EP1: Marty Ray, Music Artist, Singer, Songwriter, Actor & Producer. Going Viral with Marty Ray Project.

Going viral with Marty Ray Project. Coming out of the womb singing, Marty Ray racks up over 100+ million views collectively throughout his social media platforms on his cover of Ice Ice Baby. Yes, you heard and read right, 100+ million views on one song! not to mention his other covers and originals. Even the Iceman himself Rob Van Winkle a.k.a Vanilla Ice said it was the best version he has heard and seen. Growing up Marty was told by some he couldn't sing, but he followed his heart and proved the doubters wrong. With 1+ million followers and growing by the minute there are plenty of great learnings and awesome messages of positivity through the show so make sure you stick till the end.

"Everything that you have now is everything that someone else ever wanted" 
~Marty Ray

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Transcript

Tack:   0:00
This is episode number 1 of the inventions show. Hi Everyone Welcome to the first episode of the Inventions Show, a podcast about all things invention and reinvention in life and business. My name is Tack Lee, entrepreneur, international property investor, inventor and the host of this show. I’ve got some really exciting things planned for the show and firstly I’ll just like to say a big thank you for lending me your ear.  Before I go into today’s guest who is an absolute talent in the music business who has racked up over 100m+ views collectively on a single song alone, I’ll like to first of tell you a little bit about me and why I started this podcast. Listening and watching plenty through the years it’s been something I have been thinking about and to be honest I don’t know why. But when the opportunity presented itself to leverage off a fantastic platform, it’s just something that needed to happen, maybe it’s a sign. So in the words of Richard Branson. Screw it, let’s do it. So my wife Hoe Ping and myself have a startup company called Tern-x, a travel lifestyle brand that we are about to launch in these very interesting in these times. We create innovative products that solves an ever age problem of traveling with kids. Stress and Anxiety and our target audience are families with kids. From idea to conception till now it’s taken us about 16 months and through this process and have also been shortlisted for the coveted international design award by red dot. It has been both an exciting and challenging journey to date, inventing a new product and also re-inventing ourselves along the way.So I thought won’t it be great to have a podcast that talks about all things invention and reinvention in both life and business as in most cases one leads to the other. A creation as a whole. I just felt that it had to be done as it was one of our pain points. so here I am. My vision for this show is to interview entrepreneurs, founders, influencers and experts in their field and for them to share how they come up with ideas, the reasons, the needs, challenges and hopefully some insights not many people get to see. Or even just have a good laugh along the way as an expert in anything was once a beginner.So that’s a little bit about me and background of why I started this show. I am really pumped to be launching this podcast so Let’s talk about today’s guest and jump into it.

Tack:   2:58
Today we've got a very talented guess, and I'm thrilled to have him on the show. His ability to connect through song is simply remarkable. A man with an incredible voice and beard. Marty Ray, artists, singer, song writer, actor and producer.  So welcome, Marty and thanks so much for being with us.

Marty:   3:23
Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate you all.

Tack:   3:26
Likewise. Now the first thing I'd like to ask all my guess, for those who are not familiar with yourself and your work is, can you please give us  a minute window or two into your background and life story?

Marty:   3:41
People ask that a lot, and it's tough to answer that question in a minute. But if I had to put it in a minute, I guess I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, raised in Arkansas, come out of the womb singing, had some people in my life saying I couldn't sing and God had other plans. And I end up singing anyway. And here I am today. I guess that's the minute version.

Tack:   4:07
It's also nettlesome. Now I must ask you about your beard. Marty, you know, how long have you had it? And have you ever thought about shaving it?

Marty:   4:19
Well, I think I've had this. We were We were actually looking at some old photos because I'm horrible time with timelines and dates and things like that. So I don't really know the exact time frame that I've had this beard, but I will tell you that I looked at a picture not so long ago, and I had the beginnings of it 10 years ago. So I think it's been I've been growing this for a decade. You asked if I ever if I ever, if I ever think about shaving and I always say every time I eat, I think about shaving.

Tack:   4:56
That's a good one. All right now the first song I've heard from yourself was when you did the cover of Ice Ice baby, you know, instantly loved it. Now that cover, I think, has racked up close to six million views on YouTube at the moment. And I'm sure many many millions more through your other platforms. And I believe this cover has also lead you to performing on tour with the ice man himself.  Di you expect the response you got from it?

Marty:   5:26
No, I mean, if you look if you go back to the first first posted that video, I had already had some success, um, I posted the video, probably a year, maybe less than a year before that one. And the video I did was, ah, parity of all about that bass, which was called all about that beard. I did that and then that got, like, two million views. So I was already building a fan base and I wanted to be I wanted to be consistent. So one night it was about three o'clock in the morning. I wasn't even posting to my Facebook page only on my personal profile and my YouTube and, uh, I remember it was three o'clock in the morning. I hadn't posted in a while, so I have been messing around with Ice Ice baby and the acoustic singing format that I did it in. And I just made a video and even even in the catch in the original caption. I said I don't know if anybody, you know what even will even like this or not, But I want to be consistent. So here's what Here's the way I've been doing Ice Ice Baby. So to answer your question, no, I didn't think it all that That song now has hundreds of millions of views collectively, especially on Facebook, like there's just one post alone that has 30+ million views on it with that song. So it's really, really crazy. It's incredible. It's more of a credit to the song itself than to me, because that song has has a life of its own and it has a place that everybody knows. Ice Ice Baby. Everybody knows that song and they know everything.  They know all this little these myths about it as well, like, you know, with Suge Knight and and, uh, hanging Vanilla Ice off off a balcony window and things like this that aren't true. But all these all these weird stories about Ice Ice Baby formed because of the gravity of that the song had. So I think it's mainly it's mainly due to the actual gravity. That song had more than me. You know, I didn't really do much besides just sang it, you know? But yes, I didn't I did not expect it to do what it or to get a call from Vanilla Ice one day and him to say, I want you to come on tour with me. I definitely not expect that.

Tack:   7:53
That's awesome. And I'm pretty sure he also say that is the best vision he has heard.

Marty:   7:59
He did say that. He said that on stage. He said, This is the best version I ever heard And I said, Man, he prefaced that by saying, I've heard every version of this song under the sun, every version you can think of from country, to fresh metal or something like that. And he said, This is the best version I ever heard and I was like, on stage going, that's that's a major atta boy.

Tack:   8:27
Truly deserved. Marty, I know I can second, third, fourth that its's tremendous, what you've been able to do. Can you share how long have you been in the industry and like, what's your biggest challenge today?

Marty:   8:42
How long have not been in the industry? I am not really in the industry. I'm in the business. There's two things. There's an industry, and then there's the business. Businesses is just a human being saying I'm going to do music and I'm gonna I'm gonna try my best to do it as a living. That's a music business. The industry is, are the labels there, they are the industry, the Grammys and all. I'm not in that business. I'm not in that industry. Uh, because I don't I won't sign with a record label, and I don't want a record deal. So I'm not in the industry. But I've been doing music as a business for I guess, I guess, uh, 7 to 8 years, probably, you know, professionally full time type situation, I would say entertainment more than music entertainment as a whole. I've been doing for about eight years.

Tack:   9:38
That's great. Now you have over a 1,000,000 followers and counting across your social media platforms and through the times and how you've been evolving and reinventing yourselves have you seen any changes in terms off the type of followers or who are your biggest followers?

Marty:   10:01
The type of followers, huh? Great question. I don't even know. What do you mean about the type of followers? What do you mean by that

Tack:   10:11
Like a certain age group for example.

Marty:   10:13
Oh, the demographic. No. I mean, to be honest with you. I don't I don't pay a lot of attention to the age of my fans 100%. And I know that YouTube has the the analysis where you can the analytics where you can see the age groups. And I think my major age group was from 24 to 38 or something like that. I think that's where I fall mainly, but that but I don't know. Just anybody that anybody that likes my music and enjoys it is and is a fan is fine with me. I'm happy about it you know. But I haven't noticed any changes of, OK well now I'm starting to get a little more 50 year olds or whatever I haven't noticed that.

Tack:   11:08
I can tell you Marty,  my four year old and six year old loves your music and so do my parents and they are in their seventies. So there you go, that's your range, everyone.

Marty:   11:19
I like that from 4 to 70. Yeah, somebody sent me a video, actually, of, Ah, I've got a couple of videos of babies crying and their babies will be crying and then somebody will start playing my music and the baby will stop crying immediately, and I'll go. And that's amazing. That's that's like a gift right there to here to see that and watch that to know you are soothing a baby, that's pretty crazy.

Tack:   11:46
Soothes the soul. Now when you release, you know, either covers or originals Marty. Do you try and tailor your music you know, to what's happening at the moment in terms off, You know that certain type? Or do you just produce what's in your heart?

Marty:   12:05
Well, originals. There's all originals are always whatever is on my heart. So I wear my heart on my sleeve and and I do that through music. So whatever is on my heart, that's why and another reason why I don't want to be a part of a label, because I want to be able to write and sing whatever I want. So my albums are very, they are a marge podge of music. They're all over the place, so there's there might be there might be rock and pop and edm and it's all on. But it's all in the same album, so I kind of have the approach of I don't know if your listeners will remember this. Back in the day, I used to make mixed CDs where the CD I would burn songs to the CDs. Did you ever do that?  

Tack:   12:55
Yes, yes. 

Marty:   12:56
I would burn. I would burn songs of CDs and And when I would burn those songs, it wasn't just one genre. It wasn't just a country music, your blues or gospel. It was everything that I had in that at that time that I wanted to hear driving down the road. So that's kind of how my music, my music, is my originals. But it covers covers definitely have, unless it's just a cover that I love like Ice Ice Baby, or Let Her Cry, those type of legendary songs that meant something to me my whole life, those were just going to be done, and there's several other several other songs like that that will be done as well. But they, uh, the fact that I think I'm peaking here. Is my voice too loud?

Tack:   13:48
No, it's all good, all good.

Marty:   13:50
I'm watching. Ah, a meter here. And it looks like I might be peaking on you. I don't want I turned it down a little. Is that better? Yeah. Anyway, so on the covers, it definitely is determined by two things by the popularity of the song. And, um, does the song move me or not. If it don't move, I don't do it. Usually if I can't make it move me in some way and I'm not gonna do it.

Tack:   14:16
Amazing. Amazing. You've had many original hits, you know, and release many. And I think you've released, correct me if I'm wrong. Three albums to date. Expression Not Perfection, Country Man and, uh, Mixed Emotions. Where did your creativity, You know, ideas and drive come from in terms of what's your creative process when you're writing a song? And how do you know what music to make?

Marty:   14:47
Well, like I said, I just, uh it's always whatever is in my heart at the time, So if I'm if I'm sad then I write a sad song if I'm if I'm happy that I try to write a happy song, if I'm, it just comes out, whatever, whatever is in the moment. And then there's thousands of songs that that I have started, but I haven't finished. So when I get into a certain mood then I am the finishing that song and that song goes on the album, that's kind of works. Sometimes the music comes first. Sometimes the lyrics come first sometimes the melody comes first. It just depends

Tack:   15:30
And is there hidden meaning to your music? 

Marty:   15:38
I definitely write certain songs with  spirituality in mind and Ah, like I Always Got, Jesus is always at the forefront of my mind. So you might hear you might hear things about him throughout the whole every song I've ever written, but that I'm not going to say, Hey, this is what this song means, this is what the song's about. But because music is beautiful in that every song means what it means to somebody. That's what music is supposed to be. So people ask me what does this song mean? I said Whatever. Whatever it means to you is what it means. Yeah, and that's as the truth.

Tack:   16:22
That's awesome. And has there been a favorite song? One of your originals that you have written to date.

Marty:   16:37
um, it's hard to say, You know, here's a favorite of my own song because it's like saying I don't like all the rest of them. So it's tough to say, But the one I was most I could say, I guess I was most happy about after I finished. It was it was written years ago. It's called Spirit Song.

Tack:   17:03
Yes, love that one.

Marty:   17:05
Yeah, really? Yeah. So that's one of the ones that, like that was one of the early songs that I wrote. And so when I when I finished writing that I was I was amazed. I thought, Man, maybe I have a chance of this, So I guess that one kind of has a special place and plus the content of the it means something to me as well. It's talking about Jesus to me. And, uh yep. So I guess that would be the one.

Tack:   17:40
Cool. Cool. Now I'm curious about the, you know, the initiative behind Marty Ray Project. And why wasn't just March Ray, you know, the man, the singer the beard? Why, Marty Ray Project?

Marty:   17:56
Originally, it was Marty Ray and I was trying to. I was trying to build a band and the band members. Originally, it was Marty Ray and I was trying to build a band and I was trying to get a record deal. Those were that's what I was trying to accomplish, those two things. I said. If I could get these two things a dedicated band and a record deal, then I will have made it. I know I'll make it. So. The band members kept changing, always had to get a band, some band members and they would be there for a couple of shows, and then they would do other things, go off and not be available. The band members started always rotating non stop, so I never could get a dedicated band. And then the record deal. I spoke to a couple of record companies, Average Joe's and Sony spoke to them, and they were just trying to, you know, give me pointers and tips on how to be. I had no fans at this time. So whereas now I could probably I could probably get a meeting with either one of those people now and probably they would sound in a heartbeat and take a lot of my money, you know? And, uh, but back then, when I thought I needed him, they didn't want me so But I'm sure now they would use me.  So what happened is through that I said, Well, there's never gonna be there's never gonna be a dedicated band. There's never gonna and I'm not gonna sign a record deal either. I could tell you that that's not gonna happen. So this is becoming a, I said, This is really becoming a project. An experiment, all right. To see how far a man can go, with rotating band there's always different and without ever signing a record deal. So that that was where the project come from. So is like it's a project and still is, how far can a man go? How far can a man go without ever signing a record deal without ever having a dedicated band. We're always rotating. We'll see.

Tack:   20:09
I love how you see life Marty. Now in these are interesting times. You know where the whole world is pretty much in lock down at the moment. There's a need for people to reinvent themselves and how things are done. I mean, I attended your live concert a few weeks ago. That was simply incredible. Can you yell us a little bit more about that and like how you come up with the idea and your views off, you know, maybe online concerts are moving forward.

Marty:   20:39
Well, I think any of my fans that go back far enough, they know that my whole anybody really knows me. They know my whole career was built on online. It wasn't for online. I won't have a fan base. You wouldn't know me, never would have been at the JT Foxx thing. None of that would have happened.  So my whole existence in music was because of online because of Internet, whereas others and I respect them greatly. They go more grassroots, whereas they travel all over the world and they play all these shows all over the country. Rather not really the world, usually, but all over the country, playing shows for pennies.  And sometimes they get discovered, and sometimes they don't might a matter of fact, nine times out of 10 they don't. Um thank God I didn't have to do that because I wouldn't have made it. I wouldn't have been able to do that, right. I have Children. I have a wife, so I'm not gonna give. I'm not gonna give up my children and my wife and our relationship for music. I love music, and I know it's what God put me here to do, but I will not sacrifice my family for it, right. That's not gonna happen. There's people to say, you know, and you're in the business world and so is JT Foxx and all these people. They have this saying in that world, and it says you've got to be willing to do anything, whatever it takes. They say these all the time. So I say the exact opposite. I say, no, you shouldn't be willing to do anything. You should not be willing to give up anything and everything for any kind of success. I would rather be broken, poor and be with my family, than be a millionaire and being away from them, cause without my family, there's no reason to be successful, you see. So when they say give up anything, do anything, it kind of bothers me in my spirit a little bit because I'm like, I'm not gonna give up my family. I'm not gonna give into my morals. And I'm gonna change my morals for success. I'm not gonna do any of those things for music or anybody else because that is something. If you lose that, you lost everything, in my opinion. So I say we should yes, be willing to work hard. You must be willing to work hard. And you must be You must be consistent and persistent. That's the key to really making it in any kind of business is just staying on course. The problem is, too many people will give up so quickly, and it don't even take much. So so many people will get on a course, and as soon as it gets charted they go, man, I'm gonna make it. If they don't make it within a year. They quit their done. They gave up their depressed and they, but they don't ever go and read this story of Nike, the story of Walmart. They don't go read how long it took these people, how hard they work to get there. They didn't give up everything for it, but they worked hard for it, there is a difference and working hard and being willing to give up everything. I'm not, I'm not a fan of I'll always work hard, but I won't give up anything. The fact of the matter is with the with the way the music industry has been, they want you to tour 150 dates a year and they want or plus 150 plus dates a year. And there's even a song about it. Do you need your friends? Do you need your family? You know, if you don't need those things then I'll make you famous. You know, and that's not me. So if this is a far as I can get with my fans and God behind me, then I'm fine with that. So be it.

Tack:   24:23
Love it. Love your words Marty, appreciate it. I believe you have another online concert coming up shortly. Now we have listeners from more than 90 plus countries you know on this platform that's listening and watching, where can our listeners tune into basically your  lives. And can you please tell us a bit more about it.

Marty:   24:48
So, you know, I didn't really answer your question earlier, but I'll answer in this, I'll package it in this  because when you said that, I just remembered I never answered your question. I have a problem with that. I get on these little rabbit holes, you know?

Tack:   25:01
Haha it's good. Go for your life.

Marty:   25:07
So I've been like I said, I've been doing lives online for a long time. Previously, I was doing private online concerts where you would buy a ticket and things when this hit. Everybody started doing like lives on the Facebook. Just hold the phone out and, ah, I said, Well, I've been doing that forever, like because I would go live on my Facebook page like this all the time. And so I said, Man, I need to do something better than what I have been doing for the people at home, and it was like a divine thing. An old acquaintance of mine. Never, here's thing. This is a definite tip that everybody should know. Never. Ah, never think that a meeting from years and years ago was just a happenstance. Just a coincidence that it's not really gonna yield anything. Because I had a buddy that I met years ago name Jeremy Bird. And he's my buddy Now. I met him one time years and years ago and nothing ever happened. But we talked about this and talk about that. The Corona virus thing hits. He's he's involved with a bunch of bars in Nashville. And of course, they can't play music. They can't do live music. They can't do anything, and he contacts me out of the blue. And he says, Hey I'm setting up. I'm starting this, um Livestream. I got the the best cameras, the best sound systems, and I'm gonna start. I'm having people come in and play live shows, and you'd be great for it if you were interested doing it. I said, I'm gonna come out and check out what you got going on. So I did turned out that he did have the best equipment. He did have the best situation, and I was like, Let's just I'm all in. Then he introduced me to this thing called myset, which is an app that you download, and you can go and find whoever's live online. For now, it's just really just online. But someday soon it will be even in when you're sitting in a bar. But anyway it's called a myset app, and he's involved in it. You can click on download, and then you can find Marty Ray Project, and you can go and bet on the songs that you want to make sure get played that night. So then everybody's bid. You don't just you can just like you say you want to make sure you that you hear Ice Ice Baby. Then you you bet a dollar on that that somebody else says, I want that to, and the dollar just keeps making that song climbed the list so they make sure that that one gets played. It is a great idea and ah so yes, So the events are now going through there, but that's not where you watch him. That's where you participated. You can watch them from the My Facebook page, Marty Ray Project or my YouTube channel. Marty Ray Project. And I think maybe from Instagram this time, but I'm not sure, but mainly from Facebook and YouTube. May 23rd.

Tack:   28:12
Remember that one guy's bookmark it, highly recommended. So, Marty, quick one. What superpower do you wish you had? 

Marty:   28:24
I wish I could. I wish I could read Superfast. That's the truth. I've said that the other day to somebody. I was like, Man, imagine being able to read just like, you know, you see these, these robots or aliens in movies and they comprehended it all. Not really necessarily the reading, but more of the reading and comprehension it.  I would like to be able to go through a book and minutes and just know everything that the book said. That will be a great superpower to have.

Tack:   28:55
That's an awesome one, haven't heard that one before. So yeah, there you go. Now what would your theme song be during your time in quarantine?

Marty:   29:07
My theme song. You know, I just released a song. I just wrote a song with my buddy um, Chris Wallin who is a hit song writer. He wrote a lot of hit songs. We wrote a song together called Stimulus Check Blues. Yeah, that's actually on YouTube and stuff if these people want to look it up, But, um, And if you want to look it up, I don't know if you have seen that.  It's just talking about how everybody got the stimulus checks and and I didn't get one and he didn't get one. And we ain't getting one and you know it all that stuff. So it's like, I'll just sing a little bit of it. "My stimulus check never came at all. Wonder. Wow, they got to do that to me. For my friends got jet skis and trailers that all one got a HHD TV install. Ain't nobody sending me nothing and nobody sending me nothing". And you know there is versus and stuff in there. But it's just talking about how you got all of these people. It's a funny song,  you got all these people talking about showing all the things that they have bought with their stimulus money.

Tack:   30:20
Cool, Cool. Now we have to work towards wrapping up and super mindful of your time, Marty. An incredible conversation and chat, and I really appreciate your honesty and openness. Two last questions First is, where can people find out more about you and yourself and your work. And second is Do you have any parting words of wisdom that you like to share with anyone watching a listening?

Marty:   30:48
Okay, so people can find me first. It's @MartyRayProject everywhere, and ideally, people would go to my website martyrayproject.com and they would join my mailing list. That's what everybody should be trying to build is a mailing list now so that you're not you're not hindered by algorithms. As far as a wisdom. I'm not a wise man, but the Bible says the Bible says if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives us the Allman liberally and abrade. If not, and he should have it. So I do ask for wisdom daily and ah, few things that come to my mind. To be content in what you have. Be thankful for all that you have. But don't be complacent, right. Don't just don't don't sit there and and and be you can be happy but don't be. Be happy what you have, but don't be satisfied forever. Don't don't just see, I'm good not achieving anything else. I'm fine with that. I think people should be creating every day. We were created to be creators. So the image we were created in is the image of a creator, were creators. So we are to be creating every day. And the last thing I'll say is there was a quote that I actually thought of years ago. Somebody might already said it, I don't know. But I thought of it. And I wrote into my quote book and it goes, Everything that you have now is everything that someone else ever wanted. So the fact that if people really understand that, because everybody wants what everybody else has. But if people could really just sit and think about how much they have, how much they've been given, and there's so many other people and it just goes all the way down to the poorest of the poor, even the homeless people on the street of America. There's people that are homeless in India that would love to be homeless in America. you know what I mean? because you get a lot of help here. So I'm just saying, Always know that that what you have is everything is everything that someone else ever wanted and you should be thankful for. So that's all I would say.

Tack:   33:02
Amazing. That's truly amazing. Awesome Marty, thanks again and really appreciate your time to be with us today. So alright, guys, hope you have enjoyed this interview. You can find me on social media. Thanks for listening. And I'll see you guys in the next episode.