Aaron Ball Band ~ From the High Seas to the Open Road

In this episode of the Musical Miles Podcast, Aaron Ball and his bandmates Dave Bowman and Jared Smith join Byron for a conversation about the journey that has kept them performing together for well over a decade. Aaron and Dave have been touring since 2012, taking their music everywhere from dance halls and honky tonks to cruise ships on the high seas. Drummer Jared Smith later joined the band in 2015, helping solidify the sound and chemistry that continues to drive the group today.

The guys share stories from their busy touring schedule that stretches from Texas to the Pacific Northwest and everywhere in between, along with the challenges and rewards of life as independent musicians constantly on the move. From long highway miles to unforgettable performances, this episode highlights the friendship, dedication, and love of music that keeps the Aaron Ball Band rolling down the road.

MORE ABOUT Aaron Ball Band
Website: https://www.aaronballband.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aaronballband/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaronballband/
Apple music:https://music.apple.com/us/artist/aaron-ball/685353507 
Bandcamp: https://aaronballband.bandcamp.com/

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Musical Miles Podcast welcomes all interested in being a guest on our show. Artists, Songwriters, Festivals, Concerts, Venues, Fans - Contact us to request an interview to promote your Band, new single, album, song, historical or new venue or to share your story with us and our fans. We only conduct in person interviews, so check with us to see where we are headed to next.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Whatever you say. That way the people will pay attention to the whole thing. There you go. Just a few more hours. And I'll be done at this bar. And a few more miles. Push me back where you are. Time passes too slowly when I'm away.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

There's a little texture tonight. I can see all the stars in the sky. It is where the stars of big over text us tonight.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

I can see all the stars in the sky.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

It's wave in the star. It's where heaven started.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

It's waven started. Follow the lights. Y'all the moon over Texas tonight.

SPEAKER_06 2:08

Oh yeah. Hey music lovers. Welcome to Musical Miles Podcast. And welcome to Aaron Ball Band, Mr. Aaron Ball, Jared Smith, and Dave Bowen, right? Superdave. Super Dave. Superdave. I like it. Hey, welcome. You know, we've been trying to do this for uh since we started the podcast. Clear back in July or August. I think I talked to you. You guys play were playing in American Falls. Yeah. At their uh uh music in the park. And so I came down and we we uh we watched your set and we visited with you and then we tried to figure out where the heck we were gonna get together. And we've been chasing that deal for uh almost 18 months, I'm guessing. So it's been a while. But but but nonetheless, and and you guys invited us to come hang out with you in Texas last year in New Brunfels at Green Hall, which is our favorite Texas venue. Love Green Hall.

SPEAKER_05 3:00

Right there at the top, isn't it?

SPEAKER_06 3:01

And and we uh unfortunately we didn't make it back down there. We were there a year prior and and spent two weeks in in New Brunfels and got to interview some artists in Green Hall. And uh Jared reached out and said, Hey, we're here, are you guys gonna come hang out with us? And I'm like, We're not in Texas. So but anyway, ships passing it back. We'll give you another shot at it. You know, you will, uh and I would love another shot at it because I absolutely once again, like I say, I love Green Hall. It's one of my favorite venues down there, and uh and you guys spend a lot of time touring all over, but you you have a place down there outside of College Station, right? Right where you hang your hat part of the year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Part-time residence of Caldwell, Texas.

SPEAKER_04 3:43

Caldwell, okay. Yeah, I mean we're I think we're Chamber of Commerce members there, but we're not up here. And you're not in sorry. We've never gotten a lot of people.

SPEAKER_06 3:51

Well, but but all all three of you were actually Idaho born and raised Idahoans. All three of you?

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 3:58

That's pretty cool. We're we're pretty proud of being from Idaho. We're too. And and uh some great music comes out of this country. Most people don't realize that. But you know, there's some some great music history in Idaho. Right. You know, the bronze have cut a pretty wide swath through here for the last 50, 60 years if you go back to Mutsy.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

Yeah, yeah. Well, actually, we've had experiences in Texas where we walked into new venues and they've said, Where are you from? We say Idaho, and they said, Okay, you'll be all right.

SPEAKER_06 4:26

Yeah, because they know they know if you're from Idaho, you're you you must know the bronze, right? Yeah, we so well when you it's interesting because we've with this podcast, it's it's been a real learning curve for us, but you'd be amazed at how many people don't know about the BBR, about the Braun Brothers reunion. It's gone on for 40 years, 40 plus now, and uh and they just look at you like who are you? I say, Well, Reckless Kelly. Oh, yeah, I know those guys. But they don't they don't know the Braun thing, so but anyway, well let's talk about you guys because you guys have been together for how long? You you're the newest member of the band, and and how long Jared's been with them. I've been off and on for about a decade now. A decade.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

COVID is but the COVID thing really kind of solidified this lineup. Okay. After as as COVID kind of started to wind down, we really got if you guys would care, you know. We got serious. Yeah, there you hold this. That's kind of at the end of COVID, you know, when we were we were Jones and to get back out. Dave and I had done a lot of touring, just the two of us, yeah. Kind of at the end of that, we decided it's time to really get serious. The music really did pick up very well there to 21-ish.

SPEAKER_06 5:34

It had to because we all suffered the angst of no live music, nowhere to go. We couldn't go anywhere, right? We didn't in fact when the first little break happened, we actually hired Mickey and Gary Braun and came and they did a private deal for us in a milk barn in Firth, Idaho. For us and 60 of our friends wouldn't let us advertise it because they were afraid they'd get, you know, chastised for it, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Because it was still wasn't safe. But we got back out there doing house parties. Yeah, yeah. The best way we could do it.

SPEAKER_06 6:06

And then and then it kind of flared back up again because I had Jeff Crosby lined out to come and play, and we had to cancel that one. But after it broke again, then Miss Shand and I loaded up when we drove to Annus, not Ennis, to uh immigrant to the old saloon, and we saw a couple old gals play up there. We don't even know who the hell they were, but we knew it was live music and we could go. Yeah, so that that's how we craved it after the COVID deal.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

So well, and it was a refiner's fire for a lot of artists. You either got off the can or you stayed on, you know. You there was no fence sitting after that because that's that was a tough thing for a lot of artists to not have work. And so Oh well, there was tons of them that that really, really suffered financially.

SPEAKER_03 6:49

I mean, that was just when we lost a lot of touring bands and a lot of a lot of touring band venues. Sure.

SPEAKER_06 6:54

Oh yeah, those venues that shut down because they couldn't afford to just wait until COVID went away.

SPEAKER_04 6:59

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

We weathered we weathered that one.

SPEAKER_06 7:04

Yeah, and that's well, so so you and Dave have have have played together for how many years now?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

We started in 2012, I think.

SPEAKER_03 7:12

Yeah, we took a couple years off here and there, but essentially we've been together for yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:17

Now you kind of were you working together on the cruise ships?

SPEAKER_03 7:21

So that we did a yeah, kind of a duo, country duo. I I'm a a wannabe drummer as well. That was my first instrument. So I played drums and sang or guitar and sang, and Dave played the keyboards, keyboard bass, piano singing.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

So we did a country duo. I can play anything with Kalayle, but if you want me to, but I'm not gonna for the right price, Dave will play anything. Isn't it the tune up my dog has fleas or something like that?

SPEAKER_06 7:50

Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, see. You know that one. Well, listen, I have two of them hanging on the wall in my office, and I can't play either one of them. So but and I can barely play that.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Well, Jared plays the accordion. Dave plays the accordion. Really? I've I have played an accordion.

SPEAKER_06 8:07

You have attempted to play an accordion. Well, so that's such an interesting instrument. And uh do you know the gal from uh Chalice, um Bethany?

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Millican Milliken. Yeah, Millican, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:21

She I interviewed her this year during the BBR, but do you know she owns over 20 of those suckers? That doesn't surprise me. Can you imagine? I said there's not 20 in the next four counties, right? Right, total. But anyway, um so so you guys did a duo on the shoot on the cruise ship for how many years did you do that?

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Or just I was 17 and 18 when we did that. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yeah, 19. Oh, 19. 18 and 19. 18 and 19.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Okay, 18. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

And then we were we were scheduled to go do some more in 2020, and then they canceled everything. So we did you like the cruise deal? Uh after about three weeks, and when you figured out how to how to handle handle the workload. Oh because I mean it's six hours of music every day. Seven days.

SPEAKER_06 9:10

Oh, gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Playing a lot of music. I'll bet you did. So we learned how to play music and play around too. Yeah because we gotta be a lot see a lot of cool places. I'm sure, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_06 9:22

Yeah, I that's just never been one of my favorite vacations. But nonetheless, I've been on one cruise. Our kids just got home from one and uh they went to the Bahamas and it was cold. So they missed that. That's that's the hidden miscellaneous.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

We took advantage of making a lot of friends and good contacts while we were on a cruise ship. Sure.

SPEAKER_06 9:41

So so have you guys done Key West? Did you did you cruise in and out of there? I love that town.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Everywhere down as far as even through the Panama Canal.

SPEAKER_06 9:52

Through the canal. Oh, that's cool. So you got to see some of the world that you would have never got to see had you not done that. Right. What about Jared? You you you didn't get to work on a cruise ship.

SPEAKER_04 10:02

No, we've been offered a lot, but like the way that the cruise ships work is they want a little shorter notice than we usually our booking agent usually has it set up with shows already. So it's a little difficult to have us go back out there on a cruise ship. I mean, it could happen. It could, but uh but we do we're busy all the time.

SPEAKER_06 10:26

Oh, I'm sure. Well, I know you guys are busy because it's been hard to catch up with you. You were in Idaho Falls for New Year's and I was in Island Park. I was gonna reach out to you, but we had already been invited when I found out you were gonna be here for the New Year's Eve. So, but um uh well what how about how many shows a year are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 10:44

This this year's gonna be a different year for us. We're we're doing working a lot of new music this year, so we'll probably be under a hundred this year. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 10:51

That's usually how you're working on some on a new full album, uh or are you just cutting a bunch of or gonna do a bunch of EP singles and albums are a a weird thing these days. I you know, everybody we talk to, I ask that question of what do you do? And and now if you if you ask Gary Braun, he will tell you I like to do albums and I like the whole process, even though it takes three or four years sometimes, but I like that. And and there are others that it's a hey, let's drop a single and and and then move on, you know.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

A lot of it comes down to budget too, you know. Sure. Well that's it. If you're gonna put music out there and and you don't have a budget to get it heard, it's it's almost like it's tough tough to tough to get traction out of music if you don't have the budget to to promote it and tour behind it and that and so a lot of it we do kind of try to do it around our touring and release songs around tours. We've got two songs ready to go right now. We're just waiting for the moment to drop them. In fact, I think Jared's working on a music video for our next song that's coming out.

SPEAKER_04 11:54

Oh, really? Yeah, where we we hired uh some people to do create a line dance for it. Oh, really? So cool. We try to make it a little bit more.

SPEAKER_06 12:03

But are you doing the line dance or you shooting the video in Green Hall? Because that's like now I got him thinking. That would be cool. That would be really cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

I don't know if we we I don't know if we can get it put together. We'll be there in about three weeks. We'll be in Green Hall. That might be in next time theory.

SPEAKER_06 12:17

So when are you when are you playing Green again?

SPEAKER_04 12:20

So we're playing it next month. First part of March. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, because our next tour starts in two weeks, and we're heading to Kansas, we're heading to Tennessee, and then about a week in Texas, Oklahoma, and then we're heading to Missouri, Iowa, Illinois. So cool, cool.

SPEAKER_06 12:43

Well, I you know, we love Texas, and I would love to try and figure out how to meet up with you guys down there. We've got a lot of other artists to interview in Texas. We just got to get back there, right? So um, but uh well let's talk about your musical journey because other than you spent time together on the cruise ship, you obviously you've been playing for years. When did you s get started, Aaron? In music?

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Yeah. I was a drummer in junior high. Okay. Okay. And uh, because I couldn't play anything else.

SPEAKER_07 13:11

Well, at least you had rhythm, kind of.

SPEAKER_03 13:13

So I actually that was really my first interest where I love drums. I learned to play the drum set in uh detention in like eighth grade.

SPEAKER_06 13:20

In detention.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 13:23

And uh they didn't offer us the the ability to learn drums in detention, or maybe I would have learned it.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Yeah, I lucked out. So that's I and I got into jazz and that's what I've jazz drummer. And uh and then I wrote a lot of a lot of stuff that ended up turning into songs, I guess. So ever since then I picked up a guitar in high school and taught myself how to play it.

SPEAKER_06 13:45

And and did you graduate from Pocatello in Pocatello or or did you let I'm not gonna put the graduation. How did you go to high school?

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Is this an interrogation or something? Just tell me graduate from my issue. Yeah, I graduated I did get a college degree, but that's the all that's the only diploma I'm ahead of me. I I I dropped out of high school and lived in my car for a couple years.

SPEAKER_06 14:05

So you probably got to see some country there, too.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Yeah, well, like you gotta see a lot of parking lots, which is what we we're gonna see a lot of nowadays.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

Yeah, we love parking loves um truck stops. Yeah, you're all right.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

The loves truck stops. Park the bus in the parking lot. So yeah, so I I kind of started that way. Um, and then I, you know, I I always thought I was a rock and roll kind of guy. Uh ended up working with a guitar company in about 2010-ish. Um I'd done a couple records with a a former band and then ended up going to uh New Zealand.

SPEAKER_06 14:40

Yeah, you saw that in your bio. You spent some time in New Zealand.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

And while I was there, they they said, Well, you're an American, you know, you're you're a country music. And I never really thought of myself as country, but uh honestly, today's country is is what country should be. Anything it needs to be.

SPEAKER_06 14:57

Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty country is a very vague right. You know what I mean? Because you're right, it it's anything you want it to be, anything from from Charlie Crockett to Megan Moroni to to whatever. To Cody Canada, Cody Cody Canada, and Cole Wetzels, and and and you know, uh and then you've got some of the you know traditional, but you got guys like Zach Topp that have come come on the scene here lately who's making a way.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

Yeah, 25 years ago we probably would have been touring with Ever Everclear.

SPEAKER_06 15:29

Sure. And you know, and I was never a big and nothing against Everclear, I just it was it was not my now I have very eclectic taste in music. Go back 35 years instead. Yeah, 35, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

You just don't want me in the band, huh?

SPEAKER_06 15:44

But the the the tricky part is is that you know, a lot of the I grew up in the 70s, right? So when you kids you guys weren't even born yet, I don't think. But I know Jared wasn't. Definitely not.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Okay, but Jared and I have the same birthday, so oh you do. Yeah, just 20 years apart. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 16:01

All right. So but but it's it's one of those things that, you know, I mean, the the the rock, the stuff I grew up on that was considered rock, C C R and the Eagles, and that's that's more country than what country is today, right? Agreed? I would agree with that. Tom Petty and Tommy and Beatles. Yeah, yeah. I mean, all that stuff was uh well um we just saw England Dan, or not England Dan, but John Ford Coley, who played with England Dan, and England Dan's dead, Dan is dead. But but anyway, uh he said that he was on, he had an he had a hit in the top ten, right? Shan top ten, that was the only their song was the only one that was not disco that year, right? That was in the top ten. Everything else was disco. Now, Shanda likes disco. I'm not so much a disco fan.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

Well here's the thing. Take take disco music, put a twang and a steel guitar, and what do you have? Country. You have two stepping country.

SPEAKER_06 16:57

There you go. Yeah. There you go. Well, I don't know. Can you can you turn it's raining man into a country song? We can. We could. We can do it.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Challenge accepted. Okay, I want to hear that Ernie.

SPEAKER_06 17:09

I love that song. It's a pretty good song, actually. Yeah.

unknown 17:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Listen to the weather girls all the time. There you go.

SPEAKER_06 17:17

Well, there's there's there's a lot of great music out there in that and and there's uh what it what is Latzeto saying, you know, there's a there's a lid for every pot, right? So there's somebody, I mean, even my our kids, you know, we have raised four kids and and they all love music, but they all have very different tastes in music.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

You know. So well, and you like you were saying, there's the the lines are very thin, you know, because like we tour a lot with bands like them dirty roses and other people that you know have you run across the the filthy heathens yet?

SPEAKER_06 17:56

Have you played with those guys? Yeah, got to interview them in Sun Valley at the grow uh uh over there at the uh Valley Music Fest. Love those guys.

SPEAKER_04 18:04

They're they're amazing. Yeah, and you know, would the purists out there want them on a country festival? Maybe not, but the m the majority of people, they're totally cool with all that stuff.

SPEAKER_06 18:15

Yeah, I mean they're they're yeah, them dirty roses and and the filthy heathens, they're they're pretty rockin', yeah, but nonetheless, they hey you everybody can everybody can throw down a good rock tune, right? Exactly. So so um uh Jared, when did you get bit by the music bug?

SPEAKER_04 18:40

I started taking piano when I was eight years old and I hated it. And then in high school or junior high, I started taking up drums and uh really enjoyed it. Then into high school, and during high school I started college ensembles too at the local college and started doing sessions work all over. So for most of my career I was doing sessions work with people that would come into the uh area, like Richard Marks, um Alex Boyer, um Lindsay Sterling way before people knew who she was.

SPEAKER_06 19:21

She's somebody she's gonna be here in the in in August or September.

SPEAKER_04 19:24

Yeah, yeah. And then I would like try to be in some bands and some of them would work, some of them would not, and like my main band right before this one, it didn't work out, which is good because then it kind of fueled us to be able to get to where we are and kind of inject us to really two or more and take it up I feel way more seriously. Yeah. So cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

And then and Dave? I haven't played. Super Dave, you've been playing your whole life. You were born playing something. Well, my dad came out with a my dad was a the choir teacher at Pocatel High School for 35 years. Okay. So music's been around. My my grandfather was a alternate and in the Lawrence Welk singers. That's awesome. My um my daughter is singing with the Idaho Fall Symphony tomorrow night. Let's see, what else? And it's just been part of what's in your DNA. And that's it was good when I was raising my girls. I would play music in the schools during the day while they're going to school, and I could pick pick them up and be dad and with them after school, so that was good. And I just played in this band and that band. And I I don't know. Oh, it's cool. It's taking me all over the world.

SPEAKER_06 20:48

It it you know what? If you if you have the ability and the talent, what what else? Yeah, I mean, did you ever think you'd have a backup? Did you have a backup plan, Dave?

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Um I'm always have living the backup plan, I feel like. Really? Yeah. It was like, oh, we'll try this. Okay, that's not working okay. We'll go to the backup. We'll try this, we'll go to that. But but you know, I So if you if you weren't a musician, what would you be? Well any other interests?

SPEAKER_03 21:21

I don't know. You'd be a professional baseball player, a semi-profe baseball player. You like baseball.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Absolutely. Um I don't I don't know. I don't know. I've I've had a career in radio now for about 23 years. So behind the scenes kind of stuff. So I would be in some sort of technical aspect of of the music scene. Sure. It first in some way, shape, or another.

SPEAKER_06 21:51

Aaron, if you weren't a musician, if you weren't a rock star, what would you be? He'd be impressive. Isn't he according to Jared? He'd be in.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Um and what you fixing my cars. What are you doing? What I these guys give me grief because I've a I've been f learning to fly a plane in the last couple years. So now if you watch her video for I-35, see that there's a little carrot in there. There's a part where we the the van takes off. Oh yeah. And the the girl that made the video for us had to go in there. She had to go in there and put a little captain ball patch on me. The van taked off.

SPEAKER_06 22:32

So cool. Jared, what would you be? He'd be a pilot.

SPEAKER_04 22:36

So here's the funny thing with that. Like every time I see like a plane crash happening around here, I automatically send a text and I'm like, Aaron, are you alive?

SPEAKER_03 22:49

So I was in Boise last week. I had to do uh a check ride for for one of my working on my commercial pilot right now, and I had to do a check ride in Boise, and there was a plane crash in Caldwell.

SPEAKER_06 23:00

I saw that.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

And that was the day I was in Nampa in Boise doing my check ride, and my parents were like calling me and calling me, and they called my wife, like, is Aaron okay? We saw there's a plane crash where he is today. I don't like the case. Why would you so nobody trusts you? That's what you think of that. Well, and it's a joke because I'm building the plane with my brother as well. So guys that you know, musicians who build planes are.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Who knows what the airplane is like? What's the airplane's gonna be like?

SPEAKER_07 23:28

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:29

Um I'm trying to think of his name. We were in we were in Whitefish last fall during the Songwriter Festival, and that's when Brett James was killed in his plane crash.

SPEAKER_05 23:38

And he owned his own plane. But it was a Sirius, though. So is that not a nice plane? Well, it was a really nice plane.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

No, but in the aviation community, people that fly Siriuses are they're a different kind of pilot. Okay, because they have the money to fly Sirius.

SPEAKER_06 23:51

There you go. Yeah, that was a sad story. So we don't build their own. We we actually got to interview Kat Higgins, who co-wrote um uh the Kenny Chesney song Um Oh Knowing You. She wrote that with Brett James, and so she got the news. Kenny Chesney actually called her on her way to Whitefish when that happened. So it was kind of a sad day. Yeah, um, but uh anyway. Um so we're we're we're getting close to our time limit here, but I got a couple more questions. So tell me a song that you wish you'd written. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

Anything that's made money, I would take.

SPEAKER_07 24:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:32

Okay. So that's not fair. That's pretty much there are some. We still write some really crappy songs that make a lot of money, probably.

SPEAKER_06 24:39

Well, no, some crappy ones that made a lot of money.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

Yeah, there are. Honestly, I think as a songwriter, you know, when I started writing songs, it had nothing to do with really for other people. It was more for me, you know.

SPEAKER_06 24:50

I hear that a lot from songwriters.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

And uh and over the years I've realized the power of what we do and how it affects other people. Sure. And that changes your perspective as a songwriter, too. Like I still write for me, but I write knowing that if it's something that I can connect with, it's something somebody else is gonna connect.

SPEAKER_06 25:08

Somebody else is gonna connect with it. And and and it doesn't matter what it is, right? You I mean, we've all we've all heard that song that just uh, you know, uh uh Heath Owen said, he said, Man, it gets me in the feels. Yeah, you know, and so I I think that's a cool way to put it. Yeah. A song that's impacted us one way or another. So Jared, any idea?

SPEAKER_04 25:32

Song you wish you had written. Song that I wish I had written. That's a tough one.

SPEAKER_03 25:43

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

SPEAKER_04 25:44

Yeah, that's a good one. No, happy birthday. Then I could have copyrighted it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, I don't know about a specific song, but like I'll give another vague weird answer like Aaron did, but slightly different. I didn't get a finish man to say it. You can't take all the answers. Yeah. I I just I love being part of the process. I don't I'm not much of a lyricist or anything, but like being part of the process and helping build something that again takes people and has them feel an emotion or be able to have a moment where they feel safe to feel an emotion. You know? Like from a drummer spent standpoint, from a producer, from a writer standpoint, like it doesn't matter what the song is, if that's the end goal, then that's what gets you up in the morning when you go to the studio for sure.

SPEAKER_06 26:47

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

Right?

SPEAKER_06 26:48

Cool.

SPEAKER_04 26:49

Dave, you've had a lot of time to think about this.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Sure, I'll make it fast and easy. Okay. Something roads take me home. Well, that's a something like a Don Ever song or maybe a Billy Joel song. A Billy Joel song. Which one? Piano Man? Yeah, Billy Joel. It's uh it's a good one, but maybe like Vienna. 1980s or something. Billy Joel. 1985. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 27:09

No, I'm a I'm a I I I'm a little early. I'm with you. Billy Joel was a great piano man. He's he's the man. So yeah, cool. Well, guys, this has been fun. I wish we had more time. These guys are trying to get set up. You guys need to get set up. Um uh I gotta get the producer homing into her beautiful dress for the evening and go see if I can pour myself into a tuxedo.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Well, thank you so much for having us. Well, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_06 27:35

I reserve the right to do it again. Why not? Um uh we look forward to sitting down with you somewhere. Um, it's cool to talk to you at home, but uh it's also cool to to be in Texas, and that's where I got to interview Gary Braun, was in at his house in Butta, Texas. So I can't get him to sit down with me during the BBR, they're too damn busy. So but anyway, hey guys, thank you so much. Uh anything else you want to share with us before we get out of here?

SPEAKER_03 28:03

We could put a you know selfless plug in for the music, but well, we don't need to do that.

SPEAKER_06 28:08

Yeah, you just I'm gonna plug the shit out of it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 28:14

So, where can they find your music? You can find our music anywhere that you listen to music. Recently, yeah, Spotify's great and all, but like I I know. I I just got on a whole tirade about Spotify. So we're on Pandora too. And YouTube Music, um even on Bandcamp if people care.

SPEAKER_06 28:34

Someone someone just sent me a song today on Bandcamp, and I don't have that downloaded, so I need to put that on.

SPEAKER_04 28:40

It's cool. I mean, the money goes directly to artists, but well, I I'm all about that. But most consumers are more about ease, so yes, we're on Spotify.

SPEAKER_06 28:49

Yeah, I listen, and and I've had some really, really deep conversations with some artists about Spotify, and you know I hate to say this because we're on Spotify, the podcast's on Spotify, but yeah, I hate to say that they're the devil, but you know, in some ways we don't owe them nothing.

SPEAKER_04 29:06

You know, we make more money off of Napster. Take that, Lars.

SPEAKER_06 29:11

Napster. Listen, it's still there. It's still there. I guarantee you can make more money off a t-shirt than we will out of thousands, tens of thousands of streams. Listen, uh we got to interview, have you guys met the Huser brothers? Yes. Okay, but we played with them before, yeah. Cool kids. We we got to interview them in Lubbock, Texas at the at Cook's Garage. Yeah. And and and they were telling me, I said, we got into the Spotify conversation. He said, you know, we got it, we got a notification here a while back that one of our songs had hit a million streams. A million streams on Spotify. How cool is that? And he said, and we took that check and we went to McDonald's and got two McChicken sandwiches.

SPEAKER_04 29:51

And then Spotify called him a week later and took the song down probably.

SPEAKER_06 29:56

But you never maybe they may they may take our podcast off, but we love Spotify, we love Spotify, we love sharing our music.

SPEAKER_04 30:05

We love the fans, we love the fans of the Aaron Ball Band and the fans of of your podcast.

SPEAKER_06 30:10

Well, thank you. Well, we appreciate you guys. Hey, for Musical Miles Podcast, I'm your host, Byron Duffin, here with the Aaron Ball Band with Jared and Dave and Mr. Aaron Ball, and we'll see you all somewhere down the road.