Love, Loss, And Finding “God Boy” an Interview with Ryan Woods

A church kid with a four-year-old’s guitar and a head full of melodies grows into an artist who threads love, doubt, and faith into a tight, modern pop record—this conversation with Ryan Woods brings that journey to life. We explore how God Boy is more than a title; it’s a lens for understanding infatuation, heartbreak, and the freeing moment when you accept your agency. From the shimmering rework of Loving You in the track two slot to the pulsing honesty of Gun in the Glove Box, Ryan walks us through the album’s arc and the choices that make each song land.

Ryan shares how distance shapes his writing—he waits until the storm passes so the lyric can be useful, not just cathartic. That approach gave us Garden, a tender rush of feeling after COVID-era numbness, and Good Swim, a wedding-born celebration that blooms from a slow sway into bright, percussive joy. We dig into production stories too: why he reproduced Gun in the Glove Box himself on deadline, how he and his videographer Zay built a short-form-first content strategy, and why singable guitar solos beat endless shredding. His influences are clear without being derivative—think Bruno Mars and Kevin Parker energy made in a bedroom, with arrangements that value movement and melody over length.

The heart of the episode is Ryan’s take on faith and free will. Raised religious, he’s honest about the pressure of perfection and the anxiety of feeling predestined. God Boy becomes a statement of agency: even if the plan exists, the freedom to choose is where we live and love. That philosophy meets practice when he defines success not by charts but by impact, sharing a story of a fan who walked through an ice storm to a show and said a song kept her alive. It’s a reminder that music is magic because it’s useful—something you can hold when the night is long.

Stream God Boy, queue up Garden and Gun in the Glove Box, and tell us the track that hit you hardest. If this conversation resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others find it.

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Transcript

Meet Ryan Woods & Setting The Vibe

SPEAKER_01 0:39

I'm the worst person to have a podcast.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

I feel very what is up, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Welcome back to the Hook and Bridge Podcast. I am your host, Harley, joined by my co-host and little sister Taylor. Hello, and our other co-host, the other Chris, followed by a super huge guest for all of us. I'm so excited. So this will be so uniting, and I'm so excited to tell you this story. This will be the first time in four years that an artist has been on this show that Taylor is genuinely excited about.

SPEAKER_06 1:30

Now, if any of our other artists are listening, I loved you guys so much. However, this is also the first time that Taylor has listened to the music beforehand for the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

So without further ado, everybody, please welcome Ryan Woods to the show talking about God Boy today. Um, Ryan, how are you? I'm lovely.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Uh the time change has been kicking my ass, but I dude, I'm here preaching in the choir. Yeah, it's made me nocturnal.

SPEAKER_06 2:08

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's something about it being dark at 6 p.m. that just doesn't sit right with me, and I don't do time.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

It's four o'clock and the sun is like setting. Yeah, that's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yeah, I literally it's dark when I wake up and it's dark when I get home from work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:26

It's dark while I'm at work, and then it's dark when I wake up from my nap, and I don't like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah. So Ryan.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

Other than that, we're peachy. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

You got your start in Florida at a super young age. Tell me a little bit about your first musical experience.

Early Roots: Choir, Church, Guitar At Four

SPEAKER_03 2:48

Um, I guess it starts with like doing like kids' choir and stuff when I was little. Uh my mom was really involved at like the church I grew up going to. So if there wasn't like daycare options, they did like a choir slash daycare thing. So we just like a bunch of kids like hanging out and singing all the time. So did that, and then there was a guy also at the church that offered guitar lessons that I started taking when I was like four, maybe. Um and yeah, that's that's how it all started.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Do you understand how crazy that is? I mean, Chris and I have kids, so we we get this, but four, four years old. Could you imagine your kid starting something like that at four years old?

SPEAKER_07 3:43

I have a four-year-old, and yeah, like that's that's you know, besides that, he likes climbing. I don't I don't see him picking up anything.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

No, yeah, like like to have the capacity, like the brain capacity to be like, I want to learn guitar. Like, I don't know if my son at four years old is gonna know like what a guitar is or does.

SPEAKER_06 4:06

Well, maybe because you play guitar. I think if it's something that's modeled, do you know what I mean? Like they find interest in it.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

That's fair.

SPEAKER_06 4:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Yeah, yeah, that's it's it's funny too because no one in my music or in my family really plays music. Like my parents both like played piano a little bit growing up, and still are but they don't like play, you know, they don't yeah, um they dabble, wasn't a career or something. Yeah, they dabble pretty much. I am teaching my dad guitar right now, which is fun.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Hell yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

That's awesome. It's actually I it made me cry once because I was like, this is so wholesome.

SPEAKER_06 4:46

Like, I it's so oh, I love that. It's like a full circle moment. Are you kidding me? Taylor Taylor could be.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Taylor, could you imagine us teaching our dad guitar? Could you imagine that experience?

SPEAKER_06 5:03

Teaching our dad?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Teaching him anything?

SPEAKER_06 5:06

Like that sounds um, well no, we've taught him a couple of things. How to use a computer, how to use the internet that people who are colorblind actually don't see in gray, you know, things like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Um I forgot that that happened.

SPEAKER_06 5:23

Yeah, that is that was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Um he thought I had dog vision, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:31

Oh no, that's so fun. I don't know if I'd have the patience.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Yeah, yeah. Does it get frustrating?

SPEAKER_06 5:39

Yeah, like do you get frustrated? Does that cause a family fight?

unknown 5:43

No.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Uh luckily, my you know, my family's like pretty uh peaceful for the most part for my immediate family at least.

SPEAKER_05 5:56

Oh everyone says, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

I think it's it is weird. I do get like frustrated sometimes because I'm like, why can't you make your hand move this way? Like, but then I remember when I was learning that it was like even like a G chord was like I've never moved my hand in such a manner. Like my fingers don't do what they're told.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Dude, one of the coolest moments for you is gonna be when your dad comes in and he's like, I gotta I learned a song, you gotta see this. I learned how to play.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

And you're gonna be like, dude, this time to me.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Isn't that dude? That's gotta feel incredible, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:34

I could cry. He's a so he's a pilot, he's a united pilot.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Hey, shout out, shout out to your dad, especially in this time in God bless America for him.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, he'll be in like a random country, and one time, I think he was in like Prague or something, just chilling. He has a little travel guitar now. He just FaceTimes me and he was learning every rose has its thorn.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:05

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

That's he's a huge fan of like the all the like 70s, 80s, like rock bands, too.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Um so let's talk a little bit about so I so you come out of you come out of Florida, you go over to Tennessee, right? Knoxville, I believe. Um you kind of get a start in Knoxville, right? You kind of get things going, revitalize your music around like age 11, right? Somewhere around there, 11, 12. What happens after that? When when do we start going? Okay, I want to I want to make this into a profession.

From Covers To Career: Finding A Manager

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Um probably when I was like 16. Uh so I was like a band kid. My or honestly, since I went into high school, so like 15, I guess. Um I wanted to be a music teacher. Like I wanted to um but I wanted to become like a professor eventually. So that was kind of like the path, and I was like trying out for like music schools at different like universities near me. Um but at that time I had also started posting a lot of covers and stuff on Instagram, Twitter, all the socials, and uh got a little bit of traction doing that, and then a manager reached out to me and was like, Hey, you know, you can like do music, like you can be an artist if you want to. Like, and he kind of encouraged me to start like writing and um showed him my first few songs. He was like, Yeah, you got this, dude. Like, if you like, I'm here to help. He basically just started managing me when I was like 16. Um, started setting me up with like writing sessions. So that was the time I was like, Yeah, maybe I'll uh give this a shot and try it instead of going like the educational route and go the become famous route.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Very different, very different. Um, so I tried really hard for about 10 minutes to find some of your covers, and I can't find them. Are they not on YouTube?

SPEAKER_03 9:34

I didn't really post much on YouTube. Oh, that's why Marley only knows how to use YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

I'm I'm 31.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

That's kind of our I was like such a perfectionist, like I yeah, would like it was when you could only post like 15-second videos. I was also on Vine too, that was like a big thing for me to shout out Vine making a comeback. Yeah, and so I would just get really good at like 15 second increments of songs and then post those, and it was a lot easier.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

I sure hope it's like a whole um roadway. I was like, where did that come from, dude?

SPEAKER_06 10:20

Harley has a whole fun of it. It's a it's a whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

You have like the the fart sound that has all the reverb on it.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Uh no, I do have uh I do have this though. Yeah. That's that's fun.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

It's my favorite sample to like put into like a shitty trap beat. And there's always like a sample of like someone moaning or like sound. That's so funny.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Um, what was your favorite cover to do?

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Um it's a big question. My taste has changed so much. I mean, back then it was really more just me kind of riding trends, honestly. Like, I'd pick a song that was bumping, yeah. Like, obviously, do better than me picking like my more pretentious music taste, you know, the song from that. Um, so I don't know if there was really a favorite. Um I mean, recently I did I released a cover of uh loving you by Minnie Ripperton. That's my favorite cover.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

I didn't I didn't realize that that was a cover. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

Yeah, and it started because I just I love that song so much, but it's so like there's no drums on it. It's like an acoustic guitar and like um like like an electric piano, like a Rhodes or something, and that's it. That's all that's on the song, and then some like bird like tweeting and stuff, like there's some folly noise. I don't know, and I was like, I want to hear drums on this so bad. I want to hear like a band. Every time I listened to it, I would think that, and then I actually discovered there is a version that has like a full band behind it, it's like a live version, but it still wasn't like scratching the itch, and then I remembered I can just make it well, yeah. Um, so if that answers your question, then that's my favorite.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

But so so curious, I did know that that was a cover. I find it interesting that uh on the album that seems to be the one that's kind of popping off right now.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

A little bit, yeah. It it got some really good like playlisting. Um and yeah, it's kind of part of the reason we decided to put it on the album because we released it like almost a year ago, over a year ago now. Um and it was we were kind of just debating, depending on how well it did, whether it was just like a standalone like single thing or put it on the album.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

And I mean it fits so well in the album, man. Like, truly, it's it's like especially in that track two slot, too. Like, I'm I'm sure you probably are aware of like the track listing of like you should put this song here, this song there, and like throwing it in track two is number one ballsy to do with a with a cover. Um, but like, yeah, man, it fits so nicely in the album.

Reinventing “Loving You” And Tracklist Logic

SPEAKER_03 14:36

Yeah, well, there's kind of like if you listen to the like lyrical concepts of all the songs, too, there's kind of like a sequence a little bit. So it's like love, beauty, like light, uh, and then it like it's not really about one relationship, but for sake of like explaining the sequence, it's like sort of just representative of the process of like meeting someone, being super excited, it's very pure and like whimsical, and then slowly, like as you get to know someone's the you know, gun in the glove box is like about them finding like some weird side of you that you don't know if they'll accept or not, and then there's like heartbreak, and then there's like who am I? What is love? What is God real? Is what is my purpose, you know. So it it's kind of like that's kind of how it always happens for me. Every time I go in or out of a relationship, it's like the same kind of process where like when it ends, I'm like questioning everything about my identity, and like because for me, like love is such a like it drives me, like it's yeah, I think it's what you know most humans are sort of all searching for love in a way, and it's such a like mysterious force, but like it also is very captivating, and obviously it feeds a lot of music, and it like um it's really like wrapped into my identity, you know, the way I love my friends, the way I love my family, and the way I love my romantic partners when I have one, but uh um yeah, and then like so like once it ends, my brain goes to like well, what is what about me loved this person so much to the point where I like endured right so much shit with them and like got you know endured getting hurt by them over and over, you know. So yeah, I always like end up going through like an existential crisis after relationships.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Right. Well, and it's interesting too, like that that's like a clear like you you nailed like the through line throughout the album, but it's also interesting too, like if you end at God Boy and then start back over, it's that it's that same cycle of like because God boy leads into the new relationship, like understanding yourself, understanding you go through that existential crisis, and then by the end you've come to this acceptance. But if you start the album back over, it's like oh, this is I found my new person, you know what I mean? And it's that that cycle, it's it's really cool, man. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Yeah, and it was cool too because the all the music is so old. Like, I think the oldest track is probably consideration. That song's almost six years old. I wrote that, like not long. It was almost on my first project, like right when I first moved out to LA, and um it just like kind of didn't it wasn't like done in time and or done enough in time to be like considered ha ha pun intended. But uh yeah, so it was interesting like noticing the process of how I was like um how much I was like relating to the music and how excited I was about it, and it was weird. I think I went through that whole process I just talked about like three times before this music even came out. So I would like kind of feel like distant from the music for a while, and then I would experience something that was like, Oh, I like still relate to this, that's cool. Um, but yeah, it was it was funny. Like, I was also like ending uh like I just got out of a relationship maybe like over the summer, and as I was putting out the singles, it was like weird how it kind of was like I was putting out the more like heartbreaky ones, and as I was putting out each song, it almost like would manifest in my relationship too, and it was like so weird, like uh putting it out into the world, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Man, I mean manifesting it in the energy, yeah. Yeah, um, I I do want to pass the mic over to Taylor with her being such a big fan.

SPEAKER_06 19:31

I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Yeah, I I want I want to give you your spotlight, buddy. Go go for it.

The Narrative Arc Of God Boy

SPEAKER_06 19:37

Thank you. It's so funny. Okay, so first of all, I wasn't gonna talk much because I have a slight cold. It's a whole thing. Anywho, I but I listened. Harley texted me, he was like, You have to listen to at least three songs. Like, it's music that you like, it's your type of music. I ended up listening to four songs beforehand. Love, like, that's the only it's incredible. It's the type of music, I don't even know how to explain it. Like music that when it's produced and you're like, no, this is really like to the person, you know what I mean? Like being like a smaller musician. I love that type of music when so much feeling is put into it and you can tell, and it's not just like a product of you know the industry that like it's really like you writing it and how you know. Anywho, I love it, and it gives me the vibes of like this is so specific, but Sabrina Carpenter's emails I can't send because I like the boy. It's it's like that vibe, and I love like just that type of music, like slower, more lyrical. You know what I mean? Like, I yeah, I love it, I really do, and I don't think say that often about music, um, or like even like an Alex Warren-esque, yeah, you know what I mean? Like it has like that sound, and I love that sound. I'm so glad that you're bringing it out into the world because we need more of it.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

I was also thinking Phineas. You you have a very like Phineas sound, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:12

Yes, yeah, or um, I can see that who sings Golden Hour? Who who is that? Do I remember his?

SPEAKER_03 21:19

I don't remember Casey Musgraves.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

No, it was a guy he was on TikTok and used. Oh, Jake, Jake, yes, Jake, J A K E.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

Yeah, yeah, Jake with a V. Yeah, yeah, he's just like incredible music.

SPEAKER_06 21:33

Yeah, yes. Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Well, I think the yeah, it's interesting because I like when I hear people tell me what they think about my music, it's like I'm always eager to listen because I don't try to make it sound a certain way, really. It just kind of sounds how it sounds. I make music and that's just how it comes out, you know.

SPEAKER_06 21:56

And I think that's why it's so good. You know what I mean? Like you're not trying, you're like just being you, and that is your sound. And I love that you're not trying to be something that you're not. Thank you. And it's it's so good. And I will be streaming it a hundred times.

SPEAKER_03 22:13

A lot of my music is if it's not about love, it is about who am I, you know. Yes, so it's funny because I that's sort of like it indirectly become like a piece of my brand, is like an identity crisis, like yeah, one wonderance, I don't know what self-discovery, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Let's also let's also talk about uh Dragon Ball Z. How important is Dragon Ball Z in your life?

SPEAKER_03 22:46

Dude, not much anymore. What? But I've watched all of Dragon Ball, like the original series. It's my first anime, actually.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Same here, dude.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

And Fairy Tale, those were my first two animes, and then I watched all of Dragon Ball Z and like GT and uh Super. Is Super the one they're still like putting out right now? Um started it, but I was like, I think yeah, I think passed.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

I think super's done, and now they're on to like them as children again.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

It's it's a weird super GTZ, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they just keep going.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Um, no, dude. Oh, yeah, yeah. Baruto Naruto, Baruto, Naruto, Naro Baruto, yeah, all of them shipped in, this, that, and the other.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

It's nuts.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Um, no, I saw the YouTube short, and I assume it's probably a TikTok, but I'm not a TikTok boy. But uh I saw the short of uh of you making garden into a music video on Fortnite, and you had Lord Beerus, and I was like, what?

SPEAKER_03 24:00

Yeah, that's like my my main fortnight skin.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

No, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

So who who's your favorite Dragon Ball Z character?

SPEAKER_03 24:13

Probably just off of vibes, like I do love Beerus. Yeah, so chill. Yeah. Um, I mean, he's not that chill, but I was gonna say the god of destruction. Yeah, yeah, I think the opposite of a chill. I just love his like one. I love cats, yeah, right. And it's just like I don't know, he's just so his idol care bottle.

SPEAKER_07 24:42

So much aura. Yeah, yeah. I remember getting wrecked like a million times in Xenoverse.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 24:49

Oh my god. Don't even get me started.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Yeah, but um, it's been a while. Taylor oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

Probably name a better one if I had recently like watched Dragon Ball Z.

SPEAKER_06 25:03

That's a very acceptable answer.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Probably 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Taylor's favorite is definitely Gohan, right?

SPEAKER_06 25:09

Okay, so here's the thing Gohan or Trunks, it's one of the things. Gohan and Trunks, and they're both uh in another world my husband's. Do you know what I mean? Like, if that was an option, um, but yeah, depending on the day, Gohan or trunks. But specifically, I feel like I can't say it now because I'm an adult. Actually, I'm not gonna say what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Yep, smart move. Not in today's climate, dude.

SPEAKER_06 25:36

Not we're gonna go, we're gonna go trunks about that. Um, no, we're gonna go trunks. We're gonna go trunks for for the you know. Love that, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Um, Chris, we have never talked about your favorite Dragon Ball Z character. I want I want to take a quick guess. You seem like a piccolo guy.

SPEAKER_07 25:55

Oh, I hate piccolo. Oh wow. And there's no reason that for no reason. So I remember first watching him.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Majin Boo? Which one? Fat Fat Boo or Skinny Boo?

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Fat Boo.

SPEAKER_06 26:15

Does anyone really like skinny boo boo?

SPEAKER_07 26:19

He was the first like iconic character that I was like. What? Yeah, oh dude.

SPEAKER_06 26:26

I can't believe that you don't pay for it.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

A character?

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Yes, yes, yes. The Nimbus Cloud and uh the pull. What was the pool's he had it was called something? The power, the power pull, something like that.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

I can't remember.

SPEAKER_06 26:43

Can I go Master Roshi?

SPEAKER_01 26:46

That's crazy. That's a wild thing to pick.

SPEAKER_06 26:49

It might be a little problematic.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Um, I would say mine is probably Vegeta. The big Vegeta guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

I fuck with Vegeta. He was like my man on the video game.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Fight my brother all the time. I always used Vegeta.

Old Songs, New Life, And Timelines

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Yeah. Um, I want to talk a little bit before we jump into other stuff here. I want to talk a little bit about um good swim. Tell me, tell me the story between that one and garden. I want to talk about garden. Obviously, it's a a relationship, right? We've established that. But like what happened in that specific situation? That one garden feels very, very like lovey dovey, but very personal. How how did that correlate to we'll we'll say uh we'll say lost and found? Is is lost and found and garden about the same situation?

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Ooh.

SPEAKER_06 28:02

If you want us to stop recording and we can talk about it, that's okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

No, uh it's see that's the thing, is like my songs, none of them are really about like one thing. Like it takes me experiencing a situation or like a relationship like two or three times before I feel like I have the like knowledge to write about it, you know. Because I really when I write songs, I really like it to be productive, you know, like even if it's like a silly love song, like let that be like an encouragement to whoever's listening to go out and love someone, you know. Um so I I don't like to write songs in the moment when I'm going through something, which I feel like is different than a lot of artists. They usually are like, oh, I have a feeling, let me write about it right now. But me, I like to process things and really make sure I have like the you know the tact to write about it. Um and so to answer your question, garden really like that started. Sometimes I'll start a song but not finish it because I don't have the like I don't know the experience.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

You know, I still have you know live live life for a little bit and find let the song find you.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So garden was like um and good swim was kind of I wrote about when I was like coming out of like a depressive phase. Like I I was like it was like COVID depression classic. Um but I was like coming out of it and I was like, I'm done being sad, I'm done writing sad songs because that that's a lot of my first EP was just about me being sad and not knowing why, because I was young and didn't have the verbiage to know what anxiety was yet.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

Um but so once I like matured a little bit, learned a little more about myself and like how to regulate my emotions a little better. I was like, yeah, let's uh let's write some happy, happy songs. And I had a crush at the time, which is the first time in a long time I had had a crush on anyone, and I was like, oh, this is great. Love, I can feel it. That's awesome. I'm not dead inside. Hell yeah. So that's what Garden's about. It's just about me realizing that there is like love in me to give.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

And then swim would be the sequel, right? Because it's like finding love and then saying that that person's like, you're all in, like they're perfect, they can't find themselves as perfect, but you do every moment of every day.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

Kinda, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:17

I also it's it is that deep. But also not that deep because I kind of just wrote it for my cousin's wedding.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 31:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Really? That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

That's what prompted me to write the song.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

And then it is a perfect wedding song. I said I sent it to my wife.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

So that's cute.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:39

But yeah, it's a that song. But yeah, I kind of wanted it to feel like I don't know. I love it because it's there's kind of like two phases of it. Like the beginning is very like slow dancy and like um like kind of um just I don't I don't know why I can't think of the word.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Infatuated?

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Sure. Um that was a big one. Yeah, I'm very infatuated. I'm sort of like um pining. That's the word.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

Pining over this woman, and like no one's perfect, but she's close to it, you know. Yeah, and then like the drums come in and it's it's very like celebratory, I guess. It's like you know, celebrating love. It's like this feels like a good swim, it's like a cookout at the pool, you know.

SPEAKER_06 32:35

Um you know, the heat is hot and the pool is not low, super deep, uh very profound.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Dude, I mean the the perfect line is what sold me. I was like, oh yeah, this is this is a great song. Like, yeah, not not as good.

Taylor’s Take: Sound, Influences, Comparisons

SPEAKER_03 32:57

That was a moment I was really excited when I wrote it. I was like, oh, like you're so close to it, and then it sends you into this, like, oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Dude, I can I can only imagine sitting down. You probably you wrote it and you're like, dude, this is this is getting this this is sick. Um, especially if you wrote it for a wedding, too. That's gotta feel like all this. This is the line that they're gonna be like, oh dude, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Yeah, tears in the performing it too, like drunk as fuck. I love that five mojitos. I was like five mojitos deep. That was like the cocktail they had had like five of them, and I think everyone else was also drunk, so they it didn't matter. But I haven't watched the video because I fear that it's not good.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Oh it's it's a great song, but in my opinion, it is nowhere near as good as Gun in the Glove Box, which, if you ask me, is going to be one of the biggest songs of the year. Like, hands down, dude. This dude, I'm sending this song to everybody. It's the video, the video's fucking incredible. Um yeah, like especially when you're in the the bedroom and the girls on the bed swinging the gun. Like, I laughed for two minutes straight at that. Um, but the song is catchy as hell, dude. The chorus is incredible.

SPEAKER_03 34:35

Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorites. I actually, fun fact about that one, I reproduced it from like scratch, like the week I had to turn it in. Because really, there was like some like the producer I originally worked on it with, like, wouldn't budge on his fees, and they were like really high. So I was like, I'm just I I can do this myself, like so I put it right here. Um, it's amazing. Turned it in, and I'm way happier with it as a result.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

But who decides the art direction on the videos?

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Um, so that was just like so all the videos I've been posting on like socials was kind of like an initiative to like figure out the short form content game, right? Um, I basically went to my team and was like, I don't think music videos hold the same weight they used to. Like, I think we should put budget into just like getting a lot of content made. So I found a guy, um good homie of mine, his name's Zay. He's incredible at what he does. Um uh but we basically like worked out a deal like with my label. We get like X amount of content for X dollars um or videos. Um so we just started like hopping on calls, and each time we would like do another round of like shooting, we would just like be like, okay, like this is for social media, it can't be that complicated, like but it just needs to look good and like have you know be on brand of the song, you know. So we basically would just get on calls and talk about ideas and be like, okay, this video we'll shoot on a bridge. This video we need a payphone. Where can we find a payphone in LA? And then we'll shoot there, and then um so yeah, it's kind of just me and the videographer just going back and forth.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Um now are you getting are you getting backing from like the label and stuff financially, or is this all on you?

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Um they pay for it, but I um they give me a lot of freedom. Like it is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 37:14

I love being with Fearless. Um but yeah, they pretty much are just like because they also there was one time they tried to like handle the short form thing. They're like, we found a guy, like work with him, didn't work out, it was not I did not get great content, honestly. But um, so I was like, hey guys, do you mind if I interject here? Um I have a homie who's really good at this, and uh so yeah, that's how that happened. Oh yeah, dude. Yep, here's here's the card. Go go crazy.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

Um before we jump into this music game, do we have any dates coming up? When when are you gonna take this show on the road?

SPEAKER_03 38:06

Uh I would love to as soon as possible. Um there's nothing on the books right now, honestly, but there is um like there's a couple B sides that may or may not be coming out in the near future from the album. Uh and other than that, we're just like submitting for shows wherever we can and yeah, just do what we get. But nothing nothing to plug at the current moment.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

I I say that we should start using one of your songs as the intro of the show. That's what I say.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Yeah, wouldn't be mad. Um wouldn't be mad.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

So, my other question that I ask all of my guests is if you could collaborate with any artist, who would you like to have on a collaboration? Somebody that fits your sound, Kevin Parker.

SPEAKER_03 39:13

Kevin Parker.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 39:15

Interesting. Okay. He's like, or Bruno Mars. Those are like Bruno Mars would be like, yeah, those are my North Stars. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Bruno Mars would be perfect, man.

SPEAKER_06 39:29

They fit your sound so well.

SPEAKER_03 39:32

I think that's sort of like the like comparisons I've gotten are like if like like this big artist made music in a bedroom.

SPEAKER_06 39:46

Like, that's no, that's what I was trying to say earlier. You just see that's why you're the writer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

That makes so much sense. Um yeah, I love Bruno. I think he's like he's like the biggest artist in the world right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Um, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

Which is sick because I've been a Bruno Bruno fan since I was like a baby. Like from the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

Um I would I would love to hear you.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

The first I ever owned was doopps and hooligans.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

I would love to hear you do billionaire. I think that would be actually there's a really old cover of Billionaire.

SPEAKER_03 40:21

Really? My friend somewhere on my on my page.

SPEAKER_06 40:26

What the show, Harley, how do you not YouTube?

SPEAKER_01 40:31

What what's uh what's another good one that I'd like to see? Like grenade. I bet you do a great grenade too.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

Oh my god. There's also there is a video of that on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

Of you doing grenade?

SPEAKER_03 40:43

10 years old on like the shittiest laptop like webcam, and I just was like fucking grenade. It's just an a cappella cover of grenade. The frame rate is like awful, like it's yeah, it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

Um my mom refuses to take it down. No, it's nostalgic.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

It's a normal I've given up on. You you've been playing guitar for a long time. Um, how often, because given and this isn't your fault at all, but it's the type of music that you're playing. Given the type of music that you're playing, it doesn't exactly lend to like heavy shredding. Do you ever get a chance to just lay down and shred on the guitar?

SPEAKER_03 41:28

Uh sometimes. I really like I love to just like jam with myself. Like, yeah, I have like close to probably like a thousand just like instrumentals and like random song ideas, like just sitting on my computer that like a couple times a week I'll just sit down and go through them and then like jam on them, see if anything new comes about. Um there is that is something I want to do on this on my next project. Um that I kind of already have like a whole concept and direction brewing for. Um so yeah, there's gonna be a lot more guitar on that. So uh you can look forward to it. But yeah, dude. As right now it's just kind of like uh I uh they call it producer chops, if you've ever heard the term, but it's like like as a producer, you have to be somewhat like versatile on instruments. So I'm probably more of a keys player at this point than I am a guitar player, I'd say. Um but my first instrument ever was drums. I guess it was guitar, but like the one I've like trained in the most is yeah, percussion.

SPEAKER_06 42:54

They put you in drums at like three, right? Guitar at four. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Um yeah, I mean I get it though. Like you you have to it the song, like whatever the song lends itself to, you know what I mean? Like you gotta you gotta go where the song takes you, not try and force things in that you want per se. So total totally understand. And and it's I mean, it's incredible what you're what you're doing, what you're producing. Um, but I mean I would be I would be pumped to hear more like solos in the next project. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Yeah, there's already the title track, the tentative title track. I think a pretty I want it to be the title track, but we'll see. Um for the next project I'm working on, it has a lot of shredding, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

But cool. I do also love like anthemic like guitar solos, like yeah. Um there's a lot on this project. Um, they're very simple, but like like God boy. Yes, yes, like one like guitar solos you can sing.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

I I like the idea of more often than like shredding, like but um like memorable, like like stairway to heaven, you know what I mean? Ho Hotel California type, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:16

Yeah, so that's that was kind of like the there was honestly a lot of restraint there on this on God Boy, and there's a guitar line at the end of consideration too. Um like try I know there's like one or two more big oh wait, I can't talk about that song yet, never mind.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Okay, but yeah, that's my point.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

Yeah, you know, I I gotcha. Yeah, I I noticed like like in this album and and most of the other stuff too, but specifically in this album, you're very strict on that like 330. There's a couple of songs go a little over 330, but you're very strict on like keeping that song down. Um do you think that moving forward? Do you think the industry's kind of done with four and five-minute songs?

Garden, Good Swim, And Writing Through Joy

SPEAKER_03 45:16

Um, not necessarily. Um, I just think it's you have to be sort of like strategic about it. Like, yeah. Um, like there's like a five-minute song on my first project. Uh but that's because it's like two songs technically, like there's a transition in it and it goes into a song. Um and that was like my favorite song on the project. And so I like it was like the deep cut I chose to like put on the album, you know. Uh but I don't know. I think it just like you know, you can't do nothing in the five minutes, at least, you know.

SPEAKER_06 46:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will say I could listen to one of your songs for five minutes.

SPEAKER_03 46:09

Hell yeah. Check out it's called sorry slash happy sad. Um perfect. It's a fun little like beat switch in there. Um I mean I'm trying to think like one song that will never I I think it's the greatest song of all time, Bohemian Rhapsody.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

Like, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 46:35

But it's weird, like it's like I like study that song like and still have no idea what the fuck it's about. But I kind of I feel like it's I feel like the beginning, I th I I almost feel like it's about him being like closeted in a weird way.

SPEAKER_01 46:51

A little a little bit, yeah. I think so.

SPEAKER_03 46:53

That's that's like my the persecution what that song is about.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

But yeah, I think it's about persecution.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

But yeah, but every time I listen to that song, I'm like, how the fuck do you make this? What the fuck? Like, who thinks of this?

SPEAKER_06 47:09

Yeah, like who like how wasn't that at the time he was on drugs, also?

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Who Freddie Mercury?

SPEAKER_06 47:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

I mean, he was never he was never really a drug guy. He was a he drank.

SPEAKER_06 47:25

Did you watch the movie?

SPEAKER_03 47:27

Yeah, I know he was there was like a Coke era for sure. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

It was definitely before that, though.

SPEAKER_07 47:35

Oh, I think a lot of it era was genius. That's his genius, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

I think a lot of it was just loving Greek mythology, Galileo, yeah, yeah. But um philosophy, not mythology, philosophy. I'm an idiot.

SPEAKER_03 47:55

I was gonna say not even like as I get in more and more into being an artist and like learn about different writing types of stuff. I'm like, how do you even start to write this song? Like, yeah, what do you it's so weird?

SPEAKER_01 48:11

But it's also just like a lot to live up to as an artist, too. Like thinking about like legendary songs in general, like Bohemian Rhapsody, again, Hotel California, Stairway to Heaven, Freebird, like like dude, I just I don't know if those will ever happen again.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

And that's just one genre of music, too.

SPEAKER_01 48:30

Right, right. Yeah, man. It's it's wild to sit down and think about.

SPEAKER_06 48:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:37

It also it also causes me a lot of stress thinking about like the age of songs. Like I had this conversation the other day about like somebody came into work and they're like, Oh, I love Iron Maiden. And I was like, Oh, I didn't know you were a classic rock guy. And he was like, Oh, that's not classic rock. And I'm like, No, it is though. It's actually it's almost oldies now, like it's it's as old as Elvis was when I was growing up. Like, it's crazy, dude.

SPEAKER_06 49:05

Yeah, you can't think about it, you're a spiral.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

Yeah, like Metallica is gonna play on the same radio station in the next 10 years as Elvis. They're in the same genre of music now. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

You know what's this is random, but I just thought about it. My friend was in tri was doing like a trivia night thing and had like a phone a friend. And the question was, what's the most popular Beatles song of all time? And she called me and was like, I don't know what it is, and I'll listen to Beatles, and I was like, It's Here Comes the Sun. What really was it was it yesterday? Googled it, it was Hey Jude, but it's literally not no. Yeah, it wrong trivia guy was just like gaslighting me and my friend. He's like, It's yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

Yeah, like it's hey jude's fine, it's it's a fine song.

SPEAKER_05 50:04

Definitely here comes the sun.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

It's this isn't an objective like take, like it is literally here comes the sun, is the most popular.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

Based on like sales alone, like yeah, yeah, it's it's fat.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

It really is. I don't care what Google says, anyways. Just remembered that.

SPEAKER_06 50:26

Oh, that's too funny. Can we discuss our funny oopsies about the name of the album? I don't know if you were in our little waiting room that we have. Did you hear about it?

SPEAKER_01 50:36

No, he wasn't, he wasn't on yet, but yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_07 50:38

So Ryan, I'm the only one who can read.

SPEAKER_06 50:42

We can't read. Listen, continue.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

Did you think it was good boy?

SPEAKER_06 50:46

Yes, no, and I so I was listening to God Boy, but in my head the title was Good Boy, and I was like, that's an interesting title for what these lyrics are. Yeah, and I was really confused, and then I looked, yeah, I was like, okay, we don't judge, but all right. And then I oh go ahead. Sorry, you finished. Oh so I was gonna say that Harley had texted me, he was like, Yeah, the album's called Good Boy, and so then I think I had it in my head that it was good boy. So when I read it, I was like, clearly, and then I listened to it and I was like, That's not that's interesting, it would be true.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

I'm a very good boy next album, yeah. That's the yeah, that's the sequel.

Gun In The Glove Box: Production And Visuals

SPEAKER_03 51:33

Um go on tour with Sabrina Carpenter, yes, and then my friend, yeah. That would actually be hilarious, dude.

SPEAKER_01 51:43

I would I say let's line that up. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 51:45

The title is like weird because it kind of was like there's a lot of like lines you could draw about the title that were intended, but also not like yeah, yeah, that's why I picked it because it's like vague, yeah. But it it has a lot of meaning to me that is really difficult for me to like fully explain, but like in one sense it's like you know, a commentary on like my relationship with religion in general, too. In another sense, it's more like like God and boy, these two like very opposite things almost, like um in that that was kind of like the the theme of the album is just like juxtaposition and like you know idyllic identities and what you know, um so yeah, it's but it's also like it kind of is about me being a good boy and wanting to be a good boy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

I mean it it dude it fit like up until she said that morality, yeah, yeah, yeah. But also like now that I know that it's God boy, like looking back on some of the songs. No, it's not that even that it makes more sense, but it's like it's more about the relationship of I not necessarily your relationship with religion, but more of the ideal uh or the idea of being like a god, you know what I mean? Like, because in the in the album you deal with that existential crisis at the end, and being able to come out of that with this idea of like, oh, everything's gonna be okay, and manifesting your next destiny kind of gives this ideal of no, I'm in charge of my my future, nobody's holding the reins, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 53:55

Yeah, well that was like like the song God Boy is about me realizing that and accepting like um that like uh because I was raised religious, um and growing up the idea of like perfection and like being good were like really uh like strict on my conscience and caused me a lot of anxiety, like just wanting to like you know live like Jesus, you know, uh which is sort of the case, like you know, Jesus is awesome, great guy, but um wonderful man, yes. Uh but there was like this pressure that I was always putting on myself that like you know it's like I am not in control, like everything in my life is predestined, and like God has it all planned out, and that was like crippling for me because I was like when especially when I didn't feel good, I was like, why am I going through this right now? Like, why is God putting me through this? Like, this sucks. Um so it's kind of letting go of that like your like chain, yeah, you know, and being like free from like you know, even if it really is all in God's hands, that's less pressure on me. Um, even if it is like even if it's not, um I don't know, it's it's a really big concept about forever.

SPEAKER_07 55:42

Yeah, it makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

No, yeah, it's exactly what I was trying to go for of like that idea of like removing that, like, okay, well, it's it's in my hands now. Like, I I'm not set in stone by somebody else, I can choose what the next move is, and yeah, it doesn't remove you from religion, right? It can still be the sense of like God allows human freedoms, like he allows free will, so it's just giving that free will back is tough, you know.

SPEAKER_03 56:16

Yeah, yeah. And there's also like there's a whole like side of like spirituality that a lot of people believe in that we are like manifestations of God already, and like that's why we're such an intelligent species, and like well, all that stuff, but um like we're I almost think of it as like different like uh variations or like pieces of the pie of God, yeah, yeah. Human is like part of like the greater consciousness, you know, like so I it it's kind of leaning into that idea too, yeah. Um but yeah, it's it's a lot to yeah, no, no, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 57:12

Yeah, that's kind of why the title track it's also uh Rick and Morty did that episode. You remember that episode of Rick and Morty where it was like greater conscious?

SPEAKER_04 57:26

Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_01 57:29

Rick and Morty, that's one of those shows, man, where they pull out these concepts where like I think about them days later.

SPEAKER_03 57:34

Yep, yeah. There was an episode that fucked me up. It was the whole one, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:43

That fucked me up for like days, yeah, and then like the Citadel, the Citadel fucked with me for a while. I was like, Damn, dude.

SPEAKER_03 57:54

Oh I also have a Morty skin on Fortnite.

SPEAKER_01 57:58

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:00

Sweet.

SPEAKER_06 58:01

So what I'm hearing is we have to play Fortnite to get cool skins.

Content Over Big Videos: DIY Strategy

SPEAKER_03 58:07

I actually don't I don't play it that much anymore, but I was I got really good at it like before anyone else did. So like season two of Fortnite, I owned, yeah, and then it blew up, and then it got super sweaty. Yeah, I had to I had to hang it up. Had to retire.

SPEAKER_04 58:31

Dude, I I played Fortnite for the work is late run.

SPEAKER_01 58:37

I played Fortnite for the first time recently, like I had never played it before. Yeah, like within the last two or three months, and uh it's really fun. It is really fun, but like I don't fully understand what I'm doing. No, I played I played Call of Duty for a long time, and it's yeah, it's not the same, but it is the same, you know?

SPEAKER_03 58:58

Yeah, well changes to like some people like um I mean there's different modes now too. Like there was a while I got really addicted to all the like simulator games that people that like the users make in Fortnite.

SPEAKER_01 59:13

Oh the Tiger Hero on there now, yeah. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 59:19

Yeah, no, there's some really interesting things. That's like like I it's one of the craziest like game formats, I think, is like yeah, oh yeah. You the game blows up and then you open it up for people to make more games inside the game, you know. Right, like the only other game that's really like that is Rob Roblox, maybe. Yeah, yeah. Actually, you can do that in Battlefield, you can make maps in Battlefield now.

SPEAKER_01 59:47

Really?

SPEAKER_03 59:48

Yeah, dude, that's pretty much my friend. It was it was it was a duck hunt map. It was yeah, dude. Um so like they set up this like tower you have to like run across, and there's a bunch of snipers like trying to like pick people off. And if you make it to the end of the obstacle course, you get to come like kill all the snipers.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:13

That was really cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:14

Um well, unfortunately, we're not gonna be able to play the game tonight, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:19

React to time.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:21

We we unfortunately are getting close on the time, but uh that just means that you get to come back. You should definitely come back and hang out with us again.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:29

I would love to. This is probably my favorite podcast I've ever done.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

Hell yeah, dude. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:34

Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:35

Oh, you stop you are really fun people.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:40

I'm gonna ask me a lot of bullshit questions, so yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:46

Oh well, well, actually, I I might have a I might have a bullshit question for you. Oh I still love those. Um what what do you see as success? Like what is your I don't want to say what's your end goal, but um, you know, because you you know it's take things further. But uh yeah, what what what would you define as success for yourself?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:10

That is quite the opposite of a bullshit question. Yeah, right. Yeah, Chris just pulled that out of his pocket. What? Yeah, I mean um I've been wanting to say it the whole time.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:21

Yeah.

Touring Hopes And Dream Collabs

SPEAKER_03 1:01:22

Nah. Ask me anything. Um it's weird because it's in some ways like like I can look at my career as already a success. If I compare it to the right people. Um but there's also like there's a whole fucking ladder of like artists and bands you have to climb. Um so I guess like the base level of success for me is just being able to do this for a living. So I don't think if we choose that. Um you know, but the it's like a very fickle industry, you know, like um like I could be broke six months from now and have to like rebuild that already happened once actually, in in between this project and my last project. I had to rebuild my team, got a new label, uh, had to move back to Tennessee, came back, um almost went broke again. Uh and finally, like, you know, um, but yeah, uh so yeah, it's there's different levels, I guess. So the bass level would I think I've like achieved. Um I get to put music out. Um fortune enough to have a song that has like 50 million streams. That's pretty cool, even though I hate it. Um that's how it goes. Um, so I guess that's another benchmark is having that one song that I hate that happens to also be my biggest song. Um and then wait, wait a second, which is mostly just being uh a bad texture.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:24

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:25

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, okay. But that when I was 17. Yeah, I I ruined a relationship because I was bad at texting.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:37

Or me with most friendships, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:44

Including including mine and Chris's, actually.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:47

Yeah, you know, yeah, but um and then like on the spiritual, like artistic level, I think success to me is like just being able to like touch people with my music. Um if one person is listening, then you know, yeah, I think that's uh like I said earlier, I really want my music to be productive. Like I want people to listen to it and it makes them think in a positive or productive way or question uh you know their character, even you know, in my yeah, yeah. Am I the person the song is supposed to be about? Like, you know, um maybe something's wrong with me. Maybe I'm a problem.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:34

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:36

Well, and and having having your music touch people in a way of like even like my story of being able to send that, like, hey, this is how I'm feeling about you today. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, that's that's huge to be able to share that um in music with somebody important in your life.

Guitar, Solos, And The Next Project

SPEAKER_03 1:04:51

Yeah, no, and it it's it's there's it's so saturated these days, too. It's like easy to get caught up in like how like um or or f just find meaning in like what I'm doing when there's there's so many other people doing it. How what right do I have to you know be a bigger artist than this person? You know, there's people that have like two monthly listeners, they'll listen to their music and be like, holy fuck, like yeah, why am I doing like this person needs to be huge, yeah, and you know, um but it's yeah, I just want to be able to like I don't know. I'll tell a quick story. I was playing a show in Houston. Um it was during like there was like a big like ice storm that came through, and like a sold-out show became only like 30 people were there. Um and but this one girl like she like couldn't drive there, she walked to the show like two hours. Like she walked um through and it's like it's an ice storm, it was fucking cold, yeah. But she like had to see the show, and I even posted I was like, please don't come to the show if like it's unsafe. Like I promise we'll be back, like you know, just be safe. And I ended up live streaming it too, so um, anyways, after the show ended up being one of my favorite shows too, it was really like intimate. Like, I felt like I was just like performing for like a bunch of my friends, just like a group of like 20-30 people in front of the stage, like and they were raging too. It was so sick. It felt like there was 200 people in there. Um, but after the show, this girl walks up to me, she tell tells me that she walked there, and I was like, Holy fuck, you didn't have to do that. But then she's like, Well, I have I like got you a gift, and she hands me this little like brass ring. Um, I have it somewhere, I'm not gonna pull it out, but um she was like, You saved my life, and I was like, Oh, oh really, uh, and usually I'm like, Yeah, whatever. But right, right. She was like, No, you actually saved my life. I was like, about to kill myself, and your song came on, and it was it was exactly how I was feeling, and I realized I wasn't alone, and you know, it I didn't didn't kill myself, so that was that was really cool, and I cried, yeah, yeah. I like cried and like hugged her for like five minutes. I was like, that's probably the most like special thing that my music's ever done for me and someone else. Like, that's I've gotten DMs from people too that have said the same, and it was like um it was the song I was talking about that was like about the anxiety that I had that I didn't know what to call, you know. It's just called how I'm feeling, and I'm basically just describing anxiety. I'm like, I just feel like this sucks. Um but yeah, um at the very end of the song, it goes like but I know I'll get through it and I'll be okay. This is just how I'm how I feel right now, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:48

So that's dude, that's fucking incredible.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:52

That's insane.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:53

That that is success, like that right there is success.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:58

Yeah, so that's probably my biggest answer to your question.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:03

No, it was it was perfect, it was it was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:06

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:07

Wow, unreal damn dude.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:13

What a note to end on.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:16

Yeah, music is magic.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:18

Music is magic.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:20

Yeah, I think it's funny. People like there's all this like fantasy about magic and like wizards and stuff, but it's like we can make music, like that's so we can make video games, dude. Like, we can make like really simulated worlds within computer, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:39

Yeah, that's sick.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:41

Um, we can I don't know, even like like plumbers, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:45

Like no, I don't know pipes. Chris is a plumber.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:51

Really? I fuck with plumber. Like, I don't know pipes like that. Well, you do.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:58

I mean, water is water is magic. Water is magic. Yeah, I don't know. Upstairs, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:07

No, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:08

I bet Chris knows.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:11

Does that have to do with pressure? I don't want to go near the the poop either. Yeah, no, it's not that bad. I commend you. It's not that bad. Trust me, it's not that bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:23

There are worse things.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:24

I might have to try it. I think that they're the real heroes.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:31

True. But that's the thing, it's like I think like the term art can apply to anything. Yeah. Um yeah, like I think a plumber is an artist, you know. I think an electrician, or like, you know, I think the only thing that makes you not an artist is if you're not particularly like passionate and care about what it is that you do. Um, you know, so I think it's um like I don't know. For example, I have a friend who's a photographer, and I mostly work with him just because he loves taking photos so much. He's not like probably not the greatest photographer ever, but he like it's like a joy to like watch him shoot photos because he gets like really worked up when he takes a good photo and he's like, uh yeah, this is a bang, you know. I'd way rather work with like you know, a photographer like that, with like you know, that shoots on an iPhone even or something, or better yet, a Samsung, I don't know, but then work with someone that's like you know, that treats it like a nine to five day job, you know, yeah, exactly. Yeah, so there is an art to all things.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:03

You've inspired my work week, like yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:06

I'm gonna go into my barista job and make coffees like I've never made them before.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:13

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:14

That that's the message that people need right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:17

Yeah, when people talk about like in cooking, like making something with love, like that's how it works. It's because it's just like caring and like putting the extra you know touch on things that right, you know, for yourself or someone else, you know, just do all things with love.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:42

Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:43

So but so you're a barista, you're a plumber, and then what do you do, Harley?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:48

Uh I'm in sales.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:51

That's a that's an art.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:54

Yeah, it can't it definitely can it definitely can be.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:59

He works Smashcraft, not sales called Mercantile.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:09

Oh man, it's too funny, dude. Ryan, thank you, thank you so much for coming on the show, man. This has been one of my favorite interviews of all time. Like, true.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:20

I learned of my month, likewise.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:22

Um, everybody check out Ryan Woods, check out all of his music. God boy is available right now. Yes, um, check it all out, man. I I can't say it enough. My my personal favorite is Gun in the Glove Box. That's that's my personal favorite. So please check that one out. Taylor's is Debbie.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:39

Yeah, I I love Debbie so much.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:45

She's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:47

Um, but again, man, thank you so much for coming on. I'm gonna let you go. I know we're we're a little over here, so I don't I don't want to hold you up. And dude, come back, please. Definitely come back.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:59

Just to chat anytime. I'd love to.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:02

Oh yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:02

Um, I guess you you I mean you guys have my team's info.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:07

Yeah, yeah. You got our M.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:08

OpenSlot, let me know.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:09

Yeah, I'd love to yeah, follow the Instagram and whatnot.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:14

That you're so real for that. And we can listen to it all day long.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:19

It's called Righteous Vanity. Yeah, there you go. There you go. It's not press.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:26

Oh, hell yeah, dude. All right, thanks again. It's been real, everybody, and peace.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:34

Peace. Peace. Thank you, guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:37

Thanks, man. Of course. All right, of course.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:40

Do I leave now?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:41

Yeah, I got you. If you want, you don't have to.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:49

Like uh after like a hookup, you know, yeah. So do you want to hang out or like oh what are we exactly?

SPEAKER_07 1:14:59

Do I put my shoes back on? Oh no, we have never took them off. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, right, we're in the bathroom.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:10

Let me let me at least click the end button. Thanks for listening to the Lincoln Bridge Podcast.