If you’re a young artist and you know you you’ve been at it 2 years 3 years four years even 5 years you’re not seeing the results that you’d hope to see or things aren’t really working out yet that’s why you got to go all in man
Like if you’re all in it’s it’s going to happen if you stick with it what I’m wearing here is a is a is a Dwayne Johnson apron as you can see boom baby oh that’s amazing salt B this on here oh Beau look at that beautiful I was I was
Frequenting this site good musicall day.com because my good friend Tim Tim Weber was running it and that’s how I discovered Mike was on this blog his his song College Humor was on [Applause] there let’s go us together all remember the kind of times we want to last forever and unforget all experience
Moment spend with all our friends gathering around the [Applause] T what’s up guys welcome back to another episode of lobster and beer TV coming to you live from demon records in Oldtown Scottdale this week we got a banger for you guys we got legendary videographer photographer manager to Mike Stud himself AKA Mike
And I mean the guy’s a revolutionary Pioneer in the social media game John Kilmer everybody and also don’t forget to check out the website get that new merch we rocking it right here you already know what it is and you know a portion of the proceeds goes to the American Foundation For Suicide
Prevention and also to get Brian shaved up a little bit because he’s looking a little rough there if you know what I’m saying that rough kind of a bum he’s kind of a bum that’s messed up well yo as always shout out to get main lobster for supplying us with the fresh M
Lobster rolls big let’s see baby peace John Kilmer it’s a pleasure to have you brother thank you for joining us on Lobster and beer tonight it’s good to be here first of all who’s that little sweetheart in between you guys oh man this is Brady Tom Brady he’s
Chilling you named him after a legend I hope he lives up to the name I had I had to man grw up you’re you’re from New England too right yeah I grew up in brancher Mass so 10 minutes south of Boston oh nice man I’m from Andover so like 40 minutes not too
Far yeah right there yeah absolutely man so the the the main lobster role is uh is something that you’ve you’ve been able to enjoy your whole life yeah let me just say guys this is this is prime stuff here I’ve been on a lot of podcasts a lot of different people’s
Podcasts a lot of different concepts no one has ever sent me a package let alone a package including a lobster roll this is just I I’m I’m beyond words I don’t even know what to say just thank you so much you’re welcome man yeah yeah we’re
Lucky enough to uh to have a good friend who owns the the company get main lobster and uh during the the pandemic when everything shut down and I was uh I was on the road a lot playing college shows and obviously I couldn’t do that
During that time so we we had to Pivot and uh we started the Pod and Mark our friend was like well hey I can supply Lobster and we were like perfect let’s let’s do a lobster podcast and then he randomly had a a domain Lobster and beer
Just kind of sitting there and we’re like that’s perfect we We’ll add beer man that that’s a that’s an easy ad for us so is the concept of this Lobster company they ship lobster rolls that’s their thing yeah yeah so he’s uh Mark uh our friend he’s uh he’s been doing it
For 13 years now he um he basically uh he you know he considers obviously he’s a very successful entrepreneur but he more so considers himself a uh a Storyteller and a curator and so he basically you know created this whole story uh behind him going to the the docks in
In Portland Maine and picking out the lobster and then packaging it and shipping it overnight to people across the country um which was something back then that you know you really you really couldn’t find anywhere you had to come to Maine uh for lobster and and now he
Can you know you can jump on there today and order you know live lobsters as well can show up anywhere all the way to California overnight and uh yeah he’s been killing it with it damn invest possibly me we’ll see yeah possibly you TBD we’ll see yeah I mean it
Wouldn’t be a bad move man it’s been it’s been blowing up for him and uh but yeah just so grateful to be friends with him and he was gracious enough to to you know start uh start supplying us and believing in in this um and you know
It’s a great deal for us because we get to eat lobster yeah everyone gets eat lobster like you said I mean that’s that’s that’s a big plus I’d say yeah yeah this that’s a sick concept uh the only other thing that’s been similar I’ve been on a show called the chicken
Parm cast but I was actually there in person they served me up a chicken parm with my Italian Heritage I was obviously pretty excited about that as well but the the fact that this was shipped to me on like dry ice was insane you have a problem putting them together it’s
Pretty simple too right no yeah I I put it all together fine you know I got them here on Deck whenever we need them and uh yeah they’re good to go yeah that’s awesome man well you’re are you in they ship to Nashville right right um yes I’m in Nashville I’ve been
Living here for about the past year oh nice man how do you like it um I I love it so far honestly I’ve you know of all the places I’ve lived um obviously I’m from Boston but I haven’t lived there since I was 18 so I’ve been
In New York City I’ve been in La I’ve kind of been around the country for a bit but of all the places I’ve been this is probably my favorite to kind of settle down and it’s a great place to settle at the age I’m at you know it can
It can be quiet and chill when I want it to be it can be an absolute [ __ ] disaster what I want it to be so it’s it’s exactly what I needed to be at this point in my life yeah and Nashville’s awesome man I was there for about seven
Years and uh I absolutely loved it and then I ended up going to La and then come finally Landing here in Scottdale oh you guys are gos right now yeah yeah yeah we’re at our uh so this is a like a record label office then our
Studio is next door and then you can look out the window and Club Maya’s right there and then all the bottle blond yeah oh I my life’s almost ended in that City multiple times before I moved here uh me and the guys we we kind of frequented Scottdale for
Probably six to eight months out of the out of two years uh maybe more and we lived in like the Paradise Valley area but pretty pretty close like spitting distance to all the bars and and Oldtown and all that um I had one too many of
These shots called a blue boy I don’t know if you remember those oh yeah yeah same same I try not to venture venture over there now because of those specifically but that was a different time it was a different point in my life and I’m glad it’s over but I remember it
And I’ll never forget it yeah that was uh I mean I want to you know go back and kind of go through the timeline but you guys were here uh when Mike was recording the highs right yeah there was a period of time around right around when the pandemic
Started where we all left Los Angeles together uh me Mike and two other guys that we were living with all together in LA and we we decided to just live nomadically and kind of Bounce Around the Globe for two years and Scott still seemed to be one of those places we kept
Kept getting drawn back to pull you back in just reeled us back in every single time she tends we stayed in some beauti yeah we stayed in some beautiful places and I’m not going to lie it’s it’s a beautiful city outside of the partying and I really enjoyed it but um yeah we
All we all hit some breaking points in that City including Mike and there was there was the infamous 5day Bender where uh it was it was Mike’s birthday and Halloween kind of falling on the same weekend and they I I didn’t last that long but they they partied for five days
Straight and then Mike never drank ever again that was the Catalyst for him never drinking again that that that makes sense the whole town will do that to you that’s for especially Halloween Halloween and birthday that that is prime time here lost a lot of good men
Out there R playing for the Yankees uh well Kilmer man I I got to be honest bro we’ve been doing this show uh for a couple years now and as our viewers know we always ask our guests to add a special ingredient to the lobster roll
And uh today was a little different in the kitchen i’ say very different yeah it was very different when we put the rolls together uh we ended up you know putting an extra ingredient on top at the end um and I’ll let you introduce it
Man so this is the this is the Kilmer rooll tell us tell us what we have all right well I wanted to take a pretty standard lobster roll and a standard approach but I also wanted to add a little spice of myself and I want it to
Be personal to me but also authentic to me and unique as well so today our secret ingredient will be creatine monohydrate I don’t think we’re going to go the full 5 milligrams we’ll probably stick to around 1 to two milligrams we’ll just use it as a garnish we’re not
Going to get too crazy here but um that’s that’s I didn’t put it on yet I was actually going to I was going to apply it um on the show before we actually eat it freshly applied are we going to get a little Salt Bay with the creatine
Yeah yeah I’m going to up my studio in here but um quick little shout out to I want to give a quick shout out to first form here this is first form um great athletic brand and supplement brand we uh we played their um end of year party
Uh couple months ago out in St Louis and they’re they’re a great brand so shout out first form but this is the creatine that I’ll be using today on my Lobster r and is working out then a big part of your life is that something that you’re
You’re passionate about I mean cuz again this one when he told me the special ingredient I was like I haven’t even thought of it in this ballpark at all so this is I love it it’s so unique I’m gonna I’m gonna answer that question with a wardrobe change that I’m going to
Put on before I eat this lobster roll you’re going to tell me if I’m into working out or not okay let’s go I love it I would question if any of our like foodie followers would be upset that we’re well if they’re upset then they’re clearly not jacked so get over
It what I’m wearing here is a is a is a Dwayne Johnson apron you can see boom baby oh that’s amazing this is Dwayne Johnson apron I’m a huge fan of the rock probably his number one fan for the last 20 years and uh I can’t say I’d be lying
If I if I said he wasn’t the reason why I hit the iron Paradise at least 3 to 5 days a week the iron Paradise I mean Hey listen you get the double bulk here you get that fresh protein from the lobster top it off with some creatine I mean this
Might Dwayne might see this and and this might be his go-to preworkout meal I mean it might be a lot of people listen he’s he’s tweeted me seven times over the years but who’s counting but we’re going to do our best over here I’m going to apply the
Creatine the I’m G to Salt Bay this on here oh beautiful look at that beautiful big out how much did you put on ours I mean I may have done a little more than 5 milligrams too just because I also wanted to get jacked all this white powder falling is
Really taking me back to Scott steel I had that same thought too he’s doing it no com all right should we try this I’m a little nervous let’s dig in I mean let’s let’s give it a try this is the first I’m with it all right here we
Go one bite everyone knows rules here we go oh yeah oh okay oh yeah yeah man stop Brady likes it too yeah you want some be mhm wow I wouldn’t recommend giving your dog creatine but oh no I just gave him piece I I gave him a piece of the bread
I’m excited to see what happens I’m not going to lie yeah he’s a this is fantastic this is really good it works it definitely works this is taking me taking me right back to Portland Maine beautiful great great lobster rolls and for those watching John got four lobster
Rolls to make so he’s not just having one creatine roll he’s going to be able to enjoy two here I I I prepared two nice well dude this is fantastic wow grateful to share a lobster roll with you man I’ve been uh I’ve been following
Your journey for for a few years now and uh I uh I got to say man I’m a fan it’s uh it’s been so cool to to watch you guys uh you know over the years just just make some incredible art um come up with all these creative innovative ways
To uh you know build an independent platform uh around an artist and uh and these different brands and uh companies that you guys have started has just been it’s been really inspiring man and so I’ve been I’ve been really looking forward to this pod um but first I want
To go back before we get to that stuff I want to go back you know Little John in in brain tree Massachusetts um yeah oh yeah did when you when you were growing up you know was was being in the entertainment uh Film Production podcast world something and I guess podcasts
Weren’t even around back then but yeah not invented yet no yeah no but the but the entertainment side of things was that something you you always uh you know kind of had on your mind to to go after yeah absolutely I um I was very
Blessed to kind of fall in love with my passions at a young age I would say around eighth grade 13 years old is when I picked up my first camera and they were uh those really old Mini DV tapes cam quarters and um it just really
Started with my friend my friends and I just kind of like around and you know the show Jackass was really big back then and at the beginning of every show you had that safety message that say says please don’t try this at home and of course we went home and tried it
Absolutely I I was the cameraman for our Jackass videos and we would you know like fire jump off our roofs and all that dumb stuff and that that’s kind of how it all started with um just falling in love with the camera and having fun with it with my friends and music kind
Of felt coincided uh really soon after that when I was about 14 years old I picked up the guitar and fell in love with that and I think I think starting at the age of 14 or 15 I wanted to be a rock star for a uh you know for a career
And yeah wasn’t too far off didn’t get too far off no man I’ve seen you rip some uh Drops of Jupiter solos on guitar I think we saw it here in Scot or here in Phoenix yeah it’s it’s you know it was a really full circle moment these past
Couple years um where especially last tour where I I’d be ske’s guitar guitarist you know where he’s the opener for our show and I’m playing guitar and then Mike comes on stage and I’m picking the camera and all of that kind of it all kind of started when I was 13 14
Years old where I kind of fell in love with both of those things so huge full circle moment uh you know 20 years later uh seeing all that come full circle was really cool so um but to answer your question yeah I I started falling in
Love with those things at a young age and I was really fortunate to go to a school in brancher Mass where they they offered both like a music program and a video art program so if it wasn’t for those I don’t know if I would have fallen in love with those things but
Those were kind of my outlets in school I was not a great student I didn’t really like a lot of the academic stuff but those art classes I kind of really fell in love with and I I really kind of made it all about those things so I I
Spent a lot of time with it after school you know i’ get right to the room I’d edit videos or I’d play guitar and um I I’m just lucky I’m really lucky that I fell in love with those things it’s such such a young age yeah that’s incredible
Man and when did you finish did you go to school for all four years for uh college or or what for college yeah College yeah I I got a degree in in um and Film Production nice and then when you when you left school what what was your first
Gig uh also pretty crazy I I was also very blessed that by the time I got out of college I had enough kind of experience under my belt Because by the time I was 19 like a sophomore I started making like a home studio and it started in a dorm room and then
It kind of went into when I was in a fraternity in the fraternity house and like home Studios weren’t super common back then like they are now like it was it wasn’t very expensive but it just wasn’t even close to how it is now yeah
So I was kind of one of like the only kids on campus that was like doing that sort of thing and I I was just I wasn’t really working with a lot of artist in the beginning I was kind of just making music to have fun but once I became a
Junior I started to actually work with other artist within my school and then some of them became sort of wellknown and that attracted more artists to kind of come work with me I was working in Long Island New York so like spitting distance from New York City and by the
Time I was out of college like there was already two three or four artists that were like sort of wellknown that I had under my belt where I could just start my own business where I could offer I could offer um uh production uh engineering and video video work kind of
All freelan on my own and I’m not going to lie it was a struggle in the beginning the first year was kind of show and um I definitely living in Manhattan obviously the prices back then weren’t not as crazy as they are now but it was it was a struggle for like a
Whole year trying to you know make ends meet and actually make rent and stuff but kind of having that fire under my ass to like make that rent every month is kind of I think what made me really strive and network with a lot of people
And work a lot and that was kind of my season for grinding was that first year right out of college yeah that pushes you when you’re under the gun uh you know financially especially and you have to make rent you have to put food on the table that that’s that’s you know and
And I’m not gonna I’m not going to skip over this like I I have a family and I have friends that are like Beyond supportive of my my dreams and everything so it’s not like if I didn’t make rent like I’d be out on the streets
You know what I mean but I I I have I have a lot of Pride and I I kind of set that goal for myself where you know I want to do this on my own and I I don’t really want help from anyone else and if
I fa fail then I fail and um that that was just a huge driver for me in those early years who were some of who were some of those artists that you uh that you were working with that that started to grow while you were working with him
First artist that I worked with Brady keep it down first artist that I worked with was um a rapper from Connecticut named Chris Webby which I don’t know if you’ve heard of oh yeah yeah I remember Chris Webby from back in the day yeah yeah so very wild serendipitous story
Where I’m a I’m a junior in college I’m in um Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity I’m in the fraternity house I take the basement because I had an extra room it was like a shitty unfinished basement but I had an extra room so I made it a recording studio just in hopes of making
Beats and around I wasn’t working with any artists at the time yeah and this kid this kid Chris Webby pledges and he moves into the fraternity house in the room right above me and he like he comes up to me one day and he goes like are
You are you the other rapper that’s in the fraternity and back then he was a battle rapper so like I think he was under the impression that he had a battle rap me to be the number one rapper in school or something like that
But I was just like no man like I just make music for fun I don’t really take it too seriously I’m just kind of around and it it eventually turned into him recording all his music and me engineering and he was kind of the first artist I’ve really produced and
Engineered for and at that point he was already this is going to sound like a really dated sentence but he was really big on MySpace back then that that was kind of that was a music Discovery platform back you there’s YouTube and YouTube even wasn’t
That was yeah my no it was Myspace for sure that was literally number one we’re talking uh we’re talking like 2008 2009 like Myspace was an outlet for music where people would discover and listen to music so uh Webby became very big on MySpace and then as um you know websites
Like de piff got big um he started dropping mixtapes on there and got a lot of exposure there and then YouTube got big and he got pretty big there so Chris was was the first person I ever worked with and if it wasn’t for Chris Webby I
Don’t even know if I’d be here today because uh he was kind of the starting point and I got very lucky that it was an artist that became relatively well known in those early years where I I had enough legitimacy to start working with other people beyond
That when did you so uh you started playing guitar at 14 when did you actually start getting on the production side and and producing and what were some of your influences back then oh um I uh well it’s funny because like I fell into guitar and I became this um I
Became like obsessed with rock music like rock culture I wanted to be a rock star like I didn’t listen to any other genres really it was just all about rock and then as I became a little more influenced by other music um like I think 50 Cent was probably my first
Favorite rapper and then and then I went out to the west coast to visit my friend in the Bay Area and then I fell in love with Hy music so you take 50 Cent and then you take High music and those are kind of my first exposure to to rap music that I
Like really enjoyed and so when I produced uh I was kind of you know using influences of stuff like guitar and piano which is what I learned when I was younger but then I was I was using kind of like the rhythmics and the Beats of
Stuff like New York rap and and hyy music so it was kind of all over the place but I think it made for some pretty interesting music and um and yeah I Webby was the first artist I ever produced for we had a couple songs um on the production side of
Things but then be on that I started working with a handful of other artists like my senior year in college and then I started producing a hell of a lot more and that opened a ton of doors yeah what doll were you producing in logic through and through still today I’m on logic
Right now oh nice man I love it yeah that’s my that’s my favorite too mhm so after after Webby um who who else uh who else kind of came through that you uh that you collaborated with so the yeah the second crazy story is um I moved my
Senior year I moved into to like a smaller house uh with my fraternity it was only me and three other guys my bedroom was like relatively big so I I set up the whole studio shopping there as well and I started working with this kid from Philly named tab Ali and tab
Ali I believe was the first artist on Visionary music group which you know obviously logic is known for today logic yeah uh but the guy who started Visionary music group Chris z uh signed to this kid T Ali who I was working with and like some of those first visionary
Music group meetings and like artist meetings were in my fraternity house in my studio and W almost in almost in a way like it kind of was like birthed there which is kind of weird and uh Chris who started Visionary lived in Garden City New York which was like a
Town over so um there was a there was a pretty cool music scene there in Long Island back then there was uh obviously Chris later sign logic who I believe was from Maryland and then um John Bellion was from the that’s what I was going to
Say and Bellion was coming up in that Long Island scene as well so kind of like a weird little music bubble happening there that I was very fortunate to be a part of and I I kind of continued working in that bub Bubble even when I moved to New York City
Because there was just a lot of music happening in Long Island so that was kind of like a a cool little time for music yeah man so I’ve I’ve known you uh for the past three four years and that was through being a fan of Mike formerly
Mike Stud I’m curious when when did you connect with him and how did that relationship begin so literally soon after I started uh working for myself out of college uh I graduated uh Hofer University 2010 and I was working for myself you know freelancing for that year and I reached
Out to Mike uh in 2011 so literally like one year after graduating and he he had one song out called college humor and back then uh the music blogs were really how you discovered music back then and I was I was frequenting this site goodmusic all day.com because my my good
Friend Tim Tim Weber was running it and that’s how I discovered Mike was on this blog his his song College Humor was on there and I I was reaching out to a lot of artists at the time trying to collaborate and you know get my name out
There and just work with as many people as possible so he was one of those guys where I saw the video and I was instantly like you know the video was out of college there was a lot of partying involved the whole quote unquote frat rat movement was like
Starting to be a thing and uh I kind of I not that I was pigeon hold into it but I I think I authentically kind of fit right into that demographic in that genre so I um I C me when you’re throwing when you’re throwing uh creatine on lobster rolls man I think
You definitely fit you fit yeah I’m I’m a bro through and through I am who I am so I I keep it authentic but anyways I know people kind of Grimace at the thought of frat rap now but I it was it was just something that I kind of
Authentically fell into and I was I was kind of just a part of it and I’m I’m happy that I was honestly because it led to a lot of exciting things but uh I reached out to Mike uh when he had won two songs out and I just sent him some
Beats I told him who I was that I worked with Webby and that that dude TB from Philly and he he had heard of all those people and uh that was kind of enough for him to get on one of my tracks and I produced his third song and he had never
Really shot um a ton of music videos or done a lot of songs up to that point so after we did that third song together I reached out and said hey I’m in New York I know you’re in Rhode Island uh come to New York if you want to shoot a video
For this song and and he did and that’s when I met him for the first time and he was starting to kind of get a lot of in exposure as an artist and starting to open up certain shows at different venues so I then became his you know
Videographer on the road and doing shows and his come up was it didn’t like happen a lot at once but it he had like this initial blowup where he was big enough to start doing headlining shows literally like a year or two into making music wow and they weren’t big shows
They were you know 300 person bars 200 person bars but still a year impressive yeah like a year of working with him we were already hitting the ground running going on these routed tours and touring the country so I was like thrown right into I was thrown right into it and I I
Was there um pretty pretty damn near the the beginning of his journey as well so it’s been it’s been very beautiful that our journey kind of all aligned from the very beginning and uh we met at a at a very amazing time you know just kind of
When we we were both starting out and at at that time though you were I mean you were going full speed ahead with the the production you know music production and video stuff with other people was it hard for you to put the music I mean did
You put the music production on hold when you ended up going on the road with Mike or were were you continuing to do that in your you know off time I um yeah that’s a good question I’d say music production once I started like really working with Mike pretty
Full-time like it it it didn’t fall by the wayside but then at that point I kind of just fell into different seasons of producing for people and it wasn’t consistent uh but over the years like the past decade there’s probably been three or four artists that I’ve really
Aligned with that other than Mike that I I really like enjoyed making music with so I wouldn’t say there was a whole lot of it but um but it’s it’s always been on my life kind of coming in and out every other couple years yeah and so once that initial headlining tour popped
Off and you were off to the races with him did it just continue from there even when you guys were done with that tour were you continuing to work with him know full-time or was there like a break in between like how what what happened there no there was there was never
Really any breaks honestly um starting from like mid 2011 um those first that first like year or two we were touring but I was still working with other artists quite a bit um I was kind of like very popular in like the like lowbudget music video
World so I was I was getting flown out all over the country to do like not a lot not a huge budget shoot like you know 500 bucks a th000 bucks you know like really like small videos but I was getting flowing all over the country just
Because I was Mike’s guy I was Webb’s guy you so I I was kind of like side by side with um with with MC MC Miller’s videographer Rex Arrow who was also kind of in the same scene shooting everyone’s videos I was kind of like I mean I’m
Giving all the Roses to Rex Arrow because I like no joke would just copy his style like 100% because I was a huge fan of MC Miller’s videos and I was just kind of doing the same thing that he was doing so uh but back then like in that
That bubble he and I were kind of making most of the music videos so 2011 2012 2013 like pretty busy working with a lot of artists but then once Mike really started to take off which was probably around 2014 he started to start selling out big venues you know like 1500 people
Or more um rooms around the country that’s when it became like pretty full-time working with him and were you still living in New York at that time yeah I was um you know for those first couple years Mike was living in Rhode Island I was was living in New
York City and he would always take the Amtrak train down and UMass he he would come down for a weekend every now and again and then there was one point he was him and his buddy blue were renting out this like little tiny apartment um a
Few blocks away from me and uh he would be there for months at a time and we’d work but it was nothing really permanent for him and then right around 2015 is when we kind of all decided let’s live together let’s move to Los Angeles and
Like do that whole thing so 2015 is when we all started living together and we kind of made the plung into the the LA lifestyle when that happened were you guys like was there a good amount of money coming in that you you ended up in
Like you know the hills or was was it still like kind of cutting the nose the grindstone you know struggling no there was um I mean I wasn’t too deep into Mike’s accounting but I think he was doing well enough where you know we were in West Hollywood we were living in like
A very nice condo there’s four of us and uh it was by no means roughing it at all uh we were you know we were there for two years and it was it was amazing and uh we were at a very fortunate part of our career there where you know we
Weren’t really stressing about money or anything like that and uh we were just getting exposed to a whole different type of Lifestyle from you know moving from New York to LA it’s like night and day so that was a challenge within itself of kind of staying true to
Ourselves amongst all that [ __ ] but it was uh that was kind of when we all like put all our eggs into that basket and just live together and and fully immersed into like doing this thing for real yeah uh just so you know John our uh third chair we call him third chair
Chase it’s the one thing he comes in third place in his whole life and we like to put him in his place because of that uh he uh he just joined us he was a little late today but you can’t see him on the camera but he’s sitting over
There in the corner what’s good brother my apologies my apologies I was late out of meaning run a little too late than expected so we all had creatine so catch up yeah I know I just brought a bag with me too the most Scot stuff they ever said
Bag of blow I was like dude if I get pulled over right now we’re going to demonetized now we ended up we ended up getting some another we ended up getting another hook up on it so oh yeah for sure just went over to cake really quick yeah now now
It’s a party yeah right yeah man so uh when you guys moved to LA did it you guys really see things like start to really take off and just start making like the huge moves with start like festivals and things like that um it was never there was never like one moment
Where we like blew up it was like it was always a gradual gradual gradual climb and it’s kind of crazy because like things didn’t really start to Plateau or slow down until probably 2017 maybe when like Mike was starting to think about doing the whole name change and going from Mike’s stud
To Mike and yeah sure we didn’t we didn’t tour for a while and but up until 2017 like it was just a steady climb and the venues kept getting bigger and you know 2016 we had a reality TV show which was just completely insane all on by
Itself uh where a camera crew followed us around for a a six we tour around the country and still I think you can still watch it on Amazon it’s definitely it’s definitely a good watch and that’s awesome yeah no it was so there was never really one moment but uh it was La
Definitely opened a lot of doors um where we just you know we wouldn’t be able to get certain opportunities back on the East Coast because La is just La you know how did that come about the them wanting to do a reality show with
You guys well we we were um we were one of the first artists to or first music groups or whatever to start doing like tour Vlogs pretty consistently on YouTube and this is like we were kind of vlogging before vlogging was a thing and the only other big like tour Vlog back
Then was whis khalifas who obviously was like Mega popular back then right around like 2012 2013 2014 uh whiz was huge back then but I’d say besides his like we I think we had one of the bigger bigger tour Vlogs and we kind of we kind of made it like this fun gimmicky
Gimmicky little thing where it was kind of filmed like the office almost where we were like doing these like deadpan interviews kind of cross cuted with all like the wildness of stuff that would happen on tour and I’ll say I I’ll come out and say it like we probably partied
Harder than any musician back then like by a long shot like literally like I will go on record and say like show me any other artist like we partied probably twice as hard and I I was fortunate to be there to capture it all like I was the videographer so I
Documented it all and uh we we made this like really funny dead pan sarcastic uh web series called touring’s boring where we’ show like the craziness but have these dead pan interviews like the office and uh that that became just like a a very popular thing for multiple
Years and it got people really excited to come to the shows and just a fun thing we did and after a few years of that we shopped it around in LA to like a couple different production companies and and and media houses and eventually a production company picked it up and we
Got a budget for a pilot and we Sho that for a while and then then a network kind of hopped on board and we we we got a lot of different options but we went with the one where we had final creative control which is pretty rare in this
Industry uh obviously because we’re reality TV anything can be twisted and we weren’t really trying to be like the next Jersey Shore you know uh Mike wanted to put music first so we we went with a smaller Network and um I I think the show came out really great I look
Back at it now and cringe because we were just completely different people back then but um at least it was like authentic and true and there was nothing fake about it and uh it was it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had because I
Not only was a creator of the show but I was a star of the show and I was filming the show all at the same time which I don’t know if it’s ever been done before so I was on Cloud9 I was having The Best Time Ever when were those Vlogs just was
That like kind of your thing was you always wanted it before that when you guys got into it that you always kept camera rolling for almost everything you guys did well yeah but Ian I was just as wasted as everyone else so you’re getting you’re seeing a true you’re seeing a
True authentic lens out of like a drunk eyes it’s POV right there yeah like literally POV like guy on like literally on the stage in the parties like literally flying the wall capturing everything and it was a very authentic lens because I was just as drunk as
Everyone else so you can imagine the type of stuff I was filming and yeah dude it was it was very uh it was entertaining obviously I’m I’m I’m grateful that we did it at the time we did because there was not a lot of social media back then and things
Couldn’t really be taken out of context back then it was just things were kind of taken at face value where as today you know God forbid if if that stuff was online we were doing it today it would be it it would be bad like it would just be completely Twisted out of
Proportion oh for sure yeah how uh how big was the the crew that you guys were with at that time cuz you’ve been independent or Mike’s been inde dependent your whole squad’s been independent since the jump right and yeah no the key players yeah like the actual core people they’ve more or less
Remained the same um since the very beginning like there hasn’t been a lot of additions in the past 10 years uh there’s you know there’s there’s Mike there’s his touring DJ who’s also our tour manager DJ fader who kind of does all the touring stuff um I’ve always
Been there as like the like the visual guy and then I kind of want the the podcasting got popular I started doing that and then once only Steves and her subscription stuff got popular I started doing that um and then Mike has a an assistant um Versace who lives lives
With him as well who’s been around for a really long time and has been kind of Mike’s day-to-day guy and and then he then we’ve had our buddy blue who’s been Mike’s best friend and neighbor since he was five years old who’s who’s been along with us since literally day one as
Well so really really small Titanic Crew That’s just been kind of doing you know a lot of the essential roles um in house since the start was that always to the goal when you guys you know right when you connected with Mike and then started you know gaining a little bit of steam
And getting more and more popular was the goal always to stay independent and that was something that I’m assuming you guys prowed yourselves on uh yeah I you know back then I don’t think we put a a ton of thought into it because we were just too wrapped up in
The good time honestly we weren’t very present people um but but I mean M got approached by labels I’m sure I wasn’t involved in those conversations but I mean there they got to a point where he was selling out you know 500,000 person rooms all over the country and obviously
Labels are going to come knocking and start asking you know if he wants to sign a deal but uh if you’re in the music industry you know like a lot of those label deals they’re not very enticing and if you’re if you’re already doing well independently there’s not
Really a whole lot of a reason to sign a record deal because you can do it by yourself and you could keep the line share of your royalties and your Masters and your touring and everything so um it just never really made sense financially for him to do it but then
Also from a creative standpoint I mean I think he realized this a little later that uh it also doesn’t make sense to sign for him because he you he doesn’t have deadlines for himself he does things at his own pace uh he he can wait
Two or three years to put out an album R he could wait two or three years to tour if he wants to and things will be just as successful whereas if you’re on a label like you’re on pretty different deadlines kind of based you put things
Out kind of based on their schedule and tour based on their schedule so that wouldn’t really work for him either so it it never really made sense I mean I think though you were also a big part of that though with your abilities and it seems like you’ve been ahead of the
Curve with technology and Trends and things like that as far as you know what we are now with social media and like you said Vlogs and those types of things and that’s I feel like a key to being able to maintain Independence yeah yeah you guys like had every comp need as a
Label that was the the role I fulfilled in those early days where I was kind of just cranking out media like non-stop like there was a time where for a couple years he was doing these things called Sunday stud days where he would just do remixes every week and we make these
Remix videos uh and put one out every week and we stuck to it for like a year or two and some of those remixes kind of went on to give him a lot of steam and um a lot of notoriety so and when you’re just starting out like having someone
That can be there and just crank out media once a week tour Vlogs once a week you know all music videos all the time uh engineer vocals produce songs when I have to like that that’s pretty rare to have someone like that so like that’s kind of the role I fulfilled back theny
And and yeah like when you have someone like that you don’t you know you’re not dependent on a label you’re not dependent on a lot of other people so uh that was that’s that’s where the chemistry kind of really aligned for us who was who was running the ship like
Cuz I mean I know you you said like you guys are partying a lot you weren’t necessarily like living in the moment but I mean to execute the way you guys did it takes a lot of business Acumen and was there was there someone who kind of headed like was there weekly meetings
For Creative or were you guys just just letting it ride sorry you said weekly meetings and I just lost it um I had this I had this old joke back in the day this is awful but I’m gonna share anyways um when I was when I was kind of more of a [ __ ]
Boy back in the day when I would like hang out with girls and stuff I’d have like this thing where if I wanted the girl to like leave my hotel room I’d tell her I had a team meeting so she had to go the guys for a team meeting so
Then the girl would leave and there was no team meeting I just wanted her to leave obviously and to this day I still don’t think we’ve had a team [Laughter] meeting that’s awesome so you guys together well I was going to say we’ve lived together for so long there was a
Seven-year period where we lived together in our team meetings were literally like us stoned in the kitchen in our underwear eating potato chips just like yeah sifting through ideas you know like spur the moment like oh what about this or like oh yeah that’d be sick there was never like uh all right
Like 7 a.m. tomorrow like we’re going to meet down in the living room and have a team meeting about content like we’ve never done that ever which which is it makes it more authentic well you can’t yeah you can’t force creativity you know it’s like it’s like song like Nashville when I live
There uh you know songwriting it’s like you have these scheduled songwriting sessions and it’s kind of hard to sit there you know with people sometimes people you’ve never even met before and you get in the room and it’s like okay let’s sit and write a song together but
You’re not going to really write something that’s true like expression of self cuz you can’t even get to it’s hard at least for most people to get to that level of connection with people when they first meet them and it makes sense that you guys kind of just living
Together I think and that that’s what makes you know the most sense to me when you’re doing it independent and you have your team and what you guys have you know pioneered in so many ways is is having everyone be together and that’s where you know it’s like a it’s a like a
Almost like a uh what’s it called in uh like a Brotherhood yeah like oh an incubator like an incub brainstorming incubator s Fran yeah um and it’s uh it really is like it it sets a president of like how you can do it independently it’s it’s super impressive I’m curious
Man like how did how did only Steves come about cuz that was another revolutionary thing yeah yeah I believe uh I believe Mike says it was a shower idea that’s where he gets all his ideas shower he the guy takes you know 45 minute long
Showers what he does in there I have no idea but he claims he’s coming up with ideas in there and he he’ll say that it was a shower idea I remember it was kind of like through a friend of a friend there was this company that reached out to us or our
Friend linked us with the company who was kind of doing the subscription model thing and it wasn’t patreon it was it was like a thirdparty company who we’ve since parted ways with uh and it wasn’t very amicable so I’m not going to mention their name but uh we were
We were on that so so like once we got introduced to them we kind of sparked the idea of well what if we did like this kind of subscription model for Mike’s Music in our podcast because our podcast was pretty big at the time as well and no musician was doing it I
Don’t I don’t know any musician that was doing a subscription platform and you know back then in 2020 or whatever 2021 so we kind of just hit the ground running and and tried it out and it was a very slow build because the the uh the
Industry was like not warmed up to that idea at all even the independent industry like and the fans they weren’t really warmed up to it so it was a slow build and but over the over the course of two years we built it into this you know monstrosity of a business and it’s
A huge outlet for Mike now and a huge Revenue stream so um it’s it’s been it’s been really cool to see um and watch that develop over the years yeah it’s pretty incredible man to to watch from a distance and you guys have like given away a bunch of money too to fans
Correct yeah I’d say to date we given away about $70,000 to our fans uh we try to yeah at this point we try to do about um we give away like $ thousand dollar in financial support and people like submit why you know why they could use
The money and we sift through it and try to get it to people who really actually need it and these are and mind you these are people who are subscribing who paying $9 a month to subscribe to us and they’re still having money problems so like that shows like the dedication
These fans and it’s it’s I can’t express enough gratitude for like the type of fan base we have where people are like really down bad but they’ll spend $9 a month to support and get all this exclusive content that we’re putting out so it’s a really beautiful thing and we
Always try to give back as much as possible so every every uh week or week and a half we’ll we’ll give away about a thousand bucks to a person who who needs it and um we’ve been doing that for a while now and it’s been about $70,000
Worth wow that’s incredible yeah that is unbelievable yeah I mean I is it also too so again I mean you said yeah you guys were just you know I guess going by the you know seat of your pants early on too is is that kind of still the case
Right now too when you guys are doing all this stuff like you guys just take it day by day and and go with the flow yeah obviously things are done a lot more um what what word should I use here mindful things are a lot more mindful
Now um probably based from you know years of experience but and from years of failing and [ __ ] things up uh things are done a lot more mindfully now but Mike’s the kind of guy where there’s no real Rhyme or reason to how he does things he’s very fluid with the way he
Thinks and operates so some days there might be a day or two where I don’t even hear from him you know we don’t even speak and he’s probably busy in the studio and he’s just completely putting everything he has into just studio and working on music but then there’ll be
Some days where I’ll get 12 texts in a row at like 11: p.m. on a Tuesday and you know there’ll be about you know seven different things that we need to do and or ideas that he has that’s just kind of how he’s always been and I’m not
Going to lie it took some U getting used to and some adap in but that’s as a Creator you have to kind of respect the way people work and the way they come up with ideas and you know I I just always try to be a facilitator and an Executor
For him so I’ve I’ve adapted to it easily over the years because we’ve been doing it for so long so I’m used to it but that’s just kind of how he works yeah and you guys so you’re you’re running only Steves uh you’re still doing the the podcast actually you’re
Filming we have to jump off in in a few right because you’re doing a pod tonight with Mike um in about 10 minutes if that’s cool yeah no problem man yeah you’re doing the Pod you’re doing only stev’s um you’re filming you guys aren’t on the road that much uh ending the year
Right now so outside of the mic stuff uh what what other projects are you working on I saw you were working with uh Jade million in Nashville yep yeah I started doing a little video work with Jade um she’s a great artist I actually linked with her
Through this other Venture that Mike and I are kind of in on right now which is a beautiful thing where we obviously did the only stev’s thing on another platform which I mentioned earlier and we actually decided to kind of Branch off and team up with some amazing people
And create our own platform for other artists and other creators to do the same subscription model that we do and we actually started that about six months ago and since then we’ve launched it it’s called grouped and we’ve already onboarded 60 70 80 different artists over the the last couple months and got
A lot lot of amazing people on there and it’s been kind of like a great Outlet to see other artists use the same business model that we we did the past two years and also see success so that’s another awesome project that we’re working on and there’s a lot of amazing people
Involved in that project as well so that’s that’s been taking up a lot of time as well but it’s I’m I’m really uh happy to do that type of work because it’s helping a lot of artists yeah it’s incredible how much you guys do for the community and give back it’s very
Amicable very seems like yeah you guys always were one step ahead of the curve that’s so cool just pav Paving the way for everybody but again it all it all stems from your social media I feel like your ability capture content and then turn that content into something that’s
That’s the king that’s oh yeah no definitely and as a as an independent artist like you have to always be thinking two steps ahead you know like it’s that’s that’s just how it works if you want to survive in in the industry like you can’t always just piggy back
You have to you have to get really creative with your revenue streams and I will give Mike’s roses he’s been so what’s the word I’m looking for um he’s just been so driven and like so ambitious to always try new things and to to like not just try new things but
Go all in on on new things he’s been really good at that and I mean you look at things like the podcast in like only Steves like he just came up with the idea we went all in and they worked out you know and if if he second guessed
Himself it probably would have never worked out but he’s just when he when he thinks of something and he decides to do it he like he just [ __ ] does it so kudos to him for that that’s awesome so going into 2024 is there anything huge you’re looking forward to
Yeah I mean uh Mike’s been working on his last album for the the past two years called the Lowe’s it’s going to probably be about 30 record so it’s it’s pretty deep can’t wait for that one and we’re gonna dive back into touring again which I’m excited we’re I don’t think
We’re going to do routed tours like we used to because we’re old now and uh we just don’t want to do with the tour buses so I think we’re going to do like the whole country thing where like you go out for like a weekend and do a show
Or two in a different city uh we’re open to the idea of doing live podcast shows which I’m super excited about um I’ve always kind of been a sucker for you know the stage and theatrics and stuff like that so the thought of doing ynk podcast in front of a crowd just
Gets me pretty excited so I’m I’m excited at the idea of that and uh yeah off the top of my head you know obviously the company grouped we’re going to continue to build and there’s a lot of exciting things for the future of that company as well yeah I I got a
Feeling that you guys are going to come up with something crazy for live podcast too that’s gonna probably change the game again too or cut your combination of music and shows and podcast so I’m absolutely looking forward to seeing that yeah yeah we’ll see who we come up with we’ll
See well man um to close it out uh you you know you were just talking about um you know the things you’ve learned throughout the the years and how you guys have made so many mistakes and you iterate and and you continue to build and for the the young kids that watch
This that you know look up to you guys because you you literally are pioneers in the independent music game in so many ways what would your advice be to you know 16 17 year-old arti coming up right now in the game um to to make their own
Way yeah I would say two things one is go all in and two is have patience and I think the the patience is the thing that a lot of people struggle at these days because there’s a lot of instant gratification in the world today where you see things like Tik Tok and it’s
Like oh I can go viral overnight you know I can get 100,000 followers in a week and start from literally the ground floor um so that’s I think that’s kind of polluted a lot of young artists Minds when it when you think of actually becoming a real artist with real fans
That that type of thing doesn’t happen overnight and there there are some exceptions where some artists will have a song blow up you know in their early years but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have a huge Grassroots fan base overnight they’ll just have a really big
Song and I’ve seen that plenty plenty of times in the past couple years so I would say patience is key and a great example you know it just happened at the CMA Awards um jelly roll won Best New Artist and he had this beautiful quote in his speech where he said you know
There’s something poetic about being a 39-year-old and winning Best New Artist he’s not a new artist he’s probably making music years for 20 years two decades two decades you know so if you’re a young artist and you know you you’ve been at it two years three years
Four years even five years and you’re not seeing the results that you’d hope to see or things aren’t really working out yet that’s why you got to go all in man like if you’re all in it’s it’s gonna happen if you stick with it that’s that’s just the name of the game you
Know the the the only the only difference between the people that reach the highest of heights and the people that don’t is that they kept going that’s it keep going that’s awesome that’s literally it that’s that’s that’s the only difference so if some people it’ll take five years some people’ll
Take 10 look at jelly roll he I mean he yeah he’s been a big artist for a while but he’s finally being recognized on this stage like CMA Awards probably 20 years into making music so y um if you’re going to do it go all in and and
And just have the patience and enjoy the process and just love what you do and you know don’t don’t get wrapped up in the the outcome just just love what you do and have patience wow beautiful beautiful way to wrap it up that’s the way to wrap it up right there ladies and
Gentlemen this is lobster and beer TV that’s John Kilmer the legend have a great night peace peace
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