Faith, Family, and Foot-Stomping Rock: The Gail Bird Journey

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Speaker 2 (00:00):
and we're live, we are I'm flying high above the
sky, never coming down oh yeahyou're gonna love this.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hello everybody and welcome back to skip happens,
the podcast where I dive deepinto the stories behind the
songs and the people who makethem.
These guys are gonna go.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
to my song.
You're talking over it, but no,no, we're going to get back
into it here in just a moment.
But tonight I've got somethingvery special for you from the
Unfinished Songs and theircollege days in Charleston to
nearly a quarter of a millionstreams this past year alone.
Gail Bird is who they arecalled.
I'm going to find out wherethey came up with Gail Bird.

(00:47):
Let me tell you.
They've been building aharmony-driven, soulful sound
that lifts people up and remindsus of all the love.
That love is worth fighting for, even in the messy real-life
moments.
We're going to find out aboutthose too.
I'm sure they've got stories.
We all do.
Their music shines a lot ofmarriage, family and faith, and
their performances run the gamutfrom foot stomping rock to

(01:10):
intimate harmonies, creatingthat magic moment where a packed
room feels like a living room.
It's cool.
Thrilled to welcome them to theSkip Happens podcast.
I know Josh is there in theblue shirt and we got Sean in
the hoodie.
Vigael Bird hey guys, how areyou?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Hey Skip, we really appreciate you having us on
tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Absolutely.
I'm so glad you reached out,Josh, because since you did that
, I've been doing some researchon the band and what you guys
have been doing.
It's phenomenal.
But we're going to go back alittle bit.
First of all, where are youright now?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
But we're going to go back a little bit.
First of all, where are youright now?
We are in Holy City Music,which is a studio here in
Charleston.
It rivals anything that you'veever seen in Los Angeles,
nashville, new York City.
What an incredible place.
But what's even greater thanall of the technology and
everything that's been put intothis place is the person and the

(02:07):
people behind it, which is runby Matt Cyclone, which is an
incredible guy that I thinkunderstands music more than
anybody that I've ever met,which is just what draws
everybody in.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
And who would have thought of that, though, which
is just what draws everybody in,and who would have thought of
that, though?
I mean being in where you areright now.
You're saying that this studiois much better or maybe it's got
all the more in the way of toysand everything than you see in
Nashville or LA, or even maybein Texas Wow, that's great.
I would have never imaginedthat, can you?

(02:43):
What are some of the groupsthat come through there?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Through Charleston.
You know, one of the biggestbands that's come through here
that's called Charleston Home isa band called Need to Breathe.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
And called this home for a long time, you know, had
some studios here in Charleston,did a lot of work and their
families wanted to be in abeautiful place and their
families wanted to be in abeautiful place.
They wanted to raise theirchildren in a beautiful place.
And I might be a little biased,but I think we live in one of
the most beautiful cities in theentire world.

(03:15):
This is an incredible place.
I spent half the day on thewater today on a Boston whaler
with my wife, melissa and ouryoungest, bethany, watching
dolphins swim by, you know, justpassing by old warships and all
sorts of different stuff, andjust enjoying how incredible it

(03:36):
is to live here in a place thateverybody wants to come visit.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
I love that I may be passing through there this
weekend.
I'm just giving you a heads up.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
We'll take you out on the boat.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
I have a daughter in Virginia and then we might spend
a you know a few days in theouter banks, so that'd be
incredible, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Another artist that's caused Charleston home is a guy
named Brandon Lake.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
He's got hard fault hallelujah playing all over the
country radio right now.
Brandon is from here.
I think we my, my wife went tohigh school with Brandon and
then one of our producers thatSean and I've worked with was
one of the writers or producersof Hard Fault Hallelujah, and so
there's so much talent here inthis city.

(04:17):
Chandler Moore is another guyfrom here.
There's North Palm Worship islocated here in Charleston.
They're taking over in.
The North Palm Worship islocated here in Charleston.
They're taking over in thecontemporary Christian and
worship world.
There's a lot of talent in thiscity, and who wouldn't want to
come here to record an album orto make music?

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Wow, I had no idea.
And I talked to a lot ofartists and I've been in a lot
of places, but I had no idea.
No idea at all.
You're right.
So I'm trying to think here Ifyou go through Charleston, you
can see the port, right, I mean,it's right there.
I'm just trying to.
You're there, so I get it, butI'm trying to think as we drive

(04:57):
south and we do that almostevery year, that's going to be
this weekend.
Either one of you can you takeme back to those college days in
Charleston where thoseunfinished songs you know like
and how did they involved intowhat Gail Bird is today?
First of all, wait a minute,I'm going to hold it Time out

(05:18):
Gail Bird, how did that namecome about?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
All right, so I'll take credit for that one.
So my name is Joshua Gale andgrew up playing football,
playing sports, basketball,baseball.
We play soccer every morning,still at the gym and on the
football field.
I had a very loud, obnoxiousdad, uh and um.

(05:44):
So, uh, everyone in you knowsports calls you by your last
name, so Gail was that name.
Uh, but I had another nicknamefrom my family called Jay bird.
Uh, cause I did not like towear clothes.
I honestly think people onlywear clothes and sitcoms Uh and
uh.
I think one of the funniestsitcoms was was here a couple of

(06:06):
years ago where the guy justwas in his underwear as soon as
he got home, Um and uh, tryingto think of the name of the show
.
But um, you know.
So my dad would yell come on,jay bird.
As loud as he could.
As soon as your friends andyour coaches here Jay bird Bird.
They think it's kind of funny.
And so then it morphed intolet's Go, gale Bird from

(06:29):
everybody.
And then so played football allthe way into college at
Charleston Southern University.
That's how I ended up inCharleston was playing football,
but then discovered that Iloved writing music more than I
loved playing football.
Uh, it was way less political.
Uh, it was.
Uh, people were a lot morekinder, uh, in music than they

(06:53):
were in sports, especiallycollegiate sports.
Um, and so then I began writingmusic, uh, and I can kind of
segue into uh started writingthis song by your side, uh, and
uh started writing it withanother girl named Abby, um,
who's now Abby Jones, and uh,she was at the university of
Tennessee, Knoxville, and um,she had come down to Charleston

(07:15):
with some other friends.
We wrote a song, and I wasreally struggling with this
transition into this chorus,this melody, uh, and, through
some other friends, ended up atan apartment on Meeting Street,
right King Street, King Street.
Yeah, and was that your secondapartment or your first one?
So that was your first floorapartment.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Second floor.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
I feel like you had a first floor apartment I might
have Okay, how many?
Apartments did you have Sean?

Speaker 3 (07:40):
So, this was when we were in college, so every year
you're switching around.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
You Sean Sean this was when we were in college.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
So every year you're switching around, you're moving
around.
I got you.
Yeah, josh was at a school alittle bit up towards North
Charleston and I was downtown atthe College of Charleston and
so, yeah, downtown Charlestonmet up.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, so what people don't understand is the College
of Charleston is not one campus.
It is spread out through theentire peninsula of Charleston.
So Charleston's one bigpeninsula and it was spread out
so you could be on campus overhere and live way over here on
Bull Street or Meeting or King,you know it's all these historic
streets, cobblestone streets,everywhere it floods like

(08:16):
nobody's business.
You know all this stuff, ohyeah.
Oh, yeah, and so I ended up atthis guy's apartment playing
this song and he's like, hey,why don't you try this?
And this guy heard somethingthat I didn't hear.
It worked so well, it changedthe entire song so quickly.
The rest of the song came in.
It was like holy cow, I thinkit was.

(08:38):
This was my actual firstco-write um of with somebody
else who has like a productionproducer mindset, that hears
melodies, that sees structure,that just can pull all these
things out.
And then also we realized Ithink we can write music
together and so we'd meet upwhen we could, being at two
different.
We're about 20 minutes apartour universities, and College of

(08:59):
Charleston is actually one ofthe only colleges in the United
States that's actually auniversity but it goes under the
name of a college.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Gotcha.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
And so we would meet up as much as we could, We'd
play music, We'd have fun andstroke up a friendship and
continue to play musicthroughout college and then
after college.
And then we played around, didas many gigs as we could, had a
great time.
But when you're young and brokeit was a huge deterrent.

(09:32):
In Charleston the music scenewas a little bit different.
You can make a little bit ofmoney if you're playing bar gigs
from 9.30 to 2 am.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
It's a tough life.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
It's a tough life.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
But we also found a lot of joy in playing music at
churches.
Gospel music is near and dearto our hearts, and so Sean ended
up playing one church and I wasplaying at a different church,
and so we were kind of investingin that world.
And then, around that same timewe were performing, we had a
show at a place called theHippodrome, which is this old,

(10:07):
incredible theater right on theharbor, giant stadium seating,
bmw, leather seats.
It was just the most incredibleplace and I think it was never
meant to be a concert venue.
It was a theater turned into aconcert venue.
All this kind of stuff, uh, nolonger exists, um, and we

(10:28):
might've been one of the lastperformances there.
And, um, there was a woman Iwas dating, um, which was
Melissa.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
I was going to ask, but go ahead, You're going to
you're, you're reading my mind,my next question here, but go
ahead.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
There's never been anybody else.
No, and Melissa, I didn't evenknow she could sing.
We actually reconnected at afuneral.
So you've heard of weddingcrashers.
Well, I was a funeral crasherNot really, but I was playing a
couple of hymns at a funeral.
We had a mutual friend incollege who had lost her baby

(11:03):
and she asked me to come singsome hymns at a funeral.
We had a mutual friend incollege who had lost her baby
and she asked me to come singsome hymns.
Well, I knew Melissa in collegeat Charleston Southern, but we
never had eyes for each other.
We knew each other somewhatthrough other friends.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Just an acquaintance.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, and I saw her and I was just blown away.
It shouldn't be the place thatyou're blown away by a woman's
beauty, but it it was.
That day, um and um, we were inthe strange place called
Orangeburg, south Carolina.
It's right in the middle, it'sup and coming in South Carolina,
but, um, right outside ofColumbia, south Carolina, where

(11:40):
the, where the Gamecocks are,university of South Carolina,
and saw her and I could notshake her and get her out of my
mind.
She left right after theservice.
I went to the reception and allI could think about was this
girl and her friends were likeJosh, what are you thinking
about?
I was like man, y'all.
I saw Melissa today and I can'tstop thinking about her.

(12:01):
And they were like man, youshould call her up.
I was like, yeah, you think so.
Y'all ask her if it's okay if Icall her.
So they gave me her phonenumber and I called her up and
she was in nursing school.
She had left.
She graduated with me, had adegree in psychology, went on to
nursing school.

(12:21):
She loves people so much shewanted to do whatever she could
to serve people and be withpeople in their hardest times.
And she's in nursing school.
She gets a voicemail from me.
She doesn't call me back fortwo weeks, uh.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Oh, I'd be going like .
Well, I guess she doesn't givea darn about me to move on, but
no, you waited.
That's good.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, I waited, uh, uh, she finally called me back.
I'm like what in the heck?
She's like sorry, I wasstudying for tests, it was uh,
it was a lot uh.
But she said I wanted to honoryou and give you a call back and
, you know, got her, got.
Her schedule had made me, mademe wait another two weeks to
take her out.
Um, and I had a bird on myshirt.
Didn't know it, but she, herand her family loved birds.

(13:04):
They had an affinity for birds.
They always had a bird on myshirt.
Didn't know it, but her and herfamily loved birds.
They had an affinity for birds.
They always had a bird.
Growing up they had birds.
When we met, took her out toone of the most expensive
restaurants in Charleston, didnot know that she would order a
bowl of the she-crab soup, plusthe whole flounder special, plus
a side salad, plus a specialdrink, everything.

(13:26):
And I'm like, okay, I'm eatinga salad tonight.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
And uh.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
I had enough to pay for the dinner, but I knew that
I didn't have enough that wasgoing to cover the tip that went
along with it.
So I signed a tip, knowing itit probably wasn't going through
when.
I you know, when we went on andshe asked about dessert and I
was like, hey, you know, myfavorite thing is a Frosty.
I don't really care forFrosties, but 99 cents feels

(13:52):
right, it tastes good.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Head over to Wendy's.
Get yourself a Frosty.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
So we went to Wendy's .
I went back to that restaurantthe next day, borrowed $20 from
my roommate, made sure it got tothe right person in that
section Great 82 queen, greatexperience and a bird actually
flew over us as we were eatingand real close to us it was in a
courtyard.
It was really cool.
It was just more affirmation ofthis whole bird thing yeah,

(14:17):
that's a sign you know it wasand she had a blast.
She asked me if we could go on asecond date.
On the way of dropping her offat her house, I told her
absolutely so.
The rest is history.
But I had no idea she couldsing, and it wasn't until we
were married later on that Iheard her singing and I was like

(14:39):
, oh my gosh, you can reallysing.
I'm not even trying to flatteryou, I already married you.
You got some some anointing,you got some pipes and uh.
But come to find out she hadbeen told by a boy when she was
younger that she should nevertry to sing.
Uh, she was terrible.
Well that, when you're a littlegirl and you know you're

(15:00):
susceptible to stuff like that.
Well she, she kept her mouthshut.
Uh, it took a long time for meto pull it out of her.
She started singing with me atchurch and then the rest is
history.
You can look her up, melissaGale, and you will see some
incredibly powerful worshipsongs coming out of her that
will show you what it reallymeans to be somebody who sings

(15:23):
authentically.
They could care less if theywere behind the curtain, still
singing like they don't want tobe in the spotlight.
Has such a heart for that, youcan tell she's like a really
incredible person and beautifulinside and out.
So then you know, years downthe road, it's still bothering
me that Sean and I neverfinished recording any of the

(15:44):
music we couldn't afford to.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
We recorded one song.
This is the stuff from college,right?

Speaker 2 (15:48):
From college?
Yeah, we recorded one song.
His parents paid for half thesong and somebody else from
Texas paid for the other half.
And we got it produced.
It was a great song and wereleased it.
It's You'll Come Home and were-released it last year.
But I called up Sean.
I was like hey, sean man, whatdo you think about getting back

(16:11):
together and trying to finishwhat we started?
A little bit, man, I got someextra money right now, let's do
this.
And so we started.
We booked some studio time withHoly City Music the best in town
and just went in the studio andSean, in genius mind, produced
everything.
He could just see things thatno one else could and pull

(16:33):
things out.
He knew where every instrumentwould sit, you know, and what
frequency, and he just knew allthe things.
It's like if you're everbuilding a company, you hire to
your weaknesses.
Well, like I don't know wherethe weakness is.
So he was like everything thatyou know, that was way better
than anybody else could be, andwe had so much fun.

(16:55):
It was like it was such a joy,it was an outlet, it was
something incredible.
And then we brought Melissainto the mix and Sean's like oh
man, she can sing and it wasincredible.
And so then we kind of becameGale Bird when we had to come up
with a name.
And we never argued, we justdidn't have any other, better

(17:18):
ideas.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, that was good you know I got to tell you when
I heard Gale Bird, when youemailed me and then I started
looking into it a little bit,I'm going who would name the
group Gail Bird and it gave methe feeling like I had to look
into this a little bit more.
Now it's like when I read aboutyou guys and what you're about
from family and faith andmarriage and all that, it was

(17:41):
just like wow.
So now I get it.
And marriage and all that, itwas just like wow.
So now I get it.
And now I get it even more thatwe're sitting here tonight and
it's a great, great story how itall happened.
The bird was a sign.
I mean getting back togetherwith Sean and you guys working
this out, that's a sign.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
You got something.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
You've turned that page and you're bringing back
that music.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, wow.
So we're sitting with Holy CityMusic.
We finished this EP and afterthat some of the songs start to
perform pretty well.
As far as getting streams andgetting different things and
getting some traction, and asfar as live performances, live
performances go, um, man, wekind of put something together.
It was really special.

(18:27):
Um, seeing this guy shred aguitar, uh is just one of the
coolest things in the world.
Uh, we have some really talentedfriends, uh, that a lot of them
came here from Nashville duringCOVID uh and said, hey, you
guys want to play some music andthey're like man, we miss it,
you know, come on.
And so we put a band togetherdoing some really cool stuff.

(18:48):
My brother-in-law plays with us, some guys from church, one of
our best friends, phil, and sothen Holy City Music and Matt
approaches us and said, hey,listen, I want to offer you guys
an opportunity to sign arecording contract with us, and

(19:14):
here's how much and here's whatyour part is you got to write
more songs than you've everwritten before in your entire
life, and then we're going tochoose six over the next year
and then we're going to releasethose with everything we've got
and you guys are going to goplay and you're going to try to
get as many shows and as frontof many things as possible, and
this past weekend we played umum ETV, which is kind of like
our PBS station here in SouthCarolina.
We played we did a performanceon a really, really cool show.

(19:38):
Uh, that's like um, um 1940sradio show called shortwave
kitsch, uh, and it's, it's likethe live performance is kind of
something like Saturday NightLive there's skits and then
there's the musical performancesthroughout.
So last month it was a coupleguys from Hootie and the
Blowfish who also all live herein Charleston.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yes, that I know I was going to ask about them too,
but keep going.
You're like taking thequestions right out of my eye.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah.
And then this month was us andwe had a blast.
Everybody in that theater world, everybody that was there
downtown loved it and we justgot excited Like, hey, I think
we're doing what we're supposedto be doing, but the journey
didn't look like everyone saysit should.

(20:25):
You can get on social media andthis says, hey, if you follow
these five steps, you will besuccessful, guaranteed.
And I'm like, why discount Godthan the way that he says, hey,
if I wrote something about yourlife, I knew everything about
you before you even existed andI had this will for your life.
Why would your story?

(20:45):
How boring would it be if yourstory looked exactly the same as
everybody else's?
Why can't I be super specialand make your journey just as
incredible to where you don'thave to spin wheels all the time
, you don't have to go throughthe same hurdles that everybody
else does?

Speaker 3 (21:03):
Well, and the truth is we can't.
We're both married, we bothhave kids.
He has four kids, I have two Tosome degree, that's something
we're not going to eversacrifice.
So we can't do the normal grindthat most young musicians would
do.
So we kind of had to find adifferent way, and that's been
really cool to see, kind ofalong with how almost magical

(21:25):
this coming together was From myperspective.
I had a job, full-time, I wasworking somewhere, and it wasn't
the best environment for me, soI was slowly pulling away, and
it was in that time when Joshapproached me about starting
something up with a band.
So I was already planning onheading towards freelance music
stuff.
And so the timing with that,the timing with the holy city

(21:49):
music coming in it, it reallywas pretty special to see it all
come together and and so it'sbeen a good journey for us, I
think, not only to be uh likeexpectant and excited about what
could be next, but also patient, because there have been lulls
through through differentseasons over the last year where
we had a little bit of momentumand then it kind of seemed like
it dried up for a second andthen it'd jump again.

(22:10):
So it's just been different, Ithink for us, which has been
exciting.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Well, it's a whole different path what you guys are
doing than so many others.
You're doing your own thing andyou're also making time for the
family, which is so veryimportant.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, exactly, we thought you know why pioneer
something you know I think backof.
You know Lewis and Clark, youknow they some of the greatest
pioneers, but they losteverything in this pursuit.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
One of them one of them.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
one of them took his own life.
The other one had so much PTSDdidn't know what to do with so
many.
Many people had so much.
At what cost are you going topioneer?
Are you going to leave yourfamily behind?
I see a lot of people you seeLuke Combs coming off the road
right now saying, hey y'all, Ineed to go home right now and be
with my wife and my childrenand watch them grow up, coach

(22:59):
their baseball team, coach theirsoccer team, all these
different things.
They're writing songs about thelife that I already live, you
know, and dreaming about whywould I give this up to go the
opposite way, you know.
You'll see another guy, a bassplayer for Need to Breathe.
He said his daughter wascalling the phone, daddy, and so
he was like hey, y'all, I gotto make the hardest decision of

(23:22):
my life.
I need to take a break from theband and go home for at least a
year.
And how admirable is that tothe thing?
you love the most, but you'regoing to.
It's like having these valuesin order God, family, and then
you know God, your marriage,then your children and your
family, then your career andeverybody.

(23:42):
You know all this differentstuff and it's like we don't
want to pioneer something.
If somebody else has something,else has to die in the process
and we don't want it.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
What is, what's the secret toconnecting so deeply with your
listeners?
I know you've got probablyclose to 8,000 music lovers that
follow you right now, which ispretty cool.
What is, what's the secret toconnecting deeply with those?

Speaker 2 (24:08):
So when we get together to write, we'll do some
song mapping and some stuff,and obviously I've got 13 years
of marriage under my belt youbet 14.
So we're not writing as young20-year-olds anymore.
Right, right, we've beenthrough some stuff and Sean's
family is incredible.
But Sean has been through somuch, some different stuff and

(24:33):
so we're pulling from Sean'sworld.
I didn't grow up with anincredible example of parents
and God put some otherincredible men and women in my
life as parent figures.
But sometimes I'm shooting fromthe hip and I really screwed up
bad.
I'll tell Sean something at thegym and I'm like dude, I got to

(24:53):
write an entire apology letter.
I got to write a new song todaybecause I didn't realize that
my words mean more to her thananybody.
I said something really stupid,right Gosh, I got to keep.
If I don't keep trying and Idon't keep investing in trying
to be better as a husband and adad, then I get complacent.
And if I don't keep trying andI promised my wife to keep

(25:16):
trying and keep trying then allof a sudden I roll back into

(25:37):
complacency and everything'sfighting for our attention.
Yeah, yeah, I know I hadn'ttaken a day off in two weeks.
I know I work too much, I knowthis, that and the other and all
that.
What do you need?
How can I Just asking thequestions and then saying it the
song I still do that Sean and Iwrote together I mean, that was

(25:58):
a great writing session.
But then I told Sean, I think Isay things to my wife sometimes
and I might have thought it, butI never said it.
And then she's saying hey, Idon't think I understand how you
feel about me.
And so one night Melissa cameto me and she said listen, I
don't know how you feel about meat all and I'm wondering if you

(26:22):
could go back in time, wouldyou even ask me to marry you, if
you could just undo it?
She was so in a terrible placebecause of my inability to say
how I felt I made a new rule formyself.
It was like say everything thatI'm thinking about my wife and
then double that.
And so when we sat down towrite this song I Still Do we
thought about the first day Seanwas in my wedding.
He played the piano as I walkeddown the aisle.

(26:44):
It was how he loves us, butSean's version and it was just
incredible.
And the ceremony was incredible.
But before we even got to thealtar, my brother was my best
man and he's had his vices andhe got stuck on a sand bar on a
boat up in Ballhead Island,north Carolina, and he got stuck
on a sandbar.

(27:04):
His wife was my wife'shairdresser, so she didn't show
up to do Melissa's hair.
He didn't show up as my bestman, oh my gosh.
And then when he did show up,he was late.
The guests had been waiting inthis prayer chapel in this old
Baptist church in Southport.
Southport's a beautiful place.
It's where they film a bunch ofmovies like Safe Haven.
It's just an incredible placeand it's got to be on your

(27:25):
travel list.
And Sean's kind of playingpiano more.
We're all sitting around.
It's awkward.
I'm hurt my brother didn't showup to hang out all day.
He shows up in a silver bow tie.
Well, we're all wearing blackand he shows up.
I remember my best man was lateand all the guests had to wait.
But in all that stress, seeingyou in that dress took my breath

(27:49):
away.
Yeah, and then I told my wife.
I was like hey, listen, I willnever regret marrying you.
I agree with younger me morenow than I ever would.
And only God could have seenthat this was going to be
incredible and that we were metto be together.
As stubborn as we are, we wereperfect for each other.
And so Sean, all of a sudden,he's so creative with words,

(28:13):
minivans, tell me your favoriteline.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
Yeah, my favorite line, that next one.
Now, with minivans and mud onthe floor, life's messier than
ever before, but one look inthose eyes reminds me why I said
I still do.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Dude, wow, wow.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
So we're writing that song.
I mean it's flowing in thatwriting room.
That day it was like somethingwas special.
When you write a song,sometimes you have to fight
through it and you come back andyou visit it you find the
melody you write a hook andeverything else falls into place
.
But that day was somethingspecial.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
That was nice yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
But we knew we had something that other people
needed to hear.
Baby, I always agree with youon that that guy was a genius,
that younger me was a genius.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
We don't give him enough credit.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
I know he heard from God and I know God had a hand in
it, because you're way morebeautiful than you know,
absolutely, do you?

Speaker 1 (29:08):
um, you follow your streams?
You have like a quarter of amillion streams and I mean and
growing.
There's the music you'reputting out and and I would
imagine you see that it makes it.
Maybe it it may be I'm tryingto think of the right words here
uh, more demanding on you, butyou don't want to go too far, as
you said before, because youknow your priorities are God

(29:31):
family.
You know that that's in the wayit should be, or God family,
you know and the way it shouldbe.
But with a quarter millionstreams and growing, how has
streaming changed the way yourelease and promote your music.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
It's changed a lot.
I think one of the big thingsthat's hard for us as writers is
it kind of changes the way wehave trajectory of like we might
have a song that we just love,but it might not be the right
season for it or it might not bethe one that we feel like will
gain the most traction, and sowhat we've kind of had to do at

(30:08):
least I have had to do isdisassociate this online
presence, the streaming side,with our local audience, because
we can still be playing allthose songs for the local
audience and we can make thatintimate and we can make, you
know, do our best to reallyengage them.
And I think that's one areawhere we are really trying to
grow is more local opportunitieswithin original music, within

(30:29):
larger live events, but thendoing our best to still, you
know, really put forward ourbest foot with our online
presence.
So I don't know, I feel like Ihave to kind of just separate
those.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Yeah, I get that.
I get that Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
It's a.
It's a good reminder.
I listened to another podcastyou know it's not as good as
skip happens, but it's calledthe.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
I don't know.
It's called the 10 year town.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
It's called 10 year town with Troy Cartwright and,
um, he brings on a lot of guys,some that you've never heard,
but they wrote your favoritesongs.
And one thing that remains trueis no, you don't have to sell
your soul and you don't have tosell everything to then like
sell out and and make it andthen go and and be a vagabond
and travel around and like giveup everything to be successful.

(31:19):
But what you do have to writeis a million songs to find the
one, and we do.
We do feel like a um, you know,with the record label and
things like that, you do feel apressure of like I gotta be a
good steward of what I've beengiven here.
Like we got to write, we got toget together to write.
We may be exhausted I coach allthe kids' sports.

(31:40):
You know we're involved in ourchurch communities and our
families and all that kind ofstuff and everything's wanting
your time, but we have to carveout that writing time to say
like we got to steward thisreally well.
And so we, you know we try towrite as many as we possibly can

(32:00):
, um, so that something comesout of it, uh, which is pretty
challenging as well as liketrying to do the family time
plus make that car.
If you don't carve the time outfor writing, it doesn't happen.
And and um, thankfullysometimes.
You know, I put a guitar inevery room in the house house
there's an Ed Sheeran littlebaby Martin in the girls' room
and there's a ukulele in thebaby's room and there's another

(32:21):
guitar in my son's room andthere's a guitar in the bedroom
and everywhere I'm at I see aguitar and I'm like I got to
pick it up, I got to play it.
That guitar is just so pretty.
I got to see what comes out.
And sometimes I'm singinglullabies to my children and a
song comes out of it and mydaughter's like dad, that's it,

(32:43):
keep going.
I think I got an idea too.
My oldest daughter, june she's asongwriter, luke's a drummer,
he hears beats, he wants to jamalong.
And my second youngest daughter, anna.
She can hear things and lovesto sing and dance and she
inspires me to write a bunch.
And how kind and wonderful,incredible she is.
And I'm just surrounded byinspiration.

(33:07):
There's just never a dullmoment, there's never a lack of
emotional inspiration oranything when you're surrounded
by four kids who are trying tofigure out how to navigate life,
which is a lot different thanwhen we grow up.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Oh, absolutely I can.
Does it look like your kids aregoing to follow in your
footsteps and your wife's?
I mean, if there's aninstrument in every, every room
and you pick it up, you play andyour daughter's going?
Dad, that's it, Dad, I know.
Yes, that's so cool.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, my oldest daughter and my wife have led
several Sundays together atchurch in the main service.
Beautiful, my daughter.
We're actually seeing we havesomething called Family Day
coming up this coming Sunday,which is where we have combined
everybody in one service.
We pack everybody in this giantbuilding and then after that we

(33:58):
go to our county park and wetake over that county park and
there is about 30 differentnations represented at this
church.
It's something only God can do.
Where you've got every Latinonation, you've got Asians, black
, white, hispanic.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
It's everybody.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
It's everybody under one roof and I'm like only God
could do this.
And then we go eat and we'vegot empanadas, we've got hot
dogs, hamburgers, tamales andwhich there's like 20 different
types of tamales depending onwhich Latin nation you get it
from and it's the mostincredible potluck that you've
ever been to in your entire life.

(34:35):
But for family day, my oldestdaughter and my wife will lead a
song together and it'sincredible, it's beautiful.
My daughter, you can tell shegets it.
She's got stage presence aswell.
Kind of for me, I'm more thestage presence type person.
My wife is the gifted one andit's like she gets a little bit

(34:55):
from both.
Then, yeah, Luke is anincredible drummer.
He picked up the.
I got him the Questlove PocketKit Lugwood drums with the vinyl
cymbals and everything.
I was like you're not going toget a crappy set and forget
about it.
I'm going to get you the bestdrum kit and you're going to be
incredible.
But he's that self-driven kid.

(35:15):
He's the best pitcher.
Everything he loves to do, hesinks his whole life into it.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
You have to remember a lot of that is coming from you
and your wife and the peopleyou go through life with.
I mean, it's how you bring themup and that's how they get
their courage and their passionand their dedication to do
certain things.
It's because of you, exactly,and their passion and their
dedication to do certain thingsit's because of you, exactly.
How do you balance yourfaith-based themes with the

(35:41):
mainstream appeal?
How do you balance all that?

Speaker 3 (35:46):
Yeah, that's a great question and it's something we
discuss a good bit, because it'score to who we are and our
identity but, it's alsosomething that we don't want to
limit our audience.
So we try to navigate that verythoughtfully and so a lot of the

(36:08):
time we kind of feel like we'vefound at least for this season
a little niche.
We really feel like we'vestruggled and we've fought for
our marriages and that seemslike you know, that's definitely
something that you know wewould never deny that God was a
big part of that.
But it's also an opportunitythat we can hopefully help give
some other people someencouragement and you know it's

(36:30):
something that is worth fightingfor.
So, you know, being able tohelp raise other people up and
hopefully encourage them in away that maybe doesn't
necessarily have to have all ofthe language that might turn
someone off, that isn't of thesame faith, you know, I think we
try to find that balance.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Try to find a balance , absolutely.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Everyone's invited to the party.
I'm thinking about the thingsthat God cares about a lot.
God cares about marriage somuch.
He was the first institution.
I mean he, he showed us whatmarriage looked like.
He um, he calls the church thebride, you know, and he's the
bridegroom and and so like.
If it's really important to him, it's really important to me

(37:09):
and and uh, it's worth fightingfor.
You know, I look at thestatistics and they break my
heart.
Skip, you know, divorce is upand rising and it's just
infidelity, all these differentthings.
They break my heart.
Sean probably wrote most of thesong, but wrote a song called
Roses.
Don't hold your roses till thefuneral.

(37:30):
Take every chance you've got totell her she's beautiful and
we're about to release a song atsome point, but we put a little
demo out on our Instagrambecause it was very timely for
where we're at right now and totell your family you don't know
if you're guaranteed tomorrow.
You just don't.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
There's no guarantees in life.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
No guarantee.
So the things that are close tothe heart of God are close to
us and it doesn't have to be.
You know it's storytelling, youknow.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Do you realize that everything that you guys are
doing and the songs you'resinging and the songs, sean,
that you're writing, witheverything going on in the world
right now, it's a very scaryplace here, there, everywhere.
This is what we need.
This is what we need.
This is what we need.
We need to tell each other howmuch we love them, how much we

(38:22):
care.
We need to stick together.
We need to do all that.
This is the music that's goingto do that.
You know, I mean, I love alldifferent genres of music, but
when I listen to some of yourmusic and knowing what it's
about and how it's faith-basedit's about and how it's
faith-based, it's like, yeah, we, we need more of this and we,
well, we need a lot more rightnow.
And so you guys are in a verygood spot.

(38:43):
Just, you know, go one step ata time.
But wow, yeah, absolutely,absolutely.
Um, I wasn't gonna ask you.
I kind of, uh, lost my place,you kind of blew me away with
some of the stuff you weresaying.
I'm like what?

Speaker 2 (38:55):
drives us.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Wow, I see that.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
It has to be something that drives you.
This is not easy, skip.
No, you're putting yourself outon a platter and everybody's
going to pick it apart and then,all of a sudden, nobody's going
to show up, nobody's going tobuy your T-shirt, nobody's going
to call you up and say, hey,you should write more music
today.
I think this is prettyincredible.
What you're doing.
There's nothing that's going tofeed you, there's no dopamine

(39:26):
rush at any time that's going topick you up and keep telling
you to go.
It is something that you had tohear.
You have to know that this iswhat you're called to do or
you're not going to do it.
The motivator behind you andbehind me personally, is that
I'm in a broken world that needshope and I can put that in a
song.
I can do this.
Don't put it on a t-shirt, putit in a song and then be able to

(39:49):
encourage somebody.
Call somebody that hears thesong on the way to work and
they're like man, I didn't go tobed happy last night with my
spouse.
We didn't make up before wewent to bed and then the sun
rose and we were still angry andI need to call her and just
suck it up and tell her I'msorry, and just swallow my pride
.
I need to you know, or sheneeds to say you know what he

(40:09):
needs to feel more respected.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
No, I'm just kidding.
Just kidding Because I've beenthere, my friend.
I've been there, we've gone tobed angry and you wake up the
next day and you're still angry.
That's not the thing to do,though.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
No, but what if a song you heard on the radio said
man, I need to suck it up andgo apologize to my wife before I
do anything?

Speaker 1 (40:27):
else Makes you think about it.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Everything else can wait.
She's the most important thing100%, 100%.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Yeah, that motivates, us a lot yeah, let's talk about
your shows a little bit.
Um, you're described as, uh,these shows are described as
everything, uh, from footstomping rock to intimate
harmonies.
How do you build a set listthat moves between those two
extremes?
How do you do?

Speaker 2 (40:52):
that sean is actually , so I know I can brag on him a
lot.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
I think you're both pretty awesome.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Yeah, his mind works so wonderfully.
He's composed entire orchestrasand choirs and parts around
just some incredibleperformances.
He can see an entire show andknow how it's going to work
together and where theinstrumental fits, and then what
, what is going to be theperfect, high and the perfect.

(41:20):
And we know that we're creatingmoments as well.
We're not just creating songs,but I'm going to let you speak
into that.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
Yeah, I think a big thing for us is we.
We try to customize the setlist for the environment of the
show.
So, regardless of you know wherewe're going to go, we're going
to play our music but we canalter it in ways that match the
environment.
So, like one of the places weplay, it's kind of this like
outdoor rusty barn and it justbrings in the best music lovers

(41:50):
and everyone's got somedifferent lawn chairs spread out
over the grass and there's abunch of Rusty Kids toys in the
bag.
It's the oddest place but alsothe coolest venue I think we've
ever played at.
We've had the privilege ofplaying there a couple times
Ondaw Green, just out past MountPleasant, and Eddie White's out
there.
He's a great, great guy.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
He's a dentist who loves music so much that he's
dedicated the last 20 years toputting on this what's called a
barn jam.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Does he do it for charity?

Speaker 2 (42:22):
No, does he go back to?

Speaker 1 (42:23):
the church or he just does it.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
He's made it profitable.
They built a.
It looked like a giant antmound but it's a pizza oven.
They built that out there.
It's a brick pizza oven.
Another dentist from the shop'sa pizza oven.
They built that out there.
It's a brick pizza oven.
Um, another dentist from theshop comes and helps them.
Um, his daughter helps outthere.
Um, the sound engineers live onthe property.
Um, it's just really incredibleplace.

(42:47):
Um and um, he wanted a placewhere people could still play
real music, not cover music, noteven this kind of stuff and
have a place as they traveledand toured and put together a
tour, a place to stop.
And two years ago, one of thebands that came through town was
nobody, was the Red Clay Strays.
Oh my gosh, they were nobody.

(43:09):
Skip.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
I just saw them, like I want to say a month ago, and
they were fabulous.
I mean, I'm a fan since I firstfirst heard them, but then
being able to go to a show, yeah, and they and they demand.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
They demand a million dollars now for a show.
You know it's pretty incredible, but they were nobody.
They had to borrow instrumentsfrom other people.
They were coming through town.
It was every dollar.
They had to get and staysomewhere, all that kind of
stuff but Eddie gave them aplace to play and a place to
stay on the property and it'sthat kind of place here in
Charleston which is somethingspecial.

(43:41):
It says something aboutCharleston that we're not going
to let it die.
You know local homegrown, youknow songwriters.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
So making a set list for that audience is going to be
different than another venuewe're playing coming up where
it's going to be out on a deckoutside of a bar area where
we're going to still do ourmusic, but we're going to be a
little bit more upbeat andlively there.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
There's no seating.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Oh, there's no seating too.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
So standing, so you got to keep dancing.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
You got to keep moving, keep dancing.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
So you know, trying to find, like Josh said, those
moments, trying to createdynamic movements, not just in
each song but as a wholethroughout the night, and then
just trying to figure out, likeyou know, how do we want to
start, how do we want to end,and then kind of just filling
that in really well, in themiddle, customizing it, yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
Yeah, If somebody's never seen Gale Bird, what's the
one song they have toexperience in person and they'll
never forget you.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Keep going.
No, I think it's.
I Can't Wait.
We recorded it.
We were in a place where we'relike we don't know what genre we
are.
Yet I grew up, my first fouryears of my life were spent, you
know.
My mom went back to work, mydad was at work and I spent
every single day with mygrandmother, anita.

(45:02):
And Anita Hickman was fromHickory, north Carolina, in the
Appalachian Mountains About assouthern drawl as you can get,
and just an incredible woman.
Well, I began to sound justlike her and my mom when we
moved away from North Carolinato Texas.

(45:23):
My mom did everything she couldso that I would not sound like
I was from the AppalachianMountains and had this giant
Southern draw and would correctmy grammar, would correct my
accent.
And living in draw, um, andwould correct my grammar, would
correct my accent, uh.
And living in Dallas, texas,the biggest melting pot in the
world.
You know everything.
Every accent you starts tostarts to fade away.

(45:44):
You're in Texas, but you're notright, and uh, but here and
there my wife would tell me likeman, some, it really comes out
of you.
You know certain words, you saycertain things and it just
wants to.
It's who I was the first fouryears of my life, which were
some of the most developmentalyears of your life, but I would,
again, I didn't want to sounddumb, so I'd begin to try to

(46:07):
bury it and all that kind ofstuff.
And as we were starting todevelop music, it was like don't
let it, and choir will do it toyou as well.
In middle school, trying todon't sound like that round your
vowels, all these things, Ibecame more and more proud of
that lineage and more proud ofthat voice and not trying to

(46:31):
suppress it as much, and thatwas something to learn myself
about myself and my upbringing.
But every curator that we would, you know, send our songs to to
see if we would get on aplaylist, was like, hey, you are
country, you are country,you're not for this playlist,
you are country.

(46:51):
And we kept looking at ourselveslike I think we're country you
know, and so we'd like to tellourselves we're coastal country,
it's alternative.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Well, that's a good way to put it.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah, it's alternative rock meets Carolina
country and you know it's.
You don't have to have the hugedraw, southern draw to be
country.
A lot of people don't.
I've known a ton of people inthe heart of this state that
don't have a southern draw, andyou'll see a lot less of that

(47:28):
too in these parts.
But it really began to alsomorph our sound into that of
embracing the country music, andso we leaned into it hard.
So I'd say I Can't Wait.
Live is, you'll see it shine.
But a song that we've gotreleased right now I'd say I

(47:53):
Still Do would probably be theone that I would listen to.
That'd give you a goodunderstanding of what's going on
.
And Sean's playing banjo, he'splaying electric guitar, he's
playing the keys, he's playingall sorts of different
instruments in that song.
So you'll get every bit of Sean.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
And then probably second favorite would be Crumble
Down.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
for me, Crumble Down's great yeah, I have a
question, sean.
How did you learn to play somany different instruments?

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Oh man.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Just picking them up and playing with them.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Parents locked me in a cage for the first six years
of my life.
No, I started on piano.
I was trained classically for awhile, picked up the guitar and
realized I could just do thingson it that made me feel things
that the piano didn't.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Is it because of what you knew by playing the piano
that it made it easier for youto pick up a guitar?

Speaker 3 (48:46):
Yeah, and vice versa.
Honestly, a lot of what Ilearned on guitar.
I started I voiced thingsdifferently on the piano and so
then adding other instrumentskind of just came naturally
differently on the piano and sothen adding other instruments
kind of just came naturally.
So I'm very engineer-minded, sotheoretically I understand
music really well, so I couldunderstand a lot of instruments

(49:07):
and so then pretty much anythingstringed I could, you know,
functionally play pretty well.
At least well enough to you knowtrack on a song or two.
But then I had a lot ofopportunities over the last
couple decades of getting to dosome really cool stuff.
I play with an orchestra here,the North Charleston Pops.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Nice, so those are different shows.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
We've done country shows and 70s rock and funk, so
I've just had a wide experiencewith a lot of really cool
opportunities.
That have, I see, now equippedme for a lot of this stuff.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
It's helped you.
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
There's also a lot of neuropathways in his head.
Up there he majored.
I don't know how, but hemajored in math and jazz theory
at the same time.
What If anybody could tell youjazz theory at the College of
Charleston is an extremelydifficult program?
And then math I mean.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
come on man, I was a Don't even go down that road,
because I was a communicationmajor because you didn't have to
take but one math class Exactly.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
The only, thing, the math major has done for me is
it's a joke for everybody else.
When I can't get an auditionproblem right or something,
that's the only thing it does.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
I suck at math.
I'm just telling you right nowthat does not fly for me.
So you know, absolutely Well,that's just amazing.
You know you mentioned genrebefore, but is there really a
specific genre that you're goingfor?
Because nowadays me working inradio, it's.
I don't know if there's one,just one specific genre anymore.

(50:42):
Like country, I thinkeverything crosses over and you
know they may.
You know, one day they'relistening to you, the next day
they're, they're playing therock channel and then whatever,
maybe they're doing some hip-hopor rap, it's, I don't know.
Everybody crosses over nowadaysand I think the music that
you're doing even though you sayit's country, but I think it
fits everybody, and especiallynowadays, it makes you think and

(51:03):
it makes you think about thepeople you love and the people
you care about, and and life ingeneral, and that's what it's
about.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
You get placed in a genre you know Red Clay Strays.
I'll bring them up again.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
They're they're, they're southern rock, they
didn't want to be country, right.
Right, they're getting countryawards, but exactly, I guess
that's kind of what I'm saying.
And you know, like in our groupof radio stations we have a
classic hit station.
Back in the day we used to callthem oldies, but um, we're,
we're seeing that the audienceis younger and younger and

(51:34):
younger and you know, they wantto hear boston, they want to
hear icdc, they want to hearsome of the old 70s music, the
80s music, even the 90s thatwe're touching on now is oldies,
which makes me feel old.
So it's, you know, it's justamazing.
So I'm going like, where doesit?

Speaker 3 (51:52):
I don't know, I don't know, I think it's all over the
place that'll be interesting tosee if that ends up being a
strength for us, because Ididn't come from a country
background.
I've listened to Brad Paisley,keith Urban just idolize them as
guitar players, but I didn'tgrow up listening to it.
I grew up.
I love Queen.
I listened to a lot of churchmusic.
I've studied jazz.

(52:13):
It's such a wide variety ofstuff and it's been a struggle
because we have tried to makesure.
If it seems like the audienceis country-based, like we're
getting those playlists foronline distribution, we kind of
want to help continue to pushthat.
But man, when we play livethat's another one of the

(52:33):
disassociations is like we canopen up more.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
We don't have to stay strictly country and we can
pull some other genres in.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Yeah, Our upcoming show.
We've got a show at the PoorHouse coming up.
I think Sean mentioned it.
We've got our own Poor Househere in Charleston, on James
Island, and this upcoming showwe've got, uh, our pianist is
Venezuelan, you know, and, um,you know, just incredible, he's
incredible, but he's trained injazz.

(53:05):
He's just, but he can play allover the place.
Um, and then, you know, we'vegot a drummer that is as a
background in what would youcall that?
Uh, paramore type rock, you knowbut he's got so much energy and
he's, he's really really good,he's a human metronome, um, and
you know, then you got Sean,you've got myself and you know,

(53:26):
and, um, you know, and thenwe're, but we're trying to bring
it all together to where it isone band and it everything's
tight, everything is.
It just sounds good, it feelsgood, but there's moments to
where, in a performance like ifthis is your first rock show or
your 1,000th, you've neverexperienced something like this,

(53:46):
to where this moment capturesyou.
There was a time where theseinstruments did something that I
was not expecting and it wasincredible.
Or they did something with asong that I was a little
familiar with, that I was notexpecting at all, and I think
that's my new favorite versionof that song, and so it's just

(54:09):
great.
I mean, it's a challenge, butit's definitely giving each
other feedback on that as well,as we as we rehearse.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
You know, one one plus, with Gail Bird and the
music that you're putting outand we're talking about country,
if you're going to fall intothat genre, I guess country is
very faith based.
I mean Nashville, it's veryBaptist, it's very.
You know what I'm saying.
So maybe they are.
I mean, maybe it's to get infront of these programmers and

(54:38):
country radio in general and say, hey, we're here, this is what
you need.
However, I understand I hate tosee you be on the road 300 days
out of the year and I knowthat's not what you want, but
still, I think, are you oncountry radio at all anywhere?

Speaker 2 (54:57):
No, it's.
You know that's been the roadwe've tried to figure out as
well.
And Sean and I, you know we'remarketing guys too.
You know we've got a marketingfirm and a PR firm that you know
that we run websites andmarketing.
You know campaigns for Oneguy's running for governor of

(55:18):
California and one customer hasa gymnastics company and one
customer just all over the place, and we know how to make them
successful.
We know how to market everybodyelse's business, but when it
comes to music and when it comesto this consumer on the other
end, when it comes to someonesaying, hey, there are, how many

(55:38):
songs are released today, matt?

Speaker 1 (55:40):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, I think it's a millionsongs a day, it's crazy A day.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Yeah, You're cutting through the clutter of a million
independent artists and nothating on independent artists
but you're cutting through theclutter of anybody making music
on AI and putting it on YouTubemusic Ah, that's a whole other
story, yeah.
Yeah.
And then all of a sudden you'regoing to say, hey, listen to me
this goober from Charlestonnamed Gail Bird, when you don't.

(56:08):
You got enough time in the dayto figure out what you're going
to play anyways, right, and soit's just developing
relationships, you know gettingand just telling our story.
But I think consumers and youknow music lovers want somebody
authentic.
They don't want another copypaste, you know.
They want somebody who's livedit and that actually wrote the
song, maybe.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
Yeah, I mean, you guys are authentic.
This is.
It's a whole different soundwhen I, at the beginning of the
podcast, when I played just alittle clip of the song and the
harmonies and all that.
It's something you don't hearnowadays.
No, that was great.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
In the song Crumble Down there's a piano solo and it
was a desire of mine.
I remember him playing piano atmy wedding and I was like, hey,
I don't want one of your guitarsolos in this, I want a piano
solo.
Because I think Freebird andLeonard Skinner was the Leonard
Skinner rock shows were one ofthe most incredible things.
That, uh, it even offended theRolling Stones, you know, when

(57:07):
they had Leonard Skinner to openup for him and they're like,
hey, don't go out on the tongue.
And they went out on the tongueand it was incredible.
But the you, but they had thispianist that played in the band,
that was a roadie right, and hebrought in classical piano into
Southern country rock forLeonard Skinner.
So I said, sean, I want atribute, kind of, to that, I

(57:30):
want this piano solo.
So we went to my alma mater,charleston Southern, we went to
the music department and they'vegot about 20-some Practice
rooms yeah, a bunch of uprightssolos.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
So we went to my alma mater, Charleston Southern.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
We went to the music department and they've got about
how many different 20, somePractice rooms, yeah, a bunch of
uprights, a bunch of uprights,but they've got about 20
different types of pianos there.
They've got baby grands,they've got grands, they've got
uprights, they've got all sortsof different brands of pianos.
We played every single pianoand we finally found we narrowed
it down to like two and thenfinally we narrowed it down to
one piano.
Then we set up we had we hadsome friends of ours let us in

(58:00):
on a Saturday and we set up andwe spent the next like two hours
perfecting this piano solo andrecording it in this in
makeshift studio, in the middleof of a college campus, and, um,
it turned out to be incredibleand I love it.
It's one of my favorite songsand it's because, like I knew
what went into this.
Right and uh and uh, it's somuch fun to listen to, and so

(58:24):
that's.
You know, you can't put us in abox.
And and uh, we're going to.
You know, we're going to figureout how to make something our
own.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Have you thought about, um, just hitting the road
and hitting up some radiostations?
Maybe take a little bit ofvacation time from whatever and
just hit the road and hit upsome morning shows, and maybe
with your music, maybe somethinglike a K-Love or people like

(58:51):
that.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
Stations like that very faith-based.
I don't know.
Have you thought about that?

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Well, like you know, I emailed you.
You know, yes, and I loved it.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Because I've got friends from Syracuse.
We flew into Syracuse and thenwe went to Lake.
Was it Ontario?

Speaker 1 (59:03):
There's Lake Ontario.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
Lake.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Oneida, and there's the Finger Lakes.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Yep, I think we were on Ontario.
It's a big lake.
It was incredible and we had, Imean, there's the tall green
grass and the lake wasincredible.
The sun, you know the, thesunset, the sunset was,
everything was incredible.
And I was like man, nobodyknows that this up here, this
exists.
It's incredible.
And, uh, so these friends,these are great friends of mine,

(59:28):
they live here in Charleston,they're also songwriters and and
I said, hey, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, hey.
This guy responded to me I'mgoing on his podcast and his
name's Skip, and it's calledSkip Happens.
And they lost their mind.
They were like are you kiddingme?
What?
Skip from the Wolf?
Yes, and they lost their mindand Grace and Mitch Johnston,

(59:53):
great friends of mine, they losttheir mind.
They were just laughing andjust it took them right back and
they are huge fans of yours.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
But no, it's like Tom , I said hello, that's so
awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Thank you.
I emailed you.
You responded, you listened,you love music.
I've emailed every radiostation here in my own city.
You know, and thought aboutshowing up and I've had friends
on there and thought aboutshowing up and I've had friends
on there.
I get no response.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
You know, I've got to tell you, josh, I do this.
Yes, I'm the PD, I'm theafternoon guy at the Wolf in
Syracuse.
The skip happens is mine.
But what I do is I do share alot of this.
What I do here in my own studio, what I do here, I share it
with the Wolf listeners, right,you know that what I do here.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
I share it with the Wolf listeners.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Right, you know that's what I, so I have that
connection and even if I wasn'tworking radio, I'd still be.
Hopefully I would be talking toyou.
I would be doing because Ifirmly believe that everybody
needs to be heard.
Yes, and I firmly believe it'sone fan at a time.
I firmly believe how all thatworks.
I mean, yeah, I mean I've hadLainey Wilson on, I've had

(01:00:58):
Martina McBride on, I've hadRussell Dick.
I can go on and on.
All right, I've had a lot ofthe big stars, but you know what
?
People already know who theyare.
I'm not dissing them at all.
I love them.
I love them, but still, peopleneed who you are.
You're in the game as well.

(01:01:18):
Your music needs to be heardand they need to know how hard
you're working at getting it outthere.
And by reaching out to peoplelike myself or anybody else that
will host a podcast, takeadvantage of that.
Take advantage, get yourselfout there.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
You know what I'm saying.
Thank you for having us.
We're, we're not going to stop.
We'll keep working and eventhough, even though our journey
might look, look different thansome artists, we realize we're
still going to put work in.
So that that doesn't change.
Yeah, um, I will, I'm going forit and we'll tell you this
absolutely, and we'll tell youthis.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
You know I'm going to pick your brain about a radio
tour.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
I'm going to email you follow up and all that kind
of stuff 100 I got your phonenumber you know, I know you do
and you're coming we're going togo out on the boat at some
point.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
We got a friendship now.
But somebody told me one timethey said hey, man, I can't wait
for people to know who you areand to hear you.
And I said you know what?
But you know what's evengreater Is there's a God in
heaven that knows me already andhe hears me and he loves me.
He knows everything about me.
I'm like I could die today andjust be super happy, knowing

(01:02:16):
that I am known, I am seen, I amheard, I am loved.
I am everything that I wouldever need, even if nobody ever
heard my music.
I know that I made my creatorhappy because he created the
planet the most incredible thingwe get to go out and look at
and that creativity's in me andI kind of tried to give back a

(01:02:36):
little bit of it to him.
I think that might move hisheart just a little bit, but he
sees me, he hears me, he knowsme, he loves me and that makes
me so happy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
100%, josh, yes, yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
But I want people to hear it and know it, because I
think it could help change thetrajectory of their life or
their marriage or their family,to where, if I had some hurt and
I had something going on, godnever wastes a hurt.
He never, ever wastes a hurt,because He'll allow us to use
that to keep somebody else fromhaving to go through that same

(01:03:08):
type of trauma or hurt and say,hey, I know what you're feeling
exactly right now and I want youto know how you can walk
through this.
You can actually walk throughhell and not even smell like
smoke coming out of it and yougot a story to tell 100%.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
Yeah, now is Melissa at home watching this.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
No, you know what?
I didn't even send her the link.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
No, no, well, I mean, if she just clicks on, you know
, my Facebook or YouTube, or thepodcast page.
I just cause.
I haven't seen her chime inhere yet, so that's awesome
People can comment.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
She's probably doing all the nighttime routine
everything.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
She is God bless her Wonder woman.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
She is a wonder woman like nobody's business.
She has no fear of man.
She has missed justice.
She worked at a psych wardhelping children who everybody
else counted off.
She worked in the department ofsocial services trying to
rescue children.
She is like god bless the mostincredible woman you've ever met
, but like pure in heart, um,there's something different.

(01:04:05):
You meet her and you're likethat's, that's a real person.
Um, that is just so pure inheart and she's just so
motivated people like that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
It's just wow, dude, you're so lucky and you're
blessed.
You are blessed, both of youare blessed.
Can I ask about your harmonies,though?
How did uh like the song Iplayed as we came on here
tonight?
That blew me away?
The harmonies.
Is this just?
It's just there, it's natural,or did you work at it?
How did all that come to cometo be?

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
Yeah, um, that that was a really fun one.
So just trying to match thetheme of the song flying high,
you know, happy in love, like wewanted the harmonies to be
soaring and moving, and so Ilove orchestration, and so I
felt like part of it was tryingto view it as an orchestrator,

(01:04:57):
like how am I moving the partsin a way that ties well with the
song?
And so, um, we just very I'mvery fortunate to get to work
with some great singers and withjosh and melissa being able to
to move like that, and so we wespent a good bit of time in the
studio making sure we we nailedit.
But, um, but yeah, part of it,I think, is just trying to like
visualize musically what matcheswhat we're trying to

(01:05:17):
communicate.

Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
Yeah, that was really good, that was just the
beginning.
Beginning, my friend.
Yeah, absolutely, you know,Gale Bird.
That's who they are.
Gale Bird, Check them out Now.
If somebody wanted to go on andmaybe somebody watches this
after the fact and we're liveright now, but they can bring it
up anytime, so where would theygo to get your music?

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
So if you go to galebirdcom, G-A-L-E-B-I-R-Dcom
and you can get all the streamlinks, we're streaming on every
major platform, so it's Amazon,iTunes, YouTube, Spotify,
wherever you're streaming music,you can find Gail Bird and so
we can link to that from ourwebsite.
There's merch on our website.

(01:06:02):
There's, you know, some musicvideos and things.
We've tried to put together alittle bit, but really it's like
you know, find the song thatresonates with you and and, and
know that there's a story behindit.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
I love that.
I love that Absolutely.
I was just looking at a few ofmy notes and they're all over
the place.
That's why it skip happens.
Yeah, I don't know, what did Itell you when we were going to
go on?
Is that we just go?
We just go, we just do whatever, but yeah.
Oh, man.
So you know it's been greathaving you on.
You know, melissa, just I, I'msorry she couldn't be with us,

(01:06:39):
but I totally get it being a mom, believe me.
I, I've got three daughters,I've got eight grandkids, and my
wife and I now nancy and I wehave a son that's 24 but he's
down syndrome and he's just, ohmy god, we do it, we do
something called zach attackwith dad.
So, oh, wow you start lookingthrough my uh youtube page,

(01:07:00):
you'll see it on there, but uh,it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
We just opened a gg's playhouse here in charleston,
the first in south carolina.
Yeah, so um, one of my otherfriends, marianna, she, uh um,
is every like every otherSaturday volunteering.
What an incredible organization.
We lost your audio.

(01:07:24):
There, you go, we're back.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Yeah, see my microphone.
I got all excited and I hit thekeyboard and it hit the.

Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
M you know what M means Mute Right right, right
Gone.

Speaker 1 (01:07:34):
It's like you lost me .
Now I'm back phone.
I got all excited and I had akeyboard and it hit the m you
know what m means mute, right,right, right gone.
It's like you lost me.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
Now I'm back now you're back, yeah yeah, but no,
gg's playhouse is great.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
Um, I've emceed a lot of their events.
I do a lot of their uh, charity, their fundraising um, we do
all that.
My son is actively involvedwith gg's playhouse, so I love
it, and never a dull moment I'lltell you no, never a dull
moment.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
I'll tell you no, never a dull moment he's the
biggest baseball fan you'll evermeet.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
He's just like I say you should check out Zach.
Attack with Dad.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
It's all good.
I want to thank you for takingthe time to hang out tonight.
Talk about you guys a littlebit.
Find out about you.
I'll be spreading the word.
I bit find out about you.
I'll be spreading the word.
I'll do what I can on my endand I don't want to lose touch
with you, both of you.
Even tell Melissa I said helloeven though we didn't meet.
But I'm here and you're soblessed, both of you and what

(01:08:28):
you do and your mission and themusic.
It's healing.
It will definitely help peopleand they need to hear it.
So it's Gail Bird and they'vebeen on Skip Happens tonight, if
you like it.
You guys got a YouTube page.
You do right, yep, I think soGail Bird music.
Yep, there you go.
Subscribe to them, subscribe toSkip Happens, and we have a lot

(01:08:49):
more of these coming up too.
I just you know, josh and Sean.
Thank you so much, and thankyou to the studio.
Who's that, matt's behind?

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
the board Holy City Music Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
Holy City Music.
I love that.
That's so cool.
I love the studio idea too, soit's very cool.
All right, guys, hang rightthere.
We're going to say good night.
Thanks for watching everybody.
It's been Skip Happens and wegot more of these coming up real
.