Latest / The Bob Lefsetz Podcast / Moe Shalizi

Transcript

Moe Shalizi · The Bob Lefsetz Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Bob Left Sets podcast. My
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: guest today is most Easy manager of Marshmallow and so
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: much more. Good to have you here, Mo, thank you
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: for having me excited to be here. Okay, Now, we
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: live in a world where many people don't know what's
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: going on outside their vertical, So give us a snapshot
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: of who Marshmallow is and what is what he's doing
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: right now? Yeah, definitely. So, I mean I think, uh,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: you know, Marshmallow was conceptualizing in the last three years.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: You know, we came up with this concept of creating
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: something that was a faceless brand, something that you know,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: everybody could connect to in a way um and essentially
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: essentially like in a movement. Um. And within the last
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: you know, three years, we've you know, he's got he's
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: in the number eight most streamed artists on Spotify in
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the world right now, number at the most streamed. Okay,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: that's that's what for twenty that's right this very second,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: or for right this second. Okay, So let's just to
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: get the ark. Have you been doing it for three years?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: What was he last year? The last two years, we
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: we were feeding our core more so, Okay, I've interrupted
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you Okay, so you do you had this movement? Yeah,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: so we started this movement. UM fed the core dance
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: fans for the last two years and then it wasn't
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: until August so last year that we released our first
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: kind of commercial single. UM was a record called Silence
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: with Khalid came out through our c a UM we're
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: unsigned UM, so we did a single deal with them,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and then we released the next single with Selina Gomez
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: called Wolves on an interscope, and then we just released
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: another single with Warner called Friends with Anne Marie. She's
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: really well known person the UK. She's dope and that's
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: how we've been kind of running it. So as we
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: sit here, how old are you? Seven? This is the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: younger generation and you're from southern California, right correct. I
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: went to UC Riverside, grew up in a thinyland Empire
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and Corona UM and then moved to l about four
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and a half years ago when I joined Red Light. Okay,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: but before we get there, you grow up in East
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: l A. And your parents do what for a living?
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: So my mom worked in department store, she worked at
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Robinson's May growing up, and then my dad, my dad
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: passed away when I was seventeen. But my dad was
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: like a general contractor. My family was like a low
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: class We weren't rich at all. Of his poor Okay,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: your father dies when you're seventeen, that much really fuck
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: you up? Yeah? Yeah, it was, to be honest, I
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: mean at the time, like I look at it like
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: it's a blessing in disguise in a way though, Like
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: my dad was my best friend. But I wouldn't be
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: sitting where I am today if if you know, he
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: would have never let me go into music, like you know,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: being middle Easter. And I think that the stereotype is
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you're either a doctor, lawyer, engineer, nothing, you know, so
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: none of the none of the things that you know,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: lad to the path here would have happened if you
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: know that didn't happen in a sense. But um it
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: also you know, it was my biggest motivation. And I
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: mean I didn't ever want to go to school. I
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, I don't need to go to college.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: But you know, before my dad passed away, I promised him,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I would go to college, you get a degree.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Did that for him, and it's always been kind of
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: like that motivation for me. And as you get older,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you see the sacrifices your parents make for you as
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a kid, and none of it ever makes sense until
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you're older, and until you get to the age where
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: like wow, like now it all makes sense. I used
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to think my parents were stupid, and now I'm like, wow,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: they've you know, really done so much to get us
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to where we're at and really make sure that you know,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: we never had to deal with the things we have
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to deal with now. Now. Were your parents born in America? No,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: So my parents are from Afghanistan. They came here like
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: forty years ago when the Russians invaded Afghanistan. They left
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Um and came here as well. Afghanistan that's a crazy country.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: The Russians couldn't win, The Americans coodn't win. Did your
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: family have a big identity of the Afghanistan aards soon
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: as they moved to America, the yeah, they left that behind.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And so you've never been to actually went uh? I
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: was thirteen. I went Um for a month. My dad
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: was back out there, and then my mom started working
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: with the military as a translator for a little bit,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: and then I went there to see my dad for
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: like a month, when I was thirteen, Uh, and it
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: was I mean it's a culture shock, you know, growing
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: up in the Inlanta Empire, going to a country like
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that where it's a third world country. It's it's definitely different.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: But it was, you know, quite an eye opening experience. Well.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Tom Freshen used to run MTV after leaving Viacom, he
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: invested in television stations and then we were at lunch
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: about a year ago and he was saying, they killed
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: everybody involved. I mean, it's really got more dangerous within
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the last year. Definitely, definitely. Yeah. I think they just
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: don't They don't showed on the news as much anymore
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: because they've moved on to different topics. But but yeah,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I mean it hasn't settled down right exactly. Like I
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: watched five Vice News, which Tom has also involved in,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: and you see pictures of what's really going on in
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Syria and it's like you're horrified. It's crazy. It's crazy. Okay.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: So anyway, you're in the Inland Empire growing up, are
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you a music fan? Um? I was always intrigued by
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: but my dad wouldn't let me listen to rap music
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: growing up. He wouldn't let me listen to it. No. No.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I remember when I was like, I was like seven
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: or eight and Coolio had this song where it was
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: like one, two, three, four, get your women up off
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the floor, and I remember playing it in the car
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: with my dad and from that moment he was like,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you can never listen to this to this again, like
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: because do you know what this means? And I'm like no,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: so then uh. And then I remember I took my
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: cousin had like dmx is album. I think it was
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: like when I felt what it was called, but it
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: was you know, I took it from my cousin. I
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: used to hide it under all my clothes, and anytime
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: my dad was at home, I would listen to d
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: MX and be like, oh my god, like I love
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I love wrap, I love this. Uh. And then it
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: wasn't until I was like fourteen or fifteen. I think
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I was sixteen I got my first car. UM. I
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: just kind of gradually started listening to it again and
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: like not hiding it, and then he was cool with it.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Um so he turned around, he turned around out. But
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I think at that point I was seven years old
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: listening to a song talking about put your girl on
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the right right right, So there are how many kids
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: in your family? I have one little sister, and what
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: does she do now? She's in nursing school. Okay, So
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: you go through high school, there's you're just listening. You're
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: a music fan. You're not in the business or dreaming
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: about being in the business. Yeah, not not at all. Um.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: You know. So when I was in high school, um,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I my senior year, I was graduating and
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: that's when my dad passed away. So you know, it
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: took its toll on me where you know, my mom
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: wasn't really working, so I was having to do everything
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I could to kind of provide for the family. And
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: then um, through that though, I fell in love with
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: electronic music. Just it was one kind of vertical where
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I could escape through and listen to and it was
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: something that like I loved, um And then I was like,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: you know this is this is cool? Okay, So this
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: is like two thousand seven or so. How do you
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: find electronic music? At that point? I think that's when
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I had just a friend of mine was like, yo,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: you know there's this festival um called Nocturnal Wonderland in
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Santa Berardino, Like, let's let's go to this festival. Um,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and I was just like okay, whatever, like I've never
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: been to a festival, and I went and then just
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: kind of saw the culture of of you know, this
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: this dance music. In a sense, it was just like
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: this is kind of cool. Um. And then just really
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: like the music. And then I connected with the music,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and then you know, it was like okay, maybe uh,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: maybe I want to learn how to be more involved
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: in a sense, and maybe I want to start deejaying. Um.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: So then I bought some turntables um, and then started
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: with that, and then it was just like, you know,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: I need to I need to make my money back
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: for these turntable. I spent a lot of money on
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: these at the time, and I found a local dive bar.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: In the dive bar, you're still in high school, I
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: just I graduated now, so I was in college. Um,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: so I was I turned I think at this point
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I was twenty one, and I found like there was
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a dive bar down the street from my house. One
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: side was a strip club and then once I was
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a sports bar and you could walk through each side.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: So I convinced the owner to allow me to start
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: like a E d m night every Thursday night there
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: and in Corona. Um and uh you know this, this
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: dive bar was on the show Bar Rescue Like that's
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: how much a piece of shade it was. It was
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the worst thing ever, but it worked. At that time,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: electronic music was just like, you know, starting to build,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and um, every Thursday night I was bringing you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: a couple of hundred kids from all over the Inland
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: emp party to this bar to listen to like you know,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: dubstep and all this other stuff. Um. And then from
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: there just kind of started building. And then uh you
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I need to scale this up along. Okay,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: before you get there, you're in college, you see riverside.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Are you doing anything with music? Then? Before you hit
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: twenty one, I was a finance major, okay, and that's
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: what you graduated in. So you buy the turntables because
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you want to get further into the scene and a
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: little bit slower. How do you decide, Okay, I'm gonna
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: go approach this guy in the bar. Most people are
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: not that motivated. Yeah, I mean for me, I was,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: you know, I was a kid that was you know,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: as a kids selling candy to all the neighborhood kids
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: from Costco. And then I was as I got older,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I was, you know, selling everything I could. You know.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I was coming to l A and getting like, you know,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: fake jeans from the alley and taking it to all
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the kids, telling you know, and selling it to the
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: kids at school like you know, I've got true religions
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: about these geans. Like I was always like you know, looking,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: always like hustling in that. And so you're a self starter.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: If it wasn't music, could be successful doing something else.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: I mean I don't know, but yeah, I would think
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I would think, so okay, So the concept of I
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: have these turntables, how to get my money back and
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I got to find a place to dj? It's not
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: a you step for you, not really, no, I mean
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: it was just something of like, you know, I was
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: how can I make money off this? Off this? You know,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: And at that time, DJs were starting to become cool
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and it was a new trend, and was like, okay,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: maybe I can learn this and and kind of go
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: with it. Were you any good in retrospect? No? I
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: was terrible. I was, you know, I looked back at
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: myself like like, dude, I suck. I don't know what
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I was doing so, um, but it worked. I mean
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: it worked in a sense of like I was bringing
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: you know, two hundred three hundred kids every Thursday night
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and created Okay, so how did you get the two
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: three hundred kids there? Facebook? So Facebook had just kind
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: of Facebook was like you know and its things. So
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I was, you know, I was getting you know, these
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: all these girls from school and stuff like that, getting
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: their personal facebooks from them, inviting all of their friends
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and sending them messages acting like I was a girl
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: being like, you know, hey, come meet me at this
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: show on Thursday. You know. So I was just guerrilla
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: marketing and then hiring you know, other kids to go
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and put flyers all over you know, UC, Riverside and
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: r CC and all these different colleges and just kind
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: of just doing doing what a promoter would do in
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: a sense. Um and uh, you know, spread the word
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and then the rest of the word of mouth because
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you know, um, we had a bunch of girls there
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: all the time. So when girls are there, guys want
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: to come. That's for sure. Okay, So you start doing
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: it and are you making any money? Yeah? So you
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: know the first couple of nights, I was getting like
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: three hundred dollars every Thursday, and I was like okay,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and then finally I was like, you know what, like,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I know I have something here at the bar never
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: has this many people here. So I went to the
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: owner and was like, you need to give me dollars
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: every night cash when your bar exceeds in sales. And
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: she's like, you're crazy. And I was like, fine, I'll
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: go to another bar. And then she's like okay, fine,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: like I'll give it to you. And then literally every
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Thursday for like six months, like her bar was doing like,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: you know, five grand a night, which for her was
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: a lot. So you know, I was walking in with
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: like hundred plus a bonus sometimes when I was like cool.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: You know. One you know on my side job was
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: working at I was I was a sales for Hewlett Packard,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: so I was I was on the weekends working as
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: a rep at Best By Selling. Okay, okay, wait wait
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: wait when did you start being a sales rep? So
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I started that when I was eighteen. Okay, so your
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: father is now deceased, and are you doing it for
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the family or for your own money or for college?
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: It was for more so just a family and kind
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: of my own like spending money. Okay, so how do
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: you become a sales rep for HP? One of my
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: cousins was doing that and then it was like, hey,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: like you know and the So I started at sixteen,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: I started working in the movie theaters. So I was
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: cleaning theaters at okay, So your father is still alive,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: so money isn't you know, you're not up for class,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: but money you you want to you want to work
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: or your family says you gotta work. They were like,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: you have to work, you have to start a start.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: So at sixteen, I started working at the movie theaters.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: And you said your job was cleaning up. Yes, I
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: was an husher. So I was cleaning movie theater, cleaning
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the popcorn and all that stuff, and occasionally would find
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: something cool in the theater. Um like what it's like
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: someone dropped something and it was but you wouldn't turn
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: it into lost if I would turn if it was
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: like a wall and or something like that would turn
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: it in. But sometimes you find cool stuff. Now I'm like,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: what if watch I don't even know. I can't even
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: say okay, you know, but you can't okay, and are
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you enjoying doing that job? No, no, I mean it was.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: It wasn't cool at all because I would see all
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the kids you know from school at that time, my
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: high school coming in watching and I'm the one cleaning
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the theater. But it was a job. I don't really
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: care whatever, How wowing do you do that for? I
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: did that for about a year and a half or
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: two years, and then when I turned eighteen, um my
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: cousin linked me up with Hewlett Packard and the job
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: was what So, it's basically just as sales repference. I
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: would go to different Best Buy stores as a rep
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: for Hewlett Packard and then uh just sit in the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: computer aisle and convinced people why they should buy Hewlett
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Packard over Okay, so your job was to be like
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the in house guy had Best Buy and say Elett
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Packard as opposed to the ass or any of a competitor.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: And did you get paid a flat salary or commission?
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I think I made like eighteen. That's bad, wasn't No,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: That's how it wasn't bad? So I was like, all right, cool?
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: And then how did you become such a big expert
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: that you could do that job? Uh? I wasn't they
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: just give you tons of training and you know, you
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: take all these courses online like they have these uh
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: like their online universities that you that they give you
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: for HP through their platforms that you learn about new product,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: product launches and stuff like that. And then, to be honest,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: it's not it's not hard to convince someone when it's
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: like when you go to a storm like what should
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I buy or what should I eat here? And the
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: person tells you something and you're like, okay, like I
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: believe I'm gonna buy that. It's the same thing with
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the computer. Everyone's like I don't know what to get
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and you know, like, well you should get this because this,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: and then but you you got a three year customer.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: But how hard was it to get that job? Was
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: it too hard? I mean, okay, so you did that
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: for how long? I did that for two years? Um?
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: And then that's when I when I turned twenty one,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and and on the side, I was doing like the
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: DJing stuff. Okay, so you were working two days a
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: week doing that on the weekend. Okay, so now the
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: DJ thing is happening, you're still doing the HP thing.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: And then what happens and then I quit it once
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the bar started a kind of picking up. I quit
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: the HP thing and your mother says what. Um. She
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: was just like what are you doing? Like why are
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: you djaying? Like it was? But I was like, you know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I'm in college, Like let me just I'll figure it out. Um.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: So then I was doing the HP thing and then
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: uh deejaying, and then from there, um, the DJ thing
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: was going so well that I was like, okay, I
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: need to scale this up. And there was a venue
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: down the street from my house that was like a
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: House of Blues type venue. So I struck a deal
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: with them of like, hey, I'm going to bring in
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: real talent and create uh you know, in a night
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: here every month. We'll do a show every month with
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: real dj is, like well known DJs and stuff like that. Um.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: So they were cool with it. I did that, okay,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: but before you get there, you're in the bar. That's
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: a cash business. Ever have any dangerous situations. Yeah, So
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: that ended because my my my six months at the
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: bar ended because somebody, uh somebody pulled out a gun
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: inside the bar at one of my nights and then
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: somebody got stabbed. Then the parking lot there's a big
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: brawl and someone pulled out a gun inside and then
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: people got stabbed outside, and then yeah, it ruined my
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: business on that end, so then I had to Okay,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: but before you how did it end the cops actually
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: interview you or no, No, it was people were just
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: scared to come now because that that dive bar. Like
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I said, it was on bar, it's in the hood
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: almost So then once that happened, everyone was like, well,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm gonna go there anymore. Okay,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: So it wasn't It wasn't the bar owner, it was
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the customers and we're done. So how many dead nights
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: did you have before you realize this is done? Well,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I never lost money because I owned the equipment, you know,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I just bring my equipment and play and that was it.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: So you know, if if the bar didn't do what
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: it did, I still walked out with money, which at
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: that time was cash and was good and helped help
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: pay the bill. Okay, So now you go to this
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: new club. Do you have relationships with name talent at
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: that point? So I was you're completely yeah, So I
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: was just reaching out to agents and getting raped by
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: like getting the note you know. I remember there was
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: just one booking I did and it was a group
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: of four DJ's and um, they ended up charging me
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the regular price of the group for the full group,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: but they sent me the one guy that was the
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: ghost producer. So nobody even knew who the guy was.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: And he it was his first show ever djaying and
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: I had paid like five grand for this guy. And
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: I get him and he's just like, yeah, I've never
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: really DJ. And I'm like, well, what do you do?
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: And he's like why produce all the music for the group?
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: And I'm like damn, Like what am I gonna do
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: with this guy? So I'm like sitting there nervous, like dude,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: this guy doesn't even know how to DJ, like you
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: know whatever. Um, But yeah, you know, I I learned
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the hard way of this. Like, okay, so you have
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: that situation, did you call the agent and say I
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: want my money back? I called the agent, was just
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: like you know, and he's like no, I assure you
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: he knows what he's doing, like he it's fine, like
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: this this will be all good. Um, And you know,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I still made money on the show and was just
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: like whatever. So it wasn't like the worst, but you
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: know scary, Okay, So you convince this guy to do
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: it once a month the bar, the guy who owns
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the club, and you start, how long do you do
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: that for? Um only like it was it was like
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: six months, six another six months or so, and it
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: was always successful. Yeah, it was good until until I
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: partnered with the guy saw what I was doing. The
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: owner of the club, so he's like, hey, let's partner
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: on the next event. Let's up the up the budget
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and get a bigger name. What was the capacity, like, yeah,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: so it wasn't small. And he's like, you know, I
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: have a friend that's he books talent for all these
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: night clubs in Orange County. He's going to give us
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: a deal on a DJ UM and let's book him.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, fine, So we went haves
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: on this DJ and the guy got bent over backwards
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: on the rate he got this guy for. The guy's
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: rate is like six grand and we ended up paying
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: twenty grand for this guy whoa Yeah, so we lost
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: on that show and I was just like, you know what,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: I don't want to do this anymore. But through all that,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: UM one of my one of my close friends, he
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: was like an avid photographer and he had a he
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: had a a blog. UM. It was called us dub Steps,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: so he did like, um, he was blogging about depths
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: and blogs were powerful at that time, so he was
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: helping me promote these shows UM. And I had told
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: him like, hey, um, you know you're helping promote the
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: show and it does well, I'll buy you the new
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: camera that you want, UM, so you can go and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: shoot photos. And I did that and then coincidentally, during
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: this time, he had gotten an offer to go on
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the road as a full time photographer for a well
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: known DJ named Borger UM. And then that's kind of
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: how I got my chops and meeting. I met Borger
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: him and I connected became really close um, and that
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: was kind of all I needed to really like, you know,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I got in with him and you know, we became close.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: And then he was like, you know, he was with
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: red Light at he's still with red Light, but his
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: managers are red Light convinced him to start a management company.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: So he did that and he was like, you know,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: do you wanna start managing artists with me? And I
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: was like okay, yeah. I was like, you know, I'm
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: almost gonna graduate, and I'm like, prior to this, you're
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: just hanging with him, going going to shows, being his
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: butt exactly, So just being friends with him, and you know,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: that was it. And then when uh, he kind of
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: saw like my work ethic and everything I was doing
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and hustling, and he was just like, yo, you know
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: if you want to manage artists with me, like you know,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: we should do that. Like he had a label, UM,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and was just like, you know, there's a couple of guys,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: you know, independent young guys that are releasing, they're not
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: really well known, and like, maybe you can just start
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: managing some of these guys, UM, And we did, and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: I was like cool, So I agreed to it. UM
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: signed this kid named Sick Dope. It was my first
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: artist with him, UM, and uh yeah that was kind
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: of how we started started it And then was it
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: immediately successful? No? No, no, no no, So so I
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: signed him. UM. You know, I was making a couple
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: hundred bucks a month off of commissions and I had
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to split it with Borgo every time. So you were
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: living on what I was. I was losing money, but
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: what were you living on? I was? I wasn't I
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: had I had a bunch of money saved from the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: bar and stuff like that. Um, and that was kind
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: of what I was living on. And then I would
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: get a couple hundred bucks here and there every month
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: from the management stuff, but I didn't really care. Um,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: we were living at home. I was living at home.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: And then I was like I was buying cars on
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Craigslist and selling them, flipping them, like tending the windows
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and then reselling them and like just doing all kinds
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: of different stuff like that. UM. And uh yeah, So
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: then you know, we did that for about a year together.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: We worked together, and then about a year and I
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: realized that, like you know, it was kind of a
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: conflict of interest for an artist off an artist management
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: company because none of my guys could ever grow past
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: past him. UM. So it was then that you know,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I had to make the decisions either stay here or
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: go on my own. UM. And that was kind of it.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: So you know, we had the convone. You know, he
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: wished me the best, and you know I started managing
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: on my own. UM. And then at that time, then
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: everyone started approaching me. Um. You know, red light three
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: zero teamwork, Okay, but you're coming with no acts. I
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: had so at that time in the year that we
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: were doing it together, I had three acts and he
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: let you walk with those. And those three acts were
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: as a kid name sicked Dope and this kid named
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Jaws and other kid named dot Com and what was
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the status of their careers when you Jaws had just
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: so coincidentally, Jaws had just released a song that was
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: starting to get a lot of support in the DJ world.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: And a close friend of mine is a talent buyer
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: forer Insomniac. He was a burning Man and I had
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: set him the song. So he was driving around in
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: his golf car at burning Man playing this song and
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Diplo stopped him and Dipplo was like, yo, man, like
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I keep hearing the song. Where who is this? And
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: he's like, this is a new kid, Jaws. So then
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the next day he my buddy called me. He's like, yo,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: you won't believe it. But Dipplo asked for the Jaws record.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I was like okay, And then I get an email
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the next day from Diplo like, yo, man, that song
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: is huge. I want to sign it to Matt Decent.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: So then from there, you know, okay, let's go back.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: How do think I end up playing it in his
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: golf cart. He had a golf car and he he
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: was just playing music in the golf car. Okay, how
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: hard did you work that guy? Not at I didn't
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: work him at all. He's just a friend of mine.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Send it was Honestly, it was the most random thing ever.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: So Diplo wants to sign the act to Matt Decent.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: So Dipplo wants to sign uh Jaws, and we do
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: it um, and then Diplo puts a lot of like, uh,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: he gives Jaws a big co sign and starts talking
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and Jaws is like one of the most talented producers kids,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: is a beast, and uh, Diplo like starts putting them
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: on and just kind of talking about him in interviews
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and you know, we're working together with him on different tracks,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: and you know he helped a lot in the in
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the beginning of my career of just like with Jaws.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: And then once Jaws kind of blew up in the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: dance world, Um, they opened the door for me and um,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: you know, having that leverage and starting to build my career.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Stand By, we'll take a short break and get right
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: back to this conversation with Motional Easy, manager of Marshmallow.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bob Left Sets podcast. Each week
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: I interview a new guest and we dive into their backgrounds,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: current events, and everything in between. If you like the podcast, subscribe,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: rate and review the show. Check out our earlier episodes.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: You can hear them all on tune in, Apple Podcast
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: or your podcast player of choice. Let's continue the conversation
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: with Motional Easy, manager of marsh Mama. Okay, so you
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: had these three acts and suddenly all these management companies
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: were interested in making a deal with you. So how
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: did you decide to go to red Light. I looked
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: at I looked at who was there? Um, And you
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: know at the time, I was twenty three, and there
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: was no other young managers I read Light. Everyone else
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: was old older. UM. So for me, it was just
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: like I was unsure what was going to happen with
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: my career and as a whole. And I was like,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: you know what, like I see all these other guys,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and all these other guys are worried about just the
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: bottom line of like what like before anything, They're like,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: what's your commissions? What are you making? What is this?
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: What is this? And like red Light was the only
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: place where and borg Or is managed by Red Light,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: so his manager see souther White and Richard Bishop. At
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: the time, we're kind of like, hey, you know, we
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: want you to come in with us, um. And you know,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I had worked with them for about a year and
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: was just like, you know what, Like I feel like
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: here I have the most job security in a sense,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: being you know, twenty three and being in the trenches
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: all the time. These guys are not in the clubs
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: the same way I am all the time. So I
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: was just like, you know, fuck it, like I'm gonna
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: take the chance to go here. Um. Okay, so Jaws
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: is blowing up with diplow and continue the narrative. Yes,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: So at that point, um, I I had just started
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: this idea called Marshmallow UM and I just joined Red Light.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: And when I had played this music to borg Or,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: this Marshmallow project, and I told him about before, I spip, okay,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: we have but a little bit. There was a DJ involved,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: but no one knew who it was, uh correct, Yeah,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: So to to go with a little bit slower, how
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: you come up with the idea of marshmallow um without
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: going into too much detail because it's still secret. Okay,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: go up to the line and with secret, although a
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: lot of information has now come out, its identity is
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: come out definitely. Um No, it was just someone I
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: was working with started making a different style of music
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and we knew it would never work with like the
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: dance kids are so close minded and sense of like
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: if they like you for making one style of music,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: the second makes something else, they're like, you sold out,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Like we don't want to listen to anymore. You sold out.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: So for us it was like, you know, we knew
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: that this style, Um, there had to be somebody new
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: with it. It couldn't be attached to any other identity
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: besides something new and fresh. Um. So we came up
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: with the idea of how successful was this DJ before
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: you came up with a marshmallow concept? Um, not very successful.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: It was just it was just a you know, a
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: normal two to three thousand dollars the show kind of
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: so nothing crazy. Um. And then so you want to
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: have another identity so you're not rejected by his choral
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: audience and whose ideas that yours are his? It was
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: it was mine to come up with somebody new and
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: then and who came up with the name Marshmallow. We
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: both did collectively. We we kind of he was pitching
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: me like he was sending me a song a day
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and it was this new style that was super mellow
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and the music was mellow melodic, and you know, I
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: was just like, yo, how are you making all this?
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: And he's just I don't know, it's just coming to
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: me like it's easy. And you know, in one week
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: he sent me like six different songs. So I was like, okay,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: we have to come up with a new name. Um.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: So we thought about it and I was like, okay,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: what about marshmallow. The music super mellow um. And you know,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: I remember he was at dinner with his family and
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: he told us his family like you know, Moe wants
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: to call it marshmallow, and they're like, d J Marshmallow,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Like that's so stupid way and I was like, dude,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: like we have nothing to lose, like let's let's come
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: up with the logo and see. So I sat there
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: and to what we was inspired by dead Mouse zero? Yeah,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: to be honest, there was no Dead Mouse was not
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: an inspiration at all. I think people put the helmet
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: correlation as like, you know, but there's been daft punk.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: There's been people before Dead Mouse that had helmets that
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: still have helmets, Like, I think it's just a costome
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day. Um, but the reasons
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: why we did that was just you know, I guess
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: I'll get into that later, but um, you know, from there,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: we came up with the logo. I sent him the logo.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: He liked it and gave me his blessing and was like, okay, cool,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: let's just do it. So we started okay, wait, wait
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: he sent you all these mixes. Do you immediately see
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: dollar signs? No? No, not at all. You are you
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: just saying this is a client and I'm just gonna
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: do something different. Or do you say, wow, this, I'm
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: gonna work this hard because I know this is the
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: new thing. No, I mean I just was like, Yo,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: this is different, Like this is something that's not I
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: think in dance music, especially like when you're able to
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: create a sound and you get you get kind of
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: titled with that sound. So when you when people are like, oh,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: that sounds like this person because that's his style, you
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: know what I mean? If like that's when you're the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: most successful, you know what I mean? In this style
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: nobody had really pioneered this sound that he was doing.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: So we were like, okay, like, let's just you know,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I didn't see dollar signs at all. I was like, Yo,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna put this out and let's just see
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: what it does. So and you put it out how
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: so through SoundCloud. So we put out a song a
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: day on SoundCloud every day for free download. UM. And
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: you know, in one you could put song five songs
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: out and what people were just the first song dropped,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: people are like, Okay, this is cool. And at the
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: time I was, you know, reposting it through my network
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: of artists that I had UM. And then we put
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: out another song, another song, and that people kind of
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: were catching on, like yo, what is this? Like who
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: is this marshmallow guy? You know, the there was no photo,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: there was nothing, It was just a logo. UM. So
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: people were just kind of wondering what it was. And
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: then from there, um about two months in two or
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: three months in, I get a call from Scrillics UM
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: and Scrillics is like, yo, man, you know I had
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: no Scrillics through Jaws like he was. He started messing
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: with Jaws too, And UM, we'd built a relationship and
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: he's like, yo, I need to know who Marshmallow is.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: He's like, I can't stop listening to this music and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't tell you. It was like it's
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: a secret, and he's like no, like you know, you
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: gotta tell me, Like I'm going through some stuff right now,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: and all I'm listening to you like I really need
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: to connect with with him. So I told them, um,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and then you know I connected Mellow and Scrillics and Mellow.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: At the time, it never met Scrillics, like Scrills was
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: an idol to him, and you know, he was just
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: a small town DJ. So then um, from there, Um,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: one day he could come to l A and I
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: was like, yo, you need to hit up Scrillics now,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: like you need to connect with them. And he's like,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: no way, I'm not calling Scrillics. Like there's no way.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: So I was like, okay, I stopped a car in
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the middle of the road and I said, yo, I'm
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: not moving until you call Scrillic. So um, He's like fine, whatever,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: like wall, she's not gonna answer. He calls Scrillics and
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: a woman picks up. A woman picks up and it's like,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: you know, Hello, Hey, Marshmallow, Like, good to talk to you.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: You know, Scrillic says so much about you, and he
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: like whispers to me. He's like, dude, it's Katie Kirk
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, what, I didn't know who Katie Kirk
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: was that, you know, I was like okay, Like um okay,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: and then uh so he goes into convo with her
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: and she's like, you know, maybe one day I'm gonna
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: be interviewing you, and you know, Scrilics was like Sonny
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, Marshmallow, he's a really talented kid.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: He's the next generation all this stuff, like, you know,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: really you speaking highly about him. And he gets off
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the phone and he's like, dude, he was an interview
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: and he told me he's gonna call me later. I
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: was like, okay, Cozy, do you think that's gonna get posted?
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: And I was like no, no way, Like there's no
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: way they're gonna put that in an interview. A week later,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: we wake up to the front page of Yahoo News
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: and Katie Kirk's interview with Scrillics is in there, and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: it's a video interview and in the video interview, um
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: scrillis his phone rings in the interview and it said
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: and it says, uh, Chris Marshmallow on the phone. And
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: at this time we had created this buzz through you know,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: the Reddit, reddit sphere and online where nobody knew who
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Marshmallow was and everyone was trying to figure it out.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: So when this post said this was the first clue
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: anybody ever got to his identity, They're like, oh, his
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: name is Chris. And then you know, everything just started
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: going from there. But you know, it was probably it
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: caught so much attention from everybody with the whole Katie
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Kirk thing, and then from there, um, the music just
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: started connecting. Uh. We did a couple of big remixes
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: and then um, you know, then we hadn't we hadn't
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: done a show for the first year. How did you
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: get the remixes? It's like we did a remixes of
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: the Scirlington Justin Bieber song where are You Now? Um,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that was a really big remix for us. Justin weep
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: started playing in his tour um and then from there
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: we did like a big remix Adele's Hello's unofficial remix.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: But the remix got almost like four fifty thousand downloads
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: um and it was just it was just hosted on
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: our We had a there's a platform called Hive, so
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: we're hosting it through our Hive channel. Um, and then
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: from there just kind of connected and then, um, you
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: know I wasn't letting him tour, so that for the
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: first week, I didn't want it to come into the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: market at a low price, you know, so I didn't
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: want to build from a two thousand dollar active ten
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: thousand to fifteen thousand, so um, you know, we we
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: turned down every single offer. And he's living on what
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: he's living off of what he had from his prior career.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: But he didn't he doesn't live a lavish He didn't
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: live a lavish life. So I was just a normal kid.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: So he was fine without going on the road for
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: a year. Yeah, he was cool with it. He was
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: cool with it because he had his other project to
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: offset his expenses. And you know, for for us too,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, let's do this right. So it
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: wasn't until we we waited a year and then we
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: got a big festival offer, um, like a thirty dollar
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: offer to play our first show, and we're like, okay, cool,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: we got the billing we needed on the festival, so
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: we could come into the marketing which festival was it?
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: It was a hard, hard day of the dead. So
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: we were able to bypass, you know, a lot of
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: DJs by being built over them. You know, in in
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: the DJ world it means a lot. Billing. Billing is
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: a huge thing. So we were able to come in
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: with like you know, top tier billing, a big set time.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: And then from there, you know, we launched our first
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: tour and it was a hard ticket tour. We did
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: like you know, six to sid cap venues and we
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: sold that out immediately. What are the dates worth to you?
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: What do you mean? Well, how much did you get
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: paid on? Oh so I got not you as a manager,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: but the marchal so we got. We So what I
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: did was I wanted the lower ticket prices on all
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the shows, which so they were what so there of
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: fees were like between like five and seven thousand for
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: those shows based off the ticket scale and there are
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: how many dates in those markets? There was? There was
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: I think the tour was like twelve shows. Okay, so small,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: it was small, It was small, but it was all
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: the major markets. Um, so we hid in everything blew
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: out right away. So there was this huge buzz of like, Yo,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Marshmalla was just sold out his whole tour immediately right
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: on on sale. So through that, um, you know, in
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: the music and everything, we kept going and you know,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: we got we caught a lot of breaks just with
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: publicity and all kinds of stuff like that. And then
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: you give us an example or people just trying to
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: figure out who Marshmallow was. So every day there was
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: an article being posted of like Martin Garrick's marshmallow, TSO's marshmallow,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: this person's marshmallow this, and it's like every day. It
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: was just a new a new theory. Um that kept
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: us in the in the bloggestphere every single day. UM.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: And with that, we were just releasing music consistently. UM.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: And then it wasn't until about two or two years
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: in that I found tune Corps. And we didn't at
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: this time all of our music was on SoundCloud. We
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: didn't have any music, so you were unaware of tune Corps. Yeah,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: I was unaware of it. And then someone was like, yo,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: you should check out tune core because we you know,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: we didn't want to sign. For those who don't know,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: tone core is a service where for a very small
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: annual fee they place your music on all the streaming
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: and download services. Yeah, it's like sixty dollars for five years.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: So I found this and was like, okay, let's rebundle
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: all this music that we put out a year and
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: a half ago or two years ago and put it
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: out as a new album and get it up on
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Apple and Spotify on all these only other DSPs. And
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: we did that. Um, what kind of reaction did? Your
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: album went number one and the songs were all still
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: available as a free down on our on our SoundCloud.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: So we were like, what the heck? And then we
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: just kept putting out new music, new music, and then um,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: you know, then I go, so, at this point in time,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: are the major labels knocking on your door? Not really, No,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: it wasn't. They were. We got interests of like doing
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: remixes and stuff like that for majors, but nobody was
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: really knocking on the door. Um. It wasn't until about
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: uh last year that we got the majors interested. Okay,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: so you're on all these digital services, You're making any
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: money on that? Um? Initially no, but it was you know,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: but once I you know, was able to build a
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: relationship with the you know, the DSPs, you know, personally
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: with the guys that were important to us in a sense. Um,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: you know, we got the same placements as you know,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: major artists were getting in. You know it really I
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: think for for them, like we we brought everybody to
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: the table from the beginning. You know, so all the
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: guys at Apple, at Spotify, everybody knew about Marshmallow as
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: it was being growing. Okay, but you know at that
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: point in time, while it's growing, your leverage is limited.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: How do you establish those relationships with Spotify and Apple?
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: I think everyone was just seeing that how much attention
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: was on Marshmallow from the big names. So the door
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: was open. Yeah, So the door opened, and from there
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: it was just like I think for them, you know,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: we got them connected so early that they felt vested
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: in this project and they got behind it. Um. So
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: then you know, then once the label started coming in,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: and I was getting the pitch of like, you've done
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: a great job so far, but now watch what we
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: can do and we'll elevate the brand. And I'm like,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: yoh man, like I get the same placements that you do,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: you know, And and he's not a radio artist. We're
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: not looking for radio at this time, like, you know,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: we're building our course still, you know, we're building a founding.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: So labels come to you, you're not going to the labels,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: and and you say no to all of them. Yeah. Yeah.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: So it wasn't until you know, we we got a
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: big offer, a multimillion dollar offer, where we're like, man,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: like this this could be cool. Um. But then you know,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: sitting down with the labels and hearing what their thoughts
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: were about Marshmallow, and it was just like, Okay, these
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: people don't really even know what this is. It's just
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: like one of those things where they're just trying to
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: offer us money in case it blows up and they
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: have it on their rosters. So I was like, you
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: know what, like forget like this, like let's pass. And
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: we passed on all the deals and um, that usually
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: makes him hungrier, though it does. And now, I mean
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: the deal we got offer, you know two weeks ago,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: had of offer that's I would think like ten x
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: of what the deal was, you know, nine months ago,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: ten months ago. Because we had to really prove ourselves.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Everyone thought it was a gimmick. Everyone's like, oh, it's
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: a dead dead mouse knockoff. He doesn't make music, it's
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: a but you know he's one of them. Okay, so
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: let's go back. First year, you're off the road. Then
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: you do twelve dates and you go with tune courts
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: who are on all the DSPs. What's the step after that?
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: And then festivals going into the festival world and all
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: the festivals are eager to have them. Yeah, everyone was
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: eager to have How many uh festivals did he play
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: that next year? A lot? We did. We did a
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: lot of big festivals. How much production did you bring? None? None?
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: So the helmet and that was it. Yeah, the helmet
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: and in the artists and the USB stick and that's it.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: So um, that was it. But then we used we
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: use those festivals as kind of our entry point into
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: doing bigger, hard ticket shows. So we come into the market,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: do a big festival, get a big look, and then
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: we we launched our first kind of big hard tickets tour.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: So then the agent is who the agent is Steve
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Gordon at Circle Talent. So he's got a him and
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: his partner, Kevin Gimble. They have a smaller boutique agency,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: but they have a lot of dance acts um. So
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: you know, we had had like a couple of clients
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: with him prior to that, so we had kind of
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: built this whole thing together. Um. So then it was
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: then that we we're like, you know, let's use the
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: momentum and go into a bigger rooms. Okay, so how
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: big were the rooms now? So then we in November
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: of two thousands sixteen, we did h three nights at
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the shrine, so we sold fifteen thousand tickets and about
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: we did fifteen thousand and about an hour and a half.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Just to be clear, since that's so many tickets, how
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: does the word get out? How do you sell those
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: fifteen thousands? Um? Or well, how long did it take
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: you to sell? How many dates did you put up?
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: At first? So we put out so we rolled out everything. Um,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: we rolled out everything, and then the on sale for
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: l A was on its own dates. So the first
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: the first shrine blew out immediately, then we went up
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: with the second one that blew out after like thirty minutes,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: and then the third one went up and then that
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: blew out after like an hour. So really there was
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: no promotion involved the audience, know the audience you we
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: posted on our social media like, hey, tickets are going up.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: It blew out. Then we did the Bill Graham in
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: San Francisco. We did eight thousand tickets and um, I
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: think it was less than like thirty seconds that blew
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: out immediately Red Rocks blew out in a couple of hours. Um.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: So we did ten thousand there, um and then we
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: did two nights at Echo Stage and d C we
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: did in Montreal, we did three New city gases, which
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: was twelve thousand tickets, which was their venue record for
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: an artist doing that many. Um. So right off the bat,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: you know we did you know, tend to or eight
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: to twelve thousand tickets in every major market. How much
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: production bringing so we so at that time, yeah, we
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: brought in um like one semi truck. We had just
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: created a rig um that you know, it was just
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: a big led wall with some stuff here and there.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Um a lot of like special effects like you know,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: fireworks and stuff like that, but nothing nothing crazy. Because
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: you know, our mentality was like, this is our first
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: kind of big tour. If we go also the walls,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: now what do we do the next tour? So we
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: were like, let's you know, scale it back because we
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: know the kids want to come and watch us, So like,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: let's keep this more about Marshmallow than production and stuff
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: like that, because you know, there's a lot of acts
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: now that their entire career revolves around their production where
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: it's like, you know, they have to bring you know,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: a million two million dollar rig to to make up
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: for their cheesiness. So it's like, you know, we don't
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: need to do that. Okay, So it's November of that
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: you start this big tour and that plays for how long? Um,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Like our tour, like the traditional dance tours aren't like
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: a traditional artist tour, they're more like flying in dates.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: We fly in, we do the major markets throughout a
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: time span. So like that tour was within two months.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: But it was like, you know there's festivals mixed in,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: there's you know, so we had our days for these
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: hard ticket shows, um, but they were we would just
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: fly into them, the production would be there, We've set
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: it up with the promoter, and then it will be done. Okay,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: so we go into what's the next event? Was this?
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: So this last last year was all it was global.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: It was like, how do we make sure that this
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: momentum and imprint carries onto a global level. So we
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: spent almost two months in Europe, a lot of time
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: and ages. These are festival festivals and a couple bigger
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: heart ticket shows, but mainly festivals, um. You know, so
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: it was it was big on Europe doing a run there.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Um we did, like we sold out the Brixton Academy
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: in London on the UK um, and then just doing
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: a bunch of festivals um. And then that was kind
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: of it. And then this year is when we launched. Well,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: well before you get to this year, suddenly he's involved
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: with literally top tier talent. How does that come together?
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: People just started talking about him people. Everyone was kind
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: of like, you know, we were getting him into the
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: studio with people, um, and people were just meeting him,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: you know. We like through just the hype, people were
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: intrigued by his brain. You're not working at your phone
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: is ringing? Are you working? I mean I was working
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: it for sure. I was working trying to get him
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: in the studio with people. But it wasn't until you know,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: we just had a lot of big like Coachella was
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: a big moment for us. We did Coachell last year. UM,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: we headlined the Saharitan closed it out and you know,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: the tent was rammed from front to back, and you know,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: we brought throughout the process of the project. We've always
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: brought special guests with us everywhere, So what's the thinking there.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: So it was always about, like, you know, connecting, It
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: was it was two fold. It was, you know, for us,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: getting Marshmallow connected with these other artists and exposing him
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: to their fan base. Because again, for Marshmallow, it's like,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: you know, we need people to see him one time
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: and they'll never forget who he is. You know, it's
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: not a traditional DJ where you know, it could be
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: you know, Calvin Harris could walk in here and nobody
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: might recognize him. But with him, it's like, you know,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: it's a brand, it's a it's a character that we
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: need people to see one time. So for us, it
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, let's bring in people that matter
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: in these different you know, if we went to Atlanta,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: we brought Germaine Dupriat. We brought Little Yaddi out in Atlanta,
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: we brought walk a flock out in Atlanta. Um, you
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: go to Detroit, we brought out D twelve in Detroit,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: you know, and their them, you know, Detroit in Detroit
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: D twelve is like you know when they were with
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: eminem like that was those are the hometown heroes. Okay,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: how do you literally make that happen just by hitting
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: them up? You know, I would we would go on Twitter,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: d m them or I would you know, find a
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: way to get intro to the manager and be like, hey,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: look like Marshmall has got I would explain to them
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: like this, like Marshall's gotta sold out show. There's five
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: thousand kids that are dance fans. It's not a traditional show,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: like we don't we're not offering money, like, but if
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: you want to come for you know, a one song, come,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: you know, and it's a whole new demographic. You're exposing
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: the artists too. And it would be one of their songs.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: It would be one of their songs. And people were
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: always like, you know, if they if they realized kind
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: of what it was, and um, you know, people had
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: heard about Marshmallow, they were like, okay, cool, let's do it.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: So then we would get these people to come out,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: and you know, it created a moment for us to
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It was a cool moment
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: um and at that time we had racked up like
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: three million followers on Instagram and Facebook. It was at
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: a couple of millions, So we had a social reach
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: that over. You know, I saw that, like, Okay, you
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: know that's cool. Okay, So let's go back to how
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: you end up working with Selena Gomez at all? Yeah?
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: So what so during Coachella, Um, you know, Marshmallo become
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: friends with who was the special guest of Coachella. So
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: the first weekend we brought out I forget what weekend
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: we we brought out asap for we brought out Yogatti,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: we brought out Travis Barker, um O Cirius, um, we
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: brought out Andrew Watt, and then I'm sorry, I think
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: who else we brought up? I think I think that
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: was it. I think we brought Okay at this point
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: in time, since Marshmallow has his own sound, which is
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: not as aggressive as other people's or his previous sound,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: and even though it's three years many people might say
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: it's overnight. Is there any backlash against him in the scene,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: tons of backlash. Every DJ is like, yo, this is
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: a gimmick, this is stupid, Like this guy puts a
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: buck on his head, and all of a sudden, this
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's not good music. The music sucks all
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: this ship. So we we've heard it from every angle. Well,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: how do you cope with that? To be honest, you do.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't bother us, you know what I mean,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Like you know, for for us, it's turned all of
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: our lives around, you know. And and and none of
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: the guests special guests said no, I'm not gonna play
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: with you because of the backlash. No, not at all.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, because the backlash is all whispers. You know, nobody, nobody,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: nobody says it to us in person. Nobody says it,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: you know, no one's like vocal about it. But you know,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: as we hear it from like, you know, other people
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: in the industry. Oh, this DJ was talking it saying
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: like marshmallows cheesy, or this person is this or like
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: you know, we'd walk into a you know, a festival
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: and walk by the trailer of another DJ, and you
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: know they wouldn't acknowledge us or like you know, so
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: it's I mean, it's just it's it's like any other industry. Okay.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: But since he's keeping his identity secret when he goes
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: to the coach. He's got to wear the damn helmet
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: of all time. Yeah, so its it sucks for him.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: And you know he always was like, you know, I
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: can never connect with like it was. It was what
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: sucks was when he met artists outside of the dance world.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: So he met like a rapper or somebody, and he
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: would have to talk to him in costume, and then
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: he would, you know, when he would not be in
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: costume and to go up to that person and the
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: person like, yo, who then are you. We're gonna pause
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: for a moment. We'll be right back with my conversation
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: with Motional Easy, manager of Marshmallow. Thanks for listening to
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: the Bob Left That's podcast. If you want to see
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: videos and photos of Motional Easy, Tony Hawk or any
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: of my guests here in the tune In studios in Venice,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: go to at tune In on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: and now more with Motional Easy, manager of Marshmallow. So
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: you played Coachella, you say this is a turning point. Yeah,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: Coachello was a big moment for us because you know,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: we were going up against Kendrick. Uh, you know, we
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: didn't know what it was, what was gonna happen. We're like,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: oh man, we're gonna get killed. It's Kendrick Um. But
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: you know, the tent was rammed um and uh it was.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: It was a big moment for us because so many
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: people had were watching that that set, and people had
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: come and heard about it, and uh one one of them.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: We wanted to create a moment at the things, so
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: we had a drum off between Marshmallow challenge Travis Barker
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: to a drum off. Is Marshall of a drummer. He
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: knows how to drum, but he's not Travis Barker, it means.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: But we did this thing where and it was on
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the live stream where we brought Travis out and out
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: of nowhere. Travis rises on a riser and then Marshmallow
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: rises and then they challenge each other to a drum off,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: and it was like a moment that you know, Billboard
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: and everybody's writing about. You know, one of the biggest
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: moments of Coach Hell was a drum off. Um. We
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: tried bringing Nickel back out, you know, that was the
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: moment I wanted, was bringing Nickel back out, but they
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: they were recording their album the otherwise they would have
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: done it. Yeah. We offered to get him a jet
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: to come, and they're like, we already have our own jet,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: but we can't come because we're busy with the album. Um.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: I thought that would have been a dope moment to
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: absolutely their mistake. Okay, So Coachella ends and then all
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: of a sudden there's a buzz and people are making offers. Yeah.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: So the people are making offers. Um. And we had
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: gotten the studio with a couple of big writers Andrew
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: his crew. We had a couple of records that we
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: had done together. Um, and we were just shopping for
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: top lines or for upstar features and Demi Lovato was like,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: how you know she hopped on one song and then
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: how did she how did she find it? So I
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: had sent it to because Monty, so every every label
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: that comes to the table. I was like, look like
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: if we're gonna talk, like show me what you're gonna do,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, you know, we've we
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: don't need your help developing the artist because at this
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: point the artist is big. Just like, show me what
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: you're gonna do that you're saying you know? So, Um,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: we sent the music out to some people and you know,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I sent it to Monty and you know that's mining
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Lit Minute Republic. So Monty was like, you know, let's
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: let's see who we can get on this. And he
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: had sent it to David Massey and then they sent
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: it to Demi and then I connected with Phil, Demi's manager,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: and was like, here's this record, and Demi loved it
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: and she hopped on it, and then um, you know
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: the Selena thing kind of the same thing. Uh. Andrew Watt,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: one of the writers on the Selena record, had a
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: close ration with Selena Um. John j and I had
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: met a bunch of times and he was like, you know,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: I want to do something with Marshmallow, and you know,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: he had heard the record and was like, let's let's
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: put Selena on this. I'm like, a cool, let's do that.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: And then kalid Um Marshmallow had brought Kalide to our
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Coachella house, so he's crashed on our couch for like
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: four days during Coachella. He was coming out to perform
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: with another artist, but he stayed with us and they
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: were supposed to get in the studio. They never did,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: and they had just met through Twitter. So he came
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: with us, UM, and nothing ever came up, but they
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: just became friends and I was it. And then two
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: months later, UM, Khalid was here in town and you know,
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: Marshmall hit him up and I was like, hey man,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: let's you want to go in the studio. I'm in
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: the studio. Kalid's like, all right, I'll stop by. Stops by,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: and within four hours they make the song Silence. It's
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: just them two in the room and you know, they
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: make the song Silence and UM. When when all of
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: us heard that, we were like, this song is gonna
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: be huge. UM. So we reached out to our c
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: A like, you know, we want to put this out
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: as soon as we can UM, and that was right
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: as Khalid was blowing up to UM. We put the
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: song out. The song now has I think almost like
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: eight hundred million streams collectively through all the platforms. UM.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: It was like, you know, top ten on Spotify for
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: a couple of months. Big song. UM. And uh you know,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: from there and then we went to Selena and then
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: now we just dropped a record, uh, the Friends record
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: with Anne Marie. And then tomorrow we have a single
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: with with with Chris with Logic. So Chris and I've
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: been working together on the logic correct. So Chris Ruin,
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: we're doing this logic and Marshmallow single. It's Logics next single.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Um really dope song. Um okay, so it's twenty eighteen.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: What's next? What's the next step? So for us is
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: you know after I left that the dinner that you
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: and I had at Jake's house with uh, that's how
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: I met MO. We had a couple of months back. Yeah,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: we had dinner with Jake Oudell and it was us
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: and manager Jeff who manages Logan Paul. And that was
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: before the crisis. Yeah. Yeah, So but you know I
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: sat there listening to Jeff talk and it it was just
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: like I was, you know, I was fascinated in a
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: sense of like, you know, it's crazy this the impact
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: that Logan's had on this is this is Logan Ball
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: the YouTube star. Yeah. So you know, listening to their
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: concepts and listening to you know, some of the stuff
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: he said. You know, one thing resonated when he was like,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: if they're not watching you, they're watching somebody else. And
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay, this makes sense. So um, you know,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: when I got back home that night, I emailed my
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: entire team and was like, hey, guys, first thing in
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: the morning, how many people are on your team? Um?
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: I have five five people that work with me, and
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: what are the other five do? So three of them
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: our day to days, and I have one guy who's
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: a social media guy. He kind of runs some of
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: the other artists social media. And then uh, the other
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: one's my assistant. Okay, so you get home and email
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: your team. I'm like, hey, you know, in the morning,
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: we have to have a talk about content strategy creating
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: content because at the time we had Marshall had like,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: you know, four million YouTube followers, four or five million,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: and it was coming from the music videos, and we
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: were uploading a music video maybe once every month or
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: two months, and there was not a consistent feed of
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: of content. So I was just like, after listening to Jeff,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay, maybe like you know what blows
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: my mind is like their numbers. You know, it's like
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: this logan is making probably million dollars a year creating
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: content in his house or wherever, and it's like, you look,
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: think about the biggest musicians to make that kind of money,
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: and they're touring the world in a studio every single night,
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: and you know, then Logan drops a song on on
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Spotify and it's you know, thirty million plays on Spotify
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: and he's in New Music Friday and all this ship.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: I'm like, damn, Like it's just it's crazy. Um but
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: it really kind of like opened my eyes sit where
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, maybe we should focus
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: more on content. And with Marshmallow, we have a character,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: so it's like, how do we create content around this character?
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Um So it's from there that we started just coming
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: out with different creative ideas to basically kind of have
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: a piece of content that goes out every day. Um So,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: within the last like we've been in the last like
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: six months, we've been averaging nine hundred thousand news subscribers
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: a month. How so you're putting out content every day,
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: what how many views does that content end up having?
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: So the channel is doing a hundred and seventy million
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: views a month. Yeah, so the channel right now is
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: averaging a hundred seventy million views of the cross all
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: the video. What was it before before he employed this
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: new strategy? It was, I mean, it was it was growing.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: It was probably that I think we were at like
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: a hundred million. We had one music video for a
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: song he did two years ago called Alone. The video
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: is like a video about it was kind of like
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: him getting bullied as Marshmallow and he grows up and
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: becomes his DJ and everybody starts to like him. All
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: the kids that bullied him started being like trying to
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: be cool with him. And we put this video out
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: and the video has almost one point three billion views
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: in two years. And it's an independent record, no no
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: radio support, nothing to the degree you can mention it
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: to remember it. What is one point three billion views
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: worth financially? Um, it's I don't even know it's it's
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: probably a couple of million. But that okay, So he
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: had he had this success previously. But now you're putting
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: account content every day, right, So we started putting out
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: content and we wanted to We wanted to create a
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: deeper connection with our fans. So one of the first
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: concept that we created was cooking with Marshmallow. So we
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: were like, okay, let's let's look at it this way.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: How can we create something that's going to reach a
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: different audience, but how can we tie it into our fans?
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: And then you know, also, let's we need something that
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: we can upload every week, you know. So we created
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: this series Cooking with Marshmallow, where we look at we
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: take our biggest demographic, right, so Indonesia's our biggest fan base,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: so we go and create Why is Indonesia your base?
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: I have no clue. I have no clue. Indonesia is
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: our biggest and we have like I think our second
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Indonesia Singapore, um, and then the US and then Canada
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: and then Brazil is like our top five. And have
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: you been to Indonesian Singapore? Yeah, we've done festivals in
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: both of them. Um. But I think it's because of
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: the character. You know, the character really resonates with that
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: side of the world. Um. But we you know, we
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: did cultural dishes of you know, like we did Nazi gerrang,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: which is like a Indonesian rice. It's like a fried
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: rice that you know. So we did this and then
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: we did you know, for India, we did another dish.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: We did like chicken Tikam masala, and then for Brazil
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: we did another dish. And for so for every market
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: that you know, or for every demographic that we had
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: a you know, a big fan base, and we did
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: a dish that would resonate with them culturally. And how
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: long were the clips a minute and a half. So
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: it's just he really doesn't know how to cook, does
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: he know? So it's just like it's but it's like
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: those those viral videos where it just shows the ingredients,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: how you put it in, make it boom, walk out
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: with the dish, you know, very quick, short form, one
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: minute videos. But every time we were posting these, we
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: were going to number one on all the cooking playlists.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: So for us, it was just like a new thing
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: of Like, so if you type in right now on
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: YouTube how to make Mongolian beef? Right, the biggest video
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: on YouTube right now has like maybe three hund thousand views.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: Our video has a couple of millions. So right now
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: we're at the top of how to make Mongolian beef?
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: And it's like, okay, cool. Every time someone searches like
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: these dishes, our videos are popping up because our fan
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: base is fueling the views. I get it, I get it.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: So that's one day a week. What are the other six? Yeah,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: So we tested this concept. Then we tested some animation
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: as well into the like music videos are doing animated
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: music videos, and now we're introducing three more concepts. So
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: we're doing uh gaming with Marshmallow. So we're doing We're
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: getting like a bunch of the big gamers. You know,
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: the gaming world is massive right now. So we're doing
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: uh concepts with him, gaming with these guys and challenging
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: them and stuff like that. We're doing life hacks with Marshmallow, um,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: which which is it's a series on how to live
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: your life with a bucket on your head and the
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: hacks that you take to you know, do stuff. And
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: then um, the other one that we're creating is, uh,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: we're doing one called Unboxing with Marshmallow because unboxing is like,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: so what's Marshmallow going to unbox different stuff that relates
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: to his family, so like DJ equipment and gear and
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. Um. But that one that that's one
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: that we're like really trying to figure out. But that's
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: one of the concepts because we've been kind of looking
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: at what are the biggest trends on YouTube and how
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: to bring our brand into that in a in a
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: way that's organic and doesn't seem to right to what
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: degree are the people already subscribers and then finding this
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: and what degree are you working at Um, what do
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: you mean socials? Are you saying today's video on Instagram
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: and all this other stuff. Yeah, so every time we upload, um,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: one of these videos to the YouTube, we're posting it
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: on the other socials and stuff like that and posting clips.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: But we're driving all the traffic back to the YouTube,
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: right And so to degree you're knowledgeable, to degree you care,
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: is any other DJ doing this? No, not on this
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: level because right now we've racked up we're at almost
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: eleven million subscribers, um, and it's average you know that nobody,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: I don't. YouTube is like nobody's growth is as big
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: as ours right now on DJ. And so YouTube notices this,
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: and what will they do for you? They YouTube is
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: now helping, you know, fund some of the content. What
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: kind of budgets do you using? Is it most of
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: this zero budget anyway? No? I mean because we're bringing
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: in you know, um, a full on staff to our
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: crew to film this and create the editing and all
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: that stuff. And if you watch the videos, you see
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: there's like they're fun videos, sound effects and they're fun
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: to watch. Where um, you know, there's some money that
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: goes into that. So but YouTube will help fund it yeah,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: they Yeah, they put some money in. You know, is
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: it what degree where they helped promote it? Um, that's
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: like that's to be determined on their end, Like they'll
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: they'll they'll give us playlistening and stuff like that. Um.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: But you know, I also they have to stay within
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: their lines of right right, I know that you know,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: they they'll give you the money, but they don't want
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: to promote it. They say it's you know, contradiction in
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: their ethos. But okay, so all this is happening, which
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: is a mind blowing great, but what are the next
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: couple of steps? I think for us, it's just you know, we've, uh,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: we've kind of solidified ourselves in the music space as
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: far as music with releases, and we've got a couple
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: of big singles coming out still till the end of
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: the year, we'll have a couple of big records. Um.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: But to be honest, it's just about really solidifying the
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: brand as a whole. You know. We just we launched
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: our tour a couple of months ago. So we're doing
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: the l A Convention Center in March. Um tickets there.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: We already did two nights at Bill Graham again. We're
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: doing two nights at Red Rocks. Um, so we're going
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: into another round of hard ticket stuff. Um. And then um,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: it's it's a lot of music this year. Okay, you're
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: playing festivals. Yeah, we're playing a couple of big festivals. Um,
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: he's you know, he's in Israel this weekend. He's in
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: Israel and doing some you know, more global stuff. But um,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: this year we've kind of slowed down and we're more
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: so focusing on music and just creating content and all
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: kinds of stuff. Okay, you know the rule of thumb
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: as a manager, you never want to you never want
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: to be a manager who wants it more than the act.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: So in this particular case, you have an act and
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: everything's on his shoulders. To what degree does he wanted?
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: To what degree is he coping with this success? I mean,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: I think we've we've found a way to balance out
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: what's on his shoulders, you know, his his he loves
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: making music, and that's what we We try to alleviate
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: as much stuff outside of you know, what we can
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: on our end. So like we can't obviously I can't
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: tour for him. He has to go on the road,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: but he loves going on the road. For him, I think,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: you know, it's been such an eye and opening experience,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: you know, meeting all these people. Like for him, that's
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: what he gets off to the most, is just like
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: I don't think any of us sought the cultural impact
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: and the global impact that Marshmalla would have has happened.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: You know, we never thought in a million years would
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: be this big and have this kind of a footprint. UM.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: So for him, you know, he loves when he's home,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: he's in the studio or he's making music at home,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: and then um, if he's on the road, he's touring,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: and he loves that. Um. And then everything else outside
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: of that we try to do ourselves and alleviate that
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: pressure on him. So how many other acts are managing
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: at this point? I've got about seven other acts? And
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: since Marshmallow blows up? What opportunities come to you and
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: your management company forgetting Marshmallow? A lot? You know, from
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: the clients that are now coming to the table to
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: potentially sign and um, there's a lot of big acts
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: that you know I've been fortunate to to turn down.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: UM and then uh, just a lot of opportunities for
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: all my artists. As a whole um. And then you
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: know just the relationships we've been able to build with
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: other you know, companies and managers and brands and stuff
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: like that. So and are you if a big act
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: came to you, would you make that deal? It depends,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: I mean for me again, like it's it's about none
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: of my clients. I don't ever wake up to one
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: of my clients and be like, oh God, like he's
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: calling me, you know what I mean? Like I love
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: all my guys. We've come up together, so it's like
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: almost like it's become a family. Um. And that's and
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: that's the vibe I want to maintain, you know, I mean,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: none of my guys are hard to work with. Everyone
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: is just like everyone's appreciative of where they're they're at
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: and there's no ego. We're all very grounded. Um. So
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: then when you throw in somebody that's not like that
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: into the mix, it throws off that dynamic. And that's
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: what I would never do too, because all my guys
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: work together like that. If they're not making music together
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: and not playing a festival together, they're hanging out, going
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: bowling together or doing stuff like that. Now, since you're
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: so successful, does it pay to be with an organization
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: with red Light, or does it pay to be independent?
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: Because it used to be all managers were independent, and
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: now so many managers are either with Live Nation or
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: with their Maverick or red Light. Certainly, even I don't
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: know whether in terms of acts they have even have
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: more acts. I think I think it depends on the person,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean, I think, um, you know, for
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: me starting out, it was definitely helpful because you know,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: it gave me the like the infrastructure was something I
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: didn't have to worry about. I had that back end
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: if I need, you know, I knew I was getting
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: my my paycheck, you know every two weeks. I could
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: live my life and focus on work, you know. I mean,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: and I think moving forward, you know, there's a lot
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: of managers there that have you know, kids in a family,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: and they they're not trying to chase the dream in
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: a sense, you know. I mean, They're they're intent with
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: working and paying a cut to to the bigger man,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: and you know, and that's it. Um. You know. So
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: it works for some people, and then some people want
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: to go to Live Nation and get a big check
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: up front and live their life and invest in what
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: they need to do to secure their future, and that's
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: the way they look at it um, you know. But
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: then there's other guys that you know, being an entrepreneurs
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: what you know, what what drives them? And you know too,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: you can never at the enda you're working for other
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: people's companies, you know. So if you're one of those entrepreneurs,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: you're always going to be waiving somebody else's flag. Um
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: And if you know, if that that's cool with you,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: then that's cool. And if it's not, then you know,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: you've gotta figure out what the right move is. This
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: is Bob left Sets. I'm a writer and you can
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: read me at left sets dot com. If you're like
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: listening to the innovators of the music gidustry, like today's
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: guest Motional Easy, I'd like to invite you to attend
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: my Music Media Summit in Santa Barbara the last weekend
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: in April. I'd love for you to come and learn
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: from the best of the business, like Troy Carter Spotify.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: If interested, go to Music Media Summit dot com for
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: tickets and more information. I hope you'll join me. Let's
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: continue the conversation with Motional Easy, manager of marshmallow. Okay,
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: so what's the status of electronic music you're deep in
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: the world. Conventional wisdom is that it peaked five or
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: six years ago. What do you think. I don't think
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: it's peak. I think it's in a correctional phase. I
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: think the consumption of music is so different now. I
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: think with streaming, how people consume music is it is
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: so it's the attention span is so short now, so
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: you know, you gotta as a whole. You know, on
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: the electronic side, there's so much saturation with kids that
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: want to be an artist, a deep producer, DJ, whatever.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: Then you have an excess of festivals. You know, there's
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: a festival popping up every other week now, where uh,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: you know, kids would rather go pay a hundred bucks
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: for a festival ticket and watch twenty acts versus coming
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: to your hard ticket show and paying sixty seventy bucks
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: and just watching you unless they're you know, a die
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: hard fan. And but the way people are, you know,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: finding music now is through you know, Apple Music and
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: Spotify and these playlists. You know, And this is my opinion,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: I think we're here. Your opinion, they're they're not building
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: a real connection with the fan with the artist, um,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: you know, because you're you know, you're you're connecting with
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: the playlist now and you're listening to that playlist over
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: and over and over. But how many times are you
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: discovering that artist on your own? Like you know, I
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: found every one of my artists too SoundCloud. I was
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: would go through SoundCloud to find an artist. I would
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: follow their their career in a sense, and their releases
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: and be like, wow, like I found this guy. I
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: felt vested in this guy that I found and I've
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: started following before anybody else did. And I would tell
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: my friends like, yo, I found this guy named so
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: and so you should listen to him or you know,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: And that was how it worked. Now it's like I
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: think everyone kind of listens to a playlist and it's like,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm guilty of you. I listened to you know,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: rap Caviare Cavier all the time because I'm like, Yo,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: this is the newest hip hop, it's the coolest hip hop,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: it's you know, and it's it's probably the best song
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: of that artist right now, you know. So why don't
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: need to listen to anything else? Because year I can
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: listen to twenty of the best songs right now that
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: are in the in you know, in the hip hop world.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: Why am I gonna go elsewhere? You know? I mean,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go find the artists and be like okay, um,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: you know, unless unless that artists really stands out to me,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: you know. Um. And that's why I think, like, you know,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: there's artists that have billions of streams on Spotify and
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: you know, on Apple, and they can't sell a single ticket,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: you know, because people aren't really becoming real fans. They're
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: they're only with you as as much as you know,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: the music is there in a sense. And then one,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: so let's assume you manage one of those acts. How
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: do you make it so that they can sell tickets?
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: You I think you have to do a good job
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: of building a core audience first a brand. You have
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: to build a brand that people connect to on the
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: core level. So you have these fans that are gonna
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: follow you through every footstep of the career. Um. And
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: I think that's the hard part today. Does that come
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: before or after your first hit single? I think that
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: comes way before, you know, I think because once you
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: get to the commercial level, you know, we see it
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: with I see with all my acts, the second they
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: do anything that's remote commercial all of the day, one
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: core kids are like you sold out. I don't want
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: to listen to you anymore. I'm gonna go to the
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: next kid that's coming up on the underground, you know.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: And it's like, you look at these SoundCloud rappers, you know,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: you look at these guys that are amassing massive followings
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: from from that level. You know, it's that SoundCloud level
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: there creating you know, huge fan bases, and then you
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: know then they're jumping up into the bigger level, and
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: then you know it is kind of what it is. Yeah,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: but you say you want to establish going through the
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: threads here? How do you manage that as a manager
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: where you know as soon as you have a hit,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be a backlash, You're gonna lose some coreal
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: audience or do you have enough people still left to
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: make it work. I think it's making a hit that
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: still resonates with your core, like you have to find Like,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: you know, if if you went and you're a rapper
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden you went into a
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: song with clenic comez, I think you're gonna piss off
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of people, you know, But if you do
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: a song that you know is a really good song
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: and you know your core can't really complain about it
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: in a sense, it's not something that's completely off of
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: your ethos of your brand in a sense, like I think,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: then you're okay, okay. But if we went on Spotify
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: right now, look at the Spotify US Top fifty, the
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: vast majority of those acts would be urban hip hop.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: So where does this leave electronic music? Uh, it's in
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: a weird say. I mean, it's definitely a weird say.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: It's it's become electronic music become pop music today, you know.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: I like, you look at the you know, the playlists
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: for dance music and the streams are you know, streams
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: a day for the biggest songs on the plat on
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: the playlists where you look at the pop side and
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: the urban side, it's millions of streams today. People aren't
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: and I think I think dance is losing more fans
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: and it's regenerating right now. So that's because the sound
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: has changed or the listening platforms has made that. So
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's just it's been you know,
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: I think urban music has just come back so strong finally,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: And I think, you know the culture that comes with
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: urban I think I was reading your you know, your
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: letter you wrote and so true about just there's culture
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: with urban dance doesn't have a culture really, you know,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: pop pop is what it is. But um, but dance
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: originally came from rave culture. They grew up hand in hand.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: There was a live experience which still exists with it. Again.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: You got Electric Daisy Carnival. If you're not there, you
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: have no idea what's going on, it's not might go
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: to the pop show. It's Staples Center. But you think
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: it's just long in the tooth that people are just
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: so entranced by hip hop. I think so, I think
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: I think people are just it's something new finally, you
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like hip hop for a while
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: was just so stale and like there was nothing, and
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: now you have this new wave of like you know,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: the little Oozies and the loads and all these you know,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: these guys that you know are creating a buzz and
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: you know through social media and everything that people are
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: attaching themselves to that, you know what I mean. So,
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: you know, historically, prior to the Internet, every three years
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: it was a new sound. I'm like Seattle killed the
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: air band sound and after that came pop, etcetera. Whereas
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: one can say, in this century hip hop up has
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: been wax in Wayne but been pretty dominant. So is
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: that going to continue? I mean, I'm just asking your
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: opinion because we don't have a crystal ball in terms
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: of hip hop is so dominant now because I think
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: about it, because all the other genres have bitched about
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: new distribution platforms, not electronic. Electronic has at this moment
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: where it's merged with pop anyway. But the non pop,
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: non urban sounds, they've bitched so much about SoundCloud and
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: Spotify whatever, and they've been left out. So the question
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: becomes when they, when their fans finally get on these platforms,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: do these new genres have a comeback or is it
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: just forget it. I don't know the answer to that.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: I don't even know. I think, uh, I don't think
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: urban's going anywhere, you know, I mean, I think it's
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: it's really there's a movement going on with her right now,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But in your particular case,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: Marshmallow was built outside the traditional thing. I mean, if
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: you if you were to sign with a major label.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: What they would tell you is a couple of things.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: Besides the relationship with streaming services. They would say, we
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: have related ship a terrestrial radio, and we have a
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: relationship with television in your a particular case. Both of
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: those are essentially prior to the recent working with Name
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: talent have been completely irrelevant to March Battle success. Okay,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: and I would assume there hasn't been that much. But
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: mainstream press irrelevant too, Yeah, I mean, I think because
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: the amount of organic press that's happened, like there's no
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: kind of outlet that really we need, you know, I
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: mean like it's always been like, you know, he doesn't
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: do interviews to this day, he doesn't do interviews because
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: we don't need it. So is this one of a
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: kind or is this the new paradigm? No, I mean
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, I think there's a lot of
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: anomally like it's it's an anomaly in a sense of
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: how quickly and what it's done. But you know, I
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: think there's you know, there's potential for other artists that
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: pop up in the same well forgetting the fact that
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: he's unique in terms of the sound and the look etcetera.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: With the target audience, which is basically under thirty five,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: if not younger than that, do the old media really
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: not matter to that audience? Um, that's a good question.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Okay, let's go to one other question.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: To what degree and electronic music dates to what degree
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: are drugs an integral element of the show. I mean,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: I think that's like a common misconception because I think
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: you go to Coachella, you see people doing drugs. You
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: go to any any festival, people do drugs, you know,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: And I think it's just like anything else, you know.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: I think, like trying music gets you know, the ship
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: and the sick of if one thing happens, it's, you know,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: all hell breaks loose, you know, in in in the
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: eyes of the public. Um. But I think it's just
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: like anything else. You know, kids are experimenting, and kids
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: are doing what they want to do. They're being kids,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: and they're gonna do ship, you know what I mean,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: Like in for them, that's that's the way that they
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: experience that cut. Well, let's say if one went to
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: an act in the classic rock heyday, it would be
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: very much about the act on stage and bonding with
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: that act, Whereas when many shows you to today, never
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: mind the festivals, which are really like that, the audience
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: is the star and the audience is you know, shooting
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: selfies to be going on Instagram, etcetera. So when we're
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: at a Marshmallows show, if we took out the drugs
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: and we and I say, I'm not saying they're more
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: drugs in there on any other show, But to what
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: degree is it a scene that the people want to
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: be at and Marshmallow is just the juice? And to
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: what degree is oh I gotta go here in Marshmallow?
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: I think it's it's probably half and a half. You know.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: I think there's there's always gonna be kids that want
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: to just be in that environment to do what they
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: want to do in a sense, you know what I mean.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: And if that's doing drugs or you know whatever, then
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: you know they're gonna do it. Um. But then you know,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: there's a good amount of core fans that just want
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: to be in that presidence and want to watch the
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: music and watch their performance and watch their favorite DJ,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: you know, play his his music. Okay, so you're twenty seven,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: what's the dream marching forward? You personally? Um, I think
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: it's know, I'm living it right now. You know, I couldn't.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: I couldn't be happier with everything that's going on. And
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: you know, I never in a million years thought i'd be,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: you know, in in the position I'm in, and you know,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: it's all it's all been an amazing experience just learning
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: and growing and surrounding myself from people that I get
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: to learn from, and you know, just watching everything that's
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: going on in the landscape of music. Um, you know,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: so to be honest, it just keep going. Okay, Marshmallow,
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: you conceived of with the act and it's you know,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: it's almost back to Iron Maiden where they have Eddie,
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: which is bigger than you know, the Faceless Act. And
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: is this a replicable thing or no, we didn't once
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: move on to something else. I think, Uh, I think
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: it's harder to breaking artists now than ever, you know
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: what I mean. And I think the tools and kind
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: of the you know, the things we had three years
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: ago or not are not as It's not as easy
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: as it was then, I mean. And like again, like
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: I think SoundCloud was a huge pardon in marshall success
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: and a lot of my artist success and like SoundCloud
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: now is has become you know, kind of not irrelevant,
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: but it's become like moribund, right, So it's like things
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: like that where um, then you have to play the
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: politics of the DSPs, you know what I mean. If
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: you do something with Spotify, then you know someone you know,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: you're upsetting another partner and then vice versa, and it's
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: just like there's a lot more politics that you have
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: to play with, and you know, artists have to go
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: through the hoops in a sense. Sometimes, since we're talking
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: about DSPs, to what degree with Marshmallow, is Amazon important?
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: To be honest, we haven't really done anything with Amazon,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: because it's interesting. I mean it's like Garth Brooks is
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: only on Amazon, and you know, you talk to the
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: manager and say why on all these other services? Then
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: they start talking about what Amazon did for them and
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: the number of streams they got an Amazon go, hey,
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: it might be working for that, right And when you
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: sit with the people from Amazon, who were anything but pompous,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: you know, they talk about opportunities. It's it's an interesting thing. So, Okay,
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: if you were to view yourself ten years out, you
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: view yourself as a me the juror I mean, because
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: you've had a lot of history with a lot of things.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: You've been a hustler with DJ's promoter, you've been a
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: rep for HP, I mean a lot of people. David
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: Geffen started out as a manager. Although he certainly manages people,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: at this point in time, that would not be his job. Okay,
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: do you have any vision of where you would like
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: to be or you just saying I'm here now, I'm
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: seeing what's coming over the transom. I mean, I think
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: it's I love, you know, I love my job as
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: a manager, you know, I mean, I love I love
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: doing what I do. I love waking up every morning
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: wondering how I could, you know, make an artist footprint
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: even bigger? Um? And how do you keep this going?
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I think that's the challenge,
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: and you know, unfortunately it's also kind of like a curse,
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: like I can't you never stop working, you know what
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: I mean? Okay, So that's so there's seven days in
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: a week. You ever take time off? Never have a girlfriend? Uh? Yeah, okay,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: So how does she cope with this? Uh? She comes
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: second to my other boyfriends. And so if if you
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: were listening to this right now, she would say, yeah,
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: that's it, and I own that. Yeah she knows. Okay,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: I mean it's a curse. But it's also like I
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: love what I do, you know, and you're riding the
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: wave right now. Yeah, And it's like every missed opportunity,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: I feel like if I'm not on it, I'm missing
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: an opportunity, you know what I mean. If I'm not
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: you know, out there networking or doing what I need
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: to do, I feel like I'm not doing, you know,
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: my job as a manager. And and to degree, you
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: have an office. Are you in the red light office? Okay?
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: So how often are you in that office? Um? Maybe
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: like once a week okay? And where are you the
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: rest of the time. The rest of the time, I'm
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: you know, I have a home office too, Um, so
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: I have my staff come there sometimes. But I also
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: I am always just on the meeting after meeting after meeting,
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: so more so in my car just driving around. Okay,
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: you've been listening to Motional Easy. If your head is
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: not spinning, you didn't pay attention. This is the New
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: World with a young guy, incredible success. The whole bit
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: about the daily YouTube I'm thinking about. You know, I
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: was there when that happened. We batted around ideas, but
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting here right now, go God, what am I
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: doing wrong? So thanks for helping me. Until next time,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: It's Motional Easy. I'm a Bob Left Sets podcast. That
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: wraps up this week's episode of the Bob Left Sets
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: Podcast with both chel eis my head is spinning, I
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: feel inadequate and I'm decades older than bo. I Gotta
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: go home and contemplate my future. As always, you can
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: give me feedback on the conversation reached me at Bob
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: at left sets dot com. I hope you enjoyed this
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: podcast as much as I do.