Hey Smiling Strange
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overtonight
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Indie Underground legend overtonight talks being part of an emerging genre, zoomer nostalgia, the absurdity of the modern internet, and getting music mogged.
Check out his music where ever and give a follow at @overtonight_ on instagram and tiktok
Um yes, in a second, you gotta listen to my pitch once again to play Clubhouse Fantasy Football, which is my fantasy football app. All of the stupid crap I do online where I talk about music and I talk about, I don't know, true crime every once in a while, and I talk to artists like the guy I'm gonna talk to later. It's all just to get you to play a fantasy football app. It is objectively the worst marketing strategy anyone's ever come up with. It's the best I can do. Please sign up for it so I can still keep making the stupid content. Anyway, today on the podcast, uh, this is definitely the youngest person that's appeared on my podcast. It's Steven Faulkner, aka Over Tonight. What's going on, Steven?
SPEAKER_02Yo, um, not that much. Been up for about 15 minutes. Um I'm chilling in front of the over tonight flag right here.
SPEAKER_00Shit, dude, you got a flag.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. If you're the audio listeners, it's got that cool. What what is that like style of font? To me, that's like uh energy drink lettering, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think it's like like LARPing being a metal band or something. Like, I don't really know. Like, I think I don't I dude, I don't even know. I think um it's like it's like uh shit. What is it like? You know, like those metal bands where it's like crazy and it's like in Libs.
SPEAKER_00It's like corn and limp biscuit. It's like new metal stuff.
SPEAKER_02It's like a watered down version of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's the thing. I mean, you guys uh the thing that's shocking to somebody my age, uh getting closer to 40 here, than I want to admit, uh, is how much of like new metal and limp biscuit and corn and shit like that, how the aesthetics of that, like the law, the big baggy jeans you kids wear or whatever. I can't believe I said you kids. This is already terrible stuff. Uh but like the clothes that you guys wear, the styles that you guys pull off, a lot of it is like ripped from this stuff that when it was happening to me as a kid, everyone was like, This is kind of cringe. They didn't have the word cringe back then. Back then, but uh now it's like the coolest fucking thing in the world is to have limp biscuit lettering on your own flag. That's sick, by the way. You got a flag, dude.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. Um, it's I think it uh everything just kind of repeats. Um yeah, man. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I've talked about this with other people before. It's like the stuff that is kind of cringe now is the stuff that's gonna get repeated in 20 years because no one's gonna iterate it on it, iterate on it in the next 20 years.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's kind of weird. Like, I I was thinking about this the other day. Like, it's now like it's way cooler if like you shoot a music video in shittier quality than like a high quality camera. Like, I'm literally like buying like old VHS cameras and like digicams and stuff to just like or I literally I bought I have um like me and my friend were taking photos on an iPhone 4, which is obviously not like way, way back. No, like it's the fact that it's like even that resurges. It's like I don't know why people now it's just I don't know how to explain it, but it's a it's a type of nostalgia thing.
SPEAKER_00Like I uh for me when I was your age, I was making shit on cassette tapes, you know, doing like four track and stuff because it references this kind of memory that you had growing up. The difference is for your generation, it's like this lo-fi the lo-fi setting is like digital, it's old iPhones, it's fucking Facebook photos from 2008 and shit like that of parties. Because like since then the cameras got better, everything looks a little bit staged. The other part of it I think that's interesting is like when we first started posting shit on Facebook, nobody knew about Facebook photos. So like they weren't staged, nobody knew how to take a photo that was gonna end up on the internet. Your generation, you guys have had photos of yourselves plastered online since you were fucking born. So it's like the uh the candid nature of the photography. I see it reflected in in shit that you know you and what what is the genre of music that you play? What's it called?
SPEAKER_02Dude, I I like it's like very loosely referred to as indie, which is not accurate at all because it's um indie is also like has also been kind of loosely used for like what people have agreed is indie. Like, I don't even know because like indie, what does that really mean? Independent, like not signed, like uh I'm I'm not independent right now, so like that would be not indie. I don't know, it's like it's weird. Uh people just call well here's the thing is that now, right now in these past couple years, I'd say it started maybe like it really has been taking off in like 2023, 24, 25, and now with the underground rap scene, yeah. And it's like like with artists that are now like kind of leading it, like Netspend, Osama Sun, Che, uh these guys, like it's like that rage, underground rap stuff, and um that's like the new wave that's like really big, and that kind of like made underground music become kind of like a more mainstream thing, yeah. And because of that, other like subgenres of just underground music kind of spawned in. And one of those was kind of the like indie underground, which was like very it's like very adjacent to the underground rap scene in terms of aesthetics and stuff, but like um, and like uh connections and stuff, and like even collabs, but like the difference is it's like uh over it's just a different style. I don't know how to really like a lot of the artists in the scene that I'm in uh don't produce and are like ex-rappers, yeah. Uh and this is including myself, like like when I started making music, well, when I first ever did, I was tr experimenting trying over like indie beats. I never produced it, but I was just like recording stuff over indie beats and alternative pop rock type beats. But then uh then I got super into that rap scene and I was making rage rap and like weird music, and then um then I eventually like learned how to make music to an extent by doing that, and then discovered um well, I kind of wanted to start making indie music again now that I kind of had a little bit more expertise, and then I started making it, but it was like never true, like like it was weird. Like when I was trying to make indie music, it never sounded like fucking like who's like a indie artist that's like mainstream that you'd agree is like indie music.
SPEAKER_00So when you say indie music to me, my first thought is like built to spill pavement, modest mouse. Like that was the definition of indie back in the day for you know when I was growing up as like this very indie rock thing. I heard you guys I've heard the term indie underground thrown around for your generation and for like the type of music that you make. I've heard the phrase indie underground, which I enjoyed because I didn't know what underground even was, you know. That stuff's not on my radar.
SPEAKER_02I think the reason that a lot of people just call it indie is because people don't know that much about music at all.
SPEAKER_00That's kind of why they called indie music indie music back when I was like that was the case back in the day too.
SPEAKER_02It was just a different I don't know. A lot of the people that are in my scene, like I don't and this isn't like a shot, like I'm not dissing anybody. No, no, no. Uh this is just how it is.
SPEAKER_00If you want to diss people, I'll clip it and it'll look really cool online. You want those shots, man.
SPEAKER_02Um but uh the reason like I think that a lot of the people are just like they don't really know that much about alternative music at all. They just kind of they're they're rap fans, like that were rappers, and then they started, they basically just discovered, oh, if I record on like a beat that has guitar in it, like it sounds pretty sick. And like I agree, um, but I don't think they know like anything about alternative music. So they just are like, well, it's like a guitar, like what is this called? Like indie? Like they don't really know. So like, and then that just kind of gets spread around, which is like fine, because like I guess like it doesn't really matter, like as long as we're calling it something. But at the same time, I don't really know. Like, I um I think at this point, like with what I'm doing, it's like I'm just gonna like really not like I I could used to always compare myself to other people and like try to put myself into a box with like what I was doing to like rationalize it more, like make more sense out of it. Cause like it was really hard to explain my music. Like I was make the super sped up, and then it's like slowed down halfway through the song, and then it's like yeah, you guys do some fun fucking stuff with the music, man.
SPEAKER_00I love it.
SPEAKER_02Like, it's so all over the place, and it was so hard to explain, like, even just the basics. Like, when I was like, like when people would ask me, like, so how are you supposed to perform this? Like, uh, because there's no like there's no reference. Like, what am I supposed to pull up a video of like uh some rock band and be like, Oh, it's gonna, it's not gonna be similar to that. It's not gonna be similar to anything because I have no idea, nobody's done it yet. So it's like I have to pioneer it a little bit in terms of like performing this weird sped up music. Like, and it's still I'm still in the works, like at the moment, like I'll just like be jumping around and like singing it.
SPEAKER_00I've seen some of the videos because I had the same question. I'm like, how the fuck does he play this live? Like, this is the fun of the music a lot of the times, is like, yeah, you're just fucking it's like you're cranking dials on a tape machine to make it fast and make it slow, and it seems like you're doing it just purely based off of vibes and like what feels fun to make and shit like that.
SPEAKER_02So it's really weird and really like makeshift, but I I basically stopped. Um, I need to get that out of my vocabulary. I constantly, every time I talk about my music, within five seconds, I'm calling it weird. I spend more weird because I it's like it's like a cop out without having to really get into it. Like, I don't really know what it is, it's just my music. Like, this is just what I do. Like, I don't even like it's the randomest shit ever. Like, if I want it to spend, I just make stuff that sounds cool. Yeah, if I want it to be 10x speed and sound like a mouse is in my ear, like I'm gonna just do it because it sounds cool. And like like it happened to succeed, you know. Like, I I was making music at first, and then I wouldn't even post it. I'd put it private on SoundCloud and just drive around and bump it, and that was it. And then I started posting it, and then people liked it, and it didn't really slow down.
SPEAKER_00Well, dude, on that uh on that point right there, I think you're talking a lot about like the relationship between artist and critic, right? So this idea that it's like you're just making shit that you think sounds good, you're tapping into something like the success of it validates that you're tapping into something real, right? That we can't articulate it. Like, so the way I look at it, right? There's something happening right now that your music taps into that the form that it takes is your song. How to describe the form it takes, that is gonna come in like three, five, fifteen years or something like that. Like the phrase indie sleaze, which gets thrown around a lot about describing, you know, the strokes or something like that. That was not a phrase anybody used until about three years ago. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh yeah, that's the indie sleaze era, and it's like, oh, that perfectly describes what it was. But when it was happening, it was just the strokes, man. It was just this band that you know they did a bunch of cocaine in New York and they wore ill-fitting suits and shit like that. Like, that was just the vibe. When you were in it, you didn't have to explain it. It's only later that you kind of find the words to articulate what it was. But like you're in this very unique position where like you're literally at the forefront. You make a song, it is the thing that t that people uh appreciate, and now people are trying to ask you to like explain this thing that like no one's gonna be able to explain for three to four years. That doesn't make it less good, that doesn't make it less interesting. It's just the nature of the beast is that the form it's taking right now is just an over tonight song. What that means later on, we'll figure it out, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's uh yeah, it's interesting how like the term usually comes after an era. I think, um, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I guess for for the meantime, it's just gonna always be under the underground umbrella. I mean, it's very like bedroom pop, like the whole, like for what at least what I think that term means. Like, it's literally I guarantee like almost a hundred percent of the artists in my scene um make their music in their room.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh very few, including myself, but very few are going to like an actual studio and recording. I've made some songs in a studio and drop them, but they're never the right, they never end up being my favorite shit, or they never, they usually just don't. I don't know. And if I do go to a studio if ever, it's usually because I'm like somewhere away from home, like on a trip and I'm with my people, and it's like, oh, let's just get a room. And then I end up sitting in the corner with my computer on FL, just holding my mic with a sock and like just making some shit. Like, because like I don't like to use the studio mics because it sounds too good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, dude. I I don't I don't blame you, man.
SPEAKER_02Bro, yeah. I mean, recently, these past like this past week, I went to the store and I bought some Apple earbuds with the mic on it, and I've started making songs on Band Lab again, which is how I started. Because I I don't know, I've been making stuff on FL Studio with like a three thousand dollar mic, and I just kind of was like, I don't like I was constantly trying to make it sound worse.
SPEAKER_00Um you're just taking something that's good and you're making it sound bad, but it's like the vibe comes from the fucking stupid headphone microphone, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. It's really not a good idea to try to make lower quality music with high quality equipment. It's better just to get the low quality equipment and then make the low quality music. But the low quality of the music is part of the aesthetic, the raw, like it's headphone music. It's not supposed to uh I never even expected it to get to the point where I'm performing it on a stage. Like it was always meant for just like this is shit you just listen to when your friends get out of the car.
SPEAKER_00Like, dude, I love the phrase headphone music, hadn't heard that one before, but that's like that's very true. The high the idea that idea of like high fidelity music, too. I have always viewed that as like a holdover from like uh you know classic rock type of stuff, you know. You're supposed to listen to Led Zeppelin supposed to have really high fidelity and you play it out of really good speakers. But like one of my favorite artists uh when I was your age was this guy Lou Barlow who did a bunch of weird cassette tape stuff. I say weird because it's it's fucking weird, man. Go listen to the original losing losers, man. It's fucking wild stuff. But like the idea that that's supposed to be made, that any of that would be better in higher fidelity. Uh like if he hadn't recorded it in his bedroom, if he'd gone to a studio, it would have been better, is totally antithetical to the idea of like what is appealing about this. The other part is in a studio, you're not gonna get to tinker with it the same way that you're tinkering on your phone, tinkering on your computer, and that's like where the real magic comes from. Is you're just like you keep tweaking it until it sounds exactly right. On a studio, it just moves a lot slower, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know. I really um yeah, like uh it's uh I think for a long time I was like trying to per progress in my head, progress my music forward by making it like buying better equipment, learning how to mix better, learning, and this is all good stuff, like to learn, but I eventually started realizing that I feel like my music is it's getting higher quality, but it's it's getting worse. Like this isn't like hitting like it used to. And it was because I was losing my focus on the whole the the art of it, yeah, and I was focusing too much on like the business, like are gonna make this song, it's gonna do that. Like I got too wrapped up in it, and it's like the re the thing that originally made the music good was that I was uh my I had way more passion for just the art, like I didn't care because I had no I had no success or anything. I I just all I wanted to do was just make stuff that sounded cool. So I was like way more lenient. I was making stuff like like I said, like it's just the art, like the low quality, the weird stuff. Like that's that's what makes it it. Like I shouldn't be so scared. Like I was worried, like, oh, if I start recording on headphones again, if I start making iPhone music again, I'm going backwards. But it's like, no, what if I this whole time I was just realizing wait, like I needed to focus on like what the actual aspects of the art that made it good were, and then I don't know, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Oh dude, I I totally get it. I mean, you look at uh you look at like Pablo Picasso, right? He drew these fucking weird abstract paintings of cube heads and shit like that. Uh he was a classically trained painter, like he had the skills to draw like a realistic face and realistic hands. He just was like, No, that's not real to what I'm trying to do. I feel more when I do is kind of lo-fi painting quality, which is a weird way to describe Picasso or whatever. It's like this is more I feel like I'm creating better art, and everybody in the world essentially agrees that like his art got better when he stopped worrying about you know trying to make it sound quote unquote good and try to make it sound quote unquote or try to make it look authentic to what he was trying to do, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I that's really interesting. I didn't know about that. That's uh that feels like right on the the nose with what I'm going through.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, dude. So uh let's let's talk about that a little bit. So you start off, you're making these bedroom things. Uh I like that you're making it just for yourself. I like this little story of like kid makes music for himself to listen to in his car. He's like afraid to show it off to everybody else, gets some success, tries to make music for everybody else, and then kind of figures out like actually it's better when I make it for me. But like when you start releasing this music out into the world, when did you start realizing, like, oh dude, man, people really like this shit?
SPEAKER_02Um, I think like uh I mean it was very slow in the beginning. Like I dropped some songs on Spotify and then or on everything, whatever, and then I was posting like three TikToks a day. I was still at I went to college um in 2024. Um uh I um for reference, I'm I'm 20, so I graduated high school 2024. Um, it probably makes me sound like a little kid, but like dude, don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00It's making no making me sound cooler and hipper and younger. This is great for me, man. It's great.
SPEAKER_02And then I went to college and I was in college for like a semester and a half, and then I dropped out because of the music stuff. But yeah, um, while I was there, like I would, I don't know, I was like always I would just go into like the bathroom at like 3 a.m. and just record like three TikToks of and I didn't know what I was doing, it was just like me, and then like I'd put the lyrics and I was like lip-syncing it or something, and it didn't go anywhere, but I had like I would occasionally have people tell me that like they messed with the music, and it was like really cool, yeah. And then I it just uh it was just very slow progression, and eventually, just the TikToks that were doing 50 views every day. Uh I started making different songs, and those songs started getting 200 views, and then eventually I remember I posted this song, it's called I'm the fucking loser this time, yeah, and uh it did 800 views, and back then I was tweaking, I was like, Yo, yeah, 800, what the fuck? And I like posted a couple times, it did like 800, 400 every time, and I was like, Oh my god, like this is crazy! And there was like five comments, bro, and I was like, No way, and they're like, I made it, man. I made it, yeah, and like it was just like slow, it was very like linear.
SPEAKER_00Um, but uh that's uh that's crazy, man. I have almost the opposite thing where the first video that I dropped where I was talking about like a fantasy football thing got 300,000 views, and I was just like, Oh, okay, I guess I make TikToks now, and this is where I am uh like six, eight months later or whatever. But like I'm now you know I'm still trying to grow it kind of you you surpassed me, so it must have caught on pretty quick at some point.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was very linear. I mean, all right, so first song I ever dropped was like October 24th or 26th of 2024. And and then I was very consistent, and with throughout 2025, I managed to over like the course of the whole year until like the very end, around uh maybe the summertime of 2025, I had like a hundred thousand monthly listeners. Nice. And I had a pretty starting to establish fan base smaller, but there was probably at least ten thousand people that like really were fans.
SPEAKER_00Nice.
SPEAKER_02And like I was in a really good position and I was just staying consistent and Um and uh it was around September that that me I dropped that Mirr song in July of 2025 and it just was some random ass song that I decided to let out somehow and it just existed for a while and then um then uh basically yeah randomly around September, some guy posted like yo, he posted to the song on TikTok and was like, This would be a really good black pill song, and I don't know how tapped in you are with like black pills.
SPEAKER_00No, dude, I know all that shit. I've been online forever. Yeah, yeah, it's and it is though, man. Like, I feel like this song is the sound of like what appeals to people the black pill of like take down all the mirrors of my house. I hate my nose, eyes, and my mouth, you know. It really was fitting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, I wasn't I was like, I yeah, I thought it was funny, and then it really caught on and actually became like this looks maxing black pill anthem, and like was doing hundreds of like like like I don't even know, maybe like 200,000 videos are up about it now. Like that's crazy, and it was like crazy, and it was just catching so much, it was like so such a viral song on TikTok. Um uh where it's like people that have never streamed it, they don't even know who over tonight is, but they've heard take down all the mirrors in the house. Like, bro, it's crazy how many people I meet in person and they ask me, and I'm trying to explain what I do as like a job, yeah. It's like and I'm like, Oh, I do music, and like I don't like to like get too into it with people that don't really understand because they they always ask, like, oh, what are you a DJ? And it's like, no, and like they don't they just never get it. They say, like, oh, like, what band, or like what's my sound cloud, or like they always like have some passive aggressive ass tone if they don't oh yeah understand. But I'll always just like say, like, oh you know, I'll be like, Are you on TikTok a lot? And they'll be like, Yeah, and I'll be like, you know that song that's like take down all the mirrors, and then and they'll instantly know, they'll go, Oh yeah, yeah, mirrors demo. Yep, and I'll be like, Yeah, I made that, and then they'll then they'll shut up, then then they'll shut up. But it's like, oh my god.
SPEAKER_00Um, but that's a weird experience, man. Do you realize how weird that is in like human history that you made a song that that popular and nobody knows what your face looks like? That's insane.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, it did translate pretty well into people that actually became like fans. Like a lot of times you'll see a song blows up crazy, and the artist has a song with a hundred million, and then every other song has like 50,000. And it's like, wait, that's like a weird, yeah. It's just like it didn't translate well, or like no, they didn't get any like fans from it. I think because the song was weird, like it slowed at the end, it's it's just like it was very, like, very over tonight. Yeah, um, it made people want to hear more. And over the past year, I had built been building up a catalog of more of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you already had it up there.
SPEAKER_02People fell right and I had and been purposely since 2024, since the second I was like uh able to, I was trying to pump out like music videos, even like I have some there's some of the shittiest music videos in the world that exist to me, but like um uh and and it's because they were partly like kind of like intentional, but like also we didn't really know what we were doing, and um I don't know, like I was just trying to like I was like trying to show my face as early as possible because in the beginning, like no one in the scene showed their face, like that was like almost taboo, and like um that's instantly on that. Um, and just really trying to build out so much content and lore and music about me, leaking songs, all this stuff. So that if you that that I had I knew it was like the day that I really blow up, I want there to be so much of a rabbit hole to go down where it's easy for someone to actually become like obsessed with the music and with what I'm doing and become like an actual fan.
SPEAKER_00Is that the kind of stuff that you do when you run into an artist you like? You're like, Oh, I want to see the rabbit hole, I want to see what the lore is. Give me everything they got, I want to know.
SPEAKER_02I think that if I discover an artist and I really like their music, and they have no image on socials, they have nothing like to really like dive into. Like, I might still listen to their music for a long term, but I'll never like become some like super like fan or anything. I never go to their shows or anything, like but like when an artist like has like a cool aesthetic, a cool image, there's music, there's just like content, like I can watch like an interview, I can watch, there's just like stuff like and I can like learn more. Like it's like way um, I don't know, like more likely that I'll like do so.
SPEAKER_00Um, but yeah, I mean it worked, it worked very I like doing that stuff as well back in the day, just like find an artist that I like, I'd find a song I like, I find the album that the song was on, listen to all that stuff, then go back to their first album, try to listen all the way through. There's this whole like corpus of work that you can get through, but then read the Wikipedia page, see if they have art of interviews on on YouTube. It's fun to see like hey, what what is the whole story behind this thing? Because like, even that song uh that blew up or whatever, like that it's the that's at the end of a long list of things that you did to get to that point, right? And it's in the middle of this larger story of you, and it's like some people like that. I've always been a big fan of that. I know that makes me a huge dork sometimes, but like I understand I've I like the idea on your end of just all right, I know if I ever get big, like I want all this stuff out there because that's what I'd want to see on my own stuff, and just go out and do it, go make it, go make the music video, even if it's crappy, just give them something to look at, you know. I like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, a hundred percent. And I also don't think that I'm like at nearly like even like the midpoint of like my run with this stuff.
SPEAKER_00Like you're young as shit, man. This is plenty of time, man. Yeah, this is all going to be looked at as the OG days within a couple of years, like um and uh if you're listening to this podcast right now, you're like you're you're OG, you're cool and hip and young, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, 100%. Um but it's uh yeah, I mean it it's definitely um been weird. Yeah, around September was when that that song just started going crazy. Like it was it was it's not even like I mean it's on my main page, but it's on that over tonight throwaways account, which is just like uh music that I never deemed polished enough. And then um, yeah, it started just going from like maybe streaming a thousand a day to like uh at its peak was like probably five hundred thousand a day.
SPEAKER_00That's fucking crazy, dude.
SPEAKER_02And um like and then at the same time as I was blowing up on TikTok, I had this song called Shotgun that was blowing up on Instagram reels for some reason.
SPEAKER_00It's weird that there's a difference between the two of them, but I post on both too, and it's like there's a different audience.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what I figured out. Well, I think that Instagram, well, Instagram versus TikTok, the biggest difference is that like ages of the people like TikTok is like way more majority younger audience. Definitely, definitely um I think that um it goes like like YouTube shorts is like um is like still like maybe needs a babysitter and then like TikTok is like like like very like it's just like teenagers, and then Instagram is also like teenagers, but then also just like upwards until like yeah, millennials, like a 122-year-old monk, like you know, like it's literally everybody, dude.
SPEAKER_00I've I've found this very same thing. My obviously my biggest audience is on Instagram for whatever reason because they're all my they're all my age, they want to listen to me talk about the music that you know came out when I was but I like to watch the TikTok listeners more a lot of the times just because it feels like more of a challenge, man. I want to I want to try to break through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know. I like the that Instagram's more like I don't know, I want to reach all like um and um I don't know, it's cool, but uh TikTok is definitely like I feel like they're way more open, at least like when they hear new music. Like, I don't know, like the kid, like the young, the young audiences are like very supportive, like they really become like super fans, and that's why like I really appreciate like my reach to like the younger, like like the 14, 15-year-old kids that are just like they just get so into it and they become like so rider die. And then it's like cool, like they end up like in the couple of years, like they'll grow up just listening to my music.
SPEAKER_00Well, did you know?
SPEAKER_02Like, even the little kids, like, there's probably like fans that are like I don't know. I think the youngest fan that I've ever interacted with was outside a show. Like, I took a photo, and I think she was like nine years old, Loki.
SPEAKER_00Crazy, man.
SPEAKER_02Like, and like she's with her parents, and it's like, I don't know if the parents even hear what I'm saying in the songs, but hopefully they're not.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say, man, I was gonna say it.
SPEAKER_02I mean, shout out to parents for for not tweaking about what I'm saying, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you remember being 14, 15 years old, like getting into music. How important was it when you first got into like an artist that you're like, dude, this is really, really good, this really clicks with me? Like, I don't know, dude. That stuff's important, man. That stuff's important. It sets people up on a music path for the rest of their life. So the fact that you have these ride or die 14, 15 year olds, like that's gotta feel kind of cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, all the music that like the artists that I was like may mega fans of, like when I was like 14, 15, I'm still a fan of, so like yeah, I don't know. I could see that I'm gonna carry this far, but um I don't know. It's um it's uh definitely, definitely interesting. Um I think uh yeah, it's just I'm randomly thinking it is really funny. There's oftentimes there's always always at every show, there's always some little kid or little kids with their parents. Um and I always just wonder, like, are they hearing what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00Well, let's talk about that for a little bit, because there might be people in my audience that haven't heard the songs before, but like I always what I always immediately attach to is like it's got this cool weird beats. It's got kind of like a rap. I can hear the rap influence to it. The music itself is really fun. Like you can you can hear that you're having fun like making these beats, making this, and then the song is genuinely from start to finish about how you absolutely hate yourself. There's a song about the day that I uh kill myself, they're gonna stream it and put it online. Which I'm not gonna lie, dude. I know it shouldn't crack me up. That cracked me up. I thought that was so fucking funny, bro.
SPEAKER_02It's some real shit, though. It's real though, right? You become a uh a gift, bro. If you're blowing your brains, bro. We've seen it time and time again, bro. People go on Facebook Live, kill themselves, and now it's like people set it as their profile pictures, and I dude.
SPEAKER_00That's your life, man. That's your generation, that's their interaction with the internet, and then it's like, yeah, you made a song about that. I feel like to me, as an outsider that can kind of critique it more because it's not, you know, I'm not in it, but like the absurdity of the way the music sounds and the content of what you're singing about reflects the absurdity of like being online in 2026, you know, where people are making profile pictures of suicides and shit like that. It's it's a weird world to live in, you know.
SPEAKER_02It's really, really um, I don't know. The first one that comes to mind uh is uh and a lot of people thought I was directly referencing him. I I actually wasn't when I made the song, but now I realize how accurate it is. There's that guy named Ronnie McNutt, I believe. Uh I don't really know any of the lore about that, so I won't get too into it, but that I just know that guy uh shot himself on live, and now you see I see memes, and I I've literally like, oh my god, there was this big thing like a couple years ago where you could set your TikTok profile as like a gif or a diff, whatever. Oh no, and people would put it as him shooting himself, and it's like, bro, like this is a human, like like what what are we doing? Like, um, and it's just like it's such a it's such a fool. Like, people literally make memes being like, This is the worst generation to die in. Because like, if you honestly, man, you might be right about that, right? It's horrible, nobody cares, nobody takes you seriously, they'll just make a meme. Like, bro, if I died, if I was to actually kill myself on a live stream tomorrow, you know what, bro? No one bro, the comments would be like, guess guess his life is actually over tonight. Oh, he really he he wasn't he wasn't LARPing, he really he didn't cap rap. Nobody would give a fuck. It would just be funny.
SPEAKER_00That's so tragic, right? But still, the line, I guess his life is over tonight, is the funniest goddamn thing I've ever heard. I don't there's no I don't know how to interact with that part of myself, other than to just be honest and be like, that cracks me up, man. That's really funny.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that if I actually did shoot myself, that's exactly what I'd want people to say.
SPEAKER_00I well, I mean, I hope we don't obviously this is one of those things that uh I feel like you have to give the disclaimer. It's like, don't kill yourself, kids. Don't do it, don't do it. It's the people want you to live, this everything can get better, all that stuff. I used to work at a psych hospital for kids and adolescents, right? Yeah, yeah. So they were like, you know, suicidal teens and shit like that. And my favorite thing to do would be to come up to them and be like, I'm uh like I'm a weird guy that's working with you here, but like, I don't know, what else are you gonna do, man? Like pointing out the absurdity of the situation of like you are in this suicidal place or whatever, and your only option here is me, and I'm trying to beg you to go play Mario Kart with me. And like that's what your life is supposed to be right now. It's like you have to play Mario Kart with an adult for some reason, and it's like it didn't get any less absurd after the suicide attempt, essentially, and it's like we're still gonna have to figure out our way through this, you know. So it's like I don't know, these are very real things. I don't necessarily think that it's a bad reaction to thoughts like this that people have to make a song like an over tonight song that connects to a lot of people. I'm sure there's a lot of people that may have felt pretty fucking depressed, they hear your song, they don't feel less depressed, they just feel heard, you know, they feel like under they feel like the emotion's understood to some extent. And like if you're feeling weird about seeing a gif of a suicide on an Instagram reel, like you could try to talk it through, or you could listen to a song that like makes that clear that this is an absurd thing on a subconscious level, it helps you out, man. I don't know. I don't think you're doing a I don't think you're doing anything dangerous by singing about the stuff you're singing about.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, uh people every single day I thousands of people telling me that I saved their life in some way or helped them through something because they just like to hear. I think I was actually thinking about this literally it within the five minutes of being awake before I hopped on this, and I was um I was thinking, um I think because I'm I'm currently getting a lot of people are uh Instagram isn't really taking well. I basically I posted some some reels of just um my friend Tommy Reagan is another artist. Uh definitely uh what's his uh what's his artist name?
SPEAKER_00Give him a shout out.
SPEAKER_02It's just Tommy Reagan.
SPEAKER_00Oh, hell yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's just his name. He music mogs me to death. Um so definitely listen to his shit. Super talented.
SPEAKER_00Congratulations, Lo. You're the first person on this podcast to say that somebody music mogged you. So congratulations, he does, bro. You know, put that in your resume, man.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'll keep that. Um, but uh uh yeah, well, he's just like playing guitar and I'm like singing over it, and I'm just like like essentially like covering my own songs and just like posting it. And uh I guess it's reaching audiences that have never heard it before or anything similar because the comments are just flooded with, and even my DMs are getting flooded with people like not taking well to like the lyrics, like saying that it's too violent or like this, that, or like getting on me, and I'm like, uh, it definitely reached the wrong audience, but um you escaped containment, dude.
SPEAKER_00I've talked about that. Yeah, I mean it's it's cool, bro. You're interacting with the normal people, and it's like, dude, they don't first off for all those people out there, it's like, do you do you think that you know uh this guy doesn't understand that saying a line about I'm gonna take a shotgun and blow my face out isn't overly violent? You don't think he got that when he wrote the lyric and dang it? You know, like you think that's a new I used to smoke cigarettes in college and people would come up and be like, Do you know those things kill you? And I'm like, Everyone knows that they kill you. That's why we're yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02Um and it's uh but what I was thinking is it's like first of all, like my first response to these people is just like, please, like shut, shut the fuck up. Like, I literally do not give, I could care less. But secondly, like like it's because they don't get it. Like, here's the thing is if you there is the reason my music, in my opinion, I think resonates with people that are like struggling so much, is because it's so out of pocket, because bro, if you're going through uh whatever the hell, some really big mental struggle, it's not sugar-coated, censored, non-explicit uh sunshine rainbows. No, that shit is horrible and brutal. So you want to hear a song where the guy isn't just holding back and like, what am I? I'm not censoring myself to make the song more friendly. No, this song isn't directed to people that are that are smiling. Yeah, this is um people want to hear, like, bro, like um when you're really going through it, you dead ass want to just blow your shit clean off.
SPEAKER_00It doesn't mean you're gonna do it right then, you know. It just means you it's a thought you had, and treating it uh when I worked in that psych hospital, there was two types of people that I would work with. Some people would come up and give you the the therapy speak of like, hey, how you doing? Is everything okay? How we're not gonna use that language right now. And some kids you could see them shut off because they're like, dude, shut the fuck up. I don't want to talk to you about this right now. Yeah, and then there are other people that could come in, make an off-color joke every once in a while, and like connect to a kid immediately by just pointing out it's like, dude, I know this shit sucks. I know you don't want to be here. I don't actually really want to be here either. I got bills to pay, so like what now? Like, this sucks for both of us. Definitely sucks more for you, but it sucks for both of us. What do you want to do? Wanna go play basketball? Because I want to play basketball and you know, whatever. Fuck it, let's do something. And it's like that honesty helps people it helps doesn't help everybody, but there's some kids that like need to hear, you know, dude. Yeah, I know it sucks. I'm not gonna make it better. I just what's what's just be together with the fact that this shit sucks right now, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so like I don't know. I don't um I don't think my music's gonna get any cleaner. Um, and and people like that don't like it might say like, oh, oh, it's so it's so corny. It's like he's trying to be edgy, but it's like no, bro. It's just like like just chill out. Like it's not that like I'm just saying whatever. Like it's not, I'm not like like a a big criticism, like the people that don't like me on the internet. The biggest, like, the biggest thing that like people uh don't like about me, uh, besides if they just hate the music, um, is they think that I'm they truly believe that I'm uh they they say I'm a LARP. Do you know what a LARP is?
SPEAKER_00Oh dude, of course I know what a LARP is.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like they say that I'm basically it's all just an act, all the music is bullshit. I'm not, I'm just grifting, I'm just using uh mentally ill people to try to like run up my number. They say crazy things. People think that I've never experienced because bro, on the internet, I'm not I'm I'm I'm on internet on the internet on shows, like I'm smiling, I'm I'm making jokes, I'm like upbeat, whatever. Because what the fuck else am I supposed to do? Do am I supposed to uh post TikToks every day? Here's my new scar, guys. Yeah, do you guys like it? No, what the hell? Oh, yeah, uh crying for 24 hour live stream next. Like, no, bro.
SPEAKER_00This stuff like that's not a depression work. It's not how it works, bro. It's not how it works. You don't flick the switch and now you're just fat all the time, or you're feeling anedonia or whatever the fuck it is. Sometimes, you know, you're actually having a really good time. And then sometimes shit gets dark. And it goes back and forth, man. And it's like, fuck it, man. You're having fun playing a show. You're having fun playing a show. Doesn't mean that you didn't feel that when you wrote the fucking song.
SPEAKER_02Bro, and it's just like my I my all I can it's just because these people don't know my life. They think they're it's very parasocial. They think they know everything that's going on because they see me laughing in an interview or jumping around happy on stage. They go, Why is he so happy? I thought he makes sad songs. Yeah, bro, because I'm not like like what am I even supposed to do? It's just my my only message. Yeah, like what it's so annoying, bro. My only message is like it's fun to play notes, man. The the thing is, is like to the people that say this, like, all I can say is like, you have no idea like what I have, bro. Oh my god, if you had put oh bro, I don't like I but I hate like I'm not gonna I don't want to make a video where I just talk about my life and all everything that has gone wrong in it and everything I like it's it's I don't know, it's it I don't really like to I though I do open up about my struggles in the music, and that's enough for me because the shit that I really go through is I I'm not I don't just feel my to say is these people have no idea, no idea.
SPEAKER_00I'll tell you right now, if you were to make a video that was like this is all the shit that I've been through, if like you opened up on you know a live or something like that and told them all, you know what they'd say? He's fake in that shit too, you know. It's like this is the only response you can have to the people online that are that have decided they're just gonna be mean to you is like one, they might just be mean to you online because it's fun to do that, it's fun to be mean to people online. But like two, the only thing you can ever say to them is like, dude, I'm whatever the fuck you say I am. If you say I'm fake, if you say I'm LARPing, then I'm LARPing because I can't, I'm not gonna change your fucking mind. You're just a person in the comments. Just always remember these people in your comments that are commenting on your music uh in your you know, Instagram or TikTok or whatever, just always remind them it's like, well, you're commenting on my shit. I'm the one that made something that you have to comment on. Who the fuck are you? You're just a person that's talking. I don't have to change your opinion. You can think whatever you want about me. The song's still gonna go out, I'm still gonna have my fans. I know it affects some people in a positive way, and you know what you've gone through. You don't have to justify it to these strangers who are commenting. If they were important people, this is a weird thing to say, but if they were important people or whatever, you'd be commenting on their video or something like that, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's true. I um yeah, 100%. Uh random thing. I just thought I should probably clarify. Um, okay, so uh I'm not uh the the the mental health music is not LARPing at all. The only uh thing that I do that's close to LARPing is when I talk about murdering my girlfriend. I never did that.
SPEAKER_00Uh did not murder his girlfriend. All right, good to know. Like, bro, I we do not condone murdering spouses, by the way, on them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, like I don't think anyone does. Uh someone someone DM'd me. I posted uh the sorry I killed her song where I talk about I say sorry I killed her, she's dead on the floor, and now I'm pouring my liquor all over her corpse. Brutal lyrics, but bro, the whole point of that song is it's the most upbeat, jolly sounding song. Yeah, and I was like trying to say the most like weird, twisted shit over the jolly shit. So it's like kind of like listening to like a song like pumped up kicks, or like yeah, uh, where it's like you're like you're you're just like dancing to it, and then you're like, wait a minute, what what the fuck? What did he say? Um so like it was just like kind of like a parody.
SPEAKER_00That's what makes your shit interesting to me, as like a guy that is not in this scene that's not in your that's not even in your fucking generation or whatever, but it's that contrast between the two, the space in between the absurdity of the lyrics and the absurdity of how jolly the song sounds, yeah, creates a new feeling. And I'm like, dude, I that's what I love about art, is like this is now this kind of thing that I've never really uh the only time I've felt something like that is when you are online and you do see some really fucked up shit, and you're like, What? This is what I'm doing to kill time right now? Why did I just have to look at that? That's fucked up, man. I don't like this, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I I just um the whole point of it was uh it's like a parody shit. I'm just making some shit and like it's it's just art, bro. It's like I don't uh and I I saw people hating saying, Oh, yeah, he's not really about this. He he's he's he's sweet, bro. What would you like this song more if I go kill my girlfriend and then pull like what are we even talking about?
SPEAKER_00Like, what do you want him to do, guys?
SPEAKER_02I think what they really want me to do, it's wild. They want me to kill people, and then they want me to kill myself, and then I mean they want me to kill myself just in general, they just hate the music. They they just I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Um well, you know, the only way to really get back at them is just keep making music people like because then you know it's gonna ruin their day every single time they hear you, and then you win.
SPEAKER_02Then you I've interacted, I've interacted, I'd really stay very far away from any like hate shit, but like I've interacted occasionally because it really does not matter, and it's all just popularity, and I've done stunts in the past to try to get myself like more hated, so I'm like talked about more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but uh I'm just playing around with internet fame, man. You're just trying to see what fits, you know.
SPEAKER_02I don't know how it's the thing is like I have my community that I built, and I just only care about what they think at this point. Like, and if if somebody wants to join the community, welcome, please. Like, I'll love a fan that just started listening today, the same amount that I love a fan that listened 10 months ago, whatever. But um, and I don't even like calling them fans, like I just call them bros, like it's just just people that fuck with me. But um uh yeah, interactions with people that don't like me is really funny because I don't know. This one dude was telling me how how much he wants to kill me because his sister was like a mega fan of me, and like he had to hear my music be played like in his house, like all day, every day. And all I told him, I mean, I was like, damn, bro, like I hope she turns it up. Like, I hope, like, I hope I hope that shit bothers you more. You like like like because it's like, what are you pressing me? You want to kill me because it's too annoying. Take it up with your sister, bro. Like, I don't give a fuck. But he's playing the music.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that to be honest, that just sounds like a hymn issue. That sounds like a skill issue, right? You can't you can't get your sister to turn off the turn off the radio. Like, that sounds like you're you don't noise canceling headphones? Chill the fuck out, man.
SPEAKER_02Go get your bread up and buy some fucking earplugs.
SPEAKER_00Move out, man.
SPEAKER_02Move out, get a cramp, bro. But um, but yeah, and then yeah, but I get weird, weird DMs all the time, like yo, over tonight.
SPEAKER_00I'm sure, man.
SPEAKER_02Over tonight, in which episodes you die. Please kill it. P uh this one dude just asked me nicely. He said, bro, like, no disrespect, but like, please, please hang yourself. Like, actually, like, I just need I need to know.
SPEAKER_00I'm not gonna lie, man. The no disrespect cracks me up. Yo, like, honestly, man, no disrespect. Nothing against you or anything, but like, please just go murder yourself in the backyard or something.
SPEAKER_02Like, bro, they broke it's so funny, bro. And and I don't know, like, it's just trolling, like, it's not that to you. It's like I don't I don't actually like tweak about this shit, but like I don't know, some people have like a weird um anger towards me, but uh it's also because like they don't really see me as like a real person.
SPEAKER_00You're not, you know, you're not, you're not. You're uh the internet's an augmented reality game, right? So it's like uh there's these real people that become characters online, and over tonight the character online is creating very real sentiment. So, like on the idea that like you're just gonna ignore this forever, like that's also fucking impossible. It's impossible to get people to come into your fucking comments and tell you to kill yourself without taking it at least somewhat personally. Like, you gotta figure out some distance. This is a brid that's a tightrope that you're gonna end up having to walk as long as you do this. But like, so it does affect you, but like telling yourself they're not talking to you, they're talking to a Fortnite skin of you that like exists on that you create and you put out there, but like they can't ever bridge the gap between the Fortnite skin and reality, but they don't really see that they're talking to a Fortnite skin, they think they're talking to you. You're the only one that realizes like they're actually just in Fortnite right now, playing a game and directly like messaging me about like what my character did in the game, which is insanity. But like, what's the point of trying to explain to an insane person that they're acting insane? It's just gonna make you insane too, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, yeah, I 100% agree. It's just weird. I mean, it's super weird, man.
SPEAKER_00It's new, it's not something you could do a hundred years ago.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and like the people that like say stuff like that, it's like I'm not an actual danger, like, I'm not like about to actually get fucking sniped um from going outside. Like, yeah, it's just that like like bro, if I had an actual in-person combo with any of these people, they would just be like, Oh yeah, he was a chill guy, like like bro, like I don't have I don't understand why the reason that they they they see you as this weird character because it's like they will hear one of my songs and hate it, or they just hate all my music, and it's like cool, like that's like I bro. My music is definitely not for everybody. Um, but then why do they now hate me? It's like I I mean I get it, like, oh maybe I put this plague into existence, this plague of over tonight music, but like chill, like I you don't have to like be so mad at me, just just don't listen to the music, but I just follow up.
SPEAKER_00It takes two seconds to get to the next video, dude. It's like takes less than a second, you know.
SPEAKER_02But I mean, at the same time, I'm kind of hoping that one day my music is inescapable and they just have to suffer, and you know, just year reduction surgery.
SPEAKER_00Spite and pettiness is like one of the best motivating factors. Like, fuck those people. Just like every time they're like, Yeah, it sucks, man, that you're gonna have to hear over tonight for the rest of your fucking life every time you say it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think every time I think progressively, progressively, every time I'm mastering a song, I'm gonna make it a decibel louder so that if it ever does come up that they have to hear it slightly louder every time.
SPEAKER_00Um I mean, honestly, it sounds like it kind of sucks to have to deal with that shit, but uh I mean, I'll tell you right now, man, I have talked to a lot of uh you know suicidally depressed people. You seem pretty chill. I don't I'm not getting the vibe that this is anything too bad. I think making music about shit that you genuinely feel doesn't necessarily mean that that's the entire state of your being, or that like, I don't know, you're in any sort of danger. I don't think your music's great in any danger. I think it's probably doing more good than any anything else, because just other kids hearing this and being like, man, that is how I feel right now. Every single person that's listening to this podcast has a song that made them feel that way at one point where they're like, that song is how I feel right now. I finally feel like a little bit more connection to other people. I think that's only good, man. I I I believe in that part of art, and it's why I like your music, man. I think you're I think it's really good. I think it's really even if you can't describe exactly what it is, I have found it to be like one of the more unique and interesting things I've heard in a long time. And I gotta tell you, man, I've been listening to a shit ton of music for years. The fact that it got me to like stop and look it up and be like, dude, I'm gonna listen to this whole album. This shit's really good. I really like it. Honestly, a lot of it was just it cracks me up, man. You crack me up. I think you're funny as fuck.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. I mean, yeah, it's definitely there's definitely some weird songs. Um, I don't know. I have uh, I don't know, some of the the lyrics are really get really bizarre, especially in the stuff that's like been leaked but never released. Like there's some song where I literally just say, I think it's uh I forget what it's called, but there's some lyric in a song where I say, if you think my music sucks, I think you should kill yourself, I think you should hang yourself. Uh and you know, I that's a very uh in-depth lyric right there, you know.
SPEAKER_00Um that's the thing, man. If you do that, then they're gonna feel validated that it's like, yeah, I got to him. I got to him. I said some mean shit to him. The best thing you can say to him is just like, well, that's according to you, or you know, like I'm whatever you say I am. Just fucking if you try to fucking give them nothing, you just give them nothing to interact with, that's when they run out of steam.
SPEAKER_02Unfortunately, the only thing is I I do try to keep I try to do feed it a little feed it feed into it a little bit because it's so much free promo, bro. That is true, they just never stop talking about me, and then it makes people like, and eventually, like, bro, if 500 people are all being told how much over tonight sucks, at least fucking 50 of those people are going to eventually actually turn out to like the music and become fans. So, like, I just I don't really um I don't know because bro, there's so much. I mean, obviously the positive feedback outweighs yeah uh the negative, but it's it's just all it's all the same like energy, like hate and love, it's all the same.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean uh that is a good point. Hate and love, it's the same energy, it's the same vibe. I I think that idea that like if somebody told me, dude, I really, really hate this song, I absolutely despise it, that is a guaranteed way to get me to listen to a song. Like if something gets that strong reaction out of somebody, like I have to go figure it out to see like, is this really bad, or is this like why does this guy feel so passionate about this thing? And it's like I think that's a sign of you know, you're doing something, you know, it's it's generating a response, good and bad. But like you said, obviously the positive must way outweigh it because you have been wildly successful in this project so far, as far as I can tell. You know, do you feel like a success?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. I think I mean I uh I never am too complacent. I'm always you know trying to keep going, but um I definitely never would have expected it to uh get to where it is now. I mean, I'm like the that mirror song might go gold in a year from now.
SPEAKER_00What does gold even mean? Like uh in the streaming era, is like a certain number of streams.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's still based off units sold, but uh oh shit. Uh where'd I go?
SPEAKER_00No, you can make it.
SPEAKER_02Um units sold is now like it's like I don't even know, it's like 70, it's like has to be all in the US, so it's like 75 million US streams. You go gold. I I don't really understand how it works. I mean, my goal is um I I want to have a song with a hundred million streams on Spotify, which will definitely be that song. I mean, it's at like 82 million.
SPEAKER_00I I saw it today, it's over 80 million, uh, which is that's an absurd number. That is larger than most countries.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it um it it's definitely uh it's already well over a hundred million on all platforms combined, but I just bro, once I have a song on my Spotify profile that just says a hundred mil, like yeah, I I just feel like wow, like I did something that literally like like 0.000001% of artists ever do. Like, I need to give myself some credit at a point. Like, even I don't know. I mean, back when I started, I considered if a song did a thousand streams on Spotify that it was a hit, I was like, yeah, I have to hit. And then because like it would show the number instead of that little like carrot. Oh, that's huge. And I was like, I just love hitting a thousand streams, and every time I hit a thousand streams, it's like success, next song. And then um, and then yeah, that went up until it was like 10,000 was achievable. And 10,000 was crazy when I first hit 10,000 streams on a song, and then yeah, a hundred thousand streams on a song was like next next. I just remember one of my, I think it was sorry I killed her, was blowing up. And um Kay Snoto, who's on that song, uh, I was like talking to him on the phone and we were like, bro, do you think this shit will hit a hundred thousand? And I was like, uh I don't know, but maybe it could because it's at like 40k or something, and now it's at like maybe four million.
SPEAKER_00That's crazy.
SPEAKER_02And it's like, and then yeah, like think the first time something hit a million, like was insane, and then uh oh my god, I now have several songs over 10 million, and one that's coming at a hundred million. It's like this stuff is in it, it's so desensitizing because it's constantly the next big goal. But like sometimes I do step back and I look at these songs, it's like, damn, I fucking like holy bro, what the hell?
SPEAKER_00Like, I don't even know. You should take moments every once in a while to be like, yo, I fucking nailed it, like I killed it, like you were saying, like 0.001%. It's like, listen, whatever anybody says to you, you wanted to do something, you did it, you're allowed to feel good about that shit, right? You're gonna have to deal with something that again, if it's only 0.000001% of the population of artists get to this point, you now have to deal with an issue that only 0.000001% of the artists ever deal with, which is like you're gonna get that 100 million, and then you're gonna have to wake up the next day. You're gonna have to wake up the day after that. You're gonna have to keep like it's listen to everyone that's ever had success. There's this kind of like high and then there's kind of a low afterwards that usually comes with like, oh, I kind of thought the amount that I wanted this would have a reciprocal return of how enjoyable it is, but it's never one-to-one. Like, you kind of want it more than the satisfaction of getting it is ever going to give you. Uh, so like good luck with that, because there are very, very few people that will be able to be like, yo, I did that too. So, you know, I but you know, you seem like a guy that likes challenges, you seem like a guy that likes figuring things out. That seems like something I'm confident you can figure out how to like manage and how to use it to motivate you to make some more stuff. But like, do definitely, definitely, definitely, man, feel good about it. Don't let anybody tell you you're not allowed. It's not having an ego to say I got a hundred million views, I'm gonna party for a weekend, you know. Dude, dude, you earned that shit. If anyone earned it, you earned that shit.
SPEAKER_02I definitely um I'm very uh I don't really like like I never I I try to I I don't even like it's not that I try to be humble, I just naturally kind of am very critical of myself and I don't like like to really get too like ego about things. Um, but I will yeah, I mean occasionally I'll get really drunk and I'll start just babbling about uh everyone said I couldn't do it, everyone said I'd never make it. Look at me now. Where are they? Where are they? Bro, because I do stand on that shit, bro. Oh my god, bro, it's brutal. When you're when you're making music and people like bro, making music at college pre any success was brutal, bro. That shit was humiliation ritual, bro. I'm making songs called like my girlfriend wants me to. Yo.
SPEAKER_00Sorry about that.
SPEAKER_02I think my internet went out for half a second, but um I got a phone, I got a call on my phone, and I think it fucked everything up.
SPEAKER_00Oh, all good. Well, uh, I I mean we're at an hour anyway. Uh I guess uh you know, fuck it. We'll edit that shit. I think people get the general idea. All I was gonna say for that is like if you don't give yourself time to celebrate the fact that you are kind of the man, that you did accomplish a huge goal of yours, a goal that a lot of people want. If you don't give yourself time to be like, yo, I did it, that's fucking awesome. I feel good about myself, you're only gonna feel the negative things, right? You're only gonna hear, feel when a sign doesn't do as well as it when you're gonna like, you know, you'll hold on to the disappointment of that. I feel like that's a lot of people would do that. It's a lot easier to be like, oh, I failed, I'm gonna hold on to that, versus success is like, ah, I don't wanna be, I don't want to have too much of an ego. I don't want to like uh buy into my own hype too much. But it's like you gotta give yourself at least a little bit of credit when you've earned that credit. Otherwise, all you're doing is letting yourself feel the negative things. So I'm just saying, man, you are uh in line for a lot of good things to come, and I feel like just learning how to succeed, man, learning how to be like, hey shit, dude, I I wanted a hundred million, I got a hundred million, that's crazy. Uh that's a good skill to have, man. That's a good skill to have, and you're probably gonna need it because it sounds like you're gonna be successful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I um yeah, I mean, I I think it's it's definitely gonna be uh interesting. Wait, can you still hear me?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I can hear you.
SPEAKER_02I was just saying, uh, I think it's gonna be quite a quite a journey because I mean it's so much has happened in such a short span of time, and it's gonna be really interesting to see how this shit progresses, but uh I'm so excited for it.
SPEAKER_00You should be, man. You should be. You're you're one of my new favorite artists. I really enjoy listening to what you've put out so far. I'm excited to see what comes next. And this is a fun conversation, man. I really enjoyed it. So I hope you did too, you know? Yeah, 100%. A lot of fun stuff. Um, you got anything to plug? Any shows coming up? Got any albums coming out? Anything?
SPEAKER_02Uh I mean album in August, Ghostland Forever album.
SPEAKER_00Ghost Land Forever, hell yeah. Where can they fall you? Just over tonight on everything?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, just over tonight on everything. And um yeah, that album's gonna be interesting. Got some interesting uh collabs on there.
SPEAKER_00Nice, man. Yeah, well, uh, let me know when that comes out. I'll pump it on my my weird little t Instagram, TikTok channel, whatever. And uh, if you're ever up in uh Portland, Oregon, man, let me know. I'll come out and watch you uh do a show.
SPEAKER_02Say less.
SPEAKER_00Alright, man. Thanks very much for tonight. Thank you again. Peace. Uh and yeah, that's all I got. Podcast.
SPEAKER_02Sounds good. Peace.