Speaker 1: What episode away? I right, is that paper? Episode sixteen.
Speaker 1: Welcome to episode sixteen in the Bobby Cast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Bobby Cast. That's great here with Brandon Ray on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Brandon Ray Music here right 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,
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Speaker 1: we would not be able to do this, Bobby Cast.
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Speaker 1: Brandon Ray is here at Brandon Ray Music on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram. That sah all right, So let me tell you.
Speaker 1: I want to start with today and kind of work
Speaker 1: all the way back around because Brandon's an interesting story.
Speaker 1: Brandon is so good. I said, hey, will you come
Speaker 1: out and play a few shows with us with the
Speaker 1: raging idiots? And he has And I really don't know
Speaker 1: how good he was until we got on the road,
Speaker 1: like our news good, and then he's like mind blowingly good.
Speaker 1: Actually stand beside and playing. I don't just say that
Speaker 1: about anybody, um, because I get to see everybody, so
Speaker 1: bebian said Brandon. I'll play a song right now that
Speaker 1: that Brandon has out. This is called American way. Here
Speaker 1: we go, us down to freaking weekend him him a
Speaker 1: sea baby. Brandon's also a fantastic guitar player. So I
Speaker 1: play this this is that could be us from rand
Speaker 1: A right good long, could be all right, welcome back
Speaker 1: to the music now. Would like to be as honest
Speaker 1: as possible as of right now. You do not have
Speaker 1: a record deal. Not okay. So here you are, You're
Speaker 1: in talent, you're grinding, you're playing, You're like of the
Speaker 1: rest of Nashville. You're really good, and you don't have
Speaker 1: a record deal right now. So what has that process
Speaker 1: been like? Like, have you played for people? Like hey,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna talking about every time she played Kaylin Smith.
Speaker 1: She played for some people and they all say no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no, no, no no no, like whatever it
Speaker 1: is right now? No, have you been through that where
Speaker 1: you've played? They go, no, not right now. We We've
Speaker 1: taken we've taken a little swing a couple of times.
Speaker 1: But what do that mean? Like just you know people
Speaker 1: like I have a publishing deal with Sony a TV,
Speaker 1: which means you write, I write songs for a living
Speaker 1: for you know, artists, for TV, film, sinks for you
Speaker 1: know myself that Sony then takes those songs pitches them. Uh.
Speaker 1: And what they have is an artist development branch inside
Speaker 1: the publishing company that kind of does like a They
Speaker 1: help you with recording, they help you with touring, Like
Speaker 1: I've just booked a show with Jake Owen in Vegas.
Speaker 1: You know it's gonna cost us much. I might lose
Speaker 1: this much and they make up the difference like that. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you have a publishing deal and that's how you
Speaker 1: eat plus touring. Yes, so that's your job. But you're
Speaker 1: you want to be an artist. I do. I you know,
Speaker 1: right now for me is is building. It's it's the
Speaker 1: the building phase of of touring my my butt off,
Speaker 1: like every single weekend. I think I've been gone Thursday
Speaker 1: through Sunday every weekend since February. And uh, it's so
Speaker 1: important right now to to build that fan base, whether
Speaker 1: it's it's being out with you guys, which I can't
Speaker 1: thank you enough for inviting me out with the raging
Speaker 1: idiots because it's been such a blast, Like the fans
Speaker 1: show up. I mean every single show is sold out,
Speaker 1: Like I don't think people will realize how how big
Speaker 1: it is and how fun it is, and just those
Speaker 1: chances and believers like you that that just say hey, man,
Speaker 1: come hang and and then we get to know each
Speaker 1: other and and you you you know, promote things for
Speaker 1: me or you know, share a post of mine or
Speaker 1: share a song on your show. It is it means
Speaker 1: everything to someone like me because I don't have a label,
Speaker 1: I don't have the radio supply work right now and uh,
Speaker 1: right now you know in this for this for the
Speaker 1: past six to eight months has been just grind and
Speaker 1: just going town to town to town building, uh and
Speaker 1: making believers out of everybody I play for, all of
Speaker 1: the headliners I opened for, and even the club and
Speaker 1: theater owners that I play talk about the headliners. The
Speaker 1: eve before that, I said, hey, come out on the
Speaker 1: road because I think it pretty good. Who have you
Speaker 1: played for that You're like, dang this it was really cool. Recently, man,
Speaker 1: there's 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. Definitely haven't get the
Speaker 1: number one song and another great song. Yeah man, And
Speaker 1: even before uh, I was playing with him even before
Speaker 1: Boots went number one. I think it was in the
Speaker 1: top twenty, and his fans knew every single word to
Speaker 1: every song, even even like the B sides of his album.
Speaker 1: You know, he'd be like, I want to take it
Speaker 1: back to you know, one of my first releases and No.
Speaker 1: Nine and he plays it and the crowd just takes over,
Speaker 1: and Uh, so that just taught me. He's taught me
Speaker 1: so much about just kindness and how to treat people.
Speaker 1: And uh, guys like John Party, guys like keep More.
Speaker 1: Martin McBride has had me out on a few runs,
Speaker 1: which that was so cool, you know, getting to just
Speaker 1: kind of be a part of a show that that
Speaker 1: she's doing. And um, guys like David Neil. I'm going,
Speaker 1: uh this weekend out in the Midwest doing some shows
Speaker 1: and then next weekend with Frankie Ballard and uh, it's
Speaker 1: just it's all about to hang, you know. I used
Speaker 1: to play uh guitar for different artists in town, one
Speaker 1: in particular being Brett Eldred. I think that's where we
Speaker 1: met the first time. I think I was shooting a
Speaker 1: TV thing with Brett where we lay in the bunk
Speaker 1: together and you were playing guitar for Brett Elders. That's right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The thing about Brandon is I didn't like Brandon the
Speaker 1: first time. I really hung out with it, like I thought,
Speaker 1: what a douche bag for about two hours because what
Speaker 1: happened was, now, this is the first story I didn't
Speaker 1: I judged him simply on his hair, like because no, no,
Speaker 1: it's actually I like it now. But it was spiked,
Speaker 1: you know, and almost like Okay, dude, spiked there. Come on.
Speaker 1: So he gets on with someone that I just think
Speaker 1: is phenomenal, like Lucy Sylvia's went out with us on
Speaker 1: the road and is quite possibly one of my favorite
Speaker 1: people and artists in Nashville. Bobby, Bobby, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me on the road, and thank you
Speaker 1: so much for just being a great friend. So Lucy
Speaker 1: sila and Brandon plays guitar for her, and I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: just take the bus with us. I don't don't don't drive,
Speaker 1: don't pay for expensive just get on the bus and
Speaker 1: you can sleep on the box. And so that man,
Speaker 1: it was a total douche and so and then of
Speaker 1: the night it was just Brandon night, and we talked
Speaker 1: about four hours. It was like a brand new couple,
Speaker 1: you know, how you meet somebody and you're like, we
Speaker 1: just talked all night long. I think I'm in love.
Speaker 1: And that's how it was Brandon. And so you know,
Speaker 1: with us, we either had Nat with the raging idiots
Speaker 1: we think Natalie Stowball or Lindsay l Um and then
Speaker 1: for some reason not for some reason, they're both phenomenal.
Speaker 1: They were doing their own tours and I was like,
Speaker 1: we need another player. Let's get Brandon because he was
Speaker 1: And so now we'll just have Brandy come out with
Speaker 1: them and listen, I don't have lead singer disease, which
Speaker 1: means I don't have to sing all the time or
Speaker 1: half the time. When you have somebody like Brandon, it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, you're take it away. Here's Brandon. Everyone uh
Speaker 1: and and Brandon like blows you away when he sings. Now,
Speaker 1: let's go back for a second because I have some
Speaker 1: stuff here. Um, this is a jingle called Let's Go Cubs.
Speaker 1: So this is you and how and how long ago was?
Speaker 1: This was? Oh seven, so almost ten years ago. Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go. Yeah, okay, did you write did you
Speaker 1: write that? That's terrible songs? But you're saying it well
Speaker 1: and listen for me. I'm a diehard Cubs fan. And
Speaker 1: it's weird too because I also liked Cardinals a lot,
Speaker 1: and as you get older, you realize that I like
Speaker 1: as a kid, I was not a Cardinal fan because
Speaker 1: I was a Cubs fan. But then I had friends
Speaker 1: that played for the Cardinals, and then I got to
Speaker 1: know the organization, and so you know, I'm a diehard
Speaker 1: Cubs fan. And I were talking about this minute ago,
Speaker 1: like right now, you may hear this in a month
Speaker 1: in the World Series. Maybe over maybe the Cups got swept,
Speaker 1: maybe they wanted At this point, we don't know. It's
Speaker 1: one zero. I'm a diehard Cups fan. And people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: bandwagon ers, we hate him. I don't care if they're bandwagoners.
Speaker 1: I don't care if you call me a bandwagoner because
Speaker 1: I only care about my heart and right now, I
Speaker 1: just want my heart to be full with the Cubs victory.
Speaker 1: Like I haven't head this on this show, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if I will or not, but I'm going
Speaker 1: to Game four of the World Series because my whole
Speaker 1: life I've been waiting for this. That's such a dream.
Speaker 1: They haven't won in a hundred and eight years, and this,
Speaker 1: this song probably kept them from winning other games, because
Speaker 1: that's terrible. If they heard this, they were like, we
Speaker 1: should suck like the song does, like the singer is
Speaker 1: pretty good, but how much they pay to do this?
Speaker 1: All right? I'm gonna be completely honest right now. Um,
Speaker 1: I sang jingles for I was in a rock band
Speaker 1: through high school and college. And I was trying to
Speaker 1: go to college and touring with this rock band, and
Speaker 1: I worked for this company called T M Century that
Speaker 1: did jingles. They did everything from like radio tags like
Speaker 1: any five five you know, all that kind of stuff
Speaker 1: and stuff like this. You know where you submit, you know,
Speaker 1: there's like hey, um, like they just said, Chicago Cubs,
Speaker 1: they're looking for a cool new theme song to play
Speaker 1: on 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 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 these picked up. I was so surprised and
Speaker 1: kind of um, kind of sick about it because they
Speaker 1: paid me forty dollars and that's it. So okay, So
Speaker 1: you got paid a salary though to sing, no, you're
Speaker 1: a contract and I got paid. They should have like
Speaker 1: I should have paid them. I mean that. Listen 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, like,
Speaker 1: 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 because 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 I would recognize any of them? Uh
Speaker 1: so Miller Lite. There was a commercial back in I
Speaker 1: think the twelve World Series where this guy was putting
Speaker 1: a quarter in a jukebox and every time he would
Speaker 1: hit a song he wanted to play, like Rocky, like
Speaker 1: a Hurricane by the Scorpions. It would come up as
Speaker 1: is it Eric Carmen who saying, oh, by myself, that
Speaker 1: song will play, and I all I had to do
Speaker 1: was just sing it, you know. And I'm sitting at
Speaker 1: a bar in Cool Springs watching the World Series and
Speaker 1: the guy was like, hey man, it's down to you
Speaker 1: and another another guy. I don't know if you'll get it,
Speaker 1: but check it out. And so I watch it exactly
Speaker 1: Eric Carmen. He was up against Yeah, Eric Carmen himself.
Speaker 1: He needs the money. No. Uh. And it played and
Speaker 1: I was like, that's not me, Like that does not
Speaker 1: sound like me. And and then he calls me, he's like,
Speaker 1: did you hear it? I was like, yeah, it wasn't me.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, it was you, dude. He's like, I
Speaker 1: had to put this crazy compression thing on it, but
Speaker 1: that's you. I was like, oh my god, So did
Speaker 1: you get paid for that? But since you're not in union,
Speaker 1: you get paid one time, one time? And that's what
Speaker 1: what was that one? Do you remember it was? It
Speaker 1: was a good amount. Over thousand dollars? Oh yeah, over
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars? Wow? Really? Did? I have a buddy
Speaker 1: who did a commercial for like four or something and
Speaker 1: he made I did three commercials and 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 idea
Speaker 1: maybe Apple, I don't know, Walmart dunkin Donuts. Maybe you
Speaker 1: pick Yahoo who just on a bankrupt that's your first instinct.
Speaker 1: Maybe you had to look at your money? Should you should?
Speaker 1: I need? I was thinking of Atlantis more set who
Speaker 1: like invested early made like three fifty million dollars. At
Speaker 1: a point in our life. Yah, who was the search engine?
Speaker 1: It was like it wasn't Yahoo it but it was
Speaker 1: like go to Yahoo, you know, so we would go
Speaker 1: to Yahoo dot com. It was before Google, and you
Speaker 1: searched on Yahoo. That's where we found. For a minute,
Speaker 1: to ask Jeeves was the name you got to the
Speaker 1: butler and to be like, Jeeves, where can I find
Speaker 1: information on the scorpions or who things rock? You'd like
Speaker 1: her 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, 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? This 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 that. 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 Randon. 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 can 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: my favorite. It's so good and because the people are
Speaker 1: just chill. But when you're in Texas, you have a
Speaker 1: lot of influences. So there's a lot of country music
Speaker 1: around you. There's a lot of Southern rock around you.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of rock around you. So as you're
Speaker 1: growing up, you were deciding kind of where you wanted
Speaker 1: to go musically. Was it because a lot of your
Speaker 1: friends were rock friends that you just said, I want
Speaker 1: to do music, So I guess I'm gonna go and
Speaker 1: try rock band. I didn't have any friends. No, I'm
Speaker 1: just kidding, um No. I I originally wanted to be
Speaker 1: a professional pitcher. I wanted to play baseball, professionally. I
Speaker 1: played football, baseball, basketball, track, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And um, I had to have two surgeries on my foot.
Speaker 1: I have like two screws this long in my foot.
Speaker 1: And so basically they're like, hey man, when you go
Speaker 1: this long. People that are only listening to this, they
Speaker 1: having no idea how long that is? This long? Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: that long? Okay, now they see the second time you
Speaker 1: go this long, and yes, go ahead anyway, So it
Speaker 1: took me out of sports camp lately, and so naturally
Speaker 1: I was I had to lay up with my foot
Speaker 1: up in the air. You know. It was such a
Speaker 1: major surgery. I had two surgeries. For six months at
Speaker 1: a time, I couldn't do anything. And so I was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, my brother plays drums and and and for
Speaker 1: you now even in this day, he lives here in Nashville,
Speaker 1: and we we were about to meet up. And you
Speaker 1: can definitely tell to Brandon's brother when you see them together,
Speaker 1: like a yeah, that's right, he's he's like a foot
Speaker 1: shorter though. Um but uh, I bought a guitar, a
Speaker 1: cheap guitar um with with a little amp and everything,
Speaker 1: and I would seriously watch Steve Ravan 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
Speaker 1: um so I started learning that stuff. But I also
Speaker 1: started 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 melting pot
Speaker 1: of music. And I think our age, though, is that's like,
Speaker 1: if you're one, how old you Okay, if you're twenty
Speaker 1: seven or above, is when you started to have napster
Speaker 1: affect your life. And it's when that's the minds of
Speaker 1: everyone starting to change about music. We got lots of
Speaker 1: influences more so than anybody else because we started to
Speaker 1: be able to get it all the time, anywhere, fast
Speaker 1: as we want and for free. Yeah I mean illegally
Speaker 1: and and listen back in the day, not the interrupted story,
Speaker 1: but I wanna go almost interrupted story. Back in the day,
Speaker 1: I was so mad at Metallica for like for going
Speaker 1: against there. I was like, Metallica sucks, they hate napster
Speaker 1: and I get all the music for free, and I
Speaker 1: deserve all the music for free. I was such an idiot.
Speaker 1: I was an idiot, and Metallica was absolutely right, and
Speaker 1: that's right. This is people creating music. You should have
Speaker 1: to pay for this. And I stole like crazy. I
Speaker 1: would just log on, hit the letter A, and then
Speaker 1: download every song. I started with A all formats. I
Speaker 1: would go to sleep at night and wake up but
Speaker 1: started with the A and be like, let's see what
Speaker 1: I like today, Like, I don't like ABBA, but I'll listen. Yes,
Speaker 1: And I would yes. So you're listening to all these
Speaker 1: types of music and you have a guitar and a
Speaker 1: broken foot basically, so do you just start learning to
Speaker 1: play guitar? I just I don't know what it was.
Speaker 1: It was just almost like it was the only option.
Speaker 1: You know. I didn't have sports anymore. I was horrible
Speaker 1: in school, and so I wanted to start a band
Speaker 1: with my brothers, and uh, there you go, come on
Speaker 1: your brothers at the time. So I have two older brothers,
Speaker 1: and I think I think that's why I had such
Speaker 1: a such a big influence of music. They were they
Speaker 1: were older than I was, and so you let's know
Speaker 1: what they like, what they like. My my brother, oldest brother, Derek,
Speaker 1: would bring Home like Aerosmith and uh, you know, like
Speaker 1: the Eagles and Don Henley, who Don Henley is my
Speaker 1: favorite songwriter of all time? And uh, you know boys
Speaker 1: a summer, Heart of Matt, Heart of the Matter. That's
Speaker 1: what made me want to write songs. And so being
Speaker 1: here and out, just like you said, doing music for
Speaker 1: a living. I look back. I'm like, man, I had
Speaker 1: Bit Torrent, I had Morpheus, Napster, all that stuff. I
Speaker 1: was stealing lots of virus. It was awful. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: got in trouble a lot. But you know, um, it's crazy, man.
Speaker 1: So you decide to being a rock band? Was a
Speaker 1: rock band? Was that a punk band? It was? It
Speaker 1: was kind of both. We started out as a rock
Speaker 1: band and it kind of turned into, you know, one
Speaker 1: of those pop punk bands. We uh, what was the
Speaker 1: name of the band it was? It was called Crimson Soul.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I have some of that here. Oh man,
Speaker 1: how did you find this is called the Fight from
Speaker 1: Crimson Soul? My favorite favorite punk band. Yeah, you'll look
Speaker 1: at the school. I didn't look. I didn't see it.
Speaker 1: I didn't see it, right, So did you let you
Speaker 1: guys go on on the road? We did, man, So
Speaker 1: in high school. It was just three of us, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I would be in the marching band and
Speaker 1: you were in the march A guy that I thought
Speaker 1: was the douche bag for having and being so cool.
Speaker 1: I thought he looked way and saw me and my
Speaker 1: brother won the drum line. We played snare and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So you were a drummer, I was. Yeah.
Speaker 1: My brother Ryan taught me how to play drums, and
Speaker 1: so did Derek. Derek was a drummer as well, and
Speaker 1: so we were all on the drum line for Sin
Speaker 1: High School. Go buffs Um and we would play, we
Speaker 1: would do the halftime show, we'd we'd play all the
Speaker 1: games and all that kind of stuff. And it's West
Speaker 1: Texas like Big Spring Pick Spring millin Odessa and there.
Speaker 1: I mean we were two a school, but we seriously
Speaker 1: had a college side stadium because football, man, it's everything.
Speaker 1: And so we would play that and then we would
Speaker 1: go play a show either in our town that night
Speaker 1: or sixty miles away like Midland. We play that, we
Speaker 1: play a show, and we do at least two or
Speaker 1: three shows a weekend. Like my parents, I don't know
Speaker 1: what they were thinking. They were just like Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: like go to school and you know, go play Friday, Saturday,
Speaker 1: Sunday and come back you know. Um so that's kind
Speaker 1: of how I kind of cut my teeth in playing
Speaker 1: music in the grind of touring. And then we moved
Speaker 1: to Denton. Big city. Oh yeah, big city right now,
Speaker 1: the Dallas and my brother went to North Texas and
Speaker 1: I tried to go to some like little uh community
Speaker 1: college and tried to get an audio engineering degree. But
Speaker 1: we ended up leaving Dent and we did the whole
Speaker 1: Texas music scene, but we ended up going on the
Speaker 1: Warp Tour for two for three years. Wow, you warped
Speaker 1: toward it for three years? Oh my god, man, it was.
Speaker 1: It was the coolest, most miserable time in my life.
Speaker 1: Where were you? I'm at the Warp Tour because again
Speaker 1: my background radio has been pop alternative, so I've been
Speaker 1: to a bunch of Warp Tour shows. And how I worked,
Speaker 1: I worked for everyone is like shall I started like
Speaker 1: eleven am and it alway until the end, and that's
Speaker 1: when like, you know, Blank wanted to play at the
Speaker 1: very end. If they decide it's one of their shows,
Speaker 1: they fly in and yes, yeah, but but really it's
Speaker 1: a bunch of skateboarders and just bands all day long
Speaker 1: that you've never heard of. So if the chef started
Speaker 1: at eleven am and ended it midnight, what hour ship
Speaker 1: did you guys? 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 Fallout boy later, but you know we're playing right
Speaker 1: before him. Uh you should just come, like we'll give
Speaker 1: 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. No, it's so bad. I'm so
Speaker 1: sad we don't have to chart our own milk anymore
Speaker 1: those days. Now we have grocery Manez Back when times
Speaker 1: we're simpler and much better, probably made keikos dollars like horrible,
Speaker 1: But it really taught me about promotion and and really
Speaker 1: making fans and really the face to face eye contact
Speaker 1: that you make, and and appreciating those people because they're
Speaker 1: the people who are getting you those better slots on
Speaker 1: that tour, or you know, when you come back into
Speaker 1: that town, they're gonna come see you at that crappy
Speaker 1: club you're playing at. You know, so you do Warped
Speaker 1: Toy with your brothers or in this punk band, so
Speaker 1: you're like, all right, this is not for me. So
Speaker 1: basically we went out to l A. I lived out
Speaker 1: in l A for about six months, and we had
Speaker 1: a development deal with with Sony out over there, and
Speaker 1: they had other bands like I don't know if you
Speaker 1: remember a band called Forever the Sickest Kids, and it
Speaker 1: was the whole MySpace age. He's a big Mike. Mike
Speaker 1: did a punk podcast for years called the Everyday Destruction
Speaker 1: Podcast that that's all they talked about was punk music.
Speaker 1: It was terrible musically, it was terrible, like I admired
Speaker 1: Mike for doing it, and I listened to it and
Speaker 1: I'd be like hey dude, and I went but it
Speaker 1: was like music, and I was like, this is awful.
Speaker 1: Like I'll get in Mike's car and it's just that
Speaker 1: mess of music like that you were playing right there,
Speaker 1: like that that horrible, awful stuff. Yeah. Yes, so you
Speaker 1: go to l A. You're doing you have a development deal,
Speaker 1: so we're you know, with my Space. That was the
Speaker 1: whole thing. So any label that came to you, they
Speaker 1: were like, yeah. We were told we had to have
Speaker 1: at least thirty five thousand daily plays on our MySpace
Speaker 1: and we're like done. So we were up to like
Speaker 1: forty tho spins every single day, you know, turning and
Speaker 1: grinding and getting people to just come on board and
Speaker 1: share our make it, make it your profile song or whatever.
Speaker 1: And you know, we would play at the Roxy, we
Speaker 1: play at at the Whiskey and all those places and
Speaker 1: other people's l A experiences are different, um, but mine
Speaker 1: was miserable and there was no community. There was no
Speaker 1: support or encourage encouragement from anybody. So when we went
Speaker 1: out and and started doing opening shows for fall Out
Speaker 1: Boy and Sugar Colt and people like that. Um, it
Speaker 1: was that same thing, you know, Oh you got to
Speaker 1: two with Fall Boys, Like yeah, we played at five
Speaker 1: thirty in the afternoon when the doors open for like
Speaker 1: a hundred people, passed out our flyers and played at
Speaker 1: the club next door for an after party, you know,
Speaker 1: just to try to just capitalize on the opportunity and
Speaker 1: man for us personally, the it was just dying and
Speaker 1: I knew where I wanted to be, and I kept
Speaker 1: making trips to Nashville and writing, and you know, starting
Speaker 1: to get into the co writing thing. And you know,
Speaker 1: I love country music. I love I love writing it,
Speaker 1: I love singing it, and I love the fans because
Speaker 1: they're die hard fans. With rock music, it was like
Speaker 1: flavor of the week, you know. If you know, you'd
Speaker 1: make all these fans, say in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and you'd
Speaker 1: have a good turnout, and you come back two months
Speaker 1: later and nobody cares, you know. With country, and this
Speaker 1: is what I see all the time. It's so much
Speaker 1: more artists driven. Pop is song driven. Rock is let's
Speaker 1: just see what happens this month, like and that's that's
Speaker 1: really the difference, Like like and pop it's like how
Speaker 1: good is your song? And country like if once you
Speaker 1: have fans that like that artist, there, the country music
Speaker 1: listener is a loyal person listener, Like if you're a
Speaker 1: Luke fan, and you've been a Luke fan, you will
Speaker 1: always be a Luke fan the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: If he may go to a polk album, but dang it,
Speaker 1: you're gonna download that Luke record. It's gonna be the
Speaker 1: walmart In in all its fans. But yes, country music
Speaker 1: it is. It is about the artists. You need that
Speaker 1: first song. You have to get those songs and get
Speaker 1: you to get people noticed the artist. But once they're
Speaker 1: in on the artist, and I have that in the
Speaker 1: radio world too. It's like I have the greatest listeners
Speaker 1: and I will do the worst segments, the worst, terrible segments,
Speaker 1: and they'll be right there and the radios come in
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't even know what people were listening.
Speaker 1: I have no idea, Like we had a I looked
Speaker 1: at last week show. They weren't that good. Can't believe
Speaker 1: the ratings that you know, it's it's just a culture
Speaker 1: of the town, the format, the music, and so you
Speaker 1: moved to town because you realize that's kind of the
Speaker 1: the environment that you want to be in. I mean,
Speaker 1: is that the reason? Yeah? The community. I think it
Speaker 1: was the biggest thing you know in the rock world,
Speaker 1: uh in l A. And you know, just the the
Speaker 1: whole culture of it was so just dark and it
Speaker 1: was so lonely. You know, it was like every man
Speaker 1: for himself, so cut throat. And here, you know it
Speaker 1: is it is kind of competition, which listen, it's a
Speaker 1: creative industry. There's always a ton of competition because there
Speaker 1: are two slots and there are seven thousand people, so
Speaker 1: it's always competitive. But it's not just music, any sort
Speaker 1: of creative acting, any creative field. It's seven thousand people
Speaker 1: going for two spots. But you're right, as competitive as
Speaker 1: 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: and so I would go to writers writers nights and
Speaker 1: writers rounds where, you know, if you don't know what
Speaker 1: that is, there's four people on stage playing songs they
Speaker 1: write one at a time and telling stories about them.
Speaker 1: And I would just go and and want to learn,
Speaker 1: you know. And so I started making friends, started co
Speaker 1: writing with those friends and singing those demos, and so
Speaker 1: my friends with publishing deals would turn those songs into
Speaker 1: their publishers and they'd be like, Oh, who's the singing
Speaker 1: Who is this the guy you wrote it with? They're
Speaker 1: like yeah, And so that's how I kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: got into that um getting a publishing deal and also
Speaker 1: playing guitar for for different people. I still felt like
Speaker 1: you're a better singer than you are anything else, which
Speaker 1: is crazy, thanks because you're an elite singer and I
Speaker 1: had no idea. I thought you were just a really
Speaker 1: good guitar player. And then he started singing, and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: because all I'll do it raging age. I won't let
Speaker 1: him 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 keep him? So he plays and he
Speaker 1: kills it, and then as we get to the second half,
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, Brandon eurerope and then he just
Speaker 1: crushes it like he was. I was watching your YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: and again I don't both smoke, but I was watching
Speaker 1: YouTube channel and there's a song from Sean Mindeth called Mercy.
Speaker 1: I'm taking baby please Mercy seeing it ec on that
Speaker 1: and Brandon is doing a cover of it, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: god know he could sing, but it's so good. I'm safe.
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? O my heart. That's
Speaker 1: that's weird because you're such a good guitar player and
Speaker 1: you're such a good singer to 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 gets down on stage and he dances,
Speaker 1: but's on a good show. The guy will take a
Speaker 1: guitar or take a piano and just crush it and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I get it. Okay, this is why
Speaker 1: he's phenomenal. This is why he gets to do what else?
Speaker 1: This is why he gets to play mckamore in the
Speaker 1: middle of a step because he was so good at
Speaker 1: doing everything at the beginning. So okay, I'm pigeonholing you
Speaker 1: 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 artist, the more
Speaker 1: you get to know those layers. Where you know seven
Speaker 1: layers and someone a first impression though they don't get
Speaker 1: don't you get layers? Throw seven at first? What's hilaryery?
Speaker 1: You won't be able to get the first thing. Is
Speaker 1: it the guy that's the fantastic singer or is the
Speaker 1: guy who's the killer guitarist? I would say I would
Speaker 1: say singer man. I mean I was gonna make it
Speaker 1: be your answer. But yeah, like he's holding up a
Speaker 1: sign right now, I'm really not, but it's gotta be
Speaker 1: saying I gotta be. That's your first listening impression. Nobody.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, No, nobody really knows Keith Urban plays all
Speaker 1: those solos, but he does about that. Nobody cares. Nobody
Speaker 1: cares like it's amazing. Like me as a guitar player,
Speaker 1: I listened to you know, if if Brad Pays it
Speaker 1: comes on, or Keith Urban or you know, any of
Speaker 1: those people, when that solo comes, I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's so good that the nerds like it, like it
Speaker 1: like guys. But most people, they just wanna hear a
Speaker 1: good song. They want to hear Keith Urban sing. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. They want to hear that song.
Speaker 1: That's that's what they know, that's what they identify with.
Speaker 1: And you know, if I'm up on stage playing and
Speaker 1: I go into a solo, it's cool. But even with
Speaker 1: guys like Keith Urban, when they go into a solo,
Speaker 1: the people start looking side to side or start looking
Speaker 1: at their phone because the singing aspect has to be there.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing that hits their ears and that's
Speaker 1: all they know. I listen. I'm not saying that I've
Speaker 1: watched Urban, but I watched everybody solos for four hours.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, Like that dude, he and I don't know.
Speaker 1: You may hear this after the c m A is
Speaker 1: like he made one entertime. I don't know what he'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 percent people don't get to see Keith Urban live.
Speaker 1: They just hear what's on the radio and become a
Speaker 1: fan of I don't get to see a lot of
Speaker 1: people alive because of my job. I get to see
Speaker 1: him in the studio, but I don't. I saw Keith
Speaker 1: Urban i Alreadio Music Festival for the first time play
Speaker 1: a full show. It's a year ago, blown away. It's crazy,
Speaker 1: and he'd played in my studio seven times. But also
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't get to experience that side
Speaker 1: of it too, So that's oh no, But you get
Speaker 1: to experience what the studio stuff isn't it's it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I have to thought myself right in the NATS
Speaker 1: because I'm like taking the moment, Like when Garth Brooks
Speaker 1: comes in and play songs it's ridiculous and I can
Speaker 1: touch him and he tells me to stop. Yah. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: He's like stop touch So okay, here's listen to this.
Speaker 1: Here's uh justin timber like cover of Drink You Away,
Speaker 1: change track, try to track all these keep saying all
Speaker 1: of this. Tell me, baby, it doesn't make a better
Speaker 1: sim Now as you're hearing these covers, I'm gonna remind
Speaker 1: you that you can go and you can download, you
Speaker 1: can stream whatever. Brandon has two songs that are up now.
Speaker 1: I mean I can wait breach he smokes Dad Town
Speaker 1: to freaking American way that clap Baby come on, and
Speaker 1: that can be us. That could be said. I like
Speaker 1: to you do the covers, though, because you know what,
Speaker 1: that's how you can 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 whore like you
Speaker 1: 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 a backroub, you know, the backup different artists,
Speaker 1: the bund the background like covers of songs, and then
Speaker 1: they may watch ten justin term like drink 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 to then introduce your own stuff that you're so
Speaker 1: right on. I tell people all the time, never be
Speaker 1: ashamed to cover because put your own spin on it.
Speaker 1: People just want to hear stuff they know and like,
Speaker 1: and if you're playing neither, and most times they don't
Speaker 1: like new music right until it because that it needs
Speaker 1: to be something they know or just freaking phenomenal and
Speaker 1: it's hard for something to be phenomenal that you've never
Speaker 1: heard before. It takes a few times, and so you
Speaker 1: can nail them with a cover and you get a
Speaker 1: little bit of credit. So look at me. Here, are
Speaker 1: you do something yourself on a couple of those? All right? Cool? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a bad cool not playing mombo number five, brand Um.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite things that Brandon does is is
Speaker 1: Donald Trump oppression is one of the best I've ever
Speaker 1: heard of. Like, am I live because he'll send me
Speaker 1: messages and wrong, I can't. I don't do it. But
Speaker 1: we were on the did you watch the last one?
Speaker 1: The sketch three where he's like, I talked to the
Speaker 1: Mexican president Mr guacam all day. I didn't even see that.
Speaker 1: You haven't seen that one? Okay, okay, we'll be talking wrong,
Speaker 1: give us give us all Donald Trump here, So at
Speaker 1: sound check at I believe the Arkansas Show. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you notice, but I was like, my microphone
Speaker 1: it's broken. Obama broke it, Hilary stole it. I win,
Speaker 1: so band, it's microphone is broken. Can we get him
Speaker 1: a new one? How does this work? Okay? Mr Trump?
Speaker 1: Test check? It's wrong? It's all I am the best
Speaker 1: singer on the planet Earth. What what would you say
Speaker 1: to the people that don't agree with that? Mr? Trump? Listen,
Speaker 1: I respect microphones more than anyone anyone on the Earth.
Speaker 1: I'm bickly supportive of microphones. You're vaguely supportively, Okay. I
Speaker 1: mean we get on the bus and we laugh so much,
Speaker 1: like and I think a key and it's gonna sound stupid,
Speaker 1: but you said it earlier, and I tell I was
Speaker 1: doing a show called American Supergroup. Okay. So it's a
Speaker 1: show where they're putting a band together and the hosts
Speaker 1: are Jennifer Nettles not hosted judge Jennifer Nettles, Alo Black
Speaker 1: Um who but who have become buds with. But he's
Speaker 1: the voice on Wake Me Up When Things, Dude, he's
Speaker 1: so good. It's allow Black, it's l king. Yeah. You
Speaker 1: know she has xs and os and she's not different
Speaker 1: for girls with dirks. And so they're the the judge.
Speaker 1: I went into mentor the country band and they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: tell us, how to you know do um be a band?
Speaker 1: And and I'm 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 what we try
Speaker 1: to do the raging its only bring people around them
Speaker 1: are great hangs from Nikita Natalie stove All. I mean
Speaker 1: I just today I got you know, Lindsay. L's now
Speaker 1: my girlfriend. You are You're now You're now into that
Speaker 1: special friends vib But I mean they're just such fun
Speaker 1: people that I was like, let's another show. I'll have
Speaker 1: a back again. There's some fun to hang around with.
Speaker 1: Do congrats. By the way, I have a girlfriend, there's
Speaker 1: no congratulate. You know. It 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: on radio showed New York Times best seller and you
Speaker 1: know the band, and I was like, that's funny. That's
Speaker 1: pretty funny. That's funny. Great. So okay, So here you
Speaker 1: are now, like what's the goal as you sit right
Speaker 1: here beside me, like like short term and long term?
Speaker 1: Short term is uh? I just got married about a
Speaker 1: year ago. You just had anniversary a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and who knew me? And who? And I don't know
Speaker 1: any dates and I don't care. I don't even care
Speaker 1: about my stuff. Dude, when you showed up to my house,
Speaker 1: it was so nice. Yeah, I was in a cupid outfit.
Speaker 1: It was it was he was wearing a toga 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 could find.
Speaker 1: I want to buy a car. I want to do
Speaker 1: all this stuff honestly, Like I want to be able
Speaker 1: to get to a point where my wife can quit
Speaker 1: her job. She she manages and bartens and works her
Speaker 1: butt off. Can I say something, oh, like a little bit.
Speaker 1: I wasn't expecting the answer. I was like, I'm let
Speaker 1: a deal, Stadius. The fact that you said that and
Speaker 1: it came to you so instinction like that, your visceral
Speaker 1: reaction was I'd like to get my wife to a
Speaker 1: 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 the I was a douce this whole time.
Speaker 1: It'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 you. No,
Speaker 1: you're like and Mike D's over here looking all cool.
Speaker 1: You're you're right now. Remember this moment. I get to
Speaker 1: take a picture of this and turn the lights on,
Speaker 1: so he remembers this. This is probably the peak of
Speaker 1: his life being on that Bobby Cat actually doing it. Actually,
Speaker 1: we take a picture anyway and put put it online.
Speaker 1: Do we pose or what? No? No, no, we just
Speaker 1: continue doing this and it gets posted. So are you
Speaker 1: sucking in? I have to suck in. I didn't you know,
Speaker 1: 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 live 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 thirty 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 of 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 struggling.
Speaker 1: Just because you get a song on the radio doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you're rich. And then I have friends that they
Speaker 1: go in there like I need to play the show
Speaker 1: I needed, I needed to look its need to play well.
Speaker 1: So I got to hire a band and they're paying
Speaker 1: a thousand bucks. But the band's gonna cost me eight
Speaker 1: hundred bucks and we have to drive. You have to fly,
Speaker 1: so you lose money on shows. But but it's an investment.
Speaker 1: It is it has to be. And if and if
Speaker 1: you're if you're worried about losing money, you shouldn't be
Speaker 1: doing this. If that's your only thing, if that's your
Speaker 1: only thing is financial gain, then you might want to stop.
Speaker 1: And that's let me tell you a funny story. And
Speaker 1: that's for any creative industry. Like if you're getting into
Speaker 1: it for money, get out. I went to a college
Speaker 1: and spoke once and I went and I said, okay,
Speaker 1: I I just want to be honest. The only thing
Speaker 1: I have his mo authenticity. That's it. I'm not super
Speaker 1: talented in any other way. So I said, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna just be honest with you guys, Like, if you're
Speaker 1: here now and you're studying radio in college, get out,
Speaker 1: like change your major. I want. I was at radio
Speaker 1: class I was speaking to so obviouly the college wasn't
Speaker 1: excited that I was telling all of their so they
Speaker 1: banned me from speaking there. Yeah, remember that might ye
Speaker 1: and and so. But the thing I would tell them is,
Speaker 1: you know, listen, you don't you if you're gonna be
Speaker 1: a music engineer, you're learning that, but you don't go
Speaker 1: to college to be unless it's like Juilliard and you
Speaker 1: can get in. You know, you know, you don't go
Speaker 1: to you know, the University of North Texas to be
Speaker 1: a rock star. You just get out and start rock
Speaker 1: starring it. And so the same way with the radio
Speaker 1: or acting or you know so. And also what I
Speaker 1: say is, if there's any money in your mind, don't
Speaker 1: you can't there's none in it. Even in this I've
Speaker 1: been lucky. Frankly speaking, I'm one of the one percent
Speaker 1: that I was just and a lot work, ethic, some luck,
Speaker 1: and having great people around me. That's that's the big
Speaker 1: Those three things are the biggest things. Like you've got
Speaker 1: to show up, don't be a douche and surround yourself
Speaker 1: with god so key people with the same goals as you,
Speaker 1: and that that you work so well together with that
Speaker 1: that shows with you. I mean, you have the same
Speaker 1: team as you did in Austin. How many years ago
Speaker 1: was that? I mean, I've had Amy for eleven years,
Speaker 1: Lunchbox for twelve years, Eddie was my TV producer for ten.
Speaker 1: They joined the radio show. Mike d was an intern,
Speaker 1: Ray was an intern, Morgan was an intern. Like I
Speaker 1: just do things with my people because I need good
Speaker 1: people around me. I need people I trust. I didn't
Speaker 1: do this. I worked. Let's see, I started about a
Speaker 1: seventeen so I worked eight years making minimum wage, eight
Speaker 1: years working minimum wage and loved it every freaking minute
Speaker 1: of it, and would do it again and would have
Speaker 1: kept doing it like I would have. I would have
Speaker 1: just done radio and survived or gotten a second job
Speaker 1: because I loved it so much. And that to people like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to radio, I want to do music. The
Speaker 1: first thing I say is would you do it for free?
Speaker 1: Would you do it having to have another job? And
Speaker 1: if answers yes, freaking go for it. It's the answers
Speaker 1: no it's just not for you get out because not
Speaker 1: a watch time, You're alwaste time. We're always what you're
Speaker 1: gonna waste whatever you can do to get to this
Speaker 1: other place in another lane. That's it. So for me, man, Uh,
Speaker 1: I was out playing for Brett Eldredge. It was incredible
Speaker 1: that guy. Yeah, that guy's are you playing lead? I
Speaker 1: was playing lead, switching off with Greg this guy. No,
Speaker 1: but you're seeing harmonies and stuff to do with Brett,
Speaker 1: which Brett is an incredible singer. I mean, spot on
Speaker 1: every single time. And uh, we got to do the
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift Tour, which was incredible, you know. And how
Speaker 1: was it dating Taylor? It was? It was weird, you know.
Speaker 1: When I got pregnant, it was crazy. Um didn't make
Speaker 1: the news though, I don't know. Yeah, that's weird. But uh,
Speaker 1: in the middle of all that, you know, I was
Speaker 1: like inside, I was like, okay, Like this is great,
Speaker 1: this is really cool being able to be out here
Speaker 1: and play guitar. But this is not why I moved here.
Speaker 1: And a good friend of mine, Set England, who runs
Speaker 1: Big Loud Shirt Publishing. He's also Florida Georgia Lions manager. Um,
Speaker 1: I went and played some songs for him, you know,
Speaker 1: and I was, you know, I just wanted some advice.
Speaker 1: And he's 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 get hang hang um and so they knew
Speaker 1: and and it was it was such a great understanding,
Speaker 1: you know. And then so I I did this show,
Speaker 1: my solo show, and Seth and and the f GL
Speaker 1: guys came out and um after the shows, like, hey man,
Speaker 1: let's let's talk real quick. I was like, oh, Seth,
Speaker 1: you know he's gonna tell me enjoyed it, you know.
Speaker 1: And he goes, hey, man, you wanta you wanna play
Speaker 1: guitar for f g L. I was like, you just
Speaker 1: told me to quit. I was like, I'm so confused
Speaker 1: right now, man, Like what is happening like? And he
Speaker 1: goes listen, like they saw your performance, they dug it,
Speaker 1: and they're like they need a guitar player. So I'm
Speaker 1: just passing along the word. And so I was like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: that's amazing like that, that's such a great opportunity. Cruiz
Speaker 1: had went number one and all that stuff, and um,
Speaker 1: I 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. A lot of money talked
Speaker 1: to about. But I love it and I don't love
Speaker 1: it as a hobby. I love it because it's the
Speaker 1: only thing that I want to do and the only
Speaker 1: 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 what? Do? What?
Speaker 1: Put your penis out on stage? I mean you have
Speaker 1: to do what you 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. But Nick Brophy, who I started working
Speaker 1: with production and all that kind of stuff. Nick also
Speaker 1: mixes and was his kid, and he's like, dude, you
Speaker 1: gotta check out this song, like Kip didn't put on
Speaker 1: 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, nay,
Speaker 1: it was Lee Bow, just like you were doing were
Speaker 1: Leo Leo, we sleep some more. That's not how it goes.
Speaker 1: That's always seeing it, um. But I was just I
Speaker 1: just kept thinking about I was like, listen, you know
Speaker 1: that is this is That is the type of song
Speaker 1: that I that I want to write and I want
Speaker 1: to perform. So I probably tried to write that song
Speaker 1: five or six times and it didn't work. It was
Speaker 1: never the same as that, And so I asked Nick.
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, man, like, would it be cool
Speaker 1: if I just put my vocal on it and maybe
Speaker 1: just start playing it out just see how people react
Speaker 1: to it? Was of course, and Kip was cool with it,
Speaker 1: and so I did that and the reaction was incredible,
Speaker 1: and so I kind of It kind of taught me
Speaker 1: to step away from myself for a second. Is that
Speaker 1: hard to take somebody's song? That song? And so you
Speaker 1: I thought you wrote it? Thanks, And I interview some
Speaker 1: people I'm careful about going, hey, I know you wrote
Speaker 1: this song. I'm always like, hey, this song that you
Speaker 1: sing and that song and so you I thought you
Speaker 1: wrote I don't think twice about it. Well, thanks man,
Speaker 1: I mean, and that that was the goal because it
Speaker 1: 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 guy named Bobby's got a radio show.
Speaker 1: This song is really good. This is that this song
Speaker 1: is good like thanks man. This is like it reminds
Speaker 1: me of like new age country Jack and Day and
Speaker 1: the first one, right, this is this is like a
Speaker 1: new age Jack and Diante. Man, this that could be us.
Speaker 1: This and like this the 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 in here. Mr Trump, what kind of music
Speaker 1: do you listen to? You know, I try to listen
Speaker 1: to what the world loves? Yeah, what what does the
Speaker 1: world love? Like? I mean that's a pretty vague statement,
Speaker 1: Mr Trump, Like you right for president? Like, I'm curious
Speaker 1: what kind of music in your iPhone? Mr? Trump? What
Speaker 1: do you listen to? A lot of spice girls? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and your favorite spice girl would be which one? Um,
Speaker 1: baby baby Brandon Ray has been here with us, do
Speaker 1: good luck. I think you're at that place where it's
Speaker 1: like you're finding yourself right now. You're grinding and you're
Speaker 1: finding and I just see how good you are. And
Speaker 1: I'm anxious to kind see where you land because it's
Speaker 1: cool because you're really freaking good. You're really good. And
Speaker 1: if you ever come out, Brandon's playing with us. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think. It's hard to get Brandon because he's
Speaker 1: all over the place. I know you're doing Albuquerquequerque, which
Speaker 1: sold down like three seconds. We're gonna like expand the theater.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm telling you, Albuquerque's nuts. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: to break down some walls or something. Um, you just
Speaker 1: kick up. Ode just turned out to the festival and
Speaker 1: then we're playing Vegas again. So if you're in either
Speaker 1: one of those places, or go to Brandon Ray that's
Speaker 1: Twitter at Brandon Ray Music and go watch them for yourself.
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying, like, dudes, for real, I mean,
Speaker 1: anybody does things this song. Let's go cubs like I'm
Speaker 1: a cut fan and I'm a little insult here. You
Speaker 1: should be how bad that is? I need it? Actually
Speaker 1: did that bad at Brandon Ray Music. At Brandon Ray Music. Dude,
Speaker 1: good luck. I hope it goes great. You have a
Speaker 1: good trip, nice little road trip ahead of it. Thanks man.
Speaker 1: We're taking the bus van van. Did you see my text?
Speaker 1: I'm in the creepy van out hey got her? Ear
Speaker 1: Ladies like I'm so sorry to me Early, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you're here, Early, I have an erection. Early say, I
Speaker 1: don't even need a picture. That's um. Thank you and
Speaker 1: good luck, my friend, good luck, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: All right, Brandon Ray Music on Twitter and Instagram. Also
Speaker 1: thanks to Mr Trump for stopping by. I think you
Speaker 1: you know you've exceeded everyone's expectations. And when people hear
Speaker 1: this in a few weeks maybe your president. Oh no,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, okay, that's cool. Alright, we're gonna go.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, you know, speaking here just to say I'm
Speaker 1: not full of crap. I did um. First of all,
Speaker 1: I played Brandon stuff 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 Beers 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 Eastern Texas.
Speaker 1: Ryan is to ryan'son a Deer for the monent about
Speaker 1: r 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: Ryan Biever. I was like, dude, I'm such a yours
Speaker 1: 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 Biever that album that you're rated, Our Little Exit Prescription. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's phenomenal. Every song I was I was signed with
Speaker 1: Ryan at a small publishing company. He just left there,
Speaker 1: but we were on that uh in that company for
Speaker 1: two years and all of those songs he wrote, you know,
Speaker 1: to three years ago, and so I would hear the
Speaker 1: work tapes, you know, the song if I had a
Speaker 1: Horse and all these kind of I had. I have
Speaker 1: the acoustic work tapes and I play him all the time.
Speaker 1: And the fact that he came out with a record
Speaker 1: like that, that just is incredible. Um he's he's you
Speaker 1: gotta check him out, yea, check out Ryan, check out
Speaker 1: Brandon Ray. Just to leave you on a little song
Speaker 1: called American Way. And we were all week in a
Speaker 1: slop stag town to freaking weekend. Come. I'm throwing all
Speaker 1: him to y'all that it was baday baby, Ain't that
Speaker 1: the American Way? I'm gonna make you please, I want
Speaker 1: to see you put your hands off. Just got a
Speaker 1: black guy from a scup of wind Hank. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna go now because the cup started playing just now.
Speaker 1: We gotta 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 Ray Music. Thank you ol see episode seven Team
Speaker 1: We'll thank you Bay