Speaker 1: What episode away I might is that paper episode sixteen.
Speaker 1: Welcome to episode sixteen of the Bobby Cast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Bobby Cast. That's correct. Here with Brandon Ray on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Brandon Ray Music here ran Now what's going on? Okay? So,
Speaker 1: I think are talking a little different than any of
Speaker 1: the talks that I've had with an artist before, because
Speaker 1: I think with you, you're right in the middle of
Speaker 1: the try like you're right in the middle of trying
Speaker 1: to find your spot wherever it is in this industry
Speaker 1: and in the past, that's what's cool about this. I
Speaker 1: can do whatever I want. In the past, I've had
Speaker 1: people who have made it as great songwriters, people who
Speaker 1: have made it as artists, Like you're just pretty mediocre
Speaker 1: right now, let's me to be honest. That's that's my
Speaker 1: middle name. So listen, Brandon is one I've played him
Speaker 1: on the show before, like he's that good. So, um,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to Brandon right after this message from Blue Apron.
Speaker 1: By the way, you ever had Blue Apron? Blue Apron?
Speaker 1: That's great, Dan, heck of a tingle. Listen, Blue Apron
Speaker 1: is awesome. Without them, we would not be able to
Speaker 1: do this, Bobby Cast. And so let me tell you
Speaker 1: what Blue Apron does. They send food you ever have
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Speaker 1: it comes in a box and it's not made already,
Speaker 1: so you're not ordering. You ordering ingredients, and they send
Speaker 1: you all the ingredients and already prepackaged and they're pre
Speaker 1: like measured, so you don't have to go buy a
Speaker 1: whole jar of something for a pinch. Uh. So you
Speaker 1: take that and you have to give you listen to
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Speaker 1: Blue Apron dot Com slash Bobby meals. That's one word
Speaker 1: I say, meals like. I'm from Arkansas, so it's Bobby
Speaker 1: m E A L s. Bobby meals meal whatever, Blue
Speaker 1: Apron a better way to cook. Thank you Apron for
Speaker 1: sponsoring this. Now. Brandon Ray is here at Brandon Ray
Speaker 1: Music on Twitter and Instagram. All right, so let me
Speaker 1: tell you. I want to start with today and kind
Speaker 1: of work all the way back around because Brandon's an
Speaker 1: interesting story. Brandon is so good. I said, hey, will
Speaker 1: you come out and play a few shows with us
Speaker 1: with the raging idiots? And he has And I really
Speaker 1: don't know how good he was until we got on
Speaker 1: the road, like our news good, and then he's like
Speaker 1: mind blowingly good. Actually stand beside and playing. I don't
Speaker 1: just say that about anybody, um, because I get to
Speaker 1: see everybody, so Bebian said Brandon. I'll play a song
Speaker 1: right now that that Brandon has out. This is called
Speaker 1: American way. Here we go up, sad down too freaking
Speaker 1: weekend him him a seamer. Brandon is also a fantastic
Speaker 1: guitar player. So I play this, this is that could
Speaker 1: be us from brand a right good thing, that could
Speaker 1: be all right, welcome back to the music now. I
Speaker 1: would like to be as honest as possible as of
Speaker 1: right now, you do not have a record deal. Not okay.
Speaker 1: So here you are, You're in talent, you're grinding, you're playing,
Speaker 1: You're like of the rest of Nashville. You're really good,
Speaker 1: and you don't have a record deal right now. So
Speaker 1: what has that process been like? Like have you played
Speaker 1: for people like kay Like, Hey'm gonna talk about every
Speaker 1: time she played Kaylin Smith, she played for Zone people
Speaker 1: and they all say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no, like whatever it is right now. No,
Speaker 1: have you been through that where you've played They go no,
Speaker 1: not right now. We We've taken We've taken a little
Speaker 1: swing a couple of times. What do that mean? Like
Speaker 1: just you know people like I have a publishing deal
Speaker 1: with Sony a TV, which means you write I write
Speaker 1: songs for a living for you know, artists for TV.
Speaker 1: Film sinks for you know myself that Sony then takes
Speaker 1: those songs pitches them. Uh. And what they have is
Speaker 1: an artist development branch inside the publishing company that kind
Speaker 1: of does like a They help you with recording, they
Speaker 1: help you with touring, Like I just booked a show
Speaker 1: with Jake Owen in Vegas. You know it's gonna cost
Speaker 1: us much. I might lose this much and they make
Speaker 1: up the difference things like that. Okay, so you have
Speaker 1: a publishing deal and that's how you eat plus touring. Yes,
Speaker 1: so that's your job. But you're you want to be
Speaker 1: an artist? I do. I you know, right now for
Speaker 1: me is is building. It's it's the the building phase
Speaker 1: of of touring my my butt off, like every single weekend.
Speaker 1: I think I've been gone Thursday through Sunday every weekend
Speaker 1: since February. And uh, it's so important right now to
Speaker 1: to build that fan base, whether it's it's being out
Speaker 1: with you guys, which I can't thank you enough for
Speaker 1: inviting me out with the raging idiots because it's been
Speaker 1: such a blast, Like the fans show up. I mean
Speaker 1: every single show is sold out. Like I don't think
Speaker 1: people will realize how how big it is and how
Speaker 1: fun it is, and just those chances and believers like
Speaker 1: you that that just say hey, man, come hang and
Speaker 1: and then we get to know each other and and
Speaker 1: you you, you know, promote things for me or you know,
Speaker 1: share a post of mine or share a song on
Speaker 1: your show. It is it means everything to someone like
Speaker 1: me because I don't have a label, I don't have
Speaker 1: the radio support right now and uh, right now, you
Speaker 1: know in this for this for the past six to
Speaker 1: eight months has been just grind and just going town
Speaker 1: to town to town building, uh and making believers out
Speaker 1: of everybody I play for, all of the headliners I
Speaker 1: opened for, and even the club and theater owners that
Speaker 1: I play talk about the headliners the eve before that
Speaker 1: if said, hey, come out on the road because I
Speaker 1: think it pretty good. Who have you played for that
Speaker 1: You're like, dang, this was really cool. Recently, man, there's
Speaker 1: there's been uh, just a lot of really cool people.
Speaker 1: John Party has just kind of overwhelmed me with just
Speaker 1: he's just such a nice guy and uh, his fan
Speaker 1: base is just is growing rapidly. If happened to get
Speaker 1: the number one song and another great song, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: and even before uh, I was playing with him even
Speaker 1: before Uh Boots went number one. I think it was
Speaker 1: in the top twenty. And his fans knew every single
Speaker 1: word to every song, even even like the East sides
Speaker 1: of his album. You know, he'd be like, I wanna
Speaker 1: take it back to you know, one of my first
Speaker 1: releases and No. Nine and he plays it and the
Speaker 1: crowd just takes over, and Uh, so that just taught me.
Speaker 1: He's taught me so much about just kindness and how
Speaker 1: to treat people. And UH guys like John Party, guys
Speaker 1: like keep More. Martin McBride has had me out on
Speaker 1: a few runs, which that was so cool, you know,
Speaker 1: getting to just kind of be a part of a
Speaker 1: show that that she's doing. And um, guys like David Neil.
Speaker 1: I'm going, uh this weekend out in the Midwest doing
Speaker 1: some shows and then next weekend with a Frankie Ballard
Speaker 1: and uh, it's just it's all about to hang, you know.
Speaker 1: I used to play uh guitar for different artists in town,
Speaker 1: one in particular being Brett Elders. I think that's where
Speaker 1: we met the first time. I think I was shooting
Speaker 1: a TV thing with Brett where we lay in the
Speaker 1: bunk together and you were playing guitar for Brett Elders.
Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah. The thing about Brandon is I didn't
Speaker 1: like Brandon the first time I really hung out with Like,
Speaker 1: I thought, what a douche bag for about two hours
Speaker 1: because what happened was, now, this is the true story.
Speaker 1: I didn't I judged him simply on his hair, like
Speaker 1: because no, no, it's actually I like it now, but
Speaker 1: it was spiked, you know, And I almost like, Okay, dude,
Speaker 1: spiked there. Come on. So he gets on with someone
Speaker 1: that I just think is phenomenal, like Lucy Sylvia's went
Speaker 1: out with us on the road and it is quite
Speaker 1: possibly one of my favorite people and artists in Nashville. Bobby, Bobby,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me on the road,
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for just being a great friend.
Speaker 1: So Lucy Silva and Brandon plays guitar for her, and
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, just take the bus with us.
Speaker 1: I don't don't don't drive, don't pay for expensive just
Speaker 1: get on the bus and you can sleep on the box.
Speaker 1: And so that man, it was a total douche and
Speaker 1: so and then of the night it was just Brandon
Speaker 1: night and we talked like four hours. It was like
Speaker 1: a brand new couple. You know, how you meet somebody
Speaker 1: and you're like, we just talked all night long. I
Speaker 1: think I'm in love. And that's how it was Brandon.
Speaker 1: And so you know, with us, we either had Nat
Speaker 1: with the raging idiots we think Natalie Stowball or Lindsay
Speaker 1: l Um and then for some reason not for some reason,
Speaker 1: they're both phenomenal. They were doing their own tours and
Speaker 1: I was like, we need another player. Let's get Brandon
Speaker 1: because he was and so now we'll just have Brandy
Speaker 1: come out with them and listen, I don't have lead
Speaker 1: singer disease, which means I don't have to sing all
Speaker 1: the time or half the time. When you have somebody
Speaker 1: like Brandon, it's like, all right, you take it away.
Speaker 1: Here's brand and everyone uh and and Brandon like blows
Speaker 1: your away when he sings. Now let's go back for
Speaker 1: a second because I have some stuff here. Um, this
Speaker 1: is a jingle called Let's Go Cubs. So this is
Speaker 1: you and how and how long ago was? This was?
Speaker 1: Oh seven, so almost ten years ago. Okay, here we go. Yeah, well, okay,
Speaker 1: did you write did you write that good that's terrible songs,
Speaker 1: but you're saying it well, and listen for me. I'm
Speaker 1: a diehard Cubs fan. And it's weird too because I
Speaker 1: also liked the Cardinals a lot, and as you get older,
Speaker 1: you realize that I like as a kid, I was
Speaker 1: not a Cardinals fan because I was a Cubs fan.
Speaker 1: But then I had friends that played for the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: and then I got to know the organization, and so
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a diehard Cubs fan. And I'm talking
Speaker 1: about a minute ago, like right now, you may hear
Speaker 1: this in a month in the World Series, maybe over
Speaker 1: maybe the Cups got swept, maybe they wanted At this point,
Speaker 1: we don't know. It's one zero. I'm a diehard Cups fan.
Speaker 1: And people are like, oh, bandwagoners, we hate him. I
Speaker 1: don't care if they're a bandwagoners. I don't care if
Speaker 1: you called me a bandwagoner, because I only care about
Speaker 1: my heart and right now, I just want my heart
Speaker 1: to be full with Cubs victory. Like I haven't done
Speaker 1: this on this show, and I don't know if I
Speaker 1: will or not, but I'm going to Game four of
Speaker 1: the World Series because my whole life I've been waiting
Speaker 1: for this dam that's such a dream. They haven't won
Speaker 1: in a hundred and eight years and this, this song
Speaker 1: probably kept them from winning other game, because that's terrible.
Speaker 1: If they heard this, they were like, we should suck
Speaker 1: like the song does, like the singer is pretty good,
Speaker 1: but how much they pay to do this? All right?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be completely honest right now. Um, I sang
Speaker 1: jingles for I was in a rock band through high
Speaker 1: school and college. And I was trying to go to
Speaker 1: college and touring with this rock band, and I worked
Speaker 1: for this company called T M Century that did jingles.
Speaker 1: They did everything from like radio tags like any five
Speaker 1: five you know, all that kind of stuff, and stuff
Speaker 1: like this. You know where you submit, you know, there's
Speaker 1: like hey, um, like they just said, Chicago Cubs, they're
Speaker 1: looking for a cool new theme song to play on
Speaker 1: their w J. We're gonna have you sing this anyway.
Speaker 1: So this guy, this is the one of the riders.
Speaker 1: I say that with quotes um the writer producers like, hey,
Speaker 1: I had just got done singing like Dave and Sandy
Speaker 1: in the morning, you know, some some awful song like that,
Speaker 1: because hey man, uh I got this Chicago Cubs pitch thing.
Speaker 1: You know, they're looking for something. I was like, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm love. I'm such a huge baseball fan. I was
Speaker 1: telling you earlier, huge Texas Rangers fan. You know, watch
Speaker 1: Nolan Ryan as a kid and all that, and I
Speaker 1: was like, dude, let's do it. And so we recorded
Speaker 1: this awful excuse for a song and it got picked up.
Speaker 1: It was the up. I was so surprised and kind
Speaker 1: of um, kind of sick about it because they paid
Speaker 1: me forty dollars and that's it. So okay, So you
Speaker 1: got paid a salary though to sing, no, you're a
Speaker 1: contract and I got paid. They should have like I
Speaker 1: should have paid them. I mean that listen saying listen,
Speaker 1: I don't take any away from the vocal of that,
Speaker 1: but listen when I go, Cubs Go go, Cubs go,
Speaker 1: like that's the one that I that's what when they win,
Speaker 1: that's what they play. I was just doing my job. Man.
Speaker 1: You talk about singing jingles, I think that's a fun
Speaker 1: thing to talk about, because did you sing like a
Speaker 1: frisky is the cat jingle? I did? Yeah, I sing,
Speaker 1: I sing It's awful, you know, just this happy like
Speaker 1: you know, little toy piano thing that and I have
Speaker 1: I have a buddy in New York who runs a
Speaker 1: music house that he does like Toyota Nissan for He's
Speaker 1: done a ton of commercials and sometimes when they need
Speaker 1: non union singers, he'll give me a call. And still
Speaker 1: to this day, like he'll be like, hey man, you
Speaker 1: know this company, they just want to do a one
Speaker 1: time fee. Could you sing this thing? And you know
Speaker 1: it might get picked up, it might not. So I've
Speaker 1: sing so many jingles that haven't gotten picked up, but
Speaker 1: I've sing about you know, six or seven that that
Speaker 1: got picked up. What has it got picked up? Like,
Speaker 1: I'm curious enough if I would recognize any of them?
Speaker 1: Uh so Miller Lite. There was a commercial back in
Speaker 1: I think the twelve World Series where this guy was
Speaker 1: putting a quarter in a jukebox and every time he
Speaker 1: would hit a song he wanted to play, like Rocky
Speaker 1: like a Hurricane by the Scorpions. It would come up
Speaker 1: as is it Eric Carmen who saying, O bay myself,
Speaker 1: that song will play? And I all I had to
Speaker 1: do was just sing it, you know. And I'm sitting
Speaker 1: at a bar in Cool Springs watching the World Series
Speaker 1: and the guy was like, hey man, it's down to
Speaker 1: you in another another guy. I don't know if you'll
Speaker 1: get it, but check it out. And so I watch
Speaker 1: it exactly Eric Carmen. He was up against yeah, Eric
Speaker 1: Carmen himself. He needs the money. No. Uh. And it
Speaker 1: played and I was like, that's not me, Like that
Speaker 1: does not sound like me. And and then he calls me,
Speaker 1: he's like, did you hear it? I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't me. He's like, no, it was you, dude.
Speaker 1: He's like, I had to put this crazy compression thing
Speaker 1: on it, but that's you. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: So did you get paid for that? But since you're
Speaker 1: not in union, you get paid one time? One time?
Speaker 1: And that's what what was that one? You remember it was?
Speaker 1: It was a good amount? Over thousand dollars? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: over five thousand dollars? Wow? Really does? I have a
Speaker 1: buddy who did a commercial for like four or something
Speaker 1: and he made I did three commercials, made three hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty thousand dollars. It's incredible. Yeah. And so he
Speaker 1: made it and he invested in a band and lost
Speaker 1: all and blew it all. I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I could have given you about a hundred investment I
Speaker 1: did maybe Apple, I don't know, Walmart, Dunkin Donuts. Maybe
Speaker 1: you picked Yahoo just on bankrupt that's your first instinct.
Speaker 1: Maybe I had to look at your money? Should you should? I?
Speaker 1: I was thinking of Atlantis more set who like invested
Speaker 1: early made like three fifty million dollars. At a point
Speaker 1: in our life, Yah, who was the search engine? It
Speaker 1: was like it wasn't Yahoo it but it was like
Speaker 1: go to Yahoo, you know, so we would go to
Speaker 1: Yahoo dot com. It was before Google, and you searched
Speaker 1: on Yahoo. That's where we found. For a minute, to
Speaker 1: ask Jeeves was the thing. You got to the buttler
Speaker 1: and to be like, Jeeves, where can I find information
Speaker 1: on the Scorpions? Or who sings rock? You'd like her
Speaker 1: this week? Yes? And Jeeves the butler would tell you.
Speaker 1: But then Google took it up. Did you know Google
Speaker 1: was called BackRub before it was called Google. Yah? It
Speaker 1: the thing is and would it be okay we laugh,
Speaker 1: but Google is a ridiculous word. And if you if
Speaker 1: if if I was backrubbing something right now online and
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, they almost called this thing Google
Speaker 1: would be like why would they pick it? The stupid thing?
Speaker 1: When backrob is awesome. Hey just BackRub it. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what would be like. Hey, I'm gonna backroub blue Apron
Speaker 1: to see what how you know how much it listen.
Speaker 1: I don't hate BackRub. I know it sounds like you
Speaker 1: hate it. I don't hate BackRub rand. I think you're
Speaker 1: being a little hater backgroub um. So you came you're
Speaker 1: from Texas. So being from Texas and I get tell.
Speaker 1: But I lived a long time in Texas and I
Speaker 1: loved like Austin to me as home to Austin is
Speaker 1: a favorite. It's so good and because people are just chill.
Speaker 1: But when you're in Texas, you have a lot of influences.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of country music around you. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of Southern rock around you. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of rock around you. So as you're growing up, you
Speaker 1: were deciding kind of where you wanted to go musically.
Speaker 1: Was it because a lot of your friends were rock
Speaker 1: friends that you decide I want to do music, So
Speaker 1: I guess I'm gonna go and try a rock band.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any friends. No, I'm just kidding, um No,
Speaker 1: I I originally wanted to be a professional pitcher. I
Speaker 1: wanted to play baseball professionally. I played football, baseball, basketball, track,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. And um, I had to
Speaker 1: have two surgeries on my foot. I have like two
Speaker 1: screws this long in my foot. And so basically they're like,
Speaker 1: hey man, when you go this long. People that are
Speaker 1: only listening to this, they having no idea how long
Speaker 1: that is? This long? Yes, okay, that long? Okay, now
Speaker 1: they see the second time you go this long and
Speaker 1: don't say yes, go ahead anyway. So it took me
Speaker 1: out of sports comple lately, and so naturally I was
Speaker 1: I had to lay up with my foot up in
Speaker 1: the air. You know. It was such a major surgery.
Speaker 1: I had two surgeries. For six months at the time,
Speaker 1: I couldn't do anything. And so I was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, my brother plays drums and and and for you.
Speaker 1: Now even to this day, he lives here in Nashville,
Speaker 1: and we we were about to meet up and and
Speaker 1: you can definitely tell Brandon's brother when you see them together,
Speaker 1: like else, go ahead, Yeah, that's right, he's he's like
Speaker 1: a foot shorter though. Um but uh, I bought a guitar,
Speaker 1: a cheap guitar um with with a little Amp and everything.
Speaker 1: And I would seriously watch Steve ravon videos just on repeat,
Speaker 1: and I just watched his Native Texas native He's He's
Speaker 1: the dude. And my dad loves Steve ra Van and um,
Speaker 1: so I started learning that stuff. But I also started
Speaker 1: learning you know, a lot of my influences like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, John Mellencamp, Metallica, Pantera, Garth Brooks, George Straight,
Speaker 1: Joe Diffy, like my my house was a elsing pot
Speaker 1: of music. And I think our age though, is that's
Speaker 1: like if you're one, how old you okay, if you're
Speaker 1: twenty seven or above, is when you started to have
Speaker 1: Napster affect your life. And it's when that's the minds
Speaker 1: of everyone starting to change about music. We got lots
Speaker 1: of influences more so than anybody else because we started
Speaker 1: to be able to get it all the time anywhere
Speaker 1: that's as we want, and for free, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: illegally and and listen, back in the day, not the
Speaker 1: interrupted story, but I'm gonna go almost interrupted story. Back
Speaker 1: in the day, I was so mad at Metallica for
Speaker 1: like for going against it. I was like, Metallica sucks,
Speaker 1: they hate Napster, and I get all the music for free,
Speaker 1: and I deserve all the music for free. I was
Speaker 1: such an idiot. I was an idiot, and Metallica was
Speaker 1: absolutely right, and that's right. This is people creating music.
Speaker 1: You should have to pay for this. And I stole,
Speaker 1: like crazy, how I would just log on, hit the
Speaker 1: letter A, and then download every song I started with
Speaker 1: day all formats. I would go to sleep at night
Speaker 1: and wake up with song to start with A, and
Speaker 1: be like, let's see what I like today, Like I
Speaker 1: don't like ABBA, but I'll listen. Yes, And I would yes.
Speaker 1: So you're listening to all these types of music and
Speaker 1: you have a guitar and a broken foot basically, so
Speaker 1: do you just start learning to play guitar? I just
Speaker 1: I don't know what it was. It was just almost
Speaker 1: like it was the only option. You know. I didn't
Speaker 1: have sports anymore. I was horrible in school, and so
Speaker 1: I wanted to start a band with my brothers, and uh,
Speaker 1: there you go, come on your brothers at the time,
Speaker 1: So I have two older brothers, and I think I
Speaker 1: think that's why I had such a such a big
Speaker 1: influence of music. They were they were older than I was,
Speaker 1: and so you let what they like what they like.
Speaker 1: My my brother, oldest brother, Derek would bring home like Aerosmith,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know like the Eagles and Don Henley
Speaker 1: who Don Henley is my favorite songwriter of all time
Speaker 1: and uh, you know boys a summer Heart of Matt
Speaker 1: part of the matter. That's what made me want to
Speaker 1: write songs. And so being here and out, just like
Speaker 1: you said, doing music for a living. I look back,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I had Bit Torrent, I had Morpheus, Napster,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. I was stealing lots of virus. It
Speaker 1: was awful. Yeah, I got in trouble a lot, but
Speaker 1: you know, um it's crazy, man. So you decide to
Speaker 1: being a rock band? Rock band? Was a punk band?
Speaker 1: It was? It was kind of both. We started out
Speaker 1: as a rock band and it kind of turned into
Speaker 1: you know, one of those pop punk bands. We uh
Speaker 1: what was the name of the band it was? It
Speaker 1: was called Crimson Soul. That here, Oh man, how did
Speaker 1: you find this is called the Fight from Crimson Soul,
Speaker 1: my favorite favorite punk band. Don't look at the school. No,
Speaker 1: I didn't look. I didn't see it and see it? Right?
Speaker 1: So did you let you guys got on the road.
Speaker 1: We did, man, so in high school it was just
Speaker 1: three of us, and uh, you know, I would be
Speaker 1: in the marching band and you were in the marching man.
Speaker 1: Maybe either I thought was the douche bag for having
Speaker 1: his and being so cool. I thought he looked way
Speaker 1: and saw me and my brother won the drum line.
Speaker 1: We played snare and all that kind of stuff. So
Speaker 1: you were a drummer, I was. Yeah. My brother Ryan
Speaker 1: taught me how to play drums, and so did Derek.
Speaker 1: Derek was a drummer as well, and so we were
Speaker 1: all on the drum line for sin High School. Go
Speaker 1: buffs Um and we would play, we would do the
Speaker 1: halftime show, we'd we'd play all the games and all
Speaker 1: that kind stuff. And it's West Texas like Big Spring
Speaker 1: Pick Spring millin Odessa and there. I mean we were
Speaker 1: two a school, but we seriously had a college side
Speaker 1: stadium because football, man, it's everything. And so we would
Speaker 1: play that and then we would go play a show
Speaker 1: either in our town that night or sixty miles away
Speaker 1: like Midland. We play that, we play a show, and
Speaker 1: we do at least two or three shows a weekend.
Speaker 1: Like my parents, I don't know what they were thinking.
Speaker 1: They were just like oh yeah, like go to school
Speaker 1: and you know, go play Friday, Saturday, Sunday and come
Speaker 1: back you know. Um So that's kind of how I
Speaker 1: kind of cut my teeth in playing music in the
Speaker 1: grind of touring. And then we moved to Denton. Big city.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, big city right now, the Dallas and my
Speaker 1: brother went to North Texas and I tried to go
Speaker 1: to some like little uh community college and tried to
Speaker 1: get an audio engineering degree. But we ended up leaving
Speaker 1: Dent and we did the whole Texas music scene. But
Speaker 1: we ended up going on the Warp Tour for two
Speaker 1: for three years. Wow, you warped toward it for three years?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, man, it was. It was the coolest,
Speaker 1: most miserable time in my life. Where were you? But
Speaker 1: I'm familiar with the Warp Tour because again my background
Speaker 1: radio has been pop alternative, so I've been to a
Speaker 1: bunch of Warp Tour shows. And how I worked about
Speaker 1: works for everyone is like Shallon started like eleven am
Speaker 1: and it was until the end, and that's when like,
Speaker 1: you know, Blank wanted to play at the very end.
Speaker 1: If they decide it's one of their shows, they fly
Speaker 1: in and yes, yeah, but but really it's a bunch
Speaker 1: of skateboarders and just bands all day long that you've
Speaker 1: never heard of. So if the show started at eleven
Speaker 1: am and ended it midnight, what hour ship did you
Speaker 1: guys at the first the first year we did this, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's awful. We we seriously played like at at eleven
Speaker 1: am with for nobody and so the idea of warped tour.
Speaker 1: You know, uh Haley Haley Williams from Paramore. I think
Speaker 1: she she had like a documentary and she she put
Speaker 1: it all out there. But it's so real. You pass
Speaker 1: out ten thousand flyers a day. You're just trying to
Speaker 1: get two people to come to your stage and watch you, like,
Speaker 1: just come, like, I know you want to go see
Speaker 1: a follow up boy later, but you know we're playing
Speaker 1: right before him. Uh you should just come, like we'll
Speaker 1: give you a T shirt like it was anything, you know.
Speaker 1: So that was like the end of true music promotion,
Speaker 1: like like giving a flyer to somebody and word of
Speaker 1: mouth and now it's it's awesome with social media, but
Speaker 1: that you know that time is no more you don't
Speaker 1: hand out That sucks. It's like, I'm so sad we
Speaker 1: don't have to chart our own milk anymore. Those were
Speaker 1: the days we have grocery manez back when times we're
Speaker 1: simpler and much better. Probably Kinkoes dollars like horrible. But
Speaker 1: it really taught me about promotion and and really making
Speaker 1: fans and really the face to face eye contact that
Speaker 1: you make, and and appreciating those people because they're the
Speaker 1: people who are getting you those better slots on that tour,
Speaker 1: or you know, when you come back into that town,
Speaker 1: they're gonna come see you at that crappy club you're
Speaker 1: playing at. You know, so you do warped toy, you
Speaker 1: with your brothers or in this punk band. So you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is not for me. So basically we
Speaker 1: went out to l A. I lived out in l
Speaker 1: A for about six months, and we had a development
Speaker 1: deal with with Sony out over there, and they had
Speaker 1: other bands like I don't know if you remember a
Speaker 1: band called Forever the Sickest Kids, and it was the
Speaker 1: whole MySpace age. She's a big Mike. Mike did a
Speaker 1: punk podcast for years called the Everyday Destruction Podcast. That's
Speaker 1: all they talked about was punk music. It was terrible musically,
Speaker 1: it was terrible, Like I admired Mike for doing it,
Speaker 1: and I listened to it and I'd be like, hey
Speaker 1: didn't and I went but it was like music, and
Speaker 1: I was like this is awful. Like I'll get in
Speaker 1: Mike's car and it's just that mess of music like
Speaker 1: that you were playing right there, like that that horrible,
Speaker 1: awful stuff. Yeah. Yes, so you go to l you're
Speaker 1: doing you have a development deal, so we're you know,
Speaker 1: with my base. That was the whole thing. So any
Speaker 1: label that came to you, they were like, yeah. We
Speaker 1: were told we had to have at least thirty five
Speaker 1: thousand daily plays on our MySpace and we're like done.
Speaker 1: So we were up to like forty spins every single day,
Speaker 1: you know, turning and grinding and getting people to just
Speaker 1: come on board and share our make it, make it
Speaker 1: your profile song or whatever. And you know, we would
Speaker 1: play at the Roxy, we play at at the Whiskey
Speaker 1: and all those places and other people's l A experiences
Speaker 1: are different, um, but mine was miserable and there was
Speaker 1: no community. There was no support or encourage encouragement from anybody.
Speaker 1: So when we went out and and started doing opening
Speaker 1: shows for fall Out Boy and Sugar Colt and people
Speaker 1: like that. Um, it was that same thing, you know,
Speaker 1: Oh you got T two with Fall Boys, Like yeah,
Speaker 1: we played at five thirty in the afternoon when the
Speaker 1: doors open for like a hundred people, passed out our
Speaker 1: flyers and played at the club next door for an
Speaker 1: after party, you know, just to try to just capitalize
Speaker 1: on the opportunity and man for us personally, the it
Speaker 1: was just dying and I knew where I wanted to be,
Speaker 1: and I kept making trips to Nashville and writing, and
Speaker 1: you know, starting to get into the co writing thing.
Speaker 1: And you know, I love country music. I love I
Speaker 1: love writing it, I love singing it, and I love
Speaker 1: the fans because they're die hard fans. With rock music,
Speaker 1: it was like flavor of the week, you know. If
Speaker 1: you know, you'd make all these fans, say in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: and you'd have a good turnout, and you come back
Speaker 1: two months later and nobody cares, you know, with country,
Speaker 1: and this is what I see all the time. It's
Speaker 1: so much more artists driven pop is song driven rock
Speaker 1: is let's just see what happens this month, like and
Speaker 1: that's that's really the difference. Like this, like and pop,
Speaker 1: it's like how good is your song? And country like
Speaker 1: if once you have fans that like that artist, there,
Speaker 1: the country music listener is a loyal person center Like
Speaker 1: if you're a Luke fan and you've been a Luke fan,
Speaker 1: you will always be a Luke fan the rest of
Speaker 1: your life. If he may go to a polk album,
Speaker 1: but dang it, you're gonna download that Luke record. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be the walmart In in all its fans. But yes,
Speaker 1: country music it is. It is about the artists. You
Speaker 1: need that first song. You have to get those songs
Speaker 1: to get you to get people noticed the artist. But
Speaker 1: once they're in on the artist, and I have that
Speaker 1: in the radio world too. It's like I have the
Speaker 1: greatest listeners and I will do the worst segments, the worst,
Speaker 1: terrible segments, and they'll be right there and the ratings
Speaker 1: come in and I'm like, I don't even want people
Speaker 1: were listening. I have no idea, Like we had a
Speaker 1: I looked the last weeks show. They weren't that good.
Speaker 1: Can't believe the ratings that you know, it's it's just
Speaker 1: a culture of the town, the format, the music, And
Speaker 1: so you moved to town because you realize that's kind
Speaker 1: of the the environment that you want to be in.
Speaker 1: And is that the reason? Yeah, the community, I think
Speaker 1: it was the biggest thing, you know, and in the
Speaker 1: rock world uh in l A. And you know, just
Speaker 1: the the whole culture of it was so just dark
Speaker 1: and it was so lonely. You know, it was like
Speaker 1: every man for himself, so cut throat, and here, you
Speaker 1: know it is it is kind of competition, which listen,
Speaker 1: it's a creative industry. There's always a ton of competition
Speaker 1: because there are two slots and there are seven thousand people,
Speaker 1: so it's always competitive. But it's not just music, any
Speaker 1: sort of creative acting, any creative field. It's seven thousand
Speaker 1: people going for two spots. But you're right, as competitive
Speaker 1: as it is, this town is very warm and working together,
Speaker 1: that's it. It's very encouraging, supportive. And you know, I
Speaker 1: always say anytime I invite a friend of mine from
Speaker 1: Texas or somewhere to come visit, half the time they
Speaker 1: end up moving here because they feel the same way,
Speaker 1: even if it's not music related. They're like, I just
Speaker 1: I just love this town. I love the people, I
Speaker 1: love just you know everything about it. When did you
Speaker 1: move to Nashville two thousand nine. Okay, and so you
Speaker 1: move here and you just started playing guitar for people.
Speaker 1: So I would go to writers writers nights and writers
Speaker 1: rounds where, you know, if you don't know what that is,
Speaker 1: there's four people on stage playing songs they write one
Speaker 1: at a time and telling stories about them. And I
Speaker 1: would just go and and want to learn, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I started making friends, started co writing with
Speaker 1: those friends and singing those demos, and so my friends
Speaker 1: with publishing deals would turn those songs into their publishers
Speaker 1: and they'd be like, oh, who's the singing Who is
Speaker 1: this the guy you wrote it with? And they're like yeah.
Speaker 1: And so that's how I kind of, you know, got
Speaker 1: into that um getting a publishing deal and also playing
Speaker 1: guitar for for different people. I still felt like you're
Speaker 1: a better singer than you are anything else, which is crazy,
Speaker 1: thanks because you're an elite singer and I had no idea.
Speaker 1: I thought you were just a really good guitar player.
Speaker 1: And then he started singing, and you're like, oh, here's
Speaker 1: all I'll do it, raging age. I won't let him
Speaker 1: saying until like after the second half of the show
Speaker 1: because then people will just be like, can he sing
Speaker 1: some more like him? So he played and he kills it,
Speaker 1: and then as we get to the second half, I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, Brandon Europe and then he just crushes it
Speaker 1: like he was. I was watching your YouTube channel, and
Speaker 1: again I don't blow smoke, but I was watching YouTube
Speaker 1: channel and there's a song from Sean Mindeth called Mercy
Speaker 1: I'm taking baby Please and Mercy you seek it easy on,
Speaker 1: and Brandon is doing a cover of it, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: God knew he could sing, but it's so good. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: baby please, ever, mercy on me, take it easy on
Speaker 1: my heart. Even though you don't mean hurt me, you
Speaker 1: keep telling me up, but would you please Percy Mercy?
Speaker 1: Oh my heart? Please, Mercy Mercy, Oh my Heart's just
Speaker 1: it's weird because you're such a good guitar player and
Speaker 1: you're such a good singer. You're like, what do you
Speaker 1: want to be known as? Everybody pigeonholes? Everybody everybody does? Yeah? Right,
Speaker 1: And as you think about that, I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back to the Luke Bryant thing. Nobody
Speaker 1: knows how good of an art like actual musician Luke
Speaker 1: Brian is the general mass thinks he's a guy with
Speaker 1: some good songs and get double stage and he dances,
Speaker 1: puts on a good show. The guy will take a
Speaker 1: guitar or it's like a piano and just crush it
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, I get it. Okay, this is
Speaker 1: why he's phenomenal. This is why he gets to do
Speaker 1: what else? This is why he gets to play mckamore
Speaker 1: in the middle of a set because he was so
Speaker 1: good at doing everything at the beginning. So okay, I'm
Speaker 1: pigeonholing you into where Where do you want a pigeon hole? Man?
Speaker 1: That's that's such a crazy question because with everybody, even you,
Speaker 1: there's so many layers to who you are. And the
Speaker 1: more you the more you experience that artists, the more
Speaker 1: you get to know those layers. But you throw seven
Speaker 1: layers and someone a first impression though they don't get
Speaker 1: don't get layers seven at first? What's hilaryery? You won't
Speaker 1: be able to get the first thing. Is it the
Speaker 1: guy that's the fantastic singer or is the guy who's
Speaker 1: the killer guitarist? I would say I would say singer man.
Speaker 1: I mean I was gonna make it be your answer,
Speaker 1: but yeah, like he's holding up a sign right now,
Speaker 1: I'm not, but it's got to be saying gotta be.
Speaker 1: That's your first listening impression. Nobody. I'm sorry, No, nobody
Speaker 1: really knows. Keith Urban plays all those solos, but he
Speaker 1: does about that. Nobody cares. Nobody cares like it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Like me as a guitar player, I listened to you know,
Speaker 1: if if Brad Pays it comes on, or Keith Urban
Speaker 1: or you know any of those people, when that solo comes,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, it's so good. Nerds like it,
Speaker 1: like it like guys. But most people, they just want
Speaker 1: to hear a good song. They want to hear Keith
Speaker 1: Urban sing. You know what I'm saying. They want to
Speaker 1: hear that song. That's that's what they know, that's what
Speaker 1: they identify with. And you know, if I'm up on
Speaker 1: stage playing and I go into a solo, it's cool.
Speaker 1: But even with guys like Keith Urban, when they go
Speaker 1: into a solo, the people start looking side to side
Speaker 1: or start looking at their phone because the singing aspect
Speaker 1: has to be there. That's the first thing that hits
Speaker 1: their ears and that's all they know. Listen. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that I've watched, but I've watched everybody solos for
Speaker 1: four hours. It's amazing, like that dude, And I don't know.
Speaker 1: You may hear this after the c m A is
Speaker 1: like he may want entering. I don't know what it's
Speaker 1: gonna but that's one of the most that's it's such
Speaker 1: a fantastic live artist. But that's what you can do too, Like,
Speaker 1: once you get live, you can do all your stuff.
Speaker 1: But people don't. Most people don't get to see people live.
Speaker 1: Like nine percent people don't get to see Keith Urban live.
Speaker 1: They just hear what's on the radio and become a fan.
Speaker 1: I don't get to see a lot of people alive
Speaker 1: because of my job. I get to see him in
Speaker 1: the studio, but I don't. I saw Keith Urban i
Speaker 1: Alradio Music Festival for the first time play a full show.
Speaker 1: It is a year ago blown away and he played
Speaker 1: it in my studio seven times. But also a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't get to experience that side of it too,
Speaker 1: So that's oh no, But you get to experience what
Speaker 1: the studio stuff isn't it's it's ridiculous. Sometimes I have
Speaker 1: to thought myself right in the NATS because I'm like
Speaker 1: taking the moment. Like when Garth Brooks comes in and
Speaker 1: play songs, it's ridiculous and I can touch him and
Speaker 1: he tells me to stop. Yeah yeah, here's like stop
Speaker 1: touch So okay, here's listen to this. Here's uh justin
Speaker 1: timber like cover of Drink You Away tracka Try track,
Speaker 1: all these all the sound me baby, that doesn't make
Speaker 1: a medicine. Now as you're hearing these cover I'm gonna
Speaker 1: remind you that you can go and you can download,
Speaker 1: you can stream whatever. Brandon has two songs that are
Speaker 1: up now. I mean I can wait. He smoked down
Speaker 1: to freaking Weaken come from American Way, lack Boy, come on,
Speaker 1: and that can be us. That can be I like
Speaker 1: to you do the covers though, because you know what,
Speaker 1: that's how you get attention. Some people are so against it,
Speaker 1: and I respect that because that's their thing and everybody
Speaker 1: should have the right to what they want to be
Speaker 1: as an artist. And there are artists who are like,
Speaker 1: you know what, the covers aren't for me, and I'm like, cool,
Speaker 1: it's it's gonna be a little harder road, and I'm
Speaker 1: glad you have that. But what you do is people
Speaker 1: people google as they BackRub, you know, the backup, different
Speaker 1: artists and the backgroup, like covers of songs, and then
Speaker 1: they may watch ten just in term of like they're like,
Speaker 1: holy crap, who's Brandon ray dude? Which leads to your
Speaker 1: music day, that's it man, And and during a live
Speaker 1: show the same thing. Some some artists are like, no,
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna open, I'm gonna do my songs, and
Speaker 1: that's totally cool. But when you're the opening slot in
Speaker 1: front of whoever, in front of John Party, Get More Whoever,
Speaker 1: and those people have no idea who you are, you've
Speaker 1: got to find a way to identify with them to
Speaker 1: to then introduce your own stuff that you're so right on.
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, never be ashamed to
Speaker 1: cover because put your own spin on it. People just
Speaker 1: want to hear stuff they know and like, and if
Speaker 1: you're playing neither, and most times they don't like new
Speaker 1: music right until because that it needs to be something
Speaker 1: they know or just freaking phenomenal. And it's hard for
Speaker 1: something to be phenomenal that you've never heard before. It
Speaker 1: takes a few times, and so you can nail them
Speaker 1: with a cover and you get a little bit of credit.
Speaker 1: So look at me, are you do something yourself? Only
Speaker 1: a couple of those? All right? Cool? That's a bad
Speaker 1: cool now playing Momo number five, dump um. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite things that Brandon does is Donald Trump oppression
Speaker 1: is one of the best I've ever heard of, like
Speaker 1: in my life, because he'll send me messages and wrong,
Speaker 1: I can't I don't do it. But we were on
Speaker 1: the did you watch the last one, the sketch three
Speaker 1: where he's like, I talked to the Mexican President, Mr
Speaker 1: wacom Day. I didn't even see that. You haven't seen
Speaker 1: that one? Okay, okay, we'll be talking wrong. Give us
Speaker 1: give us all Donald Trump here, so at sound check
Speaker 1: at I believe the Arkansas Show. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you notice, but I was like, my microphone it's broken.
Speaker 1: Obama broke it, Hilary stole it. I win. So, man,
Speaker 1: it's microphone is broken. Can we get him a new one?
Speaker 1: How does this work? Okay? Mr Trump? Test check? It's wrong,
Speaker 1: It's all. I am the best singer on the planet Earth.
Speaker 1: What what would you say to the people that don't
Speaker 1: agree with that, Mr Trump. Listen, I respect microphones more
Speaker 1: than anyone anyone on the earth. I'm bickly supportive of microphones.
Speaker 1: You're big supportively, Okay. I mean we get on the
Speaker 1: bus and we laugh so much like and I think
Speaker 1: a key and it's just gonna sound stupid, but you
Speaker 1: said it earlier, and I tell I was doing a
Speaker 1: show called American Supergroup. Okay. So it's a show where
Speaker 1: they're putting a band together and the hosts are Jennifer
Speaker 1: Nettles not hosted judge Jennifer Nettles Allow Black Um, who
Speaker 1: who have become buds with, but he's the voice on
Speaker 1: Wake Me Up when thing dude is so good. It's
Speaker 1: Allow Black, it's l King. Yeah. You know, she has
Speaker 1: xs and os and she's on different for girls with
Speaker 1: dirks and so they're the the judge. I went into
Speaker 1: mentor the country band and they're like, hey, tell us,
Speaker 1: how to you know do um be a band? And
Speaker 1: and I'm like, listen, you're all good or you wouldn't
Speaker 1: be here, but let me give you a big tip.
Speaker 1: Be a great hang. Those four letters are everything. If
Speaker 1: people want you around, they have you around more. And
Speaker 1: when you're around more, you get shots to do more things.
Speaker 1: And Brandon's a great let hang sorry. And I think
Speaker 1: that's also the environment of you know, of what we
Speaker 1: try to do, the raging, it's only bring people around
Speaker 1: them are great hangs from Nikita Natalie stove All. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just today I got you know, lindsay El's now
Speaker 1: my girlfriend. You are You're now You're now into that
Speaker 1: special friends. But I mean they're just such fun people
Speaker 1: that I was like, let's another show. I'll have a
Speaker 1: back again. There's so m fun to hang around with.
Speaker 1: Do congrats By the way, I have a girlfriend. There's
Speaker 1: no congratulations. You know what shows me how big of
Speaker 1: a loser I am. It's when I'm getting a thousand
Speaker 1: congrats for getting a girlfriend, something most people do all
Speaker 1: the time. Hey dude, congrats, congrats on driving to work today.
Speaker 1: Wait wait, most people drive to work every day. Why
Speaker 1: are you congratulating me on driving to work today? Like
Speaker 1: the accomplishment? Yeah, it was a sweet that was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, Bobby, It showed me that even normal
Speaker 1: guys can get hot girls if normal guys have their
Speaker 1: own radio showed New York Times best seller and You're
Speaker 1: a Band and I was like, that's funny. That's pretty funny.
Speaker 1: That's funny. Pretty great. So okay, so here you are now,
Speaker 1: like what's the goal as you sit right here beside me,
Speaker 1: like like short term and long term? Short term is uh?
Speaker 1: I just got married about a year ago. You just
Speaker 1: had anniversary a few weeks ago, and who knew me
Speaker 1: and who? And I don't know any dates And I
Speaker 1: don't care. I don't don't care about my stuff. Dude,
Speaker 1: when you showed up to my house, I was so nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was in a cupid outfit. It was it was
Speaker 1: he was wearing a toga and nothing else. Year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's it's just been, it's been awesome, and you know,
Speaker 1: being gone, you know, sometimes she gets to go with me.
Speaker 1: She she sings backgrounds uh in the band and everything
Speaker 1: and um, you know. Sometimes people set goals like I
Speaker 1: want to buy, you know, the biggest house I can find.
Speaker 1: I want to buy a car. I want to do
Speaker 1: all this stuff honestly, like I want I want to
Speaker 1: be able to get to a point where my wife
Speaker 1: can quit her job. She she manages and bartens and
Speaker 1: works her butt off. Can I say something, oh, like
Speaker 1: a little bit I wasn't expecting the answer. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm let a dealt the fact that you said that,
Speaker 1: and it came to you so instinction like that. Your
Speaker 1: visceral reaction was I'd like to get my wife to
Speaker 1: a place where she can quit her job and just, dude,
Speaker 1: you are a good dude Like I was on the
Speaker 1: I was that I was a douce this whole time.
Speaker 1: That's the hair I know. No, man, I whatever capacity
Speaker 1: uh that that my music can reach, I'll always be
Speaker 1: thankful for the fact that it's come this far. The
Speaker 1: fact that I'm sitting here with you is like, it's
Speaker 1: amazing to cool. Yeah, I'm really cool with No, you're like,
Speaker 1: and Mike D's over here looking all cool. You're you're
Speaker 1: right now. Remember this moment. I get to take a
Speaker 1: picture of this and turn the lights on, so he
Speaker 1: remember this. This is probably the peak of his lap
Speaker 1: being on the Bobby Cats actually doing it. Actually, we
Speaker 1: take a picture anyway and put put it online. Do
Speaker 1: we pose or what? No? No, no, we just continue
Speaker 1: doing this and it gets posted. Alright, So are you
Speaker 1: sucking in? I have to suck in. I didn't you
Speaker 1: know a little too many doughnuts this week, no uh whatever,
Speaker 1: Like I said, whatever capacity the music goes to. I'm
Speaker 1: so thankful for um being out with you guys, you
Speaker 1: and Eddie. You and Eddie have taught me a lot
Speaker 1: about that. Don't be yes here being so sincere and
Speaker 1: I incorporate this into my life show now, um that
Speaker 1: you know, my attitude and and the the music that
Speaker 1: I make, I really think caters to the to the
Speaker 1: blue collar, the hard worker. You know, my dad was
Speaker 1: uh he worked thirt or five years for the union
Speaker 1: Pacific Railroad, worked his butt off, putting food on the table.
Speaker 1: My mom worked and you know, just just him being
Speaker 1: gone all the all that time. And you know I
Speaker 1: saw that and we were dirt poor, like we we
Speaker 1: didn't have anything. And so having that example growing up,
Speaker 1: and you know, going and playing for those crowds. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm going to Iowa and Nebraska, Minnesota and all those
Speaker 1: regions where people work sixty hours a week. They just
Speaker 1: want to get off work, go to go to a show,
Speaker 1: grab a beer or whatever with their with their friends
Speaker 1: or their why and just chill and listen to some music.
Speaker 1: And if we can be that escape for those people,
Speaker 1: that's incredible. And what I was saying about you guys,
Speaker 1: is if at this, at this event that I'm playing,
Speaker 1: wherever it is, if one person leaves with a smile
Speaker 1: on their face, then I've done my job and I've
Speaker 1: done what I'm here to do. I just want to
Speaker 1: make people happy. I want them to forget about their
Speaker 1: problems and their worries for forty five minutes. You know,
Speaker 1: whatever has been you know, getting them down during the week, whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever problem they have, if they can just
Speaker 1: escape that for forty five minutes, and that's that. That's
Speaker 1: what we're here for, is to give that entertainment, to
Speaker 1: give that that care and that just attention to those
Speaker 1: people to where they can just have a great time
Speaker 1: for a little bit and you know, they might have
Speaker 1: to go back and do what they do, but at
Speaker 1: least they had that. Do you still take shows and
Speaker 1: lose money? Definitely a lot artists that you wouldn't think.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing too about artists, is that even the
Speaker 1: ones that because people hear a song and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: for sure, millionaires Like I have artists friends who have
Speaker 1: had one, two, three songs and they're like, dude, I'm
Speaker 1: struggling just because you get a song on the radio
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're rich. And then I have friends that
Speaker 1: they go in they're like, I need to play this show.
Speaker 1: I needed I needed to look it's I need to
Speaker 1: play well. So I got to hire a band and
Speaker 1: they're paying a thousand bucks. But the band's gonna cost
Speaker 1: me eight hundred bucks and we have to drive. You
Speaker 1: have to fly, so you lose money on shows. But
Speaker 1: but it's an investment. It is it has to be.
Speaker 1: And if and if you're if you're worried about losing money,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be doing this if that's your only thing.
Speaker 1: If that's your only thing is financial gain, then you
Speaker 1: might want to stop. And that's let me tell you
Speaker 1: a funny story. And that's for any creative industry. Like
Speaker 1: if you're getting into it for money, get out. I
Speaker 1: went to a college and spoke once and I went
Speaker 1: and I said, okay, I know, I just want to
Speaker 1: be honest. The only thing I have his mo authenticity.
Speaker 1: That's it. I'm not super talented in any other way.
Speaker 1: So I said, okay, I'm gonna just be honest with
Speaker 1: you guys. Like if you're here now and you're studying
Speaker 1: radio in college, get out like change your major. I went.
Speaker 1: I was at radio class I was speaking to so
Speaker 1: the college wasn't excited that I was telling all of
Speaker 1: their so they banned me from speaking there. Yeah remember
Speaker 1: that might yeah and so. But the thing I would
Speaker 1: tell them is, you know, listen, you don't you if
Speaker 1: you're gonna be a music engineer, you're learning that. But
Speaker 1: you don't go to college to be uh unless it's
Speaker 1: like Juilliard and you can get in, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't go to you know, the University of North
Speaker 1: Texas to be a rock star. You just get out
Speaker 1: and start rock starring it. And so the same way
Speaker 1: with you know, the radio or acting or you know so.
Speaker 1: And also what I say is if there's any money
Speaker 1: in your mind, don't you can't there's none in it.
Speaker 1: Even in this I've been lucky. Frankly speaking, I'm one
Speaker 1: of the one percent that its just and a lot work, ethic,
Speaker 1: some luck and having great people around me. That's that's
Speaker 1: the big Those three things are the biggest things. Like
Speaker 1: you've got to show up, don't be a douche, and
Speaker 1: surround yourself with got so key people with the same
Speaker 1: goals as you, and that that you work so well
Speaker 1: together with that that shows with you. I mean you
Speaker 1: have the same team as you did in Austin. How
Speaker 1: how many years ago was that? I mean I've had
Speaker 1: Amy for eleven years, Lunchbox for twelve years, Eddie was
Speaker 1: my TV producer for ten. They joined the radio show.
Speaker 1: Mike d was an intern, Ray was an intern. Morgan
Speaker 1: was an intern. Like, I just do things on my
Speaker 1: people because I need good people around me. I need
Speaker 1: people I trust. I didn't do this. I worked. Let's see,
Speaker 1: I started about a seventeen so I worked eight years
Speaker 1: making minimum wage, eight years working minimum wage and loved
Speaker 1: it every freaking minute of it, and would do it
Speaker 1: again and would have kept doing it like I would have.
Speaker 1: I would have just done radio and survived or gotten
Speaker 1: a second job because I loved it so much. And
Speaker 1: that to people like, Okay, I want to radio, I
Speaker 1: want to do music, the first thing I say is
Speaker 1: would you do it for free? Would you do it
Speaker 1: having to have another job? And if answers yes, freaking
Speaker 1: go for it. It's the answers No, it's just not
Speaker 1: for you. Get out because not a watch time White,
Speaker 1: You're alwatche Time. We're always what you're gonna waste whatever
Speaker 1: you can do to get to this other place in
Speaker 1: another lane. That's it. So for me, man, Uh, I
Speaker 1: was out playing for Brett Eldredge. It was incredible that guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that guy's are you playing lead? I was playing lead,
Speaker 1: switching off with Greg this guy. No, but you're seeing
Speaker 1: harmonies and stuff to do. Yeah with Brett, which Brett
Speaker 1: is an incredible singer. I mean, spot on every single time.
Speaker 1: And uh, we got to do the Taylor Swift tour,
Speaker 1: which was incredible, you know. And how was it dating Taylor?
Speaker 1: It was It was weird, you know. When I got pregnant,
Speaker 1: it was crazy. Um didn't make the news though, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, that's weird. But uh, in the middle
Speaker 1: of all that, you know, I was like inside, I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, like this is great. This is really
Speaker 1: cool being able to be out here and play guitar.
Speaker 1: But this is not why I moved here. And a
Speaker 1: good friend of mine, Set England, who runs Big Loloud
Speaker 1: Shirt Publishing. He's also Florida Georgia Lions manager. Um, I
Speaker 1: went and played some songs for him, you know, and
Speaker 1: I was, you know, I just wanted some advice and
Speaker 1: he was like, dude, what are you doing playing for
Speaker 1: other people? You need to quit today. I was like, well, dude,
Speaker 1: we're about to go on the Keith Urban Tour, like
Speaker 1: we were like opening, like it's it's big, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I made the decision to quit. And a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks later I did a show like on
Speaker 1: a second not a couple of weeks later you make
Speaker 1: that decision to quit, do you have to go to
Speaker 1: Brett and say, hey, dude, And how does he react
Speaker 1: to it? Yeah, So I kind of came into the
Speaker 1: whole thing. I let him know, you know, hey, I
Speaker 1: have a publishing deal. Um, I'm doing the artist thing. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is my ultimate goal. I can be here for
Speaker 1: however long you need me to, but I just want
Speaker 1: you to know that I have an exit plan. And
Speaker 1: he's like, of course, man, He's like, I just love
Speaker 1: having you around. You know, we we kill it together.
Speaker 1: So hang, hang hang um, and so they knew and
Speaker 1: and it was it was such a great understanding, you know.
Speaker 1: And then so I I did this show, my solo show,
Speaker 1: and Seth and and the f GL guys came out
Speaker 1: and Um after the show says like, hey, man, let's
Speaker 1: let's talk real quick. I was like, oh, Seth, you
Speaker 1: know he's gonna tell me enjoyed it, you know. And
Speaker 1: he goes, hey, man, you wanta you wanna play guitar
Speaker 1: for f g L. I was like, you just told
Speaker 1: me to quit. I was like, I'm so confused right now, man,
Speaker 1: Like what is happening like? And he goes listen, like
Speaker 1: they saw your performance, they dug it, and they're like
Speaker 1: they need a guitar player. So I'm just passing along
Speaker 1: the word. And so I was like, oh, man, that's
Speaker 1: amazing like that, that's such a great opportunity. Cruiz had
Speaker 1: went number one and all that stuff, and um, I
Speaker 1: really took a lot of time to think about it.
Speaker 1: That's not something you just take lightly. And I came
Speaker 1: back to Seth and I said, man, your original advice
Speaker 1: to me spoke to me so much that that's what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do. Like I hope you guys find you
Speaker 1: guys are gonna be fine, You'll find a guitar player,
Speaker 1: but this is what I have to do. And um
Speaker 1: that was a defining moment for me. And I still
Speaker 1: have that same drive times ten because it's not like
Speaker 1: I have to make this happen, I have to make
Speaker 1: the money and blah blah blah. No, it's because it's
Speaker 1: running through my veins. It's what I want to do.
Speaker 1: I'm about to get in a van and drive fourteen
Speaker 1: hours to Iowa and play a show tomorrow night, and
Speaker 1: play four more shows this weekend. I will probably break even,
Speaker 1: maybe lose a little bit of money. Um, but the
Speaker 1: opportunity is a great opportunity. Is a lot of money
Speaker 1: talked to about. But I love it, and I don't
Speaker 1: love it as a hobby. I love it because it's
Speaker 1: the only thing that I want to do and the
Speaker 1: only thing that I can do. So, okay, you're out playing,
Speaker 1: Like are you trying to make music? I like the
Speaker 1: process of making music so you can get a record deal?
Speaker 1: Like what what? What is that? Like? How do you
Speaker 1: do it? What do you what do you do? What
Speaker 1: do you do? I don't know. Yeah, it's it's different
Speaker 1: for everybody. Everybody has a different path. Um. Some people
Speaker 1: it's who they know. Some people it's how they're already
Speaker 1: connected or whatever. And I think it is a big
Speaker 1: mixture of everything. But it's listening to those people that
Speaker 1: are closest to you, and that are putting their lives
Speaker 1: out on the line for you and sticking their neck
Speaker 1: out for you, and that advice and that support and
Speaker 1: encouragement is everything in the process. And so when you're
Speaker 1: in the riding room, you've got to think about You've
Speaker 1: got to always be yourself and you know you can't
Speaker 1: fake real. And so whenever I go into the riding room,
Speaker 1: whenever I get on stage, I'm gonna be me. I'll
Speaker 1: be goofy, I'll cry, I'll say some dumb stuff, but
Speaker 1: I'm always gonna be me and be authentic. Like you said,
Speaker 1: do you still put your penis out? Do I do what?
Speaker 1: Put your penis out? On stage? I mean you have
Speaker 1: to do what to do? Like not from Martinez shows,
Speaker 1: but for like hip shows. Yeah, I mean America. Would
Speaker 1: you write American Way with So this is the funny thing.
Speaker 1: I didn't write American Way? What Kip? More so you
Speaker 1: and yours? It's like so I never I write basically
Speaker 1: every day and I love it and it's and it's
Speaker 1: what I do. Um. But Nick Brophy, who I started
Speaker 1: working with production and all that kind of stuff. Nick
Speaker 1: also mixes and was his Kip and he's like dude,
Speaker 1: you gotta check out this song, like Kip didn't put
Speaker 1: on his record. I wrote it with Kip and Brett James,
Speaker 1: who Brett James is a songwriting hero of mine. And
Speaker 1: I heard it. I was like, dude, that's a cool
Speaker 1: song man. And so when I left there, I was
Speaker 1: like whatever. For a week, I was like, no, no,
Speaker 1: day it was lea bo just like you were doing
Speaker 1: was Leo Leo we sleep one more. That's not how
Speaker 1: it goes. That's always seeing it um. But I was
Speaker 1: just I just kept thinking about I was like, listen,
Speaker 1: you know that is this is That is the type
Speaker 1: of song that I that I want to write and
Speaker 1: I want to perform. So I probably tried to write
Speaker 1: that song five or six times and it didn't work.
Speaker 1: It was never the same as that, And so I
Speaker 1: asked Nick. I was like, hey, man, like, would it
Speaker 1: be cool if I just put my vocal on it
Speaker 1: and maybe just start playing it out just see how
Speaker 1: people react to it? Was of course, and Kip was
Speaker 1: cool with it, and so I did that and the
Speaker 1: reaction was incredible, and so I kind of it kind
Speaker 1: of taught me to step away from myself for a second.
Speaker 1: Is that hard to take somebody's song. That song and
Speaker 1: so you I thought you wrote it. And I interview
Speaker 1: some people I'm careful about going, hey, I know you
Speaker 1: wrote this song. I'm always like, hey, this song that
Speaker 1: you sing and ask that song and so you I
Speaker 1: thought you wrote I don't think twice about it. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks man, I mean, and that that was the goal
Speaker 1: because it became so undeniable to me that I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I I have to do something with this song, you know,
Speaker 1: And so I did, and here we are, So what
Speaker 1: about this other one here? That could be us? That
Speaker 1: could be us? Um right, this one? Thank you? I
Speaker 1: wrote it with a gut named Bobby's got a radio show.
Speaker 1: This song is really good. This is that this song
Speaker 1: you're good like? Thanks man. This is like this reminds
Speaker 1: me of like new age country Jack and Day and
Speaker 1: the first one this is this is like a new
Speaker 1: age Jack and Diante. Man. This that could be us.
Speaker 1: This and like this it feels a little bit in
Speaker 1: the current situation now that I have a girlfriend, I'm like,
Speaker 1: it makes you want to go get some flowers, maybe
Speaker 1: watch a rom com. It's great that we have like
Speaker 1: three microphones here, Mr Trump, what kind of music do
Speaker 1: you listen to? You know, I tried to listen to
Speaker 1: what the world loves? Yeah? What what does the world love? Like?
Speaker 1: I mean that's a pretty vague statement, Mr Trump, Like
Speaker 1: you run for president, Like, I'm curious what kind of
Speaker 1: music in your iPhone? Mr? Trump? What do you listen to? Girls?
Speaker 1: A lot of spice girls. Yeah, and your favorite spice
Speaker 1: girl would be which one? Um? Brandon Ray has been
Speaker 1: here with us, do good luck. I think you're at
Speaker 1: that place where it's like you're finding yourself right now.
Speaker 1: You're grinding and you're finding and I just see how
Speaker 1: good you are. And I'm anxious to kind see where
Speaker 1: you land because it's cool because you're really freaking good.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you're really good. And if you ever come out.
Speaker 1: Brandon's playing with us. I'm trying to think. It's hard
Speaker 1: to get Brandon because he's all over the place. I
Speaker 1: know you're doing Albuquerque, Albuquerque, which sold down like three seconds.
Speaker 1: We're gonna like expand the theater. I mean, I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: Albuquerque's nuts. We're gonna have to breakdown some walls or something. Um,
Speaker 1: you just kick up. Let's just turned out to the festival.
Speaker 1: And then we're playing Vegas again. So if you're in
Speaker 1: either one of those places, or go to Brandon Ray
Speaker 1: that's Twitter at Brandon Ray Music and go watch them
Speaker 1: for yourself. But I'm just saying, like, dudes, for real,
Speaker 1: I mean, anybody that things this song, let's go cubs
Speaker 1: like I'm a cut fan and I'm a little insult
Speaker 1: you should be how bad that is? I need it?
Speaker 1: Actually did that bad at Brandon Ray Music at Brandon
Speaker 1: Ray Music. Dude, good luck. I hope it goes great.
Speaker 1: You have a good trip, nice little road trip ahead
Speaker 1: of thanks man. We're taking the bus van van. Did
Speaker 1: you see my text? I'm in the creepy van outside.
Speaker 1: Hey gut her ear Ladies like, I'm so sorry to
Speaker 1: me Early, I'm like, you're here, Early, I have an erection.
Speaker 1: Early say, I don't even need a picture. That's um.
Speaker 1: Thank you and good luck, my friend, good luck, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much? All right, Brandon Ray Music on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram. Also thanks to Mr Trump for stopping by.
Speaker 1: I think you you know, you've exceeded everyone's expectations. And
Speaker 1: when people hear this in a few weeks, maybe your president.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I mean, I mean, okay, that's cool. Alright,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go um. Yeah, you know, speaking here just today,
Speaker 1: I'm not full of crap. I did um. First of all,
Speaker 1: I played Brandon step on the radio, so that just
Speaker 1: tells you already. I think he's good. I don't just
Speaker 1: bring people on here. I don't think it's good. I
Speaker 1: was driving down the I was heading to Georgia with
Speaker 1: my band and it was seven thirty eight in the morning.
Speaker 1: We had it up and we were just like flipping
Speaker 1: out because like the feeling of hearing your song on
Speaker 1: the radio for the first time or anytime is surreal,
Speaker 1: and the fact that you did that, I can't I
Speaker 1: can't thank you enough. Well, even like I've played covers
Speaker 1: of yours on the air, and then I did I think, well,
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, these are the five artists that you
Speaker 1: don't know yet but you need to know. And it
Speaker 1: was you and Ryan be for a Walker, heyes, and
Speaker 1: Caitlin Smith and Cody Johnson. Oh yeah, Cody Johnson. E's
Speaker 1: from Texas. Ryan is to ryan'son a deer for the
Speaker 1: monent about Ryan Bieber. So where the gym working out? Right?
Speaker 1: Ryan and I both are And so Ryan lived in
Speaker 1: Austin when I did. We moved here at the same time,
Speaker 1: and so we're you know, whenever he goes hey, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: what's up. He goes, are you doing? I'm like, good,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? There's good. I don't put it
Speaker 1: together yet that it's Ryan because he's gonna work out
Speaker 1: closed and I had it and it's like, hey, I
Speaker 1: want I really appreciate you. I still don't know who
Speaker 1: it is. I don't even know that it's an artist.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I appreciate you too, man, you go, buddy,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your spirit of working out as well my
Speaker 1: workout friend Champ. And so his trainer was like this
Speaker 1: Brian Biever, and I was like, dude, I'm such a
Speaker 1: yours and like, we want to get Ryan up here too,
Speaker 1: and he's you know, and if you're listening, check out
Speaker 1: Ryan Bieber that album that you are rated, our Little
Speaker 1: Exit Prescription. It's phenomenal. Every song I was I was
Speaker 1: signed with Ryan at a small publishing company. He just
Speaker 1: left there, but we were on that uh in that
Speaker 1: company for two years and all of those songs he wrote,
Speaker 1: you know to three years ago, and so I would
Speaker 1: hear the work tapes, you know the song if I
Speaker 1: had a Horse and all these kinds I had. I
Speaker 1: have the acoustic work tapes and I play him all
Speaker 1: the time. And the fact that he came out with
Speaker 1: a record like that, that just is incredible. Um He's
Speaker 1: he's you gotta check him out. Check out Ryan, check
Speaker 1: out Brandon Ray. Just to leave you on a little
Speaker 1: song called American Way all week in a slop sag
Speaker 1: Town to freaking weekend, come phoning, eam him and part
Speaker 1: of y'all that bay baby at that the American Way. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make you bleave. I want to see you
Speaker 1: put your hands off. Just got a black guy from
Speaker 1: a scuffle with Hank. I'm gonna we're gonna go now
Speaker 1: because the cups started playing. Just now right, we gonna
Speaker 1: go on. It's Game two. That's the theme song man,
Speaker 1: and that's the rap. Episode sixteen with Brandon Ray at
Speaker 1: Brandon Rey Music, Thank you ol see episode seven teable
Speaker 1: Safe Care. By the way,