June 11, 2024 • 45 mins
Become a Relative & send some love
What happens when a chance encounter at NAMM turns into a lasting friendship? In this captivating episode of "Relationships Worth More Than Money," we sit down with Looyay to explore their serendipitous meeting at the iconic networking and gear exhibition event. Looyay shares his musical journey, from his early days of playing drums in church to mastering the guitar and piano. You'll be intrigued by his innovative creation—a bass guitar integrated with an MPK Mini—that caught Looyay attention and sparked an ongoing professional relationship. This episode underscores the importance of maintaining connections in the music industry and how such relationships can flourish over time.
Imagine creating a groundbreaking musical instrument only to wrestle with the complexities of protecting your idea legally. We delve into the challenges and costs associated with securing patents and discuss the balance between product development and showcasing. Hear personal anecdotes about playing in a marching band, the desire to learn new instruments, and the invaluable support of family in creative pursuits. Looyay reflect on the inspiration they received from influential mentors and the bittersweet memories of missed opportunities for further musical education. Their discussion offers a nuanced perspective on the motivation and sacrifices required to relocate for creative ambitions.
Is a college education essential for aspiring artists, or can you succeed in the digital age without it? We weigh the benefits and drawbacks of formal education, highlighting the mentorship and critical feedback that college can offer. However, we caution against pursuing prestigious schools solely for their name and stress aligning educational choices with career goals. Hear about Looyay frustrations with college TAs and his journey from an initial interest in accounting to a passion for marketing. Discover how understanding digital platforms can boost any business or personal brand and learn about the vital role a strong marketing team plays in achieving success. Join us for an insightful conversation that blends personal experiences with practical advice for musicians and entrepreneurs alike.
Relationships Worth More Than Money by Tweezy Kennedy & Marcus Alland
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RWMTMpod
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, we on we live.
Is it?
Are they connected or yeah, Iconnect them.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, I connect them.
So we back man.
Welcome back to RelationshipsWorth More Than Money.
I'm on the left side, this timeOn the right.
Who do I got?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
My name is Luye.
I go by Luye.
My name is Kyle.
Yeah, l-o-o-y-a-y.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
That's how they can find you at Louie L-O-O-Y-A-Y.
So I'm going to go back,because this is how I end up
running into you.
I want to say 2019, 2020, 2021,now I think it was 20,.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Was it two names ago or was it three?
I think it was 20.
Was it two NAMs ago or was itthree?
I think it was two, it's two.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Because I didn't go to the last.
No, it was three.
It was three, so it was 20?
.
Yeah, because I didn't go tothe last one, for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, and we met the one before that.
Yep, yep.
Okay so that was 2023 June.
No, no, no, april.
Yeah, april, 2023.
22?
.
The last one was January ofthis year.
Yeah, I didn't go to that one.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, yeah, the one before was 23.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, yeah, and that was in April, and then the 2022
one was in June.
They've been shifting the times.
Yeah, and that was in April andthen the 2022 one was in June.
Okay, they've been shifting thetimes.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So 2023 is the last time I ran it to you and you had
this dope equipment.
Man, it was like I'd never seenit before.
It was a bass guitar with a MPKconnected like installed into
it, the MPK Mini.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I wish I had it on me .
Right now it's in LA and I'mpassing it between artists who
want to demo it and check it out, so I haven't held it since.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Now are you the creator of that piece of gear?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
yeah, it's been.
It's been tried a bunch ofdifferent times before.
Um, like putting midi elementsin a guitar or even having like
a midi pickup on your guitar sowhen you like play, it outputs
midi.
Yeah, um, but this is the firstone I think that has put uh
guitar and keys on the guitaryeah, okay, all right, cool, and
(02:33):
that's that's.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
When I saw it I was like yo, man, this is, I gotta
meet you.
I gotta know who you arebecause, like you know, that
event now for one, if peopledon't know it's a networking
establishment but at the sametime it's also introducing you
to the new gear that's comingout Right.
So you get to try some of thegear, you get to find out what
(02:57):
new mics is out, whatever,whatever you can think of all of
this stuff, that's even here,they have it there.
You know what I mean.
So it's like you're testing outall of this equipment and you
was just sitting on the side,like outside of the convention
center, and you just had thatdamn bass man.
And I'm like yo, I got to meetthis dude and it was crazy
(03:17):
because, of course, we networkedand we exchanged handles, but
we kept in contact.
You know what I mean and Ithink that's the most important
part.
But take us back, man, to likehow you even started all of this
.
Like where did the music?
Did you have a music background?
Where did it start?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, yeah.
So I grew up in church.
I played drums in my church forlike two years and I started to
learn how to play guitar andpiano.
I kind of just my firstinstrument was the drums.
I got a drum kit when I was 10.
(03:55):
I didn't really start playingit until I was, like later in
high school, like junior highschool, fast forward, went to
college for animation and visualeffects.
I've always been an artist andthe school I went to they taught
music, they taught film, theytaught game art, like video game
(04:18):
stuff and my roommate, Trippdope, artist, out of Northern
California.
We went to high school together.
We ended up going to college.
We ended up rooming togetherand going to school together,
yeah, and he was making musicall the time.
(04:38):
He raps, he's like an insaneproducer too.
And yeah, in college I gotreally into music and bought
ableton, bought the akai uh,what is it?
The apc 40?
Um, that was my first time likearranging.
No, no, no, irrelevant.
Uh, yeah, so I've, I've beenmaking music pretty heavily
(05:01):
since like 2020.
No, no, sorry, 2012, 2011.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Okay, yeah, Cool, cool, cool.
How old are you?
33.
33, okay, all right you 38.
38?
, yeah, yeah, so you was born.
What 90?
Yep, okay, yeah, so you got thebackground.
You said what was the name ofyour friend in Northern
California Tripp, tripp,t-r-i-i-p.
His name sounds familiar.
(05:31):
Was he out there?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
No, I don't think he's been doing NAMM.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Okay, all right, cool .
And what introduced you to NAMM?
How did you find out about it?
I oh, but how did you find?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
out about it.
I oh so in the Bay Area, at theschool I used to go to it was
called Expression College theyused to have events similar to
NAMM that would be hosted there.
And they what is it calledMusic Expo?
Loic, loic, loic, l-o-i-c.
(06:09):
Shout out, he runs the musicexpo, the SF Music Expo.
And he hosted it at my schooland I had always, ever since I
had been to the first event,followed him.
D-cap has done a few eventsthere.
Fire producer.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, yeah, Shout out to D-Cap yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But yeah, I met a few people there.
That was the first event I hadbeen where like instrument
makers and companies go and likejust have things on display for
people to try out, and it'slike a mini nam, yeah, and same
thing.
They'll have like panels wherelike dcap come in and like open
(06:54):
up a session and then just walkeverybody through like his
process and stuff.
And yeah, I think I found outabout nam through following low
and then I had never eventhought about going until I
built the prototype instrumentand I was like that's perfect
for me to bring there.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Now, do you have any patents on that?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I have it's protected creatively.
I call it a ghetto patent, butI don't have like a formal.
You should get it, man, that'swhat everybody tells me you
should get it, man, Somebodyalready tried to like take it
and they weren't able to.
And also I was working on aproject before the guitar.
(07:41):
It was a website and I hadgotten, had gotten like a
provisional patent, and aprovisional patent is like the,
the pre-patent, yeah, and thatwas like 2400 and I uh yeah, and
if you want to, and so aprovisional patent gives you a
(08:03):
year of cushion.
And so I spent all this moneyand I was freaking out about I
hired a patent lawyer, got thepatent thing done and I spent
(08:28):
all this money trying to protectthe idea and I'm just going to
put all my energy into makingthe product and displaying it
instead of trying to likeprotect it.
Not that it's not protected atall.
But that wasn't like my first,and people have been telling me
this since they've seen it Likeyo, you need to.
Someone's going to take thatand I'm just like.
You might be right, but I'm not.
I'm not going to spend thatmoney.
(08:51):
Yeah, but I have.
I've protected it in differentways.
We might need to cut some ofthis out of the pot.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, but no, I think just man, like,
because your creative vision ofwhat you made is.
You know what I mean.
It's like man, I always want tomake sure that everybody get
their fair share and make surethat they're taken care of,
(09:18):
because when it comes out it'sdefinitely going to sell.
Thanks, man, I appreciate it.
I mean me.
I'm trying to get into theguitar, learning how to play the
guitar, because I played thedrums, but I played in a
marching band.
I never played a set, got you.
You know what I mean.
So marching band and set istotally different.
What did you play?
Snare.
I played them all Snare, tenorand bass.
(09:39):
It just dep Depending on whatmy band director wanted me to
play, and I was the lead snare.
So it was just like, hey, youdo what you want to do.
Were you obsessed with?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Drumline when it came out.
I loved that movie.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, because in Detroit, most of those bands
emulate the historical blackcolleges bands, because that's
where our band directorsnormally come from.
Gotcha college's bands, becausethat's where our our band
directors normally come from.
Gotcha, um, so like.
And in my performing artsschool we was just a drum drum
corps.
We didn't have no otherinstruments, just snare, tenor,
bass, cymbals and flag twirling.
(10:15):
That was it, and we would likeblow the other drummers out the
roof.
Like you know, I'm saying justhow loud we were, and you know I
mean, uh, efficient and um, youknow doing all of the Just how
loud we were, and you know whatI mean efficient.
You know doing all of thedifferent rudiments and things
of that nature.
But yeah, man, what was theschool called?
Area E Academy, area E.
Shout out to Area E Academy.
It's closed now, man.
(10:36):
Yeah, I went to a performingarts school my elementary and
middle school.
Yeah, man, it was a hell of atime.
Shout out to Mr Mack too.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I was about to say who was your director, Mr.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Mack.
Mr Mack was a Him and hisbrother.
They both were band directors,cool.
And when I went to thisChristian school, before I went
to Area E, faith ChristianAcademy, his older brother was
there and he was teaching mybrother how to play the
saxophone.
So my brother was playing thesax and brother how to play the
saxophone.
So my brother was playing thesax and I wanted to play the
trumpet, you know what I mean.
(11:09):
But it was too expensive.
So you know what I mean.
I ended up going to Area E and Iwas like, hey, mr Mack, you got
a brother named Mr Mack too.
And he was like, yeah, he's aband director too.
Nice.
So I knew I was good.
You know what I mean.
I knew I was good.
You know what I mean.
I knew, I knew he knew hisstuff and yeah.
But I got to high school, myband director the band director
(11:31):
at high school was taught by MrMatt, so he was trying to get
all of us to come and be in hisband.
But I was like, nah, I want tobe, I want to be a band geek.
You know what I mean.
And that's what I regret, man,because I wish I did stick to it
.
You know what I mean, becausethey really taught you multiple
instruments.
You know what I mean.
And I was like damn, now I'm uphere trying to figure out how
(11:53):
to play the piano.
I got my theory board you knowwhat I mean Just my little cheat
board, damn Playing and stufflike that.
And I'm like man, if I wouldhave stuck with it I would have
been able to play multipleinstruments.
But it's never too late, true,you know what I'm saying.
So I definitely want to getinto, like the guitar, the bass,
piano and a little bit of youknow, a little bit of the brass.
You know what I mean.
(12:13):
But other than that, man, howdid you get?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
here.
So I came out here, I packed upall my stuff and I moved out
here, because I didn't haveaccess to the studio that I was
making music at and yeah.
So there was nothing.
My living situation wouldn'thave been conducive to the stuff
I wanted to do, so my brotherand my dad lived out here.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Oh, okay, how about I say you got family out here
Because you just packed up andjust, he's like yo, bro, aren't
you in the DMV?
I was like yeah.
He was like I'm here, I'm likewhat?
Like no, she was just in Cali.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, across the.
You know what I mean the stateslike that.
But it was, it wasn't like thethe happiest move, but yeah, I
just things weren't likeclicking out there so yeah, yeah
, and things felt like they wereclicking more on like social
media and like at NAMM and I waslike I don't, I guess I don't
where I'm at doesn't totallymatter.
So there's there's a lot lesslike art stuff out here, art
jobs anyway.
(13:32):
Yeah, then there was in, likethe Bay Area, a lot of the art
jobs out here, like militarycontracting or if you're gonna
do like graphics for people,it's like you have to get like a
clearance and uh, yeah, but sothat's a that's a downside, I
mean, but it's art enrichmenttoo.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah yeah, richmond is big on art man, so you gotta
check out richmond um a weekendor something.
Just head down there and seewhat's up.
Um, yeah, man, um.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
So you got a prototype here, right, yeah, so
the one that everybody's seen oninstagram is it's a bass guitar
and I built that one.
That's the prototype that Ibuilt because, um, I don't know
(14:25):
how to make like circuit boardsRight, I didn't go to school for
that, and there's a bunch oflike custom parts that I would
have needed to make the one thatI originally designed.
So the one everybody's seen.
To explain it, I'm sure wecould throw like an image up or
just go check out a video.
It's a.
(14:45):
It's the Akai MPK mini.
I cut it in half.
If you open it up, there's twocircuit boards with a ribbon
cable in between and I justchopped it open, split it apart
and there's enough slack that Icut a body to put those two
circuit boards in and then I putthe pickups and the strings in
(15:09):
between them.
So that's just like a basicexplanation of what it looks
like.
So this is the one that Idesigned in blender that I am
trying to build.
And what's blender?
It's a.
It's a free 3d software.
Nice, you can like 3D model.
It's amazing.
They taught us Maya in schooland I had my first actual job
(15:36):
out of college.
They taught us Blender becauseit's free and Blender is so sick
.
If you're at all into visuals,you can edit video on there.
You can 3D model, you canrender, you can animate.
Really good program.
Shout out Blender.
Thank you for being free.
Okay, and anyway.
(15:58):
So I designed the six string.
So sorry, the bass prototype.
It's only a bass because thesize of the mpk mini, right, um,
and I don't play bass that well, I play like six string guitar
a little bit better.
And also like, sonically, Iwant to play like, I want to
(16:19):
play more like lush, mid highrange chords.
I want the chords to be in thatrange.
And then, um, because of thelimited area for like keys,
right, I imagine you play basswith the keys.
So in my mind when I designedit, I was like I'll play bass on
the keys, I'll play the higherstuff on the guitar and then
(16:41):
drums, so on On the pad.
Yeah, yeah, okay.
So the prototype with the Akaiit's only a bass because of the
size of the Akai and putting aguitar neck which is smaller on
that big box would have lookedawkward.
(17:01):
So it's only a bass foraesthetic purposes, right, but
this is the version I want tobuild.
Um, it's a.
It's designed to be a sixstring.
Yeah, it's also designed, uh,to have.
It's also designed to sithorizontal, so you could sit it
on like your desk, like likethis here, yeah, and then pick
(17:24):
it up if you want to play it,put it back down if you just
want to use it as a synth, andthen, all right, I should have
drawn.
I should have drawn the layoutso, like this is keys right here
, yeah, beat pads right here,and then, uh, pickups and then a
neck, and this is as far as Igot.
Um, I was working on this in ata different shop that I built
(17:47):
the prototype in, uh, but I hadto rent space out to work on
this.
But, uh, I thought I was reallyproud of the the woodwork I did
on this so you got, you got alittle.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Uh, is that carpentry in it?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
then right yeah lutherie is the word that they
use for dang this thing heavyyeah, it's African.
Uh, used for, damn this thing,heavy.
Yeah, it's African.
I forget what it's called.
It's called wenge.
It's in the middle, the brown,the dark brown, and I forget the
.
This is the same piece of.
This is the same piece of woodthat I built the original with.
(18:19):
Wow, yeah, and it's a heavywood.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, probably too heavy To like If you had it on
like shoulder strap or whatever.
Yeah, probably too heavy Tolike if you had it on like
shoulder strap or whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
How much does a normal guitar weigh?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
The bass I built, I think is between 8 and 10 pounds
and I think, like a guitar, Ithink a bass shouldn't be more
than like six, maybe five or six.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Okay, yeah, yeah, man , it's smooth.
You put in some work on this,man, so this one's gonna be the
six string.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
This is the yeah, okay, it's a lot smaller of an
instrument than the other oneit's gonna be.
I haven't cut here.
I haven't had access to a woodshop since I left Cali, but yeah
, so, yeah, this is the versionI'm trying to build.
Risked a week for that Allright Nice man.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
So, other than that, what's, what's uh, how you like
in dc.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So far the dlv I honestly have not like ventured
out a ton.
I've been to the casino.
That's not mgm.
Yeah, that place is pretty cool.
Yeah, um, I've been to a couplelike uh drawing classes in in
dc.
Um, I've been out here and seenall the museums and all the
touristy spots before becauseI've been out here before.
(19:53):
It's cool.
I like the weather, people arechill.
It's a lot different than Imean not a ton different, but
it's a different vibe thanNorthern California.
I'm from Vacaville.
Shout out, vacaville.
It's between Sacramento.
(20:16):
It's smack dab in the middle ofSacramento and Oakland Berkeley
.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
San Francisco, you're in a bay bay.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
It's like 40 minutes north of the bay.
We call it the bay because wewant to feel cool.
Yeah, but it's like it's alittle bit of ways.
Yeah, it's like 20 minutesnorth of Vallejo, a little bit
north of Fairfield, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
We still good.
All right, that's dope man.
So what was childhood like man?
Like coming up as a kid?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
It.
What was childhood like man,like coming up as a kid?
I was a military kid, movedaround a lot, every, I think,
six years, the longest that westayed in a spot.
What brand.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Air Force.
Okay, your dad was in.
Both my parents, oh, nice, yeah, nice, did they retire?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, yeah, they're still doing like contract work,
so they're still connected in away.
But yeah, they retired.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah, they moved around a lot yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Colorado.
I was born at the Air ForceAcademy Colorado, san Jose,
california, virginia, germany,back to Colorado, back to
California, and then I was inCalifornia from like 07 to last
(21:44):
year.
So I was there for you, werethere for a minute the longest
I've been in you there, for aminute yeah, you there for a
minute?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, that's 17 years .
Yeah, damn.
So.
Yeah, you a Californian forreal.
Yeah, how old a kid.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I lived.
I've lived Santa Cruz, workedin San Jose for a minute, lived
in Fairfield for a minute, livedup north in like Grass Valley
for a minute.
Vacaville's the spot I've livedat the most, but, yeah, up and
down Northern California.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, Now what would you say?
You were?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
ex-Marines right.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, I was in the Marines for 11 years.
Thank you for your service.
Appreciate it, man.
Tell your 11 years thank youfor your service.
Appreciate it, man.
Tell your parents thank you fortheir service.
For sure, thank you.
But yeah, man you, youmaneuvered and became this
artist and found a love forbeing, you know, a drummer in
(22:45):
church, right, and now you'rehere.
What do you feel like?
Are some of the things that gotyou here?
Like?
Are the relationships thatyou've created the reason where
you are right now, or do youfeel that way?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I think, yeah, I wouldn't.
I don't know if you couldseparate your.
I don't think a lot of peoplecould separate like their love
of music from like other peoplein their life, because it's not
something.
A lot of music you don't getconnected to not entirely, but I
(23:24):
feel like the music we connectto most is because you connected
with it with other people.
So, like I, some of the mostinfluential people like like my
roommate, paul um, my parents,uh, just like their music taste,
my brother and sister havedifferent type of tastes,
(23:47):
different type of tastes.
My aunt, pretty influential inmy music taste, yeah yeah.
As far as like career goes, Ithink I like to hate on college
(24:09):
a lot and I like to tell youngerpeople they don't need to go to
college and maybe, especiallyif you're going to try to be an
artist, maybe don't go tocollege.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Why is?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
that I think for a while, my opinion's shifting on
it.
I think for a while I felt it'smy my opinion shifting on it.
I I think for a while I feltlike, uh, with the rise of like
youtube and realizing that Imyself had to like learn things
on youtube, um, I figured outhow to do things that uh, that
some people told me I needed togo to school to learn and there
(24:44):
are some things like that, liketech, but my opinion has shifted
a little bit toward uh, I thinkcollege is pretty cool because
you learn to, uh, you getdeadlines, you have like a
handful, you have a handful of,like mentors, um, I don't know
(25:08):
if I feel this way just because,like I've been missing college
lately, uh, but yeah, my, myopinion is softening toward, uh,
telling the younger generationnot to go to school.
It can be a complete waste oftime for some people.
Right, like I'm not, I'm not asuccessful, like I'm not making
(25:28):
a ton of money being an artist,and like, not yet, not yet, my
dad sent me to school with his,with his gi bill and like I, if
I had to pay that myself, itwould have been like a ton of
money, yeah, so, and that's abig reason why I tell people
(25:48):
like yo, like youtube, yeah,youtube, but I did benefit from
it.
So, and I'm learning that thatit actually was like a decent so
what?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
what do you feel like was the benefit?
Speaker 1 (26:05):
uh gears.
Um, I I met some awesomeartists that I went to school
with that I'm still in contactwith.
I've seen some really coolartists like grow and do their
thing and seen a lot of artists.
A lot of people graduate anddon't do anything with, like,
(26:27):
what they, what they learn, butum, what was the question, my
bad?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
What are some of the benefits from school?
Benefits from school.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Um, teachers, getting to know your teachers, cause
they're in an art school.
You're going to get teachersthat have been in the industry.
So, um, and, like I said, theschool I went to was, uh, video
games, film, music, so, yeah,just having somebody that's like
(27:00):
in there and you get to see ona by by daily, like multiple
times a week, ask them questionsso much different than youtube,
you get critique, critique,critique, critique, critique.
That's huge.
Uh, if you don't have anybodylooking at your art and you're
(27:22):
just your, your stuff's notgonna.
Your stuff's gonna be waybetter.
If you have people like tellingyou like yo, that sucks, I
could tell you didn't reallywork that part on that part,
right, you do better on thisother part.
That's like vital to like, Ithink, to any like artists.
(27:42):
Um, Progress.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
So now you think that it's like a scale on good and
bad, or good things to do incollege and bad things, I feel
terrible.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I've told a couple kids like don't go to school.
Yeah, thinking about that nowI'm like ugh.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I mean, they do have its perks, man.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
And it's not all good .
Yeah, it's not Like I said youcan go to college and waste your
time.
Right you can screw over fouryears of your life and not deal
with it.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah.
So I always tell people you cango, but you got to make sure
what you're going for Right,because if not, you're just
going to be wasting major aftermajor after major.
You're going to be bouncingaround like a pinball and then,
when it's finally time for youto decide, it's like all right,
you did some amount of money indebt and you're going to work at
(28:40):
Walmart or wherever.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Wherever that's not going to help you, no offense
but.
If you go to school forsomething and then you end up
working somewhere else.
It's, that wasn't the plan,right?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
things change, but yeah but yeah, like I said, man,
um, I'm with you some things,don't?
You don't need to go to schoolfor, yeah, what do you think?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
are the in the category of don't go to school?
Um?
I would.
What do you think are the Inthe category of Don't go to
school Um?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
I would say, uh, don't go to school For the, for
the name, like the name of theschool.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
You got.
You got your, your Oklahoma's,your Texas's, you got all of
this stuff.
All the big name schools, right, yale, yeah, yale, harvard,
brown, columbia.
You know what I mean.
All the big name schools, yale,harvard, brown, columbia.
(29:33):
You know what I mean, all ofthose big name schools.
But depending on what you'retrying to do, man, it's not
feasible.
You know what I mean.
And then you're stressing aboutthe money, yeah, and you're not
really enjoying it.
And, like I said on the lastepisode, the most important part
(29:53):
of college is the network.
The network and the peoplethat's in there at that school
or in that area that you'redoing and you're moving around
in.
That's the most important part,because those people build that
relationship that I always say,the relationships worth more
than money.
It builds that.
But a lot of the stuff that Idon't like to add on to that the
(30:18):
big name schools, the TAs,teachers, assistants I can't
stand them Because they thinkthey're the teacher and they
think they're better than youand they're not going to pretty
much.
Well, my experience at Mason.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I went to George Mason.
I have a very specific person.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah, because they literally will act Like I
literally got a 71 out of aclass and all I needed was a 73.
And the teacher was neverreally there.
It was more of it was more ofthe them doing all of the work.
Yeah, and I'm like yo, butyou're not explaining it Like
(30:57):
you're explaining it, like we'resupposed to know how you do it.
You're supposed to explain itBarney style.
Break it down to where all ofus can understand it Right, and
they would never do it.
So, yeah, man the TAs, what'dyou go to school for?
Marketing?
Where at George Mason, right upthe street.
I started at NOVA, northernVirginia Community College, and
(31:23):
I wanted to do accounting.
But that's what my dad did andI was just like, nah, that's too
much math and I love math.
But at NOVA I'm just like nah,I still want to get a business
degree.
So I went for marketing orwhatever my sister's about to go
to school, for she justgraduated, congrats.
She's about to go to college.
(31:45):
Yeah, marketing For marketing,it's dope man.
It's dope because I thinkmarketing to me, marketing is is
one of the most valuable piecesto have in whatever you do in
life.
It don't have to be music, itdon't have to be, uh,
entrepreneurship if you know howto market yourself or market
somebody else's brand, it'sgoing to take off and it's going
(32:07):
to and are going to listenbecause you study the market.
You know what I'm saying.
That's what it is.
You're studying the market andif you're doing digital
marketing, you're studying thesocial media, you're studying
all of these different platformsand you're analyzing what works
(32:28):
, what don't work, what shouldyou put in front of something?
If you're doing product works,what don't work, what should you
put in front of something?
If you're doing productplacement, doing promotions,
like it's a lot, man, andmarketing is huge man, I think
in order for your business torun smoothly, you need a hell of
a marketing team to get it.
Yeah, so marketing has beendope and I'm two classes away.
(32:49):
I took like a year and a half,two years off.
I'm about to finish it.
Yeah, so marketing has beendope and I'm two classes away.
I took like a year and a half,two years off.
I'm about to finish it up, youknow what I mean.
So I can get the degree,because I never like starting
something and not finishing.
You know what I'm saying.
I'm two classes away.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Did you stop at two classes, or have you been like
did you stop at a certain timeand then?
Speaker 2 (33:11):
you've been kind of like working.
What a pandemic messed it allup, man.
I was literally I was supposedto graduate 20, 20, 22.
That was that was from nova I,I, I finished nova, but 2022 I
was supposed to graduate.
Like it just threw everythingoff, man.
(33:33):
Like I mean, my grandma passedaway in between all of that crap
.
Like mentally I wasn't thereand so, yeah, I can go back.
I just you know what I meanthem loans.
Loans kick in.
After that GI Bill run out themloans kick in, man.
So it's not a lot, though.
So I can manage that and takecare of it.
(33:53):
So, yeah, I just want to do it.
Plus my daughters, man.
They in middle school andelementary now.
So it's like I'm not about to.
I don't even tell them to quitanything.
So I'm not about to show themlike, oh shit, I ain't going to
college because you ain't evenfinished college.
You know what I mean?
You, know, what I mean.
That's how I was man, but bothmy parents both got master's
(34:15):
degrees, so it was like I can'tnot finish school.
You know what I'm saying.
So but yeah, so it's definitelypros and cons to it, but me
personally, I would have stuckwith music and not went to
college if I knew, Because Istarted making beats while I was
(34:35):
in the Marines.
Gotcha and you know what I mean.
Before I even started going tocollege, while I was in the
military, I was still.
I was working on music becauseI'm like oh, you can make beats
off a computer.
Yep, this is crazy.
Like all right, bet, yeah.
So I was working my way up.
You know, I mean going fromthat to that machine.
To, you know, I mean from theoriginal machine.
(34:56):
That was your first machine.
No, the first one, yeah, themk1.
I had the mk1.
I remember I had I got, I gotthe mpk over there mini.
That was like my first setups Ihad bought.
Um, it was like 2010.
Yeah, I bought.
I got my first MacBook 09.
You know what I'm saying?
And 2006,.
(35:21):
When I got back from Iraq thefirst time, I got a Phantom X6.
So that was my first standalonekeyboard.
Rob Markman Is that like a.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
it's a station too.
Yeah yeah, there's like acomputer in it.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yep.
So it had like these big, likechip sound cards you can put in
the back and just just make,make your beats and everything.
And this was on megabytes.
So this crazy like you knowwhat I mean, I'm making beats
off megabytes, now off megabytes, now we gigs.
You know what I'm saying.
So, yeah, man, it was.
It was definitely a thing that Iwas like man, I wish I just
(35:54):
would've stuck with the musicand still play sports in high
school, because this definitelywould've pushed me further.
But at the same time, YouTubehelped me a lot.
So you know what I mean.
I don't knock it and I stillkeep going because I'm like, hey
, the younger producers are dopeand I'm learning from them and
they're learning from me andwhen I go to these different
(36:14):
showcases they hear my music.
You know what I mean.
It makes me understand and feellike, yep, I'm still doing it
right, I'm doing something right, I'm on the right path.
You know what I mean Becauseit's like I've been through all
those failures.
You know what I mean, and beatswere trash, mixes were trash,
(36:38):
but going to those showcaseshelped me.
So I always tell people man, ifit's something you really want
to do, stick with it, but alsohave something to financially
back it.
You know what I mean.
Don't just be a bum and just bemaking music without no money
coming in, because then it'slike it's not smart, it's not
(36:58):
smart at all.
You're hustling backwards.
You know what I mean?
You always want to hustleforward.
So yeah, man, that's my spielon it.
But we got.
Matter of fact, what's your topfive music genres Genres, yeah,
(37:19):
because I ain't going to sayartists.
Yeah, yeah, say genres.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Um, that's tough.
I almost want to break it downby like producer.
Um, okay, we can do producerthen.
I like genres is actually a loteasier.
Okay, I can fit like yeah youfit everybody yeah.
Yeah, okay, um, I had a hugelike so tough.
(37:58):
There's like three rock genresthat I really like.
I like indie, like the what isit like?
Early 2000s indie rock, um likeuh, strokes.
(38:18):
Uh, kings of leon definitelydope, oh, they're so good.
Uh uh, block Party, um, anyway,uh, indie rock of like late 90s
(38:39):
, early 2000s, um, the EDM scene, like right as like dubstep and
like EDM's like between whenBlack Eyed black ip started
doing edm and like 2016, likethe festival, yeah, the adc, the
(39:07):
electronic dance stuff.
Like the biggest shows I'vebeen to have been LA shows that
were that and that's just likeingrained in my head and a lot
of my music comes out dancey andkind of like festival-ish.
Two um two um 90s ish.
(39:34):
Hip-hop, like uh, lauren hillthere's too many like hip-hop
genres.
Yeah, I might have to go artiston that one.
(39:56):
Or producers, I could dohip-hop producers for sure.
So indie rock, Indie rock.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
EDM, edm and 90s hip-hop 90s hip-hop.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
90s hip-hop uh, I've been listening to I think I've
listened to more afro beats thanI've listened to like any other
genre over the past like threeyears um the beyonce lion king
album was like my first likekind of view of it and I loved
that.
I listened to that album somany times I don't know if I
(40:35):
could do a fifth, feel like I'llleave some stuff out.
But yeah, I had a post partlike screamo phase I've lived
with, like I've lived in a lotof white neighborhoods.
Yeah, tell that's.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Don't know if you can tell that's Cali to me.
You dress like you from Cali.
That's what I just know forsure.
Like that's the way they dress,you know what I mean?
Yeah, but yeah, like the hairin your face, the emo joint,
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Pretty heavily into that for a minute.
Yeah, I think I'll leave it atthose four, okay.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Yeah, all right, so let's leave the relative
something I always do this thingcalled gym.
You know, leave a gym, gymclass.
You got to leave some gyms orone gym to the public.
You know what I mean.
(41:34):
That can help somebody that'slike you, that's a creative,
that's creating their owninstruments or creating whatever
video games, whatever that isfor them that they love to do.
What's a gym you would leavewith somebody.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
One I've always been kind of like excited to tell
people about.
If I ever got to like talkabout the story of the guitar is
that I I sketched the idea forthe guitar before I went to
school, before I learned how to3d model.
Um, and it was in a sketchbookand I keep all my sketchbooks,
yeah, and I opened it up one dayafter I had learned all these
(42:10):
skills and I was like I'm gonna3d model that and then from me,
3d modeling that turned into Ineed to build that, and then so,
um, yeah, keep, keep your oldmaterial.
Keep looking at your oldmaterial, even if you did it
when you were like a kid, um,like old beats, like don't, I
(42:33):
wouldn't delete.
If you can keep it.
Um, if it doesn't take up toomuch space, if you can digitize
your stuff, um, just don't throwaway old material that you've
created.
If you're an artist and, um, Iheard I heard journaling is
really useful for people tryingto like psychoanalyze themselves
(42:54):
so they can see, they can likesee pictures of themselves in
the past and like record and goback I would.
I would say, record things thatyou do and keep them, keep them
, don't delete them.
Okay, yeah, pretty much, keep,keep being an artist, don't
delete them.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Okay, yeah, pretty much, keep.
Keep being an artist and don'tthrow away anything.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Say it like that.
I mean you should like let goof some stuff, but but the art,
don't throw away the art.
Don't throw away the art.
Yeah, yeah, if you spent timeon it and it might not seem like
anything when you do it.
I mean, we've all heard that,like a lot of people produce a
(43:42):
song in 20 minutes that ends upbeing like the best thing
they've ever made, right, andmeanwhile they've been slaving
away at other tracks for likeyears, yeah, uh.
So yeah, don't keep all yourstuff.
Uh, yeah, keep all your art allright, cool.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Well, man, um, my name is tweezy, for the right of
me, my boy, lou Ye.
Thank you for coming, man.
I appreciate it.
Man, I hope this inspires somemore creatives.
You know what I'm saying,because we've been talking for a
long time, man.
I've been trying to figure outa time to get you on here, set
(44:23):
up the logistics and everything,and I was like you know what,
let me just do it in the studioyou know what I mean instead of
just doing it out there or atCrescendo.
Yeah, man, appreciate it.
I appreciate it, man, and wedefinitely gonna work.
And, like I always say,relationships worth more than
money.
(44:44):
This is, oh, deuces.
Shout out to my bro, big Johnman rare love, rare love.
This is the end.
Oh, shout out to my bro, bigJohn man, rare love, rare love.
This is the end of this episode, by the way, not the end.
This shit going to go forever.
You know what I mean?
Yes, sir.
All right, we on we live.
Is it?
Are they connected or yeah, Iconnect them.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, I connect them.
So we back man.
Welcome back to RelationshipsWorth More Than Money.
I'm on the left side, this timeOn the right.
Who do I got?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
My name is Luye.
I go by Luye.
My name is Kyle.
Yeah, l-o-o-y-a-y.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
That's how they can find you at Louie L-O-O-Y-A-Y.
So I'm going to go back,because this is how I end up
running into you.
I want to say 2019, 2020, 2021,now I think it was 20,.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Was it two names ago or was it three?
I think it was 20.
Was it two NAMs ago or was itthree?
I think it was two, it's two.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Because I didn't go to the last.
No, it was three.
It was three, so it was 20?
.
Yeah, because I didn't go tothe last one, for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, and we met the one before that.
Yep, yep.
Okay so that was 2023 June.
No, no, no, april.
Yeah, april, 2023.
22?
.
The last one was January ofthis year.
Yeah, I didn't go to that one.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, yeah, the one before was 23.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, yeah, and that was in April, and then the 2022
one was in June.
They've been shifting the times.
Yeah, and that was in April andthen the 2022 one was in June.
Okay, they've been shifting thetimes.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So 2023 is the last time I ran it to you and you had
this dope equipment.
Man, it was like I'd never seenit before.
It was a bass guitar with a MPKconnected like installed into
it, the MPK Mini.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I wish I had it on me .
Right now it's in LA and I'mpassing it between artists who
want to demo it and check it out, so I haven't held it since.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Now are you the creator of that piece of gear?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
yeah, it's been.
It's been tried a bunch ofdifferent times before.
Um, like putting midi elementsin a guitar or even having like
a midi pickup on your guitar sowhen you like play, it outputs
midi.
Yeah, um, but this is the firstone I think that has put uh
guitar and keys on the guitaryeah, okay, all right, cool, and
(02:33):
that's that's.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
When I saw it I was like yo, man, this is, I gotta
meet you.
I gotta know who you arebecause, like you know, that
event now for one, if peopledon't know it's a networking
establishment but at the sametime it's also introducing you
to the new gear that's comingout Right.
So you get to try some of thegear, you get to find out what
(02:57):
new mics is out, whatever,whatever you can think of all of
this stuff, that's even here,they have it there.
You know what I mean.
So it's like you're testing outall of this equipment and you
was just sitting on the side,like outside of the convention
center, and you just had thatdamn bass man.
And I'm like yo, I got to meetthis dude and it was crazy
(03:17):
because, of course, we networkedand we exchanged handles, but
we kept in contact.
You know what I mean and Ithink that's the most important
part.
But take us back, man, to likehow you even started all of this
.
Like where did the music?
Did you have a music background?
Where did it start?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, yeah.
So I grew up in church.
I played drums in my church forlike two years and I started to
learn how to play guitar andpiano.
I kind of just my firstinstrument was the drums.
I got a drum kit when I was 10.
(03:55):
I didn't really start playingit until I was, like later in
high school, like junior highschool, fast forward, went to
college for animation and visualeffects.
I've always been an artist andthe school I went to they taught
music, they taught film, theytaught game art, like video game
(04:18):
stuff and my roommate, Trippdope, artist, out of Northern
California.
We went to high school together.
We ended up going to college.
We ended up rooming togetherand going to school together,
yeah, and he was making musicall the time.
(04:38):
He raps, he's like an insaneproducer too.
And yeah, in college I gotreally into music and bought
ableton, bought the akai uh,what is it?
The apc 40?
Um, that was my first time likearranging.
No, no, no, irrelevant.
Uh, yeah, so I've, I've beenmaking music pretty heavily
(05:01):
since like 2020.
No, no, sorry, 2012, 2011.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Okay, yeah, Cool, cool, cool.
How old are you?
33.
33, okay, all right you 38.
38?
, yeah, yeah, so you was born.
What 90?
Yep, okay, yeah, so you got thebackground.
You said what was the name ofyour friend in Northern
California Tripp, tripp,t-r-i-i-p.
His name sounds familiar.
(05:31):
Was he out there?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
No, I don't think he's been doing NAMM.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Okay, all right, cool .
And what introduced you to NAMM?
How did you find out about it?
I oh, but how did you find?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
out about it.
I oh so in the Bay Area, at theschool I used to go to it was
called Expression College theyused to have events similar to
NAMM that would be hosted there.
And they what is it calledMusic Expo?
Loic, loic, loic, l-o-i-c.
(06:09):
Shout out, he runs the musicexpo, the SF Music Expo.
And he hosted it at my schooland I had always, ever since I
had been to the first event,followed him.
D-cap has done a few eventsthere.
Fire producer.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, yeah, Shout out to D-Cap yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But yeah, I met a few people there.
That was the first event I hadbeen where like instrument
makers and companies go and likejust have things on display for
people to try out, and it'slike a mini nam, yeah, and same
thing.
They'll have like panels wherelike dcap come in and like open
(06:54):
up a session and then just walkeverybody through like his
process and stuff.
And yeah, I think I found outabout nam through following low
and then I had never eventhought about going until I
built the prototype instrumentand I was like that's perfect
for me to bring there.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Now, do you have any patents on that?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I have it's protected creatively.
I call it a ghetto patent, butI don't have like a formal.
You should get it, man, that'swhat everybody tells me you
should get it, man, Somebodyalready tried to like take it
and they weren't able to.
And also I was working on aproject before the guitar.
(07:41):
It was a website and I hadgotten, had gotten like a
provisional patent, and aprovisional patent is like the,
the pre-patent, yeah, and thatwas like 2400 and I uh yeah, and
if you want to, and so aprovisional patent gives you a
(08:03):
year of cushion.
And so I spent all this moneyand I was freaking out about I
hired a patent lawyer, got thepatent thing done and I spent
(08:28):
all this money trying to protectthe idea and I'm just going to
put all my energy into makingthe product and displaying it
instead of trying to likeprotect it.
Not that it's not protected atall.
But that wasn't like my first,and people have been telling me
this since they've seen it Likeyo, you need to.
Someone's going to take thatand I'm just like.
You might be right, but I'm not.
I'm not going to spend thatmoney.
(08:51):
Yeah, but I have.
I've protected it in differentways.
We might need to cut some ofthis out of the pot.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, but no, I think just man, like,
because your creative vision ofwhat you made is.
You know what I mean.
It's like man, I always want tomake sure that everybody get
their fair share and make surethat they're taken care of,
(09:18):
because when it comes out it'sdefinitely going to sell.
Thanks, man, I appreciate it.
I mean me.
I'm trying to get into theguitar, learning how to play the
guitar, because I played thedrums, but I played in a
marching band.
I never played a set, got you.
You know what I mean.
So marching band and set istotally different.
What did you play?
Snare.
I played them all Snare, tenorand bass.
(09:39):
It just dep Depending on whatmy band director wanted me to
play, and I was the lead snare.
So it was just like, hey, youdo what you want to do.
Were you obsessed with?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Drumline when it came out.
I loved that movie.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, because in Detroit, most of those bands
emulate the historical blackcolleges bands, because that's
where our band directorsnormally come from.
Gotcha college's bands, becausethat's where our our band
directors normally come from.
Gotcha, um, so like.
And in my performing artsschool we was just a drum drum
corps.
We didn't have no otherinstruments, just snare, tenor,
bass, cymbals and flag twirling.
(10:15):
That was it, and we would likeblow the other drummers out the
roof.
Like you know, I'm saying justhow loud we were, and you know I
mean, uh, efficient and um, youknow doing all of the Just how
loud we were, and you know whatI mean efficient.
You know doing all of thedifferent rudiments and things
of that nature.
But yeah, man, what was theschool called?
Area E Academy, area E.
Shout out to Area E Academy.
It's closed now, man.
(10:36):
Yeah, I went to a performingarts school my elementary and
middle school.
Yeah, man, it was a hell of atime.
Shout out to Mr Mack too.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I was about to say who was your director, Mr.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Mack.
Mr Mack was a Him and hisbrother.
They both were band directors,cool.
And when I went to thisChristian school, before I went
to Area E, faith ChristianAcademy, his older brother was
there and he was teaching mybrother how to play the
saxophone.
So my brother was playing thesax and brother how to play the
saxophone.
So my brother was playing thesax and I wanted to play the
trumpet, you know what I mean.
(11:09):
But it was too expensive.
So you know what I mean.
I ended up going to Area E and Iwas like, hey, mr Mack, you got
a brother named Mr Mack too.
And he was like, yeah, he's aband director too.
Nice.
So I knew I was good.
You know what I mean.
I knew I was good.
You know what I mean.
I knew, I knew he knew hisstuff and yeah.
But I got to high school, myband director the band director
(11:31):
at high school was taught by MrMatt, so he was trying to get
all of us to come and be in hisband.
But I was like, nah, I want tobe, I want to be a band geek.
You know what I mean.
And that's what I regret, man,because I wish I did stick to it
.
You know what I mean, becausethey really taught you multiple
instruments.
You know what I mean.
And I was like damn, now I'm uphere trying to figure out how
(11:53):
to play the piano.
I got my theory board you knowwhat I mean Just my little cheat
board, damn Playing and stufflike that.
And I'm like man, if I wouldhave stuck with it I would have
been able to play multipleinstruments.
But it's never too late, true,you know what I'm saying.
So I definitely want to getinto, like the guitar, the bass,
piano and a little bit of youknow, a little bit of the brass.
You know what I mean.
(12:13):
But other than that, man, howdid you get?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
here.
So I came out here, I packed upall my stuff and I moved out
here, because I didn't haveaccess to the studio that I was
making music at and yeah.
So there was nothing.
My living situation wouldn'thave been conducive to the stuff
I wanted to do, so my brotherand my dad lived out here.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Oh, okay, how about I say you got family out here
Because you just packed up andjust, he's like yo, bro, aren't
you in the DMV?
I was like yeah.
He was like I'm here, I'm likewhat?
Like no, she was just in Cali.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, across the.
You know what I mean the stateslike that.
But it was, it wasn't like thethe happiest move, but yeah, I
just things weren't likeclicking out there so yeah, yeah
, and things felt like they wereclicking more on like social
media and like at NAMM and I waslike I don't, I guess I don't
where I'm at doesn't totallymatter.
So there's there's a lot lesslike art stuff out here, art
jobs anyway.
(13:32):
Yeah, then there was in, likethe Bay Area, a lot of the art
jobs out here, like militarycontracting or if you're gonna
do like graphics for people,it's like you have to get like a
clearance and uh, yeah, but sothat's a that's a downside, I
mean, but it's art enrichmenttoo.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah yeah, richmond is big on art man, so you gotta
check out richmond um a weekendor something.
Just head down there and seewhat's up.
Um, yeah, man, um.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
So you got a prototype here, right, yeah, so
the one that everybody's seen oninstagram is it's a bass guitar
and I built that one.
That's the prototype that Ibuilt because, um, I don't know
(14:25):
how to make like circuit boardsRight, I didn't go to school for
that, and there's a bunch oflike custom parts that I would
have needed to make the one thatI originally designed.
So the one everybody's seen.
To explain it, I'm sure wecould throw like an image up or
just go check out a video.
It's a.
(14:45):
It's the Akai MPK mini.
I cut it in half.
If you open it up, there's twocircuit boards with a ribbon
cable in between and I justchopped it open, split it apart
and there's enough slack that Icut a body to put those two
circuit boards in and then I putthe pickups and the strings in
(15:09):
between them.
So that's just like a basicexplanation of what it looks
like.
So this is the one that Idesigned in blender that I am
trying to build.
And what's blender?
It's a.
It's a free 3d software.
Nice, you can like 3D model.
It's amazing.
They taught us Maya in schooland I had my first actual job
(15:36):
out of college.
They taught us Blender becauseit's free and Blender is so sick
.
If you're at all into visuals,you can edit video on there.
You can 3D model, you canrender, you can animate.
Really good program.
Shout out Blender.
Thank you for being free.
Okay, and anyway.
(15:58):
So I designed the six string.
So sorry, the bass prototype.
It's only a bass because thesize of the mpk mini, right, um,
and I don't play bass that well, I play like six string guitar
a little bit better.
And also like, sonically, Iwant to play like, I want to
(16:19):
play more like lush, mid highrange chords.
I want the chords to be in thatrange.
And then, um, because of thelimited area for like keys,
right, I imagine you play basswith the keys.
So in my mind when I designedit, I was like I'll play bass on
the keys, I'll play the higherstuff on the guitar and then
(16:41):
drums, so on On the pad.
Yeah, yeah, okay.
So the prototype with the Akaiit's only a bass because of the
size of the Akai and putting aguitar neck which is smaller on
that big box would have lookedawkward.
(17:01):
So it's only a bass foraesthetic purposes, right, but
this is the version I want tobuild.
Um, it's a.
It's designed to be a sixstring.
Yeah, it's also designed, uh,to have.
It's also designed to sithorizontal, so you could sit it
on like your desk, like likethis here, yeah, and then pick
(17:24):
it up if you want to play it,put it back down if you just
want to use it as a synth, andthen, all right, I should have
drawn.
I should have drawn the layoutso, like this is keys right here
, yeah, beat pads right here,and then, uh, pickups and then a
neck, and this is as far as Igot.
Um, I was working on this in ata different shop that I built
(17:47):
the prototype in, uh, but I hadto rent space out to work on
this.
But, uh, I thought I was reallyproud of the the woodwork I did
on this so you got, you got alittle.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Uh, is that carpentry in it?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
then right yeah lutherie is the word that they
use for dang this thing heavyyeah, it's African.
Uh, used for, damn this thing,heavy.
Yeah, it's African.
I forget what it's called.
It's called wenge.
It's in the middle, the brown,the dark brown, and I forget the
.
This is the same piece of.
This is the same piece of woodthat I built the original with.
(18:19):
Wow, yeah, and it's a heavywood.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, probably too heavy To like If you had it on
like shoulder strap or whatever.
Yeah, probably too heavy Tolike if you had it on like
shoulder strap or whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
How much does a normal guitar weigh?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
The bass I built, I think is between 8 and 10 pounds
and I think, like a guitar, Ithink a bass shouldn't be more
than like six, maybe five or six.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Okay, yeah, yeah, man , it's smooth.
You put in some work on this,man, so this one's gonna be the
six string.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
This is the yeah, okay, it's a lot smaller of an
instrument than the other oneit's gonna be.
I haven't cut here.
I haven't had access to a woodshop since I left Cali, but yeah
, so, yeah, this is the versionI'm trying to build.
Risked a week for that Allright Nice man.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
So, other than that, what's, what's uh, how you like
in dc.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So far the dlv I honestly have not like ventured
out a ton.
I've been to the casino.
That's not mgm.
Yeah, that place is pretty cool.
Yeah, um, I've been to a couplelike uh drawing classes in in
dc.
Um, I've been out here and seenall the museums and all the
touristy spots before becauseI've been out here before.
(19:53):
It's cool.
I like the weather, people arechill.
It's a lot different than Imean not a ton different, but
it's a different vibe thanNorthern California.
I'm from Vacaville.
Shout out, vacaville.
It's between Sacramento.
(20:16):
It's smack dab in the middle ofSacramento and Oakland Berkeley
.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
San Francisco, you're in a bay bay.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
It's like 40 minutes north of the bay.
We call it the bay because wewant to feel cool.
Yeah, but it's like it's alittle bit of ways.
Yeah, it's like 20 minutesnorth of Vallejo, a little bit
north of Fairfield, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
We still good.
All right, that's dope man.
So what was childhood like man?
Like coming up as a kid?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
It.
What was childhood like man,like coming up as a kid?
I was a military kid, movedaround a lot, every, I think,
six years, the longest that westayed in a spot.
What brand.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Air Force.
Okay, your dad was in.
Both my parents, oh, nice, yeah, nice, did they retire?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, yeah, they're still doing like contract work,
so they're still connected in away.
But yeah, they retired.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah, they moved around a lot yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Colorado.
I was born at the Air ForceAcademy Colorado, san Jose,
california, virginia, germany,back to Colorado, back to
California, and then I was inCalifornia from like 07 to last
(21:44):
year.
So I was there for you, werethere for a minute the longest
I've been in you there, for aminute yeah, you there for a
minute?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, that's 17 years .
Yeah, damn.
So.
Yeah, you a Californian forreal.
Yeah, how old a kid.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I lived.
I've lived Santa Cruz, workedin San Jose for a minute, lived
in Fairfield for a minute, livedup north in like Grass Valley
for a minute.
Vacaville's the spot I've livedat the most, but, yeah, up and
down Northern California.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, Now what would you say?
You were?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
ex-Marines right.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, I was in the Marines for 11 years.
Thank you for your service.
Appreciate it, man.
Tell your 11 years thank youfor your service.
Appreciate it, man.
Tell your parents thank you fortheir service.
For sure, thank you.
But yeah, man you, youmaneuvered and became this
artist and found a love forbeing, you know, a drummer in
(22:45):
church, right, and now you'rehere.
What do you feel like?
Are some of the things that gotyou here?
Like?
Are the relationships thatyou've created the reason where
you are right now, or do youfeel that way?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I think, yeah, I wouldn't.
I don't know if you couldseparate your.
I don't think a lot of peoplecould separate like their love
of music from like other peoplein their life, because it's not
something.
A lot of music you don't getconnected to not entirely, but I
(23:24):
feel like the music we connectto most is because you connected
with it with other people.
So, like I, some of the mostinfluential people like like my
roommate, paul um, my parents,uh, just like their music taste,
my brother and sister havedifferent type of tastes,
(23:47):
different type of tastes.
My aunt, pretty influential inmy music taste, yeah yeah.
As far as like career goes, Ithink I like to hate on college
(24:09):
a lot and I like to tell youngerpeople they don't need to go to
college and maybe, especiallyif you're going to try to be an
artist, maybe don't go tocollege.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Why is?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
that I think for a while, my opinion's shifting on
it.
I think for a while I felt it'smy my opinion shifting on it.
I I think for a while I feltlike, uh, with the rise of like
youtube and realizing that Imyself had to like learn things
on youtube, um, I figured outhow to do things that uh, that
some people told me I needed togo to school to learn and there
(24:44):
are some things like that, liketech, but my opinion has shifted
a little bit toward uh, I thinkcollege is pretty cool because
you learn to, uh, you getdeadlines, you have like a
handful, you have a handful of,like mentors, um, I don't know
(25:08):
if I feel this way just because,like I've been missing college
lately, uh, but yeah, my, myopinion is softening toward, uh,
telling the younger generationnot to go to school.
It can be a complete waste oftime for some people.
Right, like I'm not, I'm not asuccessful, like I'm not making
(25:28):
a ton of money being an artist,and like, not yet, not yet, my
dad sent me to school with his,with his gi bill and like I, if
I had to pay that myself, itwould have been like a ton of
money, yeah, so, and that's abig reason why I tell people
(25:48):
like yo, like youtube, yeah,youtube, but I did benefit from
it.
So, and I'm learning that thatit actually was like a decent so
what?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
what do you feel like was the benefit?
Speaker 1 (26:05):
uh gears.
Um, I I met some awesomeartists that I went to school
with that I'm still in contactwith.
I've seen some really coolartists like grow and do their
thing and seen a lot of artists.
A lot of people graduate anddon't do anything with, like,
(26:27):
what they, what they learn, butum, what was the question, my
bad?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
What are some of the benefits from school?
Benefits from school.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Um, teachers, getting to know your teachers, cause
they're in an art school.
You're going to get teachersthat have been in the industry.
So, um, and, like I said, theschool I went to was, uh, video
games, film, music, so, yeah,just having somebody that's like
(27:00):
in there and you get to see ona by by daily, like multiple
times a week, ask them questionsso much different than youtube,
you get critique, critique,critique, critique, critique.
That's huge.
Uh, if you don't have anybodylooking at your art and you're
(27:22):
just your, your stuff's notgonna.
Your stuff's gonna be waybetter.
If you have people like tellingyou like yo, that sucks, I
could tell you didn't reallywork that part on that part,
right, you do better on thisother part.
That's like vital to like, Ithink, to any like artists.
(27:42):
Um, Progress.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
So now you think that it's like a scale on good and
bad, or good things to do incollege and bad things, I feel
terrible.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I've told a couple kids like don't go to school.
Yeah, thinking about that nowI'm like ugh.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I mean, they do have its perks, man.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
And it's not all good .
Yeah, it's not Like I said youcan go to college and waste your
time.
Right you can screw over fouryears of your life and not deal
with it.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah.
So I always tell people you cango, but you got to make sure
what you're going for Right,because if not, you're just
going to be wasting major aftermajor after major.
You're going to be bouncingaround like a pinball and then,
when it's finally time for youto decide, it's like all right,
you did some amount of money indebt and you're going to work at
(28:40):
Walmart or wherever.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Wherever that's not going to help you, no offense
but.
If you go to school forsomething and then you end up
working somewhere else.
It's, that wasn't the plan,right?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
things change, but yeah but yeah, like I said, man,
um, I'm with you some things,don't?
You don't need to go to schoolfor, yeah, what do you think?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
are the in the category of don't go to school?
Um?
I would.
What do you think are the Inthe category of Don't go to
school Um?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
I would say, uh, don't go to school For the, for
the name, like the name of theschool.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
You got.
You got your, your Oklahoma's,your Texas's, you got all of
this stuff.
All the big name schools, right, yale, yeah, yale, harvard,
brown, columbia.
You know what I mean.
All the big name schools, yale,harvard, brown, columbia.
(29:33):
You know what I mean, all ofthose big name schools.
But depending on what you'retrying to do, man, it's not
feasible.
You know what I mean.
And then you're stressing aboutthe money, yeah, and you're not
really enjoying it.
And, like I said on the lastepisode, the most important part
(29:53):
of college is the network.
The network and the peoplethat's in there at that school
or in that area that you'redoing and you're moving around
in.
That's the most important part,because those people build that
relationship that I always say,the relationships worth more
than money.
It builds that.
But a lot of the stuff that Idon't like to add on to that the
(30:18):
big name schools, the TAs,teachers, assistants I can't
stand them Because they thinkthey're the teacher and they
think they're better than youand they're not going to pretty
much.
Well, my experience at Mason.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I went to George Mason.
I have a very specific person.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah, because they literally will act Like I
literally got a 71 out of aclass and all I needed was a 73.
And the teacher was neverreally there.
It was more of it was more ofthe them doing all of the work.
Yeah, and I'm like yo, butyou're not explaining it Like
(30:57):
you're explaining it, like we'resupposed to know how you do it.
You're supposed to explain itBarney style.
Break it down to where all ofus can understand it Right, and
they would never do it.
So, yeah, man the TAs, what'dyou go to school for?
Marketing?
Where at George Mason, right upthe street.
I started at NOVA, northernVirginia Community College, and
(31:23):
I wanted to do accounting.
But that's what my dad did andI was just like, nah, that's too
much math and I love math.
But at NOVA I'm just like nah,I still want to get a business
degree.
So I went for marketing orwhatever my sister's about to go
to school, for she justgraduated, congrats.
She's about to go to college.
(31:45):
Yeah, marketing For marketing,it's dope man.
It's dope because I thinkmarketing to me, marketing is is
one of the most valuable piecesto have in whatever you do in
life.
It don't have to be music, itdon't have to be, uh,
entrepreneurship if you know howto market yourself or market
somebody else's brand, it'sgoing to take off and it's going
(32:07):
to and are going to listenbecause you study the market.
You know what I'm saying.
That's what it is.
You're studying the market andif you're doing digital
marketing, you're studying thesocial media, you're studying
all of these different platformsand you're analyzing what works
(32:28):
, what don't work, what shouldyou put in front of something?
If you're doing product works,what don't work, what should you
put in front of something?
If you're doing productplacement, doing promotions,
like it's a lot, man, andmarketing is huge man, I think
in order for your business torun smoothly, you need a hell of
a marketing team to get it.
Yeah, so marketing has beendope and I'm two classes away.
(32:49):
I took like a year and a half,two years off.
I'm about to finish it.
Yeah, so marketing has beendope and I'm two classes away.
I took like a year and a half,two years off.
I'm about to finish it up, youknow what I mean.
So I can get the degree,because I never like starting
something and not finishing.
You know what I'm saying.
I'm two classes away.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Did you stop at two classes, or have you been like
did you stop at a certain timeand then?
Speaker 2 (33:11):
you've been kind of like working.
What a pandemic messed it allup, man.
I was literally I was supposedto graduate 20, 20, 22.
That was that was from nova I,I, I finished nova, but 2022 I
was supposed to graduate.
Like it just threw everythingoff, man.
(33:33):
Like I mean, my grandma passedaway in between all of that crap
.
Like mentally I wasn't thereand so, yeah, I can go back.
I just you know what I meanthem loans.
Loans kick in.
After that GI Bill run out themloans kick in, man.
So it's not a lot, though.
So I can manage that and takecare of it.
(33:53):
So, yeah, I just want to do it.
Plus my daughters, man.
They in middle school andelementary now.
So it's like I'm not about to.
I don't even tell them to quitanything.
So I'm not about to show themlike, oh shit, I ain't going to
college because you ain't evenfinished college.
You know what I mean?
You, know, what I mean.
That's how I was man, but bothmy parents both got master's
(34:15):
degrees, so it was like I can'tnot finish school.
You know what I'm saying.
So but yeah, so it's definitelypros and cons to it, but me
personally, I would have stuckwith music and not went to
college if I knew, Because Istarted making beats while I was
(34:35):
in the Marines.
Gotcha and you know what I mean.
Before I even started going tocollege, while I was in the
military, I was still.
I was working on music becauseI'm like oh, you can make beats
off a computer.
Yep, this is crazy.
Like all right, bet, yeah.
So I was working my way up.
You know, I mean going fromthat to that machine.
To, you know, I mean from theoriginal machine.
(34:56):
That was your first machine.
No, the first one, yeah, themk1.
I had the mk1.
I remember I had I got, I gotthe mpk over there mini.
That was like my first setups Ihad bought.
Um, it was like 2010.
Yeah, I bought.
I got my first MacBook 09.
You know what I'm saying?
And 2006,.
(35:21):
When I got back from Iraq thefirst time, I got a Phantom X6.
So that was my first standalonekeyboard.
Rob Markman Is that like a.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
it's a station too.
Yeah yeah, there's like acomputer in it.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yep.
So it had like these big, likechip sound cards you can put in
the back and just just make,make your beats and everything.
And this was on megabytes.
So this crazy like you knowwhat I mean, I'm making beats
off megabytes, now off megabytes, now we gigs.
You know what I'm saying.
So, yeah, man, it was.
It was definitely a thing that Iwas like man, I wish I just
(35:54):
would've stuck with the musicand still play sports in high
school, because this definitelywould've pushed me further.
But at the same time, YouTubehelped me a lot.
So you know what I mean.
I don't knock it and I stillkeep going because I'm like, hey
, the younger producers are dopeand I'm learning from them and
they're learning from me andwhen I go to these different
(36:14):
showcases they hear my music.
You know what I mean.
It makes me understand and feellike, yep, I'm still doing it
right, I'm doing something right, I'm on the right path.
You know what I mean Becauseit's like I've been through all
those failures.
You know what I mean, and beatswere trash, mixes were trash,
(36:38):
but going to those showcaseshelped me.
So I always tell people man, ifit's something you really want
to do, stick with it, but alsohave something to financially
back it.
You know what I mean.
Don't just be a bum and just bemaking music without no money
coming in, because then it'slike it's not smart, it's not
(36:58):
smart at all.
You're hustling backwards.
You know what I mean?
You always want to hustleforward.
So yeah, man, that's my spielon it.
But we got.
Matter of fact, what's your topfive music genres Genres, yeah,
(37:19):
because I ain't going to sayartists.
Yeah, yeah, say genres.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Um, that's tough.
I almost want to break it downby like producer.
Um, okay, we can do producerthen.
I like genres is actually a loteasier.
Okay, I can fit like yeah youfit everybody yeah.
Yeah, okay, um, I had a hugelike so tough.
(37:58):
There's like three rock genresthat I really like.
I like indie, like the what isit like?
Early 2000s indie rock, um likeuh, strokes.
(38:18):
Uh, kings of leon definitelydope, oh, they're so good.
Uh uh, block Party, um, anyway,uh, indie rock of like late 90s
(38:39):
, early 2000s, um, the EDM scene, like right as like dubstep and
like EDM's like between whenBlack Eyed black ip started
doing edm and like 2016, likethe festival, yeah, the adc, the
(39:07):
electronic dance stuff.
Like the biggest shows I'vebeen to have been LA shows that
were that and that's just likeingrained in my head and a lot
of my music comes out dancey andkind of like festival-ish.
Two um two um 90s ish.
(39:34):
Hip-hop, like uh, lauren hillthere's too many like hip-hop
genres.
Yeah, I might have to go artiston that one.
(39:56):
Or producers, I could dohip-hop producers for sure.
So indie rock, Indie rock.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
EDM, edm and 90s hip-hop 90s hip-hop.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
90s hip-hop uh, I've been listening to I think I've
listened to more afro beats thanI've listened to like any other
genre over the past like threeyears um the beyonce lion king
album was like my first likekind of view of it and I loved
that.
I listened to that album somany times I don't know if I
(40:35):
could do a fifth, feel like I'llleave some stuff out.
But yeah, I had a post partlike screamo phase I've lived
with, like I've lived in a lotof white neighborhoods.
Yeah, tell that's.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Don't know if you can tell that's Cali to me.
You dress like you from Cali.
That's what I just know forsure.
Like that's the way they dress,you know what I mean?
Yeah, but yeah, like the hairin your face, the emo joint,
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Pretty heavily into that for a minute.
Yeah, I think I'll leave it atthose four, okay.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Yeah, all right, so let's leave the relative
something I always do this thingcalled gym.
You know, leave a gym, gymclass.
You got to leave some gyms orone gym to the public.
You know what I mean.
(41:34):
That can help somebody that'slike you, that's a creative,
that's creating their owninstruments or creating whatever
video games, whatever that isfor them that they love to do.
What's a gym you would leavewith somebody.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
One I've always been kind of like excited to tell
people about.
If I ever got to like talkabout the story of the guitar is
that I I sketched the idea forthe guitar before I went to
school, before I learned how to3d model.
Um, and it was in a sketchbookand I keep all my sketchbooks,
yeah, and I opened it up one dayafter I had learned all these
(42:10):
skills and I was like I'm gonna3d model that and then from me,
3d modeling that turned into Ineed to build that, and then so,
um, yeah, keep, keep your oldmaterial.
Keep looking at your oldmaterial, even if you did it
when you were like a kid, um,like old beats, like don't, I
(42:33):
wouldn't delete.
If you can keep it.
Um, if it doesn't take up toomuch space, if you can digitize
your stuff, um, just don't throwaway old material that you've
created.
If you're an artist and, um, Iheard I heard journaling is
really useful for people tryingto like psychoanalyze themselves
(42:54):
so they can see, they can likesee pictures of themselves in
the past and like record and goback I would.
I would say, record things thatyou do and keep them, keep them
, don't delete them.
Okay, yeah, pretty much, keep,keep being an artist, don't
delete them.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Okay, yeah, pretty much, keep.
Keep being an artist and don'tthrow away anything.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Say it like that.
I mean you should like let goof some stuff, but but the art,
don't throw away the art.
Don't throw away the art.
Yeah, yeah, if you spent timeon it and it might not seem like
anything when you do it.
I mean, we've all heard that,like a lot of people produce a
(43:42):
song in 20 minutes that ends upbeing like the best thing
they've ever made, right, andmeanwhile they've been slaving
away at other tracks for likeyears, yeah, uh.
So yeah, don't keep all yourstuff.
Uh, yeah, keep all your art allright, cool.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Well, man, um, my name is tweezy, for the right of
me, my boy, lou Ye.
Thank you for coming, man.
I appreciate it.
Man, I hope this inspires somemore creatives.
You know what I'm saying,because we've been talking for a
long time, man.
I've been trying to figure outa time to get you on here, set
(44:23):
up the logistics and everything,and I was like you know what,
let me just do it in the studioyou know what I mean instead of
just doing it out there or atCrescendo.
Yeah, man, appreciate it.
I appreciate it, man, and wedefinitely gonna work.
And, like I always say,relationships worth more than
money.
(44:44):
This is, oh, deuces.
Shout out to my bro, big Johnman rare love, rare love.
This is the end.
Oh, shout out to my bro, bigJohn man, rare love, rare love.
This is the end of this episode, by the way, not the end.
This shit going to go forever.
You know what I mean?
Yes, sir.
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