Latest / The Scene Projects / Tom Frear on Music Journeys, Studio Success, and Life on the Road

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Tom Frear on Music Journeys, Studio Success, and Life on the Road · The Scene Projects

• 0:14
  Well, welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:17
  I'm your host, Bubba Starts.
• 0:19
  With me today, Cottonwood Studios, Tom Freer.
• 0:22
  Thanks for having me, Bubba.
• 0:23
  Man.
• 0:24
  At my house.
• 0:24
  It's a long time coming.
• 0:26
  Long time coming.
• 0:27
  You actually just heard a little preview of a starts and ends song, my band.
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  Tom's been instrumental, in every way to putting out my music, and we finally got a
• 0:38
  chance to sit down here on the podcast and to talk about your studio and your music.
• 0:43
  And Tom, you're you're busier than me, and that's hard to do.
• 0:47
  So thanks for taking a few minutes Yeah.
• 0:49
  Course.
• 0:49
  Step out and step into the studio with me today.
• 0:51
  Yeah.
• 0:52
  Give everybody a little bit of background.
• 0:54
  Who is Tom Freer?
• 0:55
  Pretty much starting from, you know, early music days, and you don't have to go too far
• 0:59
  back.
• 1:00
  But Yeah.
• 1:00
  Tell us a
• 1:01
  little bit about who Well, you my name is Tom, and I play guitar, drums, bass, a little bit of
• 1:07
  piano, a little bit of ukulele, a little bit of everything, all the fun ones anyways.
• 1:11
  And I've been playing shoot since I was like well, my grandma put me in piano lessons when I
• 1:18
  was a kid.
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  So, like, probably second or third grade.
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  Yeah.
• 1:21
  Yeah.
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  And then
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  We had three decades of playing.
• 1:23
  Right?
• 1:23
  Yeah.
• 1:23
  Yeah.
• 1:23
  No shit.
• 1:24
  Yeah.
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  It's crazy.
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  Getting old.
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  And then piano got lame.
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  I worked through a couple Beatles books, and then she, like, wanted me to start playing,
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  like, church hymns and all that, which nothing wrong with it.
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  But at the time, I was more worried about riding my skateboard.
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  You know?
• 1:37
  So I was like, well, I'm gonna put piano down for a while.
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  And and then I went to pick up the guitar and took lessons with a guy named Mike Casey.
• 1:45
  And his so what's cool is his dad was Al Casey of the Wrecking Crew, which is their famous LA
• 1:54
  musicians way back in like the sixties, seventies.
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  They did all the Beach Boys hits, all the well, basically, if it came out of LA and if it was a
• 2:03
  Phil Spector production, the Wrecking Crew were on it.
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  And so my guitar teacher's dad, Al Casey, was on all the Beach Boys records and all that good
• 2:13
  stuff.
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  So he was my first guitar teacher.
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  Then he died, so I started playing drums.
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  And played drums through high school and college and double majored in college on
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  guitar.
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  And my college guitar teacher was Charles Carey, and he was a Florida guy and just an
• 2:30
  incredible musician.
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  Just scary guitar player.
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  He's a monster.
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  And he's also dead.
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  So all my guitar teachers are dead.
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  So that's great.
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  And so So now now I play drums with a band called Kenny Fiddler and the Cowboy Killers,
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  and we're based out of here in Rapid.
• 2:48
  But you guys are all over the place.
• 2:50
  You got a busy schedule, man.
• 2:51
  Yeah.
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  We don't play locally all that often.
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  Maybe a couple times a year.
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  And it seems like so far, 50% of the local gigs we've played this year have been rained out.
• 3:00
  So, you know, that's
• 3:03
  one of two.
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  Well, and Tom, we have a long history together.
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  We've known you since playing in some of your first bands.
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  I don't even think you were old enough to get in the bars yet.
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  Actually, know you weren't.
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  We got some funny stories about that.
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  But, you've always been a phenomenal musician, but you kind of moved into the recording space
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  quite a while ago, but I feel like it's really picked up steam here the last five or six
• 3:27
  years.
• 3:27
  Yeah.
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  You've been doing a lot of work, you know, on your studio no matter where it is.
• 3:31
  Yeah.
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  Couple iterations of this studio now.
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  We're in the new one here.
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  Beautiful space you got here.
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  Thank you.
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  Really proud of you, man.
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  Thank you.
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  You it's been a long road to just to get to this point.
• 3:42
  Right?
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  You've worked on a lot of records.
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  A lot of a lot of artists in the Rapid City area have come through here.
• 3:50
  Yeah.
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  It's been incredible for me.
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  Obviously, I gotta shout out Devin Sands, friend of the show.
• 3:54
  Yeah.
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  I know all of his stuff has pretty much been recorded in one of your studios around.
• 3:59
  Yeah.
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  And they all come out sounding absolutely incredible.
• 4:01
  You would never know that it's out of a a, you know, a home studios.
• 4:05
  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  They've all been home studios.
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  I know that, you know, when you were over at the Abe's building that it was, you know, a
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  commercial building.
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  Mhmm.
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  But the studio was still a home studio setup.
• 4:15
  We didn't have huge live rooms with the big see through things.
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  You know?
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  It it was a simple setup, but the That is the goal.
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  That is the goal to
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  get to one
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  of those big, you know, immaculate studios.
• 4:26
  Yeah.
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  But if you keep being able to create it of similar spaces, then, you know, why do you need
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  to go try to spend all the money and change the business plan?
• 4:35
  Yeah.
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  Because at that point, it becomes Tom's probably not getting to go out and have fun
• 4:40
  with Kenny on the road.
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  A bunch, you're you're locked into your studio and trying to rent.
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  So Yeah.
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  I think you've really found a good space here.
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  I really like the new one.
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  Thank you.
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  We're gonna get to work on mixing down some starts and end stuff Mhmm.
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  Later today.
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  But what's some of the new stuff you've been working on?
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  I know you got a bunch of projects in the works right now.
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  So
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  Yep.
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  There's a new Kenny record coming out.
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  We actually, this today, I think our test pressing of the vinyl's coming in.
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  And so I think we're gonna give that a listen back here pretty soon.
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  And Abby Leach has a new record coming out.
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  Casey Sheldon has a new record coming out.
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  Pete Butler just put something out that's going in a movie.
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  And those are just the sessions that I've had here since two or three weeks ago since I moved
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  in.
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  Right.
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  Yeah.
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  And Conax, a band out of Denver, just record track here on Monday.
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  Right.
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  Yeah.
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  Obviously, they were in town for
• 5:32
  Yeah.
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  They won the Sturgis battle of the bands last year.
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  Nice.
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  One of the prizes
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  that's been recorded here.
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  I met the current winners while I was out at the Buffalo Chip.
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  The guys that run it this year are still running.
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  Oh.
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  And they were in town, and we caught them with the Buffalo Chip.
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  And loved what this is.
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  It's cool that you got that shirt on because we had Veronica Grosek, who's the president of the
• 5:50
  Mhmm.
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  Director of the chamber over there.
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  And we talked about how cool of an opportunity it is for, you know, local bands, regional
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  bands to come up and to compete in the battle of the bands for Sturgis because the winner
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  gets to go out and open for bands of the Buffalo Chip.
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  I mean
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  It's a pretty big deal.
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  It's life changing, man.
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  And know from just seeing, you know, these young men, none of them looked like they were
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  even 20.
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Maybe I'm just getting older.
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  They could have been they could have been 30, I guess, and they look too young to us.
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  It's a great a great community here.
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  And you're a big part of that, Tom.
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  And and I know maybe that you don't look at yourself like that mostly because you're just
• 6:30
  in here.
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  You're in front of a screen.
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  You're working all the time.
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  But you're a big part of this Rapid city music scene and have been for a long time.
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  And it's funny how kind of unbeknownst to us that we became the OGs all of a sudden.
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  Right?
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  Mhmm.
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  Yeah.
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  Been around a minute.
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  Yeah.
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  Mhmm.
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  Well, so what is what's next with Kenny?
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  I know that's kinda your your main performance schedule now.
• 6:51
  You guys got some big stuff coming up the next month.
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  You talked about a new album.
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  I know you just released a live album as well that you
• 6:58
  mixed here.
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  34 songs on that live album.
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  That's crazy.
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  Yeah.
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  And that was one show.
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  Correct?
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  That's a typical show.
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  Just two hours start to finish nonstop, starts to ends nonstop.
• 7:07
  Yeah.
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  Just ass kicking country music and, yeah.
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  I love Kenny.
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  Great songwriter.
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  Casey Sheldon, who you mentioned earlier, guitar player in that band as well.
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  You got a great crew around you.
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  What's coming up through the fall here for Kenny Fiddler and the Cowboy Killers?
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  Well, I think next this week, we're in Montana.
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  We're doing a show at the old saloon, which is always a fun stage to play.
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  And then next week, we're hitting the East Coast.
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  We're going to North Carolina, West Virginia.
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  There's another one in there somewhere in Yeah.
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  Ohio.
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  First time getting out to the East Coast for you guys?
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  Never been that far east.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  That'll be a first for me.
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  Maybe the other guys have, but I
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  that'll be
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  the first time.
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  Mhmm.
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  Yeah.
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  I'm I'm excited about that.
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  I think we're doing a run-in California sometime in the fall.
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  We just got back from Canada a few weeks ago.
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  That was a good time.
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  Yeah.
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  Mhmm.
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  My international band now.
• 7:58
  Yeah.
• 7:59
  Yeah.
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  It's pretty wild to watch how far it had come because really, you know, when Kenny Filler
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  came on the, you know, scene for me when I was, you know, just fresh out of prison again.
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  Was twenty eighteen and came back and started seeing this name, and then you see your friends
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  playing Mhmm.
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  With or in the band and, like, woah.
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  Who is this band?
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  Love what you guys got going on.
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  You got a great sound, putting out all this music and building this following, and really a
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  a template for other South Dakota bands to to follow as well.
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  I mean, guys have played some really big rooms.
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  The Mission Ballroom, I know was on there.
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  That's right.
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  You were just up playing 1st Ave in Minneapolis recently too.
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  Right?
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  So you guys have grown up to that.
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  Yes.
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  It's taken some time.
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  But I think for a lot of our listeners who are smaller acts independent, you can reach these
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  levels, but you gotta stay consistent.
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  You guys are on the road a lot.
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  All the time.
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  You are weekend warriors to the max, and now it's growing into, hey.
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  We're gonna be taking a couple of weeks out of town at a time Yeah.
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  And going on tour.
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  I know Kenny's got a a young family at home, so he doesn't wanna stay out for months at a time.
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  But how is it, you know, being in a traveling band that?
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  And you guys, you know, traveling in a van with a trailer behind it, you know, it's not always
• 9:11
  as glorious as the movies have made it seem.
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  It's actually okay.
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  So we don't travel with the trailer anymore because we went off the road twice last year.
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  But I do I think that trailer is the only thing that saved us from rolling the van.
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  You know, something about that counterweight on the back.
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  But no.
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  It's it's pretty good, actually.
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  We have a really good crew, and that makes the difference.
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  You know?
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  If for a bunch of assholes, it wouldn't be able to work Right.
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  At all.
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  You know?
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  But the crew, it makes it that's what makes it possible.
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  And it's a collective vision.
• 9:40
  I think everybody's bought into where it's going, and you don't have people that are kind
• 9:46
  of trying to tear it apart at the seams.
• 9:48
  It feels like everybody is there trying to keep it stitched together and moving and Mhmm.
• 9:52
  Living a collective dream.
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  You know?
• 9:54
  Yeah.
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  For me, it was kinda weird to to see you behind the drums with this band.
• 9:58
  I knew you were a drummer, but I've always considered you a guitar player.
• 10:01
  Right?
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  Because we're playing with local band, you know, Brandon Jones, and then with the
• 10:04
  Cottonwood boys with our good friend Clayton Ryan.
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  I I have never seen you as someone that would step back behind the kit and to perform back
• 10:12
  there.
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  But, I mean, you've played drums on starts and ends records that we've done too.
• 10:17
  So it's not that you weren't, you know, talented enough to do it.
• 10:20
  It's been a pleasure to watch, Tom.
• 10:22
  I appreciate the work you've done for my music career, you know, not just engineering and
• 10:27
  producing
• 10:27
  Oh, so you play live too.
• 10:29
  You know?
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  Yeah.
• 10:30
  It's always fun.
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  Yeah.
• 10:31
  Well, we got to do the number 10 together last year.
• 10:33
  That was pretty fun.
• 10:34
  And, just it it's been a pleasure to watch you guys grow.
• 10:37
  And for me, it's great to share, you know, your story, to show people some success that it can
• 10:44
  look a little bit different.
• 10:45
  It doesn't have to be, you know, moving to Nashville and traveling all the time and
• 10:52
  grinding it out there, that you can have a successful music career going out and and
• 10:57
  playing, you know, three, four nights a week or, you know, staying out for two or three
• 11:01
  weeks at a time, but then being able to come home and still have a family life.
• 11:04
  Yeah.
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  And because that's important to me.
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  I have young kids at home.
• 11:07
  So kinda watching Kenny do it where I'm like, okay.
• 11:09
  This is It can be done.
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  Right?
• 11:11
  Takes the right partner.
• 11:12
  My wife Danielle is behind the camera today.
• 11:14
  So it takes the right people behind us.
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  I know you have a very supportive, you know, girlfriend that supports you and everything
• 11:20
  that you do, helping with a little even social media management now because Me too.
• 11:24
  It it well, it it's hard to do it all.
• 11:26
  Right?
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  Especially when you're here trying to do this and, you know, this is your computer time out
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  there.
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  Yeah.
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  It it's hard to wanna now jump behind and and make videos
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  and It takes a team.
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  You know?
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  It really does.
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  Like, to do to be relevant in the music industry and, like, to stay relevant.
• 11:41
  Like, it you know, you need a marketing person.
• 11:44
  You need the management side of it.
• 11:45
  You know?
• 11:46
  You need it all it's all important.
• 11:47
  Yeah.
• 11:47
  You know?
• 11:48
  And that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have, like, outside influences over those
• 11:52
  things.
• 11:52
  Sometimes it's nice when you get to a certain level to be able to pay someone else to do it,
• 11:55
  but it really takes you know?
• 11:57
  Usually, the band themselves are doing quite a bit of that.
• 12:01
  Right?
• 12:01
  Damn near all of it.
• 12:02
  Yeah.
• 12:03
  Well, and that's what's been fun to watch you guys and to watch everyone kinda have their
• 12:07
  solo careers budding outside of that as well now too.
• 12:10
  Right?
• 12:10
  You've been able to do some stuff.
• 12:12
  Casey's got a new album coming out and and getting to see that.
• 12:16
  So watching everyone express them, their individuality while still being fully invested
• 12:20
  in the band has been eye opening for me because, you know, I think in in my head that I
• 12:26
  thought it was either, like, all or nothing.
• 12:28
  Right?
• 12:28
  And now you're saying that, like, well, you can be invested.
• 12:31
  It's just it comes down to people.
• 12:33
  It comes down to the right people.
• 12:34
  And Mhmm.
• 12:35
  And, brother, I'm so glad that we've been able to be friends for twenty years, first of all,
• 12:40
  but now getting to work on a lot of stuff together.
• 12:42
  So Yeah, man.
• 12:44
  Where can people find you online?
• 12:46
  I know you got, you know, a very busy schedule, but there's still time that you could fill up
• 12:50
  with artists that wanna come in Yeah.
• 12:51
  Yeah.
• 12:51
  To Cottonwood recording and and record their stuff.
• 12:54
  Tell us how we can find you.
• 12:55
  Scheduling is limited because like you said, I'm gone pretty often.
• 12:58
  But, yeah, just hit me up on Instagram.
• 13:00
  My personal page or the studio page is fine.
• 13:03
  Tom Frear.
• 13:04
  That's f r e a r, like father ear, f r e r.
• 13:08
  And, or Cottonwood Recordings, also the Instagram.
• 13:11
  Fantastic.
• 13:12
  Well, Tom, we're gonna get to work here.
• 13:14
  We're gonna mix down some starts and end stuff.
• 13:15
  I'm looking forward to that, but we wanted to make sure that we, got some shine here.
• 13:20
  Hey.
• 13:20
  That's alright.
• 13:22
  Awesome.
• 13:23
  Well, for everyone else, thank you for tuning in.
• 13:26
  Make sure you're following everything that's happening with Cottonwood Recording.
• 13:30
  And, Tom, thanks for being part of the scene, brother.
• 13:31
  Appreciate you.
• 13:32
  With me.
• 13:32
  Appreciate it.
• 13:33
  Yeah.