Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Do you ever speak in first person about someone else's experience?
[00:00:03] Speaker B: For instance, the song deja vu that I wrote is about this young child named Khalif Reuter, a young 16 year old child that was wrongfully accused of stealing a bathroom. He got put into Rikers Island. Khalif spent three years there and rikers. And while he was there, he was abused, molested, like you name it, it happened to Khalif, and he ends up taking his own life. But for me, I thought it was extremely important as an artist to be a soundboard of the times. I think it's so important. And Khalif's story moved me. It was a documentary that I watched that inspired me, and I watched it. And know the words of you defy my memory the ground I stand is as firm as a sea and I drown as you take the key while you're walking away from me and you're killing a legacy that I have but it's this bittersweet poetry that keeps being told.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Every once in a while, the least likely person to succeed actually succeeds. This story today is exactly that. Mr. Abraham Alexander is on the show.
Absolutely authentic dude. He's a very talented, poetic guy, tells a story like no other, and had no plans to be a musician at all until later in life, compared to most. And he is absolutely an entertainer. Extraordinary. You're going to love this and you're going to appreciate his bootstraps approach and his genuine passion for what he's doing. Help me in welcoming now to the cast my good Alexander. One of the things I thought I would start with that I thought was interesting when we met for coffee that one time you mentioned when we were talking about.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: And you had mentioned just, I don't know how it came up, but you're mentioning how racist it was in comparison to here. And maybe it was that we were even talking about the issues here that seem so significant, which. And are significant, but you were just saying in comparison, it's not even close for sure.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
I don't know what it is now. It's been like, I haven't been back in so long, but as a kid, it was extremely racist.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: And if you didn't look a specific.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Type, then you weren't accepted.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Like what?
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Absolutely how it goes, but I didn't know what it was. I just knew that I was being treated differently. I just didn't really understand what that different was about me. In a sense.
Something's going on. Like I keep getting picked on. We get kicked out of a grocery store.
Something's going on, and I don't really understand exactly what it is and why I'm being treated this way. And then didn't dawn on me until I got to the states what that, you know, and it wasn't until I got older and I feel like that glass wall of innocence sort of shatters that I understand.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: But the bullying would have been kind of an acute experience, would have been upsetting. And it torments a kid anytime you're bullied.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: But you weren't linking the bullying with anything that was racial?
[00:03:44] Speaker B: No.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: You were just kind of a kid trying to figure it out. And this is where I belong, according to these people and everything else.
[00:03:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Because as a kid, you don't really understand what the concept of racism is.
[00:03:56] Speaker C: Right. You're just going about life, and if.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: You'Re lucky enough, you never have to experience what I did. And if you do experience what I did, it doesn't necessarily click or it didn't for me. Like, I was just going throughout life and I was being bullied.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: Called mavro.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Which is black in Greek.
But I was like, okay, great. But what does that mean exactly? What is it that I'm black?
There's just a different weight and a gravity about it that I didn't really grasp until I got.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: It's almost fortunate, though, because it would have been devastating as a kid, right?
[00:04:41] Speaker B: It would have been. And I think children have this beautiful component and gift about them that they.
[00:04:49] Speaker C: Can sort of block and shield themselves.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: From the arrows that are happening.
[00:04:55] Speaker C: Right.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: It's a beautiful mechanism, and I think that it's a God given thing to where you don't really know the pain that you're going through.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: An innocent ignorance, almost.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: You don't know.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: I call it, like, the glass ceiling of innocence. And then once it shatters, things sort of start to make sense and you start to understand.
But that was sort of my adolescent upbringing, was that. But at the same time, it was so beautiful in regards to the country and where it was and what I was learning and the freedom that I had to just ride my bike and down the street was the acropolis and apartheid and the language, the culture that I'm experiencing. It was beautiful, man.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: And looking back now, you just get to realize that two things can be true at the same time.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: So how do you handle what happens here now that you have kind of a perspective? And I assume you go back every once in a while, whether tour or not.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I've never been back to Greece since I've left. Really?
[00:06:04] Speaker C: Yeah. But it's on the bucket list. And my brother was just there a few weeks ago. Okay.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: And he sent me a picture.
[00:06:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: With his wife. And he sent me a picture of the front facade of the place we.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: Used to live in.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: And immediately I started to cry because.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: I knew and I sort of wish.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: That I was there with him, but at the same time, I'm so happy that he was there with his bride. And I was telling him, like, hey, go left to this bakery that we used to go to. Is it still there? And he'd be like, yeah, what about this shop? And it's like, no.
[00:06:39] Speaker C: And he went to the old school.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: That we were at, and he climbed the fence. Sorry, I'm out of him right now.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: He climbed the fence, and he was.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Videoing and showing me around.
[00:06:52] Speaker C: And I asked him, how did it feel?
It was like time stood still, and.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: He got older, got back, and it's still the same. It looks nostalgic, abandoned and nostalgic, but it's still going on. And I can't wait to go and.
[00:07:13] Speaker C: Experience that because I think my perspective would be different.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: And I'm coming back with this newfound appreciation for the hardship because I am.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: Who I am because of it.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: But yet I'll grasp something new from the whole experience. I think traveling is probably the best education you could ever give yourself. And so I can't wait to be back, and hopefully next year will be that time.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: So what did you actually learn from that? Now that you've had a chance to reflect and see what happens here, and you can't avoid what happens here. And as nostalgic as that is, it had to have some kind of impact, subconsciously or otherwise. What has it done for you as a person in terms of your growth or goal setting or overcoming obstacles, or has it done any of that for you?
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Resilience. Just off the bat, being resilient and not letting something like that hold you back. And I've never been.
[00:08:14] Speaker C: I think the way I am now in my makeup is I don't care what's happening.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Even so, it's not going to be.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: A but.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: Or the way that I can phrase it. The resilience that I built, it's not going to be because of, but in spite of, I'm still able to move forward.
[00:08:36] Speaker C: Right. And so that was something that I've.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Had for such a young age.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: And I would say it's probably the pillars and the makeup of what that.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Is is the fact that I didn't let the bullying. I didn't let the racism stop me from being myself and experiencing life the way that I wanted to.
[00:08:55] Speaker C: All right?
[00:08:55] Speaker A: But there's something interesting about you, and you're always so chill and everything, but a lot of people would concede that that's where they stand and they become angry, and that becomes kind of part of their personality, for sure. What do you think has helped you? Was it parental or just a change of environment at the right time that just helped you to absorb it and try to turn into something positive?
[00:09:18] Speaker C: I think faith is a big component.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: To that as well. I think my faith is huge and my upbringing is huge, and then the rest you have to leave to God. I don't know. Exactly. I couldn't tell you. Hey, this is why I turned out okay, and this is why someone else didn't.
[00:09:40] Speaker C: Because.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: Not luck, but fortune.
[00:09:47] Speaker C: I learned the two differences between what.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: Luck and fortune is. Luck, in the eyes of a farmer.
[00:09:54] Speaker C: Is when you didn't plant anything, but you grow.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: Something sprouts.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah, something sprouts up. But fortune is the fact that you.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: Do plant a seed, and you're fortunate enough that it rains. And you're fortunate that it rains just enough. And that you're fortunate that the sun.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Shines and you're fortunate that it shines just enough. Because if it rains too much, then it drowns.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: Yeah. And if it shines too bright, then.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: It withers and it dies.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: So I think I'm fortunate enough.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Like, I'm grateful for my upbringing because I think it laid a foundation for things, and I'm grateful for my faith.
[00:10:39] Speaker C: Because it laid foundations or a foundation.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: That I'm still eating out of.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: And so those are the things that would save my family, my faith and fortune.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: That's awesome.
And what age did you move over here?
[00:10:56] Speaker B: I was eleven.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: So eleven when you came here?
I'll mention the sports, too. Because you were an athlete or are an athlete?
[00:11:05] Speaker B: I don't know, man.
I have an athlete spirit.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: Come on.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: I'm going to consider myself an athlete, man.
It's been a few years, three, four years.
[00:11:20] Speaker C: I haven't been competitively active, but still.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Working out, still doing what I can. But there is something different about being an athlete.
It's unlike anything I've experienced.
The hard work and the training that.
[00:11:41] Speaker C: You put your body through just so that you can be your best and.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Even better, it's wild.
[00:11:49] Speaker C: And the amounts of torture that I.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Would let my coaches put me through. Dog is so crazy. There's this thing called the indian runs. And I don't even know why they call it indian runs. I know the conversation talking about it.
[00:12:04] Speaker C: Would be the whole team would be running just because someone missed the tackle.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Or whatever it is. And now we're spending the whole practice doing indian runs. And someone would.
We have to keep a certain pace or keep up with the person, and then he blows the whistle. And we would do this for hours. Oh, my God.
[00:12:25] Speaker C: And I was okay with it.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Describe it, though, to me. The Indian runs, everyone's running in a single file line, right?
[00:12:32] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: And the dude at the end has to run a lap around the group or in the front, one of the two.
[00:12:37] Speaker C: Right.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: The dude has to catch up to.
[00:12:38] Speaker C: The person in the front.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: So everyone's running around a track or.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: Whatever it is, and then the person.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: In the back coach, blows, and you have to go to the front, and now you're keeping the pace and then so forth. So if the person up front is running too fast, then everybody's mad, everybody gets a turn.
But if you're going too slow, then everyone gets mad, or the coach is like, yo, you're going too slow. We're going to add another 20 minutes to this thing.
[00:13:06] Speaker C: But.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Looking back after a few times of doing it, I loved it because.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: It didn't bother me as much.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: I was in shape, and so I.
[00:13:17] Speaker C: Could do that all day, but I hated it.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: But I also loved it.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Right, I get it. Well, and you played a team sport, too, which is interesting, the way you describe the fact that you put yourself through all this torture in order to accomplish a particular goal. But when you accomplish a goal that is a mere cog in a machine of people that have to work in concert, it's kind of cool, too. There's all kinds of individual sports that obviously call for a different kind of a headspace. But it was soccer, right?
[00:13:47] Speaker B: It was soccer.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Yeah, football.
[00:13:48] Speaker C: Whatever.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Football, absolutely. And I played both. I played american football and I played soccer.
[00:13:53] Speaker C: But I played collegiately, soccer and football. And I would say that sports, especially.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: Football.
[00:14:07] Speaker C: Was an art that helped me push my limits for others.
I wanted to become a better teammate.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: So that I could be the best that I can be for the team as a collective. I would run those indian runs so that I wouldn't let my team down.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: I would make sure that I got.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: 2 miles in under twelve minutes so that I could make the team and be a better teammate.
Everything that I was doing was to be a better teammate.
But once I shift over to music and really allowed that art to take up my life was the first time.
[00:14:45] Speaker C: That I would push the limits for myself. Okay.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: And I would push the limits to.
[00:14:50] Speaker C: Again, how better? There's a saying that says your art can only go as far as the length you've gone within, how deep you've.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Gone inside is, how far your music can go, or how creative that you can be, and how far your art can go. And I think it's so true, because.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: The art that I love to create.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Is you can only talk about what you've been through, and you can only express what you felt.
[00:15:24] Speaker C: And that can only be manifested if.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: You'Ve been true to yourself.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: And pushing boundaries beyond what would be considered normal is the key to drawing from new experiences that aren't the same thing over and over, right?
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Absolutely.
It's wild, man. And all of this, I feel like, just flows. And sometimes we don't know that the.
[00:15:47] Speaker C: Story is being told through the good.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: The bad, and we're taking all of this and we're creating this story.
[00:15:56] Speaker C: But, yeah, man, it's been fun.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: But growing up in Greece was a.
[00:16:02] Speaker C: Big pillar for me, and playing sports.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Was a big pillar for me to.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: Where I am now.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Well, what made you pick up an axe, or is that what you started with? Did you start music doing something else musically or.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: No, it was picking up the guitar.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: And I had an injury. I tore my ACL and was gifted.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: A guitar and was like, all right, here you go.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Really?
[00:16:26] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: So that's how I started.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: There's fortune again.
That is unbelievable.
[00:16:31] Speaker C: It is.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: I feel like my life has been.
[00:16:33] Speaker C: A component of a lot of fortunate events.
[00:16:36] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:16:40] Speaker C: I didn't say, oh, this is.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: What I'm going to do.
There's my life panned out. But I think that it was these micro decisions that I made in order to better myself. And then once I made those decision, it was, I'm going to invest as much time as I can in this.
[00:16:59] Speaker C: Thing that I've just picked up.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: And then the more that I would invest time and the more that I put my heart in it, the more doors would open because of this, and I would meet people based off of the decisions that I would make.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: And I would say, yeah, man, a lot of fortunate events that have led me here.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: So are you the type of personality that's really myopic? When you get something, you just kind of shut everything else out and just really hone in on something, to a degree, necessarily in terms of inspiration. But if you're sitting like you did in sports, you were doing what you were doing, and then you tore your ACL, and then you weren't just going to pick up something and piddle with different things. You found something that you wanted to bore into, and you went all out type thing.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: I was obsessed. Yeah, I was obsessed.
[00:17:53] Speaker C: But my obsession was, how deep can I connect with this instrument?
[00:18:00] Speaker B: It's weird to really maybe put into words even still.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: I'd love for you. Yeah, but it sounds deep, but I'd love to understand that.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: As a beginner, you're literally putting your fingers on the thing. You got the fingertips are hurting and you're crying about this and that.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Where are you finding the inspiration from?
[00:18:22] Speaker B: I think there was this mirror of me losing the ability to do something.
[00:18:27] Speaker C: That I've always done my entire life.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: And then I wanted to pick something up that wasn't as physically draining, but.
[00:18:35] Speaker C: Yet still mentally challenging.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Challenging, yeah. And.
[00:18:42] Speaker C: It was learning how to play the guitar.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: And so I would take it with.
[00:18:44] Speaker C: Me to work, and during my lunch.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Break, I would go to my car.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: In the hot ass Texas heat and.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Would be in my car, like, learning watch YouTube videos. Once it got too hot, I would.
[00:18:59] Speaker C: Go to the smoke room at the.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Job that I was at, and I.
[00:19:03] Speaker C: Would learn in there, and I would.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Come out smelling like I was a chain smoker. But it's so true. But I didn't care because I really wanted to tap into the spirit of what this music was. And I didn't know any artist.
I just thought it was another world. It wasn't. I want to be the next Justin Bieber. Oh, I want to be the next.
[00:19:29] Speaker C: Like, I didn't know those dudes until later. Yeah, it was just.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: I just want to understand what this guitar is.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Did you take lessons or anything?
[00:19:37] Speaker C: No. YouTube.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Okay, so you had YouTube, which is.
[00:19:43] Speaker C: I used to watch guys like Marty Schwartz.
Yeah.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: He's just like this dude out of Nashville, and we've connected a little bit now.
[00:19:52] Speaker C: But this was ten years ago, 1012.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: Years ago, to where I used to.
[00:19:57] Speaker C: Watch this dude and wild, man. Wild.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Just what that obsession has done for me now.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: But it's got to be an amazing circle for him, too, if you've connected to be like, hey, man, I started learning how to play a d chord.
[00:20:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: And then that's got to be so awesome for him.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: But that dude has maybe that story times 1000.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Yeah, sure.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Or times 10,000.
But he was that dude that everyone would watch, and he had these dvds that he would put out, and I bought some of the dvds that he.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: Did, but it is surreal.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Just like, hey, this is the guy that helped me play my first chords, and now here he is in the flesh. And I'm sure for him, that feels incredible.
[00:20:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: That his work has amounted to something, for sure. One thing that I believe in is if everything we do dies with us.
[00:20:59] Speaker C: Then our vision was too small.
And for him to do something, put.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Out these dvds and to light a spark in other musicians or other artists to keep going and start their career, it's wild. And so I think that I thank him first and foremost for following his.
[00:21:18] Speaker C: Dream, because here I am.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: That's cool. And so how would do you parallel that in your musical trajectory? Because you're not an instructor or a teacher, whatever, and that's its own thing. And perhaps if you're a really good teacher, those things can manifest. Because if you're really good at whatever it is, hopefully you're enlightening other people. But how are you trying to enlighten or impact, influence, et cetera, other people through your music?
[00:21:49] Speaker B: I think just being as authentic myself as possible.
Being authentically myself is possible.
[00:21:56] Speaker C: Sorry.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: As I speak, I feel like my English diminished.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: Am I making you nervous?
[00:22:05] Speaker B: No, it's not that. It's so funny that if I have to speak for long duration, then I try so hard to pronounce and enunciate.
[00:22:18] Speaker C: And all this that I'm very hyper focused on it.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: And then if it's a long time, then the accent starts to creep out.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: You don't overthought it.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. The more, like, speaking engagements that I do or having to converse with people, I can tell that, yo, hold on a second. Hold on a second. The accent is coming out, and I'm not saying things like I want to, but to answer your question, the way.
[00:22:49] Speaker C: That I think I can inspire is.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Being authentically myself and telling my story.
[00:22:55] Speaker C: And to live out a dream. Because one of the biggest blessings that.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: You can give people at times is by following your dream, because perception becomes reality.
[00:23:07] Speaker C: That when they see you achieve whatever you set your heart to and it.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Happens, then they're like, yo, I can do this as well.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: They're inspired.
[00:23:16] Speaker C: They're inspired. That's great. And so success and inspiration, like, begats.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: Inspiration and begat success. And success leaves clues. And it might not be exact road that they're going to take, but they can see X, Y and Z that you did and apply it to themselves. And hopefully that helps them on their journey and helps propel them to where.
[00:23:39] Speaker C: They want to go.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: That's fantastic. And you have interesting stories that manifest in your music.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:23:44] Speaker C: I mean, there's been copious amounts of.
[00:23:50] Speaker B: Individuals that have inspired me. And again, fortunate events, and I'm not here by mistake, and I feel like there's still so much more that I'm wanting to do and so much more yet to be done.
[00:24:05] Speaker C: But.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: The road has been insane, and I'm not here by myself. There have been other people that believed in me and have helped me get.
[00:24:16] Speaker C: To where I am.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: And so 1000%, it's kind of always the case, too.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: But now you can leverage your ability to be a great teammate and help others pull them up to par.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: And work as a team. The people that are bootstrapping for you, it happens with everybody. A lot of people would like to say I did this all by myself, but we all know better.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: No, I know. I didn't do it by myself. Heck, nobody. Yeah, no way. And so I just want to be able to go through a door, and hopefully the next person doesn't have to knock down doors that I did, but they can walk through.
[00:24:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: And you're a grinder, right? You're doing it kind of the old school way. Am I wrong in terms of. Because there's so many different ways now with the music industry the way it is, there are different ways to hit your goal of getting attention and getting people to love what you do.
[00:25:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: And you're hitting the road and just going and meeting and greeting, and that's how you're doing it, right?
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
Sort of the partners that I'm with.
[00:25:21] Speaker C: They believe in that, and they believe that I.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: The first impressions is so important, and how big of an impact can you do than in person? A lot of acts that I listen to, it might be major or maybe have a viral moment, and then they're gone the next.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: It's like, give them something physical that they can grab a hold of and.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Make them a believer by seeing you. And so that's sort of been the strategy.
[00:25:53] Speaker C: And we've been hitting the road pretty.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: Hard this year, and I can see the fruit the records are selling, and people love the product and they love the vinyl and they love the CD.
[00:26:05] Speaker C: And to us, that's really important because.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: It'S instant proof of what we're doing that it's right.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Is it an older audience that appreciates that, or is this a trend? I know record albums are sort of trending, but not to the extent where it could be substantial. Do you find that some of your audience are older cats like me?
[00:26:31] Speaker C: No.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: Who are?
[00:26:33] Speaker A: I'd say old, but I guess I mean old.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: No, I think more younger individuals are buying vinyls more than anyone right now, really. And there's a fad of, like, cds coming back and cassettes coming back. And it's like this appreciation for retro that is becoming insane right now.
And my audience is very diverse to demographic and race and age. And so it's pretty special. And I think it speaks of where I've come from and how diverse my world has been.
[00:27:09] Speaker C: And so to see that personified within.
[00:27:13] Speaker B: My audience is pretty special.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: So what's your process and how did you start writing?
I'm interested to know how you write. First of all, do you start out with a melody? Do you start out with the chords or does it change? Or you start with a groove or whatever? People have their different things. And has that process changed since you've gotten more acclimated to writing?
[00:27:37] Speaker C: For sure.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: I think to me there are things.
[00:27:40] Speaker C: That I can do to make.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: My writing process easier. Like, there are a few elements that I need.
[00:27:48] Speaker C: Like, I need an organ, I need an acoustic guitar, maybe a drum loop.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: And that helps me get going. Or it could be a melody that I hear that inspires me, or it could be a movie that I watched. I've been down and watching movies right now and being inspired to writing, and so that might help. Or watching some sort of documentary that sparks something.
[00:28:12] Speaker C: But I think more than anything, it's people's stories.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Like, I have to be inspired by someone's stories or a thought or whatever it is. I can show you my phone. I've got a list of movies that I need to watch that people have told me that this would inspire you.
[00:28:29] Speaker C: I've got a list of just words.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's sort of all over the.
[00:28:35] Speaker C: Place, but I think for sure it's melody.
And then I either need an organ.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: Being played in the session or me playing piano, acoustic guitar and a drum loop, and I can conquer goliath.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: But you're starting kind of with a melodic idea, and then you're setting a chord structure underneath it with something simple, starting basic and work your way out.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. It's never like, hear the bones, and I can not saying that it's never happened that way, but I'd say the.
[00:29:08] Speaker C: Majority of them has been melodic sort of idea.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: And then the words sort of follow and then maybe 20% to where, oh, I have this chorus idea that's really cool. Or I have this phrase that's really cool. And I want to turn it into a song.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Completely opposite of me. I wish I could do that.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Really? What's your process like?
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Mine's usually different, but it always starts with some kind of a bass line or some kind of a guitar chord configuration of some sort that makes me think of something. Then the melody comes, but the last thing that comes for me is a lyric. I'll have an entire tune of me scooting a booting.
I'll do the whole thing.
[00:29:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: And I let that kind of. That music itself kind of inspires what that vibe is to me. And then I'll start coming up with lyrics.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: For sure.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: I wish I had a better grip on the lyrics because it still means something to me, but when you explain that, yours just seems like just come out of this eloquent melody with this great lyric, and you could just put the music to it.
[00:30:16] Speaker B: It's perfect.
It's not always.
Sometimes it sort of works that way.
[00:30:24] Speaker C: But there have been copious amounts of.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: Times where that was the vibe for me as well, to where we're scatting and I don't know exactly what.
[00:30:36] Speaker C: And then I sit it down, and.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: Later something comes out. I know everybody has a different process.
[00:30:42] Speaker C: Why?
[00:30:42] Speaker A: I was just curious about yours, because it is some of his storytelling is all of it kind of a first person thing. Do you ever speak in first person about someone else's experience?
[00:30:52] Speaker B: For instance, the song deja vu that.
[00:30:56] Speaker C: I wrote for the album seasons is about this young child named Khalif Broider.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: And Khalif was a young 16 year old child that was wrongfully accused of stealing a backpack. And because of him being.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: Accused of.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: Stealing a backpack falsely, he got put into Rikers island, which Rikers is one of the worst prisons in the States.
Yeah.
[00:31:27] Speaker C: Khalif spent three years there in Rikers.
[00:31:30] Speaker B: And while he was there, he was abused, molested. Like you name it, it happened to.
[00:31:34] Speaker C: Khalif, and people can go research his story.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: But for me, I thought it was.
[00:31:44] Speaker C: Extremely important as an artist to be a soundboard of the times and to.
[00:31:50] Speaker B: Talk about something that I haven't personally gone through, but something that needs to be know. I think it's so important. And Khalif's story moved me. It was a documentary that I watched that inspired me, and I watched it. And know the words of you defy my memory the ground I stand is.
[00:32:10] Speaker C: As firm as a sea and I drown as you take the key while you're walking away from me and you're.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Killing a legacy that I have, but it's this bittersweet poetry that keeps being told.
It was instant after I watched it, and I could see him, and I.
[00:32:29] Speaker C: Felt the weight of his life.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: He was wrongfully accused, spent three years in Rikers.
[00:32:38] Speaker C: Couldn't see a lawyer, couldn't see a judge, and they were trying to get.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: Him to sign a plea deal. He refused. After three years, they let him go. He spent two thirds of his time in solitary confinement. Oh, my God. Just like one thing after the other.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: That's a whole nother.
[00:32:57] Speaker C: They release him.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: He's trying to tell a story.
It's being told, but nothing is being. And he ends up taking his own life.
[00:33:07] Speaker C: And so, to me, that could have been anybody, my family, could have been.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: Me, could have been my brother, could have been my friend.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: I needed to tell a story. I needed to, and I'm glad that.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: I did, especially within the way that I did in this album and this record. But everything else is very much a first person view of me.
[00:33:30] Speaker C: But it was a cool way for me to take the camera.
[00:33:36] Speaker B: And sort of point it the other way.
[00:33:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's a beautiful thing. And that's why I was just saying it's not like you would run out of stories. But, man, it's almost infinite. If you allow yourself to just look outside and say, if this were me, or putting yourself in the shoes of somebody.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:33:54] Speaker A: Kinds of music does that, really.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: And I think that's sort of the hardest way to write is from the perspective of someone else.
For me, I can tell ample of.
[00:34:06] Speaker C: Stories about me and what I've been.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Of course, but it's so hard to sort of switch that up and write.
[00:34:12] Speaker C: About someone else or that looks like. And I think that's maturity to be.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: Able to do that.
[00:34:17] Speaker C: So I'm excited for what's to come, and hopefully I can mature a little bit more.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: Well, and it's kind of like when you were a kid and you didn't have a depth of context, life context, to understand what was happening to you. So now, as a grown man, you start hearing about these stories that you can actually internalize and visualize yourself in that situation. Yeah, I think it's fantastic on skill, for sure, man.
[00:34:46] Speaker C: And I don't think that I would.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Ever stop developing that skill. I think it's never ending.
[00:34:54] Speaker C: And you can always refine that gift and that talent.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: So I'm excited. I've got some writing happening next month.
[00:35:05] Speaker C: And we'll try to take everything that was this year, which was a lot.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: This is a big year for you.
[00:35:13] Speaker B: It was a massive year for me, is a massive year for me. And so we'll try to take all that next month and do some stuff before I go back on the road.
[00:35:22] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:35:22] Speaker A: So you say we. So, how does this work? You go in and have a writing session. You bring producers, you bring co writers. How do you do it?
[00:35:28] Speaker C: Yeah. So I will be going to London next month, which is sort of home.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Base for me, in a way, of my creative element. And there's a producer and songwriter that really, really trust and I love. And so we'll just get in a room and throw stuff at the wall.
[00:35:47] Speaker C: And see what sticks.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:35:49] Speaker C: Great.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: And you're in a studio, so you're able to kind of track some stuff as you go.
[00:35:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: At least get demo quality stuff in.
[00:35:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: In a studio.
[00:35:59] Speaker C: We'Ve got a piano.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: And the way technology is now, you can bring a Steinway, whatever it is.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Of course.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: It's crazy. And we got all the guitars that you need.
Gibson guitars is in London. And I'm like a Marquee Gibson artist now.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: Sorry about the fenders back there.
[00:36:19] Speaker B: I saw. Good. You've got that little thing. Sorry. You're forgiven.
Anything I need is at the disposal.
[00:36:30] Speaker C: But I think sometimes too much can be too much, and for me, less.
[00:36:40] Speaker B: Helps me be creative.
[00:36:42] Speaker A: So, is your co writer, whatever you call him, is he also, like, an engineer? Do you have an engineer in the room?
[00:36:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
And I love jumping on stuff as well. And so it's one of those things.
[00:36:57] Speaker C: That either he's sitting there doing his.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: Thing, I can jump on and do stuff, as well. And so there's this flow that starts.
[00:37:07] Speaker C: To sort of manifest.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:37:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: It's really dope. But that can only happen with people that you love and you trust. I know.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: How do you find that person? How'd you find him?
[00:37:20] Speaker B: I had an opportunity to go to London for two years back in 17, 1819, and it was a two year span. I know I said three years, but it was a two year span.
[00:37:35] Speaker C: And I just had a bunch of.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: Writing sessions, and he was one of the folks that I met, and we just clicked off really well and we did the song stay together.
Yeah. He's incredible. Artist, producer, friend, and has got quite the catalog.
But I worked with so many other producers that I loved, as well. So if you all see this, I love you, too.
[00:38:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: But I'm just excited to sort of work with him.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: And you have a really unique style.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: I don't even know.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: I know. It's the worst. Right?
[00:38:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:15] Speaker A: What is it? I don't know. You tell me.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Right. I don't know what the style is. I just love doing what's authentic to me. And again, those elements that I feel.
[00:38:26] Speaker C: Like light up my brain and light.
[00:38:30] Speaker B: Up my creativity, and that could be the style that you're talking does.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: And I don't know what it is either, to be totally honest. It would probably be very helpful for you. I know how this goes.
[00:38:40] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: And I don't know because, and I even explained to Johnny earlier, it's a very unique style. It's kind of in between all kinds of stuff.
I'm sure it's not purposeful, but that makes it more of an interesting way to run into somebody else that kind of has that same kind of a vibe.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: Right. I've heard that, too. You can't necessarily put it in a.
[00:39:01] Speaker C: Pocket, which in the world that we.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Live in, sometimes that can be harmful.
[00:39:07] Speaker A: You have to. I mean, the industry is going to do it for you.
[00:39:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: So you need to have people at least close to you that you can trust that will give you some categories because somebody's going to categorize it for you.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: They're going to try, for sure.
[00:39:22] Speaker C: But to me, I just want to.
[00:39:25] Speaker B: Make good music, man.
[00:39:26] Speaker C: And good music is very personal.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: And so, especially this first record, I feel like is one that I will.
[00:39:37] Speaker C: Look on for a really long time and be proud of it. And hopefully, as people catch up to.
[00:39:44] Speaker B: My story and catch up to what I've done and they listen to this.
[00:39:48] Speaker C: Album, they'd be like, wow.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: And then maybe as time progresses now, I can sort of zone into something.
[00:39:58] Speaker C: Or I create my own, and people.
[00:40:01] Speaker B: Got to fall in the line of what I'm doing, you know, what saying.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: So, like, kind of a hip hop, is it new age or is it Abraham? Kind of.
[00:40:10] Speaker C: What is it exactly?
[00:40:11] Speaker D: It's an Abraham.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Oh, that's an Abraham John. Yeah.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: Where do they pigeonhole you, for lack of better terms? What do they call you?
[00:40:20] Speaker B: They've done, like, soul, folk, americana, alternative, and those are sort of r b. They said singer. And those are sort of what has been being wrapped around.
[00:40:35] Speaker C: But maybe I'm all of that.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: You are all of that.
[00:40:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: I mean, that's what's so crazy. And they've created these genres to the point where if you ask me what those are, I can't even identify most of the movies to be like, five crazy.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it's great.
[00:40:52] Speaker C: But again, people will catch up and.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: I think the ones that win are the ones that don't give up. And soon enough, people will catch up to your story and what you're doing and will want to be part of it as long as you're making really good, authentic.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: Collective of music.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: So what type of musical inspirations did you have coming up and what do you listen to now? Or are you the guy that actually needs something else besides music when you jump in a car or something?
What kind of honed your style in terms of listening? And then what do you listen to now?
[00:41:28] Speaker C: Basically, I didn't listen to music growing up.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: Like, it wasn't even a thing. But I distinctively remember being 1617 years.
[00:41:41] Speaker C: Old, holding a CD player for the first time. I'm aging myself.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: Don't worry. As long as I'm in the room.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: Yet, holding the CD player for the.
[00:41:54] Speaker C: First time and saying, what in the world is this?
[00:42:02] Speaker B: And I was probably, no.
[00:42:07] Speaker C: I was a freshman in high school, so I was like, 13 years old.
[00:42:11] Speaker B: And we're going a tournament. I was playing soccer tournament in high school. And we're going off to, I think.
[00:42:19] Speaker C: It was Desoto, and we're playing them, and a friend of mine comes up.
[00:42:28] Speaker B: And was like, yo, do you want to listen to. I didn't have none of that. He was like, hey, do you want to, like, I brought an extra CD player if you want to listen to it. And he shows me just his booklet of stuff.
[00:42:41] Speaker C: The old zipper.
[00:42:42] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: He's like, hey, you might like this one. And I didn't know why he gives it to me. And it's late registration. Kanye west?
[00:42:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
And he tells me, hey, check out the song. Hey, mama.
And it blew me away.
Crying. I was in tears because I'd lost my mom. And this song had said everything that.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: I've been wanting to say in such.
[00:43:10] Speaker C: A poetic way, in such a beautiful way.
[00:43:13] Speaker B: And it blew me out the water. And that's the first time that I really consumed music because I wanted to.
[00:43:20] Speaker A: Intentionally.
[00:43:21] Speaker B: Intentionally, not because I was in someone's car or pep rally or whatever it is. This was because I wanted to. And he would ask me, hey, do you want to listen to anything else? I was like, nah. Like this city, for like, two months, I would only listen to this tune when he would let me.
[00:43:42] Speaker C: And then he got me the college dropout.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: So now I'm getting Morbius catalog. So the first music that I consumed, or the first artist was Kanye west.
[00:43:55] Speaker C: And I am so inspired by him.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: And if you listen to the album, you can sort of see where now that I've told you exactly. Like, okay, I see it now, and I see it now, and I see it now.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: Is that about the time that he lost his mother, too, when he put that? Was that before?
[00:44:13] Speaker B: Yeah, he put Hayma right when he lost his mom, or maybe a few years after or, like a year after that.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: And I connected with him with that and his artistry and his genius overall. And then that was sort of that moment.
[00:44:29] Speaker C: And then when I was 18, my brother got me a set of cds as well for my car, and it.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: Was little Wayne College or little Wayne.
[00:44:43] Speaker C: The Carter three, akon, freedom, Usher, moving mountains, ti paper trail.
I feel like there's one more. And that was, like, another thing that.
[00:44:59] Speaker B: I'm listening to now and trying to figure out, like, oh, all here's.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: Here's some more mainstream hip hop.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: Yeah, mainstream hip hop stuff.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: And those are totally different, too. You take wheezy and then listen to how he puts his lyrics together. It's completely opposite of the stuff that inspired you at first, right?
[00:45:18] Speaker B: Absolutely. And then you got Akon, who's like, this totally different sort of artist, but yet extremely inspired, especially that album freedom, which is crazy. I completely forgot about that. And now just, like, bringing it up. And then I went to my first.
[00:45:33] Speaker C: Concert at 25 years old, and it was a heel song, like worship concert, like christian music. And then I picked up the guitar, like, 22, 23.
[00:45:50] Speaker B: And so I'm, like, listening to a lot of blues at the time.
[00:45:56] Speaker C: I'm still inspired by know little Wayne at this time.
[00:46:02] Speaker B: He's massive. Drake is massive at this time.
So it's sort of like this melting pot of all of that and me learning how to play the guitar. And now because of the blues that I'm being inspired by, I'm doing a.
[00:46:17] Speaker C: Lineage and a legacy check on who.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: Inspired this artist, that inspired the person that I'm listening to.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: And I feel like all of that.
[00:46:26] Speaker C: Just sort of blended into one go.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: Into a deep dive.
[00:46:31] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Beautiful thing. When you start discovering that and it blows your mind, you're like, wait a minute. That's almost the same song, but it's not the same song.
[00:46:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
Awesome.
[00:46:41] Speaker B: So it was a dope experiment.
[00:46:45] Speaker C: And just that whole process of tracking.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: Back, listening to know as I'm going, like, been a big fan of Kanye, and he's releasing all these records. And one of my favorite is dark twisted fantasy, which I feel like is one of the greatest albums of all time.
[00:47:02] Speaker C: And the laugh of Pablo and college dropout registration for me, it's like trophy.
[00:47:10] Speaker B: Case and then everything else.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: And it's kind of nostalgic too, right?
Some of that stuff you go back and listen to and you're like, it's not as good as the other stuff, but it's great to me because it's what inspired me then. And it brings you back to that.
[00:47:25] Speaker B: It's not. I feel like his great kindness greatest work could be dark twisted fantasy and.
[00:47:32] Speaker C: The life of Pablo.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: But yet let registration and the college dropout to me is that nostalgia about know. And speaking of nostalgia, like Frank Ocean was also put into the mix. And nostalgia ultra is one of the records he put out and channel orange and sort of, again, being introduced to.
[00:47:52] Speaker C: All these, like, I was introduced to sort of r b through Usher and.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: What he's doing and now this new age r b through Frank Ocean and trying to figure all that stuff out. But I hated my voice and I hated how it sounded.
[00:48:07] Speaker C: And it took me being okay with.
[00:48:10] Speaker B: Who I am for me to be.
[00:48:11] Speaker C: Okay with my Voice.
[00:48:12] Speaker B: Good for you.
I hated it.
[00:48:17] Speaker C: I hated my voice. I felt like it was nails on the chalkboard.
[00:48:23] Speaker B: But I would write songs that would.
[00:48:24] Speaker C: Want people to play them.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: I was trying to hand off these songs that I was writing because you're a guitar player, you got to write some songs.
[00:48:32] Speaker C: I get it.
[00:48:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:34] Speaker A: I resemble that remark.
[00:48:35] Speaker C: I would write them, share them, and.
[00:48:38] Speaker B: Then be like, how do you like. No, I don't get this. What is this about? And I'm like, are you singing like this? Because they would try to sing it and it wouldn't be like, man, you're not inspiring me.
[00:48:47] Speaker A: This is supposed to be intense.
[00:48:48] Speaker B: Exactly. It's like, no, that's not how it went in my head. And so I would try to write the tunes myself or sing the tunes myself.
[00:48:56] Speaker C: Right. And that's when I would like, maybe.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: It'S not as bad as I thought, and would just continue. And then someone told me that, hey, man, I really like your voice.
[00:49:09] Speaker C: It's really unique and sort of that.
[00:49:12] Speaker B: Helped me keep going.
[00:49:13] Speaker A: Greatest thing about your voice is that it's your voice.
[00:49:17] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Some of the best singers ever aren't really the best singers. Just stand out because of the uniqueness or the authenticity.
The greatest singers, not that there aren't actually fabulous vocalists, too, but we can't all compare to those or all of us would quit.
[00:49:35] Speaker B: Absolutely.
But you're so right. It's that fingerprint on someone's voice and that uniqueness and something that's refreshing and you've never heard before. And there's a timbre about them that hits home in a beautiful way, but it's unrefined.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: So maybe recap the year in a very short. I know it's difficult to do with all the stuff you've done this year and talk about what your future plans are here in terms of what you're looking forward to.
[00:50:10] Speaker C: Yeah. I released my debut album, had a.
[00:50:18] Speaker B: Three.
[00:50:19] Speaker C: What was released?
[00:50:20] Speaker B: My debut album, three sold out shows at the Kessler, played Bonneroo, played ACL.
[00:50:27] Speaker C: Played Newport Folk Festival, opened up for Dave Matthews at the gorge, went to.
[00:50:36] Speaker B: Europe opening up for the lumineers.
I went on my headline tour this fall, my very first headline tour this fall.
[00:50:47] Speaker C: And I've got a show at the.
[00:50:51] Speaker B: Majestic Theater, which is the biggest headline show that I've ever done.
One word is grateful, man. And there are times where you play this comparison game, and as an athlete.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: And a competitor, sometimes I'm competing with.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: Myself, and it's like, cool, what's next?
And not that I'm looking at other artists, but it's really looking myself. And, like, this year was insane. And so in the back of my head, I was like, how can I top this? Or what's next? Or what's better? And I'm learning in this very moment, it's like, yo, I need to really calm down, and I need to be present and appreciate what's happening in the now. And the fact that I have the show at the majestic, and I've got friends from high school and college that are coming out and family. And so I'm really dwelling in that and dwelling in that moment.
[00:51:53] Speaker C: And I am so grateful for this.
[00:51:55] Speaker B: Year, because it's been the most remarkable year that I've ever had.
Traveling, doing what I love, meeting people, doing what I love, paying myself, doing.
[00:52:06] Speaker C: What I love.
[00:52:09] Speaker B: Having a team, doing what I love. It's wild.
[00:52:12] Speaker C: And building a community and a network and people coming out and expressing how.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: Much they love the music and expressing.
[00:52:19] Speaker C: What it's meant to them.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: And so, yeah, I'm just sort of, like, at this very moment, just present. As present as I've ever been. As wild, as surreal. But it took.
[00:52:33] Speaker C: Some hard lessons. And like, yo, of course, yeah, just.
[00:52:39] Speaker B: Like, hey, calm down. You're good. And this year was insane. But again, as an athlete.
[00:52:50] Speaker C: It'S the.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: Push, and if we're not careful, that can be crippling.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: Right? But you also want to remain authentic. So you need your rest. You need your time to focus on yourself. And you also are really mature to recognize the importance of spending the time and appreciating the moment that you're in. Because the first time all this happens only happens once. The first time, this is what you're dealing with.
[00:53:20] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:53:21] Speaker A: So it says a lot about you that you're able to do that, because I also understand being the type that wants to jump into something and make sure that we're putting all this other stuff behind us so that you can recreate it or surpass it or whatever, but you can't do it effectively without your sanity.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: No, not at all.
[00:53:42] Speaker C: There's also the.
[00:53:46] Speaker B: Yes, you push and you do what you must, but when you have this opportunity to be still, then do it and take full opportunity and full advantage of it. And so that's where I am right now. And I've got some dates supporting this band called Black Violin in the spring.
[00:54:10] Speaker C: And that's sort of it right now.
[00:54:14] Speaker B: And I'm so content. Good.
[00:54:16] Speaker A: And you're going to be writing so that you're.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: Yeah, going to be writing. And I'm sure I'll be putting out some music out. Like, obviously this album is still fresh and we'll be promoting it, but would.
[00:54:28] Speaker C: Love to keep the catalog going and.
[00:54:32] Speaker B: Throwing music on the wall and see what happens.
[00:54:34] Speaker A: I was going to let you if you got time off.
[00:54:36] Speaker C: Come on.
[00:54:38] Speaker A: I don't know if you read much. They don't. Not a documentary or a movie yet, but that's what we're working on anyways, getting the movie.
[00:54:44] Speaker B: This is really dope. No.
[00:54:47] Speaker A: So you'll see a lot of familiar places and stuff in there because obviously it was a big operation I was involved in.
[00:54:57] Speaker B: I didn't even know you put this.
[00:55:00] Speaker A: Book out when I reissued one in 2020, because similar to music, we write the book initially, and then seven years later, we've written movie scripts and tv pilots and everything. I'm like, and this book is. I could improve it so much.
[00:55:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: So during COVID I sat down and rewrote the book.
[00:55:20] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:55:20] Speaker A: It's essentially the same book, but I've added some chapters and different details that weren't in the first book. But again, it's not a superhero book at all. It's really about the state of things.
I always felt like I was always playing in bands that are multicultural bands and stuff. I was the white dude in the black groups, so I felt like I had a better grip on relations than most white stiffs. And that just opened my eyes because I felt connected to even criminals in that situation, I felt like, man, I'm really starting to kind of dig where these cats are coming from.
[00:55:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:55:59] Speaker B: Not all of them, but beyond just my story, just something on culture and.
[00:56:07] Speaker C: Nature versus nurture, of how does someone end up where they're at? And for you, having this unique opportunity.
[00:56:18] Speaker B: To sort of be in the midst.
[00:56:19] Speaker C: Of all of this, but yet feeling some type of sympathy, some type of empathy, but yet still having to serve.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: Justice and still having to right or wrong or whatever it may be. And so how do you find this balance? And also.
[00:56:40] Speaker C: What do you think the.
[00:56:41] Speaker B: Underlining issue is to where we can.
[00:56:45] Speaker C: Eradicate the need for some of those things?
[00:56:49] Speaker A: That was the main point of the book, is that the arrests and the cleaning up of the neighborhoods for the sake of the people in the neighborhood are trying to do right is necessary. But if we want to keep someone else from coming back, 18 years later, we had 104 kids left. We arrested 51 people. There was 104 kids now without a father.
[00:57:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that's crazy.
[00:57:12] Speaker A: That's where it starts.
[00:57:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:57:13] Speaker A: So all the profits of the book are donated to charities that mentor children of incarcerated parents because it all starts there. So they usually start mentoring them around five, six years old and start teaching them. Because you got a lot of people in white suburbia that just say, man, why don't you just go get a job instead of putting all of your efforts into selling dope and everything else? Like, man, this kid's getting weaned by his uncle who's a pimp, and doing this and this and this, and his best friends are making $600 a week, and he's trying to.
It's different. You don't have the same kind of common sense. When you grow up in an extremely poor neighborhood. It's not just a black or hispanic thing.
It's socioeconomic. It's poor. But when some of the systems keep you poor, then that's when we have the problem. So it's two pronged. It's catching kids early to teach them proper manners, how to set goals and dreams, and how to figure out how to take step by step, teach them things that they wouldn't normally learn without a father figure, for instance, and then keep hammering our way on the system, which I think is, I personally think, from my humble opinion, I think there's way more ignorance than there is racism. Because there is racism. I've seen it, too, and I'm privy to it from a different perspective because I hear people say stuff, and I'm like, man, you just said that out loud. And they don't even think of what they're saying. But I think a lot of people just don't recognize that there is a systemic racism issue. They don't know how to identify it. They hear terms, they say, well, I'm not a racist or whatever, and they get defensive. And then once you're defensive, then you're not really looking internally. You're trying to defend yourself and say, yeah, but all the black neighborhoods where the crime comes and I go like, this is part of the problem is that we're having this argument instead of addressing the issue. So the key that I'm trying to do is use a story to illustrate to people through a story that the problem is deeper than going in and making an arrest. It's necessary, but it's only part of the problem. You go rescue sexually trafficked women and you go bust down a door and take them out and then just stick them back where they came from. Then they go right back. They end up right back. They need the right kind of counseling and the right kind of nurturing after that and before that in the awareness and all that stuff and a system that conquers that in order for it to work.
[00:59:46] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:59:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:59:47] Speaker B: No, I love what you said. And something that sticks out to me.
[00:59:51] Speaker C: Is the ignorance and the mislabeling to where the ignorance of the systemic oppression.
[00:59:59] Speaker B: And how that is true and prevalent. And two things can be true at the same time. It could be, hey, why don't you stop doing that?
They have the ability, but you have to look at the underlining of where did this start from? And then calling someone racist for their ignorance, which ignorance isn't an excuse. But still, that doesn't mean that they're racist, for one thing, because when you.
[01:00:26] Speaker C: Actually, in the face of racism, what do you call that? And if you call it out, then.
[01:00:33] Speaker B: You'Ve got the crying wolf to where you've called something racist for so long that when it's in your face, people don't really understand what it is. People can't really identify it. And so I'm passionate about that and.
[01:00:48] Speaker C: The role of fatherlessness in a home.
[01:00:51] Speaker B: Because I know the importance of what it is.
[01:00:53] Speaker C: But then when you make an arrest.
[01:00:57] Speaker B: Like that to where now there's, I.
[01:00:58] Speaker C: Think you said 104 that now are.
[01:01:05] Speaker A: Susceptible to, they're in that same neighborhood now they're all big crips.
[01:01:12] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
But then what about the 51 people that got arrested? What is their story?
[01:01:18] Speaker C: And did they have dads in the home?
[01:01:21] Speaker B: Probably not.
And where does that stem from all.
[01:01:26] Speaker C: You'Re doing is just like this chain reaction and you're not treating the cause, only the symptoms. Right. And I was being in the medical field for so long, it's like they.
[01:01:43] Speaker B: Teach you to look at the cause because once you hit the cause, you can absolutely eradicate everything and not just treat the symptoms because you're going to exacerbate something else from popping up.
Yeah, man, that's another conversation in itself.
[01:02:01] Speaker A: Well, let me know when that one's over. Some sips, man. I would love to get your feedback on it, too. I know you don't have a lot of time, but heck, I can't tell you how many people. I mean, when you go to London, there are people that take a four hour flight or whatever and knock it out. Yeah, no, it's the best airplane book ever because it's not super long.
[01:02:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:02:22] Speaker A: And that is really the point of it, is to try to get people to look at society in general differently. And it follows my trajectory toward thinking, look, I understand race and racism and bias, and I know who I am and who these folks are. When you get in the criminal element, everyone agrees that we don't want criminals around. But then when you start knowing them personally and then being involved in the criminal activity, you're like, man, there wasn't a sociopath here.
This dude is talking about the same stuff. He's just wanting me to take him over to TCU and meet chicks. And I mean, it's, we're just hanging out, talking about cowboys eagles and whatever. It's a dude. So it was really fascinating because then it illustrates even more. So what's that component that's keeping this guy from taking a different path? But it goes back ways, man. And that's why even what you went through and you didn't take anger, you took resilience. Yeah, that's my plight. How do you find that? Because if you can bottle that up.
[01:03:34] Speaker B: Dude, it's also environment.
When something like that happens, it's like, what does your environment look like?
[01:03:41] Speaker C: Is it a bedrock for you to not be angry?
[01:03:45] Speaker B: Because if something like that happens, but.
[01:03:48] Speaker C: Then I go home and I'm experiencing the same thing, then I'm going to lose, you know what I'm saying?
[01:03:55] Speaker B: So there's so many things that happen that help people overcome those situations, and then there are things that happen that help people succumb to what they've gone through.
[01:04:09] Speaker C: So if I'm trying to go to.
[01:04:13] Speaker B: School and be a good student, but then I come home and there's no food. I come home and there's no bed for me to sleep in. Or even if there was a bed.
[01:04:25] Speaker C: People are fighting and their guns being shot.
[01:04:29] Speaker B: And my view and my perspective is.
[01:04:33] Speaker C: There'S no hope whatsoever, then that's going.
[01:04:36] Speaker B: To become my reality, because it's the perception in which I see.
[01:04:40] Speaker C: But I know that, hey, if you persevere and keep going to school and.
[01:04:47] Speaker B: Whatever is around you, like, try to block it, but that in itself is hard.
[01:04:53] Speaker A: It's a mature perspective, giving. But you're telling that to a 16 year old kid.
[01:04:58] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:04:59] Speaker A: Who's been in that environment for his entire life.
[01:05:01] Speaker B: Entire life, yeah. So, again, two things can be true at the same time.
[01:05:05] Speaker C: But.
[01:05:08] Speaker B: Again, another conversation for.
[01:05:11] Speaker A: Well, I appreciate your time.
[01:05:12] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[01:05:13] Speaker A: I think what you're doing is magnificent.
[01:05:15] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you so much.
[01:05:16] Speaker A: I'm glad to call you friend. And obviously, I'm here if you need anything.
[01:05:20] Speaker B: Likewise.
[01:05:20] Speaker A: Although you're hardly ever here, so if you needed it, I'd have to come to you somewhere.
[01:05:24] Speaker B: But if you so long for us to do this, man, I know you've been like.
But I was like, now, as soon as I get back. As soon as I get back, we'll make it happen.
Yeah. Thank you for what you do, and not just for me, man, but for the community as a whole.
We're a better city because of you. We're a better community because of you. And I mean that, dude, seriously.
[01:05:51] Speaker A: Oh, thank you.
[01:05:52] Speaker B: I feel like you're one of those knights in the shadows, you know, saying, and so, thank you, homie. You're a real one, and you're solid. And the city of that, of Fort Worth, wouldn't be the same without you.
[01:06:05] Speaker A: I appreciate that.
[01:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:06] Speaker A: I'm prettier in the shadows, too.
[01:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:10] Speaker A: Thank you, my friend.
[01:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah. My man.
[01:06:12] Speaker C: Batman.
[01:06:14] Speaker B: Batman. Dark knight.
You should see where we live. It looked like my boy. My boy. Looked like he Batman.
[01:06:27] Speaker D: What you gonna do? What you gonna do?
[01:06:31] Speaker A: Successor?
[01:06:32] Speaker D: Rather than second grade rules a confident faith to make you do make you do what they want when they won't be the fool a diplomatic face is the one to see you through don't let those figures take you off your game adjust a lot of them lose sit here in the front seat, baby, ain't that sweet take a little honey from the money be but don't pay the moon a neighbor magical potion a missing piece at the end of the game a slow roll see the truth of soul motion I never found a 63 like between blurry lines if you gonna call me?
