Latest / The Scene Projects / John Webber on Music Beginnings, Nashville Influence, and Supporting Fellow Artists

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John Webber on Music Beginnings, Nashville Influence, and Supporting Fellow Artists · The Scene Projects

• 0:01
  Today on the show, we're joined by rising country singer songwriter John Weber.
• 0:06
  From his debut single Whiskey Sorrow to his new release Who I Am Now, John's been turning real
• 0:13
  life stories into songs you can't stop singing.
• 0:16
  We'll talk heartbreak, small town roots, and the road ahead.
• 0:20
  Turn it up and stick around for my conversation with John Weber.
• 0:28
  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
• 0:33
  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
• 0:38
  from across the Midwest.
• 0:41
  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
• 0:54
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:57
  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is John Weber.
• 1:00
  John, welcome to the show, brother.
• 1:01
  Thanks for having me, Bubba.
• 1:04
  Yeah.
• 1:04
  Well, I know you got a new single.
• 1:06
  I've been seeing it all over my Facebook feed.
• 1:08
  But before we get into all that, I'd like to give you the floor here and let us give you a
• 1:13
  little bit of a give us a little bit of backstory.
• 1:17
  Backstory of my life or backstory of my music career?
• 1:21
  Because, there's a lot going on in this.
• 1:25
  You don't have to go too far back, but, hit hit us with a little something.
• 1:30
  Well, you know, I I was born and raised in a small town, Indiana, Batesville, Indiana.
• 1:38
  And, my, my folks kinda started out on a farm, and, they sold they ended up selling their farm
• 1:47
  as I grew up.
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  And and we moved to kinda the city, but it's like small town, city.
• 1:54
  You know?
• 1:54
  And, you know, from there, I I went just a regular kid, went to school, got in trouble a
• 2:00
  couple times, a lot a lot of interactions with other students.
• 2:06
  And and then, let's see.
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  I I went to a career center technical school for graphic design.
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  I'm a digital creator.
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  It's what I've been doing pretty much my whole life.
• 2:19
  And, let's see.
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  I went to college.
• 2:22
  Had had a had a good time there.
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  Didn't exactly finish, but, it was fun.
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  Learned quite a bit.
• 2:31
  You could say you learned the hard knocks of life the hard way if you want to, and, I think
• 2:36
  that I did a good job at that.
• 2:38
  So, currently, I'm a business owner.
• 2:41
  I own a small business in the town that I grew up in, and I build and develop signs and decals
• 2:48
  and T shirts, graphics, wraps, anything of that sort of nature for our local community.
• 2:55
  And, so as I've went along in the process of, being a small business owner, let's see.
• 3:04
  For I would say this business I've been in for about fifteen years, and, it's it's had its ups
• 3:12
  and it's had its downs, you could say, just like any other small business.
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  But I decided that I needed to do something different.
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  So I took my creativity with my ability with technology and graphic design and all the
• 3:28
  photography and things like that that I know how to do, and I started developing into
• 3:33
  making, music.
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  And I really had no idea about, I would say, two years ago when I started.
• 3:42
  My mom bought me a guitar, for my birthday, and that was it.
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  I just it was off to the races after I picked it up.
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  It just resonated with me so well.
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  So there was an emotional part of it too.
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  You know?
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  When I picked it up, it it brought relief to my given stress situation in my life.
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  So I started making music, and, I actually I've written plenty of songs.
• 4:07
  But, you know, as you go along, you gotta have enough money to be able to make this stuff, be
• 4:12
  able to market this stuff.
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  So I've only got two out so far, but I'm hoping to have some more.
• 4:17
  So that's kind of the history right right there.
• 4:20
  That's awesome, man.
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  I love that you're, a little bit of a late bloomer to the music world.
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  That that's a different story than most us, I wanna say.
• 4:29
  I'm a singer songwriter myself.
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  I've been singing since I could talk and, you know, started playing guitar.
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  You know, played in concert band.
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  You know, played the drums and stuff in, you know, early middle school days and then got a
• 4:41
  guitar by eighth grade and same thing where it was like, oh, this is this is it.
• 4:46
  Right?
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  And not necessarily that I've, like, always pursued music in, a professional capacity.
• 4:52
  I guess I've been getting to play paid to play music since I was in high school and playing in
• 4:56
  my dad's band and things like that.
• 4:58
  But it was never, like, chasing that dream in the same way that maybe I'm I'm chasing it now,
• 5:04
  albeit a little bit different as a, you know, content creator on the podcast side while still
• 5:09
  doing some music.
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  I'm not fully invested in that music side.
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  But, man, I feel you on the, on the financial side of recording.
• 5:18
  Right?
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  Even though we can do it at home nowadays, to get the quality that a lot of us are going for.
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  And if you don't have a band that are fully invested in that, if you're trying to hire out
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  with pieces and different things, it can get very expensive very quickly.
• 5:33
  Yeah.
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  It can.
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  And so, I mean, along with that, I actually ended up purchasing all my own recording
• 5:40
  equipment to be able to do my vocals in house rather than having to go to a studio and pay
• 5:45
  all that studio time.
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  So, just to try to alleviate that.
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  But even just to buy all the equipment to do it, that was a a pretty steep climb there.
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  You know?
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  Yeah.
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  Several thousand dollars, and that's kinda taken the cheaper route.
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  You know?
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  That that's kinda skimping on some things.
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  I I you know, I'm looking at all of my equipment surrounding me in the lab here.
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  Right?
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  I'm just like, oh, yeah.
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  There's a lot of money sitting around here.
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  And, you know, just to get a computer these days is no small feat that will run these
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  programs and do what you need it to do.
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  So, yeah, I I think that's a a big part that's missing when people think about, you know,
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  songwriters and and musicians.
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  It's like, oh, you know, it's so so nice.
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  You know?
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  You're you're living the dream, and it's like, don't know how hard this grind is, and most of
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  us aren't able to survive on our music alone.
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  We all have, you know, jobs or hustles or businesses that we're running besides this.
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  And thankfully for yourself, I'm sure you make all your own merch and do all of that.
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  So thankful for your background in graphic design and Yeah.
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  And already having that business, but it's a huge expense to do that.
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  I mean, I print my stuff in house, but it's still, like, a lot of time and a lot of effort
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  to get there.
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  I I do have the complete production team here to be able to develop any merch that we want.
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  We actually print for a lot of bands, and that was, another reason why I was like, you know,
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  I'm really big into bands.
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  What if I start doing music and I can start doing merch for other people?
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  So we do a lot of merch.
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  Actually, the hat I'm wearing right now is for a buddy of mine's band, called Pure Grain, and,
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  they they do some pretty cool stuff.
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  But, yeah, we make a lot of merch for a lot of bands.
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  But, there was something I was gonna say, but I done forgot.
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  Shoot.
• 7:34
  It's all good.
• 7:35
  We'll get back around to it.
• 7:38
  So Southern Indiana, you're not that far from Nashville, I take it.
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  Obviously, a lot of influence.
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  I just visited Nashville my first time for the Josie Music Awards.
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  Now I've been through Tennessee a lot when I was a younger pup.
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  We lived in the Chicago area, and my dad had gone to college down near Chattanooga.
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  So we would go through there a lot, but I never stopped.
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  And and what a different scene it is there.
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  I'm a South Dakota kid, man.
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  You know, when we moved from the Chicago area out to Deadwood, South Dakota, you know, I was
• 8:11
  10 years old.
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  So I really say I I grew up, you know, in the Black Hills Of South Dakota.
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  We live five hours from there now out in the farm country, which I'm sure honestly doesn't
• 8:20
  look much different than it looks in Indiana, to be perfectly honest.
• 8:25
  But talk about kind of that that juxtaposition, right, where you're like, you're in a small
• 8:29
  town, but you're also not that far from some of these major metro areas that are in that, you
• 8:35
  know, kinda Central South Midwest Region.
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  You know, I know you're fairly early in your career, but, you know, are are you playing out,
• 8:44
  playing gigs live, and, you know, playing the bar bars around in your area?
• 8:49
  Well, let me tell you something.
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  I started doing this music thing two years ago, but I've actually been a DJ for nineteen years.
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  So when I was a kid, I started DJing for some family members, and then eventually it started
• 9:07
  sprawling out into going everywhere.
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  And I've actually played music, I mean, as a DJ, as a professional DJ, not as a musician.
• 9:16
  For for stars, NFL, like stars, I couldn't tell you their names because I don't remember.
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  I guess that's that's how it goes, man.
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  You're a star for a little while, and then you kinda fizzle back out.
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  Broadway producers, I've I've had to fly to, like, Florida, Cayman Islands to play music
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  before.
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  It it's been a fun ride, you know, doing doing music.
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  But, yes, there's a lot going on.
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  Like, I'm in between Cincinnati and Indianapolis as best as I can put it.
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  Those are my two large cities.
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  And, occasionally, I've had to travel Chicago before.
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  But, so I've been in, you know, I've been in music my whole life, just not physically
• 9:59
  playing it myself.
• 10:02
  And but as far as, like, right now, I have done one stage presence, for a local fire
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  department, in, my very local area just to kinda try it out and kinda test the waters and
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  see, you know, how it is.
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  I'm I'm kinda still really new at this.
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  And, you know, my first time going up on stage and actually singing and stuff, I didn't think
• 10:30
  it went too bad.
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  I think it went pretty decent, but I was pretty nervous, at the at the start.
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  And I really did feel that, and you could hear it in my voice.
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  So I'm starting to learn what do I gotta do to, like, prevent this anxiety from coming on
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  because I didn't think I had stage fright.
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  I mean, I've been a DJ for years.
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  If you put a microphone in my hand and I'm I'm talking on it like a DJ, I go into DJ mode.
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  You know?
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  It's just like, ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention, please?
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  You know?
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  I'm used to that.
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  But as soon as, like, I have to be more personable on the microphone, then it's, like,
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  just a totally different story.
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  So I'm working on it.
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  But right now, I don't have any shows, and, I don't plan on booking any shows until next
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  year.
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  I did set a goal of, like, next summer, I wanna be on stage somewhere, but that's kinda my my
• 11:25
  long term goal right now.
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  Interesting, man.
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  That's pretty cool that you have the history in that.
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  You know, you've worked in the music industry.
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  Right?
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  You've been working around it and and doing the DJ, which is a lot of the same stuff.
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  Right?
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  It's the setup and the teardown, and and it's a world that a lot of us, you know, even if we're
• 11:47
  weekend warriors, you know, going out and playing local shows that we know all too well.
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  So it's like, you know the hard parts, but you're just getting used to, like, the really
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  good part, which is getting to perform for people and feeding off of that crowd.
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  And and you're gonna figure that part out, man.
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  No doubt.
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  I I remember being, you know, 13, 14 years old, and I had already I mean, I had sang in choir.
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  I had done some competitions and different things.
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  So, like, I had sang in front of people, both big crowds and small ones.
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  But, you know, stepping in front of my whole town for our a fourth of July celebration was,
• 12:22
  like, the first time playing with my dad's band that I was kind of thrust into that front man
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  spot.
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  And I didn't really I just had to sing one song, so I didn't necessarily have to, you
• 12:32
  know, carry the whole show.
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  But, yeah.
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  And I remember those nerves.
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  Right?
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  I remember and I remember forgetting a few of the words, and I was singing an old Grateful
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  Dead song that, like, probably three people in the crowd even knew all the words to.
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  Hell, Jerry Garcia didn't know all the words to most of the songs half the time.
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  So, you you you I don't But I got so down on myself, right, where I was like, I forgot that.
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  And it's like, look.
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  You're good, man.
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  You're good.
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  Did you have fun?
• 12:59
  Well, hell yeah.
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  I had a great time, man.
• 13:01
  That was awesome.
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  And, I mean, really, since that day, I've been chasing it, and now I've played in front of,
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  you know, played all original sets in front of thousands of people and and felt that rush from
• 13:12
  the crowd and that adoration, right, for what you're doing.
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  And especially when you're playing original music Yeah.
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  I think it hits a little bit different.
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  It's one thing to play, you know, covers and do that, which, you know, you you kinda get that
• 13:25
  as a DJ too when people hear their favorite song come on and, you know, you're kind of the
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  reason, you know, you're the one who picked it.
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  Right?
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  So you you're the reason for that.
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  But it's different when you're up there and you're the one who's now performing it.
• 13:39
  Yeah.
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  You could call me a OG Spotify or Pandora because I had to do it before it guessed for
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  you what to play next.
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  You know?
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  So that also gave me some intuition on what people are gonna like to hear and how to
• 13:56
  develop a good sounding song that that articulates all aspects of being creative and,
• 14:04
  having the correct formulation, staying within, like, time frame limits of, like, three minutes
• 14:11
  to three minutes and thirty seconds.
• 14:13
  You know, all those things kinda come from transpired from me doing music for so long.
• 14:20
  And, actually, I wanted to mention something to you.
• 14:22
  You brought back a memory for me when you were talking about that nervousness thing, and, I
• 14:27
  just remembered this.
• 14:29
  So when I was on stage for the first time, I had this band, that invited me back up to stage
• 14:36
  after I sang some of my songs.
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  I actually played.
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  I actually sang Who I Am Now about four months ago, live.
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  And, and so what what they did was they brought me back up.
• 14:49
  I think they started taking a liking to me.
• 14:51
  The band was called Misty Creek.
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  I think it's a local band, and it's just a good bunch of good old boys that got together and
• 14:57
  started playing some music for a fire department.
• 15:00
  And, well, we were up there, and the lead guitarist, was playing really, really good.
• 15:07
  And I kinda, like, forgot the lyrics to the song we were singing.
• 15:11
  I was doing, it's a big and rich song, save a horse, ride a cowboy.
• 15:17
  I really like that song.
• 15:18
  You know, it's big and loud.
• 15:19
  And and, so I'm singing that, and all of a sudden, I forget, like, that part where he's
• 15:26
  like, I'm a thoroughbred.
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  That's what she said.
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  And, I forgot that part.
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  And the lead guitarist looked at me, and he was like, it's okay, man.
• 15:36
  It's okay.
• 15:36
  They don't know you're messing up.
• 15:38
  And and I was like, it just took a totally different perspective.
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  Like, when you're up on stage, what the person listening and viewing you is doing is
• 15:48
  completely different than what you're experiencing.
• 15:50
  You're you're almost, like, sped up in a sped up state, and they're just kinda listening.
• 15:55
  So, like, if a guitarist makes a mistake, it's not like a studio recording.
• 15:59
  Because when I first went up there, I was thinking studio recording.
• 16:02
  Like, you have to be perfect, articulate, and all this.
• 16:05
  And there's a lot of mistakes that people make on stage that you just don't even catch.
• 16:09
  And I just thought that was fascinating.
• 16:10
  The guy kinda called me down.
• 16:11
  He's like, it's okay, man.
• 16:12
  You're good.
• 16:13
  Nobody even knows you messed up.
• 16:15
  And I was like
• 16:16
  It's it's way behind you already.
• 16:18
  Right?
• 16:18
  Like, you know, it's like you're you're speeding by in a boat.
• 16:24
  Right?
• 16:24
  You're out on the water, and it's like, oh, well, it's like, it's gone already.
• 16:28
  You know what
• 16:29
  I mean?
• 16:29
  It doesn't matter, and you can only worry about what's right in front of you and and kinda take
• 16:34
  it from there.
• 16:35
  So, yeah, good good lessons learned out there on the stage, and and that's really I mean,
• 16:39
  that's most of my life playing music has been shows like that.
• 16:43
  Fundraisers for the fire department or small town, you know, bar and grill shows,
• 16:49
  essentially.
• 16:49
  You know, I've played a few big stages in my life, but I've never, like I've never had a
• 16:54
  hunger for, like I I gotta perform in front of 50,000 people.
• 16:57
  Right?
• 16:58
  Like, I've never had that.
• 16:59
  I wanna be that big star up there.
• 17:01
  I don't I don't need that.
• 17:03
  I don't think I would have any trouble performing in that, right, because of that
• 17:07
  confidence that I have from performing at the small shows.
• 17:10
  To me, it's all it's all the same.
• 17:11
  It's what do we make up here on this stage, and are are you having fun?
• 17:15
  And, you know, I had some really great mentors early on in in my, career that kind of taught
• 17:21
  that to me, and I'm very grateful.
• 17:24
  Very grateful for the good old boys, right, that are just doing it for fun and and aren't
• 17:28
  putting too much pressure on themselves or anyone around them to to kind of, you know, be
• 17:33
  something that you're not.
• 17:35
  Mhmm.
• 17:36
  That's right.
• 17:38
  And speaking of mentors, actually, we were talking about something earlier that I thought
• 17:43
  about with the equipment thing.
• 17:45
  And, so I started buying too much equipment, and, you can take a guess where I got the money
• 17:51
  from.
• 17:52
  So, anyway, I ended up having to call one of two of my mentors, and I was like, hey.
• 17:59
  I'm I think I'm blowing my company up and not in a good way.
• 18:05
  But but, anyway, that was just a a quick little note.
• 18:09
  Yeah.
• 18:09
  So you can really spend too much money on stuff.
• 18:13
  And
• 18:13
  Yeah.
• 18:13
  Well and and a lot of times, you don't always need, you don't always need all that stuff.
• 18:19
  Right?
• 18:20
  I don't have a ton of lights.
• 18:21
  I have enough to do a small show, but, you know, I'm not trying to fill up a, you know, 20
• 18:26
  foot trailer with equipment and the whole big stage and all.
• 18:29
  Like, I don't there's plenty of people with all that equipment now.
• 18:32
  I I kind of know who I am.
• 18:33
  I'm almost 40 years old.
• 18:35
  You know?
• 18:36
  I know where I am in my journey and what I'm trying to do with my music.
• 18:40
  And and, really, this podcast has become so much more important because we've built a
• 18:44
  platform now that supports other artists.
• 18:47
  And I think that's always where my passion was anyway, was in, like, just original music.
• 18:52
  Just anyone with other original music, not just my own.
• 18:55
  Right?
• 18:55
  So now we're able to build that up for a lot of other people, and it's been an absolute
• 19:00
  blessing.
• 19:00
  And I still get to go and be around creative people, which is, I think, all I all I've ever
• 19:05
  really wanted to do, you know, whether it's at the Josie's and hanging out in Nashville or
• 19:10
  it's, you know, at our, you know, much smaller organization, the Midwest Country Music
• 19:14
  Organization, and hanging out with, you know, all of my friends there.
• 19:17
  To me, it's all it's all the same.
• 19:19
  I just love being around creative, inspired individuals, and I'm very grateful for where
• 19:24
  I'm at now.
• 19:26
  John, I don't wanna keep you too long, man.
• 19:28
  I know you're a busy guy, business owner, and, you know, a lot of stuff going on at home.
• 19:33
  So why don't you go ahead and just share where we can find all of us, where we can check out
• 19:38
  the new single, and I'll let you get out of here.
• 19:40
  Yeah.
• 19:41
  Who I am now is my, single that's out right now.
• 19:45
  It came out, this last Friday.
• 19:48
  It's available on Spotify, Apple Music, Apple Play, any type of platform.
• 19:55
  Pretty much all the platforms, Pandora.
• 19:58
  You can also check out my website and probably find a link on there at, john webber, two b's
• 20:04
  in webber, dot net.
• 20:07
  And, yeah, you can also add me on Facebook or check out my TikTok.
• 20:12
  I have a couple platforms I'm on kinda sharing my little video feeds and stuff as I make my
• 20:19
  new music.
• 20:21
  Very cool, man.
• 20:22
  Well, thanks for, giving me a little bit of your time today, and thanks for being part of
• 20:26
  the scene.
• 20:27
  Hey, Bubba.
• 20:28
  I appreciate it, and, good luck with with what you're doing here.
• 20:31
  I I think it's great.
• 20:33
  And I saw that you're also got another song out after fifteen years.
• 20:37
  Kinda went dormant there.
• 20:39
  So I'm I'm happy to hear it.
• 20:41
  I can't wait to listen to it.
• 20:42
  So we'll have to check that out too.
• 20:45
  Awesome, man.
• 20:45
  I appreciate that.
• 20:46
  Have a good one.
• 20:47
  Yeah.
• 20:48
  You too.
• 20:48
  See you.
• 20:48
  Bye.