Speaker 1Hello and welcome to this bonus episode of the James Kennedy podcast. That's right, we're dropping some gold outside of season, baby. Now, I know I said I was disappearing off the face of the planet to plow all my time into finishing this goddamn book, but you know, sometimes opportunities come along and you just have to say fuck it, and this is a case in point. And it means that you lucky listeners also get a cheeky extra episode just when you thought it had all gone quiet over here. Well, it's been far from quiet, let me tell you. I have indeed been burying myself deep into writing this new book, but I've also been rehearsing my ass off with the handsome bastards in the James Kennedy and the underdogs Juggernaut, who will very soon be gracing a stage in literally two weeks from now. And did I mention our acoustic EP, which is out on August the 4th? If you're not already on our Spotify, Apple, or YouTube pages by now, then do yourself a favor and sign up to all of them and bathe in the knowledge that you're vaguely helping an independent band, but also far more helping an evil multi-million dollar tech company. And who doesn't want to do that? So there's lots coming up at Underdog HQ as we prepare for our upcoming hometown headliner before nipping off to the Beautiful Days Festival, where as well as having two full band slots, I'll also be joining some talks and maybe even doing a solo show. Um, so if you're gonna be there, make sure you come along and hang out, man. But now, on this bonus episode of the podcast, I think it's time to move on to the guests. And that's right, you heard me right. I said guests plural, because today we've got not just one, not just two, but three guests on the show. The talented, the brave, and the lovely Manny, Bethany, and Joshua, otherwise known as the ass-kicking net-breaking alt-pop trio, We3. Now, we did have some transatlantic Wi-Fi gremlins in places, but hopefully it won't detract too much from the listening experience, because these guys have got a super interesting story and a ton of stuff coming up, including an awesome, awesome album coming out this very week, as well as a huge international tour. And we get into a whole bunch of stuff in what was a really fun and insightful chat. So before I pass you over, please remember to subscribe to the show, wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to leave your comments and ratings, as it's always good to hear your thoughts, too. But for now, here it is, my chat with the wonderful We3. I really hope you enjoy it. James, hi, how are you? There we go, got you. How are you doing, guys? Good to see you. Thanks for joining us, man. How's it going? Yeah, a pleasure having us. We've been looking forward to it. Well, guys, you've been busy, man. I mean, there's so much stuff I want to get into, so many questions, and you've got a load of stuff coming up as well. We're going to get into all that. So I don't want to delve too much into the backstory, because you guys have been over that so many times in interviews. But the problem is, is that you're at your backstory is so damn interesting. So we're not going to park up on it, but if we could just do like the one-minute kind of, for those people that don't know you guys yet, if you could just give us the one-minute bio of who are We3 and so many interesting stuff that's happened along your
Speaker 2journey so far. Yeah, I mean, for those of you who don't know us, I would say one thing that's
Speaker 3very interesting is we are three siblings, and we have been in a band for 10-plus years. We forget the number. We've been siblings for 10-plus years. The last five years, it's always been 10 years. Yeah, that's why I'm just saying 12 now. We've been in a band for a while, like when we actually started this, but we had the opportunity to go on America's Got Talent back in 2018. And super, super cool. We never thought that would be something that we would do at all, but the opportunity just kind of presented itself. We went on the show. They seemed to like it. We made it to the semifinals. We gained a huge following and just kind of continued to push from there. So we really do owe a lot to America's Got Talent. It really propelled us into our career today. And then after that, we got to work with
Speaker 4some, we've been able to work with some great team members and release. We're on our fifth project now, our fourth album, and a bunch of singles. And yeah, just getting to do kind of living the dream. It's, we're kind of, we pinch ourselves almost every day. It's like, this is, this is pretty rad.
Speaker 1So it's insane, man. I mean, like your, your fan base and the love you guys got on your socials and online and everything is completely justified, but it is of a different level, isn't it? I mean, what do you guys attribute to that connection that you've got with your fans? I mean, I don't think, I mean, there's loads of people that have been on, you know, TV reality shows and stuff like that. And we've got our versions of it over here as well. But I mean, most people, then you don't hear them, hear of them after that, but you guys have just been propelled into like a different level. And like I said, that the level of love that you've got with your fan base is, is very like special and unique, isn't it? What do you attribute that to?
Speaker 2So sweet to say, no, I mean, I think we didn't want to disappear after the show. Nobody wants
Speaker 3to disappear after the show. Yeah. And that's all we had seen. Yeah. We were definitely aware of that. And so we saw the show as more of just a tool, not trying to downplay it, but that wasn't like our goal. So we weren't very, even very starstruck when we were on there, it was just kind of like, no, this is to the next, so that we can get to the next phase. But that's what, that's what Simon said, actually, that's, he said, this is a platform. So there's
Speaker 2a lot of hard work. There were ups and downs and there's still ups and downs and there's
Speaker 3going to be in the future. But the fans really, we didn't realize what kind of a fan base we had for the longest time, because this is our first fan base. And so we just really
Speaker 2didn't know. But the more we got to know each other, the more we got to know each other. The more we traveled, the more shows we played. And, you know, we go across the pond, play
Speaker 3shows and spots we'd never been. And the fans were so consistent everywhere we went, the energy was the same. And then we would have people at the venues start to talk about our fans. That's really what I started to know is they would come up and just be like, you have one of the most energetic fans, like passionate fans, but so respectful, so kind, but they also are ready to have a good time. They're like, I don't really see this very often. And so I don't know why we have brought them to us. But we're not going to stop because we really do love them. So that's the best answer I can give you because I they they inspire us to keep working on this. They're lovely. We put out music that makes us nervous on the regular. And from the beginning, I think the first couple songs that we did that with their response kind of just showed us, oh, of all they want from us and we can do this and they're gonna receive it and so it's just kind of
Speaker 4it's very symbiotic yeah yeah yeah the honesty means a lot uh and it goes a long way and i think that we just realized wow a lot of us just feel the same way like we relate in a lot of things we have the same struggles um no matter what side of the pond you're on yeah and um yeah it's pretty astounding they they check in on us frequently too just you know they haven't heard if we haven't
Speaker 3been on socials or whatever for a while we get messages saying hey just checking in are you okay okay thanks so sweet i think it's just the similar energy that is going back and forth we're giving it to them they're giving it back to us and that naturally just kind of expands i think if you have that that good supportive energy our concerts feel a lot like they're yeah yeah that's a beautiful
Speaker 1thing man i mean i i've got uh it's pretty difficult i think when you're in the middle of the tsunami um to kind of to appreciate it because you're in it you know but i would say that um looking in as a spectator you know it's like i think that not obviously the music kicks ass and the band is awesome but i think like josh you said bravery um i think and openness and honesty and i think that is a massive part of it because your lyrics are so raw and open and honest and they touch on themes that everyone goes through in some form or other and you do it without any sugar coating and you know you're laying yourselves bare and i think that when you do that and you let yourself be vulnerable as bethany said you know it's like it's so much more relatable and real isn't it you know what i mean and and that makes people then they just they stick to that they gravitate to that because they know that you're not lying to them they know that you're speaking their truth as well as your own and i think your lyrics are awesome guys as well as the music of course you know but i mean you deal with some pretty heavy-going subjects man without without messing around you know you know it's unintentional but
Speaker 2life's kind of heavy isn't it so we're going to talk about those things and so um but yeah like
Speaker 3you said it's scary every single time i made a rule um a while back where if i show people a new song the it has to make me uncomfortable to share it with them to like have them listen to the lyrics that i'm saying and if it doesn't it usually means i'm not being honest enough not
Speaker 1being cool enough i need to get over 50. love it and are the lyrics all like 100 saying you know from direct personal experience or is there some fiction in there as well
Speaker 3uh yeah i would say 99 like you know there might be i think there's a song that was on our record that was like storytelling but uh no 99 of it is all true true story stuff that we're going through
Speaker 1wow that's incredible i mean i love the lyrics personally i mean they really stand out to me and there's a ton of stuff on there on the new record that i want to talk about in terms of um the lyrical content but we'll come on to that in a minute but i think that's a really good point i in uh in a second first i want to talk about the making of the new album because i mean you know you guys are at an interesting juncture in your uh journey now i mean you're a point in your career where you are like fully yourselves doing your own thing on your own terms so what was the process like of making this record you know did you enjoy it was it arduous was it quick and easy i mean uh tell us about the background to making this new record one thing i think that was cool is uh
Speaker 4there's a producer that we started working with two records ago and i think that's a really good record to go and so with this one i feel like we started working with him like early and that's
Speaker 3one thing that changed that i think was really just added a new depth and a new level and just a lot more fun yeah um he actually got to fly out here he was in the studio and everything so yeah we made the whole thing right over there oh wow
Speaker 2my little studio um but uh this one was slightly unique for me because it almost uh we weren't
Speaker 3planning on making a record as a songwriter you know you have a back catalog of just hundreds and hundreds of songs songs you forgot about and that's kind of where i was i wasn't at the point of like putting a record together and then all of a sudden our management was like i need a record like now and i was i got freaked out and i started writing a bunch and i remember both of you were like no you have songs let's go through the catalog and so this is almost like yes there were songs written after and stuff like that that are on there but it's almost a lot of like that catalog stuff which was kind of ironic yeah yeah so i got to finish it and um and like you're saying how to produce or come out and he finished the entire record in two weeks he came out i mean i had a lot of it recorded and stuff but then he came out we both sat down for two weeks straight and um just banged
Speaker 4out 18 songs jesus christ his his his demos are less and less demos that's insanity two weeks
Speaker 2my god you're putting us all to shame guys it was that's that's uh bill zimmerman he is so fast
Speaker 3he's a ninja on the computer so some of the stuff that he does like wild i think i'm fast on logic and then i see him go and it's like so but yeah it was a very cool experience very different yeah yeah but then it still came together um conceptually yeah i just ended up there were so many songs that you know didn't end up making it and then the ones that did we just keep finding reasons why they're supposed to be on some project together this one in my opinion i don't know there's some it didn't necessarily feel amazing making this record i'm not gonna lie it was really stressful we weren't in like the best space to put it together it was a hard one to like feel good during it type of a thing but we just kind of trusted the songs and just trust the timing of shit and why it's supposed to be there whatever but now just yeah the project in of itself and how people are responding just as teasers of things yeah um well because we've been sitting with these songs for some of them almost two years like there was like a chorus or something like that or and so you you get numb to it and you don't really know and so it's hard to actually decide is this good or is this bad and um we kind of had to just let go and let the process happen and just the vetting process of which songs make the record and um usually when we do that just kind of let go we want it to be organic so yeah starting to tease these songs uh it's feeling like that process worked and again make the right decision so yeah but it's always a gamble you flip a coin every single time yeah yeah well i've heard the record i'm lucky enough
Speaker 1to have uh been sent a private link to hear the record and i can say it is absolutely killer guys straight out the gates the first track i was like my jaw was on the fucking floor you don't know
Speaker 2yeah that first one thank you to church a little bit oh that's one way of putting it yeah
Speaker 1grabs you by the fucking throat up against the wall and says you are gonna listen to this fucking record whether you like it or not yeah but the whole record is a ride man i mean like you know there's a the whole range of human emotion is on that record you know the good the bad the fun and the ugly and you know before you know it you're at the end you know and you want to do the whole ride over again you know it's a really uh it's a real roller coaster yeah and how did you find because i do um i recorded my last album in this very room as well just like you guys were describing i do all my stuff at home as well how do you find that process do you prefer doing it that way or do you prefer being able to go somewhere that's kind of neutral where someone else kind of takes care of a lot of the leg work and then you can go home and when you're home you're home or do you prefer to kind of do it at home personally i prefer doing it at home because i'm not having to watch the clock if i want to go up stairs halfway through the movie and tinker with something i can do that do you find that or do you prefer the separation um when i'm i feel like
Speaker 3when we're like making the songs themselves and actually like coming up with the ideas and demos um i have to be in like this space like a home space where i can't like you said and go run go do whatever i'm not you know on someone else's timeline um but then that started to give me anxiety as well because then once you get to the end of the process it feels so good to not hand it over but know that you're not the last hands touching it and like having someone else who's better than you at everything and come in and like tweak correct things and
Speaker 4getting other creative input well they're just so close yeah so so close and so it's hard yeah how do you well just like you said you're in the middle of the tsunami um how do you know what's
Speaker 3going on and so having those outside yeah it's really helpful it's hard to find people that you trust though with your your art so it does it's a trial and error sometimes finding it but bill is an amazing guy and uh he really gets the vision and it's so much fun bringing in songs he still is able to like take them somehow and make them so much better in his mind like you see them as finished
Speaker 4and he's such like a calming presence too yeah he's like super calm while he's doing it during all this amazing stuff like okay
Speaker 1and how does it work with the sibling dynamic i'm super interested in that because my brother was in my band for about two weeks and we just wanted to fucking destroy each other it didn't work at all but i mean how does it work with you guys i mean is that the key to your success and still kicking it you know 10 five years later you know whatever it is um does it add a certain friction that you guys need or is it the sibling bond and the sibling love that kind of is is the
Speaker 4thing that makes it all work what's the spark we don't there's no friction yeah we we get along all
Speaker 5the time sarcasm sarcasm losing uh no it can be pretty shit it can be pretty shit um but we
Speaker 2no go ahead go
Speaker 1ahead okay next question next question
Speaker 3no it's good it um we we found a process it was really horrible like really really horrible um and just hard because we all are our own artists and stuff like that and it's difficult to figure out a way to make it work because we all know how to push each other's buttons too um but now it's almost it's less that we like song write all together stuff like that we try to have our own jobs within week three and stuff like that so i do a lot of the songwriting joshua does a lot of the live stuff and bethany does a lot of the social media it doesn't mean that we're not involved in all right um but once it gets to the end that's when it's kind of crazy so we all start to throw in our like two cents at the end it's like no i don't like that i don't like that and i'm like well i started at the beginning and then the fights break out but we're still here though we are still here yeah i feel like it should be a lot worse it's actually
Speaker 4oh absolutely yeah yeah no i think it gets better and better over time um we respect what each of us
Speaker 3and i think it's starting to become more fun to like collaborate because we i don't know i feel like we've we've gotten through a lot of it's been a lot of years since we've been with this yeah so it's wild how like a lot of the collaboration processes we're just understanding each other more um like no one one person needs to take a break like right now a massive process is like rather than being in the same room it's like you're writing a song and you want to like work on stuff it's like facetimes every 10 minutes like okay how do you think this next thing yeah and that's like maybe just the processes keep changing the other day i facetimed her i was writing a song and uh her husband was sitting in the room and i don't know what line it was but he was like
Speaker 5what if you had like this because he heard it like he called me like 20 times at night and i was like we gotta pause the show he's writing a really good song and i was like i don't know what line it was on right now i was like this one this one it's like i have an idea and i just hear out of the
Speaker 2back of the corner of the room he's like what if you just did like a big choir goddamn in the back and i was like let me try it so i was on facetime recorded it and it sounded awesome so it changes
Speaker 1that was an awesome recovery guys from a kind of a three-way
Speaker 2took a little took a little bit there we stumbled but
Speaker 1well whatever you're doing it's clearly working for you so keep doing it if you got that little bit of friction there that that you need to to light the furnace then uh i'm sorry guys you're gonna have to keep doing it for the rest of us because like i said the new record kicks ass and given the title of the record love me i wanted to ask you guys is there a thread or a theme that runs through the record and what are some of the issues that you guys are tackling on this album
Speaker 3i mean the thread that goes i mean it's the obvious one but um the idea of loving yourself a bit also um just the phrase love me is a thread that's going through this quite a bit in a bunch of different scenarios because it was a very interesting phrase because you can it can be kind of cocky it can be desperate it can be um in love it can be questioning and there's so much and i feel like i get that throughout the record but um some of my favorite topics um our song in love me is a thread that goes through this quite a bit in a bunch of different in therapy is one of my favorites um because it's it really is so honest and raw and every time i listen to it i get uncomfortable because i i almost uh wish i would have sugar-coated it more so i don't have to be as you know not everybody knows all my business and shit but that's um just kind of the idea of dealing with your demons and relationships and then getting out of those relationships and realizing that the demons that you're struggling with in the relationship were still there before and there's well i think absolutely the concepts from current to like we talked about some of these songs with that catalog songs um that found their way here and it does talk about i mean childhood stuff um growing up and we touch on a lot of religious stuff and experiences with that and then how that manifests you to like current day and now the thread is like you know love me which is so wild that that literally appears so many yeah there's even places in the record that when i'm listening i can say it there too that i didn't necessarily realize and like the concept is fluid so but yeah um the other thing that i found was the love songs there's not a stereotypical love song on it kind of unintentionally it's um again it's it's like a question mark it's like it is i adore you but this is really hard this is toxic and like i still love you but this is really difficult so there's almost it's like questioning about a lot of unsettling in this record there's not just a song where you sit down and just talk about how much how beautiful this is and perfect it is that wasn't intended at all um yeah when i think you know you asked for like a
Speaker 4clear answer and i think they all the different things i think it's like a question mark and i think that's exactly what's going on it's like we don't really know um we're like the more that we talk about it the more interviews we have we're we like process it as we're talking so there's a
Speaker 3lot in this record that we don't know how to explain necessarily it's just uh it's it's very like happening almost in real time for us i feel like yeah no that makes a lot of sense i think
Speaker 1that was that was a great uh the way you you conceptualize that then because it is a mixed bag and there is a lot of self-discovery and self-reflection that goes on in there and a lot of self-empowerment as well which i think a lot of people are going to get through i mean i know that that's quite a common thread in a lot of the previous stuff that you guys have done as well because you do talk very openly about some tough subjects such as um on this record in particular you know we got child abuse you know in church tough one but brave brave as hell that you guys did that and much respect you for doing it the way you did it as well you know it must be tough to uh to sing that you know every night you know but um props to you for doing it um you know sexuality gender identity uh mental health suicide you know some some tough subjects and i know that you do have a lot of resonance with the lgbt community um how what what is the situation with that in the states at the moment in the u.s it's not that great over here right now how is it how are things looking on that issue over
Speaker 3there i think the wild thing right now about these songs which again is like we just we very much so have been proven to ourselves to not overthink what we put out to trust the songs because it's been crazy just with the timing of releasing things the timing i think people might look at our project right now and be like well that was very intended and planned and it's why it wildly wasn't um and the conversations which to me some there's a there's some songs on this record that are really hard and they're going to be hard to sing and they're it's going to be hard to put out and it i do lose a little bit of sleep at times hoping that it's going to be helpful not gonna lie um but we've been validated over and over with um even just in conversations with my friends recently that are just talking about what's happening in america right now and the conversations about yes child abuse the conversations about child abuse and the conversations about how people are being excommunicated from um communities communities because of their sexual orientation and identity um yeah you know minority groups right now that are being blamed for things that they should not be being blamed for and it's um yeah we we hope to do what we know how to do which is put music out that's honest and um yeah like we said it's it's very organic how this is happening but we are happy to in any way help and um yeah just lift up people that need a lot of extra love right now so yeah it's a tough time over here yeah um in that in that realm but we're yeah this record we hope is just going to give people a place to go to and yeah feel a little bit less alone that sounds cliche but
Speaker 1i'll 100 do that yeah i mean like i said you you don't leave any stone unturned on this record i mean there's a lot of personal introspection and social reflection and uh tackling some pretty taboo subjects as well like i said without with zero sugarcoating um but i don't want to give people i think it's important to point out at this point i don't like misrepresent the record i want to let people know as well at this point that um it's not it this is a fucking fun record as well like i said it's a full range of the human experience it's a great fun listen and everything you'd expect from the band you know but moving away from the record just for a second i want to backtrack a little and ask you guys what your experience was like of the music industry when you went out into it face first after being the semi-finalists on america's got talent and gaining all that huge exposure and pressure and a huge platform i can just imagine that you were probably swamped by every cigar chomping money rinsing shark in the game but i might be wrong i mean what was your experience of the industry was it was it more of a positive one or was it the old
Speaker 4cliche i feel like it our our experience was pretty in one sense was pretty good like like the team that we had around us um was really helpful and we felt free to be able to do what we wanted to do um i think where it got difficult is we were the the show because they can only tell it's just such a short time so they can only tell so much of your story and so they really focused on a particular part of our story and so that's what the world knew us as in this this one angle and so trying to share more of who we are and more of our story that's where it kind of got difficult we had to do some rebranding so it wasn't so much the music
Speaker 3industry i don't feel like but it was more of like the like the social side of it yeah i don't know how would you yeah i think we went in yeah intentionally like we definitely had a team around us right when we got off the show we had massive attention we were given a massive tour immediately afterwards um a lot of it was just like scrapping getting it together and just like we're going to do what we got to do to keep ourselves propelling after the show um but yeah the biggest hurdle that we had to come to was the rebranding of how we were portrayed when people came to our shows they thought they were going to get a very specific version and then realized oh they talk about this stuff in there okay that was pretty hard to disappoint so many people but um i think it was so worth it because the idea of having to like still sound pretty i don't think we would be here so it took a lot of a lot of hard work yeah we went through some huge bouts of uh depression in those times because the you know followings went down we had to work hard to keep it going and uh but then it just slowly you find you find that that niche you find that new fan base you just keep working just keep true to what your music is
Speaker 1yeah i find that so interesting man because i've never done anything like that so i just can't imagine what it could be like because i've just always been an independent artist and i'm always you know raising the flag for um you know independent artists and stuff like that and doing things that way um but i mean i've just i can't imagine being on such a huge platform like that and then going out into the industry you know what that must have been like and it's you imagine when you're on my side of the fence like cynically that oh well you know every door must be open for those guys now it must be so easy and all the success that follows unearned somehow you know what i mean but i do know that that's not the case and then to hear you talking about the depression you faced and the pressure and the struggles and the the social dynamic changes and everything that happened as a result of that sort of thing not only is that i think quite ubiquitous and quite universal because so many people say the same thing but i oh it's interesting that it's so contrary to the projection of all tv shows like that isn't it you know what i mean where they make it look like it's just all glamour and you live in the dream when you know behind the scenes a lot of the the struggle and the work ethic and the toll it takes on you personally and your personal lives is kind of it's kind of kept from public view isn't it that's true well i think there
Speaker 3was a huge like distance when we were on the show like tiktok wasn't what it is now and there was a
Speaker 5big like veil between the two worlds now if you go on a show like agt i will watch it but i will
Speaker 3immediately go to their social media and be like what's their experience how are they doing they give you such a more insight into the experience which is and that's changed in the last three years so it is a constant different world which i keep hoping gives artists more control yes yes yes not necessarily saying it's always easier but at least you know more say in who they are and what
Speaker 4they're doing on social media but it's hard because you have artists there is that opportunity to have the artists get more control but then it's a responsibility as well man it can be such a pain if those are if you don't have that skill set um to be to have to produce that sort of content and i think that's why we've really been grateful that there's three of us because we get
Speaker 3to kind of each take the lead on certain things like manuel and i hate doing a lot of social media stuff we just don't like posting on our own very much but bethany is
Speaker 4really good at it and she's like boom okay you guys are gonna do this but we've got to give in
Speaker 1that case we've got to give a massive shout out to bethany for the evil genius behind your guys social media gear because man you guys are crushing it on social media well it starts with
Speaker 3the songs i can't do that unless the songs are very diplomatic answer no she she crushes it every most days and i'm always like oh god i have an idea i always have to get my mindset i always do it i always tell you to like come after like a pack of coffee so i can be on your level or else i'm like i just can't you've been beating my energy level really just been wild i gotta get these tiktoks and i'm just like yes the other day the other day he was
Speaker 4like uh she was she wanted to go do something else just you were distracted something and uh manuel's like no hey can we get that other video remember you want to do that like he like kept like four times he like brought her back to like finish this and she's like wow that was really great and then yeah and then afterwards he's like it's actually just because i wanted to get out of
Speaker 2this i wanted to get back in my pajamas it was all awesome whatever it's like whatever well it would
Speaker 1be remiss of me if i didn't take advantage of this opportunity to ask you then what tips would you as someone who has been so goddamn successful on social media um what would you give to all the other fledgling artists who are out there exactly like josh described thinking i don't know what to do i can't be bothered i'd rather be playing my guitar you know i got other things to be how the fuck do i squeeze this in um and how do you get heard above the noise of everybody else at the planet who is also on instagram and facebook i mean you know i'm sure that like um there's got to be some element of evil genius in there because i do you know all the things you're supposed to do in no way apart from being shadow banned so um what bones of wisdom might you be able to throw down to the rest of us to help us out a little bit yeah i mean i have a mind i feel like
Speaker 3just it sounds dumb but it works like copying whatever if you see someone that does something that goes to song in a certain way and it works and you're like just do that organic yeah just do that like try to find someone who's close it's you you're not going to be copying it's just yeah that's my best answer i think um like social i think it's so um mentally it can be like the most defeating thing because it is so important now so i i always tell myself start from a great place of creativity so if you are drained as fuck and you're like not able to think of concepts then don't like take literally like start from a like you have to start from a place where you feel excited and inspired by what you want to create and if that takes more time that takes time people are going to see through that yeah they are yeah you're like faking it like you're really tired oh yeah yeah find ways that you can find enjoyment out of it so like and that might be coming up with a very new concept that nobody else is doing but you're like this is what i could do that i would enjoy making at least to a certain percentage just yeah find weirdly you have to find like a way to make it an art form if you hate it you have to find a way to where you don't it comes from a place of like creativity um and then you just be consistent with like this and then the evil genius thing is like anytime there's a song that comes around like i'm like oh my god that would be so good on tiktok so we're always thinking of like how would this immediately transfer even the songs not finished yet immediately like visually how that's not out yet you just gave away i know but literally like there's certain songs where we're
Speaker 5just like oh my god before it's even finished or even considered a good song we're like that would do so well we just got an exclusive a podcast exclusive oh man
Speaker 1some great tips are some great tips i know a lot of people a lot of artists listen to this will really appreciate that and i'll try and incorporate some of it myself uh as somebody who absolutely detests social media and having to get off my ass and relentlessly make videos and pictures of myself uh i will try and find the fun in it so thank you for that
Speaker 4and i think well i think what he said too at um that what both of them says great the like finding people who were doing it the way that like interests you and kind of copying that and then yeah finding a way to do it organically um that's something that's that's helped me a little bit i'm still terrible at doing it by myself but um finding yeah content on social that you like and that really resonates like yeah i can do that and then emulating that um because then it is more enjoyable it's more organic it's more fun it's more creative and
Speaker 3you can see it as an art form rather than just a job it's going to change your life
Speaker 1and how do you guys feel about social media and the new model of doing things in the music business did you did you guys have any experience of the old model you know the pre my space days when it was all cds and jiffy bags and phone calls and flyers on the street corner and things like that
Speaker 5yeah well i mean
Speaker 3we were kind of on the tail end of it because i was like remember i was registering everything oh yeah that was like a lifetime right we had like a brief moment but it was very small and we weren't i don't think our scale was no we weren't selling any social media was like massive yeah so mainly it was the streaming that we've kind of been involved in but we got yeah do you
Speaker 1think it's better now for artists than than it was back in the in the good old days i feel like
Speaker 4there's more of that i was just i feel like there's more opportunity for artists to be in control yeah but with that opportunity
Speaker 3becomes um a lot of work um so there is more opportunity too for people them to be taken advantage of so i feel like what was already there is just kind of like expanded maybe more so i don't know yeah it's kind of a i mean there's a balance to it because in one sense i'm like every artist ones that no one would have ever heard of has an opportunity now and that's amazing but then on the other hand like ryan said that every single day on spotify there's like over 40 000 songs released so he's like to cut through now you have to really write the perfect song you don't have a choice and so it's now it's like well i guess it it's it's it's a tough one yeah i like them both for different reasons yeah and then i think i don't know i think weirdly we have a lot of people that are like oh my god i don't know i don't know i don't know like i i've tried because i can just get sucked into the like this is what's working this is how we you know the songs they're reviving and how we promote and stuff but then i really try to sometimes like take a step back and like look up above and be like okay this is so weird what we have to do to get songs out there now like it's so weird but it's like also how can we accept the fact that this is where we're at with music industry we have to play the game how can we find our consistency authentic crew line because it's going to change again yeah and that's why like i've got my favorite bands who like they'll play the game to a point but like you see them play the game to a point but they're still themselves through the eras of all of the changes and yeah they are still them their art is just always shines through in the end so that's a big intention it's like yeah it's here now it's going to change again and we're going to try to find a way to go with it but just stay and i think in that i go back to what what uh
Speaker 4daniel said is finding people uh who are doing what you like and emulate that i mean that goes back to when we first started playing music you know that's what we do as musicians right
Speaker 3you emulate what they do um and then you put your own spin on it i think it's exactly the same thing
Speaker 1yeah that's a great point and you've reminded me actually i had a guest on the show um last year a guy called brian slagle who's the ceo of metal blade records so they were um a heavy metal label who've been around you know for over 40 years they were the guys that discovered metallica and slayer you know he's been around you know he's you know he's been around for a long time and he's been you know he's been around the houses he knows the game and he was around you know kicking it in the old model and he's still here you know kicking ass now in the new model and i said to him what's the what's the key to success and he said you've got to have the ability to adapt he said you never know what when the rug is going to get pulled out of you you might think you're flying now but then you know next week it's all going to fucking change so you've got to have the constant ability to just adapt and roll with the tide you know and then don't waste your you've got precious energy
Speaker 3so in my opinion spending too much energy on hating where we're at is like put it into this is where we're at figure out how to adapt and stay authentic and not sell out love it love it
Speaker 1that's the clip we're gonna use guys right love it right well i can't keep you guys all day i mean i don't know what time it is over there it must be like nine in the morning or something like that so i need to let you guys go and drink some coffee um before we wrap up we've got a people about the record man love me it's coming out on july the 21st on palawan productions yeah man the record kicks ass honestly everyone is going to be so your fans are going to love it and people who haven't yet heard of you guys or heard the record they're going to love it too honestly it was incredible listen thank you for doing it a hell of a roller coaster and i can't wait to come and see you guys when you come to the uk because you were also touring you're doing europe as of august you're doing you're everywhere you're doing germany switzerland uh did i see spain as well and then you come into uh the uk we're gonna give a shout out you're doing newcastle glasgow edinburgh manchester birmingham brighton london and dublin so um everywhere in october man are you are you are you excited are you pumped
Speaker 3oh my god yeah we've been this is one of the longer breaks we've had like traveling getting a little stir crazy so i'm very very very excited we're prepping though for this tour we're gonna literally go rehearse after this this is a very exciting show brand new yeah brand new show uh yeah we're putting it all together now just the production everything
Speaker 1is coming together it's really exciting ah i'm so jealous man i haven't told her in a while i'm so jealous i'm i'm definitely gonna come to see you guys i'm gonna try and get to uh manchester
Speaker 3or london so i'll i'll give you guys a a day just let us know thank you so much yeah appreciate
Speaker 1that guys of course and is there anything you want to say to people before we go i mean i can shout out to your socials you can catch up with the guys at we3 music on tiktok and instagram not that you need me to plug your socials but is there anything else you want to say before you go
Speaker 2we love you thanks so much for your support and we hope you love the record
Speaker 3i like saying we hope you love something we hope you love something oh they're going to man love
Speaker 1me is out on july the 21st that's this fucking friday man and i can't wait to see how this is received because i i think it's an excellent record thank you so much for doing it thanks for doing what you do please keep staying true to yourself and doing your thing and i can't wait to see you guys doing it on stage when you come to the uk in a few months thanks so much for stopping by guys i know you're super busy you got a lot on at the moment so i really appreciate you stopping in to catch up and uh wish you nothing but the best for the release and everything coming up and hopefully we'll see you again soon thank you looking forward to it take care guys best wishes manny bethany and joshua from the awesome we3 put it together for them guys what a lovely bunch of dudes and i am not lying when i say the album kicks holy ass man it's a banger it's out in three days time so set a reminder or go and subscribe to him on spotify and the social so you don't miss it when it comes out because if you're looking for something that's going to hit you and and actually mean something and he's going to put the hairs up at the back of your neck and speak to you as well as giving you a good fucking time you know with songs that you're going to want to play over and over again then i've just i've just fucking done you a solid i've just told you where to go we3 love me out on july the 21st and then also check out where the guys are playing if they're playing near you do go and see them these guys are a force of nature on stage and i will be at one of the uk shows or maybe several who knows so stay up to date with what they're doing at we3 music on tiktok instagram and they're they're all over the place they're all over the goddamn internet if you don't know who they are already what's wrong with you thanks for listening i hope you enjoyed the conversation i know we had a little bit of signal interference in places i don't know whether that was my end or theirs or whatever the fuck but i mean it was hopefully it wasn't too disturbing and i hope you enjoyed having a sneaky little bonus episode come out of the blue my podcasting hiatus will resume as of now only for like a month or two whilst i just bury myself deep into finishing my second book and then business as usual will commence as promised with a whole roster of awesome guests which have already been confirmed to come on i've got some dudes coming on this thing so if you have not yet subscribed do it now so you don't miss these episodes when they start flying out every week again in the meantime i really hope you enjoy the new we3 album check it out let me know what you guys think and if anyone has discovered the band as a result of episode then please let me know and let me know what you think of the record take care of yourself take care of each other i love you loads and i will see you really really soon and do not forget if you want to hang out in person check out the live shows at jameskennedystuff.com or check out my instagram page at jameskennedyuk where i'll be plugging the upcoming live shows which will be happening over the next two months and we can share a cold beer in person until then and until next time thanks again for all your support take it easy i'll catch you soon Thank you.
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