July 4, 2025 • 56 mins
The path to artistic fulfillment rarely follows a straight line. In this deeply personal conversation, DJ and producer Ryan Delcher reveals his journey of transformation from The Binaural Project to his new identity as CATA-PILLA – a name inspired by the profound wisdom that "before you praise a butterfly, don't shit on a caterpillar."
As Ryan and I reminisce about our early friendship forged in Baltimore's vibrant music scene, he opens up about finding his musical voice through hip-hop, punk rock, and eventually electronic music. His first rave experience in the woods of Pasadena, MD sparked a lifelong passion for bass music and drum and bass, leading him into DJing, production, and event curation throughout the East Coast.
But the heart of our conversation explores something deeper – how becoming a father in 2020 transformed not only Ryan's personal life but his entire approach to creativity. Rather than seeing parenthood as an obstacle to his musical dreams, Ryan restructured his life, applying the Japanese concept of Ikigai to balance his roles as father, producer, and creative force. "I had to find that passion I had when I started making music," he explains, describing how clearing mental clutter became essential to accessing his creative flow state.
Ryan's philosophy embodies the caterpillar-to-butterfly metamorphosis – respecting the process rather than fixating on flashy results. Through time-blocking techniques adapted from his production management experience, he demonstrates how artists at any life stage can nurture their passions while honoring their responsibilities.
The authenticity in Ryan's evolution is palpable as he shares: "Make your life something worth being passionate about." His journey reminds us that sometimes we need our own metamorphosis to discover our truest expression. Whether you're a musician, parent, or creative seeking balance, this episode offers wisdom on respecting your journey's necessary transformations.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
yo respecting perspectives crew.
You know, I got one of my man,one of my main men, right here.
Okay, me and Ryan go back andgosh.
We've been through so manydifferent evolutions of
friendship and musicianship.
(00:35):
I got Ryan Delcher here, who isa DJ producer, engineer, a
father.
You know the list could go on,okay, but, man, welcome dude,
I'm so excited to have you hereand just tell the people kind of
(01:00):
maybe give them just a littlebit of like, maybe like where
you grew up and like you know,just some stuff like that, to
kind of let some stuff like thatto give them a little bit of a
background.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, absolutely Well .
First off, man, thank you forhaving me out on the Respecting
Perspectives podcast.
It's been really cool seeingall of this come into fruition.
It's always an inspiration whenI see friends following their
dreams and actually executing onthem, so big love to that,
Thanks man A little bit aboutmyself.
(01:29):
I'm from Baltimore.
I grew up in Baltimore County,really kind of lived all over
the place up and down the EastCoast.
I've lived out in Californiafor a little bit in my 20s so
I've traveled around.
I got a little bit of culturalvariety from moving around a
little bit.
But yeah, so I'm from Baltimore.
(01:50):
Recently, as of recently, I'vebeen really back into my music
project, caterpillar, as MrAwell over here was mentioning.
So I've been really heavy ondoing that recently, making new
music performing.
I'm really trying to just builda community around drum and
bass and music I love Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Love that man, love that.
Why don't you tell everybodywhat are some of your early
inspirations as far as musicgoes itself, because you're a
very, uh, you know, multi-genre,uh, individual.
Um, you know what were likesome of maybe like the early
like cds ryan and I were justtalking about, like some of the
(02:32):
old cds that he had I think hesaid he had like the sum 41, uh,
m&m classics blink 182 and Iwas like dude, I was like you,
just you hit, you, hit him youhit them.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
That's my CD wallet right there in the bottom of my
car man.
No, and I used to love makingmixtapes, man.
I really think that was myfirst stab at DJing, like little
10-year-old me putting togethermixtapes and burning CDs off
LimeWire.
But no man, some of my earlyinspirations.
I'm big into hip-hop, so Iloved like 50 cent, snoop, dogg,
(03:06):
dr dre, uh, eminem anybody.
On aftermath, I love tribecalled quest.
You know some of the old schoolboom bap stuff.
Uh, also loved blink-182, some41, some of the.
You know the classics youmentioned limp, biscuit, um, you
know, I was really all over theplace.
I uh.
As as electronic music goes, Ifeel like my first introduction
(03:29):
was probably the Prodigy Justhearing their music in movies.
I was like what is this?
Just the high energy drums andstuff.
That's kind of what started topique my interest in electronic
music really and I got intolistening to Crystal Method and
at an early age that's reallywhere the electronic stuff came
(03:49):
in.
And then when I got to collegeit was all about bass music when
I went to University ofMaryland.
So I was really close to DC,got introduced to the DC music
scene and really fell in love.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
How old were you when you, you kind of were
introduced to like bass music?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
uh itself um, probably like my senior year of
high school, I went to my firstlike rave with my cousin.
Um, it was out in like pasadena, in the woods and you had to
follow these little likeblinking lights a mile back into
this trail and then it justopened up to just chaos,
organized chaos, and she broughtme around.
(04:30):
She was older than me andbrought me around to some of
those events.
So that's really where I got ataste.
And there's lots of drum andbass, so that's where a lot of
the drum and bass, inspirationand influence comes from.
And it was just, it was like awhole nother world.
You know, I I will neverremember just like walking into
that environment, like where amI?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I need to be here, this is right if you, if you
could like describe it though,like, if you could describe
maybe like what was, um, youknow, kind of maybe like either
going through your head, causeI'll kind of I'll kind of start
with, like, when I wasintroduced to bass music and you
know, I I remember like feelinglike this sense of like wow,
(05:13):
like there's so many otherthings out there that like I
don't know about, you know, andit really opened my mind to just
all of the things that theworld has to offer.
And you know, it's so cool, Imean, we're so lucky to be able
to, you know, experience likeall of these.
(05:34):
You know different things, andI do remember, just like the
community aspect, you know of ittoo.
It just felt like everybody wasthere.
You know.
For the music itself, you knowof it too, it just felt like
everybody was there.
Um, you know, for the musicitself, you know no, I'm you
touched on.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
you know my.
The thing that keeps me comingback is the community within the
live music scene.
Um, like I mentioned too, Imean I've traveled all over, but
the live music scene here onthe east coast and the
mid-atlanticantic is reallyspecial between the electronic
scene and the jam band scenethat I'm very involved in and
supportive of.
But again back to your questionso how did that make me feel?
(06:14):
I mean, man, I was enamored, Iwas infatuated with this.
I had never seen the colors orthat style of music or really
the energy.
It was the energy that I waslike whoa, this energy is
infectious, and that's reallykind of what took hold of me,
really, just that experience ofjust feeling like a part of
(06:38):
something too.
I feel like dance music.
You're moving and you'resharing, um, you know those
moments with people on the dancefloor and, and you know, you
really get to connect withpeople yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
What were some of uh.
Let's see here I remember thisis a throwback here what were
some of the uh venues that you,you know remember from from like
back in the day that kind oflike helps you, you know, kind
of get introduced to like someof these things, do you remember
?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, Bourbon Street for sure was one.
Bourbon Street.
Rest in peace.
Paradox also rest in peace.
Those were two big ones that Iwas going to a lot Out in DC.
We used to do stuff at DC Eagle.
I used to go there, you know.
And then there's there's uhvenues still today that you know
(07:28):
were early in my career, thatare around um the eight by ten,
always soundstage, um, it'salways done cool stuff.
But for sure, one venue Ireally miss, I'd say, is
probably paradox.
Paradox was crazy.
They always had like five roomsof music and all different,
like didn't matter what youliked, there was something for
you there.
Um that that place was reallyspecial.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
It was a cool spot, for sure, for sure let's talk a
little bit about productionitself and like kind of you know
how did you start making otherthan you know the?
Uh, you know the line wire burnand stuff like that.
But like how did you start, um,you know your production
(08:10):
journey itself?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I guess I really started with djing.
I bought a kid.
It was when I lived out incalifornia.
Um, I was really kind ofworking on myself.
I was new in recovery when Iwas out there and I picked it.
It up as, like you know, as Imentioned, how passionate I was
about the bass music scene, Iwas like I want to do more, I
want to be a part of you know,and I want to do this.
(08:32):
So got a controller and Istarted kind of DJing and
figuring out how to blenddifferent tracks, figuring out
the styles of music that I liked.
And then I formally did somemusic training with this program
out in california and and gotinto production, um, and and I
really started like for myprocess even I'll get into it a
(08:53):
little bit, yeah please um oneof the easiest things that and
the coolest things that I wastaught was like song mapping.
Right, so there's a certainstyle of song that you like, you
take that, bounce it out, putit into your doll and then kind
of recreate it in your own style, right, so you take the first
eight bars and learn how to makethat intro.
Um, and that really acceleratedme and being able to learn how
(09:15):
to write my own music, just withsong structure, um, figuring
out how to use certain soundsand certain effects to create
energy.
You know, yeah, um, so that'sreally how it started, just kind
of doing song map stuff.
Uh, I started making hip-hopbeats.
I, I love hip-hop, so I stilldo that today.
Um, sent you some beats beforewe've got some stuff going um,
(09:37):
so really, you know, I and Istill today like I, I make all
different types of music.
I don't just make drum and bass, not just dubstep, I make
everything I've made musicthat's cinematic and stuff.
I don't release a lot of thisstuff, but it's just the actual
creation part I'm verypassionate about and it's a good
release for me.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
But yeah, that's kind of how I got into it.
Yeah, you should be very proudof your musical versatility.
You know, um, it's sometimes it, uh, gosh, sometimes it takes a
little bit of, um, you know,practice to really understand
and figure out what you like um,what you don't like um, and uh,
(10:20):
you know it really it's achallenge too, because it's like
, how can you try, and you know,separate yourself from like all
the music you know that's outthere and how can you really, I
mean, I struggle with thismyself as a musician, you know,
really trying to find my musicalidentity, you know, and, gosh,
(10:43):
I mean, this is is, I think, aperfect place to kind of segue.
Um, you know, for you, uh, youknow, you, you started out, you
know, one, under a different, uh, a different name, right, um,
yeah, the binaural project yeahso.
So tell people a little bitabout maybe like that transition
um itself and um you know what,maybe thwarted that to happen?
(11:07):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, the Binaural Project was great.
I had a lot of fun with that.
It was the first time I tookmusic professionally and was
able to travel, you know, andplay my music in different
cities, and I loved it.
But, man, we had thisconversation before and we were
talking about how importantbranding is.
Well, and I didn't do myresearch before I picked that
name and, man, I mean BinauralBeats, it's a meditation
(11:32):
technique, right?
So if you go on Apple Music,spotify, there's thousands and
thousands of Binaural Beatsstuff.
So it was so hard to find mymusic, which was one part you
know, a big puzzle piece in therebrand music, which was one
part, you know, a big puzzlepiece in in the rebrand um,
something you know, if, if youare thinking about starting a
music project or anythingcreative, do your research, uh,
you know, and check that stuff,um, so that was, that was kind
(11:55):
of one thing, and then anotherreally big thing is for me is,
uh, being a father.
You know, I, um, my son wasborn in 2020 and that was right
around the time that I wastaking a hiatus from music and
performing.
Um, obviously, just because I,I, you know, I became a father
and I wanted to spend timelearning what that was about and
(12:17):
and starting that journey.
So I took a couple years off.
You know, I still made music,but I wasn't really performing,
and uh and dove into family life, you know.
And and kind music, but Iwasn't really performing, and uh
and dove into family life, youknow.
And and kind of started torestructure my life and and I
really went before I got backinto the rebrand and the
caterpillar project.
I wanted to find that passion Ihad when I started making music
(12:38):
, that passion I had when Ifirst walked into my first rave.
You know like I wanted thatfire back.
I didn't want to push anything,um, and I feel like I finally,
you know I got it right.
I restructured my life.
I uh, I got a new job where Iwork remote so I'm able to stay
at home with my son andhomeschool him.
Also, I'm able to work on musicand stuff, um, so I really kind
(13:02):
of restructured my whole lifeand I got that fire back and I'm
ready to go.
You know, I feel so good rightnow and I feel so passionate
about my music project and theperformances and the shows that
I've been playing at this year,and you know.
So it was to me.
It was very natural, right likethe break was was very organic
and that time for me and myfamily, and wanted to build that
(13:24):
foundation so that you, youknow, I was rock solid.
So when I go do this stuffagain, you know I don't have to
worry, right Like I don't.
For me, if I have, you know,chores or something I need to do
, I can't get creative.
I have to have like a cleanhouse, clean slate, and that's
when my flow state, that's whenmy creative juices flow.
You know the passion, right, soit feels good to be back there.
(13:48):
But that was definitely, youknow, a couple of other factors
as well with the rebrand.
The other thing is, um, I'vedefinitely changed flavor as far
as my live sets.
I've been playing a lot morehigh energy drum and bass stuff
and ukg stuff, um, so that'sanother big change too.
With the Binaural Project, Iwas doing more dubstep and like
(14:09):
halftime stuff and more glitchhop stuff.
So it just felt right to makethe change and I really do like
the new name.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So yeah, was it something that happened like
overnight, where you like madethat decision that it was going
to happen, like made thatdecision that it was going to
happen, or was it like, did youneed some time to really like,
kind of, you know, make that,make that decision?
Because I'm sure there's a lotof other artists out there who
are kind of like, you know, inbetween, um, you know, not even
(14:42):
like monikers, but like theenergy that they're like giving
to the music itself.
Um, you know, was thatsomething that that took a long
time, or was it kind of justlike a flip switch that went off
?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
No, it was definitely something I marinated on for a
while.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I thought about branding, there was some other,
it was kind of a process andreally there is a song by Royce,
the Five Nine and Eminem andthere's a line in here that
talks about before you praise abutterfly, don't shit on a
caterpillar.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Oh shoot, oh shoot.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
The whole idea of the Caterpillar brand is respecting
the process, respecting thejourney.
A lot of people these days,special social media, it's all
like flashy games and you know,the get rich quick videos and
that kind of stuff, which I justfelt like for me personally
that that didn't work.
(15:40):
You know, I've tried that inother areas of my life and I've
learned, man, that it's like.
It's about the journey, it'sabout that process, the
metamorphosis you know.
So that's really kind of wherethe name comes from.
And yeah, no, but I definitelyit wasn't an overnight thing, it
was something I kind ofmarinated on for some time and,
(16:01):
you know, even drawing up thelogo, like I drew it out and had
it for, you know, months beforeI even released it, even
released it just to see doesthis sit with me, does this
represent the identity that I'mgoing to go with?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
What about social media itself and the rebranding?
Was that a bigger or a smallerchallenge than you expected?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I talked to a lot of friends and other artists.
There's a few things right,like with my musical platforms,
with the music I had released.
I had released with a fewlabels under Binaural.
So I really was like I don'tknow what to do.
Should I start a new SoundCloud, should I not?
I ended up just starting newplatforms and it's a little bit
(16:48):
of a challenge, cause I got tobuild back.
I had a decent following on my,on my old platforms, you know,
but I I feel like for me,starting fresh was was what I
needed to do and what I wantedto do.
You know, you can still findthe binaural music out there.
I didn't take it all down, butI just kind of wanted to have a
clean break and start fresh.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, nice, I love that.
And, gosh, it's like you putthis image out there and it's
out in the world forever, andit's like it really is never too
late for you to reinventyourself.
No know, reinvent yourself, youknow, and I feel like, um, you
(17:32):
know, there's probably somelisteners out there who are kind
of, maybe like you know, um, inbetween projects right now.
Um, I've seen it.
I've seen some artists handleit, um, in the most gracious
ways, and then I've seen some,uh, other artists not do as well
with it, but, um, I'll give youprops on, you know, handling it
the right way and also, kind oflike taking your time with it
(17:55):
itself.
You know, and like, not likeyou know, forcefully, like
making it happen.
You know, you, really I thinkyou know you yourself and some
other artists that I can thinkof off the top of my head do a
really good job of that and,yeah, you should be proud of
yourself for stuff like that.
Thanks, man.
Yeah, man, thank you.
(18:15):
Let's see here what about.
Let's talk a little bit aboutproduction itself, kind of like
how you got into that, theevents, um, maybe kind of like
the meat and potatoes of it andum, kind of like, you know what
helped you?
Um, let's see here what helpedyou kind of create some of the
(18:39):
things that you're going to talkabout, uh, in the near future,
uh, and and projects that you'regoing to talk about.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Sure, yeah, um, yeah.
So I guess for me with eventsit really all started with
promoting.
I worked with a couple localpromotion companies, you know
just doing stuff on social media, putting flyers up around town,
and then that kind of evolvedinto doing some artists
hospitality work and like artisttranspo work, so you know,
(19:07):
picking artists up from theairport, getting them to the
venue, the hotel, that kind ofstuff, um, making sure you know
riders are fulfilled in thegreen room.
So kind of that's where I got myfeet wet.
Um then I went to a uh, audioengineering school called the
sheffield institute for therecording arts, um, where I was
formally trained as an audioengineer right Right out of
(19:30):
school, and during school I gotan internship at a recording
studio called Line Up Room.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
That's where I met you.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
That's where AWOL and I kind of really built a
relationship, got to worktogether creatively and
professionally.
So I started doing that.
And then I started working witha production company as well,
um, and worked my way up theproduction company.
I started as a stage hand uh,building stage decks out in the
rain and it starts right.
(19:57):
Yeah, man, um did that for abouta year, slowly worked my way up
to uh production manager, youknow, and I did that through
just like showing upconsistently, showing up early,
being very organized.
I had an act for leadership, um, you know.
So then I got to uh.
I got some really coolopportunities.
I've been able to work on somereally cool events.
(20:18):
I've been able to uh inprevious years I've been able to
provide production at baltimorepride, which is a huge 30, 40
000 person event here in thecity.
Yeah, um worked on summer fest,which is a huge 30,000, 40,000
person event here in the city.
Worked on Summerfest, which isout in Carroll County.
It's about an 8,000 personevent.
I have also a company party fora purpose with my partner, my
(20:38):
man, will Gibbons, who we justhad.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yes, on your podcast, Mr Gibbons.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yes, sir.
So shout out Mr Gibbons, buthim and I, the past couple of of
years, have had the opportunityto do a lot of really cool
stuff.
We've, uh, we threw teller festat patterson park, yeah, um, we
did some work with the ramblefestival.
We've also thrown our own shows.
We did some, uh, like an afterparty series kind of paired up
with, um, some all good shows,um.
(21:04):
So I've done a ton of eventwork.
I love it.
I'm very passionate about it.
Um, I would still, like, I think, be doing that professionally
had I'm not, um, you know,became a father.
But with the production life,like, really, it's just, it's a
lot of time commitment, man,anybody who's in that industry.
So you got to be crazy.
It's.
It's so much work, um,especially on a large scale.
(21:26):
It's so much work and so muchplanning.
So, shout out, much love, scale, it's so much work and so much
planning.
So shout out and much love toeverybody doing events and
planning events.
And still in the game and inthe grind, man, because it's not
for the weak-hearted You've gotto take losses and you've got
to keep it moving.
And it's tough.
It's tough to want to carry on,but I love it, I love
(21:47):
production.
I love helping people.
My favorite thing is somebodywill come to me with an idea and
then we make it happen With theRespecting Perspectives release
party that we had together.
Man, that was such a coolexperience for you and I to
connect and work together.
Yeah, I mean, andrew came to mewith a vision and we made it
(22:08):
happen.
I mean I even designed it outin Vectorworks the little 3D
model before we had the event.
And it was a lot of planning,we did some rehearsals, but it
was great, man, being able tohelp that dream and that vision
come to life, and seeing thatand even just seeing your
parents.
It was awesome.
That to me, that's the magic ofevent throwing and event
(22:29):
curation.
It's that, you know, I was.
It's like that glimmer, right,like even when I would work
production and I'm working 20hours, right.
There'd be that moment whereI'd walk out into the crowd and
be like man this is magic.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
You know when it all comes together, it's magic, uh,
and it's.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
It's tough, it's like it's very important.
I think in life, even you knowto remember those moments right.
Life gets really hectic andyou're doing all this stuff.
You got to just take a secondand be like man, this is, this
is awesome, this is magic, youknow yeah you know what I will,
uh, I want to uh elaborate alittle on that.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Um, the show itself, dude, we killed it so, so proud
of of both of us and everyonewho was involved.
And you know that was the firstopportunity that I had to, you
know, make something like that,a dream like that, come true,
you know, and I pray that everyartist out there, you know,
(23:29):
follows their dream enough to beable to get to see something
like that come to life.
Man, because, you know, atfirst it was daunting, it was
scary.
I'm like I remember calling himand being like dude, like is
this even possible?
Like, like, how do people dothis?
You know, especially being anartist where, like you know, you
(23:50):
don't know all the logistics ofthose things and you know,
you're obviously working with,like a particular budget, you
know, and, uh, I think one ofthe cool things, uh, one of the
things that really helped was,um, what we did was, uh, people
would, instead of buying anactual ticket, they would buy a
(24:11):
piece of merch, you know, andthat was their ticket and, um,
you know, it was cool to be ableto like have everybody in a
wall merch, you know, just kindof like, you know ganged up and
um, yeah, and then we kind of ittook a few meetings, him and I
kind of sitting down and reallykind of like figuring out the
(24:32):
logistics of everything.
Like you know, the speakersthat we're going to have, the
venue itself that we're going tohave, are we going to have food
or not, are we going to have,you know, alcohol or not?
You know the visualization,yeah, just so much stuff that is
really involved in a show thatyou don't think about.
You know the visualization,yeah, just so much stuff that is
really involved in a show thatyou don't think about.
(24:53):
You know, and I thought it waspretty cool because I then it
really helped me understand thatlike it's really not at all
like daunting, it's just.
You know your organizationskills, you know you do have to
stay constantly motivated, um,but if the music is means that
(25:14):
much to you, like to see it cometo life, like, like you said,
like it's that moment, that ahamoment, where you're like in the
middle of the crowd and you'rejust like man, like this is,
this is really happening, youknow, and and like just to like,
just to be able to say that youdid it.
You know what I mean.
It's going to be cool later onin life when I have some young
(25:38):
ones running around to be ableto be like Baby AWOLs.
Yeah right, baby AWOLs, be likeyo.
Hopefully that will alsoinspire Actually I know it has.
I know some people have reachedout to me like, yeah, you did
your own show.
That really helped me realizethat I could do it myself.
(25:58):
I'm really excited to be ableto do it again in the near
future.
So y'all will be seeing andhearing some information on that
in the coming months, becauseafter the first time I was like,
personally, that's just thetype of person I am and I know
(26:19):
Ryan is the same way.
Once you do one thing, the nexttime you really do, your goal
and your aim is to make itbetter, you know, than the last
one.
And better can mean it doesn'tnecessarily mean that, like more
people have to be there, but Ithink what better means is like
are you a better person?
(26:40):
Like when you go into thatprocess?
You know and and I know forsure, um, luckily on on all
cylinders, like I do feel likemy music is getting better.
I do feel like my attitudeitself, you know, with, like the
industry itself is gettingbetter.
You know my let's see here.
(27:01):
You know the inspiration, theinspirational factors that I
have now to give people are, youknow, are just like, are
heightened, you know, and it'sit's more like it's just proof,
you know, it's proof that youknow, anything really can happen
as long as you, you know, putyour put your mind to it.
(27:21):
But I do want to also speakabout, you know, lineup room and
you know shouts to BrandonLackey out there.
He's probably on the boardsright now at lineup room and you
know this.
That's a studio that is down inthe middle of Baltimore on
Saratoga Street, and you knowthat is where Ryan and I first
(27:44):
started making music together.
And let me tell you somethingthere was, you know, there was
this, this like month to liketwo months, where I was
recording a project which I willbe releasing in the next like
year or two.
But like I felt like that waslike the time and the moment
(28:09):
that I knew that I was meant tobe making music like my whole
life you had some specialmoments there, man, it was sick.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I just remember in the studio, numbness Dude, you
know like that moment, you knowlike I know.
You know exactly what I'mtalking about.
Yeah, man, just jammingtogether in the studio, such an
inspirational time really.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Dude, I'll never forget that and that will be
something that will continue tomotivate me forever in my life.
And it's cool because it's likeit's not just going to motivate
me to like make more music ordifferent music, not just going
to motivate me to like make moremusic or, um, different music,
but like, anytime like I come upagainst like a challenge, or
(28:53):
anytime I come up against ahurdle that I'm not sure about,
um, you know, I'll think aboutthat time and and and really be
able to and and it's.
It's gotten me that that momentitself has gotten me through a
lot of things in the near pastsome hurdles that I've been
trying to get over that I wasable to get over.
(29:16):
And I know that every artistout there has the ability to be
able to have those moments.
I think it's really importantto say that.
You know, be able to have thosemoments, you know I think it's
really important to say that andthere will be times where it
seems a lot.
(29:37):
You know it's a lot rougher.
Or you know you do feel likethe things around you just like
aren't lining up, but guess what?
Like when there's that timewhen they do line up, like it's
worth it for all the ones thatdon't.
I can promise that.
So I'm super grateful to havebeen able to, uh, you know, go
through, you know that with youand uh, yeah, I'm just, I'm
excited to be able to, uh, youknow, share that project itself
(29:59):
with the world.
And uh, dude, we're making likea documentary on it and we're
going gonna either like recreatethat scene or, you know, we are
going to have like a wholechapter that is dedicated to
like that, that month or two,that that I had there.
So I'm super excited for that,um.
(30:20):
But uh, let's talk a little bitabout like balance, okay, and,
um, you Balance Okay, and youknow how do you feel like you
know balance?
You know like mental health, um, let's see, you know, um, uh,
you know working out stuff likethat, uh, therapy, um, yeah, man
(30:56):
, give us a little bit on on howyou you keep balanced, cause I
feel like you actually do areally good job of of balancing
things.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
I try, um, no, balance, balance is really
really important in my life.
Um, I, I'm pretty busy.
I, balance is really reallyimportant in my life.
I'm pretty busy, everybody'sbusy, right, but I got a lot of
stuff going on, you know, withjust family, with being a father
(31:25):
, mytime career, kind of astay-at-home dad, at the same
time with that, the musicproject, stuff, working on
events, you know.
So I got a lot of stuff going onand for me, like one thing I
guess for me that's reallyimportant is like I got to make
sure I'm feeding every area ofmy life.
And the way I look at it, it'skind of all you know different
(31:47):
Venn diagrams, right, we havelike fatherhood, we have family,
we have music, we haverelationships, right, and all
these Venn diagrams kind of allcome together right, and if I'm
not feeding one of them, youknow if I'm not being a good
partner, if I'm not, you know,being present as a dad, if I'm
not, you know, sitting down atthe computer and making music, I
(32:11):
start to feel it like I Ialmost feel like physically ill
if I'm not like feeding one ofthese areas of my life.
Um, so I feel like for me,balance is almost it's become
like an organic way of being forme, um, and being able to
manage my time is reallyimportant.
But I've I've gotten reallygood at that over the years.
Production management hasgotten me really good at that.
Uh, you know I used to hasgotten me really good at that.
You know I used to likeproduction management.
(32:31):
I'd have every 10 minuteswritten out for a you know a
10-hour load-in of what had tohappen, right.
So I don't plan my days likethat, but I do plan my weeks out
and calendars and all of thatstuff.
It's really important.
And time blocking you know Itime block a lot, which is
allows me to, um, dedicatecertain time, like uh, you know
(32:52):
hours of my day to certainthings, right, like, if it's two
hours, uh, I try to give myselftwo hours every day to work on
music but, I, leave that openended, right.
It doesn't mean like I have tosit down and make music.
I could be DJing, I could bemaking beats.
If you know, as you know, as anartist, there's a lot of work
outside of the actual creatingprocess of just like media
(33:14):
management.
Um, you know, the other night Iwas sitting down putting
together my advances and mytechnical rider.
You know.
So for me it's like there's allthese things.
As long, as you know, with themusic project, if I'm doing
something like that, I try to dotwo hours every day of
something, right, even justsocial media, you know, of like
networking, trying to make newconnections.
(33:34):
Same thing with work, right,like I'm a designer at work, so
I have to manage my own workload.
You know, if I need to meet adeadline, you know I have to get
that done and I give myselftime blocks at work.
You know I have to get thatdone and I give myself time
blocks, uh, at work.
You know certain design days,certain consultation days.
So, um, balance is huge.
(33:56):
It's, it's really big and it'swhy I feel, you know, I feel
like I'm so on fire with mymusic stuff is because my life
feels balanced, like I mentionedearlier.
When I have, um, you know, abunch of things going on in my
head, it's so hard for me to getcreative because I just want to
fix, you know, all the problems.
Um, I heard one time fromanother artist if you have more
(34:18):
than six things you're juggling,thinking about in your mind,
there's no way you're going tobe able to be creative.
So just think about that's likejust like regular drug even
like it could be like I gotta dolaundry.
Oh, I got that ticket, I gottapay.
I need to go grocery shopping.
You know you have like just ifyou don't take care of your shit
, you're not going to be able tolike give yourself that time to
(34:42):
really dig in and create.
You know, and I feel, like thatwas kind of one of my barriers.
Um, before coming back into thecaterpaterpillar project, I
couldn't figure out like I'd sitdown and try to write music and
it just wasn't there.
I'm like, why, why, what'schanged, right?
Well, I just had so much goingon man.
I had to organize my life.
I had to get some stufftogether, you know, and get
(35:03):
ahead of things right.
Yeah, early in my, in my 20s, Ifelt like I was always very
like responsive, uh, and livedlife in a responsive way and
just kind of life came at me andI just took it um.
Now I'm very proactive, youknow, I'm goal oriented.
I I'm thinking, you know, notonly a year ahead, five year
(35:25):
ahead, five years ahead, 10years ahead.
Um, I think that's very.
It's been monumental for me atleast, realizing that that, like
, I kind of have to have a cleanslate if I want to dig in, you
know, to my creative endeavors,because that's when I get the
best energy, that's when I canget to my flow state like the
quickest yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Love that man.
You explained that very well.
Um, tell me a little bit.
I want you to uh dig a littlebit into fatherhood yeah, so you
know, mr silas um man tell me,tell me, what's it like to be a
dad and, uh, you know, maybesome of the ups and downs itself
.
Um, yeah, yeah, tell the peoplewhat it's like.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Being a father is awesome Just watching him grow
up.
My son's name's Silas, so justwatching Silas grow up and the
lights turn on in his eyes andthe personality develop, it's
truly a one-of-a-kind experience.
The love that I have for himand he has for me, it's just
(36:32):
like it melts my heart.
You know I have I got a softspot for my little guy.
It's been great man.
It's great to be able to teach.
You know, I know growing upthere are certain things that,
like I went through that youknow I wish could have went down
a little bit differently.
So I get that opportunity toprovide, you know, different
experiences and kind ofdifferent perspectives to my son
(36:55):
.
You know, he's, he's reallysmart, he's, uh, who's about to
be um five in April, but even so, you know, I sit down and have
like real conversations with himand uh, and just like being
able to guide somebody and help,you know, grow them and give
them the space to grow on theirown is truly magical, man.
I love it.
Um, and, truthfully, I never, Ididn't ever, think that I was
(37:18):
going to have kids.
Uh, truthfully, and, and it'slike I'm so, I'm like what was I
thinking?
This is like the best thingever.
Um it's been great man I meanoutside of just.
You know the love that I havefor him and being able to have
that experience he's reallyhelped me, you know, save my
life and clean my life up a bit.
I feel like Silas came at areally monumental time for me.
(37:43):
I I was going through a lot andand it was kind of a wake up
call and it's been great beingable to step up to the plate and
be such a good dad and just bepresent.
Man, being present is so big.
Just being able to hang out, bepresent, be a good role model
(38:04):
is awesome and I wouldn't tradeit for the world.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Love that dude, you said very well said, you should
be super proud of yourself, foryou know stepping up to the
plate, you know, and doingthings you know the right way.
And I will definitely have tosay that you know, since you've
had your son, you know I haveseen a huge, monumental shift in
(38:28):
just the way that you carryyourself, and not not saying
that that the way you carriedyourself before was bad.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Um but a little while .
Speaker 1 (38:39):
yeah, yeah, you know a little bit a little bit, um,
but no, really, man, you, um,you could see, you know, and
it's crazy, it's like you know,back to like your, your, your,
your project too, to kind of tieeverything in there.
You know, like you, your, your,your, your project too, to kind
of tie everything in there.
You know, like you're you, youhad to go through that
metamorphosis.
You know, and I would say, likebinaurals, like that pre-dad,
(39:00):
you know, and, and caterpillaris that that, that post-dad?
Now you know, and, uh, it'sreally important to you know, be
able to take control of thoseopportunities in your life and
those shifts that occur.
You know, and, and not just youknow when, when one chapter
ends, you know another onebegins and it usually has a
(39:24):
title.
You know, and you have tofigure out what that thing's
going to say.
You know.
Well, I mean in one thing too,you know.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Well, I mean, and one thing too, you know, I've
talked to other parents, right,and a lot of times you always
hear oh, you know, because I hadkids I couldn't follow my
dreams, or I'm too busy, and Ithrow all that shit out the
window, man, like, if you wantto go after something, you can
do it.
It doesn't, you know, I don'twant to, whatever excuse it is.
That's what it is, it's anexcuse.
(39:49):
It's hard, it's not easy.
I'm not saying it is, it's achallenge and you got to work
for it.
But if you want it, you can getit.
You know, and I've spent, youknow, the last four or five
years of my life restructuringmy entire life to get back to
music, which is my passion, man,I mean without it, without
(40:10):
performing like I feel it, Ifeel this mean without it,
without performing like I feelit, I feel this void, you know,
and being able to share musicand perform is something I love
so much and I, uh, I don't thinkthat being a father should stop
me from doing that.
You know, I'm still a reallygood dad, um, and still able to
show up for my son all the time,but I had to, you know,
restructure my life.
To do that, and I want toanybody else out there.
(40:32):
If you're going throughanything, it doesn't just have
to be, you know, um, parentingor fatherhood.
You know these challenges.
Everybody has challenges in yourlife, man.
But if you want to do something, you can do it.
You can go after it.
Um, you got to put a plantogether and then you got to
just take the first step.
Sometimes you don't know whatthe second step is going to be.
(40:52):
Put a plan together, take thefirst step and trust the process
.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Love that, love that.
Did you mention the Ikigai, theIkigai.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Oh yeah, so the Ikigai is the concept that I was
kind of talking about with theVenn diagrams.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Gotcha.
So Ikigai is a.
I wanted to learn more.
It's a.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Japanese concept.
Um, that's really about balanceand kind of what we were
touching on here, um, and it'sabout how you know how to find
joy in your life, right, I thinkit's very natural that all of
us, you know, we might have ajob or professional career, we
have family, you might havesomething you're passionate
about, whether it's a creativeendeavor, or you know
(41:32):
skateboarding, snowboarding, youknow whatever it is Right, and
so we all have these differentareas of our life, and that's
kind of where I was getting ontalking about feeding each one
of those areas.
You don't want to neglect any ofthose areas or it kind of so.
Think about you being in thecenter Right and all these Venn,
it kind of so.
Think about you being in thecenter right and all these venn
diagrams kind of connecting, andyou know the center is like
(41:54):
you're, you're at peace, yourjoy, your happiness, you know,
your love.
Right, if you stop feeding that, you know, a piece of that venn
diagram breaks off.
So a piece of you, you knowit's like I was talking about.
I felt like when I'm notperforming or sharing music, I
have a void, void, right, I'mnot feeding one of my passions,
I'm not feeding one of my youknow the foundational pillars of
(42:15):
my life, you know.
So that's kind of what thatconcept's about.
And you know, I feel like themajor theme that we're talking
on today again is that balanceand being able to structure
everything you know in a waythat you can feed all of your
passions and areas of your life.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Doesn't Futuristic the rapper have an album that's
titled that as well, are you?
Speaker 2 (42:44):
familiar, I think.
So I haven't heard the album,but I'm familiar.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
I've heard that term before and I think that was
where it was.
And then what else was it?
What's it called the Blue Zones, which is the places in the
world where there's the mostamount of centenarians, which
are people who live 100 years orolder, and I think it's just
(43:12):
japanese.
Yeah, right, yeah, it was injapanese culture.
Like that is the, like one ofthe pillars that helps them
really live that long, you know,so like it's literally like
proof that it will make yourlife better and longer.
(43:34):
I feel like maybe we kind oflose track of that over time,
and being able to kind of keepall of those things present and
you know, kind of, you know,have them change as well.
You know, it's really importantfor you to kind of assess those
(43:58):
things as you go on, you know,and take that time to yourself
and be like, okay, you know what, like these are the new
diagrams, you know, or these arethe new circles of my life, you
know.
And maybe sometimes you know,or these are the new circles of
my life, and maybe sometimes oneor two of those circles are
going to float away, but at thesame time there's going to be
(44:20):
other ones that are coming intoyour life and figuring out how
to I think you said it the bestway how to feed those things.
But man, dude, I appreciate youso much for coming through man.
I got something for you, though,dude.
I appreciate you so much forcoming through, man, I got
something, though.
I got something for you, thoughreal quick.
I got your old self.
Wait a second, who is this?
This is the oh my goodness.
(44:41):
This is pre-binaural.
This is oh my gosh.
Okay, listen.
First off, I got to say you'vebecome an awesome man and human
being and you do live you liveda pretty wild lifestyle.
Right now, you're living itwild in a different way.
(45:04):
I'll tell you that.
But yeah, your old self orsorry, your new self is sitting
next to me here.
I'm going to give him the phoneand he's going to chat with you
for a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
What do you got to tell him?
Where are you at, fool?
Nope, that checks out.
Nah.
So, man, all right, let me talk, okay.
(45:38):
Well, I want to tell yousomething.
Uh, I'm here on the respectingperspectives podcast.
My man, awol, got a hold of yousomehow.
Uh, I want to let you know, man, things are gonna be okay, it's
gonna work out.
Stay consistent, be yourself,follow your dreams and, and I
promise, stuff's going to workout.
It might be a little roughright now, you might not see
that, but it's going to work out.
Man, all right, I'll let youget back to it.
(46:01):
Buddy, rip it up.
Love you, love you love you,love you, buddy.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Peace, all right, love you bro.
Listen to everything he saidand maybe you know, do, do, do,
keep doing some wild stuff,because you, you really do have
to have some fun throughout yourlife.
All right, peace, dope, dude,dope.
I got one more segment for us.
Okay, we got rapid fire here.
Oh yeah, rapid fire.
(46:27):
Okay, all right, so you'regonna have to answer these as
quick as possible.
All right, okay, all right, offthe cuff, off the dome like a
freestyle.
Okay, ten seconds on the clock.
Would you rather have theability to fly or read minds,
fly.
What's the best?
(46:48):
Ice cream topping, coolHardshell chocolate?
Oh, oh, there you go if you hadto move someplace you've been to
on vacation, where would it be?
Switzerland, somewhere?
Speaker 2 (47:00):
you haven't been on vacation somewhere.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
I haven't been on vacation if you had to move
there if I, if I had to movethere, australia.
There you go.
Hey, mate, all right, explainhow you met your best friend um,
let's see here music, music forsure, yeah nice, nice.
(47:22):
If you could rename your familypet, what would it be?
Uh, uh, cheech alright, let'ssee here what's the most
important thing your parents dofor you just show up for me, man
, yeah, show up for me be goodgrandparents have you ever
(47:44):
cheated on a test?
yes, I have.
We don't have to dig into that.
Alright, the family put you incharge of burying a time capsule
.
What would go in it?
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Time capsule, a USB with all my music on it.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
There you go, nice, nice.
Which member of the family doyou think you know the least
about?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Let's see here my cousin Nick Okay reach out.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Nick, do you think it's okay to eat food that fell
on the floor?
Yeah, five-second rule.
Five seconds, baby.
Come on On a scale of one toten.
How strict are your parents?
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Scale of one to ten.
How strict are my parents now?
Uh, I don't know.
Five.
Which one's more strict?
Speaker 1 (48:36):
uh, my dad.
Okay, what was the last thingthat made you lol?
Speaker 2 (48:42):
uh, ryan bradshaw on the on the podcast.
Nice, nice, your last podcastguest, yeah what was it?
Speaker 1 (48:49):
what was it?
Speaker 2 (48:50):
oh, just him on the phone with his old self.
Yeah, nice, nice, that's afunny segment.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
Nice, All right.
If you could only celebrateyour favorite holiday or your
birthday each year, which onewould you pick?
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Holiday, my holiday.
Do I have to pick the holidaytoo?
Yeah, halloween.
Speaker 1 (49:08):
Nice All the time.
This yeah Halloween, nice Allthe time.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
This is a good one.
Do you like clowns?
I don't know, man.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
We're kind of iffy on clowns.
Yeah, clowns are, we're okay, Ifeel like clowns are getting
popular right now.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
It's kind of it's freaking me out a little bit
this is like a hot clown.
Yeah, it's kind of scary to metoo.
All right, meet you.
All right.
Have you ever picked your noseand eaten the booger?
No, but silas, though.
Sorry, dude, didn't mean to putyou.
Put you, yeah, come on, youknow it happens, it happens.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
What sound does water make when it's coming out of
the faucet?
Imitate it all right, telleveryone a new fact you learned
today.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
New fact I learned today.
Huh, I learned man.
I really didn't do much today.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Come on, you learned something.
You had to learn something.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Ah, okay, I learned about the podcast studio and how
that's set up.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
There you go.
How many cameras do you need toget it done?
Good answer.
How many cameras right?
Did you know about this one?
Seven?
Yeah, over here.
Wait, let him get it.
Let him get it All right,that's slick, isn't it?
Which actor should play you ina movie about your life?
Which actor?
Speaker 2 (50:34):
should play you in a movie about your life.
Who was the guy who played?
He was in Damn, I'm blanking, Ican't think of it.
What movie?
It was a show.
I can't remember his name.
He kind of looked like MacMiller.
His name is, I think, fez inthe show.
You know who I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Oh what.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Euphoria in that show Euphoria.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Yeah, okay, all right , that guy.
Yeah, name something you lostand still haven't found.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Something I've lost and still haven't found.
I lost this glass pendant awhile ago and I have no idea
where it went.
I still can't find it.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Okay, you're going to have to look for that.
Who would be the worst personin the world to be stuck on an
elevator with?
Speaker 2 (51:18):
A clown.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
A clown.
All right, dude, you killedthose Awesome.
Hey, do you have anylast-minute thoughts that you
want to give the guests who arelistening here any last-minute
inspiration?
Yeah, just anything that youwant to give the guests who are
listening here any last minuteinspiration.
Or yeah, just say any anythingthat you want to leave everybody
with.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Sure man, you know this.
This podcast is calledrespecting perspectives, and I
think life really is all aboutthe perspective and the lens
that you look at it through.
Something monumental I'velearned in my life is just love
your life, and that's not like,oh, I have the best life, I love
(51:57):
it.
No, actively love your life,you know.
Make your life something worthbeing passionate about.
For me, I had a lot of trialsand tribulations and I learned
that the power of perspective isso important and the way that
you look at challenges andsituations, the way you look at
wins, the way you handle thesethings, it's all about
(52:19):
perspective.
So, keep an open perspective,keep an honest perspective and
truthfully learn to love yourlife.
You know, I can really andhonestly say I do love my life
and that's because I, it'sfilled with passion, I do things
that, uh, that mean somethingto me and and I do, I have
(52:40):
relationships that aremeaningful, you know, and I try
to do things with purpose.
Um, and that's you know I Isuggest that because it brings
the best happiness really, andgives you the opportunity to
really enjoy life and live it,not just exist.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Love that man.
Great final thought there.
One last thing I also want tosay is we have something called
I don't know if I told you aboutthis, but we have something
called the RespectingPerspectives Hotline and people
can give that a call.
And, yeah, let us know if youhave like a show coming up or
you know you're going throughlike a challenge or something
(53:21):
that maybe you know you wantsome feedback on.
You know, maybe you have somemusic coming out in the near
future.
Yeah, the number is443-477-4922.
Okay, 443-477-4922.
(53:43):
And in one of the near shows inthe future we'll go through
some of those calls and yeah,you know, we'll kind of maybe
just help guide you in a way orjust be there to, uh, you know,
to support you in any way.
Um, do you have any shows oranything uh in the summer that
you want to let people knowabout?
Speaker 2 (54:04):
yeah, yeah, I just dropped a show.
Uh, on friday, a showannouncement I'm really excited
about I'm going to be doing ashow with my good buddies, uncle
Kunkel's One Grand Band, onApril 4th at the 8x10.
They're going to be playingtheir headline and playing two
sets and I'll be closing out thenight with some fun dance music
.
Got some other stuff in theworks.
(54:24):
I don't know if I'm allowed tosay yet, but I will be out at
some festivals this summer.
For sure.
If you want to follow the musicproject, please go to at
Caterpillar C-A-T-A-P-I-L-L-A.
Dot music on Instagram, onSpotify, soundcloud it's
C-A-T-A-P-I-L-L-A CaterpillarNice.
(54:48):
So follow the project, checkout the new music.
I'm going to be dropping some.
I got some three or four newsongs singles.
They're going to be coming outperiodically the next couple of
months, yeah, and we'll beannouncing more shows, too,
coming out.
So come out and party.
The shows have been awesome,man.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
For sure, dude, the energy has been really great
Killing it.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
I feel like, coming from the intention that I'm
bringing to shows, I'm comingjust from a very raw, real place
and I feel like I'm a littlebit on fire right now.
I'm trying to share that andget everybody turned up, man.
It's that we need positiveenergy right now.
We need soul, so I'm happy toshare.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Nice, I see it, I feel it, man Well, hey, thanks
for being here, brother.
Thank you for having me, yeah,man, so excited for what you
have in store for the future,what we have in store for the
future together and for thelisteners out there, what y'all
have in store for yourself.
So thanks for tuning in forthis episode of the Respecting
(56:00):
Perspectives podcast podcast.
We'll see you on the flip side.
yo respecting perspectives crew.
You know, I got one of my man,one of my main men, right here.
Okay, me and Ryan go back andgosh.
We've been through so manydifferent evolutions of
friendship and musicianship.
(00:35):
I got Ryan Delcher here, who isa DJ producer, engineer, a
father.
You know the list could go on,okay, but, man, welcome dude,
I'm so excited to have you hereand just tell the people kind of
(01:00):
maybe give them just a littlebit of like, maybe like where
you grew up and like you know,just some stuff like that, to
kind of let some stuff like thatto give them a little bit of a
background.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, absolutely Well .
First off, man, thank you forhaving me out on the Respecting
Perspectives podcast.
It's been really cool seeingall of this come into fruition.
It's always an inspiration whenI see friends following their
dreams and actually executing onthem, so big love to that,
Thanks man A little bit aboutmyself.
(01:29):
I'm from Baltimore.
I grew up in Baltimore County,really kind of lived all over
the place up and down the EastCoast.
I've lived out in Californiafor a little bit in my 20s so
I've traveled around.
I got a little bit of culturalvariety from moving around a
little bit.
But yeah, so I'm from Baltimore.
(01:50):
Recently, as of recently, I'vebeen really back into my music
project, caterpillar, as MrAwell over here was mentioning.
So I've been really heavy ondoing that recently, making new
music performing.
I'm really trying to just builda community around drum and
bass and music I love Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Love that man, love that.
Why don't you tell everybodywhat are some of your early
inspirations as far as musicgoes itself, because you're a
very, uh, you know, multi-genre,uh, individual.
Um, you know what were likesome of maybe like the early
like cds ryan and I were justtalking about, like some of the
(02:32):
old cds that he had I think hesaid he had like the sum 41, uh,
m&m classics blink 182 and Iwas like dude, I was like you,
just you hit, you, hit him youhit them.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
That's my CD wallet right there in the bottom of my
car man.
No, and I used to love makingmixtapes, man.
I really think that was myfirst stab at DJing, like little
10-year-old me putting togethermixtapes and burning CDs off
LimeWire.
But no man, some of my earlyinspirations.
I'm big into hip-hop, so Iloved like 50 cent, snoop, dogg,
(03:06):
dr dre, uh, eminem anybody.
On aftermath, I love tribecalled quest.
You know some of the old schoolboom bap stuff.
Uh, also loved blink-182, some41, some of the.
You know the classics youmentioned limp, biscuit, um, you
know, I was really all over theplace.
I uh.
As as electronic music goes, Ifeel like my first introduction
(03:29):
was probably the Prodigy Justhearing their music in movies.
I was like what is this?
Just the high energy drums andstuff.
That's kind of what started topique my interest in electronic
music really and I got intolistening to Crystal Method and
at an early age that's reallywhere the electronic stuff came
(03:49):
in.
And then when I got to collegeit was all about bass music when
I went to University ofMaryland.
So I was really close to DC,got introduced to the DC music
scene and really fell in love.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
How old were you when you, you kind of were
introduced to like bass music?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
uh itself um, probably like my senior year of
high school, I went to my firstlike rave with my cousin.
Um, it was out in like pasadena, in the woods and you had to
follow these little likeblinking lights a mile back into
this trail and then it justopened up to just chaos,
organized chaos, and she broughtme around.
(04:30):
She was older than me andbrought me around to some of
those events.
So that's really where I got ataste.
And there's lots of drum andbass, so that's where a lot of
the drum and bass, inspirationand influence comes from.
And it was just, it was like awhole nother world.
You know, I I will neverremember just like walking into
that environment, like where amI?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I need to be here, this is right if you, if you
could like describe it though,like, if you could describe
maybe like what was, um, youknow, kind of maybe like either
going through your head, causeI'll kind of I'll kind of start
with, like, when I wasintroduced to bass music and you
know, I I remember like feelinglike this sense of like wow,
(05:13):
like there's so many otherthings out there that like I
don't know about, you know, andit really opened my mind to just
all of the things that theworld has to offer.
And you know, it's so cool, Imean, we're so lucky to be able
to, you know, experience likeall of these.
(05:34):
You know different things, andI do remember, just like the
community aspect, you know of ittoo.
It just felt like everybody wasthere.
You know.
For the music itself, you knowof it too, it just felt like
everybody was there.
Um, you know, for the musicitself, you know no, I'm you
touched on.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
you know my.
The thing that keeps me comingback is the community within the
live music scene.
Um, like I mentioned too, Imean I've traveled all over, but
the live music scene here onthe east coast and the
mid-atlanticantic is reallyspecial between the electronic
scene and the jam band scenethat I'm very involved in and
supportive of.
But again back to your questionso how did that make me feel?
(06:14):
I mean, man, I was enamored, Iwas infatuated with this.
I had never seen the colors orthat style of music or really
the energy.
It was the energy that I waslike whoa, this energy is
infectious, and that's reallykind of what took hold of me,
really, just that experience ofjust feeling like a part of
(06:38):
something too.
I feel like dance music.
You're moving and you'resharing, um, you know those
moments with people on the dancefloor and, and you know, you
really get to connect withpeople yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
What were some of uh.
Let's see here I remember thisis a throwback here what were
some of the uh venues that you,you know remember from from like
back in the day that kind oflike helps you, you know, kind
of get introduced to like someof these things, do you remember
?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, Bourbon Street for sure was one.
Bourbon Street.
Rest in peace.
Paradox also rest in peace.
Those were two big ones that Iwas going to a lot Out in DC.
We used to do stuff at DC Eagle.
I used to go there, you know.
And then there's there's uhvenues still today that you know
(07:28):
were early in my career, thatare around um the eight by ten,
always soundstage, um, it'salways done cool stuff.
But for sure, one venue Ireally miss, I'd say, is
probably paradox.
Paradox was crazy.
They always had like five roomsof music and all different,
like didn't matter what youliked, there was something for
you there.
Um that that place was reallyspecial.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
It was a cool spot, for sure, for sure let's talk a
little bit about productionitself and like kind of you know
how did you start making otherthan you know the?
Uh, you know the line wire burnand stuff like that.
But like how did you start, um,you know your production
(08:10):
journey itself?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I guess I really started with djing.
I bought a kid.
It was when I lived out incalifornia.
Um, I was really kind ofworking on myself.
I was new in recovery when Iwas out there and I picked it.
It up as, like you know, as Imentioned, how passionate I was
about the bass music scene, Iwas like I want to do more, I
want to be a part of you know,and I want to do this.
(08:32):
So got a controller and Istarted kind of DJing and
figuring out how to blenddifferent tracks, figuring out
the styles of music that I liked.
And then I formally did somemusic training with this program
out in california and and gotinto production, um, and and I
really started like for myprocess even I'll get into it a
(08:53):
little bit, yeah please um oneof the easiest things that and
the coolest things that I wastaught was like song mapping.
Right, so there's a certainstyle of song that you like, you
take that, bounce it out, putit into your doll and then kind
of recreate it in your own style, right, so you take the first
eight bars and learn how to makethat intro.
Um, and that really acceleratedme and being able to learn how
(09:15):
to write my own music, just withsong structure, um, figuring
out how to use certain soundsand certain effects to create
energy.
You know, yeah, um, so that'sreally how it started, just kind
of doing song map stuff.
Uh, I started making hip-hopbeats.
I, I love hip-hop, so I stilldo that today.
Um, sent you some beats beforewe've got some stuff going um,
(09:37):
so really, you know, I and Istill today like I, I make all
different types of music.
I don't just make drum and bass, not just dubstep, I make
everything I've made musicthat's cinematic and stuff.
I don't release a lot of thisstuff, but it's just the actual
creation part I'm verypassionate about and it's a good
release for me.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
But yeah, that's kind of how I got into it.
Yeah, you should be very proudof your musical versatility.
You know, um, it's sometimes it, uh, gosh, sometimes it takes a
little bit of, um, you know,practice to really understand
and figure out what you like um,what you don't like um, and uh,
(10:20):
you know it really it's achallenge too, because it's like
, how can you try, and you know,separate yourself from like all
the music you know that's outthere and how can you really, I
mean, I struggle with thismyself as a musician, you know,
really trying to find my musicalidentity, you know, and, gosh,
(10:43):
I mean, this is is, I think, aperfect place to kind of segue.
Um, you know, for you, uh, youknow, you, you started out, you
know, one, under a different, uh, a different name, right, um,
yeah, the binaural project yeahso.
So tell people a little bitabout maybe like that transition
um itself and um you know what,maybe thwarted that to happen?
(11:07):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, the Binaural Project was great.
I had a lot of fun with that.
It was the first time I tookmusic professionally and was
able to travel, you know, andplay my music in different
cities, and I loved it.
But, man, we had thisconversation before and we were
talking about how importantbranding is.
Well, and I didn't do myresearch before I picked that
name and, man, I mean BinauralBeats, it's a meditation
(11:32):
technique, right?
So if you go on Apple Music,spotify, there's thousands and
thousands of Binaural Beatsstuff.
So it was so hard to find mymusic, which was one part you
know, a big puzzle piece in therebrand music, which was one
part, you know, a big puzzlepiece in in the rebrand um,
something you know, if, if youare thinking about starting a
music project or anythingcreative, do your research, uh,
you know, and check that stuff,um, so that was, that was kind
(11:55):
of one thing, and then anotherreally big thing is for me is,
uh, being a father.
You know, I, um, my son wasborn in 2020 and that was right
around the time that I wastaking a hiatus from music and
performing.
Um, obviously, just because I,I, you know, I became a father
and I wanted to spend timelearning what that was about and
(12:17):
and starting that journey.
So I took a couple years off.
You know, I still made music,but I wasn't really performing,
and uh and dove into family life, you know.
And and kind music, but Iwasn't really performing, and uh
and dove into family life, youknow.
And and kind of started torestructure my life and and I
really went before I got backinto the rebrand and the
caterpillar project.
I wanted to find that passion Ihad when I started making music
(12:38):
, that passion I had when Ifirst walked into my first rave.
You know like I wanted thatfire back.
I didn't want to push anything,um, and I feel like I finally,
you know I got it right.
I restructured my life.
I uh, I got a new job where Iwork remote so I'm able to stay
at home with my son andhomeschool him.
Also, I'm able to work on musicand stuff, um, so I really kind
(13:02):
of restructured my whole lifeand I got that fire back and I'm
ready to go.
You know, I feel so good rightnow and I feel so passionate
about my music project and theperformances and the shows that
I've been playing at this year,and you know.
So it was to me.
It was very natural, right likethe break was was very organic
and that time for me and myfamily, and wanted to build that
(13:24):
foundation so that you, youknow, I was rock solid.
So when I go do this stuffagain, you know I don't have to
worry, right Like I don't.
For me, if I have, you know,chores or something I need to do
, I can't get creative.
I have to have like a cleanhouse, clean slate, and that's
when my flow state, that's whenmy creative juices flow.
You know the passion, right, soit feels good to be back there.
(13:48):
But that was definitely, youknow, a couple of other factors
as well with the rebrand.
The other thing is, um, I'vedefinitely changed flavor as far
as my live sets.
I've been playing a lot morehigh energy drum and bass stuff
and ukg stuff, um, so that'sanother big change too.
With the Binaural Project, Iwas doing more dubstep and like
(14:09):
halftime stuff and more glitchhop stuff.
So it just felt right to makethe change and I really do like
the new name.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So yeah, was it something that happened like
overnight, where you like madethat decision that it was going
to happen, like made thatdecision that it was going to
happen, or was it like, did youneed some time to really like,
kind of, you know, make that,make that decision?
Because I'm sure there's a lotof other artists out there who
are kind of like, you know, inbetween, um, you know, not even
(14:42):
like monikers, but like theenergy that they're like giving
to the music itself.
Um, you know, was thatsomething that that took a long
time, or was it kind of justlike a flip switch that went off
?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
No, it was definitely something I marinated on for a
while.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I thought about branding, there was some other,
it was kind of a process andreally there is a song by Royce,
the Five Nine and Eminem andthere's a line in here that
talks about before you praise abutterfly, don't shit on a
caterpillar.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Oh shoot, oh shoot.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
The whole idea of the Caterpillar brand is respecting
the process, respecting thejourney.
A lot of people these days,special social media, it's all
like flashy games and you know,the get rich quick videos and
that kind of stuff, which I justfelt like for me personally
that that didn't work.
(15:40):
You know, I've tried that inother areas of my life and I've
learned, man, that it's like.
It's about the journey, it'sabout that process, the
metamorphosis you know.
So that's really kind of wherethe name comes from.
And yeah, no, but I definitelyit wasn't an overnight thing, it
was something I kind ofmarinated on for some time and,
(16:01):
you know, even drawing up thelogo, like I drew it out and had
it for, you know, months beforeI even released it, even
released it just to see doesthis sit with me, does this
represent the identity that I'mgoing to go with?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
What about social media itself and the rebranding?
Was that a bigger or a smallerchallenge than you expected?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I talked to a lot of friends and other artists.
There's a few things right,like with my musical platforms,
with the music I had released.
I had released with a fewlabels under Binaural.
So I really was like I don'tknow what to do.
Should I start a new SoundCloud, should I not?
I ended up just starting newplatforms and it's a little bit
(16:48):
of a challenge, cause I got tobuild back.
I had a decent following on my,on my old platforms, you know,
but I I feel like for me,starting fresh was was what I
needed to do and what I wantedto do.
You know, you can still findthe binaural music out there.
I didn't take it all down, butI just kind of wanted to have a
clean break and start fresh.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, nice, I love that.
And, gosh, it's like you putthis image out there and it's
out in the world forever, andit's like it really is never too
late for you to reinventyourself.
No know, reinvent yourself, youknow, and I feel like, um, you
(17:32):
know, there's probably somelisteners out there who are kind
of, maybe like you know, um, inbetween projects right now.
Um, I've seen it.
I've seen some artists handleit, um, in the most gracious
ways, and then I've seen some,uh, other artists not do as well
with it, but, um, I'll give youprops on, you know, handling it
the right way and also, kind oflike taking your time with it
(17:55):
itself.
You know, and like, not likeyou know, forcefully, like
making it happen.
You know, you, really I thinkyou know you yourself and some
other artists that I can thinkof off the top of my head do a
really good job of that and,yeah, you should be proud of
yourself for stuff like that.
Thanks, man.
Yeah, man, thank you.
(18:15):
Let's see here what about.
Let's talk a little bit aboutproduction itself, kind of like
how you got into that, theevents, um, maybe kind of like
the meat and potatoes of it andum, kind of like, you know what
helped you?
Um, let's see here what helpedyou kind of create some of the
(18:39):
things that you're going to talkabout, uh, in the near future,
uh, and and projects that you'regoing to talk about.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Sure, yeah, um, yeah.
So I guess for me with eventsit really all started with
promoting.
I worked with a couple localpromotion companies, you know
just doing stuff on social media, putting flyers up around town,
and then that kind of evolvedinto doing some artists
hospitality work and like artisttranspo work, so you know,
(19:07):
picking artists up from theairport, getting them to the
venue, the hotel, that kind ofstuff, um, making sure you know
riders are fulfilled in thegreen room.
So kind of that's where I got myfeet wet.
Um then I went to a uh, audioengineering school called the
sheffield institute for therecording arts, um, where I was
formally trained as an audioengineer right Right out of
(19:30):
school, and during school I gotan internship at a recording
studio called Line Up Room.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
That's where I met you.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
That's where AWOL and I kind of really built a
relationship, got to worktogether creatively and
professionally.
So I started doing that.
And then I started working witha production company as well,
um, and worked my way up theproduction company.
I started as a stage hand uh,building stage decks out in the
rain and it starts right.
(19:57):
Yeah, man, um did that for abouta year, slowly worked my way up
to uh production manager, youknow, and I did that through
just like showing upconsistently, showing up early,
being very organized.
I had an act for leadership, um, you know.
So then I got to uh.
I got some really coolopportunities.
I've been able to work on somereally cool events.
(20:18):
I've been able to uh inprevious years I've been able to
provide production at baltimorepride, which is a huge 30, 40
000 person event here in thecity.
Yeah, um worked on summer fest,which is a huge 30,000, 40,000
person event here in the city.
Worked on Summerfest, which isout in Carroll County.
It's about an 8,000 personevent.
I have also a company party fora purpose with my partner, my
(20:38):
man, will Gibbons, who we justhad.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yes, on your podcast, Mr Gibbons.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yes, sir.
So shout out Mr Gibbons, buthim and I, the past couple of of
years, have had the opportunityto do a lot of really cool
stuff.
We've, uh, we threw teller festat patterson park, yeah, um, we
did some work with the ramblefestival.
We've also thrown our own shows.
We did some, uh, like an afterparty series kind of paired up
with, um, some all good shows,um.
(21:04):
So I've done a ton of eventwork.
I love it.
I'm very passionate about it.
Um, I would still, like, I think, be doing that professionally
had I'm not, um, you know,became a father.
But with the production life,like, really, it's just, it's a
lot of time commitment, man,anybody who's in that industry.
So you got to be crazy.
It's.
It's so much work, um,especially on a large scale.
(21:26):
It's so much work and so muchplanning.
So, shout out, much love, scale, it's so much work and so much
planning.
So shout out and much love toeverybody doing events and
planning events.
And still in the game and inthe grind, man, because it's not
for the weak-hearted You've gotto take losses and you've got
to keep it moving.
And it's tough.
It's tough to want to carry on,but I love it, I love
(21:47):
production.
I love helping people.
My favorite thing is somebodywill come to me with an idea and
then we make it happen With theRespecting Perspectives release
party that we had together.
Man, that was such a coolexperience for you and I to
connect and work together.
Yeah, I mean, andrew came to mewith a vision and we made it
(22:08):
happen.
I mean I even designed it outin Vectorworks the little 3D
model before we had the event.
And it was a lot of planning,we did some rehearsals, but it
was great, man, being able tohelp that dream and that vision
come to life, and seeing thatand even just seeing your
parents.
It was awesome.
That to me, that's the magic ofevent throwing and event
(22:29):
curation.
It's that, you know, I was.
It's like that glimmer, right,like even when I would work
production and I'm working 20hours, right.
There'd be that moment whereI'd walk out into the crowd and
be like man this is magic.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
You know when it all comes together, it's magic, uh,
and it's.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
It's tough, it's like it's very important.
I think in life, even you knowto remember those moments right.
Life gets really hectic andyou're doing all this stuff.
You got to just take a secondand be like man, this is, this
is awesome, this is magic, youknow yeah you know what I will,
uh, I want to uh elaborate alittle on that.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Um, the show itself, dude, we killed it so, so proud
of of both of us and everyonewho was involved.
And you know that was the firstopportunity that I had to, you
know, make something like that,a dream like that, come true,
you know, and I pray that everyartist out there, you know,
(23:29):
follows their dream enough to beable to get to see something
like that come to life.
Man, because, you know, atfirst it was daunting, it was
scary.
I'm like I remember calling himand being like dude, like is
this even possible?
Like, like, how do people dothis?
You know, especially being anartist where, like you know, you
(23:50):
don't know all the logistics ofthose things and you know,
you're obviously working with,like a particular budget, you
know, and, uh, I think one ofthe cool things, uh, one of the
things that really helped was,um, what we did was, uh, people
would, instead of buying anactual ticket, they would buy a
(24:11):
piece of merch, you know, andthat was their ticket and, um,
you know, it was cool to be ableto like have everybody in a
wall merch, you know, just kindof like, you know ganged up and
um, yeah, and then we kind of ittook a few meetings, him and I
kind of sitting down and reallykind of like figuring out the
(24:32):
logistics of everything.
Like you know, the speakersthat we're going to have, the
venue itself that we're going tohave, are we going to have food
or not, are we going to have,you know, alcohol or not?
You know the visualization,yeah, just so much stuff that is
really involved in a show thatyou don't think about.
You know the visualization,yeah, just so much stuff that is
really involved in a show thatyou don't think about.
(24:53):
You know, and I thought it waspretty cool because I then it
really helped me understand thatlike it's really not at all
like daunting, it's just.
You know your organizationskills, you know you do have to
stay constantly motivated, um,but if the music is means that
(25:14):
much to you, like to see it cometo life, like, like you said,
like it's that moment, that ahamoment, where you're like in the
middle of the crowd and you'rejust like man, like this is,
this is really happening, youknow, and and like just to like,
just to be able to say that youdid it.
You know what I mean.
It's going to be cool later onin life when I have some young
(25:38):
ones running around to be ableto be like Baby AWOLs.
Yeah right, baby AWOLs, be likeyo.
Hopefully that will alsoinspire Actually I know it has.
I know some people have reachedout to me like, yeah, you did
your own show.
That really helped me realizethat I could do it myself.
(25:58):
I'm really excited to be ableto do it again in the near
future.
So y'all will be seeing andhearing some information on that
in the coming months, becauseafter the first time I was like,
personally, that's just thetype of person I am and I know
(26:19):
Ryan is the same way.
Once you do one thing, the nexttime you really do, your goal
and your aim is to make itbetter, you know, than the last
one.
And better can mean it doesn'tnecessarily mean that, like more
people have to be there, but Ithink what better means is like
are you a better person?
(26:40):
Like when you go into thatprocess?
You know and and I know forsure, um, luckily on on all
cylinders, like I do feel likemy music is getting better.
I do feel like my attitudeitself, you know, with, like the
industry itself is gettingbetter.
You know my let's see here.
(27:01):
You know the inspiration, theinspirational factors that I
have now to give people are, youknow, are just like, are
heightened, you know, and it'sit's more like it's just proof,
you know, it's proof that youknow, anything really can happen
as long as you, you know, putyour put your mind to it.
(27:21):
But I do want to also speakabout, you know, lineup room and
you know shouts to BrandonLackey out there.
He's probably on the boardsright now at lineup room and you
know this.
That's a studio that is down inthe middle of Baltimore on
Saratoga Street, and you knowthat is where Ryan and I first
(27:44):
started making music together.
And let me tell you somethingthere was, you know, there was
this, this like month to liketwo months, where I was
recording a project which I willbe releasing in the next like
year or two.
But like I felt like that waslike the time and the moment
(28:09):
that I knew that I was meant tobe making music like my whole
life you had some specialmoments there, man, it was sick.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I just remember in the studio, numbness Dude, you
know like that moment, you knowlike I know.
You know exactly what I'mtalking about.
Yeah, man, just jammingtogether in the studio, such an
inspirational time really.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Dude, I'll never forget that and that will be
something that will continue tomotivate me forever in my life.
And it's cool because it's likeit's not just going to motivate
me to like make more music ordifferent music, not just going
to motivate me to like make moremusic or, um, different music,
but like, anytime like I come upagainst like a challenge, or
(28:53):
anytime I come up against ahurdle that I'm not sure about,
um, you know, I'll think aboutthat time and and and really be
able to and and it's.
It's gotten me that that momentitself has gotten me through a
lot of things in the near pastsome hurdles that I've been
trying to get over that I wasable to get over.
(29:16):
And I know that every artistout there has the ability to be
able to have those moments.
I think it's really importantto say that.
You know, be able to have thosemoments, you know I think it's
really important to say that andthere will be times where it
seems a lot.
(29:37):
You know it's a lot rougher.
Or you know you do feel likethe things around you just like
aren't lining up, but guess what?
Like when there's that timewhen they do line up, like it's
worth it for all the ones thatdon't.
I can promise that.
So I'm super grateful to havebeen able to, uh, you know, go
through, you know that with youand uh, yeah, I'm just, I'm
excited to be able to, uh, youknow, share that project itself
(29:59):
with the world.
And uh, dude, we're making likea documentary on it and we're
going gonna either like recreatethat scene or, you know, we are
going to have like a wholechapter that is dedicated to
like that, that month or two,that that I had there.
So I'm super excited for that,um.
(30:20):
But uh, let's talk a little bitabout like balance, okay, and,
um, you Balance Okay, and youknow how do you feel like you
know balance?
You know like mental health, um, let's see, you know, um, uh,
you know working out stuff likethat, uh, therapy, um, yeah, man
(30:56):
, give us a little bit on on howyou you keep balanced, cause I
feel like you actually do areally good job of of balancing
things.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
I try, um, no, balance, balance is really
really important in my life.
Um, I, I'm pretty busy.
I, balance is really reallyimportant in my life.
I'm pretty busy, everybody'sbusy, right, but I got a lot of
stuff going on, you know, withjust family, with being a father
(31:25):
, mytime career, kind of astay-at-home dad, at the same
time with that, the musicproject, stuff, working on
events, you know.
So I got a lot of stuff going onand for me, like one thing I
guess for me that's reallyimportant is like I got to make
sure I'm feeding every area ofmy life.
And the way I look at it, it'skind of all you know different
(31:47):
Venn diagrams, right, we havelike fatherhood, we have family,
we have music, we haverelationships, right, and all
these Venn diagrams kind of allcome together right, and if I'm
not feeding one of them, youknow if I'm not being a good
partner, if I'm not, you know,being present as a dad, if I'm
not, you know, sitting down atthe computer and making music, I
(32:11):
start to feel it like I Ialmost feel like physically ill
if I'm not like feeding one ofthese areas of my life.
Um, so I feel like for me,balance is almost it's become
like an organic way of being forme, um, and being able to
manage my time is reallyimportant.
But I've I've gotten reallygood at that over the years.
Production management hasgotten me really good at that.
Uh, you know I used to hasgotten me really good at that.
You know I used to likeproduction management.
(32:31):
I'd have every 10 minuteswritten out for a you know a
10-hour load-in of what had tohappen, right.
So I don't plan my days likethat, but I do plan my weeks out
and calendars and all of thatstuff.
It's really important.
And time blocking you know Itime block a lot, which is
allows me to, um, dedicatecertain time, like uh, you know
(32:52):
hours of my day to certainthings, right, like, if it's two
hours, uh, I try to give myselftwo hours every day to work on
music but, I, leave that openended, right.
It doesn't mean like I have tosit down and make music.
I could be DJing, I could bemaking beats.
If you know, as you know, as anartist, there's a lot of work
outside of the actual creatingprocess of just like media
(33:14):
management.
Um, you know, the other night Iwas sitting down putting
together my advances and mytechnical rider.
You know.
So for me it's like there's allthese things.
As long, as you know, with themusic project, if I'm doing
something like that, I try to dotwo hours every day of
something, right, even justsocial media, you know, of like
networking, trying to make newconnections.
(33:34):
Same thing with work, right,like I'm a designer at work, so
I have to manage my own workload.
You know, if I need to meet adeadline, you know I have to get
that done and I give myselftime blocks at work.
You know I have to get thatdone and I give myself time
blocks, uh, at work.
You know certain design days,certain consultation days.
So, um, balance is huge.
(33:56):
It's, it's really big and it'swhy I feel, you know, I feel
like I'm so on fire with mymusic stuff is because my life
feels balanced, like I mentionedearlier.
When I have, um, you know, abunch of things going on in my
head, it's so hard for me to getcreative because I just want to
fix, you know, all the problems.
Um, I heard one time fromanother artist if you have more
(34:18):
than six things you're juggling,thinking about in your mind,
there's no way you're going tobe able to be creative.
So just think about that's likejust like regular drug even
like it could be like I gotta dolaundry.
Oh, I got that ticket, I gottapay.
I need to go grocery shopping.
You know you have like just ifyou don't take care of your shit
, you're not going to be able tolike give yourself that time to
(34:42):
really dig in and create.
You know, and I feel, like thatwas kind of one of my barriers.
Um, before coming back into thecaterpaterpillar project, I
couldn't figure out like I'd sitdown and try to write music and
it just wasn't there.
I'm like, why, why, what'schanged, right?
Well, I just had so much goingon man.
I had to organize my life.
I had to get some stufftogether, you know, and get
(35:03):
ahead of things right.
Yeah, early in my, in my 20s, Ifelt like I was always very
like responsive, uh, and livedlife in a responsive way and
just kind of life came at me andI just took it um.
Now I'm very proactive, youknow, I'm goal oriented.
I I'm thinking, you know, notonly a year ahead, five year
(35:25):
ahead, five years ahead, 10years ahead.
Um, I think that's very.
It's been monumental for me atleast, realizing that that, like
, I kind of have to have a cleanslate if I want to dig in, you
know, to my creative endeavors,because that's when I get the
best energy, that's when I canget to my flow state like the
quickest yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Love that man.
You explained that very well.
Um, tell me a little bit.
I want you to uh dig a littlebit into fatherhood yeah, so you
know, mr silas um man tell me,tell me, what's it like to be a
dad and, uh, you know, maybesome of the ups and downs itself
.
Um, yeah, yeah, tell the peoplewhat it's like.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Being a father is awesome Just watching him grow
up.
My son's name's Silas, so justwatching Silas grow up and the
lights turn on in his eyes andthe personality develop, it's
truly a one-of-a-kind experience.
The love that I have for himand he has for me, it's just
(36:32):
like it melts my heart.
You know I have I got a softspot for my little guy.
It's been great man.
It's great to be able to teach.
You know, I know growing upthere are certain things that,
like I went through that youknow I wish could have went down
a little bit differently.
So I get that opportunity toprovide, you know, different
experiences and kind ofdifferent perspectives to my son
(36:55):
.
You know, he's, he's reallysmart, he's, uh, who's about to
be um five in April, but even so, you know, I sit down and have
like real conversations with himand uh, and just like being
able to guide somebody and help,you know, grow them and give
them the space to grow on theirown is truly magical, man.
I love it.
Um, and, truthfully, I never, Ididn't ever, think that I was
(37:18):
going to have kids.
Uh, truthfully, and, and it'slike I'm so, I'm like what was I
thinking?
This is like the best thingever.
Um it's been great man I meanoutside of just.
You know the love that I havefor him and being able to have
that experience he's reallyhelped me, you know, save my
life and clean my life up a bit.
I feel like Silas came at areally monumental time for me.
(37:43):
I I was going through a lot andand it was kind of a wake up
call and it's been great beingable to step up to the plate and
be such a good dad and just bepresent.
Man, being present is so big.
Just being able to hang out, bepresent, be a good role model
(38:04):
is awesome and I wouldn't tradeit for the world.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Love that dude, you said very well said, you should
be super proud of yourself, foryou know stepping up to the
plate, you know, and doingthings you know the right way.
And I will definitely have tosay that you know, since you've
had your son, you know I haveseen a huge, monumental shift in
(38:28):
just the way that you carryyourself, and not not saying
that that the way you carriedyourself before was bad.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Um but a little while .
Speaker 1 (38:39):
yeah, yeah, you know a little bit a little bit, um,
but no, really, man, you, um,you could see, you know, and
it's crazy, it's like you know,back to like your, your, your,
your project too, to kind of tieeverything in there.
You know, like you, your, your,your, your project too, to kind
of tie everything in there.
You know, like you're you, youhad to go through that
metamorphosis.
You know, and I would say, likebinaurals, like that pre-dad,
(39:00):
you know, and, and caterpillaris that that, that post-dad?
Now you know, and, uh, it'sreally important to you know, be
able to take control of thoseopportunities in your life and
those shifts that occur.
You know, and, and not just youknow when, when one chapter
ends, you know another onebegins and it usually has a
(39:24):
title.
You know, and you have tofigure out what that thing's
going to say.
You know.
Well, I mean in one thing too,you know.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Well, I mean, and one thing too, you know, I've
talked to other parents, right,and a lot of times you always
hear oh, you know, because I hadkids I couldn't follow my
dreams, or I'm too busy, and Ithrow all that shit out the
window, man, like, if you wantto go after something, you can
do it.
It doesn't, you know, I don'twant to, whatever excuse it is.
That's what it is, it's anexcuse.
(39:49):
It's hard, it's not easy.
I'm not saying it is, it's achallenge and you got to work
for it.
But if you want it, you can getit.
You know, and I've spent, youknow, the last four or five
years of my life restructuringmy entire life to get back to
music, which is my passion, man,I mean without it, without
(40:10):
performing like I feel it, Ifeel this mean without it,
without performing like I feelit, I feel this void, you know,
and being able to share musicand perform is something I love
so much and I, uh, I don't thinkthat being a father should stop
me from doing that.
You know, I'm still a reallygood dad, um, and still able to
show up for my son all the time,but I had to, you know,
restructure my life.
To do that, and I want toanybody else out there.
(40:32):
If you're going throughanything, it doesn't just have
to be, you know, um, parentingor fatherhood.
You know these challenges.
Everybody has challenges in yourlife, man.
But if you want to do something, you can do it.
You can go after it.
Um, you got to put a plantogether and then you got to
just take the first step.
Sometimes you don't know whatthe second step is going to be.
(40:52):
Put a plan together, take thefirst step and trust the process
.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Love that, love that.
Did you mention the Ikigai, theIkigai.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Oh yeah, so the Ikigai is the concept that I was
kind of talking about with theVenn diagrams.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Gotcha.
So Ikigai is a.
I wanted to learn more.
It's a.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Japanese concept.
Um, that's really about balanceand kind of what we were
touching on here, um, and it'sabout how you know how to find
joy in your life, right, I thinkit's very natural that all of
us, you know, we might have ajob or professional career, we
have family, you might havesomething you're passionate
about, whether it's a creativeendeavor, or you know
(41:32):
skateboarding, snowboarding, youknow whatever it is Right, and
so we all have these differentareas of our life, and that's
kind of where I was getting ontalking about feeding each one
of those areas.
You don't want to neglect any ofthose areas or it kind of so.
Think about you being in thecenter Right and all these Venn,
it kind of so.
Think about you being in thecenter right and all these venn
diagrams kind of connecting, andyou know the center is like
(41:54):
you're, you're at peace, yourjoy, your happiness, you know,
your love.
Right, if you stop feeding that, you know, a piece of that venn
diagram breaks off.
So a piece of you, you knowit's like I was talking about.
I felt like when I'm notperforming or sharing music, I
have a void, void, right, I'mnot feeding one of my passions,
I'm not feeding one of my youknow the foundational pillars of
(42:15):
my life, you know.
So that's kind of what thatconcept's about.
And you know, I feel like themajor theme that we're talking
on today again is that balanceand being able to structure
everything you know in a waythat you can feed all of your
passions and areas of your life.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Doesn't Futuristic the rapper have an album that's
titled that as well, are you?
Speaker 2 (42:44):
familiar, I think.
So I haven't heard the album,but I'm familiar.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
I've heard that term before and I think that was
where it was.
And then what else was it?
What's it called the Blue Zones, which is the places in the
world where there's the mostamount of centenarians, which
are people who live 100 years orolder, and I think it's just
(43:12):
japanese.
Yeah, right, yeah, it was injapanese culture.
Like that is the, like one ofthe pillars that helps them
really live that long, you know,so like it's literally like
proof that it will make yourlife better and longer.
(43:34):
I feel like maybe we kind oflose track of that over time,
and being able to kind of keepall of those things present and
you know, kind of, you know,have them change as well.
You know, it's really importantfor you to kind of assess those
(43:58):
things as you go on, you know,and take that time to yourself
and be like, okay, you know what, like these are the new
diagrams, you know, or these arethe new circles of my life, you
know.
And maybe sometimes you know,or these are the new circles of
my life, and maybe sometimes oneor two of those circles are
going to float away, but at thesame time there's going to be
(44:20):
other ones that are coming intoyour life and figuring out how
to I think you said it the bestway how to feed those things.
But man, dude, I appreciate youso much for coming through man.
I got something for you, though,dude.
I appreciate you so much forcoming through, man, I got
something, though.
I got something for you, thoughreal quick.
I got your old self.
Wait a second, who is this?
This is the oh my goodness.
(44:41):
This is pre-binaural.
This is oh my gosh.
Okay, listen.
First off, I got to say you'vebecome an awesome man and human
being and you do live you liveda pretty wild lifestyle.
Right now, you're living itwild in a different way.
(45:04):
I'll tell you that.
But yeah, your old self orsorry, your new self is sitting
next to me here.
I'm going to give him the phoneand he's going to chat with you
for a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
What do you got to tell him?
Where are you at, fool?
Nope, that checks out.
Nah.
So, man, all right, let me talk, okay.
(45:38):
Well, I want to tell yousomething.
Uh, I'm here on the respectingperspectives podcast.
My man, awol, got a hold of yousomehow.
Uh, I want to let you know, man, things are gonna be okay, it's
gonna work out.
Stay consistent, be yourself,follow your dreams and, and I
promise, stuff's going to workout.
It might be a little roughright now, you might not see
that, but it's going to work out.
Man, all right, I'll let youget back to it.
(46:01):
Buddy, rip it up.
Love you, love you love you,love you, buddy.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Peace, all right, love you bro.
Listen to everything he saidand maybe you know, do, do, do,
keep doing some wild stuff,because you, you really do have
to have some fun throughout yourlife.
All right, peace, dope, dude,dope.
I got one more segment for us.
Okay, we got rapid fire here.
Oh yeah, rapid fire.
(46:27):
Okay, all right, so you'regonna have to answer these as
quick as possible.
All right, okay, all right, offthe cuff, off the dome like a
freestyle.
Okay, ten seconds on the clock.
Would you rather have theability to fly or read minds,
fly.
What's the best?
(46:48):
Ice cream topping, coolHardshell chocolate?
Oh, oh, there you go if you hadto move someplace you've been to
on vacation, where would it be?
Switzerland, somewhere?
Speaker 2 (47:00):
you haven't been on vacation somewhere.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
I haven't been on vacation if you had to move
there if I, if I had to movethere, australia.
There you go.
Hey, mate, all right, explainhow you met your best friend um,
let's see here music, music forsure, yeah nice, nice.
(47:22):
If you could rename your familypet, what would it be?
Uh, uh, cheech alright, let'ssee here what's the most
important thing your parents dofor you just show up for me, man
, yeah, show up for me be goodgrandparents have you ever
(47:44):
cheated on a test?
yes, I have.
We don't have to dig into that.
Alright, the family put you incharge of burying a time capsule
.
What would go in it?
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Time capsule, a USB with all my music on it.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
There you go, nice, nice.
Which member of the family doyou think you know the least
about?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Let's see here my cousin Nick Okay reach out.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Nick, do you think it's okay to eat food that fell
on the floor?
Yeah, five-second rule.
Five seconds, baby.
Come on On a scale of one toten.
How strict are your parents?
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Scale of one to ten.
How strict are my parents now?
Uh, I don't know.
Five.
Which one's more strict?
Speaker 1 (48:36):
uh, my dad.
Okay, what was the last thingthat made you lol?
Speaker 2 (48:42):
uh, ryan bradshaw on the on the podcast.
Nice, nice, your last podcastguest, yeah what was it?
Speaker 1 (48:49):
what was it?
Speaker 2 (48:50):
oh, just him on the phone with his old self.
Yeah, nice, nice, that's afunny segment.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
Nice, All right.
If you could only celebrateyour favorite holiday or your
birthday each year, which onewould you pick?
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Holiday, my holiday.
Do I have to pick the holidaytoo?
Yeah, halloween.
Speaker 1 (49:08):
Nice All the time.
This yeah Halloween, nice Allthe time.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
This is a good one.
Do you like clowns?
I don't know, man.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
We're kind of iffy on clowns.
Yeah, clowns are, we're okay, Ifeel like clowns are getting
popular right now.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
It's kind of it's freaking me out a little bit
this is like a hot clown.
Yeah, it's kind of scary to metoo.
All right, meet you.
All right.
Have you ever picked your noseand eaten the booger?
No, but silas, though.
Sorry, dude, didn't mean to putyou.
Put you, yeah, come on, youknow it happens, it happens.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
What sound does water make when it's coming out of
the faucet?
Imitate it all right, telleveryone a new fact you learned
today.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
New fact I learned today.
Huh, I learned man.
I really didn't do much today.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Come on, you learned something.
You had to learn something.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Ah, okay, I learned about the podcast studio and how
that's set up.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
There you go.
How many cameras do you need toget it done?
Good answer.
How many cameras right?
Did you know about this one?
Seven?
Yeah, over here.
Wait, let him get it.
Let him get it All right,that's slick, isn't it?
Which actor should play you ina movie about your life?
Which actor?
Speaker 2 (50:34):
should play you in a movie about your life.
Who was the guy who played?
He was in Damn, I'm blanking, Ican't think of it.
What movie?
It was a show.
I can't remember his name.
He kind of looked like MacMiller.
His name is, I think, fez inthe show.
You know who I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Oh what.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Euphoria in that show Euphoria.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Yeah, okay, all right , that guy.
Yeah, name something you lostand still haven't found.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Something I've lost and still haven't found.
I lost this glass pendant awhile ago and I have no idea
where it went.
I still can't find it.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Okay, you're going to have to look for that.
Who would be the worst personin the world to be stuck on an
elevator with?
Speaker 2 (51:18):
A clown.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
A clown.
All right, dude, you killedthose Awesome.
Hey, do you have anylast-minute thoughts that you
want to give the guests who arelistening here any last-minute
inspiration?
Yeah, just anything that youwant to give the guests who are
listening here any last minuteinspiration.
Or yeah, just say any anythingthat you want to leave everybody
with.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Sure man, you know this.
This podcast is calledrespecting perspectives, and I
think life really is all aboutthe perspective and the lens
that you look at it through.
Something monumental I'velearned in my life is just love
your life, and that's not like,oh, I have the best life, I love
(51:57):
it.
No, actively love your life,you know.
Make your life something worthbeing passionate about.
For me, I had a lot of trialsand tribulations and I learned
that the power of perspective isso important and the way that
you look at challenges andsituations, the way you look at
wins, the way you handle thesethings, it's all about
(52:19):
perspective.
So, keep an open perspective,keep an honest perspective and
truthfully learn to love yourlife.
You know, I can really andhonestly say I do love my life
and that's because I, it'sfilled with passion, I do things
that, uh, that mean somethingto me and and I do, I have
(52:40):
relationships that aremeaningful, you know, and I try
to do things with purpose.
Um, and that's you know I Isuggest that because it brings
the best happiness really, andgives you the opportunity to
really enjoy life and live it,not just exist.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Love that man.
Great final thought there.
One last thing I also want tosay is we have something called
I don't know if I told you aboutthis, but we have something
called the RespectingPerspectives Hotline and people
can give that a call.
And, yeah, let us know if youhave like a show coming up or
you know you're going throughlike a challenge or something
(53:21):
that maybe you know you wantsome feedback on.
You know, maybe you have somemusic coming out in the near
future.
Yeah, the number is443-477-4922.
Okay, 443-477-4922.
(53:43):
And in one of the near shows inthe future we'll go through
some of those calls and yeah,you know, we'll kind of maybe
just help guide you in a way orjust be there to, uh, you know,
to support you in any way.
Um, do you have any shows oranything uh in the summer that
you want to let people knowabout?
Speaker 2 (54:04):
yeah, yeah, I just dropped a show.
Uh, on friday, a showannouncement I'm really excited
about I'm going to be doing ashow with my good buddies, uncle
Kunkel's One Grand Band, onApril 4th at the 8x10.
They're going to be playingtheir headline and playing two
sets and I'll be closing out thenight with some fun dance music
.
Got some other stuff in theworks.
(54:24):
I don't know if I'm allowed tosay yet, but I will be out at
some festivals this summer.
For sure.
If you want to follow the musicproject, please go to at
Caterpillar C-A-T-A-P-I-L-L-A.
Dot music on Instagram, onSpotify, soundcloud it's
C-A-T-A-P-I-L-L-A CaterpillarNice.
(54:48):
So follow the project, checkout the new music.
I'm going to be dropping some.
I got some three or four newsongs singles.
They're going to be coming outperiodically the next couple of
months, yeah, and we'll beannouncing more shows, too,
coming out.
So come out and party.
The shows have been awesome,man.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
For sure, dude, the energy has been really great
Killing it.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
I feel like, coming from the intention that I'm
bringing to shows, I'm comingjust from a very raw, real place
and I feel like I'm a littlebit on fire right now.
I'm trying to share that andget everybody turned up, man.
It's that we need positiveenergy right now.
We need soul, so I'm happy toshare.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Nice, I see it, I feel it, man Well, hey, thanks
for being here, brother.
Thank you for having me, yeah,man, so excited for what you
have in store for the future,what we have in store for the
future together and for thelisteners out there, what y'all
have in store for yourself.
So thanks for tuning in forthis episode of the Respecting
(56:00):
Perspectives podcast podcast.
We'll see you on the flip side.
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