Latest / The Scene Projects / East of Anthony: Origins, Songwriting, and Upcoming Album Insights

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East of Anthony: Origins, Songwriting, and Upcoming Album Insights · The Scene Projects

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Welcome in to a very exciting episode of the scene.
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I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is Anthony of East of Anthony.
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Welcome to the show, brother.
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Thanks for having me, man.
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Well, before we get too far down the road here, let you go ahead and and kind of, give us a
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short, history of, yourself and the band, and then we'll talk about everything you guys got
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going on now.
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Yeah.
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So it really started during COVID.
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Probably me, like a lot of people, decided that, hey.
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I'm gonna write some music.
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I've got nothing else to do.
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And I do art too, and I was doing some art, some live on Instagram is really how it all
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started.
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And Instagram kept blocking my the music I had in the background, copywriting it.
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So I started making my own music just to feed in the background while I did my art.
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And one day, was like, hey.
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That's catchy.
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Think I'm gonna put some lyrics to it.
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And next thing I know, I was writing a song and a song and a song.
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And I've played for years, but as far as performing and, like, actually taking that
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extra step to perform was something I had always wanted to do.
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I just never took the step.
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I guess you'd say circumstances weren't right.
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So it was 2000 around 02/2021, decided, yeah, I'm gonna start I wanna perform and, you know,
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you start building the set list, things like that, and trying to get gigs.
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It was a it's a slow process, but here we are.
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This is, yeah, 02/2025.
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I gradually have built a band in 02/2023.
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Towards the end of twenty three, I met Zach.
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He's my bass player.
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He was at one of our shows, me and my previously guitarist, Steven.
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He it was just me and him for a little bit.
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And we were just kinda like a duo.
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And we were doing a show, and he he loved our music.
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And he said and so I asked him, like, hey.
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You know, wanna play bass?
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We need bass player.
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And so then we were a trio, and then we met our our drummer that we had before.
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I actually just sent him our new album to give him me.
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He's getting the listen to it before anybody else.
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He was our drummer, Jordan.
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And Jordan had a foot injury this past year.
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We met Todd.
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He was gonna fill in.
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And so the rest is kinda history.
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Todd remained our new drummer.
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We all gel really good.
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That was a four piece at the time.
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It was me and Zach, and then Walker.
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Walker's our lead guitarist now.
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And we met Walker through last year, we did the there's a big the big eclipse.
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There's an eclipse festival we all were at and met Walker, his family.
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And so he joined.
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And I I, you know, I just asked.
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I I people liked our music, so I would just ask, hey.
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I need, you know, I need this.
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I need that.
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You wanna join?
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And they're like, yeah.
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Sure.
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You know?
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And so so here we are, and we're a really, you know, pretty tight knit group.
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Zach's sister-in-law, she's the newest member.
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If you listen to our latest single, Save Yourself, she's the one in that song.
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And so after we recorded that song in studio, everybody was like I think it was our drummer
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Todd.
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Todd's like, hey.
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What if we asked her to join the band?
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You know?
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I he just he had this vision, this idea of other songs with her.
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I'm like, dude, I'm like, me too.
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I I hear it.
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I I already have some songs in mind that are on the shelf I call I have this, like, figurative
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shelf of songs that aren't finished.
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And I'm like, I hear her vocals on it.
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So Zach was all for it, my bass player, his her brother-in-law.
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So he was all for it.
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So now we're five piece.
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So the the small paying gigs have just gotten even smaller.
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We'll all make about $20 a gig now.
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No.
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We have we're we're we're super happy to have her on.
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She's been she's been looking for a project like this.
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And it was funny.
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I was looking for female vocalists for about two months for this song that it was finished.
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We were in studio.
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We had recorded some of it.
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And I was on TikTok and I would do my TikTok stuff.
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And if I knew a vocalist on there, would ask, hey, would you be interested in just laying
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down vocals on this this song?
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And I found a couple of girls that were, like had good vocals.
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They just weren't that they didn't just, like, hit you like, okay.
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Yeah.
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This is the one.
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And then I was on Facebook and and and there's London.
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And I didn't know if she's related to Zach yet or not.
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So I asked her, said, hey.
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Your vocals are perfect, I think, for this song.
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Would you be interested?
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Swear I'm not a creep, you know.
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And so the rest is history kind of.
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And it's what's funny is Zach's like, oh, yeah.
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London can sing, you know?
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Now you tell me.
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Now you tell me.
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And so it was a funny this funny, you know, story about how it kinda happened.
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So
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Well, and it's all it's all been totally organic, it feels like.
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You know?
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You you start off, and it just keeps kinda growing and building very naturally and with
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the people that are already attracted to the music.
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And I think that's a really cool thing is that, y'all have kinda come together because of your
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songs and because of others' affinity for them that they're like, yeah.
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I'd love to play these songs with you.
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And as a songwriter myself, I mean, that's gotta feel really awesome for you to, just sit
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back and have other people that are willing to, you know, invest in you and invest in your your
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music.
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And, is there has there been an evolution of the songwriting process now over the course of
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the last five years?
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Are you kinda writing with the core members of the group, or is it still mostly you kinda
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bringing in songs and and maybe there's some tweaks to certain things?
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I'd say we're so we just finished, our professional studio album.
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It it drops Friday.
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It's that's how fresh it is.
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And, like, I I love the fact that we're we're doing this today because it drops the
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thirteenth.
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So the singles are already out there, but now you get to listen to it altogether as one full
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album.
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And but to answer your question, yeah, it was basically me bringing in, hey.
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Here's another song I wrote.
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Hey.
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Here's another song I wrote.
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And then Todd, you know, or whoever's on the drums before, hey.
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Yeah.
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I'm gonna do this.
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Cool.
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Sounds great.
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Zach, it's always great on bass to just whip out a bass line, and I'm like, yeah.
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Dude, it's perfect.
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You know?
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And I try to let them have as much almost a 100% leeway as they can or as they want on
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songs.
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Because I want it to come natural to them.
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And I really a 100%, I don't think I've ever really just said, no.
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I don't like that.
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Do it my way.
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You know?
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I feel like if you give your band that freedom to do that, to express themselves on songs,
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unless it's just really out there that changes the dynamic of your sound or something, you
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know, that'd be different.
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But they put their own spin on stuff.
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I love it.
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And then our producer, he takes what we give him.
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I I usually send him demos.
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He puts his own spin on it.
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He always asks, hey.
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Do you care if I give a little freedom here?
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And I'm like, dude, I can't wait to hear it.
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And so far, me and Jeremy have been just right there on every song.
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So as of this weekend, we had a we had kind of a a big band weekend because our our show
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canceled.
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We had a big show scheduled this weekend past weekend and their AC went out.
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And, you know, it's real hot in Arkansas.
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About to find out, man.
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I'm going to Little Rock next week.
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I right?
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Yeah.
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So it's it's indeed hot, man.
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Shorts, sandals, for sure.
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The beer hat.
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I don't know if something's keeping cool.
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So we we just we're all like, hey.
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Let's just hang out at the house this weekend.
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We got more big we got, especially next week, some big shows coming up.
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Let's practice for hers and just chill out.
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And so some of that writing process that you were talking about started happening this
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weekend, which I've wanted to for a while.
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We were just kind of rounding out that out we're finishing the album.
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Right.
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You were you were focused on on another project.
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And now that that's finished, you have a little bit of freedom of time and and create
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creativity to to go and pursue the next phase, man.
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Is really awesome.
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Yeah.
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I tell you what, this, in this song that Todd it was Sunday morning.
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Todd just over here doing triplets on drums.
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And I'm like, what are you doing?
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He said, just exercise.
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It's an exercise.
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I said, keep doing it.
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I grabbed my electric guitar real quick.
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And through a just a riff came out of nowhere, just pulled it out of my butt.
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And, I mean, this might be who knows?
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I keep saying this this will be our best song yet.
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You know?
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You never know.
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But it was cool to have that finally happen where I didn't start the song.
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That was all Todd.
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I'm like, dude, that was all you that turned into the riff that, you know, I created.
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If only Zach was here, you know, someone else could throw down, Vin May the cherry on top,
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you know.
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So that was the
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time that somebody else kinda brought the seed.
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Right?
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Yeah.
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That that you've been bringing your packs of seeds to it and going, well, here I have this.
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Let's water it.
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Now the seed was kinda brought from somewhere else, and you got a chance to kinda be the
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watering can instead of the sower.
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And I got from a from a songwriter's perspective, that's gotta be really cool, man.
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It was it was cool to finally sit back and and just throw your stuff, you know, or, you know,
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what am I trying to say, jump in on a song and not feel like it's always all about you.
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That's what I always hate.
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I always tell the band, it's not always about me or I don't ever want to be that.
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And when you're, like, the sole songwriter, I I guess I tend to feel that way sometimes.
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Like, I always have to reiterate to the band, like, you guys always put your input.
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Tell me whatever, you know?
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You're not gonna bother.
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Don't feel like just because I wrote the song that, you know so I want them to have that
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freedom.
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So it was cool for Todd.
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Now this it's Todd's song, basically, which it'll become the band's.
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But it was so cool for him to do that, and then we we have a new song.
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I threw my phone down real quick, hit record so we wouldn't forget it, and, it's just cool that
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it worked out that way finally.
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You know?
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Well and you guys are just getting started.
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It seems like you got a really awesome thing going on.
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And, yeah, it just keeps, just kinda going where it's gonna go anyway.
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Right?
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It doesn't feel like anything has been forced.
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It doesn't, at least from the outside here, talking to you today, it seems like kind of the
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dream of how every band should start, right, of of growing in that way and and then, getting to
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to make music with some really awesome people, which it sounds like you got around you.
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I it's a dream, man.
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It's the dream of every songwriter, I think, to have their songs kind of brought to life, with
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other musicians.
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My my path is is very much the same but different.
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Right?
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I I've just played with a lot more people.
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Right?
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I've been putting the bands together for the last twenty years.
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I've played with all kinds of different parts.
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So I have all these original songs that I've written, and I've pretty much been playing the
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same batch of songs, but they've all come out in different expressions because I'm not coming
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in and going, you have to play it just like this.
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It's like, no.
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You know, what they did is what they did, and and what you're gonna bring to this song are is
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different, and that's fine.
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That's the way that it should be.
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So, yeah, how fun to, you know, spend the last several years of your life just kind of
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watching this all happen in real time.
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And now y'all got an album coming out, Friday the thirteenth, And, let let's talk a little
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bit about the songs on the album.
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How many songs are are coming out on this one?
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It's 10.
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Where's my I got a CD CD somewhere.
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Is it 10?
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Yeah.
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I usually do 11.
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I know on my past albums, I try to keep I try to do about 11.
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And then we dropped an EP.
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A couple months ago, we dropped an EP, which that EP was is what made up the part of this
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album.
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So, yeah, 10 songs.
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It was at yeah.
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Eight, four and four, and then our producer did an instrumental for us for a show.
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I wanted a walk on instrumental.
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And we actually we liked it so much, we put it at the beginning of the album as an intro.
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Killer.
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So we have that.
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And then Remember Me is a song that's a song that really kinda took off.
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It was on my album.
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And for being in the bedroom, lo fi, and me recording, doing all that, I tell people it's
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the blind squirrel finding the nut, you know.
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It turned out good enough where people came back and kept listening to it till it I think
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it's at it's at, like, 2,500 streams.
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Nothing major, but for, like, a bedroom recording and people that do know our music go,
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oh, yeah.
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You don't remember me.
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So what we did, we remastered it.
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I let and I let Jeremy have free reign with it.
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And so this is his mix.
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So you'll see on the album, it's the last song on the album.
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It says Remember Me, Jeremy Huddleston mix.
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So that's the that's the album.
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10 songs.
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We do have the song on there, Higher Ground, is getting about a 100 streams a day.
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Awesome.
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It's it's at 20 I think as of today, 22,000 streams between all the three major, like,
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streaming services.
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So it's I don't know what's gonna happen with that, you know.
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I feel like the right person hears that song, who knows, you know.
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But Higher Ground is is really doing good.
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It's kinda set and it kinda set the kind of the feel for what we're what we've kinda become, I
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guess, as musically.
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I mean, I I was always that musically, but it's like we kind of are continuing that direction
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still.
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And now we have well, now we have London and her vocals, so we're gonna that's gonna change
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things.
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Save Yourself is on that album.
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Save Yourself features London.
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And, man, it's a it's a good song.
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With her vocals in it, it just took it to another level.
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In fact, I feel like it took this the album to another level.
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So it's a I think it's a good listen.
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It was cool to release them as singles What I did since December of twenty four, I released
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New Messiah, which is the song on the album.
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And then each month, I released a single until this month.
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And then it all came together to become one album.
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So and now it's just a full listen.
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That's awesome.
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It's something that I'm kinda working towards.
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I made an album, oh, fifteen years ago.
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And, you know, just kinda rushed through it, and it was something that at the end of the
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day, while I was proud of the songs, we didn't take our time like we should have.
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And now I've gotten a chance to take a few of these songs and some new ones that I've written
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back in the studio, more recently.
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And, just doing, like, a a four song EP, but got some great players on it.
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You know, pretty much recorded the bass and drum tracks, within a couple of takes live in
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the studio and just cranked it all out and have slowly kind of built this thing, but it's the
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best work I've ever done.
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And I and I can't be more proud of it, and that's just kind of working with people that I
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don't work with on a regular basis, guys that I know and I've gotten to know well, but they're
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in the Rapid City, South Dakota area.
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I'm five hours east of there.
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Right?
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So we all kinda got together.
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So I I I've experienced this a little bit lately on maybe a smaller scale because I think
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when you're able to share that experience with people, close to you, and not just necessarily
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that, you know, that you're friends with, but you're seeing each other all the time.
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Right?
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You're regularly getting together for brand practice, and you're able to share in that
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excitement.
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I think it can really, I think it really amplify that energy, right, and can really
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propel you towards even greater and and newer things.
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And it feels like with kind of the late addition of London to the album and to the, to
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the band that you kind of, you know, quickly close that chapter.
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Right?
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Let's put this one out here, and let's get to work on some new stuff and and see where the
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evolution continues to go for this band.
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Is there a name of the album?
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Yeah.
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It's called The Divide.
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Yep.
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It'll it'll and you'll see our tiger I don't know if you've seen our tiger hang hang on.
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Let me get it here.
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So our our Tiger logo, that's our main brand.
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You're you're gonna see it.
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You if you haven't been seeing it for the past three years, you're gonna you're gonna see it
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for the next whatever, you know, till this is done.
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But I don't know if you can kinda see the
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Yeah.
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That's awesome.
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The double tigers.
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So that Jeremy kind of enhanced our main logo.
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So when you go to the Spotify or wherever you you see this oh, there it is.
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There's the there's the original one right there.
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Epic.
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So that and that logo is to represent the fact that we are kind of a heavy band.
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We do heavy and then we we write some very kind of softer material.
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So and it's also a nod to something else personal that people who know me know a
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situation.
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It's a nod to that.
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Those two tigers, the balance and the imbalance and all.
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So it's a nod or a playoff of that.
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But for the most part, we're a we're a hard rock band.
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We're not metal, but we're a hard rock band.
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But at the same time, there's there's this like, fake faces on there.
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It's very it it's you'll hear it when you get a chance.
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It's very acoustic.
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It hits you at the end.
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Don't get me wrong.
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That ending is is epic.
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It hits you at the end, but that's kind of what what we are and what we're gonna continue to
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be.
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And I feel like in today's music with music, you you you can be whatever you want when you
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want.
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As long as it works and meshes well.
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I don't think you need to be all over the place.
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But I grew up, you know, grew up hearing bands do it too, like Alice in Chains and Sound Guard
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and different bands that were very hard rock, almost metal.
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And then, you know, they drop an EP like Jar of Flies, if you know anything about, you know,
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Alice in Chains.
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And so that's kind of the mentality I've had with all of this.
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The and the the band's always been on board with the the the group.
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So that's kind of what we are.
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That's where that logo comes into play.
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And you'll hear that in the song.
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So but, yeah, that's what it'll look like.
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To get back to your question, so Friday, that's what you'll that's what you'll look for is that
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new kind of I don't know if he AI ed it or what, but he took he took what I sent him and
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did that.
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I was like, man, that is that's pretty cool.
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He he's like, can it can it be the album cover?
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I'm like, yes.
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I love it.
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So it just it made it it was still us, but it was oh, he's put the split down.
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That's right.
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He put the divide because of the name of the album.
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That's right.
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So you see the split actually happening there in right there in that picture.
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That's right.
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You see the actual, like, split.
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So that was all Jeremy.
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Jeremy, a producer, I joke with him, you need to join the band because he's got his
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fingerprint on so much of our music.
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Right.
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He's not he's much less an outside influence than an inside influence now.
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Yeah.
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And he'll take stuff, like, when I we go in the studio and he sends me, you know, the take of
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what he's, you know, put together.
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I do.
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I give him liberties.
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And, you know, if we if we meet again and talk more in the future here, You know, we can talk
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about that more where I'll tell you, like, I'll say, hey, did you hey, did you listen to this
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song?
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Okay.
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So in that song, that's all Jeremy.
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Like, Jeremy, you know, he'll take a riff.
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Like, he'll take my riff, like, on Save Yourself.
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I thought the riff was already cool.
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And he took it, he goes, what do you think we did, you know, this?
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It's so simple.
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I said, oh my gosh.
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It took it to another level.
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And so I love the fact that he's in tune with us like that, in tune with me.
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I tell him, I'm like, I don't don't know what I'm gonna do if you die, man.
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Because we're we're just I don't I don't wanna work with anybody else really, you know.
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That's how gelled and in sync we have been with with this.
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So a lot of what you see in this album or hear, there's a lot.
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There's he's in the mix.
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No pun intended.
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But he that was a good one.
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But he's in the mix to the point I joke all the time, just join the band.
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Come on.
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Just join the band.
25:13
So it's it's been really cool again going back to your you saying how it kind of just
25:19
spontaneously happened.
25:20
Even with Jeremy finding him, just happened.
25:25
Just happened.
25:26
I was looking for other producers and just found him.
25:30
It just kinda fell on our laps.
25:32
Well, and that's what kinda makes it feel like, you know, without being overly religious, but
25:37
it makes it feel like a god thing.
25:38
Right?
25:39
It it makes it feel like it's definitely out of your control what is happening when it all just
25:44
fits together so perfectly.
25:47
Right?
25:48
A lot of the same projects, I give credit to something much larger because it's like,
25:52
couldn't I couldn't have planned this.
25:54
I couldn't not even on my best days could I have planned what has transpired in the last,
26:00
you know, fourteen months of doing this podcast, and, you know, my music has kind of
26:05
been following suit now as well.
26:07
So, Anthony, man, pleasure getting to know you today.
26:11
Can't wait to listen to the album, everyone.
26:13
That is called the divide from East of Anthony.
26:16
It's gonna be available everywhere on streaming.
26:19
You guys printing CDs too?
26:21
Yeah.
26:21
Making CDs, merch is fixing to hit the fan.
26:27
So, yeah, we had lot of merch.
26:29
We had we had a we had a good stack in about was it a month ago?
26:34
Two months ago now, we sold out of all our merch. It
26:38
It was a really small it was in small intimate show, and they just wiped us out.
26:43
And so we're just now getting, you know, financially where we can get some more merch
26:47
together.
26:48
Yeah.
26:49
We'll have merch, where you can get it online, all that kind of stuff.
26:53
Yep.
26:53
There you go.
26:53
You're you're becoming a real band right before our eyes.
26:57
Yeah.
26:58
Go check out the album.
26:59
Would love to I don't know what kind of music, you know, you make or into, but love would love
27:04
to hear your your take on.
27:06
Yeah.
27:06
Well and we do some, album and song reviews, through our blog and website, and we're
27:11
building a a lot bigger thing.
27:13
You know?
27:13
To date, the the podcast has been, you know, mostly just interviews.
27:17
We've done a few songwriter showcases that we filmed, and now we're working on, actually,
27:22
when we come to Little Rock, we're doing a showcase for our summer mixtape.
27:26
So a chance for artists to come in, put their best song forward, perform it live for a live
27:31
audience, and for myself, right, the executive producer of the scene projects.
27:37
And, yeah, to give people a chance to be a part of like, everyone can be a part of it no matter
27:42
what, but for the cream to rise to the top and to have some of these you know, we're doing
27:48
some contests and different things because, before I won, you know, the content creator of
27:53
the year award back in April, I didn't think that winning anything in the music business was
27:57
it really meant anything.
27:59
And and since I've started opening every conversation with, oh, my name is Bubba Starts,
28:03
and I have an award winning podcast, and watching the doors that that has opened, I
28:08
realized that now we kinda have some of that to give to other artists, whether they're just
28:13
starting out or they've been doing this for twenty years.
28:17
We have something to offer in the way of our name carrying a little bit of weight in
28:22
whatever small music community that we're building right now.
28:26
But I would love to listen to the album.
28:28
I can't wait to listen to it.
28:30
I'll be coming through Arkansas real soon.
28:33
I don't know exactly where y'all are at, but I'll throw up a peace sign on my way through.
28:37
And, hopefully, we get to hook up, real soon, man.
28:41
Yeah.
28:41
Love it.
28:42
Love it.
28:43
Yep.
28:43
Awesome.
28:44
Well, Anthony, thanks for being part of the scene, brother.
28:47
Thank you, man.
28:48
Thank you for what you're doing.