Episode 305
How Two Brothers Are Making Musicians Go Viral
The dialogue unfolds in a lively atmosphere as the hosts of the Music Explored podcast engage with the dynamic duo from Fellowship Bass. They delve into the genesis of Fellowship Bass, a thriving platform dedicated to elevating bass players in the music community. The hosts express their admiration for the initiative, highlighting its unique approach to showcasing talent and cultivating a supportive online environment. As the conversation progresses, the guests recount their personal musical journeys, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and community within the industry. They share anecdotes about their shared experiences, including their recent trip to Atlanta during the World Cup, which allowed them to reconnect and collaborate in person after a period of separation. This context sets the stage for a rich exploration of the challenges and triumphs faced by musicians, particularly bass players, in an evolving digital landscape. The episode culminates in a discussion about the significance of authenticity in music and the power of social media to amplify voices that might otherwise go unheard, all while maintaining a focus on the core mission of Fellowship Bass: to help musicians thrive in their craft and connect with audiences worldwide.
Takeaways:
- The episode offers insightful discussions highlighting the evolution of bass playing and its significance in contemporary music culture.
- FellowshipBass serves as a platform dedicated to helping bass players gain visibility and recognition in the music industry.
- The importance of community and collaboration among musicians, particularly in the context of social media.
- Listeners are encouraged to embrace their unique musical styles while also being adaptable to current trends and expectations within the industry.
- The importance of consistency in content creation is stressed, as it plays a crucial role in building an audience and fostering engagement.
- Reflecting on personal experiences and challenges faced by musicians, providing a relatable narrative that underscores the dedication required to succeed.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Fellowship Bass
Transcript
Imagine, just imagine a video, like, just said everything went bad after two seconds.
Speaker A:Like, don't you want to watch that?
Speaker A:Like, and it's a live setting, and.
Speaker B:It's just like, what's up, guys?
Speaker B:Welcome back to another episode of the Music Explored podcast.
Speaker B:I'm Anthony.
Speaker B:I'm joined by, as always, Doriki.
Speaker B:What's up, man?
Speaker B:How you doing?
Speaker C:I'm good, brother.
Speaker C:How are you?
Speaker B:I'm good, man.
Speaker B:I am good.
Speaker B:And we got a couple special guests with us here together in the same room, not as us, but in the same room as each other.
Speaker B:A lot of you guys are going to be familiar with Fellowship Bass.
Speaker B:They're a real cool page on Instagram that's really been blowing up and blowing up some bass players along the way, too.
Speaker B:So, yeah.
Speaker B:Welcome, guys.
Speaker B:Glad to have you both with us.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Thank you for helping.
Speaker B:Yeah, man.
Speaker B:I have a lot of questions for you both personally.
Speaker B:We're going to be asking a lot of questions on behalf of musicians all over the place.
Speaker B:I think so.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But we're excited, man.
Speaker B:We're excited to have you with us.
Speaker B:Where are you guys at right now?
Speaker A:Yeah, so, like, currently, right now, we're actually at an Airbnb.
Speaker A:It's World cup season at this point, and our team made it.
Speaker A:So we're Haitian, and our team made it the first time in 52 years.
Speaker A:Years.
Speaker A:So we had one of three games to choose.
Speaker A:So being that most of our bases in Florida, where we're from, Florida, we decided to come to Atlanta during the cross of that time.
Speaker A:I was displaced for work and all that stuff.
Speaker A:So some of our recordings, we haven't actually been to be.
Speaker A:To get together for a while.
Speaker A:So that's why I even, you know, I'm like, hey, let me schedule this for when we're together.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's dope.
Speaker B:That's dope.
Speaker B:You did.
Speaker B:You did one better than D and I, because we're.
Speaker B:We are currently separated by distance.
Speaker B:Just.
Speaker B:Just a part of it, though.
Speaker B:But, yeah, man.
Speaker B:So I got a lot of questions.
Speaker B:I think we'll just jump right in if it's cool.
Speaker B:First of all, you guys have been showcasing a lot of bass players online, and I think that's cool.
Speaker B:I'm a bass player myself.
Speaker B:I guess there's giveaways.
Speaker A:I'm like, you're collecting bases nicely placed.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Just a weird thing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But as a bassist, I actually use music and bass as an instrument to start the DNA project, which is an entertainment agency out here in Toronto.
Speaker B:And through that journey.
Speaker B:And me and Drake, you've talked about this a lot over the years.
Speaker B:Just starting as a musician, obviously continuing to, you know, be a musician, but expanding that into other areas still directly connected to the music industry.
Speaker B:And it looks to me as if you guys have done something similar.
Speaker B:So I'm curious to know your music background.
Speaker B:Actually, start with that, because I actually don't know.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'll.
Speaker A:I'll start with myself.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Since I'm older.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So, like I said, we're actually like blood brothers.
Speaker A:And in our household, there was just a lot of music.
Speaker A:My mom was singing whenever she could and on her praise team at our church.
Speaker A:And my dad always.
Speaker A:You know, he kind of, like, collected instruments.
Speaker A:We had a drum in the basement.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:Nice.
Speaker A:One thing about Haitians, they can.
Speaker A:They.
Speaker A:All the men can play guitar.
Speaker A:And if you can play guitar, then they.
Speaker A:They're just like, oh, I can play bass.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:Yeah, you know, they play drums.
Speaker A:So it's always been an interest music.
Speaker A:And I had a little keyboard when I was growing up, and it was one of those where you can, like, layer, like, just some things on it, but I couldn't say.
Speaker A:So every day I'd have to make the same thing over and over again.
Speaker C:Oh, wow.
Speaker A:I could jam out to it.
Speaker A:Mind you, I'm not a keyboard player.
Speaker A:I'm just.
Speaker A:This sounds good.
Speaker A:This sounds good.
Speaker A:Cool.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So it wasn't until, like.
Speaker A:So I'm.
Speaker A:I would consider myself a late bloomer as far as I like music, but I never found my entry point.
Speaker A:I like drums first, but it wasn't until I had a friend who played drums, and I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker B:There's.
Speaker A:There's, like, levels to this.
Speaker A:Like, no matter how good I get, I don't ever think I'm gonna get that good.
Speaker A:So it wasn't until high school, so that's what I'm saying.
Speaker A:It's late.
Speaker A:I told my dad, hey, there was an opportunity to play the bass at church because their bass player was, like, a celebrity guy.
Speaker A:And he would, like, not be.
Speaker A:He would be inconsistent.
Speaker A:And they're like, yo.
Speaker A:Yeah, like, our generation was playing more and more.
Speaker A:So they're like, yo, can you just.
Speaker A:Just play the bass?
Speaker A:And I'm like, I don't know how.
Speaker A:So I was like, okay, if my dad can help.
Speaker A:Like, this is my entryway.
Speaker A:So I pleaded with my dad, and he actually bought into it.
Speaker A:He got me.
Speaker A:I don't know if y' all remember those Fender packs.
Speaker A:It had it Came with the amp, the Fender 15amp, and then that four string squire base and the action on that was like from east to west Stitch with your fingers.
Speaker A:But oh my goodness.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Dexterity.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, and then he paid.
Speaker A:He paid for my bass lessons that this, like my dad invested in.
Speaker A:Like, this has never happened before.
Speaker A:And he was just like, yes.
Speaker A:And then from then on, I went straight.
Speaker A:I went to a private high school.
Speaker A:This is a weird turn in the story.
Speaker A:Our concert band had one tuba.
Speaker A:Amazing tuba player.
Speaker A:Like, and it was a woman.
Speaker A:She was great.
Speaker A:Like, she was a little husky.
Speaker A:Like she can do it, but it was just one tuba and they needed.
Speaker A:They think I'm making this up.
Speaker A:No, like, this is for real.
Speaker A:She played the tuba.
Speaker A:So, yeah, so we had like a, a band room that was kind of open during free period.
Speaker A:So some kids would go in and like, you know, being around, I'm like, yo, I'm learning ban bass, yada yada.
Speaker A:So the jazz band, I guess Orchestrator is the same guy who did the concert band and the strings.
Speaker A:So he's like, you play bass?
Speaker A:And I'm like, I'm like, just learning.
Speaker A:Like, he's like, okay, well we have one tuba and we need our bass section to be louder.
Speaker A:I'm like, cool, but like, meet with me.
Speaker A:He's like, yeah, you'll be great.
Speaker A:And I'm just like, like, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:I just picked up this.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:This is not even being honest.
Speaker A:Like, oh, I'm good, but.
Speaker A:Or like, I'm good and not like, I didn't know how to play.
Speaker A:So I think that was like, okay, so the tuba base where it was just like, yo, follow me.
Speaker A:I don't know how to read.
Speaker A:I still, I still don't read, but I definitely didn't know how to read.
Speaker A:Then I'm just getting my major, you know, structure on and my minor and she's just like, follow me.
Speaker A:I'll tell you what, you need to do the funniest picture in my head and I'll just land a plane here on that.
Speaker A:Is that concert band.
Speaker A:You know, you have to wear the button up shirts with the vests and then the pants.
Speaker A:And it's just like everyone's bringing in their instrument and here I am looking for a plug, you know, for the amp.
Speaker A:It was definitely an interesting scene, but you know, you learn from every, every little thing.
Speaker A:And then I was thrown.
Speaker A:So that was on one end with my score school and I was thrown right into my church.
Speaker A:It was again a Haitian church.
Speaker A:Orlando, Florida, just thrown right in.
Speaker A:So a lot of my playing has derived from that, as in team playing.
Speaker A:And we'll talk about some things later.
Speaker A:It's definitely a pro, but there are some cons to it, which is why I started fellowship based.
Speaker A:But we'll go into that a little later.
Speaker A:But I always view bass playing is me playing my role in the team.
Speaker A:What does the band sound like all together?
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker A:So that's kind of my introduction in music.
Speaker A:Go ahead, take it from me.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:My story is a little different having him who kind of paved the way.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker D:Like he was saying, our household, there was always music around.
Speaker D:So apparently I was always banking on stuff, you know, on the tables or whatever.
Speaker D:And my brother also sometimes would practice in the house, things like that.
Speaker D:Apparently, my uncle bought me a small drum set that I barely remember when I was little, like five years old, four years old, something like that.
Speaker D:So I actually started playing drums first.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker D:And then, okay, it broke.
Speaker D:So about a year later, I think at this.
Speaker D:I don't know if it was around the same time you got thrown into bass lessons or something like that.
Speaker D:I got thrown into piano lessons, yeah.
Speaker D:So I played piano for, like, I had lessons for a few years, like going to recitals and stuff, playing at colleges.
Speaker D:And then.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker D:I was still too young to remember the why and the how and stuff like that, but I just stopped with that.
Speaker D:So it was like, okay, I'm not.
Speaker D:I know how to play piano, I guess.
Speaker D:So let me go back to something that I feel like I enjoyed more.
Speaker D:So we ended up getting another drum set.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker D:I would just every now and then, it was kind of a hobby, you know, it's like a release.
Speaker D:Like, okay, I'm bored.
Speaker D:I don't have anything to do with something that would, like, soothe my mind.
Speaker D:So I just go to the drum set.
Speaker D:Boom.
Speaker D:And then also another story.
Speaker D:I don't think we ever talked about this.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:Exclusive.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:Did you have, like, a concert?
Speaker D:When I was like, I don't know.
Speaker A:How old I was, most likely.
Speaker A:Was it school?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker D:And you guys didn't have a drummer randomly?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker D:We've never talked about this ever.
Speaker B:This is good.
Speaker B:This is good.
Speaker A:Yeah, but it was okay.
Speaker A:It was like a.
Speaker A:You know, so I went to the Christian school.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Yeah, go ahead, Go ahead.
Speaker A:I think I remember.
Speaker D:You know the story better than I do.
Speaker A:No, I don't.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker D:Because I just remember, like, okay, you want to play drums, like, build it.
Speaker A:Out for me, because I remember there was a.
Speaker A:There was a Moment.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay, go ahead.
Speaker D:That's all I remember about that.
Speaker A:From what I remember, it wasn't a concert only it was like a,.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker A:Know, like on Friday night.
Speaker A:So I went to a Christian school.
Speaker A:It was like a devotion type thing and someone wanted to sing and she just wanted the bass, but the crowd was into it.
Speaker B:Some.
Speaker A:Something like there was something going on.
Speaker A:But I remember and I was like, well, my brother plays bass, plays drums, so.
Speaker A:But yeah, okay.
Speaker D:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker D:So that was, I guess the first setting of playing in front of people on the drums.
Speaker D:Then from then.
Speaker D:How did it start at church?
Speaker D:I think they.
Speaker D:We started going to a certain church and their drummer left for some reason.
Speaker D:And I was about to similar 13 or 14 at the time.
Speaker D:They're like, hey, you've told us you could play drums.
Speaker D:Well, why.
Speaker D:We don't have anybody else.
Speaker D:So I started playing there for a few years and then funny enough, we started playing together at the same church.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Okay, so our age, we.
Speaker A:It's a 12 year age difference.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Okay, so we're 12.
Speaker C:You two are 12 years apart.
Speaker D:So we.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:You said that I look that young or something.
Speaker A:Like what's.
Speaker A:What is.
Speaker B:I think so.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I was thinking like two, maybe one, two years apart.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I would never have guessed 12.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker B:No, I wouldn't even have guessed five, to be honest.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Very high five.
Speaker A:This is why I'm like, I don't.
Speaker D:Remember this story because I was literally.
Speaker A:And that's why there's like two different routes because, you know, a lot of the time I wasn't in that truth because I was already like married.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker D:We're both kind of like only childs in a way.
Speaker B:Like 12 year difference.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's a big gap.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Oh, man.
Speaker A:Where were we going with this?
Speaker B:He said only child.
Speaker B:He felt brotherless.
Speaker B:That's actually funny.
Speaker D:Sorry.
Speaker A:Like the brother I never had.
Speaker A:But he's really like.
Speaker A:That's funny.
Speaker B:That's good, man.
Speaker D:Oh, wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:You got thrown into church together, right?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:But we were at separate churches at separate times, so we didn't play together until our adult lives.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, wow.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Which was like five, six years ago.
Speaker A:We never like.
Speaker A:We didn't.
Speaker A:There's a. I mean, it's not a story, but there's a way that happened.
Speaker A:But yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And fellowship kind of was also a catalyst to that and even our connection.
Speaker A:I mean, I'll be honest, not to like, you know, we're 12 years apart, but it Was like, that kind of was a thing to, like, force us.
Speaker C:To solidify the bond.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker A:So, yeah, Fellowship has been great for us too, cuz.
Speaker A:And just let me know, because I know y' all have questions.
Speaker A:We could.
Speaker A:We could.
Speaker C:This is.
Speaker B:This is a good.
Speaker B:There's been a.
Speaker C:It's a interesting origin story.
Speaker B:Very much so.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:The brothers who didn't know they were brothers.
Speaker B:They just met, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Even cuz through Fellowship, really, last year was our first year at Nam in Cali, and, you know, we traveled just together.
Speaker A:And that was just a great experience, like, for us individually and us personally, and for us, like, kind of like being on business, you know, type thing.
Speaker A:It's like.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, it's a great thing to think.
Speaker A:Hey, man, this just started with a camera, and now, like, people are asking us to come out.
Speaker A:Like, what?
Speaker A:Yeah, we saw people.
Speaker C:And I think we should.
Speaker C:Before we continue the story, though, I think you guys should maybe explain to people who are maybe new to what the Fellowship actually is.
Speaker C:Maybe just let them know what it is and then we can get into, you know, you know, your journey and how you got to Nam, because that's incredible.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:How about.
Speaker A:Do you want.
Speaker A:How about a story also of how Fellowship started?
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Of course.
Speaker A:Love stories.
Speaker A:All right, so let me start with our.
Speaker A:I guess I love stories.
Speaker B:I tried to let it slide.
Speaker A:Sorry.
Speaker A:I'm glad this is not, like, live.
Speaker A:This is hilarious.
Speaker B:We're not good.
Speaker B:It's all good old.
Speaker B:I love stories.
Speaker A:I love.
Speaker A:Okay, okay.
Speaker B:Fellowship.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:No, no, no.
Speaker A:So we.
Speaker A:You know how sometimes you, like, plan a business and, like, you step by step, make it work?
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's not how Fellowship started.
Speaker A:We started, and then we're like, oh, this is serious.
Speaker A:Oh, people are following.
Speaker A:We should get structured.
Speaker A:Like, we should have a North Star.
Speaker A:So, yeah, eventually, our.
Speaker A:Our North Star, just to simply put it, so my 4 year old could understand it, is we help basic players go viral.
Speaker A:Simple for everyone to understand.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Now there's a lot of layers to that, but we help space players go viral.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And so the way that we started was so I had a period of time I stopped playing the bass just because I wasn't in church as far as playing instrument.
Speaker A:The church I was at split, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker A:And then, you know, just family life, like, it's not like for sure.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker D:It's.
Speaker A:I'm not a professional musician, so.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:Focus on your career and your children.
Speaker A:And all that, and that's the route that I took.
Speaker A:But I always, you know, you always like the instrument, and I love music.
Speaker A:Before bass player, of course.
Speaker A:Yeah, I just love music.
Speaker A:You know, I tend to lean towards gospel, but I'm not just, you know, bottled in that type of music.
Speaker C:Got you.
Speaker A:So, yeah.
Speaker A:Dang, I forgot where I was going with that.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So, yeah.
Speaker A:So during that hiatus of playing the bass, it was about four or five years, I would always save bass videos on Instagram.
Speaker B:Okay, okay.
Speaker A:Just scrolling like, oh, this is so good save.
Speaker A:Okay, all right.
Speaker A: And I got a call in: Speaker A:I'm like, yeah, like, I guess, you know, it's like, yo, I got a gig.
Speaker A:Easy money.
Speaker A:You know, as a musician.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:You're like, okay, all right.
Speaker B:Scared me.
Speaker B:I don't know, man.
Speaker B:Easy Money doesn't.
Speaker A:Okay, that's true, that's true, that's true.
Speaker A:He's like, yo, easy gig, bro.
Speaker A:Easy money.
Speaker A:And I'm just like, okay.
Speaker A:Like, I really haven't played in, like, four years.
Speaker A:Like, wow.
Speaker A:So all these videos that I saved, it's like, let me start there.
Speaker A:Like, let me start list, like, seeing what things I can practice and get back on.
Speaker A:Like, you know what I mean?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And we ended up having some recording equipment because I was going to do a podcast back, like, by around the pandemic, you know, 20, 20, 21.
Speaker A:And then, you know, after that, you just.
Speaker A:It just collects dust.
Speaker A:But I had a room available in my house, and I had set up.
Speaker A:I had a nice desk.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, I got this camera.
Speaker A:I got the road caster.
Speaker A:Let me set it up.
Speaker A:So one day my family came over.
Speaker A:Like, my mom, dad, brother and whatever.
Speaker A:I was like, bro, idea.
Speaker A:I saved some videos, bro, you gotta see this.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And this was so, like, if you.
Speaker A:If someone scrolls down to our first videos, like, you'll see how raw it is because my parents are literally talking in the background, like, chaos.
Speaker A:Some videos.
Speaker A:My son is dancing in the background because.
Speaker A:And they were talking.
Speaker A:Like, they were talking out of pocket, too.
Speaker A:Thankfully, it was Creole.
Speaker A:But that's.
Speaker A:I'm just showing you how, like, right was.
Speaker A:It was just like, yo, I got a camera.
Speaker A:Here's some headphones.
Speaker A:Do we need a mic?
Speaker A:Oh, I got them.
Speaker A:Like, let's do this record.
Speaker A:So we do bulk recording, which every creator should do, I think.
Speaker A:And we just went through, like, I don't know, it must have been like, 40 videos and then.
Speaker A:Cool, it saved.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then I don't know what pushed me because I'm not.
Speaker A:I'm not an Internet person necessarily.
Speaker A:I don't necessarily want to show my face in all that.
Speaker A:But I was like, this would be good to go on, like, on a social media page, because you see the other music pages.
Speaker A:And I was like, this is cool because we're, like, reacting in FaceTime.
Speaker A:A lot of the pages at that time.
Speaker A:This was 20.
Speaker A:Well, last year.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:20, 25, Maybe late 24.
Speaker A:The pages, the.
Speaker A:The pages that showed appreciation to players would just post, repost the video.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker A:That.
Speaker A:You know, which is great.
Speaker A:But I'm like, this is a different element that I. I think should be cool.
Speaker A:Now.
Speaker A:The scary part is I love all music.
Speaker A:Like, I like music and musicians.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So the decision had to be made whether to be a music page or a bass page.
Speaker A:And I. I was stuck there for a few weeks.
Speaker A:So a little bit about me where a lot.
Speaker A:I think my gift is creating business ideas.
Speaker A:Like, I can sit.
Speaker A:Like, it brings me joy to think about something.
Speaker A:Make a brand kit, Come up with colors, come up with a logo, have the vision, have all that set together.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And, like, just put it out, and then I don't want anything else.
Speaker A:Like, I don't want to actually do it.
Speaker A:I just want to build it.
Speaker A:Like, if that was a job, like, just build all that stuff.
Speaker A:And it's like, all right, here you go.
Speaker A:All right, next.
Speaker A:Like, I'm like, project based.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:So I'm like, dang, I'm gonna go with fellowship.
Speaker A:So my criteria was the name needs to be easy.
Speaker A:Like on socials, you know, I don't like the periods in weird places.
Speaker A:Gotta be easy to find.
Speaker A:Just me.
Speaker A:And I was like, okay.
Speaker A:It's like, I don't know how I came up with fellowship base, but I'm like, that has to be taken.
Speaker A:So I looked at.
Speaker A:I'm like, it's not.
Speaker A:It's still there.
Speaker A:Okay, shoot.
Speaker A:We'll do that.
Speaker A:Our colors just on the page are like, green and yellow.
Speaker A:There's no significance to the edges.
Speaker A:I was like, I never use green for a brand.
Speaker A:Let me see what this would look like.
Speaker A:And I think yellow stands out all.
Speaker A:You know, I'm just saying that this is the process of, like, just.
Speaker A:That's where I think my talent went in, to the content that we already had.
Speaker A:And then we just started posting.
Speaker A:I was like, okay, I'm gonna post three times a week, every week at 9pm Again, not going by any rules.
Speaker A:I'm just setting my own, I guess, algorithm.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then everything will come up to that.
Speaker A:And we did that consistently for about eight months straight.
Speaker A:And in 10 months we went from zero to 100k.
Speaker A:Like, we were like, we have to get 100k followers on Instagram.
Speaker A:And we got 100k followers in November of last year.
Speaker A:So that's been our growth.
Speaker A:That's kind of where we started and that's kind of what's like the direction of helping base players go viral.
Speaker A:And along those lines we see some other opportunities and avenues where we can help people, you know, and help other musicians.
Speaker B:Love it.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's dope.
Speaker B:That's dope.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's a, that's.
Speaker B:I mean, it's a well told story how it all comes together from brothers with the age gap who, I guess the younger one felt like he was a only child.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, in adult life.
Speaker B:Came as his older brother with all the ideas.
Speaker B:So this is cool though.
Speaker B:So when did.
Speaker B:Because I know you said you showed your brother and like, when did this become a thing that you were like both invested in?
Speaker A:What was when we had to record the second time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, the second guy.
Speaker A:Because.
Speaker B:Yeah, because you did 40 at once.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So I had like content for like a month and I'm like, yo, got 2,000 followers in a week.
Speaker A:Oh, shoot.
Speaker A:And then every day I don't like on Instagram, it shows you like how many likes, how many follows and how many, whatever you got on the top.
Speaker A:And it caps out at a hundred, like for about a. I forgot how long.
Speaker A:A three or four week period.
Speaker A:All of those would be a hundred when we, when I woke up and I'm like, wow, is this normal?
Speaker A:Like, you know, tick tock is the viral social media.
Speaker A:Instagram, you could get viral, but it's, it's a lot more grind and more community that you got to build for that.
Speaker A:But this was going a little crazy and I'm like, yo, so when I, when we were running out of videos, I'm like, bro, we might like, you wanna like record again.
Speaker A:And bro's like, I'm down, bro.
Speaker A:I'm like, all right.
Speaker A:So I'm like, what did we do?
Speaker A:Like, what?
Speaker A:You know, and it's been a learning process.
Speaker A:Some recordings are better than others.
Speaker A:And I'm not talking about the content, I'm talking about on our side, like, oh, there was an echo here, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:I think the most important thing in the name of the game was consistency.
Speaker A:I know it's not glamorous, but it is what it is.
Speaker A:But the good thing about it is if you're consistent, like, on your part, like, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:As far as.
Speaker A:Yeah, some people.
Speaker A:Oh, post every day.
Speaker A:No, you don't gotta post every day.
Speaker A:We went to a hundred thousand in ten months by posting three times a week average.
Speaker A:There were some weeks I only posted twice, so.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You know, you can do it.
Speaker A:So I've been in a space where I also want to help musicians and generals, but, you know, starting with bass players, because my thing is, if you're going to.
Speaker A:If you're going to post, you might as well get the most that you can out of it.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So I'm kind of getting into that lane.
Speaker A:It's like, okay, why are you posting?
Speaker A:Is it just because you like it, or are you looking for opportunities?
Speaker A:Are you.
Speaker A:Because there's a lot of opportunities just from online.
Speaker A:Like, I have people, like, I. I've made, like, three, like, friends.
Speaker A:Like, we're friends now.
Speaker A:People.
Speaker A:I would have never.
Speaker A:No, we're, like, friends.
Speaker A:And they are inside the industry.
Speaker A:And from one of our videos, they got connected with an artist who now they're gonna go, like, it's when I. I'm like, another guy.
Speaker A:And there'll be a time we'll share the names.
Speaker A:And, like, was like, yo, I was about to quit, like, but this video changed.
Speaker A:His change because he went viral, like, over and over again.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker B:Oh, like, the bass player went viral.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Got you.
Speaker A:And we get, like.
Speaker A:I get so much joy out of that, like, knowing that, like, of course, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:You know, our platform can even push out more.
Speaker A:So that's kind of what we've been doing.
Speaker A:And just finding what I realized.
Speaker A:There's a lot of.
Speaker A:There's a lot of musicians, but there's a lot of bass players out there.
Speaker A:Like, if I just talk about bass players, I'm like, there's a lot of good.
Speaker A:Yeah, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:There's a lot of good bass players out there.
Speaker D:There's talent everywhere.
Speaker A:And it's like, yo, like, you know, so we've experimented with, like, doing lives that was.
Speaker A:That's been a thing.
Speaker A:Because I think that's where social media is going as well.
Speaker A:And understanding that there might be an element where we also go into challenges where we help musicians, bass players, how to post, like, correctly.
Speaker A:Because now we see a system.
Speaker A:We've had, like, 25, 35% of our videos.
Speaker A:We know which one are gonna hit, like.
Speaker A:And we know we've had them hit, like, 100,000 views, which Instagram, I think is good or viral.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Interesting, no?
Speaker A:Very interesting.
Speaker B:Huh.
Speaker B:There's something you said in there.
Speaker B:I don't know if you're gonna say something, but I'll make this quick point.
Speaker B:D. I know you said there's a lot of musicians.
Speaker B:There are a lot of bass players.
Speaker B:There's also.
Speaker B:There are a lot of.
Speaker B:There's a lot of world to cover.
Speaker B:So I don't know if you'll ever.
Speaker B:Will ever slow down as far as, like, the amount of, like, amazing talent out there, but when you said that that musician, the bass player, was going to quit.
Speaker B:There's also a ton of pressure.
Speaker B:And if we're talking about bass playing specifically, even going back, I'd say, like, the last 10 years, the approach to playing bass has changed so much, man.
Speaker B:Like, if you go back, like, some of the.
Speaker B: of, like, the, you know, mid-: Speaker B:The approach to bass is completely different.
Speaker B:So there was a point in time.
Speaker B:I'm saying this because I don't know that bass was the most exciting instrument.
Speaker B:And it might not have been when, you know, the trio, when we picked it up, I don't think the bass was.
Speaker B:It was cool, but it wasn't what it is now.
Speaker B:We weren't allowed to, like, play the melody and highlight the melody, and we gotta stay up on the neck, really.
Speaker B:That was.
Speaker B:So It's a different time.
Speaker B:But I'm saying that because the pressure has changed a lot now.
Speaker B:It's like the bass player needs to stand out in a way that I don't think needed to happen before.
Speaker B:It was all pocket before at one point in time, and now it's like this blend of pocket and knowing when to come out of the pocket or playing something in the pocket.
Speaker B:That's not necessarily all this stuff, but the pressure is crazy now.
Speaker B:Like, just to get some of the gigs, you got to be able to.
Speaker B:You got to be able to.
Speaker B:You have to have a different level of chops now to.
Speaker B:To kind of stand out.
Speaker B:So what you guys are doing is cool.
Speaker B:Not only finding these players who might not even believe in themselves, because there's so much pressure to try and be something that you.
Speaker B:Sometimes you are the Thing, but you don't feel like it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Like you can play it, but you're so used to hearing your own voice or playing your own chops that you don't even know that you have that thing that other people are looking at you for.
Speaker B:The Internet helps to get that out.
Speaker B:But, like, what you guys are doing, I think is really significant in not only showing other bass players and musicians overall what they're like, the certain standard that there is now, but then putting people on, like, you've done so well too, so kudos on that.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:I kind of just wanted to drop that in.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, I appreciate that.
Speaker B:And you stood out to me.
Speaker A:Yeah, you're right on that.
Speaker A:Because.
Speaker A:So we month, I think summer of last year, we did this thing called Base camp where we invited bass player to come on and speak.
Speaker A:Speak, like, you know, so we.
Speaker A:We did two.
Speaker A:One with Darian Duncan, who's music producer, bass player, and then we had one with Mids Brown, that's for his name, but Mids total out of the box bass player.
Speaker A:And we actually talked about, like, how bass, like, there's like a melodic side as well.
Speaker A:Like you kind of.
Speaker A:They're a bit more expressive.
Speaker A:We talked about the bass.
Speaker A:Being the band director, I'm like, what?
Speaker A:Since when?
Speaker A:And it's just like, yeah, like that's a thing.
Speaker A:And now.
Speaker A:And then, now thinking back, like, you see, you see that, but it's like accepted now.
Speaker A:And key base.
Speaker A:It's almost like you have to be like, you need.
Speaker A:You need to know keybase to be like, get on some of these hip hop gigs or some of these church gigs.
Speaker A:And there's the pedals and all that going on.
Speaker A:It's like base have accessories.
Speaker A:We have octave pedals and chords.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's like we're a real instrument now.
Speaker B:We made it.
Speaker A:We made it.
Speaker A:And there's a lot of people that aren't happy and.
Speaker A:But my word, again, my word coming from the platform that we've built, is that still, you know, be true to yourself, always be curious to learn and to expand, which is why we put different genres, different tastes, different things.
Speaker A:But there's something nice in saying, hey, man, like, I'm a pocket player or I can do this really well or I do this genre really well and like, play to your strengths while you're still learning because, you know, you don't want to get lost because confidence plays a real issue.
Speaker A:Like, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like, if you.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Don't be something you're not but still learn, but also stay true to yourselves.
Speaker A:But because there's only one you on.
Speaker A:Honestly, I know it sounds cliche, but.
Speaker A:Yeah, you know, it's the.
Speaker A:The soft skills, really, I think, that get you those gigs and all that.
Speaker A:But, yeah, like you said, base has been expanding, which is great for us because it's like, okay.
Speaker A:Like, you know, we're kind of also showcasing just these.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:The range of being a bass player.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker C:I mean, with the community you guys have built you.
Speaker C:You're able to see so many talented bass players as someone that's kind of like, starting out and doing all the, you know, the technical stuff that you guys were explaining earlier.
Speaker C:How do they.
Speaker C:Or what kind of.
Speaker C:I know.
Speaker C:Tips you give someone to kind of stand out in a world that's so saturated with people trying to go viral, trying to be seen by you or another community that, you know that.
Speaker C:That's popular online and they want to kind of build a name for themselves.
Speaker C:Do you have any tips to help them kind of stand out in the sea of talented musicians?
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:Like, Kind of like what we were talking about bass players has been a little bit more colorful.
Speaker A:As a musician, you almost have to be a content creator coming up.
Speaker A:You know, there's some people, they're kind of already connected, so they.
Speaker A:They're fine.
Speaker A:They don't need.
Speaker A:They don't need to post three times a week or anything like that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:But for other people, it's almost like you got to know something, because this is.
Speaker A:But it's an advantage.
Speaker A:It's not a bad thing because you're able to display your work to thousands, virtually millions of people, you know, at one time.
Speaker A:That doesn't happen.
Speaker A:That hasn't happened through history.
Speaker A:Like, you know, think 15 years ago.
Speaker A:Like, how would you be able to do that?
Speaker A:So I'm gonna give some advice on posting and posting on Instagram, because that's just kind of our space right now.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So one thing you want.
Speaker A:Everyone talks about hooks, right?
Speaker A:You want a hook in kind of every sense that you can.
Speaker A:So a visual hook.
Speaker A:So you'll see on all of our videos, we put just a little caption on the video.
Speaker A:The fun thing about that is it can say anything it wants to say.
Speaker A:Obviously, you don't want to say person playing the bass.
Speaker A:Like, that's not fun.
Speaker A:Like, some of our captions have been like, what?
Speaker A:I can't believe it.
Speaker A:Like, you know, something like that.
Speaker A:Or.
Speaker D:Yeah, you know, you want your viewers to Stay.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, of course.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, you gotta grab them and.
Speaker A:Okay, so I'll give like the technical things like we've been talking about.
Speaker A:Hey, confidence and all that.
Speaker A:But here's like something.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:With Instagram, it's about the first three seconds.
Speaker A:If you could get them stay.
Speaker A:To stay after first three seconds, that counts as a view.
Speaker A:Now the algorithm is always changing.
Speaker A:So you know, that might be, you know, they might adjust some things.
Speaker A:But when we started, we knew that first, if we could get them, if we get, get someone to stay after the first three seconds, not only it's a view, but because it adds to your views, the algorithm was more gracious to push that out and so you could be right for you page.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So yeah, our thought was, okay, first three seconds.
Speaker A:The thing is, most people, I think 70% of people watch Instagram on mute.
Speaker A:So you're are because we're playing music, you're already at a disadvantage.
Speaker A:I think what made our videos great was because we were reacting like our faces were like, you know, so if it comes on, you know, whether it's on the for you page or someone's going down, you see it, someone's gonna read and if they could take time to read it.
Speaker A:Now if it's audio you want, and this is something that you just have to have the knack for like the best three seconds in your little.
Speaker A:In your video up front.
Speaker A:First you can always rewind.
Speaker A:Like imagine.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:One of our most viral videos.
Speaker A:Early on, the guy played for about a minute and 30 seconds.
Speaker A:And when I say it all was great, like all of it was amazing.
Speaker A:There was no buildup.
Speaker A:Well, there was.
Speaker A:Well, okay.
Speaker A:I like build up.
Speaker A:Like that's, that's the part of the story that I like.
Speaker A:Like, how did we get here?
Speaker A:But like working up to it.
Speaker A:So I love the little intricacies, the little clues a bass player or musician may give.
Speaker A:Like you could tell where it's going.
Speaker A:That's my favorite part.
Speaker A:And I couldn't include any of that in this video because I was like, this is a viral video, but I, my.
Speaker A:I need to take about 30 seconds of this 90 second monster.
Speaker A:So we put the.
Speaker A:Within the first three seconds we got tried to get the best part or one of the best parts.
Speaker A:And if they can stay past that, then they could stay long.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:Yeah, I know it sounds technical and it sounds like work, but it's not as hard as is as it sounds.
Speaker A:You know, the best parts of what you're playing honestly, like, it doesn't matter how good you are.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter how good you are.
Speaker A:If it's interesting, you'll get a view whether it's visual.
Speaker A:And then you know what if.
Speaker A:If the 30% are listening or whatever the percentage is, then you can get someone from there.
Speaker A:So I really, I'm really big on understand first three seconds of your viewer understand.
Speaker A:Always put a caption on the video.
Speaker A:Something to make people.
Speaker A:And me, of course, with fellowship Bass, I think an element that all musicians should add, and this may be something that we can go into teaching or guiding in the future, is everyone should have a reactions element to their content.
Speaker A:I see a lot of musicians who.
Speaker A:They have a decent following.
Speaker A:You know, the 30,000, 40,000, 10,000.
Speaker A:They're an established musician and you know, one video.
Speaker A:Oh, sick fire, cool, awesome.
Speaker A:Next video, sick fire, cool, awesome.
Speaker A:But it's like you got people.
Speaker A:I'm sure they got people DMing them.
Speaker A:Yo, what, what, you know, mode were you on on this?
Speaker A:And well, you know, how did you do this?
Speaker A:And you know, it almost.
Speaker A:I could see how it can get overwhelming.
Speaker A:And the lane that a lot of musicians think they have to go is education.
Speaker A:It's funny because we're like, we're not education either.
Speaker A:Like that's a lane that we don't want to do because I'm not a music teacher and I don't want to do that.
Speaker A:We could be a platform where we bring teachers on to teach, but I'm not doing that.
Speaker A:But in opening a.
Speaker A:Okay, all right.
Speaker A:Either one on one, send me what you're working on or whatever, or you do a one to many course.
Speaker A:If you want to do that, that's cool.
Speaker A:But as far as reactions, these musicians that have fans really out there, it would be amazing even like for them to have a reactions element to their content and it would just community, really.
Speaker A:More.
Speaker A:More.
Speaker B:Question there on that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Do you mean.
Speaker B:So when you say a reactions element, are you saying that these musicians should react to other musicians or is it the other way?
Speaker A:Where vacant.
Speaker A:Any so reactions to me, I see it as super broad.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:They can react to their own videos, right?
Speaker A:Especially, hey, I got this question here.
Speaker A:They have it on the green screen.
Speaker A:Boom.
Speaker A:What did you do here?
Speaker A:It was like, oh, okay.
Speaker A:So this, I did this and this and that.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And as you see, I was a breakdown.
Speaker A:I put that in the reactions category because.
Speaker B:Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's a type of reactions.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:A reaction or Kind of like our side of, you know, the reaction world react to other, you know, musicians or other just like in their niche or, or even fans or other musicians who want feedback or something like that.
Speaker A:What I'm saying is there's a lot of avenues they can do.
Speaker A:They can go to.
Speaker A:For, you know, having some reaction element to their content that I think would help, you know, build their following and build their, you know, all of that.
Speaker A:But yeah, I think more musicians should add a reaction element that's interesting.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I don't know that most would consider or have considered that.
Speaker B:So I think coming from you, that's.
Speaker B:That's a big push in a direction that definitely should be explored more.
Speaker B:Yeah, and you mentioned a lot of ways to do it, because when you said reaction, I was thinking probably the most obvious way, but you gave a couple examples of other ways.
Speaker B:I have a question for Mr. Drummer.
Speaker B:Just because, I mean, you're, you're, you're.
Speaker B:You're playing with bass players and you're also reacting to some of the.
Speaker B:All the videos as well.
Speaker B:What is it that you look for?
Speaker B:Like what, what excites you?
Speaker B:Like, what type of bass player excites you?
Speaker A:Oh, okay.
Speaker B:And wait, and.
Speaker B:Then you got it.
Speaker B:Then you got to describe the bass player that your brother is.
Speaker B:But what excites you about what type of baseball excites you?
Speaker B:But also.
Speaker B:So does it differ from what, you know, your brother is into as a.
Speaker B:As a bass player himself?
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker D:What excites me?
Speaker D:Like, when I'm listening to somebody playing the bass, I'd say, yeah, they're one with the music.
Speaker D:I feel like there's some times that you're either pocket or you're leaving room for others to, you know, if the drummer's having a lick right there, the keys.
Speaker D:I like people who are able to.
Speaker D:Because I've heard some either videos or something.
Speaker D:Somebody's just going ham 60 seconds straight.
Speaker D:And it's like, you're tough, but it's.
Speaker D:Sometimes you need to let the music breathe so your licks have more meaning.
Speaker D:So, yeah, me, I like to see bases who have balance.
Speaker B:I guess that's a strong word, man.
Speaker D:Yeah, my brother, so we, We've built chemistry since we've played together.
Speaker D:So, yeah, I feel like I didn't really recognize how much chemistry we had until I've played with another basis.
Speaker D:So there's some things that are just natural.
Speaker D:I know my brother's gonna do this lick right here.
Speaker D:I'm gonna do something on the Toms.
Speaker D:We're gonna do it at the same time.
Speaker D:So I'm doing.
Speaker D:I'm looking at the base like, oh, you're okay.
Speaker D:This isn't a normal.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:So I'd say we've built a lot of chemistry.
Speaker D:So there's just.
Speaker D:We think alike, listening to the music being played, which is why our reactions do so well and why they're so similar.
Speaker D:Like, we don't practice our reactions when we've done the same thing at the same time.
Speaker D:This is all, like, live.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's live.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker D:So I'd say a lot of that contributes to the chemistry that we built playing with each other, being in the same household, listening to the same music, thinking about the same things.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker D:And obviously, he does a great job with the balance thing that I talked about earlier.
Speaker D:So that's the first person I seen do it.
Speaker D:And I'm like, okay, so now I'm listening to these other bases and the music that we're reacting to, they're doing a great job with that as well.
Speaker D:So that's what I'd say as a drummer.
Speaker B:Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker B:Okay, I got one more like that.
Speaker B:I want.
Speaker B:I want you to ask a question, D. And I actually have a question for you, Jericho, but.
Speaker C:Okay, go ahead.
Speaker B:Before that.
Speaker B:So there are a couple ways that we see this.
Speaker B:We see people playing live, and there's a clip that maybe, I don't know, they could have a.
Speaker B:Well, there's all sorts of.
Speaker B:There's talkback cams and all that stuff now, but when it comes to, like, a produce video, like, if I'm sitting here in, like, this room playing along to a track versus me on stage, what.
Speaker B:Is there one that seems to hit more than the other?
Speaker B:Or is it just like, what.
Speaker B:What are the variables that separate one from the other live?
Speaker B:Or, you know, where you could do it in your.
Speaker B:In your spot and play it over 75 times, and then the one that you like best, you throw out there.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'll take lead in it.
Speaker A:If you think.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think.
Speaker A:I simply.
Speaker A:I don't think there's a difference.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:If for a musician, there's a difference, like, you know, for you, there's a difference, but once it's online, like, once it's on Instagram, there's no difference.
Speaker A:We've had viral videos with the live player, and we've had viral videos with someone, you know, in their room.
Speaker A:And this was like, take, you know, 6 of 20, because they said it, and it's like, oh, this one actually, you know, Took and that.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:It's just a weird game coming from a musician side.
Speaker A:He's like, oh, we prefer life.
Speaker A:Imagine.
Speaker A:Just imagine a video.
Speaker A:Like, just said everything went bad after two seconds.
Speaker A:Like, don't you want to watch that?
Speaker A:Like, and it's a live setting, and it's just like, obviously that would go viral.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:But other than those moments that you can't really plan, they just happen.
Speaker A:I would say for social media, there is no difference.
Speaker A:One weird thing I'll also say is we've seen.
Speaker A:We have to test it, but we've seen black and white videos.
Speaker A:Like, go do better than really just full color tone.
Speaker A:It's weird.
Speaker A:We've been tracking that, but, yeah.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, yeah, is this podcast gonna be.
Speaker B:Everything's black and White?
Speaker C:I think you just gave us an idea.
Speaker A:Oh, that's funny.
Speaker B:That is hilarious.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:So, Doriki.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, you're.
Speaker B:You're a singer.
Speaker B:Vocalist.
Speaker B:I don't know if you're.
Speaker B:If I'm allowed to call you that.
Speaker B:You've.
Speaker B:That's okay.
Speaker B:You're a singer.
Speaker B:That's what you do.
Speaker B:So your position on stage has always been very different than mine.
Speaker B:I never really asked you, but, I mean, especially in having taken in some of the content.
Speaker B:I'm sure you've seen a lot of bass players online too, and Fellowship base has helped a lot with that, bringing bass players to the forefront.
Speaker B:But what's.
Speaker B:Like, what do you think of.
Speaker B:Have you seen the change in bass playing and, like, what.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Is it exciting to you?
Speaker C:I always appreciated the base, so it was good to see bass players finally get their.
Speaker C:Not respect, but you know, their place.
Speaker B:Yeah, I know.
Speaker B:You know, but.
Speaker C:So it was exciting to me to see it.
Speaker C:I've seen a lot of.
Speaker C:I don't want to call them frauds, but just people that I can see are more.
Speaker C:They're better at content creation than they are at playing the base.
Speaker C:So that's kind of.
Speaker C:That's a tough one sometimes.
Speaker C:But I do appreciate that, you know, despite they're still elevating, you know, the bass community.
Speaker C:So I can't hate too much on them.
Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker C:But I'm sure you guys notice the same.
Speaker C:You see some girls dressing a certain way or, you know, people doing certain things, more for.
Speaker C:More for the, you know, the attraction.
Speaker C:No, I'm just saying you've seen it, though.
Speaker C:Like,.
Speaker A:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:So, hey, this isn't anymore.
Speaker B:Anything goes, guys.
Speaker B:You're safe.
Speaker D:You're safe.
Speaker A:We're safe here.
Speaker D:Safe space.
Speaker A:Yeah, this is a safe space.
Speaker A:So you could imagine we have a bunch of videos in the vault that we didn't post.
Speaker C:Yeah, I could only imagine.
Speaker C:I could only imagine.
Speaker A:And it's funny, I didn't think you were going there.
Speaker A:D. And I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna explain on it too much, but, yeah, fair enough.
Speaker A:Like you said.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Let's just be honest.
Speaker A:We could leave it.
Speaker A:All right, so the music, the musician space, at least in most my.
Speaker A:In our niche, is usually male dominated.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:So, you know, we seen.
Speaker A:Okay, so we've, you know, we got my algorithm.
Speaker A:He's like, he's trying.
Speaker A:Our algorithm gets a lot of content.
Speaker A:Yo, I'mma get it.
Speaker C:Of course I can imagine.
Speaker A:I can imagine.
Speaker A:Get a lot of content and from different areas in the world.
Speaker A:And it's not really, it's a balance because, you know, like me, I don't consider myself a professional, but, you know, we, we've listened to.
Speaker A:We're like music connoisseurs.
Speaker A:Like, we love music and we play a little.
Speaker A:Like we get paid to play a church, so there's something like, decent, you know, but there, I remember a specific.
Speaker A:Do you.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker D:There's, there's actually a few.
Speaker A:There was a specific video we saw and I was like, what?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Like there was just a tire.
Speaker A:And I'm like, is this a bass video or is it a thing?
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker D:You know.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And then I saw a trend.
Speaker A:Like it was like three or four different ones and in different instruments.
Speaker A:I can't even say instrument because.
Speaker A:And I'm like, yeah.
Speaker A:Oh, this is an attack.
Speaker A:Like, I, I, it's almost like, I mean, I don't know where it's like, this is almost spiritual warfare because it's like here we are trying to, you know, people trying to look on for music, and it's like, oh, y' all came here too.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A:That's what I was.
Speaker A:Since you mentioned that, it's interesting because we have, like, seen things.
Speaker A:It's like, yo, that's crazy.
Speaker A:And then, you know, we, of course, we didn't post it.
Speaker A:I will tell you about one contro.
Speaker A:Controversial post that we.
Speaker A:So this whole thing with AI and musicians, we had one video that it was an AI bass player, I guess.
Speaker A:And the reason why I put it up, I didn't put it up.
Speaker A:I put it up to start a conversation kind of thing of like, to the point the caption said AI or nah.
Speaker A:So of course the video went viral, but, you know, we got some flack for that because it was like, why would you.
Speaker A:You know, AI is kind of a buzzword in the musician.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker D:Space.
Speaker A:Really everywhere.
Speaker D:But.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I felt bad about it.
Speaker A:Not bad about posting it.
Speaker A:I mean, you know, no one likes criticism because we've always been, like, you know, uplifting people.
Speaker A:And here, you know, people are saying, why would you even do this?
Speaker A:I'm unfollowing.
Speaker A:I'm like, okay, fine.
Speaker A:But it's just, like, people are offended by it.
Speaker A:Yeah, super offended.
Speaker A:Like, if.
Speaker B:But you pose it as a question.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I literally said AI or not.
Speaker A:Something like that.
Speaker A:And it made me think, though, like, it would be great for us to have a voice that everyone kind of understands or respects, because there are benefits to AI and where the world is going.
Speaker A:And there'll be some benefits for musicians as well.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So we're also looking into Lane and other podcasts and other brands where I can gather people together who are better than me and who are in the industry and can talk on these things so that we're not just, like, scared of the word AI, but we can use it right away.
Speaker A:That's beneficial for us, or you'll be left behind.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:So which one would you rather?
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah, sure.
Speaker B:True, true.
Speaker B:That's a big.
Speaker B:That's a big point.
Speaker B:Funny.
Speaker B:I mean, you guys have done really good at building a community of bass players, but musicians and music lovers, I would say, too, probably, at this point, too.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's funny that one video could get you slack and people could so quickly want to turn away, but I think that's.
Speaker B:That's kind of just the time that we're living.
Speaker B:And there's a lot of sensitivity, which is why it's good to have a guy like Dee who's not gonna butter up his words.
Speaker B:He's gonna say it as it is.
Speaker A:Fraudsters.
Speaker A:He loves stories, but you remember.
Speaker B:I do.
Speaker B:That's beautiful.
Speaker B:I completely forgot.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker B:I want to.
Speaker B:I want to switch gears a little bit.
Speaker B:We didn't talk about this.
Speaker B:You guys are wearing those hats.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:What's the story behind the hats?
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:Made to minister, right?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Made to minister.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:Y' all can see it.
Speaker A:We got a few different colors.
Speaker C:The M2 is the same thing, right?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:That was, like, made to minister.
Speaker A:Like M squared.
Speaker C:Gotcha.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:We just wanted to create a product that embodied kind of our story, but a lot of things.
Speaker A:Musicians or performers or people behind the stage.
Speaker A:They're not usually seen, like, as if I'm going to a concert or, you know, worship service just as an attendees, you know, I go say hallelujah, go to a concert, enjoy the concert, and then I leave, you know, for my parking space.
Speaker A:It's cool, but someone has to, you know, unplug the cords and roll everything up and put, where's my gig bag?
Speaker A:And making sure no one stole anything.
Speaker A:The loadout is real.
Speaker A:And load everything they put probably at the park in the back.
Speaker A:Like, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes, and we just wanted to make a brand to say that, like, we see you.
Speaker A:We understand the struggle, and you were actually made to for this.
Speaker A:You were made to minister.
Speaker A:Now, the reason why we have the M squared is because even me, like, I don't want to walk around with a hat that says minister all the time.
Speaker A:We're not wearing it now, but it's like, there's an M2.
Speaker A:And it's not only, like, faith based.
Speaker A:I know minister is really.
Speaker A:That word is usually used in terms of faith, but when we hear, like, minister of defense or something, like, in the government realms, like, it really means, like, to serve.
Speaker A:So it fits perfectly like you were made to serve.
Speaker A:And we see you keep on doing what you do doing.
Speaker A:So we hope that, you know, this brand, we want it to be the most recognized music logo worldwide.
Speaker A:So we made these hats, have a few colorways, and.
Speaker A:Yeah, and they're available.
Speaker A:Made to minister.
Speaker A:Cool.
Speaker B:Okay, cool.
Speaker B:I'm gonna have to get me one.
Speaker B:I hope you ship to Canada, but if not, I'll get it shipped to Buffalo, and that's dope.
Speaker A:I love that we'll get y' all one.
Speaker B:And I mean, and I love the.
Speaker B:Yeah, I love the way that you said it, because, I mean, there's a lot of people who are listening who not don't necessarily share the same faith, but saying it in that way, you know, as a musician, it's still kind of responsibility.
Speaker B:You're serving the people.
Speaker B:There's a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes, and the recognition is not always there.
Speaker B:Instagram and social media, we see the highlights, really, we see the best parts of it, but no one sees the hours and hours and hours, weeks and years, really, that it takes to even get to the point where you're in a position to put out that content or to stand on that stage and all that good stuff.
Speaker B:So, no, that's.
Speaker B:That's deep that's deep.
Speaker B:What part of.
Speaker B:Actually I don't want to get.
Speaker B:I don't want to go too far.
Speaker B:So as far as the branding goes, I know you have fellowship base made to minister.
Speaker B:I would love to hear about some of the.
Speaker B:I mean, I know you can't drop too much, but if you want to.
Speaker B:As I said, it's a stick safe place.
Speaker B:I'd love to hear about some of the other ideas in the pipeline or like, is there anything else that we could look out for in the.
Speaker B:In the next little while?
Speaker A:Yeah, well, the ideas are mostly my.
Speaker A:I told you, just throw it out.
Speaker A:We have 10 brands coming out.
Speaker A:No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker B:10.
Speaker A:Woo.
Speaker B:Okay,.
Speaker A:It can be 10.
Speaker A:Don't.
Speaker A:Don't test me.
Speaker A:I'll give you 10 rounds.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:We are.
Speaker A:There are two podcasts that are on the books for us to start.
Speaker A:We have Base Camp.
Speaker A:It's basically gonna be reviewing or reacting to our viral videos and showing how we cut it up.
Speaker A:I think that would be such an interesting.
Speaker A:Behind the scenes.
Speaker B:That's cool.
Speaker A:And then we'd also drop knowledge on.
Speaker A:Hey, this is what you should look for to post.
Speaker A:This is when you should pose.
Speaker A:These are the trends that are happening.
Speaker A:I don't think there's a voice for that out there at least.
Speaker A:So right now we just.
Speaker A:We kind of put our product out there.
Speaker A:Well, not our product, but we put the videos out there.
Speaker A:But now we kind of like, this is kind of like, hey, if you guys want to learn more, just you can do this stuff.
Speaker A:This is what we, you know, did and all that.
Speaker A:So that's on the books.
Speaker A:That'll just be a Basecamp podcast.
Speaker A:I have another podcast that I'm collaborating with a few folks here and we're.
Speaker A:It's really, really early, but I'll give you the title.
Speaker A:It's called Mapped M A P T. Musicians are people Too.
Speaker A:And it's just stories of musicians and that we can relate to and understand the musicality part and just the regular human part.
Speaker A:So that should be coming out.
Speaker A:And, and I'm super excited about that.
Speaker A:Like you said, we have our hat brand made to minister and that's kind of things that we have on our pipeline.
Speaker A:If we get some more people asking us more about posting and strategy, we might do a challenge, like a five day challenge called a reaction challenge.
Speaker A:So I have some of the frameworks already set up, set out if the people want that.
Speaker A:So we'll stay on the lookout for that as well.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's a lot of Stuff.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah, man.
Speaker B:Well, what's.
Speaker B:What's the next milestone?
Speaker B:You guys hit the 100k?
Speaker B:Where are you at now?
Speaker B:And what's next?
Speaker A:We're at 120.
Speaker A:123.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:123,000.
Speaker B:What's the next big seller?
Speaker B:Is that 250?
Speaker B:Is that the next big?
Speaker B:Big?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I feel like, so, like we can.
Speaker A:We can hit two.
Speaker A:Like, we can hit 200, 000.
Speaker A:We can do that.
Speaker B:Like, you're here, the momentum's there.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But I feel like we work so hard to get 100k and we're there and we're like, okay, how do we get more ingrained with our community and how can we get, like, more like business avenues set up?
Speaker A:It's great to pose, it's fun to post and it's fun.
Speaker A:But we see that we're also valued by people and brands and there's been some conversations about collaborations.
Speaker A:So we also just want to, like, kind of working backwards now looking at, okay, how do we set our messaging?
Speaker A:Like, what are the different avenues we can do so that, you know, when we go to namm, we're not just going to look at things like we're going for a reason, you know, and what companies can we talk to and bring to our following and collaboration?
Speaker A:So I think right now we're looking more on the business side to see how we can help more musicians and how we can help ourselves.
Speaker C:Of course.
Speaker A:Yeah, of course.
Speaker B:That's big.
Speaker B:I mean, again, I commend what you guys are doing.
Speaker B:I know, Drake, you're happy because we've talked about this before.
Speaker B:You know, building an audience and not being able to leverage it, not being able to make use of it, not connecting directly with all the people that follow you, it's almost.
Speaker B:It's almost doesn't have any value that way.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's more entertainment, but there's not much, like, there's no depth to it.
Speaker B:So I think that's even the way you answer that question says a lot, because it's not really about the next milestone as far as numbers.
Speaker B:You hit the 100k plus.
Speaker B:I think that's more than respectable.
Speaker B:And like you said, that puts you in a position to be able to collaborate with other brands, organizations, companies, and opportunities that will flow to you.
Speaker B:Almost like, I almost see it as a reward for the hard work that you've put in to get to that point.
Speaker B:It shows a ton of credibility.
Speaker B:And now, like you said, you're working Backwards to further build the brand and the community.
Speaker B:So that's.
Speaker B:That's really dope.
Speaker B:Love it.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker B:I don't know if you have anything else to drop in there, D. I.
Speaker C:Don't want to take any more of their time.
Speaker C:It's been a phenomenal conversation.
Speaker C: at Fellowship base looks like: Speaker C:So hopefully before then, while you continue to ascend, we can have you guys back on.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, man.
Speaker A:You guys have been great.
Speaker A:Anthony, I'm so sorry for, like.
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:He reached out seven years ago.
Speaker A:Seven years ago when we were brothers, right.
Speaker A:When we didn't know each other.
Speaker A:It was a couple months ago when we were.
Speaker B:No, it's only been a few months.
Speaker A:Yeah, he reached out in eight.
Speaker B:Listen, don't even worry, man.
Speaker A:No, cuz I didn't know when we would meet again and all that.
Speaker A:So it's just like, oh, we have this date.
Speaker A:You know, let's just set it.
Speaker A:So that's why I was like, this date, this time.
Speaker A:And he like, yo, that would work.
Speaker A:So thank you guys, man.
Speaker A:We appreciate you guys.
Speaker A:And yeah, let's just keep in contact, cuz I think you guys are doing a great thing as well.
Speaker A:So let's ascend together, man.
Speaker B:Let's do it.
Speaker C:Appreciate you.
Speaker B:All right, guys.
Speaker B:Oh, before you go, let people just one more time know where to follow you and anything that you know, anything that's useful to keep up with your journey.
Speaker B:Again, how to purchase the hats and all that good stuff.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:You can follow us on Instagram at Fellowship Base, where we help bass players go viral.
Speaker A:You could also.
Speaker A:These are made to Minister hats.
Speaker A:Here.
Speaker A:It's made to minister co.
Speaker A:Thanks.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Thanks, guys.
Speaker B:Thanks for listening.
Speaker A:That was a little weak.
Speaker A:I didn't know.
Speaker A:I said thank you.
Speaker A:Why am I saying thank you?
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:All right, that's fine.
Speaker A:You guys, too.
Speaker A:Because, I mean, honest.
Speaker A:I'll be honest, I didn't know.
Speaker A:I saw a little of your podcast before, but I don't know you guys individually, so you could just.
Speaker A:I'd love to follow you guys, you know.
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker D:Absolutely.
Speaker B:We appreciate the support and anything that we could do to, you know, help in any way possible.
Speaker B:We're definitely down.
Speaker B:Love what you guys are doing.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Thank you, guys.
Speaker D:Thank you.
Speaker D:All right.
Speaker B:Anything that we could do to, you know, help in any way possible, we're definitely down.
Speaker B:Love what you guys are doing.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Thank you, guys.
Speaker D:Thank you.
Speaker A:All right, Sam.
