The Highway Man - Adam Lopez Part 1
Adam Lopez on touring the planet, skateboarding in your 40s & recording in Nashville.
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Adam Lopez from his studio in Big Sur, sits down for a two part interview on how he went from a baseball playing, street skating, rebel to Touring the planet with his guitar. From the back of a cop car to a studio in Nashville Adam has redefined the road to success. With a new set of acoustic albums on the way your definitely gonna be hearing a lot more about him. Click the above link for info & dates.
Transcript:
https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/48488076
Speaker 0 (0s): Yeah, it's up everybody. We've got something special plan right now. We got the one and only Adam Lopez coming on. Pretty excited. I, I haven't seen this cat for a while and he's doing big things, you know, he's doing real big things. So the first time bringing anybody on, so try to set it up the split screen, have a nice interview and a conversation for everybody to check out.
Yeah, there he is. Mr. Adam Lopez. What's up, man. You know what man? We were to everybody. That's there's only a few people here right now. I don't mean, I know that it may take awhile for some people to filter in. Right. But for anybody that's just showing up. Now I just briefly talked to Adam and we talked a little bit. I don't want to go too deep. Cause I wanted everybody to get, to see kind of a, how we started, where we started at. And we'll start, we'll talk a little bit about how I know Adam and our friendship, but at the same time, I have so many questions for you.
So I'll just start off with Adam and I have known each other for how many years Adam, have we known each other?
Speaker 1 (1m 17s): Oh man. Since we were six or seven years old. So almost 40 years. Oh man. It's weird to say, but yeah, almost 40 years, like darn close thirties. 37, 38 years.
Speaker 0 (1m 31s): Yup. So we played baseball together. We escaped together. We went to Lincoln and then Rancho.
Speaker 1 (1m 39s): Yeah, dude. I'm at the skate park right now. I just got done skating.
Speaker 0 (1m 43s): So awesome. I was totally gonna ask. I was like, yo God, we used to skateboard together. So that is awesome to me. I don't mind. I want to just start off by asking you this. And as we move through our lives, people's lives, change their passions change. However you are. One of the only people I know that has apparently continued to skateboard like me, but also you've really worked on your craft as far as being a musician and you stuck with it and you've had some big gains.
So how, how, how does that journey changed for you? Like how did it go from the beginning to where you are now?
Speaker 1 (2m 24s): Man? That's a, that's a interesting question. I'm not even sure. I know the answer like you talking about like all the changes that people go through and stuff, and I've gone through a lot of change, but I'm doing the same exact things that bring me enjoyment as now at 44 that I was doing when I was five years old. Like basically it seems like everything I learned about what I liked. I learned by the time I was five and then I just kept doing them.
I just found, I guess I found a way to, you know, to get paid, to do it so that I could keep doing it. And that, that was the goal.
Speaker 0 (3m 3s): You know what, that might be the best definition of success I've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (3m 8s): Yeah. You know, and it's, that's, that's where I'm at now is learning to, to appreciate and recognize what I didn't recognize for a long time. Like I, I thought I was maybe not growing up and not doing like real life stuff, but now I realize that, you know, I'd had it pretty good all along. Like I've been really lucky, super fortunate.
Speaker 0 (3m 32s): Yeah. I, I, I heard a quote one time that said your first, 40 years is the experience you get. And then the next 40 years is you interpreting that experience, you know? And when you say that, you know, I think we're another one. One of the greatest things that people can do is to see themselves the way other people see them. You know, we, all of us tend to be critical of ourselves. Oh, am I doing this right? Am I not growing up? You know, or am I, am I being a responsible, but the truth is it doesn't really matter.
What other people think about you. It matters what you think about you.
Speaker 1 (4m 9s): Right? Right. There's a, there's a quote about, you know, it's not your business. What other people think of you? I love that. And I wrote a song about that actually. Okay. And it's kind of silly, but I wrote it anyway. Why wouldn't you? Right. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 0 (4m 30s): This, this leads up to something that I've always wondered about. I think all of us inside are an aspiring artist. You know, some of us were able to really coax out the part of us that is an artist. How is it that you find inspiration to write music? And how is it that you decide to translate that inspiration into action?
Speaker 1 (4m 54s): The best explanation that I've heard, somebody else describe it as is from bill Withers, who passed away recently. And he was really a matter of fact, dude. So when somebody asked him basically the same thing, he said, you know, sometimes things just cross your mind and that that's it like, you know, everything I write comes from observing or living through it or somebody else I know went through something and I feel like I can relate, even if I haven't experienced it.
So on some level I can understand or relate to it. So if I write about it, then maybe somebody else can relate or understand and either identify with it or at least have empathy or sympathy for somebody else that goes through that. You know? So I don't, I don't have a direct answer. Like it just happens. I don't, I don't do it. It kinda just comes through me, you know?
Speaker 0 (5m 51s): Yeah. It's, it's, it's always fascinating to hear people talk about the creative process and how it seems to me that people have a unique process to go through. However, there's usually an underlying similarity in that they are translating any emotion. No. What I mean by that, like, they they've been inspired or like you said, you've seen something happen, whether it's empathy or sympathy and you're able to somehow express that in the music, which I think is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (6m 27s): Yeah. I feel like the best way to get there is just to let it happen, like get out of the way. Right. So, so don't tell yourself you can't do it or that it's not your thing or you wish you could do that. Cause I think, you know, everybody has a heartbeat, so music is in all of us. Like, that's, that's your, you know, that's your backbeat everywhere you go. You've got it. You know, where I'm doing it, where I'm coming from personally is I just love it that much.
And I grew up in it. Like my, you know, a lot of my family are musicians when we were playing baseball and we're six, seven years old. Like on the weekends I might be playing at a party with my uncle's band. You know what I mean? So, so for me, it's, it's different in the, in the regard that like, I'm a more of like a historian or musicologist. Like I know my history and I study it and I love it. And I do, that's the part that's for me, like that's fun. Right. And then the creative stuff is, you know, my way of sharing, whatever good feeling I get with other people so that hopefully they have it too, you know?
And, and I don't think everybody needs to go that deep and devote their life to it or whatever. But everybody's an artist whether they know it or not.
Speaker 0 (7m 42s): Yeah. I, so I didn't know that about your family, is it, it, does everybody play guitar is one play drums and one plays like the saxophone or, or how did that break down?
Speaker 1 (7m 54s): Like on my mom's side of the family. So her brothers, she's got a couple of brothers that are musicians and then their, their uncles, or, you know, like going back, they're all musicians. My great grandfather was a, was a upright bass. And in percussionists, like in the forties and fifties, professionally, and then I've heard stories like going back to like the turn of the century where we have aunts and uncles that, you know, back in the days where you played, where the radio was, live music.
Yeah. You know, that we had relatives that that's what they did. So
Speaker 0 (8m 32s): Yeah. I've known you for 37 years and I'm still finding out new stuff about you. Yeah. That's awesome. I guess you could say it's almost, you're genetically predisposed predisposed to be a musician.
Speaker 1 (8m 49s): Yeah, probably. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what entails that to be true. Right. But I mean, like for the most part, like the, the travel and, you know, the bouncing around from place to place and like all that stuff for the most part, like it's fun for me. So all the, all the other things that go with being a working musician, I more or less enjoy, not all of it. Like I'm not, I never touched drugs. I'm not much of a, I don't drink at all. And I haven't drank that much over the course of my lifetime.
Like eating on the roads kind of tough if you like to eat clean. So that part of it is rough, but essentially like all of it goes with it, you know? Cause you have to take the good with the bad. So yeah, I think I, I was pretty well constructed to do this.
Speaker 0 (9m 41s): Do you remember Adam, when you got your first guitar, can you tell us about that?
Speaker 1 (9m 46s): So before I got my first real one, there was a series of guitars that were toys. But to me they were real right. You know, being like four or five, six years old. And then the first one that I got that I took lessons on, I was like seven. And I remember, I totally remember getting it. Was it Oceanside Boulevard? Remember there was a gem code just before you got to the highway at the bottom of the Hill. I do remember that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I got it. We got it there and it was seven bucks.
Wow. And it was missing, like to get two strings, otherwise it would have been like 20 bucks and I got that guitar. So that would have been like 1983. Okay. Any two 83. And then I started taking guitar lessons on South Santa Fe at Bradford's music. Nice. Yeah. I took guitar lessons for two or three years and then like took a break for a couple of years. And then I went back when I was like 10 or 11 for a couple of years.
Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 0 (10m 54s): And so when you're, when you're at that age taking lessons, is it, is it, is it like a one on one lesson or, or were you kind of jamming a little bit with someone that was instructing or you learn the chemistry of how to play with people? Or how, how do you go from, from taking lessons to understanding chemistry and playing with someone else?
Speaker 1 (11m 15s): Well, like prior to that, like I'd spent countless days, like in my uncle's garage while his band was practicing or sitting around the house while he was practicing and trying to like, you know, fake my way along. I mean, I had no, no clue what I was doing really, but I knew, I knew that I understood it when I heard it. You know, it's like, like people with like foreign languages. Right. Like they they've never learned it, but they know what people are talking about sometimes.
Right. So for me it was like, it was just like learning a language, you know? But the, the lessons themselves were like in a tiny, tiny little room, like I don't even know. It probably was, it wasn't even 10 by 10. It was tiny. Right. Just, yeah. Private teacher, you know, he was trying to show me the fundamentals, but basically like within a couple of lessons, I think he showed me the most like elementary way to play like Johnny B. Good Barry and Chuck Barry at that time was my hero.
Was your hero. Yeah. At that point he was so, I mean, he taught me that in 10 minutes and then I was just like off and running. I can play, I can play what I heard in my head and figure it out at that point. And I kinda, I, I wasn't the best student after that. Cause he kind of gave me the information too soon. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 0 (12m 44s): Yeah. It sounds like that even though he may have given it to you soon, it kind of helped you develop like, cause you're kind of a rebel anyway, man. I mean, but it seems that maybe he just gave you the, the, I dunno, like the quarter beat or he just gave you the first beat and you were able to run with it.
Speaker 1 (13m 1s): Yeah, yeah, for sure. And luckily I picked up enough things that I should know besides what I wanted to know that later, later in life, when people started asking me to teach them, I learned everything I would have learned in music school within a few weeks because I kind of, I knew it. I just didn't know the language of it. So teaching, teaching other people, I quickly put the language to what I heard or knew in my head to be true.
So my students that I started teaching like maybe 30 years after my first lesson, really, I learned more from them and in a few short weeks than I had learned in lessons, you know, in my childhood. So I was lucky that way,
Speaker 0 (13m 48s): I've talked to a bunch of teachers and I've done some teaching myself and I've always heard. And I would agree with you that you really don't know something until you can teach it to someone else and have them do it well. And that's when you know, you know it right. What it sounds like, you know, with Chuck Berry being an early influence, you know, I was going to ask how you decided to play the music that you play, but it sounds like we're getting there by talking about Chuck Berry.
Speaker 1 (14m 17s): Well, I have a pretty, I I'm an only child, but I have a big extended family and they're all musicians. Right. They, they all have their individual tastes. So I was taught early on what quality music was, what, what, you know, quote unquote real music was and then taught to listen to be, you know, more or less everything like, Oh, be open minded, learn what makes certain music, even if you don't like it, learn what makes it good music to somebody else, try to figure it out, you know, try to find, try to find it is because if you want to do this and you want to make a living out of it, you've, you've gotta be well rounded and educated.
Speaker 0 (15m 0s): Yeah. What, so can you, can you help those of us that like, if we were just learning for the first time, how would you define quality news again? How would you define what other people like
Speaker 1 (15m 18s): Man, that's tough. I was, I just know I was lucky. I was really fortunate that what I was given was I was given the right answer. Yeah. And so, you know, for me, like my family was heavily into, you know, American roots music. So, you know, the early, like Hank Williams and Bob wills, country music and you know, all the early rock and roll, Chuck, Berry, little Richard and Elvis, all that stuff, all the good, you know, blues and early blues, you know, from, from the pre-war like 30 stuff to like muddy waters and Howlin Wolf.
And then all the rock music that cave, I guess I should, I should, I should also let you know, like my, you know, my parents were around when I was young and raise me, but I give a lot, or maybe more credit to my grandparents for, for raising me while my parents were off working and doing their thing. And so my grandfather who was he's still around actually, but he was definitely like the patriarch of the family. Like everybody went to him for answers and he was from Texas. So when it came to music, when it came to music, like that was, that was the, the, the hub or the basis for what everything else that we listened to spring from, you know?
And that's a big umbrella. Yeah. It sounds like, especially if you're born there in the forties, like that's, so that's, that's, that's where my roots are. Right.
Speaker 0 (16m 49s): It's interesting to think about, especially, it's interesting to think about how different, how different people can be raised in our race. And I think that, you know, there's a, a quality of people who were lucky enough to have their grandparents in their house or in their life when they were younger. Because, you know, as an adult, you have kids and you think you got stuff figured out, but you, you realize when you talk to your mom or your dad about the kids that they're like, Oh listen, you're dumb and you don't even know what you're doing.
You know what I mean? All my friends that we're lucky enough to have some, a grandparent or, you know, whether it's a grandma or grandfather in the house, they, they seem to be a little wiser than their age. And I think that stems from having that wisdom around. And so it's a, so let me ask you this one here, you've done quite a bit of traveling. What can you, can you, can you tell us, have you been throughout the nation, you know, or, or tell us a little bit about some of your touring.
Speaker 1 (17m 51s): I guess the music has taken me more or less from like from New York to California. And most of that has been centered like in the Southwest and South, like Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico. Most of it's been down there, but I've seen, I've seen a good portion of the country from, from California to New York and up through Pennsylvania and all that stuff. I haven't been to the far East coast or anything, but yeah, I've seen, I've seen the majority of it.
I think at this point a little bit of Europe, it should have been cool.
Speaker 0 (18m 25s): What parts of Europe pick out?
Speaker 1 (18m 28s): I made it to Paris once, you know, I got to touch the Eiffel tower and see the Mona Lisa. I've been to Iceland a number of times, which is pretty cool. And then most of the touring has been all around, like toward most of Belgium, I think in a good portion of the Netherlands. Yeah.
Speaker 0 (18m 49s): What was it like touring in Europe? What was each country in Europe like a state in the United States, as far as the feeling kind of a different vibe, a different place, or how
Speaker 1 (19m 1s): Well, most of it, like I said, most of it, 99% of it's Belgium and the Netherlands, those places are similar, but you know, distinctly different like Vista and Oceanside, like very similar, but not quite our Vista and Carlsbad, like, like this is, this has got some of what Carlsbad has, but Carlsbad doesn't really have the hood like this, you know? And, and like Belgium, Belgium is very working class for the most part, like Northern Belgium, whereas the Southern portions, a little more French influenced and then Holland, Holland's like a lot of farm country.
It's got some, some awesome like seaside towns that we've played at. And then there's like the more traditional, like old villages and towns, you know, that maybe aren't farming, but a little more social, you know, town, squares and restaurants and that kind of thing. But as far as the difference between there and America, it's, it's pretty different. There's a different appreciation for what we do over there.
Yeah. I, I,
Speaker 0 (20m 15s): I've always found that when you traveled to another country, the country you learn most about is your cooking.
Speaker 1 (20m 22s): Yeah. Yeah. I would say that I would, I definitely came out like I've done, there was a portion there where we're over the course of like a year to like 15 months. I probably was, I probably had spent half of that, that time between Iceland and France. So that was besides the touring that I would do here. I was away from home for, for the better part of like six months or so seven months and in a different country.
And in that time in different countries, yeah. I definitely came home each time with a different perspective on, on home, for sure.
Speaker 2 (21m 2s): Did you write any songs while you were over there?
Speaker 1 (21m 7s): I don't know if I sat down to write them, but I would assume, you know, I don't ride lately. I've been riding every day. I write every day, at least mentally, but I don't sit down and write and it doesn't come out musically every day. So I don't know that I sat down and wrote while I was there, because most of the time we're so busy. Like if, if I, if I went over there for, if I went over there for like, Oh, you know, maybe we would go over for two to three months at a time sometimes.
Right. So if I was over there for like 70 days, I might play 90 shows. Wow. Yeah. So a lot of two days, not a lot of times, like you're basically sleeping, eating, or traveling to a gig, you know? Right. So I don't know that I really sat down and wrote anything, but I would guess a lot of songs, you know, in between those tours was influenced by being there. And there's like, there's songs that I've written in the last couple of months that are directly inspired by, you know, being over there,
Speaker 2 (22m 12s): You got a new album coming out, right?
Speaker 1 (22m 14s): Yeah. I've got a series of them coming out in the next few months. I'm trying to line it up so they can kind of come out one, you know, one right behind the other. And they're going to be a little different than what I've done for a long time. So yeah. I'm lining those up right now. Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22m 35s): You are doing that out of your studio and big syrup there.
Speaker 1 (22m 38s): Yeah. I set up a, like a mobile studio in big Sur, like overlooking the ocean. I think I sent you a photo. Yeah, you did. Yeah. So yeah. So like two, two sliding glass doors, you know, just glass facing, overlooking the water, you know, just basically right over the water on a cliff,
Speaker 2 (22m 58s): The picture later, like your guitar, the picture you sent me was just, it said everything. It was like your guitar and the sliding doors and then the view. And I'm like, look at this guy, man. He's doing it.
Speaker 1 (23m 8s): Yeah. So, yeah, recording right now. I've actually recorded one of the records and I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it again before I'm not going to release it at one. Right. Just because I'm not totally it's, it's, it's good. But it's not the one that I hear in my head. Okay. So I want to record, I want to make sure I record that one before I put it out. But the process for the way that I'm recording, this is pretty quick, like the next series of releases is just going to be live acoustic guitar and voice.
Like it's not full band productions. Like everything else has been.
Speaker 2 (23m 44s): So like kind of like an unplugged thing that you would see people sit down.
Speaker 1 (23m 49s): Yeah. Yeah. So that, you know, when you're doing it that way, the process is much quicker. I mean, I can re I can record the songs is in, as long as it takes to play the songs, I don't have to worry about overdubs or other musicians where it's just, it can take weeks or months. It's just a matter of capturing it on the right day at the right time. And so I'm, I'm just working on that.
Speaker 2 (24m 13s): You know, it totally reminds me of like, this might not be the right analogy, but when you went, the way you described the music is, you know, if you have all these dubs and that stuff, that seems like processed to me. And when I think of process, I think a process food, you know, you're doing it just like straight you're in big sewer. You're being influenced by being healthy and eating the raw food. And now you're putting out the rock music. It's just like the unplugged acoustic version, you know?
Speaker 1 (24m 40s): Yeah. I mean, I eat clean. I don't, you know, no animals, no, no very little processed or fake anything. I'm very, even very little cooked food. Yeah. You know, I don't drink, I don't do any, I never really have. And yeah, I think it's translating to the product I want to put out. And the analogy I make a lot of times for people is like, you know, organic, real food versus like McDonald's, but that's, to me, that's what the radio is, you know?
So I want to give, I want to give people and I mean, I've always done it that way, but even like the last record that I did, Nashville, the Cinderella sessions, that's all live, you know, that's four guys in a room playing together and there's no, there's no trickery. There's no overdubs. There's no, nothing other, other than the harmony vocal that somebody came in and did later. But he did it later that day. Like the, the music, this, my singing and guitar, like I played, especially in Nashville, it's a huge no-no, but I played, I played rhythm sing and play my guitar solos while the band was playing, you know, like a lot of so-called live in studio recordings, even, especially in Nashville, like the solos and stuff were overdubbed, you know, so we did it.
It's, it's all there. Just like, just to how we did it with, if, with Lloyd green on pedal steel, who, you know, if you're in country music, world Lloyd, Lloyd green is on, you know, like the Mount Rushmore of pedal steel guitar players. So yeah, in the studio we did it in was, was pretty legendary, but yeah, I'm taking, I'm taking the same process and just transferring it to me by myself with one guitar and two microphones.
Speaker 2 (26m 35s): That's almost like that's like the opposite of Beck who had two turntables and a microphone.
Speaker 1 (26m 41s): Yeah. Yeah. And it's, I, you know, I hope people dig it. Like my music has never been polished or really, you know, processed all that much at all. So
Speaker 2 (26m 55s): I think that that's what gives it a unique quality. And the more that I talked to you and I, I think the more that I think when people listen to this, like that does translate when you talked about your family, you know, kind of being the very foundation for you being in music for a long time. And, and that, that's also probably why you were able to, when you got to Nashville to come, you know, look, look like you sit in there is because you've been around the right inspiration. I don't know that much about Nashville. And I know some people watching do, but when you said there's some no-nos in there, they're like those like unwritten rules of the game, or can you tell us a little bit about Nashville and what it must've been like to get there for the first time?
Speaker 1 (27m 35s): Yeah. I mean, you know, they're, they're known for the slick production in a very polished sounding like per perfect sanding records, but, you know, if you're, if you're not in that world and you're just a music lover and listener, you know, that sound is not something that you just walk in and do a lot of those records take, you know, they could take a year or more to make. Right. And it's, it's very like, I don't know, not just processed, but it's very micromanaged.
I mean, a singer could go in and sing like a couple syllables at a time and they can patch it together. Wow. And the guitar player can go in and record solos the same way or record 20, 50, you know, 50 guitar solos. And they can take the best like notes from each guitar solo and stitch them together. And it's easy. It's easy to do that. The drums can be micromanaged to the point where the timing is so perfect that it can never be replicated like that live, you know?
And that's cool. It's, it's, you know, I don't, it's not good or bad. It's just is what it is. And it's just not my thing. And, you know, for, for me, for me, I want to be able to record the same way that I perform live. And it's never perfect, you know? Right. And I don't like recording over and over and over again. I just want to capture the essence of what I'm doing and it just has to be good enough and have the feel, you know, for me.
Speaker 2 (29m 12s): Yeah. Yeah. I admire that. I mean, if I go to concerts, whether it's a favorite band or a comedian, I kind of like the fact that it's going to be a little different show than anybody else's scene. You know what I mean? I might, I might catch Adam Lopez on a night where he's like, there's something new over here. Might be the only guy to see that, you know, or how do you get to see people working out material? Or I didn't know that about Nashville. I didn't know that it was like garage band, you know, and maybe that's not an accurate assessment of what that is.
I don't, I don't want to downplay that, but it's, it's fascinating to me. Cause I've, I've heard when I was young, you just hear about the legendary stars coming at the billion people. If you want to make it, you got to go to Nashville and stuff like that. Yeah. But I've always kind of been curious about that. I mean,
Speaker 1 (29m 59s): Yeah. And I don't want to give the impression that it's all like that, cause it's definitely not, you know, some of the best musicians in the world are there. So they actually, you know, a lot of records come out of there and they just sound perfect or near perfect. Cause those guys were that good. But like when you think of Nashville on more of a generic level, like you think of what you hear on the radio and some of the, the so called like country stars that you see on the billboards and that kind of thing. And those there's so much money behind those records that they have to micromanage it.
They can't afford to risk it. You know? So it's, it's a different world. I'm lucky that my world in Nashville is a lot more rootsy and organic. There's been a, a movement in there in the last 10 years of some younger guys coming up and doing things in a more old school way in a lot of the, the musicians that worked in the, in the studios on records from the golden era of the fifties and sixties still live there and still work in the studios.
So I'm lucky that I got in with, with those guys, you know, I'm not, I'm not in with the Shanaya twins or Brad Paisley, people of Nashville. I don't have any connections to almost any of them or any, any of those musicians. But a lot of the old school cats, you know, a lot of the guys I work with, you know, are in their seventies and eighties now, but that's, that's where I want to be. That's that's just my thing.
Speaker 2 (31m 30s): Yeah. It seems like there's a, there's a commonality in the commercial miss of things where, you know, when you, I kind of will love people that serve them when they get sponsored. They're like, yeah, we got it. And I liken it in my mind. It might be a record deal. And let me know back here, once they get sponsored, they're all stoked. But then they realize that that sponsor owns them. I'd imagine. Yeah. You know, you put out a record and they own all your stuff. And at first you're stoked. You're like, wait a minute. They own all my stuff, right.
Speaker 1 (32m 0s): Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's totally like that. You know, the big differences is, is with like the bigger labels, traditionally, what happens is you get a lot of money upfront to make that record. And you think it's your money and you get the, you know, you pocket some, you live off of it. So you hate and you spend it on the studio and the musicians because he can't, you know, he can't necessarily work 40 hours a week and make that record. Right. Right. But you don't get any of the money from the sales of that record until all the money that they gave you gets paid
Speaker 2 (32m 35s): First. I see. Interesting. So you don't have that 40 a week job
Speaker 1 (32m 40s): Once the record's done. You also don't have, you don't have any way to, you know, to generate income off those record sales until you make all that money back, you know, it's kind of sinister if you think about it. Oh yeah. I think it totally is you too. You know? So, so I, I, I went without a lot of those opportunities partially by choice and partially just cause they weren't offered to me, there were some that were offered to me, but you know, I I've, I've done it on my terms for better or for worse and it's cool.
I dig it. Like I've been able to do, you know, like we talked about coming from Vista, this, this is super diverse, you know, and if you know it, if you know it as the, the beautiful lush, hillside community with nice houses and, and you know, a pretty good medium income and you assume that that's where I came from, then you probably would assume that like I could afford to do this because there's money somewhere else in the, you know, in mom mom's bank account or, or grandpa's bank account that if I failed, it had to go back home.
It wasn't that big of a deal. And the reality is, is like I came from the other side. Yeah. Where, where, you know, my parents were teenagers when they had me. Right. You know, at least my mom was, and my dad was barely not a teenager. And you know, he didn't work. My, my father didn't work very long before he, I don't know if you remember this. It happened, it happened when we were like seven years old and we were on the same baseball team. My dad was like in a major accident, broke his neck and that was it.
Like, no, no, no more work, no more anything. So basically basically a single mom working, you know, the job or a job or two. And so we were, you know, we were dirt poor for the most part. Like I shared a bedroom with my parents up until that point. And I didn't live in an actual house until I was 17, you know? So it took, it took a good decade for us to get to the point where we could move into our own house.
So instead of, you know, like, I guess what I saw around me told me that the risk involved in, in trying to make a living at music, wasn't that big of a risk, right? Like, like the people all around. Yeah. My, my circle, you know, like my parents' friends and whatnot, like most of them were alcoholics pro you know, you use drugs or soldiers. Right, right. And worked, worked, you know, like construction jobs or like manual labor.
And that's, you know, that's, that's fine. You know, that's whatever, it's not, like I said, it's not good or bad, it's just not thing. But, but what I saw was people working really hard and not getting any word different, you know, their whole life in a lot. I've, I've revisited. Some of them there, their whole life was, was instill is, you know, they're in their sixties now. There was like a 10 to 20 mile radius of home. And that was it. Yeah. And that was it. And still is for a lot of people.
So I figured like, well, I do know what hard work is and I know what, you know, integrity is. So why, why don't I just take that and apply it to something I like? And if I'm, you know, what's the point of working a job I don't like, and living at the poverty level when I can just apply it to something I do like, and live at the poverty level and still, and still get by. Right. So still keep a roof over my head and food in my stomach. So yeah, that's, that was my silly theory.
And it turns out that, you know, it worked and it worked a little, even a little better than eating crumbs and it's, it's still, it's still getting better. You know, it's getting easier every year, other than the current situation right now, which is kind of a mindblower, but
Speaker 2 (36m 57s): That is how is that affecting the music industry and not only the music industry, but how does that affect your life? It sounds like build a record albums, but I bet you can't go and play anywhere.
Speaker 1 (37m 9s): Yeah. There's, I mean, I can go play in the street corners, which is kind of cool because that's when I was younger, I did a lot of that as a teenager. Right, right. But it's, it kind of happened at the, in a weird way. It happened at the best time for me, because I was already transitioning out of, you know, cause most of my, most of what I do would be considered like Texas music. It's kind of runs the gamut of country and roots music and blues.
So, you know, a lot of, a lot of my home base musically was out of Boston, you know, like I worked in Nashville quite a bit, but it wasn't a home base. I, I still have a place where I, I like, I still have a room at a friend's house where Austin musically is like my home base. So when I was living in Denver for a while and I was traveling back, I was spending like half of my time in Austin and half my time in Denver, basically to answer your question, like in all of that, I was transitioning out of solely relying on playing like dance halls and bars from like 10 to two in the morning, four or five nights a week or whatever.
Right. To doing more production behind the scenes work, like getting music for like TV and movies, online content, you know, providing music for that songwriting with, you know, I can release my own music that I write on my own, but also get it out in the world where other people maybe with, you know, maybe some of those bigger acts in Nashville might record it, that kind of thing. Yeah.
So the way the current situation kind of hit, I was already in that transition. So I wasn't really playing out live. And I hadn't been for about a month when I first heard about the COVID thing. Right. And then when it really hit and affected me, like in March, I guess it really kind of took hold. I hadn't been playing, I'd only played out like twice in like three months where I was before I was playing out like five nights a week. And I had been for years, I was working, you know, at home to, to basically change my business mode.
Right. So that I could play out when I wanted to. And when it was fun, but generate income, like I said, with production and in songwriting, this all hit and that kind of put everything on hold, including the production stuff it's but it's allowed, it's allowed me to keep working on songwriting and recording those songs, but I had to shut down my studio and all that stuff because I just didn't have the space to keep it up, you know? And, and I didn't have the income from the gigs to afford to keep it.
Yeah. So what I did is I went out and got like a side job for fun. And if were for like, you know, money in the pocket and it's the first real job I've had in like over a decade. So it worked out in that. I'm glad I did it. Right. Because when the COVID thing really took hold, I found a better job that also provided housing in big Sur. Right. So like it's hard to beat. Yeah. So I'm getting paid to live in this cool house.
Plus I'm getting a paycheck in a, in a place that's able to operate during all this. Right. So even though I'm not playing music, I wouldn't have been able to do it anyway. Had I, you know, not prepared, I didn't prepare for COVID, but I did prepare for it. Not no unknowingly. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So it's been a huge blessing. Like it's, it's been awesome. It allows me all the time. I need to write and record and still make some money and still have a cool house and you know, an amazing spot with a roof over my head.
So it's kept me from performing live, but I wasn't really doing that anyway at the time, you know, I was, I was trying to be sneaky about it and I didn't announced anybody really like that. I was retiring cause I, I was retiring in a sense from a part of it, but not totally cause the, the bigger picture, like I said, besides the production was to take the songwriting stuff and go out and perform it, but not have to PR you know, with songwriting and you can perform it in coffee houses and listening rooms and theaters.
Right. And you're done by nine or 10 in the evening. Not, not just beginning your night, you know, cause I was working really hard to, to get out of, out of that environment that other than playing music in it, I'm not comfortable in it. I don't, like I said, I don't drink, I don't, I don't care to stay up till three or four in the morning or, you know, I like to get up early and rise with the sun as close as I can, you know, and exercise and run.
And you know, I, aside from music, I try to lead a healthy lifestyle playing, you know, most nights of the week and staying up until two or three, cause you have to, it's really hard to wake up early and it's really hard to make time to meditate and do yoga or, you know, all the things that I prefer to do with my time. It's just got it, just got to the point where I, I had experienced enough of that music in the music world of that element. And I feel like I've kind of carved out a place for me where my reputation in my, my pedigree or my resume, I felt like I got to a point where I can make that change and I'm pretty sure people are going to still support me in, in making music, but I can make it more in a way that suits me and my lifestyle and not just use the music, you know, suits both.
Speaker 2 (43m 14s): Yeah. It sounds like it's the natural progression of maturing artists to move from that phase of being out on tour and pipelines and then moving to a position where, you know, like you said, it's, it's, if you want to live a healthy lifestyle, you kind of got to follow the earth, get up in the sun does and go to bed when the sun does.
Speaker 1 (43m 37s): Yeah. And so, you know, being able to do it as a solo artist, I'm not responsible for a band. I don't have, I don't have, you know, people that I have to feed and in transport and, and you know, and lodge on the road. And you know, when you have that car, that's overhead, it's, it's a business, so it's overhead. And so when you, when you do have those things and I was lucky, like those guys are my to this day, like the guys I work with are my, some of my best friends.
Like we keep in touch even though we're not working together. Right. So I'm not complaining, but with that overhead is the need to work as often as possible. So that if that's four or five, six, seven nights a week, you never say no to work. Right. And it's great. And it's fun. And you know, I did it for a long time. So I got to experience a lot of awesome things that I never would have otherwise, I'm glad I did it. But if I look at the longterm, you know, I only needed to do it so much before I've been there, done that.
So as, as a songwriter in a solo artist, I can tour kind of on my own schedule. So if, if I just, if I want to play one or two nights a week and spend those other five days actually seeing the sites and running those trails and hiking those trails and stopping to experience that, you know, this town or that town or this restaurant or whatever, I can do it, you know? And like I said before, like I'm really lucky in that.
I feel like I have a good standing the music world with the supporters and the music fans and stuff that in the venues that I can continue to work in, even though the product is similar, it's different people are, I think, you know, people are still there to support it. It allows me to live because my lifestyle has always kind of been adventurous and, you know, going out and in experience like surfing and then going out to the mountains the next day and mountain biking, and then, you know, on, on the other days I'm skateboarding, like, yeah.
So, you know, when you're, when you're in a van full of guys that you're working with, there's not a whole lot of time for that. You're always on the go, you're always just trying to catch up on sleep. You're always trying to catch up on nutrition and then, and then it's time to set up and work, you know? So yeah. I've just the COVID thing. It is. I think, I think it's in a weird way gonna play out in my, it has so far, it's played out in my favor.
You know, you might want to dedicate the album to COVID, it's done a lot for you, but this one is that this goes out to COVID right here. And there's some songs that, you know, there's some songs that will be on the first one and they'll probably be, you know, I've got it. I've already got, I want to do them in nine song increments. Cause I liked the number nine. Nice. Okay. I think it's a like time wise. I think it's a good, you know, cause that's that's, for me, that's roughly 20 to 25 minutes worth of music.
Okay. So like for the modern attention span, I think it works out well, it's not too much, it still fits on a vinyl record. And I like like old school vinyl records, which we did on the last, the last record, but an old school vinyl record. Like if you look at those, they've only got like four songs on each side. Right. Cause you, you can't put as much music on a record as you can on a CD. Right. Right. So it works out in that regard. It's kind of a throwback to how, how records were released timewise.
But with that in mind, I've, I've got, I don't know if I do them in nine song increments, I'm probably sitting on five albums worth of material right now. Plus the songs I'll probably write, you know, between this and the next time we messaged each other on Facebook every week or two. Yeah. Right. So by this time, next week there'll probably be another three or so songs like for, for the sixth album that'll be done by then. So yeah. That's, I don't know if I'm answering any of your questions or just rambling.
So yeah, that's, that's, that's kind of the COVID thing for me right now is, is it's allowed me to make that transition and it allowed me to do it under the radar. Nice. Right. Because yeah, one of the things I was, I was really struggling with, do I tell people I've retired and in changing my business mode or do I do it under the radar and just, and not make a big deal of it, just make this, the next new thing without announcing it.
And I was worried about it because for a couple of months when I wasn't playing gigs and I didn't tell anybody that it wasn't playing gigs, except for a few people that asked all my, my friends that are musicians were still out there working and I wasn't out there with them. Yeah. Right. And I was starting to wonder, like, if people start noticing that I'm not out there with him, that's, I'm like in the business, in the business sense, regardless of what business you're in, that's not necessarily a good thing. Right. You, you don't want to be out of the loop too long.
Right. And then boom, this thing all happened and nobody's playing. And nobody really noticed that. I wasn't. Cause, cause we've been in, we've been in the COVID situation longer than the time that I was taking that little hiatus. Right. Or did that to the time COVID really hit was only a couple months. Whereas now it's been here for over three, three, four months now I first heard about it in December. Yeah. And I started seeing people affected by it as far as employment and that kind of thing like in February, you know, so it's been almost half a year.
Yeah. So, so in a, in a weird way, like it kind of leveled the playing field of all my, my friends that are out there, you know, full time musicians, it leveled the playing field of them not being able to play me, not being able to play. And then the couple of month break that I took where I just chose not to, you know,
Speaker 2 (50m 7s): There's an interesting pattern there that I see. And it's, I think it happens to all of us, but from what you've just said, it has become really clear to me. And I think that that pattern for creativity is that when you leave a group of people, you normally hang out with, it tends to be a transformation. You, and
Speaker 1 (50m 28s): If you look at what happened to you, you, you kind of went out and then all of a sudden you've changed up your business. More things up this style
Speaker 3 (50m 37s): From this style, from late night style to this acoustic or a bit more organic form. If people are honest with themselves, I think they would find when you leave the security of the group, you're forced to grow. When you leave the security of everything, you know, you're forced to rely on yourself and that's when the real creative process happens. That's when you can truly translate vision into reality. When you find the courage to go it alone, you find out what you're truly capable of.
Speaker 1 (51m 12s): I think I didn't realize it until you said it, but I totally agree. Like looking back, you know, one of the reasons besides like the lifestyle part of it that I wanted to change things up is when I was playing that much and you know, I'm not like I play theaters and you know, sometimes pretty big festivals, but most of my work was like small theaters opening for bigger names or hustling bars, like dance halls, like down in Texas or in Colorado or Oklahoma places where people go to dance and drink and those gigs are four or five hour gigs every night with almost no breaks ever.
Like we rarely took breaks, right. Because, because we were successful, we would, a lot of times not take, take breaks because we were, people would come to dance, you know, when we played. Right. And so the, the energy expense to do that and catch and try to get enough sleep during the day and all that thing. I didn't, I lost the ability to S to practice, you know, practice guitar.
I lost the, I lost a lot of the time to sit down and write songs because you're kind of at the mercy of inspiration. So you can't just do it whenever you want necessarily. And I lost, you know, and I shouldn't say a loss. I knowingly gave those, I paid that price knowingly to do, to do what I wanted to do. Right. And I just got to a point where I didn't want to do it anymore. I gave up a lot of the time that I spend like now reading and meditating and learning about myself and life and all that kind of thing so that I can write better songs or that I can further educate myself about how music works.
Cause it's, I'm always learning whether it's, whether it's music production or just the craft of music, the language of music since November, I've really been diving deep into practicing and learning and education. You know, all my education for the most part is self-education, you know, I, I did take guitar lessons, but I didn't take that many for that long. And I wasn't a great student in school. I was in the gifted programs for quite a while, but then I got phased out because I just was detached.
I wasn't into it. It was just because I was good at it didn't mean I was good at it. You know what I mean? And I didn't, I didn't care for it. It didn't speak to me, you know, like I went to college for a few months to Palomar. Right. But I did it cause my mom asked me to do it. Just give it a try. Yeah. You know? And so, you know, by the time I graduated, like my grades weren't great from high school, but not because I couldn't, I just didn't didn't want to. And so I honored my mom's request to at least try college before you just go off and do what you want to do, do this for me, do this for me.
And then you can go do what you want to do. Right. So I, I took the entrance exams, like after being like, you know, like a C, C minus C plus student at best. And I got there's like, I think there's like a, a 30, there's a three part entrance exam or placement tests that they put you through. And it's like 30 questions, like in three different departments. And I, I only missed one question from each, from each department.
So like I got a 97% right. On my, on my entrance placement thing. And so they put me in these really ridiculously difficult classes. But the one thing that they did put me in was like this really high level literature, creative writing class. And so that was cool. Cause I, I loved it in math and science I could do, but I just didn't care enough about it to, to apply myself. And I'm not, I'm not smart enough to be able to miss a whole chunk and then catch up.
Yeah. That's really difficult. Yeah. I think that's difficult for anybody. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (55m 27s): Know, it brings up an interesting point that it's so amazing how like different literature can influence us. And a great story is something that everybody can get behind. You know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of mythology in history that, that speaks to the heart of it. Just a good story. And if you are there reading like a lot of Joseph Campbell lately, and it talks about like the hero's journey, which is call to adventure and then he meets a mentor, they go on the call to adventure.
They almost lose, but then they conquer it and not take the story of everyone private. It seems to me that you may have implemented the hero's journey with you with driving your big re balance.
Speaker 1 (56m 15s): But that's a Dale Watson song, sorry. Exit one Oh nine. Excellent. One Oh nine. Yeah. Yeah. That's my buddy Dale Watson wrote that because it's hilarious if anybody's not aware of Dale Watson, he's one of my favorite songwriters around like so clever and like poignant, but like simple, you know, like in, in funny what a, what a sense of humor.
Speaker 2 (56m 36s): Yeah. And those, you know, I think that might come along with, you know, we were talking about process music and processed food. So many people, you know, it seems to me a lot of really great songs tell a story, but it just becomes a hook and a few lines of dialogue. I think you get away from the real, the real soul of music. You know, I like the storytelling and I, I think that that is something that you've been doing. And I think that there's, we could use more of that in the world and
Speaker 1 (57m 9s): Yeah. See like what I, what I, what I think of what I do when people ask me, it's hard to explain, but like, like folk music is, is what I do, but that's, that's, that's become a sound. It's become a thing. Like it's become like Bob Dylan and his acoustic guitar and his harmonica, but folk music is not that it's a type of art. Right. And it's the type of art of the working man, you know, the, the, the common mint, it's not classical music.
It's not educated music, but it's, it's relatable music to, to the 99%. That's, you know, country music is full of music. Blues music is folk music. Rap is folk music. Yeah. Right. So I've always tried to work under that umbrella so that I could, I could play whatever different sounds I want, but it's, it's that blue collar, you know, full approach and, and real quick, speaking of Dale Watson, he's got two songs, at least two that come to mind that you should check out.
One of them is called country my ass and talking about the Nashville thing. And, and one is called Nashville rash. Okay. You should check, check those out. They're hilarious. Well, yeah, but yeah, like getting back to, to kind of come full circle to what you were talking about. I left college after a few weeks and, and the reason I left is because if a few, I think it was like three weeks or six weeks in.
I got, I got my first like real gig. I, you know, I'd play like backyard parties and stuff before that and, and made money doing it. Like I was making, I think I first got paid to play music when I was like 12 or so like, people, people like in junior high, like at Lincoln would have backyard parties. Yeah, yeah. Right. And some of us hung with older people that were in high school. So we were going to backyard parties. We were living like, we were in high school when we were in like sixth, seventh grade. Cause Vista was that kind of town.
You could do that. Yeah. It wasn't like now we're backyard. Parties are just like super difficult to pull without getting shut down. So like, I was hanging out with older dudes and hanging out at parties and stuff, but I, you know, we'd get hired to play music at parties when we were in like sixth, seventh, eighth grade. So like, I was already making money doing it. Right. But I got my first like real gig where I was me playing songs. I wrote in San Diego, like I had been, I had been learning my craft early on.
Somebody told me if, you know, it's great that you, cause I just want to be a guitar player. I want to play guitar for people. And they just sit in the back and do that. And that's what I was doing. But somebody told me when I was real young, like if you want to have a career and you, and you want to have some job security, don't just be a guitar player. Learn how to sing, learn how to write, learn how to write a song so that you learn how a song is, is constructed so that you have, you know, it helps your guitar playing. It helps you back somebody up.
If you know how songs work, if you can create your own songs and you can sing, you can also be your own business, your own entity. So I got a job when I was like 18 or 19 in Pacific beach at a place called the interchange. Nice. And they gave me, I think it was Thursday night, every Thursday was mine. And the reason it opened up is because Juul had been there and that was her gig.
Whoa. And she got signed and, and she had to leave and I took her spot. Wow. Yeah. That was like my first, like, you know, first professional gig as myself playing songs I wrote and learning that craft. I'm trying to get back to, to answering your question, like where it all kind of originated from and talking about education and all that stuff. That's, that's how I got my foot in the door. You know, a fellow singer song writer who was pretty successful in Southern California, liked what I did and supported me.
And she said, you gotta meet the owner of this, of this coffee house because a spot is going to open up, you know, a residency is opening up. Right. And I didn't know it was Juul. I just thought it was, I just thought it was a gig. But I knew that the place had a reputation as one of the spots where the pros in San Diego played because at the time there was a coffee house on every corner and they all had open mics and they all had live music on the weekends and almost anybody could get a gig doing that.
You know, including me, I was getting gigs doing that, you know, occasionally, but this was my house gig. This was, you know, you're on, you're on the roster. And that's kinda where it started that saying at the time being, being able to tell other venues and other cities that that's what I was doing with my Thursdays. They were like, well, okay, we don't even need to hear you just come on, whatever Dayton
Speaker 4 (1h 2m 21s): We'll give you a gig. Yeah. You know? And so it's just been a process of, of that approach and you know, doing my best, not to burn any bridges and doing my best to, to offer up a quality product that I've been able to just kind of keep building it up. Yeah. It seems like that part, I find really interesting. And it's something you would only know if you were in the business, there's so much rich history at clubs that you wouldn't even stinker clubs are there.
There's so much rich history. If you, if you, if you learn about it, like how many people have played the whiskey to Gogo, many people have played, you know, different rooms in San Diego. And it's just like, I had no idea that Jewell played there or was like a resident there. And that's the stuff you would only know if you were in a position like yourself. And that, that was, that was, that was where it all started. Like the, we were talking about being self-educated for the purpose of furthering, you know, your life's goals.
So if you're not going to do it via school or traditional routes, you still have to do it. Right. You still have to put the work in and not just the hands on work of your craft, but you have to know the history of the people that, that, that didn't before you. So you know how to connect the dots and how it got to where you are.
Adam Lopez from his studio in Big Sur, sits down for a two part interview on how he went from a baseball playing, street skating, rebel to Touring the planet with his guitar. From the back of a cop car to a studio in Nashville Adam has redefined the road to success. With a new set of acoustic albums on the way your definitely gonna be hearing a lot more about him. Click the above link for info & dates.
Transcript:
https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/48488076
Speaker 0 (0s): Yeah, it's up everybody. We've got something special plan right now. We got the one and only Adam Lopez coming on. Pretty excited. I, I haven't seen this cat for a while and he's doing big things, you know, he's doing real big things. So the first time bringing anybody on, so try to set it up the split screen, have a nice interview and a conversation for everybody to check out.
Yeah, there he is. Mr. Adam Lopez. What's up, man. You know what man? We were to everybody. That's there's only a few people here right now. I don't mean, I know that it may take awhile for some people to filter in. Right. But for anybody that's just showing up. Now I just briefly talked to Adam and we talked a little bit. I don't want to go too deep. Cause I wanted everybody to get, to see kind of a, how we started, where we started at. And we'll start, we'll talk a little bit about how I know Adam and our friendship, but at the same time, I have so many questions for you.
So I'll just start off with Adam and I have known each other for how many years Adam, have we known each other?
Speaker 1 (1m 17s): Oh man. Since we were six or seven years old. So almost 40 years. Oh man. It's weird to say, but yeah, almost 40 years, like darn close thirties. 37, 38 years.
Speaker 0 (1m 31s): Yup. So we played baseball together. We escaped together. We went to Lincoln and then Rancho.
Speaker 1 (1m 39s): Yeah, dude. I'm at the skate park right now. I just got done skating.
Speaker 0 (1m 43s): So awesome. I was totally gonna ask. I was like, yo God, we used to skateboard together. So that is awesome to me. I don't mind. I want to just start off by asking you this. And as we move through our lives, people's lives, change their passions change. However you are. One of the only people I know that has apparently continued to skateboard like me, but also you've really worked on your craft as far as being a musician and you stuck with it and you've had some big gains.
So how, how, how does that journey changed for you? Like how did it go from the beginning to where you are now?
Speaker 1 (2m 24s): Man? That's a, that's a interesting question. I'm not even sure. I know the answer like you talking about like all the changes that people go through and stuff, and I've gone through a lot of change, but I'm doing the same exact things that bring me enjoyment as now at 44 that I was doing when I was five years old. Like basically it seems like everything I learned about what I liked. I learned by the time I was five and then I just kept doing them.
I just found, I guess I found a way to, you know, to get paid, to do it so that I could keep doing it. And that, that was the goal.
Speaker 0 (3m 3s): You know what, that might be the best definition of success I've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (3m 8s): Yeah. You know, and it's, that's, that's where I'm at now is learning to, to appreciate and recognize what I didn't recognize for a long time. Like I, I thought I was maybe not growing up and not doing like real life stuff, but now I realize that, you know, I'd had it pretty good all along. Like I've been really lucky, super fortunate.
Speaker 0 (3m 32s): Yeah. I, I, I heard a quote one time that said your first, 40 years is the experience you get. And then the next 40 years is you interpreting that experience, you know? And when you say that, you know, I think we're another one. One of the greatest things that people can do is to see themselves the way other people see them. You know, we, all of us tend to be critical of ourselves. Oh, am I doing this right? Am I not growing up? You know, or am I, am I being a responsible, but the truth is it doesn't really matter.
What other people think about you. It matters what you think about you.
Speaker 1 (4m 9s): Right? Right. There's a, there's a quote about, you know, it's not your business. What other people think of you? I love that. And I wrote a song about that actually. Okay. And it's kind of silly, but I wrote it anyway. Why wouldn't you? Right. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 0 (4m 30s): This, this leads up to something that I've always wondered about. I think all of us inside are an aspiring artist. You know, some of us were able to really coax out the part of us that is an artist. How is it that you find inspiration to write music? And how is it that you decide to translate that inspiration into action?
Speaker 1 (4m 54s): The best explanation that I've heard, somebody else describe it as is from bill Withers, who passed away recently. And he was really a matter of fact, dude. So when somebody asked him basically the same thing, he said, you know, sometimes things just cross your mind and that that's it like, you know, everything I write comes from observing or living through it or somebody else I know went through something and I feel like I can relate, even if I haven't experienced it.
So on some level I can understand or relate to it. So if I write about it, then maybe somebody else can relate or understand and either identify with it or at least have empathy or sympathy for somebody else that goes through that. You know? So I don't, I don't have a direct answer. Like it just happens. I don't, I don't do it. It kinda just comes through me, you know?
Speaker 0 (5m 51s): Yeah. It's, it's, it's always fascinating to hear people talk about the creative process and how it seems to me that people have a unique process to go through. However, there's usually an underlying similarity in that they are translating any emotion. No. What I mean by that, like, they they've been inspired or like you said, you've seen something happen, whether it's empathy or sympathy and you're able to somehow express that in the music, which I think is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (6m 27s): Yeah. I feel like the best way to get there is just to let it happen, like get out of the way. Right. So, so don't tell yourself you can't do it or that it's not your thing or you wish you could do that. Cause I think, you know, everybody has a heartbeat, so music is in all of us. Like, that's, that's your, you know, that's your backbeat everywhere you go. You've got it. You know, where I'm doing it, where I'm coming from personally is I just love it that much.
And I grew up in it. Like my, you know, a lot of my family are musicians when we were playing baseball and we're six, seven years old. Like on the weekends I might be playing at a party with my uncle's band. You know what I mean? So, so for me, it's, it's different in the, in the regard that like, I'm a more of like a historian or musicologist. Like I know my history and I study it and I love it. And I do, that's the part that's for me, like that's fun. Right. And then the creative stuff is, you know, my way of sharing, whatever good feeling I get with other people so that hopefully they have it too, you know?
And, and I don't think everybody needs to go that deep and devote their life to it or whatever. But everybody's an artist whether they know it or not.
Speaker 0 (7m 42s): Yeah. I, so I didn't know that about your family, is it, it, does everybody play guitar is one play drums and one plays like the saxophone or, or how did that break down?
Speaker 1 (7m 54s): Like on my mom's side of the family. So her brothers, she's got a couple of brothers that are musicians and then their, their uncles, or, you know, like going back, they're all musicians. My great grandfather was a, was a upright bass. And in percussionists, like in the forties and fifties, professionally, and then I've heard stories like going back to like the turn of the century where we have aunts and uncles that, you know, back in the days where you played, where the radio was, live music.
Yeah. You know, that we had relatives that that's what they did. So
Speaker 0 (8m 32s): Yeah. I've known you for 37 years and I'm still finding out new stuff about you. Yeah. That's awesome. I guess you could say it's almost, you're genetically predisposed predisposed to be a musician.
Speaker 1 (8m 49s): Yeah, probably. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what entails that to be true. Right. But I mean, like for the most part, like the, the travel and, you know, the bouncing around from place to place and like all that stuff for the most part, like it's fun for me. So all the, all the other things that go with being a working musician, I more or less enjoy, not all of it. Like I'm not, I never touched drugs. I'm not much of a, I don't drink at all. And I haven't drank that much over the course of my lifetime.
Like eating on the roads kind of tough if you like to eat clean. So that part of it is rough, but essentially like all of it goes with it, you know? Cause you have to take the good with the bad. So yeah, I think I, I was pretty well constructed to do this.
Speaker 0 (9m 41s): Do you remember Adam, when you got your first guitar, can you tell us about that?
Speaker 1 (9m 46s): So before I got my first real one, there was a series of guitars that were toys. But to me they were real right. You know, being like four or five, six years old. And then the first one that I got that I took lessons on, I was like seven. And I remember, I totally remember getting it. Was it Oceanside Boulevard? Remember there was a gem code just before you got to the highway at the bottom of the Hill. I do remember that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I got it. We got it there and it was seven bucks.
Wow. And it was missing, like to get two strings, otherwise it would have been like 20 bucks and I got that guitar. So that would have been like 1983. Okay. Any two 83. And then I started taking guitar lessons on South Santa Fe at Bradford's music. Nice. Yeah. I took guitar lessons for two or three years and then like took a break for a couple of years. And then I went back when I was like 10 or 11 for a couple of years.
Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 0 (10m 54s): And so when you're, when you're at that age taking lessons, is it, is it, is it like a one on one lesson or, or were you kind of jamming a little bit with someone that was instructing or you learn the chemistry of how to play with people? Or how, how do you go from, from taking lessons to understanding chemistry and playing with someone else?
Speaker 1 (11m 15s): Well, like prior to that, like I'd spent countless days, like in my uncle's garage while his band was practicing or sitting around the house while he was practicing and trying to like, you know, fake my way along. I mean, I had no, no clue what I was doing really, but I knew, I knew that I understood it when I heard it. You know, it's like, like people with like foreign languages. Right. Like they they've never learned it, but they know what people are talking about sometimes.
Right. So for me it was like, it was just like learning a language, you know? But the, the lessons themselves were like in a tiny, tiny little room, like I don't even know. It probably was, it wasn't even 10 by 10. It was tiny. Right. Just, yeah. Private teacher, you know, he was trying to show me the fundamentals, but basically like within a couple of lessons, I think he showed me the most like elementary way to play like Johnny B. Good Barry and Chuck Barry at that time was my hero.
Was your hero. Yeah. At that point he was so, I mean, he taught me that in 10 minutes and then I was just like off and running. I can play, I can play what I heard in my head and figure it out at that point. And I kinda, I, I wasn't the best student after that. Cause he kind of gave me the information too soon. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 0 (12m 44s): Yeah. It sounds like that even though he may have given it to you soon, it kind of helped you develop like, cause you're kind of a rebel anyway, man. I mean, but it seems that maybe he just gave you the, the, I dunno, like the quarter beat or he just gave you the first beat and you were able to run with it.
Speaker 1 (13m 1s): Yeah, yeah, for sure. And luckily I picked up enough things that I should know besides what I wanted to know that later, later in life, when people started asking me to teach them, I learned everything I would have learned in music school within a few weeks because I kind of, I knew it. I just didn't know the language of it. So teaching, teaching other people, I quickly put the language to what I heard or knew in my head to be true.
So my students that I started teaching like maybe 30 years after my first lesson, really, I learned more from them and in a few short weeks than I had learned in lessons, you know, in my childhood. So I was lucky that way,
Speaker 0 (13m 48s): I've talked to a bunch of teachers and I've done some teaching myself and I've always heard. And I would agree with you that you really don't know something until you can teach it to someone else and have them do it well. And that's when you know, you know it right. What it sounds like, you know, with Chuck Berry being an early influence, you know, I was going to ask how you decided to play the music that you play, but it sounds like we're getting there by talking about Chuck Berry.
Speaker 1 (14m 17s): Well, I have a pretty, I I'm an only child, but I have a big extended family and they're all musicians. Right. They, they all have their individual tastes. So I was taught early on what quality music was, what, what, you know, quote unquote real music was and then taught to listen to be, you know, more or less everything like, Oh, be open minded, learn what makes certain music, even if you don't like it, learn what makes it good music to somebody else, try to figure it out, you know, try to find, try to find it is because if you want to do this and you want to make a living out of it, you've, you've gotta be well rounded and educated.
Speaker 0 (15m 0s): Yeah. What, so can you, can you help those of us that like, if we were just learning for the first time, how would you define quality news again? How would you define what other people like
Speaker 1 (15m 18s): Man, that's tough. I was, I just know I was lucky. I was really fortunate that what I was given was I was given the right answer. Yeah. And so, you know, for me, like my family was heavily into, you know, American roots music. So, you know, the early, like Hank Williams and Bob wills, country music and you know, all the early rock and roll, Chuck, Berry, little Richard and Elvis, all that stuff, all the good, you know, blues and early blues, you know, from, from the pre-war like 30 stuff to like muddy waters and Howlin Wolf.
And then all the rock music that cave, I guess I should, I should, I should also let you know, like my, you know, my parents were around when I was young and raise me, but I give a lot, or maybe more credit to my grandparents for, for raising me while my parents were off working and doing their thing. And so my grandfather who was he's still around actually, but he was definitely like the patriarch of the family. Like everybody went to him for answers and he was from Texas. So when it came to music, when it came to music, like that was, that was the, the, the hub or the basis for what everything else that we listened to spring from, you know?
And that's a big umbrella. Yeah. It sounds like, especially if you're born there in the forties, like that's, so that's, that's, that's where my roots are. Right.
Speaker 0 (16m 49s): It's interesting to think about, especially, it's interesting to think about how different, how different people can be raised in our race. And I think that, you know, there's a, a quality of people who were lucky enough to have their grandparents in their house or in their life when they were younger. Because, you know, as an adult, you have kids and you think you got stuff figured out, but you, you realize when you talk to your mom or your dad about the kids that they're like, Oh listen, you're dumb and you don't even know what you're doing.
You know what I mean? All my friends that we're lucky enough to have some, a grandparent or, you know, whether it's a grandma or grandfather in the house, they, they seem to be a little wiser than their age. And I think that stems from having that wisdom around. And so it's a, so let me ask you this one here, you've done quite a bit of traveling. What can you, can you, can you tell us, have you been throughout the nation, you know, or, or tell us a little bit about some of your touring.
Speaker 1 (17m 51s): I guess the music has taken me more or less from like from New York to California. And most of that has been centered like in the Southwest and South, like Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico. Most of it's been down there, but I've seen, I've seen a good portion of the country from, from California to New York and up through Pennsylvania and all that stuff. I haven't been to the far East coast or anything, but yeah, I've seen, I've seen the majority of it.
I think at this point a little bit of Europe, it should have been cool.
Speaker 0 (18m 25s): What parts of Europe pick out?
Speaker 1 (18m 28s): I made it to Paris once, you know, I got to touch the Eiffel tower and see the Mona Lisa. I've been to Iceland a number of times, which is pretty cool. And then most of the touring has been all around, like toward most of Belgium, I think in a good portion of the Netherlands. Yeah.
Speaker 0 (18m 49s): What was it like touring in Europe? What was each country in Europe like a state in the United States, as far as the feeling kind of a different vibe, a different place, or how
Speaker 1 (19m 1s): Well, most of it, like I said, most of it, 99% of it's Belgium and the Netherlands, those places are similar, but you know, distinctly different like Vista and Oceanside, like very similar, but not quite our Vista and Carlsbad, like, like this is, this has got some of what Carlsbad has, but Carlsbad doesn't really have the hood like this, you know? And, and like Belgium, Belgium is very working class for the most part, like Northern Belgium, whereas the Southern portions, a little more French influenced and then Holland, Holland's like a lot of farm country.
It's got some, some awesome like seaside towns that we've played at. And then there's like the more traditional, like old villages and towns, you know, that maybe aren't farming, but a little more social, you know, town, squares and restaurants and that kind of thing. But as far as the difference between there and America, it's, it's pretty different. There's a different appreciation for what we do over there.
Yeah. I, I,
Speaker 0 (20m 15s): I've always found that when you traveled to another country, the country you learn most about is your cooking.
Speaker 1 (20m 22s): Yeah. Yeah. I would say that I would, I definitely came out like I've done, there was a portion there where we're over the course of like a year to like 15 months. I probably was, I probably had spent half of that, that time between Iceland and France. So that was besides the touring that I would do here. I was away from home for, for the better part of like six months or so seven months and in a different country.
And in that time in different countries, yeah. I definitely came home each time with a different perspective on, on home, for sure.
Speaker 2 (21m 2s): Did you write any songs while you were over there?
Speaker 1 (21m 7s): I don't know if I sat down to write them, but I would assume, you know, I don't ride lately. I've been riding every day. I write every day, at least mentally, but I don't sit down and write and it doesn't come out musically every day. So I don't know that I sat down and wrote while I was there, because most of the time we're so busy. Like if, if I, if I went over there for, if I went over there for like, Oh, you know, maybe we would go over for two to three months at a time sometimes.
Right. So if I was over there for like 70 days, I might play 90 shows. Wow. Yeah. So a lot of two days, not a lot of times, like you're basically sleeping, eating, or traveling to a gig, you know? Right. So I don't know that I really sat down and wrote anything, but I would guess a lot of songs, you know, in between those tours was influenced by being there. And there's like, there's songs that I've written in the last couple of months that are directly inspired by, you know, being over there,
Speaker 2 (22m 12s): You got a new album coming out, right?
Speaker 1 (22m 14s): Yeah. I've got a series of them coming out in the next few months. I'm trying to line it up so they can kind of come out one, you know, one right behind the other. And they're going to be a little different than what I've done for a long time. So yeah. I'm lining those up right now. Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22m 35s): You are doing that out of your studio and big syrup there.
Speaker 1 (22m 38s): Yeah. I set up a, like a mobile studio in big Sur, like overlooking the ocean. I think I sent you a photo. Yeah, you did. Yeah. So yeah. So like two, two sliding glass doors, you know, just glass facing, overlooking the water, you know, just basically right over the water on a cliff,
Speaker 2 (22m 58s): The picture later, like your guitar, the picture you sent me was just, it said everything. It was like your guitar and the sliding doors and then the view. And I'm like, look at this guy, man. He's doing it.
Speaker 1 (23m 8s): Yeah. So, yeah, recording right now. I've actually recorded one of the records and I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it again before I'm not going to release it at one. Right. Just because I'm not totally it's, it's, it's good. But it's not the one that I hear in my head. Okay. So I want to record, I want to make sure I record that one before I put it out. But the process for the way that I'm recording, this is pretty quick, like the next series of releases is just going to be live acoustic guitar and voice.
Like it's not full band productions. Like everything else has been.
Speaker 2 (23m 44s): So like kind of like an unplugged thing that you would see people sit down.
Speaker 1 (23m 49s): Yeah. Yeah. So that, you know, when you're doing it that way, the process is much quicker. I mean, I can re I can record the songs is in, as long as it takes to play the songs, I don't have to worry about overdubs or other musicians where it's just, it can take weeks or months. It's just a matter of capturing it on the right day at the right time. And so I'm, I'm just working on that.
Speaker 2 (24m 13s): You know, it totally reminds me of like, this might not be the right analogy, but when you went, the way you described the music is, you know, if you have all these dubs and that stuff, that seems like processed to me. And when I think of process, I think a process food, you know, you're doing it just like straight you're in big sewer. You're being influenced by being healthy and eating the raw food. And now you're putting out the rock music. It's just like the unplugged acoustic version, you know?
Speaker 1 (24m 40s): Yeah. I mean, I eat clean. I don't, you know, no animals, no, no very little processed or fake anything. I'm very, even very little cooked food. Yeah. You know, I don't drink, I don't do any, I never really have. And yeah, I think it's translating to the product I want to put out. And the analogy I make a lot of times for people is like, you know, organic, real food versus like McDonald's, but that's, to me, that's what the radio is, you know?
So I want to give, I want to give people and I mean, I've always done it that way, but even like the last record that I did, Nashville, the Cinderella sessions, that's all live, you know, that's four guys in a room playing together and there's no, there's no trickery. There's no overdubs. There's no, nothing other, other than the harmony vocal that somebody came in and did later. But he did it later that day. Like the, the music, this, my singing and guitar, like I played, especially in Nashville, it's a huge no-no, but I played, I played rhythm sing and play my guitar solos while the band was playing, you know, like a lot of so-called live in studio recordings, even, especially in Nashville, like the solos and stuff were overdubbed, you know, so we did it.
It's, it's all there. Just like, just to how we did it with, if, with Lloyd green on pedal steel, who, you know, if you're in country music, world Lloyd, Lloyd green is on, you know, like the Mount Rushmore of pedal steel guitar players. So yeah, in the studio we did it in was, was pretty legendary, but yeah, I'm taking, I'm taking the same process and just transferring it to me by myself with one guitar and two microphones.
Speaker 2 (26m 35s): That's almost like that's like the opposite of Beck who had two turntables and a microphone.
Speaker 1 (26m 41s): Yeah. Yeah. And it's, I, you know, I hope people dig it. Like my music has never been polished or really, you know, processed all that much at all. So
Speaker 2 (26m 55s): I think that that's what gives it a unique quality. And the more that I talked to you and I, I think the more that I think when people listen to this, like that does translate when you talked about your family, you know, kind of being the very foundation for you being in music for a long time. And, and that, that's also probably why you were able to, when you got to Nashville to come, you know, look, look like you sit in there is because you've been around the right inspiration. I don't know that much about Nashville. And I know some people watching do, but when you said there's some no-nos in there, they're like those like unwritten rules of the game, or can you tell us a little bit about Nashville and what it must've been like to get there for the first time?
Speaker 1 (27m 35s): Yeah. I mean, you know, they're, they're known for the slick production in a very polished sounding like per perfect sanding records, but, you know, if you're, if you're not in that world and you're just a music lover and listener, you know, that sound is not something that you just walk in and do a lot of those records take, you know, they could take a year or more to make. Right. And it's, it's very like, I don't know, not just processed, but it's very micromanaged.
I mean, a singer could go in and sing like a couple syllables at a time and they can patch it together. Wow. And the guitar player can go in and record solos the same way or record 20, 50, you know, 50 guitar solos. And they can take the best like notes from each guitar solo and stitch them together. And it's easy. It's easy to do that. The drums can be micromanaged to the point where the timing is so perfect that it can never be replicated like that live, you know?
And that's cool. It's, it's, you know, I don't, it's not good or bad. It's just is what it is. And it's just not my thing. And, you know, for, for me, for me, I want to be able to record the same way that I perform live. And it's never perfect, you know? Right. And I don't like recording over and over and over again. I just want to capture the essence of what I'm doing and it just has to be good enough and have the feel, you know, for me.
Speaker 2 (29m 12s): Yeah. Yeah. I admire that. I mean, if I go to concerts, whether it's a favorite band or a comedian, I kind of like the fact that it's going to be a little different show than anybody else's scene. You know what I mean? I might, I might catch Adam Lopez on a night where he's like, there's something new over here. Might be the only guy to see that, you know, or how do you get to see people working out material? Or I didn't know that about Nashville. I didn't know that it was like garage band, you know, and maybe that's not an accurate assessment of what that is.
I don't, I don't want to downplay that, but it's, it's fascinating to me. Cause I've, I've heard when I was young, you just hear about the legendary stars coming at the billion people. If you want to make it, you got to go to Nashville and stuff like that. Yeah. But I've always kind of been curious about that. I mean,
Speaker 1 (29m 59s): Yeah. And I don't want to give the impression that it's all like that, cause it's definitely not, you know, some of the best musicians in the world are there. So they actually, you know, a lot of records come out of there and they just sound perfect or near perfect. Cause those guys were that good. But like when you think of Nashville on more of a generic level, like you think of what you hear on the radio and some of the, the so called like country stars that you see on the billboards and that kind of thing. And those there's so much money behind those records that they have to micromanage it.
They can't afford to risk it. You know? So it's, it's a different world. I'm lucky that my world in Nashville is a lot more rootsy and organic. There's been a, a movement in there in the last 10 years of some younger guys coming up and doing things in a more old school way in a lot of the, the musicians that worked in the, in the studios on records from the golden era of the fifties and sixties still live there and still work in the studios.
So I'm lucky that I got in with, with those guys, you know, I'm not, I'm not in with the Shanaya twins or Brad Paisley, people of Nashville. I don't have any connections to almost any of them or any, any of those musicians. But a lot of the old school cats, you know, a lot of the guys I work with, you know, are in their seventies and eighties now, but that's, that's where I want to be. That's that's just my thing.
Speaker 2 (31m 30s): Yeah. It seems like there's a, there's a commonality in the commercial miss of things where, you know, when you, I kind of will love people that serve them when they get sponsored. They're like, yeah, we got it. And I liken it in my mind. It might be a record deal. And let me know back here, once they get sponsored, they're all stoked. But then they realize that that sponsor owns them. I'd imagine. Yeah. You know, you put out a record and they own all your stuff. And at first you're stoked. You're like, wait a minute. They own all my stuff, right.
Speaker 1 (32m 0s): Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's totally like that. You know, the big differences is, is with like the bigger labels, traditionally, what happens is you get a lot of money upfront to make that record. And you think it's your money and you get the, you know, you pocket some, you live off of it. So you hate and you spend it on the studio and the musicians because he can't, you know, he can't necessarily work 40 hours a week and make that record. Right. Right. But you don't get any of the money from the sales of that record until all the money that they gave you gets paid
Speaker 2 (32m 35s): First. I see. Interesting. So you don't have that 40 a week job
Speaker 1 (32m 40s): Once the record's done. You also don't have, you don't have any way to, you know, to generate income off those record sales until you make all that money back, you know, it's kind of sinister if you think about it. Oh yeah. I think it totally is you too. You know? So, so I, I, I went without a lot of those opportunities partially by choice and partially just cause they weren't offered to me, there were some that were offered to me, but you know, I I've, I've done it on my terms for better or for worse and it's cool.
I dig it. Like I've been able to do, you know, like we talked about coming from Vista, this, this is super diverse, you know, and if you know it, if you know it as the, the beautiful lush, hillside community with nice houses and, and you know, a pretty good medium income and you assume that that's where I came from, then you probably would assume that like I could afford to do this because there's money somewhere else in the, you know, in mom mom's bank account or, or grandpa's bank account that if I failed, it had to go back home.
It wasn't that big of a deal. And the reality is, is like I came from the other side. Yeah. Where, where, you know, my parents were teenagers when they had me. Right. You know, at least my mom was, and my dad was barely not a teenager. And you know, he didn't work. My, my father didn't work very long before he, I don't know if you remember this. It happened, it happened when we were like seven years old and we were on the same baseball team. My dad was like in a major accident, broke his neck and that was it.
Like, no, no, no more work, no more anything. So basically basically a single mom working, you know, the job or a job or two. And so we were, you know, we were dirt poor for the most part. Like I shared a bedroom with my parents up until that point. And I didn't live in an actual house until I was 17, you know? So it took, it took a good decade for us to get to the point where we could move into our own house.
So instead of, you know, like, I guess what I saw around me told me that the risk involved in, in trying to make a living at music, wasn't that big of a risk, right? Like, like the people all around. Yeah. My, my circle, you know, like my parents' friends and whatnot, like most of them were alcoholics pro you know, you use drugs or soldiers. Right, right. And worked, worked, you know, like construction jobs or like manual labor.
And that's, you know, that's, that's fine. You know, that's whatever, it's not, like I said, it's not good or bad, it's just not thing. But, but what I saw was people working really hard and not getting any word different, you know, their whole life in a lot. I've, I've revisited. Some of them there, their whole life was, was instill is, you know, they're in their sixties now. There was like a 10 to 20 mile radius of home. And that was it. Yeah. And that was it. And still is for a lot of people.
So I figured like, well, I do know what hard work is and I know what, you know, integrity is. So why, why don't I just take that and apply it to something I like? And if I'm, you know, what's the point of working a job I don't like, and living at the poverty level when I can just apply it to something I do like, and live at the poverty level and still, and still get by. Right. So still keep a roof over my head and food in my stomach. So yeah, that's, that was my silly theory.
And it turns out that, you know, it worked and it worked a little, even a little better than eating crumbs and it's, it's still, it's still getting better. You know, it's getting easier every year, other than the current situation right now, which is kind of a mindblower, but
Speaker 2 (36m 57s): That is how is that affecting the music industry and not only the music industry, but how does that affect your life? It sounds like build a record albums, but I bet you can't go and play anywhere.
Speaker 1 (37m 9s): Yeah. There's, I mean, I can go play in the street corners, which is kind of cool because that's when I was younger, I did a lot of that as a teenager. Right, right. But it's, it kind of happened at the, in a weird way. It happened at the best time for me, because I was already transitioning out of, you know, cause most of my, most of what I do would be considered like Texas music. It's kind of runs the gamut of country and roots music and blues.
So, you know, a lot of, a lot of my home base musically was out of Boston, you know, like I worked in Nashville quite a bit, but it wasn't a home base. I, I still have a place where I, I like, I still have a room at a friend's house where Austin musically is like my home base. So when I was living in Denver for a while and I was traveling back, I was spending like half of my time in Austin and half my time in Denver, basically to answer your question, like in all of that, I was transitioning out of solely relying on playing like dance halls and bars from like 10 to two in the morning, four or five nights a week or whatever.
Right. To doing more production behind the scenes work, like getting music for like TV and movies, online content, you know, providing music for that songwriting with, you know, I can release my own music that I write on my own, but also get it out in the world where other people maybe with, you know, maybe some of those bigger acts in Nashville might record it, that kind of thing. Yeah.
So the way the current situation kind of hit, I was already in that transition. So I wasn't really playing out live. And I hadn't been for about a month when I first heard about the COVID thing. Right. And then when it really hit and affected me, like in March, I guess it really kind of took hold. I hadn't been playing, I'd only played out like twice in like three months where I was before I was playing out like five nights a week. And I had been for years, I was working, you know, at home to, to basically change my business mode.
Right. So that I could play out when I wanted to. And when it was fun, but generate income, like I said, with production and in songwriting, this all hit and that kind of put everything on hold, including the production stuff it's but it's allowed, it's allowed me to keep working on songwriting and recording those songs, but I had to shut down my studio and all that stuff because I just didn't have the space to keep it up, you know? And, and I didn't have the income from the gigs to afford to keep it.
Yeah. So what I did is I went out and got like a side job for fun. And if were for like, you know, money in the pocket and it's the first real job I've had in like over a decade. So it worked out in that. I'm glad I did it. Right. Because when the COVID thing really took hold, I found a better job that also provided housing in big Sur. Right. So like it's hard to beat. Yeah. So I'm getting paid to live in this cool house.
Plus I'm getting a paycheck in a, in a place that's able to operate during all this. Right. So even though I'm not playing music, I wouldn't have been able to do it anyway. Had I, you know, not prepared, I didn't prepare for COVID, but I did prepare for it. Not no unknowingly. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So it's been a huge blessing. Like it's, it's been awesome. It allows me all the time. I need to write and record and still make some money and still have a cool house and you know, an amazing spot with a roof over my head.
So it's kept me from performing live, but I wasn't really doing that anyway at the time, you know, I was, I was trying to be sneaky about it and I didn't announced anybody really like that. I was retiring cause I, I was retiring in a sense from a part of it, but not totally cause the, the bigger picture, like I said, besides the production was to take the songwriting stuff and go out and perform it, but not have to PR you know, with songwriting and you can perform it in coffee houses and listening rooms and theaters.
Right. And you're done by nine or 10 in the evening. Not, not just beginning your night, you know, cause I was working really hard to, to get out of, out of that environment that other than playing music in it, I'm not comfortable in it. I don't, like I said, I don't drink, I don't, I don't care to stay up till three or four in the morning or, you know, I like to get up early and rise with the sun as close as I can, you know, and exercise and run.
And you know, I, aside from music, I try to lead a healthy lifestyle playing, you know, most nights of the week and staying up until two or three, cause you have to, it's really hard to wake up early and it's really hard to make time to meditate and do yoga or, you know, all the things that I prefer to do with my time. It's just got it, just got to the point where I, I had experienced enough of that music in the music world of that element. And I feel like I've kind of carved out a place for me where my reputation in my, my pedigree or my resume, I felt like I got to a point where I can make that change and I'm pretty sure people are going to still support me in, in making music, but I can make it more in a way that suits me and my lifestyle and not just use the music, you know, suits both.
Speaker 2 (43m 14s): Yeah. It sounds like it's the natural progression of maturing artists to move from that phase of being out on tour and pipelines and then moving to a position where, you know, like you said, it's, it's, if you want to live a healthy lifestyle, you kind of got to follow the earth, get up in the sun does and go to bed when the sun does.
Speaker 1 (43m 37s): Yeah. And so, you know, being able to do it as a solo artist, I'm not responsible for a band. I don't have, I don't have, you know, people that I have to feed and in transport and, and you know, and lodge on the road. And you know, when you have that car, that's overhead, it's, it's a business, so it's overhead. And so when you, when you do have those things and I was lucky, like those guys are my to this day, like the guys I work with are my, some of my best friends.
Like we keep in touch even though we're not working together. Right. So I'm not complaining, but with that overhead is the need to work as often as possible. So that if that's four or five, six, seven nights a week, you never say no to work. Right. And it's great. And it's fun. And you know, I did it for a long time. So I got to experience a lot of awesome things that I never would have otherwise, I'm glad I did it. But if I look at the longterm, you know, I only needed to do it so much before I've been there, done that.
So as, as a songwriter in a solo artist, I can tour kind of on my own schedule. So if, if I just, if I want to play one or two nights a week and spend those other five days actually seeing the sites and running those trails and hiking those trails and stopping to experience that, you know, this town or that town or this restaurant or whatever, I can do it, you know? And like I said before, like I'm really lucky in that.
I feel like I have a good standing the music world with the supporters and the music fans and stuff that in the venues that I can continue to work in, even though the product is similar, it's different people are, I think, you know, people are still there to support it. It allows me to live because my lifestyle has always kind of been adventurous and, you know, going out and in experience like surfing and then going out to the mountains the next day and mountain biking, and then, you know, on, on the other days I'm skateboarding, like, yeah.
So, you know, when you're, when you're in a van full of guys that you're working with, there's not a whole lot of time for that. You're always on the go, you're always just trying to catch up on sleep. You're always trying to catch up on nutrition and then, and then it's time to set up and work, you know? So yeah. I've just the COVID thing. It is. I think, I think it's in a weird way gonna play out in my, it has so far, it's played out in my favor.
You know, you might want to dedicate the album to COVID, it's done a lot for you, but this one is that this goes out to COVID right here. And there's some songs that, you know, there's some songs that will be on the first one and they'll probably be, you know, I've got it. I've already got, I want to do them in nine song increments. Cause I liked the number nine. Nice. Okay. I think it's a like time wise. I think it's a good, you know, cause that's that's, for me, that's roughly 20 to 25 minutes worth of music.
Okay. So like for the modern attention span, I think it works out well, it's not too much, it still fits on a vinyl record. And I like like old school vinyl records, which we did on the last, the last record, but an old school vinyl record. Like if you look at those, they've only got like four songs on each side. Right. Cause you, you can't put as much music on a record as you can on a CD. Right. Right. So it works out in that regard. It's kind of a throwback to how, how records were released timewise.
But with that in mind, I've, I've got, I don't know if I do them in nine song increments, I'm probably sitting on five albums worth of material right now. Plus the songs I'll probably write, you know, between this and the next time we messaged each other on Facebook every week or two. Yeah. Right. So by this time, next week there'll probably be another three or so songs like for, for the sixth album that'll be done by then. So yeah. That's, I don't know if I'm answering any of your questions or just rambling.
So yeah, that's, that's, that's kind of the COVID thing for me right now is, is it's allowed me to make that transition and it allowed me to do it under the radar. Nice. Right. Because yeah, one of the things I was, I was really struggling with, do I tell people I've retired and in changing my business mode or do I do it under the radar and just, and not make a big deal of it, just make this, the next new thing without announcing it.
And I was worried about it because for a couple of months when I wasn't playing gigs and I didn't tell anybody that it wasn't playing gigs, except for a few people that asked all my, my friends that are musicians were still out there working and I wasn't out there with them. Yeah. Right. And I was starting to wonder, like, if people start noticing that I'm not out there with him, that's, I'm like in the business, in the business sense, regardless of what business you're in, that's not necessarily a good thing. Right. You, you don't want to be out of the loop too long.
Right. And then boom, this thing all happened and nobody's playing. And nobody really noticed that. I wasn't. Cause, cause we've been in, we've been in the COVID situation longer than the time that I was taking that little hiatus. Right. Or did that to the time COVID really hit was only a couple months. Whereas now it's been here for over three, three, four months now I first heard about it in December. Yeah. And I started seeing people affected by it as far as employment and that kind of thing like in February, you know, so it's been almost half a year.
Yeah. So, so in a, in a weird way, like it kind of leveled the playing field of all my, my friends that are out there, you know, full time musicians, it leveled the playing field of them not being able to play me, not being able to play. And then the couple of month break that I took where I just chose not to, you know,
Speaker 2 (50m 7s): There's an interesting pattern there that I see. And it's, I think it happens to all of us, but from what you've just said, it has become really clear to me. And I think that that pattern for creativity is that when you leave a group of people, you normally hang out with, it tends to be a transformation. You, and
Speaker 1 (50m 28s): If you look at what happened to you, you, you kind of went out and then all of a sudden you've changed up your business. More things up this style
Speaker 3 (50m 37s): From this style, from late night style to this acoustic or a bit more organic form. If people are honest with themselves, I think they would find when you leave the security of the group, you're forced to grow. When you leave the security of everything, you know, you're forced to rely on yourself and that's when the real creative process happens. That's when you can truly translate vision into reality. When you find the courage to go it alone, you find out what you're truly capable of.
Speaker 1 (51m 12s): I think I didn't realize it until you said it, but I totally agree. Like looking back, you know, one of the reasons besides like the lifestyle part of it that I wanted to change things up is when I was playing that much and you know, I'm not like I play theaters and you know, sometimes pretty big festivals, but most of my work was like small theaters opening for bigger names or hustling bars, like dance halls, like down in Texas or in Colorado or Oklahoma places where people go to dance and drink and those gigs are four or five hour gigs every night with almost no breaks ever.
Like we rarely took breaks, right. Because, because we were successful, we would, a lot of times not take, take breaks because we were, people would come to dance, you know, when we played. Right. And so the, the energy expense to do that and catch and try to get enough sleep during the day and all that thing. I didn't, I lost the ability to S to practice, you know, practice guitar.
I lost the, I lost a lot of the time to sit down and write songs because you're kind of at the mercy of inspiration. So you can't just do it whenever you want necessarily. And I lost, you know, and I shouldn't say a loss. I knowingly gave those, I paid that price knowingly to do, to do what I wanted to do. Right. And I just got to a point where I didn't want to do it anymore. I gave up a lot of the time that I spend like now reading and meditating and learning about myself and life and all that kind of thing so that I can write better songs or that I can further educate myself about how music works.
Cause it's, I'm always learning whether it's, whether it's music production or just the craft of music, the language of music since November, I've really been diving deep into practicing and learning and education. You know, all my education for the most part is self-education, you know, I, I did take guitar lessons, but I didn't take that many for that long. And I wasn't a great student in school. I was in the gifted programs for quite a while, but then I got phased out because I just was detached.
I wasn't into it. It was just because I was good at it didn't mean I was good at it. You know what I mean? And I didn't, I didn't care for it. It didn't speak to me, you know, like I went to college for a few months to Palomar. Right. But I did it cause my mom asked me to do it. Just give it a try. Yeah. You know? And so, you know, by the time I graduated, like my grades weren't great from high school, but not because I couldn't, I just didn't didn't want to. And so I honored my mom's request to at least try college before you just go off and do what you want to do, do this for me, do this for me.
And then you can go do what you want to do. Right. So I, I took the entrance exams, like after being like, you know, like a C, C minus C plus student at best. And I got there's like, I think there's like a, a 30, there's a three part entrance exam or placement tests that they put you through. And it's like 30 questions, like in three different departments. And I, I only missed one question from each, from each department.
So like I got a 97% right. On my, on my entrance placement thing. And so they put me in these really ridiculously difficult classes. But the one thing that they did put me in was like this really high level literature, creative writing class. And so that was cool. Cause I, I loved it in math and science I could do, but I just didn't care enough about it to, to apply myself. And I'm not, I'm not smart enough to be able to miss a whole chunk and then catch up.
Yeah. That's really difficult. Yeah. I think that's difficult for anybody. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (55m 27s): Know, it brings up an interesting point that it's so amazing how like different literature can influence us. And a great story is something that everybody can get behind. You know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of mythology in history that, that speaks to the heart of it. Just a good story. And if you are there reading like a lot of Joseph Campbell lately, and it talks about like the hero's journey, which is call to adventure and then he meets a mentor, they go on the call to adventure.
They almost lose, but then they conquer it and not take the story of everyone private. It seems to me that you may have implemented the hero's journey with you with driving your big re balance.
Speaker 1 (56m 15s): But that's a Dale Watson song, sorry. Exit one Oh nine. Excellent. One Oh nine. Yeah. Yeah. That's my buddy Dale Watson wrote that because it's hilarious if anybody's not aware of Dale Watson, he's one of my favorite songwriters around like so clever and like poignant, but like simple, you know, like in, in funny what a, what a sense of humor.
Speaker 2 (56m 36s): Yeah. And those, you know, I think that might come along with, you know, we were talking about process music and processed food. So many people, you know, it seems to me a lot of really great songs tell a story, but it just becomes a hook and a few lines of dialogue. I think you get away from the real, the real soul of music. You know, I like the storytelling and I, I think that that is something that you've been doing. And I think that there's, we could use more of that in the world and
Speaker 1 (57m 9s): Yeah. See like what I, what I, what I think of what I do when people ask me, it's hard to explain, but like, like folk music is, is what I do, but that's, that's, that's become a sound. It's become a thing. Like it's become like Bob Dylan and his acoustic guitar and his harmonica, but folk music is not that it's a type of art. Right. And it's the type of art of the working man, you know, the, the, the common mint, it's not classical music.
It's not educated music, but it's, it's relatable music to, to the 99%. That's, you know, country music is full of music. Blues music is folk music. Rap is folk music. Yeah. Right. So I've always tried to work under that umbrella so that I could, I could play whatever different sounds I want, but it's, it's that blue collar, you know, full approach and, and real quick, speaking of Dale Watson, he's got two songs, at least two that come to mind that you should check out.
One of them is called country my ass and talking about the Nashville thing. And, and one is called Nashville rash. Okay. You should check, check those out. They're hilarious. Well, yeah, but yeah, like getting back to, to kind of come full circle to what you were talking about. I left college after a few weeks and, and the reason I left is because if a few, I think it was like three weeks or six weeks in.
I got, I got my first like real gig. I, you know, I'd play like backyard parties and stuff before that and, and made money doing it. Like I was making, I think I first got paid to play music when I was like 12 or so like, people, people like in junior high, like at Lincoln would have backyard parties. Yeah, yeah. Right. And some of us hung with older people that were in high school. So we were going to backyard parties. We were living like, we were in high school when we were in like sixth, seventh grade. Cause Vista was that kind of town.
You could do that. Yeah. It wasn't like now we're backyard. Parties are just like super difficult to pull without getting shut down. So like, I was hanging out with older dudes and hanging out at parties and stuff, but I, you know, we'd get hired to play music at parties when we were in like sixth, seventh, eighth grade. So like, I was already making money doing it. Right. But I got my first like real gig where I was me playing songs. I wrote in San Diego, like I had been, I had been learning my craft early on.
Somebody told me if, you know, it's great that you, cause I just want to be a guitar player. I want to play guitar for people. And they just sit in the back and do that. And that's what I was doing. But somebody told me when I was real young, like if you want to have a career and you, and you want to have some job security, don't just be a guitar player. Learn how to sing, learn how to write, learn how to write a song so that you learn how a song is, is constructed so that you have, you know, it helps your guitar playing. It helps you back somebody up.
If you know how songs work, if you can create your own songs and you can sing, you can also be your own business, your own entity. So I got a job when I was like 18 or 19 in Pacific beach at a place called the interchange. Nice. And they gave me, I think it was Thursday night, every Thursday was mine. And the reason it opened up is because Juul had been there and that was her gig.
Whoa. And she got signed and, and she had to leave and I took her spot. Wow. Yeah. That was like my first, like, you know, first professional gig as myself playing songs I wrote and learning that craft. I'm trying to get back to, to answering your question, like where it all kind of originated from and talking about education and all that stuff. That's, that's how I got my foot in the door. You know, a fellow singer song writer who was pretty successful in Southern California, liked what I did and supported me.
And she said, you gotta meet the owner of this, of this coffee house because a spot is going to open up, you know, a residency is opening up. Right. And I didn't know it was Juul. I just thought it was, I just thought it was a gig. But I knew that the place had a reputation as one of the spots where the pros in San Diego played because at the time there was a coffee house on every corner and they all had open mics and they all had live music on the weekends and almost anybody could get a gig doing that.
You know, including me, I was getting gigs doing that, you know, occasionally, but this was my house gig. This was, you know, you're on, you're on the roster. And that's kinda where it started that saying at the time being, being able to tell other venues and other cities that that's what I was doing with my Thursdays. They were like, well, okay, we don't even need to hear you just come on, whatever Dayton
Speaker 4 (1h 2m 21s): We'll give you a gig. Yeah. You know? And so it's just been a process of, of that approach and you know, doing my best, not to burn any bridges and doing my best to, to offer up a quality product that I've been able to just kind of keep building it up. Yeah. It seems like that part, I find really interesting. And it's something you would only know if you were in the business, there's so much rich history at clubs that you wouldn't even stinker clubs are there.
There's so much rich history. If you, if you, if you learn about it, like how many people have played the whiskey to Gogo, many people have played, you know, different rooms in San Diego. And it's just like, I had no idea that Jewell played there or was like a resident there. And that's the stuff you would only know if you were in a position like yourself. And that, that was, that was, that was where it all started. Like the, we were talking about being self-educated for the purpose of furthering, you know, your life's goals.
So if you're not going to do it via school or traditional routes, you still have to do it. Right. You still have to put the work in and not just the hands on work of your craft, but you have to know the history of the people that, that, that didn't before you. So you know how to connect the dots and how it got to where you are.
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