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[email protected]. Now we're going to get into the episode. This is outside the round with Matt Burrill. Also, make sure you guys, like, rate, subscribe, tell your mama and them. And for more details and to get in touch with the rest of the familia, visit razerowdy.com. Now let's get into it. Outside the round with me, Matt Burrill. A raise Rowdy podcast.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Come on.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: This is outside the Round with Matt Burrill. A Razor Rowdy podcast.
What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to Outside the round. Today, a very special episode, round two of having this guy on. You know, I love my guys and girls from the great state of Alabama, and I have for a very long time. And me and this guy right here, his name is Elijah and we had him on actually almost three years ago to the day.
And my God, the stuff that has happened in the past few years, I'm not on the road anymore.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: You're doing different things from what you were doing.
Dude, it's great to fucking have you, man.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Dude, we haven't actually hung out.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: I know. Remember when we used to play kickball and shit and then we'd be hanging out at the Bama House of Trey Lewis, Ella Langley, Mitch Wallace and Clay Barker? Or going to Alex Maxwell's or the house when it was you, Brian and Wells, which, how funny is it? You guys used to live like right here?
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I live like 10th of.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: A mile down the in. Are you still in that?
[00:02:22] Speaker B: No, no, I'm saying that house was like a 10th of a mile down the road. Yeah, no, I'm over in opera Mills now.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Oh, nice. So it's funny, I live out here in Hermitage too. And I remember during COVID driving out to y'all's crib, I remember, it was a fun time because Wales and he still does a lot of folks videos, and Hill Media does a great job. Good supporter of the program. We love you, Wales. But all the release parties back in the day of, like, you'd have a song coming out, or Chambers would have a song coming out, or Brian would have a song coming out. The whole muscadine burning at both ends, record coming out. There were so many good nights.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: There was so much partying and alcohol that happened in that house. And that place probably had asbestos.
There was so many spiders, like, noises in the attic, too. I was like, fuck, man, I'm so glad I'm only paying $500 for that place, dude.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: And that was your first time you moved up, right? At that time, yeah.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: So I moved to Nashville in July of 2020. So I was getting all those. The COVID dollars. Like, the Trump bucks. Trump bucks, dude, bucks were just, like, not dying.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Trump bucks were the shit, bro. I've had to pay some back, actually. Have you had to do that?
[00:03:36] Speaker B: They sent me a letter.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah, they sent me a letter.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: I don't know if I should.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: I mean, they're not watching. Whatever. They're worried about a lot of other shit going on.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: I didn't do anything illegal. Yeah.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: I didn't do anything.
Yeah. So we had you on the pod in November of 2020. So you had only been in town for four months.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah, four months, something like that.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: And now if you fast forward a few years. Yeah, man, isn't it crazy what this town does? Like, different chapters you go through?
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, from dropping out of college to just basically transform my entire life to Nashville, honestly, it's just been a blur ever since.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: Everything's so blurry, bro.
I feel that puddle mud. Yes. Butt rock. Yes. Which, I'm so glad you and Luke came out to Butt Rock Night.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, dude.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: I was like, okay, this is officially, like, the Nashville rock scene accepts this night because Elijah and half a lakey's here.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: It's really sick, dude. Me and Luke were talking about it, and we were like, we came to some girls and they give us, like, a few lemon drops. And I'd had a beer, too, and I was like, damn, I kind of want to rip the song right now.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Dude, what song would you have sang? What fits in your butt rock?
[00:04:55] Speaker B: I've been playing headstrong live, like, my version of Headstrong, so, like, way heavier.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. With some more breakdowns in.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
I was like, man, I'd love to play that song. Yeah. Me and Luke was like, we should just get drunk and let Matt sing it. Let us sing a song, dude.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: If you were to have come to me and said that we would have made something happen. Just so you know, between Nikki and I, volume four will definitely have you. I think you would fuck up some three days grace like you singing Animal have become. Or like breaking Benjamin or like, any of the heavier ends of Butt rock.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Because rock's so cool in that there are so many subgenres within and there's so many different scenes of hardcore emo. They're kind of similar, but they're very different. Then there's, like, post hardcore and then.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: There'S, like, so much.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah, and then there's, like, hardcore, but they love Jesus and don't drink or anything.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Like, there's straight edge shit. Yeah.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: So what scene would you say you kind of fit in right now?
[00:05:57] Speaker B: That's a really good question. I think what I've been trying to do is just write what kind of feels good and come to me. So whatever scene people want to put me in, I don't know. I don't really care.
I'll take whatever, anybody that wants to like my music, please. Come on. I don't care what.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: I think that's the right attitude to have, though. And that's similar to country where people are like, oh, man, that shit's pop country. That ain't real. That ain't real country right there, but.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: It all fits right.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: And I feel like rock is like that. And right now there's a resurgence in the rock world, dude, huge rock. It feels like 2003.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
People always say, like, good stuff comes around. Like, cool fashion comes around again. Good music does the same thing. People love rock music. It feels good. It's, like, energetic. Of course it's going to come back around.
Yeah. I don't know. I mean, hopefully rock becomes what it used to be. I think that'd be really sick. It's like the top songs being rock songs. I remember when Daltry was, like, the biggest artist in the whole world, dude.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Limp Bizkit. Biggest artist in the world.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Corn.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: Playing to, like 90,000 people. It's fucking wild, dude. I think it'll happen again.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Yeah. What have the shows been like? Because you've been doing some live stuff here in town and you've gotten to go out of town a little bit.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been sick.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: What's the crowd like at Elijah's show? Because I feel like I've got a stretch before I go, so my body's ready to move around in a bit.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: It's fucking wild, dude.
Yeah, I think it's nice. It's a good mix of people that want to move around and get crazy and people that want to sing. So I think what's especially been weird about. Maybe weird is, like, the wrong word, but younger people that have never experienced the rock scene before or, like, heavier music go to a show for the first time, and they don't really know what to expect. So I went to a bad omen show.
Do you know that band name rings.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: A little bit of a bell?
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Yeah, they got a song that blew up on TikTok, but they've been around for a long time. Anyways, they had some music blow up on TikTok, and they started selling off these shows. They've been a band for years, right? Then all of a sudden, people that's never been to a rock show, like a heavier rock show, come to a rock show and they see people, like, moshing. Within the first, like, 15 seconds, this huge pit just opens up. And then when I was there, people were getting mad at people moshing, and I was like, I know it's your first show. Come on.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: This is the culture.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: Yeah, like, do a little research. You know what I mean? It's a different kind of vibe, for sure. It's a lot of fun.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Where was that show at?
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Is it Brooklyn Ball here in Nashville?
[00:08:36] Speaker A: I've only seen country shows over there at Brooklyn Ball. I haven't done. I feel like, because the rock scene was coming from where I'm from up in New York, New Jersey. Obviously, I was very involved in the country scene, but there is a big rock scene in New York City. That East coast thing, like the Starland Ballroom, the Stone Pony House of Independence. Just go back to CBGB's. Like the rock clubs that are up there. I feel like Brooklyn bowl would be a good spot to.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: It's cool. It sounds really good in there, too. I love that venue. That one in east side Bowl is really sick.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Eastside Bowl, Brian Fraser was over the other day because we're talking about being able to do stuff on a bigger scale when it comes to nights similar to butt rock or just rock style things. I haven't been to east side Bowl.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: It's sick, man. It's like a 70s vibe.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Oh, cool.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Yeah, bowling Alley is like a 70s vibe. And then the venue is sick, though.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: So, like, if Lakeside was a bowling alley venue, is it of that lakeside lounge type?
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Feels kind of like Jackie Moon 70s. Yeah, like the bell bottoms and the really multi patterned carpet.
Yeah, it's that kind of vibe.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: And people are just moshing in there.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Well, the bowling alley feels like that, but the venue is just by. The venue is its own thing.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Oh, really? Okay. So it's like a venue in the.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Back of the bowling alley. It's kind of sick.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Hell yeah.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: It's cool.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: And then you like the end, I'm sure. Right?
[00:10:06] Speaker B: The end is sick. I love those guys.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: To me, the end is just. I mean, what's funny about the end is when you're used to being in the bar. So even though I don't drink, it has to be the longest wait time for a fucking drink in the city of Nashville fashion. But I kind of love it, though. I love it. That's like part of their bit is you have.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: They'll never.
Their.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: And their pOS system is just like. It's Just card with, like an index card.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's hold the card and then write down what drinks you had on index card and put it behind the bar.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: No liquor. Beer only beer.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Only. Sick.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: I kind of like the vibe of it and it doesn't bother me because I don't drink.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: So for me, it's no fucking difference. Like, water is water.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: When we played over there, I was like, I was right before I went up, just like, man, I kind of need a shot of whiskey. And I was going out to the bar and I was like, hey, can I get it? And I've been there so many times and he's like, you know, we don't have beer, man, or we don't have liquor, man. I'm like, shit, I got to do this. So. Right? Yeah.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: And the first time I went to that venue was actually for the Lakeview show. That was.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: They did. They placed so much beer.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it was wild. That place was fucking nuts. It was slammed. And something a lot of people I don't think know about you is a big part of your Nashville story. And your musical journey has been not just being on stage or in the writing room or producing, which I want to touch on as well, because I know you know your way around some pro tools and some tracks and shit, but you've done the content guy thing and gotten to go out with two guys, Jesse and Luke, who you look up to that are like Big brothers. It seems like that's the dynamic. And you've gotten to see the country with these guys and watch their grow up and their rise. And that night at the end, it was asses to elbows and then I just see you flying through with the cam are in the air. I'm like, this guy knows how to get through a pit with a camera.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: You have to. Yeah, I mean, you kind of have to figure out different ways to make money when you're up here.
Keep yourself free and do music and write and try to make the reason why you moved up here work, then also make money to pay rent. It's like, well, I have a camera, I know how to do some stuff. And then now it's just become kind of the thing I do on the side, but, yeah, it's cool.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: How did that come to be where it was, Lakeview? Were those the first guys that you shot or how did that kind of get started? Because that's not something people would guess.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, honestly just started doing it for myself, and then I was helping out just some friends of mine shoot some content doing pictures for like $150 or something just to help pay for shit during the month or whatever. But, yeah, I don't really know how. It's the same thing with everything else. Just like now I'm here. I'm like, I don't really remember the journey. It's just like, now I'm here.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: Well, how'd you meet Jesse and Luke?
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Jesse and Luke actually came over to our old house over here in Hermitage for. I can't remember what it was for. I think we were having some sort of party and they were. Oh, Quint.
You know Quint.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah. That dude is as good of a people sick. He just has good people around him because he's such a good fucking guy.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: Yeah, great person.
So me and him's been friends since then. So he brought them with him because they were like, they were riding that. I just. I met them there, and then the relationship kind of blossomed from.
Yeah. And then I ended up moving in with Quint the year after down in Antioch.
And then after that, we moved to the house right beside Luke and Jesse over there in to be. Now I'm roommates with Luke.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: That had to be a party. Living with Jet, living next to Jesse and Luke and you and Quint. Was. Was it just you and Quentin, that house? So was you and Quentin, then Jesse and Luke, the two houses next to each.
Oh, yeah. Because you were in Antioch next to where Mitch and Justin and all them are.
Living in Antioch is wild.
[00:14:19] Speaker B: I just hated having to do, like, a rental company, like American homes for rent.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Oh, dude, I rented this.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: American homes for rent. I hate you, bro.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: I rented from them my house in.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: The worst people, bro.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: My house in Laverne was through them. That shit sucks.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: It's awful. It's awful. They took, like $400 off of our deposit for leaving up the rod over the top of the back door for curtains. Everything else was good, and they took off $400. I'm so close to wanting to sue you guys, but I don't really care that much.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: It would cost more to sue.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: That's why they do that shit. That's why they do it. So whatever. But, yeah, now I just Venmo my landlord, dude, my rent.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: That's how mine works too. It's great. It's the best way to fucking do it, dude. Living in Antioch is wild, though, in that spot where you guys were in.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: It'S just so far away from near the is.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: It is. But I'm just saying, like, going to that Kroger and Nashboro Village, that's a fucking journey, dude. Like, you go into that, like an.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Adventure every time you like, bro.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: You never know what you're going to see. No, there's the armed officer on the way in and on the way out, they had two of them. One on the way in, one on the way out.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: Keeps you humble, bro.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: It's just like. Dude. And then fireworks or gunshots at.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: It.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And I grew up in a New York suburb. I know you grew up out in the country and good old sweet Home Alabama. Oh, yeah.
Antioch was a whole different thing for me. I'd never really lived in a ghetto before.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: No. Yeah.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Like, hearing the tires screech at night in the MABCO or the Zaxby's parking lot. Shit was wild.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Fucking sick, dude. I love it.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: It was. It is for sure. So you got songs on the fucking radio now?
[00:16:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
It still feels, like, surreal, honestly.
Yeah. Not like terrestrial radio.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: No. But I feel like, as a fan of Rockstar and I listen to octane all the. Like, I listen to octane and I listen to Turbo. Turbo is my. Turbo is probably my favorite channel of the series XM stuff because it is a lot of that butt rock, but a lot of new metal and mixed in with some late Metallica and shit like that.
And with Shannon Guns and fucking all.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: The DJs that are on it. Shannon and Vincent have been, like, my biggest supporters at Octane.
Honestly, I never thought it would happen while I'm independent, so I think it's really sick that they like to help out.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Guys, how'd you first find out that you were having songs on there or having a song on there? Which song is it that's on there again?
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Virus.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: It is virus. Okay.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
So, Maddie Mullins, Memphis Mayfire. Yes.
I had him feature on my single before virus. Human.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: Fucking sick song, dude.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: Thanks, man.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: It's a workout jam.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: Yeah, Maddie is one of my better friends here. He's awesome. It's a really cool.
Was like. He's like, dude, we should try to get this on Octane.
Just hit up the guy, hit up the programmer, Vincent. He's dMing. And like, let's just try to get our song on.
Like, DM was like, yeah, man, did this song with Maddie Mullins from Memphis. He said you guys were pretty good friends. Love for you to check it out. Let me know what you think. Anyways, long story short, I started playing that on Octane, and then I dropped virus, and he texted me and he was like, hey, man, send me the song. I'd love to play it. I had no idea it was just going to go straight to Octane. I had no idea he's just going to start playing it. And then somebody tagged me in their story on Instagram was like, so cool to hear you on Octane. I'm like, what the fuck just happened? I go to Octane, it's like twelve times it's been played, and I'm like, holy fuck, dude. What the hell is going on? Yeah, it's fucking sick.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: So you had no idea?
[00:18:17] Speaker B: I mean, I felt like he said he was going to play it, but I didn't take that as like he's going to play it. You know what I mean?
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Yeah, like that constant. Oh, yeah, we'll get it on there. And it's like, at the one play, like two in the morning. Overnight, it's been getting consistent play.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: It's like seven or eight plays a day. It's so sick.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: And what I like about the Sirius XM stuff, one, the no commercials. Two, the songs aren't edited.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Right?
[00:18:42] Speaker A: Three, it's where. So if the people you're trying to reach, folks that are into modern rock, whatever subgenre you want to fucking call it, that would be into your shit. Yeah, they're listening to Octane. They're probably listening more to octane than they are the local terrestrial stations.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Oh, 100%.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Because the shit is real on there. And Octane has rock, especially on Sirius XM, has more street cred than I think any other genre has on that format.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: It is. Yeah. Well, I guess it's because people in my genre and it's changing a little bit, but we don't really have an FM station that plays heavier stuff because you listen to rock radio on FM. It's like AC DC. Right? It's like still the older stuff, which is fine. I like that kind of stuff. But there hasn't been an outlet for new rock that's coming out, modern stuff to be played on the radio.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: So I guess that's why it holds so much weight, because it's like the only place is being played. And I mean, FM is changing to be like that because of Octane and because of SiriusXM has kind of taken over. So they kind of have to adapt or die kind of thing. But, yeah, it's fucking sick.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, I just love how you found yourself and what do you want to fucking say? You've always been able to write a fucking country song since back in the day when we first had you on this podcast and you were talking about writing songs with Noah Hicks, writing songs with guys like Dylan Marlowe, Brian Fuller, guys that are succeeding in the country realm, and you're succeeding as well, just doing the kind of music that's authentic to you.
Being Elijah.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: Yeah, just being authentic to mean, when I moved up here, I was just writing country songs with the guys that I knew. Right. So move up here. It's pretty blessed to be in the situation. I was to move in with Wales and Brian and just immediately be thrown and meet everybody that I met. I think that's one of the biggest things. If you move to Nashville or a place like LA or even New York that has a big music scene, it's like you go there, you don't know anybody.
So how can you network with people if you don't know anybody? If you're just like going to go up and randomly introduce yourself to some random person, you have no idea. But being, I was almost like paraded around to different people. Hey, meet my new friend. Hey, meet my new friend. This is Elijah. That was how here we are from that same kind of interactioN. Fucking sick.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that was how I met you. And right now I feel like is the perfect time. Obviously not just because it's happening right now, but the world of music right now. There are so many overlaps and you have this crossover of country and rock in itself. You have artists from the south that are from small towns like Jacksonville, Alabama, that are able to come out and fucking do the rock there is. You look at guys like Hardy, you look at what Jesse and Luke are doing with Lakeview, you look at what the production is sounding like on a lot of these songs. That are crossing over into multiple genres. If there's a time to make a leap from writing and creating in one style to doing another, and it just being accepted widely, now is the time in 2023.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: I mean, having the streaming services and a way for us to show our music with TikTok and Instagram reels and all that kind of stuff, it's like you can kind of do whatever you want.
You don't have to please somebody else with your music, which is nice.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm going to pull up your streaming numbers right now. Are fucking sick, by the way.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Thanks, man.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Fucking, dude, you almost had a quarter of a million.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty wild, dude. I try not to look at it.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: I'm sure that's like me. I don't always look at the pod numbers, but I'm just saying for you to be able, because when did you make the official jump to being like, okay, I want to be. I'm Elijah. This is what I'm doing. This is the music I'm going to put out.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: I mean, I've always kind of wanted to do this my whole life. I just didn't know the steps to take it.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Yeah. How old are you?
[00:22:55] Speaker B: 25.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah, you're young. You moved here at fucking 22 years old.
You barely knew your left from your right hand. I moved here at 23 and I felt the same way. Like, you don't know a lot of shit. You move up here and you think, you know, because you're playing gigs at Sky Bar and at different places in your local scene, and then you get up here and you get some reps and you have some ups and downs with just life in general and in.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: The music thing, going back and being honest with yourself and doing what you know is going to make you happy, you know what I mean? Because we're all in this for the rest of our lives. Yeah, I feel like. I know I am. I hope other people that move up here feel the same way. So if you're not going to be honest with yourself now, ten years down the road, you're going to look back and say, fuck, what did I do with all this time? Now I want to change. It's like, just always be honest with yourself. And that's what I've had to do recently, so just make what I want to make and don't really think whether or not people will like it. If I like it, that's all that really should matter.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Yeah, well, if you like it, you're such a big fan of just music in general.
Even when it was country, when it's like your boys that are in the country world, you're front row supporting those guys and girls that are your homies. And so you're a fan of the music. So if you're a big fan of that scene and in that lane that you're in, in rock and you fuck with it, chances are other guys and girls in the scene are going to fuck with it, too. What is the rock scene like in Nashville? Because there's people that come to mind, like yourself, Lakeview, Taylor, Acorn, that are in town. And people think of Nashville as country and then maybe like worship as secondary. Rock is right there and it's rising more and more with the house shows and different things going on.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: I think it's starting to grow. It's always been here, but the spotlight hasn't been on it. And I mean, take something like Emo Nashville, that's been happening.
I mean, there's one this Saturday, too.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: I saw you're playing it, right?
[00:25:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm doing like a little mini set. Hell yeah.
But yeah, stuff like that is really allowing people that moved up here. Because take any country band right now, like any country artist touring, I guarantee half of that guy's band was in metal bands or in rock bands ten years ago.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: Probably the whole band. Probably the whole band. Not even half.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Because if you're in the rock scene, you know, you don't really make a ton of money.
So you take somebody that has a million monthly listeners as a country artist and you take him to any bar, they'll pay him ten grand to walk in there, right? You take it on. A rock artist has a million month listeners. You put him in a bar, they're going to give him $1,500, right? Bar sales aren't near as good. Country fans drink. Rock fans don't drink. Rock fans only drink water and beat the shit out of each other, which is sick. I love that. But I have to understand it from a financial aspect and say I'm probably not going to get paid that much if the bar and the venue don't make that much digress anyways. But yeah, I think the rock scene here, it's always been here, but the spotlight's on it now. So like I said, guys like Maddie Mullins, Memphis Mayfire. Yes, huge band.
[00:26:21] Speaker A: I want to meet him. They seem like good dudes. They seem like a good, awesome people.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: Him and Cody Quistad from Wage War. They both live in Spring Hill. I know there's a bunch of bands that live around here, too.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: I love Spring Hill. That was actually funny enough where I first lived when I moved to town. So you got pretty lucky. You were in Hermitage, Antioch, and now you're Opry Mills area, correct?
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: When I first moved down here, I was in Spring Hill, bro, and I was working on Broadway doing security. I was up and down 65.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: Is that 45 minutes, dude?
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Depending on how Franklin and Brentwood Chompson Station, Cool Springs traffic looks like. Yeah, it was about an hour going up, and then when I was driving back on a night shift, I was cruising down there at three in the morning, passing all the cars left on the side of the road because that's what people do when they break down. Let's just leave my truck right here. We'll get it tomorrow.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: I'll get it in the morning.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: I'll get in the morning. I don't worry about that. I'm going to call up Tommy.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: He going to come get me.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Spring Hill, that's a cool area. But I mean, dude, what are house shows like? Because I haven't done those shows are. Trey Bonner is a big fan of house shows. So that was one thing. That's kind of where Trey Bonner got his content style, like, got his chops doing content was when he was going to MTSU and he was involved in the house scene. House party scene or the House show scene in MTSU. Because you've done quite few of those. I remember when you were starting to do them, I was like, oh, fuck, I want to try and make it. And of course I was always on the road, right. But I was like, I want to get to one of these. I want to see Elijah. Not at the basement, but in a literal basement.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Dude, house shows are fucking terrible. It sounds like shit and you can't hear anybody. It's loud as fuck.
It's always disorganized, but it's a lot of fun.
It's the same thing rock never had. Never. Especially really heavier subgenres of rock. There's no way to play that stuff.
Some of the biggest hardcore bands you'll never hear in your whole life because it's just such a small segregated genre of music that's very specific to specific people. You don't really have a place to play it.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Fox's Pizza Den. Right?
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Skate shops.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: What the fuck is up Denny's?
[00:28:50] Speaker B: Yes, Denny's did just VFWs, abandoned buildings. Anywhere that you can play your music is where you do it.
We played a house show with a band here in Nashville called There Go I. How about 80 people show up? The biggest house show I've ever played my whole life. House shows are usually about five people and three of them are somebody's girlfriends, so they suck. But this one was sick. The whole living room is full. It's so fucking loud. Sick though. Very sick.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: So there's no riser or like hell no.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: You just set up on the living room floor.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: You're just in the living room floor.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Just on the floor in a house.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: And hope no, there's no barricade or anything. You just hope nobody comes running.
[00:29:37] Speaker B: No, I hate barricades. Team, really? Fuck barricades.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Really? Yeah, dude, he has a tour manager with a country band. I'm like, god bless the barricade.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: Country is different.
Rock scene is like. I mean people stage dive and just have a blast. I guess it depends on the scene you're in. But rock fans know not to touch the gear and not to get in the band's way or whatever and they just have fun.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: There's like an etiquette to it.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Yeah, it's concert etiquette for sure, per genre. But if you get big enough, if you're playing 2000 cap rooms, you have to have a barricade, you know what I mean? Because there's just so many people. But if you're playing like a 300 cap room, like the end, you know what I mean? It's just stage and people, people stage diving, fucking going.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: Have you staged dived yet?
[00:30:24] Speaker B: Hell yeah. It's a lot of fun. You just kind of black out for the time that you're at.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: What happens if they don't catch? Are there situations where people stage dive and people don't catch them?
[00:30:34] Speaker B: Yeah, you just fall.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: I don't think I could.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Somebody catches you or they fucking don't.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: And you just take a chance.
[00:30:42] Speaker B: You just take it. I mean, people are going to catch.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: You, but maybe they won't.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Maybe they won't. Depends on how big you are.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: Yeah. What's the wildest thing you've seen at? Or wildest thing you've seen on the road? Whether it be one of your shows or a Lakeview show.
You spent some time out the road with those guys and I know not the most luxurious of establishments.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: Oh no, dude, I watched this girl throw up all over the stage one time when I played a cover gig in Auburn. She just.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Where? What?
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Sky Bar.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: Got front room?
[00:31:17] Speaker B: Yeah, front. Just. We were just playing and I looked down and she just like, her face just goes flush and she just throws up all over the stage. Just like somebody kicked a fire hydrant.
[00:31:28] Speaker A: War. Damn, Eagle.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Yeah, boy.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: You're the guy, by the way, that taught me. One of my favorite things to say to people from Alabama is the R-O-W-T-Y-D-E row tie.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: That's a Harvey update quote, man.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that is, dude. He's one of Trey's like, man, I want to find me a Harvey update T shirt. I'm like, Trey, you can't.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: They used to sell that stuff.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Really?
[00:31:50] Speaker B: Yeah, bro. I'm sure you get one on Amazon. I should buy him one. I should buy him one.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Buy. You should buy him one. I went to the Iron bowl last year with Trey, bro.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Iron Bowls are sick.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: That's the only SEC game I've ever been to. I got spoiled. I went with Trey and his budy, Frankie, his childhood friend Frankie Glascock. And Frankie's company did one of those, like, bougie tailgates in the quad where they have the tent. But, bro, what made this whole day crazy was so Trey balled out and got, like, the Champions Club, like, suite thing. Suite tickets or whatever, which. I got to meet Alexander Shannara.
[00:32:23] Speaker B: That's it.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: In the suite.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: The Southern celebrity, bro, I got to.
[00:32:28] Speaker A: Meet the Alexander Shannara. Not as tall as I thought he was going to be.
Short in stature, big in his pocket. That's right. And big on billboards. That head looks a lot bigger on the fucking billboards than it is in person. But I was hitting my. Naturally, I was hitting my pen. And so I'm stoned. I'm baked at the buffet in the Champions Club, and I look at Trey and I'm like, I think that's Alexander Shinora, but I'm not sure. And Trey's like, well, let's go find out for real. And he grabs me like a little kid, and he's like, are you Alexander Shannara?
And the guy's like, yeah, I am. Nice to meet you. He's like, my friend wants to meet you. He's from New York, but he's a little stoned. And Shannara was like, I used to smoke back in the day. I'm like, bro, let's go.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: Alexander Shanara, the podcast that sounds like a fever dream. So is that Alexander Shanara High at the Iron Bowl?
[00:33:21] Speaker A: Yeah, with Trey at Brian Denny, but earlier in the day. Fucking roll tide, Willie. Bro, you know who I'm talking about. I've gotten to know Roll Tide Willie and his handler manager. I don't know what Chad, who's the guy that's with him. And we walked around the tailgate at Brian the Ironbolt Tailgate. Like through the whole quad, the whole nine yards. And it was me, Chad, Trey Lewis and Roll Tide Willie. You talk about just having attention brought on you. Roll tide Willie. And as they were calling him then, Mr. Dick down in Dallas with Trey.
So people were coming up to Trey. But what I was more stunned by, we couldn't walk more than 5ft without sorority girls. Old dudes being like, roll Tod Willie. Oh my God. Get your swallow.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: Did he get pissed drunk before?
[00:34:21] Speaker A: Bro, his eyes were yellow. His eyes looked like a cat. They were yellow and rolling behind. I don't even know if he made it in the stadium.
[00:34:29] Speaker B: No, probably not.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: That dude doesn't have to pay for tickets anymore. That dude can go to any game he wants. But God damn, that place is Tuscaloosa. Was wild.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: Yeah, because I went to school down there for like six months or something. I went to like three classes my whole time.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: So you didn't go to Jackson.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: You went to Jacksonville State for two years and then I transferred to Alabama.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: And then you made the decision to just be like.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: I think I literally attended three classes that whole semester.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Do you remember what the three classes were?
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Precal.
No. What's that other fucking. See, I don't know.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: Geometry, algebra, calculus.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: I don't know. See how much I paid attention?
[00:35:11] Speaker A: Yeah. You made the right decision.
What would you be doing if you weren't doing?
Think. What do you think you'd be doing? Because your brother went the military route, right, Nathan? Right?
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Ethan.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Ethan. I was close. Sorry, Ethan. Ethan's a fuck.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: Nathan's my middle name. Actually.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Nathan's your middle name? Ethan's a little wild card too. I remember him at those parties with Wales and Brian. And he would come up and we'd be doing bonfires in the back. Ethan's always good. He's still enlisted in the guard doing that.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: So he just got out of officer school.
[00:35:47] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: So he's going to be going back up to Missouri to help with basic training. Like being officer at basic training.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: But, yeah, he's killing it.
[00:35:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So what would you be doing?
If you weren't screaming on stage, singing about your fields, what would you be doing?
[00:36:03] Speaker B: I mean, I always kind of wanted to be in aerospace engineering.
Like being an astronomer, that kind of stuff. Like space.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Oh, so you like the stars and I love spaceship. Dude, do you have that app on your phone that you put it up to the sky and it tells you the different constellations?
[00:36:21] Speaker B: I just watch YouTube videos and just watch.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: So, yeah, I forget what the fucking app is called. I got to fucking look at it now. It's like, oh, here it is. It's called Sky Guide.
[00:36:30] Speaker B: I need to get that.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: And it's free, dude. And it's like, you fucking click on it, and then what you do is you literally. It tells you where all the constellations are. So you move it around the sky. It'll pick up. Yes. You're like, I wonder what that is up there. And then you think, you know which. If you watch enough YouTube, if you go down enough YouTube, rabbit holes. You definitely know most of the constellations, but it's a good double check. And then you're like, oh, shit, that's Jupiter. Oh, shit, that's fucking Venus.
[00:36:56] Speaker B: All I do is watch.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Space is cool.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: I usually watch a space video every night before I go to bed.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: Watch Neil DeGrassey Tyson.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Have you watched he's kind of gimmicky? I like to watch some more entertaining minds.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: Entertaining minds? Like what?
[00:37:09] Speaker B: There's a guy named Brian.
Fuck, now you put me on the spot, and I can't remember his last name.
[00:37:15] Speaker A: What kind of voice is he? Is he like, British? The British guys are the best. The British voices are the best.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: Saying something that's not even right at all, and I'll just.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I don't even fact check just because they're fucking British.
[00:37:28] Speaker B: Brian Cox.
[00:37:29] Speaker A: Brian Cox.
[00:37:30] Speaker B: That's what his name is.
He was a guest on Joe Rogan, and I watched that whole episode, and it was sick.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: Yeah, space is fucking interesting, dude. And it really puts things in perspective, like you're having a bad day or like.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I try not to think about it too much.
I get all fucked up.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: You get all fucked up about how big it is out there and how well we are.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm like, what the fuck am I doing in my life? Dude, there's a picture of Earth from Saturn's rings. I don't know if you saw that picture. No, it's called the Little Blue Dot. I think that's the name of the picture. But it was taken, like, a couple of years Ago, and it's a probe that they sent out to the edge of the solar system that turned around and took a picture of Earth, but it's through the rings of Saturn.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: Oh, shit.
[00:38:14] Speaker B: Yeah, dude, so, like, the dot of earth is just like the size, like a pin prick.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: That's where we're at. It's fucking crazy. When I saw that picture and I was just like, I'd like an existential crisis and all fucking matters.
[00:38:25] Speaker A: Nothing is real. All the chaos of this world that we think is so monumental.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: I got to pay taxes in March, but we've got a picture of us from Saturn's rings right now. What the fuck is going on, dude? So stupid.
Turbotax really quick.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: It is crazy. Where in town do you like to go and hang out? Do you get out?
[00:38:43] Speaker B: Dude, I'm a homebody.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: So you don't even.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: I mean, if I go out, I.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: Used to see you at Red Door all the time, and I don't even.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: Wasn't a good time for even. I drank too much.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: But I feel like that's part of what you do when you get here, is the drinking.
[00:38:58] Speaker B: It is. And that's what kind of sucks about it, because it's like you almost have to go out and meet people. But I took that as an opportunity to be like, let's just get kind of drunk really quick. And then I would run up, like, a $70 tab.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: Then have to figure out a way to pay for it down the road. It's too much.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: What was your go to drink when you first moved here?
[00:39:22] Speaker B: I just drank tequila.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: You were a tequila guy?
Because I don't know what people necessarily. I know Matt McElway and drinks Fireball because Matt McElain is fireball. It's like Trailer park boys. Jim Leahy is the liquor, McElway is fireball, and Miller Light. He could tell he came from a cover band in Alabama because that's the get drunk for cheap method.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: The last time I drank Fireball was. Well, no, I drank it one at a time. But the thing that everybody has their liquor that they can't drink.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Fireball. That for you.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So I was 18. I was at a graduation party in high school, and I woke up in the grass in the morning, like, with the dew on the grass, just, like, face just wet as fuck. Like, my entire left side of my body was just soaking wet from the grass. Me and my friends had finished, like, three bottles of.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Ugh. We all went through a fireball phase before I got.
Have. We have Brian Kelly and Tyler Hubbard to thank for that. Florida Georgia line is responsible for all of our fireball.
[00:40:27] Speaker B: Southern kid wanted to drink fireball.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: I'm from New York, and I was drinking fucking fireball. And that fireball whiskey.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: Whispers, well, that is so cheap. Yeah, it's like the cheap thing that you can get your older friend to go buy for you.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: Plastic handle. And if you're trying to be to moderate your thing. You can get the little. They used to sell the little mini, like, the airplane bottle, and you'd be like, oh, pick me up, like, six of those. That'll be enough for the day. And that's like, six shots of fireballs. That's a pretty good little chunk there, kid.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Whenever I did used to drink all the time, I never really drank socially. It was, like, a reason to do it. If I'm going to drink, I'm just going to drink.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:06] Speaker B: So I just go to the bar and order, like, three shots of tequila in the Corona and just get it going.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: Bam, bam, bam.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: Kickstarter.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: Yeah, you just got to go. So then I'd just hold on to my beer, and I'd be kind of, like, kind of buz and go up there and order two more shots. And I'm probably good from then, but I don't really even drink anymore, dude. I'm like, one time a month.
[00:41:26] Speaker A: Why is that, you think?
[00:41:27] Speaker B: I just feel like shit. I don't like feeling bad when I wake up. I have, like, really bad anxiety about.
[00:41:33] Speaker A: Anxiety is a real thing.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: Anxiety is a real thing.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: My girlfriend has that gets that real bad.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: I'm a very routine oriented person. Yeah, it's probably some sort of, like, autism something. I don't fucking know.
I feel like we're all a little autistic.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: We all have our little tick minds working, like art.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: So I'm like, yeah, I got to be autistic at some point.
No, I have a very routine thing. I eat the same breakfast every morning. I drink the same coffee. I do the same thing every morning. But then when I drink and I go out and I get too fucked up, then I wake up, I feel like shit, and I can't do my routine. So I'm like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to ruin my routine. I just get, like, freaking out, and then I won't do it. Then, like, one night a month or, like, I don't know, very rarely, like, two nights a month, I'll just fucking go nuts. I'm like, fuck everything. Nothing matters. Let's get fucking crazy. And then I'll just get way too drunk. Hung was fucked the next day, and I'll regret it for the next three days. And then I'm like, all right, I'm not drinking again for as long as I can remember. I'm not doing it. And then the other month goes by and something to celebrate, and there I go, which, honestly, isn't that. If you're going to drink, it's not that bad of a way to do it. No, don't drink for four weeks and then black out.
[00:42:46] Speaker A: And then don't drink because then your tolerance changes, too. It's like taking a tea break with the smoking.
[00:42:51] Speaker B: I'm big gym guy.
[00:42:53] Speaker A: Yeah, you always have been.
Where's the best gym in Nashville to work out?
[00:42:58] Speaker B: Gym five.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: Gym five.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: Where's that five in East. East Nashville.
It's honestly, like half. Probably about a mile from Nissan Stadium. Sick. I'm on gym five, homies. I love you. Even though I haven't been there in a week, because I've been going to true fit in Madison.
[00:43:14] Speaker A: Oh, you've been cheating on it.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm sorry.
Me and Luke, we work out together.
[00:43:20] Speaker A: Makes sense.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Yeah, he's got a true fit membership and he doesn't have gym five, so I'm going to true fit a little bit more.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: But, yeah, I was doing really good at going to the gym. You would have been proud of me.
I was lifting, I was taking care of myself. I was writing it all down. My fitness pal drinking like a gallon of water a day. Not with one of those.
[00:43:39] Speaker B: Why'd you burn out?
[00:43:41] Speaker A: We had a lot of family coming into town, the festival stuff and doing all the razor's Ravi shit.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: It's hard to keep up with, man. I've just had to make it a habit.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, I've just been doing it.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: For so long, I just won't never do it.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Yeah, like you said, you're a big routine guy and being on the road made it tough. But now that I'm not on the road, but we're still kind of on the road. Like, Nikki and I go to Nikki and I get to, like, 15 festivals.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: A year, even though we're like. And I'm not on the road right now, but I'm always doing something. What we do, it's not a nine.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: To five know, it's very unorthodox and nontraditional.
[00:44:12] Speaker B: It's just like, all day, every day, which probably is a bad way to live, but I don't give a shit.
[00:44:17] Speaker A: Yeah. You got a girlfriend in your life yet, or how's that all going? Are you just focusing on music for right now?
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Girls make me nervous, so I don't really talk to them all the time.
Hot girls make me nervous, bro.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: What do you mean?
[00:44:32] Speaker B: I still talk to them. I'd rather spend the time on my music than put my. Suppose I don't even go out too much anymore.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: Well, have you gotten DMs and stuff from scene chicks? I feel like scene chicks will be really into you, Elijah. Like Scene girls, I'm talking like blue green hair and shit.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: If you're hot with tattoos, DM me.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: Like my chemical romance was their personality trait for like, four or five years like that.
[00:45:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: Even outside of girls, have you had folks reaching out about your music? Because I feel like, obviously country music touches people in a certain way and makes people feel a certain way.
[00:45:15] Speaker B: I think it's the same kind of vibe across.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: I feel like it's even bigger in rock, though.
[00:45:19] Speaker B: It probably is.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: I feel like people are really going through shit that are in that community, and it's a beacon of light through anxiety and depression and through deep, dark shit.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: It made me feel the same way when I first discovered it when I was a teenager. It's like you deal with stuff behind closed doors that you don't want people to hear about. I mean, as a teenager, I was like, high school quarterback, played baseball. I was like a jock, per se. But everybody's dealing with shit behind that they don't want other people to see by themselves. So I guess finding music that makes me know somebody else is dealing with the same thing, you know what I mean? And rock definitely touches on that more than. More than country.
[00:46:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Have you had people like.
[00:46:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, for sure. Absolutely. People talk about their experiences all the.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: Time, like crazy DMs and stuff.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: I've had my fair share of crazy DMs. Sometimes it's a lot because people like trauma dump on you, which is kind of weird.
I try not to entertain a lot of that stuff, but, I mean, I respect the fact that somebody trusts me enough to say their problems to me, but it's the same way. I don't know how therapists do it. It's like, dude, how do you just disassociate with yourself and just let this person spill all over you? I feel like that would just fuck me up so much. Like having to help this person through something that they're really dealing with, like heart, I couldn't do it.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: They're on the edge and they're asking.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: You to help them. And I'm like, I don't really know if I can take that responsibility.
[00:46:56] Speaker A: Is there a song that you've put out that people are really responding? Would it be virus? Because that's the one that's just had the most traction as of late.
[00:47:04] Speaker B: Yes.
I don't write about depression and stuff like that.
[00:47:09] Speaker A: Well, no, I'm talking about just people reaching out, being like, man, this song changed me for. Because of this. This. And this song helped me through this.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: It's probably hard to lie. The second single I'll put out this year, I kind of resonate with a lot of people. Maybe it's just because it was the biggest song out of all of them, but I get responses from every song that I put out most of the time, but, yeah, I don't know. It's weird. I really couldn't open up, and I guess that's the reason why I do it through music, because I never can open up to anybody and just, like, tell them my shit. My shit. Fuck you.
I'll deal with it. You know what I mean?
[00:47:51] Speaker A: What's the biggest difference in writing a country song versus writing a rock song, or are they not as different as people think?
[00:47:58] Speaker B: The heart of country is writing what is true to you and what makes the most sense. I think songwriting, at its core, is all about your own emotions and what you're going through. And, of course, you can tell a story and just make up a song just for fun of it. People do that all the time, but that still doesn't mean. It doesn't mean anything to you. You wanted to do that, and you wanted to have a feeling from that song. So it's the same thing. Country probably touches on it a little.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: More.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: Probably pulls on it a little more, like, heartstring vibe. But I think, at his core, the way I used to write, I mean, I still write country songs all the time. It's like taking an emotion in a situation and trying to convey that to somebody to where they would understand where you're coming from on the back end of it, which, most of the time, I just write songs because I want to.
[00:48:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it's your therapy. Like you said, it's your shit. Everybody deals with their shit differently. You deal with it by either writing pen. Are you a pen to pad guy, or are you a note guy?
[00:48:58] Speaker B: No, I'm a Google Docs guy.
[00:48:59] Speaker A: You're a Google Docs guy?
[00:49:01] Speaker B: Yeah, because, I mean, I write songs with my friends, so it's like, we just.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: That's easy to share. See, I'm an Apple Notes guy.
[00:49:06] Speaker B: Apple notes.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: Not that I'm writing songs, but I'm writing down names for writers, rap.
[00:49:10] Speaker B: My notes are full of song ideas and lyrics and all that kind of stuff.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: Do you get ideas when you're driving and shit? Because I've heard a lot of people.
[00:49:17] Speaker B: Doing that, driving in the gym is when I just kind of disassociate and think about stuff.
There's this thing, it's like a noise blocker on Spotify. Half the time when I get in my AirPods, I'm listening to anything. It's just like.
It's just like silent, which is sick.
[00:49:34] Speaker A: See, silence kind of scares me. I don't do well with it. I don't do well with being alone in silence and stuff. I can unwind.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: I have to. I get, like, antsy when I get around too many people all the time.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: So I have to overstimulate it and shit.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Which I'm an extrovert. Like, I love hanging out with people.
[00:49:50] Speaker A: Yeah, you definitely are. I would agree with that.
[00:49:53] Speaker B: My dad is a huge introvert. He doesn't want to do anything. My mom's super extroverted, so I think I got kind of like the best of both worlds. But, yeah, I definitely need my alone time, and that's most of the time it's in the gym, so I just have to block out everything. Like today, it was so packed, went to true fit, and it was just overly packed, and I was like, fuck, I hate this dude.
[00:50:12] Speaker A: When's the best time to go to the gym?
[00:50:13] Speaker B: I don't know. When other people don't go.
I usually go at like ten.
[00:50:19] Speaker A: See, I'm like a 09:10 a.m. At Planet Fitness here in Hermitage. And it's usually great. You have like, your soccer moms that are in there, your old guys, some.
[00:50:27] Speaker B: Of the Hermitage fitness. Man, they planet lunk alarmed me, though, and I fucking hate them.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: They lunk alarmed you for what?
[00:50:34] Speaker B: For working out.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: You had to have done something.
[00:50:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I walked in and worked out. That's what I did.
[00:50:41] Speaker A: What were you wearing? Were you wearing one of them? You're a gym bro. What were you wearing?
[00:50:46] Speaker B: I was asking for it. Wasn't that.
[00:50:48] Speaker A: Yeah. What are you wearing?
Were your damn titties hanging out? Like, what were you wearing?
[00:50:53] Speaker B: My boobs, I had my nipples out. I just cut two holes.
[00:50:56] Speaker A: It's a family establishment. You can't have the tits out.
[00:50:59] Speaker B: No, legitimately.
One time I walked in with a cut off and he said, the guy the counter said I couldn't work out. Yeah, I saw, like, two other guys with tank tops on, and I was like, why can't they wear tank tops? And I can't. He's like, dude, it's just policy, man. I'm not trying to argue with you. So I had to go back out to my car like, get a wrinkled up T shirt was in my floorboard in the backseat. Came in and the rest of the rest of that was fine. But I went to another planet fitness, and I was just doing incline dumbbell, like, presses or whatever, and I guess I dropped the weights too hard or something. I'm like, going until I can't. Like, you go to failure, right? And you're fucking tired. And I set them down, and luck alarm me. I'm like, fuck you. Judgment free, my ass.
Judging me for being sick and strong. Piece of Shit.
Sorry, planet fitness. I still have him for your showers. Yeah.
[00:51:57] Speaker A: On the. Yes. Yeah, that's why I've always kept it. Clay Barker's notoriously. Notorious for getting long alarmed as well.
[00:52:05] Speaker B: That makes sense.
[00:52:06] Speaker A: Clay's been long alarmed.
[00:52:07] Speaker B: Clay's kind of a douchebag.
[00:52:08] Speaker A: Clay's been long alarmed. That's what I'm saying.
We should do that as a content piece. Have, like, you, Clay. Maybe we bring out vlogs and all.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: That kind of stuff.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: Well, I'm saying.
I'm saying we send you guys in and we see who can get Lunkawans first.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: Oh, that'd be so easy. I just work out like I do everywhere else.
[00:52:29] Speaker A: Is YouTube your favorite of the social media things?
[00:52:33] Speaker B: I don't really have a favorite social media if I'm going to.
[00:52:35] Speaker A: Where do you get the most traction?
[00:52:37] Speaker B: TikTok, probably.
[00:52:39] Speaker A: I haven't looked at. I'm never on fucking TikTok to watch reels.
[00:52:44] Speaker B: Reels has no filter, dude. You can see some wild shit on Instagram.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: Instagram reels and Facebook reels. I watch. I tend to watch more Facebook shit. I tend to watch more Facebook reels. Let's see.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: Kind of bad. I could just see random shit happen.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Let's see. Oh, shit. Look at you. 204,000 followers.
Casual with fucking. Dude, and you're, like, in the algorithm right now.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know what that means. I don't know what any of it means. I just post shit.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: Well, dude, what that means is that your videos are fucking kidding.
[00:53:18] Speaker B: I just hate talking about this shit.
[00:53:20] Speaker A: I know it probably makes you uncomfortable.
[00:53:22] Speaker B: Because it doesn't make me uncomfortable. It's just I hate, as creatives, we have to care about something other than music. You know what I mean? It's the same thing with you. You hate to have to work on those shit, but it's the only avenue that we've had to be to promote.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: Ourselves, especially on the independent scale.
[00:53:42] Speaker B: Absolutely. So it's a blessing and a curse. It's like, yes, I need to do it because it helps out so much, but I don't want to have to do it because it has to be a priority and I want to just worry about my music instead.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: What's cool, though, is it looks like the videos that are hitting well for you aren't bits. Like, it's directly.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: No, I've never done bits.
[00:54:02] Speaker A: It's directly related to your.
[00:54:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I won't do, like, cringy.
[00:54:07] Speaker A: It's directly related to your music and people are seeing it. So that's going to help you a ton as far as, like, dude, don't.
[00:54:14] Speaker B: Get me on my fucking. My TikTok fucking pedestal, dude. I'll fucking talk all day about it, dude.
[00:54:19] Speaker A: I mean, dude, people.
But you're not the only guy that feels that way. So many people feel that way in rock, in country and pop and everything.
[00:54:29] Speaker B: I mean, I feel like people just have to. People feel like they have to be cringey to be seen. You don't have to. I feel like the videos I post aren't cringey. I just know how to record nice.
[00:54:42] Speaker A: I've got it on mute and I'm like, looking like, you got this one?
Yeah, it's you driving. Yeah, it is just a clean shot. Clean, cinematic shot.
[00:54:54] Speaker B: That's it.
[00:54:55] Speaker A: And it's just you singing the fucking. And you put forgot my seatbelt. Oops. That's a funny fucking.
[00:55:02] Speaker B: You have to play the algorithm a little bit.
[00:55:04] Speaker A: Yeah, but just a quick little thing. Like, it doesn't have to be difficult and cringey and have this much time and effort going.
[00:55:10] Speaker B: You don't have to make fun of yourself or make people hate you to get some sort of traction. I just think that's so dumb. Like trying to get hate on a video.
[00:55:18] Speaker A: Yeah, fuck.
[00:55:19] Speaker B: It's like, dude, you want people to hate you. You want people to hate your music. Like, well, it gets likes and views. I'm like, oh, so that's what actually matters. You just want to be seen. Yeah, doesn't fucking matter, dude. People need to like your music.
[00:55:32] Speaker A: Yeah, there is that. I will say there is something to having haters does mean you're doing something right. People are taking that time and energy to comment stuff that they don't like. But overall, the goal is you want to have people enjoy your art. You want people to appreciate your art and the time that you're putting into this crap.
[00:55:48] Speaker B: I mean, in the day and age of social media, people are making songs for hate.
[00:55:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:55] Speaker B: They're like, oh, this will be controversial. This will blow up on TikTok for sUre. I'm like, it's bad.
[00:56:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:03] Speaker B: This is not you. You're not being authentic and it's stupid. You're just doing it so you can be seen. And what is the end goal in that?
[00:56:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:11] Speaker B: What are you doing ten years down the road for that 15 seconds of fame you had on TikTok? What is the point? You know what I mean? How can you actually live with yourself?
[00:56:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Where's the longevity of it?
There's got to be a balance of the viral stuff, a balance of that and organic. Either your music's good or it's not. It's going to appeal to a lot of people or it's not. There's only so much that some viral pops will do. Like, can you back that up and can you sell tickets? Can you perform on a stage? There's so many of these cats that come up and never cut their teeth at a Sky bar, never cut their teeth at a Mo's barbecue, which you're very blessed to have come from the state of Alabama, where they give youngsters.
[00:56:58] Speaker B: An opportunity to playing shows. My whole life.
[00:57:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, since, what, twelve?
[00:57:02] Speaker B: I've been playing guitar since twelve, but I've been doing it for forever.
[00:57:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:08] Speaker B: People have to start somewhere.
[00:57:09] Speaker A: Yeah, but I'm saying, like, someone has a video blow up on blow up on TikTok and they never played a live show. There's a learning curve.
[00:57:16] Speaker B: 100%.
The only way to learn is to do it.
[00:57:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:19] Speaker B: You know what I mean?
People just want to make money immediately. We're getting offered tours all the time, but you have to lose your ass on the road. Yeah, it's just what happens.
[00:57:31] Speaker A: You don't make money, especially in the world that you're in right now.
[00:57:35] Speaker B: Dude, you sell merch and hope to God you can get to the next city and play some shows.
[00:57:39] Speaker A: So what do we have? You talk about that stuff with tours, obviously, the music streaming very well, the social media is doing very well. What do we have now? We're in November. We're almost at the end of. In 2023, I would say probably. I think pretty clear your biggest year yet as far as you making music as an artist. Right. And as a writer, everything.
[00:58:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:58:03] Speaker A: What do we have closing out this year? And what do we got for next year? Anything you can tease or talk about. I know. Mr. Michael Gordon, one of my favorite ambassadors to the scene and managers, is out there in the living room watching, making sure we don't say anything too bad. He's fun. Great. Which, by the way, real quick, how'd you get working with him? Because he's great fucking guy.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: So Michael was one of the first guys ever met when I moved up here and became friends before anything, which is nice. That's what I always try to do, is be friends with somebody before I do any sort of business thing. It just doesn't make sense if we do the other way around.
But, yeah. And then three years flashed by. We meet in 2020, and I keep seeing them around everywhere and I start putting out. I dropped my first single, stitches in.
When was that, 2022?
I don't know.
[00:58:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was 22.
You keep talking, I'll look it up.
[00:59:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it was last year.
[00:59:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:03] Speaker B: Anyways, so right before I did that, I sent Michael some demos on some stuff that I was thinking about putting out. And long story short, we decided to start working together now instead of back then. So now here we are. The rest is history, as they say. But, yeah, I love Michael. Me and him.
It's nice because it's like, as a solo artist, the reason I do it is because I like to make my own decisions. And I don't want to have to convince four other guys in a band.
This is what we're going to do. This is the part we're going to record. Let's do this melody instead. Let's drop this song. On this day, I could just do it myself. It's all on me, right? So keeping our circle small has really been, like, one of our biggest things. And I think that's why we've gotten where we are now. It's just trust ourselves.
We feel like we've done the right thing so far. Just keep doing it.
[00:59:56] Speaker A: It's hard to argue against that.
[01:00:01] Speaker B: We like to have people on the team, but we don't need anybody. So I'm going to write here bragging for people.
[01:00:08] Speaker A: What do we have to look forward to as we get into this? The next chapter of Elijah continues to grow. Dude.
[01:00:14] Speaker B: So first official EP drops before Thanksgiving, bro. One more song.
[01:00:20] Speaker A: One more song.
[01:00:21] Speaker B: And then we're going to wrap up songs.
[01:00:24] Speaker A: Yes. That's awesome.
[01:00:25] Speaker B: I want to say the song name. Yeah, because this is going to drop before I really announce the song.
[01:00:29] Speaker A: Yeah, this will be dropping on Friday.
[01:00:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So I won't say the song name, but first official EP, it's going to be out and then next year going to start another EP cycle. So probably new music, start of February.
A little more riffy, more fun. Still keeping the same vibe. Hopefully people fuck with it, but I think these songs are sick, so I can't wait to be fun.
[01:00:59] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. And then what do we have as far as getting on the road? Because that's a huge part of the.
[01:01:03] Speaker B: Nothing right now, man.
[01:01:05] Speaker A: That's a huge part of the scene for you guys.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah, hopefully something comes around, but trying to get on some festivals next summer, hopefully get picked up for some sort of tour in March or mean, I think something will happen, but there's nothing set in stone right now, bro.
[01:01:21] Speaker A: The festival thing, that's something that Nikki and I were talking about last night because obviously Nikki T and I spent a lot of time together being the duo that is running this razor outdy thing right now. And I was saying, like, dude, I'm really looking forward to having Elijah on. Like, it's been like, literally three years since I last had him on the podcast and he's doing something different from what he was doing. And obviously Elijah's the homies, but it's been so long since I've seen him. And getting to see Michael, he's like, bro, because Nicky went to louder than life this year up in Louisville, and Nick was like, dude, in the next three years, we're going to see. Within the next three years, probably sooner than that, we're going to see Elijah on some of these festivals.
[01:02:00] Speaker B: I love those festivals.
Yeah, I'd love to play Louder than life. Aftershock. So what fest, Blue Ridge, all that shit. I love rock festivals, dude. It's so much fun.
So I went to the last Warp tour in Nashville when I came up here in. Was that 2018?
[01:02:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: So it's a lot of fun. I love that kind of shit. But, yeah, nothing set in stone right now, but hopefully something soon.
[01:02:25] Speaker A: Fuck yeah, dude. Bro, this was a lot of fun. Long overdue. And let's fucking hang out and kick it soon. I want to sing a song, bud. Rock.
[01:02:34] Speaker B: Dude.
[01:02:34] Speaker A: Bro, we would absolutely do that. We would love to have you do that. And definitely got to kick it December 13, if you're free, I don't know when you're going back home. And same thing. We'll tell Michael if he's not able to hear out there and let the lake you guys know too. We're going to be advertising it to the public, but we are doing our first ever raised Rowdy Christmas party.
[01:02:55] Speaker B: Oh, hell yeah.
[01:02:56] Speaker A: It's at the Rusty fucking nail.
Love the nail. That is like, the nail is a place you can get fucked up for like $30 if you're playing the drink. So make sure you don't drink earlier in the month.
I want that to be your one night. I want that to be the time of the month.
[01:03:12] Speaker B: Place has that Deer Hunter game.
[01:03:13] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:03:14] Speaker B: And I'll sit there and drink PBRs and play the Deer Hunter game, bro.
[01:03:18] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, it's going to be karaoke all night. So Nikki, we're just going to be hosting like just karaoke. We're going to have them do like catered food, but it's going to be like a tray of their wings. Like a tray of the rusty nail. Like the rusty nail greasy bar food. That'll be like the catering dude. And it's going to be a lot of fun. So we'll have that. It's a Wednesday night. Bring any quit, whoever, any of the gang, bring them on out and we're just going to get rowdy at the nail. We love that shit. But where do people go to find you on everything? I know you love your social media, so make sure to plug them where they can watch your favorite content.
[01:03:55] Speaker B: My TikTok is Elijah. Elijah. Because somebody had a huge, this is big thing. It's like a huge fashion brand in the UK that really. Elijah.
[01:04:06] Speaker A: No shit.
[01:04:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:08] Speaker A: We need to get you an endorsement with them. Elijah wearing Elijah. Elijah steps.
[01:04:12] Speaker B: They're like super high end. I don't know if that's ever going to happen.
[01:04:15] Speaker A: Well, what you do is you get the high end stuff and you cut holes in it and shit.
[01:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah, great idea.
[01:04:19] Speaker A: That might be your stuff. Like spend a $1,000 on a jacket and then just make it a piece of trash. I mean, that's what Kanye basically does.
[01:04:26] Speaker B: With his fashion Elijah Elijah on TikTok, Dxelijah on Instagram. And that's pretty much everywhere else is Dxelijah. And then Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, all that good stuff.
Listen to me on Octane while you can. Tell them you like it if you do. If you don't like it, lie and say you do.
[01:04:48] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:04:48] Speaker B: Help a homie out.
[01:04:50] Speaker A: There's not always a good time to lie, but if you don't like this is a good time to lie.
[01:04:54] Speaker B: The only good time to lie is when somebody tells you to and you do it for them. That's when the time.
[01:04:58] Speaker A: Yes. Do it for the kids. Do it for the kids.
[01:05:01] Speaker B: Lie for the children. Yeah, man.
[01:05:03] Speaker A: Hell yeah. Well, dude, I appreciate you coming on and hanging out and it was fun to have you on an in the round episode years ago, to have you on outside the round because this is what outside the round is all about.
It's having guys and girls on, having guests on that aren't just country artists, songwriters like we've had comedians on. We've had other folks in the rock world on. We're dabbling into hip hop athletes, influencers, different shit. It's a conversation that's different from what it was where it was the interview. It's more of a conversation and hang with folks that we just think are dope and happy to have on the program. So I'll be sure to check out our boy Elijah. He's got some great music out. If you're like me and you love SiriusXM, hit up the folks at Octane, tell them about virus and tell them to play the fuck out of that thing because we love it here and we know you guys will love it as well.
Be sure to follow Elijah on all the socials. And yeah, continue to stream his music and be on the lookout for some big things coming in 2024 to the EP closing out the year right before Good old Thanksgiving. Got to give a shout out to our sponsors, our friends big friendly productions. You're looking for a place to get merch made? Hit up BFP down there in good old Birmingham, Alabama. Got our friends from Saxman Studios, of course, the Homie Wales Whaletail Media, and our boy Mitch Wallace with the digital marketing agency. You guys liked what you saw and heard on this episode. Like rate, subscribe, tell your mama and them. And if you want to find out more information about us, visit raisedrowdy.com. For my boy Elijah, I'm Matt Brill. This has been outside the round.
[01:06:40] Speaker B: It Come on.
[01:06:57] Speaker A: I never been the kind for still one place for too long I never been the best at sin I love you to a girl I love only got a couple tricks on my sleeve they usually just.
