Latest / The Scene Projects / Billy LeRiff on Music, Networking, and Two Weeks in Nashville

Transcript

Billy LeRiff on Music, Networking, and Two Weeks in Nashville · The Scene Projects

• 0:01
  Today, we're joined by UK singer songwriter Billy Lariffe.
• 0:05
  You may know him as the former frontman of two weeks in Nashville, and now he's stepping into
• 0:10
  the spotlight with his debut solo single, Beautiful.
• 0:13
  We'll dive into his journey from sold out venues to his bold new solo chapter.
• 0:19
  Let's get into the show.
• 0:25
  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
• 0:30
  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
• 0:35
  from across the Midwest.
• 0:37
  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
• 0:50
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:53
  I am your host Bubba Starts, and with me today is Billy Lariffe.
• 0:56
  Welcome to the show, Billy.
• 0:57
  Hello there.
• 0:58
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 0:59
  I gotta know.
• 1:00
  Is Lariffe a stage name, or were you born with it?
• 1:04
  No.
• 1:04
  That is a that is a stage name, unfortunately.
• 1:06
  I was gonna say if it wasn't, you were born to do exactly what you were doing anyway.
• 1:10
  Yeah.
• 1:10
  I had to I had to live up to my name.
• 1:13
  That's awesome,
• 1:16
  man.
• 1:16
  Well, I I know you're all the way.
• 1:18
  Good afternoon to you.
• 1:20
  We work with, one of our producers is out in The UK who I'm gonna connect you with as well.
• 1:25
  Our buddy, Ross, has the freshest sounds podcast.
• 1:28
  Shout out to him.
• 1:29
  And, he would love to talk with you and get some of your music on there.
• 1:32
  But I wanna give you an opportunity to kinda give us a little bit of your backstory, a
• 1:36
  little bit about two weeks in Nashville, and then obviously talking about your new record
• 1:41
  that you got coming out, man.
• 1:42
  So, the floor is yours.
• 1:44
  Let let's hear the, let's hear the story of Billy Lariffe.
• 1:48
  Yeah.
• 1:48
  So, I grew up grew up in the Styx, the countryside in The UK, just South Of London.
• 1:54
  And my musical journey started from a very young age.
• 1:58
  My family were all kind of very musical.
• 2:01
  My grandparents used to sing in choirs and all sorts growing up.
• 2:05
  And I suppose it I suppose it rubbed off onto me and my my siblings, my brother and sister,
• 2:10
  and it all took a liking to performing and getting comfortable with kind of the stage, I
• 2:18
  suppose.
• 2:18
  Although we were just dancing around the the kitchen in our house growing up singing
• 2:22
  together.
• 2:23
  And then from there, it kind of really grew into this, like, burning passion.
• 2:27
  So I started on drums at school from, like, the age of, like, six, I think, and then progressed
• 2:36
  to me starting a band at school and being the drummer of that band.
• 2:40
  And then as people grew up and went separate ways, I was like, I wanted to keep the band
• 2:44
  going, and I thought, do you know what?
• 2:45
  I could actually front this thing and and and try and pull off being being the front man and
• 2:51
  and try singing.
• 2:53
  So I started doing that from the age of 10, and then I was like, I need to accompany myself.
• 2:57
  So I learned guitar.
• 2:59
  And it just went from there, it just really snowballed.
• 3:01
  And there was a period when I was doing some kind of more high level, like, exams at school,
• 3:07
  and I didn't give them any time of day and just focused focused on my music.
• 3:12
  And then went to a music college, like a music institute from the age of 16 to 18 and did a
• 3:21
  diploma and then a degree in music performance in vocals and songwriting art art artist
• 3:28
  development and met the fellow bandmates at that uni, at that college that then that turned
• 3:35
  into two weeks in Nashville.
• 3:37
  So, yeah, it's been a it's been a wild journey just meeting and working with lots of great,
• 3:44
  passionate, like minded people, And it's now led me to a place where I've been in this band,
• 3:49
  Two Weeks in Nashville, for six years now.
• 3:51
  We were living together until the end of last year, and this year was, like, the first chance
• 3:57
  we've all had to take a step back, evaluate what we've achieved, what we could do better,
• 4:03
  and it's left me with this kind of burning desire to try something solo.
• 4:08
  So I've already released two solo singles, and I've got lots more on the way.
• 4:15
  That's awesome, man.
• 4:16
  So many parallels between your your early days and mine.
• 4:21
  My dad plays guitar.
• 4:22
  My my uncle plays guitar.
• 4:24
  Grandma always had sheet music out during Christmas time.
• 4:27
  She played the accordion.
• 4:28
  So I have fond memories of being a a singer with at a very early age, right, and performing
• 4:35
  with the whole family, you know, just in the living room at grandma's house during
• 4:39
  Christmas.
• 4:39
  But it was very natural for me to see, you know, my family performing around the campfire
• 4:46
  or you know?
• 4:47
  And when we moved to South Dakota, we lived in a tent for three months, so the the music bar
• 4:51
  was our entertainment.
• 4:52
  Right?
• 4:53
  Yeah.
• 4:53
  So I think in many ways, that that kind of informed who I became in my later life.
• 4:58
  I also started on the drums and concert band, you know, maybe 11, 12 years old, and then
• 5:03
  progressed to the bass for jazz band by the time I was 13.
• 5:07
  And then after a year on the bass, it was like, well, I'm a singer, and and I'm writing, and I
• 5:12
  really should be playing the guitar.
• 5:14
  And then got a guitar, you know, maybe fourteen years old, and then it was kind of over from
• 5:18
  there.
• 5:19
  And not that I haven't played and dabbled in other instruments that it was just, no.
• 5:22
  This is this is what I do, and I've always just kinda been a busking performer and then
• 5:28
  graduating into booking gigs and and doing all of those things.
• 5:32
  Never had a formal education in it, which I'm a little I'm starting to realize now as I
• 5:38
  interview more people that have been to music school that it is, yes, it is the learning of
• 5:43
  the craft, you know, whether you're in performance or production, but it's a
• 5:48
  networking opportunity to be with other like minded individuals that want to do music as a
• 5:53
  career.
• 5:54
  And that might be the most important part of going to a school like that and having those
• 6:00
  that time in that is the network.
• 6:02
  Would you agree with that statement, or am I a little off base there?
• 6:05
  Yeah.
• 6:05
  1110%.
• 6:07
  I agree with that.
• 6:08
  Very much kind of who you know and just meeting amazing people that inspire you.
• 6:13
  With YouTube, we can learn the things.
• 6:15
  Right?
• 6:15
  Like, you can learn how to produce music or learn how to perform and play music, but you
• 6:20
  can't necessarily become best friends with four other guys.
• 6:24
  Right?
• 6:24
  And you'd
• 6:25
  be like, oh, this is what we're gonna do, and really the birth of that band is at the school
• 6:29
  then.
• 6:30
  Yeah.
• 6:30
  And I I yeah.
• 6:31
  I've and I I definitely agree, and I believe that the sum of everyone's parts together is is
• 6:36
  better than just you on your own kind of thing.
• 6:38
  Right?
• 6:39
  And it's especially when you look at songwriting, and I think that bringing in those
• 6:42
  elements and approaches like, oh, you write music like that.
• 6:45
  I haven't thought about doing it that way.
• 6:47
  And that's the way I love doing it.
• 6:49
  So I'm very I feel very grateful for the journey that I've been on and having met not
• 6:54
  necessarily been to music college to really like, I think there's a sense of honing your
• 6:59
  craft, but in terms of, like, my vocals, they came on tenfold when I was studying my voice
• 7:06
  and how that works and my breathing techniques.
• 7:08
  So I was very, very pleased for that.
• 7:09
  But in terms of the songwriting artist development course course I did, I definitely
• 7:14
  just learnt more off fellow musicians than I did from from the lecturers per se.
• 7:21
  Well, then how good it is for your mental health to be surrounded by other people that
• 7:25
  are doing the same things that you want to do rather than living as we all do musicians and
• 7:31
  songwriters with people who don't play or have that passion for performing that just don't
• 7:37
  understand it.
• 7:38
  And I think it tends to be a very negative space that it's like, oh, well, you better get
• 7:42
  a real job.
• 7:43
  Right?
• 7:43
  Or or you better do this.
• 7:44
  And you're always kinda getting a negative feedback.
• 7:46
  Oh, you're great, but, you know, what what do you do, you know, to make money?
• 7:50
  You know?
• 7:51
  Yeah.
• 7:51
  Where when you're surrounded by those people and you're all being exposed to the the
• 7:57
  industry that you're seeing the ways that there are to make money in the music industry and in
• 8:01
  entertainment besides just performing.
• 8:04
  Mhmm.
• 8:05
  Oh, yeah.
• 8:05
  Yeah.
• 8:06
  No.
• 8:06
  I agree.
• 8:07
  It was very much like when I was in those three years studying music.
• 8:13
  I was doing so much more outside of the of the college, going to watch my friends playing
• 8:18
  shows, like, kind of being an understudy to various producers, and just really, like,
• 8:24
  trying to get my hands dirty and learn on the job so that I was ready to to kinda spread my
• 8:29
  wings when when leaving.
• 8:33
  So traveling back and forth from The UK to The States, to Nashville to actually perform,
• 8:40
  that's a different beast all on its own.
• 8:43
  Did you guys have the name before starting to make the travels, or did the name evolve from
• 8:48
  the two weeks that you were spending in Nashville?
• 8:50
  No.
• 8:51
  The name evolved from from spending two weeks there.
• 8:53
  We we went as a different different band, and and and we were in and out of some amazing
• 8:58
  studios meeting some great people.
• 9:00
  We came and we just it just opened our eyes to to America and the the scale of the of the of
• 9:07
  the country.
• 9:08
  It's just incredible.
• 9:09
  And we were we were blown away by it, and everyone was so friendly.
• 9:12
  And it felt like this real positive energy that we hadn't had for a long time in The UK.
• 9:18
  And sorry.
• 9:20
  I mean, that we hadn't had for a long time in The UK.
• 9:24
  And so it it just we we couldn't we couldn't be the same band and couldn't continue on as the
• 9:30
  same as before, so we had to change the name and put our heads around the table.
• 9:33
  And I think, I think it was the the bassist's, sister at the time that threw the name into the
• 9:39
  pile of being like, she was like, how long were you in Nashville for?
• 9:42
  We were like, two weeks.
• 9:43
  And she was like, there you go.
• 9:44
  Two weeks in Nashville.
• 9:46
  And then and then two months later, we realized that it abbreviates to twins, so that was
• 9:51
  perfect, the t w I n.
• 9:52
  Awesome.
• 9:53
  Yeah.
• 9:54
  Became our we then had, like, some bespoke lights made for our for our live shows.
• 9:59
  So they they travel around with us when we play shows.
• 10:01
  Yeah.
• 10:02
  Incredible.
• 10:03
  So what is your following like back home after you know, do people feel like they're getting a
• 10:09
  taste of you know?
• 10:11
  Is it just the name, or are you playing kind of country ish music and exposing people to that
• 10:16
  Nashville sound, or is it kind of a name only that you're representative of that in The UK?
• 10:23
  For for us, I think it's we've we've got some country records that we've that we are working
• 10:29
  on, but it came first.
• 10:31
  Just it worked its way into the lyrics, this, like, positive energy.
• 10:35
  And so the the lyrics, particularly on our first record, super uplifting and and just all
• 10:41
  about our experience going to America.
• 10:44
  And and then the whole, like, grand kind of performance in our live shows and just full of
• 10:50
  energy, and I feel like that's quite a that's another thing we picked up from just spending a
• 10:55
  couple of weeks in Nashville.
• 10:58
  And that's the way it's kind of transpired into into our sound.
• 11:02
  But since experiencing Nashville, it's we really got into our country music.
• 11:07
  This was, like, in 2018.
• 11:09
  And since since then, in the last two years, countries just had, like, a insane kind of
• 11:15
  resurgence in in The UK, and it's just really come over.
• 11:18
  And, you know, the big stars like Morgan Wolland playing sold out stadium shows in The
• 11:24
  UK, which was unheard of and never would have happened.
• 11:28
  You know, three years have happened up to that.
• 11:30
  I mean, even you know, I I don't recall anything, but, I mean, it just wasn't an
• 11:36
  accepted really form of American music there.
• 11:39
  I know a lot of it has bled over.
• 11:40
  Obviously, rock and roll in the sixties, and there was a lot of crossover UK bands coming to
• 11:45
  The States.
• 11:45
  Vice versa, obviously, of the best rock and roll bands of all time, Led Zeppelin at the top
• 11:49
  of that heap.
• 11:50
  Right?
• 11:50
  The Rolling Stones and, you know, the Beatles, obviously.
• 11:54
  Yeah.
• 11:54
  But you you don't have a lot of bands that necessarily cross over, especially in the
• 12:01
  country era, but music has changed, has it not?
• 12:04
  Yeah.
• 12:05
  Oh, yeah.
• 12:05
  Definitely.
• 12:06
  Yeah.
• 12:06
  It kind of you're getting glimpses of country and, like, the big American pop records that
• 12:12
  were finally crossing over to The UK, like, four years ago.
• 12:16
  But then it's like, now the country stuff has really has really taken off there, people are
• 12:20
  loving it.
• 12:21
  And I think it's just that, like, real feel good.
• 12:23
  It just puts you in a good mood and makes you wanna hang out with your mates and listen to
• 12:28
  music in the sun in the summer.
• 12:30
  It's just I I love it.
• 12:31
  I think it's great.
• 12:32
  Besides the vastness of the American countryside, what are some of the big
• 12:39
  differences between, like, the music scenes?
• 12:42
  What is what's the biggest differences?
• 12:43
  And and Nashville is an anomaly to itself in The States.
• 12:47
  But what's your music scene like at home in The UK or around playing in London, which I'm
• 12:53
  assuming that's kind of where most of the gigs are at?
• 12:57
  Yeah.
• 12:57
  Yeah.
• 12:57
  And playing and the experiences you've had in Nashville.
• 13:01
  And what are some similarities?
• 13:02
  Right?
• 13:02
  What are some similarities and differences between the two?
• 13:06
  I think well, the yeah.
• 13:09
  So you've in in The UK, they kind of there's like a north, middle, and south, and the the
• 13:14
  northerns the best places we've played in The UK are in the North of are in the North Of The
• 13:18
  UK and Manchester and Leeds with and Liverpool where the Beatles were from.
• 13:26
  We just found that crowds in up there just are there from the beginning of the night to the
• 13:32
  end of the night.
• 13:33
  And, you know, as soon as they have bought their ticket, that is them.
• 13:36
  They're not going anywhere else.
• 13:37
  Whilst in London, it tends to be they'll get their ticket, maybe they'll show up, or they'll
• 13:43
  they'll turn up.
• 13:44
  They will miss the support act, which in a lot of circumstances, we're the support.
• 13:49
  And then they will come in for the for the act that they want to see that they've paid for
• 13:54
  seeing, I suppose.
• 13:56
  And so I I I don't like that side of of the London shows.
• 14:01
  I find the audience can be a bit cold whilst up in the North Of The UK, it's much like a warmer
• 14:07
  warmer kind of atmosphere and vibe and just have some great chats with everyone after the
• 14:13
  show in in in the crowds.
• 14:15
  And I suppose that's the parallel I would make to to Nashville.
• 14:19
  I mean, I can't speak for I've been to a couple of other cities in The US, but actually music
• 14:24
  wise only really Nashville.
• 14:27
  And I think that the crowds are very passionate about music there and and listening and are
• 14:34
  very approachable after when you come off stage.
• 14:37
  So I'd say that was the similarity.
• 14:41
  I would say as a thing that's not so great is just, I suppose, the the expense of going to a
• 14:47
  show in in London is expensive.
• 14:49
  Tickets are more than they should be, but they have to be.
• 14:53
  They have to be high priced.
• 14:56
  And and so it is hard to to kind of market it to your fan base and know that you're gonna be
• 15:04
  able to sell enough tickets to break even on a show.
• 15:08
  Yeah.
• 15:09
  And that's the that's the tough side.
• 15:11
  So in America, and especially because we have we have a lot of what we call dive bars.
• 15:16
  Right?
• 15:16
  A lot of places that have music and and how they pay their performers differs from, you
• 15:21
  know, area to area.
• 15:22
  In South Dakota, we get paired very well performance, guaranteed performance fees.
• 15:26
  Right?
• 15:27
  When I go out and play solo shows, I get anywhere from 500 to full band shows of $1,500
• 15:32
  US, right, to go and perform.
• 15:35
  Now people in Nashville don't get that.
• 15:37
  They're they're getting to maybe play for tips or to do those things.
• 15:40
  So there's differences between the scenes of of The United States.
• 15:45
  Right?
• 15:46
  Different areas are different.
• 15:47
  You know, I play up in the Minneapolis area, and it's it's kinda half and half there where
• 15:51
  it's like you can get a small guarantee and then a door.
• 15:55
  Where in Nashville, you're getting a straight door deal.
• 15:57
  You have to sell tickets to your shows.
• 15:59
  Or if you're playing for free and they're not charging a cover, you're playing just for the
• 16:03
  tip jar at the end of the day.
• 16:05
  So there's a lot of differences between our music scenes in The States.
• 16:09
  What I'm hearing from you, though, is that the Northern, the Manchester, the Leeds crowds,
• 16:15
  there it seems like they would be a lot more what we would call blue collar.
• 16:18
  Right?
• 16:18
  That they are the workers, and they are invested in that night.
• 16:21
  It's a it's a considerable chunk of their income for the week to buy a concert ticket to
• 16:27
  come out.
• 16:27
  And when they come out, they're gonna be a more raucous, rowdy crowd
• 16:31
  Yeah.
• 16:32
  At that.
• 16:32
  And that's what we have out here in the Midwest.
• 16:35
  And and I would consider Nashville to have much more of a Midwest flavor than even the South.
• 16:41
  Right?
• 16:42
  The South Atlanta, Miami, and some of these areas, Houston.
• 16:46
  Right?
• 16:46
  And I feel like Nashville is really representative of Midwest values and what we
• 16:53
  consider that.
• 16:54
  What you see in London is probably more akin to how a crowd behaves in Los Angeles or in New
• 17:00
  York City.
• 17:01
  Right?
• 17:02
  So there's a lot of similarities, I think, between the scenes.
• 17:05
  You're just so condensed.
• 17:06
  It's a small island.
• 17:07
  Right?
• 17:08
  Like, it's how far are you in the South South Of London, you say, is where you grew up?
• 17:12
  Is that where you're living now as well?
• 17:14
  Yeah.
• 17:15
  So I'm in, like, an an hour south of London.
• 17:18
  So long does it
• 17:19
  take you then to get up to, like, Manchester or some of these other gigs?
• 17:24
  That's about a five hour drive to get
• 17:25
  to Manchester.
• 17:26
  That's how far I drove yesterday to get home from the other side of South Dakota.
• 17:30
  Wow.
• 17:30
  See, it's just insane.
• 17:31
  Like, that for us is like we're not doing that we're not doing that often.
• 17:36
  Yeah.
• 17:37
  You you did.
• 17:38
  That is amazing.
• 17:39
  Like, yeah, that's yeah.
• 17:40
  We wouldn't we would be we would, like yeah.
• 17:43
  I need a holiday after doing that.
• 17:45
  Yeah.
• 17:45
  But you
• 17:46
  guys just do that in your sleep.
• 17:47
  It's just easy.
• 17:48
  Well, yeah, hopefully, I'm not sleeping.
• 17:50
  Right?
• 17:50
  And I I honestly I drove out on Sunday.
• 17:53
  I drove out there Sunday, drove home on Monday, and put a ton of miles on.
• 17:57
  For me to get to a town of a couple 100,000 people, Billy, it takes me an hour and a half
• 18:01
  to get there.
• 18:02
  Right?
• 18:02
  I live in a town of a thousand people.
• 18:04
  When I say the sticks and the countryside, I mean, we are out here.
• 18:07
  It's nothing but cornfields to the next town, and the next town's only a few 100, and the
• 18:12
  next town over is maybe ten, fifteen thousand.
• 18:14
  Right?
• 18:14
  Like, that's where the Walmart is.
• 18:16
  You know?
• 18:16
  And, you know, so is there's a lot of space out here.
• 18:21
  And that was why it was so necessary for us to start what we started here so that we can talk
• 18:26
  to, you know, our artists in this area to give them a platform to come and share their stuff.
• 18:31
  But we realized that it's not, you know, it's not just an anomaly to our small town area.
• 18:39
  You can be just as unseen even if you live in our south of one of the largest metropolitan
• 18:44
  areas in the world and to feel that kind of isolation.
• 18:49
  Do you what are you guys doing to really grow your fan base?
• 18:53
  Are you still coming over and visiting The States and and visiting here and playing shows
• 18:57
  while maintaining and trying to build a local following in The UK?
• 19:03
  No.
• 19:04
  We haven't really been back to to Nashville music wise since, 2019, actually.
• 19:09
  So it's been a while.
• 19:09
  So we recorded two albums over various periods, over various trips in 2018, 2019.
• 19:16
  And then we've just been gigging The UK circuit.
• 19:21
  We've done a couple of European shows, but very much just UK festivals trying to grow our our
• 19:27
  local and, like, country following from where we are.
• 19:32
  So, yeah, that and and social media is really where we're going more instead of playing live
• 19:39
  shows this year, particularly.
• 19:41
  Well, there's just less expense involved.
• 19:44
  Right?
• 19:44
  There there's you can grow a fan base from our social media platforms, and, obviously, we know
• 19:49
  a lot.
• 19:50
  Our channel just passed a thousand uploads and and a quarter million views on YouTube really
• 19:55
  since the month of March that that's happened for us, but it's just been purely in volume.
• 20:00
  Right?
• 20:00
  We put out over we put out five to 10 episodes a week on our network, and we're driving all of
• 20:06
  that into one YouTube page.
• 20:08
  So we're capitalizing on a lot of people and a lot of activity to get those kind of numbers.
• 20:13
  It's hard for a band to drive that kind of, viewership just on their own.
• 20:19
  There's only so much content to make around one song or one album or one thing.
• 20:26
  Have you guys ever considered you know, obviously, you're appearing on this podcast,
• 20:30
  but having a podcast of your own to try and, develop and deliver more content to your
• 20:36
  existing fan base and using that to drive new listeners and viewers?
• 20:41
  Yeah.
• 20:41
  Podcast is a very good idea to to do.
• 20:44
  We've definitely thought about that.
• 20:46
  I think I might I might think I might start one solo and maybe with another with another
• 20:52
  musician in the industry and start interviewing, like, yeah, like minded musicians
• 20:57
  that we have met along our journey.
• 21:00
  And it I think it's
• 21:01
  When you're ready to do that, Billy, we'd like to help you as much as we can.
• 21:05
  Oh, yeah?
• 21:05
  My my buddy Ross, Freshest Sounds podcast, he'd love to have you on his, but we're always
• 21:11
  looking to grow that base.
• 21:12
  I would love to have more of a foothold with the scene projects over there in The UK and
• 21:18
  then expanding into Europe and continue growing our brand.
• 21:21
  You know?
• 21:21
  We kind of, are becoming a force inside of the entire Midwestern region because there's just
• 21:28
  not enough people that are willing to put their time into supporting the other people inside of
• 21:33
  the scene.
• 21:34
  So you can always use more of it.
• 21:36
  I think you'd be a great host.
• 21:37
  You got the gift of Gab.
• 21:38
  You're very well, you know, educated in music.
• 21:41
  But in life experience, I mean, there's not a lot of people, I would say, even especially
• 21:46
  fewer in the music business out there that have been to The States and have experienced a a
• 21:52
  huge music industry hub like Nashville, and have toured around even in your area.
• 21:58
  You think that's fair to say?
• 22:00
  Yeah.
• 22:01
  Thank you very much.
• 22:02
  Yeah.
• 22:02
  I appreciate the kind words, and I I I definitely love love these types of
• 22:07
  conversations, and, you there's always something to learn and something new to to
• 22:11
  discover.
• 22:12
  So, yeah, I definitely need to push that forward.
• 22:15
  I'll definitely be speaking to you about that.
• 22:17
  No.
• 22:18
  We're gonna get you going.
• 22:19
  And, you know, because I think people you're a success story.
• 22:23
  Right?
• 22:24
  I think people need to hear that from you of like, hey.
• 22:26
  We were a little UK band that, you know, I mean, you paid your own way.
• 22:31
  It's not like somebody freaking paid you a bunch of money to go to Nashville.
• 22:34
  I'm sure
• 22:34
  you guys had an exorbitant investment in that, but you did it.
• 22:38
  And if you can do it, other people can do that.
• 22:41
  And with the rise of country music, not just in the world and in The Americas, but in The UK
• 22:48
  now, that you can be kind of a tip of the spear to inviting other people to kinda take up this
• 22:55
  art form and to to kinda show them the way.
• 22:58
  So anything we can do to get more people, started in music and to get more people chasing
• 23:03
  their passion, I mean, that's what I'm all about.
• 23:06
  And I feel like you would get, behind that a 100% as well.
• 23:10
  Oh, absolutely.
• 23:11
  Definitely.
• 23:12
  Yeah.
• 23:12
  We our our Nashville story is funny because we I was doing a songwriting camp in London, for
• 23:17
  writing for some other artists, under a publishing company.
• 23:21
  And and one of the other writers, were put in a room together, a guy called Alan McKendree
• 23:26
  Palmer, who's based in Nashville on just off Music Row.
• 23:31
  And we wrote a country song together, and he just blew my mind with I've never written with
• 23:35
  an American writer before and or orbit or a country song, I think.
• 23:40
  And I was I think I was 18, 17, 18, and he just wrote the lyrics in a second, and I was, like,
• 23:47
  blown away.
• 23:49
  And he was like, right.
• 23:50
  Your band because we were performing later on in that week on the writing camp.
• 23:53
  So he was like after after seeing the band, he was like, right.
• 23:56
  You guys are gonna come to Nashville.
• 23:58
  You're gonna stay at my house.
• 23:59
  I've got some amazing studios and writers to hit hook you up with.
• 24:02
  And it just our journey began there.
• 24:05
  So, yeah, it's amazing.
• 24:06
  I think an important thing to do is getting getting yourself out there and meeting meeting
• 24:10
  new people.
• 24:12
  Yeah.
• 24:12
  And how we do that now is with our podcast.
• 24:15
  So if that's your passion, you're gonna do a great job.
• 24:19
  And if you need any help along the way, man, we would love to have you.
• 24:22
  You got the new solo stuff out.
• 24:24
  Let's let's talk about that.
• 24:26
  What is it?
• 24:27
  Is it kind of country ish music, or what's the what's the sound?
• 24:31
  Yeah.
• 24:32
  This I wouldn't say it's country, the solo stuff.
• 24:34
  It's I've got a real love for pop music in general, and I think over over the last few
• 24:40
  years writing for other pop artists, I just wanted to kind of scratch that itch myself and
• 24:45
  do it and have my own voice on on some pop records.
• 24:49
  And so, yeah, this kind of blends my my love of, of artists in that indie pop world.
• 24:59
  And and so and and so I'm a guitarist when I write music, but in these tracks, I'm kind of
• 25:05
  turning these guitars into synths, and and trying to do as much of it as I can myself.
• 25:12
  I've been co producing it with a a producer from Hungary who's a hip hop producer, and he's
• 25:16
  kind of really put, like, the finishing touches and the ice on the cake, so to speak, on these
• 25:21
  songs.
• 25:22
  So that's been a that's been it's been a fun project to do.
• 25:27
  Yeah.
• 25:27
  And talk about the differences between working with your band, which I feel like you kinda
• 25:31
  came up doing that.
• 25:32
  Right?
• 25:33
  That was the early part of your career coming up, creating music with other people.
• 25:38
  How is it different now having kind of all the onus on you to create the whole the whole
• 25:44
  thing?
• 25:44
  Right?
• 25:45
  Yeah.
• 25:45
  It's funny having kind of the buck stocks with starts with me.
• 25:48
  Like, if so if something if if something isn't going as I as I want it to, then it's all it
• 25:54
  all lies with me, and it's been funny playing shows on my own because, yeah, if there's a I'm
• 25:59
  the only one to blame if something goes wrong.
• 26:01
  But I quite like the pressure, and I quite enjoy the quick in and out setups.
• 26:07
  It's cheaper to run.
• 26:09
  And, yeah, you don't have three other opinions or more than that from at times, on various
• 26:16
  parts or or or the songs themselves.
• 26:19
  So I'm enjoying that that kind of freedom.
• 26:21
  Yeah.
• 26:22
  Well and there's a lot more of that freedom, but also there's a lot more of the pressure
• 26:25
  that you kinda talked about too, right, where it's like, it's all on me.
• 26:29
  If it sucks, it's my fault.
• 26:30
  I can't look at the bass player or, you
• 26:32
  know
• 26:32
  Yeah.
• 26:32
  Turn around and be like, you know, you you did that.
• 26:35
  Right?
• 26:35
  Yeah.
• 26:36
  Yeah.
• 26:36
  And I played all these roles at different bands over the years too where it's like, oh, no.
• 26:40
  I was the problem.
• 26:41
  I was I was But a lot of what I do is is solo shows.
• 26:47
  And, even when I throw the band together, it's not necessarily a set list of this or the band
• 26:52
  members.
• 26:52
  The band members is this massive pool pool of musicians that have been in my life for the
• 26:57
  last two decades that I kind of am like, hey.
• 26:59
  Are you available?
• 27:00
  Well, come on.
• 27:01
  Let's I got these couple of shows or I have this one off show and, yeah, it's just kind of
• 27:06
  it's worked easier for me.
• 27:07
  And but I'm always jealous of people that have been able to, you know, kind of have that band
• 27:13
  relationship.
• 27:13
  It just it gets harder.
• 27:15
  And especially as you get older, I'm 39.
• 27:17
  I have a family and a wife of my own.
• 27:19
  And once you're in that band together, now you're kinda married to their wives and kids
• 27:23
  and their situations and just gets really hard to book, especially when you talk about the
• 27:27
  travel necessary to play out here.
• 27:29
  Right?
• 27:30
  I kinda referenced me being in the middle of nowhere.
• 27:32
  There's not players in my town.
• 27:34
  Right?
• 27:34
  I am one of a few musicians, period.
• 27:37
  I'm one of the only working musicians here.
• 27:39
  And so everyone has to travel just, you know, over a half an hour just to get to a rehearsal.
• 27:45
  Right?
• 27:46
  And then everybody has to travel hours to get to gigs, and it just became became more hassle
• 27:51
  than it was ever worth.
• 27:53
  And, even though you're getting paid a lot more than some people would, our expenses just in
• 27:57
  fuel to get there pulling the trailer and everything got to be more.
• 28:01
  So I've come to appreciate, the the solo shows a lot more and and the connection that I'm able
• 28:07
  to have with people in that too because it's just me.
• 28:10
  You know?
• 28:10
  I I don't have anyone else to talk to, so I have to be engaging with the crowd.
• 28:15
  Yeah.
• 28:15
  And do you do you run, like, tracks for your solo show?
• 28:18
  Nope.
• 28:18
  Nope.
• 28:18
  I just me and an acoustic guitar, I I don't do any kind of tracks or or anything that.
• 28:23
  No backing stuff.
• 28:24
  And I just it's just how and like I said, those early days of playing around the campfires.
• 28:30
  Right?
• 28:30
  Because that's
• 28:31
  Love that.
• 28:31
  Yeah.
• 28:31
  Only did I experience that with my dad playing around the campfire as a small child while we
• 28:36
  were living in a tent for three months while we built our house in the middle of the woods.
• 28:40
  Right?
• 28:41
  But it was after that.
• 28:42
  It was it was parties.
• 28:43
  We didn't necessarily have a lot of house parties.
• 28:45
  We had outdoor bonfire parties.
• 28:47
  And Yeah.
• 28:48
  That was just that was the entertainment.
• 28:49
  You know?
• 28:50
  You don't wanna kill the truck battery when you're thirty minutes out in the middle of the
• 28:53
  woods.
• 28:54
  Right?
• 28:55
  So you're like, hey.
• 28:56
  Who's got the guitars?
• 28:57
  And that's just a very Midwestern, kinda country boy thing that I was very blessed to to
• 29:03
  grow up into and to have that and to have that confidence.
• 29:06
  Because I took that to the streets of Venice Beach where I was busking and making several
• 29:11
  $100 a day doing it because I had the experience out there.
• 29:15
  I knew that I had to be louder and I had to be engaging with people, and I couldn't just sit
• 29:19
  there and be singer songwriter on a park bench.
• 29:21
  No.
• 29:22
  I'm here.
• 29:23
  This is the show.
• 29:24
  I don't care that I'm on the street with a thousand other vendors, and there's a million
• 29:28
  people tolling up and down the beach.
• 29:30
  That does not matter to me.
• 29:31
  This is my corner of the world, and I am going to make it, you know, everything that I can
• 29:37
  make it.
• 29:38
  And if that means playing my guitar and singing at the top of my lungs, well, then the that's
• 29:42
  what I'm gonna do.
• 29:43
  Yes.
• 29:43
  I bet.
• 29:44
  Yeah.
• 29:44
  That's awesome.
• 29:44
  Yeah.
• 29:44
  I love that.
• 29:45
  It was a cool time of my life, man, and I've turned that into a a twenty five year, you
• 29:51
  know, music career at this point.
• 29:53
  And now getting to turn it around and support other musicians around the world now has been
• 29:58
  so awesome.
• 29:59
  So I wanna thank you for taking some time with me today, Billy.
• 30:02
  It was a pleasure to meet you.
• 30:03
  Go ahead and plug everything one more time.
• 30:05
  Let us know where people can find your stuff, and I'll let you get out of here.
• 30:09
  Thank you very much for having me.
• 30:10
  It's been an absolute pleasure.
• 30:12
  Yeah.
• 30:12
  So I'm Billy Lariffe.
• 30:13
  You can find my music on Spotify, Apple Music, just Billy Lariffe, and, on Instagram.
• 30:18
  Follow me there, and TikTok for my updates and, posts about my music.
• 30:24
  Awesome.
• 30:25
  Well, Billy, thanks for taking some time today, and thanks for being part of the scene.
• 30:30
  Thank you so much.
• 30:31
  Yeah.
• 30:31
  Speak soon.
• 30:32
  Take care.