Latest / The Scene Projects / Exploring New Music, Collaborations, and Tours with Bubba Startz and Devon Sants

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Exploring New Music, Collaborations, and Tours with Bubba Startz and Devon Sants · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Welcome into an exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:04
  I'm your host Bubba Starts coming to you live from Big Wood Brewery today, and, I got my
• 0:09
  buddy Devin Sance with me.
• 0:10
  Devin, welcome back to the show, brother.
• 0:12
  Thanks.
• 0:13
  Thanks for having me.
• 0:14
  Well, you got some new music coming out, man.
• 0:16
  That's what we're here to talk about.
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  Let's jump right into it.
• 0:20
  Yeah.
• 0:20
  Dear Mama came out to, did a nice soft release today, but it comes out Friday.
• 0:26
  It's, like, the official release date, I suppose, you could say.
• 0:31
  Awesome.
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  It's my first song I wrote on piano, and it really, the only instrumentation in there is
• 0:37
  piano and violin, so it's it's definitely different than my other stuff.
• 0:41
  Raw.
• 0:42
  Guitar?
• 0:42
  It's a really heavy nope.
• 0:44
  Nothing.
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  Just those two.
• 0:46
  That's awesome, man.
• 0:48
  You record that with Tom again too?
• 0:50
  Yep.
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  Over at Cottonwood Studio.
• 0:52
  Yep.
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  We've, did all the tracking there, and we mixed and mastered it there.
• 0:56
  So
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  Nice.
• 0:57
  So you on piano.
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  Who played the violin?
• 1:00
  Benjamin LeMay.
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  He's a friend of mine.
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  He, he threw some violin down.
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  He does his own project, which is called Shimmering Ferns.
• 1:10
  Nice.
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  Well, shout out to Benjamin, man.
• 1:12
  That's awesome.
• 1:13
  Yeah.
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  He's a great guy.
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  He doesn't have social media, so it's kinda hard to tag him and stuff.
• 1:19
  But, he did a great job, and I'm really proud of the work that we we did on this.
• 1:23
  Well, nice to know that he he's at the around the studio and can do some work, man.
• 1:28
  I might have some work for him too.
• 1:30
  We'll have to we'll put him on blast a little bit more after this one.
• 1:33
  Yeah.
• 1:34
  He, he actually just threw down some stuff on some other new tracks that'll be coming on this
• 1:38
  album.
• 1:39
  Killer.
• 1:39
  Yeah.
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  That's kinda what happens to us.
• 1:41
  Right?
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  You find somebody similar to both of us.
• 1:43
  That's where I do all my recording at Cottonwood Studios.
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  Once you find the people that work with you and vibe with you, like, why go out looking for
• 1:51
  other people and other places?
• 1:53
  Like, no.
• 1:54
  This works.
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  It's worked very well.
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  I'm just gonna run it back.
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  Right.
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  Yeah.
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  I've been recording with Tom since 2018 when we recorded a a single called home, and I've been
• 2:05
  bringing I brought in, I think, over 20 different artists in there, either that I've
• 2:09
  collabed with or just bringing them in there.
• 2:12
  And I'm and I've referred a whole bunch more too, so I I definitely tried to bring him a lot
• 2:16
  of business over the years.
• 2:18
  You brought me in there.
• 2:19
  Right?
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  And I knew Tom for for years before that, but after hearing how well he had done on your
• 2:24
  stuff where it was just it was undeniable.
• 2:26
  I was like, well, that.
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  This is definitely where I wanna record my stuff.
• 2:28
  And I worked with a producer in Nashville and sent tracks out and kinda did it that way and
• 2:32
  just not that I wasn't happy with it.
• 2:34
  It just wasn't, like, the visceral studio experience that I had wanted as well.
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  Like, I know I can record at home, but it's a lot cooler to, like, celebrate this moment with
• 2:44
  my friends.
• 2:46
  Right.
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  And it's and it's fun to work with somebody you know.
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  There's just less pressure.
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  You can kinda jump around and try different things out that you would normally you wouldn't
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  wanna be wasting time if you're paying to go out to Nashville.
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  But Tom and I will write some parts on the fly in the studio that, you know, weren't planned.
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  Like, I've added theremin a few times, and that's never a planned thing.
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  But I'm just like, oh, I think theremin might sound cool.
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  And we're sitting there fucking around with that for half an hour, and then we're like,
• 3:14
  alright.
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  We got down.
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  I was I was pretty busy when I was there.
• 3:18
  I hit them on a Sunday.
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  I was headed out of town, and snow was coming.
• 3:22
  So, I sat down with Tom, and Diame Giroux was there, and we recorded bass and drum tracks.
• 3:27
  The five songs just hammered through it, right, where I was like, man, I don't even care about
• 3:31
  the guitar tracks.
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  Let's just get the base of this thing laid down, get that foundation, and then we can we
• 3:36
  can find better guitar players than me to play on this.
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  So what would you call?
• 3:40
  You call Johnny Hastings up and say, hey, brother.
• 3:43
  Right.
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  Well, can you record some stuff at home and and toss the tracks over to Tom to mix them?
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  And, man, this thing's coming together.
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  It's it's incredible.
• 3:53
  I I love that you're working while while you're doing podcast interviews, brother.
• 3:57
  That's a grind.
• 3:58
  Oh, yeah.
• 3:58
  I just, was sending my coworker an email just to hold my calls for half an hour.
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  That's all.
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  But Kevin's not No.
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  He's rock starring.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, I got a day job and, you know, that's where I'm at now.
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  But, usually, I've never used Johnny before for electric guitar.
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  I've been doing a lot myself lately, but I've had Tom do quite a bit in the past.
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  Tom does pretty much all the drums.
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  I've outsourced drums to Josh Lehman before and and to Mike Grossick on some special projects.
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  But most of the time, it's Tom on percussion, and then I try to do as much of everything else
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  as I can.
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  Sometimes, he'll throw down a funkier baseline that that I can put together.
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  I've also had Scott Gooch do some bass before, and Clayton Ryan, of course.
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  It's so cool that we have like, I and that's why I love recording out there is because I
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  have I have relationships with a lot of these people for twenty years, right, and playing in
• 4:54
  the Black Hills music scene.
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  And it's that it's that, you know, benevolence, I guess, is what it is with the scene and the
• 5:03
  work that I've done there over the years that if I ask somebody to be on my record, that it's
• 5:08
  an honor for both them and for myself, right, to to be included in these projects and and
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  this, you know, five song EP or whatever you wanna call it is a a great testament to that.
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  Right?
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  Having Diami and, you know, I think I tapped Josh Marquis to help me out with some tracks,
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  and, obviously, Tom's on it playing drums, and god knows what else I'll have him play.
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  Maybe I'll have him throw some theremin on my stuff too.
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  Who knows?
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  You know?
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, theremin's kind of a unique instrument only used you know, I've only used it maybe
• 5:38
  twice or three times total in all the years I've been playing.
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  Yeah.
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  But most people never use one at all or even know what it is.
• 5:45
  Yeah.
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  That's true.
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  That's true.
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  I I think I used one for a song called rejection on my first album.
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  And then this bare bones sessions I released last year, last responder had it on there.
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  And then this new song is, like, a gypsy rock song.
• 6:01
  It's called secrets, which I've never played it live, so I don't think anyone's ever heard it.
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  And that one's super fun.
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  I put some theremin on it.
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  Nice.
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  That's that's two thirds of my description of my genre.
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  Modern gypsy rock is what I call my music, Devin.
• 6:17
  Yeah.
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  That's funny.
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  Yeah.
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  So that's that's what that one's going on.
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  And then, I know, you know, Dear Mama's coming out Friday, and, I couldn't be prouder of this
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  song.
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  It's got some heavy material.
• 6:30
  It talks about alcoholism, with with an abusive father, a mother who's just at the breaking
• 6:36
  point and has to take action.
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  And then it cuts to the years later and how it that trauma affects the oldest son.
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  And that's a really personal song, and I'm really proud of that.
• 6:48
  And then in five weeks, we'll I'll be having a song come out called Skeletons.
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  It's kinda more fun.
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  It's a love song I wrote for my wife.
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  It's very eighties themed.
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  It has some synth, which I've never done.
• 7:01
  And then after that, this summer, we'll have a few more, but I I have a collaboration with
• 7:05
  Chris Graves, called Coke Ethylene.
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  That's a lot of fun too.
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  So it's a lot of lot of new stuff coming, and I'm really excited about it.
• 7:12
  Yeah.
• 7:13
  Now that's an older tune, isn't it?
• 7:15
  The cocoethylene?
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  Really, last year ish.
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  I can't remember exactly when, but I started writing it for Yeah.
• 7:24
  We were on the same, we were on the same writers round at the Saloon Number 10 for,
• 7:29
  songwriter fest this year, and I think he ended up playing that one.
• 7:33
  Yeah.
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  I I did play that one.
• 7:34
  And we're finally gonna release that.
• 7:36
  It'll be on this album.
• 7:37
  I originally started writing it as a Lucy Moon song, but Lucy Moon, you know, it it was just
• 7:42
  hard to keep a drummer because all of our band members were in other bands.
• 7:47
  I know Josh, Lingman was our drummer there.
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  He was playing bass for Brandon Jones, and then our original bass player was playing bass for
• 7:54
  Judd Hoos.
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  And it was just really hard to keep that afloat.
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  But Chris and I still do some stuff together.
• 8:00
  We're gonna do some more collaborations in the future too.
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  So
• 8:03
  Right.
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  Well and you know my love affair with Chris anyway.
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  I can't wait for that one to come out.
• 8:07
  And yeah, man.
• 8:09
  You just keep on cranking.
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  Your your output has always blown me away.
• 8:14
  You just keep writing this amazing, amazing music, and and I'm glad you tapped me to come
• 8:19
  on and and talk about it today.
• 8:21
  I can't let you get out of here, though, without, without giving me an update on the
• 8:26
  baby boy, man.
• 8:27
  How's everybody doing at home?
• 8:29
  Everybody's doing great.
• 8:30
  Beckett has been climbing all over the furniture.
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  He's starting to talk.
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  So that's been just a wonderful experience.
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  He's getting his own little personality now, and his older brother, Fletcher, he's six and
• 8:41
  in kindergarten, and he could not be a better, bigger brother.
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  So it's just really cool that that's where my life is at now.
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  That's where I spend most of my time.
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  I am gonna try to do a lot more digging, not necessarily in April, but in May.
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  We got some stuff coming up.
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  I'll be playing down in Colorado.
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  I'll be doing an interview on the radio and playing music live down there in Denver, which
• 9:02
  is fun.
• 9:02
  Just a lot of stuff that's coming up.
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  I'm trying to get up to Minneapolis in August.
• 9:07
  I'll be out your way in Sioux Falls in August and just some other stuff going on.
• 9:11
  That.
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  Got dates all that you're playing already?
• 9:15
  Yeah.
• 9:16
  So I'm playing at the Dada Icon Center, the Dada Gastropub at the Icon Center.
• 9:21
  And that's gonna be I I think it's August 16.
• 9:25
  I can double check.
• 9:25
  I got it on my calendar here.
• 9:28
  You're trying to hit that one on the way out or the way back?
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  Because I just booked a big festival here at the Big Wood Brewery, August fourteenth.
• 9:35
  Gonna spill some tea for everybody.
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  We got Big Wood stock Mhmm.
• 9:38
  Happening that weekend.
• 9:39
  I don't know if you're
• 9:40
  Oh, gotcha.
• 9:41
  Well, right now, I've got Drifters on the fourteenth in August, then then the Dada Gastro
• 9:47
  Pub on the fifteenth.
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  And then sixteenth, I was trying to get out to either Bismarck or Minneapolis, but it's open.
• 9:53
  I'm waiting to hear back from two guys who wanted me to come up that way.
• 9:56
  But if you got something, let me know.
• 9:58
  I'll be seeing If you could reschedule that Drifters one and come out to Minneapolis First
• 10:02
  and then work your way back that way.
• 10:04
  Maybe maybe that'll work out.
• 10:06
  Yeah.
• 10:07
  That could be that could definitely work out.
• 10:09
  I'm just kinda doing a bunch of shows in different places, strategically this time where
• 10:14
  I have listeners because I have new music, and so I'm just kinda touring to support that,
• 10:18
  which is new.
• 10:19
  I've never put, I guess, that much conscious thought into a release before, and I'm really
• 10:24
  trying to do things.
• 10:25
  I guess there's probably no right or wrong way, but I'm just trying to do things better.
• 10:29
  Well, efficient.
• 10:30
  I think yeah.
• 10:31
  I think this album, it's called Passing Strangers, but I think it'll be the best work
• 10:36
  I've ever done.
• 10:37
  It definitely has some of the best songs I've ever written, so I'm I'm really, really excited
• 10:41
  for this year.
• 10:43
  Yeah, man.
• 10:43
  To watch them all come out and just all this hard work that you've been putting in and the
• 10:48
  learning that you've been doing from, you know, the live show to to everything, yeah, this is
• 10:54
  gonna be your best year yet, and it's only growing.
• 10:57
  And you got such a light inside of you, man.
• 10:59
  Since that baby boy was born and you kinda turned into Devin the father, you're just a
• 11:04
  different person, man.
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  You you you smile a lot more.
• 11:08
  You got that that light, not just, you know, outside, but inside of you.
• 11:12
  I I'm sure you're you're feeling a lot happier with where life is opposed to when we met in
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  2018.
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  You know, I was fresh out of prison, and you were kinda new to the Black Hills at that
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  point, I think, as well.
• 11:22
  So it's, it's been awesome to watch you grow, brother.
• 11:26
  Thanks, man.
• 11:27
  Yeah.
• 11:27
  It's definitely been a journey.
• 11:28
  Two and a half years sober, so that's a big part of it too.
• 11:32
  And, you know, when you have little little kids, it's hard to be out and about.
• 11:35
  So I wish I could support my local musicians and friends a lot more than I am right now, but
• 11:40
  a lot of times, I'm it's my wife works nights, so I'm just with the kids at night, and it's
• 11:44
  just hard to get out.
• 11:45
  But I I do as much as I can, and now that the baby is no longer a baby, he's turning into a
• 11:50
  toddler.
• 11:50
  It'll get easier because babysitters and stuff can handle that much more.
• 11:54
  So Right.
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  I plan on seeing more people out there.
• 11:57
  More than just being at the show that supports, man, sharing other people's stuff.
• 12:00
  Right?
• 12:01
  When you see a friend's got a show, hitting that share button on your Facebook and putting
• 12:04
  it on your stories on Instagram, like, that stuff matters.
• 12:07
  And it matters big time to see other artists supporting other artists.
• 12:11
  Like, your channel's not just about you.
• 12:14
  Your crowd will be into everyone else that's around you too just because you say it.
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  And I think the more we all get together and do mean, I've been doing that since day one.
• 12:22
  Right?
• 12:23
  Like, that was always me.
• 12:24
  That's how the scene projects grew so fast is because I was already doing it all.
• 12:28
  I just wasn't calling it a podcast and then doing the Zoom thing.
• 12:31
  Right?
• 12:31
  Like, that just wasn't part of of what I was, you know, doing in the world.
• 12:36
  But now that it is, you know, that's the reason we're, you know, nominated for content creator
• 12:39
  of the year.
• 12:40
  That's the reason that doors keep opening and relations relationships keep forming.
• 12:45
  But it's nice when you can go and water it.
• 12:48
  Right?
• 12:48
  Like, to me, the the digital stuff is the planting of the seeds.
• 12:52
  And then when you get to go and tour and you get to go see that, that's the water.
• 12:56
  Right?
• 12:57
  And then when we all get together in those festival, baby, that's the sunlight.
• 13:00
  And that's when you really see growth and massive growth, and, we're doing it all, man.
• 13:05
  So, Devin, always appreciate you.
• 13:08
  Can't wait to hear the new song.
• 13:10
  And, yeah, brother, thanks for being on the show.
• 13:12
  Plug everything one more time before I let you get out of here.
• 13:16
  Well, Dear Mama came out.
• 13:18
  The soft launch was today, but you could definitely find it on all platforms.
• 13:21
  It's just Devin Sands everywhere.
• 13:24
  So definitely check that out.
• 13:25
  You can follow me on social media, Instagram, Facebook.
• 13:28
  I always appreciate that as well.
• 13:29
  And and if you do listen to the new track, you know, share it and tell me what you think about
• 13:34
  it.
• 13:34
  Because like I said, this is a big part of my life that, is hard to talk about and it's very
• 13:38
  personal, but, I think everyone will really relate to it in a way and enjoy it.
• 13:42
  So thank you.
• 13:44
  No.
• 13:44
  Appreciate the hell out of you, man.
• 13:46
  Give the wife and kids a big hug for me.
• 13:48
  Give your father-in-law a big hug for me as well.
• 13:51
  Yeah.
• 13:52
  I'm gonna see Bob this weekend, so I'll Good.
• 13:55
  Well, tell him tell him Bubba starts, said hello.
• 13:58
  And, man, I'm I'm so happy for you and can't wait to, hear a new song, man.
• 14:02
  Appreciate you, brother.
• 14:04
  Yeah.
• 14:04
  See you later.