Interview with Rozei (Rozei Returns!)

1 (27s): 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 catch up with Rosie, who we had on the show October, 2020. And it was awesome to see Rosie again and speak with him about all the new music he has and kind of brush up on what we learned the first time around Rosie gets into where he was born and raised again, how he got into music, putting out his first songs under two different aliases, eventually landing on Rosie. In 2018, we hear about the massive success of Oola LA and everything that came with that. 1 (1m 7s): Meeting the phase. Guys, talk about gaming and everything he's been up to since the last conversation, which one huge thing is he's gotten engaged. He's put out a bunch of songs and we hear all about the most recent one called crashing and burning. You can watch our interview with Rosie on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It would be so amazing if you subscribe to our channel and like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik TOK at bringing back pod. And if you're listening to this on Spotify or apple music, Google podcasts, we would love it. If you follow us there as well, and hook us up with a five-star review, 2 (1m 45s): We'd appreciate your support. If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts, 1 (1m 51s): We're bringing it backwards with Rosie. Thank you again, dude, for doing this. I really appreciate it. 3 (1m 57s): Of course. 1 (1m 58s): Awesome. Well, I mean, obviously we, we, we heard your story before, but I would love to, to, to follow up on some of the questions I had before, but you know, to get people caught up. Talk to me about were born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, 3 (2m 11s): Erie, Pennsylvania. Tell me what I'm like. I'm kind of tucked in between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. So like whenever we wanted to go to a show or anything, we'd have to drive to like either Buffalo, Cleveland, or Pittsburgh or any of the, like the big cities around us. Cause we're kind of right. It's 30 minutes to Ohio and then 30 minutes to New York, like on either side. Cause we're like right up in the little strip up there. But yeah. So growing up here, the music scene is a lot of like rock bands and there's like one small venue that they all play at called a basement transmissions. So that's kinda where all the live shows that go on in town. 3 (2m 53s): And it's kind of like a ghost town. Everyone wants to be like a rapper and everyone wants to be like a artist. So there's a lot of music here, but not a lot of people make it out. I think the only other person that made it out of Erie was pat Monahan from train. 1 (3m 9s): Oh, okay. Really? I didn't know that. That's amazing. 3 (3m 14s): His daughter goes to a high school here. I thought, I think she might've graduated, but 1 (3m 19s): Okay. That's interesting. I thought, well maybe I'm thinking something different. I thought they were from San Francisco. Maybe not. 3 (3m 26s): And how to live there for a minute. Yeah, I know he, he came here or he used to live here, 1 (3m 31s): Live here. That's cool. That's killer. I think you were talking about that venue last time we spoke. Didn't you, you played that right? One of your, 3 (3m 38s): I played there twice, I think. 1 (3m 41s): Okay. I don't know what you're saying. You, you packed the room and it's not a spot that usually gets a hold on. 3 (3m 46s): Yeah, we did pack it. It was, it was a Halloween party. So I was like looking down in the car and everyone was wearing costumes, like a bunch of weird shit going on, out in the crowd. And I was like, what's going on? It was packed. Yeah. 1 (3m 57s): Where you dressed up? 3 (3m 58s): No, I just looked at it myself. I should have dressed up. I should've worked something crazy. 1 (4m 3s): Well, living in Erie, I mean, you said 30 minutes to Ohio, 30 minutes to New York. I 3 (4m 9s): Told you 1 (4m 9s): My, my, my family and all Cleveland area, but west Cleveland, 3 (4m 15s): We're talking about 1 (4m 15s): Like Lorraine or something, but like for you to get to show in Cleveland, is that 30 minutes from you? Or is that 3 (4m 23s): Yeah, Cleveland's like an hour and a half. Like all the majors said is like an hour and a half. I'm just talking about state lines, like, 1 (4m 28s): And Scott you, okay. So like if, if an artist came through, you'd have to go what an hour plus to see, see them. Okay. So a lot of like what bands would actually land in Erie? Not a whole lot. Mainly local. 3 (4m 43s): Yeah. Just local bands. There's not really, we don't really have like a, a bigger venue. I mean, we have like, oh shit, what's that arena called? We have an arena here. PNC, maybe PNC arena, but it's not a huge arena. So it honestly wouldn't even be worth it for like a larger band to come here because they wouldn't sell much, you know? 1 (5m 4s): Huh? Like what caliber? Like growing up, like what bands would you go check out? Like or were most of them you'd have to drive to no matter what 3 (5m 10s): Most of them we'd have to drive to. This is kinda a little off topic. But growing up, I was like extremely, I was in church a lot and we went to a, Almost like a, like a weekend, like Christian band festival, like, oh, what was that band called? That was like huge skillet. Like skillet. 1 (5m 33s): Yeah. 3 (5m 33s): Yeah. So yeah, we had to drive a little bit to go see them. It was like a, like a weekend like festival with like a bunch of other Christian bands. But 1 (5m 44s): That's cool. Yeah. I remember you saying that your grandma saying in the church choir, didn't she or she's in the, 3 (5m 49s): Grandma's saying in the church choir? My, so my uncle who's my manager. Now he was signed to Def jam back in the day. I think I told you that last time. Yeah, he was on a Def jam in a band. I think he was on one of the fast and furious soundtracks. 1 (6m 3s): That's incredible. Do you remember which one? There's like what? 15 of those? 3 (6m 8s): I'm sorry. I might've been the second one. It was one of the first or second before they got into like tanks and shit. 1 (6m 15s): Okay. In space or they're doing 3 (6m 19s): Whatever they're doing now. Okay. 1 (6m 21s): So he was signed to Def jam, but was he from Erie also or? No. 3 (6m 26s): Okay. My, all my family originates an area for my immediate family, at least. 1 (6m 31s): Okay. Yeah. I remember you saying your bow, both uncles on both sides, right? Or? 3 (6m 36s): Yeah, my uncles on both sides. Yep. Yeah. 1 (6m 39s): So w do you remember going to shows growing up? Like that's something you would go to? I mean, to get started, don't feel it's a huge deal. 3 (6m 45s): Yeah. I don't remember going to any of his shows. I just remember him, like having like CD, like mixed tapes that he used to show me of like his unreleased stuff. And he, I thought he was an insane, he like pranked me and told me he was an in-sync and I was like, what are you talking about? And then, then he, like, he like, photo-shopped his face on like one of the incent guys on like one of the CDs I'm like, okay, 1 (7m 8s): That's amazing. Well, he manages now use managing you when I talked to you before. I remember you saying that, but 3 (7m 15s): So is 1 (7m 15s): The C obviously you saw talent in you and you, was he somebody that you would go to, like as a mentor to kind of, 3 (7m 23s): I sustained them. Like when I first started back in what it was 2016, like late 20 16, 20 17. When I first started making music, I would always send them like my, my little rough songs that I used to send them. And she'd be like, keep working. Like you're, you're getting that. And he'd like, saw the progress happened. Like it went from like, I used to do like J Cole style music, boom, bap, like rap, rap. I was like, yo, like, this is a song I just made, like send them SoundCloud links. And then I used to make a song like a day. Like I crank out a song a day, send it to them. And if we were to go back through our text chain, it would probably be like a shit ton of SoundCloud links. And it got to the point where he stopped responding to me for a little bit. 3 (8m 4s): He was like, all right. Like when you, when you send me something that's like worth listening to like, let me know. I was like, all right. Like, I was just excited to like send him stuff. And once it got to the point where I was like making like quality, like, it sounded like it was getting better. Like, she'd be like, all right, let's look to work on this. I was working on this. Like, let's get this like, kind of honed in and then Oola came and he's like, yeah. 1 (8m 29s): Okay. What was the song like at what point was it here? I finally have one that I think I'm going to send to him. Like, I mean, cause you went from sending him to something every day. Like at what point do you say? Okay. Here's one that I think is going to be good enough to send him like how far down the line was that? Were you still in high school at that time? Yeah. 3 (8m 46s): Yeah. It was, it was actually after I dropped out of college, I, I still wasn't making like super great music. When I dropped out of college. I just knew that it was something that I wanted to do for like a job. I couldn't see myself. I was a pre-med bio major. 1 (8m 59s): Oh 3 (8m 60s): Wow. I was going to school to be a chiropractor. Cause my dad has a practice here. Oh, okay. I was going to take over the family business, but I'm like, no, like that's not what I want to do. So I'm going to drop out of college or at least take a couple of years off, focus on this and see where this goes. And once I dropped out of college and like started focusing, the music got better and I was like, yeah, I'm gonna send him some of this stuff. And then he's like, yeah, let's get this in front of some people, like some labels. And that was still probably a year and a half before it all came out. And when we got all that traction, so. 1 (9m 36s): Okay. Okay. Well going back a bit, you started putting out songs on SoundCloud and that was in high school where I believe you said your dad got your computer or something and that's kind of where it all. 3 (9m 45s): Yeah. We got a Mac book for one Christmas and I started on garage band and yeah, it was, I was putting out music in high school and I, I made a song called Nike's with a dollar sign as the S and it was about some kid who stole my shoes and high school. He 1 (10m 5s): Physically stole them or he just like, 3 (10m 9s): He stole them. And the thing is, they were the, you know, like the Nike ID. 1 (10m 14s): Hey, everyone. We want it to tell you about another music podcast that we've been loving. The broken record podcast from Pushkin industries, music industry icon, Rick Rubin, along with producer, Justin Richmond and authors, Malcolm Gladwell, and Bruce Headlands. Sit down with the artists. You'd love for unparalleled creative insight into your favorite music. You'll hear revealing interviews with some of the most legendary figures in music like Neil young, Andre, 3000 Alicia keys and Bruce Springsteen. And you'll learn about up and coming stars like Michelle Zauner, who talks about her big plans for her dreamy indie pop band, Japanese breakfast. This April, they're celebrating the red hot chili peppers, new album with John for Shantay Anthony Kiedis flee and Chad Smith, all in conversation with Rick Rubin. 1 (11m 1s): They share stories and songs from the new album, and also never before heard insights about their decades, long dynamic and chemistry. Listen to broken record wherever you get podcasts. 3 (11m 14s): Oh yeah. Like how you can like make custom Nike's. They were custom shoes. And they literally had like my logo on the back of one. Like, you could put like a logo there and I like a music logo and yeah, he stole my, my locker warmed a school. Like a month later I was like, brothers, my shoes. And they were like, one-on-one like custom Nike. And he looked me dead in my face. Like, bro, no, they're not like, they're not your shoes. I'm like, what are you talking about brothers? Or I literally made those on the website. 1 (11m 41s): So did you show him like, Hey, flip, turn his shoe around. That's my logo that I 3 (11m 45s): Put on that. I ended up getting my shoes back. Yeah. 1 (11m 47s): Okay, good. I'm glad. 3 (11m 49s): And then there was some altercations, but you know, 1 (11m 53s): But you got back was the 3 (11m 54s): Summer 1 (11m 55s): Pre or after you had got them back, 3 (11m 58s): The song was pre cause I didn't know who it was until he, until he pulled up to school on 'em and I'm like, all right. Yeah. I wrote the songs. Like, I, I honestly don't even know if the song was like, I don't know if it's still on apple music. It was the first song I ever put on apple music. 1 (12m 19s): Yeah. You're telling me that. And you had another alias that you told me about before the other people can go listen and find it. 3 (12m 26s): Yeah, it was Atlas. It was Atlas with the dollar sign as yes. I was super into the dollar sign for the ass. Like I was super into it. 1 (12m 32s): I thought your name was Bravo. 3 (12m 35s): I went from Bravo to Atlas. Yeah. 1 (12m 37s): Oh, okay. The Bravo is, was not under Nike's. That was a different 3 (12m 41s): Bravo was not Nike's Nike's was my motive. That's right. You got your fucking research now. 1 (12m 50s): Well, how long did Bravo happen? Like, was that something that you did throughout high school or like when 3 (12m 55s): Bravo was my junior year and then I changed it to Alice my senior year. 1 (12m 60s): Okay. So 3 (13m 0s): Bravo was really only like a year and a half. And then Atlas came and brown changed my name so many times, but Rosie's been sticking around since what? 2018 though. 1 (13m 9s): That's good. So yeah. Yeah. For sure. So Bravo went and then was that anything that you share with anyone or was it just like, here's the songs that I'm putting up on SoundCloud? 3 (13m 19s): That was, that goes, Megan, that was kind of my thing. Like my close friends knew about it, but I didn't really put it out to the world. So it was such a big deal when I've put my first song on apple music. When I switched over to Atlas, because everyone thought it was like some crazy thing. Like, you couldn't just do it on a website. There's like, oh, like you must be crazy. Like signed or something. Like you're putting music out on like apple music where I can go get it. So on SoundCloud, everyone thought it was like the craziest thing that it's on apple music. Okay. 1 (13m 52s): Yeah. A huge, massive flex. No one else was doing that. Right. 3 (13m 55s): No one else was doing that. 1 (13m 56s): You change your name, you got the song on apple music. And then I remember you talking to me about it didn't land so well with people or were they just jealous? 3 (14m 6s): I got a lot of backlash for it. Well, mainly because the song wasn't very good. So it was like, I don't know. I think it might've been like some jealousy just because it's on apple music and people just didn't understand that why it was on there. But now, like I would get like kind mocked and like the hallways, like people would be saying it to me. I'm like, thanks for the, thanks for the penny. Like I want to go out a pack of gum. 1 (14m 36s): Did, was that something that discouraged you from continuing to release music or? No, 3 (14m 40s): It definitely discouraged me from like being more, being open about it, you know? And now I've listed some people like, am my dams, like trying to get homies and shit. Oh, of 1 (14m 51s): Course, of 3 (14m 51s): Course. I mean, ever since the blue check came on the Instagram and Actually doing this, this is crazy. I'm like, I've been doing it. You just were not riding the wave when people were riding the wave. 1 (15m 4s): Right. Right. That's always fascinating to me. I've had a lot of conversations with artists that will, you know, get clown on and made fun of or one person that's, 3 (15m 14s): That's how it is though. It's like, people are like super close minded and not open to like an idea until like, it starts becoming more like mainstream. So 1 (15m 26s): Everyone else thinks it's cool. Right? Yeah. So I forgot who I was talking to, what they were saying that they show it would shut the school and they like, kids will be putting up like their YouTube videos, like on the projector and like Lac, clowning, her and stuff. And then now like she's a superstar and it's like, 3 (15m 42s): Yeah. It's like, all right. 1 (15m 44s): Yeah. 3 (15m 45s): It's not like the music was like bad. It's like, it was still listening bubble. You know what I mean? I wouldn't have put it out if it wasn't listening, but like, people just did not want to. Cause they see me in person in Ohio, I'm in person and there's like, all right, this is this guy. And he's, you know, whatever. 1 (15m 59s): Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're just going to totally judge you. And then now look there. Hey, you might remember me. We're in. 3 (16m 7s): I would say I was in a mall the other day. I was in the mall the other day and I was in forever 21 with my, oh, I got engaged by the way, my fiance. 1 (16m 15s): Oh, congratulations. 3 (16m 17s): That's 1 (16m 17s): So awesome. 3 (16m 19s): But yeah, I was in forever 21 and this dude was like walking around the store. They give me weird looks and he was like kind of staring at me. And I like noticed it the corner of my eye. We walked to the checkup and he's like standing in front of me in the checkout aisle. And he's like looking at me. He's like, Hey bro. Like I like your music. Like, that's just, that's just cool. I'm just like sitting there. I and like, oh thanks bro. Like I thought it was like some malicious intent, but now he's a nice dude. 1 (16m 44s): Okay. Oh, I thought you were going to say, and it was some dude that I went to high school. 3 (16m 49s): Nah, it wasn't some dude that went most of them. Most of the people that like, cause Erie is like, I'm back in here right now. Like a smaller time. And like it's not normal for like, I don't know. It's just like everyone knows everyone and right when I go out, like I get a little bit of attention. Sure. Wow. 1 (17m 12s): Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Well I thought those stories is going to go two ways. One, it was then he went behind the checkout counter and he said, Hey bro, remember we're in classic 3 (17m 21s): By the checkout counter checking 1 (17m 23s): Me. He's checking you out. Or, or he was trying to befriend you. And then that situation I would have just been like Arthur, like member me, man, like bubble. And then it was somebody that 3 (17m 32s): Remember you 1 (17m 33s): Totally remember, then you just go, wait, who are you 3 (17m 36s): Again? 1 (17m 37s): No idea. Yeah. Sorry. 3 (17m 40s): There's one who stole my shoes in high school. 1 (17m 43s): Yeah, exactly. Oh man. Okay. So then that in 2018 is when Rosie happens. 3 (17m 49s): 20? 1 (17m 50s): Yeah. 18 ish. Well buzzin was that the first one you put 3 (17m 53s): Buzzing was the first one. It was, it was December of 2018. So roses on they're going to live for what? Three years. 1 (17m 58s): Okay. 3 (17m 59s): Not even. 1 (17m 60s): And was that another change? Like what did you change sonically from what you're doing with 3 (18m 6s): It was, it was more of a Sonic changer. It was, I was leaning more into the, the melodic stuff. 1 (18m 12s): Okay. And when, where does that come? When does that come in and sorry, I'm interrupting you, but I'm just curious to know like where that came with. You said you dropped out of college. Right? Were you in, when you dropped out of college? Was that when the rosary project had started? Was that after the fact 3 (18m 26s): That was still Atlas? So I dropped out of college. No, that was when the Rosie project happened. You're right. It was two months after I dropped out of college. That Rosie began. So I dropped out of college around Halloween of 28 teen 1 (18m 44s): To pursue music full full-time. 3 (18m 47s): Yeah. To pursue music full-time and then December of 2018 is when buzzing dropped. I think, I believe that's how it happened. So two months after I dropped out of college, Rosie started. 1 (18m 57s): Okay. And so w was it like, okay, now I'm, I'm, I'm out. I'm not doing to do the college thing. This is full-time music. How did your family react to that? 3 (19m 5s): Hated it. I was starting there with my mom. So I live with my mom. My parents are divorced. I mainly live with my mom and she was starting to kick me out of the house because like I had to go get a job is essentially what, like I had to go get a job and like work and then do music at the same time, because obviously can't live off mom, you know? So, so yeah. So I got a job at a vape shop, a smoke area in town. So I was on like glass pipes and all this shit. And then it was nice because the hours were pretty lenient. Like, I'd go in at like noon leave at eight or some days I'd go in at three leave at eight. So like I had all night after I got out of work to work on music and then get my eight hours and 1 (19m 52s): Okay. And so all this time, you're, you're starting to put songs or you're, you're writing songs as rosy and then your chain, you said your, your sound changes sonically, you got more melodic with when you start Rosie. 3 (20m 4s): Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Cause I was taking a lot of, it was when juice world was like blowing up. So I was taking a lot of juice road influence and, and like Arizona service and like all that stuff. I was taking a lot of that influence and putting it into my music because that was the stuff I was listening to. That was stuff I liked. So I was like, yeah, let's try to kind of get in that pocket, figure that out. And then I feel like over the past six months, my sound has been developing more until like my sound, you know, 1 (20m 32s): Oh, I love the new record man. I was, oh, we'll definitely talk about it. But yeah, I looked like the guitars in it and like just like the melodies and just like awesome. 3 (20m 42s): I feel like I'm just kind of stapling it to myself rather than like, cause for a while I feel like I was kinda taking a lot more influence than I should have from people that I was listening to. And I feel like now I'm getting more comfortable in my skin and like trying to push the envelope a little bit and become myself more, you know? 1 (21m 3s): No, no, definitely. When w okay, so Rosie starts to happening and I mean, obviously Lula laws is massive. Right? And that, that doesn't happen. What, till mainly what, 20, 20 ish, when that one went off or was it before that 3 (21m 18s): It was November, 2019, but the label re uploaded it and like change the, I R S C or whatever it is, the code on it. So I think it on Spotify, it appears is 2020, I believe. 1 (21m 29s): Yeah. I can't remember. We'll just base off when we chatted. I was trying to timeline it. Cause you, I mean, we, we talked about this before and you know, you were in the gaming world and the whole thing with the phase house. And like I said, my son is now 14. We talked, he was 12. 3 (21m 44s): That's crazy. 1 (21m 45s): It's crazy to think. Right. And he's, and he was way into the phase, the house and the phase numbers. And so you were always a game where like, when you, you were talking about, you know, playing X-Box at like what 13 is when you started getting into gaming? 3 (21m 59s): Yeah. I've been playing X-Box. I mean, I started on the original Xbox, my dad or no, the original PlayStation. So we were playing like crash Bandicoot and like 1 (22m 7s): Okay. 3 (22m 8s): All that kind of shit. I was, I've been a gamer since like, I was like five, six, you know? 1 (22m 13s): Okay. Are you still gaming? 3 (22m 17s): Definitely. Not as much. I've been trying to focus on music a lot more lately. I mean, I'll stream like when I'm gaming, I'm streaming, you know, 1 (22m 26s): What are you playing real 3 (22m 27s): Quick? A lot of war zone and valor. And that's what 1 (22m 31s): Valor and I haven't heard that one. I heard war zone is about learning another call of duty game or am I, it's 3 (22m 35s): Kinda like, you know what? See us go as like strike. Yeah. It's kind of like that. It's just like a little more complicated. 1 (22m 43s): Okay. It's cool. I 3 (22m 45s): Like it. Yeah. Your son will probably know about it. 1 (22m 48s): I'm sure he does. I just gotta like double check with him. Cause I, I haven't heard him bring that name up. It usually will. I'll be like, oh yeah, I've heard that. Okay. But you were talking about, okay, so you played, what was it? Call of duty that you met, you were like in a, somehow affiliated with the guidance. One of the phase members, right? It was that it was that, 3 (23m 6s): Yeah. It was playing call of duty with faze rug. Who's actually, You know what I'm talking about? 1 (23m 12s): Well, I don't think Ellie, sorry. I was gonna say, I only know him because I've, I've also moved to Nashville since last time we talked, but I was living in San Diego and he's from San Diego. And he lived in the town. He lived in was called Poway and he lived like literally next to not, he didn't live next to me, but where his town was next to the town that we grew up in. So we'd see him at like the gas station and stuff. And he had like a Lamborghini. It was nuts. Like during COVID we ran into his brother. Who's also, what's his name? It's the 3 (23m 43s): Rwandis brand new 1 (23m 44s): Addis that's. So we run into him, we see him at the gas station and the gas station that they went to is like in the midst of nowhere. So like, it always charged like a dollar more than every other gas station. Cause like, basically if you were that far east, we were pretty much going to get gas there or you'd have to drive a bit. And I would always see him at that gas station. I'm like, who the hell gets gas there, man? Like, this is the most expensive pump in town, but we drive by and there's a Lamborghini. And my son's like, that was a that's phase rug. And I'm like, no way. So he turned around and he's like, oh no, that's brew Addis. So this is like, you know, beginning like hard COVID and I'm like, you should ask them to get a picture. 1 (24m 25s): And he's all worried. He's like, I don't know if he's going to do it to like, they have this picture where they're like next to each other and they both have masks on and he's got like a pump with brew Addis. But so we'd see those guys around. And he was wearing like rug, rug, rats, like short 3 (24m 40s): Shorts. The shorts were sick. I like, 1 (24m 43s): Okay. So yeah. So he that's the only phase member I know of just because he lived, 3 (24m 47s): I think he's the biggest one on YouTube. I think he's the most subscribed to like FES member. But when I knew him, he was, I think he's older than me, but like he had like a high pitched voice and he was like super shy about it. So he'd always like mute his microphone. Interesting. Yeah. So it was me, this dude named Austin Gwinnett and a few other guys, we used to play together search instrument all the time. And this is like right after you joined phase. So this was like a while, long time ago. 1 (25m 21s): Okay. And was faced huge at that time too, or was wasn't used at that time. Okay. See, I don't know 3 (25m 26s): As big as they are now. I feel like they're, they're just like, they have a hand in everything. It seems like now 1 (25m 31s): They're like a household name. Even if you're not even gaming, there 3 (25m 34s): Were still like, they were still doing like heavy call of duty stuff when okay. I mean, they were huge and like the call of duty scene, like for a long time, but you know, it was, it was strictly gaming back then. 1 (25m 44s): Sure. And so you were, you just befriended him via the game? 3 (25m 50s): We weren't like homie's homies we'd play like a decent bit, but not like, I mean, I still have friends from Xbox that I talked to you today, but it's not like, 1 (26m 0s): Oh, that's cool. 3 (26m 2s): Yeah. 1 (26m 2s): And do they know what you're doing now? 3 (26m 4s): Yeah. They're like stoked. It's crazy. I've known these dudes since I was like 11, 12, and like still talk to them like pretty routinely. And there's like, yo, like you're going crazy. You know? 1 (26m 16s): So awesome. That is so awesome. So you were playing with him and then like years later, obviously, I don't know how close timeline wise it was when you were, or if you were still playing with them up until you guys shot the video at the house? 3 (26m 31s): No, no, no. I, it was probably only like a two year span that we were playing like pretty consistently, but okay. He wasn't at the, he wasn't at the house. So the shoot, it was a phase. Nikon was the main guy there and Sam pepper was there and Yosef who's like, he, I don't know if he's with phase anymore, but he was like kind of like the background manager type of care. But yeah, we met Lee tranq. Who's a CEO and I'm in his office. He has like a huge moose head with like a bunch of AK 40 sevens. 1 (27m 6s): Oh, wow. Well, so going back to just real quick on new law, that was a song that you said you sent to your uncle at this point, he's managing you. So when does he decide to jump on as like, okay, I'm going to really help you? Like, was that the song that kind of clicked for him? 3 (27m 21s): No, it was bad. Romance was a song. He was like, we were up in my dad's. He was like a cigar room where smoke cigars. We were sitting up there and like kind of, I was showing him my music, cause I hadn't seen him in a while. And then I played him bad romance. She was like, yeah, this song sick. Like let's, let's get a management contract written up and we can go through it. And I think we're almost to the end of our contract, but I'm going to probably renew it. But I'm 1 (27m 50s): Like, thanks are called peace, 3 (27m 53s): Peace out after three years. But yeah, so this was probably 2019 as well that all this stuff happened like late 2019. And we ended up signing the management contract and Lula came out after that, after he managed me. So, 1 (28m 12s): Okay. So that's 3 (28m 13s): All, Lola was unreleased. I played a Moolah after we listened to bad romance. I was like, yeah, this is our next song that's coming out. 1 (28m 19s): Okay. So he had a plan he knew. Okay. And so you had a cool strategy on that song, right? Was to reach out to as many YouTubers as you could to try to get them to what? Put a bunch of 3 (28m 29s): Fortnite 1 (28m 30s): Players. 3 (28m 31s): Okay. 1 (28m 31s): So tell me about that. 3 (28m 33s): Yeah. So me and my buddy for, for Vincent, who's signed to Sony now we're in a discord call one day and we're like, all right. Let's message. Cause we both had songs that were just about to come out like, well, I was about to come out and one of his songs were about to come on and I can't remember which one it was, but it's like, all right, let's message a shit ton of Fortnite YouTubers. And we spent that whole entire night messaging, thousands of night, YouTube where it's being like, yo, song's copyright free. It's about to come out. Let me know if you want to use it for a video, any montage. Cause they put like their clips together, like compiling them together and the music behind it and like edit it. 3 (29m 14s): So there's like, there's copyright copyright-free you can make all the money from it. Just put it behind your video and just credit me in the bio or the section and a few big ones picked it up. I think face sway, picked it up. Wow. And 1 (29m 28s): To have them actually read the, and listen to the song is big. Right. And then yeah. Be like, oh, I'm going to waste it. I'm not waste time. And I'm going to spend the time to edit a clips to this song that this kid 3 (29m 40s): Says like a win-win though. Cause they get, they get, I mean, good music behind their videos, like catching music 1 (29m 47s): And that they don't have to out of 3 (29m 48s): And they don't have to pay for it. They can make all the money from it and not just get the exposure, you know? 1 (29m 53s): Sure. Beautiful. Trade-off so that really boasted, like when that happens, then millions upon millions of people are hearing your song. 3 (30m 1s): Yeah. It was game-changing. 1 (30m 3s): And then people come into your Spotify, like what is the, what's the return for you 3 (30m 9s): Spotify? Yeah. Okay. Because the Spotify is free on a desktop. You can listen to Spotify for free on a desktop and you gotta think like all these kids are on their computer all the time, so they can have Spotify playing in the back. They hear a song on a video. It's like, all right. I want to listen to that. And Spotify is free. I still get the stream. So click and then we're good. 1 (30m 31s): Okay. Wow. And do you see like what the numbers on the song and just going like right away? I 3 (30m 37s): Think first two weeks it did a million. 1 (30m 40s): Whoa. 3 (30m 41s): Yeah. We dropped it on black Friday. I remember. Okay. So like a lot of people were like on their computer because cyber Monday and all that stuff. That first day it did almost a hundred thousand. 1 (30m 54s): Wow. And are you seeing this like, oh my gosh. Like what is going on here? And, or obviously you knew, right? Cause it's the V it made a video. Do you know that it makes the video before it goes out or does it just pop up and then all of a sudden you're like trying to find it and see what you used it. 3 (31m 11s): We didn't know that the videos were coming out. So we, our original plan was to run like a huge Tech-Talk campaign on the song. I was like, yeah, we're gonna send a song to a bunch of Tik talkers and see if they use it. And then, I mean, Tik TOK didn't really do much on it to be honest. But the, the Fortnite stuff was like game changing. For sure. So yeah, we saw the videos when they came out and you can just type in Oola Rosie and a bunch of like video game montage has come up. That's 1 (31m 40s): Crazy. Yeah. And then, and then this point is when you have not yet, well, at least you had a manager, right. And he's dealt with major labels. He signed to Def jam at one point and I'm sure people are just like, Hey, you know, pop your head out of the woodwork. 3 (31m 53s): It was like a bidding war, bro. Like it wasn't crazy. And yeah, we were flying back and forth between New York and LA for like two weeks straight. 1 (32m 2s): It was meeting with everyone. 3 (32m 4s): Yeah. Like, like head of labels, like CEO's like Craig common was there. I mean, we were talking to like Columbia, who else? We're talking to Republic Warner, just really huge labels, just like major, major labels. And we were just in rooms, like a bunch of people and just like, you know, Braylin, he's like a, he's a new country artist. 1 (32m 32s): His name is familiar. 3 (32m 34s): He made that song on my truck, but like, 1 (32m 35s): Oh, I know. Yeah. I know. I know exactly what you're talking about. 3 (32m 38s): Yeah. He was just walking through the building and like I had heard the song. I was like, oh, that's Braylin, it's just like, people like artists that like, I listened to just like walking through these buildings. I'm like, oh, word, like that's 1 (32m 49s): Wild. 3 (32m 51s): Yeah. It's a trip. 1 (32m 53s): So you're doing that. Going back and forth. He ended up obviously landing with Atlantic. 3 (32m 58s): Yeah. Atlantic. I mean, I walked into the room and it just felt like they were like genuinely interested in developing me as an artist. And it just felt like the right move. I mean, we had, we had larger sums of money on the table for like signing bonuses. But Atlantic was just the choice. I mean, 1 (33m 23s): Yeah. And I love the fact that I saw on your, your Instagram, that you have a plaque now from Spotify for 10 million. I can see the corner of it. I think 3 (33m 36s): You want to see something funny? 1 (33m 37s): I do 3 (33m 43s): A little bit. 1 (33m 45s): That was my next question. Did they send you three more? Because it's 3 (33m 50s): Almost got to do the sticky notes. 1 (33m 52s): Okay. Well I'm going to look at something. Cause I thought earlier, this is the beauty of doing these zoom calls with me on the internet. So I can do this. I want to see something. I think it's at isn't it 40 million. I think you have to change it. Oh, it's close. 3 (34m 9s): It's close. Yeah. It's getting the sticky note it in a few weeks. Probably. 1 (34m 14s): Well, tell me about getting that flag. That's so insane. I don't think you had that last time I talked to you. I know you didn't. I don't. I maybe did. I don't know. We just didn't chat. I don't think I had it. I didn't think 3 (34m 24s): Birthday. 1 (34m 25s): You did. 3 (34m 28s): It was lit. I mean, I didn't actually on my birthday. I, my birthday's in April, so I'm about to be 23 in a month. And 1 (34m 36s): Me birthday. What day? 3 (34m 37s): The 29th. 1 (34m 38s): Ah, my son's the 23rd. My younger one. Yeah. 3 (34m 44s): But yeah, so I saw a video, like they pulled on the iPad and I was like a video of this plaque. And I was like, what is this? Like, it's like a video of a plaque. He's like, this is your plaque. Like it'll be here. And however many weeks I'm like, oh shit, that's sick. It was sick. 1 (34m 60s): Is that the micro? You said, I think that's the microphone you recorded that song on to right sitting in front of you 3 (35m 5s): Now. Is that 1 (35m 5s): Enough? 3 (35m 7s): Yeah. I just, I have so many microphones at this point. I think 1 (35m 13s): Studio, you recorded it at your house, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah. 3 (35m 17s): That's 1 (35m 17s): Correct. 3 (35m 17s): I think the microphone, I did a interview with you last time. It was a microphone. It was like, 1 (35m 23s): Yeah, but wasn't it a, the same shirt Mike or a different shirt? It wasn't a sure. 3 (35m 27s): No, it was a <inaudible> yeah. You have so many microphones. 1 (35m 32s): You were using that. Cause we talked about it cause you're like, yeah, it was this mic. I'm like, oh wow. That's crazy. 3 (35m 37s): Oh yeah, yeah. 1 (35m 38s): Yeah. Okay. But that's still, I mean, to hit nearly 40 million streams on a song that you recorded at your know on a microphone that you had in your house, like that's, that's wild. It's so wild to think about that stuff. 3 (35m 52s): The cool thing about like music now is like, if you put in the time to like learn, you could really do it from your house. Like it really doesn't matter. No, I actually heard that area on a grand day. I mean, granted, she probably has like a crazy, yeah. Student. I heard that she like records her own vocals and like does her own stuff as well. 1 (36m 12s): Really? That wouldn't surprise me, but she probably has like a crystal plated, like 3 (36m 18s): Everything With 1 (36m 20s): Dazzle, 3 (36m 22s): A rolls Royce, like star ceiling in our booth and shit. 1 (36m 26s): Just like the, this part of the microphone is just solid diamond or something crazy. But, well, that's cool though. No you, but you've engineered all your own stuff. Don't you or you were for awhile. 3 (36m 40s): I do a lot of my mixing. Yeah. So I've been working, you know, I don't know if you heard about Colin Brittain. He did like a lot of sweat goes and records, but he did, the world is over and way back when with me, he mixed all those, but I like, I like his sound. I'm really picky about my mixing. So I like being as hands on as possible. But calling pollen's really good at getting what I want. Yeah. 1 (37m 4s): Okay. Well I know after last time we talked, you said you had a trip to LA and you were writing songs in Los Angeles that were a lot more like pop. You said it was a little, be a little more, you know, you know, that, that vibe. And then when we chatted were back in Erie and you're like, and now I'm writing all these songs they're like down and depressing. Like about the, what about this new one crashing and burning. Was that something you had written in that trip to LA or was that something that you had recently written at your house? 3 (37m 32s): So I was living in LA for a minute. We have a, of a house out there, but we, we made that song late last year. I believe. I think it was September of last year and it was me and my fiance now we're doing long distance. 1 (37m 50s): Okay. So she in LA, 3 (37m 53s): She was in Denver, Colorado when I was in LA. 1 (37m 55s): Oh, okay. 3 (37m 56s): So we were like a thousand, some miles apart. So like a lot of the lines were like me trying to like wrap my head around long distance. Like a thousand miles never felt so small. Like just like me kind of being numb to the long distance because honestly, like I'm under the impression that Like, I was in love with this girl for like a minute. Right. And I didn't know how to tell her that wellbeing, like long distance. I feel like you can love someone that's a thousand miles away. 3 (38m 36s): Just as much as you can love someone that's right. Next door. I feel like that's just how that's where that's where my mind that's where my mind was. So we actually lived together. Now. She lives with me here. 1 (38m 46s): Awesome. 3 (38m 48s): We're engaged. We'll probably get married in a few years, but everything worked out. So we're good. 1 (38m 56s): Ah, that is good. But as a, kind of about the path that you had to take to get to where you are now a little bit. 3 (39m 3s): Yeah. So we had a lot of people telling us that since we were doing long distance, our relationship was going to like quote unquote, crash and burn. And it was like crashing and burning was like me mock, like the whole chorus, when it gets like aggressive and crashing and burning, it was like me mocking, like the people who were doubting us. And then like when it starts getting like all subtle and like the versus is when I'm like just talking about shit and like saying how I feel. 1 (39m 29s): Okay. I love it. Yeah. Last time we spoke, you had dropped top coming out and you've put out, oh my God, that's crazy. Yeah. And it wasn't even out, we were just talking about, I listened to the interview, so I didn't totally ask you the same exact questions, but you were saying like, it's the tone, you know, we, I was asking you about it. You're like, yeah, it's a song that like, you know, you throw on in the Jeep and you're just like kinda, you know, having a good time, which it totally is. And it's insane to think that you've put out so many other records since then. 3 (39m 58s): Yeah. You know, it's funny about that. I actually bought a Jeep after I told you that. 1 (40m 2s): Did you really? Yeah. The Jeep that you like zip the windows now or no, 3 (40m 9s): A hard top. It was so nice. It was a Moab. I sold it when I moved to LA for a little bit, but it was one of the, I think it's like right next to a room, it was like a luxury Rubicon. It was like flat gray. And I love that car. I miss it. But, 1 (40m 25s): But he got rid of it. 3 (40m 26s): Unfortunately got rid of it. Yeah. I had it for, I had it for probably about a year. 1 (40m 31s): Okay. Well with crashing and burning, we talked about, you know, eventually having a project out of like a full project in, since you've, you've put out a bunch of songs, but just single base, which is obviously the smart move. And when it comes to this day and age and people's attention spans, like, do you have a, like an EAP in the, in the works or coming out or is it used to that? 3 (40m 51s): Yeah, we're definitely working on a project. I think it's going to be, I hope it's going to be an LP. I mean, we'll see that competition goes, but yeah, a few of the songs that I've released within the past few months are going to be on it and I'm excited for it. I think it's going to be a kind of like me shedding my skin from my little off phase and kind of developing as an artist and like showing my development and growth because I've had a lot of people reach out to me and be like, you sound like you're finding your sound. Like all your new stuff sounds like way more mature and that's kind of what I'm going for. I'm kind of trying to like mature as an artist, you know? So yeah, definitely a project hopefully this year. 1 (41m 32s): Okay. And are you, do you, I mean, obviously I'm sure you have a whole slew of songs that haven't came out yet, but we're a lot of those. Are you still writing at the house that you're at now in an area or is everything being done in LA? Okay. 3 (41m 45s): Yeah. I'm still writing here. I've been trying to tap into my like emotions. Like I've been trying to like kind of big, deep and go within myself. I'm writing a song about, this is going to sound dark, but I'm writing a song about my parents' divorce right now. It's called house of glass. And so I've been trying to like get a lot more personal with my music and kinda like crashing and burning. And that was like a personal experience. And 1 (42m 11s): Is it difficult to do like kind of dive into some I'm sure. Maybe some trauma 3 (42m 15s): I was doing it. I was doing it for awhile. Like with Nike's. I mean, that was a personal experience. I was doing it for a long time, but I feel like one quarantine hit, I didn't have anything going on in my life. And it was hard to like, get these experiences to write about because I mean, you're tucked away in your house. So I feel like I was running stories for awhile And now I'm kind of getting back into the swing of things. My writing has gotten a lot better within the past few months, so we're going to see how that goes. 1 (42m 44s): Amazing. And are you still engineering your stuff from your house? Are you doing your vocals or, okay. 3 (42m 49s): Yup. I'm still carrying on 1 (42m 49s): Crashing boarding. Are you still doing that? It was that also you, or was that a studio setting? 3 (42m 54s): Crashing and burning was me. Yeah. That makes that song. I didn't master that song, but I, I did the whole engineering on that song. 1 (43m 1s): That's incredible. That is awesome. And so you obviously still writing and you're, you're an Erie what's like, what do you have next? Just more music, more writing. 3 (43m 12s): That's the plan I'm going to, I'm going to keep throwing wet noodles at the wall and Tik TOK and see what sticks 1 (43m 21s): You said that Tik TOK didn't really take off when it came to Oola law. Is that something like, are you still on there? Pretty, 3 (43m 29s): Pretty regularly. I had, I had once one tick-tock blew up a while ago. We won't get into that. Cause there's a whole, whole lot of drama behind the, the song and that was on that tech talk, but that'll come out. I mean, we'll, we'll figure that out. There's just a lot of like backend drama with that. Yeah. I mean, I've had a few, I have had a few tech talks do 1 (43m 53s): Talk that ended up not being on tick-tock anymore. 3 (43m 56s): It's still up there. It's there's just a lot of like, like artists drama behind that. 1 (44m 3s): Okay. You're two and you're intriguing me and I, 3 (44m 6s): I know, I wish I wish I could just spill the beans. 1 (44m 10s): Yeah. I don't want to, I don't want to get you in trouble, but I'll move on to another subject just because, but hopefully I'll have you back soon and we can talk about that. Cause that's 3 (44m 17s): We talk about it once it gets resolved. 1 (44m 20s): Okay. Yeah. Let me know when it gets resolved and we'll have you back, 3 (44m 23s): I'll give you the whole story. 1 (44m 25s): I'd love to hear it. You're on all press named 40 new artists that you need to hear. I mean, what, what was that like? Were you a fan of all press? I mean, I'll press for me with like the Bible growing up, like 3 (44m 36s): Yeah. I'll PR isn't that what I'm Billie Eilish took off on. There was a whole nation. 1 (44m 42s): Yeah, she might've been on, oh, I mean all presses was a magazine for more like the emo pop punk bands in the day, which still is, but I don't know. It might've been on nation that she popped off and I'm not a hundred percent sure that when it comes. 3 (44m 58s): Yeah, that was crazy. I got a lot of like, love from that. So, and that's crazy that it's like, I dunno, I feel like that's a small in the grand scheme of artists, I feel like 40 is a small amount of people. So 1 (45m 11s): That's a really 3 (45m 13s): To be on a list like that. I feel like it's just, it's an honor for sure. 1 (45m 16s): Sure. Especially from a company, like, I mean, from a brand, like all the press, I mean, if you were on the cover of all press magazine in 2006, it was like game changer, right? It's like, it was like getting, you know, put on the biggest Spotify playlist. It was just like, it was such a big deal. And I mean, still is, cause their website still has so much traction and it's just such a notable name and to be known or named as one of their 40 artists that you need to hear. That's a huge, a huge deal, man. I want to know, I asked you this last time, but I want to know if you have any advice for aspiring artists. 3 (45m 49s): My biggest piece of advice for aspiring artists would be, find your sound, stick with it and grow with it. Because once you find your sound, you find what makes you unique. You can ride that area.