Speaker 1: Music Saved Me.
Speaker 2: Music one percent has healing powers.
Speaker 3: What I do every night before I go to sleep,
Speaker 3: I put on meditation music where it's just like, oh,
Speaker 3: like ambient music, and my day is so stretched out
Speaker 3: that I put that on. My heart rate drops. I
Speaker 3: feel relaxed, I feel calm. And it's the same way
Speaker 3: when you hear a heavy metal song and the energy
Speaker 3: just spikes in the room. And that's something that's so
Speaker 3: beautiful because you know, in fifty years or one hundred years,
Speaker 3: or when I'm dead and gone, I will still have
Speaker 3: my energy and my presence on this earth through my music.
Speaker 1: This is the Music Saved Me Podcast, and I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Glynn Hoffman. Today we have a guest whose vibrant persona
Speaker 1: comes shining through in his music, but his journey hasn't
Speaker 1: been easy. Chad Tepper is an alternative artist who truly
Speaker 1: has been saved by music. Welcome to the show. Tell
Speaker 1: everyone who you are and why music is so important
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 2: Hey, guys with something. Name is Chad Tepper.
Speaker 3: I'm an artist from Orlando, Florida, and music is so
Speaker 3: important to me because it is the lifeline and the
Speaker 3: blood to my heart. It is the thing that's keeping
Speaker 3: my heart beating and keeping my mind present.
Speaker 2: And music has always been something for.
Speaker 3: Me where you know, I'm in school being bullied or
Speaker 3: picked on in you know, gym class, and I'm in
Speaker 3: the corner of the bleachers with my pack of CDs
Speaker 3: that I got from the library, and I'm listening to,
Speaker 3: you know, all all this different types of music to
Speaker 3: escape my reality. And I think music is one of
Speaker 3: the most beautiful things because let's say you're having a
Speaker 3: horrible day, nothing's going right. You put on a song
Speaker 3: and that one song can make you smile, can make
Speaker 3: you happy, you know, or if you're driving and you
Speaker 3: hear a sad song, can make you cry. It's just
Speaker 3: all those emotions. For music is so beautiful and for me,
Speaker 3: music is the greatest and most purest thing on this earth.
Speaker 1: Do you think music has supernatural healing powers?
Speaker 2: One music has healing powers.
Speaker 3: What I do every night before I go to sleep,
Speaker 3: I put on meditation music where it's just like, oh,
Speaker 3: like ambient music, and my day is so stressed out
Speaker 3: that I put that on. My heart rate drops, I
Speaker 3: feel relaxed, I feel calm. And it's the same way
Speaker 3: when you hear a heavy metal song and the energy
Speaker 3: just spikes in the room. And that's something that's so
Speaker 3: beautiful because you know, in fifty years or one hundred years,
Speaker 3: or when I'm dead and gone, I will still have
Speaker 3: my energy and my presence on this earth through my music.
Speaker 3: Like who else can say that, you know, when I'm
Speaker 3: dead and gone, that my music can still I can
Speaker 3: still affect people and make them happy or sad or
Speaker 3: angry or whatever I'm gonna, you know, put out in
Speaker 3: my music.
Speaker 2: I can affect people years and years later.
Speaker 3: You see it all the time with people listening to
Speaker 3: like Elvis Presley and Queen and those people are gone,
Speaker 3: but they live on forever and they continue to help people.
Speaker 3: Think about how many people listen, okay to Elvis Presley
Speaker 3: and it changes their whole mood in their life. And
Speaker 3: he's been gone for what like thirty forty years, but
Speaker 3: every day there will look for the next hundred years,
Speaker 3: every single day someone will listen to Elvis Presley.
Speaker 2: Isn't that insane? Isn't that insane?
Speaker 3: His music will play on forever, And That's where I
Speaker 3: want to be in my life.
Speaker 2: I want to help people forever. So it's it's fucking awesome.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the first time you realize that music
Speaker 1: had this force?
Speaker 2: I did? I did.
Speaker 3: I realized at a very young age when I would
Speaker 3: go skateboarding and I would listen to music and it
Speaker 3: would get me excited and I'd want to skate harder
Speaker 3: or skate better because of the music.
Speaker 2: I've always been that guy where.
Speaker 3: I'll have so I had a Walkman when I was
Speaker 3: about five years old. My mom got me a Walkman
Speaker 3: at a thrift store. Cassette player didn't work, you know,
Speaker 3: but the radio worked on it. And my mom said,
Speaker 3: from since the age of five when I got that cassette,
Speaker 3: I would always be asking her for batteries and it
Speaker 3: was glued to me all day, all night. I just
Speaker 3: wanted to take it in everything. And it's been like
Speaker 3: that since I was a age. You know, I always
Speaker 3: had music connected to me. Even now, like you know,
Speaker 3: it gets annoying for my fiance. I know it, but
Speaker 3: maybe it's not. But I have music on all day,
Speaker 3: all night, in the house, in the car, if I'm
Speaker 3: walking around, I'll put it on my phone on the speaker.
Speaker 2: Music just makes life better.
Speaker 1: You are so honest about what music means to you.
Speaker 1: How are you able to be that way?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a lot of people are really afraid
Speaker 3: to be themselves. They don't want to get picked on,
Speaker 3: they don't want to admit they like some type of
Speaker 3: music because they want to be cool, they want to
Speaker 3: fit in with their friends.
Speaker 2: And for me, I'm like.
Speaker 3: That guy where you know, I buy like the new
Speaker 3: barbecue sauce that's really good, and I want to tell
Speaker 3: everybody about how good it is. And for me, music
Speaker 3: is it's so beautiful and amazing and I don't care
Speaker 3: what anybody thinks. You know, I've always been that person
Speaker 3: that's been made fun of or picked on or been
Speaker 3: the weird guy, and music's always been something that helps
Speaker 3: me out through my day.
Speaker 2: So yeah, if that's an answer, I don't know.
Speaker 1: No, that was a great answer. What do you want
Speaker 1: people to know about the homeless population?
Speaker 3: When when I was a kid and I was homeless,
Speaker 3: I didn't think that it was weird. I thought it
Speaker 3: was normal, which is so crazy to me, And for
Speaker 3: years I never.
Speaker 2: Wanted to to it. I was very ashamed of it.
Speaker 3: I went so I was homeless for seven years in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 3: We lived in cars and tents, side of the road motels.
Speaker 3: And I think the biggest thing that people need to
Speaker 3: realize is not all homeless people are drug addicts or.
Speaker 2: Horrible people, or junkies or drunks.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of homeless people that are just put
Speaker 3: in that situation, you know. And there's a lot of
Speaker 3: people around the world right now that are one paycheck
Speaker 3: away from being homeless. And we need to be more
Speaker 3: grateful of what we have on you know. I know
Speaker 3: this country sucks sometimes. I know there's some things that
Speaker 3: are not right here, you know, but we need to
Speaker 3: be grateful that we're able to have food for breakfast, lunch,
Speaker 3: and dinner, you know, to have this the simple necessities
Speaker 3: like we have a like I have refrigerator full of
Speaker 3: food right now, and I have a I have a
Speaker 3: pantry full of food, and I didn't have food when
Speaker 3: I was a kid, and it's it's fucking.
Speaker 2: It's a great life, man, it's a great life.
Speaker 3: And we we need to we need to look at
Speaker 3: what we have and be grateful because there's a lot
Speaker 3: of people out there that don't even have a pillow
Speaker 3: to lay on. And we we need to be more
Speaker 3: thankful in life, and we need to not look down
Speaker 3: upon other people. It's very hard not to look down
Speaker 3: upon other people. And it's in our DNA, it's it's
Speaker 3: it's just who the human race is, you know, people
Speaker 3: thinking they're better than other people, like, oh, I don't
Speaker 3: need to help that person.
Speaker 2: But when when.
Speaker 3: I was a kid, all all somebody had to do,
Speaker 3: you know, was like, oh, you know, and we ran
Speaker 3: into multiple people when we were homeless that wouldn't help
Speaker 3: us or do anything. From family, from extremely rich family members.
Speaker 3: When I tell you this, you're gonna lose your mind.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: My dad's side of the family is extremely extremely rich billionaires,
Speaker 3: and he got disowned by by his whole family because
Speaker 3: he was he was Jewish, and he married a Christian
Speaker 3: woman and kind of got disowned by his family and
Speaker 3: lost everything.
Speaker 2: And I think we all.
Speaker 3: Need to look at being humans and you know, loving
Speaker 3: each other more and really walking walk them mill on
Speaker 3: somebody else's shoes before you judge them. Okay, because my
Speaker 3: mom and dad were great people. The cards just weren't right,
Speaker 3: you know, and they've been through such horrible things and
Speaker 3: I've been through such horrible things.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you this right now.
Speaker 3: I think I have a better mind space, and you know,
Speaker 3: vision and love in my heart more powerful than people
Speaker 3: that grew up, you know, super rich or having everything
Speaker 3: they wanted. Because I have a lot of friends that
Speaker 3: grew up super rich, and for them, you know, having
Speaker 3: a little bit of money or a nice car doesn't
Speaker 3: mean anything to them because they've always had it.
Speaker 2: And for me, the little things in life mean so much.
Speaker 3: And there's so many people out there right now where
Speaker 3: you just buy them a pair of shoes, you know,
Speaker 3: or a new shirt to wear the school, or you know,
Speaker 3: talk to them or there's just so many little things
Speaker 3: and we all need help and we're all struggling. But
Speaker 3: your basic necessities that you take for granted, people would
Speaker 3: do anything to have anything. So we need to love
Speaker 3: more and be appreciative more and really look to help
Speaker 3: each other. And you know, I see people in La
Speaker 3: driving around Lamborghinis and Ferraris and they pull up to
Speaker 3: the red light and there's a bunch of homeless people sleeping,
Speaker 3: and you know, it is what it is, you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's it's very sad and horrible that we we
Speaker 3: live in a world where or even a country where
Speaker 3: homeless people are so looked down upon and and they're
Speaker 3: looked at as drug addicts and criminals and horrible people.
Speaker 2: Where you know, you.
Speaker 3: Can't judge buy a book a book by its cover,
Speaker 3: not not everybody's the same, you know, everybody's an individual
Speaker 3: and everybody's different.
Speaker 1: Talk to us a little bit about how it makes
Speaker 1: you feel when your music really connects with someone you
Speaker 1: know really deep.
Speaker 3: Uh. It makes me feel like I'm actually making a difference,
Speaker 3: and it makes me feel really good. I recently started
Speaker 3: having people come up to me and being like, Oh,
Speaker 3: I love your music.
Speaker 2: This song's really good. It really helped me.
Speaker 3: Or I'll get a comment on a music video saying, wow,
Speaker 3: this song I felt it in my chest.
Speaker 2: You know, like this song really hit me.
Speaker 3: And there's so much music out there that did that
Speaker 3: to me growing up that if I can do that
Speaker 3: for one person, it's so cool.
Speaker 2: It's it.
Speaker 3: This is why you do what you do. You know,
Speaker 3: you want people to appreciate the art you're making. So
Speaker 3: it's a great feeling.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Chad Tepper is a man who loves his craft. His
Speaker 1: story truly embodies the spirit of the Music Saved Me podcast.
Speaker 3: If you like.
Speaker 1: Music Saved Me, If you like music saved me. Please
Speaker 1: share it with a friend. You'll be glad you did.
Speaker 1: Lin Hoffman, thanks for listening.