Interview with Indii G

0 (0s): 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. Wait a minute. I've heard that before. That's the note Jeremy wrote to me in my year book in the sixth grade. How'd you even know that because it's from Geico. Wait, here it is. Dear Luke have a great summer. PS, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. Love Jeremy. Geico's had this tagline for years because we helped save people money. So wait, you're saying Jeremy copy deal. Yeah, that actually does sound like something in the gym. And do Geico 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. 3 (1m 57s): Hello. It is Adam. Welcome back to bring it backwards. A podcast where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories of how they achieved stardom. On this episode, we had a chance to hang out with indie G over zoom video. Andy G was born and raised in Louisiana. He grew up north Louisiana, kind of near the Arkansas border in more of the countryside. And he talks about that and how he got into music. His dad is the pastor and very involved in the church. So he had a grand piano in his house, a bunch of different instruments all around his dad didn't play, but the worship band was always at their house practicing. So he was interested in music at a very early age, started playing piano around four or five years old, joined the school band in sixth grade, played the trumpet and did that through high school with the marching band switched over to tuba. 3 (2m 45s): But also when he was in high school, he started playing guitar and started a pop punk band. He did the band for a little while up at least through the first year of college. Then he moved to Baton Rouge and went to LSU where he still currently is when he got to Baton that's when he decided, you know, I can do all these things musically I can produce, I can write, I just want to start to sing. So he really forced himself to learn how to sing. And he started putting out songs up on SoundCloud. From there. He was able to meet a lot of other people involved in SoundCloud. Like pal Fu is one of the big people he collaborated with early on. And one of those songs grabbed the attention of epitaph records. He talks about getting signed to epitaph, getting a DM on Twitter from the president of epitaph, basically saying, we want to chat. 3 (3m 28s): And he's like, ah, this is, is this real. So we hear the story of him getting signed to epitaph and all about his brand new song called Hampton and the music video as well. You can watch the interview with indie G on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. We'd love it. If you subscribe to our channel like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik TOK at bringing back pod. And if you're listening to this on apple music or Spotify, give us a follow there and a five star review. If you have some time, that'd be great as well. 4 (3m 59s): I appreciate your support. If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts, 3 (4m 5s): We're bringing it backwards with indie G. I appreciate you being here. I love your, your wall back there. Is that a bunch of pictures? Yeah. 5 (4m 12s): Oh yeah. It's actually like mango book. Do you know? Like anime? Oh yeah. I, I watched a lot of anime. So like, these are like different like manga panels. I like, I just tore up a bunch of books, taped the pages to my walls and made my own little wallpaper or like all my shows. Yeah. It took like a week to do 3 (4m 31s): That'd be hours. Right. But 5 (4m 33s): Yeah, I made a whole tick talk about it too. And it kind of took off. 3 (4m 37s): That's awesome. Yeah, this is awesome. And he got some CDs, like up on the wall there too on the light, 5 (4m 42s): Right. I guess over here. Yeah. They're just a bunch of blink CDs. 3 (4m 47s): That's cool, man. I like that. Or your spot or? Yeah, where's that? 5 (4m 50s): Yeah. Yeah. This is all my studio in my apartment and yeah, this is where I do all my music reporting, producing everything. 3 (4m 58s): Awesome. Baton Rouge here, born and raised 5 (4m 60s): There. And I was actually born and raised in Ruston, Louisiana, which is like, I'm about four hours from here, Louisiana kind of close to Arkansas. It's a whole different vibe from like the rest Louisiana. It's more a country like the sticks 3 (5m 17s): Where, where you're at, where you were born and raised. I was born 5 (5m 20s): Where I was born from like Baton Rouge. Like it's more city vibes than like where I was raised that. Okay. 3 (5m 27s): What was it? I mean, how long did you live there for before he moved to Baton Rouge? 5 (5m 31s): I moved to Baton Rouge in like 2016 or so. So I've been here for what's that six, five years or so. Okay. So, 3 (5m 41s): But like probably like what age were you? Sorry. 5 (5m 43s): Oh, I believe I moved here. I was like 22. 3 (5m 49s): Okay. So you had been out of school and everything else at this point? 5 (5m 53s): Yeah. I'm actually transferred from mom. I was the LA tech and then I to LSU came over. 3 (5m 59s): Wow. Okay. 5 (6m 2s): That's awesome. It's a bit of a culture change, but this is where I call home now and I'm sure they'll be accustomed to it and everything. 3 (6m 11s): That's cool. What was it like growing up more in like the country? 5 (6m 16s): It's pretty good. I mean, a lot of my free time, like hanging out with friends was more doing like a bonfires, you know, stuff like that. And out in the woods, me and my friends used to play airsoft a lot. Like cool. Go on the woods. Kind of like shoot at each other. Made little games about that. 3 (6m 38s): That's amazing. And how did, how did you get new music? 5 (6m 42s): I've always been like musically, like interested and like inclined. I know like from a young age, like I was, I started playing piano, like, I don't know, like four or five. Wow. Like, yeah. My parents had like this grand piano in the living room and like, I always like, started like messing with that, playing that. And I was in marching band as well. I started playing trumpet and like sixth grade or so. And I transitioned from trumpet. I started applying to like French horn pretty much like any, like for us instrument. That was a good app. That's cool. 3 (7m 18s): Well, having a grand piano in your house or your parents, did they play piano or like, were they musical? 5 (7m 26s): Not really. So my dad was, he was like a pastor, so they had a, like a worship band. So he would like help out with that. And like, they were like sometimes practice like at our house. So like the piano was there and just kind of like for living revise, but also there's like instruments like around the house. And I'm like in the garage just for like Porsche band purposes. And I would always like interested kind of like took interest in that and started like messing around with it when everything, but my parents themselves were never like music, musical. I'm a first generation. 5 (8m 7s): So like my parents where's your family from, from Cameroon, which is like, what's, what's the Africa. They moved here for college and then they had me and my siblings. So yeah. So we got the first American experience and I wanted to make the best life for us. Sure. 3 (8m 28s): That's amazing. Have you ever been back? I 5 (8m 30s): Have not, but I do plan on it at some point in my life. I felt the need to go. Just like check it out. Sure. 3 (8m 38s): Yeah. Did you hear stories about it from your parents at 5 (8m 40s): All? Yeah, they would tell us, like, we still have family over there. Some cousins, we send some stuff over there and like got some stuff received from them. Like, they'd send some of them different like outfits and like some of them. So like a dashiki it's like a, like a, a robe kind of thing with like some cultural colors. Wow. Very, very interesting. We definitely need to visit at some point. 3 (9m 12s): Oh, that's really awesome. Yeah. So they came out here. You said to go to college? 5 (9m 17s): Yeah. They actually went to Louisiana tech, which is on school that I ended up going to, I believe. Yeah. So my dad came here and then he went back to bring my mom over here. 3 (9m 33s): Oh. So they knew each other prior to moving out here. They didn't like at Louisiana tech or LSU or anything? 5 (9m 40s): No, they, they met back at home. So they're both from Cameroon. So he brought her back over here. Got married, had children. And here I am now. 3 (9m 51s): Yeah. Well having the, you know, all those instruments in the house and the grand piano was your dad like the musical director for the worship band or he just was the preacher at the church. So he's like, you guys can come here and practice. 5 (10m 5s): Yeah. He was more of the preacher and it was kind of like a family run. Thanks for like my uncle different like on relatives where like in the like Porsche ban. Oh, okay. Yeah. They were like play guitar. So they had guitars around. I started playing guitar. Like I would say the only middle school I started playing guitar. 3 (10m 24s): But you were also playing all the brass instruments as well at this time. 5 (10m 27s): Yeah. I was pretty much just playing any instrument. I can get my hand on at this point. 3 (10m 32s): And those are 5 (10m 33s): Sorry, go ahead. Oh yeah. Eventually like in high school we started, I started a band. I was in like a punk pop band with, on a three-piece fan. So it was me. We had a lead singer and like, we had a couple different like drummers, like in and out. So I wasn't ever like one official drummer. 3 (10m 51s): It's not usually how it is. It's like the drummer's always got to find, cause they're always got, he's got to pick it. The litter 5 (10m 58s): Very flaky for no reason. I should 3 (11m 0s): Know. Cause they know that they hold all the cards. It's like, where's the drummer at? And then they can go, oh, are they feeling this style? I'm going to quit. I'm going to just go join another band now. 5 (11m 10s): Yeah, exactly. As always. I was so like, I like to call it like more of a two-piece band from the singer and then like, like a guest or so, but I'm 3 (11m 19s): A guest drummer. Yeah. 5 (11m 21s): But I would say like, that was like my introduction to like actually like producing music and like making music for like, like recording and everything. 3 (11m 30s): Okay. So you guys are doing that together and what you When you didn't have a drummer though, would you just program? 5 (11m 54s): Yeah, so I was more of like the instrumentalist slash producer of the van. We, we had a YouTube channel where we did like covers different like music videos. And like most of our recorded music was like me just like on programming, the drums, like producing instrumentals and stuff. But like we had a few gigs and like during our gigs we'd have like a drummer on set. 3 (12m 19s): Okay. That's really cool. What drew you originally to the trumpet when you were in sixth grade? 5 (12m 25s): So honestly I'm in sixth grade. Like whenever I was like, all right, I want to do marching band. They had us all like come together and like they do out a bunch of instruments and they're like, all right, what's the one like, call see like what's on. Do you want to like, do a mom? I was like, kinda torn between like the trombone and the French horn and like the trumpet was there. And like, it kinda looked like an in between of the two instruments am I, like, I felt like I couldn't decide with, you know, suicide. I picked the one that kind of looked like it was a mixture of both because like the, it kind of has like a little slider on it, even though it's just for tuning, but I thought I'd just looked cool. 3 (13m 4s): Right. That's awesome. 5 (13m 6s): That's the one 3 (13m 8s): I played in the band for in the school band for one like in fifth grade, when you got to kind of get your toe, dip your toe into the whole thing. And I picked the clarinet because you stuck your mouth over the whole mouthpiece and blew into it and made like an obnoxious sound. But then also it was small enough where I could fit it in my backpack. And I remember my neighbor who him and I would walk to school to, and from school together, he played the trombone and he had this big ass, you know, case. And he's got to carry this whole thing all the way home. And I'm like, I do not envy you, man. It's a trumpet small enough to, you could got enough to carry out a bit. I bet. 5 (13m 45s): Yeah. It's more like a little tiny suitcase. It's not too bad. I mean, what was worse was like, I eventually switched to tuba sousaphone yet to like, carry it over your shoulder. Like Marsha, that was terrible to bring home. 3 (13m 58s): Why did you decide to switch to that? 5 (14m 1s): Well, in my band, our tuba section was very lacking. Like around the time I was like in like a sophomore, whatever. And I was like, you know what? I could be the guy to like step up and like make our tuba section more like present. So like, I was like, let me do this. I could do it. And then like I mentioned became first chair in the tuba section. Wow. Yeah. So, 3 (14m 25s): So worked out. That was a good choice. I've worked elevated the band there. That's cool. Yeah. But you're out doing your other band at the pop punk band at the time too. 5 (14m 34s): Yeah. Yeah. So I met the lead singer in like marching band. We were friends like throughout and at that time, like I'd started like messing around with them FL studio, which is like the software that they use now today. So like pretty soon as they still use for dealerships. Yeah. Yeah. I started messing with that and like in high school and me and her would just like, kinda like mess around with some stuff on it. Cause like I know she was a singer and I was like, oh, I want you to sing on this. Cause like I pretty something. And I was like, here you go. Like do what you, what you think you can do with it. And like you started making some pretty cool stuffs. You're like, you know what, let's start a band. So we did that. We were called Sox, which spelled SOC K S it means in Spanish, it is what it is. 5 (15m 20s): And we thought that was kind of cool. So we went with that. 3 (15m 24s): Yeah. It is what it is. I like that. That's her. Yeah. So you did that for a while until you graduated. 5 (15m 31s): Yeah. So did that for about through my first year of college, we kind of broke up the band broke up or so she, we kind of started having like some musical differences, like direction wise. You want it to do more of folk singer stuff. And like, I wanted to kind of explore more and like do more like genres and eventually we're just like, well, we kind of do our own thing, but at that time I had felt confident in like anything I could do, like music wise besides vocals. It's like, I was never really like a vocalist or anything. 5 (16m 11s): Like I didn't feel comfortable singing and like everything else I was like, I can do, but I knew I still wanted to do music like after like the band at that. So I just spent a lot of time, like practicing my vocals and like writing the lyrics and just like singing and like getting to a point where I was like confident on my vocals. And then in about 2016 about like when I moved to Baton Rouge, I became, NDG started putting out my own individual music. 3 (16m 40s): Wow. What was it like, I mean, going back a little bit here to, to you deciding, you know, I got S I'm going to try to sing that must've been hard to do. Right. I mean, grab the mic and be like, okay, this is what my voice is going to sound like, like tell me about that. 5 (16m 55s): Oh yeah. So like you never like really like, know how you actually sound it's you, you hear it back on the recording. Right. So it's always like the first time, like you record something, you listen to it and it's like, oh, that's what I sound like. I feel like that that's what helped me the most just recording and just like listening to like my voice and like seeing what I can improve on, like my delivery, like different inflections you can do on it. And just like over like years I'm like practice, you just get to a point where you're like confident in it. 3 (17m 28s): And then from there, that's when you moved after you kind of had that, that you developed that skill set to sing, and then you moved to Baton Rouge and that's when we became in DJ. 5 (17m 38s): Yeah, pretty much. Okay. So like 2016 was like the move the van broke up, I would say like 2014. Okay. So there's about a two year gap there. 3 (17m 49s): And where you're just working, trying to, trying to write songs and get your, your voice to where you want it to be. 5 (17m 56s): Yeah, pretty 3 (17m 56s): Much. Okay. And then what was it like then now you're in DG and you've got a couple of songs under your belt and you have to put, you've got to put one out or like what, like what was the process there? 5 (18m 9s): Yeah. So, I mean, starting off, like putting it on my own music, it was more of me just messing around, putting, making some songs that are like throwing them up on SoundCloud and, you know, kind of seeing how people would react. I met a couple of friends like that. Did music at LA tech, actually, there's this one guy that I met, who he had been on SoundCloud for a while. And he kinda like showed me the ropes of like, how to like use the platform, how he does like, goes about like being an artist. And like, he kind of introduced me to his like network of other, like independent artists. 5 (18m 53s): And like, through there, we kind of like collabed, we worked together. He showed me how to like mix and master properly, which I hadn't really done right until then. 3 (19m 3s): And this is somebody you met at school? 5 (19m 5s): Yeah. LA tech before performing. 3 (19m 9s): Yeah. 5 (19m 11s): And I'm just like other people I met offline online just kind of helped me get like the whole, like my whole image together. And I'm just like posting on SoundCloud, Instagram, YouTube, 3 (19m 26s): And like just trying to gain some traction there that way. Yeah. 5 (19m 29s): Yeah. Just kinda, it just kinda like builds up over time. 3 (19m 33s): When did you see like, like was a song on one of the songs that you put out, like kind of catch a little bit of fire or was it just kind of a gradual thing? Like, tell me about that. 5 (19m 43s): Yeah. So I feel like one song I kind of like took off and kind of built like the foundation of like are mad. It's like, it's called numb. So I've met a guy named SAVAK prolific. Who's pretty big. Now he was actually like 15 years old at the time, like really, really young, but like, he was very talented, like very good. And I kind of like helped him out studying like recording. He was not good at like produce or like mixing everything. So like, I kinda mixed his vocals for him, but on his lyrics were just like amazing. 5 (20m 24s): So we collide and I'm like, that song just kind of like took off. 3 (20m 28s): Oh, wow. Yeah. Downtown cloud. It went, it took off. 5 (20m 31s): Yeah. SoundCloud. And then I put it up on Spotify, but the song had used the sample from I forget the guy's name, but it was like, it wasn't a cleared sample. 5 (23m 7s): So like, oh God. Yeah. I had to get taken down, which is very discouraging. 3 (23m 14s): Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Cause yeah, SoundCloud. It was a little bit different, right? Like no one, there was kind of the wild west when it came to that stuff. 5 (23m 22s): Yeah. There's a lot of that going on on SoundCloud or Spotify is different the second week that happens. All right. Remove it. Fully word, got taken down. It was already like, like approaching a million streams. Wow. Yeah, that was kind of like the first song that I was like, alright. There's like something there, like, just like with that sound. And from there we did more songs together. We did, I don't know, like maybe like six or seven more songs down there. I'm like, they all did pretty good numbers 3 (23m 55s): On your ear. The first EPA put out, right. Marigold. That ones you've got a few couple songs or at least one song with him on there. But even prior to that, there was other songs that you have released with, with him on there as well. 5 (24m 7s): Yeah. Yeah. I'll never go with there on a complacent with him on it and then float away, which was on the first song that we did together. That was like before Marigold 3 (24m 19s): Came out. Yeah. 5 (24m 21s): Came out. Did that song, did it pretty well, but just me and him kinda just like built a sound together and it's kind of kept going with it. 3 (24m 33s): Did you meet pal through SoundCloud as well? 5 (24m 39s): Actually met him. I discovered him through Spotify. I I'm looking at like my Spotify profile. I'm like, I just looked on the related artists page. Like people listening to the same martyrs and pal who was like the first one on there. They're like, I just hit him up on Instagram. And I was like, do you want to do a song together? Pretty much. Just kind of like started chatting. And so he was like, yeah, your music. And I was like, I like your music too. 3 (25m 8s): That's awesome. Cause he, I interviewed him before and that's where he came out of right. SoundCloud. And then he had that one. Huge, I mean the, the song that, you know, changed everything for him, it was much later down the line. So yeah. So you've probably you, I mean, you were probably collaborating way before he achieved, obviously deathbed. 5 (25m 27s): Yeah. I actually remember when that song was initially released because kind of like the same situation with me and numb. He couldn't put it on Spotify for the longest 3 (25m 36s): Because he had that. Cause it takes the hook from 5 (25m 40s): Be able to your name. 3 (25m 40s): Yeah. 5 (25m 42s): Yeah. It's like he dropped that song like maybe a year before it actually took off just on SoundCloud. And like, I remember like listening to that song and I was like, this is a great song. And like I'd been listening to it before, like everyone else had, and then like the time came here, he officially dropped it on Spotify and everything else. And like, it just absolutely took off when 3 (26m 2s): Crazy and it's all over the radio and it was like, and that just put him on the map. 5 (26m 7s): Yeah, I did. I remember the first time I heard his song, like, and it's a poli, I was in <em></em> and then like just over the radio, his song came on and I was like, oh my God, this is my friend pal Fu like telling people. And they're like, yeah, it's funny. I was like, I know him. Yeah. But I'm, I'm super proud of him and <em></em> 3 (26m 31s): Kind of came up together. That's rad. 5 (26m 33s): Yeah. I just like that whole era of SoundCloud, I miss so much like him, me and pal Fu or Southern prolific Alice as well as another artists thought I kind of came up with, God's just like a goofy would just be like chatting up. It's making music together and it's just a good era. 3 (26m 59s): Yeah. I know. It's kind of came out of the, that, that same, that same scene when she did Marigold. Was that, I mean, that was a couple of years ago. So you're living in a battery's at this point. Are you doing shows at all or is it all basically just doing songs and putting them up on online? 5 (27m 18s): Mostly just putting them up online. I did a couple shows, just more like house parties type thing. I would also, me and my homie would bus like downtown Baton Rouge, kind of, yeah. A friend that I met and at college, like in Baton Rouge, he's, I'm a guitarist and he's played guitar for like a few of my songs, but being able to like go downtown, just kind of set up, I would sing, like play my guitar and he would play his guitar and like, we'd make like some pretty good money doing that. Cause like we would go like around like midnight around like the time people were going to bars, like walking down the street and people were like drunk. 5 (27m 59s): They would like stockpile, listen to us and just like, oh, here's 20 bucks, whatever. That's 3 (28m 4s): A rad. Yeah. 5 (28m 7s): Yeah. 3 (28m 8s): That is fun. I obviously stopped doing that busking. 5 (28m 13s): Yeah. That kind of stopped with COVID. Oh yeah, sure. Cause like all the bars were like shut down people. It's not as much people outside nowadays definitely need to spring that back as soon as, as soon as we can. 3 (28m 27s): That's cool. You put out a, another EAP in 2019 called the heart part bat or heart-based too. And where's the first of all, did you do one before that? Or just start with number two? 5 (28m 40s): Yeah. So, so heart-based, so the first song that I ever created by myself was a song, but I called heart-based and that song isn't like out like officially, it was just a song that I made. I sent it to like my friends and stuff and I'm like my friend Julie looked at the first heart base, which isn't out like on Spotify or anything else. It's only out on SoundCloud and YouTube. That was like my first kind of project as in DJ. Oh, okay. Yeah. And, and there's just one song it's or a couple of songs. Yeah. It's like five songs, but one of the songs is a remake of the original heart-based that I made just to kind of throw it back. 5 (29m 27s): Yeah. And heart-based too is kind of a continuation on that first project. And that one is like officially released online 3 (29m 41s): Spot on Spotify recently. Yeah. And I was curious, I'm like, Hey, there's where's the first one. 5 (29m 47s): Yeah. The first one was kind of hard to find. It's like, you got to kind of dig on through YouTube or on SoundCloud for, 3 (29m 55s): Yeah. I'm going to have to do that at right. When we get off this call, I'm going to have to dig in there and see what I can find. That's awesome. 5 (30m 1s): Definitely. Check it out. It's you got to kind of get a feel for like how I was doing stuff back then. 3 (30m 9s): I mean, you really sampled songs in 2019 and then comes the pandemic. What, how did that affect your, your music and were you working a lot over that period of time? Like, 5 (30m 21s): Yeah. So around the pandemic, that's actually about the time where I got signed. Oh, really tough record. 3 (30m 28s): Okay. I didn't know if that was a, until a little later. Okay. So were you a fan of epitaph records before signing to them? I mean that, that label has been so iconic and has so many big, you know, at least in the punk rock world names on it. Yeah. 5 (30m 44s): Yeah. I definitely was like on a lot of the bands on the label. I've been like bands I've been listening to and like kind of inspired my original band in high school. 3 (30m 56s): Yeah. If you're in a, yeah, you're in a punk band. So I figured you'd probably were, you know, inspired by a little bit of that. 5 (31m 3s): Yeah. Definitely like green day for sure. Was like definitely a big inspiration for like my original music. So it was just crazy. Just like getting the call in the first place and just like knowing that they have interest in what I'm doing 3 (31m 20s): And how did that happen? Like did they find your music on SoundCloud or Spotify or like where, where did the connection happen? 5 (31m 28s): I don't exactly know for sure. I w I want to say it was on probably through either YouTube or SoundCloud. Cause I know there's a YouTube channel that like promotes my music a lot called promoting sounds and I'm usually they'll upload a song of mine and it'll get like several views. So I want to say they found my music through that channel my song no way, which has like 2 million streams on them, on that YouTube channel. I think that's a song that kind of got their attention. 3 (32m 2s): So like who's this kid. Yeah. 5 (32m 5s): Yeah. So it was this crazy. They, they hit me up on Twitter, like really? Yeah. Sent me a DM. It was the president of epitaph DME. And like I saw the request and she said, hi, I'm the president of, of epics Africa. So want to talk. And so like, I saw that message and I thought it was fake for a while. 3 (32m 25s): Yeah. Where you, like, I mean, oh my gosh, she responded right away or you just kind of were hesitant. 5 (32m 33s): I mean, I took a second, like not too long or like an hour or so, but I was like, all right, let me just see what, like, if they are fake, I'm like, I'll just hear them out. At least like I responded. And I was like, yeah, I can talk. And then we exchanged numbers then not too long after I think like a day later I got a call from her and then we set up a call with me and Brett. 3 (32m 59s): Yeah. That religion. Yeah. 5 (33m 3s): Yeah. So I went from me being okay to my room, to being in a FaceTime call with bad religion. 3 (33m 10s): Wow. So are you nervous when that call happened? 5 (33m 14s): Oh yeah, definitely. I like, I mean, he, he, Dale please seem to like find a lot of interest in me. Like he was very adamant about having me on board and like, you've, you've asked for me really hard. So 3 (33m 32s): I mean that, he's the guy that matters. Right. I mean, it's his label and that at the end of the day. Yeah, exactly loud. And does, does he help produce your stuff as well? I know he's big on helping produces his artists. 5 (33m 45s): Yeah. Actually he'll give me on pointers. Like I have his number and then like what kind of tax? Every once in a while, like whenever I'm, I'll send some demos, he'll give me some feedback. Like things that I can do to kind of improve like the mix. 3 (34m 0s): Cause you're producing everything yourself, still 5 (35m 3s): Not everything. Yeah, a lot. I still mix master pretty much checking myself, but I'm producing. I'll do like some songs and then I'll use other people's beats as well. Like I kind of work with okay. But will like give him like his 2 cents on like maybe like a melody that I have in a song or like just like a mixing technique that I'll do. It'd be like, maybe I'm at a delay throw here or something like that. So he's very involved, which is good to hear and good to see. 3 (35m 41s): So busy. Yeah. Such a legend. Right. I mean, to spend the time to listen to all of the artists and support all the artists I, a band from I'm from San Diego and a band that I've interviewed before for the podcast. But also guys that kind of grew up much younger than me. They grew up in the same area as me. They're a band called the frites and they were assigned to epitaph. I think they might still be. But when they were telling me about recording their record and everything, it was like, you know, he was at the studio with him like every day and like so involved in everything that was happening with their band, I thought that was so rad. Like this guy doesn't need to be right. 5 (36m 21s): Exactly. Yeah. He's just very, like, he's all about the music and like him signing artists like me and I'm like Gucci highwaters who aren't like traditional like pop punk band or like dumb 3 (36m 37s): Punk rock bands. Right? Yeah. 5 (36m 40s): I feel like he's very invested in our success because it's kind of like the label itself is kind of taking a turn. Right. Kind of evolving, trying to add some more sounds, just like to the whole roster and everything. So I feel like to him, like me I'm like artists, like the new inquires, like from SoundCloud, like smart enough included, sad eyes where I fill out like were important to like, just like the whole 3 (37m 10s): Yeah. I mean, it's kind of like the new, the new punk rock in a sense. Right. I mean just doing everything kind of underground independently and then, you know, creating this sound that nobody has done. Yeah. 5 (37m 23s): It's kinda like pioneers in a sense, 3 (37m 25s): Right? No, totally firing heirs. Yeah. That's so rad. 5 (37m 30s): Yeah. There's a lot of weight on the shoulders, but you know, 3 (37m 35s): When I saw, yeah, I didn't heard of Gucci high until I saw that he signed with epitaph and I'm like, who is this? Like, this is like, I've never heard of this guy. And then I listened to his stuff and I'm like, this is really rad, but it's such a different direction than what epitaph is used to doing. But then again, it's like, they don't want to probably put themselves in this box. They're just reaching out and getting the newest, rad talent. I love that. Exactly. 5 (38m 1s): Yeah. Definitely trying to branch out and like not have, you know, 3 (38m 6s): Every band sound like no facts. Yeah. That's so cool. Well tell me Hampton's the newest one that you've put out. Yup. W w what's that song or tell me about the song. 5 (38m 19s): So Hansen dropped. What was it? A few days ago? It's a song that I feel is a kind of, kind of encapsulates just the idea of rekindling, like a lost flame, riding your wrongs. But like, I just wanted a sound that was kind of the stylistic and uplifting and like, not, not as grateful, but it's a song that I, I didn't produce the whole song. I, it was a friend of mine who actually sent me a beat and I was like, this is really good. 5 (39m 0s): I'm like, I instantly was like, all right, I of want to go this direction, but I also produced the ultra for it. I just got some violence. I actually paid a guy on a fiber to like play a melody on the violin. 3 (39m 16s): Really. Did you see, you wrote the melody and you're like, Hey, can you play this on violin? 5 (39m 20s): Yeah. So I sent him like a lot of recording of just like something I did on my piano. And I was like, Hey, can you play this on the violin? And so he did it, he sends it to me and I, from that audio, I used it to like, I, I looped it in my, chopped it up re structured, like the chords of it. And it's made like a whole orchestral outro for the song. And I just feel like that part's really cool. And the whole, I feel like it brings like the vibe of it together and it just kind of gives it a sense of closure. 3 (39m 55s): That's rad. That's really, that's cool. Like what a creative concept would be like, eh, I'm going to put this on Fiverr. So now you've got the guy really playing it. Right. Instead of you could have probably just, you know, muddied the sound from your, from your keyboard or whatever from piano. 5 (40m 13s): I mean, that's what I try to do at first, but like, it just didn't sound as real and I wanted it to sound like a real orchestra. So I just, you got a real violin and just manipulated it to make it sound like a whole band. 3 (40m 27s): Awesome. That's really awesome. And you did a video for the song as well? 5 (40m 31s): Yeah. We shot that in LA Dylan came up with the concept of it and like the whole, the, like the script he'd made, he did some really cool via effects with it, like me throwing up lottery, tickets, all that, which is really cool to shoot. And just like to see it all come together from like what we actually filmed and how it looks in the final product 3 (40m 58s): Posts. Yeah. 5 (41m 1s): Yeah. It's insane. 3 (41m 2s): It's probably cool for you. I mean, as the artist to not sin, since he probably edited and did the effects and everything to kind of see it after the fact like, oh, wow. Like, whoa, like this is so much more, you know, crazier than I anticipated it being. Or like when we were shooting this, I had no idea this was going to do this. 5 (41m 22s): Yeah. I mean, I had faith in him, so like, you know, make it look cool and all that just like from me, just like doing the motion of it, to like actually looking like I'm throwing up or a lottery tickets. It's very cool. But I'm just, it just did an overall really good job with the video. Like it looks very professional. I think it's the best video I've done so far. I've done about like, I dunno, like four, four music videos and that one, I think it's 3 (41m 52s): The best one. Yeah. It's awesome. It's a great video. And yeah. What about playing live? Have you had a chance to do that at all? 5 (42m 1s): No, not much. We're still kind of looking for opportunities for me to do some shows, but it's just been kind of hard with COVID going on. Oh, right. 3 (42m 11s): And all the different variants happening all the time and all that. All these variants. Yeah. 5 (42m 17s): Yeah. But the last show I did was in new Orleans, maybe like a few months ago, like last year, just on a couple of different artists from like the area kinda got together, just did like a little house party show. That's pretty cool. Just the small little intimate environment. 3 (42m 39s): That's really awesome, man. Well, I, I appreciate you doing this interview. Thank you so much into Jay. This has been awesome. 5 (42m 46s): Thanks for having me. Yeah. 3 (42m 49s): I have one more quick question for you. I want to know if you have any advice for aspiring artists. 5 (42m 54s): Yeah. I would say don't compare yourself to others. Pave your own line. Be as genuine as possible because people can tell if you're trying to beat someone else and genuinely goes a long way and make the music.