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Nolan Schmidt on Nashville Networking, Collaborations, and Music Industry Insights · The Scene Projects

• 0:01
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:04
  I am your host Bubba Starts, and with me now is recording and performing artist, Nolan Schmidt.
• 0:09
  Nolan, welcome to the show, brother.
• 0:11
  Thank you.
• 0:11
  Thank you.
• 0:13
  Man, we we got to chat last week as you were, seeking to do some content with some fellow
• 0:19
  Midwest country music organization members.
• 0:22
  You piqued my curiosity then.
• 0:25
  I wanna allow you the time to explain all of that later in the show, but, let's get to know
• 0:30
  you a little bit, man.
• 0:31
  We'll get a little bit of backstory, and then we'll get into what you're working on now.
• 0:34
  Yeah.
• 0:35
  A little bit of backstory behind me.
• 0:36
  So I've been playing drums for about, oh, boy, probably about eighteen, nineteen years or so.
• 0:43
  Self taught.
• 0:44
  Can't quite read music.
• 0:45
  My parents gave me a guitar as my dad used to be in a band when he was younger, he was a lead
• 0:51
  guitarist.
• 0:51
  So he ended up giving me his guitar, and, he kinda saw me tapping on it.
• 0:55
  I like, oh, maybe he's a drummer.
• 0:57
  Well, here we are, eighteen years later.
• 1:00
  No.
• 1:01
  I had a little bit of drum lessons here in Saint Cloud.
• 1:04
  Did that for about three months, and then just kinda began to the point where my drum
• 1:09
  instructor is just told my parents, you he he gets it.
• 1:12
  He he understands that there's no no reason for him to be here.
• 1:15
  So I ended up, just kinda always going home and listening to music and trying to play along
• 1:21
  with it, watched a couple, YouTube drum cover guys that I follow still to this day.
• 1:27
  Yeah.
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  Kinda just got into it.
• 1:29
  And, one day, I ended up making a Craigslist ad looking for a drummer, and then Levi Peltzer
• 1:35
  ended up reaching out to me and ended up meeting him and ended up, playing with him for
• 1:40
  about a year and a half to two years.
• 1:42
  And that's what probably really got me introduced to the country music scene and
• 1:46
  really got me into a dive deep of music and playing.
• 1:51
  We did about a 170 plus shows here in five different states, so it was it was a constant
• 1:55
  drive.
• 1:57
  So I ended up, getting married, having some kids, and now being able to slowly dive into
• 2:04
  collaborating and networking, you know, networking with a bunch of Nashville musician
• 2:09
  artists like Rich Redman, Jason Aldean's drummer, couple other guys out in Nashville.
• 2:17
  I ended up visiting Nashville a few times and kinda really got out there and started
• 2:21
  networking.
• 2:22
  And, I ended up building a team together with, Greg Huberty, Bo Allen, and Doug, with Sport
• 2:30
  Willow Studios.
• 2:31
  We ended up kinda putting, some drum covers together.
• 2:35
  I wanted to be able to frame myself as far as what can I do to put myself out there, and be
• 2:42
  able to show people what I can do, in a recorded, professional setting?
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  The way I look at it is anybody can look walk up to any musician and say, I'm a drummer or
• 2:52
  I'm a guitar player.
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  It's like, okay.
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  Great.
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  What do you have to show for?
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  You know?
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  And, I think that's where this team kinda came into play, and, yeah, we're able to make some
• 3:02
  really good content and be able to put a lot of opportunities out there.
• 3:05
  And, I definitely gained some really cool stuff.
• 3:07
  I actually just worked with and filled in with, Keith Anderson.
• 3:11
  He's a number one hitmaker with Pick n Wildflowers and I think double XL as well.
• 3:16
  We kinda ended up meeting Toby Keith's basis and just just it kept going.
• 3:21
  So, some of these guys I talked to on a daily basis.
• 3:25
  Couple couple of Terry Clark's lead guitar player, worked with him as well.
• 3:29
  So, just this whole broad of networking has opened up so much, and those professional
• 3:36
  videos that I do with my team have opened up a lot of those gigs.
• 3:40
  So, yeah, that's kinda where I come from.
• 3:43
  Yeah.
• 3:43
  Well and you you're touching on so many great things in there.
• 3:47
  One, that this business is all who you know.
• 3:51
  Right.
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  It's not how good you are at your instrument.
• 3:53
  Yes.
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  You have to be some modicum of of a talent.
• 3:56
  Right?
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  But it's all about who you know that can get you into the gigs or the job or whatever it is.
• 4:02
  Secondly, how how much different it is for someone who is a player as opposed to an
• 4:08
  artist.
• 4:09
  Right?
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  Like, I I am a songwriter, so I've always been at the front of that stage.
• 4:13
  I have plenty of material of me out there playing and singing, but it's not common, I
• 4:19
  would say, for most drummer, bass player, guitar players that do that exclusively and
• 4:24
  aren't their own, you know, kind of front of the thing to have audition tapes.
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  And Right.
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  I know we're not calling them.
• 4:32
  You're calling them drum cover videos, but they are they are an audition tape.
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  You are showing what you can do for the world, and then that content is going out there.
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  And, yes, some of them can become a a viral or or to help in that, but it proves not just who
• 4:47
  you are, because I think people can get a a sense of that just by talking to you, but
• 4:51
  really what you can do behind the kit.
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  That's I loved what I was hearing from you when we spoke on the phone just a few weeks ago
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  because I don't think a lot of, you know, just drummers and players are thinking about any of
• 5:05
  this stuff.
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  And what what can they have if they're not writing their own music to really showcase
• 5:11
  their talents?
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  And what you're doing with Greg, great guy.
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  We were actually up against Greg, I do believe, for the content creator of the year that we
• 5:21
  ended up taking home this year, but it could have been anybody.
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  I Bo was also nominated as well, so I love I love these gentlemen.
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  I I love what they've done for the Midwest Country Music Organization and for artists
• 5:31
  throughout our region.
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  Right?
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  I mean, I was up close to your area.
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  I was in Saint Cloud a couple of times actually this year for other purposes.
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  I was there to watch some, you know, like, middle school, high school football camps, but
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  I have a deep connection now with the Minnesota music scene.
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  And to see people like yourself that have gone out and have kind of, you know, gotten close to
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  the sun, right, have gotten close to that industry and and now bringing some of that
• 6:01
  knowledge you have back with you is so important.
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  Because I think what happens to a lot of people that end up in Nashville is that they go there
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  with the dream, they stay there too long, they get burnt out, and they come home pretty much
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  with the, yeah.
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  You don't wanna do any of that.
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  And and you're almost kind of poo pooing it.
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  Right?
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  And not I mean, I'm not a big Nashville guy.
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  Right?
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  I'm almost 40.
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  I'm not I'm not landing in Nashville and making anything happen for myself.
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  And I don't have a quarter million dollars to invest in my artist to really make that upper
• 6:34
  echelon.
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  Right?
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  Sure.
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  You could probably attest to that that it's not necessarily about who you know in Nashville
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  anymore.
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  It's how much money you got.
• 6:45
  Yeah.
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  I mean, I guess what I've what I've really learned is, you know, you don't have to be in
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  Nashville to make it.
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  But at the end of the day, what I've gathered is, yes, the the the the financials definitely
• 6:59
  help out a lot, obviously, when when you wanna make, you know, an album or an EP or a song or
• 7:06
  anything like that.
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  I mean, I I definitely understand the the finance aspect of it.
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  Obviously, it's it's pretty expensive to live in Nashville, and I've seen, enough to
• 7:17
  understand that.
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  Now on the flip side, however, networking is definitely huge, though, in Nashville.
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  And what I mean by that or even just even, like, the music industry in general, to make
• 7:29
  anything really possible.
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  You know?
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  It's just it's networking.
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  I mean, it just anything can happen, whether drummer is sick or his wife has to work late or
• 7:39
  whatever the case is.
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  You know, lot of it comes back to a oh, wait.
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  I know this guy by the name of Nolan or, you know, or and, you know, how does guitar play?
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  Know very well.
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  It's from Minnesota.
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  You know?
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  I know you guys are going to Minnesota, but, you know, networking also works in multiple
• 7:54
  different ways of even just getting your name out there with other people, that know of you
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  and have seen your videos and say, oh, man.
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  He seems like a cool guy.
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  I should, you know, reach out to him.
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  You know?
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  Maybe ask if he wants to, you know, fill in the shoulder of the cases.
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  So I think networking is definitely huge, but, yes.
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  I mean, I guess, financially, yes, it it it definitely plays its part in the puzzle.
• 8:18
  But I'd say the biggest thing would be networking, and being able to be a good vibe, a
• 8:22
  good hang understanding, but, yeah, also being able to play, well, you know.
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  So
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  Well and and I it seems like you've definitely taken full advantage of not just in person
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  networking, but social networking as well.
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  And that's what really great content can do for you as well.
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  Right?
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  It's not just being present on some of these platforms, but to be sharing some really cool
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  stuff of you playing and doing those things is so important.
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  I think in most people's heads, when you see a band out there playing, you know, like a Brooks
• 8:55
  and Dunn, and maybe they're a bad example because some of these guys have probably been
• 8:58
  with them for twenty years, but maybe a Jason Aldine or they're they're playing with
• 9:03
  different people.
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  Right?
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  They're playing with, you know, road musicians, and the band can look totally different because
• 9:09
  when you're a star, nobody's there necessarily to see the band.
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  The band has to be good and to play your songs well, but nobody's showing up to see the guitar
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  player from Jason Aldine besides maybe his, you know, wife and family.
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  Right?
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  You know?
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  Like
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  Right.
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  So, so it's so important, I think, for young musicians out there to realize that you are a
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  business yourself.
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  It's not all about joining a band.
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  I love that.
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  I you know, bands like, you know, somebody that's, you know, and around and in the
• 9:39
  Northern Minnesota area.
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  You know, a lot of these bands that we're now friends with, like an if nothing else band, who
• 9:47
  are themselves.
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  Right?
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  They are they are a sum of the parts.
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  Right?
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  That's never been a reality for me growing up in rural South Dakota pretty much my entire
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  life.
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  I've had hundreds of bandmates that have cycled through this thing.
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  So I'm always looking to expand my network because I don't travel with my drummer I play
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  with in South Dakota when I come to Minnesota.
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  Right?
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  Because that's another mouth to feed, and I would much rather network my way into those
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  positions knowing a Nolan Schmidt is just a phone call away.
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  And, hey, buddy.
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  I got three dates up there this weekend.
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  Are you available?
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  If not, you're moving down the list.
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  Gary Spencer.
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  Gary's played some shows with me up there.
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  I know you guys are working together on some stuff now as well and doing some more, cover.
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  I'm assuming he's getting behind the drums and doing some covers as well then.
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  Correct?
• 10:36
  Yeah.
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  So, I know he plays with Haley James and Travis as well.
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  He kinda
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  plays with and ends on occasion.
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  Exactly.
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  As far as drum covers and stuff, I'm not entirely sure if he's doing what I'm doing
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  necessarily, but I know he's been doing more studioizing stuff and Okay.
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  So he's been working with you on the production side then?
• 11:00
  Yep.
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  Yeah.
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  Definitely.
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  So, as far as, like, the project that, Gary and I are working on, kinda all goes back to, my
• 11:10
  team.
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  So, obviously, I've seen what my team can do, and we keep getting better and better every
• 11:16
  single time.
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  Bo definitely comes up with some really good ideas to get, you know, different shot ideas,
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  and, it just keeps getting better and better by every video.
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  Going back to the networking portion, I know Gary and I have spoke on Facebook a few times,
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  but we've never met.
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  We've never met in person, never talked to each other like this.
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  But it was kinda one of those things where I've always seen them filling with filling in with
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  other people and always seen him with Hailey and Travis.
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  And I've always questioned, you know, who is this guy?
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  What is this guy kind of thing?
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  Obviously, learning about, you know, Gary over the years.
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  The particular, project that I'm looking to do is, it's two drummers taking in, a bunch of
• 12:05
  songs, whether if it's fifteen to twenty five seconds per song and we mulled them all
• 12:10
  together all in one giant song.
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  Right?
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  Where I got the idea from, going back to my younger earlier days of drumming, there was a
• 12:18
  drum, cover guy that I always used to follow.
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  He did a, video with another drummer with one giant, six minute song.
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  And just the way they evened out, and it didn't make it look like a drum battle.
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  They they collaborated in such a way.
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  I always told myself, if I can find a team and then another drummer that can play, let's do
• 12:39
  it.
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  And, honestly and that's where Gary comes in.
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  You know?
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  He's he's a phenomenal drummer, great guy for what I've seen.
• 12:46
  And, after talking to him on FaceTime for the first time last couple weeks ago, great guy.
• 12:52
  I actually introduced the project to, to Greg first just to see if it's even an option.
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  Greg is fully on board.
• 12:59
  I brought it up to Bull and then split little studios with, Doug.
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  They're all on board.
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  It's definitely a huge project.
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  It's definitely bigger than what my team has ever done.
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  But I said, hey.
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  You know what?
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  I know this team's, good and able to do it.
• 13:13
  Let's let's let's hammer it out.
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  So, no.
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  I definitely threw it across the table at Gary and said, let's let's make some magic while
• 13:21
  brainstorming.
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  Because, obviously, when you have that big of a project, your your brain starts to kinda spin
• 13:27
  off and starts to go into multiple different you know, what if we did this?
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  What if we did that?
• 13:30
  What if we did this?
• 13:31
  You know?
• 13:33
  Where it all comes back to now the Midwest CMO.
• 13:37
  So I became a member with them actually with probably a couple months ago in July for the
• 13:41
  first time.
• 13:43
  Greg and Boer enough to jump in that and be a part of the organization.
• 13:49
  I said, sure.
• 13:50
  And that's what that's when I ended up meeting, one of the chairman, I believe, that was or is
• 13:58
  with, the CMO.
• 14:00
  I think her name is Jeanette, I believe.
• 14:04
  And she had nothing but great things to say about it.
• 14:07
  So I said, sure.
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  You know, I'll jump in with it.
• 14:09
  But going back to thinking of a bunch of different ideas with this project.
• 14:15
  Now going back to networking, I was thinking, a lot of people from the Midwest CMO aren't
• 14:21
  really collaborating much that I've noticing.
• 14:24
  So I'm thinking, okay.
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  What can I do to bring everybody all in?
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  Because as a musician, we are all one giant family.
• 14:32
  Right?
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  We may sing different genres.
• 14:36
  We may play different instruments, whatever.
• 14:38
  But at the end the day, we're all trying to get to the same finish line.
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  And my biggest thing is I think networking and collaborating are huge, and nobody's doing that
• 14:50
  in the Midwest area.
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  And so I figured, hey.
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  Why not throw a post out there asking for other musicians to take one of their best songs, send
• 15:01
  it to Gary and I and my team so we can take a look at it and try to take in fifteen to thirty
• 15:06
  seconds of each of those songs and pile it into one big deal.
• 15:10
  That way, one, everybody is winning.
• 15:12
  Right?
• 15:13
  Both drummers are winning because they're getting their names out there.
• 15:16
  The producers, the engineers, the videographers, they're winning because they're
• 15:20
  getting their shots out there.
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  And, also, everybody from the Midwest CMO that participated in the project is also winning
• 15:26
  because they're also getting their song out there.
• 15:28
  So to me, it's it's one giant win for a giant family at the end of the day.
• 15:35
  Yeah.
• 15:35
  That's huge.
• 15:36
  So this is the first time that I've actually had you say exactly what it all is.
• 15:41
  I had kinda put together that's that's what you were after, but this is the first time I've
• 15:44
  heard it verbalized and just I think my head exploded.
• 15:47
  Yeah.
• 15:48
  It's brilliant, and it will definitely be nominated for collaboration of the year, and
• 15:52
  it's gonna be hard for it not to be the winner because you're just able to involve so many
• 15:57
  people with this.
• 15:58
  I will definitely be sending you songs.
• 16:00
  I know I will be recommending it to all of our Midwest CMO listeners and all of our members,
• 16:06
  our friends, our family that that would be absolutely thrilled with this.
• 16:11
  So kudos to you for a great idea.
• 16:13
  Thank Bringing it all together, networking with the guys, and bring I mean, you got a super
• 16:17
  team.
• 16:18
  I mean, the team is incredible.
• 16:19
  That's the first thing that kind of attracted me.
• 16:21
  I was like, oh, he's working with he's working with all the guys.
• 16:24
  You know?
• 16:24
  And I've worked with all of these gentlemen in one way or another in the last year.
• 16:30
  I've only been a member since February 2024.
• 16:33
  So relatively new to the organization as well, but have definitely seen its capacity for
• 16:40
  advancing someone's career in the Midwest where it can feel a lot of times like you're just
• 16:44
  spinning your wheels out here and things aren't going anywhere.
• 16:47
  Personally, now having won an award and seeing, how well High on Bubba starts, have an award
• 16:52
  winning podcast, is it opening doors for me?
• 16:55
  I I realized really what this organization, can be.
• 16:59
  And for a mere $50 a month, I don't know how any or $50 a year.
• 17:03
  Sorry.
• 17:04
  Okay.
• 17:05
  That that are we don't have more members.
• 17:07
  But it's just getting stuff like this out there so people can see what it really does, because
• 17:11
  that's kind of the big question.
• 17:12
  And beyond the syndicated radio show that goes out there that you have access to maybe get
• 17:16
  your songs out, it's about the community that we are.
• 17:20
  It's about the members that are already here that are investing of themselves into the org
• 17:25
  as well.
• 17:26
  You know, I've kind of built out some of my own stuff because I have people that are outside of
• 17:29
  country music.
• 17:31
  Not that the CMO wouldn't accept a rock or bands like that.
• 17:34
  Their radio show isn't for that.
• 17:36
  So we're trying to open up and build even more relationships with people that are, you know,
• 17:41
  in rock, in hip hop, in in EDM, and in any kind of music.
• 17:46
  You know what?
• 17:46
  I don't even care if you're making AI music.
• 17:48
  If you're expressing yourself if you're expressing yourself in this day and age and
• 17:53
  you're able to get your thoughts and feelings out there to the world because nobody's making
• 17:57
  any money.
• 17:58
  You know?
• 17:58
  It's not like somebody coming along with an AI song is taking money away from me.
• 18:03
  I'm not making any money anyway from streaming or from anything else.
• 18:07
  And if you do crack it with an AI, kudos to you.
• 18:10
  You probably did something really awesome on the marketing side of that that made that a
• 18:15
  success, not because the song was better or worse than anything.
• 18:19
  I don't necessarily think that that's what, we're here to do anyway.
• 18:23
  We're here to be creative.
• 18:24
  We're here to express ourselves, and we're here to, connect with other creative people.
• 18:29
  And, Nolan, you are epitomizing all of those things with this one small little project.
• 18:37
  Right?
• 18:37
  A six minute video that you and Gary, hopefully will be, shooting.
• 18:42
  Oh, you said October, you're kinda trying setting as a filming date?
• 18:45
  Yeah.
• 18:46
  So we're with with with a project this big, it definitely takes a lot of prepping.
• 18:51
  You know?
• 18:52
  Well, you and Gary are gonna have to learn a bunch of songs.
• 18:55
  If you're only doing twenty seconds of each one, it's a lot of songs to fill up six
• 18:59
  minutes.
• 19:00
  It is.
• 19:00
  So we've we've definitely got some ideas, kinda rolling through the brain.
• 19:06
  The the idea is to probably shoot somewhere at the September, October, somewhere in that
• 19:15
  general region.
• 19:17
  There's there's definitely a lot of homework yet to be done, and we're we're, you know,
• 19:21
  working with as as a team, FaceTiming, Zoom timing, whatever it is, Zoom meetings, just
• 19:28
  kinda working over some ideas and connecting with some of the other people that have,
• 19:33
  particular locations and particular materials and stuff like that just to make it all happen.
• 19:38
  And, like, it's something this big of a project takes a lot of prepping with this many people
• 19:45
  in it.
• 19:46
  And, yeah, at at at the end of the day, I just want everybody to win at the end of the day.
• 19:51
  You know?
• 19:51
  I'm not I'm not in it for myself because, like I said, we're all one giant family.
• 19:54
  And my biggest thing is if if if you're gonna make it in the music world, you're you're
• 20:01
  you're better off collaborating and networking because it takes a team to do something, huge,
• 20:06
  you know, or if it's making an EP, making an album, booking a show, setting up for a show,
• 20:12
  playing a show.
• 20:13
  I mean, you you you you definitely need a team to be grateful at it.
• 20:18
  Yeah.
• 20:19
  Not just the behind the scenes team, but also a team of artists and and stars.
• 20:24
  Right?
• 20:24
  Collaborating between the stars, a big one we just saw coming out soon.
• 20:29
  Our friend our good friend Christine Pasig and Lee Klett got together and did a duet.
• 20:35
  So really cool to see more of this.
• 20:38
  And, Nolan, how can our Midwest CMO members, how can they submit a song for you guys to
• 20:43
  review and maybe be part of this amazing project?
• 20:46
  Yeah.
• 20:46
  So if you go to the, Midwest CMO organization page, there's actually gonna be a post in
• 20:52
  there.
• 20:53
  You'll see, it's like a post and it has two drummers on.
• 20:56
  It'll say, send your your video or your song in and, kind of thing.
• 21:00
  And, yeah, if you wanna post it in the comments or if you wanna direct, DM me directly through
• 21:06
  Facebook Messenger, Instagram, whatever the case is, my my team and myself would be happy
• 21:11
  to take a look at that song and, try to fit it in there the best way we can.
• 21:16
  Incredible stuff, Nolan.
• 21:18
  Where can people find you as well and connect with you and see some of the drum cover videos
• 21:24
  that you've already done.
• 21:25
  Yeah.
• 21:26
  So I, on Facebook, obviously, and then Instagram as well.
• 21:30
  My Instagram, I believe, is gonna be nolan dot schmidt.
• 21:34
  I think it's nolan underscore schmidt twenty eight, I believe.
• 21:37
  Otherwise, it's linked in the bio and my Facebook as well.
• 21:40
  Facebook, you can find me at Nolan Schmidt, proper spelling, n o l a n, and then Schmidt
• 21:44
  like Schmidt beer.
• 21:45
  So it's pretty standard.
• 21:48
  I love a good beer reference on this show.
• 21:51
  Nolan, absolutely appreciate what you guys are doing.
• 21:54
  I hope that one of my songs, can can float its way into this drum cover video because I really
• 22:00
  wanna be a part of it myself.
• 22:02
  Regardless, I'm gonna be sharing it everywhere that I can, and, we're gonna turn this episode
• 22:08
  right around and get it out as soon as possible so that our, our family out there can, get
• 22:12
  involved and really know what's going on with this.
• 22:15
  Nolan, thank you so much for being part of the scene.
• 22:17
  No problem.
• 22:18
  Thanks for the invite.