Latest / The Scene Projects / El Pablo 1X: Memphis Music, Creativity, and Community Insights
Transcript
- 0:02This program is part of the Scene Project Podcast Network.
- 0:07Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
- 0:12from across the Midwest.
- 0:15Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
- 0:23Welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
- 0:27I'm your host, Bubba Starts.
- 0:29And with me today is my brother, El Pablo.
- 0:31One time.
- 0:33Yes, sir.
- 0:34Yes, sir.
- 0:34Honored to be here, man.
- 0:36Honored.
- 0:36Honored, man.
- 0:37The honor is all mine, man.
- 0:39Well, I introduced you by name, but we wanna know what you're all about, so go ahead and
- 0:43tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.
- 0:46Man, Pablo, one time.
- 0:49I'm an army veteran.
- 0:51Man, stand up for my my veterans all across the world.
- 0:55I I stand up for them.
- 0:57I stand for suicide research.
- 1:00My mom, man, I had a mom die from stomach cancer, man.
- 1:03So we my music, man, I I scream out for cancer survivors all around the world.
- 1:08And I'm I'm also the father of a of a autistic little girl, man.
- 1:12And so my brand is is really, is is really big.
- 1:16And and Pablo one time is a man of honor, man, integrity, and love.
- 1:21A lot of love for the people.
- 1:22For sure.
- 1:23For sure.
- 1:24That's well, you got no lack of causes to support in your life, do you?
- 1:28I'm taking all kinds of notes here, because that's what we're about.
- 1:32Well, I'm a songwriter myself.
- 1:34I love making music.
- 1:36Relatively new to podcasting.
- 1:38I kinda just fell in, backwards on this one.
- 1:42I didn't know this was gonna be my life a year ago.
- 1:44My wife and I laugh about it all the time now where it's like you didn't even like, the scene
- 1:50projects wasn't even a thought until, like, eight months ago.
- 1:54So to be where we are today, to get to have these conversations, to get to meet other
- 1:58inspiring people, and to see what inspires them, man, it's such a blessing.
- 2:04It's such a blessing.
- 2:06Right.
- 2:06Right.
- 2:07Right.
- 2:07Right.
- 2:08Yeah, man.
- 2:09Yeah.
- 2:09I'm I'm I'm finally understanding that that God have been given us these platforms for
- 2:13ourselves, man.
- 2:15But we're servants of the people in some kind of way, shape, or form, man, and I take pride
- 2:19in that.
- 2:20I do.
- 2:20So so, hey.
- 2:21A big big shout out to you, man, because some of us never even know or never find our our
- 2:27real calling with this thing, man.
- 2:28So real talk to have your voice heard all across the waves, man.
- 2:32You know, it takes a lot of courage to do what you do, man.
- 2:35Yeah.
- 2:35It's that's so funny because that's the same thing I tell all the songwriters and people
- 2:39that come on the show is like, man, I'm so proud of you.
- 2:42You know what I mean?
- 2:43I'm so proud of you.
- 2:43It takes so much courage to write a song and to share your heart with the world.
- 2:47And, I'd I was born with unnatural confidence, Pablo.
- 2:51Right.
- 2:53Yeah.
- 2:54A supernatural confidence, maybe.
- 2:56The confidence that God gave me to just keep going forward.
- 2:59I've never worried about trends.
- 3:01I've never worried about what anybody else was doing.
- 3:03I've been worried about my path.
- 3:05And as I just kept walking, the path became more clear.
- 3:08So I just kept walking.
- 3:10And and I'm going to keep walking and pulling on this thread to to unveil what's before us.
- 3:17And what it's turning into now, Pablo, is not just a show or a network that we've become now,
- 3:22but it's a community.
- 3:23It's a community of people that are going to inspire their communities and then linking all
- 3:29of those together under one big umbrella that we call the scene projects.
- 3:34That's the mission.
- 3:35And it's really what's driving me every day, you know, waking up.
- 3:40And I haven't gone to a real job in almost a year now.
- 3:43Right?
- 3:43I thought I was gonna be a rock star, Pablo.
- 3:45I thought I was getting I thought I was getting off the train, and I was I was gonna be a rock
- 3:50star.
- 3:50Right?
- 3:50I was catching some You're
- 3:51still you're still a rock star, man.
- 3:53You're still a rock star.
- 3:53Now you're rocking the airwaves a different way,
- 3:56Right.
- 3:56Well and I've always I've always been a talker.
- 3:59Right?
- 3:59And I finally Right.
- 4:01I think I posed it to somebody this year.
- 4:03Was like, if you would have told anyone in my life that I would have found a way to get paid
- 4:08for running my mouth, they would have believed you.
- 4:11No one in my life is surprised by what has happened here and what continues to happen.
- 4:18So you got, you got a lot of causes.
- 4:20You got a lot of you got a lot of love for the world.
- 4:23I can tell.
- 4:24What Yes,
- 4:25sir, man.
- 4:27What's driving you to create right now?
- 4:29What what's what's the big thing that you're pushing towards at this moment?
- 4:36Man, the biggest thing driving me to to create right now is I'm seeing other artists struggle,
- 4:44and I'm seeing how hard I go, and and I'm I'm able to draw somewhat of an awareness.
- 4:53But, man, right now right now, what's pushing me is is the community around me.
- 4:58Me seeing where I can fit in and how I can create avenues to help others, man.
- 5:03That's the biggest thing right now pushing me, man, is to be able to is being able to do what
- 5:07I do, bring bring bring love, joy, and inspiration to the masses that I bring, but
- 5:13also other artists that's right beside me, like, struggling.
- 5:16Like, man, I don't know how you do this.
- 5:18Now I'm a show you how I do it, man.
- 5:19Come matter of fact, come rock out with me, you know?
- 5:22And it's it's like, man, that's the biggest driving force, actually not having to sign a
- 5:26deal, finding a way to do this without ever ever being independent.
- 5:30And, you know, like like you said, I haven't worked in almost a year, man.
- 5:34And I I I mean, man, my knees are taken care of.
- 5:37I'm I'm okay.
- 5:38I'm good, man.
- 5:40I I I I I can't complain, brother.
- 5:43Right.
- 5:43And I'm not running out and buying the new iPhone every time it comes out, but I was never
- 5:49that guy.
- 5:49I'm not.
- 5:50No.
- 5:51I'm not.
- 5:51I'm not that guy.
- 5:53I'm not that guy.
- 5:54Pablo, where you're down in Texas.
- 5:56Right?
- 5:57No.
- 5:57Arkansas.
- 5:58Arkansas.
- 5:59Okay.
- 6:00Arkansas.
- 6:01Yeah.
- 6:01Around the Little Rock area or you out in rural Arkansas?
- 6:04No.
- 6:05No.
- 6:05I'm I'm up towards the Memphis area.
- 6:07I'm I'm right across the bridge from Memphis, Tennessee, so I I can literally ten minutes
- 6:12away, I'm in Memphis, Tennessee.
- 6:13So is that kind of the community where a lot of your music stuff happens then if you're going
- 6:17out and playing shows and doing things that's in Memphis?
- 6:20Yeah.
- 6:20Yeah.
- 6:21Yeah.
- 6:21Yeah.
- 6:21I don't have a real fan base here in West Memphis, but if I'm in Memphis, that's that's
- 6:25where I'm at.
- 6:25I'm rocking out in Memphis most definitely.
- 6:27Most definitely.
- 6:27Awesome.
- 6:28That's awesome.
- 6:29I mean and for me, I live in South Dakota, so I I realized real quick like that.
- 6:33You're gonna have to be big in some other places close to South Dakota too.
- 6:37They're just I mean, there's more cows than there are people here.
- 6:40And Right.
- 6:41It takes it takes ninety minutes to get anywhere.
- 6:44You know?
- 6:44I'm from a 200,000 person city.
- 6:47I'd rather drive 90.
- 6:49You know?
- 6:50And if I go ninety minutes the wrong direction, it's gonna be seven hours till I get to Denver.
- 6:55So
- 6:55Right.
- 6:56Right.
- 6:56And I realized that maybe that's that's why God brought me this podcasting thing is that I can
- 7:01connect with all these different communities that I've always wanted to go to, right, and to
- 7:07be in.
- 7:08And, I was actually born in in Southeastern Tennessee, little town called Suwanee.
- 7:13It's out by Chattanooga.
- 7:14So quite quite a ways from Memphis still, but Yeah.
- 7:18You know, it's it's about the communities that you're in and how you can serve them.
- 7:24And I know you already touched on it, but, like, that's that's what people gotta realize
- 7:27what it's all about.
- 7:28You know?
- 7:29When I finally I was already supporting my community a little bit.
- 7:34Right?
- 7:34I'd always put people on shows with me and do that, but it it was never enough.
- 7:37It was never going to be enough.
- 7:39South Dakota's five hours from end to end, and what we have is that the one, you know, I I'm
- 7:44not even gonna call it metro area, but our one population center's on the Western border, and
- 7:49the other one's on the Eastern border.
- 7:51So you have no connection in the middle.
- 7:53We call it East River East River and West River.
- 7:55The Missouri River kinda splits the state in half.
- 7:57So it's almost like two different states.
- 7:59Those people don't talk to one another.
- 8:01I was born out on the West Side of the state, raised out there.
- 8:04All of my connections, you know, before moving to my wife's hometown five years ago were over
- 8:10there.
- 8:10I didn't know anybody over around, you know, Sioux Falls, South Dakota is our our big metro
- 8:15area, and I didn't know anyone.
- 8:18But within, you know, a year or two of really pushing and like, well, I'm gonna play more
- 8:23music, and I'm gonna get this thing going, I was on the local news channels.
- 8:27I was getting on the radio stations, and not only that, but I found a community we call the
- 8:31Midwest Country Music Organization that's mainly out of Minnesota, but dips into Iowa and
- 8:37Wisconsin and all of these.
- 8:38So there's that bigger community.
- 8:40Right?
- 8:41That little bit bigger to link in, and now I'm bringing all my people.
- 8:44Like, hey.
- 8:45Look.
- 8:45We got this really good thing going on.
- 8:46I found these people, and they're super cool.
- 8:48Like, come over to this.
- 8:49Right.
- 8:50And and it just it's exploding.
- 8:52Right?
- 8:53It's exploding because of the awareness that people have that, oh, this is how I build my
- 8:58career.
- 8:58Nobody's trying to get signed, man.
- 9:00There ain't nothing to sign to.
- 9:02Right.
- 9:03Right.
- 9:04Right.
- 9:07My daughter's eczema was out of control.
- 9:11She couldn't sleep because she was scratching her whole back, her bottom, her elbows, her
- 9:19knees, everything was just covered.
- 9:21I'm pretty sure it's genetic for her, but I know that there are things in our environment
- 9:26that are exacerbating it or making it worse.
- 9:28Right?
- 9:29It could even be things like laundry detergent, the wash she was using in the bath, lotions I
- 9:35was using on her.
- 9:36I saw my friend posting that her little one was also struggling with eczema and that she used
- 9:41this special lotion right here, the best stuff that we have tried so far.
- 9:47We did try other lotions and creams that worked, but they broke the bank.
- 9:51We literally could not afford to buy them on a regular basis to keep up with how much she was
- 9:57having eczema breakouts.
- 9:58But this stuff was great, super affordable, safe for her super sensitive skin.
- 10:03She's only two, and I have no hesitations of putting this on her, and it's been the best
- 10:08thing that has worked so far.
- 10:14I was talking to my guy, the strange one, Donnie Darko.
- 10:18He's down there in Austin.
- 10:19I mean, he's he's in Source Magazine.
- 10:22Right?
- 10:22And he's like, yeah.
- 10:23I'm getting people coming to you know what I mean?
- 10:25Asking and throwing some offers out, but what are you gonna offer me that I'm already not
- 10:30doing?
- 10:30Like, why would I give you any of my success and my money when I can just go get it myself?
- 10:36And it might take me a little longer, but I'm gonna get there the same way.
- 10:40I got all the time in the world.
- 10:42Right.
- 10:42Right.
- 10:43Right.
- 10:43That's what I meant.
- 10:44That's what I meant, man.
- 10:46That's that's what I meant.
- 10:47I'm all in on me, man.
- 10:48I'm all in.
- 10:49It's it's all in on me, man.
- 10:51Sorry.
- 10:52Are are are you running your own podcast now?
- 10:55I know we kinda met out of the Facebook podcasters group.
- 11:00Man, I'm just I'm just a artist just doing craziness, just just just creating content.
- 11:07I'm not really I haven't I I don't have a secure podcast, not yet.
- 11:12I'm I I, I've been an engineer, a lot of artists, you know, a lot of engineering.
- 11:17So you're good behind the computer.
- 11:19You you spent a lot of time crafting in the craft of the recording and producing and
- 11:25Right.
- 11:26Right.
- 11:26Right.
- 11:27Right.
- 11:27Right.
- 11:27And then I and I then I dropped I dropped my my last album, my last tape, and I was just so
- 11:32focused on that on that album.
- 11:33That's 27 songs of Bliss, man.
- 11:35Matter of fact, the roller coaster is out.
- 11:37The roller coaster, Diaper Black Sheep Kid, volume two is out right now on all your
- 11:41favorite platforms, man.
- 11:42It was just crazy.
- 11:43A crazy tape, man.
- 11:44A really a real roller coaster.
- 11:46There's no way you can sit down like you're sitting right now and listen to that tape, man.
- 11:50I'm telling you, man.
- 11:51But so, yeah, man.
- 11:53I I've been in I've been in the background, and then I went to school for a music business.
- 11:58I wanted to learn how to the business out of this thing, man.
- 12:01So I've been helping artists just create a basic foundation, you know, your BMI, you know
- 12:05what saying, your sound exchange, your song trust.
- 12:09Getting a basic foundation, your logo, your EIN, you know, just a basic foundation because
- 12:14you you hear artists, I wanna get managed.
- 12:16I wanna be managed.
- 12:16You have nothing to manage, brother.
- 12:18You know?
- 12:19So just Barely got a name.
- 12:24Just helping them create a basic foundation, man.
- 12:26And and so Black Shit Kid music has become, like it's becoming its own little community,
- 12:30man, you know, where we just I got I got little brothers, man.
- 12:33Like, know, like, hey, Pablo helped me, you know what I'm saying, create my brand.
- 12:37And that's that's that's that's the most beautiful thing, man.
- 12:40And so now, this year last year, I was just going around doing shows in different parks
- 12:45till we get kicked till we get kicked out sometime.
- 12:48But this year is way more professional.
- 12:51Now I got man, I got stage lights and backdrops and smoke machines, man.
- 12:56We we come in as, like, a whole entertainment agency, so when when artists come and perform
- 13:00with me, we I can give them a real professional look, man, and they can get some real good
- 13:05footage and because that's what we need.
- 13:07We need good footage to market your footage, you know.
- 13:09So, man, it's just been a blessing, man.
- 13:12Yeah.
- 13:13That's been blessing.
- 13:14Out year, man.
- 13:15Yeah.
- 13:15That's that's right in line with what we do with our songwriter showcase show.
- 13:20Yeah.
- 13:20So I would have them up.
- 13:21I'd interview you know, do an interview, and then you get to share three songs.
- 13:25And that really went really well.
- 13:28It's a live performance, but then I'm able to send artists away, and we haven't necessarily
- 13:33actualized the whole thing yet.
- 13:35But you can come on this one showcase, walk out with three demos or three, you know what I
- 13:41mean, produced songs.
- 13:42A lot of them are acoustic kind of country artists, but, I mean, you could walk out with
- 13:46three songs, three videos, a press kit ready in the making right there.
- 13:52Like, it's not just a showcase to showcase you to those people right there.
- 13:55No.
- 13:55It's your showcase to take with you to go show the world.
- 13:59You know?
- 14:00Like, what you do past that is on you, but we're gonna give you all of that.
- 14:04I can't pay you to be here because we're not really making any money doing this either, but
- 14:08this
- 14:08is Right.
- 14:09Right.
- 14:09Right.
- 14:09Right.
- 14:10Right?
- 14:10This is this is everything.
- 14:12You got three videos that you can chop up into all this different content and and these three
- 14:17songs now, and you have all of this all of this content, right, and this name that the Scene
- 14:24Projects can give you.
- 14:25You know?
- 14:26We'll do a write up, an article on you.
- 14:27We'll review your song.
- 14:28We'll do all of these things so that you're able to go out there into the world with some
- 14:33confidence too.
- 14:34Because once you got that confidence, ain't nobody gonna stop you.
- 14:38Right.
- 14:39Right.
- 14:39Right.
- 14:40That's that's what keeps me going.
- 14:41It's like I said, an unnatural confidence where just like, no.
- 14:44Just keep going.
- 14:45Just keep going.
- 14:46It doesn't matter.
- 14:47It don't matter what happened yesterday.
- 14:48It don't matter.
- 14:49Just keep going.
- 14:50It don't matter if you get to where you think you're gonna be in a certain amount of time.
- 14:53That don't matter either.
- 14:54Just keep going.
- 14:55You know?
- 14:55And that's that's god talk.
- 14:57I'm learning it.
- 14:57I'm learning slowly.
- 14:59We have it in our minds already done.
- 15:01We didn't we sometimes we forget about the building process.
- 15:04We already got it done in our minds already.
- 15:06We're like, goddamn.
- 15:07It's supposed to have been done yesterday.
- 15:09No.
- 15:09Just slow down.
- 15:10Pump the brakes and understand it.
- 15:11As long as you're long as you're working towards this and making progress towards these
- 15:15and making these small milestones and you're hitting these small goals, you're on track.
- 15:19You're right on track.
- 15:20But sometimes we overthink it, man, and we and we overshoot.
- 15:24And sometimes we mess up when you overshoot.
- 15:26Patience is key sometimes, man.
- 15:29I win it.
- 15:29Well and it's funny that you bring that up because that's exactly the that's exactly the
- 15:34time that I'm in right now with this podcast.
- 15:37Right?
- 15:37We've been pushing, content.
- 15:39I wasn't really pushing the social media and get you know, even posting wasn't necessarily I
- 15:44wasn't into the weeds on all that stuff, algorithms and being you know?
- 15:48Well, I didn't care.
- 15:49I was just like a hundred episodes.
- 15:51We gotta get a hundred episodes out.
- 15:52Right?
- 15:52And we got that before the end of the year.
- 15:55Like and we didn't start until I mean, really, until, like, my tour season was over.
- 15:59I didn't start really cranking out content until, like, September, October, and then in
- 16:05three months, we had a hundred episodes.
- 16:07And it was like, okay.
- 16:08Content, not a problem.
- 16:09And now we've achieved kind of this level that most people talk about with podcasts.
- 16:14Like, oh, well, if you ain't got a hundred, then, you know, you haven't really made it yet.
- 16:19And it's like, man, I ain't gonna toil on a once a week release schedule for two years to
- 16:25get there.
- 16:26No.
- 16:26Right.
- 16:27We're time traveling.
- 16:28And the problem with time traveling sometimes is that you're gonna end up way ahead of the
- 16:32pack all alone.
- 16:34And I'm not one that's like, I'm not waiting for you at your speed to catch up.
- 16:39I'm trying to teach you what I know so that you can get here now, and that's exactly what we're
- 16:44talking about.
- 16:44Look.
- 16:45I'm here because I worked my ass off.
- 16:48Right?
- 16:48You worked my ass off.
- 16:49And I had to learn it all.
- 16:51And what I'm gonna do is
- 16:52I'm gonna cut out that
- 16:53learning curve for you because I'm your brother.
- 16:55Bro, I I wish, bro, I wish I could just show you my books and stacks on top of stacks of
- 17:01notes, man.
- 17:02I'm talking about nights nights on top of nights when I couldn't sleep.
- 17:05It's three, four in the morning.
- 17:06I'm just manifesting and just researching the webinar, the seminar, the seminar, the webinar.
- 17:12I'm I'm like, bro, I'm a figure something out.
- 17:14I'm talking about bro.
- 17:15I'm bro, from affiliate marketing to digital marketing, goddamn it.
- 17:19Like, from real estate, I was I wanted to know it all, bro, and I got the sauce.
- 17:24I got the sauce.
- 17:25Yeah.
- 17:25That's beautiful.
- 17:26Well and and the best part is that you're not keeping the sauce to yourself.
- 17:30You're spreading it around.
- 17:31You're teaching all the little brothers and the little sisters coming up, hey.
- 17:35This is this is the path.
- 17:36This is what's gonna get you.
- 17:38You want that gold?
- 17:39But but but it it is.
- 17:41I've been doing this for free for too damn long.
- 17:43It it is time to put a put a dollar on this thing, man.
- 17:45It's not
- 17:46the time.
- 17:47Well, the other thing is valuable information.
- 17:49It's way too valuable information, man.
- 17:51Right, Pablo.
- 17:52You you'll pay the college.
- 17:53You'll pay the school.
- 17:54You'll pay the school.
- 17:55Right.
- 17:56Get more college.
- 17:57Something that I'm sure you're familiar with because you are into marketing that if you
- 18:01don't assess a value on it, people aren't gonna assess a value on it, and they're not gonna
- 18:06invest the time into doing it because it doesn't have that obligation.
- 18:10The money is an obligation that you're gonna do the work.
- 18:13You know?
- 18:14Like, you're we're not gonna do it for you.
- 18:17You know?
- 18:18That's not what this is about, but it's an education.
- 18:20It's to walk you through, and you're still gonna have to do an enormous amount of work,
- 18:25but we're gonna give you a huge lift up.
- 18:27You know?
- 18:28We're that booster.
- 18:28We're the one picking you up to throw you over the fence.
- 18:30You know?
- 18:31Right.
- 18:31Right.
- 18:32And all we need you
- 18:33to do is when you all make it, little brother and little sister, that you reach down and you
- 18:38grab Pablo and you pull us up when you make it.
- 18:42Right?
- 18:42We're
- 18:42not gonna stop educating.
- 18:44That's it.
- 18:44That's it.
- 18:45That's all I want.
- 18:46That's all I want, man.
- 18:48Thank you.
- 18:49Hey.
- 18:49Hey.
- 18:51That's it.
- 18:52Brother, let's, I wanna talk more off camera.
- 18:55I'm a let you go and close the episode, but why don't you go ahead and plug all your stuff real
- 19:00quick, and then we're gonna chat for a while off camera.
- 19:03Bro, I appreciate it, bro.
- 19:05Hey.
- 19:07Thank you for having me, man.
- 19:08Right now, I got a new album out right now, roller coaster, darker black sheep kids item
- 19:14two.
- 19:15I'm on all your favorite platforms.
- 19:16Please go check it out.
- 19:17Thanks for having me, Pablo one Todd.
- 19:20Hey, Pablo.
- 19:21Thanks for being part of the scene, brother.