What do real musicians think of AI-Generated music?
In this 4-part bonus series, you’ll hear rapid fire interviews with musicians who are using cutting-edge podcasting 2.0 tech to reinvent the music industry.
This is all leading up to the first-ever “Sats By SW” Independent Music Summit and our live music performance at Antone’s hosted by the inventor of modern podcasting and legendary MTV VJ, Adam Curry.
We’re here today with Johnny Elrod, fellow Texan, musician, and drummer for FM Rodeo. In this episode, you’ll hear:
And if you’d like to drop some “sats” in the tip jar for today’s episode, your contributions will automatically be split 50/50 with FM Rodeo. So, to leave a little tip, all you have to do is:
>> Get your tickets ($10): AntonesNightclub.com
>> Or join the Livestream on Tunestr or Adam Curry’s Boostagram Ball podcast (Show starts at 6pm Central / 7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific on Monday, December 16, 2024)
Go to FMRodeoTX.com for upcoming shows, lyrics, merch and more from FM Rodeo
Read the show notes: https://fatburningman.com/johnny-elrod-what-real-musicians-think-of-ai-generated-music/
In this 4-part bonus series, you’ll hear rapid fire interviews with musicians who are using cutting-edge podcasting 2.0 tech to reinvent the music industry.
This is all leading up to the first-ever “Sats By SW” Independent Music Summit and our live music performance at Antone’s hosted by the inventor of modern podcasting and legendary MTV VJ, Adam Curry.
We’re here today with Johnny Elrod, fellow Texan, musician, and drummer for FM Rodeo. In this episode, you’ll hear:
- What real musicians think about AI-Generated music
- How to approach learning a musical instrument in an age of distraction
- Why having your own music library is better than Spotify
- Why labor-intensive hobbies that don’t have a financial pay off are worth it
- And more…
And if you’d like to drop some “sats” in the tip jar for today’s episode, your contributions will automatically be split 50/50 with FM Rodeo. So, to leave a little tip, all you have to do is:
- Download the Fountain app.
- Add a few bucks to your lightning wallet.
- Find this episode, click the lightning icon, and send us a Boost with an optional message.
>> Get your tickets ($10): AntonesNightclub.com
>> Or join the Livestream on Tunestr or Adam Curry’s Boostagram Ball podcast (Show starts at 6pm Central / 7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific on Monday, December 16, 2024)
Go to FMRodeoTX.com for upcoming shows, lyrics, merch and more from FM Rodeo
Read the show notes: https://fatburningman.com/johnny-elrod-what-real-musicians-think-of-ai-generated-music/
[00:00:00]
Abel James:
Hey, folks. This is Abel James, and thanks so much for joining us on this special episode of the show. What do real musicians think of AI generated music? In this special bonus series, you'll hear rapid fire interviews with remarkable musicians who are using cutting edge podcasting technology to reinvent the music industry. This is all leading up to the first ever SATS by Southwest Independent Music Summit and our show at Antones hosted by the inventor of modern podcasting and legendary MTV VJ, Adam Curry. So grab your tickets and hold on to your hats. You can catch me speaking on the creator panel for the summit at the Bitcoin Commons in downtown Austin on December 15th. Then I'll be opening the show at Austin's home of the blues, Antone's, for Adam Curry's Boostagram Ball on 16th.
This bonus series of episodes with artists and musicians is free of sponsors and outside advertising. So if you'd like to support this show, please share it with someone you think would care about independent music, the world of podcasting and technology and that sort of thing. Or if you're into that world a little bit and you wanna experiment, download the fountain app, set up your lightning wallet, and then try to send this show or another show a boost or a boostogram with a message. Sounds hard, sounds complicated with lots of lingo, but it's totally worth it. And this, I believe, is the future of podcasting and hopefully the future of music as well. And, of course, join us via livestream or in person for the Sats by Southwest Independent Music Summit at the Bitcoin comments on December 15th and Antone's for Adam Curry's BoosterGram Ball on December 16th.
You can visit abeljames.com and sign up for the newsletter, and I'll send you all of the livestream details if you can't make it in person. But if you do wanna make it in person, make sure to grab your tickets. They're going quickly and there are lots of special goodies as well. Alright. We're here today with Johnny Elrod, fellow Texan and drummer for FM Rodeo, who is also gonna be playing at Adam Curry's boostagram ball at Anton's. In this episode, you'll hear what real musicians think about AI generated music, how to approach learning a musical instrument in an age of distraction, why having your own music library is way better than Spotify, why labor intensive hobbies like music that don't have an obvious financial payoff are totally worth it, and much more. And make sure to hang on until the end of this interview to hear a track from FM Rodeo called Rit Jon, which is a total banger. Alright, let's go hang out with Johnny.
Alright, folks. Today, I'm stoked to be here with Johnny Elrod, the drummer from FM Rodeo. Johnny, how are you doing, man? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me, Abel. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your musical background and what brought you to FM Rodeo and rocking out this hard.
[00:02:52] Johnny Elrod:
Sure. Well, ironically enough, I'm in a band called FM Rodeo with Troy, who's the front man. He's a songwriter, singer, and guitar player. We are a 3 piece band. And I met Troy in high school, and the year was 2000. And we're both, new to Kerrville, Texas. I came from Midland originally, but I moved there from Azle, Texas, which is by Dallas Fort Worth. And he moved there from Victoria, Texas, which is over closer to the Gulf Coast. Anyway, we're in theater class, and we, by fate, sat next to each other and we, it's 1st day of school. The theater teacher gave us papers to fill out or to swap and it's kinda like an interview.
And, in the interview, I discovered that he loved, playing guitar. He loved Nirvana. He loved spaghetti. And, basically, at that point, right before I went to high school, I had traded my PlayStation 1st generation for a bass guitar. Woah. And, yeah. And it was it was a 3 quarter, scale bass, and I never knew how to play it. I was trying to strum it like a guitar. It was like, you know, just real real dirty, and I didn't had no clue what I was doing. And whenever I met him, I mentioned this and that, he said, you know, I might be able to teach you how to play that bass. I was like, that'd be cool. So we got with our mommies and set up a play date, and, I was able to get over there, and, he tuned it for me, which was very important.
And then he, showed me how to play, 3 or 4 notes, and it was, what's my age again by blank 182 because that was a hit song just maybe the year before. And soon as I I did it, it felt like just armor just, you know, chiseling on my shoulders and, you know, the rock gods were knighting me and, you know, just just just feeling this power of, hey, man. You have, unlocked a skill or, you know, you're developing a skill or, hey, you just get it. Like, you're able to do it. And so at that point, he taught me all the Nirvana songs, and then I was able to look up tabs and learn how to read them and sort of do my own research.
And we kinda, like, had a little band, back in the early days of high school. Cut forward, you know, that kind of, sizzled out. And, I learned how to play guitar naturally after that because, you know, it's just so much funner. And, eventually, I was in Indiana visiting my dad. My stepmom is a cleaning lady, and she teach she cleans for family whose son was in Drum Corps International, and he taught drum lessons. And my stepmom and my dad bought a drum set for my younger brother, and he was in the basement, and he never knew he never learned how to play it. And I was always over in there just kind of jacking around. Well, she said, hey. I give you, a drum lessons for from this guy. He's my client. I was like, sure. So I took drum lessons. He taught me how to read notation.
That was after my sophomore year. So junior year, I come back to Texas. I joined high school band and get on the drum line and, meet a lot of musicians and start networking. But then drums become my number one thing. It becomes the one that I practice the most. It's more applicable. Not to mention around the greater general Austin region, you can't swing a guitar player without hitting another guitar player. There's, so many guitar players, not enough drummers. Yep. And, I became very marketable at that, time even though I didn't consider it marketable. I just knew, like, hey. There's a shortage of drummers. Let me try, doing this. So then got back with Troy, in college, and we went to San Marcus and kicked off our band.
Back then, it was called The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, and, we, we're playing all over Austin, San Antonio, College Station, and San Marcus. And then life hit real fast, and we kinda went our ways again. We started it back up in 2015, but then we called it FM Rodeo. And we went through a couple of different bass players. Again, we're a 3 piece band, but that's basically the history of of me and Troy's relationship in a nutshell. Whenever I was kind of off, I went back to Midland, worked in the oil field, and did all the stuff. I fell in love with all different sorts of types of music, including blues and country. And I joined a lot of bands and, you know, kinda kept myself busy, keep the wheels greased, so to speak. Right?
And, I was able to play learn what they call Texas country, which is also red dirt country. It's kinda like cross between country, classic country, and rock music, southern rock maybe. Lots of blues and then, did a lot of cover, band gigs and stuff. That really helped increase my chops and kinda get out there and get get my name out there. And by the time I got back over this direction and we kicked off, FM rodeo, I had better chops, a better understanding of music, definitely better dynamics. The early days is just loud and fast. Mhmm. Now it's more, dynamic driven as well as, I'd say more steady on the tempo.
And so, that's that that sort of sums sums up a lot of that in a nutshell.
[00:08:24] Abel James:
And it's probably useful to be in a band as well as the drummer who understands at least a little bit about what the guitarist is up to, what the basis is up to, kind of the harmony that's going on in the background. Right?
[00:08:35] Johnny Elrod:
Yeah. Being able to play different instruments and kind of understand, the rhythms behind what the other guys are doing. And, also, I guess, what what I call preproduction, when we're sort of formulating songs and everything. You know, I'd say Troy writes all the songs and brings the the the canvas that's pretty much, you know, got the the the foundation on it. But then we gotta come up with a beat and then, you know, with the bass player. Sometimes the bass player helped me. Sometimes I'll help the bass player come up with some ideas on, hey, what will help fortify this? Let's make this one a little bit different than the other songs. Let's tweak it. Let's add a twist. Let's do a couple of other other, arrangements and sort of give this thing a little bit of flare.
And, and, of course, you know, it helps to know the other instruments so you could speak the same language. Mhmm.
[00:09:25] Abel James:
What about just balancing your real life with playing music over the years? What does that look like for you and the band?
[00:09:32] Johnny Elrod:
It's been pretty tough. I mean, when I was in college, it's so I was working at Sonic Drive In, which is a fast food restaurant, and we could navigate it pretty nicely back then. I mean, we didn't give a care in the world. Right. You know, if I miss my shift, then it's like, alright. Fire me. You know? I don't care. I mean, I did, but, like, whatever. I ended up going into, air conditioning, which made it a little bit trickier because sometimes in the summer, especially, we'd have to have on call schedules. But most of the gigs were Friday night, Saturday night.
A lot of times, you know, we we're able to just deal with it. But as far as going on tour, summertime had been, you know, just a known you know, a a hard pass Yeah. Unfortunately, because that's usually the best time to go on tour because the weather's not gonna be, you know, frozen Tundra. Yeah. And, us Texas boys, though we don't know how to drive in the snow anyway. But, I mean, I started an air conditioning business, and I've I'm able to navigate through my schedule a lot with a lot more ease as we're growing the company and and deal with the music and get rolling and everything.
Again, it's tough to, to do those tours. But at the same time, you know, I think there's a very specific strategy to, doing a tour. And I think that, my own anchor is probably also my savior because a lot of times people go on tour, they don't have it planned, they're playing into empty crowds, they're spending tons of money, which could be allocated towards marketing or anything else. And, but, it's to answer your question, yeah, it's it's rather tricky. It's hard to be a full time musician and get pay the bills and afford a lifestyle. At the same time, your schedule tends to open up for opportunities. And and that's the other crazy thing about doing this music thing is, an opportunity is always around the corner, and you always get these crazy offers just when you're about to take a break or quit Yeah. Hang up or anything like that. And so, you know, it's sort of like you just keep going, and then it keeps building. You know? It's a very long burn.
[00:11:55] Abel James:
Maybe you already answered this, but why do you play music? Why do you spend time doing something that takes so much energy and you also need to, like, keep practicing. Right? You almost, like, lose your chops if you don't really keep disciplined about all this no matter what instrument you play. So how do you how do you keep going? Why do you keep going? Especially for the non musicians listening out there. Like, what is going through your head? How are you wired this way?
[00:12:20] Johnny Elrod:
Well, it's sort of like this. By the time you spend all the time marketing a show, booking the show, getting a bill put together, practicing the set, loading the drums, transporting the drums, setting the drums up, dealing with the sound guy, dealing with the bands that are gonna run late, then boom, downbeat. And then it becomes the performance. And with that performance comes an adrenaline rush, gratitude like no other, and just to put it plain and simple is my passion. I don't get this feeling from anything else. There's no drug. There's no woman. There's nothing else that can replace the feeling of performing in front of a packed or sold out audience. And hell, even if it's not packed or sold out, as long as people are enjoying themselves, it's extremely gratifying.
And that's what keeps driving me. Also, I do love releasing new music and creating videos. Behind the scenes whenever the band can't do a lot of things, a lot of times I'll make videos and edit it because that's another way for me to be expressive with the art. Mhmm. And, hell, if I get 11,000 views, I feel like I did good, you know, and that's an obtainable goal. And and we don't even always obtain that, but it's something, like I said, it's my passion and it's very gratifying and so I keeps pushing. And and it also helps that I teach music on Tuesdays at a local music school in Dripping Springs. And so, I get my hands on some sticks, and I'm able to warm up. And whenever these kids level up on a a piece or something else, it's like that chiseled armor I was talking about. Now they've achieved it. You know? Yeah. What's the process look like for a lot of people
[00:14:08] Abel James:
who have said, like, oh, I wanna play guitar. I wanna play drums. I wanna, like, do that someday, but they never kinda, like, link up and make that happen. How do you help people, like, get over that hump as a music teacher especially?
[00:14:20] Johnny Elrod:
Well, it's difficult because it all comes down to personality Yeah. And, also motivation. But I think that what I do is I I find you know, talk to somebody who they're interested, but they're just sort of, like, on the fence about jumping in feet first. And I kinda talk to them about their inspirations, why they think guitar is cool or why they think that the drums are cool, who's their favorite drummer, what's their favorite song and beat, and, you know, show them how easy it is to strip it down and find the backbeat and feel the groove and then push forward.
And, you know, like I said, it's it's tough because there's a lot of different personalities on the pie chart, but once you sort of find out that motivational factor, you just kinda keep pushing. And, also, man, when I came up, I know I don't look like it, but I'm older than I look. And we had to go to the library and get books and, you know, kinda there's something in that in in just that right there. Finding that book, that Led Zeppelin book or that whatever it is, and then, you know, you finally have it in your hands and you appreciate it so much more. You open the book, you read it, you obtain that knowledge.
Whereas now, you go to what we call YouTube University, where it's like clack clack clack. Oh, okay. Somebody already has a tutorial for free, and I can watch it while I'm, laying in bed or, you know, sitting in a car. And it's so easy, and it's a great tool, and it's beautiful to utilize. The problem is some people may not appreciate it as much as the effort it took to get to that place. Mhmm. And that's a whole another conversation, but, you know, you like I said, you just sort of find out what made motivate somebody and make it easy put those tools in their hands and just be enthusiastic about it, and then I think that they start showing that appreciation.
[00:16:15] Abel James:
Yeah. That's such a good point too about, like, kinda drinking from the fire hose of modern music education that's online because, like, it is just remarkable and insane that we have access to all this stuff, especially for free. But the problem is, like, the business models of these platforms that have these videos, whether it's social media and and short form like Instagram or TikTok because a lot of musicians are on there and a lot of educators as well, or longer form like like YouTube, all of those are built to kind of, like, shuffle everyone into these rabbit holes. So it's like, you start there, it's like, oh, I wanna learn bass guitar, and you're watching this. And then all of a sudden, you see this thumbnail, you see this other thing, and then you're watching classic car videos, and you're watching conspiracy series it's like, you're not playing the bass anymore. And that is the problem because, like, I had a similar experience growing up in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire. I was so psyched to find my first bit of sheet music for, like, an Eric Clapton guitar song. Because I was just like, music for guitar? Like, what is this? And it was just glorious. For months, I spent, like, just nestled up with these books, studying sheet music, practicing scales and stuff like that. And there's a lot of limitation there, you know? So I couldn't learn every song. I wasn't exposed to a lot of stuff that peep like, you can listen to anything you want now, but you did kinda build this intrinsic motivation that I think a lot of people now, especially coming up later than us, don't necessarily have because it's just so easy to be distracted and kinda, like, have your energy fractured. And if you really wanna learn an instrument and get good at it, you need to spend a lot of time just sitting on a chair playing, doing nothing else. Right? Nothing else.
[00:17:51] Johnny Elrod:
Absolutely. And and and to your point, we're easily distracted and especially since we've been conditioned and trained to be distracted. And, I mean, here's a good case in point. Whenever I learned, say, Santeria, by Sublime, the guitar solo, which I, you know, as a teenager is a little little difficult for me, Practice it, hammered it out over and over and over and over. I had the book, and so I was reading the tablature, and, I retain that knowledge. I can pick up a guitar, in the middle of the night. I wake up at 4 in the morning, and I could, if it's in tune, just Bam. Bam. Solo. Yeah. Now I learned, during that bliss, nopocalypse that we had a couple years ago in Texas, and now we had no power. I was learning, songs on piano, and I learned still Dre by doctor Dre, and I learned Bohemian Rhapsody, and I forgot all of it because I didn't care. I I well, I didn't practice it, but, it was also just something I didn't retain as much because it was too easy to look up the video, and then they just showed you. There was no a re eureka or moment to where, you you find whenever you're you're striving on your own with the bare bones, utilities that we came up with.
[00:19:04] Abel James:
Yeah. Because you can own it more. Right? Like, I remember the way that I learned a lot of guitar licks back in the day was I had this, just, like, ancient Digitech RP 3, I think, guitar pedal that allowed me to, like, record little clips from the radio or tape player or CD, whatever, and then slow it down a half speed or a quarter speed. So I was, like, listening to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan at, like, the slowest speed possible, and then just kinda, like, ramping it up and turning the knob. But since I was turning all the knobs myself, and since I was just, like, experiencing that time of of just joy, not being distracted, I felt, like, full ownership of, like, learning how to play guitar that way. Whereas, like, now, if you're watching a Polythea video or something like that and watching the tutorial of some of these just insanely talented, specialized technical guitar players. It's all laid out for you. It's almost, like, boring. It's like, why would I even learn this? Someone else just did it. Right? You know, there's something to be said about that. Not only,
[00:19:58] Johnny Elrod:
about the analog and to dial you know, literally dial in onto the under the thing, but at the same time, it's, if you listen to a song and you hear the majestic sounds that the, the sound engineer and the master and and, you know, the artist just kind of molded all these sounds together and it's, you know, you're listening into in your car, you're you're dealing with a a breakup or you got these emotions and it's and it's doing its job. Right? It's pulling these emotions out of you. But then you see somebody play it and they make it look easy and then they put the tabs on the on the thing, and it's like, oh, shit. It's just a 6, 8886, you know. Like, it it it it sort of takes a little bit of that majestic away as well.
And and I don't wanna, you know, be an elder millennial on piss and moan about the the the technology and the new generation, but it is extreme extremely fascinating where we've come along. We're not only just learning our our instruments and and, you know, dialing in on our skills, but also marketing. Growing up, I used to print off flyer I used to make flyers on Microsoft Paint. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I I'd pull assets illegally off the Internet, put them on there. They'd be blurry as hell, but I didn't care. And, you know, wind up bird chronicle, the Murdochs, and, you know, put flyers together, take them to the print shop, print them off, cut them by hand, hand out little handbills, staple and tape, the big flyers on all the places in the college towns and stuff.
And now it's like everything's basically digital social media platforms. And not to mention that if you have a really cool flyer and you post it on front of your your fan base and stuff, all you gotta do is pay, like, $50 and then, you know, you can mass produce it out towards your demographic that you're you're targeting, which is cool and it's not I mean, it's you know, I got mixed feelings. I think we all do about how how things are, versus the old guerilla marketing days.
[00:22:02] Abel James:
It does feel like though there's still a little bit of the guerrilla marketing in in some towns like Austin, certain pockets of it anyway. There's definitely a, a resistance to the way that things have gone. And it doesn't have to be like old men shouting at clouds, you know. I'm also an elder millennial. I think there are definitely pros and cons to each side of this. It's just, like, worth acknowledging that, especially for people coming up and wanting to learn an instrument. There are multiple ways to go about this, and some of them are probably gonna be a lot better for you. And I know for me, just being shut in a room, like musicians call it the shed. You just go out in the shed, and you play, and you practice, and you take the discipline. And that becomes very, very rewarding. Not right away, but down the line. And, so you don't just have to learn from tutorials. And and also, I would add that adding some level of, like, real person interaction to this whole thing is so important. Like, having an actual teacher, even if you just go a few times with them to kinda, like, make sure you're not building the wrong habits as as you learn. That is so critical.
Would you agree as a music teacher yourself?
[00:23:03] Johnny Elrod:
Bingo. 100%. I'd it's sort of like, you know, you learn a bad habit or the wrong way, and it's hard to unlearn that. Yeah. And so if you just wanna get the the basic rudiments on how to hold your sticks, how to hold your hands, make it what we call ergonomical, especially whenever you're getting into your, later thirties where your back will, like, just, you know, destroy itself. Yeah. Yeah. If you can find a buddy, or a teacher or tutor or somebody in some type of network to show you the basics, and that will help you accelerate. It'll also boost your confidence. It'll definitely fast track you towards, you know, what a fret is or what a a g string is. It's not what you think. You know? It's something different. And, it's definitely 100% better to have somebody, to to kind of school you a little bit and dial you in on, on on don't make this bad habit. Hold your hands like this. Keep your thumb behind the fretboard or the neck and this or that. And so that's 100% extremely helpful. Because once you sort sort of get on the track and you you you know, your horse taken off on your horse, it's off to the races whenever you have the books that you finally learn how to read the tablature or, you know, you wanna use the Internet or whatever tools at your expense. It's it's you know? Not to mention too, when you do start developing your skills, it's great to have a network around you so then you can apply these skills. You could jam with other musicians, and there's no other feeling like that. The only thing better than jamming with musicians at picker circle or at your home is performing live on a stage Mhmm. Blowing people's minds.
[00:24:44] Abel James:
Do you think we're all built for a different instrument?
[00:24:49] Johnny Elrod:
That's interesting to think about. I would say definitely, if I think about it because, I mean, a lot of people are naturally good at singing. They have a cool, voice. They have great hearing, and they just get it, you know, naturally. I've taught drum students for, quite a while now and I think that some people naturally get it or they naturally don't. I think anybody can learn the drums, but some people might take a bit longer to get that coordination down. Mhmm. And then also you gotta hold your interest. You know? You gotta gotta keep keep keep maintain that motivation. It's it's really difficult because, like, guitar, for example, is an extremely versatile instrument.
And you can get, like, you know, punk rockers or heavy metal rockers and, you know, you tap in and all this stuff. But then you also got sort of like nerdy classical guys or, you know, bluesy guys. And so it's it's a it's an interesting thing. I think that, you know, I I believe that people have a natural affinity towards certain skills and certain, you know, instruments or playing types. I know that most of the time, if you have ADD, then you're gonna probably make a great drummer.
[00:26:03] Abel James:
Yeah. Maybe great at a lot of the instruments. That's definitely seems to be a shared quality. Right. No doubt. But, yeah, we're all kind of, like, drawn to different archetypes at some point, and every instrument has, like, a people have different responses to it. Have you kind of it it sounds like, while drums have kind of been your main instrument for a long time, you still enjoy dipping into some of the other ones. What's that all about?
[00:26:28] Johnny Elrod:
So, for me, I've never been a strong songwriter, and I don't really consider myself, an artist in regards to creating art, writing songs, and kinda putting putting my own stuff out there. I sort of, support artist. And so I am utilized as accompaniment or utility in general for the most part. But what I can do is add layers to sounds and, have fun with it. And I think that a lot of it is therapy, playing, sitting, playing guitar, learning how to sing songs. I'm not a strong vocalist, but when I'm at home, I do enjoy it. And something about it whenever I'm out of breath and my, my blood veins in my forehead are popping out because I'm, you know, trying to do my best Kurt Cobain or whatever.
It at the end of it, I sleep really good just because it was so fun even though it it wasn't an audience or, you know, and if I taped it, I looked at it and I deleted it because I wasn't impressed by the actual performance. But it's still that's not the point of it all the time. The point of it is to feel good about yourself, to be expressive, to have confidence in your own. And with the other instruments, with the drums, you know, you it's not really necessarily a melodic instrument. And so the the guitar, I could play chords or I could play solos or melodies. I injured my finger, somewhat recently, and so I'm not sure how long that's gonna take to heal. So I started banging out chords on the piano. So same thing, I have a whole bunch of, lyrics with the chords above it where I could play it on guitar and just, you know, as long as I know the melody, I can, have fun with it. Well, I just took that same music and put it in front of a piano, and I got more proficient at the piano by just doing it over and over and over and over and over.
And, I've got some beautiful songs that I love that I've been working on, and I'm impressed with myself that I was able to achieve the the you know, unlock this skill. And, it definitely, something about challenging yourself and then meeting your goal boosts your confidence, and it boosts that, self esteem and and everything else. And like I said, you don't have to necessarily play it in front of a camera and put it on TikTok or play in front of an audience if if, you know, if you're the personality type that, you know, say that you're shut in, music's still good. It's still for you. You know? It's it's for everybody, I think.
And, the versatility is another fun thing too. I I don't know if maybe that's part of that ADD. But also, I always dreamed of hell, you know, that mandolin sounds really cool. I learned how to play it and dreamed of being a great mandolin player, but I know how what it's gonna take. And I don't think I got the time to do it. And part of that is I'm tired of lugging the drums around at all these gigs and stuff. I just daydream about playing harmonica or ukulele or or mandolin or something. But, all in all, it's just fun. You know? It's just a great pastime, great hobby, great passion.
[00:29:35] Abel James:
What about in the past few years kind of with the advent of AI, just coming out with so much writing, so many kind of, like, generative recordings and and things like that? As a musician, how do you feel about that? And also, like, what are you looking at in the in the future of music?
[00:29:53] Johnny Elrod:
Well, I think that, as a musician, I hate it. Yeah. It's it's absolutely horrid. I'm I'm not gonna, hold back any punches on that. And the reason I say that is, I mean, AI could be utilized as a tool, but at the same time, it could also, it could also be utilized as a, a fraudulent imposter sort of misleading and disingenuous sort of, approach to music. It is very interesting because this is where things are evolving. When they started sequencing drums, I felt similar to the same way. Like, oh, come on. I mean, there's a an arch to it and they're sort of, you know, you I've I tried sequencing drums. It's really hard. It's not easy to learn and just do. But to me, it's sort of definition. Right?
Playing a drum is a skill and you're a drummer. If you have this really cool magic board that lights up and it looks like a child's toy and you push a button and it just drops a a a purdy shuffle, you're not a drummer and you're not a, you know, that doesn't make you a musician. You're just playing with a toy. But if you craft that with, layers of sound and and, you you know, you create this, this thing utilizing these tools, then we're treading into something completely different. And AI at the the the main approach is, well, I take, Snoop Dogg song, make Hank Williams senior sing it, and I'm gonna drop it. If it gets, you know, 10,000,000 views, I get, you know, a paycheck.
I think it's fun to to hear what it would, but it's also a bit creepy Yeah. Because you're sort of taking liberties with other people's, likeness and their lyrics and stuff. But I think that people are gonna utilize AI to say, hey. I got an idea for a song, but I don't wanna do the work or I don't have the originality or the creativity to paint the canvas with my own words. They can use AI as a tool. And as you can tell by my approach with this, I'm not super thrilled about it, but I guess I can get it in you know? And I feel like that's gonna be the future of music. But at the same time, the future of music is it's in dire straits because there's just so much of it now, and it's it gets watered down, especially the same old formulas, you know.
It's tough to create a a punk band that's gonna be big now. It's tough to create an alt rock band that's gonna, you know, Nirvana has been done, especially Pumpkins. Hendrix has been done. The, you know, when's the last time you heard a great blues album that was new? You know, it's it's been done. I think that music can go one of 2 ways, and it will probably go both, and then it's probably gonna just keep going in circles. It's gonna probably, rotate back and forth like a lot of trends. But 1, AI is gonna take over and people are gonna be like, yo. That that beat's dope. You know? And they're gonna go with it. But, and and, you know, you see a lot a lot of that with TikTok in that short term, short form viewership where people are just wired to like a thing and, you know, that's why tribute bands are so popular because it's the nostalgia. It's like people are looking up at these tribute bands like they're, they're golden gods where in reality they're right and they're proficient at their instruments, but they're not necessarily creating art.
But people are just trained to or, you know, conditioned to be drawn towards that. Now the other thing I think that would be the future of music is more genre bending. And what I mean by that is take some EDM, take some, David Bowie esque lyrics, something that's fun and, you know, really kind of prolific. Drop in a raging scream punk guitar riff, and then you dial it back down with a cool lounge sort of baseline. And, you know, it's kinda like Polyphia does within and and they weren't the first by any means, but, you know, a back a steady backbeat, it's been done before, and so people might wanna start hearing something that's, quirky and unique and just sort of, like, grabs you and and makes you feel on a on a takes you on an emotional roller coaster.
I think that there's gonna be more stuff like that going out there that's, you know, appeals to the people like me with a crazy, you know, brain that's just like ding ding ding ding ding ding ding, you know, firing on all all cylinders all the time. But, you know, who knows? I know that technology,
[00:34:26] Abel James:
like I said, I I can piss and moan about it, but it's coming whether we like it or not. Well, speaking of that, what about value for value and kind of these developments in that space? Because for me, when I found that whole world, I'm just like, oh, this could be interesting.
[00:34:42] Johnny Elrod:
Absolutely. And let me let's do a preface to to that and kinda tie it in together. Yeah. So growing up, you made demos on cassette tapes. We're by that time, we're burning CDs, and you could pitch them to a and r, people, and you you get in or you don't. I think at best, if you get in on a circuit with, you know, Warped Tour or something, then you might be able to get on, like, Tom DeLonge's, you know, label or something. Now things are different. There's not a lot of albums going out, and then, of course, there's not a lot of album sales anymore. Everything's, streamed for better, for worse.
The main thing about all of this is, 2 things, I guess, you could say. 1, Spotify is the king of the streaming, and they suck because they don't pay out very well. I mean, I know people with millions of streams, and I was like, okay. This is what I get. Alright. At the same time, it is a platform for you to get it out there. And, for instance, FM Rodeo, we've released 12 song 12 or 13 songs. We never would have been able to publish this 15 years ago the way that we did. Mhmm. If I walk up to a, you know, a stranger in Anchorage, Alaska and say, hey. I'm Johnny. I play drums at that Bim Rodeo. Give me your phone. Literally, 3 seconds later, dude, hey. You know? There you go. We're in your phone.
You couldn't have done that before. You know? But going back to it, you know, it's sort of that technology changing. And might I add, everybody's releasing songs daily. So, again, we're watering down the thing. It's not necessarily a exclusive platform. But the point is it does suck because if you do start getting traction, the pay is, is bad. And then it's sort of like the old boys club. Right? Well, Foo Fighters and, what is it? Doja Cat and all these people, they're not gonna have any any trouble releasing a song and immediately getting viral, you know, sort of algorithms in their favor Mhmm. Because they're a big name, 1. But 2, like, their people will, you know, put flick their little button and make it happen.
Now I was introduced to this thing called value for value podcasting from my friend Cody Nichols, who is a DJ, morning DJ in Kerrville, Texas for, 943, the rev FM, The Rock of Texas. Nice. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. So Cody, we're doing some interviews and performances over at station, and, he got all excited. He's like, I gotta tell you something when we go on commercial break, our next commercial break. Comes back. He's like, I met this guy, Adam Curry, who's, the video jockey of, Headbanger's Ball, and, he's original podcast, maker. Yeah. He's been on Rogan's podcast, like, 2 or 3 times and, great personality.
And Adam Curry is involved in this value for value podcast, and, I'm sure those who are listening by now know what it is. But the thing is, it'd be awesome for this grassroots campaign to spread out. Tell your friends about it. And, when he told me about it, I was like, okay. Yeah. First of all, as a musician, as somebody who's wanting to grow, I'm I'm up for putting my music out on any avenue that is, gonna find create more discovery. Yeah. 2nd of all, our music has been featured on Adam Curry's podcast, which is such an honor. Yeah. You know? To hear him say, F. L. R. D. You know, is like, holy cow. It felt good. Yeah. It felt the same way. And and then not to mention last but not least, the the satoshis, the cryptocurrency, you know, the the whole idea that people are gonna be able to tip you and they do and it's amazing.
I've got more in cryptocurrency in the last probably 13 months than I have in the last two and a half years, with releasing Spotify and and pushing that Spotify. Yeah. Whenever I dropped it on Wave Lake, I didn't have to even push it or market it or put any effort to that. And the next thing you know, 34,000 satoshis. The next thing you know, 78,000 satoshis. And so it's growing. I'll admit I was a little skeptic at first about cryptocurrencies because the Google is scary. It's something new. It's something that we're not really used to. But, I mean, we weren't used to Itunes at first. We weren't used to, iPods or streaming, you know. Napster was, like, a kind of a scary deal. We thought Lars Horeck is gonna knock on our door. Yeah. Yeah.
But I say all that to say this, cryptocurrency has been around. It just took a huge jump, so it ain't going anywhere anytime soon. And also, you don't have to have cryptocurrency to enjoy what we're doing here. It's just it's just part of the fun. It's part of the community. If anybody loves art and they love music, if you throw $20 in your crypto wallet and, you know, you're listening to an an Ainsley Costello song or an FM radio song or, SOB song and you're like, damn. I dig that, you know, drop, you know, $2 in satoshis on in the into as a tip. And it's kind of like if you see a street performer jamming their ass off and you go and you drop a couple of dollars in their bucket.
It adds up for them and it makes it worth them to keep coming out and performing. And so the same thing, you know, it dare I say, it just it gives grace towards the community of musicians to keep on because a lot of us, man, a lot of us are looking down the barrel of, man, I've been doing this for a long time and haven't really got much gratification out of it. Yeah. Now we sort of are always on the cusp of, hanging it up for a while if not forever. I've seen so many musicians that are talented that, had kids or started a family or whatever a reason or joined it had started a different type of career and they just never had I'm not saying satoshi's is gonna be their, you know, replace their career. It could. Could. Yeah. You know? It could, but you're not only, gaining, revenue from the value for value Podverse.
You're also gaining more discovery from you're gaining more fans from the discovery. I mean, people who are listening to these these, podcasts. It's kinda like the good old days when you're listening to the radio except for there's a far less commercials and and virtually none. Yeah. And, you're you're listening and the DJs are talking or the pod you know, podcasters are talking about, your music a little bit. And it's you know, people whenever they hear the song, they're like, I dig that. And then you tell a fun fact about the band. Oh, they're from Texas, and they have they're a 3 piece or whatever. It's it's that much more interesting. It sort of gain it gives them a little bit more of a, I guess, you could say value towards that knowledge or, you know, kinda gives them a little bit of more feeds that interest.
And it is a great platform. We've been featured on several different podcasts. I've made friends with a lot of different podcasters, and a lot of them come to our shows. I mean, if you're a musician and you're on the fence, stop. Jump off and go towards Wave Lake and upload couple songs. Reach back to Abel, reach back to Phantom Power, reach back to Jim Costello or Cody Nichols, Mike Newman. Reach out to some of these guys and say, hey. I just uploaded some new, material. Hope you like it. And, you know, let it rip. What did it what what can you lose out of the deal? And then I'm gonna tell you the answer is nothing. You know? Maybe 15 minutes, but you're you're gonna get paid for your time no matter what.
And like I said, you increase your chances of discovery. And what are we doing this for if not for sharing our music with the world?
[00:42:43] Abel James:
Yeah. And it, like, also brings up the idea of I remember growing up and just loving having a tape collection, a record collection, CD collection that was, like, yours. When you wanted to listen to a song, you could. Didn't need Internet connection, didn't need to, like, ask for permission or go through some platform that's, like, putting other stuff in the middle before you can listen to what you really wanna listen to or listen to ads first, whatever it was. And so, like, that's in the years since, we don't really have ownership over our I don't wanna call it, like, a media library, but, like, the music that's sacred to us, the music that means something to us. Right? Like, the the the collection of books that you have is similar to music and DVDs. That whole thing has has gone away. So now it's just like we have this queue on Netflix or on Spotify of just, like, lots of mediocre music. Not everything that you wanna see. Just, like, some of it mixed in with other stuff that they want you to see, mixed in with ads, mixed in with other things. So we have, like, no real and also, like, you listen on on Spotify to someone's music. If I'm listening to FM radio, it's, like, I'm not commenting there. I'm not, like, leaving a tip in a tip jar. I don't have a chance to, like, say that I love your music or interact with you in any way. And, also, if I stop paying my 10 or $20 a month or whatever to what whatever service that is, you lose your entire library of music that's sacred to you. And that is something that I don't want to carry into the future. And I think that this kind of, like, podcasting alternative that allows people to download it and actually have a connection with the people who put out the music, whether it's leaving a comment or sending a little micropayment or, like, some sort of reposting of their music. Like, we need that interactivity again to really have music be meaningful to us once more. Because right now, it's just oversaturated, so much mediocre stuff. We don't know who's on the other end. If we can make those human connections again, I think it's gonna be really meaningful for us.
[00:44:32] Johnny Elrod:
Absolutely. And I think that that's exactly right. Spotify and those other streaming platforms, they do lack a sense of community. If you stop paying and you lose, you know, you lose your thing. And not to mention, just take Netflix and, say, like, any of these, streaming platforms, that that, you know, you, watch TV on. When you paid your dues, it's cool, commercial free. Right? But then they're like, we changed our minds. Right. We'll do a commercial free if you pay more. So what's to stop them from doing that with Spotify? Especially if, God forbid, they start paying their artist.
And so but going back to your point, absolutely. I there's a sense of community in in the Podverse as well as, you know, if you're in Nashville and you're digging FM Rodeo, you know, you're not gonna see us on the street in Austin and just drop the $2 in our bucket. But if you're checking us out on these, on the, Podverse, then you can do that, and it's very rewarding for us, very gratifying, and it shows it's a token of appreciation. That's something that, you know, none of these other streaming platforms have to offer. And then also just in case, anybody that's an artist that is listening to this, if you didn't know, you can do both. You know? You can put your music on Spotify, and you can also put it on Wave Lake and and and be discovered on Fountain as well.
So, I mean, like, do both.
[00:45:57] Abel James:
I dig it. Johnny, awesome. This has been so much fun. So, where can people find FM Radio's music? And also, just quick plug for the show on December 16th, we're both playing a show live at Anton's for Adam Curry's boostagram ball. So whether you can join us in person, that would be amazing. Or join the livestream, definitely don't miss that one. So, Johnny, where where can people find you?
[00:46:18] Johnny Elrod:
Absolutely. We are on fmrodeotx.com, and we're on Instagram under FM Rodeo Texas. There's a a great country tribute cover band in Wisconsin called FM Rodeo, unfortunately, but also, fortunately, you just gotta find the Texas one. They're out there too. So FM Rodeo Texas on Instagram. We have a fun YouTube channel. I'm actually uploading a a live video today as well. Nice. So YouTube is a good one for us. And, our website, FM Rodeo TX.com. And, yeah, December 16th, Monday, it's, shoot, less than 2 weeks at the legendary Antones. That's where Stevie Ray Vaughan was coming up and creating quite the ruckus and, you know, building a scene for the the blues, revival of the the eighties and early nineties. And so I am looking forward to that, man. I didn't ever think that I was gonna bring a punk band to Antone's and have an opportunity to to do this. You can get your tickets for that show on satsbysouthwest.com.
That's sats bysw.com. Please buy your tickets in advance. You'll save a little bit of money, and they will properly staff the venue for us since they know that, you know, how how much volume we're gonna be pushing. Where else can you find us? That's pretty old. We do have a TikTok for for those who are the TikTokers. And, of course, find us on, on Fountain.
[00:47:51] Abel James:
Awesome. Johnny, thank you so much for joining us here today. This is awesome. Thank you so much, it's been my pleasure. Thanks for joining us on this show with Johnny. If you'd like to stick around, next up, we're gonna be playing one of FM Rodeo's tunes, which is a total banger called Writ John. And don't forget to boost in using a modern podcasting app. Send us a small little lightning micropayment, and it's automatically shared with artists. I've set that up with modern podcasting technology, and the folks over at Podholme, shout out to Barry, are awesome. Thank you so much for helping me get set up with this. So without further ado, let's rock out and hear from FM Rodeo. This is Writ John.
Hey, folks. This is Abel James, and thanks so much for joining us on this special episode of the show. What do real musicians think of AI generated music? In this special bonus series, you'll hear rapid fire interviews with remarkable musicians who are using cutting edge podcasting technology to reinvent the music industry. This is all leading up to the first ever SATS by Southwest Independent Music Summit and our show at Antones hosted by the inventor of modern podcasting and legendary MTV VJ, Adam Curry. So grab your tickets and hold on to your hats. You can catch me speaking on the creator panel for the summit at the Bitcoin Commons in downtown Austin on December 15th. Then I'll be opening the show at Austin's home of the blues, Antone's, for Adam Curry's Boostagram Ball on 16th.
This bonus series of episodes with artists and musicians is free of sponsors and outside advertising. So if you'd like to support this show, please share it with someone you think would care about independent music, the world of podcasting and technology and that sort of thing. Or if you're into that world a little bit and you wanna experiment, download the fountain app, set up your lightning wallet, and then try to send this show or another show a boost or a boostogram with a message. Sounds hard, sounds complicated with lots of lingo, but it's totally worth it. And this, I believe, is the future of podcasting and hopefully the future of music as well. And, of course, join us via livestream or in person for the Sats by Southwest Independent Music Summit at the Bitcoin comments on December 15th and Antone's for Adam Curry's BoosterGram Ball on December 16th.
You can visit abeljames.com and sign up for the newsletter, and I'll send you all of the livestream details if you can't make it in person. But if you do wanna make it in person, make sure to grab your tickets. They're going quickly and there are lots of special goodies as well. Alright. We're here today with Johnny Elrod, fellow Texan and drummer for FM Rodeo, who is also gonna be playing at Adam Curry's boostagram ball at Anton's. In this episode, you'll hear what real musicians think about AI generated music, how to approach learning a musical instrument in an age of distraction, why having your own music library is way better than Spotify, why labor intensive hobbies like music that don't have an obvious financial payoff are totally worth it, and much more. And make sure to hang on until the end of this interview to hear a track from FM Rodeo called Rit Jon, which is a total banger. Alright, let's go hang out with Johnny.
Alright, folks. Today, I'm stoked to be here with Johnny Elrod, the drummer from FM Rodeo. Johnny, how are you doing, man? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me, Abel. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your musical background and what brought you to FM Rodeo and rocking out this hard.
[00:02:52] Johnny Elrod:
Sure. Well, ironically enough, I'm in a band called FM Rodeo with Troy, who's the front man. He's a songwriter, singer, and guitar player. We are a 3 piece band. And I met Troy in high school, and the year was 2000. And we're both, new to Kerrville, Texas. I came from Midland originally, but I moved there from Azle, Texas, which is by Dallas Fort Worth. And he moved there from Victoria, Texas, which is over closer to the Gulf Coast. Anyway, we're in theater class, and we, by fate, sat next to each other and we, it's 1st day of school. The theater teacher gave us papers to fill out or to swap and it's kinda like an interview.
And, in the interview, I discovered that he loved, playing guitar. He loved Nirvana. He loved spaghetti. And, basically, at that point, right before I went to high school, I had traded my PlayStation 1st generation for a bass guitar. Woah. And, yeah. And it was it was a 3 quarter, scale bass, and I never knew how to play it. I was trying to strum it like a guitar. It was like, you know, just real real dirty, and I didn't had no clue what I was doing. And whenever I met him, I mentioned this and that, he said, you know, I might be able to teach you how to play that bass. I was like, that'd be cool. So we got with our mommies and set up a play date, and, I was able to get over there, and, he tuned it for me, which was very important.
And then he, showed me how to play, 3 or 4 notes, and it was, what's my age again by blank 182 because that was a hit song just maybe the year before. And soon as I I did it, it felt like just armor just, you know, chiseling on my shoulders and, you know, the rock gods were knighting me and, you know, just just just feeling this power of, hey, man. You have, unlocked a skill or, you know, you're developing a skill or, hey, you just get it. Like, you're able to do it. And so at that point, he taught me all the Nirvana songs, and then I was able to look up tabs and learn how to read them and sort of do my own research.
And we kinda, like, had a little band, back in the early days of high school. Cut forward, you know, that kind of, sizzled out. And, I learned how to play guitar naturally after that because, you know, it's just so much funner. And, eventually, I was in Indiana visiting my dad. My stepmom is a cleaning lady, and she teach she cleans for family whose son was in Drum Corps International, and he taught drum lessons. And my stepmom and my dad bought a drum set for my younger brother, and he was in the basement, and he never knew he never learned how to play it. And I was always over in there just kind of jacking around. Well, she said, hey. I give you, a drum lessons for from this guy. He's my client. I was like, sure. So I took drum lessons. He taught me how to read notation.
That was after my sophomore year. So junior year, I come back to Texas. I joined high school band and get on the drum line and, meet a lot of musicians and start networking. But then drums become my number one thing. It becomes the one that I practice the most. It's more applicable. Not to mention around the greater general Austin region, you can't swing a guitar player without hitting another guitar player. There's, so many guitar players, not enough drummers. Yep. And, I became very marketable at that, time even though I didn't consider it marketable. I just knew, like, hey. There's a shortage of drummers. Let me try, doing this. So then got back with Troy, in college, and we went to San Marcus and kicked off our band.
Back then, it was called The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, and, we, we're playing all over Austin, San Antonio, College Station, and San Marcus. And then life hit real fast, and we kinda went our ways again. We started it back up in 2015, but then we called it FM Rodeo. And we went through a couple of different bass players. Again, we're a 3 piece band, but that's basically the history of of me and Troy's relationship in a nutshell. Whenever I was kind of off, I went back to Midland, worked in the oil field, and did all the stuff. I fell in love with all different sorts of types of music, including blues and country. And I joined a lot of bands and, you know, kinda kept myself busy, keep the wheels greased, so to speak. Right?
And, I was able to play learn what they call Texas country, which is also red dirt country. It's kinda like cross between country, classic country, and rock music, southern rock maybe. Lots of blues and then, did a lot of cover, band gigs and stuff. That really helped increase my chops and kinda get out there and get get my name out there. And by the time I got back over this direction and we kicked off, FM rodeo, I had better chops, a better understanding of music, definitely better dynamics. The early days is just loud and fast. Mhmm. Now it's more, dynamic driven as well as, I'd say more steady on the tempo.
And so, that's that that sort of sums sums up a lot of that in a nutshell.
[00:08:24] Abel James:
And it's probably useful to be in a band as well as the drummer who understands at least a little bit about what the guitarist is up to, what the basis is up to, kind of the harmony that's going on in the background. Right?
[00:08:35] Johnny Elrod:
Yeah. Being able to play different instruments and kind of understand, the rhythms behind what the other guys are doing. And, also, I guess, what what I call preproduction, when we're sort of formulating songs and everything. You know, I'd say Troy writes all the songs and brings the the the canvas that's pretty much, you know, got the the the foundation on it. But then we gotta come up with a beat and then, you know, with the bass player. Sometimes the bass player helped me. Sometimes I'll help the bass player come up with some ideas on, hey, what will help fortify this? Let's make this one a little bit different than the other songs. Let's tweak it. Let's add a twist. Let's do a couple of other other, arrangements and sort of give this thing a little bit of flare.
And, and, of course, you know, it helps to know the other instruments so you could speak the same language. Mhmm.
[00:09:25] Abel James:
What about just balancing your real life with playing music over the years? What does that look like for you and the band?
[00:09:32] Johnny Elrod:
It's been pretty tough. I mean, when I was in college, it's so I was working at Sonic Drive In, which is a fast food restaurant, and we could navigate it pretty nicely back then. I mean, we didn't give a care in the world. Right. You know, if I miss my shift, then it's like, alright. Fire me. You know? I don't care. I mean, I did, but, like, whatever. I ended up going into, air conditioning, which made it a little bit trickier because sometimes in the summer, especially, we'd have to have on call schedules. But most of the gigs were Friday night, Saturday night.
A lot of times, you know, we we're able to just deal with it. But as far as going on tour, summertime had been, you know, just a known you know, a a hard pass Yeah. Unfortunately, because that's usually the best time to go on tour because the weather's not gonna be, you know, frozen Tundra. Yeah. And, us Texas boys, though we don't know how to drive in the snow anyway. But, I mean, I started an air conditioning business, and I've I'm able to navigate through my schedule a lot with a lot more ease as we're growing the company and and deal with the music and get rolling and everything.
Again, it's tough to, to do those tours. But at the same time, you know, I think there's a very specific strategy to, doing a tour. And I think that, my own anchor is probably also my savior because a lot of times people go on tour, they don't have it planned, they're playing into empty crowds, they're spending tons of money, which could be allocated towards marketing or anything else. And, but, it's to answer your question, yeah, it's it's rather tricky. It's hard to be a full time musician and get pay the bills and afford a lifestyle. At the same time, your schedule tends to open up for opportunities. And and that's the other crazy thing about doing this music thing is, an opportunity is always around the corner, and you always get these crazy offers just when you're about to take a break or quit Yeah. Hang up or anything like that. And so, you know, it's sort of like you just keep going, and then it keeps building. You know? It's a very long burn.
[00:11:55] Abel James:
Maybe you already answered this, but why do you play music? Why do you spend time doing something that takes so much energy and you also need to, like, keep practicing. Right? You almost, like, lose your chops if you don't really keep disciplined about all this no matter what instrument you play. So how do you how do you keep going? Why do you keep going? Especially for the non musicians listening out there. Like, what is going through your head? How are you wired this way?
[00:12:20] Johnny Elrod:
Well, it's sort of like this. By the time you spend all the time marketing a show, booking the show, getting a bill put together, practicing the set, loading the drums, transporting the drums, setting the drums up, dealing with the sound guy, dealing with the bands that are gonna run late, then boom, downbeat. And then it becomes the performance. And with that performance comes an adrenaline rush, gratitude like no other, and just to put it plain and simple is my passion. I don't get this feeling from anything else. There's no drug. There's no woman. There's nothing else that can replace the feeling of performing in front of a packed or sold out audience. And hell, even if it's not packed or sold out, as long as people are enjoying themselves, it's extremely gratifying.
And that's what keeps driving me. Also, I do love releasing new music and creating videos. Behind the scenes whenever the band can't do a lot of things, a lot of times I'll make videos and edit it because that's another way for me to be expressive with the art. Mhmm. And, hell, if I get 11,000 views, I feel like I did good, you know, and that's an obtainable goal. And and we don't even always obtain that, but it's something, like I said, it's my passion and it's very gratifying and so I keeps pushing. And and it also helps that I teach music on Tuesdays at a local music school in Dripping Springs. And so, I get my hands on some sticks, and I'm able to warm up. And whenever these kids level up on a a piece or something else, it's like that chiseled armor I was talking about. Now they've achieved it. You know? Yeah. What's the process look like for a lot of people
[00:14:08] Abel James:
who have said, like, oh, I wanna play guitar. I wanna play drums. I wanna, like, do that someday, but they never kinda, like, link up and make that happen. How do you help people, like, get over that hump as a music teacher especially?
[00:14:20] Johnny Elrod:
Well, it's difficult because it all comes down to personality Yeah. And, also motivation. But I think that what I do is I I find you know, talk to somebody who they're interested, but they're just sort of, like, on the fence about jumping in feet first. And I kinda talk to them about their inspirations, why they think guitar is cool or why they think that the drums are cool, who's their favorite drummer, what's their favorite song and beat, and, you know, show them how easy it is to strip it down and find the backbeat and feel the groove and then push forward.
And, you know, like I said, it's it's tough because there's a lot of different personalities on the pie chart, but once you sort of find out that motivational factor, you just kinda keep pushing. And, also, man, when I came up, I know I don't look like it, but I'm older than I look. And we had to go to the library and get books and, you know, kinda there's something in that in in just that right there. Finding that book, that Led Zeppelin book or that whatever it is, and then, you know, you finally have it in your hands and you appreciate it so much more. You open the book, you read it, you obtain that knowledge.
Whereas now, you go to what we call YouTube University, where it's like clack clack clack. Oh, okay. Somebody already has a tutorial for free, and I can watch it while I'm, laying in bed or, you know, sitting in a car. And it's so easy, and it's a great tool, and it's beautiful to utilize. The problem is some people may not appreciate it as much as the effort it took to get to that place. Mhmm. And that's a whole another conversation, but, you know, you like I said, you just sort of find out what made motivate somebody and make it easy put those tools in their hands and just be enthusiastic about it, and then I think that they start showing that appreciation.
[00:16:15] Abel James:
Yeah. That's such a good point too about, like, kinda drinking from the fire hose of modern music education that's online because, like, it is just remarkable and insane that we have access to all this stuff, especially for free. But the problem is, like, the business models of these platforms that have these videos, whether it's social media and and short form like Instagram or TikTok because a lot of musicians are on there and a lot of educators as well, or longer form like like YouTube, all of those are built to kind of, like, shuffle everyone into these rabbit holes. So it's like, you start there, it's like, oh, I wanna learn bass guitar, and you're watching this. And then all of a sudden, you see this thumbnail, you see this other thing, and then you're watching classic car videos, and you're watching conspiracy series it's like, you're not playing the bass anymore. And that is the problem because, like, I had a similar experience growing up in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire. I was so psyched to find my first bit of sheet music for, like, an Eric Clapton guitar song. Because I was just like, music for guitar? Like, what is this? And it was just glorious. For months, I spent, like, just nestled up with these books, studying sheet music, practicing scales and stuff like that. And there's a lot of limitation there, you know? So I couldn't learn every song. I wasn't exposed to a lot of stuff that peep like, you can listen to anything you want now, but you did kinda build this intrinsic motivation that I think a lot of people now, especially coming up later than us, don't necessarily have because it's just so easy to be distracted and kinda, like, have your energy fractured. And if you really wanna learn an instrument and get good at it, you need to spend a lot of time just sitting on a chair playing, doing nothing else. Right? Nothing else.
[00:17:51] Johnny Elrod:
Absolutely. And and and to your point, we're easily distracted and especially since we've been conditioned and trained to be distracted. And, I mean, here's a good case in point. Whenever I learned, say, Santeria, by Sublime, the guitar solo, which I, you know, as a teenager is a little little difficult for me, Practice it, hammered it out over and over and over and over. I had the book, and so I was reading the tablature, and, I retain that knowledge. I can pick up a guitar, in the middle of the night. I wake up at 4 in the morning, and I could, if it's in tune, just Bam. Bam. Solo. Yeah. Now I learned, during that bliss, nopocalypse that we had a couple years ago in Texas, and now we had no power. I was learning, songs on piano, and I learned still Dre by doctor Dre, and I learned Bohemian Rhapsody, and I forgot all of it because I didn't care. I I well, I didn't practice it, but, it was also just something I didn't retain as much because it was too easy to look up the video, and then they just showed you. There was no a re eureka or moment to where, you you find whenever you're you're striving on your own with the bare bones, utilities that we came up with.
[00:19:04] Abel James:
Yeah. Because you can own it more. Right? Like, I remember the way that I learned a lot of guitar licks back in the day was I had this, just, like, ancient Digitech RP 3, I think, guitar pedal that allowed me to, like, record little clips from the radio or tape player or CD, whatever, and then slow it down a half speed or a quarter speed. So I was, like, listening to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan at, like, the slowest speed possible, and then just kinda, like, ramping it up and turning the knob. But since I was turning all the knobs myself, and since I was just, like, experiencing that time of of just joy, not being distracted, I felt, like, full ownership of, like, learning how to play guitar that way. Whereas, like, now, if you're watching a Polythea video or something like that and watching the tutorial of some of these just insanely talented, specialized technical guitar players. It's all laid out for you. It's almost, like, boring. It's like, why would I even learn this? Someone else just did it. Right? You know, there's something to be said about that. Not only,
[00:19:58] Johnny Elrod:
about the analog and to dial you know, literally dial in onto the under the thing, but at the same time, it's, if you listen to a song and you hear the majestic sounds that the, the sound engineer and the master and and, you know, the artist just kind of molded all these sounds together and it's, you know, you're listening into in your car, you're you're dealing with a a breakup or you got these emotions and it's and it's doing its job. Right? It's pulling these emotions out of you. But then you see somebody play it and they make it look easy and then they put the tabs on the on the thing, and it's like, oh, shit. It's just a 6, 8886, you know. Like, it it it it sort of takes a little bit of that majestic away as well.
And and I don't wanna, you know, be an elder millennial on piss and moan about the the the technology and the new generation, but it is extreme extremely fascinating where we've come along. We're not only just learning our our instruments and and, you know, dialing in on our skills, but also marketing. Growing up, I used to print off flyer I used to make flyers on Microsoft Paint. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I I'd pull assets illegally off the Internet, put them on there. They'd be blurry as hell, but I didn't care. And, you know, wind up bird chronicle, the Murdochs, and, you know, put flyers together, take them to the print shop, print them off, cut them by hand, hand out little handbills, staple and tape, the big flyers on all the places in the college towns and stuff.
And now it's like everything's basically digital social media platforms. And not to mention that if you have a really cool flyer and you post it on front of your your fan base and stuff, all you gotta do is pay, like, $50 and then, you know, you can mass produce it out towards your demographic that you're you're targeting, which is cool and it's not I mean, it's you know, I got mixed feelings. I think we all do about how how things are, versus the old guerilla marketing days.
[00:22:02] Abel James:
It does feel like though there's still a little bit of the guerrilla marketing in in some towns like Austin, certain pockets of it anyway. There's definitely a, a resistance to the way that things have gone. And it doesn't have to be like old men shouting at clouds, you know. I'm also an elder millennial. I think there are definitely pros and cons to each side of this. It's just, like, worth acknowledging that, especially for people coming up and wanting to learn an instrument. There are multiple ways to go about this, and some of them are probably gonna be a lot better for you. And I know for me, just being shut in a room, like musicians call it the shed. You just go out in the shed, and you play, and you practice, and you take the discipline. And that becomes very, very rewarding. Not right away, but down the line. And, so you don't just have to learn from tutorials. And and also, I would add that adding some level of, like, real person interaction to this whole thing is so important. Like, having an actual teacher, even if you just go a few times with them to kinda, like, make sure you're not building the wrong habits as as you learn. That is so critical.
Would you agree as a music teacher yourself?
[00:23:03] Johnny Elrod:
Bingo. 100%. I'd it's sort of like, you know, you learn a bad habit or the wrong way, and it's hard to unlearn that. Yeah. And so if you just wanna get the the basic rudiments on how to hold your sticks, how to hold your hands, make it what we call ergonomical, especially whenever you're getting into your, later thirties where your back will, like, just, you know, destroy itself. Yeah. Yeah. If you can find a buddy, or a teacher or tutor or somebody in some type of network to show you the basics, and that will help you accelerate. It'll also boost your confidence. It'll definitely fast track you towards, you know, what a fret is or what a a g string is. It's not what you think. You know? It's something different. And, it's definitely 100% better to have somebody, to to kind of school you a little bit and dial you in on, on on don't make this bad habit. Hold your hands like this. Keep your thumb behind the fretboard or the neck and this or that. And so that's 100% extremely helpful. Because once you sort sort of get on the track and you you you know, your horse taken off on your horse, it's off to the races whenever you have the books that you finally learn how to read the tablature or, you know, you wanna use the Internet or whatever tools at your expense. It's it's you know? Not to mention too, when you do start developing your skills, it's great to have a network around you so then you can apply these skills. You could jam with other musicians, and there's no other feeling like that. The only thing better than jamming with musicians at picker circle or at your home is performing live on a stage Mhmm. Blowing people's minds.
[00:24:44] Abel James:
Do you think we're all built for a different instrument?
[00:24:49] Johnny Elrod:
That's interesting to think about. I would say definitely, if I think about it because, I mean, a lot of people are naturally good at singing. They have a cool, voice. They have great hearing, and they just get it, you know, naturally. I've taught drum students for, quite a while now and I think that some people naturally get it or they naturally don't. I think anybody can learn the drums, but some people might take a bit longer to get that coordination down. Mhmm. And then also you gotta hold your interest. You know? You gotta gotta keep keep keep maintain that motivation. It's it's really difficult because, like, guitar, for example, is an extremely versatile instrument.
And you can get, like, you know, punk rockers or heavy metal rockers and, you know, you tap in and all this stuff. But then you also got sort of like nerdy classical guys or, you know, bluesy guys. And so it's it's a it's an interesting thing. I think that, you know, I I believe that people have a natural affinity towards certain skills and certain, you know, instruments or playing types. I know that most of the time, if you have ADD, then you're gonna probably make a great drummer.
[00:26:03] Abel James:
Yeah. Maybe great at a lot of the instruments. That's definitely seems to be a shared quality. Right. No doubt. But, yeah, we're all kind of, like, drawn to different archetypes at some point, and every instrument has, like, a people have different responses to it. Have you kind of it it sounds like, while drums have kind of been your main instrument for a long time, you still enjoy dipping into some of the other ones. What's that all about?
[00:26:28] Johnny Elrod:
So, for me, I've never been a strong songwriter, and I don't really consider myself, an artist in regards to creating art, writing songs, and kinda putting putting my own stuff out there. I sort of, support artist. And so I am utilized as accompaniment or utility in general for the most part. But what I can do is add layers to sounds and, have fun with it. And I think that a lot of it is therapy, playing, sitting, playing guitar, learning how to sing songs. I'm not a strong vocalist, but when I'm at home, I do enjoy it. And something about it whenever I'm out of breath and my, my blood veins in my forehead are popping out because I'm, you know, trying to do my best Kurt Cobain or whatever.
It at the end of it, I sleep really good just because it was so fun even though it it wasn't an audience or, you know, and if I taped it, I looked at it and I deleted it because I wasn't impressed by the actual performance. But it's still that's not the point of it all the time. The point of it is to feel good about yourself, to be expressive, to have confidence in your own. And with the other instruments, with the drums, you know, you it's not really necessarily a melodic instrument. And so the the guitar, I could play chords or I could play solos or melodies. I injured my finger, somewhat recently, and so I'm not sure how long that's gonna take to heal. So I started banging out chords on the piano. So same thing, I have a whole bunch of, lyrics with the chords above it where I could play it on guitar and just, you know, as long as I know the melody, I can, have fun with it. Well, I just took that same music and put it in front of a piano, and I got more proficient at the piano by just doing it over and over and over and over and over.
And, I've got some beautiful songs that I love that I've been working on, and I'm impressed with myself that I was able to achieve the the you know, unlock this skill. And, it definitely, something about challenging yourself and then meeting your goal boosts your confidence, and it boosts that, self esteem and and everything else. And like I said, you don't have to necessarily play it in front of a camera and put it on TikTok or play in front of an audience if if, you know, if you're the personality type that, you know, say that you're shut in, music's still good. It's still for you. You know? It's it's for everybody, I think.
And, the versatility is another fun thing too. I I don't know if maybe that's part of that ADD. But also, I always dreamed of hell, you know, that mandolin sounds really cool. I learned how to play it and dreamed of being a great mandolin player, but I know how what it's gonna take. And I don't think I got the time to do it. And part of that is I'm tired of lugging the drums around at all these gigs and stuff. I just daydream about playing harmonica or ukulele or or mandolin or something. But, all in all, it's just fun. You know? It's just a great pastime, great hobby, great passion.
[00:29:35] Abel James:
What about in the past few years kind of with the advent of AI, just coming out with so much writing, so many kind of, like, generative recordings and and things like that? As a musician, how do you feel about that? And also, like, what are you looking at in the in the future of music?
[00:29:53] Johnny Elrod:
Well, I think that, as a musician, I hate it. Yeah. It's it's absolutely horrid. I'm I'm not gonna, hold back any punches on that. And the reason I say that is, I mean, AI could be utilized as a tool, but at the same time, it could also, it could also be utilized as a, a fraudulent imposter sort of misleading and disingenuous sort of, approach to music. It is very interesting because this is where things are evolving. When they started sequencing drums, I felt similar to the same way. Like, oh, come on. I mean, there's a an arch to it and they're sort of, you know, you I've I tried sequencing drums. It's really hard. It's not easy to learn and just do. But to me, it's sort of definition. Right?
Playing a drum is a skill and you're a drummer. If you have this really cool magic board that lights up and it looks like a child's toy and you push a button and it just drops a a a purdy shuffle, you're not a drummer and you're not a, you know, that doesn't make you a musician. You're just playing with a toy. But if you craft that with, layers of sound and and, you you know, you create this, this thing utilizing these tools, then we're treading into something completely different. And AI at the the the main approach is, well, I take, Snoop Dogg song, make Hank Williams senior sing it, and I'm gonna drop it. If it gets, you know, 10,000,000 views, I get, you know, a paycheck.
I think it's fun to to hear what it would, but it's also a bit creepy Yeah. Because you're sort of taking liberties with other people's, likeness and their lyrics and stuff. But I think that people are gonna utilize AI to say, hey. I got an idea for a song, but I don't wanna do the work or I don't have the originality or the creativity to paint the canvas with my own words. They can use AI as a tool. And as you can tell by my approach with this, I'm not super thrilled about it, but I guess I can get it in you know? And I feel like that's gonna be the future of music. But at the same time, the future of music is it's in dire straits because there's just so much of it now, and it's it gets watered down, especially the same old formulas, you know.
It's tough to create a a punk band that's gonna be big now. It's tough to create an alt rock band that's gonna, you know, Nirvana has been done, especially Pumpkins. Hendrix has been done. The, you know, when's the last time you heard a great blues album that was new? You know, it's it's been done. I think that music can go one of 2 ways, and it will probably go both, and then it's probably gonna just keep going in circles. It's gonna probably, rotate back and forth like a lot of trends. But 1, AI is gonna take over and people are gonna be like, yo. That that beat's dope. You know? And they're gonna go with it. But, and and, you know, you see a lot a lot of that with TikTok in that short term, short form viewership where people are just wired to like a thing and, you know, that's why tribute bands are so popular because it's the nostalgia. It's like people are looking up at these tribute bands like they're, they're golden gods where in reality they're right and they're proficient at their instruments, but they're not necessarily creating art.
But people are just trained to or, you know, conditioned to be drawn towards that. Now the other thing I think that would be the future of music is more genre bending. And what I mean by that is take some EDM, take some, David Bowie esque lyrics, something that's fun and, you know, really kind of prolific. Drop in a raging scream punk guitar riff, and then you dial it back down with a cool lounge sort of baseline. And, you know, it's kinda like Polyphia does within and and they weren't the first by any means, but, you know, a back a steady backbeat, it's been done before, and so people might wanna start hearing something that's, quirky and unique and just sort of, like, grabs you and and makes you feel on a on a takes you on an emotional roller coaster.
I think that there's gonna be more stuff like that going out there that's, you know, appeals to the people like me with a crazy, you know, brain that's just like ding ding ding ding ding ding ding, you know, firing on all all cylinders all the time. But, you know, who knows? I know that technology,
[00:34:26] Abel James:
like I said, I I can piss and moan about it, but it's coming whether we like it or not. Well, speaking of that, what about value for value and kind of these developments in that space? Because for me, when I found that whole world, I'm just like, oh, this could be interesting.
[00:34:42] Johnny Elrod:
Absolutely. And let me let's do a preface to to that and kinda tie it in together. Yeah. So growing up, you made demos on cassette tapes. We're by that time, we're burning CDs, and you could pitch them to a and r, people, and you you get in or you don't. I think at best, if you get in on a circuit with, you know, Warped Tour or something, then you might be able to get on, like, Tom DeLonge's, you know, label or something. Now things are different. There's not a lot of albums going out, and then, of course, there's not a lot of album sales anymore. Everything's, streamed for better, for worse.
The main thing about all of this is, 2 things, I guess, you could say. 1, Spotify is the king of the streaming, and they suck because they don't pay out very well. I mean, I know people with millions of streams, and I was like, okay. This is what I get. Alright. At the same time, it is a platform for you to get it out there. And, for instance, FM Rodeo, we've released 12 song 12 or 13 songs. We never would have been able to publish this 15 years ago the way that we did. Mhmm. If I walk up to a, you know, a stranger in Anchorage, Alaska and say, hey. I'm Johnny. I play drums at that Bim Rodeo. Give me your phone. Literally, 3 seconds later, dude, hey. You know? There you go. We're in your phone.
You couldn't have done that before. You know? But going back to it, you know, it's sort of that technology changing. And might I add, everybody's releasing songs daily. So, again, we're watering down the thing. It's not necessarily a exclusive platform. But the point is it does suck because if you do start getting traction, the pay is, is bad. And then it's sort of like the old boys club. Right? Well, Foo Fighters and, what is it? Doja Cat and all these people, they're not gonna have any any trouble releasing a song and immediately getting viral, you know, sort of algorithms in their favor Mhmm. Because they're a big name, 1. But 2, like, their people will, you know, put flick their little button and make it happen.
Now I was introduced to this thing called value for value podcasting from my friend Cody Nichols, who is a DJ, morning DJ in Kerrville, Texas for, 943, the rev FM, The Rock of Texas. Nice. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. So Cody, we're doing some interviews and performances over at station, and, he got all excited. He's like, I gotta tell you something when we go on commercial break, our next commercial break. Comes back. He's like, I met this guy, Adam Curry, who's, the video jockey of, Headbanger's Ball, and, he's original podcast, maker. Yeah. He's been on Rogan's podcast, like, 2 or 3 times and, great personality.
And Adam Curry is involved in this value for value podcast, and, I'm sure those who are listening by now know what it is. But the thing is, it'd be awesome for this grassroots campaign to spread out. Tell your friends about it. And, when he told me about it, I was like, okay. Yeah. First of all, as a musician, as somebody who's wanting to grow, I'm I'm up for putting my music out on any avenue that is, gonna find create more discovery. Yeah. 2nd of all, our music has been featured on Adam Curry's podcast, which is such an honor. Yeah. You know? To hear him say, F. L. R. D. You know, is like, holy cow. It felt good. Yeah. It felt the same way. And and then not to mention last but not least, the the satoshis, the cryptocurrency, you know, the the whole idea that people are gonna be able to tip you and they do and it's amazing.
I've got more in cryptocurrency in the last probably 13 months than I have in the last two and a half years, with releasing Spotify and and pushing that Spotify. Yeah. Whenever I dropped it on Wave Lake, I didn't have to even push it or market it or put any effort to that. And the next thing you know, 34,000 satoshis. The next thing you know, 78,000 satoshis. And so it's growing. I'll admit I was a little skeptic at first about cryptocurrencies because the Google is scary. It's something new. It's something that we're not really used to. But, I mean, we weren't used to Itunes at first. We weren't used to, iPods or streaming, you know. Napster was, like, a kind of a scary deal. We thought Lars Horeck is gonna knock on our door. Yeah. Yeah.
But I say all that to say this, cryptocurrency has been around. It just took a huge jump, so it ain't going anywhere anytime soon. And also, you don't have to have cryptocurrency to enjoy what we're doing here. It's just it's just part of the fun. It's part of the community. If anybody loves art and they love music, if you throw $20 in your crypto wallet and, you know, you're listening to an an Ainsley Costello song or an FM radio song or, SOB song and you're like, damn. I dig that, you know, drop, you know, $2 in satoshis on in the into as a tip. And it's kind of like if you see a street performer jamming their ass off and you go and you drop a couple of dollars in their bucket.
It adds up for them and it makes it worth them to keep coming out and performing. And so the same thing, you know, it dare I say, it just it gives grace towards the community of musicians to keep on because a lot of us, man, a lot of us are looking down the barrel of, man, I've been doing this for a long time and haven't really got much gratification out of it. Yeah. Now we sort of are always on the cusp of, hanging it up for a while if not forever. I've seen so many musicians that are talented that, had kids or started a family or whatever a reason or joined it had started a different type of career and they just never had I'm not saying satoshi's is gonna be their, you know, replace their career. It could. Could. Yeah. You know? It could, but you're not only, gaining, revenue from the value for value Podverse.
You're also gaining more discovery from you're gaining more fans from the discovery. I mean, people who are listening to these these, podcasts. It's kinda like the good old days when you're listening to the radio except for there's a far less commercials and and virtually none. Yeah. And, you're you're listening and the DJs are talking or the pod you know, podcasters are talking about, your music a little bit. And it's you know, people whenever they hear the song, they're like, I dig that. And then you tell a fun fact about the band. Oh, they're from Texas, and they have they're a 3 piece or whatever. It's it's that much more interesting. It sort of gain it gives them a little bit more of a, I guess, you could say value towards that knowledge or, you know, kinda gives them a little bit of more feeds that interest.
And it is a great platform. We've been featured on several different podcasts. I've made friends with a lot of different podcasters, and a lot of them come to our shows. I mean, if you're a musician and you're on the fence, stop. Jump off and go towards Wave Lake and upload couple songs. Reach back to Abel, reach back to Phantom Power, reach back to Jim Costello or Cody Nichols, Mike Newman. Reach out to some of these guys and say, hey. I just uploaded some new, material. Hope you like it. And, you know, let it rip. What did it what what can you lose out of the deal? And then I'm gonna tell you the answer is nothing. You know? Maybe 15 minutes, but you're you're gonna get paid for your time no matter what.
And like I said, you increase your chances of discovery. And what are we doing this for if not for sharing our music with the world?
[00:42:43] Abel James:
Yeah. And it, like, also brings up the idea of I remember growing up and just loving having a tape collection, a record collection, CD collection that was, like, yours. When you wanted to listen to a song, you could. Didn't need Internet connection, didn't need to, like, ask for permission or go through some platform that's, like, putting other stuff in the middle before you can listen to what you really wanna listen to or listen to ads first, whatever it was. And so, like, that's in the years since, we don't really have ownership over our I don't wanna call it, like, a media library, but, like, the music that's sacred to us, the music that means something to us. Right? Like, the the the collection of books that you have is similar to music and DVDs. That whole thing has has gone away. So now it's just like we have this queue on Netflix or on Spotify of just, like, lots of mediocre music. Not everything that you wanna see. Just, like, some of it mixed in with other stuff that they want you to see, mixed in with ads, mixed in with other things. So we have, like, no real and also, like, you listen on on Spotify to someone's music. If I'm listening to FM radio, it's, like, I'm not commenting there. I'm not, like, leaving a tip in a tip jar. I don't have a chance to, like, say that I love your music or interact with you in any way. And, also, if I stop paying my 10 or $20 a month or whatever to what whatever service that is, you lose your entire library of music that's sacred to you. And that is something that I don't want to carry into the future. And I think that this kind of, like, podcasting alternative that allows people to download it and actually have a connection with the people who put out the music, whether it's leaving a comment or sending a little micropayment or, like, some sort of reposting of their music. Like, we need that interactivity again to really have music be meaningful to us once more. Because right now, it's just oversaturated, so much mediocre stuff. We don't know who's on the other end. If we can make those human connections again, I think it's gonna be really meaningful for us.
[00:44:32] Johnny Elrod:
Absolutely. And I think that that's exactly right. Spotify and those other streaming platforms, they do lack a sense of community. If you stop paying and you lose, you know, you lose your thing. And not to mention, just take Netflix and, say, like, any of these, streaming platforms, that that, you know, you, watch TV on. When you paid your dues, it's cool, commercial free. Right? But then they're like, we changed our minds. Right. We'll do a commercial free if you pay more. So what's to stop them from doing that with Spotify? Especially if, God forbid, they start paying their artist.
And so but going back to your point, absolutely. I there's a sense of community in in the Podverse as well as, you know, if you're in Nashville and you're digging FM Rodeo, you know, you're not gonna see us on the street in Austin and just drop the $2 in our bucket. But if you're checking us out on these, on the, Podverse, then you can do that, and it's very rewarding for us, very gratifying, and it shows it's a token of appreciation. That's something that, you know, none of these other streaming platforms have to offer. And then also just in case, anybody that's an artist that is listening to this, if you didn't know, you can do both. You know? You can put your music on Spotify, and you can also put it on Wave Lake and and and be discovered on Fountain as well.
So, I mean, like, do both.
[00:45:57] Abel James:
I dig it. Johnny, awesome. This has been so much fun. So, where can people find FM Radio's music? And also, just quick plug for the show on December 16th, we're both playing a show live at Anton's for Adam Curry's boostagram ball. So whether you can join us in person, that would be amazing. Or join the livestream, definitely don't miss that one. So, Johnny, where where can people find you?
[00:46:18] Johnny Elrod:
Absolutely. We are on fmrodeotx.com, and we're on Instagram under FM Rodeo Texas. There's a a great country tribute cover band in Wisconsin called FM Rodeo, unfortunately, but also, fortunately, you just gotta find the Texas one. They're out there too. So FM Rodeo Texas on Instagram. We have a fun YouTube channel. I'm actually uploading a a live video today as well. Nice. So YouTube is a good one for us. And, our website, FM Rodeo TX.com. And, yeah, December 16th, Monday, it's, shoot, less than 2 weeks at the legendary Antones. That's where Stevie Ray Vaughan was coming up and creating quite the ruckus and, you know, building a scene for the the blues, revival of the the eighties and early nineties. And so I am looking forward to that, man. I didn't ever think that I was gonna bring a punk band to Antone's and have an opportunity to to do this. You can get your tickets for that show on satsbysouthwest.com.
That's sats bysw.com. Please buy your tickets in advance. You'll save a little bit of money, and they will properly staff the venue for us since they know that, you know, how how much volume we're gonna be pushing. Where else can you find us? That's pretty old. We do have a TikTok for for those who are the TikTokers. And, of course, find us on, on Fountain.
[00:47:51] Abel James:
Awesome. Johnny, thank you so much for joining us here today. This is awesome. Thank you so much, it's been my pleasure. Thanks for joining us on this show with Johnny. If you'd like to stick around, next up, we're gonna be playing one of FM Rodeo's tunes, which is a total banger called Writ John. And don't forget to boost in using a modern podcasting app. Send us a small little lightning micropayment, and it's automatically shared with artists. I've set that up with modern podcasting technology, and the folks over at Podholme, shout out to Barry, are awesome. Thank you so much for helping me get set up with this. So without further ado, let's rock out and hear from FM Rodeo. This is Writ John.
