Speaker 1: M. Welcome to episode Blanco Brown. The first time I
Speaker 1: met you was at the house where the house Now,
Speaker 1: first I met the house whenever I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: that seems like ages ago. Man, it went the alone
Speaker 1: go with time to pay my face to me, that
Speaker 1: seems like ages ago. So this is how and then
Speaker 1: I want to get under your story. But this how
Speaker 1: I found you, much like anyone else. I was just
Speaker 1: on YouTube and it was like videos you may know,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, this this is interesting. Guys
Speaker 1: out from a trailer doing a dance. I could probably
Speaker 1: do that. And so then I watched the video of
Speaker 1: you and Laney, who, by the way, that video actually
Speaker 1: brought her an eye to be close. And so I
Speaker 1: was like Laney, I said, Laney, can you come and
Speaker 1: teach me how to do this dance? And she goes,
Speaker 1: I'll just call Blanco. Next thing you know, you're driving
Speaker 1: up with shooting back at the pool. You pushed me
Speaker 1: in the pool. We got ten million viewers on ours.
Speaker 1: You got like a billion on your man and they
Speaker 1: get up as as blown up. Let me play at
Speaker 1: it to get up first. Here it isn't you have
Speaker 1: dance dance this thing? Do you think over five thousand times.
Speaker 1: I don't even count. You're doing your sleep now. I
Speaker 1: hadn't done it a lot of times your whole life.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to do it right. Yeah, it ain't
Speaker 1: gonna ever go nowhere. It's gonna be a part of
Speaker 1: my journey. You know, you're about the only guy I
Speaker 1: look at right now and go I relate because I'm
Speaker 1: traveling like crazy, trying to eat, trying to work. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and I see last night. I saw you Sunday at
Speaker 1: the Titans game singing the national anthem, and then you
Speaker 1: were doing the dance in the end zone, and then
Speaker 1: I see you at the World Series last night, and
Speaker 1: then you're back here tonight. You're you're hitting hard. Man.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I couldn't turn down them tickets. I
Speaker 1: was like, this is an experience I've always wanted to
Speaker 1: go to one, and this is bucket list. What's the
Speaker 1: last six months been like for you? Uh? Non stop, busy, busy.
Speaker 1: I mean I haven't been in Atlanta longer than three
Speaker 1: days at a time, none stop. And are are you
Speaker 1: in a mix of so appreciative but also so tired
Speaker 1: and just going? Man? I can't wait for the holidays.
Speaker 1: I mean not even that I'm tired, um holidays. I
Speaker 1: may be working doing a holiday. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: a couple of things. We'll talk about the album, which
Speaker 1: it's out. I want to do a little bit about
Speaker 1: you first. And your real name is where Blanco Brown
Speaker 1: comes from, because I neither wanted those are in your
Speaker 1: real life. I also used a pseudonym, so Blanco Brown
Speaker 1: is from what people used call me ben in Blanco
Speaker 1: from the Bronx. But I'm from Atlanta. Um, my real
Speaker 1: name is Benny and Brown. I dedicated Brown to my
Speaker 1: grandfather who was adopted. UM, and that was our original
Speaker 1: last name. So that's how you got Blanco Brown. And
Speaker 1: so you don't want to go by how do you
Speaker 1: say your name? Benny? Benny Benny Yeah, Amy Amy? Are
Speaker 1: there two other Benny Amy's ahead of you? Yeah, my
Speaker 1: granddad and my dad. My granddad passed and so you
Speaker 1: were like, Benny Amy, that's not a stage name because
Speaker 1: I didn't use mine. My real name is Bobby. My
Speaker 1: my real last name is Bobby Est. And I was like,
Speaker 1: dang name. Yeah, I mean really, people started calling me
Speaker 1: blanco and being calling me blanco for so long that.
Speaker 1: That's what everybody called me in you know, in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: l A, New York, it was just Blanco. You grew
Speaker 1: up in Atlanta, but you have spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time like in like rural parts of Georgia too, in
Speaker 1: the country. Uh, during the summertime, I would go to
Speaker 1: the country, but the Gioga which is Taylor County, and
Speaker 1: I spent that time with my bunts and cousins and
Speaker 1: family down there and learned the other side of the world.
Speaker 1: And so growing up for you kind of talk to me,
Speaker 1: talk to me about what it was like growing up
Speaker 1: at like age ten, eleven, twelve years old. Um man,
Speaker 1: I mean it was a lot going on in the world.
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen so much by then and had been
Speaker 1: through so much by then. Um, but I think I
Speaker 1: was a sweet kid. You know, I was real chill.
Speaker 1: You didn't really know my circumstances. Um, I just didn't
Speaker 1: enjoy life. But even then, there was a lot of
Speaker 1: rehearsals and uh, singing that talent shows, trying to win
Speaker 1: some money back and then you know, help mom out.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I mean my childhood it's always been about music.
Speaker 1: Let's talking a couple of things. I wanna talking about.
Speaker 1: We'll get to the like the childhood performing because I'm
Speaker 1: interested in that where that all started with you. But
Speaker 1: you talk about your circumstances. Talk about that for a second,
Speaker 1: because I'm not super familiar with your circumstances, Like what
Speaker 1: you grew up in. Oh, I mean three bedroom apartment,
Speaker 1: brick walls inside out, no soft landing, hard concrete floors. Um,
Speaker 1: three families in one three bedroom apartment. It was me,
Speaker 1: my aunt, my cousins. Uh. I mean my grandmother had
Speaker 1: my other aunt older, so she was around my age
Speaker 1: older hunt mother. I mean like it was deep and
Speaker 1: you know, violence not in the household, but outside the household,
Speaker 1: like every day. I mean gun shots and fights and
Speaker 1: the better things to be remembered, uh, opening fire fire
Speaker 1: hydrants and just being in front of the water with
Speaker 1: everybody playing freeze cups. And I was, you know, I
Speaker 1: was the type of person when I got the freeze cup,
Speaker 1: I ain't like to eat it from the top. I
Speaker 1: turned it on the back on the bottom. That was
Speaker 1: the soft, good, sweet part of the freeze cup. And
Speaker 1: um man, I mean the lightning bugs, catching the lightning
Speaker 1: bugs playing not not zoom where you go to somebody
Speaker 1: house you're not gonna do and you run um once
Speaker 1: you through red, Like I mean, like the the goose,
Speaker 1: how didn't go Seek? How didn't go get? I mean
Speaker 1: like that was my childhood and those are the memories
Speaker 1: and they're like I mean, just talking about them and
Speaker 1: thinking about them, it's it's still up a moment in
Speaker 1: the space I would do all over just the way
Speaker 1: it was. It's funny you say that, because I grew
Speaker 1: up a poverty kid too. I'm pretty proud of it
Speaker 1: because and I say that often. It's funny that you
Speaker 1: say that like I used to. I used to go,
Speaker 1: I'm very resentful that I had to grow up and
Speaker 1: eat a meal a day, hopefully, or I grew up
Speaker 1: on food stamps or welfare. I used to be really resentful,
Speaker 1: But as I got older, I started to go, man,
Speaker 1: I'm so strong from that, and I also know what
Speaker 1: it's like, so I can help other people now, because
Speaker 1: I think there are so few of us that understand
Speaker 1: and can do something about it. And so it sounds
Speaker 1: like as you're telling your story and I'm watching on, oh,
Speaker 1: I get that. I understand that. And when you say
Speaker 1: you wouldn't change anything about it. I wouldn't either, man,
Speaker 1: because as we rise, we're able to help others, like
Speaker 1: others helped us at some point. Yeah, and you talk
Speaker 1: about my grandma raised me, adopt me for a while,
Speaker 1: and so your grandparents are a big part of your life. Um,
Speaker 1: my grandmother's. My granddad was like never really around, and um,
Speaker 1: as I got older, I could have spent more time
Speaker 1: with him, but I just didn't. And then when he passed,
Speaker 1: it was the most hurtful thing in the world, and
Speaker 1: I just went back to that moment of Man, I
Speaker 1: could have changed that situation on my own. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he didn't want to be around, if it
Speaker 1: was something that was going on within the family, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I don't really know the details
Speaker 1: of it, just know that I've badly seen him. When
Speaker 1: all of you guys are in an apartment, I get
Speaker 1: that too a little. All my cousins I used to live,
Speaker 1: you just live where you can live, right, Like everybody's
Speaker 1: trying to to to have enough money to pay rent.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you got money to pay rents. You all moved together.
Speaker 1: A bunch of us live in the trailer for a while.
Speaker 1: A bunch of us an apartment, So like, I get
Speaker 1: that and also know me, I was the kid in
Speaker 1: the group that was I'm gonna get out and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna use education like that was my thing. It sounds
Speaker 1: like yours was music. Sound like you were doing music
Speaker 1: way early. Yeah. Then my first deal and I was seven.
Speaker 1: You what? Yeah, my first deal when I was seven
Speaker 1: years old? And how did that come about? And how
Speaker 1: did you get to a place where someone could see
Speaker 1: you at seven to go? I like that, kid, man,
Speaker 1: that's a good question. I never really got the answer.
Speaker 1: I never asked that question. I just know that we
Speaker 1: were we're recording and doing records like just like that.
Speaker 1: I just remember who it's seven years old discovers you. Um.
Speaker 1: It was New Star Records guy by the name of
Speaker 1: Anthony Richardson. Um. And I don't know if he discovered us,
Speaker 1: if somebody took us to him, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I really can't remember how it happened. You're seven years old? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just know we were singing, recording, practicing, going to school.
Speaker 1: Who's we by the way, me and my brothers? Okay,
Speaker 1: so were you guys like in a singing group and
Speaker 1: a group? How many were there called times three because
Speaker 1: it was three of us, all brothers, and it was
Speaker 1: just the X with depostrophe S three. I still got
Speaker 1: the pictures. Now, where were you in the age group
Speaker 1: of the three brothers? Um, I'm in the middle, okay,
Speaker 1: And so you got with the goal of what I know,
Speaker 1: you're only seven. But looking back, were they trying to
Speaker 1: break you guys? As like the JA five? But the
Speaker 1: X the three like what I think more so like
Speaker 1: another bad creation meets some singing brothers because we were
Speaker 1: we were like really singing, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But Jackson five, it was that would have been hard
Speaker 1: to Jason five laden there. Man, they weren't legendary tal
Speaker 1: after they were legendary though, Like they had to even
Speaker 1: start at Yeah, what I'm just saying. Like by time
Speaker 1: we were the eight, they were already like Jackson five
Speaker 1: ABC is a good like another bad creation? All those
Speaker 1: groups were around that time too. We're all you guys
Speaker 1: just singing or you guys doing hip hop stuff too,
Speaker 1: just singing. And I was the rapper in the group,
Speaker 1: so wait where are you rapping? I was like the
Speaker 1: the uh, but it's from immature who I was did
Speaker 1: like the sexes talking. I did the sexest talking eight.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, yeah, girl, you know all this time
Speaker 1: I've been playing around. I mean like, yeah, I've been
Speaker 1: playing with my g I Joe's and POGs Girl, and
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about you. I know, I'm nine, man,
Speaker 1: that is hilarious. I know I'm a third grade girl,
Speaker 1: but I'm drinking milk. Yeah. I mean so that's kind
Speaker 1: of how you know, um growing up I was I
Speaker 1: didn't have the confidence to sing, so they would give
Speaker 1: me the parts where I was more like mellow talking,
Speaker 1: kind of rapping kind of singing. I didn't find my
Speaker 1: singing voice until like fifteen sixteen. So you're fifteen sixty.
Speaker 1: Are you still in school? Yeah? Definitely, okayt you graduate
Speaker 1: high school? Ye? Okay. So you're singing all the way
Speaker 1: through high school all the way? Are you known as
Speaker 1: that kid? The singing kid? In high school? Like we're
Speaker 1: all known as something? I was a nerd. I wasn't
Speaker 1: known as the singer. Okay. So you're singing all the
Speaker 1: way through and as you go through up until about
Speaker 1: twelfth grade at that point, is your biggest break before
Speaker 1: you graduate high school? Uh? I mean we met with
Speaker 1: a guy named Kada Masson Bird. He was over at
Speaker 1: Motown and we were about to do a deal. Met
Speaker 1: him at the Intercontinental UH in Buckhead, right by Lenny Small.
Speaker 1: He looked me and my brothers and my mother in
Speaker 1: the face said, y'all don't have no worries, Mama. They've
Speaker 1: benna be able to take care of everything. We're gonna sign.
Speaker 1: We didn't get signed, like two weeks later, found out
Speaker 1: he was no longer with Motown. That was one of
Speaker 1: the moments that was like a huge moment. And then
Speaker 1: do you think he lied to you or do you
Speaker 1: think he got fired in the process of signing you.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he got fired, if he just
Speaker 1: something happened the way he just left. Um, but I
Speaker 1: just know the deal didn't happen, right And uh after
Speaker 1: that Outcast we were doing a deal with Outcasts, and
Speaker 1: you know they was you know, uh at that time
Speaker 1: in my life, they was just a dope group. It
Speaker 1: was from Atlanta, like guys from home. Um, and I
Speaker 1: remember me with them, and they wanted to sign my
Speaker 1: younger brother to a solo deal. So he's gonna do
Speaker 1: a solo deal. And then you know, me and my
Speaker 1: older brothers were like, okay, cool, let's that would be
Speaker 1: fine once she get all the way a way he
Speaker 1: needed to beat and then he'd bring us home. And
Speaker 1: then that didn't go the way we planned it either,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. They send up signing him. Ah,
Speaker 1: he ended up signing to a whole another deal and
Speaker 1: he came out with a song or a few songs.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean when you meet with outcasts, do
Speaker 1: you actually meet with Andre and Big Boy like the
Speaker 1: other guys who show up and they're like, all right,
Speaker 1: this is the plan. So they were doing things outside
Speaker 1: about cast away early even before they blew up. They
Speaker 1: were they were purple label and gonna. My dad actually
Speaker 1: just text me that picture like two days ago on
Speaker 1: my phone, like of us in the same room with
Speaker 1: him with our shirts on, taking pictures with him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that didn't work out. You graduate high school? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and what's the plan then for you musically? Because high
Speaker 1: school it's probably big deal to graduate high school? What's
Speaker 1: from me? Well, my whole my whole life. I was told,
Speaker 1: you know, um, stick to my art. I went to
Speaker 1: school for art. I got a basket of fine arts
Speaker 1: and so we're not to college yet though. Yeah. From
Speaker 1: high school to college. Okay, So then you decided to
Speaker 1: go to school where you're gonna go to school? Where
Speaker 1: did you go to school? I went to a I
Speaker 1: U okay? And your thought when you go to college
Speaker 1: is blank, finished college or learn music or make friends?
Speaker 1: Like really my thought what college was be the person
Speaker 1: that went to college. And if that don't work out,
Speaker 1: just know that music is always number one either way.
Speaker 1: I went down just there's you know, pretty much just
Speaker 1: said I had a degree. And what you study in school?
Speaker 1: All right? So you study art, but you're doing music. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you studying what does it? What do you just
Speaker 1: study art? Or what does that mean? I mean you
Speaker 1: go through all like art theory and like paintings, like sculptures,
Speaker 1: like the like, not even music, like you're a whole
Speaker 1: different track. Yep, I did. I did all that, like
Speaker 1: sculpturing and websites from dream weave it to mag went
Speaker 1: three D and I do all that so even like
Speaker 1: some digital art stuff too. And then if you were
Speaker 1: to have let's just journey off a bit and let's
Speaker 1: say the music stuff, you end up getting an art degree.
Speaker 1: If you were to pursue that. What would you have
Speaker 1: done in art? Oh? Man, you know cartoon network or
Speaker 1: something some voice over us with some animations. I can
Speaker 1: talk just about like anything, and you can. Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: just squirrel, just a squirrel, pretty good? That duck one warm? Okay,
Speaker 1: let's do one more. That doesn't That isn't an easy one.
Speaker 1: How about a platypus, because we have no idea what
Speaker 1: a platypus sounds like. I don't know, maybe, but earnestly
Speaker 1: um music was always the forefront, but I didn't have
Speaker 1: confidence to do it. I didn't have the confidence in myself.
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to figure out how to be
Speaker 1: a part of it. I started engineering straight out of college.
Speaker 1: I started engineering so like the sound engineering, so for
Speaker 1: if you're listening right now, what that is is you're
Speaker 1: at a computer and you're basically adjusting the levels of everything,
Speaker 1: like to break it down like a five years old.
Speaker 1: So you're you're engineering music. Where do you learn those
Speaker 1: skills to be a music engineer? Uh? One of my
Speaker 1: homies named Darryl showed me how to use the controls,
Speaker 1: and I started messing around with it, and then next
Speaker 1: thing you know, I was engineering recording for the Wild
Speaker 1: Gospel compilations and stuff. Uh deep set. So I bet
Speaker 1: self taught. Yeah, your friend just said here, there's the
Speaker 1: kind of how to do it. Then you just took
Speaker 1: it in digit thing. He gave me a um a
Speaker 1: layout template. I started building from that, and then I
Speaker 1: came up my own template and I just started making
Speaker 1: money doing it. So it was just like one of
Speaker 1: those situations. They kind of filling my lap and I
Speaker 1: was just like, Okay, I get to start building relationships
Speaker 1: with people and then hopefully they listened to some of
Speaker 1: my writing one day because I was always writing. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, note here, note there. I was
Speaker 1: a professional haiku writer. Can't nobody outright me in the
Speaker 1: haiku format. You know what I'm saying? Wait, you got
Speaker 1: you didn't You got paid right of haiku? No? No, no,
Speaker 1: because if there was no money, I know it ain't
Speaker 1: no money. And I'm just saying it was a good
Speaker 1: That was a good start. I got the creative block
Speaker 1: going um and I just built from there. After that,
Speaker 1: I was like vocal reducing for free, but didn't know
Speaker 1: that you can get paid more to vocal reduced. Thank you,
Speaker 1: we're getting paid to engineering, said that all day. Why
Speaker 1: are somebody to tell you what to do and what
Speaker 1: not to do? What's the difference in vocal producing and
Speaker 1: engineering engineering. I'm him buttons, I'm copying page and I'm
Speaker 1: moving stuff vocal reduction. I'm telling the artist what't notes
Speaker 1: to hit, how to take the song to the next level.
Speaker 1: It needs a harmony. Here, go low, here, lead this blank,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's producing. So I found the love and
Speaker 1: that and realize I can get paid more in two hours.
Speaker 1: They're sending in the studio for sixteen now. Just about
Speaker 1: vocal producing. So I said, I was never engineering no more.
Speaker 1: And you were good at it, like you felt like
Speaker 1: you you kind of found your calling vocal producing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was great at it. So who was one of
Speaker 1: the first artists to come to you and go I'd
Speaker 1: like for you to vocal produce me. And you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: I'm actually moving up, Like somebody who's got some real
Speaker 1: money on them is actually asking me to help them. Oh,
Speaker 1: Christine and Milly, Yeah was the first, like Dippelow like
Speaker 1: that just for those listening to Christian Millian thinks diplop songs. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I was doing her stuff, and then I went
Speaker 1: from her stuff to um, Kiki Palmer. Then I wore
Speaker 1: him dad to like Selina Johnson. And so does words
Speaker 1: start to spread then, like if you work with someone
Speaker 1: and and Christie Milian goes, he's great and she chucking
Speaker 1: her producers the producer talking, they're like, you know you
Speaker 1: get shoulda blanco? Is that kind of how your word
Speaker 1: came in? That's how it came in? And then before
Speaker 1: you know it, I was voke reducing Monica and uh,
Speaker 1: I mean different people. Uh Fergie, yeah, Fergie. Uh. I
Speaker 1: did Chris Brown stuff, um, Childish Gumbano and Lloyd like
Speaker 1: different records. All that just came all in one nutshell.
Speaker 1: They came at me fast. Some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: I went vocal reducing, I did the vocal reduction. I
Speaker 1: mean I did the vocal arrangements on them, and they
Speaker 1: were my backgrounds that I was singing for these records
Speaker 1: that they didn't want to replace, so they paid me
Speaker 1: and they just put you on the record. So you
Speaker 1: were singing it as an example track, but it was
Speaker 1: so good they said, hey, we're just gonna put this
Speaker 1: on the record. So not only you're producing now you're
Speaker 1: actively on background vocals too, Yeah, by mistake and um Man,
Speaker 1: I mean you can't really guys work. So who did
Speaker 1: you work with where you go wow? Like that is
Speaker 1: a special vocalist? I mean plenty of dose. But who
Speaker 1: comes to mind first thing where you you're in a
Speaker 1: studio with them. We just talked about a big list
Speaker 1: of names. He trying to get me in Trouble, No trouble.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for a good one where you walk in
Speaker 1: and you're just not bad, but one where it's just
Speaker 1: like oh wow, like your eyes open, because everybody's good
Speaker 1: at the major league level, everybody's good. Man. There's so
Speaker 1: many great vocalists, you know, you know who blew you
Speaker 1: away blackout where you're like wow, it's a lot of
Speaker 1: great ones. Fergie, it was a lot of great ones. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean it still is a lot of great ones.
Speaker 1: I mean from Monica to Ki going Monica that was
Speaker 1: the first one you mentioned, Monica Special. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of special ones, you know. Hey, diplomatic ancer, how did
Speaker 1: you work with Kane Brown? Uh? A producer that I
Speaker 1: met and I was doing some Voger production for some
Speaker 1: other artists that he was working with. Um Kane was
Speaker 1: working with him, and he become the studio every day
Speaker 1: and like he was like, I want this guy to
Speaker 1: Voger produce me. I like, what do you do? And
Speaker 1: we got in the studio and I started them are
Speaker 1: records for him by singing them, and he would get
Speaker 1: in the booth and just put this thing on and
Speaker 1: we just built like I mean, it's some records that
Speaker 1: note the world I haven't heard yet. I mean we
Speaker 1: did a good eight nine records. Yeah that he's just
Speaker 1: sitting on right now. Yeah, they just sit there. They
Speaker 1: jamming too. I've heard about people and I talked to
Speaker 1: John Mayor about this where people can see colors when
Speaker 1: they hear music, And even John Mayer said he wasn't
Speaker 1: so advanced, and he's very advanced musically, but he's like,
Speaker 1: I don't I can't see colors. Like I don't have that.
Speaker 1: But do you have that where you can hear colors,
Speaker 1: see colors from music like a certain note? Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: I see him colors their shapes. Talk to me about
Speaker 1: that for a second. How does that work? I don't
Speaker 1: know how it worked, but like, if you hear like
Speaker 1: a ge, is that a color to you? I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the melodies that paint the pizzas from me. And
Speaker 1: can you memorize the colors? Yeah, I mean I know
Speaker 1: what what each color makes me feel? Um, And then
Speaker 1: at points it's so sporadic that I see colors, don't
Speaker 1: think about the process, and but I just go with
Speaker 1: the art that is presented at the time. And is
Speaker 1: that where the ear came from? You? In the ear?
Speaker 1: The ear the ability to listen down one time to
Speaker 1: a record and tell you exactly what it's missing. And
Speaker 1: they trusted you to listen one time and go, this
Speaker 1: is what I feel, and you had so much success,
Speaker 1: they were like, let's hire of the ear. Hey, you
Speaker 1: know uh, they kind of just put their name on them.
Speaker 1: After doing it so much and being known to listen
Speaker 1: to records and tell you how to take them to
Speaker 1: the next level, it kind of came to get up.
Speaker 1: Whenever that that that you kind of stumble into a
Speaker 1: smash because no one ever picks us smack, no one
Speaker 1: ever goes this is for sure gonna be a smash.
Speaker 1: Any smash of talk to anybody, it's like, well, I
Speaker 1: remember thinking about it, we recorded it. You kind of
Speaker 1: don't know, you know it starts to pick up and
Speaker 1: you're like, holy crap, can't believe the traction is getting
Speaker 1: So the infancy of the get up, let's let's start back.
Speaker 1: Did you go I think I'm gonna do a song?
Speaker 1: Wear they dances? Or did it just kind of come
Speaker 1: and phases? Um? I did a song, and I said,
Speaker 1: people gonna love this record. It's gonna bring a lot
Speaker 1: of smiles to people faces. It feels like a two
Speaker 1: dound nineteen two twenty eight can break your heart. To me,
Speaker 1: it can be next level. And I just remember telling
Speaker 1: myself this is special. I put out a one minute
Speaker 1: clip in April on TikTok or just on another platform,
Speaker 1: not even on YouTube. Um and five maiden views first week,
Speaker 1: and then the gas from TikTok. What before we get
Speaker 1: to take it? What? What clip did you put up? Though?
Speaker 1: There was one me dancing in front of the door. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it was visual and it was okay, so it's
Speaker 1: you dancing. The dance was like like the hook or
Speaker 1: do you verse? Okay? So I gonna do the two
Speaker 1: this part here and you're doing the dance in front
Speaker 1: of the door in the house. Yeah, with some basketball shouts.
Speaker 1: Song a Western black shirt, a cap and some church socks.
Speaker 1: I was just really messing around um with the dance
Speaker 1: and said, I want to record it because the floor
Speaker 1: kind of feels slippery. Rear Groovy had already came up
Speaker 1: with the dance, but I did the dance and sent
Speaker 1: it to Zach Cat's John Loeban, my homie Jasper Cameraon
Speaker 1: and my brother and it was just like, man, this
Speaker 1: is out of here. Were you surprised to see that
Speaker 1: many people watch that video that first week? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was shocked. You're just like what, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of videos. How came minds getting five millions? It blew
Speaker 1: upon this guy name DJ Big Shaka page first, and
Speaker 1: he started hearing me like in boss and me keeping
Speaker 1: me updated like on like what it was actually doing,
Speaker 1: the impressions and everything on it. He was like, man,
Speaker 1: this is crazy. I never had anything like this many
Speaker 1: views and this demand on my page. And then other
Speaker 1: people started posting my video on their page and they're
Speaker 1: started getting one Magan two million, three million views, and
Speaker 1: by then, I mean before I realized it was on TikTok,
Speaker 1: he had already had like close to sixty million views.
Speaker 1: So it goes over to TikTok was the first big
Speaker 1: TikTok video? Or that kid puts his arms out like
Speaker 1: this he does like that? Is that is that the
Speaker 1: first really big one. It's probably been the first really
Speaker 1: big one that everybody know of. But by time he
Speaker 1: did it, it already had like so many millian views. Um,
Speaker 1: this guy named a journey I saw my video and
Speaker 1: did a dance on TikTok and that your dance. He
Speaker 1: did his own version. He did his own thing, and
Speaker 1: that's the version that Harvard did. They got problem with
Speaker 1: the arms out? Who you later put your video? And
Speaker 1: a Johnny is in my video too? Oh yeah, they
Speaker 1: in it. I got a little a little running note.
Speaker 1: I'll take it, run it. We're good. So when you
Speaker 1: travel and listen, when you travel all the time, that happens,
Speaker 1: you got it. You wash? I wash my hands all
Speaker 1: the like. I am obsessed with hand washing because I'm
Speaker 1: on the road so much that I start like my
Speaker 1: hands are raw from all the washington that I do.
Speaker 1: You got to Yeah, I'm just not a lotioner. I
Speaker 1: don't evenink I owned lotion, Like anywhere in my house
Speaker 1: do I have lotion? I think when I was like eleven.
Speaker 1: I want to do it a little back up, and
Speaker 1: you have a big booger in your nose right on it.
Speaker 1: So it's blowing up on TikTok. And it's only TikTok
Speaker 1: sixty seconds fifteen seconds, two versions, which which was blown
Speaker 1: up for your fifteen or sixties. Okay, So they're doing
Speaker 1: fifteen second clubs of TikTok. And this is the infancy
Speaker 1: of TikTok where unless you're like fourteen, you don't even
Speaker 1: have TikTok. Yeah, but that ain't true. Wow, listen, I'm
Speaker 1: on it now. It's uncomfortably a lot of fourteen year olds.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. I posted on TikTok. It's
Speaker 1: my favorite platform, by the way, because there's so much
Speaker 1: funny content. But these four year old girls gonna never
Speaker 1: start dancing and shaking there. But I'm like, not next,
Speaker 1: it's like all all kids, okay, most most, I don't know.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of four on TikTok. I don't know
Speaker 1: what section you being good listen. Then there's that four
Speaker 1: you sexually keep sending me those videos. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it says about that. Hey man, When I go
Speaker 1: on TikTok, it's not okay, let me pull out my
Speaker 1: TikTok and let's just see what happens, and let me
Speaker 1: let me pull out my mind. So I'll pull up
Speaker 1: my first How old this girl right here? It would
Speaker 1: be yeah, the first one that pops. I don't follow
Speaker 1: her and so she look what I get? You got
Speaker 1: an old man? He has like ganded off the grade
Speaker 1: I have like a fifteen year old girl. All right,
Speaker 1: let me swipe another one. I'll go my turn, swipe.
Speaker 1: This is a how old is this boy? Here? He's
Speaker 1: probably okay, you swipe yours up. Now, let's see what
Speaker 1: you get another adult? I mean, he's alright, My phone
Speaker 1: is not. I don't like the algorithm that my TikTok
Speaker 1: is giving me. Oh everybody that will, Yeah, Wilsmon's funny
Speaker 1: on TikTok. Look at this the hold this girl next
Speaker 1: nuf one about seventeen eighteen. Yeah, well, I don't like
Speaker 1: what mine showing me. I need to have a talk.
Speaker 1: My TikTok's all I never see. Um. I don't like them.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they keep giving them to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the algorithm thing, probably, But maybe you've got special
Speaker 1: tiktoks that you No, I ain't got no special TikTok.
Speaker 1: You know, TikTok, TikTok, TikTok. So it does the thing,
Speaker 1: it does the thing of TikTok, and that world it
Speaker 1: blows up. That took it to the next level because
Speaker 1: so many people are on the platform and it's just
Speaker 1: one click, you know you yeah, slap slash slap, keep going,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people were doing it. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean like over three points some million people have done
Speaker 1: the dance just on that platform alone, but across every platform.
Speaker 1: It's Yeah. I was reading and you don't have to
Speaker 1: comment on this that you have made somewhere from about
Speaker 1: a million dollars in YouTube and TikTok out money money
Speaker 1: from the playing your videos about a million dollars. I'm
Speaker 1: saying anything. I'm saying that out loud. That's just what
Speaker 1: it says. Estimated different things from YouTube channel alone ranges
Speaker 1: around one million dollars. I look at that. Good on you.
Speaker 1: I was reading the YouTube comments. I'm saying anything back.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I'm just saying that out loud. Good
Speaker 1: on you, and on you. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: ever read the YouTube comments. I tend to not but
Speaker 1: that your number one comment is actually super positive. That
Speaker 1: when a guy named Jonathan Baker, he says, this is
Speaker 1: so refreshing to see a dance video without half naked
Speaker 1: women and instead of a dude and a trailer park
Speaker 1: wearing jeans, epic. You're the man. So rare that a
Speaker 1: top YouTube comment will be positive and yours is. And
Speaker 1: I was drawn to it because in the video or
Speaker 1: you're teaching it, which is why watching first, you're standing
Speaker 1: outside because your your friends like a trailer park. You
Speaker 1: guys live by. Oh yeah, he stay right. He used
Speaker 1: to stay right beside it, and his name Cavin, y'all.
Speaker 1: He did like this picture right here. Um he did
Speaker 1: to get up cover. I mean that was that was
Speaker 1: like another thing that wasn't gonna be a cover. We
Speaker 1: was standing in the same trailer park and I took
Speaker 1: a picture on the steps and I looked down like this.
Speaker 1: He said, make that face again. I said, you got it.
Speaker 1: I did like two shots with the sky behind me.
Speaker 1: It became the cover. Um. I went back to his house.
Speaker 1: We was hoping doing some stuff. I said, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I want to shoot a vertical video in front of
Speaker 1: that trailer. It was an abandoned trailer and um, he
Speaker 1: said cool. So we went down there. It was kind
Speaker 1: of sprinkling outside like sprinkling. We pulled out a little generator, shot,
Speaker 1: did two passes. You put oh two paths together and
Speaker 1: uploaded and then boom again. At that point, so many
Speaker 1: of so much to the content and the song is
Speaker 1: blowing up that you have to go, there's something here, like,
Speaker 1: you can't blow up this many times and get this
Speaker 1: it's not luck. After the third time it blows up
Speaker 1: and you have to go, all right, there's something here.
Speaker 1: It was organic, no money behind it, no radio behind it.
Speaker 1: It was straight consumers, people going clicking on the song
Speaker 1: listening to it. I mean, like twenty million plus views
Speaker 1: on that trailer part before then I think it's like
Speaker 1: fifty something now something. It's never actually in the song
Speaker 1: that the words to get up, never a dedicated to
Speaker 1: title to my grandmother. She's come early in the my owner,
Speaker 1: she vasseling on me and my stibiling face, my cousin,
Speaker 1: everybody that was in the house in a loving manner,
Speaker 1: though you know what I'm saying, and and say get up.
Speaker 1: That just meant being vertical with the world of finding purpose,
Speaker 1: finding joy, finding happiness. Um, you couldn't do that laying down,
Speaker 1: and she meant that both grandmothers. Was there ever a
Speaker 1: title of the song before they get Up? Yeah? We
Speaker 1: was there a working title? Yeah, Um, I actually look
Speaker 1: like I guess, let me guess Cowboy Buggie. Nope, too,
Speaker 1: Now I can't be two steps because cow that's bad.
Speaker 1: Hold down, hold down. It had then to do with
Speaker 1: the song, ain't I ain't the title of the session
Speaker 1: God's Gift, and that was gonna be the the working
Speaker 1: name of the song. Yeah, that was never the name
Speaker 1: of the song. It was just when I created it, it
Speaker 1: it felt like there was God's gift to me, and
Speaker 1: that's the original title of the session. I have it.
Speaker 1: I have it on my laptop like right now. So
Speaker 1: the get up starts to blow up? And what what's
Speaker 1: like the big first crazy call you God where it's like, Wow,
Speaker 1: I get to go do this now? Oh the c
Speaker 1: m A fest I dreamed the performer there the year before.
Speaker 1: A lot of people didn't even know it, but I
Speaker 1: had already done my deal with Broken Bowl Records and
Speaker 1: BMG a year prior to me putting out a one
Speaker 1: minute video clip. So they get Up didn't get you
Speaker 1: a deal. You had already signed talked, worked out a
Speaker 1: deal with the record. I didn't know that I signed
Speaker 1: the deal, uh eighteen and uh mayor June and the
Speaker 1: get Up I wrote September two thousand eighteen. When you
Speaker 1: sent it off to John Loebo, for example, what's his
Speaker 1: response back? It was like, man, this right here is impressive.
Speaker 1: That is strong, you know, John, that's that is strong.
Speaker 1: And then you go out and you have to do
Speaker 1: radio tour. Yep, Well set out the radio tour two
Speaker 1: and a half, three months after the song had already
Speaker 1: been out. It had already done what it was doing,
Speaker 1: and then um decided to take it to radio. But
Speaker 1: you you have pop stations playing you, you have country
Speaker 1: stations playing your little bit. Were they like, oh, we
Speaker 1: kind of don't know what to do with it, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna let everybody go with it. Like what was
Speaker 1: the plan? Oh? I don't I really don't even know.
Speaker 1: I think, Uh, I really don't know. Grandma would taught
Speaker 1: me and my mama. See I don't say my mama
Speaker 1: a lot, but she taught me a whole bunch. I
Speaker 1: used to saying my grandmother. But look, if you don't
Speaker 1: know what to say, just don't say nothing, because I
Speaker 1: don't know the process of that. UM. When they decided
Speaker 1: to pisit to the radio, I just went on the
Speaker 1: radio tour, and I told them that I wanted to
Speaker 1: go on the radio tour and I wanted to be
Speaker 1: and the people faces and getting to meet them and
Speaker 1: greet them, and and that was like priority to me
Speaker 1: to go on the radio tour. So John said, let's
Speaker 1: make it happen. Where's the weirdest place you did the dance?
Speaker 1: Not even radio touris in general because you've done it.
Speaker 1: I see like on local news. I see you at
Speaker 1: zoos yell. I just did it yesterday at the uh
Speaker 1: the World Series game during the ninth ending and somebody
Speaker 1: was getting struck out. I was just in the middle
Speaker 1: of the out doing a dance. Cooler celebrity you've seen
Speaker 1: do the dance. I mean it's a it's a lot
Speaker 1: of people. Name one. I can't even don't start with
Speaker 1: Monica again, No, I can't even one celebrity ain't seen
Speaker 1: how do the dance? No, but one name one celebrity
Speaker 1: is seen to the dance. So it's pretty cool, man.
Speaker 1: It's it's the one of the one of the one
Speaker 1: that took me out was Howie Howie? Who's Howie? You
Speaker 1: don't know? How We? How We? How are the duck?
Speaker 1: How are we? From back Street Boys? How We? Who's
Speaker 1: how We? I'm gonna let you figure it out. Who
Speaker 1: took you out? I'm saying that. That made me like, laugh, Mike,
Speaker 1: do you how he is? Howie Mandel? Howie Mandel? Okay? Okay?
Speaker 1: Would have been my fourth how we pack? You just
Speaker 1: said how we like I don't look he go out
Speaker 1: at the first one. I was just like, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna play a little game and let you
Speaker 1: guess this one since you don't want to say Monica again.
Speaker 1: It was Howie Okay. Um, you've been all over the
Speaker 1: world language barriers with the song weird or now uh.
Speaker 1: I haven't had any issues there. I see people just
Speaker 1: enjoying it, laughing, enjoying themselves and funny accents. I'm going
Speaker 1: to do the two staff bad. I'm trying to think,
Speaker 1: if you know what, let me let me do something
Speaker 1: right quick. But as you look at up, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do something here. So the album is called Honeysuck on
Speaker 1: Lightning Bugs obviously, to get Up. Here's some of Georgia
Speaker 1: power right here. Thank God, Yeah, yeah yeah. Any miny
Speaker 1: miny miny miny mode. I'll never ever ever let it
Speaker 1: take my soul. Any miny miny miny miny mode. I
Speaker 1: don't ain't, dude. I don't see any many many miny
Speaker 1: miny mode. Everything that the world a little bit of
Speaker 1: let's tennessee whiskey. Tell me not say you're are glass
Speaker 1: of shipping and understand, I see game. Tell me what
Speaker 1: about to do? And here is a little bit of
Speaker 1: temporary insanity from the record I feel so cold. You
Speaker 1: look out for this one. Players. You love this one, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you like that was one of those
Speaker 1: records like to get Up. I wrote it right before
Speaker 1: I was done with my album. I'm actually playing good
Speaker 1: turn there too. I played in these keys and I
Speaker 1: tuned to a certain way to make sure they had
Speaker 1: that dark texture, so I didn't tune it in like
Speaker 1: you know, the regular standard tune um and it has
Speaker 1: a dullness about it. It felt magical to me. Here's
Speaker 1: some more of this turn it out, like everything and
Speaker 1: anything that broke me and took it away and you
Speaker 1: feel my pain. Proud of this one? And that was
Speaker 1: me talking to myself. Everything that was a little bard.
Speaker 1: I was putting my poppy sing away. He ain't how
Speaker 1: many times to take the single this one down? I
Speaker 1: mean I sung it like two times through kidding me,
Speaker 1: you know what I know. I'm gonna tell you the
Speaker 1: first experience. So we have met at the house. He
Speaker 1: came over and then I said, hey, you should come
Speaker 1: up and do the show and play. And I figured
Speaker 1: you'd be good. And we were in a temporary studio
Speaker 1: because we're building a new studio, and everything was kind
Speaker 1: of a mess. And you walked in and you had
Speaker 1: the guys from Parmally Matt came in with Parmaly's right
Speaker 1: and you started singing, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: you may you And again I don't have a system,
Speaker 1: but you maybe, if not the one of the best
Speaker 1: singers ever being just sing straightforward. I was blown away.
Speaker 1: And I don't throw out compliments like that very often
Speaker 1: unless I mean it. And again I don't have a
Speaker 1: full ranking system, but you may be the best singer
Speaker 1: I've ever had in that room. And we have a
Speaker 1: lot of great singers in that room. It's my eyeballs
Speaker 1: were so big. I was like, oh, this is it
Speaker 1: right here. It was crazy, man. That comes from trying
Speaker 1: to be hurt for so long, going through the hurt,
Speaker 1: not being accepted, uh, wanting to never fit in but
Speaker 1: stand out. And you can just hear the pain in
Speaker 1: my voice when you started, I was born a real
Speaker 1: I was like as soon as you started, hm and
Speaker 1: you left, and we were all like, well, nobody needs
Speaker 1: to come in the next couple of days because they
Speaker 1: can't do that, Like, you gotta start the concert over.
Speaker 1: You gotta have a new show. No one needs to
Speaker 1: follow that. People surprise when you because you're the get
Speaker 1: Up such a dance song. Are they surprised when you
Speaker 1: just blow the place with your vocals? Yeah? I mean
Speaker 1: you know you go from to the left to the left,
Speaker 1: now to the ride to the ride. It's different from
Speaker 1: built in. You know what I'm saying, to get up
Speaker 1: start the purpose for what it is and what I'll
Speaker 1: forever will be. Um the get up is like you
Speaker 1: hear it, and you see this house when you dig
Speaker 1: into like the album, you end the house. Now you
Speaker 1: see how I decorated everything you get to enjoy the furnishing.
Speaker 1: What handles did he choose? How did his kissing come together?
Speaker 1: Why is there marble in the middle? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Why is there this? You kind of paint
Speaker 1: the picture. Honeysuck on lining bugs the album ten songs,
Speaker 1: You're right on all the songs. It's important to you
Speaker 1: to be a writer. Um if somebody give me a
Speaker 1: record that just touches my heart, then I definitely cut it.
Speaker 1: And uh, I have a couple that I've cut that
Speaker 1: I've probably go on the second album. You already working
Speaker 1: on the second album? Yeah? I mean I chose ten
Speaker 1: records for this album from like an eighty song catalog,
Speaker 1: straight trailer's wrap and the rest of your life. You
Speaker 1: what we're doing to get up and you're good with that.
Speaker 1: I'm good with that. The last movie you saw in theaters? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't do a while. Yeah, I ain't been in
Speaker 1: a minute. Last concert you bought tickets for um that
Speaker 1: I personally bought. Yeah, they didn't give you. Mumford and
Speaker 1: Science where l a one? One more question? What's superstition?
Speaker 1: Do you believe is true? Will you walk under a ladder?
Speaker 1: And I don't believe in that. Okay, so you walk
Speaker 1: under a ladder, I will too. I don't believe that.
Speaker 1: Will you break a mirror? Someone said, you're tin bucks,
Speaker 1: break that mirror? Yeah, break all right? If a black
Speaker 1: I need them, tim, But I'm not a superstition guy either. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's it, it's a it's a really interesting story.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we could, we can talk about it
Speaker 1: shared a little bit. I appreciate that. Thank you for
Speaker 1: you evory thing. Yeah no, I just such a fan,
Speaker 1: such a fan. I hope everybody listening to this check
Speaker 1: that honeysuck on loney bugs. I'm gonna go back and
Speaker 1: really listen to temper Insanity because I see, like that's
Speaker 1: your favorite, like that not but that's something you're really
Speaker 1: proud of. Like I want to go spend more because
Speaker 1: I listen to the record a couple of times. I
Speaker 1: really like it. I mean the first line like I
Speaker 1: never meant to break your broken heart. These lonely nights
Speaker 1: keep me staying awake hoping that my phone we ring.
Speaker 1: All my life, I've been chasing charts. Never felt like
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like it's getting into the
Speaker 1: depths of things, because now it's all reversed. Now that
Speaker 1: I'm doing my own music, I could care less about
Speaker 1: looking at the charts every week blood Persson going up
Speaker 1: and down. I just want to make music that's purposeful,
Speaker 1: that people can relate to, that people can feel. And
Speaker 1: I'm not looking for one big old combustion, one big boom.
Speaker 1: I want people to go along a journey and wrap
Speaker 1: with me and get to know and grow with me.
Speaker 1: I'm thutty folk. I'm not trying to fast forward nothing.
Speaker 1: It's still the same process. I'm doing everything one step
Speaker 1: at a time, as if the get up don't exist.
Speaker 1: It's just a blessing to be here. I saw the
Speaker 1: Timber Girl story two in the tweet you intended to
Speaker 1: don't take the girl? Yes, that was like, so how
Speaker 1: did that come together that I never knew could happen? Um,
Speaker 1: we had a show in Australia together and John told
Speaker 1: me that he wanted to meet me. He said, Hey,
Speaker 1: don't get your hopes up. I don't know what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen when you meet him. He may get too busy,
Speaker 1: you say, But y'all are being the same place at
Speaker 1: the same time, so more than likely would happened. I
Speaker 1: walked in the room one of the nicest guys I've
Speaker 1: ever met. Uh. They had a good talk and some keys.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, it's about to go down. I went
Speaker 1: to sweating and he was like, you know the song right?
Speaker 1: I said, of course? And I said I got one
Speaker 1: fact for you that you probably ain't thought about. Johnny
Speaker 1: would be thirty three today. His son would be Tim.
Speaker 1: In the song. They had him at twenty three, and
Speaker 1: when Johnny was eight, I was nine. So I know
Speaker 1: Johnny age. You know what I'm saying. He was just like,
Speaker 1: that's a good one. We saw in the song. Where
Speaker 1: did you sing the song? Uh? In the green room?
Speaker 1: And so that record, I'll play it right here. So
Speaker 1: this this don't take the girl? You and Tim, you
Speaker 1: guys are just playing in the green room. Was that
Speaker 1: it was like surreal? I mean I still look like
Speaker 1: at the video and like this is really happy. I mean,
Speaker 1: it ain't a moment that can make up for that
Speaker 1: reason that has its own shelf, is own book. And
Speaker 1: you get to play the ring your debut November nine.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do? I'm going there and give
Speaker 1: it my all. Do you know what you're gonna sing yet, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't say huh, I mean I'm I mean, you're
Speaker 1: definitely gonna hear temporary insanity. Yeah, you're gonna hear to
Speaker 1: get up. Yeah, you're gonna hear jowls to power Tian whiskey.
Speaker 1: You know, might have another one. Congratulations, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the time there is. Check it out the record,
Speaker 1: honeystuck on Lightning Bugs Blanco Brown and on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Blanco Brown and if you do the dancing tag him
Speaker 1: here I post it. Okay, you're always watching, always watching
Speaker 1: the stories, and I'm working on some secret things. Well
Speaker 1: that does nothing for me. You're rolling your hands all right.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know what a secret thing is,
Speaker 1: but some some great things coming. Just remember you heard it.
Speaker 1: We heard that you're working on a secret thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: guess what. I also I'm working on a couple of
Speaker 1: secret things. But I will give you anything else and
Speaker 1: then feel good? Does it holding? Alright, that's an episode
Speaker 1: two and nine with Blanco Brown. Uh, check out the
Speaker 1: whole record. It's been a few minutes with it. Alright.
Speaker 1: Good to see you. Thank you. H