BiB: Zahna – From Kidney Failure to Korn’s Label: The Unbelievable Comeback Story

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What is going on? It is Adam. Welcome back to Bringing It Backwards, a podcast

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where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories

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of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had a

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chance to hang out with Zana over Zoom Video.

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Zana was born in Monterey, Mexico and then

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moved to the Cleveland, Ohio area when she was very young.

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Lived there for a little while, then moved to Texas. When her

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family moved to Texas, her dad wanted her to be more immersed in her

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culture and kind of remember where she grew up, where she came from, from. So

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she moved to Mexico and spent a year in Mexico. So

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she talked about that time in her life moving to then

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Houston area. That's where she started really getting into music and

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bands and playing in bands and doing battle of the bands. She talked about

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recording her first EP that ended up getting her

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a job singing for a band that already had some success. So

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she brought that EP to the band and she became their new singer and that

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was their new. Their new EP as well. We hear about that. We hear

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about her leaving that band, being diagnosed with a

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kidney disease that left her to have to get a

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transplant, and her mom was the donor for a transplant for her. And

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so she talks about that, what, what it was like going through all of that,

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putting out her first album under Zana

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totally independently, the success of that album. And we hear

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about how she recently signed to to Brian the Head

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Welch's label of corn and all about the new single,

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which is called Pile of Pills. You can watch our interview with

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Zana on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it

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Backwards. It'd be amazing if you subscribe to our

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YouTube channel and like us on Facebook and follow us on

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Instagram X and TikTok at

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bringing back pod. And if you're listening to this on Spotify or

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Apple Music Google Podcast, please rate and review the

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podcast there. It helps us out tremendously. We'd

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appreciate your support if you follow and subscribe to our podcast.

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Wherever you listen to podcasts, we're bringing. It backwards

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with Zana.

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Bringing it backwards.

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Bringing it backwards. Bringing it backwards.

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Bringing it backwards. Bringing it backwards.

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Hey, Zana, how are you? Hey, how's it going?

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I love your microphone. That's awesome. Oh, yeah. Amazon is just

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$75. Really? Yeah. Lights

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up. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Like, I think it changes colors too.

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I forgot how to do it, but yeah, I hope it's not just a

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gamer. Yeah, they had white too, but I was like,

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keep it classy, keep it black. That's awesome.

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Yeah, so you're Adam. I'm Adam. Very nice to

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meet you. Nice to meet you, too.

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Thank you so much for doing this. Oh, thank you for having me. This is

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a huge honor. I'm really excited. I'm excited to hear your story.

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Yeah. So this is just about you and your journey in music. And

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obviously, we'll talk about the. The new song that's out and

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everything else you have coming up and signing with

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Brian's label. That's amazing. Yeah. Thank you so much. I

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don't even know where to begin. There's just such a long backstory. So.

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Yeah, let me know where to start. I mean, I think about. Yeah, go

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ahead. I was just gonna say, how about with where. Where were you born and

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raised? I was born in Mexico. I am Mexican. I

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was born in Monterrey, and my father

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had a job transfer in the United States. So we all

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packed up. My. My mom had me, and I was still

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a baby. So, yeah, I grew up most of my life here,

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kind of from state to state just for my dad's work. But, yeah,

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US Citizen now. Very proud of that. And my whole life

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I've loved music. Just discovered it

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originally through musical theater. And then I started growing up and getting

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more involved in rock music and the rock community and touring, and that's

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kind of where I ended up, I guess, because I am not in musical

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theater anymore. Wow. Okay. So you born

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in Monterey and then you moved to where in the States? Like, where

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did you ever have, like, kind of a. More of a home base for a

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bit of time, or were you moving pretty often? Yeah, my childhood was in

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Ohio, actually, and it was far up north there. So I just

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came from two different worlds. It's kind of weird, you know, have people ask

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me where I'm from, because I'm like, I'm from the north and the south. I

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don't know. Right, right. What part of Ohio? So

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Cleveland area? Yeah, it was really hard to find other Mexicans,

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you know? Yeah. My

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teachers didn't really believe I was Mexican either. They were like, oh, you're from New

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Mexico? And I'm like, no. You know, but it's

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okay. I just. I look very white, I guess. I guess I got a lot

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of the European genetics there. But, yeah, I

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moved down to Texas once my dad achieved citizenship. He was

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like, I'm getting out of the north. It's too cold. He moved to Texas to

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be closer to everybody there, and he actually. That was like

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when I was about to start middle school, and my dad was like, but I

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Have different plans for you, AKA me. And he was like, I'm going to go

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ahead and let you live with your aunt for like, one more year in Mexico

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so you can, like, remember all your language, want you to go to school, remember

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how to read and write and everything. So, yeah, in sixth

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grade, I actually spent it kind of as an exchange student in Mexico to

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relearn all my Spanish and everything and where I came from, which was a really

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pivotal year for me to kind of understand who I was and my culture because

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I had missed so much as a kid. So. Yeah. And after that kind of

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everything changed. I came back to Texas. I started getting really involved in church

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and school and created my own rock band in high school, like

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everybody does. And I was, you know, competing with all the boys

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who talk crap and thought their band was better. And, you know, I'm just

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excited because I'm here with Brian Head Welch now, so they can't say anything.

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There you go. That's that. Okay, so you. Wait, what? I have

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my family. I have. My parents are both from the Cleveland area. I'm just curious

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what part. Oh, yeah. So Chesterland and Euclid, I think

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Euclid. We was first and then we moved into Chesterland and then, yeah, we moved

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to Texas for like, after like 10 years of there. Yeah, my family's

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like, more west of Cleveland, like

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Amherst, lyria, Lorraine area. I don't know if you. Okay. Yeah, I. I

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don't really remember. I didn't drive when I was there. Yeah, of course. Okay.

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And then Texas and then moved to Mexico, though. So you

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spent a year. You had been in the States. That's all you really probably knew

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or remembered right at that. Yeah, I had a rough time there in the beginning.

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I mean, I understood Spanish, but my speaking was so limited.

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I think I, like, failed all my classes, obviously, except English

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rocked and Eng. Class, you know, Let me show you all

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something. Yeah. But by the end of the school year, I ended up starting to

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think in Spanish. You know, it just became too natural and I hadn't dreamed

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yet in Spanish because for so long my. My first language was. Was English. But,

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yeah, started finally getting better the second semester. Starting to be

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able to do homework and read and write better and speak way better. So

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really, you know, scary for a kid. But at the same time, I think I

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built a lot of independence in myself and, you know, just made

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me really, like, I guess independent in the sense that, like, I

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tour now, you know, like I'm somewhere every day is different. And

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I think that if you can handle that as a kid, you know, and you

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start to like it, it really brings a lot of nurture, nurturing into your

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adulthood. Keeps you independent and kind of self centered, or not

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self centered, but just you have equilibrium in yourself. You know who you are,

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you can handle yourself. And so it was a great. It was a great enrichment

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experience. And nothing like retaining your native language is

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so important for me. So. Yeah. Wish I could practice more now.

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That's cool, though. So you. Yeah. Then you come back to Texas and you go

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to high school in Texas? Is that what you said? Yeah. Yeah. So I went

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to. I actually went to a lot of different schools because my family was kind

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of just getting started, like settling into Texas, I think. Like, I went to three

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different middle schools. Like, we were just trying to figure out where we wanted to

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live. My mom's job changes too, so working all that out. But in high

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school, yeah, I finally settled. We finally found a house we really liked

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when I started high school, so I got to go to one high school, thank

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God, and just kind of really start over again

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and meet all these people. And I ended up finding some other kids that really

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were good at music. And I was like, man, I hear all this music in

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my head all the time. Let's write it. Let's start a band. Let's, you know,

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they got battle the band. That's all we lived for, was battle the band at

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school every year. Just to like have the street

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cred of winning didn't mean anything. But

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it was a big deal in high school. And my band never won. We

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never won first. Sometimes we didn't even place. I think the only

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time I ever won was when I went, like, solo and I like, performed as

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an acoustic act. I think, like, I finally got second place one time, you

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know, it was. Such a band was holding you down, I

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guess. I guess. No, I'm just kidding.

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No. There were just a lot of bands in competition, but for some reason. Yeah.

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Acoustic by myself, I placed. So that was frustrating.

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Sometimes I was like, but I want to be in a band. Yeah, yeah.

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No, for sure. With music. You said you were. You started off

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in musical theater. Yeah. So, like. Yeah. How did. How did you

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come. You know? Doesn't sound like you come from, like a music, you

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know, like, household in the sense of, like, parents that are doing

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that professionally. Not professionally. My dad and like, he.

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Man, they call it carne asadas, you know, where, like, everybody's on the

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Mexican barbecue and everyone's playing guitar and just singing and

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mariachi's like, he. He had a. He taught me guitar. He knew Spanish

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classical guitar. And, you know, Ye. Yeah, I

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don't know Spanish classical guitar. But he would be the worship leader at our church,

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and he would put a guitar on my hands. I start to learn chords, and

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I just. I guess I just clung to it a lot faster than

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anything else was guitar. My sisters were playing piano. But as

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for the musical theater side, like, my school put on really big productions.

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They kind of took Broadway plays that were meant for kids, and then they used

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the whole school to cast. So when I was like,

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just starting in that school, I remember, like, being in second grade and like,

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doing the mass auditions, and usually the younger kids just didn't get any parts or

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just not good. But I remember I was like 7 years

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old, and then I was advancing to callbacks, and I'm like, I don't know what

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I did. And they didn't

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have a part for me, so they created a lead part because they really wanted

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to use me. So every year after that, in elementary school, I started to get

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bigger roles and stuff until I landed the lead role my last year,

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which was the Ugly Duckling. And so there was a lot of musical

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numbers in Is a Broadway play. They have one

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for kids, but, you know, the school, all the parents, the pta, they would put

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on this huge production, and I would have to memorize, like, the whole

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play and sing and do all the rehearsals. And so

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after that, when I moved to Mexico, I stopped doing that, But

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I still remember loving musical theater. I wanted to try Broadway, but

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then I just started to get. Listen to these rock bands that, like, my

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sister, her boyfriend at the time was listening to,

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and I was just hearing what they would listen to in the car,

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and I would get addicted to, like, these emo bands. And I'd be like, oh,

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my God. Something about the guitar is just so amazing. So then I started getting

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into the rock culture Warped Tour and everything and hearing

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songs in my head all the time that I wanted to hear back to myself.

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So that's when I started to get with the band. When I left for

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college. I ended up getting a scholarship my last year, and my

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parents were like, okay, well, this money we were gonna give you for

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schooling, you know, you covered already with your scholarship. So here's the

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money. Go, go. Here's your graduation present. Go do something

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with it. And I was like, I want to go record an album. And it

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was only like $2,000. But I went and I recorded my

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first EP and the producer I was working with was like,

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are you gonna do anything with this? Because this is like, pretty good. And I

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was like, well, I don't have a band anymore. And I

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started, you know, I was finishing up my last semester of college and I

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was, I know this is good music, but I am

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just one person. I don't know what I'm doing in this musical world.

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And so I started looking at other bands, kind of watching other

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bands that were already functioning, touring and in business. And one of the

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bands that I remember listening to as a teen, I looked at

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them because they used to be like an all girl rock band, screaming. And

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right when I was leaving high school, they were auditioning new singers. I was

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like, man, I wish I could do that, but my parents will never let me.

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Like, I know I have to go to college. So I didn't even try. And

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right when I looked them up again, as I was finishing my last semester of

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college, I found out they were auditioning a singer again. And I was

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like, you gotta be kidding me. So I kind of. It was kind of a

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joke. I, like, kind of like, just like submitted a video. I was like, they're

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not gonna pick me, but you know, I want to try. And they

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got back to me like, hey, we really want to meet you. Like, will you

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come meet us? And you know, kind of check out like what we do. And

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I was like, they didn't know that I had some recordings already made that I

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was looking for like a band to like, you know, get this show on the

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road. Let's like release this and tour off this. Let's do this. So when I

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met them, I showed them my recordings and they're like, this would actually

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put us ahead a lot because we lost a lot of time without a singer.

224
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And so it was this marriage, just like this perfect fit where, like, I'll be

225
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your new singer. Here's our new ep. Let's you guys have everything

226
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I need. And I think literally that summer I was on the road

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with a new band, selling my new cd. Like, it

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was, it was, it was crazy. So that was three years, that EP.

229
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That you had recorded before you even went into college.

230
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Yeah. And. And you know, and they were, they were okay with it. They're like,

231
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it's just five songs, you know, it'll get us through. We'll learn this material. You

232
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learned some of our old material and I did. And we just, you know, did

233
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a mixed set like that with some of the new songs and some of their

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old songs that they, you know, that their fans really enjoyed and they're

235
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cool. With the fact you had already recorded everything. I mean, I think it was

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a move for them that they realized could save a lot of time

237
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to, you know, get 100%, get their foot out again that,

238
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you know, they had lost a singer right before that a couple years ago again

239
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too. So it was like, okay, we really need to make this thing work.

240
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Let's just, yeah, you had some leverage. You're like, okay, here we go. I did

241
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give you this ep and. I'll say they had a tour bus and I was

242
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like, let's go. So it was a very

243
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strange marriage of two separate projects that kind

244
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of just became one. So I kind of just like took this huge

245
00:14:54,810 --> 00:14:58,610
shortcut that, you know, later I realized how,

246
00:14:58,610 --> 00:15:01,730
how political it is to be in a band. So I'll tell you that story

247
00:15:01,730 --> 00:15:05,430
here in a bit. But I, I got my feet wet in a touring artist

248
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as a touring band and, you know, got on my first three month tour. It

249
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was like, okay, everything that I had played around with in high school, it's,

250
00:15:12,950 --> 00:15:16,030
it's real life now. You gotta actually go do this. This is your job.

251
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And so, yeah, just being in a band and

252
00:15:20,430 --> 00:15:24,230
traveling the country and meeting all these other bands and just like

253
00:15:24,230 --> 00:15:27,950
getting in the network was really, really a huge time saver. So I

254
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was, I was 21 when that happened. Actually this year I'm gonna

255
00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:35,320
be 32. So now it's a decade of actually being in the industry

256
00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:39,000
for about 10 years, putting in the work, you know.

257
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And unfortunately my band did end up

258
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breaking up kind of. I think they mutinied me. I don't know what

259
00:15:46,879 --> 00:15:50,680
happened. There's a big, big story about that

260
00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:54,360
that was really seeing kind of the ugly side of the music industry.

261
00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:58,260
And I've talked a lot about it in other interviews and, you know,

262
00:15:58,260 --> 00:16:01,660
not trying to make a bad, bad blood. Either way, it all worked out. I

263
00:16:01,660 --> 00:16:05,500
ended up going solo. I've been Zana for seven since

264
00:16:05,500 --> 00:16:09,340
2017. And I put out one record. I got, I got

265
00:16:09,340 --> 00:16:13,020
picked up like after one song. So I was like, oh, okay, I

266
00:16:13,020 --> 00:16:16,420
don't feel bad anymore. But my band, I'm still doing it here. So

267
00:16:17,380 --> 00:16:20,700
a label picked me up on my debut record for Zana and I was like,

268
00:16:20,700 --> 00:16:24,540
okay, this is, this is weird. I keep getting these shortcuts.

269
00:16:24,540 --> 00:16:27,700
I keep, you know, doing well. I keep kind of like going into these new

270
00:16:27,700 --> 00:16:31,440
circles every time something bad happen, happen. So, you know, let's just keep

271
00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:35,280
going. And then my first debut album

272
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as Ana was released in 2018. And

273
00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,640
in 2016, I found out that I had a genetic

274
00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:46,360
disease. It was around the time my band broke up, too, and found out

275
00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:50,160
I was going through kidney failure and that my kidneys were

276
00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:53,880
failing and I was 24 years old. And, yeah,

277
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that was huge. That was. That was like. Okay. Yeah.

278
00:16:57,470 --> 00:17:01,190
So I guess I. Well, not I guess,

279
00:17:02,470 --> 00:17:06,230
I suppose I've been born with this disease that I didn't know I had. And

280
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what it is, it's called medullary kidney disease. It's genetic. It's

281
00:17:09,990 --> 00:17:13,710
basically a misprint in your DNA that doesn't produce a certain protein

282
00:17:13,710 --> 00:17:17,550
that your kidneys need to break down toxins. So over time, the

283
00:17:17,550 --> 00:17:21,190
toxins just build up and they keep scarring your kidneys and

284
00:17:21,750 --> 00:17:25,550
damaging them. And your kidneys are really

285
00:17:25,550 --> 00:17:28,850
resilient organs. So, like, you. You don't really feel

286
00:17:28,930 --> 00:17:32,610
sick until, like, they're really, really, really bad. Yeah. My best

287
00:17:32,610 --> 00:17:36,450
friend is going through dialysis right now. Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. I

288
00:17:36,450 --> 00:17:40,250
was really fortunate not to have to go through dialysis because we caught it

289
00:17:40,250 --> 00:17:43,850
in time. But. Yeah. So in 2016, my

290
00:17:43,850 --> 00:17:47,690
band, they broke. It was like, really right before our first

291
00:17:47,690 --> 00:17:51,530
international debut in Germany. It was, like, such a mess. I think

292
00:17:51,530 --> 00:17:54,770
they thought they were going to fire me and just, like, take another singer.

293
00:17:56,050 --> 00:17:59,870
That didn't happen. They didn't do that than. But, yeah,

294
00:17:59,870 --> 00:18:03,230
it all kind of fell apart due to some management we were working with. And.

295
00:18:03,950 --> 00:18:07,710
Yeah. So that year 2016, I also met my now

296
00:18:07,710 --> 00:18:11,390
husband. Part of the band was mad because I

297
00:18:11,390 --> 00:18:15,190
was finally seriously dating and they didn't like that. And so that's kind

298
00:18:15,190 --> 00:18:18,990
of why it's such a juicy mess, I guess. But, yeah,

299
00:18:19,230 --> 00:18:22,830
that happened. So a lot happened. In 2016, I found out that my band was

300
00:18:22,830 --> 00:18:25,950
gonna let me go. I found the man of my dreams, and I also was

301
00:18:25,950 --> 00:18:28,190
gonna die. So it's a lot.

302
00:18:31,340 --> 00:18:35,100
Yeah. So at that point, I was like, okay, I'm just so mad right

303
00:18:35,100 --> 00:18:38,860
now. I'm just gonna, like, write a revenge album. Wrote that album, got

304
00:18:38,860 --> 00:18:42,060
picked up immediately by a new record label. I had all this fire.

305
00:18:42,780 --> 00:18:46,500
I was engaged now in 2018, was my

306
00:18:46,500 --> 00:18:50,260
wedding and my debut album release. A lot going on. So just.

307
00:18:50,260 --> 00:18:53,260
It felt like a movie. It was like, I'm gonna die, but not really. Like,

308
00:18:53,260 --> 00:18:56,900
I'm just living life. I'm kind of at the end of this, like, chick flick

309
00:18:56,900 --> 00:19:00,140
movie where she gets everything. She's in Rome with her honeymoon

310
00:19:00,220 --> 00:19:03,800
husband and beautiful ending of this movie

311
00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:07,880
after she just got Married. And then that was my first Germany

312
00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:11,520
show, was actually one of my first shows as a debut artist. So

313
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:14,480
people had followed me in that band, and when I kind of announced I was

314
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,560
going solo, they still picked me up. They were still giving me opportunities,

315
00:19:18,360 --> 00:19:22,080
so I didn't feel too bad about the band anymore. Unfortunately,

316
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:25,600
though, everything changed in 2019, and my

317
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:29,160
kidneys were like, okay, we're gonna die now. Bye. It was

318
00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:32,960
like I was really starting to feel very, very sick. So it

319
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:36,420
was like, of honeymoon after 2018, getting married,

320
00:19:36,580 --> 00:19:40,380
playing my first international show. My new album is out. It's on

321
00:19:40,380 --> 00:19:44,100
a label, all this great stuff. And then it was like, everything

322
00:19:44,100 --> 00:19:47,620
from 2019 to, like, 2023 was just

323
00:19:47,620 --> 00:19:51,420
hell. It was just years of hell. So, yeah, just

324
00:19:51,420 --> 00:19:55,140
to quickly go over that. My. My kidney started failing in 2019.

325
00:19:55,780 --> 00:19:59,300
Thank God my mom was a donor option for me. So

326
00:19:59,460 --> 00:20:03,310
it took took about six more months to really get

327
00:20:03,310 --> 00:20:06,950
the surgery going. I got my transplant in June 2019,

328
00:20:07,590 --> 00:20:10,870
and I didn't have a very good experience

329
00:20:11,750 --> 00:20:15,590
post transplant. I got really, really sick, like, multiple

330
00:20:15,590 --> 00:20:18,950
times, and a couple times I might have died if I didn't make it on

331
00:20:18,950 --> 00:20:22,470
time back to the hospital. So, yeah, if you get a

332
00:20:22,470 --> 00:20:26,270
transplant, they'll just absolutely kill your immune system so that the

333
00:20:26,270 --> 00:20:29,910
organ doesn't realize that it's foreign and the body

334
00:20:29,910 --> 00:20:33,490
doesn't attack it. So as a, you get sick from everything

335
00:20:33,730 --> 00:20:37,570
else because there's, like, no immune system really there to help you.

336
00:20:38,050 --> 00:20:41,450
So I had a lot of emergency scares, a couple septic infection

337
00:20:41,450 --> 00:20:45,290
scares, and it was to the point

338
00:20:45,290 --> 00:20:48,770
where, like, I was so depressed because, like, I almost regretted the transplant.

339
00:20:48,930 --> 00:20:51,650
Like, I knew that, like, it was

340
00:20:52,130 --> 00:20:55,650
necessary to live, but I didn't feel

341
00:20:55,810 --> 00:20:59,530
alive. Like, in fact, I felt worse, like, way worse

342
00:20:59,530 --> 00:21:03,210
after the transplant than I did pre transplant. And I felt bad pre

343
00:21:03,210 --> 00:21:06,970
transplant. I was about functioning maybe, like, four hours out of the day

344
00:21:06,970 --> 00:21:10,570
and needing to, like, sleep and rest for all of the rest of the day

345
00:21:10,570 --> 00:21:14,410
because my kidneys were at, like, 10% function. They were. They're pretty close

346
00:21:14,410 --> 00:21:18,250
to dying. Yeah. And so after the

347
00:21:18,250 --> 00:21:21,770
transplant, it was even scarier because you're like, I just did everything I needed to

348
00:21:21,770 --> 00:21:25,570
do to live. And I feel disgusting. You know, I lost a lot

349
00:21:25,570 --> 00:21:29,290
of muscle mass. And then finally around

350
00:21:29,290 --> 00:21:33,070
20, I was, like, starting to feel okay. The amusements, the huge

351
00:21:33,070 --> 00:21:36,590
immunosuppressants they IV'd me with the day of the transplant are, like, finally

352
00:21:36,590 --> 00:21:39,990
leaving. I'm, like, starting to feel somewhat normal.

353
00:21:40,310 --> 00:21:43,990
I was back on the road in March of 2020

354
00:21:44,470 --> 00:21:46,310
and trying to promote,

355
00:21:48,070 --> 00:21:51,910
and literally four days in, got the call that everything is shutting down.

356
00:21:52,070 --> 00:21:55,470
And I was like, you got to be kidding me. And now there's this

357
00:21:55,470 --> 00:21:59,140
crazy sickness in the world

358
00:21:59,140 --> 00:22:02,900
that's killing people, and I'm still an immunosuppressed individual. And

359
00:22:02,900 --> 00:22:06,500
I'm like, no, no. I just got over dying. Like, I

360
00:22:06,500 --> 00:22:10,180
cannot die again. I can't be, you know, thinking that I'm going to

361
00:22:10,180 --> 00:22:13,940
die from two more years. Like, it was. It was psychological

362
00:22:13,940 --> 00:22:17,100
torture. And then the music industry went down, and we.

363
00:22:17,580 --> 00:22:21,060
You know, the label deal fell apart. I've lost all my

364
00:22:21,060 --> 00:22:24,900
income. It was very, very scary times. And I had just put in, like,

365
00:22:24,900 --> 00:22:28,000
I had just gotten a new tour vehicle and trailer, and, like, I had. Had

366
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,720
probably spent, like, 20 GS. I probably put 20 GS into my music

367
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:35,080
at that time and was like, I can't even pay

368
00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:39,120
myself back. Like, what am I going to do? Like, I'm on the brink of,

369
00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:42,960
like, financial ruin here, and if I can't afford my medications or my

370
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:46,760
health insurance premiums, like, I literally. I literally could die, dude.

371
00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,640
You know, this is not a joke. And so the stress and, like, the

372
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:54,080
turmoil and just this cycle of just, like. You know, I'm a

373
00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:57,320
newlywed, too. Like, I don't even know what I'm doing. I still have so much

374
00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:00,940
rage and anger from the music industry and things that people did to

375
00:23:00,940 --> 00:23:04,660
me, how they stabbed me in the back. Like, all this just pain, it was

376
00:23:04,660 --> 00:23:08,140
just gushing out, and a lot of just sadness

377
00:23:08,220 --> 00:23:11,940
because of, you know, mourning. Like, my organs were failing and just, like, you

378
00:23:11,940 --> 00:23:15,780
know, just these feelings of not being good enough. Like, my body's not even

379
00:23:15,780 --> 00:23:19,620
good enough to function, to be alive. And so it took a lot of

380
00:23:19,620 --> 00:23:23,220
psychological turmoil on top of everything that the world was going through, too,

381
00:23:23,220 --> 00:23:25,980
which, you know, I know so many people suffered during those times

382
00:23:26,300 --> 00:23:29,580
psychologically of just. Just the pandemic, the closures, the

383
00:23:29,580 --> 00:23:32,100
lockdowns, losing income, losing family,

384
00:23:33,140 --> 00:23:35,940
losing businesses. It's just so much destruction.

385
00:23:36,740 --> 00:23:39,540
But I ended up being able to

386
00:23:40,660 --> 00:23:44,380
make an independent record called Stronger Than Death. And that was kind of just my

387
00:23:44,380 --> 00:23:47,540
whole album about, like, I don't care what it takes. I'm gonna live.

388
00:23:48,020 --> 00:23:51,540
And I can't believe we started tracking that in 2020

389
00:23:51,620 --> 00:23:54,900
because of the pandemic. We really didn't get to put it out till 2023.

390
00:23:55,380 --> 00:23:58,610
And I was so scared because it was my first independent release,

391
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:02,720
and I wanted to show up and show out, you know, and I really believed

392
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:06,120
in these songs. Too. And to my surprise, it really

393
00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:09,080
kicked butt over everything else I ever did.

394
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:14,040
Yeah. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna be successful out of spite

395
00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:17,560
now because I'm just so angry. And.

396
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:21,280
Yeah, so we actually put. We actually recorded that in 2020. Put it

397
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:24,480
out. Stronger Than Death is by far my best release, and it's a whole album,

398
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:28,330
and I own it, and it feels amazing. And so not

399
00:24:28,330 --> 00:24:31,890
even a year out of that album, I think it was

400
00:24:32,690 --> 00:24:35,410
December, this last December of 2023.

401
00:24:36,530 --> 00:24:40,330
I got a friend telling me and my husband Patrick, who's also

402
00:24:40,330 --> 00:24:43,650
signed to the label. They just announced him two days ago. I'm very proud of

403
00:24:43,650 --> 00:24:47,410
him. Oh, that's your husband? That's my husband, yeah. No way.

404
00:24:47,570 --> 00:24:50,690
Okay. So he's also in a band. Yeah, he's also

405
00:24:51,250 --> 00:24:54,930
a frontman now. He actually drums for me. That's how we met, but.

406
00:24:55,170 --> 00:24:58,930
Oh, no way. He actually has his own project, so. Yeah, check him out.

407
00:24:59,090 --> 00:25:02,330
He. His. His album's coming out in January. I was a co writer on that.

408
00:25:02,330 --> 00:25:05,850
Yeah, he has a song called the Hill, Right? Yeah. I love that song. Yeah,

409
00:25:05,850 --> 00:25:09,650
it's a great song. So, yeah, he. He and I, man, we. We've

410
00:25:09,650 --> 00:25:13,370
been through so much together. But, yeah, he. We're all. We're all just

411
00:25:13,370 --> 00:25:17,130
coming out of the top of it now. But, yeah, so Brian and his

412
00:25:17,130 --> 00:25:20,930
team reached out back in December, and they're like, hey, originally, they

413
00:25:20,930 --> 00:25:23,850
were going to be like, hey, well, we want to relicense your album and, you

414
00:25:23,850 --> 00:25:26,730
know, maybe add a couple songs and just, like, you know, pick it up on

415
00:25:26,730 --> 00:25:30,510
our label. And unfortunately, my husband's father passed away

416
00:25:30,510 --> 00:25:33,710
and we missed a lot of deadlines. Yeah, it's been nothing but pain.

417
00:25:34,350 --> 00:25:37,430
Actually. I saw a quick clip of him talking about that. I think that's part

418
00:25:37,430 --> 00:25:40,950
of his song. He talks a little bit about that with the Hill, I think.

419
00:25:40,950 --> 00:25:44,670
Right. Yeah, it's really, really sad because, like, the night that we

420
00:25:44,670 --> 00:25:48,430
had the meeting with them that they all wanted to proceed was two

421
00:25:48,430 --> 00:25:51,950
days before his dad passed away. And one of the last

422
00:25:51,950 --> 00:25:55,630
conversations we got to tell him was like, we're gonna side with Brian Hudd

423
00:25:55,630 --> 00:25:59,220
Welch. And he was so proud of us. And then just like. Like,

424
00:25:59,700 --> 00:26:03,420
life is. Life is a cruel joke, man. Sometimes I tell

425
00:26:03,420 --> 00:26:07,100
you what, it'll. It'll just give you a crown and then

426
00:26:07,100 --> 00:26:10,780
kick you in the stomach at the

427
00:26:10,780 --> 00:26:14,380
same time. So, yeah, that

428
00:26:14,380 --> 00:26:18,020
caused a lot of delays, unfortunately. So by the time

429
00:26:18,020 --> 00:26:21,620
that everybody reconvened, they were just like, okay, we missed these

430
00:26:21,620 --> 00:26:25,140
deadlines to be able to put this album out. And I was like, why don't

431
00:26:25,140 --> 00:26:28,580
we just do a new album? And they were like, like, yeah, let's do a

432
00:26:28,580 --> 00:26:31,620
new album. So I was like, wow, that was really, really, really easy.

433
00:26:32,340 --> 00:26:36,020
Yeah. So now I just finished tracking all the vocals for my next

434
00:26:36,020 --> 00:26:39,740
album coming out next year in 2025. And we've got, you know,

435
00:26:39,740 --> 00:26:43,460
Brian and the team backing it. So we're really busy right

436
00:26:43,460 --> 00:26:47,260
now. But I had the standalone single called Pile of Pills, which I wrote in

437
00:26:47,260 --> 00:26:50,900
2021. And that was, you know, I kind of had to give you the whole

438
00:26:50,900 --> 00:26:54,580
scoop to really get you to understand why that's so. I love that.

439
00:26:54,580 --> 00:26:57,590
I love that. I love. Thank you for telling me. I mean, thank you for

440
00:26:57,590 --> 00:27:01,430
being so vulnerable and talking. Yeah, it was literally just the

441
00:27:01,430 --> 00:27:04,990
pinnacle of just my anger because I was like, dude, I have

442
00:27:05,310 --> 00:27:09,030
all these financial problems, I have all these health problems. I have so much

443
00:27:09,030 --> 00:27:12,630
rage inside of me. I. I just feel like

444
00:27:12,630 --> 00:27:16,270
I'm working to live and living to work. There's nothing outside of that,

445
00:27:16,510 --> 00:27:19,550
you know, And I'm working like whatever jobs I can

446
00:27:20,430 --> 00:27:24,070
like just get these crumbs from basically just

447
00:27:24,070 --> 00:27:27,630
to like get the bare minimum. And working like 12, 15 hour

448
00:27:27,630 --> 00:27:31,370
shifts just with like no muscle mass. After my

449
00:27:31,370 --> 00:27:34,970
surgery, like just in tears in the back room because I'm in so much

450
00:27:34,970 --> 00:27:38,450
pain and my body is like physically building

451
00:27:38,450 --> 00:27:42,170
itself back up and I'm trying to do like heavy work just to like

452
00:27:42,170 --> 00:27:45,290
make rent, you know. So really, really scary,

453
00:27:46,090 --> 00:27:49,930
turbulent time. So, you know, Pile of Pills. Brian heard it and he's like, he

454
00:27:49,930 --> 00:27:53,770
had no idea either of all the backstory behind it until I kind of

455
00:27:53,770 --> 00:27:57,110
told him, like, hey, this isn't really about like, like, you know,

456
00:27:57,750 --> 00:28:01,390
like those kind of drugs. These are about like life saving

457
00:28:01,390 --> 00:28:05,190
medication that it's. They're supposed to keep you alive, but they hurt you too.

458
00:28:05,750 --> 00:28:09,350
And it's like that cycle of just being trapped that like, no matter what I

459
00:28:09,350 --> 00:28:13,150
do, it's never going to work. And death is always there. He's

460
00:28:13,150 --> 00:28:16,790
always knocking on my door telling me time's. Time's limited.

461
00:28:16,790 --> 00:28:20,430
It's coming up. What are you going to do now? So Brian heard that song,

462
00:28:20,430 --> 00:28:23,990
really loved it and you know, we have a music video coming out for it

463
00:28:25,050 --> 00:28:28,810
on September 13th, so I hope that it describes

464
00:28:28,810 --> 00:28:32,610
a little bit more what was in my, in my mind when writing that

465
00:28:32,610 --> 00:28:36,210
song. So, yeah, we just got a lot going on. Just really excited to be

466
00:28:36,210 --> 00:28:39,650
with the label team though. And I think that these new

467
00:28:39,650 --> 00:28:43,050
songs, people aren't, aren't even ready because they haven't heard anything current

468
00:28:43,370 --> 00:28:46,810
that I have done yet. They just heard a song that I tracked in

469
00:28:46,810 --> 00:28:50,090
2021 and. Right. Yeah. Because people wouldn't come along.

470
00:28:50,650 --> 00:28:54,040
Stronger Than Death was a record that, that was, you know, an album that was

471
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:57,440
two, three years old. Right. Yeah, yeah. And it wasn't. It was actually from

472
00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:01,200
2020. Yeah. And then this last song, 21. So now this

473
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:04,960
year, this is from 2024. That's coming out next year. And man, it's just

474
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:09,360
so, So I, I, I just, you know, I, I've gotten just so much

475
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:13,160
more into my craft of singing and screaming, so I'm really excited

476
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:16,960
to showcase more of what I've done in the new record. So. Yeah,

477
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:20,920
it's even heavier than Pile of. Pills, would you

478
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,520
say? Or does it sound similar at all, or. No, there's gonna be

479
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:28,760
a shock when people are like, oh, damn. Like, this is. There's a couple songs

480
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:32,400
that are shock value. Yeah, I think so. There's. But like,

481
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:36,240
there. I want to say that this new album is like a very happy medium

482
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,960
between Pills and Stronger Than Death because we still have those really melodic,

483
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:43,720
beautiful songs. We have a couple ballads on the new one,

484
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,910
and then we have those really, really, really rock ragers that are

485
00:29:47,910 --> 00:29:51,710
just more screamy, more metalcore influenced. But most

486
00:29:51,710 --> 00:29:55,350
of them are there and in between. So not all the

487
00:29:55,350 --> 00:29:59,150
songs have screaming on them. Some of them, the majority are screaming and,

488
00:29:59,230 --> 00:30:02,910
yeah, everything in between that. Wow. Did

489
00:30:02,910 --> 00:30:06,630
you. Oh, I'm curious. How did you end up getting reached out to

490
00:30:06,630 --> 00:30:10,310
by Brian? Yeah. So another band on the label

491
00:30:10,310 --> 00:30:13,790
called Spoken Matt, that their singer, Spoken.

492
00:30:13,950 --> 00:30:17,630
We, We've done a lot of tours and stuff with him, some opening show,

493
00:30:18,090 --> 00:30:21,890
and he's very good friends with Brian. And I think a

494
00:30:21,890 --> 00:30:25,530
lot of him was advocating for us to be looked at

495
00:30:25,530 --> 00:30:29,370
by him because he had follow our careers for so long. Kind of saw the

496
00:30:29,370 --> 00:30:33,130
quality we were putting out versus the opportunities we were getting. And he

497
00:30:33,130 --> 00:30:35,450
was like, dude, you need to get these two people.

498
00:30:38,330 --> 00:30:42,170
I was already out there operating, but NESM was like my husband's project that

499
00:30:42,250 --> 00:30:45,810
we had this album that we'd been waiting to release for the right time and

500
00:30:45,810 --> 00:30:49,530
the right opportunity. And it finally was done around the time

501
00:30:49,830 --> 00:30:53,430
too, that Brian was talking about. And Matt is a huge friend of my husband

502
00:30:53,670 --> 00:30:56,950
and he has always been such a huge fan of my voice or his voice.

503
00:30:57,190 --> 00:31:00,710
And he told Pat, he's like, why aren't you singing more, dude? Like, you,

504
00:31:01,030 --> 00:31:04,830
you play drums great, but, like, you know, they don't let you sing in

505
00:31:04,830 --> 00:31:08,510
your old band and he's like, you need to like, do a solo project.

506
00:31:08,510 --> 00:31:11,710
You need to be a singer. So Matt has always been kind of our friend

507
00:31:11,710 --> 00:31:14,990
in the, in the corner, just rooting us on and then, you know, helping us

508
00:31:14,990 --> 00:31:18,370
to succeed. So it's, it's, we're really grateful for him.

509
00:31:18,930 --> 00:31:22,010
Yeah. That's so cool. That is so cool. Are you, so you're going to do

510
00:31:22,010 --> 00:31:25,410
a tour coming up or wait before the album?

511
00:31:25,730 --> 00:31:29,570
I think we're just waiting right now. We've got a lot of releases, so Nezdem's

512
00:31:29,570 --> 00:31:33,250
is first in the canon. His is coming out in January. And then as for

513
00:31:33,250 --> 00:31:36,850
mine, we're doing drum tracking here in like two weeks. So

514
00:31:36,850 --> 00:31:40,250
album's going to get turned in by January and then we're just going to go

515
00:31:40,250 --> 00:31:43,930
from there. So I'm not really worried about touring just yet

516
00:31:43,930 --> 00:31:47,350
until we can really make the numbers show that,

517
00:31:47,510 --> 00:31:51,070
yeah, people want to hear this album live. So. Yeah, I think we're just waiting

518
00:31:51,070 --> 00:31:54,710
for that. That is so awesome. Well, I love what you're doing. You have

519
00:31:54,950 --> 00:31:58,310
such a, a story. Oh, my gosh.

520
00:31:58,630 --> 00:32:02,350
Yeah, it takes a while to tell people too. It's like, no, that's, and

521
00:32:02,350 --> 00:32:05,470
I just, to give you like the easy rundown. It's, it's. Give me the Cliff

522
00:32:05,470 --> 00:32:09,310
Notes. Yeah, the Cliff Notes. But still, I

523
00:32:09,310 --> 00:32:12,780
mean, to, to go through all that with this band and then get, you know,

524
00:32:13,010 --> 00:32:15,610
know, you kind of see the writing on the wall that you're going to kick

525
00:32:15,610 --> 00:32:19,450
you out or whatever and then you leave and get signed right away

526
00:32:19,450 --> 00:32:22,370
to a label. I, I, I have a couple follow up questions because we kind

527
00:32:22,370 --> 00:32:26,170
of sped over some of stuff like with that. Okay. So I

528
00:32:26,170 --> 00:32:29,010
don't, I know the band that you're in. If people want to figure it out,

529
00:32:29,010 --> 00:32:32,730
they can look it up because, you know, I'd rather promote you

530
00:32:32,730 --> 00:32:36,370
and your stuff. So you, that, that, that band,

531
00:32:36,370 --> 00:32:40,010
you, you leave this band and then you said you got signed right away on

532
00:32:40,010 --> 00:32:43,830
that first album that you put out. Out. Yeah, tell me about that.

533
00:32:43,830 --> 00:32:47,670
Like how, how did, how did the label find you? Did they just

534
00:32:47,670 --> 00:32:50,510
know that you were from this other band and then look you up and go,

535
00:32:50,510 --> 00:32:53,510
okay, Oh, I like what, I like what this is.

536
00:32:54,230 --> 00:32:57,990
Yeah. Yeah. So the first tour I did with my first band

537
00:32:58,550 --> 00:33:02,270
had a band that was always talking about starting a label. They always wanted to

538
00:33:02,270 --> 00:33:06,110
do that and they really, really kind of liked

539
00:33:06,110 --> 00:33:09,920
the way I performed. They, they knew that, you know, most of the

540
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:13,680
songs that I had, I, I Wrote most of them. So they. They.

541
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:17,480
They saw kind of like where. How. How this band was getting their

542
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:21,160
revitalization there was just. I'm trying to

543
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:24,800
recall. Yeah. So they saw me there. They decided to make a new label.

544
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:28,880
I think maybe it took time for them to set that up, though.

545
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,160
So they didn't follow up for, like, three years until after that.

546
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,640
So they had known me, they'd seen me, but they hadn't made the label to,

547
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:38,760
like, three years later. And by that point, my band had just broken up. So

548
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,520
they're like, okay, let's talk about it. So I had. I think what

549
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:45,280
happened, I'm trying to recall, left the band,

550
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,480
or they. They. They left me. I don't even know what to call it. And

551
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,160
I was like, all right, I'm going to studio in a month. I was so

552
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:55,320
mad. I was like, I'm ready to say some stuff. So it took

553
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,960
2017 to set up my LLC, set up everything,

554
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:03,200
start to go to the studio and track, But I only had, like,

555
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,680
one song to put out because I. I just. I couldn't afford to put the

556
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:09,120
whole thing out, you know, on my own. It's like, nobody talks about solo artists.

557
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,800
Like, yeah, you need to also come up with all the investment, too, if you

558
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:16,600
don't have to be able to help. So it took 2017, like,

559
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:19,920
a whole year to write my new album. And then I put out one

560
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:23,560
song, I think, six months into that process, even though the rest

561
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:27,320
wasn't done yet. And I did just the campaign that

562
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:31,040
I could afford and took another six months

563
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:34,540
for them to be like, okay, we have. Have a label we're starting. We want

564
00:34:34,540 --> 00:34:37,700
you. And my. The rest of my album hadn't come out yet. And they're like,

565
00:34:37,700 --> 00:34:40,820
oh, perfect. We won't put your whole album out. We haven't. We haven't heard. But

566
00:34:40,820 --> 00:34:44,460
we know by this song that it's gonna be great. That's gonna be good. Okay.

567
00:34:44,460 --> 00:34:48,140
Yeah. Yeah. And so they did, and it was like, man, that's. That's pretty cool.

568
00:34:48,140 --> 00:34:51,900
And. And sometimes I get down about, you know, the pandemic and how

569
00:34:52,460 --> 00:34:56,020
it just stalled me for years, but I realize now

570
00:34:56,020 --> 00:34:59,740
that, like, if it's. If. If you're waiting to put out an album, maybe there's

571
00:34:59,740 --> 00:35:03,390
a reason. Maybe things just aren't in place yet, and it's better to

572
00:35:03,390 --> 00:35:07,030
wait. And so even with Stronger Than Death, I remember how discouraged

573
00:35:07,030 --> 00:35:10,190
I was because I was like, you know, what label is going to pick me

574
00:35:10,190 --> 00:35:13,550
up in a pandemic? No one's Going to take risks. No one's going to invest

575
00:35:13,550 --> 00:35:17,310
in me. The economy is destroyed. And I was like, all right,

576
00:35:17,310 --> 00:35:20,870
well, I'll work three jobs for three years straight

577
00:35:20,870 --> 00:35:23,230
and make the money myself to do it.

578
00:35:24,750 --> 00:35:28,430
And, yeah, it ended up working the best without anybody.

579
00:35:28,430 --> 00:35:31,510
So I was like, I guess I just needed to do this by myself the

580
00:35:31,510 --> 00:35:35,330
whole time. Exactly. Oh, man. But then now

581
00:35:35,330 --> 00:35:38,610
you actually. I mean, you have a label, obviously, and it. And you have

582
00:35:39,010 --> 00:35:42,770
a team behind you, and. And to have a label that's own, you know,

583
00:35:42,770 --> 00:35:46,530
run by somebody that's such a legend and such a legend.

584
00:35:46,770 --> 00:35:50,330
Such a legend. So, yeah, I'm definitely. I'm really grateful, though, for the

585
00:35:50,330 --> 00:35:54,050
independent lesson, because I really learned on my own and

586
00:35:54,050 --> 00:35:57,850
did it with my own hands, and now I can replicate that with a

587
00:35:57,850 --> 00:36:01,590
bigger budget. You know, there's nothing better than, like, being a good steward

588
00:36:01,590 --> 00:36:05,390
of a smaller one, kicking butt with it and just

589
00:36:05,390 --> 00:36:08,230
getting more. And you're like, oh, I know what to do now. And it's going

590
00:36:08,230 --> 00:36:11,790
to be even better because I have bigger budget. So. Right. You already had the

591
00:36:11,790 --> 00:36:14,429
validation that, like, you're like, oh, I'm going to do this on my own. We'll

592
00:36:14,429 --> 00:36:17,990
see what happens. And then it becomes the biggest release that you had. Yeah. And

593
00:36:17,990 --> 00:36:21,590
like, I told Huge. Yeah. I tell people all the time. I'm like,

594
00:36:21,590 --> 00:36:24,750
dude, like, the whole time you had to do it on your own because nobody

595
00:36:24,750 --> 00:36:27,530
was going to invest in you if you. If they. If they couldn't. Yeah. Know,

596
00:36:28,090 --> 00:36:31,370
prove that you had what it takes to generate numbers,

597
00:36:31,690 --> 00:36:34,490
you know, And I. I still feel we have a long way to go, but,

598
00:36:34,730 --> 00:36:38,370
yeah. In the middle of pandemic. And that's. That's some cool points.

599
00:36:38,370 --> 00:36:42,090
I'm proud of myself, even though I wanted to die because I was so

600
00:36:42,090 --> 00:36:45,850
overworked. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. But,

601
00:36:46,650 --> 00:36:50,370
yeah. Well, I love what you're doing. Again, thank you so much on. For

602
00:36:50,370 --> 00:36:54,170
doing this. This has been awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much.

603
00:36:54,170 --> 00:36:57,210
I'm sorry for just word vomiting. I had to go fast. No, no, no, no.

604
00:36:57,210 --> 00:37:01,030
That's what this is all about. About. This is all about. I have one

605
00:37:01,030 --> 00:37:04,710
more question for you, though. I want to know if you have any advice for

606
00:37:04,710 --> 00:37:08,470
aspiring artists. Yeah, I think a lot of what

607
00:37:08,470 --> 00:37:12,230
I've said. Do you just do it on your own? Like, I will

608
00:37:12,230 --> 00:37:15,950
say that, like, talent is very important, but it's not everything.

609
00:37:16,270 --> 00:37:19,830
Like, if you become teachable and you work with

610
00:37:19,830 --> 00:37:23,550
people that, you know are very talented

611
00:37:23,550 --> 00:37:27,260
and you, you know, know, crush with them and make friends, and you

612
00:37:27,260 --> 00:37:30,820
are a good team player. Like, you know, things could really change for your

613
00:37:30,820 --> 00:37:34,580
career. So don't be afraid to let go a little bit and also trust yourself,

614
00:37:34,580 --> 00:37:38,380
trust your message, and make the whole thing. Like. One

615
00:37:38,380 --> 00:37:41,140
of the best things about being a solo artist is that it feels pure. The

616
00:37:41,140 --> 00:37:44,300
art feels pure. It feels like what you really want to say. And,

617
00:37:44,860 --> 00:37:48,180
you know, if you are struggling in a band, you know, consider maybe being on

618
00:37:48,180 --> 00:37:50,250
your own. Maybe it would be a better thing. It's gonna be a lot more

619
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,920
work. It's gonna be a lot more investment, but maybe you can do it and

620
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:57,360
reap the rewards after that. So just don't give up and

621
00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:01,120
be competitive and stand up for yourself, too. I definitely had times where

622
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:05,120
people were trying to pressure me to do things I just didn't want to do,

623
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:08,960
and I'm. I never regretted saying no, that's for sure.

624
00:38:17,710 --> 00:38:19,070
Bring it backwards,

625
00:38:22,830 --> 00:38:26,350
Bring it backwards. Bring it backwards.

626
00:38:26,590 --> 00:38:30,110
Bringing it backward, Bringing it backward,

627
00:38:30,270 --> 00:38:31,870
Bringing it backwards.