Latest / Corpus Christi Originals Podcast / #7 | Tony Valdez

Transcript

#7 | Tony Valdez · Corpus Christi Originals Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: What's going on y'all?
0:01
SPEAKER_00: His Suke's with the Corpus Christi Originals podcast.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Tony Valdez.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Tony is a touring recording bassist, a session bassist.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: He plays for several brands, and that's what he does for a living.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: We get into a little bit about his story and just have a conversation.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: This son you're interested interested in listening to, stay tuned.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Alright, welcome to the show, Tony.
0:25
SPEAKER_02: Right on, man.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Awesome, bro.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: So uh how did you come upon the brand?
0:30
SPEAKER_02: Um, man, probably spending too much time on my phone.
0:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, um I'll I'll take like Mondays off and I'll just it's it's stuck to my hand most of the day, and I'm just you know scrolling and uh man, I just came across it off of Instagram and I was like, shit, I gotta have that hoodie.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: I gotta have it.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: That's funny, bro.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Cause when I I was looking for people to like get like when I first started, I was looking for people to like give it out to, you know what I mean, just to get the brand awareness.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: And then uh I gave it, I gave you that one, and then you're like, hey, I'll I'll get another one for my for my wife or something, right?
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: I was like, hell yeah, let's go, you know.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: So that was pretty cool, man.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: And I noticed that you like uh just the type of stuff you were wearing because uh like the Sullen, like oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: That's the are you endorsed by them by any chance?
1:20
SPEAKER_02: No, no, I just I'm just a fan.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: That's what's up, man.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: So uh which schools did you go to here in Corpus?
1:26
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, I started off at Crockett Elementary School and then moved over to Martin.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh it was Martin Junior High, not Martin Middle School back in I'm old.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: And and then uh to Moody.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Right on, bro.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: Congrats on the beard, by the way.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: You got you got the stash last time.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, dude.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: It just uh, you know, I go through phases and it's like I get tired of it and I don't trim it, and then when I eat, there's all you know, all the it's man, it's a big mess, and then I then I shave it and then I miss it.
1:57
SPEAKER_02: You know, so it's it's a it's a love hate.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: That's what's up, bro.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got yeah, I I can't do the full one.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: I get patches and stuff, so it's like it's just right here for me.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's crazy, man.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: So you went to you went to Moody, uh, so class of 70.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: 93.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: 93?
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Oh 70.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, bro.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: I didn't think that 93, man.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: That's what's uh bro.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: So did you play bass?
2:21
SPEAKER_00: So you're um so you're like a traveling bassist or a session basist?
2:24
SPEAKER_00: What do you call yourself?
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Um man, I I I do sessions.
2:28
SPEAKER_02: Um you know, I travel, I I pretty much tour every but with different folks.
2:34
SPEAKER_02: Um uh I've been uh I've got like two or three bands that I work with um full time, and then I just you know I try to schedule like pick up gigs in between when I can, or um, you know, however that works.
2:49
SPEAKER_02: That that's that's where I'm at right now.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: Um a few years back I was just touring, you know, full time before you know all the the Rona hit.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: So so y'all got hit pretty hard with that?
3:01
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, dude.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: Everything just stopped.
3:04
SPEAKER_02: You know, everything just stopped for all of us.
3:07
SPEAKER_02: All you know, it don't matter if you're playing in a bar band or you're playing with a you know a stadium, you know, Van Halen or whoever, everything stopped, man, for everybody.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Wow, bro.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: It was so did you have to get like a uh like another type of job, or I mean, how how did that hit you financially?
3:24
SPEAKER_02: Man, um, you know, I I I I was delivering uh stuff for a little bit, uh doing like a uh grub hub and stuff like that, but it that was still kind of sketch, you know, people want to deliver it, give it to my, you know, hand it to me.
3:39
SPEAKER_02: I was like, nah, man, I can't do that.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: So okay.
3:42
SPEAKER_02: You know, I got uh I did unemployment for a little bit.
3:45
SPEAKER_02: Luckily, you know, I've you know, even though I'm a musician, it's still work and I I report all my taxes, you know.
3:52
SPEAKER_02: I I try to keep it legit as I can.
3:54
SPEAKER_02: So that helped a little bit.
3:56
SPEAKER_02: And uh man, it just slowly opened up, you know.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Until so Texas was like one of the first to open up.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Wow, man.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: So so you are are you on like a 1099?
4:10
SPEAKER_00: So how do you pay Texas for being a musician?
4:12
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of interesting.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm uh I'm a uh it I it's contract work, so I yeah, I get my 1099s from you know whoever wants the 1099 me.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Wow, bro, that's awesome.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: So when did you start playing uh bass, guitar?
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Did you choose bass at first?
4:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh no, actually, um I started playing piano when I was little.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: My parents had a big old piano in uh in their shop.
4:36
SPEAKER_02: And uh man, I just get on that thing and just make all kinds of noise, dude.
4:40
SPEAKER_02: And luckily they didn't stop me.
4:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they said, keep on here, keep going.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: So did they did they play at all?
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh well obviously they had a piano in their shop.
4:51
SPEAKER_02: No, mostly my my dad played guitar a little bit, uh nothing crazy.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: You know, he was you know the daytime job, you know, but he just kind of fiddled with it, and uh you know, I just played just I wouldn't call play piano, I just messed with the piano for years, and then uh I took uh I took piano at Martin in seventh grade, and man, I didn't start playing bass till I was 22.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: So what I so was it piano all the way until then, and then you just said, hey, I gotta do the bass now, or what's up with that?
5:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, it was piano.
5:27
SPEAKER_02: I I I tried to play guitar.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: Well, I pretended like I knew how to play guitar, you know, and uh and then uh a buddy of mine calls and says, Hey man, uh there's this band, and uh they need a a bass player.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to go?
5:41
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna play guitar.
5:43
SPEAKER_02: And uh I got all offended.
5:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm not a bass player, dude.
5:46
SPEAKER_02: Whatever, and I hung up on you.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Damn.
5:49
SPEAKER_02: I was I'm mad, right?
5:50
SPEAKER_02: And uh I call him back.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: I was like, man, I'll give it a shot.
5:56
SPEAKER_02: You know, we'll see what happens.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
5:58
SPEAKER_02: And it was all downhill from there.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh, dude.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Like it's like you were pissed off at first, and you're like, no, you second thought it, man.
6:07
SPEAKER_02: And then now Yeah, I was like, I'll give it a I'll I'll try it.
6:10
SPEAKER_02: You know, we'll see, we'll see how it goes.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so was it much different from playing the guitar?
6:15
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah, way different.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: Um you know, uh, I've noticed now, like guitar players, man, you can drop out and stuff will still happen, you know.
6:25
SPEAKER_02: It's cool.
6:26
SPEAKER_02: The bass drops out, and it's like gotcha what happened, you know.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: Wow, so it's kind of like the backbone of the music, like the guitar.
6:34
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah, we're we're we're the glue.
6:36
SPEAKER_02: We're the glue.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: So would you say that drummers are part of that glue?
6:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Right on.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: So did you learn uh music theory at all?
6:46
SPEAKER_00: Or did you, I mean, how did you do that?
6:48
SPEAKER_02: Man, I just taught myself.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: I just taught myself.
6:50
SPEAKER_02: I'd sit at home and uh just try to pick up songs, try to learn songs and try to hear parts and try to, you know, figure out how it went, you know, back in the day with you know cassettes and stuff.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh which bat what were you listening to at most at that time?
7:05
SPEAKER_02: Oh, dude.
7:06
SPEAKER_02: Um Iron Maiden.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:09
SPEAKER_02: You know, a bunch of maiden uh uh candle mask, you know, a bunch of dark, like heavy stuff, you know, uh stuff like that, uh uh misfits, I mean all kinds of stuff.
7:21
SPEAKER_02: Sade.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: Oh you know, there's I mean, there's a huge, like weird spectrum of stuff that I listen uh listened to.
7:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh my first vinyl that my parents got me was James Brown.
7:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh, wow.
7:34
SPEAKER_02: Vinyl, bro.
7:35
SPEAKER_02: It was the please, please, please album, and uh and then shortly after that one, they got me a Billy Joel album.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Wow, man.
7:42
SPEAKER_02: You know, so here I am, like four or five years old, you know, listening to James Brown and stuff like that.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's cool.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: So your so your pants gave you that kind of stuff.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: So the other heavy stuff you got from maybe like friends and stuff like that?
7:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, just hearing friends and you know, seeing seeing all my all my buddies and like draw stuff on their book covers.
8:03
SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh, what's the Iron Maiden?
8:05
SPEAKER_02: What is that?
8:05
SPEAKER_02: You know, Metallica, Mira, what is all right, yeah.
8:09
SPEAKER_02: I'll check it out, whatever.
8:11
SPEAKER_02: So that's how that happened.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how so have you been using the word corpitos for a long time?
8:17
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, dude.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, as as far as back as I can remember.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: For real.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Did you so did you learn that from your parents or just like uh family members, or what?
8:25
SPEAKER_02: I've made just you know, friends, family members, you know, they're just a slang you hear here and there.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right on.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: I had heard it from uh from my cousins, uh shoot man, I don't know how long ago.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: And uh and when I was making it this is a funny story, I was making the brand, I was like, hey, is it offensive to use cuerpitos on shirts?
8:42
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
8:43
SPEAKER_00: It's like hell no, bro.
8:45
SPEAKER_02: Nah, man.
8:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh-uh.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: So I just got over that hump.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: I was like, can we just make it?
8:49
SPEAKER_00: And then the shark, I found out about the shark, like that.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: That's like a like a thing, you know.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty cool, man.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, so you're you're you got into music early on.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: You started bass at 22, at 22, right?
9:03
SPEAKER_00: And then piano since five.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: So now you're playing like all kinds of music.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh oh, yeah.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: Do you do you find it difficult transitioning from one genre to the next?
9:13
SPEAKER_02: Just you know, um, man, not not anymore.
9:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, I'm I'm 46 now, and uh man, I I've kind of dipped my hands in almost almost everything.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean, not all of it, but um it it's still a learning process, you know.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: You have to uh you can't fake it, you can't just play bass and then pick up a reggae gig.
9:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, out of nowhere.
9:40
SPEAKER_02: You have to uh at least for me, you know, you have to immerse yourself in that music and only listen to that.
9:48
SPEAKER_02: Like if I pick my first gig ever, my first real gig was with the reggae band.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
9:53
SPEAKER_02: You know, I have been playing bass for like six months, maybe.
9:58
SPEAKER_02: And then the uh the drummer, I met the drummer and I was like, man, yeah, I I'll try it.
10:04
SPEAKER_02: But man, I went home and just try to find as much reggae as I could and just dove right in.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: Wow, bro.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty cool, man.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta know different genres.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: So would you say that that makes a a good bass player to know a bunch of different genres?
10:20
SPEAKER_02: Yes, uh, it'll definitely keep you working.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
10:24
SPEAKER_02: You know, um, I mean, I'm I mean, the the majority of my income has been coming from country music.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Wow, okay.
10:34
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, but there's like rock.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: Um man, they're just some heavy stuff that I was doing a while back.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: Um some some of that rock, that like heavy rock stuff I did with uh Thunder Rosa, uh, you know, out of Austin.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: Um anything I can get my hands on, I just I just want to play.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: I saw I saw a uh there was a post on I don't think it was a post, I think it was like a thing where you put all your information up for people to want to uh call you for gigs and stuff, right?
11:04
SPEAKER_00: And you had a I think there was a list of bands on there, it was like some 20 bands, bro, on there.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: You still you remember that?
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh I I think the one of the biggest ones I saw uh was uh like ZC Top or something like that.
11:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I did.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: Um, I was touring with a guitar player out of Dallas um named Lance Lopez, and uh we were in Europe.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: We did uh we did a few dates at like Luxembourg and Spain and some other spots with Z Top.
11:34
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, Rod Stewart.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: We got to play with Rod Stewart.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Wow, man, that's awesome.
11:41
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, it's it's it's been a fun ride, man.
11:43
SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: So you've been to Europe, man.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: What's that like?
11:47
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, it's totally it's just such a huge culture shock.
11:54
SPEAKER_02: You know, uh the biggest thing for me is like when we go out, you know, we you go eat or whatever, you tip somebody, you tip the waiter, you know.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: Over there, if you tip them, they get offended.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: You know, because they're the way they see it is hey, I'm getting paid really good for this.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: I don't need your charity.
12:13
SPEAKER_02: I don't need this, you know.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: At least that's the way it was, you know, when I was there, you know, 10 12 years ago.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so you said Lux uh Luxembourg?
12:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man, Luxembourg, uh, some of the first spots we hit were in like Eastern Europe.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: Um we were like the first band to play in Eastern Europe um after those spots had gotten out of Soviet rule.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
12:39
SPEAKER_02: So what that meant was like if you were in a if you were starting a band there and like say Romania, we did we we were a month in Romania.
12:50
SPEAKER_02: If you started a band there, you had to submit a list of tunes to the government so they could go over it, and then they would get it back to you with the tunes that they approved of that you could play.
13:04
SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, but now you know they're out of under all of that, so uh man, they were just getting they just wanted to get their hands on whatever they could, and we were like the first ones there, right on.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: So, what style of music was that y'all were playing?
13:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, blues, blues, blues.
13:22
SPEAKER_02: Believe it or not, blues are like it was more like a heavy rock blues, okay.
13:26
SPEAKER_02: Um, but man, and especially from Texas, dude, they lost their minds.
13:30
SPEAKER_02: It was crazy.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, hell yeah.
13:32
SPEAKER_02: It was crazy.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: So, did they introduce y'all like these boys are from Texas?
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, man.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: It's awesome, bro.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: Are you so are you proud to live in Texas?
13:42
SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely, absolutely, man.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: You know, we uh we had planned to move to Oregon.
13:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I was living up there for a little bit, and uh, you know, mom my mom went into surgery, so I came back and man, it's just it's home.
13:57
SPEAKER_02: I can't leave here.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Right on, bro, right on.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: And so you you moved to Austin for a minute.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Is there a reason why is that involved in uh I guess with what you do?
14:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, yeah, I just figured, you know, there's there's the a bigger music scene up there.
14:12
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, I tried it for years, and uh it's cool, you know, there's a lot of great players there, but uh it's almost impossible to make money, you know, unless you're doing you unless you're playing like a corporate band or you know, something like that.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: Um it's almost impossible to play full time.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: So, and that's because there's there's a a flood of musicians, everybody's trying to do the same thing.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: It's just a just a huge, it's just saturated with you know musicians.
14:43
SPEAKER_02: And I mean, you can go out every night of the week and you're seeing a band and you're seeing you know a different band play, and people there, people just want to get out and play, and they'll play for nothing.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right on.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: So when you wear your corpus hat out there, do people ask you what that means?
15:00
SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely, yeah, yeah, dude.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've had a few, and uh I've had I even had a few like, hey, check it out.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: I just bought some of those hats.
15:08
SPEAKER_02: You know, they'll show me the look.
15:09
SPEAKER_02: I just placed an order.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: I was like, sweet, man.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: Nice, bro.
15:13
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Nesky.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, cool, man.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: All right, cool.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: So let me see, full time aside.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh okay.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: So you're endorsed by well, how do you say the amp name that you're endorsed by?
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Um Ike.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Ike.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what do you like about them?
15:32
SPEAKER_02: Um man, they've always been super cool with me.
15:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, uh my rep will call me just to hey, how's it going?
15:40
SPEAKER_02: You know, uh they were always checking when uh when Harvey hit, you know, they were calling me, hey man, do you need anything?
15:47
SPEAKER_02: Are you cool?
15:48
SPEAKER_02: You know, how how are things?
15:50
SPEAKER_02: And wow, um just you know, that rapport that you have with with the company.
15:55
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's for me, it was hard to find.
15:58
SPEAKER_02: You know, and uh man, they hook it up.
16:01
SPEAKER_02: The amps just they just hit they hit so hard, you know.
16:05
SPEAKER_02: They pretty much do whatever I need them to do.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Dude, so uh so what do you look for?
16:10
SPEAKER_00: So what do you look for when that because I'm looking at your rig and you have you got a speaker and then you got the head, and then on the right side you got another little, what is that, like another wolfer or something like that?
16:22
SPEAKER_02: Um, well, I have two of those big cabinets, and uh, you know, sometimes I'll get lazy and I'll just take one and that other little cabinet, yeah.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: And so the big one has two 12s in it, and the little one has a single 12, and uh man, I'll just run those together.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: And I just haven't had a uh that big of a venue to take the whole thing out.
16:43
SPEAKER_02: I'll take like one cabinet, you know, usually it's just one, you know, yeah, right on.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And you got a bunch of knobs on there, like uh, so I was looking at you had a post about like some kind of preamp that's coming out.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: I forgot what it was called.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh what's uh what is it?
16:59
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: What's the function of a preamp?
17:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh the preamp is basically shaping your tone.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: Uh the preamp is gonna, if I'm not mistaken, the preamp is just gonna give you um your shaping capabilities for like uh it's gonna it's gonna help you boost you know all your your EQ, and that's where all the stuff is set.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so boost your EQ, so like give it more volume, not more volume, right?
17:25
SPEAKER_02: No, the volume is coming from your power amp.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: So you have your power section and that drives the preamp.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: The preamp sits in front of that, as far as like on the board.
17:35
SPEAKER_02: So the power pushes all that, and that you know, your EQ, your gain stage, and all that stuff, that's in the preamp.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the better the preamp, the louder it gets, that it'll it'll keep that tone, the louder it's oh yeah, yeah.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: Okay, some amps, man, you know, um the louder you get with them, uh man, they'll break up, they'll start farting, you know, it just they they can't keep up.
18:01
SPEAKER_02: And that's one thing with with Ike.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: Um man, mm-hmm.
18:07
SPEAKER_02: I've thrown everything at it, and it's just like it doesn't even break a sweat.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: Yo, that's what's up, bro.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: Is it a tube amp?
18:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh no, it's all it's all digital.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: Um it's got it's got two power amps in it, so I can do like a thousand watts if I want, or I can split it and go bridged, and you know, two 500 watt channels if you know, it just so many options.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: That's cool, man.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: So were you looking for were you looking for them to get endorsed by them?
18:34
SPEAKER_02: I mean um I was previously with another company and uh man, I just had some problems with one of the amps, and the customer service got kind of kind of shady, I guess.
18:48
SPEAKER_02: So I had reached out to a buddy of mine, and um I was asking him about Ike because um my rep now, you know, we're buddies on Facebook.
19:00
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we'd we're always you know kind of sending each other stupid memes and whatever and just chatting, you know, throughout the day.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, yeah, I wasn't with the company, we were just like you know, buddies.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: Right.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: And uh he would tease me and he's like, hey man, you know, uh whenever you're ready to come over here, you know.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: I was like, Yeah, well, you know, we'll see.
19:23
SPEAKER_02: Because I mean I was digging that other company, but you know, once the customer service got all weird, I'm like, nah, I can't, you know, that's just you know, but so just the customer service was like, nah, I can't do it.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, it's just it's that's a big thing for you.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it has to if it's gotta be there, it's gotta be there.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: So do you look I mean, is it like customer service, like with different types of stuff too, or like say you go to like a red, like a jalisco or something and uh service sucks?
19:51
SPEAKER_00: Like does that do you suck does that suck to you too?
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely, yeah, man.
19:57
SPEAKER_02: You know, uh uh this funny story, real quick.
20:01
SPEAKER_02: I took uh we a couple of us went out to the Republic of Texas, that fancy restaurant one time.
20:08
SPEAKER_02: This was years ago, and uh man, we got sat, we waited at the table for like 45 minutes, and nobody was coming around here.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: I'm all this is a fancy restaurant, you know, you wouldn't expect that, right?
20:22
SPEAKER_02: And uh man, all the waiters and waitresses were like hitting this 12 top behind us.
20:27
SPEAKER_02: So there's like 12, 15 people behind us, and they're bringing out wine and whatever.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on, bro.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, hey man, so they took our drink order another 20 minutes.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: They come back and they ask, you know, if we're gonna order anything, they bring out the food, we never saw anybody again.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Come on, yeah.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: That's yeah, it's just it's a bit for me, it's a big deal for me, you know.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: Right, you know, because it's like it's like you're like it's kind of like your job, like not your job, but like it's your job.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Like just do, I don't know.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: That sucks, man.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: To have that kind of service, and then you're just so do you think you think that's uh has some part to do with maybe how we how we look?
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Or is it just because in that case it seemed like it was more like it was just a crowd of people and they could get paid more than that?
21:14
SPEAKER_02: No, I oh man.
21:16
SPEAKER_02: I uh yeah, I think it's more of a visual thing.
21:19
SPEAKER_02: I mean, not not to take it there, but yes, it is.
21:22
SPEAKER_02: I I I I absolutely think it is.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: Right on, man.
21:25
SPEAKER_02: Being in the in the music business, and then playing in in the country bands that I have played in, and being around certain areas where you're the only brown dude.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: That's like if if I wasn't in the band, then I'd be in trouble.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: Crazy, bro.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: You you kind of have like an accent, a small accent country accent, and I can hear it.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's there.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: It's there.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: It's coming on now.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: It's all good, bro.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was wondering.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: So, do they could do they ever ask you, like, hey, uh, which part of Mexico are you from?
21:59
SPEAKER_02: Oh, dude, no.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Not even that.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: When I had the beard, when I had the full beard, it's like, well, what are you?
22:06
SPEAKER_02: Oh.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, I don't know.
22:11
SPEAKER_02: I just say I don't know.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: So you just let it roll.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: You gotta let it roll off, right?
22:16
SPEAKER_00: You can't.
22:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I it don't bother me, man.
22:19
SPEAKER_02: It takes a lot to offend me.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: I mean, whatever.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's kind of like we grew up with that.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: I I would say that we kind of grew up like learning that, you know?
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: That's out there.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I don't know.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Just the way that I learned is like just do your job, do it good, do it well.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
22:38
SPEAKER_00: You'll be invited back.
22:40
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
22:40
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
22:41
SPEAKER_02: That's you know, uh, that's the same thing with my playing.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: If I don't do my homework, if I don't learn the music, you know, I'll get the job, sure, they'll pay me.
22:49
SPEAKER_02: But I won't get called back.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: You know, if I want to keep working, you know, I gotta stay on it.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: You gotta stay on it for sure, man.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: So you got a little puppy here.
22:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:58
SPEAKER_02: What's his name?
22:59
SPEAKER_02: What Milo.
23:01
SPEAKER_02: Nice.
23:01
SPEAKER_02: Well, he's got a bunch of names.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: He's uh his name's Milo.
23:04
SPEAKER_02: We call him Tater.
23:06
SPEAKER_02: Um we call it, we call him Patata.
23:10
SPEAKER_02: This lady, uh, one of our neighbors in the in the apartment complex, she came out one morning and she goes, Oh, hi, Tata.
23:19
unknown: It's like, what the fuck?
23:21
SPEAKER_02: So that turned into Tata, and then it turned into Patata.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
23:25
SPEAKER_02: So he's got a bunch of names.
23:27
SPEAKER_02: He's he's he's a handful, man.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: And the cat, so you got a cat too today to get along?
23:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh we got him and two cats.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Two cats?
23:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we had a stray.
23:36
SPEAKER_02: We had a stray here in the complex, just kind of pulled up and took over.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we got a bunch over here, man.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh my wife and my wife, like my wife loves animals, so we got them out here.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: So you got two cats that the does a dog try to eat the cat.
23:50
SPEAKER_02: Man, they all they all sleep together.
23:52
SPEAKER_02: They're it's it's they're all they're all you know compilers now.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they chilling out.
23:58
SPEAKER_02: So that worked out, thank god.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: That's what's up, bro.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: So you like Nike Air?
24:02
SPEAKER_00: What's up with that?
24:03
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, it's it's I'm addicted.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: You're addicted?
24:07
SPEAKER_02: I'm addicted, man.
24:08
SPEAKER_02: My my uh my brother-in-law got me uh got me into it, and it's all his fault.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: Because he sells uh he sells the shoes, you know.
24:16
SPEAKER_02: He uh he'll he'll get in the raffles and you know, he'll get different sizes for whatever and it's you know, sell them in his little online stores.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so he sells them online?
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Dude, that's what's up.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: So he sells like what like vintage types and stuff?
24:30
SPEAKER_02: Or uh just man, all Nikes, Jordans, you know, the the Yeezys.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the stuff is gonna make you money.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you know, or or if you're looking for a particular something, you know, he's got a he's got a line on a bunch of different folks that that have him also.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: So uh we're a size 13, so that's hard to find.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: So 13.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: So how tall are you?
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Six foot?
24:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, six foot.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Right on.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you shouting us out on uh this one of your latest posts.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh yeah, dude.
25:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the least I could do.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome, man.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: What kind of bass are you rocking?
25:07
SPEAKER_02: Um, right now I have a F bass.
25:10
SPEAKER_02: Um, they're out of Canada.
25:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh.
25:12
SPEAKER_02: Um man, that that thing has been my go-to since since I got it like two years ago.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, why do you do the five string?
25:20
SPEAKER_02: Huh?
25:20
SPEAKER_00: How come you decided to go with the five stringer?
25:23
SPEAKER_02: Um, man, that was uh that's kind of what I learned on.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: Um if if I man, if you put a four string in my hand, I'd get lost.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
25:32
SPEAKER_02: It's weird, it's kind of like a weird mental block.
25:35
SPEAKER_02: Um, I can do it, but I prefer just to have my my five on there.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: So do you prefer because I mean do you do you use it a lot or do you use it mostly like to to rest and rest on and then pluck?
25:48
SPEAKER_02: Man, I use it a bunch.
25:49
SPEAKER_02: I use it a bunch.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: You'd be surprised at how many country songs have that low B and low D in their in their songs, yeah.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Right on, bro.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: So you use the B and the D mostly and not the C.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: So I think C would be like Spanish music, huh?
26:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that low C, maybe.
26:04
SPEAKER_02: You know, maybe it's it's kind of low, it's kind of too low for a lot of stuff.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh, right on, man.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: Cool.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: So how often do you restring it?
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Do you restring it much, or how do you, I mean, when you do that?
26:15
SPEAKER_02: Man, I try I try to do it if you know if I'm working a bunch, it'll be like maybe twice a month.
26:21
SPEAKER_02: Um, or depending on how broke I am, you know, maybe once a month.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Right on.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: You know.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: So are you so you and uh you and your wife are too the all, I mean, uh, what's up there?
26:36
SPEAKER_02: Um she puts up with me.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she puts up with your so do you play in the house and she puts up with it?
26:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, actually, I practice.
26:45
SPEAKER_02: I mean, she works all day.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, I'll be out or I'll I'll get up when she gets up, and uh you know, I'll practice, but I have my little headphone practice and nobody hears me.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you guys been together long?
26:58
SPEAKER_02: Oh, dude.
26:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, we're gonna get so much trouble.
27:05
SPEAKER_02: Uh 11 years?
27:07
SPEAKER_02: Married for 10.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh, right on.
27:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she's she's been through, man, we've seen so much bullshit together.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, dude, that's what's up.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: It's like she ride or die, you know what I mean?
27:18
SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely.
27:18
SPEAKER_02: She, yeah, like I said, she puts up with it.
27:20
SPEAKER_02: She done uh there's no you need to get a real job.
27:24
SPEAKER_02: Oh anything like that, like my first marriage.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh, bro.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: So you this is number two for you?
27:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: Wow, bro.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: And was that so was that an issue?
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
27:36
SPEAKER_02: There was uh there was a lot of crazy uh you know, crazy drama because you know, uh she didn't want me to have anything to do with music.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, it was weird.
27:49
SPEAKER_02: She couldn't do what she wanted to do, so she didn't want me doing what I wanted.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so it was like a self, a selfish thing, man.
27:55
SPEAKER_02: That's uh that's a bunch of resentment there, yeah.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that sucks, bro.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: But that's pretty cool that your your wife now she encourages you, man.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: It's it's kind of like that's what you got from your family before you got before, and that's that's what you needed to go, and now you're making money doing it.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, dude.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: You know, paying bills and that that support helps, and support helps a lot.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, bro.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: Would you say would you say that it's uh it's a pretty good uh amount of pay uh yearly?
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, do you get paid pretty good?
28:24
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, yeah, we could, you know, we're we're we're comfy, we're not, we're not loaded.
28:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right up, you know, but uh you know, we're getting by.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: We're paying bills and making rent.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Tony Valdez, your last name is Valdez.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, I have a cousin named Tony Valdez.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, it's funny, bro.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: You might you might know him.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: The Valdels is his name is Tony Valdez, and he's got a brother, uh Ralph, Martin, and Isaac.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: And they're all Valdez.
28:52
SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, yeah.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: And I had a cousin named Tony Vald uh Tony Tony had a son, his name was Tony Valdez Jr.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, yeah, and it's it's kind of sad because when I was I was researching you, I was trying to research on some info about you, you know, before we came on, and I searched uh Tony Valdez Corpus Christi and then uh my little cousin, which is uh he he passed away.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: His name is Tony Valdez, and I was like, Oh, sad, you know what I mean?
29:19
SPEAKER_00: So I had to research anyway, anyway.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: What's your wife's last name?
29:23
SPEAKER_02: What's that?
29:24
SPEAKER_00: What's your wife's last name?
29:26
SPEAKER_02: Uh Macias.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: Macias, okay, cool, man.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you coming on, bro.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: What do you have anything coming up?
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Any gigs coming up?
29:34
SPEAKER_02: Man, nothing local.
29:36
SPEAKER_02: We uh this weekend, this coming weekend, well, next weekend, I guess I should say.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh the eighth and ninth, we're in San Antonio.
29:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm not sure where.
29:47
SPEAKER_02: And then uh the 10th, which is Sunday, will be in Fort Hood.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Fort Hood.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: So who does your scheduling for you?
29:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, the singer does all of it.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: Wow, cool.
29:57
SPEAKER_02: They just call and tell me, hey, well, I have to call them sometimes and remind them.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: You know what uh what's the name of the band?
30:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh the Isaac Jacob band.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: Is that the the rock blues band?
30:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh that was a country band.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: The country band, yeah, that's right.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
30:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, them and then uh man, I work a bunch with this cat named Austin Gillam.
30:15
SPEAKER_02: He's in New Bromfels.
30:16
SPEAKER_02: So I, you know, a lot, I work a lot out there as well.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: So do you have to drive out there to practice or do you all like I mean, how do y'all how y'all get together?
30:23
SPEAKER_02: Man, if it's out if if it's with that, if it's with Austin, uh he'll just send me the music.
30:31
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'll just show up, I'll you know, do my homework, everybody else knows it.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh, if we have like a new drummer or something, I'll go up super early the day of the show and we'll like kind of run through some songs beforehand.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: So you said music.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: So is that actual music like uh like chord music?
30:47
SPEAKER_00: Like what kind of do you get into music theory at all?
30:50
SPEAKER_02: I have no clue.
30:52
SPEAKER_02: I have no I I couldn't read music or anything like that to save my life.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: That's very interesting, bro.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: But you're you're getting paid to play music and you can't read music.
31:01
SPEAKER_02: No, I can't read.
31:02
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't read to yeah, no way.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome, man.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: You would think like like, and that's and I feel like I find that's a commonality with musicians.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: Like they don't a lot of them don't read, but they play.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: So you kind of did it basically so you do it based solely off of what you hear, like the direction the music is going as far as multiple.
31:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it's all it's it's all by ear.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I can I know some theory.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: I know like if I'm an A, I know what needs to be there and what works.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: And you do it based, you do it based off the patterns on your on your framework.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Is there are there certain keys that are that are real popular, like amongst all the music that you play?
31:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of songs in G.
31:51
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of songs in G, and there's a lot of songs in D.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
31:55
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, every so often, you know, an artist will get fancy and it'll be in B flat.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
32:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't bother me.
32:03
SPEAKER_02: If I played fiddle, probably, you know, that's different for those guys.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think about it now.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, the G is kind of easier to play.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do a lot of bar chords on the acoustic.
32:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: We play it in G.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a lot of people's registers are in that, you know, like vocal registers are in that.
32:20
SPEAKER_02: Oh, totally.
32:21
SPEAKER_02: Totally, yeah.
32:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:22
SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's a lot easier to sing, um, you know, for some folks, you know, and that man, there's I've worked with some people that they tune everything down a half step, so E would actually be E flat.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: And so you don't and uh and so you don't you don't down, you don't have to like detune your your bass because they go down?
32:43
SPEAKER_02: No, I usually don't.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: I'll just transpose it, I'll just move my hand down.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: That's a cool thing about bass playing.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to judge what they tune to.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: Awesome, man.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you coming on the show.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to think of some more stuff to say.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, do you have anything you want to say?
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Anything you want to share?
33:02
SPEAKER_02: Um, man, you know, it's it's fun being on the road, but it's so nice when you get home.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Right.
33:09
SPEAKER_02: I I love traveling, you know.
33:10
SPEAKER_02: I love the you know, driving six hours to to the next gig, or I love it.
33:16
SPEAKER_02: Um but uh home is home, you know.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so why why is that for you?
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, how come?
33:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, yeah.
33:28
SPEAKER_02: My wife, my dog, you know, I like hotels are cool, but I like sleeping in my bed.
33:34
SPEAKER_02: You know.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: You got do you have one of those beds that when you lay on you sink it, you sink down?
33:40
SPEAKER_02: It's it's real comfy.
33:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm I'm I'm on it right now.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: So don't fall asleep, bro.
33:49
SPEAKER_02: I'm trying, I'm trying.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: That's what's up, man.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so do y'all do y'all have uh plans to extend your family in the future?
33:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh no.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: No.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: Maybe maybe another base to the family.
34:02
SPEAKER_02: There's another, there's a there's another base coming at the end of the month.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: So that's what's up.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Is it is it uh yeah, that's cool, man.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: So do people do people say stuff like because of that?
34:12
SPEAKER_00: Because y'all don't want you're not gonna extend your family uh the other direction?
34:17
SPEAKER_02: No, no, not at all, man.
34:19
SPEAKER_02: Um I I have a daughter from a previous relationship that's with her mom.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, she's got a couple of kids and you know, they're older now, so we we're just kind of hanging out.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: Dude, that's gotta be tough.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: So how old is your daughter?
34:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh she will now be 13, I think 13 in August.
34:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: Wow, so she's uh what, eighth grade?
34:44
SPEAKER_02: I think so, yeah.
34:45
SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's been a while.
34:46
SPEAKER_02: It was uh it was uh kind of like a sticky breakup, you know, with that thing, and the mom is the mom was being uh a little impossible with things, so I haven't seen anyone for for a minute.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Wow, you haven't seen your daughter?
35:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it's been a while, yeah.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, bro.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: That's I'm sorry, man.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh do they live in town?
35:07
SPEAKER_02: No, I think uh the last I heard they were in Tulsa.
35:10
SPEAKER_02: They were in Oklahoma.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: So so no contact at all.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, no.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Oh, dude.
35:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: And is that like um is that like like court court status to where they had to uh where she has the kids?
35:25
SPEAKER_02: No, man, she just disappeared.
35:26
SPEAKER_02: She's good at disappearing.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh, bro, come on, man.
35:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, she's uh she was she did a couple of tours in Iraq.
35:34
SPEAKER_02: She she was in the uh psychological operations.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: No kidding, man.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: What the army or something like that?
35:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, she was in the army.
35:41
SPEAKER_02: She can disappear real good.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: Oh dude, that sucks, man.
35:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry to hear that, bro.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry to hear that.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: So uh, so are you are you so are you like hope uh hoping that that your daughter will maybe come to her senses, I guess you could say?
36:01
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I've heard from a couple of friends, you know, once they they reach a certain age that they will and they'll want to know.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I I hope so.
36:09
SPEAKER_02: That'd be cool.
36:10
SPEAKER_02: You know, because that's the only uh that's the only spawn I have.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: No, man, that's uh that's that's uh the only last part of my bloodline.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: So how old was how old was she when when uh when she was gone?
36:23
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, eight months.
36:28
SPEAKER_02: Eight months.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's tough, dude.
36:32
SPEAKER_02: You know, eight months.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: Eight months, bro.
36:35
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I I was on I was on tour.
36:40
SPEAKER_02: It was just man, it was just hard from the beginning, you know.
36:42
SPEAKER_02: When she was born, I was there for the for the birth.
36:45
SPEAKER_02: Then the day after I left for a month.
36:49
SPEAKER_02: You know, and uh just off and on, you know, being on the road, being on the road too much, you know, making good money, but you know, that doesn't help if you're not there.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Damn, so I imagine that that does that ever mess with your mind?
37:03
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, what it meant it did in the beginning, you know.
37:06
SPEAKER_02: I it I think uh it still does.
37:08
SPEAKER_02: I just cope with it better now.
37:11
SPEAKER_02: You know.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Is there is there a certain thing that you do like to help to help you with that?
37:17
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I mean it it sounds it sounds cheesy, but you know, the more the more I play, it it that's my uh that's my safe space.
37:27
SPEAKER_02: You know, that's my therapy.
37:28
SPEAKER_02: If I just sit and play and you know learn music or you know, practice, you know, certain things or whatever.
37:34
SPEAKER_02: It it keeps my mind you know focused on that.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, bro.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: It's like, yeah, for sure.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: And I love music, man.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: Um I used to play uh I played classical guitar for a while.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: I got my degree in music.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: I can totally relate to that, man.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh you you knew you want to get away, uh, and music definitely helps, especially if you can play.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh it just comes out.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: It comes out.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: You you you play a piece of music and uh you interpret it the way you want, and your your mind's just focused on that.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: And I can totally relate to that, man.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's cool that it's cool that you choose that instead of you know, maybe other things that could be worse, you know what I mean?
38:15
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah, totally.
38:17
SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh Yeah, I I I I would hit the I would hit the whiskey a bunch, but uh that that don't help now.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Nah, wash.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: I I hope I I'll be I mean I'll be praying for y'all.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: I know it's cliche to say, but damn, for sure.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: For y'all's family, man, for sure.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: And my daughter's uh she's three.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: No, it's three, she's six.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh and she's awesome.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: And I got a son who's gonna be two years old, and uh yeah, uh, she likes music.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: Like I can tell she like hum stuff and she hears music whenever she's watching like cartoons or whatever.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Like, and she she memorizes it and she knows it.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, she knows that, you know.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty cool, man.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, so did you met your wife, uh, your current wife, how long after that happened?
39:10
SPEAKER_02: Uh let's see, man.
39:12
SPEAKER_02: I got divorced in 2010, like right at the beginning of 2010.
39:20
SPEAKER_02: And uh I had just moved back to Corpus from Austin.
39:24
SPEAKER_02: Now this was like my second move back, and uh I think it was like the end of 2000, like the middle towards the end of 2010.
39:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh is when we met.
39:38
SPEAKER_02: I was playing like one of my first gigs back out and like bat freshly moved back into town.
39:44
SPEAKER_02: Hey, you want to play tonight?
39:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, cool.
39:47
SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
39:48
SPEAKER_02: So uh man, yeah, we uh there sort of happened at the gig.
39:54
SPEAKER_02: You know, I didn't I'm not uh I'm not the type of you know person, I'm not gonna be all like trying to, you know, throw uh throw my throw my wrap or whatever.
40:06
SPEAKER_02: It's like hey, you know, what's up?
40:07
SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't I don't get I'm weird, I'm not really a people person, you know.
40:10
SPEAKER_02: I was you know, and uh you know we just kind of kind of met.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: It was weird, you know, it just happened.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: Cool, man.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: So y'all met like at um like at a like did y'all meet out somewhere?
40:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um man, I I was playing at I was actually I was playing a gig at the mug room.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
40:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:33
SPEAKER_02: And uh she was with some friends, and so we started, I went up and started talking to her and we hung out.
40:39
SPEAKER_02: I went up and did the last set and they took off.
40:42
SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh man.
40:44
SPEAKER_02: I didn't even I didn't get no info.
40:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I guess I guess my uh I guess my boyish charm didn't work.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: But uh did you have the did you have the beard the mustache or the beard going at the time?
40:58
SPEAKER_00: What happened there?
40:59
SPEAKER_02: No, man, I was clean, it was kind of like this.
41:01
SPEAKER_02: It was kind of just unkept you know, the unkept stage.
41:07
SPEAKER_02: And uh, but yeah, she she messaged uh she messaged.
41:11
SPEAKER_02: I was uh playing with this female singer and she messaged her and uh the singer calls me and she's like, Hey, some girl that was at the show the other night uh she messaged me and she wants me to give uh give you her number.
41:23
SPEAKER_02: She wanted your number, but I wanted to ask you first.
41:26
SPEAKER_02: I didn't want to just be like, I'm Are you serious, dude?
41:29
SPEAKER_02: You should give that shit out.
41:34
SPEAKER_02: But uh but seriously though, uh that yeah, I mean that's how that happened, and uh yeah, here we are.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what's up 12 years later.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 12 years later.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: That's a cool story, man.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome, man.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I try I had something in my mind.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: I was I was trying to uh that's pretty cool, bro.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: So you're playing the set, uh, and then well before you went on, right?
41:59
SPEAKER_00: So you had it was so you had one, came off, talked to her, went back on, and then they then she took off.
42:05
SPEAKER_02: She took off because her one of her friends wanted to go to another club and was kind of like you know, being nesty about it, so they took off.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: It was her fault, right?
42:15
SPEAKER_00: That's what she said.
42:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's her fault.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: Have you always been like a like a loner like that?
42:22
SPEAKER_00: Like uh like even in high school and stuff?
42:25
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, man.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I uh I mean I had I mean I had some friends, I wasn't like right, right.
42:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh but I I just always kept to myself, you know.
42:33
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm an only child.
42:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, so I was just used to it, I guess.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like that.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: So do you have any do you have any friends like friends from then that that you talk to now?
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Like oh yeah, man.
42:47
SPEAKER_02: I have I have a handful that uh you know live here.
42:51
SPEAKER_02: There's there's a few that live in San Antonio that I stay with a bunch, you know.
42:56
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, so I have I have a I have a nice little handful of close friends still, yeah.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: Right on, bro.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's cool.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was kind of a loner too, and I I didn't really like like I didn't really make friends.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: It was just kind of weird for me, man.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: I was just kind of away from everybody, and I wanted to be away from everybody, I think for for feel for fear of like uh socializing.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: Like I guess I didn't have any experience in that, and then I'm weird to begin with, you know what I mean?
43:25
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so it it it was that's kind of even now it's kind of difficult for me, but uh it's kind of I I've learned how to how to live with it.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh and because I'm I'm uh I'm ADD or ADHD, one of those.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: And as I learned about that, about myself, I'm like, oh, this is why I'm like that.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: And so that has helped me to uh to understand and to not use it as use that as an excuse to go do something stupid, you know what I mean?
43:53
SPEAKER_00: Or or to to to drink too much or go smoke a lot.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: Cause I used to smoke a lot, like just just because.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, I wanted to and it it just helped me feel I I guess it would just help me feel better and it would just help me to uh just just live my life, you know what I mean, and and not look back.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: Um it's kind of weird to explain.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like there's a lot of people like that out there, like especially like in our uh in our town, you know.
44:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh dude, yeah, yeah, for sure.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: They they need we need something.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: We need we need something, we need to talk about stuff, and uh yeah, and it's it's I'm glad that I could talk about this on on the on this podcast, you know what I mean?
44:33
SPEAKER_00: And I just hope that people people listen that you know they they know that they're not alone out there, that there's that they can do stuff, you know what I mean.
44:42
SPEAKER_02: No, totally, dude.
44:43
SPEAKER_02: It's real, you know.
44:44
SPEAKER_02: I have uh I have a crazy social anxiety.
44:48
SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean in my line of work that that's that's not supposed to work.
44:55
SPEAKER_02: Um it's just you know, little things like if I get to the gig first before everybody else, I'll I have to wait in the car.
45:04
SPEAKER_02: I I I I can't walk into the place.
45:07
SPEAKER_02: I can't be the first one in there.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: Right.
45:09
SPEAKER_02: You know, I have to walk in with everybody else.
45:11
SPEAKER_02: It's just I can't do that.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: Right.
45:14
SPEAKER_02: And being on stage is so much more comfortable than being in the crowd for me.
45:21
SPEAKER_02: You know, and uh, you know, sometimes people think I'm an asshole because I don't want to go out and socialize and whatever after the show.
45:30
SPEAKER_02: And it it's not that I'm I'm too good or man, whatever, not thinking shit.
45:35
SPEAKER_02: No, I it's my anxiety.
45:37
SPEAKER_02: I have to, you know, I have to just get away from it.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's like and and when we're like and when we when you do that, because I do that also, people think that about us like oh you're you're arrogant or you're this or you're that.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: They have a lot of misconceptions about us.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: We haven't even said a word.
45:54
SPEAKER_02: Yo, exactly.
45:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
45:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so uh like sometimes because I do you notice the difference like when you shave the way people do you notice the difference the way people react toward you?
46:07
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah, man.
46:08
SPEAKER_02: Shoot crazy day and night.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, same thing too.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll shave off my goat and people will be nicer to me.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy, bro.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it'll be nicer, and then I when I grow it out, they're more I know that when I grow it out, I have to be more out.
46:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, what's going on?
46:24
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
46:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let them know.
46:26
SPEAKER_00: If I'm if I shave, they're the ones coming up being nice to me.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's funny, bro.
46:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
46:32
SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't know if they maybe it's intimidating or just scary, or uh, yeah, it's just weird.
46:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I work kind of in the oil field.
46:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm a truck driver, I do, I do uh uh haul uh like propane, uh butane and stuff like that.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: But when I first started going, you know, travel, you know, being out there, there's a lot of country people, a lot of country folk um that live like in ranches and stuff like that.
46:58
SPEAKER_00: And I'll stop at a store or something, and I'm just going into normal, and I just like see them like react toward me is different, bro.
47:06
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, uh, I yeah, I'm just a person, bro.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to give me some a taco, you know what I'm saying?
47:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to get a taco and take off.
47:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I just want I just want to coke.
47:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm just trying to give it a couple Gatorade, let it go.
47:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, man.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, bro.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yeah, yeah, man.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you coming on for the conversation, man.
47:22
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, yeah, dude.
47:23
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
47:24
SPEAKER_02: That's that's pretty that's that's kick ass.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so how is it?
47:27
SPEAKER_00: What'd you think when I first messaged you?
47:28
SPEAKER_00: Hey, uh, would you like to be on the podcast?
47:32
SPEAKER_02: Oh I thought it was pretty fucking cool.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: Awesome, bro.
47:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, awesome.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, trying to wrap it up, man.
47:39
SPEAKER_00: My kid, my wife showed up and uh they kind of left for a little bit so I could do the podcast.
47:44
SPEAKER_00: And my wife's awesome, dude.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh she's uh she's very supportive and she puts up a lot of my crap too.
47:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's good.
47:52
SPEAKER_02: That's nice, that's good to have.
47:53
SPEAKER_02: It's good to have sure.
47:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir, yes, sir, yeah, yeah.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, anyways, man, uh is there anything anything else you want to share before we take off?
48:00
SPEAKER_02: Man, I I I think that's pretty much it.
48:03
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, all right, man.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks a lot.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming on the show.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you.
48:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
48:08
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
48:08
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
48:10
SPEAKER_02: Later.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: All right, y'all.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: That was uh Tony Valdez and I having a conversation on the Corpus Christi Originals podcast for episode seven.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, I'll leave a link to his uh info on Instagram if you want to check him out.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: Also, uh check out the merch store for corpuschristians.com if you want to check out uh you know help support this podcast and uh support the brand, support the city.
48:31
SPEAKER_00: And we appreciate y'all.
48:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh stay tuned for the next episode.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: Have a good one.