Music Interview with Drummer Cameron Sather

[00:00:06] It's a JackedUpReviewShow! It's a JackedUpReviewShow! It's a JackedUpReviewShow! It's a JackedUpReviewShow! Oh, JackedUpReviewShow! Welcome all to the show. I'm your host, Sully, and we're doing another deep dive into independent music. That time of year where we bring on two people who coincidentally have the same name,

[00:00:54] but no really that has nothing at all to do with it. That's just a coincidence. Really, I'm here to introduce drummer Cam Sather, who's also done some videography and other band tours with so many independent groups.

[00:01:07] And here he can we're going to pick his mind and see what it takes to just make this be your hustle. So welcome to the show. Thanks. Thanks for having me. I first met you when you were helping out local folk singer Tim York,

[00:01:23] as well as just followed some of what you were doing on social media. And it's just it's just awesome to see just how you answer to so many groups and are part of this community. Yeah, that was a while back at a right. What was that? That pub.

[00:01:44] Oh, man, there were so many. I think it was Rio Mambo and then I think we met at a few other ones. But poor David's Pub. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm thinking of. There you go. I think you've also met Dylan Kane of the band Novacaine.

[00:02:02] I don't I don't know that I have. OK, no, it's a mutual pal. But hey, so first off, you've been doing this so long in Dallas, Texas. But what what started it? What made you say music is my passion? I want to make it part of my son.

[00:02:20] Probably coming out of like in high school, I did drum line for a year and got like interested in drum kit. I was going to church at the time, and so I played on like electronic kit there for a little

[00:02:35] and then probably like senior year of high school, me and we had like a talent show kind of thing. So like some friends were like, we want to do a band performance. And then that turned into one band after high school.

[00:02:49] And then that like split off and then another band. And then I don't know, then I just ended up in now I'm in like a bunch of bands. I just kept kept drumming. Yeah, I don't know, I just really enjoy it.

[00:03:07] You've also done some side what I would call probably pop and hip hop just under your surname on Spotify. It was an interesting lesson there. What was the inspiration to do that? Especially with the single A Thousand Words. That was like a COVID project. Oh, nice.

[00:03:27] Because I don't know, I'd like it was just kind of like an idea. Like eventually in my life, I would do some like kind of solo project that was more like writing songs and vocals and everything like that.

[00:03:42] And then COVID happened and is like, what else am I going to do with the time? So that became like something I focused on. And yeah, I don't know. That's it's I guess I guess that was kind of the I had Lincoln Parks, one of my favorite bands.

[00:04:04] Yeah, that kind of like hip hop. Can you believe that new single that's now trending was in the can, you know, since 02 when they just finally brought it out. I was like, what should have always been on the radio? Right. It's amazing hearing the like older sound. Yeah.

[00:04:23] And they just pulled everyone is like, I thought this was new, but it can't be new because you know, the tragedy and it's like, but it I guess that just in a way they predicted the timelessness of the lyrics.

[00:04:36] What were some of your other influences and favorites grown up to where you're just like, hey, even if I don't want to be like them, I will go to every concert that they host. I adore them. Breaking Benjamin is a big one that like got me under rock.

[00:04:55] I got kind of into like post hardcore kind of like Sleeping with Sirens and Pierce the Veil stuff like that in high school. There you go. That's influenced my drumming a bit, I'd say. Getting into like Double Kick and that kind of stuff. Just kind of uncanny.

[00:05:12] Is it in a way? Yeah. And there there's a band I play with New Haven that it's like the music style just like jumps all over the place. It's like when I have like a Latin sounding part and then it jumps into like heavy metal or something.

[00:05:30] Oh, lovely. In a way, I guess you could say that keeps it fresh and new, but it also kind of makes you guys a little more unpredictable. Yeah. Yeah, like experimenting with different music, you know, different styles and all. Lovely.

[00:05:53] So given how you've been part of just numerous groups, what do you mainly do? Given how you've been part of just numerous groups, what do you mainly recommend to some of the others who are trying to just struggle to build up their networking and multiple accounts?

[00:06:13] Well, I guess I'd say open mics are like always the first thing that comes to mind. I mean, that's where I met like so many people that right when I started getting into like gigs and stuff like that, that was where I was meeting.

[00:06:28] I mean, I met Tim and everyone out. I guess that's where we met around open mics and all. Yeah, I'd say that's probably like the biggest thing and then just being out at shows and like, yeah, just being around the music.

[00:06:46] And all together, why do you think music just still continues to fuel multiple generations and bring people together especially after post-COVID? That's a good question. I think it's like a really like deep expression. I think it's like a really like deep expression between people.

[00:07:19] So I think someone can like really express themselves and then other people can understand that and I don't know, like connect with it. So I think it connects people in ways that like wouldn't really be possible like face to face and stuff like that.

[00:07:37] And yeah, I don't know. I guess it's like reading a book and stuff too is like, you just get someone else's perspective on things, on life in like a different way. So I think it's cool like being able to hear different perspectives from different groups and all.

[00:07:57] And totally. And what do you recommend for like publishing album covers and putting your music out there? I think it's like 10 bucks a year or something like that and it publishes out to all of the streaming services and all. Sweet.

[00:08:17] Yeah, and I've used Fiverr a little bit recently. My band is called Fiverr. I think it's like a really cool band. I think it's like a really cool band. I think it's like a really cool band. I think it's like a really cool band.

[00:08:35] And I've used Fiverr a little bit recently. My band, worst case scenario, is a punk group that I play with and we're about to put a single out pretty soon at the end of this month.

[00:08:48] And we were just talking about a guy on Fiverr like for single design. So I mean, it's like pretty affordable. And the work looks really cool. So we're still waiting to hear back. And then we get a single design.

[00:09:06] And he's going to make like a Spotify banner that we can put up. So that seems like it'll work pretty well. We're kind of experimenting with putting out a single at a time, one single a month kind of thing. Oh, lovely.

[00:09:25] And coming up with lyrics I guess is sometimes hard for some. What do you recommend for those who are just kind of filling down? They know what they want to say, just not really how they want want to say it. Yeah, lyrics are hard.

[00:09:39] I don't think you need a tragedy every time. It helps but. I guess I guess just like being comfortable with what? Well, not necessarily being comfortable, but just like freely writing and like not attaching yourself to what's being written necessarily. Like just letting the writing come out and.

[00:10:05] Yeah, there's a friend of mine told me to just write like a bunch of garbage and like throw stuff at a wall and then you'll look just like slowly get better at stuff and. But you've got to like go through writing like the. You know, yeah.

[00:10:22] The various stages. And it seems like. Right now we're we're mainly. If you want to go for music, are there any colleges or music classes that you recommend? I've heard UNT is great. I know for percussion and like. I don't know jazz kind of stuff I've heard.

[00:10:53] I've heard there's a lot of great musicians coming out of there. And I know some some people that have. Yeah, they're really great musicians. I know Berkeley is like a really great music college, but that's like pricey. Yeah. Boston or wherever. I guess. Yeah, I don't know.

[00:11:19] I guess that's what I'd recommend. Yeah, that's lovely. And all together, it seems like we're now kind of at a point where we're. We got so much to work with. You can decide if you want to, you know.

[00:11:42] Get a scholarship versus use a YouTube tutorial and just tour with a group. Are there any other just like places that you think are good for networking? Yeah, I know what you mean. It's like easier to do things like yourself now.

[00:11:59] Like with the Internet and all the all the tools. I use YouTube a bunch. And it seems like you never know what you're going to get there. You know, original stuff versus people doing remixes or covers of other songs.

[00:12:21] And I know everyone kind of had a crisis with Spotify where they weren't really compensating. Everyone, but it's still a good way to make your material accessible. Oh yeah. You're in a tough quandary now or how much of the album do I show?

[00:12:41] If you want to hear the rest, you know, you got to buy it on another site. Yeah. Yeah, it's been interesting with a worst case scenario. Is we like made an album and it's I think 10 songs.

[00:12:59] And I always liked growing up like listening to full albums, you know. So it's just different now like with streaming and all. Like it makes more sense, I guess, to like, you know, just put out a little bit at a time.

[00:13:15] I think it's just the way people take content in is like smaller form, I guess. Yeah, they don't have as much, I guess, attention to everything. You got to get it there and then that's actually a good not a roundabout.

[00:13:34] Are there any tips and tricks you think are good for just kind of getting people's attention in the room? You know, I don't. It's so hard, right? Because, you know, I don't really know. There's so much now I feel like the attention spans are like, yeah, really short.

[00:13:58] Just all the social media and like quick clips and yeah. That's fine. Would you describe, I guess, yourself as very fearless at this point? Because just you've turned around and. Nothing can hurt you at this point, I don't think. You're human. Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course.

[00:14:32] I don't know if I'd say I'm fearless. I'm fearless. I still have fears for sure. Yeah, I guess I've experienced a lot now and it's I don't know. I'm grateful for what I've gotten to experience all the touring and stuff and all like. I'm really grateful for it.

[00:15:03] No, that's great. And it seems like because there's just so many different methods, I guess there's less frustration compared to how it used to be where I want to be this way or that way when it's like, I can be this way in that way.

[00:15:23] Where like, you know, like we used to have to like go through a record label kind of thing. And yeah, yeah, it's cool that there's more like, I think capability in like people's hands to do stuff themselves now.

[00:15:43] There's a friend of mine in California, Jojo does like music production stuff. And it's, he's just grown so much over the years like I've learned a lot from watching him and just like being in the room while he would like work on on bands.

[00:16:03] I would usually go in and like do live drum stuff and just watch him like EQ and do all the effects and the recording and Yeah, now he's like working on a lot bigger projects. Oh boy. I know it's yeah it's it's really cool. Like proud of him.

[00:16:28] And isn't it wild how when you see these inspiring stories, much like any positivity just that energy just spreads throughout the room. Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. He like would always bring that out of people. Yeah. That's lovely. Have you ever thought of even teaching a music class?

[00:16:56] I think eventually, I would like to teach, and I've taught a little. But it was, it was like sixth grade, kind of, kind of stuff and I don't know a lot of kids weren't too interested. So I kind of had trouble with that. Yeah, it's rough. It's attention.

[00:17:17] I think down the road. I still feel like I got to learn more on drums to. I don't know, maybe. I've thought about it. Anything's possible. And when you got into drums. Are there any particular drum sets and certain brand that you think is more reliable than others.

[00:17:53] I, I've been using maypex. And they're pretty good. I like the quality and the sound. And they're, they're more affordable, I'd say to like start with. And then there's symbol wise. I've always liked zildjian.

[00:18:21] Zildjian is pretty good. They've gotten a lot better and they have some more affordable options that sound really good. So yeah, I guess that's, that's probably what I recommend maypex and zildjian. Dream symbols are really awesome. I've been playing with a couple of those recently.

[00:18:41] That I've kept in touch with my percussion instructor or like a lesson, a guy got lessons from in high school. We've stayed in touch and he gave me a couple symbols that are pretty fun. So dream symbols, I would recommend as well. Lovely.

[00:19:06] And I know audacity is free. Are there any other, Pro Tools is another favorite for music fans? Yeah, I like, yeah, audacity is nice. I've used that a couple times.

[00:19:23] I remember a friend, a few friends use that. I know Reaper is free and it's just like, it just asks you to buy it like every time you start it. You don't actually have to.

[00:19:36] So my friends, and it tells you like how many days you've turned it down. So like open it it's like you haven't bought it in 6000 days, do you want to buy it this time?

[00:19:50] I used a Studio One for a little bit. It was like 100 bucks and is a pretty good DAW. Totally.

[00:20:00] And it's also just kind of, it's empowering to know that you don't have to rely on just like a giant crew to mix up your music beats each and every time, you know, like, you're in control.

[00:20:20] Yeah, and instead of like having the whole mixing mastering like having to go physically into a studio and do like the studio time and all. It's like getting easier for individuals to do. It's pretty cool. Totally. And you see so much just,

[00:20:44] you're able to kind of get inside your mind and see where the beats go mentally I guess, instead of have to predict. Here's how I sound here's how other people hear me, you're just kind of more in your moment. And

[00:21:03] if, if anyone had to run out of studio space. Are there any good ones here in DFW that you'd recommend to? I'm never squashed.

[00:21:19] Yeah, there's a, I don't know if I can think of any names. No, there's one out in Denton. It's like a legacy house, I want to say. I know, I know of the kitchen, which is like around Garland area in Dallas.

[00:21:42] And yeah, just like a small little studio in like a strip mall kind of thing. Oh boy. Yeah. And how long have you been doing these, these like interview. Oh man, about four years now.

[00:22:05] We started before COVID, and then just kept it going. We were just like hey, we got to dissect all kinds of pop culture. That's awesome. How about the little guy. And it is interesting how just nothing is impossible anymore it seems.

[00:22:30] There's always going to be a struggle and everything but like, now you can kind of choose how much exposure you want to push your career. Yeah, yeah the internet is like opened up so much.

[00:22:46] It's not just hey here's a word of mouth, and it broke the internet for a day is like now we can go here we can go there. Yeah. And all together. If you had to do anything over again, what would it be. That's a tough question.

[00:23:24] I had to do anything over again. Yeah, I'm not sure. It's not good. That's a beautiful. I applaud you for just pursuing this profession, because now I can do what you guys do. I could technically but I mean, thanks man. Do you play music.

[00:23:53] I do. I'm not going to play music at all but I just love how just so many can just choose different forms of music choose what part of the band they want to be in.

[00:24:08] I, my issue was I just kind of kept running into just very unhelpful music instructors and just, I didn't have any self control back then. Organization. Did you play anything in school.

[00:24:22] They had us doing trombone and a few other things but it wasn't very organized there was a lot of gatekeeping so to speak.

[00:24:30] That's like that's kind of what happened, like going into my sophomore year I was supposed to do a snare again but then like my family did a trip somewhere and it was at the same time as a percussion camp.

[00:24:43] Oh damn they they won let me in the second year and it was yeah it was like a gate gatekeeping thing. Just like a. Yeah. Wow. Now I know what a, what kind of music do you like.

[00:25:01] I'm really into kind of, you know, I'll do pop but also do like electronic and hard rock and metal but right now alternative seems to be kind of the best way to just kind of get everyone out of their shell.

[00:25:14] I find, just because like you say it's on it's unpredictable. That's a good point, though, to that. There needs to be kind of just some change in how music is taught and not just shoot down hey you can't do this or that at a young age.

[00:25:39] Yeah, yeah I think a lot of kids like lose interest because of stuff like that.

[00:25:46] It would be like if we just reshape this whole interview right now and I said this must end this way or that way. I've just lost any authenticity by bossing you around in the interview. All together.

[00:26:05] I can only hope that somebody college schools, and even high schools get better at just encouraging people to be part of band camp, I know I had a brother who was into both sports and and music.

[00:26:20] And that just hurt him really deeply because he didn't want to pick either one he wanted to do both and commit to both. Oh yeah.

[00:26:30] I don't know why people feel like, hey, you got, you can only pick one is like if you restrict people you're going to just keep getting pushed back. Right, yeah. It's mind boggling. But have you ever thought of doing any music videos.

[00:26:59] Oh, like for for my personal music and any of your groups. Yeah, yeah. Worst case scenario, we're doing a music video for the song that's coming out later this month. So we we filmed that and the songs. The songs about like gun violence basically.

[00:27:25] So it's it's a little more of like, I guess, on like a hot topic song than we would like normally do, I guess.

[00:27:36] So the video is like, kind of in your face with like some like gun stuff and I don't know what kind of want to like call out a little bit for.

[00:27:52] Like gun restrictions and stuff like that, because of all the shootings that are going on constantly and it's like kind of crazy like how it just keeps happening.

[00:28:02] And just maddening and no one seems to want to do anything about it. Just act like hey, it just happened is like no, it didn't just happen. Yeah.

[00:28:12] Yeah, you can't. You can't keep like pushing it off like you got to do something about an issue at some point. Right. If it persists. Yeah, it's just kind of like, hey, I mean, if you don't say anything you might as well be complicit.

[00:28:33] But I get that it's hard because then you got to talk to all the guys who feel like they can't live with other guns and it's like, well, we're not even talking about that. We're talking about the ones who should have it. It's, it's so tough to tread.

[00:28:50] Because you know you're going to also get trolled by people online who haven't even heard your statement. Oh yeah. Yeah, the pros and cons like the internet is like really cool for how much it connects people but like so can be such like a toxic environment as well.

[00:29:15] But it'll be cool to see. It's crazy how fast like technology has has ramped up like over the last few years, the last 1020 years or something. Yeah, it's like it can identify anyone who's disrupting the general public but it can also be used to abuse and still identities.

[00:29:41] Yeah, the deep fake stuff is crazy how accurate it like it's. It'll be interesting all the AI stuff now with AI generating music and videos and stuff like that.

[00:29:55] Yeah, I'd have you mess around with like a chat GPT or any. No, I saw a brief discussion on it but I haven't followed it. As someone recommended to me and I tried it out just out of curiosity.

[00:30:14] And it was a, you just like ask it anything and I'll spit back a whole paragraphs of information.

[00:30:23] All right, well, I'll check it out. I mean, there are ways to make AI work. It's just right now you know I can't blame anyone for striking out. I've heard. I wouldn't be surprised if music groups start striking out soon because I know video game actors are thinking of also striking

[00:30:40] because until AI can be used to create stuff without stealing people's identities, you know.

[00:30:48] All it does is hurt people and deny it's compensation. Yeah, and I was already very very sad and when I just saw that without just no shame so many politicians were thinking yeah let's go ahead and use this I'm like well then we're gonna have even more misinformation.

[00:31:07] Either way we lose. Yes. Just perplexing. I hope we can get out some dark times.

[00:31:22] Obviously you know any industry is not without some stress and depressing times. Do you have any tips and tricks for just kind of recharging and just kind of getting your mind off of stressful matters. I would try and like, take breaks and like separate from stuff.

[00:31:43] Like if I social media will stress me out a lot sometimes so I'll just like, take it off my phone and like take a break.

[00:31:53] I'm not going to do it only on the weekends if I can, you know, don't even interact with certain groups if I can because I, you know, if I'm not getting the reaction I want, then that is only going to annoy me even more and I don't need more annoying moments.

[00:32:11] It's, it's wild how people also kind of would want to predict which algorithms are going to work and it's like well until it happens you really don't know. Yeah. And if they.

[00:32:25] I think a lot of people know their data is being stolen, they just were kind of the clickbait generation still where it's just so easy for people to just kind of smack talk and even when they know escaping article is not constructed in any way it's just so easy to click on.

[00:32:43] Yes. Yeah. Any promotion you'd like to promote it this time. I guess the worst case scenario song coming out. And the rest of the music that we're doing. So we're trying to do a song every like month or so.

[00:33:17] And I'm trying to do more, more video work right now like more music videos, and I do. I do videos for high schools, like high school percussion programs. Under rimshot media. And so I'm trying to do some more video work across the board.

[00:33:42] So I guess I'll put that out there. Oh, lovely. So please keep plugging that and promoting it. I'd love to see more on it. Thanks for.

[00:33:59] Thanks for having me anytime I see so many people who want to only talk to like someone famous is like, throw everyone a bone for your friends a bone. Talk to your local industry.

[00:34:14] All together I just feel like just so many people just, they want questions answered, and they'll look at so many tutorials and just not get anywhere and it's like, people love just picking each other's brains so I mean, one unengaged in that.

[00:34:34] Yeah, it is what it is, I get that people can be shy sometimes. I used to be to the point where I was afraid to ask anything. I'm not sure like the answer and it's like well you won't get anywhere. Yeah, yeah.

[00:34:51] Godspeed to you. Awesome. Thanks so much for any time too much fun. We'll return after these messages. If you like small town mystery, crazy news and wild history, then the Florida men on Florida man podcast is for you.

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