Interview with Brandon Davis

Hello! It is Adam. Welcome back to bringing it backwards. A podcast where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had a chance to hang out with Brandon Davis over zoom video. Brandon was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and he talks about how he got into music. His grandparents were a singer songwriters, they're gospel, singer songwriters, and then his dad is a singer songwriter in the country gospel world. His dad tried to teach him guitar at a very early age. I think he was around 11 years old, but he was waiting to baseball and just being active outside. So it was hard for his dad to keep Brandon kind of occupied in front of the guitar. 4 (2m 6s): In high school, he ended up having to take a fine arts course and guitar was one of the classes you could take. So he ended up taking the guitar class and just falling in love with it. From there, he'd always written songs, had voice memos of songs that he had written, and he would ask his dad to put chords to these songs. So he's still got these old recordings of him from like eighth grade on writing melodies and lyrics, and then having his dad just put the chords together to it. Brandon went to college for baseball, ended up tearing his rotator cuff. I believe ended up not being able to continue playing baseball, but graduate college got a good job. Ended up getting married, had kids and music was always just kind of something he enjoyed doing would play locally with his dad and cousins and brothers. 4 (2m 53s): And they would do local shows around Chattanooga. But in 2019, he was in a huge car accident, hit head on, spent about a week in the hospital. And that is when he really was doing a lot of, you know, thinking in and thought really hard about what he really, really wanted to do with his life. And he decided he wanted to pursue music. So when the pandemic hits his, wife's telling them about this app called Tik TOK. And he didn't really have much interest in it, but she was filming him sing and she would kind of film him randomly and put these videos up and they start doing really well. And one of the videos get styles, tons of views, 20,000 views, and it hits near a million views. 4 (3m 35s): And that's when Brandon's like, well, maybe this is really something. His wife encourages him to start putting his own music up on, on these platforms. They ended up putting out his first single and it does amazing. It goes number 24 on the iTunes charts. He talks to us about seeing the success. His songs were doing online, putting out his first EAP, doing his first tour of the United States. All about his new record and this tour he has with Tim McGraw. You can watch her interview with Brandon on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It would be awesome if you subscribe to our channel, if you'd like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik TOK at bringing back pod. 4 (4m 16s): And if you're listening to this on Spotify or apple podcasts, Google podcasts, we'd love it. If you follow us there as well, and hook us up with a five star review, 5 (4m 26s): We'd appreciate your support. If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts, 4 (4m 32s): We're bringing it backwards with Brandon Davis. I appreciate you doing this. 6 (4m 37s): Absolutely. I appreciate you having me on, of 4 (4m 39s): Course, my name is Adam, and this is about you and your journey in music and how you got to where you are now. 6 (4m 45s): Sounds great, man. I'm looking forward to it. 4 (4m 47s): Very cool. I love your story. I mean, I, I did a little homework on you and just, I can't wait to hear all about this kind of this new venture really. I mean, they kind of, within the past couple of years really turned quite, quite massively for you. So I'm excited to hear all about it. I did read from Chattanooga originally. 6 (5m 7s): Yes, sir. 4 (5m 8s): Born and raised, 6 (5m 9s): Born and raised man. 4 (5m 11s): Awesome. I just moved to Nashville. Well, south Nash, south of Nashville, I should say with my family a little over a year ago now from Southern California. So it's quite a change where we love it here, man. It's a ma 6 (5m 24s): Yeah. Spent a little bit of time out in California. I was out in lone pine though. I was in the middle of the desert, so, 4 (5m 30s): Okay. Well tell me about growing up in Chattanooga. 6 (5m 35s): Well, growing up here, man, we had really, it was a little bit of everything because you're not far from anywhere you want to go. You got Knoxville an hour and a half, one way Atlanta to ourself, Nashville, two and a half north. So anywhere we wanted to go, we had a quick east trip down there too, which for me was great because of baseball. We traveled everywhere and growing up in my house, it was either baseball, music or superheroes. That was the three. That was my traffic. That 4 (6m 3s): That's amazing. That's my household currently. I know, I know you have four kids. I've got two and superheroes are huge in my house. And baseball is another big one. And of course music as well. 6 (6m 15s): Yeah, it's around here. It's all about Batman and Spiderman when it comes to superheroes, which I can't say it was any different in my house growing up. 4 (6m 23s): That was going to say it's pretty good. Pretty same here. Spider-Man is a big one here in our house. 6 (6m 27s): Oh yeah. I've got a two year old. Did that. The only way I can get him to wear normal clothes is to tell him they are his Peter Parker closed. 4 (6m 35s): That's brilliant. That is brilliant. 6 (6m 39s): It's gotta be a spotty shared or his spotty costume. Everything is color-coded on accordance of red, blue and black. 4 (6m 47s): Oh, there you go. 6 (6m 48s): Keller's that he has. And he has to associate whatever he's doing with Spider-Man in some way, somehow. 4 (6m 54s): That's amazing. That is so amazing. So baseball is big for you. Was that something that you did all through? You know, you're, I mean, 6 (7m 2s): Around thing for years growing up, me and my dad traveled all over the Southeast. We traveled some of the, some of the Northeast and just a little bit to the west, just constantly playing baseball from the time I was, you know, four years old until I was 15 with travel ball and continued it through high school and on into college for a year. 4 (7m 24s): Wow. 6 (7m 25s): Unfortunately the shoulder didn't hold out as long as what I wanted it to so bad 4 (7m 30s): Pitcher. 6 (7m 31s): I was a pitcher that used to be able to bring in about 95, but that was a Traitor cuff and whatever else is going on in there ago. So, and it's 4 (7m 42s): Incredible. I mean, if you could throw 95, how hard were you throwing in high school? I'm just curious now, 6 (7m 48s): Somewhere around 90, 92, 4 (7m 53s): That's unreal. I went to high school, the Eric Chavez, who ended up playing for the A's and I think he was on the Yankees for a bit. He, he was a bit older. He was older than me, but he went to the same high school as me and my neighbor was a pitcher and he was really good. I mean, he got when college and did he, I think he played in Europe, some European league for awhile and he was a pitcher and he was really good. He couldn't throw it in, in the nineties, but I remember going to a game when his team played against the high school, I ended up going to and Chavez was on the team and Chavez homered off him. Every at bat, it was like insane to watch, like the level of, from what I thought he had, how good he was to like these, these guys in the MLB, it was like insane. 4 (8m 35s): But 95, man, you had a chance. That's crazy. 6 (8m 38s): Eh, w we had a chance. We just, the right doors didn't open. So I, I decided to go after, after the degree, I knew that was something stable. I land on. I played music all my life because I watched my dad like gospel and country, actually around the country doing gospel music and play just about anywhere local. You can think of when it came to country from the eighties, probably part of the seventies all the way up until say late nineties, early two thousands. 4 (9m 6s): Wow. 6 (9m 7s): But I mean, I had it around me my whole life. It went back to my mammo and Papo. They were like a little gospel, Johnny and June just traveling around with a guitar and a tambourine. 4 (9m 18s): Hey, Dolly, great name too. Oh yeah. My dog's outside the door, so, but I love dogs. Keep her, keep her there. It's all good. 6 (9m 31s): I fell in love with music early on. And it was always something that I watched my dad do to where I thought it was professional. Cause I mean, to me, my dad's a on stage singing. That was, that was the dream that I wanted. And it was either that or find a way into the MLB. And I didn't make my way into the MLB, but I played talent shows and everything growing up at school had every chance I got to hop on stage with my dad. I would do it. And we actually formed a country band that was family-based back in 2010, kept it together for about 10 years. We just played locally a little opera house that we had opened at Birchwood, but Gave me a chance to take all these songs I was riding and all the music that I want to share with people. 6 (10m 16s): And they gave me at least one little outlet that I could say, okay, well, at least these people get a chance to listen to my music. 4 (10m 21s): Sure. 6 (10m 23s): But the, I mean, it's one of those things like music is a very tricky beast to try and find your way to, to wrangle in time and getting into the profession of it was something I never really, I never really found the right avenue for. I couldn't understand where I needed to start my foundation and kind of kick off. And so I went after the degree, I got the degree, got the job, actually moved out to California for a little bit and worked out there, worked in Montana, found my way back to Chattanooga eventually. And you know, wound up meeting the woman of my dreams, had two kids already in the picture. And we settled in and just started the whole family life with, you know, good enough job to, you know, stabilize the support of cell. 6 (11m 11s): And you think you've got it made at that point? You know, why, why do you need to keep pushing forward? Anything else when you know, this seems like the perfect 4 (11m 21s): Situation going exactly. 6 (11m 23s): But 2019 came around. And that day-to-day, that I thought was really taken care of. My life kind of just had a, a big roadblock thrown in the middle of it. I got hit head on by a distracted driver and just really put things in perspective because I had to have laughed, laughed, staging of, excuse me, lifesaving surgery. And you have one of those kind of wake-up calls that show you, Hey look, everything that's going on around you is stuff you have to tend to very closely and understand that it's not something you get to hold on to indefinitely. 6 (12m 6s): One moment. You're living life. The next moment it can be gone and we're not guaranteed anything more than the breath we're breathing that second that we are actually taking it. And I sat there really thinking about why everything had happened, why the wreck took place. I couldn't understand it. I had that case of, you know, why me, why, why everything that's happened in my life. Why me for this situation? And my wife kept telling me, look, you don't understand it now, but one day you're going to, I can't tell you when I can't tell you where or even how, but you're going to understand it and it's going to make sense. And I said, well, the biggest thing for me right now is that I can't, I can't get out of my head that there's so much I haven't done to this point. 6 (12m 49s): And I just about lost any chance of being able to do those things. And I tell my kids every day, ever since they were old enough to understand more than just the fact that, Hey, we're trying to give you food and drink. Like, look, you're, you're growing up. You're going to become a whole new person with your own personal means of taking on this life and your own personality. Like take this life by the horns and leave your dreams. If you're going to chase your dreams and chase your goals, you're going to, you're going to be able to achieve them because nobody continuing And not doing the same. I figured out real quick that I was setting my own roadblocks and kind of being my own worst enemy. 6 (13m 30s): And she said, what do you want to do? I was like, well, the one dream, I haven't really attempted to do anything with his music. I was like, it's still there. I still constantly write songs and sang, but I'm not doing anything with it. I'm just kind of running around in circles. He said, okay, well then let's chase it. She said, let's take this chance right now and do it. There's no better time than right now, too. So let's go on ahead and see what we can make happen. And we started posting stuff on YouTube and Facebook and didn't really have a whole lot of hits, but that was the avenue that we kind of figured out, Hey, there's social media access. There's obviously more people online going to see us and just a few people down the road. And we got local gigs. 6 (14m 11s): We started at a few local restaurants and said, yeah, we'd love to have you come out, play laugh, set, you know, feel free to do what you want. 4 (14m 18s): What are you doing? Like covers at this point? Or are you playing, coming in original stuff? 6 (14m 23s): A lot of it to get out there was covers just because you get to, I guess, make more of a face for yourself. Then you do so much right out the gate saying, Hey, here's me, my new music. Y'all don't know who I am, but 4 (14m 35s): Right. Especially in a restaurant setting, I would imagine they want probably, you know, you to play some hits that th the, the, the patrons will be like, oh, okay. Yeah, I'll get this one or whatever. And then maybe sprinkle in some of you here, original stuff throughout the set, maybe. 6 (14m 50s): Yeah. And I would throw in just a couple just to see what the reaction would be. And after, you know, a little while of getting into it, we thought, oh, this is going great. We've got live shows. We can actually make something happen with this. 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Not all buyers will qualify. Residency restrictions apply must take retail delivery by five to 22 Jeep is a registered trademark. 8 (16m 6s): Yeah, if we can't verify something, we won't publish it. And that's really in order not to further spread any of that misinformation, if something is being shared really widely, and it's almost like gone viral in a way, and we think is wrong, we might work to debunk it and then share that information. 9 (16m 25s): Visual forensics expert describes the process on is that a fact, listen, wherever you get your podcasts. 6 (16m 36s): Okay. And all those live shows, just go out the window. 4 (16m 40s): I want to touch on a couple of things before we can continue moving forward. If that's cool with you, one is the car accident that you were in. I was also in a, in a gnarly car accident. It's got it. It was in 2010. Now I was hit by a drunk driver on the freeway. It was insane, but I walked away from it and even walking away from the accident, like I had PTSD as far as driving for years. Like I didn't move into San Francisco and I just sold my car. Like I just wouldn't drive. Like, I mean, to be in your situation where it was light years worse, as far as like you are like in hospitalized and, and everything else, like how did you kind of compartmentalize and like, deal with that? I mean, I, for me, it was really, really difficult. 6 (17m 22s): Well, to be honest, I just kind of got it in my head. Like, look, you got to keep doing what you got to do. You still got to get to work. You still got to be able to transport children everywhere, everywhere you go. So I just kinda put it in the back of my head and push forward. And I'm not gonna lie that the red light that it all happened. That for a little bit, I wouldn't, I wouldn't go past that red line. I wouldn't turn at that street to avoid it, but 4 (17m 48s): I did the same. I wouldn't take that. I had to just pass the exit because it was right before the exit to my house. And I would always do everything I could do to avoid it, like on the freeway. And like, I mean, I could see exactly where you're coming from. Like, yeah, I don't want to go to that light. Like, it's just, it's just this weird, like, eerie sense when you kind of get near it again. When you were in the ho how long were you a hospital? I don't know if you even want to talk about this. I'm just curious about, 6 (18m 11s): Well, I was in the hospital for a little over a week and finally got back home and was having to be at home on rest for another week or so after that, it's, I'm very stubborn and kind of hard-headed. So it was very hard to try and keep me resting, I guess, was my biggest thing. So find ways to keep moving and keep going, always wanting to be in the gym and active. And at the time it was almost adult league baseball season. So I was really pushing myself to try and be ready. Cause it happened in February. The season started at the end of March and I was like, you know, you got this big, you know, cut down the middle of your abs. 6 (18m 51s): You're not going to be able to do that move too quick. Within a few weeks, I just started slowly rehabbing myself getting back in the gym, walking and trying to jog or, you know, do some light, lightweight just to keep my body moving and keep everything from feeling like it's just been bedridden for too long. But I think the scariest part was like I had a, I had a horrible sinus infection. They had the tube stuck up in my nose and it had blocked my sinuses. I couldn't, I lost my voice there for a little bit. And it got to where, you know, I still had a show. I still had shows I was having to play at the opera house we had at the time. 6 (19m 31s): I was trying my best to get in shape because it talked about horrible timing. At the same time I was in the hospital. My dad had went in for surgery on a malignant tumor back behind. He was, was one of our lead singers too in the, in the band and kind of our band later. And he, he wound up going into the hospital. The surgery went a little less as planned than what it probably could have. And he, he sat in the hospital for a good long while and I was getting out of it. And it was, it was a time that I was number one, worried about him getting back to the health. I had to carry on for him and trying to get myself back in shape a voice back in shape, find a way to, you know, help my father stay motivated to get him out of the hospital. 6 (20m 20s): And it was, it was a rough, rough little road there for that. 4 (20m 24s): Yeah. I mean, I can't even imagine. Oh, I hope your dad's okay. That's 6 (20m 30s): People through and I'll, I'll be honest. The, the miracle of what all he's capable of now compared to where he was at his outstanding. 4 (20m 38s): That's incredible. That is incredible. To hear real quick, even to go back further, just cause I'm, I'm curious. I didn't hear, how did you, I mean, obviously your, your grandparents were in the music, your dad is in the music. What was the first instrument you learned and how old were you when that happened? 6 (20m 52s): Well, if my dad had had his way, it would have been a guitar at, around the age of 11 or 12, a very still child. I was wanting to do something and everything involved being outside mall or inside doing something with baseball and they just couldn't keep my attention long enough. He would sit me down on the couch and I'd make it through like five minutes of a lesson and be like, all right, I really want to go do something like It's killing them. But finally, I guess it was 10th grade, maybe 11th grade. I was sitting down in class and they were making a up for the next semester courses. 6 (21m 34s): And they said, you have to take fine arts course. That's the only one you got to take all of high school. Here's your selection now saw a guitar class. I was like, Hmm, well maybe if I have to actually make a grade on it, I'll actually learn. I sat down and took the guitar class. And that was actually where I picked up, you know, just the basics of how to, how to make a chord and work my way around the neck a little bit. And finally had a good enough understanding where I could start picking up other traits. And from there I never put it back down. 4 (22m 4s): Oh, wow. So you were writing songs throughout high school that are, once you completed the class or learn some chords, is that when you started writing? 6 (22m 13s): I was writing songs around 2007. So in eighth grade I started riding. I didn't have anything to play with. I actually rot, but I just kept the tune in my head and I'd make a recording and then go, wow, dad and start singing and say, Hey, help me find the chords, that match what I'm singing here. 4 (22m 29s): And that's really 6 (22m 31s): There for, I guess, three years. 4 (22m 33s): Wow. Do you have any of those recordings still? 6 (22m 35s): Oh yeah. Just about every single one of them between old cell phones, old boys recorders, pen and paper from rat stuff now. 4 (22m 43s): Wow. That's amazing. That is amazing. So coming forward here, you obviously the car accident was a big thing. And then which turned into you really pursuing music more and that's when the YouTube thing started going on in Facebook. And then you ended up getting these gigs and everything changed. What, during the pandemic, or like tell me that 6 (23m 6s): It kind of slowed us down because the live shows were really our, at the time, our avenue of getting out there, we started trying to do like Facebook live and a few things like that, but we just, weren't getting a whole lot of traction. And all of a sudden my wife found a new app called tick-tock. She was scrolling through saying people were promoting music. I was like, look, I've seen advertisements on Facebook and different things like that. And I was like, all I see are people doing crazy dances and like trying to crack jokes or magic tricks and all this stuff. It's like, I got two left feet and dad jokes. Nobody wants to see me on that app. I promise you. And she handed me about it for a little bit until finally she kind of had me cornered in the car. We were on our way back from father's day trip up to pigeon forge. 6 (23m 48s): And she said, look, I've got you in the car for two and a half hours. I'm going to put the camera on you and you're going to sing. I don't care what you're saying. I don't care how long of what you want to saying is, you know, you sing it. It's like, okay. So I just started singing and she started filming it. When we got back home, she did a couple of videos at the house where I think I did like voice impressions and sang a couple of her original songs. And then the next night she came up to me. It was probably 10 o'clock at night. And I, I was wearing like basketball shorts or cutoff shirt and a ball cap go into the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water. We'd finally got all the kids in bed and I was like, it's Sunday evening. I'm just ready to lay down. 6 (24m 29s): And I grabbed this bottle of water and I hear coming up behind me, her stomping little feet, and maybe seeing Brad Paisley saying Dirks, Bentley, sinned, Chris Stapleton. I just turned around and thought, okay, well I guess if she's wanting me to sing those particular artists, I'll just try to sing like that artist. Why not? And I sang the first song that came to mind for each of them. And the next day she's shown me a screen on her phone and says, Hey, look at this, look what I did. I was like, well, what? She goes, I've been posting your videos on Tik TOK, and guess what? They're actually doing pretty good. Wow. That's can Nate. She goes, yeah, the first few didn't really hit off that much. He goes, look at this one from last night. And I was like, oh, it's got 1600 views. 6 (25m 11s): She said, yeah. I was like, that is incredible. That's more than anything we've had on any platform. She's like, yeah. See, I told you, this is pretty cool in it. I was like, yeah, look, we've got like a hundred followers. That's for Nate. And I was like, you know what, let me see the, the login info for this. I'm gonna download it on my phone and I'm gonna look, I got to work logged in. And like a few hours went by and I texted her. I was like, Hey, have you checked this out? She goes, what about it? I was like that video you post has got 20,000 views. And I was kind of freaking out on my end. She's like, that's, that's pretty awesome. I was like, yeah, it's incredible. And the afternoon it had grown and we were hitting close to a million and followers were coming in by the thousands. 6 (25m 55s): And within a week, I think we had hit over 180,000 followers from this one video popping off and all these other videos that we were streamlining behind it. Wow. She looked at me and said, okay, look, it had been about three weeks since we had started three to four weeks and we had close to 300,000 followers. She said, look, this is your moment that your music is finally going to have a chance to take off. She goes, if you want to do this now the time go. So tell me, is this a hundred percent? What you want to chase after you want to chase after meeting? Yeah, let's do it. And from there, I mean, it's been countless days of just, you know, throwing content up there of our daily lives and singing wherever and whenever and you know, sharing original music to the point that now we've got, I think 14 songs out since this happened and a little over a year and a half Stein. 6 (26m 47s): And it's just been an incredible, crazy rollercoaster between, you know, touring across the country on our own tour to now we're getting ready to set sail on tour with the one and only Tim McGraw, All from the power of just people being willing to interact with you on social media. 4 (27m 7s): Can you imagine yourself, like when you, after you took that guitar class and you now coming back in and be like, Hey, good thing, you took this class because in X amount of years, you're going to be opening up for Tim McGraw. You're like, what? 6 (27m 21s): You couldn't have told me this and made me believe it in any shape or form my grit. We go back in time and tell my, my younger self, any of what's going on and say, believe it or not, that Facebook app that you can't stand to get on, it's going to be huge for you. Or, you know, you're going to be on it all the time and using it for work. And the fact that a app named tick-tock wouldn't even exist back then, I just, it blows my mind to see where it's at because I was never a big social media guy. I never really got in front of a camera unless my mama forced me to for, for like family pictures and to see how something like, you know, just getting on a social media app and sharing your life folks can change your life in such a dramatic way. 1 (28m 11s): It all started with the taste of spicy tempura and the explosive blend of aged cayenne had you craving for more and more the heat, the spice, and most definitely the flavor of the crispy juicy, tender and spicy chicken. Now 2 (28m 25s): McDonald's is bringing the spicy to chicken, try the spicy deluxe or classic spicy crispy chicken sandwich, or get the six piece spicy chicken McNuggets for just two 50 prices. And participation may vary, cannot be combined with any other offer combo meal. 1 (28m 39s): The bone 11 (28m 41s): A lot goes into taking care of your property. You need equipment with more reliability, durability, and versatility built in like number one, selling Kubota BX and L series compact tractors, Z series mowers that deliver a quality cut and psychic utility vehicles where durability needs speed. Visit your local Kubota dealer for a demo today. 12 (29m 4s): Visit go kubota.com for a dealer near you. 6 (29m 11s): It's incredible. 4 (29m 12s): So you started off on, on Tik TOK with getting this following based off of cover songs. And that kind of is what people were drawn to. Right. And then did you continue doing the covers for a little bit or when do you drop your first like original song? And what was that like? And were you worried about, you know, not getting the same reaction you were from the covers? 6 (29m 33s): Well, we did covers a lot on Tik TOK just because it was what people were familiar with and it helped kind give us a, a, a starting point to really kind of take off like, you know, Hey, look, here's a song I love and hope y'all love it to come watch the video of me showing you how I do it. And that, that sparked a lot of people coming in and saying, look, I love your covers, but do you have any original music? And when the conversation starts, then you can start kind of sprinkling it in there. And we had several videos early on that we put up there. So my original stuff, and same with you too. Then finally, I guess we had been on, we've got on in June of 2020 for the verge of time. 6 (30m 19s): And by November of 2020, we actually had the chance to finally start promoting and getting ready for the release of my very first single, which was a song called God made angels. And it was a little bit of, a little bit of a call to the times. Cause it was a big time of uncertainty. Everybody was kind of running around like, Hey, how do we adjust to this new lifestyle that we're having to deal with? And it was also like, look, even though there's a lot of things that you now can't count on, here's one thing you can and, or the two things you can and that's the good Lord above and the ones you love, you know, they're always going to be there for you. So if you can hold to those two things, the rest of what's going on around you, it really don't matter. And it gave us a chance to now have a platform to say, look, I've got a song that I wrote amongst all these others that have written before. 6 (31m 6s): Here's a new one that I want to share with you all that I hope, you know, maybe it connects with you. Maybe it connects with someone, you know, either way. It's a chance for me to try and connect with everybody through my music. And I hope you enjoy it. And thankfully, a lot of people did. We came out with our first single hitting number 24 on the iTunes charts. And it was, it was just, it was a moment for me thinking like, well, not only have I had the chance to share my music, but now I have music that is released, like have officially released music. And we didn't know how to do that either. I mean, we had a producer actually out of Nashville that was from Ohio originally. And then Jacob Frisch that came in and said, look, man, I love what you're doing. 6 (31m 49s): Love your stuff. I would love to work with you and help produce a track for you. And that was where we got the idea. They even really first started starting getting music out. And so I showed him the track. He was like, look, I'm going to comp and production. I just want to be able to help you make good music and find you some good pickers to get on here and play some music. And he, he got a amazing track together. Me and my wife had figured out how to record vocals here at the house because despite having a producer, he was in Nashville where COVID was not really allowing very much, you know, contact. I can't have you in the studio, but if you can record it at your house, send it to me, I'll do the rest from here. 6 (32m 32s): And so we went and bought whatever we could recording equipment, a little Scarlet solo and whatnot, and had no idea what we were doing. She watched YouTube videos on how to run pro tools so that she could run it while I recorded the vocals set up a sound booth and the master bedroom closet with a Mac stand standout was using for shows and bolded together, got him on a FaceTime call and recorded the track. And it was incredible. And for the next few songs, that's kind of how we had to do it. We didn't have access for much else and got a little bit of a better microphone. Finally, that that was our hindrance in the start. You got a better microphone state set up in the closet and had our little at-home studio going recording the first few singles. 6 (33m 19s): But it was, it was for me, it was just really cool. I was like, this might not be an actual studio, but this is incredible. Like I'm recording music that I get to release and having Tik TOK and Facebook and Instagram, now that to be able to set all these up and promote them and show people like, Hey, I've got new music coming out. Y'all share this and tell me what you think. And to have actual folks coming in and showing their love and their support, their comments and sharing videos and popping in the live feeds. It just showed me a whole new world that prior to all this taking off, I had no clue even existed. 4 (33m 55s): And what a way to validate what you've been, you know, what you want in your dream to, to put out your first single and having it do so well. I mean, 24 on the iTunes charts. That's amazing. 6 (34m 6s): Yeah, it was, it was mind boggling then like w we weren't, we didn't know what to expect whenever we finally got the release out and we were just thankful that it released and that we knew some people were going to hear it, but I mean, it did well. And it really, it really shocked us to see kind of out of the gate, the kind of spark that it was having. And it really gives you drive when you see something like that inspired you to want to do more and more and keep it going. And we haven't slowed down since 4 (34m 32s): When, when that song does really well, or even with the Tik TOK success in the beginning, our record labels and managers and people kind of reaching out to you at this point and saying like, Hey, I see you got something going on here. Like, what's that 6 (34m 45s): Definitely had some, some management reach out over time. And really, it's a, it's a question for us on, you know, what, what is the right place and right time for each of them is this, you know, what decisions are the best to keep you pushing forward? And so far, we've, we signed up with a publishing deal and got label services through big yellow dog. And they'd been really great to us, really good group of folks. And my wife has been taken on the full loan manager duties for quite a while now. So I'm trying to, I'm trying to get the managers that do reach out or have reached out in the past. I'm like, look, she's already got all this going, like, what 4 (35m 26s): The hell can you bring 6 (35m 29s): To the table that makes this more beneficial? And the biggest thing is to, I like that she has such a deep investment in this, on the management standpoint that it's just keeping, keeping her active is part of it. She loves it just as much as I do love that, or her involvement is what keeps this fire going because she's, she's the business, I'm the voice. If I didn't have her business and smarts on that end. And I've just, that's all, I'd be as a voice. 4 (35m 59s): That's, that's exactly how this podcast is, man. My life is the manager and the business and I'm the guy in the front. So yeah, that's, I love that. I love that. You're you and your wife are doing this, this journey together. I think that's so cool. When do you start touring and, you know, going across the country and playing 6 (36m 20s): Well. So we've been going across the country on our own. This is we're actually on the last leg and step by step door, which has been carrying on since this past summer. And we've, I mean, we've traveled from here to California, Texas, Washington, state, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois. I mean, anywhere you can, anywhere you can just about think aside from a few states, we've been trying to travel to each one of them. I've got a map of the 50 states that I still have to fill up that she made From each of them. But we've, we've been doing that for a while. We've actually got a run we're getting ready to do in Texas again. And we're going to set out on a east coast store with Tim McGraw for 17 different cities 4 (37m 6s): It's 6 (37m 6s): Weeks. And they'll start on April the 29th in Rogers, Arkansas. 4 (37m 12s): That is incredible. When do you start? Like once the success starts happening and you put out the single, like, how quickly then do you go, Hey, we should get on the road and play, you know, to, to everyone around the country. 6 (37m 24s): Well, the way that really happened was just people started reaching out and it wasn't the fact that we were just like, Hey, let's just take up and go. We just, all of a sudden started getting emails of, Hey, I'm in Michigan. Do you care to come play a show here? Hey, I'm in Georgia. You care to come down and play a show here. What's your, you know, what's your pressed to do this and is it going to be acoustic or full band? And we've been traveling, doing acoustic shows all on the basis of people just saying, Hey, we love what you're doing. And we'd love to have you out for Virginia. So that's been the incredible part of it is that it's just time after time folks reaching out saying that they love what we're doing and want to be a part of it. So we've been blessed in that factor, 4 (38m 5s): For sure. For sure. You also have your record coming out with, you know, in any single coming out or a single is already came out right in the 18th, and then you have your record coming out next month, which is huge. Tell me about that, 6 (38m 21s): Man. It's the debut single. And we had a, we had a lot of, lot of love shown to us on the AP. We released back in September of 2021 and this upcoming album has got, it's got songs that mean so much to me, just because of the hard, the wind into the writing of them, as well as just some fun, you know, happy go lucky songs. It really just gets you either moving, laughing a little bit or, you know, bobbing your head or there's one that's on there. It just makes you want to grab your friends and go to a bar and drink just cause you want to have a good time. And it's, it's got so much for so many different avenues of people to be able to connect with you, get the ones that are going to tug on the heartstrings, the ones that are just gonna, you know, kind of reach down and touch. 6 (39m 8s): So a little bit the ones that are gonna make things, you know, Hey, this is, this is exactly how my life goes on a daily basis are the ones that say, man, I lived that like that's, that's my story. Not be a lot of other people's, but that's my story. And that's, that's the, that's the amazing part of the art form that comes with this album and the riders that were a part of it and the producers, as well as that each song had its own life breathed straight into it. And there was a lot of, a lot of personal stories, as well as just stories that we felt connected with a broader range of people that were poured into these songs. And now I think once people get a chance to hear the wide array of what we've put on this thing, they're going to be hopefully blown away. 6 (39m 50s): Like we were, when we finally got to hear everything is one whole project. 4 (39m 54s): That's amazing and congratulations on all the success and everything. That's, it's so incredible to see, you know, everything that's going on. And I love like going back. I remember what I was talking about before. Just like how authentic you are online. I mean, there's something to be said about that. And I think that's why people gravitate towards you. Like, oh my God, you know, he's a song writer, but then he's got, you know, you're involved with your wife and your kids and you're showing all of this online and you just kind of have like this open book to, you know, behind the curtain, look to you and you're in your family. I just think that's such an amazing, you know, thing for people to see and for your fans to see, 6 (40m 30s): I greatly appreciate it, man. I mean, it's it for us. It's just literally wanting to, to just share who we are. We don't try to create anything that we aren't, we don't try to make any kind of curtain be pulled as to say, Hey, we're going to show everybody this fictional little group that we've created and we want y'all to come and watch this, you know, little reality show we've written. This is the day to day. Sometimes it's crazier than others. Sometimes the kids are in good mood. Sometimes they're not Trying to have fun and make the best out of what we can while we're doing it. So 4 (41m 10s): I love it. I love it. I'm I'm quick. I've just got a couple more quick questions here. I'm curious to know about your, your, your dad. You said that he was kind of the band leader and he was in your band for a while and you got to disband and start in 2010 and, you know, tell me about his reaction to the success you're having. And also, has he been a part of playing any of these shows or playing on the record with you at all? 6 (41m 32s): What my dad was, he was a big inspiration on the songwriting part of anything I've done because he's the one that showed me how to write songs. He's the one that really kind of gravitated me towards making sure that a song tells a story and has a means of connection. And he said, if you can reach out with a song and touch one person and connect with them, he said, you've done your job. And he, he tried his shot at it back in the eighties and it didn't go the way he wanted, but he kept playing music, just never really searched for it as a actual profession. And now that all this has happened, he's, you know, he's, I always try to keep them in the loop. We have a, a system where every morning around 7:35 AM, he gives me a call he's on his way to work. 6 (42m 17s): We get our nice, good morning conversation and get all the updates. And as to what's going on, you know, how how's life in his world and mine. And it, it, it's always heartwarming to me to realize how much it means to him to hear about all this stuff and how involved he wants to still be. And he's always pitching me lines, trying to keep me, you know, keep the songwriting juices flowing. And it's, it's incredible because the man that I've watched, you know, do this for years is now I'm trying his best to make sure he helps me in any way he can to keep it going on my end. And for me that's special. And it always will be. 4 (42m 53s): That's huge. That's huge. Has he, have you pulled him up on stage yet? 6 (42m 57s): Not yet. Not yet. He's we pulled him into a couple of videos. I finally caught him singing along with, and then we did a little duet at the house at my parents' house probably a month or so back. And my wife was like that perfect opportunity. And he he's never been wonder, like love getting in front of the camera. He loves being on stage and there's, there's so many, so many times that I got spinned, you know, sharing a stage with him and my brother and my cousin and my uncle, you know, all of us being up there on the stage, playing music that we love for. 6 (43m 41s): It was usually the same old group of people, but it was people that came there just because they wanted to hear us. And I look forward to hopefully being able to get my dad to come up on stage with me one more time. 4 (43m 53s): That's awesome. That is awesome. And I really appreciate your time, Brandon. This has been so cool. My last quick question for you is if you have any advice for aspiring artists, 6 (44m 2s): Man, it it's always the same advice. It's just follow your heart, love what you do. And if you don't love what you're doing and you can't honestly say that in your heart, this is what you're aspiring to do. You're not going to get far with it because there's too many people that I feel like chase after music with the idea of making money with it. And you can make money with it. That's overall. That is a big goal within it is to be able to do what you love, love what you do and have that they will sports you. But if you go in it thinking, I got to make a bunch of money by doing music, instead of I'm going in this, because I love this and I've got the drive to do it. And I hope somebody sees that I've got the spark and wants to do something with it.