August 12, 2025 • 27 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you a songwriter?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Are you looking to turn your songwriting passion into a
full time gigg Whether you are just at the start
of your songwriting journey or a seasoned industry professional, this
show is made for you. You we would welcome to the
Songwriter Show, bringing together songwriting news, interviews and community. Now
welcome your houset Sronto tonight.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I'm so excited to have on the show. Rob Wheeler.
Raised by a loving single mom in a small Northwest
town in the UK, Rob discovered music was a way
of escaping the bullies and troubles that came with being
the poor kid in a console house, playing Hank Cash,
Eagles and Beatles on his cheap guitar in the outhouse roof,
overlooking the asbestos garages and uniform blue doors of his neighborhood,
(00:48):
romanticizing life on the road like his heroes.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
And now welcome this week's special guest guests.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Welcome to show, Rob, how are you man?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
It's great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You're welcome, I mean, and you're via the ASBOs garages.
I love it, man, I come from Greece and there's
those best thous everywhere there too. But hopefully you seem
like you're doing okay. I don't think you have any
lung problems, right.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I hope not, hope not. Yeah, we'll wait to see,
I guess. But yeah, back then, you know, that's what
they did in the northwest of the UK, Like they
built these council estates, all these little, tiny, uniformed houses.
It was affordable living for poor people like us, you know.
And I'm not ashamed to come from that background. It
kind of shaped you know, who I am, specifically, I
(01:37):
guess as a songwriter too, and you know it was
it was kind of a fun place to grow up.
But yeah, you knew you were on the wrong side
of the tracks, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
All right, So when did you start GM and on
their guitariers.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
I come from a musical family, so I was around
songwriting from quite a young age. But my first guitar
was a two string because everything else had snapped on it.
And I robbed this guitar from my uncle and I
was like playing things like Paranoid by Black Sabbath on
this two string guitar. And then I started to branch
out to Hendrix and I realized I'm going to need
(02:10):
more strings. So I reckon I was. I was about sixteen.
I was quite late starting guitar, but I knew I
was going to need more strings because I wanted to
write my own songs, and that was the buzz for me.
It was. It wasn't necessarily being the next Jimi Hendrix
or Joe Walsh. I wanted to be able to write
the songs too and sing them. And I guess I figured,
(02:32):
you know, at that age, i'd be able to get
more girls and stuff like that as well. So I
wanted to be the cool guy, you know, singing the
ballads and so that was me. And then but yeah,
I talk to it really quickly. You know. I was
quite fortunate. Again, I think just being around a musical family.
I just really took to it. And as soon as
I got those three chords down, you know, the G,
(02:54):
the C, the D, I was away. I remember when
I discovered EMI and the fourth chord came in, I
was like, yes, I'm the next Paul McCartney. Here we go.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
That's awesome. Man. I've never heard of anyone playing music
to get chicks or to get members of the opposite sex.
This is a first for me. I just didn't even
know that.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Was a sure show show all.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Right, So tell us about your songwriting process. How does
that work for you.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I think with songwriting as certainly as I've been writing
for my own releases, which only started doing around about
twenty fifteen, I suddenly became a lot more introspective. So
I think in the past when I was writing songs,
because I had a publishing deal originally, and the plan
was to write songs for other people, and I was
signed to Books Music, which is an independent publishers out
(03:42):
of the UK. You know, they're very respective. They've got
a great catalog including Bowie, Rolling Stones, Elton John so
they've got some great stuff. So I was just writing
to spec a lot of the time, and then when
I had this sort of epiphany that I was going
to start to write for myself, suddenly changed and the
freedom of songwriting kind of left me for a little bit,
(04:04):
and I came into this sort of state of overthinking everything,
and I wanted every word to count, every lyric to matter.
I didn't want to just play the same chords. But
then I realized all my favorite songwriters, all my favorite bands,
particularly like the Beatles and Hank Williams, they never put
those parameters on themselves. What they did was they were
(04:26):
very free with what they did. And I think as
soon as I'd sort of realized that and allowed myself
to express these introspective thoughts, but with the freedom of
just writing anything I wanted, that was how I found
my sort of songwriting, you know, common ground, that was.
That was the way that I took off and I've
(04:46):
kind of kept that with me ever since. So when
I approached the song, I try and come at it
with the sort of freedom of like anything could happen.
I saw a great quote from Edgeering the other day, actually,
and he said, feel free to suck when you go
in the student Like, it's okay to make the worst
song that day, but just do it anyway, because you
might write the best song, but don't beat yourself up
(05:07):
if it doesn't work out. You know, it's okay to
write a bad song.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, not for sure.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
And by having that freedom, you know, And I think
that's that's how I do it now, as I just
I'll get a little spark of an idea and then
I just allow it to be and sometimes it grows,
sometimes it stays, and occasionally it fades away. But I
just allow that freedom to flow.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
It's good advice. Do you have any advice that you
would give to someone else pursuing this business.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
The business or the joy of songwriting, because I think
they would be two different pieces of advice. Yeah. So
I think, like if for someone who just wants to
write songs and pursue it as this beautiful, wonderful art
that songwriting is this expression, just go for it. Be truthful,
you know, be authentic, sing about things that you see,
(05:57):
that you experience, and that you live, your loves, your losses,
your passions, because you'll always write your best songs when
you're being honest. I think in terms of the music business,
I think it's a really tough time right now. I
think it's one of the hardest times ever to try
and enter the music business. So I think if you're
going to do it, you've got to do it for
the right reasons. If you know you're not going to
(06:18):
have a mansion and a helicopter in a couple of
weeks time by releasing your songs on Spotify unless you're
extremely lucky, and it's not even about talent anymore. And
I think that's one of the toughest things, because I
think you can be really good and get nowhere and
so yeah, I think my advice to anyone starting out
in the business would be too If this is not
(06:39):
your passion, if it is not your true heart and soul,
you're not going to enjoy it because the knockbacks are
more than they've ever been. So the only thing that's
going to get you through is the love for what
you do. So make sure you truly do love it,
or maybe think about doing something else.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, not for sure. What would you say is a
typical mistake that most people have made that you didn't.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Wow, that is a brilliant question. I've never been asked
that question before giving up too soon. I think it
almost leads back into what I was saying before. I
think what a lot of people do is I think
they hope and pray that getting into this business is
going to lead to this amazing success and it's going
(07:22):
to come quite quickly. You know. You get your band together,
you get a few songs, you go out on the road,
you play some shows, you start getting some good feedback,
and then you can you hit the bump in the road,
or band member leaves, or you get stuck on a
song and you fall out, or you fall out over
money or you know, me being a solo artist, you
(07:43):
know you've got no one to lean on. You know,
you've got no one to share the journey with the
highs and the lows, and it can be quite isolating
and lonely. So there comes a point where you hit
like well, like running a marathon, you hit the wall,
and then can you keep going? Can you punch through
the wall? And I did. I punched through the wall.
I carried on going through the hard times, and I
(08:03):
didn't quit. I didn't give up when it was tough.
And I think that's the thing. So, you know, I
think it's it's easy to it's easy to start. It's
easy to sort of like take your foot off the
gas because it's so hard to get up the hill sometimes.
But if you I was powered through, and I think
that's that that is the perhaps the bit between my
(08:24):
teeth to keep going. And to quote someone else actually
as an artist from New York called Nel Brydon, and
I toured with it, and she said the only way
to be successful in this business is to stay in it,
stay in the game. And yeah, and that's and that's
what I did. I just kept going when and perhaps
a few other people along the way it would have
(08:44):
decided to throw in the towel.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, okay, tell us about the song we're going to
hear in a minute. What it inspired this one?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
So Throw a Little Light My Way was the first
song that I wrote for this album, and it was
the only song that I wrote before I left to
go to Nashville and ended up being out there for
the duration of the writing and recording. And I wanted
to write a song. And you know what, and you'll
understand this, you know, like sometimes a song just falls
(09:11):
out of heaven and just comes to you like you
don't it's just falling out of it. This was one
of those songs that's.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
A cool feeling, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I wish you could bottle it because you know, in
there's days when nothing comes you can get out of
the cupboard and have a shot of you know, whatever
that is. You know, if they made that into a bourbon,
you can have a shot of that and you be like, yeah, okay,
here we go, we can do it again. But yeah,
throw a Little Light my Way was just one of
those flash moments. It just came and I wanted to
(09:40):
use the idea of sort of like we've all been
through those times when we're feeling very alone, afraid, isolated,
and I think we all do. Most people do have
someone usually they can call on, and perhaps they're too
afraid to or they don't want to share the problem,
or the problem is so complicated or hard to talk about,
(10:02):
they don't they don't feel like they can. And this
song is like trying to put that feeling into like
to contextualize that feeling of having to need to borrow
somebody's light because you're in so much shadow and so
much darkness that you just you're almost saying, please, can
you just I don't even necessarily to talk about my problem,
(10:23):
but can you just base your light on me? Because
I know that your light will give me enough then
to get through the next bit of what I'm going through. Yeah,
it just flowed, and I was I'm so proud of
the lyrics in this song. I think they just they
sum up that feeling really well. And I feel a
(10:45):
little bit cringe saying that, because obviously I'm talking about
I'm reviewing here my own, my own music, and of
course you know, of course I love it, but I
just think it's one of those rare moments where I've
written a song that I really feel when people hear it,
they will instantly connect with it. And I'm so proud
of that and the people that have heard it when
I've done it live. You know, we released like a
(11:06):
little acoustic version so people could get a feel for it,
and the response has been phenomenal for this song.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Awesome, tell you what. Let's take a listen. We'll come
back and tak okay, okay, great, okay, awesome. Check this out, everybody.
Here we go.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
When the clouds are were and heavy and then bounce
versed with rain, when the colors in my rainbow have
to hide the face and shine when I need a
rare your sunshine and the comforts of your face. Come on, darling,
(11:58):
fulling light my way.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
How the sky can seem so sullen? Wind the blue
becomes the gray.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Like the fair and there who rise as the thunder
rolls away, kim me company in darkness, be the fortress
that I crave. Come on, don full your lights my way.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
You keep the sun rise in your smile, you shoot
the stares out of your Okay, you're holding heavy and
the fun, Come on, don come in light my way,
(13:10):
when the northern blows me over and a winter's here
to stay here. That's the last one, making an ambles
on my fire with Ben Doway.
Speaker 7 (13:26):
Bring me warmthing, give me shelters, just a shadow from
my day, Come on full light my way, Come on,
don fol light my way.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So thank you so much for sharing that song with us.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Thank you for playing it and listening to you all
enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah, awesome. So tell us what the next couple of
years have in store for you. Anything you want to
share at the fans tonight.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Yeah. So it's going to be an interesting end of
the year because the album's already out and I don't
know if this is like if I can reveal this,
but it's just the way that it works in the
industry that we are recording this a few days before
the release. Is that okay? I say that?
Speaker 8 (14:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
So, like as we are now, we're having this lovely conversation.
I'm in my vacation home to use your American vernacular,
and I don't know what's going to happen with this
album because we're four days away from it being released.
So I'm hoping that by the time this goes out,
which you know, I believe is later on this year
in the summer, it will have been successful and then
(14:44):
we'll go from there. But what I do know is
that we've got a talk coming up which is going
to be fantastic. It's a UK tour, It's a UK
headline tour with my band, and then following on from that,
I'm going to be taking a little bit of time
off because I've actually got to have a couple of operations.
Nothing major. I've been diagnose with a condition which means
that my jaw and my neck and shoulders are in
(15:05):
a lot of pain all the time. So I've got
to have this little operation and it's going to be
interesting because it's going to be a little bit of
downtime for me to reflect on the album and its successes,
you know, and it's high points and it's low points,
and then I think what's going to happen is then,
because I need this time off, I'm going to come
back in twenty twenty six sort of refreshed, if you like,
(15:27):
and hopefully feeling fitter and healthier than I've been in
a long time. And then I want to go back
in to record what I always had in mind, which
was the sequel to the Leave Tomorrow album, which was
a sort of working title as Hometown. And the idea
is it's like the Cambellian archetype of the hero's journey,
that you go and go and experience the journey and
(15:49):
then you come home again. And the first album, Leave Tomorrow,
is the journey out. It's the exciting, you know, trip
to Nashville, go and see the world, try and escape
and discover new things. And of course then what you
have to do after the journey, after the adventure, is
come back again. And that's going to be the follow
up album. So but we'll see how that goes, you know,
how these things change. We'll have to see if the
(16:11):
songs come as easy as they did for the Leave
Tomorrow album. But that's my plan.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
That's awesome, man. So when you look at the music
industry as a whole, one of the questions I love
to ask people is about scams. Tell us about something
you might have fallen for.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
You know, I've actually been quite lucky that I've not
really had many bad experiences. I've always been very protected
by the team around me. But I did have a
particularly bad experience with somebody who worked in PR and
she offered to come on board, and her big selling
(16:51):
point was I'm going to get your name out there
into the tabloid's, into the media. And she set her
feet and we discussed it, and I paid the fee
and she went off and she sent me back the
headlines that were going to be used for this press release.
And it was the most basic, debased gutter journalism. Oh
(17:12):
that's terribly yeah, talking about things like my Jim slip
mother and things like that, because she was a young
mum and poor boy and you know, all this like
really gutter journalism. And I know, like journalism can be
bad everywhere, but in the UK we have this really
like horrible gutter press side to you know, media, and
(17:36):
it was really really was like stuff like, you know,
nothing to do with music. And I was absolutely devastated
because I didn't want this going out. So then obviously
what happened then was she said, well, well, if you
don't want it, then you don't have it, and that's
that and she kept the money and that was the
end of that. So the scam, I guess, was really
a case of like trying to play into the idea
(17:57):
of me being successful by getting my name out, because
it's something that obviously you have to do as an artist,
and I think most of us artists don't really enjoy
that side of it. In truth, what we what we
enjoy is the creative side of things, don't we We
don't want to do all the press and the journalism,
so we want someone else to do it for us.
And I what I hoped for was to sort of,
(18:19):
you know, get some nice little pieces about my songwriting journey,
like this lovely conversation about being with you now. And instead, yeah,
we were aiming for, you know, the sort of magazine
rack of you know, the tube stations, Live and Learn right, absolutely,
(18:39):
and you know what, and I will say this, I'm
very blessed with the team that I've got around me now.
They look after me so much and I'm grateful to
them every day. I've got a great team.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
So all right, tell you what? Tell us where people
can find your stuff by stream it? Where can they
find you online?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
So I'm literally on everything from Spotify, it UNEs, Deezer,
Apple Music title, I think I'm even on like right
Move and all you know, I'm on everything. So if
you type Rob Wheeler into Google, you will find me.
And if you type me into your DSP wherever you
listen to music, you'll find me. And what I really
(19:16):
would love to do I'm hoping is come to the
States and do some shows in twenty twenty six as well.
So if you go onto my website, Rob Wheelersongs dot com,
you can follow all my socials on there and hopefully
I'll be playing a show near you soon. And yeah,
check out the album if you haven't already.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Well, I want to thank you so much for being
on the show tonight.
Speaker 9 (19:35):
Man.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
It was a lot of fun. I think your story
will resonate well.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Thank you for speaking to me, and it's an honor
to be on such a great show with such I
listened to a few of the interviews you've done, and
you've got some amazing guests on, so I'm honored to
be one of them. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Ah, You're welcome, man. Thank you to the fans tonight
for joining us. Please join us every single Tuesday evening
and Reality Radio one to one point nine to hear
all these awesome artists. And we hope your unique story
gets heard around the world too. Let's keep creating, connecting,
and letting all of our stories be heard. Until then,
keep writing and I'll see you next Tuesday evening on
The Songwriter Show. Have a great night everyone. I love
(20:13):
you guys.
Speaker 10 (20:31):
A ran away to the city that onesday. There I
found so much trouble inly drive.
Speaker 11 (20:46):
The boat taste was a thrill. Each don't brush in
its numberal freedom and.
Speaker 9 (21:05):
The rains, the smell of wonder and.
Speaker 12 (21:13):
Fast grass and thunder, the mirac sad tired, I saw
Settle club.
Speaker 9 (21:44):
And cot.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Care.
Speaker 10 (22:04):
I was trapped as scared. I couldn't stop me, forgot
everything you taught me.
Speaker 8 (22:19):
Right bleaches lash dot so I lit my listenate, but
Noma make make my great.
Speaker 9 (22:30):
Scared the journey tren you a cold many comyn.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I thank you for listening to The Songwriter Show. To
(24:19):
keep the momentum.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Going, head over to www Dot songwriter Show dot com
and join our free music community of artists, songwriters, and producers.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
That's www. Dot songwriter Show dot com.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Many many, many, and.
Speaker 9 (25:48):
A long hanging all. Hang hang hang hang
Are you a songwriter?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Are you looking to turn your songwriting passion into a
full time gigg Whether you are just at the start
of your songwriting journey or a seasoned industry professional, this
show is made for you. You we would welcome to the
Songwriter Show, bringing together songwriting news, interviews and community. Now
welcome your houset Sronto tonight.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I'm so excited to have on the show. Rob Wheeler.
Raised by a loving single mom in a small Northwest
town in the UK, Rob discovered music was a way
of escaping the bullies and troubles that came with being
the poor kid in a console house, playing Hank Cash,
Eagles and Beatles on his cheap guitar in the outhouse roof,
overlooking the asbestos garages and uniform blue doors of his neighborhood,
(00:48):
romanticizing life on the road like his heroes.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
And now welcome this week's special guest guests.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Welcome to show, Rob, how are you man?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
It's great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You're welcome, I mean, and you're via the ASBOs garages.
I love it, man, I come from Greece and there's
those best thous everywhere there too. But hopefully you seem
like you're doing okay. I don't think you have any
lung problems, right.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I hope not, hope not. Yeah, we'll wait to see,
I guess. But yeah, back then, you know, that's what
they did in the northwest of the UK, Like they
built these council estates, all these little, tiny, uniformed houses.
It was affordable living for poor people like us, you know.
And I'm not ashamed to come from that background. It
kind of shaped you know, who I am, specifically, I
(01:37):
guess as a songwriter too, and you know it was
it was kind of a fun place to grow up.
But yeah, you knew you were on the wrong side
of the tracks, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
All right, So when did you start GM and on
their guitariers.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
I come from a musical family, so I was around
songwriting from quite a young age. But my first guitar
was a two string because everything else had snapped on it.
And I robbed this guitar from my uncle and I
was like playing things like Paranoid by Black Sabbath on
this two string guitar. And then I started to branch
out to Hendrix and I realized I'm going to need
(02:10):
more strings. So I reckon I was. I was about sixteen.
I was quite late starting guitar, but I knew I
was going to need more strings because I wanted to
write my own songs, and that was the buzz for me.
It was. It wasn't necessarily being the next Jimi Hendrix
or Joe Walsh. I wanted to be able to write
the songs too and sing them. And I guess I figured,
(02:32):
you know, at that age, i'd be able to get
more girls and stuff like that as well. So I
wanted to be the cool guy, you know, singing the
ballads and so that was me. And then but yeah,
I talk to it really quickly. You know. I was
quite fortunate. Again, I think just being around a musical family.
I just really took to it. And as soon as
I got those three chords down, you know, the G,
(02:54):
the C, the D, I was away. I remember when
I discovered EMI and the fourth chord came in, I
was like, yes, I'm the next Paul McCartney. Here we go.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
That's awesome. Man. I've never heard of anyone playing music
to get chicks or to get members of the opposite sex.
This is a first for me. I just didn't even
know that.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Was a sure show show all.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Right, So tell us about your songwriting process. How does
that work for you.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I think with songwriting as certainly as I've been writing
for my own releases, which only started doing around about
twenty fifteen, I suddenly became a lot more introspective. So
I think in the past when I was writing songs,
because I had a publishing deal originally, and the plan
was to write songs for other people, and I was
signed to Books Music, which is an independent publishers out
(03:42):
of the UK. You know, they're very respective. They've got
a great catalog including Bowie, Rolling Stones, Elton John so
they've got some great stuff. So I was just writing
to spec a lot of the time, and then when
I had this sort of epiphany that I was going
to start to write for myself, suddenly changed and the
freedom of songwriting kind of left me for a little bit,
(04:04):
and I came into this sort of state of overthinking everything,
and I wanted every word to count, every lyric to matter.
I didn't want to just play the same chords. But
then I realized all my favorite songwriters, all my favorite bands,
particularly like the Beatles and Hank Williams, they never put
those parameters on themselves. What they did was they were
(04:26):
very free with what they did. And I think as
soon as I'd sort of realized that and allowed myself
to express these introspective thoughts, but with the freedom of
just writing anything I wanted, that was how I found
my sort of songwriting, you know, common ground, that was.
That was the way that I took off and I've
(04:46):
kind of kept that with me ever since. So when
I approached the song, I try and come at it
with the sort of freedom of like anything could happen.
I saw a great quote from Edgeering the other day, actually,
and he said, feel free to suck when you go
in the student Like, it's okay to make the worst
song that day, but just do it anyway, because you
might write the best song, but don't beat yourself up
(05:07):
if it doesn't work out. You know, it's okay to
write a bad song.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, not for sure.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
And by having that freedom, you know, And I think
that's that's how I do it now, as I just
I'll get a little spark of an idea and then
I just allow it to be and sometimes it grows,
sometimes it stays, and occasionally it fades away. But I
just allow that freedom to flow.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
It's good advice. Do you have any advice that you
would give to someone else pursuing this business.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
The business or the joy of songwriting, because I think
they would be two different pieces of advice. Yeah. So
I think, like if for someone who just wants to
write songs and pursue it as this beautiful, wonderful art
that songwriting is this expression, just go for it. Be truthful,
you know, be authentic, sing about things that you see,
(05:57):
that you experience, and that you live, your loves, your losses,
your passions, because you'll always write your best songs when
you're being honest. I think in terms of the music business,
I think it's a really tough time right now. I
think it's one of the hardest times ever to try
and enter the music business. So I think if you're
going to do it, you've got to do it for
the right reasons. If you know you're not going to
(06:18):
have a mansion and a helicopter in a couple of
weeks time by releasing your songs on Spotify unless you're
extremely lucky, and it's not even about talent anymore. And
I think that's one of the toughest things, because I
think you can be really good and get nowhere and
so yeah, I think my advice to anyone starting out
in the business would be too If this is not
(06:39):
your passion, if it is not your true heart and soul,
you're not going to enjoy it because the knockbacks are
more than they've ever been. So the only thing that's
going to get you through is the love for what
you do. So make sure you truly do love it,
or maybe think about doing something else.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, not for sure. What would you say is a
typical mistake that most people have made that you didn't.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Wow, that is a brilliant question. I've never been asked
that question before giving up too soon. I think it
almost leads back into what I was saying before. I
think what a lot of people do is I think
they hope and pray that getting into this business is
going to lead to this amazing success and it's going
(07:22):
to come quite quickly. You know. You get your band together,
you get a few songs, you go out on the road,
you play some shows, you start getting some good feedback,
and then you can you hit the bump in the road,
or band member leaves, or you get stuck on a
song and you fall out, or you fall out over
money or you know, me being a solo artist, you
(07:43):
know you've got no one to lean on. You know,
you've got no one to share the journey with the
highs and the lows, and it can be quite isolating
and lonely. So there comes a point where you hit
like well, like running a marathon, you hit the wall,
and then can you keep going? Can you punch through
the wall? And I did. I punched through the wall.
I carried on going through the hard times, and I
(08:03):
didn't quit. I didn't give up when it was tough.
And I think that's the thing. So, you know, I
think it's it's easy to it's easy to start. It's
easy to sort of like take your foot off the
gas because it's so hard to get up the hill sometimes.
But if you I was powered through, and I think
that's that that is the perhaps the bit between my
(08:24):
teeth to keep going. And to quote someone else actually
as an artist from New York called Nel Brydon, and
I toured with it, and she said the only way
to be successful in this business is to stay in it,
stay in the game. And yeah, and that's and that's
what I did. I just kept going when and perhaps
a few other people along the way it would have
(08:44):
decided to throw in the towel.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, okay, tell us about the song we're going to
hear in a minute. What it inspired this one?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
So Throw a Little Light My Way was the first
song that I wrote for this album, and it was
the only song that I wrote before I left to
go to Nashville and ended up being out there for
the duration of the writing and recording. And I wanted
to write a song. And you know what, and you'll
understand this, you know, like sometimes a song just falls
(09:11):
out of heaven and just comes to you like you
don't it's just falling out of it. This was one
of those songs that's.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
A cool feeling, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I wish you could bottle it because you know, in
there's days when nothing comes you can get out of
the cupboard and have a shot of you know, whatever
that is. You know, if they made that into a bourbon,
you can have a shot of that and you be like, yeah, okay,
here we go, we can do it again. But yeah,
throw a Little Light my Way was just one of
those flash moments. It just came and I wanted to
(09:40):
use the idea of sort of like we've all been
through those times when we're feeling very alone, afraid, isolated,
and I think we all do. Most people do have
someone usually they can call on, and perhaps they're too
afraid to or they don't want to share the problem,
or the problem is so complicated or hard to talk about,
(10:02):
they don't they don't feel like they can. And this
song is like trying to put that feeling into like
to contextualize that feeling of having to need to borrow
somebody's light because you're in so much shadow and so
much darkness that you just you're almost saying, please, can
you just I don't even necessarily to talk about my problem,
(10:23):
but can you just base your light on me? Because
I know that your light will give me enough then
to get through the next bit of what I'm going through. Yeah,
it just flowed, and I was I'm so proud of
the lyrics in this song. I think they just they
sum up that feeling really well. And I feel a
(10:45):
little bit cringe saying that, because obviously I'm talking about
I'm reviewing here my own, my own music, and of
course you know, of course I love it, but I
just think it's one of those rare moments where I've
written a song that I really feel when people hear it,
they will instantly connect with it. And I'm so proud
of that and the people that have heard it when
I've done it live. You know, we released like a
(11:06):
little acoustic version so people could get a feel for it,
and the response has been phenomenal for this song.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Awesome, tell you what. Let's take a listen. We'll come
back and tak okay, okay, great, okay, awesome. Check this out, everybody.
Here we go.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
When the clouds are were and heavy and then bounce
versed with rain, when the colors in my rainbow have
to hide the face and shine when I need a
rare your sunshine and the comforts of your face. Come on, darling,
(11:58):
fulling light my way.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
How the sky can seem so sullen? Wind the blue
becomes the gray.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Like the fair and there who rise as the thunder
rolls away, kim me company in darkness, be the fortress
that I crave. Come on, don full your lights my way.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
You keep the sun rise in your smile, you shoot
the stares out of your Okay, you're holding heavy and
the fun, Come on, don come in light my way,
(13:10):
when the northern blows me over and a winter's here
to stay here. That's the last one, making an ambles
on my fire with Ben Doway.
Speaker 7 (13:26):
Bring me warmthing, give me shelters, just a shadow from
my day, Come on full light my way, Come on,
don fol light my way.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So thank you so much for sharing that song with us.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Thank you for playing it and listening to you all
enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah, awesome. So tell us what the next couple of
years have in store for you. Anything you want to
share at the fans tonight.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Yeah. So it's going to be an interesting end of
the year because the album's already out and I don't
know if this is like if I can reveal this,
but it's just the way that it works in the
industry that we are recording this a few days before
the release. Is that okay? I say that?
Speaker 8 (14:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
So, like as we are now, we're having this lovely conversation.
I'm in my vacation home to use your American vernacular,
and I don't know what's going to happen with this
album because we're four days away from it being released.
So I'm hoping that by the time this goes out,
which you know, I believe is later on this year
in the summer, it will have been successful and then
(14:44):
we'll go from there. But what I do know is
that we've got a talk coming up which is going
to be fantastic. It's a UK tour, It's a UK
headline tour with my band, and then following on from that,
I'm going to be taking a little bit of time
off because I've actually got to have a couple of operations.
Nothing major. I've been diagnose with a condition which means
that my jaw and my neck and shoulders are in
(15:05):
a lot of pain all the time. So I've got
to have this little operation and it's going to be
interesting because it's going to be a little bit of
downtime for me to reflect on the album and its successes,
you know, and it's high points and it's low points,
and then I think what's going to happen is then,
because I need this time off, I'm going to come
back in twenty twenty six sort of refreshed, if you like,
(15:27):
and hopefully feeling fitter and healthier than I've been in
a long time. And then I want to go back
in to record what I always had in mind, which
was the sequel to the Leave Tomorrow album, which was
a sort of working title as Hometown. And the idea
is it's like the Cambellian archetype of the hero's journey,
that you go and go and experience the journey and
(15:49):
then you come home again. And the first album, Leave Tomorrow,
is the journey out. It's the exciting, you know, trip
to Nashville, go and see the world, try and escape
and discover new things. And of course then what you
have to do after the journey, after the adventure, is
come back again. And that's going to be the follow
up album. So but we'll see how that goes, you know,
how these things change. We'll have to see if the
(16:11):
songs come as easy as they did for the Leave
Tomorrow album. But that's my plan.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
That's awesome, man. So when you look at the music
industry as a whole, one of the questions I love
to ask people is about scams. Tell us about something
you might have fallen for.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
You know, I've actually been quite lucky that I've not
really had many bad experiences. I've always been very protected
by the team around me. But I did have a
particularly bad experience with somebody who worked in PR and
she offered to come on board, and her big selling
(16:51):
point was I'm going to get your name out there
into the tabloid's, into the media. And she set her
feet and we discussed it, and I paid the fee
and she went off and she sent me back the
headlines that were going to be used for this press release.
And it was the most basic, debased gutter journalism. Oh
(17:12):
that's terribly yeah, talking about things like my Jim slip
mother and things like that, because she was a young
mum and poor boy and you know, all this like
really gutter journalism. And I know, like journalism can be
bad everywhere, but in the UK we have this really
like horrible gutter press side to you know, media, and
(17:36):
it was really really was like stuff like, you know,
nothing to do with music. And I was absolutely devastated
because I didn't want this going out. So then obviously
what happened then was she said, well, well, if you
don't want it, then you don't have it, and that's
that and she kept the money and that was the
end of that. So the scam, I guess, was really
a case of like trying to play into the idea
(17:57):
of me being successful by getting my name out, because
it's something that obviously you have to do as an artist,
and I think most of us artists don't really enjoy
that side of it. In truth, what we what we
enjoy is the creative side of things, don't we We
don't want to do all the press and the journalism,
so we want someone else to do it for us.
And I what I hoped for was to sort of,
(18:19):
you know, get some nice little pieces about my songwriting journey,
like this lovely conversation about being with you now. And instead, yeah,
we were aiming for, you know, the sort of magazine
rack of you know, the tube stations, Live and Learn right, absolutely,
(18:39):
and you know what, and I will say this, I'm
very blessed with the team that I've got around me now.
They look after me so much and I'm grateful to
them every day. I've got a great team.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
So all right, tell you what? Tell us where people
can find your stuff by stream it? Where can they
find you online?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
So I'm literally on everything from Spotify, it UNEs, Deezer,
Apple Music title, I think I'm even on like right
Move and all you know, I'm on everything. So if
you type Rob Wheeler into Google, you will find me.
And if you type me into your DSP wherever you
listen to music, you'll find me. And what I really
(19:16):
would love to do I'm hoping is come to the
States and do some shows in twenty twenty six as well.
So if you go onto my website, Rob Wheelersongs dot com,
you can follow all my socials on there and hopefully
I'll be playing a show near you soon. And yeah,
check out the album if you haven't already.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Well, I want to thank you so much for being
on the show tonight.
Speaker 9 (19:35):
Man.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
It was a lot of fun. I think your story
will resonate well.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Thank you for speaking to me, and it's an honor
to be on such a great show with such I
listened to a few of the interviews you've done, and
you've got some amazing guests on, so I'm honored to
be one of them. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Ah, You're welcome, man. Thank you to the fans tonight
for joining us. Please join us every single Tuesday evening
and Reality Radio one to one point nine to hear
all these awesome artists. And we hope your unique story
gets heard around the world too. Let's keep creating, connecting,
and letting all of our stories be heard. Until then,
keep writing and I'll see you next Tuesday evening on
The Songwriter Show. Have a great night everyone. I love
(20:13):
you guys.
Speaker 10 (20:31):
A ran away to the city that onesday. There I
found so much trouble inly drive.
Speaker 11 (20:46):
The boat taste was a thrill. Each don't brush in
its numberal freedom and.
Speaker 9 (21:05):
The rains, the smell of wonder and.
Speaker 12 (21:13):
Fast grass and thunder, the mirac sad tired, I saw
Settle club.
Speaker 9 (21:44):
And cot.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Care.
Speaker 10 (22:04):
I was trapped as scared. I couldn't stop me, forgot
everything you taught me.
Speaker 8 (22:19):
Right bleaches lash dot so I lit my listenate, but
Noma make make my great.
Speaker 9 (22:30):
Scared the journey tren you a cold many comyn.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I thank you for listening to The Songwriter Show. To
(24:19):
keep the momentum.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Going, head over to www Dot songwriter Show dot com
and join our free music community of artists, songwriters, and producers.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
That's www. Dot songwriter Show dot com.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Many many, many, and.
Speaker 9 (25:48):
A long hanging all. Hang hang hang hang
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