Ricky Montaner: The Music Industry Is Full of Fakes

Ricky Montaner exposes the fake side of the music industry, from red carpet pretenders to so-called “friends” who disappear when you need them.

In this candid You vs You interview with Lex Borrero, Ricky opens up about fame, grief, love, and finding himself beyond the Montaner legacy.

In this raw and revealing conversation, Ricky Montaner (of Mau y Ricky) sits down with Lex to share the unfiltered truth about life in the music industry. From growing up in the Montaner family legacy to carving his own path, Ricky opens up about the fake friendships, red carpet pretenders, and the hidden politics of fame.

He dives deep into personal struggles with grief, fear of failure, and the constant pressure to live up to expectations, both as an artist and as a man. Ricky also reflects on love, marriage, and how his priorities have shifted over time, offering lessons that go far beyond music.

🎯 Topics include:

+ The truth about fake people in the music industry

+ Growing up in a famous family and finding your own voice YouTube & Podcast Tags

+ Dealing with grief and loss in the public eye

+ How fear of failure shapes creative work

+ Marriage, love, and building a life outside the spotlight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Something that I thought was a huge failure for me
inspired somebody that is now a massive artist. That is inspiring. Also,
millions of people are missus that we think our failures
are really not three times nominee because that's delicious.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Bro. Do you feel like you've ever had to be
faked with someone?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
For sure? In this industry a time, everybody's pretending to
be at the red carpet. When they're there, you don't
ever feel like you made it. We spend so much
more time. One of my main motivations for doing music
was making girls likely hold.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
On the U versus you thank you.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I mean, it's always a pleasure to have someone who
is not only a colleague but a friend. And I
think we'll really enjoy this conversation because it's surrounding the
things we talk about all the time, right, So to
kick it off, does fame scare you?

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Fame scare me? Honestly, I feel like I've been around
it my whole life, and don say, I don't think
it scared me. I've been around it always, so it's
so it's handling it. Stuff like that hasn't been something
that for me was shocking. I could see on some

(01:19):
of my friends or artists that are starting out, and
I'm seeing like their revolution and seeing how like they
react to certain things or being recognized on the street
or whatever it might be. And it's really cool to see.
But I was kind of prepared for it because since
I was born into a family where my dad was
already you know, obviously there was a switch when they

(01:41):
started asking either me for pictures or they were waiting
outside for me or something like that. But I've always
been very conscious of it, and I know the responsibility
that comes with it and the cons. I've always been
very conscious of the cons of fame too.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
How was a girl end up being a month today? Dude?

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Honestly, I comono s. I don't know what it is
like to be anybody else. My childhood was amazing. I
don't have a recollection of it being very different than
a regular kid's childhood, though I'm sure it was very
different than a rediar kids childhood. I remember like things
like my dad picking me up from school and that

(02:25):
causing a commotion, you know, or me like I learned
at an early age that my dad's autograph would would
help me with my teachers, you know, So I like
I learned how to fake it, so I would like
always promise autographs, and I'd bother my dad with autographs
and i'ld just fake them in the bathroom and I

(02:46):
would be like, oh, my dad sent you this, you know,
and I'd be a fake autograph that to stay in
good graces of the teachers.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
You know?

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Did that make you like want to be famous? Like
seeing your dad and seeing the life experience, is that
it gave you seeing what it was doing to him, right,
Because I think you know, when we were shooting the
show and I got to see so much of the
archival footage, there's this part that we actually put on
the show where your dad says, you know, one of

(03:14):
the hardest things.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Is to be away. Right. So there's one of the
cons right that.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
You that you experiences as a child having your father
also travel so much and do that. But did having
him live this experience and have you see it kind
of give you the bug that hey, I like the
bug and the pressure of saying I want to I
want to be famous?

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, one thousand percent. I would say, like seeing the
the effect with with an audience, or what the connection
between an artist and an audience, seeing that made me
want to want to experience that for myself for sure,
And I knew the pressure that it was going to

(03:58):
because I've always been very passionate about our industry, you know,
like it hasn't just been like, oh I love me
because I love the music aspect of it, but I
also like, I'm very passionate about you know, this happened
because of this and like this person that this deal
and you know, like those those little like ins and
outs I really like. And since I was very young

(04:23):
and seeing and seeing my dad live that, I was
definitely not only inspired to want to live it myself.
I don't know, Nuka, I really did not imagine my
life doing anything else at all. So you know, so
you want to see that. I feel like if this does,
if I never had a plan B when I was

(04:45):
growing up, you know either, And seeing that, I knew
that there was going to be a huge, a huge
pressure because since I was, like I was saying, since
I'd been seeing the industry, I knew that it's not
very likely that sons of artists make it. Despite people's
initial reaction is like, oh, it's easier for you since
you were born into a it isn't common that it

(05:06):
works because at the end of the day, there's no
real shortcuts to people's like taste or people's hearts or whatever,
you know. So what I mean, I felt the pressure,
but there was no other choice. So I just had
to power through whatever pressure that was or that weight
of I knew that that if I found success, or

(05:27):
if I found my own that pressure was gonna kind
of fall off my shoulders, which I feel it has
for me. Now, I don't feel that anymore. I feel
like I'm in my own course with my brother, and
We've been able to achieve our things, and I'm super
proud of what we've done, and I'm super anxious to
keep growing. And but before it was definitely an insecurity

(05:48):
of like, am I not going to continue this legacy?
Is it not gonna? Am I not going to be
a part of this?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
You know?

Speaker 1 (05:55):
That's kind of the pressure I felt.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
And you know, I think a lot of people share
the pressure. I was just talking to someone today where
they feel like, what if it's not for me right,
what if it doesn't work out? And it starts creating
this narrative of the story in their mind that without
it they will not be happy. Do you feel that

(06:19):
as you were growing up, as you were starting out
and putting music out and maybe it wasn't the hit
yet and it hadn't been successful, that that pressure, that
insecurity of like what if it's not like, what if
it doesn't work right? Do you feel like that is
part of the narrative that sometimes pops up in your
life even now when you put out a song and

(06:41):
you're like, yeah, what if it doesn't work, what if
people don't accept it? What if tomorrow I can't get
another hit?

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yes, I feel like the pressure of the results of
what you're making is always for me paralyzing. I feel
like before, when I didn't have anything to lose or
hadn't found success yet, I had this blind faith in
what we were doing, like I knew it was going

(07:08):
to work out. There's no plan be even when it
wasn't working out and it didn't work out for a
very long time. People think it was quick or whatever.
But I started recording my first album when I was
fifteen years old, and I didn't and my first song
didn't become popular. So I was twenty seven, So that's
like twelve thirteen years of a struggle of like trying
and doing interviews and people not wanting to take our

(07:30):
call or not wanting to give us the opportunity or
doing interviews to just pretty much try to embarrass us
or try to like put us down. And I feel
like those things for us were motivation. I kind of
use that almost approved people wrong in a way, and
that helped me. There's like I have a couple figures

(07:52):
in my life that I don't necessarily recommend that to everybody,
but for me, it was almost like you will see,
you know, there's a couple people that I've already healed
those things with. Well, that drove me to go past
that what if it doesn't work out, It's like, no,
it has to work out because they're gonna see, they're
gonna know, you know. And I'm trying now in the
career since you mentioned like how about now, even though

(08:17):
that I've achieved so much more than like before when
I would have those doubts and nothing had happened, I
almost constantly try to go back to that blind faith
of like it's gonna work out, why because it's amazing
and even if it didn't work out, you still had
that like I feel like after you find certain success.
You set your bar up so high that everything that

(08:40):
doesn't reach that bar, if you're not careful, is going
to start feeling like a failure yet and you will
constantly be feeling like you're not making the mark and
not making the market, not making the mark. And that's
started becoming to me a frustration because I look back
in songs of mine that are huge pillars in my

(09:00):
career and are huge, but while I was living that moment,
I was feeling like I like it wasn't working because
of outside noise or because I was looking at metrics
too close. I say, well, my last song at this
point was doing these many streams a day, so like
this is not doing well, so blah blah blah. And
I look back now and I'm like, well, that song's

(09:23):
not only like massive, but it's massive for my fans,
and it's you know, bit er momento. When I look back.
I look back when I was living the Conocios, we
had the top three songs, almost the top three song
in almost every speaking country in the world. I Jocynthia

(09:44):
that no tabasan those My feeling was like, fuck, we
gotta keep grinding, bro, like we're doing less numbers than yesterday.
Yesterday we did fifty thousand more streams. Why I steady
doing yes so soon? I mean I ded that well.
That sucks, bro that sucks. So it's like focusing on
putting your at on creativity and constantly creating. This year
is I feel like has been one of my least

(10:06):
anxious years twenty twenty five so far, because starting January eighth,
I started getting into sessions every single day pretty much.
I've written I think like in the last almost two months,
I think thirty five to forty songs. And my anxiety
is like superer, Okay, I was made for you know, creating.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
It's interesting that you talk about this because there's a
there's a misconception an artists or people who are trying
to enter our our industry that.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
The success will heal you.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yea, right, the success will all of a sudden take
everything away. But the thing is we've been programmed that
we must suffer to succeed, right, So it's almost like
like you my career, I would accomplish these things and
they felt like I was not in and needed something else,
and even when it went well, it was like it

(11:03):
went well.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Now what's next? What's next?

Speaker 3 (11:05):
Because I got to stay on. And the thing is
that you know, when you're first starting out, you to
your point, you have this this this north start of
encouragement that is led by that person doesn't want to
let me in, that person said no to me. But
then you become successful and it's now like the public
is saying that song doesn't work, and it's a hard

(11:27):
thing to swallow because it's the same fans that we're
loving your last song, who just ain't loving this one
or the one after, the one after, And all of
a sudden, you're like, man, I've released five six songs,
I released an album No one cared.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
But it's this idea that.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Because we have success, or because we work so hard,
because we're passionate, everything that comes with it is meant
to make me feel good. And what I've learned in
this journey of you know, healing myself, is that I'm
okay no matter what, and like you, have started to

(12:05):
live a better life experience because I understood that I
don't have to suffer to succeed. That the necessity to
feel like something is successful is going to lead me
back to the same answer, which is I'm not in control.
And most importantly, like today, I did an interview and
they were asking me in the interview, you know, how

(12:26):
did it feel that like you want to grab.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Me or that you do this?

Speaker 3 (12:29):
And I think if I would have answered that last year,
I would have been a man so exciting. I worked
so hard I deserved it. Today I realized that it's
none of that. It's a gift. There's people that are
more talented than you and I. There's people that work
harder and longer hours than you and I. There's people
that are doing twenty more sessions or ten more business
meetings and they don't have what we have, and that

(12:53):
is a gift, right, It's a gift. And so when
I started to realize that everything in my life was
a gift, it started to give me the sense that
it's not about what I deserve. It's just I'm receiving
something out of grace, and that grace allows me to.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Enjoy it as if it was a gift.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
You know, yeah, because I don't think the egos out
of the way, the fears out of the way. This
is like you gave me, you know, a piece of chocolate.
A man, I mean they're not good because I didn't
even have to pay for it. That feels a lot better.
But it really is something that that again, we've been
so programmed to have this mentality that in order to

(13:30):
be successful, we have to suffer, and we've in this
industry because it's such a lifestyle industry, we say, well,
if you're not like working all the time and touring
all the time and doing all the stuff like you're
not going to be you're not doing enough. And we
know multiple artists who put a lot of money, who
put in a lot of time, who don't sleep, who

(13:51):
lived their lifestyle.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Who after having hits, can't catch another hit.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
No, I've had to realize that I when I was
starting out and the first thirteen years that I thought
that nobody like gave a fuck about what we were doing.
And I'm talking I'm talking about like not even an
ounce of like oh it's sparkd a little bit of
a fire. I'm talking about like we would put out

(14:18):
we would do video blogs, like recording shit like going
going to an amusement park or going to the recording
studio and we recorded like and I thought nobody gives
a fuck about this or reallyse songs that I thought
nobody cared about. I was almost like embarrassed of those
like misses. You know, when everything started working out, I

(14:39):
would then start running into people in our industry and
artist friends that are friends of mine now that are
incredibly fucking successful and massive that sat me down and
sang me those songs from beginning to end and told me,
bro I would wait for your video blogs to come out,
and when the video blogs were and I'd be like,

(15:01):
what are you talking about? You watch that? Yeah, and
I can sing you the song. And he would sing
me the song from beginning to end, And I was like,
why don't you thinking that something that I thought was
a huge failure for me inspired somebody that is now
a massive artist that is inspiring also millions of people.
So a lot of times our missus that we think

(15:23):
are failures are really not. So there's songs of mine
that I think they didn't do that well. And then I'll
be with somebody and I'll be like, yo, my favorite
song of yours is this one. I'll be like, oh, really,
if I just ran into this random person in an
airport that said this to me, there's at least a
couple more thousands of people that believe this song is

(15:44):
their favorite. You know, my favorite album of Cold Place
is or least selling album of them all. That's the
one that has me spending thousands of dollars to go
watch them play. Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
So that's the beauty I think about creating art. And
sometimes once you start having success and the pressure kicks in,
and the money kicks in and the need of having
the applause of people kicks in, you forget that at
the core of.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
It, it was just the love of art, right.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
It was the love of something you could do and say,
and what that did for you to heal you, and
what that would do to other people.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
But sometimes it's hard like that.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
The environment around our industry causes it to feel envy,
to feel you know.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
That drugs delicious bro oh yeah, you know, and once
you have it, you like, oh my god, what is
this and your initial you get jaded about what your
initial motivation behind all this was because you have this
new thing that you're like, oh no, what this is
giving me this feeling of blah blah blah, and you
almost like lose track of why you were doing this
in the first place.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
You know, how do you separate being Ricky the artists
and Ricky the human being that music is a part of,
but it's not necessarily the famous guy walking outside? Or
do you don't you feel like you're just one?

Speaker 1 (17:11):
I don't know how to do. I don't know how
to turn it off. I don't know that I can.
I don't know that I'm any other way, you know.
I feel like it's funny you asked that because I can't.

(17:31):
I wouldn't know how to begin to turn it off,
because I really do think about this all the time,
and I'm on all the time. But I feel like
it's part of me too, you know. It's not like
it's not that I'm in a movie, you know. So
I do. And I have a lot of colleagues that
I believe, you know, are in a movie, you know,
And I could see how they could turn off that
movie and be like, oh no, bro, we're all good,

(17:52):
you know, like, and their personality like comes after me.
I'm feel like I'm just myself, you know. So I
don't know how to how to turn it off. I
feel like I have to. I have to for the
sake of many things, my marriage, or it's as much
of a workaholic as me, but more than that, she

(18:15):
sees that this is not like I'm trying to make
more money, you know, it's not only that. You know,
of course I want to make more money all the time. Pokabe,
I just need to get this other It's just a need,
a necessity. I have that. Why are you in the
studio till three am? Because I almost Okay, it's good
for my mental health because I feel like, if I

(18:36):
don't finish the song right now, it's gonna leave my
mind and it's gonna land in somebody else's guitar, you know,
like they have this going on right now. Because I
also feel like, if I'm inspired, I need to grab
all of that. If there's ever a time in my
life where I don't feel inspired, you know, have all
of that. It's impossible to explain that. It's such a
part of me that I wake up think about it,

(18:57):
I fall asleep, I think about it. I So to
answer your question, I don't separate it. I like, your
friend is Ricky, but it's the same guy that's on
the stage. You know. It's not like, oh, but I
know the real It's like, yeah, the real me is
it's still that that same guy that goes on stage.
I don't know that's if that's because I was born

(19:19):
into this and it's always kind of been like I
didn't really have to do a switch at one point
or feel like, yo, what the hell is this? Like
I was expecting the stuff that I no.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Sake, I don't know you mentioned you mentioned even like
the the concept of a friendship, right, So I want
to touch on that because I think it's an interesting
dynamic when you have friends within our business, right, because
sometimes they're your own competitors. Sometimes they're the same ones

(19:52):
that envy you. H how do you how do you
classify in your life the difference between a colleague and
a friend and how do you deal with the understanding

(20:14):
of both?

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Right?

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Because essentially, when you have a friend in our industry,
we tend to have conversations about things we need. Yeah, Right,
because it's like it's the process.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Of that we've been programmed.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
I always say that we've been programmed in this business
to have linear relationships, right, relationships where it's like you
give me something, I give you something, and so I
you know, you're the A and R of this label.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
I only come and have a friendship with you when
we are to have that conversation, that's it, right.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
And then there is what I believe is truly powerful,
is you know, circular relationships where we are building a
friendship and then upon that we create. But I my
history in our business tells me those are far and
few in between, because because everybody looks at it in
a very transactional way. Do you feel that you have

(21:08):
a good sense on Okay, this is someone I want
to build a friendship, and what are the things you
look for in building a friendship with someone in this business?
And when you're like, oh, this is one hundred percent
of colleague, and do you feel like you act like
that too, write to someone else.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
When I was growing up, I heard this a lot.
People would be like, oh, they're only friends with you
because of this, or they only you know, like you
got to be careful because people are And I don't
know if I had that filter always because also I
was born into this that I could almost tell people's
intentions and was very receptive from the beginning. So there's
a lot of artists in our industry that I consider

(21:43):
colleagues and that I get along with. There's something that
I don't get along with. And there's very few that
I consider my friends like I think maybe I can
count them in one hand or two tops. I don't
even think two. I think just one hand. But there
are true people that I've connected with in a human
level that maybe we've worked on a song together before,

(22:05):
maybe we haven't. We more than likely have, and maybe
either it hasn't come out, or it came out a
couple of years ago and we haven't worked together again,
or we've written several songs that they haven't come out.
But if I like like you're saying, when you have
a true relationship with somebody and if this is my passion,
I'm gonna want to share that with people that that

(22:26):
also have that. You know, But yeah, bro, I can
count them with one hand. And I feel like it's
an energy thing, you know, You know when somebody's like,
hey man, what's up and it's fake or that it's
you see it all man. Our industry is so smoke
and mirrors and fake people that when you find somebody
that's like for real, the energy just is just different.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Do you feel like you've ever had to be faked
with someone all that? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (22:51):
For sure, for sure in this industry all the time
in what sense? Fuck, Maybe I don't want to be
in that interview with at reporter that six months ago
was talking shit about me, but like now is that?
Or I don't want to shake the hand of this
executive that like fucking treated me like shit in the

(23:12):
last label was on but now is in this one
and as pretending to be my friend, or they got
that didn't believe in me when before anything worked out,
and once it did, it's like, oh we did it,
we did it. So I've had to be like, oh, yeah, bro,
we did it, and then back be like these fucking guys,
you know. But I think it's part of the Unfortunately,
it's part of the industry we're in. You can't be like,
especially when you're coming up, you can't be like, oh,

(23:34):
you're you fake ass person.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
You know.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
It's sure i'd like to be I have those balls,
but I can't tell you that that's the case. I
feel like everybody in this industry is like pretending to fuck.
Everybody's fucking pretending to be in the red carpet. When
they're there, Nobody fucking wants to be there. Nobody wants
to be doing any of those interviews because you don't
think that they matter, because you don't think that they
are actually going to be changing your career at all.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
But you're there.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Because you know, we have to we can't blah blah.
But everybody's pretending like they want to be there.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
Have you ever been betrayed to where you feel like
that marked you?

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Many times? Yeah, in this industry. I mean that's the
thing about the friendships in this industry that you have
to one realize that not everybody's like you. So if
you give your handout and expect that the person you
gave the handout to, when they have the opportunity to
give you their hand they will or they won't. You know, like,

(24:30):
you can't be expecting people to react the same way
that you do too things. So I've been hurt by
people in this industry that I thought were either my
friends and then decided to not this or didn't believe
in or would say, oh I believe in this, and
at the end of the day didn't. So I feel

(24:51):
like the one I can pinpoint the most right now.
I remember when I was coming up and I was
starting to my career was as a songwriter, was starting
to get some a little bit of a buzz, you know,

(25:13):
but as an artist, I've been attending it for longer,
but nothing had happened. And I was dating somebody that
was also in the industry, and that's always tricky when
you're dating somebody that's in the industry, and that's also
you know, trying to make it in your you know,
in the same And I started feeling from her team

(25:36):
at the time. I started feeling like they thought that
I wasn't worthy of either co writing or even being together,
you know, like they they wish I was a little
bit more famous, Like you know, like they wish I was.
I bet you wish I was this guy. You know.
That's like that's kind kind of like the thought that
I was starting to get. And I remember that she

(25:58):
was like or they didn't want her to write with
me or like like or like that's kind of like
the feeling that I had, and that started really like
fucking me up, man, like my and my self esteem
and you know, and it I kind of made it
a my life mission to prove them wrong in a way,

(26:23):
you know, and be like I'm going to be so
big that that you're going to be wrong about me,
you know. So that was really hurtful for me at
a time and nature for like my for my brother
too that knew that I was going through that as well.
Was a tough time to see me go through that

(26:45):
because I because it was hard for me, but I
was able to heal it with time. I was able
to heal it with with maturity and and kind of
work too, you know, like after things started happening for
me that that kind of like heal that was like okay,
you know, but that that felt to me like some

(27:06):
of the most painful when I wanted the help of
somebody that was kind of like a little bit above
me at a certain time and I wanted it and
didn't didn't get it, and I was like, okay, you know,
that really hurt. So that did shape me because I
do think that that played a big part in me
grinding to the point of almost like they know, they

(27:30):
know not one second.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
We would write every single day from eleven am to
six am, and it was all with the thought of
I'll prove this person wrong. I'll prove this person wrong.
And it was also of my first label. When they

(27:54):
let us go, I was like you're gonna You're gonna
remember I remember the first me, after she had already
blown up, I saw him and he came up to
me and he said, I knew this was gonna happen,
and that shake is all it's took for me. I
was like, Okay, I heal this.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, do you feel like you really healed it?

Speaker 1 (28:14):
See? You know, because in a way, it's I feel
like that's will always in my I mean hopefully not
always in my story. I feel like part of my
battle because given the family that I'm in, my trauma

(28:37):
as a kid or my trauma as a young adult
was always proving to others that I'm worthy, you know.
So it's like, no, yeah, my dad's amazing, but I'm
also great, you know, or like, yeah, but I'm also this,
So I feel like I healed those bing kulas, like

(28:57):
those things. But I will always tend to have to
be in that constant battle between authenticity and not giving
a fuck about what people think about me. But secretly
also I want to be authentic, but I want you
guys to really fuck with authentic.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
You know that in a struggle, I mean that.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
You versus you, right, is really interesting because I could
share that dynamic in myself where no matter what I
was accomplishing, and I always felt like someone once told
me that I wasn't enough. And what happened is that
filter daily affects or affected how I processed information right.

(29:43):
So I could be with a girlfriend and the girlfriend
would say certain things and it was like, yeah, I
have to prove to you. Do you not see all
the things that I do for you or at work
when you feel the necessity to feel like people are
giving you. And what happens is, at least in my life,
it's caused me to make a lot of emotional decisions

(30:05):
based on that filter. And that's why I ask if
you feel like you've healed it right, because that trauma
tends to be the center point of the battle between
yourself with yourself right, and it will come up in
the insecurities that it provides, right, the stories that you

(30:26):
tell yourself and and and even when you're making music,
it goes from creating to sometimes like I don't know
if this ever happened to you, Where you make a
song that you think is amazing, you like hear it
in the studio, you're excited, You're like, this is a Hey,
this is a hit. You know, everybody loves to say
this is a this is a smash, And then you
go and then there's a small little part of you.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
That says, what if it's not?

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Right?

Speaker 3 (30:51):
And that little sense of doubt what it creates, I think, energetically,
to start creating a story in your mind that there's
a possible ability that it's not and there's a possibility
that you're not worth it. There's a possibility that all
the things you're doing to try to prove people are
not going to be enough to feel worth it. And

(31:13):
what I've found in my experience working with artists, in
my experience, even in my self experience, is that very
quickly you start digging a hole that you're not even
seeing you're digging, right, because you start putting the value
of who you are and having to prove the person
wrong and having to prove to someone else who as

(31:35):
a whole, their own trauma, their own things, that you're
right and that you always had it and in it
once it happens, you still feel the emptiness, You still
feel like you no, I still got to prove something else,
you know. And that's the part that I think has
been the biggest discovery of my life. I feel like

(31:57):
I discovered Indiana Jones and I discover gold was the
I am okay, I am enough. Nothing that happens in
my life is going to change that. It's just a
story that I'm telling myself. And I learned this because
I went into a session with a spiritual leader named Don.

(32:18):
This is the first time I met him. Incredible writer
too that he has a book called The Uncharted Journey,
which has been very transformative in my life. But I'm
in this first session with Don and Ish and as
we're going through the session, Don has Parkinson, so he's
barely saying anything right, But after he hears me talk,

(32:40):
he says, have you ever consider that you're okay, that
you're ready enough, that nothing is going to change that,
and that the need and the feel or the necessity
to feel wanted or praised or enough causes you to

(33:07):
chase down a rabbit hole that never ends. And you know,
you have one of those moments where I was like
and then iss who's his mentory? Says Don. Every single
year since I've known you, I always ask you how

(33:28):
you're doing, and you always say you know, kindly blessed
and mentally en lined, and I just want to ask
you how you feel right now? Because your body is

(33:49):
failing you. And he's saying this generally asking him in
tears right because he's seeing his friend, you know that
point and down turns, hey goes. My costume is failing,
but my mind is intact. Well that was the last

(34:11):
time he passed away, and that was his last session,
And to me, it was so impactful because it was
the first time that I understood that the life experience
we are living is a story that we are telling ourselves,
like our necessity, our fear, our contractions where our body

(34:35):
goes into shock. It's our mind believing the things that
we are telling it. And we consistently talk to ourselves.
But we watch how respectfully, how you said, and we
lie to other people like yeah, man, we shake your hand.

(34:55):
We do all these things to try to have a
good image in front of that person so that person
doesn't think, oh, Ricky is an asshole. Right, we act
fake in order to please somebody else's necessity to look
at us in perfection.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah, we don't do that.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
To ourselves, Yeah, we don't.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Instead of speaking to us in a positive manner and saying, hey,
I actually even if the song doesn't work, it's actually cool.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
I like it.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Who cares, right, Hey, we don't do nothing.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
You know.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
We kind of feel like we're lying to ourselves in
a way when we do that. See the past, I mean, yeah,
I was like, I have those thoughts and sometimes I'm like,
I'm just telling this to myself to make myself feel better.
You know, yeah, these lies and lies. I'm sure you've
accomplished things in your life. I've accomplished things in my
life that I've lied to myself to the point where

(35:52):
like I find a way of telling myself I didn't
do it, you know, Like I filled out a stadium
that I've always dreamt of doing, you know, Luna Park,
And the day that they told us we sold it out,
like my feeling was still like yeah, but it's not
the same because like we sold it out when we
did andres it was a pandemic. So because of the

(36:13):
pandemic we did, people came. So that's why. And you
like start justifying, like why you've done these things that
you've dreamt of your entire life. But it's insecurity, it's talking,
So no, I I feel like I'm still working on
healing a lot of those things. Spoken approval from my parents.
My parents always told me I was amazing. But the

(36:35):
whole trauma of the whole situation is when I tell myself, like, no,
that I feel like it's when my parents would tell me, know,
you're amazing, and I would feel wouldn't feel the same
thing from outside people of my family. I would feel,
you're just saying that because you you love me, but
like they're not fucking with my with my ship right now,
you know, and like they don't think I'm great. You're

(36:56):
saying I'm great, but I just put out this album
when I was fifteen years old and nobody really listened
to this. You're just fucking seeing that to yourself.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
And the crazy thing is you're not really identifying the
true lie. The true lie is that you're doing yourself.
Your mind has Like one of the things I've learned
about being a father is that my daughter has an
ability to solve her issues by just identifying thats the issue.
But as adults, even when your brain is trying to

(37:32):
identify it right, your brain is generally telling you you
got this. It's gonna be easy. You're subconscious and your
trauma kicks in is like, no, it's not you remember
that one time that you didn't do it good and
people didn't like And that, to me is the internal
battle that made me want to launch this podcast because

(37:52):
one of the most transformative things I've done in my
life and career has nothing to do with any of
my accomplishments in music or media. Has everything to do
with the fact that I said, I am going to
understand the inner workings of my mind in order to
free it as much as possible. And one of the
things I've learned I lost my grandmother at the same

(38:15):
time that I lost one of my very close friends
with who who also helped me get started in this business.
I used to sleep in his couch in New York
and really believed in me.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Right is.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
I learned that you could very quickly die in your
own prisons. And we all have some right We all
have these prisons in our lives that we created from
our so called trauma, from our fears, from these things,
and we believe that all the time. It's kind of
like when you're a kid and you're like, I don't
like salads, and then you don't eat salads your whole
life because at some point you decided that you didn't

(38:50):
like salad, and you just you're missing out on all
the greatness of salads, just like I was that kid.
To me, I was like chicken nuggts and fries, you
know what I mean. But like these prisons and what
I've realized that the real mission in life, in order
to truly live a fruitful life is to unlock those prisons.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
In your life.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
And in order to do it, and in order to
come into a place where you can start recognizing that
is the process of starting to understand. To me what
I think are three incredible principles. First, the universe is
in divine order. Right, everything in your life, including every

(39:33):
good and every experience that you've passed. Your soul specifically
chose your life experience, So everything that you're living through
is meant to be a lesson. It chose to come
in your life experience to learn those lessons. And when
you think about the things that happen in our lives,

(39:53):
right when you say, oh, it was pandemic in.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Order, it's like.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
God had to create a pandemic in order to give
you your dream. That's how divine and perfectice is right, like,
there's this divine order of your universe. So it teaches
you that the only thing that is not in order
is your mind, and that you've lied to yourself before,
and that your mind and your decisions have failed you before.

(40:23):
So there is a high level chance that the story
you're telling yourself is just a story. So that was
the first one that was the one to me that
I was Okay, So I have a filter. My filter
is made out of my fears and my traumas, and
I'm processing all my information through that filter. So I

(40:57):
need to start learning to identify when it's my filter
and when it's reality. Then second, I realized that as
much as I want to control life, as much as
I want to have life by the horns, how they
say right and drive the seat and have this need
that it like we've been taught that if you're not driving,
if you're not working hard, if you're not doing this thing,

(41:18):
you're not you're not going to be successful, you're not
going to have compltsations you're not And so we, out
of fear, we grab the steeringhel because they're like, no
one's going to drive it but us. And I started
to understand that if the universe is in divine order,
I don't control anything, because God forbid, I can die
at any moment, right, And so the true understanding that

(41:42):
I don't control anything freeze me to understand, well, then how.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Do I experience this right call life? Well?

Speaker 3 (41:50):
Maybe I can experience that as a passenger. Yeah, And
if so, then my only job is when I'm in contraction,
when I'm in angry, when I'm in fear, in any
of that, is to stay still, which has been the
complete opposite of what we've been taught, right, Because we've
been taught while we're in that moment, grab the freaking wheel.
The car's going to stand out, You're gonna save it, right,

(42:12):
And what I've seen happen in my life, especially over
these past two years, is that when I relinquished control
and I stand still, the universe the creator drives the
car to a better destination.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Than I would, Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
And then if my job is to be still enough
so I can listen, then I can have the courage
to move forward and do the act, do the time,
do the hard work, do whatever else it is. And
these two things have started to really free up my mind.
And it's the reason why I launched this podcast, because
I realized that it wasn't the amount of money, it

(42:52):
wasn't the amount of success, it wasn't the praise of people.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
It was me.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
And the bus stop here, And if I wanted to
trans for my life for real, I needed to look
in the mirror. But look in the mirror is scary, bro,
Like having to face yourself in the reality of your
own bullshit. Yeah, that's scary, super scary because you start
realizing your full shit.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Okay, so control like letting go of control. I pray
every morning, my my prayer is not my will, and God,
whatever you have for me today, let me be open
to receive it. And once I do that prayer every day,
I understand that whatever happens that day is meant to happen,
and I handle it differently than I then if I

(43:38):
would thinking that that's happening to me versus for me,
you know, and God, I don't want what this person has,
and that I see that I like really wish I
wanted or I could have everything that you have for me,

(43:58):
and my plan that I want all of it, you know,
and completely surrender to his plan surrender to knowing that
we are living a human experience, like you're saying, and
that comes with happy moments, trials, tribulations, sad moments, angry moments,
moments of frustration. You know, but we have to be
grateful to be able to feel that whole ride, because

(44:22):
it's not in what I believe. It's not the end,
like my soul is going to live on forever, you know.
It's like, but this experience that I'm living on here,
we weren't made to be passano La mar and having
a bad time and like grinding to like oh made it.
You don't ever feel like you made it. We spend

(44:44):
so much more time on the way to the destination
and on the route to the destination and on the
destination that it is so important to also design the
El Camino the way. It's not just about like, Okay,
once I do this, that's when I'm like, okay, now
if doing and this is gonna take me twenty years
to like feel like these twenty years, shit, not twenty years. No,

(45:08):
I want to be a passenger, like you're saying, but
let's take the senior route. Why Because I want to
be able to look out the window and look at
the ocean and the waves crashing. Oh but you're gonna
take two three extra days. But at least I get
to stop look at the sunset say God, thank you
for allowing me to see it from up here. I
would have never seen it from up here.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
You know.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
One of the critiques that or one of the clap
backs I like to call them from people when they
when I speak about that specific subject, as they say, well, yeah,
of course, I mean, you're ricky. Montana must been freaking nice.
You don't got to wake up and do construction work
and you go to work up here and be an
immigrant and not sure if what your resident status is

(45:51):
and and oh yeah, of course, but your lex like,
oh you have this big company, and I mean, shooting
must be so nice. You have all those cars and
the it And I was sharing this with our guest
last time, which is it took me getting to the
things I thought I wanted to understand that it was

(46:12):
none of the things I wanted.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
And what I mean.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
By that is that through this process, I've learned that
we've been programmed to look for the light at the
end of the tunnel because we look at things as
good and bad?

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Right.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
I was reading Yes at actually Don's book and he
was saying, what if you look between good and bad
instead you look between love and fear. You judge things
as bad because you judge them from fear. You judge
things as good because you judge them from love. And
the key is that the whole experience is love. Right,

(46:49):
Like the middle of the fire. If you're sitting in
the fire and you're going through a painful situation, you're
going through hardship, how do you get your mind to say,
I can feel comfortable here? I can in my mind
while I'm in the fire, I'm actually driving down.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
The pch with with the ocean. Right.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
The lesson or the or the work as I call it,
is in learning to change the perspective so that your
experience is all love because it truly is right, it's
it's it's how you choose to look at it, but
it's completely all love. Problem is we tend to look
at it from fear, and we tend to that. And

(47:31):
that's I love that that phrase that he said, because
I had never looked at it in that way of
like we look at something bad because it's it's fear,
Like we say that person is bad because they made
us afraid, Like there's something in that person that rubbed
us the wrong way. And it's easier to judge that
person that look at us because if we look at
it we love. We'll say, well, that person who just

(47:53):
did that to us, they're going through their own stuff. Yeah,
they got their own issues, not just my issues. I'm
not the only soul in the world. But so hard
to do that in the midst of that situation. And
that really leads me to talking about family, right, because
I think sometimes in relationships, especially with the other sex,

(48:15):
where they are very different, you know, genetically than we
are as men. What would you say has been for you?
Now you're married for how long?

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Two years? Three years?

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Three years almost actually yeah, three years?

Speaker 2 (48:30):
What would you identify as like the hardest part of
being married?

Speaker 1 (48:34):
I will say two things. One the hardest thing, but
this isn't hard for me, as like putting my wife's
interest before mine is easy for me. Like I am
I know the treasure that I have in the woman

(48:54):
that chose me, and that I am not worthy of
her having chosen me and I and I I'm conscious
of that. So PA, I mean noise. But I feel
like it was before I was married. It was changing
my whole DNA. Bro, Like my entire being was wired.

(49:14):
My whole personality was wired around the chase of women
and and and down to like one of my main
motivations for doing music was making girls like me. So
I knew that make like writing songs or playing guitar,

(49:36):
it was that was that would make me. That would
give me a chance in high school that I didn't
have because I didn't play in the basketball team or whatever.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
You know.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
So after having met my wife, realizing like you got
to change your whole motivation behind why you perform, why
you write music, why you exist, why you so seeing
myself in the mirror and seeing like, oh shit, bro,
like you're a mess like sex and that to me,
like it was I had a very toxic relationship with it,

(50:12):
like equivalent to adrenaline and like sneaking around and like
blah blah blah. So like when something became serious, I
was like, okay, got on. So you got to rewire
whole brain. So that that was I guess a moment
of challenge during the pandemic of like shit, let me
rewire my ship to see if I could. Yeah, that's
the hardest thing of putting her interests and knowing that

(50:34):
it's not all about me and it's about what we're
building for me. It's easy because when I met her,
I knew that there was no way that I would
ever find anybody better than her, you know, or that
there's no way just perfect.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Do you want kids?

Speaker 1 (50:48):
I do. Eventually. I'm at a point where, like, if
she wants kids, I'm down to have kids. I'm afraid
of my life changing and my dynamic changing. I'm so
in love with what I do in my job, and
I'm obsessed with creating and that stepping away from that

(51:13):
to have a kid, and I've seen how it affects
my siblings too. I don't know if I'm ready for
my life to change like that yet. Hopefully one day
I will be. But I like the dynamic, or at
least I'm appreciating the dynamic, and me and my wife
are very conscious about it. So that's why she like
leaves for two three weeks. A lot of times people
are like, yo, why are you guys so far away? Well,

(51:34):
because I want to be here writing songs and she
wants to be over there. Doing young or like a show,
go do it, and I'll do this. And in the
future when we have to start doing those sacrifices, yeah, sure,
but we're both not ready for our lives to yeah,

(51:54):
and we want our marriage to just uplift and the
kind of support each other's dreams. I don't want her
to would be like, oh, I really wanted to do
this back in the day. I didn't because of you,
or it didn't because we got married.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
I definitely think that that's one of the things maybe
women struggle with a lot, right, which is just at
least in my conversation with with with my own in
my own relationship with my own girl, as well as
with other friends of mine that that work that do
these things. It's just like their fear of you know,

(52:29):
if I focus on my man, if I focus on
having kids, like, then what about me at some point?

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Right?

Speaker 3 (52:35):
And the truth is, I understand where it comes from,
because at some point the kids leave and you know,
you get old and time flies and you don't know
what's going to happen. But do you feel that you
would want your kids to follow in your first steps
the way you did?

Speaker 1 (52:51):
And I've never saw that I feel like I try
to if he did and wanted to, or she did,
I would put in my effort to make them fall
in love with the creating of it. And and I
don't know how you do this, but like, and I
know that there's people that do think like this. I

(53:13):
just I was wired in a certain way that like,
the love for the music is amazing, but I also
wanted to perform really well. So when you really want,
when you have that and you do something that's like
so pure to your heart, but you also wanted to perform,
you're setting yourself up for heartbreak after heartbreak after heartbreak
after heartbreak. So but once you get those scores, it's

(53:36):
like oof, that, but that only means you're gonna get
your heartbroken again and again and again. So that like
being a musician or being an artist is painful. It's
painful in those sense. And I know I speak and
you said it like, oh, it's easy for you to
say when you're thinking on that. I know I speak
from a place of privilege because not only I do
know that I'm that I'm not here for free, I've

(54:00):
broken my back to make it. But I also know
I am so lucky because there's a million people that
break their backs twice as much or that are way
more talented than me. So I'm here like on my knees, like,
thank you God for allowing me to do this, or
allowing lightning to strike this many times in my family.

(54:20):
You know, I know how lucky we are. So when
I zoom out and I realized, like, oh wow, seventeen
year old me would think, like I mate it, Like
I'm said, yeah, but the Ricky right now feels like
I'm just starting out. So I would tell my kids,
like I would find a way once I figure it
out myself, to try to focus them on the beauty

(54:40):
that this craft has and creating songs and and that
the results. I feel like before we've always been so
impignales to show our success with with like the dollar
amount in our bank account or the number of streams,
or the number of the so the number of plaques

(55:01):
and then which is all very nice. And I've been
there and I've had that and it feels amazing. But
I feel now the new generations of artists that I've
seen come up, they're so into like their community and
the music that they do and building their thing that
that gives me hope in the future generations of musicians

(55:22):
or like my future kids, that they could build their
own micro universe where it could be humongous or it
could be small. But the gift is being able to
live from this. You know. My expectations were always just
so high, and I was wired in such a way
that I was born and my dad was filling up stadium,
so you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I've filled

(55:46):
up a couple, but I want to fill up every
single one I could think of kind of shit, you know.
So I wish I could take that part away for
my kids. Why because they'll be happier and at the
end of the day, that's what matters. You can't control
Jopasa La Man is not gonna make me reach the

(56:07):
stadium quicker. It's like you're saying, you know, like there's
artists and friends of mine that have not been like
as half as stress as I have. The Phillips stadiums
doing their thing, who are doing their thing, and while
we're all like ruling the world and like on top
of it, we're like, what are these cats doing? They
were building their thing rock by rock, that sh it's

(56:28):
like their own sustained thing and their mental health is
a certain way. I mean, I'm speaking without knowing if
they if they also have a hard time, because we
all do. At the end of the day, you realize,
like in podcasts like this, why they help so much
and help so many people is because you listen to
them and you're like, oh, he's feeling that he's reached that,
and I'm here and I oh wait, so there has
to be there's some sort of answer that that is

(56:50):
not this.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
Have you ever tried just the exercises of letting that
part of you though, the part of like having to
chase that with everything.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Yes, I've tried it. I've tried it. I feel like
I am getting better at it each time. I also
feel like I'm really bad at it. Okay, I feel
like it comes down to that, back to that trauma
of like wanting to be accepted that since I was

(57:20):
very young, I've been around industry people all my life.
So when you are sitting in front of a and
rs and record execs and you're not you haven't built
anything yet, give you their opinions, you know, and they
give you their Oh I think this, I think it's
not connecting because of this, I think it's not connecting
because so the different things that they would say all

(57:42):
would point to things that had to change about myself
in order for other people to like.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Me, you know.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
So it's like, no, the thing is that you were
born in such like people know that you were born
in a household at blast, So like we got to
make you connect with with people that are not from
them at uh lifestyle, So you gotta dress more like this,
or you gotta we gotta do corn rolls on MYU

(58:08):
because that's gonna make him look more urban. So the
blah blah blah, so you gotta. So my whole life
was almost like, okay, so what do I get to
change about myself this time for people to like? Oh,
bagga jeans, all right, so we gotta do baggae jeans
even though I didn't want to do fucking So the
second stuff wasn't working. Stuff wasn't and stuff worked doing

(58:29):
something that we wanted to do, and blah blah blah.
It's almost like we do it the way I want
to do it or not. Like, you know, if I
have to change anything about myself to make it work,
then it's not genuine to me, so like that battle
is a battle for authenticity, but it's also your worst
It could be your worst enemy because maybe sometimes like
the thing is like, oh, maybe you should put this

(58:50):
drum beat on it.

Speaker 4 (58:51):
I'm not gonna fucking do that because like that's not
what blah blah blah, and I'm selling my soul And
sometimes like you're not selling your soul if you put
if you have the drums come in fifteen seconds earlier
in the in the song.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
But since I have this trauma of wanting to be
authentic but also successful but also my way, but also fuck,
you're putting so many fucking rules.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
It's one of the parts that as especially in a
career being a manager, that I think have been the
hardest struggle with building artists is that you know, you
want to give enough freedom for the artists to do
with they feels organic to them, while having the opportunity
to guide them because you've also I've seen and have

(59:38):
the experience in working an artist and the things that
sometimes the artist doesn't want to do, like the red carpets.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
And right right right.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
But I think it's interesting dynamic that you explained it
as an artist, especially as someone who's now achieved success,
because I know that there's a lot of artists out
there struggling with those decisions, right, struggling between one being
themselves right. Like I find, for example, well a lot
of the female artists that have come play with music,
they all try to be super sexy because it's like,
if I'm not sexy, if I'm not connect, it's not

(01:00:08):
going to connect, right and and uh and m. And
they struggle with finding that identity of who are they
lyrically outside of doing a song about dancing in the club.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Right. And at the same time.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
I've seen artists in the other way, which is artists
that feel like I have it all together, my stuff
is the best, no one, no one's going to help me,
and then they do not listen, don't take a team effort,
a team approach out of the same thing fear.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
And so.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
Back to what we were talking earlier, I think those
are the moments where you have to start identifying what
what is my what is my filter, and what's actually reality.
You know, that's been something that I've just just doing
that as like a first exercise for someone has really
helped me in my journey to control how I look

(01:01:11):
at the world, because every time that I feel contracted,
like if I feel stressed or like somebody pissed me off,
I'm like, Okay, somewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Here there's there's a lie.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Yeah, somewhere here, I'm feeding myself something I shouldn't be
feeding myself because my body should not be contracted with you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
So what's making me react like this? What's triggering this?

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
There's there's something here, right, So there's something here that
it's either a lesson or something here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
I'm lying to.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
Myself, So I pause myself before trying to judge the
situation and obviously listen, no one's no one's no one's
ever arrived, Like there's time as you do you reacting
this ship. But for the most part, it's probably the
the exercise that has helped me heal the most has
been to pause myself and ask that versus question in

(01:01:55):
my life in order to intake the information because I
was so used to as well, Like, especially when you
run a company that somebody tells you something, you're just ready,
ready to attack, like ready to like how can you
tell me that, don't you know? I'm lex CEO?

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
And it was like, wait a second, Okay, what are
they truly?

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
And sometimes I would I would even text back and
I have misread what they said because I've read it
in such an emotion, right, you read it in the you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Go by, you go fight or fight hundred uh.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
And that that again, that versus to me, has been
really important in also identifying the lies I tell myself,
you know, because we as many.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Truths as we tell ourselves.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
We tell ourselves a whole lot of lies, a whole
lot of stories, a whole lot of larratives, a whole yeah,
and we believe it and our body believes it. And
once you start triggering and understanding that, you understand when
your body is triggered, and that normally tends to be
a sign somethings are right. Let me ask you this,

(01:02:58):
have you ever thought of, you know, what, what it
would be like your your career experience if MIO came
to you and just said, and I'm done.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
The only time I thought that was when he started
dating Sada, his wife. When they started dating, he had
never really fallen like that for anybody before, So he'd
like leave sessions early to go hang out with her
because like blah blah, or like we weren't really making

(01:03:31):
money at like when they started dating at all. So
we would work all the time, and I feel like
there was like a pressure of like, yo, you're like
out all the time or you're not making any money,
Like what's this?

Speaker 4 (01:03:42):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
So there was a moment when stuff hadn't picked up
with Mariki that I thought he was gonna come to
me and say like, Yo, I'm done with this, like
I'm not gonna But it was. It lasted a couple
of months, and I had a thing. My brother's been
my right hand my entire life. So when he started
dating her, and he would sometimes choose no, Bro, I

(01:04:07):
have to go home. I can't stay on the session.
You're choosing her over me. This that we've been building
for fifteen.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Li Li Yeah, Li.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Ego ego hurt. You know. So it's like that was, Oh,
she's going to convince him, that's just what it is.
I gotta start preparing. She's going to tell him that
that he can't do this anymore. He's going to listen
to her. So he's going to start, you know, selling
cars at some dealership and I'm gonna be here by myself.
I thought of all of that but honestly, I feel

(01:04:39):
like part of the reason why we've been able to
stick around for so long is one thousand percent the
fact that I've had him and that he's had me
to rely on each other on on when stuff is
not going great, and rely on each other when stuff
is going great. This is a career where this plays

(01:05:03):
tricks on you and the like we've been seeing the
entire trick to the entire podcast. And if I have
my brother and I'm like, yo, I'm feeling this, it's
not always that you're in the same down part of
the wave, you know, mentally speaking. A lot of times
like I'm here and he's maybe here, and I could
talk to him and be like, no, bro, I remember this,

(01:05:24):
and then when he's feeling low, he could talk to me.
And it doesn't feel like it's somebody from the outside
saying it, because it's as much my thing as it
is his thing. It's as much my face as you know.
Sometimes a manager will tell you and it's like bro,
but like it's my face out there, or it's this,
or sometimes it's the fear of of like I've failed
with ideas of mine that I haven't worked out, but

(01:05:46):
that hurts less than when you had your feeling and
then you took somebody else's advice and did that and
that failed. You feel like a bitch, you know. So
it's fear of feeling like a bitch. It's fear of this,
It's fear of so having my brother has been the
most fun part, the most fun part for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
Well, have you ever thought or what would you feel
like if it if it all ended today?

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
I've thought of it, about it? If it's one of
my biggest fears is like knowing that and I'm sure
it's one of his two. So we've built everything together
that the day that one of us is not there
or that one decides, it's like fuck, Like what does
that mean for everything we've built over the It's going
back to surrendering to God's plan for our life. If

(01:06:39):
God puts certain desires and you wake up every morning
and you tell God, God, align my heart with yours,
and my plan is done. I want your plan in
my life. You start seeing everything. Even if my brother
would tell me, Brother, I am done with this, I
don't want to sing anymore. I'd be able, though it

(01:07:02):
be painful, and to be this isn't that after zooming out,
I'd be like, Okay, this is part of God's journey
has for me, you know, and this is what He
has prepared for me. Do I want that to happen?

Speaker 4 (01:07:11):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Do I want to be on stage, whether my brother
or my set.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
Do I have projects that I work on on my own?
Absolutely so does he, you know. And we've built enough
of an infrastructure in our company where it's we understand
that if we're able to lead certain things on our own,
it gives us enough individuality to be able to feed
that as well, and it just makes us grow bigger

(01:07:39):
and faster, and you know, but definitely a fear. I mean,
I just hug and grab on to God's plan for
my life and I pray and I hope that it
looks like this because I love it and pettersy no,
hold on to whatever that that plan is.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
People ask me a lot of times about purpose, right,
because I think one of the biggest empty holes in
people's lives is figuring out like what am I meant
to do in this world?

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
And it's an interesting question and it's an interesting question
to give advice on, right, because the truth is, you know,
you don't know the other person's purpose. As much as
you want to give it and direct it, you really
don't other than I believe that it's just existing as
a purpose, right. I believe that you came here to

(01:08:35):
learn a lesson and we're part of this ecosystem and
we're here to together create what do you feel is
your purpose?

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
Well, for us, the talk of purpose is like constant.
It's like a constant drive. Are labels called why Why,
club records are studios, Like everything has to do with
with why and putting purpose behind everything that we do,
and that's what we try to kind of like inspire
our fans to ask themselves that question of what they
came here to do. And honestly, I feel like you

(01:09:12):
could have more than one purpose. But I feel like
my main thing is using my platform and using the
platform that God's given me to give other people that
have dreams that are just as valuable as mine are
a chance. So if I have a possibility of giving
them a platform, and I don't know, using this producer

(01:09:38):
in my song will guarantee that that guy will have
if he's obviously taking into account the excellence behind everything
that we do. But like giving somebody an opportunity that
will change that person's life and be able to live
off of music that they make. That feels like my
like the thing that I was made to do. Create
opportunities for people that want to live life through their

(01:10:03):
through their purpose. I feel like that's my main thing.
And yeah, do.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
You feel like in this journey that you've been living obviously,
you know, coming from the family that you come from,
finding your own identity within that family, and and really
finding your own way, and you know, getting married to
staff and now building your own family and your own way.

(01:10:32):
What does it make you feel if I tell you, you know, hey,
Ricky tomorrow, that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
Music is done.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
I feel like this has been what I've been doing
my entire life, so I can't tell you that I
know how to do anything else. So it's like so tied.
And I'm not talking about because if you told me, okay,
what's done is the fact that your music will be
like nobody will listen to your music anymore, like you're
back to two thousand and sixteen, you know, or whatever. Well,

(01:11:05):
I would say that I would keep I would still
be doing music anyway. I would probably be like so
many of my friends that are so much more talented
than me that they still do music for a living.
But they they struggle, and they play at bars and
they play it wherever they have a chance, and they

(01:11:26):
give them a chance, and they and they're looking for opportunity.
This this for me, is it feels like such a
part of who I am that you can take away
if you tell me, like, okay, mahui riki as a enterprise,
or my team and the people that are under my
company and or my companies, you know, all of that,

(01:11:49):
if you could take it away. Is that a fear?
Of course? Of course you think about that and you're like,
oh shit, Like how much money does it cost to
maintain this whole company a year? How much much money
do you have to make a year for the rest
of my life to just maintain this? Oh okay, all right, dope,
can we do that? I mean, yeah, I mean we
can do that, but I mean I can't stop. Okay,

(01:12:10):
we gotta keep you know, like that sure is a fear.
But thinking that I won't be doing music, I don't
think that that's a possibility for me. I think I'd
be doing music even if it wasn't giving me money
for sure, like I did all those years before and
living off of like a little advanced year, and somebody

(01:12:30):
gave me this money for production, and that I know
how lucky I am. And I pray that I'm able
to live off of what I love my entire life.
That's our biggest gift. But of course it's a fear.
But again, it's about surrendering to God's plan. And if
God's planned for you is like fuck, you had Neon

(01:12:52):
sixteen for fifteen fucking amazing years and then it became
this other thing, or like fuck you had this this
band and then you made this other band. You're the Gorillas.

Speaker 4 (01:13:03):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
You know, you never know what what what God's plan
plan is, But I can't imagine. It's such a part
of me that music is just the way I think. Bro,
I think everything that happens to me. I'm thinking and like,
oh this that's a song, Oh that's this, And you know,

(01:13:25):
you build the life around you have to build. They
don't know if I see no medieval house like they
have like gotta go ass and like I'm like, you're
you're walking by the house and you're like, who the
fuck lives in this black house that has like you

(01:13:45):
think of like You're like, who the fuck would live here?
Another day, I'm walking my dog, I'm passing by and
these fucking people are outside with large gowns and drinking
with with a silver cup, and I'm like, these people
have made the reality they live in this movie, and
the reality is like Marika we Als tell me that

(01:14:08):
look okay to put I you know, like, I want
to create a reality for me where it's like fucking
a musical dog. In songs. I'm constantly writing songs and
I'm like, O, it's in the walls, brother, and it's like, oh,
this guitar has songs in them. That romanticism I choose
to live in that. You know, somebody could be like,
oh that's a piece of wood, that's nothing to it.

(01:14:29):
But I choose to be like, oh there's this guitar.
Is I bought a guitar the other day is eighty
five years old? My cost? But I'm thinking, bro, you
know how many fucking songs have been written are in
this wood? And I've written six songs and it's paid
itself already. You'll get It's like I was able to
write those songs because they were in the wood. You know,

(01:14:49):
you get to munda fairy tale. We want to Kidka
can't imagine doing anything else.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
I love that, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:14:57):
I think those are the stories that are beautiful that
we should be telling ourselves, because the truth is, we
we do make our own reality, right. We live in
the universe that we want to create, and we live
the life that we want to create. We live the
experience that we tell ourselves we're living, and that I

(01:15:18):
think is such a powerful thing because it's something that
we take for granted.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
We take for granted.

Speaker 3 (01:15:25):
Our actual ability and power to change the dynamic of
how we see the world. And to me, there is
the gold. There is the gold of life. The gold
of life is that the Navy Seals have this this
thing that says, all the gods, all the gods, all
the devils, all the heavens, all the hells, all the gods,

(01:15:47):
all the demons are within you. And I didn't understand
that for such a long time, and I'm a big
Navy Seal guide.

Speaker 2 (01:15:55):
I was like, I gotta find this.

Speaker 3 (01:15:56):
And then when I met Don and Ish and I
had this conversation with them, said exactly that you are
the truest reflection of God. Like it's not something you earn,
is not something you find, it's something you are. And
your ability to create, their ability to understand your reality,

(01:16:16):
the ability for someone to tell you it's impossible to fly,
and then you go here we are every day flying
and the tam can it's impossible to have electricity, and
here we are in a set full of lights. Like
the notion that even color is a perspective, you know,
like this we see an orange, but it's a perspective.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
Somebody might see it red.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
And we'll never know orange and they've always seen it green.

Speaker 3 (01:16:39):
That's and that's and that is the beauty of the
power of you versus you right And to me, one
of the things that I like to do as we're
coming to the end of this podcast is there's truly
we're our own worst enemies and we're our best friends.

(01:17:01):
And understanding what we've been talking about the whole podcast
and what we just spoke about the power of the words.

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
That we tell ourselves.

Speaker 3 (01:17:08):
So I like to end the podcast always saying, what
is a sentence that you can say to yourself right
now that will change the dynamic of how you see
the rest of this week?

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
Think about it?

Speaker 3 (01:17:26):
You're not saying it to me, you're not saying to
the people, You're saying it to yourself. This is the
one phrase that you're going to say to yourself and
like the deep inside, that will change how your mind
and body process the rest of this week.

Speaker 1 (01:17:44):
Okay, I got it? Do I say it? No?

Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
Oh, okay, Okay. I think it's gonna be. Like I
was saying before, I have this obsession about being unique
and being different and setting myself apart from what everybody's
doing and what and a lot of and sometimes I

(01:18:09):
find myself putting effort in that where the truth is
to be the most unique or the most authentic, you
should just let go of trying to do anything and
just be your truest self, because your truest self is
unique enough, you know, because we're all made different. So

(01:18:30):
I think the phrase could be something like along the
lines of being you is unique enough.

Speaker 4 (01:18:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
Yeah, it could be good, So not repeat that to
you just yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Being you is unique enough.

Speaker 2 (01:18:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:18:45):
I think crazy is the power that word has. Yeah,
for me, is it's okay to rest? You know, sometimes
we feel that, especially when we're in the positions we're in.
We feel like guilty to rest, guilty to rest. Yeah,
and and I generally this week, you know, so I

(01:19:06):
I will say mine.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
This week, it's it's okay to rest.

Speaker 1 (01:19:09):
I was okay for me to rest yesterday. Yesterday I
took my Sunday off. I had a session at the
end of the day that I called and I was like, guys,
I gotta I gotta cancel it. And I canceled it.
And I spent whole day literally bed beach and watch
the oscars. And that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:27):
I love that I needed it. I needed it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
I feel so guilty. You know, you feel so guilty.

Speaker 3 (01:19:35):
So I think you know, in ending this podcast, uh,
there's some things that I think are are really important.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:19:42):
One is watching the narrative right the filter of how
we see things versus reality. I love the concept of
what I just spoke to you about the difference between
good and bad is really love versus fear. Ah, And
two is two two and three is to continue to
watch what we tell ourselves because those are powerful. So

(01:20:05):
you know, I love what you said about being unique.
And I'm going to deeply center myself in resting and
being okay to rest. So with that, Ricky, thank you
so much for being on You versus You. Sure, it's
it's always fun when we get to hang out and talk,
and I am sure that we will do a part

(01:20:26):
two of part three. Let's go, you know, but thank
you for coming on board.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
Thank having me. It's the first time I say me.
I never do interviews by myself, so it's like, thank
you for having us. I always say thank you for
having us because it always me and my brother, or
me and my wife, or never mind myself, thank you
for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
There you go You.

Speaker 3 (01:20:43):
Versus You as a production of Neon sixteen and Entertained
Studios in partnership with the Iheartmichael to that podcast network
for more podcasts, Listen to the Arheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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