October 24, 2022 • 22 mins
In Episode 2, Kevin brings on a sibling trio band from South Dakota named Zeona Road. Kevin and Zeona Road dive into how much their mindset has changed since arriving in Nashville over 5 years ago, how he came across them 2+ years ago and was instantly hooked. Plus, Zeona Road talks about how growing up on the buffalo plains of South Dakota has prepared them for the grind of living in Nashville and trying to make it in the music industry.
Podcast Description:
Unsigned and Independent is a six episode season podcast hosted by Kevin O’Connell that features unsigned and independent artists and bands in Nashville. The purpose of this podcast is to highlight the journey and grind musicians go through trying to make it in the industry; the journey most fans don’t see leading up to national success. People move to music city from all over the country to chase something they have only dreamed of – making music and performing for a living. This podcast will dive into stories on the road, late nights and early mornings on the infamous Broadway, their background story, and if there is an ultimate goal for each artist or band. The artists featured on this podcast don’t have the backing of a label or sometimes even management, or a publishing team to handle their bookings, travel, etc.… But what they all have in common is a genuine passion for the love of music and performing. There is hidden talent spread throughout music city and the aim of this podcast is to give this hidden talent an opportunity to have a platform for an audience to hear their story, what the process is really like in the industry, and hopefully gain a new fan or two.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys. So it's pretty cool new series we have here,
Unsigned and Independent. There'll be six episodes in this season
and it is hosted by Kevin O'Connell, who you may
also know as kick Off Kevin on twenty five Whistles
and he also works for the Bobby Bones Show behind
the scenes. So, but this guy is a music nerd,
a music ficionado. He goes out and he watches shows
(00:21):
people I never heard before, and he often comes in
talks about him. This is how this thing got started here,
So this whole podcast, this series features unsigned and independent
artists and bands right here in Nashville, and he'll dive
into these stories late nights, early mornings, playing Broadway. Their
background the ultimate goal for each new artist or band,
(00:42):
and you know, these artists don't really have the backing
of label or even management or sometimes on a publishing
team or I mean, it's all of them, and so
it's just the band, just the artist and how far
they're willing to go in order to chase their dream.
And if you hear a story and you find someone's music,
you're like, dang, I do like them. The best way
to support them is to just share their stuff. On
(01:02):
social media. Honestly, like, if you like a song, put
it upt to putting your Instagram story, share this podcast
that that also helps these new artists. So it's called
Unsigned and Independent. I hope you like it. With Kevin O'Connell,
this episode is Zion a Road. It's a trio. It's
sibling group that moved to Nashville from the plain in
South Dakota. They're the quote most entertaining man that Kevin
(01:24):
has seen on the Nashville stage. The two sisters each
play multiple instruments during their set, including one of them
being what Kevin says, the best fiddle player in the city.
I haven't seen it so well. I'll not say that
because I know a lot of good fiddle players. But
enjoy Episode two, Zion A Road. Hey, what's up. It's
(01:49):
Kevin O'Connell, host of Unsigned and Independent. Welcome to episode two.
You can find me on social media at kickoff Kevin.
You can find this next band named Zion a Road
at Zion a Road Now. Ziona Road is made up
of two sisters and one brother who grew up on
the Great Buffalo Plains of South Dakota, and we got
to talk about how that upbringing has made them who
(02:11):
they are today and why hard work really nothing new
to them and this band is super entertaining, super talented,
So I wanted to know was this something that they
did as kids? Was it always in them? And we
get to talk about that a little bit. I think
you really enjoy this. And if you haven't seen them,
if you're in Nashville or wherever, if they're playing somewhere
you're at, go see Ziona Road. I promise you will
(02:32):
not be disappointed. And I hope you enjoyed this interview.
Thanks for listening, Ziona Road. So pumped to have you
guys in here. Let's kick things off real quick by
going around the room and introducing yourselves and kind of
your role in the band a little round robin, if
you will. I'm Peyton Dirty, I play bass and kind
of road manage and tour manage us and book us
right now keeps the piece like kind of the jack
(02:55):
of all trades. There you go. You're the peacemaker of
the group. Have been dealing with them for a long time.
It's crazy. I'm eva um saying play uh, play keys, guitar,
kind of whatever. Um. I handle a lot of our
like social media and marketing and promo stuff with with
(03:15):
Emmy and uh yeah nice and Emmy, I'm a fiddle player.
And like Eva said, we do a lot of the
social media. We organized filming and studio stuff and march
all that kind of stuff. Okay, so you guys kind
of all wear your own hats, but everyone also has
our hands in on a little bit of everything, I assume, right, yeah, okay,
(03:38):
And then you are also brother sister the trio siblings.
Do you have any other siblings? Actually, I wanted to
ask out first. Yeah. Now we're the three oldest of
ten kids. Ten Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're the three oldest. Yeah.
They all live in South Dakota. Still, I've got we
have one other brother that lives in Nashville, and then
(03:59):
the rest of the mare in South Dakota. Nice. So
we're kind of like just sneaking into conversation. We're like,
so when you're going to move to Nashville with us
on that? Our mom is like, don't slowly get Yeah, yeah, slowly,
but surely. Yeah, we're all getting there. What about your parents?
They were supportive of the move for you down to Naturville. Yeah, yeah,
(04:20):
I think they were more supportive of us moving down
here than we wanted to be down here. Really. Yeah, yeah,
I mean moved down a couple of years before Peyton
and I did, and then you know, he started the band,
and Peyton and I came down after I graduated high school,
and uh yeah, they were super super into it. How
long have you guys been here? I've been here for
(04:41):
nine years? Yeah, wow, Okay, I hit six years next week. Yeah,
I guess it is six years, right. It goes by
so fast, so fast, so fast. You guys been so busy,
I'm sure from me how I came across you guys,
I was here a couple of years ago, visiting before
I moved here in during the pandemic, okay, And our
first night we went to tuts, of course, because we're
(05:02):
tourists and that's what we do, right, And there's about
ten of us and you guys were playing, and I
just remember all of us were just like, dude, he's gruel.
They were just killing it last night. You know. We
woke up next day, You're like, they had the fiddle
up there, and you guys just put on a big show.
So I was like, and then I started following on Instagram,
So I've been following you since. But my question here
is if you've seen you out on Broadway or wherever,
(05:23):
then you know that you guys put on a great show.
That's why I think you guys are great at what
you do. You're all over the stage, you're entertaining, and
then at the end of the day, that's kind of
what you're in your entertainment business. Right, So growing up,
was that something that you were playing in South Dakota
to all over the stage and having fun with it
or is it more a little more mellow you know,
it's funny. It was a good question. That's a really
good question. No. I was talking to somebody about this
(05:44):
the other day. I think that it was almost like
when because I was pretty young when we started. I
was like fifteen, I think when we started like doing
shows as Zion a Road and uh, which oh my
god is almost ten years ago. And uh, like when
I was that age, I just didn't have You know,
when you're young, you don't have like the thing that
like like that you second guess yourself. You're like ignorant
(06:07):
to like being nervous, you know. So I would say
that it was kind of it was like that. I mean,
I think we've definitely honed it in more as we
you know, kind of grew up. But like, I think
we were pretty entertaining back then too, because it was
just kind of like that personality and then it was
you know, you don't second guess yourself or think about
what other people are thinking of you on stage. I'll
(06:27):
say my sisters were very good at like stage presence
and charisma. That was something that I had to learn.
That's something I was gonna ask next. Actually, Free Payton,
is your you seem like the more of a quiet
reserved even on the stage a little bit? So is
that just something that um, I guess is you try
to try to be the live entertainment? Are you just
kind of there doing your thing? You? Well, I think
(06:48):
I'm a little more entertaining than I used to be,
but uh, you know, it's just not quite my thing
like it is. There's it was something I had to
learn a lot more how to, you know. I mean,
I always enjoy it on stage, but people would tell
me they're like, hey, are you even having fun? You
don't look like it. It's like, well, I guess I
better work on that. So now I tried to, you know.
I mean, I'm still happy. I was always happy up there,
(07:10):
but you know, smile more and move around more. But
with them being so good at it, it was also
my role to like kind of keep everything together, you know,
kind of like band leader, you're the glue. He's a
great band leader, Like literally he'll be you know. I mean,
we always hire a drummer and a lead guitar player
and and we've got our regular guys, but sometimes they
(07:32):
can't make it, you know, to every show and painting
his back there like running the whole thing is like
keeping keeping everything glued together, like okay, now the sister
is going to do this, you know whatever. I was
out of show and I just have to tell a
story real quick. I thought your show, you're at kid Rock.
I think that same we can actually you're at kid Rock.
(07:53):
And I don't know who your drummer was that day,
but he after you guys got done playing I don't
know what song, he turned around. He threw his sticks
outside on the Broadway. Because we're all like, wait, did
he really just do that? And I remember he turned
around and he looked at you guys, and you guys
were just like Okay, he's a very rock and roll
(08:15):
It was a very fun person to have on the road. Yeah,
he's a rock and roller for sure, I can tell.
I can tell. I was just thinking. I was like, dang,
they really do put on a show. But it was
just funny to see your reactions because it didn't look
like he was planned at all. That was on the fly. Well,
it was good, it was good. It was entertaining. Number one. Um, well,
(08:38):
think about the first time. I guess you moved here
separate times, but I mean, I guess for you first,
when you first came to Nashville, what was your mindset?
And in those nine years that you've been here, how
much has that changed? Yeah, it has changed a lot.
You know. When I first moved here, I just I
really wanted to be around music, I think more than
(08:58):
like pursue is a job. I was like, there's no
way that I got the chops coming from way out
in the middle of nowhere to to you know, hang
in music city. You know that's pretty it was pretty
legendary in my mind, and just be here and um
and then I waited tables for a little while and
and you know, just needed some needed some dough needed
(09:22):
some money to pay rent, and I took a fiddle
audition and it went really well, and uh, shortly thereafter,
my schedule was full, and I was like, whoa, I
guess this is my job. I better, I better, you know,
get my chops up. And so I would go and
play on Broadway for eight to twelve hours every day
(09:42):
and then go home and practice and listen to all
kinds of the fiddle standards and the you know, lots
of country stuff and just make sure that I was
playing stuff the right way. I really just did a
lot of work to kind of get to where I
could hang. I also feel like I was kind of
lucky because I played like in a active instrument. You know,
there's not as many fiddle players in town. And and um,
(10:05):
I did learn like a handful of the standards, so
I knew those like the Alabama stuff and double went
down to Georgia and those staples, and they kind of
got me through my my learning phase. If I say,
over under on how many times you played Devil down
to Georgia, I say, I'll say, um, I'm not at
(10:26):
least like a thousand. Definitely over under. Sure it's over
but but I guess, you know, like just being being
able to play music for a living really kept me
excited and kept me fresh. Like, you know, anybody can
(10:46):
burn out in their job day in and day out.
That happens to everybody in the world. But but um,
you know, when that starts to happen, you just take
a few days off and regroup and do some fun
and play some diff front. And I started listening to
a lot of rock and roll stuff and learned like
the orchestra parts like behind those songs. So just keeping
(11:09):
it keeping it fresh and yeah, like almost awesome. Even
like before COVID, Like I was just always grateful to
be playing shows because it wasn't something that I planned
on doing when I was a kid, even all the
way up to my early twenties, and I was like,
I didn't know this was going to be my life.
It's pretty cool. It's yeah, Um, what about for you two?
(11:31):
You guys came here at the same time. Yeah, what
what's the difference between when you first got here? What
was your I guess your thoughts coming into Nashville and
then how has that changed in the six years that
you've been here, you know, And like when we first
moved to town. I was like, yeah, you know, because
I was right out of high school and uh, we
had been playing shows for a couple of years in
(11:52):
South Dakota and like surrounding states. We were on the
road about every weekend, and uh, when I moved to town,
it was like, yeah, like this is cool. Give Nashville
a couple of years and like see how it goes.
And like when I moved here, I got a job
winning tables, um, and then I worked for like a
ranch horse farm thing for a second down in Franklin,
and then like we started playing downtown and playing shows
(12:13):
and making money and stuff like that. And again, like
it was kind of one of those things where I
was just like not aware of I guess how that
kind of uh fell into just like playing every day
and then getting hired for other gigs and like, oh
my god, I'm working seven days a week. And then
it just kind of at it out at some point.
I don't remember a moment, but at some point I
(12:33):
was just like, oh, I'm busy. This is the thing
that I do. This is what I get hired for.
This is like this is this is it? Because why
I came here for this is what I came here for,
and it's happening and like and it's this is what
I'm going to do for the rest of my life,
you know, and sing for you. Yeah. So when I
came down here, I sort of came with like an
I guess, narrow mindset of what I thought was gonna
(12:56):
happen or what I had planned on happening. I was
going to give Nashville like three years because I knew
that it wasn't gonna happen overnight. And I don't know
what my for looking back, I don't know what the
goal was that three years was going to be. But
now I've been here six so that you know, that
didn't happen U and it's been great. I mean, I
(13:17):
don't know if I thought we were going to be
signed in three years or what we were going to
be touring or opening for some major act or I
don't know. But once I kind of found out what
uh we could do down here, and you know, playing
Broadway it is a grind, but we've you know, done
pretty well with it and we've made good money. I
didn't realize you could just do that. I've been before
(13:39):
moving down here, I was working construction, and I was
in the oil field for a while, so I had
saved some money and I did some odd jobs down here.
But shortly after we moved here, we started playing, you know,
five to seven days a week. And that's just what
I've been blessed to be able to do since I've
moved here. I haven't had to have a side job
since then, so it's it's been good, you know, really good.
(14:03):
That's got to be kind of rare. I'm sure most
people move here for music, but you also have to
have a side gig because it can be up and
down in the industry, I assume, right, Yeah, a lot
of people do do you take, say, if you go
off and do your own thing, do you find yourself
learning new things with other artists? Of course, right, and
never take those back and then talk to each other like, hey,
so and so taught me this, or I got this advice.
(14:24):
We should try to incorporate this in or act or
whatever it is. Really yeah, yeah, all the time, all
the time. That's why it's so good to you know,
be able to go out and do that and not
limit yourself to just one thing, one band, if you can.
It's really good to go out and play with other
people to just get new ideas and you know, and
it kind of is like a swift kick in the
butt too, because like we know each other very well.
(14:48):
You know, we've been hanging out for about twenty four years.
And uh, you sounds so excited about that. Yeah, but
really that like like I know, I know what he's
going to do, I know she's going to do. They
know what I'm gonna do as far as like musically
and on stage and and in life and uh and
so I think playing with other artists it uh, kind
(15:08):
of it's a refresher for like when you come back
and then play with us and then it's like okay,
like this is cool. But when you play with other
artists too, it like really kind of throws out the
repetition that you sometimes get playing with the same people,
and then you can bring that back and then keep
it fresh with you know, the project that you're that
you're kind of focused on. You know, as far as
(15:31):
places that you've played, is there anywhere shows, whether it's
here or somewhere else, that's kind of the highlight of
the pops in your head when you guys all played together,
that is well you've been like, holy crop, this is
pretty freaking cool, outside of course Broadway and Titsies or
something like that. I think the most recent one for
me is when we headlines uh Summer Nights Rapid City
Summer Nights. I was insane. I don't even remember how
(15:52):
many people showed up to that. That was like, yeah,
and it was, it was insane. There's so much fun.
It's always it's always fun to go home. You know,
even I both went to college there, and just everybody
came out, like from from We didn't know there was
that many people and something, but now everybody came out
(16:14):
to support us, and like we're really proud to be
from there, and they're all really proud of us, and
and you know, that's just what we're trying to do
is make them proud. So that was most recent. Really,
hometown shows are hometown shows are really great. It's the best.
And you guys grew up on a farm, right, We
grew up on a buffalo ranch a couple of hours
(16:34):
north of Sturgis, South Dakota. So what was that like,
let's totally different than that. Yeah, the wild West, it was, Yeah,
I mean it's like kind of what you think of
when you think of the wild West, you know, like
it's we were two hours away from like a town
that had a walmart, Like it was middle of nowhere. Yeah,
(16:56):
like there's really not that much shellf service or like
anything like that that's out there. And uh so it was.
It was very different from here. But I think that
like growing up on a ranch, it provides a lot
of work ethic that I think, Um, you know, like
in music, it is it is a job. It is
hard work. And uh I think that growing up with
(17:17):
that kind of mentality of like yeah, you're gonna work
until the job is done and we're good. You know, um,
like your your capacity is is a lot and you
can you can do it. And I think that that
was really great for me anyway coming in from that
to music because you know, I have a lot of
respect for people in agriculture and it's it's long days
(17:39):
and stuff like that. And you know, I was in
a rehearsal the other day and someone was like, man,
it's a long day. Like you good, and I was like, yeah, man,
like hardest day playing music is still probably easier than
the you know, one of the easier days ranching. So
you know that. So that's kind of where the core
comes for all of you. I'm sure the grind you're not.
It's nothing that's new to you. Yeah, it doesn't really phasee.
(18:02):
Those are different kind of grind, different kind of grind.
And you know, it's not like I'm gonna work until
I'm uncomfortable. It's like, no, I'm gonna work till I
get it done and we're cool. Is there ever going
to be a moment where you're just thinking like, Okay,
this is it, We've made it, or the just kind
of the journey that goes along with it. I think
that there's a lot for me anyway. There's a lot
of goals that like stairs step up, you know, Like
(18:26):
I think one of the first goals was like, hey
can you make a living playing music? And it was like,
oh dang, we did it. And then like every time
we you know, go back and play a gig, that's
like a little bit more attendance or you know we
hit a different you know, merch sale or whatever, like
I think that region, yeah, different regions and all that
kind of stuff. Like it's like a stairs stepping of
(18:48):
like oh I didn't know that that was like necessarily
a specific goal, but oh my god, we hit it,
you know right when we moved to town, like I
was saying, I, you know, gave it a cap and
sort of a goal. And now haven't done it for
a while, and yeah, there's tons of winds that we've hit.
I feel like being able to just do music for
six years now or nearly six years well and even
(19:10):
longer than that. When we started right well in South Dakota,
I still had a side job and was still working
some other stuff. But down here in Nashville, you know,
we've I feel like we've been killing it now for
at least five years. Well what's the next six months
to a year? Looking like? For a year? The owner road,
the new music has been a long time coming, Yeah,
for a couple of years. So that's really exciting, Okay,
(19:31):
and then new singles take it that far? Correct? Okay,
where did that song come from? Who wrote it? And
so the three of us wrote that with um Elvie
Shane and Russell Sutton like five years ago. Yeah, that
was one of our first rights when we came to town. Yeah,
and it's we've been like sitting on it for a
long time, and um, you know, like talked about cutting it, um,
(19:56):
but yeah, we just kind of brought it back and
dusted it off, like, hey, this is kind of hooky.
We like it. Yeah, so soon one. So it's been
it's been in you know, kind of in the back
of my mind for a long time, and we've just
kind of we're like, oh, hey we have this one,
let's do this. How many that's a long time? Five
years you've been sitting on that? Is that frustrating? Like, oh,
(20:19):
we want to get this out, but just the timing
of it or I think we've written so many songs
that like, you know, yeah, hard to pick which one
we're gonna which one we're gonna tackle, which one we're
gonna do. I think occasionally you almost forget about them too. Yeah,
oh yeah we did this one that was so cool. Yeah,
I haven't thought about that for two years. But really, yeah,
(20:39):
we've written so many does you can't even keep track
of them anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Occasionally, if I'm like, you know,
like going through like old voice memos or whatever. Occasionally
if I'm bored, I'll like do that at like three
a'm and be like I totally forgot about that. That
doesn't suck, and I kind of feel like when we
wrote it back when we wrote it, like, um, you know,
I feel like this song take it that far kind
(21:01):
of has a nineties country kind of a feel, and
that wasn't quite coming back yet when we wrote it,
and now I feel like that nineties country is really
coming back. That's the first thing I thought of when
you sent this to me as an MP three and
listened to it my truck and I was like, wait,
is it two thousand and twenty two. I don't know
what year it? Iss got those vibes, that that sound
for sure? Yeah, that's exactly And that is that something
(21:22):
that you intended on with that song or did it
kind of just naturally come it sort of just ha
happened as we wrote it. And you know, when we
wrote it, I don't think we were like we're going
to cut this, you know, like we wrote it like
with other artists, and so like when you write with
other artists, is like, oh maybe we will, maybe you will,
No one really knows yet. Um, and then it just
I don't know, it worked out. We were like, yeah,
(21:44):
this this sounds like us. This makes sense. There's a
little harmonies and that's like our thing and pick your
moment to you know now that now that the nineties
sound is kind of coming back, I feel like it's
a better moment now than five years ago. Yeah, and
like I think we're really like after doing it for
this song, coning in on like our sound and what
we're going for and all that kind of stuff. I
think it really just kind of organically just kind of happened.
(22:07):
We're like, oh, I forgot about this one. This is
cool and it's like that fits us right now, you know. Yeah.
Ziona Road, thank you guys so much for coming in here.
This is a lot of fun. Hey, thanks for having us.
Hey you can do it again. Thank you very much.
Make sure you fall him on Instagram, Twitter both are
Ziona Road correct and Facebook Facebook. Come to the concert, man,
if you're in Nashville. I highly recommend. I've seen them
(22:28):
multiple times and if you want entertainment, you got to
the Ziona Road Show for sure. Thanks. You guys are awesome.
Keep doing keep doing what you're doing, and hopefully do
this again down the road. YEA, thank you appreciated.
Hey guys. So it's pretty cool new series we have here,
Unsigned and Independent. There'll be six episodes in this season
and it is hosted by Kevin O'Connell, who you may
also know as kick Off Kevin on twenty five Whistles
and he also works for the Bobby Bones Show behind
the scenes. So, but this guy is a music nerd,
a music ficionado. He goes out and he watches shows
(00:21):
people I never heard before, and he often comes in
talks about him. This is how this thing got started here,
So this whole podcast, this series features unsigned and independent
artists and bands right here in Nashville, and he'll dive
into these stories late nights, early mornings, playing Broadway. Their
background the ultimate goal for each new artist or band,
(00:42):
and you know, these artists don't really have the backing
of label or even management or sometimes on a publishing
team or I mean, it's all of them, and so
it's just the band, just the artist and how far
they're willing to go in order to chase their dream.
And if you hear a story and you find someone's music,
you're like, dang, I do like them. The best way
to support them is to just share their stuff. On
(01:02):
social media. Honestly, like, if you like a song, put
it upt to putting your Instagram story, share this podcast
that that also helps these new artists. So it's called
Unsigned and Independent. I hope you like it. With Kevin O'Connell,
this episode is Zion a Road. It's a trio. It's
sibling group that moved to Nashville from the plain in
South Dakota. They're the quote most entertaining man that Kevin
(01:24):
has seen on the Nashville stage. The two sisters each
play multiple instruments during their set, including one of them
being what Kevin says, the best fiddle player in the city.
I haven't seen it so well. I'll not say that
because I know a lot of good fiddle players. But
enjoy Episode two, Zion A Road. Hey, what's up. It's
(01:49):
Kevin O'Connell, host of Unsigned and Independent. Welcome to episode two.
You can find me on social media at kickoff Kevin.
You can find this next band named Zion a Road
at Zion a Road Now. Ziona Road is made up
of two sisters and one brother who grew up on
the Great Buffalo Plains of South Dakota, and we got
to talk about how that upbringing has made them who
(02:11):
they are today and why hard work really nothing new
to them and this band is super entertaining, super talented,
So I wanted to know was this something that they
did as kids? Was it always in them? And we
get to talk about that a little bit. I think
you really enjoy this. And if you haven't seen them,
if you're in Nashville or wherever, if they're playing somewhere
you're at, go see Ziona Road. I promise you will
(02:32):
not be disappointed. And I hope you enjoyed this interview.
Thanks for listening, Ziona Road. So pumped to have you
guys in here. Let's kick things off real quick by
going around the room and introducing yourselves and kind of
your role in the band a little round robin, if
you will. I'm Peyton Dirty, I play bass and kind
of road manage and tour manage us and book us
right now keeps the piece like kind of the jack
(02:55):
of all trades. There you go. You're the peacemaker of
the group. Have been dealing with them for a long time.
It's crazy. I'm eva um saying play uh, play keys, guitar,
kind of whatever. Um. I handle a lot of our
like social media and marketing and promo stuff with with
(03:15):
Emmy and uh yeah nice and Emmy, I'm a fiddle player.
And like Eva said, we do a lot of the
social media. We organized filming and studio stuff and march
all that kind of stuff. Okay, so you guys kind
of all wear your own hats, but everyone also has
our hands in on a little bit of everything, I assume, right, yeah, okay,
(03:38):
And then you are also brother sister the trio siblings.
Do you have any other siblings? Actually, I wanted to
ask out first. Yeah. Now we're the three oldest of
ten kids. Ten Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're the three oldest. Yeah.
They all live in South Dakota. Still, I've got we
have one other brother that lives in Nashville, and then
(03:59):
the rest of the mare in South Dakota. Nice. So
we're kind of like just sneaking into conversation. We're like,
so when you're going to move to Nashville with us
on that? Our mom is like, don't slowly get Yeah, yeah, slowly,
but surely. Yeah, we're all getting there. What about your parents?
They were supportive of the move for you down to Naturville. Yeah, yeah,
(04:20):
I think they were more supportive of us moving down
here than we wanted to be down here. Really. Yeah, yeah,
I mean moved down a couple of years before Peyton
and I did, and then you know, he started the band,
and Peyton and I came down after I graduated high school,
and uh yeah, they were super super into it. How
long have you guys been here? I've been here for
(04:41):
nine years? Yeah, wow, Okay, I hit six years next week. Yeah,
I guess it is six years, right. It goes by
so fast, so fast, so fast. You guys been so busy,
I'm sure from me how I came across you guys,
I was here a couple of years ago, visiting before
I moved here in during the pandemic, okay, And our
first night we went to tuts, of course, because we're
(05:02):
tourists and that's what we do, right, And there's about
ten of us and you guys were playing, and I
just remember all of us were just like, dude, he's gruel.
They were just killing it last night. You know. We
woke up next day, You're like, they had the fiddle
up there, and you guys just put on a big show.
So I was like, and then I started following on Instagram,
So I've been following you since. But my question here
is if you've seen you out on Broadway or wherever,
(05:23):
then you know that you guys put on a great show.
That's why I think you guys are great at what
you do. You're all over the stage, you're entertaining, and
then at the end of the day, that's kind of
what you're in your entertainment business. Right, So growing up,
was that something that you were playing in South Dakota
to all over the stage and having fun with it
or is it more a little more mellow you know,
it's funny. It was a good question. That's a really
good question. No. I was talking to somebody about this
(05:44):
the other day. I think that it was almost like
when because I was pretty young when we started. I
was like fifteen, I think when we started like doing
shows as Zion a Road and uh, which oh my
god is almost ten years ago. And uh, like when
I was that age, I just didn't have You know,
when you're young, you don't have like the thing that
like like that you second guess yourself. You're like ignorant
(06:07):
to like being nervous, you know. So I would say
that it was kind of it was like that. I mean,
I think we've definitely honed it in more as we
you know, kind of grew up. But like, I think
we were pretty entertaining back then too, because it was
just kind of like that personality and then it was
you know, you don't second guess yourself or think about
what other people are thinking of you on stage. I'll
(06:27):
say my sisters were very good at like stage presence
and charisma. That was something that I had to learn.
That's something I was gonna ask next. Actually, Free Payton,
is your you seem like the more of a quiet
reserved even on the stage a little bit? So is
that just something that um, I guess is you try
to try to be the live entertainment? Are you just
kind of there doing your thing? You? Well, I think
(06:48):
I'm a little more entertaining than I used to be,
but uh, you know, it's just not quite my thing
like it is. There's it was something I had to
learn a lot more how to, you know. I mean,
I always enjoy it on stage, but people would tell
me they're like, hey, are you even having fun? You
don't look like it. It's like, well, I guess I
better work on that. So now I tried to, you know.
I mean, I'm still happy. I was always happy up there,
(07:10):
but you know, smile more and move around more. But
with them being so good at it, it was also
my role to like kind of keep everything together, you know,
kind of like band leader, you're the glue. He's a
great band leader, Like literally he'll be you know. I mean,
we always hire a drummer and a lead guitar player
and and we've got our regular guys, but sometimes they
(07:32):
can't make it, you know, to every show and painting
his back there like running the whole thing is like
keeping keeping everything glued together, like okay, now the sister
is going to do this, you know whatever. I was
out of show and I just have to tell a
story real quick. I thought your show, you're at kid Rock.
I think that same we can actually you're at kid Rock.
(07:53):
And I don't know who your drummer was that day,
but he after you guys got done playing I don't
know what song, he turned around. He threw his sticks
outside on the Broadway. Because we're all like, wait, did
he really just do that? And I remember he turned
around and he looked at you guys, and you guys
were just like Okay, he's a very rock and roll
(08:15):
It was a very fun person to have on the road. Yeah,
he's a rock and roller for sure, I can tell.
I can tell. I was just thinking. I was like, dang,
they really do put on a show. But it was
just funny to see your reactions because it didn't look
like he was planned at all. That was on the fly. Well,
it was good, it was good. It was entertaining. Number one. Um, well,
(08:38):
think about the first time. I guess you moved here
separate times, but I mean, I guess for you first,
when you first came to Nashville, what was your mindset?
And in those nine years that you've been here, how
much has that changed? Yeah, it has changed a lot.
You know. When I first moved here, I just I
really wanted to be around music, I think more than
(08:58):
like pursue is a job. I was like, there's no
way that I got the chops coming from way out
in the middle of nowhere to to you know, hang
in music city. You know that's pretty it was pretty
legendary in my mind, and just be here and um
and then I waited tables for a little while and
and you know, just needed some needed some dough needed
(09:22):
some money to pay rent, and I took a fiddle
audition and it went really well, and uh, shortly thereafter,
my schedule was full, and I was like, whoa, I
guess this is my job. I better, I better, you know,
get my chops up. And so I would go and
play on Broadway for eight to twelve hours every day
(09:42):
and then go home and practice and listen to all
kinds of the fiddle standards and the you know, lots
of country stuff and just make sure that I was
playing stuff the right way. I really just did a
lot of work to kind of get to where I
could hang. I also feel like I was kind of
lucky because I played like in a active instrument. You know,
there's not as many fiddle players in town. And and um,
(10:05):
I did learn like a handful of the standards, so
I knew those like the Alabama stuff and double went
down to Georgia and those staples, and they kind of
got me through my my learning phase. If I say,
over under on how many times you played Devil down
to Georgia, I say, I'll say, um, I'm not at
(10:26):
least like a thousand. Definitely over under. Sure it's over
but but I guess, you know, like just being being
able to play music for a living really kept me
excited and kept me fresh. Like, you know, anybody can
(10:46):
burn out in their job day in and day out.
That happens to everybody in the world. But but um,
you know, when that starts to happen, you just take
a few days off and regroup and do some fun
and play some diff front. And I started listening to
a lot of rock and roll stuff and learned like
the orchestra parts like behind those songs. So just keeping
(11:09):
it keeping it fresh and yeah, like almost awesome. Even
like before COVID, Like I was just always grateful to
be playing shows because it wasn't something that I planned
on doing when I was a kid, even all the
way up to my early twenties, and I was like,
I didn't know this was going to be my life.
It's pretty cool. It's yeah, Um, what about for you two?
(11:31):
You guys came here at the same time. Yeah, what
what's the difference between when you first got here? What
was your I guess your thoughts coming into Nashville and
then how has that changed in the six years that
you've been here, you know, And like when we first
moved to town. I was like, yeah, you know, because
I was right out of high school and uh, we
had been playing shows for a couple of years in
(11:52):
South Dakota and like surrounding states. We were on the
road about every weekend, and uh, when I moved to town,
it was like, yeah, like this is cool. Give Nashville
a couple of years and like see how it goes.
And like when I moved here, I got a job
winning tables, um, and then I worked for like a
ranch horse farm thing for a second down in Franklin,
and then like we started playing downtown and playing shows
(12:13):
and making money and stuff like that. And again, like
it was kind of one of those things where I
was just like not aware of I guess how that
kind of uh fell into just like playing every day
and then getting hired for other gigs and like, oh
my god, I'm working seven days a week. And then
it just kind of at it out at some point.
I don't remember a moment, but at some point I
(12:33):
was just like, oh, I'm busy. This is the thing
that I do. This is what I get hired for.
This is like this is this is it? Because why
I came here for this is what I came here for,
and it's happening and like and it's this is what
I'm going to do for the rest of my life,
you know, and sing for you. Yeah. So when I
came down here, I sort of came with like an
I guess, narrow mindset of what I thought was gonna
(12:56):
happen or what I had planned on happening. I was
going to give Nashville like three years because I knew
that it wasn't gonna happen overnight. And I don't know
what my for looking back, I don't know what the
goal was that three years was going to be. But
now I've been here six so that you know, that
didn't happen U and it's been great. I mean, I
(13:17):
don't know if I thought we were going to be
signed in three years or what we were going to
be touring or opening for some major act or I
don't know. But once I kind of found out what
uh we could do down here, and you know, playing
Broadway it is a grind, but we've you know, done
pretty well with it and we've made good money. I
didn't realize you could just do that. I've been before
(13:39):
moving down here, I was working construction, and I was
in the oil field for a while, so I had
saved some money and I did some odd jobs down here.
But shortly after we moved here, we started playing, you know,
five to seven days a week. And that's just what
I've been blessed to be able to do since I've
moved here. I haven't had to have a side job
since then, so it's it's been good, you know, really good.
(14:03):
That's got to be kind of rare. I'm sure most
people move here for music, but you also have to
have a side gig because it can be up and
down in the industry, I assume, right, Yeah, a lot
of people do do you take, say, if you go
off and do your own thing, do you find yourself
learning new things with other artists? Of course, right, and
never take those back and then talk to each other like, hey,
so and so taught me this, or I got this advice.
(14:24):
We should try to incorporate this in or act or
whatever it is. Really yeah, yeah, all the time, all
the time. That's why it's so good to you know,
be able to go out and do that and not
limit yourself to just one thing, one band, if you can.
It's really good to go out and play with other
people to just get new ideas and you know, and
it kind of is like a swift kick in the
butt too, because like we know each other very well.
(14:48):
You know, we've been hanging out for about twenty four years.
And uh, you sounds so excited about that. Yeah, but
really that like like I know, I know what he's
going to do, I know she's going to do. They
know what I'm gonna do as far as like musically
and on stage and and in life and uh and
so I think playing with other artists it uh, kind
(15:08):
of it's a refresher for like when you come back
and then play with us and then it's like okay,
like this is cool. But when you play with other
artists too, it like really kind of throws out the
repetition that you sometimes get playing with the same people,
and then you can bring that back and then keep
it fresh with you know, the project that you're that
you're kind of focused on. You know, as far as
(15:31):
places that you've played, is there anywhere shows, whether it's
here or somewhere else, that's kind of the highlight of
the pops in your head when you guys all played together,
that is well you've been like, holy crop, this is
pretty freaking cool, outside of course Broadway and Titsies or
something like that. I think the most recent one for
me is when we headlines uh Summer Nights Rapid City
Summer Nights. I was insane. I don't even remember how
(15:52):
many people showed up to that. That was like, yeah,
and it was, it was insane. There's so much fun.
It's always it's always fun to go home. You know,
even I both went to college there, and just everybody
came out, like from from We didn't know there was
that many people and something, but now everybody came out
(16:14):
to support us, and like we're really proud to be
from there, and they're all really proud of us, and
and you know, that's just what we're trying to do
is make them proud. So that was most recent. Really,
hometown shows are hometown shows are really great. It's the best.
And you guys grew up on a farm, right, We
grew up on a buffalo ranch a couple of hours
(16:34):
north of Sturgis, South Dakota. So what was that like,
let's totally different than that. Yeah, the wild West, it was, Yeah,
I mean it's like kind of what you think of
when you think of the wild West, you know, like
it's we were two hours away from like a town
that had a walmart, Like it was middle of nowhere. Yeah,
(16:56):
like there's really not that much shellf service or like
anything like that that's out there. And uh so it was.
It was very different from here. But I think that
like growing up on a ranch, it provides a lot
of work ethic that I think, Um, you know, like
in music, it is it is a job. It is
hard work. And uh I think that growing up with
(17:17):
that kind of mentality of like yeah, you're gonna work
until the job is done and we're good. You know, um,
like your your capacity is is a lot and you
can you can do it. And I think that that
was really great for me anyway coming in from that
to music because you know, I have a lot of
respect for people in agriculture and it's it's long days
(17:39):
and stuff like that. And you know, I was in
a rehearsal the other day and someone was like, man,
it's a long day. Like you good, and I was like, yeah, man,
like hardest day playing music is still probably easier than
the you know, one of the easier days ranching. So
you know that. So that's kind of where the core
comes for all of you. I'm sure the grind you're not.
It's nothing that's new to you. Yeah, it doesn't really phasee.
(18:02):
Those are different kind of grind, different kind of grind.
And you know, it's not like I'm gonna work until
I'm uncomfortable. It's like, no, I'm gonna work till I
get it done and we're cool. Is there ever going
to be a moment where you're just thinking like, Okay,
this is it, We've made it, or the just kind
of the journey that goes along with it. I think
that there's a lot for me anyway. There's a lot
of goals that like stairs step up, you know, Like
(18:26):
I think one of the first goals was like, hey
can you make a living playing music? And it was like,
oh dang, we did it. And then like every time
we you know, go back and play a gig, that's
like a little bit more attendance or you know we
hit a different you know, merch sale or whatever, like
I think that region, yeah, different regions and all that
kind of stuff. Like it's like a stairs stepping of
(18:48):
like oh I didn't know that that was like necessarily
a specific goal, but oh my god, we hit it,
you know right when we moved to town, like I
was saying, I, you know, gave it a cap and
sort of a goal. And now haven't done it for
a while, and yeah, there's tons of winds that we've hit.
I feel like being able to just do music for
six years now or nearly six years well and even
(19:10):
longer than that. When we started right well in South Dakota,
I still had a side job and was still working
some other stuff. But down here in Nashville, you know,
we've I feel like we've been killing it now for
at least five years. Well what's the next six months
to a year? Looking like? For a year? The owner road,
the new music has been a long time coming, Yeah,
for a couple of years. So that's really exciting, Okay,
(19:31):
and then new singles take it that far? Correct? Okay,
where did that song come from? Who wrote it? And
so the three of us wrote that with um Elvie
Shane and Russell Sutton like five years ago. Yeah, that
was one of our first rights when we came to town. Yeah,
and it's we've been like sitting on it for a
long time, and um, you know, like talked about cutting it, um,
(19:56):
but yeah, we just kind of brought it back and
dusted it off, like, hey, this is kind of hooky.
We like it. Yeah, so soon one. So it's been
it's been in you know, kind of in the back
of my mind for a long time, and we've just
kind of we're like, oh, hey we have this one,
let's do this. How many that's a long time? Five
years you've been sitting on that? Is that frustrating? Like, oh,
(20:19):
we want to get this out, but just the timing
of it or I think we've written so many songs
that like, you know, yeah, hard to pick which one
we're gonna which one we're gonna tackle, which one we're
gonna do. I think occasionally you almost forget about them too. Yeah,
oh yeah we did this one that was so cool. Yeah,
I haven't thought about that for two years. But really, yeah,
(20:39):
we've written so many does you can't even keep track
of them anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Occasionally, if I'm like, you know,
like going through like old voice memos or whatever. Occasionally
if I'm bored, I'll like do that at like three
a'm and be like I totally forgot about that. That
doesn't suck, and I kind of feel like when we
wrote it back when we wrote it, like, um, you know,
I feel like this song take it that far kind
(21:01):
of has a nineties country kind of a feel, and
that wasn't quite coming back yet when we wrote it,
and now I feel like that nineties country is really
coming back. That's the first thing I thought of when
you sent this to me as an MP three and
listened to it my truck and I was like, wait,
is it two thousand and twenty two. I don't know
what year it? Iss got those vibes, that that sound
for sure? Yeah, that's exactly And that is that something
(21:22):
that you intended on with that song or did it
kind of just naturally come it sort of just ha
happened as we wrote it. And you know, when we
wrote it, I don't think we were like we're going
to cut this, you know, like we wrote it like
with other artists, and so like when you write with
other artists, is like, oh maybe we will, maybe you will,
No one really knows yet. Um, and then it just
I don't know, it worked out. We were like, yeah,
(21:44):
this this sounds like us. This makes sense. There's a
little harmonies and that's like our thing and pick your
moment to you know now that now that the nineties
sound is kind of coming back, I feel like it's
a better moment now than five years ago. Yeah, and
like I think we're really like after doing it for
this song, coning in on like our sound and what
we're going for and all that kind of stuff. I
think it really just kind of organically just kind of happened.
(22:07):
We're like, oh, I forgot about this one. This is
cool and it's like that fits us right now, you know. Yeah.
Ziona Road, thank you guys so much for coming in here.
This is a lot of fun. Hey, thanks for having us.
Hey you can do it again. Thank you very much.
Make sure you fall him on Instagram, Twitter both are
Ziona Road correct and Facebook Facebook. Come to the concert, man,
if you're in Nashville. I highly recommend. I've seen them
(22:28):
multiple times and if you want entertainment, you got to
the Ziona Road Show for sure. Thanks. You guys are awesome.
Keep doing keep doing what you're doing, and hopefully do
this again down the road. YEA, thank you appreciated.
Host
Bobby Bones
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