Latest / The Scene Projects / Benjamin Raye: Exploring Music, Radio, and the Evolution of The Scene Projects

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Benjamin Raye: Exploring Music, Radio, and the Evolution of The Scene Projects · The Scene Projects

• 0:01
  Welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:04
  I'm your host, Bubba Starts.
• 0:05
  And with me today is Benjamin Ray from the Everything Minnesota Music Radio Show on KFAI.
• 0:12
  Yes, sir.
• 0:13
  Hi, Bubba.
• 0:13
  How are you?
• 0:14
  I'm great, man.
• 0:15
  Sorry.
• 0:15
  I wanted to make sure I got the call sign right.
• 0:17
  Absolutely.
• 0:18
  KFAI in Minneapolis.
• 0:19
  Yep.
• 0:20
  Fantastic.
• 0:20
  Yeah.
• 0:21
  Podcasters don't have to worry about stuff like that.
• 0:24
  Right.
• 0:25
  Well, Benjamin, thank thanks for being on the show today.
• 0:28
  I want you to give a little bit of your backstory maybe before we start, jumping into
• 0:32
  the shows that you have and what you're doing at the station.
• 0:35
  Do you mind sharing a little bit about your personal story?
• 0:38
  We don't have to go all the way back to birth or anything, but go ahead and tell us a little
• 0:42
  bit about you.
• 0:44
  Sure.
• 0:44
  Yeah.
• 0:44
  Well so, yeah, I I'm a musician as well.
• 0:46
  I do, live music in the mostly in the Twin Cities area, but, you know, spread out through
• 0:51
  Minnesota a little bit.
• 0:52
  Been doing that for a long time.
• 0:54
  Music since I was a young kid.
• 0:57
  Play guitar, keys, do vocals.
• 1:00
  I got a band.
• 1:01
  I do solo stuff and duo stuff, so I stay busy with that.
• 1:04
  But, also, as you mentioned, the radio thing, I've been doing, the the local music show on
• 1:09
  KFAI for six years now.
• 1:11
  And, before that, I was at I was doing a couple of other local shows, one on ninety three x in
• 1:16
  Minneapolis.
• 1:17
  I also did one at, Bob FM in Minneapolis.
• 1:20
  So I've been doing a lot of radio stuff over the years.
• 1:23
  Still doing still doing the local show, plus I'm on a a rock station in Saint Cloud.
• 1:28
  So, yeah, I just you can't escape me if you try.
• 1:31
  That's fantastic.
• 1:32
  So a lot of our listeners and a lot of our artists that have been on the show as well will
• 1:37
  be familiar with your voice.
• 1:39
  Obviously, we're, the Bob Bob FM is a huge, huge station.
• 1:43
  So a lot of our, Midwest Country Music Organization members, have been in the studio
• 1:49
  and on some of the programming.
• 1:52
  Awesome, man.
• 1:53
  That's so cool that you've just been in this, and that's where it started for me, Benjamin.
• 1:57
  I am also a, musician, a songwriter, and we don't have a lot of opportunities for local
• 2:04
  shows here in South Dakota on our stations.
• 2:07
  There's so few stations to begin with.
• 2:09
  Most of them are running programming that is very I mean, you know how it is.
• 2:12
  It's very automated these days, and there's not a lot of DJs in the first place.
• 2:17
  We're losing stations by the day, not just radio shows, but entire stations are
• 2:22
  essentially being let go just to plug in the AI automated kind of, run of the mill top 40
• 2:29
  stations.
• 2:30
  Right?
• 2:30
  And it it was that reason why a year ago I decided to start the scene projects.
• 2:36
  I I I released the song in February, and the media tour was over in the blink of an eye.
• 2:42
  I I did a radio I did one of the radio stations.
• 2:45
  I I did our local news station as well, TV news station.
• 2:49
  And then I was on a couple of our podcasts, but then that was not just, like, all I could
• 2:53
  manage it.
• 2:54
  That was all there was.
• 2:56
  So to meet people like you, obviously, getting to work in a much bigger market, It just we
• 3:02
  were trying to bring that back and then using our podcast to support you in any way that we
• 3:08
  can.
• 3:09
  And so happy to see that there's still stations out there that are supporting music with shows
• 3:14
  like yours.
• 3:15
  Yeah.
• 3:16
  I mean, it's a good thing.
• 3:17
  You like you mentioned, and I should I should also plug.
• 3:20
  I said I worked at the rock station in Saint Cloud.
• 3:22
  They do a local show too.
• 3:23
  It's on Sunday morning, so there's, you know, another one up here.
• 3:27
  So, yeah, it's something that I've liked do for a long time is help out the local musicians
• 3:31
  because I am one.
• 3:32
  And so I know like like you said, I know how hard it is to get that going.
• 3:36
  So Yeah.
• 3:37
  Well, go ahead and shout out.
• 3:38
  I know you said you had a band and everything.
• 3:39
  What's the name of your band?
• 3:40
  So
• 3:41
  we go by Benjamin Ray and the Empire Players.
• 3:44
  Nice.
• 3:45
  We're usually a four piece.
• 3:47
  Sometimes we're a five piece depending on the venue and you know?
• 3:50
  But, yeah, we do we do a lot of covers, but we do throw some originals in there from from time
• 3:54
  to time.
• 3:55
  We do every once in a while, we do all original shows too.
• 3:58
  But, you know, the scenes we play at are a lot are a lot of the cover band stuff, but, you
• 4:02
  know, we we make sure our
• 4:05
  Right.
• 4:05
  And South Dakota is full of that.
• 4:07
  We got some great gigs, and and I know a lot of the a lot of the gigs kinda get that.
• 4:14
  Well, we're doing the cover band thing, and it's like, well, as long as you're confident
• 4:18
  taking your music out there, there's no reason that you can't be infusing your own music into
• 4:24
  your show.
• 4:25
  I've always done that.
• 4:27
  I just don't have four hours of original music to play, and who would want to listen to that
• 4:31
  anyway?
• 4:32
  Exactly.
• 4:33
  That's the whole thing.
• 4:34
  They come for you know, they wanna hear the songs they know and love, but you can still
• 4:37
  throw couple of yours in for a set, And then then they start learning your stuff too, and
• 4:41
  then they'll come up to you and start asking for it.
• 4:43
  And, yeah, it works good.
• 4:44
  And I think in this day and age that people want that, that people want that as well, but
• 4:49
  you've well, a lot of musicians have gotten it in their head that, well, nobody wants to
• 4:53
  listen and learn about my music or me anyway.
• 4:55
  It's like, well, if they didn't like you, they wouldn't be at your show to begin with.
• 4:59
  Yeah.
• 5:00
  Yeah.
• 5:01
  I agree.
• 5:02
  And that's what we do.
• 5:03
  We I mean, like I said, we'll do a we'll do a four hour show, and we'll we'll play mostly
• 5:07
  covers, but we'll do a couple originals per set.
• 5:09
  And I've actually had people come up to me the next time at the same venue and then say, hey.
• 5:13
  That one of your originals that you played last week, can you do that one again?
• 5:15
  And it's like, there you go.
• 5:16
  And that's what it's all about.
• 5:17
  Exactly.
• 5:19
  Exactly.
• 5:19
  Ben, it's like we're twins.
• 5:21
  Okay.
• 5:24
  Well, what what is it what do they call it?
• 5:25
  Doppelganger or something like that?
• 5:27
  Yeah.
• 5:27
  Yeah.
• 5:27
  Well, doppelganger is more a look alike.
• 5:29
  We I think we are the, the fraternal, I I think they call it.
• 5:33
  When you don't look alike, but but you're in the same spirit.
• 5:36
  Twins of the spirit.
• 5:37
  I think the kids call it a twin flame.
• 5:40
  There you go.
• 5:42
  I I just love it, man.
• 5:43
  Now have you ever converted any of these programs into a podcast?
• 5:49
  No.
• 5:49
  I have not.
• 5:51
  I was offered one just the other day, actually, from a station up near Brainerd, but at the
• 5:56
  moment, I'm so busy with with with my live music shows and with the with the other two
• 6:00
  radio things I'm doing.
• 6:01
  So
• 6:01
  Right.
• 6:01
  Well and and you're you're obviously is it a live show that you're doing?
• 6:06
  No.
• 6:06
  No.
• 6:07
  They are so and, technically, I mean, they they archive the
• 6:10
  show.
• 6:10
  Podcast.
• 6:11
  Yeah.
• 6:11
  Exactly.
• 6:12
  I mean, I just don't handle that end, but, KFAI stores them all on the website.
• 6:17
  Interesting.
• 6:18
  So that's nice.
• 6:19
  Go back and listen
• 6:19
  to camera more about this because I'm interested.
• 6:22
  If you're doing a taped show, we have an outlet and a broadcast channel already set up.
• 6:27
  And Okay.
• 6:27
  So many of our artists are up in that Minnesota area.
• 6:32
  And that's what I've been looking to do.
• 6:33
  So much of what I heard in because I moved to the Eastern Side Of The South Dakota about five
• 6:40
  years ago.
• 6:41
  And I had been a big part of the Black Hills music scene on the other side of the of the
• 6:45
  other side of the state.
• 6:47
  It kinda gone away at different points, but I've always been connected.
• 6:49
  Everybody knows me, I would say, across the entire state of South Dakota, and that was
• 6:54
  before I had the podcast.
• 6:55
  So I kind of looking for other creators and other people that are supporting and trying to
• 7:02
  bring them together under one umbrella.
• 7:05
  And and one thing that everyone in Sioux Falls said, well, yeah, there's great players
• 7:09
  everywhere, and you got some really good bands, and you got good gigs, but there's no scene.
• 7:13
  And we don't have a we don't have a local art magazine anymore.
• 7:19
  We had one that was statewide called Panache, and and that went away oh, it's probably been
• 7:24
  ten or fifteen years ago.
• 7:26
  Wow.
• 7:26
  And since then, there's been nothing to fill that space.
• 7:29
  Now I'm in talks with some good friends that are also based in Minnesota.
• 7:32
  I wanna shout out Kelly Wagner with the Edge Magazine, and they are more holistic health and
• 7:38
  wellness stuff, but she's had an interest in, hey.
• 7:42
  We'd love to get a community calendar going on, and we would love to do a little bit more with
• 7:47
  the art scene as well.
• 7:48
  So I know you guys have a couple of magazines up there that are kind of restarting.
• 7:53
  Obviously, COVID hit you guys in a much different way than here in South Dakota, and
• 7:58
  not just in, like, a numbers game or anything, but we didn't shut down.
• 8:01
  Right?
• 8:02
  We did maybe two weeks, but we didn't stop going to work.
• 8:05
  We maybe stopped gigging for a few months.
• 8:07
  But by the time summer came around, we were fired right back up and rolling.
• 8:11
  And that has not been the case for much of the Minnesota music scene where it feels like
• 8:16
  everyone is just kind of emerging now and coming out of the fear of just going out and
• 8:22
  being around other human beings.
• 8:25
  And now that everything's kind of wide open again, we have a a cultural revolution, I feel
• 8:31
  like, happening in this country right now.
• 8:33
  Country music is huge, and I feel like the the rock music is is because rock went through such
• 8:43
  a it just got heavier and heavier and heavier.
• 8:45
  Right?
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  Like, what what I consider rock music, well, is now classic rock.
• 8:49
  All the nineties bands that I love.
• 8:51
  Right?
• 8:51
  Yeah.
• 8:51
  Yeah.
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  Or on the classic rock stations.
• 8:53
  Right.
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  But rock music just kind of went in that the heavier heavier metal side.
• 8:59
  And not that I have anything wrong with that, but I miss the songwriting of the, you know,
• 9:04
  obviously, the classic rock, but nineties grunge, man, Some great songwriters in that
• 9:09
  time.
• 9:09
  Right?
• 9:10
  Chris Cornell, amazing.
• 9:12
  Right.
• 9:12
  Cornell and, you know, Alice in Chains and Eddie Better.
• 9:17
  I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan.
• 9:18
  Maybe we don't agree politically on a lot of
• 9:20
  things, but
• 9:21
  but I don't think we're supposed to.
• 9:24
  And I think that's what we've forgotten in this country and especially in a little bit more
• 9:29
  liberal areas that, hey, buddy.
• 9:31
  Not everyone needs to think like you.
• 9:33
  And and and we're not going to be dominated by just one way thinking.
• 9:37
  There's not just one way of doing things.
• 9:39
  That's not how this country was founded in the first place.
• 9:43
  Right.
• 9:44
  Well, musically,
• 9:46
  now there's not and there's no what what what's a genre anymore anyway?
• 9:52
  I mean, it's a pretty big envelope these days.
• 9:54
  Yeah.
• 9:55
  Yeah.
• 9:55
  You mentioned, like, the Eddie better thing too.
• 9:57
  I mean, yeah, politically, I think the guy's crazy.
• 10:00
  But does that mean his music sucks?
• 10:02
  No.
• 10:02
  His music is good.
• 10:03
  Oh my god.
• 10:04
  Music changed my life.
• 10:05
  Right?
• 10:06
  Not not just as a young person.
• 10:07
  I'm only I'm 38.
• 10:09
  I'll be 39.
• 10:10
  So, I mean, these were some of the first bands.
• 10:12
  I mean, I remember the first time hearing Evenflow and seeing the video and seeing the
• 10:17
  video for Jeremy.
• 10:19
  And I remember vividly the first time I heard the red hot chili peppers under the bridge.
• 10:24
  Right?
• 10:25
  And I wanna share this story because it's so awesome that I was it was pouring down rain,
• 10:29
  Benjamin.
• 10:30
  I remember the rain was pouring down.
• 10:32
  I was in my mom's Ford Aerostar with her.
• 10:35
  We were driving down to her dad had a boat down on the river there on a slip, and he hung out
• 10:40
  at the marine all the time.
• 10:41
  That was his second home.
• 10:42
  Right?
• 10:43
  All summer long.
• 10:44
  And I remember getting in in that first line, and it was just like, woah.
• 10:51
  What is this?
• 10:52
  You know?
• 10:53
  And I was maybe eight, nine years old.
• 10:56
  This memory is now 30 years old, and I still get chills.
• 11:00
  Still get chills, man.
• 11:01
  Like, that's what music is supposed to be.
• 11:03
  Yeah.
• 11:04
  Music is not background noise.
• 11:06
  It is meant to strike you to your soul.
• 11:08
  And I feel like in the last twenty years, as everything's just become cookie cutter, pop
• 11:14
  star after pop star, the business of the music industry completely took over, and great
• 11:21
  artists have been pushed aside.
• 11:23
  And I feel like with the the advent of all of these streaming services, which, you know, we
• 11:29
  know aren't great for the the money side of it for us
• 11:32
  Right.
• 11:32
  But they've given us an outlet to put our music out there, sometimes absolutely for free.
• 11:38
  Exactly.
• 11:39
  Yeah.
• 11:40
  No doubt.
• 11:40
  Sometimes you have to.
• 11:41
  I mean, if or else you're you're playing to nobody, you know, or you're or you're recording
• 11:45
  for nobody.
• 11:46
  But sometimes, especially on the original side, you know, every now and then, you're gonna just
• 11:50
  have you just have to play it.
• 11:51
  And then, hopefully, for you, it grows.
• 11:53
  It's like you're planting a seed and, you know, maybe they'll grow from there.
• 11:56
  And what can you do?
• 11:58
  You know?
• 11:58
  And so much of why I'm in music, I didn't I don't play music to get famous.
• 12:03
  I learned how to play guitar in my basement, in my parents' house, and I wrote songs for me.
• 12:09
  These were this was how I expressed me, and it was never about getting famous.
• 12:14
  I could care less.
• 12:15
  Yeah.
• 12:18
  I agree.
• 12:18
  I mean, it's it's a when you're an artist, that's what you do.
• 12:21
  You know?
• 12:21
  That is you, you know, you you write songs.
• 12:24
  And whether you ever do anything with them or not, it's still it's still your song, and it's
• 12:29
  what you do.
• 12:30
  Well, it's the beauty of building a community when you're able to go out and share those
• 12:33
  songs and it resonates with people, and then they can go find you on YouTube or Facebook or
• 12:38
  any of these things and become part of your world.
• 12:41
  And that's that's what I love to do, man.
• 12:43
  Making new friends, and that's why podcasting really became a great fit.
• 12:47
  Right?
• 12:48
  Is that now all of a sudden where nobody really cared about Bubba the songwriter, all of a
• 12:54
  sudden now because I care about you, which I always did anyway, but now I have a I have a
• 13:00
  channel to bring you on.
• 13:01
  And now we are we are changing people's lives because of the platform that we have.
• 13:06
  Now we're not getting massive views right now.
• 13:09
  I'm not even a year in, Benjamin.
• 13:11
  And and really, just in the last four or five months is when we cranked up this content
• 13:15
  machine and got after it.
• 13:17
  We have almost 200 episodes out on our YouTube right now.
• 13:21
  We are not slowing down.
• 13:22
  I mean, my content calendar looks like this.
• 13:25
  And and I'm posting more stuff in there because it's just like, man, I'm stacking up two, three
• 13:30
  interviews a day.
• 13:31
  How are you only gonna release one a week?
• 13:33
  You know?
• 13:33
  I don't I don't need to plan content out for two years.
• 13:36
  So we're really starting to crank up our machine and to do all of that.
• 13:40
  And I I'd like to shift gears a little bit now to talk about, obviously, you and the
• 13:46
  Everything Minnesota Music Radio Show.
• 13:48
  Tell us a little bit about, obviously, the inspiration for it is obvious, but share a
• 13:54
  little bit more about the show with us.
• 13:56
  Sure.
• 13:57
  So that was kind of, born out of like I said, I was doing the rock, local music show on ninety
• 14:03
  three x in Minneapolis, and they're a corporate run station, big you know, one of the big they
• 14:08
  were, at the time, the second biggest in the country.
• 14:10
  And you know how corporate radio goes?
• 14:11
  They gotta make cuts, and I was one of them.
• 14:13
  So then I was like, okay.
• 14:14
  What do I do next?
• 14:15
  You know, I'm I was still, you know, obviously writing music and still wanted to be in radio.
• 14:20
  And I thought, you know what?
• 14:21
  Let's let's shop around, see what we've got available here.
• 14:24
  I'd still like to continue doing live, local music on the radio.
• 14:27
  So then, KFAI, I knew they've been around for a long time, and I knew they they did everything.
• 14:32
  I mean, they got talk shows.
• 14:34
  They've got jazz shows.
• 14:35
  They've got classical shows.
• 14:36
  They've got gospel shows.
• 14:37
  They've got rock shows.
• 14:38
  Remained independent as a as a as a station yet?
• 14:43
  So they're privately owned and not owned by a corporation?
• 14:46
  They are actually they are owned by, yeah.
• 14:49
  They're a five zero one c three.
• 14:50
  They're a, nonprofit.
• 14:52
  Yeah.
• 14:53
  And it's it's community radio.
• 14:54
  It's public radio, so you can be a member.
• 14:57
  And and, so it's not it's not by any means corporate radio.
• 15:01
  So they are owned by, like I think it's Fresh Air is Fresh Air Incorporated.
• 15:06
  That's what the FAI stands for.
• 15:07
  KFAI, Fresh Air Incorporated.
• 15:10
  And they do yeah.
• 15:11
  Like I said, they do everything, and that's so I thought, well, why not put a local show on
• 15:14
  there that plays everything?
• 15:16
  Why do we have to, you know, just have a country local show or a rock local show, jazz
• 15:20
  local?
• 15:20
  Let's do it all.
• 15:21
  We'll we'll we'll put hip hop in there.
• 15:23
  We'll put instrumental music.
• 15:25
  We'll put composers in there, and that's what we do.
• 15:27
  I I try to get you know, on the it's a two hour show, and I try to get at least at least one
• 15:32
  from every genre, on on each episode.
• 15:35
  And, you know, it's it's also opened the door for me to meet a lot of new people that way
• 15:38
  too.
• 15:39
  Yeah.
• 15:39
  It's funny it's funny how once you have the platform that's, you know, making people
• 15:43
  famous, or at least giving the illusion of it, and not that it's not.
• 15:48
  But, you know, people sometimes come on the podcast and think that they're gonna get a Joe
• 15:52
  Rogan bump, and you can't even get them to turn around and share the show with theirs.
• 15:56
  And it's like, this is a communal thing that the podcast is.
• 16:00
  I want you on my show so that you go out and then share the episodes with your people.
• 16:06
  It's not about my audience.
• 16:07
  I don't have an audience.
• 16:08
  I only have 200 subscribers on YouTube.
• 16:10
  Yeah.
• 16:10
  Like so if you want no one to continue to listen to you, then sure.
• 16:15
  Don't share your stuff.
• 16:16
  You know?
• 16:16
  Right.
• 16:17
  But it's
• 16:17
  content for you.
• 16:19
  And I think that's what that education process a little bit is lacking, and maybe I need to
• 16:24
  make some TikToks about that or something so people will catch on.
• 16:28
  Right.
• 16:28
  You're gonna laugh, but I just joined TikTok yesterday.
• 16:31
  I held out as long as I could, and now that it's changed hands.
• 16:36
  And, of course, I was like, well, maybe I should get on, and then I did it, like, after
• 16:39
  the ban.
• 16:39
  And I was like, well, there goes that idea.
• 16:41
  Sweet.
• 16:41
  I don't have to worry about it.
• 16:43
  But, now we're on there.
• 16:44
  I know people are seeing massive growth of new followers and new listeners and just out there
• 16:49
  sharing themselves.
• 16:50
  So a lot better algorithm over there to get people out there.
• 16:54
  We know how hard it can be on Facebook and Instagram and all these things.
• 16:57
  I struggle.
• 16:58
  I had a pretty decent following on Facebook that's helped me, but Facebook is a great
• 17:02
  networking tool be with the groups.
• 17:05
  And I think more artists to share a little bit of wisdom with you all, get in as many Facebook
• 17:10
  groups as you can, share your stuff, engage with people.
• 17:14
  Don't worry about just blasting all the time into these groups.
• 17:17
  Get in there and provide some value to what you're doing.
• 17:21
  Go comment on someone else and tell them how great they are.
• 17:24
  That's a much better way to make a friend than going, this is me, and I'm this cool, and I'm
• 17:28
  just like nobody cares.
• 17:30
  Right?
• 17:30
  Right.
• 17:30
  We're so sick of it, and people are so kind of trained to not pay attention that you have to
• 17:37
  be engaging on a almost one to one level to bring in a fan.
• 17:42
  And who wouldn't I mean, if you play shows to empty rooms or, you know, mostly empty rooms,
• 17:48
  then you're already making fans in that way.
• 17:51
  So why not do that online from the safety and comfort of your own home?
• 17:57
  Yeah.
• 17:57
  And I on a side note, which which is similar to that, I even feel weird even just posting my
• 18:04
  own shows.
• 18:05
  I know I have to do it because, you know, that's promotion.
• 18:07
  That's what you gotta do.
• 18:08
  But it seems like when I post this, like, I'm just trying from this You're not posting
• 18:13
  you, Benjamin.
• 18:15
  You're posting 30 artists.
• 18:16
  You're going, hey.
• 18:18
  Here's my 30 friends.
• 18:19
  These people are amazing.
• 18:20
  Oh my god.
• 18:21
  I love them.
• 18:22
  And then tagging every single one of them in every post.
• 18:25
  Right?
• 18:26
  I mean, I know that's time consuming and it's hard to do, but there's AI for all this stuff
• 18:30
  now that's getting way better at it.
• 18:32
  And that's where I've been on this learning mission.
• 18:35
  Right?
• 18:36
  I was a welder a year ago, Benjamin.
• 18:38
  I'm not a broadcaster.
• 18:39
  I mean, I am now, but I wasn't a broadcaster.
• 18:42
  I was a songwriter who saw a need and committed myself to doing it.
• 18:47
  The way this podcast started, Benjamin, was I became a member of the Midwest Country Music
• 18:52
  Organization last February.
• 18:55
  My friend Brad Morgan, who is a a big ambassador of the program of of the
• 19:00
  organization and was like, look.
• 19:02
  If you're gonna be in, you gotta come to the awards show in Okoboji.
• 19:05
  It's only a four hour trip for me, and who doesn't like going to Boji?
• 19:08
  Granted, it's in April, so there's not a lot to do there.
• 19:11
  But it's special to me.
• 19:13
  My wife and I honeymooned there.
• 19:14
  So Nice.
• 19:15
  Just the place was very, was very special.
• 19:19
  And getting to go and and just hang out at jam night, I brought my microphones.
• 19:24
  Where is it?
• 19:25
  Oh, I don't know if I have it around.
• 19:26
  I have a Zoom p four, and it's just a little box about this big, plugs four XLRs in the
• 19:32
  back.
• 19:32
  I brought my two Zoom microphones.
• 19:34
  I didn't bring the seven b with me.
• 19:36
  That stays in the studio.
• 19:37
  But I have a couple of, you know, just little broadcast Zoom microphones, and we sat down and
• 19:42
  did 25 interviews that night.
• 19:44
  Then 15 of them were with nominees.
• 19:47
  So the next day, woke up and I went, what am I gonna do?
• 19:50
  What am I gonna do?
• 19:51
  So I downloaded Podcastle, and I, I chopped up the episode into bits.
• 19:55
  The the interviews were much shorter, at the show because it was in a live setting, but you
• 19:59
  can hear the music playing in the background.
• 20:01
  Right?
• 20:02
  Interviewing guys like Joe Flip and who is just absolutely blowing up in the Minnesota scene
• 20:08
  right now.
• 20:08
  Yeah.
• 20:08
  Great blues guitar player.
• 20:11
  Fans of the show, if you don't know who he is, I his name's just like it sounds.
• 20:15
  Joe Flip.
• 20:16
  Go look him up.
• 20:17
  He's blowing up theaters, playing killer blues music, which, there's a resurgence of all of
• 20:23
  these old music that's coming in.
• 20:25
  Right?
• 20:26
  I feel like we've lived through the cycle where electronic music has been dominant the last
• 20:31
  twenty years that real musicianship and real songwriting, people are hungry for it,
• 20:38
  Benjamin.
• 20:39
  Would you speak to the same thing with what you're seeing on your program?
• 20:43
  I mean, I hope so.
• 20:44
  I I I still see a lot of you know?
• 20:46
  And I'm not I'm not knocking that either because EDM, they they they gotta have talent
• 20:50
  for that too.
• 20:50
  But yeah.
• 20:51
  I mean, I think I think there's probably starting to be a shift towards singer
• 20:56
  songwriter stuff.
• 20:57
  Yeah.
• 20:58
  Acoustic.
• 21:00
  You know?
• 21:00
  I mean, it it goes in phases.
• 21:03
  It always has.
• 21:04
  Would like to see rock music that we like.
• 21:06
  I would like to see that make a comeback.
• 21:08
  Yeah.
• 21:09
  There's still some I mean, Chin Down's great.
• 21:11
  There's still some artists that are doing really good rock stuff.
• 21:14
  But, yeah, it's, I mean, there's there's all this
• 21:16
  You listed one.
• 21:18
  What's that?
• 21:19
  I said you listed one.
• 21:21
  You know what I mean?
• 21:22
  Exactly.
• 21:22
  Where where thirty years ago, you're it was the top 40 acts of the of the world were all those
• 21:30
  bands.
• 21:31
  Stone temple pilots, Pearl Jam, nine inch nails.
• 21:35
  Right?
• 21:35
  All these great bands.
• 21:37
  And 90% of the
• 21:39
  miss it, man.
• 21:40
  Man, I miss it.
• 21:41
  I agree.
• 21:42
  I mean, when when when, when Black Hole Sun came out, I had never heard anything like it
• 21:47
  before.
• 21:47
  And I've I cover that song now, but it's like, I I thought, how can anybody even write this?
• 21:52
  This is amazing.
• 21:53
  Who who what kind of a chord progression?
• 21:55
  Who would think of this?
• 21:56
  You know?
• 21:57
  It was back in the day, I was like, wow.
• 21:59
  So I'm so sad that we we lost Cornell before this resurgence.
• 22:04
  Right?
• 22:05
  And we lost some really good people that would be just thriving in here.
• 22:09
  Even somebody like Tom Petty, right, who would have been a great the, like, the great
• 22:13
  grandfather of this scene now that we don't have that.
• 22:17
  And in some ways, it's left the door open, Benjamin, for guys like us to go, hey, man.
• 22:22
  We remember a time when the Mhmm.
• 22:24
  Fans were unbelievable.
• 22:27
  And then they go out and they bring it live and kick your ass too.
• 22:31
  Yeah.
• 22:31
  Yeah.
• 22:31
  Yeah.
• 22:32
  And that's that's what rock music used to be about.
• 22:35
  And now, you know, it's different.
• 22:37
  Like you said, Shinedown, probably, you know, the obviously, the the top of the heap there.
• 22:42
  But Right.
• 22:43
  It's about more than just the noise.
• 22:46
  It's about the emotion, and that's what a guy like Cornell brought to SoundGuard.
• 22:51
  And that's the that's what we're getting back to.
• 22:54
  I think everyone has gone Benjamin, we've been through a lot.
• 22:58
  Oh, yeah.
• 22:59
  And not just in the last five years, but our entire lives have been this crazy cycle of the
• 23:05
  world kind of forgetting what and who they were.
• 23:09
  And now I feel like there is a collective consciousness.
• 23:13
  The vibration is rising, and and I don't think that I don't think it's gonna slow down.
• 23:19
  If anything, I think that it's accelerating right along with the speed of the Earth's
• 23:23
  rotation.
• 23:24
  I don't know if you know this now, but I keep up with some space weather news.
• 23:28
  And, the Earth the days are actually not even twenty four hours long right now, that we are
• 23:33
  actually below twenty four hours and into, like, the twenty three and fifty eight minute
• 23:38
  mark.
• 23:39
  So No
• 23:39
  wonder I can't get anything done in a day.
• 23:41
  You're just running out of time.
• 23:43
  Yeah.
• 23:44
  I
• 23:44
  guess so.
• 23:46
  Seems like I can't get nothing done.
• 23:48
  Yeah.
• 23:48
  Well, I think you're getting a lot done, and and you're taking on a a huge project with what
• 23:53
  you're doing in all of these shows, and I'm proud of you, man.
• 23:56
  I commend you for the effort that you're putting in.
• 24:00
  I think it's amazing.
• 24:01
  I can't wait to to, to collaborate with you, to hopefully send you some of my music even though
• 24:07
  I'm not in South Dakota.
• 24:08
  I'm up there playing, you know, four or five times a year at this point and always
• 24:13
  supporting the Midwest.
• 24:15
  Right?
• 24:15
  And I I got a I got an idea.
• 24:17
  You know, the Midwest Country Music Organization is awesome, but I wanna do
• 24:21
  something that's a little more inclusive.
• 24:23
  I'm a I'm gonna make the Facebook page today or the Facebook group today, and it's gonna be
• 24:28
  called Momo, the Midwest original music organization.
• 24:32
  And I don't know when I'll be able to turn it into a five zero one, but that's the goal and
• 24:36
  to support all of this music just like what you're doing with your show.
• 24:40
  So, brother, we're gonna be working together a lot more now that we're connected and we've
• 24:45
  gotten a chance to meet each other.
• 24:47
  Where we go from here is straight past the moon and into the stars, buddy.
• 24:51
  I like it.
• 24:52
  Another one too that's doing good work is the North Star Original Review.
• 24:55
  Oh, Oh, good friends.
• 24:56
  I'm actually on their show.
• 24:58
  So a little shameless plug for me.
• 25:00
  April 3, I will be at the Big Wood Brewery showcase.
• 25:04
  Samantha Grimes is gonna be there.
• 25:06
  I think my buddy Xander's on that show too.
• 25:08
  If not, he's playing with me the next night at Sherwood Lounge.
• 25:11
  We are doing our own showcase on April 2 at River Rock Studios.
• 25:15
  So, brother, I'm trying to come up there and and not dominate, but to have a footprint in
• 25:21
  Minnesota and in the Minneapolis Saint Paul scene.
• 25:23
  So love what you're doing.
• 25:26
  Go ahead.
• 25:26
  Can you plug everything for us one more time before I let you get out of here?
• 25:29
  Absolutely.
• 25:30
  So, for the radio side of things, the current, like, current local show I'm doing is
• 25:34
  Everything Minnesota Music.
• 25:36
  It's on KFAI ninety point three FM in Minneapolis.
• 25:39
  Also streams online at k f a I dot org.
• 25:42
  I'm doing the rock thing on the Rockin' one zero one in Saint Cloud.
• 25:45
  It's a local show or it's not a local show, but it's a just a show on the local station there.
• 25:51
  I'm doing my own music, solo stuff, duo stuff, full band stuff, playing two to three times a
• 25:58
  week between all three of those and just staying busy with that.
• 26:02
  What was the name of the band?
• 26:03
  Name of the band one more time?
• 26:05
  Benjamin Ray and the Empire Players.
• 26:07
  Nice.
• 26:07
  So yeah.
• 26:08
  And I'm I'm gonna be at that April 3 show too, North Star Show, playing there that night too.
• 26:13
  Oh, get out of town.
• 26:15
  I'm I'm gonna be there.
• 26:16
  So
• 26:16
  Dude, that's awesome.
• 26:17
  Well, I'm looking forward to playing with you, man.
• 26:19
  I think Absolutely.
• 26:20
  What I like to do and what what we've really unlocked with our showcase shows is that we're
• 26:26
  filming all these.
• 26:27
  And if all the artists can maybe contribute a little bit, it helps pay for it all.
• 26:31
  But I got some great producers that are with us, some great videographers that have made our
• 26:36
  stuff look really awesome.
• 26:37
  And, yeah, that's where I'm trying to turn Corey over into the business of it and be like,
• 26:41
  hey, buddy.
• 26:42
  You got something valuable here.
• 26:43
  You've built it up to this point.
• 26:45
  Artists will pay a hundred dollars to walk away with their three songs in tow.
• 26:50
  And bringing the price down on the backside of that has kind of been what I've working on is
• 26:54
  is how do we get it shot?
• 26:56
  Because, you know, these videographers sometimes wanna be like, well, we'll do it for,
• 26:59
  like, you know, $4.
• 27:00
  And you're like, that that's not happening.
• 27:02
  But a thousand bucks divided by seven or eight people, well, now we're talking something
• 27:07
  that's a lot more attainable for everyone.
• 27:09
  Yeah.
• 27:09
  And I don't mind putting my own money into stuff too.
• 27:12
  Right?
• 27:12
  And and then eventually, we're gonna find sponsors like a radio station would, and we're
• 27:16
  gonna be able to fund all of this and to just take it to the next level, and then be able to
• 27:20
  give this footage to our artists for nothing.
• 27:22
  And that's really the goal of what I'm trying to build, and maybe that's what Momo becomes.
• 27:28
  I like it.
• 27:29
  Great idea.
• 27:30
  And, yeah, I'll help in any way I can.
• 27:32
  I don't think you have a choice at this point, Ben.
• 27:35
  Okay.
• 27:37
  Brother, thank you for being part of the scene.
• 27:40
  Thanks for having me, man.