Dial The Wild
Dial The Wild Podcast is an ongoing discussion with like-minded individuals who have a desire to engage the primal nature within themselves. Topics ranging from Music, Sports, Hunting, Archery, Jeeping, MMA, Comedy, Fishing, etc. what ever dials-in your wild!
Dial The Wild
From Heartland to Harmonies: A Conversation W/ Duke Oursler
When the relentless push of life's challenges meets the resilience of a Midwest musician, what unfolds is a testament to the healing power of creativity. Today's episode welcomes a seasoned artist who shares his journey from the early raw days to the unexpected thrill of viral rise and success. We navigate the choppy waters of music promotion, touring upheavals due to COVID-19, and the shift to studio work that's redefined success in the digital age. Duke serves as a beacon of hope, illustrating how an artist's career can pivot on a moment's notice—from a trickle of daily streams to a deluge of recognition.
Taking a step back from the stage lights, our conversation turns inward, reflecting on the complexities of life, music, and fatherhood. We find solace in the Midwestern roots and explore how the blue-collar ethos infuses our guest's music with authenticity and grit. The personal stories shared reveal the profound ways our upbringing and the silent legacies of father figures shape who we become. It's a deep dive into our identities, embracing the roles we play off-stage—be it as musicians, fathers, or the conduits of introspection that guide our creativity.
The episode rounds out with an honest look at the creative process, the restorative nature of jiu-jitsu, and the unifying force of community, whether through shared experiences in music or the collective spirit of sport. From the heartfelt tribute to linemen in the aftermath of storms to the therapeutic escape of martial arts, we uncover how our passions, whether on canvas, in song, or on the mat, fuel our continuous search for personal growth. Join us for a candid session that's as much about striking chords on a guitar as it is about striking balance in life.
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I got hooked on a drink in 93. The same damn year she tried to swallow me. She breached the levee with incredible ease. Oh, she broke my arm, brought me to my knees and I know that's the way I roll. Yeah, I know that's the way I'm going. So I waste my life pushing mud Thick and black like the devil's blood Carried down here by the water, so deep that cold, dirty bits will be the death of me, and I know that's the way I'll go.
Speaker 2:No man, it's been crazy. You're good, you growing a little bit, a little bit, yeah, a little bit at a time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's how it is, dude, that's how I grow too. It's just a little bit at a time I do one thing thing. Maybe something like one little deal will take off a little bit, and then you know then, then it's nothing for a while yeah and a little something, and then it's nothing. I'm waiting for the big something to happen someday, but yeah, it may never. I might do little somethings for the next four or five years that's just how we're wired, dude instant gratification.
Speaker 2:We want it now. Oh, but you got to pay your dues and do the little things along the way. And yeah, from shit, what was it? I was just looking at this earlier. I was just telling corby when I talked to him the other day that he was episode number three of the Dial the Wild podcast and now he's episode 89.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude, and that's the consistency thing is the main thing Most people don't even get past episode two. So what?
Speaker 2:was I April 5th of 2021, you were episode number nine. Ah dang, you'll be at like 90. Sweet, it's been cool going back around and seeing where everybody's at like three years later, because obviously I can't believe it's been three years you know, I bought a house and stuff and, like the house I was renting, corby, come over, we're just down in the basement. You know bs and about crossfit, he was still at his shop over at Over by Diggers and like now he's expanded and oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Blown up and done his thing and like you're probably At least three or four times as busy as you used to be doing the music thing, yeah, like you put out another album.
Speaker 3:I put an album out In January. I got. I've been crazy busy. I'm trying to think three years ago I put an album out in January. I've been crazy busy.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think three years ago we were kind of just coming out of COVID.
Speaker 3:It was early 2021. Because it was all messed up after COVID. Because all, all the tour, all the touring, oh, all the touring was um, um, was, was, was all shut down and um, I was in the studio. I did some recording. I can't remember like I think I might.
Speaker 2:Uh, bootstraps was probably just about to get released yeah, it was like it came out like two weeks after our podcast okay, okay.
Speaker 3:Well, a lot has changed since that song. Yeah, that song came out and, um, you know, um, it didn't do much for a while. You know, I was trying to figure out how to promote it. I didn't know how. I mean, I couldn't really tour, so I couldn't really go out and like play anywhere.
Speaker 2:So um, yeah, your instagram and stuff. You really got active on that.
Speaker 3:Well, I was like you know, that's kind of the only thing way I could do it. And then I was waiting for, like Spotify and the other like music algorithms to try to take off. Um but the uh, but the music algorithms didn't really like well, it was, it just takes time. What they're doing is like they're looking at you know they're crawling the web. They're doing is like they're looking at you know they're crawling the web, they're crawling social media and be like, well, what are people engaging with? Who are people engaging with? Right? And then, okay, and they're using this song to do what you know. And then tiktok. I had a tiktok I made. I remember I made I remember I was playing a show. It was in the summertime and I've been posted on tiktok. I was like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna discipline, I'm going to post a video on Tik TOK, like like once a day. You know, like it doesn't have to be anything, it just be some simple reminding people you're out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just doing something, hey, what's up, you know, and, and, um, then all of a sudden, like, uh, I posted a video where I was. I was, I had a show that night and I posted a video of me lip syncing bootstraps into the phone or something, driving my car. And I got to the show, I sound checked, I put my phone in my bag and I got back to my phone. There was like 200 alerts. I was like what is going on? And I opened it up and I thought, holy shit, huh, something happened like this video for some, some reason, took off, why I don't even know. And then, um, uh, you know, and it got a few thousand views, um, but then I was able to look at my spotify and people were going from tiktok to my spotify and then like, and, and I was, my spotify was growing. All of a sudden the streams on that song, like you know, went from 10 you know, a, you know to, or like, I will use a 10, 5 to 10 a day to hundreds a day, you know.
Speaker 3:and then that's thousands a day, yeah, you know, and now it's over. You know between now between um spotify and apple music, and now it's over. You know between now between um spotify and apple music and stuff it's over. You know 400 000 streams, you know so, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2:I remember one, one of the tiktoks. You're actually explaining what's the song where you're on the river and you did the video and everything it's called yeah, push them light. That's what it was about and like you're on there and you're like pointing at a screen behind you. It's like this is what it means. It's like when the water table is, this is like you're getting all scientific.
Speaker 3:Well, I should probably, I you know.
Speaker 3:And then the other thing I found that was so funny Sometimes, sometimes the uh, uh, I'll re post. I repost videos from time to time, like you know, like a month, like if something worked good one month, I might repost it again, but I'm always trying to create new content. But what I really realize is like this is how you grow your audience or how you try to reach people, is it's all through that stuff? I have a hard time with instagram and facebook. Is there this? Here's something crazy. So I got this song called out right now, called wah pity, which is on my new record that came out in January.
Speaker 2:What's the?
Speaker 3:name of the record. The name of the record is he Shot More Than Birds, that's right, okay, it's called he Shot More Than Birds and there's 10 songs on it and all of them are kind of different. There's some rock songs there's. You know, there's a lot, there's a lot on there, but we can go through that a little bit. But anyway, there's a song on there called what pity, and what pity is um, shawn e, uh, for elk, okay, and it's about elk hunt.
Speaker 3:The whole, the whole thing is a story about elk hunt. Well, I was like trying to figure out how am I going to generate content with this? You know I'm not out in the mountains right now. I can't like video, like all the videos that I had been, you know, taking to mountains. I had already made some videos and stuff. I'm trying to figure out how I can uh get it going again. And I, there was a, um, a short clip of a bull elk on a golf course and you know, of course, when, like bull elk, when bull elk like in during the rut, they they're like piss all over themselves and they're like scrape and uh, you know, scratch the ground and you know, and then you know they're they're tearing up the green. Well, this elk is like standing on a like right in the fairway and just shredding this fairway and just he's in.
Speaker 2:He's in rut yeah, he's doing, he's straight goating it up.
Speaker 3:Oh dude, he's like come around, let's you know. And I took wapiti with the very first lyrics of that song are I got drunk last night and I'm feeling kind of shitty. Early in the morning been hunting Wapiti and that's it. That's it. And I shared it on Instagram and I didn't mean to it cross-shared to Facebook and on Facebook it got 1.1 million views. Oh my gosh, and I was like whoa and so and that grew my facebook really good, but it didn't really drive people to my music. You know it. Like people heard the song and it made funny because like half the comments were like that's how I pee when I get drunk in the morning, my wife yells at me you know, like there was, you know, 30 comments on there and I was.
Speaker 3:It was fun because I was going back and forth, so it was yeah, no, you know, it's all, it's all good, it's, it's all about that really too, which is like it's engagement, you know, like trying right. People want to engage with people and uh, yeah, so I don't know that's what's been going on the the um, but they, the bootstraps, did really well it's grown. Uh, my music, you know, both on spotify and apple, I'm, you know, I'm just like so grateful for everybody that like listens to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's good stuff you know, I appreciate it yeah, put a lot of work into it.
Speaker 3:You know, I mean like trying to you know. Another thing about being a creative individual is like trying to be aware, you know, uh, looking around, seeing who's around you doing things. You know, but I'm sure to you, you're aware of other podcasts and you know, within the region and within the area and, like all that, I aspire to.
Speaker 3:That. I mean, like you know, no one's gonna who's gonna be joe rogan, but you know, like you know, you can aspire to have to to catch people and be like, hey, I want to hear, to hear that podcast, it's funny, he has good guests on it, and like it's clever or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you know, and I'm trying to do that too with music, trying to I identify a bunch of folks you know within the region that I think are great. And then from there it says that I made a list. This is crazy. This is crazy. I made a list of a hundred people that I kind of want to, that I want to work with, and it's either play a show with them or whatever, any kind of way. I just want to make that connection. Sure, I'm checking it off. I've got some of them checked out. I got a long way to go, but you know I'm working at it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I would say that please tell me aaron lewis is on this list aaron lewis is on the list. Okay, you know because that's when I think of the kind of music you're doing and because you listen to aaron's stuff, it's all like true to him and how he grew up in his life and his experiences, which I love, the stain stuff, but you can get more of the personality out of it, sure, sure, and like you're talking about being on the river, you're talking about bull elk pissing, you're talking about working getting a ged.
Speaker 2:You're talking about working getting a GED. Blah, blah, blah. You know it's all real life stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know People really connect with that. When you know, it's just like oh yeah. I know what that dude's talking about. I deal with that shit all the time. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, it's kind of weird to like think about. Like you know you got all our friends and like these people that we deal with and saying things direct. You know it pisses me off. You know, I mean I'm going to. You know I have an education.
Speaker 2:You know, and I actually have a pretty dang good education now, we went through that on the first podcast, but check that out. Right, right, right.
Speaker 3:But you know, like I wasn't the smartest kid, my dad and actually that whole first part of that lyric from bootstraps is like about my dad Right, like you know, I had a full-time job since the age of 16, working really hard. I got my GED uh, non, money don't grow on trees I got a double wide trailer and some mouths to feed and I was like you know, like the experience that I grew up with, my dad worked his ass off. My mom did her thing, you know, and um, you know she worked too and but it was, it was a grind, you know, and um, I, I, you know a lot of the elite people I run around with. I hate the, the condescension I get from elite folks about, um, you know, the I'm a, I'm a redneck. I've got a bunch of redneck friends and you know I'm not, you know I'm not the kind of redneck you talk shit about their friends to you know, like I'm proud.
Speaker 3:I mean like, look, you know. I mean you know, look at it right now, Guess what everybody's trying to get jobs doing, Guess what the highest paying yeah, you go out there. Trades, yeah, Be a trades vocations.
Speaker 2:And this is coming from a college professor. Folks there you go.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, there's good things about college, stuff too. I mean like college can be great, you can find yourself and you can do some things.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of avenues where I mean you've got to have college. But if you don't have much and you're just trying to figure things out. Make some dollars and then figure it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I went to college for three years and wrestled and then dropped out and I was out for three years playing rock and roll and bouncing around before I went back and was like, oh okay, I understand who I am and what's going on and what I can do, and I kind of figured out a process about how to be good at whatever I guess good at whatever I'm doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, you got to pay the bills. That's the thing is. You got mouths to feed and you got. You got responsibilities. And playing music's fun, doing podcasts are fun, but well, but this is the stuff you're working for right.
Speaker 3:You know like I mean, you know this is if you're working for I, you know I I love your pockets. I think it's super cool. I mean it's cool that there's someone here doing it here in the middle of Midwest.
Speaker 2:Who talks about middle class stuff in the Midwest dude, you know you'll bet your guy does, but you know he pokes fun at it and I think it's hilarious.
Speaker 3:Well, there's a lot of things, too, to poke fun at about being a redneck. You know I mean I see it both as a virtue and a um, you know a slant. You know what I mean. Like look, you know I'm not trying to be. You know some toothless redneck out there like just ignorant to be ignorant.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know what I mean. There's a fine line like saying that you're a redneck. To humble yourself is a lot different than saying that you're a redneck that gives you an excuse to go out and just be a dipshit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly is is what comes to mind when you know I, yeah, I would say I'm, you know I'm blue collar and I I would I tell everybody I'm a closet hick what I do because, yeah, I'm fairly educated and stuff too, but I still like to hunt, I still like to drink, I still like to hunt, I still like to drink, I still like to fish, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we're still. We're still cavemen at the end of the day.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent, a hundred percent. We're still just very primal, yeah, very primal, you know. You know I, it would, would, would bothers me too about. Like, okay, mark Twain, that guy was ruling, yeah, I mean, that guy would. Like that guy was alive today, people would think that he is a terrible individual. He was one of the most thoughtful men on the planet. Okay, you know what I'm saying. Like you know, to be able to write and to think and to do, this philosophy that was like, like I love the kind of like the Hills philosophy. Like you know, these guys who can go out into a cabin and, like you know, get away from the people, I mean it's almost like the American or Western version of, like a monk. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or a teenager putting their phone down for five minutes. There you go, right, right.
Speaker 3:Well, I like going out to the you know, absolutely Going out, putting their phone down for five minutes. There you go right. Well, I like going out to the you know absolutely going out into the mountains and going to elk hunt and sitting up there by yourself you know, we saw mountain lion by yourself in the mountains. You're like you start to think for a minute.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, who would win that fight?
Speaker 3:right when who'd win that fight? And also, too, who'd probably really care if I lost the fight, and and who would care if he lost the fight. And then all of a sudden, the world and stuff.
Speaker 2:You can begin looking at it, it gets smaller man.
Speaker 3:It gets smaller and we're all asking the same big questions. It doesn't matter Absolutely. And some of these elite people, they aren't asking any good questions.
Speaker 2:No, in a lot of it, profit margin loss, uh status.
Speaker 3:The the top line is the bottom line.
Speaker 2:Yes, so that's it. I don't I. I, I would like to think that if I took a different vocation or a different job or something and hustled at it, I could probably make six figures, but I'd be absolutely miserable. Oh, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Well, and you're not going to take any of it when you go. No, you know no, it's staying.
Speaker 2:Well, my kids will get it, I guess I guess yeah, but then you know, I'm sure they would rather have their dad, though, than an inheritance of well, 100.
Speaker 3:They would rather have their dad. They'd be better off with their dad because, like, what's the main thing right now? We ain't got enough.
Speaker 2:We, we don't have enough dads to you know you know how do you say that lightly. But I mean just the father figure in the home is definitely taking a toll on this country.
Speaker 3:Well, we, you know, having father like I had an amazing dad, like you know, and uh, I mean.
Speaker 3:Well, the thing was he was not without his flaws either. You know he was like he had a bunch of problems, you know. But you know I'll say that he wasn't a drinker or anything like that, but you know he dealt with some serious depression in his life, sure, and that I experienced, you know, which was terrible, which was tough, but also, at the same time, man. He was like, always like he, encouraging me and then like checking me when I was like getting, you know, too big for my britches, and you know he was he was.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:He was. He was great that and you know I wish everybody could have it. You know I had a great dad. I'm lucky that I had a dad that way. There's so many people that just.
Speaker 2:It's a different generation, a different work ethic too. I like don't get me wrong, I don't mind working and earning my keep, but there are guys like my dad who work all day long and then they'll go home and they'll work the rest of the damn night.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got a movie.
Speaker 2:Well, I got to put rock here. Well, I got a wire. I got to go help your sister with her drywall. It's like dude, where do you get the energy? You're almost 60 years old. Tone it down a notch, scotty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's definitely different, but what's, what's up with this new album? Let's talk about that. Well, so. We started talking about that A little bit ago and I like how diverse you are With, like, the different Influences of music. That's in that you said rock, a little blues, a little country.
Speaker 3:Well, um, yeah, there's a lot of different stuff, but mainly, I mean it's it's a country record. That's the way I think about it. Um, you know, people argue about genre, but whatever, um, there's some rock influence in there too. Um, and uh, it consists of my song bootstraps. That is actually on there. Um, there were some songs because of covid and how we were recording everything and how we could get together.
Speaker 3:I had some of these songs written a few years, or a couple of them written a few years back that I was going to release the singles, but it didn't work out Cause it was like trying to get into the dang studio and do everything. It was a was a pain in the butt, but yeah, so he shot more than birds is a. There's a, the title track or the non-title track, but the title track or the non-title track, but the main track on there is a song called West Kansas Plains, which is a story about my hometown. It's not a real story, it's a fictional story, but it's about a barrel racer and it's basically a kind of Western murder ballad. It's not really a ballad, but it's a murder song and you know it's about. You know you go home and you fall in love with your lady, right, you know. And then she steps out with some, you know, slick-tongued cowboy, yeah, and they meet their demise and then you're on the run, you know. So that's kind of the gist of the story. That's where the term. He shot more than birds, you know, because I grew up like when I grew up as a kid.
Speaker 3:I grew up like when I grew up as a kid. I grew up pheasant hunting like 100 pheasants all the time. After school my buddies and I would go out and this back in the 90s where I could. I still had a gun in my truck when I went to school, because we go after go walk the ditches in the evening. Um so um, but uh, that's kind of the the one of the main tracks on there. There's, um, some blue collar stuff on there. There's bootstraps. There's song called the Mill, which is a story that's based on some kind of true events. Some people near me had some real sad times with some drugs here in the Midwest and the Mill is kind of about a family who falls victim to that. It's a very common story around here.
Speaker 2:Very, very real in this area as far as what we're fighting with meth and fentanyl and no one. Yeah, I mean it's a it's an issue, and that takes us back to the, the fatherless homes, and I had a friend a broken world that we live in at times I had a friend of mine, the her son.
Speaker 3:You know it is a father of a situation and you know I mean he VOD'd like a few times before he turned 17. Shame Chris.
Speaker 1:And he's okay.
Speaker 3:Now you know he's been clean, he's doing great, so I'm happy. You know, I'm super happy about that. But then also there's songs about the river on there. There's a song about a guy, a friend of mine. I read a lot about people that I know and the stories are very similar to theirs. They're not exactly. You got to have a little bit of artist's license Protect the innocent?
Speaker 2:Well, it's not.
Speaker 3:you got to make sure you got to make shit rhyme and stories work.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's not always like uh doesn't always work perfect. So, um, uh, the there's a song called alignment on there that's been doing pretty well as well. Yeah, a lot of people identify with that yep, uh, my friend's been.
Speaker 3:My brother-in-law is a, an electrician, my, uh, and he does works on the on the lineman side. Uh, my uh. We got other couple other good buddies who are lineman, um, and you know, when storms come and just like they did in omaha, you know, and uh, there's, you know years ago there was some bunch of stuff going on in kentucky and down in florida and in chicago even know, and they go out on storms and the story is about him leaving his newborn daughter to go on storm for, you know, weeks on end, you know, and then come back and then go back again, you know, in another storm. You know it's like he's constantly. You know, and you know I just respect those guys the hell out of people like that, you know, who do those that stuff and they're worth being celebrated, because it's a virtue to have men that are badasses and go out there and brave it and do it, whether they like it or not. There's a lot of songs in this record too, about my dad. There's a song called Promise.
Speaker 2:Land, and he had passed not long after our last podcast too.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you gave him a lot of props, as you know, taking you on the oil rigs and you would make sculptures and stuff yeah which which, uh, you know, really really kind of lack of a better term molded kind of the person you are now, you know, because, uh, you know, just making the, the sweet bust in town and, oh yeah, and being able to, you know, influence different, different parts of town, and it just amazes me that that we still live in a place where you can go somewhere and get us like a sculpture degree.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah yeah, well, you know I think that's crazy, but I think it's cool as hell too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, well, I well, I mean, I'll tell you. I mean we need art. You know all this stuff. Well, I get that. It's the second I'll. I'll finish about my dad real quick. He, he, there's a song on this record and I did.
Speaker 3:I lost my dad a few years ago and he, obviously, we were very like, literally weeks after he passed, like I, I was having these like extremely vivid dreams, like um, and I'd wake up and like it was like I was just talking to him, and in this I'm talking like four, five, six nights in a row, these like and I could, and I and I honestly was kind of getting to the point, like man, I wonder if these are gonna stop. You know, like I, you know, because they were, you know, I was waking up in a conversation with them, you know, and the conversations were always different, and so that I have this song it's called a promised land and basically it's a bunch of advice that my dad kind of gave me in dreams, like the dang song wrote itself like and it's fun when they just happen yeah, yeah yeah, I'm you know I really like that song means a lot that's a good thing about music, man, is it's a therapy.
Speaker 2:At times, you know it can be how you, how you get it off your chest and how you presented other people, and then when other people hear that and they go through the similar, similar things in their lives, it's just like you know you really connect with those folks. Yeah, that's what I always told people when I do. Music is like, if there's one person out there that relates to what I'm writing about is like, then I'm good. Yeah, it'd be cool to play in front of thousands of people and it is cool I haven't played in front of thousands.
Speaker 3:You've had some good, I've had some big crowds, but I had, you know, I maybe I've been in front of a thousand, you know, but I've been in front of hundreds, multiple, multiple times and um, but I'll tell you what boy it is, you know.
Speaker 3:You know it's like heroin, but yeah, yeah and when people are vibing with and you're having fun, they're like this is like what we are meant to do, absolutely. It has this kind of dianice, dionysian, like you know, party vibe and people are just like I love these songs. You're singing about something I relate to and they're singing, and then the best part is there are some times where they start singing. Well, they know it, someone will be there that I don't know and they'll start singing the words back. I went to the show up in Chicagoago and I've played there quite a bit, but I haven't played this bar in a while, or this. There's a music hall. I didn't play it in a while and, uh, this guy had heard that lyman song and he came out. He's like I'm a lime. I heard this song and I looked you up. I saw you're playing here, dude, and they're singing the damn words back to me.
Speaker 2:Nice, and I'm like dude, that is, that's cool, that's really cool, that's really cool going back to your, your comment earlier is like we we need music and we need the arts because you pound. You pound mathematics into a kid's head. They might get it they'll sure yeah, but you get that kid counting off time signatures or using that math for industrial arts, or they're using their English grammar skills to write a new song or something they're actually applying that. That's what we're losing when we're cutting these school programs, and we can go on that tangent forever.
Speaker 3:Well, I would say this here's, I think, one of the misconceptions about art and about teaching good art. This is my opinion and I think it holds pretty good is my opinion and you know, I think it holds pretty good. It's, you know, art is a problem, a critical thinking, problem solving method, and you know, you think about it, okay, you know. So you mentioned that bust of lincoln that I did over there, right? Okay, how do you make a giant concrete, lincoln? Well, you got to figure it out. And so what do you? What do you do?
Speaker 3:Well, you get, you know, you find an old robot arm and you build a 3d concrete printer and then you design the, the, the file, and then you test concrete out, you find out how much it can, how wet it needs to be, what kind of concrete needs to be, how it will slump and how it will stiffen. And then you figure out, when you print it, how thick it can go, so will slump, and how it will stiffen. And then you figure out, when you print it, how thick it can go, so you can slice the model up enough. I mean, you, you know, you, you, you find a way to build an extruder to extrude the concrete that attaches to the robot arm. You gotta you know you just so it's a problem solving.
Speaker 3:Now, that's a complex issue, that that that I'm dealing with, right, however, music is the same thing. It's a problem method. I'm trying to get from point A to point B. Tell a story, make sure I get everything in there. That's important. Make it entertaining. But also, yeah, make it entertaining, give it a hug, make it land, you know, make it authentic. So it's not like bells and whistles. It's saying something real, you know, and the good artists say something real. The good, whether it's visual art or you know, or, or music.
Speaker 3:It's a problem solving thing and it's all about critical thinking and like with my students man, all I do is like try to drive that home, like, listen, what's your process? You got to identify your process. You're making stuff, but you don't even know why you're making it. You just you're just making it because that's how you can make things, and then you eventually go you say, oh, I'm making this because I'm really good at this type of thing, or this motion seems natural, you know. Just like hitting a baseball, like you know. Sometimes, like you, you get really good at hitting the fastball. You know, and you got to learn how to hit the curveball. You might be the greatest fastball hitter in the world. But you got to be critical and discern a curve ball where you slider your calculated risk.
Speaker 2:Where are you?
Speaker 3:going to take them. Yes, if you screw it up.
Speaker 2:How are you going to go back and try it again? And what's going?
Speaker 3:on in the game, you know, is there a runner on? Do you want to hit behind the runner? Do you want to hit? You know what do you want to do your approach.
Speaker 2:You can be late. If you just got to pop it up to the opposite field or just got done with the archery kids over at the bow shop a little bit ago and been helping this kid for a while and you know it's. It's. It's kind of like smacking your head against the wall sometimes, because you can tell them and you can teach them so many times, but until that light bulb goes off, that and I'm not pounding my chest or anything, I'm just saying, once that light bulb goes off and they accept that I'm not going to be stubborn about this anymore, yeah, yeah, like I'm tired of not being good at this. I'm actually going to apply what I'm learning.
Speaker 2:Once you see that light bulb go off, dude, there's nothing better yeah because then you see a kid that can't hit a paper plate putting together a group at 20 yards.
Speaker 3:You know size, real tight, can yeah, you know that's cool, that's super cool, you know, you know, I uh, this guy I heard this guy today and I think it's it's great was like the difference between like a bunch, like you know, artists who and I say I use artists as a term for a lot of things but people who are doing a something, creative folks, creative folk, you know, uh, content creators at creative folk that they're seeing the good, like someone who's good and someone who's successful and someone who's great even, but someone who's good and just someone who's successful oftentimes, uh, uh is uh, is their ability to look at the thing as a process, not a finished product. It's like, oh, you know, I'm an artist and here are the things I've made. No, no, no, I'm an artist and here's how I do what I do. Right, because you're looking at what you do. You know that is yeah, that's what.
Speaker 2:And you alter it and you change it, yeah, and.
Speaker 3:And you find what works.
Speaker 2:Yes, there is no destination. I went through a thing not too long ago where these guys sent me some music and I was writing, you know, some lyrics and doing some vocal work for it and like the first two songs boom Like concepts. Easy, I can tell this story, I can run with this. And then I hit a writer's block like you wouldn't believe this. And then I hit a writer's block like you wouldn't believe, and I I got pissed because these guys are sending me stuff. It's really like what you're doing, can you send some more? I was like I'll try.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm not gonna send it if I don't feel good about it you know, so, and I'm just sitting downstairs with this pen and this paper, just like damn it, what do I do?
Speaker 3:and then are you just listening to like listening to straight music that they've recorded yeah, just Just the music, and you're trying to come up with the lyrics and stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, and I've got plenty of ideas. It's just how do you roll with it, how do you lay it out? And then I actually broke down and watched a YouTube video on writer's block and it was. It was more of a dude talking about, like novelist and stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he said the first thing you got to do is look at writer's block as the myth it is. And people are just like, well, it's not a myth, because obviously it's true. It's like it's not true. You just haven't primed the right part of your brain just yet. So you go through. He's just like. He's going through all these different steps and I'm like, okay, I can see this. I can see it because he's talking about you've got to get rid of your distractions. You know, put the phone down, yeah, quit. You know, quit trying to to interrupt yourself because you know you're not getting anywhere. But you've got to separate.
Speaker 2:The biggest thing that stuck out to me was you've got to separate the writing process, the rough draft for process, from, like, the finished product. Right, like if you're trying to make it perfect the first time around, like you are going to do nothing but piss yourself off for hours and hours and hours on end. But if you just like, one of the songs I wrote was was a intervention song. It literally I broke down how the psychologists say you're supposed to do an intervention and I wrote a letter to a buddy and broke it down as to how that would go down in a meeting, you know, and just tried to build the whole thing and I was just like, how do I get this point across? And then finally it's like just write the letter, dude, you can figure out how to put it to music later. Just write the damn letter, just write the letter, yeah. So, yeah, you write the letter, you figure out how to put your music. Yeah, you don't make it perfect, and then you roll from there. Yeah, you know you gotta like which.
Speaker 3:That's my process no, no, no, no. It's the thing, like you know, like with my students, like we were making these, uh, cardboard self-portraits and like basically they're, they're and they're realistic looking things. You know, um and uh. You know I'm talking to them about proportion and scale and all these kinds of things. But you know, what happens is like you do something and, as an artist or a creative person, you're like, oh, you're making this thing, and then you become invested in it because, like, you spend so much time on it, then you're like and then, and then someone, and then you look at it and you know, oftentimes you know, sure, something's wrong.
Speaker 1:Yes, Something's up here and I don't know what it is.
Speaker 3:I don't quite know what it is. And then someone tells you and you're like, oh man, now I got to go change it. And then it's like I got it, but now I got it. And there's this like voice or this thing, where you're like, you're like you know, just completely deflated because you got to go and cut this thing off, this thing you just built.
Speaker 3:start completely over you know not even yeah, maybe you're only starting 80, maybe you're only starting 50 over, but you still got to go back, you know, and you got to let that go. You've got to learn to, or for me, that's the only way, and I and the thing is like I've been doing it for my entire career and I still have it. Yeah, I still am like tumbling, yeah, like man. You know, I got to let it go and I got to go and make try to fix this. You know, fix this thing, cut this thing off, make this thing work. You know, whatever I got to do, you know, just keep grinding away at it and you know, taking constructive criticism in the process is huge too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we get too personally involved in it. Oh, we get way too involved. And then we say, no, this is my vision, this is what I want to do. And then you know, when someone who genuinely cares about you or loves you tells you that I love you, but this is crap, oh yeah. Yeah, you know, you got to be able to take that with a grain of salt and and be like, okay, well, how do I make this better? And it's like, well, these parts are really good. Yeah, this one not so much. And then you go from there and, before you know it, I just made a tiktok today, or dot?
Speaker 3:I posted a facebook or instagram video today. No, no, instagram. Sorry, jeez, I'm not even know what I'm posting on. Uh, youtube, sure, and um, uh, you know that youtube is like man, you want to get some shitty comments like these guys. Holy shit, that was pure cringe. Best probably leave that one on the shelf, buddy, you know? Like and um, there's people out there who give you comments like that. Um, um, there's people that live for that, though, too.
Speaker 2:They just oh yeah.
Speaker 3:You know. But the thing is like, those comments, like that I've really I'm surprised. I honestly thought that the kind of stuff would like bother me over time, but it really I've done it. I've I've and I've been working with my kids with this lot, because they live in a world where a comment, since their social life is like so they're probably see comments like that all the time, yeah and I and and I imagine if you get a bunch of like it can, it can tell you.
Speaker 3:But, like you know, what you create as an individual, as an artist, is not you. It's a lump of concrete and steel or a lump of clay, or it's a painting. It's just a bunch of paint on a canvas. It's not you. Yeah, you know what it like. It could be destroyed completely and you'd be fine, you know, um? Or vice versa, you could be destroyed completely and it would just go on and then be forgotten, right. So it's not you, it has nothing to do with you. You might have made it, but once you make it, you've got to be able to step back from it completely and try to be as completely objective and separate yourself from your art. And I try to do that with my students as much as I can, and I still, like I say, still try to do it with myself as much as I can, but it's still hard. You know, absolutely. You know, because you care, like anybody.
Speaker 2:Right, so what's next for Duke?
Speaker 3:Aaron Lewis man. Yeah, I got a funny story about something.
Speaker 2:You got a whole shit, man, I don't even know. You got a whole slew of shows set up. I got a bunch of shows coming up.
Speaker 3:I'll be down in Texas this summer. I'll be out in Nebraska. I'll be in Iowa this Saturday, but I'll be in Iowa again or Iowa City in July. I'm going to be in Chicago. I'll be in Iowa City in July. I'll be out of Chicago. In the fall I'll be all over the place. I'm touring the Midwest pretty good Iowa, illinois, missouri. I'm waiting to hear back. I'll probably have a show in Colorado, I believe.
Speaker 3:So I'm touring around and doing what I can, trying to play as much as I can. I got some new music that's going to come out. I go to the studio next month. Um, I just got back with my buddy who's. I have a friend of mine who's, uh, who produces a bunch of my stuff, um and uh, he and I just for last week we were working on a bunch of new songs and um, um, and I write them and I go, I get there and we work them out and, um, we can think about arrangements and who we need to be, who, what kind of musicians we need to be there. So I'm really excited about that, like about releasing new music.
Speaker 3:I did. I love the whole writing stuff, recording stuff and putting stuff out Like I love that more than touring. It's so much, it's so much fun, you know, because when you get something cool, it's just so working on that, you know, and just keep grinding away and living life Got the river. You know I'm going to be on the do some boat and stuff this summer and maybe play a little golf and try to live, try to do the thing.
Speaker 2:Yep, got me the golf cart this year. Oh yeah, got me the membership, so yeah. So now that it's all paid for, I just hop on it and go when I can. But between dance and archery and um t-ball, I know the kids, that's one thing I'm lucky about with the kids, you know yeah, I shouldn't say lucky I.
Speaker 3:You know having kids would be an amazing thing, but I just don't have any kids, right right, and that's you know.
Speaker 2:I think we come to a time where that's perfectly fine. No, you know. Yeah, you and your wife are happy. Your wife is a freaking awesome chick. Yeah, she's, you know. She deals with you, that's right. She lets me do what I want normally. And what's this? I hear more jujitsu is going on nowadays. I heard from a little birdie that you've been rolling around a little bit more I've been I can like.
Speaker 3:Actually last week I didn't get a role last week and uh, and I'll be there this week, but, um, I love jujitsu, oh shit, that's a funny story I forgot to bring up on the last podcast.
Speaker 2:But, um, I was talking to you a little bit on facebook before we did the first podcast. We're still out at mactown quite a bit working out and you had agreed to do the podcast, so we're just talking on messenger. Well, you want to talk about? Let's talk about this, okay? Blah, blah, blah. And then I think I had had several beers one night and I was looking up like your music or something on youtube, just to you know kind of see what you're all about, everything else. And then I roll up on this mma fight, oh, and like I was like dude, no way you freaking fought mma. And then your wife pops up, is like this is actually his wife's uh messenger and yes, he did it. Fight mma. For a while I was like oh, shit, yeah, that probably looks really weird me messaging dude's wife at like midnight why did you know?
Speaker 2:about that yeah, yeah, it was super awkward. I was like, she was just like she probably loved it.
Speaker 3:She's like what's going on?
Speaker 2:it was funny as hell. But yeah, because you we talked about that In the first podcast you did a lot of wrestling and stuff in college and I'm sure that that side of you you still I love it man you still get to touch that side of you Rolling a little bit.
Speaker 3:You know, I hurt my back A couple years ago, yeah, and like, actually, but I shouldn't say A couple years ago, about a year ago and I heard it, um, you know okay. So, um, I was working out of the gym. You know, regularly I love going to the gym, like, I work out all the time, you know, like, or I say all the time, I am a regular, I'm disciplined in terms of my body and, um, I went to the gym and I'm, you know, I was benching, you know, 300 pounds, no problem, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm feeling in good shape and I go to pull the dock out at the river because duck season's coming and the dock, we had it, we were, we were just moving stuff around. So I'm pulling this dock out and the dock ramps real heavy and I kind of just reached down and I moved it this size, like this damn thing, and no one else was like I'll move that thing and I whipped it over and then I'm cleaning up and getting ready and by the time I'm going home like man, my back is killing me and I got home and the next morning I could go to work.
Speaker 3:I got up and I couldn't stand. I couldn't stand up for longer than probably 10 minutes and I would have to lay down on my back and I I found it hurt. Bad enough that I'm you know, I mean I go to the doctor for time and time, but I had to, I had to go to the doctor.
Speaker 3:I was like I think I've, like, maybe done something yeah well, I wasn't sure and then so they did an x-ray and they found out that I have uh was called I guess like 10 of the population might have it or something like that but it's called spina bifida occulta, which is where the bottom two of my vertebrae there's like a. They didn't form completely, so it was a bunch of muscle on like a bunch of nerves down there. Well, I just like throttled those muscles and they were in bad shape and they were all swollen and stuff and dude. It was just pinching my the nerves, my back. I mean it was just terrible. I had to lay flat away so and then I could not get back in shape, like after it took about two months, or it took about two months where I could really get back in the gym and start trying to go kind of crazy though, like all the crazy workouts, all the jujitsu, all the you know, throwing stuff around and like pulling a dock out is what?
Speaker 2:what lays you up? I?
Speaker 3:know right. Well, I just couldn't get back at it. I could not get back to where I felt like confident stuff. And then I went to jujitsu. I was like man, I'm gonna try this, just just to do something different. And it was like magic, like because you know, because you're laying on your back and you're like stretching all these. I was like man, I'm going to try this just to do something different. And it was like magic, like because you know, because you're laying on your back and you're like stretching all these different ways and reaching and pulling and pushing in all of this different like degrees of motion. Like you know you do a squat. Well, it's a straight up and down. You know you do this.
Speaker 2:It's a straight up and down.
Speaker 3:And everything that the you know. A lot of lateral movement. It got my in my back feel it fixed my back like I'm stronger now than I've been where'd you? Where'd you do that? At what the jiu-jitsu?
Speaker 2:yeah, oh, at, at the shed, at the shed. Yeah, I've had michael on. Yeah, he was actually a sponsor for the shows. Michael's the real deal buddy.
Speaker 3:Michael's good people right right and the thing is like I'm good at jiu-jitsu. I've been good at it for a long time, you know, I fought it like I did fight mma, but I didn't really get into jujitsu, like I just wanted to go in there, bro. Yeah, man. Well, I don't want to go in there and brawl like I want to like dude.
Speaker 3:It's like it's a workout, but it's also like playing chess, you know you're in there and you're like and you're working with your friends, I mean, you want to like it's literally. You're like, hey, let's go practice murder with our buddies tonight. And we go in there and we practice and like someone's like hey, I found this new way to kill somebody. And you're like, oh, let me show it. And then you were, oh, okay, cool. And then like, oh, hey, we, here's how you can rip a guy's arm off. You're like, oh, hey, cool. I mean it's nothing like legitimate, like that, right, we're like talking like that, but it's, you know, it's a, it's something we really we drill a lot. Then we do some live wrestling and I love live wrestling and live grappling grappling it's the best it's it's been.
Speaker 3:It's been my life a lot better. I can't wait to. I'm bummed. I didn't get to go last week. I usually get him in there, you know, two, two or three times a week, but I didn't you know that and I remember you ever used.
Speaker 2:I was going to say do you ever use the trick where, like, you're almost ready to tap and then you turn and scratch your beard on somebody? I'd be using that as a weapon.
Speaker 3:The thing is I only do no-gi jiu-jitsu. Those guys, like the other guys, do gi, but I don't do gi because every time they try to grab my lapel, they grab my beard. Oh and um, uh, like this, I don't want. I love my beard, you know, like I don't want to, I don't want to mess it up man. So, yeah, I don't do a lot of stuff, but she's just, she's great, michael's great. That gym is great. You know I love going. There's the best gym in macomb, no doubt. I mean, there's there, you know, that's. You know, if you want to learn how to defend yourself and how to be, how to understand what it's like To have someone really trying to Force their will on you, go to the shed.
Speaker 2:And then, once you're humbled, it's not like that.
Speaker 3:It's not like go there and get beat up. It's go there and see what individuals Can do when they know what they're doing, and learn how to do it you know, learn how you know, learn how to fend, fight people off, learn how to um, I mean the whole, all the world, the problem, the world's problems that you have. Like they kind of go away when someone's trying to choke you out, yeah, or like twist your arm. You're not thinking about it and it's like man, everyone's so always thinking about all this. You know extra stuff in their brains, you know. But yeah, yeah, you know. So it's so good for you, I love it, I recommend it to everybody. Everybody go do it. Yeah, everybody go do it where you're.
Speaker 2:You've do it. Where are you at? You've talked about Instagram. You talked about Facebook. You got YouTube. Going on, you got a TikTok.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got all the social stuff. If you just find me, you go to my website dukehourslercom and you can find all my socials and my tour schedule.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, that's probably easier. You can email me, reach out to me. You almost forget that people have websites anymore, you know, just because of social media.
Speaker 3:Well, it's all Duke Hours, or on Facebook Duke Hours, or on TikTok Duke Hours, or on Instagram, all that kind of stuff. It's all the same Twitter, all the same stuff. You know my Twitter is. I have an obsession with the St Louis Battle Hawks.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah. Yeah, I've noticed. I'm huge into that. I've been trying Like VetTix, where I get Some of my tickets to go to shows and stuff. Oh really, I can get on there and there's Battle Hawks tickets. Oh dude.
Speaker 1:So I've been feeding the go, but I haven't.
Speaker 2:Well we're. We'll talk about that Sidebar, okay, because I've been trying to get my brother and stuff to go, but nobody wants to go to St Louis for a Saturday.
Speaker 3:So much fun 30,000 people in there just having a blast Cheering on the replacements you know. Well, dude, AJ McCarron's our quarterback. He's a bad boy. We have the best receiver in the league, a guy named Hakeem Butler who's from Iowa State. He is unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Six foot six, Just fast, strong, I mean you're always decked out in your blue with your big gold chain. Dude, I love it. Duddy, I can't help.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 2:Is it a decent tailgating atmosphere down there too? Dude like.
Speaker 3:I say the first game we went to, there was 40,000 people in the stadium. At the tailgate I don't know, the tailgate had to be probably 30,000. Where we were at in that parking lot Just cars everywhere.
Speaker 2:St Louis misses football, they do.
Speaker 3:They do. They do. It's great man. I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. There's still a lot of people in the area cussing Stan Kroenke.
Speaker 3:Oh dude, they've got these shirts, these battle hawk shirts that literally cuss Stan Kroenke. That's it, picture him. And it's like F Stan Kroenke, little kids wearing him and stuff. It's no joke. St Louis football town, that's great We'll make that happen for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you got happen for sure. Oh yeah, you gotta go. If you get a chance, gonna go, all right. Well, thanks for coming on again, dude. This has been. This has been a good uh, long overdue, I'm so. I'm sorry it took me so long, I'm just as bad dude because you're like, let's be. You know, no, I can't. My kids got something usually, but you know that's life man no, no, no I'm I'm happy to see kind of I mean you were.
Speaker 2:You were right there at our first podcast, like your stuff was starting to take off, and then, with the singles and then the album, it was just now.
Speaker 3:You're playing somewhere every freaking weekend, yeah yeah, I'm trying to stay consistent, like you, man. What are you at? You said 98 episodes. We'll be at almost 90, I think, by the time this one comes out, that's the thing, man, it's that consistency, and keep going, I love it, I and keep going, and I love it. I like making stuff. I'm just going to keep doing it and there ain't nothing else to do. You know, not really I could either do that or scroll on my phone, and I would much rather make stuff.
Speaker 2:Workout Do jujitsu Drink beer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, workout, write music, workout, do jujitsu. Go to the river, drink beer. Go to the river hunt ducks. Shoot big animals Hunt animals, shoot small animals Live life. Listen, we're all cavemen at the end of this thing.
Speaker 2:Midwest cavemen. Midwest cavemen that's dang right. Cool man, that's right. Awesome. I appreciate it. We'll get your stuff posted and go from there. Thank you, brother. All right, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:She's the queen of the valley and she's wearing me down Been a hundred hard years and I'm ready to drown. Need a 50-gallon drum and some gasoline. Oh, that cold, muddy water be the death of me. And I know that's the way I'll go. Yeah, I know that's the way I'll go. Yeah, I know that's the way I'll go. Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo woo woo Woo-woo-woo-woo. So I waste my life pushing mud, sick and black like devil's blood Carried down here by the water. Pushing blood, sick and black like the devil's blood, carried down here by the water.
