Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I lost my father to lung cancer. You know, that was monumental. Just turned my whole world upside down. And I took time off to grief. It's kind of hard to, you know, being a musician, you just gotta hustle all the freaking time. Now I, you know, had an ironclad excuse to take a few months off and just do that for myself. I mean, so I would write some songs. It was kind of my way of coping, I guess. I went back to the music that dad enjoyed, which was country, and some of the stuff we enjoyed together, which was blues. And with listening to that, a whole bunch. I started kind of writing in that style and that's where you get songs like What's Real, I Can Dream You. So I'm just writing this music that I think dad would enjoy and is bringing me a lot of comfort in a difficult time.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: One for the game.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: My next guest has drawn inspiration from his parents.
Old country, blues, rock and roll, some jazz. He's spent time in Nashville. He's gone to La and been on national television. He's come back to Texas and become a local legend. But every time you think you know what this cat's going to do? He takes a sharp left turn and surprises you again. A super talented musician with a lot of cultural knowledge and experience to share with us today, please help me in welcoming my good buddy to the Tcast, Matt Tetter. You didn't grow up.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Just west Alito weatherford area.
[00:01:51] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Yeah, those two towns don't like being intermingled, so I was in weatherford city limits, but my mom worked at Alito High School as the high school nurse, and so I graduated high school at Alito.
[00:02:05] Speaker C: Interesting. I may have crossed paths with her at some point back in the early 90s, maybe.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Oh, she wasn't there quite yet. She was probably still working like hospitals at that point.
[00:02:15] Speaker C: Okay, scratch that then. So when you grew up, and this is kind of an interesting thing I've noticed about musicians meet myself being the anomaly, I think, in this group, is that you grew up with a dad that played guitar, at least functionally played or influenced you, whatever, I don't know. I'm not being presumptuous, nor am I trying to demean his skill level. I'm just saying.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: But the dad who played guitar yeah, I know what you're talking about. And that was my dad. And he knew a handful of songs and just old classic country or like a gospel tune or two. He kept piano in the house. But yeah, he played a little bit of guitar and it's just cowboy chords and everything. But it didn't really interest me until I found an electric guitar. I was like, it just looked like a cool toy at eight years old, I was like, man, that one's red. Yeah, that one looks a lot cooler than that.
[00:03:15] Speaker C: Did they make you start on something else? Or did they push you in either direction or you just kind of just were drawn to it?
[00:03:21] Speaker A: I had such a great upbringing that way, is that they didn't really push it at all.
I took a little interest in it and dad signed me up for some lessons. He actually got my sister lessons first because she's three years older, and I cried all the way home after that. I wanted those lessons really bad. But also it's like the little brother syndrome of like, oh, I need to learn how to run because you can run. But yeah, goddess lessons. And I wanted to learn every AC DC song under the sun.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: That's a good one, because that was one of my other ones, is exactly where were you? Because you're talking about your dad playing country chords and such, which is fantastic because I'm sure that influence was embedded, too. Right. But you're still being a kid in whatever the tunes of the day are.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: Exactly. Well, this is the early two thousand s. I picked up a guitar, I guess, in 2003, 2004, and I guess I can't really recall the tunes of the day because I didn't really listen to them. I was listening to. Like I said, AC DC back in black. That was an 80s record. And that band I really loved. And just your typical guitar starter music, like Sweet Home Alabama and stuff like that.
But it was through ACDC I learned a lot of different things. But yeah, strange upbringing in that. Yeah, dad was all country and gospel and my mom's from Turkey, and so she listens mostly to old Turkish folk music where I can't understand the words because I grew up here and didn't really learn the language. But yeah, whatever I gravitated towards, it was for no outside influence. It was just innate.
[00:05:31] Speaker C: But you were kind of surrounded by a wide variety of sounds, right?
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:37] Speaker C: So do you go to Turkey on a regular basis? Your mom over somewhat, yeah.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: Yeah, my mom has a house in Istanbul and so as a kid growing up, we would go there in the summertime once she started working high school, nursing job, the summers were off and we take trips over there quite regularly during the summers.
And I'm really glad about that because I grew up in small town Texas, football loving, just typical Texas small town. But then you get to see a country like that that know, people have their ideas of the Middle East and everything like that over here. And it's truly in Turkey. It's very Western leaning and very civilized, and some of the stereotypes people think of aren't quite accurate.
It's a beautiful country.
I love the music, I love the food, and just so much history, archaeology.
Yeah.
[00:06:47] Speaker C: There's not like a Texas relic where they say, hey, this is 90 years old, so you can't do anything to it. You're like 90 years yeah.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: I'm not sure. Isn't Iosophia one of the seven wonders? I'm not sure if it is or not.
[00:07:02] Speaker C: I don't know either.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: I mean, that was a church that was built so long ago. It's just passed. And Istanbul, as a city just geographically important for thousands of years, fought over and changed hands many times.
[00:07:17] Speaker C: So when you say stereotypes, did you ever learn the stereotypes and then go there or did you visit there? And then as you grew into mature contextual, being where you start hearing other people talk about it, is that when you recognize wait a minute, you think.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: That well, the way September 11, for example, 2001, that was a huge thing in American history. And from that came kind of like an Islam Muslim scare.
And especially in a place like Texas or the south in general, that being sort of a strange time for a Muslim or Islam.
And that's my mother's faith. And to hear things being said in the media or just really off putting things and it's like, y'all y'all really don't know what you're talking about. And, you know, there there are crazy people that are Christian, there are crazy people that are Islamic. It doesn't matter.
You can't just take that event and those people of that belief and then put that label on all the people. So I went over there.
I just have family over there.
That's fascinating.
[00:09:06] Speaker C: That's great. And so how do you think that influenced you musically? Did any of the musical influences from your father or your mother in combination with all of the Angus Young Licks?
How do you feel like your style became your style and at what point did you kind of recognize it? Because you are kind of a chameleon, too.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: I don't like to stay in one place very long.
I think I get restless and bored a little. Easily.
Started enjoying rock and roll.
I took a huge love for the blues at an early age. That's another Texas thing, that there's a lot of good bluesmen from Texas. T Bone Walker. Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Heck, ZZ Top. Throw them in there. Those guys are great blues guys. And then yeah, the list goes on and on. Lightning Hopkins and Freddie King. So I took a huge fascination with the blues and I was kind of labeled that as a kid. Blues prodigy, really? Kid, yeah. And just played guitar and that was it, really. I didn't really start writing songs until I was about 14.
And once that kind of entered the picture, I tried to do the rock and roll thing for a few years and that kind of ran its course.
I just go everywhere. And lately where I've gone is kind of country, psychedelic rock, folk singer songwriter stuff all over the place. Yeah, but just I don't know, I guess it's come with age that I like stuff that's not as in your face or present. I don't know I just go through phases all the time. My mom laughs. She's like, every time I'm like, hey mom, listen to this song. She's like, oh, that's an interesting phase to be in. I remember, I mean, in 8th grade I was like listening to Slipknot and then in high school is like the Black Crows. And then now a little bit of jazz, a little bit of country western swing, bob Wills music from the it's just whatever I'm into at the time and I try to maintain kind of a sponge like mentality of just like, what can I take from that? And not so much, this is me and this is all I'm ever going to be. Instead of that, if I don't want to listen to something or if something gets old, that's okay, move on to the next thing and then in a few years time listen to that and be like, oh, it feels so good to listen to that again.
[00:12:21] Speaker C: I totally appreciate that. Yeah, there are people that really I think when labels were prominent, that was kind of the thing because you really needed to find your niche.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: I get it.
[00:12:30] Speaker C: I think there's a broad appreciation for and you're a musician too, so you're not right. I view you as you're a guitar player and you like to learn different things and you got people like Billy Strings bringing some of those vibes back that normally wouldn't have been anything. You'd have to discover that from somebody that just tipped you to it. Whereas now you can find stuff like that on YouTube.
I find it fascinating too, but I think now that everyone is doing independent music and I have yet to talk to you about how you tend to go in a specific direction, but you as an artist, it seems to make you a more well rounded person and more appreciable from other people. I think of all things, we're trying to get ideas here to be shared so that people can appreciate it. And I think it's a perfect opportunity to allow people through you to appreciate different kinds of music as well.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: For sure.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: It's healthy, for sure.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
The world we live in right now with all the streaming services, everything can kind of the algorithm works to show you the stuff that they know that you like. So a lot of stuff goes on repeat and I like getting those years in review on Spotify. And it gives you kind of like your listening profile, it gives you this avatar. And for me and my wife, we're both searchers. We're always looking for some other thing because our daily mix is nothing is the same. There's all this different. I got country, soul, hip hop, rock and roll, all those different styles, have a feeling. And as human beings, we all have a wide variety of feelings throughout the day, throughout the year. And you're not going to listen to trap music as you're falling asleep. Some people might. I don't know if that's your thing, that's fine.
[00:14:39] Speaker C: Or maybe you hate it so much you fall asleep. I don't know.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
Or I don't know. Listening to Marty Robbins in the desert, these things just go hand in hand.
There's all kinds of different moods and genres I like to dip into. And like you said, as a musician, I just feel like it makes me more well rounded and that I can feel comfortable in different settings musically.
[00:15:11] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. Well, I think it's bode well for you, so so part of your story that I'm catching up on here is that you did take a stint dip into Nashville, and I've talked to many musicians in this modern area era. I went to North Texas, and a lot of my schoolmates went straight to La or went to New York or whatever, and it used to be necessary, and now it seems a lot less necessary. It's still great to maybe meet people, make know that are a little more authentic than just meeting somebody online.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Maybe.
[00:15:48] Speaker C: But what were your experiences when you went to Nashville? What motivated you to go, and then what caused you to decide it wasn't your vibe?
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Well, like I said earlier, growing up in a small Texas town, football loving, I'm 130 pounds and didn't really fit into that mold or much of anything in high school. So I just wanted to change, really. And I knew I wanted to pursue music as a career, and La or New York didn't seem like I would really figure it out know? I do like that Nashville is still Southern and closer to home than those two know, cheaper cost of living. And then I had a few friends there, and so I went out and visited a week and thought, yeah, I think I could do this. And granted, I was 17, so at that age, I knew I wouldn't, like I said, pursue music as a career, but I didn't know what style or kind of what avenue I was going to take yet.
But with that being said, Nashville is kind of a good town to go in that there's not just country music there. There's all kinds of music, and it's world class for sure. The musicians are a list, all of them just pursuing a career in music. And then as I got out there, I tried to do really anything I could to be seen. I played on the street a lot there on Broadway, really? And take a little upper, lower, like the fancy lower Broadway.
[00:17:54] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely not the Gulch. Yeah.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: Okay.
For clarification sake, there's people have been in Nashville that are going to put you there and try to imagine that. So I think there's a significant.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: I mean, it was just like the tourist know, and that area has blown up so much now. But yeah, I would just take a little kick drum and tambourine. I was like this little one man band really situation and there's videos on YouTube of it. I haven't seen them in a long time.
[00:18:27] Speaker C: I'm going to have to go dig those.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I did that a lot and gave some lessons. Played in a million different bands.
But again, nothing really stuck and I was just bouncing all over the place and somehow I was always living in a basement in Nashville, which is not the most inspiring area to spend most of your day. As a know, I got down here and there quite a bit know, just being away from home, moving away from home for the first time and just being a little lost. I will say I was just a little bit lost out there. Granted, I made great friends and great connections. I'm actually heading to Nashville in about two weeks for americana fest, and I'm really excited to spend a week out there and know, I've got a new set of glasses that I'm seeing that city in.
Back then, I just was a little lost. But granted, I did learn a lot of great guitar licks from a lot of guitar players going out know, jack pearson was an amazing guy that I would go and see. And joan el monster and tom britt, they were so sweet to me. And then I'd go see the Time Jumpers sometimes with Vince Gill was playing with them and this is a world class western swing group. I mean, just the things that you can do in Nashville that you can't really do anywhere else is something that was so amazing about living in that city. I often tell people that was my college. I was there from 17 to about 20 years old, and it kind of ran its course. And I spent some time back home and thought, you know what?
Maybe I didn't really give this town much of a chance because I was young, I wasn't going to the bars and everything like that and didn't know really what music scene existed here in DFW.
But once I came back and visited for a while, I was like, hey, you know what, I'll do this instead and you can always move back and forth. I didn't come back thinking, oh, I'm a failure or anything like that.
[00:20:58] Speaker C: Well, it's not for everybody and it doesn't mean that that has anything to do with your level of skill. In a lot of cases it does, but obviously not with.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: You know was.
[00:21:09] Speaker C: The same know, I had certain personal situations that get in the way, or you just have a certain type of had a friend talk about when he went to New York and came back and just said New York was cool, but it just wasn't me. So you really got to so it has nothing to do with your level of playing, but the musicianship is great and I'm sure that was as good as most colleges for spend time playing with cats out there.
[00:21:36] Speaker A: Exactly. And just experience life and be out on your own for a little bit. I highly recommend it and definitely just had its highs and lows and I'm glad I did it.
[00:21:51] Speaker C: And this may segue into something you don't want to talk about, but I'm going to ask you anyway, but was that part of the fortuitousness of The Voice situation? Was that one of the pluses? Or you can still consider that a plus, that experience?
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I mean, definitely.
I was very fortunate to get on that show the way that I did.
And I was living in Nashville at the time and I got that email.
They were looking kind of last minute for contestants.
I kind of went through the process pretty fast and was out in La. In like two weeks for the blind auditions and it was just pretty crazy. But I was ready for something, anything.
Having been in Nashville for a few years and nothing really quite stuck. And here was this opportunity. And granted, I'm a musician, guitar player first, I would say singing and songwriting have come secondary, but guitar was my first love. And so whenever something like The Voice calls, I'm like, well, I mean, I'll try it, but that's not really where I feel like my strong suit is. But granted, why not? And they agreed to let me sing a Muddy Waters song, which I thought was really cool being a huge blues fan.
A lot of people, that's something that's on their goal list is to be on that show.
[00:23:42] Speaker C: Right.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: So I'm not going to totally throw it out the window. But granted, it wasn't like what I had in mind, but from it I'm apprehensive to talk about it and kind of lead with it because with a network television show of that size, it kind of overshadows everything else that you do in life.
[00:24:08] Speaker C: Comes with a stigma.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. It's like, oh, The Voice and then every other thing that you've done or planning to do just seems secondary. So I try to keep that tucked away a little bit in the resume because I just don't want that to be my focal point, of course. And granted, I did it when I was like 19 or 20 years old, so I don't know. Mick Jagger still sings Satisfaction, which he probably wrote at the same age, and it's making him tons of money still.
[00:24:50] Speaker C: You're making Muddy Waters money now.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: Come on. But granted, the things that you do at that age, you want to grow and do other things.
Granted, it was a video that a buddy and I put together that they saw they love. The video on Mean Nashville kind of led to that. And then from Know, these episodes are pre taped, like the Blinds and the battles and so I knew that I had made it so I went home, I knew life would get a little know, I'm going to be on TV, there'll be a little change, so I'm going to go home with my family. And then while I was here, I got a residency at Magnolia Motor Lounge for a month, playing there every week. And I was like, man, this is a cool scene. And just meeting the musicians and everything like that. So it was kind of know as soon as I get this thing, know, my backstory was all about, you know, as soon as I was on that show, I came back to Texas and started anew.
[00:26:04] Speaker C: And you had that kind of context now to say that you have a learned appreciation for the local scene at that point.
[00:26:13] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: Because then you know how to differentiate it anyway, right. That seems like a really cool lesson too. And it seems like you seem like you're a chill, evenly keeled guy. But that kind of an audition kind of setting seems nerve wracking. Was it not nerve wracking?
[00:26:32] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
I started cold.
Just me and my guitar, like a flashlight. Told me to start. And there is an audience and I don't know, maybe 200 people or so, and I'm just starting.
And fun fact for all you voice fans, when you're in that studio, you don't hear the boosh sound.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: Oh, you don't?
[00:27:03] Speaker A: Whenever the tables turned, the chairs turned.
[00:27:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: So Adam was the only one who turned for me. But you just see this. You just see the actual and and the crowd reacts a little.
[00:27:17] Speaker C: And I want that job. I have to go in and try to time them.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: Put in the boosh sound. Yeah.
[00:27:23] Speaker C: So you capitalized your experience. Whether you fit or not. You seem to have taken proper advantage of each opportunity. And part of that is obviously being good enough to take advantage of the next opportunity also. Right. For those aspiring musicians or current musicians who play and think that they can walk into a situation like that and just start, is there some kind of lesson that you took from those experiences, moving back into a local scene where you feel like your time and shredding in the practice room really contributed?
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Definitely. And the work never stops is what I would say. No matter how far you get on that show, I feel like, granted, it adds notoriety. And to be on a show that size, that is a nice little box to check off. But that doesn't mean that you're just getting the red carpet.
[00:28:26] Speaker C: Everywhere in Nashville the same. You say you play with all those cats, you got to learn a ton. So you learned a ton from the experience in Nashville and there and then you come back to Worth and you started tackling new projects here. What did that look like once you had that show kind of behind you and you decided to stay here. Tell me about your life from there.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: So I wanted to take advantage of the momentum of that show.
So I started looking for someone to work with to record some of my original songs because I hadn't put anything out yet at that point. This was 2016.
I chose to work with a great producer, bo Bedford Studio. He works out of in Dallas's, modern Sound or Modern Electric, and so recorded six, seven songs with him. And he kind of got a band together. And that was very quick after the show, to come back from that show and say, I'm from Fort Worth, and everything like that.
You're a little bit celebrated. So it was a really fun time.
Then momentous was playing a lot of shows but as I was playing those shows I kind of wanted Matt Tetter, my name to disappear for a little while because it was so attached to the voice. So I started a rock and roll group called Polly Dogs and we were together for about a year and a half, put out one record and a couple of singles and that was a rock and rolling project and a lot of fun.
So that's kind of what happened after the show and then after Polydogs had kind of decided to step away both lifestyle and then also musically, I just kind of got over rock music for the time. So that kind of brings me to where I am at now with country and folk and this new record I've had out.
[00:30:56] Speaker C: Yeah. And you had mentioned that you went through some battles, I don't know to what degree, but you found yourself drinking a lot and doing a lot of stuff that was a little outside of your typical personality. Was that part of what helped you make the decision to get out of the rock scene too?
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Definitely.
I was in my early 20s, fresh, 21, haven't come off some TV show and my head couldn't get through a door and with that enjoyed myself in excess and that became my life for a few years. And I was still able to maintain a degree of professionalism with my work and still show up and play gigs and not take it too far. But granted I was drinking fairly regularly and experimenting with other things that one does in their early twenty s. And with that, after a few years, I just started.
I don't know what really prompted me to take a step back.
I think it was I was kind of looking at my 25th birthday right in the middle and I was kind of thinking, okay, like five more years there's 30, where do I want to be then? And I just didn't want to just be drinking and playing the same old gigs and the same old, same old, which in Dallas Fort Worth you can make a pretty good living here being a musician, but it almost gets a little too comfortable because you can make money and pay the bills, fine. But a lot of great people don't get out of DFW because you just get comfortable playing the same gigs, and you go to the bar, and that's it.
And that's not really what I want. I want to see the world with this thing, and I'm lucky to be in an area of work that it can be done. That's great.
With 25 on the horizon, COVID also came knocking, so there was a big change, and I just thought, okay, I'm going to try something different. And I put down alcohol and everything for two and a half years. I've recently found a healthier relationship with it, but, yeah, it was a nice break to do that and just clear my mind and refocus on, like, okay, what do I want out of life? Instead of just what I had been doing for about four or five years of just party nonstop and playing cool shows, but granted, kind of the same show over and over again in the same places.
[00:34:27] Speaker C: DFW, that's having a high level view of what you're doing. And a lot of people, it takes an experience or some kind of an epiphany to get them out there, or other people will take it to the point of addiction and go down that road. Or I've even talked to fantastic musicians who are in a great touring, big time gig, and they're just kind of over it. And I'm like, man, you've forgotten why you got into this, right? If this gig could be cool for a while, but if it's not cool anymore, go play music somewhere else. Make that sacrifice, right? And I can see that you're doing just that.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: I'm in a moment right now where I'm about to do a little bit of a pivot.
I play a lot right now, like five nights a week, and that's great, but it also takes up a lot of time, time that I kind of want to spend more writing music and building a community among my fan base. That's something that I haven't really explored enough, and that really my favorite acts. I mean, the best example is the Grateful Dead. The community around that, that's unparalleled there. It's unparalleled, but to just nurture the fan base that I have and just take time to do that, the music scene, and I don't know, life in general, sometimes it can just take you, and all of a sudden you're like, man, I don't feel like I'm the one driving this car. And you kind of just need to put your hands back on the wheel and maybe take a sharp left turn, and that's okay. And I've done that a few times in life now, and it's not as scary anymore.
It's a little daunting to just kind of clean up the table and reset it, but it's refreshing, too, to just, okay, I've done that, onto the next different thing or idea, sound lifestyle. And just see what it has to offer.
I learned a lot of valuable lessons in my sober time, and I still take them with me today.
I don't feel like God just stops listening to my prayers whenever I have a beer or a glass of wine every now and again during the week.
I still have that relationship and I'm thankful for it.
[00:37:24] Speaker C: It's unappreciable to most, too, the fact that, again, it goes back to what we talked about earlier, your broad interest in music and your time that you spend in the practice room and writing and things like that, to where you can pivot. Yeah, a lot of people get stuck in that straight line and then that's their thing. And you get complacent with that. You're in the same boat because you can't take a sharp left turn and really pick up on something that you really like without having the time.
[00:37:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:54] Speaker C: So I think that's appreciable. So once you move through there now we come to the big project, right? So tell me a little bit about what inspired the newest record. This came out about a month ago.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it came out in June.
It's called I can dream you.
It kind of began coming together, I'd say in probably late 2021.
Earlier that year, I lost my father to lung cancer. And that was monumental. Just a huge, unexpected life event that just turned my whole world upside down. And it so with that happening, I took time off to grief and something that I don't do a lot. I don't take time off.
It's kind of hard to being a musician, you just got to hustle all the freaking time. And now I had an ironclad excuse to take a few months off and just do that for Mean Good for I.
My mom was in Turkey that summer, and so my wife and I, we were watching her house out in weatherford, and it's a beautiful house out there on the lake and just brought me a lot of peace being out there.
So I would write some songs in that time, and it was kind of my way of coping, I guess.
I wrote a few songs that directly address dad that didn't show up on this record, and they might show up later on, and I've written quite a few of those. But sometimes the truth that bear can hurt quite a bit, but who knows? They might see the light of day. But anyways, I would write other songs. That just what I felt like writing. There was no one around me saying, you should do this or that.
I went back to the music that dad enjoyed, which was country and some of the stuff we enjoyed together, which was blues. And with listening to that a whole bunch. I started kind of writing in that style. And that's where you get songs like what's real. I can dream you And What I Do is kind of like a country song that is in that style of Hank Williams or something like that. Just chord change.
So I'm just writing this music that I think dad would enjoy, and it just is bringing me a lot of comfort in a difficult time from there. After compiling about, I don't know, a little over a dozen songs, I went in and met Gordy in Austin, just out of the blue, asked him to co write and we co wrote the title track off of the record, I Can Dream You. And we did it in 40 minutes and cut a demo in like, an hour. And it's really cool. I'm thinking about releasing it here soon. And it was so easy working with him in the studio.
It was an easy decision to make, like, hey, do you want to produce my record? And it was just a great fit.
[00:42:08] Speaker C: Well, it was easy for him, too. I'm friends with Gordy as well.
Not only is he a talented guy, but I think he thinks quite highly of you as well. So I'm sure that I wish I could have been in the room I did offer. The last time I was there, I was like, hey, man, because you talk about you're going to come down and cut a record. Yeah, if you need anything, just call a brother. I'll drive down, do that.
[00:42:29] Speaker A: But yeah, man, great.
[00:42:31] Speaker C: I bet it was magic.
[00:42:32] Speaker A: It was so easy not to discredit anything that I've done before. But yeah, this was everything I've always thought of in making a record, which is just getting a great group of musicians in a room together and playing, for the most part, live. All the Basic Tracking was live, and we were kind of isolated in the different rooms. But granted, we're still playing together and reacting off of each other. I had some crazy moments with Trevor Neilon, and we'd never played together before, but during that so I'd take a little solo lead line, and he would answer it just beautifully, and he's not looking at me. This is all just listening to each other and just magic moments like that. And then Basic Tracking was done in two or three days and then overdubs.
My budget wasn't huge, so I just like, man, we got to work. Let's just go quick. And the record was done in seven days. Wow. And then mixed in probably about a week or so.
Steve Christensen was engineering mixing and just did a phenomenal job. And mastering, I mean, everything just that record took about three months to collectively make with mixing and mastering and all that, but, like, the recording and overdubs and all that, that was like a week. I love doing it quick like that.
[00:44:19] Speaker C: It's really old school.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: Yeah. To not dwell on it, to do Basic Tracking, and then two months later be like, okay, let's do vocals. And then by the time you're done with the thing and it gets done in six months, you're like, I'm not excited about this anymore. You just heard it too many times. So I was excited to do it that way.
I think Gordy likes to work that way, too. Just be quick and get it done and be excited about know it's less.
[00:44:48] Speaker C: About the actual quickness as much as it is really taking live takes. Right.
You're not doing and.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: We were fortunate that way, just to have the guys that we never really had to go past eight or ten takes, I feel like would probably be about the max that we would get to.
[00:45:12] Speaker C: And sometimes you're doing it just in case.
[00:45:14] Speaker A: Right, exactly.
But it's like, no, that one just had yeah, there's a mistake there, but it's just cooler. Beautiful mistake. Exactly.
[00:45:26] Speaker C: No Tom Schultz session.
[00:45:29] Speaker A: Yeah. They just have a phenomenal studio that's kind of that record. And going back to the beginning of our conversation, it's all over the place genre wise, so I hope there's something for everybody in it. And it's kind of been interesting to hear.
What everyone's favorite is story songs. There's jam songs, there's somber songs, blues, everything.
[00:46:07] Speaker C: But a lot of it's really raw from what I listen to. Right?
[00:46:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:11] Speaker C: But purposefully so, because it is kind of retrospective and nostalgic for you. Is that right? Is that what I'm taking from the story behind it? With your dad's passing and everything seems.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: I mean, it's music that I think he would enjoy some of it. Some of it he probably wouldn't, but that's okay.
But there's parts that I know he would like. And this is my first time working with steel guitar country, leanings on the record, and there's some simple JJ Kale style blues rock and everything.
Just not that was something that Gordy was great at, is keeping me out of the overthinking process that I can get in. So know, because I want to outdo myself every single time. And there's a point that Gordy would come to frequently. He was like, Dude, that thing that you did was cool.
I need you to know that that was cool and we should just move on.
[00:47:30] Speaker C: Get over yourself.
[00:47:31] Speaker A: Yeah, get over yourself, man.
[00:47:33] Speaker C: I can see it.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: I got a better guitar take and it's just like just stop. It's good. Just know that it makes it more.
[00:47:44] Speaker C: Of a story, too, because you probably do have a better guitar take in you still, right. Or a better vocal take or whatever, but unless it's just mistake laden, you should be good to go on something that at least you have a producer in this case who's also a musician, who you can rely on him. Like he's not just fooling with you or has a lack of musical ability or whatever. And there's something genuine about that that I think a lot of modern music is getting so distanced from.
[00:48:20] Speaker A: That was a really nice thing is that whenever I brought the songs in, gordy didn't really change them around too much.
He believed in them from the get go.
But granted, I mean, a few songs, he was like, yeah, try harder there on that lyric. Or maybe we'll scrap that verse, but not overbearing notes. That just took away the Matte Tedder of the project, and it didn't turn into totally Gordy's thing. It was so nice to just play the songs the way I wrote them to be played, and I have a band that backed me up and did a phenomenal job on it all the word you use was raw, and that really is it.
It's who I am as an artist. And there are a couple moments where I wanted a polished steel guitar or, like, a slide harmony guitar part over thought of George Harrison moment there, but those are things I want to do, and Gordy was cool with me trying them out.
[00:49:49] Speaker C: That's cool, too. Hey, you got to have the George Martin. You got to bring the George Martin out of Gordy, too, right?
[00:49:54] Speaker A: Every now and again. Every now and again.
I need 10,000 didgery dues on this song.
[00:50:00] Speaker C: We're going to do it all in a four track.
All right, so you hinted before we get to some playing, you hinted at some other pivots that you're going to do.
Can you give us any hints as to things you were looking forward toward?
[00:50:16] Speaker A: Really just leaning into this.
I just put out this record under my name, and it's been getting some good traction, but here I am, still kind of doing my normal weekly gigs, and a lot of gigs that are not glamorous, they just kind of pay the bills, and that's really it. What I really want to be doing is writing more.
Whenever you play five to six nights a week and collectively throughout the week, you've played over 10 hours of music or twelve, whatever it be.
I'll get home and just not have much left in the tank to really write or whatever.
What I'm wanting to do is just take a step back from so many gigs, figure out what I can do otherwise and spend more time giving myself time, just like I did after my dad's passing. Just giving myself time to experiment and write whatever I want to write. Because I've just been spending so much time kind of being a guitar player for other people and being busy as a musician. And I'm fortunate that I can say that and make a living with music. But granted, I want to record another record, and I've got a couple of songs in the bank, but I think songwriters would relate that your best song is your next one, and that's what I'm focused on, is just the next thing. And I don't know what it'll collectively be like yet, but I've got a couple new songs that are floating around and just giving myself time and really putting in the work to do this again.
[00:52:28] Speaker C: So with that circumstance, which is interesting, I think a lot of musicians are either in that position or there are quite a few musicians that aren't even in a position where they can say, yes, this is what I do for a living.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Right.
[00:52:41] Speaker C: That's kind of part of the stairstepping process anyway.
But what do you see in terms of a vision of you long term? If you could write and record, does that mean you're doing lots of touring? Because I know sometimes that's a little different too.
What would you in an ideal world see yourself doing in the next five years or so?
[00:53:05] Speaker A: Well, I still haven't done a ton of touring and I'm really eager to do it and that takes time. I've got no one working for me, so I need to be on that laptop sending those emails.
But yeah, I want to just be a recording artist, touring recording artist. I mean, I definitely want to be at a level that I'm in theaters. That sound good.
I love the Kessler in Dallas and the Majestic.
Check off the boxes of the great American and even world venues playing like the Ryman in Nashville or these famous know which seat, I don't know how many, couple thousand. I would love to be at that level.
I don't think I need to be as big as Taylor Swift or Zach Bryan or whoever. If that happens, cool.
I don't think I'm going to complain, but I just want to be writing and recording and putting out records every year or two, however long it takes to be satisfied with the work and then go out and play for people. I really love playing live and especially like a venue like the Kessler. Whenever I got to open for Band of Heathens, here is a perfectly matched bill. I know this is going to go over well. And whenever I have an audience like that, that is into the same stuff that I am, man, that was magic. And that's just really what I want to do. And so I know it takes work to build a community that will come back and be open to whatever new avenue I'm pursuing musically. So that's really it just a hard working, fun having touring that's right. Recording musician.
[00:55:30] Speaker C: And it is. Man, when you talk about doing the community and building a community, that's like a completely different skill set too. Yeah, but it used to be the old school mailing list. We sit down with 1500 pieces of paper we got from Kinkos and writing them quick note and then literally filling out envelopes and licking them.
[00:55:52] Speaker A: Personalization goes such a long way.
I didn't have to send out a ton of vinyl on this record, but all the orders that I did get in, I wrote a little note with their name on it. It's just the things that you want to do because it's because of these people buying your records that you get to have the life that you have.
[00:56:20] Speaker C: That's your ticket to how you want to live.
[00:56:23] Speaker A: Right? Yeah, exactly.
Treat them like they're important, because they are. They're very important.
[00:56:32] Speaker C: They hold your success in their hands.
[00:56:35] Speaker A: I don't understand.
I don't really know any personally, but I know they're out there of just the artists. That just cold shoulders and all that.
[00:56:50] Speaker C: That's passe. Yeah, well, put me on your mailing list, because I'm always interested in knowing what direction you're going to go, and if it's further left or right, I'm perfectly happy.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: For sure.
[00:57:00] Speaker C: It's part of the ride, the adventure.
All right. So you interested in playing a little joint off the record?
[00:57:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:08] Speaker C: All right, let's set that up. Did you have anything else you wanted to add to any of this that you wanted to mention about something going on or anything else that was important to you?
[00:57:17] Speaker A: No.
[00:57:17] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:57:18] Speaker A: Nice conversation, man.
[00:57:21] Speaker C: It's been an honor having you here, brother.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: Thanks for having me.
[00:57:23] Speaker C: Okay, well, let's get set up and play a tune then.
[00:57:25] Speaker A: Sweet.
I'm going to do the title track off of the record.
It's written by me, my good friend, Gordy Quist. It's called I can dream.
[00:57:51] Speaker D: You walking on your tiptoes? Careful not to interrupt those dreams I was having as you close the door behind?
I woke up that morning?
Don't recall a warning?
Might not see you, but I can dream any old time I can dream you any old time wake up with a smile tear coming from my eye I can dream you just for a while, Mr. Sandman. Even working all the time waiting by the front door like a dog for you to come home.
Good boy. Bad boy. I can be. What, you want me to walk down to the corner, keep thinking that I saw her sleep walking and talking every day and night to you?
I can dream you any old time?
Wake up with a smile tear coming.
[00:59:27] Speaker A: From my eyes.
[00:59:31] Speaker D: I can dream you just for a while, Mr. Sandman. Even working over time in and out of slumber, toss and turning I wonder how many days and nights I can keep hanging on maybe you're not coming back.
Maybe that's not all bad. I know where to find you even though you gone I can dream you any old time wake up with a smile tear coming from my eyes I can dream you.
Just for a while.
Mr. Sandman. Even working over time.
[01:01:37] Speaker B: Second grade rules a confident faith to make you do make you do what they want when they won't be the fool.
[01:01:51] Speaker C: A diplomatic.
[01:01:52] Speaker B: Face is the one to see it 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 fool a neighbor magical potion a missing piece at the end of the game a slow roll see the truth and soul motion I never found a 63 like between the right line. If you gonna call me.
