Beats, Bars & Algorithms w/ Bigredcap

Sydney Classic: I was going into social media with this chip on my shoulder like I hate this shit. I hate social media. But you have to go in and try and find where you're comfortable actually enjoying it and being yourself and just knowing that you can't please everyone. People are now aware of the shit, of the bullshit, of people being too polished, too cleaned. I used to make films a lot at school, all the time. Like the music videos and movies that I was making when I was a kid. Maximum cringe. You know those memes that follow people around forever. Like I could have been one of those meme kids if if I had access to the internet. I was talking to you about how, you know, I care too much about what people think about my music and whatever I put online and you gave Dave and I the best piece of advice that Dave is constantly reciting. I live in imposter syndrome. What are you talking about? Do I really need to post every day? What's this even doing for my business? I hate social. My friends keep making time. Everyone does just want to work on my business. And not be on camera every day. Sound familiar? We feel you. Social media can definitely be a challenge if you have this kind of mindset. We believe it's the most powerful and free asset for your business or personal brand if you know how to use it in a way that works for you. We've been in the content creation and video production industry for decades now and we're sharing what we've learned to help you show up online in the most powerful way that you can. In a way that will speak to the people that you actually want to speak to. We're not about vanity metrics or just following trends. We're here to help you own who you really are and allow the camera to see that. When you show up as your true self, your tribe can find you easily. And that's when your content creation becomes effortless and magnetic. This is Unfluences Anonymous. Your social media support group. Let's do it. We have Big Red Cap in the studio today. what's that? So Big Red has been a friend of ours for many years. We've worked with him on a whole range of his music videos. He is an artist, he's a rapper, he's also a husband and a father. He's a busy man who is very, very creative and he has built a beautiful following for his music using social media and all of the skills that he's learnt. And he's become such a good editor that we've actually stolen him and we're now getting him to work with us. So yay! Thank you so much for being here, Red. How are you doing? I'm very well. I'll just talk over the top of you like Yeah, here we go. Straight away, let's do ⁓ it. Immediately. Dave and Red. Wait a minute. Let me get these unbranded plasters. So this is put them on my mouth. ⁓ This is a joke from a previous episode. There you go. Beautiful. Great. So Red, anyway, let's start again. How you doing? I'm very well. I'm very well. Thank you very much. It is the currently the school holidays, so I'm in almost full dad mode at the moment. But ⁓ yeah, other than that other than that terrorist attack on my life. Yeah, everything is good. That's so good. I mean, let's for for those who don't know you, can you give us a bit of a background on what you do? What your main goal is with social media. You definitely a lot to do with your music, huh? It's pretty much all music based, I think. I d I don't know whether I'm one of those people that would even have social media if I didn't have music in my life. But obviously it's just the it's the smartest tool to use to constantly be able to put stuff out there. Whether it falls on its ass or whether it doesn't, when you make something, of ultimately you're doing it because you enjoy it, but at the same time How you get it out to everyone has become easier than ever and that's that's what social media is. And obviously I keep in touch with my family and all that stuff on there as well. But yeah. Hmm. And and I've noticed your accent. ⁓ w where's that accent from? Bulgaria. That's what I thought. Honestly. Sarah, I told you. I told you No, I but I'm from the UK. I'm from I'm from Brighton, England, in the UK. But I've lived in Australia for Twelve years, I think, thirteen years. Wow. That's what made you come out, bro? It was actually No, come out to Australia. Sorry, come out to Australia. It was actually my husband, yeah. ⁓ No, it was ⁓ No, it was my wife, Lisa. Like we met in England and she w her visa ran out in England and then I ⁓ I it was we'd only been together like six months or whatever, so I wasn't necessarily ready to go to the other side of the world yet. So then we moved to Amsterdam. ⁓ 'cause she could get a visa there, so we lived there for a couple of years and then she got real homesick. She was like, I want to go home. But at that point I'd already been away from England long enough that I was like, What is Australia anyway? Like I've already done Amsterdam now. Let's go to Australia and that that's why I came here. But I love it here now. Like I do, I I would never go back, put it that way. I miss some friends and some certain foods and things like that, but in general, like I it's a much nicer way of life over here. And how long have you been doing music? Like how did that start for you? I started making music at school. So I was I used to make films a lot at school, all the time. Like me and my friends, I would any time my friend or one of my mum's friends was coming over, I remember I saved up for years and bought myself my own camera. Like you know those like ones that have the little mini cassette Yeah, 'cause I I remember Dave, I borrowed your camera so I could rip some of my old films off of the Yeah. I did. That was ages ago. Yeah, but yeah, I saved for years to get one of those cameras and then like I would I remade the evil the Evil Dead with my friend. We made like a scream movie. We made like a Chucky movie but with like a Dennis the Menace doll and just all these movies, like we would make them all the time. All the time. Just movies, movies, movies. And then when I was at school, me and my friend like we put like a a mic next to a speaker and we're playing like some beats that we had on because we used to buy singles and they would often have the instrumental on there and we were doing raps about our teachers and that. And then I was playing them to people at school and ⁓ I remember just one of the chicks at school, she was like, Is that you? And I was like, Yeah, she's Yeah, you're pretty good, mate. And I was like, Am I? And then I just and then I I just was saying about that. I was like, you know what? Maybe I'm all right. Maybe I'm all right at this. And then so I started making more tunes and then started making them more about My actual self, you know, ⁓ and started talking about my own life. And and from there I was like, right, you know, as you get older, you have to kind of decide what lane you want to go down. Like lots of people change all the time. As we know, you've had a million different side projects in your life, Sarah. I know this. But I thought if I chose music, then I could do the artwork myself, I could do the music videos. Yeah. And I could, you know, make the songs and and I could go and do shows and so it like encompassed everything that I liked to do anyway. Yeah. And then music was like the anchor for all of it. So that's why I stuck with music, yeah. I love that. That's so good. And so Big Red Cat, Dave's curious, where has that name come from? You know, it's actually it's not that exciting. So when I was a kid, my real name's Davy. No one calls me Davey. Yeah. My real name's Davy. And so ⁓ when I was at school people would call me Big Dave or Big Davy, you know. Yeah. 'cause I was a little fat kid just like I'm a fat adult, you know how it goes. And and then I st I got really into Limp Biscuit, right? Their second album came out. Fred Durst always wore a red cap. I started wearing a a Limp Biscuit red cap all the time. And then people started calling me red cap or big red or big red cap. It and it was just kinda like I just took it and I was like, Alright, well, this is what everyone calls me, so I'm just gonna take that and make it my name. And then, you know, obviously it's a silly name and it's I'm already sort of influenced by Fred Durst somewhat anyway, with my sort of more high pitched delivery and stuff, which is why I've always kind of avoided doing any sort of new metal. Up until very recently I've always avoided it 'cause I didn't want the comparison to be too obvious. 'Cause I am my own artist. But I feel like I sidetracked a little bit there. But yeah, you get what I'm saying. That's where it came from. I was wearing a red cap 'cause I was a little kid and I loved Limp Biscuit and it just never went away. Like it just became part of who I am. People would buy red caps. I would then wear a different coloured cap and everyone would be like, ⁓ you big blue cap today? Like hilarious. And after a while I was like, ha ha ha, I'm never gonna wear a different coloured hat ever again because I just can't be bothered to deal with this low hanging fruit. Okay, so how many red caps do you own now, do you think? Hunt literally hundreds. Literally hundreds. Hundreds. Yeah. I used to buy ⁓ in the like in the proper shops, but then ⁓ I bought all the ones that you could pretty much buy. Yeah. And then I used to wait until there was like exclusive ones. They'd be like, No one's got that one, I'm gonna get that one. And then I started going online and just pounding all of the red caps that I could find online. And yeah, now there's just a ludicrous amount. More than I could ever possibly wear in a year, it feels like, you know. Like I try and rotate them out. Yeah. And yeah. I some of them I don't like. You know when you get one and you think, ⁓ this is gonna be sick and you put it on, it's just like a weird shape or whatever, like the shape's not right. And so you're just like, nah, I'm not gonna wear this one. It will just go on the shelf with the other hundred hats that will never get worn. ⁓ my god, so is there literally a cupboard just full of red hats in your house? There is. There is in the bedroom, in the bedroom I've got four shelves. Yeah. And they're all red caps, three rows on each shelf, and they go all the way to the back. And obviously, if you push the the back them like this, you can stack them all up. Look, I've got another one right now. Yeah, yeah. Here's one I prepared earlier. ⁓ my god. That's so wicked. But it's so good now because it is that is your brand. You know what I mean? Like you've without even probably meaning to do it when you're younger, that's something that people advise, like social media strategists advise now. When you're building a brand, it's like have something recognizable that even if we can't hear you. Hear what you're saying. We see you and we know it's you because it's you've got that same look every time. It's true. I mean, I remember when the MAGA hats came out and I everyone started giving me a bit of shit then 'cause they were like, ⁓ what is this? you know, like and so it kinda did it kind of did sully the hat a little bit because it felt like it was ⁓ getting linked to some political shit I had nothing to do with. You know. But ⁓ I was at a wedding one time and this lady was just like, You've got to lose the red hat, man. And I was like, What the hell are you talking about? And she was just like, ⁓ you know Yeah, you look like you're following the Umpal Umpa. And I was like Really? I was like, mate, I'm not even gonna have this conversation with you. I'm at a wedding, you know? Yeah. And granted, I guess maybe you shouldn't wear a red cap at a wedding. I don't know, but that's that's how I live my life. Yeah. Exactly. That's I I don't know if we I don't know if we've pre prepped you for this, but but how would you describe your music? My music? Yeah. I mean, over the years it's evolved like a lot. Like when I first started, it was strictly all like Just hip hop and grime, like all the time. Like I loved grime. So I made a lot of grime. But I'm not the I'm not like super, super gully. You know what I mean? While I have had quite the past when I was younger, I don't rap about that a lot because I feel like it glorifies it too much and I don't like to ⁓ you know. Even when I was younger I didn't like to talk about it, you know. Yeah. And I'm not gonna I'm not gonna snitch on myself now, but but I used to do a lot of stuff, you know. ⁓ but grime is really hard edged, you know what I mean? Like it is from the gritty parts of the world. And I do parts of the UK, yeah. And so I feel like 'cause I'm such a jovial dude, or at least I try and come across that way. In my music I want to be mostly jovial. Jokey. Yeah. And ⁓ so I don't know if I necessarily fit in the grime scene that well because everyone's gonna be like, Who's this fucking poser? You know what I mean? But you know, I love it. And so I'm always gonna make grime. Always gonna make hip hop because that's You know, that's where it all started, hip hop, and it evolved everything. ⁓ but then I also like to make like indie tunes now 'cause I like to have a bit of a sing. I l I do lots of E D ⁓ tunes, lots of dancey club type tunes. That's where I feel like is like my that's where I've been most successful. That's like my pocket. Yeah where people hit me up for vocals often because they're like we want that. We want that guy. You just adds so much energy to a track, like the speed that you can rap at and like your e your vocal, your tone, everything. It's just like Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. But yeah, a little bit of everything these days. And I have recently dipped into new metal because I felt like I'm I'm an artist of my own right now and I can officially do a little homage to that music that I used to love a lot, you know. Still do. But I could now that I can ⁓ now that I can safely say I'm not just trying to copy, you know, my my favourite stuff. I'm just you know, paying some respect to something that I've always loved, yeah. Mm-hmm. I love that. And I love that, you know, you're being unique, you're being yourself and Yeah. I know we've mentioned a few genres, but there's no one particular genre that you like, you know, other than maintaining the hip hop, the the rest of it sounds like it's whatever you're vibing at that time, whatever you're feeling like. And and I've I've obviously heard some of the stuff you've made. We've filmed some of the stuff and and so I the the yeah. I and and I again like I'm sixty, so I don't know a lot about hip hop but ⁓ I can listen to your stuff. And I I often say to Sarah, you know, when we're listening to a hip hop track, not yours, what are they saying? I can't but with your stuff I can. I get it. Yeah. Like I can understand what you're saying and I I get the messaging through it. Except when you go into f freaking hyperdrive and you're like It's like, ⁓ shit, what? But Red, I really wanna know like what was the beginning of your social media journey like? Have you been just posting since you were a kid? Have you, you know, naturally 'cause you already had in like film experience and stuff like that, but what was the start of it like with your music and so I mean it's I feel like I'm actually lucky that it came slightly later in my lifetime because I the music videos and movies that I was making when I was a kid are maximum cringe. Like to the point where you know Like I you know those memes that follow people around forever. Like I could have been one of those meme kids if if I had access to the internet in in a f in that capacity back when I was a kid. Yeah. And I know everything's cringe and you know, lots of people have that same story, but My lord, I am lucky that the internet wasn't around for that. I remember when I first started actually being properly online, it was around the MySpace era. And I already had a crew at that point and I'd already made my bones doing a bunch of crack tunes to the point where I was making pretty good tunes with my crew. And so we made a MySpace, our top friends, our top eight friends or whatever was us four. We were all on each other's top list, you know, and then a few of our affiliates. So right away we were kind of like ⁓ package deal online. And the cool thing about MySpace, I don't know if you remember this, you used to be able put songs on your page. Yeah. So people would hit your page and you'd have like four songs that people could listen to. True. Which you don't even have that now, like on on any of them. I mean now you can obviously link tunes I guess to your stories and stuff, but you don't just have a splash page or a landing page that has a few tunes. But that was where it started anyway. And then yeah and then obviously Facebook came along and I I I did used to use Facebook like a lot to promote myself, but then one day Facebook came and shut me down and they were like, ⁓ you use because I was called Big Red Camp on Facebook and they were like, ⁓ you use this to promote. You have to have a page page. You can't have a personal page. And I was like, what are you talking about? And they were like, Well all you do is post like links to videos and and songs. Like I ended up having this back and forth with them via their little chat thing and they told me that I had to send them my passport. To allow me to have my page still and which is why my government name is on my Facebook page because it's all grayed out, like I can't change it. But with Instagram and TikTok and things like that, like I have them, yeah, because I want to post my music and stuff. I still post my family sometimes, but Yeah. Just because I want to every now and then I'm like, ⁓ my kids are being so cute, everyone should see this. And and and with that, like w where are you getting And again, it's not it's not about the numbers, F the numbers. Yeah, that's right. where are you getting the most traction or where do you feel which platform suits Big Red Cap the best? You know, I don't even know. I guess probably Instagram is but even then, I say Instagram, but I've s you know, I've still only got like three thousand followers or whatever, I guess. I know F the numbers, but that's where I feel like I have the most interactions with people. Like when I post a video I will get people messaging me a lot on there saying, ⁓ this this song's sick or ⁓ this this is crazy da da da da or people will comment and share a lot more there. Facebook, I don't know, it's pretty much dead for me now. I'll post that and get like two two reactions. I think people just don't go on there anymore. every now and then like I'll post something on TikTok and it will just go off. But I don't even know if it's in a good way or not. It just kind of randomly ramps up and it gets loads of comments and then The next ten will get like nothing, so it doesn't seem to affect rest of my age. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. No rhyme or rhythm. Crazy. Yeah. I don't know. I mean I I just I'm just obviously there's lots of ways you can play the game, but I don't I'm I'd store my I feel too old for it half the time, you know. Yeah. That's the thing. Do you and I mean, do you find yourself like Sometimes when I'm working on a song, one of the first things that comes to me is the actual content for the music video. And then I end up sort of thinking about like, ⁓ this is the sort of video I could create before I've even finished the song. Like how how much are you thinking about content these days? Or is it sort of like a byproduct at the end when you've already created your song and you've just figured out what music video you want to do and then you make teasers, or is it a big part of the whole process for you? I feel like I'm really passionate about music. music videos themselves, like the actual music video, that's what I I can picture that almost straight away and I think about how I can shoot it. I always 'cause I know what I can and can't do, usually I will think of a music video that I can genuinely film as well. Like I don't think of an out I can think of an outlandish video, but there's no way I'll be able pull that off. So my brain quickly re reigns in what I could feasibly film. Who I could probably rope in, where I could go to do it. That is all ticking off in my head while I'm making songs usually. And then I go for the music video first and then I just try and create content from all the footage that I film for the music video. Because I don't like thinking of my art as as content. Just that word in general just cheapens the whole thing for me. Yeah, definitely. But it's funny actually because obviously as we mentioned before, I've been doing some editing for you guys and obviously watching your podcast and listening to what you guys say, I was going into social media with this chip on my shoulder, like I f hate this shit. I hate social media. But if you ⁓ that that guy Lee that you had on your one of your previous he said it's like if you go in with that mindset, you will you will hate it. Yeah. It's like you have to go in and try and find where you're comfortable actually enjoying it and being yourself and just Knowing that you can't please everyone and rah rah rah. And it did actually help me a lot. I was like, you know what? He's right. Like I should just post what I feel is genuine. And you guys said some similar things as well in some other ones that I edited, but like I it's funny, like one once I stopped hating it 'cause I don't hate it now, I do see see it for what it is and I do feel very differently about what I post every time. That's amazing. Yeah. That's so good to hear. And even there was one ⁓ a couple of weeks ago you messaged me and said that you had posted something because you were listening to the podcast probably to Lee's one. And that post that you put up, I loved. Like you were just showing because you have this amazing space that you've created at home downstairs in your garage or something. And it's like all of the. No, but I love it. And you were showing all of the behind the scenes and how you make these things and then you showed the final product and that video just looked. Epic and I think there was even some AI in there, like there were characters that were AI or something, and you were the ⁓ well yeah, like Begsy like smashes his decks at the end, and obviously he's got like two thousand dollar decks, so we're we're not actually gonna smash those, so I used AI for a bit of that. And and fire, you had like AI fire on the decks or something like that. So there was that was in a different video, but yeah, similar similar stuff, yeah, yeah. But ⁓ yeah, but no, yeah, no, you're right. I mean I was bagging up my ⁓ because I did the bunch of swag bass, like I had all that merch. And I was bagging them up and I was thinking about it and I as I was thinking, rather than just sitting there thinking about it, I like, you know what, I'm just gonna turn the camera on and just record what I'm thinking right now and post it because someone might relate to what I'm saying and and that was a direct It was like directly after watching one of your things like I just need to post this because it's it's real. You want to talk about being real, I'm just gonna be real. Yeah. Yes. And I loved it. th like I don't you know, I don't look at the numbers of how everything's done or anything, but as a viewer I loved that video. I was like, That's that's red. There he is. He's talking to us. 'Cause that's what I find like I don't know about you, but what I've done a lot in the past is just posted the music video itself and all of the nice polyg stuff. Instead of like talking to the camera and going, Yeah, this looks nice, but guess what it actually looked like behind the scenes? Like I dripping with sweat, I was moving lights with Dave. Dave and I like crawling around on the ground trying to clean things just so that the smoke machine isn't making a slip over it and you know, all these things. And that's actually so much more interesting sometimes than the the final product. But it is seeing the contrast is the best, I think. There was there there was one shoot we did in a warehouse and Sarah wanted to hold a like smoke bomb. And ⁓ I don't know where she got it from. Sarah said, I've got them, yeah, I've found them online, I've got them. And and she's lit this thing up, Red, and it's gone bigger than what we ever thought. But the toxicity of it, the smell. And we're in a massive warehouse and we had to literally clear out the warehouse and open the doors. That's funny. I was looking at some of those online the other day. I might rethink ⁓ my my Yeah, just make sure it's outdoors. I think outdoors they look great, but and it just gets up in your mouth and you're breathing it in and it's horrible. ⁓ It was cruel. Hilarious. But yeah, no, I loved showing that behind the scenes sort of stuff. So with with you, you do a lot of live shows these days, which is amazing. I do slightly less. I do slightly less now than I used to. Like I d there was a couple of years ago, well, I don't know how long ago was ago. I was just t I was saying yes to every show that came up and I was trying to get on everything. Whereas now slightly less just because I feel like sometimes you can over saturate yourself. If you do like five shows in Sydney over the course of a f you know, a month or two, like it doesn't give anyone a reason to come see you. Like they just saw you. You know what I mean? So I do try and hold back a little bit now. And so when I do do shows, like I'll try and like I might leave it a few months and then just pick three or four shows to j to jump on a in a similar sort of time frame. So then it almost feels like a little toy like, ⁓ red's out again. For a month, let's go and catch him while he's doing his thing. Yeah. But ⁓ sorry, w I'm sure there was more to your question there. I was just caveating you. No, that's all good. I'm just wondering how much of those shows are you sort of using social media to convert people, or is it the other the event hosts that are doing that more? Or like how much is social media playing into you actually getting these people live? Because I see these people who come to see you, they're obsessed with you. And I'm like, have they seen, like, have you been Posting lots of stuff each time you perform and then you get lots of responses from that or is it a bit random each time? I actually don't even know if I can pinpoint it. Like some people sometimes, yeah, people will see you somewhere perform, but then they'll follow you online, you know, and then d you know, they're like part of your tribe. They they get your vibe. I feel like live, if you come to see me live, you're gonna get my vibe even more than ever than online because online is just online but and the flesh You know, you can really harness who you are and and show it to everyone and people can see that you're not like some arrogant douchebag like having a you're just having fun. You're like there to have fun with everyone. It's like this community thing. ⁓ but then there are also people, yeah, that have followed me online for years and then they'll finally come to a show and they'll meet me and they'll they'll have some merch or whatever and they're like, ⁓ can you sign this? Like, ⁓ want to be lame, mate, can you come and sign this? I'm like, Bro, don't even worry. I'll sign anything you want. I'm just so happy that you're here to see me, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So it's definitely a mix. It's definitely a mix. It's I I don't think there's any I don't think I can pinpoint it. Mag I think I imagine if I was a at a bigger level and I was looking at numbers and spreadsheets and really, really, really soaking those things in, I could probably harness that more and give you a more defined answer. But But for now it's just more organic. You're just sort of winging it, yeah. It's looking good from an outsider's point of view, honestly. And and who who is your audience? Like Like is there a certain demographic, a certain age group? Is it or is it just 'cause I I mean I'm I'm sixty, right, and I've been to a couple. Yeah. I mean I don't you know what I don't know. I imagine it's gotta be people in a similar age bracket to me to some degree, you know? Like between thirty and like forty five, I guess. Like that kind of window there, 'cause a lot of the references I guess that I make are very ⁓ related to things that I will have grown up around or whatever, especially now that I'm a bit older, like some of the things that I talk about, you know, the I hear some of the the the younger people coming up and they're sick and I I and I and granted like I like what they're doing and da da da da da but like a lot of it is unrelate I don't I don't find it relatable in any way, you know? Yeah. So ⁓ yeah I would say probably between thirty to to forty five I guess. Maybe older, maybe a little younger sometimes, but that would probably be my my age bracket. And ⁓ sorry, there you go, Sarah. Sorry. What what are you what are you talking about? What's your messaging? What are you saying in your lyrics? What's i is there is it anything? Is there anything like subliminal that we need to know about? Is there any messaging that you're going, I'm trying to impilate their brains with this or with that? I don't think so. You know, really for me, like I when I'm making the music, I am making it for me, first and foremost. When I am making it I'm either making a song because I want to have fun. So I'll make it like a fun song about being a bit of a wild lunatic or whatever and say all this like funny, outlandish nonsense. But then I'll have a song about like a breakup that I went through when I was very young. Or I might talk about, you know, my dad, who was like a d scumbag, heroin addict asshole, right? And I might want to talk about that and other people will relate to that. But when I'm recording it, it's for me. It's like me getting it off my chest, me wanting to encapsulate a certain ⁓ vibe and just just try and keep it as real as possible. Yeah. You know? Like so I'll make a song where I'm talking about something that's really depressing. And I might sound like I'm really depressed, but what I'm trying to do is really just f hyper focus the song on this one feeling that I have sometimes. You know? Doesn't mean I'm depressed all the time. It just means that I have managed to put it in a bottle the exact feeling that I feel when I'm feeling it. And sometimes those songs take ages to write. Sometimes they come right out because I'm feeling it right then in that moment. But once you've made the music, it then becomes everybody else's. And that's that's the big difference that I've l you know, l realised over time. Once I've made the song, I've had my therapy. I've done it. Yeah. After that and I'm putting it out, it's for everybody else. This song is for you guys. I want you guys to listen to it. I want you guys to enjoy it. I want you guys to maybe relate to it. I want you guys to Come and see it live if that makes you happy. You know what I mean? I l let's all do this together. Like I want people to just feel like they're understood to some degree. We're all human, basically. I just want people to feel that I'm just an just another human creating and having fun and and trying to be part of ⁓ the community of other people that love music. And also, like you said, it's therapy. Like I love that you're able as an artist to go back to certain parts of your life that were really hard and create something beautiful out of it. Yeah and then release it. Like that's such a healing process. I feel when I'm not making music I get very up in my head and everything's sort of bottled up where it doesn't have a place to It's crazy. It's actually crazy. Like I mean, yeah, I mean ⁓ d I'm as you you make music too, right, Sarah? So have you ever had this feeling inside you about how your what your thoughts are on something, right? You put it on a song and you just feel lighter. It's like if anyone wants to know how you feel about this thing. It's there, there it is. There is my actual opinion on that. That's how I feel. There it is. Go and listen to it. I'm not carrying it around anymore. Like it's out of me. It's a really so beautiful. And like I I don't know, ⁓ like a few years ago, like when we we had the mortgage and we had ⁓ you know, we had two kids, like one obviously was very young, the other one, McLean, like he was a bit older, but like we just had like no money. Everything was like real hardcore. I was working my arse off. Lisa was working her ass off. I had no time and I I took a step back from music for like a year. Yeah. Like a full year. I didn't really make any music. I still had some in the can that I could sort of etch out over the course of the year, but I wasn't making any. And through that year, I I wasn't like I think I was depressed, but I didn't know I was depressed. I just felt lost. Like I was there, I was present, I was enjoying moments in my life, but I felt Really off. Like I wasn't a hundred percent myself. Like I felt weird. And then so when I started making music again, I f I forced myself to make some time to make music again because I realized it was the thing that made me happy that that gave me my therapy and gave me my ⁓ my release. And so once I started making music and I didn't even care anymore. I wasn't chasing the dragon, I wasn't trying to be famous, I wasn't trying to be this, that, and the other. I literally just had to do it. To feel like myself again. Yeah. And that realizing that changed everything because now I just don't care. Like It's so good. And I mean, this is what I wanted to ask you. You've just tapped onto it because I wanted to ask you about that break that you had. Because I remember you had you I remember you telling me about this at the time. You were like, I just need a pause. There's just too much going on. And also I f you f like felt like you were doing it for the wrong reasons. And like you said, after giving yourself that time to sort of do your thing, have a think about it and see how much music actually meant to you, not as a thing to put out to people, but as a thing to heal yourself. You started and you had this whole new mentality around it. And I think you did the same with socials, didn't you have like a big it must have been 'cause like you're saying, yeah. I mean I was pretty much only ever posting full music. Yeah. So when I wasn't had to have much music, I was barely posting anything. I would like drop off for like months at a time. And that's the thing. I remember us having this chat ages ago and you like I I was talking to you about how, you know, I care too much about what people think about my music and whatever I put online. And you gave Dave and I the best piece of advice that Dave is constantly reciting. And you said there's two things that are true. First of all, no one gives a fuck. Second of all, no one gives a fuck. And I was like, you know what? Yeah, you're right. Why am I getting up in my head? So I want to know from your perspective now, you in the past posting versus you after this big break that you had, I feel like you came back with a totally new energy and you did embody that no one gives a fuck. Why am I caring so much? I'm just gonna post for me. So like does it how much easier is it flowing now for you? I think it flows way easier now because I just I don't really care. Like, I mean, obviously there's as humans do, there are some days where I still will think about posting something and then I go, you know what, I don't really feel like it today or whatever. And so I just won't. And then there'll be a few days where I won't post anything. I don't ever want to post Just because I feel like I have to and I'll just like regurgitate some nonsense or try and make something relatable. Like, ⁓ is this relatable? People might relate to this. I'm gonna do that. I don't wanna force myself. Yeah. But when it feels genuine, I do I am more open to just putting it out there. Because who cares? And you know what, in one of your other podcasts you talk about this. You're like in that moment when you post something, you're so close to it because you just did it. And it's like it's like right you're in your feels about it. Yeah. But if you stockpile something like that and wait a week or two and then look at it, you don't care anymore. You're like, I'll just post it. Who cares? No one cares. Exactly. Yeah. So but I definitely d don't mind as much. And I feel like it's better because I do I feel like I can in I interact a lot better more online with people now. I used to feel like everything felt fake, like everyone was just da da da da da. Whereas now I really feel like When I'm talking to people online it's just because I want to connect to people. As you were saying, Dave, you were like hundred percent hand over the fence, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And there's been this massive shift, you know, people are now aware of the shit of the bullshit of people being too polished, too clean, too. We're just aware now. It's like, okay, we've been there, we've done that. Let's just be real. Let's just be real. And but that's the part that we all struggle with sometimes, which is so funny 'cause it's like Just taking off the masks and all of the professional filters that we've put on for so long to just be yourself. And I feel like you're saying, Red, like sometimes it is that in the moment it's too hard, but at least if you stockpile it, you film it anyway, you start to build that muscle. Yeah. You can post it a bit later. Hey influencers, we did a thing. We've been creating videos for major brands and companies for decades. And now we've done something for you. We know the struggles that you come up against when you go to film yourself for your business, for your brand. And 99% of those things have got absolutely nothing to do with lighting, camera settings, or the quality of your audio. The biggest challenge is the mental game. The ego trying to convince you to stay small and safe. Don't listen to that ego. The Unfluencer Method is a 40-minute masterclass which will take you from resistance to resonance when it comes to your content creation. This masterclass makes sense of the self-sabotage. And the lapses in discipline and consistency. Once you know your own personal roadblocks, you can easily find a way to work around them and create a flow that works for you. Content creation gets to be fun again. And also easy. The influencer method will show you how. It's completely free and ready for you to access right now. Sarah, why is this free again? Follow the link and start building an audience that actually get you. Just in general, do you ever deal with imposter syndrome when it comes to the I live in imposter syndrome. What are you talking about? That's my whole life We need a red hat with imposter syndrome. Yeah, I feel like that all the time. I mean, even you know, even coming into work for you guys, you know, like all I've ever done is edit music videos for myself and a few other people, you know, and like I feel like I know what I'm doing, but I also feel like a kid just pretending to know what I'm doing like all the time. I feel like that in music. I feel like that at any time someone comes up to me and is like a fan ish, you know, there's not loads of them out there. Yeah, you're But when they are being a fan, I'm just like, ⁓ my God, I hope I can be whatever you think I am because I don't f actually think that I am that. You know what I mean? Like I'm just some dude. Like I just you know, I just I live here in Rutherford in my crappy little shack and just try and be a good dad, a good husband and you know, but it yeah, I just feel like I'm just some bloke. I feel you and I think a lot of that as well, like it's exacerbated by the fact that everything that you do, like filming, editing, music, you constantly need to learn new things. 'Cause we feel the same. We're like we've been doing this for so long, but there are still there are times where you and I read all talk on the phone, you're like Don't you do it this way? And I'm like, ⁓ no, I didn't even realize that all the software is constantly upgrading, changing, you're getting new templates, new plugins. Then when it comes to music, you gotta learn new instruments, you gotta find samples, you gotta find new things that work for you and effects. And it's like, when am I like I love learning, obviously. It's something I'm constantly doing at the moment, but sometimes you just wanna rock up and do your job. And that's when, you know, I definitely feel like an imposter sometimes. Like you're saying, it's like I feel like a kid just pretending to be a cinematographer and editor because it's like I'm just still constantly learning new things. Like I mean, I think ⁓ I mean like obviously I think the the the thing with social media as well is you have the flip of that. Us, we feel that way, right? And I feel like we're genuine normal people, right? I mean normal, everyone normal. But at the same time social media is full of raging big headed narcissists or people that overshare lots of things all the time. And that they I d maybe they feel insecure really deep down, but they certainly don't come across that way ninety-nine percent of your life. And it you are who you actually act like you are. I if deep down you're a really nice person but you're constantly doing horrible things, you're actually probably a horrible person. Yeah. Right. And so d when you see all these other people being so confident all the time, like it it does make you worry about yourself. That's why you gotta curate your feed, as we talked about before. You gotta make sure the people that you surround your your feed with Is is people that are ⁓ are s given those positive vibes, but given those genuine vibes so you don't feel so shitty about yourself. A hundred percent. And I feel like it's the algorithm is so quick to feed you so much more of the bullshit if you tap on it even once. But when you tap onto the the calming stuff, the educational stuff, you know, the real shit, it takes a bit longer for the algorithm to really want to give you that sort of stuff. I mean, I used to do this show called Top Five with my mate Yellow with a D. years ago on YouTube. I deleted them all now 'cause I found them all to be quite some of them are really negative. We would say stuff just for the sake of the joke, but you know how the internet is now. You could say some five second clip twenty years ago and people that'll follow you around forever. Yeah. ⁓ but we used to do top five and we would do like top five worst rap videos of all time and we would do top five best rap videos of all time, right? Mm-hmm. Now the best rap videos would get like twenty seven views and then the worst would be up to like, you know six or seven thousand views and I'm like well I'm posting these to the same audience but people are drawn to that negative shit. I'm guilty of it too. Like I love watching, you know, the downfall of this or whatever on the internet. Like I'll watch stuff like that. But I do try and stick to positive stuff too. I like I watch lots of like making of documentaries of like movies and and behind the scenes stuff. I feel like that is inspiring to me. So I I will constantly give myself more of that. Yeah. I I suppose a question for both of you, 'cause you're both musos. ⁓ when you how do I say it? Like with me, filming, editing, that was always a passion and it's become a you know, a a a lifetime career thing. But do you think with both of you and I I don't mean this disrespectfully by the way, but if you did music full time, do you think you would still be as passionate about it and ⁓ it would still be as therapeutic for you as as what it currently is? I I mean, do you want to answer first, Sarah? Okay. So I think there is always the fear of like turning the thing you're passionate about into a job and it becoming more like a job for you than a passion. That was something that I always was like, look, it did happen a little bit with music for me at one point. Like, you know, I was like pumping out verses for people, like working on songs that I wasn't really that into, but I was like, this is the next This is the next step or whatever, this is what I feel like I should do, so I'm just gonna do it. Yeah. not all the time, I still always put effort into everything I did, but there was definitely choices that I probably made that I wouldn't have done, and it did take some of the passion out for me. That's why I held off so long of trying to get a job doing editing and stuff like that, because I worried that it would turn the other thing that I'm really passionate about into this miserable vibe. But you know what? While I have been editing for you guys. Much like Sarah has said in the past. See, I feel like it's all in my brain now, all these things that you guys say, it's actually helping me mentally all the time. But Sarah was talking about how when she was in the corporate world, she was like the ⁓ the best day in her corporate job was still worse than her worst day d working a job where she's editing and and being creative. And I it it does click in my head. I'm like, why why have I been doing these jobs that I hate for f like thirty years of my life when I could have just been doing the things that I really enjoy doing? Yeah. And yeah, my worst day editing a video is gonna be nowhere near as bad as my worst day talking to customers who are yelling at me and screaming at me over nothing. Like, what am I doing? Yeah. It's so true. But it it definitely is a challenging one 'cause it's I feel like the ideal scenario would be, you know, for me I studied film. I thought I was gonna make films, but then I very quickly realized my ADD personality and I was like, I can't work on one project for years or however long it's gonna take to, you know, get the funding for it, get the cast, like do all and then all the post production, it's a big, big process. I need to be constantly moving, chopping and changing. But I do feel that there are some creative projects I'd love to do, like filming and editing that I just don't have the energy for because I am doing it all the time. So my ideal situation, I've just thought about it now while you're talking, is to plan in advance and maybe have a two-week Dave in advance, I'm putting in my notice, have like a two week or maybe like a month off, a year where you actually know that that month is coming and you can do some really creative stuff and like have some scripting happening in the background. Dave, you'll be fine. So you got me now, Dave. Yeah. And then actually work on something. But I think also collaborating with people, like that is what makes these bigger creative projects so much fun. Whereas Dave and I and yourself now, like when we're working on the corporate videos, it really is like every person for themselves, you've got a certain deadline, you've got a lot to do. But but yeah, I definitely agree. I've worked I've worked since I was twelve. I've had that many shitty jobs. I started working with Dave Sydney Classic at twenty six and ever since So last year. Yes, exactly. You know my name. And ever since then, thirteen years ago, I have loved work. Like I haven't had any complaints about work except for, you know, Dave's killing me with dad jokes and stuff sometimes. That's standard. That was on my contract when I signed. It's fine. It's ⁓ but yeah, but yeah, it's good. But for me with music, I feel like when I do it too much it does become a bit of a grind and so I'm trying to keep that really sacred and same. I like painting as well, but I instantly the business part of me went, ⁓ I can start doing commissions. And I started doing commissions and selling for people, like creating pieces for people that were all really unique. But again, two problems. I'm still learning. I'm still at the beginning of learning how to do, you know, proper art. And also then it became deadlines and it has to look this way. It has to be what the client wants rather than being able to just create what I want and if someone resonates they could buy that if they wanted to. You know? So I mean some people do get lucky as well. Like, you know, like some artists will make a couple of tunes and they'll like just blow up. Like it just happens. Like for s there is that one percent of people where it is like the dream scenario. They g everything comes to them, they can drop a few videos a year. Everyone's paying attention. They just have this magnetic power. to harness that. But yeah, lots of other people you y you have you do have to grind a little bit more and you have to w find out where your compromise is and where your where your line is to where it it the the happiness outweighs your artistic integrity and you gotta you've got to make those choices. That's the thing, you know, I often wonder ⁓ about, you know, artists that do get signed by a label and just the demands on that. And I mean, you know, you've seen plenty of docos and movies where it shows an artist sort of that's that's broken through and then their life turns into shit. And you know, especially if you go back to the seventies, you know, ⁓ and eighties, where you find it was still fairly new. Not not music wasn't new, but record labels and big dollars were new. ⁓ and once that happened you see you know, you see people breaking down on stage or and and you so I I don't know whether it's just 'cause there's more artists out there, but I do notice more of it, big artists these days where they've pulled out of a a live performance or they've broken down halfway on stage or they're on stage drunk or you know, just tend to see a lot of that. And that's why I asked that question. I just was curious because I think like you said, Red and Sarah, that if it becomes something with a deadline, I don't know then if you can get your creative juices around it. And it's the same I think it's the same with social media and with editing a and all that stuff. And I mean I know I used to spend copious amounts of hours before this was a paid gig. ⁓ researching stuff and being able to try stuff and experimenting with stuff. And we used to have Sarah a a day a month where we just it was just research and development. Yeah. On, you know, going out for the day into the bush with cameras and different lenses or drones or training. Yeah. Yeah. But on the f the flip of that is right, is this is what I came to realise before not even before, but sometimes you'd feel like you're wasting your time, right? Because You do you put all this effort into some tune or whatever and then you put it out and then no one listens to it or rah rah rah, whatever. And it feels like a waste of time. It can burn you on the inside, right? But what I realized after having that break was that that is not that's not why you're doing it anyway, right? When you were researching all that stuff and watching all those bits and figuring that out, were you enjoying that time learning and figuring these things out? When I'm making the song and Flicking through nine hundred snares. Am I actually sitting here enjoying that time? And you know what? I actually am. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I would just sit in there watching the T V. So actually it was never a waste of time. Even if it amounts to nothing, that time in itself was already a completely good use of my one life that I have because I was happy and content in those moments. Yes. I love that. And I find I find now with the deadlines that, you know, it doesn't I don't know, it just doesn't feel the same. It's it's still a passion, it's still absolutely blessed to do, you know, what what I do every day and I love it. But I do miss those days of being able to have copious amounts of t ⁓ copious amounts of time. ⁓ and and so it comes back to juggling life, as we say. And yeah, I suppose the question for you, Red, is is how do you juggle it? I mean, how do you juggle earning earning a crust, you know, like yeah the kids? ⁓ obviously a wife, so you're a husband. Yeah. ⁓ you know, you you've got your place to look after. Yeah. And and you're not in Sydney either. You're not in Sydney, you're out of Sydney. I mean, I think I I don't know what it is, but I feel like it's h th it was hard at one point, but I just feel like it's not that hard. I'm lucky that I have taught myself how to do everything. So when I feel like coming down here and making some music, I d I'm right here. This is where I do it. So I write it, so I record it. So I edit it. Like, this is it. This is my spot. So if I have two hours in my day and I want to come and do something, I will come down here and I'll do it. and yeah, like I I mean the most important thing for me is ⁓ is spending time with my kids and my wife. Like that is right now when they love spending time with me, this is like the time that I want to soak that up as much as possible. My son, he's like my best mate. We knock around, we do all this stuff. He's super happy when I walk in the door. And I know in eight. nine years time, I'm gonna walk in the door and I'll be like, is anyone gonna say hello to me? And they'll be ⁓ you're right dad. Like they're not gonna care anymore. Like that is gonna happen. And I honestly even thinking about it now it makes my heart ache. But that's what we do. We build them up so they can eventually fly the coop and be themselves, you know. But right now I wanna soak that up as much as possible. But at the same time like I like to bring them into the things I'm doing as well. Like Mac likes to come down here and make beats and songs with me. We've been editing cartoons together. He likes doing that. He draws books and stuff and Ada likes to sing and dance and you know, like so we get I just get them involved in the similar stuff so they so they enjoy it. ⁓ and yeah with Lisa, ⁓ I'd say it's the hardest is is with Lisa because obviously we are mum and dad so much that like a month will go by and we're like, we need to get a babysitter and actually go on like a date or something. Because what the hell. Like we have just been fighting along for like a month and a month will go by without you even noticing. Yeah. And luckily we've got some good friends that you know we can take our family over to their house and all the everyone get all the kids are like best friends with each other. And he he is like by my best mate so we can chat for hours and she is her best mate so they can chat for hours and then when we're all round the table we're all just chatting and da da da da like it's so nice. We got really lucky like meeting though. Shout out the calistors if you watch it Love you guys. But yeah, like Mac and ⁓ Liam, the they just met each other at daycare and then, you know, we went to a birthday party and we all started chatting to each other and it's just crazy how we all got along. It's it's nuts. It was funny because am I ⁓ am I tangenting like crazy here? No, no, no, no, no. No, it's just funny because like you know, they were our friends but we d it it's it's so lame. It's like it's almost like an early relationship. I remember we we hadn't seen him for a few weeks and we were like Should we message them? Is it too soon? Are we being too keen? Like we wanna I kinda want to see those guys again. And but apparently they were doing a similar thing. Whereas now we're like now we see each other all the time. It's like we're like family. Very rare though and amazing when you've each got, you know, everyone's got a person. Everyone's got a person, yeah. So it's the connection the connection was through through Mac. Yeah, Mac and Liam, they were friends at daycare. And Mac hated daycare. He got bullied loads, but Liam was was his friend. Yeah. And so Yeah, they they they built like a really strong connection together. ⁓ and yeah, it was just nuts. I remember he had like some breaking bad shirt on his dad. ⁓ a lost part. I was like is that I was like, is that a breaking bad shirt? And he was like, Yeah it is, yeah. And then I dunno, I d I don't even like breaking bad that much, but I think opening that that conversation about talking about, you know, films and stuff like that, we realised that we had so much in common. Yeah. Yeah. But that's that's like but that's another thing social media's done to us, right? Like we're not used to talking in person anymore. Yeah it's it is like that first date feeling. Even if it's just a friend, you're like, is this too too much? And in the past we'd just always be like, Hey, how's it going? What's going on? But the beautiful thing about music as well is like I know loads of people that I 'cause I much like you were talking about before, collaboration is like one of my favourite things. I my albums are full of featuring people on there. If I see someone live or I hear someone's tune, I'm like, let's do one together. Like that's that sounds sick. Let's do it. And then 'cause I can make a lot of stuff at home, I can send people vocals, they can send them to me, or if they're close by, they can come through. But it's a like this thing where I could've met have met someone once or even just online. But if I'm going to Perth to do a show, I'll message them and say, I'm gonna be in town they'll be like, Come and stay on my couch. Like, don't don't get a hotel and I've never met them. You know what I mean? Like I go around there, we catch up, we Have dinner together, we might write some tunes, we'll go to the show together. It's crazy the amount of friends I have just through music. Yeah, through social media, through music. That's amazing. And it and it thank you for that. It's always good to remember all the positives because we can so easily go into like this is what social media's done, but we forget how much beauty it has brought to our lives as well. As long as, like we said, you're following the right people and you're not being like inundated with bullshit every day. I mean y you will be inundated with bullshit regardless, you know. But you're gonna you're just gonna find those needles in that haystack there. They're all out there. But hey, Red, with like a young artist, someone who's just starting their music now and they're just about to start building their social media channels, like Dave and I we're not the experts here. We've never said that we are. That's why we're influencers. And, you know But you have actually created you're saying you don't have a huge following, but your engagement is incredible. You have lots of people that are engaging with you constantly and they're supporting you. And I've seen your live shows and I've seen the extent of your crazy fans. Like they're amazing. I shouldn't call them crazy. They're not crazy, no. Then they buy hats and stuff and they wear it to the show, so they look crazy, but they're not. They just they've just got a bit of merch, you know? They just love you. So, like, what would be maybe one or two pieces of advice for a brand new artist who's like, I now need to start thinking about content as well? I mean there's a few different forks. I would say the first thing is to just j just be super genuine, like just like we you've talked about a million times before. Make music that is a reflection of you 'cause if you are trying to make something else, like it's gonna like it's not gonna connect. And ⁓ people will see fake artists blowing up. That that does happen. But it's honestly in the long run it's so empty and you won't feel anything. You know, like I've been on songs that have millions of views and that's great. My millions of streams on songs is cool, but they weren't my passion songs. You know what I mean? They're just random songs that I jumped on. I'm not passionate about them. So while I thought millions of streams would make me feel great, I didn't it didn't change anything. I the next day I still thought I wish that these songs were the ones blowing up, you know. But that's a tangent anyway, so that that that's step one is just be yourself, make sure your music is genuine to who you are. And secondly, yeah, don't give a fuck. No one cares. Just do it. But thirdly, do quality control yourself a little bit. You know, not every song you record has to be put out. All right. Not every song that you've written, whether you are passionate or not, is actually a banger. So just once you've finished your song, step back, sit on it for a leave it for a few weeks, then come back, listen to it with fresh ears for the first time and see if you still genuinely feel good about it. Whether you want to tweak it or whether you want to play it to some other people and be like, What do you actually think of this? You know? Test the waters a little bit. Don't just put everything out all the time and act like you're already gonna blow. I'm ready to blow. Yeah. ⁓ if people are sleeping on me, I've dropped two songs and I'm I'm the hottest thing since sliced bread. Like no one cares, bro. You've seen my stuff, right? Yeah. But yeah, I think they're the main ones I'd say. The parallels are incredible, like really, you know, with mu with music. social posting of of music, but also with posting so socially. It's be yourself. You know, be so do what resonates with you. Be passionate and be real about the messages you're giving out. And do it regularly so you do build that bit of a muscle. But you don't have to post everything that you record. Yeah. Exactly. Just build that muscle. And what I love too is you say if you've got two hours you'll come down to your studio and do some stuff. That's because the studio's there and it's set up. That's exactly yeah. Something else we talk about with social media. Have a little corner where you your stuff's there. You don't have to spend an hour setting it up, you know. Like just just taking the the the excuses and the blocks out of the way. All the bullshit excuses. Yeah. I mean my friend ⁓ Miss Pink, like she ⁓ She's really good on social media. She has an area in her in her house where she's got this little light set up. She's got her little logo on the wall and like a thing. And she'll go in there and she'll like randomly talk about some stuff. And you just know that that's her spot where she just comes in to say, ⁓ our mates, like da da da da, we're doing this. She also does these DJ sets in her kitchen. So everyone sees the kitchen. She's like, It's the kitchen. She's doing a kitchen session. Like she has these spots where she's not throwing her whole life on there all the time. Like she still posts a lot of stuff, but Yeah. She has these spots that she can go to. If she does need to announce something or play something, she will set up her camera in that corner and she will go and do it. And everyone is expecting that. Love that. Love that. Yeah. Yeah. And she's a legend. She's my other best mate in the whole world. So yeah. There you go. There you go for Miss Pink. Love it. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, speaking of plugs, tell us what you're working on next, where people can find you. What's what's going on for Big Red? I am so I just have finished my album so it's ⁓ done my album and instead of just dropping the whole album I've been releasing every song as a single every two weeks. I'm just gonna do it so every song I get to give it a little bit of attention before the whole album's out. 'Cause in the past like I've put an album out, I'll like four or five videos and then all the other songs kinda get lost in the shuffle. Like people still will listen to they will say, ⁓ I love that such and such tune or whatever. But I feel like in this day and age I have to give every song a little bit of a chance. And I'm not perfect, don't get me wrong, I still might only post it two or three times, but it's better than just saying, Hey, the album's out and then the song gets nothing but an album track vibe, you know? Exactly. So ⁓ yeah, and it's been tough because because I have given myself the deadline of having a new music video every two weeks, like I have been pumping myself to get them done. But rather than sitting around and just, you know, saying to Lisa, ⁓ yeah, I had this idea for this video, what do you reckon? Instead I'm just like, I've got this idea, I need to go and actually get it done like on Saturday, I've got to go and do it. So, you know, that's been nice giving myself the deadline. But yeah, once once all of those are out, I'll have the full album out and then I think I'll probably take on as I said before, I'll take on like five or six shows in different states and treat it as a ⁓ like a mini tour, I guess, because the album will be out and then I'll And then I'll go back into hibernation and try and finish the next project for next year. Yeah. I love it. I love that you've got that variety of like cave life, hermit life, and then extrovert life. It's so good. Because you can do both. You can. I mean it's funny, like some weeks will go by and I've just realized I haven't really seen anyone. I'm like, how is this possible? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's amazing. ⁓ Well, thank you so much for coming on today, bro. This has been so good. We're so excited to have you on the team now. Yeah, I'm just thinking about all the waffling that I did. I'm like, how am I gonna chuck those into a perfect sound? Yeah, it is, it really is. The dream. I don't even know if I said anything profound either. Plenty, plenty of plenty of good stuff there. Plenty of stuff. part of our you know, which we're sharing in public, ⁓ of our scaling the company and building a little bit more your step one of that. Like you've sort of come in and giving us the space to breathe a little bit more on your editing all the social media and podcast side of things, which is so fantastic. And I love it. And I have been absolutely loving it. ⁓ and we love it too. Like we can trust you. We know you know what you're doing and because you've had your own experience with your own social media, there's so many things that you're teaching us as well. And so that's You know, there's never anything to lose from learning when you are posting, like having that experience, the more reps that you're putting in, you never know. You might be training yourself up for a job that you don't know that you want a few years from now. You know what I mean? Well, I mean, editing your your stuff is literally helping me at the same time. So the same. Like I'm I am not a guru. You got the wrong guest on here, buddy, because I am not a guru at all. No one should listen to me. But ⁓ no, but honestly, yeah, I think constantly hearing other people's ideas. Like if you're feeling a little lost, you know, like whatever it is, you know, some people have got social media in the bag. That's fine. But if you're feeling a little lost, listening to everybody else's ideas and trying to find what fits you is it's it's it's fun. It can actually be fun if you just play the game rather than walk in hating it. And that's And don't take it so seriously. Yeah. You know? Just lighten up. I I think we all take it so seriously 'cause like you said, we see all these other people that are just so confident and naturally generating these big audiences and stuff and we think, ⁓ it's so easy. And then we do it. And it's like, yeah. It's like, well, it's actually a little bit more work when you want the right people. Cause that's the other thing. You could have a big audience, but they might be ninety percent of people that don't actually resonate with you. So then when you do something, whether it's music or a online course or whatever it is that you're building, they don't care. They don't want that. So then what is the point of that audience? So I love your like I see your audience. They're constantly commenting on your stuff and giving you love and Homage for your music and everything. So beautiful people that they are. Engagement. Engagement. And that's that, you know, we keep talking about the beer over the back fence. That's what this is. Yeah. That's what it is. And and socials can be that. Yeah. They d I mean for me they definitely are, yeah, a hundred percent. I I agree. That that analogy is is pretty much perfect because yeah, ⁓ again, through music I get to talk to so many people all the time about the randomest things. And ⁓ it might only be A five or six sentence i exchange. But someone will send me some video that they're like, You're gonna love this. And I'm like, that is hilarious. Yeah. It's the same thing that you might do if you bumped into them in town, you know what I mean? And you would be like, ⁓ did you see such and such? you know, like same, same. Yeah. I think we need a I think we need another episode. There's so many more questions I've written down and I'm gonna ask about merch and all this sort of stuff. But we will be part of the team now. Yeah. You got a cassette player, look, there's my album on cassette. Lfies and cassettes and C Ds and all that sort of stuff. But I suppose for this episode, where where can people find you? Where do they follow you? It's just you it, it's just at Big Red Cap on all of the socials pretty much. Big red cat, one word, three syllables. Gotta make that real clear because if you put gaps in my name, you're gonna get pictures of caps. That's just what's gonna happen. So you do it all in one word, you will find me straight away. Spotify, big red cap, iTunes, big red cap, etc. Everything So pop a cap in your feed. Yeah He did it. Is that inappropriate? Sorry Thank you so much for coming on, bro. We'll talk to you soon. Yes, much love.