(upbeat music)
- Hey everybody, welcome back to the Phantom Power Artist Hour.
Hope everybody is having a great weekend.
Today is Sunday, March 24th,
and we are going to have a great conversation
with Sarah Jade.
I know you are familiar with her music over on Wave Lake,
and you probably also caught her set at Culture Shock
in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago
when she broadcasted it live over Noster.
So we have a great conversation about
surf fans in California and songwriting,
Bitcoin, theater, playing with family members music that is.
And it's a great conversation.
I really hope you guys enjoy it.
She is all in, she's doing really well in this space.
She's got some new stuff coming out pretty soon.
So let's kick it off here with one of her songs
that you'll find over on Wave Lake.
This song is called "Never New"
and then we will bring her on for the interview.
Cool.
Cool, here we go.
(upbeat music)
♪ I ever knew that I wasn't ♪
♪ Beautiful ♪
♪ I never dreamed that I could ♪
♪ Is shine ♪
♪ And I never thought ♪
♪ All I am is what I'm not ♪
♪ Never knew ♪
♪ What I'm never known ♪
♪ I never thought that I was perfect ♪
♪ Never knew there was a measurement ♪
♪ And I never dreamed ♪
♪ All it is ain't what it seems ♪
♪ I never knew ♪
♪ What I'm never known ♪
(upbeat music)
♪ And these days of trade it ♪
♪ Hignorance is shame ♪
♪ And these days ♪
♪ I've got no one left to blame ♪
♪ These days ♪
♪ I'm a hero who can save me from myself ♪
♪ But I'm no hero ♪
♪ I never knew that I wasn't enough for me ♪
♪ I never dreamed that be any less ♪
♪ Is that I'm she wrong ♪
♪ All I know is what I don't ♪
♪ I never knew ♪
♪ What I never know ♪
♪ And these days of trade it ♪
♪ Hignorance is shame ♪
♪ And if I don't change a fear ♪
♪ I'll take it to my grade ♪
♪ And on that day ♪
♪ I'll look back inside ♪
♪ None of it was true ♪
♪ But I never ♪
♪ No ♪
(gentle music)
- And that is "Never New" by today's guest
from San Diego, California, Sarah Gied.
Sarah, hey, what's up?
Good to see you.
- Hey, thanks for having me.
- Sorry for the false start there.
We got a couple of minutes in and I'm like,
"Oh crap, I didn't record this."
- No problem.
- So thank you very much for coming on
and talking with us and talking about your music
and Bitcoin and all that kind of stuff.
I got a bunch of questions for you.
I know you're in San Diego,
but tell me originally where you're from.
You are from California, originally, correct?
- Yes, I'm originally from California
and I was actually grew up in Corona
and originally I was born and first on and off five years
of my life, I lived on a boat down a new port beach,
which sounds really bougie.
(laughing)
But it's not.
I mean, it was great.
My dad was a musician six nights a week down
at the village in on Bobo Island
and so yeah, it was just right across the bay
and then eventually he became a delivery skipper
and sailed all over the world and those back kind of thing.
Rich people would buy boats and then say,
"Hey, can you sail it across the Atlantic
and come and bring it to me in my Orca?"
Or whatever.
- Did you get to go on the trips with your dad?
- I would do little legs of the journey.
So every, my mom and I would fly down to Mexico mostly
and go on different spots and he would port
and then as soon as he left the Panama Canal,
like went through, then I didn't go on any of those legs
but my mom also, she was a corporate buyer
so she was traveling all the time too to New York and stuff
so we'd get on a little play, hop over to Arizona,
drop off the grandparents.
- Not, was she a corporate buyer in boats or?
- In, and actually in ties, like in, you know,
and Bill blast ties was what she worked for.
- Next ties?
- Yeah. - Yeah, nice, next ties.
- Wow, that's a jet-setting parents.
- Mm-hmm, yeah, they used to talk to each other
just through radio as before cell phones.
I mean, you know, my dad would be on three months
worth of a sailing trip and I, my mom once had to call
the Coast Guard because he said he would give her a calendar
like, "Okay, today I'm arriving in Port here
and I will call you on a pay phone to check in."
And she would wait for that phone call
and then if she didn't get the check in,
yeah, then she'd have to call an alert Coast Guard
and say, "Hey, just so you know, don't do anything yet,
"my husband was supposed to port here
"and I haven't gotten a check in from him
"so I might call you back."
And then actually one time the Coast Guard had a play
to break on her and she called him back and said,
"Hey, I did finally get a call from my dad,
"oh, remember my dad, from her husband, my dad."
And I got a call from a husband, don't worry, he's fine.
And then the Coast Guard on the other hand said,
"Oh, I'm so sorry, ma'am, but the skies are black,
"looking for your husband right now.
"We have helicopters, everything's just,
"no, no, no, I told you to wait, I told you to wait."
And then they said, "No, I'm just kidding."
Oh my God.
Yeah, that's kind of a cruel joke to play.
I know.
So bad.
But yeah, I got to go on a lot of sailing trips
and so boating and music, that was a lot of my upbringing.
Now what's the name of the club you dad played at
at Belle Bowen Island?
Village Inn, it is still, still kicking.
Not the restaurant.
Not the restaurant, everyone is like, oh, you mean, yeah,
no, not the restaurant, it's called the Village Inn,
it's just a little, it's literally right across
from the fire station on Belle Bowen Island.
And yeah, there used to be a little like a red light
in the back if they were too loud that would turn on.
'Cause there's so much residential ordinance
that all the noise.
And then I'm done.
I'll be a tour of the house.
Yeah, exactly, exactly, but they would rock out
and my parents used to just kind of sneak me in sometimes.
Nice.
I was a baby and then, it's California,
the laws are pretty loose.
Yeah, especially back then, it was, you know,
you could still smoke inside back then, you know,
it was crazy things.
The good old days.
No.
The good old days.
I got pictures of me backstage in LA with Jack and Coke
and half pack of mobblos in my mouth.
I missed those days.
(laughing)
You're gonna have to ask your dad if he has ever done a gig
at the Marine Room in Newport.
I will ask him.
I don't know.
My wife and I used to go there a lot.
There was a band down there called The Missles of October
and we loved that band.
We got asked to play there.
We played there.
They told us to turn down and they never asked us back.
(laughing)
Newport, bougie, but it's good times.
Oh, I've been told a Newport not to dance before
because there's a dancing license and there's all kinds of stuff.
What?
What are you like?
Like, Utah with...
Like, footloos.
What's that?
That's my footloos.
Exactly.
You're not allowed to dance in Orange County, California.
Please do not dance.
Unless we have a dancing license, there is no dancing.
I wonder how much, and it's Newport, so it's pretty bougie.
So I wonder how much a dancing license costs.
Ooh, I don't even want to know.
Oh man.
Yeah, 'cause you already have to pay all the,
the cabaret licenses and all of that,
and then add on top of the dancing license.
There's probably a comma in that license fee.
Mm-hmm, right?
I wonder too if people get, you know, kind of grandfathered in
or not, I'm not sure.
I know what he's on the wharf.
Like, they turn into a club basically at night
once they shut down dinner,
and then people can dance there.
Well, yeah, I mean, the county really doesn't care if they fall off
the wharf into the water, right?
They don't, you know, as long as they got their licensing fee,
well, you can actually ride your dinghy up and park in the dock
in the back and then walk up and feel like a real king.
That would, that kind of reminds me of the neighborhood
in Seattle that we lived in before we moved here.
Like, people would live on one side of the harbor
and then go to the restaurant on the other side.
And I always thought that was, I always thought
that was pretty cool, but then again,
like, you know, the stories you hear about the worst day of your life
is the day you buy a boat and the best day is the day you sell it, right?
Exactly, exactly.
My dad always, he sells boats now and he always calls it B-O-A-T,
bring out another thousand.
Oh, that's a good one.
I'm gonna steal that.
Yeah.
I'm gonna steal that.
Well, you, you did a lot of gigs with your dad
and you still do, sounds like.
What was that?
I know how special that is
'cause I'm lucky enough to get to do it with my kid.
Like, talk about that for a minute.
Like, how'd you start and what memories do you have?
So I started, my dad was always gigging throughout my whole life
and as I got older, every so often,
I'd go at the American Legion when he wasn't doing nightclubs,
then I could go see him and then I would sit in on different songs.
I actually really started gigging with him or not gigging with him,
but I started writing with him when I was nine years old.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, and, you know, the spice girls were all the rage
and I had a little group of girls that we were like,
we're gonna have a girl band.
No one played an instrument with me.
All right.
We're gonna have a band, you know?
Yeah.
And, like, a sleepover one time and I came up
with my first song and I went up to a dad and I said,
"Dad, I thought of this melody and then we started playing together."
So I started developing my voice pretty young and then I'd go and sing...
That was my one song that I started singing with him
every time I'd go to see a show was Nora Jones.
I don't know why.
And that was my song.
I would get up there and, "Oh, okay, we're gonna sing Nora Jones now."
And my dad's band went out on me.
Yeah.
Tear Jerk or right?
Yeah.
And then once I turned 21, I could play anywhere with him.
So, did that for about 10 years more consistently.
Kind of cut my teeth doing that.
And eventually moved down San Diego and my husband and I play together now.
But my dad, I would play with him and then his drummer from...
He's known since he was 17.
And back in the day from their old surf band, the Newport No Mads, the original Newport No Mads.
Nice.
They are in the Huntington Beach, I think it's a surfer museum.
There are pictures there because they had a local hit called Blue Mallard.
And yeah, they have...
Actually, it's funny.
I looked them up on...
I think it was Spotify or something.
Anyway, they had more listens than me.
It was great.
Well, that's funny.
Well, I'm going to use Blue Mallard as the chapter.
I'm going to find it.
I'll use it as the chapter pick.
Yeah.
Blue Mallard.
And they're still in surf history, surf music history books.
Like, I have just these big things every so often.
So my dad's drummer, Tom Fitzgerald, they're still in contact there.
I mean, he's basically like my godfather.
I used to play with him.
Yeah, he's just the best.
He'll send my dad.
He's like, "Oh, we're in another book."
And then we'll go through and see all these old pictures.
And it's just crazy.
But my dad just kind of brought me in and I got to play with his band and eventually just
do Elk Slaage, American Legion, Yacht Clubs, all of the fun.
I think Garth Brooks called it...
What did he call it?
He said, "A safari tour or something where you just play mousse lodge, Elk's club."
You know, all that stuff.
Oh, that's a funny...
Yeah, that's a good way of putting it.
Yeah.
And I said, "Yeah, that's pretty much what I do with my dad."
And we still do the occasional gig together.
I mean, he's up for 70s and still rocking it.
That's good.
Good for him.
Yeah.
He's awesome.
He can still play the guitar behind his head, which is pretty cool.
Wow.
Yeah.
So Arthritis is not a thing for him.
Oh, no.
Oh my gosh.
It adds an amazing shape.
But I think it's all that sailing, too.
Yeah, it could be.
All that saltwater, right?
It's invaluable when a young musician gets to play with people that have been gigging for
30, 40.
So true.
Like you pick up things so quickly in that environment.
And I think the cool thing about playing places, like the American Legion and all those different
types of places is that there's random people that will come in that you're like, "Who's
that?
That's crazy."
Like the original members from train came in and just got to hear them play.
And then they were all laughing because they were like, "Huh, everyone thinks that we're
covering this song."
Yeah.
And it's actually their song.
Yeah.
And you get to just randomly sit in with these people.
One time a guy that had toured with Stevie Wonder, he came in and just sat in with my dad's
band and I happened to be sitting in, too.
So I got to play with him.
And just all these crazy things and experiences happen that you're, you never want to be the smartest
person in the room or the best musician.
You always want to be elevated by other people.
Yeah.
If you are the best musician in the band, quit the band.
Yeah.
100%.
It really does not benefit you.
It should not be the smartest person in the room.
Always, always let yourself be the smallest fish around big fish and learn how to swim.
Yeah.
I mean, you're learning so much in that environment.
Can you pinpoint like one thing that you would just say, you know what?
Like this was the biggest thing I learned from playing with all those old farts.
I think the communication, truly, the, the synergy of communication when you're on stage.
And a lot of times that band, the band that I would play with my dad, they weren't always
a consistent band.
You know, people had lives and families and do all their things.
So they didn't always, they didn't get to rehearse.
It was pretty much everybody just coming together.
And the viewing of other people, like, hey, this is what we're going to do.
And also that being so relaxed and understanding that it's called playing, it's not called working.
Yeah.
And allowing that to be the soul focus and giving that to the audience.
I mean, because growing up, you know, I was, you know, I was 14 randomly coming in and sitting
in, I'm all nervous and just to see how in the element everybody was and allowing themselves
to play with the music a little bit, right?
So we're covering stuff from the record, right?
But allowing yourself to make it your own and infuse a little bit of you within that entertainment
space and within that imitation space too.
Oh my gosh.
I just realized how you could not just have to be exactly a carbon copy of everything that
you hear, but actually get to live and breathe it.
And I'm a musical theater person.
So to me, that was just like, yes, so great.
It's all like a live performance and we get to be partly ourselves, but also a character.
And learning from them that way was incredible.
Well you started writing at nine and you said you're a musical theater person.
Like did you, did you go to school for it or plays in high school university?
I did.
What?
Yeah, I did a community theater for, yeah, throughout my childhood and teenage hood.
And I did, you know, by by birdie and actually in college, I did grease and scrooge and all
of the fun things.
Because I loved to dance and sing and act and all that stuff, I actually had this thought
for a while as a kid that I was going to be an actress.
I really wanted to be an actress.
And then I got to college and the only thing they offered for theater was dramatic plays,
no music.
And I said, yeah, and I was like, oh, I don't think it's the acting thing that sparks my interest.
Okay.
I love music.
I love to move and dance.
I like to run around the stage.
I like to embody that character.
I call myself a professional ham.
I mean, really, I've learned from the best.
I came, my dad.
And I realized that that was it for me.
I was like, this is, and I'd been writing songs always just, but I never considered it as
this is the career path.
I obviously saw my dad doing shows, but he had other, you know, he was doing delivery skipper
and I became a young pro girl, that stuff.
So I didn't realize like that was what I really, really wanted to do until college.
And then I kind of put my mind to it more seriously.
And then I ended up doing education and my background is also in educational counseling.
Got my last words in that, all of those things.
Oh, cool.
Where'd you get your undergrad?
My undergrad was at UC Riverside.
Okay.
And then where'd you get your masters?
University of Redlands.
Oh, in Linne and Pire, Cal.
Yeah, you are.
The 909, baby.
And I still have, I still got to keep that 909.
We got changed to 951 and I was like, I'm not changing by now.
Yeah, changing in and over.
Well, so when you made that transition in college of saying, all right, I'm going to be
serious about songwriting.
Talk about your songwriting process.
Like, are you lyrics first?
Are you music first?
Do you tend to write autobiographical?
Like, how do you approach it?
So when I first started writing, just lyrics and melody came to me both simultaneously,
just instantly.
When I first started writing music, I should say, because before that, I was mostly writing
poetry or short stories.
And then eventually it all came together.
I would say now I have a mix.
Sometimes I wake up before in the morning and I sing myself weird, frog throat melodies.
Like that.
Yeah.
I was like, what?
Yeah.
That's a great record.
That'll be a hit.
Yeah, 100 percent.
One day, and just got a roll, just some creepy Halloween song.
And then I'll put lyrics to it later.
But a lot of the times, when I sit down to write, it's never necessarily autobiographical
in the sense that I've decided to write about something that happened in my life.
I think what happens for me is that through the process of writing, I then realize what
it's about.
So sometimes it's about my own life, sometimes it's a bit about my life and then things
I've ingested, stories I've ingested, overboard, for example.
I had two friends going through major breakups.
And then of course we all can relate to those types of stories.
But as I was going, and obviously I grew up on the water.
So water is a huge theme for me.
It just kind of comes into a lot.
Obviously my EP is called "Sink or Swim."
I can't get away from that.
And I see it a lot on your social media.
I mean, it's easy to use the beaches when you're in San Diego, right?
Yeah.
It's a, I am geographically very fortunate that way.
But when I sit down to write, it just ends up coming to me later as I read through it.
It's almost like being able to step outside of my own life and take a bird's eye view and
see what the lesson is.
Actually, when I was in theater in college, I took a theater theory class and something
that's always stayed with me a couple of things from theater theory.
One is that when you go to, at least in acting, go to act something out that is close to your
life, they actually suggest not to do that because you haven't sat down to process through
what that has meant.
So you can't exactly impart a lot of wisdom upon that piece.
And sometimes you can get lost within that piece if you haven't processed it.
And I find that that really applies in songwriting.
I feel like you can write something in the moment.
And then if you can come back to it later and impart some sort of, it doesn't always have
to be wisdom, just a little bit of clarity.
You know, giving yourself a moment to breathe away from that feeling, like get it out, get
the emotion out immediately, but then take a step back and then see what you've learned
from it or just see it with a little bit of hindsight.
I think it really helps to create better art because it's what I want to give to people
at least just a little bit of moment of clarity.
It's not like I'm on the other side of the river just knowing all.
I'm certainly treading water with other people.
But I just personally, I come to art for that little bit of hope or clarity or to feel through
it with me.
And that's what I try to do.
The other thing that I thought was really cool in theater theory was that you actually go
through a script and you'll mark the beats, quote unquote, the beats where you have a beat
change, which you can have in the middle of a sentence, like all of a sentence, like you
have a line that changes emotion in the middle of it and I find that really relevant to music
as well because it's a performance at the end of the day.
And of course, when you do vocal and lyrical, it's very lyrical centered and you want to
be able to honor recording in part exactly what that meant.
And so if you sing it softly versus loudly, we have all of those elements in music.
But if you allow the note to be a little imperfect because that's what it's supposed to be, allowing
those performance elements to come out, that's really important for me too.
And so by taking a step back from what I've written down just initially, I can go through
and see those pieces, I always say there's no well written song or anything in literature's
only a well rewritten piece.
Yeah, that's a good point.
And it always, yeah, and it interests me too, how songwriters, myself included, although
it's been a while, you write something and you think it means this, but then over time,
you're like, you know what, I really think it means that.
So true.
And I come back to songs that I've written the past night and I hear them differently.
Yeah.
I think that's the cool thing about recording too is that you actually then get to, it's
when you're performing it, you're in the moments.
But when you get to step back and listen to it maybe later, it just comes up on your playlist
and you didn't go to select it to go listen to your song, you just came up.
And then you listen as an observer and you're like, oh, I never thought about that.
Or there's things that come together that are so, they're unintentional, but somehow they
just resonate.
The lead singer of semi sonic, he actually talks about, he had an interview and he said that
no good song is about just one thing.
It's always about two things at once at least.
And I love, double entendre, triple entendre, all that stuff.
And when I take a step back and I'm able to listen to some of my music or even just music
that other people have made that I used to love and meant something to me in one moment
and mean something completely different to me now, I think that's the coolest thing.
Sometimes those entendres are actually completely unintentional, but then you get to take
credit for it.
Or the artist always gets to own what everybody interprets, right?
So yeah, that's my writing process is kind of organic in that sense.
But I really like to explore ideas of just pushing yourself to song right too.
It's been a newer thing for me in the last four years of just saying, I'm just going to sit
down and do this.
Right now.
And here's a prompt.
I have ten words and I get to use five of them in a song and let's just put it to task.
And that's the coolest things come out from that.
Yeah, you know, the treat, and that is still an art.
You know, I mean, you could argue that that really is the way a lot of Nashville operates.
You get three people in a room tomorrow at one o'clock and they're like, all right, who's
got an idea?
Right?
And they bang out a song and they bang out a song in three hours and they're like, all right,
peace out.
I got to go.
I got another right in an hour, right?
And I think that it's fascinating to look at it that way.
If you're a purist, you can sit there and say, well, you're not really making art.
You're just making a commodity.
But if you're really on your game and you're good at writing, that's a pretty cool process
to be able to employ.
A hundred percent, a hundred percent.
Actually, speaking of Nashville, there is a gal that runs song fancy and it was something
I discovered on Pinterest over COVID.
And she does a five and five challenge.
And it was the first time I had done something like that where she says, okay, you have
five days, kick your inner critic, say goodbye to perfectionism and just make yourself
write five songs in five days.
Just do it.
Give yourself a limit, one hour and just pour it all out.
And I know Wilco does the same thing, just write a bunch and then you're bound to get a
gem in there somewhere.
But I think it's such a neat craft.
And it's such a great skill to have because I think every songwriter's biggest fear is that
all of a sudden the inspiration will just go away.
I would agree.
No, you can, yeah, you can always find it.
It is there.
It's just waiting to be tapped.
And I think sometimes, you know, because you have those moments where all of a sudden you
just get struck by stuff.
I mean, Brandon Flowers said that for, I think it was when we were young or something, there
was a few songs where he said, yeah, honestly, the lyrics just fell out of me.
And then I was like, okay, I guess I need to sit down and write this and finish it out,
right?
And we all have that.
And that's why my voice memos are so embarrassing.
It's all good.
And for those who don't know, for those who don't know who Brandon Flowers is, he's
lead singer and lead songwriter for the killers.
The killers, yeah.
Yeah.
And it amazes me too, like the process of writing out.
Sometimes, you know, you'll go through a good luck streak, let's call it, and you'll pound
out a couple in a month and then you'll be like, then you go through a dry spell for four,
five months, right?
And then, or at least that, that's the way it was.
Oh, so true.
For me, it was, you know, and then all of a sudden it just pops back out again.
And I'm, and I never want to know what songs are about.
Like if, if I like the song, I'm going to, I'm going to attach my own meaning to it.
I don't want to know, you know, that's you.
Thank you.
I know.
I am so many people.
I'm so similar because people will say, what's this about?
And I, I, I, I, I clam up because I don't really want to say because it has a meaning to me,
but even then, I don't want to ruin it for anybody else in the sense that I feel really
art is just, it's put out there for you to digest and then infuse your own meaning upon
it.
I just feel like music, especially that is created.
It is a form of altruism in that sense that it can be very uniquely your own.
And I don't want to spoil that.
I know R.E.M. does the same thing.
They're like, I don't want to talk about my lyrics.
Yeah.
Don't follow me.
They're like, no, no, no.
Actually, they had an interview where it was funny.
They said that sometimes during concerts, they would get fan mail and during their tours,
they would just sing other people's lyrics that they thought that they were singing because
they're like, sometimes they're better.
Yeah.
Which is hilarious to me.
The days are for lyric books and song.
Yeah.
And going to the mall and buying the sheet music and things like that.
It's a whole process of it.
I just adore it.
I just can't get enough of it.
And I always love talking to writers such as yourself because I'm curious where it comes
from, how you view it, what you think about it.
Because somebody could take a song like All Apology or Overboard and it might remind them
of a great day they had in North Carolina or it might remind them of a high school friend.
And that's not what you wrote the song about.
But who are you to interfere with that memory?
Right?
Exactly.
At the end of the day, you create something you put out in the world and then you in a way
just relinquish ownership of what it has to be about.
You really, yeah, you don't want to taint anyone's memories.
And especially that of your own songs.
If they find it, they love it or maybe they find it, they love it, they fell in love to it
and then they broke up with that person.
Now they hate your songs or reminds you of that person like, I'm not going to spoil that
memory.
Great.
I hate Sarah James.
It's a chapter reminds me of my girlfriend.
Oh, that's right.
You can't win that argument.
No, you can't.
And at the same time, it's like, well, you are just your chapter in their life.
Great.
That's pretty cool that you're at the forefront of someone's mind that way.
Yeah.
That's what tell us.
Let's see.
All right.
So we've gone from, we got a little bit of your nine year old crashing stages at the, at
the most lodge into writing songs and musical theater and understanding composition.
Now let's, now let's move into the, the full band here known as the Jade theory.
Tell us about the band and, and what you guys do around town.
So yeah, we're a five piece band.
We do all of my stuff, all my original music.
I'm the lead singer, songwriter and, uh, so we go by Sarah Jade and the Jade theory and
we play pop rock mostly.
I think it's really how it comes out.
Basically, it just amplifies all of that again.
I get to play with great people that have played for a long time and they elevate me.
And I get to hear now and what I've learned a lot from them is the potential of your own
music to reach new heights, right?
So I've played as an acoustic duo with, uh, my husband for a long time and he's a rhythm
guitarist.
So we were able to get away, you know, without a drummer and I played the guitar and so we
had keys and some things going on.
But when you, then you venture into a whole band, it's like, oh my gosh, it opens up all
these doors, uh, to your own ideas for your own music for production and, uh, really rock
and I am a rock girl the way I love it.
I grew up listening to alternative rock and yeah, my, my main radio station grown up was
a K rock, actually.
Kevin and me.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Ah, yes.
Thank you.
Well, I lived there from 95 to 03.
So I was, yeah, I, oh, yeah.
Kevin a bean and K L O S and 101.9, which went away and yeah.
Yes, yes.
Uh, so that was, that was really, and also because I have, like, um, that auto voice, I was
mostly only able to sing along with alternative rock male vocals.
Yeah.
Uh, and that's where it's kind of, and I learned a lot of harmonies from them and all kinds
of stuff.
Uh, but yeah, so with my full band now having that ability to just have that complete sound,
oh my gosh, it just blows your mind and you get so excited about it.
And now it's made me a better producer, I would say, you know, not that I'm, you know,
all, all expert at all, but I've learned a lot now being able to have access to players
and say, hey, can you play that now?
I'm hearing new things.
So now if I have a, dry spell in the lyrical writing, I definitely have a flood of musical
ideas, but I just never would have been able to hear it possible for me, at least, without
already just having access to players and, um, just knowing what it, what it can sound
like.
And it's been really inspiring too.
I think that it's allowed me to start to craft, you know, more of my sound as a full band
that would be more of that pop rock for a lack of a better term because we're always redefining
genres these days.
Yeah.
And I do have that, you know, Americana kind of voice, that style, uh, in there, but with
that band, it is leaning more towards rock, which I really love.
That's, you know, that's my passion.
I just, I, like I said, professional ham, like to run around on stage just way.
I ditched the keyboard and went for guitar, you know, yeah.
I am based electric guitar drums, rather than guitar, guitar, you know, I, uh, I'm looking
at your Instagram here.
I mean, you guys are definitely making the rounds around Southern California.
I mean, you're in Corona.
You're in insanitas.
You're down in San Diego.
You're at, you're up in Orange County at the fair, Escondito, right wood, like you guys are
all open.
We're good for you.
Yeah.
This weekend, I think we're, we're close.
It's basically Julian.
We're out at a place called, uh, Josie's Hide Out, which is really cool.
Uh, in the middle, I think it's San Yisabel and it's just this, like, biker bar that basically
people go for these beautiful rides through the country.
I stopped there on my way home, like my drive home from Havisoo one time after visiting
my family and it's a really cool place.
And you just go out in the middle of the road.
There's this hideout and start playing rock music.
So cool.
Nice.
Out in the middle of nowhere and you can crank it up.
Yeah.
For sure.
No, no noise ordinance.
Yeah.
Nice.
No dancing permits.
Um, no dancing permits.
And you're also, and you're also up right now for a San Diego music award, right?
Yes, I am.
Yeah.
Up for a San Diego music award.
And I also never knew that you played, uh, just is now, uh, it's an international songwriting
competition semi-finalist this year.
So exciting.
Exciting.
Thanks.
Yeah.
Thank you.
But San Diego music awards are going to be at the end of April and I'm really excited for
that nominee for Best Pop Artist, which.
Oh, that's very cool.
Oh, pop artist.
Pop rock.
Have you, have you run into an artist down there from San Diego by the name of Evan Diamond?
Yes.
I know Evan, Evan Diamond and her wife.
Right on.
My friends.
No kidding.
It's a small world.
She played a, uh, I have a buddy.
Yeah.
Um, I have a buddy who owns a vineyard over in, um, oh, he's going to kill me for not.
Where's the Southern California place where all those stinkin vineyards are?
Oh, to Macula.
To Macula.
He's got a, he's got a vineyard over in, to Macula and, um, Evan and my daughter played
a gig at that vineyard and we were looking for somebody to open up and a buddy of mine who
works at a rather famous guitar company up the street from you, um, said, oh, you ought
to call Evan.
She's great.
You know, put her on the bill.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Yeah.
She's awesome.
Yeah.
And she's won some San Diego music awards and stuff too.
Yeah.
Exactly.
That's why I brought it up.
Like I was like, San Diego music awards.
Like Evan won that thing.
So.
Yes.
She's so awesome.
And, uh, I just saw her and Reina, uh, playing at, nah, I'm actually this year.
Small world.
Yeah.
Next time you know, next time you bumped into her, tell her, uh, tell her I said, hi.
Tell her my daughter says, hi, I'm going to tell her to get on wave.
Like that's what my daughter said.
Yeah.
Exactly.
We got to get her into V for V.
So that, hey, nice segue, by the way, nice segue.
Um, how did, let's talk about Bitcoin and how you got in and, and how you got your music
into this space?
How did that all start?
So it started with music last summer, uh, but before then, uh, my husband, he's, you know,
been maybe not a part of the community.
You know, we've been invested in Bitcoin for a while and, uh, listen to all the podcasts
and all of the things and then podcasting 2.0 came around and then, uh, through that and
listening, uh, on fountain, there was one episode and we heard about wave lake and he said,
you know, you should check this out.
So this last summer in 2023, I was like, wow, this looks amazing.
Yes, 100% I'm putting my music up here.
And as soon as I did, I just got so much more engagement than I've ever gotten anywhere
else.
And I just, yeah, and then I got on Nostor after that and started just posting.
It's like, why, why would I just keep putting on Spotify and to the ether for,
barely anyone to listen to or to have to pay for, uh, playlists to accept me, you know,
those kinds of things.
And with wave, yeah, that's, that's the other thing is you can, you go in the red so much with
all of that as an independent artist.
Some people have a lot of success and that's great, uh, but it's, it's pretty hard and with
wave lake, it has just been incredible.
And it's the, the first place I really felt like I've had a true audience and, and, I mean,
true fan ship compared to just vanity streams, right?
That's, yeah, with the algorithm and all of those things, they do call them vanity statistics
because that's what they are.
You can technically just pay for them in a way and all of that.
But with, with wave lake, you really, you get true actual value from people that listen
to you, that boost you.
I love that people can comment.
Now I actually can go and see what they think.
But, you know, it's, yeah, and it's better than Instagram where I can't see anything either,
right?
Yeah, hearts and likes.
The more algorithms.
Wee!
Yeah, hearts and likes.
Yay.
And it really doesn't, um, I mean shit.
Really?
Yeah.
And it doesn't ask people for a lot, right, to just give you a like real quick on a, on a
post.
In that sense, it's like they may do it real quick as a automatic reflex and then forget
about you.
But with value for value and wave lake and being able to actually comment and put a value
on the things that you're going to say to the artist, to the podcaster, to all of the
people that you want to engage with.
That is, I think that that holds a lot of weight because I know as a user, right, on the
other sense, I go and I'm like, wow, I really love a song.
What do I want to say?
I really craft it and then I, and then I apply value to that and then boost that person.
That's, that's the, I mean, to me, that is the coolest thing to do as a fan, but then being
on the other side of it to receive that incredible.
Yeah.
So I've been on wave lake since, yeah, summer 2023 and I am never turning back.
Yeah, you got 10 songs.
I love it.
Yeah.
You got about just under half a million sats and I mean, that's a nice little chunk of
change, you know, for, for, for, for, for, for, it is wonderful, especially.
I need to find it, but I think I'm going to frame my, my one royalty check I've ever gotten.
I've been on Spotify since 2020 and I have gotten one dollar and 27 cents.
I'm going to frame that little check to get right, to get right to the Dollar Tree and
get a lot of skittles, you know, like, yeah.
But, well, and you did really well.
And you, I was going to say you did really well too at, at, at the, uh, no,ster, uh, culture
shock event.
Oh, culture shock.
Oh my gosh.
You really showed up for that.
That was incredible.
I mean, yeah, in a half an hour with like 1.3 million sats, it was crazy.
I mean, my brain is like, thank you guys so much.
Well, and the beautiful part about that is that I mean, it really, you know, like, um, you
know, for better or for worse, like that there was very little promotion that yet you were
going to be, uh, you know, doing this or or that, not that you were going to be doing
it, but that it was going to be broadcast live.
And to get 1.3 million with like almost no promo that we, that, that you were going
to broadcast this live over in aster is awesome.
It's, it's a testament to how powerful monster is.
It's a testament to, um, the awesome people in the community, uh, from open mic to Kieran,
to carnage to QW to Santa everybody, you know, I mean, 1.3 million, are you kidding me?
That was fantastic.
But yeah, it was, it was, uh, on, uh, unheard of in my own brain.
I was just like, why unimaginable?
I was like, this is so incredible.
And it's another reason why I love noster.
It's just you're on there and the way that you get to engage with people, it's just, it's,
it's a nice community of really supportive kind people that truly show up.
That's the other thing.
It's like when you're making friends, right?
Who's your friend?
The one that shows up for you.
Yeah.
And, and this community shows up in an incredible amount of ways.
And I like to just be a little like fly on the wall and just read and see how it's developing
and changing.
Yeah, culture shock was incredible.
It was so cool to be a part of.
It was awesome to meet you in the flesh there.
And I just posted the, uh, I just posted carnival, the live audio on there on Wavelake
today because Sam means actually called me out on Wavorp.
And it was like, yeah, yeah, I really hope Sarah posts, posts the audio and I was like,
yeah, I'm getting a little proud of you.
Intent, intent.
Yeah.
Well, we'll, and then, yeah, we'll use some coming out too.
Good.
Well, we'll, we'll use carnival as the last song, um, as the song coming out here, but
I, I got a couple of more questions for you.
And by, by the way, um, please say hello to your husband for me.
I had a, I had a really nice chat with him.
A couple, he's a, he, yeah, you got a good one there.
He had some fella and he's a pretty good guitar player too.
Yeah.
Well, I think I'll keep him.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's a good dude.
We had, we had a lot of good conversations while we were there.
Um, let, let me back up just real quick because I want to ask you something about Bitcoin
that has nothing to do with music because, um, you know, you said you and your husband
have been in it for a while.
Um, and I'm always amazed at, um, the people that I meet in the space, for example,
briefly when we were there in Phoenix, I was talking to, uh, a developer who, you know,
we pretty much figured out within the span of 60 seconds that he and I were on, uh, on,
on, on completely different sides of the aisle, uh, in more ways than one, which we know
are so divided in today's society.
But we just absolutely were enamored with what he and I both loved about Bitcoin and, and
we were so happy that we had made that acquaintance and became friends from it.
Um, and, so I say all of that with this question of mind that, and, and you can't include
music in your answer, but like when you think about Bitcoin, like what, what, what surprises
you about it?
What, what have you learned from it?
I think what surprises me about it is, I mean, kind of a cerebral ish answer is the way
that it made us look at a system that's already in place and realize that it's just a system.
And let me explain.
So one of the things about, uh, Bitcoin that's been really helpful is to give, fiat currency
an actual name, right?
So you call it out by name so that you can understand what that is and that it's a financial
system that we've developed.
And then you can look at alternatives and ways to store value.
My husband's a better expert than I am, but, uh, to me, it's just, it's a way to truly
store value and feel like you can actually save and feel like your money is not just sitting
in the bank and losing and depreciating.
Yeah.
Uh, for lack of a better term, but I think just philosophically to be able to look at the
financial system and look and see the ways that it has worked and it has not worked for
people, for yourself, for different, different types of people, um, and to actually go, hey,
you know, this is something that we've had in place and we've taken for granted for a
really long time.
And maybe there's ways that it doesn't always work or that we could improve it.
And this, I always say to people when they kind of freak out about, oh, Bitcoin, oh, you
know, uh, and they're like, that's over my head or whatever.
And I say, well, listen, it's not like it's the end all be all, but it certainly is, uh,
it's not the only answer, but it is an answer to address the fact that we have a centralized
system that there's, you know, inflation and, and there's some privacy issues and life
seerity and seizure and all of those, those are things that have really happened in history.
And this is an alternative.
I also really in true, like what I've learned from it is the way that it's pushed the technology
in general. It's not just Bitcoin technology, but it's pushing other developers.
It's allowing other things to come onto the market that are decentralized like no,
star, like, and, uh, and, uh, and lightning payments and the fact that we now that we have
that second layer, I think it's making it more accessible to people, um, from just a familiarity
aspect as well. Um, but yeah, my main point was just that it, I think the biggest thing is
just to be able to have a name for what is our current system, fiat versus, quote, unquote,
versus Bitcoin, right? So to be able to just name the system we currently have and have a,
vernacular and have a vocabulary for that is so helpful to then rethink the system.
You can't have an answer resolution without having a thing to name. I mean, it's just like,
oh, it's just money, you know, I mean, that's, it's really hard to conceptualize when you
don't have a label for something. And, uh, I feel like it just, it helps you save for the
future. That's the biggest thing that I've learned. And honestly, the most valuable
thing, really the only true currency in the sense is that you can't get back as your time,
right? So if you spend all your time working hard, you know, uh, and it's a good point. Yeah.
I always, I always love, I always love asking that question of people, uh, of people. I'm
sorry. Keep going. Essentially your, your time and your investments, right? You should,
my personal opinion is you should be able to just save, right? You just, you work hard, you earn
your money, you put it away, you save it's, and then it, and it has value for you later. And
that's not always happening in this, in our current state of affairs. So Bitcoin's a way to do that.
I mean, you know, I understand that, you know, people buy gold and all of those different things,
we're all trying to find a value and have a means to store our value. And truly,
our value is our time. And so we've put that time into earn. We use fiat to buy Bitcoin and then
our, and then you end up being part of a really cool community too of people that are interested
in making the system better. It's not about destroying anything. It's about improving. And it's about
lifting people up. I think the coolest thing too is that there's, that it's helping people in other
countries and that, that it actually is a way for them to store value, you know? I mean, I think it
was a man like Quex was saying that through lightning payments, he was, and Satsy was able to pay his
electricity bill. Like, that was, that's awesome. That's so cool. It's, and so I think it just,
it's a global community decentralized too, which is pretty awesome. I'm, I am amazed at how quickly
things are moving. I mean, I haven't been in the space as long as you have, but I think with,
just with the tech gains that have happened within the past eight to nine months, it's going to be
a completely different landscape in two years. Absolutely. It's, it's moving so quickly that it's,
it's kind of like a world one to keep up with everything that's happening. But I also feel like,
you know, that sometimes people like get rich quick kind of schemes and that's not what this is.
At all. Yeah, they're going to get weeded out of this, you know, they're going to get freaked out.
Like, I mean, especially like right now, like I was down, I was down at Bitcoin Park tonight, you
know, and it, and I looked over and I saw the, you know, like the current price was like 62
tonight and I'm like, okay, right? I mean, we all know it went over 70 last week, but we also know why
it's down to 62 right now. So, and that's going to freak up, freak a bunch of people out. And if
they get out, fine, it's fine. Go ahead and get out. That's, you know, we get, we always say you're
in it for the long game. And at the end of the day, the simplest term is that it's just a way to
store your most valuable asset, which is your time. Yeah. Just way to store that value. And any investment
in any, in any way is that you should be able to have a way to store that value and come back to it
in the future. Yeah. Well, but in general, you know, things are, things fluctuate and people just have
to either get out of that makes them uncomfortable and that's not okay for them or
you know, hang out and play the long game. Yeah. Well, they, they should all be playing the long game.
Well, let me let before we get to the last song, which is going to be the live version of Carnival
from Culture Shock and Phoenix a couple weeks ago. Let me wrap it up with a couple of fun questions.
I typically ask like, you know, give me your top five records, top five concerts, things like that.
But I want to know, I'm going to put you on the spot. All those gigs you did with your dad.
What is the one song from your dad's set list that you sang on where I'm, where you're like,
oh, God, I hate this song. Like, get, give me the worst song from your dad's set list.
Oh, all right, guys, you're going to really hate me for this one, but I can't stand the song happy
for well Williams. I don't blame me for that bit. I had to play that every hour, a couple times
an hour for four hours straight because if someone's coming up and tipping you big money
to play that song again, you're going to play that song again. And the reason,
and so it is overplayed by me over singing it.
Yeah, also, I don't really have a lot of room to play in that song vocally.
You know, I'm going to all over the place. I mean, that's because he's all in falsetto on that
and for the most part. He is, yeah, yeah, for the most part he is. And also it's pretty,
it's just, it needs the base of the rhythm just, it needs to be sung pretty much exactly how
we sang it. And most of the time I try to make songs my own a little bit.
And that one, I don't feel like I have that much room, but also it's just like, it became like,
and it's a small world for me. It just gets stuck in your head, especially when you played it like eight times.
Oh, thanks for that earworm. Yeah, I'm going to be stuck with that crap. Oh, you're so welcome.
What's your favorite song from your dad's set list?
Oh, my favorite one. Yeah. The one that comes up immediately is just old time rock and roll,
Bob Seeger, I sing that one with him. And it's really fun. I mean, I have a lot of
fun with that song because I can get crazy. I was trying to think I also do a lot of, you know,
Adele, I love to sing Adele. It's really fun. It's always fun.
Pretty much anything that she sings is fun, although, Hala was a really hard song.
Oh, for a minute there, I went to Lionel Richie. I'm like, wait a second. No, wait, the Adele version.
Okay. Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Adele,
Adele, hello. I know. I do that all the time. Where are you? That name songs?
That chorus on the Adele song is brutal on, on, on hello. It is. Yeah. It is brutal.
It is, you've really got to be warmed up or just make sure that the beginning key is exactly where
you need to be. And also the breath work on that. It's crazy. When you do that live, are you playing
the guitar on that? Or do you have a keyboard player do the piano parts? How do you handle that?
Whenever I do, well, when I do someone like you, I play it. But for hello,
different keyboard player, usually my dad has a keyboard player. And that will come and just shred
on everything. And then I'll play like little leedy parts on the key tar. But someone like you,
I do play on the piano, just right hand melody and then keeps me. And also I kind of do my own
version of that song. There's a couple of time signature changes. Just based on how I sing it.
Just randomly kind of switch from the three, four to four, four for some reason. I just,
it, and it's a very straightforward and I've just always sang it that way when I play alive. And so
that's how it comes out. All right. I'm curious. I'd love to hear the version of it. Speaking of odd
meter, are there any plans for you to, and you and I talked about this in Phoenix,
but are there any plans for you to track your song criminal?
Yes, there's plans for that. I actually have to go through and tempo map that you asked me,
who, what is the count in that chorus? It is in nine and it changes constantly. It is a, it is a
whirlwind that song. Someone called it "prog rock one time." And I was like, cool, that sounds good.
The nature of, well, yeah, I was like, I mean, I'm complimented by that absolutely.
You don't sit down and go, I'm going to write a prog rock, but that's the nature of just writing
you and lyrics and melody and then just going, these are the chords. Here you go. And here's the rhythm.
And then, my husband was like, what is happening? And then honestly, none of the band can think about
it. We all just have to feel through it because you can't count. If you count it, you will mess up.
And then it'll just go off the rails, but it's just, we just go, all right, cool. We're,
you know, and it's one of those songs that you just lock in, but it is nine. Like, wait, once
I had a live recording of it, and I was like, one, two, three. And it's a weird way that you can count,
you can count in different mixes. But yes, there are plans to do that. I'm hoping to do that this year.
That would be amazing. Right now, I've got splinters underway, but then my next single is actually going
to be kind of a Americana song and it's a singing woman, which I didn't play at Culture Shock, but I just,
I actually am working with a producer in Nashville, John Kennedy, who works on Jakoma with me and
Bourbon at dawn. And so now we're doing a three-part harmony, fun girl power song for women's history
month. Nice. Singing woman. Yeah. And when is that coming out? That is due to come out
the end of March. Those are the hopes sometimes as long as everything goes according to plan.
If not, then it'll be early April, but my hope is to get it out like next week.
Awesome. Yeah, we just, I just went through with the studio and finished all of our fun
tedious recording edits, which is the best part. Yeah, were you bouncing tracks back and forth between
Nashville and San Diego? Yes, actually. So the whole production was done in musically in in Nashville
by some incredible session players out there. And John is just an awesome person to work with.
And he sends me this track back and then I just record vocals here in San Diego. And then there's
Jesse Lark, who I onboarded for Wave Lake. She'll be on the record and then also another
cow that I'm trying to onboard Elizabeth Bauer socks is going to be on it. And then next,
we'll just have to get Evan Diamond to post all her music on Wave Lake. I won't forget that.
Did you say Elizabeth Bauer socks? Yes, Elizabeth Bauer socks.
That name sounds familiar. That's such a unique name. Is it? Yeah, it is.
Her, she's from Ramona. I don't know. When you were out here, there's also wineries in Ramona.
So that's why I was thinking that connection. But yeah, she, I feel like I've, like, I've been across that name before.
She's a killer vocalist. She's amazing. I think I think that's, she studied opera and college. And she's
fabulous. Yeah. And she just started her band out here in San Diego. And they're amazing. They're
absolutely awesome. And they have a live EP that I'm trying to get her to put on Wave Lake.
Awesome. Okay. We will succeed. Awesome. Well, I'm happy to talk to any of those folks if
if they have any questions and, and, and, can definitely, can definitely be a, be a, a mentor,
if you will, in that regard. So, um, and that's what we need in this space, lots of education.
Yeah. We need, we need, we need more musicians and we need more Bitcoin holders to download,
like fountain and podverse and curio cast or things like that. So 100%, 100%, be active participants.
Yeah. Sarah, I really appreciate you, um, coming on the show. And we've had a couple technical glitches.
But, um, I think it'll turn out good. And I, and, um, I, I really enjoy your story. Um,
you're writing, of course. And, um, I hope you, uh, just crush it with the next single. And again,
I, I really appreciate you coming on. Thank you. Uh, coming on the show. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Anything else? Much for having me, Jim. Yeah. Anything else you want to throw in? We, you got a new
single coming out. Went, when's that this show is going to go up? Let me look at my calendar here.
Sunday, the 24th, when is your next gig after the 24th? After the 24th, uh, it will be April 13th is
my next scheduled show. Uh, actually might be coming out to Nashville, uh, the beginning of April. So
like April 8th. So I'm trying to catch the eclipse. Oh, it's, yeah. So I don't need to know.
The total clips is going to happen in, in Indiana. Oh, up north. Okay. There you go. Yeah. So
flying in Nashville have a great weekend and maybe place some places out there. So DVD, but definitely
in San Diego April 13th is my next gig after that. But hopefully Nashville in a couple weekends.
Well, stick around. We'll talk after, after this song or yet, you know what I mean, stick around.
We're going to play Carnival. This is from Sarah Jade. And this was live in Phoenix a couple of
weeks ago at the Culture Shock Noster event. And you have been listening to the Phantom Power artist
hour. Thanks, Sarah. Thank you.
For one night only satisfaction guaranteed. Oh, your dreams phenomenal.
But it's all part of the show. Welcome to the Carnival.
But you saw you sidestepped right up. Tell us your strength and try your luck. Life's again.
Full of charades, masquerade, don't you pray? Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes.
Give your taste to the dark side, something for every other time. Take your seat and cure the
lights. Welcome to the Carnival. And I'm saving every soul. And I'm shaving my hands.
But only food, carly home, and it's all part of the show. Welcome to the Carnival.
Hold your breath as you wish, smile, cheating then, the whole your eyes. What a way to kill the time.
Oh, in the old message, to die, welcome to the Carnival. And tonight only every soul.
One half and say at the end of the road, we'll live right now.
Come close to a close. Now they're taking down the shendily and packing on your smooth knees.
Magic words from the auctione. Make it all disappear.
But it's all part of the show. Welcome to the Carnival.
Welcome to the Carnival.
My thanks to Sarah Jade from San Diego for joining us on episode 15 of the Phantom Power Artist Hour
for Sunday March 24th, 2024. Hope you guys enjoyed that episode and have had a lovely weekend.
Hey, join us later this week on Wednesday. Of course, we've got the Phantom Power Music Hour.
And on Friday, we should have another Phantom Power Music review. I was not able to get to it
this past Friday, the 22nd. As I like to say, gigs and poker games have a way of
interrupting with that show. And I'm hoping that we've got a special little short edition of the
business hour coming up tomorrow. We'll see if we can make that happen. As always, you can find us
on NOSTER, on Instagram, on Twitter. And you can always check out our website,
phantompowermusic.io. And if you guys know any musicians who are interested in getting into this space
into this movement, we would love to speak with them. This is a value for value, podcast, a value cast,
right? If you found value in this, we certainly would love to receive some from you. So thank you
guys so much for listening. Have a great rest of your day. And we'll see you soon. Bye-bye.