[Music]
Hey everybody, welcome back to Phantom Power Artist Hour.
Got a great guest for you on today's Value Cast.
It's not a podcast, it's a value cast.
It's a value cast because of the direct exchange of value between the listener and the host or the guests, right?
Because you guys can send in little tiny bits of Bitcoin.
Because you guys believe in value for value.
And you guys are listening on a modern podcasting 2.0 app.
You know all that.
Today's guest is singer songwriter Jessica Lynn Whitty.
And you are familiar with her work over on Wadley.
She's got at least 10 tracks posted up there and she is a great country singer songwriter.
Her background might surprise you.
Where she's from might surprise you.
So I hope you stick around and listen to this great interview, this fun time we had this afternoon.
And you're going to learn about her background, you're going to learn about publishing, you're going to learn about tracking songs in Nashville with these amazing artists, these amazing session players that are here.
And I'm just going to leave it at that because this conversation is a lot of fun.
I am going to shut up and we are going to play Weekend State of Mind by Jessica Lynn Whitty.
And then we're going to bring her on the show.
Everybody ready?
Got your popcorn?
Excellent, here we go.
[Music]
Monday creeps around too early.
I embrace a brand new star.
L and Tuesday comes around. That's when I start my countdown.
I make the best of where we are.
I've got a Weekend State of Mind taking one fake at a time.
Thoughts out to key the song in mind.
It's what gets me through the grind.
I'm way to kick back in on one. I've got a Weekend State of Mind.
[Music]
It's called Humpty for a reason.
But it's all downhill from here.
With the first days on the road, I can fit in my soul.
And that we're almost in the clean.
I've got a Weekend State of Mind taking one fake at a time.
Thoughts out to key the song in mind.
It's what gets me through the grind.
I'm way to kick back in on one. I've got a Weekend State of Mind.
[Music]
I'm hanging with my friends until the weekend ends.
'Till I be recharged and I can't stop.
I'll over again.
[Music]
I've got a Weekend State of Mind taking one fake at a time.
Thoughts out to key the song in mind.
It's what gets me through the grind.
I'm way to kick back in on one. I've got a Weekend State of Mind taking one fake at a time.
Thoughts out to key the song in mind.
It's what gets me through the grind.
I'm way to kick back in on one.
I've got a Weekend State of Mind.
[Music]
And that is Weekend State of Mind by Jessica Lynn Whitty who is on the line on the phone on the mic with us for the Phantom Power artist hour.
Hey Jessica, how are you?
How are you doing, Jim?
I'm doing great. Nice to see you again.
It's been a little while.
I know. It has been.
Fold disclosure. You and I know each other.
We do. We do.
This is like an artist hour conversation between two friends.
Exactly.
It doesn't get more behind the scenes than that does it?
Yeah, because we're so scandalous.
Oh, totally, totally.
Yeah, God.
Two dead people.
There's not two boring musicians out there.
Yeah, you and I would probably fall in that.
Probably.
We're pretty normal first musicians go.
But I appreciate you coming on line.
I appreciate you jumping into this whole value for value, wave, like music, Phantom Power, music world and sharing your talents.
Yeah, sharing your talents with everybody.
It's been fun for me to see people around the world.
Like I was just looking in wave, like salty crayon commenting on the salt again today or dove.
Yeah, so we're in London, you know, talking about your songs.
But I, but I don't know it that everybody has the full background of, you know, of you and.
And, and how Denmark falls in with all of this.
And you're crazy.
You're crazy journey into country music.
Sure.
I was going to say James, I'm not really sure I have the full best crown, but I'll give you what I got.
Well, yeah, and I can, and I can see that beautiful Washington state sky behind behind you in the.
Yeah, we got a rare sunny day here today.
Oh, I miss it.
I miss it.
It's actually, yeah, I got a Seattle day here in Nashville.
I was just actually.
Oh, congratulations.
That's right.
Yeah, it's raining.
That's going to be raining tomorrow.
Fun.
All right.
So tell us how does, so for those of, so for the listeners who don't know, how does a woman who.
Is such a good songwriter in the country space who is who in many respects is from Denmark.
Yeah.
How in the wide world of sports, did you get from Denmark?
Like what's the Denmark and Seattle connection?
Sure.
What's the whole country music thing?
Give us the scoop.
Give us the fact.
All right.
Well, I mean, I've always considered myself half and half, even though I grew up in Denmark.
So I grew up in Denmark.
And Denmark went to school there.
My dad is American and lives in the Seattle area.
And so I would go back and forth in the summers and visit my dad.
So that's kind of the American connection.
But I lived the first 30 years of my life in Denmark.
And, but as when I was a kid, that little connection with Seattle gave me.
And, like, kind of like an intro and a little bit more than just the taste of country music as we know it.
So, you know, then we're talking the 90s.
Oh, I'm dating myself now.
We're talking the 90s.
All right.
And I'm, you know, I'm hearing for the first time this thing called new country.
And we got, you know, Don Michael Montgomery at Garth Brooks and Rebell McIntyre.
We first used Toby Keith.
All right.
He, yes, absolutely.
He was top of the game right then, right?
I mean, he was until until just recently, yes.
And, and then, you know, Faith Hill came out with the wild one, which was like her debut.
And that was also my debut into country music finding this like really interesting coexistence of wholeness in a way.
I mean, I know country is all about, you know, drinking and partying and all that stuff, but there's some really good like down to earth country values in country music.
And at least there was at that time.
And that's kind of what pulled on me rather than everything being about storytelling.
Yeah, exactly.
There's more storytelling.
Hold on you.
Right.
Exactly.
Rather than everything just being about like Shake your booty.
Right.
And that was kind of the connection I fell in love with country music when I was, I think about 12 years old.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
I think that's about the time when Faith Hill came out with wild one.
And it was actually in Denmark that I found it, but then as I was traveling back and forth in the summers.
My dad would drop us off at the mall and my two sisters would go straight for, you know, the closed stores and I'd head straight for the record store.
And I brought home so many cassette tapes and CDs.
That was that time.
I had a great collection at one point of just the 90s country music.
And so that was kind of like my first love when it comes to music.
And also my first dabble into songwriting, really.
Well, yeah, and to date you and I, Faith Hill.
Yes, let's just do it.
Let's just own it.
Faith Hill's Warner Warner release.
Wild one came out in 1993.
Oh, it was wrong.
So, so, so 14 for me.
Yeah.
Okay.
I feel like it was earlier than that for me, but hey.
Well, you know, Abe Lincoln said the internet doesn't lie.
So I'm going to have to go with what the internet's telling me.
Of course.
Yes.
Of course.
It's there. It's true.
And as far as like going to the record store for, you know, creating a kickass library,
like as you can see behind me, like there's about a thousand of those plastic thingies there.
Yes.
Never get any play anymore.
Yeah, probably not.
Well, you need something to play them on.
That's the problem, right?
Yeah, they're, yeah.
You know, I mean, you can use your DVD player, but who the hell uses your DVD player anymore?
Oh, yeah, DVD player anymore.
I know.
I mean, I mean, series.
I know.
It's the problem.
But it's next, it's next to my VHS player.
Exactly.
And the beta max, right before that.
And hey, you know, maybe we'll get a comeback like vinyl.
Who knows?
I'm going to give you a heads up.
My dog might start barking in a minute, but I'm worried.
I'm so.
Let me jump back.
There's the dog.
I remember being in Switzerland, living in Switzerland in 93 and looking at some country music.
And there, there were some country artists in Switzerland singing in Swiss German, which is a slang of high German.
And it, and I just, I, I was just blown away that to be in such a different culture.
And I'm granted, I know that Switzerland is not Denmark.
I know the languages are different.
I know there is a world of culture between that 10 hour drive from Copenhagen down to Lutsaren, where I was.
Why do you think that country music is popular in, in, in Europe, right?
Or even, you know, more specifically Scandinavia, like what, why, what is it about country music that, that Europeans.
Attached themselves to.
You know, I don't think I can answer that because when I left Denmark in 2010, country music certainly was not popular.
They didn't get it.
I didn't understand it.
I'd say it's a little bit different now, but I don't know what it's like, obviously, because I live here now.
So, but, but I will say that I think the part, the part of them that likes a good Western is going to love a good country song.
Because those two things are quintessential American, right?
It's, it's very, it's very, and it's something we don't have in Europe.
We have a lot of history and a lot of other things, but you don't have that Wild West American dream.
That's just so very American.
And I think that's that, and that's, you know, my theory to why the people who do love it really do love it.
And I hear it's coming, it's getting a lot more now with, I mean, Spotify was only a Swedish thing when I moved over here.
So, you know, with Spotify being everywhere and streaming and then, and then, you know, now these other platforms.
Definitely, there's a lot of, a lot more accessibility than people kind of get to tune into other things that they wouldn't have access to otherwise.
I don't do my guess, but again, it's, I fell, fell for it a long time before that.
Yeah.
I wonder, and you don't have to answer this question, but I, but I would be very curious to know like I, I, I, I probably need to find a European artist to answer this question.
I can help you with that.
But what, what, but here's where I'm going. This is deep, right?
And, and, and I'm not here to talk about politics and I'm not here to talk about religion.
I'm here to talk about music.
But I remember being on tour in Europe in 91, 92 and 93 and at that time, post-Golf War, post Reagan, America really quote unquote at the top of its game, whether you disagree with that statement or not.
If you were in Europe at the time, Americans and, and the country was really highly regarded.
I, and I, and the culture was just washing over there in waves in terms of music and in terms of movies and whatnot.
Fashion, no, fashion has always come from.
Do the way around.
Yeah.
Okay.
But I did, I did bring back a bunch of Levi's.
So, did you?
Right on.
Okay.
So, but, but here's where I'm going with this.
I, I think that when, and I still speak with, with my friends in Europe quite a bit, thanks to social media.
And again, I'm not making a statement on what, on what has happened.
I'm, I'm not saying pro-Wercon, what's happened in this country in the last seven or eight years.
But I have noticed that America's cultural standing and acceptance around the world has taken a hit.
So, I'm very curious as to what the modern take or, you know, the, what people think of, of, of pop music and country music coming out of America now.
Do they like it more?
Do they like it less?
Is there a correlation between, because 30, 30 years ago when I was over there on tour, like people couldn't get enough of it.
But now when I talk to my friends who live over in Europe, they're like, we have no interest in coming over there for a vacation.
I'm not asking for an opinion on that. That's just something that I will be very curious to, to, to, to, to dive into.
I don't know, maybe, maybe your friends and family over there have something to do.
Well, I, I remember experiencing it because I lived there for the best part of the 80s and 90s and, or, and the first decade of the 2000s.
What do we call those zeros?
The 10, the, anyway, the, the, what?
What?
For, for most of the 80s and 90s, America was fascinating and wonderful and anything quality came from there.
This is my experience.
I'm just saying.
It's very subjective.
And then around 2000 things shifted.
And all of a sudden it was more of a,
what is, you know, like, and again, this was my experience of other people around me going, why would you want to go to America?
I mean, especially with the way things are run now and like all that stuff, I remember shifting from that, like,
yeah, America to, oh, no, I'm not America.
And that's because of 9/11 and Bush, you think or what?
That's a, that's a, that's a good question. It could be, or it just could be one of those things that shifts, right?
I mean, our allies shift all the time and again, now I'm not, I don't like chopping politics either, but so of course, what are opinions, right?
Yeah.
And I just remember feeling like I didn't agree with that because, yeah, I can see, I can see what's, you know, what's well with this country.
And I can also see a lot of faults in Europe, but generally speaking, I felt more like an American just in my values and the way I want to live my life and the things that America stands for.
And whether or not America, America stands for is actually being lived. That's the whole other thing, right?
That's the whole other podcast.
That's another podcast. Let's, let's, let's be those podcast users to talk about that. But, but for me, that was the choice that I made to move was because I felt like I belonged more here.
Yeah.
Cool.
So you're over here, you're kind of like a, like a latchkey kid, you know, with divorced parents jumping, instead of jumping between houses, you jumping between continents.
That's what I did for many years.
Right on.
Okay.
And you set up shop in Tacoma in Seattle area because that's where your dad was from and you're very familiar with it.
And you and I met when you were like the coordinator for what, what, what was that kid's music program in Tacoma?
Oh, yeah.
Ted Brown music, their outreach program, which is a nonprofit. So, so music is a, is a, a chain of great stores.
Yeah. And it's a way to shop there instead of, you know, some of the bigger ones that I've always thought of that, but they have almost everything.
They have an outreach program, a nonprofit.
And within that nonprofit is live it out loud, which is a, a kids, like a teen program to experience during a summer, what it's like to be in a band and to be a musician and all that.
And so I took over that, live it out loud program in 2017 as the director and passed it on after 19.
So I got to do it for three years.
Right before COVID, I passed it on.
So nice.
I think I might, I might have lucked out on that one, but good looking out there.
Yeah, right.
But it was very, it was very rewarding and very fun. And I got to meet people like you, right?
Because Ainsley was young enough to be in the program at that time.
Yeah.
So I think it was really a great, really great program and a great experience.
I mean, these kids got to play the more in Seattle, they got to, like, that Cameron came in and talked to him and like, you know, and yet you guys, you guys taught him structure.
You got, you taught him the importance of listening when you're in a live setting.
I was just so blown away, but, and I think it was so cool of you to donate your time to do that for the kids.
And for me, like, I mean, I don't know, you probably thought about this too when you saw the program thinking, if that had been there when I was a kid, right?
Oh, I would be all over it.
Oh, yeah, totally.
I would save up for summers on end if it cost a lot of money.
That would look like it wasn't like it was pretty affordable, but it was, but again, it was like, you got to play this thing on a stage and play with other musicians.
And it was all the stuff that when I'm, because I wasn't a professional musician before I moved to the state. So in 2010, I threw myself into it and got to learn all this stuff that I then was able to pass on to these kids.
And like, they really early would it were able to figure out, oh, it's not all just playing or singing.
It's, there's all these other things.
It's a hell of a lot of work. Well, and you had a lot of street, you had a lot of street cred to be able to run that thing starting in 2017 because your first record catch me if you can.
That came out in 2016, right?
But you hit in, so tell us that was actually my first Nashville recording.
Oh, you're okay.
Yeah, I had a, a couple of singles before that.
Yeah, because so what walk us through like when you started writing and recording to tell us when, when that happened, like when you got serious about your first recordings and, and where they were, where you do.
Well, I mean, there was always this whole tug of war between the West, you know, the Pacific Northwest being Seattle to come up that area.
And Nashville, because again, all country music starts in Nashville. That's just in our heads, right?
And I, I had my support, my network, everything was, was in the Pacific Northwest.
And I often had like the, that tug of war of well, should I just move there?
And or, you know, what, or should I stay, can I stay here and do the same thing?
Because the world was changing so much at that time too, that all of a sudden, you know, all the online stuff became so prevalent.
And, and, and actually there's, there are certain things that you can do from anywhere that you couldn't before you had to be in Nashville, right?
So, like, I had that tug of war going on.
And so I started, but because like my network and everything, I had, like, had a job, I had a, my family.
And I just was like, I mean, imagine you're, you're not just moving from one state to the other, right? You're completely new culture.
You go to try and find a job, you don't have, they can't call your references because they're in Denmark.
I mean, so it's like, like, there was, there were a lot of things that I was dealing with at the time, but I immediately went out and tried to figure out where can I record?
How can I get, at that point, I was talking demos, right? How can I get some demos recorded?
And just go and do the thing and just have something to show people what it is I'm thinking that I want to do because that was the, that was the biggest thing is is just, if you didn't have something to send someone, then what are you doing?
So, and then from, from then to now, it's now it's more of a, everybody just releases stuff.
It's not even a question anymore. Back then it was like, should you, should you really, I mean, CD Baby did exist. So, you know, do you want to self release? What do you want to do?
So basically the first few years I was, I recorded in, with Kevin Jones in turn studios.
Great quality recordings. Got a great, had a great experience, but I never got that feeling of, this is, this is what I was looking for.
It was more Americana, it was more, you know, Northwest country. And then I, I connected with, with London Bridge and the London Bridge studios up in shoreline, which they've done a lot of the, grunge stuff and they've also newer times recorded Brandy Carlylell and Matlamore and so they've had, they have a really good.
That's a gorgeous facility. It's a great, it's a great place. You, you guys probably went up there too with the, for Rem, didn't you?
Yeah, I, I, I, I, and I was in there for, for separate reasons. Yeah.
Oh, yeah, there you go. So it's a wonderful studio. Great producers and put out two singles through there and it got closer to what I wanted.
And then when I finally just kind of went, okay, I'm a, go to Nashville. I'm going to get an EP recorded.
That's the first time I felt like, how do you, this is what it is?
This is what I wanted to sound like. And so never look back. I recorded basically everything in that real sense.
So, so for those musicians who are listening who don't quite understand how this process works, let me, let, let me give a short inversion of it.
And if I, if I screwed it up, you tell me, but basically as you've alluded to, you live in Seattle.
And whenever you've got something solid that you want to record, you will fly out here.
You've done it a bunch of times. You know exactly what studio you want because you've been here a bunch of times.
You probably know the, the, the, the players you want and the producer you want.
And you walk in and for X amount of dollars, you, you say, fellas, ladies, here's the chart.
And it takes them two or three passes. And you've got one, two, three songs done in the days. Have pretty close?
The first time I had five songs done in three hours session.
Five songs in three hours. And so, and then the next day I went, did vocals, mixes were done, walk out of there with five songs.
So, so two, two and a half days maybe.
Yeah. And that's how, so for those of you who, whose jaw just hit the floor, that's how it works in Nashville.
You walk into a studio, you hire the studio for a day or even for one song for, for a pre agreed arrangement fees.
And the studio takes care of the players. And these guys and gals, they look at it that they, they might run it down once.
And then they'll do it again. And on the second take, they probably got it pretty much.
Yeah. I had, I had a couple of insane situations where pretty much everyone got it on first take, which is like, and we're out.
Yeah. But yeah, I mean, a lot of times you just have to check the tempo and make sure.
And I remember this was the first time. So I walk into this one was at, at Beard Studios.
And I've recorded a bunch of different studios in Nashville and, um, frozen concert hall, like always, right?
And it depends on what you want. So, but this was Beard Studios and Larry, who's now retired, Larry Beard.
I think he has like six Grammys as an acoustic guitar player.
Well, yeah.
Spectacular, spectacular session master.
He, he almost like chewed me out for not stopping them because the tempo was wrong.
Like my very first tracking, my very first song, and I'm, we run the whole song.
And I say, I think the tempo must have to be a little faster. And he's like, okay, just next time, stop us.
And then we'll start over because time is money. And I'm like, I love this place.
Yeah.
They're so efficient, right? It's just all about like getting rid of them.
Yeah. The level of musicianship that you get to deal with with, with true legitimate session players.
We're talking about guys and gals that do this for a living will blow you away.
And not it's one thing to go see a band live who is very well rehearsed.
That's a beautiful thing.
That's a whole other thing, but it's a beautiful. Yeah.
Whole other thing.
Whole other thing. It's another thing to walk into a room with five people you have never met.
Give them a paper and say, you know, this is in G. It's like 84 BPM.
Think of.
The scratch me in my guitar.
Yeah.
What's the, you know, and the old guy in the corner, what's the vibe? And you're like,
a Doddy West.
Yeah.
Doddy West.
And if Doddy West was doing a lot of acid and hanging out with the Ramones and they'd go,
okay, I got it.
Yeah.
And they'd be like, cool.
Yeah.
So I walk in with, you played We Can't Say To Mine in the beginning.
I walk in with that one. I tell Tommy Harden who's Alabama's drummer.
I tell him.
I'm kind of looking for, you know, kind of like a Madonna field like Meet Sclery.
I said, okay.
And this is country.
I mean, come on.
Yeah.
So his response was probably like, all right.
So if Omar Hakeem was playing country, it was not like this.
Exactly.
So you know, two measures in here like exactly.
And seven and and and then like five minutes later, we're on to the next song and I'm like,
play it like Lenny Cravitz would.
He's like, all right.
Okay.
I mean, these guys are, I mean, just to kind of show the session you can put together in Nashville
is one of my sessions was, and this is not unheard of.
These are actually more of my sessions than not.
I had carry on to what's keyboard player.
Reuben back in tires league guitar player.
Winona.
Her bass player.
Dow.
Alabama's drummer.
Swear to him.
He's amazing.
And then we had.
Garth Brooks.
His.
Pedal steel player.
And then Michael sprigs, who's from England and is one of the most prolific.
I think it's our players.
He's amazing.
He like.
He produced a whole bunch of.
Trace African stuff.
And so like, that's like a rando session.
You know, you get the most amazing players in that show.
Yeah.
And I'm just, you know, Joe Schmo from.
From.
From here, right?
So.
From Seattle.
Yeah.
Well, and that's a totally different type of session.
What one of the things that I'm going to do is.
Well, and that's a totally different type of session.
What one of the things I love about your tunes is as I discussed in the music review podcast
that came out today is just that the instrumentation and the feel and the fact that it's all live.
I love the fact that.
It's all live.
Like I don't think I've heard a song of yours where maybe that like the drums in the bass and the keys were all.
Electronic for lack of a better term because a completely different type of session.
Is that and a lot of pop.
Writers go into this where it'll be the pop writer and the producer.
And.
And probably the only thing that's alive instrument are the guitars.
Everything else is electronic and.
And as the writer and the producer are crafting the song, the producer is literally building it.
Literally building the drums and the keyboards and everything and that that is another completely different style of recording.
And yeah, I feel so.
Yeah, not so wrong with that.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
Have you done any sessions like that or has everything been all live for you?
Yeah, no, I'm done a lot of.
Oh, no, we're really.
I'm really going to share like don't tell everyone, but.
Don't worry.
Nobody listens to this podcast.
As right.
I did a quite a few different like electronic music sessions back in Europe, back it back around 2000.
Yeah, yeah, EDM stuff.
That's what you call now.
Used to be called electronic.
None of it's none of its release or anything like that, but I still have some of those old recordings.
And that was all built, built, built, built, right?
So.
So yeah, I haven't tried that in many years, but I've, I've dabbled.
I think that you should have, let's see, and like nobody would ever know.
So like, here's what I would suggest you do.
Like come up with another get out, be wallet, go it with another code.
Right.
I can get you code.
Create a whole other persona, right?
Yeah.
Put that up on Wavelake or over on our site.
Like as a completely different thing and like nobody I'll ever know it's you, right?
That would be really fun.
Yeah, you know, just just just for shits and giggles just to see if it.
Yeah, I would have to, I mean, there might be some, some rights.
I think to go tracks and people now.
As permission, but other than that, I love that idea.
That would be really fun.
What was it song in English or in Danish?
What was it?
Oh, it was all sung in English.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I've done some Danish songwriting for sure.
Yeah.
But Danish should, like German, it doesn't sing as well.
With all due respect to Denmark, one of my dear friends, a guy who I toured with.
I spent two years on the road with.
He's from Sweden.
He's like you, like his English is so good.
Like you would never, never, never, never, never, never know.
But he is full blood, biking, sweet.
Yeah.
And he always makes fun of the people from Denmark.
He's like, they always talk like they got porridge in their mouth.
Totally.
Damn, dude, that's harsh.
No, we're very harsh toward each other.
It's more of like a rivalry, I would imagine.
100%.
It's that kind of situation where, you know, if I see a swede in, like, walking the streets of Copenhagen, my immediate,
this is all good fun.
But immediate comment is that he's probably drunk.
They come over here to drink or beer.
So that's like another thing, right?
And then, you know, we're all rivalry, but we meet somewhere else.
Like, I mean, a sweet over here.
I'm like, my brother.
Yeah.
But if you go over there, you see a, you see a Brit, you're like, ah, he's a soccer hooligan.
Right?
Well, it's more in Scandinavia.
We don't have that same affinity with the, the Brits.
I'm, I'm hope they remember, like, they forgot that we invaded them once upon a time.
So, you know, yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Maybe they're, maybe they have, maybe they haven't gotten over the American, American speeding King George.
I mean, they make, they make series about it today, right?
So I don't think they've quite forgotten yet.
Yeah.
Well, all right.
Sorry.
Let's get back, let's get back to tracking a national strike.
We digress.
We got away from it.
This is what happens when friends talk.
All right.
So how often do you come out here to, to track and, and to record?
Well, I, uh, since 2016, actually, 15 is when I recorded, uh, catch me.
If you can, which you played that, it was so nice to play my song on the review.
Um, yeah, man.
Ever since then, I've been out to Nashville, Perra, at least twice a year.
And then the last, like, since COVID hit, all I really, I couldn't play live.
So all my time was just spent traveling back and forth.
And now I come about every other month, just, you know, sometimes, you know,
come three months in a row and then I'll skip December, you know.
So, yeah, I'm actually coming out in a few weeks here.
So, uh, right on.
I'm on the back.
You got a gig?
Well, you're out here?
Are you tracking?
I don't.
I'm tracking.
Currently, uh, I have a, uh, publishing deal in Nashville now.
And so you didn't tell me that.
Yeah?
Look for you.
I told you, oh my gosh, how good friends are we?
What I didn't tell you that.
That's what, that's crazy.
Yeah.
Nice kudos.
Thank you.
It's, uh, yeah.
It's been on a song to song basis for a while, but, uh, we're, we're kind of looking at, um, collaborating even more.
And so basically what these days when I come to Nashville, it's just all about tracking, tracking, tracking.
And then she, uh, uh, she says she, because it's a woman owned, uh, small publishing company.
And she, uh, hands it to the song blogger to go around in Nashville and push the songs to other people.
So, yeah, I actually have, uh, the song Memphis anymore, which I think you're going to play at the end here.
Yeah, wrap it up with that.
Yeah.
That one is actually being, it's been recorded for all I heard is it's coming out in March.
So soon under, with a, uh, a blue grass group.
So, uh, yeah, once that's out, I'll let you know, it's, uh, that'll be my first official cut.
Yeah.
Good for you.
Uh, uh, uh, that is so awesome.
I'm so excited for you.
I know you've been kicking for that for years.
Yeah.
I have.
All right.
So let's, let's back up and, and let's bring to the, to the regular people to tell everybody what a publishing deal is and why it's important for, uh,
writers and artists like you.
Yeah.
So, um, a publishing deal in Nashville, because they're, I think they're very, probably very different depending on where you're located, right?
Yeah.
So, it's a very specific Nashville.
Um, basically, uh, so as a songwriter, we have our royalties like we own the song.
And half of those royalties are for writing and the other half is for publishing. And so a lot of times someone with a bigger role like, like, Roller Decks, that's an old thing.
What do you call it now?
Um, contact list, email address.
Email list, contact list, whatever, you know, um, comes in and says, uh, well, I'd like to shop your song around and see if someone wants someone, you know, bigger than you hire up the food chain wants to pick it up and, and, and,
a lot of stars have been born like that.
Like, like, yeah, you know, a brand of Clark, uh, actually, um, actually, Brad started out as song, or songwriters and had some really good, uh, cuts as we call them.
And then if you're, so you can either be song to song basis, um, sometimes you get hired as a staff writer, which is, so like a lot of the bigger companies will have you as a staff writer, you get a,
you basically get, um, what do you call retainer or something like, wait, you get a stipend for writing songs. So it's basically your job.
Yeah.
And then some instances you have to pay some of that back once the song sells in other instances, you keep it, but then the song belongs to the other people.
And that's, you know, so there's lots of different types of deals.
Mine is amazing because I don't have to recoup, so which I don't have to pay any of the, of back of what I've,
um, what, what money, uh, my publishing company has put into recording all these things.
And, uh, I usually get to keep some of my publishing myself. So a lot of times you allocate half of your song to someone who wants to shop it around.
Um, that's good.
I'm not going to make this more complicated.
So you're good. So just so people know, like you allocate part of the mat now is at the master recording side because you're not giving any up of the writing side, but you're, you, it's the writing side, but it's, it's what you, but it's what you call the publishing royalties.
Right.
Okay.
Which is, which is, you know, that's what they're therefore. It's for whoever is actually out there selling the song, which is often also the artist, right?
Yeah.
There's a lot of talk. I mean, this is a, probably another podcast, right? A lot of talk about whether or not to give up your publishing rights.
Um, I think of it as allocating and as long as this, whomever I'm giving those, the, I'm allocating those rights to, as long as they're out there doing more for my music than I can myself.
Then that's fine. I still always get to keep my writing credits always never, never give those away. Right.
Yeah. And the residuals that come from those writing credits.
Yeah. Exactly. Plus, um, you know, who owns the master? That's more about when it gets recorded in, in, in the case of someone picking up a song and saying, hey, I want to record your song and I want to make it a hit.
They actually on the master.
So, right. Right.
Right. Nothing to do with that. Yeah. We could spend hours on this, but let's, let's just go back to the beginning of what a publishing deal is because I think a lot of people.
Either they know where they don't know, but the idea of a publishing deal in, in Nashville for a lot of people is kind of synonymous with what Carol King did or many, in many respects, Barry Manolo did as well.
It's like, you know, company X, let's say McDonald's hires you as a writer and your job and they're going to give you $50,000, $60,000 a year.
That's, you know, you can tell me if, if I'm wrong on that.
But your job is to go down to McDonald's office in music row. And, you know, four or five days a week, you are writing songs back to back. And there is, you know, you're in this little, you know, small little.
Room in those houses on music row. And okay, it's one o'clock. Just who's this Jessica Lynn Whitty? She's coming in to write with me. All right.
I'm going to write for three hours and then I'm going to take a 20 minute break and then whose amber sweetie. Okay. I'm writing with Amber.
And that's your job. That's what they take. Yep. And we are either the people sitting there receiving or the ones going all around Nashville to the different McDonald's is, right?
So it's, it's, it's one of the bit, the best opportunities for a songwriter to do something more than just write songs and no one hears.
That's the way I put it. That's what a publishing deal is. So, and especially if you're no more, if you never have any aspirations to be an actual artist, then 100% this is the best way.
Absolutely. One person that comes to mind.
And what I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear is that there are some people who are writers who are hit writers who are millionaires as writers and they are absolutely tone deaf.
Or they, they cannot play an instrument and you're probably like, you got to be kidding me. And, and Amy Mayo is a perfect example of that.
Amy Mayo is one of the top writers in Nashville in the last 25 years. Like, that song from Lone Star that's played at every wedding.
Yeah.
I didn't know that one that you know, that's an Amy Mayo song. The Kenny Chesney song, where I'm a pain like a winner coat, that's an Amy Mayo song.
And I saw Amy Mayo at city winery a couple years ago with on the girls in Nashville thing and she, she gets up on stage.
This is one of the most amazing things about Nashville. Amy Mayo gets up on stage and she starts talking and you're like, how in the world did this person get up here at city winery and get on stage?
Because she's like all over the map and cracking jokes and you, and then you come to realize like, that's her personality.
She's absolutely lovely and her husband is sitting there playing the songs with her and she will tell you, I am tone deaf and I can't sing and I can't play an instrument.
But as a lyrical writer and as a story person, she is absolutely stinking brilliant.
And that's, that's one of the things you run into in Nashville that people don't, that people have no idea about.
Yeah. And one of the things that a publishing deal to, can do for a writer too is get you in to write with bigger and bigger writers.
So I, you know, of course I have my little bucket list of who I want to co write with.
And it's another very Nashville thing to co write, right?
We all have our, like, the songwriters that inspired us, whether we know it or not, right?
And, and the, the more, if I can get a good placement, then I can, there's a chance that this other person's door will open, right?
And so like, like, if someone, if someone high up the food chain, let's say Kenny Chasney, just for the heck of it, let's say he cut one of my songs.
Imagine the doors that would open in Nashville for me for co writing.
Oh, forget it. It's over.
Yeah. I would have a pick of the litter, right? Yeah.
I mean, I'm out there. I'm hanging out with, with at the publishing house, the, you know, the offices and we're, we're talking and, and, and, dawn, Gatlin, who I wrote quite a few songs with.
He's currently fronting the Kenny Rogers band as their on tour without Kenny Rogers, but he's the one fronting.
And he's, I mean, he knows everyone in Nashville. He has, he's everyone's phone number. It's really so funny. He's like the connector guy.
But also a great songwriter. We've written quite a few songs together. He brings in Marty Morgan, who's, Laura Morgan's business partner and brother.
Yeah.
And I hit it off. And now we've written quite a few songs together. And I'm actually have another session with him. And we just, we just adore each other. We're just like, yes, this is great. This is perfect.
But, you know, I'm sitting there. I'm going, this is a little Morgan's brother. It's kind of cool.
Yeah.
You know, it's just a little by little, you kind of get some of those connections, right?
And, uh, yeah.
Well, what do you think it to, I mean, you, you're one of the rare ones who is making it work and you're making it work while not living in Nashville. I mean, man.
Like, what, what, what, what advice do you have to give to anybody who wants to become?
What did you guys just have to work over the, was that an earthquake in Tacoma?
No, my first piece of advice would be not, not go over the, the tripod. So there you go. That's what happened people.
Yeah.
You can have it. I mean, you're, you're, I mean, look, you got a hell of a voice. I've seen you perform live.
Thank you.
You know, I mean, you can obviously pull it off live, but you're, but you're making it work as a writer. What, what advice do you have to somebody who's like, how the hell do I do what you're doing?
Okay, wow. Um, we talking advice. Well, first of all, my best, my best piece of advice that I was ever given I will pass on.
Do what you love. Just whatever makes your heart sing because if it's, if you, if it's not fun, why else do it?
There's, there's no reason to be suffering through something as hard as the music industry.
If you don't absolutely wholeheartedly couldn't do anything else, love it. And that would be like my first thing. Do what you love. And if that's performing go perform if that's writing go right.
Just start and whether or not you need to live in Nashville. I mean, I definitely, I don't, I don't visit once without three, four people saying, you need to move here.
So there's obviously still that tug of war going on, but it's, but it's, it's one of it's, you know, if you don't have anything holding you back, I would say definitely move there.
Because once you're in the mid the thick of it, there's just so many more things you can just jump out and do, right?
Don't don't go there expecting to make any money right off the bat. That's the other thing because I very quickly was able to start like creating an actual income for myself as an artist in the Northwest as a strong regional artist.
But there's no way I could have done that in Nashville in the time I did here. And then then it was like well, no, do I give up my income and go, you know, get another job and then moved to Nashville.
Like that was kind of my weird in between at one point. So like I'd say if you have a chance and you have the opportunity and it's like I was in that in between of should I move or should I not that's a move.
Don't go for it. Do it. Jump in all in because you never want that moment where you go. I wonder if it's a con better if I had, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to regret.
Yeah, but if you have a like for us, my husband has a great job and it partially pays for a bunch of stuff that I can do.
Well, I'm not going to give that up. So if that's your situation, then go with that. Go as often as you can go make friends, go make contacts, go out in the town, not Broadway.
But it's like it's depends on your situation, right? Because if you're if you can't do it, go all in all you can't.
Yeah, then do as much as you can, right?
Yeah, and I would say with respect to Broadway Broadway is I mean, it's fun, but it's a tourist thing. It's not really Nashville.
Yeah, if you want to hear really good music, well, there are great musicians there. That's some not like in that. If you want to hear good music and original music, then you want to get out a little bit and find some of the good places.
So, yeah, I can't remember the way we will talk about your husband here in just a second.
But I can't remember the name of it. In my opinion, the best place to hang on bringing up the map, the best place to hear like real country music, real country music.
If you are coming to Nashville, go over by the opera, right, which is the Northwest side of the town and north of the opera.
What's the name of that? Northeast.
Yeah, North, what's the name of the club? I saw you in Chris.
The scoreboard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, next to that, right? Or kitty corner? Yeah, kitty corner to the scoreboard. And I'm trying to bring it up.
Alice.
It's the palace, isn't it? Yeah, it might be that was the first thing I came to mind if you want to hear real and good country music.
Music, bar and grill. Music City bar and grill.
Yeah, is that also called the palace? No, that's no, that's a separate one.
Oh, okay.
The Nashville palace is next door to the Duke's a hazard, Cooters Museum. Oh, dear God.
But scoreboard, if you walk out the back door, a scoreboard and go north, music City bar and grill, I think has the best country music.
Now, there's also now downtown in the Gulch.
The station is a good one too.
Yes, that's true. That's true. And if you want to see those like songwriters around that Nashville is so famous for, the listening room is a great place to go.
The living room is fantastic for that. Yeah.
The local, the local is great. Yes.
And the local is actually opening up a spot up here in Henrik. Yeah.
It's a very fun, which is really needed because there was a A because I mean, there's just not a lot of live music up on this side of town, which is a, no, there's not.
And shame.
Jolly Ollie's is off of Main Street and and blister hearts. They got hit by the tornado and they got trash.
Of course, Main Street. Yes. Of course. Wow.
And they, and this is going to be like their third rebuild because a couple of years ago, they had a fire and they got trashed in the fire.
So I think this is, this is version three. But anyways, back to Broadway.
And to prove that Broadway is not really Nashville. Guess who is opening up a bar on Broadway?
Take a walk. Yes. Your favorite New Jersey, hair, a metal bro.
John Bon Jovi. Of course. Yeah. Why? Of course. Yeah. Why not?
But anyways, let's talk about handsome piano players. Yes.
You mentioned your husband, who also has a massive amount of tunes over on Wavelengthy, one and only Raymond Hayden.
Yes. He does. Great piano player. He uploaded quite a bit. Yeah. He's awesome.
Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. We've, well, we've created some music together for sure. We've both been in each other's bands ever since we were at.
It wasn't, we collaborating didn't come easy. It's kind of like too many chefs in the kitchen. I think, you know, it's like food analogy for creating music.
But we've certainly found a way because we created a lot of stuff together.
So because I met Ray, I was in the Texaco country showdown back in 2013.
That's something that teaming show from the fifties from the fifties. I know totally.
I'm the Puyallup State Fair. It's the Texaco country showdown. Country showdown.
That's exactly, I mean, and these were held at different fairs, not the Puyallup, but close enough.
And I made it to the regionals. So one more step would have been Nashville, but anyway, I met him because he was a judge.
And I was one of the contestants. Oh, stop it. I know.
And I want.
Hey, by the way, if you win, you win a date with one of the judges.
You win a 10 year marriage.
I like it. By the way, the judges and musician. Oh, great.
Oh crap. Yeah. So that was fun. You know, it's always a fun story to tell people how we met.
We didn't actually start dating right away. It took a little bit, but, um, yeah.
So 10 years later, here we are. Actually,
Tell him I tell him I said, Hi, he's adorable. He's such a great guy.
I love it. I love getting a chance to talk to him. Um, so tell it to let's talk about your experience so far in the whole, you know, Bitcoin and wave lake and value for value world.
Like what? You know, I'm looking at your wave lake page right now. You know, you're getting some good interaction.
What what you what you take, what you're an initial impression in this whole thing.
Um, you know, I love the idea that there is there are alternative venues or alternative places to get traction on music to get your music, listen to and to where your music is promoted directly within this sort of community almost, right.
And I was a little confusing at first. I will say that there's definitely some user friendliness that I think you'd build into it, but it's also fairly new.
So, you know, it reminds me of the days where I was when I was doing all this electronic music. I was also, uh, like kind of on some of the back ends of the internet before the dark web existed.
Right. You know, and they're doing like, um, it was the kind of like the underground, right. And that's, that's what this feels like except it's the future. Right. So it's, it seems it's, it's a, it's a fun way to be able to connect with people also all over the world.
Like because it there's just no, we're always stuck by a currency and, and, and with that comes the boundaries of whatever country we're in and there's always issues that way, but, but this opens up a whole, a whole world to us.
Well, and you, when you and I first talked about this, like, you were one of the initial ones that I've spoken with that automatically, you were like, oh, yeah, hell yeah, I mean, because you, you have experienced with like, yeah, you've been a Bitcoin holder for a while.
Like, look, long before you posted your music in this space.
Yeah, that was a, unfortunately, another, like, that was a fiasco because I forgot my 13 phrase password or whatever. Yeah.
12 word. Yeah. Well, I can't remember that. See, yeah, don't just a part of ADHD and it's not good for me to just like jump in and sign up for things and not write stuff down and not read the fine print.
So I learned, but, but yeah, I have, I have the minute Bitcoin cryptocurrency in general just became a thing. I've been fascinated and, and the fact that it can be a positive influence on music is even better.
Yeah. So I'm just excited to see where it, where it takes us because it's still and it's infancy, right?
It's so early. And that's one of the, that's one of the things that my wife and I talk a lot about because my wife and I actually met at a dot com.
We were working at a dot com in Santa Monica in the late 90s and she and I kind of talk about this a lot about how the yet, yes, the technology in some respects is still glitchy.
Like I mean, some of these telegram groups that for the apps and they're and everybody's reporting their issues and helping the developer.
And as you know, with noster, it's the same way, but the community of people is so open and they are so willing to help and answer questions.
And I think a lot of that. Yeah. What the fact that it is so early. Yeah.
Does it remind you of the dot com days though? It absolutely. I'm sorry. That's why I was going.
It absolutely dark. And that's why just thinking that. Yeah. And that's why we like none of this scares us because we log into a site and it's kind of like, oh, this is kind of like net scape in the 90s.
Like, yeah, like it's kind of working. You know, you know, like we, we have been through this before.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But people our age, like we have been through this technology before. Yeah. And what and what I'm finding is people who are late teens early 20s.
They are all about it because of the cryptocurrency aspect of it. Like they see a different side of the economy that we've never seen that we necessarily haven't experienced.
Yeah. Coming up in such a debt-ridden society, they grab onto it differently.
Where I'm getting a lot of pushback is people that are like in their 30s, musicians who are in their 30s who maybe have a, who have a different experience with social media and different experience with music and expect this to be absolutely flawless.
And making you tens of thousands of dollars already, they don't get the early adapter thing of it. That's just a weird little, like I had another conversation today with somebody who was like, well, I'll be interested when the audience is there.
I'm like, dude, the audience is already here and it's growing and he kept on saying, well, I'll be interested when the audience is there. I'm like, okay, you're not listening to the, to what's going on. And you're not understanding.
You know, how many people in Bitcoin that are coming over to this every day?
Yeah. Well, I think also it also has to do with how technology doesn't scare me.
Yeah.
I walk, I'm the kind of person that walks into to a room and the computer start working.
I don't touch them. I'm just like, my, just my presence has that effect on computers.
Oh, you know, and it's, it's, I mean, there's so many times I've tried this. Where's like, it's stuck. I can't get into walk over. I look at it and it goes, oh, it's working again.
Okay.
So, and then like a fabulous husband, not how does not have the patience for that kind of stuff.
And he's definitely one of the ones who kind of goes, you go ahead and I'll see what happens and I may jump on.
But because he doesn't have the, that technology kind of scares him. New technology scares him and the, the, the complication, like how complicated it can be.
And, and, but I, but I see myself in having, having been deep in technology around the dot com, having lots and lots of, like all my, I was to,
who's all said all my degrees. I have one, all my, all my schooling and all my experience. Everything has to do with computers all the time.
And so I have, there's just not a lot in technology that scares me. And so that's why I find it fascinating, right?
Yeah.
That cracks me up about Ray that he's a little bit of a luttite in that regard.
And here's why, because I've, I've seen that dude play with his one of his many bands around the Tacoma and Seattle area. And the dude comes out on stage with a full on Rick Wakeman setup.
The dude walks up there with like four keyboards and you're telling me sometimes, yeah, and you're telling me he's a bit of a tech luttite. Are you serious? That is.
Yep.
Yeah, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. He's such a sweetheart and knows it. Yeah. I mean, he's handsome. He's pretty. He doesn't have to be smart dog.
Oh, that's horrible. Don't listen to this. Right. I love you.
But that's how, and that's probably also what you're seeing in these in the different people that you're talking to, right? Is that they don't.
Yeah.
And then, like you said, expecting it's just be there and be done and be ready. And those people were there in the dot coms, too. They were looking at all the crazy silicon valley people going, it's probably you.
Right. This is like what is that with you? But what the world grew from there.
Yeah.
And, and not everybody can be early adapters. Otherwise, there wouldn't be early adapters. So, yeah.
I consider myself an early adapter in any case, but, you know, maybe an early follower of that.
No, I'd say you are. I mean, it's cool for me. It's like we were saying earlier, or maybe we said this in the green room, but it's cool for me to hear your stuff on boost grandball and some of these other shows or.
And obviously as a podcaster and everything like I'm, I see more of the backing conversations, but for people that that I've met in the last six months to be streaming your music and talking your music.
Like it's just so cool.
It is cool.
And I think those are people that I would never have connected with otherwise.
Yeah, there's a whole new audience here and the other and and the connection that you can have by going into your wave lake account and responding to people are going on to noster and responding to people.
You don't responding to people who have tipped you directly value for value.
Yeah, that is that is so much more important and has so much more context and texture than a stupid like or a heart on Instagram.
Right.
I had another meeting talking to somebody about it today.
And, you know, and this individual kept on talking about the importance of tick tock and the importance of Instagram if you're a musician.
And it's like, okay, I understand like that's the current model, but do you understand that that that model doesn't work unless you have tens of thousands of dollars of promotion behind you?
Like people don't realize how much money games the system in terms of content over over over quality.
Yeah, because you're you're you're making noise with everybody else.
Yeah, right? You're you're you have to you're making all the noise where all the noise already exists.
It's like the person who would say once the audience gets there that person I assume is talking about their current audience.
So whenever their current audience is going to use this platform, then then he'll go over there, but my point exactly.
I know where my current audience is.
I want to go find new people.
Yeah, right?
Yeah.
Right? Yeah.
Yeah. And going into a completely new area gives me complete new people.
Yeah.
A little overlap maybe who knows?
Yeah.
And we're not telling and I'm not telling people and I think I told you this when I when I told you and Ray about wave like and like you got to get in on this.
Like I'm not telling anybody, hey completely leave Spotify and and you know, like.
They are necessary evils in this regard.
Yeah.
Right.
Just add this to your mix. Add this to your your business plan as it were.
And if you get in there and really push it and engage with people, you're going to see a far better return than you would off of the Spotify world.
Yeah.
I look at those things again, like Spotify, Apple Music, all of the Instagram and the Facebook and those are always to connect with people who already know who you are.
And yeah, there are ways of expanding in there too.
But it doesn't.
There's no easy way of expanding, right?
And so easy, simple, whatever.
It's a lot of money to expand in a place like that. And being able to have more outlet like you say add this to your mix.
It gives you that platform to expand it and to expand the people that would otherwise not find you.
I feel like Twitch kind of did that too, at least for some people.
It had it had that like it had the the worldwide thing and it was definitely a place where people would go and hang out in a way that they never would on Spotify or there was that community aspect with it too.
So it's like it's just it's another place to go find your people instead of trying to drum them up where everybody else is, right?
Yeah, do you think Twitch has kind of it's it's interesting. I haven't heard as much about Twitch recently in the last year or two.
Do you think Twitch is kind of died down with with COVID being quote unquote over?
Or what do you think?
Quote unquote watch your words.
We all again.
I said no politics are religion.
I think I think absolutely Twitch had an up and come and when when COVID hit because everybody wanted to stream and that's all we would ever do.
And it was this new and fascinating thing.
So yeah, I don't know. I've never I was never an average Twitch user myself and that's really you need to be really do need to be that but switch was already huge with the gamers and I don't think that's changed anything.
So maybe just for music it it it it changed.
So but so did the amount of streams of live streams we saw, right?
I don't I don't really live stream anymore.
So well, I think what what is going to be really cool is is the implementation of more live streams in RSS and Noster.
That that are lightning enabled where you know you can you know where where you're going to be able to send.
That's straight in to the artist, you know, I mean, you know, you could you could easily put up a live show.
You know, go over to Spanish ballroom or or even there at the house, you know any any kind of just connection you could plug in and use that as a platform that would have that extra element of Twitch.
Yeah, the direct monetization direct which is so important. All right, we're going to wrap it up here. But before I forget I wanted to because we've been talking for an hour here.
I want I wanted to say I saw today Hunter Hayes. If you've ever heard of Hunter Hayes.
Yeah.
He is playing he's doing a solo show at Spanish ballroom coming up.
Really? Okay, I got to check that out. Yeah. In Ray, got to go check it out. I saw him at Brooklyn Bowl a couple months ago with his full band, but he's out doing a solo show.
Yeah, I was going to say that's a little small for him. I mean, you can have seven hundred standing, but that's that's small for Hunter Hayes.
Yeah, I would say.
That's cool though.
If you can go see it, that's such a great.
Yeah, I'll go check it out.
Yeah, that's such a great venue.
So what do you got? What do you got coming up? You got new singles coming up? You got gigs out here.
You're going back down to the strawberry festival in Florida for three months and planning down there. What are you doing?
Yeah, that was a little nod to what we did in 2022.
The redneck files, Chris and I.
So Chris Jones and I, we have a duo and we call it the redneck files, but really we put music out under our own names.
So we're going to actually put out that EP that we've been threatening with this year.
So we're kind of putting the last stuff to that together. I don't know. No dates on that yet.
And we have a couple of private events, but that's it. Like that's all I'm doing live show wise. I'm spending most of my time just writing and dragging, writing and dragging.
And then of course, I have a ton of music that is pushing on my brain to want to come out in the world.
And starting out with March 1st, I have a song coming out called No Regrets.
I wrote it with Kristen Kay. She's from Kentucky. I don't know if you've ever heard about her, but she's fabulous.
Really great. So artists and really great songwriter. We wrote one of my favorite songs that I've written so far.
So I can't wait to put that out. And then of course with the redneck file stuff, we also have a collaboration between myself, my husband Raymond Hayden and an artist from California.
His name is Benjy Fonig. And we're putting out. Yeah, well, music mafia radio. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's he's an avid avid chat person in on music mafia radio as am I.
And that's how we met was through. So this is called music mafia radio dot net.
I mean, they are fantastic for independent musicians all quality of the music so high. So so we we actually when we were on tour, Tristan, I and we were doing that major tour.
Here we were talking about with the Florida strawberry festival. We stopped by in California, Riverside, California, and visited Benjy Fonig. And and we put out dance gravy last year. Yeah.
And so this is one of this is another one of those collaborative, collaborative efforts through that music mafia radio.
Community so does that's kind of the things that are in the works right now, but I have a lot more music that I want to put out.
So we'll see how and when but keep an eye on with like, because that's that's where it'll be up. So well, and can you can you remind me or put me in touch?
Maybe send an email to Benji because I want to talk to him about getting there like because they should be doing a lightning enabled show.
And into this RSS world because they're already podcasting.
Yes, they are.
So Benjy Fonig is an artist that I know through music mafia radio, but I can put you in touch with music mafia radio people, which is cause and fit in.
They're out in North Carolina and we've visited them as well. So yeah, they're they're not as far away either. And and cause has had he retired.
And for what I know, this is his baby, this is his passion is to do the music mafia radio. So I'm sure you would be interested in hearing about that. Yeah.
Yeah, love to talk to him about absolutely.
All right, well, we are going to we're going to exit the show with Memphis anymore, which you might have a hold on or a cut with.
Right? You might we might we might be hearing.
A new press version. Yes.
Not by me.
Yeah, that's going to be really exciting.
But we'll we'll take it out. We'll take the show out with Memphis anymore. And this has been a lot of fun. Jessica, thank you so much.
Come on on. Stick around. We'll talk a little a little bit offline. Cool. Sounds good. And thanks so much for having me. I love what you're doing. I love that you're doing these podcasts and more power to you, James.
Slayer. Love it.
Slayer.
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That is Memphis anymore by Jessica Lynn Whitty. And I cannot thank her enough for coming on the Phantom Power Artist Hour.
I love her writing, of course, but she's just such a great wealth of information for the industry. And I love a year in her talk about publishing and tracking and all the crazy stories that she's got.
She's a wonderful spirit and a hell of a work ethic too. So she's always a lot of fun. And I honestly, like, we hadn't talked, I don't know, maybe 18 months or so.
I think it was just a bunch of text messages back and forth. So thrilled that she was able to come on the show today.
I hope you guys liked that. If you do send us some sats, right? We're splitting the show with Jessica.
That is the Phantom Power Artist Hour for the week. Tomorrow on the business hour, I am interviewing a really fascinating guy from Malaysia and his book about Bitcoin.
And then, of course, on Wednesday, we are going to have the Phantom Power Music Hour. Friday is going to be the Phantom Power Music Review. And next weekend, I will be in Phoenix for the Noster event.
That's going to be happening in Phoenix. So I'm looking forward to that. We're going to be doing some podcasting from there as well or value casting, I should say.
So that will do it for me. Thank you guys so much for listening. And, you know, smile for the mug shot, right? Right. See you.
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