February 9, 2025 • 22 mins
Asher returns to share his journey as an independent artist facing the rapid technological changes of the music industry. Discover how he balances the allure of advanced tools like AI while staying true to his artistic roots. Asher opens up about the intricacies of collaboration, revealing the necessity of producing fully-realized tracks to engage other artists meaningfully. Delve into the potential pitfalls of AI, and learn about the tightrope walk of maintaining artistic integrity amid evolving industry practices.
This episode also brings you behind the scenes of a captivating collaborative project with renowned artists like Ginny and Johannes. Asher recounts navigating record label complexities to secure Ginny's participation, known for her work alongside big names such as Dave Matthews and Jay-Z. With contributions from the talented drummer Johannes and Lucas Sater from the Pentatonix, this musical endeavor is filled with rich, creative synergy. Asher shares reflections on past collaborative challenges, emphasizing the importance of respecting each partner's creative vision and celebrating the diversity of genres he’s excited to explore in upcoming projects.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
this week we are going to let agus introduce
himself again.
Go ahead, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm doing fine thanks for having me of course I, um,
I guess, uh, I have great debtof gratitude for having me twice
, I think, in a year can't getenough of this show why do you
keep mentioning Ashton Robbins?
Well, you know I've done about100 shows this year and this by
(00:42):
far is the most memorable,really.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, probably because you get really good
advice.
Know I've done about 100 showsthis year, and this by far is
the most memorable really?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
oh yeah, well, probably because you get.
You give really good advice Itry yeah, absolutely.
I mean it always helps to kindof bounce your ideas off other
people and uh and I know you've,uh, you've been around the
block in the music industry.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You think so?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, you definitely come off as that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You just stay up on the information.
You're bad in the middle.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, well, just staying up on the information is
enough to just take an enormousamount of time out of the very
limited period of time forindependent artists to focus on
the music, myself included.
In addition, I have support, Ihave assistance, management, but
(01:36):
that's stuff that I also haveto manage.
I have to manage the management.
So it's just between that andkeeping up on the latest.
I mean, you could spend all daywatching YouTube updates on the
gurus and, oh well, now AI ischanging this and there's new
like Google updates and there'sFacebook updates, and now,
(01:58):
frankly, I'll go for months.
At a time where I just I'm likeyou know, I got to focus on my
music.
At a time where I just I'm likeyou know I got to focus on my
music, I can't just keepchecking up on on every little
micro change um, that happens ona literally a weekly or monthly
basis.
Uh, it's exhausting andoftentimes it's not even all
that useful.
Um, when it boils down to theend, the end goal for me, which
(02:20):
is really to just produce good,high quality content for my fans
and, um, you know, encouragethem to support me and go out
and do my, do do my gigs um, Ifeel like a lot of the
nitty-gritty details.
I just need people to managefor me as an independent artist,
and I would assume that a lotof other independent artists
(02:41):
need the same kind of support sotalk to me, tell me what you
want to talk about uh, well, Iguess.
Well, I mean you.
You just opened up the wholebag of worms with the ai thing,
because that is uh that is justnever ending.
And now and then I'm likeseeing uh, these, these like
clickbait, uh titles likechatPT5 is out now and I click
(03:05):
on the ChatGPT5 video which isgonna hopefully tell me what
it's all about, and should Iinstall it now?
And it's like it's gonna be outvery soon, like, oh, come on.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I'm a fan of the AI.
I am, but I have worked withartists that need a
collaboration.
With the voice recognition, youcan really create.
I'm not saying in allsituations that that's the way
that it should go, and you cancreate with the sound that
(03:41):
you're looking for without it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
You know, I think that's really optimistic of you
to say, and I hope that you'relooking for without you know, I
I think that's really optimisticof you to say, and I, and I
hope that you're right um, beingthe pessimist that I typically
am I have to counter with, uh,potential negative um, I don't
know negative outcomes from thissort of like.
Yeah, it's totally, totally.
(04:04):
I can see that being apossibility.
That, okay, instead of havingto like work for hours crunching
out a track for collaborativeoption, you know, just sending
this quick AI sample.
But you know what, the more Ikind of get involved with the
collaborations and I've actuallybeen fortunate enough to just
pump out a new, amazing,probably one of the most
(04:26):
exciting collaborations I'veworked on um in a long time um
miserloo this past week, which Ican talk about um, I did not, I
did not land that collaborationuntil I had fully produced the
track.
I mean we're talking like a full, like cinematic orchestral rock
, kind of upbeat, miserable andlike pretty much good enough
(04:49):
that like the movies would,would be cool with it and I ran
it by a bunch of artists and thepeople that were like really
interested.
But then well, let me just getcut to the chase.
Cut to the chase.
Ginny, who I pitched, this byGinny Luke and Johannes
Gritschoff, are out in LA.
They agreed to it because theylove the piece so much.
(05:11):
So I think if I had sent them askeleton like oh, here's the
general idea, and here's who Iam, or my management sent it out
, whatever, I don't know.
That's the pessimistic Ashertalking.
I hope I'm wrong, but that'sjust been my personal experience
.
I feel like a lot of people justkind of look at the numbers it
actually could be fully producedyou know, I gotta tell you, I
(05:37):
was watching this, this synclike movie, sync type like
workshop, where they were prettymuch warning against, uh,
artists who produce music likemyself from getting paid or
(05:58):
getting up acceptingopportunities from companies
like pond, for instance, that,um, they, basically they, you
know, I don't know if you'veheard of that pond like they,
they use a raw what's the word Idon't know why that the word's
escaping me but uh, just videoand and uh, audio and then and
(06:22):
then photo, um, justpre-produced photos, stock, yeah
, stock, that's the word I waslooking for.
So they discourage that becausePond and these other types of
companies are using that stock,the photos and the videos and
the audio, and building AI offof that at the expense of the
artist building AI off of that.
(06:42):
So at the expense of the artist.
So I don't know if, again, Ithink it's one of those things
where it's inevitable, but it's.
It's hard to know, it's hard tosort of stop that game from
from developing because there'sso much money being pumped into
it and so many people want touse the stock.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
So tell me, what have you been doing this last year?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Oh, just twiddling my thumbs.
Well, as you know, I'm aworkaholic, so I've just been
doing a lot more of that stuff.
I've probably, since last wespoke, I've produced about at
least 12 to 13 singles releases,five of which were full
(07:26):
symphonies like classicalsymphonies, two of which are hip
hop singles.
The one I the most recentprobably thing I'm most excited
about is Miserlew, which isbased on a traditional Greek
piece that probably most peoplehave heard, but I made it more a
(07:47):
contemporary, upbeat cinematictype of production, and that is
what I was mentioning before.
I reached out to some reallyamazing artists and I had to go
through some red tape to getthrough Ginny's record label to
have her sign on to collaborateon the song.
And then I got Johannes.
He's been on internationaltours.
He's been on the Tonight Show,the Day Show, pretty much every
(08:13):
show you can think of America'sGot Talent.
It's really an honor to haveeven met him.
Just to work with him has beenpretty cool.
Ginny's worked with DaveMatthews, bernie Spears pretty
much Jay-Z anybody you can thinkof been pretty cool.
Ginny's work with Dave Matthews, bernie Spears pretty much
Jay-Z anybody you can think of.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I'm the smaller of the artists, if you will.
It's just been an honor to beable to build the backbone of
the song and then to just havethem kind of do their thing on
it.
She added some violin, electricviolin and even some classical
to kind of do this dueling thingwith me and Yohannes is a
drummer.
(08:51):
So he turned it less of a, heturned it more into like a rock
type beat.
So that's been pretty cool.
And we have the producer of thePentatonix, the musical
director, lucas Sater of thePentatonix, who worked on the
song.
That was pretty cool.
So yeah, that's been kind oflabor of love, just getting it
(09:15):
on different platforms andworking on the write-up and the
blogs and magazines and theinfluencers and so on and so
forth.
That's what I've been busy withthis past week All the gigs and
concerts and stuff like that.
It's just it's been about 150gigs ago that we talked there's
been a lot of events.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I've been traveling.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I'm trying to remember anything in particular
that was unique.
I've been out to LA, texas, didsome events in North Carolina,
atlanta.
It's been a busy year.
Busy year, a blessed year.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Okay, so I'm going to ask you a question then Do you
think that because you had sucha great experience with this
collaboration that you may havebeen spoiled or not knowing what
to expect when you get thecollaboration from hell?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
um, you know, I I think it's bound to happen,
actually, because I keep seekingout collaborations.
Uh, I think it's bound tohappen.
I think the redeeming factor isthat, even if I do end up with
the collaboration from hell I'mnot sure I think the only way to
really have a collaborationfrom hell is where you know,
like I work extensively and likeinvest extensively in a single
(10:42):
and all of a sudden, like thisperson wants to completely flip
the song upside down afterhaving invested time and effort
in it.
Um, I mean, I've had some.
I've had, like I had onecollaboration that was kind of a
joke.
In contrast, she was reallytalented singer, really into
(11:05):
herself and thought much more ofherself than she actually was.
Like she thought she was thislike major celebrity than she
actually was.
Like she thought she was thislike major celebrity and, um, I
mean, I, I worked on the songand the track and we just sort
(11:26):
of like went our, went our ownways, like we never got in an
argument or anything.
Uh, we just didn't like finishthe project because I was just
thinking like, like this is notthe type of person I really have
an interest in working with,because she really thinks she's
like the shit and she's reallynot.
I mean, she's got a good voiceand I don't know if she so and
(11:47):
she it's funny because shereached out to me first and then
.
So anyway, just to kind of giveyou an idea of like the
exchange, that one of manyexchanges that I had, that maybe
just sort of like roll my eyes.
Um, it was like where she made,she made it.
I'm trying to remember,actually I'm thinking out loud
here she made it, she.
She had a track that sherecorded with another artist.
(12:09):
She said she asked me to recordover it my violin.
I said, sure, I didn't ask foranything because it was a call.
I saw it as a collaboration.
I recorded, I sent it to her.
She disappears for like twomonths.
Nothing happens with the song.
She comes back to me.
She's like hey, could yourecord on this song, like well,
um, what happened with the lastsong?
(12:29):
She's like, oh, it wasn't like,or the label, like um, said
that it wasn't ready or wasn'tgood or something was missing.
Like, ok, and you want me torecord on this for free?
So that was just like.
That was like kind of step onein the process of many steps
where I was sort of like that'sreally entitled to sort of like
go to another, like anestablished professional
(12:49):
musician and sort of ask them tolike work for free, after you
didn't do anything with theprevious recording, you know.
But the next one was like, okay, maybe just to like humor me,
I'm just maybe I'll startworking.
I gave her a little clip justto kind of entertain myself, see
what would happen with it.
And I'm trying to remember.
(13:12):
It's like a number of monthsago, like many, many months ago.
She's like this song, um, oh,yeah, it sounds good, let me
just run it by the label.
And then, and then, oh, that'sright.
And then I said, well, so if youwant me to finish up the
recording, uh, I'm either goingto need 50% split, uh, in the
royalties, which is asking likewe're not talking an artist
(13:34):
who's getting millions ofstreams.
We're talking like an artistwho gets like a few thousand
streams, like has whatever, uh,some screwy stuff on on their,
their social media platforms andI was like I just look at 50, I
think, or just an even split,or maybe a third split, some
percentage.
She's like I'm sorry, if youcan't accept basically 0% with
(13:58):
the distribution of with thislabel, I'm not going to be able
to allow you to play this atyour concerts or performances
and I'm like, oh my god, shereally doesn't understand
reality.
I can't believe I even gotinvolved with her.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I was just about to say that's not correct.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I haven't thought about this in so long since now,
since I've just brought it up,but now that I think about, like
I can't believe that I actuallywasted my time.
But yeah, so that's just kindof give you an idea as to how
insane one of my collabs was.
So you could say that couldhave been the collab from hell.
Normal people like likehardworking people, people who
care, who have respect for thepeople they're collaborating
(14:41):
with, people who actually have aresume, that's like legit.
Yeah, it was definitely a dream, but I've also had, like you
know, working with Porter Singerwas a dream, was a privilege.
I'm gonna say you know, thatrelease was a few months back.
She's awesome, she's out inWashington.
Anyway, I've had some realwhat's the word Real great
(15:04):
opportunities.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Tell me a little bit more about your latest project
or process, what you loved aboutit, what frustrated you about
it and anything else you want tosay now.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
What I'd like to say probably the most important
point, um, first of all, isagain it was just a privilege
working on miserloo and and Ihope that more of the world gets
to hear it it's doing reallywell as far as the far as the
playlists are concerned, it's umyou know, uh, landing on a lot
of like for me.
I care about targeted playlistsas opposed to like, oh, it's on
(15:36):
three million random playlists.
It's kind of targeting rock andclassical and some electronic.
So, yeah, it's working.
Anyway, nobody wants to hearabout this stuff.
It was I'm going to say I know,oh, I'm touched.
So if you want to hear, yeah,oh, I'm, I'm touched, so that
that.
So if you want to hear about it, I, I, I care, I care that the
(16:00):
playlists are targeted, becausewhat you see in the stats is
that maybe on chart metric orwithin the Spotify for artists,
for instance, or even iTunes,you see that the same people are
listening to the music over andover again.
So it's like two, two plays perper per listener, or three
(16:20):
plays per listeners.
Um, my last, my last single um,had eight and a half plays per
listener and that's like that'sexciting to me, as opposed to
like a hundred thousand peoplewho just kind of brushed by it
once and then they're done.
Um, so, because the people thatare want to support you or they
want to meet you, the peoplethat are streaming your song two
, three, four times anyway.
So that's just one little point.
Another point is uh, I, Ilearned, I learned something
(16:42):
important in terms of, uh, whatit means to collaborate with
other artists that are of equaland, if not greater, stature.
If you will, um, maybe longer,resume, more talent, I don't
know Is taking a step into thisgroup, this effort, this team
effort, with humility, and Ithink that that really leads to
(17:04):
better outcomes.
So I didn't.
The way that Miserlew ended upis different than I had
envisioned initially, in fact,had produced initially.
I produced it, I posted it onmy was.
It probably lent itself alittle more, a little more close
to my actual listeners, butbecause I I shut my mouth up
when it came to their recordingsessions and, you know, I made a
(17:28):
couple of minor mistakes, likeI tweaked some, I edited some,
some notes, um, some rhythm, andand then they said, well, can
you actually keep it the way itwas?
And I said, yeah, you're right,this is your baby, just as it
is mine.
And I'm glad that I made thatmature step forward because it
led to great outcomes.
It led to a rock song I did notplan on producing, but it led
(17:51):
to a really positive experiencefor all of us and, as a result,
um, you know, listeners from allends that are that are into the
song.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
What did you bring from all those other previous
collaborations to thiscollaboration to make it great?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Um, probably just that, just like the, the
understanding that that acollaboration is just that.
It is not my baby exclusively,it is their baby.
If I'm bringing them on as acollaborator, it's which is a
very different ball game thanhey, here's 300 bucks, please
record your saxophone or yourviolin or your trumpet or drums
(18:32):
at my direction.
It's very different because youare stepping into their
territory.
When you are asking an artistto collaborate, you are no
longer in full ownership of it'sa partnership, it's a business
partnership and you need torespect that business
partnership the you, I need torespect that business
(18:53):
partnerships.
That's what I learned, that, um, I'm.
We're sharing each other'saudiences, so what they deem is
important, if they think arhythm should be a bit different
, perhaps if it doesn't, if itdoesn't resonate best with with
myself or even my fan base, andmight resonate much better with
their families.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
So that is a.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
That is a reason to be flexible really, really in
any business partnership.
But this is like a microcosm ofa business, business
partnerships one contract, onesong, you know.
Another thing I learned is like, okay, it's one song, one
contract, one song.
It's not a full album, so whatif it's not perfect?
So what?
You know, I obviouslyconsidered it to be important
(19:36):
enough, them to be importantenough, them valuable enough to
reach out to them, to be a partof my project.
So therefore, it's incumbentupon me to take the high road
and to respect their decisionsand to approach it as just one
(19:56):
third of the project is mine.
So the single is calledMiserlew, miserlew, m-i-s-e-w.
Who cares?
Miserlew, you know what I think?
Sing a lot.
Oh, tell us, tell us, tell us.
I misspelled it for months andI tell them like whoa.
So that's the end of the single.
You can find it on all streaming, on all major platforms.
You can find it on iTunes.
(20:17):
It is also on astrolabcom slashmerchandise if you want to
check out.
Well, if you want to actuallydownload the single, you can
also check out all my music onastrolabcom A-S-H-E-R-L-A-U-Bcom
, and my music is posting allthese shenanigans on social
(20:38):
media Instagram, facebook,twitter.
Astrolab is my name and I hopeyou guys can send some love.
You can send a DM or a commenton a post and I'd be happy to
connect and you could just checkout.
You know, I'm just posting likepretty much recordings every
day, every other day, to keeppeople engaged, and I go live
(21:02):
every week.
So anyway, I hope to connectwith you guys in some some way
shape or form.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Okay, you also mentioned that you had a single
to come out some months ago well, I released a few things, uh,
two, two symphonies.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
one is called shamash , another one was a uh a medley,
a four-song medley, a tributeto israel, which, uh, that
actually, for some reason wasthe one that had like eight and
a half streams per listener onspotify, which is interesting
because I'd never seen numberslike that before, but it was
pretty wildly popular among likeintense listeners.
(21:41):
So those are two other releases.
When I say symphony, like 40,40 tracks like like strings, uh,
winds, percussion, uh, um, yeah, just a lot, of, a lot of
instruments and huge labor oflove, and I hope you guys, uh
those of you who maybe aren'tnecessarily into like typical
(22:02):
classical, might appreciate this, the cinematic nature, the
beauty of the, the of the piecesShemesh and and A Tribute to
Israel, and I'm kind of like allover the map here.
Genre-wise, I'm excited torelease some hip-hop singles and
some EDM classical, sosomething for everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Alright, well, show him some love.
See you next week.
Bye.
this week we are going to let agus introduce
himself again.
Go ahead, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm doing fine thanks for having me of course I, um,
I guess, uh, I have great debtof gratitude for having me twice
, I think, in a year can't getenough of this show why do you
keep mentioning Ashton Robbins?
Well, you know I've done about100 shows this year and this by
(00:42):
far is the most memorable,really.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, probably because you get really good
advice.
Know I've done about 100 showsthis year, and this by far is
the most memorable really?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
oh yeah, well, probably because you get.
You give really good advice Itry yeah, absolutely.
I mean it always helps to kindof bounce your ideas off other
people and uh and I know you've,uh, you've been around the
block in the music industry.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You think so?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, you definitely come off as that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You just stay up on the information.
You're bad in the middle.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, well, just staying up on the information is
enough to just take an enormousamount of time out of the very
limited period of time forindependent artists to focus on
the music, myself included.
In addition, I have support, Ihave assistance, management, but
(01:36):
that's stuff that I also haveto manage.
I have to manage the management.
So it's just between that andkeeping up on the latest.
I mean, you could spend all daywatching YouTube updates on the
gurus and, oh well, now AI ischanging this and there's new
like Google updates and there'sFacebook updates, and now,
(01:58):
frankly, I'll go for months.
At a time where I just I'm likeyou know, I got to focus on my
music.
At a time where I just I'm likeyou know I got to focus on my
music, I can't just keepchecking up on on every little
micro change um, that happens ona literally a weekly or monthly
basis.
Uh, it's exhausting andoftentimes it's not even all
that useful.
Um, when it boils down to theend, the end goal for me, which
(02:20):
is really to just produce good,high quality content for my fans
and, um, you know, encouragethem to support me and go out
and do my, do do my gigs um, Ifeel like a lot of the
nitty-gritty details.
I just need people to managefor me as an independent artist,
and I would assume that a lotof other independent artists
(02:41):
need the same kind of support sotalk to me, tell me what you
want to talk about uh, well, Iguess.
Well, I mean you.
You just opened up the wholebag of worms with the ai thing,
because that is uh that is justnever ending.
And now and then I'm likeseeing uh, these, these like
clickbait, uh titles likechatPT5 is out now and I click
(03:05):
on the ChatGPT5 video which isgonna hopefully tell me what
it's all about, and should Iinstall it now?
And it's like it's gonna be outvery soon, like, oh, come on.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I'm a fan of the AI.
I am, but I have worked withartists that need a
collaboration.
With the voice recognition, youcan really create.
I'm not saying in allsituations that that's the way
that it should go, and you cancreate with the sound that
(03:41):
you're looking for without it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
You know, I think that's really optimistic of you
to say, and I hope that you'relooking for without you know, I
I think that's really optimisticof you to say, and I, and I
hope that you're right um, beingthe pessimist that I typically
am I have to counter with, uh,potential negative um, I don't
know negative outcomes from thissort of like.
Yeah, it's totally, totally.
(04:04):
I can see that being apossibility.
That, okay, instead of havingto like work for hours crunching
out a track for collaborativeoption, you know, just sending
this quick AI sample.
But you know what, the more Ikind of get involved with the
collaborations and I've actuallybeen fortunate enough to just
pump out a new, amazing,probably one of the most
(04:26):
exciting collaborations I'veworked on um in a long time um
miserloo this past week, which Ican talk about um, I did not, I
did not land that collaborationuntil I had fully produced the
track.
I mean we're talking like a full, like cinematic orchestral rock
, kind of upbeat, miserable andlike pretty much good enough
(04:49):
that like the movies would,would be cool with it and I ran
it by a bunch of artists and thepeople that were like really
interested.
But then well, let me just getcut to the chase.
Cut to the chase.
Ginny, who I pitched, this byGinny Luke and Johannes
Gritschoff, are out in LA.
They agreed to it because theylove the piece so much.
(05:11):
So I think if I had sent them askeleton like oh, here's the
general idea, and here's who Iam, or my management sent it out
, whatever, I don't know.
That's the pessimistic Ashertalking.
I hope I'm wrong, but that'sjust been my personal experience
.
I feel like a lot of people justkind of look at the numbers it
actually could be fully producedyou know, I gotta tell you, I
(05:37):
was watching this, this synclike movie, sync type like
workshop, where they were prettymuch warning against, uh,
artists who produce music likemyself from getting paid or
(05:58):
getting up acceptingopportunities from companies
like pond, for instance, that,um, they, basically they, you
know, I don't know if you'veheard of that pond like they,
they use a raw what's the word Idon't know why that the word's
escaping me but uh, just videoand and uh, audio and then and
(06:22):
then photo, um, justpre-produced photos, stock, yeah
, stock, that's the word I waslooking for.
So they discourage that becausePond and these other types of
companies are using that stock,the photos and the videos and
the audio, and building AI offof that at the expense of the
artist building AI off of that.
(06:42):
So at the expense of the artist.
So I don't know if, again, Ithink it's one of those things
where it's inevitable, but it's.
It's hard to know, it's hard tosort of stop that game from
from developing because there'sso much money being pumped into
it and so many people want touse the stock.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
So tell me, what have you been doing this last year?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Oh, just twiddling my thumbs.
Well, as you know, I'm aworkaholic, so I've just been
doing a lot more of that stuff.
I've probably, since last wespoke, I've produced about at
least 12 to 13 singles releases,five of which were full
(07:26):
symphonies like classicalsymphonies, two of which are hip
hop singles.
The one I the most recentprobably thing I'm most excited
about is Miserlew, which isbased on a traditional Greek
piece that probably most peoplehave heard, but I made it more a
(07:47):
contemporary, upbeat cinematictype of production, and that is
what I was mentioning before.
I reached out to some reallyamazing artists and I had to go
through some red tape to getthrough Ginny's record label to
have her sign on to collaborateon the song.
And then I got Johannes.
He's been on internationaltours.
He's been on the Tonight Show,the Day Show, pretty much every
(08:13):
show you can think of America'sGot Talent.
It's really an honor to haveeven met him.
Just to work with him has beenpretty cool.
Ginny's worked with DaveMatthews, bernie Spears pretty
much Jay-Z anybody you can thinkof been pretty cool.
Ginny's work with Dave Matthews, bernie Spears pretty much
Jay-Z anybody you can think of.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I'm the smaller of the artists, if you will.
It's just been an honor to beable to build the backbone of
the song and then to just havethem kind of do their thing on
it.
She added some violin, electricviolin and even some classical
to kind of do this dueling thingwith me and Yohannes is a
drummer.
(08:51):
So he turned it less of a, heturned it more into like a rock
type beat.
So that's been pretty cool.
And we have the producer of thePentatonix, the musical
director, lucas Sater of thePentatonix, who worked on the
song.
That was pretty cool.
So yeah, that's been kind oflabor of love, just getting it
(09:15):
on different platforms andworking on the write-up and the
blogs and magazines and theinfluencers and so on and so
forth.
That's what I've been busy withthis past week All the gigs and
concerts and stuff like that.
It's just it's been about 150gigs ago that we talked there's
been a lot of events.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I've been traveling.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I'm trying to remember anything in particular
that was unique.
I've been out to LA, texas, didsome events in North Carolina,
atlanta.
It's been a busy year.
Busy year, a blessed year.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Okay, so I'm going to ask you a question then Do you
think that because you had sucha great experience with this
collaboration that you may havebeen spoiled or not knowing what
to expect when you get thecollaboration from hell?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
um, you know, I I think it's bound to happen,
actually, because I keep seekingout collaborations.
Uh, I think it's bound tohappen.
I think the redeeming factor isthat, even if I do end up with
the collaboration from hell I'mnot sure I think the only way to
really have a collaborationfrom hell is where you know,
like I work extensively and likeinvest extensively in a single
(10:42):
and all of a sudden, like thisperson wants to completely flip
the song upside down afterhaving invested time and effort
in it.
Um, I mean, I've had some.
I've had, like I had onecollaboration that was kind of a
joke.
In contrast, she was reallytalented singer, really into
(11:05):
herself and thought much more ofherself than she actually was.
Like she thought she was thislike major celebrity than she
actually was.
Like she thought she was thislike major celebrity and, um, I
mean, I, I worked on the songand the track and we just sort
(11:26):
of like went our, went our ownways, like we never got in an
argument or anything.
Uh, we just didn't like finishthe project because I was just
thinking like, like this is notthe type of person I really have
an interest in working with,because she really thinks she's
like the shit and she's reallynot.
I mean, she's got a good voiceand I don't know if she so and
(11:47):
she it's funny because shereached out to me first and then
.
So anyway, just to kind of giveyou an idea of like the
exchange, that one of manyexchanges that I had, that maybe
just sort of like roll my eyes.
Um, it was like where she made,she made it.
I'm trying to remember,actually I'm thinking out loud
here she made it, she.
She had a track that sherecorded with another artist.
(12:09):
She said she asked me to recordover it my violin.
I said, sure, I didn't ask foranything because it was a call.
I saw it as a collaboration.
I recorded, I sent it to her.
She disappears for like twomonths.
Nothing happens with the song.
She comes back to me.
She's like hey, could yourecord on this song, like well,
um, what happened with the lastsong?
(12:29):
She's like, oh, it wasn't like,or the label, like um, said
that it wasn't ready or wasn'tgood or something was missing.
Like, ok, and you want me torecord on this for free?
So that was just like.
That was like kind of step onein the process of many steps
where I was sort of like that'sreally entitled to sort of like
go to another, like anestablished professional
(12:49):
musician and sort of ask them tolike work for free, after you
didn't do anything with theprevious recording, you know.
But the next one was like, okay, maybe just to like humor me,
I'm just maybe I'll startworking.
I gave her a little clip justto kind of entertain myself, see
what would happen with it.
And I'm trying to remember.
(13:12):
It's like a number of monthsago, like many, many months ago.
She's like this song, um, oh,yeah, it sounds good, let me
just run it by the label.
And then, and then, oh, that'sright.
And then I said, well, so if youwant me to finish up the
recording, uh, I'm either goingto need 50% split, uh, in the
royalties, which is asking likewe're not talking an artist
(13:34):
who's getting millions ofstreams.
We're talking like an artistwho gets like a few thousand
streams, like has whatever, uh,some screwy stuff on on their,
their social media platforms andI was like I just look at 50, I
think, or just an even split,or maybe a third split, some
percentage.
She's like I'm sorry, if youcan't accept basically 0% with
(13:58):
the distribution of with thislabel, I'm not going to be able
to allow you to play this atyour concerts or performances
and I'm like, oh my god, shereally doesn't understand
reality.
I can't believe I even gotinvolved with her.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I was just about to say that's not correct.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I haven't thought about this in so long since now,
since I've just brought it up,but now that I think about, like
I can't believe that I actuallywasted my time.
But yeah, so that's just kindof give you an idea as to how
insane one of my collabs was.
So you could say that couldhave been the collab from hell.
Normal people like likehardworking people, people who
care, who have respect for thepeople they're collaborating
(14:41):
with, people who actually have aresume, that's like legit.
Yeah, it was definitely a dream, but I've also had, like you
know, working with Porter Singerwas a dream, was a privilege.
I'm gonna say you know, thatrelease was a few months back.
She's awesome, she's out inWashington.
Anyway, I've had some realwhat's the word Real great
(15:04):
opportunities.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Tell me a little bit more about your latest project
or process, what you loved aboutit, what frustrated you about
it and anything else you want tosay now.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
What I'd like to say probably the most important
point, um, first of all, isagain it was just a privilege
working on miserloo and and Ihope that more of the world gets
to hear it it's doing reallywell as far as the far as the
playlists are concerned, it's umyou know, uh, landing on a lot
of like for me.
I care about targeted playlistsas opposed to like, oh, it's on
(15:36):
three million random playlists.
It's kind of targeting rock andclassical and some electronic.
So, yeah, it's working.
Anyway, nobody wants to hearabout this stuff.
It was I'm going to say I know,oh, I'm touched.
So if you want to hear, yeah,oh, I'm, I'm touched, so that
that.
So if you want to hear about it, I, I, I care, I care that the
(16:00):
playlists are targeted, becausewhat you see in the stats is
that maybe on chart metric orwithin the Spotify for artists,
for instance, or even iTunes,you see that the same people are
listening to the music over andover again.
So it's like two, two plays perper per listener, or three
(16:20):
plays per listeners.
Um, my last, my last single um,had eight and a half plays per
listener and that's like that'sexciting to me, as opposed to
like a hundred thousand peoplewho just kind of brushed by it
once and then they're done.
Um, so, because the people thatare want to support you or they
want to meet you, the peoplethat are streaming your song two
, three, four times anyway.
So that's just one little point.
Another point is uh, I, Ilearned, I learned something
(16:42):
important in terms of, uh, whatit means to collaborate with
other artists that are of equaland, if not greater, stature.
If you will, um, maybe longer,resume, more talent, I don't
know Is taking a step into thisgroup, this effort, this team
effort, with humility, and Ithink that that really leads to
(17:04):
better outcomes.
So I didn't.
The way that Miserlew ended upis different than I had
envisioned initially, in fact,had produced initially.
I produced it, I posted it onmy was.
It probably lent itself alittle more, a little more close
to my actual listeners, butbecause I I shut my mouth up
when it came to their recordingsessions and, you know, I made a
(17:28):
couple of minor mistakes, likeI tweaked some, I edited some,
some notes, um, some rhythm, andand then they said, well, can
you actually keep it the way itwas?
And I said, yeah, you're right,this is your baby, just as it
is mine.
And I'm glad that I made thatmature step forward because it
led to great outcomes.
It led to a rock song I did notplan on producing, but it led
(17:51):
to a really positive experiencefor all of us and, as a result,
um, you know, listeners from allends that are that are into the
song.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
What did you bring from all those other previous
collaborations to thiscollaboration to make it great?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Um, probably just that, just like the, the
understanding that that acollaboration is just that.
It is not my baby exclusively,it is their baby.
If I'm bringing them on as acollaborator, it's which is a
very different ball game thanhey, here's 300 bucks, please
record your saxophone or yourviolin or your trumpet or drums
(18:32):
at my direction.
It's very different because youare stepping into their
territory.
When you are asking an artistto collaborate, you are no
longer in full ownership of it'sa partnership, it's a business
partnership and you need torespect that business
partnership the you, I need torespect that business
(18:53):
partnerships.
That's what I learned, that, um, I'm.
We're sharing each other'saudiences, so what they deem is
important, if they think arhythm should be a bit different
, perhaps if it doesn't, if itdoesn't resonate best with with
myself or even my fan base, andmight resonate much better with
their families.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
So that is a.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
That is a reason to be flexible really, really in
any business partnership.
But this is like a microcosm ofa business, business
partnerships one contract, onesong, you know.
Another thing I learned is like, okay, it's one song, one
contract, one song.
It's not a full album, so whatif it's not perfect?
So what?
You know, I obviouslyconsidered it to be important
(19:36):
enough, them to be importantenough, them valuable enough to
reach out to them, to be a partof my project.
So therefore, it's incumbentupon me to take the high road
and to respect their decisionsand to approach it as just one
(19:56):
third of the project is mine.
So the single is calledMiserlew, miserlew, m-i-s-e-w.
Who cares?
Miserlew, you know what I think?
Sing a lot.
Oh, tell us, tell us, tell us.
I misspelled it for months andI tell them like whoa.
So that's the end of the single.
You can find it on all streaming, on all major platforms.
You can find it on iTunes.
(20:17):
It is also on astrolabcom slashmerchandise if you want to
check out.
Well, if you want to actuallydownload the single, you can
also check out all my music onastrolabcom A-S-H-E-R-L-A-U-Bcom
, and my music is posting allthese shenanigans on social
(20:38):
media Instagram, facebook,twitter.
Astrolab is my name and I hopeyou guys can send some love.
You can send a DM or a commenton a post and I'd be happy to
connect and you could just checkout.
You know, I'm just posting likepretty much recordings every
day, every other day, to keeppeople engaged, and I go live
(21:02):
every week.
So anyway, I hope to connectwith you guys in some some way
shape or form.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Okay, you also mentioned that you had a single
to come out some months ago well, I released a few things, uh,
two, two symphonies.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
one is called shamash , another one was a uh a medley,
a four-song medley, a tributeto israel, which, uh, that
actually, for some reason wasthe one that had like eight and
a half streams per listener onspotify, which is interesting
because I'd never seen numberslike that before, but it was
pretty wildly popular among likeintense listeners.
(21:41):
So those are two other releases.
When I say symphony, like 40,40 tracks like like strings, uh,
winds, percussion, uh, um, yeah, just a lot, of, a lot of
instruments and huge labor oflove, and I hope you guys, uh
those of you who maybe aren'tnecessarily into like typical
(22:02):
classical, might appreciate this, the cinematic nature, the
beauty of the, the of the piecesShemesh and and A Tribute to
Israel, and I'm kind of like allover the map here.
Genre-wise, I'm excited torelease some hip-hop singles and
some EDM classical, sosomething for everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Alright, well, show him some love.
See you next week.
Bye.
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