Latest / Caught on the Mike... / Jeremy Abboud / The Rockyts

Transcript

Jeremy Abboud / The Rockyts · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: If you could hear a song before you even woke up, would you trust it?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Today's guest does exactly that.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Jeremy Abud, aka The Rockets, is a 21-year-old composer building entire worlds from his own Facebook studio, playing every instrument, producing every track, and doing it all completely independent.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: From early sessions with legendary producer Eddie Kramer to charting in Canadian rock before most artists can legally drink.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: To now stepping into his third album, this is a different kind of creative mind.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: With over 3.5 million streams and major playlist support already behind him, the momentum is real, but the vision is even bigger.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mike.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mic.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And today I am joined by composer Jeremy Abud, the mind behind the rockets.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Jeremy's already on his third album, and it's unlike anything he's done before.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: His most recent single, Wonder, is all about life, color, and creativity, written partly in dreams on what he calls dream pianos.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and by the way, by the age of 16, he was already working with legendary producer Eddie Kramer.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Jeremy of the Rockets, welcome to the show.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: How are you, my friend?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: You?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: I am amazing, man.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was telling you before I press record, I was listening to your music.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely love it.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start at the beginning.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Take me back.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: What first pulled you into music growing up in Ottawa?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've been trying to think of it when they ask me, and I think it's gotta be, you know what?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Cause I had a CD called Rock and Roll Highway from when I was like zero years old till three years old, four years old.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that was in my room playing, so I had like bad to the bone, good vibrations, pilot magic, just all that kind of stuff.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was probably that.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then oh, and then actually we would play a rock band.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it was with like cousins and stuff, uh, with the fake plastic drums.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think that might have been part of it where I started thinking like uh I think when I was six or eight, something like is when I started thinking like I want to play guitar, I want to play drums, and I started adding them one after the other.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't start till nine, but I think I wanted to for a while before.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're a young guy still, and you're true doing this style of music that is really almost classic in essence, like psychedelic rock, throwback to uh a more exciting and as you described it, colorful times.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: What led you to that?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the colorful times would have to be.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I had my rock at the start on the rock and roll highway CD, and then because I couldn't plug my guitar into the computer to record it, I was messing with uh garage band at the time.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess because I couldn't plug the guitar in, I think this was the thought process at the time.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I started doing electronic dance music when I was 11.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's when it came back to the color a couple years after when I was cutting my grandma's grass, which is like uh an acre field with apple trees and stuff, it takes like an hour, and plus the ditches and all, I gotta go sideways.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I put my headphones in and I thought I'm gonna go play something of the Beatles.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like I had heard the Beatles, and there were other CDs I was hearing than the Rock and Roll Highway that had like yellow submarine, all that kind of stuff since very, very young.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: But at that time I was doing the EDM and I thought, why is it always like the Beatles are so good?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so then I put I pressed play on Sergeant Pepper, cut the grass, and then that was the uh whole world of color.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a favorite Beatles song or album?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sergeant Pepper.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the one I played, and like I can still smell the gas of the tractor and the the grass while I'm uh when I listen to it.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Just recently saw a Beatles tribute act come through my city, and it was at the big like lead performing arts center here in Lincoln, and they were called the Fab Four.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And my goodness, dude, you could close your eyes and you thought it was the Beatles playing.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was so amazing.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Revolver is my most favorite album, but yeah.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Did they do uh start to finish?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or like did they play uh they did, they did like they did like the whole catalog.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like like and there was a really crazy moment, and I loved it.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: I have two Beatles songs in particular that are very personal to me, and that's Here, There, and Everywhere and Blackbird, and the guy that was doing the Paul bit, he came out and did those two songs acoustic back to back, and I absolutely it was like serendipitous, it was amazing.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, here, there, and everywhere has got to be one of the favorites, too.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes, dude.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think you and I just became new best friends.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: There was yeah, we had also a Beatles tribute act that came back in Ottawa a long time ago, and what they did was start to finish I think White Album.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was White Album.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Dang! And then at the end they were like, Okay, we can finally talk now, because they wanted to do it exactly down to like whatever John says in between songs or something.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So and then they then they did a few hits at the end, but wow, wow.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: So when you were on your journey and you discovered the Beatles, like did some sort of switch flip and make you obsessed with music of their era?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because um it was using the full uh spectrum without thinking about like what genre it is, you know they could just put a clarinet if they want, and we're not worried if that's what people have deemed cool or something, just because other they've heard other people say it, like all of a sudden the biggest rock band can just put a clarinet in uh when I'm 64 or something.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so you just like using anything in the palette you want, I think is really what and also making it just about like fun and stories, or it's about reality when you have George Harrison coming in and stuff.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be just that the same pop song over and over again of the the same love songs or heartbreak.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in your approach to music is as we've described a few times already, so colorful.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think that society at large and you know, just the industry and music fandom in general is a lot more open-minded to those callbacks now and like taking an unconventional approach like you just mentioned the Beatles doing with throwing a clarinet or something along those lines into a rock song.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I think uh stuff got really obviously not everything and but the stuff got very generic and and was just like with social media, it's just like put out as many songs and content about the songs as possible.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So now it's not trying to craft like a melody that makes you want to live.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's more like we can just do an intro that stays on one chord, and then next song we can do an intro that stays on two chords for 20 seconds, and with like the indie droning stuff and all, and not that again, like that's just me and this is good stuff in everywhere.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just talking kind of generally with all that.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think now that's when when people come with the opposite approach back to melody and stuff, a lot of people grab right on to it.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I agree, and since we're talking about Legacy Axe, by the time you were 16, you were already in the studio with legendary producer Eddie Kramer.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: How did that even happen?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: That was uh funny.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: We recorded, like I always say I record in my basement myself, but that album was recorded, just the first one, at a studio in Toronto called Noble Street, and the studio manager heard the the demos I was sending and said, I think I know Eddie and I think he'd really like it, so I'll send it to him.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then he did, and he liked it, so then he came on to mix a few songs, and this was during the uh the virus and stuff, so it's funny.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: But it was kind I think it was kind of I don't know, it was near the start, but anyway, uh the studios were running and also like just come out, come come do it.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't he didn't want to, so he had to do it.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he mixed remotely on uh from a studio at home, so he had these headphones he was on.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you've seen like Disney shows where uh a kid can't make it into class, so they're on like an iPad that's rolling on a like a robotic robot that rolls around with their face on a screen.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it was like.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: He was on a laptop with his face on this stand that was being wheeled around.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very funny.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was like to no, no, no, no, turn that knob, and then it's like, no, not that much.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but he was no less involved, he was just as involved as if he was there, like with the like to the hair breadth of the knob.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where he's like, No, no, I know this console.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, he'd been in that studio all the time.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I know that console, you've gotta be careful, you can't go more than a millimeter.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the the funniest part was when he said to he was like, It's such a nice day.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Why aren't we outside?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: We need to go take a break.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then we bring him on his laptop, me and the the guy he worked with as his hands that the engineer was working with that he was directing.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we took him out, wheeled him in the laptop up to the roof, and he was like, See, isn't this so much better?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: What a nice day if I saw all this from the laptop.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's amazing.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, what did you learn from being around that level of experience so early?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And did that moment change how seriously you started to take your own music?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think what he maybe the main thing I took away was which I was already kind of thinking of myself, but I wasn't hearing it much in many places, and then seeing him do it, I thought, yeah, I definitely should be doing this because he's he's on that.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think the those type of like artist engineers, artist level producer engineers, uh they're working with the feel really.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like he was getting these things once they were recorded and mixing, and what he was doing just in the mix was bringing out all this stuff, bringing out all this feel and power, like uh to on a moment-to-moment basis.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So on a song called She's So Fine, before we go back into the soul, uh, we before we come out of the as we're coming out of the solo, back into a chorus, there's this snare role.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he just like made sure that was like the one thing that anyone else could have just left and not thought twice about.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was like half the second of the song, but he spent so much time on that and zoned in on it and didn't stop till he wanted it to not only like he was playing with the compressor till it smacked, and also bringing it up gradually so that it it really had the uh the impact of going back into the course, just like zoning into small moments like that and it being about the feel and the power, how it hits you when you listen, not just uh anything technical.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Love that.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: And let's fast forward a few years later.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: By the time you're 18, you crack the Canadian rock charts.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: What did that validation feel like for you?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was fun because I I had sent uh a bunch of Canadian radio promoters who had all said, like, oh no, no, no, we can't we can't do that.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And some of them had gotten hits for big people at radio before, but not in a while, and they're like, nah, you just it's not gonna work in radio anymore, especially for you.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's just funny to then decide to do it myself and get it there.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, did it build your confidence or did it add pressure to you?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it built the confidence because now I had been saying I was gonna do it for a while and and not getting it done, and now I've gotten it done.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: So now it's like, okay, everything else I say, you better believe I'm gonna do it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what was that moment where the Rockets kind of became its own identity for you?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's own identity how.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: I just like when it finally clicked that it was like that you were on to something bigger than maybe just you know concept.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, like early on, we were getting really good feedback, uh, even in the days of because this was like six years ago, and it was really humming on Facebook.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's not much, and get I get a couple likes on Facebook.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone, it's like a Chernobyl now or something.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on what your audience and and uh channel is, but we could have a whole other conversation about this.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even I barely touch Facebook anymore, other than my own personal stuff.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just like I I usually favor Instagram of Instagram number one, TikTok number two, and then it's like Facebook.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: If it gets posted on Facebook, that's only because I posted it on Instagram.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then it shares it exactly.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: It because it we used to get like hundreds of comments there, and now there's everyone left, but um, yeah, it migrated to Instagram, and now I think even to it's going to TikTok, but I've just started getting on there.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but yeah, like so early on, uh a lot of people were liking it because it was very different.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: So since then I knew I was gonna haul it till the end.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you play every instrument, record everything yourself.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Why is that important for you?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I if number one, it's just fun because I play all those instruments, so I I like I just have fun playing them on the songs.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And two, I hear it a certain way in my head so that way I get it exactly the way I want.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Does that full control ever become overwhelming?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: It did when I was recording stuff differently and with the process of doing a demo and then re-recording later, because then I'd be really irritated by tiny details I was hearing.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm still sometimes that that'll happen, especially when I'm mixing and stuff.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: But what ended up working for me is just doing when I'm writing the song, doing it good enough that I can keep it on the final recording, like getting the right mic out or what having it out ready so that I don't have to redo it, and now it has the exact energy I had as I was thinking it up.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So now it now it doesn't irritate me when that happens.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's when I would go back and I'm doing every part that I'm saying this one part, this one detail is not exactly how it was before we lost the energy, but the other one's too low quality.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: I get that, but do you have like a panel of people you share your stuff with as you're working on it to kind of get an unbiased opinion?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: The the panel is one guy on the the mixing end called Kevin O'Leary, not that Kevin O'Leary.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not the shark.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's a really good engineer that I worked with on the uh recording of that first album in Toronto, and that's how I met him.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And now when I'm recording in the basement back in Ottawa, he zoom and if you know audio movers, he audio movers in.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like when I'm making the song, I I just make it, I write it, but then when it comes to the mixing and the sound, then I do everything the way I would do it, and then he comes on for a couple hours and we get a bit more, we fine-tune a bit more, and sometimes it's like it's like I feel good because he comes on and he says, Perfect, we got nothing to do here.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then other times when I was just getting exhausted on it and didn't really take it to the end, then we have more work to do.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you've built this from your own setup, you've reached over 3.5 million streams independently.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: When did this start to feel like real real for you?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think there was a point still on the first album.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna keep talking about the first album when people started posting like you see comments all the time, but then when we started doing this thing, because a couple people did it and then we encouraged it, and then about like a hundred started doing it, where they would post them listening to the song, or like there was one.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the first was their dad listening to the song in the car, and it was a video, and it was playing in the car, and they were singing.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so when it came into more like real life than just the writing comments was when it's like, Oh, it's actually real people, and there's hundreds and hundreds of videos like this.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: That that's when it feels real to me.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have I talked to a lot of artists on the show, and we generally share these stories of almost like this creative anxiety of that moment where you feel that something big is just about to happen.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: You can't define it, you don't know what exactly it is, but it's almost like this thing in the pit of your gut that you know something is about to hit.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now, social media has added validation.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's the right way to say it to people.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: But do you have that creative anxiety where you just feel like that next big thing is around the corner for you?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think my thing is when I'm getting all these ideas and stuff, like the 20-song album that's coming, and I'm making like the at least like half of each song and mostly the full songs for most of them, all in like two, three weeks, 20 song.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Then I start to get overwhelmed with how I'm gonna get this out and get it finished, because I I think it's I think it's something special, and it's like I'm seeing the mountain it's gonna take to get all this out.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Cause like I'm already happy that I've heard it and experienced it for myself.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So like I'm good, but then I'm like, if I'm gonna share it, this is gonna mean all that mixing.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: So was there a recent milestone or moment that kind of hit differently?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Recently, the the the fun one was uh the uh Al Jardine comment uh from the Beach Boys, and then uh Brian Wilson Estate reposted on his socials.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think that's the top one for me recently.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, what does that feel like?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's great because it's like Sergeant Pepper, and then the second one I was listening to of those on the tractor cutting the grass was Pet Sounds.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I knew you were gonna say that.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then Kinks are the village green preservation society and Odyssey Unoracle.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so it it was uh it was great, and I had known uh I've been his guy for uh for years since the start to finally pull it together.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh was really great.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So what pushed you to leave Ottawa and make the move to LA?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: The music for sure, because the people I was working with uh were here, like not on the music end, but on the industry and promotions end.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I was always calling LA, so I thought if I'm here, I'm gonna be able to do more things in person and meet people and grow it like that.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: But also just because like I would have done it anyway, because it's it's sunny all the time, except for today, which is always what happens.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Every time someone calls me after two months of blue sky with not one cloud, and they say, Oh yeah, I'm sure it's sunny.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, not today, if any other day you would have called, but every time, but yeah, like the mountains, the beaches.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I I would have done it anyway.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Me and my sister working on a TV project, and my oh my whole family came.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: My my dad never wanted to live in a cold place, probably because the family before him came from like Egypt, so we're back in the in the not the tropics, yes.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's Mediterranean climate, technically.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, did the move unlock something in you creatively and kind of like a new era?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was so used to seeing gray.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh like in Ottawa, the the road is gray and the buildings are gray and the sky is gray, and even like the snow is gray.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: So having the colors of like everywhere, there's orange trees, lemon trees, all these jaccaranda purple flower trees, and uh crepe myrtles, pinks like it's just color and color and color.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I was able to feel how I try to feel without blocking out the outside because I at home.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the good thing about Ottawa at the time was when you're in a place like that, and everyone and everyone works for the Government there because the capital, so everyone just wants to go to school and work for the government.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: So when you have that and all the grays, it makes you have to come up with the color yourself.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's probably I don't know.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure I would have done it anyway, but I don't know.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I was here, there'd already be color, so I'd be saying fine, I'm good, uh, as opposed to must write these songs for myself, or there's gonna be no magic in my life because there's none around.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like it unlocked another layer of authenticity for you.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you said a lot of this new album was written in dreams.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Explain that to me.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: What does that actually look like?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was uh hearing a lot of song, doing a lot of uh meditating by way of all not just like what meditating is just in the way of like removing everything every time something would come up, I would think that's from outside.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I picked that up, it's not me, until all I was left with was like I was a kid, which I had forgotten what it felt like, even though I was always I wasn't like super serious, but to this it was to such an extreme degree, and it took me a while to remove all that stuff, even now.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not fully in it, I'd take a full break.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: So then because of the degree to which I did it, the songs were just coming at every second of the day, and I would just hear it even awake, uh like fully finished, literally like someone's playing it for me.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: It almost sounded like a speaker was playing, and then I'd think, oh wow, that's great.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like I hadn't heard it before, and I was like, Oh, I love the way he put in the horns there, like and so that and then I would put it down or get it down.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then uh in the dreams as well, uh it would feel like everything locked, and I got a very bizarre, like I would get I would feel like I'm completely disconnected from me or my life or my identity, and I'm I would feel like electricity surging while and become aware while I'm sleeping that like I I'm there and I can't move, and I know I'm sleeping and I know where I am, and this is happening, and then like a song would it's like I was being forced to listen to a song super loud, the best I've ever heard music.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying the best songs I've ever heard, maybe that too, but I meant like sonically, it was like way better than any speaker or anything because it was just pure, and it felt like I was hearing like zero hertz or something, like below the 20 hertz we can hear, and so loud but without it hurting, because obviously it's just inside.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that was very cool.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last way was Have you seen the movie Coraline?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, because one time it was like I was at this piano, and that time I wasn't aware.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was I thought I was awake.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was at this piano and I was writing my s kind of this time myself, not like it was being played for me.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes, yeah, it's myself, and I have to like finish the idea or something, and then it's me coming up with it, uh, so to speak, for lack of a better uh understanding of it.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: But this time it's like I was writing it, but also it was moving my hands to so it was like the other father song where he's being played by the hands.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: I literally straps into those robotic arms at the piano.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: So one of them was like that, where it's like it was moving my hands to them, and I kind of felt like I was writing it, but at the same time as playing it, but through me.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then I realized this isn't uh a real piano, so that was the dream piano.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and like I had all the different notes, like I in my subconscious, I guess I have all because I don't necessarily I mean often I can recognize pitch, but it's not like I'm the people who like write now exactly G7, whatever.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe if I would focused on doing that uh and studied it, but I was just surprised.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I had all the notes exactly and all, and I could try the different ones in the dream.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I and so anyway, and it just sounded really different than anything I do, and I thought this sounds really special.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I realized there was a dream, I thought I better remember this and wake up right now.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: So then I woke up right then and then recorded it.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And thankfully, I forgot half of it, but I got at least like the best half.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the thing about dreams.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can remember most of them within the first 10 minutes of waking up, but you ask yourself an hour later, you're like, yeah, man.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I think you know, there's a lot to be said about that, and you know, skeptics be damned.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: I do think that there's a higher plane of existence that happens whenever you do kind of you use the term meditation, like commit yourself to a form of transcendental meditation or like bring yourself to a state of peace where you tap into parts of your mind that you might not consciously.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely, yeah.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was when I started doing it so much where like I'm I mean to the degree where like when I'm removing things, I'm even removing the fact that the concept that I'm meditating, because even that's a con and then it was that's when it was like this kid that like even now it bothers me when I'm not in that and I have to get back to what I'm like looking at a tree and thinking tree, which isn't like the word is not real.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: What there's a FaceTime coming in, yeah.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: So and like seeing the tree for the tree without the word tree, and you notice how much your mind is thinking in words that are just a representation of that, even a song, like it's not a song, it's that sound, it's what it feels like.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing, dude.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's let's talk about wonder.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: What does this single represent in the context of the album?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the the perfect introduction to it.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I've done all kinds of stuff till now, like some rock, some more pop rock, uh, and a bit of color, starting with like a song called Everywhere.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was starting on like a quarter of the last album, and the last album had a big range from changed from the start to the end, and now it's like the kickoff of full into color, I think, uh, with all the orchestral elements.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's just full blown.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And starting with kind of the like inspirational or spirit uh positive messaging in a more subtle way on this one, and then it'll be a bit more uh on the nose on the album, but it will also vary a lot.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: So the album's gonna have a bit more hard rock too, but it's mainly gonna be that color.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna wonder was like the pure color, and it's gonna go towards the main theme of the album's gonna be that, but directed even more, I think, to like mainstream contemporary style hooks, fit in really like a mainstream single, but without letting go of any of the elements where there's like a little orchestra here, a little this, it's coming in.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like it's like just as orchestral and colorful and somehow more contemporary, but without changing.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Which is doesn't even make sense.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's vision, and that kind of leads me to kind of what's next for you, you know, manifesting a vision of this album, album three, on the way.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Why should people be ready for the Rockets and what should people be ready for?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think it's exactly that.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think on Wonder I'm seeing a lot of people, because I started with the tagline bring back colored imagination, and people are all saying, like, this is really happy.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: We need more happy music, we need more colored imagination, but also just some saying it like it sounds sunny, we need more sun, sunny sounding stuff, or just positive feeling stuff.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and some people like I'm talking about because I did this and I said I felt like a kid, which is like not actually like a kid, it's what we always can feel like we just don't after we're kids because so much stuff coming at us.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like everything can have a meaning, so nothing is actually whatever experience you're having is valid in that way.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I just had this thought where I was like, why did I do these songs about this stuff that sometimes like insists a problem or like something has to be done when like these three minutes of a song should be used to just feel happy, not not talk about like and yeah, okay, sometimes there's a place and all that, but my vision was I don't want to talk about a guy complaining that he's sad or something happened, like and I love that like in The We Small Hours by Frank Sinatra, one of my favorite albums.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: But the vision is like, I don't want to do that now.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want the three minutes to inspire someone, even if they don't realize it, and something else also inspired them, but it was one of the things they heard in the day, and a couple words got in, or just the overall feel uh gave them.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to do with the three minutes of each song.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Something inspiring, something that inspires everyone to live to the fullest positively.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: I love that, man.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Everything goes according to plan.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: What does the next few years look like for the Rockets?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: The next few years look like color and imagination being brought back.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully the scale keeps increasing.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it can get more to a uh mainstream level just because I think I think it'd be fun for everyone.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think everyone would have fun with it.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully some people can get inspired.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: But in terms of your career, do you have an immediate goal that you want to attain within the next two years outside of just connecting with the audience?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I did the Canadian chart, so it'd be nice to do the US one.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: There it is.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Got like halfway to the to the 40, but now I'm going into a route that's more straight to the people because it or it's gonna go have to go to the people first and then back to the establishment because it's going more out there.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: But every time you do it's like it's more unacceptable what I'm doing to the establishment, though not that much.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: I still get plenty of support in places, but like it's more unacceptable, but that's what resonates more with people always.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then when it was more acceptable by the establishment, when I was doing like just straight pop rock, which was fun too, people loved it too, but I don't think as much as this.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: You've definitely carved a niche for yourself, and I think that's like double down on that, man, because it's great.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, my closing question that I ask every single guest that does my show because I like unique answers, and you know, just leaning into your own experience and your own sense of positivity.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: What's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today through your eyes?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think it it's that uh asking yourself when things come up always like, is this me or is this just a thing that's coming up to find the you again?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because to when I've done it, that you is like a pure kid full of so much imagination, joy, and love that doesn't you don't have to do anything, like you could be failing and you'd be so joyous and spreading it.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I think if you just disconnect in that way, then you can reconnect uh in a way like you're not you're disconnecting to reconnect, because now when you're too connected, you're like pulling on the cables.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: If that makes any sense.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: No, that totally makes sense.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a tech support place saying, Did you try pull unplugging it and then plugging it back in?
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you over the last 40 minutes.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: Tell everybody where they can find you and your music online.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Rockets on Instagram, and it's R O C K Y T S because I like to be a problem.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you gotta remember the why and everywhere else, Spotify and Apple and YouTube, it's always the Rockets.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: And as he said, lightest single Wonder out right now.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do yourselves a favor, check it out on whatever your preferred streaming platform is.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: Jeremy, thank you so much for doing the show.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to know that you have an ally in me now, and the world's a much better place with you and it, my friend.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: Great talking to you.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, I'd like to thank Jeremy Abud of the Rockets for joining me on the show today.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you're giving him a follow on Instagram at TheRockets, R-O-C-A-Y-T-S, is how you spell it.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: And while you're being generous with the followers, make sure you're following at Caught on the Mike on all social media platforms.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate the subscribe on my YouTube channel.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can also visit me, www.codonthemic.com, or email me, caught on the mic at gmail.com for all booking inquiries.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: This has been Caught on the Mike with Michael Clark.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: I am Michael Clark.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, thank you.