Country, Culture, and Collaboration (Chloe Byars & Sarah Rose - Darlin) | Ep. 37

In this episode of The Walkup, Sean O’Hare sits down with Sarah Royce and Chloe Byers, two Oklahoma-born musicians carving out a unique country music scene in New York City. 

From childhoods steeped in music to the serendipity of meeting while working at a restaurant, they share how their passion for performance brought them to the Big Apple. Together, they explore the challenges of pursuing music in a city far from Nashville, the camaraderie of the local country scene, and how New York’s diversity fuels their songwriting. The conversation blends storytelling, insight, and the relentless pursuit of musical dreams.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Sarah Royce.

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Hello.

SPEAKER_05 0:01

Chloe Byers. Hi. Welcome to the Walk Up Podcast. Very excited to have you here. It's always a challenge when I have people on either side. It's a little bit like a like a ping-pong tennis match sort of situation. But um but yeah, very excited to have you guys here. You're gonna perform for us as well, which we're very excited about. Uh but I wanted to just first just get to know you. So um so how did you guys meet? Where are you from? How you how did you decide to come to New York? Yeah, form uh uh a band. I mean, this is this is a lot.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

So yeah, it all ties together in a beautiful story. It does. I'm from Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

I'm from Austin, Texas.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

But Chloe went to school in Oklahoma. I also went to school in Oklahoma, and then we worked at a restaurant together, but we were both studying music at different schools.

SPEAKER_05 0:51

Okay, so you guys were both in studying music in school. So you had UT Austin?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

No, so I went to school in Oklahoma City. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 0:59

From Austin, but went to okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

I went to school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City University for musical theater. Okay. And Sarah went to University of Central Oklahoma, right? Yeah. And for musical theater as well. And we both were there at the same time, and we got a summer job after we graduated at a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma City, and that's how we met.

SPEAKER_05 1:20

That's where all great country music bands are formed, right? Mexican metric. Shout out exclusively what we write about.

unknown 1:29

Nothing else.

SPEAKER_05 1:30

Yeah, you have three songs about about chips and guac, which I think is. So are you guys both the like my entire life I just knew I wanted to perform or sing, or was this something you discovered at a certain age?

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Pretty much I feel like you I'll let you speak about yourself. I was more of like the shy but super active kid. So I was always kind of running around and doing stuff, but I always loved music. And then my older sister is um a force, and she forced me to do a musical, and I was like in love with it. Just loved performing. And what age was this? I was seven years old, I think, seven or eight. Um, and that kind of like started the track. So I guess that was a long time ago. When else would it start? But my dad's a musician, so it was always around. Oh, you know.

SPEAKER_05 2:19

So it's in it's in the blood.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

You were around and what what kind of is he what kind of music does he play or what is it?

SPEAKER_03 2:26

He does like um singer, songwriter, rock, like I guess rock.

SPEAKER_05 2:33

Guitar.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Alternative rock. He plays like every instrument and sings and songwrites.

SPEAKER_05 2:38

Oh, he's one is one of those.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

He does it all, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:41

It's annoying.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

I know, right? Yeah. No, it's actually really good for me.

SPEAKER_05 2:44

But no, my my uh my brother's the same way. Um, I have no musical talent, but he he can play guitar, piano, you know, sing, write, all that sort of stuff. And it just made me never want to try. Uh because I'm like, you're like, how can I can be? Why would I do that?

SPEAKER_03 2:59

A common human experience. If there's one that's like really good, you're like, I'll just let him have it.

SPEAKER_05 3:05

Yeah, and I was also extraordinarily lazy. Um things haven't changed so much, but um, yeah, I saw how much how much hard work he put in. He he started as a saxophone when I was telling me he went to to college on a saxophone scholarship, like so he was that good at saxophone, and obviously hours and hours and hours of practicing. I'm like, oh hell no. Um I'll skip that altogether. Um, so you was it seven years old? Were you even younger?

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Um, I mean, I always was singing from like a young age. I don't even know like when, but I was always around music as well because my dad also is a musician, but more for hobbies. My dad is like an environmental engineer, but he plays like mandolin and guitar on the side. And he, whenever we were little, my dad would go to these little bluegrass jams like every weekend. And my mom was really happy about that because she was left at home with us. But as I got as I started getting older, and all those adoring bluegrass female fans and she's sitting in the circle because she was really happy about that. But my dad would always play the mandolin around us when we were kids, and so I was just like constantly around music, and my my mom's dad, so my grandpa, he was actually an as uh aspiring country writer and um singer as well. And so I think just like Sarah, like it was just like in my jeans, like to be into music. And when I was uh probably seven or eight, I started playing the fiddle. And that was like, you know, other kids are like in soccer and like playing basketball. And I'm like, I want to play the fiddle. So I started playing the fiddle around town in Austin with um my teacher. She was like this eccentric, crazy woman, but she was awesome, and she would bring me to her gigs like at different restaurants, and I would hop up and be like the little toe-headed blonde girl, like you know, song away, shredding it. Yeah, and then from there I kind of got, you know, in school extracurriculars, I think theater made the most sense because I didn't want to do orchestra and I didn't want to do really anything else, so I started doing theater and got into musical theater. So that's kind of how I got into the theatrical realm. But I've always written songs even from like a very, very young age. Like I have journals and diaries from when I was in elementary school, like just writing away songs. So it makes sense for where I am today, but it is kind of crazy because I didn't think I would move to NYC and do country music.

SPEAKER_05 5:35

Yeah, so that that's uh that's a great segue. Um, because I think obviously most people would think you guys are in Oklahoma, yeah, you want to do country music. Everyone assumes Nashville, right? So how did how how did you end up New York? Or why did was that an an intentional decision because of musical theater?

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Yeah, that's just kind of what everyone does when you go to I mean, we have a bachelor's in music. A lot of musical theater programs are BFA's, but ours was like a true music degree. Um, but yeah, everybody just moves to New York, so we just moved. It's kind of just like that in your life.

SPEAKER_05 6:08

But there's not like a Nashville versus New York for country music.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

I mean, absolutely, Nashville is huge.

SPEAKER_05 6:15

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

I think it is our journey is a little bit different because we when I graduated school, like when I was in school, I was always we did musical theater, but I was also always the person that would sing country music on the side. Like that was my thing. It was like, she's an actor, but she also does this country thing really well. And I was like, okay, that makes me like a versatile actor because I can also play the guitar and I can also write songs. And so when we graduated, it was just everybody moves to New York. So it's like in my head, I'm like, okay, so I I went to school for musical theater, so I want to be on Broadway. So I'm gonna move to NYC. And so that's what you do. You pack up your bags, you move to NYC, and then I just went right back to country music. And I started working at the Wayland, and I was like, wait, this is what I did like originally. Like, I'm sorry for the thousands of dollars that was spent for like dancing and like all that stuff, but um, I just went like right back to like my roots, which is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

We talk about that a lot. How it was like once we started like really putting everything into this, we were like, Oh, this makes like so much sense. Because like I was showing her too like a little postcard of a song that I wrote when I was I don't even know how well the every word was spelled wrong, but it's like just you think about it and you're like, oh duh, like why did I ever even do anything else?

SPEAKER_05 7:37

You mean in terms of getting away from country music? Yeah, there was always gonna end up there. So does it give you being in New York? Is this like a way to kind of give you your own niche, right? Because I mean, because in Nashville, it I mean, all you ever hear is just this like there's just every night at all these incredible venues, there's you know, performers all hoping to kind of find their you know a record deal. So is there something to be said about being the it's weird to say the small fish or the big fish in a small pond in New York because you're rarely about it kind of turned into like a little blessing in disguise because we uh we are like the smallest little fish here.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

But it's also like there is a country music scene here, it's just small. It's bigger than like everybody knows everybody immediately and like everybody works together. It's really cool in that way, but it is kind of like a different, it's just a different pipeline, you know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 8:30

So yeah, so tell me about that from the country music scene in New York. I think that's a really cool thing for people to hear about. Just even that, even that frame country music scene in the in New York. Right. That's really awesome.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

I know, it's crazy. I think um it's been interesting to watch it grow too, because it's been growing like since I've moved here. So like my first job in the city was bartending at the Wayland.

SPEAKER_05 8:53

And make the reference, why is it called the Whalen?

SPEAKER_00 8:56

For Whalen Jennings, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:57

Yeah, not not everyone in our audio audience.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Yeah, Waylon Jennings, Willie Whalen, you know. Very famous country music. Very famous country music musician. Um, it was my first job in the city. I thought, and I didn't even like want to work there because it was specifically a country bar, I just needed a job and just moved from Texas. And I was like, I bet they'll hire me if I walk in with my cowboy boots and say, I just moved from Texas, can you hire me with no bartending experience? And they did. So um working there is what introduced me to the country music scene in New York City, seeing all these bands come through, and I was like, and they were amazing. And I was like, what are these bands doing playing in this small bar? Like they could be on a huge stage, like these musicians are insane. And once I started playing with a lot of the bands there and getting involved in that scene, I started getting introduced to a bunch of other different bars in in New York that are also country music bars as well, and that's like the where the whole scene lies. And over time, like in the past year, there's had to be like three or four new country music venues that have popped up just because they're trying to country music is really popular right now, so I think people are trying to capitalize off the popularity, and especially in New York, it's like you can put on your boots and be a cowboy for the night. For the night, like you don't have to like do it every day, but I think it's kind of cool for people here to be like to have a taste of that in the city.

SPEAKER_05 10:23

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Just because it's different.

SPEAKER_05 10:24

So why do you think um why do you think there is a resurgence or popularity in in country music right now? What would be your guess?

SPEAKER_03 10:33

I think about that. You might have a better answer. I Beyonce I don't want to be. She does, but I also think it was happening a little. Like it was starting to happen with like the Bachelorette parties and like the the like Pink Pony Club Chapel Road stuff, and like Sabrina Carpenter is like doing her thing, which it's like country adjacent. There were like country musicals coming out at the time. I don't know why. I think we're kind of in like an era of reaching for like very specific things. Like there's like the Y2K 90s kid thing, and then there's like the the 80s people, and then there's like country that's like super specific, and we can like make that kind of fun, and like I'm gonna buy cowboy boots because that's so like I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of artists are having are coming out with their version of country music that don't necessarily do it, and that is what's bringing it to like people, other genres, and people who wouldn't necessarily ever listen to country music are now like, oh wait, like if this person is doing it, then maybe like I can listen to country music too, because country music for the longest time wasn't necessarily like didn't have the reputation of being like the most welcoming genre to people with different backgrounds and like different races and different sexualities, and now it's just being it's almost like every artist that is super popular right now is having like a country single or a country album. Yeah, they like pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

And in that way, I do think yeah, obviously, Beyonce like you're right on that.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Well, yeah, that's just like the biggest example. Like her winning country album at the Grammys was like huge. Like nobody would ever think that Beyonce would have a country album, but her having a country album, a lot a lot of her fans aren't typically country music listeners, but it's bringing attention to that genre has like made it a lot more popular, just like in popular culture right now, which is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 12:39

Yeah, and I think there's there's been a lot of crossovers. I mean, I think of Darius Rucker when it was. Yeah, Darius Rucker was a big deal when he when he first came over from Hoodie the Blowfish were obviously their music wasn't like like completely on the other side of country music because it was it was more kind of acoustic and guitar-driven and things like that. But then for him, it was like, wait, wait a, wait a black guy's gonna be like a lead singer. This is weird, you know. We're not used to and obviously he's his voice is extraordinary. Yeah, he's great. But you know, I'm I'm I remember I'm old enough to remember when it was like a it was like wait, Shania's Wayne, that's not country music. And Faith Hill, that's not country music because it was too pop. Yeah, that was a big that was a big deal that because I I I I remember Shania came out with there was one time one of her albums had three versions.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_05 13:24

There was a country version, a pop version, and a dance version. But she could do whatever she wanted, she just like crushed it. Um but I I I wonder, I mean, this is my thesis off the top of my head. I wonder if part of it is that um country music is people playing their own instruments, things have become so digitized and intangible, and I sound like the old guy that I'm like, oh yeah. But like I can't honestly, like you were mentioning 80s music before, like 80s and into the 90s and even early 2000s, you can play the first couple chords, and I'm like, I know that artist. Now I can hear an entire song, and I'm like, that could be one of ten artists they sound all the same.

SPEAKER_04 14:09

That's real.

SPEAKER_05 14:10

So I think there's something about the tangibility of like, wait, that person's wrote a song, is playing the song, is singing the song, and and then even as you mentioned, like like the the cowboy booth thing, it's like, but it's tangible, it's like a an experiential thing we do together, or you can do in person as opposed to something that's a purely kind of consumed digitally, created digitally. I think people are are craving like tangible like things they can hang, they can actually yeah, like the sitting around the bonfire and someone's playing the guitar and everybody's singing the song, or like those jams that we talk about where you just like you're you tell them the chords and then everybody's playing together.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

And it's like it's like when the pandemic happened and you couldn't go to a restaurant anymore, and people were like, Well, there are robots now that can be servers or whatever, but people still want that like the physical like connection and that experience of it all. And so I totally agree. I think that's one of like the best parts of country music is that it's like very um I don't know, down to like the basics almost.

SPEAKER_05 15:15

Yeah, and I think when you mentioned, I don't know if you guys watched that um there was a PBS documentary about country music. It was like I don't know, eight or ten episodes or something. But you know, we we often think of of jazz as kind of the um one true American art form, but country music really, I mean like Americana and that is really and and I think perhaps what you're saying in terms of the diversity of it now, it's really just it's just Americana kind of updated, so to speak, right? Um and so there's something about the storytelling behind around the the bonfire that's just a natural that's what we do as humans. We just we we sit around and we want to like entertain each other. And you know, what I found fascinating about that country music documentary was folks have been living on the frontier, you know, in small communities and playing songs with it with one another for years and years and years, and then this music producer who had like a very early rudimentary way of recording songs. I forget it was I forget some sort of like literally like engraving where it like records the the musical sounds or whatever. But so then he could just go out to these places that had been perfecting in some ways this form of storytelling for decades or maybe even longer than that. It had such richness to it because it was just this is what we did to survive or to keep ourselves, you know, in community or to tell our own stories to one another, right? Right. Um so so then how how has it been trying to navigate like I think people are always fascinated by the life of a of a of an artist, of a musician, you know, what that's like. It's like it's very romantic, you know. Oh yeah, the movies it's just like it happened in uh with Lady Gaga in uh in uh Star Wars War, right? Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Well, there's a lot of drama in there.

SPEAKER_05 17:04

Um uh let's show the the downsides of being a musician. Yeah, yeah, this is where we get into the uh the the the the the the uh the revealing stories where you're like wow this is this is what it's really like um yeah so I mean I give people a glimpse into what it's what what it's like you know trying to balance like working and living and trying to find opportunities to perform.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

I mean I think to put it simply you just don't stop yeah ever. I mean we like when's the last day you had a day off, Chloe?

SPEAKER_00 17:33

I always talk about we have this conversation daily. I'm like I don't remember the last day I like fully had a day off. Like it's been months. But I'm like happy. But we're happy. I'm happy to do it. I think no, I'm I'm happy. But I'm happy to like obviously have the opportunity to perform so much and do so much music, but it is 100% hard when you also are a bartender and you're also like trying to make ends meet and pay rent and do all the things, and then also you want to take every opportunity that you can grasp in front of you, even if you're not making any money, you know. Like right now, we're not at the luxury of being like, well, that doesn't pay enough because we're just trying to get our name out there, and most places in New York, even like the really cool clubs that like people are like, Oh my god, I wish I could play there, you're making like a hundred dollars. Yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize that yeah, like and the musicians, like the ones that are behind us that are professional musicians and are like pedal steel, like literally masterminds and play all over the country. They're making the same as us. And it's like I'm paying out these musicians like 75 bucks for three hours, and I'm like, that feels so wrong. Like I want to pay them more. Like, I wish that there was, you know, obviously, this is like at the bar level, right? Like these are like the cool bars in New York.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

But we're not playing stadiums yet, but that's yeah, that is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

It's a humble living.

SPEAKER_05 18:55

It's a humble living. It has to be a passion, right? I mean, if it's if it's not a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Yeah, exactly. It's not for the money. And I I always like tell the musicians that we play with, I'm like, I'm sorry, like I wish I could pay you more. And they're like, we don't do it for the money.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

They always everybody knows how it is, how it is.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Yeah, yeah. And they're like, until you make it big, you know.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Like, then we'll cut you a check.

SPEAKER_05 19:20

Yeah, I've uh as you know, I've I've hosted lots of primary jazz uh programs over the last 10 years, I guess. Yeah. Uh and we've done some other stuff too. I've worked with uh with our friend Kyle, who's the producer here with his band John the Martyr, and we've done some funk nights and some like cover 80s cover bands kind of stuff. And yeah, I'm more of a I would say I'm a business guy, but I'm more sensitive to those things. And because I just I don't have the talent you guys have, and I I I just think it's it's frustrating for me to be on the other side of it to be the one that's maybe producing the event to want to want the performers to be you know fairly compensated. Because I remember when we did our first um jazz night, I talked to the to the band leader and he told me the numbers, and I was like per person?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

No, you're right. He was like the palace.

SPEAKER_05 20:13

I was like, I'm confused. I I I don't understand. I was like, I thought that that's not for the that's just that's that's it. I was like, okay, um, I mean I can make that, I guess I can make that work. Um but we were and we were very fortunate during COVID. We were had this outdoor venue, and so we were able to uh to host or to put on like I think like once or twice a week. And because people were starved for for for live music, we were selling out, and it was so satisfying to actually pay these musicians like pretty close to what they were worth. Yeah. Because we were able to charge like a pretty hefty amount because there was so much demand. Um and uh I mean we could max out what we could do with kind of the COVID restrictions or whatever, but uh but uh but I was we might have been like I think we were like one of the uh probably the largest venue in New York during during COVID. We were kind of under the radar though. Right. It was safe. It was safe, it was safe. It was just uh yeah, it was all outdoors, but it was an enclosed kind of courtyard area. But um but then uh so then how do you go about getting your name out there? I mean, it's uh it's I you happen to be working at a country music bar, so you you at some point you said to them, Hey, by the way, I'd love to perform sometime.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

I mean, that's been like huge, because that is where everybody I think it's been everything. I would be uh uh hard pressed to find a country band that hasn't played at the Wayland in New York. Yeah. And um so I think just being there and like you just meet people and they'll have you hop up for a song and then you make connections with them, and like Chloe has made really strong connections with them. She's been there for three years. Three years I've been there like three times a month for a year or so. So yeah, you've you've met a lot of people through that.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Yeah, it's been crazy. I mean, I found too that like people who are from Nashville or just like interested in the country music industry like seek out these bars in New York because they want to like check them out. And they're like, Oh, I want to see what the country music scene is like in New York City. So being a bartender there has been literally everything to networking. And even just meeting like we did a gig up at the United Palace in Washington Heights, and I met the presidents of that theater through the Wayland as well. Like they just like came down to the Wayland and they were like, we want to bring country music up to Washington Heights, and that was like a whole thing too, like bringing country music up to a place that traditionally doesn't use it.

SPEAKER_05 22:33

Yeah, I mean, Washington Heights is you know, next to Heartlem, then it's no more for jazz, no more for you know the uh the Apollo. Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

And that was just because they were trying to scope out the scene and see, you know, what's around. So I'm not saying like you have to be a bartender to be a musician. A lot of people behind the bar are musicians. Yeah, I know! Don't come for my job.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

You just have to meet people. Yeah, it's just meeting people and talking to people, yeah. Going to other people's gigs and collabing with people. There's a lot of like collaboration, especially in our cover band. We try and play with like as many different musicians as we can, which is partially just because people aren't available all the time. So you want to be able to be like, well, this person can hop up. But in doing that, you meet this person who's in a band with these people, so then you meet their band, and then you grab their bass player who also plays with this other band, and there's like a lot of it's just like a a web. So like once you're in it, it's kind of like just starts to all unravel in a way.

SPEAKER_05 23:32

No, no, I and you see that because I I um when when some people are intimidated by New York City or or wonder why people like us choose to live here, it's like couldn't you could you live in a you know in a kind of quieter area, have more space and everything like that. Because they think of New York as this kind of crushing amount of people, right? You know, kind of like always crowded, and but really it's it's all these little communities, right? I mean you have country music community, you have like I've gotten to know a lot of the folks in the jazz community, yeah. And it's really just uh the thousands of communities that happen to be within close proximity to each other. So that's why to me it's cozy. I find I find New York City cozy because that's a good word. I like there's more because things are familiar to me. Like I was just walking here to the the studio and I'm like, I'm like, oh, that's new. I haven't seen that before. Or like the these are places I've gone and I know I've I meet people there, or uh there's an actual like I have a connection to neighborhoods and streets, whereas I was just out in South Carolina visiting family, and you know, nothing there's nothing wrong with that, but just like I'm in a car, then I'm in a house, and then I'm in a restaurant, and I'm back into a car, and I'm back into I don't know anything about my family who lives in Greenville. I don't know anything about Greenville because I have no experience of Greenville. My entire experience of Greenville is going from a house to a car to a restaurant to a house to a crowd or to you know, whatever. So I think that is is usually a uh a misconception people have. Now, let's let's not over-glamorize it. Because the reality is like maybe we talk about that. Like, what what are the what are the hard parts about like being a working musician in New York City trying to like grind it out?

SPEAKER_03 25:22

I mean, I think it's just the same as what we said, the cost of living is super high, you don't get paid a lot, so it's like having to find the time to practice and network and do all those things that you want to do and take every opportunity, but you also are like, well, my rent is due. And the rent here is very high. So it's yeah. It's like living in Oklahoma. I w could probably work half as much and do the same thing. But here you gotta it's just everything's a little harder, like packing up your music gear. Yeah, you're gonna have to get in a car, you're getting in a subway Uber, or do you want to cram on a subway with a bunch of people and have your guitar smashed up against your back or you know, just things like that? It's just everything that you would expect to be harder here, I would say is.

SPEAKER_05 26:08

And was that your expectation? Was it like you're like, I'm gonna move to New York, but like w were there any things that were better or worse or different than you expected as to what your I don't know what you anticipated New York would be like.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Honestly, I think it was exactly what you're doing. I know what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

Like that's pretty much what I expected. I felt like I knew I knew the problems I was signing up for, but the payoff was so much higher. I mean, you can't get New York anywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

I think I think it was honestly better than I expected. Like I said, I think that the um the different kinds of people that I've gotten to meet and like different stories that I've gotten to hear from different perspectives has been like one of the best things about New York to me. It's just how many different kinds of people live here and how many different perspectives there are. And I'm like, I don't remember living in I mean Austin's a great place too, but like you're not gonna sit at a bar in Austin and like talk to like two completely different people from two completely different places. From Ireland or Ireland and like, you know, from you know, New Zealand. You just don't that doesn't happen anywhere else. And so for New York, and that's the cool thing about country music too, like doing country music here. It's like so many different kinds of people are like interested in it. I was talking to a bartender the other day, and he was like, Oh, I have to bring um my friend, he's like a Saudi prince, but he's really into country music, and like he like wears a cowboy hat, and like he's like the most interesting person I've ever met, and like he would totally come to one of your gigs. I'm like, come on, let's go! Like, that's the cool that's like what makes New York special.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

Yeah, it gives a lot of fuel for like songwriting too, specifically, because you are meeting like so many people, you're hearing insane stories all the time, you're seeing insane things all the time. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Makes for songwriting real easy. Yeah, like I saw this on the subway last night. All right, yeah. No one will ever believe this.

SPEAKER_05 28:00

Well, yeah, right. You need storytelling, you need inputs, right? You need data. Yeah, and you're you're gonna get it.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Oh, you just live. You just need to like live to have things to like lots of detail and so many details. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:14

Yeah, and people will share their stories, they will tell you.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:17

I mean, there's being a bartender and there's being a bartender in New York.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Oh yeah. Uh you're gonna hear Especially over country music and whiskey. I'm like, all right.

SPEAKER_05 28:25

I'd probably shared a few things at uh, yeah. Well well that that's not for this, I guess. But uh so let's talk about that. What we'll talk about the songwriting process. I think for uh that's a fascinating thing to a lot of people. I know that I'm sure there are lots of different ways that people go about it. So you guys, you write separately, you write together, you have ideas, you then sit down in a room, and then you wait for the magic to happen.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

Who does who does the music side, who does the melodies, who's doing the we um go into a trance like state. Okay, yeah. Oh, seriously, and we're like, what just happened? But we have a song. I don't know, it's super collaborative, and that's something that has been really fun working with Chloe because we both would send each other our songs that we were writing separately, and then the first time we ever started writing together, we were like, Whoa, this is awesome. It's just like I don't even know, you talk.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

I mean, just like what you're saying, like I feel we both have been writing songs for so long, and we have always had like our own process, processes, processes, whatever, for um writing our own music. And when we came together and started writing stuff together, it just it was almost just like a flow. Like it was it's so weird. It's like you don't you don't know until you try, obviously, like how you're gonna collaborate with another person. But for us, it's just kind of like our brains work so well together, and we can just sit down and like start playing chords. And I'm like, okay, I mean, recently. We kind of been doing a thing where it's like we have an idea, so we'll say, Okay, I I I envision this. I'm I'm very visual when it comes to songwriting. I think I see it and I know what I want the song to sound like or be about. It's almost like a movie in my head. They say how sometimes people, I've had this conversation before. Sometimes people think like their inside thoughts are words. Apparently, everybody is either one or the other. Like your constant inner monologue, that like the thought process, like, oh, that amp is cool or whatever. Sometimes people see the words. Yeah, they see the words. Or some people like have a voice in their head that is like saying the words. I've always been just like almost like a movie. Like it's just like a constant reel. Like my thoughts are kind of like if I'm writing this song, I'm in I'm already envisioning what the movie would look like if this song was underscoring it, or the music video. What who's the actor? Like, what are they doing? What what what like what emotion are they feeling? So when we're going through songs, I always tell Sarah, I'm like, okay, this is what I see.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Yeah, for the music video, well, it'll be like blah blah blah blah blah. We're like driving in a car and like Yeah, what do we see?

SPEAKER_00 31:11

And how can we explain like what we want the feeling to be? Which I know some people just kind of like go down or do do the poetry route. Like they just write the poem. We're not like that as much.

SPEAKER_03 31:22

I think because I I hear that question to songwriters, and I used to kind of ask myself that like when I was really getting into songwriting, I would go watch interviews and stuff with songwriters and be like, what is their process? Like, how do you do it? And I think it's literally different for every single song. Like there have been songs I wrote a song on my way to Chloe's house one time, just like on my phone, like as a poem, and then we sat down and put it to music in like 10 minutes. But I've also like been like, oh, I really like this chord progression, and then I'll like think of one lyric and go off of that, and like and then it'll change, and then I'll bring it to you, and we'll like completely change the whole thing. But yeah, it's just so there's not like a way, you know.

SPEAKER_05 32:08

We both do the music, we both do the lyrics, we both do the melodies, and and how does it get difficult like other times where you have strong feelings on a certain portion of the song or on a lyric, and then you have to kind of compromise, or there's arm wrestling. What how does how does one decide who wins?

SPEAKER_03 32:28

Um, I think we really trust each other. Yeah. And so if I'm like there's never been a time where we're both super passionately opposed. So if one of us feels pretty strongly about something, we'll usually just kind of be like, okay, I trust your judgment. Yeah. Or we'll ask somebody else, like, what do you like better?

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Or yeah, we've been we've done that.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

We've done that a few times of like, we're trying it both ways, what do you think? And then they'll tell us and we'll be like, okay, well, if that's what they're hearing, then like that's probably what it should be. Um, but I think we really just trust each other's judgment a lot. And it kind of just comes down to if one of us is like, no, I like really, really think that it should be this way, then we're not gonna fight that.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Yeah, I would never. I mean, like, I mean, we're obviously like passionate artists and musicians, but we're also like people pleasers. So, like, if we're like, I have an idea and I'm like, do you like this though? Like, if you don't like it, then we can like totally change it. Yeah. I'm not, I mean I really like it. I really like it. So there's that.

SPEAKER_05 33:24

You make a you make there's a lot of songwriting about being polite. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Oh, we we have a song in the works. I actually really do.

SPEAKER_05 33:31

About being people pleasers. That's funny. No, I I I I'm the youngest of my family. I was I was very much the the people pleaser. Yeah. Uh so you have to, you know, it's it takes a while to fight that instinct uh where you're like, no, I'm gonna stand my ground a little bit more. Yeah. But my siblings are a lot older, so I just was like, whatever they want. I am, you know, I just wanna I just want them to like me. Yeah. I'm like, I think they like me now. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

I bet they do.

SPEAKER_05 33:59

I bet they do. Unclear. Um but uh okay, so then and then okay, you you you have the magic uh songwriting process, uh, and then you're bringing in other musicians to do percussion and then other instruments, or how does that part work?

SPEAKER_03 34:14

Yeah, so it's kind of funny. I think like what you were saying before, we even started rolling about how like it's not you're the podcast hasn't launched yet, so it's like you're getting all of this stuff like ready. That's kind of the point that we're at with our um duo, and that we're like right, we're like trying to crank out as much music as we can so that we can then go to that process. And we've we've done a few, we've put a few things on their feet with um some people we play with, but yeah, we're like getting ready, we're like almost to the point where we're gonna start orchestrating everything and like recording.

SPEAKER_05 34:49

And that comes down to actual sheet music. What does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Um we no, I I wouldn't say sheet music. We have to organize all of our songs into like chord charts, so that's just more like having the lyrics and then like what chords are playing here. I mean, I don't even know if we would ever even need specific sheet music, but somebody's playing the violin. I feel like that's the thing about like country music too. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like a jam. So it's like if somebody's gonna play the violin, then I'm just gonna be like, okay, here's the song, here's the instrumental, like do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_04 35:22

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Because that's kind of what would happen on stage, you know, like with ja and with jazz too. I feel like jazz has a lot of jamming.

SPEAKER_04 35:30

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

Um, so I sheet music, I don't know. I w I did go to music school for four years and have a degree. I couldn't tell you how to sheet music, even I can't read it. So I would scrape the secret section. I like I I scraped my music theory with like a C minus. So let's just music theory is really hard. Yeah, it's really hard. So I I learned everything by ear, so that's how I always was. Like when I was playing the violin, I would have the sheet music in front of me, and my violin teacher was so mad because I would I was just copying what he did, like by muscle memory and learning by ear, and I was always like that. And when I got to university, I was like, oh my god, this is like horrible. This is the hardest thing I've ever done. But it's still good to have like the basic knowledge, you know. Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

Yeah, I mean, we're not fiddle players and we also don't play the drums or the bass. So it's gonna be very collaborative, and like we have a vision and a vibe that we want, but it'll be really fun, I think, to like hear what other people think and kind of like work together on it with these people that we trust and like get the vibe.

SPEAKER_05 36:41

Okay. Yeah. Um so then what is that what does the kind of progression look like, so to speak? Meaning, okay, you found the the one another as a great kind of duo and songwriting and performing. That's rare to find, right? And and you seem to like each other, it seems that's yeah, you're all right. Signing along, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:00

Um so then okay, now you're now you're building content, basically, building your own intellectual property through your songs, right? Um, and now you get to a point where you're like, oh, we've got enough for a demo, for an album, for and then and how does it I know a little bit about it, but for people that are curious, like what does that process look like?

SPEAKER_04 37:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:21

How do we go from here to to you know selling out a readiness? That's that's right.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Right, so it's a very easy path. Um there are three big steps. Get famous. Get famous, viral, yeah. People really like you, and then yeah, and then have a lot of money. I think that is how it works.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Um yeah, so basically demos, I think demos is like the next step that we're looking at. Um and that will be pretty easy for us. I mean, we have like a huge roster of musicians, it's just kind of like deciding who we want to play with or who we want like on the demos. Um, and then booking out a recording studio, or I mean you could even do something like this, like yeah, yeah. A house, depending on just like how professional how professional you want to be about it and how much money you want to spend.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Um and then from there I mean but that's if that's just the demos, then once you have the d once you have the demos and everything, then that would be more going into like actioning it and like doing gigs with it and like really trying to get it out there and like posting it and yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:32

So you're going on like band camp, that sort of stuff, and then eventually so then and how are you selecting? You've got two, six, eight, how many are you right now where you're like these are the these are the the canon, these are the ones where we feel most confident in?

SPEAKER_03 38:47

The songs or the musicians?

SPEAKER_05 38:48

The songs. How do you decide which ones you're gonna go with?

SPEAKER_00 38:53

It's like we're like we don't know. Um we have so many right now. Like we have a few albums worth of songs.

SPEAKER_05 39:00

Oh, so that's the good problem to have.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Yeah, so we and we keep writing them and replacing. Um right now, like I think we have probably like I would say five or six ones that we could probably release like as like what do you call it? Like singles. Yeah, I was gonna say solo singles. Um and I think that apparently that's like the way to do it is you're you have like an album's worth of songs that you've recorded and produced, right? Then you start releasing songs from that album as singles to get people's piques people's interest, and also it's not like oversaturated all at once. Like it's too much as like a new artist to be like, okay, I'm here on the scene, and here's 15 songs that are all by me, and you should listen to them right now. So it's like easier to release things slowly as singles and then release the album and be like, okay, now that we kind of have like a little bit of a fan base, a little bit of a following, and you want more music, here's the full album.

SPEAKER_05 39:53

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

So that's kind of like how people do things.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

Like EPs too a lot of things is like a five-song EP.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Yeah, that's also yeah. Which we could do that too. We could we've talked about it. Um we haven't really figured out exactly how we want to release it.

SPEAKER_05 40:07

I always figured what an EP stands for. What does it stand for?

SPEAKER_00 40:12

Exciting project. I've never even thought about that. I've never just thought of that EP. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 40:21

Kyle, though, but him. What does it stand for?

SPEAKER_03 40:25

Excellent production.

SPEAKER_05 40:26

What does an EP stand for?

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Extended play.

SPEAKER_05 40:33

He's probably laughing in there, like they don't know. He's like, wow, they have no idea. No, no, you don't we don't need to know all the terms. Okay. Um So then how would you say the music industry I mean it's it's so different now because the ability to effectively self-publish and distribute through YouTube and Spotify or uh or Bandcamp or whatever else, which is great in some ways. I would imagine the downside is the I I I mean, this is completely, you know, from uh from an outsider's perspective, I would imagine the investment in what used to be called AR, right? Yeah. Which was developing artists. Called the AR. Uh and we probably don't know what AR stands for either.

SPEAKER_03 41:14

It's um, oh shoot. I literally was talking to someone the other day that does AR and we were talking about it. Should we phone a friend? AR. It's like artist um rehabilitation. Ma la.

SPEAKER_05 41:30

Well, that's after they become fancy.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Yeah, right. That's like yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

That's why so many musicians don't drink. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:36

But yeah, there used to be an investment in like, all right, your first album didn't quite hit the way we were hoping, but we really still see potential in you. And that it seems like those days are more or less over. It's like, did did Justin Bieber screw everybody? Because he was like just like made himself famous on YouTube, and now it's like, oh good, we don't have to do anything. We'll just wait for people to pop.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

It's a lot, it's a lot of like social media. Like it's social media is gang when it comes to like rising artists. It's almost like you there's all whole like TikTok is huge for rising artists. Like, if you somehow get your song like in a trend or dance that goes viral, then like your life could change overnight. But it's just about like how how do you get there and a lot of algorithm. Like people will pay big um big creators to like use their songs in one of their videos to like get it more views and stuff like that. That's a huge thing that people do. Hey, I'll pay you like a thousand bucks if you do a dance video to my new song. And like you have millions of followers, and people and then people will be like, Oh, I want to do that dance too. Like, that's fun. I'm gonna do that dance, and then soon enough, like millions and millions and millions of people now have heard your song, and now it's like number one. So it's like that is like almost that happens a lot. It happens like on the weekly, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:53

So what what does the the the music industry do for artists now? I mean, if they're if they're kind of just picking winners, is like like it did back in the day you needed you needed them for developing artists, they're not they don't tend to be helping a lot with that. And you needed them before to like actually like get the deals, get you on radio.

SPEAKER_03 43:09

I think that still exists. It still exists. And like when you're signed to a label, to my understanding, you they pay for you to write and like live so that you give them that output, and that's kind of like the trade-off, so that we wouldn't have to bartend. They would pay for us to just stay home and write songs and do that kind of thing. And that definitely still exists. And I know that there are producers that want to find the next big thing. Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's as much credit as like the TikTok musicians get, there's also a whole world of people on the other side that are like that's garbage, that think it's like well, you didn't really make it like the right way.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Like you didn't do the pulling up your bootstraps and like going to the down well, the downside of a lot of the TikTok stuff too is that a lot of the artists that go viral have just like one song because it's like oh they don't have a they don't have like a whole repertoire or even like careers worth of like stuff to like back it up.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

So a lot of times they kind of are end up being like the one-hit wonder kind of situation, which is also kind of why we're like trying to do it in a way of like having our stuff done and ready so that when someone hears a song of ours at an open mic, we can be like, Yes, and this is all of our other stuff. And it doesn't have to be like a oh shoot, this song went viral, now we have to write an album in a week. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:32

Yeah, they used to there was this trope I you would hear sometimes. It's uh you have these people that you have bands or artists that have spent their entire lives writing that first album. It goes really well, and then they have to write the second album like super fast. Yeah, it's like I spent 20 years making this first album, yeah, and now I've got to somehow you know recreate that or or or expand that by double, you know, in a short period of time. So so all right, that makes a lot of sense. So you're you want to build a library effectively that you've already got that you've really worked through, and that's that's the benefit of performing, right, on a regular basis, is that you're working it out and seeing how people respond.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:09

Going back and tweaking things, I imagine.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Of course, yeah. Yeah. Also, I I host an open mic as well, and that's been like really beneficial to us, like and like kind of a motivator, because every every two weeks um people come in with like new material and new songs, and it's always like, okay, well, we need to like get on that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

We've already sung this one here two or three times, so we should probably do one of our newer ones, and then that forces you to perform something you haven't that maybe isn't like completely ready, but you can get the vibes of like how people are responding to you, and if it's something that you want to like keep going with, and yeah, that has been a really valuable resource.

SPEAKER_05 45:48

Sure. I mean, yeah, yeah, you need we need a stage. I mean, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

And with like original stuff too, it's like how often do you get to like just go and try something out before you even have like it ready or a reputation at all? So like open mics are huge for that.

SPEAKER_03 46:01

Because that's another thing too with our cover band, it's like so awesome and has been so great, and we're thankfully gigging all the time. But most of the place I'm almost all of the places that we're gigging want cover bands. They don't want people to come in and do their original stuff.

SPEAKER_00 46:16

So that's like a whole different like you'd maybe sneak one in there, but yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:20

Well, it's just uh because the the venues in New York, I don't know, I don't know what it's like now compared to where it maybe was, you know, five to ten years ago. But my sense of things is that uh I think people need to always keep in mind that this is a business, right? So if you own a bar or a restaurant or whatever, of course, I mean who doesn't love live music, but it's it the the the the live music is there to drive customers to then buy more food or drink or whatever. So I mean we left for there to be purists about these things, but um but then there's there are venues like you mentioned before. Uh we didn't mention specific names, but places I don't know, like Mercury Lounge or this. And Rockwood used to be a great place. Rockwood is amazing. Scale down.

SPEAKER_00 47:06

No, it's gone.

SPEAKER_05 47:06

It's completely gone now.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Yeah, it's gone.

SPEAKER_05 47:08

Okay, because I was there maybe two months ago. And that was the last stage.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

Yeah, it literally closed like right before like the holidays.

SPEAKER_05 47:17

Wow. So it was that was like the one stages.

SPEAKER_00 47:20

And that was like the one venue in Manhattan at least that was like for aspiring artists to like get up and do their original stuff and people would show up. And and so now it's like the without Rockwood, it's it is I hope they I hope maybe somebody opens like another thing.

SPEAKER_03 47:37

Certainly they will.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

Certainly. They have to. Like there's like Arlene's grocery too, which does a lot of stuff, but Rockwood was like the one.

SPEAKER_05 47:42

Like and Rockwood closed just because it was it just the the the rent went up or something?

SPEAKER_00 47:46

Yeah, I think yeah, that's what I heard. Which usually what happens is the It was like the rent went up, and I think it had been like an issue for a while, and so I think they were like slowly kind of just like whoever owned it, like pulling out, maybe, and it needed probably more people to like throw some money into it.

SPEAKER_05 48:01

But yeah, I I probably I mean, I've probably been there 50 times over.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

Oh, yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 48:06

Um I mean I love that it was a different artist every hour, and I didn't know what was gonna go on and different different vibes, completely different genres.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

Oh, completely different genres.

SPEAKER_05 48:16

And they had that that that uh that grand piano that they could just bring that that was like literally up on a shelf.

SPEAKER_00 48:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:21

And they had this little crane thing that would like drop the freaking big how amazing. Just lowered up. There's a floor space. But it's have it hanging above your bed. That would be really good. Just hope that it doesn't really get sleep.

SPEAKER_03 48:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:39

I could think it's if if if if it snapped, it's gonna be a quick death.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

It's gonna that'll be worse for other people than it is.

SPEAKER_05 48:45

Yeah, maybe for the floor below. Yeah. I got morbid, I apologize. Um yeah, so I mean, in terms of like outside there's there's the whale-in, there's a handful of places, but like where do you get I mean, I guess that would be the advantage of Nashville, I guess, right? Because the hunger for country music would be s is such that yeah, so many bars are looking for they need to have live music every night. Um so I guess that's would you say that's kind of the one drawback of being in New York? Is that gigging is because if it didn't have the whale-in and connections there, yeah, it would be hard, you know?

SPEAKER_00 49:19

If I didn't have if like if if I didn't work there and got the connections that I did, I don't even know like what I would be doing because it obviously pushed me to like go back to country music in general, but yeah, it was interesting moving from Austin to here too, because Austin is like a live music capital. And I did I truly did think like moving to New York that it was gonna be just like that. It really, I mean, there is live music, but not as much and not as frequently. Like Skinny Dennis and Williamsburg is a big one. They have live music every night, but it's really one of the only ones. And we play at every place that literally we've we're already we've already played at every place that has the need for that. Like it's like six or seven different places. And now that we've played there, it's like okay, we either keep going back there, or like you know.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

Yeah, which is also good because you get to people in like those communities there.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

Yeah. But it is like, it's not like yeah, it's not like Nashville, every single bar on Broadway. You're like just like, oh, I can play here, I can play. Yeah, yeah. So Nashville, yeah, definitely completely different than the New York market.

SPEAKER_05 50:23

But yeah, in New York's tricky because the the the rent is so high for for these retail established for these restaurants and bars and things. And so and space is limited, right? So I mean even the Wayland, right? You're walking past the band as you come in the front door. It's not like there's a full on stage usually, and space is limited.

SPEAKER_03 50:41

Yeah, and there's also apartments above all of these bars with people in them. Calling the police. Yeah, yeah. Where you'll get noise complaints and you're like, well, it's a live music bar, and you got to be able to do that. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

You don't know how many times I've been gigging it and I've seen police walk, and then I'm like, All right, turn down my mic. All right.

SPEAKER_04 50:59

What is that Chloe from the club? New York people, come on.

SPEAKER_05 51:03

Now we're gonna we're gonna do a jazz festival here at this this venue outside, um, just on the other side of this building. I think in April, I think May, maybe. And yeah, we have to stop by like 9 p.m. because I'm like, you're living in Brooklyn, like and enjoy the free music, people. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

Yeah, open up your window. Come on. That's what I that's my thought. I'm like, you live in New York. This is like one of the perks, right? Like it's like the point. I had a violinist live below me for like a little while. I don't know what happened, but they're not there anymore, I guess. Or they stopped playing. They stopped playing. Yeah, getting morbid again, but terrible in the world. But it was like so beautiful. I would just like sit back and I was like, I don't know why people would You're not like 911, turn it down. No, I think that's one of the good things, but it it that's like another added element why I think because there's so many regulations. Like we have like at the Wayland, there's like a decibel that they like actually keep track of, and if you open the doors and it goes above that, then that's like they can shut you down.

SPEAKER_05 51:57

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_03 51:58

Yeah. Come on, guys, lighten up people. I know, I just want to be like, come on down, I'll get you a free drink. Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_05 52:06

No, it's sad because like I've seen so many places I've been in New York going on 13 years. The amount of places I've seen close.

SPEAKER_00 52:12

I mean, I've heard and and during COVID and after COVID too.

SPEAKER_05 52:15

I've heard that was yeah, COVID was kind of for a lot of places that were kind of on their were struggling, that it was kind of the the nail in the coffin for them. And then I don't I've never told this, but like my friend and I almost we had a deal in place to to not buy but take over a uh a um live music venue in in West Village. It was they were live music, I think, yeah, six nights a week because they were closed Mondays. But it was more singer-songwriter, and I love I was there like three, four nights a week. I loved it. I met so many interesting people. They the these folks were looking to move out of the city, it just wasn't their vibe, but we were supposed to take it over, had the deal in place, and speaking of kind of the kind of corporate interests or whatever else, the landlord knew that if they let the lease expire, um they could relist it for like way more. And so even though legally he couldn't legally they were they were able to hand me the lease and I could take over the lease. That's perfectly legal. And they and in fact illegal for him to stop that from happening. But basically I went to talk to my lawyer friend, and he's like, listen, man, you can you can fight this thing, but they they have a lot of financial motivation here to Yeah, it's not worth it. And that place is no joke, sin that was ten years ago, maybe more. It's probably changed five different times. I mean it it was like five different venues. Just keeps changing, keeps changing. And this is a small venue. It was like a thousand, maybe it was like a thousand square feet, maybe a little bit more. Oh wow, yeah. On how to redo the whole floor plan and figure it out. But um so yeah, and then there used to be the Cornelia Street Cafe. This is on Cornelia Street. There was a Cornelia Street Cafe that had live music for 25 years. Yeah. Rent went up significantly. That that ended. I mean, I can go like one after another after another that has happened. So sounds like we need to figure out our way. We need to we need to let's be the change. A new venue.

SPEAKER_01 54:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 54:14

So maybe uh we're gonna you're gonna you're gonna perform a few songs for us today. So maybe tell us the songs you're gonna perform and maybe about the about about the songwriting process or what they're about, or bring us into the into the creative world.

SPEAKER_03 54:30

Um our most recent song, yeah, we're gonna be performing. I guess it's not our most recent anymore. Gosh, we gotta pump the brakes. No, we actually we went to a cabin upstate a few weeks ago and just to like get away and write songs, not with people screaming out the window, you know, like have a little peaceful moment. Yes. And um, this song happened, it's about a breakup, and I envisioned it being in the cabin. Yeah, I don't know about you, but I don't want to give away like the meaning of it.

SPEAKER_04 55:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 55:07

But basically, it turned into us writing about our friend who I had just gotten broken up with, and he liked it, but he said his ex did not.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

He showed it to her?

SPEAKER_03 55:18

Yes. Oh my god. I thought he was like, what is it?

SPEAKER_00 55:23

That's so bad. No, it's we're like, she doesn't love you anymore. Cheated on you tonight. That's what I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_03 55:33

That's songwriting.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

So yeah, so we were like trying to we we had a chord progression and we really liked it, and it was giving, you know, like melancholy, but and so we and and started thinking, envisioning like, okay, it's like the end of a relationship, and then we kept writing, and we were like, should we just like base it on? Yeah, and then we did, and so it was easily turned into that.

SPEAKER_03 55:53

But we were thinking like the the beginning of it, we were like, we want it to be like the morning after a fight was kind of like where we started, and then we were like, no, it's more like it's sadder than that. It's like the morning after a breakup. So that's like this the scene is waking up and like you're like what just happened. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:13

Kind of mourning the the what the relationship could have been sort of thing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 56:18

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:19

Okay. All right. Well, that's nice and sad, thanks. Do we have a happy one? Um actually the one the other one's seven.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

So this one's about a breakup. I'm just gonna no, you you can end them on this one.

SPEAKER_00 56:35

Um Southern Hamel is more like so. The second one we have is Southern Hamel, and it's uh kind of like based on like the feeling of like walking through like an old western bar and like the double doors. Like, what do you what do you call those? Like the saloon doors, or that's like envisioning like a cowboy! Yeah, and then the saloon doors, and like two, like you're sitting at the bar and you like turn your head, and it's like this cowboy from the base. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:03

Sorry, I just totally cutting it. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 57:05

I'm just saying, just like just somebody from the past that has like been a part of your life, and like maybe like you kind of had a fling with them in the past, and they're kind of a player, and you're like, don't come around here anymore.

SPEAKER_03 57:17

You like you're hearing rumors that like there's a new guy in town, and you're like, ooh, I wonder what he's all about, and then he comes in and you're like, Oh, I know you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:26

So that's not sad as much as it is suspicious. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, it's not sad. It's not it's not sad, it's not happy.

SPEAKER_00 57:34

Okay, it's not like I love you so much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:39

Um Well good. Well, we're looking forward to that. Uh so we'll we'll uh we're gonna switch the set here so you guys can can perform. Also, yeah. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about? Well, well, first of all, tell everyone about the name of the band.

SPEAKER_03 57:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:52

And where the name came from, I guess it might be a little self-explanatory. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 57:57

So my boyfriend Sam is gonna be playing the guitar when we do this. He actually came up with the name because Chloe came over to write music one day and she was wearing a trucker hat that's a Darlin on it, and he was like, You guys should call yourselves Darlin.

SPEAKER_00 58:12

Yeah, and then we we cooked on it for a little bit, let it simmer, and we were like, Yeah, and I wear the hat all the time, and every time I wear the hat, somebody comments on it. Like they're like, I love that hat. And also they're like, nobody calls anybody Darlin anymore. Like it's such a cute, you know, thing to say. And they're like, that's kind of like more of like a thing in the past to be like, hey Darlin, how you doing? So we just kind of liked it, and it's kind of cute because like you know, we're two girls. We're darling. We're darling. That's kind of what it came from comes from. And then our other b band is the Wildflowers, and that's on Instagram. You can follow at the Wildflowers NL. We're all over the place, and we play all over, so um, and then the Darlin Instagram is we are darlin. Yeah, yeah, but we haven't really launched it yet, so it will be launched by the time this comes out.

SPEAKER_05 58:57

Yes, I know the feeling, don't worry. Um, good. Well, well, thank you for sharing your musical journey here with us, and uh, we're looking forward to hearing some originals from Darlin.

SPEAKER_00 59:09

Yes, yes, thank you for having me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:00

Kept me here knowing that I would stay, and I still would today. My mind is running in a loop of all the things I didn't do. Even now I know it would change a thing. No one tells you when you're young, even the good ones run. No one tells you when you're gone. You can give it all you guys. Still wanna sleep in alone. Go out back, strike a match, and light a cigarette. The flame is burning red. You left half a pack laying out on the country. At least I can thank you for that. Washing last night I think I realized halfway through. I'll never get the chance again to smell like you should have just let me go on, giving you all my love. No one tells you when your young death even good ones run. No one tells you when you're gone. You can give it all your guys to wanna sleep it alone. You can give it all your guys, still wanna sleep alone when cuts right in the game all water I guess that's how it goes. And I heard you flew in like the Amarillo wind, looking better than sand. Say so tall, so tan said he got a mean streak that you're rougher than sand. And I heard the double doors fly in, heads from every side start turning in. Right at night in my surprise, I know those eyes, and I've heard your lies. Hey, hey who better run out for a track it down, you better skip town, cause it gonna give you seven And I felt your hand on my shoulder went heavy on me like a charm in a small bell. So tall, so tan, but you gotta mean streak it's how you're only a man And I taste the whiskey and it's in me. Call you over, let's blame it on the gin. I give you one button, look you break your bottle of beerheads turning again. It couldn't be more clear that you better run out for it, track it down. You better skip town, cause I kinda give you southern Hey No no no no no Southern head You try again, but you know we'll never win as an hour Southern bells will give you southern check it down, but it's gonna tell 'cause it's gonna get you.