Carla Simpson of SOMD Music Scene

What's going on, everyone?

My name is Chris Tondevold, and this is Ambition Radio.

This is a podcast where I interview indie artists, content creators,

athletes and small business owners who share how they continually discover

and maintain a balance between their life, family, career and the pursuit

of their passion, dreams or hobbies.

This episode features Carla Simpson of Southern Maryland Music

Scene and the Soundcheck podcast.

This was a really, really good time, and it was super nice to

be able to talk to someone so passionate about promoting others.

We go over how Southern Maryland music scene started what it means to be in

a community more than a scene How much it means to just be told hey, you've

done a good job and letting all the pettiness come through just every once

in a while Carla is organizing the great gig a pink Floyd experience, which will

be an amazing event On November 3rd at last drop in Hollywood, Maryland,

22 musicians from the best local bands that Southern Maryland has to offer,

share the stage to pay tribute to one of the most influential bands of all

time, Carla gets to play double duty and show off her musical talents on

stage, along with previous guests on the show, like Greg Barrick, Justin Myles,

Jordan Pickens, and many, many more.

Maybe even some future guests for this very show.

What do you think?

Tickets for the great gig are on sale.

Now I'll have the link in the show notes along with all of Carlos socials, make

sure to check out her YouTube page.

at S.

O.

M.

D.

music scene to catch her latest episode of Soundcheck with the mighty Moldyre.

Fantastic group of people featuring former guest DJ Lavery, along with

former guest and former guest host Aaron Testerman, also of Roachzilla.

As always, please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow me on Spotify and share the show if you can.

Thank you for everything.

Here's a show.

Enjoy.

Technology is the best when it works, and it's the worst when it doesn't.

Absolutely.

Uh, what we were saying is, uh, Carla gave me compliments, so I'll take those and

I'll, I'll make sure that I keep those.

So I have a, a nice conversation with Sonny on one of my episodes, I think.

Right.

Yeah.

Sunny from Tap House.

Yeah.

So, I'll take the compliments.

I love that.

Absolutely.

Why shouldn't you?

There you go.

It's hard to take them sometimes, though.

Oh, yeah.

I'm sure that you felt it.

Like, it's awkward sometimes when someone's like, Hey, good job.

It is.

Like, you're, you're amazing.

Like this, no, I, I sound dumb and I have terrible questions.

What is, what is happening

right now?

It's super, super, uh, awkward sometimes.

And I was just having this conversation a little bit ago.

You know that, Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, I go up to people and let, and tell them like, man, I really loved

your stuff, whatever that was, you know, your art or a moment, whatever it is.

And I'm like, no dude, for real, I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

But when people say that to me, sometimes I'm like, Why?

Why, why are you saying this to me?

Like, I don't, I don't deserve your, your praise or your compliment.

And it's so hard.

It's because I don't feel like I'm doing anything special.

You know, it's, it's something that I've always dealt with doing,

especially like when I was younger doing shows, like it was just really

an excuse for me to see the bands.

Yeah,

I get that.

I get that a hundred percent.

Yeah.

That was like my artistic expression was instead of a, me actually

playing like instruments and guitars and being cool like that.

I.

I just put the lineups together.

I put mixed CDs basically as live performances, right?

So that was always really, really cool for me.

But when one of, one of my friends, he was like, you know, without you, there

would be a lot of us without music.

And I was like, that's not true.

Like that can't be real, but it looks like, and I forget this, that like

one person can have a really, really good impact and a big impact on stuff.

So you have like what you're doing with Southern Maryland music scene

is that you've already really hit.

Live shows, promotions, you've, you've done all these different

things, supporting people just by going to the shows, right?

So, that's something where that feels like, Herculean almost, is being able to

like, juggle all those different things.

And then on top of it, you just feel like, Even though you are doing the

work, that it's no big deal, right?

That it's, Oh, no, this is nothing.

Like, right.

Cause for me, it's like, so I started this as a hobby.

You know, it was mostly out of being not connected to the community anymore.

Not feeling that connection with my community anymore.

And that was, that was a self inflicted wound.

As soon as I.

We recorded an album and we disbanded.

No real reason.

Yim Wu and the Dirty Islands.

Yes.

I

remember the first part.

I never remember.

Right.

But Yim Wu is, that's all you need to say.

And, and most people, if you say Yim Wu, if they don't know, they're like, Yim Wha?

What?

What does that mean?

I don't know what it means either.

So, but, but once I, we disbanded, I.

Left the community as a whole.

And, and that was from, that was mostly because of the competitive

nature of the times, right?

It was like, I'm not going to let you use my amp.

And there was almost a little bit of sabotage as well.

And that's just not me.

I don't like that.

So I left not even knowing.

And.

And shame on me for not, for not checking back, you know, every once in a while.

before the shutdown and all of that.

And then coming out of the shutdown even more, you know, we're going out

and I'm, I'm seeing bands and I'm like, Man, I, I feel like I missed a lot.

Yeah, I feel like I missed a lot.

And so now I, part of me is like trying to make up for it, you

know, hit the ground running type.

Not only that Chris, but I'm, I'm that type of person as well.

Like I, I'm going to, if I'm going to do something, I'm going

to do it and I don't even care.

Like.

What what I need to do to get it done.

So yeah showing up it is sometimes It is a herculean effort and I'm not saying

that like, oh my god, I gotta do it, but it's like just today I was like, oh

my god, I posted all of these photos on Instagram, but I forgot to post them on

Facebook So, um, you know what I mean?

And there's so many multiple things and there, there's like all kinds

of things going on right now with Southern Maryland music scene.

So it kind of, it's, it's a little, it's, it's a little overwhelming

at times, but not anything that I can't be like, you know what?

Take a step back.

This is still a hobby.

If you don't go out this weekend, it, it will be okay.

You know, like part of me is even like Don't be so OCD about it.

Um, your friends will understand.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think twofold with that because of the area that we're in.

Right.

We're going to see the bands again.

It's going to be okay.

This isn't going to be their only road.

It's going to be okay.

Right.

But also like, like what you're just talking about, right?

Like you want to see your friends, but they'll understand.

Sure.

They know what's up.

Yep.

Everybody's going through it.

I'm, I'm kind of similar to your story.

So I started doing So, uh, literally like right out of high school

Oh yeah.

I remember.

I was doing some acoustic shows there.

I've, I've met amazing people through doing that and I'm still friends

with them today, which is awesome.

And then I don't remember what happened next.

But I somehow like got in contact with this church.

Mm-Hmm.

. And I was like, Hey, I have this going on.

Can I rent your hall?

And then all of a sudden we were doing all ages shows at That's so

you could do the all ages show all age, which really

miss Yes.

So that was, that was my biggest, like, I think my biggest piece for

it, for me, was that I was doing stuff there and then I was doing it at a

place called, uh, Room with a Brew.

Which was an old, old coffee shop.

Originally they were in the...

So there's a, there's an office building looking thing that I think

has like winners chiropractic in there or something that used to

be room with a bruise building.

Okay.

And we would do, she had her coffee shop and then just a mixed use space.

Okay.

Yoga could go in there, whatever could go in there, but it was Wendy Heinrich.

And her and her husband were just amazing, supportive, like all of

this stuff, because they then moved across from Leonardtown High School.

So where the paint store is, used to be a room with a brew.

And you would have 50 to 60 kids, no problem.

And then on some of the bigger nights, you would have 100 to 150 kids.

Showing up and they were just in this random building

across from their high school.

Yeah.

That was basically it.

Yeah.

So, but it was really cool because that was my focus, you know, the,

the all ages, it's still my focus now trying to find a spot for that.

Yeah.

But I, I then did stuff at memories and my brother's place.

I played, I played at my brother's place

quite a bit.

Yeah, when, uh, when I was there, the, the ceiling was leaking,

I think, from about 20 holes.

Uh, I specifically remember getting water dropped on me, so

I wasn't super happy with that.

Um, and then I had, I had booked some folks, and instead of playing

on the stage, they, they said, Fuck that, and then set up right

on the floor, right in front of everybody, and then just went to town.

Fantastic.

But yeah, so I did that and I worked with Sonny at Bollywood for a little bit, and

he was able to let me do whatever, which was really cool, but also not because

I remember booking one, and I think I apologized to Sonny, but if I did not,

sorry, that just did not fit that, that vibe at all, and I think That's pretty

sure like people left and that band felt it and I was like, ah, that's shitty.

Yeah.

Sorry.

But I've talked to that band since then and they still thank me for at

least putting the show on for them.

Oh, good.

So we'll take that.

But I stopped.

I think my last show was in

2014.

Okay.

And now, and now you're getting back to

that.

Yeah.

So just like you, right?

Getting back into the scene, so to speak, cause I was in La

Plata for a while and would only come down every once in a while.

Sure.

Now it's like.

Where do I fit?

I don't know what I'm doing.

This is really, like, how much do I want to chew off?

How much do I want to try to take on?

Will my brain stop working?

Can it?

Like, just, just stop with the ideas just for like a second.

Because I don't, like, kind of like you, like, I can juggle a couple things, but

I hit a wall a lot more when it comes to personal stuff than I do for work stuff.

Which is dumb, because work will be there.

And I need to, like, get my mind wrapped around that.

Right.

But, like, these things won't get done without me or you, right?

Sure.

Like, that's what I have to tell myself.

Is to like, no one else is going to do it.

This is your dumb idea, but it sounds cool,

so just Like you already said it.

Yeah.

You announced it to the world, so you better fucking do it, right?

Yeah,

yeah.

That's, that is one way to, to really like, hold myself accountable.

Uh huh.

I found is like, alright, fuck it, I'll post it.

Right.

And then, someone, somewhere will be like, I saw that.

Uh huh.

That means that you have to fucking do it.

I was like, are you sure?

That's how it works.

Yeah Like never do it again.

a hundred episodes yet because I have to be fair back surgery.

So I'll take that yeah, so also just like Um, hitting that wall so much quicker,

because I think like you, like I started from the ground up not knowing anything

about sound, like always being around it, but not knowing anything about

recording and editing sound, right?

I can kind of play with some knobs, twist them here and there, um, use my

one good left ear to hopefully make everything else sound good live, but the

recording was a lot different for me.

So a lot of YouTube.

A lot of reviews, a lot of tutorials, trying to go to my friends.

That's the way it goes, man.

And you know, I wish I had the time to invest into all of that education.

So what I've done is like, I've delegated, right?

Like I delegate the sound to Jay and, uh, and then I'll do the video.

Cause I've, I'm a graphic artist.

Um, I'm a multimedia artist by, by trade.

So I've done video a thousand times, you know, I, I do do sound, but it would

just be too much for me to do sound and video editing, you know, once, even

once a month with everything else going

on.

Yeah, for sure.

So with my work and the show, I haven't done anything for about a year.

So this is starting to come back and I'm excited for it.

I'm excited to, I'm sure that you felt reinvigorated a little bit coming

out to the scene and being like.

Oh, there's a good amount of people coming out.

There's a good amount of support.

have still been playing music, but it seems to still organically grow a little

bit and we're still getting new folks in.

The only thing that we're missing really is, is, uh, an all ages spot

and that's, that's it.

That and you know, we, we still have a lot of, a lot of people around the area

who are like, well, there's nothing ever.

to do in Southern Maryland.

And it's like, no, there is a lot.

It may not be your cup of tea, you know, to, to do this every weekend

to go see a show every weekend.

It may not be your, your music preference, but there are, I mean, I was just having

this conversation with a couple of people yesterday or a few days ago, you know,

all of the everywhere around here, you cannot go to a restaurant on the weekend.

And not see live music, an acoustic act, an acoustic duo, whatever,

whatever, you know, businesses are starting to realize like, Hey, if I

have a little acoustic act here on the side on Friday nights, Saturday

nights, Sunday evenings, or whatever, I'm going to be attracting more people.

So, there is a lot to do down here.

There are a lot of really good shows and just the amount of talent that we

have down here per capita I think is, holy crap, I say this to a few people

here and there, but I'm just going to tell you and everybody who listens now,

not to be, not to be conceited or this area could very easily be an Austin.

Yeah.

It could very easily be a Seattle with the amount of talent that we have here.

And

especially since you can pull from DC and Baltimore and Richmond, right?

I think one of, one of my next endeavors again, this is, these are all the

thoughts that go through my head, right?

Like I have a lot of ideas.

But whether or not I can actually do them or talk myself into doing them,

because I really want to get all of our Submarine folks in Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg has a really solid DIY scene with.

metal with hip hop with acoustic with a whole bunch of stuff.

Right.

And they have a couple of different spots in there that,

that I think would be great.

So I really can, can we

go to the arcade?

Right.

I really want to go to the arcade.

I,

my whole thing that like ever since that I've been back has been okay.

How do we show swap?

Yeah, right.

Like we need to network the shit out of

this, but I kind of feel like we would get like, like we would get spoiled

if we played at the arcade, probably,

but why not deserve it?

Right.

All right.

Yeah.

Uh, and I mean, it's an arcade who doesn't want to play music at an

arcade.

I still want to go to this arcade.

Greg Baric was the one who told me about it.

And I was like, when are we going?

Like, we need to rent a van and just fill it with people, school bus,

whatever, and just go have a good time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that, but that's a great idea.

Yeah.

If, if we find our sister, you know, communities and other states

or in other parts, even other parts of the state, you know, that would

be awesome to do those, those,

uh, show swaps.

Yeah.

Cause it was a lot of fun when I was doing them.

Because so everybody was so eager, right?

This was 10, 15 years ago.

So we're looking at these are still early twenties, teenagers that are

ready to hit the road, ready to have, they have the energy, uh, they're

ready for the road miles, right?

They're ready to drive eight to 12 hours for one show and then drive home.

For no reason, but not, not, not for no reason.

Sure.

Sure.

Okay.

For a bad reason, plan your routes out,

but the it's an adventure, Chris.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

Go with

me there.

Where's your dad read a map.

But, um, it was, it was always funny to me because we, we, I made a lot

of friends from Boston and from like New Hampshire and Massachusetts area.

Where it was a lot of like, post hardcore, it was a lot of like, metalcore, it

was everything that was like, hittin at that time, and we were able to kinda

send a couple back and forth, right, so that was, that was really, really cool.

And that's something that I think I miss a lot.

There doesn't seem to be, and I, I don't know this cause I'm

just on the outside, right?

Okay.

So I'm sure Aaron has some kind of connects in Virginia, right?

I'm sure he does.

In Baltimore, right?

Absolutely.

But it just doesn't seem like we have it established to where, okay, we know.

So our actual rotation is going to be Fredericksburg, it's going to be St.

Mary's, and then we're going to be able to find something in Frederick,

or we're going to be able to find something possibly like a small one

in Baltimore, and that's going to be our circuit for a little bit.

And then we're going to be able to break it up.

And that way bands can do it and then promoters can do it, whatever.

Right.

So those are the.

Along the lines of ideas that I have and whether or not I can actually

get execute them so I I think I think You know focusing on the on

the the all ages shows would be a great start simply because no well

not simply because but because of the fact that You're creating more fans.

You're creating more opportunities for musicians, up and coming musicians

to see, you know, a band like, you know, runaway guns and be like, Oh

my God, I want to play like that guy.

And by that guy, I mean, Dan tell us.

Or, or like that girl and by that girl, I mean, Chris Baker, you know, you

create that environment where people were young musicians can be nourished.

And that's what we need.

We need, we need more musicians, you know, so that when they hit that magic

age where they can be, where they can play at, at our, at our cool dive bar

spots, you know, I I'm curious to know, I mean, I've been doing this for almost

for two years and here in a few months.

But I'm curious to know how many more bands are going to come out of this

area in the next three to five years.

That's, that's actually part of my fear because there's not an all ages

venue.

I,

I get it.

There's no backfill.

Correct.

So there's no real new bands ish, right?

I've seen a couple pop up and that's, I think that's what like reinvigorated me

the most when I was coming to shows and I was like, I've never seen them before.

What about the skate park?

Skate park would be cool.

I used to do the, that stuff.

Nicolette.

Yeah, we, we, we did some stuff.

We played a couple of different times there.

We had thought about going into the bowl and setting up in the bowl, but that, that

just, that just seemed like way too much.

That's a

lot of work getting drums down there.

Yeah.

And

the power wasn't there.

Right.

Sure.

Yeah.

So, cause I think right there at the park, you would get, you know, I

mean, you already have music friendly.

Cause skaters are typically, I'm not stereotyping, but typically

they're, they're music friendly.

So I know they did a show over there.

I saw, I wasn't able to make it, but my kid, Miles, he went to see a Ripley void.

They played there and it seemed like a really cool like place where to

have, I mean, obviously it's outdoors.

So, you know, Right.

Right.

You can't do it past a certain month and if it rains, you're screwed and all

that, but that would, that wouldn't be a bad place to like start doing like a

once a month type of thing, I, I think.

Perhaps.

So these are, these are ideas, right?

Yeah.

That, uh.

These are the things you think about.

Yeah.

I, I started thinking about this yesterday.

I'm going to get a notebook for like every project idea.

Oh my God.

I have, I have like six of

them.

Yeah.

That's not even counting my work, my work notebooks,

but yeah.

Yeah.

Cause I, I started like a, a Google doc trying to keep track of all

these dumb ideas that I have.

They're not dumb ideas,

man.

Come

on.

I'll, I'll convince myself one day, it'll be fine.

Getting like a, cause I like writing more than I like typing,

even though my handwriting is terrible, so I have to like...

Writing.

Think.

Well, writing, you know, your, your pause, cause you obviously, you can't

write as fast as you type, right?

So you have the, the, the, that time in when you're writing to be like,

okay, do I really want to say this or do I want to say it another way?

So it's, so I, I get why you like writing

more than typing.

And I think also it's the tactile feel for it that the, the clicky clacks

doesn't, doesn't ingrain anything in me.

Yeah.

Right.

So if I'm actually doing the motion and doing everything in

there, I think that just solidifies everything for me a little bit.

It makes me remember more stuff and keeps that present in mind a little bit better.

But that's, that's my, my next idea is to get a bunch of, I guess,

journals or notebooks or whatever.

Either one.

Project ideas.

Right.

And then just write down like free flowing ideas in there and like

thoughts of what I need to do.

So work backwards a little bit.

There's a festival idea in there.

There's a live show idea in there.

There's a whole bunch of other,

there's, there's always a festival idea.

You have, you have no idea how many times I drive around this, this

town and, or, or, you know, I'm in conversations with my husband about

like this, this spot right here would be a great location for a big festival.

Right.

Right.

Like we could put the food vendors here and the stage over there

and the da da da da da, you know.

So festival, festival ideas are

always there for sure.

It's always there.

Yeah.

I will say also what's always there for me is a, uh, a sense of

judgment when I go to any show.

And that's on judging the venue, the sound, the music.

And then like, Every, every operational aspect of it, which

sometimes is great for me.

And then sometimes it's like, shut up and enjoy what is happening in front

of you.

Well, for me, and, and I get what you're saying, you know, I mean, I've, I've

played in some really nice places and I've played in not so really nice places.

What makes it for me, and I think this is another thing that we really,

really need to start focusing on is.

Yeah.

That's like, out of all of the things that you mentioned just now, having a

poor sound experience is probably the worst thing for me, um, personally, I,

I was, I was telling you a little bit ago that we, you know, I, I went up to.

To see the, the Southern Maryland musicians take over Baltimore

over at the Audubon and their sound engineer was so rad.

She had pink dream.

I mean, it was booming.

Like I could feel it on my chest.

Like it was kicking in my chest.

And I know those things cost money and all of that.

I I'm well aware of it, but we need to start bringing in people to like.

That, that know how to do it, even if it's not, I mean, I'm obviously not

requiring some sort of big arena type of sound or anything like that, but just,

you know, vocals, vocals are important.

So it's, it's something that I think we have the talent for.

It just needs to be

prioritized.

Yes.

And I don't, and I don't think it is, I don't think sound is

prioritized as much as it should be.

That person doing sound is.

Like the fifth member of the band.

Yeah.

Because the band can be

really,

really good of every single band.

Correct.

Because the band can be super good.

But if you're not getting somebody who's like, Hey, uh, you know,

there's keeps feedbacking.

Um, then, then it doesn't matter how good the band is.

When,

uh, when I was coming up, and I'm sure when you were

coming up, feedback, Fred was...

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, so it is, and I have tinnitus in my right ear, so I have to be careful now.

Yeah, do you not wear hearing protection when you go?

I do.

Okay.

I do now.

Okay.

Because I

have tinnitus too.

Yeah, I should have when I was...

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, we all should have.

Yeah.

Do you have it

in both or just I have it in both, but it's predominantly on my left ear.

Okay.

Is it my left ear is the biggest bitch that I know.

She there, there are nights when Chris, I, I, I'm not kidding.

There are nights when I, like, I have the volume on the TV up.

I put the TV on and, and, you know, like put a timer on it

and she's just yakking at me.

Okay.

Yeah.

Like the entire time.

And I'm like, you suck,

man.

Yeah.

Mine is, uh, mine is constant all the time.

So is mine.

And, uh, it, it matches almost every like volume for some reason.

Does it really?

Yeah.

I

have, I have a, I have a hard time with lower frequencies.

Yeah.

It's, it's the higher ones for me that, that really mess it up.

So, uh, and I almost had a panic attack yesterday because

my left one started ringing.

And it rang for like a second straight and I was driving and a second

doesn't sound long, but it is very long when like one of your greatest

fears is about to happen, which is losing the left side of my hearing.

So I had, I had a mini quick panic attack and then it went away.

I was like, Oh.

Okay.

Do you, do

you get that?

Do you get that feeling like when it starts ringing where like you feel like

you've gone underwater for a second?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That sucks, dude.

That's when, that's when I know it's like about to turn on real quick.

And then what I, what I've noticed is that it's just, my left one is popping

up more and more and it's only there for like half a second or anything.

Now, now I'm starting to get more and more worried about it, but do I want

to stop going to any of these things?

No, like

I said, I mean I got I got some some hearing protection and I always

carry with I have one in the car I have one, you know in my my my little bag I

I keep them everywhere now but um and if it and if I find myself in a place where

I don't have any hearing protection, I just I'll go outside if I have to listen

through like the door or whatever, but I, I probably should we, and you should

to probably go see an audiologist and not that there's anything they can do about

it, but no.

So when I went two years ago, maybe, maybe you've gone.

Yeah.

I

haven't yet.

I have.

And what they're saying is really, really interesting and makes sense.

And I really want this to happen.

They're saying that the cells can be behaviorally trained.

Okay.

To, instead of listening to themselves, which is basically what

they think tinnitus is, they're listening to outside sources, right?

Okay.

Basically, it just means wear headphones with white noise

on there 8 to 12 hours a day.

Okay.

It's supposed to do something three months.

Okay.

It didn't do anything for me.

Okay.

Not saying that it's not going to work.

Right.

Just didn't do anything for me.

Cause I would be at work with it.

I would be everywhere with

it.

But just regular headphones or just like AirPods.

Yeah.

Just some AirPods.

Cause it's, there's nothing that they're trying to do outside of

get yourselves to listen to that.

exterior source, right?

So the, the headphones are just there to provide some kind of

audio signal and the white noise is the best part of it, I guess.

Um, or the best way for them to cling on to it.

I kind of make sense.

I mean, like everything that I've read is like use white noise

and I'm like, I, there's, I put so much noise now in my room.

It's like, there's a TV, there's the, you know, the little

machine that makes the noise.

There's a little, I have a little humidifier that makes.

All this noise, the fan constantly.

It sucks man, it really sucks, cause it's, you know, like, I'm not sure what

all I'm missing as far as frequencies.

Right.

I know that there are times when like, if it's too loud, like a guitar or a siren,

for example, dude, sirens hurt my ears.

Like to the point where I just, they, they water my eyes.

It hurts so bad.

A bad, a bad guitar, like a super high tone feedback where it just hits

that, that right screech that kills me.

Growing up and then obviously going to just shows everywhere,

you're going to hear that because some kid or, or the sounds just

not correct for whatever reason.

And then it's too hot.

Mike's too hot, whatever.

And then boom, next thing you know, I'm just like, ah, I got to go outside.

This is, this is not, not fun, but yeah, it's, it's a never

ending struggle and it sucks and hopefully they can figure something

out for it, but I don't think so.

So we'll see.

We're going to circle back a little bit.

So we started doing this project for Southern Maryland music

scene two years ago, right?

Came back.

You were like, Oh shit, these are my friends, but I don't

know anything that's happening.

Around me.

Right at all.

Right.

So what I wanna know a little bit is kind of some of the stuff that really

invigorated you to, to go for it, right?

And then I also want to figure out at what point do you hit a wall and how do

you keep your motivation going for it?

Okay.

So my, my biggest piece would be like, what?

What really?

Initially motivate you to really hit that scene and go like 110 percent and,

and really try to say, Hey, I can help.

I can do something.

Let me at least put a spotlight somewhere.

Honestly, it was honestly, it was the excitement.

Like I would go, I would go to the deli and I heard one show in

particular, I can't remember when this was, but it was early on.

This show in particular, and I'm seeing, you know, music that

I haven't experienced before.

And I would just be so excited.

I would leave there like, okay, they're my favorite, like they're my new favorite.

And then the next week I would go somewhere else and I would

see another band and be like, okay, they're my new favorite.

And this happened so much.

I'm sure people think like, okay, she's always saying these, like this

one, that one, and the other one are their favorites, her favorites.

But it's true.

It's like.

Discovering and, and, and let's just clarify that by the time I got back into,

into the scene, the, the community, I see I'm now I'm like careful to say community

instead of scene because of Aaron.

Aaron was like, it's not a scene, it's a community and he is 100 percent right.

Coming back to the community.

I only had a, like a handful of friends that were still left from those days.

So Charlie Collins was one.

Hi, Charlie was one of them and man, DJ is another one.

Yeah, I think that's about it.

So I've met all of these people by just by showing up and by being like, like I

said, genuinely interested in what they're doing, excited about what they're doing.

And like, I don't know, man, it's just sometimes I think, I think that's

infectious, you know, like I'm not just being like, Oh my God, these guys are so

good just for the sake of saying that.

Like, if I hear it, if, if I'm saying it, I mean it, even

if, even if it's not for me.

Even if it's like a genre or, or a band that I particularly, I'm like,

uh, okay, I still want you to succeed.

I feel like your success is everybody's success, right?

You're putting, you're putting a highlight or, or, you know, you're,

you're a spotlight on the area and that's, that's the goal, right?

It wasn't hard to like hit the ground running because like I said, I'd be like.

Saturday, I'm going to go see this band and I'd be like, holy shit.

That was the best fucking show I've seen.

And, you know, and then next week it would be, I'd be saying the same thing, right?

Because it's, it's true.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, man, if you, if you get me to sway back and forth in the dance, I'm

like, all right, consider, you know, consider me a fan, what keeps me going.

And, and not hitting, like you, you were saying about hitting a

wall, I mean, look, that's, that's really hard not to hit that wall.

Right.

There have been times when like, I really just wanted to stay home.

Yeah.

Cause I went from being a complete hermit and being at home, you know,

like watching movies and listening to music and you know, whatever it is I was

doing to like being out all the time.

Right.

So I guess.

That excitement is still there.

I don't guess that that's that's the reason that excitement is still there.

I'm still super excited every time squidding plays.

I'm still like, Oh my God.

Yes, you know, I haven't hit that yet.

I have slowed down in a, in a way like, man, tonight I don't want to

go out, but I go out and I, but I go out and then I have a good time.

So it really, you know,

it's, it's a dual edge sword, isn't it?

Cause that's, that's how I felt every time I was like.

Uh, do I, and then I force myself out a few different times.

It's, it's partially probably depression, ADD,

ADHD, whatever.

Yep.

Anxiety, depression, all of that.

Yeah.

Plays a role over here too.

All

the, all that stuff.

Cause, uh, I remember you were, you were talking about how you

needed all the sounds, right?

So I had one of my friends come over and I had my music, I had a TV show

going on and I was playing a game.

Uh huh.

But that's like my normal.

Uh huh.

Cause I need to have.

A cacophony of sound all around me or else I apparently can't

focus, which is so weird.

It's so

backwards, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, I, I often say in my house, like when somebody is like,

Oh, can I change the channel?

I'm like, yeah, go for it.

Oh, but you're not watching this.

No, I'm not.

I'm really not watching it.

It's keeping me company.

And it's keeping me well, one, it's keeping that stupid beep that ringing

in my ear from being so predominant.

And two, it's, it's keeping me focused, right?

Because the silence, it's not that I don't enjoy silence.

I often do, you know, bring it in the ear aside and all of that.

But for some reason, having that TV like keeps my anxiety level down.

Right.

And it can be.

I am a huge Nat Geo fan, like, so like, I'll be, you know, listening about

the whales and the birds of paradise and the Komodo dragons and all of

that shit, you know, retain anything.

Sometimes, sometimes I did purposefully.

This wasn't just as background noise, but I just, I just watched

the Nat Geo series on elephants.

And it's a four part series.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

Elephants are my favorite animal.

So for me, it was like, okay, I'm going to stop what I'm doing

and I'm going to watch this.

And yeah, there are four.

Did you know that there are four types of elephants?

And, and on the planet,

Indian, African, and two others, there's a,

there is a desert, um, type of, of elephant and they live

in like super harsh conditions.

I mean, like, why don't they know that they can just go to the

right where there's vegetation?

No, they like.

Like camels are cool, but you don't have to be friends with them,

correct?

Yeah, exactly.

So like their, their feet are actually different from other elephants and

then there is a jungle elephant that's a lot smaller in size.

Interesting.

Okay.

I didn't know that, but you know, you think considering that they're my

favorite, that I would know that, but shit like that, you know, like I put that on

just for having that, that background.

And then all of a sudden it's like, Oh, wait a second.

Let me, let me stop.

And, and all of a sudden I'm just sitting there for four hours watching.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That, that definitely happens since I've been recovering.

I've been trying to fill my time and it has been rough.

I understand what like other people went through with the pandemic because

I was enjoying not talking to anybody because for my job, that's what I do.

So I did not have the mentality that I have now, which is.

Do I really want to do this?

What can I do in my house?

I have done projects.

You can't do projects when you have a broken back, like, but

yeah, so I've done projects.

I've looked at other ideas.

They don't stop coming and until I'm asleep and then even, even

sometimes like the dreams get you.

So,

oh yeah, you're not kidding there.

So you know, like you said, get some journals and put it

down and that way you're like.

You know, we'll do one page per idea and that way you can keep adding to the idea

as, as it comes because it always does, you know, shit starting Southern Maryland

music scene wasn't supposed to be all of, all of this, all of what it is now, just

things just kind of, you know, started with one thing and they snowballed into

all of these other things because you're

essentially marketing promotion, live shows.

Podcast, media, right?

Graphic design.

You can throw that in there.

And photography

and

videography.

Photography, videography, which is a completely different skill.

Yeah.

So that's seven.

Mm hmm.

Musician.

Mm hmm.

Performer too.

We'll take that.

Right.

Cause that's

different.

I can MC.

Yeah.

I can MC like, you know.

You could also be a studio musician versus a live musician.

Correct.

Those are two different sets of skills.

I want to get a 10.

You want to get a 10.

You're a mom.

We can do that.

Yeah.

How's

that?

Well.

Yeah, but my kids are, my kids are old.

I mean, they're, they're both adults now, so I don't know that, you know,

all right, well that doesn't work.

But, but I do have a full time job, so.

Perfect.

There we go.

Yes.

All right.

Yeah.

I forgot about that part.

I have a

career.

Right?

Right.

That's so easy.

You

forget about that.

Oh.

That's so funny.

Now, do you have, do you have a career that allows you to do everything?

Or do you have a career that you've just figured out how

to balance between everything?

So, a little bit of both.

Um, my career, uh, right now I am in a hiatus.

Waiting for some things to happen.

I'm fortunate enough to own my own business, so I can't take right now.

I can't take the time because I've been, like I said, just

waiting for some things to happen.

I've been taking the summer to like, you know, really hit the ground running.

Now, once, once I start getting steady work again, that's going to change

the dynamics a little bit, right?

So I'm going to have to figure out, okay.

What do I necessarily have to have and what are nice extras to have

and what can I definitely not, you know, don't need to focus on.

It's either that or I start delegating or I start bringing people in.

But here's the thing about that.

It's that, you know, I, this has been a theme of conversation as of late.

It's having that, you know, my name's attached to it, to, to this.

And I inadvertently created a brand, right?

Didn't mean to, but that's what happened.

And so now, because my name is attached to this thing, how do I protect that brand?

Yeah.

Like, do I give it to somebody else who may not?

May or may not do the same that I do or have that same passion.

That's what the most important part for me is.

It, it's the passion, right?

Yes.

Um, it was, it was very similar to when I started doing shows again.

Okay.

Started booking shows.

Again, a lot of people, a lot of the musicians knew who I was, right?

Mm-Hmm.

. They remember it because I booked them when they were first starting, right?

Mm-Hmm.

. And I've seen them grow throughout all of this.

But what I had to really.

Think about, and I don't know if I'll leave this in or not.

is what is my brand?

Do I let someone else speak for it, so to speak, right?

And then do I even want all for lack of better words, glitz and glamor

or like presence of it, right?

Do I want to be a face?

I, I think that's what I was, I was really trying to process if

I want to be a face of something.

Do I want, do I want that brand again?

Or can I just enjoy myself by doing lineups for someone else?

Right.

And that's, that's what I really had to kind of think of is like,

who am I surrounding myself with?

Because the shows are my brand at that point.

So nothing, nothing really is solid outside of me just trying to leverage

old relationships to get some bands in.

Right.

And then on top of that, if the show goes poorly, that's,

that's where it all hinges on.

Right.

So that production goes poorly, then my reputation goes for, right.

Right.

And that's, that's where I'm at.

It's, um, you know, I have been asked by, by people around the County,

like, Hey, let's partner up for this.

Let's partner up for that.

And I'm like, you know, I'm, I'm trying to be very selective of

who I partner up with and what I, what kind of projects I take on.

It's not me being, you know, uh, Conceited or that.

I think that I'm better than or whatever.

It's the fact that like I said, this is, this is a brand, you know,

if, if I were, if I'm, when I'm putting a show together, like, uh,

you know, my thing is tribute shows.

I love tribute shows

because you've

done the Beatles and we're about to do a Pink Floyd one in November.

So if something goes wrong with, and if something had gone

wrong with the Beatles show.

Kind of sort of did with the rain and all of that that was on me if

I have a if I have a person Who paid money to get into one of these

shows and they're not satisfied.

That's on me Yeah, so and I'm I am 100 percent willing to take that right?

So if somebody makes a decision for me that maybe isn't A line with,

with what I think should happen or whatever, I can't very well say,

well, it was Chris who did it, right?

Because it's still my name.

It's not, I'm still Southern Maryland music scene.

Correct.

Yeah.

Correct.

So that, that's what I was trying to balance out because the, for me it

is my, my, my people aren't the fans.

Like I want them to come and I want them to have a good show.

But really this is.

Um, mostly for me, but also the people that I care about the

most are the musicians, right?

So I have to be that liaison in there a little bit.

This is what I feel anyway.

So I want to be that liaison to make sure everything is smooth with that, right?

And then I have to figure out how much do I want to control.

So I've done literal ground up productions, right?

Where I've been in part of every aspect of it, like what you have, right?

And I've done this.

So many times that I know in my mind what I would prefer it to look like, and that's

something that I have to really balance out of, okay, I'm working with people.

This isn't me.

This isn't mine.

What do you let go?

What is yours, right?

Same kind of concept, right?

What do you let go?

What do you, what do you take as your ownership?

Right?

Like what, what can you not live without?

Right.

And I, I really think that this past experience with the shows

have let me figure out if.

I really want full control over it or not, or if I want to do this every week,

that's the bigger thing.

Right.

So that there's the burnout factor as well.

Right.

And, and I have felt myself getting really, really close to the burnout

factor, you know, to being burned out rather, but I don't know, man, it's,

I'm a music junkie and like, right.

And it's like.

Man, like I'll find the time, you know, I still have, like, I have

the autobar video that I have to, that I want to process and, and

put on, on, on the YouTube channel.

I'll find the time to do it.

It may be a month from now, but I'll do it, you know,

if you teach me how to video at it, I can show you

how to do everything podcast.

So just so you know, I don't know why I didn't say that earlier,

but that sounds like a great idea.

So

we can figure that out.

Video editing.

I mean, it's funny because a lot of people who do video, like I

have a, a very good friend of mine.

I've known him for, you know, 20 something years for almost for as long

as I've been living in Southern Maryland.

And he went to school for, for film, you know, he went to film school.

And we were shooting a video together not too long ago.

And he was asking me, he was like, well, who's going to edit all of this?

And I was like, well, not me.

And he's like, well, good.

And I was like, no, kind of not good because I actually like editing.

Right.

And he was like, are you out of your mind?

And I'm like, why?

And he's like, because of all the, all the details he said.

And I said, well, that's kind of what I like about it.

Yeah.

I like the details.

That's my whole bag.

Like, yeah.

Right.

I am a, I love details in anything and everything.

I love details.

So that's the part of editing.

That's why I like editing so

much.

One of, one of my favorite accomplishments is, uh, I can

go anywhere recording, right?

So I've been able to, to really figure out some rooms and some of the

editing tricks that I can figure out.

Making that room not sound like shit, right?

I literally, I bought condenser mics.

Uh, I was going to all these places and detail is all condenser.

And I had no idea what I was doing.

So I'm going through and trying to like figure out how to, why,

why do I only hear the fan?

Yeah.

All, all I know is that I was mad and I couldn't fix it.

And now with the plugins that I have and like the ability to kind of.

Fine tune.

Yeah.

I'm more confident that I could have probably fixed fix that at least

buy in a plug in and figure it out I

mean, it's all experience, right?

Like I mean look I I had the third episode of soundcheck.

I didn't have enough light and I have this really, really cool lighting

system, but I only had one because, you know, I mean, why would I get two?

Right.

At the time when I brought the one light, I just needed the one light.

And then when I went to get the second one, they were back ordered

because of course they were.

Right.

So yeah, for the third episode, there wasn't enough light.

So I had, you know, half that was, that episode was.

It was a big episode.

I had, shit, I think I had ten, uh, eight, nine.

That was the Beatles one?

That was the Beatles episode.

I

mean, it looks fine, so just so you know.

Okay, thank you.

The lighting looks fine.

Thank you.

Cause I did, I did watch that one, trying to like, figure out

some of your styles and whatnot.

Yeah, thank you.

I, it's, it was, I felt like when I, when I, when I started processing

the, the, the video, I was like, you've got to be kidding me, man.

This looks like shit.

Um, so I did my best, you know, um, until I was able to get a, another

light, but all of those things have been like, I'm basically in a dark room, like

stubbing my toe on all the furniture.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Every, every episode is something like that.

Yeah.

It's, it's always some artifact, always some kind of weird thing that goes in

there, some call for whatever for me, or.

Or someone hits the mic like I've done a couple of times.

Yeah.

Um.

That happened on our first episode.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That, that'll do it.

And it, it is a learning experience.

So it's cool.

I, I've been happy to learn.

Uh, I'll be even happier when I don't have to.

Yeah.

Like I've made money off of this and I'm like, Oh yeah.

I can pay these peasants to do my work,

right?

You know, and I had that opportunity.

I had that opportunity to, um, you know, it's not about, it's

not about being a control freak.

I swear to God, it's not.

But I had the opportunity to give, to give the podcast.

First episode hadn't even dropped.

And I got a phone call from one of, one of the media, uh, organizations around

here and said, we want your podcast.

And we'll take care of everything.

All you have to do is interview the person.

And I'm like, okay, but do I still get to pick whoever I want to interview?

Sure.

I said, well, do I, what happens if, because we're

monetizing it, what happens if.

You know, we start talking about, I'll just use the last episode

as an example, cannibalism.

Sure.

Yeah.

You know, like, like if, you know what I mean?

Like, if we're being sponsored by somebody who

may or may not watch your language,

correct.

And I was like, you know, I don't want that.

I don't want that.

I want people who are coming into my basement.

To talk to us to be themselves and just not somebody behind me saying,

Hey, you know what you said last week?

We can't, we can't use that.

It's tough to, I think.

You, we might be able to split it where, cause I, I've thought about

this too, like there was, there was, I was talking to someone that had

a host for a show and the host was kind of thinking about stepping back.

And I was like, maybe I'll do that because it was kind of the similar

vein, but a little bit different.

Right.

So I, I have to.

It's kind of probably what you thought of, it's like, okay,

am I a host or is this mine?

Right.

Is this my project?

Right.

Is this my voice that I have to put out or am I a hired gun

host?

Are they going to be okay with me saying the word fuck?

Yeah.

As a host.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Or, or, you know, I have problems with organized religion,

so that may or may not fly.

So.

Yeah.

If we're, okay, I'm going to stop right there.

Nevermind.

But you know, like if, if we do live in a conservative area and you know, if they

don't like us talking about the use of.

You know, marijuana, even though it's legal or they don't want us talking

about, you know, mental health, even though it's, we all, a large majority

of us suffer from it, you know,

or gaps in wealth, even in this county, which has now really caused a

lot more fentanyl use and all this other stuff, you know, like, yeah, it's so

much, absolutely so much.

Or, or I didn't, I didn't, I also didn't want anyone telling me like, Hey, nobody

knows who dog army is, so don't book him.

Right.

You know what I mean?

Right.

Or, hey, you know, let's make it a little more accessible to people

by not, uh, inviting metal bands.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because again, just because it's not your cup of tea doesn't mean that we

don't, I mean, we have a large metal community and they are fucking supportive.

They're great.

They are super great.

Shout out to Aaron, BCFC, Cody, all those folks.

Absolutely.

They, the, the metal crowd shows up, like, I know whenever I go to, to

a metal show, I know I'm going to be in good company there, you know?

So I don't, I didn't want anybody telling me like, no, I don't want you to have

hell pie or Roachzilla or, you know.

It was something I was also very, very conscious of when I was doing the

show because my wheelhouse is music.

This is what I know, right?

Do not want to be pigeonholed into something that is, to me, universal, which

is motivation, balancing life out, right?

Trying to figure out what you can take with you and learn through these

projects that you're doing, right?

And I've been very happy with being able to reach out to Sonny

for business people, right?

Interview Eric from Dog Army as...

a guitar club from great mills high school instead of kind of dog army.

We threw that in there though.

But that's, that's kind of the like athletes.

Like I've been able to interview a whole bunch of different things and that's what

I want to do because it is a universal like ambition, motivation, trying to

stay going in there is so universal.

But for me, like the music, that's what I know balances out the most.

But I also think that, you know, and I, and I have listened to a few

of, of your, of your episodes as well.

You're having conversation with a community, you're, you're having community

conversation and that's fine too.

Um, I, I think that's excellent.

Uh, you know, that you can go to Sonny and say, Hey, I want to talk

to you, or you can go to a doctor and say, Hey, I want to talk to you.

Right, right.

You know what I mean?

Right.

Um, or, or whoever, a musician, myself, whatever.

Yeah.

Um, that's, that's great.

Let's talk, let's talk as a community.

That's exactly, yeah, that's exactly right.

That's, uh, that's also another idea that I have.

So we'll, we'll, we'll talk about that later, but that is, that is

something that I was super self conscious of, uh, super like present

in mind of just not being pigeonholed.

So I would, I would also feel like the same kind of.

Constraints on it.

And this is also something for me, like what I think you brought up hobby.

Right.

So this isn't this project specifically is not money.

This project specifically is literally for me to like, talk to people that

I haven't seen figure out if I can get some motivation practices and

organization practices, like I had the infinite Daisy chains was on.

And one of them had like a whole Excel spreadsheet of what they were doing.

Like, this is violin practice at this time.

This is, I'm a professional.

I keep hitting

the mic stand.

Oh, that was him.

Not me.

But yeah, it, so it's stuff like as crazy as that would sound

as like someone putting their life in a spreadsheet, it helps them

and that's, that's something that.

I'm hoping I will take into myself because it's all, this is all about me.

Well, you almost, you almost let that go.

Yeah,

it's cause I was thinking like, it would be great.

It would be, it would be super great if somebody paid us to do

this, you know, that would be like the cherry on top, right?

It would be nice.

Yeah.

If, if I'm not, you know, just don't make me compromise and you can

pay me, don't make me compromise.

There are, however, like, I don't know if you've checked into this, but

there are like the state of Maryland is super generous with artists.

Yeah.

I need to, I need to really look at that again.

Um, so the Maryland,

the county just did just closed one up.

Yeah.

So the Maryland state art council is amazing.

Yep.

I think during the pandemic, St.

Mary's art council reached out to me.

And they were able to give me like a 250 grant.

That's cool.

And it was, it was so fucking cool.

Cause I don't, I'm pretty sure the woman that emailed me

was Wendy.

Oh, Wendy Davis.

She's fantastic.

I love her.

I've never met her.

Really?

I just met her last Friday.

Oh, I need to

meet her.

Just to say thanks because I don't, I don't think I had

any real support from anybody.

And then she had like randomly hit me up, email me or, or something and

I was like, Hey, we're doing grants.

You're doing great.

Do you want this?

And I was like, um, yes.

Yeah.

Wednesday is Wednesday's fantastic.

I love her.

I love her.

Uh, and, and again, I didn't know, I don't know how.

She must really like comb through social media or whatever has to write because

I don't know how I don't know how she found me Yeah, yeah, I don't know how

she like she sends me an email out of nowhere Well, I shouldn't say out of

nowhere But right as I'm getting ready to post the first episode of sound check

and she's like hey when you when you do that Send me an email or send me the link.

Please share it with me Do you would do you mind if I put it on the on the

newsletter and I'm like do I mind?

No, I, first of all, I don't mind.

But second of all, how did you find me?

Holy shit, girl.

You know?

Yeah.

Wednesday's fantastic.

So then she invited me to be the spotlight artist for last month.

And that was really cool.

And then we did the meet and greet last Friday and that was really cool.

And that's when I got to meet her.

It was cool.

Cause I turned around and she was, she was actually sitting in the

drum circle drumming and I was like.

Yeah, girl.

This is awesome.

This is awesome.

Yeah.

Uh, little, little kindred spirits.

Yeah.

I like that.

But yeah, I don't, I don't know how she found us, but thank you.

Thank you, Wednesday.

She's, she's fantastic.

Yeah.

And, um, I, I, that, that was just like a random act of like, oh,

support, kindness, all this stuff.

Yeah.

I was like, oh, that's,

that's all right.

But they, they're constantly like, Wednesday just sent me a link and,

and I put it, I had posted it.

Um, On, on my, on Southern Maryland music scene, socials, uh, for a 500 grand.

And, uh, aside from that, the state itself, I was able to get a grant.

It was one of those where I just, it happened so quickly.

Like I, I like, I heard about it on a Monday, complete fluke.

Wasn't looking for it.

I just, I had been talking to Shannon Wang from bird city

records and shop 53 and shop 53.

Um, and she was telling me, you know, like you should really look into these grants.

But she was, we were talking about grants for, for, for actual brick and mortar,

um, for venues and things like that.

But I went looking and I saw that there was an artist grant and I

was like, what do I have to do?

And it was on a Monday and it was due on a Wednesday.

So I spent Tuesday that day in between when I found out about it and when

it was due writing a proposal and it wasn't very long or thorough.

And part of me was like, do I even qualify?

Because What am I, what am I doing?

Like they wanted me to know, they wanted to know what I'm doing.

And I'm like, okay, well I'm taking photos and I'm, and I am, you know,

kind of elevating artists and I'm doing a podcast and I'm like, like you

said, all the seven things or eight things, you know, and then finally I was

like, well, you got to pick one girl.

You can't, you can't just tell them you're, you can't tell them,

but there has to be a reason why you're applying for the grant.

There's got to be kind of like a

vision.

Right.

So I was like, is podcasting even an art form?

You know, I kind of struggle with that one.

Like, okay, I'm Yes, I'm sitting down and I'm interviewing people, but I'm not.

I'm talking into a microphone.

Exactly.

It's not, like, this isn't high art or anything.

Right.

That's, that's the same feeling that I had when I applied for one.

Uh huh.

Uh, and I went into, like, submit my audio files and, like, I put, like,

a best of reel together, so to speak.

And I had to, like, write the description of what I'm talking about, of why...

This is important to like everything else.

I don't, I didn't get anything from it, but I can't remember if it was a grant

or like a competition or like, yeah, it was the second round or the first

round to be like considered for the grant or something, something like that.

I don't remember, but I do remember submitting my audio files

being like, this is the silliest fucking thing I've ever done.

I'm not doing

anything.

I felt the same way, but I was like, okay, well, we'll,

we'll, we'll see what happens.

You know, obviously there are people out there who are like.

They're painting and they're sculpting and they're making music and they're writing

scripts and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You know, and yes, video editing is an art form, but like, is it enough?

You know, it's, it's all this like.

Is what I'm doing important?

Right.

Because then, then you look at the nasty pair of words that I don't

necessarily like as content creator.

Mm hmm.

Right?

So what is that?

That's fucking anything that you want it to be, right?

So that's cool,

but Yeah, I got up this morning and I made a milkshake in front of my camera.

That's content creating.

And I don't Yeah.

To me, that's like, it's nails on a chalkboard for me, right?

You didn't even have to think about it.

Anyway, um,

well, so one of, one of the reasons why I started the show is

cause I like, I ran out of music going commuting, ran out of music,

can't, right.

It's like, like, it's like reaching the end of the internet.

Yeah.

So I, uh, I started listening to podcasts and I was like,

Oh, all these dudes are white.

With a microphone.

I, I can do that.

I'm white and me, right?

There's gotta be someone there.

Uh, they have an audience.

You know, and that's, that's how silly this whole fucking thing is.

Right.

But I love it.

Like, it's great.

Well, and, and for me, it was like I mean, I think by now people, some people know

that this started because again, talking to Shannon Wang and when, before I even

met her in person and I was calling her to, you know, book me an appointment

for a tattoo and she was playing the specials on shout out to the shirt.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm actually wearing, I did, this was not planned, but I am wearing a

special shirt, but they were, she was playing the specials in the shop and

I was like, Oh, the specials right on.

Um, cause.

You don't meet many people who like the specials, right?

And, um, she was like, Oh, I'm actually opening up a vinyl shop here in La Plata.

And I was like, holy shit, that's awesome.

Yeah.

Having just started to get back into vinyl myself, you know,

and somehow, I don't know.

I don't know exactly how.

Maybe I told her that I've, that I think like, thanks for

letting me know I'll follow you on Southern Maryland music scene.

And she, she's maybe that's how I don't remember exactly.

But somehow we figured out that she figured out that I was Southern

Maryland music scene and she had already been following me.

She's like, Oh, well, uh, you know, I'm, I'm Shannon, blah, blah, blah.

And she was so excited.

She was like, hold on a second.

I want to talk more about this Southern Maryland music scene.

Hold on a second.

She put me on hold for a couple minutes and then she comes back and she was

like, okay, tell me all about it.

Is this a podcast?

And I was like, no, but it can be, you know, like right away I was like,

Oh shit, this is a possibility here.

Yeah.

I

think she's rad.

I love her.

And Mona and Erica,

the whole two shops with the vinyl record shop, uh, with Erica,

with bird city records and then shot 53

woman owned

woman, tattoo shop, which is awesome to have art

galleries, all this stuff.

Right.

And from what I can tell with.

Everything that you've done in concert almost with them, right?

With like, the port, uh, Music on a Porch Day,

right?

Music on a Porch Day.

And then Which I didn't really have any I mean, if I'm honest I really

didn't have anything to do with it.

I, I, I suggested a couple bands and

Do you remember the marketing part of this and like the promotions

that you do and the photos and videos?

Yeah, so you're part of it.

But it's interesting to feel supported.

I bet you there's still a whole bunch of kids out there that have

no idea who any of us are, right?

That are still in this county that are like, I don't have any kind of

support for anything that I want to do.

Right.

And that's, that's what I always circle it back to.

I think I derailed you enough.

That's all right.

Yeah.

We'll talk about more how Shannon is great and then how

she gave you the podcast idea.

So no, it was just, it was just that simple.

It was just that simple.

And, and after coming up to see her for the first time, like actually meet

her for the first time and we started talking and I felt like, holy shit.

There's a lot of support here, right?

Like she was right away.

She's like the corner man, you know Just massaging my shoulders go forth and right

concrete, you know yeah, my thank you my hype men and woman I have woman and yeah,

she it was like just talking to her gave me so many ideas and so many like Things

to look at differently, you know, like she was the one who said let's look at

look at the grants, you know Possibility

right, which is nothing that I would have even thought about right then

even when I did get that one from Wendy Mary's I had Like no real thought of,

of this being an option for me, right?

I'm watching YouTube videos.

I'm listening to shows.

I'm like, Oh, I have to sell ads.

I have to get an audience to sell ads.

So what the fuck do I do to get an audience?

I spend money on Facebook for Facebook ads.

No, none of this shit matters.

I'll just talk into a microphone.

Hopefully someone will listen and we'll go.

And

you know what?

But that's the thing.

Like if you have, if, if you Um, if you have a good

conversation, people will listen.

And that, and that's part of like what, what I try to do with Soundcheck is,

you know, have a good conversation with, with my, with my friends.

They're not even my guests.

They're my friends.

I am a curious person by nature.

Like I, I really do want to hear your story and where you came from

and what makes you tick and why you like the things that you like.

So that part wasn't, you know, like, can I do this?

I can ask you questions all day long.

I mean, we can talk for, we can talk for hours, but would anybody listen?

And in the beginning I was kind of afraid, like afraid is a strong word.

In the beginning I was a little bit like, well, it'll probably

be like my mom, if that, right.

Right.

You know, and then whoever I'm interviewing and their family, that's

probably what's going to happen.

So.

To have like 500, almost 500 hits on my very first interview.

Yeah, it's got to feel good, right?

Holy shit.

Absolutely.

And again, there are no expectations here.

Absolutely none.

So had it been a hundred people, I would have been like, fuck yeah, dude.

Yeah.

Right?

No, it's, it's been a super wild ride.

It's been, I'm finding myself doing things that I never.

Imagine I would be doing, and I'm, I consider myself extremely, extremely

fortunate to be able to do this, to be able to talk to, like I said, my

friends to come here and, and to have met you and, and talk to you to be

able to go to shows, to experience the things that I'm experiencing.

I am extremely grateful and fortunate for it.

And I guess that is part of what we were talking about earlier, you know, like.

What makes Southern Maryland music scene different sets it apart from other things.

And it's that excitement.

It hasn't gone away.

Genuinely excited.

Genuinely feel like, I was just saying, fortunate to be able to do this.

And just showing

up.

Yeah, that's, that's all it takes, right?

Just showing up.

If you want to, you know, support your big favorite band, go listen to A Little One.

Correct.

Or go show up at a Little Ones concert.

And you never know, like, what you're going to find, right?

Because like, I, yeah, you may come across, you may come out and see

a band that you never thought you would absolutely love and have to,

you know, down, like, changing scene.

Yeah, that was a complete surprise to me and people are like, Oh, yeah, we've

been seeing them since blah, blah, blah, blah, and I'm like, right, I just saw

them today for the first time and went home and downloaded everything they

put out, you know, on iTunes so that I could listen to them in my car and

whatnot.

Yeah, they're, they're fantastic.

This is great.

I think they might be working on some new stuff.

So hopefully I saw that.

Hopefully that'll

go through and they're playing.

I don't know.

I mean, I don't know when this episode is going to drop.

Whenever, but September 30th, they're playing, uh, the VFW and that's

right.

I'm glad that you mentioned that.

Cause I forgot about it.

So I'm, I'm doing that.

Um, BEI reading rocks festival for, uh, to support BEI boundless expectations,

Inc, which is a phenomenal organization.

I'm so happy to have partnered up with them and to be able to

help in whatever capacity I can.

Because they do phenomenal work for kids with learning disabilities,

especially dyslexia, which is a subject near and dear to my heart.

So I can't wait.

I mean, it's changing scene.

I, and I was very peculiar about this lineup, putting changing

scene with the runaway guns.

Squidink was supposed to play, but they, Jordan had a previous, uh, commitment.

So he couldn't, he couldn't make it.

That would have been They're just busy all the time.

They are.

They are.

They're very busy.

But the cherry on the top would have been Squidink.

But, um, so yeah, changing scene, the runaway guns, Buffalo Velcro.

I'm just, just gonna, well, amateur hour and landing Mary.

Yeah, so Landing, Landing Mary is great.

I think that's Matt.

Yep, Matt Henshaw.

Yeah, so I, I, uh, I met him at Red Oak in La Plata years and years and years ago.

Years ago.

And what I was really happy to see is I think he was one, one of the

few that kind of took the pandemic and ran with it a little bit.

Where he was able to do some of those virtual shows, which is fucking awesome.

So I'm really happy to see that.

And I'm really happy to see them come back.

So I'm stoked for that.

I'm

stoked to see.

They're dropping an album here pretty soon.

So I'm really excited for that.

Yeah, I'm, I'm looking

forward to it.

Yeah.

And Matt also did, did the sound for our last Beatle show.

Hell yeah, okay.

I know it wasn't easy.

I mean, my band had an orchestra for crying out loud.

So he had to figure out how to mic.

You know, violins, violas, cellos, trumpets, you know, the whole

nine and I know that was not easy.

So many fucking microphones.

Yeah.

So many.

I want to, I have like four questions that I want to kind of wrap with.

Go for it.

So, uh, one of the, the, the first ones we're going to be, um, what has, what

do you think started your love of music?

Oh, that's

easy.

I just, it's, uh, yeah, this is.

Kind of the timing is perfect.

I just posted a picture the other day on my personal Instagram I Jay was

out in in LA and he brought me back a copy of Frampton comes alive for those

of you who don't know Peter Frampton and My I posted a picture of it saying

like Man, I, this is, you, you got to have this album in your collection.

Like this is a classic, right?

And my mom was, my mom's response was you and I used to listen to this

record when you were just days old.

That's awesome.

So something I didn't know, right.

Obviously.

I don't remember that far back, but it was cool to hear

to first to see it like, okay.

So I, it's a classic.

Yes.

I've always loved this album.

Never had it in vinyl, but I have it in other various formats.

So, I've been around music my entire life and that is not a, uh, an exaggeration.

My mother's side of the family is full of musicians.

Her oldest brother, my grandparents firstborn, is the symphony conductor for

the, the National Symphony in Panama.

Oh, that's amazing.

So that just, that just, yeah.

Yeah.

Music has always been around.

Sunday dinners at my grandparents house was guitars would come out, they can

all harmonize like ridiculous harmonies, harmonies that don't exist, but they throw

them in there and it's like, Oh shit.

Um, they all play instruments.

So yeah, there was no way that I was escaping the music.

It's, it's in the DNA.

First of all, second of all, it was.

There's always music.

My grandmother was, my grandmother never performed.

This is, we believe this is the side.

My grandmother was pitch perfect.

Really?

Pitch perfect.

Timing, not so much.

She doesn't have much of the rhythm, but But she was pitch perfect.

Give her a note, she'll be alright.

And she was always singing.

And, and I grew up, I, I spent a lot of time with my mom's mom.

Okay, I'm with my maternal grandmother.

And so she always had music in the house music and baseball I got my

love of baseball from her as well.

All right

Okay,

oh Come on, you know like baseball

it is probably the most boring

game.

No, I love baseball But I would that's

another cover.

Yeah, I went to a Nationals game fell asleep.

Oh god.

I love baseball.

So I'll take you to a baseball game and I, and I could probably change your mind.

I, I make it pretty exciting when I go to

baseball.

I do.

I do legitimately like, I think the radio

announcers.

So that's what we did.

So that's what my grandmother, I would listen to the radio.

I mean, she would put games on at night, like when we were going to bed.

So, um, and her little.

Her little teeny tiny radio, you know, that's how that, I mean,

like I said, couldn't escape it.

I've been, and I was in choir since the time I was six and music classes

until I was in the sixth grade.

And then it all fell apart when I came to middle school, when I.

When I came to the United States, when I migrated to the United States, you know,

there was, there was no music lessons and there were no, I came, I came to the

United States with my father's parents.

Um, and not to say that they don't enjoy music, they do, but the Sure,

it's not the same kind of passion.

So yeah, it, it kind of changed a little bit and, and it affected

that, the fact that like.

I'm 46 years old and I'm still playing the guitar like I'm in a late teen

because I don't have that, um, discipline.

Sure, sure.

Okay.

To, like, actually sit down and play for, like, 5 to 10 minutes a day, even.

Yeah.

I'm doing it now because I'm singing more with Becky Titus and stuff like that.

Right.

So now I'm like, you gotta get your shit together, girl.

Um, no, I'm, I'm, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but.

Over the pandemic, I started, I picked up the guitar again and, and just

really started to learn a lot of things so that it prepared me without me

even knowing it prepared me for now.

Yeah.

But I still wish, I mean, for playing as long as I played, I wish I, I

wish I could play like, like a Dan Tellis or, I mean, nobody's Dan

Tellis, but, but one can wish, right?

I mean,

do you, do you even want to like, that's so much work.

Like, do you have to, do you have to, can you skip the work he makes?

That's, that's the question.

Can you skip the work?

He makes it look so effortless.

Yeah.

If I could like, dude, if I could like rub a lamp and be like, right, right.

What are your three wishes?

Uh, yeah, I wanna play guitar.

Like David Gilmore.

Duh.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, gimme a back that doesn't suck.

And then like, oh, right.

I, I like to shred.

That would be cool.

Or whatever, like weird fucking noises that I can make outta guitar.

That, that'd be, that'd be what I want to do.

For sure.

Like I, I, I grew up and like basically was like raised ish on like

all of the, the, the discord shit.

Right.

Okay, cool.

I started, it's so weird.

My, my first concert that my mom told me about was a country

artist, leaf Garrett or Garrett.

All right, cool.

I think I don't remember just like what you were talking about.

Right.

And then when I was, I think a freshman going into a sophomore or

sophomore going into my junior year, I went to my, uh, grandparents in

Oregon and I saw Styx and Pat Benatar.

Oh, right on.

My sister was a huge Pat Benatar fan.

Of course.

I got a picture of her with her.

And Pat Benatar, My sister was probably like 10.

Okay, at most.

Maybe that sounds right.

I'm pretty sure Pat was like the same size.

Oh, wow

She's a little Teeny tiny she's like 411 or some shit Oh, wow,

probably I'm probably butchering that but it doesn't matter because

when when you're a teenager Yeah, and you're adult looks like your child

like that's but she was amazing.

Her voice was perfect.

Everything was Amazing.

Mm-Hmm.

, uh, sticks was really cool.

Yeah.

Which I was not expecting.

Right.

'cause I'm like a shithead teenager.

I'm just like, this is dumb.

Yeah.

This is so lay

man.

Why am I this

new sticks.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they had a spinning keyboard.

Oh yeah.

Stage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like they, they killed it because, you know, sticks is like one of

those bands, I mean like back in the seventies they were your.

I don't know, you're Motley I'm not gonna say that they're like Motley Crue, but

that big stadium production, you know, things rotating, people coming out in

capes, that kind of shit, you know.

Right, and this was at a county fair.

Oh wow, okay.

Or a state fair, I think.

It was Jackson County Fair, I think.

And they just fucking killed it.

It was awesome.

It was amazing.

And I really appreciated that.

And then when I got home, I think I had started picking up.

So I started with country, so to speak, right?

So raised nineties country, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, um, all that shit.

And then my stepdad at the time got me into like eighties thrash.

Oh, right on.

And then I said, fuck all that.

And when it just, when it's a punk.

Right.

So Fugazi, Minor Threat, that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

So it started, it

started with the Buzzcocks.

Okay.

And then all the way up to once I found Discord Records.

And once I found that first Fugazi, my first Fugazi experience was Hello Morning.

It's a three song EP.

Yep.

And it sounds nothing like what, what else they've done.

Because it's just like the, it's such a cacophony of sound.

Yeah.

And it was great.

I had the same experience with Rancid where my first Rancid record was

It's a minute long or like 10 minutes long or some shit like that.

Fantastic ish, complete departure of all of this shit that they did before.

Right.

There was no reggae.

There was no, there was no fucking nothing.

And it was just like aggressive and it's not, it's not, it was axiom.

Okay.

That was my first time listening to Matt Freeman play bass like that.

And he soloed on the base.

Like he does.

He does a little bit in, uh, Maxwell Murders, which is

just fucking amazing, too.

But I was like, oh, a bass can sound like that.

Let's figure out what else we can figure out.

Cause there's so many different sounds.

And then as soon as I got, like, the abrasiveness from Discord, that was it.

And that was Fugazi, that was Medications, that was Farrakat,

that was all of Q, Q and not U.

All of that shit that I just gravitated so much towards.

That like I found it was weird and I think this is a real thing because

you hear that you don't really change your music Style after like 15.

Okay Still listen to the same shit.

I think

that's still tracks.

I had so many I have so many like I mean I can If you go, if you look

through my phone, you will see pieces by Mozart pieces, by Bach, um, and then,

you know, Slayer, , and there we go.

Yeah.

You know, Pantera and Rage Against the Machine and yeah.

Childish Gambino and Rancid Queensland, stone Age, I mean, like, it just, it's

all, it's all over the place for me.

Oh, but it was like that.

I mean, yeah,

I think, um, I think for me still hip hop, hip hop and like, there's some

experimental digital stuff that, but, uh, that has like the most free and like the

most innovation that I've seen recently.

It feels, it feels like there's a lot more than what

we listened to.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, just.

Hell, right now, right now I'm just very much into, you

know, listening to local stuff.

Like I said, Squid Ink, Changing Scene, The Pink Dream.

I listen to that Pink Dream album, man, at least once a week.

Sometimes I'll go like a couple of weeks without listening to it,

but I just love the damn thing.

So, but right now I'm like focusing on just.

Listening more to, to our local guys, you know, our local scene.

I like that.

Yeah.

All right.

So what band really triggered it for you?

Cause you asked this question to most of your other folks.

Uh huh.

Oh my

God.

Yeah.

That is so weird.

Um, to be put on this side of that.

Yeah.

Cause you have a tattoo that has four of them.

Five.

Five of them.

My bad.

And then you're wearing a special shirt.

Yeah.

On, on those lines.

I want you to answer that question, but I also want to, have you seen Renfield yet?

No, I haven't, but I want to, it's on, it's on my, it's on my to

do list.

We'll skip that over, but yeah, I want to, I want to put you in the hot

seat.

Okay.

So the record that did it for me was Outlando's D'Amour by The Police.

And it was the first record that I felt that was mine.

Like I, like I went to the store.

There was a, there's a store in Panama.

That's kind of like an end all be all like you can get shoes.

Walmart.

But like, better, because it's in Panama?

No, not even better.

It's like, it was like a shopping mall, like an entire shopping mall, all in one.

Okay.

Like, many floors.

Okay, okay.

Like, Macy's in New York back in the day, you know, shit like that.

Okay, okay.

They had, like, I, I would go there at the beginning, before

the school year began, to get my uniforms, my shoes, all of that shit.

Right, right, right.

Because we, we wore uniforms to school.

Right.

And I would always stop by the record.

And so the reason I picked up the police was because my oldest cousin,

um, she was a teenager around the time when I picked up and she was into the

police and I heard her one time she put a cassette in and it was so lonely.

And I was like, I love this music.

This is.

So good.

I love this.

I love this sound.

I didn't even know why but I just did and so I went and I got their first Or second

that was their first that was their first one So they they had a mix of

literally everything that they were doing.

Yeah.

Yeah,

so it was it was a little punkish It was you know, it was some reggae