Broke Boyz From Fresno
Hey everyone it's Martin from the Broke Boyz From Fresno Podcast, my goal here is to entertain, inspire, and uplift our community. I'm all about keeping it real, sharing my daily struggles, and motivating others who might be going through the same. Join me as we navigates life’s challenges, supports one another, and builds a stronger, more connected community together.
Broke Boyz From Fresno
How One Producer United 197 Countries On A Single Record
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A Fresno-born producer assembled an artist born in every country to create a true World Album and gave each of them 100% ownership. From sleeping outside the Vatican to finding a North Korean-born artist, we trace the grit, the community, and the vision that turned a blueprint into living proof that music connects us all.
• origins in Fresno and the Amsterdam spark
• recruiting artists from 197 countries with A&R support
• North Korea and Vatican City breakthroughs
• 93 languages and 121 genres curated with intent
• community accountability and replacing non-responsive artists
• Billboard, Rolling Stone MENA, Grammy consideration, and awards
• royalties and ownership model that returns 100% to artists
• early impact stories from Malawi, Netherlands, Malaysia
• festival vision and future project concepts
• defining “making it” and sustaining purpose
Find the World Album on all platforms by searching “World Album International Artist Project.” Follow on Instagram at @international_artist_project and visit www.internartistproject.org
Follow us @ brokeboyz_ff on Instagram and TikTok
Intro Music by Rockstar Turtle- Broke Boyz (999)
Christmas Intro Song by Nico
Hometown Intro & Brandon’s Origin
SPEAKER_04What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of The Broke Boys. I'm Martin, and today I have a special guest, a really big one. I'm so grateful that you that we were making able to make this happen. Please introduce yourself to everybody that's watching and listening.
SPEAKER_01Hey everyone, my name is Brandon Beckwith, originally from Fresno, California. I'm the founder of International Artist Project and executive producer of the world album, which we'll get into here in a moment.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I love that. And and I just have a quick question is how'd how'd you run into you know my page, like broke boys and all that?
SPEAKER_01So I haven't told you yet. Uh actually, my mom sent me a reel of you guys at the Fresno Fair, uh, the one with Mario. And of course, of course, and yeah, I was watching it, and then sure enough, just investigative skills. I started checking in. I was like, oh, these guys are pretty cool, and yeah, they do podcasts out here. All right, we need to get a little hometown attention on this world album. And thank you for answering. So it worked out. Yeah, shout out to mom. So yeah, shout out to mom.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly. We were ever when I had told DJ, I was like, wow, like this is crazy. I saw your message and I was like, Yeah, we we definitely gotta get this one uh on board and get it going just because you you have such a busy schedule.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I'm I make it work. Uh when you're passionate about something, it's it it you know, it doesn't seem like work. I just I'm just living. So yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's good. So you were born and were you born and raised here in the 559?
SPEAKER_01Correct, yeah. So I'm 37 right now. I was born right at St. Agnes Hospital, so yeah, in Fresno. I lived here till I was 25 years old.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's dope. That's dope. That's the the you know, we get to meet other people that are out here from Fresno doing big things. Like again, like for you to reach out, and I was just like, I'd seen it. I didn't I didn't think anything of it. I was like, whoa, like the heck, like this is huge, this is incredible, and I love what you're doing. Thank you. And you're definitely uh one of a kind, you're unique in your own way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so even though it's like a lot of questions, will definitely be about you know my journey for the podcast and things like that. Uh, you know, one thing I do want to say is it took at least one artist from every country of the world to make this possible to say yes. So um definitely, you know, I I may have been the idea guy and the driving force, but it took a lot of people to make it possible. So yeah, shout out to everybody on International Artist Project, include including my boy Levels over here right now. He's out of camera frame, but uh he's uh he's a huge part of this project as well.
SPEAKER_04So that's good, man. That's good to hear. So born and raised here, before you know the whole Grammys, the billboard features,
The Spark In Amsterdam
SPEAKER_04and all the global travels. What do you remember uh most about growing up here in the 559?
SPEAKER_01Um always having to be creative to have fun. So um I I love Fresno. I mean it's my hometown, uh, but sometimes uh yeah, there's not as much stuff to do here as you maybe have in the Bay Area or in Southern California. But yeah, I just remember always coming up with crazy ideas, some good, some not so good. Uh just you know, to be able to yeah, and enjoy your time here, but also still be productive. So but yeah, um I love Fresno. Uh I love coming back here as much as I can to be able to spend time with the family.
SPEAKER_04And yeah, that's good. That's good to hear. So um, what part of Fresno did you grow up in?
SPEAKER_01Uh a little all over the place. So uh I'm parents separated at an early age when I was six. So uh they were in separate spots and they both moved every two years. But I originally went to like Liberty Elementary School, so it was a little bit nicer in the beginning. Um, and then yeah, then my parents were all over the place. Uh I mean if I named off everyone, the podcast would yeah, so it'd take the whole podcast, but yeah, yeah. So that's crazy.
SPEAKER_04So it was was it hard? Was it challenging, you know, having to move different places or no, not really. I was used to it. I enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01I think that's why I move around so much now. So yeah, so yeah, don't like to stay in one spot for too long.
SPEAKER_04That's good. So when you were starting out, did you ever imagine that you were gonna be that kid from Fresno that was just gonna go around the world and travel?
SPEAKER_01Uh no, definitely not. I mean, I've been passionate about music my entire life. Um, I mean, I not a professional, but you know, I played piano since a young child. I got into hip hop and rap music, and you know, out here uh there wasn't a ton of connections for you know, mixing engineers, mastering engineers, promoters, so kind of had to learn it all yourself. But no, the original dream was to be an artist myself. Um and then about three, four years ago, I kind of gave gave that up. Um, but and man, when this idea hit a couple of years ago, it just hit me like a ton of bricks, felt like a responsibility rather than just an idea when it came. So wow, okay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So when when did it kick in that this was gonna be the project for you?
SPEAKER_01So I had never left the United States until I was 34 years old. As I mentioned, I'm 37 now. I had barely got a passport at 34 years old, and I booked a one one-way ticket to Cairo, Egypt to go see the pyramids. Uh, I didn't I didn't want to just go be the European back trap pack traveler like you hear everybody normally does. Uh, did a few days in Egypt and then sure enough went into Europe after and went to a lot of countries just for fun at the time, but I fell in love with Amsterdam. Um, you know, everyone knows Amsterdam is like, oh, smoking and this and that. There's so much more to Amsterdam. It's such a beautiful city. Um, you know, I know my friends had the opportunity to be able to visit as well. And I that's kind of how the process started, is I'd fell in love with the city. So when I came back to California, I knew in my heart I want to live here. Um, and within six months, I had left everything behind. Uh, I was living in LA at the time and I left out there. And then it wasn't more than a few weeks later that I was just walking through Amsterdam, just you know, just feeling just the passion, the culture, um, just the beautiful landscapes. And it just hit me, just the idea hit me. Like uh, it was like a download. And within you know, moments I I felt like I could do it. It was gonna take a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice,
Building A Global Artist Network
SPEAKER_01but I just dropped everything. I didn't even finish my complete relocation to Amsterdam. I just immediately started traveling.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, so it's a huge accomplishment from switching from one atmosphere to the other and definitely being like, you know what, I'm gonna be fully committed into this.
SPEAKER_01Like, wow, like yeah, and as as more and more artists started to join the project, it became more uh motivation and energy too, because now you have people um they rely on you on you to fulfill that dream. Because if I'm coming to someone and saying, Hey, I'm gonna find one artist born in every single country of the world, like trust me to be on it, it's gonna take a couple years to build this album. You know, there are a lot of people just waiting to see is it gonna happen or not. And you know, once you start getting reached artists from a hundred countries and then you reach 150, you just can't stop.
SPEAKER_04So yeah. So the next thing that I don't know if you you've said it yet is so how many countries have you hit uh that I actually visited?
SPEAKER_01So I only had to visit 31 countries in order to find the whole world. So uh the the originally I thought that I was gonna have to visit every country, and um, you know, I'm not I'm not a rich man, so that was gonna be tough. Uh and the idea came to get AR agents. Uh, for those who don't know what AR agents are, are artists in repertoire, so they're talent scouts for the most part. Right. And yeah, so as I would travel, not only would I look for the an artist, I would also try to connect with people that would be willing to come onto the project team uh for freelance work that would help find an artist from a different country, and that sped it up so much. Uh, because I had found artists from 110 countries myself, and agents found 90. So I might have still been searching right now.
unknownDang, that's a lot.
SPEAKER_01So even my parents, my mom even found six artists, and my dad found two, which is crazy.
SPEAKER_04Keep it with uh and my sister found one, so yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's that's beautiful that you know the family's involved in it as well.
SPEAKER_01Connected a lot of people, which ended up being the most beautiful part of this whole thing. Was um a little analogy I thought of the other day was I felt like all the artists from all the different countries and all the people involved were were like shoe shoestrings and the world was a shoe. And every time we kept pulling on those shoestrings more and more, it wasn't just getting the project and the artists closer, but it was it was bringing the world a little bit closer together, you know, and people getting exposed to cultures and genres and languages that you may never had had with it without this project.
SPEAKER_04So which one, you know, if you want to spill the beans, but which was we're here for one which was one of the hardest ones or hardest artists to actually, you know, get without I mean you want to take a guess first because yeah, I I know the answer, but uh you want to guess?
SPEAKER_01North Korea, North Korea, absolutely. Um, so the way the art the way the project was built was where artists were born um versus just living there because someone can easily move somewhere, spend 10 years there, and you know, is that really a true representation of someone born in that country? So rather than artists representing their countries, um, I always said it's an art you're representing as the artist born in that country. Yeah. Um and yeah, uh so it took 14 months to find an artist from every country of the world, and it took an additional four months to find the artist born in North Korea. He defected at I it was either eight years old or nine years old. Um, he had left. Um, and I believe his parents got caught um and then escaped again later. But he went on like a three-year mission through China, uh, through Thailand, uh, through a bunch of different countries in Southeast Asia, and then looped all the way around uh uh South Korea, where in South Korea uh they just consider you Korean. If you so if you escape North Korea and you get to South Korea, you're automatically given citizenship. So luckily, uh just one night I was sitting down, I was actually in Fresno
North Korea And Vatican Breakthroughs
SPEAKER_01at the time, and I was just on my phone deep searching, and he popped up and I was like, Why did why did this guy pop up now and he hasn't popped up the million other times? And I reached out to him, and then about three weeks later on Christmas Eve, he uh he hit me back and I remember he just said, Sounds interesting, what do you need from me? And I was yes, yeah, so yeah, so it was a great feeling. But that and Vatican City, the artist from Vatican City was tough. Uh technically, we didn't need to get an artist from Vatican City because they're really only 193 countries, but there are some uh, you know, Vatican City, Taiwan, they're unrecognized uh or recognized states. So, but I wanted to be thorough. So I'd slept two nights outside of the Vatican City walls. Uh wasn't supposed to be doing this, uh but I, you know, even when guards would come or people would come, I I just politely, you know, told them, like, I I can't leave. I'm on a mission. Um, I I need to speak with someone uh to be able to get someone from Vatican City. And sure enough, uh, after two days of struggle, um, and I think them just seeing me out there, one guard uh got me in contact with their culture and education department, told them about the project, and within hours I had an email and uh Marco Forsena, he's a Vatican priest at 70 years old assigned to the project. So yeah, so Vatican and North Korea were were tough. So very tough.
SPEAKER_04Dang, the balls to be sitting there like knowing that there's guards coming up to you. Like uh I think after maybe like one of the guards that my bad, bro. I'm I'll I'll I'll leave. They were they were understanding, so but I mean just that's that's incredible though, like you're dedicated and you're you were so driven of like no, I'm not I'm not leaving. I have I'm here on a mission. It had to be done.
SPEAKER_01Our planet needed a world album, so yes.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. So which which country was your favorite one to visit?
SPEAKER_01I mean, Netherlands, baby. Like so I love I love Amsterdam. Just I would go back there, you know, in video games how you know you run around for a while, then you gotta go back to the save point and reboost your health and stuff. That's how Amsterdam felt for me. If I was running low on passion or a little tired, I'd just use it as a hub and I would go back there. And um, I mean, I spent so much time in Amsterdam that there are actually nine artists from around the world that are on the project that all live in Amsterdam, you know. So I was constantly connecting with people there, but yeah, it's it's it's my favorite place in the world. So it's the birthplace of this project.
SPEAKER_04Um, so was being born in in the country the only criteria, or is there any specific genre that you were looking for?
SPEAKER_01I mean, of course they had to have some talent. Um, they didn't have to have released anything. That that was one big thing because some people didn't have the ability to be able to release music. Um I mean, about 60% of the artists from Africa had never released before in their lives. Um, so and so they had to be born in the country. Uh, you know, they had to have some talent, and yeah, I based it to the best of my ability um that they could do it, and most importantly, like they just had to see the vision for it. Um, so it wasn't anything political, it wasn't any, you know, raise the flag a piece. It was just uh an ambitious music, music project that could have a good, you know, good impact on the world. So I just wanted the people to see that and and be communicated, but um it worked out, it just everything from the beginning of this project has felt like the pieces have just laid and one domino after the next has just fallen perfect. It almost feels out of my control. It it felt like walk the path and it's gonna open for you. That's how it's always felt since the beginning. That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_04So that's beautiful, man. So was there any point in time where you were like, okay, I got I got this artist lined up for a specific region, and then all of a sudden it falls through.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, all the time. Yeah, all the time. Yeah. I mean, even after artists uh so so all the artists are connected. So when they would come onto the project, we had a group channel on Instagram because you could fit 250 people on a group channel on Instagram. So I connected all of these artists. So there was a sense of community, but also a sense of responsibility. Because now you're with all these people, you've given your word that you're gonna be the artist from your home country. You know, obviously I had the biggest responsibility of continuing it going, but every single one of them had an equal shared. So, but we actually had to replace 14 artists along the way, uh, which you know, 14 may not sound like a big number, but man, it was it was tough because you
Genres, Languages, And Selection Criteria
SPEAKER_01have to you get to a point where you're like, Do I replace them? Do do I keep holding out for them to be able to answer? And you know, um yeah, so yeah, no, no.
SPEAKER_04I get you, I get you on that. It's it's that's incredible that you had all this responsibility in your hands, literally like just I gotta I gotta showcase this, I gotta it was a blessing for sure. So yeah, no, for sure, absolutely. So was there a point in time where you probably felt like, man, I can't do this. Like it was almost like in impossible to to achieve.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, I knew those moments were gonna exist. So, so how I said in the beginning when I had the idea for this project, uh, it just felt like a blueprint download. You know, one of the things I remember thinking about that first night was there's gonna be some days, you know. And I don't know if it's gonna be traveling or if it's gonna be a financial situation or what it's gonna be, but you need to let those days exist. Um, so I told myself, you know, maybe 90% of the time you're gonna feel go, go, go, passionate, let's keep going. But you need to embrace and accept that 10% of the time, it's not gonna be great. Um, so that opened up a path for me to be able to accept those moments. But yeah, I'll never forget um that same time uh that uh one of the one of the times that I was I was visiting Fresno coming back. Uh I was sitting in the in the room and something about going back to your hometown sometimes, you know, you just feel a little bit different, you know. When you've traveled, it's not like that depressed mode, but you feel a little lower, like being being in your hometown sometimes when you're traveling. And um, I remember just breaking down in front of my sister because we were about 130 artists deep, and I I was just I don't know. I yeah, I don't know how I'm gonna find these other artists. Like there, there's some of these artists in in Africa I can't reach. And I remember my sister and I just sitting there and she her encouraging me. Um, and and that that moment helped a lot because I wasn't gonna give up, but that that was a really, really tough night. So and we were 130 artists deep. I mean, out of 197, that was you know, you're over the hump, but number wise, but it's not that way. There's a reason that those other 60 were missing, it's because they're difficult.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so yeah, absolutely. So you've mentioned meeting all the artists. Um I you've even I met about 43 of them. Yeah, so about 43. You've you've even said that you met some that were just performing in the streets. Correct.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I won't I won't call them out exactly like just you know, but they uh yeah, for example, uh, you know, my friend here and I, we were traveling. Uh he met me in we were in Belgium and we were just walking and we saw an artist playing guitar, busking, you know, for money out there. And you know, sure enough, I went up to him. I know we were hanging out trying to have a good time, but I was like, me a moment, you know, so he got some good pictures and video of it when it happened too. And yeah, I just I remember going up to the artist and uh interrupting him during a set and telling him about the project, and sure enough, he stayed on the project. And I still see on his Instagram every day. He's out there just playing his guitar for money, you know. So, and there's a few other artists in that situation too, because in the end, um, you know, we have some some definitely heavy hitters on the project. You know, the the artist from Kuwait has a combined over 25 million followers across her social platforms, you know, the artist from Trinidad and Tobago is probably the reggae queen at this point. I mean, she's giant. We have an artist from Papua New Guinea that
Replacements, Community, And Setbacks
SPEAKER_01has accumulated 1.4 billion streams on YouTube alone. Wow. But then we have people that were homeless. Um, we have people that just you know strummed a guitar and gave a sample to another artist in order to help make the album complete because status didn't matter. That was one important thing. Status didn't matter. Um, it was just about community. So yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04So with 93 languages, 121 genres and one album, yeah. What does unity through music mean to you after hearing all the voices come together?
SPEAKER_01Uh as people always say, music's a connector. This was uh a whole another level of showing that that is possible on a global scale. Um I mean, if music didn't exist, this project wouldn't exist. There wouldn't be, you know, 200 plus artists communicating, following each other, inviting each other to go perform at festivals together, which has happened a lot, uh, collaborating on music. Uh but music can be a lot more than I think we see it as. Um, of course, we should always keep it about the art. Music should be something to enjoy, it shouldn't be used for you know self-gain or for other things, but unfortunately it happens. But it was great to be able to see such unity and just amazing work come out of something that music technically birthed, you know?
SPEAKER_04So and that you you grew you helped create.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm grateful. Sometimes I wonder if it was even my idea. It was just something that fell from the sky, and I happened to be walking past it one day.
SPEAKER_04So you were the one that executed it, and that's that's big, that's huge. So was there a moment where you finally were like, you know what? Like, let me listen to it. I'm finally done. I finished the project.
SPEAKER_01What was that feeling like of finally so I still haven't had that moment yet, but uh, because there's been a lot going on. But we actually released uh um can you actually hand me that uh that black one right there at the part two? Um so we actually released a prelude album leading up to the world album in November, and that was a build-up uh to be able to get all the artists hyped and get the world album going. Right. So yeah, so that this was uh this was like the prelude album, International Artist Project Part Two. I don't know if that can be seen or not. So there you go.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_01So that album I got to sit back and listen to and analyze and enjoy once we did that while we were building the world album. Right. Um yeah, I would even do videos on uh I did like a video on YouTube where I sat down and listened to the whole thing without breaks. That one was nine and a half hours, but I haven't got that moment yet with the world album to sit down and just listen from start to finish with everything now behind us. Right. Spent a lot of time building it and putting it in order along the way, uh, but I haven't yet had that moment.
SPEAKER_04So it still hasn't sunk in yet.
SPEAKER_01I think that'll just be when everything really calms down. Maybe it'll never calm down. That'll that'll be great. But yeah, I'm still I want that to be a special, a special moment. Yeah, for sure. A personal moment. So you were on the billboards, correct. Yeah, on Billboard magazine, the Grammy Contenders issue. Yes.
SPEAKER_04That feeling. What's what's that like? Explain to the to the listeners how that feeling is.
SPEAKER_01It was good. I mean, I mean, growing up when you hear about Billboard or you know, we were uh we had a we were featured in Rolling Stone Mina, the Middle East and North Africa Rolling Stone as well. Um, it's a it's a great feeling. And um, again, I'm not trying to sound too cliche here and overly humble. Like, of course, it's a great feeling personally, but every time something happens, when we were considered for uh the when we're considered for the Grammy for Best Global Music Album, when we're in Billboard magazine, uh just today I haven't announced yet, but we just found out we won Best World Music Award for International Music Artist Award. Yeah, so I just found that out today, which is great. I haven't even told the artist yet. Um and but I'm getting these pieces of information and I get that little moment where I'm like, yes, but I get to tell 200 plus people now that they're doing that, and then they get to tell their families, and it's just this crazy ripple effect because you know, in not every part of the music industry
Accolades Without Ego
SPEAKER_01now, but you know, it's it's so much competition. When if one artist is doing really, really, really good, um, it's it's diluting, you know, a lot of other artists. Uh but for this, if one artist gets a big newspaper uh mention or another person is on a magazine or someone that has a lot of followers mentions a project, it's a team effort. When one person wins, we all win. And I love that about this, right? So yeah, it's it's a great feeling. So, but we're not done, we're gonna keep going. So it's easy to say we're finished, these are all the accolades that have happened, but we're not done. So right.
SPEAKER_04So another question I want to ask is royalties and all that. Yeah, how does that work?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so for this project, um, everyone always thinks this is crazy, but uh I I chose to not take anything from the artist. So they keep 100% of their music ownership, 100% of their music royalties, and then in all their contracts, they're encouraged to utilize half towards something good in their home country or anywhere in the world.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01So automatically, you know, it uplifts these artists. I know royalties don't pay a ton right now, but you know, the album's doing pretty well. So over time it's you know, it's like a little stock that builds up. But yeah, I mean, there's already been a few stories, uh, nothing major, but you know, one artist out in Malawi uh is helped is helping kids get uh some music equipment for a school from the last album from some of the royalties. You know, the artist from the Netherlands is running open studio sessions for people to come and learn like uplifting trance music. Uh, there's another artist in Malaysia that's uh gonna be donating to a charity. So just hearing of all these different things where music is actually empowering the world as well. Um it it's a great feeling. So and and I'll be honest, it was also easier. It was also a path of least resistance to let them keep it because I had to do contracts with over 30 music labels because a lot of the artists were signed to labels. Wow. Um, so it's a lot easier to negotiate nothing versus even hey, let me get 10%. So and it made it fair for every artist. And yeah, for every future release we're gonna do through this project, it's gonna stay the same way. That's the business model. Um take nothing, give everything, you know.
SPEAKER_04So that's that's good. That's tight to hear that you are really for the people for the world, and it wasn't out of greed, it wasn't out of like, you know, what I'm gonna I'm gonna make my money out of this. No, it was definitely for uh showcasing the world. Yeah, but that's incredible. And you were talking about uh maybe even creating uh the international festival.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so international artist festival is the next big step. Now, I understand that's gonna take some time, but yeah, it'll be the first festival to feature artists from every country of the world. Now, a lot of people talk big festivals and then it falls apart. Um, you know, I don't want this to be one of those things. Um, so it's definitely uh uh it's a dream versus a commitment, uh, and it's gonna take
Royalties, Ownership, And Impact
SPEAKER_01some time to get there, but we're gonna do some cool things along the way. Uh, you know, it hasn't been completely announced formally, but there's there's gonna be more international artist project albums, and it's not gonna be another world album. Uh there's gonna be new concepts, which I won't mention now, but uh, you know, these artists keep want to make music, they want to collaborate together, so we're gonna keep the project pushing and doing cool things along the way.
SPEAKER_04That's good. That's cool to hear too. Like, you know, who would have thought like that you would be in this position? So seeing that, like, if you were to see your younger self and you know, he would be proud of what you've you've seen, right? Yeah, yeah. Um, but uh looking back at uh your childhood and even growing up and and seeing what you've accomplished, what's something that you would tell yourself to your younger self if you were to see yourself?
SPEAKER_01Don't stress about the future, just just keep walking. I I think a lot of the time growing up, um you know, some of some of the schools I went to were a little bit nicer schools, you know, Clovis West, things like that, but unfortunately, like parents didn't have a lot of money. Uh so you're kind of in like the lower class of the upper class schools. Yeah. So I think just seeing a lot of kids, you know, getting those big scholarships, uh, you know, rolling to school with their, you know, maybe a Mercedes or BMW at like 16 years old, um, you know, all the all the power in the world to them, and you know, shout out to their parents that were able to do it. But yeah, I I think just growing up, always wonder it, you know, am I gonna be good enough? I'm gonna be able to do something uh powerful enough. And uh this is one thing that definitely, even though I didn't make any money or you know, have any like major accolades off of it, it I I feel complete and I I feel like I feel like I made it, you know. That's for sure. You know, that's another subject I'll touch on is a lot of artists, they always say, I want to make it, I want to make it. And I think a big problem with artists is they're not defining what making it means. Um because a lot of people get so far and they still feel like they haven't accomplished it. So one thing with this project, uh, you know, I'd been doing music almost 20 years, and uh I I told myself, you know, when you complete this project, you need to consider yourself that you made it in your own heart. Um, and and I do feel that way. And it's not in a cocky way, it's in a very humble way that I set out to do something and I did it, and anything extra is just sprinkles on the ice cream.
SPEAKER_04So absolutely that's beautiful to hear, and that's man, like I'm speechless is knowing that you went through all this and yet you created something literally out of nothing. Yeah, and that's that's beautiful knowing that you uh you got with an idea, you had it in your head, and you were like, you know what, I'm gonna I'm gonna take it a step further. I'm gonna achieve it, and never like having no fear and into it. And I'm pretty sure you probably had your doubts, you know, you had your moments like you were saying, but no, that's that's huge, man. And and it's beautiful to for for someone to be out here and saying, like, you know what, it's for everybody from the country, and it's for every representation, it's for the world.
SPEAKER_01As as I always say, I think the if there's one saying I want to go down, like, you know, for anything I said is you know, this album was made by the world for the world, and that's really what it is, you know. So of course people might have their reviews or their criticism on certain parts of it, but as far as the scope-wise
Festival Vision And Future Albums
SPEAKER_01of the project and the meaning behind it, it it's made for all of us, you know. And and and and I hope that there are more world albums, whether it's something that we do every decade or that someone else picks up and does it. Um, I don't think it'll be someone copying the idea. I I think I think we need more global music. Um, so yeah.
SPEAKER_04Perfect. What's one thing you think Fresno and the world could learn from this album?
SPEAKER_01Man, I if if you I'm not just trying to build up streams when I say this, I'll be honest. Uh so but listening to this album really expands your mind. Uh, and if you're a music creator or if you're just even an everyday listener, because you may not know exactly what the artists are saying through those 93 different languages, but you can feel it. You can really feel it. All of the different music genres that are on here, you might learn to move a little bit of a different way. I didn't even know what ama piano was, and now I'm like, well, this is my favorite genre. So there's an artist from Lesotho near uh South Africa where when I listened to it, I'm like, I would have never heard of Ama Piano. So for music creators, if you want to up your game a little bit, you know, listen, get exposed because some of that vibe might pour into your into your sound. And if we keep doing that, it's really just gonna connect the world closer, it's gonna be more experimental with music genres. And yeah, for the everyday listener, just the album was built to listen from start to finish. It wasn't just random scat, you know, some of the most time I spent was ordering that album, you know, from one to two hundred, it's it's placed there for a reason. So it it's if you don't have a passport, this is your throw on a pair of headphones and it's like your virtual passport for a journey across the world.
SPEAKER_04So that's tight, man. So with everything that we've talked about, if your whole legacy could be summed up with one sentence. What would it be?
SPEAKER_01One sentence is always hard for me.
SPEAKER_04One sentence.
SPEAKER_01Um honestly, uh as simple as it sounds is music can truly connect us all. And this is living proof of it.
SPEAKER_04No, you definitely are. And and you know, before we wrap this up, uh tell everyone where they can find the world album and how uh they can follow you, where they can check it out and everything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, as far as for finding the world album, I mean you could type in anywhere the world album, international artist project, and it should come up. It's on every single platform, um, even platforms you may not have heard of because we had to be global here. So and on Instagram, it's at international artist project, but it's at international underscore artist underscore project. Uh so and you can get all the links to there, check everything out. A lot of artists have told their stories, they've done testimonies.
Defining “Making It” And Legacy
SPEAKER_01Um, you could really tap in and you know follow the other artist and yeah.
SPEAKER_04Damn, perfect.
SPEAKER_01We got the website to www.internartistproject.org, not com, but uh.org.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, we'll make sure to plug that into the descriptions and everything for you so that way people can get quick access. They can see what your work and everything you're doing. It's incredible, man, to see somebody from Fresno representing the world, not just the city, the whole world.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's incredible. I'm grateful for, yeah. Yeah, and also thanks to uh Peter Wolf too for Wolf Sound Studio for letting us use the studio. I think this is the coolest studio in all in all of Fresno.
SPEAKER_04So and it's crazy you were saying you were saying this is a full circle moment for you because you were literally recording here, right? Yeah, for yourself.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's uh my even my mom's ex-boyfriend built this out built this studio like a long time ago, and then uh but I ended up connecting with him a whole different way. So from uh someone that I used to do music with, uh used to he used to date their aunt or cousin or something. But yeah, I recorded in here as an artist probably 50 times between the ages of maybe 18 and 30. So yeah, full circle for sure. Full circle movement. I love those moments. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04And then um, one thing that I wanted to bring up before we end this is um when we were texting, you said like you know, you wanted to represent your the the album for the world, yes, and that you wanted not to shine light just like you had said something that really popped up, and I had I have to go back into the phone because it popped up to me because I was like, what the fuck? Like this is wor this is like full circle for me because I remember saying that.
SPEAKER_01I remember you saying full circle. I don't remember what I said before, so but I'll bring it up. I gotta bring it up. It was yesterday. Yeah, it was yesterday.
SPEAKER_04So you said right here, you said everyone says they want to put uh Fresno on the map and tomorrow it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I was like, wow, that's a full circle moment because I remember talking to my manager and talking to uh my other co-host, I used to say that very early on is that not a lot of people are representing Fresno, not a lot of people are doing it the right way. And if I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna be committed to the podcast, I want to make sure that I'm able to put Fresno on the map. Yeah, and I remember that that like stuck out and that always like played in the back of my mind. And then when you put it down that you were like people always want to put Fresno on the map.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's a wow, I mean, again, humbly speaking, everything humbly speaking, um, but yeah, I mean, you always hear that saying, like, let's put Fresno on the map. And you know, this may not be that moment where it truly, truly does, but I mean, you know, automatically there'll be at least one person from every country of the world checking out this podcast, you know, when it when it drops, and that's global, you know. So, and they'll be sharing it through all their social medias. You know, there's over a combined 35 million followers from all the artists, so you know, depending on how much it gets out there, it's yeah, it gives an opportunity to shine light on on Fresno. So this is this is this is where we're from, you know, this is where we're built. So it's the
Fresno Pride And Global Reach
SPEAKER_01hometown, yeah. Yeah, so whatever whatever I was able to make me to be able to build that album, you know, a lot of it was rooted here. So um, yeah, I'm very grateful for and I'm I'm glad glad we were able to connect too, so and make this happen.
SPEAKER_04So thank you for your time, man. And I know you had uh I know you we didn't whip out the the billboard uh magazine if you want to bring it up. And then you also had a record player or your vinyl, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Perfect, perfect. I'll try to double the yeah, this was the the whole billboard issue we were featured in. So we're on page uh 319 here, so actually opened up to that pretty good, so yeah, but yeah, we were grateful, grateful to be featured in in Billboard magazine. So it shows we're up for best global music album this year at the Grammys. Uh but what's great in here is it was a really history in the making because for the first time ever, an artist born from every single country of the world is a Grammy considered artist that has never happened. And for the first time in history, an artist has had music featured in Billboard magazine from every country of the world. Again, never happened. Um, and I mean, yeah, we we've hit a lot of uh um good, yeah. AK my bad movie. But uh yeah, I mean, and there's been some other like mate, thank you. There's been some other major landmarks with the album too. I don't think I mentioned it, but it was also the very first known music release to have streams from every single country of the world, other than North Korea, because I don't have access in the first seven days of release. Wow. So yeah, when I jumped into uh Symphonic, my distribution platform, and I was clicking around and seeing how we did like four days in, I realized, oh my gosh, we've had streams from 183 countries. We're only missing 14 countries. So I just targeted those and uh the artist pushed it. And sure enough, in seven days, we had streams from every single you know country except North Korea. And um, we're pending three Guinness World Records right now, one for most languages
Records, Streams, And Guinness Bids
SPEAKER_01on an album, one for most music genres on an album, um, one for most countries participating, but we're also going for the fastest stream release. Because I see Taylor Swift be getting all these crazy like records for release, so and she's getting them the next day. And I'm like, man, you know, like we gotta get the world album on this too. So so Guinness, if you're listening, let's hurry up. Yeah, so all the love, but let's let's keep it going. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, huge congratulations for you to to make this project and huge congratulations to all the artists that are in the album. Uh, you guys are sacrificing your guys', you know, yeah. Thank you all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I mean, just I I I I love you guys. Like you you're literally family for life, and I'm you guys know it, but whatever you need, I'm I'm here. So all the way through the career. So let's let's let's let's go international.
SPEAKER_04So oh, you guys definitely are, man. Well, thank you so much for being on here, man. I appreciate you, man. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01So thank you to the crew, too. I know you guys don't see the crew, but yeah, shout out to the crew.
SPEAKER_04So well, thank you guys for staying tuned for another episode. We love you guys. Peace.
SPEAKER_03Do you ever stop to face it? Where the mirror goes to highlight.
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