Speaker 1: Hey guys, It's Sammy J. And welcome to this week's episode.
Speaker 1: Today I got to talk with Lou, which was so exciting.
Speaker 1: We talked about how he's doing in Quarantine, his new album,
Speaker 1: how I'm feeling the process of creating that, his mental
Speaker 1: health struggles, and his foundation, the Blue Boy Foundation, which
Speaker 1: you should totally check out, and so much more. I
Speaker 1: hope you guys enjoy it and I cannot wait for
Speaker 1: your feedback. Hi, Low Hi, how are you doing. I'm
Speaker 1: doing pretty well. How are you? I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 1: Are you at home right now? Yeah? I'm at home.
Speaker 1: I'm actually in my studio. So is that where you
Speaker 1: do all your music? Yeah? Um, pretty much. I just
Speaker 1: got make a really cozy couch behind me and a
Speaker 1: little set up in little piano, a couple of cents
Speaker 1: and uh survivee. Is that how you've just been spending
Speaker 1: your days in mid Yeah, it's like the one of
Speaker 1: the only things that's keeping me saying, I'm rantined to
Speaker 1: the couple of my best friends and um, we just
Speaker 1: like almost every single day we're down here, like twelve
Speaker 1: hours a day, just like writing, writing, writing. How many
Speaker 1: songs do you think you've written well, we might start
Speaker 1: like five or six ideas, but usually we don't make
Speaker 1: like five or six songs in one day. We just
Speaker 1: find like which whatever we like vibe with the most,
Speaker 1: and we might make like a couple of songs in
Speaker 1: a day. But I would say probably since we started
Speaker 1: locking up together, we've probably made about ten songs and
Speaker 1: then like probably another ten ideas. Um. Yeah, and a
Speaker 1: few of them I really really like. So Okay, So
Speaker 1: do you think the next album would be a quarantine edition?
Speaker 1: I don't want to call it that because I think
Speaker 1: that kind of dates it, but a lot of the
Speaker 1: songs will be made during quarantine for sure. So I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but during the quarantine, I've been
Speaker 1: listening to How I'm Feeling, which is your most recent album,
Speaker 1: And I know you call yourself the one man band.
Speaker 1: So my question is, if you could have anyone else
Speaker 1: in a band, who would it be? Um, it would
Speaker 1: be it would probably be like Harry Styles. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say Jim Carey, I'm gonna say Chris Martin from Coldplay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say Drake and um uh, Tony the Tiger
Speaker 1: from Frosted Place. Man. I think that would be the
Speaker 1: most iconic band of all time? What would it be called,
Speaker 1: We'd be called we would be called the most iconic
Speaker 1: band of all time? Pretty simple. Yeah, for the cover
Speaker 1: for your album, it is incredible. How did you come
Speaker 1: up with the idea to have uh, your different kind
Speaker 1: of personalities formed in colors? Yeah, Basically it was like
Speaker 1: when I was listening to the music as I was
Speaker 1: finishing the album, I was like, there's so many different vibes,
Speaker 1: like so many different kind of genres and and like moods,
Speaker 1: and I the album for me was sort of born
Speaker 1: out of this place of feeling very boxed in in
Speaker 1: terms of identity, you know before, And I wanted the
Speaker 1: whole album to be about kind of embracing all the
Speaker 1: different parts of yourself because I think that humans are
Speaker 1: really complicated, and I think that the world and the
Speaker 1: internet tries to mold you into having a singular identity,
Speaker 1: but I think we're way more complicated than that. So
Speaker 1: I wanted the artwork and everything to represent like different
Speaker 1: versions of me and kind of like how they all
Speaker 1: work together to create this one man boy band. So
Speaker 1: who came up with like each one? And how do
Speaker 1: you assign the color it was just me and then
Speaker 1: um and then like my creative directors were just sitting
Speaker 1: in the room together just like homies and just like
Speaker 1: chatting through the concepts and and um, yeah, we come
Speaker 1: up with six different characters in addition to the real me.
Speaker 1: So it's brilliant. I think this. One of the things
Speaker 1: about this album is there are songs. What is the
Speaker 1: process of eliminating songs and choosing what has to be
Speaker 1: in like an album, because I'm sure that's so stressful. Well,
Speaker 1: first you get rid of all the ones that suck.
Speaker 1: I wrote probably about I wrote probably about fifty songs,
Speaker 1: and then originally my idea was to make it fifteen songs. Um.
Speaker 1: But then like I tried to narrow it down to
Speaker 1: fifteen and it just like it just wasn't enough. So
Speaker 1: I kept like, okay, no sixteen, no eighteen, No, it's
Speaker 1: twenty not twenty one. And at that point I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be any longer than twenty one songs.
Speaker 1: It's like a lot. So yeah, yeah, do you have
Speaker 1: a favorite song off the album Modern momentas for sure, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's I want to talk about that song because I
Speaker 1: think it is so representative of just like where we are,
Speaker 1: especially with social media these days. I always say that,
Speaker 1: you know, social media, it brings people closer that you
Speaker 1: don't see, but it takes you further away from the
Speaker 1: people you are with. How have you I'm looking for
Speaker 1: advice for this. How have you maintained or kind of
Speaker 1: formed a healthy relationship with social media? I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: always working on that. I mean, because it's very addictive,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, So it seems like we have an
Speaker 1: endless like an endless um whole for attention, like we
Speaker 1: you know, like I feel like there's like I'll be
Speaker 1: in a mood and I'm like, I just want to
Speaker 1: post something so people give pay attention to me, you know,
Speaker 1: And I'm like that never fulfills that anything. And I
Speaker 1: think just trying to get into moments where I actually
Speaker 1: have like deep conversations with my friends, are like actually
Speaker 1: talk to my parents, Like I find myself a lot
Speaker 1: of the time, you know, avoiding calls from my parents
Speaker 1: are like my sisters are like my best friend because
Speaker 1: I'm like doing something else, And I'm like, then you
Speaker 1: can't complain about being lonely if you're the one who's
Speaker 1: you know, not not engaging in those conversations. So I'm
Speaker 1: trying to be aware of that, and um, especially now,
Speaker 1: I think it's actually been a little bit better because
Speaker 1: like we're forced, this is like our only way to
Speaker 1: connect with people right now. We can't see people. So
Speaker 1: I'm finding myself actually doing things like going on live stream,
Speaker 1: like really like doing productive things that hopefully are helping people,
Speaker 1: you know, talking to my parents more often, talking to
Speaker 1: friends that I haven't spoken to in a long time. UM. Yeah,
Speaker 1: That's what I've been trying to do too. It's so
Speaker 1: hard though, especially with social media to find um you know,
Speaker 1: if you look at comments, a lot of comments are
Speaker 1: kind of fake nice and they're like, oh my god
Speaker 1: all that. So how do you separate that from finding
Speaker 1: who your real friends are and all that? Um? I
Speaker 1: feel like I just don't take trying to take anything
Speaker 1: on social media like with anything more than a grain
Speaker 1: of salt. I mean, just the people that I know
Speaker 1: are the people that I actually know. UM. And aside
Speaker 1: from that, it's like I kind of just everything is
Speaker 1: everybody has something to say. I don't know, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess I don't really think about it. I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that I love about your music is
Speaker 1: you speak so candidly about things that people just aren't
Speaker 1: talking about. For example, your song Changes. I hate change
Speaker 1: so much and I haven't heard a song about it.
Speaker 1: How do you just get to be okay with change
Speaker 1: because you wrote a song about it, so you must have.
Speaker 1: I mean, I had to get to a literal rock
Speaker 1: bottom before I decided I needed to make changes, like
Speaker 1: I was at the beginning of January nine. I was like,
Speaker 1: that was like right at the end of that month,
Speaker 1: I was diagnosed with m O c D and clinical depression,
Speaker 1: and up until then I was just struggling with it
Speaker 1: on my own and not really like realizing what it
Speaker 1: was and sort of downplaying it and being like trying
Speaker 1: to deal with it myself, and like I was just like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I kept like thinking like it would
Speaker 1: go way or something, and and I started that song
Speaker 1: Changes in that time, and it was like when I realized,
Speaker 1: like I need to be open to something else, you know,
Speaker 1: are also I'm gonna be stuck here forever. So I
Speaker 1: think it took me hitting a rock bottom to realize
Speaker 1: I needed to make changes. Now I'm just trying to,
Speaker 1: like after I got through that. I'm trying to just
Speaker 1: be like a little bit more brave when it comes
Speaker 1: to making changes, like just be like, you know what,
Speaker 1: Like it always works out, you know, if you have
Speaker 1: to change something in your life, whether that means like
Speaker 1: a relationship with a person or you know, something in
Speaker 1: your career that's not working for you, or something that's
Speaker 1: not working, you're not being maybe you're not even being
Speaker 1: a good friend, and you have to make a change.
Speaker 1: Like I think just being aware of those things and
Speaker 1: being like, you know what, Like we're humans, were able
Speaker 1: to grow and we're able to evolve. I really believe that,
Speaker 1: and I think we're naturally programmed to be afraid of
Speaker 1: those changes. But I think that, you know, we can
Speaker 1: override that fear. So yeah, you know, I actually, in
Speaker 1: the same time when you were going through your lowest point,
Speaker 1: I was two, I actually have O c D two
Speaker 1: and I find it I'm curious what your opinion is
Speaker 1: the misconceptions, because a lot of people will be like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm so O c D when they're
Speaker 1: just not into becoming a try and actually with me
Speaker 1: at least, it's like obsessing over thoughts. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I know exactly what you're talking about. I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like, um, I don't want to be like sometimes
Speaker 1: I want to be frustrated, but then I'm like, don't
Speaker 1: because it's like, you know, like I don't think people
Speaker 1: mean wrong when they're like, oh, I'm so O c
Speaker 1: D about this, Like if they don't, if it's not
Speaker 1: really like a thing. Um, but I think what when
Speaker 1: I realized it's like, I mean c O c D
Speaker 1: definitely comes in many forms. You know, people really Oh
Speaker 1: it's like you clean obsessively or blah blah blah, you
Speaker 1: have to turn the light switch off seven times exactly
Speaker 1: the right way or whatever. And I know that that's
Speaker 1: definitely a very classic form of O c D. But
Speaker 1: you know, in my situation, it's probably sounds kind of
Speaker 1: similar to yours. It's like very similar have very obsessive
Speaker 1: negative thoughts that I like constantly need to get reassurance about.
Speaker 1: So it's like when I was in January, I was
Speaker 1: like having these negative obsessions about my past, and like
Speaker 1: like really really intense ones that I would just journal
Speaker 1: about over and over, trying to recall events from my
Speaker 1: past and thinking if I could recall them correctly, I
Speaker 1: could be happy again, and I would like call my
Speaker 1: parents multiple times a day, my friends, my sisters, like
Speaker 1: trying to tell stories from like two or three years
Speaker 1: ago and be like I didn't I don't know, Like
Speaker 1: how did it happen? Like what happened? And like it
Speaker 1: just got to the point where I was so stuck
Speaker 1: in this hole that it was like I was fully
Speaker 1: withdrawn from reality and it felt like it felt like
Speaker 1: what I needed to do. And that's the thing about
Speaker 1: I think a lot of like stuff like O c
Speaker 1: D or anxiety is the voice becomes so loud that
Speaker 1: it tells you it's what you need to pay attention
Speaker 1: to no matter what, and it fully takes over your
Speaker 1: ability to live your life. You should write a song
Speaker 1: about O c D. Yeah, I mean it's hard to depict,
Speaker 1: and you kind of did it really well. So yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you for giving me a chance to openly talk
Speaker 1: about it. I appreciate it. No, I feel the same way.
Speaker 1: That's actually why I started this podcast because when I
Speaker 1: was really anxious, I had nothing else to do, started
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts and then I was like there's nothing
Speaker 1: talking about what I want to and then here we are.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Well, thank you for doing that. I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to talk about just the song Sad Forever, because
Speaker 1: I love that You've given a lot of the proceeds
Speaker 1: to different organizations to help with mental health. When did
Speaker 1: that journey start? And I know you wrote that song
Speaker 1: during a really difficult time, So what was it like?
Speaker 1: Was it like singing a song that it kind of
Speaker 1: brings you back to that time when ye're in a
Speaker 1: good place? Now it's actually quite beautiful. Like I would
Speaker 1: sing it on tour, and I expected to be really
Speaker 1: sad on stage when I sing it, and maybe I
Speaker 1: do at the beginning, maybe I'm a little sad, But
Speaker 1: by the time I'm like halfway through and everybody's screaming
Speaker 1: the words, and like it's just this beautiful moment where
Speaker 1: I'm like everybody is at some different point in their
Speaker 1: journey right now in this room. You know, some people
Speaker 1: are really in a low place, some people are probably
Speaker 1: in a great place. Some people are fighting through it,
Speaker 1: Like it depends depending on the day. For me, I'm
Speaker 1: in any of those places, but especially like when I
Speaker 1: can have that perspective of like, look how far I've come,
Speaker 1: and look how possible it is to get to know
Speaker 1: to know what it's like to be in a place
Speaker 1: where you don't think it's possible you'll ever be happy again,
Speaker 1: and you'll ever want to really live your life and
Speaker 1: to actually be in the place where you are happy
Speaker 1: and you do want to live your life full lead.
Speaker 1: It's like it makes you break down and you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm so thankful. You know that song is such like
Speaker 1: a grounding song for me. It really is. And I
Speaker 1: know you talk about just like the importance of talking
Speaker 1: about mental health. Um, what is the fan responsibit like?
Speaker 1: Because you know you trapped like minded people. So what
Speaker 1: has that process been like? It's been actually really positive.
Speaker 1: You know, I was really nervous let's kind of start
Speaker 1: opening up about it. But people are really appreciative. People
Speaker 1: shared their own stories, like a lot of people, you know, fans, friends, family,
Speaker 1: people haven't spoken to him forever started texting me and stuff.
Speaker 1: And um, it's also kind of heavy though, because now
Speaker 1: a lot of people I think like they think I
Speaker 1: have the answers and like, um, and yeah, I'm still
Speaker 1: going through it, and I wouldn't want I'm not a professional,
Speaker 1: you know. All I can do is speak about my
Speaker 1: own experience, and you know, it's it's like it feels
Speaker 1: like a responsibility and I'm happy to share everything I
Speaker 1: go through. And I started believe that's like my purpose
Speaker 1: as an artist, you know, is to share what what
Speaker 1: I go through and what you know, what my life is,
Speaker 1: because I know if it if my life is this thing,
Speaker 1: that somebody else's life is likely also that thing. And
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite things of the human experience,
Speaker 1: is like kind of relating to somebody else. So what
Speaker 1: is it? What was the hardest song on the album
Speaker 1: where that you were most hesitant to put out just
Speaker 1: because it was so like true to you. I mean,
Speaker 1: modern Aluness was definitely a hard one. Um. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think also, you know, Julia and I'll and I'll let
Speaker 1: that song speak for itself, but just you know, um,
Speaker 1: I think that's like the first time I've just kind
Speaker 1: of written basically like an apology song, just straight up
Speaker 1: put it out there. But yeah, I think it's very
Speaker 1: strong to just put your your life in the public eye.
Speaker 1: So how how do you deal with everyone put putting
Speaker 1: in their opinions? And I don't do that. I don't
Speaker 1: always do that well, I try, I try to remember
Speaker 1: not to care. I mean, that's one of my biggest
Speaker 1: things right now as a person that I'm working on
Speaker 1: is I think a big part of like self security
Speaker 1: and like confidence is getting to a point where you
Speaker 1: don't really care about other people think about you, except
Speaker 1: for the people that you know know you really well
Speaker 1: and that you love and like they love you on
Speaker 1: like a real deep level. And then it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: if my friend, if my best friend thinks I'm a
Speaker 1: bad person or I did something not a bad person,
Speaker 1: but if I did something wrong, Okay, I'm listening, but
Speaker 1: like to not let the like the endless you know,
Speaker 1: endless voices on the internet dictate my mood. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like the worst. Like, So, I'm trying to just
Speaker 1: get to a point where I'm like, do I feel
Speaker 1: good about myself? Do I feel like I did the
Speaker 1: right thing? And yeah? So I know you talked a
Speaker 1: lot about meditation and journaling, and I'm curious because I
Speaker 1: could never get into this. Okay, help me. So I've
Speaker 1: heard so many great things about it, Yeah, meditation. Meditation
Speaker 1: is an interesting one. I couldn't get into it for
Speaker 1: a long time either. I would try to use apps
Speaker 1: and stuff and I would just get I would do
Speaker 1: it for a week maybe if I forced myself, and
Speaker 1: then I would fall out of it again. I get bored,
Speaker 1: but no, I feel you, and I would get anxious
Speaker 1: like during it. What really helped me as a certain
Speaker 1: type of meditation that I do that Like one of
Speaker 1: my best friends in the world, Show of Me, he
Speaker 1: used this form of meditation to really get me out
Speaker 1: of my lowest points. And it's it's pretty simple basically,
Speaker 1: I mean, and I want to do more like guided
Speaker 1: meditation stuff like out there on the internet. But it's basically,
Speaker 1: you know the basics of its finding a comfortable position,
Speaker 1: closing your eyes, putting your arms out, palms facing upward,
Speaker 1: you know, taking an initial breath, and with that initial breath,
Speaker 1: imagine everything that's weighing you down, everything that's making you anxious,
Speaker 1: stressed out, worried, everything that doesn't serve you. Imagine it
Speaker 1: falling away and basically speaking through this whole thing. Like
Speaker 1: whenever I do it, I do it with people or
Speaker 1: I speak to myself and um, yeah, it's basically like
Speaker 1: kind of starting from that place of like letting things go,
Speaker 1: kind of imagining, you know, thoughts that are hitting your
Speaker 1: mind kind of bouncing away and acknowledging to yourself and
Speaker 1: to whoever you're with that it's okay to take a
Speaker 1: moment for yourself, your spirit, your mind, your heart. Um,
Speaker 1: talk about just like imagining the front of your chest
Speaker 1: opening up and opening your heart entirely to receiving energy
Speaker 1: and giving love. And then it becomes sort of it
Speaker 1: becomes sort of like I'm not really a religious person myself,
Speaker 1: but it becomes a bit like prayer, Like I start
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, like sending love to various people
Speaker 1: in my life, like people, you know that, my family
Speaker 1: and my friends, people that are suffering right now. Um,
Speaker 1: And and then sorry, I'm kind of rambling, but this
Speaker 1: is all that's very helpful. It's really nice. And then
Speaker 1: I kind of it's a lot of it's also like speaking,
Speaker 1: like because I find when you speak from your heart,
Speaker 1: there's almost no better way to be in the moment.
Speaker 1: Like once I start not thinking about what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say in the meditation, I just say whatever naturally comes up.
Speaker 1: It really becomes powerful and I get to a flow
Speaker 1: state where I feel totally unaware of any thought except
Speaker 1: for right this moment. And so I'll talk about you know,
Speaker 1: like like say things like let us pray for guidance,
Speaker 1: like let us have you know, the courage to to
Speaker 1: follow our you know, to follow our guts and to
Speaker 1: and to you know, always becoming be becoming a better person.
Speaker 1: And it's it's a lot of kind of speaking things
Speaker 1: into fruition and and if you're with other people, speaking
Speaker 1: your love for them, you know, because sometimes it's hard
Speaker 1: to express the way you feel towards people, um in
Speaker 1: a normal social setting for whatever, at least for me.
Speaker 1: So this is like I love to meditate with my
Speaker 1: best friends and just um, you should just you should
Speaker 1: do it alive, like just meditating because I would listen,
Speaker 1: because just to kind of get everyone in their own head,
Speaker 1: because that's hard to do, especially in quarantine by yourself.
Speaker 1: I know, I tried to do an Instagram live meditation,
Speaker 1: but I think it was kind of weird because I
Speaker 1: was just alone speaking to the phone. So I think
Speaker 1: you should like join, you should guess with somebody in
Speaker 1: that way. It's like that would be nice, that would
Speaker 1: be really nice. And then journaling, yeah, oh, journaling is
Speaker 1: one that I've tried in the past, but I'm not
Speaker 1: going to at I don't really do it anymore, right,
Speaker 1: I like I can like do it like speaking to
Speaker 1: my phone, but like I just when writing it just
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm actually taking a creative writing class
Speaker 1: and every morning they make you journal for its keeping
Speaker 1: me accountable with it. Nice change of paste for one's.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk about your foundation that you started, um,
Speaker 1: the Blue Boy Foundation. How First of all, why did
Speaker 1: you want to set a foundation? UM? I wanted to
Speaker 1: do that. Well, it was it was tied into Sad Forever,
Speaker 1: you know, when I when I wrote Sad Forever, and
Speaker 1: then I was starting to get to a better place.
Speaker 1: Um um Mentally, I wanted to one tell the story
Speaker 1: um of kind of like what I was going through,
Speaker 1: um really Sad Forever, tell the story through that music
Speaker 1: video as well, and then take all the proceeds from
Speaker 1: the song and find various organizations to that you know,
Speaker 1: that are working in the field of mental health and
Speaker 1: to you know, allocate that money and basically, UM, with
Speaker 1: my team and a couple other friends and actually my
Speaker 1: my family, a couple of people in my family are
Speaker 1: on the board, We've made this foundation called Blue Boy Foundation,
Speaker 1: where yeah, we're just um, trying to find ways you know,
Speaker 1: collecting money and donating money to various organizations all over
Speaker 1: the world. Um, collecting a dollar on ticket sales each
Speaker 1: there was like a ticket tax on each concert ticket
Speaker 1: that's going you know through the foundation. And I mean
Speaker 1: my goal with this year, my big goal was to
Speaker 1: sit down with an organization in every city that I
Speaker 1: go on toward too and to meet a local organization
Speaker 1: that's you know, in the field, and learn how like,
Speaker 1: other than just raising money, what are other ways to help?
Speaker 1: Because you know, I think there's a lot for everyone
Speaker 1: to learn, and especially myself. Um, but yeah, I just
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to start doing something like that. So
Speaker 1: I think one of the things that people relate to
Speaker 1: most as an artist is just your honesty. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the first time like you felt a connection with
Speaker 1: a fan that was beyond music and you lay connected
Speaker 1: with your life. I'm trying to think. Um. I think
Speaker 1: one of the thing that first kind of tripped me
Speaker 1: out was when I started to see people get tattoos
Speaker 1: in my lyrics, because then that kind of like hit me,
Speaker 1: like for me to get a tattoo of the lyrics,
Speaker 1: like I would have to love that song so deeply,
Speaker 1: like I would have to do it in a song
Speaker 1: that changed my life. And I think that's when I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, like this is something serious, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think that's a big one that that's
Speaker 1: crazy to think that people get. Do you remember the
Speaker 1: first time that happened? Mm hmm it was I think
Speaker 1: it was the first one I saw. I think it
Speaker 1: was in Chicago, one of my very first shows, and
Speaker 1: it was like, I forget what I said, but it
Speaker 1: was on it was on her finger, But um, yeah, crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm always surprised with musicians with anxiety how they can
Speaker 1: just perform in front of a bunch of people, because
Speaker 1: I can't imagine doing that. Yeah, it's interesting, like I
Speaker 1: feel like I get more anxious around a small group
Speaker 1: of people than I do a big group. Really, I
Speaker 1: feel like it's so interesting how it's different for everybody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you have your favorite tour memory. I played a
Speaker 1: show in New York a couple of years back where
Speaker 1: I just remember for I don't know why, it was
Speaker 1: so pleasing, but like it was like the first time
Speaker 1: I took my shoes off on stage, and it just
Speaker 1: felt like such a moment to me. I felt so
Speaker 1: calm and so grounded, and it was so amazing. It
Speaker 1: was so good. I don't know, it was such a
Speaker 1: good show too. It was like I think it was
Speaker 1: kind of around a little bit after I Like Me
Speaker 1: Better came out, and it was like, you know, songs
Speaker 1: about living in New York and I wrote it in
Speaker 1: New York and then being back in New York playing it,
Speaker 1: it was just special. You went to n y U, right,
Speaker 1: what we York? Because I live in New York, Okay,
Speaker 1: and I'm about to do the whole college thing. So
Speaker 1: can you give me any advice because I'm looking at everywhere.
Speaker 1: I'm mainly looking at schools in California because I love
Speaker 1: a California. But I'm always I'm always curious at NYU.
Speaker 1: What did you study there? Music technology? So that must
Speaker 1: help with your career. Yeah, I mean so basically it's
Speaker 1: like audio engineering. Um, I feel like I feel like,
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, some of my favorite parts of school,
Speaker 1: like school wise, where I did a minor in psychology.
Speaker 1: I really like that. The I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of what like, don't get me wrong, like having a
Speaker 1: music degree definitely like helps, you know, I learned a lot,
Speaker 1: but I feel like a lot of really what it's about,
Speaker 1: especially in something like music, you don't I mean, first
Speaker 1: of all, I don't want anybody to think they have
Speaker 1: to go to school to be a successful artist, successful producers,
Speaker 1: like so many people who don't do that, Like I
Speaker 1: just I just don't, like, I don't subscribe to that
Speaker 1: you have to go to school for this, like you know,
Speaker 1: whether or not you can even afford it, Like I
Speaker 1: wouldn't even say you should feel like you have to go.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, and I was lucky I was able to go,
Speaker 1: and um, I really enjoyed my experience. But it was
Speaker 1: really about like in that time, making you know, the
Speaker 1: connections and meeting other people who were like minded and
Speaker 1: creative and making music with them, working at studios in
Speaker 1: turning all of that was super important. But I think,
Speaker 1: you know, if you have the luxury to go to
Speaker 1: school and it's something you really want to do, just
Speaker 1: finding a good like atmosphere, you know, finding a place
Speaker 1: that you feel like you can imagine making a lot
Speaker 1: of great memories at and a school that feels like
Speaker 1: in line with like in terms of a program that
Speaker 1: feels like who you are and that you'll find like
Speaker 1: minded people and also people that are not like minded
Speaker 1: that will help you know, expand your perspective on life.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, and he was. It was a great
Speaker 1: experience for me. I know, you interned out a lot
Speaker 1: of places and Brutland for a lot of people. What
Speaker 1: was the was memorable story you have from your interning days?
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm. I think probably there's two. One was standing
Speaker 1: in an elevator with jay Z when he's up and
Speaker 1: I just didn't say anything. It's like him in a
Speaker 1: security guarden. I just stood there because like as an intern,
Speaker 1: you're like they're like, don't talk, like, don't talk to
Speaker 1: these people, you know what I mean. It's like just
Speaker 1: like shut up, like you know, I'm like, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: because I wouldn't even know what to say. In general,
Speaker 1: that was probably the craziest. Yeah, there's like pretty strict rules,
Speaker 1: like when you bring in the food, like don't say anything,
Speaker 1: like don't like. I think it's actually nice, like I
Speaker 1: would feel more comfortable to be in the situation where
Speaker 1: it feels I mean, this is kind of why I
Speaker 1: don't love big studios because it feels so like formal
Speaker 1: to me. Sometimes I love working in my house because
Speaker 1: it's just like me, my friends, whatever, no rules, do whatever.
Speaker 1: How much of your album did you write in your house?
Speaker 1: Most of it? Yeah, I would say good, like sevent
Speaker 1: it or something that's crazy. Do you have any I
Speaker 1: know you have crazy collapse on this album, like you bats,
Speaker 1: you a Lessia karl All incredibly talented people. If you
Speaker 1: could have any other person for the future, like nothing
Speaker 1: off limits, Drake, let's do some of that'd be so sick. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then I'm just growing up with such a huge
Speaker 1: Coldplay fans, so I think it would be crazy to
Speaker 1: do something with Coldplay. Well, you're doing the band, so yeah, right,
Speaker 1: he's gonna He's gonna be in the band. Okay, I
Speaker 1: know you've dyed your hair, and I actually like dyed
Speaker 1: in my hair purple. I don't know if you can
Speaker 1: see with this like it's fat, Yeah I could, I
Speaker 1: can see a little bit. Yeah, if you could dye
Speaker 1: your hair and other color, because I know you dyed
Speaker 1: it like a bunch of colors, I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of I think I'm over all the crazy colors. Honestly,
Speaker 1: sometimes I think I would maybe go back to a
Speaker 1: certain type of purple or blue if it was short again.
Speaker 1: But I think I'm gonna grow out. I'm gonna see
Speaker 1: what happens as I grow it out. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Is it gonna become curly again? Do you think with blonde?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean probably if I let it
Speaker 1: grow keep being curly. I just don't want to go
Speaker 1: back to the curly brown hair. I want to do
Speaker 1: something different. So we'll see. You could always like do
Speaker 1: a mohawk. That could be your thing. That could be crazy,
Speaker 1: or like you can die like a smiley face on
Speaker 1: your head, or like a blue leg m. H keep
Speaker 1: keep coming with the ideas, Okay, okay, I'll keep thinking.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite quote? Maybe you can put
Speaker 1: that on your head? WHOA, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: do have a favorite quote. Maybe just it's lit. That's
Speaker 1: a pretty good quote, I think so. I've actually when
Speaker 1: I can't turn my mind off, and I have like
Speaker 1: a list of quotes on my phone, and some are
Speaker 1: so stupid and some are the best. But this one
Speaker 1: is like when I first heard it, it blew my mind.
Speaker 1: Okay already. It's anger is a punishment we give ourselves
Speaker 1: for someone else's mistake, Like I don't even know who
Speaker 1: said that, but so true. I don't know when I
Speaker 1: heard that. It just blew my mind and it gave
Speaker 1: me a different perspective on any Sometimes when I'm mad
Speaker 1: or something, I realize you have to look back and
Speaker 1: you're you're you're hoping that you're going to affect the
Speaker 1: other person, but really you're just affecting yourself, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm always really curious, like the process of things. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people they just see like
Speaker 1: a music and on and it's out and you don't
Speaker 1: realize the work that goes into it. So like, well,
Speaker 1: for sure, so like what is the process of creating
Speaker 1: a song? Because I'm always very curious because every artist is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean for me lately, it's been a little bit
Speaker 1: different than it used to be. Like it used to
Speaker 1: just be like sometimes on piano, sometimes on guitar, like
Speaker 1: I'll get a melody, or I'll be walking and I
Speaker 1: get a title, or I'll get a lyric, or I'll
Speaker 1: just be making a beat. But usually it's been like
Speaker 1: sitting with my friends, somebody else, one of my friends, um,
Speaker 1: Johnny starting like a beat, I pick up the microphone.
Speaker 1: I just freestyle stuff and then we're like, oh, that
Speaker 1: sounds really cool. And then I'm like, oh, so the
Speaker 1: song is about this now? Like I never go in
Speaker 1: being like the song is about X y Z. It's
Speaker 1: sort of like playing around until like the music feels
Speaker 1: like the concept and I feel at all, and then
Speaker 1: I just kind of like flesh it out from there
Speaker 1: freestyle and stresses me out. Me too, I just started
Speaker 1: doing this here, But like the more you do it,
Speaker 1: the more fun it is and the better you get.
Speaker 1: So that's cool. The way I see, like the way
Speaker 1: lyric writing should be or the way I want it
Speaker 1: to be for me is the same way I'm having
Speaker 1: a conversation with you. I'm not okay. I just said
Speaker 1: the word yellow, so I need to It's just the
Speaker 1: words come out of my mouth because they are the
Speaker 1: true words that I want to say, and I feel
Speaker 1: like That's what I'm trying to do with my new music.
Speaker 1: Is just here a chord progression or hear a beat
Speaker 1: and say whatever it is that I feel with a
Speaker 1: melody and then just go cool. You know, how how
Speaker 1: long does it take to write one song? Would you say? Um,
Speaker 1: as short as like an hour and then as long
Speaker 1: as I don't know, a couple of months, I guess,
Speaker 1: but usually usually in like a few hour range. Yea,
Speaker 1: I asked us to a lot of people, but what
Speaker 1: do you want to your music to be remembered as
Speaker 1: in your legacy? Mm hmm. So I never really think
Speaker 1: about that kind of stuff because it freaks me out.
Speaker 1: I just focus on right now. That's what I try
Speaker 1: and do. But I like to ask people. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know, because I think by the time I get there,
Speaker 1: my answer is going to be so different, you know.
Speaker 1: I guess. I just hope that my music will always
Speaker 1: feel like it's evolving and that it's it's honest for
Speaker 1: whatever wherever I was at that time. Um, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's just genuine and evolving. Are kind of
Speaker 1: like the things that are important to me, and you
Speaker 1: know that, you know, I think includes this idea of
Speaker 1: like what's really important to me at least right now,
Speaker 1: and I imagine forever it's making music that that I
Speaker 1: think really connects to people in a vulnerable way. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: what's your goal for It's been a weird so far,
Speaker 1: it's been a very long A few goals for another album,
Speaker 1: get a girlfriend only, if it's natural. Uh, but that's
Speaker 1: hard though, especially with Like I've been joking around with
Speaker 1: my friends and I've been saying, you know, if I
Speaker 1: find love in isolation, then I can write a book
Speaker 1: called Finding Love and in Isolation and that will be
Speaker 1: like just pretty tight. Well you should write it anyways,
Speaker 1: and that should be about self love, finding love about
Speaker 1: self love. That's pretty good. I feel like that could
Speaker 1: just be your next song. You can take real I'm
Speaker 1: have to steal that. Okay, you can take it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll get some percentage though. Okay, sounds good. Y Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on my podcast. No,
Speaker 1: thank you, and thank you for all the questions. It's
Speaker 1: really good vibes. Thank you. I think what you're doing
Speaker 1: with music is so important. Thank you for talking about
Speaker 1: things that need to be talked about. Of course, I'm
Speaker 1: just doing what feels right. Thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for listening to this week's episode. Make sure you listen
Speaker 1: to how I'm Feeling. Check out the Blue Boys Foundation.
Speaker 1: Follow Loud on Instagram at loud Songs. You can also
Speaker 1: follow me on Instagram at j That's I P S
Speaker 1: S A S M Y j A Y. And if
Speaker 1: you haven't already, Please subscribe to the podcast and leave
Speaker 1: comment if you'd like. I'd love to hear your feedback,
Speaker 1: and I will see you guys next week. Bye.