Trey Gallman interview

Austin James talks with former LSU football player and singer/songwriter Trey Gallman about growuing up in South Louisiana, playing football for LSU, and now writing songs in Nashville.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And you are listening a two backstagepass. I am Austin James with iHeartMedia.
Thank you so much. And wehave a very special guest in the
house. His name is Trey Gallman. He is from South awais Unity.
He's a former LSU football player.What position did you play? Linebacker?
I was fullback, fullback, rightfullback. Because I made my money,
as I don't know about fast,I made my money was special teams guy.

(00:20):
Yeah, special teams. Yeah,that's fine. And you can still
out there and still kick butt,and and the way that you present yourself
on stage, it's like you're actuallyplaying again on the field. I try
the best I can to do that, just because it's in my mind.
It's the closest thing that's real,that's tangible to that feeling of being on
the field and running out in frontof that stadium. Is going out on

(00:43):
that stage which has become my field, and that crowd which has become my
stadium. So it's just I giveit everything I got because that's what it's
about. And the louder the crowdscreams, it's like you've scored a touchdown.
Oh it's one feeding off the energy. It's it's and I think it's
this the gratification of a of course, you want everyone to cheer to every
song, but also at the sametime, it's the gratification and the you

(01:07):
know, the confirmation of what you'redoing, if you're doing what you're supposed
to be doing, if you wrotean original song in the crowd response to
it, or if the band dida certain solo in the crowd response to
it, or if you choreograph somethingperfectly in the crowd response to it,
it's the same gratification. You're like, yes, that's why we're doing this.
So we're on the right track,We're doing the right thing. Everyone
is understanding what we're trying to create. So you decided to pick up a

(01:30):
guitar and start playing and start writingsongs, and now you find yourself in
Nashville. I know that's been agoal of yours for a long time.
Yes, And what made you finallydecide to pack up and head north,
Well, I think what it wasis moving to Nashville. For me personally,
it was not about trying to makeit in music, because I learned

(01:53):
what I've learned recently is that everyonehas their own avenue of success. Their
own measure of success. Is itnumber one songs, is it sell out
shows? Is it being a songwriter? Is it just having a grassroots following
of really passionate people that believe inyour music. Everyone has their own route
to go and everyone can find theirown success in it. So for me

(02:13):
moving to Nashville, it wasn't aboutchasing the music dream, because in a
lot of ways, I feel likeI'm in the process of accomplishing that.
What it was for me is itwas you know, I do have this
passion for writing music and being inNashville in those songwriter rooms being around those
guys, not only am I ableto sharpen my craft and become better at

(02:36):
it, but it also gives meanother voice to where someone else can have
an opportunity to maybe deliver a messageof a song that I wrote with someone
else better than I can do itwith my sound and my audience are no,
no, not necessarily in Nashville.I'm not doing the Broadway that I'm
doing, you know, songwriter roundswhen I'm up there and we're still on

(02:58):
the road, you know, weekendwarriors every weekend. We just recently did
a trip to the Carolinas. We'restill we have a nice market growing in
Alabama and in South Georgia, butmy band is still based here, so
we do have a lot of showsaround Louisiana, still into Texas and Mississippi.
So really it's trying to build thatnetwork to further that that way we
can broaden our reach as far asthe artistry side of it, but on

(03:23):
the songwriter side of it too.It's just, man, it's all about
just surrounding yourself with good people,and I just felt like it was the
right move for my career. Now. I know you've visited Nashville before many
times, but living up there,is that an eye opening experience or is
it something that you knew what wasgoing to happen, You knew the lay
of the land. I was fortunatein traveling there the last four years to

(03:46):
have a lay of the land andto already have a grasp on what Nashville
was about, not just the toursside of it, but to get some
local experience. What I tell peopleall the time that ask me about living
in Nashville, the biggest difference isNashville is seen as a destination. It's
seen as a vacation. So alot of people go to Nashville and the
thought processes you have the party.You know, you're going to Nashville party,

(04:09):
You're going to stay out late,You're going to spend money. On
the local side of it, it'sfinding ways to still meet those people,
hang out with those people, butit's not a destination for you anymore.
You're trying to make it your home. So there's a lot of times like
I'll have family and friends come intown, and then you know, say,
I have family and friends in townon the weekend that I might not

(04:30):
be playing music, and we gohang out and we party and we have
a good time. But come Monday, Tuesday, I have another group of
friends that come in town and theywant to go party and they want to
go do it again. I'm like, this is my home, Like I
have to get to I have workto do, And just creating that difference
is a very fine line in beingable to separate the two and understanding that

(04:50):
this isn't a vacation anymore. Thisis home. Now you said I have
work to do. Are you talkingabout songwriting work or job work? So
I'm one music involved. Now Isold my construction company. I don't have,
you know, the other businesses thatI had when I lived in Louisiana,
I cut ties with all that,I'm one hundred percent a singer songwriter

(05:11):
doing my artistry thing. So theweekends are filled with show dates and everything
like that. In the weeks areyou know, the morning time during the
week is maybe I'm doing booking,maybe I'm doing something managing, maybe I'm
working on content, you know,something to further myself. And then my
afternoons were writing songs and at nightwe're playing those songs for people to see
if they like our songs. Doyou have someone assisting? You know,

(05:33):
I'm one hundred in shop independent.Good night, man, you must be
busy like a bee. It definitelykeeps me busy. There's one thing that
I've learned is that there was alot of things by doing this backwards.
Most people have a dream to playmusic, and then they moved to Nashville
and then they've become a songwriter.Look for a pub deal, which is

(05:54):
going to give them the exposure whichis then going to make him an artist,
which is going to get him arecord deal, which is going to
put them on the road and that'slike the thought process of the path.
If you think about us. Westarted as a college cover band, then
we started doing original music. Thenwe went on the road, and then
it was like, oh yeah,we can, we can do the songwriter
thing. So the point I'm gettingat is whenever we stepped away, never

(06:17):
you know, I stepped away fromall the construction and all the other distractions,
said I want to do music fulltime. I opened my eyes to
all of the things that I wasmissing before, Like social media needs to
be better. For example, youknow, there can be a better marketing
campaign, there can be a betteryou know, a better process to booking

(06:38):
shows. There's questions that I don'task when booking a gig. There's new
people to meet, new industries togo into. There's there's you know,
merchandise is a whole thing, andI never even did before. We bought
T shirts because I thought about Tshirts as a way to advertise and just
make enough money to pay for theadvertising and your T shirt. Whenever,
it was like, no, youcan have a merch line that provides real

(07:00):
revenue if you take the time todesign things and run it like it's a
business. Same with songwriting. Takeyour songwriting seriously and write a song because
it's a good song, not becauseit's just what you want to write about.
All of these things, all ofthese avenues of you know, just
there were so many aspects of thebusiness that for so long we put on
the back burner that now that we'vefor lack of better word, pause to

(07:25):
say, let's let's fix these detailsand then let's take off again kind of
thing, you know. That's thethought process. Well, that's a lot.
It's a lot. It's a lot. Especially I love. I will
say that I'm loving every second absolutelyabsolutely because I know at the end of
the day, it's where I'm supposedto be. It's what I need to

(07:46):
be doing, you know. Andit's every time I learned something new,
like just having conversations with people andjust being able to pick that brain and
just hearing the way they go aboutthings. I could learn something as far
as how to publish my music better, or how to distribute my music better,
or I could learn something as simpleas oh, I'm not the only

(08:07):
one that struggles with this. Yeah, I'm not alone in this. We're
all in this together and all that'sa beautiful thing. That's why I'm loving
every second of it. Yeah.Bob Seeger told Glenn Frye he gave some
really good advice when Glenn Frye wasjust beginning in Detroit and he wanted to

(08:28):
be a better songwriter, and BobSeeger said, well, you're gonna just
have to do it over and overand over again. And he said,
well, well, what if mysongs are bad? He said, well,
they're gonna be bad, you knowwhen you first start out, but
then you have to repeat it overand over and over again in good elbow
grease. Really when you when youwrite a song, right, and the
old saying is, you know youwrite a thousand songs to get one good

(08:50):
one. Yeah, kind of thing. I understand that perspective one, but
I'm not going into because I'm takingthe blue collar aspect of how I grew
up. You know, whether it'smy guitar as my tool belt or my
pen and paper as my tool belt. I'm going to work every day to
put out the best product I canpossibly put out. Now. A year
from now, I might think thatthat product, like you said, it's

(09:11):
not a good song. But I'mnot going in with the aspect of well,
I'm gonna build a hundred houses,is only one of them is gonna
be built? Good? Now I'mgoing to build every house. I'm gonna
build every song to the best ofmy ability and give everything I got to
make it what I feel as ahit, and go with that product every
time, just the same as Idid. You know, like I said
with my construction company or with anythingelse, was do everything you can today,

(09:37):
and then when you look back,even if it's one percent better every
day you look back at them,you know, a month, look how
far you've come. So that's beenthe attack mentality that I've carried with me
throughout the whole thing. Can youtell us about some new music that you're
working on right now? Absolutely?So. We've got um so, We've
written a handful of songs I'm trying. We've actually got a single that's gonna

(10:01):
come out right before football season calledwe Want Bamah. And I know it's
not about actually wanting to play Bama. It's a It's about falling in love
with a girl who's in the stadiumscreaming we want Bama. And all I
want is that girl screaming we wantBama. So that's gonna be one we
released right before football season. Youknow, I've got a couple trying to

(10:26):
decide if I want to go aheadand do one full album and do a
big project, you know, atwenty song thing, or if I want
to bust it up in EP's.But we've got a lot of really,
really good music that's in pre productionfor myself personally that I can't wait to
start recording. But also at thesame time, some of these songs we've
been writing with these guys that onceagain I thought by attacking it the best

(10:46):
I can. Every single day thesewe walk out the room and I'm like,
man, I would love to cutthat song, and the person I
write will go, oh, Iwant this one. That feels like that's
that feels so good to have someonesay, man, I need this song
for my album, or I needlike this message. Like we put together
the message that I want to deliver, and this is what I've been trying

(11:07):
to say. Thank you. That'sthe best feeling world. So I can't
see, can't wait to see hopefullyby the end of the year, some
of these songs we've been working onother people's cuts, so I'm excited for
it. So if someone wanted toexplore some Trey Gallman music. How they
did do that? Right now?Right now, We've got some older stuff
that's been on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Pandora, Amazon, anywhere

(11:30):
you listen to your music. Wehave stuff that's up. You know.
We had Down a Little Back Road, which was our biggest song to this
point. We've had you know,Colorado Coronas hit the Texas chart and did
well. We've had other songs thathave done well in streaming numbers. So
we have a good base of musicthat we've put out and we're just looking
to build on it. Since you'rea one man band right now. Kind

(11:50):
of as far as a business quoteunquote in the music industry, if someone
wanted to reach out to you onsocial media, how do they do that?
They can go to my Instagram pageTrey Gallman no spaces, or they
can go to Trey Gollman Music.It's two separate Instagram accounts. Um let
me let me go ahead and stackmy phone number on here. No,

(12:13):
Uh, Facebook's under Trey Golman.I mean any anywhere t r U Y
G A L l m N.Pretty straightforward, look me up, hit
me up, all right, can'twait, Trey, congratulations on everything,
and I hope you enjoy you stayin Nashville, and thanks for coming back
and coming down and talking with us. Thank you, my Brother's always a
pleasure. I know you've been realbusy. Now. We'd also like to
salute all of those listing overseas.We have a lot of listeners, uh

(12:39):
surprisingly in the UK, also Egypt, Kazakhstan and some other countries South America.
Thank you for listening, and especiallysome of the military bases out there
listening as well. So we thankyou for your sacrifice, We thank you
for your service, absolutely for youand your family. Trey Goaman, thanks
for walking with us on Backstage Pass. Thank you for having me brother.

(13:03):
I am Austin James and look usup on iHeartRadio app for more episodes of
Backstage Pass, or wherever you getyour podcasts.