Monteasy on Writing Sammy Guevara's Theme, Working with John Kiernan, Wrestling Entrance Themes

John wrestling entrance theme song composer and talking about wrestling entrance themes.

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We're going to talk to none other than my good buddy, Montese.

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You know him for lots of different things.

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You know him for his podcast, TZ's table, but you probably know him even more for Sammy

Guevara's theme.

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Take flight.

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just heard him on final battle 2024 with an awesome theme for that.

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And we're to talk all about that.

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And obviously we're going to talk about the dragon Lee theme we worked on together before

he went to WWE and even more.

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For those who are looking to get into wrestling entrance themes, we're gonna talk a little

bit about the industry there too.

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So definitely stay tuned.

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Got a big episode here coming up.

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Before we jump into the episode, just wanna thank everybody who's been listening, sharing

on socials, listening to the podcast, checking us out over on YouTube.

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So just be sure that you're sharing the episodes.

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Everyone who's been joining us, it's been an awesome experience so far.

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Thank you for all the love and the feedback on that.

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And if you're listening on any podcast directory, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

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Google podcast.

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That's not a thing anymore.

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But anywhere else you're listening to us on the podcasting ecosystem, go ahead, subscribe,

drop us a comment.

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really helps out the show.

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Hit us with a subscribe over on YouTube and leave us a comment on who else you'd like to

see come on the show and leave us your feedback.

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We love being able to see what you're thinking of the show.

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I love doing the show.

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Love writing entrance themes and bringing on musicians and wrestlers for you.

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Also, go ahead and donate over to PayPal at ropes and riffs.

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$10 or more of a donation gets you a shout out on the next episode as well.

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So without any further ado, know what you're waiting for.

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You're waiting for the conversation with Montese.

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Whitney here is talk all about wrestling entrance music.

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So enjoy this episode with Montese.

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You know him from Teezy's table.

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You know him from all the themes you hear in all different promotions.

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I like to say I write a lot of themes, but I think y'all know who's on the show today and

y'all know the man behind many of your favorite themes.

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you are the man, the myth, the legend, Monteezy.

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Peace, my brother, peace, man.

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Thank you for having me on your show, man, on the Ropes and Rips podcast.

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you know, not only am I grateful, but, you know, with us, with how much we've worked

together and the camaraderie and being able to build outside of just what we do is an

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absolutely phenomenal thing.

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So I am blessed, I am appreciative, I'm thankful, brother.

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And, you know, we're brothers in arms in this, so it's...

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It's good to connect, man.

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It's really good to connect.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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And it's cool to say that, you know, we've done stuff together, but it's cool to also say

that we're friends outside of everything that we do too.

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Like you said, I don't think you could have put it any better than that.

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It's, uh, it's been a crazy couple of years too.

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And you know, for me, I never thought I'd be doing entrance scene, but I never thought I

say this all the time, that the camaraderie that is there within the wrestling industry,

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especially, know, with you and I, it's just, I think we talk even more about non-wrestling

stuff that we do wrestling stuff.

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And that's always.

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That's just the coolest thing.

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And it's just, it's been cool to be able to have this connection with you for all these

years.

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And we could talk about, we're going to talk about so many things.

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We're talking about so many themes.

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That's one of the reasons why we're here, but just, I just want to give you the praise as

well before we jump into everything.

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Cause you're everywhere.

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You're doing everything.

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And with all the things you've done with all the things you continue to do, you're just

like the best, most humble dude.

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And I'm sure I'm not the only person to tell you that.

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You're one of the friendliest people, one of the first people to just, you know, be that

person that you want to walk into a room and meet.

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So for that, I thank you too.

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Thank you, brother.

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It's just how I was raised, You to tell you the truth, I've seen, I watch a lot of

documentaries on the music industry and I see how many people treat people so bad in this

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genre and just in the world, especially when you get in a position of status or power or

whatever you wanna call it.

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You know, I'm like, man, I'm not going to treat anybody that way.

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I'm going to treat the janitor how I treat the owner of the building.

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We're all equal at the end of the day.

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And as you can see from the way 2024 gone, once you get to a higher point and you start to

lose yourself or lose touch, they're going to bring you down.

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And I don't, you know, the reason why I've been able to stay as consistent as long as I

have is just because I try to just treat everybody the same and just work hand in hand.

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You know, I don't let none of this get to my head.

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I'm a very confident person, but I'm not egotistical person.

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You know, I realized that relationships matter.

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You you matter, everybody that matters that's in this community, outside of this

community, everybody matters.

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And you have to treat everybody the same.

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I'm gonna treat everybody the same with the same humble respect.

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I respect everybody.

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And that's just the way I was raised, man.

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You know, and I think that, you know, when you're an easy person to work with and you're

liked, you get around a lot further in life than trying to, you know, have a...

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you know, upstanding personality or act like this and that, and you lose touch with the

culture, you lose touch with yourself.

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And I just told myself that I would, I would never do that.

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You know, I told myself that I would never, I would never do that.

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So, you know, I just wanted to treat everybody the same.

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And you know, I want to give you your roses as well, man, because you've been a phenomenal

friend to me.

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If anybody don't notice, I'm gonna say this publicly, this man has helped me out on a

personal level.

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He's helped me out when I've needed him the most.

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You know what mean?

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When I was battling my health concerns, which I'm still recovering from.

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And this man was one of the people that, you know, that helped me when I needed him the

most.

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So he will always have my friendship and my loyalty, whatever he needs.

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You know, I'm always going to be there for him.

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So salute to you, John, and thank you for all you've done for me as well.

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Ah, man, to you too.

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It's just, uh, it's been a great ride, my friend.

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And we're going to keep, we're going to keep doing awesome things and stuff, as they say.

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And I think we're going to start talking a little bit about what I would consider the

mountain of Montese.

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And what is that?

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The mountain of Montese is all of these different things that you've done.

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Uh, we're going to speak a lot about the entrance themes and a lot about the music that

you've done and the people you've collaborated with.

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I think probably the biggest starting point is.

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kind of where we're at now.

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You know, have your podcast, have TZ's table, you're bringing on all these great guests,

you've worked with so many of these phenomenal wrestlers, you've worked with so many

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awesome musicians too.

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And it's not just in wrestling, like you've done stuff for XFL, you have stuff for NFL,

have NHL, and you have so many of these different pools that you've been able to work in

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and be able to have these connection points with.

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So what do you attribute

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to being so versatile and being able to work in so many of these different pockets with so

many different people.

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You know, this is a great question.

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You know, we spoke a couple days ago about, you know, some goals that you have and the

things that I tell everybody.

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strategy that I will give anybody when it comes to this.

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If I see anybody that's an athlete, a wrestler, basketball player, I say, huh, what kind

of song can I write about that person?

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And it just randomly sticks, you know, and sometimes I will tell you the honest truth.

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I, there's not a Russell that's not on television and mentally in my head, I don't have a

song about that.

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It's just, it's just the way I'm wired.

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You know, it's just, I've been doing it so long.

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I just try to say, huh,

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If I did a Carmelo Hayes rap, how would I do it?

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If I a, if I did a Xylee rap, how would I do it?

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If I did a LA Knight rap, which shout out to Darren Fisher, we did one.

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How can I do that?

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If I did a, if I did a Will Hobbs rap, how would I do it?

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How would I make it different than the other ones that I did?

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So a lot of times my brain is like a funnel system of

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of being able to put together how can I build my catalog on just creative ideas.

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And that's how a lot of people ask me how's my output like this.

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It's just because I just put shots up.

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put, I'm a big rest in peace Kobe Bryant fan or Michael Jordan fan and they just always

said, just put shots up.

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You never know what's gonna stick.

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A lot of people, a lot of times as artists we get stuck into, well, am I getting paid or?

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is the business, yes, and you need to get compensated for your work.

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But a lot of times as artists, we just have to put shots up.

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We just have to do it.

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We just have to put stuff out there.

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And you never know what the universe is gonna catch on to.

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You never know what song they're gonna catch on to.

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You don't know.

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And especially in this music industry with the way things are changing, you just gotta put

stuff out there.

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And sometimes you think that the placement that you're gonna do for this big name person

is

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and you put the marketing dollars behind it and the video and everything is gonna do

great.

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And then that might not do as good as one you just randomly did somewhere.

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And you just did it for a song for a guy in the independence that is on his way up and

that song takes off.

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You just don't know.

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So I just believe in putting shots up, man.

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believe like whoever you see, like it's just, you should have something brewing in your

head.

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And the way that I, the way that I come up,

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happened and happened was everybody knows who the rapper Lil Wayne is.

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So what Lil Wayne did for years, well he just did mix tape after mix tape and song after

song and he just put out a bunch of free material, he put out a bunch of music and he just

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funneled the system with word of mouth.

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So he just put songs out, mix tapes, free stuff.

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He did that for years, you know, and there wasn't a, there wasn't.

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a time for years where you did not hear a song and you did not hear a little Wayne rap.

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Like he was everywhere.

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So I said, okay, when I started this in 2014, I said, okay, there's two ways I can do

this.

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I can either just go, cause at the time AEW wasn't around or nothing.

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It's just WWE.

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I said, okay, if I'm going to do this, am I going to just try to go to the top WWE route

or am I going to work around them?

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and building the independence and starts from the ground up.

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So the reason, I think the reason why people can attest to Monteezy and the reason why my

longevity has been the way it is, is because I started at the very, very ground level with

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everybody else, with the wrestlers.

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I was outside of the indie promotions handing out CDs when CDs were still a relevant

thing.

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I was still, I literally was in these cars with these wrestlers driving.

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to these venues.

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I literally did the work.

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I started from the bottom.

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didn't just try to network.

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I literally was in the locker rooms.

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I was literally helping.

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I was literally saying, hey, here's free CDs.

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I'm, hey man, I mean, it could be a wrestler that might've started last week, but hey man,

I'ma write a theme about you.

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I printed up CDs, I handed CDs, I handed this stuff to them.

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And I did it just to do it.

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I didn't make much money off this for three, four years.

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I started 2014.

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I had to start making, I didn't get like a plus, a plus in my income to maybe about three,

four years later.

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But I knew what I was doing.

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I was getting my name out there.

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And that's what I tell guys, especially now.

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I'm like, bro, you know how many wrestlers pop up on TV every day?

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There's tons.

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Now the indies might not be the same because everybody's signing, but you can look at, I

tell anybody on the come up, go on the WWE roster, go to the AEW roster.

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and think of a song for each and every person you see and just record it and put it out

there.

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The algorithm will catch it.

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Things will happen.

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Things will catch.

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And you know, maybe all it takes is one retweet from somebody.

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All it takes is one Instagram follow from somebody to support it.

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And you just got to keep putting shots up.

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There's millions of wrestlers out here.

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If you want to get in that lane, there's millions of hockey players out here, millions of

basketball players out here.

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So just keep putting shots.

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I didn't mean to make that

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a long-winded answer, but I just wanted to give people some advice in detail on how I did

this so everybody can see that all I did was just record and just put it out there and

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just see what happened.

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There was no strategy or no crazy game plan to it until later with marketing, but just

keep putting shots up.

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That's my best advice.

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But you know what, you said you didn't have a strategy, but it's kind of like you at least

had a game plan of what you were going to do.

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And the way I've liked to call it, at least within 2024, 2025, shirt coming, ladies and

gentlemen, is, you know, just start swinging and keep swinging.

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You know, everything that you said was 100 % true.

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And I think about when I started doing wrestling themes, I was doing a podcast in 2019 and

we were just trying to figure out ways to grow the show.

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And all of us had like different skill sets.

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And I've said this in a couple of different interviews before.

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But one of the guys was just like, hey, you write music.

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What about writing entrance themes for wrestlers?

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And at that point it was 2019 AEW was just kind of in the murmurs.

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This was like right before time.

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And I was like, man, that's a cool idea.

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There's no way I'm going to be able to do that though.

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Cause when we think about 2019, 2018, we're thinking about WWE.

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We're thinking, know, lightly and tangentially maybe about some other promotions.

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And I remember I was talking to my buddy Ricky Gibson at that time, Four Minutes of Heat,

right now Midnight Heat.

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And I've been grateful to work on music with them for years and years and years.

210

00:13:59,825 --> 00:14:02,066

But I remember asking him, I go, you know what?

211

00:14:02,387 --> 00:14:05,189

How do you guys figure out like what music you're going to use?

212

00:14:05,189 --> 00:14:10,233

And I remember his answer was something akin to, we just choose a song and we hope we

don't get sued.

213

00:14:10,433 --> 00:14:13,976

And it was one of those things that was such an eye opener for me.

214

00:14:13,976 --> 00:14:19,121

I was like, well, what would end up happening if like I was writing music for you guys?

215

00:14:19,121 --> 00:14:19,727

And

216

00:14:19,727 --> 00:14:22,599

Like you said, there's compensation to it, sure.

217

00:14:22,599 --> 00:14:26,012

But there's also this part of you're becoming part of this industry.

218

00:14:26,012 --> 00:14:28,004

You're becoming part of the voice of these people.

219

00:14:28,004 --> 00:14:32,187

And I still remember to this day, the first four themes I did were for four minutes of

heat.

220

00:14:32,187 --> 00:14:37,912

Like I said, midnight heat now, Christina Marie, Johnny Moran and Masha Slamovich.

221

00:14:37,912 --> 00:14:40,254

Those were the first four themes I did.

222

00:14:40,254 --> 00:14:47,500

And back then with Masha Slamovich, it was right when she was on the come up and she was

starting to do something more of the Russian character.

223

00:14:47,500 --> 00:14:49,125

And she still kept that to now.

224

00:14:49,125 --> 00:14:52,768

But back then it was very much of like that Russian flavor, right?

225

00:14:52,768 --> 00:14:59,054

If you go back and listen to it, there's actually Russian composers and you hear it and

you'll hear that Russian dynamite if you look it up.

226

00:14:59,054 --> 00:15:03,247

Years later, she's going to TNA and we go, okay, cool.

227

00:15:03,247 --> 00:15:04,999

Let's go ahead and create another theme.

228

00:15:04,999 --> 00:15:09,022

And we're like, all right, we're looking for something close to like heavier testament,

that kind of thing.

229

00:15:09,022 --> 00:15:13,346

So all of a sudden years go down the line and Masha and I start working together again.

230

00:15:13,346 --> 00:15:15,267

That shows up on TNA.

231

00:15:15,267 --> 00:15:17,487

And it's one of these things where it's like, first off,

232

00:15:17,487 --> 00:15:19,548

Masha is one of like the coolest people in the world.

233

00:15:19,548 --> 00:15:27,991

And I'm really grateful to say that out of all the themes that I've done, most of the

wrestlers I've worked with have just been like the coolest people, the best to collaborate

234

00:15:27,991 --> 00:15:32,483

with, just real nice and just, you know, really about building this community.

235

00:15:32,483 --> 00:15:38,996

And it speaks true to what you say, you know, yours, I think was a little bit more

physical in person going to shows.

236

00:15:38,996 --> 00:15:45,008

Mine, I think was a little bit more on the digital side, but still saying, Hey, I want to

go ahead and grow our show.

237

00:15:45,008 --> 00:15:46,961

And I would love to do something for you.

238

00:15:46,961 --> 00:15:48,721

to help grow your brand too.

239

00:15:48,721 --> 00:15:52,001

And the ambassadorship that you get from other wrestlers also helped.

240

00:15:52,001 --> 00:15:55,961

Like you said, you may be working with a wrestler who has just started their career.

241

00:15:55,961 --> 00:16:00,441

And then all of a sudden years later, they're continuing to apply their trade, just like

you are.

242

00:16:00,441 --> 00:16:03,981

You're building these friendships, you're building these relationships, they're going to

shows.

243

00:16:03,981 --> 00:16:06,021

People are going, oh my God, this is a unique theme.

244

00:16:06,021 --> 00:16:06,621

What's happening?

245

00:16:06,621 --> 00:16:07,061

Who is this?

246

00:16:07,061 --> 00:16:08,141

Oh, it's this person.

247

00:16:08,141 --> 00:16:13,665

You have no idea how many people I've gotten to work on themes for both.

248

00:16:13,665 --> 00:16:21,391

large names and people who are on the come up and people who are doing it professionally,

just from someone saying, yeah, John's the guy.

249

00:16:21,391 --> 00:16:23,082

Go ahead and go with him.

250

00:16:23,082 --> 00:16:29,675

Uh, one person who I will always put over in any time they speak to them is out Lilith

Grimm.

251

00:16:29,675 --> 00:16:38,112

Lilith Grimm we've worked on a theme for, was probably one of my favorite themes I've done

because at the time she was doing more of like a world gimmick.

252

00:16:38,112 --> 00:16:40,134

had the skull on super cool stuff.

253

00:16:40,134 --> 00:16:40,894

Go check her out.

254

00:16:40,894 --> 00:16:41,324

Please.

255

00:16:41,324 --> 00:16:42,265

Um,

256

00:16:42,265 --> 00:16:50,287

And she wanted something that was a little bit more world music and a little bit more of

like that kind of chanty more kind of culty is what I like to call it a little bit like

257

00:16:50,287 --> 00:16:52,369

that really kind of dark stuff.

258

00:16:52,369 --> 00:16:54,870

And she was like, I want this instrument called the hurdy-gurdy.

259

00:16:54,870 --> 00:16:56,071

I go, all right, cool.

260

00:16:56,071 --> 00:16:57,532

I don't play that instrument.

261

00:16:57,532 --> 00:16:58,972

It's a crazy Saturn instrument.

262

00:16:58,972 --> 00:17:01,433

So I had to go online, look for a hurdy-gurdy player.

263

00:17:01,433 --> 00:17:08,905

And apparently the one I came across was from this huge band named Eluvady, who I've been

listening to since like high school.

264

00:17:08,905 --> 00:17:09,984

right, right.

265

00:17:10,423 --> 00:17:13,244

You know, it became one of these things where now that's a relationship.

266

00:17:13,244 --> 00:17:13,935

All right, cool.

267

00:17:13,935 --> 00:17:23,559

Now, uh, me, Helena and I are friends and it's been like, it you just are able to grow

just by starting to put yourself out there and say, Hey, I can do this.

268

00:17:23,559 --> 00:17:24,899

I want to work with you.

269

00:17:24,899 --> 00:17:26,426

And then you just keep growing that.

270

00:17:26,426 --> 00:17:34,474

And so long as like going back to what you said before, you're being respectful, you're

doing your best work and you're just continuing to grow this community, not just for you,

271

00:17:34,474 --> 00:17:35,844

but for others.

272

00:17:35,964 --> 00:17:37,905

That's a huge part of how you.

273

00:17:37,905 --> 00:17:41,834

grow and get more entrance themes to become a bigger part of a community.

274

00:17:41,834 --> 00:17:47,277

So when someone goes, I need a theme, people are talking about you in the room when you're

not even there.

275

00:17:47,277 --> 00:18:02,613

Absolutely, and that's, it's a, I tell people man, still to this day, I don't care how

many ads you run, how many billboards you try to get, ad placements you try to get,

276

00:18:02,613 --> 00:18:12,007

there's still no better promotion than word of mouth, If I tell you something as a friend

to check something out, you're more than likely gonna check it out more than just looking

277

00:18:12,007 --> 00:18:16,929

at an ad that just goes down your Instagram that you're just gonna scroll by anyway.

278

00:18:16,931 --> 00:18:24,014

So I think that it's a direct hand-to-hand thing with communication and being able to make

it.

279

00:18:24,014 --> 00:18:30,807

And a lot of people ask me, you know, what keeps you doing this after all this time?

280

00:18:30,807 --> 00:18:36,130

What keeps you pushing with you being, you know, one of the most known guys doing this?

281

00:18:36,130 --> 00:18:43,163

And honestly, it's because it's, I love it now more.

282

00:18:43,163 --> 00:18:53,783

than I did before simply because I know that I've stood the test of time and more now

because I'm able to help others, to help build, you know what I mean?

283

00:18:53,783 --> 00:18:56,143

To help give back.

284

00:18:57,083 --> 00:19:03,723

The one thing I know about this culture, especially in the wrestling culture, definitely,

once you get to a certain point, you have to give back.

285

00:19:03,723 --> 00:19:06,663

Once you, and that's just the adage of life.

286

00:19:06,663 --> 00:19:10,083

It's the law of great return.

287

00:19:11,309 --> 00:19:15,300

I'm gonna get a blessing, I'm gonna make sure I bless others and it's just good karma man.

288

00:19:15,300 --> 00:19:16,911

I just really believe in that.

289

00:19:16,911 --> 00:19:27,243

I believe that know, networking, working together and doing it because you love it and the

spirit of it will always keep you around.

290

00:19:27,243 --> 00:19:36,016

really, I'm doing, I've been doing phenomenal just even in my numbers and just you know,

in the consistency that it's been.

291

00:19:36,016 --> 00:19:40,619

Some places it's even grown because you know, the name has grown.

292

00:19:40,619 --> 00:19:47,713

So when it comes to that promotion, it's just all about making great relationships and

being able to build.

293

00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:52,670

And it's also like, you think about all the placements that you've had.

294

00:19:52,670 --> 00:19:55,111

You think about all the places your music has been played.

295

00:19:55,111 --> 00:19:56,781

You just had your music on the Tokyo Dome.

296

00:19:56,781 --> 00:19:58,211

You just had it at Final Battle.

297

00:19:58,211 --> 00:20:04,933

Sammy Guevara, who we're going to talk about, has had his music with you forever,

including the other version of the theme.

298

00:20:04,933 --> 00:20:06,704

You know, you've been everywhere.

299

00:20:06,704 --> 00:20:09,014

You've had your music in so many different places.

300

00:20:09,014 --> 00:20:14,666

And, you know, for me, I always remember like, you know, talking to Kevin of It Lives It

Breathes, talking to you.

301

00:20:14,666 --> 00:20:19,003

And whenever we see each other's music out there in these different places,

302

00:20:19,003 --> 00:20:23,455

First text I get is either from you or Kevin or anyone who's done this.

303

00:20:23,455 --> 00:20:25,456

And it's just like, dude, congrats.

304

00:20:25,456 --> 00:20:26,636

And it's the same thing for me.

305

00:20:26,636 --> 00:20:31,659

Like all of a sudden, of course your music is playing at the Tokyo Dome, because you guys

are doing awesome.

306

00:20:31,659 --> 00:20:36,361

It's just this big kind of party back and forth of everyone just being like, look at what

we're doing.

307

00:20:36,361 --> 00:20:37,882

Like, this is crazy.

308

00:20:37,882 --> 00:20:38,742

I don't know, man.

309

00:20:38,742 --> 00:20:43,024

Me in middle school and high school wouldn't have even thought of any of this happening.

310

00:20:43,024 --> 00:20:45,979

And then all of a sudden, everyone's just talking and being like, dude.

311

00:20:45,979 --> 00:20:46,702

Congrats to you.

312

00:20:46,702 --> 00:20:47,706

You're like, congrats to you.

313

00:20:47,706 --> 00:20:49,162

Look at where your stuff is.

314

00:20:49,162 --> 00:20:50,274

That's cool.

315

00:20:50,540 --> 00:21:04,752

and I think too, I think we keep each other motivated because it's, you have to help each

other and use each other in great vessels and great ways to keep the fire lit because

316

00:21:04,752 --> 00:21:12,238

sometimes when you've already seen, it's funny because I know you get this as well.

317

00:21:12,238 --> 00:21:15,070

You see so many artists that ask you, how do you do this?

318

00:21:15,070 --> 00:21:16,470

And how can I do it?

319

00:21:16,470 --> 00:21:18,483

It's like, man, it's a...

320

00:21:18,819 --> 00:21:20,500

It's a unique thing.

321

00:21:20,500 --> 00:21:21,890

It's all momentum based.

322

00:21:21,890 --> 00:21:26,402

I tell people this, is all, it's a momentum based world.

323

00:21:26,402 --> 00:21:39,508

If you have great momentum, if you have one, keep dropping, do another, build

relationships, keep building, keep building, keep, you know, keep putting in the work.

324

00:21:39,508 --> 00:21:48,251

And I think that, but also too, I think once you get to a certain level, like, you know,

Mikey Ruckus, like yourself, like me.

325

00:21:49,465 --> 00:21:53,108

You need stuff to keep your fire lit and that's where collaboration works with.

326

00:21:53,108 --> 00:21:55,579

That's why I love the records that we did together.

327

00:21:55,579 --> 00:22:05,076

That's why I love connecting people so other people can do, you know what mean, great

music together and build great networks because that's what it's all about.

328

00:22:05,076 --> 00:22:16,864

It's about taking what you have and being able to build on it in this because people

think, man, you know, I'm just gonna, how'd you do that?

329

00:22:16,864 --> 00:22:18,965

Okay, well, this is how did it.

330

00:22:19,001 --> 00:22:25,004

Okay, so if I get this song and ends up on TV, am I gonna make a million dollars?

331

00:22:25,004 --> 00:22:34,078

It don't work that way, But what it does do is that it builds your network and it builds

opportunity for other things, you know?

332

00:22:34,078 --> 00:22:47,283

And people have to realize in other places, there's millions of movies and movie companies

from Independence, Tooby, whatever.

333

00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:56,524

Really logistically in the wrestling industry, there's only two companies that's really

gonna pay you.

334

00:22:57,325 --> 00:22:58,726

And we both know this.

335

00:22:58,726 --> 00:23:00,177

We both know what we're talking about.

336

00:23:00,177 --> 00:23:03,409

So you have to leverage this the right way.

337

00:23:03,409 --> 00:23:12,535

And if you do in the dust do stuff in the indies, you just have to negotiate with these,

lot of the wrestlers who have working day jobs like everybody else.

338

00:23:12,616 --> 00:23:18,029

And you gotta negotiate with the wrestler if you are gonna do a certain rate or something

like that.

339

00:23:18,067 --> 00:23:20,490

and work hand in hand with them.

340

00:23:20,490 --> 00:23:28,257

Or try to get to the bigger companies and then work out something with them, which is more

of a political thing and fighting for what you think you're worth.

341

00:23:28,257 --> 00:23:36,905

It's a lot behind it, but it's just knowing the business, having fun with it, and keeping

each other inspired.

342

00:23:36,905 --> 00:23:38,236

You keep me inspired.

343

00:23:38,236 --> 00:23:39,988

Mikey keeps me inspired.

344

00:23:39,988 --> 00:23:42,390

Josiah Williams keeps me inspired.

345

00:23:43,021 --> 00:23:51,989

You know, now with me building a network of artists that I'm working with that's, you

know, that's on that's with my network of tree that I've helped bring up.

346

00:23:51,989 --> 00:23:53,541

Now they keep me motivated.

347

00:23:53,541 --> 00:23:55,273

They keep that fire lit as well, too.

348

00:23:55,273 --> 00:23:56,023

So.

349

00:23:56,223 --> 00:24:01,206

And the other part too, that I think goes under the radar, but you're kind of touching on

it here too.

350

00:24:01,287 --> 00:24:06,631

I've been reached out to people and I know you have too, and they ask you, how do you do

this?

351

00:24:06,631 --> 00:24:10,074

Or this is what I'm thinking, or can I chew your ear off about the industry?

352

00:24:10,074 --> 00:24:17,340

And I remember one time I reached out to Mikey, just about some advice on just like, even

just the engineering side.

353

00:24:17,340 --> 00:24:23,941

And you're always concerned, at least for me and a bit of the other kind of music side of

the industry that I've been in over

354

00:24:23,941 --> 00:24:30,103

the last decade or so, you're kind of afraid to ask people about, well, what would you do

here?

355

00:24:30,103 --> 00:24:31,834

Or am I thinking of this the right way?

356

00:24:31,834 --> 00:24:34,785

Because everyone's like, well, you're coming for my spot, right?

357

00:24:34,785 --> 00:24:39,556

And the thing is, the unwritten rule is that there are no spots.

358

00:24:39,556 --> 00:24:40,847

You make your own spot.

359

00:24:40,847 --> 00:24:48,611

And as you continue to grow, you figure out your lane, you figure out what you do and

being able to, yeah.

360

00:24:48,611 --> 00:24:52,882

And being able to have people in this industry who it's like, oh, here's what I'm

thinking.

361

00:24:52,882 --> 00:24:54,163

Here's what I should charge.

362

00:24:54,163 --> 00:24:55,533

Here's how I should go about this.

363

00:24:55,533 --> 00:24:57,684

Here's something to think about when I'm writing this theme.

364

00:24:57,684 --> 00:24:59,524

Here's something to watch out for.

365

00:24:59,524 --> 00:25:00,885

All these different things.

366

00:25:00,885 --> 00:25:04,945

People have asked me that and people that I'm just like, wait, you've been doing this.

367

00:25:04,945 --> 00:25:06,906

Like you should really, you're coming to me.

368

00:25:06,906 --> 00:25:08,087

That's, that's pretty cool.

369

00:25:08,087 --> 00:25:16,027

And you know, it just helps you not just figure out the way that you're doing things, but

it also helps you align in a way.

370

00:25:16,027 --> 00:25:18,798

kind of the industry, like, you did this for this person.

371

00:25:18,798 --> 00:25:19,779

Is that how it's supposed to be?

372

00:25:19,779 --> 00:25:21,749

Well, this is kind of how I do it.

373

00:25:21,749 --> 00:25:22,960

we do this the same way.

374

00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:24,941

Oh, I did this a little bit differently.

375

00:25:24,941 --> 00:25:26,521

I approached it like this.

376

00:25:26,521 --> 00:25:29,553

I approach all these things kind of, okay, well, this is what you do.

377

00:25:29,553 --> 00:25:38,716

And it kind of, I don't want to use the word standardizes because maybe I just did, but

what it does is it helps level the playing field for everybody.

378

00:25:38,716 --> 00:25:42,288

And if someone does one thing, it's like, well, try this.

379

00:25:42,288 --> 00:25:45,317

You know, there are some people who I talk to about when it comes to

380

00:25:45,317 --> 00:25:47,299

you know, how to charge and things like that.

381

00:25:47,299 --> 00:25:50,702

I have a certain way that I go about it and I tell people this is what's worked for me.

382

00:25:50,702 --> 00:25:54,606

This is what makes most sense and how you can really grow.

383

00:25:54,606 --> 00:25:58,289

know, whenever you write a theme for somebody, it's going with them.

384

00:25:58,289 --> 00:26:00,531

But you can use that to do a lot of things.

385

00:26:00,531 --> 00:26:01,792

You can do your own socials.

386

00:26:01,792 --> 00:26:03,323

You can make a music video for those.

387

00:26:03,323 --> 00:26:04,875

You can make a visualizer.

388

00:26:04,875 --> 00:26:10,840

You can really put a lot of yourself and put everything behind that brand and grow it too.

389

00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:12,065

And I think that

390

00:26:12,065 --> 00:26:15,377

you know, the more everyone's connecting and finding out what everyone's doing.

391

00:26:15,377 --> 00:26:24,554

Like you brought up these wolves before Darren Fisher, like the covers of the songs he's

done for Liv Morgan, the covers of the song he did for Adam Page, the one you did with him

392

00:26:24,554 --> 00:26:25,505

with LA night.

393

00:26:25,505 --> 00:26:27,135

These are all banger tracks, right?

394

00:26:27,135 --> 00:26:30,378

So he goes and does videos for me, does the visual as he puts them up.

395

00:26:30,378 --> 00:26:33,059

The MJF version that he's done.

396

00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:34,900

I would always argue.

397

00:26:35,181 --> 00:26:41,167

I'm pretty sure that they were singing the lyrics to his song at Wembley or one of the big

shows.

398

00:26:41,167 --> 00:26:50,973

I know people just do the da da da da da da da, but I'm almost positive that even though

that's not the theme he uses in AEW, like with Darren's version, your boy is almost

399

00:26:50,973 --> 00:26:54,044

positive that he's heard those lyrics coming through the speakers before.

400

00:26:54,044 --> 00:26:54,845

I don't know.

401

00:26:54,845 --> 00:27:03,200

I'm just saying, like you put those things out there, you do the work, you put it, and

like you said, you have no idea where it's gonna go, but that also comes from talking to

402

00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:05,951

people and being like, would you recommend doing this?

403

00:27:05,951 --> 00:27:09,113

And a lot of the times, unless it's like some crazy,

404

00:27:09,113 --> 00:27:12,058

Like, I don't think that's a good idea to approach it like that.

405

00:27:12,058 --> 00:27:17,568

Most of us are just like inspiring each other and motivating each other and being like,

Hey, yeah, try that.

406

00:27:17,568 --> 00:27:21,685

Cause that could work and then let us know how it went and we'll see what else we could

do.

407

00:27:21,685 --> 00:27:22,236

Yeah.

408

00:27:22,236 --> 00:27:22,823

So cool.

409

00:27:22,823 --> 00:27:34,861

know what's I said this because I look at it and I look at everything in relation to

sports in many ways because music and sports have a lot of direct correlation when it

410

00:27:34,861 --> 00:27:36,523

comes to certain things like.

411

00:27:38,127 --> 00:27:52,945

When it comes to yourself, when it comes to me, Megarann, if there's a, or you can look at

it in baseball, basketball, football, if there's a Pro Bowl for the NFL or the NBA

412

00:27:52,945 --> 00:28:01,510

All-Star game, us three are starting every year, We're starting players on the team every

year.

413

00:28:01,510 --> 00:28:07,323

So with that being said, we have to find ways to be able to

414

00:28:07,877 --> 00:28:16,853

branch out and help others and not only help others but just come up with a system because

there is no system.

415

00:28:16,873 --> 00:28:24,038

There is no direct, there's not like John and Montesey started a talent agency and

together they split it 50-50.

416

00:28:24,038 --> 00:28:35,756

I handle the hip hop side, you handle the other genres and we come up with this system of

this is what you should be charging, this is what you should be doing.

417

00:28:35,756 --> 00:28:36,911

It's all the

418

00:28:36,911 --> 00:28:40,493

connection based in a field and then you gotta learn how to market it.

419

00:28:40,493 --> 00:28:54,331

But I always tell people too that, and I have to be real here, the people that are coming

up after us, I think, you know, when we decide to hang it up, I do think depending on

420

00:28:54,331 --> 00:29:03,436

where the wrestling industry is, it's gonna be a little tougher for them to try to

reinvent the wheel.

421

00:29:03,436 --> 00:29:04,857

I think they will.

422

00:29:04,869 --> 00:29:09,401

But it's going to be a little tougher because you see what Josiah Williams has done.

423

00:29:09,401 --> 00:29:14,203

Like you see what he's done when he first came out, what Josiah Williams did.

424

00:29:14,203 --> 00:29:15,643

That was innovative.

425

00:29:15,643 --> 00:29:18,775

You see what you have done, which has been innovative.

426

00:29:18,775 --> 00:29:24,047

You see what I did has what is just a work ethic approach, which is innovative.

427

00:29:24,147 --> 00:29:31,950

You even see, you know, when my brother, when I put my brother Anthony Kenyon in and then

you see what he did with the character, with the AEW character.

428

00:29:31,950 --> 00:29:34,139

That wasn't done.

429

00:29:34,139 --> 00:29:35,091

So.

430

00:29:35,771 --> 00:29:43,251

You know, and seeing where the wrestling industry is where now hip hop and wrestling and

music and wrestling is kind of becoming the thing.

431

00:29:43,531 --> 00:29:48,711

That next crop of guys are going to have to do some really innovative stuff.

432

00:29:48,711 --> 00:29:51,971

And I'm not saying they can't, I'm rooting for them to do it and I believe they will.

433

00:29:51,971 --> 00:30:00,631

But it's just, you're going to have to take what we've all done and remix it and put it in

a way to where, okay, these guys did it this way.

434

00:30:00,631 --> 00:30:02,271

How can I get to this level?

435

00:30:02,271 --> 00:30:04,769

But how can I try to do it?

436

00:30:04,769 --> 00:30:05,689

a different way.

437

00:30:05,689 --> 00:30:09,180

Like we're all vessels of our inspirations.

438

00:30:09,180 --> 00:30:11,731

Like we're all vessels of our inspirations.

439

00:30:11,731 --> 00:30:16,922

We take a little bit of everybody we're inspired by and just make that our own.

440

00:30:16,922 --> 00:30:31,657

Like I'm, like my inspirations are like Nas and Keanu Reeves and a lot of people like just

different things and I just put all that into my, either my demeanor, my personality, my

441

00:30:31,657 --> 00:30:32,917

look or anything like that.

442

00:30:32,917 --> 00:30:33,767

So.

443

00:30:33,987 --> 00:30:48,475

I think that the next crop of people, like I said, I'm so anybody out there for the ropes

and wrist podcast, for you young man or you young woman out there that is watching this,

444

00:30:49,096 --> 00:31:00,122

and that young kid that is a huge wrestling fan and loves music, you guys have an

opportunity to take this to a whole new level.

445

00:31:00,422 --> 00:31:01,923

You have to be innovative.

446

00:31:01,923 --> 00:31:08,127

And with the way technology and the way, you know, AEW is growing and WWE is growing, it's

possible.

447

00:31:08,127 --> 00:31:11,269

I am rooting for you and I believe you can do it.

448

00:31:11,269 --> 00:31:16,733

But you have to be innovative with today of today's world and you have to work hard.

449

00:31:16,733 --> 00:31:23,427

The work ethic you're going to have to put into this is going to be incredible and you're

going to have to take what John has done.

450

00:31:23,427 --> 00:31:26,739

You're going to have to take what Mega Man has done, what I've done.

451

00:31:27,023 --> 00:31:34,148

Josiah, you name it, Mikey Ruckus, whoever, and you're just gonna have to find a way to

build it.

452

00:31:34,248 --> 00:31:43,945

And I believe it's possible, but you're just gonna have to find that niche to make it

different than what we've done, which I'm rooting for.

453

00:31:44,706 --> 00:31:45,286

Yeah.

454

00:31:45,286 --> 00:31:45,536

yeah.

455

00:31:45,536 --> 00:31:48,407

And you, think you feel that support from everybody.

456

00:31:48,407 --> 00:31:49,628

I know I'm rooting for him.

457

00:31:49,628 --> 00:31:51,046

I know Mikey's rooting for him.

458

00:31:51,046 --> 00:31:51,848

I know you're rooting for him.

459

00:31:51,848 --> 00:31:55,650

I know everyone's rooting and it's like, we just want to see it continue to grow.

460

00:31:55,650 --> 00:32:01,072

You know, I know for me, I kind of created this brand around the wrestling entrance theme

song composer.

461

00:32:01,072 --> 00:32:05,034

I know you have theme song King, you know, yours is much better.

462

00:32:05,034 --> 00:32:09,236

I think in terms of people say it themes song King than wrestling entrance theme song

composer.

463

00:32:09,236 --> 00:32:13,120

I'll shorten that at some point to something, but like, you know, it's

464

00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:13,881

me say this.

465

00:32:13,881 --> 00:32:16,443

Let me say this.

466

00:32:16,944 --> 00:32:30,126

I'm going to say this because it was a brand that I, you know, a brand that I didn't,

whether it's Megaran, whether it's you, we're all kings, man.

467

00:32:30,126 --> 00:32:31,917

We're all kings.

468

00:32:31,917 --> 00:32:38,383

And we're all kings, you know, even back from the early civilization days.

469

00:32:38,839 --> 00:32:42,140

every king had their own, they ruled their own land.

470

00:32:42,340 --> 00:32:45,361

You know, you had food, I had gold.

471

00:32:45,361 --> 00:32:46,541

We traded.

472

00:32:46,981 --> 00:32:47,702

You know what mean?

473

00:32:47,702 --> 00:32:50,702

Hey, those, John, John does the farms.

474

00:32:50,702 --> 00:32:53,343

Man, let's, let's, we have gold over here.

475

00:32:53,343 --> 00:32:55,744

They need gold to build their civilization.

476

00:32:55,744 --> 00:32:59,825

I don't know if anybody out there is, you know, this might be nerdy of me, but I'm gonna

say it.

477

00:32:59,825 --> 00:33:07,387

If you played the video game, Age of Empires, and you started with one person and you

build a colony with that and

478

00:33:07,387 --> 00:33:11,347

You know, you had ally groups when you build that team.

479

00:33:11,347 --> 00:33:13,447

had ally bases, you know what I mean?

480

00:33:13,447 --> 00:33:16,627

had, you you built with your allies.

481

00:33:16,627 --> 00:33:21,307

So you would go and you would trade wood with that colony.

482

00:33:21,447 --> 00:33:27,347

And I would have food or John would have gold and the other person would have stone.

483

00:33:27,347 --> 00:33:30,427

And everybody traded with each other to keep the colonies moving.

484

00:33:30,427 --> 00:33:36,927

But everybody had their own kings and that ran their own domain.

485

00:33:37,211 --> 00:33:49,251

you with what you're doing, you're a king in your domain and myself and Megaran, that's

all that the branding was, was to show people that we all could be kings in this.

486

00:33:49,671 --> 00:34:00,371

And I never wanted it to be something to where it seems like, because when I first started

saying that, a lot of people, you know how this is, man, everybody gets competitive and

487

00:34:00,371 --> 00:34:04,408

they took it as, man, it wasn't that, it was saying.

488

00:34:04,408 --> 00:34:04,965

at all, yeah.

489

00:34:04,965 --> 00:34:08,016

was saying, we all could be, we're all kings.

490

00:34:08,237 --> 00:34:17,422

And you know, it was, it might've been considered a bull statement at the time, but it was

just a marketing thing and a thing to help build it up with the work ethic that was being

491

00:34:17,422 --> 00:34:17,842

put in.

492

00:34:17,842 --> 00:34:30,088

So when people say that, I'm like, no, we're all, everybody, everybody has a share in the

land because I'm necessarily just in the hip hop and the hip hop rock stage.

493

00:34:30,109 --> 00:34:34,861

We need, we need a John out there, kill it, because he does something that I don't do.

494

00:34:34,917 --> 00:34:41,170

There's a lot of people that, you know, bring so much to this culture.

495

00:34:41,170 --> 00:34:42,950

There's a lot of people that bring different things.

496

00:34:42,950 --> 00:34:47,832

And also too, you have to learn how to pass the ball as well.

497

00:34:48,112 --> 00:34:53,565

I think that, you know, I take pride in developing Swerve as an artist.

498

00:34:53,565 --> 00:34:56,336

take time in, I take pride in bringing Anthony King in.

499

00:34:56,336 --> 00:34:58,327

I take pride in Rich Lata.

500

00:34:58,327 --> 00:35:04,409

I take pride in these people that, you know, I might've made a phone call or helped

develop or.

501

00:35:04,463 --> 00:35:08,485

help build their network because that's what it's all about.

502

00:35:08,485 --> 00:35:11,206

And you can only do so much by yourself.

503

00:35:11,206 --> 00:35:16,228

There's only so far you can go literally by yourself before you reach a limit.

504

00:35:16,228 --> 00:35:22,390

And you need allies, you need teammates to help build what you're trying to do.

505

00:35:22,390 --> 00:35:33,755

If you try to do everything by yourself or if you don't have that network, it's gonna

mess, you're only gonna go but so far because you know how this industry is.

506

00:35:33,763 --> 00:35:37,864

You get to the top and then everybody gets used to you.

507

00:35:38,865 --> 00:35:42,467

And you, I believe in the Chris Jericho effect.

508

00:35:42,467 --> 00:35:48,189

Like I've had five, six different monikers this whole time.

509

00:35:48,329 --> 00:35:50,640

Like, and cause I believe in reinventing yourself.

510

00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:52,671

And I learned that from Chris Jericho.

511

00:35:52,671 --> 00:36:00,294

When, you know, from, you know, Y2J to the list, to the serious guy with the suit, to, you

know what I mean?

512

00:36:00,294 --> 00:36:02,295

The, the Ocho to, you know what I mean?

513

00:36:02,295 --> 00:36:03,291

The, the, the, the,

514

00:36:03,291 --> 00:36:03,822

Yeah.

515

00:36:03,822 --> 00:36:06,783

The Pain Maker, like he's, he did that.

516

00:36:06,783 --> 00:36:07,824

that's what I did.

517

00:36:07,824 --> 00:36:11,085

Themes on King was the very first thing I did.

518

00:36:11,085 --> 00:36:12,466

Then it was the Titan.

519

00:36:12,466 --> 00:36:17,889

Then it was Swerve City Teasy, where I just rap with Swerve and I built that group, Swerve

City.

520

00:36:17,889 --> 00:36:24,252

Then it was, the Themes on King, the Titan, Swerve City.

521

00:36:24,252 --> 00:36:29,614

And now I'm in Lord Raiden mode, where it's like I'm Lord Raiden, Swerve is Liu Kang.

522

00:36:29,614 --> 00:36:32,155

And I literally was like, hey, you're the one.

523

00:36:32,251 --> 00:36:33,831

that needs to win the tournament.

524

00:36:33,831 --> 00:36:37,291

And I'm kind of like, I'm established, I'm here.

525

00:36:37,291 --> 00:36:44,371

There's nothing I can do that people that say, man, know, monster that's in the wrestling

world, that's the way I look at it.

526

00:36:44,371 --> 00:36:53,611

So it was like, hey, if I'm Lord of Raiden, I need to build a army of people that can help

win the tournament.

527

00:36:53,991 --> 00:36:55,511

I'm already here.

528

00:36:55,511 --> 00:36:56,439

So now.

529

00:36:56,439 --> 00:37:00,573

I need to get, you know, I need to, need my Kung Lao.

530

00:37:00,573 --> 00:37:02,044

I need my Sonya Blade.

531

00:37:02,044 --> 00:37:03,866

need, you know what mean?

532

00:37:03,866 --> 00:37:06,218

I need the people to participate, Johnny Cage.

533

00:37:06,218 --> 00:37:07,909

I need those people to participate.

534

00:37:07,909 --> 00:37:09,571

That's the only way this is going to grow.

535

00:37:09,571 --> 00:37:12,623

So I look at this from a Mortal Kombat aspect.

536

00:37:12,623 --> 00:37:14,135

I'm the hugest Mortal Kombat fan.

537

00:37:14,135 --> 00:37:15,316

So that's how I look at it.

538

00:37:15,316 --> 00:37:24,003

So the Lord Raiden thing, like I just brought, I now just built a group called, we're

going to be called Lord of Mortals.

539

00:37:24,111 --> 00:37:34,107

And it's a, song that played on Ring of Honor was a group, do synth, they do synth,

singing, drums, guitar, they're a synth band called Immortal Girlfriend.

540

00:37:34,107 --> 00:37:36,939

I just got them their first placement in wrestling.

541

00:37:36,939 --> 00:37:43,223

So now we're working on some projects together and it's a totally different thing that

hasn't been done in wrestling with the sound.

542

00:37:43,223 --> 00:37:45,024

The sound hasn't been done before.

543

00:37:45,024 --> 00:37:50,287

So now this gives me an opportunity to be able to do something else and really.

544

00:37:50,435 --> 00:37:52,696

dive into what Lord Raiden is.

545

00:37:52,696 --> 00:37:56,497

Something separate from just the pure hip hop side.

546

00:37:56,497 --> 00:37:59,559

So it's, you always have to reinvent yourself.

547

00:37:59,559 --> 00:38:07,802

You always have to do something that is unique, that is different and find new ways to do

it.

548

00:38:07,802 --> 00:38:12,404

Like Prince and Chris Jericho are the greatest at that.

549

00:38:12,404 --> 00:38:20,117

Prince would always, even though he was putting out like an album a year, sometimes two

albums a year, he would always switch something up.

550

00:38:20,315 --> 00:38:27,335

every time, his haircut, the way he looked, his sound, he always switched something up.

551

00:38:27,335 --> 00:38:36,855

to be a legend of that elk and to be out since the late seventies to when he passed away,

Prince always reinvented something.

552

00:38:37,475 --> 00:38:40,995

He made a tweet, David Bowie, I'm gonna add him too.

553

00:38:40,995 --> 00:38:48,307

David Bowie was phenomenal at that, at switching up something every single time.

554

00:38:48,571 --> 00:38:52,751

You know, he, every album or every couple of years, he would just switch.

555

00:38:52,751 --> 00:38:56,771

He would go through the years where he was wearing the makeup and the tight clothes.

556

00:38:56,771 --> 00:39:02,131

And then David Bowie would switch into just being in the suit with the haircut, just in

the suit.

557

00:39:02,151 --> 00:39:07,211

Then he would switch to, you know, he would switch to another aesthetic or a mixture.

558

00:39:07,211 --> 00:39:09,111

He always had something.

559

00:39:09,331 --> 00:39:11,391

So it's about reinventing.

560

00:39:11,391 --> 00:39:13,291

It's about reinventing yourself as well.

561

00:39:13,291 --> 00:39:18,113

that's the, you know, that's where the whole theme song king thing started from.

562

00:39:18,113 --> 00:39:23,529

and just being able to build brands, but to also let you know that we're all kings as

well.

563

00:39:24,113 --> 00:39:24,763

And I love that.

564

00:39:24,763 --> 00:39:32,154

And I think that now we got to start talking about specifically some of the themes that

you've worked on and some of the ones that you're most known for.

565

00:39:32,154 --> 00:39:37,757

We'll be here for a while, ladies and gentlemen, if we talk about all of them, but we got

a couple that we're going to really dive into first.

566

00:39:37,757 --> 00:39:45,559

And let's start off with that final battle one first, because one day I'm sitting at home

watching Final Battle and all of a sudden you post, hey, check out what they did.

567

00:39:45,559 --> 00:39:50,681

And then AEW and Ring of Honor are like, oh, check out this new song with you and Immortal

Girlfriend.

568

00:39:50,681 --> 00:39:52,581

So I know that you said you started working with-

569

00:39:52,581 --> 00:39:55,486

them recently and you're going to be doing some more with them.

570

00:39:55,486 --> 00:40:00,454

But how do you get the call to have a song done for final battle?

571

00:40:00,615 --> 00:40:01,847

Let's go over that.

572

00:40:01,881 --> 00:40:04,019

Well, um...

573

00:40:05,593 --> 00:40:09,466

I'm not the kind of person that tries to abuse my connects.

574

00:40:10,047 --> 00:40:13,229

I am a person that believes in timing.

575

00:40:14,130 --> 00:40:22,276

And I'm not the kind of person to be like, man, I need a song on, hey man, can I get this

song played on this pay-per-view and this pay-per-view and this pay-per-view?

576

00:40:22,597 --> 00:40:25,800

I get my voice heard a lot and I don't want to drown it out.

577

00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:26,400

You know what I mean?

578

00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:31,454

So my voice gets heard a lot all over the world, all the time.

579

00:40:31,454 --> 00:40:35,227

So this record, I said, okay.

580

00:40:37,263 --> 00:40:51,027

I wanna do something for Ring of Honor on their biggest show, but I wanna make sure it's

the right record and I wanna make sure that when I contact AEW that it's a record that

581

00:40:51,027 --> 00:40:55,648

makes sense and it's not just me just trying to have my voice heard, just send and stuff.

582

00:40:55,648 --> 00:41:01,690

Nah, I'ma go some time, I'ma go a period of time, they'll hear me on the Sammy record.

583

00:41:01,690 --> 00:41:03,210

Everything is about timing.

584

00:41:03,210 --> 00:41:05,911

I have this study down to psychology.

585

00:41:06,051 --> 00:41:09,514

I literally have this down to a science on psychology.

586

00:41:09,514 --> 00:41:13,377

And I thoroughly believe that when I'm done, I'm going to write a book on this all.

587

00:41:13,377 --> 00:41:19,903

And it's gonna be e-books or anybody that wants to learn about this lane and things like

that.

588

00:41:19,903 --> 00:41:29,151

You know, you can either hit me up for a consultation, but I think if when I write this

book and I'm out the game and I'm done, I can help really other people with this.

589

00:41:29,151 --> 00:41:33,837

So really the song came about, a motor girlfriend.

590

00:41:33,837 --> 00:41:37,849

We made a great record, one of my favorite records I've done in a while.

591

00:41:38,190 --> 00:41:41,212

And then I hit them up and I said, hey man, can you guys play this?

592

00:41:41,212 --> 00:41:43,333

This is called Final Battle.

593

00:41:43,354 --> 00:41:50,178

It's about a ring of honor, but also about being able to overcome things in life.

594

00:41:50,178 --> 00:41:55,582

And then they said, yeah, we'll get it through the avenues and if we like it, we'll use

it.

595

00:41:55,642 --> 00:42:03,195

And then in typical AEW fashion, the night before the show, Mikey hit me up and he said,

hey.

596

00:42:03,195 --> 00:42:04,175

We want to play it.

597

00:42:04,175 --> 00:42:05,575

Can you approve it?

598

00:42:05,575 --> 00:42:07,975

And I'm like, yeah, I sent everything over.

599

00:42:08,235 --> 00:42:09,935

So I ended up promoting a girlfriend.

600

00:42:09,935 --> 00:42:10,655

I told them.

601

00:42:10,655 --> 00:42:12,895

They were ecstatic about it.

602

00:42:12,895 --> 00:42:15,455

And I'm like, and they were like, OK, it's a go.

603

00:42:15,455 --> 00:42:18,955

I didn't think it was going to be played because I didn't hear anything.

604

00:42:19,135 --> 00:42:20,855

I sent it to them a couple of weeks ago.

605

00:42:20,855 --> 00:42:22,755

And you know how the music industry is.

606

00:42:22,755 --> 00:42:24,175

You can send some.

607

00:42:24,175 --> 00:42:25,315

You're like, OK, they didn't use it.

608

00:42:25,315 --> 00:42:26,795

And you just move on.

609

00:42:26,795 --> 00:42:29,965

But I got a call from Mikey.

610

00:42:29,965 --> 00:42:36,821

literally a week, a day before, a few hours actually before the show, hey, you wanna use

it?

611

00:42:36,821 --> 00:42:38,401

Okay, cool, let's do it.

612

00:42:38,742 --> 00:42:43,126

So that's really how it goes, but I don't try to do that all the time.

613

00:42:43,126 --> 00:42:44,066

I don't.

614

00:42:44,709 --> 00:42:51,914

Right, and it sounds like you had the idea of, this was representative of, I created the

song and I thought it would be a good fit.

615

00:42:51,914 --> 00:42:54,135

So you know what, let me at least pitch it to them.

616

00:42:54,135 --> 00:42:55,726

Worst case scenario, they don't use it.

617

00:42:55,726 --> 00:42:56,617

say, hey, thanks.

618

00:42:56,617 --> 00:42:58,578

They listen to it they're inspired by it.

619

00:42:58,578 --> 00:43:05,483

Best case scenario, they turn around and they say, hey, you wrote this about Ring of

Honor, about Final Battle, about, like you said, the come up and everything.

620

00:43:05,483 --> 00:43:07,975

So you know what, if we wanna use it, let's go ahead and use it.

621

00:43:07,975 --> 00:43:09,896

So you're just putting yourself out there.

622

00:43:09,896 --> 00:43:14,607

But I think it's important to say, you're not pitching songs all the time.

623

00:43:14,607 --> 00:43:16,781

You're like you said, you're figuring out, okay, cool.

624

00:43:16,781 --> 00:43:17,473

This is coming up.

625

00:43:17,473 --> 00:43:18,926

This is the track I got.

626

00:43:18,926 --> 00:43:23,279

Let me go ahead and drop it here because I think it makes sense for what we're doing.

627

00:43:23,279 --> 00:43:24,560

Yep, that's it.

628

00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:25,680

It's all strategy.

629

00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:31,361

It's not trying to, a lot of people try to, man, let me submit, let me submit one for All

In.

630

00:43:31,361 --> 00:43:32,714

Let me submit one for All Out.

631

00:43:32,714 --> 00:43:36,527

Let me submit one for, you know, Grand Slam.

632

00:43:36,527 --> 00:43:39,188

Let me submit, nah, don't do, I wouldn't do that.

633

00:43:39,188 --> 00:43:51,835

I would see, would try to record some stuff, see what the best record is, and then six

months, a year down the line, if you see a spot that you think it works,

634

00:43:52,313 --> 00:43:57,224

You know, then submit it and for that one particular occasion and see what happens.

635

00:43:57,364 --> 00:44:00,195

know, see what comes out of it.

636

00:44:00,195 --> 00:44:01,686

You know, you never know.

637

00:44:01,686 --> 00:44:03,996

But I don't abuse it.

638

00:44:03,996 --> 00:44:04,496

You know what mean?

639

00:44:04,496 --> 00:44:05,497

I don't at all.

640

00:44:05,497 --> 00:44:06,227

don't...

641

00:44:06,227 --> 00:44:08,667

Okay, I did one for Ringo Vard.

642

00:44:08,667 --> 00:44:11,578

Time to shoot for the next AEW pay-per-view.

643

00:44:11,578 --> 00:44:12,986

Nah, you can't do that.

644

00:44:12,986 --> 00:44:14,889

It doesn't work that way.

645

00:44:16,210 --> 00:44:17,510

that was the strategy behind that.

646

00:44:17,510 --> 00:44:19,730

But I really, really love that record.

647

00:44:19,971 --> 00:44:22,041

I look forward to doing more with them.

648

00:44:22,549 --> 00:44:24,876

And me and you got to lock in on a project as well.

649

00:44:24,876 --> 00:44:26,520

We need to do a full project together, bro.

650

00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:28,173

Just EP.

651

00:44:28,315 --> 00:44:30,259

Me and you need to lock in on something.

652

00:44:30,831 --> 00:44:36,375

Yeah, we talked about it last year and for me, I'm just like, I just got to be able to

lock in and get some songs done.

653

00:44:36,375 --> 00:44:37,397

Yeah, let's do it this year.

654

00:44:37,397 --> 00:44:38,420

Let's make it happen.

655

00:44:38,420 --> 00:44:38,815

So.

656

00:44:38,815 --> 00:44:39,196

it 2025.

657

00:44:39,196 --> 00:44:39,587

Now.

658

00:44:39,587 --> 00:44:40,159

Let's try.

659

00:44:40,159 --> 00:44:41,962

try to get an EP out together.

660

00:44:42,149 --> 00:44:43,770

Yeah, I would love that.

661

00:44:43,770 --> 00:44:51,434

And it's just so cool that you're talking about it from a perspective of like, Hey, here's

a song I wrote about something that I'm really passionate about.

662

00:44:51,434 --> 00:45:00,859

You know, you're talking about that final battle theme and you're also saying like, Hey,

here's a song that was about this and about everything that that pay-per-view represents.

663

00:45:00,859 --> 00:45:06,902

little bit different, obviously, than working with someone like Sammy Guevara, who you've

done a couple of themes for now.

664

00:45:06,902 --> 00:45:12,101

Obviously the biggest one that is going to come to most people's minds is take flight with

665

00:45:12,101 --> 00:45:16,363

that theme, that's the theme that everyone has heard on AEW.

666

00:45:16,363 --> 00:45:23,286

Was that a theme that he had come to you before time and said, hey, I'm going to AEW, so I

need a theme and you worked on that with him?

667

00:45:23,286 --> 00:45:30,979

Or was it something that he started using a little bit before time and then as he got

signed to AEW, it was like, hey, we're gonna go ahead and do this, I'm taking this theme

668

00:45:30,979 --> 00:45:31,549

with me.

669

00:45:31,549 --> 00:45:32,910

How did that process work?

670

00:45:32,910 --> 00:45:40,313

then just when you start working with him, what's the process in terms of getting the song

where he needs it to be also?

671

00:45:40,601 --> 00:45:41,652

Yes, great question.

672

00:45:41,652 --> 00:45:57,723

So Sammy was a situation where he heard my name before and obviously through his

friendship with Swerve, he's like, yo man, I need you to make this theme for me.

673

00:45:58,084 --> 00:46:02,086

So I asked him, said, how do you want this to sound?

674

00:46:02,707 --> 00:46:07,140

And he's like, I just wanted to, you know, to be like, I just want to come from a moment.

675

00:46:07,140 --> 00:46:08,641

I just want my moment.

676

00:46:08,973 --> 00:46:18,952

I want to just, I want the song just to be about the feeling, how I feel, you know, how

I'm feeling the, my rise to the top and my come up.

677

00:46:18,952 --> 00:46:23,655

So, you know, obviously he was at the inception of AEW when it first started.

678

00:46:24,797 --> 00:46:31,142

So I recorded it and I went through a lot of different music and I was like, huh, how is

this going to work?

679

00:46:31,142 --> 00:46:32,663

How is that going to work?

680

00:46:32,944 --> 00:46:33,434

Okay.

681

00:46:33,434 --> 00:46:37,527

So then when I found that beat that sounded like, like, like space, like

682

00:46:37,851 --> 00:46:50,211

The beat sounds like you're like in outer space kind of kind of like in an atmospheric

sound so I said, okay, I'm gonna use this Funny thing is He's told the story before and I

683

00:46:50,211 --> 00:47:04,231

get a random phone call from Mikey before AEW even starts and He's like, hey man We want

to use the record You know, um, Sammy was kind of like yeah about it at first cuz he

684

00:47:04,231 --> 00:47:05,267

didn't know

685

00:47:05,327 --> 00:47:11,149

But the person that told him to use it, and I will always give him his praise, was Cody

Rhodes.

686

00:47:11,909 --> 00:47:14,469

Cody Rhodes told him it was a hit record.

687

00:47:14,610 --> 00:47:18,291

Cody Rhodes said, you need to use this, this is a hit song.

688

00:47:18,291 --> 00:47:26,733

So I am forever in debt to Cody for saluting that, for giving Sammy the vote of confidence

and telling him this is the what.

689

00:47:26,733 --> 00:47:28,113

This is the record.

690

00:47:28,174 --> 00:47:33,157

And you know, it's phenomenal that, you know.

691

00:47:33,157 --> 00:47:36,389

Cody did that, that Sammy has kept his relationship with me.

692

00:47:36,389 --> 00:47:38,350

He's one of my good friends in this.

693

00:47:38,351 --> 00:47:45,556

He's a great brother, him and Tay and just every time, whatever, you know, they are great.

694

00:47:45,636 --> 00:47:56,744

They are great people, you know, they are great people and I am, you know, grateful for

them and that relationship I've had with Sammy.

695

00:47:56,744 --> 00:48:00,379

Obviously we shot the music video, Energy, together and...

696

00:48:00,379 --> 00:48:03,839

You know, it was just a lot of fun to be able to build this relationship with him.

697

00:48:03,839 --> 00:48:15,419

I think if you are a artist and you could find two or three wrestlers that you can just

build that relationship with when they come to you and they trust you and you can maintain

698

00:48:15,419 --> 00:48:23,199

that that that brotherhood or brother sisterhood thing or family dynamic, then it's great.

699

00:48:23,199 --> 00:48:29,647

I believe every artist should have at least two or three go tos where you guys just stick

together, stick together through it.

700

00:48:29,647 --> 00:48:33,579

and they come to you for the catalog, they trust you and you build that rapport with them.

701

00:48:33,579 --> 00:48:37,270

So Sammy, it's been phenomenal, man.

702

00:48:37,270 --> 00:48:39,135

That record's been played everywhere.

703

00:48:39,135 --> 00:48:49,063

Like you said, I just played in New Japan, the mashup with Dustin Rhodes and to see Dustin

Rhodes and Sammy coming out to something that your voice is on, you don't, that feeling

704

00:48:49,063 --> 00:48:50,424

never goes away, man.

705

00:48:50,424 --> 00:48:53,887

It's just, it's phenomenal to be honest.

706

00:48:53,887 --> 00:48:55,638

Honestly, I was half asleep.

707

00:48:55,638 --> 00:48:57,569

I wasn't even watching the show.

708

00:48:58,030 --> 00:48:59,291

And Rich Lada.

709

00:48:59,291 --> 00:49:00,011

Messages to me.

710

00:49:00,011 --> 00:49:07,111

He said hey, yo, man, you know, your song is played in New Japan I'm like word because as

far as what I know, you know, Kevin Knight's been using my theme over there.

711

00:49:07,111 --> 00:49:12,391

So I was like, okay, that's dope but then I Said word.

712

00:49:12,391 --> 00:49:15,091

He's like, yeah, I'm watching it right now Sammy and Dustin just came out.

713

00:49:15,091 --> 00:49:19,731

I said, okay, I got a post about this I said, oh man, I got a market this.

714

00:49:19,731 --> 00:49:21,491

Oh, man I got it.

715

00:49:21,491 --> 00:49:24,329

I got to get in my marketing bag cuz that's that's legendary

716

00:49:24,329 --> 00:49:31,772

just for everyone to that sits there it says, everyone knows so far and advanced when

these things are coming out and all of us have these giant marketing plans.

717

00:49:31,772 --> 00:49:39,414

Remember final battle happened a couple hours before time and Montese he found out

basically as it was happening that they were using his theme in new Japan.

718

00:49:39,414 --> 00:49:46,677

It ain't always planned ladies and gentlemen, just so you know, sometimes we just got that

post that goes quick up and we're like, Hey, that's really cool.

719

00:49:46,677 --> 00:49:48,207

Thanks for telling me guy.

720

00:49:48,207 --> 00:49:49,398

Yeah, absolutely man.

721

00:49:49,398 --> 00:49:51,969

It's, it's, it's, but it's a blessing.

722

00:49:52,009 --> 00:49:53,550

Here's the thing, bro.

723

00:49:53,550 --> 00:50:05,857

It's a blessing to still want to be heard after all this time, because you go through

these points where people get tired of you and we're in a society where people get tired

724

00:50:05,857 --> 00:50:06,577

of the winners.

725

00:50:06,577 --> 00:50:11,140

They get tired of people that's constantly winning or successful.

726

00:50:11,140 --> 00:50:16,911

And you know, people like to root for the underdog a lot of the times, which is just the

way the world is.

727

00:50:16,911 --> 00:50:24,357

But for me to be at the level that I am, but people still want to hear my voice, still

hear what I have to say after all this time.

728

00:50:24,638 --> 00:50:29,301

Next month on the 20th, February 20th, it'll be 11 years that I'm here.

729

00:50:30,122 --> 00:50:39,270

And to still be relevant, to still be sought after, to still have my music played 11 years

later, I never would have thought this.

730

00:50:39,270 --> 00:50:40,511

All this was random.

731

00:50:40,511 --> 00:50:43,574

It was not no, well, I'm going to make theme songs.

732

00:50:43,574 --> 00:50:45,315

It was a random idea.

733

00:50:45,403 --> 00:50:48,463

It just popped in my head and it changed my life.

734

00:50:48,463 --> 00:50:54,503

It was not no plan where I was like watching Stone Cold Steve Austin in the fifth grade

and said, I want to do this.

735

00:50:54,503 --> 00:50:58,723

I had all the WWF, the music albums like everybody else did.

736

00:50:58,723 --> 00:51:02,963

I was singing the D'Lo Brown, Danger at the Door theme song.

737

00:51:02,963 --> 00:51:07,163

I was singing the Wolf Pack, which still still to this day.

738

00:51:07,163 --> 00:51:08,143

Disclaimer.

739

00:51:08,863 --> 00:51:15,265

I have out of every single hip hop song I've made, I have never made a song better than

the NWO Wolf Pack.

740

00:51:15,265 --> 00:51:16,977

Never, and I never will.

741

00:51:16,977 --> 00:51:21,931

But nothing will be more monumental than that howl and then that beat.

742

00:51:21,931 --> 00:51:27,966

And I've made some great songs, but that's still the goat to me.

743

00:51:28,547 --> 00:51:35,513

I think that it's just all about building those relationships.

744

00:51:35,513 --> 00:51:41,318

also too, don't know, like I said, I didn't know the New Japan thing was happening.

745

00:51:41,318 --> 00:51:42,038

I didn't know.

746

00:51:42,038 --> 00:51:43,219

I didn't know.

747

00:51:43,397 --> 00:51:46,970

the Ring of Honor thing was happening until the day before, you just don't know.

748

00:51:46,970 --> 00:51:57,769

And I think that people just have to trust the work that they're putting in and being able

to figure out, okay, how can I take this and capitalize on it?

749

00:51:57,769 --> 00:52:00,381

A lot of people don't know how to capitalize on it.

750

00:52:00,441 --> 00:52:06,316

They'll post, hey, I did this song for this person and then they don't capitalize on it,

you know?

751

00:52:06,316 --> 00:52:12,453

And it's just, it's great because I'm just grateful.

752

00:52:12,453 --> 00:52:13,665

that I'm still here.

753

00:52:13,665 --> 00:52:18,990

I'm grateful that I'm still wanted, grateful that I'm still respected.

754

00:52:18,991 --> 00:52:21,975

There's no scandalous stuff coming out of my name.

755

00:52:21,975 --> 00:52:22,816

There's nothing.

756

00:52:22,816 --> 00:52:25,579

I don't have any issues with nobody.

757

00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:28,472

I'm just grateful to be here.

758

00:52:28,472 --> 00:52:30,305

And I'm blessed, man.

759

00:52:30,305 --> 00:52:32,287

I'm blessed to still want to be here.

760

00:52:32,913 --> 00:52:40,938

And I think that if we kind of tie that all back into Sammy Guevara's theme, the Take

Flight one, I think you nailed the lyrics on this for what he was looking for too.

761

00:52:40,938 --> 00:52:45,270

And I think that's a testament to you getting inside what he's looking to bring out.

762

00:52:45,270 --> 00:52:47,101

I've been pushing for many moments like this.

763

00:52:47,101 --> 00:52:48,392

This time is undervalued.

764

00:52:48,392 --> 00:52:49,343

No one could ever miss.

765

00:52:49,343 --> 00:52:50,993

This is my chance moment of bliss.

766

00:52:50,993 --> 00:53:00,651

Like all that kind of stuff is so in the pocket of, if you think about where Sammy was at

that point, and even where he is now, he's still one of these guys that while he is...

767

00:53:00,651 --> 00:53:02,662

a you can consider him uh...

768

00:53:02,662 --> 00:53:12,705

long-term a w in the wrestling industry he's still getting his name out there you know if

you don't use industry for fifteen twenty years and what not and he's somebody who he

769

00:53:12,705 --> 00:53:21,047

comes to you he ends up saying i want people to know that i'm on the come up i want them

to know that i'm gonna make the best this opportunity and then you've got this on it he's

770

00:53:21,047 --> 00:53:26,819

been a bad guy yet but when you hear the lyrics there it's less about him being a good guy

or bad guy

771

00:53:26,819 --> 00:53:29,612

and more about him recognizing, okay, cool.

772

00:53:29,612 --> 00:53:35,369

Like at this point in time where I am, I need to be able to show people that it is my

time.

773

00:53:35,369 --> 00:53:39,334

I need to show people that I'm not gonna get trounced on from like all the bigger names.

774

00:53:39,334 --> 00:53:43,910

Like this is my moment to really let you know who I am and that I'm here.

775

00:53:43,910 --> 00:53:45,261

And I'm grateful for this moment.

776

00:53:45,261 --> 00:53:47,243

I think those lyrics really reflect that.

777

00:53:47,291 --> 00:53:48,071

Thank you, bro.

778

00:53:48,071 --> 00:53:49,131

Thank you, man.

779

00:53:49,291 --> 00:53:53,891

Honestly, I wrote that song in like five minutes, bro.

780

00:53:55,410 --> 00:53:58,271

I'm not saying that to be bashful, braggy or anything.

781

00:53:58,271 --> 00:54:02,851

That's one of them songs where it just came to me and I wrote that song literally in like,

it took like 10 minutes.

782

00:54:02,851 --> 00:54:04,391

I was like, I feel this.

783

00:54:04,391 --> 00:54:11,131

And then there are certain songs where you sit for like three days, you be like, damn,

like, what am I gonna do?

784

00:54:11,131 --> 00:54:14,051

Like my writing process has kind of changed.

785

00:54:14,715 --> 00:54:18,895

Everybody wants to know like like what's the recording process the writing process?

786

00:54:18,895 --> 00:54:33,535

It's it's literally I Will go to the studio because I do have a home studio, but I won't

use it as much so I'll book a studio session and I'll book our time And I'm so used to

787

00:54:33,535 --> 00:54:39,415

recording I could do like six songs in an hour Five six song five six there's times in the

studio.

788

00:54:39,415 --> 00:54:43,055

I've gone in the studio with

789

00:54:43,419 --> 00:54:49,599

six beats an hour and I gotta record six songs an hour and I'll do it.

790

00:54:49,599 --> 00:54:56,459

Hook verse, sometimes two verses, I'm just cranking them out, just cranking them out.

791

00:54:56,459 --> 00:55:09,119

it's just, but certain songs, like Wasami's song took that, like a song that took a while

for me to do was when Swerve was using my theme Swerve in like 2017, 18.

792

00:55:09,119 --> 00:55:12,751

That song was the longest theme I took, cause Swerve is.

793

00:55:12,751 --> 00:55:14,553

has a very particular ear.

794

00:55:14,553 --> 00:55:18,076

So this is before he was even making music.

795

00:55:18,297 --> 00:55:22,541

And when I did that song with him, that song took about three, four months to make.

796

00:55:22,682 --> 00:55:28,607

And I'm like, it's never taken as long to do a song, but it ended up being what it was.

797

00:55:28,708 --> 00:55:32,091

So you just gotta go off feeling, bro.

798

00:55:32,091 --> 00:55:34,213

You just gotta go off feeling in this.

799

00:55:34,994 --> 00:55:35,925

You have to.

800

00:55:35,925 --> 00:55:36,725

yeah.

801

00:55:37,407 --> 00:55:38,347

And you know what, though?

802

00:55:38,347 --> 00:55:40,459

Like, there are some songs that take that short time.

803

00:55:40,459 --> 00:55:42,641

I remember that I've told this a couple times.

804

00:55:42,641 --> 00:55:46,424

There was one theme I did for championship wrestling where it was like, we need a theme.

805

00:55:46,424 --> 00:55:47,215

When do you need it?

806

00:55:47,215 --> 00:55:48,336

Half hour.

807

00:55:48,336 --> 00:55:48,877

damn.

808

00:55:48,877 --> 00:55:49,617

All right.

809

00:55:49,617 --> 00:55:52,272

And for me, I'm sitting there going, all right, let's stack the orchestra.

810

00:55:52,272 --> 00:55:53,000

Let's stack the beak.

811

00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:53,641

Here we go.

812

00:55:53,641 --> 00:55:54,722

But you know what?

813

00:55:54,722 --> 00:56:01,528

The thing I always tell people about some of those quicker turnaround ones, you do what

you know, and you do what you know is going to work.

814

00:56:01,528 --> 00:56:01,888

Right.

815

00:56:01,888 --> 00:56:03,759

And I'm not saying you have this

816

00:56:03,813 --> 00:56:06,535

You're saying it took you 10 minutes to write that song.

817

00:56:06,535 --> 00:56:11,838

It's not like it sounds like you had a time constraint, but when you have something that

just flows, you run with it.

818

00:56:11,838 --> 00:56:19,512

If you've got a time constraint and someone's got a project for you and you're like, hey,

I need it within this time, that's the point where you can still be creative with it, but

819

00:56:19,512 --> 00:56:23,444

you really put the blinders on and you go, all right, this is what it's not going to be.

820

00:56:23,444 --> 00:56:25,285

This is what it's going to be.

821

00:56:25,366 --> 00:56:28,327

I'm going to use this term that I use with a lot of my students too.

822

00:56:28,327 --> 00:56:31,481

I classify music into two genres a lot of the times.

823

00:56:31,481 --> 00:56:35,224

I classify it into art music and work music.

824

00:56:35,224 --> 00:56:44,862

And it doesn't mean that the work music can't be artistically fulfilling or fulfilling,

but what the difference for me between work music and art music is, is art music, you

825

00:56:44,862 --> 00:56:46,062

could take as long as you want.

826

00:56:46,062 --> 00:56:48,054

You could sit on a song for five years.

827

00:56:48,054 --> 00:56:49,865

You can make all the little tweaks you want.

828

00:56:49,865 --> 00:56:51,257

You can do all that kind of stuff.

829

00:56:51,257 --> 00:56:57,135

But once you start putting a deadline on something, even if it's a piece of music that you

want to put out, you put a goal and say, you know what?

830

00:56:57,135 --> 00:56:59,315

I got like six months to throw this album together.

831

00:56:59,315 --> 00:57:00,927

I got a week to throw this together.

832

00:57:00,927 --> 00:57:05,269

Someone comes to you and says, and he's just done in a couple of weeks or in like a day or

an hour.

833

00:57:05,269 --> 00:57:06,649

That's the work music.

834

00:57:06,649 --> 00:57:14,302

And in that, that's where you take all of this experience that you have, all these

different things you've come to experience in your life with music.

835

00:57:14,302 --> 00:57:16,253

And you go, all right, who's this?

836

00:57:16,253 --> 00:57:17,084

What's the project?

837

00:57:17,084 --> 00:57:17,974

What are we doing?

838

00:57:17,974 --> 00:57:18,954

Let's roll.

839

00:57:18,954 --> 00:57:25,425

And it's, you know, for those who haven't tried to do that, where you have that kind of

barometer or that kind of ceiling.

840

00:57:25,425 --> 00:57:34,065

It's really cool to try that because sometimes you get into that mode where as a creative,

and this happens to me and this happened to me years earlier in my career a lot more,

841

00:57:34,065 --> 00:57:42,065

you'll sit down at your computer and go, or anywhere you are with your instrument and go,

I can do everything, which means that you're gonna do everything.

842

00:57:42,065 --> 00:57:46,165

So it becomes this paralysis of you're gonna do absolutely nothing.

843

00:57:46,165 --> 00:57:53,061

So when all of a sudden you put these things in your head where you're like, all right,

cool, this is the kind of thing I'm doing, here's what it's gonna be.

844

00:57:53,061 --> 00:57:56,532

That also gives you that freedom to go, what if I tried this here?

845

00:57:56,532 --> 00:57:57,432

that's really cool.

846

00:57:57,432 --> 00:57:59,763

Going back to what you said before about innovation.

847

00:57:59,763 --> 00:58:01,861

Okay, well, this is the kind of thing we're doing.

848

00:58:01,861 --> 00:58:03,724

All right, what if I threw this in here?

849

00:58:03,724 --> 00:58:08,685

What if I'm working on a piece that's for championship wrestling, it needs orchestra and

all this kind of stuff?

850

00:58:08,685 --> 00:58:11,366

Well, what can I do a little bit differently?

851

00:58:11,366 --> 00:58:13,387

Maybe I throw this guitar line on it.

852

00:58:13,387 --> 00:58:14,667

you don't hear that all the time.

853

00:58:14,667 --> 00:58:15,667

That's pretty cool.

854

00:58:15,667 --> 00:58:22,491

Now it becomes unique, but you use all of this kind of restriction or rather this ceiling

is what we'll call it.

855

00:58:22,491 --> 00:58:24,042

to be able to say, know what?

856

00:58:24,244 --> 00:58:26,187

Here's what works and here's what it is.

857

00:58:26,187 --> 00:58:28,771

And I'm not saying that you had that restriction, but you know what?

858

00:58:28,771 --> 00:58:31,816

If you're writing the song, same thing, the art piece takes you 10 minutes.

859

00:58:31,816 --> 00:58:34,289

Hey, don't complain about the process.

860

00:58:34,289 --> 00:58:35,475

That's totally cool.

861

00:58:35,475 --> 00:58:36,560

absolutely,

862

00:58:37,625 --> 00:58:47,410

Now, we'll talk a little bit too about Shane Taylor promotions because at different

iterations in our career, we've worked with Shane Taylor on different themes, right?

863

00:58:49,351 --> 00:58:57,416

When he first came into Ring of Honor and came into AEW, he was using a theme that Monster

Tarver, his son and I had worked on together.

864

00:58:57,416 --> 00:59:03,539

And then he ended up using the theme, which is just a banger theme that you have for him

now.

865

00:59:03,539 --> 00:59:07,341

How did that process start of putting together that specific theme?

866

00:59:07,683 --> 00:59:15,700

out of anybody that, again, I've worked with so many people, you've worked with so many

people, Shane Taylor, strap him up, man.

867

00:59:15,700 --> 00:59:16,881

Put the title on him.

868

00:59:16,881 --> 00:59:18,963

Do whatever you gotta do.

869

00:59:18,963 --> 00:59:20,284

Strap that boy up, man.

870

00:59:20,284 --> 00:59:21,025

He's awesome.

871

00:59:21,025 --> 00:59:21,926

He's so good.

872

00:59:21,926 --> 00:59:30,213

How did that process come with starting the Shane Taylor promotions theme and what was

your kind of mentality with writing the lyrics and working on that piece?

873

00:59:30,949 --> 00:59:44,924

Well, so I first started working with Shane in Ring of Honor because I did his theme

different and then he went to...

874

00:59:44,924 --> 00:59:51,746

So I did different, then he did Lines in the Jungle, believe with you guys, Shots of

Tarver, you got that's not...

875

00:59:51,746 --> 00:59:52,867

That theme's phenomenal.

876

00:59:52,867 --> 00:59:55,259

You guys aced that shit.

877

00:59:55,259 --> 00:59:57,241

Sorry for language.

878

00:59:57,241 --> 01:00:00,673

Incredible, incredible record you guys did.

879

01:00:00,781 --> 01:00:04,064

And real quick, I'm just gonna do a sidebar on that before you keep going.

880

01:00:04,064 --> 01:00:10,339

Shout out to Tarver's son also, because with me and Tarver, we take a lot of the credit

for that.

881

01:00:10,339 --> 01:00:15,012

I'm grateful for the work that I did on it, but his son doesn't get enough credit for

that.

882

01:00:15,012 --> 01:00:18,105

I just want to always put him over, because that beat is awesome.

883

01:00:18,105 --> 01:00:20,657

Everything he did on that was just so good.

884

01:00:20,657 --> 01:00:22,288

I'm sorry, I just wanted to put him over real quick.

885

01:00:22,288 --> 01:00:25,161

Keep going with you and doing the Shane Taylor stuff, yeah.

886

01:00:25,161 --> 01:00:37,247

So he wanted to make something that sounded like an anthem towards what his vision was for

Shane Taylor promotions.

887

01:00:37,567 --> 01:00:45,391

So he called me and people don't realize that Shane Taylor actually could write music if

he wanted to because...

888

01:00:45,753 --> 01:00:51,296

When we did different, kind of, you I don't talk the way I like, I just fight the way I

like.

889

01:00:51,296 --> 01:00:52,567

He gave me that.

890

01:00:52,567 --> 01:00:54,268

That's what he wanted me to say.

891

01:00:54,808 --> 01:00:58,911

Then when it came to this, he said, just ask T P.

892

01:00:58,911 --> 01:01:03,434

He said, I just wanted it to be about the, about my group and the promotion that I'm

trying to build.

893

01:01:03,434 --> 01:01:04,494

And I said, okay.

894

01:01:04,494 --> 01:01:05,575

I said, you know what?

895

01:01:05,575 --> 01:01:06,195

Cool.

896

01:01:06,195 --> 01:01:08,276

Well, we'll do that.

897

01:01:08,417 --> 01:01:12,645

So, um, I got with, uh, you know,

898

01:01:12,645 --> 01:01:16,317

Grammy nominated producer Mike Snell, who's phenomenal.

899

01:01:16,317 --> 01:01:18,597

He's a dope producer.

900

01:01:18,878 --> 01:01:28,122

And I said, all right, man, let me get you with ISAT, to help your brand, let me get you

with a Grammy nominated producer to help your brand and let's make this.

901

01:01:28,122 --> 01:01:32,343

So me and Mike Snell was in the studio.

902

01:01:32,343 --> 01:01:38,346

And this is one of the first few times that when we were recording together, we co-wrote

it together.

903

01:01:38,346 --> 01:01:41,101

He produced me, he actually produced me.

904

01:01:41,206 --> 01:01:41,435

wow.

905

01:01:41,435 --> 01:01:45,915

And we, I literally didn't write it down.

906

01:01:45,915 --> 01:01:49,115

I was just going, I was just saying it.

907

01:01:49,115 --> 01:01:53,955

I was like, Shane Taylor promotions, making the slopes of right hand.

908

01:01:53,955 --> 01:01:56,895

And I was like, we trying to, he's trying to figure out the right line together.

909

01:01:56,895 --> 01:01:59,695

It was like, right hand.

910

01:01:59,775 --> 01:02:03,475

He said, how about I said something, something right hand, something devotion.

911

01:02:03,475 --> 01:02:04,835

He's like, no, no, no, no.

912

01:02:04,835 --> 01:02:06,855

He said, what about commotion?

913

01:02:06,855 --> 01:02:08,235

He said, try commotion.

914

01:02:08,419 --> 01:02:14,082

Shane Taylor promotion, stepping in the ring, I'm explosive, right hand and the commotion.

915

01:02:14,423 --> 01:02:16,464

And then he's like, okay, stop there.

916

01:02:16,725 --> 01:02:20,908

So then if you can, you can hear it in the recording.

917

01:02:20,908 --> 01:02:26,711

If you have a trained ear that I'm going line for line in the recording, listen to the

song.

918

01:02:26,711 --> 01:02:34,867

And this is a nugget, go listen, you guys go listen to STP and you will hear the breaks of

me going line for line in the song.

919

01:02:34,867 --> 01:02:35,858

But that's how we did it.

920

01:02:35,858 --> 01:02:37,098

We went line for line.

921

01:02:37,098 --> 01:02:38,359

didn't, I didn't.

922

01:02:38,415 --> 01:02:45,068

have my phone and just wrote it down and just went, Shane Taylor promotion, stepping in

the ring, I'm explosive, right hand and the commotion.

923

01:02:45,068 --> 01:02:46,302

I didn't do that.

924

01:02:46,302 --> 01:02:47,503

Everything was off memory.

925

01:02:47,503 --> 01:02:48,904

I didn't write none of it down.

926

01:02:48,904 --> 01:02:54,819

So it was, Shane Taylor promotion, stepping in the ring, I'm explosive.

927

01:02:54,819 --> 01:02:56,029

Okay, stop that.

928

01:02:56,090 --> 01:03:00,032

Right hand and the commotion, making waves like the ocean.

929

01:03:00,754 --> 01:03:01,674

Okay.

930

01:03:01,674 --> 01:03:05,908

Then we stop, go to sleep, causing hypnosis.

931

01:03:05,908 --> 01:03:07,859

Then he's like, I like that one.

932

01:03:08,451 --> 01:03:11,572

And then we just kept going line for line.

933

01:03:11,692 --> 01:03:18,604

Lead the pen and you wave and your pain, you'd be hoping competition of smoking at the

end.

934

01:03:18,604 --> 01:03:20,054

You'll be saying my slogan.

935

01:03:20,054 --> 01:03:24,195

And it literally was we was just going line for line repeating it.

936

01:03:24,195 --> 01:03:29,817

And then when we did the STP part, we literally did parts where I was in front of the mic.

937

01:03:29,817 --> 01:03:38,519

He went into all the way in the back to the studio and went, STP like we're just in

different parts of the studio yelling STP.

938

01:03:39,149 --> 01:03:42,662

in different spots, you know what I In different areas of the studio.

939

01:03:42,662 --> 01:03:52,388

One of the funnest studio sessions I've ever had making a theme song, because it was one

of the first times I was actually being produced and it wasn't just the Mon-Teezy way.

940

01:03:53,089 --> 01:03:54,780

You know what I mean?

941

01:03:54,780 --> 01:04:01,375

It was great because I got to cohabitate and work together in writing this together, which

was a lot of fun.

942

01:04:01,375 --> 01:04:02,275

So.

943

01:04:02,735 --> 01:04:04,306

When he heard it, he loved it.

944

01:04:04,306 --> 01:04:05,247

He loved the beat.

945

01:04:05,247 --> 01:04:09,621

It sounded like a marching band, like an army.

946

01:04:10,242 --> 01:04:12,263

And I look forward to doing that.

947

01:04:12,263 --> 01:04:14,185

Hopefully I get to do that live someday.

948

01:04:14,185 --> 01:04:15,006

Hopefully.

949

01:04:15,006 --> 01:04:20,911

That's the one thing I really want to do for that one is do that live for Shane T because

I believe in him.

950

01:04:20,911 --> 01:04:23,473

I believe that he has something special.

951

01:04:23,813 --> 01:04:29,238

And I think that, you know, it really, really can be done.

952

01:04:29,238 --> 01:04:30,799

Hopefully, you know.

953

01:04:30,873 --> 01:04:37,486

Hopefully we can get you involved, get like a live band, get you on that guitar thing, get

you on that thing too.

954

01:04:38,688 --> 01:04:40,308

Just get everybody involved.

955

01:04:40,308 --> 01:04:46,492

I just want to make this a live experience for us to have fun.

956

01:04:46,612 --> 01:04:55,377

Segue, guys, John was supposed to be on the take flight entrance.

957

01:04:55,377 --> 01:04:59,479

For some reason, I pitched, because Sammy went in a live band.

958

01:04:59,479 --> 01:05:02,641

I wanted a live band, but they just wanted me to do it.

959

01:05:02,641 --> 01:05:04,120

And I was so down.

960

01:05:04,120 --> 01:05:06,523

was like, damn, John, I apologize, brother.

961

01:05:06,523 --> 01:05:08,314

Like we were that close.

962

01:05:08,314 --> 01:05:12,516

We were this close to getting the live band performance of Take Flight.

963

01:05:12,516 --> 01:05:13,226

And who knows?

964

01:05:13,226 --> 01:05:16,868

Maybe the universe will happen again someday and we'll be able to have the band.

965

01:05:16,868 --> 01:05:19,169

Who knows what'll happen with the way the universe works?

966

01:05:19,169 --> 01:05:21,700

A &W want another performance and it'll happen.

967

01:05:21,700 --> 01:05:22,553

Who knows?

968

01:05:22,553 --> 01:05:24,717

Or we just go ahead and put together our version too.

969

01:05:24,717 --> 01:05:25,999

Throw up a video for it.

970

01:05:25,999 --> 01:05:27,762

The guys, all of us get together.

971

01:05:27,762 --> 01:05:28,653

See what happens there.

972

01:05:28,653 --> 01:05:30,128

Let's do it.

973

01:05:30,128 --> 01:05:32,052

speaking my language, good sir.

974

01:05:32,052 --> 01:05:33,263

We don't need their approval.

975

01:05:33,263 --> 01:05:35,116

We can do it ourselves, brother.

976

01:05:35,257 --> 01:05:35,928

Let's do it.

977

01:05:35,928 --> 01:05:37,441

I like that idea.

978

01:05:37,441 --> 01:05:38,913

I like that idea.

979

01:05:39,225 --> 01:05:40,136

I would love that man.

980

01:05:40,136 --> 01:05:40,737

And you know what?

981

01:05:40,737 --> 01:05:42,329

It would give a different flair to it too.

982

01:05:42,329 --> 01:05:50,259

Cause you'd obviously have the vibes of take flight upfront, but then you'd also have like

these rock elements with a little bit of the heavier guitars and live drums, dude, it be a

983

01:05:50,259 --> 01:05:51,581

totally different take on it.

984

01:05:51,581 --> 01:05:54,685

And that may also give Sammy some ideas, which is super cool too.

985

01:05:54,685 --> 01:05:55,129

So.

986

01:05:55,129 --> 01:05:55,350

man.

987

01:05:55,350 --> 01:05:57,519

I will travel up there just to do that.

988

01:05:57,519 --> 01:05:59,270

Yeah, let's make it happen.

989

01:05:59,270 --> 01:06:06,886

And the other thing I want to bring up too is when you were talking about how you were in

the studio for Shane Taylor's theme, you were like, oh man, like we went to the other side

990

01:06:06,886 --> 01:06:07,276

of the room.

991

01:06:07,276 --> 01:06:08,937

We were doing all this different stuff.

992

01:06:08,937 --> 01:06:10,018

It's so cool.

993

01:06:10,018 --> 01:06:14,462

It's something that I wish I did more because I kind of do everything out of my main home

studio here.

994

01:06:14,462 --> 01:06:18,586

A lot of the times I'm bringing in people from other places or sending me the files

afterwards.

995

01:06:18,586 --> 01:06:26,332

And so for me, if you hear something like those gang vocals or something like that, more

than likely, that's me sitting in the studio with like 10 tracks of me just saying it over

996

01:06:26,332 --> 01:06:30,575

and over, throwing effects on it, doing all that and be like, my God, it sounds so

massive.

997

01:06:30,575 --> 01:06:33,597

It's like, yup, it's this mic and that computer.

998

01:06:33,597 --> 01:06:36,339

But when you actually get to sit there and you go, you know what?

999

01:06:36,339 --> 01:06:40,978

Like we're gonna go to different parts of the room and you're actually gonna get what the

room sounds like and you're gonna make it feel.

01:06:40,978 --> 01:06:43,678

It has a different feeling and a different dynamic.

01:06:44,078 --> 01:06:49,938

you know, you were talking about like how you were parsing this together, how it was line

by line by line.

01:06:49,938 --> 01:06:52,298

And that's a huge way that a lot of producers work.

01:06:52,298 --> 01:06:59,198

When we did Dragon Lee's theme pre-WWE, which Dragon Lee, we're going to be working on

something else for you.

01:06:59,198 --> 01:07:00,618

I will always be working for you.

01:07:00,618 --> 01:07:02,878

And I hope we can get something cleared up for WWE.

01:07:02,878 --> 01:07:04,118

TZ and I, we got you.

01:07:04,118 --> 01:07:05,178

We always got you.

01:07:05,178 --> 01:07:06,078

You know that.

01:07:06,078 --> 01:07:08,898

And when we put that theme together, man,

01:07:10,290 --> 01:07:13,590

I think this is how it's been with a couple of themes that we've worked on.

01:07:13,590 --> 01:07:15,050

I've sent you the track.

01:07:15,410 --> 01:07:21,070

You sent me some passes of you doing some things and then you're just like, place it where

you think.

01:07:21,070 --> 01:07:22,130

Like place it where I think.

01:07:22,130 --> 01:07:24,750

I'm like, it sounds great.

01:07:24,750 --> 01:07:25,450

I can place it anywhere.

01:07:25,450 --> 01:07:26,650

It's gonna sound awesome.

01:07:26,650 --> 01:07:28,490

But I like that process.

01:07:28,490 --> 01:07:31,810

It's a process a little bit different for me too, where we'll hop on the phone.

01:07:31,810 --> 01:07:32,770

I'm like, all right, cool.

01:07:32,770 --> 01:07:34,450

I'm placing it here, here and here.

01:07:34,450 --> 01:07:35,450

You got the hooks.

01:07:35,450 --> 01:07:37,170

You already know what you're doing there.

01:07:37,170 --> 01:07:40,220

And it's just a really cool process for me.

01:07:40,220 --> 01:07:47,269

Probably one of my favorite themes I've done with you and done in general was the Dragon

Lee theme pre WWE.

01:07:47,933 --> 01:07:48,508

Yeah.

01:07:48,508 --> 01:07:49,159

Yeah.

01:07:49,159 --> 01:07:54,403

It's because, I look at it like this, bro.

01:07:54,403 --> 01:07:58,226

If you look at, I'll use Michael Jackson.

01:07:58,587 --> 01:08:03,630

Michael Jackson has, there's like 10 writers on one song.

01:08:03,676 --> 01:08:08,595

10 participants on, let's say, PYT.

01:08:08,595 --> 01:08:11,478

There's like nine different songwriters on that record.

01:08:11,478 --> 01:08:14,716

So like, I feel like it's better.

01:08:14,716 --> 01:08:20,676

in collaboration to just trust the other person and get them more involved in the creative

process.

01:08:20,676 --> 01:08:26,356

So I'm gonna lay my vocals and say, hey, you put where you think it fits.

01:08:26,356 --> 01:08:32,476

Cause I know how it hears in my head, but I know that this is your sound, you're producing

it.

01:08:32,476 --> 01:08:40,416

So you, with the music, kind of know where it fits best as the person who created the

sounds of it.

01:08:40,416 --> 01:08:43,916

So I'm just going off the template of what you made.

01:08:43,916 --> 01:08:44,718

So.

01:08:44,718 --> 01:08:54,832

when I'd rather send you the vocals and then you figure out where it fits to in your head

to your sound than the other way around because I will say this.

01:08:56,538 --> 01:09:04,672

It's harder to find a Rick Rubin than it is to find a singer down the street.

01:09:05,472 --> 01:09:15,157

It's harder to find a Teddy Riley or Pharrell Williams than it is to find a singer who

could sing at Walmart and with the right training they could sing.

01:09:15,157 --> 01:09:21,020

But the person who hears it and visions it are harder to find.

01:09:21,020 --> 01:09:21,900

So.

01:09:22,362 --> 01:09:33,839

With you, when you did the Dragon Lee theme, it was like, okay, this is what I'm vocally

inspired to say, but take it and do what you want with it.

01:09:33,839 --> 01:09:36,941

Cause you'll know, it'll click better.

01:09:36,941 --> 01:09:39,953

Same thing I did with Darren with the LA Knight thing, same thing.

01:09:39,953 --> 01:09:41,904

I did the same exact process.

01:09:41,904 --> 01:09:48,068

I do the same exact process with whoever I collaborate with that makes the music and they

mix and they arrange it.

01:09:48,068 --> 01:09:49,244

You guys got it.

01:09:49,244 --> 01:09:49,884

You know what I mean?

01:09:49,884 --> 01:09:52,784

I'll hear it back 99 % of the time and sounds great.

01:09:52,784 --> 01:09:59,564

So I'm just, I'm just going to trust the collaborative process and it's just easier to

work with people that way.

01:09:59,564 --> 01:10:04,664

If it's a 50 50 thing and you go with what you're feeling, I go with what I'm feeling.

01:10:04,664 --> 01:10:05,564

It's just easier.

01:10:05,564 --> 01:10:07,524

It just makes music easier.

01:10:07,524 --> 01:10:14,384

And I look at it like this, honestly, it's just sounds, it sounds very brash, but it's the

truth.

01:10:15,004 --> 01:10:18,184

We're getting five cents like per stream, bro.

01:10:18,184 --> 01:10:18,886

Like.

01:10:18,886 --> 01:10:23,560

We're getting like, like the music industry is still trying to figure out the right race

to pay artists.

01:10:23,560 --> 01:10:24,981

And we're going through all this.

01:10:24,981 --> 01:10:29,225

I am not going to stress over a drum, a drum pattern, bro.

01:10:29,225 --> 01:10:35,170

Like, or a, don't like this one guitar string here, or I don't bro.

01:10:35,170 --> 01:10:37,031

Let's just put it out, bro.

01:10:37,232 --> 01:10:39,473

I just, I just, I just want to put it out there.

01:10:39,473 --> 01:10:42,956

If it sounds good, sounds clear enough, sounds clean enough.

01:10:42,956 --> 01:10:43,427

Okay.

01:10:43,427 --> 01:10:45,398

My vocal sound on point there.

01:10:45,398 --> 01:10:46,349

The timing is right.

01:10:46,349 --> 01:10:46,780

All right.

01:10:46,780 --> 01:10:47,430

Cool.

01:10:47,430 --> 01:10:51,044

When we put in the DSPs, let's get these royalties straight and let's just put it out

there, bro.

01:10:51,044 --> 01:10:53,846

Like I'm not, I've always been that way.

01:10:53,846 --> 01:10:56,299

I'm just like, let's just put the shot up.

01:10:56,299 --> 01:10:57,810

It sounds great.

01:10:57,830 --> 01:10:59,422

People love the Dragon Lee theme.

01:10:59,422 --> 01:11:02,194

People love the stuff that we've done together.

01:11:02,535 --> 01:11:05,488

And I'm just like, I just, I just want to make music.

01:11:05,488 --> 01:11:06,358

I just want to create.

01:11:06,358 --> 01:11:07,440

It sounds good.

01:11:07,440 --> 01:11:08,460

Let's do it.

01:11:09,008 --> 01:11:09,989

Yeah, absolutely.

01:11:09,989 --> 01:11:16,174

And you know, with Dragon Lee's theme, was funny too, because speaking with Dragon Lee and

trying to be like, all right, cool.

01:11:16,174 --> 01:11:16,865

What do you want?

01:11:16,865 --> 01:11:22,109

He kind of showed me a bit of what he had used before, you know, in all the different

promotions he was in.

01:11:22,109 --> 01:11:24,371

And I remember that we were going back and forth.

01:11:24,371 --> 01:11:28,064

And for me, I always like to get the instrumentals done first to be like, all right, cool.

01:11:28,064 --> 01:11:29,276

Do you like the direction?

01:11:29,276 --> 01:11:31,417

Once I get that, then we can bring in the vocals.

01:11:31,417 --> 01:11:36,946

Because again, as someone that doesn't do a lot of vocals, it's, that's the process for me

where I got to bring.

01:11:36,946 --> 01:11:39,646

somebody in and do collaborations and whatnot.

01:11:39,646 --> 01:11:41,806

So that's kind of once it gets out of my hands.

01:11:41,806 --> 01:11:44,026

And at that point it becomes, all right, cool.

01:11:44,026 --> 01:11:46,226

Well, now it's another person's studio time.

01:11:46,226 --> 01:11:47,906

It's another person's creativity.

01:11:47,906 --> 01:11:50,226

It's another person's gear that I'm not familiar with.

01:11:50,226 --> 01:11:53,926

It's another person's like, there's a lot of different technical things at that point.

01:11:53,926 --> 01:11:56,586

And I remember for so long, I would send this to Dragon Lee.

01:11:56,586 --> 01:11:57,766

I'd be like, what do you think?

01:11:57,766 --> 01:11:58,526

What do you think?

01:11:58,526 --> 01:11:59,766

What do you think without vocals?

01:11:59,766 --> 01:12:01,446

And he'd always be like, oh, it's really good.

01:12:01,446 --> 01:12:02,346

It just needs something.

01:12:02,346 --> 01:12:05,212

I'm like, okay, but at least do me the favor.

01:12:05,212 --> 01:12:07,173

Do you like it like without vocals?

01:12:07,173 --> 01:12:09,324

You know, he's like, yeah, yeah, but like it needs something else.

01:12:09,324 --> 01:12:12,682

I'm like, I promise you, as soon as we throw TZ's vocals on it, it's going to be fire.

01:12:12,682 --> 01:12:15,846

And he's like, yeah, you know, like go ahead and send it off.

01:12:15,846 --> 01:12:20,478

And then first time I sent it back to him, he literally like on the phone exploded.

01:12:20,478 --> 01:12:23,962

He was like, I don't know what you did, but it sounds so good.

01:12:23,962 --> 01:12:24,920

So much better.

01:12:24,920 --> 01:12:29,692

I'm like, I told you, we got the vocals on it as we did.

01:12:29,692 --> 01:12:33,914

And he was like, he was picking out all the things cause he had given me like, here's what

I want to say.

01:12:33,914 --> 01:12:34,854

Here's who I am.

01:12:34,854 --> 01:12:41,388

But again, it also makes sense when working with somebody like you and I and Kevin and all

these people who are also fans of wrestling.

01:12:41,388 --> 01:12:43,819

So we've seen him, we know who he is.

01:12:43,819 --> 01:12:51,643

And there may be some deeper things intrinsically that they're gonna go, you know what, I

want you to say this, or I want you to highlight this element of what I'm doing.

01:12:51,643 --> 01:12:53,685

But you know what, we're still fans of wrestling.

01:12:53,685 --> 01:12:54,815

We're still fans of these people.

01:12:54,815 --> 01:12:56,586

We still know about them.

01:12:56,586 --> 01:13:01,279

So it's kind of like, you're not starting off complete square one, not knowing anything.

01:13:01,279 --> 01:13:03,440

You're going into it knowing a bit of.

01:13:03,440 --> 01:13:10,992

his background, knowing the people that he's with, knowing, you know, that it could be

something where it's for the family and things like that.

01:13:10,992 --> 01:13:21,275

So there's like all of these different elements that come out and it's not a worry about

anything because at the end of the day, he hears it and he's like, ah, this is amazing.

01:13:21,275 --> 01:13:27,006

And I would love to hear that theme come up on WWE, but at the same time, I want to make

something new for him.

01:13:27,006 --> 01:13:29,917

And I know that he would love to have something new too.

01:13:29,917 --> 01:13:32,784

So if we can go ahead and make something happen, I mean,

01:13:32,784 --> 01:13:41,249

I'm saying if when we make something happen, because that's how we operate, ladies and

gentlemen, it's not if it's when and how that's how you got to reframe it too.

01:13:41,916 --> 01:13:43,568

There is no closed door, bro.

01:13:43,568 --> 01:13:54,273

We either breaking the door open, we're creating our own door, but there is no, yeah, we

don't, successful people don't believe in if, nah.

01:13:54,273 --> 01:13:56,726

We gonna find a way every single time.

01:13:57,202 --> 01:14:01,305

There's one I'm gonna ask you about too before we conclude our interview here.

01:14:01,605 --> 01:14:04,707

Because this one was a very fun one for me to do.

01:14:04,707 --> 01:14:10,351

And I think it was probably a little bit different than how you and I usually operate for

Leo Sparrow, son of the sun.

01:14:10,412 --> 01:14:13,854

Awesome wrestler up here in my area, really good dude.

01:14:13,854 --> 01:14:19,918

And he ended up saying, well, his gimmick had a lot of things that he really wanted to put

in there.

01:14:19,918 --> 01:14:22,440

And I felt with like Dragon Lee, again, it was like, okay, cool.

01:14:22,440 --> 01:14:24,282

Here's who he is, you know who he is.

01:14:24,282 --> 01:14:25,168

Here's this.

01:14:25,168 --> 01:14:29,962

But with someone like Leo Sparrow, who there was a lot more specificity around where it

was like, all right, cool.

01:14:29,962 --> 01:14:32,364

Here are his, here's his ring name.

01:14:32,364 --> 01:14:33,925

Here's the fact that he's a vegan.

01:14:33,925 --> 01:14:37,448

Here's what some of his move sets are, things like that.

01:14:37,448 --> 01:14:38,939

How's that for you going?

01:14:38,939 --> 01:14:39,589

Okay, cool.

01:14:39,589 --> 01:14:45,253

Here's like a list of things I got to hit as opposed to just being like, you know what,

let me do me.

01:14:45,918 --> 01:14:46,695

I don't know.

01:14:46,695 --> 01:14:50,918

I feel like I kind of gave you a lot of things and it's a little bit of a different

process, you know?

01:14:51,196 --> 01:15:09,136

Those are actually fun for me because they are very challenging in a sense of, okay,

either eight bars or 16 bars, I have to write this and I have to, he wants to make sure,

01:15:09,136 --> 01:15:12,916

he or she wants to make sure that all of these points are put in.

01:15:12,916 --> 01:15:14,096

Okay, cool.

01:15:14,776 --> 01:15:21,136

Let me try to break this down and put this in each line, say something about each point.

01:15:22,084 --> 01:15:24,765

each sentence try to make some kind of point.

01:15:24,765 --> 01:15:26,466

So that's what I try to do.

01:15:26,646 --> 01:15:37,951

And that one was very different from, you know, what our usual work process is, my work

process is, but it's also fun because the more notes that they give me, the better, the

01:15:37,951 --> 01:15:39,331

more I have to work with.

01:15:39,331 --> 01:15:47,975

And now I can make it easier, canvases actually kind of easier for me in the sense of I

know how I could base the song around.

01:15:47,975 --> 01:15:51,616

If this is your character and this is the things you want to do,

01:15:51,856 --> 01:15:54,156

You're about, you like money, you like this, you like that.

01:15:54,156 --> 01:15:54,837

Okay, cool.

01:15:54,837 --> 01:15:57,958

I can make that, I can make that.

01:15:57,958 --> 01:15:58,447

You know what I mean?

01:15:58,447 --> 01:16:02,639

Instead of just sending me, I just wanna talk about being a champion, I'm the best.

01:16:03,080 --> 01:16:05,330

Okay.

01:16:05,330 --> 01:16:15,023

It gives me more of a base point and it makes the process of what I wanna write about, you

know what I mean?

01:16:15,023 --> 01:16:17,924

Easier for me in that context, you know?

01:16:18,322 --> 01:16:24,417

And it's also something where Leo Sparrow has a very specific thing that he's going for.

01:16:24,417 --> 01:16:26,259

It's very much about the vegan thing.

01:16:26,259 --> 01:16:29,011

He carries lettuce to the ring, all these kinds of stuff.

01:16:29,011 --> 01:16:33,715

When you're working on some of these other themes, a lot of the times it's like, yeah,

it's something that means something to them.

01:16:33,715 --> 01:16:37,158

But I think a lot of us can relate to, even with Sammy Guevara's theme, right?

01:16:37,158 --> 01:16:43,183

A lot of us can relate to being on the come up and wanting our due diligence and wanting

to show people, hey, I'm here.

01:16:43,183 --> 01:16:46,802

A lot of people can relate to the themes from Shane Taylor's theme.

01:16:46,802 --> 01:16:52,842

And I think with someone like Leo Sparrow, it's a very kind of specific, dare I say,

wrestling type gimmick.

01:16:52,842 --> 01:16:53,482

You know what I mean?

01:16:53,482 --> 01:16:59,342

Where it's like a little bit more of a character that you're bringing in and adding props

and things like that.

01:16:59,342 --> 01:17:02,022

Like we talked about the lettuce in the ring, things like that.

01:17:02,022 --> 01:17:04,222

You're naming moves after the fact that you're vegan.

01:17:04,222 --> 01:17:10,882

It's all this kind of like even more, I don't want to say more creative than Shane Taylor.

01:17:10,882 --> 01:17:11,882

It's just a different way.

01:17:11,882 --> 01:17:13,418

It's more of a...

01:17:14,938 --> 01:17:16,029

You know what I'm trying to say?

01:17:16,029 --> 01:17:26,741

Shane Taylor's more something based in kind of like the Everyman, like the more everyone

relates to this, as opposed to the Leo Sparrow where you're sitting there going, okay,

01:17:26,741 --> 01:17:30,926

cool, there's more of a gimmick behind it, more of a character, so to speak, you know?

01:17:30,926 --> 01:17:34,770

So I'm sure it's a little bit of a different dynamic for you writing one to the other too.

01:17:34,770 --> 01:17:37,071

Yeah.

01:17:37,071 --> 01:17:42,245

dynamic and it kind of just It all is circumstantial.

01:17:42,245 --> 01:17:44,006

It's all depends on what they're looking for.

01:17:44,006 --> 01:17:45,186

Do they know themselves?

01:17:45,186 --> 01:17:47,528

Do they know what they want?

01:17:47,648 --> 01:17:57,945

You know, normally newer wrestlers don't necessarily have it down to a tee yet as in a

more experienced ones kind of know they know the sound they want they they they've had the

01:17:57,945 --> 01:18:00,546

experience as when newer wrestlers they kind of

01:18:00,634 --> 01:18:06,476

lets you start from a base point and kind of just know what they kind of kind of artists

they like and you just build around that.

01:18:06,476 --> 01:18:12,709

So it's, you know, it's, it's, it comes down to a science.

01:18:12,709 --> 01:18:14,760

And I know me and you have done that.

01:18:14,760 --> 01:18:25,734

We've, work this to a science where we know, and it's all about building, building your

catalog and being able to be diverse in how you work.

01:18:25,734 --> 01:18:29,876

So many people work one certain way and they're not able to

01:18:30,076 --> 01:18:34,756

figured out like you said, you had somebody call you 30 minutes before a show, like, yo, I

need something.

01:18:34,756 --> 01:18:37,556

So, or you had something where, hey, I need something in a month.

01:18:37,556 --> 01:18:40,956

So you, you, you learn to adapt.

01:18:40,956 --> 01:18:48,816

think adaptability is the biggest thing that comes with being a musician and being in

theme song making is being adaptable.

01:18:48,816 --> 01:18:52,756

It's being adaptable and learning what works.

01:18:52,756 --> 01:18:53,756

Okay, you know what?

01:18:53,756 --> 01:18:56,616

This might not be my strong suit, but I'm gonna hit up John for this.

01:18:56,616 --> 01:19:00,056

John will, will know like, dude,

01:19:01,868 --> 01:19:09,191

My favorite work we've done together, dude, was that guitar work you did on that Revo

track, bro.

01:19:09,551 --> 01:19:12,612

Bro, bro, that's, I still just listen to that beat.

01:19:12,612 --> 01:19:22,957

I don't even listen to the, I don't even listen as much to my words as I listen to what

you and Rich did together to that.

01:19:22,957 --> 01:19:29,049

That's one of my favorite, that's one of my favorite songs I've ever made, but just the

music was incredible.

01:19:29,049 --> 01:19:31,320

When you sent me that, I said, yo, this dude,

01:19:31,600 --> 01:19:35,815

This dude a legend, This dude, this dude's phenomenal.

01:19:35,815 --> 01:19:43,544

also, that was also one of those like five, 10 minute things where it's like, man, like I

hear the direction you guys had it and here we are with it, you know?

01:19:43,544 --> 01:19:45,055

And sometimes that's just how it happens.

01:19:45,055 --> 01:19:49,240

Like you said, sometimes you're sitting there going, you know what?

01:19:49,240 --> 01:19:50,782

This is what's going to work.

01:19:50,782 --> 01:19:51,833

And that's what you got to do.

01:19:51,833 --> 01:19:53,726

Sometimes you got to lean into what's going to work.

01:19:53,726 --> 01:19:54,576

So.

01:19:55,172 --> 01:19:56,973

Absolutely, absolutely.

01:19:56,973 --> 01:19:59,715

gotta lean once again what's gonna work.

01:19:59,715 --> 01:20:08,629

You have to lean into what your spirit tells you because if you overthink it, a lot of

times the idea goes away or it's just not gonna sound the way it's supposed to sound.

01:20:08,629 --> 01:20:15,043

So you have to just continue to build and just trust your ear.

01:20:15,043 --> 01:20:17,344

Trust your ear and you'll never go wrong.

01:20:17,724 --> 01:20:18,564

Yeah, absolutely.

01:20:18,564 --> 01:20:19,995

that's such an important point.

01:20:19,995 --> 01:20:21,496

Like trust your ear.

01:20:21,496 --> 01:20:24,038

You can learn everything you can learn.

01:20:24,038 --> 01:20:25,448

You can learn all the music theory.

01:20:25,448 --> 01:20:26,749

You can learn all the production tips.

01:20:26,749 --> 01:20:28,320

You can learn everything.

01:20:28,320 --> 01:20:31,682

But at the end of the day, you need to have that background.

01:20:31,682 --> 01:20:36,375

You need to have that stuff in you so that you're not thinking about it when you need it.

01:20:36,375 --> 01:20:37,015

You're just doing it.

01:20:37,015 --> 01:20:37,805

And you know what?

01:20:37,805 --> 01:20:40,107

Sometimes you do something that doesn't match that.

01:20:40,107 --> 01:20:40,847

And you know what?

01:20:40,847 --> 01:20:41,608

That's okay.

01:20:41,608 --> 01:20:43,409

If it works, works.

01:20:43,409 --> 01:20:44,249

That's it.

01:20:44,249 --> 01:20:45,312

100 % correct.

01:20:46,278 --> 01:20:49,680

My dude, it's been awesome being able to have a conversation with you today.

01:20:49,680 --> 01:20:57,874

I know you're someone I've wanted to bring on since we started the podcast and it's, you

know, it's just really more of a, let's just get to talk for an hour.

01:20:57,874 --> 01:20:59,195

Let's just talk about themes.

01:20:59,195 --> 01:20:59,992

Let's talk about wrestling.

01:20:59,992 --> 01:21:00,636

Let's talk about life.

01:21:00,636 --> 01:21:01,827

Let's talk about all of it.

01:21:01,827 --> 01:21:04,588

We need to do this more frequently, both on and off pod.

01:21:04,588 --> 01:21:09,951

And you'll be hearing way more from TZ and I over the years, as you know, and hopefully

it's not going to be years.

01:21:09,951 --> 01:21:15,090

It'll be, as we just talked about, months, days, you know, all that fun stuff.

01:21:15,090 --> 01:21:23,268

because it's always awesome collaborating with you and I'm so grateful for us being able

to work together all these years and just be able to be good friends as we have been.

01:21:23,268 --> 01:21:32,795

Absolutely, man, you know, I I I appreciate your hard work for the culture I Give you your

roses and thank you for your friendship.

01:21:32,795 --> 01:21:41,961

Once again, you've helped me on a personal level when I've needed you the most So you

forever have my loyalty as a friend whatever you need from me If I could do it any advice

01:21:41,961 --> 01:21:52,588

any connects that I can make anything I can do to help you out You know, I definitely will

You know, I believe that you

01:21:52,738 --> 01:22:05,594

Already have had a legendary career in this and I believe that it's gonna even grow even

more and for us to stay inspired and push each other and keep each other motivated and

01:22:05,594 --> 01:22:17,619

Know what we need to do in order to not only for our own spiritual happiness, but just to

remain you know remain Happy for ourselves within what we're doing and staying and keeping

01:22:17,619 --> 01:22:19,698

that blue fire lit and what we're

01:22:19,698 --> 01:22:20,586

Absolutely.

01:22:21,178 --> 01:22:23,169

I thank you for man, this is a great podcast.

01:22:23,169 --> 01:22:30,322

I hope this podcast grows and you get a million street downloads and you, and cause you

deserve it.

01:22:30,322 --> 01:22:31,593

You're a good brother, man.

01:22:31,593 --> 01:22:35,254

And I've always been rooting for you because you're a good person.

01:22:35,254 --> 01:22:38,085

And I just hope that, you know, you continue with this.

01:22:38,085 --> 01:22:40,256

Don't stop this podcast, bro.

01:22:40,256 --> 01:22:41,857

Just keep cranking them out.

01:22:41,857 --> 01:22:43,317

Keep pushing.

01:22:43,438 --> 01:22:48,794

I know it's, you know, the algorithm quotation.

01:22:48,794 --> 01:22:52,350

And a lot of stuff will try to discourage people from doing that stuff, man.

01:22:52,350 --> 01:22:54,754

But keep doing your thing.

01:22:54,754 --> 01:22:55,726

Keep doing your thing.

01:22:55,726 --> 01:22:58,850

You have my full support, brother, and my phone's always on.

01:22:59,184 --> 01:22:59,964

I appreciate you.

01:22:59,964 --> 01:23:01,355

We're just rising all ships, man.

01:23:01,355 --> 01:23:02,175

We're just doing it.

01:23:02,175 --> 01:23:08,017

I got one last question for you, and this one's probably gonna be an easy one, or it might

be a hard one, because some people have said it's a little bit hard.

01:23:08,017 --> 01:23:20,241

So, what I'm asking all my guests at the end of every show is if you had to put three

pieces of music on a Spotify playlist to say, this represents Montese, what are those

01:23:20,241 --> 01:23:22,032

three songs that you're gonna choose?

01:23:25,116 --> 01:23:26,207

Great question.

01:23:26,694 --> 01:23:28,173

Might be the hardest question.

01:23:30,182 --> 01:23:32,716

Damn this shit is different when you got a big catalog.

01:23:32,716 --> 01:23:33,850

Hahaha!

01:23:34,556 --> 01:23:39,035

Damn, I ain't been, this is a good one, I ain't been asked this.

01:23:41,016 --> 01:23:42,583

Obviously take flight.

01:23:46,222 --> 01:23:48,512

It could be wrestling thing, it could be anything.

01:23:48,804 --> 01:23:49,625

It could be anything.

01:23:49,625 --> 01:23:54,876

could be stuff that you've done or it can be music that over your time, your life has

inspired you.

01:23:54,876 --> 01:23:57,711

Oh, so it don't have to be me.

01:23:58,180 --> 01:24:00,315

No, no, it doesn't have to be music that you've worked on.

01:24:00,315 --> 01:24:02,971

It's what are three songs in your life?

01:24:02,971 --> 01:24:03,812

Yeah.

01:24:06,202 --> 01:24:08,374

I'm gonna put one of my songs on there.

01:24:08,495 --> 01:24:10,737

Saw Right or Wrong with Anthony King.

01:24:11,759 --> 01:24:13,581

That will be one I put on there.

01:24:13,581 --> 01:24:18,868

That record means a lot to me with life experiences, things that I've been through.

01:24:18,868 --> 01:24:22,612

I will put Monty Z featured Anthony King, Right or Wrong.

01:24:27,862 --> 01:24:34,868

Nas, Life's a Bee off the Illmatic album.

01:24:37,564 --> 01:24:41,454

And I will put...

01:24:47,246 --> 01:24:50,144

and Justice for All, the title track from Metallica.

01:24:51,410 --> 01:24:52,251

Nice.

01:24:52,934 --> 01:24:54,017

All great tracks.

01:24:54,017 --> 01:24:57,465

Obviously myself being a Metallica fan, huge Metallica fan.

01:24:57,667 --> 01:24:58,820

Couldn't have asked for a third one.

01:24:58,820 --> 01:24:59,301

That was better.

01:24:59,301 --> 01:25:00,366

Ah, look at that.

01:25:00,366 --> 01:25:06,819

Yeah, and by the way, 72 Seasons was a phenomenal album.

01:25:06,819 --> 01:25:07,739

I love that album.

01:25:07,739 --> 01:25:15,382

A lot of people give Metallica slack because they're just famous and they made it, but

phenomenal.

01:25:15,382 --> 01:25:23,265

James, Lars, Kirk, you guys, Rob, you guys are absolutely phenomenal.

01:25:23,365 --> 01:25:25,786

I'm going to your show in Tampa in a few months.

01:25:25,786 --> 01:25:29,806

I'm going to the day one show with Wimp Biscuit and them.

01:25:29,806 --> 01:25:32,309

and I am going to have me a good ass time.

01:25:32,309 --> 01:25:37,114

It's gonna be two weeks before my birthday and I'm gonna have some fun.

01:25:37,114 --> 01:25:38,576

So that's it.

01:25:39,322 --> 01:25:39,642

awesome.

01:25:39,642 --> 01:25:42,404

Metallica has been one of the best live shows I've ever gone to.

01:25:42,404 --> 01:25:47,767

I think I've seen them either once or twice in my life, but when I've seen them, best

show.

01:25:47,767 --> 01:25:49,548

And 72 Seasons was dope.

01:25:49,548 --> 01:25:50,598

There's a lot of hate on it.

01:25:50,598 --> 01:25:53,880

I think it's because of their early stuff to the new stuff, but dude, great songs.

01:25:53,880 --> 01:25:54,810

Yeah.

01:25:54,851 --> 01:25:56,092

Keep crushing it.

01:25:56,092 --> 01:25:57,232

And you keep crushing it.

01:25:57,232 --> 01:25:59,142

As always, you're always crushing it.

01:25:59,142 --> 01:26:00,944

Gotta try to be more like you, my friend.

01:26:00,944 --> 01:26:01,905

Thank you, my brother.

01:26:01,905 --> 01:26:03,586

I appreciate you, man.

01:26:05,148 --> 01:26:06,769

give the family my best.

01:26:06,769 --> 01:26:10,272

the, know, and we'll be collaborating again soon, my brother.

01:26:10,272 --> 01:26:11,203

So thank you.