Speaker 1: I welcome to episode seventy of the Bobby Cast and
Speaker 1: with writer producer I Got. You might not know his name,
Speaker 1: but when I play you a song, you're gonna be like,
Speaker 1: holy crap, Zach crowds here, here here is Zach. So I
Speaker 1: have all I have a lot of stuff that you've done,
Speaker 1: and I always like to start off and just kind
Speaker 1: of get everybody's listening an overview and we'll get back
Speaker 1: to it all. But here's some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: Zack has been involved in. For example, church bill that okay,
Speaker 1: I know, yeah, yeah, Like I don't know dirty laundry
Speaker 1: from carry Out. That's exactly heartbeat from carry You would
Speaker 1: think just that would be a big deal. I could
Speaker 1: be like you do. But now why you're the coolest
Speaker 1: guy in town is that you're in the Sam camp.
Speaker 1: You actually create. You've built the same camp with Sam. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so body like a back road George break up
Speaker 1: in a small town cop car, Yeah, we got dollar,
Speaker 1: we have it all version, Yeah, house party, lead the
Speaker 1: night on. Well, I didn't write that one, let's be fair,
Speaker 1: but I was about to say we'll get lawsuits. You
Speaker 1: didn't let me even finish the clip. You didn't write
Speaker 1: that one, but you did produce that. So so all
Speaker 1: I'm saying is there's even more, even like middle of
Speaker 1: a memory, in the middle of that, I want people
Speaker 1: to know, like you're so into this and all may
Speaker 1: people have know yet, like this is like you're coming
Speaker 1: out party. It's like your Keithanira. It's like it's Keithanira.
Speaker 1: What's that called? What it's? Uh, do you know what
Speaker 1: that is? That? But you grew up in Tennessee, so
Speaker 1: that's more of a Hispanic Mexican thing. So when you
Speaker 1: turn thirteen or so fifteen, Okay, so I don't even know.
Speaker 1: My wife would probably know. She's a Texas girl, So
Speaker 1: I bet I bet her and her family have to
Speaker 1: have a clue about that. Let's start with I guess,
Speaker 1: just kind of your story, because for me it's interesting.
Speaker 1: But because like a lot of us now, you grew
Speaker 1: up and you have all these musical influences, you don't
Speaker 1: just go I have a fiddle and a banjo and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make country music, which is how normal people
Speaker 1: are nowadays. Even the most that the weird thing for
Speaker 1: me is I have a lot of friends or artists,
Speaker 1: and you know, they have to go they got the
Speaker 1: radio that they did. They love country music. They're almost
Speaker 1: not allowed to say how influenced they are by other
Speaker 1: genres because it's a bad word. It's like a bad
Speaker 1: But you have been making beats since you're a kid, right, Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't start music until after high school. Um. I
Speaker 1: was always a sports kid and uh so I didn't
Speaker 1: touch music till after high school. I was a music kid.
Speaker 1: I was the music guy of the group of friends.
Speaker 1: I was the DJ of the group of friends. And
Speaker 1: I always made mixed tapes for my friends and sold
Speaker 1: them to him. And so I was the music nut
Speaker 1: of the friends and always wanted to be in a
Speaker 1: music business. But I had no clue, you know, of
Speaker 1: how to do it everything. But so after high school,
Speaker 1: I I that's when I bought a drum machine, and
Speaker 1: you know, wanted to be manny fresh most people don't
Speaker 1: you wanted to make bets. I wanted to make beats.
Speaker 1: I wanted to you know, I grew up on you know,
Speaker 1: nineties R and B and hip hop stuff, so I
Speaker 1: wanted to be Dr Dre and I wanted to be
Speaker 1: master p as you want to be a rapper. I
Speaker 1: always just love the music. I loved the beats. I
Speaker 1: loved the the energy, the emotion of urban music. I
Speaker 1: don't know why, I just always attracted me. Did you
Speaker 1: have a time where you would take the beats? Because
Speaker 1: that friends that did this and they would just make
Speaker 1: beats and sell them. Yeah, I did it for a
Speaker 1: living for I mean a small living for five to
Speaker 1: ten years. So you make the beats? Did you make
Speaker 1: the beats? And then also in certain courses, yeah, you're
Speaker 1: guessing the whole thing. It started off I'd make beats
Speaker 1: and uh with some buddies, and then eventually I would
Speaker 1: make moan and sell them to them, and eventually I
Speaker 1: would write hook on them and sell them whole choruses
Speaker 1: for a hundred dollars, thousand dollars, whatever in the world
Speaker 1: I could do to make a living. And uh, that
Speaker 1: led to writing whole songs by myself, and then that
Speaker 1: led to co writing with other people. And you know,
Speaker 1: this is a fifteen year fast forward. Where did you
Speaker 1: think your career would be there? If you're twenty one
Speaker 1: years old, you're you've been making me for a couple
Speaker 1: of years, and where did you think you where did
Speaker 1: you think that was gonna lead you're so you don't know,
Speaker 1: you're so dumb in naive at the time, you just
Speaker 1: you know, I just knew I wanted to continue making music.
Speaker 1: That I guess that was a goal, was to keep
Speaker 1: doing it and whatever, uh in whatever capacity. And you know,
Speaker 1: because I had, you know, various jobs and toured with people.
Speaker 1: Was a tour manager for a guy, and worked for
Speaker 1: I worked for Kenney Chesney. I was one of his
Speaker 1: sponsorship manager guys out there doing that. And those are
Speaker 1: just you know, little things that I worked at a
Speaker 1: music company on music row, and I worked at a
Speaker 1: sports store and cool Spring. You know, so I had
Speaker 1: all those little things. But I just I wanted to
Speaker 1: do music in some way, you know, in any sort
Speaker 1: of way. But you know, so, but God's timing is
Speaker 1: you know, correct. But you know, it took a long
Speaker 1: time to get it going. But I'm glad it, did,
Speaker 1: you know, because the I wanted to be the hip
Speaker 1: hop guy. I'm born and raised in Nashville. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be the hip hop guy, and it never worked
Speaker 1: out in that way. But I love country music and
Speaker 1: have been around country music my whole life. Whatever, I
Speaker 1: decided to kind of put the two together you know,
Speaker 1: I'd had ten or fifteen years and making urban pop music,
Speaker 1: and at that point I started to write country songs.
Speaker 1: And that coincidental time the genre kind of collided with
Speaker 1: urban music, and I was doing it authentically. It's what
Speaker 1: I naturally do, so it it was it was once
Speaker 1: I started doing the doors opened quicker um because I
Speaker 1: was kind of a rookie with fifteen years of experience,
Speaker 1: you know, when I kind of show up in the
Speaker 1: Nashville songwriting community. I had been doing it forever and
Speaker 1: I was professional, but I was still new and and
Speaker 1: uh and I was taking what I had been doing
Speaker 1: and all the uh rap music and urban stuff I
Speaker 1: had grown up on and all the country stuff I've
Speaker 1: grown up on. It you combine them in, you know,
Speaker 1: started working. It's interesting because you came in and I
Speaker 1: love that you did this, and I wanted to start.
Speaker 1: Let's go backwards. So you have a laptop in here,
Speaker 1: and this is the first time anyone's done this since
Speaker 1: you do right and produce. So what you have on
Speaker 1: your laptop is a body like a back road, and
Speaker 1: so do you want to pick that up? So what
Speaker 1: this is gonna be cool because you can actually break
Speaker 1: down this song and so, I mean, everybody, this song
Speaker 1: is a monster. So this is the song that the
Speaker 1: version you would here on the radio download. So what
Speaker 1: do you have on your laptop? And there are lots
Speaker 1: of little little what they go wave files, like little
Speaker 1: jiggly lines. Keep talking. I'm gonna arm some tracks real quick.
Speaker 1: Keep talking. And so there are all these different lines
Speaker 1: and they'll be like a vocal here, a drum here,
Speaker 1: an instrument here, and so you have all of these
Speaker 1: that you can separate, right, So take me to the room.
Speaker 1: When you guys decided to do this song, this song,
Speaker 1: it was Sam and I, you know, whenever it was
Speaker 1: We're at my house and we're just sitting there one
Speaker 1: night writing. Sam and I spent hours and hours and
Speaker 1: hours and in my room or in my studio just
Speaker 1: talking and about you know, life and songs and whatever,
Speaker 1: and you know, just being our heads against the wall
Speaker 1: trying to come up with something good. And one night
Speaker 1: he grabbed the guitar electric guitar. That's him playing the
Speaker 1: electric guitar on that on by like a back road,
Speaker 1: and uh, he just grabbed it and started singing, and
Speaker 1: he talked about he had this idea of this song
Speaker 1: called by like a background. He kind of sang me
Speaker 1: the gist of that chorus, and you know, of course
Speaker 1: I loved it and it was amazing. Sam's beyond talented
Speaker 1: and uh uh at that, you know, At that point
Speaker 1: with he and I were like, let's just make a
Speaker 1: basic little sketch of the song, you know, just a
Speaker 1: little play some guitar and I'll program a little drum thing.
Speaker 1: Let's just record a little verse chorus thing, just to
Speaker 1: see how it feels, you know, because Sam and I
Speaker 1: when we write and right with other people that you know,
Speaker 1: takes days and days and months. Like he's been a
Speaker 1: very very long time on his songs. He cares about
Speaker 1: him a lot. Is simple as this song appears, you know,
Speaker 1: it's uh crafted song. It's a very intentional song and
Speaker 1: uh but yeah, so it just starts out with us
Speaker 1: in a room just doing the basic framework. I guess,
Speaker 1: so what are you gonna play me? First? I don't
Speaker 1: know what should I do? So what we're mirroring here
Speaker 1: the final parts of the final this is the final mix.
Speaker 1: Now it's on my laptop. Who knows what files I'm
Speaker 1: missing and all that sort of unprofessional stuff. But I
Speaker 1: mixed this song myself, so you know, I did the
Speaker 1: the whole thing, so hopefully I have you know, whatever
Speaker 1: little tricks. Um of course in my computer, you're going
Speaker 1: to freak out. So that bump bump, bump, bump up.
Speaker 1: What is that right there? That is it's funny. That
Speaker 1: is a sound. It's four yeah, four guitar sounds. Let
Speaker 1: me see that sound. That sound, it's that sound. And
Speaker 1: the main one is this thing right here. I don't
Speaker 1: want to give away the whole site. There's some little
Speaker 1: trickery going all right there. There's a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: plug ins, which is basically just effects and little trick things.
Speaker 1: This is what it actually is, just by itself, and
Speaker 1: that's actually me. That's Sam's guitar player, Josh Burquett Bert
Speaker 1: He that's him playing guitar and me next to him
Speaker 1: singing into the microphone at the same time. Going back
Speaker 1: that so that and then I put all the little
Speaker 1: gizmos on. It's like Peter Frampton almost like, but then
Speaker 1: I put all these proprietary ideas on it. But it
Speaker 1: turned into you know, definable, you know. So that's your
Speaker 1: voice and with the guitar there's something about recording it.
Speaker 1: And then you know, like I said, all these little
Speaker 1: plug ins that I don't want to hit that age hit.
Speaker 1: So how would you do that with your mouth? If
Speaker 1: you turn it off like that? Would just do it
Speaker 1: now like you would? You know? It's him playing it
Speaker 1: right at the thing and me next to him going
Speaker 1: back the bed. The that lick the word that lick
Speaker 1: came from on that song. See if they find it
Speaker 1: here without a in the outro of this song, it
Speaker 1: should be more prepared. There's me's this vote coder. I'm
Speaker 1: actually if I know you can't see the home. He's
Speaker 1: got this computer program pulled up and it's got like
Speaker 1: a million tracks on it. Yeah, forgive me for trying
Speaker 1: to find this one thing. Yeah, here it is on
Speaker 1: the outro of the song. You hear you hear this
Speaker 1: in the background, that's meaing phone planet what it's a
Speaker 1: keyboard with a microphone on it. I'm playing the notes
Speaker 1: with a keyboard while singing the words. So that's you singing.
Speaker 1: That's that. And then later on the song, I started
Speaker 1: one night saying when I was sitting around working and
Speaker 1: I started playing I started playing this singing that, which
Speaker 1: that turned into Sam was like, hey, that's cool melody.
Speaker 1: Maybe that you know what if that was the the
Speaker 1: riff of the song, you know, the hook of the song.
Speaker 1: So we ended up doing what are you saying? Are
Speaker 1: you saying are you in the lick or the vocoder?
Speaker 1: In the vocoder? I was saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's crazy man, that's awesome. I wouldn't hear it broken down.
Speaker 1: It's funny. I'm an idiot. I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I didn't think this song should have a lick. I
Speaker 1: didn't think it should have this. I'm an idiot. Sam
Speaker 1: for months was going, hey, I think the song should
Speaker 1: have a lick, and I thought it should just be
Speaker 1: this hold on incredibly wrong. Uh, And he was like,
Speaker 1: you know, he was adamant about it should have a lick.
Speaker 1: Thank goodness, he's way smarter than me, because you know,
Speaker 1: without this thing right here, to me, that's the song.
Speaker 1: I'm glad he was forced me to put a lick
Speaker 1: in there, because I was incredibly wrong saying it shouldn't
Speaker 1: be in there. So when you start to lay the
Speaker 1: vocals down, can you isolate vocals in that? So? Is
Speaker 1: there is there a main Sam and is there Sam
Speaker 1: doing with Sam? Or yeah, there's a there's a whole
Speaker 1: bunch we always who you know, holler and you know,
Speaker 1: make a bunch of noise. I'm not a big Engineers
Speaker 1: would probably get mad at me because you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not a big Like I have a TV on in
Speaker 1: the room when we're recording, and most of the stuff
Speaker 1: he's just holding a microphone, which you know usually want
Speaker 1: to mount it and have it all proper. And you
Speaker 1: know there's something about noise and chaos and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just I guess the word is unprofessional engineering.
Speaker 1: That makes it sounds it sounds like it fits this.
Speaker 1: It fits a lot of Sam's music and the stuff
Speaker 1: we do. Sid got here right there, listen to side.
Speaker 1: The noise coming behind got brazen. Their first time I've
Speaker 1: seen a walk by by fellow. I had to get
Speaker 1: her number, like six weeks now me and her go
Speaker 1: way back, like yeah, so just I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're not an engineer, may not notice all the
Speaker 1: noise in there, but you know we're down here hollering stuff.
Speaker 1: It's just it's in the room. So that's happening a
Speaker 1: round town. It makes it alive to me and Uh,
Speaker 1: it's real. You can hear it on a lot of
Speaker 1: his songs. I mean there's Leave an Eye on specifically,
Speaker 1: there's just noise in the background, but it you know,
Speaker 1: it works for his music. Some songs, you you know, uh,
Speaker 1: take your time song, you don't need to be holler
Speaker 1: and in the back of that song, it's a more
Speaker 1: intimate thing. And but this song, it's such a loose song.
Speaker 1: You know, imperfections are are I think a good thing
Speaker 1: on this one. You hear that track again. Snaps or clasps,
Speaker 1: those are it's a couple of things. It's a snap.
Speaker 1: It has this thing and it's it's just a little
Speaker 1: just a little who knows that's the name that doesn't
Speaker 1: even need to be there. But in the chorus it
Speaker 1: does other stuff, you know. At other sounds are those
Speaker 1: anyone snaps? No, those are just some random sounds I
Speaker 1: found on the internet at some point, you know, years ago.
Speaker 1: Writers and producers, we have a good jillion sounds and
Speaker 1: and an absurd amount of uh you know, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: just one of the what about that song almost didn't
Speaker 1: make it on the song you said to the leg
Speaker 1: But what it was like at last minute, like Okay,
Speaker 1: we should put this on it, but really defines it.
Speaker 1: Uh that this was it's funny everything you're pointing out
Speaker 1: or things Sam did, maybe my I don't need to
Speaker 1: be in the room. Well, we were almost done. He
Speaker 1: suggested to seem my computer forgive me if my computer
Speaker 1: like pauses and he did this almost that little tag
Speaker 1: right there, if I'm gonna take you slow. That wasn't
Speaker 1: That was a eleventh hour. He was like, hey, I
Speaker 1: think that last course should hold for a little bit,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna take it slow, which to me, I
Speaker 1: couldn't imagine the song without that part. That's such a
Speaker 1: such a good payoff. And he suggested it again. I
Speaker 1: did not and uh, but as soon as we did it,
Speaker 1: we just you know, it felt right. What about the
Speaker 1: huh huh? Who is that You're pointing out everything? That's
Speaker 1: not my idea? This was all backfiring. No, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I Uh. I was recording some stuff on this and
Speaker 1: I was doing that percussive part let me find it body.
Speaker 1: I was doing that that's been on like every rap
Speaker 1: song over the past few years. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: it's that sound. But I was doing that specific part
Speaker 1: with a tambourine, is what I was doing in Joshua Sale,
Speaker 1: Sam's drummer, said hey, you should use that DJ Mustard
Speaker 1: hey thing, and I was like, it's great, and uh
Speaker 1: so I put it up. These are hosts all backfiring.
Speaker 1: I wish I could say this was all mightia but
Speaker 1: just but it's awesome in there? Is that Sam say
Speaker 1: in his own harmonies? Uh? Some yes, some know a
Speaker 1: lot of it's probably Josh Osborne, who we wrote this
Speaker 1: song with, who's super duper talented and uh traveling. H
Speaker 1: I think Josh or Sam ended up seeing a few
Speaker 1: later on because Josh wasn't there. Oh yeah, right here
Speaker 1: where we added that part if the and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take it slow fast as I can. I'm sick it slow.
Speaker 1: So Sam just did that part because we added that.
Speaker 1: Like I said in the eleventh Hour, Dan, it's so
Speaker 1: broken down. That's that's crazy. You brought all that. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. I think people will hear that song now
Speaker 1: and appreciate how layered the simplicity is. It's crazy how
Speaker 1: hard it is to this song was a task to do.
Speaker 1: To me, It's funny because I and I talked about
Speaker 1: that you can you can fold it now. Um. I
Speaker 1: talked about that song as an example of the day
Speaker 1: it came out, a lot of people were like, what
Speaker 1: the heck is this? I was like, guys, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be wrong, Like, you're gonna be wrong, Like, first of all,
Speaker 1: look at the body of work that's been produced before this. Secondly,
Speaker 1: I don't ever hear a song for the first time
Speaker 1: and like it ever, because I'm just not conditioned to
Speaker 1: hear something new. That's why people don't new music has
Speaker 1: not loved it first. It takes time. And now it's
Speaker 1: the biggest song. First of all, it's you be the
Speaker 1: biggest song of the year. Um. Secondly, it's the only
Speaker 1: song since I've been in Nashville and almost five years
Speaker 1: now that it's start the crossing over and it's it's
Speaker 1: not there yet but it's but it is going. It's
Speaker 1: the first song to even go there. And it's almost
Speaker 1: impossible for men to cross over. It's always women except
Speaker 1: for Rascal Flats, and they kind of sound like women.
Speaker 1: Absolutely necessarily because Carrie did it, Taylor did it, Leanne
Speaker 1: Rhymes did it. If You Lady, Annabellum did it, and
Speaker 1: that was a female driven song, you know whenever, So
Speaker 1: for saying it's for so many reasons, it's weird that
Speaker 1: Sam's doing it, and it's awesome. It's great, I mean,
Speaker 1: and it's funny like Sam's not out there peddling the
Speaker 1: song and hustling the song to to be a cross over.
Speaker 1: You know, Sam's a just let's see what happens kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Like you know, so Sam less country music
Speaker 1: and and wants to be a country artist and is
Speaker 1: happy where he is. So he's not you know, he's
Speaker 1: definitely not out there begging for crossover spins. But also
Speaker 1: like that Sam doesn't care. Like that's what I like
Speaker 1: about on the most, it's like Sam does Sam, and
Speaker 1: that's it. He's very happy and content just being at
Speaker 1: home with his wife and relaxing. It's it's you know,
Speaker 1: he's the sweetest. It's he's totally genuine, and it's he's
Speaker 1: not after money or fame or praise at all. He
Speaker 1: just he's a songwriter. If you boil it all down,
Speaker 1: he's a songwriter, um, and he just wants to continue
Speaker 1: writing songs and and uh if he if he records them,
Speaker 1: that's you know, you know, he's like I said, it's
Speaker 1: a songwriter at the end of the day. And and
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Speaker 1: so now let's talk about you. It's really cool for
Speaker 1: you to bring that in for us to hear that.
Speaker 1: But and we'll get back to some of the sand
Speaker 1: stuff Sam stuff in a little bit. But you know
Speaker 1: that song I like, now, I was talking about this
Speaker 1: morning on the air the New Dustin. This is a
Speaker 1: really good song. That song. I didn't write that song.
Speaker 1: I typically produce stuff I write, but it's produced so cool.
Speaker 1: Thank you. This is when Dustin sent it to me.
Speaker 1: Just some buddies with Dustin and he uh, It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: what do you think about this song? You know? I
Speaker 1: was like, dude, I love it. I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: about to be arrogant. I was like, but I think
Speaker 1: I should produce that song. I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone. I was like, that's kind of what I
Speaker 1: naturally do. It has a little bit of an urban field.
Speaker 1: It's you know, as an R and B tendant season.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I kind of asked for
Speaker 1: that job. Turned out it's turned out really cool. I'm
Speaker 1: my favorite baseline on. I'm very proud of the synth
Speaker 1: base I played on that for all the keyboard nerds
Speaker 1: out there, very proud of it. How about this from
Speaker 1: dustin you a side of these felt that it's awesome?
Speaker 1: Another blessing? Tell me about this song? I wrote that
Speaker 1: with Adam Sanders and Jared Boyer, and uh, that was
Speaker 1: what not to not sound? It's it was a typical
Speaker 1: national day to three days in a room making up
Speaker 1: a song. Did you know those two guys already? I had, Yes,
Speaker 1: I can't. It was. It was the only time we've
Speaker 1: ever written together. But I can't remember if I've written
Speaker 1: with him any time. It was early on if it
Speaker 1: wasn't the first, and but it was great. Got quite
Speaker 1: a few dust and track and even involved into where
Speaker 1: that's my first number one song right here, So it
Speaker 1: was that's that one's still get materialized, big deals. That's
Speaker 1: your first metal huh, first one. See that's the thing too,
Speaker 1: that's how quickly you've done all this body of work
Speaker 1: has been that quick because that song hasn't been out
Speaker 1: very long, a few years years. But I think it
Speaker 1: comes from me spending fifteen years making terrible urban music.
Speaker 1: So when I get the opportunity to this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, it caught up pretty quick. But you know,
Speaker 1: I got in the room with great writers. And that's
Speaker 1: not even like just being nice to be nice, but
Speaker 1: it's like I was able to get into the big
Speaker 1: leagues with the cool guys. And when you're around talented players,
Speaker 1: you're you're statistically gonna win, you know, you know hopefully,
Speaker 1: and uh, you Kevin duranted it. You're really good, but
Speaker 1: you went to a team that was already really freaking good.
Speaker 1: I've had, you know, my publishers and people who signed
Speaker 1: me and the people who've been around me, uh, have
Speaker 1: fought really hard early on to give me the rooms
Speaker 1: to you know, give me the opportunity to prove myself.
Speaker 1: And you know, in the past year and a half,
Speaker 1: have you just made so much money, like it more
Speaker 1: than past year and happened the rest of your life combined? Sure, man,
Speaker 1: I got just looking at it. I'm just looking at
Speaker 1: this here, and I'm like, but like five years ago,
Speaker 1: I was making fifteen thousand dollars a year. Like literally,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you've been rich. I'm saying the last
Speaker 1: year and a half it had to be like get
Speaker 1: a very good thing. I have a wife and two kids,
Speaker 1: and uh, my wife should stay at my mom you know,
Speaker 1: praised Jesus for that, because that's amazing that, you know,
Speaker 1: I've worked. I have a studio at my house. I'm
Speaker 1: down there writing with friends of mine, and my wife
Speaker 1: and kids are upstairs. I got here on my see
Speaker 1: them all day. It's it's literally the dream, you know.
Speaker 1: I couldn't and to be you know paid, you know,
Speaker 1: money is also being paid, money being paid money is
Speaker 1: not all right, zacch let me, let's try this one.
Speaker 1: And they one it was a good day. That was
Speaker 1: I wrote that with Ashley Gorley and uh Cole Swindele
Speaker 1: and uh, that was one. We were actually writing another
Speaker 1: song that day. We were writing a song called Kiss
Speaker 1: that he actually ended up putting on a EP of
Speaker 1: his But we're writing that song. And then in the
Speaker 1: middle of the second verse, given a full story, I
Speaker 1: left the room. Everything awesome happens when I leave. Sam
Speaker 1: has the ideas I left the room, I come back
Speaker 1: in and they had written to say converse and it
Speaker 1: had a line in it said in the middle of
Speaker 1: a melody, and I go, hey, I like that line.
Speaker 1: Misunderstood him said, Hey, I like that line right there
Speaker 1: in the middle of a memory line. And when I
Speaker 1: said when I misheard them, Ashley and Cole kind of
Speaker 1: looked at each other and had the kind of the
Speaker 1: aha moment they go middle of a memory. So that's
Speaker 1: they paused the song. We were working on the kiss
Speaker 1: song and we stopped wrote this middle of a memory.
Speaker 1: How quick did that fall out? Since it was kind
Speaker 1: of one of those just a few hours Ashley and
Speaker 1: Cole is you know, a hit separate of his being
Speaker 1: a country star. He's a hit songwriter and fully capable,
Speaker 1: you know everybody, so it came out quickly. Teammates, man,
Speaker 1: do you have good people in the room? Good teammates man?
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question and I don't know
Speaker 1: the answer to this, and this is one of those
Speaker 1: and you may just stay away from it because you're
Speaker 1: close to it. So first let's talk about Sam a
Speaker 1: cop car and then Urban Got This is what I
Speaker 1: remember my head Urban Got It played it on an
Speaker 1: award show and say I tweeted something about this song.
Speaker 1: It's Sam not want that song to go away? Did
Speaker 1: want to keep it? Sam wanted to keep the song
Speaker 1: for himself. That makes sense, which I totally get. But
Speaker 1: who does that? Who gives it away his publisher At
Speaker 1: the end of the day, at that time, we're all
Speaker 1: new writers, young writers, and we're involved in publishing deals
Speaker 1: that at that time we technically don't have the rights
Speaker 1: to those songs, where the writers technically we don't have
Speaker 1: the rights. And even though you say I want to
Speaker 1: keep it, they have the rights and they say no, no,
Speaker 1: we're going to give it. And it only it only
Speaker 1: takes if you know, three people in real it just
Speaker 1: takes one of the one of the people to say
Speaker 1: he can have it, you know what. Yeah, but it's
Speaker 1: I mean that song changed my life and that was that.
Speaker 1: I'm taking it. You aren't the one. What did that said?
Speaker 1: Somebody else can have it? No? I wanted Keith to
Speaker 1: I mean I produced it on Keip. I was all
Speaker 1: for it. I was, you know, So why so with
Speaker 1: Sam up said, I don't remember, just wanted to keep
Speaker 1: the song for himself. It's his song, it's his story
Speaker 1: that happened to him. Um, that's crazy to me. You know,
Speaker 1: I told him and he and I were you know,
Speaker 1: did you guys get into it because of that? We
Speaker 1: didn't get into it so funny. It was early on,
Speaker 1: uh with he and I had known him for probably
Speaker 1: six months, but he and I have always clicked, you know,
Speaker 1: from the get go. And even though we disagreed, his
Speaker 1: vote was for to keep the song for himself. And
Speaker 1: at that time he was an aspiring artist, you know,
Speaker 1: there was it was still I get I get it
Speaker 1: urban too, So I didn't want an established artist him.
Speaker 1: I gotta eat. I got two kids, you know. He
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to convince him, and people are trying
Speaker 1: to convince him, and and uh but Sam, you know,
Speaker 1: when he knows what he wants, he's die hard for that.
Speaker 1: And I told him, I was like, man, we kind
Speaker 1: of left it as hey, if I because Keith had
Speaker 1: asked me to produce it, which is ridiculous and unbelievable
Speaker 1: and and such a huge opportunity. And Sam and I
Speaker 1: left it. We were totally cordial, and it actually made
Speaker 1: us closer because we were able to kind of go
Speaker 1: through and experience together, go through a disagreement together. And uh,
Speaker 1: but he you know, we left it as hey, if
Speaker 1: I get the ball, I'm gonna shoot it. If you
Speaker 1: get the ball, you shoot it. So if it's my decision.
Speaker 1: I'm on a go produce it on Keith and take
Speaker 1: that opportunity, and you know, if it comes down to
Speaker 1: beat Sam's decision. But you know, you know, thankfully it
Speaker 1: all worked out, and you know, it was a as
Speaker 1: a monster hit, and that was the song that changed everything.
Speaker 1: At that time, I'm dead, broke, my wife's pregnant, I'm
Speaker 1: literally about to lose my publishing deal, a month away
Speaker 1: from my publish deal being done, and uh so, you know,
Speaker 1: whether you know the desperation or not, it was. It's
Speaker 1: a legit opportunity and a and a big thing. And
Speaker 1: you know, it made Sam and I closer and I
Speaker 1: admire the crap out of him for, you know, being
Speaker 1: a no name, broke guy who's still wants to hold
Speaker 1: on to a song. I was respecting for it. It's
Speaker 1: it's a you know, was it weird to produce that song?
Speaker 1: It was weird just because working with Keith. But as
Speaker 1: far as Sam, and I mean Sam was to the
Speaker 1: whole thing. He was I knew I was doing it
Speaker 1: and I was playing inversions. That was where he was. Fully,
Speaker 1: you know, he let it go with that. He was like, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, with Keith because he I've seen Keith in
Speaker 1: studio settings just around, like nothing to do with no
Speaker 1: microphones around. A human said, his brain works on this
Speaker 1: level that I can't comprehend what's happening. He's truly, he's
Speaker 1: a true musician. I'm not a true musician. I worked
Speaker 1: my way up. He just is music, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like I don't have the talent he has.
Speaker 1: I have a work ethic, and I can study and
Speaker 1: practice and get to where I can compete. But I'm not.
Speaker 1: Some people are just Stevie wonder just is music. Is
Speaker 1: it tough for you and Keith be on the same
Speaker 1: be in the same spot. You're coming from two totally
Speaker 1: different places. He didn't. I mean that was my first thing.
Speaker 1: I was terrified through the whole process. I'm the guy
Speaker 1: who you know isn't supposed to be there, you know.
Speaker 1: So but he was great, you know, he he made
Speaker 1: me feel confident. For him to give me to hire
Speaker 1: me to produce, you know, such a high profile song.
Speaker 1: It shows that he has faith in me and the demo. Luckily,
Speaker 1: the demo was like close anyway, so there wasn't It
Speaker 1: was already like headed in the right direction, So there wasn't.
Speaker 1: I don't think I could totally blow it. He would
Speaker 1: step in if I was ruining the song, you know,
Speaker 1: and uh, but no, he he's a professional. He you know,
Speaker 1: encouraged me and you know, kept me motivated. I want
Speaker 1: to play some of these demos because I love that
Speaker 1: you brought these demos. So how about your first number
Speaker 1: one where it's at with Dustin. We'll go back there
Speaker 1: for a second, so we know this. Now here's the
Speaker 1: demo of the same song where you cut this? You know,
Speaker 1: just my house? Yea, who's singing it? It's Matt Jenkins.
Speaker 1: I wrote with Matt Jenkins and Carry Barlow, and so
Speaker 1: Matt Jenkins singing are It ain't in a higrass looking
Speaker 1: for a good time, shutting damn city lacks. It ain't
Speaker 1: in the water floating like a barber soaking up that
Speaker 1: hot sunsht. It's good, very weird. It's a why doesn't
Speaker 1: a guy like that do records? Well, he had a
Speaker 1: record deal. He's a that's guy's good. He's one of
Speaker 1: my closest friends, so I can say he was a
Speaker 1: failed country music superstar. No, he was great. He had
Speaker 1: a deal on Universal or something or whatever. Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1: So if you're producing demos though, like, that's gotta be
Speaker 1: a weird thing for you too, because you produced real songs.
Speaker 1: Like how much do you put into a demo? Because
Speaker 1: you just you stop sooner. You you spend a few hours,
Speaker 1: half a day, you know that one. Carrie Barlow, the
Speaker 1: other writer, you know, he played a lot of the
Speaker 1: guitar and we all just kind of play it ourselves
Speaker 1: and you just you just you get it. You spend
Speaker 1: enough time. You learned not to spend too much time.
Speaker 1: I want to go to church bells, which we know
Speaker 1: from Carrie us I tell me about this song before
Speaker 1: I played the demo, that song. I'm proud of that song,
Speaker 1: proud of all of them, but that one in particular,
Speaker 1: that was the first. In the songwriting comedyy, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: labeled in the track guy category. I'm the guy who
Speaker 1: makes the music, who makes the beats. Uh. At times,
Speaker 1: I'm stereotyped into that, and some people would interpret that
Speaker 1: as I'm not the lyrical mind and uh, and I've
Speaker 1: always struggled with that. I've always struggled with people thinking
Speaker 1: I don't write lyrics and melodies and because I do,
Speaker 1: and I you know, you know, whether they're good or bad,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but that's the first song where it
Speaker 1: was I had the title. I had the idea. Actually,
Speaker 1: remember before I wrote it, I had the title church Bells.
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, that would be a good
Speaker 1: character Wood song if you wrote it like this and
Speaker 1: did it like this. And I called my publisher mentor,
Speaker 1: Ashley Gorley, who's a big, you know, mega writer here
Speaker 1: in town, and uh. I was talking to him and
Speaker 1: and uh It's like, hey, man, I got this idea,
Speaker 1: this song called being an idea called church Bells, and uh,
Speaker 1: be Karen, what you can do it like this? And
Speaker 1: and I was like, what do you think about that?
Speaker 1: And he was that's cool. I was like, I saw
Speaker 1: my calendar that in a month I have was writing
Speaker 1: with Hillary Lindsay and Brett James and they've written a
Speaker 1: bunch of Carrenderwood stuff. They're kind of they're the people
Speaker 1: to write caring too what stuff. And I called ash
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, I was like, do you think
Speaker 1: it's smart of me to hold onto this idea? Don't
Speaker 1: write it with all the other people I'm writing with
Speaker 1: over the next month and save it for this one.
Speaker 1: Day coming up for Hillary and Brett. He's like, I
Speaker 1: think you should do that. It's a good idea. And
Speaker 1: I made some music and Hillary and Brett walk in
Speaker 1: the room and I play on the music and I
Speaker 1: was like, I got this idea called church bells. I
Speaker 1: think you should be like this. And you know, at
Speaker 1: that point, I'm kind of handing it over to them.
Speaker 1: What do you like? Now? You guys do what you do,
Speaker 1: and you know, then Hillary Lindsay, who's you know written
Speaker 1: most carry Underwood songs and they, you know, they just
Speaker 1: did their thing. But that's not I'm proud of that
Speaker 1: one because that's the first time that was that was
Speaker 1: the first time where I had ever done that where
Speaker 1: I had been the uh, the idea guy, and I
Speaker 1: was proud, was proud of that, and still I'm proud
Speaker 1: of that. Hillary Lindsay, who, by the way, it's one
Speaker 1: of the best singers and she's grew up, would like
Speaker 1: a blackfoot daisy out in the shack with the bloottick.
Speaker 1: Hewn broke it as hill but blessed with beauty the
Speaker 1: kind of a rich man can't turn them. She coughed
Speaker 1: the eye of an oil man. Dancing with some night
Speaker 1: in the downstore jet she had. When you get into
Speaker 1: it right like that and you're going with your idea
Speaker 1: that you've been holding for a month, are you worried
Speaker 1: they're gonna be like, I don't like that, Let's go
Speaker 1: to something else. I mean, yeah, but you know, because
Speaker 1: I say, that wasn't the one idea I've ever had.
Speaker 1: I've had hundreds of Like you've targeted that date with
Speaker 1: those people? What if you do win a andy? Like?
Speaker 1: You know, but I had this idea and you're kind
Speaker 1: of like, oh man, that's one of those you know,
Speaker 1: that just is what it is. That's that happens all
Speaker 1: the time. It's just part of the game. You know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you get your feelings hurt, and sometimes it's you know,
Speaker 1: you know, it's usually best idea wins. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm happy that they jumped on board dirty Laundry. Thank you?
Speaker 1: Who's singing the hymn on this one? Hillary Lindsay Again.
Speaker 1: I wrote with Hillary in actually there sick on your colo,
Speaker 1: ain't my shade of pain? And I can tell about
Speaker 1: the smelling that perfume side forty dollars too cheap and
Speaker 1: there's a little one stain on the pocket of your
Speaker 1: white cotton thing. Will you drink being whiskey boy? And
Speaker 1: you know, don't drinkin send it over in the corner,
Speaker 1: wat it up on the bedroom floor. He should have
Speaker 1: hit it in the closet. He should have burned it,
Speaker 1: he should have lost it. That's so cool man. And
Speaker 1: Hillary is so good and that's like who can sing
Speaker 1: with Hillary? Carry can? She's Hillary is the best? Like like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Hilly went on because Hillary and Gaga did you know
Speaker 1: together at charts? I don't see Hllary on TV singing
Speaker 1: with La. Hillary is still someone who I get nerve
Speaker 1: this to write with and nervously. She's just She's truly good.
Speaker 1: She's a true soulwriter. Billy currct Do I make you
Speaker 1: want to send me down to? Could you? Could you
Speaker 1: write this? With grog? With Ashley Gorley, Matt Jenkins and
Speaker 1: Jerry Flowers. Jerry Flowers is a writer plays bass with
Speaker 1: Keith Urban. Yeah, Sam stuff together and yeah, so here's
Speaker 1: do I make you wanted that? Who's singing the demo Ashley?
Speaker 1: Which is funny typically not the singer, but he sounds
Speaker 1: spectacular of so Ashley Gorley singing the demo? Do I
Speaker 1: make you want to excuse it? Maybe would song you mad?
Speaker 1: Will you see me pull litoping your kid? Do you
Speaker 1: want to go downtown? Maybe have a little high a
Speaker 1: little why do you want to go out to the
Speaker 1: country and maybe blew all the money all for sugar
Speaker 1: at the truck's time and subscritch off. See if we
Speaker 1: can get lucky. Oh, I gotta know what's going on.
Speaker 1: And your beauty and baby don't be shut and see
Speaker 1: me Now? All your demo sound like legit songs. That's
Speaker 1: the weird thing. Yeah, obvious. I did a writer dun
Speaker 1: with Ashley once. It was me, Ashley de Stefano, and
Speaker 1: Lee Miller and talking about which one doesn't fit the
Speaker 1: radio guy. Yeah, I'm up there with a guitar playing
Speaker 1: funny songs that I wrote and they're playing They're all
Speaker 1: singing number ones. They're going have you done it again?
Speaker 1: Or was that the that the unders? That's not my scene,
Speaker 1: but it was I was. They asked me to do it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, you know, I can play
Speaker 1: guitar a little bit, I can sing some dope songs,
Speaker 1: and so I'm not a big round writers round guy.
Speaker 1: Just recently did my first one because I've always said
Speaker 1: no to woman, I'm not a singer and barely a player.
Speaker 1: I play a computer. Really well, that's my instrument, that's
Speaker 1: that's the that's my tool and uh so I'm like man,
Speaker 1: sitting on stage and singing in front of people was
Speaker 1: like a nightmare to me, and I just did it
Speaker 1: recently for the first time. You did your first one
Speaker 1: who Are You? With Ashley, Matt and Jerry, the guys
Speaker 1: we wrote that like they're all my closest writer friends,
Speaker 1: and I was like, if I'm gonna be up there,
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna be terrified, I'm gonna pee my pants.
Speaker 1: I felt like I want to do the people who
Speaker 1: have my back if if I sucked, yeah, but it
Speaker 1: went great, Like I you know it, I realized the
Speaker 1: imperfections are the good things. And saying, you know, no
Speaker 1: one's there for me to, you know, serenade them. I'm
Speaker 1: there there there to hear the songs in the stories
Speaker 1: and stuff. So what do you play when you do
Speaker 1: itund around like if you're doing four now, if you're
Speaker 1: doing four songs, that what will you play? You have
Speaker 1: a lot of songs. It depends on probably who I'm
Speaker 1: writing or who I'm doing it with like that one.
Speaker 1: Like I've written songs like I wrote cop Car with
Speaker 1: Matt Jenkins and Sam and Matt did cop Car that night.
Speaker 1: And I wrote house Party with Jerry Flowers, so he
Speaker 1: did house Party. So I did songs with people. I
Speaker 1: think some of the ones that I haven't the people
Speaker 1: that weren't up there, so we weren't overlapping. I can't
Speaker 1: remember what songs that I did. A couple of Sam
Speaker 1: songs and uh, I think he did a carry song
Speaker 1: and didn't the middle of remember that Coldsmindale song. He
Speaker 1: did a carry song. He sing car, No, did Heartbeat?
Speaker 1: I did that one. I did the easiest one to sing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. Maybe they were easy to
Speaker 1: sing that. I was shocked because I'm not a singer.
Speaker 1: When I was sitting there, you know, on my couch
Speaker 1: for months trying to practice like a nerd, I was
Speaker 1: trying to learn church bills and I'm trying to learn
Speaker 1: dirty laundry, and I feel like an idiot. I never
Speaker 1: realized how hard they were to sing, and I physically
Speaker 1: just can't get to those high notes. And so I said,
Speaker 1: this is the less range e of songs. So you
Speaker 1: picked that one day, like literally out of out of insecurity.
Speaker 1: Here's that who's singing the demo? Here, Carrie? I wrote
Speaker 1: this army with Carrion. Actually, so she sang the demo.
Speaker 1: You know, when she's singing the demo, it's probably not
Speaker 1: big because it's the same in her vocal spectacular party
Speaker 1: in a downtown crowd. But I can't hear you call
Speaker 1: me baby with the music times, isn't she I've compared
Speaker 1: to an alien before because I've been looking enough to
Speaker 1: sing with her, like do a duet with her and
Speaker 1: sing on stage at the rhyme Wasna and it was
Speaker 1: just like she opens her mouth and it's like that
Speaker 1: shouldn't come out of that. God loves her a little
Speaker 1: more than me, And yeah, that's that's not a lot
Speaker 1: a lot more. No, she's just in that camp like
Speaker 1: when they, you know, asked me to be around and
Speaker 1: write with her and produce with her like that, you know,
Speaker 1: to come up with Sam is one thing. We were
Speaker 1: no name dudes together. He's and we're in the same
Speaker 1: class of people and you know, refreshment together. Carrie. You know,
Speaker 1: she's royalty, she's you know, not even just sucking up
Speaker 1: to her, she's, you know, the queen. And so when
Speaker 1: they asked me to write with her and produce some
Speaker 1: songs that you know, it was you know, freaking out,
Speaker 1: like her manager and able Boot called me and she's like, hey,
Speaker 1: would you if you know, would you want to produce
Speaker 1: heartbeat precaring. I'm like, you know, yes, like she could
Speaker 1: yell at me and tell me to do it, you know,
Speaker 1: but they're asking politely, would you be interested in like,
Speaker 1: you know, crying on the other you know, of course,
Speaker 1: you know. I did this you know, dope song with her,
Speaker 1: and she came in the studio and sing it with me,
Speaker 1: and I just watched her and again i'd sing with
Speaker 1: her live. But then I watched her going to a
Speaker 1: studio where everything's amplified, like all your perfections are amplified
Speaker 1: because you're hearing it. There was nothing imperfect. She did
Speaker 1: like three takes. She's like, let me do again. I
Speaker 1: was like, no, you're She's a truly good singer, like
Speaker 1: she's on earth too, singing to us like it's it's
Speaker 1: her and she's like one ft tall and somehow that
Speaker 1: strength comes out. Yes, it's crazy. She had to Blue Apron.
Speaker 1: Let me talk about Blue Apron for second. So Blue
Speaker 1: Apron man. First of all, the mills are great, and
Speaker 1: it's convenient because it come right to your house, and
Speaker 1: it's COMMUNI could have a like an instruction guy, basically
Speaker 1: a card that tells you how to make them, and
Speaker 1: it's affordable. Blue Apron with less than ten dollars per
Speaker 1: person per mill. Blue Apron deliverers. First of all, the
Speaker 1: dress fees that I don't even know exist unless I
Speaker 1: went to a restaurant looked am in you. But it's
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Speaker 1: You make these delicious meals at home, cooked whenever you're ready.
Speaker 1: So sitting there, it's like here it is, you go,
Speaker 1: I think I want to Blue Apron tonight. You make
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Speaker 1: You go to the Bobby Cast to the mills, Blue
Speaker 1: Apron dot Com slash Bobby Cast. Okay, so let's say, man,
Speaker 1: I have so much well if I played this here,
Speaker 1: Zach wait, talk about this. This is one. This is
Speaker 1: I sold a beacon. I had that hook like I
Speaker 1: sold that course. I feel Jelly roll seven days. Jelly says,
Speaker 1: you're doing the hook. Yeah, right, so you made that, dude.
Speaker 1: I'm like to the death end. But that song sounds
Speaker 1: good like I love hip hop, and I even I
Speaker 1: had a record deal. I hip hop Baraka for one.
Speaker 1: I've heard you say that I've never heard of Captain Collucasians.
Speaker 1: I haven't. We've been thinking about it. It was it
Speaker 1: silly or was it like? It was it? No, it's
Speaker 1: my name was Captain Caucasian. It was silly, but I
Speaker 1: try it a little bit, but not really afraid to commit.
Speaker 1: There's another commitment thing. It's another commitment thing because I
Speaker 1: don't want people to not really wasn't that good, But
Speaker 1: I was just good enough to fake it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so we were making it. We may beat that. That
Speaker 1: should be a passion project. You make you get make
Speaker 1: Captain Caucasian a hit that that way, you know you
Speaker 1: made it in town. Okay, here we go. This is
Speaker 1: you about to make a killing. Put it never feels fulfilling.
Speaker 1: So they called it's a big one. He's a Christian rapper, right, Huh,
Speaker 1: that's the That was the first legitimate thing. That's a rapper, lacraz.
Speaker 1: That's the first legit thing I ever did. And I
Speaker 1: want to Grammy for that. What did you do? I wrote?
Speaker 1: My buddy, might I call him Mike Valentine's name is
Speaker 1: Michael Jefferson, the guy singing that chorus right there. He
Speaker 1: was a writer out in l A that I knew
Speaker 1: when we wrote that. And we wrote that song in
Speaker 1: his apartment in l A somewhere. I couldn't tell you
Speaker 1: where the apartment is, but we wrote that. We had
Speaker 1: a whole version, whole chorus, the whole song, and we
Speaker 1: wrote it one night and myke Valentine sent it to
Speaker 1: La Craze A and R person and uh, they loved
Speaker 1: it and loved the chorus. And I sent him the
Speaker 1: pro tools file and that's about it. And he laid
Speaker 1: it down and lay it down apparently want a Grammy.
Speaker 1: It was. It was a huge opportunity, but it was
Speaker 1: a lot of email. What we were in the you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of i'll Cindia files and you know, it's
Speaker 1: not like we're in a room vibe being out together
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Music. When you hear it back the
Speaker 1: first time, are you like, Okay, that's good. I like it.
Speaker 1: Kind of weird because you weren't together. No, I love
Speaker 1: it like Locraiz is huge. You know, it's a huge
Speaker 1: Christian rapper. And uh so when he was, you know,
Speaker 1: taking it, I knew it was in good hands, you know, trusted.
Speaker 1: How about so I'm coming. That was my first single
Speaker 1: on a big act right there, because my first first
Speaker 1: country song of it might ever heard on the radio? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the first song you ever heard of the radio, Scott mccury.
Speaker 1: It was the first country song. I had plenty of
Speaker 1: other for a country song. I mean, Scott's country isn't good.
Speaker 1: I was laying on my couch. My publisher, Kimmy Flynn
Speaker 1: called me to turn on the radio and I ran
Speaker 1: to the bathroom where we had a little radio and
Speaker 1: uh turn it on and stood in the bathroom and
Speaker 1: listen to the sky. Do you're making money off that song? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: so you made you make good money off the levels
Speaker 1: are money check wise, you see a significant difference in
Speaker 1: ten and five? Uh? Yeah, do you see a significant
Speaker 1: difference in three and one? I don't think it's about
Speaker 1: the same at that point. It depends on how long
Speaker 1: it stays at three. If it's a three for a
Speaker 1: day and then dies, you know, but if it's at
Speaker 1: three for a couple of weeks, it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: these are all they're all good problems. Have you made
Speaker 1: more off body like a background not than any other song?
Speaker 1: Because you may not have yet because the song hasn't
Speaker 1: been out that long yet. Okay, it takes takes one.
Speaker 1: They say it takes about nine months for I can't
Speaker 1: wait for those checks that are coming in. Are you
Speaker 1: kidding me? They say it's the first one that people
Speaker 1: always say, they say, it's the last nine months of poverty. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, because you'll have a hit song on the radio,
Speaker 1: but you're dead broke, you know, just because you're waiting
Speaker 1: for the you know, the money to go between you.
Speaker 1: So that check hasn't come yet, no, but man, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be there. So it is the first one. It's
Speaker 1: the first one small though, because it eases its way up.
Speaker 1: It's kind of relative to where the chart is. And
Speaker 1: you can if you looked at it on like a
Speaker 1: graph or something, a pie chart or something that you
Speaker 1: would you see it kind of peeking and you know,
Speaker 1: because obviously you make more the more times it's played
Speaker 1: and does it. It's streaming irritate the crap out of
Speaker 1: you because you're not making money. And I love it
Speaker 1: like like I love it, Like sure, we don't make
Speaker 1: a ton of money yet, but there's no way that
Speaker 1: we don't. Who knows. I might be long gone by
Speaker 1: the time it comes around. But they're gonna figure out.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to figure it out. They have they
Speaker 1: have to figure it out because I make decent money
Speaker 1: as a producer on the So there, there's there's money.
Speaker 1: It's going to get figured out. I'm honestly not worried
Speaker 1: about it. Luckily, there's still plenty of money to be
Speaker 1: made off of radio and sales. There's still money. It's
Speaker 1: not like streaming is the only source of income. At
Speaker 1: this point it will eventually probably be the only source
Speaker 1: of income. But right now, how luckily we're still all
Speaker 1: doing well. Jesse Alexander was in and she was talking
Speaker 1: about how she makes more money from singing backup streaming
Speaker 1: than the songs she wrote, because she has a better deal.
Speaker 1: There's a better deal for the people that are singing
Speaker 1: I mean literally off of by like a back road,
Speaker 1: and it's probably streaming the you know, hundred million times,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, hundreds of millions of times, and
Speaker 1: you will make a thousand dollars or something, which is crazy,
Speaker 1: and it will fix itself because it will have to
Speaker 1: fix it. So I think it's so ridiculous, Like there's
Speaker 1: no one who who you can't make the argument for.
Speaker 1: You know, so at some point whenever whoever is in
Speaker 1: charge of that stuff, See, here's someone agreed to it.
Speaker 1: At some point, someone signed some sort of thing at
Speaker 1: some point saying it's a big deal if only seven
Speaker 1: people are doing it, like it's not. Someone agreed to it,
Speaker 1: So you know, slap that guy and and uh, but
Speaker 1: you know it'll get figured out. There's people, you know,
Speaker 1: Lee Miller here in town, who's his life is devoted
Speaker 1: to that now and and I'm grateful that he's doing that.
Speaker 1: You know, which one of these samslungs fell out the quickest.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like because you know you're talking
Speaker 1: about you know, with Sammy, he spends a lot of
Speaker 1: time the same thing. Sam is slow. He slow, he
Speaker 1: cares like it's not like a because he's dumb. He
Speaker 1: he he puts the puzzle on the table and he
Speaker 1: tries every single piece in the one. So he tries
Speaker 1: every rhyme if you're trying to rhyd chair. He tried
Speaker 1: rise every single thing just to see in what emotions
Speaker 1: it feels. And Sam's very intelligent and you know, he's
Speaker 1: always thinking, always referred to it. He goes way deeper
Speaker 1: in the cave than I do. Like I go a
Speaker 1: hundred feet in the cave, and he goes five miles
Speaker 1: into the cave and he's down there just you know,
Speaker 1: exploring the songs there. So it you know, takes him
Speaker 1: a while. When you go that far, it's gonna take
Speaker 1: you a while to get in and out of it,
Speaker 1: you know. But so that I would say house party
Speaker 1: was the absolutely the quickest it took. That was just
Speaker 1: a couple of day right, and the sam world. That's
Speaker 1: a couple of day right, Well, break that box out up.
Speaker 1: The first single was Late the Night on right. When
Speaker 1: that comes out, are you like, okay, we might have
Speaker 1: something here. Yeah, it's funny as soon as because we
Speaker 1: pretty much had that record done before he had a
Speaker 1: record deal. We pretty much just made it on our own.
Speaker 1: So we went into the label kind of saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we had a week. That label has been really good
Speaker 1: to us. Man. They we came in with a plan
Speaker 1: and they let us do that plan. And so we
Speaker 1: come in with a record and we're thinking we should
Speaker 1: put out this and we should put this in this order.
Speaker 1: As crazy as some of the songs have been, they've
Speaker 1: let us do it and they just you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they It's kind of the dream scenario. Like I literally
Speaker 1: can't think of one time where we wanted to do
Speaker 1: something and we're adamant about it and they said no.
Speaker 1: That you know, they've embraced us because they know that
Speaker 1: we're trying really hard and that you know it's every
Speaker 1: move is intentional, and uh that we care. So it's
Speaker 1: been good. So here's one of your singles. This is
Speaker 1: Lindsay l Shut Me Up. Give me that demo. That's
Speaker 1: when I wrote with Hillary Lindsay and Brett jameson people
Speaker 1: wrote church bills. It sounds great. Yeah, I just moved
Speaker 1: her town. I don't even know her. Hell yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't know Lindsay at this point. I've met her around this.
Speaker 1: She's super duper sweet man. She's she's that I can't
Speaker 1: agree with now. At the time, I had no idea.
Speaker 1: I had wrote a few songs on her, and she's great, Like,
Speaker 1: she's you know, she's super duper talented, ma'am. She's you know,
Speaker 1: she keeps plugging away if she wouldn't. These relationships in trouble. Dude,
Speaker 1: I love you got I'm got the punch seven seven
Speaker 1: days on a week. I've been looking forward from me.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to find a list somehere I can think,
Speaker 1: even trip and keep a secret. Baby's good. He's doing great,
Speaker 1: don't you know? He's around town? Like surprised, you don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody. I don't know. I don't use
Speaker 1: the word literally. I literally know so many fewer people
Speaker 1: that I'm thinking. People think I know because I just
Speaker 1: stay at my house and I go on the road. General,
Speaker 1: someone you should know. His stuff is getting bigger and
Speaker 1: bigger and bigger every day, and and uh yeah, he's
Speaker 1: someone you should you should know. He's really good. Who's camp? Okay,
Speaker 1: you have to what whose camps are you in? Everybody's
Speaker 1: in camp? You in the Dustin camp? Would you say? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Are you in the carry camp? I get so nervous
Speaker 1: even say that. I think so, yeah, yeah, you're in
Speaker 1: the sad camp because you guys have been together forever.
Speaker 1: What any other camps? Uh? Where It's like we're starting
Speaker 1: new project. We gotta get all hands on deck. Who
Speaker 1: would call you and say, hey, Dustin asked me for
Speaker 1: my opinion? And you know, Sam, you know of course.
Speaker 1: And I think other people who like asked me. I mean,
Speaker 1: Nashville such a small community. We all right together. I'm
Speaker 1: cold and I've been texting all day, did cold cold
Speaker 1: and stuff? I'm not in his We write together, but
Speaker 1: he's not like asking me what tours he should go
Speaker 1: on and stuff. But he's some you know, he's I
Speaker 1: would consider him a friend. You're right today, I did
Speaker 1: not write today. I had meetings today. What kind of
Speaker 1: meetings do you have? Like? What are they about? Had
Speaker 1: a meeting? How to spend your new boat money cheap man.
Speaker 1: I was broke for way too long, so so every
Speaker 1: time I make goes to securing my future. I don't.
Speaker 1: I drive a two thousand twelve cameras, so I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not a blow in cash kind of dude. But
Speaker 1: what means that I had a meeting with that I'm
Speaker 1: putting on a charity event. It's gonna be awesome. And
Speaker 1: U H had a meeting with my business people about money,
Speaker 1: like what to do with all of it? Do you
Speaker 1: want the pink boat? Let's think about I think pink
Speaker 1: in the green one such I mean, when you're broke
Speaker 1: for so long. I'm a thirty six. I didn't start
Speaker 1: making any at struck money until I mean four years ago.
Speaker 1: I mean I was, you know, two broke. It feels
Speaker 1: like because listen, you're talking about something else you grew
Speaker 1: up broke. It always feels I can go away. Just see.
Speaker 1: I'm scared of that, just like that. It's scared. I
Speaker 1: overpaid my bills forever because I was scared if I
Speaker 1: got fired. I would just want to just talk to
Speaker 1: my business manager. They're they're paying extra a mortgages just
Speaker 1: to do it. You know, just because this is all impossible,
Speaker 1: This is all climbing a huge mountain, you know, and
Speaker 1: to expect to do it again is a little ridiculous,
Speaker 1: you know. So you know it's a huge blessing. But
Speaker 1: I'm definitely I'm definitely that guy who's like, it's my
Speaker 1: bad man. I had a good run with by, like
Speaker 1: a background with Sam. I'm talking about, dude, iver gonna
Speaker 1: beat that. One thing is you're probably not, No, That's
Speaker 1: what see. I come down to the logic. I'm like,
Speaker 1: statistically touch that just playing the stats here, ted waves
Speaker 1: like a bad one time was a great hit or
Speaker 1: many years after that exactly so, but that's what you know,
Speaker 1: that's the I was broke for a long time, you know,
Speaker 1: but anymore anymore. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of it,
Speaker 1: but I'm proud of for me and I had nothing
Speaker 1: to do with it. It's such a silly song. Isn't
Speaker 1: working so well? I don't think it's a silly song.
Speaker 1: I think it's a it's a song. Here's the thing
Speaker 1: about Sam, as someone who doesn't I don't write with Sam,
Speaker 1: so I felt like I talked about it from Outsider
Speaker 1: perspective of his lyrics. Sam talks like an like a
Speaker 1: human talk, and sometimes it's awkward, but that's why it
Speaker 1: cuts through. He says things like blah blah or whatever.
Speaker 1: He says that, you know, and you're like, what, oh
Speaker 1: that that sounds abnormal in a song, But then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you're like, but that's how I talk.
Speaker 1: He's singing songs that, yeah, he would actually say, these
Speaker 1: are roll and that's why that thing works, and that's
Speaker 1: why his songs. If I have anything to think of
Speaker 1: why Sam and I work well together, it's we probably
Speaker 1: spend more time talking in my studio, just on the couch,
Speaker 1: just talking to each other about life and our wives
Speaker 1: and our faith, and we talk about all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So when it comes to write a song, we know
Speaker 1: how we you know how to speak. You know, we're
Speaker 1: not just you know Sam singing. From his perspective, he's
Speaker 1: not playing a character like it's these are all honest things.
Speaker 1: These are about as silly as some of them. Maybe
Speaker 1: they're about real life things and real life emotions. Like
Speaker 1: you know, he's not just making this stuff up like
Speaker 1: it's it's coming from somewhere. What's the one I just
Speaker 1: played a bunch of this stuff. What's the one where
Speaker 1: you're like that probably I can't believe that's the one
Speaker 1: that actually blew up break Up in a small town.
Speaker 1: I still giggle when I hear that on the radio.
Speaker 1: That's such a jam. It's pretty extreme. Yeah, that's one
Speaker 1: where I'm like, it's a little I'm like, who do
Speaker 1: we think we are to think we can play that,
Speaker 1: we can get that on the radio, because you know,
Speaker 1: we wrote that We're dead, broke, no name, dudes, just
Speaker 1: going I wonder if we can get this on it,
Speaker 1: this will be you know, and because that's pretty extreme,
Speaker 1: like like we're not over here thinking, but extreme things
Speaker 1: make things normal. That's at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: That song specifically is what I like to do with Salmon.
Speaker 1: I like to do. It has a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: elements to it. It's, you know, from the big drop
Speaker 1: to the dramatic first to the urban kind of thing.
Speaker 1: It's it's a little, uh greatest hits kind of to me.
Speaker 1: One of my best friends is friends in radio and
Speaker 1: in real life. Charlemagne the God who does a breakfast
Speaker 1: club in New York, a huge fan. So it's like
Speaker 1: that's like one of my dudes. And so he calls
Speaker 1: me about a month or so ago when Sam had strapped,
Speaker 1: and he was like, well, you know about Sam Hunt.
Speaker 1: I was like, why, I guess he's he's gonna come
Speaker 1: on a show. And I was like, here's a good dude,
Speaker 1: like I like him, and I don't like a lot
Speaker 1: of people. I put up a lot of people, but
Speaker 1: I like Sam. He's a genuine dude, Like you have
Speaker 1: to worry about somebody coming in and being somebody else.
Speaker 1: And then he's like, yeah, we're gonna bring it. And
Speaker 1: then he got sick on the urban world. So I
Speaker 1: keep up with the breakfast club people and have for
Speaker 1: years on the internet. I watched their shows. I don't
Speaker 1: listen to the ray, but I called Sam a couple
Speaker 1: of months ago. Hey man, I go may think I'm crazy.
Speaker 1: I was like, but I think you should go to
Speaker 1: New York and do this breakfast clup thing. I was like,
Speaker 1: it's a huge I refer to. I was like, I
Speaker 1: was like, it's kind of the Bobby Bones, but but
Speaker 1: in the urban world. I was like, it's kind of
Speaker 1: the highest profile show. You know, when you can make
Speaker 1: the argument that Sam's music is it's extremely urban, like
Speaker 1: it's extremely uh urban music. It's you know, it's probably
Speaker 1: more urban music than it is traditional pop music. And
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, man, I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's typically I was like urban music, urban artists who
Speaker 1: go in there and do that. I was like, but
Speaker 1: I was like, I think you would have a blast there,
Speaker 1: and I think they would love you, and and uh,
Speaker 1: he was aware of them, of course, and he was like, dude,
Speaker 1: we should totally do that. And he was super bummed
Speaker 1: to have to get the strap thing. That strap thing
Speaker 1: really broke his heart that he had to cancel the
Speaker 1: show and cancel a radio thing. But he uh, hopefully
Speaker 1: he goes back there some. Yeah. I hope that too,
Speaker 1: because I wanted to hear that because Charlotte Mane takes like, hey,
Speaker 1: should we put him on? And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a real dude. He didn't want to be not
Speaker 1: real coming into that studio because he'll just trust me
Speaker 1: because we talked about Charlotte man we go we're Charlotte
Speaker 1: because he'll just hit you with up and kind of
Speaker 1: out of the blue, and you know, you know, Sam's
Speaker 1: not trying to hide anything. You'll you know, talk about
Speaker 1: whatever to whoever. You know. I wish it would happen.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it will at some point. Dude. It's been
Speaker 1: fun it first guests to ever bring in and break
Speaker 1: down to something like. I enjoyed that. I wonder if
Speaker 1: it would work because of our equipment, Like we were
Speaker 1: talking before, I come on, like we bought all this
Speaker 1: stuff and set it up ourselves. Nobody no radio com it.
Speaker 1: That's the problem. It's just wires, and I don't know
Speaker 1: really what these wires. You know how to do this,
Speaker 1: like like he does. I mean, he knows what. I
Speaker 1: get on here and say the funny stuff and ask
Speaker 1: the questions, but I ask questions I literally don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I work anyway. I appreciate it. I hope, Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. That was fun. So anyway, as you can tell,
Speaker 1: this guy's had quite the influence on music and the
Speaker 1: radio and all this thing. I mean, jeez, man, whenever
Speaker 1: I looked at the whole list, because I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't know until we compiled it all, and I
Speaker 1: was like, holy crap, talking about someone in the last
Speaker 1: three years. It's really just been like unreal, man. It's
Speaker 1: it's a I don't take it that and beyond full
Speaker 1: for every writer or every artist, every like, because it
Speaker 1: changed my life and changing my kid's life. Like it's
Speaker 1: a and your face was on a banner the other day.
Speaker 1: I saw it for the first time. Dude, taking that
Speaker 1: photo was hard. I'm you know, I'm awkward at best,
Speaker 1: and put I belong in a studio. So when you
Speaker 1: put a camera in front of my face and say smile,
Speaker 1: we're taking hitch, it's like, I'm just nervous, Like I
Speaker 1: don't you know, It's that I don't know what to
Speaker 1: do in my hands. Yeah, you know you should see.
Speaker 1: I should send you some of the bad ones. And
Speaker 1: now I'll pass by z that kraft. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: eed you're you're set. I don't even I don't need
Speaker 1: to promote anything. You just set. If you see him
Speaker 1: out way back in his boat as he goes by
Speaker 1: the camera, the pink one or the green one aide
Speaker 1: seventy the Bobby cast its set. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: Thanks Gas,