Latest / Caught on the Mike... / EZRA

Transcript

EZRA · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Today's guest is an artist who's carving out his own lane in alternative on now LA Big Fed Ross.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've already wrapped up millions of screens and sold out for shows before even talking and fancy of Greeks to Ford Up.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: We signed him to Tag Music.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a single intermittent.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's a raw piano driven.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's the doctor's weakness of first love and alarming but never quite rained.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: He's also releasing a company documentary, Legend Sapphire of Honesty, directed by his friend and star of the TV joke.com, the beatblock dudes, and speaker supporter himself.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: In this conversation, Ezra opens up about the inspiration behind Intermission, his both creative vision, and the journey towards his debut album coming in 2026.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mike.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mike.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: My next guest has a style of music that the TikTok crowd has affectionately dubbed as Ezra Core.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: He's got a brand new single.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: It is emotional, it is cinematic, it is called Intermission.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: I am very happy to welcome my new friend Ezra to the show today.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: How the heck are you?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we were just talking about your shirt.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: That shirt is fire.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, dude.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Straight out the shower, just threw this on and sat down here.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So picked it up just for you.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, love it.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: What's your favorite Whitney Houston song?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's that's that's a tough question.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's where I got a cue the Jeopardy theme song right there.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Off the top of my head, I'm not gonna lie to you, I can't even name one, but um, I'm sure there's a million that I know very well.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um love it.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, all you have to do is grab a shopping cart in your local grocery store, walk around for 15 minutes.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: You're probably gonna hear one of them.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh uh, I will always love you as a banger.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm just I don't know.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like there's a million of them that I know, but I just don't know.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: But big fan, one of the best singers to ever exist.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, how many artists are like that?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Where you like, you're like, I didn't know that they wrote this song.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's so many of them.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's the goal.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: One day I want to be one of those.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's perfect segue.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little bit about your origin story.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: As I said, uh brand new single, intermission.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: I went and I checked out some of your other songs.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Can't Let My Guard Down, Glass House.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it your music is fantastic.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: How did you get into making music and what is your origin story?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a pretty wild one, I'd say.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it's a little unique niche to me.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I started off, I grew up in the Bronx, so I started off making rap music.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um like freestyle.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was freestyling with my friends, and one of my other friends um went by Crash C R V S H, and he was releasing music on SoundCloud that seemed to be doing pretty well.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I would freestyle with him and I'd be like, I feel like I could do this, like I feel like I could do what he's doing.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I released a song and I woke up two days later, didn't check the app or the website or anything, and then I was like, people in school were coming up to me, like, oh, like Young Easy, which was like my name as a joke, and they were like joking about it, and I was like, okay, they're making fun of me, it's fine, you know.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I went and checked that song three days later, and it was at like eight and a half thousand streams, which like plays on SoundCloud, which for me was like, What the fuck?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is even going on?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And there's like a couple hundred likes on it and comments, and I'm like, I do people like this?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, people are enjoying this.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I freestyled on GarageBand over some YouTube beat, and people are liking it.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, then this company, our generation music, posted it, which is like this Instagram page, which was big at the time.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a bunch of managers hit me up.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: I got flown out to Orlando, met with this guy named Dex, who's still my one of my good friends to this day.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, two months later, I had a song with NLE Choppa that came out, who's like a big rapper, and then next thing I knew, I'm Young Easy, this like rapper artist with hundreds of thousands of monthlies on Spotify, and I am shook.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of divulged myself into this rap world because I decided this is what I'm gonna be doing for the rest of my life.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: This character is a fun character to play.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um I had some rough experiences in that world, kind of realizing like, oh my god, you guys don't just rap about the stuff that you do, you actually do it.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like you are robbing people at gunpoint and selling mass amounts of illegal substance and doing all this crazy stuff.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I was kind of like, this is this is not me.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I just feel like I'm playing a character and I'm leaning into something that doesn't feel like authentically myself at all.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I woke up one random morning.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was about to sign with Rock Nations uh distribution company.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had signed with the Rock Nations distribution company like a month ago, and um I hadn't done any releases through them.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I took down all my music.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and my manager called me's like, what the fuck?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm gonna rebrand, I want to do this.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's like okay.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then we have a call with a label, and they're like, we don't know what you're talking about, but that's not what we signed.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're dropped, we're cooked.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I went to Atlanta with all the money I had saved up for music after having like some rough experiences and made a bunch of music, just but got a six-month lease at some random spot and just locked myself in a room every day with a producer and made song after song after song.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Finally made a song I felt like was good enough.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this publishing company hit me up about it, flew out to LA, had a bunch of sessions.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: One of them I made this song called All Your Friends Hate Me, which is like the super basic pop punk song on my page, which is not like a million streams, but back in the day I just made it trying to figure out what my next sound was gonna be.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I also realized that all the best producers were in LA and I was like, this is where I need to be.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So went back to New York, gathered my shit, came back to LA, couch surfed for like four or five months, had a viral moment on TikTok, um, signed a deal, was able to pay rent, and now I'm here.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Love it, dude.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's great.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I swear to you, I think I've brought this up the last 12 episodes of the podcast with musicians, is what's great about this modern era of music is even 10, 15 years ago, an AR rep or somebody in the industry would look at you and say, You need to pick a fucking lane.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: What style of music are you gonna do?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Pick it, double down on that, and just do that one thing.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: But now, since and one of the silver linings of streaming getting as big as it has, is now people just look at music as being music.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: They don't necessarily look at it as genre.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel that that's kind of influenced you as a creator as well?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of, yeah.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I I also I also do kind of agree with the sentiment of you kind of have to find your your niche if you really want to be super successful in this game.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like, or at least start off with a niche.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I feel like if you're putting pressure on a million different parts of a door, it's gonna take a lot more pressure to break the door down than just sticking your foot through it and like breaking down around it, you know what I mean?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so um, I I feel like it to us like for me, it felt like it was just me finding my sound.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I tried a bunch of stuff, I tried the rap stuff, I tried like the pop punk, whatever the fuck it was, and I felt like it was like I found this weird mesh in-between thing with the hyper pop sound where it allowed me to kind of experience um rock elements and pop elements along with like the rappy flows that I was doing, and that's what got me so hyped about it, is it didn't feel like there was really, like you're saying, a wall or like um a ceiling for where that um genre could cap off.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then over time it's just kind of progressively changed.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like on this project, it's the most um my goal for this project was to make the stuff I normally make, which is like the kind of weird experimental stuff, but to make it a little bit more wide, widely spoken.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like if music is a language, I want everybody to be able to speak the language that I'm speaking.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um I love that man, and I I love that analogy about the the pressure on the dork because that is so true.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, I it's I it's something I struggle with, even as a podcaster.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was past life, I I did the music thing myself, and and I was a part of that old industry where it's like okay, you have to niche this down, but as a podcaster, I sit down and I plot out episodes, and I'm like, okay, I don't want redundancy at the same time.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's my other fear.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, yes, I need to niche down what my direction is, but I also don't want redundancy.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Do you fight that as well?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I mean, I I think I draw inspiration from so many different places for the things that I create.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So um most two like two songs of mine are almost never gonna sound the same.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't really I on this project, um, this album that I have coming out, I I feel like it they all somehow flow seamlessly into each other, but there's a very wider range of sounds that I've picked to make it cohesive that don't really make sense with each other.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's like Memphis rap samples, there's like um full-on live rock drums, there's hyper pop drops, there's like everything you could possibly think of, like a full-on acoustic, folky songs, like, but somehow it all makes sense together.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like um my vulnerability is what pieces it all together.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but no, I don't feel like I don't feel like right now, at least with this album, I just feel really excited about it.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: There obviously are times in every single artist's career, no matter what it is in creative space, where obviously things are gonna get redundant and they're gonna get a little repetitive and and hard to break out of that cycle.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I I feel like I don't know, this album just flowed together really seamlessly for me.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Let's lean into that vulnerability for just a moment.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the new single Intermission feels incredibly personal.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: What was the moment you knew that you had to write this song?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's really funny, actually.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I my first ever girlfriend, which is like a weird story, when I was in eighth grade, um, we dated and I wouldn't even consider it a real relationship.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like, I guess the first time I ever had feelings for somebody, the first time I'd ever called somebody a significant other, whatever the hell it was.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we went into high school and we broke up, whatever the fuck it was.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: We were kids and went through high school and like kind of always were very good friends, but nothing ever happened.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: She had a boyfriend or I had a girlfriend or whatever happened, happened.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then um after all this stuff went down and I've been through everything I was going through, she was going overseas to study abroad, and I was gonna move to LA and do this couch surfing thing that I was talking about before and figure my shit out.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we had this sit-down conversation where we were like, it sucks because I've always had feelings for you and you've always had feelings for me, which is basically the conclusion we came to, but nothing ever really came from it.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we never actually got to try this out and see what would have happened.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I just wanted, I just no matter what happens, because I'm sure at this point it's not gonna happen, I want to stay in each other's lives.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the conclusion we came to.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of came to the understanding that I might not ever see her again.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I hadn't seen her in about, I don't know, six years, five years, something crazy.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I get a random and like once in a while we'll have like a text conversation that'll last for a couple days and then whatever, it's back to our lives, you know, we're not seeing each other.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I got a random text being like, Hey, I'm coming to LA next week.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Whoa, um, okay.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: She came to LA and she came over.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: We ended up having the most incredible like night together ever.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was really intense.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was just like, um I woke up the next morning just with this weird feeling of like happiness mixed with like a little bit of like sadness, but it was almost completely overwhelmed by the feeling of like nostalgia and like how how amazing um everything was in that moment and how like I'm so glad that it happened.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and literally the next day after the day after, so two days after, I had a obsession with this guy Pharaoh, um, who's an internet money producer, he's incredible, great at what he does, and I knew instantly exactly what I had to write the song about.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: He played the piano loop and it was just I used to think we'd have to pitch your old place, and it's just like I literally wrote that song in probably like an hour and like recorded it all an hour and a half.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: It just was going, going, going, going, going.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like it just it came to me so quick because it was so hitting me.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: So the song itself is very piano driven and angsty at the same time, but it's also described as being cinematic.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: What drew you to the late 90s, early 2000s sonic palette that kind of in embraces this song?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a good question.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't even know if it was that deep to me.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think it was just like um I wrote it the song completely over the piano loop with no drums.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I felt like because it was so rappy and like quick with it, I kind of wanted it to have like a boom bap mix like rock drums and kind of some weird mesh in between.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's kind of the feeling it gave me was it's almost like a boom bap rap pattern, but with live instruments that makes it kind of feel a little like um alternative.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I I wasn't thinking about influences or anything, I was just thinking like what would be the best for this song and for these flows and melodies that I picked, and we came to that conclusion, and I think it sounded really good.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Were there any specific artists or albums that kind of influenced that sound, that final result?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, I want to say that Pharaoh produces a lot of Aries music, if you know who that is.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's another big artist kind of in a similar world to me, and I think he has done similar things with his stuff, so I think that's where um he kind of had the idea, and then I just kind of took it and gave it my own little Ezra spin and try to make it a little more um emo, if you will.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: So the mockumentary tied to this release is such a unique idea.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: How did that concept come about?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, uh I've I've always wanted to act and do this stuff.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I kind of had this feeling where there's a lot of people in my camp for the last project that I made, kind of in my ear telling me what I should and shouldn't do, and all this stuff.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I got rid of all that for this project, and I was like, for this album, I want to do shit my way.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if I was my own favorite artist, what would I want to see?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and um I I feel like everybody thinks their music is the best.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Every single artist on planet earth thinks their music is the greatest, which is like of you're supposed to, you know, that is how you're supposed to feel.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I feel that way about my stuff, but there's gotta be a way that you separate yourself outside of that.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and my thought process was I really view my like I go live with my fans and I talk to my fans, and they'll make these weird videos and edits of me like joking on live, and those have done well in the past.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, how do I how do I incorporate my personality um into my promotion without being I made the song about and like the classic TikTok shit that you see every single day.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not to say there's anything wrong with that, but I just wanted to separate myself from where the industry's at right now.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like um good people, like people that are really good at what they do are able to take trends and move with them.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I I didn't even want to do that.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to either do something that nobody's ever done before, and if it works, great.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if it doesn't, I failed trying something that is incredible and new to me.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I was like, let me write a full-on mockumentary shot office style about my life and my experience writing this project.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's how I'll show this person inside of my personality.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God one of my best friends, um David, um, who I've been friends with for a really long time, since like the young Easy days or whatever, since I was making that stuff, because what other white Jewish kid has a song out with NLE Choppa at the time?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: He was just like, this kid's cool.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: We started hanging out.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: He was playing Bruce Wayne and Gotham, which is also really sick.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when I first got out to LA, when I made that first trip, uh we were hanging out a bunch.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, he was like, I'm so down.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Send me the album.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I send the album, he's like, bro, I really want to write this with you.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we sat down, we wrote the whole thing together, ended up turning into him directing in it, which ended up turning into him acting in it as well.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Gabe also acted in it, was the owner of my label, Gabe Saporta, awesome guy, um, legend of this legend of the game as well.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it just ended up coming out way cooler than I could have ever imagined.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And now each single is gonna have another piece of this pilot episode that will the whole entire thing will come out um when the whole entire project drops.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I love about this?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's almost like you took the TikTok social experiment and put it on steroids with this.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like looking at it, you're not it's not just music videos or documentaries, it's looking at it as like a multimedia piece and launching an album as a multimedia piece.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Am I off base with that?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's also a way of launching my writing career, which is something that I've always wanted to do, is write TV and movies and acting and uh a a way for me to show my what makes me different from everybody else, which I think is hard to do um in today's industry.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, what was it like collaborating with um David and uh Gabe?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I these people are like two people that I've known, you know.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've had as deep conversation as you could have with these people for as long as I can remember.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, Gabe was the first person to really take a gamble on me and invest in me and see the vision of what I want to create in my music and believe in me as a person.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: So he's been my mentor for three or four years now, which has been amazing.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and David is like one of my best friends, you know, irrelevant to everything we do together.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: We we've been hanging out for a really long time.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: So um it was oh no, I was gonna come grab.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, dude.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Playboy.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um but that was my roommate Braden Bales, another incredible artist.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but um, yes, um, David Um is a genius.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think he's really good.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked on him with music before, like as a joke, he's kind of like come into sessions and we've made songs together, and he can kind of rap, like he can kind of rap his ass off in a funny way.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this was cool of me taking a dive into his world, um, and I really got to see where he shines and what he does best, and I was absolutely blown away.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was mind-blowing how incredible he is at um bringing out the best in people when they're acting.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, writing with him was incredible, but seeing him direct was a whole nother animal.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was crazy.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you're using this mockumentary as kind of a way to build mystery around the album.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Fans will slowly kind of piece it all together as the episodes and the music drops.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: Do you enjoy leaving these types of breadcrumbs for fans to follow?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really bad at it though because I'm super active in my communities and stuff, and I always end up leaking shit just because I love talking to them so much.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I always end up slipping up and saying the wrong thing.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh like yesterday on live, I accidentally said that my song was coming out the 19th, so now like whoever was on that live stream knows.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: But um I I just I love it.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: I love it, and I think it it it gives a cool dynamic with my fan base.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like um the the album, can you like bleep out when I say the album name or something?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'll figure it out.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: The album is called Okay, but I re I revealed only certain letters of said project, you know what I mean?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they're all like trying to guess what it's called, and they they they're making memes of me as like grew from Despicable Me, and they're calling it Seas the Moon, they're calling it like all this different stuff, and it's very funny.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of them guess already, but they're they're they're doing all these random things, and I think it gives them an opportunity to interact.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, at the end of the day, dude, the internet's a lonely place.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was lonely, still am lonely scrolling my phone.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: People are lonely scrolling their phone, they're bored, they're and they just want to feel part of something.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if I can be that thing that they feel part of, if my world is something that they feel like they're in on something that other people haven't found yet, um, that's awesome to me.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what I felt growing up with with X really specifically, this guy, XXX Tentacion, um, a guy who passed pretty early on in his career.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was so early on to him that I was in his DMs and getting responses, like when he first started, and I was like, dude, I'm going through this and that.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he would respond to me and be like, Hey, keep your head up.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna kill it, you're gonna make it one day, you're gonna and me having that interaction with him made it.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: So once he got past that ceiling of the place he was at, um, it was like it I felt like almost like I knew the guy, you know, and it's obviously it's a super parasocial relationship to have with an artist, but I want people to be able to have that feeling with me where I'm there for you in a deeper sense than just listening to me through your Spotify.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Bro, I I gotta tell you, I I that warms my heart to hear that whole thing because similar, similar injection inflection point here.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I have somebody on my show, like I'm not just investing in them as a guest, and it's like, okay, we're gonna have this one conversation, and then we're never gonna probably ever talk again.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, it's like, no, you did my show.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Time is the most valuable asset, valuable commodity in the world.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: If somebody gives you their time, they are giving you a piece of themselves, and it's a piece of themselves they are never gonna get.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: So you almost have to cherish it, you have to covet it, and you have to respect it.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, so I when if you do my show, like I'm invested in you, I'm gonna watch my baby.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, I'm I'm gonna follow your career, but it goes to exactly what you're saying.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like sometimes you have to up that layer of just the basic parasol.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: social relationship and be like, hey, you know what?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody's watching my shit.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like they care enough to invest in my shit.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna invest in them right back.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: A hundred percent.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, it goes it goes right back to you, man.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um when I do when I book my first headliner tour and it's selling out and everything's going great, we'll come right back down to this podcast and we'll reconvene about how things are going again and it'll be great and we'll do it again when I get my first Grammy and we'll keep going and going and going.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know see that's that's what it's all about.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's what it's all about.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you know you briefly mentioned your mentorship with Gabe Saporta uh everybody knows him from uh Midtown Cobra Starship and a million other things.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: You made me feel so sorry yeah that yeah man I tell you what I can't tell you how many gym sessions have been completely run by Cobra Starship albums.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: 100% um so you know how has his mentorship shaped your path and what's the best advice he's given you so far?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh that's a really hard a hard one because he's given me so much advice.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think when I first signed to Gabe I was at a very different point in my career and I think I was a little more naive to how this thing would go.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just turned 24 last month and I think that um I thought I was going to be in a much different place in my career now than I am.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Which I think every artist feels that way.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: When they're chasing their dreams there's kind of some naivety to when you find a little success and I found some success doing some stupid freestyle shit.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was like this stuff is way better.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to take off instantly and I I think the difference is um try to see the bigger picture as to what I'm building um and try to take it step by step and not get lost in the process of expectation and comparison like comparison's the the thief of joy I think you've heard that one before I'm sure um but he really broke it down to me as we're building something really special here and don't let that get overlooked by you wanting the best for yourself.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's really easy to be super self-deprecative to yourself especially out here in LA surrounded by people that are doing really cool stuff.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just not to get lost in it and stay true to what I am and I think it took me a couple years to even take that advice to the fullest and I thought I was taking that advice but I wasn't yet and I think this album is the first time where I was like I'm doing this my way and I'm gonna see out my creative vision and whatever happens happens.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: But at least I know that I did everything in my power to do this my way.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and those little wins can sometimes be accelerants for you wanting more and sometimes wanting more a little bit too soon.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: A hundred percent yeah I I don't know if there will ever be a point in my career where I'll be satisfied.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's just the type of person I am I'm hungry.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so hungry for more and more and I want I want to do as much as I can and I don't need to be Justin Bieber you know I don't need to be the biggest star on the planet but if I'm at a place in my career where I could tour the world and be able to sell out shows in as many different places as I can and tour forever like that to me is going to be everywhere everything I need you know I'm obviously always gonna strive for more and more and more and be the best version of myself but right now that's all I can think of and that's I live and breathe that I dream about what's next.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I I can't get away from it.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Love that you've already had some big live show moments including uh some with somebody I I really enjoy Matasyahoo um what stands out for you as your most memorable performance so far I did a a headliner at Moroccan lounge that sold out a couple years ago which was awesome but I I think the best show the the most the thing that meant the most to me was my acoustic tiny room performance.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: I did a little acoustic show at this place called Tiny Room in LA um which I'm doing another one next week but it's not gonna be a live it's not gonna be a show I'm just filming it all for content and stuff I'm doing a bunch of like live session versions of a bunch of songs on the album um but uh we sold it out like a like and I didn't really know what was going to happen.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: I announced it two weeks in advance um and it was on a hundred cap venue and there was people that couldn't get Lanen outside there's people that drove from Arizona people that drove from all these different places around um the world and it got me so excited uh to connect with these people and it was the first time that the Ezra music I got to see that on a full scale of what it meant to people.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this one girl broke down to me crying talking about how another sad song this song I made for her like really saved her from this pit of depression she was in and I've had really bad experiences with with addiction myself that I was told had really helped people with that get through sobriety and all this different stuff that really um helped me a lot um with my own mental knowing that I'm helping other people makes the struggles a lot easier.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because yeah maybe I'm not going mega viral like other artists are but my songs are helping people get through really rough times in their life and that to me is more than enough to keep me motivated.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely one person at a time I mean that's that's the best way to do it.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: How do you want fans to feel when they see you live like themselves I want them to feel I want them to feel like they can be whoever they want to be uh I want them to feel like they can achieve whatever the fuck it is I I feel like I'm pretty vulnerable on stage.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like myself on stage um and I want people to be able to see themselves in that you know um I just want to inspire people to do whatever the fuck this they want to do whether that's build houses whether it's paint paintings whether it's make music whatever the fuck that may be I I want people to be able to do what they do to the fullest and chase it.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Love that your music mixes nostalgia with a Gen Z perspective do you feel like your generation approaches songwriting differently than previous generations I think I approach songwriting differently than previous generations.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think I have yeah I I just think I I I I'm very inspired by Midwest emo um writing like the front bottoms and modern baseball and mom jeans and um these different bands that I feel like get hyper specific and weirdly descriptive with what they say.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of wanted to incorporate that into a more like alternative pop alternative rock demographic where it feels more polished and less um niche you know because the vocal performance in a lot of those songs are very um intentionally whiny and like nasally and that's just how they sing and it sounds I cannot stop listening to that shit.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I also like we were talking about language before it's not a language that everybody can speak.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to take my favorite parts of that that which is I feel like a specificness specificity in writing that a lot of other genres and bags don't have um that I can bring into my world but yet still make it I guess pretty enough to that everybody can listen to it.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Love that does how does your personal storytelling connect with a modern audience I guess that's a question for the people that listen to it more so but I I the comments the comments that I've been getting and the response that I've been getting is it's really bringing people back.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like I got a comment yesterday being like I just hit up my situationship from 10 years ago because of this song like and we ended up having a conversation and getting coffee I just um oh like fine I'll text him as like another comment that I've gotten a bunch of times or fine I'll text her like I I think it um it allows people to understand like a a big thing of what I of of what I preach is that it's okay to feel not okay um and it it's okay to live in the past sometimes it's okay to do this thing because it's human it's human nature you know um and I think me being vulnerable through my music inspires other people to be vulnerable and maybe do things or say things to people that they wouldn't have spoken to or wouldn't have done before.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes yes yes so the album drops in 2026 correct top of 2026.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so where are you at in the creative process with it right now?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's done.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Album's finished Dunsky um the mockumentary is basically finished.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: We still have some editing and stuff to do and just um picking out the final seeds and stuff it's all filmed it's all ready to roll um we just like tomorrow I have a full day editing the sober sick the the next song I'm dropping which this by the time this comes out it'll be out is called Sober Cigarettes I'm with one of my good good friends Cameron um who's known as Scarlet House but that song is fucking incredible and it's about um about my relationship with a part of this rough time that I didn't really get into which I don't have to get so deep into but I had a really bad um Benzo um episode in my life when I was the trial changeover period from Young Easy to Ezra where I kind of was like I lost everything.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: I just spent the last two years of my life playing a character that didn't feel real to me.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I got really really into Zans and I was just popping Xanax all the time and completely numb to reality and I had this really long relationship with this girl where she was great and I feel like I kind of ruined everything she had going on and I had going on by just being an addict and um taking it out on her and other people around me.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: I thank God I didn't do anything bad bad.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: I just wasn't that present for her um in ways that I think I should have been um and expected her to be present for me in situations that would only be detrimental to her mental health you know like I need help.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need a girlfriend you know I needed help at the time um and this song was really about like it's like um you look like sober cigarettes on a night out like I'm the type to regret what comes out of my mouth and I wish I was someone you could look at and feel the same about but I don't smoke sober cigarettes.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like and that was the whole that was like the whole like pre-hook of the song and then it goes into like me talking about like if I lie like I'm really sorry I I just knew you were going to pick up like I knew I I knew I was going to be able to talk to you if I got your attention I knew you were going to be able to be there for me.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's just basically it's almost like um an apologetic love song about how I wish I could have been a better version of myself for this person.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: So these real world experiences and these bouts of authenticity do you feel like that is the anchor of the overarching story of the record yeah um I think I again I shouldn't be saying that because um name of the project but I think the name of the project speaks volumes as to me um setting false hope for myself and um losing myself in this dream chasing that I've doing that I've done a lot I it's almost like I was dream chasing aimlessly you know um which I feel like for me at least has gone out of style a little bit you know like I wanna I wanna um be able to chase my goals without completely sabotaging my mental health and the people's mental health around me or not just running full spint and one as full sprint and when I get to the destination I'm at then I'll worry about these issues.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's about handling them as I move forward and becoming the best version of myself before I have all this stuff.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: I just feel like if if all these things that's going on now, if the songs would have been streaming great as the great as they're doing now if if I would have done this mockumentary if I would have gotten these looks from these different places and these tours or whatever the fuck is going to happen for me towards the end of the year, I don't think I would have been ready for it.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like now I have the perspective going through all this stuff.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's a song on the project called I wrote this the day I got robbed and it was the day I lost all my shit.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's a story there's a song on the project about a homie of mine who passed um due to overdose called Gone at 20 something which is really really emotional for me.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: A song about my relationship with my parents and how they feel about where I'm at and and all that stuff.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's like just like you and it's like um if I was just like you would you love me more basically and it's like a very a lot of emotional ballads um and then a lot of songs that are about less intense stuff that still help me learn about things that are almost a little more of turn up vibes but they still have that same feeling of me it's almost like a therapy session you know um between me and my fans and um hopefully they can gain perspective from me showing these situations that gained me the perspective that I needed.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: So speaking of therapy as the resident podcaster armchair therapist here with all the momentum you built how are you balancing ambition with staying grounded it's hard um and I think the balance between proud and never satisfied um is a balance that is a very hard one for anybody to to try to muster up I think not just for musicians or for entertainment people I just think everybody um it's really hard to pat yourself on the back when you're not at the place you want to be at yet um and I think me maturing is realizing that you have to um I have to allow myself to be thankful towards me and my fan base for being like intermission streaming incredible you know it's streaming great and compared to my other music it's doing really great um is it getting a million streams first month like other people I know no but that doesn't mean it's not doing amazing for me and for the direction I want to go in you know um and I just think it's it's about accepting these little wins that's like really where I'm at now is being able to appreciate um the fan base I have and making those connections um I've come to realize life is like you can either build steps one by one right or you can grapple hook all the way to the top.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like the problem is when you grapple hook all the way to the top and you slip and you end up falling, you don't fall back to square 59 from 60 you fall back to square one, you know, and then you got to rebrand but if I'm building these steps one by one by one and I'm making these connections with my fans to the point where like they feel like they know me and I feel like they they know me and I kind of feel like I know them through that.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like if I do end up slipping and I do end up dropping something that doesn't do that well or something happens or X, Y, and Z, I'll still fall back onto the step that I set below that one, you know?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um which is something that I've come to appreciate.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to be viral moment this TikTok guy this the blah blah blah blah blah I'd rather just be somebody that has a strong real connection with the people that value my music.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: Dude I love all of that.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: I love your perspective you have your head in the absolute right place it needs to be with everything you have going on.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it took a while dude I'm sure it did I'm sure it did you know there's obviously still some days where I wake up and feel like oh yeah dude I tell you what you would like you're never gonna be a hundred percent satisfied and that's okay it's just to like that those moments when you're disgruntled it's not letting those moments own you and control your next decision.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: That is a challenge for anybody anybody.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well brother this uh this pod has gone by super fast because I have enjoyed the shit out of talking with you.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go man yeah I've had a great time too many did feel like a therapy session.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well my closing question is one that I ask every single guest that does my show because I love different perspectives and that is given your experience everything that you're going through right now this impending album and everything that's coming along with it what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Be easy on yourself.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of the time people have are disgruntled with people are treating peep people poorly poorly it's because they're treating themselves poorly.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think be patient with yourself understand that um life is a long thing and everybody's on their own journey and there's people that have everything work out for them at 16 and there's people that have everything work out for them at 48.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know it's it's so random I I talked to an actor recently who got his first big gig at 55 and since then he's been absolutely killing it.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just you you never know what people are going through or what you're going through.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's it's always try to treat yourself like you would treat um somebody who you care about and love unconditionally.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: That unconditional love I think will get you really far with regards to how you treat other people.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: Love that dude tell everybody where they can find you and your music online.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Ezra on Spotify and Apple Music and everything Deezer, Amazon, whatever, where is Ezra on socials um I don't remember what my Twitter handle is it's like everyone hates Ezra or something like that.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know but you know what's funny dude I deleted Twitter like two years ago I just re-downloaded it the other day and I'm like alright starting back at square zero scary app I'm not gonna lie I kind of stay away from it but um I tweeted my first thing in a long time the other day I just said um I said I will sell out a War Tour one day I will sell out a world tour one day I will sell out a world tour one day manifestation that was it yeah dude dude I deleted mine I scrubbed everybody I had a pretty decent amount of followers too so when I logged when I you know created my new account and I'm back at zero I'm like fuck fuck guess what dude you know a new opportunity to rebrand yourself.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely absolutely patient well Ezra I I mean it whenever I said it earlier like the invitation is always open for you to come back we are friends now that means I am like the stink to your shit so love it I cannot wait to see what happens in the future I think big things are going to happen for you um the world's a much better place with you and it my friend I say the same for you Mike I really appreciate it man and yeah um great podcast I appreciate you bringing me on brother I want to once again thank my friend Ezra for joining me on the show today make sure you follow him on Instagram at whereisEzra and uh big shout out to my buddy Nate with Impulse Artists he's always helping hook up some of the best episodes ever so make sure you follow impulse artists on Instagram as well while you're being generous with follows make sure you're following me at caught on the mic on all social media platforms.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: Give me a subscribe on my YouTube channel that thing is growing and I couldn't be any happier you can also visit me on my website at www.caughton the mic.com or shoot me an email caught on the mic at gmail dot com boy that was all a mouthful but hey it's worth it once again it is my privilege to be here with you this has been caught on the mic with michael clark i'm michael clark until next time thank you oh final note episode 200 coming soon