Latest / The Scene Projects / Darian Poe on Life on the Road, Songwriting, and Building a Musical Journey

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Darian Poe on Life on the Road, Songwriting, and Building a Musical Journey · The Scene Projects

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  Today, I'm joined by singer songwriter Darian Poe, the traveling heart behind albums like
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  Time to Rome and Before These Strings.
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  We're talking life on the road, bus life in Colorado, and the stories that shaped her
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  songs.
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  Stay tuned.
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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, Come part of our
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  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 am your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is Darian Poe.
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  Welcome to the show.
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  Thank you.
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  I appreciate you having me out.
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  Yeah.
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  A pleasure a pleasure to have you, a lot to get into, I feel like.
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  I'm a vagabond myself, maybe a little less now than I was, ten, fifteen years ago.
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  But, before we get into all of that, I just kinda wanna give you the floor here for a
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  minute and allow you to give us a little bit of your backstory.
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  Yeah.
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  Most definitely.
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  So like I said, my name is Darian Poe.
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  I am a fully independent touring traveling musician.
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  I've been doing it for a handful of years now.
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  Been playing since I was a kid.
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  Started doing live music when I was in high school a little bit, just some open mic nights,
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  and took it on the road about a year and a half, two years ago now.
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  So, yeah, been, been a long road coming.
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  That's awesome.
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  That's awesome.
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  And, obviously, we heard in the intro kinda living the, not quite the van life, but the bus
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  life and traveling around.
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  I know we said Colorado off the top there, but you mentioned that you're down in Arizona now
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  and, hopefully, chasing warmer weather and some gigs at the same time.
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  Yeah.
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  Most definitely.
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  Down in Tucson at the moment, definitely, down here for some more the warmer weather and gigs
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  as well.
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  But, yeah, I've been doing the bus life for about two years now.
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  That's awesome.
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  Well and it goes very well with kind of the, the musician life.
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  Right?
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  That's that most musicians dream of living on the tour bus and going out there, and I'm sure
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  it's not, you know, maybe as glamorous as, you know, Motley Crue in the eighties or Yeah.
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  But it gives us the freedom, right, to kinda chase the dream across the country.
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  And I'm an upper Midwesterner.
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  I live in South Dakota.
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  So for us, you know, summers are full of gigs.
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  All the bars are open.
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  Everybody's got outside stages, and everything's rocking and rolling.
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  But, you know, now moving into, you know, the holiday season, those gigs are all gone, and
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  there's a lot fewer places to play and to do our thing at.
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  So if you're not able to kinda chase those gigs farther south, it becomes hard for some
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  musicians to, continue to play at the pace that they became accustomed to in the warmer months.
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  So I guess kind of, talk a little bit about, you know, these last two years and and what
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  it's been like.
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  Do you have a a route and kind of familiar places that you kind of bounce back and forth
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  from, or is it more of a, you know, a circuit that you're running throughout the year?
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  Yeah.
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  So, kind of the start of it, we my husband and I, we had a house.
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  We bought a house and we got married.
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  And within a month after, getting married, we got back home after our honeymoon.
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  And, I was reading a book.
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  It's a Dave Burrill book that I was reading, and it was like, get on the road, get on the
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  road, get on the road, get on the road.
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  So we got back from our honeymoon, and I was like, hey.
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  I know we just bought this house, but, what if we bought a bus?
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  And he was like, you're absolutely insane.
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  I don't think so.
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  So, a little bit of convincing and a little bit of watching videos and documentaries and stuff
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  kinda showing like, hey.
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  This is what everybody does.
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  Maybe we should try and get it a shot.
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  So, he was pretty convinced, so we bought a bus.
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  We renovated a schoolie.
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  And then, China just he had never we're from he's from St.
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  Louis.
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  I'm from the Falls, Illinois, Southern Illinois.
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  So, really, I've traveled a bunch beforehand, but he never really traveled a bunch.
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  So, Colorado was one of my favorite states that I've ever been to.
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  And, so when we bought the bus, he's like, where are we going?
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  I'm like, well, I'm taking you to Colorado.
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  You're gonna see Colorado for the first time.
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  So we went to Colorado.
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  I did about maybe 30 to 40 shows out there for a summer, and, it was an experience of a
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  lifetime that we figured out that we were not gonna stop it anytime soon.
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  And then, after that, we went to I went back home and ended up recording my second album,
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  Time to Roam, back home with all my buddies and stuff, and then just headed back on the road
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  and went to Florida, and then we got ran out by a hurricane.
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  And then, ended up in Southern Missouri, and then Indiana, and then Ohio and Pittsburgh and
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  Buffalo, New York.
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  And so, I mean, it's kind of there's really no rhyme or reason to any of it.
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  I'm not gonna lie to you.
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  Just trying to get my music out there as much as I can and meet as many people and as many
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  fans as I can.
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  You know, I have TikTok, so I often will post on TikTok of, hey.
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  Out on the road, who wants to like, where do you want me to play?
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  And sometimes it'll be like, oh, well, this place or this place, so we'll go out there.
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  But, a lot of it's kinda based on weather as well.
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  We're just living in a bus full time because, we froze our butts off last winter in
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  Indianapolis, and, I learned the hard way on that one.
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  So now we're in Tucson for the winter.
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  But, yeah.
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  I mean, there's really no rhyme or reason.
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  You know, I have a tour plan that I've been planning for next year that's kinda just
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  sporadic and everywhere.
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  A lot of new cities that we've never been to that just super excited and I don't know.
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  It's it's definitely a journey.
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  I tell you that much.
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  Yeah.
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  Well and and you're very fresh to, you know, not just, you know, like, writing and recording
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  and doing that part, but also to touring.
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  And it's really, it seems like you're someone who just kinda, like, cannonballs into the pool
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  and, like, well, I'll learn how to swim once I'm there.
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  Yeah.
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  For sure.
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  So there there's really no better way to learn it and to build that, you know, consistent
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  touring schedule than to just get out there and do it.
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  Right?
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  I mean, the the Internet's great for kind of finding places that you might want to and
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  reaching out to venues.
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  But if you have a, you know, a little bit of a following on any of these social media, you
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  mentioned your TikTok, obviously, Go where your fans already are.
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  Right?
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  Like, go where you have a few people that will tell their friends locally, hey.
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  Come out and see this.
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  Sometimes better than just kinda like, oh, I wanna go to this city.
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  I don't know anyone, and you get a venue that's like, well, yeah, you can come play here for
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  tips, but you don't know any fans there.
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  That's really not a great model for how to do it either.
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  Right?
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  And I know because I've I've lived to that where I'm just like, oh, I'm gonna show up and
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  people are gonna like me.
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  And, you know, sometimes that can work, but sometimes you fall flat on your face.
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  So Yeah.
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  I really think that you're, you're doing something that not a lot of people have the,
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  the courage to just go out there and do.
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  Yeah.
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  It it, it takes a lot mentally and physically.
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  And, you know, like I said, my husband, thank thankfully for him, he, is very on board with
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  all of it and, pushes me every single day to be the best that I can be, and he helps me out.
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  We drive the bus ourself.
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  So, anywhere that we go, it's either driven by him or myself.
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  And, so, yeah, he helps me set up all my gear if it's if there's not a sound person or
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  anything set up and he does the merge and all that stuff.
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  So it's been a it's a lot of help, but we definitely dove head first into something we
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  had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.
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  I love it.
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  Yeah.
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  And I say courage, but also, like, a little bit crazy too.
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  Right?
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  Absolutely insane.
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  But that's what you see on all the documentaries and all the books.
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  You know?
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  It's like we just had to jump and do it.
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  And if you don't, you never know.
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  And I feel like that was the big thing that he did that that he said of, like, well, maybe
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  this is crazy.
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  And he's like, maybe it is crazy, but, you know, if we don't try, you know, so it's
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  definitely, yeah.
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  It's been something.
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  There's a very pedestrian, like, life waiting for all of us if we want that.
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  And Yeah.
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  I read Jack Kerouac's On the Road when I was 18, and I was like, wait.
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  You could just, like, go hitchhike around and do that?
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  I'm like, I'd much rather just go do that.
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  And I threw a guitar on my back and got to go see the whole West Coast and spent three years
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  out there and, you know, kind of did a lot of the same things.
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  Right?
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  I didn't have a bus, but I was like, man, I'm just gonna go out and see it.
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  And there wasn't anything standing in my way.
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  Now, obviously, I have kids at home and my life is different.
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  But just as much, like, I I put forty, fifty thousand miles on my Suburban this year driving
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  from you know, I I toured and played shows anywhere from Duluth, Minnesota down to Austin,
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  Texas, from Chicago all the way to the Rocky Mountains.
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  Right?
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  So, like, I I, in some sense, embody that.
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  I'm not necessarily living, although I did kinda live in the suburban for the summer
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  months.
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  That's not a full time schedule for me, but you gotta be a little crazy even to do that.
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  I mean, sleeping in rest areas when you could and and just staying on the move.
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  But that's what it takes, and I and I don't think that you're wrong in just getting out
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  there and doing it, meeting people, building out this thing.
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  And now you're much better poised to have what maybe looks like a little more, you know,
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  planned out tour for next summer and things that you wanna do, people that you're gonna go
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  out and see, places that you're going to play.
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  And and eventually, the plan kind of unfolds before you if you're willing to step out there.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  It's definitely I mean, it's doable, but it's like you said, it's
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  Oh, it's not for everybody.
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  No.
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  It's not for everybody.
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  It's I remember when we so we left for Colorado.
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  It was March of of two years ago.
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  March.
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  Almost two years now.
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  March.
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  And leaving from Southern Illinois, St.
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  Louis area, the center we got to Kansas City, and we were like, okay.
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  We're gonna spend the night in Kansas City, so we were at a KOA.
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  And then we woke up the next morning and we ended up in Wikini, Kansas, which it has
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  another KOA, and it's in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
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  And, we pulled up to the gas station to get diesel before we parked for the night.
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  And when we pulled up, the bus was screeching.
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  And, got it over to the KOA, and it had two broken pulleys, the belt was ripped, and a
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  bunch of other stuff.
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  And we were like, what in the absolute world are we getting ourselves into?
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  We just sold our house.
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  We just left everything we knew behind, and it's, it's a lot.
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  And it's it's a lot of things, like you said, that people don't really realize or think
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  about, but it's I don't know.
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  It's it's some it's a very interesting lifestyle, and I just keep saying that.
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  But I feel like that's what I tell everybody.
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  They're like, what do you think of it?
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  I'm like, you kinda just gotta live it to understand it.
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  No doubt.
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  Right?
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  And that's where the songs come from a lot of times are are those moments, you know, being
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  broke down in the middle of Kansas, you know, two days into your trip when you just left the
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  whole world that you knew behind.
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  But those are the moments that really, like they make or break people.
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  And I feel, if it if it breaks you, you most people always have something to go back to.
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  You can you can always go back home and, like, go get a job, and it it's very easy to find
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  that life wherever you happen to land.
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  But it's the path less traveled is where the stories are and where, you know, people are
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  inspired by.
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  Right?
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  Like, nobody necessarily wants to hear a song about white picket fences and the you're going
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  to work at your nine to five every day.
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  Right?
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  Like Yeah.
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  That's not what inspires people because they live that life every day.
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  They wanna hear stories about the cowboys and, you know, the the the travelers and the people
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  who are willing to chase a dream.
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  Those are the stories that inspire people.
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  So I'm very thankful that you read that, Dave Grohl book when you did.
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  Yeah.
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  Me too.
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  Well, it feels like that you have your own book in the making here.
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  Maybe if you're not writing it already, that, one will definitely be in your future.
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  Yeah.
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  Most definitely.
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  Crazy enough, my husband actually just started, jotting down the last couple of months because
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  I was like, man, this is this is gonna be, like, history in the making one day, hopefully.
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  And he's like, okay.
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  He's like, well, we've done so much and we've been so many places in the last two years.
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  Maybe I should start jotting this stuff down.
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  So he actually is starting a, like, a bus journey book from the very beginning, so we'll
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  see how it goes.
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  Very cool.
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  Yeah.
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  Well and now it gives him some kind you know, a lot of ways, obviously, he's living that bus
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  life with you.
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  But he's kinda like just, you know, following along on your journey where now writing it and
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  collecting it on his own gives him a little bit more investment in the journey and everything
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  itself.
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  Yeah.
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  And it's cool to see his viewpoint of it as well because I feel like the book that's what I
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  told him.
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  He's like, well, you can put some stuff in.
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  I was like, well, I'll give you ideas of, like, if things that we that were forgotten or
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  something because we've done a million things since then.
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  But I was like, I kinda want a premier viewpoint because, I don't know, it's very cool
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  to I've I've read a couple pages of it so far, and it's it's a viewpoint that I have not seen
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  yet that I'm very intrigued for everybody else to read one day.
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  Right.
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  I and I was thinking the same thing where, you know, from the, you know, the bus driver roadie
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  perspective almost.
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  Right?
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  Exactly.
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  It's a it's a different light, especially from us because we don't know that light.
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  You know?
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  I'm a songwriter myself, so I know it from the stage.
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  I know it from this.
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  And now being kind of, like, you know, the media, right, and having that where I'm talking
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  to a lot of artists, but I still see it from I'm seeing it from your perspective.
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  I'm not necessarily looking at it from a, you know, from a media person's perspective.
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  Even when I'm on the red carpet at the Josie's or something, I'm talking to people because
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  they're like, I know I know a little bit of your story just intrinsically from being an
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  artist myself.
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  I I know what it's like to kinda ride the highs and lows of an artist's career, and it's not
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  necessarily from a a a necessarily different viewpoint.
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  It's it's slightly different, but I'm trying to tell the story of a million artists from the
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  artist's perspective where, yeah, his viewpoint and perspective on everything are completely
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  different.
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  Not being is he a musician at all or just kind of very yeah.
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  So it's completely different.
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  Yeah.
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  He's definitely very music based.
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  It's kinda how we met.
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  Very we went to a million concerts, and we still go to a million concerts and stuff.
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  So, I don't know.
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  It's something we joke about often.
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  It's like, you love the musicians and you looked up to all these people.
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  It's like, I never would have thought that, like and either of us would have been doing
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  this, you know, down the road.
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  We've only been together for about seven years now, but it's it's still crazy to think that,
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  like, I was 20 and he was 21 of, like, where we're at now.
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  We would have never pictured this in a million years, but couldn't be any more grateful for
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  it.
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  But yeah.
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  That's so awesome.
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  Well, I'm sure you got a million things to do on the bus, so I don't wanna keep you forever.
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  You're fine.
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  And tell everybody where they can find all your stuff and learn more about you, the bus life,
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  and your music too.
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  So you can find me on darianpo.com.
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  That is my website.
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  It's got everything on it.
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  You can also find me on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, pretty much anywhere you can stream
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  music.
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  I have three albums out currently.
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  You can find me on TikTok under Darian Poe Music, Instagram, Facebook, all that fun stuff.
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  Nothing too wild or crazy.
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  Awesome.
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  Well, Darian, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story today.
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  I've been absolutely, enthralled by it.
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  I love the adventurers in this life, and thank you for being part of the scene.
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  Yeah.
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  Most definitely.
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  I appreciate you having me on.