Kiwi Charlie Wallace wanted to be successful playing the guitar one way or another and has succeeded in more than one way.
Wallace dropped out of school in favour of creating an online guitar lesson website, ‘Guitar Mastery Method’, which kicked off in 2014 and has taught over 1.7 million guitarists over the last decade.
The success of GMM allowed Wallace to work towards his other dream: becoming the lead guitarist of a successful rock band.
In 2018 Black Smoke Trigger was formed, releasing their first EP in 2019, which grabbed the attention of some major names in the industry.
This has all lead to the release of their first album ‘Horizons’, which Wallace told Mike Hosking is putting a stamp into the world of who they are as a band.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I got a great KEI we self made story
for you this morning. You most likely have not heard
of Black Smoke Trigger. It's a band. It's been put
together by Charlie Wallace. Wallace I got successful after he
dropped out of school and started an online guitar lessons
website that made him a multi millionaire, which allowed him
to explore the idea of a band, which is where
managers and producers from groups like Foo Fighters, Lincoln Park
(00:21):
and Corn get involved. It has resulted in their debut
album and Charlie Wallace is Willis Charlie morning to.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You morning, Mike hol.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Ay, good, thank you have. I got that story about right.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, that's it in a nutshell fantastic.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Why'd you leave school early?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It just didn't work for me. You know, I knew
exactly what I wanted to do, and that was to
be successful playing the guitar in one way form of another.
And you know, before I dropped out, I was doing
pretty good. But you know, I literally left school. In
the next year, I was teaching guitar school. So it
(01:00):
was a pretty weird transition, you know, going from being
told off in the principal's office to hanging out in
the staff room, different school.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
But that's funny, what were your parents telling you?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
My parents are telling me just just absolutely go for it,
you know, they were they could see the work that
I was putting in, and you know, and effectively, you know,
if you work hard enough it's something that you want
to do, then you know, I don't think you can
have anyone to tell you that you know you're doing
it wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'm interested in the Guitar Mastery one oh one. Was
it instantly successful or was it a slow burn on
the knees?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Definitely a little bit of a slow slow burn. So
Guitar Mastery one o one was the first course that
I ever released in the company which then became Guitar
master Method. And funny story is actually yesterday to ten
years through the day was the first day I actually
put that course up for sale. So I had like
(01:58):
released like ebooks when I was you know, just after
I left school, like ebooks online with audio clips it
with different guitar exercises and that kind of thing, and
had a little bit of success, and so I thought, well,
what if I was just to go full out and
make you know, a full video course, And that was
what I had no idea I was actually starting a
(02:18):
company into what has now become one of the biggest
guitar lesson companies in the world. And then so it was,
you know, it's just one of those things that I
just worked incredibly hard with that, and you know, I
just kind of really leant into the gym r. Own
quote of if you help enough people get what they
want in life, then you can have anything that you
(02:39):
want in life. And that's you know, really starting to
come to fruition.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Now that's super cool. Did you make your money from
the income stream or did you make your money from
the sale of the company.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So I still own the company? Oh yeah, yeah, So
it was it's just your money coming in and you know,
just putting it in the right places as well, you know,
just different different properties that I've owned that have gone
up on value. You know that all that stuff difn'tely helps.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Because how much of its timing, Because I mean, you're
going back far enough, are you not that the net
and all of that sort of stuff was new wish
and if you got in early enough, you were one
of the first. Because I mean the nets dowb it's
inundated with people playing guitars and teaching how to sing
songs these days.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Well, it didn't feel like that at the time because
at the time, of course, you know, everything always feels
you know, competitive, and everything is always difficult. But you know,
for instance, the reality is the cost of online advertising,
as you know, continuously increased year over year every year.
So there were definitely elements of right timing. You know,
(03:44):
I could see where the market sophistication was within the
world of guitar lessons. The whole thing was kind of
boring at the time online, so I was like, right,
a lot of this set up, but you know, the
local music when you hear the kaba and I'll get
the rock you know, stage lights on and make it like,
you know, look kind of cool. And then so you know,
and I just really developed a really strong relationship with
(04:06):
the you know, with the people who were joining. You know,
we've had guitarists from all around the world flight to
New Zealands to you know, to hang out and to
you know, do guitar clinics here in first of then,
you know, and of course we've got you know, seventy
percent of our members that are in the US, and
pretty much everywhere in the world I go, I get
(04:26):
recognized and they say, you know, hey, you're the guitar guy.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Was this some means to an end? So, in other words,
the idea was I'm going to make my money at
this at that point, I'm going to be able to
fund a band. Is that how it worked?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, Well what happened was we as the band that
I was in when whan To banned competition here in
Hawk's way to take us as a nationwide thing. But
we got to go and play some shows over in
Europe and got promised the world came back and I
was twenty one twenty two at the time, and I
(05:01):
had like literally no money. I remember going to the
supermarket needing to get food for me and my girlfriend
at the time, food for the cats, toilet paper, and
petrol and looking at my wallet and I had two
dollars to forty and I was like, Okay, this is
not going to work. Because I thought, okay, well, I'm
going to get the cat food because I don't deserve
to know that I'm for And I remember thinking I
(05:22):
am not going to be able to make my music
career success without some means. And then so so that
was the spark that just really has made me just
go full at it. And then you know, obviously it
just wasn't until twenty nineteen that you know, for instance,
I was able to start putting at least a full
(05:43):
time effort and to what becomes Black Smoke Sugar fantastic.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So let's continue the story, Charlie. So as a model,
is it something that you can recommend or is it
an idea? So in other words, you raise your money,
you make money doing somewhere else with a view too,
funding a band as opposed to just being a town
and hoping somebody comes your way, like a record company
or a manager and funds you into success. That way.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, I think that the music industry is right now,
in this current stay inherently broken and the way that
you know, at any time that a record company or
anything like that is going to invest in you, you
have to pay one hundred percent of that money back anyway,
So you effectively are funding yourself one shape form or another.
You know, it's not like, for instance, sport, where if
(06:29):
you are the best at something, you can quite obviously
you know show that with music and art, it's subjective,
which makes it a little bit trickier. So I definitely
think that, you know, if you have the skills and
you have the dedication to put a decade into it,
then you know, building a business getting enough money so
that you can actually, you know, be able to fund
(06:49):
it is definitely a good idea.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I feel right with managers and producers, so food fighters,
Lincoln Park, et cetera. How did they come into the mix?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Well, I keep on going to the US for different
business stuff. And I had a friend, Brett Barker, who
was Taylor Swift's first manager, and he said to me,
you keep coming to the US, but you haven't been
to Nashville. Nashville is the music capital of the world.
You're going to come visit me. I'll show you around.
So while I was there, I was catching up with
another friend of mine who said, do you want to
meet Michael Wagner? And I'm thinking, all this guy effectively produced,
(07:21):
you know, all the records. I grew up with the Metallica.
I was osborn Motley Crowe. And then so I go
to his studio, see all the gold and silver records everywhere,
And my friend says, oh, Charlie plays in the band.
And so at this point he says, well, I'll send
me some tracks. I'd love to hear them. After he
heard them, he said that this is this music is
(07:43):
right up my alley. If you ever want to work together,
then let me know. So effectively, that's what really started
Black Smoke, Trigger and the Tirety, because then we just
went full out writing and went over to Nashville recorded
with Michael and then one of the songs that we
recorded there we actually had Mick Mar's Fromotley Crew play on,
(08:04):
and the lead single was a song called Court in
the Undertow, which I came up with the idea to
train and film the music video underwater, and we did
that and it got a lot of attention, and through that,
through the pandemic, when everything was a little bit quiet,
we landed on the desk of Andy Gould, who is
(08:26):
our manager, who's La based and he's managed everyone from
Lincoln Park to Lionel Ritchie to Rob Zombie Guns and
Roses and stuff. And then when we wanted to, you know,
for instance, get this new record that we've just released
just this past weekend, he said, who do you want
to work with? And we said Nick Raskillex just because
(08:47):
of the incredible albums that he had done with Bansley Allison,
Chains and Food Fighters, corn Halstorm and then so we
had multiple trips to Nashville to record with him, and
he actually even traveled here to Hawks Bay to finish
the record. So there's a big, long journey to get
to this point.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It's one of the questions I'm going to ask. You're
not hampered by the fact you're on Hawk's Bay and
so geography is not the issue.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Well, I mean the thing is iver were is only
ever a plane slight away and with you know, the
Internet and everything, you know, it's like you can be
talking to anyone anywhere in the world's in you know,
a couple of minutes from now if you need it
to be.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So, how good's the album and how big are you
going to be?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well again, music is completely subjective, but we really like it.
We feel this is putting a stamp and you know,
into the world of who we are as a band
and the idea with what we are going to be
doing as we are going to be pushing the boat
out as far as we possibly can. We've just wrapped
up a couple of tours with New Zealand, Australia with
(09:50):
US band Filter and we're just supporting Bruce Dickinson from
Iron Maiden in Europe. And then so at this point
where you're digging in, getting new ideas, getting a whole
bunch of oh much more so, I'm getting ready to
get into our next recording phase and we're going to
be trying to make this thing as big and as
fun as it possibly can be.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Fantastic. Well, I love the story. I think it's fantastic
and I wish you every level of a success feedback
so far, Mike, Charlie is the man. Guitar classes are awesome,
any genre, any skill level. Cover definitely recommend to anyone
looking for online lessons. Somebody goes black Trigger Smokes bass
players a musical genius. I'm assuming you'd agree with that, Charlie. Mike,
(10:31):
how about playing sun Cries read when Charlie's online. Charlie's
group is, in my opinion, one of the New Zealand's better groups.
Need more red time. There you go, so you've got support.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Good on you, mate, We'll go well with it. Take
care and we'll catch up again soon. Charlie Wallace, lead
of Black Smoke Trigger album is out now.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
For more from the mic Asking Breakfast listen live to
news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
So I got a great KEI we self made story
for you this morning. You most likely have not heard
of Black Smoke Trigger. It's a band. It's been put
together by Charlie Wallace. Wallace I got successful after he
dropped out of school and started an online guitar lessons
website that made him a multi millionaire, which allowed him
to explore the idea of a band, which is where
managers and producers from groups like Foo Fighters, Lincoln Park
(00:21):
and Corn get involved. It has resulted in their debut
album and Charlie Wallace is Willis Charlie morning to.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You morning, Mike hol.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Ay, good, thank you have. I got that story about right.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, that's it in a nutshell fantastic.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Why'd you leave school early?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It just didn't work for me. You know, I knew
exactly what I wanted to do, and that was to
be successful playing the guitar in one way form of another.
And you know, before I dropped out, I was doing
pretty good. But you know, I literally left school. In
the next year, I was teaching guitar school. So it
(01:00):
was a pretty weird transition, you know, going from being
told off in the principal's office to hanging out in
the staff room, different school.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
But that's funny, what were your parents telling you?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
My parents are telling me just just absolutely go for it,
you know, they were they could see the work that
I was putting in, and you know, and effectively, you know,
if you work hard enough it's something that you want
to do, then you know, I don't think you can
have anyone to tell you that you know you're doing
it wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'm interested in the Guitar Mastery one oh one. Was
it instantly successful or was it a slow burn on
the knees?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Definitely a little bit of a slow slow burn. So
Guitar Mastery one o one was the first course that
I ever released in the company which then became Guitar
master Method. And funny story is actually yesterday to ten
years through the day was the first day I actually
put that course up for sale. So I had like
(01:58):
released like ebooks when I was you know, just after
I left school, like ebooks online with audio clips it
with different guitar exercises and that kind of thing, and
had a little bit of success, and so I thought, well,
what if I was just to go full out and
make you know, a full video course, And that was
what I had no idea I was actually starting a
(02:18):
company into what has now become one of the biggest
guitar lesson companies in the world. And then so it was,
you know, it's just one of those things that I
just worked incredibly hard with that, and you know, I
just kind of really leant into the gym r. Own
quote of if you help enough people get what they
want in life, then you can have anything that you
(02:39):
want in life. And that's you know, really starting to
come to fruition.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Now that's super cool. Did you make your money from
the income stream or did you make your money from
the sale of the company.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So I still own the company? Oh yeah, yeah, So
it was it's just your money coming in and you know,
just putting it in the right places as well, you know,
just different different properties that I've owned that have gone
up on value. You know that all that stuff difn'tely helps.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Because how much of its timing, Because I mean, you're
going back far enough, are you not that the net
and all of that sort of stuff was new wish
and if you got in early enough, you were one
of the first. Because I mean the nets dowb it's
inundated with people playing guitars and teaching how to sing
songs these days.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Well, it didn't feel like that at the time because
at the time, of course, you know, everything always feels
you know, competitive, and everything is always difficult. But you know,
for instance, the reality is the cost of online advertising,
as you know, continuously increased year over year every year.
So there were definitely elements of right timing. You know,
(03:44):
I could see where the market sophistication was within the
world of guitar lessons. The whole thing was kind of
boring at the time online, so I was like, right,
a lot of this set up, but you know, the
local music when you hear the kaba and I'll get
the rock you know, stage lights on and make it like,
you know, look kind of cool. And then so you know,
and I just really developed a really strong relationship with
(04:06):
the you know, with the people who were joining. You know,
we've had guitarists from all around the world flight to
New Zealands to you know, to hang out and to
you know, do guitar clinics here in first of then,
you know, and of course we've got you know, seventy
percent of our members that are in the US, and
pretty much everywhere in the world I go, I get
(04:26):
recognized and they say, you know, hey, you're the guitar guy.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Was this some means to an end? So, in other words,
the idea was I'm going to make my money at
this at that point, I'm going to be able to
fund a band. Is that how it worked?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, Well what happened was we as the band that
I was in when whan To banned competition here in
Hawk's way to take us as a nationwide thing. But
we got to go and play some shows over in
Europe and got promised the world came back and I
was twenty one twenty two at the time, and I
(05:01):
had like literally no money. I remember going to the
supermarket needing to get food for me and my girlfriend
at the time, food for the cats, toilet paper, and
petrol and looking at my wallet and I had two
dollars to forty and I was like, Okay, this is
not going to work. Because I thought, okay, well, I'm
going to get the cat food because I don't deserve
to know that I'm for And I remember thinking I
(05:22):
am not going to be able to make my music
career success without some means. And then so so that
was the spark that just really has made me just
go full at it. And then you know, obviously it
just wasn't until twenty nineteen that you know, for instance,
I was able to start putting at least a full
(05:43):
time effort and to what becomes Black Smoke Sugar fantastic.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So let's continue the story, Charlie. So as a model,
is it something that you can recommend or is it
an idea? So in other words, you raise your money,
you make money doing somewhere else with a view too,
funding a band as opposed to just being a town
and hoping somebody comes your way, like a record company
or a manager and funds you into success. That way.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, I think that the music industry is right now,
in this current stay inherently broken and the way that
you know, at any time that a record company or
anything like that is going to invest in you, you
have to pay one hundred percent of that money back anyway,
So you effectively are funding yourself one shape form or another.
You know, it's not like, for instance, sport, where if
(06:29):
you are the best at something, you can quite obviously
you know show that with music and art, it's subjective,
which makes it a little bit trickier. So I definitely
think that, you know, if you have the skills and
you have the dedication to put a decade into it,
then you know, building a business getting enough money so
that you can actually, you know, be able to fund
(06:49):
it is definitely a good idea.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I feel right with managers and producers, so food fighters,
Lincoln Park, et cetera. How did they come into the mix?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Well, I keep on going to the US for different
business stuff. And I had a friend, Brett Barker, who
was Taylor Swift's first manager, and he said to me,
you keep coming to the US, but you haven't been
to Nashville. Nashville is the music capital of the world.
You're going to come visit me. I'll show you around.
So while I was there, I was catching up with
another friend of mine who said, do you want to
meet Michael Wagner? And I'm thinking, all this guy effectively produced,
(07:21):
you know, all the records. I grew up with the Metallica.
I was osborn Motley Crowe. And then so I go
to his studio, see all the gold and silver records everywhere,
And my friend says, oh, Charlie plays in the band.
And so at this point he says, well, I'll send
me some tracks. I'd love to hear them. After he
heard them, he said that this is this music is
(07:43):
right up my alley. If you ever want to work together,
then let me know. So effectively, that's what really started
Black Smoke, Trigger and the Tirety, because then we just
went full out writing and went over to Nashville recorded
with Michael and then one of the songs that we
recorded there we actually had Mick Mar's Fromotley Crew play on,
(08:04):
and the lead single was a song called Court in
the Undertow, which I came up with the idea to
train and film the music video underwater, and we did
that and it got a lot of attention, and through that,
through the pandemic, when everything was a little bit quiet,
we landed on the desk of Andy Gould, who is
(08:26):
our manager, who's La based and he's managed everyone from
Lincoln Park to Lionel Ritchie to Rob Zombie Guns and
Roses and stuff. And then when we wanted to, you know,
for instance, get this new record that we've just released
just this past weekend, he said, who do you want
to work with? And we said Nick Raskillex just because
(08:47):
of the incredible albums that he had done with Bansley Allison,
Chains and Food Fighters, corn Halstorm and then so we
had multiple trips to Nashville to record with him, and
he actually even traveled here to Hawks Bay to finish
the record. So there's a big, long journey to get
to this point.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It's one of the questions I'm going to ask. You're
not hampered by the fact you're on Hawk's Bay and
so geography is not the issue.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Well, I mean the thing is iver were is only
ever a plane slight away and with you know, the
Internet and everything, you know, it's like you can be
talking to anyone anywhere in the world's in you know,
a couple of minutes from now if you need it
to be.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So, how good's the album and how big are you
going to be?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well again, music is completely subjective, but we really like it.
We feel this is putting a stamp and you know,
into the world of who we are as a band
and the idea with what we are going to be
doing as we are going to be pushing the boat
out as far as we possibly can. We've just wrapped
up a couple of tours with New Zealand, Australia with
(09:50):
US band Filter and we're just supporting Bruce Dickinson from
Iron Maiden in Europe. And then so at this point
where you're digging in, getting new ideas, getting a whole
bunch of oh much more so, I'm getting ready to
get into our next recording phase and we're going to
be trying to make this thing as big and as
fun as it possibly can be.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Fantastic. Well, I love the story. I think it's fantastic
and I wish you every level of a success feedback
so far, Mike, Charlie is the man. Guitar classes are awesome,
any genre, any skill level. Cover definitely recommend to anyone
looking for online lessons. Somebody goes black Trigger Smokes bass
players a musical genius. I'm assuming you'd agree with that, Charlie. Mike,
(10:31):
how about playing sun Cries read when Charlie's online. Charlie's
group is, in my opinion, one of the New Zealand's better groups.
Need more red time. There you go, so you've got support.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Good on you, mate, We'll go well with it. Take
care and we'll catch up again soon. Charlie Wallace, lead
of Black Smoke Trigger album is out now.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
For more from the mic Asking Breakfast listen live to
news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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