Latest / The Scene Projects / Toliver Rey on Military Roots, Indie Music, and Touring Tales

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Toliver Rey on Military Roots, Indie Music, and Touring Tales · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Today's guest is Toliver Ray, the artist behind Whatcha Drinking?
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  And Rewind to 17.
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  We're talking small town roots, big hooks, and the road ahead.
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  Stick around.
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  This is gonna be a good one.
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  Part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
• 0:45
  Well, welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is Toliver Ray.
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  Welcome to the show, brother.
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  Hey.
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  I appreciate you having me, man.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, I know you're a busy guy.
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  You said it's show day today, so you got a lot of stuff going on.
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  I'm a try to get you in and out of here.
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  And, but first, before we talk about all the things that you're doing now, I'd love to give
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  you the floor and give us a little bit of your backstory.
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  I got started in music, in 2021.
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  Never been never had any musical experience or anything like that or even thought about doing
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  it.
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  But like every country story, something really tragic happens or it puts you in a dark place,
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  and then what you do is you write about it.
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  So I started writing in a in a journal on my thoughts and then started turning into poems
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  and then started turning into writings, lyrics to me beats you hear on YouTube, and then it
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  turns into original music.
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  And then then it kinda just goes on from there.
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  But then after that, I basically just, didn't think it would take anywhere or even thought
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  about trying, but my mom, she she told me I should pursue it.
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  So after I recorded my first song that I was gonna originally try and sell or try to get
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  somebody to sing it, she recommended I release it myself.
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  And, you know, about what is it?
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  Four years later now?
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  Yeah.
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  Four years, and here we are.
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  That's incredible, man.
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  Fresh to the game.
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  Shout out to mom for the the push to keep going.
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  And, yeah, love it.
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  I always love when when mom's the biggest fan and a big driver of, you know, pushing pushing
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  us young men to do something that maybe we wouldn't without that.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  For sure.
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  And, yeah, she was definitely my best friend, and she was gonna be my manager for sure.
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  Incredible.
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  So what, what would you kinda say is the, the sound that that your stuff has?
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  I haven't got a chance to listen to it yet, and and we're gonna have you back on someday to
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  talk about, the music and to hear it on our other show, Love Noise.
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  But, how would you describe it?
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  I feel like like a lot of music today, country is kind of, like, changed.
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  Actually, it's not even kinda changed.
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  It's changed completely almost.
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  But then you still have certain artists that still know what true country is, and I wouldn't
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  say and I'm I will never claim that I'm true country, which is, like, you know, like, Zach
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  Top, you know, even Kojo or George Strait, Alan Jackson, anything like that.
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  But you have, like, your different brands.
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  You have, like, Red Dirt, Country Rock, alternative country, pop country.
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  And I got told that I sound different or sing differently in in each one of my songs.
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  And there and I always said there was a reason for it, and I guess it's just basically how it
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  feels.
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  And I've kinda me and my guys, we've basically kinda invented a new genre, which is what I
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  call variety country, which means I can probably do all of it.
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  We haven't done a honky tonk song yet, but I'm currently in the middle of writing one.
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  So I'm looking forward to doing that one, and we've got ones that are a little bit harder.
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  My next single villain is gonna be out in November.
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  That one's more to the little bit harder or kind of the rocker side of it.
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  I've been told Jason Aldine vibes, Luke Bryan.
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  I've been told Luke Combs at times, and I've been told.
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  Even Kane Brown, which that one was a little bit that was a little bit weird for me to take
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  a little bit.
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  But I like Kane Brown, but I was like, I was like, I didn't really think I was.
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  But, you know, it's basically just different styles, and it's not, like, trying to shoot for
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  that.
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  It's just how how the song comes out and it's how it feels.
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  And, you know, it's not just one brand of music.
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  It's it could be many.
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  And I think that's one thing I like about the music that I make with me and my guys is that
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  is that we're unique and we're different.
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  And we're like a basket of robins.
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  We can get we're, like, every flavor of ice cream that you can have.
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  And it sounds like you just let the song be the song.
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  You're not trying to fit your music into a certain box and to be this or that.
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  Like, just this is what I felt.
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  This is what I wrote.
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  Here it is.
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  You've mentioned the guys quite a bit.
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  So you got a band that you're playing with live?
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  Yes, sir.
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  My they're they're they're family to me.
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  I've always made sure that even though it's my name, it is our band.
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  Like, obviously, like, the front guy is always the one that gets the recognition for a lot and
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  a lot of people see.
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  But I always inform my guys before they even joined is that that they are just they are the
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  reason this whole thing works.
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  I don't work without them because, unfortunately, I don't play guitar even though
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  I'm learning, but it's a slow process.
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  But they no.
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  We, we're back.
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  We're family.
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  We're brothers, and it's and like I said, I don't work without them, so I always mention
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  them and give them a shout out whenever I can.
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  That's cool, man.
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  I, I, songwriter, guitar player myself, and I've always been, you know, I was a busker.
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  And before that, I was a campfire strummer, you know, back to, you know, growing up, going to
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  high school and playing high school parties and then, you know, playing on the streets when I
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  was a vagabond, hitchhiker, up and down the West Coast in the late aughts.
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  And, you know, I've always kinda been my own show.
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  And even now when I perform, I tend to just hire local people because I like to travel, and
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  I have the possibility to go around in a book myself, you know, and I live in the middle of
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  nowhere.
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  I'm in I'm in rural South Dakota.
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  So for me to get to some of these bigger areas well, not everybody has that time or, you know,
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  if they're gonna do that, they're not willing to sacrifice money that they could make at home
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  or that time to go and travel.
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  You know?
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  I went on a couple of ten ten, fourteen day tours this year where I went all the way from
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  Duluth, Minnesota to Austin, Texas.
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  Right?
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  Well, not a lot of people have that time away from work or their families.
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  And, I mean, I was sleeping in my truck the whole time.
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  It was 98 degrees and 98% humidity in Texas both times I was there this year.
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  I got no AC in the, you know, 2001 suburban.
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  You know?
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  So I'm dying.
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  It ain't glamorous.
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  It's not rock star living, but I'm out there doing what I love to do and playing music in
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  new places.
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  And a lot of times, that's the dedication that it takes to break into a new market.
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  You gotta go make some friends, man.
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  Like, yeah, you can do a lot online these days, and you can get yourself booked, you can be you
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  know, use those Spotify plays to kind of, you know, get you into this gig or that gig.
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  But even then, it's not usually paying a whole lot of money.
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  And if you have people and we're spoiled as all can be up here in South Dakota where when I go
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  perform locally, we're making anywhere, you know, from a thousand to 1,500 with the band,
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  which for guys playing in saturated markets are like, holy cow.
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  Like, we're we're spending several $100 sometimes to go play a gig, whether it's we
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  have to sell tickets or you have to rent the venue or or whatever it is.
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  So while I'm very blessed, it also makes for a lot of kind of spoiled musicians, myself
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  included, that when you leave town, you're like, oh, I'm not willing to sacrifice, the
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  money I could make staying home to go spend a bunch of money and time on the road and to not
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  you know, to play for maybe a half empty room somewhere else.
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  And for me, I'm willing to make that sacrifice, but I'm not willing to ask a lot of other
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  people to leave their wives and families to go do that.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  For sure.
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  That's one thing I like about my guys is that, like, they all see they see the same thing I
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  see, which is this is this is every you know, this is the dream that we have which that we
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  can that we can live.
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  And, you know, obviously, it's always it's always tough to start.
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  And then I always say that, you know, hey.
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  If you're you know, if you wanna you know, it's like, you know, obviously, it's like if you're
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  if it's all about the money, then to me, nothing against anybody that does that, you
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  know, wants to, you know, just do it strictly for money, which is no.
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  You know, that's their preference.
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  But my guys, like, they vote they just said they just love to they would love to get paid
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  for it, but they don't it's not about the money for them just like it isn't for me.
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  We just we just wanna play whether it's in front of, you know, 50 or or even 15, you know,
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  to, like, 500 or anything like that, which, you know, like, for example, like, tonight, we're
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  we've been looking forward to the night because this is our first, like, headline concert where
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  it's, you know, it's not just dive bars and three hour sets anymore.
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  It's, you know, it's turning into, like, hour and a half, and we actually have openers now.
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  And it's and it's like it's like we accomplished a, you know, accomplished a goal,
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  and now we're looking forward to doing the other goals.
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  And and that's and that and that is a big thanks to this independent label out here where
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  I'm at called Pow Gang.
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  They have done a lot of promotion for us, and they got and they made made this show happen.
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  So we're looking forward to seeing what 2026 brings to.
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  That's awesome, man.
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  And I know in your bio, it mentioned mentioned that, you're in Oklahoma.
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  Right?
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  Is that what it said?
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  Yes, sir.
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  I'm I'm from Blanchard, Oklahoma.
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  So and you're a veteran as well.
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  I'm sure you see the banner behind me, and you've had a chance to read it.
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  Obviously, our veteran community means a lot to us.
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  National Guard?
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  Yeah.
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  I was National Guard for, almost six years.
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  I got, I got out in June went in in god.
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  It's been that long.
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  2037, and then, got out in, July '22, then officially was, discharged in, after 2023.
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  So
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  Did that transition have anything to do with, like, starting to really pursue music and to do
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  that is knowing that, like, hey.
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  This this guards and my service to my country is coming to an end.
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  I really want something to to to put myself all into.
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  Was was that an impetus as well, or did it just kinda happen naturally?
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  It kinda just happened natura little bit naturally.
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  I was when I went through this when I was going through a custody battle, which is originally
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  which is what my song another chance is about.
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  It was the first song I ever recorded, and it was the third I've ever released.
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  I was I was I was still in when I was going through that situation.
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  And I don't know.
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  It didn't exactly, like, kinda push me to do that, but I knew that before I joined, I wasn't
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  going anywhere.
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  Like, most of us, it's either do that or go nowhere in life, whether it's, you know you
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  know, don't work and kind of being lazy and stick you know, lay around or or jail.
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  And I know I didn't want to have that ever be an option, so I knew I had to join.
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  And plus, I have a lot of on my dad's side of the family, all my all my grandpas and grand
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  uncles, they all served as well.
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  So that was that was also a factor in kinda joining that tradition of family that all
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  served.
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  And then then I think being in the being in the military kind of pushed the motive, like,
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  pushed to have me have motivation and to learn actually how to work hard to get to where I'm
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  at now musically.
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  So it does take factors from when I joined to what I take from that and then put it into
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  music as well.
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  I love it, man.
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  And and it seems like you're really invested in the work of it, and I think that's what we try
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  to educate.
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  We have an organization that we started called the Midwest Original Music Organization.
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  And it it's really just to educate younger artists mostly, people that like, I had all the
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  gumption and the talent in the world when I was 20 years old.
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  I just didn't have a freaking clue how to do it.
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  And granted in in you know, I graduated high school in 02/2004.
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  It was a different industry then.
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  Right?
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  We're talking pre iPhone era, and and it was just different.
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  I was trying to work a different game.
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  And by the time I learned that game, it had all changed, and it was all about streaming.
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  And I and I felt totally lost, and I went the jail route.
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  I did a couple years in prison, you know, for selling marijuana out here in South Dakota.
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  And, getting out, it was obvious that, like, well, you're not going back to, like for me, I
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  thought I'm not going back to playing music and selling weed.
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  That's not just what it that's just a part of it.
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  So I learned how to weld.
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  But, like, something that kinda hit me while I was in prison was that I had a little guitar
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  that I, you know, had on loan or somebody had given me and playing that and seeing how it
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  affected the people around me.
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  And they're like, hey, man.
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  Can you play that song?
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  And I remember a couple of times, you know, jamming in the in the barracks and, you know,
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  there's there's 20 guys surrounding me till the guards gotta break it up, you know, get out of
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  here.
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  But I put on a concert right there in the prison.
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  And it was like, oh, this still means something, and this is something that I still
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  want to do.
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  And it means something not just to me, but to other people.
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  So I I really when I got out, it was about, well, how does the music scene even look now?
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  Like, I've been out of it for four or five years.
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  I don't even know how to do all this social media stuff and how to really get out there and
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  to to make something of myself again.
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  And, you know, we were doing that.
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  I joined the Midwest Country Music Organization in 2024.
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  And right before we went to their award show weekend to meet everyone and just to hang out,
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  I had started this podcast.
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  And when we showed up at the award show, we showed up with our microphones, and, we had a
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  jam night the night before the show.
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  And I just set up my microphones on a table, took over a little corner of this bar, and
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  said, I'm open for business.
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  Right?
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  Like, let's let's have a chat.
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  And we did 25 interviews that night.
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  A year later, that turned out into us being nominated for the content creator of the year.
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  We did 35 interviews on the red carpet that night before the show, and then we won.
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  And now we've got to go around for the last six months and to be the, you know hi.
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  I'm Bubba Starts.
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  I have an award winning podcast and to watch the doors that that now opens, and it's just
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  been an incredible ride since then, man.
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  So, yeah, I I I love the motivation that you have to do it.
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  It's been a lot of work, man.
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  I don't do anything but this.
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  This is what I think about from the time I wake up till the time I go to sleep at night and
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  building this platform for independent artists, but also hopefully building a a legacy that
• 15:56
  moves on well beyond my lifetime and and that we have something that, that artists can
• 16:02
  continue to lean on.
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  You know, I say that we kinda wanna be, you know, MTV, Rolling Stone, and Live Nation kind
• 16:09
  of all into one.
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  We wanna be able to do it all, not just have a podcast, but to to have publications that we
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  now work with.
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  We have an Internet radio station that we've started.
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  So to be a full sale, you know, artist, not necessarily representation, but a a place that
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  artist can come into and a family they can join, a community they can be a part of that
• 16:30
  will advance their careers at whatever level you're at.
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  You know?
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  Now we have a TV deal with True TV Plus where our episodes are on, you know, Roku and Apple
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  TV and Amazon Fire.
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  And now we can offer that to artists to say, hey.
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  You come on here and, you know, give us some of your time.
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  It could turn into this for you.
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  And I think that it's just been really cool the last and this is really within the last month
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  that the radio and TV stuff has happened.
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  But it's been an incredible run for us, and we can't wait to see where it goes from here.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  For sure.
• 17:04
  I didn't even know y'all.
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  Didn't even know it was on the True TV app.
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  I'm a have to go watch it now.
• 17:08
  Heck yeah.
• 17:09
  Download that thing.
• 17:10
  Help us out.
• 17:10
  You know?
• 17:11
  Watch all the content over there.
• 17:13
  We have an episode up with our good friend Samantha Grimes who's, being considered for
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  Grammy nomination now.
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  And a year ago, that wasn't even on the table for her.
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  And I it's not because of us.
• 17:24
  It's because of her.
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  But if she goes out and gets nominated and freaking wins, well, you bet your butt that I'm
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  gonna freaking have Grammy now you know, Grammy winning artist on our show on the resume.
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  Right?
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  And, it's just it's built an incredible community.
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  And and where I've maybe and I've been through my own custody battles, man.
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  Still do.
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  My son's 13, and it's still a mess.
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  So I feel you, on that tip that it destroyed me.
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  You know?
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  I didn't turn to music then.
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  I turned to drugs and and and bad decisions, and and I really left music completely alone
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  for that two to three years.
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  And not necessarily because of prison did I find music again.
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  It was really in the year I was living in Mexico on the run that music became a part of
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  my life again because it was feeding my family.
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  I was going down to the square in the little town we were in.
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  I mean, not little.
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  It was, like, eighty, ninety thousand people, but I was playing my guitar for pesos, and it
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  was feeding my family.
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  You know?
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  So it it it reignited that love that I have for music, and now it's the love of meeting other
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  artists and supporting them on their journey wherever they may be at.
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  I've interviewed rock and roll hall of famers on this show or somebody that's just starting
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  out and to be able to help people along that journey.
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  That's my passion now.
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  And if my own music career gets to achieve some semblance of, you know, success, I've already
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  been successful, man.
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  I've gotten to play some really cool stuff and to do a lot of cool things in my life, and it's
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  all thanks to music.
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  So I can't complain.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  For sure, man.
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  Yeah.
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  Definitely done a good job.
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  I appreciate that, man.
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  Well, it's easy when I got guys like you that come on the show and wanna share their story
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  with us.
• 19:05
  Toliver, why don't you tell everybody where they can find you, I'll let you get out of here
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  and start preparing for the big show tonight.
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  So everybody can find me in all my social medias, at talgaraymusic on TikTok, Instagram,
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  Facebook.
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  You can somehow find my Snapchat.
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  I leave the Snapchat up to, like, a as an adventure.
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  If you can find me, then I'll add you.
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  It's so, like, yeah, we we post got updates on new music coming up.
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  Like like I said earlier, my new single villain is coming out.
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  I'm really looking forward to that one so everybody can keep tabs on that.
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  Like I said, Tyler Duray music on all social media, and, all the music's on all platforms.
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  So looking forward to seeing what it all brings.
• 19:56
  Well, Toliver, I appreciate your time today on a gig day, no less.
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  Have a great time at the show tonight.
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  It seems like it's a big one for you all, and thank you for being part of the scene.
• 20:07
  Man, I appreciate you having me.
• 20:08
  Thank you.