Latest / The Scene Projects / Exploring Rock Tours, New Music, and Independent Artistry with Clayton Ryan and Zander
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome into another exciting episode of the scene.
- 0:03I'm your host Bubba Starts, and with me today is Clayton Ryan and Xander from the Clayton
- 0:07Ryan Band, boys.
- 0:09You're in Sioux Falls.
- 0:10And I'm not being held here against my will.
- 0:12Yeah.
- 0:13Not like the last time,
- 0:17No.
- 0:17It's good to be back in South Dakota.
- 0:19Yeah.
- 0:19It's good to see you in South Dakota, man.
- 0:22You guys have been doing a lot of work on the road.
- 0:24Obviously, you're up in the cities playing everywhere.
- 0:27But you're on the road now with Liam St.
- 0:29John and, just kicking this one off.
- 0:31How many dates on this tour?
- 0:33Just three.
- 0:33I guess you could count it was four, but we played Wednesday night back at home in
- 0:37Minneapolis.
- 0:37And then we're just going in for three dates.
- 0:40And then, everyone goes about their ways doing their own stuff, but it's gonna be fun.
- 0:43It's a good old Minnesota or a Midwestern trifecta.
- 0:46Got South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin.
- 0:49There you go.
- 0:50Three days.
- 0:50So you
- 0:51guys got a little bit of traveling to do tomorrow then?
- 0:53Overnight tonight?
- 0:54No.
- 0:54Actually, we're going home tonight.
- 0:56Okay.
- 0:56Because everyone's got
- 0:57a red bag.
- 0:58Everyone has responsibilities, back at home.
- 1:01We You might get
- 1:02around, what, 4AM or something like that, sit in our own beds
- 1:05and just
- 1:05hang out?
- 1:06Yeah.
- 1:06That'll be good.
- 1:07Get home early and then, just hang out until the show, take it easy pace.
- 1:12And then actually tomorrow night's night, we all get to hang out.
- 1:15Actually, you know, hang out with William and his band and then show them a little bit of the
- 1:19Minneapolis Saint Paul.
- 1:22And then we got a drive back too from Wisconsin on Monday, so that'll be
- 1:28Yeah.
- 1:28Metro Basis has a 7AM flight, so we have we have to leave right
- 1:32away.
- 1:32Nice.
- 1:32Yeah.
- 1:33Nice.
- 1:34Yeah.
- 1:34Everybody looks at us like, man, you guys get to live that sweet rock life.
- 1:38You're like, yeah.
- 1:38Awesome.
- 1:39A lot of windshield time, a lot of nothing on top of nothing driving through the cornfields,
- 1:44and now all the corn's gone too.
- 1:46It's harvest season.
- 1:47Yeah.
- 1:48You smelled it on the way here.
- 1:49That's for sure.
- 1:50The corn's gone.
- 1:51It's like, what do we have to look at anymore?
- 1:54Crap.
- 1:54Not much.
- 1:55So what's been new, man?
- 1:57We just finished the summer.
- 1:58You guys had a busy one.
- 1:59I know you've been all over the place.
- 2:01New music.
- 2:02I saw you just got a new song out with Molly Brandt.
- 2:04Sounds incredible.
- 2:06Clayton, congratulations on that.
- 2:08But, yeah, what what's been happening, man?
- 2:10It's been a while since we got to chat with you.
- 2:12Brother, are just running around doing the thing as we always have been.
- 2:15It's just a matter of keep presenting a better product every time.
- 2:19And then I've actually I'm on less social medias than I was the last time we talked.
- 2:24I've successfully removed almost all my music from Spotify.
- 2:27I had a crash out the other night on TikTok, and I think I'm done with it.
- 2:30You know, I just I'm realizing that everyone is always saying you gotta do this and this and
- 2:36that.
- 2:36Make it keep your videos going.
- 2:37And I I don't know if anyone has ever stopped to think like do I?
- 2:40Do I have to do this?
- 2:41Right.
- 2:42And I'm starting to think that maybe the answer is no.
- 2:44At least not in the capacity I've been working on it.
- 2:46Right.
- 2:47That's a big experiment.
- 2:48We only have so much time.
- 2:49Right?
- 2:49And I think your time is better spent writing new music and, know, performing or in the
- 2:54recording studio.
- 2:56But all of that gets expensive too.
- 2:58But at the expense of what?
- 3:00Right?
- 3:00All the social media time at the expense of your sanity isn't doing anyone any good.
- 3:04Yep.
- 3:04And is it really advancing your career?
- 3:06Right?
- 3:06Especially, you know, I I appreciate one of the videos you made.
- 3:10You were on the road for a bit thinking too much and you stopped to at some gas station or
- 3:15somewhere along the way and it was really the big the break from Spotify.
- 3:18And I've been saying it for a long time now to a lot of our artists and I say it on the
- 3:21podcast quite a bit where it's like, man, these companies ain't doing nothing for you.
- 3:24You're spending all your time driving people to this Spotify list.
- 3:27It's never gonna make you a single freaking penny.
- 3:29There's better ways to spend your time doing something productive for yourself.
- 3:34Yeah.
- 3:34Well, I mean, even just
- 3:36not having to look at that number every morning and wonder, gee, I wonder if could get that
- 3:40number 10 people higher or even I don't know.
- 3:43Yeah.
- 3:43I won't be peddling the the pre save link in the bio anymore.
- 3:47And honestly too, I'm starting to think that maybe there's a tact to it.
- 3:51Like, I don't I don't need a million people to like me, but I need like 200 that'll show up to
- 3:59shows and check-in on me and treat me like an actual person and not just like a hot
- 4:04commodity, which I've never been one by the way.
- 4:06Never never there's never been a viral commodity status yet.
- 4:10So I'm not saying like I'm too good or nothing, but literally, I don't know.
- 4:14If you make people it's like when my mom would make dinner and if we had one thing to eat at
- 4:19night, I love that salmon or whatever she cooked.
- 4:24But if you give people a whole buffet, they eat till their stomachs are hurt.
- 4:27I'd rather just try and give people a nice steak every single time.
- 4:30And they might have to save up for it, or they might have to find it, the best place to get
- 4:34it.
- 4:35I'm tired of the buffet that is just endless exposure to me and my endless exposure to the
- 4:42Internet.
- 4:43And it's just it's making my stomach full.
- 4:45Yeah.
- 4:46It's time to start eating lean and healthy.
- 4:49I think that's the the method going forward.
- 4:52It'll take me twice as long, three times as long.
- 4:54It might not ever happen for me because of this method.
- 4:56But I don't if you can't tell, I don't care anymore.
- 4:59I'm weird.
- 5:00I make a living for your sanity.
- 5:02I make a living doing this and it's on my terms and I'm I hope that people we can look back at
- 5:07this one day and people will be like, wow.
- 5:09I could have done that too or I'm glad that I listened to him and did it too.
- 5:12Or I can look back at it day and like, God, I was so wrong.
- 5:15I was so wrong.
- 5:16Should have kept doing my lip syncing videos, I should have kept asking people to presave the
- 5:21link in the bio.
- 5:22I'm sure that life would be a whole lot better had I done that.
- 5:25Well, you know what?
- 5:26I made an album with some good friends of ours.
- 5:29Tom Freer, obviously, one half of the Cottonwood Boys.
- 5:32And we we worked with Tom, Diame Giroux, incredible musician, Johnny Hastings who just
- 5:37won the regional song competition at the Wild West Songwriters festival.
- 5:41So I got to work with some of my favorite musicians in the world.
- 5:44And instead of playing the game, I said, screw it.
- 5:46I have a website.
- 5:47I know how to make this a product on my website.
- 5:49I'm going to put it out there.
- 5:51I had three people buy the record in the first day.
- 5:53I was like, that's more money than I've ever made Spotify.
- 5:55And not that I pushed it as hard as you do.
- 5:56I had a few singles that came out, but then the podcast started kinda taking over.
- 6:00But even with the podcast, I mean, I got 300 episodes out.
- 6:02Right?
- 6:03I'm not doing it for the likes and the things in the follows.
- 6:05Right?
- 6:05I mean, we have over a quarter million views on the YouTube now, but that's because we just
- 6:10flood the content.
- 6:11Right?
- 6:11I don't care who's watching.
- 6:13Right?
- 6:13It's about this.
- 6:14It's about connecting with other musicians and connecting with people.
- 6:17And I I feel like that's where that's where you're getting to.
- 6:21Right?
- 6:21You've played the game.
- 6:23You realize you were never going to win that game.
- 6:25And even when you won, somebody was gonna be there to take it from you at a moment's notice.
- 6:29I don't know if you had any situation where some of your songs got pulled down off of
- 6:33there, but I know several friends that are dealing with that now.
- 6:35They've invested all this time into building this listener base, and then their music's
- 6:38getting taken out off the platform anyway.
- 6:40I mean, how freaking heartfaking would that be?
- 6:42Yeah.
- 6:43Or they're paying fines for all the bot listens, is out of their control.
- 6:45Right.
- 6:46Right.
- 6:46So why play the game at at that point.
- 6:49Right?
- 6:49And and I think pulling away from it like you did, it gave me a lot more confidence to tell
- 6:53everyone else.
- 6:53Hey.
- 6:54Look.
- 6:54If one of the best musicians that I know is pulling the shit off, maybe you should follow
- 6:58suit.
- 6:58Right?
- 6:59And I know some people that make a little bit of money off of it.
- 7:01Maybe they're making enough of it to pay their rent every month.
- 7:03And if you are, God bless you.
- 7:05You're right.
- 7:05Like, you're you're doing well, and and you've, you know, you found something that a lot of us
- 7:11are never going to.
- 7:12Right?
- 7:12But I think there's another way.
- 7:14You know, I followed guys like Indipreneur and Rick Barker that have all been a direct to fan
- 7:18method from the get go.
- 7:20So what we're trying to teach people with the Midwest Original Music Organization and what
- 7:23we're doing is like, hey.
- 7:25There's a different way.
- 7:26You can get out.
- 7:26You can just play your shows.
- 7:27You can connect with those people.
- 7:29It's all about connecting and having some, attachment to those people from there and then
- 7:33just selling them your products individually.
- 7:35Right?
- 7:35And granted digital or, you know, physical album sales aren't what they used to be.
- 7:40They're never going to get back to where they used to be.
- 7:42I have a I have a How they will.
- 7:43Ghost town vinyl in my They will.
- 7:45I don't listen to it.
- 7:46Right?
- 7:46That's not how I consume it.
- 7:47Trust will go back.
- 7:49The internet's
- 7:49about to be an unusable feature,
- 7:53man.
- 7:53I don't know you've seen the rapid a like generation oldest Yep.
- 7:58And I won't get into it because Alec knows.
- 7:59I'll just Yep.
- 8:00Will and then I'll
- 8:01I'll say wrap it up guys for going home.
- 8:03But I think I think the Internet has become so absolutely unusable.
- 8:08You won't be able to trust a single thing and it's already kind
- 8:10of there.
- 8:11Right.
- 8:11And it's
- 8:11not like in a gear like that.
- 8:13It'll be so untrust worthy, unusable that people will have to we're gonna go to the new
- 8:19internet which is just outside and like Right.
- 8:22It was just real music again.
- 8:23Right?
- 8:23We're gonna be like,
- 8:24what is this thing called a handshake?
- 8:26Right.
- 8:26And we're heading that direction.
- 8:28And I see a lot of people I talk about AI a lot on the podcast with musicians.
- 8:32And I use it for a lot of my editing and different things like that that we're using it.
- 8:35And I see people that use it for music creation, and and God bless them.
- 8:38A lot of what I see it in is people that are that have written stuff, but they have no idea
- 8:43and don't have the ten years to dedicate to learning an instrument, but they're able to get
- 8:46this out of themselves.
- 8:47And I think that's great because none of us are making any freaking use any money with our
- 8:51music online.
- 8:52God bless you.
- 8:53Put it out there.
- 8:53That's awesome.
- 8:54It's only making what we do even more valuable because once it's full like you're saying,
- 8:59nobody's gonna wanna swim in that pool.
- 9:00It's full of it's full of turds.
- 9:02You know what I mean?
- 9:03Like, it's just
- 9:04who's gonna wanna jump in that pool?
- 9:06Right?
- 9:06So people are gonna wanna come out and see good live music again.
- 9:09And I think it's at that tipping point.
- 9:11Right?
- 9:11So I think you're just ahead of the curve.
- 9:13I think you're where a lot of people are going to be.
- 9:15I'm going down to Nashville next week to cover the Josie Music Awards, and I think I'm gonna
- 9:18hear a lot of the same stuff from them too.
- 9:20It's the same thing where it's like, hey.
- 9:22We're pulling away from that.
- 9:24It's all about the live stuff again.
- 9:25It's about the songwriters.
- 9:26It it's about, you know, stuff like you're doing, Xander.
- 9:29Talk a little bit about what you've got.
- 9:30I know you have a weekly at Greenway that you're doing now, and you guys were just
- 9:33playing there yesterday, a really cool studio effect.
- 9:35Like, talk about the vibe that you're building in in the Greenway studio.
- 9:39Studio.
- 9:39Absolutely.
- 9:40Yeah.
- 9:40The first Wednesdays of the month over at Greenway Recording in Northeast Minneapolis.
- 9:44I just host a little song right around.
- 9:46So it's it's essentially four local artists coming together to play three songs, talk about
- 9:50the stories and the muse and whatever they wanna talk about regarding the song.
- 9:54And it is 100% acoustic.
- 9:56Like, we have microphones and cameras set up, but it's just for the recording purposes to
- 10:00capture the moment.
- 10:02Otherwise, all the artists get to, like, sing to the room.
- 10:05So the twenty, twenty five people in the room get to hear the most raw, intimate version of
- 10:09this song, which is super cool.
- 10:11It's been a great way like, I always tell people like, maybe maybe you hear a song on the
- 10:15radio that reminds you of your grandma, and then you come to find out later that that song
- 10:20was written for their long lost dog or something like that.
- 10:23And that's kind of the beauty behind songwriting is like what that song means to me,
- 10:27what the lyrics mean to me might mean something completely different to somebody else.
- 10:31And so these songwriter rounds are a perfect way to hear about the story from the artists
- 10:35themselves.
- 10:36Talk about the song, talk about the muse behind it.
- 10:38And what I've noticed is like it shows this cool connection, not only from the community to
- 10:43the musicians and having this little thing go on, but also people who have heard these songs
- 10:48before are like, oh, I've always really enjoyed that song that you wrote Bubba, but now I get
- 10:53this like intimate like connection to that song because I get to hear it straight from you,
- 10:58straight from your mouth and what the song means to you.
- 11:01It kinda gives like the song a different kind of feeling, a different meaning, and all that
- 11:06jazz.
- 11:07So just been trying to cultivate that a little bit.
- 11:09I love it.
- 11:10So you you said you had cameras and stuff set up.
- 11:12Are you streaming it?
- 11:12Are are you broadcasting it somewhere?
- 11:14Where where is it?
- 11:15Yeah.
- 11:15On Greenway Recordings Twitch account.
- 11:17We're streaming it live on
- 11:18Twitch whenever whenever it it happens. Happens.
- 11:19Happens.
- 11:20Yeah.
- 11:20Yeah.
- 11:20Sweet.
- 11:20Are they capturing those recordings as well so you have them after the fact?
- 11:23Awesome.
- 11:23I mean, that's how that's what I did all weekend when I was at the Wild West Summers,
- 11:27but I had two rounds both days.
- 11:29So I'm like, well, I'm sending my freaking cameras, man.
- 11:31I'm playing with some of my favorites.
- 11:32Right?
- 11:32I'm playing with Andrew Jan and Nevada Ellison, and I'm like, I'm not wasting this opportunity.
- 11:36Bobby Joe Cool, a good friend of ours, Laura Mills, who is incredible.
- 11:40Like, I'm not wasting an opportunity.
- 11:42Sure.
- 11:42It's fun.
- 11:42I get to capture myself, I think that's what most people think.
- 11:44They're like, oh, yeah.
- 11:45You wanna capture your around like, don't care about my size.
- 11:48Right?
- 11:48Like, I care about all these people that I can sit with and the stories from them.
- 11:52I love that you guys are doing that.
- 11:53It's right in line with what we're doing.
- 11:54And now we're very fortunate that we have a a connection to Roku channels and some of the
- 11:58fast streaming networks that we're putting our songwriter showcase, what I call our premium
- 12:02content.
- 12:02We're taking it straight to Roku.
- 12:04Right?
- 12:04So like we've taken it from YouTube and and, you know, a small podcast.
- 12:08And now we are on fucking TV.
- 12:10Right?
- 12:10And people still need to download the app and to do that.
- 12:12But I'd much rather drive that than driving Spotify to push.
- 12:15Right?
- 12:15Like driving people that come see something real.
- 12:17I love the acoustic nature of what you guys are doing too.
- 12:20The the not plugged in nature of it.
- 12:21I know you guys were plugged in for your set yesterday.
- 12:24Yeah.
- 12:25It was really cool.
- 12:26It would have sounded a lot like this on the stream without Damn.
- 12:30There were some
- 12:30live videos that people got in the room and you just you see me playing guitar but you
- 12:34can't hear anything.
- 12:35Right.
- 12:35The amp's in a different room isolated.
- 12:37The headphones aren't on.
- 12:38That one's pretty funny.
- 12:39It was like those shreds videos on YouTube where it's just like where they put the sound
- 12:43over a famous video of a famous man.
- 12:44It's just like Yeah.
- 12:49I I I love it though.
- 12:50I I think what you guys have been doing up there is cool.
- 12:52I think it speaks a lot of what we're talking about.
- 12:55Get in the room with these real moments and and to be part of that.
- 12:58Capturing those moments is still important, but it's not for the it's not for the large
- 13:03conglomerates.
- 13:03Right?
- 13:04It's not for the Spotify, and it's not for these other things.
- 13:06It's for our own TV channel.
- 13:07Like, we are the media.
- 13:08Right.
- 13:08We are we are
- 13:10investing in everything.
- 13:11Bring the people to us, like, because that's the best way to connect with these people too.
- 13:14Live and on the the ground grassroots like we're doing right here while we're touring and
- 13:18stuff like that, but also with the Bandcamp.
- 13:20Forcing people to go to Bandcamp, we're just changing the narrative.
- 13:22Like, Spotify doesn't take care of artists at all, why have
- 13:25our music on there?
- 13:26You know?
- 13:26So let's bring them to a place where I mean, Bandcamp literally has an app.
- 13:30It's super easy to use.
- 13:31You can listen to our songs on there or buy it directly and download it straight to your
- 13:34phone.
- 13:35Like Right.
- 13:35It's a great way to support artists.
- 13:37Yeah.
- 13:37I didn't know how to download more than one file on my phone, so I just made I just cut the
- 13:42album, put all the songs together with a two, three second gap, so you get one file.
- 13:45Nice.
- 13:45Right?
- 13:46You get a twenty two minute album, right, or EP or whatever you wanna call it.
- 13:49So your download is like, here, listen to the whole thing but you're supporting me directly.
- 13:53I don't
- 13:53have to cut anybody into that.
- 13:55Right?
- 13:55And it was just an interesting way.
- 13:57I just had those things.
- 13:58Right?
- 13:58So why not use what you have instead of worrying about that.
- 14:00I'll probably put it on the Bandcamp.
- 14:02I have it going out on the streaming and stuff too but I'm not gonna waste any time marketing
- 14:06today.
- 14:06Right?
- 14:06Like, I couldn't get it from Spotify without putting it out in other places, and I do want
- 14:10people to be able to hear it and to go out.
- 14:12And I've had some friends that have made, you know, at some point.
- 14:15So like, hey,
- 14:16people are gonna find
- 14:17you where they find you.
- 14:18So at least give them the when when
- 14:22you have that product and you have the where
- 14:23we call to make it happen, you you just have to go and do it.
- 14:26I can't let you go without talking about Wildman TV.
- 14:31You know what?
- 14:32Here's what I'm gonna say it.
- 14:34Go watch it if you wanna know what it is.
- 14:36It's a
- 14:36reality show.
- 14:37It's free.
- 14:38It's a free TV show on YouTube about what it's like to actually be in a band.
- 14:42Not all the fake stuff like this.
- 14:43You've seen this CBS show coming up called The Road where it's
- 14:46like place.
- 14:4810 hopeful 10 hopeful musicians
- 14:50competing like they're on a tour bus.
- 14:52Yeah.
- 14:53Do mean hopeful?
- 14:54They've made it.
- 14:55They're hanging out with Blake Shelton.
- 14:56Yeah.
- 14:57Literally on a bus and all of them have like thousand like ten, thirty thousand followers.
- 15:02Like, those are not people trying to make it.
- 15:05Those are
- 15:05people like Right.
- 15:06Those are people like on The Voice Room.
- 15:08We are the real the road.
- 15:10Without Blake Shelton or Keith Urban
- 15:13and without sold out Shelton.
- 15:14So go check that out.
- 15:15It's way more fun.
- 15:16Well, that's what this is.
- 15:17Right?
- 15:18It is this.
- 15:19We'll capture a little bit of footage I
- 15:20saw that.
- 15:21Got so mad.
- 15:22We've been doing this already.
- 15:24What do you mean you made a new thing?
- 15:26We'll go
- 15:26with the wild man.
- 15:27Clayton Wright.
- 15:28Yeah.
- 15:28Search bar.
- 15:29I think too.
- 15:30Yeah.
- 15:30Check check it out on YouTube, guys.
- 15:32I'm a huge fan.
- 15:33I'm always tuning into it.
- 15:34I'm always sharing it when I see it as well and getting people out there.
- 15:38And and that's really what the scene projects has always been about.
- 15:40It is supporting people that are already out there creating and to to promote that stuff.
- 15:45And right.
- 15:46Is it gonna take us twice as long to get there?
- 15:48It's already taking me twice as long.
- 15:49Yeah, dude.
- 15:50I'm almost 40 now, boys.
- 15:51Like, I've been at this a long time.
- 15:53Just now hitting my stride.
- 15:5562.
- 15:5662.
- 15:58two.
- 16:01Boys, I hear a warm and off.
- 16:02We're gonna get your sound checked.
- 16:03We're looking forward to a great show here tonight.
- 16:05I appreciate you guys.
- 16:06Thank you for being on the show, man.
- 16:08It was a blast time.
- 16:09That's Clayton Ryan Zander.
- 16:10Check them out on the road with the wild man on YouTube.
- 16:14Zander's got some great stuff going on at Greenway Recording.
- 16:17First Wednesday,
- 16:18you said?
- 16:19First Wednesdays of the month.
- 16:20First Wednesdays of the month.
- 16:21So awesome stuff, man.
- 16:23We'll see you guys next
- 16:24time on the scene projects.