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The Architect of Sound: How Brent Look Designs Musical Experiences · The iDesign Lab Podcast

0:00
Voice Over: This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design.
0:05
Voice Over: Curator of interiors, furnishings and lifestyles.
0:09
Voice Over: Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott, idesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends.
0:25
Voice Over: Idesign Lab provides industry insight, discussing the latest trends, styles and everything in between to better help you style your life, through advice from trendsetters, designers, influencers, innovators, fabricators and manufacturers, as well as personal stories that inspire, motivate and excite.
0:43
Voice Over: And join us on this elevated, informative and lively journey into the world of all things design.
0:49
Voice Over: Today, on the iDesign Lab podcast, we welcome Brent Look, a seasoned guitarist with over 35 years in the music industry.
0:57
Voice Over: He's toured with legends, opened for icons like Aerosmith and Journey and taught everyone from rock stars to pro athletes.
1:05
Voice Over: He's a recording artist, producer, engineer and instructor.
1:08
Voice Over: Please welcome Brent Look.
1:10
Tiffany Woolley: Welcome to the iDesign Lab podcast.
1:13
Tiffany Woolley: Today we have Brent Look, who we are fortunate enough to see at least once a week in our world, but who has designed a very exciting life around music.
1:26
Scott Woolley: Yes, yes.
1:28
Tiffany Woolley: And has, you know, quite a career and quite a story to tell.
1:31
Tiffany Woolley: So we welcome you today here.
1:33
Scott Woolley: It's great to be here, and introduce us to you.
1:36
Scott Woolley: So let me just say so.
1:37
Scott Woolley: Brent has been in the music industry for a long time.
1:40
Tiffany Woolley: Okay, I'm jumping in.
1:41
Scott Woolley: A session player.
1:42
Scott Woolley: He's played with so many different great rock and roll bands.
1:46
Scott Woolley: Still does I mean?
1:47
Scott Woolley: We just heard that he played at Mar-a-Lago with Kid Rock.
1:50
Scott Woolley: Is that correct, Kid Rock?
1:51
Brent Look: for Donald Trump.
1:52
Brent Look: I mean, how cool of a gig is that?
1:54
Brent Look: That was a great gig, yeah, and he stood up and gave us a big round of applause.
1:59
Scott Woolley: But you're also a producer, you're a teacher, I mean engineer, a songwriter, and you've worked with so many interesting and fun people over the years.
2:12
Tiffany Woolley: It's safe to say you live, eat and breathe music.
2:14
Tiffany Woolley: I live, eat and breathe.
2:16
Brent Look: In fact, somebody was asking me so what's your hobby?
2:18
Brent Look: Like music, but how do you?
2:22
Tiffany Woolley: design a life around music.
2:24
Scott Woolley: How did you get into music?
2:25
Scott Woolley: How did you first?
2:26
Scott Woolley: Is it the guitar or is it?
2:28
Scott Woolley: Yeah, I first started with guitar because you're an amazing, incredible guitar player as well yes, I thank you, along with just about every other instrument you can think of.
2:37
Brent Look: Yeah, I started on guitar, I started taking lessons and and then I branched out from that and I started doing piano, because once you learn one instrument, to learn the next one is a little easier, because you know how to practice, how to excel.
2:51
Brent Look: What's important, um, don't go down this rabbit hole.
2:55
Brent Look: You'll waste a lot of time right.
2:56
Brent Look: And then I picked up percussion drums and I always sang all along and I took lessons, vocal lessons also but at what point did it kind of like gravitate into a career?
3:11
Brent Look: I knew when I was like oh wow.
3:13
Brent Look: I knew when I was like 13 years old that this was what I was going to do so did you start a band?
3:18
Brent Look: Yes, I made a band we used to practice in my house and drive my family crazy so because we were loud but it was great.
3:26
Brent Look: And then I kept putting bands together.
3:28
Brent Look: Then eventually then we started playing some clubs.
3:32
Brent Look: I found a band that we played clubs the Moods.
3:37
Scott Woolley: Was that in Florida?
3:38
Scott Woolley: Yes, it was in Florida, always in Florida.
3:40
Brent Look: Always in Florida for at least before a national thing happened.
3:44
Brent Look: Florida, always in Florida for at least before a national thing happened.
3:48
Brent Look: So we then I played with the Moods and then we eventually got a deal and we played at the producer for the Eagles studio, bill Simzik, and it was a bass recording studio which is my favorite studio of all time.
4:02
Tiffany Woolley: And where is that?
4:03
Brent Look: That was in Coconut Grove.
4:04
Tiffany Woolley: It's no longer there, the Eagles used to record there.
4:07
Brent Look: Coconut Grove had so many great little plots like that yeah and that was under Sassoon Records and Filmworks, which was a relative of Vidal Sassoon, uh-huh.
4:18
Brent Look: And he used Eric Schilling, the great Eric Schilling, who was our engineer, who ended up engineering a lot of my projects.
4:26
Brent Look: Really, yeah, I did a lot with Eric Eric's great, so he guided us, he did that.
4:32
Brent Look: And then, you know, we had the Moods.
4:35
Brent Look: We opened up for some national acts, the Aerosmith yeah, we opened for Aerosmith, we opened for Journey, and then I got involved in the band after that.
4:47
Brent Look: After that band kind of had its way.
4:50
Brent Look: Everything was great, but there were issues in the band.
4:53
Tiffany Woolley: Personalities.
4:54
Brent Look: So yeah, we did Mood Candy.
4:56
Brent Look: We opened up for some of those other acts that I've done, like the Blue Oyster Cult and Heart Cheap Trick A lot of the 80s, the ones that were big at that time.
5:10
Brent Look: Yeah, those were wonderful days.
5:11
Brent Look: I have to tell you a funny story.
5:14
Brent Look: One of our bass players, the first big gig we ever did, he told me he goes.
5:19
Brent Look: I'm like, wow, this is going to be a lot different than playing at a club, when you open up for a huge act and he goes don't be nervous, you'll be fine, you'll be fine, everything's going to be fine.
5:29
Brent Look: So we start playing, I calm down, you know, and I have contacts, and I have my contacts in, so I couldn't really make out the audience.
5:38
Tiffany Woolley: Oh really.
5:38
Brent Look: It was like a blur.
5:40
Tiffany Woolley: Literally.
5:41
Brent Look: Yeah.
5:41
Brent Look: And then I look over at him and I'm supposed to be nervous, right, and he's standing there like this.
5:46
Brent Look: He was the one that was nervous.
5:49
Brent Look: That's so funny.
5:51
Brent Look: But I played for Giovanni, which is another artist.
6:01
Scott Woolley: Ricky Eric was on Universal Music Group and did some solo work, so you've done this all in South Florida.
6:05
Brent Look: Yes, based in South Florida but going different parts of the country.
6:08
Brent Look: And it was great.
6:11
Scott Woolley: Is there any one memorable tour?
6:15
Brent Look: Anything with Scott Stapp.
6:15
Brent Look: Anything with Scott Stapp was great.
6:20
Voice Over: Creed Creed yes.
6:23
Brent Look: Did some shows as Creed.
6:25
Brent Look: Most of my shows were as Scott Stapp.
6:30
Scott Woolley: Solo, as solo.
6:32
Brent Look: And sometimes they were billed as Creed to create a thing overseas, like in Japan.
6:37
Tiffany Woolley: So you did that.
6:38
Brent Look: Yeah, we did the Japan thing.
6:39
Tiffany Woolley: Amazing, what a fabulous experience.
6:42
Brent Look: Yeah, it was really good, but there's a little sad part of that.
6:45
Brent Look: We were invited through the State Department and we went after the tsunami to go visit with victims' families.
6:55
Tiffany Woolley: Oh, wow.
6:56
Brent Look: And we went to where the main tsunami was, and then we went to the aircraft carrier at George Washington and played for the troops.
7:04
Tiffany Woolley: So you played on the aircraft carrier.
7:05
Tiffany Woolley: Yes, we did.
7:05
Tiffany Woolley: What a memory.
7:07
Brent Look: Yeah.
7:07
Brent Look: What a memory, so many great ones along the way, me and Scott were like shell-shocked when we saw how the tsunami impacted and how it was wiped out it was tough.
7:19
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, I feel like that's something you probably can only see to believe.
7:22
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, you couldn't believe it, Like you have to really see it.
7:24
Brent Look: We went where?
7:25
Brent Look: Because we went through the US government.
7:28
Brent Look: We went where the average civilian was not allowed to go Wow.
7:32
Scott Woolley: So it was pretty incredible.
7:35
Scott Woolley: So some of the perks in going on tour, yeah, yeah, we were so tired.
7:41
Brent Look: I remember doing the set list and me and Scott were sitting in this room going, okay, here's the 13 songs.
7:50
Brent Look: Now on this page there's 14 songs.
7:53
Brent Look: We just put them in order.
7:54
Brent Look: We couldn't figure out what the problem is.
7:56
Brent Look: It's the same songs in a different order.
7:58
Brent Look: We were so tired because of the trip getting there and they moved us pretty quickly and after about five minutes we're like wait, we wrote the same song twice.
8:11
Tiffany Woolley: The things that happen on tour, right that's true.
8:14
Tiffany Woolley: So when did you know that this was going to be your career?
8:19
Brent Look: I actually knew it when I wanted it to be my career when I was 13,.
8:24
Brent Look: I actually knew it when I wanted it to be my career when I was 13.
8:27
Brent Look: But when I was like 16, 17, I wasn't old enough to really be in these clubs, but they used to sneak me in and I'd play for bands that were much older than me and I got that experience.
8:37
Brent Look: And you know, most of my bands were always until big things happened were always much older than me Because I was at that level.
8:47
Tiffany Woolley: And so how would you go about finding these bands if they weren't like your school friends?
8:52
Tiffany Woolley: Usually it seemed like they found me.
8:54
Tiffany Woolley: Okay.
8:55
Brent Look: So it's like I would be at a gig performing and then other people would say you know what?
9:01
Brent Look: Can you come jam with our band?
9:03
Scott Woolley: But most people who are in the music business at an early age, like you're talking about in their teens and so forth, or early 20s, aren't getting work on a regular basis.
9:12
Scott Woolley: So did you have another job or you were completely covering.
9:16
Brent Look: That was my job.
9:17
Brent Look: That was always my job.
9:18
Scott Woolley: You paid all your bills just in music.
9:20
Brent Look: You never had to get that I think I worked at a clothing store for a couple months right, I think it was called county seat, it was oh my god, I remember that place yeah, I think I worked there for a couple months but then, um, because I said I don't have enough steady work, you know, so that was my part-time thing, but things got really steady after that.
9:40
Scott Woolley: It was pretty quick so working with so many different artists and and well-known artists and well-known bands and groups, and touring with them and so forth.
9:48
Scott Woolley: There's been one big change that's happened over the years, from when you started analog to today, digital, digital, and now it's at a level where records are actually coming back, which is great, especially for our kids.
10:01
Tiffany Woolley: That is great.
10:01
Tiffany Woolley: That is wonderful, it is awesome are actually coming back, which is great.
10:02
Tiffany Woolley: Yes, I know it is crazy, right, it is wonderful, it is awesome.
10:04
Scott Woolley: But how is that like?
10:06
Scott Woolley: Has that affected your career?
10:09
Scott Woolley: Oh yeah, Well, actually you know Is it good or better or bad.
10:15
Brent Look: There's two things Now that I'm doing a lot of this stuff, releasing stuff under my own record label, chart Top Records, and my publishing company Addison Holdings Music Publishing.
10:28
Brent Look: The old days, to get anything really big happening, you had to be under a major label.
10:33
Brent Look: Makes sense and there's no guarantee that that's going to work out.
10:36
Tiffany Woolley: Right.
10:38
Brent Look: Today it's kind of timed itself out right for me, because today we know a lot of these big labels are asking these big artists to be on their label, where they're begging for artists a lot of times, because people that are famous like you know, that are really big.
10:54
Brent Look: They can do it themselves Right, they might use them for distribution Right.
10:58
Brent Look: But it's completely different.
11:01
Brent Look: Back then we remember that concert tickets were very inexpensive.
11:07
Tiffany Woolley: I know I love what's happening now.
11:10
Scott Woolley: But music artists were making their money with selling their albums and weren't making much on touring.
11:15
Scott Woolley: Touring was about promoting the album, because it's where you make your money.
11:18
Scott Woolley: It's the opposite now.
11:19
Brent Look: But today it's the opposite.
11:20
Brent Look: Yeah, you're correct, it's the opposite.
11:22
Brent Look: And the merchandising and the merchandise, Merchandisers were always kind of a big deal even back then.
11:27
Brent Look: But I mean these tours, some of these major acts are putting together, they're cleaning up on these tours.
11:34
Tiffany Woolley: Right, and I do like the fact that Kid Rock recently did make it pretty well known that he's trying to make a passion project to make tour, or I should say concert tickets affordable again, because it's something that has eluded so many families.
11:50
Brent Look: It's crazy what the ticket prices are Ticket prices are crazy.
11:53
Brent Look: They're out of control because a lot of times you know there's another seller involved.
11:59
Tiffany Woolley: A couple in between.
12:00
Brent Look: Yeah, that's so true, and before you know it, I mean some of these people.
12:04
Brent Look: Like we never had this issue years ago where people couldn't afford to go see their favorite artist.
12:09
Tiffany Woolley: Correct.
12:09
Tiffany Woolley: That's just crazy.
12:11
Brent Look: Yeah, yeah, it's out of hand.
12:15
Tiffany Woolley: Things have changed in that regard.
12:16
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, all right, so let's take it back a little bit again further.
12:20
Tiffany Woolley: So you now decide you're making your career through music.
12:25
Tiffany Woolley: Yes, what did you do on like a general basis to stay booked or to stay, you know, ahead of things Like what did your day to day look like with this as your career.
12:37
Brent Look: Well, we had people that were booking agents that always we had for the longest time we had King Music, which was this guy named Walter B Walters.
12:48
Scott Woolley: He was the brother of Suzanne Somers' manager Suzanne Somers' manager was her husband, alan Hamill.
12:55
Scott Woolley: Yeah, I dealt with both of them.
12:58
Brent Look: Yeah, so this guy.
12:59
Brent Look: No, I think this was another manager before that time.
13:03
Brent Look: Okay, because it didn't start out like that.
13:05
Brent Look: Yeah, this was an earlier manager because we're going back a long time here, so it always seemed like there was work.
13:13
Brent Look: And then if we couldn't find work, somebody else in the band my friend Andy, who played bass guitar would find, make some phone calls and do it.
13:24
Brent Look: They didn't want me to do it so much because they wanted me to focus on writing.
13:28
Tiffany Woolley: Okay.
13:29
Scott Woolley: So, to do everything you've done.
13:31
Scott Woolley: Did you need to have a manager, an agent, a lawyer?
13:34
Scott Woolley: Yeah, we had agents like that.
13:35
Scott Woolley: Do you still?
13:36
Brent Look: Is this still important?
13:37
Brent Look: No, I've been doing it myself, I think, just only for the fact that I've been involved in this for so long, I know how it works.
13:45
Brent Look: Even though it's changed, there are many principles of it that have stayed the same, well, and I feel like it's so cool to watch, like because, through my girls, obviously the passion for music that has been carried on through you as well, Like Benson Boone is coming to mind because, I'm fascinated myself just watching this evolution of growth.
14:08
Tiffany Woolley: Yes, and obviously he's the big name that people know and recognize, but I feel like now there's so much more emphasis on like his other band members, like at least for my girls and I because we saw them and you know the his girl guitar became like kind of like I don't know.
14:27
Tiffany Woolley: we now see her at Coachella, like.
14:29
Tiffany Woolley: So people think of the headliner instead of realizing the whole crew and the whole group and what it really does take to put together a band and there's so many other people having amazing careers besides just Benson Boone.
14:45
Tiffany Woolley: I mean that whole band has an incredible journey ahead.
14:50
Brent Look: True, and the band thing is something to talk about too, because it's been for a while lately that we, like you were saying we only know the front person in this band or the main artist and we don't know who the other band members are.
15:02
Brent Look: But in the old days we knew these bands.
15:06
Tiffany Woolley: You're're right, we knew all the people in these bands, you're right.
15:09
Tiffany Woolley: You're right because, look at like with Benson Boone, I mean Queen they're bringing out, you know.
15:14
Tiffany Woolley: Brian May Brian right and highlighting all that.
15:17
Tiffany Woolley: I mean.
15:18
Tiffany Woolley: I guess that's what I'm trying to bring.
15:21
Brent Look: I hope that comes back more because these people, uh, are a big part of it, right?
15:26
Brent Look: I mean, without them, it doesn't work.
15:28
Brent Look: And another thing that you're starting to see a little bit more of we went through a period of time where different tours were always completely different background performers in the band, and you're seeing a lot of these bands.
15:41
Brent Look: Keep some of these people and they're part of the band.
15:43
Brent Look: That's it.
15:44
Brent Look: This is the band.
15:46
Scott Woolley: Well, I think a lot of it is.
15:47
Scott Woolley: Music's changed over the years.
15:49
Scott Woolley: So in the 80s and the 90s there were bands, you know the Bon.
15:53
Scott Woolley: Jovies, the Billy Joels, the Springsteens.
15:55
Scott Woolley: They came up together literally yeah and you did know all the members of the band, but then, as rap came in and it became one guy, it became one person, even though there are other people but you never knew, it wasn't discussed those names and those people.
16:10
Tiffany Woolley: Or the longevity wasn't there either.
16:14
Brent Look: That's true.
16:15
Brent Look: It's a welcome change if we start knowing more members in these bands, if they keep the same band.
16:23
Tiffany Woolley: Which I feel like is so critical to actual music.
16:28
Brent Look: Yes, do you mean it is?
16:30
Brent Look: And you know a lot of these bands that we grew up with.
16:35
Brent Look: They all played a part in writing of these tunes.
16:38
Brent Look: It wasn't like the writers were completely.
16:42
Brent Look: Now we know that there are people that write songs and the bands and artists end up using them, but there was a lot of music coming from inside that band.
16:50
Tiffany Woolley: Yes.
16:50
Brent Look: Creating inside that band.
16:51
Tiffany Woolley: And when you say creating music, is that the tune or is that the lyrics?
16:55
Brent Look: That can be both.
16:56
Brent Look: A lot of times.
16:57
Brent Look: Whoever the singer is will obviously do the lyrics, but sometimes it happens by somebody else that might be great at lyrics.
17:05
Brent Look: They just don't sing well.
17:07
Tiffany Woolley: So we're having we've had that conversation, yeah, a few times.
17:10
Tiffany Woolley: We've had some these behind the scene conversations.
17:15
Scott Woolley: Like you know, we're going through that process now with you, with, yes, the ruffles, the ruffles.
17:20
Scott Woolley: It's going to be a great band.
17:22
Scott Woolley: So you know, started writing songs and now you're producing those songs, bringing those songs to life.
17:30
Scott Woolley: You know the whole design process and creating and making a song.
17:34
Scott Woolley: You know, and hopefully it becomes a magical song that people will love and follow and want to play and listen to you know and it's quite a process, you know, in creating songs and just from the writing, and then you know putting the right instruments behind it.
17:51
Brent Look: Yes, and when we record them in the studio.
17:54
Brent Look: They're going to learn a lot from that also, right, seeing how it's put together right there, like you know what, I think there should be a keyboard part on that part, correct you know.
18:04
Brent Look: And I think the band should drop out now.
18:05
Brent Look: We've done a lot of that now without being in the studio and I kind of guide them.
18:11
Brent Look: I try not to create the part for them, I try to guide them in the direction where they'll come up with it, the process of thinking, you know, like on the latest song, the bridge, there's no bridge.
18:23
Brent Look: Well, what if we go to F?
18:25
Brent Look: I mean, it's in the key.
18:26
Brent Look: We haven't gone there once.
18:28
Brent Look: Let's go there, right, you know so.
18:31
Scott Woolley: So how is that process when you're in a recording studio with you know, a Scott staff or someone?
18:37
Brent Look: else.
18:41
Scott Woolley: You know, is it an arduous process?
18:43
Scott Woolley: Is it a process that just comes out?
18:45
Scott Woolley: You know, I wrote a book recently and I explained to people it was like giving birth to a baby.
18:51
Scott Woolley: Because you know how that is the aggravation of just the stress of trying to get all the words out and get your thoughts out.
18:58
Scott Woolley: And why it's in your head to get it done, but how?
19:03
Scott Woolley: Difficult is that from a standpoint of producing a song.
19:07
Brent Look: And well you kind of have an idea of what you want.
19:10
Brent Look: But you know, when you get into a full studio you might hear things a little different.
19:15
Brent Look: And you're like, now that I'm hearing it back, you know, I kind of want to change that part.
19:20
Brent Look: So you have an outline but anything goes in there.
19:24
Brent Look: I mean, there's been times in my studio I'll come up with a part that goes over a verse or chorus, just like this song is missing something, and you'll come up with the part in the studio on the spot and you're like that makes it, that makes it completely.
19:38
Brent Look: You know, and it's production.
19:41
Brent Look: What can I do?
19:42
Brent Look: You know something I learned from the great Eric Schilling.
19:45
Brent Look: That always taught me Eric, because Eric's had a lot of success and he always told me he goes, it's like a film.
19:53
Brent Look: He said and you know film very well he goes, it's like a film.
19:57
Brent Look: Do you think the audience is getting bored?
20:00
Brent Look: You know, and when he told me we worked on writing songs, when he guided, he helped me a lot too, like with production stuff early on, because he did a lot of my stuff.
20:10
Brent Look: So he would say you know what you're, you're losing, you're losing your uh, my attention here on this part.
20:17
Brent Look: You're on the second verse.
20:19
Brent Look: What I like the first verse and chorus.
20:21
Brent Look: What are you going to do on the second verse to keep me interested?
20:24
Brent Look: That's different than that first verse.
20:25
Brent Look: That keeps the verse together.
20:27
Brent Look: Add this.
20:29
Brent Look: Let's do this.
20:29
Brent Look: Maybe have this happen.
20:31
Brent Look: Take this out.
20:32
Brent Look: Now the second chorus.
20:34
Brent Look: We're up to the second chorus.
20:35
Brent Look: Let's make it a little busier than the first chorus.
20:40
Scott Woolley: For people who are listening and watching this podcast, explain to them Eric Schilling.
20:45
Brent Look: Eric Schilling is somebody who played a major part in early parts of my career all the way up through early 2000s, did a bunch of my solo projects, did the Moods.
20:56
Brent Look: My first band did Mood, which was a derivative of the Moods Band, and then the other derivative of the Mood Band, mood Candy.
21:04
Brent Look: He did that too and he's done some of my solo stuff.
21:08
Brent Look: Eric is Eric is an engineer.
21:10
Scott Woolley: And he's worked with a lot of other.
21:11
Brent Look: Yeah, Eric has 31 platinum albums on his belt.
21:16
Brent Look: And like, I think, like I don't know, 17 Grammys Something crazy and a couple of Emmys, and I know he does the audio production for, I believe, the Grammys and the Latin Grammys.
21:29
Brent Look: But I learned a lot from him because he was working with these artists.
21:34
Brent Look: He wasn't a producer on most of that, he was an engineer, but he's sitting next to these producers all the time for so many years.
21:42
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, it's like seeped in.
21:45
Brent Look: So I learned a lot from that.
21:47
Tiffany Woolley: So what was your?
21:49
Tiffany Woolley: Rock and roll is probably your primary genre, but you're versatile.
21:54
Tiffany Woolley: How do you keep yourself like able to?
21:58
Tiffany Woolley: To do all yeah, yeah, and I have to jump in to wear a lot of different hats.
22:05
Brent Look: Yeah, and that can be tough sometimes.
22:06
Brent Look: But you know when I have to jump in to wear a lot of different hats, yeah, and that can be tough sometimes.
22:06
Brent Look: But you know, when I was trained young I did rock a lot of my own time as far as lessons I'm talking.
22:13
Brent Look: But I took classical and I took jazz, both on guitar and piano, and then I studied it also under drums.
22:21
Brent Look: So I knew I learned a lot from those.
22:25
Brent Look: I even had a jazz guitar teacher.
22:27
Brent Look: Tell me once he goes you're learning all this stuff with me.
22:30
Brent Look: Because you're going to take all this stuff you're learning, you're going to put into a rock song.
22:33
Tiffany Woolley: I'm like, yeah, that's what you know.
22:36
Tiffany Woolley: So do you like rock better than?
22:38
Brent Look: rock is my favorite thing, but this uh, but classical is pretty awesome so you've been.
22:45
Scott Woolley: You've been a teacher for a long time.
22:46
Brent Look: Yes.
22:47
Scott Woolley: With a lot of interesting students yes, as you know.
22:50
Scott Woolley: Teaching music and teaching drums, teaching piano, teaching guitar, working with vocals yes.
22:57
Scott Woolley: Helping create songs yes, and so forth.
23:00
Scott Woolley: I mean, you're a teacher to our three kids, yes, and guiding them in their career.
23:06
Scott Woolley: But Jill DeFerrin, who was a very good friend, of ours.
23:09
Brent Look: He took some guitar from me, dan.
23:10
Scott Woolley: Marino's kids I taught Tell us about teaching people.
23:14
Scott Woolley: How is that teaching individuals?
23:18
Brent Look: Yeah, well, it gives me.
23:20
Brent Look: It's different than teaching in class because from the first lesson on, I'm like studying and see what they even if they're from the beginning what comes easy to them, what comes harder to them, and that kind of gives me a roadmap.
23:37
Brent Look: Okay, we're going to do this, but I'm also going to spend a little time extra on this, because that's a little harder for them.
23:45
Brent Look: And the bottom line is, when I teach, I want them to learn what they need and I teach them songs that I think they're going to need to help their skills, and I also teach them stuff that they like, because if they like it, the motivation is big.
24:02
Scott Woolley: Well, you, have a unique way of teaching as well.
24:04
Scott Woolley: You're a very positive, motivating individual that really seems to home in on an individual and lift them up in teaching them.
24:15
Scott Woolley: I mean, I've seen it firsthand.
24:18
Voice Over: Yeah, I want them to love it.
24:19
Scott Woolley: You have a talent in just how you interact with people and teaching them.
24:24
Scott Woolley: Did you learn that from someone?
24:25
Brent Look: Did you experience that from someone?
24:27
Brent Look: No, I've always done that.
24:27
Brent Look: I just want to motivate Always been a positive person, positive motivation and get them to believe, but also tell them if you know you got to spend more time, you got to work harder here.
24:37
Tiffany Woolley: How bad do you want it?
24:40
Scott Woolley: but most people look at okay, I gotta learn music, or as kids learn you know.
24:44
Scott Woolley: Oh, what is that?
24:45
Scott Woolley: This is going to be a pain in the ass.
24:47
Scott Woolley: Oh, this is a drudgery.
24:49
Brent Look: But you changed that whole feeling yeah, I'm always trying to figure out the situation.
24:55
Brent Look: How am I going to get this person motivated?
24:57
Brent Look: What do they like, right?
24:59
Brent Look: What am I going to do to get them the most?
25:01
Brent Look: Motivation is the big thing.
25:04
Scott Woolley: Yeah, I think that what we're talking about from a music standpoint and lessons is so important for the youth.
25:11
Scott Woolley: You know and I'll say in this country because I know that when we went to school, music was a big thing in school.
25:18
Tiffany Woolley: Yes, it died for a while it's still a big thing.
25:22
Scott Woolley: It's not what it was.
25:23
Scott Woolley: It's not what it was.
25:24
Scott Woolley: Yeah, no, it's not.
25:28
Brent Look: And the arts, and it's good for their thinking.
25:31
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, oh yeah, it gives them something to do.
25:32
Tiffany Woolley: Of course, and it's good for their thinking.
25:33
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, it gives them something to do.
25:34
Tiffany Woolley: It's good for learning.
25:34
Tiffany Woolley: It's like thinking in another language, totally.
25:36
Brent Look: Yeah, how to perfect, how to get good.
25:38
Brent Look: Well, it's Even with competition, like if they're in school band or something.
25:41
Brent Look: It's a competition and life is competition.
25:43
Brent Look: It's so true.
25:44
Scott Woolley: What I see the most important is the self-esteem, the confidence, the confidence it gives kids to be able to get up in front of people and play Like our kids.
25:56
Tiffany Woolley: Now they can't wait to get up in front of the next stage.
26:00
Tiffany Woolley: I love that.
26:01
Brent Look: They can't wait.
26:02
Brent Look: They love it.
26:03
Tiffany Woolley: I love that they really do.
26:05
Tiffany Woolley: They play all day, sunday too.
26:07
Tiffany Woolley: It's their thing, it really is.
26:09
Brent Look: I love working with them and they do really well individually.
26:13
Brent Look: And then the audience, I'll tell them.
26:16
Brent Look: Then we play together as a band and that's great to be able to work on them one-on-one, and then we play as a band.
26:23
Tiffany Woolley: And they started harmonizing and it's so impressive and I also find them picking up new things so much faster.
26:32
Tiffany Woolley: That's right, I mean.
26:33
Tiffany Woolley: So that makes me understand a little bit more behind my own love of music.
26:38
Tiffany Woolley: But to realize like this is a vibe, it is, it's a flow, and once they learn like.
26:45
Brent Look: When they learn like, let's say, they learn this song with harmony, this song with harmony.
26:49
Brent Look: The next song to do the harmony, even if it's a different harmony, is going to be easier.
26:53
Brent Look: You know, harmony, the next song to do the harmony, even if it's a different harmony, is going to be easier, you know.
27:02
Brent Look: So I, I was telling them in some bands I would sing lead on some songs and some songs I would sing harmony on the choruses or verses or whatever.
27:06
Brent Look: And I was telling, um, I was telling them, I'm like, after a while it just becomes natural.
27:10
Brent Look: They sing the lead line, you hear it and you just harmonize it right away.
27:15
Brent Look: Right, that's what'll happen.
27:18
Scott Woolley: So you've worked with so many interesting, unique and great you know music artists and yes and so forth.
27:24
Scott Woolley: Is there any one trait that you kind of see that they all have?
27:29
Scott Woolley: Uh, that makes them you, you know, great.
27:34
Brent Look: One of the things it's like the dedication.
27:37
Brent Look: The dedication, yeah, you know like.
27:39
Scott Woolley: So it's very much like an athlete.
27:41
Brent Look: So you know music artist it is, I think it is.
27:44
Brent Look: It's the dedication the time, it's totally dedication.
27:47
Brent Look: They want it so bad.
27:49
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, they live.
27:50
Brent Look: They live and breathe.
27:51
Tiffany Woolley: Breathe yeah.
27:52
Brent Look: Obviously, you know, especially with anybody, they have to keep doing what they're doing, like to be in school and do well there.
28:00
Brent Look: And if they have a job, they have to keep doing well at their job.
28:03
Brent Look: But their spare time is, like, so dedicated to music and some artists get the like.
28:09
Brent Look: I was very fortunate, I hardly had to work a real job.
28:12
Tiffany Woolley: Right, which is really amazing that you were able to build a life of doing what you love.
28:19
Brent Look: That's why they say you never work a day in your life, then yeah, and it's like anything else, it's networking and putting yourself out there.
28:31
Tiffany Woolley: And you've had a lot of growth through the industry yourself.
28:35
Tiffany Woolley: I mean, what would be like your favorite part of it?
28:42
Tiffany Woolley: I guess, what is your most exciting part of being in this industry?
28:45
Brent Look: I think, the most exciting part is building something.
28:49
Brent Look: I love building songs.
28:50
Brent Look: I love building songs with other artists.
28:53
Brent Look: I really do love performing too, too.
28:57
Brent Look: So you're using the word build.
28:57
Scott Woolley: Like I would use the word create, create.
29:00
Brent Look: Yes, that's a different word, but you're building upon something by adding.
29:03
Brent Look: I think of it because you're adding layers to it as you're designing it and creating it, and I probably always call it Because I, like in general, I use the word build a lot Because when I was in high school I used to hang out with this guy who used to build custom guitars.
29:17
Brent Look: Oh wow, Start from the beginning and build the guitar.
29:20
Brent Look: I learned a lot.
29:21
Tiffany Woolley: So how do you even talk about an instrument?
29:24
Tiffany Woolley: How do you know if your instrument is good?
29:27
Tiffany Woolley: I mean, obviously it sounds good, but how do you evolve and grow, like in that whole genre I mean?
29:35
Brent Look: Do my particular instrument.
29:37
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, the instrument, yeah, I actually try to use, knowing which ones are better.
29:41
Scott Woolley: So what are you kind of saying, Like what's the difference?
29:43
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, the brands and, you know, are they keeping up?
29:47
Tiffany Woolley: Like we were having a podcast the other day and they were saying like how for Tiger Woods trying to deal with Nike and supposedly like Nike's instruments were well, they're his golf clubs.
29:57
Brent Look: But they were terrible.
29:58
Brent Look: Yeah, we see that all the time in endorsement things.
30:02
Tiffany Woolley: Right, like, how do you align yourself with certain guitar?
30:06
Tiffany Woolley: I mean, I've seen your collections pretty impressive and it's just, I guess, how do we, you know, as a layperson, know it?
30:13
Tiffany Woolley: Well, you know, it's like.
30:14
Brent Look: Tiger Woods and like a lot of these people, they're pro at whatever they do.
30:17
Brent Look: They start to figure out over the years.
30:20
Brent Look: What is the best thing for them Doesn't mean it's the best instrument for somebody else Right.
30:26
Brent Look: But it usually should mean that a really name brand, quality company.
30:31
Brent Look: You'll probably find something there, but I have found instruments that are off-brand.
30:38
Brent Look: And for some reason I'm like why does this sound so good and why does this play so good?
30:43
Brent Look: I could have gotten lucky, because even if things come off assembly lines especially with instruments like guitars and violins no two are ever the same.
30:52
Tiffany Woolley: Which is yeah, that's a whole nother, and you might get lucky and find something really amazing.
30:57
Brent Look: And we will see some of these artists like, especially with guitar players and bass players, like Sting's been using the same bass forever.
31:04
Brent Look: We saw, you know, some of these guitar players.
31:06
Brent Look: Brian May's been using the same guitar forever.
31:09
Brent Look: Really, yeah, they built that.
31:11
Brent Look: I think themselves.
31:12
Brent Look: Him and his father, I think, built that guitar when he was younger.
31:16
Brent Look: But I have certain things that I really like and if it feels good in my hand and sounds good because I'm getting older, I just want to make sure that I can play.
31:27
Brent Look: I play a lot.
31:28
Brent Look: If you count how much I play with my students, I'm playing all day, so I mean it's nonstop.
31:35
Brent Look: And then when I'm not playing with my students, I'm practicing at home.
31:38
Brent Look: My hands are getting like when I get people to tell me they're young and go, my hand hurts.
31:43
Tiffany Woolley: I'm like you ain't seen nothing yet, you know, I mean your hands need to be insured.
31:47
Brent Look: I mean those are your, that's my life, those are your life, yeah, but when I find a guitar that sounds really good and I like the way it is.
31:55
Brent Look: We're using guitar as an example and I can play all day and I have no hand pain.
32:01
Brent Look: That's a winner for me, Really.
32:03
Brent Look: Yeah, Because now the guitars that I have there's a reason I have these different guitars.
32:08
Brent Look: I can play nonstop, have no hand pain.
32:10
Tiffany Woolley: That's amazing actually.
32:12
Brent Look: Something with the design obviously yeah, and I had a guitar company build a custom guitar for me once and, uh, everything was really good and they couldn't get the wood.
32:24
Brent Look: After a while, they're building this custom guitar and I designed it.
32:27
Brent Look: It was going to be great.
32:28
Brent Look: Then they couldn't get the wood they were supposed to get and not thinking that when they finished the guitar, instead of it weighing 8 pounds, it weighed 13 and a half pounds.
32:37
Tiffany Woolley: That's crazy.
32:38
Tiffany Woolley: So what is the weight of an average guitar?
32:42
Brent Look: I would say somewhere around 8 pounds 8.5.
32:44
Brent Look: You could go up to 9.
32:46
Brent Look: They vary, Like if you look at the same guitar out of the same factory, same model, they can vary a little bit.
32:51
Brent Look: But I kept telling my wife when I had that guitar I'm like my leg is going numb, I wonder if there's something wrong with me.
32:58
Brent Look: And she's like, have you been playing that guitar?
33:00
Brent Look: It was literally from the point, it was pointy, it was literally making my leg go numb.
33:07
Tiffany Woolley: And then I said it oh my gosh.
33:09
Scott Woolley: But you play a wide range of instruments.
33:12
Scott Woolley: Yes, I mean, but you play a wide range of instruments, guitar being your primary.
33:18
Scott Woolley: Do you prefer any other instruments?
33:20
Scott Woolley: I love?
33:21
Brent Look: piano, I love piano and I love drums a lot.
33:24
Brent Look: Percussion is great.
33:25
Brent Look: I mean, it's the whole groove of the song.
33:28
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, it's the majority of the songs too.
33:35
Scott Woolley: So, in your course of producing music and creating music, are you laying tracks where you're playing all the instruments?
33:38
Brent Look: Yes, I've done complete albums, laying, done all the instruments.
33:41
Brent Look: I did this one thing build under Mood Candy through a Canadian label.
33:46
Brent Look: I did that.
33:47
Brent Look: I played every instrument on that record.
33:50
Brent Look: I played all the drums, all the bass, all the guitars, all the keyboards, all the drums, all the bass, all the guitars, all the keyboards, all the vocals.
33:56
Brent Look: And then Eric Schilling came in and helped me put it all together and fix some of my small engineering errors.
34:05
Tiffany Woolley: I mean to me, there's so many different brain powers that you're dealing with it's hard.
34:09
Tiffany Woolley: I mean, it's really like a lot of and even with now like the amps and all that kind of like to me.
34:16
Tiffany Woolley: I don't even understand how all that works.
34:19
Brent Look: Yeah, a lot of times, you know we'll use amps.
34:22
Brent Look: We also have things that go directly into the computer now that sound very good, but I'm still an amp guy.
34:27
Brent Look: I have an endorsement deal with the Hiwan Amplification Company and I love their stuff so they've been very good to me so I'll use it.
34:37
Brent Look: They found me online, that's amazing.
34:39
Tiffany Woolley: They found you online they found me online.
34:41
Brent Look: I was doing a video of me playing through a HiWatt amplifier and they really liked it and they reached out to me.
34:47
Brent Look: Would you like to be an endorsed artist?
34:49
Brent Look: Sure, why not I use them all the time.
34:55
Tiffany Woolley: Well, and I would think too, you could bring such, you know, other people to their amp.
34:58
Tiffany Woolley: Yes, and they've grown a lot these last years.
35:01
Brent Look: In the 70s that amplifier company.
35:03
Brent Look: Everybody was using them.
35:04
Brent Look: They were all these old videos of studio stuff.
35:08
Brent Look: You'll always see one of those high watts there.
35:10
Brent Look: Really, now they've made a comeback.
35:14
Scott Woolley: Why do you think they've made a comeback?
35:15
Brent Look: Well, it's been bought and sold a couple times and there was some deal where they sold they couldn't use the name in North America.
35:23
Brent Look: I don't know what that deal was, but now they own the full rights again and the production is up and there are major music stores across, you know, across.
35:34
Brent Look: Many nations are starting to pick them up again.
35:38
Scott Woolley: So you've opened for a lot of very interesting and great bands.
35:42
Scott Woolley: Yes, and it's been fun.
35:42
Scott Woolley: So when you're opening up for a band like Journey or Aerosmith, what goes through your head before getting on stage, where you're opening up a band like that is uh are you trying?
35:55
Scott Woolley: To do?
35:56
Scott Woolley: Are you trying to get on stage that the crowd likes you better than you?
36:01
Brent Look: know, yeah, I think there's always a competition factor in me, even though I know that people are there to see the other band mostly, you know, and pretty much a lot and and the sound might not be as good as them.
36:17
Brent Look: Why is that?
36:18
Brent Look: I always think that they don't turn everything on for the opening act.
36:21
Tiffany Woolley: Oh, that's so funny to think that Really.
36:23
Brent Look: Yeah, I don't know how it is now, but I used to think that I'm like, yeah, these EQs right here, we'll leave them off for now, that's funny.
36:29
Brent Look: So you don't have someone on your team, we have somebody on our end, but they're not going to be completely familiar with the whole setup that they're running, Because we, especially back in the analog days, we know how much gear was all over the place.
36:41
Brent Look: I tell you it's more digitally oriented Is it really yeah so it's a lot less gear, a lot less.
36:47
Scott Woolley: So do you consider, do you think that's good or bad?
36:49
Scott Woolley: Do you prefer the analog?
36:52
Brent Look: I think the analog is really cool, but I think cost-wise.
36:58
Voice Over: I'm doing a tour.
36:59
Brent Look: I mean the digital is better.
37:00
Brent Look: Digital with the light show might not be as bright sometimes.
37:04
Brent Look: Some of the analog stuff was wow.
37:07
Brent Look: As we know, 500 watt cans of lights or 1,000 watts melt the drummer Right.
37:13
Tiffany Woolley: It's pretty 100-watt cans of lights or 1,000 watts, melt the drummer.
37:15
Scott Woolley: Right Right, I'm a really poor guy.
37:17
Scott Woolley: It's pretty interesting that they may not make you sound like you sound.
37:21
Scott Woolley: You know what's wild.
37:23
Brent Look: I came up with that thing one time and I thought it.
37:27
Brent Look: I can't remember what artist was the headliner, but I saw this band Stars S-T-A-R-S-E and they had some success.
37:34
Brent Look: Many big artists thought they were a great band.
37:37
Brent Look: They were managed by the same people that did Kiss.
37:40
Brent Look: They needed a lot of attention.
37:42
Brent Look: Everything was geared towards Kiss, was it Doc McGee?
37:45
Brent Look: No, I think Doc might have done something with Bill Acorn or something.
37:50
Voice Over: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:51
Brent Look: I think that's what it was.
37:52
Brent Look: And I saw them open up now I can't remember the name of the headlining act figures.
37:59
Brent Look: I saw them open up I'm like, yeah, that sounds pretty good.
38:02
Brent Look: Then I saw them in town two months later in a smaller venue, being the headliner, and it sounded great and I was like that's weird.
38:12
Brent Look: Huh.
38:13
Brent Look: You know that's why I started getting this idea.
38:15
Brent Look: But it could have been the venue, could have been the venue, but they frequency analyze all that stuff.
38:20
Brent Look: You know that it's much better than so.
38:23
Scott Woolley: Being in the being in the music industry as long as you have, has there been a significant change that you would say has been the most significant change in the industry being in it From when you started to where we are today.
38:36
Brent Look: Well, obviously one of the things we talked about was the tours are the big money-making item.
38:42
Brent Look: The streams, the artists don't get much off each stream.
38:45
Brent Look: It's like what?
38:46
Tiffany Woolley: I don't even understand all that 0.005 cents per stream or something.
38:51
Brent Look: So when you say stream, that's not somebody buying the song.
38:54
Brent Look: Right, because there's no physical item.
38:57
Tiffany Woolley: It's a download of like.
38:59
Brent Look: Right, or just a stream where you're just listening to it.
39:02
Scott Woolley: Well, it's like a BMI ASCAP kind of royalty, where it's so small it's so, yeah, you've just got to play Well and it's like now there's music that you can add to a post on social media.
39:12
Tiffany Woolley: That's true, and there's just the music is.
39:15
Brent Look: But that also makes it so, me being a smaller artist that I have so many different outlets to do this myself.
39:23
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, you get your back.
39:24
Scott Woolley: People can access you.
39:25
Scott Woolley: So do you have a library of music that you own?
39:27
Scott Woolley: That's yours?
39:28
Scott Woolley: Yeah, Do you monetize it?
39:31
Brent Look: Do you?
39:32
Brent Look: Yeah, I have stuff that's monetized.
39:35
Brent Look: Most of that stuff will come on YouTube when it's monetized the commercials.
39:40
Brent Look: Youtube is probably the best bet for any of that, because when you do Spotify, apple and everything, it's the small percentage where we talked about and the way you get around.
39:50
Brent Look: That is, if you're a superstar, instead of getting a million albums sold, you can get billions of streams.
39:59
Brent Look: I hadn't expected somebody recently, but the billion streams still doesn't.
40:05
Scott Woolley: In these days and times doesn't equate to very much money.
40:08
Brent Look: But it equates a lot better than smaller artists.
40:14
Brent Look: Smaller artists aren't making much at all, correct?
40:16
Brent Look: But the youtube is probably the best thing because you get that similar monitor uh, you get that similar money off that.
40:23
Brent Look: But you also have commercials you get money off of.
40:25
Brent Look: We're not talking big unless you're big, right, unless you really catch on, but you, you do have the two aspects, yeah yeah.
40:35
Brent Look: So I have a catalog.
40:36
Brent Look: I own some stuff I split up with a bunch of people that wrote it, but most of the stuff I own all the rights.
40:45
Tiffany Woolley: Would you ever share those and have other people produce it or sing it?
40:50
Brent Look: Yes, yes, I would do that.
40:51
Brent Look: I would totally do that.
40:53
Brent Look: I did this one thing where I did a volkswagen commercial once.
40:56
Brent Look: They took one of my songs and I got money from that and not enough, but I got money from that and they took my vocals off the song.
41:04
Brent Look: Can you send me the song?
41:06
Brent Look: Can you send us a song without the vocals?
41:08
Brent Look: I'm like why you don't like my vocals?
41:10
Brent Look: No, it's a background thing.
41:11
Tiffany Woolley: You know oh that's so funny.
41:14
Scott Woolley: So, is there a good career in creating music like that and trying to sell it, trying to license it?
41:23
Brent Look: Yeah, I think today, unless you're on tour, I think the best way is to try to get other avenues, try to get other people to do your songs, because you're not out there promoting it.
41:39
Brent Look: And years ago I was always out there promoting for years and years and years and years.
41:45
Brent Look: I think I'm just burnt out on that whole thing, but I miss it a little bit.
41:52
Scott Woolley: So if there was, I got a question.
41:53
Scott Woolley: If there was one artist that you could sit down with and ask them a question or two, oh, that's tough.
42:01
Scott Woolley: Who would that artist be?
42:03
Scott Woolley: What would that question be?
42:05
Scott Woolley: Is there an artist that you maybe never sat and you would have loved to have sat with and asked?
42:11
Brent Look: Oh boy, that's really tough.
42:13
Brent Look: Wow, you know who would be great to talk to?
42:15
Brent Look: Would be, and this is not mine, I know who mine is what is yours, just curious, tell me yours.
42:22
Scott Woolley: Mine.
42:22
Scott Woolley: Well, I've met so many.
42:24
Brent Look: You've met so many.
42:25
Scott Woolley: I've had the opportunity to sit with so many.
42:26
Scott Woolley: Elvis Presley.
42:28
Tiffany Woolley: He was so, so obsessed with Elvis.
42:31
Brent Look: Elvis would be.
42:32
Brent Look: That's a great answer.
42:32
Scott Woolley: A couple years, like three years ago, at Christmastime, with my whole family and relatives and there must have been 30 people sitting around the table having Christmas dinner we were all asking everyone I don't know if you remember this everyone was asking who would you like to meet?
42:45
Brent Look: That's a great question, and I've always thought the one person that I have never met I would love to spend a day with would be Elvis Presley.
43:01
Brent Look: Wow, that's a great answer.
43:02
Tiffany Woolley: That's tough to beat that answer, and what would you ask?
43:03
Brent Look: him.
43:04
Brent Look: I mean I would love to met Jimi Hendrix.
43:06
Brent Look: I don't know if I would spend the day with him.
43:08
Brent Look: I spent time with Richie Blackmore, so I couldn't do that.
43:13
Brent Look: When I was a 15-year-old kid, I got to jam with the guy.
43:16
Brent Look: What?
43:16
Scott Woolley: were you telling me?
43:17
Brent Look: Yeah, I said, yeah, I know the song backwards and forwards, forwards and backwards and I played it for him.
43:23
Brent Look: He goes that's really good, but that's wrong.
43:25
Brent Look: And then he sat there and everybody's like, wow, you got him on a good day.
43:30
Brent Look: So Jimi Hendrix might be a person that you Jimi Hendrix, but also, which is surprising for me, I like to sit down with Elton John and watch him play he's a talent too, Because he blows me away At this age.
43:42
Brent Look: He's on stage and he's jamming out a lot of these parts.
43:47
Scott Woolley: We got the opportunity.
43:48
Scott Woolley: It's.
43:49
Tiffany Woolley: Long time ago.
43:49
Scott Woolley: Long time ago.
43:50
Scott Woolley: Yeah, small little group of people in a room for dinner, yeah, and Elton was there at the dinner got up, got on the piano and for 90 minutes, just him and the piano.
44:03
Scott Woolley: Wow, I'm going to tell you, it sounded like he had the entire band behind him and it was just him singing and playing the piano, and it was the sound that he got out of.
44:15
Scott Woolley: That piano was just.
44:17
Voice Over: Wow and.
44:17
Scott Woolley: Tiffany and I sat there and we were just like, and we were like 10 feet from him while he put an hour and a half playing.
44:23
Scott Woolley: It was amazing, wow, amazing.
44:26
Tiffany Woolley: Well, and he's like one of those you know once-in-a-generational individuals too he is, but I've always loved how he had that partnership with that, bernie Tom.
44:36
Brent Look: Yeah, that worked.
44:37
Tiffany Woolley: And it worked, and they knew it and they babied it and they just basted it and really took it to another level.
44:47
Brent Look: Yeah, and I think some people forget how much of an amazing piano player he is, because last time I saw him play years I don't know four or five years ago.
44:57
Brent Look: I mean he's up there playing and I know they're jamming out.
45:00
Brent Look: I mean I'm talking like his performances are like flawless.
45:05
Voice Over: Yeah.
45:06
Brent Look: And a lot of it's off the top of his head.
45:08
Scott Woolley: I've seen him many times.
45:09
Scott Woolley: Yeah, you know him, and Billy Joel him by himself.
45:12
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, remember that face-to-face tour.
45:13
Tiffany Woolley: Oh, that was awesome.
45:14
Scott Woolley: Oh so good, but the night that he got up and played for all of us.
45:17
Scott Woolley: I mean, I'm telling you that he played for 90 minutes and it sounded like he had the entire band riffing, because the sound he got out of that piano was incredible and his voice was just off the Richter scale.
45:29
Scott Woolley: Yeah, it was just off the rectus scale.
45:31
Brent Look: Yeah, I saw him recently with somebody I can't remember on the TV.
45:34
Brent Look: I can't remember who it was and this was recent.
45:37
Brent Look: I know he's not touring, but he's still going to do some shows.
45:40
Tiffany Woolley: Oh, he does yeah.
45:41
Brent Look: Yeah, and I was still blown away.
45:43
Brent Look: I'm like, wow, he's older and his vocal, you know, because you know, when people get older they start to lose their vocal a little bit.
45:51
Brent Look: It, you know, I always say the people that lose it first.
45:52
Brent Look: Yeah, you still got it.
45:53
Tiffany Woolley: He does the ones that yelled their whole rock career I had a music teacher in high school who told me that I forget what artist he was like.
46:00
Tiffany Woolley: That person will not have a voice in 10 years or something like that.
46:04
Scott Woolley: It's amazing like stephen toller lasted this long which I remember as a kid, tom jones they used to say that about yeah, that his voice wouldn't last.
46:13
Scott Woolley: But he's still, yeah, still playing.
46:15
Tiffany Woolley: Why?
46:15
Tiffany Woolley: Because they're like pulling from a different vocal place or something.
46:20
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, he was yelling out he was a great performer as well.
46:23
Brent Look: Yeah, and see like, I saw Duran Duran recently in Vegas and he sounds great.
46:28
Brent Look: No yelling in that, right, no yelling.
46:31
Brent Look: And then I saw who else was I saying?
46:34
Brent Look: Oh, my friend saw Steve Miller and he said Brent, he sounded great.
46:39
Brent Look: I'm like that's because he never yelled Right.
46:43
Voice Over: Wow.
46:43
Tiffany Woolley: Wow.
46:44
Scott Woolley: It does play.
46:44
Scott Woolley: So Jimi Hendrix, anyone else besides Jimi Hendrix?
46:47
Scott Woolley: Oh, that's rough.
46:48
Brent Look: I would have said the Elvis thing in my top three, because that's a that changed rock and roll.
46:54
Brent Look: I know I would have loved to sit down with Chuck Berry.
46:57
Scott Woolley: I've had that opportunity a number of times.
46:59
Scott Woolley: Oh, you're very lucky.
47:00
Scott Woolley: Yeah, he's a wonderful guy yeah.
47:03
Brent Look: I mean, like he changed everything for guitar too.
47:05
Brent Look: You know, and there were so many times in guitar polls.
47:09
Brent Look: You know, we get mad and we look at our favorite thing.
47:11
Brent Look: We look at top 10 or top 20 polls and we're like why is that person not in there?
47:16
Brent Look: Why are you up on number three?
47:18
Brent Look: You should be on 23.
47:20
Brent Look: And now I seem creeped more up in these polls.
47:24
Brent Look: It's like an athlete sometimes, and I hate when athletes, when they do athlete stuff, they compare records today compared to years ago.
47:33
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, you can't.
47:34
Tiffany Woolley: That's not fair man, it's not, I agree.
47:37
Brent Look: Yeah, so like I mean, think about the training.
47:39
Scott Woolley: Well, if you compare it the same way and you think what you're saying and you think about music yeah, Think about the amount of artists from years ago that performed, sang but could really play an instrument yeah, Either it be piano or guitar or drums Today.
48:00
Scott Woolley: Like, who are the bands that are coming out today that you can say they're really great on the guitar or drums?
48:05
Brent Look: That's true, and we can fix everything digitally.
48:08
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, which is kind of bizarre to think about.
48:10
Tiffany Woolley: It is.
48:11
Brent Look: You know today, a long time ago, I learned because I would charge when I did studio work.
48:17
Brent Look: I would charge kind of by the hour and I'd say, but three hour minimum, Right, right.
48:23
Brent Look: And then you go in and they copy and paste your parts all over the place and I'm like I'm only doing three hours.
48:32
Brent Look: But the old days I was probably there making money the whole day, yeah, but like I learned that lesson really quickly.
48:38
Brent Look: Then Eric Schilling taught me he goes, you can't charge like that anymore.
48:41
Brent Look: These are not the old days.
48:42
Brent Look: You charge by the project.
48:45
Tiffany Woolley: Have you ever played a music festival?
48:48
Brent Look: Yes, I've played some music festivals, boy.
48:51
Brent Look: That was a long time ago.
48:52
Brent Look: I did that with the Moods bands, where there are many, many different bands.
48:55
Brent Look: That one I have not Now, if I would have stayed with the Scott Stapp thing.
49:01
Brent Look: He's been doing more music festivals a lot recently than he's ever done, so that's how they're making these big concerts.
49:09
Brent Look: They get all these people to come there, correct?
49:11
Tiffany Woolley: They bring their fans.
49:12
Tiffany Woolley: It.
49:12
Tiffany Woolley: That's what I mean.
49:12
Tiffany Woolley: It's like stage coaches this weekend.
49:15
Tiffany Woolley: I'm like seeing all that Stage coach, I think, this weekend.
49:20
Brent Look: Yeah, but you know what I'd love to do?
49:21
Brent Look: Some festivals, that'd be a lot of fun.
49:24
Scott Woolley: So, going back to because you've played with so many different and interesting and great people yes, Is there an individual?
49:31
Scott Woolley: If you had the opportunity to play with that you never have, who would that be?
49:36
Brent Look: Oh, that's really tough, boy, that's really tough.
49:46
Scott Woolley: Boy, they could be dead or alive.
49:48
Brent Look: Oh, they could be dead or alive.
49:49
Brent Look: That's a song by the way.
49:50
Brent Look: Wow, I would have loved to by the way, yes, wow, I would have loved to jam with the Hendrix.
49:55
Brent Look: I would have loved.
49:57
Brent Look: That would have been probably my One of my big ones.
50:00
Brent Look: And there was a jazz guy named Alan Holsworth who is a guitar player's guitar player.
50:08
Brent Look: Like people that are really legendary guitar players have talked about, that guy scares me really.
50:15
Brent Look: He's just so great.
50:16
Brent Look: And so eddie van halen is he still alive?
50:19
Brent Look: He died some years ago, four or five years I believe.
50:22
Brent Look: Eddie van halen even paid for one of his records and other famous guitar players go, that guy is like, uh, even heavy metal guys.
50:31
Brent Look: You wouldn't think because he was like jazz fusion, even heavy metal guys.
50:35
Brent Look: Go like.
50:36
Brent Look: I saw somebody the other day.
50:37
Brent Look: This guy, ingway malmsteen, who's a very famous heavy metal guitar player, says who blew you away the most?
50:43
Brent Look: he goes, alan holdworth, he goes, my god really that being a guy I'm not familiar with that name or, or I did get to jam with Jaco Pastore, the legendary bass player who passed away, but I never got to spend time with him, you know, right, that would have been awesome, yeah, interesting.
51:03
Brent Look: But the Hendrix thing I would think would be awesome.
51:06
Tiffany Woolley: I mean, I feel like everybody with a guitar passion wants five minutes of that.
51:11
Brent Look: Yeah, or Eddie Van Halen would be another good one for guitar.
51:14
Tiffany Woolley: He's another one that was gone too soon too yeah.
51:19
Brent Look: But as far as the day with that would be Elton John.
51:23
Brent Look: Elton John, yeah, I want to watch him play, Because piano, I love piano too.
51:27
Brent Look: Can you show me that run?
51:29
Tiffany Woolley: Songwriting.
51:30
Tiffany Woolley: So to me it's the lyrics.
51:32
Brent Look: How'd you come up with that?
51:34
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, and I love hearing the stories behind all those too.
51:37
Voice Over: That's right.
51:37
Tiffany Woolley: What are your thoughts on these artists coming up today?
51:40
Tiffany Woolley: Are you impressed?
51:42
Tiffany Woolley: I'm starting to really like yes, I'm getting impressed again.
51:45
Brent Look: Okay, there was a period of time, and I have nothing against rap, but I'm just saying there was rap, rap, rap, rap, rap.
51:55
Brent Look: Yes, and I don't have anything against rap, right I?
51:57
Tiffany Woolley: kind of like the old school rap better because it was fun and not so serious.
52:00
Tiffany Woolley: And it was fun most people do, yeah it wasn't as dark it wasn't as dark.
52:04
Brent Look: That's a great way to put it, but some of these new artists that are coming up are very talented, I feel so excited again myself.
52:11
Tiffany Woolley: Maybe I'm only paying attention to it because my kids are bringing it to my forefront, but I feel like we're kind of in this resurgence of bands and teams and music and the words, the lyrics, they're, I mean, clever.
52:30
Scott Woolley: But they're music artists that are basically singers.
52:33
Scott Woolley: A lot of them don't write their own music.
52:36
Scott Woolley: Yes, and most of them, don't play an instrument.
52:39
Scott Woolley: That's true, maybe they know how to play an instrument, but they're not performing their instrument on stage.
52:43
Brent Look: Right, they're not showing their skill.
52:44
Brent Look: You mentioned Benson Boone, who's really popular.
52:47
Brent Look: They're not showing their skill on an instrument with their vocal.
52:50
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, he doesn't Right.
52:50
Tiffany Woolley: We don't have as much of that, I agree, you know just another one who's playing stadiums, but he's singing, singing, yeah, yeah, he's singing.
53:00
Scott Woolley: You got to give some respect to Taylor Swift, because she plays the piano, she plays the guitar and she's a worker.
53:06
Scott Woolley: Yes, those three and a half hour concerts and with her she does like promote.
53:14
Tiffany Woolley: I would say her opening acts are literally huge.
53:18
Brent Look: That's true.
53:19
Tiffany Woolley: I mean my girls felt like they went to a whole other concert.
53:22
Brent Look: Can I tell you something?
53:23
Brent Look: She is so big and her opening acts are so important, but I think she'd sell the thing out all by herself.
53:29
Tiffany Woolley: Oh, without it out, oh yeah.
53:32
Brent Look: Wow, we haven't seen anything like this with her, with an artist, in a while.
53:37
Brent Look: That's a newer artist, you know, no, but you know, if you think back, we have an artist in the past, like 20 years ago or so that, like when John Mayer was really breaking out.
53:48
Tiffany Woolley: Okay, you're right.
53:48
Brent Look: He was Okay, you're right, the guy can sing great and play great, so I never really cared for him.
53:53
Scott Woolley: Yeah, but I was involved in promoting a jingle ball a number of years ago.
53:58
Tiffany Woolley: And he was like what are you?
54:00
Scott Woolley: doing.
54:00
Scott Woolley: He wasn't a headliner.
54:01
Scott Woolley: He played in the middle of the 10 acts and so forth and I happened to get like 10 tickets.
54:08
Scott Woolley: We sat right in the front row in the center, yeah.
54:11
Tiffany Woolley: Because I was very involved.
54:12
Tiffany Woolley: My kids want to know why he doesn't have that pole anymore.
54:15
Tiffany Woolley: But I took a bunch of Tiffany and I.
54:17
Scott Woolley: We took a bunch of great good friends and so forth, and he got up with a stool, sat on the edge of the stage right up front with a stool and a guitar and I was blown away.
54:27
Scott Woolley: I could not believe that this guy could just rip a guitar.
54:30
Scott Woolley: I could not believe that this guy could just rip a guitar.
54:33
Scott Woolley: It just was fantastic.
54:34
Scott Woolley: He's so good.
54:38
Brent Look: I had a whole other respect for him after that show.
54:40
Brent Look: You know, I think you've stumbled upon something that I think that I know this, but I don't talk about it.
54:45
Brent Look: People that can carry the whole thing by themselves.
54:49
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, a one-man band, literally, that's tough.
54:52
Scott Woolley: He sat there.
54:53
Scott Woolley: I I mean honest, a little stool.
54:54
Scott Woolley: That was stood up on the stool with the guitar and for 25 minutes because they were all short.
55:02
Scott Woolley: You know the jingle ball is and he just every song was just yeah.
55:09
Tiffany Woolley: Keegan do the rights yeah, I was on say he does write sings and plays sings very well and plays very well.
55:15
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, that doesn't happen as much anymore but I feel like there was like he didn't, he didn't grow through, like I feel like he kinda plateaued, he just disappeared but we went to another thing, yeah it was actually for a wake for a person that we knew, a friend.
55:32
Scott Woolley: We went to Minnesota and Rob Thomas yeah, in a small little place, yeah, performed in honor of our friend because he knew him.
55:39
Scott Woolley: Yeah, same thing.
55:41
Scott Woolley: When Rob got up, you know, he stood, I don't know, played for 20 minutes and he was guitar and him singing.
55:49
Voice Over: That's just awesome.
55:51
Scott Woolley: Yeah, and again it was like another whole respect for him, Another very good singer.
55:56
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, he's a talent too.
55:58
Scott Woolley: He kept everyone just mesmerized by that 15, 20 minutes that he sang.
56:03
Scott Woolley: Yeah, he played the guitar.
56:05
Brent Look: Yeah, I don't think I've ever done a big show where it's by myself, but it wouldn't bug me I'd do it.
56:11
Brent Look: I did shows with the Scott Stapp where sometimes we didn't have a band and it'd be a large audience but just me and him right you know like here I am trying to mold three guitar players into one three guitar parts into one acoustic part.
56:25
Tiffany Woolley: But just such a challenge, I mean it's, it's tough but I, but I could see you doing that.
56:29
Scott Woolley: Yeah, I know.
56:30
Tiffany Woolley: And enjoying it.
56:31
Brent Look: Yeah, and then you understand how when you have a famous composition, like a classical piece, and you have to make it for piano and let's say it was for an orchestra- and you have to choose.
56:43
Voice Over: What parts am I going to?
56:44
Brent Look: put on this piano song.
56:46
Scott Woolley: You're going to obviously leave some stuff out, and I just want to say for anyone who's listening and watching us at this podcast is they should look you up.
56:55
Scott Woolley: Oh, that's so nice of you, thank you.
56:58
Brent Look: Just type in my name.
56:59
Brent Look: I know which is so awesome.
57:01
Scott Woolley: You're an individual, like I just said about the two other guys, that when you start playing the guitar it's mesmerizing, it's like wow.
57:11
Tiffany Woolley: Thank you.
57:14
Brent Look: I'm always trying to get better and better and better.
57:17
Brent Look: You know, it's so funny, like richie blackmore told me.
57:21
Brent Look: You know, like a reg artist they say you want to get here skill wise, you want to get to this level, and he told me this is the second time I spent time with him.
57:31
Brent Look: He told me this is the second time I've spent time with him.
57:32
Brent Look: He told me he goes, but then you get there and you're like you know what?
57:36
Brent Look: I really want to go here.
57:38
Tiffany Woolley: And it just keeps going.
57:39
Brent Look: That's the best, that's the scale.
57:41
Brent Look: So.
57:41
Scott Woolley: Richie Blackmore and you'll understand this used to be, or was, the guitarist for Deep Purple.
57:48
Scott Woolley: Okay, so, when you met all the guys from Deep Purple, I produced Deep Purple.
57:52
Brent Look: DVD, that's right, and Steve Morris, I bet no it was Steve Morris, yes.
57:57
Tiffany Woolley: That was a fun night.
58:01
Scott Woolley: And all the guys at Deep Purple that day were all hanging out with Tiffany, yeah.
58:05
Tiffany Woolley: That was my almost famous day.
58:07
Tiffany Woolley: Like that movie.
58:09
Tiffany Woolley: No, I got you Totally.
58:12
Scott Woolley: And when I you know, over the years producing shows, I always would bring a guitar and have the band sign it afterwards, and a lot of times I used that guitar for I would give it to a charity or something to be sold off and auctioned off because it would be signed by all these great people.
58:27
Scott Woolley: And that particular day I said Tiffany your job today, because she wanted to come to the show and just see what's going on and producing a live music show.
58:35
Tiffany Woolley: I didn't really know any of the music.
58:38
Scott Woolley: She didn't know the music that day either and I said just go around, because they all wanted to talk to Tiffany and hang out with her yeah.
58:45
Scott Woolley: And I said just have all the guys sign it.
58:46
Scott Woolley: So she had all the guys sign it, but didn't have him.
58:49
Scott Woolley: Morris signed it.
58:50
Scott Woolley: And I signed it, but didn't have him.
58:51
Scott Woolley: Morris signed it.
58:51
Scott Woolley: And then he came over to her and was like what's wrong with me?
58:55
Scott Woolley: How come I'm not going to sign the guitar?
58:58
Brent Look: That's so funny.
58:59
Brent Look: Do you want my autograph?
59:01
Tiffany Woolley: No, no, no, that's so funny.
59:04
Brent Look: That's a hard role to fill when you get famous people in a band and you replace them.
59:09
Tiffany Woolley: Yes, I know that's a lot of stress, isn't it?
59:13
Tiffany Woolley: The guy from Journey did that right.
59:14
Brent Look: Oh, they got the singer when they replaced him.
59:16
Tiffany Woolley: The singer that was so crazy From the Philippines.
59:18
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, that was crazy.
59:20
Brent Look: You replace somebody really famous.
59:22
Brent Look: That's a tough thing.
59:23
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, that is so crazy and he actually did a pretty good job.
59:26
Scott Woolley: Yeah, I mean Not the same as.
59:28
Tiffany Woolley: Steve.
59:29
Brent Look: Perry, what's that?
59:30
Brent Look: I mean it resurrected the band and they found him on YouTube.
59:32
Brent Look: I think, yeah, I know.
59:36
Tiffany Woolley: So YouTube is quite an interesting thing.
59:37
Scott Woolley: Youtube is a big deal and because of that, inxs tried to do the same thing.
59:41
Scott Woolley: Yes, oh, they did.
59:42
Scott Woolley: Yeah, they tried to replace, and find someone to replace, michael Hutchinson, but it didn't work out.
59:49
Brent Look: Yeah, sometimes it doesn't work.
59:51
Scott Woolley: I think they created a television like a reality show to try to find the new band member.
59:54
Scott Woolley: Wow, years ago, wow, didn't work out.
59:57
Brent Look: Yeah, You'll find people, but it's got to gel with the band too.
1:00:00
Brent Look: You got to gel.
1:00:02
Tiffany Woolley: It does.
1:00:02
Tiffany Woolley: It has to work Well.
1:00:04
Tiffany Woolley: It's exciting Fun day.
1:00:06
Scott Woolley: Yeah, fun day, so we appreciate you sitting with us.
1:00:13
Scott Woolley: I had a great time Chatting and talking.
1:00:14
Scott Woolley: I had a great time.
1:00:15
Scott Woolley: So much fun.
1:00:15
Tiffany Woolley: We look forward to you showing up at the house every week, now twice a week.
1:00:16
Tiffany Woolley: I know I feel so grateful.
1:00:17
Tiffany Woolley: Well, I'm not coming today.
1:00:18
Brent Look: I didn't make one for today, okay, but we'll do next Thursday, but I'll see you on Saturday, awesome.
1:00:27
Scott Woolley: I'll see you on Saturday and we'll very soon I want to do it at Criterion.
1:00:29
Brent Look: If we can do it, that'd be wonderful, and I love that place.
1:00:34
Tiffany Woolley: So check out Brent, look and check out the Ruffles.
1:00:38
Brent Look: Check out the Ruffles, follow us.
1:00:41
Tiffany Woolley: Follow us.
1:00:44
Brent Look: Totally yeah.
1:00:44
Brent Look: So we'll get that done and I'm really excited Because I'm ready for us to start the next song with the Ruffles band.
1:00:51
Brent Look: So I need that when you have a chance.
1:00:54
Scott Woolley: Which is another interesting and great thing about your career and what you bring to the table especially people listening is that we're sitting with a guy, that if you've got a family, and the range of looking and wanting to produce or create a band.
1:01:11
Brent Look: I've done it.
1:01:11
Brent Look: I even worked at that Pinecrest school for a while, part-time, because I couldn't do full-time, I was too busy.
1:01:17
Brent Look: But my big thing was, like, can you make bands for us, like rock bands?
1:01:21
Brent Look: So, I created like three rock bands in one school.
1:01:25
Scott Woolley: We need more bands, and there's a lot of talented kids out there that just don't have the opportunity.
1:01:33
Brent Look: Yeah, when they gave me the thing and they said you want to do this at the school, you'll create these bands, I'm like that's great.
1:01:38
Brent Look: I would love to do that for to get these kids into this because they used music was a bigger part in school years ago appreciate you being with us today.
1:01:47
Brent Look: So much for having.
1:01:48
Brent Look: Thanks for listening.
1:01:49
Voice Over: Bye everyone I design labs podcast is an sw Group production in association with the Five Star and TW Interiors.
1:01:58
Voice Over: To learn more about I Design Lab or TW Interiors, please visit twinteriorscom.