Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Come on.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: This is Outside the Round with Matt Burrill for Rage Rowdy Podcast.
What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of Outside the Round with me, Matt Brill. Today, a very special guest, someone who's been in the Raised Rowdy family for a minute. We've watched her grow as a songwriter, as a young lady, as an artist. She's got a brand new EP out right now. In and out of love. It's our girl. Aaron Kirby says, how you doing?
[00:00:39] Speaker B: I'm great. How are you?
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Doing well, happy to have you here, hanging out.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Last time you were on a podcast in the Raised Rowdy Network, it was with Nick and Kurt.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: It was in the guest bedroom of the house that Nick was living in at the Amberstown. Little different nowadays.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Oh, no, it looks awesome. That was a great spot, too, though.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: It was a cool spot. It was a cool spot. I like your little outfit you got on, too.
Those are dogs or llamas or, like, little sheep. Little sheep.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: That's what I'm going to go with.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Little sheep. Okay. Hell, yeah. That's awesome. Well, how have things been going? Life's been good.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Life has been really good. It's been interesting. Right now I have, like six stitches in my back because I actually got a mole removed. And then last week, I cut my finger and had stitches in my finger because I decided I was going to try to make pumpkin salsa and miss the pumpkin.
So that's great. And music is coming out. So it's just a hectic time in my life.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: What is pumpkin salsa? I've never. I didn't even know that was a thing. Like, how does that.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I decided. We were. My roommate and I were doing this little dinner party and we wanted to do Taco Tuesday. I wanted to stay with the fall theme.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: So I looked up some crazy recipes, and it was pumpkin habanero salsa. And I was like, this is it. But you have to dice the pumpkin before it's cooked, so it's really tough.
And you have to use a really big knife.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Dicing stuff just, no pun intended is dicey, you know, it's tough. I don't really do that. Luckily, my girlfriend loves cooking, so she usually does all that stuff. But, yeah, I probably would have sliced my whole dang finger off if I was trying to.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: I'm so lucky.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Dice a pumpkin.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: At least I can still play guitar.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I was just thinking that. Yeah. Finger injuries. Not great for folks in your line of work.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Not great. No. That's cool.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Well, I'M glad that you're. You're doing well. So let's talk about. Let's talk about the project. In and out of Love. How does it. How does it feel to have that thing out there for the world?
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Easy.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: All. All the work that goes into it.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it feels so insane. It. This project has been, you know, two or three years of work, and I didn't even know when I was writing some of these songs that it would end up on this project. So for now, for everyone to hear it, it's just. It's really exciting, but it's also terrifying.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Why is it terrifying?
[00:02:50] Speaker B: I don't know. You know, you're really just putting your heart on the line here. These are songs that I feel like I have just really worked so hard on. I worked on being vulnerable, and I. I just. I love them so much. I feel so passionate about them that it can be terrifying to put that out into the public world.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I get that. I get that. They're all like your babies. They're like your children. So let's go through some of the tracks that you got on here. So you start out with Nowhere Everywhere.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: Cool title. You wrote it with Aaron Armstrong and Sydney. And Sydney Kubit and. And Mitch and Ryan Comey. That's like the. A raised, rowdy team of, like, guys and girls that we've seen playing our. Our rounds in our events forever. So talk about that one.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that one was a song that just fell out of the sky. So Sydney had the idea, and I was like, I love this title. She didn't know where to take it, but we came up with this love story kind of song, and, I mean, we wrote it so fast, it was crazy. We broke some rules because there's a ton of different melodies in this song, and I love that it made me just want to immediately release it. But the story's talking about, you know, it's hard being in the dating scene and not finding your right person and just constantly feeling defeated.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Especially in Nashville.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Especially in Nashville. But when you find your person, you realize it's so worth it because all I would go through it again, you know? And that's exactly what this song is talking about.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's. That's really cool. And I like that you have the different melodies in there because it makes the song stand out to where it is something different.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: And any reason why you put that as, like, the first song on the project?
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Yes. The entire project tells a love story, and we'll kind of go through it and how it worked out. But starting there, like with being in love, being on cloud nine, I felt like that was the perfect one to open the story with.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: So you go from nowhere everywhere to I think I'm in love again, which seems pretty self explanatory. Wrote that with Ryan and Davis. And you had Aaron S. Huis produce that?
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Yes, yes. That's such a fun song. It is very much about a toxic relationship and you're kind of getting that, you know, and we. We kind of. There's some. Some lines that are a little bit jokey. It feels like. Like he doesn't take out the trash and he doesn't open my door. But there are a lot of relationships that are so true to that. There's a lot of girls that are going through that and maybe don't want to talk about it and they're like, I'm embarrassed by this, but I really think I'm in love again. Because he says that he's going to change, he's going to fix it. And that's exactly what this song is all about.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: That's cool. And it goes. Going from nowhere everywhere to that.
I can see the progression of the story.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Whiskey does. I love that you have a lot of the same co writers on, like, the project as a. As a collective. Like, I'm seeing Sydney's name a bunch, seeing Ryan's name a bunch of, um. And it's like, it's. You wrote the project with your people. I did talk about what it's been like to find, like, your people, like your co writers, your. Your squad that you like writing songs with.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: It's been really special. I am so blessed and so lucky to have the crew that I have. You know, I feel like I'm always writing with someone new every week, but always just throwing in that, like, Nashville family member. It just makes it so much better. And like Ryan and Davis, we've written so many songs together, but they are two of my favorite people just to work with together. We have a little group and it's. And every time we write something that I just. I love and I want to release.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. How. How did you first meet those guys?
[00:06:13] Speaker B: I met Davis at Around and we were messaging on Instagram. Davis was like, let's write. And I wanted to. And I said, why don't you throw in somebody that you love? And he was like, my. My buddy Ryan would like to join. And I was like, okay, cool. And we ended up having a mutual friend. Ryan and I so it was. I had met him previously but didn't realize. Was that Ryan? So when I walked into the room, I was like, wait, I know you. This is crazy. It was just. It was all a God thing. Totally worked out.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah. As a female artist, it's. It's always a little tricky to find guys that write really well with girls. And it seems like you've done a good job of that, you know, because there's. There's situations where sometimes the room doesn't gel or it's different for. Some guys don't know. Right. For girls. Some girls don't know how to write with guys. Like, it's a. It's. It's a different kind of thing. So what makes those two, Davis and Ryan, so special for. For you? Like, what do they bring to a room? Or how. How what. What gels so well about you guys?
[00:07:11] Speaker B: I think because they are so different that it works out so perfectly. Davis is very, you know, traditional country. He, like, loves old country.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: Florida redneck.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. That's Davis. And then Ryan knows a lot about pop music, and he brings in this very commercial element.
Mix the two there. 1. We're all learning things from each other. I'm learning things from both of them. Ryan and Davis are learning things about backgrounds, different music.
And then we just come up with these songs that, you know, they're country, but they're commercial, but they just tell a story, and that's. That's why it works out so well.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So track three one that you penned with the two of them.
Good. Little three way. Right. Right there with Ryan and Davis. Whiskey Does.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Yes. This. This song. I. I love this song. I. I actually didn't plan on releasing this song on the project.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Oh, those are always fun. You don't plan, and then all of a sudden it's on there.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: I know. And to think this. This project wouldn't be what it is without that song because it's literally titled one of the lyrics in this song. So I had another song in place of Whiskey does. Went into the room with Ryan and Davis, and I said, you know, I'm cutting a project next week. I already have all the songs for that. But Ryan was like, I want a challenge.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: No, you don't.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And we wrote Whiskey Does. I came in, I was like, I just want to write something so sad, guys. Like, I'm on cloud nine in life right now. Let's just get emotional. Let's write something really heartbreaking. And this is what we came up with.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: Is it? Do you Enjoy writing from a place that you might not personally be in. Like, telling a story versus it being like, autobiography, auto biographical, however the hell you say that.
Is it. Is it fun to kind of put yourself in? Like, is it a challenge to tell the story? Like, kind of be an author? Like, do you enjoy doing that?
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Yes. I just. I love it so much. I think it's. It's really fun how songwriting is, because, yes, I can go in with a story that happened to me, and oftentimes we'll write about that, but I also can put myself in a fake little world and make up these sorts of fake little people, and I don't know who. Who this is gonna relate to. And it ended up relating to so many people, which is insane. Like, songwriting is just crazy.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you read a lot of books?
[00:09:30] Speaker B: I do.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: I was gonna say that sounds like someone that reads a lot of books and has their favorite authors and enjoys storytelling. And it's like, instead of just writing a book, you're singing. You're singing a chapter of a book in three and a half minutes.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Yes. That's exactly what it's like. And when I'm reading books, I always read the sad ones.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: Yeah. I think that because I have. I'm very blessed with my life. Not looking to make it any sadder, but for some reason, I love to just listen to emotional music and read emotional books and just be in this new space and feel something that maybe I'm not feeling.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: That's cool. How many. How many books are you reading? Like, on average? I'll be honest. I haven't, like, read a book from front to back in a long, long time.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: That was me. That was me. And I picked it up a couple summers ago. This year has been very slow. Not good on the reading.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: You've been busy with all kinds of other things.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: This is so true. But when I started reading again, I think that summer, I read, like, almost 40 books.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Forty?
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Yeah. I was averaging. If I really want to read a book, I can average, like three to four a week.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Really?
[00:10:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: See, I watch too much tv and I do. Like, that's nuts. That's wild.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: I'm a little nerd. It's fine.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Well, it's not a nerd, but it's like. It's stories. And I'm sure that gives you inspiration as a songwriter.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: Like, you grow as a songwriter by. By reading stories. And it puts new ideas and new words.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: In your. In your head. It inspires you in different ways, I'm sure.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Yes. That's exactly what it does.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: That's wild. Yeah, my. My. My girlfriend's little girl is really into reading books right now. She's like, it's story time at night and stuff.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: And it's. It's wild. Like, I forget just how big it is with people, with people reading, and people get really into it. Now are you a. You have to hold, like, the firm copy of the book or are you a, like, Kindle or read on your phone?
[00:11:21] Speaker B: I'm a paper. Paper girl, but I don't like hardbacks because they are just, like, so hard to fold and maneuver. I want to feel the book.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: You know, they cost more too, the paper.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: I'm saving money.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you go. Where do you. Where do you go to get your. Are you, like, on Amazon and stuff? Are you going to, like, McKay's or Barnes and Noble?
[00:11:39] Speaker B: I love Barnes and Noble.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: There aren't that many of them anymore.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: I know, but just like, the smell of the store. I love it.
Can they make a candle or something?
[00:11:48] Speaker A: I mean, I'm sure there is a Barnes and Noble candle out there somewhere. I feel like that's a good crossover.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: They used to be everywhere. That used to be a big deal. Go to Barnes and Noble as a kid.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I remember going and, like, listening to my favorite authors, read my favorite little stories, and then I have books that they've signed. I still keep them.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: So. Talking about being a kid, you're from Georgia.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: I am.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Where in Georgia are you from again?
[00:12:09] Speaker B: I'm from North Georgia. It's called Jasper.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Itty Bitty Town.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Itty Bitty Town. Itty Bitty Town. Where is that in relation to the BUC EE's of North Georgia? Because that's something.
Calhoun, right?
[00:12:20] Speaker B: Yes. That's the exit after mine that I take when I'm driving up to Nashville. So I always have to stop at Bucky's.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Yeah, you have to. It is a sin if you drive by a Buc EE's and you don't stop. For my years of touring, I would budget in an extra 45 minutes per trip if I knew we were passing a buc EE's.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Because you're with. You're with. You with an artist and a band and a production crew, and it's like everybody's going to go in there. It's going to take. We're going to take time. We're going to go inch to inch, corner to corner in that store.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Totally special. Just watching the people alone is amazing. It's like Disney World in there.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: My favorite time. And it drives Nikki T. Crazy because me being from New York, I love chaos. Like, I like, put me, put me on and not the chaos to where I'm on Broadway all the time. I used to work down there, but to me, Bucky's Post Church in a small town, talking. Tried that Sunday at noon and you have all the kids running around all dressed up. It's chaos. It's packed.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Sounds great.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: I love the people watching. I'll just go sometimes. Sometimes I don't even get anything. I'll hit the bathroom, but I'll just. I'll just go and just. People watch. It's like I got to bring a little chair or something. Just sit there.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: No, you just get one. A lounge chair with a beaver on it.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Yeah, cuz they have.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: They have those there.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Yeah, they really, really do. But I love the. The chaos of BUC EE's. It is like a Disney type of thing.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: It's awesome.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: And how long have you been up here in Nashville now?
[00:13:46] Speaker B: About three years.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: Three years. And you're how old again?
[00:13:49] Speaker B: I'm 21.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: You're 21?
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Well, actually I'm 22. I just turned 22.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: Happy belated birthday.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: That's awesome. What was it like moving at. At 18, 19, like moving up here underage.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: I just knew that it was where I was supposed to be. It was. It was honestly so easy. I was very lucky. My mom traveled up with me for a little bit and yeah, it was so easy because this is where I'm.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Supposed to be and it's not that far from North Georgia. Like you're. You're blessed to have like. So it's what, like four hours? Not even.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Not even. Yeah. I could probably do the drive with my eyes closed.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Wow. Just go down. I. 24.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm literally doing that drive all the time. I go home all the time.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: That's awesome. And what were your initial thoughts of like, how old were you when you first started coming up here?
[00:14:36] Speaker B: I think I was. I was graduating high school when I. When I came up here and I just. I loved the process of everything. I loved the songwriting process.
And then I went down to Broadway and I was like, oh, this is too much. There's too many people here. And then it just continued to grow and for some reason I fell in love with it.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: That's awesome. Well, the town's better at having people like you in it. And how did you as. Cause it's a challenge when you're. When you're 18, 19, and you move here and you can't get into the bars regularly unless you're playing, you know, which luckily we were able to have you playing at an early age. And I'm sure you were popping over, like, the local and the whiskey jams and the grind houses and the different events. But how do you go through, like, making your friends and meeting people while not having the ID to, like, get in the red door late night or something like that?
[00:15:25] Speaker B: This is going to sound crazy, and I don't know why. This is how it worked out for me. I have met so many friends on TikTok.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: Really?
[00:15:33] Speaker B: My best friend, I met her on TikTok. It is crazy. Like, don't go meet many people on the Internet that you don't know. They might not be real.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: But almost all my friends I have met on TikTok.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Yeah. The Internet's an interesting place for meeting people. That's actually how Nikki T. And I got connected.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: Really?
[00:15:49] Speaker A: It was before both of us had even moved here. Yeah.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Was when I was doing my thing in Jersey, Nick was doing his thing in Pittsburgh, and I was like, oh, this raised rowdy thing. School. And he was watching my college radio show and doing what I was doing.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: But it's like you can literally meet people from all over the place.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: And it's like you're coming up at a time where social media has been a huge part of your career and people discovering you and you getting your voice, your name, your songs, your art out there to where you meet somebody and then you start creating together because everybody ends up moving here.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: That's exactly it. I. My first song that, like, went viral on TikTok was pick my Own Flowers.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: And so many young girls from Nashville or that had just moved to Nashville were using the sound. And then we just started connecting, like, through messages or whatever. And they're like, I just moved to Nashville and I'm an independent young girl. Like, we should. We need to find a little group.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: And it just kind of worked out.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's cool. What's it been like coming up in that age? Because it's a lot of the, like, the OGs, like, at first when.
When Tick Tock became a medium. And it's like the concept of something like Tick Tock isn't super new because you had vine before that and you had, like, Combs and Taylor Holbrook and Kane Brown and so many guys coming up.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: In little seven, eight second videos, whatever. Those were. But what's it been like to be someone who's come up in that era of like, where this is one of the ways to get your music out There is through TikTok.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: It can be difficult, honestly. I try so hard to just have fun with it and not overthink it. I am such a granny on the inside that if I'm home, my phone is probably put away somewhere and I'm reading a book or watching Golden Girls and my hair. Golden Girls, my favorite show.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: But Mary Georgia.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: Yeah, that, by the way, I try so hard to just post what I want, you know, and I just come up with little ideas and like, let me just make this video and not overthink it and post it. Because there's so many ways to overthink it. And then you're messing it up. And it seems like the content that does well is the stuff that you just don't think is going to do well.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: What's an example of that? What's like a video where you're like, dang, I didn't think this was going to do that.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: So I posted a video on I have a burner TikTok where I just really post.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: I feel like. I feel like when you have one, when you're doing it, when it's such a huge part of your career.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: And like the business side and your life in that sense, you gotta have one where you're just going on there and enjoying it as a consumer. So I. I think a lot of creators and artists and people that do TikTok as part of their business have those. So don't feel bad about having a burner.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: I am spam TikTok. I post 10 TikToks a day. But the first one that really did well was me in my silk bonnet and my cheetah print pajamas waking up and being so excited about pumpkin spice day at Starbucks. And it was my roommate and I just jogging on over and everyone was like, oh my gosh, thank you so much for reminding me. Here's my drink with 500 pumps of caramel sauce on the cups. And that was like, I didn't think that would do well. Are you kidding me?
[00:19:00] Speaker A: So a lot of it's like being silly and just being fun. Like you say, just having fun with it.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. I've posted videos of me in my closet throwing my clothes around. A million views. I'm like, wow, but why?
Maybe I should start singing while I'm doing these things.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Well, it's. It's because you're you're just. You're a young 22 year old girl and other 20 something year old girls relate to that.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Yeah.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: Like I figure I'm not a 22 year old girl obviously, but it's like I figure like going in and throwing clothes around in your closet. Something that I guess people do.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I did it this morning, so it's me every day. It's part of my morning routine.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: What were your some of the initial challenges of being young and moving up here or if you're not really, it seems like you've just embraced everything and just had a lot of fun doing it.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I really have. I think that patience is, can be the hardest thing for me in any aspect of life, especially in the music world. But also patience in finding your crew, finding your songwriting crew, finding your friends because you have to trust that those people are going to come along and, and you can't try too hard because then it's not authentic. So that's probably been the hardest thing, is just patience in it all. But yeah, I try so hard to just accept what's given to me, you know?
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Just. Just embracing all of it.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: And good people. Find good people. Like so much of it is like, I think back to the guys and girls that I met when I first moved here because I'm about to hit seven years of being here.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: I feel like an old man. Crazy.
But it's like I'm still like. You go through kind of chapters too. It's similar to like when you're growing up and you're in, you're in school and you're in elementary school, middle school, high school. There's very few people that start out as your friends in like kindergarten or first grade.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: That you keep up with all the way through high school and then you keep up with on. And Nashville's kind of felt like that like you go through. You've been here, you said three years, so I'm sure you still have a lot of those same folks. But over time you meet new people and friends. Everybody in the ideal world, everybody's winning. And you guys all get so busy that you can't hang out all the time anymore.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: I know, I know.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: I'm sure you're running into that now.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Yes. I mean, I try so hard to prioritize time with my favorite people.
Right now we're doing Dancing with the Stars nights. That's where the pumpkin salsa comes in. But we just try to prioritize full circle here. I try really hard to prioritize my favorite people. And then let's. I'm like, even with the show that we're doing, I'm trying so hard to find the people that are just like my friends and that I love working with, you know?
[00:21:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. Who's the. Who are? I haven't watched Dancing with the Stars in years. I will say as a young. As a young. As a young boy is like a young. I was probably like, 11 or 12. Julianne Hough was one of my early, like, celebrity crush. My mom used to DVR, like, TiVo the damn dance with the song. Who are the people on it right now who are like. Who are like the. Who are the stars?
[00:21:56] Speaker B: Well, to me, Andy Richter is like.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Oh, Andy Richter's doing it. Oh, shit.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Everybody better vote Andy 10 times to 2. 15, 23. Every Tuesday, if you're free. Okay, so Andy's my favorite. Robert Irwin. He is crushing it. Alex Earl is crushing it. Jordan Childs from the. The gymnast from the Olympics. She's crushing the USA team.
Who else is on this?
Danielle Fisher. She's Topanga. You know, and world, I feel like I'm missing a couple people. Who am I missing here?
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Andy Richter is the most important one.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: No, I mean, really, that's all I watch. And then I'm like, okay, the show's over now. So. No, every week he always gets the. The lowest scores, but everyone is voting for him.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: But he's just staying America's sweetheart.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Yes, but he's improving. He's doing a great job. He's doing so good.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: That's awesome. Off to tune and. And. And check out some of these. Some of Andy's moves and stuff. Speaking of moves, the last single that you dropped of this. Make a Move.
You like that.
I'm proud of myself with that. Wrote that with Andrew Beeson, Joe Clemens. I'm not too familiar with those two guys. Tell me about them one time.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Oh, they are the sweetest guys in the world. It was actually a first, right, for all three of us. Well, yeah, I've written with Andrew, but Andrew and Joe hadn't met and I hadn't written with Joe, but he just fit in perfectly with our little group. And I had this idea and I came into the room with it and we worked it up that day and I left, I was like, yeah, so this is really good. And I really like this crew. They are amazing. Joe plays guitar like a crazy person.
So I'm like, gus, I'm never playing this song out live, even Though it's like my favorite song I've ever written. Thanks, Joe. And Andrew, he's just. Like I said, he's a sweetheart. It's. But we wrote this heart wrenching song.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah. What's the process of putting the songs out as singles before the whole project's out? Because that was one that you, you had just, you had just released. That was like the last single to come out before the project.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: What's like your selection process and how does it work with. Because now you've got a team. You've got some, some good folks in your corner. Two of them sitting right over there. What's the process of that for you? Of how does an artist choose what's a single, what's not?
[00:24:12] Speaker B: It's difficult. I knew for me Make a Move was a single from the moment that I had written it and then it like fit so perfectly with the project. I was like, this is a no brainer. We gotta do the single and then we gotta put it on the project. With nowhere Everywhere. I loved that it had a little bit of a tempo and that it was the beginning of the story. So I felt like that was the one that needed to be single put.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: Chapter one out first.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: Right. But if I could, I'd probably single all of them and then release them as a project again.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: Yeah. What's it like having a team to collaborate with? Like that's something you moved, you moved up here as young and through, through, through this, through your first big song out there and all of that. But now as you've grown, you've got more people in your corner. What's it like having that support system?
[00:24:56] Speaker B: I'm so blessed. I have people that let me be me and let me participate in every little decision. And I talk to so many artists and not everyone has that. I'm so lucky to have a team that sees the vision, supports the vision and they're gonna do anything to make sure that it happens the right way.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel I always like to tell people and again, I'm not, I'm. I'm not a, an artist or a musician or a song or a producer. I'm just somebody that likes listening to music and telling people about it.
But I always say that like as an artist, you're the CEO of your business. Like the business is Aaron Kirby and you're, you're the boss and you bring in people to work with you and help you run your business. So being able to have that say and have that control.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: So dang important.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: It's so important. Absolutely.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a special stuff. What else do you like doing besides watching when you're not doing the music stuff? We know you like reading books. Yeah, we know you like watching. Watching tv. So Golden Girls, Dancing with the stars. What are some of the other, what are some of the other hobbies that young Aaron Kirby likes doing?
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Some of my, my grandma hobbies. I, I have, I've tried to sew. I have a sewing machine.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: You have a sewing machine?
[00:26:05] Speaker B: I do. But don't ask me to make you anything because some things might be good.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: Have you tried making stuff? Have you used it?
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. My, my friends and I, we've made like little tops and bags and headbands and we just get together and we're like sewing our fabric. You know, down the line. I'm like, oh no, this one messed up a little bit. It's part of its character.
I paint everything I do I feel like is pretty creative. I feel like I have a lot of creative outlets. So I paint a lot and I ha a lot of my paintings. I've done one of my dog and whatever.
I decorate my room in my apartment like it is my full time job. I love shopping, love thrifting, love hunting and gathering.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: Seasonally decorate.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: So right now we're in spooky season.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: No, we're past. It's Christmas already.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: You're in Christmas already?
[00:26:53] Speaker B: Oh yeah, it's Christmas. We're, we're there. We're there.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: When did the Christmas, when did the switch flip for Christmas?
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Before Halloween.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: Week of Halloween. Just forget Halloween, honestly, like straight to Christmas. We just need it.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: So I got a fun doing Christmas early story.
I'm not talking like Christmas. Actually we did do it at Christmas in July. But the last radio station I worked at back in New Jersey, it was called Magic 98.3. It was today's hits, yesterday's favorites, Magic 98.3. But it was, it would switch to Jersey's Christmas station. And the years I was there, I mean it's been like almost, it's been like seven years since I've been there. But we every year would start switching to Christmas earlier and earlier and earlier. And then we'd be 24 hour Christmas. We started switching the last year I was there, we were flipping the switch. It was like a big deal. Like it'd be a big moment. They'd say, they'd say like over the. Oh, we're going to press the button. It's going to be Christmas. When really it's just like program it, whatever. Yeah, but like, we would switch, like, before Black Friday.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: Oh, well, that seems really late.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: That seems late. And then we. And then I think now they're like, around Halloween, like.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: Yeah, that's how it should be, Mom. Driving everywhere. Everywhere I go. It might be 80 degrees out still right now, but in my mind it's snowing.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: What are your favorite Christmas songs? Oh, and have we put out a Christmas song?
[00:28:09] Speaker B: I have not put out a Christmas song.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: I feel like that's on the horizon. Ms. Christmas over here.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Ms. Christmas, my new nickname. That's my new artist name, actually. It's Ms. Christmas.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: Introduce you as that.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: No. Christmas songs.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: Stream in and out of love. Yeah. My favorite Christmas song. I don't know because I love so many of them, honestly. Like Frosty the Snowman and just the classics. Yeah, the classics. Love Last Christmas. That's probably one that I really enjoy covering.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Have you ever heard of? What is it? I think it's like the Wham Challenge or something. You try to go the whole Christmas season without hearing.
Without hearing. What's the. What's the Wham song? Is it this Christmas? Forget the one.
It's like. It's like a big. It's a big, annoying, catchy Christmas right now.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: My brain is not wanting to work.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: I have friends that do that, and it's like a challenge trying to go through the season of not hearing that song on the radio or in a store, like, trying to avoid it. And I feel like every year I've had some people, I've known some people that make it to like. To make it make it to, like, Christmas Eve, and then they lose.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: How do you do that? Like, going into a store, you just.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Got to be selective. It's. You're playing with fire. Yeah.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: You're just, like, dropping all your things.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: Christmas song roulette, you know, like, you just got to be careful. You're chancing it, you know?
[00:29:25] Speaker B: That's crazy. That's crazy.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it's wild. But I'm glad to know we're in. So then when does. Do you. Do you do, like, extended Christmas where you'll keep the stuff up for a little while? Not too past. You go past New Year's just a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. And then we're in the Valentine's Day.
[00:29:41] Speaker B: I guess so. Yeah. But I guess I don't really decorate. Well, I might. I have a lot of, like, dish towels and things that I put out that I have. Easter ones.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:29:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: Fourth of July.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: No, I should do Fourth of July.
[00:29:54] Speaker A: I was gonna say, you got to go to, like, a home Goods or Michael's and just start collecting all this.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: I mean, I wear enough red, white, and blue that I think I'm just permanently Fourth of July.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: That is true decorating. What were you like growing up? How was growing up in North Georgia for you?
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Oh, it was wonderful. It was so good. I just. I love being outside and every picture of me is like a little child. Is I. Like I have dirt somewhere on me. Like, I'm just always outside and. Yeah, but then I told my mom I wanted to do a pageant, and she was like, are you sure you want to do a pageant? Like, you're gonna have to paint your fingernails. I was like, it's fine. I'll work for a Saturday. Like, that's fine. And that was my alter ego. Saturday pageant, Erin. And then I was right back outside.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: That's awesome. Did you play sports and stuff growing up?
[00:30:39] Speaker B: I played a little bit of golf, but I gave it up for music.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: Do you still. Do you still golf?
[00:30:45] Speaker B: No, no, no.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: Have you tried, like, going to topgolf or anything?
[00:30:50] Speaker B: I have, I have. I. I think it's very peaceful. I love, like, going and golfing and top golf or whatever, but I'm just so bad at it now that.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Oh, well, it's heartbreaking. Well, if you played it growing up and you say that you're bad at it, you're still probably better than the average, average guy or. Kidding.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: I don't think so. Maybe.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: What year did you give it up? How old were you?
[00:31:10] Speaker B: I was pretty young. Like 11. 10 or 11.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I was pretty young.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Yeah. I was gonna say you got to get out in the golf. There's a lot of golf courses out here.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: I know.
[00:31:19] Speaker A: There's a lot of, like, affordable golf courses, too. Nashville's a great place for, like, thirty dollar rounds of golf.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: I need to bring my clubs back.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: I'm saying get out. Get out there. You should get Ryan and Davis, like, get your homies out of my gosh. Now that's some content.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that is some content.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: Demo jail on the golf cart.
[00:31:35] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Sounds crazy.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: I was gonna say Tik Tok would not know what to do.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: No, you just, like, get your rage out. All the songwriting dog talk about these terrible sessions. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: No, no, no. You guys write a song while you're in the damn golf cart.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: But.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: But that's cool. Where are some of your favorite places to go in town?
[00:31:53] Speaker B: Oh, my Gosh, like all the thrift stores everywhere.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: All right, what's your favorite one?
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Cuz I can't give that out. I have to gatekeep it a little bit.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: What do you mean you have to gatekeep it?
There's.
People know.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: We'll just let them find.
[00:32:07] Speaker A: Is it like. Well, Ugly Duckling's a vintage one. That's in Donaldson. That doesn't really count because vintage is where stuff costs a lot of money. Thrifting.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:16] Speaker A: Where it's affordable.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Right? Yeah.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: Are we talking, like, Goodwills and things like that?
[00:32:20] Speaker B: Goodwills are good. Yeah. I have one that I go to that's like, the best.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: But you're talking, like, thrifting. Thrifting. Not quite Goodwill. I feel likes commercial thrifting.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: No, I love Goodwill. It's great. Okay, I gotta keep mine.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Have you been to the one in White House?
[00:32:37] Speaker B: No.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: There's Tennessee Flea.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: I need to, like, drive.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: There's a lot. There's. If you go, like, north of town, like, good, like Goodlettsville and Lighthouse and all those areas, there's a ton of them.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: My girlfriend loves doing it, so there's a bunch of them that I've been. Been through. And you always got to get little toys for little Charlotte, of course. So it's wild. And then closing out the project. Regretting you.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: Is that. Is that a real story, or is that in Aaron's fictional land?
[00:33:03] Speaker B: That's in Aaron's fictional land.
[00:33:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: I was never engaged, so there's fictional land. But I had this idea in the car coming up from Georgia. I was driving up before my session that day, and I wrote it with Gabe Faust and Sidney Cubitt, and I was like, I have this idea about. It's called regretting you, but you're not regretting them. And it was just instant hook again. Song fell out of the sky. All of these songs we finished in a day. It was never. We're gonna come back to it. Like, these songs were just meant to be. They were meant to happen. And regretting is one of those. So it's. It's kind of an interesting way of closure, closing out a project and just saying, you know, I don't regret everything we went through. I don't regret any of those moments. Kind of connecting back to nowhere, everywhere. Like, I don't regret it because when I find my person, it's. It's all gonna work out. So then you can just replay the entire project over and over again. You don't have to go to another project. Just kidding.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: That's perfect.
Talk about calling your. Your stuff. Adele. Country.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Crazy. Adele was the first, like, artist I ever covered, ever wanted to sing. I just love her. I look up to her so much, and I. I felt like that's where I'm supposed to be. I wanted to be authentic in myself. And if that's the songs that I love and stuff, I love be. To. To sing. I want to. I want to write some of that for myself. But I'm a country girl, so we got him. We got to make it, you know, like Aaron, and now it's country. Adele.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Do you do a lot of karaoke?
[00:34:31] Speaker B: Oh, I used to do.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: So. Adele. Karaoke. I'm imagining.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that was me.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: Like, rolling in the deep kind of stuff.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. That was the first song I ever sang at a pageant. And I went to. I went to karaoke on, like, Wednesdays or Thursdays to practice my song, and Saturday I'm on the pageant stage doing my routine in my sparkly dress.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: Well, if you're. Well, if you're not home already for. For the holidays and for. For Christmas, if you're going home. December 8th, we're having our raised rowdy Christmas party at the Rusty Nail. It's the most invite goes for these two as well. Everybody's invited. It's an open invite. And everybody watching too. If you're watching this, come hang out. We do it at the Rusty Nail.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: It's very come one, come all. We just ask everybody bring a toy because we do a toy drive with it. But everybody just sings karaoke all night night at the Nail till like two in the morning.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: Oh, now I'm gonna have to sing Rolling in the date.
[00:35:19] Speaker A: You're gonna have to. I just set you up for that. Now we got Aaron Kirby singing Rolling in the Deep and whatever other songs, but it's a lot of fun. But we'll have to see. We'll have to. Because you. You've done the Nail with us before.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah. What a great spot.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: It's a. It's a special. It's a special place, but it's where we like doing our Christmas party because. So it's not like a Christmas party of, like, where everybody has to get. If you want to get dressed up, you can. Yeah, but it's very much like, hey, just come and hang out. There's free parking. The drinks are cheap, and just sing karaoke. And we do a buffet of all the finest fried foods of the Rusty Man. Pizza, rolls, chicken nuggets, Mac and Cheese bites, I'm there. It's a. And it's on a Monday night. So it's, it's a. It's. It's a wild.
It's a wild time.
Talk about some of the opportunities that you've gotten to do going on the road. Kelly Pickler, Lone Star, Colt Ford. Different things you've gotten to do as far as touring.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's crazy. A lot of those were in Georgia and they were when I didn't even know I was going to do country.
It's the God. The God just works in crazy ways. The Lord works in crazy ways. He's like, I'm gonna give you these opportunities and then when you get older, you're gonna fall in love with country music and it's all gonna circle back. So, yeah, it's really cool to say that I've been able to open for those people.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: Now that we've got this project out, what are the goals going in next year?
[00:36:34] Speaker B: More shows. I would really love to play more shows. I love performing and I would love to just, just play this project live.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: You know, just get on the road and go out and do it.
[00:36:44] Speaker B: That's my biggest goal. And obviously releasing more music because I've been writing a lot and there's a lot of songs that I still really love that I want the world to hear.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Yeah. What would you tell that young, that young wide eyed girl that moves up here from North Georgia three years ago, like knowing what you know now, what would be a message? If you could hop in a time machine and tell that girl something, what would you say?
[00:37:05] Speaker B: I would tell her to write music that she loves. Don't try to stick to the trend or figure it out in a way that's like, I need to do what. What people are telling me to do. Just write the music that you love.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: That's awesome. Well, I'd say that you hit the goal of with that, with this project and it's awesome that it's out and I'm excited to see what the response is gonna be to it. And I think the rocket shit. We've been watching you for years and we've been lucky to call you family for a while, but it's awesome to watch it grow. And I can't wait for the next one after this one and seeing you out there on the road and just watching it all grow. So just keep, keep being you, sis. Like we, we love, we love having you. And, and do we have anything else coming before the end of this year or. It was really? The goal was this project.
[00:37:51] Speaker B: The goal was this project, and I'm. I'm so glad that we got it out just in time.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: So that's awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming on here and hanging out.
[00:37:59] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: It's always, always a pleasure. And I'm excited for the. The takeover night.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: At the local.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: Is gonna be awesome.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: It's gonna be awesome. We have very special people coming, and I'm. I'm really excited.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And the locals, a spot you're very familiar with, right?
[00:38:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Great food. Please come eat.
[00:38:15] Speaker A: Great.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: Wear your stretchy pants.
[00:38:17] Speaker A: Great. Great food. Free parking. There'll be. There's a lot of. We'll have copious amounts of surfside there. And it's felt like. Have you been to one of our things over there yet? Because we just.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: So it feels like what old live oak used to feel like life for us. Like, how it was. Like the scene was over there, and it's just this energy.
So I'm very excited to be collabing on a night with you.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: Oh, I'm so excited.
[00:38:39] Speaker A: We're super stoked and can't wait for folks to come out.
[00:38:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm. I'm so excited. Thank you so much.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Hey, dude. Anytime we can put your name beside Ray Rowdy, we are always down. Says, seriously, like your family and you always have been and you always will be in anything we can ever do. And so everyone can find you. Looking up, Aaron, what's your. What are your handles again?
[00:38:59] Speaker B: It's Aaron Kirby music.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Aaron Kirby music.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: Easy peasy.
[00:39:02] Speaker A: Go check it out and try to find the burner is out there. But we will not reveal the name of that or the thrift stores or any of that stuff.
[00:39:10] Speaker B: Those are our secrets.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: You got. You gotta dig. And if you see a viral video of a girl throwing clothes in her closet, then you will know that was me.
That was Aaron. And. And vote for Andy Richter.
[00:39:21] Speaker B: Yes, please, Andy. 10 times to win. 5, 2, 3. Thank you.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: I love it. Well, y' all be sure to go check. Go and check out in and out of Love, the project from our girl, Aaron Kirby. Go stream the heck out of it. And if you're in Nashville when this episode comes out, it's coming out the day that the event is happening. So if you're watching A Day of and you're here in town, come hang out at the local. Eat some chicken fingers, drink some surfside, and listen to some great music from Aaron Kirby and her friends. Well, thank you so much for hanging out. Shout out to our friends from Surfside. Vodka, lemonade, vodka, iced tea? This one's nice and cold, Y' all be sure to go. No bubbles, no troubles, Any seltzer? It's a Surfside. And for more on us, visit raisedrowdy.com for my girl Aaron, I'm Matt Brill. This has been outside the round?
[00:40:07] Speaker C: I ain't never been the kind for st?
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?
Nathan Music? Just make them leave?
So if you know me? If you really know me? You know I'm just a two trick pony? Maybe the drink and the lack of money for show? I'm just a two trick pony?
[00:40:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
