Ep.114 Find Your Voice w/ Kaleb Sanders

In this episode, the hosts interview country artist Kaleb Sanders.  Kaleb shares how his family’s musical background and his grandfather’s passing inspired him to drop college, work on a farm, learn guitar through YouTube, and commit to music. He talks about blending country and pop influences from a wide-ranging playlist. Kaleb explains how songs and music videos are made, including recording audio separately and filming multiple takes. He describes how his song “Marlborough Man” gained traction, leading to record label meetings and eventually joining Red Street Records started by Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts. His reaction to Charlie’s assassination, and his approach to being conservative without being pushy, emphasizing entertainment as a way to bring people together. Kaleb previews new music and a packed 2026 touring schedule you fan find on his website. #ProgrammingLionsPodcast 

YT: @kalebsandersmusic

Web: https://www.kalebsanders.com

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00:00 Meet Kaleb Sanders

00:08 Nashville Roots

00:50 Mullet Talk

01:57 Sports

02:27 Why He Chose Music

04:49 Favorite Artists

06:29 Country Pop Influences

07:19 Breakout Song

08:57 How Songs and Videos Are Made

11:34 Political Curiosity

12:39 Charlie Kirk

16:46 Tours New Music and Support

Transcript

Kaleb_Sanders-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_280ms-StreamYard 0:00

Welcome back to the Programming Lines podcast. Today we have Kaleb Sanders on. He is a country artist. And can you just tell us more about yourself? I'm a country artist. I moved to Nashville about six years ago from Florida. I grew up in the swamps and cow pastures over there in the free state of Florida. I started putting music out like three years ago and it's been. Pretty crazy so far. Started my music journey like 11 years ago, so. Oh, wow. Yeah. It took a while before I was like, all right, this song's good. I'm gonna put it out. It took me a while, but, um, yeah. Some crazy things have happened mm-hmm. Since that journey started and somehow I'm here Yeah. Doing interviews. Yeah. It's, it's a blessing. It's awesome. It's the coolest thing ever. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, I know. Hold up. Oh yeah. You have that question. Very interesting. I see. I like the back hair and I'm trying to grow something out. So how do you get like the perfect mullet? How do you get the perfect mullet? Yeah, you just let it go. Let it just keep cutting. Just keep cutting the top. Just let the back do whatever it wants. Alright. That's why they call it party in the back. All right. Oh gosh. No. I definitely am never gonna ever grow a mullet. Will despises it. I hate them. I like my hair Nice and short. Except for on the top. Dad may have cut it slightly too short, but on the side On the side, I've, you can cut. Yeah, I've been cut here. Needs be perfectly short. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Max is like, dad, you gotta gotta let it go. Basically. That's what he's been telling me. Yeah. And I I've been trimming it. I see it. He's working on it. He is. Yeah. We gotta get the sides down. So that's, that's good advice I call it a watered down mullet, you know what I mean? You can, it's like, yeah. Depends on, yeah. Depends on how you, uh. I don't know. I put a hat on. They're just like, you play baseball? I'm like, no, I'm not singing country music. You look like you could play baseball. Did you play sports growing up? Oh, I played all of'em. Yeah. Yeah. Basketball became, yeah, you're a big guy. My mean. I did not mean to be, but I'm so thankful for it. I was like, all I wanted to do was dunk a basketball. Yeah. And uh, now you can, I wouldn't say now is the best time for me to dunk a basketball maybe then. Yeah. I'm in my late twenties now, so I gotta stretch like 35 minutes before I can go do anything. But then again, I can still do it. I did it the other day. Nice. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, what got you into music and like. Why did you start doing country? So, uh, my whole family on both sides, my mom's side and my dad's side for generations have been music lovers or instrumentalists or singers, and I really couldn't help it. I tried, I tried with every part of me not to be a musician. So I, I fought that until I was about 18 and I was in, uh, I was a freshman in college. I was gonna do the sensible thing in life and get a good degree, get a real job. Yeah. My grandpa passed away. He's somebody I look up to. He was, he was a bluegrass picker. I was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and that's where he lives. Okay. Good southern man. Traditional Christian values and everything. He was just somebody I really looked, really looked up to, and it hit me like a lightning bolt at his funeral. I was like, I, I would rather do nothing else. Like I'm going to learn to play guitar. Oh, wow. So I went and worked on a, I dropped outta college. I went and worked on a farm and I started like YouTube and had to play guitar. Wow. And. I'd never sang in front of anybody. I didn't know if I could or not, but I was just like fully committed. Wow. Yeah. That's incredible. Max, you play a little guitar, do you kind of, yeah. It's fun, right? He's been slacking on it lately. Yeah. I haven't really been doing it. But you did do it? I did. It was, it was more like classical, no, like I wanted to do like more rock stuff, but my mom said no classical. So, Hmm. Yeah. Max. Max thought he could get girls by playing guitar. Is that true? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think everyone really likes music a lot. Yeah. It definitely helps at the social gatherings. Sure. See, max, maybe you wanna re around the campfire. Maybe you wanna rethink your motivation Max. Eh? Well, you got time. You got time. Yeah. You can do anything you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I wanna be a football star, but, Hmm. That's a lot harder max than playing guitar. You should do both. I mean, I can't. You can do both. Yeah. Double the chances. Yeah, might as well one of'em gonna, one of'em is gonna degrade. Or both I've, we've seen it happen. There's a lot of people that are very, very talented in a lot of things. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Agreed. And so do you have like a favorite song or and or artist. This Not yourself. Okay. Yeah. You can't be yourself. My my favorite artist as far as country goes is definitely Jason Aldean. Oh, yeah. Yeah. In my farm days after I dropped outta college, he, he got me through, yeah. His music got me through a lot of stuff. He's, he's like one of my favorite artists and Morgan Wall, and I love Morgan Wall, right? Oh yeah. He is a good one. Yeah. He can't, I don't know how you don't love him. Yeah, it's just. He is just Got it man. But that's probably one of Max's favorites. Mm-hmm. Uh, he's more of a country. I like Chris Stapleton. Yeah. Oh yeah. The dude's got sold right when the first time I heard him perform with Justin Timberlake. I forget what the event was, but. They, they sang Tennessee whiskey together. Yeah. And I remember my, my dad, he was like, Kaleb, get in here. And I'm like, what?'cause he's like, never excited. Mm-hmm. Like, he's never that excited about anything. He's pretty like, he kill guy. Yeah. He's like, you gotta watch this. And he like, re he rero it and played the, and I was just like blown away. Yeah. Chris Stapleton's amazing. Mm-hmm. He's great. He, he also sang the national anthem at, maybe it was one of the Super Bowls. Yeah, that was incredible. To this day, it's like known as one of the, I think that and Whitney Houston, one of the top national anthems. Yeah. This is crazy. The other day I was with I was with some really close friends of mine and. I was saying that the number one national anthem ever is Whitney Houston. Yeah. And then they were like, eh, have you heard Chris Stapleton's? And I was like, actually, I haven't. And they just played, this was like last week. They just played it for me. Right. Really. And I understand the debate here. Yeah. It's, it's, yeah. It's good. It's good. So you obviously do music and from what my research I've done, you do country and pop. Like, kinda like a mix. So why, why those two? I grew up I grew up listening to, I mean, I don't want to age myself too much, but I did, I did burn a cd, like I had to. Oh, so you, wow, okay. I was like the last generation to burn a cd. Yeah. And then we got the aux cord. Yeah. But my playlist, my playlist guys, it was, uh, it would be like Jason Aldean, Chris Young, Josh Turner, Lil Wayne. Post Malone and then, you know, back to Eli Young Band or whatever, Travis Tritt, and then it, you know. Yeah. It's all over the place. Yeah. And then it would be like a lot of good inspiration there. Oh, yeah. Everywhere. I just, I, I love every genre of music as long as it's authentic. So what, when did you start kind of breaking out, was there a moment or was there a song or a time where that kind of started happening for you? You know, me and my manager we just, we were just like, I don't know. It's not, it's not, we just believe so much. Yeah. We are like, we're gonna put all the chips on the table it was really last year. Okay. We were just like, we're just gonna write, write, write, and release, release, release, and do the best we can at trying to figure out how this music industry works. Which is a whole thing. Yeah. It's a whole maze, but it's fun. I put out a song last year, last summer mm-hmm. Called Marlborough Man. And it was just part of our, we didn't really think anything of it. We were just keeping our heads down and grinding and putting songs out. Mm-hmm. And then I released that song a couple weeks later. It started getting a lot of, uh, traction on Spotify and then a lot of other platforms. And I, we, me and my manager started getting phone calls. We never thought we'd get, okay. Really? We were like, awesome. Like you would only hope. And so all of a sudden we were at, we were at record labels having meetings with people and they were like, so. Are you interested in signing anywhere? And then we were like, what? Yeah, yeah. Let's talk about it. Yeah. So, so we dated around for a little bit and Okay. Got to know, uh, lots of people and it ended up, we, I started feeling really at home, uh, immediately with, uh, Jayden Marcus from Rascal Flats. He started a record label Okay. Called Red Street Records. Oh, okay. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Well, congratulations. That's, I love s Rascal Flats, so Yeah. Yeah, I do too. In fact, I'm, I'm quite a bit older than everybody at this table, but I grew up, I grew up listening to a bit of Rascal Flats in my day, so, so, um, I'm just, I'm just wondering'cause I am not a artist, but how do you make like a song and then how do you make a music video? There's a lot that goes into it, but it's, it's not, it's not too complicated. So we record the song, we write the song on guitar or whatever, and then we record it on the mic and add the instruments and we record each instrument. And then, uh. Put it together, and then we have the audio, and then we will sit down and come up with an idea for whatever we want. Like how are we, how are we envisioning this? Like, what's, what's this gonna look like? Yeah. And uh, this, we have some people that are creative in that way that really helps. With that, and it takes a whole team. And so they'll come up with an idea. All right, here's what we're gonna do. Um, and then we will grab a bunch of camera gear and, uh, we'll play the song on speaker. And you kind like, one of'em we saw was you were, it looked like, it looks like you were in your own house playing a song. I dunno if that's your house or it's like, not your house, but like you're kinda in there playing. But the is the actual music? Yeah. Like get dubbed in afterwards and you're just kinda recording different clips and B roll for the music video. It's, it's really difficult to, the, the recording of the, of the vocals and the instruments have to be done separately. Sure.'cause it's so difficult to capture both what's going on visually. Yeah. And audibly at the same, it looks like you're just chilling and strumming and, you know, singing the song though. And it sounds great. Yeah. I always wondered that about, um. About musicians. Whenever I would watch music videos, like when I was younger and I was like, I was like, man, it's so cool. They're doing this all at once. And there's like so many it's not, yeah, I have a speaker. That'd be hard set. Yeah. I have a speaker set up and I'm like, ah, this kind of feels fake. I don't like it. Yeah. But we play it over and over again. We get a bunch of different takes, you know, they have to record it a bunch of times and yeah. But it ends up being pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. It looks very authentic. Like you're actually just sitting in your living room playing music. But I admit, I, I imagine behind the cameras, there's all these other stuff going on and there're multiple takes. There's like 20 people behind the camera and they're all like, different shirt. That's funny. Don't do that. Next time. You did something weird with your eyebrow stop. So obviously you're here at. Am Fest, which is a pretty political conference, I would say Uhhuh. So how would you somehow go from country and like music and now you're here. So like how the transition? So in Nashville, I have a lot of, a lot of friends in the conservative influence in space. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I met them along with a lot of other country artists that I looked up to, uh, when I first moved to Nashville. And, uh. They, they started inviting me to different events and I became really interested and I just wanted to learn about politics in general. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, especially, uh, especially after COVID, I was just like, I really wanna, I really wanna know what's going on. Yeah. Right. This, this is kind of confusing. So, you know, I, I get, I got invited and I want to come in here and soak in everything I can and learn as much as I can about everything. And yeah. Uh, Charlie's somebody that I looked up to a lot. Yeah. Yeah. And so I feel like this year is huge to come here and soak it in. Again, this is my second one. Yeah, definitely. How did, how did his assassination hit you? I had never, that just gave me chills on the back of my neck. Yeah. I really have never felt that much of a impact from somebody. I've never, I've never even shaken his hand. Um, I, I was affected in such a profound way, and I, I know, I know a lot of other people were too. Yeah. It's, it changed me. I mean, I, I accepted Jesus into my heart. Like two days before his assassination. And it was just like, it all happened at once for me. And it reaffirmed my, my journey there to try to Yeah. Understand more about. Yeah. That's amazing. He, he brought a lot of people to faith actually. Yeah. Uh, we were fortunate enough to get to meet him a couple of times and just an incredible individual. I think he, you know, to your point, he touched so many people because he was so. Prevalent on social media to see him taken out like that was, we had a pretty hard time with it, but. Yeah, it's brutal. You go through a lot of emotions and, uh, and I think, you know, the best way we can for us, like we felt like the best way we can honor him is to keep carrying his legacy forward and keep fighting for what we think is good, beautiful, and true. And so that's, yeah. So that's why we're here. And, and, but it's interesting, you know, as a country artist, we know a lot of country artists are conservative by nature Christians. And, but yet a lot of them aren't outwardly. Let's say political. And you mentioned an inspiration of Jason Aldean, and he's been pretty outspoken about his beliefs as well. But, uh, what, I guess, what inspires you to be a little bit more out front in your political or ideological beliefs? So I don't, I don't necessarily on my own social media, put it on super display. I understand why a lot of other artists don't do it. Yeah. But I really just, like, I, I'm not, I'm not a pol, I'm not a politician myself. I'm not into politics. I'm here to entertain, okay. Mm-hmm. And, uh, bring people together. I'm comfortable with letting people know I am conservative. Mm-hmm. But I'm not gonna like, shove it in your face. Like, just, I would like you to enjoy my music if you enjoy it and, right. Yeah. I think that's the best way to bring people together. And I think that's why a lot of people that are in the entertainment industry, just choose not to speak up on it. Yeah.'cause our job is to bring people together from any, any ends of the earth. And that might be the thing that makes them. Want to sit and listen to our point of view for a second, right? Mm-hmm. And so that's why I'm, I'm not, I'm not pushy about it, but I'm very comfortable saying, yeah, this is where I'm at. This where I see, I think it's a great take because you can have personal feelings towards, you know, politics, but also create beautiful music or art or film. I mean, we just saw, for example, like Rob Reiner that tragedy this week, but that guy made some great movies, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And we're like, you gotta give him credit. He didn't agree with us politically. Anybody in entertainment. Yeah. Yeah. That's our job, right? To, to inspire people and. Make them feel connected and seen and felt and understood. Yeah. Just bring people together. Yeah. And there's no better way to do it than entertaining. Yeah. That's why you gotta grow that mullet out and start playing a guitar again, max. Oh, he, he is not, he is not. Ha He's not happy on that. Yeah. He hates, he like, whenever dad's going to get a haircut, he's like, trim it off, trim it off. Yeah, why don't you just get a buzz cut then. I don't want a buzz cut. I want some hair, so like Oh, okay. Fair. I can at least style it if I really need to, but I don't think I need a giant bush on the back of my head. Well, you wake up with bedhead like every single day. I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's actually a good point. Maybe I should go bald. Um, we'll see you, you'll have plenty of time for that later in life. Well, no, you're doing great. Uh, so far, so far it's, it's sticking in there. Well, I'm wondering, uh, before this podcast said that you have songs coming out later, uh, in the next year, but do you have any tours coming up? Uh, we're working on a spring tour for this next year. Uh. 2026 is gonna be, it's gonna, it's not fully, set in the schedule yet. Okay. But it's gonna be packed full of shows. I'm gonna be all around the country. Okay. Uh, but I can't, can you give us any hints on who you're playing with or anything like that? I can't because we're kind of, we're kind of trying to, uh, figure, figure out who. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, we'll, we'll look forward to seeing those things release and, uh, maybe we'll get to see it somewhere. Lots, lots of new music coming out too. Okay. Nice. Gimme some upbeat stuff. Okay. Any collaborations? Maybe Yeah. You should collab with Max in the guitar. I dunno. I, I can't. We're gonna break the internet. Love it. Love it. Oh, well, he'd be right. You're a rebel. On that note, we'll look forward to breaking the internet and we will wrap up the podcast. Is there any way that people can support you, like on Spotify or anywhere else? Yeah, absolutely. Uh, if anybody wants to support me, it's, uh, if you type in at Kaleb Sanders and Kaleb is spelled with a K, uh, you can find me literally anywhere. That's my website, that's my Spotify, it's my YouTube, it's my everything. So, um. Real easy. Yeah. If you wanna support, I would love that. I'd be greatly appreciate it. Yeah. And we've listened to some of your tunes and they're very good. So we wish you the best of luck on the upcoming year since a lot is still in the mix, but you're gonna have a full pact and uh, busy year ahead. So we wish you all the best of luck and uh, keep on entertaining people and bringing'em together. Sounds great. Yes sir. I appreciate you guys having Alright. Thank you for coming on. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having.