Ever been curious about the eclectic life of an engineer by day and a country singer by night? Our guest for today's episode, Wesley Hanna, Vice President of Engineering at Burnett Oil, and a Texas Country singer-songwriter, weaves an engrossing tale about his journey. Raised in the heart of Houston, Wesley's musical voyage started with a guitar during his high school days and later, open-mic nights at Texas A&M University. He released his first solo album in October 2022 that marked the beginning of a musical odyssey filled with personal growth and tireless commitment.
Wesley doesn't shy away from revealing his metamorphosis from a reticent kid to an accomplished performer who unshackled his inhibitions through music. Interestingly, he shares how the pandemic, while disrupting the music industry, became a game-changer for him. Wesley harnessed the power of live streaming and adapted to the new normal, turning the crisis into an opportunity for success in the music industry. He candidly talks about the unvarnished truth of a music career, underscoring the significance of album promotions, engaging with fans, and performing live.
In the final segment of the chat, Wesley imparts invaluable insights into the art of setting goals and dreaming big. Illustrating his own experiences, he emphasizes the concept of taking small strides towards significant victories, whether it's performing on a dream stage or launching a successful album. He also lets us in on his favorite parts of performing and songwriting, expressing the profound passion he harbors for his craft. Wesley's journey is a testament to the power of perseverance, the allure of music, and the fascinating saga of a man who followed his heart, no matter what. Tune in to be inspired and to appreciate the mesmerizing fusion of oil and music in Wesley's life.
Ever been curious about the eclectic life of an engineer by day and a country singer by night? Our guest for today's episode, Wesley Hanna, Vice President of Engineering at Burnett Oil, and a Texas Country singer-songwriter, weaves an engrossing tale about his journey. Raised in the heart of Houston, Wesley's musical voyage started with a guitar during his high school days and later, open-mic nights at Texas A&M University. He released his first solo album in October 2022 that marked the beginning of a musical odyssey filled with personal growth and tireless commitment.
Wesley doesn't shy away from revealing his metamorphosis from a reticent kid to an accomplished performer who unshackled his inhibitions through music. Interestingly, he shares how the pandemic, while disrupting the music industry, became a game-changer for him. Wesley harnessed the power of live streaming and adapted to the new normal, turning the crisis into an opportunity for success in the music industry. He candidly talks about the unvarnished truth of a music career, underscoring the significance of album promotions, engaging with fans, and performing live.
In the final segment of the chat, Wesley imparts invaluable insights into the art of setting goals and dreaming big. Illustrating his own experiences, he emphasizes the concept of taking small strides towards significant victories, whether it's performing on a dream stage or launching a successful album. He also lets us in on his favorite parts of performing and songwriting, expressing the profound passion he harbors for his craft. Wesley's journey is a testament to the power of perseverance, the allure of music, and the fascinating saga of a man who followed his heart, no matter what. Tune in to be inspired and to appreciate the mesmerizing fusion of oil and music in Wesley's life.
And welcome to a new energy crew podcast and your host, jp Warren, and I want to thank everyone out there for tuning in and I want to say that energy crew podcast is brought to you by exec crew. Exec crew is going to be a new dynamic of volzing network of professional executives that will come together to learn, share and teach stuff about their passions, what their strengths are and what they're, what they're dealing with, what their struggles are and vulnerabilities are, and this is launching Q4 and it's going to be great as we be dynamic. It's going to be a passion fueled mentorship and that kind of goes into what we are talking about today on energy crew podcast and I'm excited to have my my buddy up there and tune it in from a recording from Fort Worth, texas. Is that correct, wesley?
Speaker 1:Yes, sir Fort.
Speaker 2:Worth, texas. All right we have. For those that probably are listening to this in the car, you're like I know that voice. I know that voice on every Texas country singing hit radio station out there. This is the legend Wesley Hanna, not only the VP of engineering at Burnett Oil, but also someone that actually followed his passion and started pursuing his per se, per session, whatever. Just just deal with me, it's Friday afternoon. Everyone started pursuing his passion and started kind of following his is itch when it comes to to singing, singing and songwriting and playing the guitar for some Texas country. I'm not sure if you identify as Texas country, but that's what the point of this. We're going to talk about this. So, wesley, thank you for joining us today on energy crew podcast. How are you doing today?
Speaker 1:brother, I'm doing good. Jp man, thank you for having me so let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2:Obviously you know your first. Okay, look, before we kind of get into kind of your background on stuff, what did your first album kind of get dropped on like Spotify and Apple and all that? So what did this happen? It was kind of not that long ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this is my first solo record. I've made a record in the past, Back when I was attending Texas A&M, but this this record came out in October of 22. So hadn't been out of here yet, still still pushing it, still getting those songs out there and playing for folks. It's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Well, we're gonna, we're. I want to get into all of that fun stuff real quick. But real quick for those that don't know who you are, why don't you give us a little quick background on kind of your? You know who you are, you know where you grew up and kind of what brought you kind of into the, into your profession today in the oil field. And then I kind of want to talk about what brought you your profession to the kind of the music scene. So, if you want, just kind of see you with A&M, but where'd you grow up and kind of kick us off like that.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir. So uh grew up around the Houston area, graduated from Magnolia High School and after high school started well, actually it was probably halfway through high school picked up the guitar, you know, started started playing around in my room every day and then went off to college at Texas A&M, and and uh kept that going and started playing open mics and doing song writers or stuff like that. Uh, at the time I was pursuing my degree in petroleum engineering, so that's that's how I got into the oil and gas business.
Speaker 2:I okay, so are you? Are you first generation uh oil oil field?
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, Technically. Yes, sir. I have uncles and stuff that were in it, but, uh, not like my parents weren't in it, none of that.
Speaker 2:So yes, sir Okay, first generation oil field. And what and what actually led you to pick up, uh, the guitar. I mean, uh, it's always funny whenever you hear about these. You know the famous, you know musicians, kind of what started them on their, uh, on their career. It's always like, but it's always it always boils down to like I was, I forget what I was writing. I don't know if it was like, uh, gene Simmons or something like that. Like, every musician out there starts with a to pick up the guitar majority of them, not everyone, obviously uh to get the girls. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And uh, so what was?
Speaker 2:your. Well, I mean, what was your motivation? Cause my wife's a musician also. I don't think she picked it up to get the girls, I just think she, you know, that kind of runs into her blood. But what was kind of the inspiration for you to kind of pick up the guitar and start, I guess, jamming out?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Uh, I mean, it definitely helped, uh, with getting girls to talk to me and pretty shy when I was a kid man. Yeah, so it was, it definitely helped and uh, got some funny stories about that, but that's for another time. But no, uh, really what got me picking up the guitar was, uh, man, just I grew up loving music. Uh, I love especially country rock music, you know, and I ended up just wanting, I don't know. I've always had like a, a urge to entertain folks, Okay, and I was like you know, even if it's just, you know, cooking dinner for somebody or whatever, I mean, I just I kind of that kind of gets me going, and so, and music was just something that was, uh, you know, easy and it came natural to me. It's not easy, uh, but just came natural to me. I have a pretty good, pretty decent ear for, for musical notes and things like that and pitch and whatnot, and so that was just natural to me and so I'd say hey, no-transcript, I need this, I need to start playing guitar. And actually I played the saxophone. I was a band kid for a while okay, I had to your eyes so started out playing the saxophone right by the guitar.
Speaker 2:Dude, I'm not gonna knock anything. In fourth grade and fifth grade I was playing the violin, okay, or as we call it, a fiddle. So I'm not gonna listen, I'm not gonna knock anything, all right.
Speaker 1:No, but that's that's I say the guitar was not my first instrument and so I I got got into high school and decided you know, I'm tired of. You know, video games are fun. I used to play video games and stuff, and you know, gold and I whatever go, oh Okay, and I was boys, but like man, I need something to do. I'm bored to tears. You know, here's, here's a guitar for you know, 17th birthday, here you go. And my mom was kind of like hey, you know you need more of these. And so I was like yeah, you're right, and Said I love music singing in the car, whatnot. So I just started teaching myself how to play. You know, play chords.
Speaker 2:I really started playing like Nirvana stuff, like you know, okay, grunge music, I mean, yeah, so is this the type of stuff that you like you find like guitar magazine or like you go to YouTube, you're like, oh yeah, well, how do I play this? And you eat your fingers right and start strumming. I mean I, I mean, I guess, how do you kind of like fall into, like, I guess, playing the chords and kind of transfer in the chords? It's music like songs.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm old school. I wish you two would have been around when I was learning. That would have helped me out. Probably leave some bounds of Gotten a lot better, quicker than I did. But just read, you know, having music books, you know people, people would show me a couple chords here and there and I, you know learning them from. You get chord charts. If most guitar players you find they'll have a big giant book, it's Milbay, based in psychopædia, chords and yep, yeah, you open that thing up. Say how do I play this? You know, and you and you learn these chords and any practice switching between and, and then you work your way up into, you know, just strumming, strumming along, and then listen in the songs and and you can go usually easy to find music, especially chords. I mean it's just words and chord changes. You know For country music, texas country. So you go find your favorite Pat Green song and you know, yeah, print that out and go in there and Try to strum it and learn it. Learn the boys from Oklahoma pick up the harmonica. You know, try to learn that. That's just, it just grew from there.
Speaker 2:So for someone that you, for someone that started, I guess, their music journey before YouTube okay, so I'm obviously gonna have to date ourselves here we're not here on energy crew to date ourselves or to provide any age discrimination but you start your, your profession, you got your degree, you got your a petroleum engineer degree, you started working and here you are. You just released your first album, your first solo album, in October of 2022. There is some time between, I guess you know, when you, when you picked up your guitar, when you were 17 years old, playing in college, getting the open mic nights I want to talk about, kind of I guess what was first off. That experience likes to think, to first off to realize, like, whether you have the talent or whether you have the Guts of just standing behind a mic in front of people To play is is very nerve-wracking. It's very uncomfortable. You are literally yeah putting yourself out there.
Speaker 1:I thought, you guys, is the perfect place. Yeah, yeah, so open mic night is Like probably the best place to go figure that out. It's, you know, it's a bunch of folks in there that are wanting to get up and a lot, of, a lot of first timers or you know young musicians or Comedians or whatever it may be, that want to get up there, get in front of people and if they're, they're show in front of people and so it's great because you know you get up there and and that you're in front of a crowd and hopefully there's a decent crowd there. There may not be, you know, going on a Monday night. It's might be five people there, but it's a. It's a good chance to get up there and then you can kind of find out and get your feel for the stage and stage presence and things like that. And you know now, I mean not that I'm not nervous when I play, but you know a lot of people talk about stage fry, like I, yeah, I just I don't have that, I mean it's, and I think the woolfield working in the old field helps of that and the segue into that, because I Mean you know you're in a lot of high-pressure situations out in the field, especially when you're, you know, call them the shots on a job whether you're like on a fishing job or a frack job or drilling a well, whatever it might be mean a lot of times you have to make some, some split decisions on some things and and those kind of that kind of Skill set that you develop out there. I mean it really. You know, it's like if I'm not scared to go do that, well, I'm not scared to stand up in front of these people and sing for them.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I was soon, but I like the kind of the similarities between that. It's, like you, there is a lot of important decisions with pretty high impactful Outcomes from these decisions. So there is a lot of pressure, there's a lot of stress, there's a lot of anxiety behind that and I guess if you can transfer that to kind of ease the anxiety of getting in front of people and Singing, I think that's, I think that's pretty impressive. So let me see so. Okay, so You're, you're doing your, you're working your career, you're working in career and you started elevating your career. Now You're sitting, you know, vice president of engineering. Okay, what was, I guess, the moment for you when you, I Guess, had the realization or not the realization, the itch or the or the motivation to say you know what? I'm gonna take a little time and focus on my album, I'm my solo album, a lot of stuff. I guess what was kind of the, what was it? A calling was an itch, was just something that you Just had to do. I mean, kind of talk me through that process, because it's because it's the reason why I'm asking, because, like, it seems like the more Elevated you get in someone's okay, the more elevated people, getting someone's career established in someone's career. It seems like everything else, like all the other passions or hobbies, kind of sit you know, get there. They don't take center stage. Okay, because your professional career is so for you to see, you know, be at this level and still pursue this personal Passion, this personal goal. I want to hear about that a little bit kind of what was the calling, what was the motivation and push behind that.
Speaker 1:So what kind of kicked it off was the lockdowns during COVID? So, okay, you know we're sitting around in our house and, yeah, we're working from home remotely and whatever, but then you're, then you're home watching Tiger King or whatever, you whatever yes whatever's keeping you saying during that time. And we're sitting out out here and talking to some of my neighbors and and One of my neighbors you know, he knew I did music before and it's like, hey, man, do you still have sound equipment? And I was like, yeah, I've got a little PA system in my garage. And so I said, man, would you, would you mind like doing something like outside? We can just set it up in your backyard, I'll help you do whatever, but just get, get it going out here and gives people something to do other than sit in their house all day. And we can get outside in the sunshine and, and you know, at least People want a social distance, what Ever. But there we're outside, we're having a good time and, and you know you're playing music. So it's like, hey, me, it sounds like a good idea. You know, let's, let's try that out. So I did a little kind of series and actually filmed it or live streamed it on, okay, facebook and Somehow figure out how to do that. A lot of musicians were figuring out how to do that.
Speaker 2:So I noticed that. I you know what you're right. I did notice that during COVID, there's a lot of musicians that started focusing on doing these live streams. Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so got got that going was playing and then it turned into something, man, and like the last one I did I think we did it for like eight weeks and the last one we did they were like probably like 70 people in my backyard and I knew maybe 30 of them and we had a taco truck in the front and I was just waiting for I don't know COVID police to come shut us down. So that time I think Things had eased up. But I was like, hey, man, this is too much fun, I, I miss it. And I did a little bit of it when I was living out in Midland before I moved forward Would go play at church or Max barbecue, you know. Yeah, places like places like that where I could get in, but there's not. There's not a whole lot of the and what sex is, as there are here in Fort Worth, and there's a huge local music scene going on and one thing's kind of calmed down with all the pandemic stuff got into it. And then there was a deal that our local radio station here had a little thing going on. It was kind of a local music showdown deal and I entered one of my older songs on there and it did pretty well and got a good response. I got to go do an interview on the radio and I was like man, this is too much fun, I can't just leave this line here. So took that. I had some songs that I had written right after I finished my first album and then I started writing again because I was playing music. It's like part of your brain that I'd quit using for a long time, really actively anyway and so I just kind of like woke back up and I was like, hey, I'm writing lyrics. Now again, I'm writing these songs. I've got a collection of songs here. I need to take those and do something with them. And I wanted for some time I said, if I ever get enough songs again to do the record I want to do. I'm going to put that out. And so it all kind of came together and I said, hey, man, let's just push for it and put time in the studio and went from there.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that sounds kind of cool. It's one of those things. I mean, you're right, COVID was definitely a difficult time for a lot of people, but also I think it gave people the space, maybe the opportunity, the time to. I mean, look at our industry you went from 1,200 ricks to under 200 or something like that within four or five months or something like that. So there wasn't a lot to do. So it did allow people that space, that time, that creative runway to pursue different things. I mean, for me it was a podcast. I've never done one before, but OK, I got the time, I got the space now. So I'm going to start doing this and I love how you dust off your old equipment, you start playing and you start kind of getting these little dings of confirmation. You have 70 people in your backyard, you know 30 of them. You succeed at the live stream and succeed at this local music radio show Next thing you know here. So you're kind of getting all these green lights in your way, as Matthew McConaughey says, all these green lights. So let me ask you a question. So you're sitting here now. It's been released October. What has been that experience for you? And first off, let's talk about this album real quick so people can kind of, if they're tuning in, once you get off this podcast, you can kind of find it on wherever you kind of get your music Apple, Spotify or wherever. So talk to me about this album a little bit and kind of how you created it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, like I said, after I finished my last album, which is back in like 2008 when I was going to school, I was still writing some songs and I had some songs that I wrote After we were wrapped up in the studio, I was like, man, these are pretty good Work on the next record. And then graduation happened, life happened and kind of had to put it to the side for a little bit, but I knew it was like hey, again I get the songs I want, the collection of songs I want together, I want to put a record out. And so it started writing again, got into this studio and I went to the same studio I'd worked at before, who'd done work with some of my favorite artists, and I was comfortable there and knew what their capabilities were, and also the players that they were going to be able to get to put on the record were some of my favorite country players out there, and so there was that piece of it. And once we got the recordings done, I'm fortunate enough to be married to a marketing person, ok, and who? also does graphic design so she was able to do my album art, all that stuff. You know you don't think about that kind of stuff but it's a big part of it. You know album art, liner notes, so we were able to get everything we needed put together to take it to print, to actually make physical CDs. And then I joined up with a group here in Fort Worth called Smith Music, which is part of the Billy Boss family. Ok, and they do digital distribution. So I'm sure you're familiar with that, with podcasts. You know you have something that hosts your recordings and then they yeah, they all go down, yeah, Do all the major, yeah, all goes out. So got that going and got it out there. And I released a couple singles you know it's the couple songs ahead of the album release to kind of get it going and learning the music business again. It's changed so much in the last 15 years when I was really into it, and so it's been a lot of fun. What, OK?
Speaker 2:Figuring all those things out. What aspects of the industry have you seen it? What kind of the biggest changes for you that you saw? I mean, obviously you know you have to do this. The music is just everything's gone digital.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so OK. So, it's mainly just everything going digital.
Speaker 2:OK, so let me, ok, let me ask you a question. So you get the album, so you got this, you got this itch. Ok, you start scratching this itch. You know, you have your in-house, you have your in-house marketing guru. You're better half putting this all out there. Ok, you're in the studio, you're putting the album together. Ok, you're kind of getting closer and finally, october, your album drops. I remember, because we were at a crew club event, I think. I think I'm really least that week when you were sitting next, which you told me that I would assume I would assume. And of course I would assume after something like this, you're like OK, finally did it feather in the cap, I'm done, I'm good and all that stuff. But it seems like once that's not the end of anything, that's the start of something. It seems like Because now, from what I've seen obviously I follow you on social media and you are constantly, constantly on the grind, playing, putting out shows, being in front of people, constantly doing this. You know whether it's these live shows or what that is how is that, I guess, kind of you know, you know what you put out there. You don't realize, I guess the time that comes, when it comes promoting, when it comes to playing, when it comes to booking gigs and all that stuff, How's that been, I guess, bouncing and bouncing everything in your life?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's been fun trying to figure out how to fit it all in. Definitely don't have as much free time, yeah, but it's. It's a lot of fun it's, it's, it's gratifying to you know it's, it's something that it's fulfilling. So, yeah, it's sometimes going to be overwhelming, but but you've, you've got this. You know this gratification of doing something you love to do and, and you know it's, sometimes you're like man, why am I doing all this? For us, A lot of this is a lot of work. You know, like I said, all the social media stuff. You can take the time to make flyers and things like that and schedule posts and make sure everybody knows you're getting out there and then and make t-shirts and hats and and a lot of like that. Yeah, it is a lot. And, again, it doesn't hurt to have a marketing guru for the wife. So that helps out more than more than you know. But it's just, you know it's a team effort too, man, and she actually started playing bass with me. She played the bass when she was like I don't know, 14, 15. Okay, and you know, kind of like I played the saxophone when I was that age. Yeah, yeah. Like the big giant stand-up bass, I've got one over here the orchestra bass yeah. And yeah. And so she was like man, I'm kind of thinking about playing this thing. You know, I was like do it. And so she learned all my songs and we, whenever we my album dropped, we had a release party, and so she got up there and played with me on those songs and it was. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:That is so awesome.
Speaker 1:And now she's playing sets with me now. So that's pretty fun, I mean, and we'll, we'll do those shows and I'll play shows, you know, solo shows. And got a guy here in town that I met that's actually met him on Instagram. Yeah, he's a okay, he's kind of a newbie to Fort Worth and great fiddle player. He's playing with me now and so you know we'll do these shows and go out there and so it's a lot of fun entertainment folks and and you know we play that old school, a lot of that old school classic country. It's not even as much. Yeah, it's got the Texas aspect of it and it's very much Texas country. But when you think about it it's really more similar to what you heard. You know what I heard on the radio and I was a kid and back in the early nineties Now, even before that, you know, when I was growing up and listening to the radio in Houston, it was just, you know, like George straight now, and Jackson and Mark Chestnut and guys like Tracy Lawrence, all that the the old Eddie's country back when it was pretty true to the way my sound is gone and again, there's still a lot of the Texas country aspect and songwriter aspect.
Speaker 2:So how would you define yourself? I probably miss miss introduced you, and if I say it takes, how would you define? I guess your your style, style of music.
Speaker 1:No, it's, it's, it's, it's Texas country, for sure it's man, it's. It's hard to do. You know they've got everything called now it's not. You know we've got mainstream country. That's if you go to one of the big radio stations? I don't even, I don't know. Do you like that stuff or is that? No, okay.
Speaker 2:Timmy Needs junk.
Speaker 1:I'm an old man, it's not my, it's not my my thing, I'm my cup of tea. If it is yours, great, but yeah for sure it's not mine either. Yeah, I like you know the the like you know good lyrics, good instrumentation. I don't want to listen to something with a, with a backing track on it, you know, with a bullshit story so well, okay let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2:Okay, this starts. You know, obviously, you know all the time and effort and let me ask you a question. I mean, you know people all often see people that pursue their passions like, oh, man must be so lucky. All he has to do is, you know, get up and play music. You know, oh, it's got to be so easy and lucky and all that stuff. What are some of the realities? Like, you know, the grass always isn't, you know, green or like, the comparison, culture isn't always that. What are some real, I guess, kind of realities that you deal with. You know, getting up and singing or constantly kind of putting on shows for people. I mean, what's the reality once it, once it hits you, yeah, Hello, did you cut off yeah? Yeah, just for a second.
Speaker 1:I was just making sure you got it wrong, little little little delay time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I guess you know people see you get up there. You know it's probably like, oh wow, you know living his dream. He's got this job he's also doing, you know, got this album and he's singing for people and all that stuff. But what's kind of some of the realities kind of from you behind the mic. That is kind of your experience with living your I guess your dream out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so just just time management things. You know, juggling all these, all these shows like hey, yeah, I got to be here at certain time, like and I'll play sometimes during the week, just bottom, you know, mainly I'll do solo shows, yeah, and I don't do any more of these play till 2am gigs anymore, like I did when I was a college kid. But I will do, you know, play till 11 or something like that, and then get up five o'clock, go to work the next day. That's a rough day.
Speaker 2:That is rough.
Speaker 1:But it's, you know, it's if you're going to, if you're going to be. I think it was. I can't remember somebody. I saw some kind of quote and it was one of the bigger country singers, something maybe Chris Stapleton or somebody said like you know, you're going to be a dreamer, you got to be a doer. You're not just going to walk up there and start singing and be the next Taylor Swift. You've got to put the time in and the effort, and not that I'm going to be the next Taylor Swift by any means, or.
Speaker 2:I don't know, don't say that. You might be saying this, you might say that, but look, okay, so. So I mean that, I mean that's a good point.
Speaker 1:I mean let's talk about that I mean, I don't know if I want that kind of a want that kind of attention.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what I'd be? I'd be, I'd be one of your Swifties, no problem, no problem, but let's, I mean let's talk about that, let's. I love that concept. You just said that quote about dreaming and doing. Okay, so a lot of times I mean I get, I get in a situation personally where it's like I have an idea where I want to do, like I have like 700 ideas that I want to do, you know, and then there's some might be great, some might be trash. However, I notice that kind of the same thing, like if I, if I don't take any steps or any action towards these ideas that I have, you know they don't nothing happens, nothing happens at all. So the ability to have an idea and put up just a little bit of time, a little bit of energy, a little bit of effort in that and seeing kind of where that can kind of take you, to me that's that's. That's a huge piece of advice out there for anyone trying to pursue a passion or or just kind of maybe have a side project or a dream that you want to pursue. It's doing those little things, doing those little efforts towards that goal, right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just, and you got to. You know, got to eat the elephant one bite at a time. You know you can't just rush through it and get it all done. It's one of those deals where you got to take it step by step and and, really, you know, put, put your focus into it, put your time into it and and plan, you know, lay it out for yourself hey, this is what I got to do to get to this point. You know it's it's setting goals for yourself and and a big goal you want to achieve and and breaking it up into smaller goals, like, hey, if I get here, then I can move on to this next step and get here, and it's just stepping stones along the way. And that's that's how recording an album works out. And and, just, you know, getting into, into what I'm doing, you know just getting out there and and getting to play different places, and one of my I got to play at one of my bucket list stages a couple of weeks ago and Luke, luke and box Texas.
Speaker 2:Did you really Okay, tell us about that story, give us, give us some stories from the road. How about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So, uh, you know, like I said, my wife plays bass with me and we were. It was actually when we were promoting the album to the show in my hometown of Magnolia and uh, we're up there playing a show and guy comes up. You know, people come and talk to you after you're, after you're done playing and say hey, you know, great show or or whatever. Like you guys, you know you ought to be doing this or that. And this guy walks up to us and say, hey, man, we'll play a Luke and buck. And I was like, yeah, sure, Like this guy's, you know, full of it, there's no way. Yeah, he's like, well, I, I sponsored this festival up there. And, uh, man, I, I think I'd get you on the bill. And I was like, Okay, cool, here's, you know, here's my number, here's my card, let's get in touch. And you know, I never heard from him, which is pretty typical. After the play show, we get some hey, you know, hey, you need to do this. And then you usually don't hear anything back. Well, you know, a few months go by and we actually did a schedule to follow up show there, you know, play there probably twice a year or something. So six, let's say six months later, go out there and we're playing, and and he's there and he comes back up and says, hey, man, it's like, yeah, let's make this happen. So called me the next day and we're, we got it all figured out and I got to kick this festival off and it was. It was my wife, Stacy played with me and it was. It was so much fun, yeah, Just getting to getting to be there and that atmosphere and that place and and we'll have it out there. You know it's still a lot of a lot of history out there and, um, just, you know, it's one of those most bucket list places to play. You know, you've got, you've got as a musician, you've got a place, places you've either been to or you've listened to a lot of albums from this, this venue or whatever it is. You're like all right, I want to play that stage. You know, Billy Bob's is one of those. That's a goal. That's probably one way off goal. That's a goal.
Speaker 2:You have a. You can't. Maybe, maybe not. I mean you never know. I mean, I mean how fast, how fast, if you put the effort towards it. I mean I, I completely agree. What is your little process? Or uh, what do you go through before you kind of uh take the stage and kind of get on stage and start jamming out what, what, what goes on behind the curtain.
Speaker 1:Man, I just uh, you know I like to be, I like to have a plan number one. So, uh, set list is a big part of it, so it's all. It's a lot of prep, you know, just making sure you know what you're going to play, um, no-transcript, and then some of it's feel, you know, you read the room and you get up there and you see what your crowd is and who's out there, and part of it's just engaging the crowd as well. I've had to learn how to do over the years. It does not come natural to me the singing part and all that does, but the engaging the crowd does not come natural to me. But it's something that I've learned to do and gotten better at over the years. And it's one of those things, man, if you can get their attention and get them into it, pull them in and it's a fun ride. Man, you just get everybody in the station wagon. Let's go.
Speaker 2:What's your favorite part about doing a show? Is it the anticipation before? Is it the crowd? Is it after? Having that high of man? I just sung to this many people. What is, I guess, your favorite part of the ride?
Speaker 1:It's just playing the songs and especially when you get to connect with people, you know if people are into it. That's a different kind of high man. It's pretty cool, and especially when they're connecting to your songs that you wrote. It's one thing to go up, get up and play cover songs and I've had people tell me this before. They're like, hey man, not that your cover sound bad, but when you play your songs you're pouring it out there and I'm like, yeah, I wrote this song. I hope so. That's what I'm trying to do, that's how I want to deliver that song to you. And they're like keep doing it. And I'm like, all right, that's all I need to hear.
Speaker 2:So okay, so you're obviously we're going to say how show, how people can you know, find you and reach you and kind of go see you and all that stuff. So let me ask you a question. So obviously you I would say I almost said stable job, but then again we're in the only gas space, there's nothing really stable. So what is, I guess, what will be the catalyst point? I guess, when it comes to the musical side of things, the performance side of things, is this one of those things currently where it's like, hey, I enjoy doing this, I'm going to keep on doing this. Or is it like, man, I think this would be cool if I had this goal? I mean, are you setting exact goals for this or is it just something? You're just kind of digging the journey, digging the ride? Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:I find myself just taking some time After, like after the album. For example, I had some goals with nothing, like I need to record my next album tomorrow. You know it's. It was like, hey, now I just want to. I want to get it out there, I want to get it in front of people in place and live shows. So, taking that time, and then you know a goal and not they don't have to be like a set goal, like I got to do this by this date. It's like okay, I also want to make sure I continue to write songs and put songs together for the next project, whenever that may be, and so and that's somehow that's happened. And the way I write songs is it's not I don't sit down and think about it, it just have to be like driving down the road or something, driving to a rig or something like that. I actually that actually happened. One time I finally wrote a song. I've been wondering right for years and I put it on this last album that we had our release.
Speaker 2:How do you?
Speaker 1:have one of those. How do you do that, man? It's weird. It's like a notepad.
Speaker 2:Do you have like voice recording? I mean, how do you, how do you compile your songs?
Speaker 1:I usually. I usually use the. Nowadays I usually use the notepad in my phone. I like to write it down. Sometimes I'll do a voice recording, but I rarely do I ever go back and listen to those, unless it's like I'm driving and I can't stop and write it down. Right. But I like to, you know I like to, if I am driving, if I got time, like pull over, write that idea down. You know, as much as I can let it, let it take me where it's going to take me, write all that down. Once it's kind of like a run its course or say I'm out of, I'm out of ideas here. I need to get going to do what I'm doing, especially if I'm like stop driving or something. Okay, I'll move on and I'll leave it there and then at some point I'll feel there's okay, I need to go back to that and revisit that. That was. You know, it's still kind of coming back to me in my head. I need to spend the time with it. So I'll sit down with my guitar and, you know, maybe put put that song into a structure or something where it fits and put music to it and then finish it out, and then I spend some time polishing it up.
Speaker 2:What kind of music do you enjoy writing the most? Are they personal experiences? Are they stories? Are they just kind of the style of life? What kind of drives you when you're kind of creating your music and creating your songs to put on an album? Is it like just hard times that you're going through? I think nowadays yeah, I know this.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, you're good. No, it's. It's um, yeah, it's a little bit of both. Actually it's um, you know, some of it is personal experience or maybe feelings I'm having at the time, and it's not necessarily that that whole song is like has to be about me and my exact experience. It's. It's. I can take observations from life and all that life experience and apply that to the song and maybe even other people's life experiences that they've shared with me or I've been a part of, and apply it to the song and sometimes it's it's a complete story and I love those kinds of songs. Those are some of my favorite ones. Listen to, like Robert Roque, favorite sonner or something. That guy can you know, he's a fellow Aggie, I mean great, great storyteller. Yeah, you know, recently kind of hung up the touring aspect of his musical career and it's just he's, you know, as long as you go, listen to him, man, there's, he's got some great stories in there. He's got a great imagination. I've always considered myself to have a pretty good imagination and it's good to get to kind of flex that muscle sometimes, because when you, you know, when you're a kid, it's, it's you playing games and stuff and outside, and then you grow up and it's, it's like almost so you don't have time to have an imagination. Yeah, that's right, your imagination is kind of stifling, yeah, you kids of your own and then all these other things. But. But songwriting is kind of an escape. Where you can, we can go flex those muscles. Man kind of takes you back to, to good old days.
Speaker 2:All right, so okay, so let me ask you a question. So we're coming up on about about 40 minutes right now, kind of coming to the end. So how can people guys kind of find you and follow you and kind of you know, learn about your music and kind of you know, see you perform and kind of just just follow the journey?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the best thing to do, you know, if you want to tag along with the journey, especially if you're on any of the social media outlets. I'm only on the really the main ones Facebook, instagram, twitter, linkedin as well. I don't share as much music stuff on LinkedIn, of course, but do occasionally share some stuff on there, but you can find me on those, and on Facebook and Instagram, it's Wesley Hannah music. On Twitter, I believe I had to shorten it down to West Hannah music because your Twitter handle can only be so long, I guess, but either way, and a lot of those. You can find links to all those pages and all my music for, for that matter, spotify, apple music, youtube, pandora, whatever you listen to music on it, it's there. You go to my website, which is Wesley Hannah musiccom. Phil Hannah Packard's. It's a J in an a. Tell people because happens a lot, but you know, throw that in Google and it'll take you there, man.
Speaker 2:All right, well, we're gonna put those, we're gonna put those links obviously in the show notes and all that stuff. So you got any great I guess great stories from the road that you can want to end us with something that you're kind of sitting around you always tell your friends and all that stuff that you want to share with us on energy through a great story from from the road or or an experience that you've had that kind of stands out on this great on this journey, stories from her. Well, the stories or experiences, or maybe even advice I love that advice about you know you got to start, you got to move towards your dream for your dream to actually come true, or or just any, any stories from the road or anything like that that you want to share with us, kind of from your experience of from creating your album, or from or from after your album was released, from a perform.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me see stories from the road. I mean, you know I got to tell you a little bit about how the looke and box story came to be. That's. That's been a pretty good. Good story, man, I would say.
Speaker 2:I.
Speaker 1:Got a random one.
Speaker 2:Have you, and obviously not a lot of people like discussing this. But I think this is interesting because have you ever gone on stage and Expected, like you know, this is gonna be an awesome show, to be great on stuff and you bomb like something goes wrong, something you're not clicking, something happens. Has that ever happened? You number one. If it has happened, how do you pick yourself Self up after that and kind of keep moving forward?
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, I yeah, when I was starting out, for sure. Yeah, I have those stories, man, where I'd get out. I got out there just bombed, or I was young and dumb and maybe Overserve myself before I got on stage, and I have not done that in my Adult life. I'll call it.
Speaker 2:No, my wife was the same way. She, I know she is very talented at music and before she would get on stage I mean she would have to numb herself with a shot or two to Kila just to get out there and do that. I mean, obviously you know not, you know not anymore, but you know, in her earlier career she would have to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, and you know, or a lot of times it's, it's kind of like the old old Phil. You know there's a lot of hurry up and wait sometimes. Yeah, so you get there and you get everything set up and you're like all right, you know, man, time to get. Okay, man, what do you guys want? Oh man, let's get a pitcher beer or something. Then you know, like three pitchers later you and the whole band are looking each other like, yeah, so those that that made it happen once or twice in the college days. Yeah, lately, you know I Luckily I haven't just got up there and completely tanked, but I have. I have gone up there and like Just absolutely spaced out on a song or something that everybody knows and you're like, oh man, you know, they're gonna know I messed up. I'm playing a cover song that you know, everybody knows the words, dude. And you're like you sing the same verse twice or something like that, like sorry about that, you just got to move on, man, it's, it's. It's like what I don't know if you watch the Ted Lasso show, man, yeah, oh yeah, I can go fish, man Go memory like a gold memory, keep moving on.
Speaker 2:Okay, no, okay, this, okay this. You know you keep on doing shows. What is the catalyst to you when it's like, okay, well, this is like full. Is it like you book a tour? Is it you book a multi record deal with a? I mean, what is the catalyst to you to say, okay, well, I'm gonna hang up my engineering spurs a little bit and I'm gonna kind of hop on this train a little bit. What, what? What does that look like for you? Because obviously, having this, having a job, is very comfortable. It's, it's, it's, it's stable for your family, it's stable for for your well-being. You know, the life of musician is is very sporadic, it's not a set schedule, it's it's ups and downs, life on the road. So what is that, I guess, Tipping point for you. Is there a tipping point?
Speaker 1:Man, is there a tipping point? I think it's probably when I'm coming, I actually to retire. You know, I guess it might be and, like you said, you know it's stable family life and that's that's number one in my life. You know it's support my family and being there for my. You know I'm not ready to go get a tour of us and and go hit the road man and go do tour the country by any means, but it's it's just getting in there when I can and play in, especially here on Texas and north Texas. You know I try to get out to West Texas when I can. I played Midland, you know, earlier this year, right after New Year's, get down to the Hill Country sound, get down to the Houston area, some. So Just getting around and doing what I can. I mean we're playing a show in South Carolina at the end of our service, a private show for some folks that we know, and so people can book you, just just getting around like that. But yeah, absolutely you can. My information is on the website. But yeah, yeah, have guitar will travel. I mean said it's just got to make sense for for my schedule and, again, my family. I try not to overextend myself that way right.
Speaker 2:That's smart actually, I guess, an easy way to get burned out both professionally and personally. So, hey look, I appreciate your time today. I know this Friday afternoon I want to thank everyone for tuning into a energy crew podcast again. This is Wesley handy. You can find him on Facebook. Tick link, wait. Facebook, linkedin, instagram. I follow you. I see most of your stuff on Instagram. That's kind of where I get my, my, my Hanna updates and I think it's great you know and keep that update with all your live shows. It's so cool seeing you out there, it's so great seeing kind of all that you're doing. It's like you're non-stop out there and I love seeing that and the fact that you can bounce that with a professional career with a family. Hats off to you, man. Keep doing what you're doing and I appreciate you taking the time and talking to us today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jb, thanks for having me, man, it's been one us.
Speaker 2:All right, brother, until next time. I'll talk to you soon. If you enjoyed a energy crew podcast, be sure to Like, leave a message, share, subscribe and all that fun stuff. And be sure to check out Wesley Hanna if you're in the patch or if you're outside the patch and he has a guitar and will trap and we'll talk to everyone soon on energy crew podcast. Oh, gotta do the, gotta do this part.