August 13, 2023 • 56 mins
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What does it take to make it in the music industry? Strap in as my good buddy, Steve Schweidel, a music business engineer, producer, manager, and Emmy award winner, takes us on a wild ride through his awe-inspiring journey from New York to Nashville and back. We ramble down memory lane, remembering our shared experiences, the iconic artists he's worked with, and the countless challenges he faced and overcame.
Ever wonder how to transition from a sound engineer to a successful music business entrepreneur? Steve shares his experience of moving from New York to Nashville, and the series of events that led him to working with Big Kenny and John Rich of the country duo Big and Rich. We delve into the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 tragedy, his financial struggles, and his pivotal role in benefit projects that followed this disaster.
Steve's story serves as a testament to the power of positivity, resilience, and persistence. He sheds light on his Emmy win and how never accepting a no for an answer propelled him towards success. As we conclude this fascinating chat, Steve offers invaluable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and emphasizes the vital role of networking and creativity. Join us for an episode that's brimming with insights, inspiration, and a hearty dose of reality from the music world.
Thank you for tuning in to Meghan's podcast!
Remember, we are all made for more!
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Intro voiceovers by her family: son, Billy Alexander; daughter, Mackenzie Alexander; and husband, Bill Alexander.
Music by Bill Alexander
Produced by Bill Alexander
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the podcast we Are Made For More
with Megan Alexander.
In this podcast, we'll striveto inspire people around the
world to become the best versionof themselves by featuring
guests with experiences andmindsets that demonstrate that
we are all made for more.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
In this episode, megan talks with Steve Schweidel
, a music business engineer,producer and manager.
He shares his journey from NewYork to Nashville of working
with diverse industry icons suchas Paul Simon, tony Bennett,
big and Rich Jewel and more.
(00:41):
Hear how he faced hischallenges, the tools he used to
overcome them and how hisvision of seeing himself succeed
made him do exactly that.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
All right, well, welcome to.
We Are Made For More.
I'm your host, megan Alexander.
This is my podcast, and so Ihave a special guest for you
today, a longtime friend of mine.
His name is Steve Schweidel,from Schwei Productions.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Welcome, steve.
Hello, thank you.
You know, hearing specialguests is such a weird thing.
I'm not special, I'm justSchwei, it's just me.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I love it, I love it.
But here's the thing you arespecial, definitely special to
me, definitely special to theworld.
Lots to talk about.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
You're welcome.
You're right, special guest.
That's funny, because we'refriends, we go way back.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
We do.
Yeah, I mean, the chance to dothis with you is so much fun
Like I'm just having fun alreadyand we haven't even started.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Same here.
I think I already have theperma smile on, so we'll see how
long that stays on for thisconversation, which I'm really
looking forward to.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Yeah, one thing I'll say about you, meg, is, anytime
we talk, it's always so natural.
You know, I know we'retechnically recording right now,
but it doesn't feel that way.
I feel like I'm just looking atyou on a FaceTime call and
we're just talking.
I love it.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
That's so true.
That's so true, so I'm going toput it in my head that that's
what it should feel like.
Right, let's just keep itnatural.
So this is my second podcast,steve.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Congratulations Welcome.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a guest,
but I want to say too, this ismy first one doing remotely,
virtually like this, sodefinitely happy.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Well, you're doing a fabulous job.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, thank you, we're a minute in.
We'll see you.
You're doing a fabulous job.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yourself.
So, as you know, I finallynamed it.
My first podcast came out and Ididn't have a name before I had
started it, but I have named itand it's called.
I'm going to move my head outof the way we are made for more
and I wonder, just to kick offour conversation when you heard
that I had done this podcast andthat that was the title of it,
(03:09):
do you have any thoughts aboutwhat we are made for?
More meant to you?
Did anything come across?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
You know I didn't have initial thoughts, but
truthfully and I know you and Ihave spoken about this at
different times just about whatis purpose, what am I here for?
What are we here for?
And I think that in everydaylife I ask myself am I doing
(03:36):
what I can be doing to serveother people as well as myself,
and is it fulfilling me?
And I think the phrase you know, we are made for more.
It's so true, I think you know,in so many ways our lives are
not, that we get so wrapped upin the world today of social
(03:58):
media and things that absolutelymean nothing.
It may mean something tosomeone in the moment, but
that's all it is.
It's this little moment andwe've put so much emphasis on it
.
So I do believe we're made formore and, truthfully, for me, I
know that every day I have moreto give than I do, and it's not
(04:22):
because I'm not trying, it'sjust not focusing on that every
day.
It's very easy not to give athousand percent every single
moment of every day, and, ofcourse, that's impossible too.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Of course it is.
Of course it is.
And when I think about you,steve, you know I started off by
saying we go, we go way backand we do.
I think I've known you about 20years now, if I'm doing the
math right.
You are, and it's a funny thingI will mention this isn't the
first time I've interviewed you,it was just a different
circumstance, that's true.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
We actually worked.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
You gave me a job.
Oh, there you go, there you goI did.
Well, you know what you wereselected and I'll tell you
because of who you are.
And the funny thing is we.
You know, we worked togetherfor a little bit, but we became
friends over the years.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And we made in touch.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
We did.
You know, it's one of mypersonal I believe one of my
personal skills, something I'mreally good at, always have been
is relationships and keepingrelationships.
And while you and I may nothave worked together now for
probably 19 years, we've stayedin touch those 19 years and
(05:39):
that's really important to mebecause you personally made a
mark on me and I hope that I didas well to you, you know.
But the fact that we're heretalking I know, I know you're
like Steve.
Come on, come on.
Let's stop this nonsense, ofcourse you made a mark on me,
(06:00):
but really, I mean, it's a truemark of a beautiful friendship
that here we are, you know, 20years later.
We haven't worked together in19 of those years, but we've
stayed in touch through all ofit, through the ups, the downs,
every bit of it, and that'sreally special.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
That's absolutely true.
I couldn't agree more.
As you just say the ups and thedowns, I think about a lot of
the stories that we've.
You know the time we just pickup the phone and call each other
, and sometimes it'd be a yearwhen we went by and we hadn't
heard from each other.
But if we were in going throughsomething, we always felt
comfortable reaching out andpicking up the phone and saying,
hey, whether it was to cheereach other on for something we
(06:39):
did see in social media, or say,hey, I'm going through
something, I miss you, I need tocatch up.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And that really helps .
So it really does.
And I don't want to go off on atangent, but I will say that
the job that you hired me orselected me for back then, I, I
believe and this is the power ofpositivity I willed that job
for myself.
I left another state, as youknow, I was living in Tennessee
(07:10):
at the time and I moved back toNew York and when I interviewed
for that position, I had toldeverybody when I left Nashville
I'm going to get that job, I'mgoing to work at that company.
And people said that's crazy.
How do you know that?
Have you interviewed or haveyou applied?
Has somebody told you that theythey're interested?
(07:32):
And I said no, none of that.
And they all thought I was nuts.
And you know, I didn't knowthat, I didn't know that, I
don't know your story.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, and that does make sense, you know, and
another thing I think about whenI recall back to the early days
of our friendship is you weresomebody that just stood out
from others and in the job thatwe worked in together, I can't
go into too much detail about it, but you were somebody that
just it came naturally to youbecause you were having
(08:03):
conversations with people everyday.
That's what it was, and peoplerespected you for that, just for
your authenticity and who youare.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, thank you.
That feels good to hear.
I don't necessarily recognizethat all the time, so it's it's.
It's difficult and nice at thesame time to hear that.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Well, that's, that's cool.
So you just mentioned you wentfrom Tennessee to New York and I
was going to even say in partof the intro oh, steve has gone
from Nash, new York, toNashville, to Minnesota, but you
do have a whole journey.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour story, about Steve
Schweidel.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So where do you start ?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I guess I start when I grew up right, I grew up in
Jersey, so as a Jersey boy Idon't sing like those guys,
though, but but you know, I grewup in Jersey.
I think I had what I would calla normal childhood.
What childhood is is not normal.
(09:03):
I mean I had divorced parentsand it was a difficult time as a
kid, but I don't think that itwas abnormal, I just had a
normal childhood and I hadpassion for music and I think at
one point in my life I thoughtI'd be a musician.
But early on, when I was inhigh school and maybe even
(09:27):
middle school, I realized I amnot going to be a musician.
All of my friends are runningcircles musically around me and
that's okay.
But I knew I loved music so Igot into recording music and I
started that when I was in highschool and it was the early
(09:47):
times of of you know, digitalmusic.
It was the days of, you know,crappy keyboards and this
technology called MIDI, m-i-d-i,and and I had this recording
set up, I mean in the early tomid 90s and you know some of it
was on a little tape deckrecorder and I had just cassette
(10:07):
decks and it was a four trackand I was so psyched about that.
But then when the computerstuff started to come into play,
I got to record on the computerand mix it into the analog and
it was just a blast.
So that was something I wasreally interested in.
So after high school I moved toPhiladelphia.
I went to the Art Institute ofPhiladelphia.
I studied music business there,which is what I have a degree
(10:30):
in, but I emphasized inrecording and it gave me a good
foundation.
It gave me more tools and Itook those tools and while I was
still in college I got hired ata radio and TV commercial
recording studio in Philadelphiaand I was the tape guy I was.
(10:52):
I was in a small room, smallerthan I can I know you can't see
my room here right now, but itwas smaller than this room and
this room is small and I had allthese reel to reel tape
machines and I was literally Iwould hit, play and record on
these reel to reel machines.
I had a master and the masterwas recording on like eight
(11:14):
different reel to reel machinesand when the spot the radio
commercial was over, I'd hitstop on all of them.
I cut the tape, I put it in abox, I've labeled it and I'd
send it off to these radiostations and it was a friggin
blast.
It was kind of like I reallyfelt like I was doing something
insane and I was brilliant, eventhough it was something so
(11:36):
simple you know Sounds cool.
It was a blast, it really was.
And so there was a guy, his namewas Keith.
His name still is Keith.
I saw him somewhat recently andhe was the national voiceover
for Dodge, specifically theDodge Neon commercial, if you
remember the Dodge Neon.
(11:58):
I mean absolutely, oh my gosh.
So, he was doing commercials andhe comes back to the tape room
and he's like so I hear you'rethe music guy.
And I said I am.
And he said well, look, I'm amusician, I used to be in a band
, I'm in a band now.
The band I was in is no longertogether, but I gotta play a gig
(12:19):
this week.
Do you want to record sound forme?
Or I'm sorry, I've record butrun sound for me at the club.
I said sure.
So I went down to this club ina little town called Maniunk,
pennsylvania, right outside ofPhiladelphia, ran sound and the
next day he called me and hesaid Steve, and actually he
named me.
You know, you know me as Shwa,I do.
(12:41):
He named me Shwa S-C-H-W-A.
I don't know which Shwa Shwa,shwa, shwa-deviv, yeah,
Shwa-Deviv.
And so he literally you know.
He said, steve, do you want tocome on the road with me?
He said I gotta go on the roadfor about six weeks.
(13:01):
I need a van driver and a soundguy, would you do it?
And I said, man, if my job letsme, I'm there.
So I went to my boss, who knewmy passion for music.
He was super supportive.
I'm still in touch with him aswell.
He's retired, but literally hewas very supportive.
He said, yes, go, go do it, youknow.
(13:24):
And I did.
And we went through Nashvillethat's where Keith's record
label was and I just I fell inlove with the town.
It was so different thananything I was used to.
It was really sleepy.
But here I am driving down thisroad called Music Row and I was
like how?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
cool, is this A town?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
that's music row.
So I literally we went back toPennsylvania after six weeks and
I knew I had to get toNashville and so I picked up.
This was 97.
I picked up and I moved.
I moved to Nashville.
I was in Nashville for oh,about two no, not even two years
(14:08):
, about a year, and it was myfirst experience of just feeling
like I didn't fit in and itsucked.
Yeah, it sucked because I knewI did fit in, but the town was
really closed off at that time.
It was like they call it, likethe good old boy network.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Okay, click it.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Yeah, and it was like if you weren't from there and
grew up there, you were anoutsider and I was.
I was an outsider and, evenworse, I was from the North, you
know.
So I was, you know, gung ho anda go getter and I was moving
too fast for everything.
So I found some work, you know,I mean literally a week and a
(14:48):
half after living in Nashvilleexcuse me, nashville a huge
tornado blew through.
I mean it's just crazy stuff.
And I wound up working at a dubhouse, a same similar type of
gig that I was doing inPennsylvania, except it was
music only.
And the guy who owned thestudio, he was the guy behind
(15:14):
the Budweiser commercials.
If you remember Bud Wise, theBudfrogs, he did the Budfrogs.
I mean talk about some seriouscoin, right?
Okay, so I worked for him for awhile, but at the same time I
was folding jeans at the gap.
I mean, I was working every.
(15:35):
I was waiting tables, I wasbartending, I was doing whatever
I could just to survive,because I wanted it to work so
bad.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And I don't even know , I don't even know this story
about you.
Yeah, well, and down.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
No, we probably never talked about it.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
It's detailed it happened before you and I knew
each other.
So ultimately I wound up movingback to New York because I was
like this isn't working out.
So I go back to New York andwhat do I do?
I take my resume, new York City.
I go to every major recordingstudio, probably 30 to 40
(16:09):
studios.
I spent that day.
I dropped off my resumeeverywhere Electric lady, sony,
I mean.
The hit factory was one whichI'll get back to in a second.
The power station, I mean.
Most of these studios are notthere anymore.
Some are, and it was insanebecause I'm just dropping off my
(16:31):
resume, I don't know anybodyand I'm thinking, okay, I've
reached my end of the day, I'mgoing to my last studio.
The last studio was like thebiggest of them all, the hit
factory, I mean this Idefinitely have heard of that
one.
Oh God, I mean the studio wasfamous for so many amazing
records.
I mean, you know Graceland, youname it, you know Paul Simon
(16:54):
Graceland, huge records, and Iwas intimidated but so excited
just to even walk in the door tobe able to hand somebody
something.
And I walk in and it's allglass doors and I walk in and
there's a security guard at asecurity desk and then another
set of glass doors and you cansee through and it's golden
(17:15):
platinum records.
I mean wall to wall.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
So you didn't have an appointment, you just walked in
.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Oh, no, I just walked in.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
You're going door to door.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Yeah, nice security guard.
But he said you know what areyou here for?
And I said I'm looking for ajob, I'm a recording engineer.
And he said well, you have yourresume.
And I said I do, you know?
And he wouldn't let me throughthe other doors.
He said I promise you this isgoing to get to the right person
.
And I'm thinking like no, it'snot.
And I kind of argued a littlewith him.
(17:43):
I'm like you're just giving mea line.
I said I've been walking tostudio after studio.
He said trust me, it's going toget to the right place.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
What happens?
Speaker 4 (17:52):
By the time I got back to my apartment in New York
City, I had a phone call with amessage from the owner of the
studio saying perfect timing, Igot your resume, we're hiring
you know why don't you come intomorrow?
So I wound up in there the nextday.
Yeah, it was crazy.
I did get hired on the spot,but I was hired as a grunt.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I mean literally a grunt, but you wanted to just
get in the door.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
My foot was now on the door.
I didn't care if I was cleaningtoilets.
And I was.
I was sweeping floors, I wasdoing errands.
I mean I had.
I literally was told you know,this artist needs Campbell's
soup.
It's got to be this kind, thisflavor.
You know, these shape noodles,I mean crazy stuff.
(18:40):
And here I am running all overNew York City doing it and I did
it and what really changed forme was through it all.
Meg, is it okay if I call youMeg?
Absolutely, I love it, thankyou.
So, Meg, literally I was justbeing me.
I don't know how to be somebody.
(19:01):
I'm not.
It just doesn't work If I'm notauthentic, you're going to know
.
And I was just being Shwai.
I was me.
And clearly the owner and otherpeople in the studio saw that
and they saw me for who I was.
And I got called into theboss's office and he said I'm
(19:22):
going to give you the shot ofthe lifetime.
He said I need somebody to beanother engineer on a Paul Simon
record.
And he said, I'm going to trustyou with that, assuming you want
it, and I'm like holding backthe excitement because the last
thing I want to do is be like a,you know, like starstruck.
(19:45):
Over eager, but Paul Simon, ohmy God, like hell.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Right, the first person you're going to record
Like talk about that levelautomatically.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
So I said absolutely whatever you need.
Well, I was doing like 165 hourweeks because I'm working with
Paul Simon and he records, toget to watch his process, Him
recording a full record in thestudio, not coming prepared with
songs and tracks, just buildingit all from nothing, was
(20:15):
amazing.
I mean, the guy is justbrilliant and at the same time
I'm working on that and thenthat afforded me other
opportunities.
So now all of a sudden I'mengineering you know, rap and
hip hop records at night and Imean I'm sleeping at the studio.
I had a bed blown up behind theconsole.
It was nuts.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Seriously.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
It was nuts.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Oh my goodness.
So they shower there andeverything.
Do they have that kind offacility?
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Oh yeah.
So I lived there for a full,solid another year and a half
and I got burnt.
I was really burnt.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I was gonna ask how do you do that?
How do you know what happens?
I really I did.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
I was fried and I was working so hard.
I mean, I worked on TonyBennett records.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Paul.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Simon.
Billy Joel.
I got to do a track with BillyJoel Before Beyonce was Beyonce.
You know when it was.
Oh God the three girls.
Yes, destiny's Child, destiny'sokay.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Thank you, I have a gold record of theirs, and a
platinum one.
But I mean like I got to work onsome really cool stuff, but it
really fried me.
I mean, I was just unhealthy atthat point and I said to myself
I'm gonna get through this PaulSimon record and then I'm going
back to Nashville Because now Ihad it in my head that, wait a
minute, there's no way.
(21:41):
No matter what I experiencedthe first time, there's no way
now, with the experience and thetechnology and my skills that
I've learned, I'm an A-listernow in terms of the things I
learned and I did.
I finished that record withPaul and I wound up going back
to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Before you get to that, because obviously I want
to hear about that story.
Ha-ho, were you not able totell them?
Hey, I want to break.
Or was that your choice or wasit the circumstances?
It was a little bit of a normalwork week, yeah it was a little
of both.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
I mean, you know my boss, he gave me the, the
freedom like, hey, you know, youdon't have to work as much as
you're working.
I also knew it was a way to getmy chops to where they needed
to be.
Yeah, and I was young, you know, and when you're young, like
you don't think about long-termor you know, you just go and go.
(22:37):
Yeah, and I think I went andwent and went until I just
couldn't go anymore, you know,and and I just knew that I just
had to finish that record andthen I had to go because I Knew
it was my only way out.
The other thing is I started toreally decide what I love to
(22:58):
work on and what I didn't, andwhat you know worked for me and
what fed my soul.
And there were things that Iwas working on that just didn't.
It just didn't feed my soul.
And I knew that there was noperfect recipe, but I wanted
that, you know, opportunity totry and work on as much as on
music, that that really fed mysoul and I knew.
(23:21):
That the songwriting inNashville was so deep and so
beautiful, Similar to you knowthe songs that Paul Simon would
write.
You know they had substance.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
So so you went back to.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Nashville.
I went back to Nashville and,sure enough, I was right People
listened.
This time.
You had something under yourbelt so and what I really had
under my belt was Pro tools,which was a technology, still is
and it became the biggestdigital recording technology.
(23:53):
Pro tools had not reachedNashville yet.
They were using a differenttechnology ADAT tapes and so I
come in and I have the chops onPro Tools and Vocal tuning had
become a big thing.
So I got hired.
I wound up buying my own rig.
(24:14):
It was very expensive, but Ibought my own equipment and I
had a cartage company that wouldbring my equipment to whatever
studio I was working at and Iwas tuning vocals for a lot of
big artists and it was a blast.
I was also just editing tracks.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
It was a lot of fun, you know so, steve, I let's talk
about this for one second.
I mean, you just name dropped aton of people that Anybody hang
on, let me pick them up oh.
Would love to meet just one ofthese people and you make it
sound like, oh yeah, I justworked with this one, this one,
this one and all of these greats.
What?
Were there any situations withany of those people that were
(24:53):
nerve-wracking To meet them inthe room, or was?
Did they have an instantrespect for you because of your
role?
What was that like so?
Speaker 4 (25:02):
there.
There's a little story here totell you everybody.
Every artist is different, sure, and I would say that nine
times out of ten I had amazingexperiences.
I wasn't star struck, I justwent in, I did the work and it
was just a job.
And these people, you know, Ilooked at him no different than
(25:25):
hopefully they were looking atme Like this guy knows what he's
doing, he does his thing, I domine.
It was fine, but there weresome weird situations and of
course I'm not gonna mentionnames, but of course, but one
night, you know, one of theartists I was working with came
in and put a Glock nine pistolon the console.
(25:49):
Oh boy, and now can I?
I don't know what the rules arehere.
Am I allowed to say a curseword?
Speaker 3 (25:57):
I'm being told I might have to bleep it out.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Maybe the letter you could always, you could always
believe it.
But literally this guy says tome you're gonna make my shit
right and throws this gun down.
And it was like you know, myheart starts pounding and I'm
like is this guy serious?
You know, and part of me thinkshe might have been, but now
(26:21):
that I look back on it, I Ithink he wasn't.
I think it was like his ownversion of humor.
Okay, at the time I didn't thinkit was funny you know, but I
can look back now and you knowFor what it's worth.
That person, who I'm not gonnamention, happens to be a
billionaire now.
(26:41):
So I mean it's like you know hewasn't being serious.
But you know again, at the timeI didn't know that and I was.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
You didn't know him.
You didn't yeah, no, exactly,and I also.
It's scary.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Yeah, I had all sorts of weird experiences.
I mean, people call me askinhead, like I used to have
shaved my head really shorterthan this, you know it's like,
okay, yeah, I'm a Jewishskinhead.
I go figure, like right, itdoesn't, it doesn't there's a
lot of ignorance out there inthe world, you know, and and I
certainly got different aspectsof that.
(27:13):
But you know, there was only onetime that I really like, my
heart kind of dropped and I gotstarstruck and I hadn't even
seen the artist, and it's whenMichael Jackson came into the
studio.
Oh, my goodness, yes, he comesin, and I think it's the way
that his people Took care of himthat created that, that
(27:36):
excitement in me that my bodyjust couldn't control and it was
like, okay, all of a sudden,every light in the entire
building goes out and they,basically there was this, uh,
elevator, service, elevator thata car could pull up on the
street and pull right into andclose, and so you know they open
(28:01):
the other side of this garagedoor on the inside of the studio
and hallway of the studio andit's Michael Jackson, but all
the lights are out and he'swalking, like walking right by
me and I'm just like my god,like yeah, that's, that's crazy,
that's nuts, I can't evenbelieve all these names that
you've just mentioned.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
It's pretty, it's pretty special.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
It's, you know it's it's, it's awesome to have had
those experiences, thoseopportunities.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Um again, there's more there's more like if you
think about we've we've justtouched the surface.
I know, people listening orhearing this saying wow, that
this is pretty incredible tohear someone who started out in
the music business and we'reabout to.
We got a flash forward to someof the stories of where you've
gone from there.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
I know I need to move on from new york, right, I need
to move you back to nashville.
Because that's yeah, so I goback to nashville, I'm working
in the studio, it's great,everything's good.
Until September 11th 2001.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
And when you know.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
People say you know the world stopped with covet.
I actually disagree.
I think the world stopped forquite a while.
On September 11th 2001 andPeople don't necessarily
remember as well as theyremember covet covet's recent,
so it feels like it wasyesterday.
September 11th happened andthings really did stop.
(29:28):
I mean the world just stopped.
You're right, and the music yeah, in the music industry went
into um Benefit mode, so artistswere recording for benefit
projects and they were appearingfor concerts to raise money and
and it was all really great andI got to be a part of some of
(29:52):
it.
But I was donating my time as arecording engineer.
I didn't have a check that wascoming in from anybody.
I was a freelance gig workerand when September 11th happened
and you know, the world stoppedand so did my paychecks.
So I was doing a lot of goodstuff, but I wasn't getting paid
(30:12):
for it and I don't think I wassmart enough or advanced enough
in life at that point To thinkabout it as it was happening,
and so, you know, I got in a badway.
I I was spending more moneybecause I wasn't making any
money, so spending my savingsand then my savings was going
(30:34):
away right, and then I would geta credit card and that was
maxed out, so I get anothercredit card.
I mean, I wound up in serious,serious financial trouble really
bad, and so, while my studiowork wasn't really picking back
up, that's where it was like,okay, I got to find something.
(30:55):
So what did I do?
I become a barista at starbucks.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
And and, by the way, I was a damn good one.
I still am I'm my own bestbarista these days.
In fact, I've been called theHeisenberg of coffee.
If you're familiar with theshow Breaking Bad Heisenberg.
Yeah, so he makes all the thedrugs, you know, he makes the
good stuff, I make the goodcoffee.
(31:22):
I have a whole process.
It's like I'm a scientist.
Anyway, I'm working atStarbucks, and at the time,
though, back in the first stintI did in Nashville, I became
friends with big kenny and johnrich.
And most people know them as bigand rich big and rich country
duo.
Yes, and at the time though, inthe early or the mid 90s, when
(31:46):
I met them Mid late 90s it wasjust john rich and big kenny.
John had just finished being amember of loan star, which he
was a founding member.
Kenney, uh, had just finished.
He had had a record deal on arock record, um, and it had just
(32:06):
gotten out of that deal becausehis rock career just didn't
take over and they had thisthing called the music mafia and
it was, you know, music beingplayed by a bunch of friends,
you know, every week in thislittle club called the pub of
love, and it was just like greatsongs that they were writing
together and they wereshowcasing Other friends who
(32:30):
were writing songs, and I mean,they were showcasing just
beautiful songs and it was likehey, steve does this and I'm
just using me as an example, butokay, this is not true but it
was like hey, steve's reallygood at this, so we're going to
showcase them doing that.
That's what they were doingwith young musicians and it was
really this beautiful community.
(32:51):
And so we became friends and infact, big kenny and I wrote a
bunch of silly songs togetherBack in the day and I mean I
love those songs, but are arethey for somebody else?
No, they were for us, and itwas great.
And so now I'm back for thesecond time and I'm still
recording, just not as muchbecause september eleventh
(33:12):
happened.
I need to make a living, so I'mworking a starbucks, which
happens to be right down thestreet from where big kenny was
living, and so I finished work,I go to his house and we write
songs and we record and we havea blast in the same breath big
and rich.
We're starting to write songstogether as an act although at
the time they were big and richyet and they were doing
(33:36):
something for a performancerights organization organization
there's a couple of them askcap bmi and they were doing one
where a bunch of students fromberkeley music school in boston
Come down and they were teachingus how to write a song and in
the room that day they wrotesave a horse, ride a cowboy.
(33:58):
And a couple of days later theywere going in the studio with
the same students to record andI was one of one of the guys
recording.
I was one of the engineers.
So, what I didn't know is thatthey were really gonna get
signed to warner brothers and acareer is gonna take off so fast
forward.
Two thousand three.
(34:18):
I've kinda had enough again andI'm like I gotta go back to new
york.
It just must not be my time tobe here.
Yeah so again, I'm not gonnamention the company that I I
wound up looking for work with,but I did tell people, hey, I'm
gonna leave nashville, I'm gonnago work for this company.
(34:38):
They all think I'm nuts.
Everybody's tell me not to doit and I leave.
I move back to new york.
I moved to long island and Iinterviewed at that business
with you.
You selected me out of, I'msure, tons of beautiful
candidates and I was luckyenough to be selected.
(35:02):
You and I got to work togetherfor a while, for about a year I
think yeah I transferred withinthe company to another location
in the new york city and I had ablast in new york city and I
get a phone rang, the phone rangyeah, I get a call.
It's big kenny and he's like the.
(35:24):
He called me the, the goodjewish reverend.
And he said reverend schwae,how are you know?
It's big kenny.
And I was like I'm doing great.
He's like you know how you likein your job.
And I said yeah, it's, it's agreat job.
I got it, I got benefits, I gota good salary.
And he's like that's awesome.
We're coming to new york citynext week.
(35:44):
We're playing cbgb's.
It's a, it's a play for themedia.
You gotta come.
You know the records gonna comeout soon.
You gotta be Said alright, I'llcome out.
I said why don't I hop out onthe road?
If you guys can spare some room, I'll come out for a week.
And he said, brother, you gottado it.
So I go out for a week.
(36:05):
I went to that show that night.
I hopped on the bus in themiddle of the night and I'm on
the road with them for a week.
They were just doing radiostuff and kenny said we need a
guitar tech.
He said you've met our tourmanager.
I can't give you that job, butwe need a guitar tech.
We're going on the road withtim mcraw.
(36:25):
We need you.
You gotta come out and I'm like, yeah, I'm like what do I do?
so I came back to new york and Imet with my boss in new york
city and I said I I'm not thetype of guy to put in my
resignation with no notice, butI have to make.
(36:47):
I have a maker break decisionand I've decided I'm gonna take
this job.
And this person I actually, youknow, is very upset, not just I
didn't give two weeks, but justwas very upset in general and I
was like, really, is thisreally happening?
And he said you know you'regonna be so sorry you're leaving
(37:10):
.
You know you're just wastingyour time.
Nothing's ever gonna come to us.
And I just I kinda stayed meagain.
I'm a calm person, so I juststayed calm and moved on.
And guess what?
It was the best decision I evermade in my life right, right,
and who knows?
Speaker 3 (37:27):
and those moments I mean sometimes you can't tell,
but you knew, you had a feelingthat it was.
It was calling you.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Yeah, right to do and , let's be honest, I'll fast
forward just quick snippets ofthis.
But I wound up becoming big andriches tour manager, extremely
successful at it for years andleft them at the end of a tour
and worked with jewel andplatinum but what are some of
(37:55):
her credentials?
I mean, I'm over, I think overthirty two million records sold
worldwide you know, I mean hugehits, and I met her.
Everything has a networkingstory, but john rich, it's like
six degrees of shawaii, I meanit really.
It's like how did I get thejewel?
(38:15):
I mean that one's really quick.
It's like john rich jewel.
He produced her record, she dida country record and she called
me for advice on puttingtogether a band and a crew for
her tour.
And it was like, and Iliterally I said what am I
chopped liver?
And she goes oh, I can't stealyou from big and rich.
(38:37):
And I said you don't have to.
I literally I'm leaving at theend of the year they already
know it was.
I think this was in mid october.
And she's like, oh, my godreally.
And I said, yeah, you call johnif you're concerned about.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
She didn't have to call john, but so I wound up
working with her for how longyou were with yeah, your your
friends with jewel a long time,yeah so, yeah, two thousand and
Eight was when we first worktogether, work for a solid year,
full tour.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Then.
And oh nine, I did a basicallytravel the world with her doing
solo acoustic shows.
It was just her and I and oneother guy On the crew.
She had a personal assistantnow, so it's like four of us
traveling around the world is ablast.
And and then she, you know, waskind of taking a break.
She know what was next for her.
(39:29):
So she needs to let me go.
When I say let me go, let me gooff of what they call in the
business retainer, you know.
So I was getting paid.
If there were months that wentby that we didn't work, I was
still getting retainer, so thatif something came up, she, she
had to be my first priority, andit's pretty common in the
(39:49):
business, but she was taking abreak.
So I took a break from her, butat the same time she call me
randomly hey, I got a gig, areyou available?
Yeah, is available.
In twenty thirteen she did hergreatest hit store.
She's like any chance you can,you know, go out at this point.
I started my own business, Istart a management company and I
(40:12):
artist most know clear viewclear view artist management.
I still have it today, but thenotable act that I had at the
time was nitty gritty dirt band.
For those of your, your viewers, that haven't heard of them,
I'm sure they've heard the songfishing in the dark, and the
band has many, many great hits.
(40:34):
They've been around, you know,fifty five plus years now and
they're still going.
And so I managed them from twoend of two thousand nine just
until twenty twenty one, so along time.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
So, steve, pause for one moment because I'm getting
offered.
For those that aren't watching,this right with.
This is something we put out onyoutube, but for those that are
just listening at what I'm oneof the many podcast platforms
I'm, you can see that steve hasa bunch of beautiful records on
the wall behind him and he alsohas.
He also has an award thatsitting there.
I have to call it out and it's,it's an Emmy, so that's pretty
(41:10):
impressive.
Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 4 (41:13):
I know pertains to nitty gritty yeah, so it is a
Emmy award for special eventcoverage.
So it was.
It was a special event.
It was for their fiftiethanniversary Nitty gritty dirt
band and friends celebratingfifty years and I, along with
(41:33):
two other guys, produced thespecial and we won this Emmy
award for the special.
It was air.
It still is airing all theseyears later that it came out in
twenty sixteen.
It's still airing all theseyears later on PBS.
It was made, we made it andproduced it for a PBS pledge
(41:56):
special.
It's done so well and helpedraise so much money that it's
still on today and Congrats.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Thank you seriously.
It's incredible.
Like how many people do I knowthat I want an Emmy oh right
just you.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
It's really, it's like one of the coolest things
that's ever happened to me.
I got to go up and give theacceptance speech and that I saw
that I was asked what was thatlike?
That was the most nerve wrackingthing I've done in my life.
And what's funny is I'm in aroom of my peers like maybe,
(42:34):
maybe, four or five hundredpeople.
I've stood on state the stageat Gillette stadium to a sold
out Gillette stadium show forKenny Chesney concert and
they're big and rich and I'mstanding on that stage To, you
know, a hundred thousand peopleand I'm working and I was fine
but now I have to talk and saysomething.
(42:55):
Holy crap, what do I do, youknow?
But it was an amazingexperience.
I mean, it was one of those ohmy god moments like this can't
even be real.
Like, don't pinch me you betterjust sucker punch me because it
just doesn't feel real, youknow, but it was real and it's
so special.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
It is special, you know, if you, if I'm thinking
about all the stories thatyou've shared with us and you
have a theme going, which isthat you know, if you know this
about yourself maybe you do butyou put it out there in the
universe of what you're going todo, from everything you just
shared with us tonight, and Ididn't know that this was coming
(43:35):
.
But I've been listening and I'mthinking, wow, he did it again,
did again.
And you say to people hey, I'mgonna come work for you, I'm
gonna go work there and I'mgonna make it happen.
I'm gonna go work there and I'mgonna make it happen.
I'm gonna show up.
Speaker 4 (43:46):
You have so much grit and do you know that about
yourself that you put it outthere and say, hey, I'm gonna
come work for you, jewel, I'mgonna come for you, can, I'm
gonna come work for you, so Iwouldn't say that I know it
about myself, but I believe youand I believe it about myself,
because I do believe thatthere's a, there's a power in
(44:10):
positivity and there's a powerin manifesting your destiny,
saying, you know, if you believeit and you truly believe it and
you say it's going to happen,it will happen because your
determination, your soul, yourblood I mean it's all going
(44:30):
towards that goal.
If that's what you want and youcan make it happen, as long as
you're willing to do one thing,and it's a really important
thing not take no for an answer,and it's like the easiest thing
.
But it's the hardest thing foranybody, including myself, to
get, because when somebody saysno, the easiest thing to do is
(44:56):
accept it and say okay.
The hard thing and the hardestthing to do is to not accept it
and say I don't accept it.
I heard it but I don't acceptit.
So now I have to move on tothat next stage of how I'm going
to get there, and sometimesit's with that same person who
gave you the no.
Other times it's going to thatother door that's still open and
(45:20):
seeing if that's the the onethat you can walk through and it
doesn't shut on you.
But it's hard though it reallyis hard, but I'll tell you, the
power of positivity is so true.
And I think, meg, when we weretalking the other day, I told
you about a documentary.
It's a docu-series on Sean White, the snowboarder and there is a
(45:43):
point in that in thatdocumentary where he gave up it
was.
He was like, okay, I got to beokay with with winning silver it
and it was his last run he wasabout to do.
But the guy that the Japanesesnowboarder who had just done a
run had done the most amazingrun and Sean was in awe he was
(46:07):
like he's like okay, I'm okay,I'm just, I'm gonna take silver,
I'm gonna be okay with this.
And he's talking about it.
You hear him talking about itin real time.
And then he overdubs over thesilence as the camera is on him.
This is at the, I think, theSochi Olympics, I think it was
(46:27):
and he's on the top of themountain, he's about to go down
to his run and he's overdubbingand he says and then I thought
to myself but what if I wasn'tokay with silver?
Yeah, and he said and so Ibelieved that I wasn't gonna be
okay with silver.
So I just knew that I wasn'tgonna be good with that.
(46:51):
And what did he do?
He went down that pipe andthrew down an insane run and he
won gold.
He won gold and it yeah, it justshows you if his head wasn't in
the right place.
And think about it.
I'm we're talking about me,like you know, trying to get a
job and and I'm gonna go do that.
(47:13):
Yeah, this guy is like gonnajump you know these crazy twists
and turns and all this stuffyou know a hundred feet in the
air, sometimes out of the bottomof the pipe, and can kill
himself.
And he just willed it.
He's like I'm not gonna be okaywith silver.
Bam, he gets it's it's.
Speaker 3 (47:33):
It's so true, it's, and you're right.
We did talk about that and youand I have always liked talking
about these kind of things andabout people that are successful
and what their mindsets are,and that is the mindset of a
champion, that is the mindset ofsomebody who pushes themself,
and I love how you just sharedit's about not taking no but for
an answer, and that is that isreally tough.
Like do you, how do you?
(47:54):
How do you do that right?
I think that's the questionpeople have is how do you, I
guess, get rid of that?
I call it limiting beliefs.
How do you get put that asideand continue forward, not taking
that person's no?
Speaker 4 (48:08):
yeah, so it's not easy, I'll say that.
And even to this day, no matterhow many successes that I can
talk about and and go into, it'sstill very difficult for me and
sometimes I get in my own headand luckily I have an amazing
support system, you know.
(48:29):
So you know, sometimes I'll belaying in bed and kind of
bashing myself, quite honestlyyou know, yeah, I talked, I
talked down about me for noother reason, but maybe it's
because I heard a no, you know,or and sometimes it's not even
that I heard a no.
It's like I don't feel goodabout myself mentally.
(48:52):
So I decide that, you know,somebody says you should go,
maybe do this, and it'ssomething I might want to do,
and I say I can't do it, I'm notthat talented, I'm not capable
of that, I can't do that.
But then having a reallyamazing support support network
and having a beautiful, amazingfiancee who supports everything
(49:17):
I do, yes, absolutely the factthat she can say to me you know,
hang on a minute, like, why areyou talking about yourself?
Like that, you know, and shekind of puts me in check.
And and that's difficult too,you know it's it's not easy to
hear a no or to break a cycle.
(49:38):
But the more experience youhave and this is where the tweak
is, if you have even one, youjust need one, you need one know
that you turned into a yesbecause of your attitude and
your will to go do something.
All you need is that one,because if you're able to take
(50:00):
that one and store it in yourmemory, and we all can do that.
All you have to do is go back tothat memory.
You just have to go back andsay, well, if I did it for this,
when all the odds were againstme.
But all I had to do is say,nope, I'm determined, that's
what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Yes, and it happened.
Speaker 4 (50:18):
That's how I can get out of the next one and the next
one of me thinking that it'snot going to happen.
But there are some times thatyou know you just get stuck and
it's good to have that supportnetwork that can pull you out of
it.
And and Meg, you're one ofthose people.
I can talk to you.
I could be in a down place.
You might not know that I'm ina down place, but we can talk
(50:39):
and your positivity, it, it'sinfectious, it it you, you
infect me with the positivityand I'm able to be a better
person that day or that week orthat month.
I'm glad to hear that I am thatmakes that.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
That makes me feel good.
Thank you for sharing that.
But I agree with what you'resaying.
You got having a supportnetwork, people that care about
you, for others that are tryingto figure out how do I get out
of those tough times, because weall have them and I love that
you just shared.
You have them too, with thesuccess that you've had and the
records on the wall behind youand the awards and the people
(51:15):
that you've worked with.
You still have those toughmoments and those doubts.
Can I do this next thing youneed?
So I'm going to pull you out ofit and you need that.
Like you said, the memory bank,the file cabinet, is in there
because our self-doubts willtalk us out of.
It's easier, right, it's easierto say, oh, I can't do it, I
can't do it, but it's justpulling that one thing out.
(51:36):
I love that analogy.
Speaker 4 (51:38):
So and you have to stay humble.
I think I don't.
You know.
You asked me, so I'm talkingabout myself which is not
something I like to do.
You know, there are people thatlove to talk about themselves,
or talk about an award or anaccomplishment.
I really don't.
It's not so, and that's why I'mso good behind the camera, so
(51:59):
to speak, as we're on camera,you know but truly that's,
that's what's made me successful.
I don't boast about what I'vedone.
Now I'm proud, I'm very proudof everything I've been able to
do.
Sure, I'm even proud of myfailures.
I don't look at my failures astrue failures.
I look at my failures as that'show I got to do this, which was
(52:22):
a success.
You know, we can't just there'snobody in the world that's just
successful.
You have to have a lot ofthings to go wrong to get it
right, and I've had plenty ofwrong to get it right.
But, you know, not talkingabout it has been a great thing,
because what I love to do, Ilove to be proud of what I've
(52:45):
done.
I love for somebody to walkinto my office and they start
the conversation what the heckis this?
Or what did you do to get that?
And when you feel theirexcitement and their, their
authenticity and them beinggenuine and really wanting to
know more, it's a lot easier totalk, because then you're not
(53:08):
feeling like you're talkingabout yourself.
You're talking about somethingthat somebody genuinely wants to
know about and has asked youabout.
Sure, I think that's reallyimportant.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
You know being humble is absolutely really important
thing it surely does play intoit.
But, um well, this has beenreally lovely to talk to you
today, really mean it.
Speaker 4 (53:28):
I know it's crazy sharing all your stories.
You asked me, literally, Ithink, one question and I just
kept talking this no.
Speaker 3 (53:35):
I've had a couple.
I swear I've had a couple it'slike easy to just let you.
Speaker 4 (53:39):
Let you go with it, because you kind of connected
all the dots for us well, yougotta promise me if your viewers
enjoy this and meaning thisspecific episode and I hope they
do at some point you gottabring back for, like shawaii
version two.
You know we'll have to havelike a mini series oh,
absolutely that has shawaii onlybecause I'm having so much fun.
(54:01):
I love talking to you, meg.
It's like well.
Speaker 3 (54:04):
I feel the same and I really actually think that you
have your onto something here,because I'm just getting started
and I really think that youknow we just we have a small
audience right now.
I'm hoping that it grows, steve.
I'm hoping that it grows and ifso, I'd love to have you back.
We'll definitely talk again.
You have so much to share.
I've always admired just whoyou are, the person that you are
(54:26):
.
That's why we've kept in touchand been friends all these years
.
So thank you for what you'veshared with us today oh my god.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
Thank you, meg.
I mean you, your family, youguys are beautiful, you're,
you're just positive personality.
This is a lot fast here it itis, but what you bring to me has
always been so positive.
I mean, there's never been amoment whether it was work fun,
(54:53):
just catching up there's neverbeen a moment that hasn't
literally made me smile ear toear, just big old grin whenever
I get to converse with you andsometimes it could be a text,
absolutely that.
Speaker 3 (55:08):
That means the world to me, steve.
So thank you everybody outthere for listening, thank you
for those of you that havewatched.
I hope you've enjoyed thesegreat stories and taken
something out of it today, andwe'll say goodbye for now bye
for now well, that's it fortoday.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Thank you for listening.
If you like what you heard,bookmark this podcast and follow
Megan on Instagram.
Okay, now for the disclaimer.
This podcast is solely foreducational and entertainment
purposes.
Megan is not a licensedtherapist and this podcast is
not intended as a substitute forphysician, professional coach,
(55:49):
psychotherapist or otherqualified profession.
Goodbye, everybody.
Welcome to the podcast we Are Made For More
with Megan Alexander.
In this podcast, we'll striveto inspire people around the
world to become the best versionof themselves by featuring
guests with experiences andmindsets that demonstrate that
we are all made for more.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
In this episode, megan talks with Steve Schweidel
, a music business engineer,producer and manager.
He shares his journey from NewYork to Nashville of working
with diverse industry icons suchas Paul Simon, tony Bennett,
big and Rich Jewel and more.
(00:41):
Hear how he faced hischallenges, the tools he used to
overcome them and how hisvision of seeing himself succeed
made him do exactly that.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
All right, well, welcome to.
We Are Made For More.
I'm your host, megan Alexander.
This is my podcast, and so Ihave a special guest for you
today, a longtime friend of mine.
His name is Steve Schweidel,from Schwei Productions.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Welcome, steve.
Hello, thank you.
You know, hearing specialguests is such a weird thing.
I'm not special, I'm justSchwei, it's just me.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I love it, I love it.
But here's the thing you arespecial, definitely special to
me, definitely special to theworld.
Lots to talk about.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
You're welcome.
You're right, special guest.
That's funny, because we'refriends, we go way back.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
We do.
Yeah, I mean, the chance to dothis with you is so much fun
Like I'm just having fun alreadyand we haven't even started.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Same here.
I think I already have theperma smile on, so we'll see how
long that stays on for thisconversation, which I'm really
looking forward to.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Yeah, one thing I'll say about you, meg, is, anytime
we talk, it's always so natural.
You know, I know we'retechnically recording right now,
but it doesn't feel that way.
I feel like I'm just looking atyou on a FaceTime call and
we're just talking.
I love it.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
That's so true.
That's so true, so I'm going toput it in my head that that's
what it should feel like.
Right, let's just keep itnatural.
So this is my second podcast,steve.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Congratulations Welcome.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a guest,
but I want to say too, this ismy first one doing remotely,
virtually like this, sodefinitely happy.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Well, you're doing a fabulous job.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, thank you, we're a minute in.
We'll see you.
You're doing a fabulous job.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yourself.
So, as you know, I finallynamed it.
My first podcast came out and Ididn't have a name before I had
started it, but I have named itand it's called.
I'm going to move my head outof the way we are made for more
and I wonder, just to kick offour conversation when you heard
that I had done this podcast andthat that was the title of it,
(03:09):
do you have any thoughts aboutwhat we are made for?
More meant to you?
Did anything come across?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
You know I didn't have initial thoughts, but
truthfully and I know you and Ihave spoken about this at
different times just about whatis purpose, what am I here for?
What are we here for?
And I think that in everydaylife I ask myself am I doing
(03:36):
what I can be doing to serveother people as well as myself,
and is it fulfilling me?
And I think the phrase you know, we are made for more.
It's so true, I think you know,in so many ways our lives are
not, that we get so wrapped upin the world today of social
(03:58):
media and things that absolutelymean nothing.
It may mean something tosomeone in the moment, but
that's all it is.
It's this little moment andwe've put so much emphasis on it
.
So I do believe we're made formore and, truthfully, for me, I
know that every day I have moreto give than I do, and it's not
(04:22):
because I'm not trying, it'sjust not focusing on that every
day.
It's very easy not to give athousand percent every single
moment of every day, and, ofcourse, that's impossible too.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Of course it is.
Of course it is.
And when I think about you,steve, you know I started off by
saying we go, we go way backand we do.
I think I've known you about 20years now, if I'm doing the
math right.
You are, and it's a funny thingI will mention this isn't the
first time I've interviewed you,it was just a different
circumstance, that's true.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
We actually worked.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
You gave me a job.
Oh, there you go, there you goI did.
Well, you know what you wereselected and I'll tell you
because of who you are.
And the funny thing is we.
You know, we worked togetherfor a little bit, but we became
friends over the years.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And we made in touch.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
We did.
You know, it's one of mypersonal I believe one of my
personal skills, something I'mreally good at, always have been
is relationships and keepingrelationships.
And while you and I may nothave worked together now for
probably 19 years, we've stayedin touch those 19 years and
(05:39):
that's really important to mebecause you personally made a
mark on me and I hope that I didas well to you, you know.
But the fact that we're heretalking I know, I know you're
like Steve.
Come on, come on.
Let's stop this nonsense, ofcourse you made a mark on me,
(06:00):
but really, I mean, it's a truemark of a beautiful friendship
that here we are, you know, 20years later.
We haven't worked together in19 of those years, but we've
stayed in touch through all ofit, through the ups, the downs,
every bit of it, and that'sreally special.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
That's absolutely true.
I couldn't agree more.
As you just say the ups and thedowns, I think about a lot of
the stories that we've.
You know the time we just pickup the phone and call each other
, and sometimes it'd be a yearwhen we went by and we hadn't
heard from each other.
But if we were in going throughsomething, we always felt
comfortable reaching out andpicking up the phone and saying,
hey, whether it was to cheereach other on for something we
(06:39):
did see in social media, or say,hey, I'm going through
something, I miss you, I need tocatch up.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And that really helps .
So it really does.
And I don't want to go off on atangent, but I will say that
the job that you hired me orselected me for back then, I, I
believe and this is the power ofpositivity I willed that job
for myself.
I left another state, as youknow, I was living in Tennessee
(07:10):
at the time and I moved back toNew York and when I interviewed
for that position, I had toldeverybody when I left Nashville
I'm going to get that job, I'mgoing to work at that company.
And people said that's crazy.
How do you know that?
Have you interviewed or haveyou applied?
Has somebody told you that theythey're interested?
(07:32):
And I said no, none of that.
And they all thought I was nuts.
And you know, I didn't knowthat, I didn't know that, I
don't know your story.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, and that does make sense, you know, and
another thing I think about whenI recall back to the early days
of our friendship is you weresomebody that just stood out
from others and in the job thatwe worked in together, I can't
go into too much detail about it, but you were somebody that
just it came naturally to youbecause you were having
(08:03):
conversations with people everyday.
That's what it was, and peoplerespected you for that, just for
your authenticity and who youare.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, thank you.
That feels good to hear.
I don't necessarily recognizethat all the time, so it's it's.
It's difficult and nice at thesame time to hear that.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Well, that's, that's cool.
So you just mentioned you wentfrom Tennessee to New York and I
was going to even say in partof the intro oh, steve has gone
from Nash, new York, toNashville, to Minnesota, but you
do have a whole journey.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour story, about Steve
Schweidel.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So where do you start ?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I guess I start when I grew up right, I grew up in
Jersey, so as a Jersey boy Idon't sing like those guys,
though, but but you know, I grewup in Jersey.
I think I had what I would calla normal childhood.
What childhood is is not normal.
(09:03):
I mean I had divorced parentsand it was a difficult time as a
kid, but I don't think that itwas abnormal, I just had a
normal childhood and I hadpassion for music and I think at
one point in my life I thoughtI'd be a musician.
But early on, when I was inhigh school and maybe even
(09:27):
middle school, I realized I amnot going to be a musician.
All of my friends are runningcircles musically around me and
that's okay.
But I knew I loved music so Igot into recording music and I
started that when I was in highschool and it was the early
(09:47):
times of of you know, digitalmusic.
It was the days of, you know,crappy keyboards and this
technology called MIDI, m-i-d-i,and and I had this recording
set up, I mean in the early tomid 90s and you know some of it
was on a little tape deckrecorder and I had just cassette
(10:07):
decks and it was a four trackand I was so psyched about that.
But then when the computerstuff started to come into play,
I got to record on the computerand mix it into the analog and
it was just a blast.
So that was something I wasreally interested in.
So after high school I moved toPhiladelphia.
I went to the Art Institute ofPhiladelphia.
I studied music business there,which is what I have a degree
(10:30):
in, but I emphasized inrecording and it gave me a good
foundation.
It gave me more tools and Itook those tools and while I was
still in college I got hired ata radio and TV commercial
recording studio in Philadelphiaand I was the tape guy I was.
(10:52):
I was in a small room, smallerthan I can I know you can't see
my room here right now, but itwas smaller than this room and
this room is small and I had allthese reel to reel tape
machines and I was literally Iwould hit, play and record on
these reel to reel machines.
I had a master and the masterwas recording on like eight
(11:14):
different reel to reel machinesand when the spot the radio
commercial was over, I'd hitstop on all of them.
I cut the tape, I put it in abox, I've labeled it and I'd
send it off to these radiostations and it was a friggin
blast.
It was kind of like I reallyfelt like I was doing something
insane and I was brilliant, eventhough it was something so
(11:36):
simple you know Sounds cool.
It was a blast, it really was.
And so there was a guy, his namewas Keith.
His name still is Keith.
I saw him somewhat recently andhe was the national voiceover
for Dodge, specifically theDodge Neon commercial, if you
remember the Dodge Neon.
(11:58):
I mean absolutely, oh my gosh.
So, he was doing commercials andhe comes back to the tape room
and he's like so I hear you'rethe music guy.
And I said I am.
And he said well, look, I'm amusician, I used to be in a band
, I'm in a band now.
The band I was in is no longertogether, but I gotta play a gig
(12:19):
this week.
Do you want to record sound forme?
Or I'm sorry, I've record butrun sound for me at the club.
I said sure.
So I went down to this club ina little town called Maniunk,
pennsylvania, right outside ofPhiladelphia, ran sound and the
next day he called me and hesaid Steve, and actually he
named me.
You know, you know me as Shwa,I do.
(12:41):
He named me Shwa S-C-H-W-A.
I don't know which Shwa Shwa,shwa, shwa-deviv, yeah,
Shwa-Deviv.
And so he literally you know.
He said, steve, do you want tocome on the road with me?
He said I gotta go on the roadfor about six weeks.
(13:01):
I need a van driver and a soundguy, would you do it?
And I said, man, if my job letsme, I'm there.
So I went to my boss, who knewmy passion for music.
He was super supportive.
I'm still in touch with him aswell.
He's retired, but literally hewas very supportive.
He said, yes, go, go do it, youknow.
(13:24):
And I did.
And we went through Nashvillethat's where Keith's record
label was and I just I fell inlove with the town.
It was so different thananything I was used to.
It was really sleepy.
But here I am driving down thisroad called Music Row and I was
like how?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
cool, is this A town?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
that's music row.
So I literally we went back toPennsylvania after six weeks and
I knew I had to get toNashville and so I picked up.
This was 97.
I picked up and I moved.
I moved to Nashville.
I was in Nashville for oh,about two no, not even two years
(14:08):
, about a year, and it was myfirst experience of just feeling
like I didn't fit in and itsucked.
Yeah, it sucked because I knewI did fit in, but the town was
really closed off at that time.
It was like they call it, likethe good old boy network.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Okay, click it.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Yeah, and it was like if you weren't from there and
grew up there, you were anoutsider and I was.
I was an outsider and, evenworse, I was from the North, you
know.
So I was, you know, gung ho anda go getter and I was moving
too fast for everything.
So I found some work, you know,I mean literally a week and a
(14:48):
half after living in Nashvilleexcuse me, nashville a huge
tornado blew through.
I mean it's just crazy stuff.
And I wound up working at a dubhouse, a same similar type of
gig that I was doing inPennsylvania, except it was
music only.
And the guy who owned thestudio, he was the guy behind
(15:14):
the Budweiser commercials.
If you remember Bud Wise, theBudfrogs, he did the Budfrogs.
I mean talk about some seriouscoin, right?
Okay, so I worked for him for awhile, but at the same time I
was folding jeans at the gap.
I mean, I was working every.
(15:35):
I was waiting tables, I wasbartending, I was doing whatever
I could just to survive,because I wanted it to work so
bad.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And I don't even know , I don't even know this story
about you.
Yeah, well, and down.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
No, we probably never talked about it.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
It's detailed it happened before you and I knew
each other.
So ultimately I wound up movingback to New York because I was
like this isn't working out.
So I go back to New York andwhat do I do?
I take my resume, new York City.
I go to every major recordingstudio, probably 30 to 40
(16:09):
studios.
I spent that day.
I dropped off my resumeeverywhere Electric lady, sony,
I mean.
The hit factory was one whichI'll get back to in a second.
The power station, I mean.
Most of these studios are notthere anymore.
Some are, and it was insanebecause I'm just dropping off my
(16:31):
resume, I don't know anybodyand I'm thinking, okay, I've
reached my end of the day, I'mgoing to my last studio.
The last studio was like thebiggest of them all, the hit
factory, I mean this Idefinitely have heard of that
one.
Oh God, I mean the studio wasfamous for so many amazing
records.
I mean, you know Graceland, youname it, you know Paul Simon
(16:54):
Graceland, huge records, and Iwas intimidated but so excited
just to even walk in the door tobe able to hand somebody
something.
And I walk in and it's allglass doors and I walk in and
there's a security guard at asecurity desk and then another
set of glass doors and you cansee through and it's golden
(17:15):
platinum records.
I mean wall to wall.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
So you didn't have an appointment, you just walked in
.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Oh, no, I just walked in.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
You're going door to door.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Yeah, nice security guard.
But he said you know what areyou here for?
And I said I'm looking for ajob, I'm a recording engineer.
And he said well, you have yourresume.
And I said I do, you know?
And he wouldn't let me throughthe other doors.
He said I promise you this isgoing to get to the right person
.
And I'm thinking like no, it'snot.
And I kind of argued a littlewith him.
(17:43):
I'm like you're just giving mea line.
I said I've been walking tostudio after studio.
He said trust me, it's going toget to the right place.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
What happens?
Speaker 4 (17:52):
By the time I got back to my apartment in New York
City, I had a phone call with amessage from the owner of the
studio saying perfect timing, Igot your resume, we're hiring
you know why don't you come intomorrow?
So I wound up in there the nextday.
Yeah, it was crazy.
I did get hired on the spot,but I was hired as a grunt.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I mean literally a grunt, but you wanted to just
get in the door.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
My foot was now on the door.
I didn't care if I was cleaningtoilets.
And I was.
I was sweeping floors, I wasdoing errands.
I mean I had.
I literally was told you know,this artist needs Campbell's
soup.
It's got to be this kind, thisflavor.
You know, these shape noodles,I mean crazy stuff.
(18:40):
And here I am running all overNew York City doing it and I did
it and what really changed forme was through it all.
Meg, is it okay if I call youMeg?
Absolutely, I love it, thankyou.
So, Meg, literally I was justbeing me.
I don't know how to be somebody.
(19:01):
I'm not.
It just doesn't work If I'm notauthentic, you're going to know
.
And I was just being Shwai.
I was me.
And clearly the owner and otherpeople in the studio saw that
and they saw me for who I was.
And I got called into theboss's office and he said I'm
(19:22):
going to give you the shot ofthe lifetime.
He said I need somebody to beanother engineer on a Paul Simon
record.
And he said, I'm going to trustyou with that, assuming you want
it, and I'm like holding backthe excitement because the last
thing I want to do is be like a,you know, like starstruck.
(19:45):
Over eager, but Paul Simon, ohmy God, like hell.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Right, the first person you're going to record
Like talk about that levelautomatically.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
So I said absolutely whatever you need.
Well, I was doing like 165 hourweeks because I'm working with
Paul Simon and he records, toget to watch his process, Him
recording a full record in thestudio, not coming prepared with
songs and tracks, just buildingit all from nothing, was
(20:15):
amazing.
I mean, the guy is justbrilliant and at the same time
I'm working on that and thenthat afforded me other
opportunities.
So now all of a sudden I'mengineering you know, rap and
hip hop records at night and Imean I'm sleeping at the studio.
I had a bed blown up behind theconsole.
It was nuts.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Seriously.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
It was nuts.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Oh my goodness.
So they shower there andeverything.
Do they have that kind offacility?
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Oh yeah.
So I lived there for a full,solid another year and a half
and I got burnt.
I was really burnt.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I was gonna ask how do you do that?
How do you know what happens?
I really I did.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
I was fried and I was working so hard.
I mean, I worked on TonyBennett records.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Paul.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Simon.
Billy Joel.
I got to do a track with BillyJoel Before Beyonce was Beyonce.
You know when it was.
Oh God the three girls.
Yes, destiny's Child, destiny'sokay.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Thank you, I have a gold record of theirs, and a
platinum one.
But I mean like I got to work onsome really cool stuff, but it
really fried me.
I mean, I was just unhealthy atthat point and I said to myself
I'm gonna get through this PaulSimon record and then I'm going
back to Nashville Because now Ihad it in my head that, wait a
minute, there's no way.
(21:41):
No matter what I experiencedthe first time, there's no way
now, with the experience and thetechnology and my skills that
I've learned, I'm an A-listernow in terms of the things I
learned and I did.
I finished that record withPaul and I wound up going back
to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Before you get to that, because obviously I want
to hear about that story.
Ha-ho, were you not able totell them?
Hey, I want to break.
Or was that your choice or wasit the circumstances?
It was a little bit of a normalwork week, yeah it was a little
of both.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
I mean, you know my boss, he gave me the, the
freedom like, hey, you know, youdon't have to work as much as
you're working.
I also knew it was a way to getmy chops to where they needed
to be.
Yeah, and I was young, you know, and when you're young, like
you don't think about long-termor you know, you just go and go.
(22:37):
Yeah, and I think I went andwent and went until I just
couldn't go anymore, you know,and and I just knew that I just
had to finish that record andthen I had to go because I Knew
it was my only way out.
The other thing is I started toreally decide what I love to
(22:58):
work on and what I didn't, andwhat you know worked for me and
what fed my soul.
And there were things that Iwas working on that just didn't.
It just didn't feed my soul.
And I knew that there was noperfect recipe, but I wanted
that, you know, opportunity totry and work on as much as on
music, that that really fed mysoul and I knew.
(23:21):
That the songwriting inNashville was so deep and so
beautiful, Similar to you knowthe songs that Paul Simon would
write.
You know they had substance.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
So so you went back to.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Nashville.
I went back to Nashville and,sure enough, I was right People
listened.
This time.
You had something under yourbelt so and what I really had
under my belt was Pro tools,which was a technology, still is
and it became the biggestdigital recording technology.
(23:53):
Pro tools had not reachedNashville yet.
They were using a differenttechnology ADAT tapes and so I
come in and I have the chops onPro Tools and Vocal tuning had
become a big thing.
So I got hired.
I wound up buying my own rig.
(24:14):
It was very expensive, but Ibought my own equipment and I
had a cartage company that wouldbring my equipment to whatever
studio I was working at and Iwas tuning vocals for a lot of
big artists and it was a blast.
I was also just editing tracks.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
It was a lot of fun, you know so, steve, I let's talk
about this for one second.
I mean, you just name dropped aton of people that Anybody hang
on, let me pick them up oh.
Would love to meet just one ofthese people and you make it
sound like, oh yeah, I justworked with this one, this one,
this one and all of these greats.
What?
Were there any situations withany of those people that were
(24:53):
nerve-wracking To meet them inthe room, or was?
Did they have an instantrespect for you because of your
role?
What was that like so?
Speaker 4 (25:02):
there.
There's a little story here totell you everybody.
Every artist is different, sure, and I would say that nine
times out of ten I had amazingexperiences.
I wasn't star struck, I justwent in, I did the work and it
was just a job.
And these people, you know, Ilooked at him no different than
(25:25):
hopefully they were looking atme Like this guy knows what he's
doing, he does his thing, I domine.
It was fine, but there weresome weird situations and of
course I'm not gonna mentionnames, but of course, but one
night, you know, one of theartists I was working with came
in and put a Glock nine pistolon the console.
(25:49):
Oh boy, and now can I?
I don't know what the rules arehere.
Am I allowed to say a curseword?
Speaker 3 (25:57):
I'm being told I might have to bleep it out.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Maybe the letter you could always, you could always
believe it.
But literally this guy says tome you're gonna make my shit
right and throws this gun down.
And it was like you know, myheart starts pounding and I'm
like is this guy serious?
You know, and part of me thinkshe might have been, but now
(26:21):
that I look back on it, I Ithink he wasn't.
I think it was like his ownversion of humor.
Okay, at the time I didn't thinkit was funny you know, but I
can look back now and you knowFor what it's worth.
That person, who I'm not gonnamention, happens to be a
billionaire now.
(26:41):
So I mean it's like you know hewasn't being serious.
But you know again, at the timeI didn't know that and I was.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
You didn't know him.
You didn't yeah, no, exactly,and I also.
It's scary.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Yeah, I had all sorts of weird experiences.
I mean, people call me askinhead, like I used to have
shaved my head really shorterthan this, you know it's like,
okay, yeah, I'm a Jewishskinhead.
I go figure, like right, itdoesn't, it doesn't there's a
lot of ignorance out there inthe world, you know, and and I
certainly got different aspectsof that.
(27:13):
But you know, there was only onetime that I really like, my
heart kind of dropped and I gotstarstruck and I hadn't even
seen the artist, and it's whenMichael Jackson came into the
studio.
Oh, my goodness, yes, he comesin, and I think it's the way
that his people Took care of himthat created that, that
(27:36):
excitement in me that my bodyjust couldn't control and it was
like, okay, all of a sudden,every light in the entire
building goes out and they,basically there was this, uh,
elevator, service, elevator thata car could pull up on the
street and pull right into andclose, and so you know they open
(28:01):
the other side of this garagedoor on the inside of the studio
and hallway of the studio andit's Michael Jackson, but all
the lights are out and he'swalking, like walking right by
me and I'm just like my god,like yeah, that's, that's crazy,
that's nuts, I can't evenbelieve all these names that
you've just mentioned.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
It's pretty, it's pretty special.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
It's, you know it's it's, it's awesome to have had
those experiences, thoseopportunities.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Um again, there's more there's more like if you
think about we've we've justtouched the surface.
I know, people listening orhearing this saying wow, that
this is pretty incredible tohear someone who started out in
the music business and we'reabout to.
We got a flash forward to someof the stories of where you've
gone from there.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
I know I need to move on from new york, right, I need
to move you back to nashville.
Because that's yeah, so I goback to nashville, I'm working
in the studio, it's great,everything's good.
Until September 11th 2001.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
And when you know.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
People say you know the world stopped with covet.
I actually disagree.
I think the world stopped forquite a while.
On September 11th 2001 andPeople don't necessarily
remember as well as theyremember covet covet's recent,
so it feels like it wasyesterday.
September 11th happened andthings really did stop.
(29:28):
I mean the world just stopped.
You're right, and the music yeah, in the music industry went
into um Benefit mode, so artistswere recording for benefit
projects and they were appearingfor concerts to raise money and
and it was all really great andI got to be a part of some of
(29:52):
it.
But I was donating my time as arecording engineer.
I didn't have a check that wascoming in from anybody.
I was a freelance gig workerand when September 11th happened
and you know, the world stoppedand so did my paychecks.
So I was doing a lot of goodstuff, but I wasn't getting paid
(30:12):
for it and I don't think I wassmart enough or advanced enough
in life at that point To thinkabout it as it was happening,
and so, you know, I got in a badway.
I I was spending more moneybecause I wasn't making any
money, so spending my savingsand then my savings was going
(30:34):
away right, and then I would geta credit card and that was
maxed out, so I get anothercredit card.
I mean, I wound up in serious,serious financial trouble really
bad, and so, while my studiowork wasn't really picking back
up, that's where it was like,okay, I got to find something.
(30:55):
So what did I do?
I become a barista at starbucks.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
And and, by the way, I was a damn good one.
I still am I'm my own bestbarista these days.
In fact, I've been called theHeisenberg of coffee.
If you're familiar with theshow Breaking Bad Heisenberg.
Yeah, so he makes all the thedrugs, you know, he makes the
good stuff, I make the goodcoffee.
(31:22):
I have a whole process.
It's like I'm a scientist.
Anyway, I'm working atStarbucks, and at the time,
though, back in the first stintI did in Nashville, I became
friends with big kenny and johnrich.
And most people know them as bigand rich big and rich country
duo.
Yes, and at the time though, inthe early or the mid 90s, when
(31:46):
I met them Mid late 90s it wasjust john rich and big kenny.
John had just finished being amember of loan star, which he
was a founding member.
Kenney, uh, had just finished.
He had had a record deal on arock record, um, and it had just
(32:06):
gotten out of that deal becausehis rock career just didn't
take over and they had thisthing called the music mafia and
it was, you know, music beingplayed by a bunch of friends,
you know, every week in thislittle club called the pub of
love, and it was just like greatsongs that they were writing
together and they wereshowcasing Other friends who
(32:30):
were writing songs, and I mean,they were showcasing just
beautiful songs and it was likehey, steve does this and I'm
just using me as an example, butokay, this is not true but it
was like hey, steve's reallygood at this, so we're going to
showcase them doing that.
That's what they were doingwith young musicians and it was
really this beautiful community.
(32:51):
And so we became friends and infact, big kenny and I wrote a
bunch of silly songs togetherBack in the day and I mean I
love those songs, but are arethey for somebody else?
No, they were for us, and itwas great.
And so now I'm back for thesecond time and I'm still
recording, just not as muchbecause september eleventh
(33:12):
happened.
I need to make a living, so I'mworking a starbucks, which
happens to be right down thestreet from where big kenny was
living, and so I finished work,I go to his house and we write
songs and we record and we havea blast in the same breath big
and rich.
We're starting to write songstogether as an act although at
the time they were big and richyet and they were doing
(33:36):
something for a performancerights organization organization
there's a couple of them askcap bmi and they were doing one
where a bunch of students fromberkeley music school in boston
Come down and they were teachingus how to write a song and in
the room that day they wrotesave a horse, ride a cowboy.
(33:58):
And a couple of days later theywere going in the studio with
the same students to record andI was one of one of the guys
recording.
I was one of the engineers.
So, what I didn't know is thatthey were really gonna get
signed to warner brothers and acareer is gonna take off so fast
forward.
Two thousand three.
(34:18):
I've kinda had enough again andI'm like I gotta go back to new
york.
It just must not be my time tobe here.
Yeah so again, I'm not gonnamention the company that I I
wound up looking for work with,but I did tell people, hey, I'm
gonna leave nashville, I'm gonnago work for this company.
(34:38):
They all think I'm nuts.
Everybody's tell me not to doit and I leave.
I move back to new york.
I moved to long island and Iinterviewed at that business
with you.
You selected me out of, I'msure, tons of beautiful
candidates and I was luckyenough to be selected.
(35:02):
You and I got to work togetherfor a while, for about a year I
think yeah I transferred withinthe company to another location
in the new york city and I had ablast in new york city and I
get a phone rang, the phone rangyeah, I get a call.
It's big kenny and he's like the.
(35:24):
He called me the, the goodjewish reverend.
And he said reverend schwae,how are you know?
It's big kenny.
And I was like I'm doing great.
He's like you know how you likein your job.
And I said yeah, it's, it's agreat job.
I got it, I got benefits, I gota good salary.
And he's like that's awesome.
We're coming to new york citynext week.
(35:44):
We're playing cbgb's.
It's a, it's a play for themedia.
You gotta come.
You know the records gonna comeout soon.
You gotta be Said alright, I'llcome out.
I said why don't I hop out onthe road?
If you guys can spare some room, I'll come out for a week.
And he said, brother, you gottado it.
So I go out for a week.
(36:05):
I went to that show that night.
I hopped on the bus in themiddle of the night and I'm on
the road with them for a week.
They were just doing radiostuff and kenny said we need a
guitar tech.
He said you've met our tourmanager.
I can't give you that job, butwe need a guitar tech.
We're going on the road withtim mcraw.
(36:25):
We need you.
You gotta come out and I'm like, yeah, I'm like what do I do?
so I came back to new york and Imet with my boss in new york
city and I said I I'm not thetype of guy to put in my
resignation with no notice, butI have to make.
(36:47):
I have a maker break decisionand I've decided I'm gonna take
this job.
And this person I actually, youknow, is very upset, not just I
didn't give two weeks, but justwas very upset in general and I
was like, really, is thisreally happening?
And he said you know you'regonna be so sorry you're leaving
(37:10):
.
You know you're just wastingyour time.
Nothing's ever gonna come to us.
And I just I kinda stayed meagain.
I'm a calm person, so I juststayed calm and moved on.
And guess what?
It was the best decision I evermade in my life right, right,
and who knows?
Speaker 3 (37:27):
and those moments I mean sometimes you can't tell,
but you knew, you had a feelingthat it was.
It was calling you.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Yeah, right to do and , let's be honest, I'll fast
forward just quick snippets ofthis.
But I wound up becoming big andriches tour manager, extremely
successful at it for years andleft them at the end of a tour
and worked with jewel andplatinum but what are some of
(37:55):
her credentials?
I mean, I'm over, I think overthirty two million records sold
worldwide you know, I mean hugehits, and I met her.
Everything has a networkingstory, but john rich, it's like
six degrees of shawaii, I meanit really.
It's like how did I get thejewel?
(38:15):
I mean that one's really quick.
It's like john rich jewel.
He produced her record, she dida country record and she called
me for advice on puttingtogether a band and a crew for
her tour.
And it was like, and Iliterally I said what am I
chopped liver?
And she goes oh, I can't stealyou from big and rich.
(38:37):
And I said you don't have to.
I literally I'm leaving at theend of the year they already
know it was.
I think this was in mid october.
And she's like, oh, my godreally.
And I said, yeah, you call johnif you're concerned about.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
She didn't have to call john, but so I wound up
working with her for how longyou were with yeah, your your
friends with jewel a long time,yeah so, yeah, two thousand and
Eight was when we first worktogether, work for a solid year,
full tour.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Then.
And oh nine, I did a basicallytravel the world with her doing
solo acoustic shows.
It was just her and I and oneother guy On the crew.
She had a personal assistantnow, so it's like four of us
traveling around the world is ablast.
And and then she, you know, waskind of taking a break.
She know what was next for her.
(39:29):
So she needs to let me go.
When I say let me go, let me gooff of what they call in the
business retainer, you know.
So I was getting paid.
If there were months that wentby that we didn't work, I was
still getting retainer, so thatif something came up, she, she
had to be my first priority, andit's pretty common in the
(39:49):
business, but she was taking abreak.
So I took a break from her, butat the same time she call me
randomly hey, I got a gig, areyou available?
Yeah, is available.
In twenty thirteen she did hergreatest hit store.
She's like any chance you can,you know, go out at this point.
I started my own business, Istart a management company and I
(40:12):
artist most know clear viewclear view artist management.
I still have it today, but thenotable act that I had at the
time was nitty gritty dirt band.
For those of your, your viewers, that haven't heard of them,
I'm sure they've heard the songfishing in the dark, and the
band has many, many great hits.
(40:34):
They've been around, you know,fifty five plus years now and
they're still going.
And so I managed them from twoend of two thousand nine just
until twenty twenty one, so along time.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
So, steve, pause for one moment because I'm getting
offered.
For those that aren't watching,this right with.
This is something we put out onyoutube, but for those that are
just listening at what I'm oneof the many podcast platforms
I'm, you can see that steve hasa bunch of beautiful records on
the wall behind him and he alsohas.
He also has an award thatsitting there.
I have to call it out and it's,it's an Emmy, so that's pretty
(41:10):
impressive.
Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 4 (41:13):
I know pertains to nitty gritty yeah, so it is a
Emmy award for special eventcoverage.
So it was.
It was a special event.
It was for their fiftiethanniversary Nitty gritty dirt
band and friends celebratingfifty years and I, along with
(41:33):
two other guys, produced thespecial and we won this Emmy
award for the special.
It was air.
It still is airing all theseyears later that it came out in
twenty sixteen.
It's still airing all theseyears later on PBS.
It was made, we made it andproduced it for a PBS pledge
(41:56):
special.
It's done so well and helpedraise so much money that it's
still on today and Congrats.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Thank you seriously.
It's incredible.
Like how many people do I knowthat I want an Emmy oh right
just you.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
It's really, it's like one of the coolest things
that's ever happened to me.
I got to go up and give theacceptance speech and that I saw
that I was asked what was thatlike?
That was the most nerve wrackingthing I've done in my life.
And what's funny is I'm in aroom of my peers like maybe,
(42:34):
maybe, four or five hundredpeople.
I've stood on state the stageat Gillette stadium to a sold
out Gillette stadium show forKenny Chesney concert and
they're big and rich and I'mstanding on that stage To, you
know, a hundred thousand peopleand I'm working and I was fine
but now I have to talk and saysomething.
(42:55):
Holy crap, what do I do, youknow?
But it was an amazingexperience.
I mean, it was one of those ohmy god moments like this can't
even be real.
Like, don't pinch me you betterjust sucker punch me because it
just doesn't feel real, youknow, but it was real and it's
so special.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
It is special, you know, if you, if I'm thinking
about all the stories thatyou've shared with us and you
have a theme going, which isthat you know, if you know this
about yourself maybe you do butyou put it out there in the
universe of what you're going todo, from everything you just
shared with us tonight, and Ididn't know that this was coming
(43:35):
.
But I've been listening and I'mthinking, wow, he did it again,
did again.
And you say to people hey, I'mgonna come work for you, I'm
gonna go work there and I'mgonna make it happen.
I'm gonna go work there and I'mgonna make it happen.
I'm gonna show up.
Speaker 4 (43:46):
You have so much grit and do you know that about
yourself that you put it outthere and say, hey, I'm gonna
come work for you, jewel, I'mgonna come for you, can, I'm
gonna come work for you, so Iwouldn't say that I know it
about myself, but I believe youand I believe it about myself,
because I do believe thatthere's a, there's a power in
(44:10):
positivity and there's a powerin manifesting your destiny,
saying, you know, if you believeit and you truly believe it and
you say it's going to happen,it will happen because your
determination, your soul, yourblood I mean it's all going
(44:30):
towards that goal.
If that's what you want and youcan make it happen, as long as
you're willing to do one thing,and it's a really important
thing not take no for an answer,and it's like the easiest thing
.
But it's the hardest thing foranybody, including myself, to
get, because when somebody saysno, the easiest thing to do is
(44:56):
accept it and say okay.
The hard thing and the hardestthing to do is to not accept it
and say I don't accept it.
I heard it but I don't acceptit.
So now I have to move on tothat next stage of how I'm going
to get there, and sometimesit's with that same person who
gave you the no.
Other times it's going to thatother door that's still open and
(45:20):
seeing if that's the the onethat you can walk through and it
doesn't shut on you.
But it's hard though it reallyis hard, but I'll tell you, the
power of positivity is so true.
And I think, meg, when we weretalking the other day, I told
you about a documentary.
It's a docu-series on Sean White, the snowboarder and there is a
(45:43):
point in that in thatdocumentary where he gave up it
was.
He was like, okay, I got to beokay with with winning silver it
and it was his last run he wasabout to do.
But the guy that the Japanesesnowboarder who had just done a
run had done the most amazingrun and Sean was in awe he was
(46:07):
like he's like okay, I'm okay,I'm just, I'm gonna take silver,
I'm gonna be okay with this.
And he's talking about it.
You hear him talking about itin real time.
And then he overdubs over thesilence as the camera is on him.
This is at the, I think, theSochi Olympics, I think it was
(46:27):
and he's on the top of themountain, he's about to go down
to his run and he's overdubbingand he says and then I thought
to myself but what if I wasn'tokay with silver?
Yeah, and he said and so Ibelieved that I wasn't gonna be
okay with silver.
So I just knew that I wasn'tgonna be good with that.
(46:51):
And what did he do?
He went down that pipe andthrew down an insane run and he
won gold.
He won gold and it yeah, it justshows you if his head wasn't in
the right place.
And think about it.
I'm we're talking about me,like you know, trying to get a
job and and I'm gonna go do that.
(47:13):
Yeah, this guy is like gonnajump you know these crazy twists
and turns and all this stuffyou know a hundred feet in the
air, sometimes out of the bottomof the pipe, and can kill
himself.
And he just willed it.
He's like I'm not gonna be okaywith silver.
Bam, he gets it's it's.
Speaker 3 (47:33):
It's so true, it's, and you're right.
We did talk about that and youand I have always liked talking
about these kind of things andabout people that are successful
and what their mindsets are,and that is the mindset of a
champion, that is the mindset ofsomebody who pushes themself,
and I love how you just sharedit's about not taking no but for
an answer, and that is that isreally tough.
Like do you, how do you?
(47:54):
How do you do that right?
I think that's the questionpeople have is how do you, I
guess, get rid of that?
I call it limiting beliefs.
How do you get put that asideand continue forward, not taking
that person's no?
Speaker 4 (48:08):
yeah, so it's not easy, I'll say that.
And even to this day, no matterhow many successes that I can
talk about and and go into, it'sstill very difficult for me and
sometimes I get in my own headand luckily I have an amazing
support system, you know.
(48:29):
So you know, sometimes I'll belaying in bed and kind of
bashing myself, quite honestlyyou know, yeah, I talked, I
talked down about me for noother reason, but maybe it's
because I heard a no, you know,or and sometimes it's not even
that I heard a no.
It's like I don't feel goodabout myself mentally.
(48:52):
So I decide that, you know,somebody says you should go,
maybe do this, and it'ssomething I might want to do,
and I say I can't do it, I'm notthat talented, I'm not capable
of that, I can't do that.
But then having a reallyamazing support support network
and having a beautiful, amazingfiancee who supports everything
(49:17):
I do, yes, absolutely the factthat she can say to me you know,
hang on a minute, like, why areyou talking about yourself?
Like that, you know, and shekind of puts me in check.
And and that's difficult too,you know it's it's not easy to
hear a no or to break a cycle.
(49:38):
But the more experience youhave and this is where the tweak
is, if you have even one, youjust need one, you need one know
that you turned into a yesbecause of your attitude and
your will to go do something.
All you need is that one,because if you're able to take
(50:00):
that one and store it in yourmemory, and we all can do that.
All you have to do is go back tothat memory.
You just have to go back andsay, well, if I did it for this,
when all the odds were againstme.
But all I had to do is say,nope, I'm determined, that's
what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Yes, and it happened.
Speaker 4 (50:18):
That's how I can get out of the next one and the next
one of me thinking that it'snot going to happen.
But there are some times thatyou know you just get stuck and
it's good to have that supportnetwork that can pull you out of
it.
And and Meg, you're one ofthose people.
I can talk to you.
I could be in a down place.
You might not know that I'm ina down place, but we can talk
(50:39):
and your positivity, it, it'sinfectious, it it you, you
infect me with the positivityand I'm able to be a better
person that day or that week orthat month.
I'm glad to hear that I am thatmakes that.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
That makes me feel good.
Thank you for sharing that.
But I agree with what you'resaying.
You got having a supportnetwork, people that care about
you, for others that are tryingto figure out how do I get out
of those tough times, because weall have them and I love that
you just shared.
You have them too, with thesuccess that you've had and the
records on the wall behind youand the awards and the people
(51:15):
that you've worked with.
You still have those toughmoments and those doubts.
Can I do this next thing youneed?
So I'm going to pull you out ofit and you need that.
Like you said, the memory bank,the file cabinet, is in there
because our self-doubts willtalk us out of.
It's easier, right, it's easierto say, oh, I can't do it, I
can't do it, but it's justpulling that one thing out.
(51:36):
I love that analogy.
Speaker 4 (51:38):
So and you have to stay humble.
I think I don't.
You know.
You asked me, so I'm talkingabout myself which is not
something I like to do.
You know, there are people thatlove to talk about themselves,
or talk about an award or anaccomplishment.
I really don't.
It's not so, and that's why I'mso good behind the camera, so
(51:59):
to speak, as we're on camera,you know but truly that's,
that's what's made me successful.
I don't boast about what I'vedone.
Now I'm proud, I'm very proudof everything I've been able to
do.
Sure, I'm even proud of myfailures.
I don't look at my failures astrue failures.
I look at my failures as that'show I got to do this, which was
(52:22):
a success.
You know, we can't just there'snobody in the world that's just
successful.
You have to have a lot ofthings to go wrong to get it
right, and I've had plenty ofwrong to get it right.
But, you know, not talkingabout it has been a great thing,
because what I love to do, Ilove to be proud of what I've
(52:45):
done.
I love for somebody to walkinto my office and they start
the conversation what the heckis this?
Or what did you do to get that?
And when you feel theirexcitement and their, their
authenticity and them beinggenuine and really wanting to
know more, it's a lot easier totalk, because then you're not
(53:08):
feeling like you're talkingabout yourself.
You're talking about somethingthat somebody genuinely wants to
know about and has asked youabout.
Sure, I think that's reallyimportant.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
You know being humble is absolutely really important
thing it surely does play intoit.
But, um well, this has beenreally lovely to talk to you
today, really mean it.
Speaker 4 (53:28):
I know it's crazy sharing all your stories.
You asked me, literally, Ithink, one question and I just
kept talking this no.
Speaker 3 (53:35):
I've had a couple.
I swear I've had a couple it'slike easy to just let you.
Speaker 4 (53:39):
Let you go with it, because you kind of connected
all the dots for us well, yougotta promise me if your viewers
enjoy this and meaning thisspecific episode and I hope they
do at some point you gottabring back for, like shawaii
version two.
You know we'll have to havelike a mini series oh,
absolutely that has shawaii onlybecause I'm having so much fun.
(54:01):
I love talking to you, meg.
It's like well.
Speaker 3 (54:04):
I feel the same and I really actually think that you
have your onto something here,because I'm just getting started
and I really think that youknow we just we have a small
audience right now.
I'm hoping that it grows, steve.
I'm hoping that it grows and ifso, I'd love to have you back.
We'll definitely talk again.
You have so much to share.
I've always admired just whoyou are, the person that you are
(54:26):
.
That's why we've kept in touchand been friends all these years
.
So thank you for what you'veshared with us today oh my god.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
Thank you, meg.
I mean you, your family, youguys are beautiful, you're,
you're just positive personality.
This is a lot fast here it itis, but what you bring to me has
always been so positive.
I mean, there's never been amoment whether it was work fun,
(54:53):
just catching up there's neverbeen a moment that hasn't
literally made me smile ear toear, just big old grin whenever
I get to converse with you andsometimes it could be a text,
absolutely that.
Speaker 3 (55:08):
That means the world to me, steve.
So thank you everybody outthere for listening, thank you
for those of you that havewatched.
I hope you've enjoyed thesegreat stories and taken
something out of it today, andwe'll say goodbye for now bye
for now well, that's it fortoday.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Thank you for listening.
If you like what you heard,bookmark this podcast and follow
Megan on Instagram.
Okay, now for the disclaimer.
This podcast is solely foreducational and entertainment
purposes.
Megan is not a licensedtherapist and this podcast is
not intended as a substitute forphysician, professional coach,
(55:49):
psychotherapist or otherqualified profession.
Goodbye, everybody.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.