Latest / Basic Folk / Abraham Alexander & Kashus Culpepper: Handsome Club Convenes at Sea, ep. 342

Transcript

Abraham Alexander & Kashus Culpepper: Handsome Club Convenes at Sea, ep. 342 · Basic Folk

0:11
[SPEAKER_06]: Hello and welcome to Basic Folk where we have honest conversations with folk musicians on the Bluegrass situation.
0:18
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm your host Cindy House.
0:20
[SPEAKER_06]: Hello.
0:20
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you for joining us today.
0:22
[SPEAKER_06]: We are presenting Abraham Alexander and Cash's Colpeper recorded live on the Kiyamo cruise on the podcast today, which is going to be a blast to listen to.
0:35
[SPEAKER_06]: So glad you're catching this one.
0:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Before we get into that, let's talk about ways that we can stay in touch.
0:41
[SPEAKER_06]: I made a New Year's resolution to send newsletters for 2026, and I'll tell you what, I haven't done it, but it is definitely on my list of things to do for this year.
0:51
[SPEAKER_06]: So if you want to sign up for our newsletter, you can do so at the link in the show notes or you can go to basicvoked.com and click on the red sign up for the newsletter button.
1:00
[SPEAKER_06]: You can also follow us on social media.
1:02
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm going to be honest.
1:03
[SPEAKER_06]: I feel like the best bang for your buck is on Instagram, at basic folk pod, but we are also on that handle on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.
1:13
[SPEAKER_06]: Or you can become a contributing member.
1:15
[SPEAKER_06]: That is a great way to stay in touch with basic folk because it helps us exist.
1:20
[SPEAKER_06]: You can make a contribution at basicfolk.com slash donate, or you can find that link.
1:25
[SPEAKER_06]: In the show notes, we are live at sea aboard Kiamo 2026 with Abraham Alexander and Cash's cul-pepper, so these guys had not met prior to this event, but we found a couple of very cool parallels between them, so we decided to interview them together, plus we knew it would be more fun to have them both up on stage in front of a live audience and we
1:55
[SPEAKER_06]: originally from Greece has had an impressive rise in profile thanks to opportunities from friends like Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr. and Adrian Casada of Black Pumas.
2:06
[SPEAKER_06]: Casada actually worked with Abe on the song Like a Bird, which was nominated for an Oscar for its inclusion in the deeply moving 23 film Sing Sing, Navy Veteran, Cassius Colpeper,
2:24
[SPEAKER_06]: grew up singing in the church and learned to play guitar while deployed in Spain.
2:29
[SPEAKER_06]: So his deployment actually occurred during the pandemic in 2020.
2:34
[SPEAKER_06]: So he was left with nothing to do, nowhere to go.
2:37
[SPEAKER_06]: He spent his time learning guitar drinking plenty of sangria and playing for his fellow sailors who were also indulging on that sangria.
2:47
[SPEAKER_06]: Abe and Cash have a few things in common that we discuss.
2:51
[SPEAKER_06]: They're emotive and boisterous singing voices, learning guitar as adults from the same YouTube guy as it turns out.
3:01
[SPEAKER_06]: They both have intense histories with sports, and of course, being very handsome.
3:07
[SPEAKER_06]: We introduced our conversation with the two musicians as handsome club as a shout out to handsome people as well as Lizzie knows only fans handle at handsome Lizzie.
3:19
[SPEAKER_06]: we ask those guys to speak about the relationship with beauty and after ensuring them that yes, we were for real and asking that question.
3:26
[SPEAKER_06]: They spoke of beauty found in the process of turning pain into something positive and how confidence in yourself is everything.
3:35
[SPEAKER_06]: We have some poignant moments and some major laughs that are enhanced by an awesome crowd.
3:42
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks to everyone
3:48
[SPEAKER_06]: We're going to take a listen to a couple of songs, one from Abraham and one from Cash.
3:54
[SPEAKER_06]: So we're start with Abraham Alexander and Adrian Casata with their song, Like a Bird, from the Sing Sing Original soundtrack.
5:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And we'll check out Cash's Culpepper a clip of his song Broken Wing Bird, Eatering Sierra Ferrell.
5:40
[SPEAKER_07]: Broken weaver And all the night we'll see Gonna love you until you fly away The song that I heard
6:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Reminds me, a vehicle I know Before she cries and too, with a ground below And stopped her reaching for the sky
6:32
[SPEAKER_07]: No, it's the time it comes You will be gone On a southern wind And I'll be the one crying There's praise here again You need a friend See you're alone You'll be the one crying
7:04
[SPEAKER_07]: Ain't all the might we'll see I don't love you, I'd say
7:36
[SPEAKER_06]: And let's get to our conversation with Abraham Alexander and Cassius Colpeper on Basic Folk.
7:59
[SPEAKER_06]: So my name is Cindy House, I'm Lizzy No.
8:02
[SPEAKER_06]: We are with the Bluegrass situation or BGS and we are hosts of a podcast called Basic Folk.
8:10
[SPEAKER_06]: And we host on his conversations with folk musicians.
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[SPEAKER_06]: It's available wherever you get your podcasts.
8:17
[SPEAKER_06]: And we have been doing interviews on the ship all week.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And you'll be able to find those.
8:22
[SPEAKER_06]: It'll be coming out in a few weeks.
8:23
[SPEAKER_06]: This is our third year on the boat.
8:26
[SPEAKER_06]: We have done interviews with Billy Bragg, Leyla McCalla, on a different go.
8:31
[SPEAKER_06]: Did we really do that?
8:33
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, we did it.
8:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Congrats to us.
8:35
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it is always such an adventure at sea.
8:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And last year we had Mariko Che and Jamie Harris.
8:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Up on this stage, talking about their show shoes.
8:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's always a good time.
8:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're so grateful that y'all woke up early to have honest conversations with us.
8:49
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, and we are excited about our conversation today.
8:53
[SPEAKER_06]: Do you want to tee it up for everyone?
8:54
[SPEAKER_02]: OK, the theme today is Handsome Club.
8:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the guests that I'm, of course, about to introduce are the illustrious, incredibly talented, rising stars, caches, co-pepper, and Abraham Alexander.
9:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome them out.
9:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Whoo!
9:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Handsome Club, y'all.
9:17
[SPEAKER_06]: So before we start, we just wanna say that everybody on this stage is handsome.
9:22
[SPEAKER_06]: It is a fact.
9:24
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not up for debate.
9:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not a debate, it's not a compliment.
9:27
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the premise of this interview.
9:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, got it, got it, got it.
9:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, let's jump right in, growing up, what did folk or country music mean to each of you?
9:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And how has that changed over time?
9:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Like do you think of yourself as folk and country artists now?
9:43
[SPEAKER_02]: What do those genre labels mean to you?
9:47
[SPEAKER_08]: I think for me growing up in Alabama I didn't really think too much of it.
9:52
[SPEAKER_08]: I grew up going to some of the best place for food, the best grocery stores like Peek-a-Wig-Lead.
10:00
[SPEAKER_08]: And when I during that time frame that was playing all kinds of music that was playing.
10:04
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, Hank Senior that was playing at the grocery store at the grocery store while I'm picking up my favorite pork sandwiches and so Hank Senior and Conway and at the time I didn't really think that I know that I just thought there's just
10:18
[SPEAKER_08]: That's just the music they play.
10:20
[SPEAKER_08]: And then when I got into songwriting stuff like that, like how do you know about this music?
10:25
[SPEAKER_08]: And because people look at me and be like, how do you like country so much?
10:29
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm like, because it was just all in all the time.
10:31
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I grew up, I'm sorry.
10:32
[SPEAKER_08]: It's just the way it is.
10:33
[SPEAKER_08]: So, uh...
10:34
[SPEAKER_08]: That influence my songwriter and influence the way I sing and not only country and folk, but also gospel and blues, because my family and I grew up in the church.
10:44
[SPEAKER_08]: So I didn't think there was no of it.
10:46
[SPEAKER_08]: Two other people started pointing out to me that, like, hey, why do you like this music?
10:51
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know.
10:52
[SPEAKER_08]: Just two, I. Relatable.
10:56
[SPEAKER_02]: What about you, Abraham?
10:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think of yourself as a folk artist?
10:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And the art of it, absolutely.
11:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I think folk is the best way to tell stories, you know?
11:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought,
11:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Growing up in Greece, like, I thought all the music that was in America was like country songs, you know, and my dad loved Ray Charles, he loved he loved Ray Charles and and played him around the house and Yeah, it's just like okay, that's that's country music.
11:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think folk and country or like storytellers in the greatest form and so those elements that I really very connected to and and and feel very grateful to to be part of that community, you know, there's there's nothing like it and so yeah
11:54
[SPEAKER_06]: You're both very emotive, dynamic, and boisterous singers.
12:00
[SPEAKER_06]: You have quite a range.
12:02
[SPEAKER_06]: How do you relate to your singing voice as a tool for expressing yourself?
12:07
[SPEAKER_06]: I can just imagine discovering that huge voice one day and being like, whoa, what are we going to do with it?
12:14
[SPEAKER_06]: What am I going to do with this?
12:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I would try to sing when I first started.
12:22
[SPEAKER_00]: you learn how to play guitar and like the next thing you do is like you want to sing songs.
12:28
[SPEAKER_00]: But I hated my voice.
12:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I generally hated the way I sounded.
12:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it wasn't until I could look myself in the mirror that I was comfortable with my own voice.
12:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it took a really long time.
12:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the sort of
12:48
[SPEAKER_00]: dynamic range or however you voice it was just how I truly feel inside.
12:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like that thing and I was like, oh, I didn't even know that was there.
13:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and so when I when I write, I'm just and seeing it's just how to how can I best.
13:07
[SPEAKER_00]: translate this emotion that I'm feeling, and so yeah, I wasn't comfortable with my voice until I was like 25, 26 years old, you know.
13:20
[SPEAKER_05]: That is wild.
13:21
[SPEAKER_06]: It's crazy because you're like 29, right?
13:25
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah.
13:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Can you rent a car?
13:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Good, say.
13:29
[SPEAKER_02]: What about you, Cash?
13:30
[SPEAKER_02]: What's your journey been like up discovering like how to tell stories with your voice?
13:35
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I think kind of just like Abraham, I think I came up not like in my voice because I grew up singing in the church and, you know, everybody in my church, everybody can sing really well, I mean everybody had like these, all the men had these really nice R&B voices, they were just so pretty and
13:52
[SPEAKER_08]: uh, all the women had these amazing, or read the Franklin kind of voices.
13:55
[SPEAKER_08]: Everybody could sing, so nobody was like, looking at me when I was doing a devotional hands and something like, wow, cash is should be a singer.
14:02
[SPEAKER_08]: Like nobody said, like, yeah, you should be a singer.
14:06
[SPEAKER_08]: It was not that, I couldn't do like the riffs.
14:08
[SPEAKER_08]: My voice sounded like one of the deacons at the church.
14:11
[SPEAKER_08]: They thought I was like, my voice sounded like I was like, you know, over the 80 years old, but I was only 16 years old.
14:18
[SPEAKER_04]: I was like, you can't give a voice.
14:19
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, so like,
14:21
[SPEAKER_08]: Nobody, I don't know, nobody ever said cash, and then I like your voice.
14:26
[SPEAKER_08]: But that time in the church, I think, and also just listening so many of my favorite soul singers and blue singers, I always, I love the feeling, the way the voice can make you feel that makes sense.
14:38
[SPEAKER_08]: So I just sing that way, if I don't feel it myself and I'm singing and I won't sing it.
14:44
[SPEAKER_08]: And yeah, just like everyone, I didn't find my voice until I was in the military,
14:51
[SPEAKER_08]: and my buddies, he's grown as men, we sell them in like, hey, guys, we really like your voice and these men are from like that whistling and down south.
15:00
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, I didn't really figure out like, oh, I guess I can count as saying when he's grown as me and drunk, tell me I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say I can say
15:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Both of you correct me if I'm wrong, are artists who picked up the guitar as adults, and now it's just another seamless part of your artistry.
15:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So can you each talk about what your approach was to learning how to accompany yourself?
15:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, people always say it's easier to learn something as a kid, because you don't care if you sound bad at first.
15:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So what was that process like?
15:55
[SPEAKER_02]: How did you learn to accompany yourself and become like your own best accompanist on the guitar?
16:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a sports injury, and so I was playing soccer.
16:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't look like it now.
16:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I was a lot thinner back then, but I played collegially, and I tore my ACL, and so my world had just shattered.
16:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And then my girlfriend at the time,
16:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Straight up looked at me as like, you're depressed.
16:20
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to, you need to do something with your life and stop moping around and so she gave me this guitar.
16:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And I played nonstop for 16, 18 hours a day.
16:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I would take my drugs, painkillers.
16:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that probably helps.
16:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I would take my painkillers that the doctor prescribed.
16:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much for clarifying.
16:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get that clear.
16:49
[SPEAKER_00]: The doctor prescribed them, and then I would play.
16:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I would watch, you know, there's this guy named Marty Swartz, who is on YouTube, shout out to it.
17:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would watch it.
17:01
[SPEAKER_06]: Did you guys both learn from the same YouTube?
17:03
[SPEAKER_06]: Yep.
17:04
[SPEAKER_06]: Do you learn from Marty?
17:05
[SPEAKER_08]: Marty.
17:06
[SPEAKER_08]: Yo, Marty hit me up the other day.
17:08
[SPEAKER_08]: He said I shot him out on an interview.
17:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're in touch with him personally?
17:13
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
17:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's here today.
17:17
[SPEAKER_08]: God, that is the dog.
17:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I met Marty in Nashville randomly.
17:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I got invited to come out to this, like, cook out.
17:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, like, Jesus, this dude just like walked into the room, like the crowd split.
17:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like,
17:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that Marty Swords?
17:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was, and it's like, I don't know, my life just made sense all of a sudden.
17:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Burr, Puvilla, I wish your influence on guitar.
17:47
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm like, Marty Swords?
17:51
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
17:51
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
17:51
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
17:52
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, it's a crazy, why do you fight like that?
17:54
[SPEAKER_08]: Like, Marty Swords?
17:57
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
17:58
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
17:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my god, the influence!
18:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and when you look at him, you just like, okay, I don't get it, but you would.
18:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Seriously, I was just in bed 18 hours, 16 hours.
18:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I would play, I would go to sleep for a few and then wake up again because I was hurt.
18:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that was the process.
18:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, but it wasn't until I was learning how to actually write songs.
18:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And then finding my voice that it just really made sense.
18:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was a cohesion and a collaboration between learning how to play and learning how to sing.
18:34
[SPEAKER_08]: I feel like I'm about the same way.
18:36
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, I started learning when I was in a rotus plane during the pandemic.
18:41
[SPEAKER_08]: So for me, I got a company with Magotaur.
18:45
[SPEAKER_08]: We're just a whole bunch of San Grea and... Yeah.
18:49
[SPEAKER_06]: In Spain.
18:50
[SPEAKER_08]: In Spain.
18:51
[SPEAKER_06]: By the way.
18:52
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I was just like Avery and my stay in my room and drank San Grea.
18:58
[SPEAKER_08]: I drank a lot during that period when I was learning honestly.
19:01
[SPEAKER_08]: I didn't know what the world was doing.
19:03
[SPEAKER_08]: We was trapped in that I was overseas.
19:06
[SPEAKER_08]: It wasn't in my family.
19:08
[SPEAKER_08]: So I leaned back on something that I always made me feel good with music and my buddy found a guitar for me.
19:14
[SPEAKER_08]: And the barracks, while I was over there, and I was like, man, I guess.
19:18
[SPEAKER_08]: I guess I started learning guitar now, I ain't got any notes to do.
19:21
[SPEAKER_08]: And also I thought the world was going in.
19:25
[SPEAKER_08]: And most of the time in most movies and old-time TV shows, I feel like the musician always comes out on top because they, in any of the post-apocalyptic world, they need some entertainment.
19:36
[SPEAKER_08]: So I was like, you know,
19:39
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm going to be entertainment and just post a pocket lift at world.
19:43
[SPEAKER_08]: So I was like I need to get the learn and real quick But you're black.
19:47
[SPEAKER_08]: So you have been killed first That's why we play guitar I'll think about that when your days are numbered you learn a little but I think they would have kept me around just because I have guitars I was like, this is nice
20:04
[SPEAKER_06]: All right, so we went over the voice who went over the guitar.
20:06
[SPEAKER_06]: So let's talk about the song writing.
20:09
[SPEAKER_06]: So for each of you, what was the impetus for you to write your first song?
20:12
[SPEAKER_06]: And then where does that original inspiration reside in you still?
20:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I got invited to the sessions of Leon Bridges coming home.
20:22
[SPEAKER_06]: Who?
20:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And...
20:24
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know her.
20:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't know that?
20:26
[SPEAKER_06]: No, I'm just kidding.
20:27
[SPEAKER_06]: Just kidding.
20:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Just kidding.
20:28
[SPEAKER_06]: Just jokes are over here.
20:30
[SPEAKER_06]: Leon Bridges, the best.
20:33
[SPEAKER_00]: being in that room of incredible musicians and it felt like a team working towards a singular goal.
20:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was my first time ever in a studio.
20:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And Leon and I became really close friends and he's just like, start doing open mics and write songs and see what happens.
20:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And just that encouragement and sure enough, I went home and would write a song and then,
20:59
[SPEAKER_00]: the next day try to find like an open mic.
21:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And I did that for...
21:05
[SPEAKER_00]: good two years every single day.
21:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Just go in, write a song the next day, find an open mic.
21:12
[SPEAKER_00]: If there wasn't an open mic, I would knock on so-and-store and find something.
21:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I would be at a bar or something like that or a pop bellies, like sandwich shop.
21:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm playing back in the day, they would... And they'd feed you.
21:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And they would feed you.
21:27
[SPEAKER_00]: That was it.
21:28
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't like, hey, let me pay you money.
21:29
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, nah, here's the sound.
21:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was how I sharpen the craft, and it was like the most freeing experience ever.
21:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt like I had so much that I wanted to give, and so much that I wanted to say, but I wanted to learn how to say it.
21:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And I knew there was a process to that, but I wasn't, I wasn't familiar yet, but Leon was a big inspiration to push me towards that direction.
22:00
[SPEAKER_08]: Uh, so yeah, somewhere in front of me came during the period when I was, uh, this was, I was just back in like 20, 23 when I had been in the cover man scene for a minute, and I don't know, I started this and myself and people in my life and my family and I had been out the military for about a year.
22:17
[SPEAKER_08]: And I know,
22:20
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know, I didn't like to, because the military was like, I had been the military since 19, and I got out five and a half years later.
22:30
[SPEAKER_08]: So my whole early 20s was just the military life.
22:33
[SPEAKER_08]: So when I got out, even though I was doing music, I just didn't know how to cope that well without being away from what I was so familiar with.
22:41
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, I was drinking a lot, and I was just doing cover band stuff, and I didn't know where my life was going, and I was discussing myself with people.
22:49
[SPEAKER_08]: Somebody told me I need to start journaling and shit.
22:51
[SPEAKER_08]: The friend of mine, she's like, you start journaling.
22:53
[SPEAKER_08]: I'll say, I don't know about all that, but I was like, do you know me?
22:59
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm not going to journal.
23:01
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm not going to write down my thoughts.
23:03
[SPEAKER_08]: But I remember the first song I wrote.
23:07
[SPEAKER_08]: I was like, I don't be honest with you.
23:08
[SPEAKER_08]: I was on a bender.
23:09
[SPEAKER_08]: I was on a three day, four day bender, playing a cup of ban shows and doing two of the day shows.
23:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my God.
23:16
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, it was bad.
23:17
[SPEAKER_02]: How did you have time to be on a bender?
23:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Cause physically, like, it's rock and roll, but that is a physically demanding job.
23:24
[SPEAKER_02]: That's very intense.
23:25
[SPEAKER_08]: Drill, it's man, Drill, it's, I'm joking.
23:28
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm joking.
23:29
[SPEAKER_08]: But, prescribed to me, of course.
23:35
[SPEAKER_08]: Uh, of course.
23:36
[SPEAKER_08]: No, I remember, I remember right my first song that I eventually put out, and it was called Out of my mind.
23:43
[SPEAKER_08]: I was dating this girl, and we broke up, and I was coming back home from this bar, I played my buddy, dropped me off.
23:50
[SPEAKER_08]: And I was about the journal, and then I just started thinking about who was in my head, and I was like, so I'm a drink, drink myself, blind, another sad and night out of these pines.
24:01
[SPEAKER_08]: That's something I then, I just started writing it down and voicing it and then I pretty much wrote the whole song that night and I woke up and I had all these papers inside my bed.
24:10
[SPEAKER_08]: I was like, oh, I guess I wrote a song last night.
24:14
[SPEAKER_08]: So that was the beginning of my song right in the stuff.
24:16
[SPEAKER_08]: I just thought, okay, I guess I can do this and I decided from that point I was like, I'm done with a cup of bans scene.
24:22
[SPEAKER_08]: I think I moved to Nashville and started learning craft.
24:26
[SPEAKER_08]: and I just kept writing since then.
24:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So out of my mind was the first song you wrote?
24:31
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, that was my first song I wrote.
24:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Jesus.
24:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, if I had a start like that, I would also quit my cover band gig.
24:38
[SPEAKER_02]: That's amazing.
24:41
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm excited about this question.
24:42
[SPEAKER_06]: You both have intense histories with sports, cashous was a star football player until your junior year.
24:49
[SPEAKER_06]: And then you switched to wrestling.
24:51
[SPEAKER_06]: And then round of applause became Alabama's champion, wrestler, the state champion.
24:56
[SPEAKER_06]: I know that's right.
24:57
[SPEAKER_06]: We have a state champion on stage right now.
25:01
[SPEAKER_06]: Abraham was a star soccer player as a kid in Greece.
25:06
[SPEAKER_06]: And then Axe Dandelis signed up for the American Football
25:10
[SPEAKER_06]: when he started living in Texas, and then he was like, no, no, no, no, I don't want to do this, and then the coach made him do it, and he played all through high school, almost went to college as a football star.
25:23
[SPEAKER_06]: So for each of you, how does your athletic side live in tandem with your artistic side, like how have they informed each other?
25:31
[SPEAKER_08]: I think for me,
25:34
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know.
25:34
[SPEAKER_08]: That time in my life when I was in sports, I was so aggressive.
25:38
[SPEAKER_08]: It was so bad.
25:39
[SPEAKER_08]: It was a bad time.
25:40
[SPEAKER_08]: I was so, I had so much anger in my life and I just wanted to take it out on everybody I could hit or wrestle at the time.
25:51
[SPEAKER_08]: I guess being able to get through the highs and lows and determination of sports and
25:59
[SPEAKER_08]: just been to get through stuff the resilience of baby get through in and everything.
26:04
[SPEAKER_08]: I think that's what sports has helped me with my music career.
26:07
[SPEAKER_08]: But I don't know, I look at my sports in my music career as two different things, because I had a bad, I had a bad anger in there and my sports career.
26:16
[SPEAKER_08]: That's why I was able to win a state because I was just angering everybody.
26:21
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
26:21
[SPEAKER_08]: I angered the world, I angered my just everything.
26:24
[SPEAKER_08]: But it did, it did teach me just to keep going with things.
26:28
[SPEAKER_08]: Maybe to help with my discipline, you know?
26:32
[SPEAKER_08]: Just like the military dude, just help with my discipline, just keeps going.
26:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, y'all are people that definitely know how to practice and put in the hours.
26:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
26:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have any friends growing up in Greece and the way that I was able to make friends was by playing sports or not even friends, but like they would just be around me because we would have to be on the same team and I was good.
26:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Or I would
26:55
[SPEAKER_00]: make sure that I was good at the sport so that they would have to pick me if they wanted to win.
27:02
[SPEAKER_06]: Mm-hmm.
27:03
[SPEAKER_06]: That's the opposite of what I did.
27:04
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah.
27:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I just knew that was the only way that I would have some form of community.
27:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that carried for me throughout my life we had.
27:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought that that was what made me
27:21
[SPEAKER_00]: valuable to people if I was good at a sport.
27:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes my coaches were my biggest mentors because they were father figures for me.
27:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And just realizing that I couldn't speak any English when I first came to America.
27:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And so my parent signed me up for football, thinking that it was soccer.
27:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we get the pads and stuff, and I was like, oh, this is American football now, like, no.
27:57
[SPEAKER_00]: No, thank you, but just seeing how, once I got into it, that it was all love and they didn't care what you look like is like you were part of the family and part of the team and just realizing that love, sports, and music are all universal languages.
28:17
[SPEAKER_00]: way work in tandem in the way that I'm able to express myself through art or even playing and like everyone plays in a different style and they're all art forms in a way.
28:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in a weird way it was such an easy transition for me to go from sports to music because I just wanted to express myself and I wanted people around.
28:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I just wanted I wanted friends.
29:04
[SPEAKER_02]: OK, we need to talk about the heart of this panel, which is Handsomeness.
29:10
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the role that Handsomeness and Beauty have played in your lives?
29:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Has it changed over time?
29:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, this is a question for real for real.
29:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, for real.
29:26
[SPEAKER_06]: Ladies, get these questions all the time.
29:29
[SPEAKER_06]: I have to talk about what I have to stage all the time.
29:32
[SPEAKER_06]: What's the question?
29:32
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the role that beauty has played in your life?
29:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Like is it something that matters to you?
29:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it something that you think impacts how people receive your work?
29:40
[SPEAKER_02]: How does Handsomeness, like, do you have a relationship with it?
29:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I think beauty is so true to the eye of beholders.
29:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like what beauty means to you is gonna be different than one beauty means to someone else.
29:53
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's the self-confidence that you have in yourself that I think is attractive for people and people have gravitated towards individuals who are extremely confident because they're like what gives you that strength, they're what gives you that courage.
30:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for me beauty is like when someone is able to take pain that they've experienced and turn it into something
30:12
[SPEAKER_00]: positive like I think it's so beautiful and I think people who are weird no matter how they look or dress like the weirder the better for me right because and I think that yeah just the way you care yourself feel like is is the importance and if you care yeah you work
30:40
[SPEAKER_08]: I had this one girl in my eighth grade.
30:44
[SPEAKER_08]: And for a long time, I just thought I was just ugly, you know?
30:48
[SPEAKER_08]: And my whole life, I don't know why.
30:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that true?
30:50
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I just thought I was just didn't look that good, but I had this one girl.
30:53
[SPEAKER_08]: I asked her to spring flame in eighth grade.
30:57
[SPEAKER_08]: And I'm gonna be there.
30:58
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm gonna be there.
30:59
[SPEAKER_08]: Spring froming is like, it's like a spring dance.
31:04
[SPEAKER_08]: It's almost like a form, but just like homecoming dance.
31:08
[SPEAKER_08]: It's almost but it's in the spring.
31:09
[SPEAKER_08]: So you gotta go around and ask a girl in your school.
31:13
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh.
31:14
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, this one girl just asked me out.
31:16
[SPEAKER_08]: Like, my mom, I remember this whole week.
31:19
[SPEAKER_08]: I remember it vividly.
31:21
[SPEAKER_08]: My mom kept asking me at dinner and was like, are you going, who are you going to take this spring?
31:25
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm like, my mom, I don't know.
31:26
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm fucking ugly.
31:27
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know.
31:28
[SPEAKER_08]: Or something like that.
31:29
[SPEAKER_08]: But this one girl, I remember I was in home room and she came up to me and just, you know, just she left me a little note.
31:35
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm just like, hey, you want me to be my spring, fling bang.
31:38
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know if it brought this confidence in me since that day.
31:41
[SPEAKER_08]: I just knew I was that guy.
31:43
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, I was like, no, I look great.
31:47
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm that dude.
31:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
31:48
[SPEAKER_08]: So I said, I've had the confidence just to be like, yo, Jasmine from eighth grade, the bad as girl in the school said, she want to take me on spring, fleeing dates.
31:58
[SPEAKER_08]: So I was like, since then, you know, I've just been,
32:02
[SPEAKER_08]: I just went that guy to myself.
32:04
[SPEAKER_08]: So I've just been like, I know I'm great.
32:07
[SPEAKER_08]: And I hope y'all all can feel that way.
32:09
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know, because confidence in yourself is everything, you know?
32:13
[SPEAKER_08]: And I don't know what wrote this, but I don't know, just counting it's in us.
32:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, that's great.
32:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I know you all hated that question, but your answers were really cute.
32:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Round of applause.
32:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so sorry.
32:27
[SPEAKER_08]: Shout out, Jansson, man.
32:29
[SPEAKER_08]: She's actually already in down in Auburn, Alabama, right now.
32:31
[SPEAKER_08]: She's great.
32:32
[SPEAKER_02]: She's here today.
32:33
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know what they should say.
32:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Introducing Jasmine.
32:36
[SPEAKER_00]: You should write her a note now.
32:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I should.
32:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
32:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you guys want to talk about fashion?
32:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, what are your fashion inspirations?
32:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Where do you turn?
32:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Who are your fashion muses?
32:53
[SPEAKER_08]: I look at a...
32:54
[SPEAKER_08]: I love Jesus.
32:55
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
32:57
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
32:57
[SPEAKER_08]: I look to what Jesus, whatever Jesus would have done on war.
33:01
[SPEAKER_08]: I really have no inspiration with it.
33:03
[SPEAKER_08]: Fashion.
33:03
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, man, I don't even know.
33:07
[SPEAKER_08]: I just be wearing whatever.
33:08
[SPEAKER_08]: Honestly, I wish I was somebody that was like big and the fashion.
33:12
[SPEAKER_08]: Abraham with you.
33:13
[SPEAKER_08]: What do you feel?
33:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham was more of the Peaceball League lockdown.
33:16
[SPEAKER_08]: Let me.
33:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So my birthday is July 25th.
33:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait.
33:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's birthday is your come on now.
33:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I need a hug not an hour bring it up.
33:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I need a hug pants so close My birthday is in July, too It's 28.
33:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god Give it up for a very long bander birthday twins birthday twins.
33:42
[SPEAKER_08]: Wait a minute I need a hug
33:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo
34:17
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, man, okay, so not bring him around in the girl that I'm weed.
34:23
[SPEAKER_08]: He's gonna start, he just starts speaking Greek, man.
34:26
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't like that.
34:27
[SPEAKER_02]: You gotta keep your eye on him.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like that at all.
34:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like that.
34:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So, when I was saying before I started giving out hugs, my birthday is July 25th, my brother, who's three years older than me, is July 23rd.
34:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we'd share the same cake.
34:45
[SPEAKER_00]: for not hated it, because I wanted my own cake.
34:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But then I would get his hammy downs.
34:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I would get his clothes and he would get something new.
34:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was the middle child and would hate that.
35:01
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would say, I would make my hammy downs look better.
35:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Used.
35:09
[SPEAKER_00]: then he wore when it was new.
35:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that's right.
35:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's how it started.
35:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I would just look at different magazines and would be like, okay, how can I style this?
35:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And my mom also used to say, like, you know, the way you dress is the way people are gonna address you.
35:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And thank you.
35:29
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
35:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that's a nice, speaking of humor.
35:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
35:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
35:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Mama, you just say the way you dress, it's how people address you.
35:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And that changed sort of this light bulb for me that, and again, it's like part of that confidence aspect of it, you know, and that's how it started.
35:48
[SPEAKER_00]: It was all from jealousy.
35:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
35:52
[SPEAKER_06]: It's that competitive spirit.
35:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
35:55
[SPEAKER_06]: So Abraham, about a year ago, you were actually supposed to be here on Kiamo, but your song, like a bird from the film, Sing Sing, was nominated for an Oscar.
36:06
[SPEAKER_06]: That's right.
36:11
[SPEAKER_06]: So you went to the Oscars.
36:12
[SPEAKER_05]: I went to the Oscars.
36:13
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm coming on Kiamo.
36:14
[SPEAKER_06]: So we're so glad you're here today.
36:15
[SPEAKER_06]: But how did you wanna represent yourself, your song and the film at the Oscars?
36:22
[SPEAKER_06]: And do you think that you're able to do that?
36:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I just wanted, yes, I wanted to be the sharpest man at the red carpet, and I think I succeeded.
36:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You know who agreed?
36:37
[SPEAKER_02]: GQ agreed, best dressed at the Oscars.
36:40
[SPEAKER_00]: GQ, yeah, GQ said best man at the Oscars.
36:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was such a phenomenal day.
36:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And my parents came out and it was so beautiful to see them and all their friends were hitting them up.
36:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And just like, yeah, look amazing.
36:56
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, great, Abraham dressed this.
36:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh.
36:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I did.
37:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to be a stylist from my folks.
37:02
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh my gosh, if you come back to KAMO, maybe you should do like fashion consulting.
37:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, I liked that.
37:08
[SPEAKER_06]: All right, six, man.
37:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I liked that.
37:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Here we go.
37:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Handsome clubs taking over the ship.
37:13
[SPEAKER_02]: That's just a rumor I heard.
37:14
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a rumor I heard.
37:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but it was such a phenomenal night just to be there.
37:21
[SPEAKER_00]: The way the song came about and for it to be in the film was such an organic process until so to be there and celebrating amongst everyone for the film, sing, sing and the person whose film was sort of adapted on was in prison just a few years ago.
37:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And so to go from prison to the Oscars and seeing his joy and seeing his life and asking him questions is like, would you change anything?
37:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not the Oscars.
37:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?
37:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I ain't changing shit.
37:54
[SPEAKER_00]: You know?
37:57
[SPEAKER_08]: I was at the after party, though.
37:58
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, Oscars after party.
38:00
[SPEAKER_08]: We need to know about that.
38:01
[SPEAKER_06]: Oscars after party.
38:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Oscars after party.
38:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm
38:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a space at the bottom of the which I had no idea.
38:24
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like basement like spot nothing crazy And you couldn't have your phones.
38:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like like up and so we're in there and there goes Beyonce and Kelly Rowland Kelly
38:39
[SPEAKER_02]: What about Michelle?
38:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And no, I'm not.
38:42
[SPEAKER_00]: No, Michelle wasn't there.
38:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jake Bezos, and, and, yeah, I'm here.
38:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Quest Love was DJing.
38:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Huh?
38:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, I could go on and on and on.
38:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It was, it was incredible.
38:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the largest horse there.
39:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Mardi Swords.
39:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately was not there.
39:05
[SPEAKER_00]: He should have been.
39:06
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he should have been.
39:07
[SPEAKER_00]: He should have been.
39:08
[SPEAKER_00]: He should have been.
39:08
[SPEAKER_08]: He changed the lives of so many of these so many of ours.
39:11
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
39:12
[SPEAKER_06]: How many of these years today?
39:13
[SPEAKER_08]: How many of these issues do you think Marty Swords do?
39:15
[SPEAKER_08]: Millions, man.
39:16
[SPEAKER_08]: I was like blessing when he texted me.
39:18
[SPEAKER_08]: And I was like, oh my God, he's dead.
39:19
[SPEAKER_08]: He knows who I am.
39:35
[SPEAKER_06]: Just a couple questions, a couple more questions for Abraham.
39:38
[SPEAKER_06]: You are, so I don't know if we're allowed to talk about this.
39:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Okay, just stop me, if... We're not the question already, so...
39:46
[SPEAKER_06]: So you're working on getting your next record ready.
39:50
[SPEAKER_06]: And I hear that a certain sing-sing actor is making an appearance.
39:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
39:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Scope.
39:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
40:01
[SPEAKER_06]: Great, now they call you so much.
40:03
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, you know what, yeah, like let's, let's talk about it.
40:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I wrote this piece and the album for me, I just rechandled my relationship with my birthday and now it's one of the most beautiful relationships that I have in my life.
40:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Congratulations.
40:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.
40:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
40:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we speak, you know.
40:27
[SPEAKER_00]: At least once a week, it's sort of went from not speaking for a few decades to like speaking every single week.
40:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And we took a trip to Greece.
40:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm the same age as he was when he had us, like in Greece and he's telling us how his perspective was when we were growing up there.
40:49
[SPEAKER_00]: the things that we lacked and just started just writing down his thoughts and I wrote this narrative piece about what the album is about and I just knew that I wanted someone with some gravity to say those words and yeah we have Coleman Domingo narrating narrating the words on the album.
41:13
[SPEAKER_00]: No one knows this.
41:14
[SPEAKER_00]: There's literally just, he just, yeah, yeah, there you go.
41:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Bragging news, we cannot wait to hear it.
41:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Cash is I have a question about your inspiration and how it has shifted over the years.
41:28
[SPEAKER_02]: You were a firefighter, you had aspirations to be an ER nurse, you served in the military.
41:34
[SPEAKER_02]: You have always had this threat of service.
41:37
[SPEAKER_02]: in your life.
41:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I wonder how that's showing up for you nowadays as a full-time musician, like, do you feel like that heart of service is still a part of what you do as a touring musician?
41:49
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, for sure.
41:49
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, I grew up with just a great host of Mama.
41:53
[SPEAKER_08]: My mom was just one of the best human beings I've known.
41:57
[SPEAKER_08]: She's just a lot, but she's just one of the best humans that I know.
42:00
[SPEAKER_08]: And no matter what she went to, she always wanted to bring a smile to people.
42:03
[SPEAKER_08]: And my mom used to every Friday and Saturday night, we used to, she used to buy these comedy movies and, you know, or the pizza or whatever.
42:11
[SPEAKER_08]: Just she's just loving, making people feel happy from movies to food.
42:17
[SPEAKER_08]: And I think that's translated to me.
42:19
[SPEAKER_08]: I always just wanted to,
42:20
[SPEAKER_08]: She always just like, you know, smile no matter who you talking to because you don't know what they got going on or just be nice to people and because you just never know what they got going on.
42:30
[SPEAKER_08]: So that's certainly as a me and my person out is that I always like to take care of people.
42:34
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know.
42:34
[SPEAKER_08]: It's just always, I want to make sure that people are happy around me and when it came to my...
42:42
[SPEAKER_08]: My career always lean towards careers.
42:45
[SPEAKER_08]: That was just, I was helping somebody, you know, having them in their worst days, whether it be from the fire service as the M.T.
42:52
[SPEAKER_08]: or during the military, you know, building houses for people out in the middle of nowhere.
42:58
[SPEAKER_08]: to make them feel happy and then, you know, being a musician, translating my passion for music and sharing to other people, it seemed like you just made them happy.
43:06
[SPEAKER_08]: For a long time, I didn't know what I was going to do with my life, but for now, I know for sure, it's just, it's been really cool to be a musician in the right songs that connect with people and just make them happy.
43:16
[SPEAKER_08]: I think I just, I don't know.
43:18
[SPEAKER_08]: I just feel like life is just so,
43:22
[SPEAKER_08]: If I was to stop thinking about myself and just start thinking about other people, life is a little bit better.
43:27
[SPEAKER_08]: Instead of just thinking about myself, I don't know, you know.
43:32
[SPEAKER_08]: So yeah, thank you.
43:34
[SPEAKER_08]: So me as a guy, let's me do that.
43:37
[SPEAKER_06]: This is a question for both of you.
43:39
[SPEAKER_06]: You have had some great collaborations with some highly esteemed musical colleagues, Abraham with Leon Bridges, Adrian Casada, Caches with Natalie Hembees, you're a feral.
43:52
[SPEAKER_06]: Can you talk about what it means to work with such elite musicians in terms of like raising up your game as a performer?
44:01
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a, I don't know, like I,
44:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I just love people who love what they do, right?
44:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they're great, but good people, I think for me, like, it's so inspiring.
44:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they have something to say and something to talk about, was, was,
44:23
[SPEAKER_00]: that is something that inspires me.
44:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to emulate that spirit of giving and love.
44:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, there are a lot of great people who are assholes.
44:34
[SPEAKER_00]: If I can say that on here.
44:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can.
44:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
44:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And to name names.
44:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Name them, shame them, just kidding.
44:41
[SPEAKER_02]: No, but you're right.
44:42
[SPEAKER_02]: There's plenty of people who have a skill, and then to meet them in person is a disappointment.
44:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and so that thing of where there's a combination of you being great, but also you being kind to me, is just like, that's what I want to do, and I want to show kindness and love, because all that is energy, and people can feel it within the songs and the tunes, and so, you know,
45:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to do a song with Mavis Staples, and I think she is a force of nature like
45:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And 80 some years old, and still has that power in that zeal.
45:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, this is what I'm talking about.
45:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I want that.
45:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to continue to work with people.
45:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Not just because of that name is like popping, right?
45:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to work with people that have something to say and have inserted something within this world of music.
45:42
[SPEAKER_00]: and that's something is love and that's something is togetherness and so that's what I want to I want to raise the bar and do that for other people who are coming behind me or alongside me so
46:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I want to talk about broken, broken wing bird.
46:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you just give us a little insight on how that duet came together with Sierra?
46:08
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm so glad you brought that up because I was about to talk about collaborations.
46:11
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
46:15
[SPEAKER_08]: Just like Abraham with collaborations, I only deal with folks that are real and that who I actually like, I don't really look at a person just because they got a name and think that they can make me
46:28
[SPEAKER_08]: better than who I am, because really, you really can't, I mean, you spend so much time thinking that somebody can make you better or this and that, but at the end of the day, everything that makes you better is within yourself.
46:42
[SPEAKER_08]: So I just look at folks that I really want to be with, not because they got a name or they could get me someplace.
46:48
[SPEAKER_08]: But talking about Brooklyn and Bird is that I wrote this one song and I'm a huge fan of Will and Nelson in
46:56
[SPEAKER_08]: And I wanted to write a song that I could just pick on a back porch, you know, you know, my age, I'm till I'm dead or whatever.
47:03
[SPEAKER_08]: I just wanted something I could just really feel.
47:05
[SPEAKER_08]: And make me feel like I'm at home just like the little Nesson break.
47:09
[SPEAKER_08]: So I wrote a song called Broken Wean Bird.
47:11
[SPEAKER_08]: And I wanted to be a do it.
47:13
[SPEAKER_08]: And I...
47:15
[SPEAKER_08]: I was at the Marcus Kane Revival, not too long after I wrote the song, and I knew I wanted to be a do-it, and I came across this one girl that I love so much.
47:27
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm a big fan of Ray Lamontaine, and she was on a record with him called Born in Love, and I was making marshmallows.
47:33
[SPEAKER_08]: I was making small ones that just can't fire.
47:36
[SPEAKER_08]: And this girl named Sierra Ferris walked down.
47:39
[SPEAKER_08]: She's like, you mind if I sit down, I'm sorry to you.
47:41
[SPEAKER_08]: I was like,
47:43
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, you can.
47:44
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't think she knew that I knew who she was, but I was freaking out in my head.
47:48
[SPEAKER_08]: And I was like, you want one of these mors or something?
47:51
[SPEAKER_08]: She's like, yeah, let me get a stick.
47:53
[SPEAKER_08]: Cause I put it on for, got a little marshmallow, little mors and chocolate, and was it roasting stuff?
47:58
[SPEAKER_08]: And we just got the talking.
47:59
[SPEAKER_08]: We ended up changing numbers.
48:00
[SPEAKER_08]: We had a great time.
48:01
[SPEAKER_08]: Was out there for me about two hours.
48:03
[SPEAKER_08]: And my little of the deemder, the following week, I was like, hey, do you mind singing on its song?
48:09
[SPEAKER_08]: I sent it to her.
48:10
[SPEAKER_08]: And my team's in doing, she's like, yeah, I will love too.
48:13
[SPEAKER_08]: And she came over and she sang it and I was like, Jesus Christ, this is fucking money, dog.
48:23
[SPEAKER_08]: I was like, this is fucking, here it is.
48:29
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it's an iconic duet.
48:30
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so gross.
48:31
[SPEAKER_08]: I was like, this shit is all right.
48:35
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
48:35
[SPEAKER_08]: Cause that's not enough.
48:37
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, so much like, so many people, like, cause my music is all over the place.
48:41
[SPEAKER_08]: And I'm like, easy country, easy not.
48:43
[SPEAKER_08]: And I was like, bro, this is the most country his song that you can ever find.
48:47
[SPEAKER_08]: And I hope people like it because I love it.
48:50
[SPEAKER_08]: And yeah.
48:51
[SPEAKER_05]: It's amazing, awesome song.
48:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I have one last question about your songwriting and how it relates to each of you as a real person.
49:00
[SPEAKER_02]: You've both released debut albums that were full of really poignant and personal storytelling about your real lives.
49:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that autobiography element is something that maybe will follow you around.
49:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you ever feel like you need to protect yourself or protect the real stories of your life?
49:19
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
49:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Sick.
49:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because the things that we go through I've learned are not just for me alone, right?
49:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I think to share and for someone else to feel like they're not also alone, you know?
49:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And I lost my brother.
49:34
[SPEAKER_00]: He was killed in 2017, was was robbed and killed and mine.
49:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't talk because I sort of the the first time again that I'm experiencing loss since I lost my mom and I didn't talk in my I was adopted which long story.
49:54
[SPEAKER_00]: If you come to show tonight my talk about that but they're sort of
49:59
[SPEAKER_00]: grieving as well for losing a son and then trying to figure out if I'm okay because I haven't said a word.
50:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've been silent for a week and a half, like haven't said one similar word.
50:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I'd come down and I'm playing this song to them and I wrote from my brother Xavier.
50:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they started crying and they're like, this is, I was like, I didn't know what to say.
50:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I think losing your mother is hard, but also losing a younger brother, someone that you feel like I should be protecting and have my wing over and I wasn't there for him.
50:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I didn't have the words to adequately express how I was feeling or to be there and help my parents grief through their first loss.
50:50
[SPEAKER_00]: playing that song, help them understand how I was feeling and for them to also share that they've been feeling the exact same way as well.
50:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And then going to shows people who've lost their mom or lost their other, like, we're not all a monolith, but there's certain elements to life that we all experience together.
51:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I hold on to that, then I feel like I robbed someone of
51:16
[SPEAKER_00]: their ability to heal if I don't share it, right?
51:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, no, I'm an open book.
51:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to go and sort of be a hermit, you know, after
51:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to, when I'm long gone, I want someone a hundred years from now, hopefully if.
51:35
[SPEAKER_02]: The song's well last.
51:36
[SPEAKER_02]: There's not an if.
51:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
51:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
51:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, I want someone to pick it up who has no idea who I am, but love the album heart, right?
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And then listen to the songs.
51:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And just cry.
51:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I have that picture in my mind.
51:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And that can only happen if I'm brave enough to be vulnerable.
51:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody go to the merch shop, get yourself a copy of seasons by every mile examiner.
52:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
52:07
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
52:07
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you.
52:08
[SPEAKER_08]: Man, I love that.
52:09
[SPEAKER_08]: Let's start crying.
52:10
[SPEAKER_08]: I think, which, man, I've learned that, especially my song writing stuff.
52:16
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, the deeper you go, the,
52:18
[SPEAKER_08]: The more it connects with people, the more vulnerable you are, the more it connects.
52:22
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, I don't know, I feel like most of us, all in this room, we went through some shit in our lives, shit that it's kind of fucked up and the way it was raised was made of being fucked up.
52:34
[SPEAKER_08]: People treated you bad, growing up and something like that.
52:38
[SPEAKER_08]: And being able to talk about that through songwriting or the good times and the bad times and other downs, and
52:44
[SPEAKER_08]: I just feel like if you just talk about it, it's just so cool to see other people understand what you come in front and they connect with you so well because they can went through the same stuff.
52:55
[SPEAKER_08]: And that's just something that I am that I do at my son around.
52:58
[SPEAKER_08]: I just, I just, I just be as real as possible, you know, whether it be about my son roots about, you know, like my dad wasn't around or I had these great friends smoke weed all the time I talked about that or I had a girl that fuck me up
53:13
[SPEAKER_08]: At a girl that loved me once or I messed up with a girl or I did this and that but just talking about that in like songwriting It's just and just being authentic as possible.
53:21
[SPEAKER_08]: I think people just connect with them more and it's so cool It's it's so cool what I meet people and it's like man.
53:28
[SPEAKER_08]: I connect with this one lyric I was like damn man for real me too It's like you too, like yeah, and it's just so cool.
53:36
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean just connect with somebody you ain't even talk to on a
53:40
[SPEAKER_08]: Like I want to one, but they heard your music and they just like, oh, I connect with you because I, I know exactly what you went through.
53:47
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I went through this year.
53:48
[SPEAKER_08]: I think it's the most beautiful thing about songwriting and they need me to get your songs out there.
53:54
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know, I think one of my, I saw a listener listening to my song 30 times.
53:58
[SPEAKER_08]: I wouldn't like this little, little, sophisticated thing.
54:01
[SPEAKER_08]: And you can see where people listen to your songs the most.
54:03
[SPEAKER_08]: And there's one guy listening to a song I got called, who hurt you 50 times in a week.
54:08
[SPEAKER_08]: And I was like, bro, who hurt you?
54:10
[SPEAKER_08]: Are you okay?
54:13
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
54:13
[SPEAKER_08]: I was just like, that's so cool, though.
54:16
[SPEAKER_08]: He was like in Scandinavia somewhere.
54:18
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know.
54:20
[SPEAKER_08]: But I was just like, man, that's amazing.
54:21
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, if he feel like he or he connects with me and I don't even know him, I ain't even talk to him.
54:27
[SPEAKER_08]: And it's so cool, man.
54:29
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm so I'm rambling.
54:30
[SPEAKER_02]: No, Act 1 is a great record.
54:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody go get your copy at the merch store.
54:33
[SPEAKER_08]: Please, I have kids.
54:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Really?
54:36
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm just like, I have no kids, but.
54:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Big scoop here.
54:44
[SPEAKER_08]: I have my picture keys.
54:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I have my picture keys.
54:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I have my picture keys.
54:47
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it's never too early to start saving.
54:49
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
54:50
[SPEAKER_08]: College is expensive, you know?
54:52
[SPEAKER_06]: Before we do a very fun lightning rounds, just want to do a couple of basic vocal announcements.
54:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Tonight, in the great outdoors, Lizzie No will be performing.
55:03
[SPEAKER_06]: That's correct.
55:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It's true.
55:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll see you there.
55:06
[SPEAKER_06]: Is it at 9 p.m.?
55:07
[SPEAKER_02]: 9.30 p.m. at the great outdoors.
55:09
[SPEAKER_06]: Yet they're at 9, get a good seat.
55:11
[SPEAKER_06]: And then tomorrow we're going to be doing this again with some of our best friends on board.
55:17
[SPEAKER_06]: Time's your tough right now and we're going to find out how some of our favorite song writers are doing.
55:24
[SPEAKER_06]: And we're going to take the temperature state of conclusion with the folk gal trying to find out what is a folk song for.
55:31
[SPEAKER_06]: and hopefully you'll join us for that.
55:34
[SPEAKER_02]: 9 a.m tomorrow.
55:36
[SPEAKER_06]: 9 a.m tomorrow.
55:37
[SPEAKER_06]: If you enjoyed this, please come back and going to be really fun looking for that.
55:41
[SPEAKER_06]: And thank you again for for coming today.
55:43
[SPEAKER_06]: Unless you're the landing ground, are you ready?
55:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't think too hard.
55:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Answer as quickly as possible.
55:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Shall we begin?
55:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
55:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Wait, each time you should switch who goes first.
55:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you going to?
55:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's make it as complicated as possible.
55:58
[SPEAKER_02]: For the first question.
55:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Cash will stand up when you answer.
56:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
56:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Stand up.
56:01
[SPEAKER_06]: Just kidding.
56:03
[SPEAKER_06]: Okay.
56:03
[SPEAKER_06]: Just.
56:04
[SPEAKER_06]: You want to say them at the same time.
56:06
[SPEAKER_06]: There would be fun.
56:07
[SPEAKER_06]: Okay.
56:08
[SPEAKER_06]: Torvance snack you cannot live without.
56:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Plantain chips.
56:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, what did you say?
56:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Plantain tubes.
56:16
[SPEAKER_08]: Plantain tubes.
56:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, what are you talking about?
56:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh.
56:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Potato cells?
56:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you say potato cells?
56:24
[SPEAKER_02]: That is the craziest answer we've ever gotten to this question.
56:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Not a mayonnaise, a mayonnaise, a salad.
56:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Potato cells?
56:33
[SPEAKER_02]: With a very short shelf life.
56:34
[SPEAKER_02]: What are you talking about?
56:36
[SPEAKER_08]: Are you talking about?
56:38
[SPEAKER_08]: What are you talking about?
56:40
[SPEAKER_02]: OK, that was really out of pocket.
56:43
[SPEAKER_02]: What animal do you want to come back as in your next reincarnation?
56:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Damn, a eagle.
56:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Ooh.
56:53
[SPEAKER_08]: A kangaroo.
56:57
[SPEAKER_06]: If you could compete at the summer Olympics in any sport, what would you choose?
57:03
[SPEAKER_08]: Skating, Bob'selin, Ice Bob'selin.
57:07
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, these are summer sports that we're talking about.
57:09
[SPEAKER_02]: But we did say answer as quickly as possible.
57:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you can't skate in the summer?
57:13
[SPEAKER_02]: No, you can, you can be all you can be in basic folk.
57:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You can choose any in the Navy and in basic folk.
57:20
[SPEAKER_02]: What is your favorite bill with her song?
57:24
[SPEAKER_08]: Gromiles hands.
57:26
[SPEAKER_06]: Lean on me.
57:28
[SPEAKER_06]: Mm.
57:29
[SPEAKER_06]: All right, you're at a diner on the road.
57:32
[SPEAKER_06]: It's shaped like a, like a train car.
57:37
[SPEAKER_06]: What kind of pie are you ordering?
57:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Cherry pie.
57:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, cherry pie.
57:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Pumpkin pie.
57:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Pumpkin pie.
57:45
[SPEAKER_02]: If you could spend a day hanging on the beach with any country artist, a live or dead, who would it be?
57:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Tracy Chen.
57:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, that's the answer.
57:55
[SPEAKER_05]: Good luck.
57:56
[SPEAKER_05]: She'd be fun at the beach.
57:57
[SPEAKER_08]: Don't you think she would be lit at the beach?
57:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that's so true.
58:00
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
58:02
[SPEAKER_08]: Damn, I think Percy could have a good time.
58:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, that's true.
58:06
[SPEAKER_08]: I think, yeah, I think she'd be a good time.
58:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Percy Klein.
58:10
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
58:11
[SPEAKER_08]: Nice little bikini.
58:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Handsome club.
58:17
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, Percy.
58:18
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
58:21
[SPEAKER_02]: She's one of us.
58:22
[SPEAKER_08]: It's the, it's the, yeah, yeah, yeah.
58:25
[SPEAKER_08]: I won't pack you on that beach.
58:28
[SPEAKER_08]: I was singing crazy.
58:31
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, girl, saying that one song.
58:34
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
58:36
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, dad.
58:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, okay, and finally, who are some uping coming artists?
58:41
[SPEAKER_02]: You would like to see on Kiamo next year.
58:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Aside from Marty Schwartz.
58:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
58:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah Connelly.
58:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, hell yeah.
58:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Hannah, Hannah Connelly.
58:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Hannah Connelly is an incredible singer-songwriter who is also our best friend.
58:56
[SPEAKER_08]: Brutus.
58:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Nashville-based songwriter, look her up.
58:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
58:59
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know if she's open-coming, but my music takes us weird.
59:03
[SPEAKER_08]: I like to say everything, but there's this one girl named Bella White.
59:07
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, she's awesome.
59:08
[SPEAKER_08]: She's us.
59:09
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
59:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, well, tell us actually.
59:11
[SPEAKER_05]: She would also be fun at the beach.
59:14
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, she would be.
59:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
59:17
[SPEAKER_08]: She would sing that one song.
59:19
[SPEAKER_08]: Sing that one song in a way.
59:22
[SPEAKER_08]: Say it in one song you like to do all the time, Bella.
59:24
[SPEAKER_08]: Come on.
59:25
[SPEAKER_08]: Now she's great.
59:26
[SPEAKER_06]: Guys, that's it.
59:27
[SPEAKER_06]: That's it.
59:28
[SPEAKER_06]: That's it.
59:29
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you so much for coming.
59:31
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you for coming.
59:32
[SPEAKER_06]: So pepper and Abraham Alexander will see you all tomorrow.
59:35
[SPEAKER_06]: Have a wonderful day.
59:38
[SPEAKER_06]: This episode of Basic Vocal is produced by Anthony Cabrera, Dietrich Strauss Composes Our Music.
59:44
[SPEAKER_06]: Basic Vocal is a production of the Bluegrass situation.
59:47
[SPEAKER_06]: You can find all of our episodes there.
59:49
[SPEAKER_06]: You can search for Basic Folk on the Series XM app.
59:53
[SPEAKER_06]: You can go to folgalley.com or look on Folgalley's mobile app.
59:57
[SPEAKER_06]: You can go to basic folk.com or you can find us wherever you find your shows.
1:00:02
[SPEAKER_06]: If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest sharing it with a friend, like maybe your friend Jasmine, who really put it all on the line by asking this one guy out to spring fling, and he said yes, and it changed his entire outlook on life.
1:00:17
[SPEAKER_06]: And she has no idea.
1:00:19
[SPEAKER_06]: Maybe cash, you should send this episode to Jasmine.
1:00:23
[SPEAKER_06]: All right, we'll talk to you next time.
1:00:24
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks for listening all the way to the end.
1:00:26
[SPEAKER_06]: Bye!