Latest / The Chris and Mike Show / #187 - Sean Martin - The Quarantined

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#187 - Sean Martin - The Quarantined · The Chris and Mike Show

0:58
And there you have it. Welcome to the Chris and Mike
1:00
show, ladies and gentlemen. Chris will be along momentarily.
1:02
He has a project he has to finish up real quick, but we're
1:05
going to welcome Sean Martin and he's going to enlighten us on
1:11
all things music, I'm going to guess, and among other things.
1:16
As much as I can, Yeah, sure. Well, we were having a great
1:19
conversation before we got started and I heard Chris in the
1:22
back of my head saying you can hit record anytime.
1:24
Golden moments. We're losing valuable
1:26
information here. So I already know that you like
1:29
to talk music, and I'm going to assume you're a guitar player.
1:35
Yes, yes. Guitar player and vocalist.
1:36
Yeah. OK, I read that.
1:38
Audio engineer too, and. Exactly.
1:40
Me too. You have a lot of things in
1:42
common. Yeah.
1:43
Absolutely. Do you have a way to turn your?
1:46
I should have told you this before.
1:47
Do you have a way to turn your volume up just a little bit?
1:50
Yes, through your microphone. Yeah.
1:54
Purple let. Me try to bring this up a little
1:58
bit, how about now sounds? Way better, dude.
2:04
Yeah, and just stay close to your mic so we can hear.
2:06
You OK? Sure.
2:07
Yeah, absolutely. So what got you started in
2:14
music? And what I started at nine years
2:16
old playing guitar. So I kind of never quit from
2:19
there and decided that I wanted to try it for a living for a
2:21
while. And I started that journey at 18
2:24
in Chicago and then I moved to Phoenix and I was 19.
2:29
Then I met Chris shortly afterwards and we started
2:31
Nemesis. And that's how we came to do
2:33
this podcast, as we've said a lot of times.
2:35
But these are, you know, some of these are stand alone ones.
2:37
So I try and make sure that everybody understands why we're
2:40
here. We are talking music.
2:42
What got you started, man? So it was community choirs when
2:48
I was four years old actually, so.
2:52
OK, hold on. Let me interrupt you real quick.
2:54
It was Belle Choir for me at church.
2:56
I forgot I played in the Belle choir.
2:57
Right. Thank you.
2:59
Go on. Yeah.
3:01
Yeah. It's So I was doing then I was
3:03
doing opera at seven. I was one of the little kids in
3:07
an opera production for the Mendocino Music Festival one
3:11
year. And then at 12, I picked up the
3:14
guitar and started learning. You know, the first thing that I
3:19
learned was Green Daytime of Your Life.
3:21
And then the second song I learned was Crossroads by Cream.
3:27
And then the third song that I learned was Purple Haze by Jimi
3:29
Hendrix. And then after that it was all
3:31
Metallica and Green Day. Pennywise, you know, Linkin
3:36
Park, when they, when they came out, especially, I was learning
3:38
a lot of their stuff. So great.
3:41
Awesome. Yeah.
3:41
And, you know, I would always play the, the classics.
3:44
I would always play Zeppelin and Sabbath.
3:46
And yeah, I, I, I definitely loved Boston a hell of a lot
3:55
more when I was much older. But but when I was young, I
4:02
mean, it was a lot of straightforward, especially like
4:04
9 Inch Nails when they were coming out like they, they, they
4:06
were, they were really big, sublime.
4:10
I think you and I would have got along great.
4:12
Yeah, probably. It sounds like I was the same
4:17
way. I liked everything that was good
4:20
but different than what was going at.
4:22
Like, Sublime wasn't what was going on at the time, but that
4:24
album was huge, you know? Yeah, yeah.
4:27
I mean, they were. There's a bunch of bands after
4:29
them that tried to be them, but they were the originators of
4:32
that music, just like Rage Against the Machine was the
4:34
originator of that style of music.
4:37
And then along comes Limp Bizkit.
4:40
We had a legendary DJ on here on the last episode on Friday, and
4:44
he reminded us of that, you know?
4:46
Yeah, not that Limp Bizkit's a bad band, but it's a commercial
4:50
product by product of Rage Against the Machine.
4:53
You can't argue that at all. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
4:56
I would agree. Yeah, coming from that, they
4:59
they were trying to ride the fad of having a DJ in your rock
5:04
music. And you know, that was that goes
5:08
back as well. You know, you can take it back
5:09
to Aerosmith and run DNC back in the day, you know, but at least
5:16
they got it really became a genre.
5:18
Yeah. That's when that's when it
5:19
really became a genre and a hook and a whole group of people
5:22
doing it, not just, oh, look at this one cool thing that we did
5:26
this one time, you know? Right.
5:28
And boy, did that work. Yeah.
5:33
That's what you call overwhelming success.
5:35
Yeah, but the Pennywise, the Sublime, what else did you
5:41
mention? There was another one.
5:46
How about like Coc? Did you listen to Corrosion?
5:49
Oh yeah, yeah, I listen to Corrosion and Conformity.
5:51
Yeah, they're from around the same.
5:52
I think they're from around Sacramento if I'm not mistaken.
5:56
I think you're probably correct. I don't know to be honest.
5:58
Yeah, it was not. They were not far.
6:00
Like I remember them even being mentioned, like in people going,
6:03
you know, oh, we're going to go to the cursion conformity, you
6:06
know, show and stuff. Even when I was young and then
6:09
as well, when I was in music school, I had many of my friends
6:12
who were very, very much fans of theirs.
6:15
Yeah. And for the people that don't
6:17
know who The Corrosion of Conformity is, they would be a
6:20
musician's musician band, like a band like Metallica looks up to
6:25
Corrosion of Conformity still to this day.
6:27
You know, they would bow down to him as just doing it, doing it
6:32
their own way with such a unique sound.
6:35
I have a producer friend of mine who said individually, those are
6:39
two of the worst guitar tones in the history of the universe
6:42
until you blend them together, right?
6:46
And then it's that beautiful sound that you hear.
6:48
And by beautiful, if you don't like distorted guitars, ladies
6:51
and gentlemen, you will not like Corrosion of Conformity.
6:54
But it is such a wall of sound, right?
6:58
Yeah. And he knows those guys
7:00
personally. He just said it takes such a
7:03
horrible, in his opinion, a horrible individual sound to
7:07
create that blend. Yeah, yeah, it makes sense.
7:11
Yeah. Like you, you've got to figure
7:15
out how it fits into the entire of what I would say is the
7:20
envelope of the, of the song, the the envelope of the of the
7:22
sound, you know, So at any given moment, even though it may be a
7:27
kind of sound, it still fits in somewhere.
7:31
Because it belongs there sonically, right?
7:33
Right. Yeah.
7:34
And, and because there's still a a tonality and a modality in, in
7:39
the sound of the music that keeps it all in, in, you know,
7:42
in key. And so the things out of key
7:45
also say something. And that's really where the
7:48
artistry of metal really comes through that sometimes a lot of
7:50
people miss, is that it's not just about the correct notes you
7:53
play. It's also about the weird notes
7:55
that bring emotion through. I'm really good at those, dude.
7:59
Right, because yeah, all the weird ones.
8:03
And when? You don't know enough.
8:05
I know. How do I want to say this?
8:07
I know enough theory to get myself in trouble, right?
8:09
Yeah, I developed my own sound. I got lucky in that I found my
8:15
voice on the guitar before I was technically done learning it
8:19
right. Yeah.
8:20
But I think that that's such a great way of putting it.
8:23
I've never thought about that. It's all those oddball things
8:26
that I do that were near and dear to people's heart because a
8:30
technically trained musician would not do such a stupid
8:34
thing, right? Right, right.
8:36
But exactly. With what I was doing, and like
8:38
you said, Chris's voice was very unique and I was able to play
8:43
with that musically. I could do things on the guitar
8:46
that were countered of what he was singing for a melody, right?
8:49
And now you have that harmony of the guitar and the voice
8:52
together. You just described something I
8:55
painted a picture in my head as you were talking.
8:58
It's like that's exactly what we were doing, was fitting
9:00
ourselves into the song, but we were too stupid to know what we
9:04
were really doing right. But you could emotionally feel
9:07
it, and that's why you. Or somebody would say, I'm not
9:10
trying to hurt your feelings or, you know, but that doesn't work
9:13
there, right? Something's weird about how it
9:15
sounds. That's how they would always say
9:17
it. And you can't argue with that.
9:19
It's like, yeah, you're right. It's weird.
9:22
Yeah. But sometimes, you know, going
9:24
through those those aspects of it, I mean, sometimes it's it's
9:28
the constructive criticism that needs to be had for the moment.
9:31
But at the same time, you know, Jimi Hendrix would say no, I
9:34
meant to do that. So, you know, you can.
9:38
But when you've got, so when you've got a stylistic way of,
9:41
you know, doing the, the kind of things on the fret board that,
9:48
that make it speak, that's that's the kind of little bits
9:51
that that I'm talking about adding in there.
9:53
And in fact, you were doing it, you were doing a stylistic
9:56
version when I, when I stepped on of Eddie Van Halen.
10:00
So when you're adding in those little, those little bits into
10:04
what to you is just normal, you know, rote mechanics, then just
10:10
that little bit will give someone something to look
10:12
forward to and to listen forward to.
10:16
You know, sometimes we, we as musicians have to remember that
10:19
a lot of times that's all that it really takes.
10:21
You don't need to put the whole bottle of salt on there to get
10:24
someone to understand that you have command of salt.
10:27
You know what I'm saying, right. So sometimes a little bit truly
10:31
does. The long way.
10:34
Sorry brother. Sure, he might be.
10:40
No, he's back now. I can hear it.
10:42
OK. Hello hello command of salt.
10:49
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, the one and only based on them.
10:52
Right, right. How are you?
10:53
Sorry, sorry for the welcome brother, the delay and then I
10:55
got to I got to sneak away. You're fine. 4:30 because I got
10:58
to shut the other port so I don't flat out my neighbor, but
11:01
you know my cast. In here we were nerding out on
11:04
you were nerding. Out on guitar 'cause I when I
11:06
first came out I heard Sean saying you were wee wee wee on
11:08
my call guitar talk, which is awesome.
11:14
And he's an audio engineer and he's a singer, so you have
11:18
things in common with him as well.
11:19
So right now, absolutely right on.
11:23
Cool, he's a musician's musician.
11:25
That's fantastic. Mike likes talking guitar talk,
11:27
and that's something I cannot do for him.
11:29
So it's fun when we have somebody on that can, you know,
11:32
nerd out with guitars, man. That's awesome, Sean.
11:36
Yeah, but he is real. Good.
11:37
I'll be able to do both. Like, you know, I can talk
11:39
about, you know, vocal stuff too.
11:41
It's, it's a very important aspect of, of everything that
11:44
I've been doing since I was very young.
11:45
Is integrating on the breathing exercises cool match up to the
11:50
same breathing exercises that you do to as coping mechanisms
11:55
for panic attacks? Oh, no shit, right.
11:59
Yeah. So when you so when you're
12:00
practicing becoming a better singer by doing the
12:02
diaphragmatic breathing exercises, guess what?
12:05
You're also training your body how to get over panic attacks.
12:08
No, I did not know that. That's crazy.
12:10
Yeah, that's crazy. And since I never had panic
12:13
attacks, I just can't. I can just store that in their
12:15
wheelhouse. OK, It's been a while since I
12:17
did. Yeah, it's been a while since I
12:19
did all the breathing exercises and stuff.
12:20
But I I remember doing all that stuff because I had voice
12:23
lessons throughout my tenure as a singer, because you got to
12:26
every your voice is like everything else, right?
12:27
It's an instrument. You got to treat it right.
12:29
You got to take care of it. You got to work it out.
12:30
And, you know, a lot of people don't get that, which I think is
12:33
kind of funny. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
12:37
It's a very detailed thing, you know, it's for me, I've, I've
12:41
lost my voice 3 or 4 times already and I've been able to,
12:46
to bring it back because of the things that, that I learned in
12:49
the, from the people that I trained under.
12:50
That's cool. And like, that was, and I
12:52
remember the teacher telling me I'm training, this is what I'm
12:55
training your, your voice to do so that when these things
12:59
happen, you can feel how to bring it back instead of just
13:04
knowing how to bring it back. Right on and that that was like
13:08
some of the most invaluable things how to to open up the the
13:12
registers and the resonances in each of the different spots
13:17
where the voice usually comes from your throat, your nose, the
13:19
front of your of your of your mouth and your chest that's.
13:23
Cool, man, That's very cool. I, I, I, I was in shape enough
13:27
from a vocal standpoint. When I, my last band I was in,
13:30
we went to Nashville and the first day we were there, I
13:34
thought it was all scratch vocals.
13:36
Like I thought we were just recording the music and stuff.
13:38
And we did 4 songs in 12 hours with a like an hour lunch break.
13:41
And I sang the entire time and I could talk fine the next day.
13:45
And then when we were done with the four song, the producer was
13:51
like, OK, we got 4 songs down and I'm like, well, I got to do
13:53
the vocals. He's like, you did the vocals?
13:55
I was like what? And he just, yeah, he took the
13:58
best, the best version of every song we I sang.
14:01
And just without, without knowing what I thought was kind
14:04
of cool because then there was there was absolutely no pressure
14:07
on me at all, at all. I just, I thought I was just
14:10
scratch recording. So they were following along
14:12
with the music and then we were going to come back the next
14:14
steps, lay down the tracks and he's like, no, you, you're done.
14:17
Like, OK, what the hell are we going to do tomorrow?
14:21
Yeah. You know, I think Legend has it
14:23
that's how Stranglehold got recorded too.
14:25
Really. Yeah.
14:27
Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's the first
14:29
take he did, and he did many more takes after that and never
14:32
liked anything as good as that. Eruptions the same way they they
14:35
did that to Eddie. Same trick they did to you.
14:38
That's crazy. We're just warming up.
14:39
Can you play that thing you've been playing?
14:42
Wow. Yeah, and Eddie always hated it
14:44
because he said there's a mistake at the top of religion
14:47
that bothered him for Yeah. Wow.
14:49
But the rest of it, I guess was the best.
14:51
And back then, you know, you didn't have the option of, I
14:54
don't know, maybe they weren't cutting tape then or something.
14:57
That's interesting, I never knew that.
14:59
Or maybe it was in a spot where you couldn't cut to.
15:02
Yeah, there's so many notes on a guitar.
15:05
Yeah, when you tell that story. I was thinking those two
15:07
stories, Eddie's eruption. And so I'm pretty sure
15:09
strangleholds the first take too.
15:11
Wow, kind of like Stairway to Heaven first take.
15:15
Yep, yeah. Of course people don't
15:17
understand if you're not a musician, they don't understand
15:19
what well versed musicians Led Zeppelin was leading up to
15:24
becoming Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page played on over half
15:28
of the recordings that came out of Europe from like 1940
15:33
something to the early 19 or midnight.
15:35
And then and and. John Paul, Joan, Same way.
15:39
Yep, studio musicians that just non-stop just played and played
15:42
and played and played. And it's kind of like The
15:43
Beatles people. A lot of people don't understand
15:45
The Beatles. Hold on.
15:46
Before you go on to that, think about Led Zeppelin.
15:48
Yeah, I just thought of this. You got two of the best studio
15:51
musicians arguably in the history of the world put
15:54
together with two guys who were playing in a bar band.
15:57
Yeah, yeah. And you had the most magic in
16:02
Rock'n'roll history. What were you going to say about
16:05
The Beatles? I I watched they had a
16:07
documentary a long time ago. It was like AI don't know 12
16:10
hour documentary or something so they had to watch it in pieces.
16:14
Like a Ken Burns. They would play like legit like
16:18
6 hour shows. They would just play non-stop.
16:21
They would just play after song after song after song, which
16:26
nowadays I you know, I mean aside from rehearsal, right?
16:28
But they would actually be in front of crowds just playing
16:32
like these elaborated, lengthy shows.
16:35
And you and I, and you probably know this too, Sean, when you're
16:39
on stage with your band in front of a crowd that's like 10
16:42
practices in one, you know, because you can't stop.
16:46
You can't say whoops. And you can't recreate that
16:50
setting. No, right.
16:52
Yeah. So it sounds exactly like it's
16:54
going to sound there and it's going to be that way, right?
16:58
So that's the thing with The Beatles and Zeppelin, man, they
17:00
just they had their they had their craft down to a just a
17:04
tea. I mean, it was in their in their
17:05
souls and their bones, every fiber in muscle memory.
17:08
Just that's when we talked to Paul.
17:11
We talked to a Neander Paul, that last show we did a disc
17:14
jockey that's been all over the United States.
17:16
Really cool guy. We talked about how Zeppelin is.
17:20
It's just timeless. Like it's just timeless.
17:22
It doesn't matter when it comes on what era comes on, what
17:25
decade, what year, It just sounds like it was just
17:27
recorded. Yeah, always.
17:30
Which is cool. Yeah, it still grabs you
17:32
emotionally regardless of of any anything else.
17:36
And it does the same thing for me.
17:37
I mean, every time that I hear something on on the catalog and
17:41
it's, you know, one of my favorites, one of the 25
17:45
different songs that I can't decide which ones are my
17:47
favorites. You know, it's it's still grabs
17:50
you and still takes you back to that place, but also at the same
17:53
time is still an anthem for something that you would want to
17:56
do right now. You know, like, that's why Black
18:00
dog is I think the way that it, that it really is and has become
18:04
the, you know, been on everybody's list from the song
18:08
that they that they want to have at their BBQ to the song that
18:14
Chevy wants to use to promote its new truck.
18:17
You know, it's so it's, it really spans the, the, the
18:21
generations and it, it really doesn't matter if it wasn't
18:26
recorded in Pro Tools. It really, it really doesn't
18:28
fucking matter. I.
18:28
Don't think, I don't think it would have ever sounded the same
18:31
if it had been. I think it took those guys as
18:34
minds of setting John Bonham's drums up in a hallway or
18:39
whatever they did to get When the Levee breaks.
18:42
And come to find out years later, Jimmy Page mostly used
18:46
little 8 and 10 Watt amps. He wasn't using gigantic
18:50
Marshalls in there, you know. He was using boutique amps that
18:53
were small and compact and unique enough that he could
18:57
blend those sounds together to get a massive guitar sound.
19:01
And we just established John Paul Jones was a musical and is
19:04
still a musical genius, right? He's been composing for movies
19:09
and TV scores and God knows what for 40, some 50 some years now.
19:14
Yeah, it's like Brian May astrophysics who plays guitar.
19:18
Yeah, just happens to play guitar.
19:22
I need something to fall back. On In the World.
19:25
I'm going to play guitar, but I need something to fall back on,
19:27
something in astrophysics just to just in case this doesn't
19:31
work out. So think about this real quick,
19:34
and I promise we'll get on to Sean's story.
19:36
OK? Yeah.
19:36
Mark Winters did it in reverse. He became like an astrophysicist
19:40
and then a musician. Yeah.
19:41
Yeah. Yeah, we have this guy that's
19:43
just insanely genius, man. That that.
19:46
Yeah, So cool, really cool. Just I just, you know, fun guy,
19:51
really fun guy. Just for who he is and what he
19:53
is. Well, yeah.
19:53
So whatever you guys are talking about when I jumped on.
19:56
Go ahead. We got up to the point where
19:58
Sean had become a musician. He's now an audio engineer as
20:02
well. Songwriter, singer.
20:03
Nice. What?
20:05
Where did you go from there? You know, did you start a band?
20:09
At what point? You know, I think you said you
20:11
were in your teens by the time you, you know, started singing
20:15
and playing guitar, right? 12 to 19.
20:17
Nice. Yeah, yeah.
20:19
And, and I recorded about 10 of the songs that I wrote there and
20:24
just really kept them for myself.
20:26
You know, it's really just for, for me to accomplish, you know,
20:29
that because I knew that at that point that I was going to go
20:34
into the military. So I joined the Airborne
20:37
infantry right after my 18th birthday and went to, I joined
20:43
up in the 18X program, which was the fast track into Special
20:46
Forces. And so it required you to go
20:48
through airborne school, you know, basic training for
20:53
infantry and then airborne school.
20:54
And then you could decide whether you would go to Fort
20:57
Bragg, NC to do the Special Forces training or go to a unit
21:03
at the needs of the Army and deployed to Iraq.
21:06
And then after that, you could request to go to Special Forces
21:09
and you would school and you would get it.
21:12
So that's, that's essentially what I was on.
21:14
And when I got to that choice, after airborne school, I decided
21:17
to join. I decided to go to a unit and
21:21
deploy to Iraq. So I deployed to Iraq in 2006
21:25
with the third of the Five or Ninth Airborne Infantry
21:28
Regiment. Thank you for your service by
21:30
the. Way.
21:31
Thank you. I appreciate your support.
21:33
Absolutely. And so, you know, the deployment
21:36
was a crazy one. It was not fucking normal at
21:40
all. And IA lot of strange
21:45
experiences, a lot of combat experiences, a lot of, you know,
21:49
issues with people who I worked with, you know, issues with the
21:56
way that the war was being conducted, issues for the
22:00
reasons why we're there, lots of.
22:03
You got there and all the sudden things were not kosher for you
22:06
mentally or the what you're. Seeing no, no, like I had to go
22:11
through a lot of combat experiences to truly know what
22:13
was going on. And it wasn't until July or so
22:21
that of 2007, like after I'd been there about 8:00 or nine
22:26
months or so already that I that I was even considering not being
22:31
in the military anymore. It, it wasn't until the Sergeant
22:37
major who I was working directly under sent me to go do a mission
22:43
that he knew and was expecting that I was going to die at.
22:46
And when I didn't die at it and it came back to him, he was
22:50
thoroughly surprised. And it was after that, that I,
22:52
that I had all of the Intel that, that this happened from
22:55
the person who I wasn't supposed to interrogate.
22:57
I was just supposed to watch, but I interrogated them and I
23:00
found out that he, that it's a whole, that he was a triple
23:03
agent. It was a long fucking story.
23:05
But the point of, of all this is, is that it made me very,
23:08
very disillusioned to what the system really was that I was a
23:16
part of. And then they, and because of
23:19
that, they gave me a choice. They gave me the golden ticket
23:22
into Special Forces school and they said, we'll give you
23:24
recommendations or you can get the golden parachute out.
23:28
And I said, let me go. I don't trust you guys anymore.
23:32
Oh. Right on.
23:33
So after that I took my GI Bill and went to music school.
23:40
My son's a Marine. He's getting out in August.
23:45
Oh yeah. Yeah, he just decided.
23:47
He decided he couldn't. They couldn't get.
23:50
It was weird, man. He like he was looking all these
23:54
different MLSS he's going to transfer to because he made
23:57
Sergeant, became a supply chief, wanted to change the MLS.
24:00
Then Iran happened and then all the MLSS were no longer
24:03
available. And I was like, well, dude,
24:05
think about it, we're at war now.
24:07
So you got to, they probably have to stop the MOS stuff
24:11
because they're not going to let people move and shit and train
24:13
them why chaos is going on. But yeah, he's he's, he's
24:18
bouncing. He's he's going to be home in
24:19
August, so. Yeah, well, you know, that's
24:22
good. Yeah, yeah.
24:25
Interesting. Yeah, if that's his decision,
24:27
then that's his decision. Yeah, you know, we're a little
24:30
surprised by it, you know, but. Well.
24:35
Really. Why?
24:36
What's that? Why are you surprised by it?
24:40
Because all the conversations we had, he was, he was going back
24:43
to drill instructor school, then he was going to do another three
24:45
years of that. Once he got done with that, he
24:47
was going to do a lateral move and, and get in the fire science
24:50
aspect of it. And you know, he had, he had
24:53
reached out to try to get into a program that would allow him to
24:55
leave, come home for four years and go to school full time.
24:59
And then once he graduated from ASU, then goes, goes right back
25:03
into the core. But those four years count.
25:07
But then he goes in as an officer, then he's so he's kind
25:09
of an untouchable guy. And you know, you know, for lack
25:14
of a return is going to be a lifer.
25:15
And then just when he went from one spot to another spot in
25:19
Pendleton, got the promotion, got the rank, the rank up.
25:24
And then just kind of within two weeks span, he's like, I'm out.
25:27
So that's kind of why it was like, OK, reel it back, man.
25:32
Like what happened? What's what's what's the
25:34
underlying tone here? You know what's you know, and
25:37
then when we had the conversation, it's like, OK,
25:40
we'll make sure you, you know, look at all these options and
25:41
stuff. Just don't knee jerk react
25:43
because you're not happy with going from point A to point B.
25:45
Because you know, once you, once you get settled into that new
25:49
spot and learn all the stuff, then you'll be back, you know,
25:52
dominating like you've always dominated.
25:54
He's an accounting supplier and logistics.
25:56
So he's not, it's not a, it's not a infantry guy.
25:59
He was a backup shipper. So when he when he went in, he
26:03
had to fall in line with those three MO s s that kid couldn't
26:07
that was going to do 2 he couldn't do because he's color
26:09
deficient. So it was, you know, those two
26:12
are accounting, supply and logistics.
26:13
So he's 18 years old and had $1,000,000 credit card moving,
26:16
you know, equipment around the world.
26:18
You know KAKE job. Totally KAKE job.
26:21
It is a good gig, you know for sure.
26:23
So, you know, as a father, you just, you know, it's that worry,
26:27
you know, it's that concern. OK, what are you going to do?
26:31
Life is not going to be as easy out here now as this cake job
26:35
where you get up, you have to go into 10, you get 2 hours for
26:38
lunch, then you go back and you're back.
26:40
You're done every day by 5, you know, and you're working out in
26:43
the morning, working out at lunch, that type of thing.
26:45
So you know. Well, see, he's he's lucky
26:49
though, in in multiple ways and it's a little bit of wisdom
26:53
about things kind of tells me at least a a few things that most
26:57
likely what what is probably going on is that program that he
27:00
was wanting to get into got ripped right out from under him
27:03
because everybody was going to war.
27:05
Well, that's what I'm saying so. Because, Yeah, so because of
27:09
that, because if they take away your your future, then the whole
27:13
reason of why you were joining is kind of like, right, gone.
27:17
So what the Hell's the point of it?
27:18
You know? And he has a job that transfers
27:22
into the civilian world, correct?
27:24
He can go to a lot of different companies and probably get, you
27:29
know, experience and they will count the experience that he had
27:33
in the military, right, as something that helps him and
27:36
benefits him for a job that is not a fucking anywhere near what
27:39
I had. I had zero.
27:41
Gotcha. Like when it comes back for that
27:43
kind of shit. Yeah.
27:44
For, you know, doing infantry stuff.
27:45
You, you don't like the civilian world doesn't get it and they
27:49
don't understand, you know, and also the skills and stuff just
27:52
don't apply to the majority of the legal businesses that you
27:57
could get into in the United States.
28:00
The rest of it is all pretty much, you know, under the table
28:03
kind of shit that you again better decide you're going to be
28:07
doing this for the rest of your life again or else you're going
28:09
to have some fucking problems. You know, and and and I had, I
28:13
had told him before that you know when he does like I had a
28:15
client, I sell hassles. So I had a client years ago that
28:18
his dad had that same MOS in the Marines.
28:21
He was accounting supply and logistics.
28:22
He spent 20 years in the Marines, got out, went and got a
28:24
job at City of Phoenix and accounting supply and logistics,
28:27
spent 20 years doing that. He had just retired when I met
28:29
his son to sell his son a house. Double pensions, you know,
28:34
double health benefits, double everything because he spent, you
28:37
know, 18 to 38 as a Marine, 38 to 58 with the city of Phoenix.
28:44
And you know, 58 nowadays is 40. You know, I'm 56 years, 56 years
28:49
old and nobody guesses that, you know, when I, when I was a kid,
28:53
56, man, you, you were fucking in a Walker, you know, going to
28:57
this old, you know, go to eat at 4:00 because you had the gummy
29:00
food and shit. I literally just read the other
29:03
day that Archie Bunker was 49 years old when All in the Family
29:08
started. Wow, wow.
29:10
That blew me away. That's that is so emboggling.
29:12
You, you just described what we were looking at in a 50 year old
29:16
man back then. Yeah, a lot of them did look
29:18
like they were, Yeah, basically over the hill.
29:22
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going to be. 53 nobody guess is my age no
29:26
how. Old are you, Sean?
29:29
I'm 40, OK? You're doing good too.
29:33
Yeah, yeah. We were taught never to trust
29:36
anybody over 40 When? We were 20.
29:41
True story now. We're 50 something.
29:44
I don't know where that came. Now it's then we don't trust
29:46
anybody under 40, right? Yeah, that's a good.
29:51
Story it's kind of like, it's kind of like you, you have these
29:55
Realtors on TikTok now they go viral, right?
29:57
They have like 23 million views and they're they're walking
30:00
through $10 million houses and Scott Stone shit.
30:02
And you know, they're thinking they're bad ass and stuff.
30:04
You look them up, they've never sold a house in their life, but
30:06
they're gone viral. Yeah, like cool, I'm going to go
30:08
viral. I'm going to go viral with this
30:10
house. That's how they're making their
30:11
money then. Yeah, if they're doing it right,
30:14
yeah, but they're not. They're not selling houses that
30:16
you know, but they're acting like they.
30:17
No. They're monetizing off Instagram
30:19
or whatever. Right, it's just kind of
30:21
comical. It's like, OK, you know, viral
30:24
doesn't give you business. It's just, it's, it's a video
30:27
Next, next, next, next. You know, it's comical.
30:32
There's. There's some things that you
30:34
that you can get from, from going viral, but it's not
30:38
directly like linked or related. It's it's essentially the best
30:44
that you can have is just another feather in your cap.
30:47
And in a way, and I can guess from this, you know, from this
30:50
guy that you know, he's looking to get attention onto a specific
30:55
thing. So the being a real estate
30:58
agent, I imagine he probably has some budget for it.
31:01
So he puts a little bit of budget and he can get a lot of
31:03
eyes on one particular thing and that's.
31:06
But he's never sold anything. So when you're going, when
31:08
you're, when you're going forward, it's a chick by the
31:11
way. And you know he's a chick.
31:13
So when you're going out there, you know, doing that, you're
31:16
not. You must be.
31:18
There's no experience to back it and you're, you're, you're going
31:22
through somebody else's listing And, and the way they go by the
31:24
sign really quick. This is like, because they get
31:27
away with, oh, why I I gave the realtor who hasn't listed
31:30
credit. Like we're really mindful when,
31:32
when a 20 year old tries to show one of my million plus listings,
31:35
like here. Why are you showing a listing?
31:37
Well, I'm going to make video. Yeah.
31:38
No, you're not. No, you're not.
31:42
My seller's not going to appreciate you popping for
31:44
TikTok, walking around their house and what you call the
31:46
dress. Sorry, not happening.
31:50
You know, Yeah, but you know, teachers own man, I don't care.
31:53
I, you know, you do what you got to do, but it's just to me, it's
31:57
it's kind of false advertising because you're not you're not
32:00
you don't have any knowledge or experience because you've never
32:02
sold anything. And here you are going to a
32:05
multi million, I'm talking, you know, eleven $12 million house
32:08
in Scottsdale. Look at me, look at me, look at
32:10
me. And it's like, oh, you don't
32:11
know the first thing about selling a house, yet here you
32:13
are walking through somebody's thing and those type of people,
32:20
you know, they don't live on TikTok and shit.
32:22
So they're never going to realize it's there.
32:24
But if they did, I'm sure the shit would hit the fan.
32:26
Because they're not. It's not a proper representation
32:29
of that lifestyle or that house or that property or what it is.
32:33
My opinion, obviously. Well, well, simply, you didn't
32:36
have their permission. Right.
32:38
Yeah, and you have to have permission to advertise somebody
32:40
else's listing, which is why they just braced by the sign
32:43
writer and well, that's that's the guys name.
32:46
Yeah, okay. But here's here's my point to
32:48
she's point. If I were the owner of that
32:51
property, then you came to me and you said this kid wants to
32:54
go viral on Instagram, can he shoot a video?
32:58
If I had a badass house, I might just say yes.
33:00
Right. To get those million views or 2
33:03
million views, I just think I agree with the way you're
33:07
looking at it because if the seller doesn't say yes, you can
33:10
bring my house on TikTok. Most people don't want that
33:13
done. Right.
33:13
That's the problem they're going through.
33:15
And we're totally off topic here, but they're going through
33:17
and and, you know, they want to show a listing and then all of a
33:20
sudden they're there and then boom, you know, two days later
33:23
shows up and there's, you know, yeah.
33:26
And then you look him up, It's like, OK, yeah.
33:27
They didn't have permission because they didn't disclose who
33:30
it was and the way they filmed it and the way they just breezed
33:32
by the sign. And so I'm sorry, scroll moment.
33:35
I'm just going to blame Sean because he got involved and then
33:38
I backed him up, so I remember where we were at.
33:41
You went to audio school on the money that the military gave you
33:45
for getting out. Keep.
33:46
Talking about audio, I got to go pull the porch.
33:47
So continue the conversation. I'll be right back.
33:49
You're fine, brother. Yeah, So where'd you go?
33:52
I'll So I at first I decided that I was going to go to
34:01
Minneapolis, the Saint Paul. There's a school there.
34:05
That I researched almost all of them.
34:07
Yeah, so maybe you'll know the name McNally and Smith.
34:12
It sounds familiar, yeah. Yeah, they they were in Saint
34:15
Paul. So I went there and I went
34:18
through the process and everything and it was all good.
34:19
And I was going to go for the audition to the school, and I
34:22
get there to the audition, and the guy is this very crotchety
34:27
old, you know, guy who's super pissed off that he has to be
34:31
there, you know, and is listening to me play, you know,
34:34
like Voodoo Child. And, you know, it's some.
34:37
And I didn't realize Nellie Smith was trying to be like the
34:40
Western version of Berkeley. Like they were much more jazz
34:44
focused and they were like rock or even pop for that matter.
34:47
If you liked any of those, you were kind of like not really
34:50
taken seriously, kind of, you know, so I show up there and,
34:53
and doing straight rock and like playing ACDC and Black Sabbath
34:57
and Jimi Hendrix and stuff. And they're like, and so that
35:02
the guy was like, you don't belong here.
35:04
Like you, you really shouldn't, you know, you're not going to
35:07
fit in this. I didn't like anything that
35:09
you're doing. You only have two versions of a
35:10
pentatonic scale. You, you don't belong here.
35:14
I mean, he discouraged me a hell of a lot.
35:15
So I just wrote it off. And then two weeks later they
35:18
gave me a call back and we're like, hey, why aren't you in
35:20
classes? And I'm like, because the
35:22
audition dude told me I didn't fucking belong here and that I
35:25
only knew 2 versions of the of, you know, pentatonic scales and
35:28
that wasn't enough. And they're like, well, no, no,
35:31
like you can still come. And I'm like, no, if you got
35:34
people like that at that school, like I, I don't, I don't really
35:37
want to go. No, that would turn me off as
35:39
well. Right.
35:40
Yeah. So.
35:41
So I just let it go. And then I looked at Musicians
35:45
Institute in Los Angeles and they didn't care that I didn't
35:49
know everything that I didn't know.
35:51
They were like, yeah, we'll teach you it.
35:52
That's the whole point of why you're coming here.
35:55
So they finally had the right attitude and I was there at a
35:57
very, a very unique time in it's in the school's evolution
36:04
because there was still remnants and of the spirit and like the
36:11
original founders of the, of, of some of the programs, we're
36:16
still like alive and still there and running around the, the, the
36:21
school and, and doing open counseling and stuff.
36:24
So you know what? There was still this very, this
36:30
awesome sense of community where the the teachers are leading by
36:36
their example of technique of leading by their, the way that
36:43
they play. And that's what people are
36:47
really going after and spending a lot of time to learn.
36:51
It wasn't and, and now it's kind of become a little bit more like
36:55
everything is multiple choice questions and there's a whole
36:58
lot of reliance on, you know, like online quizzes and you
37:03
know, it's, it's kind of formulated a little bit much,
37:07
you know. I could have been an early
37:09
adopter of that school because that's one of the ones that I
37:12
looked at, and I'm thirteen years older than you almost.
37:16
So yeah, that school was not just getting started, but it was
37:20
becoming the school that you experienced back.
37:24
You know, Jennifer Batten went through there and ended up
37:27
playing for Michael Jackson. And I can't think of everybody
37:30
that went through there at the time, but that is.
37:32
One of the places. That I really wanted to go.
37:35
Yeah, Jennifer Batten was was on the one of the boards for for a
37:39
while, Like she was there at the school for one of the years,
37:41
like trying to, to direct it, it, it like it was really
37:45
amazing. Yeah.
37:46
Like there's the the a lot of the teachers who who were there,
37:51
you know, it's stuck it out for a a while into the 2000 teens.
37:55
And some of them are even still there, and they're still, you
38:01
know, shaping a lot of great guitarists to come out of there.
38:10
And, you know, for me, I went through the independent artist
38:14
program as well that was centered around giving you a bit
38:19
of audio engineering and music business to get you the sense of
38:23
how to release your own music. And that was a very useful
38:29
program. I did it twice, in fact.
38:31
Yeah, 'cause. You can make money with those
38:32
skills. Right, exactly.
38:35
And so as well as taking full on music business class, I also did
38:39
the audio engineering program twice as well.
38:42
And so I got to work on the on the boards they have there and
38:45
and really get a sense of all of the different positions in a
38:50
studio and knowing how to do all of them and how they all apply
38:54
to the artist. Because I knew I was going to be
38:57
the artist, but I had to be. I wanted to be the artist that
39:01
knew. Me too.
39:02
What the expectations of the other people in the room were,
39:05
so that I wasn't. Super important to me too, Sean.
39:08
Yeah, yeah. Like so that I know who the fuck
39:11
I'm even talking to, you know who to ask the right questions
39:14
to so that I get the right results.
39:16
What are drums supposed to sound like?
39:18
What is the bass supposed to sound like?
39:20
Because it's not the same as when you're in a concert venue,
39:23
right? Those are two different thought
39:25
processes. Studios, A controlled
39:27
environment. What kind of song are we
39:30
recording? Rock.
39:31
Country, rap, pop, you know, all those are different recording
39:35
mentality. So I'm with you man.
39:37
That's really cool. I like where your thought
39:39
process was. Yeah, yeah.
39:42
And I even took, you know, live, live live sound classes multiple
39:46
times in multiple different, with multiple different kinds of
39:50
boards. It was really, really expansive.
39:53
I really tried to capture it from every different aspect that
39:57
I could so that every single bit having to do around around music
40:02
that was going to be happening in front of me in the future
40:06
because I knew all music was all I was going to do.
40:09
I wanted to be able to have something to do with it, to at
40:12
least know a little bit about it.
40:15
And eventually, once I graduated in 2012, I had a temporary
40:23
psychotic breakdown. And eventually, yeah.
40:28
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
40:31
I think more and more that people talk about these things,
40:33
we find that it's it's much more common.
40:37
For people, we flip it like that.
40:38
But yeah, you know. No, it's it's much more common
40:41
than people and I. Feel bad saying it because mine
40:43
was drug induced and yours was serving our country I'm sure.
40:48
Well, yeah, my, my, mine wasn't, wasn't drug induced, but it was,
40:53
yeah. As a result of not dealing with
40:56
the emotions of everything that was taking my nervous system
41:01
completely off on a just on a tangent, you know, so I would be
41:06
subject to whatever my nervous system wanted to Take Me Out
41:12
into based off of anything that was going on around me.
41:16
And when I'm living in Los Angeles at that time and you
41:22
know, there's, there's, there's a whole lot of things that will
41:27
trigger you, you know, like it's and that way because I didn't
41:32
know how to deal with any of this.
41:33
It was just I was just being taken.
41:36
And so I could never really focus on anything.
41:38
And my life was just becoming more and more of a shamble and
41:42
less of a journey. Do you see what I see, Mike?
41:46
Yeah, I knew. We're sorry to interrupt.
41:49
You that was I heard you guys reference that you guys had a
41:54
band named Nemesis. Well, I have a song named
41:56
Nemesis. Friend of mine, yes.
41:58
He's got the evidence right there.
42:01
I like, I like to troll photos, like where our guests talk,
42:04
because it it's just, it shows, you know, it's.
42:07
Visual shows how the universe is all cohesive.
42:12
Yes, look at that full circle moment.
42:14
Right. That's pretty cool, man.
42:17
Yeah, Keep talking. Keep talking.
42:18
Yeah, you're fine, man. Yeah.
42:19
Sorry to Yeah. So let's see, where was I?
42:24
You were at the end of your psychotic break, yes?
42:27
Oh, right, right. OK, So yes.
42:29
So after that happened, I had some friends reach out to me and
42:33
they were like, hey, what are you doing?
42:34
And I'm like, I've been stocking the streets of Los Angeles for
42:37
the last three days. I don't know where the fuck I'm
42:38
at. Come pick me up.
42:40
Oh, and they were like eventually talked me into and
42:46
you need to start asking for help.
42:47
You can't do this all the time. This is you're meant for so much
42:51
more than this. And because it's so I'm looking
42:56
at losing everything and, you know, eventually, you know, I
43:00
did and became homeless for a while in Los Angeles and only
43:05
for a short period of time was like really, truly on my own and
43:09
and homeless. And I was lucky because there
43:12
was a, an inpatient clinic that I eventually got selected into
43:17
once I was in the cycle at the WLAVA.
43:21
And I was selected to go and do this program that they were
43:25
calling FoB Hollywood, which was an inpatient clinic for veterans
43:28
with PTSD, combat veterans. Everybody in there was, was, had
43:31
experienced some kind of combat experience that was significant
43:35
to have them all have a diagnosis of PTSD.
43:39
So everybody in there is going and fighting the same battles
43:42
from some different other form or another.
43:44
We're all fighting the same battles.
43:47
And it was in this beginning that the band still stuck with
43:51
me. They're like, you're going to be
43:53
in here. But you know what?
43:55
We're still going to be making content.
43:56
We're still going to try at your speed whenever you want to, as
44:00
much as we can. We'll do it.
44:02
And they stuck with me all the way and completed our album
44:05
Antiquate Hate that we were all ready to release in 2016.
44:12
We worked with Charlie Wade Meyer in Los Angeles who
44:17
recorded it all and we had George G1 Archie who did the the
44:23
final mixing and mastering and he was the audio engineer for
44:27
Death Row Records in it's day. And he he brought a really
44:32
awesome way to, to make the, the rap and rock music really mixed
44:37
together. So it's not really relying on
44:41
that new metal edge, but still more organically because the,
44:45
the, the soul of it is really connected.
44:47
And that's what we're going after.
44:48
And I think we accomplished that with that record.
44:50
However, we had a manager at the time who tried to steal the
44:54
record at distribution. Oh.
44:56
Ouch. It was super fucked up so that
44:59
management still had claimed it's copyright on Spotify and it
45:03
was really fucking ridiculous and it took me a long time to
45:06
undo it, but once I realized that's what was going on, I had
45:08
to kill the whole record. That sucks.
45:10
Five years, everything that I had gone through, all of that,
45:14
that you know, coming from these are some of the pictures that we
45:17
had from it. They were golden pictures.
45:20
Yeah, for the time, yeah, they were that fucking golden, the
45:24
pictures. He's scrolling through are
45:25
amazing. Yeah, it this, this one is more
45:27
recent. This was taken to the wheelhouse
45:29
in Colorado. OK.
45:31
But these are these are clear. We're back in LA during that
45:33
time. Yeah, with the guys there up in
45:35
the yeah, up in the corner there, yeah.
45:39
Like whenever they're when, whenever those Caspers and Alex
45:43
are in there, that's that's from that era.
45:44
Cool. And it was, it was such an an
45:47
amazing experience to go through all of it.
45:50
And you know, it's, it really ended up getting taken from them
45:53
as much as it was taken from me. That's awesome.
45:56
And after that, they were, both of them were, were immigrants.
46:00
And at that time in 20/16/2017, there was a whole lot of serious
46:05
issues with immigrants being in the United States and with the
46:08
music that we're releasing. Yeah, we didn't like, nobody
46:13
knew. So at some point, we had to be
46:14
like, look, we, their lives were pulling them apart.
46:19
It wasn't just the emotionality of the of the moment.
46:21
It was their lives pulling them apart, their lives, my life
46:25
pulling myself apart with that let down.
46:27
I also was going through a divorce.
46:29
I had to leave Los Angeles entirely.
46:31
Like everything was crashing down horribly in that area.
46:34
And it was one of those times when it's like, man, maybe this
46:37
is the end. Did you write?
46:39
I just have to. Oh yeah, OK, cool.
46:42
I wrote a. Lot the writer, the lyricist did
46:45
me. Did you write, did you write
46:46
through all that? Because I mean, of course, I'm
46:47
sure, I'm sure there was some great, great lyrics and songs
46:53
and poems and journaling Journal the Chaos man.
46:59
Yeah, I still remember everything very well and draw
47:04
from all that stuff. What I tried to do was put, what
47:08
I ended up doing is I left Los Angeles at that point and I went
47:12
to Florida and when I was in Florida, there's.
47:15
A large baseball. That's a big fucking move, man.
47:19
Oh, man, I did it in 38 hours. I drove like, you guys want some
47:23
stories? That's my fucking stories.
47:25
All right, So driving from Los Angeles like for 18 hours
47:31
straight lands you in somewhere around like Katy, TX, right?
47:35
And I did the southern route. That's I think it's through
47:38
around where you guys are AT and you guys may know.
47:42
I'm in Arizona, am I from Pontiac, IL?
47:45
I'm in Illinois, yeah. OK, Yeah, yeah, around around
47:48
Arizona. Yeah.
47:50
So there was, well, maybe I can't tell the story, but the,
47:56
the, the idea is that Border Patrol still has a where they a
48:03
spot where they take over the entire highway in that area,
48:06
still do to this day. And it's very important, Yeah,
48:08
it's still, it's still very important for people to realize
48:10
that that's there. That's what I'll say when you're
48:13
travelling in California, OK, Very.
48:16
Important. Because we're live.
48:18
That's well, I'm just be aware. I'm thinking that, Sean, we got
48:21
to have you on a Friday because Fridays we have unlimited time
48:24
because, you know, I miss some of your story, obviously, from
48:27
doing what I had to do with my my water irrigation.
48:29
But yeah, I could see us going down so many different paths.
48:33
Just talking to you right now. Oh yeah, we keep going, keep
48:38
going for short time. So, so it gets you around Katy,
48:41
TX. I'll, I'll Fast forward to going
48:43
around Katy, TX and there's this town, I don't know what town it
48:47
is, but when I got there, I got to this Motel 6 after 18 hours
48:50
of travel. I look like hell, but I'm
48:52
wearing my A/C DCT shirt and ripped jeans and, you know,
48:55
combat boots. And when I walk out, this is
48:57
like a Sunday. Everybody's in their khakis and
49:00
pastel shirts. Like everybody is looking like
49:04
they're straight out of the Stepford Wives.
49:06
And I'm like, I am going to get lynched here like this is going
49:10
to be bad. And so I asked the the the
49:13
person at the front of the desk at the Motel 6 who has nose
49:16
rings and piercing, you know, it looks totally goth.
49:19
I'm like, is it okay? Here is like, I'm going to be.
49:22
And she's like, Oh yeah, I'm way worse than you are.
49:24
You don't need to worry about a thing.
49:25
You'll be fine. Yeah, OK.
49:28
So I went to the barbecue and lo and behold, everybody's fine
49:30
with it. But I was really scared for a
49:32
second there, you know, because everyone looks so just over the
49:35
top together, but that's just how they look on Sunday, man,
49:38
That's Texas. And that's just weird me the
49:40
fuck out. Like I'd never seen anything
49:42
like that, you know? But that small town, Eastern
49:45
Texas for you. And so from there, I did another
49:48
18 hours straight to Tampa from there.
49:51
And it was like, by the time I got to to Florida and that warm
49:55
air is hitting you. It doesn't matter if you're that
49:58
tired and you've, you know, you're trying to keep yourself
50:00
awake, that warm air is good. It doesn't matter if it's
50:04
blowing your face, it's still going to make you want to pass
50:06
out. So after that, I think I slept
50:09
for a solid like another 18 hours after that.
50:12
It was one of the most intense Rd. trips I've ever done, but I
50:15
absolutely needed to do it. We're kindred spirits, man.
50:19
Let's get to where we're going now.
50:21
Yeah, fuck it, we're going. Yeah, I came back here from
50:24
Arizona for a two week vacation and almost 16 years later I'm
50:28
still here, so. Yeah.
50:30
That's how I operate as well. I got to stay.
50:35
Yeah. Well, yeah, for me, I, I had,
50:38
you know, I still knew that I had to deal with the the issues
50:42
that were still a part of me and how I got to the place of where
50:47
I was without anything that I'd been working for for the last
50:50
six or seven years or so. So I around in Tampa, there's a,
50:58
a large baseball community and I leaned into that.
51:02
I, I started playing baseball more and more.
51:05
So, you know, pitching and and working on all the different
51:08
types of pitches that I could throw, working on my curveball
51:11
and my change up and the circle change and trying to get every
51:14
different aspect that I could just get myself not focused on
51:20
playing music like I had been, but to grow into something more
51:25
than what I had been because that's when I needed to.
51:28
Be. Right.
51:30
Yeah. And how and how I did it was I,
51:33
I took all of everything that I had and that was going on and
51:39
put it into therapy and put it into baseball and slowly brought
51:43
myself back into mixing and slowly brought myself back into
51:46
playing just music whenever I really felt like I needed to.
51:50
So I really started connecting to it and not like making it
51:54
into something that I had to do, which is kind of what it was
51:58
looking at before we were signed to a sub major of Sony.
52:00
And like the the pressure of that was coming up from this
52:03
record was, you know, was big. It was a big deal for us.
52:09
But you know, we were expecting big things from it and it just
52:12
turned out to be a big it was end up getting kneecapped.
52:15
From There's a time when there's a time when you can't say I
52:19
don't want to play today, you know?
52:21
Yeah. If you're doing it
52:23
professionally, there's no calling in sick, there's no
52:26
saying I'm not going to do that gig, I'm not going to go to that
52:28
recording session. You have to.
52:30
That's your job. Right.
52:31
And I wanted to avoid that in myself.
52:33
I wanted to not build that habit.
52:36
I wanted to give myself the find the real connection that I have
52:41
to it in the growing person that I was becoming, the learned
52:43
person that I was becoming every day because I'm focusing on
52:46
being the eternal student all the time.
52:48
Just to make it fun to keep learning.
52:51
Yeah, so I took the time and I then I, I wrote and compiled and
52:55
recorded Aversion to Normalcy. But at the IT took me about
52:59
three years through the pandemic, I went to multiple
53:02
different and and even while aversion to normalcy was in its
53:07
infancy of, you know, just being tracks that I recorded and mixed
53:11
myself and I still knew they weren't good enough.
53:14
But at this time, I also went on a an open mic tour.
53:20
That was that's what I call it. But essentially I drove across
53:22
the country again and went to and stopped at open mikes
53:27
whenever I could just to meet as many different kinds of people I
53:30
could in who are trying to do the same kind of stuff as me.
53:34
And I ended up meeting some really, really awesome people
53:37
and seeing some really awesome music communities across the US.
53:40
And it gave me hope to realize that it's, we may just be feel
53:45
like we're in some kind of isolated pocket, but there is
53:48
truly when you're around all of the people who are really going
53:52
after the same thing that you are, it's really easy to become
53:55
inspired and. It's somebody else went through
53:59
what I went through, Right? Right.
54:01
And vice versa. Yeah.
54:02
I heard you say it, too. I went through the same thing,
54:04
just in a different way. Just to know that you're not
54:07
alone in knowing that you lost your mind, that you were put in
54:11
a position you never intended to be in it.
54:15
It helps to know that you're not the only one that's ever been
54:18
there. Right?
54:18
I felt like such a failure that I pretty much gave up more times
54:22
than I'd like to admit. But I'm still here so.
54:25
Right. Failure is just learning, you
54:28
know? Failure is truly if you learn
54:30
from it, then truly it's not a failure.
54:32
Well, I've always told my kids it's not how you follow, it's
54:34
how you get back up. Everybody follows, right?
54:37
Right. You know?
54:38
Absolutely. Yeah.
54:40
Yeah. And the more and more that that
54:41
instills into this in into everyone, including the younger
54:45
generation, the better the world is going to become.
54:47
Yep, Yep. So true, man, so true.
54:52
Yeah, so I knew that I had aversion to normalcy and and
54:58
after the working with Plaid Dog Records to create Instagram hell
55:04
and One Last Chance and One Last Chance is much more of like a
55:08
R&B kind of song that is very, very different from the majority
55:11
of the the quarantine stuff. But I wanted to create that R&B
55:16
kind of feel like we're using organ and shit, you know, like
55:19
we're, we really get into it, but we're still using a kind of,
55:24
I'm still adapting a, a rock lick into, into a more R&B kind
55:33
of setting with, with one last chance.
55:36
For me, it's, it's actually much more akin to The Beatles than it
55:38
is anything else because it's, it's so I, I highly recommend
55:44
people go and listen to it. But the newer music that we
55:47
released, Aversions to Normalcy, is when I decided to take.
55:52
I knew that what I had with Aversions to Normalcy wasn't
55:55
good enough. I knew that I didn't meet the
55:58
requirement that I needed for the music to be as good as it
56:03
possibly could be. I knew that I failed in that.
56:06
But I knew that if I took it to the right people, they could
56:09
make it what it needed to be. So I took it to Nashville and I
56:13
took it to Blackbird Studios and with Nathan Yarbrough, who has
56:19
done albums with Hailstorm, Evanescence, Alice In Chains,
56:28
Korn, like all of the the bands from like the I was, I was on a
56:35
show and I was like, they're like, they haven't music hasn't
56:37
really been, you know, haven't been meaning really good stuff
56:40
since like 2005. And I'm like, man, all of those
56:42
bands that that need to work with, they're all putting out
56:45
music. Yeah, past 2005.
56:47
So yeah, there's a ton of good. Music.
56:48
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like they, they really,
56:50
and they're really bringing it like all the time.
56:54
Yeah. Like Lizzy Yale is, is off the
56:56
charts with what she's able to do.
56:57
It's really, really impressive just to see her play live, but
57:00
let alone on the records, like it's, it's awesome.
57:03
So I knew that Nathan could capture everything that I'd be
57:07
trying to put it down because he's already done it before.
57:10
So when I brought it all to him and he was ready to go and I'd
57:14
already recorded this three or four times.
57:15
So I get in the studio and he's like, dude, you're 1, take Jake
57:18
all the time. Damn.
57:19
What? You know, what the hell is this?
57:21
We had set 4 hours to do guitars.
57:24
You'd knock them out in two. What the hell is the matter
57:25
with, you know, like, are we missing anything?
57:27
Like what, what's the matter with me?
57:29
You know? So it's very fun to to have
57:32
these, you know, to really sit with an expert who knows that
57:38
he's still, because he's still doing the same eternal student
57:42
kind of mentality that I am. And it was such a great thing to
57:46
to see the place that I was missing with mixing was really
57:52
just in my mentality and my approach.
57:54
It wasn't the technical knowledge.
57:55
I wasn't thinking about all of the different elements of a mix.
58:00
And it was so great to see that I was much closer than I thought
58:05
that I was, you know, But I still know and know that any
58:09
great record that I'm going to put out, I'm going to use Nathan
58:14
or somebody of his excellence or better.
58:16
You know, it's, it's got to be that way so that the quality
58:20
remains that high. But I'm still going to try and
58:24
I'm still going to be working on my album Bedroom Ink, which is
58:27
all an album of covers. But it's something that we that
58:30
we put our own spin on these different covers.
58:33
And so I'm mixing them myself. I'm starting to bring them up
58:36
into it, you know, so to, to be ready to go.
58:39
So we've got aversion to normalcy.
58:40
We did A and once that album came out, we had a really crazy
58:44
response. We just crossed a million
58:46
streams where the album as a whole.
58:49
Congratulations man, that's amazing, that is.
58:51
Thank you. Thank you.
58:52
Yeah, it, we went through a, a, you know, a few different
58:55
avenues to try and build up the streams.
58:58
And what I've, what I've come to find with these numbers is that
59:02
it's more of a reflection of your marketing efforts and less
59:06
of how good your art really is. There's a lot of times that
59:10
musicians think that because I don't have a lot of fans right
59:13
now, that says something about the value of my art and it truly
59:17
does Not at all, not anymore. And you really need to stop
59:20
doing that to yourself if you're doing that to yourself.
59:23
I found that the numbers now a reflection of the marketing
59:26
efforts that you put into it. And a lot of times that's
59:28
marketing money. That's why the numbers for these
59:32
other artists are so high is because they have they.
59:33
Spend the money budgets. Yeah.
59:36
So there are ways in which you can go about doing it your own
59:39
self, but it's also important to adjust your expectations when
59:41
you do that. Because I've done it both I've
59:44
done, I've tried to release a record on my own and do it on my
59:46
own. And then I've paid subject
59:48
matter experts to place it and where it needs to be and to do
59:51
the things that it needs to do so that the algorithm works.
59:53
Not just what I think should happen, right?
59:57
Not just how I think it should look, but what the algorithm
59:59
needs it to look like so that it gives it to everybody else.
1:00:03
And when you just sort of. Take that sort of adjustment to
1:00:06
it instead of I'm giving up all my creative freedom.
1:00:10
Then it becomes a lot more palatable when the good things
1:00:13
start happening and then a lot of people start seeing it.
1:00:16
So that was a, a fun journey to go on my own to start realizing
1:00:19
that the, the authenticity that I have of who I am can transfer
1:00:26
into this medium of social media, even though it seems like
1:00:29
it can't or it won't. I'm not exactly like, you know,
1:00:33
some of the best streamers. So that obviously means I don't
1:00:35
have a place. That's not how the shit works
1:00:37
either. You can forge your own place
1:00:40
when you go about doing it the right way.
1:00:42
Cuz there's a process to everything, Sure.
1:00:45
So once I took that mentality and with this record has pointed
1:00:48
me and orientated me in that direction, I've started to open
1:00:51
up a whole bunch of different avenues to make creation work
1:00:56
for me so that it stimulates the revenue streams.
1:01:00
And then when I control all of the revenue streams, then that
1:01:03
becomes an artist centric business model instead of the
1:01:07
artist bottom business model, which is we feed up everything
1:01:11
to everybody up there and they take our records and they take
1:01:14
all of the the lion's share and give us what's left.
1:01:18
So when we control the the levers of of command,
1:01:23
essentially, yeah, the levers of power in this way for ourselves,
1:01:28
yeah, truly in the music industry, that's when we truly
1:01:31
become free and independent. That's fantastic.
1:01:34
That's cool. We got to have you back on on a
1:01:36
Friday, man. There's I can just tell we could
1:01:39
talk to you for like 3 hours, like it's 20 minutes.
1:01:42
We'll. Expand on these stories some
1:01:44
more. Yeah, we are limited on
1:01:46
Tuesdays. Yeah.
1:01:46
So look at tell. Everybody again, where they what
1:01:49
your latest releases are? Yes.
1:01:52
They can find him. They can find him on Spotify,
1:01:54
they can find him on all streaming services, but mainly
1:01:58
the Spotify 1. You can find us on the the
1:02:01
quarantine.bandcamp.com. We're on band camp as well.
1:02:05
So you can, you know, pay for the albums there, give us
1:02:08
donations, tips, anything like that.
1:02:11
It's all very much appreciated. And streaming we're on, you
1:02:14
know, social medias, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook
1:02:18
at. Yeah.
1:02:19
And then obviously the quarantine.com is your website
1:02:22
and all the social media links are on your website as well,
1:02:24
correct? Yes, absolutely.
1:02:27
Yeah. And obviously YouTube channel,
1:02:28
etcetera. Yes, cool.
1:02:32
Right on, I found Martin at the corner.
1:02:34
Are you subscribing? To all those.
1:02:35
Right after this, yeah. We'll get all that subscribed
1:02:38
and, and give you props and, you know, and then I'll shoot you an
1:02:40
e-mail with Fridays and you pick a Friday that works for you and
1:02:43
we'll we'll get you back on and go down deeper down the rabbit
1:02:47
hole of Sean Martin in the quarantine.
1:02:50
Yeah. That sounds awesome.
1:02:51
Dude really enjoyed talking to you brother.
1:02:52
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
1:02:54
Yeah. And the parts that I was
1:02:55
available to, to be present, I enjoyed it as well.
1:02:57
I just, I looked at the clock. Holy shit, it's like that.
1:03:02
We wrap up every show like this, which I'm sure I'll appreciate
1:03:04
considering where you've come from.
1:03:06
If you're feeling suicidal, depressed, don't do it.
1:03:08
Go for a run, go jog, go journal, go scream in a pillow.
1:03:10
Go find somebody to talk to you. If you cannot find somebody to
1:03:13
talk to you, text 988. Someone is there waiting to talk
1:03:16
to you, to help help you change your mindset, talk you off that
1:03:19
ledge, get you off that Cliff. Tomorrow is a much better day
1:03:22
with you in it. Don't leave a hole in somebody
1:03:23
else's heart because you decide to leave the world before you
1:03:26
should. For the Chris and Mike show, I'm
1:03:28
Chris. He's Mike.
1:03:29
This is Sean Mart of the quarantine thequarantine.com.
1:03:31
Go check him out, go buy his music, go follow him on all his
1:03:35
socials. We're going to have a back on
1:03:36
the show go a little deeper dive into his life resume, which by
1:03:40
the way, we've just touched on just a portion of.
1:03:43
Lost the surface. It's just, I mean, I'm excited
1:03:46
to have you back and just have more of an in depth conversation
1:03:49
with you because I just imagine everybody came back to that was
1:03:52
too short, that was too short and get him back.
1:03:54
So I'll get you back, absolutely.
1:03:56
Yeah, thank you so much for having.
1:03:58
Me truly, truly appreciate your time and again, I'm sorry I had
1:04:00
to bounce a couple times with, you know, the damn irrigated
1:04:02
lot. You have to, you know, be
1:04:03
responsible so you don't flood your neighbors out.
1:04:05
God forbid. It's all good, brother, it's all
1:04:09
good. Until next time we'll see you
1:04:11
peace. Love you brother.
1:04:13
Peace, love you too man. Thanks, Sean.
1:04:15
Much love.