How LAERZ turned street performing into a six-figure business
From getting bullied to building festival anthems from scratch in the Utah desert
I just sat down with LAERZ a.k.a. Brandon Martinez.
Brandon is a live looping artist known as Laerz who systematized street performing into a career.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How Brandon scaled street busking into a systematic business earning $1,200 in a single day.
The internal battle with eating disorders and why sharing your story is the ultimate healing tool.
Why social media metrics are a facade and how to build a genuine community instead.
We dive into the details later in the conversation.
If you like the episode, please subscribe.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
02:22 Street Performing: The Art of Live Music
04:49 Treating Art Like a Science and Business
07:49 Identity Struggles: Eating Disorders and Self-Discovery
10:17 The Power of Sharing and Finding Support
15:04 The Social Media Metric Facade
17:29 Technical Side: Live Looping vs. DJing
19:53 Music as a Tool for Human Connection
22:33 Advice to the Younger Self and Future Dreams
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Here’s the full transcript:
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (00:00.214)
A lot of people don’t even realize that they like electronic music. Layers. Walk us through the story of how you got started. Started going to parties, started beatboxing at lunch, school ciphers.
I started street performing. The first few times we went out there, you I made like just a couple of dollars. You’ve done live sets in Utah. You’ve done in Cannon Beach. You’ve done them in Dubai. Have you had any crazy catastrophic failures? All of the kicks are out of sync and everything’s looped. So it’s like out of sync in loop. Vocals are coming in too hot. The synths come in too hot. You’re hearing me volume adjust in real time. What’s going through your head?
at the time when all of that was happening. Don’t f*** up. Write me through exactly what you’re doing when you’re using your body to make sound. I use my mouth to do like the trumpet. Just imagine it with like reverb, but it’d be like... Can you go like this? Yeah.
time with Adam Metwally, the podcast bridging the gap between health, hustle and happiness. We’re at Thursday Lab Studio in Venice, Los Angeles. My guest today proves that electronic music isn’t just about pressing play and dancing around. He’s a live looping wizard who builds massive festival ready anthems from scratch right in front of your eyes. He was born Brandon Martinez, but musically goes by layers. I want to start at the beginning of everything because your story is very, very unique.
You didn’t make music because you wanted to be cool. You started because you were being bullied. So take us back and walk us through the story of how you got started and how you learned to beatbox and how that saved you as a kid. Well, I started beatboxing to get more social with my peers. Like I was friends with a lot of people. I would always hang around with all the different groups back in high school. then there was
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (01:59.116)
It was just like a passive aggressive kind of bullying where like you would essentially be walking down the hallway and you’re with your friends and stuff, but then like a cute girl walks by and then all of a sudden someone’s like titty flopping you, you know? And like, yeah, I a lot of jokes and stuff. So, so yeah, I just started learning to beatbox. It came really easily and to help kind of build out like another identity in high school.
And then it ended up working out. So started going to parties, started beatboxing at lunch, school ciphers, rallies. And yeah, it took on its little life of its own. And yeah, I was no longer really feeling like bullied for the same things I was being bullied for in the past in the ways that I was in the past. So. Yeah. So what took you to then becoming a street performer?
I worked at In-N-Out for a long time. I worked at a credit union for a little while. I tried going to school and I just was like, I don’t know if it was a rebellious part of me, but I just, didn’t really want to do any of that. And I started street performing. One of my buddies went out there with me for the first time. He’s still in my life, very big part of my life now. And
It you know, the first the first few times we went out there, you know, I made like just a couple of dollars and most of which and change and. But it felt really liberating just to like go out there and have fun and never had a crowd for the first, you know, for the first good chunk of of going out there. How much time do you think? I would say like the first couple of months.
There would just be like people stopping and like watching for a few seconds with them moving on about their day. I had no structure to what I was doing. I was just throwing shit on a wall and seeing what would stick. And then it eventually started becoming much more profitable. You know, like a couple of years out of high school and I was doing, you know, like six, seven, eight hundred dollars a day selling merch. I had a whole structure for a show built out.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (04:26.606)
I was able to draw people in, keep them there, and then kind of integrate different elements into the show, like, sounding like a robot, playing the trumpet, playing paddle tennis with people, like all from sound effects from the mouth, and then doing the looping and beatboxing growing into that eventually. Yeah. So, what do you, what would you say?
was the catalyst for the change from it going from unsuccessful to successful? Because it was treating it like a science. Yeah, yeah. Treating it like a science and treating it like a job, like upgrading my, you know, like I would hand out cards, upgrading my merchandise, even to like the kind of canopies that I was using.
the QR codes once everything started becoming scannable. That was a huge help. Even to down to like the tip jar, like for example, it was a really interesting thing where I had like one of those giant Coke bottles that you can see through it. So once it started filling up, people would see it and they would for some reason not think to themselves, like, you know, it’s already got enough money and I don’t want to donate.
It’s like, there’s like this thing that they would see in it and they’d be like, the show’s cool, the money’s in there. Like they do want to donate. So sometimes I’d come home after a whole full day, like four or five, six hours, and it would be full from top to bottom in singles, fives, tens, twenties. Sometimes people even drop more than that. And it would take me about an hour, hour and a half to like take everything out. I’d wear gloves. I had my whole process down, but it was,
It was once you treated it more of like a business and a science, then it started working out for like, just I was able to sustain myself full time. had my own place for seven years. Paid off my first car when I was 20. It was very sustainable. Did you ever leave your half of the coins in the jar for the next day?
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (06:49.198)
No, but I ended up always putting a dollar in. I was the first dollar that went in. I did that for like a few months. Just to just to start it off like I just throw my own dollar in there. Yeah, yeah, that’s what I would do if I was in that situation. else’s from from the day before, but it was still mine and I would throw it in there. So that’s how I started. Yeah. On the on the busking front, what was the scariest or potentially most dangerous thing?
that happened while you’re performing on the street? territorial, other territorial people for sure. What do mean? Like, especially in Venice, there were just like street dance teams that were, you know, they would, if they for any reason didn’t get their normal spot, then they would try to truck further down the boardwalk where I was usually set up. And there’s like five or six or seven of them usually at a time. So they’re like,
They either set up and they start playing their music really loud. So it just flushes you out. And then like the confrontation comes and they know that. So then there’s like so many of them against one. Like, what are you going to be able to do about that? Like nothing. So I’ve gotten into confrontations a couple of times and then one time I guess there was like an opening in the crowd that I had and a kid on a bike just ran through and picked up the tip jar.
when it was like 75 % of the way full. then I just like, like, it was like, like in a half second, just like, and everyone’s in the crowd, just like silent. And I was like, that just happened. Some people tried running after it. How much do think it was? It was a couple hundred bucks. Had to have been a couple hundred bucks. Not enough to end, the day, but annoying. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, that happened during a specific time where things started to slow down and street performing and like seasons really make a difference. So like there were days where I would go out there and I would kill it. I remember the most I ever made was twelve hundred dollars and it was at Universal City Walk on Mother’s Day. And I was just part of the skit was my mom loves me enough and said that I should come and love on you guys out here today. So she gave me permission to be out here on Mother’s Day.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (09:12.556)
And then the lease I made was, I mean, with the exception of just starting out, like I’d be out there for like five or six hours and I’d come home with like $13 during December. And it’s cold and it’s cloudy and you don’t have a choice. On average, when you’re in that era, what was an average year like earnings wise? Well, it was.
It just depended. I was very responsible with my money. I was young. I remember one time I bought like 10 EDC tickets thinking that I was going to be able to sell them, like resell them all. And I ended up getting stuck because they released more tickets two weeks before the event and ended up eating like six of them, giving away one of them.
being able to sell it. I I ordered fast food a lot. You I was dealing with the weight issues. I had like a really bad eating disorder. So I would like go after tree performing, go home, order like $120 worth of Thai food, and then like kill a plate, purge it out, kill a plate, purge it out, kill a plate, purge it out for a long time. And so I was just very irresponsible. I smoked a lot of weed, spend a lot of money on weed and drinks.
And I always just, since I had my own place and, and, and nobody in my friend group was in that sphere yet in their lives, I would just have everybody over and like spoil people. So, I mean, yeah, had I, had I done, I’d probably, you know, probably be making six figures at the end of the year, had I not done all that stuff, but wasn’t the case. Yeah, I understand. That’s good though. Six figures is a straight busker is like,
Pretty, pretty good start. Yeah. So what was going through your head? Run me through the the tie thing that you just said before. So I didn’t know that at all. So what what was happening? So you would. Eat and then purposefully be like, get rid of it so you could eat more. Yeah, I would. I would eat a bunch and then I would I would purge it out with the intent of knowing that I was going to have another plate after do it like two or three times.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (11:42.808)
And then whatever was left over, I would keep down. So I was still eating very unhealthy food and I would eat like a bunch and purge it out. But I was dealing with that. there is the beatboxing like gave a new identity, but it didn’t address how I was feeling about being overweight for most of my life. And so that was a way for me to like try to control things. But in fact, it didn’t control
you know, it made it made things worse. No healthier eating habits, no discipline, nothing where I was still overweight or gaining weight over the course of a couple of years or over a decade basically. And
And, yeah, just doing a lot of damage to my body. Yeah. I could only imagine the like straight, the cortisol levels would be through the roof. Yeah. Damn. I ended up having to have surgery in my vocal cords in 2016 because of the, because of the smoking, the acid, acid, um, all that stuff. So yeah, it was a really, um, it wasn’t until, you know, I finally started going to therapy.
and doing over-eaters anonymous and counseling and, you know, just kind of diving in into myself a little bit. Did you figure out what was the reason why you would gravitate to that?
those experiences and those actions? It was just the easiest. I had my own place. I was always alone so I could do it. But I mean, like, I feel like overeating as well is a thing that I do, but I’ve never gone to that extent. So I’m like thinking in my head, like, how does that become a potential outcome? Like, what were you trying to get out of it? Yeah. I mean, I feel like a lot of people probably overeat, but they’ve
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (13:47.502)
I don’t know if a lot of people also know what it feels like to deal with never feeling like you have control over your body. And I’ll never forget the day I learned that I can purge. I was at my little cousin’s. It was like their elementary school back to school night. And we were there with a lot of family. And I had actually like a like a can of Sprite and the little lever from the top to open it. It fell in the can. And I started drinking it and drinking it. And I knew it was in there, but I was like, I’m just keeping aware of it.
And by the end of it, it wasn’t in there anymore. And as soon as I realized that I had a really sharp pain in my stomach. And so I told my mom and she like pushed me towards this trash can, like, you know, the big industrial trash cans with the black bags on school properties. And I just grabbed the rim of it. And like, I don’t know how, but in like a matter of just like two or three seconds, I was able to like vomit. And I felt it like clinging my tooth on the way out. And I saw it.
a little metal thingy and I was like, how the hell did I just do that? And so a lot of time passed between that moment and when I started like dealing with my eating disorder and having those issues. But it was something that I knew I could do. And it was a way for me to feel in control of something that I just never felt in control of. Interesting.
So what’s changed now? Because this is a fascinating part of your life that really underpins a lot of the skills that you’ve developed. So what changed now?
I ended up telling the people I love the most in this world about it and sharing that part of myself.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (15:33.89)
And I guess that allowed me to not feel so ashamed and embarrassed. And it gave purpose to me not only wanting to love all myself more, but I don’t want to let other people down who I love and care about anymore. And so I used to hide it very, very well, which is not something that I, which I realize is not something that
Uh, you can morally be proud of being able to like hide something very well. And so I just kind of just threw the veil back and this is what I am. And this is what I’ve done. And this is how long it’s been going on for. And I don’t want to it anymore. Did you notice that once you actually brought it to light, there was like a release, like a letting go.
I wasn’t alone in it anymore and I had support. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you’re hiding something you and you’re trying to go like to a therapy session or a counseling session and you’re trying to be consistent about it and you’re still trying to hide it, then like it’s kind of counterproductive to itself. So just revealing all of it, throwing it out on the table and seeing how
hiding something like that can hurt people you love also. Yeah, I want to that again. Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy like the double edged sword that takes you from something so difficult then like creates something so great in your life. It’s cool. I mean, it’s tough, but it’s a nice progression. And I speak on this. I’ve spoken about this on my platforms before and I’ve
came out publicly to all my social media following about it as well. But it was absolutely insane to see how many men DM me saying that they experienced to some degree, some magnitude, some sort of silent suffering related to an eating disorder. And they don’t tell anybody. They haven’t told anybody. They haven’t told their wives. They’re married to 30, 40 years. And then
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (17:57.88)
seeing that I was able to speak about it, you know, allowed them to confide, even if it was just for the first time and the only time. But there are a lot of men out there who suffer in silence with things like this. I think it’s definitely more, it’s under a microscope far more for women than it is for men. Cause you know, all the beauty standards that society creates and everything, but I feel like if there’s,
If there’s anything that I’ve learned from any of it and things that I’ve kind of like picked up after becoming public with it, it’s it’s just as prominent and present in males than it is in females. And I feel like more men should be able to feel safe talking about that kind of stuff. Yeah. As long as it’s like the challenge is talking about it without like a step to beginning to resolve it is it can just open these like crazy wounds and then you don’t end up having any path to like actually
deal with. So it’s a fine line. Like, it’s good that you had the support network to bounce off and build into a more healthier process. It’s good. And then, so that’s an interesting part of your life. And then how does the live, I’ll make you a song on the street process develop and when was the inflection point?
in this career? Yeah, well, I just had so much like I saw things starting to take off, especially like after 2020 with music during COVID and like going online and going viral and stuff. And then once things started opening back up, like I just had so much gratitude for where I had come from, which was Venice, Santa Monica, downtown Burbank, all these different places, street performing. And the idea of going out there and like kind of just
paying it forward back to the community that was throwing dollar bills and stuff in my tip jar for so long. So I went out there, just started making music for strangers, filming their reactions. It was like an incredibly, especially when everything starts to come back after COVID, it was like a really good way to connect with humans again and remind myself that like everyone’s going through something differently on a day to day basis.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (20:25.87)
hiding things, they’re going through stuff, they’re trying to live their lives. And so, yeah, it was a very nice transition going from the world is ending to like finding those special moments with random strangers and human beings on the streets and paying respect to like, that’s where everything started. Is there a moment that stands out in this whole experience that’s really blown your mind?
regarding street performing and like, or the live music creation for people. I don’t know if there’s like, I know that a lot of people run through Ableton and they do like live production on stage and accompaniment and live looping stuff through Ableton. But I don’t know anyone doing it like on an analog unit, the 505.
like on any of the stages that you would consider like respectable and like the EDM market or something like that. But it’s kind of nice to think the fact that like if there is anyone out there like please comment down below, you know, but if I could like fill that role and be the first person to do it 100 % live looped, nothing, you know, no sequencing, nothing being launched in any programs or anything, nothing. If I stop the music stops kind of thing.
I’d love to be the moment where I realized that that could potentially be me. That was a really like, that was a really important moment and deciding like, I want to rebrand and continue to chase music the way I’m chasing it. So I mean, would you say you’re a live looping artist versus a DJ? What’s the distinction? DJ is just easier for, especially for social media. And the ones who identify as something other than DJ will usually comment.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (22:24.898)
Yeah, I just like to say like live electronic act or even more simple, just like an artist. So what’s the difference with the two generally? And if you stop actually inputting, does the whole set stop? I mean, it’ll just loop the same thing up until what I’ve created over and over and over again for the entire set. Nothing changes.
But in other circumstances with other acts or DJs, things will shift because there’s some sort of backend production being ran through Ableton or a laptop or some sort of program. And that’s by design, obviously. They want everything to be perfect and no mistakes and flawless free. And there’s also a fine line being drawn because
A lot of live loopers, one of the biggest issues that they face is repetitive moments where something feels like it’s just going on and on and on and nothing exciting is happening. consolidating that into the flow that a DJ actually does where it’s like constantly moving from one song to the next, like that’s the gap that I’m bridging.
So it’s taking elements of DJing like the workflow and the...
Yeah, the flow and the design of the set from start to finish and then taking the live aspect and then just bridging those. So there’s differences in what I do and then there’s very big similarities in what I do also. Yeah. I feel like there’s a dirty secret in the DJ and electronic music scene where a lot of the big artists just press play and jump around. So does it piss you off? No, I think it’s...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (24:23.254)
Like if I, the way I see it, if I was the person, if I was a bunch of corporations and businesses and investors, and I was giving all of my money to, you know, Insomniac or an EDC or some sort of festival, most of those sets are all pre-recorded with, cause they have to be accompanied by the production. So I would want it to be as grand and as amazing as it could possibly be. And that’s, that’s what, where pre-recorded sets come in where like,
it’s not necessarily just pressing play and a button. There’s a lot of work outside of the performance live that’s going into making the performance. A lot of hours spent, I’m getting the set correct, picking the right songs, picking the right order and trials and tribulations. So I always pay respect to that part of it. It’s just stuff that people don’t see behind the scenes. Yeah. Yeah. What do you, what do you think? The
the go-to fake DJ trick would be. Fake DJ trick? like the twisting of the knobs and nothing’s going on. Have you seen those videos of people? Yeah, it’s like, it goes from like, they’re like, they’re like, they’re like going around it. It’s like staying stationary and they’re like, yeah, but like, it’s like just one of these little like beep.
of those things and like the song changes. Yeah. mean, it’s, I mean, I’ve seen every, I’ve even seen videos of, of equipment not being plugged in and live performances taking place, teach their own, know? Yeah, man. but that being said, given that everything is, live, have you had any crazy catastrophic failures on stage?
It’s...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (26:22.082)
No, no, haven’t. That’s a good question. I’ve had like Ableton crash like in Denver was my biggest show on my headline tour so far.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (26:35.01)
Meow Wolf and my the for some reason it’s like my the connector between Ableton and my MIDI keyboard sending all my plugins in. They stop communicating. And so I’ll like get ready to go play the next like quarter the next layer. And then nothing comes out. So then I have to either restart Ableton or unplug the MIDI cable and plug it back in. I did it twice during that show. And you can see it like change my face. I’m like
But it’s usually like a very quick fix. Yeah. And I have the benefit of people understanding that it’s all live. It’s all being done live. So there will be flaws and blemishes. My most streamed song on Spotify is just absolutely terrible. Like all of the kicks are out of sync and everything’s loop. So it’s like out of sync in loop. The vocals are coming in too hot. The synths come in too hot. You’re hearing me volume adjust in real time.
was just a set I recorded in Portland at Cannon Beach and I literally took the 45 minute recording, chopped it up into each song where one starts and finishes through a disgusting master on it and released it online, made one of my tabletop videos, performed one of those songs from that set at the tabletop videos. It was like six and a half million streams.
just goes to show you like people don’t really care about that stuff anymore. Yeah. They really don’t. What do you think they do care about? Just getting what they need from the music. What do think they need? They need a lot. A lot of people now need a lot. It’s just getting harder and harder and we’re not meant to intake all of the information that we’re taking in on a day to day basis so easily, so fast.
and people like are losing themselves because of this. I even feel that way sometimes. Like I feel so disconnected from reality sometimes. And I just feel that’s just because, you know, it’s crazy. But
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (28:56.558)
Yeah, I love providing an opportunity for someone to serenity and peace in their day. Yeah. To some extent. And I just want to keep doing that. Yeah. Was there a moment or an experience in your life? I’ll make a song for you videos or something maybe that you didn’t put out that really moved you. Yeah, there was this one guy in San Diego named Lou.
It was at Horizon Music Festival. I got like a booth set up in there and I came to the table. He was like, I’ve seen your videos. And I was like, how’s it going, man? He’s like, times have been tough. Times have been better. And yeah, by the end of the set or by the end of the song, he just, he was crying very, very like this was, this was his position the entire time.
And then at the end of it, you know, like a three and a half minute video, he just like took his hat off, took his glasses off, started wiping his tears and he like just didn’t move from this position the entire time. So I got up and I gave him and I went behind him and I like just grabbed him and I started hugging him and we just held on for like 15, 20 seconds and.
Yeah, it was just so memorable. I’ll never forget.
she was crying too. Yeah, I’ll never forget that day. That was a really special one.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (30:29.954)
Yeah. What’s going through your head at the time when all of that was happening? There’s two things. One, don’t fuck up because you’re going to take, it’s like, it’s a real concern. It’s a genuine concern. Like you have this person’s emotional stability, like in the palm of your hands and like, like don’t fuck it up. you know, land him where you’re trying to land him.
That was the first and foremost, but then second was, the second was when I knew I was almost done with the song. There was just like this part of me that was like,
I need to go and, you know, I need to go and be with him. Like I just provided something for him, but like now I need to go and be with him while he’s like feeling what he’s feeling right now. And so I just, yes, I just got up and went over there and I just hugged him. Did he have anything to say off air? He said very few words, very few words. don’t think I don’t even think they were necessary. Like I just.
I think it was just a matter of him feeling what he was feeling from the experience and being able to kind of just feel safe and let go. And one of the things, like, you know how you can like look up keywords and comments on video posts and be like, what are people talking about the most in this? I did it, I don’t know if it was me or if it was one of my people who did it, but.
It was. Men crying safe. Those are like three keywords that were being placed on lot of the comments. And yeah. It’s like something about seeing like someone who’s trying to hold themselves together at a music festival.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (32:35.672)
dealing with whatever they’re dealing with before he sat in that chair. And you go to music festivals, like feel happy and joyous. And there’s something about him being there.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (32:50.786)
willing to carry that into it. And then, you know, he went there to try to feel good and feel happy. And I think he did. Damn. Love you, Lou. Hit me up on the DMs, bro. We still keep in touch from time to time. Yeah, it’s good. I feel like it’s necessary. Yeah. Just quickly, I love doing these podcasts.
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small kickback. These are two very easy ways for you to support us as we continue to grow the podcast that we absolutely love doing. Thank you for your support. And now back to the episode. In the past, you’ve said that you hated music festivals and now you’re playing in music festivals. So how did that shift? I was just a hater, dude. I was just a Karen. Seriously, I was a fucking Karen. I’ll admit it. All of my friends were all like,
They used to give me the name, nickname Brandaddy. So all of my, all of my friends like, Brandaddy, you don’t even know what you’re talking about, man. You got to go to one of these. And my first one was EDC. And yeah, I’ll just, it was just a game changer. And I don’t know about it nowadays because I just can’t emotionally, mentally, and like my anxiety and like stimulation.
I can’t handle going to like big, big music festivals like that anymore. But back in the day, like 2014, 2015, I feel like it might have been a different experience than it is today. And it just I just felt just so much love floating around, you know, like the first.
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two hours being there, I was just like, where the fuck am I right now? This is not even real. Everyone’s happy. No one gives a shit what anyone looks like. No one cares what anyone is doing. And the only reason why they are caring is if they just to love on them. Yeah. Yeah. The only reason why you would be interested on anything anybody else is doing is if you you care to share like
cool their outfit is or how awesome their, you know, how like, you know, their favorite who’s here to see you here to see like, who do want to see while you’re here? Just genuine interest, genuine love and genuine care. Someone’s looking a little bit out of it. They’re getting checked on. It was so cool, man. I was like, I was definitely a fucking hater, bro. Hater for no reason. That’s right. We learned. We definitely learned.
I want to explore a little bit about having the large social media presence you have. And I’ve seen a lot of times with some people that have big social media followings, but then there’s like no community and there’s no actual ability to lead people to take action in real life. So what have you done to begin to shift the social media metrics to actual fans and actual people that are in your orbit? And how is it different?
You know, I am very much on the boat that says and then I can cut into each time I say the next word if you want for the clip. But social media and millions of followers don’t mean shit. Just so you know.
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Yeah, it’s about, your question was about curating community. And I even put a video out on this the other day on my Instagram and my TikTok. But if I was sitting here right now with a suitcase and the suitcase had $5 million in it, and I said all of this money would be yours, all you have to do is name the last three people you followed on Instagram and on TikTok.
He wouldn’t walk away with the five million dollars. Yeah, majority of people. know know approximately who I’ve followed, but I know like the type of style of content I make. But I couldn’t tell them. It also really depends on how often you are on social media, but I’m speaking to like the general everyone’s scrolling doom scrolling kind of people, which is the majority of social media consumers nowadays.
There are those rare breeds of people who are very well at managing how often they’re on social media can turn it off for months or years at a time and live their life power to you guys. But to the average person and it’s by design. So they make it impossible to build community on any given day. Like now after gaining a million on Instagram and two point four.
on TikTok with a couple hundred on other platforms. I’m reaching anywhere from like seven to 12 % of my audience. It doesn’t really matter like how much production value I put into my videos.
and I know a lot of people who are in the same boat.
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of artists who have to pay for the engagement to make it seem like their pages are still relevant or popular. And it’s all just this huge game of a facade. And you just kind of have to throw your hands up in the mirror, like, well, you know, I decided to do this, put this tour together. And I can’t tell you how many times I get people messaging me or DMing me like, I had no idea you were on tour and you just left my hometown.
It’s not reaching anyone. Targeting ads. Nothing really changes the fact that these apps where like remember when you used to scroll on Instagram and you reach the post that you saw the night before when you went to bed the next morning and when you reach that post starting the next day, you knew that you didn’t need to be on social media anymore.
Like you saw what sent you to bed the night before and finished your social media scrolling. Those days were like, amazing. You didn’t have to tell yourself when you should get off social media. The app told you what to do and now they don’t ever want you to leave. So how can you? have to opt out. Yeah.
You can remember and look back in your text threads at all the links that you’ve shared for social media videos that you’ve watched. You can remember which video you sent to the last person because the video was somehow relevant to that person, your sister, your girlfriend or your wife or whatever. And if it was funny or if it was about politics or about something, you just have so much more ability to recall those specific videos.
but you will not remember who made them and they just want it that way. building community is very difficult now. It’s incredibly difficult. So what kind of things are you Knowing that how difficult it is and knowing that it’s necessary to build a good music career. I don’t put it in my own hands anymore. I don’t take anything personally.
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because it’s either gonna be built in the ways that it’s, I can only build it in the ways that I can attempt to build it at the pace I build it and the means that I build it. And I can’t have any expectations set forward because if I do that, that entire process is just gonna be fucking miserable. It’s gonna be such a passion killer. It’s gonna be such a detriment to whether people decide to keep going or not doing what they wanna do.
tough gig, but at least the positive is you’ve connected in some way. So it’s a lot more than many, many, many aspiring artists, which is great. I am incredibly lucky. I have so much gratitude. So now what to do next? So I think you’re on the right track that you’ve started to do a lot more like longer form, thoughtful, visually focusing.
videos. And I’ve seen when I was doing some research, I’ve seen some amazing comments on those videos. And I think that’s the difference. I think the long form intent driven click of like say YouTube.
I remember the YouTubers. I remember. I remember the live streamers. I remember the people that I invest more time into. So by doing this stuff, it’s I think that is a big tool to build a genuine fan base. Yeah, I love that. Talk about that. It’s crazy. I just I just thought like. When’s the last time you went on YouTube to unsubscribe to somebody? Really? Yeah, really.
But I unfollow people all the time on Instagram and Tiktok and all the other platforms. It’s much more higher intent. So I think about this a lot like the long form content requires the opt in of the person who’s watching it because it’s not just fed to you and by opting in they’ve chosen and therefore they have more ownership over that decision and therefore they’re paying more attention. And then the more time they spend with you means that
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they’re investing more overall energy. Let’s say like an hour, someone listens to this podcast for an hour. That’s 60 reels equivalent of time. But it’s one piece of content and a hell of a lot less people will listen to this than a reel. But I think the actual influence of that time spent is way greater. So
With that in mind, like you’ve live sets in the middle of nowhere. You’ve done them in Utah. You’ve done in Cannon Beach. You’ve done them in Dubai. What’s been the biggest logistical nightmare you’ve faced filming those videos? Every video has its own, man. Utah Moonscape Overlook was showing up. By the way, if you’ve never been to Moonscape Overlook, you need to like, you need to head to Utah. It was...
hands down one of the most magical places I’ve ever been to in my entire life. But anyways, we were on the road and we drive, we’re driving up, we’re following the GPS and then all of a sudden, like the line just has the blue circle and you just stop and you’re about 30, 40 yards away from a cliff that goes down about 250, 300 feet. And then as far as your eye can see, that is the new
That is your new like ground level sea level surface area. So it’s like everything behind you in a straight line from like left to right is where your car is and where everything is like 200 feet up. And then everything beyond that line over that cliff is just a whole nother, you know, level of ground, right?
And it just makes you feel like you’re in two different worlds at the same time. We got out of the car. was like 30 degrees. Our hands were freezing. We were trying to set up equipment. had, you know, we had the electric heat warmers and our hands weren’t doing anything. And I’ve never heard silent that way. Like being in a place where there’s, there’s nothing around you and it’s so
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completely silent and quiet. I just, that was a big, huge thing that just kind of shook me to my core. Dubai electrical issues. Dubai was figuring out like getting power, the right power adapters to charge my, or to power my units when I was making my set. So the Dubai set actually,
my MPC that I make all my percussive sounds and samples on.
It died about four or five seconds after we stopped hitting record. So it just made it. It wasn’t the power cable wasn’t keeping it on, but it’s self powered and it just had enough juice in it to finish that set. So that was a big one. How do you set up like a full set synthesizer set up in the middle of the desert? Is it just like a generator running or what’s going on?
Yeah, we have shout out anchor products. I mean, if you want to put that in there, it’s up to you. Make them pay for it. But yeah, we have like power banks, large power banks to be able to power everything. Before I found out about the power banks, I grabbed an inverter from Pet Boys and a car battery and that would charge everything. That’s how I would charge everything when I was street perform. Keep everything powered for hours and hours and hours. And then I would take it home and
and do a trickle cell recharge overnight. would charge and get the battery back up 200 percent. But yeah, the power banks are incredible. They’re more portable than ever now. And you just get a couple of them and you take them out and you set them up. Yeah, that’s what I use for all the multi-cam like DJ set stuff as well. They’re really solid. They are big blocks. Are there any dream locations that you’re trying to get into that are potentially illegal or almost impossible that you’d love to try and?
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Do a pop up out. Illegal. Impossible. Nothing is impossible if you believe. I mean, I think it would be really cool to do a set at Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. That would be I’ve seen Padre Pio. Is that his name? Padre Pio, the DJ priest. Have you seen me? I have seen his videos. Yeah, he did. He did a set.
top of Christ the Redeemer. Just it looks so cool at nighttime with the thing being lit up and the whole city’s all of Rio de Janeiro at the bottom of you just look really cool. Are you religious? That would be cool. I’m spiritual. got my God. God’s always looking out for me, but God loves everybody. Doesn’t tell anybody anything. Just love. So I want to dig into
layers and the sound production and the process. So you performed at TEDx Portland recently, which is very different. Did you feel out of place? Like you had to prove yourself that what you were doing is a really genuine art form to that audience or you okay? No.
Like the music, the great thing about live looping is you can create and curate whatever you need and whatever you want. So the music I did at TEDx was very like soft, digestible, melodic, electronic music. And I think people being able to see, because they had me on the screens, they had cameras showing that I was doing it live. So.
They’re not really they didn’t feel like they were there watching like a DJ performing They were watching some dude build music live on stage and the music just happened to be like more into the EDM market kind of vibes so And that’s that was by design Ted X is very they’re very good at putting events together and Getting the right speakers and performances and getting the flow of the shows together. I’ve done a couple of them But I love Ted X
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I was so happy to be there. was the largest, it is the largest TEDx in the United States, Portland. And they just, they just make you feel so good and so special for being there and they take very good care of you. Yeah. I love that. What would you say with an audience like that would be like the number one misconception that people would have about being like a live electronic artist?
From my perspective or from their perspective? From their perspective that you’ve seen.
A lot of people don’t even realize that they like electronic music.
Yeah, like they don’t realize how there’s ways to get introduced. Like even on this tour, like I am blown away at the I’ll do this little blip where I’m like, where are my nineties babies at? Where are my eighties babies at? Where’s my seventies? Where’s my sixties? And like we’re as we’re getting further down the thing, like people are being like more invested, like are there people born in the 60s here? What’s the earliest you’ve ever had the 60s?
you know, depending on if it’s an all ages show or not, I’ll go back up to 2000s and further, but. Who’s in the 2020s? and 2000s. But at my last show in Denver, there were some there were some kids there. There’s some kids, their parents brought them out. That was a lot of fun. They the headphones and heard the noise suppressing headphones on and everything. But.
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It’s tribute to the fact that social media spans to such a wide variety of people. Anyone, whether you listen to electronic or music or not, the algorithm would put a video of mine on their feed. They’d watch it. They’d be like, this isn’t electronic music. This is an experience. And the music is like the second part of it. But they’re watching something happen, take place on their phone. And they’re like,
this guy being able to do that is really freaking cool. Now they find out I go on tour if I’m fucking lucky and they get some of their fucking radar and and all of a sudden. Sorry. And all of a sudden they’re like, oh, I want to go see this guy live. they haven’t even looked at my Spotify. Maybe they don’t even know that I can see myself like trying to guard. I just saw some of my videos. So I’m going on tour and they’re like, all right, we’re to buy some tickets. Next thing you know.
I’m on stage there in the audience and I’m like, raise your hand if this is like your first electronic event, you know, EDM experience and you see the hands go up. And then I’m like, everyone around you is gonna welcome you. Everyone’s gonna say, how are you? Like, if you wanna dance, dance, enjoy yourself. If you’ve ever felt like you couldn’t do that in any element or any space, this is your chance to do it now, even if you just wiggle a bit, you know?
but feel free to be whatever you want to be now. And then all of a sudden in a very smooth, soft, manageable way, they’re introduced to something that they’ve never been introduced to before. And it opens the door for them to enjoy it. And maybe you want to do another one or go to something similar again. Kind of like you going to a music festival, going from being a hater to a...
player. I got my ticket paid for it. That was the reason why I went for the first one. My buddy paid for it. Someone kicked you off the ass. So for those who don’t know, run me through exactly what you’re doing when you’re using your body to make sounds. What’s actually going on? well, I used to do all the beatboxing stuff, so I just like thought it would be cool to incorporate elements of that.
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into what I do now. So like I use my mouth to do like the trumpet and like I modulate the trumpet to make it sound like another instrument like it’s called a deduke. It’s like a wind, wood instrument. How do you do that? Do you just like like what are you doing? Yeah. So if I try to do that, sound like an idiot. So can you go like this?
Try to like tighten it a little bit. Yeah, yeah, it’s a little better. Try to control gumming up and down a little bit different.
Yeah. Yeah. So, then like once you, once you’re able to like just you’re like, you’re controlling the tone and the wind, the amount of air coming out of your mouth by you’re automatically controlling the amount of air coming out of your mouth by controlling the tone of what you’re doing. Like in order to get up there, I need to like tighten and like push more air out. I’m not trying to, it’s just, I’m trying to reach that note. So the air is doing on its own.
And then once you’re able to kind of tap into like that form of control, then you can like move easier from there, like doing like the mouth trumpet. And then once you get better at that, then you can like be more intricate with it. Like,
I don’t like that.
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Wiggle the belly. A really, really important question on this. How important are the hand gestures? Oh, I mean, you’re not doing it unless you’re doing it. Like manifesting the fake trumpet. Yeah, exactly. And it’s funny because sometimes I’ll do five fingers and then sometimes I’ll do four and then sometimes I’ll do two. Sometimes I’ll do three. But I think there’s only three nozzles. I’ve actually never
played a trumpet or like touched the trumpet. I don’t even know if I’ve touched a trumpet before in my life. You’ve touched the essence of a trumpet. I have. And there’s this funny thing that I thought about the other day. You know, beatboxers, I like how they’re always beatboxing. They’re moving like, know, they’re all doing this stuff. Like if you just took a video of their hands moving.
And like you made a montage of all the different beatboxers and like their hands moving to them beatboxing with no audio of the beatboxing. I feel like that’d be really interesting to see how like their hands move and like how it lines up with the sounds that they’re making kind of thing. It’s if anybody wants to do that, give it a shot. I’ll just do like the shitty voiceover versions of like someone beatboxing and then just like.
That’s so good. What’s the most like intricate and most difficult thing that you can just play on the fly? Instruments or anything with your voice. I’d say it was the like if I’m just doing it raw like this, it’d be the trumpet.
But if it was, if I had my rig in front of me and I can add like my reverb effect on it, it would be the, like the middle Eastern to Duke sound. just imagine it with like reverb, but it’d be like, something like that, you know? But with the reverb, that’s just like a whole.
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transcending experience like to hear that. So that would be that with the with my rig and with that it would just be the trumpet. Can you play like the piano? With my mouth. Is there a mouth piano? No, can’t do that. What instruments can’t you do with your mouth? A lot of them, most of them. Why? So basically you can just recreate all the horn instruments? Yeah, I mean even
Like there’s people who recreate the saxophone, but that incorporates using your nasal passage. Can you do that? No. just stuck with like the trumpet and like that, and then a modulation of the trumpet because I’d rather get fucking really good at those two things and those be like my things. Yeah. Then like try to do a bunch of other, I mean, I’m not even doing the beatboxing anymore, but yeah.
Those elements work very well in a live electronic set. You have like Grizz bringing on like fucking Enno Dessa bringing on live instrumentation. Yeah, I DJ with saxophonists all the time. Van Deluxe does that. Yeah, I mean, it’s just, it’s, it’s, yeah. What about the violin? I could do the violin, but it needs the reverb too. Okay. And it’s all through the nose and like tonality, but.
I know if it’s going to come out as great as it does normally, but check a reverb on it on the back end. Check a reverb. Yeah, go from raw to reverb. So it’d be.
And then even the little
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I love it. So to wrapping up, if you go back to the high school version of you that was getting bullied and was starting this whole journey, what would be one piece of advice you give him? So at some point he will experience out of high school, moving into the world of street performing, street performing very often in a place that was a central hub for where people he went to high school with would socialize, AMC theaters.
Lots of restaurants downtown Burbank.
four, five, six, seven, eight years after that, after high school, there will be people who start to develop families, start getting married, and they will come down to Burbank, see that he’s still street performing there and be like, you’re still doing this? And you’re sure you’re just gonna be like, it’s like a gut punch, you know what I mean? Like it’s an element of embarrassment and like, that plays a lot of into how you feel about yourself.
those people dropping like a dollar bill in your jar and you’re just like, you know, like it’s just feels embarrassing. And I would just tell them, don’t be so hard on yourself. Don’t be so hard on yourself because of that.
knowing what I know now and I can, and I can, if I can go back and tell, tell them like, everything’s going to work out just fine. You know, like you’re going to get to a place where you have a beautiful wife. You have an incredible career where you’re traveling and everything. And you get to take your mom and dad to Cancun, Mexico for an all inclusive resort to go watch Rufus du Sol and do a leap. And
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everything’s going to work out. Just, just be gentle and more kind to yourself when you go through those experiences and those moments. Cool man. And if this was ever, if this was your last piece of content and you had 60 seconds to leave a message for the world before it goes dark, what would you say? 60 seconds. Last. I got a better way to do this. Let me do this again. If this was your last ever set.
and he had 60 seconds to leave a message to the world at the end of that set, what would you say?
That is the same reason why you guys all came here today. Does that make sense? If you feel like you need to. Like the things in life that you share in common that bring you joy. That would create an entire room full of strangers to come and share something that they look for and that they find in common, but they never they never communicate to each other in that room altogether.
think the world is very disconnected. Everyone in the world is very disconnected from each other. And it’s very simple. Like we have way more in common than we do not. And so. If. My music can bring a group of people. Into a room together who are complete strangers, but are there because they have so much more in common than they think. Find that in each other.
Talk about that and start making what you have in common with a stranger, something that makes you feel closer to them without knowing them. The world will be more gentle on itself at that point. We’ll have way more empathy and sympathy for each other, for everything that everyone goes through.
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Brandon, layers. Thank you. Thank you, man. I had a great time, brother. And if you enjoyed this episode, please go to YouTube Search That One Time with Adam Atwally. Click Subscribe, and we’ll see you next week.
