Latest / Do Music Differently / Keep the Vision and Find a Way Together

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Keep the Vision and Find a Way Together · Do Music Differently

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Reveal the rules, rewrite your future on your own terms.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: The conversation starts now. Welcome to Do Music Differently with
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Heidselin on W4WN Radio. Hey everybody, I'm Heidselin and I'm
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: so excited for this episode because sometimes you get stuck
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: because you aren't thinking big enough. Oh, I've been told
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: all the time that I'm a big dreamer. I'm a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: big thinker.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: But I've found personally in my journey that sometimes I
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: was getting stuck at what I wanted to do because
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I was thinking too small. I wasn't thinking big enough
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: in terms of how much impact something I was working
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: on could have. I wasn't thinking big enough as far
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: as what kind of opportunities that I would be able
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: to provide through my project. Now, we've had two episodes
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: so far that I can think of off the top
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: of my head where we were talking about having your.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Plan B support your plan A.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: But today, we're going to be exploring what if there
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: was no plan B.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Would that still work?
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: So today's story is a story of going all in
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: with your music. And the result of this project has
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: been record breaking.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I'm very excited to introduce all of you. Brandon Beckwith.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Come on out here, Brandon.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: Hey, how's it going?
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Pretty good. Thanks so much for joining me today.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Okay, so let's dive into this.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Why don't you start by telling everybody a little bit
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: more about your musical background and journey before you got
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: into this exciting project?
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure. So yeah, my name is Brandon Beckwith,
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: originally from California. I started playing piano as a child
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: and then got into kind of the hip hop producer
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: scene around 17, 18 years old. I'm 38 right now, but, uh,
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: have definitely been involved in music at number one, most
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: of my, most of my entire life.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Fantastic. Okay. So what were you doing around the time
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: that the international artist project popped into your head?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. So I, uh, I had never left the United
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: States until I was 34 years old. It was the
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: first time I had ever, you know, crossed the border there.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: And I went to Egypt to go see the pyramids.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: And then I went through Europe and I'd spent some
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: time in the Netherlands over in Amsterdam. And I think
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: just the embracement of all the culture and, you know,
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: So many different type of people, different styles of music.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: Being in an unknown area, it just was like the
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: perfect recipe for thinking of International Artist Project, which I'll
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: explain exactly is here shortly.
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  Speaker 3: All right. Well, that seems like the next best question.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Tell us what this is.
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  Speaker 2: What's the International Artist Project?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so International Artist Project started with the idea to
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: find one artist born in every country of the world. Now,
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: when I say every country, I mean literally every single country.
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: There's 197, give or take, how you look at it,
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: countries in the world. And yeah, so I started in 2023.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: I quit my job. You know, as you mentioned about
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: the plan A, plan B, I feel like the best
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: way to get plan A is to have no plan B.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: you know, so straightforward, nothing else. But yeah, I quit
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: the job, you know, became a nomad. And I traveled
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: to over 30 countries in 14 months. And I looked
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: for an artist from every country I went to. But
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  Speaker 4: I also built a global A & R team to
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: help me find artists. So I didn't have to physically
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: travel everywhere. Also, I could not afford to travel to
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: every country. So yeah, from 14 months, we went from
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: Finding the very first artist in the Netherlands, all the
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: way to finding the final artist that was born in
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  Speaker 4: North Korea, a defector from North Korea. So it was
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: quite the mission. And then brought them all together after
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: finding them. And then we created something called the World Album.
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  Speaker 4: album in history to feature music from artists in every
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  Speaker 4: country of the world. And as you mentioned about the
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: world records, of course, there's world records and awards and everything.
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  Speaker 4: But I think the coolest part was just the connecting
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  Speaker 4: all the artists. That was like the most amazing part
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  Speaker 4: of it and bringing something to the world that had
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  Speaker 4: never been created before. So, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The first time we talked, I think my first question
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  Speaker 2: after all of that was how did did you manage
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  Speaker 2: to herd all of the cats together to accomplish this?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it just became an obsession. Like, you know,
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  Speaker 4: and I think the way that I kind of went
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  Speaker 4: about it was relationship based rather than just transactional. Because
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  Speaker 4: I could have easily, you know, said, okay, first artist
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  Speaker 4: I found from Netherlands, give me a song. Here's the contract.
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  Speaker 4: Peace out, you know. And then I found the second
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  Speaker 4: artist from Armenia could have done the same thing. But Instead,
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  Speaker 4: I created a group channel and not just your everyday
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: group channel. We actually did it on Instagram to where
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: people could share reels, you know, follow each other. And
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  Speaker 4: so on one artist, here you go. Found second artist,
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: put them in. Third artist, put them in. And I
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: would introduce them and let them explain their culture, their
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: country background, their music as they went in. And it
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  Speaker 4: just kept piling, you know. to where everyone got to
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  Speaker 4: actually be intimate with each other. People would meet up
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: to perform together. We would do like little, not really events,
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: but like breakfast or music sessions here and there. So yeah,
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  Speaker 4: it became this huge community. And now I wake up
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: some mornings and they're like, hey, you know, me and
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  Speaker 4: this artist, we're together. We met up in Monaco. And
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: I'm like, that's so cool.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: So this is something that encourages me when we talk
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: about you know, is AI going to completely take over music?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I think you just touched on a key point, key
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  Speaker 2: driver of what I feel as a musician and creative
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: that brings us all to create songs. It's the connection
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: with other people that you get when you're sharing your music.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: And I also really like So anybody can go on
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: this Instagram page and like you just get like a
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  Speaker 2: little taste of all around the world.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Is that what I heard you say?
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. So that's kind of what I, it wasn't
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: the initial dream to have it that way, but now
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  Speaker 4: I look at it as such a cool way to,
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: instead of, you know, of saying like, oh, let me
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: go find music from this country or this country or
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: this country, like totally still do it. But if you
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: ever just want like a one-stop shop, I mean, you're
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: able to see, like literally type in the world album,
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: International Artist Project. I mean, it's a 12 and a
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: half hour album, but like, you know, you can listen
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: to songs from all around the world in one spot.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: And then same with like, yeah, the Instagram page, you
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  Speaker 4: kind of can just tap into like, you know, different
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: stories of different artists or just photos or music. So
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: it does become like a hub for, you know, music
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: all around the world. Obviously, it's just one or more
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: artists from every country in the world. There's a lot
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: more unknown music out there. But yeah. All right.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: Awesome.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: So since we're talking about it and not everybody's going
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: to be able to see this, it'll be audio. Do
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: you want to tell everybody what your Instagram page is?
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's at international artist project, but it has
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: the underscores in between each word. So at international underscore
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: artist underscore project.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, awesome. Perfect.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: So the next thing I want to know is how
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  Speaker 2: long did it take you from like idea to we have.
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  Speaker 4: A completed album? 722 days. I know that by heart. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: so it was a nine days short of two years.
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  Speaker 4: So the The idea came and I, and I, I
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: launched the project actually two days after I had the idea. So, um,
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  Speaker 4: so the project launched on June 11th, 2023. And then
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  Speaker 4: I had finished the album. Uh, it was like June
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  Speaker 4: 2nd or something like that. Uh, And then we've released
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: it August 1st because we wanted to do a lot
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: of stuff beforehand to build the release. So, yeah, 722 days.
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  Speaker 4: And it was 14 months to find all the artists.
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  Speaker 4: And you added about your eight months for production or so.
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  Speaker 1: Awesome.
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  Speaker 3: Awesome. So you have more than one album.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's four. Yeah, there's four. So the first one,
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: when I first started, I... Was able to find three
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  Speaker 4: artists like immediately. So I was in the Netherlands at
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: the time. So I was able to find an artist
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: from there that did uplifting psychedelic trance music, electronic music.
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  Speaker 4: And then I knew a guy that because I based
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: it where people were born, not where they lived, because
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  Speaker 4: I felt like that was more actual bloodline culture. So
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  Speaker 4: I knew a guy from Armenia that had moved to
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  Speaker 4: the United States when he was a young kid and
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  Speaker 4: we grew up together and he made music too. Told
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  Speaker 4: him about it, so immediately got the Armenian artist on.
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  Speaker 4: He did like hip hop, instrumental kind of stuff, a
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: little R & B. And then I knew a guy
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  Speaker 4: from the United States as well that was like a
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: rapper and, you know, kind of did hip hop, little
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  Speaker 4: pop stuff too. So I got them three and I said,
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  Speaker 4: I'm going to do a concept album to kind of
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: get this started to show like here is the layout.
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  Speaker 4: It's just going to be bigger later. So we did
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  Speaker 4: a three track album. We just called it International Artist
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  Speaker 4: Project Part One. Very simple, you know, three different countries,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: five different music genres when you put it together. And
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: then the royalty structure stayed the same. so i took
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  Speaker 4: zero ownership and zero royalties from every artist i let
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: them keep it all because i have a label to
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: keep clear records that i release this all under um
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: and then they're encouraged to use half towards something good
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: in their home country or anywhere in the world with
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: their royalties So it's like a give all take nothing
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: back kind of system, which I felt was kind of
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: cool because you have like these major labels that have
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: so much money and so much resources and they just
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: rip from the artist. I was like, I want to
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: do something where I have no resources, but give everything back,
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: you know, just flip it, like, you know, be a
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  Speaker 4: total obstructor of it. And yeah, so we did that.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: And then I said, okay, now this is something when
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: I go find these artists, I can have them look
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: back and we'll do like an international artist project part two.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: When we hit, well, originally the goal was 50 countries,
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: a hundred and then the world album at the end,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: but it moves so fast that cause artists started referring artists.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: It was like, I'd find an artist from like a
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: ivory coast and he'd be like, Oh, do you have
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: anyone from Nigeria? And I'd be like, no, not yet.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: He'd be like, cool. And he'd be like, Hey, you
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: got anyone from Kenya? And I was like, no, he's like,
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: I know someone. So that helps so much. But so
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: we released the international artist project part two when we
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: had almost every artist. We had about 180 countries. And
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: I just made it optional. I said, if people want
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: to get involved, cool. If not, don't worry. You have
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: the world album. And we had artists from 158 countries
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: get on that one. And there were 64 languages and
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: 104 music genres. And we just released that as kind
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: of a prelude, like, And then I learned a lot, like,
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: what did I do right? What did I do wrong? Like,
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: you know, and it was a good way to get
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: into the world album. So the second that album released
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: was the same day I launched production of the world album,
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: because now we had everybody by that time. And then, yeah,
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: that one was called the World Album International Artist Project.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: And then the final, well, I don't know, it'll be
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: the final, but for now, I just can't stop. But
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: the fourth one, what I did is after the world album,
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: After we went through like the award season and like
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: it settled down There were so many artists that wanted
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: to just keep going like and I felt it too
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: is like you have this huge global community of artists
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: there's like there's technically over like 225 artists when you
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: put the bands and everything together too and I you know,
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: it's so active, like, would we just stop? So I
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: was trying to think of like, what is the best idea?
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: And I was like, well, and I just, I had
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: all these crazy ideas, but then I came down to like,
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: let's go back to the basics. You know, what is
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: the most simple form here? Music, obviously, and community, like,
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: you know, global community. So how do I lean on
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: those two things? And I had the idea of what
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: if we do an album where the only way people
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: can get on from the project was they had to
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: collaborate with another artist from a different country. So I
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: invited every single artist from the world album back. And
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: I said, no old songs, no, no solo songs. You
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: have to connect with at least one or more artists
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: on the project. So that one, uh, had another like eight,
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: nine months production. And there was, uh, 81 countries on there, uh,
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: over a hundred artists. Uh, but yeah, from 81 countries.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: And then, um, had 44 songs. Every song was a collab.
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: I mean, there were some where it was like artists
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: from Maldives, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, all got on one song.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: There was one from Greece, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: and Netherlands that got on a song. You know, you had,
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: and what's crazy is the artists from Spain and Argentina
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: collaborated way before they even played each other in the
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: FIFA World Cup. So that was kind of cool. Yeah.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: But yeah, so it was a, It was like the
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: most globally collaborative album ever made. And then just for
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: the icing on top, I had that hunger to keep searching.
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: So I found three of the 11 people ever born
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: in Antarctica, because there's only been 11 people ever born
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: in Antarctica. So I got the first woman ever born
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: there and two other people to create a spoken word.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: And they put something on the song that was produced
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: by another artist. or on the album so it became
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: the first album in history to feature artists born on
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: every continent too which was kind of crazy so it's
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: all about the global albums and the community and like
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: just doing i don't know super unique and cool stuff
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: so it's always got to be unique if we do
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: the idea we can't repeat anything and it can't have
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: been done so so you.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Know what i'm thinking about right now it's like just
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: going back you said you'd never left the u.s before
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: So how did you go from like, I know, from,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: I'm just in my country too.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: And now I'm all over the world. And I'm talking
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: to people all over the world.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: What, what was that switch for you? Is this something
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: that you always dreamed about doing?
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: No, I mean, to be honest, it was more about
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: me just being like an artist until I was about
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: like 32, maybe or so. And then I just, you know, relationships, work.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: You know, I went to college for like criminal justice,
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: like technical management. So like there was in my like
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: late 20s and early 30s, I was working like real good,
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: like corporate style jobs. But I just for my first time,
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: I think I kind of like let music go when
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: I was like 32. I was like, I still love it, but.
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: done chasing it you know for myself I'm gonna allow
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: it to be a hobby and just the beauty of
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: it I don't want to be let myself down anymore
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: because I'm not the greatest artist like like when it
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: comes to like performative or like singing or stuff like
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: that but but the passion was there so and yeah
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: I just kind of breezed through music and you know
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: for like a year or two and then yeah I'd
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: became single. I was living out in Huntington Beach and
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: near LA for people that don't know. And I just
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: went and got a passport randomly. I was like, I
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: have all this free time. I've saved good money at
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: this point. I'm just going to get a passport and
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: find out where I want to go. And I just
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: started searching. And then I randomly remember watching National Geographic.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: I was actually at my sister's house in my hometown.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: And it was on like the pyramids. And I was like,
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: that's where I'm going. I'm going to Cairo. So I
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: was like, cause everyone from the United States, you always
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: hear about the European backpack trips. Like, you know, it's
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: always the same thing. I was like, I want to
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: do something different. So I think that was a big
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: part of it too. Seeing those pyramids. Cause people have
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: asked me this question, like something about seeing those pyramids
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: is really mind boggling, you know, for the first thing
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: you lay your eyes on overseas. Cause I mean, still
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: to this day, we have theories, but we have no
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: idea how that was built. And yeah, then just going
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: in through Europe, like Amsterdam, New York, Hong Kong, like
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: these are some of like the most populated cultural areas
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: in the world. So I just think like seeing that massive,
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: like unique structure, being overseas, you know, being surrounded by
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: different music I hadn't heard, you know, being surrounded by
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: all these people from cultures I hadn't really seen. I
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: really just feel like it was this recipe that kind
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: of happened and it just hit, you know, so. Um,
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: I just couldn't stop. Like when I had the idea,
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: I couldn't stop. It became really obsessive. Like if it
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: was about something bad in life, it would have been
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: really concerning. So thank God it was something.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: Good.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Uh, but yeah, I just, I mean like within hours
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: I was like quitting my job, um, getting out of
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: my lease, like paying a fine to get out of
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: my lease. Um, uh, just not knowing where I'm going
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: to go, but I knew I wanted to go back
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: to Amsterdam to like go, uh, you know, like have
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: that be the hub. And it just, it seemed like
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: such a good spot. And I just kind of left
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: it all behind and I went broke for a moment too.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: You know, I, I used all the money that I could,
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: I went broke and I had to like go back
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: to California and do like some seasonal work for a
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: tech company, a tax company and like four or five
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: months to get back on my feet and then go
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: back at it again. So, uh, yeah, pure obsession. Like
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: I said, all plan a, no plan B, the only
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: plan B was like failure or death. Like, you know,
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: like there, there was nothing else. Like it, it had
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: to happen. And as I got more and more artists on,
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: like it became a more of a responsibility. Like if
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: I would have gave up 10 artists in no problem,
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: 20 artists, you know, 50 artists, it's embarrassing, you know?
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: So it just, it just got to a point where
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: it's like, you have.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: To finish this.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: So I just want to ask this question because I
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: feel like this is something that holds a lot of
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: people back from pursuing something that, that they think is
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: a great idea.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Oh, that going broke part. Like that must've been kind
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: of scary times.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Like how did you get past like the, the mental
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: head talk at that time that was like, you know,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: were you thinking like, this is time to throw in
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: the towel or were you at that point where you're
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: like 50 artists and you were like, Oh, this is no,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: I can't do it.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: I can't quit now. What, what was your motivation to
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: get through that period? Cause I know it couldn't have been.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: I guess the broke part, in my early 20s, I
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: had went through a situation. I don't come from a
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: bunch of money or anything. Divorced parents were broke as hell.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: I started making a little money when I first started
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: working and then college, like I went through like a
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: pretty broke stage where most people do. So I knew
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: what it was like to like go there. But I
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: always told myself, like, after college, and after you get
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: that good job, never go through this again, never like
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: it sucks. I don't want to call my parents like
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: ask them to ask for me for like to help
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: pay rent. You know, I don't want to lean on
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: my sister to do this again. Like I can't go
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: back to that life. So I stayed real steady, like
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: working for like, you know, six, seven years, like, you know,
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: like with real good jobs. And that fear started coming
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: where I was like, Oh no, my money's going down.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: I'm going to get in this vulnerable position. But I
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: guess to answer your question, like, how I got past
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: that was it's just like, I guess, I guess. like
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: I said, like there, there was, it was a passion
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: meets purpose kind of situation where I felt like I
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: not doing it would be the worst thing possible. Like I,
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: I would rather be sleeping on the streets and homeless
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: or like sick or family hate me, or I've lost
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: friends over this project because like, I, I didn't, I
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: didn't give them enough time, you know? Like, so I
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: still don't talk to some of them to this day,
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: but I just felt like all that sacrifice and, was
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: the only route there, you know, like, um, if it
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: was going to be just an easy and fell thing,
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: I don't think it would have been as meaningful and like, as, as,
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: you know, great as it became. So, um, to tell
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: other people, like if to, you know, how, how to
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: approach that is if you can live without your plan, a,
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: maybe that shouldn't be your plan. A, you know, um,
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: But if you like have a dream and you know,
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: you can't live with that without it. And it's the
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: only thing that's going to truly like bring you happiness
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: and a feel of self accomplishment or completion. Like you
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: have to cut everything off. Like there's no, Oh, well
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: I'm going to give myself six months if I don't
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: get signed by a label or if I don't hit
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: a million streams or if I don't hit this, I'm
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: just going to go back to a job. Like, throw
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: that out the window because now every day that goes by,
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: you're still going to use that as a foundation to
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: fall back on. You can't have anything to fall back on,
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: but like in the end, like you're probably not going
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: to die. Like if you like, you go after your dream,
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: like really hard, you're, you know, you might end up
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: in some bad situations, maybe sleeping on the streets, maybe
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: sleeping on some couches, maybe in debt, but like, who cares? Like,
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: you know, like when we get to live once, like
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: just go for it, you know, just, just go for it. So.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: I think it comes down to when is your life
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: situation more painful than the life situation that you might
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: be giving up and sacrificing? Because over and over again,
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: I hear how unhappy people are in their day-to-day jobs.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: It's not something they love. It's not something that they're
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: passionate about. It's something that pays the bills. And then
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: they go and try and create beyond that. And sometimes
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: that works for people. Sometimes you can chip.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Away little by little at that big project and you
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: can make it there that way.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: Yep. But it's terribly exhausting and there's a lot of hustle.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: And some of those big projects, like the one that
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: you're working on with the International Artist Projects, I imagine
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: you were working on this what eight to ten hours
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: a day.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: More every moment so i mean it was uh uh
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: so so when you said that it like because one
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: part i guess i didn't answer when when you mentioned
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: was there ever a part where i just wanted to
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: give up i knew i wasn't going to give up
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: but i think that was more the scary part like
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: because i was like what am i going to bring
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: myself through doing this but i remember exactly because it
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: was at 143 artists um 143 countries so there was
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: still like a little over 50 to go and i
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: was saving vatican city for the end i was like
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: that one's gonna be so hard like so i feel
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: like it'd be such an epic thing to like fly
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: to like vatican city go to rome and then like
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: now that i have all these artists i should be
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: able to convince you know the vatican to like provide
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: me some because no one's been born in the vatican
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: so there's no hospitals there it's very small it's the
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: smallest country on earth i mean technically it's not even
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: a country it's like a uh it's like a registered
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: state kind of a thing. So, but it, but that
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: was like really causing me, like, I usually don't get anxiety,
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: but I was like getting anxiety. I was just freaking out,
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: you know, like what if I can't get that or
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: it delays it. So I had this just breakdown moment
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: with my, My sister and I remember her and me
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: sitting down and talking about everything. And I decided I'm
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: just going to go to Vatican now. Like, so I
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: actually went to from Amsterdam to Vatican and I slept outside.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: I have like all this footage of it, which is
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: crazy because I was like, I have to get footage
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: of this. Um, I slept outside for like two days. Um,
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: even like the Swiss guards, uh, multiple times told me
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: to leave. Um, and, uh, that I, you know, even
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: though there is like some homeless asleep out there, like
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: they knew I wasn't homeless. I was just out there for.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Like a reason.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: So and I just refused. I was like, you know,
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: I just I'm going to refuse. I refuse to leave
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: like St. Peter's Square until I get a meeting. And finally, finally,
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: like one of the guards put me in contact with
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: like their culture and education department. And I had one
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: phone call with them for maybe three minutes and got
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: a call back like five minutes later. And they were like,
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: beautiful project. Yes, Marco Forcina. He's a 70 year old
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: Vatican City priest. He was born in Rome, but he's
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: been a part of the Vatican since the 80s. And
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: he heads their music. And he's like, they'll provide you
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: a song. Now, he wasn't able to make a new song.
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: It had to be something from his catalog. But that
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: was fine. So when I got over that hump where
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: I was like, oh my gosh, I have someone from
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: Vatican City. That's crazy. Because everyone was telling me, you're
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: not going to get that. You're not going to get that.
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: You're probably just going to have to sample something. I
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: was like, no, we have to have a living artist
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: So that, that was like a really crazy tough part
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: for sure. But then it made, and then it, but
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: it made it easier to kind of like roll down
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: the hill after that. So yeah, the North Korean artists,
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: like a whole nother story, but I'll save that for
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: a second. Yeah.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Okay. Yeah. I think it's a really good time for
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: us to go to a break. Don't go anywhere though.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: Cause when we come back, we're going to hear more
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: about this awesome story of the international artist project.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: You are listening to Do Music Differently on W4WN Radio.
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• 26:11
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• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Hello we're back and we've been talking to brandon beckwith
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: with uh the founder of the international artist project and
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: after hearing that last story brandon i think you just
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: need to turn this whole experience into a movie like
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: i just.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: We're actually working on a documentary right now, though. The
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: filmmakers are in Bangkok. Yeah, so we actually already started that. Yeah,
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: it'll be a documentary. It's not a film. Maybe a
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: film one day.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: Okay, okay, good. I'm very excited about this because, yeah,
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: I just need to see it in real life now.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: That's you sleeping outside and requesting audience. That's so awesome.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: Whatever it takes, yeah.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Right? Whatever it takes. And I think that's really the.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: what we're getting to in the story today is once
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: you put your mind to something and you focus on
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: that one thing, progress gets made faster and it.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Helps you build the people together.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: To me, it sounds like when you got this project started,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: you had a pretty good idea of what you wanted
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: to accomplish straight down to there must be someone from
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: the Vatican. So yeah, In my experience, when you have
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: a clear picture of what you want to accomplish, it
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: makes it a lot easier to communicate that to other people.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: So it's easier for them to refer other people to
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: you and just easier to build the community around the idea.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: Would you agree?
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, transparency is huge. And the best part is when
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: you have that transparency and then you're connected in a
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: community where they've all been told that same thing, you know,
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: it builds a trust factor around everything. Oh, you know,
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: he said he was going to do this. He's done
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: it with these 50 other artists. He must do it
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: with me, you know, so yeah. very much and yeah
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: with the thing like i always feel like if you
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: you always say like you know one small step every
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: day or giant leaps over time my thought is if
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: you take a giant leap every single day like you're
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: gonna achieve what you want eventually you know so and
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: and also you're but one thing i feel that it's
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: the most important thing i say today is one thing
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: i've noticed is There's a lot of sadness around a
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: lot of artists because they feel like they haven't hit
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: their dreams. What I think a big problem is people
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: are not defining their dreams correctly. For me, it was
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: I want to find all these artists from everywhere in
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: the world and create an album. So it's very easy.
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: Not easy, but it's very set in stone. This is
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: how it's going to happen. Who cares about the success?
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: Who cares if it gets awards? Who cares if it
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: gets world records? Who cares if it gets five streams
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: or five million streams? This is the goal. So I
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: feel like if a lot of artists were to set
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: that more like, hey, my goal as an artist is
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: to release five albums in my life or one album
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: this year. Or, you know, but if they start setting
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: it as I want to book a ton of shows
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: or I want to get this many streams or get
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: signed by this label, those become uncontrollable, you know. So
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: if artists started setting more of like a controllable dream
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: with the hopes that something else happens, I feel like
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: that's a lot better way to go just for yourself
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: and your piece, you know.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're singing my song right there because I think
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: more people would figure out what it is that they
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: really want to enjoy with music. If they took a
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: little bit more time to slow down, look at what
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: they truly value in their life, not just like, I
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: enjoy making music, but do you enjoy traveling?
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Do you enjoy talking with other people? Are you more
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: of an introvert? Would you rather be holed away in
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: a studio somewhere and only come in contact with five
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: people all of your life? You know, like, what is
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: important to you?
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: And once you start putting all of those pieces together,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: that is what makes you unique. That's what makes you
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: stand out as an artist. And you can start to
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: put together all of these creative ideas to come up
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: with something really, truly unique.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: And it just takes a little.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: A little planning instead of just jumping into it. I mean,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: even though it does sound from your story, you jumped
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: in pretty quickly. But did you have some sort of
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: strategy behind all of this while you were jumping right
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: into it?
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: Like, yeah, as I've told many people, it felt like
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: a blueprint download kind of a situation when I when
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: I had the idea, because I'd been involved in music,
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: I had done, you know, like the artist side, I'd
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: done the engineering side, I've done the mastering side, I've
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: done the production side, I've done the marketing side, I've
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: done everything. The label side, like I've had a label
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: since I was 18. So I've done so many different things.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: So with the clear vision of, I just need to
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: find someone from every country. And also I need to
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: collect one song from at least each of them and
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: put it together in an album. And I had this,
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: it was pretty set in stone. I didn't know the like,
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: hard parts that were going to come emotionally and like
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: you know financially but uh it was just kind of
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: a blueprint download so i knew i just had to
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: keep moving keep telling as many people as possible and
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: when i would uh but when i started traveling because
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: i didn't really break down the perfect budget i should
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: have been a little smarter in the beginning because um
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: like i was out sometimes or staying in airbnbs but
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: what i realized a little bit in was Why am
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: I wasting money on Airbnbs and hotels when I could
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: stay at hostels, which embed sometimes four to 16 people
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: per room? It's cheaper. And also I can tell all
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: these people about what I'm doing because now you're going
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: to meet people all around the world. So that was
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: like the key in the beginning. I met so many
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: like A & R agents, like, well, they became A
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: & R agents, like, you know, and, and just people
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: like you're doing that way. Like, I remember going to
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: Turkey and staying in like a 16 bed hostel and just,
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: you know, everyone's very communicative and wants to hang out
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: in hostels for the most part. So just telling people
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: about it, like, Oh, I know someone from Austria. Oh,
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: I know someone from New Zealand. Oh, I know someone
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: from here. It just created this beautiful network. So that
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: became a very nice recipe over time.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: So.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: So a question popped into my head through all of this.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: How did you communicate with everybody? I mean, not everybody speaks.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: English, right?
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: So most of the people that I speak with speak
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: speak English, but then secondary is French, like tons of
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: people just speak French. And then there's a lot of
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: people that just speak Spanish. And then you have a
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: lot of this random languages too. But if it was,
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: so when I would first talk to them, I would
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: try to find a translator. If it was like a
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: really just thrown off, you know, language that I didn't
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: know about, but I had someone that spoke French. I
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: had someone that spoke Spanish. And I had someone that
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: spoke Arabic as well. So when I would have these
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: first meetings, whether video or phone call to talk with them,
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: if I wasn't meeting them in person, they would translate
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: for me. But then after that initial meeting, I just
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: move it straight to WhatsApp and I would just use
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: Google Translate, just keep it easy. But I knew how
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: to speak a little Spanish, but now I can type
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: in French sometimes without doing it. I can kind of
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: understand the French, like, you know, speaking and Also the texting,
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: my Spanish got quite a bit better, but not great.
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: And then I've even now picked up a lot of
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: words and like Tunisian Arabic and like all these other things.
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: So it, it, It's been an experience, but the language thing,
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: it didn't completely hurt it. It just made it more interesting.
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: And then one other thing I noticed, too, was almost
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: every single person on the project has an Instagram, but
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: I think it's just because I use Instagram as the
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: base to grow it. So that kind of helped, too,
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: versus some people don't use Instagram or they use Facebook
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: or they use this. Some things didn't always take words
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: to communicate. You could just like communicate by vibe as
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: it kept going.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: So, yeah. Yeah. OK, awesome.
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: So what do you think out of this whole experience
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: was your favorite part?
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: Probably the release day of the world album. Yeah, like
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: that whole weekend. Because a couple months before we released it,
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: like right when we were finishing it, I had announced
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: to everyone that I want to go back to Amsterdam
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: and release it where it all started, where the idea started,
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: and even stay actually at the same place. Because I
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: was in a hostel then. I stayed at the same
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: place that it all began. So I told every artist,
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: try to get to Amsterdam. And there was like 12
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: or 13 people that had like came in from different countries.
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: Like at one point we were sitting with artists from Guinea, Switzerland, Spain, Netherlands, Slovakia,
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: myself in the United States, like all just hanging out
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: like the night before walking around the city. So, um,
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: that was great. Cause that was like the culmination of everything. And, um,
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: And then the first day was crazy. Because we have
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: six world records, one of the world records was very unexpected.
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: Because we have the world record for most languages on
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: an album with 93. Most music genres, 121. Most countries,
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: every country, unbreakable. Most continents, unbreakable, all seven. um, most
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: globally collaborative albums. So those ones were all kind of
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: like not planned, but it happened in the logistics. But
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: the one that just came out of nowhere was, um,
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: we had streams, uh, from my distributor report from 189
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: countries in the first 24 hours. Um, so like the
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: artists and it wasn't just like one or two, it
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: was like quite a bit. So because we all promoted
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: it at the same time, like they all had release
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: packages I built for them. So, um, having the whole
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: world almost stream it within 24 hours was amazing and
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: then within six days it was the whole world minus
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: north korea because they didn't have access so that was
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: like a really cool feeling like knowing wow like this
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: like album not only had the whole world but it
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: reached the whole world you know um and that was
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: just such that was like a feeling that i remember
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: still like getting like kind of watery i had like
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: wow like it's it's done It's done, you know, so
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: I didn't have to spend 10 years doing this. I
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: thought it was going to take at least four to
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: find all the artists and then like maybe another one
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: or two to do it. But I mean, nine days
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: short of two years from idea to having the world
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: album was crazy.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, I think that's one of the most impressive
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: parts about this story, because, you know, oftentimes when people.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: bring up a big idea like this. It's like, okay, well,
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: let's set our expectations on how long this is actually
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: going to take so that you're not disappointed halfway in
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: that we're not done yet. But, wow, what an accomplishment
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: to get it done early.
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: The goal is an artist a week. Yeah, the goal
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: is an artist a week. So, like, 52 weeks a year,
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: let's just say 50. You know, 197, let's just say
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: it's going to take four years. But we were getting, like,
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: three in one day, like, sometimes. Like, three in one day,
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: two the next day. You know, it was like... But
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: it's because of snowball effect. It's because of the artists
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: were referring other artists. That's where it got crazy. So, yeah.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think this is a great.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: example of how like networking and collaborating with other artists
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: really does work. You know, when I was out playing
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: metal shows in Wisconsin, you.
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: Have three to five bands together and all the bands
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: are advertising.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: So it's not just you all by yourself advertising. Then
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: when I moved to Jacksonville, then I was doing cover
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: band stuff and I.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: Was very frustrated because it's like, it's just me putting
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: this stuff out here. Like nobody else is promoting it.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: I miss the days when we were doing this as
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: a group and it was so much more fun.
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: So instead of just being like a one woman machine, yeah.
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: Or one man machine. Like it's a, yeah. A lot
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: more fun when you have help. So, well, unless that
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: there is people in the group that aren't helping and
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: that becomes a problem.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Sometimes become a problem, but that's another whole learning
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: experience right there.
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: That's why I always say I've like been living by, uh,
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: like um what was it uh give everything expect nothing
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: as i said earlier i feel like that's the greatest
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: way to always do stuff i mean just give everything
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: expect nothing because no matter what you know you put
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: everything out there that you could and then anything that
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: comes is great you know so i feel like it's
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: a good way to not let yourself down but also
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: push yourself.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Nice nice So I wanted to make sure to give
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: you some time to promote anything that you have going
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: on right now.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: So go for it.
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I guess looking to the past first,
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: just for anybody listening or seeing what I'm saying, just
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: this album isn't just something where I'm like, hey, go
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: check it out. You know, like, let's get all these streams.
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: Let's try to get this art, you know, project more popular.
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: The reason the International Artist Project even exists was to
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: create the world album for everybody, You're a part of
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: International Artist Project, my family's a part of it, everyone
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: is in some way affiliated with this project because this
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: album was made by the world for the world. anyone
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: ever just wants to go and listen to sounds all
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: around the world and get exposed to all these different languages,
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: you know, like literally just type in the world album,
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: international artists project, and you could be able to listen
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: to it anywhere. I mean, it's easier than me just
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: dropping like links and stuff. So it's just type that in,
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: you're going to find it. It's on all streaming platforms.
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: You can even buy it on vinyl or CD too.
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: Like if you really wanted to get like physical.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: So, but yeah, oh this is so exciting we turned
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: into record people lately and so.
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: I know i'm all about the vinyl yeah so it
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: had to be cool but the one problem is though
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: the vine the vinyls uh uh 18 copies and the
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: cds uh 10 because it's so long it's 12 hours
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: and 38 minutes but just stream it don't spend your
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: money on it um and then uh But in the
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: other part, so the fourth album where every artist came together,
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: that's just simply titled International Project. It's just a self-titled album.
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: And the reason I titled it that was just because
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: it felt like it was the culmination of what the
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: project really is. And it was connecting artists and music.
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: So there's the World Album International Artist Project and then
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: just International Artist Project. And the other ones are a
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: little smaller, so don't worry about those. um but yeah
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: and then we you know i kind of wanted to
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: take a break from albums we've done an album every
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: year now 2023 24 25 26 so and i put
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: these artists through a lot you know like i mean
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: this international artist projects is in their whole career they
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: you know perform they do other stuff they have their
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: own lives so um we're keeping the community alive but
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: right now we want to focus on telling the story
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: so that's why i'm pouring fully into the documentary um
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: we've as I said, hired people in Bangkok, uh, that
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: are going to be filmmakers for the goal is to
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: have it done by at least like mid or the
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: end of next year and then shop it around, see
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: if we can maybe get it on a good streaming platform.
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: If not, we'll just upload it and call it a day,
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: you know? So again, I want.
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: To watch it. Definitely tell me when it's done.
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: I have like a crazy contact list. So like when
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: it comes that time, like, yeah, for sure. I'll like,
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: I'll send it out. And, um, Yeah. I just, I
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: don't really care about money. Like when it comes to art,
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, I know business has to be put into
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: it somehow, but like, I just feel like the path
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: of least resistance is like, if people just stop worrying
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: about the stream, stop, stop worrying about the amount of
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: money they're going to make every day about, you know,
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: like I get that we need to like create a
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: million reels all the time and like all this crazy
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: system that's been made. But I mean, in the end,
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: like just, if you're not focusing on the music first,
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: what does anything else matter? You know?
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: So, Well, I think the most important part of your
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: story is you could be doing all that social media stuff.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: And as long as you're doing it independently and all
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: by yourself, it's going to be a lot of work
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: and it's going to be really hard. But when you
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: reach out into your community.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: And you start meeting people and you get interested in
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: what other people are doing, especially the stuff.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: That's really unfamiliar to you.
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: That's when all kinds of exciting things start to happen.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: That's for sure. That's how we met. We met through
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: a social media platform. Yeah, so fair enough. Well, I think, yeah, LinkedIn, right?
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's still social media in a way.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was LinkedIn. The business social media.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, uh-huh. But no, those are the main things. I
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: just want as many people to experience World Album as possible.
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: Growing up in Central Valley, California, I was hearing rock, pop, hip-hop, rap, country.
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: That's what I knew. And then little did I know
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: that that's the smallest, maybe 1% or 2% of what's
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: actually out there. And it's also good. Like, I mean, again,
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: coming from like a California mindset, like originally, like I
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: wasn't exposed to a lot of languages, you know, like
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: I heard some Spanish. I heard a little bit of
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: different languages. Like your mind does something when you hear
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: music in different languages because you don't know what they're saying.
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: So you're forced to feel it, you know. And so
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: when you're listening to stuff and you don't know what
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: exactly they're saying, but you feel what they're saying. And
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: that is just such a beautiful way to listen to
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: music differently. So, yeah. That's the way to do music differently.
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yes.
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: I love it.
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: I love it. All right.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: So with that, everybody out there that has been listening
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: to this, you know, a clear goal and leave room
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: for a completely different route than what you initially thought
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: in life. It's not too late to get started, change
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: your mind, change your route, but having a clear idea of,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: where you want to go with your music, how you
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: maybe want to do things differently. And then communicating that
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: to other people will help you build community around your idea,
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: around your music, around your projects. You'll find other people
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: that share those ideas because crazy enough, sometimes I think
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: like I'm the most brilliant person in the room, but
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: then I go talk to somebody else and they're like,
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: I've been thinking the same thing. And what's magical about
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: that is it doesn't diminish the idea any less. It
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: actually just makes it even bigger. So if you're out
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: there right now and you're feeling kind of stuck in
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: your music project, start wondering if maybe you've been thinking
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: too small. How much bigger could you make it? How
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: many more people could you involve? How much more impact
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: could you have? So thank you, Brandon, so much for
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: joining me today. I really, really enjoy your story. Totally
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: serious about wanting to see the film. So I'm excited
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: to hear how that all goes. I'm definitely going to
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: be making sure I'm on your list and following along
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: with you on Instagram.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: All along the journey.
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much, too. So I love what you're
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: doing here with Do Music Differently. You're definitely giving people
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: a voice and also just I love the advice that
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: you give behind as well. So just thank you and
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: don't stop doing what you're doing. So.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: All right. Thank you. Thank you. Love that for all
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: of you guys out there. What rule are you ready
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: to rewrite?
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: Um, I think the way that we receive our music
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: would be great. Um, Yeah, so personal opinion, but I
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: don't feel like just the way we have the streaming
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: platforms is the greatest route. That doesn't mean we have
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: to go back to the physical, but I think it'd
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: be great that maybe in the next five to 10 years,
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: something new is introduced on how we access our music
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: in a way that helps artists, but also more importantly,
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: makes the experience even better for the listener.
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: Oh, that is a good one.
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: More music videos. I love that. More music videos. I
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: miss the MTV nineties music videos, the alternative ones, like
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: more music videos too. So please.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Right.
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: Not just reels, more music videos.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: The seed has been planted for all of you out
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: there now. Who is going to do it?
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: It's a big idea.
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: I'm too busy to do it. So somebody else, please.
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: Until next week. Thank you all for joining us. Do
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: music differently. What rule are you guys going to rewrite?
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: This is Hydaelyn, and you've been listening to Do Music
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Differently on W4WN Radio. Your next breakthrough could begin with
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: one new rule. Scan the QR code or visit hydelyncoaching.com
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: slash let's chat and
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: Tell me what rule are you ready to rewrite?