Old friends, New Milestones, and How the Success Continues - GRRRL Music

Lina and JC reunite with old friends Ashley and Kelsey, the duo behind GRRRL Music (formerly hosts of Bops n Bangers), for a high-energy, behind-the-scenes conversation about what it really takes to build a music brand from scratch. They talk friendship, pandemic pivots, live streaming vs. podcasting, listening to 1,200 albums a year, and launching their own music distribution company. Along the way, they unpack burnout, boundaries, community, motherhood, and why passion and consistency still matter more than overnight “success.” If you’re a producer, indie artist, or creator trying to figure out your next move, this episode is a roadmap and a reality check.

Don’t forget to follow and subscribe at OlasMedia.com

Some notable moments from this episode include:

00:23 – Welcome Back: Bops n Bangers Energy in the Studio

02:54 – Where to Find GRRRL Music & Their New Distro Era

05:26 – Best Friends Since Kindergarten & the Birth of GRRRL Music

09:51 – Babies, Life Changes & Building a Legacy Through Music

18:58 – 1,200 Albums a Year: The Reality of True Music Curation

21:57 – Monday.com, Google Drive & Staying Organized as a Creative Duo

26:39 – Inside the Street GRRRL Team: 200 Young Creators Worldwide

30:27 – Industry Chaos, TikTok, Streaming & the Money Question

39:34 – So You Want to Start a Podcast? Expectations vs. Reality

44:30 – At Home With, Distro, Red Carpets & What’s Next for GRRRL Music

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

S1 (00:01):
Olas, media.

S2 (00:03):
Mixed grounds is proud to present. I Just Wanted to
Push Record celebrating arts, community and culture, part of the
Olas Media Network.

S3 (00:23):
Welcome to. I Just wanted to Push Record, a producers
podcast where lifestyle, arts, community, culture and production meet two producers,
two cultures and a whole lot of flavor. Join hosts
Lena and Jake for fun conversations, cool interviews, sharing tips,
laughing through production hiccups, and celebrating the art of it all.

(00:45):
Ready to roll? It all starts with pushing record.

S2 (00:58):
And I guess we're we recording. Hello.

S4 (01:01):
Oh my gosh.

S2 (01:03):
And so very, very happy to have Ashley and Kelsey
here in the studio. Yes, yes, girl. Music bops and bangers.

S4 (01:10):
Oh, man. Yeah.

S2 (01:11):
I'm gonna say like I say bops and bangers.

S4 (01:13):
I still sing our theme song all day, every day.
It's stuck in my head for life. You know, though
we dropped the bops and bangers, we've officially ended it. No.
It's crazy. We are. We're just sticking with the girl music. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
But the theme song lives on. The theme song lives forever.
Deep dive back and you will see bops and bangers.
Theme song. We had stickers. We had so many things

(01:35):
where we're like. You know what? Sorry. She's. She's gone. Audio's.
Good night. I know.

S2 (01:39):
Okay, well, we just started, and now we have that bomb.

S4 (01:43):
I know we're here to drop truth on you guys. Sorry.

S2 (01:48):
Nice. I love this intro so much.

S4 (01:51):
You brought us back. The chaos comes back.

S2 (01:53):
Chaos is back into the studio, right? I see.

S4 (01:59):
Yeah.

S5 (01:59):
No, listen. It's great. Like I'm just taking it all in.
It's great to have you all as guests here on.
I just wanted to push record. Um, and it's only fitting, like,
to me, it's summertime. It's kind of like the family
reunion where you just show up and it's like your
favorite cousins that you know that you don't get a
chance to hang out with, like, all year. So it's
awesome just to have you all here. And and you know,
for those who don't know, um, Kelsey, I actually think, like,

(02:20):
they kind of helped us grow as producers, help us
become what it is today. But it's only because they
were super duper professionals. And we know that this is
a producer's podcast. So we wanted to have them back
on to kind of share their secret to success, because
if you don't know, they are killing it in the
game and always yeah, they've been ahead of the curve,
they've been where the puck is going to be and
they're still doing it day to day. So I want
to do something and flip it as we talk and

(02:42):
have this conversation and catch up. I want everybody to
be able to follow along with everything that that you
all are doing right now. So right off the top,
not at the end like we normally do right off
the top. Tell them what they need to be while
they're listening to this episode.

S4 (02:54):
Oh, do you want to start, Kelly? Sure. I mean,
you can find us everywhere. YouTube. Instagram. We did get
banned from TikTok, which is a is a hot topic.
No reason for nuns reason. So you can't find us
there anymore. Yet we're remaking one. Um, but, you know,
we have a discord. We have, um, we have a
lot of places that we're at. And everywhere you can
find us is at Girl music with three R's. Like

(03:17):
the riot girl movement. That's what we're based off of.

S6 (03:19):
Yeah. And we have a lot of cool things going
on right now. We just launched a distribution company. Um,
so now we are doing music distro and it's going
really good. Nice. It's it's super cool. We're signing a
bunch of artists so you can if you're looking for
music distribution, this is a huge pivot for us. Um,
but for years we've been doing this for almost five
years now, and we have just been trying to figure

(03:41):
out where we fit in exactly in the music industry,
because we just love it so much, and there's so
many different lanes to choose. I mean, we've done PR,
we've done social media management. We also do just the
the content creation for up and coming artists. We have
our podcasts, we do a lot of things, but the
distro is just a perfect place for us to fit
because we deal with so many independent artists and it's
been going really cool.

S4 (04:00):
Yeah, and we've heard a lot of terrible things about distro, kid.
Oh yeah.

S7 (04:05):
Oh yeah. Yeah. I am like.

S4 (04:08):
Ready to change the face of distribution. Like I'm over it.
I'm over.

S6 (04:13):
It.

S2 (04:14):
Opportunity.

S4 (04:15):
You know. Yeah.

S6 (04:15):
I'm like, yeah. Kind of like a safe space where
you actually have, like, human connection and you can talk
to the people that are handling your music because it
just doesn't really happen that much anymore. No. And then
we also produce, um, at home with which is our
kind of our tiny NPR tiny desk experience where we
have we feature and highlight ten artists over ten weeks.

(04:36):
And each week we highlight a specific artist, and they
do a cover song and they do one of their
original songs wherever they feel at home. So they film
the videos either at their house or at the studio
or wherever they.

S4 (04:48):
Are in a field. In Norway we have one.

S7 (04:50):
Oh, and like artists.

S6 (04:52):
All over the world and they create all the content
on their end, they send it to us, and then
we edit it, and then we put it out there
in the universe. And it's really it's awesome. These artists
this year two are amazing.

S4 (05:03):
We we shot for the moon and we got it.
And I don't I don't know what happened.

S7 (05:07):
Yeah, yeah.

S5 (05:08):
Here's the thing before before we get too deep though
for those who are just being introduced to you. Alright
one I love the word fluid like so I'll just
throw that out there like that. Yeah. But for those
who this may be their first time, how do you
define what girl music is? Right like? And if you
could give us some hints to the origin because we
know because we've had a little more time with you.
But for those who don't know, it'd be kind of
to set the context.

S7 (05:26):
The context?

S4 (05:27):
Yeah, yeah. So Ashley and I are best friends since kindergarten,
which is crazy given that we're 35 now. So like
over 30 years of friendship.

S7 (05:38):
Should we celebrate? Shocking. I know, I'm like, should we
got married? Yeah, maybe.

S6 (05:42):
Domestic partnership.

S7 (05:43):
Domestic partnership.

S4 (05:44):
Um, but the cool thing about Ashley and I's friendship
has always been music. Like, that's what's connected us. I
moved away for college and kind of technically high school,
so we were never in the same place. But like
our friendship is very much solidly based in the fact
that one, we're really silly and silly together. Two music
and what we love. And so while we were kind

(06:05):
of all over the world figuring out our own lives,
it was still so nice because she would fly out
and come see a concert with me, or I'd be
home and see a concert. Everything kind of surrounded around music.
And that's really when the pandemic hit. We were real bored.
Ashlee was an accountant. I worked in the construction industry
and we were both like, let's just chit.

S7 (06:25):
Chat.

S4 (06:26):
On a pod. Everyone's starting one, let's do it. And
then we kind of oopsy daisy ourselves into a very
thriving Instagram platform, which we just hit 25 K.

S7 (06:37):
Ooh, nice, nice.

S4 (06:39):
Thank you, thank you.

S7 (06:40):
Yes.

S4 (06:41):
Uh, that basically highlights we we are we are curators
at the heart of it. We are tastemakers. We want
to kind of push the needle on what music is
and what's popular I think nowadays because there's so much
out there. There's so much out.

S7 (06:55):
There.

S4 (06:55):
That you know, the top 40 radio, while sometimes it's
really good and fun and we love it, there's there's
something missing that's magical about it. And I think that's
what our goal is really and and to help independent
artists who are just starting out understand what's even happening
in the music industry since it's shifting constantly. So this
is our way of kind of like being that middleman of, yeah,

(07:18):
here's all the music we love, here's everything. But we're also,
like Ashley said, doing distro. Now we still stream on Twitch.
Just basically the whole of the music industry is us.
We love both sides of it. Yeah. Curation industry. So
that's basically what girl music is right now. It's a
lot of things and depending on what your flavor is,
you know, you can find something.

S6 (07:39):
Yeah, we talk about mostly every genre, probably not metal
genre fluid.

S5 (07:45):
Genre fluid is.

S7 (07:46):
Is yeah, yeah. Yep.

S6 (07:48):
And not too much country. Some we do more Americana. Yeah,
not like the pop country. You're not going to really
find like, Luke Bryan on our.

S4 (07:55):
No no no no no no no.

S6 (07:57):
Morgan. Wallen.

S4 (07:58):
Morgan. No. Actually, I rage against that man.

S7 (08:00):
So I love it. I mean.

S5 (08:02):
But they're trying to give like, some context to people, like,
they're like, well, wait, how did you all meet? Right. Like,
it's almost like these are we're family members, but it's
kind of like, alright, this reunion. But to let people
know is that at one point in time, once upon
a time, um, we worked together in producing what was
a version of That's what Leon was talking about. The
bops and bangers was a version of that, and you
all kind of came, came to us and we got

(08:23):
super excited from day one. And I remember when you
all left and Lee and I were like, we gotta
do this. Like, this is, this is going to be awesome.
And it was, it was because of the energy that
you all brought. Obviously people are seeing it right now.
This is not.

S7 (08:34):
Yeah.

S5 (08:34):
They're not putting on. If you go look at their
content this is always them. There's laughs and there's humor
and there's genuine friendship. And and we saw that and
you know, so you all came to us and we
had the privilege to actually work with you all and producing, uh,
part of the show. And so it's like I said,
it's great to have you all back on.

S7 (08:51):
Yeah, we missed some changes.

S5 (08:52):
There've been some changes the last time. It was like
the previous version of.

S7 (08:56):
Yeah, the.

S5 (08:57):
Last.

S7 (08:57):
Time they.

S5 (08:57):
Had just been a wedding. That was it. Yeah, that
was it. But now there's more. So what what what
what have you all been up to personally and professionally, girl?

S7 (09:08):
Well, there's another type of distro, right?

S5 (09:10):
Like, it's.

S7 (09:10):
Like, out of.

S2 (09:13):
Everything.

S7 (09:14):
Yeah.

S6 (09:14):
I do want to say too. It was such a
pleasure working with you guys. Also, I feel like it was.
We both like both sets of us were like, learning
so much while we were going through everything. And it
really helped us understand, like, who we were as like
what we wanted to do and how we wanted to pivot.
Because we did pivot after we, um, stopped working with
you guys, we like kind of dropped the podcast side

(09:37):
of things and we moved more to like live streaming. Um,
so we, we changed up what we were doing, and
we did love the podcast, but the live streaming, honestly,
like just we have people chatting with us and honestly
like thrived more with us because you guys know how
chatty we.

S5 (09:51):
Are.

S6 (09:52):
And we just feed off of people's energy. And I
think that working with you guys, we all fed off
of each other so well and it was so much fun.
I'll never forget when we had a band come in
here and we did like an interview. Yeah, it was
so much fun.

S5 (10:02):
Like Jenga. There was there was some Jenga that went
down like, that was awesome. Uh, it was against humanity.
Against humanity? Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was fun.

S6 (10:11):
It was so fun.

S2 (10:12):
I know the band was, like, very excited, too. They
were just like, keep it coming, I know.

S6 (10:16):
I do want to do that more. Honestly, I miss that.
But yeah. Well, my own version of Destro is I
had a baby. That's one thing that changed. And she's
already going to be seven months. Her name's Alice and
she's super cute, but still working. You know, a working mother?

S2 (10:33):
Yes, yes.

S5 (10:34):
Nice to.

S4 (10:35):
See.

S6 (10:35):
Yeah, yeah. I'm super blessed with my career and what
we're doing. And I'm able to be home with her
a lot, because I don't think I could leave her
very much.

S4 (10:43):
Oh, my God, could you imagine going into your accounting
job and having to, like, leave her every day?

S6 (10:46):
No, I'm obsessed with her. I could, I can't.

S4 (10:48):
Yes. With her I am fully obsessed with my little niece.
Like she is the angel sent from above.

S6 (10:54):
Like she has so much hair. You guys.

S2 (10:57):
You guys. Really?

S4 (10:57):
You guys?

S6 (10:59):
I'll show you a picture when we're perfect. Yeah, we
should see a picture. Yeah, but it's so like. It's
crazy how much life has changed since.

S4 (11:07):
What is going on? What is time? First of all,
because I feel like we were just here. Like, just
hanging out with you guys.

S6 (11:13):
Yeah, I.

S2 (11:13):
Know, and I remember you guys were like, yeah, planning
the wedding. Oh, yeah. We gotta go to the wedding, dude.
And the lady is like, whoa, wedding baby. Oh, wait. What?

S4 (11:21):
Oh, everyone in our friend group had a baby at
the same time. No joke. Oh, yeah. No joke.

S6 (11:25):
We were all pregnant. Oh, it was herd mentality.

S4 (11:29):
Meanwhile, I'm like, no babies for me. I'm just gonna.

S2 (11:32):
I'm like, I'm not going to be with you guys. Yeah.
I'm like, I'm not contagious.

S4 (11:35):
I'm the fun aunt. She's like, are you sure? I'm like, yeah, fun.

S6 (11:39):
Yeah. One thing I will say after having a child
is if you don't really want one, don't do it
because it is changes your whole life like you really are.
I mean, it's your. It's my person. Like I'm obsessed
in it. Like that's all I think about all the time.

S4 (11:54):
And now I feel like too. It's really cool to
build something together for her to, you know, like I feel. Yeah,
there's a better purpose of, like. Oh, I want her
to be proud of her mom and aunt. Oh, I
want to do stuff for her and, like, build the
next generation. And we got to start training her on
music ASAP.

S6 (12:12):
Oh, yeah.

S4 (12:12):
Oh, yeah.

S2 (12:12):
Like, yeah.

S6 (12:13):
She's gonna be.

S5 (12:14):
Well, here's the thing. I can only imagine that when
she was in the womb, there was music anyway, so
it's already happened. She'll. She'll naturally have an ear. She'll
play an instrument or two, like, it's just it's just
going to happen. But I think it's beautiful because when
you're talking about your project, it's. I don't know that
we actually, like most of us can remember where this
wasn't a thing, where it wasn't the access to be
able to create content wasn't this easy. And now we're

(12:35):
creating stuff that if we wanted to go back and
look five years ago, pre-pandemic, to what you during the pandemic,
what you all were producing, we can go get it.
So imagine what she's going to be able to like
we say, dig through the crates. Yeah, whatever server that is.
And like that. That was Mom and auntie.

S6 (12:49):
Oh my God.

S5 (12:50):
What? And that was the artist that you had access.
You did an interview with them. Like, can you imagine,
you know, and and how it grows and morph. Because
for a short time that we've known each other. I mean,
our pride is like crazy, because to me, I'm like, yes,
subscribe to the newsletter. Yes, I want to get because
that's how I got the information right.

S2 (13:06):
Like, oh.

S6 (13:06):
Yeah.

S5 (13:06):
Yeah, those those things will forever live in perpetuity, right?
And so it's almost where it's like the Odyssey. Yeah.
It's like you're immortal, you know. And then now you've
created another life that now will be able to have
that type of immortality. And, and then it's like, almost
like a family business now, right? You know what I mean? Like,
that's that's.

S6 (13:23):
Why.

S2 (13:24):
That is truly.

S4 (13:24):
Totally. I feel that way to where I'm like, this
is for you, baby. I do it for you.

S2 (13:30):
This is your legacy. Yeah. Oh my.

S4 (13:32):
God. Um, I will say, JC, she's going to be
a little podcaster.

S6 (13:36):
Oh, my God, she is so chatty.

S4 (13:38):
So chatty.

S5 (13:39):
Like, no, no, no, no way, no.

S4 (13:43):
Way.

S5 (13:43):
No way. Please, baby.

S6 (13:44):
I know, no way. I know she's always trying to
get warden. She's like bam, bam, bam. I'm like, no, no,
I love it so much. No, I love it. I
talk right back to her. We talk all day. It's true.

S4 (13:53):
I'm telling you, she's gonna start a podcast ASAP.

S2 (13:55):
ASAP.

S4 (13:57):
That and be a tap dancer because she just tippy
toe taps all the time. Yeah. My hopes.

S6 (14:01):
Are in.

S4 (14:01):
Her. Yeah.

S5 (14:02):
There you go. Put the shoes on her now. What?
What were your what were your early memories of when
we were working with them? Like when they came from
the time they came in and the challenges that we saw.
What are some of your memories that you remember?

S2 (14:12):
Oh, man. Well, the memories is like I remember when
you guys, like, reached out to us and all that stuff.
And I'm a music person too, so I was like,
very excited to know about what you guys were doing.
And I was telling JC, like, dude, we gotta do this. Like,
this is so fun. And it's music like, please, we
gotta do it. Definitely. We got a bunch of challenges, like,

(14:33):
you guys want to do a video podcast thing, you know,
the slides like everything, you know. And we were like.
And we're a small team, right? We were not doing
like much on video podcast, we were doing some video,
but like, you know, you guys had a lineup, a schedule,
all that stuff. So that was a challenge for us too.
And we wanted to pull it out like super well.
But yeah, definitely along the way. Jake, I think we

(14:56):
both were like trying super hard. But then it's like, yeah,
that's not what they need or like that's not what
they're looking for. And we try so hard. But then
the thing for us is like, what we love about
you guys too is like, you knew what you wanted, right?
And we were having that communication with you guys.

S6 (15:11):
Yeah.

S2 (15:12):
That's what we appreciate a lot. And sorry if I'm
talking for you, Jake, but I think this is like
kind of foundation we have, like, communication is the key.
We always want to leave the doors open with, you know,
with you guys and everyone that comes here and for
us as well to come to you. Right? Yeah. So
the memory is like, yeah, I had a lot of
fun with the recordings as well, having like seeing you
guys just like having so much fun. And I'm like,

(15:34):
I think we're missing something with podcasting sometimes. Yeah. Like
we missing, like the part of the fun.

S6 (15:40):
Yeah.

S2 (15:41):
Right. Or we're just preparing too much. Yeah, yeah. Like
we just gotta be perfect. Like. No. Like what's perfect, right?

S4 (15:47):
We. And we are certainly not perfect. You know what
I mean? Like, we are silly billies all the time.

S2 (15:52):
But that's that's what makes it perfect, right? Because it's
your personality. And that's what we want to see. And
I personally, when I look into podcasting or all these
videos and stuff like that, I want to see that. Yeah.

S4 (16:03):
Well, that's our kind of whole thing, right? Is like,
we are just us. We've never put on any kind
of front or anything like that. And I feel like
people are just wanting to connect to other people, and
music is the perfect way to do it because it's
such an easy entry point. And then when they kind
of get to know us and realize how goofy we truly,
truly are, it's almost like they're just our friends now, too.

(16:26):
They're watching their their friends do something together. Yes. And
I will say to your point, too, of like podcasting
versus live streaming. I think it was so cool because
after we were done here, we were just like, maybe
it's not podcasting. Yeah, maybe it's live streaming. And I
think what Ashley was saying of like our community joins.
They chit chat with us. There's so much of a
like that's where we thrive versus a very typical sit

(16:49):
down and have a conversation podcast. You know what I mean?

S6 (16:52):
The professional like what you're to what you're saying like
kind of there is that kind of professionality. Yes. In
podcasting that we yeah, we were lacking for a better term.
I mean, we still we did have it, but the
structure and the, the kind of consistency in regards to
it was very difficult to us. So that's why and

(17:13):
also in regards to music and producing things you have
it has to be timely because people listen and then
it's gone forever because of how much music comes out.
I mean, there's new albums from big people, like big
artists coming out every week. So like, you listen to
listen to Kesha and then goodbye and then you listen
to Renee.

S4 (17:31):
Rap's coming out.

S6 (17:32):
It's just like constant. So it has to be when
you're producing video content. Podcasts are a revolving around music,
especially as an up and coming brand or person trying
to make it. Like in the content creation world, you
have to. It has to be quick because people really
want it to be. Otherwise, they already listen to the
album and they already listen to for like four other

(17:54):
reviews of it. Why would we listen to another one?

S4 (17:56):
Yeah, exactly.

S5 (17:57):
That doesn't even count. Like the surprise drops, right? Like,
I know for me, like you wake up in the morning,
it's like, what? What happened last night? Did you not.

S4 (18:02):
Hear the Bieber?

S5 (18:03):
We gotta go. We gotta go. But yeah, that's big.
But that speaks to so. So to me, in my mind,
that's where I think a lot of people don't understand
the work component of it. Right. Like when we see
you guys on air. Yes it's laughs it's giggles. It's fun.
The passion comes across. What do you want to do.
But with all that you all have going on it's
work yo. And I don't think but but the it's
almost like art when it looks so simple. That's when

(18:24):
you know, it's it's so nice. Right. And you all
are on it, dude. Like I'm saying like I'm a
subscriber to the newsletter. Like I'm, I'm like and you
all are consistent. That's that's Lena's favorite word. You all
have the consistency. You're on it. And it's not just like, well,
we just gotta get something out and throw it out.
I mean, yeah, every time it is, there's some curation
I think is the word that we use a while ago. Like,
can you speak to what is the amount of work?

(18:44):
Because nobody sees how the sausage is made. They just
like to eat the sausage. Right. How much work are
you guys putting into it and how did you get there?
Like you didn't like there's some dedication and there's a
mother here and you have a life and like, how
can you speak to like, that work ethic that has
to come along with it?

S4 (18:58):
Yeah. I mean, so okay, I have the most sick
fuck thing to say and I, I'm actually not proud
of this and I should stop saying it, but I
listened over 1200 albums in a year. Um, it's ill behavior. It's.

S6 (19:12):
I don't do that.

S4 (19:13):
It's it's this, like, inner FOMO I have of like, oh, well,
I don't like the first three songs, but maybe number
six is gonna slap really hard and it's going to
change my mind. I just, I it's ill, it's ill.
And I've been personally trying to slow down. Am I succeeding? No.
But I will say with the curation part, it's because
I personally listen to so much music and I will
give everything a shot. Like it. We are not genre related.

(19:37):
Like anything and everything I will listen to, I'll give
it a chance. So I think the curation almost kind
of comes easily for us because we listen to so
much music.

S6 (19:45):
How do you find the time though? Um, how are
you managing it? How are we getting it out there?

S2 (19:50):
Good question.

S4 (19:51):
Um, I ill again. Yes.

S6 (19:53):
This is I was waiting for. I wanted her to
say it.

S4 (19:55):
I so I'm a big video gamer. That's what I
do in my spare time. I love video games, so
it's really easy because I play certain games that don't
need music like I can. So basically, I constantly have
headphones on and I'm always listening to some album. It's maniacal.
And then I, we track our the music we listen
to in a huge spreadsheet every year. I have mine

(20:16):
going back from 2016, and the differences between how much
music I listen to then and now is tenfold. Like,
I listen to way much more music and it does
honestly kind of sometimes suck because I get I know
Ashley feels this way too. We get kind of like
stuck in a nothing sounds good anymore where we almost
have to, like, clear our brains, kind of go back

(20:38):
to the beginning and try.

S5 (20:39):
The sorbet of the ear like a sorbet of the.

S6 (20:41):
Ear. Yeah, you.

S5 (20:41):
Gotta just.

S6 (20:42):
Reset.

S5 (20:43):
It.

S2 (20:43):
Yeah, this is what I mean. Like when when Jesse
was like, yeah, my favorite word is consistency because. And
it's also discipline. Yes. Yeah. Like I mean you have
an hour business, right? That is about music. What are
you going to talk about if you don't do what
you do? Exactly. If you don't listen to them and
be like, yeah, yeah. Not that the first album. And
then now it's the 20. Exactly right. So you gotta,
you gotta know.

S4 (21:03):
You gotta know. And that's also, I think we both.
Ashley has no time to be on social media, to
be fair. Like her personal, you know, and even me, like,
as I get older, I've just been getting off and
off and, like, I barely go on it. But I
also feel like it's important for us to be on
it because we need to know what's going on. Yeah,
industry changes are constantly happening. Yes. Uh, even, uh, social
media things are changing, like sizes of graphics or, you know,

(21:26):
whatever it may be. We need to know what's happening
in music business. We need to know what's happening with artists.
Like the whole Justin Bieber thing we knew the night
before it was going to happen. Yeah. So it's it's
like keeping track of everything that's going on, but also
maintaining your sanity. Um, it is hard.

S6 (21:42):
And it's it's nice when you love, like, we love music,
so it makes it easy. And I will say, like,
from a production standpoint in regards to, like getting things
out and, and knowing what we're even doing every week
is we use Monday.com. Shout out, shout out, sponsor us.

S5 (21:57):
Okay. Okay.

S6 (21:58):
Sponsor us Monday.com.

S5 (22:00):
Wait. Don't mess up our. Because I sponsored the song. So. Yeah.
Don't don't. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Oh.

S8 (22:04):
Could we just roll it back?

S6 (22:06):
Hashtag. No, not not.

S5 (22:08):
Not.

S6 (22:09):
Um, no. It's really great and helpful in organizing our
thoughts because as you guys know, we have our hands
in so many different things. Um, so just having, like,
a calendar where we know our tasks or we know
what content we're getting out there. Um, now, we have
been reaching out to labels and they're giving us albums
to listen to so we can release on the release day. Um,
so that will help us be more on top of, um, everything. Because, yes,

(22:31):
video editing takes time and recording takes hold on.

S5 (22:35):
Say that again. Do what?

S6 (22:37):
Well, we're getting albums earlier than when they drop from big.

S5 (22:41):
Oh, no. The editing part. The video.

S4 (22:44):
Video editing takes.

S6 (22:45):
Time.

S5 (22:47):
No way. You don't.

S8 (22:48):
Say. I mean, and I'm.

S2 (22:50):
Feeling so.

S8 (22:51):
Oh, you should feel validated.

S6 (22:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you should feel validated.

S5 (22:55):
And that's the show. Thanks, ladies and gentlemen. There you go.

S8 (22:57):
And cut down by John.

S6 (23:00):
It takes a lot of time, and it's tedious work. Yep.
And and then when you're, like, clipping it for socials, it's. Yeah.

S8 (23:08):
Yeah, it's.

S4 (23:09):
A lot of organization. And I think the best thing
is that maybe not in my personal life am I
super organized. But like when I'm working, I need to
be organized. And Ashley's the same exact way. So Google
Drive is our best friend. Everything's in a folder. It's beautiful.

S6 (23:23):
It's shareable sheets, terrible sheets. And also, being a duo
is very helpful because we have different brains in regards
to working, I'm very much more on the type A like, okay,
here's all of the con. Like we have it all here.
This is how we're organizing it.

S2 (23:38):
I can see that.

S8 (23:39):
Yeah. Isn't that crazy? The accountant. No way. No way.

S6 (23:43):
And then I will be like, Kelsey, please make me
this graphic. Or please get this logo. Or please get
all of this stuff for content creation together because she
is gifted in that she can, like, see it so
much better than I can. So it's. That is helpful.

S8 (23:56):
Yeah.

S6 (23:56):
Yeah, that's very, very helpful.

S5 (23:58):
We refer to it like Lena and I like she
fills in my gaps. Right. Like Lena doesn't have the gaps.
Like Lena's good. Like she's when I. When I'm losing
my mind. When I forget. I can always count on
Lena to be like JC. Come on, tighten up. Tighten up.
Like I'm going to take a picture of the to
do list and make sure you have it so that
you can't say that you didn't have it. And I'm
going to remind you that I sent you that picture
and I pinned it in slack. So make sure you

(24:18):
have that. And you know, and now here's the and
here's the link to the Google folder. So you don't
even have to go. Right.

S8 (24:23):
Like yeah, make it.

S4 (24:25):
Easy for us. Yeah. Go. Yes. Make it easy for
the people who whose brains don't necessarily work that way,
you know?

S6 (24:31):
Yeah.

S5 (24:32):
Yeah.

S6 (24:32):
Yeah. So if you can go find your better half
somewhere and start a business. Yeah.

S4 (24:36):
Well, and I think, you know, we get a lot of.
So actually whole side note too is we have a
whole street girl team, which is um, I'd say like
from 18 to, like 24, like basically college kids. Yeah.
Who have joined the street girl team. And we give
them a prompt every month. So this month is all
around the world. Music from all around the world. Uh,
and they make content for us that we post on

(24:57):
a whole street girl Instagram. It's all about them. It's
about the artists they love. A lot of them are
concert photographers that are actually amazing.

S2 (25:05):
Talented, you know?

S6 (25:07):
Oh, yeah.

S4 (25:07):
Because we don't have to go to shows anymore.

S6 (25:09):
I it's great. What 30 year old asses because we
I mean, now that I had a baby, I haven't
been into a show. It's sad. Yeah. In a long time. Yeah. But, um.
And Kelsey is in Spokane part of the time, so
we were just finding it hard to go to shows.
So now we get asked to go to shows and
we send it to our street girl team.

S5 (25:25):
Send a team.

S6 (25:25):
And they are so excited. And they get to go
to a show for free. And they get to do
new press.

S2 (25:29):
And that was going to be my next question, because,
I mean, I remember when you guys came here, you
got someone that was helping, you know, getting like some, like,
time stamps. Oh my God, I can talk time stamps. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

S6 (25:41):
Oh, time stamps.

S2 (25:41):
Yes. For the social media and all that. Like how
many people you have in your in your team now?

S4 (25:46):
Um, right now it's just me and Ashley. Uh, yeah.
We do have a manager. Um, her name is Danielle.
Shout out. Um, she is a godsend. She, uh, is
from New York, and she worked at Sony Pub. She's
worked in a lot of, like, big music industry things.
She moved out to San Diego and we met up.
We connected, and it was just like, you are the
person we are missing of. Like, yeah, how do we

(26:08):
get ourselves out there more? Because Ashley and I are
terrible at PR, we.

S6 (26:11):
Hate to sell ourselves like it's very difficult, embarrassing, very difficult.
It's so difficult. We love to promote artists. That's what
we do all day, every day. But like when it
comes to ourselves, it's hard. So this has been amazing. Yeah.
And then our street girl team is not technically like
employed with us, but they are just it's part of like,
it's like a virtual music community that we've created and
it's like a club. Yeah. So they all are a

(26:31):
part of our fun club. So if you would like
to be a part of it, we're always accepting applications.
Tell us, um, shoot us a DM.

S4 (26:39):
At Girl Music.

S6 (26:40):
Um, and it's in that group I think has like 200.

S4 (26:42):
Yeah. Yeah, we're I think we're at.

S6 (26:44):
Girls in.

S4 (26:45):
It 200. I think about like 150 of them are
like really active, you know, schooling. It gets busy, super busy.
But like they are so passionate and it's nice to
feel like we're helping. Yeah. The younger generation.

S6 (26:57):
And Kelsey holds trainings like once a month and she'll
like do like content creation trainings and she'll do production trainings.

S2 (27:04):
As a way to do it. Yeah, yeah. Keep them
motivated too. It's like yeah, learning. But and also having
the fun, you know I get the I get, you know,
go and enjoy all of this. But I'm also learning
how they are doing it.

S4 (27:14):
Yes. And you know that's to kind of full circle
it that's, that's what a lot of people have asked
us is how do you have the time to do this?
And I'm like, we are two people. Yeah, we are
two people. I can shuffle things off to ash if
I need to. She was on maternity leave for three
months and it was fine like it was. I just
knew I had to lower my expectation of like, how
much I could get out.

S6 (27:34):
Yeah.

S4 (27:35):
And with that, I was just. Instagram really takes care
of itself now, which is nice. So we can work
on the back end for a lot of things like
distro and whatnot. But really, I think it's because we're
two people. It makes life so much easier.

S2 (27:46):
Because you guys are now full time on this. Yeah.

S4 (27:49):
Yes.

S2 (27:49):
Yeah. Because that's the other thing. Like that's.

S6 (27:51):
Another thing. It's not.

S2 (27:52):
Yes. Accounting. And you were in the construction and you
guys were doing jobs like I remember when you guys
were here, you were still like, doing some work.

S6 (27:57):
I was.

S2 (27:58):
Yeah. Yeah. And then now it's like, nope. We're full time.

S6 (28:01):
Yeah.

S4 (28:01):
Oh, yeah. We had a we had a whole conversation
about what that looks like and like, you know, it's
bold for Ashley to leave a very important job where
she could have kept going higher and higher, you know,
but for her to be like, actually, no, I want
to do this. I'm like, with me. So, you know,
it's almost like it's almost fun because I feel like
I want to prove it to her every day that
this is. Oh, well, you.

S6 (28:22):
Know, like. Yeah. You know what I mean? No. That's
so cute.

S4 (28:24):
Yeah. Like, I want I want to make sure we
both feel so confident about what we're doing. And with
this distro thing, we're just so, so excited because it
really just checks all the boxes of, like, what? We
were racking our brains. How do we be that middle
man in music? Because I don't know, social media is
weird right now, so I don't know how long that's
going to really exist as a platform. So we need

(28:44):
to figure out our business plan behind the scenes. Yeah,
because we don't want to fold just because we got
band on TikTok. You know what I mean? Like wild story.

S5 (28:53):
Well, I think I think listen, I think it's awesome.
We've done all the flowers and the falling over each
other about how great we're back together, but but I
really think we need to pivot. And, you know, part
of our show is like pulling the curtains back. So
the sheets back so you can see all the bedbugs.
So when we come back. Yeah. Let's let's get into
what the not so high points are and, and even
what concerns you about looking forward. You already talked about
like the change in music industry and hey we're jumping

(29:15):
but we don't know how this is going to work
you know. So when we come back we just want
to come back and jump into that. So we'll be
right back with more. I just wanted to push record
with girl music.

S3 (29:26):
Just taking a quick pause here. Enjoying the convo so far?
Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more fun
tips and stories from Lena and Jake.

S9 (29:38):
Mixed grounds is proud to present. I just wanted to
post record celebrating arts, community and culture.

S3 (29:47):
And we are on. Oh wait, I almost forgot to
push record. Now over to Lena and Jake.

S2 (29:57):
All right. And we're back with girl music. And Jake
led us with a really important question. You know, everything
goes like super nice. People see the nice things, but
we want to know the balance. Yeah.

S6 (30:10):
Give us the dirt, the teeth.

S2 (30:12):
The hard ones.

S4 (30:13):
We honestly love this. Like, we will 100% tell you
all of our flaws in an instant. So. But yeah,
I think I don't know, I think for us, and
I know Ashley will attest to this, it's been our pivoting, right?

S6 (30:27):
Yeah. I mean, okay, so when we started this, we
are not like we were not in the music industry
at all. All we did was love music. So it
it took us many years to kind of get our
feet wet, to educate ourselves in what the music industry
has for us and like how we could fit ourselves in.
And I still think we're trying to figure that out. Um,

(30:49):
it's very competitive. Very, very competitive. Um, there are a
ton of people that are not necessarily doing the same
thing as us, but there's no money. Streaming has changed
the industry immensely. Um, people artists aren't making money. Labels
aren't making money. So everyone over the last, I mean,
five years has been crazy to see the difference since 2020, right?

(31:11):
Because TikTok blew up. So artists now are, like, really
relying on trying to get their lucky break on TikTok
because it does get you streams. It does get you signed. Um,
not so much anymore. But it did, like a year ago. Oh, yeah. Um,
just going to, like, South by Southwest when we go
to these, like, huge events. Um, now we're we go
to panels and we're like, what is what are people

(31:32):
don't know what they're doing, like huge labels. UMG doesn't
know what they're doing. It's very like chaotic. And everyone's
kind of like gatekeeping a little bit because they don't
want to lose the little bit of money that they're making. Um,
so like sync is super big right now. So we
were like, maybe we can get into sync. But then
everyone's also thinking that, um, PR and music education was

(31:52):
pretty big. It got a little murky. And I think
that that's why we pivoted away from it, because now
we're just educating for free. And it got a little weird.
Like everything, everyone's been pivoting and there's not a lot
of money. Yeah. So I think that that's what's been
the hardest part for us is like, we want this
to be a business, we want to make money. But

(32:13):
it's very difficult in this industry to make something concrete.
And that's, I think, why we're excited about the distro part,
because there is a need for it. There are people
doing it, but not a lot. But there are millions
of artists, so it's like it's not too overcrowded in
this space. Um, so yeah, I think it's just been
very hard for us to figure out the exact direction

(32:34):
we wanted to have wanted to go in. It's taken
a long time and honestly help from other people in
the industry. Luckily, we've found people that have taken our
hands and been like, you guys should do this. And
we're like, oh, we didn't even see that. So honestly,
being open, networking, meeting new people, kind of going to
these educational events, that's where we met our bestie Mike,

(32:56):
who lives in San Diego, and he's really big in
the music industry, and he's been kind of helping us
with the distro side of things. I mean, really being
open to being educated and to taking help on because
you really don't know, know, don't know where it's going
to take you. Um, and I think that's been like
kind of a blessing for us because you're going to
meet some pretty shady people all the time, but finding

(33:19):
like kind people like keep them close, right? And like,
pay it forward. Always try and help out where you can. Um,
you never know where it's going to lead you.

S4 (33:29):
Yeah, I definitely agree. No, I was just going to
say I, I definitely agree with that. Like the paying
it forward, the connections we've made and the friendships. Truly
their friendships at this point have just been so fulfilling.
But it's also to a point where sometimes you're like,
I'm meeting another person. What's the point?

S6 (33:45):
Yes.

S4 (33:45):
Like, how does this help us? How does this keep
us going? But also in the back of my head
being like, all right, but like, maybe this is a
future thing, or maybe this is just a nice friendship
to have and they might introduce us to someone else.
So it's you just kind of never know when the
music industry, what the hell is going on?

S6 (33:59):
Any industry.

S4 (33:59):
Yeah. That's fair.

S6 (34:00):
Always be open and always like trying to get out
of the mindset of like, how is this going to
help us? And just kind of going in like, okay,
what is this mutual like, how can we create something together?

S4 (34:10):
Yes. Yeah. Collaboratively.

S5 (34:11):
So yeah. My, my I have another C word that
I like to use. I mean this is my soapbox moment,
but it's kind of like it's like.

S6 (34:17):
Laid on us.

S5 (34:18):
Yeah. No, it's one of these things where in desperation.
And any time in life, like. Like you said, it
doesn't matter what industry, it doesn't matter anything in life.
What usually helps things or makes things more tolerable or
innovative is building coalition, right? Building that group of people.
And then I use the other one is community because
that's what I really feel like you all. Do you all? Oh, yes.
Facilitate community. But if we think about community as like

(34:40):
a cul de sac, right. Everybody in the cul de
sac doesn't keep their yard clean. So you may not
deal with them all the time. Right. But then some
of those people you're not going to invite to the cookout, right?
You're going to have a block party. Everybody can come out,
but you don't. You don't want them to bring the
potatoes out like, but that's what community is, right?

S4 (34:54):
Like so yeah.

S5 (34:55):
And I just think in life what you all are
doing is kind of like a microcosm of what's going
on throughout the world, because every day we wake up
and we're like, well, what changed?

S6 (35:03):
Not yeah.

S5 (35:04):
Yes. Oh, let me just do what I did yesterday.
It is you're waking up asking the question, what changed?
And then how can I best be in a position
to handle the change tomorrow? Right. And like and I
and I think that that that is a talent and
a craft that not everyone has. Some people can't think
past the next three hours, right? And that's why I
said about where the puck is going to be. It's

(35:24):
a terrible cliche, but at the same time, when you
start thinking about you all, if you're talking about history,
that's where you all have to be. You're telling artists,
we're going to help you get to this big dream
that you have. And I need to know these steps
before you can even imagine them. And I need you
to trust me that I can get you there.

S6 (35:39):
Like.

S5 (35:40):
This is yeoman's work. Yeah.

S6 (35:42):
Oh, I love that.

S4 (35:43):
It's a lot of trust. And I think that, honestly,
sometimes here's some bedbugs that honestly panics Ashley and I deeply. Yeah. Um,
both of us are a little too empathetic, and that's
why we go to therapy. Um, you know, but I
think there's there's walking all over someone, and then there's
collaborative happenings, right? Like, there are there are certain things

(36:04):
where we've just been like that. We were fully taken
advantage of in that situation, and we couldn't help it,
you know, or we learned our lesson or whatever it
may be. And I think what's so awesome about Ashley
and I is we're both really big picture thinkers, like,
I can imagine five years in the future and think
of a thousand things I want to do. And then
Ashley is like, okay, but what are we doing now?

(36:25):
You know, like, she very much like, brings me back. Yeah.
To to reality of like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we
actually need to do something before that, you know. And
I think working with her has just helped me change
my perspective on a lot of how I, how I
live my life, honestly, of just like maybe taking a
step back, pausing for a second, thinking, okay, yeah, that

(36:47):
sounds cool, but like, what can I do in the now?
And like you're saying, with all the changes, not even
just in the industry, but in the world constantly, when
you're on social media and you're just like, I cannot
do scroll anymore. I think there's something about the fact
that we have that community behind us to where it
feels like a safe space. Yeah. To be like I,
I even said on our discord the other day, we
were talking about Spotify and how we're trying to get

(37:09):
off of it because Daniel Ek and that guy, like
he's a terrible person. But like I even said in
our discord, like, fuck that guy. And like I felt
safe to be able to do that. I rage, I
rage about Jack Antonoff as a producer all the time.
And Ashley was like, just keep saying, like, just do it.
And I'm like, I don't want the hatred. I don't
want the mean. But honestly, now I couldn't give a fuck. Like,

(37:31):
I know our community is going to be like, oh, girls,
you are so silly. Or like, oh my God, I agree. Like,
there's no, there's nothing mean about our community. Yeah, I
think that's why it thrives so much, is that we
are never going to be negative about anyone. Like in
a mean, mean way where like you're a terrible person,
you should, you know, like, yeah, it's mostly just music
is subjective. So it's my opinion.

S2 (37:51):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

S4 (37:54):
But you need that. You need that community behind you
to feel safe, to be able to say these kinds
of things, I think. Yeah. And that's where we thrive.

S6 (38:01):
Yeah. But yeah, definitely the community helps a lot with
just the pivoting and everything around, like all the things
going on in the world.

S2 (38:11):
Yeah, I think like and just like recapping and like
thinking in all of this, you know, as a person,
you know, like I normally get here like podcasts and
stuff like that. And their question is like, but to
what point we monetize, you know, to what point we
make money. Oh, yeah. Like they expect with five episodes
that are going to be already.

S6 (38:28):
Oh.

S4 (38:29):
Oh yeah.

S2 (38:30):
Oh yeah. I want you guys to tell me about it.
Like tell the person that is like starting like how
it really is.

S4 (38:37):
Oh. Oh you're not making money. Oh, I mean, love
you all. You're not. No one's making money. Uh. No one.

S6 (38:43):
Yeah. I mean, it does take time. And like, you
have to foster that community. Um, you have to shoot
your shot. I think that's one of the biggest things
that was hard for us at the beginning is, like,
who would want to talk to us or who would
want to, like, pay us? And it really is just
you putting yourself out there. You got to believe in yourself. Yeah,
but like, don't get discouraged when it doesn't come right
away because guess what? There's what, like 100,000 podcasts probably

(39:05):
released a day.

S5 (39:06):
700, 750 podcasts, 750,000 750,000.

S10 (39:11):
And I was like.

S5 (39:12):
No, no, not not released today.

S4 (39:14):
Okay.

S5 (39:14):
Actual titled podcast 750.

S6 (39:16):
My God. Yeah. See? So buckle up. It's a journey. Yeah. Um,
it takes time to see the money, but if you really,
you have to really believe in it and love it.
I mean, that's the only way you won't want to
ram your head against the wall. Um, if you have, like,
a vision and go do it. But it's. You have
to love it.

S4 (39:34):
Yeah, yeah.

S5 (39:35):
Yeah, I agree. Like it has to be a passion. Like,
that's that's the one thing. Like we have people come in,
I can I feel like I can almost. Yeah. They,
they're not ready to do this like that type of thing. Yeah.
But we just we just recently talked to a prospect and,
and her, her impetus of the show came from a
passing of a loved one. Right. Wow. And and like

(39:55):
when you hear that then what we're talking about that's
like not really work for you all because you love
to do it. Yeah. It becomes like I want to
do it. And so yeah, I was I'm, I was like, oh,
I hope, I hope that that she comes through because
it's going to be easier to work with her because
she knows what it is that she wants to do.
It's not going to be work. It's not going to
be effort. We don't have to worry about her coming
to ask the question, well, what am I? When do

(40:16):
you think we'll get paid? Or how many like those
who come and say, I'm not worried about the lessons
right now, that really just say, okay, I've got four
guests that I want to get on. Can you help me?
And can you all help us record? Like, yeah, those
are the ones that me personally that I get excited about.
And you all were that right? Like, you all came
to us and just said, here's what we're doing. Here's
we need help doing this. And, and I think that that,
that that's what's meaningful to me. And so again, that's

(40:38):
just more flowers after the bedbugs. Right. So if we
do the sandwich.

S4 (40:41):
Right, I think to to be said, there's something about you,
if you have to also be a storyteller, you have
to be someone who loves people and is very intrigued
by their story. Yeah. Always kind of being like, oh
my gosh, I've never heard that perspective before, you know,
because Ashley and I listened to so much music and
I joke all the time of like, I think I'm

(41:01):
getting a little too old for like, pop music because
I don't really I don't connect.

S2 (41:06):
Connect.

S4 (41:06):
Anymore. I'm like, I'm in love. I'm happily settled settle
down like I don't, I don't, I'm not. Songs about love.

S2 (41:14):
And maybe it's not my type. Oh yeah.

S10 (41:16):
Yeah.

S4 (41:17):
You know where where I think, like I think there's
something to be said about the fact that, like the
fact that we do it together and it's, it's manageable
in a way of she's also just my best friend
at the end of the day. Yeah. And I know
I can come to her with anything. And I know
if I'm having a bad day and I'm, like, hitting
my head against the wall of how do we do this?
Or vice versa. We lift each other up too, you know?

(41:40):
And I think the storytelling aspect really kind of plays
into that of we're gabbers we tell each other stories
all day, every day, even if it's just in slack.
You know, you have to have that aspect of caring
about other people and wanting to know their story and
wanting to know who they are. So like, it's just
easy for us at that point.

S6 (41:59):
And you have to understand too. Like when we started
just a podcast five or so years ago, like we
were just doing it for fun, I don't think. I
think when you start it, I wouldn't think about the money.
I would think about like what your actual goal is
with producing this podcast and why do you want to
produce it.

S4 (42:15):
And what's your story behind it?

S6 (42:16):
Yeah, exactly.

S4 (42:17):
Purpose?

S6 (42:18):
Yes. Um, if I don't know if doing it for
the money right away is like, we just kind of
rolled into this business, honestly. But it took a long time.
It took a lot of, a lot of our time
to to build up what we have now. Um, so, yeah, I,
I don't know if I would if, if your goal
is to like, get brand partners and because that's the thing. Right.

(42:38):
Especially I feel like for Gen Z, there's so much
pressure to start your own brand and to start your own,
like podcast or a media show or TikTok, because the
brand deals and to be fair, you see it online
all the time. And those are those influencers are making
more money than like, famous actors, like they make so
much money. So it is like, I want to do that.

(42:59):
I don't want to work a 9 to 5 job,
but that is rolling the dice like it's it's not
a common thing. So I don't know, like.

S5 (43:08):
It's like going to the NBA for me. Like I
remember being in high school and you couldn't tell me
I wasn't going to the NBA. And then I found
out that, like, wait, I'm a senior and nobody sent
me any letters. Like, it's just like nobody's recruiting me,
you know, like, oh, you come to the realization of like,
like you really have to go back and say, well, wait,
this dude has been this dude who did go to
the league. That's the same age as me that came
from the same town that I was when I was

(43:30):
fifth grade, riding in the woods on a motorcycle. He
was at a AAU tournament. Right. And you.

S10 (43:34):
Start you start.

S5 (43:35):
Looking at that behind the scenes work that people don't get.
And exactly we're looking for the shortcut. And I think
it's a derivative of like the microwave age. Right. Like
I get the privilege within this group of people to
say that. I remember when we got our first microwave right.
And it's like the difference between now and you've probably
heard me say this before, but there's a difference between
a child or an infant. Shout out to the mom

(43:56):
that where you can go warm that milk up in
seconds versus having the boil water on the stove. Wait
for the boil, put the bottle in there, tested right?
Like there is something that happens over time. And now
that we're into the age of AI, it's even more so.
It just.

S10 (44:10):
Keeps oh yeah.

S5 (44:11):
The shortcuts keep coming, right? Yep. And it's good because
there are tools. But then what are we sacrificing if
we don't, you know, acknowledge the passion, the work, the community,
you know, and the work that goes behind it. But
with a few minutes that we got left, one of
the things that I definitely have to get out of
you all, I think it's season five. Yeah. Is that
what I saw? Season five.

S10 (44:28):
Oh, at home? Yes. Yes at home.

S5 (44:30):
Right along with that. Tell us about season five. And
then also tell us about what else is on the horizon.
Like you told us about the distribution. But what else
is on the horizon that you can share? Because we
would love to have some breaking news here. But what's on.

S10 (44:41):
The horizon for.

S4 (44:43):
Hey, um, you know, so at home with is really awesome.
This year we really, uh, reached out to artists that
we have been obsessed with. So, for example, Truesdale, who
is a little like three girls folk pop harmonies, they
were just on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Yeah, like getting
really popular.

S5 (44:59):
You all actually featured them, I believe, on your countdown
show that we actually produced. Oh yes. That was like
three years ago. Or 2 or 3 years ago. Let's
really talk about that.

S2 (45:08):
Yeah. True.

S6 (45:09):
Let me just say, I have been obsessed for years,
and I think that's why they're doing it for us,
because I love them so much. I mean, I've seen
them perform a lot. They're extremely incredible, super talented, but
they're blowing up. And we love to see these little
babies that we talk about years ago, like, start to
blow up. I mean, that's why if you listen to us,
you'll know about like.

S4 (45:24):
We talked to Lola Young first. I just when.

S6 (45:27):
We talked about before all these people before they blow
up you guys, you'll hear it here first. Um, but, yeah,
I mean, at home with is exciting. Yeah. Super fun.
It's really cool to get to know these up and
coming artists. Um, and.

S4 (45:39):
I think it's cool too, because I love the idea
of what is home for everyone. You know, a lot of.
So one of the bands, Bermuda Search Party, they are
the nicest people. They are on tour right now and
they were like, can we really film it anywhere? And
I said, absolutely. They did it out of their tour van. Yeah.
It was. It's so cool.

S6 (45:55):
Yeah.

S4 (45:56):
And I love the idea of NPR's Tiny Desk. Um,
because it's very intimate and because it really brings you
to that person. So for us, the summer is all
about just these ten artists. We get a break, we
get kind of a moment to catch up on music.
We get a moment to take a breather, go on
some vacations, and you know what? But it's so it's

(46:17):
it's going to be a great season. We're on week
two right now and it's already just been so much fun. And. Yeah.

S6 (46:22):
Um, what's coming up?

S4 (46:24):
Well, again, Destro, um, we are we are taking on
artists right now. We're having meetings, so if anyone's interested,
we'd love to chat.

S6 (46:32):
Yep. And like I said, we are getting, um. Like,
I know we got, um, her album that's coming out,
so we're going to be dropping our, like, live reaction
and review of that, like the day it comes out.
So we're getting more big hitter albums from huge labels. Yeah. Um, yeah.
What else is.

S4 (46:48):
Good? I mean, I know Grammy week is going to
be insane. Oh, yeah.

S6 (46:51):
Um, that's a huge thing too. We forgot to mention, um,
Kelsey was able to go on the red carpet at
the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Yeah, yeah.

S2 (46:58):
I saw the.

S4 (46:59):
John.

S2 (47:00):
Stamos social media, and I was like way, way, way, way.
She's she's asking question to this guy. Like what? Yeah.

S4 (47:08):
Guys real quick can I just say it was the
wildest experience of my life because we get to this
red carpet and it's like Us Weekly Getty Images you know,
just really high powered publications. And then literally girl music.
And I was like, I don't belong here, but sure,
let's go. I met John Stamos.

S6 (47:27):
Who are some of the others?

S5 (47:29):
Shout out full House.

S4 (47:29):
Yeah, it was really it was actually. Yes. It was
actually really beautiful because the day before Brian Wilson of
the Beach Boys passed, and that was a really devastating
hit to me. I love the Beach Boys. It's a
me and my mom kind of thing. Uh, and Mike
love was being honored at the Songwriter Hall of Fame
the next day, and I was like, there's no way
this man's going to be here. That's like, too much.
He showed up. He, you know, looked really sad. But

(47:52):
John Stamos was there to induct him, essentially.

S6 (47:54):
Yeah, because John Stamos plays with the Beach Boys all
the time.

S4 (47:57):
Um, but I got to meet Stephen Schwartz, who wrote wicked,
and I'm a big musical theater girl, so I was
crying tears. I met the guy who wrote I Want
It That Way.

S6 (48:06):
Uh, I was just.

S4 (48:09):
I mean, songwriters. I could go on. We could have
a conversation about how important songwriters are, and we need
to raise them up. But yeah, so we've been doing
really cool events. I know Grammy Week is going to
be kind of the same thing, where we're just going to.

S6 (48:20):
Be boots on the ground.

S4 (48:21):
Boots on the ground, baby talking to anyone and everyone. Um,
but yeah, we're we're just kind of we're taking a
moment to breathe, I think.

S6 (48:29):
Yeah. While at home with we kind of on the
personal side, just do fun things. Yeah.

S4 (48:34):
We actually get to enjoy each other again.

S6 (48:36):
And then, um. Yeah. Having breaks like that too, when
you're doing production or, like, producing a whole brand or
whatever you're doing, um, setting up like little moments where
you don't have to be so front facing and you
can kind of have help or you're interviewing people or
doing stuff like that, or you get little clips from
other artists that is helpful in the music industry. We
can do that.

S4 (48:53):
Yeah, yeah. And again, because it's the two of us,
you know, if I'm having a bad day, I can
just text ash and be like, hey, can you handle this? Yeah.
I'm done.

S5 (49:01):
Sounds familiar.

S2 (49:02):
Yeah, right.

S4 (49:04):
Like, I think I think it's so nice to.

S2 (49:06):
Have that familiar.

S4 (49:07):
Yeah. It's so nice to have that person on your
side of being like, I cannot today. Yeah. And just
knowing that that person's there.

S6 (49:14):
Because sometimes you just cannot.

S4 (49:15):
You can. Just cannot.

S6 (49:16):
Yeah.

S4 (49:17):
Social media and I.

S6 (49:18):
Social media really.

S2 (49:19):
I mean, because that's another point like, um, as a
podcast myself, you know, like I still do the, the
kids podcast and it's, it's hard for like, you know,
for us to divide that time to be like, oh,
I'm thinking I gotta do this. And then it's like, no,
it's not the time to be working.

S6 (49:33):
Oh, yeah.

S2 (49:34):
To separate that personal time.

S6 (49:36):
Yes.

S2 (49:37):
To the working boundaries are.

S4 (49:40):
Especially if you work for yourself. Boundaries are so important.

S6 (49:43):
Oh, yeah. Yeah. We've done a lot better at that.

S4 (49:45):
Oh, yeah? Yeah, I'm done at 4 p.m. every day. Like,
I know I'm going to be out. And just like
sitting in the sun being a little lounge.

S6 (49:52):
You're still listening to music, though. Yeah, but we love that.

S4 (49:54):
But I love that.

S2 (49:55):
But I think it's like if part of the like,
you know, you're driving somewhere, you feel music. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.
Or at least me. Right?

S6 (50:02):
And grocery.

S4 (50:03):
Stores. Earbuds in.

S2 (50:05):
Exactly.

S6 (50:05):
100% of the time.

S4 (50:07):
Always. Always listening to music. I can't have silence. It's weird.
I don't like it. I don't like it at all.

S5 (50:12):
Yeah. There there's a there is a story that talks about, uh,
the allergies to silence. Like it's a, it's a big
thing for, for society as a whole right now. Like I,
I don't want to go weird out on it, but
it is it's a thing like we are allergic to silence,
because if you go back and listen that when videos
first started appearing online, they all were defaulted. They were
muted by default. If you look at it now, a

(50:32):
lot of times now, you're always hearing the audio and
you're scrolling through like. And so it's been a transition.
So now when it comes time to go to sleep,
this is why noise machines are one of the biggest
sellers over the last five years.

S4 (50:44):
Girl loves a fan noise.

S5 (50:46):
We're allergic to silence.

S6 (50:47):
Yes, but.

S5 (50:48):
If you can put yourself in a place to be
able to get there like that, that now becomes a
talent to be able to endure. So that's just.

S6 (50:53):
Sometimes I say.

S4 (50:54):
That it's almost like meditation.

S6 (50:55):
Yeah, yeah.

S2 (50:56):
But unless you come from Colombia, where there is no
silence at all.

S4 (51:00):
Ever. There's someone in the background yelling at you or something.

S5 (51:07):
That's awesome.

S6 (51:08):
That's awesome.

S5 (51:09):
Well, listen, you know, you know how we could do
this is, like I said, it's like a reunion. We
could be doing this, you know, for another hour and
a half.

S6 (51:15):
This is so fun. I like, love being back in
the studio with you guys.

S2 (51:19):
So happy you guys came.

S4 (51:20):
I'm like, we just started a force. A force, a podcast,
I know. I'm like, is it just chit chat with
with with the team?

S6 (51:26):
It's literally just chit chat.

S4 (51:28):
Yeah, absolutely.

S2 (51:29):
There we go. Chit chat podcast next.

S4 (51:32):
Coming soon.

S5 (51:33):
Right now. But no. But in all seriousness, this is
the last time that I'll fallen over you all. Like,
listen to see what you all are doing. You you
all serve as it's good to be in the same
space with you all in terms of watch, watching, what
you all do, the level of discipline that you have,
the level of happiness that you do it, the authenticity
that you do it with. To just be able to
have been a part of just a small component of,

(51:54):
you know, just being able to know you all and
to see where you are now and where you're going.
It's just it's very humbling for for me as an individual.
And if I can speak for like I just want
to push record and it's the same way. Like it's
good to look across the way and see somebody doing
it the right way and know, yes, yeah, go get that.
And and I wish you all you all the best.
The best. Like there's only like you. You all deserve.

S6 (52:15):
It.

S5 (52:15):
You guys.

S6 (52:16):
Deserve.

S4 (52:16):
After this.

S6 (52:17):
I.

S4 (52:17):
Digest this. My soul.

S6 (52:20):
That is very sweet.

S5 (52:21):
It's good, it's good. So I just I just wanted
to say that. Lena, I'll let you close this out,
but you guys are awesome.

S4 (52:26):
Well, we love you.

S6 (52:27):
Thank you. Yeah, we love you guys. Yeah.

S2 (52:28):
No, I hope we didn't leave too much out, but
I know we have more covered. Of course, we got
to do this more often for sure. Yeah, that would
be amazing. So first of all, thank you so much
for coming that you guys brought the energy as always.
And I'm so happy because now I'm hype. I'm like, yeah.

S4 (52:46):
Like Thursday.

S6 (52:47):
Thursday.

S2 (52:48):
Ready to work.

S4 (52:49):
She's like editing time.

S2 (52:53):
Definitely I feel it. I feel it's not a coffee, though.
It's not a coffee.

S4 (52:57):
It might be my coffee. It might be.

S2 (52:59):
Mine. No, but thank you so much. I'm very, very,
very excited to know all these great things you guys
are doing. I follow you guys on Instagram like Jake
gets the newsletter. We talk about it, we check about
you guys because it's super cool to see how much
you have grown and how much you still have that,
you know, authenticity and you know, that community that that's

(53:19):
super important. So I appreciate you guys being here. And
thank you so much for doing what you're doing and
keeping music alive. You know, oh gosh, that is super great.
And then we're going to close out here. This is
a wrap. And thank you for listening. I just wanted
to push record producers podcast sponsored by Mics grounds for sure.
You got to go and check the new location at
Norfolk Mixed Grounds coffee. Really really good.

S5 (53:43):
And music venue. It's a music venue.

S2 (53:46):
It's a.

S5 (53:46):
Music.

S2 (53:46):
Venue, music events. So you gotta check it out.

S6 (53:49):
Yeah, well.

S2 (53:49):
Super.

S6 (53:50):
Fun.

S4 (53:50):
Writing this down in my memory.

S2 (53:51):
You want to go have a workstation? I do fine
at the same time. Then you should go and check
it out. Yeah.

S4 (53:57):
Going?

S2 (53:57):
Yeah. And really, really good coffee too. I love.

S4 (54:00):
It, thank.

S2 (54:00):
God. So yeah, thanks for being our sponsor. And, uh,
don't forget to follow us at Olas Media Studio on
Instagram and visit our website media.com to know more about shows.
And see you next time.

S6 (54:13):
All right. We love you all. Thanks for having us.
Bye bye.

S2 (54:17):
Catch out.

S3 (54:19):
Thank you for listening to. I just wanted to push
record a producers podcast. Be sure to follow and subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts. To hear other episodes or
read the associated blogs, visit Olas Media.com and be sure
to follow us on Instagram with the handle Olas Media Studio.
I just wanted to push record. Our producers podcast is

(54:39):
produced in studios in San Diego, California and Tijuana, Baja California.
Olas media is an IVC media company.

S1 (54:51):
Oh Los media.