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Matt Banta- Blue Moon Ghetto, Omaha Music Group, Space To Play · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Listen or discretion is advised.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not just defined the scene.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: That is back on the creative process space to play a fresh music project that's set to release its debut album very soon.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: In this conversation, we talk about the journey from past to present, the lessons learned along the way, and the excitement of creating something new.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mike.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mike.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm stoked about this one.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I've told several stories throughout the history of the show in almost a 200-episode run where I've talked about the catalyst, what brought me from where I was in Iowa to living in Omaha, Nebraska.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: I talk about my love of 311.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: I talk about my time in the music scene in both Des Moines and Omaha.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: But what I don't talk about is this time in 1997, I was singing in a nine-piece ska band, but we also did other covers.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the covers we did was a song called Tendency from an Omaha, Nebraska-based badass band called Blue Moon Ghetto.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody loves Blue Moon Ghetto.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: You might know of them from their hit song Shine All the Time.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's a nice mythos to the band itself that maybe not everybody knows of.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Today I have the privilege of having Mr.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Matt Banta.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: He is going to talk about his new projects, the Omaha Music Group, and uh Space to Play, a band, new project of his that's going to have an album that comes out in September.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Matt, how the heck are you, man?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing very well.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Mike.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: How are you?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm fantastic.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: We were just talking before I press record about how crazy it is all the years I spent in Omaha and all the years you've been active in Omaha that we never crossed paths.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is odd.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, life is stranger than fiction, right?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it's crazy.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like there was kind of a baton passing.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that era from, you know, I'd say 1995 to 2005, a lot of people talk about how Saddle Creek Records was putting the spotlight on Omaha and it was going to be the next Seattle.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of people in, you know, other places other than Omaha don't realize we had a very good contemporary mainstream music scene going that was hot as an iron as well.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, 94 to 98 was Blue and Ghetto's run.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um the initially, we and then we obviously reunited in 2014.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And but that's don't want to go down that rabbit trail right now.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But basically, back in back in those days, it it became there was more a lot more places to play.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and but we uh would work with the other bands that were playing, like Secret Skin and Grasshopper Takeover, Old Boy Network, all those bands back in the in that time period, and we would just get together and try to put together shows.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it was three bands trying to get people to show up and not just one, you know.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it, you know, we would really we were very collaborative in that.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually the original music scene in Omaha took over all the clubs and bars and stuff so much that there were cover bands that were trying to be original bands, which is like unheard of, you know.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it was pretty special time.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was lightning in a bottle kind of you know stuff, but you know, as I was really uh feel really lucky and blessed to have been able to be a part of it, you know.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's kind of take it back a little bit if you're comfortable with it.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk a little bit about the genesis of Blue Moon Ghetto and kind of how you established your presence in the Omaha music scene, because now this is a career that's kind of spanned.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna say the number of how many years because I'm appreciate that.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna age both of us here, and we're both gonna feel like shit after we're done.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um I already knew the math.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or it's 2025.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's you know, it is what it is.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, I had I had Ryan Cabrera on yesterday, and he and I were talking about his hit on the way down, which was co-written by uh Johnny Resnick, and that was a hit in 2004, and I opened the episode with I'm like, so how does it feel to know your biggest hit is now old enough to drink?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, dude, I hadn't thought about it in that way yet.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of started.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I had uh moved up to Minneapolis in l in 1992 to try to play music up there, and obviously it didn't work out because I ended up back in Omaha, but uh and then it started with just hanging the the old school you hang a flyer at you know whatever music store store and it's got the little phone number, you rip off the phone number, and you're looking for a bass player, you're looking for a drummer.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's completely foreign to anybody that's not old enough to have been there.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I hung a flyer um in a music store, and originally that that was where I met Dean, the original guitar player, who actually he was the one that wrote Tendency.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And interesting story about that song, it was originally called Blue Moon Ghetto.
• 6:16
  unknown: Huh.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we we got a gig um before we even had a name.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were like, well, we got to come up with a name because I think we were playing at Sharky's, and that was the first time we were playing with the four original members with Joel, Matt, McClure, and Dean Galeano.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um we had a gig at Sharky's, had no name, so we were like, well, Dean was just like, well, what about like Lumogeto?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I could just change, we could just change the name of that to something else, you know, and uh so we did, and then that's how the name came about.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I mean, it's uh so that's how it kind of started.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was funny because our first gigs, Joel came back uh to a practice and said, I got I got a 17 gigs.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, how'd you get 17 gigs in one what one afternoon?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, they're all at the Saddle Creek Bar.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, oh, okay.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, but that's they started this penny pitcher thing on Thursdays where they charged six bucks and uh you'd get in and pennies.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a pitcher was a penny, literally.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was Saddle Creek, it's I mean that the structure I think is still there.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is now, but it was centrally located to you know, Creighton, UNO kind of so we just started flying cars at UNO at Creighton.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: We did we did so far as to hang a like a sheet off of that bridge on Dodge Street.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow, that says, you know, penny pitchers tonight, South Creek.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So like, but it blew up and to the point where we were like, we need more money or we're gonna take this somewhere else, and they're like, Nope.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we man, it was like a bidding war between uh several different places to try to get us to come and do penny pitchers.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the penny pitchers thing was a huge part of getting Blue Moon Ghetto started and the the traction we got, and it was a lot of it was because we were trying to play stuff with a groove to it that would get the you know, get the girls up dancing.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You got a chance, you know.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that that was our whole thought process on that.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: But that's that's really how it started.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then eventually the Ranch Bowl adopted the whole penny pitchers thing.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, they were the ones that, yeah, Matt Markle, he was the one that bid the most money to get us to do it every week.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: But he wanted us to do it at Jones Creek, which is downtown, which is uh not as good of a location, not as good of a place.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, no, we're not doing it.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: We'll do it at Ranch Bowl, but not at Jones Creek.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he eventually caved and you know, yeah.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's yep, the penny pitcher thing.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And man, those Thursdays at the Ranch Bowl were some of the most fun gigs I've ever played.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you saw the lack of shock on my face when you told the story of Joel Cassara like booking 17 gigs in one sitting.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: That guy, that guy at his best was always a hustler as far as booking, and like, gosh, like back uh back in those days playing music, like everybody could have learned a little bit of something about how ambitious he was at that time.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you had some lineup changes, obviously.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, shine all the time that hit radio locally in what '96 or '97?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was uh 96 primarily, 95 and in 96.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: 96 was kind of the pinnacle, I think, of you know, our popularity.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: So how did that come about?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: What the sh what the just shine all the time?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, we you know, there was the the River was doing the local music thing, and we got some stuff played on there.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: We had John, our manager, was music director at the edge.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he wasn't the program director, so he did not get the song played.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I think somebody maybe called in the people started calling in and requesting it because I think it was actually Z92 that picked it up first, and I don't remember how that happened.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know we went on Todd and Tyler a lot, you know, back then.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, it was a really cool experience of being on Todd and Tyler, and then an old high school classmate of mine called into the show and said he was sitting at a red light, and there was like seven cars, and every single one of them was listening to Channel all the time at the same time.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and it was just like that, that was really, really uh special and very unique um to experience that even on a local level.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that that's something that I've kind of had to come to terms with over my career is like for a long, you know, there's periods of time when you're like, dang, you know, that song, I can't ever, I cannot get past that song.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to hear anything but that song, like, and you become kind of resentful towards it, but then you kind of grow past that and realize, you know, anybody that is able to have a song like that do anything, you should be thankful for that, you know.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's it's kind of the age, age uh grows your gratitude at the same time because you know, as we get older, and this is again something I talked about on a few recent episodes, is just relationship with nostalgia, how it changes as you get older and you look back, and the things that you used to think were burdensome or stupid were actually blessings in disguise and like great experiences that you get to carry that are unique to you.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it was unheard of.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was unheard of for for a local band to be in regular rotation on the radio station in the mid-90s.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like it became commonplace post-2000, kind of like that 2001 era of the Ranch Bowl and beyond, but but that's very unique situation to be in.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was it was cool, and it was it was pretty much all just a groundswell of support.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was just uh, you know, like all I could do is thank the people that were calling in and asking for it to be played, you know, and just like, you know, maybe um we could have something like that happen again, you know, it'd be cool.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, like it doesn't really yeah, I guess the thing I always remember is when I wrote that song, I think it was um I was still living in the house I grew up in, and it was several years before Blue Moon Ghetto became a band or anything, and every time I would try to play with other guys, um, at some point that song would come up, and they always wanted to play that song.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I if I say, well, I have this one, you know, I would play it, and so it just never would go away.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I was always kind of like, I didn't understand why, because I remember when I wrote it, my mom even said, you know, it's really repetitive.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, I was kind of going for that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So good, you know.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I I want to say I was 18 or night nap, I was probably 19 or 20, you know, when I wrote that, maybe.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, it was interesting, it just never went away.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh there was just something about it that people really couldn't identify with, you know.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: I can't explain it any other way than that.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: So with that song kind of hitting a groundswell in 1996 and bleeding into 1997, because that's when we found my friends and I found you guys.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh actually, it was our buddy, he had a copy of your first CD.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: He was going to Drake University in Des Moines.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: He had a copy of your CD.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: He came back to our little small town in Southwest Iowa's like, check these guys out.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we listened to that album front to back.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: We wore it out.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh, and you know, it was the coolest thing for us, you know.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: I like I said, it was a nine-piece band.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: We got to experience, you know, playing with Slipknot, who was the local band in Des Moines at the time, and and then bouncing back and forth to different small towns in Iowa.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: It just felt like a really special time.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: You say Blue Moon Ghetto came to a close in 1998.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what was kind of what was the kind of the fever pitch in that moment where you kind of knew this is my inflection point, this is time to kind of bring it to a close.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um there was a obviously it's never one thing, right, you know, but there were multiple factors.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we had changed bass players, we had changed guitar players, um, and then Bruce started clever, right?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he was willing to do both.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, I dude, your focus is on clever.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think you just need to focus on that.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't no hard feelings or anything.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it just, you know, if that's where your heart takes you, you know, it is what it is.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but um, so we were looking for our third bass player.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was kind of not to be melodramatic, but kind of having an existential crisis.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I felt like I couldn't be my I would say to John sometime like, I can't be John Denver on one song and then the lead singer of the Deftones on the next song.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, right.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: I do it.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is it was kind of like uh I was musically split my personality, and like I it wasn't fully integrated, and I so I had these songs that were more intimate and tender and and um you know more acoustic, you know, and then but then this pressure to y'all you gotta play something that rocks, man.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and you know, and it's just like and I just wanted to be a singer-songwriter, you know.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I had this draw, you know, like maybe it's just time for me to try to make a record and just, you know.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so it was a lot of things.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's kind of in a in a nutshell, the the multiple factors, I guess.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm gonna share a moment of kinship with you in that same regard.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the very last show my last band played was one of the big 89-7 the River festivals where you got to play with uh Avenge Sevenfold and Three Days Grace.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: What was the name of the band?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: That that band was Ara Sing.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was the last project I did, and it was probably the funny part was I don't want to call it a prank, but I spent all of these years like trying to grind, trying to do it, trying to do the thing and get breakthrough and what have you.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um 2006, I find out, okay, my my first wife was pregnant with my daughter.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm about to be a dad.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's time to focus all of my energy on being a dad.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I walked away from music, but nine months into her pregnancy, right before my daughter was born, I was like, all I'm doing is sitting around the house watching Scrubs reruns and getting fat.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: So so I started another band, and and my buddy and I we were like, okay, we're only gonna play one show every six to eight weeks.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be very strategic about this.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're not trying to do anything other than just keep ourselves busy.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the where I say that the prank happened was I'm in dad life, I'm in day job career life.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: That band ends up being the most successful band of any band I'd ever been a part of.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it lasted it lasted five years.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: But where I say the kinship happens is that last show, that Avenge Sevenfold show, I was walking around West Fair Amplitheater, and I thought to myself, man, I'm not even listening to this style of music anymore because it was heavier rock.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like listening to Jay-Z and Ryan Adams and not feeling a bit of what I'm playing anymore.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I just I couldn't let myself do something that was insincere any longer, and and I felt better about walking away from it.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, like I said, it's it's almost very similar to your your story, you know?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, just sometimes it's just you know, like what's that movie um about the the uh band that's kind of like the Beatles with Oh, that thing you do, huh?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: That thing you do.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that thing you do, and that guy he's signing that guy, he's like, bands break up, man.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, that was the explanation.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, bands break up, you know.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so I mean that's just kind of the truth.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we're you know, that's why if I talk to younger guys or girls or whoever that that is playing music and they ask for any kind of advice, I always say, well, make sure you play with people that you can stand to be around.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, make sure that the personality match is almost more important than the musical match, you know, like because you're if if you have any experience of success at all, any foundational problems you got are gonna be amplified, you know, not made to go away.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna spackle over the crack on the foundation, it's just gonna spread the crack and the whole thing is gonna collapse.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's kind of what happened in with Bloom and Ghetto 2.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we were young and didn't really know what we were doing.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we got super popular and had no, you know, we were like, what the, you know, and it took us a while to get around come around to like we gotta practice every day, we gotta take this seriously, and you know, but once you get into that, it's like all the little things that you didn't have to really face with the people you're around.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you're around them all the time, there's like you can't get away from it, you gotta deal with it.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's yep, it's just bands break up.
• 19:50
  unknown: Yeah.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: So uh myths and legends be damned.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh was there label interest at one point in time in Blue and Ghetto?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yep.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: We were we were offered a demo deal by Atlantic Records by the guy that signed Shooter Ray, same guy.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we kind of had our own team of managers at the time who had, you know, basically advised us to not take it and just keep playing and and so we can have more leverage when the time comes to sign, which I understand the thought process, but obviously you look back and you're like, what would have happened if we would have just taken the demo deal, you know?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, that was the you know, we had interest from other people, we had, you know, other people, other label representatives coming and see us play, and you know, things like that, but that was the closest we got.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Dave from Pomeroy and I had this conversation because I remember when they were at their peak of basically living at the ranch bowl.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, and he cleared it up whenever I had him on the show.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the thing with the AR reps is they want to sign an act, but they want to mold the act into what they think is marketable for that moment in time.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: So he they had I I, you know, from what Dave tells me, they had one AR looking at them saying, we want to create the next Lincoln Park, but have them based out of Omaha, and then they had another label rep going, we want to create the next Maroon 5 and have them be out of Omaha, to where it's just it's kind of crazy.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's like if you're not interested in the product as it exists, then why are you even sniffing around?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's yeah.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And now the AR person is basically doesn't even exist now.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's Spotify.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Spotify is your AR anymore.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Spotify and social media, which is which is absolutely crazy.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: And again, another topic that's come up on the pod a lot lately is how people blur lanes, genre lanes now, because of Spotify.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually the only silver lining, you know, you take away the BS.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Pay, you know, platform, but but like kids listen to music and they don't look at things as genre, they look at things as just being damn music.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: How awesome would that have been back in our heyday?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it would have been like yeah, I don't know.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's hard to say how that would have affected anything, but um it is interesting if that's good for me just as a songwriter, because I've always been kind of uh schizophrenic as a songwriter.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I you know I write in a lot of different genres, you know, like I have a lot of different feels that I it's and I don't really even think about it as genres as much as feels, rhythmic feels.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And right um, you know, a lot of times those rhythmic feels fall into certain genres, but um yeah, like that's the whole that's where the name Space to Play came from was we're playing music, we're just trying to make great art, we don't want any rules on what kind of genre we have to stick to or anything from one song to the next.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a song on this record coming out that sounds almost like country because there's still guitar, it's very it could totally play on a country station.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then we've got like heavy blues rock, we have another one that has like a loop and it almost like house music.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, so it's like it's freeing.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um I wonder sometimes if it makes it harder to market, but you know, at this point, with like you said, you know, so much of it is is just in the hands of the potential listener.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so maybe if you have a bunch of different genres, you can be on a bunch of different playlists, you know.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: But we'll see.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that you kind of set up my segue for me perfectly because I think I'm here to help you, Mike.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I mean that bring that brings uh the past to a good close and answers any questions that anybody might have had that they didn't that they've just been afraid to ask or haven't had the opportunity to ask before.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Blue Moon Ghetto revival occurred in 2014.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was in your at your secret warm-up show, I think it was at Barfly.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and uh on 2014, and that was awesome.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then you guys evolved into this new project, space to play.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about what the genesis of that project is and bring it to where we are right now.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: In 2020, obviously nobody was playing anywhere, so and we were um just kind of practicing in my basement just to keep our chops up, and we started writing new stuff.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then we made a change at drummer.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that was that was kind of the the the the splitting up of of Joel from the whole project.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: He he went a different direction, but um which, you know, is neither here nor there, but at that point is when Scott Evans joined the band on drugs.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so now it's just me that was in Bloom and Ghetto, and Kevin and Clint and Scott all, you know, so we went out and we played a few shows as Bloom and Ghetto.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we still do that once a year.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fun, it's a nostalgic thing, like you said.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but during that period of time we started writing this music, and I'm just like, man, this is not this is not boom and ghetto.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: This music is different.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a different spirit to it, a different feel to it, because it's different people, you know.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the three of them, I I loved, I just loved playing with them and jamming on ideas with them because it was so uh collaborative and there was absolutely no ego.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody cared about what part they got to play or if it was a cool enough drum fill here.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was it was all about the song.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so we started writing songs, and uh we would jam on something, and then a week later I'd come back and be like, okay, I got a song.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we would jam on something else, and like the next day, or the next time I'd try to bring that back, and before I got that idea done, we'd already have another idea going.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like so it just steamrolled into having enough material where you know this song has 11 the or the album has 11 songs on it when it's released, and there's two songs that didn't even make it.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we had 13 songs.
• 26:16
  unknown: Whoa!
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so when the time came to make a record, um, just because of you know, basically God being good to me, um, financially, I was in a position to where like I don't have to go cheap on this, I could like really make a legitimate record.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and that involved, in my mind, hiring a producer.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, because we had never none of us had ever really worked with a formal produ like a proper producer.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's just an engineer that you know can get good sounds, but you're basically just getting a great sounding demo.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's just what you bring in is all you're gonna get, you know.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: So um I reached out to Dana Murray, uh, who is uh friend, he was friends of Mitch Town, who I played in the band with.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Called Thousand Houses, um, in like I think that was from 2007 to 2010 or something like that.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um they grew up together in jazz in the jazz circles.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I reached out to him because I knew he had a studio in his house that was a legitimate studio, and that he was a producer.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Do you still do producing?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and he's like, Well, send me a demo.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I sent him a demo of one of the songs.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think I can't remember which one, it doesn't matter, but he loved it, and he's like, you know, I just you know, we just kind of started a dialogue.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: He came over and just hung out with us while we practiced, listened to us practice.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we went and hung out at him.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: He lives on the on in Hawaii, like he's on the lake.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so maybe I shouldn't stay on here where he lives.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably not proper.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he's on a lake, we'll just say that.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we went and like hung out at his studio, took a boat ride, just got, you know, just got to know each other.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he was obviously feeling us out to see how serious we were and to see if he could handle working with us.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so we agreed on a price and we started the process.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I can't really overstate the impact that he's had on us.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it was interesting because like holding the gun, that's one of the songs we've released already.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I play an electric piano on that, and I wrote that on piano.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, when I brought it in, though, it took me like I think four sessions before he was like, Okay, that's good enough.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and I wasn't used to that.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was used to just like, oh yeah, that's great, you know.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, nope, you know, and so we went through this, we call it boot camp, and a lot of it was all about theories of rhythm, and you know, grid theory is what we were focused, like that's technically what it's called grid theory.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we started focusing on that, and all of us just like yeah, he just like broke us down and built us all back up.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so uh it we've all become much stronger musicians because of that, and we're a much better band because of that.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, now now the pro the process we're in is now we're rehearsing the live show to get ready and we're going through that again.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta get we gotta get it all sounding just like the record, you know.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not there yet, but we're gonna be by September 12th, or we're gonna die trying.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love that because I I mean I to pay a compliment to the to the other guys in the band, Scott and the Thomas brothers are such good pocket players.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they they don't slop live.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: We've all played with people that kind of you know, you kind of look back at them whenever something kind of goes amiss.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Those guys are such clean players to begin with.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: So to have that heightened elevation with somebody like Dana Murray, oh man, that's that's exciting.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's you know, when you when someone's telling you you do this, and and you know, you think about like, okay, this guy played in a band with Norah Jones, you know, like he played with Brandford Marcellus and Winton Marcellus, and we played on Broadway.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the guy probably knows what he's talking about, so we should, you know, and he, you know, it I think it's a credit to the band that we were all willing to be uncomforta get comfortable being uncomfortable.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you know, and that's really the only way you become great.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, I love that you used that phrase.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I use that at least twice a week.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: I do, I do.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: I so I won't ever say on the podcast what I do for my day job, but you know, I'll just say I mentor people and I teach people how to manage businesses.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I use that term all the time.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, get comfortable with being uncomfortable because that's the only way you win.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the only way you're gonna inspire other people.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yep.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: I actually have a tune that I've written since uh the record, so it'll be on the next Space to Play record, but um, that has that as, you know, it's time to get comfortable with the uncomfortable.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because I love that and the hook of that song is you never know, because you never know what's what could happen.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like get used to being uncomfortable and just keep trying because you don't know where it's gonna lead.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: It could be somewhere even better than you thought, or maybe not, but I feel like just facing that and embracing it is what separates people that are great from people that are just pretty good.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: So this relationship with Dana as producer has had this metamorphosis, yeah.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: And now you guys are partners in a new project called Omaha Music Group.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what was the moment where you said it's time to launch Omaha Music Group?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: And what can you tell people about what it is?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, it really came out of we were working on the record, Dana was out of town and called me from his car.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think he was driving through Kentucky or something.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, man, I was just driving through, listening to this stuff, and he's like, you know, when we put this out, maybe you and I should just start a record label.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, let me think about it.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you know, like, right.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't take me, you know, I had to, I had thought about it, I prayed about it, you know, but um yeah, it you know, obviously he he was his thought was his ear as a producer, he has a killer studio, along with me as a songwriter, being able to mentor other songwriters, you know, my the what I bring as a songwriter, with those two things, we could really invest in people and develop them because you know that's one thing that really you don't there is no development, you know, like if you if it isn't quite right, well, AI AI will you know fix the rest of it, you know, like there's no there's just not you don't see a lot of that.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so we were just the idea being like let's go the opposite direction, you know, and say, no, we're gonna take we're gonna find somebody.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're still the good thing is we had the space to play project to start with.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: So now as we're doing this, I'm kind of learning all this stuff, and we're building a template of how we could repeat this with other artists, you know, and so but yeah, the idea behind it is to invest in people that need to be developed but have potential.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but and also to raise the standard.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think Omaha is like that.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Omaha is a town where it's very easy to get comfortable and it's just like, well, this is what I do, and I've been there.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying from a person and I'll place a judgment.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've had those moments of my own life where I'm like, yeah, I've done enough.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll just play every once in a while, just you know, so I don't go nuts, but you know, you just gotta like, but then you just at some point you gotta decide, am I gonna just start slowly dying or am I gonna start learning and improving every day until I die?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's you know, ultimately you gotta find people that are are about that, that all are about always growing, never feeling comfortable, never being satisfied, you know, and that's that's rare to find.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: So elevating standards, that would kind of be one of your mini mission statements, elevating standards, developing artists.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, how will artists feel that difference within the first 90 days, say, of working with you and Dana?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think they'll probably if they last that long, they'll they'll just be um very much aware of you know where there still needs to be growth and what they need to work on.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's the thing, is like I the thing that I've realized is you know, and part of this is once we started this project going I'm caught like over two years now, because we started recording with Dana, I practice almost I practice almost every day.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like there, I don't miss a lot of days.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm repping stuff every day, and I'm like, and you start doing that and you you see yourself getting better, but then you're also like, man, it never it's never gonna feel like I'm there.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that people that are great, that are truly great, never feel like they've arrived, you know, and so it's getting people in that mindset.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: That I would hope that would be what would be the biggest change within working with us for you know three months or whatever you said, but yeah, just to get in that mindset to real realize, okay, I gotta just embrace being broken down and rebuilt, you know.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: So are you prospecting talent or are you kind of scouting for it, or are you just launching the project?
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: We've had conversations about different people.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's just um, you know, some of the people we've talked to, it's like, you know, it's just it hasn't been the right fit yet.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um but part of that is also because we are still trying to figure out what the heck we're doing in the first place.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: So um we haven't placed a big emphasis on that yet because we're what I think once we get this record out, you know, we get out and play a little bit.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've got a guy that's you know be gonna book book the band, and I found somebody that's gonna book the band, and so we're gonna try to get out and play around the Midwest and and stuff, and we just need to get kind of that whole process um sussed out.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that doesn't preclude us from starting a process with somebody else.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's just uh a big part of why we haven't been real aggressive about that is because we've been focused on just like, okay, what is the what who is the team?
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: What is the structure here?
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: How are we doing this?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: What is our process, you know?
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I my I I own a company um that processes insurance claims.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I've done I've owned it since 2020, and so it's weird because I feel like God has kind of prepared me to do a record label just because I've learned how to manage people and put teams together and who goes where and what, you know.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so as much as I, you know, really wasn't excited about like spearheading a record label, you know, because I was it was so much of it is unknown, you know, um, it's been a really good process and I'm learning a lot.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was just gonna say it's hard enough to wear one hat, let alone two.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, it it uh mad respect to you for that, because uh, you know, space to play is gonna be a monolith of a project, you know.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like you got great players, a great foundation with given your past history, your bandmates' past history, before you even set foot in this arena of this uh new record label.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, I mean, I hope that um really, I mean, my biggest goal of the record label is to be able to pour my pour what I learned into other into somebody else, into other people to, you know, and write, you know, write for other people because there's some people that that need songs, and that, you know, and I have always been a prolific songwriter.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I have a lot of songs that have never been released, um, you know, just because of whatever reason, you know, like I I have a whole album of kind of like alt-country stuff that I did that I didn't even put out.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't like how it turned out, so it's just chilled.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but yeah, it like it using those songs, like I I know I feel like nothing is wasted, so there's gotta be a reason.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: So at some point, you know, there'll be somewhere I can pour that music into, or just you know, mentoring someone as they're writing or whatever, you know.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's my thing.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to be able to.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: That was the that was actually where I was gonna go with the next question is like, you know, given this bevy of experience, past, present, and current, um how important is mentorship to you?
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because it does seem like it's it's very important to you.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: Part of you is always kind of like, well, why in the hell would anybody care what I have to say anyway?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like we all have those those thoughts in our, you know, but um when I we started doing um down at NOMA, we've started doing a songwriter showcase once a month.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and meeting all these songwriters that are younger and stuff has been really cool.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there's a lot of talent, you know, uh that you can see where it's talent that's not fully developed, you know.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's the songwriting, you know, and I have the benefit of you know, time.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the biggest thing.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've been trying, I have been writing songs since I was 17.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: So like uh that's what I always wanted to do.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's that was my passion from the jump was writing.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like I love songwriting, and it's just the experience that there's nothing else like it.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so um I think I lost my train of thought there, but I I know you answered that perfectly.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: But no, I mean I want to like help, you know, that's one thing Dana said to us like when we were starting this, is like he's like, you guys are a very well-rehearsed band.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is at the very beginning.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you guys are a very well-rehearsed band.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about taking you guys from like 75% there to 100%.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about taking you from like 99.2% there to 100%.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: But that last 0.8% is the that's what separates the great bands from just good bands.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's where the discomfort lives.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yep.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like another phrase he uses, he's very good for dispensing uh sayings, is like being willing to look under the carpet for things that nobody else wants to see.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and like being willing to go there.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: And like we had a conversation today, we had a practice last night.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, we gotta start, we gotta start recording all the practices because we gotta ration it up, it's not there yet, you know.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, good, I need that.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me that, yes.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just tell me it's great, you know, like and that that becomes I think if you can help people get in that mindset, that's where the standard is rared, is raised.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's just realizing we're all on the same path, just some of us are down further, but it's not like we're better or worse.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're just you know, if you're on that path and you're serious about that life and of being about being great, then you have to be a little bit fanatical about it, and you have to be like willing to be, you know, uncomfortable and have people tell you you're not there because in the mind in your mind you know you're not there anyway, so you might as well just own it.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I think a lot of you know, and I say this with all due respect to fellow musicians, and I I include myself in this mix, but I think a lot of musicians struggle with being honest with themselves sometimes.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it's painful that moment when they finally are.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's you know, you it's understandable from a human perspective because when you're creating something like that, it's very emotionally close, it's part of you, you know, and you're it's kind of like you raised a little kid and put him out in the world and everybody hates him.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're just like you feel responsible for that, you know, it hurts.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: And those things, excuse me, I mean, those feelings, you still have those feelings when you're you know, but you just have to be like, okay, I'm not going to I'm not gonna let those feelings determine how I act or react or what I do after this.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because everybody feels a sense of some some sense of rejection if you put something out there and somebody's like, no, you need to fix this and this, this, and you feel like, well, I've just gotten rejected.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it's if you can get out if you don't get in your feelings, if you can stay out of, you know, stay away from getting in your feelings about it, then that's where real growth happens.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you take that growth that you've had, 1997, Matt, to 2025, Matt.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: Beyond streams and ticket counts, how do you quantify success in the music business now versus how you quantified it back then?
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, back then, I think I wanted to there was a part of me that just I wanted to be a rock star, you know.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted everybody to adore me and and say I was the greatest songwriter ever, and you know, like all but my identity was too wrapped up into it.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: And like I had to realize my identity comes from my relationship with God, not from music.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was a big turning point for me.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but between that and now, I mean, I think I Wanted to make it, you know, whatever that meant.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: But now I I don't really have that um desire or need to really make it because I've already been successful professionally.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I don't it's not like I need this to happen for me to be able to, you know, afford to do this or whatever.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's just doing it out of just purely for the love of it.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, what would be success would just be like if we could just travel around the Midwest and play to two or three hundred people everywhere we went, I would be completely ecstatic with that.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't care about playing Wembley Stadium.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that'd be get to that level, there's a lot of headaches that come with it.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you wouldn't turn it down though either.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, hell no.
• 44:45
  unknown: No.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's part of me that feels like I was made to do that.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I was made to play in front of thousands of people.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't that's of course I get nervous, but I've always been like that, you know.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so even when I was a little kid, you know, I mean, always performing.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so there's a there's a great quote.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_01: One of my most favorite recent singer-songwriters is a guy by the name of Gregory Alan Isaachoff.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've ever listened to his stuff, but I highly encourage you to check his stuff out.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll send you a link or whatever.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: But he has a line in a song that I think applies to so many different avenues of life, but it's so simple.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it goes, if it wasn't for second chances, we'd all be alone.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and and and I think that's a reality, is like sometimes you have to give yourself that grace to like step out and do that new thing, or try the the new project, or try something as ambitious as starting a record label with your producer.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's yeah, I didn't it's one of those things that those things started, you know, when they start happening, you either go with it or you know, you retreat, you know, and I like I don't I guess I never had the retreat that it never even thought that never came to my mind.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, why not?
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like and you know, when you turn, I don't know how old you are, but I'm in my 50s.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still early 50s technically, but I am in my fifties.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when you you get older, you're like, you know, what do I want to spend the rest of my life doing?
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what what should I you you realize how in how precious uh a um resource time is, and you're like, I at least for me become less and less willing to waste my time on anything.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, like and that's people that are a waste of my time, whatever.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you're all you're doing is draining time for me, I can't have you in my life.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't wish ill will on you, but I I cannot have you in my life because I am not about that.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and um it's weird because uh with the label, my my company has gotten me to a point where I can spend time working on the label and and spend resources and really trying to make this happen.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I now I'm busier than I was when I wasn't doing this.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like I, you know, like I'm not doing as much with the company as I was, but now this is taking even more time, you know.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, but at the same time, I'm like, I don't what am I gonna do?
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sit around and you know, play Nintendo.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I you know, what do you might as well do something, you know?
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not learning and growing, you're you're just waiting to die.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, yes, yes.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm kind of living in that a similar moment in regard to this whole podcast thing.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, for years when I walked away from doing music, I had friends going, ah, you'll be back, you'll be back.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, no, I was really comfortable with the way it ended, and I'm I'm very glad of it.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, when the pot the pandemic happened and I just decided, well, I needed to do something creative again.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: I never knew that I would have as much love doing this as I have.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that's awesome.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is kind of my second chance, but I echo your sentiment about time because I've made the argument several times with people where I said time is the most valuable asset in the world because once you give it, you don't get that back, and you have to take that same consideration with other people.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_01: If somebody gives you their time, they're not gonna give that back.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's the greatest gift you can ever receive.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_01: So well, speaking of that, thanks for having me on.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I was just gonna say my closing question is kind of the big, the big uh philosophical one.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I try and I stay away from the questions you ask everybody, or Yes.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I stay away, I stay away from the controversial thing because it my goal is to put forth positive content, and that is what's your advice based on your experience for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um be your real self.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you give yourself or your time to someone, give it wholeheartedly.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, be authentic and never be satisfied.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_01: Love that.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: Love that.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: Matt, why don't you tell everybody where they can find your music and more about Omaha Music Group?
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh, you can go to spacetoplayband.com.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you can go to our obviously our Facebook, Instagram.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we are on all the streaming platforms.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: We've released three singles.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um they are all on Spotify, uh, you know, Apple Music, all the different YouTube, there's lyric videos.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we are releasing our first record on September 12th, and we're playing at the Slowdown.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um we are we have a a band called Virgin Mary Pistol Grip.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they're opening, and then a guy named Jeremy Mercy is playing acoustic.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and one cool thing is the guy that played the steel guitar on one of the songs on the record is Matt Beck, and he is the guitar player in Matchbox 20.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's awesome.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he but he knows Dana because they played together on Broadway.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they they played in the Broadway version of Tommy.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's awesome.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so he was Pete Townsend, and I guess it was Keith Moon.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I you know, but um, so when we needed steel guitar, Dana's, and he's so like like this.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's just he's not a name dropper.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: But you know that dude knows way more people than he's letting him, you know.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, yeah, I'll just ask my friend Matt.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, who?
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: Matt Beck?
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: Matt, he's like, Matt Beck.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, who's that?
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, uh, he plays with um uh Rob Thomas.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Rob Thomas.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, yeah, he's in that band.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm like, Matchbox 20?
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, yeah, Matchbox 20.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what?
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so yeah, and so we're actually I'm flying him in and he's coming in.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna play the steel guitar on that song and play, he's gonna play on a couple other songs too, just so you know, he's not just coming halfway across the country to play one song.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh yeah, so he's coming out, and so it's it's gonna be exciting.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really we're putting a lot into the the stage lighting, everything, video content.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're trying to make this like production.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I mean, like raise the standard, you know.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_01: Heck yeah.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: So what I expect to happen is people walk away from that on after that show, being like, what in the hell did I just walk?
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you know, yes.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to happen.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's my goal.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, dude, I absolutely love that.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: I love the fact that we finally got to sit down and have this conversation and get to know each other.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: I tell you what, there were about five or six things I didn't point out that we had other parallels on.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have to talk about that at another time.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll do another one.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: I am so excited.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: September 12th at the Slowdown, space to play, album release party.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, come on.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't you go?
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is gonna be a great show.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: I am so excited to have had this conversation with you, Matt.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, even if you don't come to this first one, we'll get you there eventually.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, that's right.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_01: Matt, thank you so much for doing the show.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: The world's a much better place with you and it, my friend.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thank you, Mike.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_01: You too, bro.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, I'd like to thank my friend Matt Banta from Space to Play and Omaha Music Group for doing the show today.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's time I offer a little post script and say, Matt was one of the initial guests I wanted to have on the show when I first started this podcast five years ago.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it's awesome that we were able to make it happen.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_01: I also want to take a moment to shout out my friend Mark Manner from Omaha Buds for helping facilitate this episode.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you are following Omaha Music Group and Space to Play Band on Instagram and check out their release show, September 12, 2025 at the slowdown.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_01: You can find all the information online.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_01: While you are being generous with the social media follows, make sure you follow Caught on the mic wherever you can find me.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, wherever.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_01: You can also visit me, www.cotonthemic.com.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: And for all guest inquiries, caught on the mic at gmail.com.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_01: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Michael Clark.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time.