corn Halstorm and then so we

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Speaker 2: had multiple trips to Nashville to record with him, and

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Speaker 2: he actually even traveled here to Hawks Bay to finish

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Speaker 2: the record. So there's a big, long journey to get

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Speaker 2: to this point.

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Speaker 1: It's one of the questions I'm going to ask. You're

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Speaker 1: not hampered by the fact you're on Hawk's Bay and

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Speaker 1: so geography is not the issue.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean the thing is iver were is only

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Speaker 2: ever a plane slight away and with you know, the

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Speaker 2: Internet and everything, you know, it's like you can be

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Speaker 2: talking to anyone anywhere in the world's in you know,

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Speaker 2: a couple of minutes from now if you need it

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Speaker 2: to be.

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Speaker 1: So, how good's the album and how big are you

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Speaker 1: going to be?

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Speaker 2: Well again, music is completely subjective, but we really like it.

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Speaker 2: We feel this is putting a stamp and you know,

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Speaker 2: into the world of who we are as a band

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Speaker 2: and the idea with what we are going to be

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Speaker 2: doing as we are going to be pushing the boat

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Speaker 2: out as far as we possibly can. We've just wrapped

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Speaker 2: up a couple of tours with New Zealand, Australia with

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Speaker 2: US band Filter and we're just supporting Bruce Dickinson from

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Speaker 2: Iron Maiden in Europe. And then so at this point

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Speaker 2: where you're digging in, getting new ideas, getting a whole

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Speaker 2: bunch of oh much more so, I'm getting ready to

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Speaker 2: get into our next recording phase and we're going to

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Speaker 2: be trying to make this thing as big and as

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Speaker 2: fun as it possibly can be.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic. Well, I love the story. I think it's fantastic

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Speaker 1: and I wish you every level of a success feedback

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Speaker 1: so far, Mike, Charlie is the man. Guitar classes are awesome,

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Speaker 1: any genre, any skill level. Cover definitely recommend to anyone

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Speaker 1: looking for online lessons. Somebody goes black Trigger Smokes bass

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Speaker 1: players a musical genius. I'm assuming you'd agree with that, Charlie. Mike,

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Speaker 1: how about playing sun Cries read when Charlie's online. Charlie's

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Speaker 1: group is, in my opinion, one of the New Zealand's better groups.

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Speaker 1: Need more red time. There you go, so you've got support.

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Speaker 2: Fantastic.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, mate, We'll go well with it. Take

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Speaker 1: care and we'll catch up again soon. Charlie Wallace, lead

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Speaker 1: of Black Smoke Trigger album is out now.

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Speaker 2: For more from the mic Asking Breakfast listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio