Welcome to Audio Signal Podcast, where today we're diving into the art of songwriting and the stories behind the lyrics with the talented Drew Ryder Smith.
Guest: Drew Ryder Smith, Artist/Songwriter
On Twitter | https://twitter.com/drewrydersmith
On Facebook | https://facebook.com/drewrydersmith
On TikTok | https://tiktok.com/drewrydersmith
On Instagram | https://instagram.com/drewrydersmith
On YouTube | https://youtube.com/drewrydersmith
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Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast & Audio Signals Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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Episode Introduction
Hello, everyone, I'm Marco Ciappelli, and this is another exciting episode of the Audio Signal Podcast. If you've been tuning in recently, you know that we've shifted our focus a bit – not just on the stories themselves, but on the storytellers and the diverse mediums they use to express their narratives. And today, we're exploring one of my personal favorites: music.
Music, in all its forms, carries stories that resonate with us, regardless of genre. That's why I'm thrilled to have Drew Ryder Smith with us, a multifaceted songwriter, producer, and artist straight from the heart of Nashville, Tennessee. Drew's journey is as eclectic as his musical influences, and today, he'll share with us the intricacies of songwriting, the fusion of lyrics and melody, and the personal tales that shape his art.
Drew's story starts in Southern middle Tennessee, where his proximity to Nashville and a household filled with diverse musical tastes laid the foundation for his career. From the storytelling prowess of Steve Earle and John Prine to the iconic sounds of Guns N' Roses and the Eagles, Drew's influences are as varied as the genres they represent. This melting pot of musical styles not only shaped his taste but also his approach to songwriting.
As Drew takes us through his journey, we'll delve into the songwriting process – a blend of personal introspection, collaboration, and spontaneous creativity. Drew's transition from solo writing to co-writing in Nashville showcases the evolution of his art form, where ideas and melodies intertwine to create something that resonates with a wide audience.
Throughout our conversation, we'll touch on the challenges and triumphs of a career in music. From navigating publishing deals to the constant quest for creative fulfillment, Drew's experiences mirror the ups and downs of any artist's path. His stories are not just about music; they're about perseverance, adaptation, and the relentless pursuit of passion.
So, join us on this melodic journey as we explore the soul of songwriting with Drew Ryder Smith. Let's discover how stories are woven into songs, creating a tapestry of emotions that define our shared human experience.
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Resources
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Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording, as errors may exist. At this time, we provide it “as it is,” and we hope it can be helpful for our audience.
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[00:00:00] Marco Ciappelli: Hello everybody. This is Marco Ciappelli. Welcome to another episode of Audio Signal Podcast. For those of you that have been listening, my latest episodes, you know, I've repositioned the antennas to capture stories that are focused not just on the stories themselves, but also on the storytellers, which are the one.
That, uh, create the story in their mind and the, the medium, the medium that they use to share their story may be different. So it's not just a book, it can be a movie, it can be any piece of art. And if you know me, you know, I love music, uh, any kind of music, literally. And, uh, I'm excited today that we're going to talk about Songwriting and writing music, recording music, uh, with, uh, with my guest today, which is Drew Ryder Smith, all the way from Nashville, Tennessee,
uh, welcome to the show,
[00:00:55] Drew Ryder Smith: Drew. Yeah. Marco, thank you so much for having me, man. I appreciate it.
[00:00:59] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, this is going to be fun and exciting and kind of like, uh, dig back a little bit in, uh, in where your passion for, for what you do nowadays came from. So, uh, let's, let's start with that. Uh, who is Drew?
[00:01:16] Drew Ryder Smith: Oh, well, that's, uh, that's pretty complicated, but I can, I can tell you where I started.
And where I'm at now, um, man, I, so I grew up in Southern middle Tennessee, uh, which is, you know, it turned out to be a huge blessing, uh, because I didn't have to move all the way across the country to Nashville. Like, you know, so many of my peers did, uh, so many of them are so far away from home and I'm an hour and a half.
From, from my entire family, man. So that, that's been, that's been really great. I feel like it, it also helped me transition into Nashville. Uh, a little better than, than most people. Um, well, it wasn't as scary for me, but I, I grew up with, um, with a mom and dad that loved, that loved music and they loved all kinds of music and lots of different artists and lots of different genres.
And I grew up on, you know, stuff from the singer songwriter stuff like Steve Earle and John Prine, uh, some Townes Van Zandt, things like that. You know, Guns N Roses, and uh, Nirvana, and then back to Merle Haggard, and Dolly Parton, Don Williams, people like that. So, and everything in between, man. The California country stuff, like the Eagles, and Jackson Brown, and Don Henley, and those guys.
So, it's a really, um, really interesting of, of different, uh, artists and bands and musical styles. And I just, I fell in love with music, uh, you know, so young. And, uh, I just, I felt like, you know, it was, um, it was always in my bones. Everyone on my mother's side, uh, of my family played and sang and, uh, my father's side, they were all farmers and mechanics.
So I feel like I got about 50 percent of that in my blood. I don't know what the rest of it is, man, because I don't know anything about cars or farming.
[00:03:25] Marco Ciappelli: So, well, you gotta, you gotta pick something. And the good news is when you let, I think, your passion drive you. It's hard to go wrong with that.
Uh, you need a little bit of luck in life, of course. Yeah. But, uh, but I'm a big fan of listen to, to your heart. So, uh, did you pick up like an instrument right away or, cause I love music, but I, you know, I wouldn't get on stage with my. Guitar or keyboard, even if I play around a little bit, but I do love music.
I love sure. Yeah. I mean, some of the bands, you know, I was born in 1969. So the seventies, eighties, uh, Guns and roses seen them, I think six times.
So, you
know, that's, that's something that I share the Eagles. A lot of, I'm not like a big country guy coming from Italy. The country is not a big thing over there, but, uh, but I appreciate every kind of music.
So tell me about, like, did you pick up an instrument and you'd said, Hmm, this is it. I really love it.
[00:04:28] Drew Ryder Smith: Yeah. Yeah. When I was about 10, I got serious about playing guitar. I had guitars. Growing up, um, but when I, when I turned about 10, that was a, when I got really turned on to it and got really serious. And by about 12 or so, that was when I started writing things down in notebooks, that sort of thing.
So when I got really interested in, in writing songs. And I've, uh, I've not improved any at all since 12 years old. I don't feel like, but I just keep, just keep showing up.
[00:05:07] Marco Ciappelli: All right. Well, that, that's the thing , if it comes natural, that's, uh, that's a good thing, you know? Yeah. A lot of people.
Are really good, technically speaking, and other people are really good in, in putting something out there. I don't know if you agree with that, but, you know, I mean, some musicians are, wow, technically, you're unbelievable, but I kind of don't feel it.
[00:05:32] Drew Ryder Smith: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:05:34] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah. So, um, tell me about the songwriting process because, uh, I mean, obviously writing music, it's, it's also a way to tell a story.
So we're going to go there too, but let's start with the writing itself. Cause a lot of people, they got other. Other writers thoughts, and then they sing that or somebody in the band is not necessarily not everybody participated to the composition of the song, right? So you find yourself playing somebody else's music, singing somebody else's song.
But when you write your own, it's a different story. So how do you do that? What's the process there?
[00:06:12] Drew Ryder Smith: Man, my process is, I mean, for years I wrote by myself until I moved to Nashville, and, and when you move to Nashville, you, you kind of end up in a way, and not in a negative way at all, but in a way, you're kind of forced into co writing with other people, which is a, uh, It's a really great thing, man.
I really love it. I love co writing. I've always loved co writing and have become, you know, I came to love it much more than just sitting down and writing by myself. So much so that there was a long period of time when I never wrote anything by myself. I've saved everything for my co writes. So, you know, the process is that you, you show up with one or two other guys in a room, usually guys that, you know, are also in publishing deals and, um, and you connect and you sit down and you throw around ideas for half an hour or so.
And once you land on one that everyone unanimously. Uh, feels like is, is a good choice for the day then, you know, you just dive into it. A lot of people ask about, you know, did the lyrics or the music come first? That's a common question that I get and
[00:07:32] Marco Ciappelli: yeah, that's my question too. So go for it.
[00:07:35] Drew Ryder Smith: They, you know, usually it's, it's just the idea first and then, you know, from there.
If you've got, if your idea is a line, I mean, we'll just, this is super simple, but like Mary had a little lamb, if that's your hook, if that's what you're going with and that's your title, you know, that has a cadence to it. Mary had a little lamb. And so, you know, to say those words, whether aloud or in your mind, you kind of feel that cadence and that cadence a lot of times, uh, will kind of lead you into a melody.
And a rhythm. So for me, it all just kind of shows up at the same time. And I, you know, tweak things as I go. I tweak things musically, just like I do, you know, lyrically.
[00:08:24] Marco Ciappelli: But, but it does start with the, with the song, with the words first.
[00:08:30] Drew Ryder Smith: With the idea. Well, with the idea, the idea. Yeah. Yeah. I never sat down and.
Write out a verse or write out a chorus and then go, okay, how do I put music to this? To me that always felt too much like poetry. That is poetry, right? It is Yeah, it's just poetry and and I've never felt like I was much of a poet So yeah for me, they all it all kind of comes together all at once That's a great experience, though.
[00:09:07] Marco Ciappelli: Absolutely. When you write something, you usually are the hardest critique of yourself, too.
[00:09:13] Drew Ryder Smith: Always. Yeah. I'm really bad at myself, man.
[00:09:19] Marco Ciappelli: It's easier to give advice. Hey, man, that's great. Great piece you just wrote there. And then you look at yours, you're like, you know, it's kind of like that imposter syndromes but you had good, good success.
You, you've been touring, you've been playing, writing for other people. So tell me when it became a big thing. Business for you. When did you say, Hey, this is, I can make a living out of this. And
[00:09:43] Drew Ryder Smith: I, you know, I never really did. I still don't think that I'm still trying to figure out if I can make a living out of this, but I think it was probably 2008.
I was still working a regular job and. And, um, but I was playing a ton and I was starting to travel to play and my boss called me one night and said, man, you know, you're, you're really into this music thing and it's, it's going really well. Seems to be going really well. And I think you've just got to, I think you just got to take off and just do it, man.
You just, you know, I think you got to dive in headfirst and, and, uh, he said, you know, it's. It's one of those things that, you know, you're not going to be able to just kind of halfway do until something happens. You're gonna have to, you're gonna have to stop this regular job thing and go out there and sweat and, and, uh, you know, wonder how you're gonna pay your bills for a while, you know, kind of bleed for it.
But I think that's what you got to do. And he said, you know, if it doesn't work out, man, he said, you go try for a while. If it doesn't, if it doesn't work out, come back and, you know, you've always got a job. But, uh, luckily I never had to do that. So it was, you know, honestly, it was, it was someone else that kind of coerced me, uh, and, and kind of gave me a little push to do it.
Um, because without that, I think eventually I would have done it myself. I would have eventually gotten to the point where I said, okay, this is, this is getting to be Too much, you know, working full time and trying to play these gigs and, you know, trying to write songs with other people. And, you know, it would have either been that, or I would have eventually gotten to the point where I said, okay, you know, I think I can do well enough.
Uh, without a full time job, I think I can make this the full time job, but it certainly wouldn't have been, it certainly wouldn't have been then. I don't think it would have even been that year, you know. And so, uh, sometimes you need a little bit of help and I've learned to accept that, you know. It's hard for me to accept it sometimes, but I, I have learned that, you know, a little nudge from somebody sometimes can really change your life and, and in that, in that scenario it certainly did.
[00:12:04] Marco Ciappelli: Well, and it's great to have a boss like that. He wasn't even somebody in the music industry. I'm assuming it was another job.
[00:12:12] Drew Ryder Smith: He didn't know anything about, about music or the music business, but he, the, the unique thing about him was that years ago he had played for the Oakland Raiders. He did a couple of seasons with them.
He, uh, I think he blew out, you know, one of his knees, got an operation. Uh, did rehab for that, got back on the field, was killing it, and then blew out the other knee. Right. And, uh, and he, at that point, he said, okay, that's, I think that's probably going to be the end of this NFL career. But the, the guy understood the one in a million chance.
Yeah, he got that. And so that was a that was a unique position for him. And that so it ended up being a unique position for me is that I could hear it from a guy that actually went out there and did that one in a million job. And, uh, you know, again, due to due to injuries, he wasn't able to live it for very long.
But, but man, he got to do it. And, you know, that's a that's a huge thing. So it was much more believable coming from him than You know, if, if uncle Larry would have called me or something, right, you know,
[00:13:28] Marco Ciappelli: you, you, you thought he was much more objective maybe than, than a family member or a girlfriend
[00:13:35] Drew Ryder Smith: or whatever.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:13:37] Marco Ciappelli: But they certainly did understand the struggle and say, you gotta give it a chance. That's, that's pretty much it. Yeah. Have you, uh, have you had some metaphor in speaking, I'm going to use a metaphor, like injuries in, in your initial career that you almost gave up?
[00:13:55] Drew Ryder Smith: Um, yeah, yeah, I think the, the hardest part for me is when I'm between.
Publishing deals, you know, cause you're, you're going to sign usually a one to three year deal, but you, you know, there's an option at the end of each year. And so anytime I sign a new contract, I go, okay, well, I've got 364 more days before I'm potentially out of a job. You know, it's like the countdown starts immediately for me.
And then the closer to that year mark that I get, you know, the more nervous I get about it. And, uh, deals come and go and that's just, I mean, that's just the way that it is. And, and I think, you know, historically those publishing deals have always been that way. You know, one to three years, sometimes you'll get a five year deal occasionally, but you know, most of them are a good average is about three years.
And I've, I've learned from being in several publishing deals myself and then having so many friends in publishing deals, three years is usually, you know, kind of your max. Uh, and everyone's ready for something different creatively at that point. So I think it's good that it cycles every three years, but it, it's still terrifying, you know, because you never know when that, that next deal is, is going to come or where it's going to come from.
So it's certainly not always easy. Uh, those, those would be my injuries, I guess, but those are the, that's usually when I'm the closest to saying, okay, this might be, this might be the last one.
[00:15:34] Marco Ciappelli: But is it also one of those situation where it allows you to reset? Yourself and look back maybe inside and say, am I, am I writing the right stuff?
Am I playing the things that I really like? I mean, does it give you an opportunity to rethink where you're going with, with your music?
[00:15:55] Drew Ryder Smith: Uh, I, I would say yes, but mainly because. Um, you end up in different circles. You, for me, I kind of force myself into other circles that I'm not typically in because I'm looking for a job, you know?
And so, um, and it's not one of those things where you set your sights on, you know, one, one company or one person and you go, okay, that's, that's a thing. And I'm going to hang out until they sign me. You know, you've got to have as many irons in the fire as possible. And so you have to open yourself up to other circles and you have to force yourself into other circles.
And so that's kind of what it does for me. And as a result of being in different circles with different people and different styles and different backgrounds and all that, I, it changes my writing, you know, to an extent. There's still a lot of me in there, but you know, you're always picking things up from, from other people.
And that's one of the fun things about songwriting. As you're constantly learning and you're constantly, you know, taking pieces of other people, just like you're giving, you know, pieces of yourself. So in that way, yeah, yeah, it certainly changes what I'm doing.
[00:17:10] Marco Ciappelli: I like that what you said that, you have to put yourself out there and change the environment to get.
Inspiration and challenges, right? So I'm curious to know where is that you find your inspiration the most? Do you write about things that happened to you? Do you write about things that happened to other? Maybe you watch a movie, you read a book. I mean, what is like your
[00:17:32] Drew Ryder Smith: all of those things?
All of it? Yeah. Yeah. All of those things. Um, I, I, I tell this story occasionally. Um, I was at a Starbucks. One morning, it's been years ago. I think I, I, yeah, I was, I was pretty fresh into my first publishing deal. And, uh, I would stop at this Starbucks in Green Hills here in Nashville every morning. And I'd sit outside and, and smoked and drink my coffee before I went in.
And so there's a, I go outside one day and, and sit down at one of the little tables and like the table next to me, there was a couple there that were breaking up. And so I was like, well, I mean, they're not being quiet about it. I didn't know they were, I didn't know they were going to break up. So it's, you know, I'm not eavesdropping.
So, but I sat there and listened to the, these people break up and. I think I probably, you know, I'm sure three or four different songs came out of that, probably over the next, you know, a couple of weeks or so, just from being in that energy and in that space. So yeah, I'll pick it up anywhere I can get it, man.
Newspaper, eavesdropping, whatever.
[00:18:49] Marco Ciappelli: I guess you didn't credit them on the songwriting. I did not. No, they never, they never know they are in three songs. That's right. It's exactly right. I love, I love that. I love that. Uh, listen, I, I know that you do other things. I have a few notes that, that I have from, from you and from, um, looking at your website and your biography, songwriting, musician, but also engineer and producer.
Now I I'm in LA. I've been here for 20 plus years. So I've met. Few musician here. Some made it, some didn't, but they're still amazing. They play in the local, you know, pop down at the beach in the South Bay. And, uh, and you wonder why they never did it. So there, there are certain things that I feel like things have changed.
That's where I'm going right now. You kind of need to be a little bit of a chameleon, but you also need to put yourself out there and how did doing Other thing, like, you know, being a producer, I think you have a, a recording studio as well.
[00:19:53] Drew Ryder Smith: You've worked there. Yeah. Well, I, you, I think you just nailed it when you said chameleon.
I, I think that, man, the ultimate guide to success is to be able to be a chameleon. You know, remain yourself, but be able to chameleon and into other, into other situations. I, I came about the recording and the producing and all that completely by accident. The quick version of that is that, um, I, I bought Pro Tools and, and had a friend of mine.
IT guy that built me a system specifically for it. This is years ago. I was in my first writing deal and I got a mic and an interface and you know, all the things. And I, I, I got that simply because I wanted to make better work tapes instead of just, you know, because at the time we were talking live. This is 2010.
So at the time, the, the best that was out there was, you know, outside of professional equipment. The best that we had available was, um, you know, little digital recorders because you, nobody was really recording anything on their phone yet. It just didn't sound. Didn't sound like it does now, so I wanted to make, uh, but the digital recorders are a real pain because you had to carry around a USB cord and the batteries would die all the time and because you'd forget to turn it off and just all this stuff, you know, and you'd have to file through, you know, all these different song files on there.
And so, uh, I thought, well, I'll get Pro Tools and that's, I'll make better work tapes that way and be more organized. I just fell in love with the process of recording and it was really the curiosity of like, how do you make this sound better? Do I, you know, can I move over here or, Oh, I can put the mic here and it sounds better.
You know, things like that. Um. So, yeah, man, that's kind of, that's, that's how I got started in that. And it just grew from there. It got, it went way out of control, way off the rails, Marco. And years later, um, I'm, I'm, you know, cutting records on other people and things like that, but it's, it's really a ton of fun.
And I'm so glad that it happened, but it, that has allowed me just, you know, simply my curiosity has allowed me to. you know, kind of move in and out of different circles and different, you know, different situations and, but also be an asset in different ways, you know? So I, I mean, I had this last studio I, I had, um, on Music Row, there were, you know, a few different studios in there.
And, and, you know, the guys that I was renting space, uh, next to, you know, they all knew me as a songwriter, but then. Once I started renting out that space, they found out that I mix and that I record and I produce and all that. And so they go, man, we, we just cut these tracks over, you know, blah, blah, blah.
And we need to mix like Thursday. And this, this guy just, you know, he, he's got a family rehearsal or whatever. Can you mix it? And I go, yeah, you know, and, and then they would just start pitching me their, their demos to mix. You know, and so it's things like that. And through that, I meet other people that I'm not writing with.
And so now I'm writing with that person, you know, so man, being able to do more than just one thing, um, is if you can manage it well, then, you know, it's, it's certainly, uh, It will certainly give you a leg up.
[00:23:28] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, I agree with that. And if you keep it gravitating all around the same area obviously, that's the key.
You don't want to go do something completely different and out of your zone. It's not going to come back to you as a connection or an opportunity.
[00:23:46] Drew Ryder Smith: Yeah, it doesn't really do me any good. You know, to sell ice cream as a side hustle, you know,
[00:23:53] Marco Ciappelli: you may get a good idea for a song. Maybe, I
[00:23:55] Drew Ryder Smith: mean, yeah, it could happen.
And I do love ice cream.
[00:23:58] Marco Ciappelli: There you go. That's your next song, I guess. But
[00:24:03] Drew Ryder Smith: yeah, it's, you know, to keep it all relative, I think is, is the, is the takeaway from that, you know, and it's good for me too, man, because, um, doing the artist thing. I love doing that. I love to perform. A lot of times when I'm performing, performing, I'm thinking about either mixing or producing or writing.
And when I'm producing another artist, I'm thinking about, I want, I want to write more, you know? Right. And, and when I'm. You know, when I'm mixing, I'm thinking about, you know, whatever. And it's, um, it's kind of using, you know, these different parts of the brain, but it's all still musical. So I've been really
[00:24:52] Marco Ciappelli: blessed.
I like that. And I, I think a lot of people need to be more open for these things. Cause if you, you, you'd never know where the inspiration is going to come from or the next opportunity. And you said something, and I'm curious about Nashville, because first you said that when you get there. You got there, you had to start co writing.
Almost like if you said, it's a rule. No, it's an unwritten rule and you have to do it. And now you're talking about being on music row and collaborating with other people. So in my mind, I'm picturing this extremely collaborative environment instead of being competitive. It's, it's collaborative, which may make a huge difference for an artist.
[00:25:37] Drew Ryder Smith: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's, it's funny. I mean, people, a lot of times will, when they ask about it, I say, well, it's, you know, I guess it's really competitive there. And it's like, no, it's, it's really not, man. I mean, we, you would think that it would be, we all have the same goal. So you, you would think that we would all be trying to, but especially now with the ability to.
To put, to distribute music on your own, without a label and without anything else, you know, and as open as the world seems to independent music. It's, to me, it's just, it's just not, it's just not a competition. But even before that, man, like it was, it never felt like a competition. As competitive as it got was, you wanted to write a better song than the guys in the room next to you.
You know?
[00:26:35] Marco Ciappelli: Which is a good competition, it just made you better.
[00:26:38] Drew Ryder Smith: Yeah, and, and the worst that comes out of that is that they try to beat you the next day. You know, and it's the same thing when I go to a writer's round, which I don't, I don't go to nearly as many as I should these days, but you know, to this day, man, even with the success that I've had, when I go to a writer's round and I hear somebody, you know, play a great song, it makes me want to go home.
And write something as good or better than that. So it inspires me in that way.
[00:27:15] Marco Ciappelli: I love that. You mentioned nowadays you can pretty much do music and put it out there. So I know things have changed. When I talk to authors... Same thing. You don't necessarily need the record deal. You don't need the book deal.
Yeah. You, you could go the other way around. Yeah. Go on TikTok social media, I mean, we see a lot of stories of people that just became famous because of that. Yeah. So I'm curious for you to know from you that you had an experience, let's say. Prior to maybe what it is now, so maybe 10 years ago, 15 years ago or more, is the music industry on your opinion, change for the better in terms of opportunity for younger artists, independent, or is, you have no idea, I don't,
[00:28:05] Drew Ryder Smith: I don't know, I don't know, they change you though.
Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think, I think it probably changed all of us in, you know, some shape, form, or fashion. Um, because it, it, it was like, all right, for songwriters, and I've seen guys have this conversation. I've, I've, I've not really been in this situation, but I have seen other guys in this situation where they go, okay, well, I'm supposed to write with, with this guy on Tuesday and he just signed a deal with Sony.
So he's, he's like the new kid on the blog. He's on Sony. It's a huge label, right? So there's a lot of promise there. So I need to be writing. But then this guy over here that's getting a million streams a month, he also wants to write on Tuesday. And I don't know what the Sony kid's gonna do, but I know what this, this other, this independent guy that's getting a million streams a month, I know what he's doing.
Yep. So, you know, it changes. It changes. Things like that, man. Um, and it certainly changed the reaction of the labels and the reaction of artists as well now, because I mean, there's guys out there turning down deals because they're getting, you know, a million plus streams a month on Spotify. And so they, they get, you know, a label Sony or whoever calls them and says, man, you're killing it.
We want to give you a record deal. And I go, why? Why do I want to give you my masters, man? I own everything. I don't know how long this is going to last, but I know what I'm doing right now. And, and it's, it's going well. And so, uh, that's, you know, I think that if that were to happen to me, I think the, even as long as I've been in the music industry, I think, My, my biggest thing would be, well, okay, if I'm getting this amount of streams per month and they're offering me this deal, yeah, I'm getting a million per month, but how, how do I continue that?
And how do I manage it? And how do I get everything that I can get out of this? So tour dates and merch and, you know, music videos and, you know, further distribution and better promotion, uh, radio promotion, all these things, like it's, at some point it, you get to the point where you kind of build, you'd have to build a label around you because you need somebody that's doing merch.
If you're doing that well, you're going to need somebody doing your merch. You're probably going to need a tour manager. You're going to need an agent. You're going to need somebody to do promotions. You're going to need somebody that's going to help with, you know, social media, you know, all these different things.
So I don't know, man, maybe you do sign with a label and you hope that you've got enough leverage to say, you're not taking all of my masters. I'll give you X amount. I'll give you this percentage. You know, and you can do distribution and promotion, but I'm going to keep these other things and I'm going to keep, I'm going to keep this share of the masters.
So it's just, it's, it's kind of a difficult, it's, it's a difficult place to be kind of for everybody. Um, but at the end of the day, it is still a business and, you know, if somebody throws enough money at you, you're eventually going to cave, I guess, you know,
[00:31:54] Marco Ciappelli: I think you made it really. I mean, you made an excellent point when you put it from the perspective of you do have one heat wandered.
You have 5 million, whatever million view. First of all, you get to see, like, can I monetize that? And where are, where are the money? You know, is it like in the click that I get from YouTube? Because a lot of people look at the ads and then when this is over, what am I going to do? Or are you going to really do it seriously?
And then that money is going to have to come out from your pocket no matter what. So you either get. You give away a percentage or you're going to have to create your entire structure for yourself, which when you look at that way, you may want to focus on writing your stuff, right? Yeah, probably. I don't know.
I'll be happy to know other people will think about this and put some comments, you know, but yeah, you made a really good point. Listen, I could keep talking forever because I love the topic and I'd like to hear your story, but I want to give you an opportunity before you, we hand this conversation and you're more than welcome to come back anytime.
And we keep, keep going with, I love to have recurring guests. Cause. I feel like I already know them a little bit. So the conversation become even easier. But what, what are you up now in this day? Um, what's your latest thing? What are you doing? Are you touring? Are you?
[00:33:22] Drew Ryder Smith: Yeah. So I have been traveling. I have been playing.
I was just recently did a few shows in Virginia and in North Carolina. And, um, uh, gosh, Marco, what am I doing next? CMA Awards. Yeah, the CMA Awards are next week in Nashville, so I'm looking forward to that. Um, they, uh, we're taking my mom this year. She's never been to the CMA Awards. So we're going to take her.
She actually just texted me at the beginning of our conversation. And she's excited because Post Malone's going to be there. She loves Post Malone. Great. I do too. So it's going to be fun, man. It's going to be a good time. Uh, new album came out in the summer. It's a, it's an EP. Uh, there's six or seven songs on there.
I don't remember how many, but, um, uh, I'd love for everyone to check it out. I'm really proud of this work. And, you know, I, I wrote songs for so many years for other people and I got really comfortable with that. And, and finally, you know, last year I just decided, man, it's been too long of, you know.
Everybody else is singing my stuff. I've still got things I want to say myself. And so I started putting out some music and there's going to be more music coming out really soon. But for all things Drew Ryder Smith, you can just go to drewrydersmith. com And all the social links are there and YouTube links, things like that.
[00:34:45] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah. And we'll put it on the notes for this podcast or on their YouTube, the video. Right. I will put all the links to your stuff because I want people to get in touch with you. And if they don't know you yet, they can learn more about you and discover your music. So I, I enjoyed this, uh, this journey into your career and, uh, Your honesty, I mean, really, you know, it was definitely not a script conversation.
We didn't even have like bullet point, which is the way I like it. And, uh, and I'm glad, uh, I'm glad you stopped by and share your story.
[00:35:18] Drew Ryder Smith: So, uh, Marco, thank you so much, man. I'm really grateful to you for having me.
[00:35:23] Marco Ciappelli: Cool. All right, everybody here. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Subscribe to my podcast, uh, get connected and in touch with Drew here and stay tuned.
There'll be more stories coming on on our Audio Signo podcast about stories, storytelling and storytellers. Take care, everybody. Thank you, Drew. Thank you.