Latest / The Scene Projects / Manny Freiser on The Groads, Indie Music, and Embracing the Digital Landscape

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Manny Freiser on The Groads, Indie Music, and Embracing the Digital Landscape · The Scene Projects

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  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host Bubba Starts, and with me today is songwriter and author Manny Fryzer.
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  Manny, welcome to the show.
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  Bubba, thank you.
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  I'm really glad to be here, and I'm glad to finally get a chance to work with you.
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  Alright.
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  The pleasure is all mine, sir.
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  We were chatting off camera a little bit, and it's like, man, we better hit the record
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  button.
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  We're wasting all the good stuff.
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  Oh, there's plenty of good stuff.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, before we get into, I know you got a new book coming out and a lot of these things.
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  I'd love to just give you the floor here for a few minutes and get a little bit of your
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  backstory.
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  I know you're a fellow Dakotan, although not in South Dakota.
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  We'd love to hear more.
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  Yeah.
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  As I was telling you, one of the only people I ever met that was born where I was in Fargo,
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  North Dakota was a sixties star by the name of Bobby v.
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  Take good care of my baby.
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  We had a chance to discuss it at one point.
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  We actually backed him at a concert in Tucson at a stadium.
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  But at any rate, I started wanting to write songs for a reason I'm not sure.
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  Well, I think it was to get girls.
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  Okay?
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  Let's be honest here.
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  I was writing sad love songs, and they were sad in in mood, and they were at first, they were
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  sad in content.
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  But I I got started doing it, and I wanted to record.
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  I I I made a record I made well, I recorded in Tucson at the only studio there at the time
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  called what was the name of the studio now?
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  I can't remember the name of it.
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  But at any rate, I made demos there, and, I attracted the attention of a fellow University
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  of Arizona student named Jerry Kasnitz, who would go on to great fame as the guy who gave
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  us bubblegum music.
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  He invented the genre with all of the bands he signed.
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  He decided he was gonna make me a star, or as he said, Manny, I'm gonna make you a star.
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  Yeah.
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  He was from New York.
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  And, anyway, his his his, his roommate and best friend, Jerry Bruckheimer, now the greatest
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  movie producer of all time with, you know, Pirates of the Caribbean and CSI and all that.
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  He took me to meet some guys because wanted me to get live experience.
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  All I wanted to do is record.
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  And he said, I want you to get live experience.
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  I want you to work with a band.
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  So I went to see these guys.
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  I we jammed a little bit.
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  They didn't like me, and I didn't like them.
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  So we decided to make a band out of it, and we called it the Groads.
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  And the Groads fought their way through Tucson for three years from '65 to '68.
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  When I say fought, I mean fought.
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  I mean, the guitar player and I were seemed to be in a constant war, which would eventually
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  break us up.
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  It's too bad too because after those three years, in which we were almost always on the
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  top top 10 in Tucson was with a record, we were starting to get good as a band.
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  And we broke up because of he and him and I because of him and I because of him and me.
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  And, and also because, the new lead singer who my co lead singer, Patty, she and I were
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  starting to fall in love, and we wanted to go to the coast and and try our luck at the at the
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  bigger industry, you know, bigger chance to be seen and heard and record.
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  And, so in August '68, we hit the coast, the coast.
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  And, that's where the that's where volume one of Tracks in the Sands of Time ends.
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  It it covers the time of my youth and and, you know, very young youth.
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  And my years in the groves and ends when we come to LA and full of hope, full of ambition
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  and hope and music.
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  And, and, you know, eventually, the second volume is not gonna be quite as happy a story
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  because, of course, we were eaten up by the, the the Hollywood music scene.
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  But we had some successes.
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  We we made albums, and, we had a song that went to number 100 in the country.
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  It wasn't, one of my songs.
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  It was a remake of an old sixties song.
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  It was old to us then because it was earlier sixties.
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  Isn't that funny to think about?
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  Anyway, we called it an old sixties song, and it was, like, I think, 1972.
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  And that song went to number 100.
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  I called the record company, I said, hey.
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  Do we get the Cadillac now?
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  Because Cadillac was the car then.
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  I said, we get the Cadillac now that it's number 1 100?
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  There was a pause on the phone, and the guy answered, call back when it's number 30.
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  So we went from there, and that's pretty much my background.
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  I'll I'll I'll yeah.
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  I could I could go all day with with these stories, so just stop me anytime, Bubba.
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  Oh, well, I I think that this would this is what the show is for is for the stories.
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  Now maybe we might have to have you as a return guest, and we can go further into the life of
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  Manny.
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  But, what a what a treat to to hear that the music industry isn't much different now than it
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  was then.
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  Oh.
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  You know, it's what's really funny, Bubba, is that later on in the in the 1979 to 1987, I
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  worked as a record executive.
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  I worked for Quincy Jones for a couple of years, and I worked for A and M Records.
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  I worked with Sting and Styx and Super Tramp and, you know, the carpenters.
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  And I found out that the artists are wonderful.
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  More you know, usually, you know, they can have attitudes, but they're they're people.
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  They're real full people.
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  But something about the record executives I encountered, they were interested in one thing,
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  and that is power.
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  And the music was secondary to them.
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  One of the executives that I worked for, one of his favorite stories was, you know what?
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  We gotta get rid of these artists.
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  Let them get day jobs.
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  All they do is stick around and ask for more money.
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  And he was serious, and that'd give you some idea.
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  And they would they would put each other down politically because they could.
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  One of my favorite stories that shows some of this, my first day at A and M Records, I was
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  hired to be executive assistant to the president.
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  And on my first day, and that's a record company that was owned by Herb Alpert, of the
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  Tijuana brass fame.
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  Herbie was a really nice guy, musician.
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  He's still he's still touring.
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  He's 90 years old.
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  He was in Sioux Falls not too long ago, Manny.
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  Oh, right.
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  Well, he's he's he's one of the nice guys, and he's one of those guys I I actually feel like
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  his kindness and and the the the sweetness he's got a sweetness to him has given him a long
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  life.
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  He just has a sunny disposition.
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  And at any rate, when I the day I started at a and m, it was when his record rise was just
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  starting to be a hit.
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  He hadn't had a hit in decades.
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  He was huge in the early sixties.
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  I mean, he had four four or five albums on the top chart on the top at the top of the chart at
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  one time.
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  He held some kind of record, and that's how they started A and M Records.
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  They started A and M Records.
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  He and Jerry started on $400 in their garage and wound up selling it in the nineties for,
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  oh, 500,000,000, making him one of the richest people in California, if not the world.
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  Anyway, Kirby comes across and and A and M was on the Charlie Chaplin studio lot.
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  I'm walking across the lot, and here comes her, but I only just shaking his hand once.
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  He goes, Manny, I can't believe this.
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  My record's just coming on the charts, and it's coming on at number 19.
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  I'm so excited.
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  Like, it had never happened to him before.
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  I was so touched by that.
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  I mean, this guy should have been bored by the whole thing.
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  And he was so excited.
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  And I and I thought to myself, well, this is great too because I'm going to meet with his
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  brother who's the head of grounds, whatever that means.
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  And I he was one I was going to see him about getting my office set up.
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  And so I walk into Dave Alpert's office, and I say, Dave, isn't it great about Herb?
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  And he goes, screw Herb.
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  He says, my son wrote that.
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  I'm gonna I'm gonna make a quarter of 1,000,000 off that.
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  You know?
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  These guys, that's his family.
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  You can imagine how the rest of them were.
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  Anyway, I did have some fun there, and it taught me a lot.
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  It taught me a lot.
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  But all of it went toward teaching me about life and about music and about how much I
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  loved.
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  It defined for me what I loved, which was the music.
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  And to this day, I write and record.
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  I have a studio on my own.
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  I have a studio right right behind me, that I record in, and, I've released, like, 10 albums
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  or more, since I started with Pro Tools in 2004.
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  So I'm having a great time.
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  Any questions about that, or you want me to
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  I I nope.
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  We could just keep going, Manny.
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  I I think the stories are great.
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  You know?
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  I I think a lot of young artists that that was a dream.
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  It's a dream of theirs to to have that deal and to see their songs on the charts.
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  It's just such a different music industry now, and it's more suited for the guys like yourself
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  that have their home studio that work on the craft of recording at home, that can produce a
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  a healthy, you know, volume of music as cheaply and efficiently as possible Yeah.
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  At a high quality.
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  Right?
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  Because the music industry now demands so much more.
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  I think back then, could drop an album, you know, maybe every two or three years and to be
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  putting out, you know, a a handful of songs.
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  Now, you know, now the industry is demanding that these artists release a single a month,
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  you know, and to be constantly pushing and marketing themselves.
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  And, there's not a lot of industry help now.
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  You know?
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  You don't have a lot of these smaller labels that are out there and developing new artists,
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  and so much of it is on the artists themselves.
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  The discoverability is a big reason why we started this because minus Spotify, you know,
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  who else do you have out there?
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  You know, a few of the other streamers, and they're really just pushing the top of the
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  chart people because that's who's paying them and who kinda owns them.
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  Right?
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  I don't think most people realize that Spotify is majority owned by the major record
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  companies, the UMGs and the you know, that you don't, you don't have a lot of choice actually
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  in
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  the music world.
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  It's fascinating what you're saying because I I remember back, and I and and I can compare.
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  Back then, the it was so hard to get a record deal.
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  That was the thing.
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  If you could attract the attention because you couldn't put out your own record.
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  You had to go into an expensive studio.
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  And, I mean, they were really expensive.
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  They could be a $100 an hour.
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  And now that was very expensive back then.
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  And so you needed and you know it takes fifty hours to do or more to do, an album.
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  You tried to get a record deal.
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  They had the power to put you out into to make your record successful.
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  They don't have that power anymore because what happened was home recording.
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  And with home recording, the artist had as you say, the artist had the chance to make their
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  own music.
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  I used to have to try to describe to an engineer who had to try to describe to the
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  musicians what I was thinking.
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  And I didn't I didn't I didn't have an engineer's background.
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  I couldn't go in and say, me three more dB at 500 hertz or whatever it is.
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  I all I said was, I'm feeling a misty afternoon.
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  You know?
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  And and they would look at me funny.
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  So and I think a lot of artists had that problem.
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  I hope so because I was I hope I wasn't the only one.
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  But, I mean, not that I wish of any problems, but, I think we all did.
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  But the record came out sounding really professional, but not exactly what I pictured
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  because everybody got in on the act.
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  Everybody.
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  The engineer could change your record just by his settings, and you wouldn't even know it.
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  I mean, you wouldn't even know all the alternatives.
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  So then I picked up Pro Tools in 2004.
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  My engineer friend when I said I liked it, my engineer friend who'd known about it since the
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  nineties said, hey.
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  Welcome to the nineties.
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  So I and I picked it up.
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  I never learned because I'm not a tech guy.
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  I never learned all the tech stuff.
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  But Pro Tools is one of those programs kinda like a Photoshop where you can get as deep as
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  you want to into the weeds.
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  And all I wanted to I'm one of these people that I don't wanna build the plane.
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  I just wanna fly it.
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  I learned how to I learned how to get what I want out of Pro Tools.
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  And I surprised even my engineer friend, but I I kept at it long enough to be able to get what
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  I need out of it.
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  So I can even if the records are not as perfect because I don't have a a really, you know,
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  amazing studio.
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  It's good.
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  Even if I don't get a perfect record, it's way more what I thought in my head than what I used
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  to see in the in the early days.
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  And now anybody can get in the business.
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  You can record your own stuff and put it up there.
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  The problem now is getting noticed.
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  And the record companies can't help you much because they don't have power there as much
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  power as they used to.
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  It said I don't know this for a fact.
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  It said that they're living on their catalog because the record companies are not needed to
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  give artists a start.
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  Anybody can do it, and you can put it up there.
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  But the problem is it's like having a listing in the white pages of the phone book.
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  The in the yellow pages, you have an ad for yourself.
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  But in the white pages, there you are.
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  But it's your name and address and phone number, and who's ever gonna notice you?
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  There's 440-0000 other names in there.
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  So the problem now is how do you get noticed, which is exactly what you were pointing out.
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  And that's why we started it.
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  You know, as a songwriter myself who was releasing music, early twenty twenty four, I
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  putting out a single, and I had done, you know, the media tour in South Dakota.
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  There's not a lot of that to begin with.
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  I did the local radio.
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  I did the two news stations, and, I did a couple of podcasts.
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  And, some good friends of mine had theirs, and I had gone to my good friend Dave Holly's
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  studio, up in Sioux Falls and just, you know, his spare bedroom in his house.
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  And I'm looking around, I'm like, hey.
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  I you know, like, I got that, and I got that.
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  Was like, I got a podcast studio at home, don't I?
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  And he's like, oh, you definitely do.
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  And, he actually had a Zoom p four, which was a mobile, you know, battery powered, but you
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  could plug it in as well, had four XLR plugs on the back and a couple of microphones, and now I
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  was mobile.
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  And one of the first things I did was I went, as a new member of the Midwest Country Music
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  Organization.
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  I showed up to jam night before the the night of the award show, where I knew everyone would
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  be gathered just kinda hanging out, and I was looking to network with everyone.
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  And it's, you know, well, instead of having to go to everyone's table and introducing myself,
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  I set up my table with the microphones and said, I'm open.
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  Mics are hot, and let's do this.
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  And that night, we did 25 interviews with independent artists and Oh, that's great.
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  Prone to you know, we've probably done over 500 artists.
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  I did a 150 just at the Josie Music Awards in Nashville back in November in a short time.
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  Right?
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  It's all about the whatever exposure we can get for these artists.
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  And starting out, obviously, we don't have the most expensive equipment or studio or or
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  anything like that right now, but we've proven to our community of artists that we are here
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  for you.
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  We are here to build that community.
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  It's why it's right underneath, you know, your your frame here.
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  It's because it's important, and it was more about building out the scene.
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  Right?
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  And that's how we landed on the name was that, you know, yeah, there's a lot of great players
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  out there.
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  And exactly like you said, they're they're you're in the white you're in the white pages.
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  Well, how do we make our own yellow pages then?
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  How do we Exactly.
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  How do we make a smaller community and and build this community up so that when when
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  people are looking for that next big thing, they need only come to one place.
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  And now with, you know, MTV shuttering its doors for good, a lot of the other big
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  companies have already gone to the wayside, We see a massive opening for us, not just in 2026,
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  but well beyond to continue to be a place where, you know, fans of music and artists
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  alike can come and find their new favorites and, you know, commune with these people.
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  Be part of the community.
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  Even if you're just a fan, we wanna open those doors in, and that's why we have the group and
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  our fake trying to pull people out of the social media world and out of, you know, the
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  the kind of false reality that we live in every day and to bring them into a group of real
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  people and real music.
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  And, yeah, it it where it goes from here is anyone's guess, especially getting ready for
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  our national tour, going out on the road, you know, renting a tour bus and landing in all
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  these markets, connecting with, you know, a 100 or 200 artists per market, developing a
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  conference around that where we can deliver some education and some networking as well, and
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  start getting artists to treat their careers like a real business and to stop looking for
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  the record deals because they're not existent anyway unless you have a million followers and
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  10,000,000
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  fans and but you can build a successful career for yourself being an independent artist and
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  selling direct to fans and building your own community around yourself.
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  So now it's really more about education and networking for us.
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  And, you know, still a songwriter myself, but, you know, that that dream can get put on hold
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  until we build out the community that can support all of us, not just myself.
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  Well, you're doing crucial work.
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  As as we both said, the the record industry record companies are not there for the the new
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  artist in general.
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  That's it's a generalization, but it's true.
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  And people like yourself, I mean, you're doing a spectacular job.
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  And what's in the in the future for you, I see, is growth.
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  You you're just you're so necessary now for the artist.
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  And don't worry about your songwriting because it never goes away.
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  It's always there when you need it.
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  You know, it's you can leave and come back to it.
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  I I left for years to become a record executive.
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  I was too busy to to write.
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  I you know, it was and during the day, was at the record company.
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  At night, I had to go out to see artists at clubs.
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  Terrible job.
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  And, you know, I enjoyed myself greatly, but, I was away from writing for a long time.
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  But it comes back.
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  It it's there when you need it.
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  You have a gift for it.
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  It's there.
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  It's like what do they say?
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  It's like riding a bike.
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  Indeed.
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  Well and, you know, I I was very fortunate in the last year, you know, thirteen, fourteen
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  months that I I was able to work with some really talented people that I know in, you
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  know, their their studio to get an EP out of my songs that I felt like was finally a great, you
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  know, an encapsulation of my my music and What name is under your collection of works out
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  there.
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  And
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  Is it under your name?
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  Starts and ends is the name of my band.
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  So that's what I release music under.
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  Yep.
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  So my last name starts and I'll be in
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  the middle of that.
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  Yeah.
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  Ends Ends is with a z as well.
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  Last night was actually a lot of fun.
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  We do a live show every Wednesday we call Love Noise.
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  And we have, usually, we have an artist on, and, we share a few of their songs, get stories
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  behind the songs.
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  Little more in-depth.
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  Right?
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  These are usually shorter, you know, taped interviews like this, and we do a live show
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  every day, at noon central time.
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  We call unsigned spotlight where it's more like a radio show.
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  We're playing five to six songs by different artists and and getting their music out in that
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  way.
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  But Love Noise is more in-depth.
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  One artist.
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  Well, last night, I didn't have a guest signed up, so I brought on my cohost and and founder
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  of Music Mogul AI, Brad Stewart.
• 22:12
  And Brad was, you know, booking agent for the last twenty five years in Nashville, has this
• 22:18
  new tech.
• 22:19
  And I played my songs for him and got his take on my music.
• 22:23
  And I hope that that's actually, where this where the show goes now.
• 22:27
  You know?
• 22:27
  Have your song listened to by, you know, booking agent, you know, music executive, and
• 22:34
  see what he thinks about it.
• 22:36
  And I I need to ask Brad if he's interested in being my cohost permanently, but I think it's
• 22:41
  great for artists to get a take from someone in the industry that's not going to sugarcoat it.
• 22:45
  Right?
• 22:45
  I'm never going to I'm never going to downplay someone's art.
• 22:49
  Right?
• 22:50
  But I'm not here to give you advice on what's gonna take you to the next level.
• 22:54
  And and I think that is kind of what artists need, and that's where the, you know, the scene
• 22:59
  projects exist to be that that niche of working with artists, giving them the exposure, but
• 23:07
  also giving them advice and education to grow their career and to take this step to that next
• 23:12
  level.
• 23:13
  So looking forward to the future.
• 23:15
  I I think you're absolutely right.
• 23:16
  That growth is where we're at.
• 23:18
  And, yeah, it's gonna be an exciting year.
• 23:21
  Got Ken.
• 23:22
  You know what?
• 23:23
  I'm listening to your story, and I I just your story is fascinating, and it's it's it's it's
• 23:30
  one of the tough parts of of writing music is eventually your dream hits reality.
• 23:36
  And and it's good in a way.
• 23:38
  If your stuff is great, then hitting reality is great because everybody tells you it's great.
• 23:43
  But in different stages, you get different opinions.
• 23:46
  You know?
• 23:47
  I'll I'll I'll never forget, sending tapes out.
• 23:52
  In my stage, in my early stage, you there wasn't anybody really in Tucson to play raw
• 24:00
  music to.
• 24:01
  Our manager was a local DJ, but, you know, I wasn't playing my songs to him.
• 24:08
  I would send out tapes on little cassettes, and I I'd send them out to people.
• 24:12
  I I said I once sent a song, a ballad, to Frank Sinatra.
• 24:17
  And I I'll never forget it.
• 24:18
  I got a letter back, it said.
• 24:20
  It said from the office of the president of, I guess, his company from him.
• 24:25
  And it said, we did not solicit this.
• 24:28
  We did not ask for this.
• 24:29
  We do not want this.
• 24:31
  If you ever send something here again, you may be prosecuted.
• 24:37
  It was great.
• 24:38
  But most of the time, you never got anything back.
• 24:41
  My favorite one, I got one back.
• 24:44
  I get the tape back, the little cassette, and on it is a little I said, I figured they'd oh,
• 24:48
  they just returned my cassette, but attached to it was a little crumpled up piece of paper.
• 24:53
  Just all crumpled up.
• 24:55
  And I I, you know, flattened it out, and on it was scribbled the words nice, but not amazing.
• 25:03
  And at first, I was insulted.
• 25:05
  And then I thought, wait a minute.
• 25:07
  That's really great.
• 25:09
  I mean, there's only one or two guys like, you know, Dylan Springsteen, Michael Jackson, or
• 25:15
  whoever at the very top.
• 25:16
  Most music is nice music.
• 25:19
  I like that.
• 25:20
  That's gonna be my epitaph.
• 25:23
  Nice.
• 25:23
  Manny Fryzer.
• 25:24
  Nice.
• 25:25
  Right.
• 25:25
  Amazing.
• 25:26
  Anyway anyway
• 25:29
  Well, Manny, before I I let you get out of here, I know you got the book coming out and
• 25:34
  and and hopefully some new music as well.
• 25:36
  I know you got plenty out there in your discography already, but, let everybody know
• 25:40
  where they can find you and how they can connect with you.
• 25:44
  And, I can't wait to have you back sometime.
• 25:46
  Maybe you could be a guest of ours on Love Noise some Wednesday evening.
• 25:51
  I would love that.
• 25:51
  Share some more stories with us.
• 25:53
  Yeah.
• 25:53
  We go for a couple hours on that, and I think you're way you're better built for that show
• 25:58
  than a thirty minute interview.
• 26:00
  Yeah.
• 26:00
  I kinda wonder.
• 26:03
  Yeah.
• 26:03
  And thank you for being so nice about it.
• 26:05
  I, my book actually came out in 2021, but the reason you're thinking it just came out is
• 26:12
  because I just finished, the audiobook.
• 26:16
  And, wow, that's a process.
• 26:18
  I mean, I you know, my my producer, editor, engineer, and it it was all one person, me.
• 26:26
  And it was taking me forever until I met a guy who helped me, you know, get it up on the
• 26:31
  platform and do it.
• 26:32
  So my book my book is, it's certainly on, on Amazon.
• 26:40
  It's Tracks in the Sands of Time, volume one.
• 26:46
  Volume two, I don't know.
• 26:48
  I'm reading it and editing it now, and some of the things that are in it, I'm not sure I could
• 26:52
  release.
• 26:52
  I may have to do a deep dive into that one again.
• 26:57
  That is coming up.
• 26:59
  My music, yes, I I'm writing and putting stuff up on on on the platforms constantly.
• 27:05
  I have a ton of stuff on YouTube and Spotify and a bunch of other places, Apple Music.
• 27:11
  You know, you name it.
• 27:12
  They're there.
• 27:13
  They're there.
• 27:14
  But, they as we talked about before, they need notice.
• 27:19
  They every once in a while, I'll get a a really good review of the book or of a record, and and
• 27:26
  it helps immeasurably.
• 27:28
  But the process today is building it, building momentum.
• 27:35
  And that's where that's where your show is so critically important.
• 27:40
  And and and and you do a terrific job because I I've I'm a little bit familiar with your stuff.
• 27:45
  And you're one of the one of the good ones, and I appreciate being on.
• 27:52
  Yeah.
• 27:52
  I I appreciate you saying nice things about us and, sharing this out there.
• 27:57
  And watching it grow has been one of the great joys of my life.
• 28:01
  You know, I was encouraged last night to kinda look back at the year.
• 28:05
  We were talking a lot about that momentum and how things you do today, you won't see the
• 28:10
  effects of for a year at least.
• 28:12
  And looking back at where we were a year ago, we were just starting to release episodes on
• 28:18
  YouTube.
• 28:19
  And in 2025, we put out 1,500 uploads, over 350,000 views on our channel, and most of that,
• 28:27
  didn't really start picking up momentum until May.
• 28:30
  So when you look back at what we've done, and I'm so head in the work.
• 28:35
  I'm live on the air, whether it's taped interviews or one of our live shows.
• 28:39
  I'm on air almost thirty hours a week.
• 28:41
  So, we're putting out a vast amount of content, and and we know that, it it won't go unseen.
• 28:47
  It sometimes it just takes a while to get there and to get those eyeballs.
• 28:51
  So, man, I appreciate you coming on, sharing some stories with us.
• 28:54
  Can't wait to have you on an episode of Love Noise where we can hang out for a few hours
• 28:58
  and, just just enjoy each other's company.
• 29:02
  But, I appreciate you taking some time for me, and I thank you for being part of the scene.
• 29:07
  Well, thank you, and it would be wonderful to hang out with you some more.
• 29:11
  So let me know.
• 29:11
  I'm here.
• 29:13
  Can't wait.
• 29:14
  We'll see you soon, Manny.
• 29:15
  Alright.
• 29:16
  You take care.