December 24, 2024 • 55 mins
Welcome back. We have a very special episode in store for you this week. Please enjoy!
Jeff Snyder:
A seasoned Professor, Jeff has an incredible background in music education (to say the least). During his 25-year tenure at Lebanon Valley College, Professor Jeff Snyder created and directed the Music Business Concentration, served as the Music Department Chair, and led students in creating the award-winning VALE Music Group. Jeff was awarded the first "Educator of Note" award from the CPMHOF in 2019. Now retired from Academia, Jeff has many ventures still related to music education and music production. You can also check out his YouTube channel below.
https://www.youtube.com/@snydersmusicbiznews
&
Angel Dweh:
Finally on the Podcast! We have spoken to Angel on the Red Carpet of the CPMAs for many years now and it was an honor to finally get to sit down and discuss the origins and inspirations of his music. Angel is a Liberian-American singer, recording artist, songwriter, composer, dancer, and actor. Among many other awards and nominations, Angel has been nominated for the Best World Music Band/Artist CPMA in 2023, R&B/Soul CPMA in 2024, and received a spot award for Best World Music in 2024. Please make sure you stay tuned for a special live performance at the end of the episode!
https://www.angeldweh.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@AngelDweh
https://www.instagram.com/angeldwehofficial
You can find out more about the CPMHOF @ https://cpmhof.com/
Brought to you by Darker with Daniel @ Studio 3.
http://darkerwithdaniel.com/
All media requests: thecpmpodcast@gmail.com
Want to be on an episode of the CPMP? For all considerations please fill out a form @ https://cpmhof.com/guest-consideration
Join us back here or on your favorite audio streaming platform every other week for more content.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast Tonight Jeff Snyder andAngel Dwayne.
This episode is sponsored byMembers, First and now your
hosts, Daniel Kime and AlanMcCutcheon.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast.
I'm your host, daniel, comingup.
We have Jeff Snyder and AngelDeWay Sitting here with Jeff
Snyder.
Jeff, you are a very, let's say, seasoned man from industry,
music industry of centralpennsylvania, musician yourself.
You've taught um.
You've done a lot of differentthings.
(00:51):
First of all, thanks for comingon the show.
It's a pleasure having you here, um.
But secondly, uh, man, there'sa lot of different stuff we
could cover here.
I think it's probably bestlet's start at the beginning.
Where did you get your start inmusic?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
uh, first let's go back to I'm being see, I'm
seasoned, you understand, forold people, that's, that's not
you know a good thing to say isthat not a good thing?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I?
Don't know, okay, okay, Ifigured that was the nicer thing
to say it's all good, um, allright.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Well, I was uh born inacola, florida.
I was a surf rat for a lot ofyears and still am when I can.
I'm now the old guy that I usedto scream at to get out of my
way.
My family is very musicoriented.
(01:41):
They come from deep in thehills of Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Okay, music oriented.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
They come from deep in the hills of Tennessee.
The Cashes are one of the partof the family.
Johnny Cash, my great aunt,went to high school with June
Carter.
Wow, some of my favoritememories are when I was a kid
going up to Tennessee and theywould all jam, all jam, you know
(02:06):
, and there was banjos and andmandolins and guitars and you
name it washboards.
I mean, it was the real thing,sitting on a porch and you know,
in Tennessee and in Virginia,um, like an Appalachian hoedown.
And it was the real thing.
I mean they had this one schooland hoedown it would, and it was
the real thing.
(02:26):
Yeah, I mean they had this oneschool, old school that was a
church that they would havethese jam sessions at and people
would come from miles around.
You could see the cars lined upall the way down this country
road and they all would come andwatch my family the fridays and
the snyders and the c all justjam and they did it for the fun
of it.
They sold hot dogs, you know itwas one of those kinds of
(02:48):
things.
Um, my second cousin, danSnyder, right now is playing
keyboards with the, uh, warrenZeter band.
Oh, okay, we're in all over theplace and so um, yeah, so the
DNA runs deep as far as themusic in my family, and so I
went to the University of WestFlorida.
I studied piano with PierreHeibritz.
(03:09):
That was sort of the classicalside.
He studied with Nadia Bollinger.
If you're a classical nerd, Iplayed in every kind of band you
can think of, from reggae tocountry, to the Red Velvet Room
underneath the roadway innplaying Mac the Knife.
Oh gosh to the red velvet roomunderneath the roadway in
playing Mack the Knife.
You know did the travel aroundthe South in the back of a van
(03:29):
pulling a trailer for a wholesummer thing played in a
Christian band, you name it.
As I always told my students,there's two types of people in
our industry.
There are pimps and hoes.
And I was a hoe.
You know, pay me a dollar and Iwill come play keyboards for
you.
That was basically it.
(03:51):
And then I went from there toOrlando to work at Ace Music.
It was sort of a day gig.
Ed and Thoroughbred and RhythmCity back at the time were the
largest music stores in theSouth and I ran the recording
and keyboard department and alsotaught at Full Cell a little
bit.
And then from there I moved toNorfolk, virginia, where I
(04:13):
worked for Audio, light andMusic, which was the largest
music store in Central Atlanticarea, and still played in bands
and did sessions.
And from there I heard aboutthis gig.
Up here in Pennsylvania, sort ofalmost as a lark applied for
(04:33):
this teaching gig at the college, mostly because my wife at the
time her family still lived here.
She was from this area.
She really wanted me to applyfor the job.
I was thinking there's no way.
I only had really wanted me toapply for the job and I was
thinking, there's no way.
I only had a bachelor's inmusic from the University of
West Florida.
And to this day I still thinkthat when the dean called to
(04:54):
offer me the job at the college,he accidentally went one line
too far down as far as phonenumbers go.
He kept calling me George thewhole conversation.
Congratulations George.
Phone numbers go.
You know, he kept calling megeorge the whole conversation.
Congratulations, george.
We have chosen you to cometeach at our college and and I
think that when I showed upinstead of the guy that he was
uh, expecting, he was tooembarrassed to to admit his
(05:15):
mistake.
Is this true?
No, but you know it's.
A lot of my colleagues therewere wondering who let the
barbarian inside the gates youknow, coming from this surfing
rock and roll type thing.
And then you know, I didn'tsmoke a pipe and I didn't stroke
a beard and I didn't have quitethe academic chops that a lot
(05:37):
of my more academic brethren had.
So that's how I ended up inPennsylvania in 1997 and at the
college.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Wow, that's quite the journey right there.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
It's been quite a journey and I retired about a
year and a half ago.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Okay.
So when you were at the college, though, you were teaching the
music department, or musicbusiness department.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well, I was a music professor in the music
department.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And when I first was hired I was the assistant
director of recording because Icame in with my expertise was
more synthesizers, midi.
I was at the very forefront ofthat kind of technology.
And then I created the musicbusiness program.
So I doubled in both programsfor a while and then I just did
all music business because itbecame really successful and big
(06:25):
um I was.
I became chair of the musicdepartment about, you know, the
semester right before covid hit.
So I had the good fortune ofbeing the chair of a very large
department during covid, whichwas a nightmare oh in itself
having to shepherd, um, you know, 12 full-time faculty and 24
(06:49):
adjuncts and 125 music majorsall through this time that
everybody didn't know if theywere going to live or die, you
know, and the evacuation andgoing online in three days, you
know it was.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It was very, very, uh stressful I think that would
probably be an understatement,maybe.
Oh my goodness, wow.
Well, at least at that pointyou had some experience under
your belt and you were a goodman for the job, for it.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Hopefully Some would probably disagree, but I was
able to make a lot of changes.
One of the things that I wasable to do was put in a really
high-end streaming system in themusic hall so the parents could
see their kids play, because wecouldn't have any guests come
to campus during COVID.
(07:34):
So the first semester Iactually sat in front of the
stage with my iPhone andstreamed every recital and I
think there was 40 at night andthen after that we got the
system put into the hall andeven then I still streamed most
all of that.
So if you go to the LVC musicdepartment Facebook page and
look at all the videos from back, then you can see they're
(07:58):
nowhere near as polished as whatyou guys do, but the parents
really appreciated being able tosee their kids perform.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Oh, I'm sure they did , and thank you for the
compliment.
I don't think we're all thatpolished, though, so you've done
a little bit more than justteaching over the years, though
You're also an accomplishedmusician.
Like you said, you were a hoeat one point, played in a lot of
different bands.
I feel, like there's probably alittle bit more we could
uncover from that there.
Tell us about some of yourexperiences in playing in a band
(08:26):
over the years.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
You know, I was always this second tier wannabe
rock star.
I played with one band calledthe Janitors it's sort of an R&B
band.
Bruce Crump from Molly Hatchetwas our drummer oh wow.
And I played with a gentlemannamed Florida Bill in Pensacola.
He was Ike and Tina Turner'ssax player oh wow.
You know, full-on stardom.
Um, and then I played in allthe you know, the pickup bands,
(08:53):
the reggae bands and whatever Icould pick up at the time.
It was one of the things Itried to bring to my students
(09:16):
was this is a great life butit's a hard life and you gotta
hustle and you have to smile andyou have to take what you get
yeah you know you can.
Music is in demand.
But, um, you know, nobody'sgoing to come knocking on your
door saying please come make afortune, you'll you make a
living at it.
(09:36):
You still might have to say,would you like fries with that
during the day?
But but you know, if you staywith it long enough, something
good will happen.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah yeah, um, and it's.
It's crazy.
Actually, a couple years ago,um, on our old show, we had a
couple musicians on there, um,and they talked about you know
how crazy, how you wouldn'tbelieve.
The musicians you listen to,that you think are like
full-time musicians.
They've made it, they're outtouring, and whether or not
they're hanging out theirmansion.
No, they're not.
They're hanging out at theirmansion.
No, they're living in theirone-bedroom apartment working a
(10:08):
full-time job in between tours.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, a lot of people do not realize that.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, a lot of the one of my clients when I was in
Norfolk was like Bruce Hornsbyand Carter Buford of Dave
Matthews' band and stuff andthese were all overnight
successes.
But these guys were playing inin these back swamp bars for
years before they became anovernight success.
Everybody thinks it's like, uh,it's going to happen real quick
(10:33):
.
But no, you, it's, you gotta beseasoned.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, it's going to be the word of the night.
And you even mentioned you gotto hustle too.
We uh we learned that frombrett michaels.
Whenever we we interviewed him,he talked about getting on, uh,
the bandmates getting on eachother's shoulders and put their
posters up higher so no onecould cover.
That's right, um, you knowgetting creative with it, but
it's a grind man, it's a hustle.
You got to get out there.
(10:56):
You got to want it uh, morethan everyone else, and everyone
else wants it too.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
So some of my students were the guys in Small
Town Titans and one of theclasses they took they had to
create business plans.
And so Philip's business planwas basically Small Town Titans.
He called it Lone Wolf and hemade a very detailed business
(11:21):
plan.
After he graduated.
He was thinking solo act, act.
But he had to think througheverything.
How much money gas would cost?
What was the cost of a vaninsurance?
You know, how was it going tolive?
How was going to?
You know it was to the atomiclevel.
And if you're not prepared,that's why so many people crash
and burn, you know, because theythink it's all going to come to
(11:42):
them.
But you gotta, you gotta, haveyour chops behind you.
So, and john made one, and bothum, both phil and john were
presidents of at one time oranother, and each one of them
also created, hosted and put on,you know, an all-day music
business conference at thecollege.
Each one of of them, wow.
(12:03):
You know which was verystressful.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I can only imagine.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Especially the one year we couldn't do it when we
normally would, which was afterThanksgiving.
It was going to be in Octoberand we couldn't do it on
Thanksgiving because there wasgoing to be a championship
football game and, you know, allthe facilities were all taken
up and so I think it was Johnhad to come up with a conference
.
The class began in august andthe conference we had to do it
(12:28):
in october and, uh, we had, um,one of philip's relatives from
live forget what his name wasactually come play, but we
rented a fire hall, you know,and that's where we had our
lunch and all that kind of stuff.
So it was was learn by stress,learn by improvising, learn.
It's like, you know, what I'vealways said is in our industry,
(12:54):
it's not like you can go to abook and open it up to page 44
and this is what you're going todo.
There's nothing in concrete,it's all in mud, and you know it
changes constantly and you'vegot to be able to adapt daily.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, I mean, what worked for someone doesn't work
for someone else.
You know, and even what you'resaying, even making your
business plan, I mean, do youhave your van breaking down as a
part of your business plan too?
You know, it's, it's.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I really like the way you put that.
So, speaking of business plans,though, you have another
endeavor for so long to take ajob.
What am I going to do withmyself?
But John Ewell, who's a friendof mine, had just retired from
the Lincoln Center.
He did all of the audio andaspects of the jazz at the
Lincoln Center, which was reallyhuge, and he had retired and he
told me don't do anything for ayear and and, uh, adjust to it,
(14:08):
and it takes a while, but so Ibegan to think of what are some
of the things I want to do, and,um, and I realized that and
this is too late, it really istoo late for me to realize this
but content creators are thefuture, the content creation.
(14:29):
I would make a major.
That's content creation, and alot of that comes from suddenly
watching YouTube like crazy,watching you guys like crazy
watching you guys.
Um, my last year at the college,uh, the students created, uh,
veil after dark, which was apodcast they put out every week
(14:51):
and it was hilarious listeningto college students talk on a
podcast very non-filtered Uh,the sound could be crappy.
Um, none of it's there anymore,but anymore.
But I was very proud of themFor a year.
They put out these podcasts andthey kept saying we want to do
video.
And I kept saying it's going tobe too hard and you had spent
too much time editing and allthis kind of stuff.
(15:12):
And then now I realize thatcontent creators, gen Z,
especially Gen Zers, arecreating like crazy.
So instead of passivelywatching, they're engaging in
the media itself.
And I'm just floored you know,watching all this incredible
(15:34):
stuff that's showing up onYouTube that they're doing
mistakes and all raw, organic,just the real stuff, and I love
it.
And so, as a baby boomerwanting to squeeze back into Gen
Zers, I sort of elbowed my wayin and created a YouTube channel
(15:56):
that I just started and it'scalled Snyder's Music Biz B-I-Z
News.
It's a really short, 13-15minute cast.
I don't like calling it apodcast, it's like a content
creator type thing.
I pick five weird music bizarticles.
(16:19):
Then I have a sixth one that mycat chooses, which is sort of
it's called, uh, jonesy's catshit crazy moment.
Um, so the episode that droppedyesterday, his moment, my cat's
moment, was I don't know ifyou've seen them wu-tang has a
political science.
Have you seen them?
The kind you put in your yards?
And it's hilarious.
(16:40):
You know so.
And we're in an area wherethere's a sign on every yard.
So the idea of putting Wu-Tangforever, you know, presidents
don't last Wu-Tang forever, youknow, political sign.
Anybody driving by would justcrack up.
So that's the kind of stuff Ilike putting into my channel.
And if three people watch it,fine.
(17:01):
If more people watch it, fine.
It's just now I have the timeto do that and it keeps.
That's about to hit the musicindustry Like one of the.
(17:25):
My next episode, next Wednesday, is going to focus more on AI,
the CEO of the Recording Academy, and you probably know this,
but he put out this thing thatthey were going to accept
AI-generated music for Grammys.
Yeah, that's the look he gotfrom everybody, and so he had to
follow up with anotherstatement saying okay, yeah,
(17:46):
okay, let me explain.
A human still has to submit themusic, and so I'm thinking
Schwarzenegger going up to gethis Grammy.
I'll be back if they don't giveit to him, or he will find a
human.
And so now they're looking athow much of the song was
generated by AI and how much itwas generated by humans.
(18:10):
And just a couple of days ago,timbaland there was an article
about.
He uses AI now for all of hismusic bed ideas and he just
expands on those.
One of the guys I used to knowin Virginia Beach I had lunch
with him.
He works with Chad Hugo, whichwas Pharrell's partner in the
Neptunes, and they begin with AI.
(18:31):
And this is the guy who ElonMusk just asked him to do music
to send up in one of hisspaceships.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Really.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And they're doing some marvel movie right now, and
um, but he said, yeah, I mean,you know, he just uses ai for
the beds, and then they justbuild on top of it.
And um, you know how far isthis going to go?
Yeah it's amazing.
Will there one day be an all aigenerated vocals and everything
(18:58):
song they get to Grammy?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
That's just crazy and it's quite the rabbit hole too.
I mean we could sit here andtalk about that for hours, but I
mean I'm sure there's alsogoing to be, you know, a concern
.
I know I've seen on the internetpeople already talking about
with, like AI generated art,where it's like well, there,
it's not really generating art,dealing other people's art and
compiling it into this, andthat's, I guarantee, exactly
(19:20):
what's going on with the music.
So when does there become likea um, a movement towards like
hey, this is just stolen rights,you know?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Well, I you know well two things.
One is we had the sameconversation with MIDI, came out
and sampling.
You're going to put realmusicians out of business
because you've got the sample ofa drummer instead of a drummer,
which isn't necessarily a badthing.
I'm kidding, all right.
I like drummers, some of my bestfriends are drummers, but the
(19:50):
idea that you put down a drumgroove and then Ableton Live
will add a bass and then addkeyboard parts, I mean, that is
sort of that's artificialintelligence already that we've
been using.
And also, I think, that, thewhole copyright thing.
I attended a summer longCreative Commons licensing class
, and the idea is that you'renot going to make any money on
(20:12):
copyrights anymore.
You know, unless you're TaylorSwift, you're not going to make
any money on streaming, so leteverybody use your stuff as long
as you get the credit for it,and then you can use that credit
to sell other stuff, merch orwhatever.
So you're right, you know AI ispulling thousands of bits from
the Internet that is owned byother people.
It is copyright infringement tothe atomic level, though, and
(20:35):
how do you track that?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And at what point do you just cut off technology
because of its capability?
You can't just say, well, thisis just too good for us to
comprehend, so you can't use it.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Well, since AI is going to control our missile
systems and stuff like that, wedon't want to piss it off.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
So we're not going to cut off.
I didn't say this, ai yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Please let me live.
Yeah, I mean, that is its wholeown thing, though, right there,
ai, it's, it's, it is thefuture.
Yeah, we know it.
We don't know which way it goes.
Hopefully it doesn't actuallykill us, like we just said, but
um, you know it.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Yeah, I had my first AI-generated essay turned in
right before I left and I evenconfronted the student.
You know it was obvious.
The change in writing style wasquite dramatic.
But you can't prove plagiarism.
You can't go back and findwhere it came from.
You can't prove they didn't doit where it came from.
(21:41):
You can't prove they didn't doit.
And then, um, the students andthe other students in the class
came to me after the semesterand said you do know that he was
using ai to write your thepapers.
I said I know, but you know howcan I prove it?
I can't you know, so it's awhole new world.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
It is, it is.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
It's a scary whole new world instead of saying
would you like to play a game?
It's gonna.
It's, I actually saw a plug-in.
Uh, would you like to play agame?
It's going to.
It's, I actually saw a plug-in.
Uh, would you like to be asongwriter?
And it's an ai generated musicplug-in for whichever program I
own.
It is, but you can buy it as aplug-in and it will create the
music for you.
So it is.
Would you like to make a song?
(22:14):
You know we're getting to thatpoint, but that could be freeing
too.
You know, if it wasn't for drummachines, we wouldn't have rap.
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, but that could be freeing too.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
You know, if it wasn't for drum machines, we
wouldn't have rap.
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
I mean, it could just beanother tool in the toolbox.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
If it's a tool in a toolbox, yes, musicians will
rise to the top.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong
with using something that'sgoing to either enhance or
benefit you or um help you grow,but if it's going to do all the
work for you that's where thefine line is Of course, if
you're being lazy about it.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
But, like I said, musicians good musicians will
rise to the top, they'll be on,they will use it as a tool.
But unfortunately, even now thecommercial music industry music
for commercials.
They're using AI to generatethe music for the backgrounds
because, you know, it's supposedto be sort of bland and it's
free.
And it's free and they own it.
(23:02):
They don't have to license it.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yep, exactly so, oh man, crazy world we live in
these days.
Well, we could probably talkabout ai for hours.
Is there anything else that youwanted to maybe mention before
we wrap up here?
Uh, that I didn't cover.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Besides my being seasoned, I almost feel like
you're about to say we'refeaturing Professor Snyder
Emeritai the oldest person we'veever had.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I don't think you're the oldest I'm joking.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
I'm joking, I'm joking.
One thing I don't know if it'sever been brought out, but one
of the reasons I love thisorganization is I don't know if
you remember, but during COVID,all the venues shut down.
There was nowhere to play andBrandon opened up and did
virtual concerts for all themusicians.
(23:59):
He gave them an outlet tocontinue to perform and a tip
jar, so they were actually ableto perform from their living
rooms through this channel thathe created for these videos and
I think he told me they raisedlike he paid out like $50,000
through the tip jars and didn'tkeep any of it.
Wow.
So that shows to me the heartof this organization and it's
(24:21):
why I'm very, very proud to beassociated with it in any degree
.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
That I can be.
We didn't even mention that youare on the advisory committee,
the education.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
I'm on the education committee right.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, it's great to be a part of this committee, man
.
It really is what you said it'sgood to be in a, in a system
that's going to help give backto a community that we love and
care about so that's, right sowell.
Jeff, thank you so much forcoming on the show man, I really
appreciate it.
Thanks for being seasoned.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Uh, it really it really gives a lot to talk about
with the same thing ouch, ohman, I'm sorry, it's all good
well, we'll uh, we'll talk toyou soon, all right.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
All right, thank you.
Great conversation with jeff.
Everyone, stay tuned up.
Next we have angel dewaysitting here with angel deway.
Angel, thank you so much forcoming on the show tonight.
It's a pleasure having you here.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Thank you for having me of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
So angel is a local musician here in central
Pennsylvania, music CentralPennsylvania, and, just like
everything else, I always loveto start at the beginning, man.
So let's talk about where youstarted out, how you got your
start in music.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Oh, it's a long story short.
I got my start in music throughmy mom.
Okay, it's a long story short,I got my start in music through
my mom.
Okay, you know me and mysiblings were younger, like
little in the house.
She used to sing to us.
She would sing gospel songs.
She used to have a lot ofgospel records and as we were
growing up more I used to sneakmyself on the computer and watch
(25:55):
Chris Brown and Usher, eventhough I wasn't allowed to.
Okay watch Chris Brown and Usher, even though I wasn't allowed
to.
Okay, and that was that allowedme to dive more into dancing as
well, because the more I waswatching, you know, chris Brown
and Usher and Neil, knowing thefact I wasn't allowed to, but I
was diving more into buildingthe spirit as a dancer.
So, with my mom singing, itkind of like resonated with me
(26:16):
and my siblings because that'swhat we're raised with.
Um, so, being like barriermusic, it's, it's, it's uh, is
used as a tool to communicatewith the people, with, you know,
with the towns and all of that.
So that's how to use music toshare message.
Okay, so, being a raise in ourculture, and then moving here, I
(26:37):
was able to adapt the Americanculture so fast through music
Because when I first my family,I first got here, everybody used
to say, oh you speaking so fast, slow down, I'm like I'm
speaking English, but I guessit's fast, it's like, yeah, it's
faster.
So I had to dive into listeningto more music and trying to
(26:59):
gather some speech american, youknow, to kind of make sure that
people around me can understandme as well.
Um, that's how I got my myfirst love of music.
Okay, you know, through mymother and even today she still
sings.
She still sings in the housewhen she's cooking.
She's singing.
We will have devotion prayersat night and we have, you know,
(27:21):
devotion in the morning you knowbefore we step out.
So it's it's part of us yes,yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So it's, it's deep, to your roots, that's amazing.
So took that inspiration andyou are also a dancer, correct
outside of music, right?
Yes, that is awesome.
And so you took that and youran with it.
So now is that how you got yourpassion for the music you do
now?
You do R&B, soul, world music.
You actually won an award, aspot award, for world music this
(27:48):
year.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Yeah, that's how I get my start in the different
genres of music.
And actually, as a songwriter,the thing, the thing you know,
genre coding is just to separate.
You know different music, weall understand.
But if you actually create themusic instrumentally, it's kind
(28:10):
of it's the same.
You know what I'm saying.
It's just you're takingdifferent elements from
different part of the world andadding it to give it a different
flavor, a different texture.
Yes, you see what I'm saying.
So even the song, like you, you,you say you like no, uh, I'm
going to use, um, that song,pepper them.
(28:31):
If I take, I can take a pepperthem and take out the afro beat
sound, the traditional africanmusic instrument, and then if I
implement some like, say, ascreen guitar, it kind of gives
it a different flavor or Westernstyle.
The only thing that is moredifferently to it is the
(28:52):
language, the accent that isbeing used.
So that's how it gets me moreinto the word music, and then
R&B, and then pop and then allthe other genres.
That's how I navigate my waythrough how to write and sing
certain section within the songto make it sound certain genre.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
That is really cool.
So you took that Westerninfluence from the Afro beat.
Was that your original planwhen you became a musician was
to kind, kind of blend yourmusic, or um, it wasn't a plan
no it was.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
It was a feeling.
Okay, it was a feeling.
You know, because sometimeswhen you're playing something,
you, you I don't want to sayyou're selling yourself for two
success but at the same time youare tying yourself down to not
experience what could come inthat way and be great.
You know, because I can say, oh, I'm gonna create, I'm gonna go
(29:45):
in the studio, I'm gonna createan r&b record.
Because I already plan tocreate an r&b record, I am
blocking creative, autocreativity from entering that
space because I tell myself I'mgoing to create an r&b record.
Excuse me, now, if I go in thestudio and I say hey, hey,
producer, give me any beat yougot.
Now the producer play me, housebeat.
(30:07):
The feeling I have for the housebeat, I should write to it
because that's the feeling.
Yes, you know what I'm saying.
Yeah, but if I go in the studioand say, hey, producer, hit me
some R&B, he's going to give meR&B because I request for R&B,
(30:29):
that's block.
That's me blocking anothercreativity for entering that
space.
So, um, the music blending, themusic blending of genres, it
all happens.
Feeling and the message I wantto share, because in Liberia,
where I was born, west Africa,dancing is is a huge part of the
culture as well.
Like I said, it has the message, because dancing can also use
as a message, to signal amessage to the town, to the
people in and around the area.
(30:51):
So dancing and music is one ofthe few things.
So if I go in the studio and Isay, hey, producer, play me a
hand in B, if I start dancing toit, that feeling I'm going to
write the lyrics to it.
I got you.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
So that really goes back down to the roots.
Then there, and I love that yougo off your feeling, and it's
obviously given you greatsuccess.
Right now, you're working onnew music as well, so you have a
new EP in the works, right?
Yes, all right, let's talkabout that.
Man.
Tell me, what are you mostexcited about with it?
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Oh man, now I'm nervous.
Now I'm nervous, I'm excitedbecause it's from my previous EP
.
If anyone, I've listened to myprevious EP, if you are not, I
encourage you to listen to theprevious EP, titled I Am Angel
Doe, to the one that is comingnow.
There is so much growth.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
There is so much maturity, there is so much
personal details that Iliterally had to tell myself
okay, I'm gonna do this, I'mgonna sing about this and I'm
gonna make sure that my fans andaudience can be on the same
playing field where I'm at inthis moment.
It did um excuse me.
(32:04):
It took two years this ep, twoyears oh my gosh, um, because I
I'm like, okay, I have my cousinhills baby.
I know she does not love to beput on the spotlight.
She's like I would rather bebehind the scene, but she's
amazing Music runs in the familyand with her being one of the
(32:26):
main person behind the scene,the reason I say this project
took two years because I havehad writing block for the first
time.
It's tough, it's scary.
It's scary because when I wrotethe first song, I had the
inspiration for the project.
When I wrote the first song, Isaid, okay, I'm going to go with
(32:47):
the inspiration.
And this is why I say you know,sometimes you got to let
different inspiration pull in.
This is why I go to say I gotto stop.
You know, even though you canplan, but don't plan too much to
the point that you don't allowother things to inspire you.
So when I went in, you know,write the first song, call my
(33:08):
cousin.
She said, oh, I like that.
I said all right, good, andthen the second song.
She said, all right, now goback and write a second song.
And I'm like, OK, I was writingthe second song.
I couldn't feel anything.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I couldn't feel anything.
I couldn't feel anything, so Isaid, okay, I'm gonna put that
aside.
Is it because of the?
Was it because of the beat?
Was it because of there's justthe writers block, or is it just
something you were goingthrough?
Speaker 4 (33:28):
I think I think it was because something I was
going through in that momentokay you know it.
And then it kind of allowed meto open way for the writer block
, because I never had a writerblock before but, I was very
terrified and actually the songthat I had a writer block on
(33:48):
happens to be one of my favoritesong on the ep and it's gonna
be the first there's.
It's gonna be the first trackon the ep.
All right, and and this is whyI said lyrics, I want everybody,
when it comes out, analyze thelyrics.
Don't get thrown off by thebeat.
Okay, you know, because youwill kind of understand.
And this is why I say it tooktwo years, because the Reddit
(34:11):
blog kind of tells me, becausethere's a phrase I use, I'm
going to use the lyrics.
Right, I'm like a colorful waterflashing and flowing.
That's personal to me.
I love that and I wrote that.
You know you can take that.
Wow, colorful water flashingand flowing.
It's like I'm here, I'm in thisroom.
If I appear in this room, I'mgoing to be successful.
(34:33):
In any room I go throughcolorful water flashing and
flowing.
When I wrote that, I was like Igot it.
I got it that was your I can'tbelieve.
I just wrote that moment I know, I was like I got it because
that's a portion.
I'm like that's just the wholepicture for this song, you know,
and then I went on and talkedabout all the stuff, but I feel
(34:54):
like a lot of people gonna missthat because of the beat, the
beat, the instruments.
I got the song, so it must be apretty good beat then, though
it is, it is well.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean it's good that you know you get this
opportunity here to you know,plug that out there.
But I mean that's, that'sreally awesome, man.
If you're excited that, thatexcited about it, and you've
dumped two years of your lifeinto working on this EP, I can
only imagine, man, this is goingto be awesome, it's great, and
I'm not rushing.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
And in the process, god has shown me and allowed me
to understand the meaning ofpatient Patient with myself,
patient with my producers aroundthe world, patient with my
stylist, patient, literallypatient with everybody.
Because you know, when you'rein the process of creating
(35:46):
something great, life can justthrow something at you quickly
and you can have that lowself-esteem, like you know.
Um, okay, I guess we gottastart over.
And this is where I go back tomy cousin.
Before I even got here, I justcame from the studio and we're
recording a song and I was inthe studio I was like it's not
(36:07):
coming all right.
And when I came, she sent me atext a few minutes ago.
She's like I have faith, youknow it's gonna come together,
you know.
So those sort of moments I'mlike, okay, patient.
I've been patient throughoutthe process.
But even though I'm beingpatient, the moment I feel like,
okay, we got it, something justhard hit.
(36:27):
I'm like you know.
I'm like, oh, why?
You know I question why, but atthe end of the day I'm gonna
look back.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I'm like, okay, there's a reason why, but I
gotta be patient in this processand that's one of the biggest
things about being a musician,I'm sure you know it's, it's the
adversity, you know you'regonna have those obstacles, and
uh cheese, not to quote beargrillis.
But you know, improvise, adapt,overcome, you know you gotta
yeah you gotta make it happenand that's the.
I think that's part of the bestpart of being a musician,
(36:54):
honestly is the struggle,because it teaches you as a
musician.
Like you said, between yourlast EP and this EP there's a
lot of growth, a lot of maturity, and I'm sure you've already
had the forethought of wow, ifI've already had this much
growth between those EPs, how'sit going to be for the next EP?
So I mean, it's all aboutenjoying the ride, man, and
(37:16):
having faith, and I think it'sgoing to be awesome.
Dude, I'm really excited aboutthis for you.
Thank you, thank you, of course, of course, and it seems like,
also, like I said, you're doinggreat things coming up soon.
You had mentioned before wewent on the air that you are let
me read this correctlynominated for the R&B and Soul
at the Josie Music Award inNashville coming up.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yes, I was so surprised, I was shocked.
Honestly, that's a big deal.
It is.
It is very a big deal.
You know, sometimes I don'tknow who quote this, but someone
, probably well-known, quotethis it's like you got to keep
working, you know, because youdon't know who's watching.
Yeah, it's like you got to keepworking, you know, because you
(37:57):
don't know who's watching.
And throughout my life,musically, in the music career,
you know, I've seen my peersdoing so many things, right,
because people who you graduatecollege with, high school, you
see them, you look at their life, you're like, oh, their head,
they have two kids already.
And I'm like, and I'm herechasing this dream.
(38:19):
But then I realized I alwayslean on that quote keep going,
because you don't know who'swatching.
And then the night when I leftthe CPMAs, knowing that I won
the Spot Award two weeks afterthat, I got a tag on Twitter
from Josie's Music Awardnomination list Twitter and
(38:43):
Facebook, and my name was on theR&B nomination list.
I'm like this is surprising,wow, you know, because they
tagged me.
I'm like, oh, and I saw R&B.
I'm like, wow, this is, this isgood, it's, it's a good thing,
because I don't, I don't knowwho'd be watching from
everywhere, you know.
So that that tells me that youknow, no matter what, I gotta
(39:06):
keep grounding.
Yep, I got you know.
And I gotta tell myself likethere's, there are people who
listen to my music, who needs mymusic, you know, even though
there might be a moment where Imight feel low, but at the same
time, I got to share that withpeople because they probably
have the same experience I have.
So this Jersey musical wasdefinitely a surprise.
And then I realized that theygo through a channel.
(39:30):
So there was a lot of people inthe R&B category, right, but
because I was tagging the firstone.
So there was, there was a lotof people in the rmb category,
right.
But because I was tagging thefirst one, so I was looking, I'm
like, okay, this is dope, I'mnominated, and I went, I do all
my research.
I'm like, okay, where is jerseymuseum like nashville?
So, as we narrow down, then thefinal three, it's me and two
(39:51):
other I know, oh my gosh, you'rein like the finals for it yeah,
wow, I mean the final three,and I'm there.
I'm like this this is god uh-huh.
So, um, right away.
I gave a few more months, I'mstill there and they put it on a
website, the nomination and Iwas like okay, I'm in.
(40:11):
so I want to go to nashville.
I'm gonna cross my fingers, I'mgonna pray, I bring that home
to ph um.
I mean, you know, even if thegoal is to bring it home, but
being nominated it's, it's stilla win for me because I
independent artist tells me thatorganizations out there are
(40:32):
listening to my music.
You know, just being nominated,and being nominated along with
artists that are, you know,well-known, because I think
right now I'm going against amale artist who he has a Grammy.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
I know it's shocking, I was shocked too, but that's
gotta be such an awesome feelingfor you, though to know that
you're going up against someone.
Yeah, it's shocking.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
I was shocked, that's that's got to be such an
awesome feeling for you, though,to know that you're going up
against someone.
Yeah, it's, it's very, it'svery shocking, but it's nervous,
because I call my brother inclass.
I'm like this these guys aregrammy I'm up against this.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I'm like I'm gonna.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
We are three and he, he's a grammy winner and only
and my, my sibling.
This is why I love my sibling,I love my family, because even
when I'm nervous and I'm shaking, I'm like yo, there's, I got it
, but there's chance, you know,and my sibling be like it's all
right, just going there, walkthe red carpet.
If you win, that's great.
(41:30):
If you don, you got toappreciate it because you're
nominated.
Being nominated in thosecategories with these people is
a sign and I'm looking for theJersey Music Award on Sunday,
the 27th.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Dude, I hope you crush it, man.
I'm sure you will.
I'm sure you will.
Man, Don't worry about thecompetition you know, you just
got to go out there and beyourself, thank you, thank you,
of course, of course.
the competition, you know youjust got to go out there and be
yourself, thank you, thank you,of course, of course, dude, I
just want you to see keeprocking, man.
This has just been awesome.
And I mean then, of course, ifpeople have been watching the
show this isn't the first timewe've spoke.
We've had you on the show twicealready, well, at the uh, at
(42:06):
the awards, yes, so it's alwaysa pleasure seeing you beautiful
award.
You need to come out yes, comeby and support.
Thank you for plugging that yes, please get out there and
support it.
Buy tickets.
They're only 25 bucks oh, it'sgood.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
Yeah, it's, it's pennsylvania.
And grammys to me, it's mygrammy.
You know my logo grammy, it'smy grammy.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
So so, so the grammy grammy I take, pennsylvania cpm
is very serious, it's my grammyoh, you know, it's my grammy you
know um, but yeah, people knowcome out and you know support
yeah, yeah, I mean, hopefully,when you make it to the grammys,
you don't forget about it oh,no, no, I promise you, I think a
(42:46):
lot of my fans um who stream mymusic, they know more about pa
than I know more about my birthcountry.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
Really, yeah, it's insane because when I, when I go
to concert, right, I usually goand just watch all the artists
perform and I'm like where youfrom.
I said I'm from PA and then hesaid okay.
And then when I go to look meup they're like, oh, where's
Liberia?
I'm like, oh man, you gottastick to PA.
But a lot of them would.
(43:13):
They'll say yeah, he always Ialways say I'm from will say
yeah, I always say I'm from PA.
I always say I'm from PA,unless I start to talk
frequently and people be like,oh, there's an accent, then it's
the accent question.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Yeah, it happens, but it sounds like you do.
We were talking earlier.
You do have a love forPennsylvania.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
I do, as do all of us .
I love the state us.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
I love the state dude , it's awesome and it's cool.
Um, oh man, I feel like I saythis every episode because I do,
but uh, yeah, sensor,pennsylvania has something
special with its its music.
Um, I don't know what it is,but it is awesome.
Um, hall of fame aside, but itthat is what magnifies this to
see all the different types ofmusic that we have here, from
you know, just your regular, youknow, your rock, your pop, your
(43:55):
bluegrass, your everything toworldwide music, afrobeat.
It is so cool to see that wehave this giant mixing pot of
music.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
It's unique, it is man, it really, really, really
is and I love it.
And my favorite moment is justwhen we have the Pennsylvania
Award, where we all connect youknow the artists and you know
everybody just connect togetherdressed in the world, where we
all connect the artist andeverybody just connect together,
dress in the fashion, and stufflike that.
I love fashion and I seeeverybody dressing in fashion.
(44:24):
I'm like, oh, that's fine,that's cool, I'm going to come
back next time I'm going todress this way.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
You always have the most fire outfits at the awards
every year, thank you.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
I mean I can't beat Deebo, though I can't beat Deebo
, though I can't beat Deebo.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Deebo goes above and beyond.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
I'm like all right, I got you Deebo, but I love it.
It's a great space you guys arecreating and thanks to Central
Pennsylvania Music Awards, somuch for creating a space for
war music and Afro beats, forwar music and Afrobeat.
You know, because, yes, I'm onthe.
You know I'm giving thisplatform, but I'm not using the
(44:59):
platform just for me.
I'm using the platform to giveother Afrobeat artists that I
know that are in Central PA.
You know that don't have theleverage, but you know the
reason I say that because when Iwas at IUP there was an
Afrobeat artist that was there.
Reason I say that because whenI was at IUP there was an
Afrobeat artist that was thereand when he I went to perform at
(45:19):
one of the student event, hesaid you, you.
I said yeah, I'm from PA.
I said I'm from the Lancasterarea and he said huh.
And then when I share on myplatform, I was nominated.
He said, wow, this award exists.
I said, yeah, the centralpennsylvania music award exists.
He's like, well, there's not alot of afrobeat artists in the
area.
I said, well, get yourself outthere because, the platform is
(45:43):
there.
Just introduce yourself to thepeople, get them to hear your
music and everything will happenthat's.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
That's so cool when I saw you when I was listening to
your music, that you have likea lot of features on your songs.
That's so cool.
You know you guys are workingtogether to make music, oh yeah,
and just help the community.
And you know you're um, youknow the afro beat, you know
world music section.
You guys are all workingtogether, I mean, just like the
entire music community does.
It's really cool thecamaraderie that we have, where
(46:14):
nobody's trying to tear eachother apart or anything.
It's all love.
Everyone wants to see everyoneprosper.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
And that's how it should be.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
It is.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
Because the love you give to people is the love you
give back.
Yes, you know, if you, themusic industry, if you I'm going
to try to use the right word Ifyou give an attitude that is
not welcoming spirit, it's goingto be hard for people to open
(46:42):
door for you.
You know what I'm saying yeah,of course.
It's going to be very hard.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Call it karma, call it yin and yang you know.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
whatever you want to call it, yeah, it's going to be
very hard and that's why mysister can say be humble, but
don't be too humble and allowpeople to step on you, but be
humble so that people can knowwho you are, your character,
your personality and your heart.
Speaking about the future,there are some amazing future on
(47:11):
the EP.
I think there's three.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (47:16):
We were trying to get four, but we couldn't.
In the amount of time and withthe vision of the EP, we
couldn't get the four, but weare definitely having three.
We have one producer from SouthAfrica, okay, and then two from
Liberia, my birth country, wow,okay.
And then two from Liberia, mybirth country.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Wow, yeah, that's cool.
So you get to once again backto the roots.
You know, yeah, what's thatprocess like.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
Collaborating.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
Alright, I can talk, but there's a moment where I can
be really shy, super shy.
Like you know, yes, I go toawards shows, you'm all, I'm a
present, but when we're talkingwith the new auto artists, it's
like, oh my god, I can't.
So I, I go behind my computer,right, I'm like I'm typing, and
(48:06):
then it's like, oh, gotta do azoom call already writing
section with an artist and I'lltag on my cousin.
I'm like I don't want to dosome, I don't want to do some
cut.
But it's good though, because Ihave the privilege to see how
they work and learn from theirwriting style and and learn from
their process.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, that is really cool.
Well, angel, thank you so muchfor coming on the show tonight,
man, I really appreciate it isthere anything?
Else.
Maybe we're missing or anythingthat you wanted to shout out or
mention.
Speaker 4 (48:35):
The EP concert.
Oh shoot, Coming up Merchandise.
Make sure and get that from ourwebsite at wwwangeldoitcom and
subscribe to my YouTube channelto get visuals and stay tuned
for interesting content.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
All right, cool.
Well, once again, thank you somuch.
Thank you.
We'll have to talk again heresoon.
We'll see you at the awards,for sure.
Awesome.
Speaker 4 (49:02):
Thank you guys so much for having me.
Of course, my name is AngelDoerr and I will be singing a
song tonight of my upcoming EPtitle Scorpio, that will be
dropping on November 15th 2024,a day after my birthday.
Now you own tonight, tonight.
(49:31):
You are one tonight.
Tonight, now you are onetonight.
Yeah, this one, not for you,though, yeah, only for you.
This one for you For you.
(49:56):
This one for you For you,tonight.
Now you're on tonight, tonight,tonight.
Now you're on tonight.
I would go anywhere, keep onsearching for anything that you
(50:24):
lost and hope to find.
I would be the man you need Foryou, for you, for you, for you.
Michael, you give me all yourbody, tempting me, everybody
running your oh, you come withme Tonight.
(50:47):
Now you on tonight, tonight.
Now you on tonight.
Tonight, now you on tonightTonight.
Oh, michael, don't start againTonight.
(51:11):
Everybody touching and touchingtonight, oh, I would go around
(51:35):
the world searching for what youlost.
I would hustle, double hustle,to get what you need tonight.
Now you're on tonight, tonight,tonight.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Now you're what tonight.
Tonight.
Now you are what tonight.
Oh, all of you Tonight tonight,of you, tonight tonight.
Now you know what Tonight,tonight, tonight, tonight,
(52:24):
tonight.
Speaker 4 (52:25):
Now you know what Tonight, tonight, tonight
no-transcript.
Welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast Tonight Jeff Snyder andAngel Dwayne.
This episode is sponsored byMembers, First and now your
hosts, Daniel Kime and AlanMcCutcheon.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast.
I'm your host, daniel, comingup.
We have Jeff Snyder and AngelDeWay Sitting here with Jeff
Snyder.
Jeff, you are a very, let's say, seasoned man from industry,
music industry of centralpennsylvania, musician yourself.
You've taught um.
You've done a lot of differentthings.
(00:51):
First of all, thanks for comingon the show.
It's a pleasure having you here, um.
But secondly, uh, man, there'sa lot of different stuff we
could cover here.
I think it's probably bestlet's start at the beginning.
Where did you get your start inmusic?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
uh, first let's go back to I'm being see, I'm
seasoned, you understand, forold people, that's, that's not
you know a good thing to say isthat not a good thing?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I?
Don't know, okay, okay, Ifigured that was the nicer thing
to say it's all good, um, allright.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Well, I was uh born inacola, florida.
I was a surf rat for a lot ofyears and still am when I can.
I'm now the old guy that I usedto scream at to get out of my
way.
My family is very musicoriented.
(01:41):
They come from deep in thehills of Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Okay, music oriented.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
They come from deep in the hills of Tennessee.
The Cashes are one of the partof the family.
Johnny Cash, my great aunt,went to high school with June
Carter.
Wow, some of my favoritememories are when I was a kid
going up to Tennessee and theywould all jam, all jam, you know
(02:06):
, and there was banjos and andmandolins and guitars and you
name it washboards.
I mean, it was the real thing,sitting on a porch and you know,
in Tennessee and in Virginia,um, like an Appalachian hoedown.
And it was the real thing.
I mean they had this one schooland hoedown it would, and it was
the real thing.
(02:26):
Yeah, I mean they had this oneschool, old school that was a
church that they would havethese jam sessions at and people
would come from miles around.
You could see the cars lined upall the way down this country
road and they all would come andwatch my family the fridays and
the snyders and the c all justjam and they did it for the fun
of it.
They sold hot dogs, you know itwas one of those kinds of
(02:48):
things.
Um, my second cousin, danSnyder, right now is playing
keyboards with the, uh, warrenZeter band.
Oh, okay, we're in all over theplace and so um, yeah, so the
DNA runs deep as far as themusic in my family, and so I
went to the University of WestFlorida.
I studied piano with PierreHeibritz.
(03:09):
That was sort of the classicalside.
He studied with Nadia Bollinger.
If you're a classical nerd, Iplayed in every kind of band you
can think of, from reggae tocountry, to the Red Velvet Room
underneath the roadway innplaying Mac the Knife.
Oh gosh to the red velvet roomunderneath the roadway in
playing Mack the Knife.
You know did the travel aroundthe South in the back of a van
(03:29):
pulling a trailer for a wholesummer thing played in a
Christian band, you name it.
As I always told my students,there's two types of people in
our industry.
There are pimps and hoes.
And I was a hoe.
You know, pay me a dollar and Iwill come play keyboards for
you.
That was basically it.
(03:51):
And then I went from there toOrlando to work at Ace Music.
It was sort of a day gig.
Ed and Thoroughbred and RhythmCity back at the time were the
largest music stores in theSouth and I ran the recording
and keyboard department and alsotaught at Full Cell a little
bit.
And then from there I moved toNorfolk, virginia, where I
(04:13):
worked for Audio, light andMusic, which was the largest
music store in Central Atlanticarea, and still played in bands
and did sessions.
And from there I heard aboutthis gig.
Up here in Pennsylvania, sort ofalmost as a lark applied for
(04:33):
this teaching gig at the college, mostly because my wife at the
time her family still lived here.
She was from this area.
She really wanted me to applyfor the job.
I was thinking there's no way.
I only had really wanted me toapply for the job and I was
thinking, there's no way.
I only had a bachelor's inmusic from the University of
West Florida.
And to this day I still thinkthat when the dean called to
(04:54):
offer me the job at the college,he accidentally went one line
too far down as far as phonenumbers go.
He kept calling me George thewhole conversation.
Congratulations George.
Phone numbers go.
You know, he kept calling megeorge the whole conversation.
Congratulations, george.
We have chosen you to cometeach at our college and and I
think that when I showed upinstead of the guy that he was
uh, expecting, he was tooembarrassed to to admit his
(05:15):
mistake.
Is this true?
No, but you know it's.
A lot of my colleagues therewere wondering who let the
barbarian inside the gates youknow, coming from this surfing
rock and roll type thing.
And then you know, I didn'tsmoke a pipe and I didn't stroke
a beard and I didn't have quitethe academic chops that a lot
(05:37):
of my more academic brethren had.
So that's how I ended up inPennsylvania in 1997 and at the
college.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Wow, that's quite the journey right there.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
It's been quite a journey and I retired about a
year and a half ago.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Okay.
So when you were at the college, though, you were teaching the
music department, or musicbusiness department.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well, I was a music professor in the music
department.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And when I first was hired I was the assistant
director of recording because Icame in with my expertise was
more synthesizers, midi.
I was at the very forefront ofthat kind of technology.
And then I created the musicbusiness program.
So I doubled in both programsfor a while and then I just did
all music business because itbecame really successful and big
(06:25):
um I was.
I became chair of the musicdepartment about, you know, the
semester right before covid hit.
So I had the good fortune ofbeing the chair of a very large
department during covid, whichwas a nightmare oh in itself
having to shepherd, um, you know, 12 full-time faculty and 24
(06:49):
adjuncts and 125 music majorsall through this time that
everybody didn't know if theywere going to live or die, you
know, and the evacuation andgoing online in three days, you
know it was.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It was very, very, uh stressful I think that would
probably be an understatement,maybe.
Oh my goodness, wow.
Well, at least at that pointyou had some experience under
your belt and you were a goodman for the job, for it.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Hopefully Some would probably disagree, but I was
able to make a lot of changes.
One of the things that I wasable to do was put in a really
high-end streaming system in themusic hall so the parents could
see their kids play, because wecouldn't have any guests come
to campus during COVID.
(07:34):
So the first semester Iactually sat in front of the
stage with my iPhone andstreamed every recital and I
think there was 40 at night andthen after that we got the
system put into the hall andeven then I still streamed most
all of that.
So if you go to the LVC musicdepartment Facebook page and
look at all the videos from back, then you can see they're
(07:58):
nowhere near as polished as whatyou guys do, but the parents
really appreciated being able tosee their kids perform.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Oh, I'm sure they did , and thank you for the
compliment.
I don't think we're all thatpolished, though, so you've done
a little bit more than justteaching over the years, though
You're also an accomplishedmusician.
Like you said, you were a hoeat one point, played in a lot of
different bands.
I feel, like there's probably alittle bit more we could
uncover from that there.
Tell us about some of yourexperiences in playing in a band
(08:26):
over the years.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
You know, I was always this second tier wannabe
rock star.
I played with one band calledthe Janitors it's sort of an R&B
band.
Bruce Crump from Molly Hatchetwas our drummer oh wow.
And I played with a gentlemannamed Florida Bill in Pensacola.
He was Ike and Tina Turner'ssax player oh wow.
You know, full-on stardom.
Um, and then I played in allthe you know, the pickup bands,
(08:53):
the reggae bands and whatever Icould pick up at the time.
It was one of the things Itried to bring to my students
(09:16):
was this is a great life butit's a hard life and you gotta
hustle and you have to smile andyou have to take what you get
yeah you know you can.
Music is in demand.
But, um, you know, nobody'sgoing to come knocking on your
door saying please come make afortune, you'll you make a
living at it.
(09:36):
You still might have to say,would you like fries with that
during the day?
But but you know, if you staywith it long enough, something
good will happen.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah yeah, um, and it's.
It's crazy.
Actually, a couple years ago,um, on our old show, we had a
couple musicians on there, um,and they talked about you know
how crazy, how you wouldn'tbelieve.
The musicians you listen to,that you think are like
full-time musicians.
They've made it, they're outtouring, and whether or not
they're hanging out theirmansion.
No, they're not.
They're hanging out at theirmansion.
No, they're living in theirone-bedroom apartment working a
(10:08):
full-time job in between tours.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, a lot of people do not realize that.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, a lot of the one of my clients when I was in
Norfolk was like Bruce Hornsbyand Carter Buford of Dave
Matthews' band and stuff andthese were all overnight
successes.
But these guys were playing inin these back swamp bars for
years before they became anovernight success.
Everybody thinks it's like, uh,it's going to happen real quick
(10:33):
.
But no, you, it's, you gotta beseasoned.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, it's going to be the word of the night.
And you even mentioned you gotto hustle too.
We uh we learned that frombrett michaels.
Whenever we we interviewed him,he talked about getting on, uh,
the bandmates getting on eachother's shoulders and put their
posters up higher so no onecould cover.
That's right, um, you knowgetting creative with it, but
it's a grind man, it's a hustle.
You got to get out there.
(10:56):
You got to want it uh, morethan everyone else, and everyone
else wants it too.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
So some of my students were the guys in Small
Town Titans and one of theclasses they took they had to
create business plans.
And so Philip's business planwas basically Small Town Titans.
He called it Lone Wolf and hemade a very detailed business
(11:21):
plan.
After he graduated.
He was thinking solo act, act.
But he had to think througheverything.
How much money gas would cost?
What was the cost of a vaninsurance?
You know, how was it going tolive?
How was going to?
You know it was to the atomiclevel.
And if you're not prepared,that's why so many people crash
and burn, you know, because theythink it's all going to come to
(11:42):
them.
But you gotta, you gotta, haveyour chops behind you.
So, and john made one, and bothum, both phil and john were
presidents of at one time oranother, and each one of them
also created, hosted and put on,you know, an all-day music
business conference at thecollege.
Each one of of them, wow.
(12:03):
You know which was verystressful.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I can only imagine.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Especially the one year we couldn't do it when we
normally would, which was afterThanksgiving.
It was going to be in Octoberand we couldn't do it on
Thanksgiving because there wasgoing to be a championship
football game and, you know, allthe facilities were all taken
up and so I think it was Johnhad to come up with a conference
.
The class began in august andthe conference we had to do it
(12:28):
in october and, uh, we had, um,one of philip's relatives from
live forget what his name wasactually come play, but we
rented a fire hall, you know,and that's where we had our
lunch and all that kind of stuff.
So it was was learn by stress,learn by improvising, learn.
It's like, you know, what I'vealways said is in our industry,
(12:54):
it's not like you can go to abook and open it up to page 44
and this is what you're going todo.
There's nothing in concrete,it's all in mud, and you know it
changes constantly and you'vegot to be able to adapt daily.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, I mean, what worked for someone doesn't work
for someone else.
You know, and even what you'resaying, even making your
business plan, I mean, do youhave your van breaking down as a
part of your business plan too?
You know, it's, it's.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I really like the way you put that.
So, speaking of business plans,though, you have another
endeavor for so long to take ajob.
What am I going to do withmyself?
But John Ewell, who's a friendof mine, had just retired from
the Lincoln Center.
He did all of the audio andaspects of the jazz at the
Lincoln Center, which was reallyhuge, and he had retired and he
told me don't do anything for ayear and and, uh, adjust to it,
(14:08):
and it takes a while, but so Ibegan to think of what are some
of the things I want to do, and,um, and I realized that and
this is too late, it really istoo late for me to realize this
but content creators are thefuture, the content creation.
(14:29):
I would make a major.
That's content creation, and alot of that comes from suddenly
watching YouTube like crazy,watching you guys like crazy
watching you guys.
Um, my last year at the college,uh, the students created, uh,
veil after dark, which was apodcast they put out every week
(14:51):
and it was hilarious listeningto college students talk on a
podcast very non-filtered Uh,the sound could be crappy.
Um, none of it's there anymore,but anymore.
But I was very proud of themFor a year.
They put out these podcasts andthey kept saying we want to do
video.
And I kept saying it's going tobe too hard and you had spent
too much time editing and allthis kind of stuff.
(15:12):
And then now I realize thatcontent creators, gen Z,
especially Gen Zers, arecreating like crazy.
So instead of passivelywatching, they're engaging in
the media itself.
And I'm just floored you know,watching all this incredible
(15:34):
stuff that's showing up onYouTube that they're doing
mistakes and all raw, organic,just the real stuff, and I love
it.
And so, as a baby boomerwanting to squeeze back into Gen
Zers, I sort of elbowed my wayin and created a YouTube channel
(15:56):
that I just started and it'scalled Snyder's Music Biz B-I-Z
News.
It's a really short, 13-15minute cast.
I don't like calling it apodcast, it's like a content
creator type thing.
I pick five weird music bizarticles.
(16:19):
Then I have a sixth one that mycat chooses, which is sort of
it's called, uh, jonesy's catshit crazy moment.
Um, so the episode that droppedyesterday, his moment, my cat's
moment, was I don't know ifyou've seen them wu-tang has a
political science.
Have you seen them?
The kind you put in your yards?
And it's hilarious.
(16:40):
You know so.
And we're in an area wherethere's a sign on every yard.
So the idea of putting Wu-Tangforever, you know, presidents
don't last Wu-Tang forever, youknow, political sign.
Anybody driving by would justcrack up.
So that's the kind of stuff Ilike putting into my channel.
And if three people watch it,fine.
(17:01):
If more people watch it, fine.
It's just now I have the timeto do that and it keeps.
That's about to hit the musicindustry Like one of the.
(17:25):
My next episode, next Wednesday, is going to focus more on AI,
the CEO of the Recording Academy, and you probably know this,
but he put out this thing thatthey were going to accept
AI-generated music for Grammys.
Yeah, that's the look he gotfrom everybody, and so he had to
follow up with anotherstatement saying okay, yeah,
(17:46):
okay, let me explain.
A human still has to submit themusic, and so I'm thinking
Schwarzenegger going up to gethis Grammy.
I'll be back if they don't giveit to him, or he will find a
human.
And so now they're looking athow much of the song was
generated by AI and how much itwas generated by humans.
(18:10):
And just a couple of days ago,timbaland there was an article
about.
He uses AI now for all of hismusic bed ideas and he just
expands on those.
One of the guys I used to knowin Virginia Beach I had lunch
with him.
He works with Chad Hugo, whichwas Pharrell's partner in the
Neptunes, and they begin with AI.
(18:31):
And this is the guy who ElonMusk just asked him to do music
to send up in one of hisspaceships.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Really.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And they're doing some marvel movie right now, and
um, but he said, yeah, I mean,you know, he just uses ai for
the beds, and then they justbuild on top of it.
And um, you know how far isthis going to go?
Yeah it's amazing.
Will there one day be an all aigenerated vocals and everything
(18:58):
song they get to Grammy?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
That's just crazy and it's quite the rabbit hole too.
I mean we could sit here andtalk about that for hours, but I
mean I'm sure there's alsogoing to be, you know, a concern
.
I know I've seen on the internetpeople already talking about
with, like AI generated art,where it's like well, there,
it's not really generating art,dealing other people's art and
compiling it into this, andthat's, I guarantee, exactly
(19:20):
what's going on with the music.
So when does there become likea um, a movement towards like
hey, this is just stolen rights,you know?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Well, I you know well two things.
One is we had the sameconversation with MIDI, came out
and sampling.
You're going to put realmusicians out of business
because you've got the sample ofa drummer instead of a drummer,
which isn't necessarily a badthing.
I'm kidding, all right.
I like drummers, some of my bestfriends are drummers, but the
(19:50):
idea that you put down a drumgroove and then Ableton Live
will add a bass and then addkeyboard parts, I mean, that is
sort of that's artificialintelligence already that we've
been using.
And also, I think, that, thewhole copyright thing.
I attended a summer longCreative Commons licensing class
, and the idea is that you'renot going to make any money on
(20:12):
copyrights anymore.
You know, unless you're TaylorSwift, you're not going to make
any money on streaming, so leteverybody use your stuff as long
as you get the credit for it,and then you can use that credit
to sell other stuff, merch orwhatever.
So you're right, you know AI ispulling thousands of bits from
the Internet that is owned byother people.
It is copyright infringement tothe atomic level, though, and
(20:35):
how do you track that?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And at what point do you just cut off technology
because of its capability?
You can't just say, well, thisis just too good for us to
comprehend, so you can't use it.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Well, since AI is going to control our missile
systems and stuff like that, wedon't want to piss it off.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
So we're not going to cut off.
I didn't say this, ai yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Please let me live.
Yeah, I mean, that is its wholeown thing, though, right there,
ai, it's, it's, it is thefuture.
Yeah, we know it.
We don't know which way it goes.
Hopefully it doesn't actuallykill us, like we just said, but
um, you know it.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Yeah, I had my first AI-generated essay turned in
right before I left and I evenconfronted the student.
You know it was obvious.
The change in writing style wasquite dramatic.
But you can't prove plagiarism.
You can't go back and findwhere it came from.
You can't prove they didn't doit where it came from.
(21:41):
You can't prove they didn't doit.
And then, um, the students andthe other students in the class
came to me after the semesterand said you do know that he was
using ai to write your thepapers.
I said I know, but you know howcan I prove it?
I can't you know, so it's awhole new world.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
It is, it is.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
It's a scary whole new world instead of saying
would you like to play a game?
It's gonna.
It's, I actually saw a plug-in.
Uh, would you like to play agame?
It's going to.
It's, I actually saw a plug-in.
Uh, would you like to be asongwriter?
And it's an ai generated musicplug-in for whichever program I
own.
It is, but you can buy it as aplug-in and it will create the
music for you.
So it is.
Would you like to make a song?
(22:14):
You know we're getting to thatpoint, but that could be freeing
too.
You know, if it wasn't for drummachines, we wouldn't have rap.
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, but that could be freeing too.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
You know, if it wasn't for drum machines, we
wouldn't have rap.
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
I mean, it could just beanother tool in the toolbox.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
If it's a tool in a toolbox, yes, musicians will
rise to the top.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong
with using something that'sgoing to either enhance or
benefit you or um help you grow,but if it's going to do all the
work for you that's where thefine line is Of course, if
you're being lazy about it.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
But, like I said, musicians good musicians will
rise to the top, they'll be on,they will use it as a tool.
But unfortunately, even now thecommercial music industry music
for commercials.
They're using AI to generatethe music for the backgrounds
because, you know, it's supposedto be sort of bland and it's
free.
And it's free and they own it.
(23:02):
They don't have to license it.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yep, exactly so, oh man, crazy world we live in
these days.
Well, we could probably talkabout ai for hours.
Is there anything else that youwanted to maybe mention before
we wrap up here?
Uh, that I didn't cover.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Besides my being seasoned, I almost feel like
you're about to say we'refeaturing Professor Snyder
Emeritai the oldest person we'veever had.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I don't think you're the oldest I'm joking.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
I'm joking, I'm joking.
One thing I don't know if it'sever been brought out, but one
of the reasons I love thisorganization is I don't know if
you remember, but during COVID,all the venues shut down.
There was nowhere to play andBrandon opened up and did
virtual concerts for all themusicians.
(23:59):
He gave them an outlet tocontinue to perform and a tip
jar, so they were actually ableto perform from their living
rooms through this channel thathe created for these videos and
I think he told me they raisedlike he paid out like $50,000
through the tip jars and didn'tkeep any of it.
Wow.
So that shows to me the heartof this organization and it's
(24:21):
why I'm very, very proud to beassociated with it in any degree
.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
That I can be.
We didn't even mention that youare on the advisory committee,
the education.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
I'm on the education committee right.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, it's great to be a part of this committee, man
.
It really is what you said it'sgood to be in a, in a system
that's going to help give backto a community that we love and
care about so that's, right sowell.
Jeff, thank you so much forcoming on the show man, I really
appreciate it.
Thanks for being seasoned.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Uh, it really it really gives a lot to talk about
with the same thing ouch, ohman, I'm sorry, it's all good
well, we'll uh, we'll talk toyou soon, all right.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
All right, thank you.
Great conversation with jeff.
Everyone, stay tuned up.
Next we have angel dewaysitting here with angel deway.
Angel, thank you so much forcoming on the show tonight.
It's a pleasure having you here.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Thank you for having me of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
So angel is a local musician here in central
Pennsylvania, music CentralPennsylvania, and, just like
everything else, I always loveto start at the beginning, man.
So let's talk about where youstarted out, how you got your
start in music.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Oh, it's a long story short.
I got my start in music throughmy mom.
Okay, it's a long story short,I got my start in music through
my mom.
Okay, you know me and mysiblings were younger, like
little in the house.
She used to sing to us.
She would sing gospel songs.
She used to have a lot ofgospel records and as we were
growing up more I used to sneakmyself on the computer and watch
(25:55):
Chris Brown and Usher, eventhough I wasn't allowed to.
Okay watch Chris Brown and Usher, even though I wasn't allowed
to.
Okay, and that was that allowedme to dive more into dancing as
well, because the more I waswatching, you know, chris Brown
and Usher and Neil, knowing thefact I wasn't allowed to, but I
was diving more into buildingthe spirit as a dancer.
So, with my mom singing, itkind of like resonated with me
(26:16):
and my siblings because that'swhat we're raised with.
Um, so, being like barriermusic, it's, it's, it's uh, is
used as a tool to communicatewith the people, with, you know,
with the towns and all of that.
So that's how to use music toshare message.
Okay, so, being a raise in ourculture, and then moving here, I
(26:37):
was able to adapt the Americanculture so fast through music
Because when I first my family,I first got here, everybody used
to say, oh you speaking so fast, slow down, I'm like I'm
speaking English, but I guessit's fast, it's like, yeah, it's
faster.
So I had to dive into listeningto more music and trying to
(26:59):
gather some speech american, youknow, to kind of make sure that
people around me can understandme as well.
Um, that's how I got my myfirst love of music.
Okay, you know, through mymother and even today she still
sings.
She still sings in the housewhen she's cooking.
She's singing.
We will have devotion prayersat night and we have, you know,
(27:21):
devotion in the morning you knowbefore we step out.
So it's it's part of us yes,yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So it's, it's deep, to your roots, that's amazing.
So took that inspiration andyou are also a dancer, correct
outside of music, right?
Yes, that is awesome.
And so you took that and youran with it.
So now is that how you got yourpassion for the music you do
now?
You do R&B, soul, world music.
You actually won an award, aspot award, for world music this
(27:48):
year.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Yeah, that's how I get my start in the different
genres of music.
And actually, as a songwriter,the thing, the thing you know,
genre coding is just to separate.
You know different music, weall understand.
But if you actually create themusic instrumentally, it's kind
(28:10):
of it's the same.
You know what I'm saying.
It's just you're takingdifferent elements from
different part of the world andadding it to give it a different
flavor, a different texture.
Yes, you see what I'm saying.
So even the song, like you, you,you say you like no, uh, I'm
going to use, um, that song,pepper them.
(28:31):
If I take, I can take a pepperthem and take out the afro beat
sound, the traditional africanmusic instrument, and then if I
implement some like, say, ascreen guitar, it kind of gives
it a different flavor or Westernstyle.
The only thing that is moredifferently to it is the
(28:52):
language, the accent that isbeing used.
So that's how it gets me moreinto the word music, and then
R&B, and then pop and then allthe other genres.
That's how I navigate my waythrough how to write and sing
certain section within the songto make it sound certain genre.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
That is really cool.
So you took that Westerninfluence from the Afro beat.
Was that your original planwhen you became a musician was
to kind, kind of blend yourmusic, or um, it wasn't a plan
no it was.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
It was a feeling.
Okay, it was a feeling.
You know, because sometimeswhen you're playing something,
you, you I don't want to sayyou're selling yourself for two
success but at the same time youare tying yourself down to not
experience what could come inthat way and be great.
You know, because I can say, oh, I'm gonna create, I'm gonna go
(29:45):
in the studio, I'm gonna createan r&b record.
Because I already plan tocreate an r&b record, I am
blocking creative, autocreativity from entering that
space because I tell myself I'mgoing to create an r&b record.
Excuse me, now, if I go in thestudio and I say hey, hey,
producer, give me any beat yougot.
Now the producer play me, housebeat.
(30:07):
The feeling I have for the housebeat, I should write to it
because that's the feeling.
Yes, you know what I'm saying.
Yeah, but if I go in the studioand say, hey, producer, hit me
some R&B, he's going to give meR&B because I request for R&B,
(30:29):
that's block.
That's me blocking anothercreativity for entering that
space.
So, um, the music blending, themusic blending of genres, it
all happens.
Feeling and the message I wantto share, because in Liberia,
where I was born, west Africa,dancing is is a huge part of the
culture as well.
Like I said, it has the message, because dancing can also use
as a message, to signal amessage to the town, to the
people in and around the area.
(30:51):
So dancing and music is one ofthe few things.
So if I go in the studio and Isay, hey, producer, play me a
hand in B, if I start dancing toit, that feeling I'm going to
write the lyrics to it.
I got you.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
So that really goes back down to the roots.
Then there, and I love that yougo off your feeling, and it's
obviously given you greatsuccess.
Right now, you're working onnew music as well, so you have a
new EP in the works, right?
Yes, all right, let's talkabout that.
Man.
Tell me, what are you mostexcited about with it?
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Oh man, now I'm nervous.
Now I'm nervous, I'm excitedbecause it's from my previous EP
.
If anyone, I've listened to myprevious EP, if you are not, I
encourage you to listen to theprevious EP, titled I Am Angel
Doe, to the one that is comingnow.
There is so much growth.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
There is so much maturity, there is so much
personal details that Iliterally had to tell myself
okay, I'm gonna do this, I'mgonna sing about this and I'm
gonna make sure that my fans andaudience can be on the same
playing field where I'm at inthis moment.
It did um excuse me.
(32:04):
It took two years this ep, twoyears oh my gosh, um, because I
I'm like, okay, I have my cousinhills baby.
I know she does not love to beput on the spotlight.
She's like I would rather bebehind the scene, but she's
amazing Music runs in the familyand with her being one of the
(32:26):
main person behind the scene,the reason I say this project
took two years because I havehad writing block for the first
time.
It's tough, it's scary.
It's scary because when I wrotethe first song, I had the
inspiration for the project.
When I wrote the first song, Isaid, okay, I'm going to go with
(32:47):
the inspiration.
And this is why I say you know,sometimes you got to let
different inspiration pull in.
This is why I go to say I gotto stop.
You know, even though you canplan, but don't plan too much to
the point that you don't allowother things to inspire you.
So when I went in, you know,write the first song, call my
(33:08):
cousin.
She said, oh, I like that.
I said all right, good, andthen the second song.
She said, all right, now goback and write a second song.
And I'm like, OK, I was writingthe second song.
I couldn't feel anything.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I couldn't feel anything.
I couldn't feel anything, so Isaid, okay, I'm gonna put that
aside.
Is it because of the?
Was it because of the beat?
Was it because of there's justthe writers block, or is it just
something you were goingthrough?
Speaker 4 (33:28):
I think I think it was because something I was
going through in that momentokay you know it.
And then it kind of allowed meto open way for the writer block
, because I never had a writerblock before but, I was very
terrified and actually the songthat I had a writer block on
(33:48):
happens to be one of my favoritesong on the ep and it's gonna
be the first there's.
It's gonna be the first trackon the ep.
All right, and and this is whyI said lyrics, I want everybody,
when it comes out, analyze thelyrics.
Don't get thrown off by thebeat.
Okay, you know, because youwill kind of understand.
And this is why I say it tooktwo years, because the Reddit
(34:11):
blog kind of tells me, becausethere's a phrase I use, I'm
going to use the lyrics.
Right, I'm like a colorful waterflashing and flowing.
That's personal to me.
I love that and I wrote that.
You know you can take that.
Wow, colorful water flashingand flowing.
It's like I'm here, I'm in thisroom.
If I appear in this room, I'mgoing to be successful.
(34:33):
In any room I go throughcolorful water flashing and
flowing.
When I wrote that, I was like Igot it.
I got it that was your I can'tbelieve.
I just wrote that moment I know, I was like I got it because
that's a portion.
I'm like that's just the wholepicture for this song, you know,
and then I went on and talkedabout all the stuff, but I feel
(34:54):
like a lot of people gonna missthat because of the beat, the
beat, the instruments.
I got the song, so it must be apretty good beat then, though
it is, it is well.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean it's good that you know you get this
opportunity here to you know,plug that out there.
But I mean that's, that'sreally awesome, man.
If you're excited that, thatexcited about it, and you've
dumped two years of your lifeinto working on this EP, I can
only imagine, man, this is goingto be awesome, it's great, and
I'm not rushing.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
And in the process, god has shown me and allowed me
to understand the meaning ofpatient Patient with myself,
patient with my producers aroundthe world, patient with my
stylist, patient, literallypatient with everybody.
Because you know, when you'rein the process of creating
(35:46):
something great, life can justthrow something at you quickly
and you can have that lowself-esteem, like you know.
Um, okay, I guess we gottastart over.
And this is where I go back tomy cousin.
Before I even got here, I justcame from the studio and we're
recording a song and I was inthe studio I was like it's not
(36:07):
coming all right.
And when I came, she sent me atext a few minutes ago.
She's like I have faith, youknow it's gonna come together,
you know.
So those sort of moments I'mlike, okay, patient.
I've been patient throughoutthe process.
But even though I'm beingpatient, the moment I feel like,
okay, we got it, something justhard hit.
(36:27):
I'm like you know.
I'm like, oh, why?
You know I question why, but atthe end of the day I'm gonna
look back.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I'm like, okay, there's a reason why, but I
gotta be patient in this processand that's one of the biggest
things about being a musician,I'm sure you know it's, it's the
adversity, you know you'regonna have those obstacles, and
uh cheese, not to quote beargrillis.
But you know, improvise, adapt,overcome, you know you gotta
yeah you gotta make it happenand that's the.
I think that's part of the bestpart of being a musician,
(36:54):
honestly is the struggle,because it teaches you as a
musician.
Like you said, between yourlast EP and this EP there's a
lot of growth, a lot of maturity, and I'm sure you've already
had the forethought of wow, ifI've already had this much
growth between those EPs, how'sit going to be for the next EP?
So I mean, it's all aboutenjoying the ride, man, and
(37:16):
having faith, and I think it'sgoing to be awesome.
Dude, I'm really excited aboutthis for you.
Thank you, thank you, of course, of course, and it seems like,
also, like I said, you're doinggreat things coming up soon.
You had mentioned before wewent on the air that you are let
me read this correctlynominated for the R&B and Soul
at the Josie Music Award inNashville coming up.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yes, I was so surprised, I was shocked.
Honestly, that's a big deal.
It is.
It is very a big deal.
You know, sometimes I don'tknow who quote this, but someone
, probably well-known, quotethis it's like you got to keep
working, you know, because youdon't know who's watching.
Yeah, it's like you got to keepworking, you know, because you
(37:57):
don't know who's watching.
And throughout my life,musically, in the music career,
you know, I've seen my peersdoing so many things, right,
because people who you graduatecollege with, high school, you
see them, you look at their life, you're like, oh, their head,
they have two kids already.
And I'm like, and I'm herechasing this dream.
(38:19):
But then I realized I alwayslean on that quote keep going,
because you don't know who'swatching.
And then the night when I leftthe CPMAs, knowing that I won
the Spot Award two weeks afterthat, I got a tag on Twitter
from Josie's Music Awardnomination list Twitter and
(38:43):
Facebook, and my name was on theR&B nomination list.
I'm like this is surprising,wow, you know, because they
tagged me.
I'm like, oh, and I saw R&B.
I'm like, wow, this is, this isgood, it's, it's a good thing,
because I don't, I don't knowwho'd be watching from
everywhere, you know.
So that that tells me that youknow, no matter what, I gotta
(39:06):
keep grounding.
Yep, I got you know.
And I gotta tell myself likethere's, there are people who
listen to my music, who needs mymusic, you know, even though
there might be a moment where Imight feel low, but at the same
time, I got to share that withpeople because they probably
have the same experience I have.
So this Jersey musical wasdefinitely a surprise.
And then I realized that theygo through a channel.
(39:30):
So there was a lot of people inthe R&B category, right, but
because I was tagging the firstone.
So there was, there was a lotof people in the rmb category,
right.
But because I was tagging thefirst one, so I was looking, I'm
like, okay, this is dope, I'mnominated, and I went, I do all
my research.
I'm like, okay, where is jerseymuseum like nashville?
So, as we narrow down, then thefinal three, it's me and two
(39:51):
other I know, oh my gosh, you'rein like the finals for it yeah,
wow, I mean the final three,and I'm there.
I'm like this this is god uh-huh.
So, um, right away.
I gave a few more months, I'mstill there and they put it on a
website, the nomination and Iwas like okay, I'm in.
(40:11):
so I want to go to nashville.
I'm gonna cross my fingers, I'mgonna pray, I bring that home
to ph um.
I mean, you know, even if thegoal is to bring it home, but
being nominated it's, it's stilla win for me because I
independent artist tells me thatorganizations out there are
(40:32):
listening to my music.
You know, just being nominated,and being nominated along with
artists that are, you know,well-known, because I think
right now I'm going against amale artist who he has a Grammy.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
I know it's shocking, I was shocked too, but that's
gotta be such an awesome feelingfor you, though to know that
you're going up against someone.
Yeah, it's shocking.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
I was shocked, that's that's got to be such an
awesome feeling for you, though,to know that you're going up
against someone.
Yeah, it's, it's very, it'svery shocking, but it's nervous,
because I call my brother inclass.
I'm like this these guys aregrammy I'm up against this.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I'm like I'm gonna.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
We are three and he, he's a grammy winner and only
and my, my sibling.
This is why I love my sibling,I love my family, because even
when I'm nervous and I'm shaking, I'm like yo, there's, I got it
, but there's chance, you know,and my sibling be like it's all
right, just going there, walkthe red carpet.
If you win, that's great.
(41:30):
If you don, you got toappreciate it because you're
nominated.
Being nominated in thosecategories with these people is
a sign and I'm looking for theJersey Music Award on Sunday,
the 27th.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Dude, I hope you crush it, man.
I'm sure you will.
I'm sure you will.
Man, Don't worry about thecompetition you know, you just
got to go out there and beyourself, thank you, thank you,
of course, of course.
the competition, you know youjust got to go out there and be
yourself, thank you, thank you,of course, of course, dude, I
just want you to see keeprocking, man.
This has just been awesome.
And I mean then, of course, ifpeople have been watching the
show this isn't the first timewe've spoke.
We've had you on the show twicealready, well, at the uh, at
(42:06):
the awards, yes, so it's alwaysa pleasure seeing you beautiful
award.
You need to come out yes, comeby and support.
Thank you for plugging that yes, please get out there and
support it.
Buy tickets.
They're only 25 bucks oh, it'sgood.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
Yeah, it's, it's pennsylvania.
And grammys to me, it's mygrammy.
You know my logo grammy, it'smy grammy.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
So so, so the grammy grammy I take, pennsylvania cpm
is very serious, it's my grammyoh, you know, it's my grammy you
know um, but yeah, people knowcome out and you know support
yeah, yeah, I mean, hopefully,when you make it to the grammys,
you don't forget about it oh,no, no, I promise you, I think a
(42:46):
lot of my fans um who stream mymusic, they know more about pa
than I know more about my birthcountry.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
Really, yeah, it's insane because when I, when I go
to concert, right, I usually goand just watch all the artists
perform and I'm like where youfrom.
I said I'm from PA and then hesaid okay.
And then when I go to look meup they're like, oh, where's
Liberia?
I'm like, oh man, you gottastick to PA.
But a lot of them would.
(43:13):
They'll say yeah, he always Ialways say I'm from will say
yeah, I always say I'm from PA.
I always say I'm from PA,unless I start to talk
frequently and people be like,oh, there's an accent, then it's
the accent question.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Yeah, it happens, but it sounds like you do.
We were talking earlier.
You do have a love forPennsylvania.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
I do, as do all of us .
I love the state us.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
I love the state dude , it's awesome and it's cool.
Um, oh man, I feel like I saythis every episode because I do,
but uh, yeah, sensor,pennsylvania has something
special with its its music.
Um, I don't know what it is,but it is awesome.
Um, hall of fame aside, but itthat is what magnifies this to
see all the different types ofmusic that we have here, from
you know, just your regular, youknow, your rock, your pop, your
(43:55):
bluegrass, your everything toworldwide music, afrobeat.
It is so cool to see that wehave this giant mixing pot of
music.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
It's unique, it is man, it really, really, really
is and I love it.
And my favorite moment is justwhen we have the Pennsylvania
Award, where we all connect youknow the artists and you know
everybody just connect togetherdressed in the world, where we
all connect the artist andeverybody just connect together,
dress in the fashion, and stufflike that.
I love fashion and I seeeverybody dressing in fashion.
(44:24):
I'm like, oh, that's fine,that's cool, I'm going to come
back next time I'm going todress this way.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
You always have the most fire outfits at the awards
every year, thank you.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
I mean I can't beat Deebo, though I can't beat Deebo
, though I can't beat Deebo.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Deebo goes above and beyond.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
I'm like all right, I got you Deebo, but I love it.
It's a great space you guys arecreating and thanks to Central
Pennsylvania Music Awards, somuch for creating a space for
war music and Afro beats, forwar music and Afrobeat.
You know, because, yes, I'm onthe.
You know I'm giving thisplatform, but I'm not using the
(44:59):
platform just for me.
I'm using the platform to giveother Afrobeat artists that I
know that are in Central PA.
You know that don't have theleverage, but you know the
reason I say that because when Iwas at IUP there was an
Afrobeat artist that was there.
Reason I say that because whenI was at IUP there was an
Afrobeat artist that was thereand when he I went to perform at
(45:19):
one of the student event, hesaid you, you.
I said yeah, I'm from PA.
I said I'm from the Lancasterarea and he said huh.
And then when I share on myplatform, I was nominated.
He said, wow, this award exists.
I said, yeah, the centralpennsylvania music award exists.
He's like, well, there's not alot of afrobeat artists in the
area.
I said, well, get yourself outthere because, the platform is
(45:43):
there.
Just introduce yourself to thepeople, get them to hear your
music and everything will happenthat's.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
That's so cool when I saw you when I was listening to
your music, that you have likea lot of features on your songs.
That's so cool.
You know you guys are workingtogether to make music, oh yeah,
and just help the community.
And you know you're um, youknow the afro beat, you know
world music section.
You guys are all workingtogether, I mean, just like the
entire music community does.
It's really cool thecamaraderie that we have, where
(46:14):
nobody's trying to tear eachother apart or anything.
It's all love.
Everyone wants to see everyoneprosper.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
And that's how it should be.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
It is.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
Because the love you give to people is the love you
give back.
Yes, you know, if you, themusic industry, if you I'm going
to try to use the right word Ifyou give an attitude that is
not welcoming spirit, it's goingto be hard for people to open
(46:42):
door for you.
You know what I'm saying yeah,of course.
It's going to be very hard.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Call it karma, call it yin and yang you know.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
whatever you want to call it, yeah, it's going to be
very hard and that's why mysister can say be humble, but
don't be too humble and allowpeople to step on you, but be
humble so that people can knowwho you are, your character,
your personality and your heart.
Speaking about the future,there are some amazing future on
(47:11):
the EP.
I think there's three.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (47:16):
We were trying to get four, but we couldn't.
In the amount of time and withthe vision of the EP, we
couldn't get the four, but weare definitely having three.
We have one producer from SouthAfrica, okay, and then two from
Liberia, my birth country, wow,okay.
And then two from Liberia, mybirth country.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Wow, yeah, that's cool.
So you get to once again backto the roots.
You know, yeah, what's thatprocess like.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
Collaborating.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
Alright, I can talk, but there's a moment where I can
be really shy, super shy.
Like you know, yes, I go toawards shows, you'm all, I'm a
present, but when we're talkingwith the new auto artists, it's
like, oh my god, I can't.
So I, I go behind my computer,right, I'm like I'm typing, and
(48:06):
then it's like, oh, gotta do azoom call already writing
section with an artist and I'lltag on my cousin.
I'm like I don't want to dosome, I don't want to do some
cut.
But it's good though, because Ihave the privilege to see how
they work and learn from theirwriting style and and learn from
their process.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, that is really cool.
Well, angel, thank you so muchfor coming on the show tonight,
man, I really appreciate it isthere anything?
Else.
Maybe we're missing or anythingthat you wanted to shout out or
mention.
Speaker 4 (48:35):
The EP concert.
Oh shoot, Coming up Merchandise.
Make sure and get that from ourwebsite at wwwangeldoitcom and
subscribe to my YouTube channelto get visuals and stay tuned
for interesting content.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
All right, cool.
Well, once again, thank you somuch.
Thank you.
We'll have to talk again heresoon.
We'll see you at the awards,for sure.
Awesome.
Speaker 4 (49:02):
Thank you guys so much for having me.
Of course, my name is AngelDoerr and I will be singing a
song tonight of my upcoming EPtitle Scorpio, that will be
dropping on November 15th 2024,a day after my birthday.
Now you own tonight, tonight.
(49:31):
You are one tonight.
Tonight, now you are onetonight.
Yeah, this one, not for you,though, yeah, only for you.
This one for you For you.
(49:56):
This one for you For you,tonight.
Now you're on tonight, tonight,tonight.
Now you're on tonight.
I would go anywhere, keep onsearching for anything that you
(50:24):
lost and hope to find.
I would be the man you need Foryou, for you, for you, for you.
Michael, you give me all yourbody, tempting me, everybody
running your oh, you come withme Tonight.
(50:47):
Now you on tonight, tonight.
Now you on tonight.
Tonight, now you on tonightTonight.
Oh, michael, don't start againTonight.
(51:11):
Everybody touching and touchingtonight, oh, I would go around
(51:35):
the world searching for what youlost.
I would hustle, double hustle,to get what you need tonight.
Now you're on tonight, tonight,tonight.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Now you're what tonight.
Tonight.
Now you are what tonight.
Oh, all of you Tonight tonight,of you, tonight tonight.
Now you know what Tonight,tonight, tonight, tonight,
(52:24):
tonight.
Speaker 4 (52:25):
Now you know what Tonight, tonight, tonight
no-transcript.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.