Latest / The Scene Projects / Chase Grant on Music, Family, and Finding Emotional Expression

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Chase Grant on Music, Family, and Finding Emotional Expression · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:04
  I'm your host Bubba Starts, and with me today is singer songwriter Chase Grant.
• 0:08
  Chase, welcome to the show.
• 0:10
  How are doing?
• 0:10
  Excited to be here.
• 0:12
  I'm doing well, man.
• 0:13
  And, we're gonna get into, you know, a lot during this episode.
• 0:18
  I I already know you have a lot personally going on and obviously a thriving music career.
• 0:23
  But, for everyone who doesn't know you here on the show, and for me personally, why don't you
• 0:28
  give us a little bit of the backstory, and, we'll we'll pick it up from there.
• 0:32
  Okay.
• 0:33
  So I'm from Rock City, Minnesota.
• 0:36
  It's a town about forty five, fifty minutes just north of the metro.
• 0:40
  Real small.
• 0:41
  I started off playing music when I was about 12.
• 0:44
  Picked up a couple cowboy chords on the guitar.
• 0:47
  And, really, it was just kind of the early days of YouTube back then.
• 0:50
  And so I I picked up a few ACDC songs and just kinda grew from there, but it sort of plateaued
• 0:55
  for a long time just because of, like personally, I just didn't know where I was
• 0:59
  going with it and stuff.
• 1:00
  And it wasn't until church worship just a few years ago that I actually sang and played in
• 1:05
  tandem for the first time, really, and it was a huge, huge eye opener.
• 1:11
  And it was that was what kinda lifted everything off.
• 1:14
  And then from there, was joining the Farmer's Daughters after a few years, starting my own
• 1:17
  band as well, and then just kinda developing into recording and my solo career after that.
• 1:22
  So So it it seems like it was, like, very flat for a long time, and then it went straight up.
• 1:29
  Yeah.
• 1:30
  Yeah.
• 1:30
  Exactly.
• 1:30
  It it kind of out of nowhere.
• 1:32
  I told my wife that I was gonna apply for the or audition for this worship team, and she had
• 1:38
  said, oh, you you sing?
• 1:39
  And I said, well, I think so.
• 1:42
  And I sang in front of her, she started crying.
• 1:44
  And I thought, well, god.
• 1:45
  Was it that bad?
• 1:46
  And she goes, no.
• 1:47
  I loved it.
• 1:47
  You need to pursue this.
• 1:48
  And so I just haven't looked back ever since.
• 1:51
  That's really awesome to hear the the push from from this significant other.
• 1:57
  Right?
• 1:57
  Mhmm.
• 1:58
  I think a lot of, especially young men get talked out of their dreams, And, I think we're
• 2:04
  both very fortunate to have women in our lives that are pushing us towards those dreams and
• 2:09
  realizing, that it would be a life an unfulfilled life is maybe a little too harsh,
• 2:18
  but to to have that talent and then to not pursue it in some fashion.
• 2:22
  Right?
• 2:23
  I think for some of us, just being in the worship team.
• 2:26
  Right?
• 2:27
  You know, when I did two years in prison, I was a member of the worship, you know, praise team
• 2:32
  there as well, and I it really kind of rekindled my love of music.
• 2:36
  So, nice to hear that you got a good one.
• 2:39
  Yeah.
• 2:40
  I really do.
• 2:41
  She's been very supportive, and we make it work, with our now we have two children, and it
• 2:46
  it keeps paying for itself.
• 2:48
  And we're finding time for each other, for the kids, for music, and it it's it doesn't come
• 2:54
  without its struggles, but it we're making it work really well.
• 2:57
  Yeah.
• 2:57
  And speaking of kids and struggles, I I feel like that's a a good segue into, you know, your
• 3:03
  current situation.
• 3:04
  I know you have a little one, that was born premature, I'm guessing then?
• 3:10
  Not by a lot.
• 3:11
  Just by, like, a week or two.
• 3:13
  Like, honestly, he was, almost full term, but they, they caught a rare heart condition in
• 3:18
  utero at twenty weeks.
• 3:20
  And, unfortunately, in my family, this is not the first time I've seen this.
• 3:24
  We we don't know if it's related, but I had a a cousin that had a a similar story.
• 3:30
  And what basically, what with my son is there's a blockage that was in his heart that was
• 3:36
  preventing blood from going through to mix to get into his body, like, into his lungs.
• 3:42
  So the blood coming from the body, and they've done one surgery already to remove that that
• 3:48
  atrial septum blockage.
• 3:50
  And now he's mixing blood, and he's stable, but he's just hit many other roadblocks as we go,
• 3:56
  including things with his lungs and respiratory, including intestinal things just
• 4:01
  because of our heart is pumping blood to our the most vital organs first, you know, our
• 4:06
  brain, obviously, our heart.
• 4:08
  And then, like, the last things to get blood flow sometimes are those intestinal things.
• 4:12
  And so there's been some troubles with that, but, he's recovered from those things.
• 4:16
  It just he likes to move very slow and just at his own pace, and, they they find that when
• 4:22
  they try to push him, he, fights back.
• 4:25
  And so he's got this little fiery spirit in him that says, hey.
• 4:28
  I'm here to cook low and slow, and nobody's gonna tell me otherwise.
• 4:32
  I feel like there's a theme emerging here for the rest of his life as well.
• 4:37
  So Mhmm.
• 4:38
  Sometimes it's nice to learn that stuff early so you're not, you know, dealing with unruly
• 4:43
  teenagers.
• 4:44
  Right.
• 4:46
  I think this one's gonna be pretty chill, but we'll see what happens.
• 4:50
  Right.
• 4:50
  Well and, obviously, it's interesting, you know, living conditions for you guys.
• 4:57
  You're currently recording from the hospital room, which has kinda become a little bit of
• 5:03
  home, I'm sure, for you guys.
• 5:05
  I know you've been there for a while.
• 5:06
  He was born when?
• 5:08
  He was born May 13.
• 5:09
  Alright.
• 5:10
  So, yeah, you're going on several months now of living, you know, in two worlds, essentially.
• 5:16
  You kinda referenced off camera that your house was starting to feel like a hotel, and the
• 5:22
  hospital was feeling like home.
• 5:25
  I had a you know, not not a child, but we had our my father-in-law, my wife's dad, broke his
• 5:30
  leg and a pretty gruesome break.
• 5:32
  So he was actually in the in the hospital for quite a while.
• 5:35
  They had got infected and, you know, they were trying to send him home, and we're like, look.
• 5:39
  If something goes wrong, isn't it much better that he's, you know, the and we live in a small
• 5:44
  town.
• 5:44
  So he was, like, three blocks away from the house, but it's like Yep.
• 5:47
  What's the point of transporting him back and forth?
• 5:50
  We're already here.
• 5:51
  Let's stay here until he's good and we know he's confident to go home.
• 5:54
  So is that kind of where you guys are at?
• 5:56
  Is there any kind of, you know, foretelling how long you'll be staying here and and in this
• 6:02
  situation?
• 6:03
  So we actually have a meeting later today to sort of discuss it's it's a it's a care
• 6:09
  conference, and so it'll be the majority of the doctors and all these teams that have been
• 6:13
  working with us in and out will be in the same room.
• 6:16
  And it seems intimidating, but it's mostly just to kind of get everybody in the same room and
• 6:21
  see where do we need to go from here because there's kind of this sort of a stalemate where
• 6:25
  we're at where he's just he's just kinda staying the same.
• 6:27
  He's not really turning that corner to getting, like, his breathing tube out and things like
• 6:32
  that that will just that little milestones that they wanna see at this point that's just not
• 6:37
  really happening.
• 6:39
  But, I mean, regardless of what they say today, as far as his plan, it's gonna be months
• 6:44
  because he needs more heart surgery, and there's gonna be weeks of him getting to that
• 6:51
  point in between that.
• 6:52
  And then even after that surgery, there's weeks of recovery.
• 6:55
  And it's I mean, we're talking probably August, September at this point, if I had to guess.
• 7:00
  Yeah.
• 7:00
  As That's hard to say.
• 7:01
  Like, the soonest possible.
• 7:03
  Right?
• 7:03
  So, yeah, a long road ahead of you guys still, and, you know, our hearts, our prayers are are
• 7:10
  with you guys always.
• 7:11
  Do you have any kind of you know, are you a GoFundMe or anything like that that you're
• 7:17
  using to kinda raise money?
• 7:18
  Yeah.
• 7:19
  We do we do have one set up.
• 7:21
  I would have it linked on my socials at some point today.
• 7:24
  It's been a little bit of time since I shared it, but I can put that on my website as well.
• 7:30
  Otherwise, honestly, it's just been we did a lot of fundraising beforehand with the one of
• 7:35
  my biggest sponsors or my only sponsor really, Ian Co.
• 7:39
  Clothing on a weight park.
• 7:40
  She's a good friend of ours and she put together an event that we did at Iron Street
• 7:45
  Distillery in Saint Cloud where we put there was a bunch of different vendors there and the
• 7:50
  proceeds from those sales of the sweatshirts that she had created went to our family.
• 7:56
  And she ended up raising over $5,000 just in the sweatshirts alone.
• 8:01
  But we've been doing stuff like that.
• 8:03
  Every portion of my tips or all of my tips at my shows have been going just to save up for
• 8:09
  him.
• 8:09
  And Yeah.
• 8:10
  I don't remember the bill.
• 8:11
  Penny every penny that you've made for the last, you know, and not that that's going to
• 8:16
  change in the future, but we'd love to to support you all in that.
• 8:20
  We'll definitely be sharing the links across all of our social media, and, obviously, it'll
• 8:23
  be attached to this episode when it goes out as well.
• 8:27
  But we would love to be involved with with another benefit concert or anything else that
• 8:31
  you got in the future as well.
• 8:32
  So definitely keep us in mind there, Chase.
• 8:34
  Right.
• 8:35
  Because
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  I know from personal experience, my brothers both did long stints in the NICU, and, so so I
• 8:42
  I know the challenges that can be presented from that.
• 8:45
  So, you know, like I said, from everybody in in the Scene Projects world, you know, our our
• 8:50
  hearts go out to you guys, and our prayers are with your little guy.
• 8:53
  And Thank we're wishing all the best for y'all.
• 8:56
  So, obviously, with all of that going on, the maintaining a career at all can can be kind of
• 9:06
  difficult.
• 9:07
  Right?
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  We've talked about your support system and how the wife is, you know, kinda pushed you into,
• 9:13
  you know, chasing this this dream, if you will.
• 9:16
  But, you know, what what do you do moving forward?
• 9:21
  I mean, I guess I can't even really wrap my mind around continuing to go out and play
• 9:24
  music, you know, knowing and it seems like at least at this point, he's not fighting for his
• 9:29
  life on a daily basis as I'm sure it was in the beginning.
• 9:32
  But, I mean, you're still talking about, you know, being in the back of your mind all the
• 9:36
  time.
• 9:37
  Personally, how do you kind of put all that aside to be able to go step out on stage and to
• 9:43
  play music?
• 9:43
  So
• 9:46
  music has always been not just something that I enjoy just listening to for just for the
• 9:53
  purpose of, like, oh, yeah.
• 9:54
  That's a great song, or, yeah, that's a good time.
• 9:56
  You know?
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  It's music has always spoke to me in a on a deeper level.
• 10:00
  I've I like very deep lyrics, and I like when songs aren't just about, you know you know,
• 10:06
  drinking beer and red dirt.
• 10:07
  Like, I like when it's, like, when it hits you.
• 10:09
  And so playing some of these songs like, I play all these party songs.
• 10:14
  Don't get me wrong.
• 10:14
  But there is times during my shows where I will sit back and I kinda get real with people.
• 10:19
  And I tell them, like, hey.
• 10:21
  This is something that I've been going through lately, and I just kinda wanna share this a
• 10:25
  little bit with you guys.
• 10:26
  And this is a song I've been singing to my son in the hospital room, or this is a song that
• 10:30
  kinda reflects my faith.
• 10:32
  And I just out loud, without shame, will just kind of preach a little bit.
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  And then it's not to, you know, smack anybody over the head with the bible and say this is
• 10:40
  what you gotta believe in or anything, but it's I just try to to show what real faith can do in
• 10:46
  somebody's life, and it's I found it very restoring to sing my feelings on stage, and it
• 10:54
  very much so resonates with people.
• 10:55
  I've seen it.
• 10:56
  I've seen it move people to the point where they'll come up to me crying, telling me
• 11:00
  stories, or come up to me with a handshake and be like, hey.
• 11:03
  You need to check into this organization.
• 11:05
  Like, people it's restored a lot of faith in humanity, in my opinion, in a world that seems
• 11:11
  like it's kinda crappy the last few years.
• 11:14
  There's some really good people out there, and that's why I keep doing it.
• 11:17
  Because if I can do anything to help others through a situation that's similar or even in
• 11:23
  just a song that I write that's about something else, that's that means the world to me.
• 11:28
  Isn't it yeah.
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  It's so interesting to me that, like, the way, you know, God works, I'm a man of faith myself,
• 11:36
  Not a hugely, you know, you know, religious churchgoing person, but, you you don't come
• 11:43
  through all the things that I have come through in my life without having, you know, faith by
• 11:48
  the truckload.
• 11:49
  So it's always been interesting to me to see how, faith works almost better at our lowest
• 11:57
  points.
• 11:58
  Right?
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  Like, we're exposed to more of that in our lowest points, and and and that is renewed.
• 12:05
  Right?
• 12:05
  That faith in humanity, right, not just in God, but in humanity is always kind of brought about
• 12:11
  by the low points as well.
• 12:12
  I've always find that really, really intriguing.
• 12:15
  So I I love how you're using, you know, your platform to just go out and to be yourself.
• 12:21
  Right?
• 12:22
  You're not necessarily using it to further someone else's agenda or to be something that
• 12:28
  somebody else wants you to be.
• 12:30
  You're merely stepping up there onto your soapbox and saying, this is me.
• 12:34
  This is what I'm going through.
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  This is who I am.
• 12:38
  You know?
• 12:38
  This is my faith and really using that how you should.
• 12:43
  I think that's something that a lot of a lot of artists, and I talked to a lot of them Yeah.
• 12:50
  That we all kind of need to remember that the reason we are in the position that we are in is
• 12:56
  because people like us, people it's not necessarily, oh, you play great music or you
• 13:01
  you know, oh, I really liked when you did that fishing in the dark cover.
• 13:05
  Right?
• 13:05
  Yeah.
• 13:05
  It's more of, I liked the person who was behind that song.
• 13:10
  And I think because the superficiality of the music business, like the larger music industry
• 13:19
  as a whole, because it has gotten very drink beer, girl on a beach.
• 13:26
  Right?
• 13:26
  Right?
• 13:26
  Like, it is so that we kind of, I don't know.
• 13:30
  We forget about ourselves as artists.
• 13:33
  Right?
• 13:34
  Because we're trying to make it in this business that we forget about like, you're
• 13:38
  going to make it by just being yourself.
• 13:41
  By sharing more of yourself and connecting with other people, that's how you make it,
• 13:47
  especially in this world where our, attention is divided into a million pieces.
• 13:52
  Right?
• 13:53
  And to, you know, to to use the platforms that we've all built to, to expose not necessarily
• 14:02
  ourselves to all of these other people, but to expose all of these other people to who we are
• 14:07
  and to use that to lift them up from whatever they might be going through.
• 14:11
  Right?
• 14:12
  And we don't necessarily know the effect that we're having on other people.
• 14:16
  So, yeah, really cool to hear that for from your from your story and and to hear that, you
• 14:22
  know, instead of this situation taking you away from it, you've been able to actually bring
• 14:28
  your situation to the stage with you and to say, hey.
• 14:31
  No.
• 14:31
  This is what's going on with me.
• 14:33
  You know?
• 14:34
  And this is why it's important for me to be here with you and not in that hospital room
• 14:40
  right now.
• 14:41
  Yes.
• 14:42
  Yeah.
• 14:42
  And it's like, I from the beginning of that, I thought, okay.
• 14:46
  I need to be careful of how I word this because I don't wanna come out and be like, hey.
• 14:50
  The rattling the cup at them.
• 14:51
  Like, I I need your donations.
• 14:53
  I need your money.
• 14:53
  It's like, it's not about that.
• 14:55
  Like, yes.
• 14:56
  Like, obviously, donations are help to helpful to my family and that, like, we appreciate
• 15:01
  everything that we've gotten and received from people.
• 15:05
  But it's, like, it's it's coming directly from the heart when I when I talk about my son or
• 15:10
  when I talk about my journey as, you know, musically, like, being too shy to do any of
• 15:14
  this stuff and, you know, or even combining both of those stories.
• 15:17
  And it's simply just to to tell people, like, hey.
• 15:21
  I used to be the nervous kid that would be sitting in front of a crowd or sitting in front
• 15:25
  of a classroom even in high school being like, You know, I couldn't really even talk to people
• 15:31
  hardly.
• 15:31
  You know?
• 15:31
  It was scary as it as it is for most people.
• 15:35
  But there is a higher power in it, man.
• 15:37
  When you go knocking on that door and ask, you know, can you do this for me?
• 15:41
  Can you help me get my music out there?
• 15:43
  God will kick in some doors that you never even knew existed.
• 15:47
  And that's just what I wanna share with people.
• 15:49
  Yeah.
• 15:50
  Yeah.
• 15:50
  And you're and you're living it.
• 15:52
  Right?
• 15:52
  You're living it every single day, and we're dealing with a lot of that right now.
• 15:57
  I mean, a lot of the things in my life that are happening now are, a product of the prayers
• 16:04
  prayed six months ago.
• 16:06
  And Yeah.
• 16:07
  Whether I'm always conscious of that or not, the be careful what you wish for motto has come
• 16:14
  up quite a bit lately because you're like, oh, we want all these things to happen.
• 16:18
  And then, you know, they start happening for you, and it's almost you know, it's just pinch
• 16:23
  me.
• 16:24
  It's how Yep.
• 16:25
  How is this happening?
• 16:26
  And and you really have to come back and just be grateful, right, and to express that
• 16:30
  gratitude.
• 16:31
  And I think for musicians, especially and songwriters, that music is the way that we do
• 16:37
  that.
• 16:37
  So I feel like, you know, for you and not to put words into your mouth, but, like, almost
• 16:42
  going out and performing becomes that expression of the gratitude that, like, hey.
• 16:48
  My son is still alive.
• 16:49
  We're still experiencing miracles every single day, you know, in the medical fields and and in
• 16:54
  these things.
• 16:55
  And and my my way of expressing that is to come to you wherever that may be and to share my
• 17:02
  love of music and a little bit of my story with you.
• 17:05
  Yeah.
• 17:06
  And it's it's amazing what that will open up and what that does.
• 17:10
  Like, for instance, I'll keep this story very, very short.
• 17:13
  But I was performing in Saint Cloud a few weeks back, and it was a Thursday gig, I thought,
• 17:18
  there's you know, there's not always a ton of people out on Thursdays.
• 17:20
  Just, you know, give or take.
• 17:21
  And I had a few crowds or a few people in the crowds, a couple that were dancing and stuff,
• 17:25
  and it was was having fun.
• 17:26
  And this mom and dad and a little baby came in, and huge god moment because I I can't explain
• 17:32
  it any other way.
• 17:33
  But I didn't think much of it.
• 17:35
  I just saw them sit down, and then I I started, again, talking about my son for maybe ten,
• 17:39
  fifteen seconds before I went into a song.
• 17:41
  And she come up to me and she goes, did you say your son was sitting at down at U of M?
• 17:45
  And I said, yeah.
• 17:46
  We've been here for five, six weeks at this point.
• 17:48
  And she goes, and my son's name is Hudson, by the way.
• 17:51
  She goes, well, I just wanted to introduce you.
• 17:53
  This is my son.
• 17:55
  His name is Hudson.
• 17:56
  And I go, okay.
• 17:59
  I thought she was kidding.
• 18:00
  You know?
• 18:00
  And turns out they had been down at the same hospital, the same nurses, almost to the same
• 18:07
  room that we're in right now.
• 18:09
  He had a major heart defect as well.
• 18:11
  His was actually even worse than my son's in a in a sense.
• 18:16
  And they are about six months, I think, post being here, and he's walking and talking,
• 18:23
  laughing.
• 18:23
  He was dancing along with the Alan Jackson song I was playing for him, and it was they were
• 18:29
  from South Of Mankato, and it just for them to be there that day, they had no idea who I was.
• 18:33
  They had no idea anything.
• 18:34
  They just showed up to eat supper.
• 18:36
  They had some family that lived just North Of Saint Cloud, and they just happened to be there
• 18:42
  that day.
• 18:42
  And I just thought, k.
• 18:44
  Well, I don't believe in coincidences, and I certainly don't know.
• 18:47
  So
• 18:48
  Yeah.
• 18:48
  No.
• 18:49
  Exactly.
• 18:50
  We have a friend of ours.
• 18:51
  I'll kinda share a similar story.
• 18:53
  So our we have a nonprofit that we work closely with called Saving Avery.
• 18:57
  Avery is a two year old little girl, my friend's daughter.
• 19:01
  She was diagnosed with type one diabetes last year.
• 19:04
  And since then, they've been finding, like, tiny little rubber duckies at the restaurant,
• 19:10
  at here, at there, at there, everywhere.
• 19:13
  Right?
• 19:14
  And, same thing.
• 19:15
  This is God talking and people bringing them to in and just those little signs.
• 19:19
  Right?
• 19:20
  And I've always equated it a little bit to I don't know if you've seen the movie
• 19:23
  Interstellar and not that, you know, these major motion pictures need much play, but,
• 19:28
  there's parts in the movie where he he's actually time traveling.
• 19:31
  Right?
• 19:31
  He's he's sent to save the world through the black hole.
• 19:34
  And as he's, you know, traveling through the singularity, you're seeing flashbacks to
• 19:38
  different movie different moments in the movies where something happened.
• 19:43
  And it it it was, it turns out that it's him in the singularity in the future affecting the
• 19:49
  past, and it was just like a such a wild kind of god moment.
• 19:53
  Right?
• 19:53
  And it's like, oh, man.
• 19:55
  Is that what we all are?
• 19:56
  Right?
• 19:56
  Is that this huge web of the world?
• 19:59
  Right?
• 19:59
  All these unknown mysteries out there.
• 20:02
  Mhmm.
• 20:03
  It's really cool to see it show up, and I love that, god is showing up in your life and and
• 20:09
  is, showing up in Hudson's life as well.
• 20:13
  Great name.
• 20:13
  Great name.
• 20:14
  Thank you.
• 20:16
  Awesome, Chase.
• 20:17
  Well, we've pretty much covered it all, man.
• 20:20
  You wanna go ahead and tell us about any kind of, upcoming, big shows you might have for the
• 20:26
  rest of the month of July and then, plug anything else that you need to as well.
• 20:31
  Yeah.
• 20:31
  We have quite a few county fairs this month with Farmer's Daughters, from Anoka to Chisago.
• 20:38
  We have the Isanti street dance and the Crow Wing County Fair as well.
• 20:42
  And then as far as solo and duo shows for myself, we're playing everywhere from just out
• 20:48
  West of Saint Cloud all the way back to Pine City at the Garage Bar and Grill and just kind
• 20:53
  of all over the place.
• 20:54
  You can find most of those details and shows and stuff right on my website or on Facebook or
• 20:59
  TikTok, all those social medias.
• 21:02
  Yeah.
• 21:03
  It's gonna be a really busy time.
• 21:04
  What's your website, Chase?
• 21:06
  It's chasegrantmusic.com.
• 21:08
  Well, there it is.
• 21:09
  Chase, thank you for coming on the show today, sharing your story, and getting to introduce
• 21:15
  yourself, to me.
• 21:17
  I'm happy to know you, and, can't wait to work with you in the future.
• 21:21
  We get up to Minnesota there quite a bit.
• 21:23
  I was up there at Dunmyers in Brainerd, oh, just a month or so I should go, and, can't wait
• 21:29
  to get back.
• 21:31
  Maybe when it's a little less smoky.
• 21:33
  Has the smoke dwindled a little bit?
• 21:34
  Yeah.
• 21:35
  It's pretty clear down here, though.
• 21:36
  It's we're we're, we're we're okay with those Canadians now.
• 21:40
  We're not so mad at them anymore.
• 21:43
  Awesome, Chase.
• 21:44
  Well, thanks for being on the show, and thanks for being part of the scene.
• 21:48
  Thanks for having me.
• 21:49
  I really appreciate it.