Benji (@TheBenjiChord) stopped by Bobby's house to do an interview and shared how commenting on country music posts landed him a job in the industry! He also talks about how he built an online following to create his own brand! Benji gives an inside look of what it means to do A&R and the difference between a music and publishing deal. Plus, how he got into country music as a first generation American. He also shares some behind the scenes about your next favorite song and the advice Dan of Dan + Shay gave him!
Follow on Instagram: @TheBobbyCast
Follow on TikTok: @TheBobbyCast
Watch this Episode on Youtube
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
For social media. I don't really know what's like the
place people go to to like catch up on what's
going on in the country world. I told him if
I could interview like a songwriter that wrote a big
song and like regular listeners can be like, could now
know who that person is, having appreciation for the work
they do, that'd be my goal. This is fun a
(00:24):
little different too, and really what this podcast is all about,
it's kind of behind the scenes on you know, publishing basically,
and songwriters and how they get songs to artists and
the process there. So we're talking to Benji aka the
Beni Chord. Mike can't to me and said, Hey, I
think this is guy'd be awesome to talk to. Why, Like,
how did you stumble upon him? And why do you
(00:45):
think it'd be interesting. I follow him on Instagram and
he's always just posting all these things that I find interesting,
really good takes on songs, and I thought it'd be
great for the podcast. I think what's cool is it's
a guy that like music, didn't live in Nashville, and
I'll let him tell the story. But we just writing comments, yeah,
and not hateful things fighting with people. He would just
write it and then that kind of got him going, yeah,
(01:08):
this inspired me to be myself more on he did. Yeah,
he's like to be yourself and it's what he did.
So he is the A and R manager for Warner
Chapel Publishing, which is the company that they hire songwriters
and then they try to get those songs that those
songwriters write to artists who are looking to find and
cut songs. I would say that's an accurate description, right, Yeah,
(01:31):
it's a whole different other journey that we've seen on
the podcast before. And people talk about publishing deals, pub deals,
people talk about record deals. It's a really crazy story
about one the insides of that industry. But two, just
a guy who love music and was like writing comments
on a website and it turned into a big job.
So here we go Benji aka the Beni Chord. You
(01:51):
can follow him at the Beni Chord be eaten Ji
Chord on Instagram. All right, that's what's up here you go?
Will you explain to people listening to this that may
not know the difference in a publishing deal and a
record deal, like a recording deal for sure, right, So
a publishing deal that is literally you as you're going
to go to work as a songwriter. All you're gonna
(02:14):
do day to day is you're gonna get in a
room with maybe two other people, three other people, and
you go sit down, throw ideas around, get some lyrics,
hopefully some melody, and you're going to write a song
and you're gonna be contracted to that. We write with
the hopes of a song that you write will eventually
be either recorded by a big artist and hopefully either
does well in streaming or on radio, and then that's
(02:35):
how you're going to see, you know, some success out
of that. Whereas a record deal, that's literally you're an artist.
Your whole goal is to record songs other ones that
you've written by yourself or ones that have been written
by somebody in the industry, and you're the one on
the road. You're what you're facing the magazines. That's a
recording contract. A publishing deal is definitely where you're a
(02:56):
craft is songwriting, you know, I mean, I think that's
the easiest way to break it up, is writing. You
are behind the scenes writing the songs that we hope
are cut and recorded by some artists that a lot
of people know about. But recording contract is you're growing
into the face of a brand, your job as a
and R. I think we should break it all the
(03:16):
way down because I wouldn't have known what A and
R even was unless I was in this business long
enough to know an R was. Did you know what
an R was as a kid? Though? The only reason
I knews because I was a kid, like reading liner
notes of albums I loved, and you'd see an R
and I wouldn't know what the heck it meant. I'd
learned what songwriters were, right, you'd see different people on
every album, But honestly, it wasn't until really I got
(03:38):
into like, you know, there's a lot there's a big
like rock, you know, seeing i'd say maybe mid two
thousands of the whole emo thing. And I one of
the guys that works at Warner now, Rohan he was
managed Boys Like Girls, and I believe he did some
an R work too, And that was the first time
I was like, Okay, I know I recognized his name.
When like I got older and i'd see him like
(03:58):
working in Nashville, I'm like, okay, so what was an or?
Do you look it up? And you know they're just
trying to get the songs from planting to point B
for the artists, try to get the creative part for
them flowing. And now I'm in the freaking role. It's
pretty well. So would you say that I mean, and
I don't mean this like Instagram. I would. I think
you're an influencer here, like you're trying to influence people
(04:20):
just general people to give songs life and not influence
like Instagram. And I would I want that to be
like you're trying to sell to me. Definitely nodded, but
you know you're trying to create things of influence and
trying or trying to make sure that things that are
created are influencing the right people. Yeah, the way I'd
(04:41):
look at it is if I the very least get
regular listeners to understand like what songwriting means, especially in
Nashville where it's like this is like a special thing
apart from any other genre, then that's when I feel
like my job's done. Like even before I got to
this position, that's I had this handle. There's even like
you know, a gre buzz with for a Country Central,
(05:02):
just like we made this country media platform and we
just had regular people, you know, voicing their opinions, but
also learning about this world again a peak in a
Nashville for people around the country, around the world, And
that was the most fulfilmed part for me is because
people learned like, oh, this is a I know someone
that's only a songwriter. They don't have any artist career.
When they see their name, you know, written by for
(05:24):
like a New Hearty song or New Wallen song, they
get excited and like they're rooting for those people the
same way I am. So that's been the most fulfilmed
part when I had this going on. When someone comes
and let's say you're on a vacation or you're just
traveling and they're like, hey, what do you do and
what do you say? I work in music business, That's
what I say. Now, okay, Then I say, oh yeah,
doing what I get songs from point A to point B.
(05:46):
What's what's point A? Point A is the songs created,
and eventually we want to get it to recorded obviously
and ideally played on the radio. And when you hear
point B, be the artist got it? The artists you
want a big name artist ideally or that you want
it to be recorded by. And then point C, I
guess would be it's on the radio and that's how
or streaming services, and that's how you all are hearing
(06:09):
it for the first time. And I'm just part of
that creative process. I'm kind of you know, I don't
say given birth to songs, but I'm part of that process.
When the song's created, I'm the one networking it out
in the world, making sure he gets heard by as
many people as possible. They feel the same thing I
feel about it, and hopefully the artist that records it
feels the same way that multiple people are feeling about it,
(06:29):
and that's the right time for them to record it
and then hopefully gets put out in a timely manner,
you know, fingers crossed. And then when that's the last part,
when it has success, that's just really when you see
a lot for the songwriters at the very end of
the table, and what's a big win you've had recently?
So I'll telling Mike, you know, I just started four
weeks ago officially, but I would say a win a
(06:51):
recent win is one of the writers that represent Taylor Phillips.
You know, he's written for Cam Brown, wrote Hurricane for
Luke Combs, one of his songs It's not a sing
go on Morgan Walla's new record, but thinking about me, right,
that's just an album track, but it's done one of
the best you know, streaming sell you know, sales wise,
and it's just cool to see where it's like, where
(07:13):
this idea to start when you talk to them, understand
what was going on in the riding room that day,
and can start from very small beginnings and then with
this album obviously one of the biggest ones in a
long time. It's just cool to see your people win,
you know what I mean. Where'd you grow up? Houston, Texas?
Born and raised and so when you were a kid,
let's not even do kid, let's do tenth grade. What
do you want to do? You know? My family moved
(07:34):
here from Nigeria for college and my dad actually became
a patrona engineer so oil and gas world. He started
his own company when I was around ten years old,
and he moved back to Nigeria and like just ran
his company from that he moved back, I suppose. So
that was like my whole life, you know, we had
the old company and that was really what I thought
I was going to do, or I thought that was
what I was expected to do, so I'd say tenth grade, Yeah,
(07:57):
I'm getting ready to, you know, go to college and
prepared for all that. And in my mind, I'm like
my dad went to USC, and I'm like, oh, I'm
gonna go there too. I'm gonna do the whole thing.
And got into both USC and UT Austin, and I
think it was just the decisions kind of made for
me in the sense of USC's sixty thousand dollars and
U two is like eight thousand a thing around the time,
(08:18):
and I really didn't want to. You know, you got
through a whole process for some of these like big
name schools. You go like, you interview, you do all
this crazy stuff. And in my mind, like I'm gonna
be an engineer, like this will maybe be my way
to get there. And that was where my head was at.
I had all these other interests. I loved music, I
loved literature, I loved writing. But in my mind, especially
the way being first generation American, the way my parents
(08:40):
made it here, I just couldn't even understand or I
could be doing these other things, these hobbies or interests
I had, could it be a career? That's kind of
that I expect for myself or is expected of me.
So yeah, it was literally just like I'm doing all
gas thing, I'll figure it out and we'll see what happens.
And that's what I ended up going to school for.
What did you dad until you're on that time? Was
(09:01):
he encouraging of you to do oil and gas or
if you don't want to do oil and gas, do
whatever you want? Like what kind of parent was he there?
I think he's a type of parent where my dad
came from zero, So for him to make it, he
just knew. Obviously took a lot of hard work, but
it also took a lot of people bedding on you,
supporting you. And I think looking back now, I'm thirty
(09:23):
two years old now, so get a little older. But
looking back now, I think my parents just taught me
or told me what they knew. The only reason they
got here had the life they're able to have is
because this is their first experience. And since myself and
my siblings were first generation, they ain't know any other way,
so there weren't a lot of different perspectives. To say,
plenty of our families moved to the States and they've
(09:44):
had this type of success. We know this one way.
So that's what I definitely had seen, and I think
at the end of it all, I definitely put more
of into my own head. I'm sure if I spoke
to him and I was like, Hey, this is something
that I know I could be great at. I'm going
to work my butt off at it every single day,
things would have been different. But I know in my head,
I was very like point A, point B, either I
(10:05):
do A or B, you know. I mean, I couldn't
think of like, hey, I'm gonna tell you I want
to do this my you know. I feel like I
had to go through the process, grow and learn a
lot more about myself to now have the top of
conversation which I've had with him countless times. Were you
as a kid, high school kid, college kid. Were you
drawn to music because you liked how it made you feel?
(10:26):
Or were you drawn to music because you wanted to
be more part of the creation. And obviously music makes
everybody feel certain ways. But I always would listen to
music kind of to escape, never wanted to really create it.
It wasn't until like, I mean, Adam Sandler music for
me and even Ray Stevens where I was like, oh,
(10:47):
I can do music. But I could be funny because
I never really wanted to be or I didn't feel
like it had the skills or were lay the effort
to be someone who played music at a high level
because I have just I was terrible. So where did
that come for you? What was your passion in music? Yeah?
I would say, just like I keep coming back to
the first generation thing because there's no rules when it
came to like entertainment or music for me, because my
(11:10):
parents knew what they knew, Like if they didn't know
like what certain music was or what bands were like,
then they couldn't tell me you can't listen to it,
you know. So I think my first thing was like
I saw Nirvana or watching music videos about them or
saw them in MTV, and that's when I was like
trying to play guitar and I fell in love a guitar.
Where'd you get your first guitar? It was a first
(11:31):
act guitar from Walmart, So fingers were definitely blistered, did
not sound great whatsoever. But I taught myself. I'll played
guitar just watching like Foo Fighters music videos, just watching MTV.
I'd see a music videos see where their fingers were
and I figured out like a G chord, you know, eventually,
But music for me is absolutely an escape. I think
(11:52):
growing up it's like my siblings and we were just
kind of figuring out what's our life going to be? Like,
you know, I mean, like we're seeing our world through
a completely different eyes and our parents did. And there's
something definitely, looking back, really you know, empowering about that.
I may not realize it when I was younger, but
when I would listen to music, it would be like
I go into my own world. And I think one
(12:13):
of the pivotal moments for me, and maybe I memory
hold it because I never did anything with music growing up.
Was like our parents sent us at school and we're
kids like grade school, and they would have like academic
competitions we compete in, and there was one I did
called music Memory, and they'd like, maybe play like a
you know, a Beethoven piece, you know, orchestral piece, and
time it for like fifteen seconds, stop the you know,
(12:35):
the tape, and then you get to just say who
composed it, you know, when it came out? Things like that,
what was like the prominent instrument or whatever it may be.
And I swear that's where I got my ear for
like when i'd put on my headphones when like you know,
CD players were normal and I would hear, you know,
parts of production. I'd hear like the strings and appreciate
all that part of an arrangement and whether it was
(12:56):
in a rock song, a pop song, a country song,
and that always with me. But I was like, why
do I have all this, you know, random information I
know or knowledge about music or who's making it, And
I'm never gonna do anything with it. And I think
also when I looked up, like many people have to
like tour on a tour bus and be cramped packed
with older buddies, and I'm like, I don't know, I
feel like I get sick, you know, after one week
(13:18):
and out on the road. So I was like, I
don't know if I can ever be a musician. And
that was where my brain went. I was like, did
you stopped doing like like practicing to do anything more
than this recreational play it? It was all recreational. I
did have a band that was a part of like
in middle school. And the hardest part was I mean,
I come if you have n if you know what
a Nigerian parents like you're not staying after school at
someone's house at band practice. It's like it's not gonna happen.
(13:40):
You gotta be we gotta be at home, you know,
studying for other subjects. But I did have a band
like in middle school that I was like the lead
singer of play guitar Um, and I think other than that,
I just was like, I'm just always going to be
a fan of it. I'm always gonna have some deeper
appreciation for it than like I felt like my siblings
had or my other friends had for it. But I
just never knew, like, what's how am I gonna do
(14:02):
anything in music? It just was never a realistic option
for me when I was growing up. When did you
feel though that it could actually be something that if
you work, you can have a career in it, because again,
it doesn't sound like you're a dance miners or a
any We could go through a list of them who
always kind of knew even though they didn't target exactly
how they were going to do it, but they've known
since they were like seven, and they played and they
(14:24):
practice and they because I a bit like you listened
to a ton, memorized a ton, found people that I
love that wrote and created, but I knew I wasn't
going to be an artist. So when did you have
that realization of oh, I can actually do this and
make a living off of it, because it had to
be a job you maybe didn't even know existed. Yeah,
so it was after your school and I've done maybe
(14:46):
one job, like in the ol and gas industry, and yeah,
I'll just did it to do it and you know,
pays whatever, and you wasn't super passionate about it. But
I'd moved back to Houston. I was like, you know,
what expectations for me, I feel are pretty at this point.
I didn't I'm not like the superstore, a Superstar oil
and gas, you know, like executive. That maybe was like
(15:07):
I was thought, I thought I was going to be
growing up. So I was like, let me you know,
I was going online and there was a big country
station in Houston and they were just hiring like for promotions,
for social media, you know, for everything, and I supplied.
You know. I think it was around the time like
Sam Hunter just released his first album FGL was really
blowing up, and I was like, hey, I know these artists,
like I know people that produced them, and I have
(15:29):
that passion. Let me just in like he didn't in
the personally who they were. No, I did not know
them personally. They knew kind of like what was gone
behind the scenes. And yeah, I just rolled the dice.
And obviously they always need more radio promo. Yeah you're overqualified,
like by it always wanted. I can't hire you, too
too smart for all this stuff. So I got that
gig and that's really when I dived in, and like
(15:51):
I was learning the radio part of the country music world,
and um, we'd have artists like Jimmie Allen come to
the studio Riley Green when he was starting up, and
I was working like the Houston Rodeo, sending up by
Cody Johnson shows and a little bit of everything, you know,
like working the late nights at a bar, you know
what I mean. And from where I'd started growing up,
(16:11):
that was just never side of life that you know,
I feel like I ever thought I would do. You know,
where I'm like people literally can this is part of
like a career where people grind out. It could be
late nights to like four am, but all throughout your
networking you're learning about people, You're meeting the people that
are in the industry and also learning from like a
program director. I'm Johnny Chang. I think now he's at Pandora,
(16:33):
and I would just ask him pick his brain, like
when he had time when and I'd be asking technical
stuff about hey, why why this single or why does
how can the big ours have this huge single and
then they released this to one like we don't give
as much play And he would just like describe to
me the way the world worked, and that was super
fascinating to me, and I think all throughout then I
(16:53):
was like, it'd be great just to visit Nashville. I'd
never been up to that point. That was right before
the pandemic hit. I was like, it'd just be cool
to visit maybe one day. One day if I could,
I can move out here with just a job. I
wasn't even thinking it'd be a music job, and I'd
be in Nashville big the greatest to live here, be
in this environment that's inspiring. And yeah, the pandemic hit
(17:14):
and then radio kind of you know, got pretty quiet
for a little bit, and that's when I got the
last job I had, which is like it tech, you're
selling the software, working with all sorts of companies. But
I had to quit, obviously my radio jobs because it's like, hey,
I need to have a full time job making good money.
And around that time, unfortunately, my dad had gotten sick,
(17:35):
so you'd move back home from Nigeria to Houston. It's
like I was like, all right, at least, let me
have a full time job, help out with my family
where I can. And I don't know, that's just my
reality now, you know what I mean. So radio, I
wasn't doing that anymore, but I was still in tune
what was happening. I was a kind of around the
time when I was like, you know what, it's the pandemic.
I love music. Let me just play some country song guitar,
(17:59):
not for any reason, not to be seen, but I'll
just do it stern. Pandemics like a release in a way,
and you post on Instagram or whatever. Maybe one person
sees it, who cares, and um, yeah, that's kind of
how the ball got rolling, i'd say. And social media.
You posted something on social media, you post a song, whatever, Sure,
how hard of that ball roll? Like what happened? He
(18:21):
didn't roll at all as far as that's concerned. It
just became a collection of like may on guitar or
me maybe talking about its country song. I was really
passionate about are you a good singer? I'd say I'm
a very silent background vocalist. I'm not a singer. If
you were, you singing on your TikTok Instagram. This video
is now private on YouTube, but I had done Luke
(18:44):
Combs like he has a song called Moon over Mexico,
and I'd sang along to it, obviously out of key,
and like just like a couple of people comment is saying, oh,
very nice, and then one guy says, brother, you're so
out of tune, out of key, and then the dude
that comment below is like, I give you props for
even putting that up there. By the way, I'm Luke's
like videographer on the road, like props. And I was like,
(19:05):
that was one random moment where I'm like random people
can see everything, you know what I mean, out there
in social media world. Do you know who said that
the video? I don't know if he's still with him,
but I'll look a videographer now. Yeah, And I but
I thought you were gonna say, like you low key
put up a video, and I got twenty million views
and the next thing, you know, you're in Nashville singing.
I now singer in the least. But I'd say the
(19:29):
first light bulb moment for me just using social media
was I had done like a like a little singer review,
like a song review about a deep cut of an artist,
like a Rhinehard And he had a song called Michigan
for the Winner. That's my favorite song by him, and
I want to say it's like pretty you know, it
was a twenty twenty maybe be getting close to twenty
twenty one. I just did like a ride up about it.
(19:50):
What the certain you know, hook made me feel like
the way the song was arranged, you know, like me
just deep diving into songs, and then he had reached
out to me. It was just like, dude, thank you
so much. Yeah, thanks so much for the deep dive.
Like that's how I was feeling when I wrote the song.
And then I was like, there's actual like real people
behind the screen, you know what I mean. That was
the first thing that came to my mind. Then second
(20:11):
was like, man, these people see everything, you know what
I mean, And in this crazy world of social media,
it's like y'all are looking at You're all seeing everything,
and so it was cool for me when I was
like just being a fan, being passionate about the craft.
That's someone that I respect and noticed. And from there
I got involved with the group called Country Central that's
like another social media platform and how did how do
(20:33):
you say? From there? But how did that happen? Do
they contact you to completely completely remote? I mean I'm
just at home on my phone. And the guy had
started he had been doing just maybe some news posts,
maybe talking about accolades in the genre, like someone was
going number one with certain singles, and I'd just be
the guy that comments being like congrats to Ashley go
or they first like fifty at sixty number one, you know,
and I would just know the songwriters and I'd like
(20:55):
shout them out, and he the guy started eventually reached
out to me. It's like, how do you know everything
about these people that are riding it? Blah blah blah,
And I just said, I'm just a fan of like
what they do, but hey, I'm definitely a fan of
like how he's a very good graphic designer. The guy
started at just Videographer Graphic Design Acumen and we just
had a zoom call because he's like he was in Florida,
(21:15):
I was in Texas. He just put in comment now educated,
knowledgeable comments, just being myself. I think I was maybe
the first time like whom I could be completely myself
and there's maybe some kind of value linked to that,
and that's kind of what got the ball rolling. I mean,
he I had one zoom call for like close to
two hours, and I was just like, hey, dude, you
have a very good like sense of like what's eye catching,
(21:38):
Like you have like fifteen seconds like catch people's eyes
before they tune out. And he was doing it in
a space of country music, where of course there's like
the standard bearer companies and media like cmts of the world,
like the Boot things like that. But for social media,
for like a lot of younger generation, I don't really
know what's like the place people go to to like
catch up on what's going on in the country world.
(21:59):
And I just told him, I'm like, hey, if you
want to focus on the up and coming artist in
town to establish people, if we could write reviews, you know,
interview artists, maybe I told him, if I could interview
like a songwriter that wrote a big song, and like
regular listeners can be like I could now know who
that person is, having appreciation for the work they do,
then that'd be my That'd be my goal, you know.
(22:22):
And from there, like things did like really get rolling.
That's crazy, and it also shows use. It just put
out stuff that you're passionate about that you note. I
mean the fact that you were just putting up reviews
on us. I imagine a small TikTok or Instagram account. Sure,
I mean no fense. I don't think it's ten million.
I don't have ten million, but I've been saying, right,
(22:42):
that's what I'm saying. And Ryan reaches out and goes, hey,
I appreciate that, and you're like, wait, people see this
stuff like I would have the same I would be
surprised too. That's what I always looked at it. And
then you're writing comments and your comments were so good,
My comments suck. I just getting fights about That's all
my whole um, you know. Adage is like I like
to hopefully use technology for good, not evil. And I
(23:03):
just think with the pandemic, my dad being ill, like
I just was in a place where I was like,
I need to be a good person i'd better be
like we've all gone through a craziness with the pandemic,
and like coming out of that, I don't want to
waste my time being on social media like fighting with people.
I just saw where with music we could come together
with certain songs that were coming out during the time,
just seeing how people were resonating with country music, especially
(23:25):
after the pandemic. It kind of blew up with streaming,
you know, obviously with Morgan Wallen and other artists were
seeing like more success than ever after that, and I
think we kind of were at the right place, right
time to be covering it in like a creative way.
And that's what really got me out to Nashville. Like
I visited I want to say, maybe April Easter twenty
(23:47):
twenty one, and I was like right when, like Nashville
was like reopening a little bit from everything and funny
random story. I remember, like the first place I go
to on Broadway is like Tootsies, Like I've never been
there before, and like I'm wearing my mask and everything,
and I walk up the stairs and there's just like
Batchelork group like walks up to me and they're like,
why are you wearing that? I was like, good to
(24:07):
meet you. You know, cool, I'm in Nashville, first time. Great.
I was like, I don't know, y'all, like, don't want
to rubbing one the wrong way, just being safe. And
this girl's like I'm a nurse and I'm not even
wearing one. I'm just like, this is Nashville, you know
what I mean. But I think I came for first
time fell in love with it. I was like, this
is an environment that inspires me. Caught some riders rounds
(24:28):
while I was in town and with Country Central, we
just had a lot of opportunities to catch a lot
of shows because by the time we were covering artists
or writing reviews, I mean number one songwriters that I
was a fan of. I just literally tag them when
I would write a review, like they'd see it. They'd
reach out to say, hey, I'm really I really appreciate you.
Like spotlighting what we do because it could be a
big single, it could be just a random song that
(24:51):
comes out on a Friday that will never go to radio.
But I was riding like we're writing in depth reviews
about it, spotlighting like the hooks, the production of it,
and like, I don't know even a little more constructive,
maybe feedback to it than just this is good or
this sucks, you know. I mean I always wanted to
give people like this is why to me, it's good.
(25:11):
Here's a certain line I think resonates with a lot
of people. Here's a producer they work with, I think
really highlights what they do really well. And artists for
reaching out because Instagram, right, they see everything all you
gotta do nowadays you tag someone, but they might happen
to look at it, and when I guess when they
look at certain things i'd post. I don't know, man,
I'm not. I know there's two sides social media. But
(25:31):
for me, I truly was just trying to use it
to like be myself and hopefully kind of shout out
people I think are really talented, really special. And I
think because of it, I got connected and was networking
with a lot of people in town. And when we
come to town, you know, we would have opportunities to
interview artists, you know. I think we'd gone out to
one of Morgan shows in when in San Antonio, so
(25:54):
like he was there and I got to interview Hardy
on that tour and for me, like like a huge fan.
But I think when you're kind of like doing like
a job, it's like cool, this guy get to work.
We go we you know, go wrap to his bus,
have the interview. I think after stuff like that started
happening when we came to town and we're like, hey,
we're in town, would love to connect with any artist writers.
(26:15):
And we had a good airbnb, Like you're welcome to
come by the house, we'll set up the camera, we'll
do like an impromptu interview. And the one cool story
I have is like we had met I think Connor
Smith had played um Whiskey jam and Dylan Marlowe was
there him and then his co writers Joe Fox and
Jimmy Bell who wrote Last Night Lonely for John Party,
(26:37):
so like we gotta know them. And I was like, hey,
like I'm in town for a week, have an airbnb
me just BMMI would love to interview y'all's songwriters. Just
have you buy the house, learn your story, learn how
you wrote Last Night Lonely, all that good stuff. So
had Dylan had, Joe, had Jimmy all by the house,
just gott to learn their story, and like I've kind
of I just kind of learned like with the interviews,
(26:57):
you have notes and you have rules, but when you're
having a one on one conversation learning about people's lives,
like you can kind of relax and just let it
happen naturally. And that's what I found myself doing. I'd
have an interviews and I'm like, i'd have like a note,
but then it's just letting them kind of lead the
way and like whatever they bring up, I'd take it
that direction. And I felt very natural doing it. And
(27:18):
with the Last Night Lonely deal, we had interviewed them.
But in the same week, one of my buddies, I
don't know if you're familiar with him. His name is
Grady Smith and he has this like YouTube He makes
like money just doing country you know, country music media
through YouTube and talking about the industry all that good stuff.
And he had had an interview set up with John
Party that week, and he's also thinking about moving to town.
(27:39):
So I was like, I've a couch you can crash,
You're welcome to. So a couple of days later, John
Party rolls up in like you know, to our airbnb.
That's the first time I met him. Super nice guy.
He even though it was like nice and gracious, like
the airbnb owners at their house like nearby, like they're
freaking out, but he sits down and like I'm just
literally filming it. But he's a very interactive guy. So
(28:01):
Grady's interviewing him, but then he's talking to me, asking
me questions, and we kind of asked him about last
night lonely. I'm like, you know, we actually had like
the guys by the house like the other day. He's like,
I've actually never met them before. And it's always funny
obviously to learn, you know now me being and publishing music, publishing,
just knowing where a song can start and how it
gets to the artists, you know, eventually, and how a
(28:22):
lot of times with the schedules y'all have, like you
guys never have time to even hang out in person,
you know what I mean. And I just thought it
was like a really cool wrinkle and like how a
song comes to be and at that time I think
the song was rising obviously would eventually go number one,
but yeah, John's a great guy, and it was just
a very cool experience where I'll just be myself in
town and these random opportunities were coming my way, you
(28:44):
know what. I mean just to interact these people, connect
the dots and yeah, just tell them, Hey, if you
have music coming out, let me know. And that's something
that Country Central we did a good job at as
like putting this big release calendar up where like every
Friday we're telling you every single country release coming out,
so regular listeners would be We're super grateful, I know
who my favorite artsts putting out music. And then for
(29:05):
up and coming artists, they were really appreciative too, because
they're getting spotlighted just as much as like a Morgan
Wallen was through our platform. And that was just I
think that's how I really made my connections with a
lot of the up and coming people that are doing
well today. And then like just same thing I thought,
like Ryan Herds of the World meeting song like John
and even like Thomas Rhet that was probably the most random,
(29:27):
you know connection because like he had reached out out
of the blue because I just was a big fan
of him and I think he had gotten like twenty
number ones recently and I just kind of had it
compiled it my list of top tr songs, and I
think not everything was like a huge hit. It was
maybe some of the deeper cuts he had done, and
I think maybe he saw that he liked those songs too,
and he had reached out to me just out of
the blue. I was like, hey, man, like I would
(29:49):
love to send you some demos, get your opinion on them,
Like what's your number? And I was like, all right,
this is this town. Nashville was like insane. Y'all have
the crazy schedules and I don't know why you have
time to each out to me about anything. But that
was really I think when I was like, I'm in
the craziest time in my life, Like I'm still in
Houston at the whole time, I'm coming out to Nashville
on PTO, you know, like all this amazing stuff happening,
(30:11):
and I just know new throughout it all that I
just keeping yourself. Treat people right, you know. I mean
that you come across. Don't get caught up in social
media nonsense. But just I get caught up. I'm kind
up right now. It's tough, right, It's easier so than done,
but you know, keep it on the craft. If I'm
just like, hey, I love country music. I love the
(30:32):
craft of songwriting, and I want everyone to know as
much as possible about this world, so as fans you
can just appreciate it even more. And like I think
because of that, just all this good kept coming in
my life and I keep coming out to Nashville, and yeah,
eventually got here, Hank Tight the Bobby Cast will be
right back. Welcome back to the Bobby Cast. But how
(30:55):
did the Warner people? I mean it had to be
you met somebody that knew somebody then also saw what
you brought. I mean, networking is it's such a big
part of life, more than I ever knew. Me too,
same more than ever knew because I used to not
care at all. But it's like, can you meet the
right people and then show them that you're going to
(31:17):
have a good attitude and the work ethic and be
able to take coaching right. I've always felt like for
me that was the process. But you gotta get to
the person that gets to make the decisions. So how
did you get to the person? Yeah, it's kind of
another one of those like you know, God things, universe
things where obviously I being town like with certain Warner
(31:38):
you know Chapel the publishing company, like writers like Connor
Smith is like a writer for Warner Chapel, and I
think pretty much just my name was getting around in
that way to where like my current position. Just and
our manager, one of the directors there, had heard my
name just seeing what was going on, just either when
I was in town and what was going on obviously
online just can I and the Dots spotline law of
(32:01):
their artists, and he used reached out to say like, hey, dude,
like I see you in town. I would love just
to meet you. Just he just reached out to They
just called you reach out like you didn't go, Hey,
everybody's Benji, anybody want to hire I don't think I'm
that kind of guy, but I know I have to be. Now,
you gotta be in people's faces in Nashville to get
your music herd. But was literally just like, hey, like,
I see what y'all are doing. Just curious what your
(32:23):
plan is in town? Like what are you even looking
to do? And I think that was the first time
in a long time when I was like, could I
see myself you know, being in music? Is there a pathway?
You know what I mean? And because for a long
time I had to kind of close my mind off
to that, you know, because I know there's a lot
of different routes to get into the music business. But
for me, I'm like, I'm thirty two years old. I'm like,
(32:43):
I got a lot going on at home, Like is
this just gonna be my life? You know? Sometimes it's
easy to get resigned to that fact. And just when
that happened, I'm like, maybe there's an opportunity and all
I have to do is raise my hand and ask,
you know, what's the process, what does it look like?
What do y'all even have available? You know what I mean?
But at that time, I think I just was getting
get to no type of thing. What are you looking
(33:05):
to do? You have the country's central thing, you have
your platform? What are you looking? Um? I don't know
if you know him. His name is a Spencer Noe. Okay, yeah,
great guy. And we just hung out for two hours,
just got to do each other. Still there a lot
of two hour calls with you is it the minimal?
Like you got to zoom two hours? You get one
on one with people when you talk about life. It
just for me, like that's just when you learn you'd
(33:25):
appreciate where people come from, like what it took for
them to get to where they're at today, and I
don't know, just I think I can relate to just
giving like my background, my family, like I definitely appreciate
hustlers and people that grind it out. And yeah, just honestly,
after that, I think we just left his like we
got along, liked him. He's a good person to know.
Nashe no job was talked about. Really did you just
wanted to learn about the job, but they were like,
(33:47):
we want to hire you. Yeah, I just wanted to
learn about his world, what it all took to get
into that. And honestly, I think in those kind of
positions that companies like that, I mean, people don't leave
usually usually in your place, your position for years, and
like Ben, maybe a promotion comes up, maybe something opens up,
but as far as getting in there like that usually
doesn't happen. So I mean I went home, and I
(34:09):
want to say, is maybe before the holidays, just this
past you know, this past year where there was just
some movement, just someone happened for whatever reason, was leaving,
you know, the company. And I got another call just saying, hey,
you know, there's gonna be some changes at the company.
And I thought of you, you know, like I happened
to have met with the team just casually just went
(34:30):
to the office, met them, kind of learned what they
all did, how they got to where they came to be,
and saying they met with the president Ben Vaughan, you
know who I know, well really you know, my name's sake,
you know what I mean, and great guy and just
no real offer. But it was just like, but when
that call came in, I was literally working my regular job,
you know, trying to get a deal, you know, get
contract signed, you know, before Friday or something like that.
(34:52):
And I was just like, hey, like I thought of you,
just there's no promises, but like there's some shift to
change here, and your name came to mind and just
if you're interested, we can start talking about it. And
I was like, okay, you know what I mean. I
really didn't know what to think. And I feel like
at that point of my life, I'm not one to
like be like it's happening absolutely, even if it's something
(35:14):
like I manifest that I've never wanted to say, of course,
because I feel like at this point of life, I
try to live in as much reality as possible. Not
to say I don't dream as much, but when I
don't know, like my dad's stick at home, and it's
like when you have to see that, you're like, let
me appreciate the present and you're not really thinking about
what could the future be like. But when that offer
came in or that opportunity came in, I was like, great,
(35:34):
this is something I definitely think I could do. I
know it could do, especially when I heard like what
it's all about? What is it all about? What do
you tell you? Like? This is what you're gonna do daily? Yeah?
I would ask that, like what do I do every day? Absolutely?
What did you ask him? What do you say? He
just told me you're pretty much gonna be an advocate
for a group of songwriters or artists that write as well,
and you're going to be the person pretty much supporting them,
(35:57):
incentivizing or networking songs throughout out the community to get
them in the right hands hopefully someone that's gonna record
a song it gets on the radio. And when I
just saw a lot of it was number one. You're
gonna be diving into a song catalogue from decades you
know that Warner owns, and even songs like that. You're
going to try to find a home for them if
they've never been recorded before. Then number two, you're networking
(36:19):
with people in town obviously trying to build relationships where
when time the timing is right, there's like something mutually
makes sense for everybody. That's when you know, you get
a song in the hands of a rite artist. And
then finally, you know, just I guess being myself being
like an advocate for songwriters, and I was like, I
know I could do that. I feel like I've been
I think that's all the thing. Like you, we feel
(36:39):
like you've been doing that really just not officially, and
I was like, I agree, and really just want to
know what the rest of the steps of like what
would it take for me to get there? And I
think it was like we can talk about it, you know,
the beginning the new year, will come back. And I
was planning to be in town anyways for that because
I had to actually come to town to interview Chase
(36:59):
right before his record came out. So I was like, Hey,
I'm in town anyways, I'm gonna take another meeting there
and you know, talk to Ben Vaughan about what things
could look like. And Ben Von's like, meet me at
a waffle house in Brentwood. I was like, all right, great,
and I think at that time I was on PTO
from my job. I still brought my bad pack in
my work laptop because I appreciate a meeting. I got
(37:20):
three pm after I was going to meet up with
Ben and I need to, you know, call in, just
be there, be present, and you know, hung out with
Ben a little more, and like we'd met each other
a couple of times, had a couple of conversations, and
you just start going through, these are the people you
could be working with. You're the kind of writers you
might have a chance to work with. And it'd be
a lot of familiar names, people that I already knew,
either personally or i'd always been a fan of. And
(37:43):
he's like, yeah, that's gonna be your job is to
they have a catalogust songs, and you're going to be
the person pretty much evangelizing for them, making sure that
these songs find a home. And I was like, I
don't know, I've never been more excited than just thinking
about what I could be doing in a job. And truly,
I mean I went home still after that trip and
it was more like informer like this could this is
(38:05):
probably real. But for me, it was not real until
I got like an HRM phone call. I was just
like at home in Houston and they're like, hey, like
what's going on, Like how are you doing? And where
are you at as far as like in the job thing,
like are you looking anywhere else in the industry. I
was like, I'd interviewed for another job in like my
current field, but um, non music. And they're like, well,
(38:27):
the software still stands if you want it, and like
a dream. It's literally you were doing kids. We're just
passionate about it, not really pursuing a job because who
even knew that how to get into that job and
you just did it consistently and passionately. And then it
came up and knocked on the door and I've moved
within Let's tell him, Mike. I moved like within like
(38:49):
two to three weeks. I think They're like, could you
start in February? I was like, I also could start
really quickly, but I was like, let me be smart
and give myself a buffer and not just be like overwhelmed,
and um I think I just I started like the
end of February, and I think the last minute my
old job was like on a Friday and I literally
pad two suitcases and flew out that falling Saturday to
(39:10):
Nashville full time. And luckily, since I'd come out here
so many times and I'd use the same Airbnb to
interview artists and stay there. When those owners knew I was,
I had an opportunity out here, They're like, you can
just stay here while you get settled, And it was
one of those ways where I could come here and
be very comfortable, you know what I mean. I wasn't
just like where do I go? Right? I don't know
(39:31):
anybody here. I'd come a time the past two years,
and what it feels like when I moved here, I
didn't know anybody, didn't know anything about town, didn't That's
that is really a comfortable situation. I'm not complaining. I'm
a big fan of it. And I was able to
kind of hit the ground running here in town and
just super grateful. It's just one of those situations that
I'm like, I know, I'm blessed because of it and
the work I get to do to serve people here
(39:52):
in town, like it is super fulfilling. I think that
was something growing up I was always good at, like
serving on behalf of people I cared about out and
sometimes it's kind of hard to serve yourself the same
way sometimes easier to do for others. Is what I
found and kind of the perfect job, you know what
I mean to be Like you serve people every single
day and you find creative ways to you know, get
their name out there, to get their songs heard by
(40:14):
the right people. And um, so far, like four weeks in,
but you know, I'm loving it already. There's something new
to learn every single day. I'm definitely not finished product,
but it's it's definitely, I think, for me, the best
job because I got to be myself. Like, let's take
a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow,
(40:35):
and we're back on the Bobby Cast. You were with
Neon Union before he came over here, just had lunch
with them. Yeah, So what's it like meaning with those guys, Like,
what was the purpose? The purpose is right? So I
had a roster writers, right, I had to had to
represent a Neon Union is one of those you know
as a duo. There my riders and they had just
gotten off like a long slog you know, radio tour,
(40:57):
you know, for a long time and they finally just
got back in town where they could just relax and
also have rights with other writers in town, you know
what I mean, on their calendar. And I was like
I taught to you know, some of the members, you know,
back and forth like on online, on Instagram, texting them,
but I never met them in person. So it's like, hey,
like they're actually in town, let me just meet y'all
(41:17):
to hang out with you. First time you met him
in first time at him in person, you know, first
time skin to skin contact, We shook hands contact. That's
what I'm saying. It's important. And which, how do you
feel about those guys? Oh? I mean they're great. They
they're very very you know, down home guys. Incredibly talented though,
like just their backgrounds it's amazing, Like Leo oft on Union,
(41:39):
like his bright background, like working for with pit Bull,
writing songs with him, and they're bringing a ton to
Nashville where you know, it's not like they're just waking
up and say I just want to write a song.
It's like they're coming with a lot of knowledge of,
you know, what they want to do and have like
a very good ear for what a big song should
sound like. And I'm just really excited to get them
(42:00):
into rooms with a lot of different kinds of people,
and they're just excited to get to work. Man. I
mean just talking to them, like they're very very motivated
by you know, being on the road doing the radio tour,
meeting a lot of people, you know, around the country,
making those connections. And I'm like, that's kind of what
I'm doing here, you know, just coming into town, meeting
as many people as possible and just learn everyone's story.
(42:20):
And then I'm saying, well, where's the alignment where we
could work together that makes sense for the benefit of
our riders and artists, you know what I mean. And
that's why I got from them. Just people ready to
do whatever. They're ready to write with any kind of person. One.
It does a lot of camps, you know, a lot
of like riding camps with like we just had like
an Asia Pacific one. They did a Latin America one,
(42:40):
and like I have a friend who did a Latin
America one, and he's like, I'd never writen Latin music
in my life, and they and you make it happen,
you figure it out, and it's really cool, like kind
of see that, you know, walking in the office every
day and they're like, oh, we'd love to do that
type of collaborations. Like it's cool you know where you
have riders and a lot of people I work with,
they're just like, we just want dive in. We're open,
(43:01):
more open than I ever thought people would be. Like
you may know a writer and artist just outside looking
in you sit down with them and they're like, we
just want to be as creative as possible. And that's
probably the best part about this town is everyone just
wants to be creative. And I think, honestly, that's like
twenty twenty one and going on. I'm like I always
would joke, like on Instagram or social media, I'd be like,
(43:22):
this is the best time to be a fan and
a creative in my mind, like there's still like a
framework you work out of, but there's really not a
lot of rules for a listener. At the end of
the day, they only know what they know. And I
think after like you know, the pandemic and streaming blew
up for country music, it's like fans are down to
listen to anything and everything and whatever's classifized country. There's
(43:43):
so many different lanes that in my mind everything can
co exist in and now I get to kind of
work with every kind of writer, every kind of artist,
and that's just so fulfilling for me as like a
music fan, you know at heart, when you get a
publishing deal, are you paid a salary? And can you
make more than that salary? Every single deal is different.
I think that's a lot to talk to Ben Advits like,
(44:03):
every single deal is different depending on the writer you're
signing or the artists you're signing. I mean, I'm sure
there's a lot of standard deals where you are making
a salary of sorts. But of course, as you probably know,
with radio, I mean, if a song does very well
on radio, it goes number one, or if it's even
like top five, I mean there's definitely incentives. There's ways
that people can make more money, you know, with royalties,
(44:25):
so based on how well that their songs are recorded
due and I know it's streaming, there are ways to
make money. But with songwriting, it's it's definitely tough, just
as it is today and it's getting better. But yes,
every situation is different because every person that's coming to
the table for a songwriting or a publishing deal, I
mean they may be coming in with, you know, different
(44:47):
chips to the table. Some people may be brand new
to town. Some people may be a very known quantity.
So every deal is different. So I got a couple
of friends when they moved here, they made like forty
grand a year that was recupable if they made over
it they reached that limit, and then they made money
if their songs. They made a percentage of the money
once their songs started to make money. Is that common
(45:07):
at all now? Is that still common ish? For sure?
It doesn't mean that, not that amount of money, But
it's like I gotta eat, So can I make forty
five thousand dollars a year plus whatever I can make
if the song does well. Absolutely, And obviously you can
get technacal with it, right because I mean some people
own right the masters, and not everybody's going to have
that type of situation when they get into, you know,
(45:30):
into the music business. But I think there are a
lot of different ways people can make money through songwriting,
and I'm as advocates for it. We're always trying to
find more avenues for are people to make as much
money as possible, So like that's kind of the goal,
and I'm grateful just to see that with technology things
are opening up. I mean, more people are fighting for that,
(45:51):
and yeah, I think we're getting closer to a day
where you can just be a songwriter for a living,
and even I think I think maybe the good thing
about a thirty six song alb from Morgan Wallan is
you can have a song be just an album song,
but go insane on streaming to the point where you're
going to get close enough for people can actually makes
some good money off of that. So when people complain
it's too many songs, I say no, just because there's
(46:15):
so many outside songs I think that were cut off
of that record that would never seen the light of
day otherwise. And I don't know, it's kind of people
are worked their whole you know, life, every single day
of the year to write just the best song. And
Morgan wall had options to choose like the best songs
from these groups of songwriters, and you got to pull
all of those on his record. And for me, it's
(46:35):
a big win for Nashville, you know, because it's so
many different kinds of publishers were involved in it. And yeah,
it's just you don't see it all the time anymore.
So it's really cool by you know, him his team
to be like, we're just gonna pick the best songs.
And John Party does a great job about that too,
just picking the best song. And yeah, Chesney's another guy
who picks and you know you may not work with
him directly, but you know he's a guy that just
(46:56):
goes through and he's like, I don't need to write
the songs there there are people who are great songwriting.
I'm just gonna grab the best songs. Absolutely cold as
that too. As a great songwriter, he will go and
still say, yeah, I'm a good songwriter, but sometimes the
song has written better than what I have. He will
open lego, I'm looking for good songs. And I admire that,
especially for the people that are great songwriters that still
(47:19):
go I maybe good or even great, but doesn't mean
great all the time. And I have every great song.
So I think that's pretty cool. Dan Smyers we mentioned
him earlier, you know Dan at all I do because
I got the you know, I had the pleasure of
interviewing him, and I guess my joke with that was
like I think it was during like the football seasons,
like he was like we interview people on Sunday as
(47:39):
a country central and I mean, I know he's a
huge Steelers fan, so he took like the whole game
off to like interview with us. And yeah, he's also
like you said, he's very like in tune. He's the
guy kind of he produces you said, atrol freak grong,
but yeah, go ahead. He's very particular about how his
product is. And I don't know he's somebody were he
just he dived into everything and and I think the
(48:01):
cool thing for me just interviewed him is that I
was a huge fan of just like what he did
before he even got with and Dan Shay became what
they are, and I believe it was him and Andy Albert,
and I remember following them because I listened to rock stuff.
I wasn't like the rock band he was in before
he moved to Nashville. And then when him and Andy
got together a group called Bonaventure, and I just remember
seeing like, this is a guy knew that tour the
(48:23):
bands I loved as a kid, and he's in Nashville.
And when Dan and Shaye really blew up, I was like,
I'm just happy that someone that I've followed for so
many years is like seeing a ton of success and
then for literally almost like ten years later for me
to like interview him peel talked to him on the
phone about whatever. It's just like this guy's like a
student of the craft, like just loves music more than anybody,
(48:43):
and just to learn really just how Dan Shay came
to be the grind that he took to get to
where he's today, and then his process of around recording music,
writing music, and how he stayed creative working with other artists.
It's just like it was the most inspiring thing, you know,
talking to him, and then even before about this job,
Like I think I texted him and I think like
talking about, hey, this is an opportunity, it could happen,
(49:06):
And I remember telling like, yeah, you know, obviously I
knew I could do it and I want it, but
like you know, I didn't grow up. You know, I
think I was going to do this. I didn't go
to school for this. And he stopped me. He's like, dude,
like stop thinking that way. You know what I mean,
Like if you care enough, if you're you obviously have
passion for it and something that you love, and if
you keep that as you're focused. I mean, you're going
to be successful at it. And I don't know. I mean,
(49:26):
he not have to tell me that, you know what
I mean, plus exactly, And I was just like one
of the best people that I've met this town. And
I don't know. Man again, the like I said, with
my life, it's like it's just funny when you at
least expected just the craziest opportunities blessings come your way,
and just me being here, like you said, it's a
dream for me. It's something I never thought would have
been possible. Last question for you. So I recorded a
(49:50):
song called Hobby Lobby. Bobby probably heard its mathif head
all over the world, right, And I think I made
like so far like fifty one thousand dollars from this
one song, right, which feel pretty good about because I
never it's not a song that we wanted to come out.
I mean it's nineteen sixty four or something like that.
It's been like five years, four or five years, but
we I never we put out and I put out
(50:11):
my stuff as just basically promo material. Sure, right, no
one's gonna srain this stuff over and over. It's a
live comedy record, and we do this. But it's done
pretty well. Now I will sell it to you guys
for one million dollars? Would you would you like to
have it? Yes? Or no? Well one the song or
your catalog. I'm not on the catalog. That's worth far,
that's worth one hundred million. I'd have to go for
Aldine on you guys one hobby lobby bab be one
(50:33):
million dollars. Way say take or leave it? I was, oh,
is it featuring? Is this one you did with like
when Jordan Davison Laney were on. Oh no, that's a
recent one. That one's called Opening Act. I feel like
we have more lanes with two million dollars for that one,
for both together. No, just for that second one. Yeah,
I gotta feel I need to talk to I need
to talk to our CFO. You know he's he's the numbers.
(50:56):
Got to shoot your shot. It'd be close, you know,
very I know you guys working on thin margins here,
but you know, you never know what's gonna happen. No,
you're right about the songwriter issue too, and have friends
that have testified on the hill and it is something
that it's such a craft and an art and if
it did not exist there will be a lot of
art that we don't appreciate as much because we have it.
(51:19):
But something has to be done, you know. And I've
also well I was gonna say under the covers that
ain't the right term, but behind the scenes talked to
some lawmakers as well, you know, a couple of senators,
a couple former senators, and radio streaming. It is such
an ill appreciated art and I don't do it near
(51:43):
the level of what the great songwriters in town do here. Listen,
I just write stupid comedy stuff. But even then like
it at least gives me the respect. Although I will
say Ben was the head of a deal that we
did me, Nicole Galleon and Ross Copperman. We did a
group called nie On People Secretly and Ben was the
guy and he was the one like making sure I'll
(52:04):
write in the word secret and he put all fake
names on us. He's great and so yeah, he's been great.
But it is when you bring up songwriting, how songwriters
aren't paid enough through streaming. I think you can pay
more to be a background singer than you do a
songwriter for the most part on these tracks. And it
is but the fact that that's even close to be
(52:24):
in the case, it's it's a it's a disservice to
songwriters all over Nashville and LA in New York or
wherever they're writing the song. So that's why for me,
like even just before I even came here to Nashville, wife,
for me, I'm like, it takes zero for me to
know a huge songs coming out and just let regular
listeners know who wrote it. I would literally just tag
their Instagram hand on every review we did. Anytime I
(52:46):
just said this song is amazing, I'd say this who
wrote it? And it takes a second to do it,
but it builds awareness, it builds appreciation, and then if
that leads to people streaming more of like what those
writers write, or if they ever put out music of
their own and people now recognize their name and they're
a fan, then we're helping them out. And I think
right now it's a very cool time to be in
(53:06):
the world music and publishing especially, and there's so many
different opportunities to get songs heard. So I know it's
getting better, it's gonna continue to get better, and I
know this is a this is my job, So I'm
very crazy, isn't it crazy. I'm grateful. I feel that
way too sometimes, like this is my freaking job, and
like it's not like every well, it'll be hard days, obviously,
it's just every go and the jobs suck sometimes, but
(53:26):
every job is supposed to suck a little bit, so
it's it's amazing. So congratulations. I get to listen to
a song and decide how that makes me feel, and
it makes you feel really great. I'll tell a couple
of other people and hopefully we can build some momentum
to get some great songs heard and elte and then
no one ever hears a song again. I will never
haven't done, haven't done an ee, haven't done it yet
(53:47):
listening congratulations, I appreciate them. That's awesome. It's your story
is amazing. Just you were just doing your thing. That's it,
Just do your thing passionately. I thought that's how it's
supposed to go. But I guess for me, I can
never visualize it for myself until it happened, and um
now I'm here. It's it's a wildlife around here. As
we mentioned in the Prix at the Beni Chord c
(54:09):
H O R D the Bengie Chord, it feels like
one of those barcards. I can't quite play because my
fingers are weak. Because I can do G and D
and A and eat, but and I can do F.
But then once against some of the the Benjie chords hard.
You know, when I played the bee and asked me
if it was a play on words with Bungee chords,
someone like messaged me that. I was like, no, I
literally play. I like guitar, and I don't know. That
(54:29):
happens every now and then I get that message. Is
that not your real name? Yeah, say your real name?
My name is Benji or Benjamin Chord Chord. That's not
your real name though. That was not a last name,
this one. I've heard the chord I've heard. I don't
think Chord's a last name. Oh, I know, I know
some chords, some chords. Yeah, but when I came, I
always thought, your last name is Benji Chord. That is
(54:50):
not my last name. That is an alias. Okay, well listen,
I'll live by an alias, so no judgment for me. Mike,
did you know that wasn't his real last name? Yeah?
I never knew that wasn't a yeah, but sometimes people
like go bones. Is that you were last name, and
I'm like, you idiot, of course it's not my real
last name. That did happen though. I went to the
Opry recently to catch one of my art one of
my favorite artists, Play is a debut, and like they'd
(55:12):
put my name as bencoord so I could not get
in like I would have been like, oh, I got
turned here, I got turned away. When I'm like, what's
your first last name? I say, and they're like you're
not on the list, Like they're like turning me away.
Then like I gotta call him right, No, no, we
got you. That's happened. With tickets, they'll put them to
Bobby Bones and I'm lit with I d okay. Well
here's the thing though, man, before you before you say no,
it's it's actually listen. Congratulations. I appreciate man, Thank you
(55:34):
for having me on. Really cool. And I know we
hit you up because Mike and I've been talking about
you for a while and he's like, let's hit him up.
It see if we'll come up. And so it's been awesome. Mike.
Anything you want to say, how is your quest for
the perfect gym going? It is? And your arms are here?
I do it took me everything not to even make
a curl joke or a go ahead I did. I'm
doing Planet Fitness on the weekdays early because you can't.
(55:56):
When you go like after work, people gonna be like
swinging from the equipment, you know, like like it's a
drum or whatever. But I on the weekends is when
I go the random gyms in town then, like the
nice ones that people recommend to me and like they'll
give me a trial to try it out. And I've
gone to three of them so far, and I think
for me, it's like the place I'm out right now
is like the AIRBNBM staying at and it's like maybe
(56:17):
fifteen minutes away from town. But until I'm like this
is where I'm gonna be permanently be invested. But there's
some really nice ones. So if y'all know any and
have any, like you know, recommendations for me, I'm always
open ears for the perfect gym. And no, I don't
feel like I'm qualified to look at your arms and
your shoulders. I'm a simple I'm a simple guy when
it comes to the gym. I don't need too much. Yeah,
(56:39):
that's give me a boulder. I'll figure it out. You
know a you guys follow at the Beni Chord on Instagram.
Bench you good to see a buddy. I Love this
episode of the Bobby Cast. Subscribe on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For social media. I don't really know what's like the
place people go to to like catch up on what's
going on in the country world. I told him if
I could interview like a songwriter that wrote a big
song and like regular listeners can be like, could now
know who that person is, having appreciation for the work
they do, that'd be my goal. This is fun a
(00:24):
little different too, and really what this podcast is all about,
it's kind of behind the scenes on you know, publishing basically,
and songwriters and how they get songs to artists and
the process there. So we're talking to Benji aka the
Beni Chord. Mike can't to me and said, Hey, I
think this is guy'd be awesome to talk to. Why, Like,
how did you stumble upon him? And why do you
(00:45):
think it'd be interesting. I follow him on Instagram and
he's always just posting all these things that I find interesting,
really good takes on songs, and I thought it'd be
great for the podcast. I think what's cool is it's
a guy that like music, didn't live in Nashville, and
I'll let him tell the story. But we just writing comments, yeah,
and not hateful things fighting with people. He would just
write it and then that kind of got him going, yeah,
(01:08):
this inspired me to be myself more on he did. Yeah,
he's like to be yourself and it's what he did.
So he is the A and R manager for Warner
Chapel Publishing, which is the company that they hire songwriters
and then they try to get those songs that those
songwriters write to artists who are looking to find and
cut songs. I would say that's an accurate description, right, Yeah,
(01:31):
it's a whole different other journey that we've seen on
the podcast before. And people talk about publishing deals, pub deals,
people talk about record deals. It's a really crazy story
about one the insides of that industry. But two, just
a guy who love music and was like writing comments
on a website and it turned into a big job.
So here we go Benji aka the Beni Chord. You
(01:51):
can follow him at the Beni Chord be eaten Ji
Chord on Instagram. All right, that's what's up here you go?
Will you explain to people listening to this that may
not know the difference in a publishing deal and a
record deal, like a recording deal for sure, right, So
a publishing deal that is literally you as you're going
to go to work as a songwriter. All you're gonna
(02:14):
do day to day is you're gonna get in a
room with maybe two other people, three other people, and
you go sit down, throw ideas around, get some lyrics,
hopefully some melody, and you're going to write a song
and you're gonna be contracted to that. We write with
the hopes of a song that you write will eventually
be either recorded by a big artist and hopefully either
does well in streaming or on radio, and then that's
(02:35):
how you're going to see, you know, some success out
of that. Whereas a record deal, that's literally you're an artist.
Your whole goal is to record songs other ones that
you've written by yourself or ones that have been written
by somebody in the industry, and you're the one on
the road. You're what you're facing the magazines. That's a
recording contract. A publishing deal is definitely where you're a
(02:56):
craft is songwriting, you know, I mean, I think that's
the easiest way to break it up, is writing. You
are behind the scenes writing the songs that we hope
are cut and recorded by some artists that a lot
of people know about. But recording contract is you're growing
into the face of a brand, your job as a
and R. I think we should break it all the
(03:16):
way down because I wouldn't have known what A and
R even was unless I was in this business long
enough to know an R was. Did you know what
an R was as a kid? Though? The only reason
I knews because I was a kid, like reading liner
notes of albums I loved, and you'd see an R
and I wouldn't know what the heck it meant. I'd
learned what songwriters were, right, you'd see different people on
every album, But honestly, it wasn't until really I got
(03:38):
into like, you know, there's a lot there's a big
like rock, you know, seeing i'd say maybe mid two
thousands of the whole emo thing. And I one of
the guys that works at Warner now, Rohan he was
managed Boys Like Girls, and I believe he did some
an R work too, And that was the first time
I was like, Okay, I know I recognized his name.
When like I got older and i'd see him like
(03:58):
working in Nashville, I'm like, okay, so what was an or?
Do you look it up? And you know they're just
trying to get the songs from planting to point B
for the artists, try to get the creative part for
them flowing. And now I'm in the freaking role. It's
pretty well. So would you say that I mean, and
I don't mean this like Instagram. I would. I think
you're an influencer here, like you're trying to influence people
(04:20):
just general people to give songs life and not influence
like Instagram. And I would I want that to be
like you're trying to sell to me. Definitely nodded, but
you know you're trying to create things of influence and
trying or trying to make sure that things that are
created are influencing the right people. Yeah, the way I'd
(04:41):
look at it is if I the very least get
regular listeners to understand like what songwriting means, especially in
Nashville where it's like this is like a special thing
apart from any other genre, then that's when I feel
like my job's done. Like even before I got to
this position, that's I had this handle. There's even like
you know, a gre buzz with for a Country Central,
(05:02):
just like we made this country media platform and we
just had regular people, you know, voicing their opinions, but
also learning about this world again a peak in a
Nashville for people around the country, around the world, And
that was the most fulfilmed part for me is because
people learned like, oh, this is a I know someone
that's only a songwriter. They don't have any artist career.
When they see their name, you know, written by for
(05:24):
like a New Hearty song or New Wallen song, they
get excited and like they're rooting for those people the
same way I am. So that's been the most fulfilmed
part when I had this going on. When someone comes
and let's say you're on a vacation or you're just
traveling and they're like, hey, what do you do and
what do you say? I work in music business, That's
what I say. Now, okay, Then I say, oh yeah,
doing what I get songs from point A to point B.
(05:46):
What's what's point A? Point A is the songs created,
and eventually we want to get it to recorded obviously
and ideally played on the radio. And when you hear
point B, be the artist got it? The artists you
want a big name artist ideally or that you want
it to be recorded by. And then point C, I
guess would be it's on the radio and that's how
or streaming services, and that's how you all are hearing
(06:09):
it for the first time. And I'm just part of
that creative process. I'm kind of you know, I don't
say given birth to songs, but I'm part of that process.
When the song's created, I'm the one networking it out
in the world, making sure he gets heard by as
many people as possible. They feel the same thing I
feel about it, and hopefully the artist that records it
feels the same way that multiple people are feeling about it,
(06:29):
and that's the right time for them to record it
and then hopefully gets put out in a timely manner,
you know, fingers crossed. And then when that's the last part,
when it has success, that's just really when you see
a lot for the songwriters at the very end of
the table, and what's a big win you've had recently?
So I'll telling Mike, you know, I just started four
weeks ago officially, but I would say a win a
(06:51):
recent win is one of the writers that represent Taylor Phillips.
You know, he's written for Cam Brown, wrote Hurricane for
Luke Combs, one of his songs It's not a sing
go on Morgan Walla's new record, but thinking about me, right,
that's just an album track, but it's done one of
the best you know, streaming sell you know, sales wise,
and it's just cool to see where it's like, where
(07:13):
this idea to start when you talk to them, understand
what was going on in the riding room that day,
and can start from very small beginnings and then with
this album obviously one of the biggest ones in a
long time. It's just cool to see your people win,
you know what I mean. Where'd you grow up? Houston, Texas?
Born and raised and so when you were a kid,
let's not even do kid, let's do tenth grade. What
do you want to do? You know? My family moved
(07:34):
here from Nigeria for college and my dad actually became
a patrona engineer so oil and gas world. He started
his own company when I was around ten years old,
and he moved back to Nigeria and like just ran
his company from that he moved back, I suppose. So
that was like my whole life, you know, we had
the old company and that was really what I thought
I was going to do, or I thought that was
what I was expected to do, so I'd say tenth grade, Yeah,
(07:57):
I'm getting ready to, you know, go to college and
prepared for all that. And in my mind, I'm like
my dad went to USC, and I'm like, oh, I'm
gonna go there too. I'm gonna do the whole thing.
And got into both USC and UT Austin, and I
think it was just the decisions kind of made for
me in the sense of USC's sixty thousand dollars and
U two is like eight thousand a thing around the time,
(08:18):
and I really didn't want to. You know, you got
through a whole process for some of these like big
name schools. You go like, you interview, you do all
this crazy stuff. And in my mind, like I'm gonna
be an engineer, like this will maybe be my way
to get there. And that was where my head was at.
I had all these other interests. I loved music, I
loved literature, I loved writing. But in my mind, especially
the way being first generation American, the way my parents
(08:40):
made it here, I just couldn't even understand or I
could be doing these other things, these hobbies or interests
I had, could it be a career? That's kind of
that I expect for myself or is expected of me.
So yeah, it was literally just like I'm doing all
gas thing, I'll figure it out and we'll see what happens.
And that's what I ended up going to school for.
What did you dad until you're on that time? Was
(09:01):
he encouraging of you to do oil and gas or
if you don't want to do oil and gas, do
whatever you want? Like what kind of parent was he there?
I think he's a type of parent where my dad
came from zero, So for him to make it, he
just knew. Obviously took a lot of hard work, but
it also took a lot of people bedding on you,
supporting you. And I think looking back now, I'm thirty
(09:23):
two years old now, so get a little older. But
looking back now, I think my parents just taught me
or told me what they knew. The only reason they
got here had the life they're able to have is
because this is their first experience. And since myself and
my siblings were first generation, they ain't know any other way,
so there weren't a lot of different perspectives. To say,
plenty of our families moved to the States and they've
(09:44):
had this type of success. We know this one way.
So that's what I definitely had seen, and I think
at the end of it all, I definitely put more
of into my own head. I'm sure if I spoke
to him and I was like, Hey, this is something
that I know I could be great at. I'm going
to work my butt off at it every single day,
things would have been different. But I know in my head,
I was very like point A, point B, either I
(10:05):
do A or B, you know. I mean, I couldn't
think of like, hey, I'm gonna tell you I want
to do this my you know. I feel like I
had to go through the process, grow and learn a
lot more about myself to now have the top of
conversation which I've had with him countless times. Were you
as a kid, high school kid, college kid. Were you
drawn to music because you liked how it made you feel?
(10:26):
Or were you drawn to music because you wanted to
be more part of the creation. And obviously music makes
everybody feel certain ways. But I always would listen to
music kind of to escape, never wanted to really create it.
It wasn't until like, I mean, Adam Sandler music for
me and even Ray Stevens where I was like, oh,
(10:47):
I can do music. But I could be funny because
I never really wanted to be or I didn't feel
like it had the skills or were lay the effort
to be someone who played music at a high level
because I have just I was terrible. So where did
that come for you? What was your passion in music? Yeah?
I would say, just like I keep coming back to
the first generation thing because there's no rules when it
came to like entertainment or music for me, because my
(11:10):
parents knew what they knew, Like if they didn't know
like what certain music was or what bands were like,
then they couldn't tell me you can't listen to it,
you know. So I think my first thing was like
I saw Nirvana or watching music videos about them or
saw them in MTV, and that's when I was like
trying to play guitar and I fell in love a guitar.
Where'd you get your first guitar? It was a first
(11:31):
act guitar from Walmart, So fingers were definitely blistered, did
not sound great whatsoever. But I taught myself. I'll played
guitar just watching like Foo Fighters music videos, just watching MTV.
I'd see a music videos see where their fingers were
and I figured out like a G chord, you know, eventually,
But music for me is absolutely an escape. I think
(11:52):
growing up it's like my siblings and we were just
kind of figuring out what's our life going to be? Like,
you know, I mean, like we're seeing our world through
a completely different eyes and our parents did. And there's
something definitely, looking back, really you know, empowering about that.
I may not realize it when I was younger, but
when I would listen to music, it would be like
I go into my own world. And I think one
(12:13):
of the pivotal moments for me, and maybe I memory
hold it because I never did anything with music growing up.
Was like our parents sent us at school and we're
kids like grade school, and they would have like academic
competitions we compete in, and there was one I did
called music Memory, and they'd like, maybe play like a
you know, a Beethoven piece, you know, orchestral piece, and
time it for like fifteen seconds, stop the you know,
(12:35):
the tape, and then you get to just say who
composed it, you know, when it came out? Things like that,
what was like the prominent instrument or whatever it may be.
And I swear that's where I got my ear for
like when i'd put on my headphones when like you know,
CD players were normal and I would hear, you know,
parts of production. I'd hear like the strings and appreciate
all that part of an arrangement and whether it was
(12:56):
in a rock song, a pop song, a country song,
and that always with me. But I was like, why
do I have all this, you know, random information I
know or knowledge about music or who's making it, And
I'm never gonna do anything with it. And I think
also when I looked up, like many people have to
like tour on a tour bus and be cramped packed
with older buddies, and I'm like, I don't know, I
feel like I get sick, you know, after one week
(13:18):
and out on the road. So I was like, I
don't know if I can ever be a musician. And
that was where my brain went. I was like, did
you stopped doing like like practicing to do anything more
than this recreational play it? It was all recreational. I
did have a band that was a part of like
in middle school. And the hardest part was I mean,
I come if you have n if you know what
a Nigerian parents like you're not staying after school at
someone's house at band practice. It's like it's not gonna happen.
(13:40):
You gotta be we gotta be at home, you know,
studying for other subjects. But I did have a band
like in middle school that I was like the lead
singer of play guitar Um, and I think other than that,
I just was like, I'm just always going to be
a fan of it. I'm always gonna have some deeper
appreciation for it than like I felt like my siblings
had or my other friends had for it. But I
just never knew, like, what's how am I gonna do
(14:02):
anything in music? It just was never a realistic option
for me when I was growing up. When did you
feel though that it could actually be something that if
you work, you can have a career in it, because again,
it doesn't sound like you're a dance miners or a
any We could go through a list of them who
always kind of knew even though they didn't target exactly
how they were going to do it, but they've known
since they were like seven, and they played and they
(14:24):
practice and they because I a bit like you listened
to a ton, memorized a ton, found people that I
love that wrote and created, but I knew I wasn't
going to be an artist. So when did you have
that realization of oh, I can actually do this and
make a living off of it, because it had to
be a job you maybe didn't even know existed. Yeah,
so it was after your school and I've done maybe
(14:46):
one job, like in the ol and gas industry, and yeah,
I'll just did it to do it and you know,
pays whatever, and you wasn't super passionate about it. But
I'd moved back to Houston. I was like, you know,
what expectations for me, I feel are pretty at this point.
I didn't I'm not like the superstore, a Superstar oil
and gas, you know, like executive. That maybe was like
(15:07):
I was thought, I thought I was going to be
growing up. So I was like, let me you know,
I was going online and there was a big country
station in Houston and they were just hiring like for promotions,
for social media, you know, for everything, and I supplied.
You know. I think it was around the time like
Sam Hunter just released his first album FGL was really
blowing up, and I was like, hey, I know these artists,
like I know people that produced them, and I have
(15:29):
that passion. Let me just in like he didn't in
the personally who they were. No, I did not know
them personally. They knew kind of like what was gone
behind the scenes. And yeah, I just rolled the dice.
And obviously they always need more radio promo. Yeah you're overqualified,
like by it always wanted. I can't hire you, too
too smart for all this stuff. So I got that
gig and that's really when I dived in, and like
(15:51):
I was learning the radio part of the country music world,
and um, we'd have artists like Jimmie Allen come to
the studio Riley Green when he was starting up, and
I was working like the Houston Rodeo, sending up by
Cody Johnson shows and a little bit of everything, you know,
like working the late nights at a bar, you know
what I mean. And from where I'd started growing up,
(16:11):
that was just never side of life that you know,
I feel like I ever thought I would do. You know,
where I'm like people literally can this is part of
like a career where people grind out. It could be
late nights to like four am, but all throughout your
networking you're learning about people, You're meeting the people that
are in the industry and also learning from like a
program director. I'm Johnny Chang. I think now he's at Pandora,
(16:33):
and I would just ask him pick his brain, like
when he had time when and I'd be asking technical
stuff about hey, why why this single or why does
how can the big ours have this huge single and
then they released this to one like we don't give
as much play And he would just like describe to
me the way the world worked, and that was super
fascinating to me, and I think all throughout then I
(16:53):
was like, it'd be great just to visit Nashville. I'd
never been up to that point. That was right before
the pandemic hit. I was like, it'd just be cool
to visit maybe one day. One day if I could,
I can move out here with just a job. I
wasn't even thinking it'd be a music job, and I'd
be in Nashville big the greatest to live here, be
in this environment that's inspiring. And yeah, the pandemic hit
(17:14):
and then radio kind of you know, got pretty quiet
for a little bit, and that's when I got the
last job I had, which is like it tech, you're
selling the software, working with all sorts of companies. But
I had to quit, obviously my radio jobs because it's like, hey,
I need to have a full time job making good money.
And around that time, unfortunately, my dad had gotten sick,
(17:35):
so you'd move back home from Nigeria to Houston. It's
like I was like, all right, at least, let me
have a full time job, help out with my family
where I can. And I don't know, that's just my
reality now, you know what I mean. So radio, I
wasn't doing that anymore, but I was still in tune
what was happening. I was a kind of around the
time when I was like, you know what, it's the pandemic.
I love music. Let me just play some country song guitar,
(17:59):
not for any reason, not to be seen, but I'll
just do it stern. Pandemics like a release in a way,
and you post on Instagram or whatever. Maybe one person
sees it, who cares, and um, yeah, that's kind of
how the ball got rolling, i'd say. And social media.
You posted something on social media, you post a song, whatever, Sure,
how hard of that ball roll? Like what happened? He
(18:21):
didn't roll at all as far as that's concerned. It
just became a collection of like may on guitar or
me maybe talking about its country song. I was really
passionate about are you a good singer? I'd say I'm
a very silent background vocalist. I'm not a singer. If
you were, you singing on your TikTok Instagram. This video
is now private on YouTube, but I had done Luke
(18:44):
Combs like he has a song called Moon over Mexico,
and I'd sang along to it, obviously out of key,
and like just like a couple of people comment is saying, oh,
very nice, and then one guy says, brother, you're so
out of tune, out of key, and then the dude
that comment below is like, I give you props for
even putting that up there. By the way, I'm Luke's
like videographer on the road, like props. And I was like,
(19:05):
that was one random moment where I'm like random people
can see everything, you know what I mean, out there
in social media world. Do you know who said that
the video? I don't know if he's still with him,
but I'll look a videographer now. Yeah, And I but
I thought you were gonna say, like you low key
put up a video, and I got twenty million views
and the next thing, you know, you're in Nashville singing.
I now singer in the least. But I'd say the
(19:29):
first light bulb moment for me just using social media
was I had done like a like a little singer review,
like a song review about a deep cut of an artist,
like a Rhinehard And he had a song called Michigan
for the Winner. That's my favorite song by him, and
I want to say it's like pretty you know, it
was a twenty twenty maybe be getting close to twenty
twenty one. I just did like a ride up about it.
(19:50):
What the certain you know, hook made me feel like
the way the song was arranged, you know, like me
just deep diving into songs, and then he had reached
out to me. It was just like, dude, thank you
so much. Yeah, thanks so much for the deep dive.
Like that's how I was feeling when I wrote the song.
And then I was like, there's actual like real people
behind the screen, you know what I mean. That was
the first thing that came to my mind. Then second
(20:11):
was like, man, these people see everything, you know what
I mean, And in this crazy world of social media,
it's like y'all are looking at You're all seeing everything,
and so it was cool for me when I was
like just being a fan, being passionate about the craft.
That's someone that I respect and noticed. And from there
I got involved with the group called Country Central that's
like another social media platform and how did how do
(20:33):
you say? From there? But how did that happen? Do
they contact you to completely completely remote? I mean I'm
just at home on my phone. And the guy had
started he had been doing just maybe some news posts,
maybe talking about accolades in the genre, like someone was
going number one with certain singles, and I'd just be
the guy that comments being like congrats to Ashley go
or they first like fifty at sixty number one, you know,
and I would just know the songwriters and I'd like
(20:55):
shout them out, and he the guy started eventually reached
out to me. It's like, how do you know everything
about these people that are riding it? Blah blah blah,
And I just said, I'm just a fan of like
what they do, but hey, I'm definitely a fan of
like how he's a very good graphic designer. The guy
started at just Videographer Graphic Design Acumen and we just
had a zoom call because he's like he was in Florida,
(21:15):
I was in Texas. He just put in comment now educated,
knowledgeable comments, just being myself. I think I was maybe
the first time like whom I could be completely myself
and there's maybe some kind of value linked to that,
and that's kind of what got the ball rolling. I mean,
he I had one zoom call for like close to
two hours, and I was just like, hey, dude, you
have a very good like sense of like what's eye catching,
(21:38):
Like you have like fifteen seconds like catch people's eyes
before they tune out. And he was doing it in
a space of country music, where of course there's like
the standard bearer companies and media like cmts of the world,
like the Boot things like that. But for social media,
for like a lot of younger generation, I don't really
know what's like the place people go to to like
catch up on what's going on in the country world.
(21:59):
And I just told him, I'm like, hey, if you
want to focus on the up and coming artist in
town to establish people, if we could write reviews, you know,
interview artists, maybe I told him, if I could interview
like a songwriter that wrote a big song, and like
regular listeners can be like I could now know who
that person is, having appreciation for the work they do,
then that'd be my That'd be my goal, you know.
(22:22):
And from there, like things did like really get rolling.
That's crazy, and it also shows use. It just put
out stuff that you're passionate about that you note. I
mean the fact that you were just putting up reviews
on us. I imagine a small TikTok or Instagram account. Sure,
I mean no fense. I don't think it's ten million.
I don't have ten million, but I've been saying, right,
(22:42):
that's what I'm saying. And Ryan reaches out and goes, hey,
I appreciate that, and you're like, wait, people see this
stuff like I would have the same I would be
surprised too. That's what I always looked at it. And
then you're writing comments and your comments were so good,
My comments suck. I just getting fights about That's all
my whole um, you know. Adage is like I like
to hopefully use technology for good, not evil. And I
(23:03):
just think with the pandemic, my dad being ill, like
I just was in a place where I was like,
I need to be a good person i'd better be
like we've all gone through a craziness with the pandemic,
and like coming out of that, I don't want to
waste my time being on social media like fighting with people.
I just saw where with music we could come together
with certain songs that were coming out during the time,
just seeing how people were resonating with country music, especially
(23:25):
after the pandemic. It kind of blew up with streaming,
you know, obviously with Morgan Wallen and other artists were
seeing like more success than ever after that, and I
think we kind of were at the right place, right
time to be covering it in like a creative way.
And that's what really got me out to Nashville. Like
I visited I want to say, maybe April Easter twenty
(23:47):
twenty one, and I was like right when, like Nashville
was like reopening a little bit from everything and funny
random story. I remember, like the first place I go
to on Broadway is like Tootsies, Like I've never been
there before, and like I'm wearing my mask and everything,
and I walk up the stairs and there's just like
Batchelork group like walks up to me and they're like,
why are you wearing that? I was like, good to
(24:07):
meet you. You know, cool, I'm in Nashville, first time. Great.
I was like, I don't know, y'all, like, don't want
to rubbing one the wrong way, just being safe. And
this girl's like I'm a nurse and I'm not even
wearing one. I'm just like, this is Nashville, you know
what I mean. But I think I came for first
time fell in love with it. I was like, this
is an environment that inspires me. Caught some riders rounds
(24:28):
while I was in town and with Country Central, we
just had a lot of opportunities to catch a lot
of shows because by the time we were covering artists
or writing reviews, I mean number one songwriters that I
was a fan of. I just literally tag them when
I would write a review, like they'd see it. They'd
reach out to say, hey, I'm really I really appreciate you.
Like spotlighting what we do because it could be a
big single, it could be just a random song that
(24:51):
comes out on a Friday that will never go to radio.
But I was riding like we're writing in depth reviews
about it, spotlighting like the hooks, the production of it,
and like, I don't know even a little more constructive,
maybe feedback to it than just this is good or
this sucks, you know. I mean I always wanted to
give people like this is why to me, it's good.
(25:11):
Here's a certain line I think resonates with a lot
of people. Here's a producer they work with, I think
really highlights what they do really well. And artists for
reaching out because Instagram, right, they see everything all you
gotta do nowadays you tag someone, but they might happen
to look at it, and when I guess when they
look at certain things i'd post. I don't know, man,
I'm not. I know there's two sides social media. But
(25:31):
for me, I truly was just trying to use it
to like be myself and hopefully kind of shout out
people I think are really talented, really special. And I
think because of it, I got connected and was networking
with a lot of people in town. And when we
come to town, you know, we would have opportunities to
interview artists, you know. I think we'd gone out to
one of Morgan shows in when in San Antonio, so
(25:54):
like he was there and I got to interview Hardy
on that tour and for me, like like a huge fan.
But I think when you're kind of like doing like
a job, it's like cool, this guy get to work.
We go we you know, go wrap to his bus,
have the interview. I think after stuff like that started
happening when we came to town and we're like, hey,
we're in town, would love to connect with any artist writers.
(26:15):
And we had a good airbnb, Like you're welcome to
come by the house, we'll set up the camera, we'll
do like an impromptu interview. And the one cool story
I have is like we had met I think Connor
Smith had played um Whiskey jam and Dylan Marlowe was
there him and then his co writers Joe Fox and
Jimmy Bell who wrote Last Night Lonely for John Party,
(26:37):
so like we gotta know them. And I was like, hey,
like I'm in town for a week, have an airbnb
me just BMMI would love to interview y'all's songwriters. Just
have you buy the house, learn your story, learn how
you wrote Last Night Lonely, all that good stuff. So
had Dylan had, Joe, had Jimmy all by the house,
just gott to learn their story, and like I've kind
of I just kind of learned like with the interviews,
(26:57):
you have notes and you have rules, but when you're
having a one on one conversation learning about people's lives,
like you can kind of relax and just let it
happen naturally. And that's what I found myself doing. I'd
have an interviews and I'm like, i'd have like a note,
but then it's just letting them kind of lead the
way and like whatever they bring up, I'd take it
that direction. And I felt very natural doing it. And
(27:18):
with the Last Night Lonely deal, we had interviewed them.
But in the same week, one of my buddies, I
don't know if you're familiar with him. His name is
Grady Smith and he has this like YouTube He makes
like money just doing country you know, country music media
through YouTube and talking about the industry all that good stuff.
And he had had an interview set up with John
Party that week, and he's also thinking about moving to town.
(27:39):
So I was like, I've a couch you can crash,
You're welcome to. So a couple of days later, John
Party rolls up in like you know, to our airbnb.
That's the first time I met him. Super nice guy.
He even though it was like nice and gracious, like
the airbnb owners at their house like nearby, like they're
freaking out, but he sits down and like I'm just
literally filming it. But he's a very interactive guy. So
(28:01):
Grady's interviewing him, but then he's talking to me, asking
me questions, and we kind of asked him about last
night lonely. I'm like, you know, we actually had like
the guys by the house like the other day. He's like,
I've actually never met them before. And it's always funny
obviously to learn, you know now me being and publishing music, publishing,
just knowing where a song can start and how it
gets to the artists, you know, eventually, and how a
(28:22):
lot of times with the schedules y'all have, like you
guys never have time to even hang out in person,
you know what I mean. And I just thought it
was like a really cool wrinkle and like how a
song comes to be and at that time I think
the song was rising obviously would eventually go number one,
but yeah, John's a great guy, and it was just
a very cool experience where I'll just be myself in
town and these random opportunities were coming my way, you
(28:44):
know what. I mean just to interact these people, connect
the dots and yeah, just tell them, Hey, if you
have music coming out, let me know. And that's something
that Country Central we did a good job at as
like putting this big release calendar up where like every
Friday we're telling you every single country release coming out,
so regular listeners would be We're super grateful, I know
who my favorite artsts putting out music. And then for
(29:05):
up and coming artists, they were really appreciative too, because
they're getting spotlighted just as much as like a Morgan
Wallen was through our platform. And that was just I
think that's how I really made my connections with a
lot of the up and coming people that are doing
well today. And then like just same thing I thought,
like Ryan Herds of the World meeting song like John
and even like Thomas Rhet that was probably the most random,
(29:27):
you know connection because like he had reached out out
of the blue because I just was a big fan
of him and I think he had gotten like twenty
number ones recently and I just kind of had it
compiled it my list of top tr songs, and I
think not everything was like a huge hit. It was
maybe some of the deeper cuts he had done, and
I think maybe he saw that he liked those songs too,
and he had reached out to me just out of
the blue. I was like, hey, man, like I would
(29:49):
love to send you some demos, get your opinion on them,
Like what's your number? And I was like, all right,
this is this town. Nashville was like insane. Y'all have
the crazy schedules and I don't know why you have
time to each out to me about anything. But that
was really I think when I was like, I'm in
the craziest time in my life, Like I'm still in
Houston at the whole time, I'm coming out to Nashville
on PTO, you know, like all this amazing stuff happening,
(30:11):
and I just know new throughout it all that I
just keeping yourself. Treat people right, you know. I mean
that you come across. Don't get caught up in social
media nonsense. But just I get caught up. I'm kind
up right now. It's tough, right, It's easier so than done,
but you know, keep it on the craft. If I'm
just like, hey, I love country music. I love the
(30:32):
craft of songwriting, and I want everyone to know as
much as possible about this world, so as fans you
can just appreciate it even more. And like I think
because of that, just all this good kept coming in
my life and I keep coming out to Nashville, and yeah,
eventually got here, Hank Tight the Bobby Cast will be
right back. Welcome back to the Bobby Cast. But how
(30:55):
did the Warner people? I mean it had to be
you met somebody that knew somebody then also saw what
you brought. I mean, networking is it's such a big
part of life, more than I ever knew. Me too,
same more than ever knew because I used to not
care at all. But it's like, can you meet the
right people and then show them that you're going to
(31:17):
have a good attitude and the work ethic and be
able to take coaching right. I've always felt like for
me that was the process. But you gotta get to
the person that gets to make the decisions. So how
did you get to the person? Yeah, it's kind of
another one of those like you know, God things, universe
things where obviously I being town like with certain Warner
(31:38):
you know Chapel the publishing company, like writers like Connor
Smith is like a writer for Warner Chapel, and I
think pretty much just my name was getting around in
that way to where like my current position. Just and
our manager, one of the directors there, had heard my
name just seeing what was going on, just either when
I was in town and what was going on obviously
online just can I and the Dots spotline law of
(32:01):
their artists, and he used reached out to say like, hey, dude,
like I see you in town. I would love just
to meet you. Just he just reached out to They
just called you reach out like you didn't go, Hey,
everybody's Benji, anybody want to hire I don't think I'm
that kind of guy, but I know I have to be. Now,
you gotta be in people's faces in Nashville to get
your music herd. But was literally just like, hey, like,
I see what y'all are doing. Just curious what your
(32:23):
plan is in town? Like what are you even looking
to do? And I think that was the first time
in a long time when I was like, could I
see myself you know, being in music? Is there a pathway?
You know what I mean? And because for a long
time I had to kind of close my mind off
to that, you know, because I know there's a lot
of different routes to get into the music business. But
for me, I'm like, I'm thirty two years old. I'm like,
(32:43):
I got a lot going on at home, Like is
this just gonna be my life? You know? Sometimes it's
easy to get resigned to that fact. And just when
that happened, I'm like, maybe there's an opportunity and all
I have to do is raise my hand and ask,
you know, what's the process, what does it look like?
What do y'all even have available? You know what I mean?
But at that time, I think I just was getting
get to no type of thing. What are you looking
(33:05):
to do? You have the country's central thing, you have
your platform? What are you looking? Um? I don't know
if you know him. His name is a Spencer Noe. Okay, yeah,
great guy. And we just hung out for two hours,
just got to do each other. Still there a lot
of two hour calls with you is it the minimal?
Like you got to zoom two hours? You get one
on one with people when you talk about life. It
just for me, like that's just when you learn you'd
(33:25):
appreciate where people come from, like what it took for
them to get to where they're at today, and I
don't know, just I think I can relate to just
giving like my background, my family, like I definitely appreciate
hustlers and people that grind it out. And yeah, just honestly,
after that, I think we just left his like we
got along, liked him. He's a good person to know.
Nashe no job was talked about. Really did you just
wanted to learn about the job, but they were like,
(33:47):
we want to hire you. Yeah, I just wanted to
learn about his world, what it all took to get
into that. And honestly, I think in those kind of
positions that companies like that, I mean, people don't leave
usually usually in your place, your position for years, and
like Ben, maybe a promotion comes up, maybe something opens up,
but as far as getting in there like that usually
doesn't happen. So I mean I went home, and I
(34:09):
want to say, is maybe before the holidays, just this
past you know, this past year where there was just
some movement, just someone happened for whatever reason, was leaving,
you know, the company. And I got another call just saying, hey,
you know, there's gonna be some changes at the company.
And I thought of you, you know, like I happened
to have met with the team just casually just went
(34:30):
to the office, met them, kind of learned what they
all did, how they got to where they came to be,
and saying they met with the president Ben Vaughan, you
know who I know, well really you know, my name's sake,
you know what I mean, and great guy and just
no real offer. But it was just like, but when
that call came in, I was literally working my regular job,
you know, trying to get a deal, you know, get
contract signed, you know, before Friday or something like that.
(34:52):
And I was just like, hey, like I thought of you,
just there's no promises, but like there's some shift to
change here, and your name came to mind and just
if you're interested, we can start talking about it. And
I was like, okay, you know what I mean. I
really didn't know what to think. And I feel like
at that point of my life, I'm not one to
like be like it's happening absolutely, even if it's something
(35:14):
like I manifest that I've never wanted to say, of course,
because I feel like at this point of life, I
try to live in as much reality as possible. Not
to say I don't dream as much, but when I
don't know, like my dad's stick at home, and it's
like when you have to see that, you're like, let
me appreciate the present and you're not really thinking about
what could the future be like. But when that offer
came in or that opportunity came in, I was like, great,
(35:34):
this is something I definitely think I could do. I
know it could do, especially when I heard like what
it's all about? What is it all about? What do
you tell you? Like? This is what you're gonna do daily? Yeah?
I would ask that, like what do I do every day? Absolutely?
What did you ask him? What do you say? He
just told me you're pretty much gonna be an advocate
for a group of songwriters or artists that write as well,
and you're going to be the person pretty much supporting them,
(35:57):
incentivizing or networking songs throughout out the community to get
them in the right hands hopefully someone that's gonna record
a song it gets on the radio. And when I
just saw a lot of it was number one. You're
gonna be diving into a song catalogue from decades you
know that Warner owns, and even songs like that. You're
going to try to find a home for them if
they've never been recorded before. Then number two, you're networking
(36:19):
with people in town obviously trying to build relationships where
when time the timing is right, there's like something mutually
makes sense for everybody. That's when you know, you get
a song in the hands of a rite artist. And
then finally, you know, just I guess being myself being
like an advocate for songwriters, and I was like, I
know I could do that. I feel like I've been
I think that's all the thing. Like you, we feel
(36:39):
like you've been doing that really just not officially, and
I was like, I agree, and really just want to
know what the rest of the steps of like what
would it take for me to get there? And I
think it was like we can talk about it, you know,
the beginning the new year, will come back. And I
was planning to be in town anyways for that because
I had to actually come to town to interview Chase
(36:59):
right before his record came out. So I was like, Hey,
I'm in town anyways, I'm gonna take another meeting there
and you know, talk to Ben Vaughan about what things
could look like. And Ben Von's like, meet me at
a waffle house in Brentwood. I was like, all right, great,
and I think at that time I was on PTO
from my job. I still brought my bad pack in
my work laptop because I appreciate a meeting. I got
(37:20):
three pm after I was going to meet up with
Ben and I need to, you know, call in, just
be there, be present, and you know, hung out with
Ben a little more, and like we'd met each other
a couple of times, had a couple of conversations, and
you just start going through, these are the people you
could be working with. You're the kind of writers you
might have a chance to work with. And it'd be
a lot of familiar names, people that I already knew,
either personally or i'd always been a fan of. And
(37:43):
he's like, yeah, that's gonna be your job is to
they have a catalogust songs, and you're going to be
the person pretty much evangelizing for them, making sure that
these songs find a home. And I was like, I
don't know, I've never been more excited than just thinking
about what I could be doing in a job. And truly,
I mean I went home still after that trip and
it was more like informer like this could this is
(38:05):
probably real. But for me, it was not real until
I got like an HRM phone call. I was just
like at home in Houston and they're like, hey, like
what's going on, Like how are you doing? And where
are you at as far as like in the job thing,
like are you looking anywhere else in the industry. I
was like, I'd interviewed for another job in like my
current field, but um, non music. And they're like, well,
(38:27):
the software still stands if you want it, and like
a dream. It's literally you were doing kids. We're just
passionate about it, not really pursuing a job because who
even knew that how to get into that job and
you just did it consistently and passionately. And then it
came up and knocked on the door and I've moved
within Let's tell him, Mike. I moved like within like
(38:49):
two to three weeks. I think They're like, could you
start in February? I was like, I also could start
really quickly, but I was like, let me be smart
and give myself a buffer and not just be like overwhelmed,
and um I think I just I started like the
end of February, and I think the last minute my
old job was like on a Friday and I literally
pad two suitcases and flew out that falling Saturday to
(39:10):
Nashville full time. And luckily, since I'd come out here
so many times and I'd use the same Airbnb to
interview artists and stay there. When those owners knew I was,
I had an opportunity out here, They're like, you can
just stay here while you get settled, And it was
one of those ways where I could come here and
be very comfortable, you know what I mean. I wasn't
just like where do I go? Right? I don't know
(39:31):
anybody here. I'd come a time the past two years,
and what it feels like when I moved here, I
didn't know anybody, didn't know anything about town, didn't That's
that is really a comfortable situation. I'm not complaining. I'm
a big fan of it. And I was able to
kind of hit the ground running here in town and
just super grateful. It's just one of those situations that
I'm like, I know, I'm blessed because of it and
the work I get to do to serve people here
(39:52):
in town, like it is super fulfilling. I think that
was something growing up I was always good at, like
serving on behalf of people I cared about out and
sometimes it's kind of hard to serve yourself the same
way sometimes easier to do for others. Is what I
found and kind of the perfect job, you know what
I mean to be Like you serve people every single
day and you find creative ways to you know, get
their name out there, to get their songs heard by
(40:14):
the right people. And um, so far, like four weeks in,
but you know, I'm loving it already. There's something new
to learn every single day. I'm definitely not finished product,
but it's it's definitely, I think, for me, the best
job because I got to be myself. Like, let's take
a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow,
(40:35):
and we're back on the Bobby Cast. You were with
Neon Union before he came over here, just had lunch
with them. Yeah, So what's it like meaning with those guys, Like,
what was the purpose? The purpose is right? So I
had a roster writers, right, I had to had to
represent a Neon Union is one of those you know
as a duo. There my riders and they had just
gotten off like a long slog you know, radio tour,
(40:57):
you know, for a long time and they finally just
got back in town where they could just relax and
also have rights with other writers in town, you know
what I mean, on their calendar. And I was like
I taught to you know, some of the members, you know,
back and forth like on online, on Instagram, texting them,
but I never met them in person. So it's like, hey,
like they're actually in town, let me just meet y'all
(41:17):
to hang out with you. First time you met him
in first time at him in person, you know, first
time skin to skin contact, We shook hands contact. That's
what I'm saying. It's important. And which, how do you
feel about those guys? Oh? I mean they're great. They
they're very very you know, down home guys. Incredibly talented though,
like just their backgrounds it's amazing, Like Leo oft on Union,
(41:39):
like his bright background, like working for with pit Bull,
writing songs with him, and they're bringing a ton to
Nashville where you know, it's not like they're just waking
up and say I just want to write a song.
It's like they're coming with a lot of knowledge of,
you know, what they want to do and have like
a very good ear for what a big song should
sound like. And I'm just really excited to get them
(42:00):
into rooms with a lot of different kinds of people,
and they're just excited to get to work. Man. I
mean just talking to them, like they're very very motivated
by you know, being on the road doing the radio tour,
meeting a lot of people, you know, around the country,
making those connections. And I'm like, that's kind of what
I'm doing here, you know, just coming into town, meeting
as many people as possible and just learn everyone's story.
(42:20):
And then I'm saying, well, where's the alignment where we
could work together that makes sense for the benefit of
our riders and artists, you know what I mean. And
that's why I got from them. Just people ready to
do whatever. They're ready to write with any kind of person. One.
It does a lot of camps, you know, a lot
of like riding camps with like we just had like
an Asia Pacific one. They did a Latin America one,
(42:40):
and like I have a friend who did a Latin
America one, and he's like, I'd never writen Latin music
in my life, and they and you make it happen,
you figure it out, and it's really cool, like kind
of see that, you know, walking in the office every
day and they're like, oh, we'd love to do that
type of collaborations. Like it's cool you know where you
have riders and a lot of people I work with,
they're just like, we just want dive in. We're open,
(43:01):
more open than I ever thought people would be. Like
you may know a writer and artist just outside looking
in you sit down with them and they're like, we
just want to be as creative as possible. And that's
probably the best part about this town is everyone just
wants to be creative. And I think, honestly, that's like
twenty twenty one and going on. I'm like I always
would joke, like on Instagram or social media, I'd be like,
(43:22):
this is the best time to be a fan and
a creative in my mind, like there's still like a
framework you work out of, but there's really not a
lot of rules for a listener. At the end of
the day, they only know what they know. And I
think after like you know, the pandemic and streaming blew
up for country music, it's like fans are down to
listen to anything and everything and whatever's classifized country. There's
(43:43):
so many different lanes that in my mind everything can
co exist in and now I get to kind of
work with every kind of writer, every kind of artist,
and that's just so fulfilling for me as like a
music fan, you know at heart, when you get a
publishing deal, are you paid a salary? And can you
make more than that salary? Every single deal is different.
I think that's a lot to talk to Ben Advits like,
(44:03):
every single deal is different depending on the writer you're
signing or the artists you're signing. I mean, I'm sure
there's a lot of standard deals where you are making
a salary of sorts. But of course, as you probably know,
with radio, I mean, if a song does very well
on radio, it goes number one, or if it's even
like top five, I mean there's definitely incentives. There's ways
that people can make more money, you know, with royalties,
(44:25):
so based on how well that their songs are recorded
due and I know it's streaming, there are ways to
make money. But with songwriting, it's it's definitely tough, just
as it is today and it's getting better. But yes,
every situation is different because every person that's coming to
the table for a songwriting or a publishing deal, I
mean they may be coming in with, you know, different
(44:47):
chips to the table. Some people may be brand new
to town. Some people may be a very known quantity.
So every deal is different. So I got a couple
of friends when they moved here, they made like forty
grand a year that was recupable if they made over
it they reached that limit, and then they made money
if their songs. They made a percentage of the money
once their songs started to make money. Is that common
(45:07):
at all now? Is that still common ish? For sure?
It doesn't mean that, not that amount of money, But
it's like I gotta eat, So can I make forty
five thousand dollars a year plus whatever I can make
if the song does well. Absolutely, And obviously you can
get technacal with it, right because I mean some people
own right the masters, and not everybody's going to have
that type of situation when they get into, you know,
(45:30):
into the music business. But I think there are a
lot of different ways people can make money through songwriting,
and I'm as advocates for it. We're always trying to
find more avenues for are people to make as much
money as possible, So like that's kind of the goal,
and I'm grateful just to see that with technology things
are opening up. I mean, more people are fighting for that,
(45:51):
and yeah, I think we're getting closer to a day
where you can just be a songwriter for a living,
and even I think I think maybe the good thing
about a thirty six song alb from Morgan Wallan is
you can have a song be just an album song,
but go insane on streaming to the point where you're
going to get close enough for people can actually makes
some good money off of that. So when people complain
it's too many songs, I say no, just because there's
(46:15):
so many outside songs I think that were cut off
of that record that would never seen the light of
day otherwise. And I don't know, it's kind of people
are worked their whole you know, life, every single day
of the year to write just the best song. And
Morgan wall had options to choose like the best songs
from these groups of songwriters, and you got to pull
all of those on his record. And for me, it's
(46:35):
a big win for Nashville, you know, because it's so
many different kinds of publishers were involved in it. And yeah,
it's just you don't see it all the time anymore.
So it's really cool by you know, him his team
to be like, we're just gonna pick the best songs.
And John Party does a great job about that too,
just picking the best song. And yeah, Chesney's another guy
who picks and you know you may not work with
him directly, but you know he's a guy that just
(46:56):
goes through and he's like, I don't need to write
the songs there there are people who are great songwriting.
I'm just gonna grab the best songs. Absolutely cold as
that too. As a great songwriter, he will go and
still say, yeah, I'm a good songwriter, but sometimes the
song has written better than what I have. He will
open lego, I'm looking for good songs. And I admire that,
especially for the people that are great songwriters that still
(47:19):
go I maybe good or even great, but doesn't mean
great all the time. And I have every great song.
So I think that's pretty cool. Dan Smyers we mentioned
him earlier, you know Dan at all I do because
I got the you know, I had the pleasure of
interviewing him, and I guess my joke with that was
like I think it was during like the football seasons,
like he was like we interview people on Sunday as
(47:39):
a country central and I mean, I know he's a
huge Steelers fan, so he took like the whole game
off to like interview with us. And yeah, he's also
like you said, he's very like in tune. He's the
guy kind of he produces you said, atrol freak grong,
but yeah, go ahead. He's very particular about how his
product is. And I don't know he's somebody were he
just he dived into everything and and I think the
(48:01):
cool thing for me just interviewed him is that I
was a huge fan of just like what he did
before he even got with and Dan Shay became what
they are, and I believe it was him and Andy Albert,
and I remember following them because I listened to rock stuff.
I wasn't like the rock band he was in before
he moved to Nashville. And then when him and Andy
got together a group called Bonaventure, and I just remember
seeing like, this is a guy knew that tour the
(48:23):
bands I loved as a kid, and he's in Nashville.
And when Dan and Shaye really blew up, I was like,
I'm just happy that someone that I've followed for so
many years is like seeing a ton of success and
then for literally almost like ten years later for me
to like interview him peel talked to him on the
phone about whatever. It's just like this guy's like a
student of the craft, like just loves music more than anybody,
(48:43):
and just to learn really just how Dan Shay came
to be the grind that he took to get to
where he's today, and then his process of around recording music,
writing music, and how he stayed creative working with other artists.
It's just like it was the most inspiring thing, you know,
talking to him, and then even before about this job,
Like I think I texted him and I think like
talking about, hey, this is an opportunity, it could happen,
(49:06):
And I remember telling like, yeah, you know, obviously I
knew I could do it and I want it, but
like you know, I didn't grow up. You know, I
think I was going to do this. I didn't go
to school for this. And he stopped me. He's like, dude,
like stop thinking that way. You know what I mean,
Like if you care enough, if you're you obviously have
passion for it and something that you love, and if
you keep that as you're focused. I mean, you're going
to be successful at it. And I don't know. I mean,
(49:26):
he not have to tell me that, you know what
I mean, plus exactly, And I was just like one
of the best people that I've met this town. And
I don't know. Man again, the like I said, with
my life, it's like it's just funny when you at
least expected just the craziest opportunities blessings come your way,
and just me being here, like you said, it's a
dream for me. It's something I never thought would have
been possible. Last question for you. So I recorded a
(49:50):
song called Hobby Lobby. Bobby probably heard its mathif head
all over the world, right, And I think I made
like so far like fifty one thousand dollars from this
one song, right, which feel pretty good about because I
never it's not a song that we wanted to come out.
I mean it's nineteen sixty four or something like that.
It's been like five years, four or five years, but
we I never we put out and I put out
(50:11):
my stuff as just basically promo material. Sure, right, no
one's gonna srain this stuff over and over. It's a
live comedy record, and we do this. But it's done
pretty well. Now I will sell it to you guys
for one million dollars? Would you would you like to
have it? Yes? Or no? Well one the song or
your catalog. I'm not on the catalog. That's worth far,
that's worth one hundred million. I'd have to go for
Aldine on you guys one hobby lobby bab be one
(50:33):
million dollars. Way say take or leave it? I was, oh,
is it featuring? Is this one you did with like
when Jordan Davison Laney were on. Oh no, that's a
recent one. That one's called Opening Act. I feel like
we have more lanes with two million dollars for that one,
for both together. No, just for that second one. Yeah,
I gotta feel I need to talk to I need
to talk to our CFO. You know he's he's the numbers.
(50:56):
Got to shoot your shot. It'd be close, you know,
very I know you guys working on thin margins here,
but you know, you never know what's gonna happen. No,
you're right about the songwriter issue too, and have friends
that have testified on the hill and it is something
that it's such a craft and an art and if
it did not exist there will be a lot of
art that we don't appreciate as much because we have it.
(51:19):
But something has to be done, you know. And I've
also well I was gonna say under the covers that
ain't the right term, but behind the scenes talked to
some lawmakers as well, you know, a couple of senators,
a couple former senators, and radio streaming. It is such
an ill appreciated art and I don't do it near
(51:43):
the level of what the great songwriters in town do here. Listen,
I just write stupid comedy stuff. But even then like
it at least gives me the respect. Although I will
say Ben was the head of a deal that we
did me, Nicole Galleon and Ross Copperman. We did a
group called nie On People Secretly and Ben was the
guy and he was the one like making sure I'll
(52:04):
write in the word secret and he put all fake
names on us. He's great and so yeah, he's been great.
But it is when you bring up songwriting, how songwriters
aren't paid enough through streaming. I think you can pay
more to be a background singer than you do a
songwriter for the most part on these tracks. And it
is but the fact that that's even close to be
(52:24):
in the case, it's it's a it's a disservice to
songwriters all over Nashville and LA in New York or
wherever they're writing the song. So that's why for me,
like even just before I even came here to Nashville, wife,
for me, I'm like, it takes zero for me to
know a huge songs coming out and just let regular
listeners know who wrote it. I would literally just tag
their Instagram hand on every review we did. Anytime I
(52:46):
just said this song is amazing, I'd say this who
wrote it? And it takes a second to do it,
but it builds awareness, it builds appreciation, and then if
that leads to people streaming more of like what those
writers write, or if they ever put out music of
their own and people now recognize their name and they're
a fan, then we're helping them out. And I think
right now it's a very cool time to be in
(53:06):
the world music and publishing especially, and there's so many
different opportunities to get songs heard. So I know it's
getting better, it's gonna continue to get better, and I
know this is a this is my job, So I'm
very crazy, isn't it crazy. I'm grateful. I feel that
way too sometimes, like this is my freaking job, and
like it's not like every well, it'll be hard days, obviously,
it's just every go and the jobs suck sometimes, but
(53:26):
every job is supposed to suck a little bit, so
it's it's amazing. So congratulations. I get to listen to
a song and decide how that makes me feel, and
it makes you feel really great. I'll tell a couple
of other people and hopefully we can build some momentum
to get some great songs heard and elte and then
no one ever hears a song again. I will never
haven't done, haven't done an ee, haven't done it yet
(53:47):
listening congratulations, I appreciate them. That's awesome. It's your story
is amazing. Just you were just doing your thing. That's it,
Just do your thing passionately. I thought that's how it's
supposed to go. But I guess for me, I can
never visualize it for myself until it happened, and um
now I'm here. It's it's a wildlife around here. As
we mentioned in the Prix at the Beni Chord c
(54:09):
H O R D the Bengie Chord, it feels like
one of those barcards. I can't quite play because my
fingers are weak. Because I can do G and D
and A and eat, but and I can do F.
But then once against some of the the Benjie chords hard.
You know, when I played the bee and asked me
if it was a play on words with Bungee chords,
someone like messaged me that. I was like, no, I
literally play. I like guitar, and I don't know. That
(54:29):
happens every now and then I get that message. Is
that not your real name? Yeah, say your real name?
My name is Benji or Benjamin Chord Chord. That's not
your real name though. That was not a last name,
this one. I've heard the chord I've heard. I don't
think Chord's a last name. Oh, I know, I know
some chords, some chords. Yeah, but when I came, I
always thought, your last name is Benji Chord. That is
(54:50):
not my last name. That is an alias. Okay, well listen,
I'll live by an alias, so no judgment for me. Mike,
did you know that wasn't his real last name? Yeah?
I never knew that wasn't a yeah, but sometimes people
like go bones. Is that you were last name, and
I'm like, you idiot, of course it's not my real
last name. That did happen though. I went to the
Opry recently to catch one of my art one of
my favorite artists, Play is a debut, and like they'd
(55:12):
put my name as bencoord so I could not get
in like I would have been like, oh, I got
turned here, I got turned away. When I'm like, what's
your first last name? I say, and they're like you're
not on the list, Like they're like turning me away.
Then like I gotta call him right, No, no, we
got you. That's happened. With tickets, they'll put them to
Bobby Bones and I'm lit with I d okay. Well
here's the thing though, man, before you before you say no,
it's it's actually listen. Congratulations. I appreciate man, Thank you
(55:34):
for having me on. Really cool. And I know we
hit you up because Mike and I've been talking about
you for a while and he's like, let's hit him up.
It see if we'll come up. And so it's been awesome. Mike.
Anything you want to say, how is your quest for
the perfect gym going? It is? And your arms are here?
I do it took me everything not to even make
a curl joke or a go ahead I did. I'm
doing Planet Fitness on the weekdays early because you can't.
(55:56):
When you go like after work, people gonna be like
swinging from the equipment, you know, like like it's a
drum or whatever. But I on the weekends is when
I go the random gyms in town then, like the
nice ones that people recommend to me and like they'll
give me a trial to try it out. And I've
gone to three of them so far, and I think
for me, it's like the place I'm out right now
is like the AIRBNBM staying at and it's like maybe
(56:17):
fifteen minutes away from town. But until I'm like this
is where I'm gonna be permanently be invested. But there's
some really nice ones. So if y'all know any and
have any, like you know, recommendations for me, I'm always
open ears for the perfect gym. And no, I don't
feel like I'm qualified to look at your arms and
your shoulders. I'm a simple I'm a simple guy when
it comes to the gym. I don't need too much. Yeah,
(56:39):
that's give me a boulder. I'll figure it out. You
know a you guys follow at the Beni Chord on Instagram.
Bench you good to see a buddy. I Love this
episode of the Bobby Cast. Subscribe on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Host
Bobby Bones
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.