On Episode 207, I'm joined by singer-songwriter William Beckmann. During this conversation, we talk about his Del Rio roots, border radio influences, splitting time between Texas and Tennessee, finding his voice as a writer, navigating co-writes with songwriting heroes, sage advice from Radney Foster, and what new music he has on the horizon.
This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol, The Blue Light Live, and Charlie Stout Photography.
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The Neon Eon Podcast
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On Episode 207, I'm joined by singer-songwriter William Beckmann. During this conversation, we talk about his Del Rio roots, border radio influences, splitting time between Texas and Tennessee, finding his voice as a writer, navigating co-writes with songwriting heroes, sage advice from Radney Foster, and what new music he has on the horizon.
This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol, The Blue Light Live, and Charlie Stout Photography.
New Slang Patreon
New Slang Twitter
New Slang Instagram
New Slang Facebook
New Slang Merch Store
The Neon Eon Podcast
The Neon Eon Merch Store
Thomas Mooney 0:03
Hey y'all welcome back to new slang. I'm Thomas Mooney and you're listening to Episode 207, where I'm joined by singer songwriter William Beckman. This one with William was done a couple of weeks back. He played a sold out show here in Lubbock. So we were able to record this one here in person over at the blue light before soundcheck. He's one of my favorite promising young writers out there, blending smart, sharp lyrics with memorable melodies, a smooth country, croon, and impeccable tone and taste, we really cover a lot of ground on this one. Everything from his Del Rio routes, border radio, navigating co writes splitting time between Texas and Tennessee, and so much more. He shares a few stories along the way as well. I'll keep this intro really short this go around. But if we investment isn't on your radar just yet, he really should be. He's released a handful of singles in recent years, and has a new EP set for release this spring that really just ought to blow you away. Keep an eye out for that. We'll get to it all here in one second. But first, a word from our presenting partners over at Desert door Texas Soto. Today's presenting partner is our pals over at Desert door, Texas Sotol if you've been listening to new slang, I reckon you're more than familiar with desert door by now. In case you need a refresher or just aren't exactly sure what desert door or what a Sotol is. Well, let me fill you in. Desert door is one of my all time favorite premium, high quality spirits harvested and distilled right here in the great state of Texas. Desert door is genuine and authentically West Texas. So tall comes from the desert plant it shares its name with as a reference point. It is an agave, so there is some semblance to tequila or Mezcal. And it does owe a lot of its heritage to the resilient natives. Although deserts of northern Mexico and West Texas, in my estimation, though, does adore Texas, although is more refined, smooth and fragrant than its Agave cousins. It intrigues the palate and offers these robust hints of vanilla and citrus. There's a rich earthiness that often sends me back to my own Transpac is in Far West Texas roots. There's plenty to love about desert door. For me, it starts with all those inherently West Texan routes, but a close second is just how versatile does a door can be. You can be down home in a denim jacket and a pair of work boots, just something short and sweet like a ranch water or throw it in some Coca Cola protip though, get yourself one of those Mexican cokes when doing so. Or if it's more of a blazer affair, maybe suit and tie does adore it hits the spot then too, you can be a little bit more highbrow and concoct a variety of cocktails that call for muddling fresh fruit and sprigs of thyme and sticks of cinnamon regardless of the occasion or your preferred style. Just follow your bliss when drinkin desert door. Right now you can find desert or all over Texas, Colorado and Tennessee with budding numbers in New Mexico, Arizona, California and expanding across to a liquor store near you for more on where check out desert door calm there you can learn more about their process history and what cocktails may suit your style. Again, that's desert door.com Alright, let's get into the conversation here is William Decker
Yeah, I guess this is like our first time talking in person officially meeting man a few times on on on the all social media and all
William Beckmann 3:45
Yeah, I'm a big fan of yours, man. I follow you on Twitter. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 3:49
Well, you know, I follow you on most stuff. And I let's start off with this. Um, you know, tick tock is not something that like I ever really got into early on, but, you know, I get on and all of a sudden, feels like you got a pretty good following on on the on tick tock. Yeah. What, what is that, like just another aspect of, I guess, you know, connecting with fans, and it feels like you've you've done a great job of utilizing that as a as another tool.
William Beckmann 4:17
Well, I kind of view it as like just a big billboard, you know, just a way to get yourself out there. And you know, as well as I do that, I tour mostly in Texas. And so outside of that world, I wasn't sure if I'd really had anybody that was listening to my music or coming or willing to come out to a show but that I've got people always trying to get in touch with me and want me to get out of the state a little bit. So it's just for for me, it's it was a way to get my music out there to places that I don't really get to tour and whether it's a funny video or a video of me doing a cover song or something. It's just it's just content and it really started for me when when COVID hit not didn't have anything better to do so. So I was just I was playing a Willie Nelson song I figured might as well record it and put it out there but but what's what's really funny is there was one video in particular that really kind of popped off and that's what got me you know, few followers but it's it's a video of me and my roommate just goofing off playing a song. But I realized with that platform specifically, there has to be some what have a level of humor, you know, I think it's a really humor driven platform. And, and so yeah, I always try to kind of keep it funny or do a song that nobody else would think of doing. So yeah, it's just kind of a way for me to, to just have fun.
Thomas Mooney 5:40
Yeah, I what I've appreciated about tick tock or just really any kind of social media stuff is like the, the limits of it. You know, when it comes to Twitter, you got 280 characters with tick tock, you got either like that whatever, like the three minutes at max or whatever, or most things are very, very short. Most people aren't doing three minute tic TOCs. Because, I mean, it's, you're you're losing people's sense of attention. Yeah. But I've that's what I've really liked about it is like, just kind of the limitations of a lot of social medias is nice, because you have to, as you said, you have to be comical, you have to have like a sense of humor, you have to think outside the box, too. Yeah,
William Beckmann 6:21
I think it's just like, just like people probably don't watch as much TV as they used to, you know, they watch people watch series and stuff like that on on on streaming services, but it's just entertainment. I mean, you can you spend hours and hours, which can be a bad thing at some times, but it's just really cool. I jokingly tell people that I've learned I've probably learned more on tick tock than I ever did in high school, you know, like, because there's all kinds of stuff, edgy educational videos, cooking videos, music beat, you know, people put their music out there. I follow this one guy who's hilarious and he's like a golf coach. And, and, you know, it's just weird. You follow, you follow content that you like, and the weird thing, it's kind of scary, but it's the way it works is I get it starts to figure out what it is that you like, and that's what it puts in front of you. So, you know, the algorithm, it'll, it'll start to pick up on the pattern there. So, like, with my stuff, it I feel like a lot of people that like country music and stuff like Americana, songwriter related things. I mean, that's the people that it puts it in front of and so it's really, it's really cool. It's a useful tool.
Thomas Mooney 7:30
Yeah. The, I don't know, like, what their algorithm is, I feel it's the best of everything that that's out there social media was because minute it has you dialed in within, you know, a couple of days. Yeah, like it knows exactly what you want. If it's history talk or like, you know, in your talk or
William Beckmann 7:49
whatever thing is, it's such a hard thing to like, really, really figure out I don't I don't know how to tick tock, you know, that I did. I had one viral video on accident and, and it's been funny to see people come up to me after my shows be like, Hey, man, Where's your friend at? Cuz, you know, I did it with my friends. I he's in Nashville, man. He's not. He's working. He's just following you. Yeah, but it's cool, man. I mean, it's been a it's been a, it can't hurt is what I tell people and just put some stuff out there. You know. And, on the flip side of that, though, I do think it's unhealthy to focus too much on that and just do that, because I know there's, I try to keep it balanced. I want I want people to be aware of my music and get my music out there as much as I can. But I want to play shows for people I want people to show up. And yeah, and sometimes it's lopsided, sometimes somebody might have a billion followers on Instagram or Twitter and something and they play a show and they, they have a hard time getting people out there. So you want to you want to work. You know, I'm glad that people are able to come out to shows again, because doing that in person is probably the most effective way to to make fans play the shows, you know, meet the people, shake hands, have a conversation. That's what I enjoy the most about my job. The the social media aspect of it's fun and all but I'd like doing doing gigs, you know,
Thomas Mooney 9:08
yeah, well, it's the it's so easy to put that cart in front of them, or the horse in front of the car when it comes to the social media stuff or just like just when when you lose focus on what are you here to do. You're here to play music, you want to play music, you want to write music, you want to connect to people in that way. And that always should be the fourth at the forefront should be at the what people think of you as not like, you know, Oh, that guy's funny on
William Beckmann 9:36
Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's important.
Thomas Mooney 9:39
You know, it is one of those things where, you know, it's frustrating and it's kind of sometimes like, it's disappointing whenever you find someone on social media somewhere and then, you know, you go look up their songs and it's a little disappointing either on the song wise, or they only got two or three, iTunes, right and you're like, Man Let's see. Let's get more out there. Come on.
William Beckmann 10:01
Yeah, now it's in one thing I've always really wanted to get it before I started writing songs. I really wanted to be an actor. Not a lot of people know that, but I wanted to be in movies and stuff. Because I just, I was watching a lot of movies when I was when I was a lot younger. Now, I find it a little bit more difficult to find the time to, to binge watch anything on Netflix or, but but tic TOCs also really helped a lot of people get into that world too. And you'd be surprised. Like, I feel like there's everyday people that don't realize how good they are at acting, because a lot of it's like that, you know, it's like, it's Saturday Night Live skits, and people doing little bits and it's hilarious. And people I'm like, Dude, you ought to be doing this professionally, you know, instead of doing in your bedroom or whatever, and maybe that's what they're working towards. But there's so many tick tock with if tick tock proved one thing that there's a lot of talented people that are undiscovered and might not ever get discovered. But maybe that's the way they are, you know, it's everybody's cooped up for a year and a half. And so it seemed like everybody had too much time on their hands a little too much time on their hands. But it's cool, man. Um, I'm on there on every day, but I try to limit myself because it does get before you know it. It's four in the morning and you're still having you know, you still haven't gone to bed.
Thomas Mooney 11:13
Well, there is that that that aspect of the just like the Rinse, lather, repeat. Yes. lather on the scrolling and all of a sudden you realize, oh, man, what I thought was a minute. It's been an hour. Yeah, of just scrolling through. And but you're right, man. There's been so many hilarious people, smart people, people just like following their passions on there. And I always think that like, probably the average person my age probably is thinking Tik Tok is not for them. It's for the kids. And it's like, no, no, whatever you love, you're gonna find those people talking about that stuff. Everybody on there on on tick tock.
William Beckmann 11:49
And it's it's almost like the it's almost like the MTV of today. You know, like, how, in the 90s If you were a band, and you're on MTV, it was like, that was the that was the culture that was the youth You know, and that's to me, it's it's got a similar, there's a parallel there. You know that that's how people find out about stuff.
Thomas Mooney 12:06
Yeah, absolutely. You're from Del Rio Del Rio, Texas. Yeah. So I'm from Fort Stockton Oh, sweet. And of the the places around Texas, I feel like that southern border is the closest to West Texas what I feel I had like my grandparents lived down there for a while. Hazmat and uncles lived down in Del Rio. So we went to Del Rio a whole bunch, either visit family and whatnot. But what was it like growing up in Del Rio, and, you know, kind of being on that border town where you're able to, I feel like all border towns have this, this aspect of that cultural exchange, what was it like growing up and kind of, maybe not necessarily realizing that was even necessarily happening until you got away?
William Beckmann 12:55
It was, it was interesting, man, because I, I grew up in a really weird time when I when I was in high school is when things got really shady. In Akuna. In Mexico, drug violence was probably at its worst, and gang violence. And so it really sucked, because when I remember, in 2009, when I was a freshman in high school, is when things started to get really bad, but you would hear all these stories of people, you know, upperclassmen, you know, they'd go to a cooler and get fucked up and have a great time. And you know, and you could get beer even when you weren't old enough to, to drink and it was it that's like what everybody did. That's what my parents did. So my older cousins who were only a couple years older than I was, but when I got into school got really weird, and soon everybody stopped going. And that's that's essentially what killed the reputation of going down there to Kenya and having a good time. And it didn't really start to clear up until I was out of high schools, like the four years that I was in high school, the four worst years in, in history, you know, drug violence history, when it comes to Mexico and the border. And so I didn't, I didn't really get to experience that, like some other people did before me and even some of the some of the younger kids now they get to do it and things are safer. And it's it's it's not as much of a threat. So it was it was weird. Because Because of that, and because of that we we partied in Del Rio, you know, we had high school parties, which nobody ever did in that town. Everybody would go down across the border and go to the bars and do that. And so that was something that I that I'll always remember just being growing up and things. Things weren't what they used to be and it's funny because like, I've told Wade Bo and he's got that song Akun Yeah, and hookah songs. Nobody goes to a Cooney anymore. And I still go to a Cooney with with my friends when I'm in town. But I jokingly tell him was like, Man, I'll take you down there. There's still a couple you know, brave people that'll go down there and he jokes He's like, Man, I don't know. I was like, Man, I'll take you. It'll be a good time. But so I remember that I remember really getting into music when I was probably about that age. I was in middle school when I started playing piano and guitar. And I didn't, I wasn't really good at anything else, man, I mean that his guitar was the only thing that turned me on. And so that's what I stuck with. And I was in a band. When I was in the eighth grade up until I graduated high school, we were in this cover band together and I mean, my friends, we just played everything that we could learn anything from like, ZZ Top to Kenny Chesney songs to Carlos Santana songs and we would play everywhere in Del Rio. So that's really where I got my start playing playing in front of people was just playing cover songs and in my high school band when it when it comes to the music that I was listening to, a lot of it was was heavily influenced by the Mexican culture there in Del Rio a lot of mariachi stuff with the called bonda music a lot of people were listening to that of course, a lot of people were listening country, a lot of people were listening to Texas country, red dirt, and I was playing in my arms instead. You know, like everybody, cuz that's the song everybody wanted to hear, you know. And it was, it was such a beautiful blend of, of cultures that that really kind of shaped me into, into the person I am and the musician I am today. So I'm grateful I didn't and like you mentioned, I really didn't notice that. I didn't think about it from an outside perspective, because that's just the way I was raised. That's the way it that's the town I grew up in was until I left that I'd figured out that not everybody really gets to experience that kind of thing.
Thomas Mooney 16:44
This episode is brought to you by our partners over at the blue light live here in Lubbock, Texas. Blue light has long been the epicenter of the Lubbock songwriter scene, and has been a prestigious home away from home for some of Texas Americana, country and Rock and roll's finest over the decades. Talk with a songwriter who's come out of Lubbock, West Texas or the Panhandle the last few years, and 99.9% of them are going to tell you just how integral and necessary the blue light has been in there come up as a songwriter and a performer. With live original music just about every night of the week, head on over to blue light lubbock.com to check out their schedule. I know over these next few months, you'll be seeing folks like Roger Klein and the peacemakers Grady Spencer in the work Joshua leathers Troy Cartwright David Beck's Mahana weekend, Tristan Maryrose, and Braxton Keith graced the blue light stage. Again, that's blue light lubbock.com. While there, check out their merch page, they have a wide range of hats, beanies, sweaters, hoodies, jackets, and koozies. You can get all your merch needs while you've seen your favorite band. Take the stage by just asking your bartender and they'll get you set up as well. And of course, this should go without saying but make sure you tip your bartenders and buy some merch from the band while you're at it. That's 1806 Buddy Holly Avenue, Lubbock, Texas. Blue light lubbock.com pretty good chance I'll see you there. Okay, let's get back to the show. Remember, it's either on your bio or something we were talking about it as far as you know, kind of listening to the border radio kind of stuff. And obviously, you weren't around at the time of back in the day as far as you know Wolfman Jack and all that kind of border radio. But and all the like the the guys like Joe Ely and Terry Allen, they always talk about how important that was how you could pick up those stations down in a Konya all the way up here, you know, and I'm sure like you could be, I think, like, they talked about how you could pick up stations from Chicago. And so when radio was so big, obviously, like, you know, they don't have the big antennas like that anymore. But when you're right across there, you're picking up that radio from right across the border. What kind of influence was that was that on you as far as having that was the bilingual that
William Beckmann 19:11
was everything. Everything was in Spanish, there was only one country station, there's like one country station, one rock station, but you could count on one hand that the stations that were in English and I had to let you know, a Jeep that like a beat up Jeep in high school that didn't have a you know, I didn't have XM radio or anything. So I was just listening to FM and AM Yeah, and I'd listen to the content 94.1 KB, okay. And they're there. You know, it's my hometown station, so they're awesome. And they spend my stuff which is, which is really cool. But everything else was in Spanish. And I've always I've always had, like, my mariachi music is really what I enjoyed listening to and I still do, but there was all kinds of stuff even like Latin rock stations and stuff. So you were exposed to a bunch of different the and the people themselves, you know? No, that was everybody. Spotify was already around, and even people that just had their, their AI pods. Wow, I haven't said that in a long time. But yeah, everybody would just kind of steal the auxilary cord and play what they wanted. Yeah, and, and we all grew up in, we all grew up together, and we all kind of shared each other's music and you heard something that you never heard before. And your buddy was showing it to you or whatever, you know, it's really bizarre, this completely kind of, you wouldn't think this, but like that was also when, like, I remember me and my friends went through like a big reggae phase. And that was like when soja and revolution and all those bands were like really, really taking off. And so we'd even listen to that stuff. And I wasn't the one that would put that on. But I just remember my friends liked it. And I was always in the car with him or at the same party. This they were and that's what they were cranking. And so that was a new experience. And we went to see him one time. But But yeah, it was I think it was probably a half like listening to the radio down there and half just hanging out my friends and, and taking turns with the auxiliary cord. Really? Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 21:02
Yeah, that's funny you say that about the the reggae because I feel like obviously any teenager, you kind of you go through those phases a lot quicker, as far as like, what you think's cool what you're going to, because you're trying to find your, your, your crowd, basically, you're trying to find your, your people and, you know, you'll go through like the reggae phase. And then like, I remember my friends went through that scar phase and went through, like, you know, punk rock and country and like, you kind of go through all these little, dip your toes in all these little different scenes, and then trying to figure out what you're going to listen to, quote unquote, for the rest of your life, you know, right? Yes, absolutely. It feels like that's kind of like everyone has to try and do that. What I wanted to ask you about was, it does feel like right now, in Americana, country, whatever you want to call this, Texas, that, that a lot of the the artists are kind of showing hence of those, that Tex Mex flair, or the Spanish flair, or the mariachi, as you say, and North Daniel and there's a bunch of stuff that like it feels like a lot of artists right now are maybe 1520 years ago, they would be a little bit timid to to show off. It feels like right now that some of those, those influences are seeping through. And you kind of feel that to see that in another artist,
William Beckmann 22:29
I think so I think now more than ever, people are just willing to be an open book, you know, just unapologetically being themselves, what whatever that may be, which is really cool. It's really, really cool to see that. Whether it's doing that and throwing the Latin thing in there, or whether it's, you know, throwing a middle finger up on stage and saying, fuck you, you know, like, people think that's cool. You know, and if that's, that's, if that's your personnel, and that's what you want to do. And your live shows. It's cool. You know, it's, it's, uh, you know, that punk rock thing is really, it's really cool. Yeah. And so I think, and even even like, you could, you could apply that to Nashville today. And how it seems like they have really open arms when it comes to artists in our in our scene, whereas 20 years ago, it was a little bit different. Yeah. And I think that's really cool, too. And I think, on the flip side of that, I think people in Texas are a lot cooler with somebody going up to Nashville and doing doing something up there. Whether it's getting a publishing deal or record deal or, or whatever, I don't think, you know, you remember, people used to have the fuck Nashville T shirts. And I thought that was so bizarre. Yeah, but, but you don't see those too much anymore.
Thomas Mooney 23:48
I think what there's obviously there's still a bunch of those people out there. But I think what we've done a better job of is educating the public that, hey, a lot of these Texas guys are going up there and writing their record and up there. There's a lot more of that exchange, there's not those hard lines anymore. And I think it has to do with like just kind of telling people you know what, like, that way bone record that you love so much. And he's such a Texas country guy. You know, he recorded all those guys I was writing songs with those guys are all like it. Yeah,
William Beckmann 24:22
exactly. It's okay. It's always been like that, you know, which is which is really the funny thing and I had you know, when I got out of high school, when I when I moved out of Del Rio, I went to college because my parents really wanted me to and they've always been supportive of me, my my, my decision to want to pursue this as a as a career. So I agreed to go to to get a college degree. And, and I spent two years in Austin at St. Edwards University and then I then I transferred over to Belmont University up in Nashville, so when I first moved to Nashville, it was to finish school I was still a college student. And because of that I never felt like I was part of, of the scene in Texas because I never really got to play anywhere, right? I wasn't. When I was living in Austin, I was still too young to do anything to go play at the Saxon pub or to go do any of those really cool venues that I wanted to play. I was freshman, sophomore in college. And then I moved to Nashville because Radney foster really convinced me to move there and he told me to check out that school and I did and I got accepted and I ended up transferring out of out of Austin and moving to Nashville. So then it got even worse because I'm in you know, an even more saturated music town. I'm a little minnow in a huge lake. And my brother went to school here he went use it. He's a Red Raider and I always remember this one time it was Americana fest is 2017. It was the first time I ever met flatland cavalry and cleddau was was super nice as always. And I remember they were they played a show at the at the Cannery Row some one of those venues over there. And, and I'd never heard of them before. But they kept saying, Well, we're from Lubbock, Texas, and, and I called my brother after their setups, and man, I just saw this flatland pan and they were they were kick ass dude. He's like, Oh, yeah, man. They're, like, popping off right now. Love it. Like, they're playing everywhere. And of course, I'd never heard of him because I was living up in Nashville. And I wasn't really keeping tabs on what was what was hot, you know, in the college scene, right? And so I went up to cleddau introduce, introduce myself after the show. And he says he doesn't remember that. But I tell him all the time, it was you know, he said, What was nice? He was like, Yeah, of course you were nice, man. Come on. And, and it was just one of those things, too. I sometimes wonder, had I stayed in Texas and been like, gone to school here or gone to school in College Station, how different things would have been not that I'd go back and change anything that I did. It's just a different idea. Because I didn't have that experience. I wasn't able to, to go and build a fan base. When I was in college, I was too busy with trying to learn how to write songs. And, and I always tell people that rad and he was really, he's been my biggest influence and my biggest mentor as a songwriter, because I would like everyday man religiously tried to write songs, and most of them were just garbage but, but it was like me, trying to trying to figure out how to really understand the craft. And so I locked myself up in a bedroom and do it even when I moved to Nashville, like CO writing wasn't even it never dawned on me that people wrote songs together. I thought it was just like, you know, because I was a big Dylan fan and Neil Young and John Prine and, and John Prine did co write a lot of stuff. But in my mind, I was like, man, it's like that something that I think you're supposed to do by yourself. And then I moved to Nashville and then started writing with other people. And that brought on a whole nother, nother thing is you have to learn how to collaborate, which is not easy sometimes. Especially for some people, like myself that that you're kind of hard headed. Like I don't know if I don't know if I really want to write a song about dirt road and a pickup truck. You know, but But you know, you're gonna have to do it at some point to to, to understand that you don't like it? Or maybe you do maybe that's your thing, whatever. But it was funny because once I got out of it once I graduated from Belmont and moved back to Texas and started playing like it was people were like, who are you? And like, where did How can we've never heard of you before? It's like well, I've been up in Tennessee for the past couple years, you know, doing things so it was just an interesting entrance. I think looking back on it.
Thomas Mooney 28:48
Yeah, it's, it's interesting how, because obviously, I think like the, the standard back in the day was like, and I'm talking kind of before the you know, the Pat greens kind of made it where you could just be a Texas man and be in Texas and all that kind of stuff. But like the more the Radney route of like, you know, moving to Nashville, guys were moving to Nashville. And you know, everyone from you know, Guy Clark moved to Nashville. And you it felt like that's the way if you wanted to be a songwriter
William Beckmann 29:20
Todd Snyder, though No, no, that another great example.
Thomas Mooney 29:23
That's where you where you win. And from there that you had to come back home. You know what I mean? You had to make it there before you could come back home. I find it so interesting right now, though, because of that exchange between Nashville and in Texas where, you know, I'd say more than just as we've educated the fan base, as far as like, you know, they're not being that wall there. It's been educating artists as well. Oh, yeah. Like, you know, it's okay to go to both and it's okay to do both and it's okay to be from one and try out the other and, you know, you mentioned the CO writing and writing yourself, you know, you kind of have to figure out what works best in both situations. You know, you know, you may be the best dirt road song.
William Beckmann 30:12
Yeah. And you know, the funny thing is just like everybody, man that you stay somewhere long enough, then the grass starts to look a little bit greener on the other side. Like, I remember when I was living in Nashville full time, I still lived there part time, but when I was there, when I was spending most of my time there, you'd have friends, they'd be like, you know, fuck this town, I'm moving to LA. And then they go off and they moved to LA. And then you meet somebody else who just moved out of LA to come to Nashville, Puck that town don't ever go there, man. It's, you know, now, you know, so it's just like, Yeah, well, I got a handful of friends that love it out there. And a handful of friends that hated it and came back or tried Nashville, or, you know, Austin or whatever, it's, it's, I think it's good. When you're in the entertainment business, I think it's good to have to plant some seeds everywhere, you know, in all those big cities that are heavily rooted in the entertainment business, but But it always used to crack me up when people were were like, Man, I'm moving to Nashville, because I want to get out of Texas. I'm like, Why? Why? Why don't you come up to Nashville for a week write songs. Or if you want to live here, great, but you're gonna have to spend a lot of time back in Texas to play or to, you know, do things or, or whatever. And you meet people from all over the south and doing country music up in Nashville, you know, I got my Georgia friends, and they all kind of, they got their own little clique, and all the Alabama folks have their own little thing. And then of course, the Texas guys were so you know, we're so big. And we're kind of hard headed like that. But we all stick together too. And it's, it's just interesting to, to listen to people's stories and what brought them to Nashville, what drove them away from Nashville, what brought them to Nashville, drove them away, and then brought them back to Nashville. And it's like that with every city. So it's always funny. We'll drink beer and be like, alright, let's hear your sob story. And let's hear you pitch back where you're from for a little while.
Thomas Mooney 32:00
Yeah, the it's funny you say about a little different cliques as far as what state you're from because Ross Cooper when he first moved up there, he was reading Billy Joe Shavers. I can't matter if it's the autobiography or just the biography. But he was talking about how back in the the 70s. It was like that. All the the Georgia guys were together all the Tennessee guys, all the Kentucky guys, all the Texas guys. And Ross was just saying how all this time is passed. And it's kind of still the same way. All your Texas buddies are together and all like they all like it's just like these little clicks. And it's kind of funny how even, you know, hundreds of miles away, you end up finding another Texan? Oh,
William Beckmann 32:49
yeah. Did you ever read Willie Nelson's autobiography that came out like maybe six or seven years ago? I've read it. But it's been a minute. Yeah, there's this part. And I read it. I only read it once too. But it man, I was just so fascinated with his life, his early life, you know, when he when he when he moved to Nashville, and he was having a lot of success as a songwriter. And, you know, wrote Crazy Night Live and all these songs that were hits. But he was just he just still felt so unfulfilled because he wanted to be an artist. Of course, his voice didn't really fit the what, what people wanted at the time. And so he just had a hard time really kind of convincing people that he was meant to be a singer and a front man and an entertainer. And he talks about, there's this one part in the book that he was he talks about being at Tutsis, and that's where everybody hung out, because now Broadway is just a tourist trap. But back then it was like the strip, it was like where everybody hung out and all the songwriters would meet up and drink beer after they wrote songs that day or whatever. But there's two stories from that book that I always think about. And one is when when when he first got a publishing deal, and it was his first day on the job, and he'd never had to he was never in a position where he had to write a song it was always you know, you'd be driving down the road or something came to him. And so now he's got this publishing deal and they tell that put him in a room by himself and say alright, at 5pm today we're going to come back we're going to see what you came up with that he was just nervous because he didn't know how to how to come up with something on the spot. So he just started looking around the room and started singing Hello wall bow things going for you today. Don't you miss her since she up and wall doing? You know, and then he's like, Well, hell, I figured if I could talk to the wall, then I could talk to the window and so the next you know, hello window, I think you know, and so he writes this badass song because he had nothing to write about so he's just in this blank room and then come back and what you come up with like nah man it's like terrible in any explains he's like, Man, I thought like, I was so nervous. I thought they're gonna fire me or whatever. Because it was such a goofy song. And he played he's like, Nah, just play it. He's like, alright, play them hello walls. And they're like, That's a fucking hip. And I'm like, There's no way there's no way you could write a hit song and your first day on the job. And so I think about that. And then of course, he writes a bunch of other songs after that, and he's one of the best writers in town, you know, in the late 60s, yeah. Or mid 50s, I guess, but, and then he's just really kind of depressed because nobody will give him a chance. He can't get a record deal. And then the second story in that book that I absolutely love, and I think about all the time I get I have a bad day is when he was just having a really bad day. And I guess he got drunk at tootsies. And he'd like laid out in the middle of the street and said, like, the hell of it. If somebody runs me over and kills me, then then it's meant to be, like, passed out, like woke up to like a couple guys like waking him up, like, Hey, what are you doing, you're in the middle of the road. And it was like his attempted suicide or something. And I'm like, Whoa, man, like so you can have it all you can, you can be at the top, you can be Willie Nelson and still right, intentionally lay down in the middle of the road. And we all know the rest of the story, you know, he ended up leaving and, and growing his hair out and becoming one of the biggest selling artists of all time. But but it's it's just interesting to, to know that I'm not the only one whose mind gets played with and spending too much time in Nashville. Going back to the Tick Tock thing, spending too much time focusing on that. And feeling like if you don't if you're not at this level, then you're not you're not successful enough. Or if you're not selling this many tickets, then you're it's not working. It's like it's really easy to compare yourself to people in this business. And it's, I really have to, to, to sit down and like train myself not to think like that because you can have number one hit songs and still want to lay down in the middle road.
Thomas Mooney 36:48
This episode is in part brought to you by Charlie stout photography, I want y'all all to head over to Charlie stout.com. Right now to get a glimpse of his work. While you're at it. Go give him a follow on Instagram and Twitter at Charlie stout. Right now he has more than 50 photographs for sale on Charlie stout.com. With a diverse selection of landscapes and sky shots of West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, open roads and windmills, sunsets and start us, cotton, rose and cacti. He captures a lot of what I love about West Texas and the great American Southwest. The depth the way and raw intensity is all there in his photography. He captures that struggle between man and the land. It's Mother Nature, reclaiming objects like rusting tractors and abandoned homesteads, where it's man wrangling the wild and trying to put his impression on the land rows of cotton or colossal windmills or iron orchards pumping oil from the deep, dark below. And sometimes it's just the raw beauty of a mountain breaking up limitless sky, or setting sun leaving the day behind. At any rate, choice photographs move you, maybe there's a little bit of that I ain't crying. That's just west Texas, in my eye in all of Charlie's photos. Again, go visit Troy stout.com and order yourself a photograph or two. Also, a pro tip keep an eye out on his Twitter. He's consistently posting one offs and errors and randoms on there that are available in the flash sell variety. Again, that's at Charlie stout. Head on over to Charlie style.com. Grab a signed print, buy a record. It's good for your soul. All right, let's get back to the episode. Exactly, yeah, no, it's, uh, in in this strange way. It's comforting to know that like, you know, even 60 years ago, it was you're comparing yourself to the Joneses. Yeah. You know what I mean? And the thing about Willie, as far as you know, he mentioned and, you know, he busts out at like, when did redheaded stranger came out? Come out and 75 Right, you know, he's an old man. By today's day. Oh, yeah, he's in his eye. He's either like 40 something or 35. I can't remember what it is. But it's like, everyone wants that instant gratification of success at 22 or whatever the case and I I remember being younger. And here in Lubbock, of course, to my favorites, buddy, Holly, of course and in Terry Allen, and kind of coming to that realization you know that, buddy, Holly. Yeah, that career in 18 months? Yeah. Died. Isn't that nuts, man. It's Holy moly. It's so early. And then on the other side of the flip side, Terry Allen didn't release leprechaun everything until he's 35. Yeah. And so I always kind of try and think about those as far as a it's okay, if you you end up like, you know, Bloom, you're gonna bloom at whatever the right time as long as you're kind of focused on it. And once You know, opportunity does come, you have to kind of grab a hole. Yeah, like in that buddy Hollywood, absolutely, you know, give him all you have, you know, and it's one of those things where, as you kind of say, you know, it's easy to compare yourself in saying that though, you know, you mentioned the being in your room and writing yourself and just kind of doing that solo writing, and then kind of venturing out where you're writing with other folks. What was uh, you know, if I imagine stepping into a room with with another co writer, there's that mixed emotion of being intimidated being kind of intimidated, by the moment maybe who it is, you know, it can probably be where you're, you're kind of knocked back down to square one in some sense of like, oh, man, I need to get a lot better or what was kind of like those? Not sure that first ride or anything like that, but what did you take once you kind of realize, okay, this is what I'm asked to do to get better at, you know, sharpen this side of, of the CO writing aspect, or, Hey, the writing aspect.
William Beckmann 41:05
Yeah, patients, patients, for sure. When you're writing alone, and when you're writing with other people moreso when you're writing with other people, because it's it's just a it's, it's a push and pull kind of thing. And, you know, the typical co ride, it's everybody meets up at 11, with coffee in hand, and hopefully you have some ammo, you know, a couple ideas tucked away in your phone or whatever, but kind of bullshit for about 30 minutes. And then all right, what do you got? Well, I got this title, well, I got this little melody, and I got this title, you just kind of put all the cards on the table, and figure out which, which one you kind of want to run with on that day. And I'll admit, there's times I'm in a room, and I'm like, just really not digging where it's going. But I'm, I'm committed to, you know, making sure it's, we're gonna stick it out or whatever. And there's times where you're, it's the complete opposite. You're like, this is incredible. And I know for a fact that I couldn't have written this alone. You know, I know for a fact it would have come out the same. And so But to answer your question, when it first when I was first having those experiences, writing with other people, it was it was new, you know, it's like, Chris Stapleton once said, it's a lot of first dates. And I find that funny, because it's a truth. You know, it's where you from, you know, kind of doing all that, yeah. And getting to know, getting to know the other person, because it's an intimate experience, man, right. And you know, like talent, especially if it's like about a real thing, say, hey, I want to write a song about someone. So this is a girl that broke my heart, like, like, really bad or whatever. And it's like, Hey, man, like I just met you five minutes ago. But if you want to get to that, that deep with me that I'm here for it, but more so lately, it's been a little bit more intimidating, just because of the people that I've started writing with that I'd recently well, a couple years ago, it feels like recently just because, because the pandemic but I signed a publishing deal in Nashville. And so Matt, and now it's more where I was just riding with other people that were playing at the same bars I was playing at now. It's it's like you're riding with people that have definitely had a lot of success in that world. And but at the same time, I'm, I feel confident enough as a songwriter to be able to go in there and hold my own, even though I've never written a song that anybody's cut that went number one or anything like that. But, you know, hopefully, maybe one day I will, but it's, it's cool, man, it's always it's always a, I have a really good time doing it's like, trying to solve a puzzle of some sort, you know, like, and so I think that I'm very grateful to be able to do it, and to get those experiences, and I hope I get to keep doing it.
Thomas Mooney 43:51
Yeah, it's always a, that that thing that you're talking about there. As far as you know, you're, you meet this guy or this girl five minutes ago. And then you know, you're, you know, pouring your heart out. It there's this interesting thing where it feels like maybe this don't happen all the time. But with those co writes, you come out of it a couple hours later, a lot closer or a lot more on the same page, like then, then like the average fan or friendship, absolutely. You know what I mean? And it's because you often go to these real intimate stories and it doesn't have to be about heartbreak or heart you know, fallen in love or something but you you end up like talking about stuff like real stuff pretty quickly. And and that's what I find amazing about a lot of times with with songwriters and, and just musicians in general. It feels like there's really never or there's rarely the that awkward stage of just talking back and forth of the you know, how's it going? Yeah, you know, but I don't know It's interesting seeing that, oh, I drifted off there. But what I was gonna say too is like, what I kind of love is I've been fortunate enough to see some co writes happen, you know. And what I find amazing too is like, it always feels like, Y'all get like this, like fire in your eyes. And like, you think it's the best thing that you've ever done? A lot of times, and, you know, then later, a couple of days later, you talk to that person. They're like, I don't know
William Beckmann 45:34
about. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And you know, what's funny is, it's the opposite happens to sometimes you walk away, like, it's not really great, then you listen back, holy shit, this is an amazing song, you know? And it's, it's really hard to, to step out of it. Like, like, I'll be enraged with people. And you know, we'll be just on a good St. And we're like, man, that we're, we're plowing through this and it's great. And then you kind of hit like, some little Deadspace there. And then I'll tell people hey, man, if they're if they, if they think it needs a bridge or something like How about we just leave the song alone? before it starts to get mad at us? You know? Yeah, how about we walk away, it's great. That's just not piss it off. We'll come back. And, you know, let's let it ferment for for for a little while, and then we'll come back and really analyze it and, but it's the man I swear to you songs, they'll they'll start to, if you're chipping too hard at it, it's going to it's going to you're going to dig yourself into a weird hole that you might not be able to dig yourself out of. So I'm pretty cautious when it when when it feels like, let's leave this alone for a little while. And it could be anything could be a core. I mean, I've gone into CO writes with people, and we just can't figure out how to start the song off. But we have this course. And we know that it's gonna be a good song, because the course is great. We just don't really know how to build around it. And like, Hey, man, we got a good chorus. Like, let's just leave that there. Let's kind of clear our heads. And yeah, let's loop back around. So a lot of it's that. But yeah, there's been times where I feel over the moon about something I listened back. And I'm like, man, maybe it doesn't have that magic that I felt when we wrote it. But maybe we can still edit the song Radney always told me the only thing better than a good song is that same song rewritten. You know, that's what makes a great song. Yeah. And and I take that advice to heart. It's like, I'll write the song. And then I'll come back and revise it and try to find the weak parts of it and see if we can make them stronger.
Thomas Mooney 47:27
Yeah, there's a appear at blue light on Mondays, of course, it's songwriter night, and all originals and stuff and always kind of wins when somebody says, you know, I wrote this in 15 minutes, because you know, the day you can write Margaritaville in 30 minutes, yeah, be a fucking hit. But sometimes, you know, though, I wrote this today, 15 minutes ago, and you go, I can kind of tell
William Beckmann 47:50
you, they think they're flexing, like, oh, I wouldn't, I wouldn't admit that to be
Thomas Mooney 47:54
or temper patients or, you know, all kinds of stuff. But yeah, the editing process, the, I always, you mentioned, you know, like, the, we got a chorus down, we got something where are we got, you know, this verse that may not be the first verse, it may be that second verse or whatever, you can apply that to like any kind of writing where there's been so much, so many times where I'm in the middle of writing something, or trying to start writing something, you kind of know what you want to say, but then you don't know how to start it off. And that's always it can feel like you're just banging your head against the wall, until you kind of just tell yourself, don't worry about that part. Go to what you're wanting to say, and get on to, you know, the the body of the piece versus you can you can go back and figure out what to start this off the lead. Yeah, you know, and that can be very, very difficult to do when it because I think like any kind of venture, any kind of thing you do you think like you have to start from the beginning versus start from the middle or, or whatever the case, right? It's It's human nature to want to start from the beginning and go to the middle to the end. And sometimes it just can't work that
William Beckmann 49:08
way. No, yeah. John Randall said that, that guy Clark would write everything down with a pencil and graph paper and he had an exacto knife, and he would write things down and then he would like, cut them cut the verses up into like strips or maybe even the lines. I don't know how you would do it, but then he would just kind of like, move them around. And maybe maybe this thing that's kind of in the, in the last quarter of the song maybe that's the first line you don't know out of see how it seems like see if it makes sense. Yeah, maybe it's a lot stronger. You know, for me, I really like I really like songs that have a really, really interesting first line, like to where, okay, let's see where this is going. You know, that for me. A first line is got to be pretty. It's got to grab you, you know, unless unless it's one of those songs. Like just call me lonesome that starts off with the chorus. And then it's just, you know, you're kind of in it. But yeah. But it's interesting to move things around like that and to, again, to look at it like a puzzle and say, like, let's figure this out, you know, it's like, we're gonna, we're gonna make this work one way or another. And it might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, you know, might not be next year, I've mulled over songs for long periods of time. And I've also been the guy to say, Hey, I wrote this in 15 minutes. I don't know if it's any good. But it's cool. I like to I like that though. I like the way I like the fact that it's different every time and you can be in the shower, something hits you, you can be driving, you know, or you could have a co ride session and just nothing is coming. You're in your brain like is just somebody I can't remember who it was. Somebody told me like, Man written songs is like trying to catch butterflies with a net. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. And I was like, that's a really weird thing to say. But it kind of makes sense. You know, it's just they kind of flutter in the wind and you just, it's up to you to try to chase them down and catch them. And you can't get mad at the world. Well, you know,
Thomas Mooney 51:07
I want to break in just one more time to mention the Lubbock way, a collection of wallflower vignettes. But the book I wrote and released this past fall. As you probably guessed by the title. It's a collection of stories and thoughts about the Lubbock music scene circa 2015. To around 2017. I'd like to characterize it as an insightful peek into 35 nights and weekends and episodes about various songwriters and bands, but read Shea Han flatland Calvary Randall King, William Clark Greene, Brandon Adams, and many many, many, many others. It's currently on sale in the new slang merch store. That's new slang podcast dot big cartel.com. While there you can also find T shirts, koozies, coffee mugs, stickers and a bunch of other stuff. This first edition has been exclusively limited to only 806 copies, obviously, a nod to the panhandle area code and all the Aidells sisters out there. And thanks to the merch store, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, they'll also be in the show notes. Again, go buy a copy of the Lubbock way a collection of wallflower vignettes by me, Thomas Mooney. All right, let's get back to the episode.
All right, good. I'm more fascinated by, you know, the exacto knife. And the I remember, I had Clint Black on one time, and he was talking about making like word webs basically, like, oh, let's I can't exactly what they're called. But you know, like, we have a word, and then we're gonna exhaust and like draw lines off of it. And that sounds like, you know, you're dismantling the romanticism of anyone writing a song, like, you know, just coming right off the top of the head or something. But that's what I find amazing is kind of realizing that these songs aren't necessarily always just taken from the ether, you know, that, that there is work and there's this Oh, yeah. You know, interesting ways the skin that cares. Yeah.
William Beckmann 53:11
And that is an interesting, I haven't done that a long time. But there were there was a period in my life where I was doing that exercise. Yeah, that word where where you basically have the central theme of the song, and then you have things that stem off from that. So it could be okay, the central theme is a bar. What? Anything that relates to a bar, you know, booze, yeah, money, you know, your bar tab, people, you know, girls, romance, dancing, music, okay, then you go to the money thing, you know, the guy's broke and can't, you know, whatever, then you go to the beer thing, you got whiskey, but you know, so then you start to kind of stem off of that. And then what it really essentially does is now you have a paper with all things that are related to the central theme. And so it's just kind of like a bit, it creates a word bank for you. So when you when you're stuck, you're like, alright, well, let's talk about the girl dancing, because now we already talked about, you know, the thing, and maybe the bar is not a great example. But just to give the listeners an idea what how that works. Yeah. And it creates a word bank for you. And that that proved to be pretty successful. When I was kind of still trying to figure out how to write songs. I don't I think I do that still. But in my head, I don't really need to write it out. But that was always a great, a great exercise. One thing that rad and we always make me do and I was still in college is just like free ride. He would like write like half a page. Anything like just keep it a constant stream of thoughts. And it was most of the time it wouldn't make much sense. But then you're like, well, that's kind of you know, you listen to you read that line, like wow, that's actually really poetic. You know, that's actually a really cool thought. And then you take that and you put it in a song somewhere, but it's just kind of like you vomit these, the, you know, anything that comes to your brain your brain is hard to keep up with man. The human mind is like such an interesting thing. So, if you force yourself have to just put stuff out on paper? You'll be surprised at how cool some of the things some of your thoughts are. When you don't think about it. Yeah, because you're thinking about it in that moment. But when you see it on paper, then it's just like, I don't know, maybe we just went down a really weird route. Oh, but it's the truth man. Within the mind of a songwriter, i The,
Thomas Mooney 55:20
I know, like, during the pandemic, a lot of people that I talked with talked about doing more of the the free writing, where it's like, first thing you get out when they got up just right. And then I guess, like, somebody had compared it to, when you got like a pin, and inks, you know, you got to run it back and forth before the ink starts coming out. That being kind of applying that to, to the free writing. And then, you know, you kind of get all the cobwebs knocked out. And yeah, then you can kind of think a little bit more clearly. And then yeah, go back and pick stuff out. Because again, like I think like, that's also that's probably something you've learned is, you can't judge something before you say it. But he's like, it's so easy to just say, I'm not gonna say that, because I don't. I know it's not, I don't want to sound stupid, you know, and sometimes you gotta, you just have to say it, to then get around, whatever you're trying to say.
William Beckmann 56:17
And that's kind of how I am. And I'll tell you a really funny story. Like, a couple years ago, I had the opportunity to write with Jamie Johnson, who I'm a very big fan of, and we're pretty good buddies now, so I know he won't care if I tell this story, but I came to his house, right, and I'm definitely kind of intimidated and I wrote this I'd stayed up the whole night before with this. I wrote this whole like half of the song everything chorus and it's like a I remember it was like a fight and song like this girl and guy knock down drag out. And you know, she's throwing she's throwing plates at him and smashed and you know, and he's kicking a hole in the door or whatever. And, you know, I wanted it to be like a real outlaw, country song. And, and a singing this whole song. Like, I can't remember how it was like, live right first time. I've heard you scream and shout. It ain't first time we've cussed each other out. We want to find land on it time and time again, and add eight firsthand. My words have made you ball. It ain't the first time kicked a hole rat through the wall. Mmm, making it like man. He's pissed off punching a hole in the wall everything. And then he goes online? Well, I'll think we can say all that in one line. That was like she, that whole thing goes all due versus like, how do you say that in one line. He's like, broken plates and drywall scars. I said, Puck, that's cool. And so now we start going off this thing and he likes the idea. And he kind of like the course that I brought, but he completely trashed the verses I showed up with but I was just glad he was he was into it. Right and so now he's you can see the gears in his head starting to turn now I've kind of woken him up and and. And so he starts going in any SEC real quiet. And I'm just still really intimidated. And he had this open notebook. And he's like drawing these. Like, he had a pen. And he was drawing these circles, like over and over again, next to each other almost look like a cluster of grapes or something. And not like like you're saying like, I'm throwing shit out there like, hey, well, what if we did it? You know? What did you think of this line? Mm hmm. You know, and he was just sitting there. And, you know, after about two or three minutes of me just throwing shit on the wall. He's like, can you just give me a minute to think? And I was like, Oh my God. And I got to get like, like, he can't. Yeah, and I was like, okay, and I like got up from the table. And I like went on his couch and like, was playing with his dogs. And she and I left him alone for like, 15 minutes. Because I was like, okay, all right. I got the I got the point. got the hint, you know, and, and he comes at a gun back over here. And I walk back over there. And he's like, What do you think of this? And he sings this whole thing. And it was fucking brilliant dude. And I was like, so that's what you do you you sit there and you doodle and you think about it. And you don't say anything until you're exactly sure that's what you want to say. Instead of me over here like Hey, Jamie lightly Oh, what do you think of this? What do you know, just chirping away at him like like, like a like a damn Chihuahua barking up a tree and it's just like it and he's done it for so long. It was just a different I saw I learned a lot that day. And then we wrote the code. We wrote that part and then we broke for lunch and then we came back when we finished it. It's such a cool song. I'd hoped that he it's in it's so him I hope he cuts it someday but but I always tell people that story of him just being like, Can you can you give me a second just thing. Yeah. And I said, Yes, sir. My bad. Alright, fuck off over here. You know, it's cool. And I'd love to write with him again, in the, in the, I think the most bizarre part of that story was he's like, you know, I hadn't I hadn't written a song in 10 years. He told me that I was like, Are you serious? And I was like, Why did you pick me? Why'd you pick me to write, you know, to get back into it? And he's like, I really don't know. And I said, Okay, no, that's a compliment, or an insult, but I'll take it, man, and it's cool, man. I would love to ride with them again. But again, it was one of those first dates where I was like, Holy shit, I called my I called my manager after I was like, Man, that was a weird fucking thing. But we wrote a great song.
Thomas Mooney 1:00:47
Man, that's hilarious.
William Beckmann 1:00:51
Yeah, I see about once a year, but he's, he's always good to me, man. He's such a such a sweetheart.
Thomas Mooney 1:00:56
Yeah. For for you get out of here. Let's, let's talk a little bit about what you got coming up next. Obviously, you just released a new single this week. What's kind of like in your 22 plans, as far as you got a record?
William Beckmann 1:01:10
Yeah, we got a new EP that's coming out in April. And then we're gonna hit the studio. Again, actually, I've got a bunch of other songs that we're planning on making a whole nother EP out there for a minute, I was wanting to make a full length and combine the two. But the thing is that the record that's about to come out or it was the record that I was really supposed to make before the pandemic, and so the songs have been kicking around for a while we've been playing them and they, they feel like they belong on their own in their own sort of body of work. And these new songs that I've been writing past couple months are so fresh to me and into the band and we're all excited to be playing them. So I want that to be its own thing that to stand on its own. But yeah, there's a lot of new music coming out. And I'm really, really stoked for so yeah, I just encouraged people to kind of keep up with with me and the guys and come to come see show. Come Come hang out and and listen to the songs and what I love to do. And I'm just glad to be back in Lubbock, Texas doing it.
Thomas Mooney 1:02:07
Yeah, man. I mean, the EP thing the and the pandemic that's the obvious is you know, there's you're around songs you're around the songs a lot longer than you know the listener ever. Oh, yeah. Be the pandemic through like a weird strange ranch in it that made it feel so much longer. Oh, yeah. And so much more. There's so many people I know who obviously they put off a record and then it's like, oh, fuck, man, we should have just put the record out because I'm already over these years. You know, it's a it's gonna be an interesting weird strange time with Oh, yeah, but, you know, it's a, it's been a fucking hell of a time talking with you, man. Thank you so much, man. I'm glad we finally got to do this. Absolutely. Yeah, let's do that. Alright, that's it for this episode. Thank you all for listening. Be sure to keep an eye out for new music from William Beckman. And be sure to go see him if he comes to a city near you. Check out our presenting partners over at Desert door. The blue light live in Charlie style photography. And be sure to order a copy of my debut book the Lubbock way. And yeah, I'll see y'all soon for another episode of Newsline.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai