From Toy Drums to Touring Stages: Joey Ashes' Musical Journey

Join me as I chat with Joey Ashes, drummer for Caden Gillard, about his journey from childhood to touring musician. Discover insights on musical influences, the realities of touring, and the passion that drives a career in music.

Joey's Bio:

From banging on a toy drum at one year old to commanding stages across the U.S. and Europe, Joey Ashes is a powerhouse drummer whose career is built on raw talent, relentless work ethic, and a deep love for rhythm.

A decorated percussionist, while in high school, Joey earned first chair positions in multiple regional, district, and state-level honor and all-star bands. He is also a proud recipient of the prestigious John Philip Sousa Band Award, recognizing superior musicianship and dedication.

Post-high school, Joey dove headfirst into the rock and metal scene, performing in projects that opened for major acts like Flaw, Motograter, Dope, Crowbar, and Fear Factory. His versatility, discipline, and stage presence have since taken him far beyond those roots.

Today, Joey Ashes is the drummer, band leader, and tour manager for rising Texas Country artist Caden Gillard. With Gillard, he’s played legendary venues such as The Bluebird Café (Nashville, TN), Cain’s Ballroom (OK), Gruene Hall (TX), and EquiBlues Festival (France). His touring resume includes supporting performances for top artists like Zach Bryan, Koe Wetzel, Braxton Keith, Randall King, Frank Foster, and Drake White.

A proud Signature Artist with Scorpion Percussion, Joey uses his custom 3AX extended-length American hickory drumsticks with lacquer finish—tools crafted to match his high-energy style and precision.

Whether behind the kit or behind the scenes, Joey Ashes brings passion, leadership, and years of experience to every beat.

Contact & Endorsements:

Signature Artist: Scorpion Percussion

Sticks: Joey Ashes Signature 3AX

Location: Available for session, tour, graphic and web design, lyric videos.

Socials/Website: http://linktr.ee/joey_ashes

Episode Credits:

Produced, and edited by Full and Thriving Media

Find me on IG and Tiktok @fromurltoirlpodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hi, you're listening to From URL to IRL, the podcast of where online connections, music, and real life collide. I'm your host, Valerie, and music has always been a huge part of my life, from growing up, going to concerts to finding comfort and community through artists and songs that I love. Every week I'll sit down with artists, fans, creators, and music lovers from all walks of life to have real conversations about identity, creativity, and experiences that bring us together. Whether you're here for the music, the stories, or just to feel a little less alone. I'm happy you're here. Hi, and welcome to From URL to IRL. I'm your host, Valerie. And today I am talking with Joey Ashes. He is the drummer for Caden Gillard, a Texas country artist. So we're just going to be sitting here today and chatting about, you know, what life is like working with a touring artist and how he got into what he does and what he loves about it. So I know you started playing on a toy drum when you were little. How old were you? Like, how did you get this drum?

SPEAKER_04 1:08

I was roughly a year old. It was my very first haircut as a kid. And I guess at least the way I was told I didn't stop crying, and the barber just couldn't, you know, get a hold of my hair. So my dad ran across the street and was looking at a bunch of different toys and he saw a drum.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 1:28

And it was just a little hard plastic toy drum with a little plastic mallet and brought it back over there. And I like to say that I stopped crying and I just started focusing on the drum and let the barber do his thing. But I think the real story is I looked at it for a second, decided I could still cry and play with it. So I just kept crying and played with it. So I got my hair cut. That's the important part.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

So that's what matters. So from there, did your parents like realize that this was something that you liked and that maybe got you something else? Or did you just like how did you move on from that moment? Like, what did they do?

SPEAKER_04 2:05

They probably didn't think too much of it in that particular moment. But as I started getting older, they would catch me just kind of tapping along to music, like on the side of the couch or armrest in a vehicle or something like that. And my dad was a musician as well. He was a guitar player for quite a few bands where he grew up and he still plays guitar to this day. That's awesome. So if he's he was sitting there jamming his guitar, I would, you know, sit there just tapping along on something to keep it with them. So I think it became pretty clear to them that I was gonna end up playing something and being really big into music.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

So I saw that you played in school. Did you start in middle school or did you like when did you start?

SPEAKER_04 2:46

I started in middle school where I went to school. It's a very, very small school. They started you out in the sixth grade in the band if you wanted to do it.

unknown 2:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:54

And the way they started that was at the end of the year, your fifth grade year, they would bring you into the band hall to meet the instructor. Oh, cool. He would kind of go over, you know, what do you want to do? What do you want to play? You know, yeah. Of course, I want to play drums. He's like, okay, well, uh, I'm gonna teach you the proper way to hold your sticks, and then I want to get you to do a few things that I do and let me just see and hear what you do. And so I was able to mimic everything he did perfectly, and he put my name down for it for the following year, and that's how it started.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

That's really awesome. I was in band when I was in middle school too, but I played the trumpet. But I remember originally I wanted to play the drums, but I overthought it way too much. And so when it came time for me to do the same thing, like I had to do like a little addition with my band director, I didn't even bother. I was like, never mind, I'm just gonna play the trumpet.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

Yeah, you know, it's actually it's funny on the little permission slip or or whatever it's called that he had to fill out and send home with me. Yeah, it was just mandatory. He had to put two different instruments, so there was an option. It said drums and then it said trumpet. I I didn't even touch a trumpet. I had no idea how to play a trumpet, but that's what he put. And I did learn the next year that I couldn't play it and didn't want to play it.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

It was an interesting instrument. I ended up being really good at it somehow. I don't know. I think maybe because I played the flute in elementary school. I went to a little private school and we had a little band. If I'm being totally honest, I just blew into it and I didn't actually know what I was doing. I would just sit there and pretend like I was playing. I was nine. Like they didn't try and teach me to read the music. So I just blew into it. And my mom taught me a few things because it was her flute. She used to play, and that was it. We do our little concerts, and I was just sitting there, not a single clue what I was playing. I didn't learn how to read music till I started playing the trumpet.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

That blowing into it, that's how I learned I I didn't know what I was doing. Just one of the very first days of band in sixth grade. They walked around with different instruments and just went down the line showing you, hey, this is you know, this here's a trumpet. And I saw it and I was like, cool. And I just went and nothing came out.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Nothing happened.

unknown 5:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

That's not how you do it. And here's how you got to form your lips. And I was like, ah, no, that sounds painful. I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Yeah, they used to make us do like little exercises with just the mouthpiece.

SPEAKER_04 5:11

Oh, yeah. They made ours do that too. I remember that.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

It was fun though. I loved being in band. I ended up being in the they called it symphonic band. So that was the one that did like the games we played for the football teams, and we also did like competitions. Personally, I never did any of the competitions because I hated school, so I never had my grades good enough to.

SPEAKER_04 5:33

Yeah, I get that.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

But it was fun. I did that. I quit though in high school.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Yeah, I started so sixth grade was beginner.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:43

You were supposed to have beginner for two years, and then when you got to the eighth grade, if I remember correctly, it's been some years. I don't remember everything, but I get that. I think it was optional in the eighth grade, but definitely once you hit ninth grade, if you stayed in band, you became part of the marching band and the symphonic band.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

The drumline ran shorthanded, and I was one of the ones that got chosen if I wanted to in the seventh grade to go ahead straight to the high school band.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

I ended up doing that, and I stuck with it. It was a lot of my friends. We all joined together in sixth grade. But as the years went on, a lot of them would drop out. It started, it was band in football, and then everybody I think I played football one year and then it was all banned, and most all of them quit uh band and went to football. And I remember one of them, uh, I don't even remember what year it was, but he asked me, he said, you know, we all quit and play football. Why don't you just come, you know, do that with us too? And I I I literally, I just y'all suck. It's like y'all lose every game, and I'm going to competitions and winning trophies.

SPEAKER_03 6:53

Yeah. And drummers are badass too. That's right. So, what were your like musical inspirations when you were in high school? Like, what did you listen to?

SPEAKER_04 7:03

I listened to a lot of rock and metal. Me too. There was an unofficial competition between my parents when they started, I forget what year it was. It may have been middle school still, when they bought me my own stereo and each one of them bought me a CD. And my dad decided he was gonna go with rock. My mom was gonna go with country and see what I like the most.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:25

So my mom bought me Charlie Daniels' band's greatest hits.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Hell yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

And my dad bought me Kiss's first album from 1973.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Also, hell yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:35

So they wanted to see what I was gonna listen to the most and what direction I was going. What they didn't expect was I listened to both of them equally.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

They're they're good albums. They're good albums. I love Charlie Daniels band. Like Kiss too.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

Of course, after getting a little bit older and and understanding some of my favorite songs from that KISS album and what they really meant, I was kind of like, oh, I should probably shouldn't have been listening to this stuff. But I ended up listening to both equally. But as I got more into high school, me and my friends, it was a trendy thing to start listening to rock and stuff like that and start rebelling.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Yeah. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

I started out with like Kiss, AC DC, Skid Row, bands like that. And those were kind of my gateway into heavier stuff. And I started finding. If anybody who watches this later knows the band I'm about to reference, I'm gonna be excited. But I found Acid Bath.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Oh my god, I know Acid Bath. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:29

Found them, and then that just went down another rabbit hole of everything from just good old fashioned heavy metal all the way to like Norwegian black metal and everything in the middle of that.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

So there's some crazy stuff out there. So when I was in high school, so I grew up listening only to country. I grew up in Texas. It was like a rite of passage. My gateway was Evanescence. Okay, yeah. Loved Amy Lee, also had a big crush on her. But then she started dating the lead singer of Caesar. So then that kind of led me in down that rabbit hole. And then this is also around the time when like emo and like metal core and things like that started becoming a thing. So my little brother joined a band. He had his own band. He played the bass and the guitar. And so they were like a emo metal band, I guess. Their lead singer like did the scream, the screaming. Yeah, yeah. But then I had friends that listened to like Meshuga and they listened to Rommstein. And so I have had a very wide birth breadth of music that I listened to over in my days. So I found acid back to.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

Oh, hey, I completely get that. Like I grew up in Louisiana.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

Very, very close.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Practically neighbors.

SPEAKER_04 9:47

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I was 10 minutes from the Texas border.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Okay. My first boyfriend lived in Beaumont. We would go over to Louisiana all the time.

SPEAKER_04 9:54

Yep. Beaumont was 45 minutes from where I lived, I think. Maybe a little over. But yeah, and my mom was from Texas.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 10:03

My dad tries to make everybody who leaves he's from Louisiana, but he's definitely from California.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

That's really funny.

SPEAKER_04 10:11

He grew up around the rock scene, so it's only natural that I was gonna, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

So did you continue playing the drums through high school? And then what did you do after high school?

SPEAKER_04 10:23

I definitely continued all through high school. I eventually became the drum captain in the marching band and which was that's what it was an appointed position.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:32

The band director chose that. And then the last two, I think it was the last two years of high school, I ended up holding drum captain position and the band captain position. It was a different band director at the time, but against his better judgment and wishes, because band captain was is voted in.

unknown 10:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:50

And the entire band voted for me. But yeah, I stuck with it. I ended up doing this thing the last couple of years of high school. They called it the All-Star Band. They would do this all-star football game in the summertime, and it would just be the best football players from every high school in the state, divided into two teams, and then we play against each other. Very similar to how the NFL does it now. And um, they would also put together a marching band for that, too. So I got chosen to do that for the last two years of high school, which was super fun. It's over 500 people marching on a field playing the loudest music at LSU's Tiger Stadium. So I played all through high school. That same band director from my early years, he one day he brought a concert DVD to class for a band by the name of Dream Theater.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

It was a concert they filmed in New York where they played an album they have called Scenes from a Memory. And it's a super cool story. It's a concept album. They played it from front to back, the entire album in this concert. We sat down, we watched it, and it blew my mind. Watching their drummer Mike Portnoy and the massive drum set he was using. That was really the first time it clicked in my head. Hey, I can actually make a living doing this. Okay. And then from that point forward, that's when I was like, that's what I want to do. I want to play music for a living. I could have gone after high school, I could have gone to a couple different universities in Louisiana, probably on a full ride scholarship, if I would have stayed marching and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

But that wasn't what I wanted to do anymore. I was like, nope, I'm gonna find a band and I'm gonna make it. So I found a band and didn't make it. But but I not step though. Yeah, right, right. That was the first step in uh a crash course and how it's really done. That was immediately after high school. It was uh obviously at the time it was I'm jumping into a metal band. So Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

So the band that didn't make it, what do you think what happened? Like what do you think caused it? Was it just not like because y'all were young?

SPEAKER_04 12:54

Really quick. Is this PG 13 or rated R?

SPEAKER_03 12:57

I would say it's gonna be like borderline, it's like 17. Mostly I want it to be like, I want I say fuck.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

So Okay. Okay, so uh the biggest reason would be because we all thought we were hot shit and knew everything.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:09

And then we learned the hard way.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

That tracks. That most most kids are like that.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

Oh yeah, yeah. I know I haven't really mentioned my age or anything like that, and I'm probably about to date myself right now, but it became right after high school, it became pretty apparent that we were nowhere where we needed to be because we started listening to this band that the guys in the band were all the exact same age as us.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:32

They just got signed and are going out on tours, and that band's name is Trivium.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Okay. Oh, wait, Trivium?

SPEAKER_04 13:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Oh shit. Okay. I know them too.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

Some of us would sit like in the truck or in the house, just listening to their their stuff, and like, yo, they're our age. Why would we sound like noobs compared to that?

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Didn't somebody say the word noob in so long?

SPEAKER_04 13:57

Yeah, no, there's another thing that dates me.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

You guys love saying that word.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

Yeah. Um, so a lot of that, and then knowing we needed to kind of tighten ourselves up, but didn't really have a direction or have anyone to give us that direction, I guess. That was probably the biggest cause to it.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

What about like we kind of like go away from band life for a minute? What was your music? Like, do you do you go to concerts a lot? Do you like to watch other drummers? Like, do you have any like drummers that you aspire to be like?

SPEAKER_04 14:30

As long as, you know, growing up and then after school and everything, as much as that was my goal was to, you know, play music for life for a living. I didn't go to a lot of concerts.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

Really? I guess that makes sense, though there's not very many options out there.

SPEAKER_04 14:45

Yeah, but I mean, we had uh a couple of like festivals that would come to town, they would have a concert series and it would be free. And this is not me knocking these bands at all because they're all great bands, but it was always bands that were way past their heyday. Not knocking it, like that's how I got to see Blue Oyster Cult, which was a really cool band to watch.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

Um, same thing with Fog Hat. The only song I knew by Fog Hat was Slowride, which I know that's somebody these days knows it because it's seen like commercials and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

Yeah, yep, I do know that song.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

Time went on. I was in college. In college, I started meeting some other musicians and stuff like that, and started becoming friends with them. And you know that, hey, you know what? This concert's coming up here. Do you want to go here? And actually, I yeah, I think my very first legitimate, like pay for it myself and go to it concert. It was Children of Botum, Clutch, and Black Legal Society in Houston.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Oh my god, that just brought back like I just got like tossed back to like 2006 with those names.

SPEAKER_04 15:51

Yeah, it that was a uh really cool show. Uh, they had a band that opened for them on that tour. I think they were from Los Angeles. The band was called Two Cents. We got to actually meet and hang out with them at their merch booth uh after the show was over, which I thought was really cool. And that's where I kind of picking their brains and stuff. You guys are tight. How did y'all discipline yourselves to get this tight? How did y'all luck out and get on this tour? Not just like you're in this city and you're gonna open for these guys in this city, but you're on the whole tour. And uh that's when they started kind of That's amazing. Yeah, they kind of let in the reality that it's uh Yeah, you have to be extremely tight and act like you're the best one out there, and also you have to be the lowest bidder to get on something like that. So basically you have to pay to play or play for free.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 16:39

You know, I was like, oh, that's so reality's starting to set in now. We all kind of took a break and you know, working regular jobs while going to school and up money to go to more concerts. And yes, I would pay the majority of my attention to the drummers.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:56

Even listening to music back then, I had a real I don't call it a habit, but I definitely would listen to the drums more than I listened to anything else on the song. I started, especially in metal bands, as time went on. Some of the drummers that I looked up to and tried to learn from were like Mike Portnoy that I mentioned earlier. Chris Adler from Lamb of God. He was another big one. I actually at one point in time, at one time you could hear him and all a lot of the stuff I played. But those two for sure were my biggest influences for the longest time. I I still consider them big influences too. As time went on and I started remembering that oh, hey, I do listen to more things than metal. Started listening to more country again and things like that. And I would say, right now, one of the biggest guys that I would follow is Miles from Cody Johnson's band.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

I love Cody Johnson.

unknown 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

My friend has met him a few times.

SPEAKER_04 17:49

Oh, really? That's cool.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:51

Yeah, I follow them on Soulfas a lot. He'll give like a rig rundown of his drum set and I'll see something and I'll shoot him a message on Instagram and he'll reply and tell me exactly what that is.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

So, with you not going to concerts until you were older, do you have like one that you remember clearly that you were like, oh yeah, I remember now why I want to do this because this is just so amazing.

SPEAKER_04 18:14

I would say it's definitely not one in particular because I've seen this band more than any other band I've ever seen at this point. But Avatar. I'm not sure if you've heard of them or not.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

I feel like I've heard the name before. There's so many bands I've heard the name just because I've been listening to so many different kinds of music for so long.

SPEAKER_04 18:31

Oh, yeah, yeah. I had known the name for a long time. I'd actually was listening to the radio. 106.1 is a rock station out of Beaumont.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

And you know what station that is.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

Yeah. Yeah. They had a DJ on there uh named Candy at one point in time.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Oh my god, I remember her.

SPEAKER_04 18:48

Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. She used to talk about this band Avatar all the time, but she couldn't play it on there because they're way too heavy for 106. And they definitely didn't have any radio edit songs at all. But uh she would talk about them all the time, and I never listened to them. And then she posted her new tattoo one day on socials, and it was their logo. And I remember looking at that and commenting, I was like, you know what? I I should probably check this band out. If you like them enough to get their logo tattooed on you, yeah, that's pretty serious. Type their name in to YouTube, and naturally that's not what comes up.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

It's the Avatar.

SPEAKER_04 19:24

So I was like, okay, Avatar Metal. Yeah. The first thing that comes up is a video for a song called Hail the Apocalypse. I was like, that's a cool song title. I'm watching that. And sounds familiar. That song was cool as hell. So I was like, you know what? If they come around, I'm gonna go check them out. They're from Sweden. I don't know how often they come here.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

Not long after that, they were on a tour as the opener for it, it was Five Finger Death Punch, was the main headliner. I forget who was direct support, but during that tour, you know, they're playing that's like stadiums and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:58

So there's a few days between. So Avatar was actually after they'd finished one of those shows and the whole convoy took off on the two or three-day trek to the next place, they would detour to small bars and clubs and they would play their own shows. That's amazing. I got to see them at a very tiny bar in Monroe, Louisiana. And that show sold me on Avatar. And since then I have seen them in every everything from small bars like that all the way up to major venues. And their show has never changed. They give 200% every show, they get the crowd engaged.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:35

It's just nonstop the entire time. And that's the band that reminded me you can do this. It takes effort, but when when you do it right, everybody loves it. You put a smile on everybody's face, and that's what I want to do. So that's that's how it reminded me.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

That's amazing. I love when you have a band like that that you just like connect with so much. So when would you say did you start like getting to a band? Like, what was your first band that you actually like toured with and started like seeing, you know, getting to do what you wanted to do?

SPEAKER_04 21:06

The one that I did the most with before I met Caden. Um, it was a band that I had started with a couple of other guys that went by the name Ashes of Eden. We struggled with the name quite a bit because it turns out there was like 70 other bands with the same name in the world. Uh and then like Breaking Benjamin puts a song out called Ashes of Eden.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

So I think that when I was Googling.

SPEAKER_04 21:29

Yeah, yeah. They show up and people are like, wait, oh, that's a oh wait, that's a band name. Are you like a tribute? No, we're not. Oh no. That would be the band that I did the most with. Uh keep in contact with those guys. Those are that's my that's my brothers. But yeah, we didn't go all over the place, I would say, but we did a ton of shows. We had a few different labels that we had been in contact with.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:53

Of course, it was always, you know, we're gonna keep an eye on you guys, but right now you're not what we're looking for type situations. You guys don't sound as original. We're looking for the next original thing. And of course, in your head, you're like, no, what are you talking about? Nobody sounds like us when probably everybody does. And then you see the label that just told you that sign somebody else who sounds like everybody else on their label. And you're like, wait a minute, does didn't you just say, but you said no? Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

That would drive me insane. That would drive me off, really.

SPEAKER_04 22:23

Yeah. That was my first real taste of getting into um hitting the big time. It was the first band that, you know, we got the chance to open for uh larger acts and you know things like that, meeting bigger people, playing bigger places and stuff. That's where it all really started.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

What was your favorite like tour that you did with them?

SPEAKER_04 22:46

We never actually that was the thing. We never actually went on what you would consider a tour. It was mostly a couple dates here, a couple dates there, stuff like that. Okay. If I had to pick something that was my favorite, I would probably say it's a cross between like single nights. It was either it would either be the time we opened for a band called Crowbar.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

I know them.

SPEAKER_04 23:05

Yeah. It's uh you know when you find Acid Bath, one of the next bands you find is Crowbar.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

That's how I found them. Okay, there you go.

SPEAKER_04 23:11

But yeah, uh either that or the very first time we got to play in Houston. That was a very, very fun weekend.

SPEAKER_03 23:18

What venue did you play in Houston? That's where I grew up.

SPEAKER_04 23:21

Uh oh, okay. That uh so we played what was it called? Uh BFE.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Okay. Is that one in like Cyprus area? Do you know? I think I recognize that name. You probably wouldn't know. You're not, you don't you didn't go to Houston that much. I think I'm not sure. I think I know what you're talking about, though. Did you ever go to anything at Java jazz there in Houston?

SPEAKER_04 23:44

Uh no, I didn't.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

Oh my gosh. That was like one of the biggest. Well, it wasn't big, it was a little venue, but it was for like smaller, like metal bands. I actually saw Paramour there in like 2005 when their first album had just come out. I didn't even know who they were. I went with somebody that liked them. Like they were like this was like a 500 max capacity venue, but it was really like so many bands that I saw there ended up making it big. That just seemed to be like the place.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that's how I I didn't know who they were at the time. It was either in Beaumont or right outside of Beaumont. It was a festival called Dog Jam.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

I went to one of those.

SPEAKER_04 24:25

Um there was an up-and-comer band at the time that played, and they they, you know, they rushed off the stage because you know, changeover times for stuff like that's pretty quick.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

Um, drummer got bass drum, and you know, pedal's still connected to it as it takes off and uh runs, and I get nicked by the bass drum pedal. Oh, no, no, sorry. I was like, it's cool, it's cool. I understand what's going on. You you're good.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:47

That ended up being Shinedown.

SPEAKER_03 24:49

Oh shit. Oh my god, I've seen Shinedown so many times. I actually saw them, I think, at Dog Jam because I went with my ex. And I feel like we went to some other kind of festival. Was it like Edge Fest or something that they have out there in Beaumont? It was for another radio station. But I remember we're going to Dog Jam that we saw Caether there. We saw like 10 years.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

There's a there's a bunch of bands there that we went to. Okay, so I'm interested. We're getting to the point now where you have been touring for a little while, and you meet a gentleman named Caden Gillard. How did this come about?

SPEAKER_04 25:23

So, okay, it was right after the end of Ashes of Eden. Uh we had played our final show. It was the very first time that my drum set, the one that I used for that band, was in my my house. It's in my house now because it can't go back to where we practice. Not a band anymore.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:41

And I'm just kind of looking at it sitting there and I was like, man, this is depressing. Yeah, you know, from the night we played our final show, and for like a couple of weeks after that, I had so many friends that I had met through music that, you know, came up to me, you know, like, man, you know, it sucks that you guys are gone. But look, you know, I I might have something starting up soon and I'm gonna need a drummer. Or believe it or not, I had two people come up to me and tell me, yo, we're gonna kick our drummer out. Do you want the job? Oh. But uh yeah, and about a month goes by and I haven't heard from any of these people. So I was like, I'm gonna start reaching out and checking in with people, I guess, see how they're doing, and if they, you know, did you kick the guy out? Because I'm ready. But uh yeah, I'm I'm reaching out to these people, and it's like, oh, you know, my plans fell through, or oh no, we decide to give this guy another chance. Or no, I, you know, we just don't need anybody else in the band at the moment. We're all good. Yeah, man, it's no problem. I'm not causing drama. Yeah. I need a new gig. But yeah, so time goes on, and I'm kind of running short of luck on anything. And I started getting a little down on myself, almost depressed because it's this as long as I've now gone without being on a stage. And I got up one day, I was I immediately got up that day feeling just feeling like crap anyway. I was like, I had to run into town, pay bills, and do some stuff.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

So I left my house, and where my house was, I was outside the city limits. But I could turn left and go down one road or turn right and go down another road, but they all ended up in the same area. But turning right was closer to get to where I was going. Whatever the reason, I turned left that day.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:27

And uh as soon as I turned left and went down my road through the neighborhood, there was a truck that was stopped in the middle of the road, and I wasn't sure what was going on. And I pull over and I stop and kind of pull off to the side, and I see the the driver's side door open. This guy gets out and he just starts pushing the truck. And I was like, Oh, he broke down or something. So I kind of I pull up a little closer and I and I pull over and I say, Hey man, you okay? He said he ran out of gas. He's just trying to pull over to the side so he can cause someone to you know come tow him home.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

And I said, Oh, well, you know, uh, just a little ways up here, there's a stop sign, and there's a gas station right next to that stop sign. And he's like, Oh, I didn't know that. Thank you, man. I'll uh I'll I'll get over there. I was like, no, hold on, man. Let's wait a minute. And I hop out of the car and I I go over to the other side of his truck and I start pushing with him. He's like, Oh, you don't have to do that, you don't have to do that. I was like, it's cool, it's right up here, it's no big deal, it'll get there faster. And he just immediately started breaking out in tears because no one's ever, you know, done something like this for him. And I was like, Yeah, dude, it's it's no big deal, man. This is this is what we do for people. Yeah I so we we get into the pump, he pumps his gas, uh, he takes me back to my car, and the whole time he's driving, he's still he's like, he's like, I've really I you know I've never had anybody help me out. I've broken down before, no one's pulled over to check on me, nothing. He's like, what you did, what you did was great, man. Good karma was about to come your way, dude. And I was like, man, I appreciate that. And I hopped in my car, he drove off. I went about my day. I, you know, put it kind of brightened my mood a little bit. And I was like, man, I needed that pep talk.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:08

And I went about my day, and then on my way back home, I hear my phone go off and I and I look down. And it's a guy I haven't spoken to in a really, really long time. I I went to high school with him. He was a couple years ahead of me, and he messages and he's like, Hey, brother, do you know any drummers looking for a band? And I I just kind of laughed a little bit and I was like, LOL, me. So he replied, I I don't remember exactly what he said, but he's like, Oh, well, uh, it's not really, you know, that heavy stuff like you play, you know, it's country. And I was like, I was like, look, I I know, you know, when you're good at what you do and you start playing in metal, no matter what the instrument is, you get labeled the metal guy, the metal musician. Especially if you're a drummer, most metal drummers are in 20 bands because there's nothing. But yeah, and I was like, no, man, I said, I know that's what I've been doing for the last several years, but I I've played everything from the heaviest stuff you can think of down to like Love Potion number nine or whatever those old and oldies are playing.

unknown 30:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:05

He's like, oh, well, in that case, and he just starts breaking it down for me on who Caden is and the music and their plans and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

And their plans for the immediate future. And I was like, Yeah, man, sounds good. You want me to try out? And uh they set it up for me a couple of days after that to meet up where they practiced. And I showed up and I brought my kit with me. And they introduced me to Caden and the rest of the band. First thing I did, I was like, I was like, man, Caden really is short. But no, no. Yeah, I I sit in there and uh I just I'm talking to them about my experience and everything I've been doing. And then as I'm doing it, you know, I'm just going back and forth, taking drums out of cases and setting things up. And I it's we're just carrying on conversation while I'm doing this. And I remember I opened my kick pedal case. And uh it's a of course, I have a double pedal, so both pedals are sitting in there.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Um yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 31:00

I flip it open, I grab the main pedal out and I hook it to the bass drum, and then I go to close the lid back on the case and uh Grant, the guitar player, great dude still with us today, he looks at me and interrupts me when I'm talking, he says, What are you doing? And I and I said, Oh, I'm putting uh stuff to get together so we can jam. And he's like, Yeah, but is that a double pedal? I said, Yeah, you're not gonna hook it up. I'm sorry, I thought this was a country band. And him and Caden were both like, hook it up.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 31:38

Yeah, yeah. So I I hooked the double pedal up, and I'm I'm just in my head, I'm thinking, I'm gonna set this kick, snare, a rack time, and a floor time up. And as they see more cases in my car, and they're like, You're not gonna set that up, you're not gonna set that up, why not? So this is like what I use in in metal. It was a very progressive metal band, and I needed all this stuff. Do you really want me to set all of this up? Why not? Okay. Just remember I warned you. And so I set all of it up. And I get in there, I warm up a little bit, and you know, ask them, you know, if there's something in particular they wanted to start off with. I did learn a few of the his originals, and then I did see a list of some of the covers that they were doing at the time. And uh, we started off with a cover that I I would like to point out. I could have played this cover with the kick drum, snare drum in a single floor tongue.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 32:29

But yeah, no, we played that, and then he asked me what originals I knew, and I taught him what I had worked on a little bit. We jammed a little bit more, then they they kind of asked me to play some of the you know metal stuff that I had done. I was like, I mean, I can, you're not gonna understand what I'm playing. Like, I I'm a very musical drummer. I like to play music with the drums. I don't I don't like to just provide a beat.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

And he's like, yeah, but just play it anyway. I was like, okay. So I just start doing all this craziness and just watching their faces as I'm doing it. And uh we stop, we take a break. I listen to them, you know, talk about what the immediate plans for the future were, and and things like that. And it's you know, it's it's starting to get kind of kind of late in the night. And I assume we were done because we we were just talking.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:14

So I start slowly breaking things down and start you know, putting the cases, and they looked at me and it's like, what are you doing? I was like, Oh, I'm sorry. I I thought we were done for the night. I was about to pack my stuff and head to the house. And it's like, why would you do that? Because we're done. That's it's the end. You know, and he's like, No, man, just leave it here. You're in the band. It's like all right. Wow, cool. Wow. Um that's kind of how that started. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

That's a really that's really amazing. Like, that's like definitely meant to be kind of situation. Do you believe in like karma and all that stuff too?

SPEAKER_04 33:55

At the time, I really didn't believe in karma, but it sure made me a believer. I believe in a lot of things after that. So you know, at once a year, because after they, you know, welcomed me into the band, I actually I made one of those long, heartfelt posts and explained that whole story on on Facebook. And so to this day, you know, I'm still it comes up in my memories and I still see that. And I'm like, yeah, I'm sharing this again because it's nice to have this reminder. Good to do.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

I mean, I would too. I would too. Yeah. So what has been your favorite part now of being with, you know, somebody who's totally different than what you used to? Like, what do you feel like it was a thing that you learned?

SPEAKER_04 34:38

Believe it or not, and anybody who's never played multiple genres is uh probably disagree with this, but uh believe it or not, switching from playing years and years of metal and going in to play country will actually show you just how out of practice you really are. Yeah, I've gone back and listened to old demo recordings that uh never made it to an album or anything and from rock and metal bands and just got mad at at my playing, wanting to go back and redo it, but knowing that that's impossible. But yeah, that was the biggest shift, I guess. Uh-huh. And um man, uh being able to just go from what I was doing with the people I was doing it with, and then end up falling in with a another group of people that immediately felt like family, and even to this day, it it just like an even closer family. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

The best part uh that that is something really special when you get to work with somebody and people that you feel like that with, because you know, so many environments nowadays, especially, you know, it's the exact opposite. So getting to do something you love with people that you love is just like oh yeah, yeah, like there's no better feeling. So then you have toured now with Caden, though, right?

SPEAKER_04 36:01

Oh yeah, we've uh we've been all over the place.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

So what is something about touring that people don't really understand until they've experienced it themselves?

SPEAKER_04 36:11

They think you see some really amazing sights, and you definitely see some sights, but it ain't what they think.

SPEAKER_03 36:21

Okay, well now you have to divulge some of that because now I want to know.

SPEAKER_04 36:24

No, it's it, you know, it used to be like a running joke. It's like, oh man, you're in a touring band, you must see some really awesome places, and then like they're imagining you're seeing like the beaches of like whatever insert random cruise destination and stuff like that, when in reality what you're seeing is your bandmade sweaty sock hanging off the bed. We really do we actually do get to see some really amazing places, yeah, and and do some amazing things. Last year, uh, one of our one of my favorite uh things we did last year, we actually uh we played a uh a rodeo and music festival in France.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_04 37:03

Yeah, and it was it wasn't like, oh, we're going to Paris or something like that. No, it wasn't that. Where we were at was not a touristy part of France. We were in a traditional, like some of the buildings in this place were still like left over from the world wars and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Oh my god, that is so cool.

SPEAKER_04 37:21

So we we got the you know, it's stuff that tourists don't go see, you know.

SPEAKER_03 37:24

Where else did you go in Europe?

SPEAKER_04 37:26

That was that was all we went to was was France. Dang that that's the only place we played. We actually um we had uh we ended up, you know, because of flights and stuff like that. We ended up in Germany, uh where else? No, it was yeah, just Germany, France. There was a third country in there. That's right, it was Canada and then France and Germany. Oh my god. The story of getting to there was is also a crazy one, but that's that might take another hour.

SPEAKER_03 37:52

Last year was really crazy with with traveling. So I actually went to Europe for the first time last year, too. I went to France actually. I went to Paris, though, because Okay. But we also went to Amsterdam, and the week that we were going, there was the strike with KLM, which of course was the airline that I was flying out there. So this was gonna be my first time ever flying international and over the ocean. So I was already freaking out. And then on top of that, there's the possibility of it being canceled. I was over it. I was so happy though. I finally, I think my flight was delayed a few hours, but we ended up getting over there and France was really cool. Oh, yeah. I would definitely 100%. I want to go back and see some of the other parts of it because it's just so cool, all the history.

SPEAKER_04 38:35

Oh, yeah. The festival that we played, we sold out the concert.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:40

And uh, which they they told us that it wasn't sold at, like it's you know, the people who bought tickets for the concert were also there for the rodeo, but it's not sold out until they announced that we were playing.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

They're trying to get it hooked up, not for this year, but I think for next year, they're trying to get it hooked up to where we can do a full tour in Europe.

SPEAKER_03 38:57

Heck yeah. So do they do the same kind of stuff for the rodeo there that they do here in the US?

SPEAKER_04 39:03

For that one, they do. That one in particular, it was called EcuBlues Rodeo and Music Festival, and it is very Americanized. Okay so it's it's exactly the same type of rodeo you would see here. The vendors, the food vendors, and the shop, the gift shops and stuff that are out there on the grounds. It's all pretty much what you would see here, except for you know, like it's French. Like there was there was a lot of there's a lot of stuff that had like you know, the same kind of American type merch you would see at a festival. And I don't I know that I'm sure there's a specific word for actual authentic French ice cream and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:38

But yeah, for the most part, it's very uh Americanized.

SPEAKER_03 39:41

Interesting. Interesting. So with you being able to have gone on tours now, have you started like noticing like when you go to shows in the same areas? Have you found any like fans that go to like this that have been to like multiple shows? Like have y'all started noticing?

SPEAKER_04 39:55

Oh, yes, absolutely. Um there is uh there was definitely a good handful that we we're this familiar faces that we're seeing. Yeah. Matter of fact, there's one in particular that and I cannot remember where she lives.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 40:07

It's either in Texas or it's Oklahoma. But at this point, I'm pretty sure she has followed along and seen us in like three or four different states. Wow. And one of them, if if I recall, I may have this completely wrong, but if I recall, it was two of them were back to back like 500 miles between like one was Oklahoma, one was way down in Texas. I I could have that wrong, but I'm pretty sure that was one of them.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 40:32

And um, but yeah, we're starting to see up more familiar faces wherever we go. The biggest kicker, actually, this past weekend, we played in Dallas.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:40

A uh venue called uh the Longhorn Ballroom and Backyard.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

Big I know who that is. My spouse is from Dallas, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:47

Okay. Uh yeah, uh, so we played as a uh as support for a larger uh guy named Braxton Keith.

SPEAKER_03 40:54

I know who he is too. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 40:55

Yeah, Caden and Braxton are are are close and we we play quite a few uh shows with them. And uh that's awesome. That's really cool. Oh, yeah, for sure. When you're a support act, you definitely know that the majority of everybody there is is there to see the headliner.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:10

But even at shows like that, we're starting to see more and more people that sing along as we're oh, I love that. And just that show in particular this past weekend, everywhere I looked in the crowd, it wasn't just people mouthing along with the lyrics, they were jumping and dancing and and just hands in the air, just oh I love that going nuts.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

And you really get like a good view because since you're not performing like like Caden is, you're kind of in the background, so you really get to see people without having that pressure so much of like having to interact with them like Caden does.

SPEAKER_04 41:43

I I do uh I do uh get to people watch quite a bit from back there. Usually though, I mean, yeah, I do people watch, but I also try to also help Caden read the crowd. And uh the stuff that we play, you know, it's mostly originals, but we'll throw a couple of covers in here and there. And we have we have some very traditional country covers, classic country covers, and we have some not so country covers. Spoiler alert, we play higher by Creed.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

Hell yay!

SPEAKER_04 42:14

Sounds amazing with a fiddle. I'm just putting that out there. Um but yeah, and if we play something that's more laid back and traditional, and I and I look out and I see people are just now looking at their phones and stuff, I can get into my talk back mic and be like, hey, we need to pick the energy up a little bit. Or if it's the opposite, hey, they're not really into the Rocky stuff, we need to bring it back down a little bit.

unknown 42:34

You know.

SPEAKER_03 42:35

Oh yeah, because you can talk into him and he can't he can only hear you, right? Nobody else can hear you.

SPEAKER_04 42:40

Uh the whole band can hear.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

That's so cool though.

SPEAKER_04 42:43

Most of the the show, if not people watching, I'm just saying random things into the to the talk back mic, like I couldn't do that. If I if you grant your your zipper's down, buddy.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

I could not deal with that. I would not. I like I would be busting out laughing randomly in the middle of the songs if somebody was doing that in my ear. I am too ADHD for that.

SPEAKER_04 43:03

I don't do it, I don't really do it that much. It's uh yeah, but uh uh mostly at soundcheck.

SPEAKER_03 43:09

I was at a show a few, it was like a month ago now, and that happened. I was watching the artist, and she starts talking to her guitarist, and she's like, Oh, nobody else can hear you. It's just me. She was like, damn.

SPEAKER_04 43:22

Yeah, it's uh it it can get it can get pretty funny sometimes. Um we have like some running jokes, uh like random quotes or uh random noises, and nobody can hear it except us. If you ever see one of our shows and everybody's you know just like being like normal musicians on stage, and then you just see them bust out laughing out of nowhere, it's probably because I made one of those weird noises in the movie. People watch, but I'm trying to scan the crowd looking for that one person. There's always one, their eyes are locked on the drummer. Um find that one person.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:54

And if they stay engaged with me, I'm gonna stay engaged with them, and then by the end of the night, they're getting a drumstick after the show's over.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

And you know, well, because you know they're drummers too. It's always the drummers that watch the drummers.

SPEAKER_04 44:05

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

What is a question that you wish people asked you more?

SPEAKER_04 44:12

Oh, I'm sure I have a really good answer for this that I can't think of at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

It's okay. I'm I like putting people on the spot.

SPEAKER_04 44:18

Yeah, a question that I wish people asked me more often. Probably something like, how does it feel to be doing what you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 44:25

So, how does it feel?

SPEAKER_04 44:26

It's the greatest feeling in the world, even on days when you're stressed out, yeah, nothing's going to plan, you haven't had any sleep. It doesn't matter what the worry is or what the stress was about. Uh second you step on that stage and you see a sea of smiling faces, it's all gone.

SPEAKER_03 44:45

I'm on Reddit, obviously. I'm in the touring musicians subreddit just because I like reading that. And I just saw a post today about somebody talking about too, like the coming down from touring because you just you spend all this time doing this amazing thing you love, and then all of a sudden you're back home. And it's like worst feeling ever. You're he was talking about how depressed he is.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

And you know what? I saw that. I saw that today. Um, yeah, yeah. No, there's always a point when you get back home, when you get into like just the normal everyday whatever it is.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:16

That and you you kind of just stop for a second and you look and you're like, dude, uh nothing else matters anymore. Yeah. Especially when you're doing like, I don't just play drums for him. I'm also video editing, the Leary videos, uh, graphic editing website, tour managing. So my brain is constantly doing this. And then when I get back home, if there's even a second where my brain isn't spinning like that, then it's like I start getting to shakes.

SPEAKER_03 45:45

I feel that. I feel that. Like I've always got stuff that I'm doing too, because I don't like being, I can't stand not having something to do or something to look forward to. That's like my big thing is like I've always I'm really big on concerts. Like I go to concerts, I've probably been to 10 already this year, and I've got more planned. So like I feel like I'm always living for like my next show. Like I've got some already, and I'm moving to California at the end of this month. And so I'm like, really, I'm like, I'm gonna be going to all the shows of Hollywood Bowl, I'm going to Kia Forum. I've been like already planning them all.

SPEAKER_04 46:21

Right on, yeah. Hey, you know what? I think California, Caden actually played there uh a couple of months ago. Yeah. It was just him, but it wasn't the full band. But uh when we do eventually hit California and uh we come nearby, you definitely have to come to a show.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

Oh, 100%. I will be coming. I already looked into his music. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 46:40

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

Thank you for listening to this episode of From URL to IRL. If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure to follow along for more stories about music, connection, and the people who bring us together. You can find me on social media at from URL to IRL Podcast. Maybe I'll see you in the crowd someday.