Bryan Martin interview

Austin James talks with Louisiana native Bryan Martin about growing up in the south, his time in the United States Army, and his love of writing songs.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I just woke up the dog ahead. I'm ready. Oh lord, okay,
well sorry about that. All right, here we go and welcome to

(00:21):
backstage pass. I am Austin James. Very delighted to have a guy on
that is from Louisiana. Always lovetalking to Louisiana artists and especially this dude,
Brian Martin, and he is goingto be at a show called Louisiana
Saturday night at Lamar Digson Xbell Centerin Gonzales, Louisiana. And he is

(00:43):
from give me the name in Louisiana. Give that little town again. Logan
Support, Louisiana, about sixty mileson the Texas slag Okay, Logan Sport,
Louisiana. Never heard of it.I've heard of Sport, heard of
Boser, heard of all those places, but not to Logan Sport. How
big of a town is Logan Sport. If you blow across the bridge,

(01:08):
I love that. If you blowacross the bridge, you missed a dad
gum it. Well that's awesome,man. It's so good to talk to
you. And I know the showis going to be big. It's going
to be Flatland Calvary. Also,why Laura is Brian Martin and Trey Gollman
and Brian. I don't know ifyou knew this or not, but Trey

(01:30):
used to play for L s UFootball. Really yeah, yeah, dude,
he was big. I think heplayed. If I'm not mistaken,
I want to say he played fullback. And uh, I mean, yeah,
the dude is powerful, he reallyis, but tame as a kid

(01:51):
out there show. Yeah, Ihear you. Man, It's gonna be
fun. It's gonna be a funtime. So you recently got signed on
to a label, is that right? Tell me about that. About two
years ago I got signed on andI said, fifteen years I worked in
the old field, and I finally, you know, decided, Hey,
if I'm gonna do this thing,I'm gonna I want to make all them

(02:12):
uh you know, die bar nightsand and you know times that I lost
money. I'm gonna try to makeit work. And I moved up here.
I had a song, Beauty inthe Struggle that blew up, and
I had a lot of people tellhim, you know, timeline on what
what could and couldn't happen, AndI just said, I can't make that
timeline work for me because when Ileft the job, do this full time.
I said, I can't deal withtimelines. I've been doing it fifteen

(02:36):
years. So I just kind ofquit listening to everybody and went out there
and I signed with a little companycalled Average Joes, and I just told
them straight up, I said,man, it just just let me put
in the work and uh, letme get on that out of my own
way, and everybody else stay outof my way, and just let me
put out the music that I knowthat my fans are going to relate to
and I'm going to relate to.Then I think we can make something out
of it. And in the lastsix months we did what they said we

(02:58):
couldn't do intendue. Yeah, that'sgreat. I love that. So you've
been songwriting for a long time,Yes, sir, I've been writing songs
all my life. Well. Istarted singing when I was a kid,
but writing songs around nineteen years old, and when I came back from the

(03:19):
military. You know, the firstsong came from a suicide note and I
just had a real bad run ofdepression. Man. I learned that the
songwritting is my way of putting itout on a piece of paper and then
turn it into a song and nowit just turns into a song. And
I've learned that a lot of peoplebattle the same every day struggles and it

(03:39):
relates to it. And that's reallywhat everybody wants right now, and it's
what they've always wanted. It's justsomething that don't ever get broadcasted as much,
you know, And I think thatthat's smart. I've learned to do.
Is is healed through the songs,and hope I heal others with it.
Well, first off, thank youfor your service. Thank you man.
I didn't do near as much whatmost people do. That's the reason

(04:00):
why I had that suicide. Noteman, I got sent home early and
I didn't. I fought tooth andnow enough to come home and it was
medical, but you know, Isaid, I don't want to go home.
And uh, I think that wasmy hardest thing. Was I never
quit a job, never been fired. I've never quit anything, and this
is one time. You know.After I came home, I said,

(04:20):
well, you know what you know, But you know, I think that
that's the reason why God kept mearound this. You know, I ain't
made for giving up. Well,you served. You certainly did more than
I. So I commend you onthat Thank Brian, Thank you so much.
What branch of the service. Bythe way, I was in the
army. Okay, in the army, got you. Uh, not to

(04:43):
demean anything, but as we wererecording this on October nineteenth, Air Force
is undefeated in college football and that'sincredible. Did hey you know what you
know? I see that they've beendoing pretty good here lately. So uh
yeah, like I said, I'mstill I'll still root put on me as

(05:04):
well you should, my friend.Now, let's talk about some music.
Let's talk about the current song.You're a single. Shed some light on
that, all right, so weride, Yeah, yes, sir,
that song. Man. It's justI write so many deep songs, and
you know, I've written about theOld Field and everything else. But one

(05:26):
day we were just sitting there atthe house and my drummer was there,
and you're staying with me, andand I said, man, you know
this is right at the time whenwhen a lot of those people told me,
you know, you got about ayear and a half where you get
to this level where you get abook, an agent and all this.
I told him. I said,man, I said, I'm listening to
Timeline stuff. I just I justwant to have a good day. I
just want to have one good day, just not thinking about what I got

(05:47):
to do or what somebody wants meto do. I just want to do
what I want to do. AndI said, down. We just started
umping out some lyrics to a songand here come and I think that's the
first time I've ever like cut loosein a long time. And uh,
I think everybody else is feeling thatin this song, just cutting loose,
man, just let just letting itout. And uh, and I learned

(06:08):
that that's a that's a it allturns, it all comes out, you
know, in the spirit of thesong. And uh, that song blew
my career up. At my firstgold record, it's uh, you know,
it's done over one hundred and something, you know, one hundred something
million streams. And it's crazy tome because two years ago I had I
told them two hundred eighty five thousandstreams in fifteen years, and I had

(06:30):
twelve songs out and uh, youknow, to be able to go from
there to here and have now youknow, four hundred million streams and in
the last you know, year anda half, it's all thanks to the
fans and and and them listening toit and hearing what I put into it,
and uh, and I'm glad that, uh I was able to put
that out there and and just tella little bit of my my history,

(06:51):
but also tell a little bit ofuh that good time mentality. Just just
let loose man, just have goodtime. Well, I congratulate you with
all the success. We cannot waitfor the big Louisiana Saturday Night show.
It's October twenty eighth, Lamar DixonXpo Center in Gonzales and LSU is not

(07:14):
playing, so they have an offweekend. Yeah, we might have a
good have a good weekend. Bringall those people. You can tell gay
that Lamar Dixon. They got lotsof space to do that. Yeah.
Yeah. Man, Well, Brian, thank you so much for talking.
I know that we kind of wokeyou up. You were taking a nap
or something like that, and nowyou know it. Don't spoil man.

(07:35):
Man. Actually, I got it. That's the first time I didn't do
all the driving. I got itthis first time we out on the bus.
So I said, usually I'm drivingthose struggles showed around and staying up
hours at a time. Today Iactually got me a nap, So you
know, like I said, don'tget the spoiled though, you go call
me and wake me up more often. You got it? Man, I
got to ask you this. Iasked this of a lot of artists when

(07:57):
they're out on the road. Youknow you have to stop and fuel up
and whatnot. You have to fuelup the bus. But how do you
fuel up? What is your goto snack when you're out on the road.
My go to snack man is DamnSavage sass Man. Jim Oh,
I love me some slim jim Man. I love Bee Church and I got
I gotta get through them. WithRandy Savage on, it just makes me

(08:18):
go Yeah. What about pickled eggs? Do you go for pickled eggs?
Oh? Dude, if I seesomething, dang your as quel pick of
eggs? Really you like pickled eggs? Eh? I love them pickled eggs.
Every time I go to lose Jan, I buy me a couple of
jars of the hot pickled eggs.Buy me some, Buy me some boot

(08:39):
add man, anything I can find. Its got that got that spice to
it. I gotta get it.You gotta keep it with me. How
about some ball peanuts? Oh?Yeah, Bold peanuts shilling out. All
right, I love it man,Brian Martin. You're my kind of guy.
We can't wait to see you.October twenty eighth at Lamar Dixon Xbell
Center Again It's Louisiana Saturday Nights.It's gonna flat Land Cavalry. Also why

(09:01):
at Flores our guest Brian Martin andformer LSU football player Trey Golman. Tickets
are going fast, so you betterget yours now. It's going to be
a big, big, big night. Brian, thanks for talking with us.
Godspeed to you in safe travels.Thank you, Bob, you got
it. That was Brian Martin righthere on a backstage pass. Remember you

(09:22):
can find more episodes on our freeiHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
Just search for Backstage Pass Podcast withAustin James. I'm Austin James.
Thank you for listening.