Velvet Road - Normies Beware
A podcast about a band of misfits called Velvet Road, nothing is off limits. And all are welcome at our table but Normies Beware; profanity will be provided.
Velvet Road - Normies Beware
Velvet Road - The Melancholic Muse of Music Episode 3
Have you ever wondered why some of the most heartfelt songs are born from melancholy? Join us as we explore the fascinating dance between music and the multitude of human emotions. Our latest podcast episode is a deep dive into the world of songwriting, where happiness can be an elusive muse, and sorrow often takes the spotlight. Dr. Don confesses that his most striking compositions come to life in the dim glow of a bar, with life’s grand episodes fueling his creativity. Together, we dissect the anatomy of a song, from the first outpour of personal sentiments to the meticulous crafting of melodies and lyrics that resonate with audiences everywhere.
Then, buckle up for tales of live performance antics that could ruffle even the most seasoned musician's feathers. We share the rollercoaster of a recent outdoor gig where everything that could go wrong did—bent iPad toggles and all. But it's not all mayhem; there's magic in the madness as we adapt classics like "Tennessee Whiskey" and even a Tina Turner hit on the fly. Through the shared laughter and the camaraderie of the stage, we celebrate the impromptu triumphs that define our musical journeys. Don't forget to tune in to our Velvet Road podcast for more stories that promise to stir the soul and spark inspiration, with unforgettable moments that turn everyday interactions into the highlight of your day.
Well, here we go again, episode three of the Velvet Road podcast, and today here we are, and Anna B has some things that she wanted to talk about today, and I really have no clue what they are. So this should be, this should be interesting, say the least.
Speaker 1:Go ahead. So I think you know, I got to thinking about, like you know, what do we talk about? Something that's really kind of hit home was like how do we as musicians, you know, express our emotions? Like right, obviously we play music like emotionally, but like I've been writing my own lyrics and it's like every lyric that I write is like literally about deep seated emotion.
Speaker 2:Sad shit.
Speaker 1:Sad shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I cannot write happy shit.
Speaker 2:I've been asked why I don't. My songs aren't happy, right, why is that Like? Why is that?
Speaker 1:Like I think maybe this is going to turn into a therapy session, because I mean, surely I mean when you think about the music that we're writing, that I wrote right, like I'm about to release my single, come back home it's some sad shit. I mean it's literally like a call out to someone saying you know, please see me, and it's like man, and I think everybody can kind of relate to that in some sort of moment. But like, how did, when you're writing, Dr Don, because you're, you've gotten into some writing of the music, where, where do you go when you're, when you're in your brain about I usually write my best stuff in a bar.
Speaker 1:In a bar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, classic After a vodka or two On an afternoon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sometimes, no, usually on my phone in notes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I do, no, and it's driven by an event. You know an event or whatever. But yeah, rarely I don't write a lot of Luke Bryant stuff. That's you know, happy beer songs, things like that, you know swimming on the pond and those types of things. It's usually driven by an emotional event and then everything kind of flows out from there. That's, and it isn't like you can just sit down and start writing, creating slash. It has to be there, has to be a strong motivation behind it, and then the words follow. That's, that's it. That's the fun part.
Speaker 1:It is the fun part. Do the words come first for you, or do you hear the music melodically in some sort of way?
Speaker 2:No words, I, I, I write it more like poetry yeah. And the words come first, and then I have to tailor it because it usually doesn't fit into a melody.
Speaker 1:Well, and sometimes they are hard words. You write very hard words, Dr Don, and as your singer, I'm like I don't know how to sing that word. I can barely read it, yeah.
Speaker 2:But that's, that's the way you know. Look look back at some. You know the words of Bob Dylan. He wrote poetry essentially and turned it into music, and that's that's kind of what I do, but you know it's. It's not something I'm an expert at or anything. No, I don't think.
Speaker 1:I don't think we're an expert.
Speaker 2:I mean it's. I don't think you have to be, I was going to say, does anybody have to be an expert? At songwriting.
Speaker 1:No, no, Because it is about a deeply seated emotion in some sort of way. I mean, and maybe the emotion is a happy emotion right. Yeah, like, like you know, and maybe they, or maybe they hear a melody line or maybe they hear some some bass line or a guitar lick that they're like oh man, I really like that guitar lick and oh, this goes with it. You know, like, yeah, but like, I think for me like it's some sad stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, normally, yeah, well normally, and it is, it's, it's like a therapy session with yourself. But, yeah, you, you write them. Your first draft is usually pretty shitty and then, and then you methodically massage it for Just seems like forever, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I think, when, once you get it into the studio too, I think that's another place that feels like eternity, right, like like you for me, like I say this is what I want it to sound like, this is what I'm looking for, but like that's still a volve, like it's constantly evolving until it's like okay, that's what I wanted.
Speaker 2:That's, that's what I wanted. Yeah, that's, that's a tough part. And then when you're putting music to you say you know what? This is kind of hard to sing.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, just like when I did heaven won't wait, which is the song I'm gonna release that you wrote. There were some words in it that I was like this is just not flowing, can I care? You got to, you got to and you know, I think there was like a moment where it was like Can I, it's your song.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. Well, you have to. You have to because, if you know, you can't cram too many words into a phrase and, and, and, not have it, not have it fit, and there's so many synonyms out there, not really but words that I mean the same thing okay. That work a little bit better. So that, yeah, the process is fun. And, and again, you don't just sit down and say, oh, I'm gonna write a song today.
Speaker 1:It doesn't work that way, I've tried. Yeah, I've actually tried that I've tried to sit down and say you know what? Today is a beautiful day. I. I think I want to try to write another song and I just sit there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you yeah it's nothing.
Speaker 1:Radio silence in my brain. I got and I'm like searching for things and I'm like, hmm, I Got nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it doesn't work out that way. That's like I said it's. It's usually good after a couple of vod goods and in a thought, the thought bubble, and then they, they start to Start to come out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, I mean that's kind of what's just been heavy on my mind is like this whole Writing music and like the emotions that kind of come behind it and I think you know, like in our Involve it road, you know it's been, there's been songs I've really tripped me up and I couldn't really figure out why I was so hung up on it.
Speaker 2:What was the advice you were given when that happens?
Speaker 1:I remember.
Speaker 2:Go back to rolling in the deep.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so rolling in the deep? Yeah, I mean, I actually had to research it why. Why was rolling in the deep written? I had to truly understand it because I was really struggling with it and and so I think it's, you know, just one of those things that it's like we we don't know emotionally what the writer is really trying to say until we sit there and we really truly listen to it.
Speaker 2:That's called relatability.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, is that what it's called? Hmm, well, you know, that's kind of Interesting the ability. Oh, we have an airplane flying over, so you're probably gonna airplane in the background.
Speaker 2:It's just a little f35. It's not a big deal, not a big deal, not a big deal but I also want to talk about something funny that happened.
Speaker 1:so Dr John and I, here part of velvet road, we decided that, well, we, we could go after some smaller gigs and that's fun, we can use some tracks and him on the base and going the whole story please. Oh yeah, I'm going the whole story and.
Speaker 1:You know, like just it gets our name out there more right, like we're not going out as like we're doing a separate path here. We're, you know, no, we're part of, you know we're a side thing of velvet road. And here's the velvet road card. And you know, um Our gig that we just did recently with just the two of us. That turned into a four hour gig and In the shade.
Speaker 2:In the shade, 51 degrees 51.
Speaker 1:Oh, my god, I was freezing and it was a great. Okay, I'm gonna. It was a great event yes, it was it was a blast, yeah, but some things happened during the event that it would only happen to me. Yep and a bee, yep, yep. So we're halfway almost. We're looking at the clock and we're, we're, we're on that home stretch, right, and we're like, okay, we can do this.
Speaker 2:We're feeling good.
Speaker 1:We're feeling good. We're three and a half hours. Was it three? No, three hours in.
Speaker 2:Mmm.
Speaker 1:It was like three hours, two and a half hours. Something about that Something about that, right, and I'm going. We had just gotten how to done with a break Yep, and here comes Anna.
Speaker 2:Here comes Hurricane Anna.
Speaker 1:That's what it was, and I'm so like, okay, this is what we're going to do, right, and I was prepared. I was ready Plug the little.
Speaker 2:Jammed.
Speaker 1:I plugged and I ended up jamming it yeah, you're right, jamming it Right up into the wrong angle and I bent the toggle to my An important toggle. It was the toggle that was playing the music from my iPad for our tracks.
Speaker 2:Yep and Amazon sold two more toggles really fast. Now, how did we resolve this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we adapted it and overcame it.
Speaker 2:Just like good Marines, we overcome adapted God it was awful, it wasn't awful.
Speaker 1:I take that back. I looked at Don and I said what do we do? And he says I said, haha, I had a moment. I had a light bulb and, sure enough, I had packed the USB C toggle, yep, and I said give me your phone.
Speaker 2:Give me your phone and I did.
Speaker 1:And we logged into our little track thing that we were using and he says oh yeah, I've downloaded all the songs.
Speaker 2:I did.
Speaker 1:You fucking did not.
Speaker 2:It was just for the first one, one song.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm standing there going oh god, this place doesn't have signal, because it's notorious for me to go, because the Guitar Center is like right across the street from where we were at and I was like I never get signal in Guitar Center, so he's not going to get signal to download this dang song and we waited.
Speaker 2:And waited.
Speaker 1:And waited, and waited.
Speaker 2:And waited.
Speaker 1:And it worked.
Speaker 2:It worked, of course it worked. And was that the only song that wasn't downloaded? Uh, yes, no, there were other songs, oh, just ones that we added.
Speaker 1:No, was it.
Speaker 2:I don't remember All.
Speaker 1:I know it was a chaotic mess towards the end and I mean we were pulling songs. It was a Wait. Can you do this song? Let's do this song.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's do this song, and then we did Tennessee Whiskey. So, guys, if you're listening, please understand. I love the song Tennessee Whiskey.
Speaker 2:Great song.
Speaker 1:It's a great song, Great song. And I had to research Tennessee Whiskey because I was not connecting with it. I was really struggling with it. How I mean you can.
Speaker 2:How bad was it? It was bad.
Speaker 1:It was not, I was in control, I was a mess. But then he says at this gig, let's do Tennessee Whiskey. Yeah, that's my Dawn voice, by the way. It's super low and I can't go that low. So this is my Dr Dawn voice let's do Tennessee Whiskey.
Speaker 2:And it was great.
Speaker 1:It was fine, it was passable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was fine, it was great. Yeah, so there you go.
Speaker 1:We've practiced for hours of cold, laughing at some tracks that we've actually only practiced one-ish times. And then, oh then, our wonderful Dr Dawn here. He pulled out his 12-string and played a couple songs on the 12-string which he doesn't give himself enough credit.
Speaker 2:There's a good reason.
Speaker 1:Okay, you're pretty decent at the guitar. I mean, you're passable.
Speaker 2:Passable yes.
Speaker 1:We made it through.
Speaker 2:I'd be good if I didn't have the funky finger.
Speaker 1:Well, the funky finger is fine. Yeah, so we have finger condoms now.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do. Yes, my bag is a finger condom.
Speaker 1:Yes, perfect. So, oh Jesus, I can't so. You know, it was an interesting four-hour.
Speaker 2:It was an awesome gig for an awesome cause. It was.
Speaker 1:It was a great. You know our clients, they were wonderful and we actually pulled in some Tina Turner what's love got to do with it, got to do with it. That was kind of fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did that twice. Yeah, we did a lot of stuff twice.
Speaker 1:Well, we had four hours to filter, yeah.
Speaker 2:And when did we find out about the going from two hours to four hours?
Speaker 1:When did we find that out? 24 hours prior-ish. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2:So Anna is two for two.
Speaker 1:Listen, listen. It's always an adventure. We've decided that.
Speaker 2:A short notice gigs. So, we live dangerously.
Speaker 1:We just go in.
Speaker 2:What was my initial response when you said doing four hours?
Speaker 1:I think it was fuck what.
Speaker 2:Nope, we ain't doing. It, can't do, it Won't happen. How long did it take to go to? Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Two seconds when I was like, but yeah, it, it because you never know. You never know, yeah, you never know, you never turn down gigs man. I know to call me a gig whore.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:But it was fun. Like I said, it was for a good cause and it worked out really well and we survived and got paid. Yeah, got paid that day Magical. Magical, mystical, wonderful zeal.
Speaker 1:That's magical how that works, but you know, and so, yeah, it was a good time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was a good time.
Speaker 2:It was. It was a lot of fun, just a little cold. And you know, for actually maybe an hour and a half of preparation.
Speaker 1:Well, it was more than that, because we had a couple rehearsals when we knew it was just going to be two hours, because we were, you know, we were thinking about the 12 string, what songs we were going to try and, if it was going to work, how it would work with your finger, because you were. I don't need a finger condom. I'm like you need a finger condom, whatever. Yeah, he never listens to the singer guys, and then it was just turning into a four hour gig.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I think we got together what was it Friday night to run through just to try to see what we could pull together for four hours. And actually I'm looking at our whiteboard and you should see all my wonderful attempt at math.
Speaker 2:And then the spontaneous downloads at the gig.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I broke the toggle.
Speaker 2:It was cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was great. I did have a. I had a moment of holy shit, why did our sound go out? And then I look at the iPad and the toggle was definitely in the wrong direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then I said oh no.
Speaker 1:I bent it and then Dr Don tried to fix it and it was not fixable.
Speaker 2:Nope. So Amazon again sold two more toggles that night. We have them here present in the studio today and we're all good to go.
Speaker 1:Yes, we're all good to go. What would we do without Dr Don making sure we have extra toggles?
Speaker 2:Well, now that we've toggled ourselves to death, what else do we want to talk about? We've got a couple more minutes.
Speaker 1:I don't know We've got some. Well, you know we have a gig coming on March 3rd.
Speaker 2:Yes, March 3rd at in Peoria. It's on the website, I believe it's from what time? Look at us. We're looking at each other like four to six or two to four or something. It's four to six. Yeah yeah, and it's going to be a lot of fun. Hope everybody that can come out will come out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I'm going to be singing some Ozzy I've never done Ozzy and some Led Zeppelin, which I've never done before either.
Speaker 2:We got you.
Speaker 1:turning to the, to the good side, yeah, so anyways, I mean, that's that's kind of my thoughts for today. And you know. So when you guys are out there listening to some songs, like, listen to the words and it might surprise you how deep and sad even the happy songs. We think they're happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They're not even that happy.
Speaker 2:Yes, and and beyond the lookout. Once we finally get these new songs released, it'll be kind of fun, and it'll be fun to perform them too.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, especially yeah yeah, yeah, because there's.
Speaker 2:You know, when you're recording, you know there's a lot of effects going on, there's a lot of things going on. But it's kind of nice also to do it in a more acoustic and a band fashion, you know, so you can see what the sound like. But look forward to that and I think on that note. I'll be close to wrapping up or you got more to talk about.
Speaker 1:I don't think I have any more to talk about.
Speaker 2:Okay, then we're going to wrap up this session. This is episode three, the price of the Velvet Road podcast, and we, you know, we, we really hope that you keep coming back. And again we want to announce our website is velvetroadmusiccom and I don't know what the hell our, our Facebook is.
Speaker 1:Or help us. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and the Tik Tok.
Speaker 2:Yes, and the Tik Tok, and we're looking forward to seeing you all out there. When we're out there and have a good rest of your day and, as you know, make it. Make it as good a day as you can. I always like to tell my people, you know, make every interaction you have with every person the best one they had that day.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Have a great day, bye, bye.
Speaker 1:My school roadhelm dearest.
