Latest / Unsigned518 / Unsigned518 - Episode 163 - Billy and the Great Western Postal Service

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Unsigned518 - Episode 163 - Billy and the Great Western Postal Service · Unsigned518

• 0:01
  Speaker A: He was born on a Saturday in.
• 0:03
  Speaker B: 73 he loves punk rock music fighting the 13 jabbing the dazzle jazz rock.
• 0:09
  Speaker A: Now on the beat guitar with a.
• 0:12
  Speaker B: Short quick radio bass his motherfucking envy.
• 0:17
  Speaker A: Scrolling look at motherfucker cuz here he.
• 0:21
  Speaker B: Comes Andy sculling wearing his orange hat.
• 0:27
  Speaker C: Welcome to Unsigned 518S. I'm here with Billy of Billy and the Great Western Postal Service. How's it going, man?
• 0:34
  Speaker A: Not bad at all. It's awesome to be here.
• 0:36
  Speaker C: And, you know, if this was a video podcast, people would see how, how, how quickly my dog Calvin has accepted Billy. He's. Calvin is up on the couch with him, snuggled right in. I'll post something to socials. Go, go check out socials.
• 0:54
  Speaker A: Because, you know, I gotta say, Calvin. Calvin's really stealing the show here and maybe giving the interview.
• 0:59
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, he does steal the show. And it is the vibe check. You know, like, he goes, make me.
• 1:06
  Speaker A: Want to take a nap, too. It's been a long day.
• 1:08
  Speaker C: Totally. All right, so what we're going to do, we talked a little bit before we got rolling, and we're going to kind of go back and allow you to tell the story of Billy and the Great Western Postal Service the way you want to tell it. So I guess literally just kind of I'm going to hand it over to you, start the story wherever, and let's do this.
• 1:31
  Speaker A: Oh, thank you. So Billy has been a project that I think I've wanted to do but didn't know I wanted to do for a really long time. I grew up out in western New York, near Cooperstown area. And near Cooperstown means, you know, 45 minutes from Cooperstown. Everything's in the middle of nowhere out there. And I grew up surrounded by country music. Some good, some really not good. And I think growing up, the sounds of old country music kind of stuck with me, but I didn't really realize it. And I got to college and I played in punk bands, I played in funk bands, I played in a rap group for a while. I played. I mean, I played probably every kind of music that I can think of. And I was in a punk punk band for a long time. I think that's when I met you, Andy, when playing in a band called El Modernist back in Saratoga and a few years ago, back. Back before COVID Oh, wow. Yeah, I was a singer in that band.
• 2:37
  Speaker C: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, that was like, long before the podcast. Long before the bet, like. Yeah, okay.
• 2:43
  Speaker A: I had short hair and no beard, and it was. It was a very different time. Covid did me dirty, but I was. You know, we were coming out of COVID and we were just kind of home. Or not, I guess we were in Covid. We're just kind of sitting home, not really doing anything. And I watched Ballad of Buster Scruggs. You ever seen that?
• 3:02
  Speaker C: Sure.
• 3:03
  Speaker A: That very first vignette where they sing when a cowboy trades spurs for wings. Oh, wow. I was like, that is the perfect song. It's 2 minutes and 12 seconds long. Just a. Two choruses, a verse, a verse and two choruses. And I know really sparked an interest in, like, all right, I'm gonna go listen to some. Some old, like, Johnny Paycheck. I'm gonna go listen to. I'm gonna go listen to Buck Owens. I'm gonna go listen to Willie and Waylon and. And all of these, like, classic, standard, old country, like. Right. And. And hearing the way that. That country music is. It's like jazz in that it has standards that are built into it. And I think that was such a cool tradition. And. And the concept of, like, this music is simple, and this music is simple on purpose, so that if you were in a group of people sitting at a campfire and you all had an instrument, somebody could start playing, right? And you would all know how to play the song. You could all sing along, you could all play with it.
• 4:07
  Speaker C: You'd know the structure.
• 4:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, you know it immediately. You. It. It's a type of music that broadcasts what the structure is going to be. It lets you know what the next chord change is going to be. From a mile away, it's like, oh, we're going to the four here. Don't worry, we're going to go there. And I thought it was such a cool. It's so cool to use that vocabulary to try to make new music. And so I started writing the first single, why Is It All Here? And that first ep, Water and Gin. Like, in my basement alone, I recorded everything but the drums. And the pedal steel drums was Joe Tyrone of Bruiser and Bicycle. And pedal steel was Ian of Mayhaven.
• 4:51
  Speaker C: Yep. He's been on the show twice, I think.
• 4:54
  Speaker A: Excellent. Excellent steel player.
• 4:55
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, great dude.
• 4:57
  Speaker A: Yeah, great dude. Incredible steel player. So wrote those songs, recorded them in the basement, and they were almost a little, like, overly cowboy. And I think it was really just coming from the punk band, coming from playing in, you know, rather technical jam bands, being like, I'm going to do this and see if I can play any cowboy music. And, you know, recording that as a. There wasn't really much country music in Albany at that point. Burrough county had just gotten started and Steve obviously has been around and playing incredible country music. Steve Hammond. But there wasn't really much in, like, active country music at that point. So I'm like, you know, everyone's gonna hate this. This is gonna be. This is gonna be a just absolute, like, dive into the wall. Let's see what happens. And released it. And people were like, oh, this is cool that this is happening in Albany. And I was like, whoa, I can't believe it. And I've been really fortunate to have a group of musicians say, hey, I want to play with you. And it's been about just over a year of playing fairly consistently, and we've really, I think, kind of come together as a band. And it's. It's been really cool to get to write with them and play.
• 6:14
  Speaker C: Awesome. I've definitely seen, you know, obviously I. I try to be as multi genre on this show as I can. Like, you know, my bread and butter is punk rock. Like, you know, I'm like, you know, skate punk Scott. Like, you know, that. That type of shit. That's like what I'm really. But, like, I've been trying to expand my horizons and the show has, like, helped me do. And I've found that the country scene. And I'm calling it, like, right now, as we're sitting in what, fucking early 2025. I'm calling right now, like, the country scene in Albany is about to be big. Big. Like, it's getting. Not just the acceptance, but like you said, it's getting the enthusiastic response. You know what I mean?
• 7:00
  Speaker A: Very cool.
• 7:01
  Speaker C: And you were kind of like, I don't know if. And it's like, no, it's the exact opposite of that. Because even me as like a punk rock kid, I'm finding that my enjoyment for country music that I'm hearing locally comes from that connection to punk rock. Like, I hear, you know, like, in Brule county and like, in. Even in, like, ams. And, you know, I hear.
• 7:27
  Speaker A: I firmly believe that punk rock and country are.
• 7:32
  Speaker C: They're close.
• 7:32
  Speaker A: They are. They are so closely related. They are. They're right next to each other. If. If you go back, I mean, obviously, can I say. Yeah, I guess I could say this. 911 was the worst thing that ever happened to country music. Sure. That's my statement. I'm gonna stick by it. All right? That was the worst thing that ever happened to country music. Because, you know, before I thought it.
• 7:52
  Speaker C: Was Garth Brooks, but you Know, see.
• 7:54
  Speaker A: Like I, I could get behind that. But see, I also like Brooks and Dunn. So like there's some, you know, I like some cheesy like leisure shoot country. That stuff. That stuff.
• 8:04
  Speaker C: See, that's where I lost it. Like I, my, I grew up in like a country household. And so like when I was younger, it was like Whalen and Willie and like, I didn't like it specifically because it was my parents music.
• 8:18
  Speaker A: I love you, dad. That's what Jimmy Buffett was for me. And I've come back around. I do, I do, you know, rip to a goat. I love Jimmy Buffett music, but growing up, it was just too much. Jimmy Buffett.
• 8:30
  Speaker C: Yeah. Like, same for me. Like Willie Nelson, like, the thought of Willie Nelson like fucking killed me. Like it killed. And then, you know, by the time I got to like my teenage years, I was like, man.
• 8:41
  Speaker A: Willie's like one of the best singers of all time. It's incredible.
• 8:44
  Speaker C: Yeah, so it's like, that's like the country, you know, that I have been able to get behind my whole adult life. But like some of the, some of the like poppy country, like, it just, I was like, I cannot get behind.
• 9:00
  Speaker A: No, it doesn't have a story to it. And I think that the most important thing about country music, and this is the most important thing to me has always been lyrics and story, right? And like, I think that circles back to the concept that this music is simple, it's not hard to play, it's not hard to figure out. So you better tell a story, you better have something to say. If not, you're just twiddling the same three chords. We can all twiddle those three chords, right? And I think it's lost in a lot of this really popular pop country music is just. There's no real story. And it's like when you can boil country down to, you know, beer girls and pickup trucks, it's like what happened to Mama Tried? What happened to. To Wild side of Life? What happened to all of these incredible stories, like how I got to Memphis. All of these stories of like, of heartbreak, of. Of like true remorse for things that have happened, which I think really like, defines good country music.
• 9:58
  Speaker C: And maybe that's why, you know, I can relate to it too, because like I was saying before we got recording, I think we were talking about podcasts. And I was saying, like, the podcasts that I listen to are primarily storytelling podcasts. Like, I love being told a story. Like, I like a narrative. And like me, if a, if music, if a Song has a good, you know, like, like look at Devil Went down to Georgia. Like you could make a movie about that. Like, you could just take that song and be like, here, make a movie about it. And it would be a good. It would be a decent movie. I'm surprised nobody's. Or have they done that?
• 10:32
  Speaker A: Ooh.
• 10:33
  Speaker C: I don't know if anybody's done that, but if they haven't, like, dibs. Yeah.
• 10:36
  Speaker A: Yeah. All right. You want to make a movie.
• 10:38
  Speaker C: Yeah. But like, that would be a great movie because that story, you know, it sticks with you. You know the story. Yeah.
• 10:46
  Speaker A: And you end up in this. I don't know. If you listen to a lot of country music in a row, you get like a good playlist going and you get a good, like old country playlist. It's the stories that you hear, like, go back and forth between, like, you know, it's kind of light hearted things are going on or whatever. Then there's just some ones in there that are just bleak.
• 11:06
  Speaker C: Right.
• 11:07
  Speaker A: This is the sound of a person scraping rock bottom.
• 11:13
  Speaker C: I mean, that's the same with punk rock too.
• 11:14
  Speaker A: Absolutely.
• 11:15
  Speaker C: Like, think of like, what, like Social Distortion, you know, like Social Distortion is like a fucking half a step away from country music. Oh, you could slow it down just a little bit.
• 11:27
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 11:27
  Speaker C: Like.
• 11:28
  Speaker A: And I mean, I'm noticing that pipeline too, and, you know, learning country musicians from other scenes now and starting to meet people. I mean, we all played in punk bands, every single one of us. There's not. You don't meet one country musician who wasn't. Yeah, I was in a punk band before this. It's like, of course you were. Yeah, so was I. So was we. We played punk music. You got that energy and that aggression and the ideals. And those ideals are the same as country music's ideals as you know. You know, controversial is like, it's. We are at the bottom of the totem pole.
• 12:03
  Speaker C: It's the working person's.
• 12:05
  Speaker A: The working people and. And it's. All of us are on the same team. Everybody at the bottom of the totem pole should be at this. On the same team.
• 12:12
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 12:13
  Speaker A: And we sing our songs is about us. And, you know, the bottom of the totem pole makes the best music. That's how it is.
• 12:21
  Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah.
• 12:22
  Speaker A: The guys at the top of the totem pole make terrible music.
• 12:24
  Speaker C: They really do. They really do. I don't know. I'm not. Not to get political, but, you know, I'm glad. I'm glad our side makes the better music.
• 12:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's you know, there's. There's a lot to be said about the state of the world right now. But, yeah, there is some incredible art happening there is for sure important to hold on to.
• 12:46
  Speaker C: And it's. It's always. It's always locally. And like I said, that brings me back to, like, what I'm saying, like, about the. The country scene is that, like, I, for one, as someone who never really liked country music, am finding myself, like, listening to it because not. Not. Not only because I've met the artists, but because, like, I understand where it's coming from. And I'm telling you, a lot of that stuff is fucking punk rock. It's 100% punk rock. So I dig it, and I support the country uprising here in the 518.
• 13:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, 2025 is your country. That's how it's going to be.
• 13:28
  Speaker C: It's coming, man. It's definitely coming. So we're going to talk about. You've got maybe some new music in the works and. And we're going to maybe play a song live here in the Dazzle Den. But right now we're going to do a song off something that's already out, correct?
• 13:48
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 13:49
  Speaker C: So what were we going to play?
• 13:51
  Speaker A: So we're going to listen to Virginia, which is off of Water and Gin, which is our EP that's out right now. This is one of those tracks that was recorded basically alone in the basement before I really got to play with some of the incredible musicians that I get to work with. But stalwart through this whole thing has been Taylor, who's my roommate, lead guitar player and backup singer. And he has been here from the very beginning. Learned to play country music for this. For this project, has been incredible through this whole thing. And then the guitar soul is played by my younger brother, who works for Syracuse University, but an incredible guitar player. And this is a song about a classic cowboy song about dying in the desert.
• 14:42
  Speaker C: All right, cool. Well, let's listen to Virginia, Billy and the Great Western Postal Service, and then we'll be right back to talk some more with Billy.
• 15:02
  Speaker B: I met Virginia on my lawn this day it was hot as hell and.
• 15:08
  Speaker A: I was choking all the dust.
• 15:12
  Speaker B: As she stood and offered me the first water I'd seen in a week it's the closest thing to love I'd ever.
• 15:20
  Speaker A: Built.
• 15:23
  Speaker B: She said, come sit beside me while you drink Tell me a story you never told or we won't say anything and we'll turn that water into gin it's the closest thing to love I'D ever seen what tears me to pieces Is I'll never learn to dance the way you do I hope that sweet dream's night where you get caught it's the closest thing to love I'd ever seen now as that sunset it starts to fade and I can feel that cold settling in Jenny said you shouldn't think as she poured me another drink it's the closest thing to love I'd ever seen Sa I'll never learn to dance the way you do I hope that sweet treat where you get caught it's closest thing to love I'd ever seen Last thing Virginia said to me Is that the universe it's merciful to make glad it won't let you die with your throat gone dry I've spent nights like this with many more than you I see my share of wonders I seen a miracle or two but none could ever hope to compare to sweet Virginia Comforting a poor soul there's never been it's the closest thing to love I'd ever seen it's the closest thing to love I'd ever seen it's the closest thing to love I'd ever seen.
• 18:12
  Speaker C: All right, that was Virginia, Billy and the Great Western Postal Service. And Billy. That one is on one that is out now. The EP is out everywhere. But you're currently working on a new album, is that correct?
• 18:26
  Speaker A: It's true. We are in the middle of tracking for LP1. It's going to be called Pines, and it is probably still a little ways off, but we're really, really excited. We got through about half of the tracking already and it's gonna be. I think it's. It's very different than what this first record was. There's still a few callbacks to more cowboy stuff, but I think this is a little bit more breadth.
• 18:55
  Speaker C: And is it like the earlier stuff is mostly just you or all just you or. And now you're working like as a collaborative. So I mean, is that. Is the more breadth of it, the, the. The bigger scope is that from the collaboration is like the input from everybody else is just bringing a new light or are you still kind of creative director over it?
• 19:19
  Speaker A: I think anytime you bring a band together, it's good to have the democracy of it. And I think, I think, you know, Sam and Mike, Sabrina and Taylor and Aves have all brought incredible things to this that have informed how. How we've been writing going forward and, and definitely going into this record, sitting down with, with Mike and Sam on, on drums and bass, we've we really reworked a lot of these songs. But I also think being more comfortable not aping a specific style in this and being more comfortable with this style of music in general speaks a lot. And I think that just comes from playing it for a couple years and really working on writing stuff that is a less, like, direct reference to things that I love and being more selective and choosy with the parts that I want to lift. A good songwriter is just a better thief. Right?
• 20:22
  Speaker C: Right. Yeah. I mean, it's true. Like, you know, not like a. I mean, that's a. A black and white way of saying it, but, you know, for anybody on it that doesn't know, like. I mean, obviously a songwriter is taking from other.
• 20:37
  Speaker A: Everything you've ever heard.
• 20:37
  Speaker C: Like, you're not living in a fucking vacuum. Like, if you've heard a song or you have a band, especially if you have, like, certain bands that you listen to, you know, and you, like, absorb this band's catalog. Y. No fucking way. You're not putting some of that into your.
• 20:55
  Speaker A: It's definitely. It's, you know. Yeah. Don't. Don't get it confused, saying, I'm gonna take these notes.
• 20:59
  Speaker C: Right. Right.
• 21:00
  Speaker A: If I've heard that collection of notes, and I'm like, I really love that. And I love that every time I hear it, because I wouldn't be the first one to steal those.
• 21:07
  Speaker C: There's only 12 of them.
• 21:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, there's only 12 of them. I'm not the first one borrowing them. And I didn't. You know, I'm. I'm a firm believer of the idea that songwriters, as much as anybody, can claim, oh, you. You created this piece of art. I'm not entirely convinced that we do. I think we find it. I think we find songs. I think there's been moments where I'm just on the guitar playing around, and then all of a sudden, you play three chords in a row. Oh, I think this is where this is supposed to go.
• 21:37
  Speaker C: Or like, at the same time, like, I'm sure you've had times when you're just playing around, and all of a sudden you fall into a song and you're like, oh, wait, this is so and so song that.
• 21:46
  Speaker A: Oh, absolutely.
• 21:47
  Speaker C: You know, that. That I've heard, you know, like, so, like, that balance of being able to take those elements, it's almost like. Like I said, you're not hearing or you're not growing up in a vacuum. It's almost like cooking. Yeah. You have your ingredients, and you can't be like, well, well, someone's already used salt before, so you can't fucking.
• 22:05
  Speaker A: Yeah, I can't have salt now.
• 22:06
  Speaker C: Use that.
• 22:06
  Speaker B: Sorry.
• 22:07
  Speaker A: That guy used salt 50 years ago. It's like, oh, no, I. No more salt.
• 22:10
  Speaker C: Can't you sell? No, no. Oregano's gone.
• 22:13
  Speaker A: Somebody use that, they use time. I hate when that happens.
• 22:16
  Speaker C: So it's the same thing, you know, you're taking the. Those little elements. And again, that's like with the. The country music and the punk, like, hearing those elements in country music as an aging punker makes me want to listen to it because I'm like, huh, I hear it.
• 22:35
  Speaker A: You know, it's the same emotion, just a little slower.
• 22:37
  Speaker C: Yeah. And like, I can hear it. And it's. It's those elements that were lifted from a completely different genre that. That makes music fucking beautiful, you know?
• 22:48
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And it's. It's been so cool seeing, especially now, a lot of modern country music, including, like Sierra Pharrell, Willow Avalone, Michael Price. There's a lot of really great modern country. Tyler Childers, people who have really embraced the tradition but. But brought it, made it modern, but are really leaning into the idea of, you know, under produced song driven country. And I think that's just.
• 23:25
  Speaker C: Yeah. And I think, like, that 90s trend that I was poo pooing before, like, that almost made it, like, too modern.
• 23:32
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 23:32
  Speaker C: And it dated it. Like, put a fucking timestamp on it. You know what I mean? You're like, well, that's a 90s country, the early 2000s.
• 23:39
  Speaker A: You can tell. It doesn't matter what I. This is music, this is fashion, this is movies. This is anything, you know. That's from 2002.
• 23:45
  Speaker C: Right, right.
• 23:46
  Speaker A: Oh, you can tell.
• 23:47
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 23:47
  Speaker A: The moment you see it.
• 23:48
  Speaker C: So it's like a time. Time stamp on it. It's like they do too much.
• 23:52
  Speaker A: You work too hard at it. It's like, yeah, classic is always classic.
• 23:56
  Speaker C: Absolutely. And that's like the same with punk rock, you know? I mean, you. You know, But I can't remember who it was. I think it might have, like Iggy Pop or something. It was like an oil punker that was like, you know, two chords is fine, three is pushing it, four is jazz. Like, you know, and it's like it. It worked, you know, like, it works like if I'm sitting down to write a song, like with. With our band, like, I don't go any more than four.
• 24:20
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I mean, most. Most verses are three.
• 24:23
  Speaker C: Yeah. Three, then two for the chorus, and I'm good. Yeah. Yeah.
• 24:27
  Speaker A: Three chords and the truth. That's what they say, right? That's country music. Chords in the truth.
• 24:31
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, I love it. All right, so new album. It's in the. You know, some of them, you said, have been tracked, so, like, there's certainly no release date, but it's, like, on its way.
• 24:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. We're going to see point, hopefully this summer going into the fall, but there should be something pretty soon.
• 24:52
  Speaker C: Sweet. So we'll make sure to look out for that. And then right now, you're gonna play a song here live in the Dazzle Den. You brought along your guitar, and. Is this something that's on the. The new album, the one that's coming out? Right.
• 25:06
  Speaker A: So this song is called Cold Snap, and it's. It's the opening track on the new record. And I think something that I found kind of cool about this record, you know, as. I say, as the person who wrote it, but maybe it's cool is that the songs were written over the course of about two years, and in that time, my life changed in a lot of different ways. And the songs follow? Not exactly. I'm not writing the story of what happened, but it's interesting to go back and look at the songs written in the order that they were written and seeing where I was at that point, even if I don't necessarily remember the day I wrote that song. I don't. I don't remember when this happened or that happened to, you know. Yeah, I wrote this song when this happened and this thing happened, I reacted. I don't. I don't know that, but I can tell where I was. And this song is the beginning of Pines. And it's. It's kind of bleak. Not gonna lie.
• 26:24
  Speaker C: Well, you know, sometimes. Sometimes shit is. You know, at least it's bleak in the beginning, you know, I mean, true.
• 26:31
  Speaker A: I'm very lucky.
• 26:32
  Speaker C: Leaves. Leaves room for optimism.
• 26:34
  Speaker A: I think there might be some optimism on this record, which is. I know that's not what. Nobody's tuning into Billy in the Great Western Postal Service to hear, but maybe a little bit.
• 26:42
  Speaker C: All right, well, cool. Well, let's check out Cold Snap. Billy of Billy and the Great Western Postal Service live here in the Dazzle Den. Then we'll be right back to wrap it up.
• 27:04
  Speaker D: I hear we're in for another snowstorm Just as things were melting as it got warm so hold me close and I won't need a jacket Nothing keeps me warm the way you're wrong Always do But hey, I love the way you stop me being the worst that I could be I always wanted to feel like I'm needed but that was the worst part of me and I feel the west wind blows a chill up off the lake hang reel in a cold snap that'll make your body ache hand deal with the fact that you'll be gone tomorrow day will fade and night will fade follow I hope this will be the last cold day this year I wish I knew you back when I was younger Back when I was dumber when this world felt small you'd always seem to hold on to wonder in the stars and the thunder how I miss you out I'd always hate the way I'd stopped you from being the base that you could be I'd always known that your bed shadow was leaving so here's your chance go be free. And I feel the west wind blows a chill up off the lake and trail in a cold snap that'll make you body ache Handed with the fact that you'll be gone tomorrow Day will fade and I will follow I hope this will be the last cold day this year And I feel the west wind blows a chill up off the lake and a cold snap that'll make your body ache and deal with the fact that you be gone tomorrow day will fade and I will follow I hope this will be the last cold day this year.
• 31:07
  Speaker C: All right, that was cold snap. Billy and the Great Western Postal Service live here in the dazzle den. And Billy, want to thank you so much for taking time out of your day and coming to do this with me. It was a really cool hang and I appreciate it. And before we go, like I do with all my guests, I just want to give you a chance to say your gratitude. So the microphone is all yours.
• 31:28
  Speaker A: First off, I'd like to say thank you to you. Thank you for having me here and in this awesome, awesome space and for all you do for the scene. Andy. It means a lot. And I mean, I A litany of people that I need to thank and I hope I don't forget anybody and I'll do my best. I have to thank my band. I have to thank Sam, Mike, Aves, Sabrina and Taylor who have offered and volunteered their time to really help bring these songs to life and play all these shows that we have already played and have coming up and, like, none of this really would exist if. If y'all weren't part of this. I have to thank. I have to thank everyone I've ever been in a band with before. Will, Joe, Josh, Zane. Oh, man. There's too many to count now. I mean, at this point. Mike and Hunter from Grape Juice. Everybody and everybody that loves you. Just all the people that play music with me who have shown me so many things and taught me so much about playing, about being in bands, about, you know, just how to make art that is enjoyable for me and for, you know, for the creative aspect of everything. I have to thank my parents. Wouldn't be here without them. Thank my brothers both for being friends growing up and for being people who question me now that I'm a grown up. And I think I have to thank the most directly for being here is probably my grandmother and my. And my grandpa who in third grade insisted that I was gonna go play piano and got me into piano lessons and ended up, you know, here. We're here nigh on 30 years later and it's been an incredible journey that I know started with me complaining about practicing Mary Had a Little Lamb and now here we are. And it's really cool to think back on all of the music that I've been able to make. And I have to thank her for that. And I thank everybody in the Albany music scene. It's such a beautiful place to make music of any kind, really. It's been such an honor to watch it grow. I got to Albany about 10 years ago at College of St. Rose. Another rip. And through my time there and the time afterwards leading up to now, the quality of musician that has come from that establishment, even if it doesn't exist anymore, is incredible. But also just the artists that I've come across here in Albany, you know, it's just incredible to see. It's incredible to work around and near Brule county and Steve Hammond and Hold On Honeys and all. Just incredible country artists in Albany that it's really cool to be part of the scene. And I'm always. Every time we get asked to play a show, I'm mind blown that people would ask us to play shows with them. And I was like, these are my. These are heroes. These are people that I really, really respect in their songwriting, in their, you know, the ethos, the way they are. And it's been incredible to get to play with Steve and with Brul and thank Calvin being the best co star. Yeah, this is incredible. I've had the best hangs here. Yeah. Just thank you. Thank you for all you do and for having this opportunity here. It's incredible.
• 35:42
  Speaker C: All right, so he is Billy of Billy and the Great Western Postal Service. I am Andy scullin. This is unsigned 518 I'll see you on the road. Unsigned 518 is produced and hosted by me, Andy scullin. New episodes are available every week wherever you stream podcasts. If you'd like to help support the show, please like and subscribe wherever you are listening. Or you could buy me a coffee@buymeacoffee.com unsigned 518 if you would like to advertise on the show, send me an email at unsigned518mail.com and to be a guest on the show, reach out to me through Instagram at unsigned518. Take care of one another and I'll see you next week.