Achickwitbeatz presents ⁠the Instrumental Intel podcast⁠, bringing you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news & tips, insights & interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm EST on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠.
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Instrumental Intel Podcast

Achickwitbeatz brings you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news, insights, interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm ET on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio,⁠⁠⁠ Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠, and your favorite podcast platform.

Transcript Generated by Riverside

00:01
Hey, thank you for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I am your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz, and I'm thrilled that you've tuned in to join me. I got an episode today that's got music industry news, beats by me for your inspiration, and later, my special guest, Brian Keith, will be joining me. We're gonna talk about seeking your sound and finding your formula, so it's going to be a great time. Really excited to be bringing this episode to you. So before I go ahead and drop that first beat, I wanna give a shout out to my home station.

00:29
Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And with that, let's go.

03:57
[BEAT BREAK]

13:39
music biz brief. First up, Acceleration Music is acquiring long-running UK indie label Cooking Vinyl, known for artists like The Prodigy, Passenger, and more. Cooking Vinyl will continue to operate independently, connected to Acceleration's global infrastructure and Red Eye Distribution platform. Acceleration says the deal expands worldwide opportunities and taps into Cooking Vinyl's artist services legacy. Cooking Vinyl Publishing and Modus Music are not part of the acquisition.

14:07
both companies emphasize a shared commitment to independence and artist-first values. Next, Sony Music Publishing has acquired Hypnosis Songs Group from Recognition Music Group, expanding its roster with a mix of modern hits and classic songs. The deal includes publishing rights to tracks like Sabrina Carpenter's Espresso, but excludes major catalogs from artists like Justin Bieber and Neil Young, which Recognition still owns. Hypnosis will transition to Sony's systems over the coming months,

14:36
while royalty payments will continue as usual for now. Sony says the acquisition strengthens its mission to support impactful songwriters worldwide. Also, Harborview Equity Partners has secured another $500 million in debt financing from KKR, backed by its music catalog. This brings its total raise to KKR-led securitizations to $1 billion in 2024. The funds will help Harborview expand its music holdings and push into film and TV rights.

15:05
Founded in 2021, the company now manages over 35,000 songs, including works by T-Pain, Christine McVie, and Wiz Khalifa. The deal highlights growing investor interest in music IP as a stable, uncorrelated asset class and continued momentum in rights-back financing. Next, as Congress considers mandating AM radios in all new cars, a new coalition, including music industry, auto, and tech groups, is pushing back with a demand.

15:34
If radio stays, it should start paying artists. In an open letter to lawmakers, the group argues it's unfair that AMFM radio stations still aren't required to pay royalties to performers, unlike streaming and satellite platforms. This has reignited calls to pass the American Music Fairness Act, spotlighting a longstanding gap in U.S. copyright law that leaves artists unpaid for terrestrial radio plays. Next, Spotify is now streaming in the skies.

16:01
Through a partnership with United Airlines, over 450 hours of Spotify curated playlists, podcasts, and audiobooks are now available for free on more than 130,000 in-flight seatback screens. Select United Planes also let travelers stream Spotify on personal devices from gate to gate via Starlink Wi-Fi. Personalized Spotify logins for in-flight screens are set to roll out in 2026. Apple Music is rolling out new features with iOS 26,

16:29
including lyrics translation to help users understand songs in different languages and a pronunciation tool to sing lyrics correctly. They're also introducing an auto-mix feature that creates endless mixes of songs similar to Spotify's AI DJ. Users can now pin favorite artists, albums, or playlists for quick access, and iPhones can be used as mics for karaoke on tvOS with controls for vocals and reverb. Apple Music's global head, Oliver Schuessler,

16:57
called it crazy that streaming platforms still offer music for free, saying during NMPA's annual meeting that Apple sees music as art and refuses to devalue it with a free tier. His remarks came as the publishing industry celebrated $7 billion in U.S. revenue last year, but also raised alarm about declining songwriter payouts due to bundling practices by Spotify and Amazon, along with low royalties from social platforms like TikTok.

17:24
The NMPA urges solidarity to protect songwriter income and these growing concerns. Reservoir Media has partnered with Fool's Gold Records in a wide-ranging deal that includes acquiring master rights from artists like A-Track, Danny Brown, and more. The agreement also gives Reservoir exclusive rights to market and distribute the label's full catalog and upcoming releases, including music from the new sub-label, A-Track & Friends. This strengthens Reservoir's position in hip-hop, electronic, and boundary-pushing music.

17:54
Also, LiveOne, the U.S. music streaming company behind Slacker Radio, is facing a $2.6 million lawsuit from Sony Music for unpaid licensing fees since August 2024. Sony has ended its licensing agreement, but says over 200 of its tracks remain available on LiveOne's platforms. This follows a previous 2022 lawsuit from Sound Exchange, which LiveOne lost over royalty payments dating back to 2017.

18:21
Despite reporting $95 million in revenue for 2024, LiveOne posted a $7.3 billion operating loss and recently raised nearly $17 million in debt financing while exploring strategic options after Napster's acquisition. VC firm Mindset Ventures has launched Mindset MusicTech, a new fund focused on early-stage startups in music, sound, and audio tech, especially those offering business-to-business tools.

18:47
The fund aims to back companies that streamline creative workflows, enhance rights management, and deepen fan engagement, steering clear of the volatility of the entertainment itself. It's already invested in six startups, including Music.ai, Aude, Unheard, and Alduet, a voice-controlled music creation tool for artists. And finally, Tencent Music Entertainment Group is set to acquire Chinese audio giant Zimilea Inc. for about $2.4 billion in cash and stock.

19:17
making it a wholly owned subsidiary. The deal expands Tencent's reach into podcasts, audiobooks, and spoken word content, positioning it to better compete with global streaming leaders like Spotify. With over 300 million monthly users, as valuable new content and revenue streams, Tencent's strong first quarter results of the year, including growth and premium subscriptions, reflect the strategic importance of long-term audio content, which the company will help bolster once the deal clears regulatory approval.

19:46
Alright, and that's a wrap for the music biz brief. I'm gonna take a quick pause for the cause, so stick around, and I'll be back with my special guest Brian Keith right after this. Keep it locked.

[BEAT BREAK]

31:05
Hey, I'm Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels. Visit achickwitbeatz.com for resources for artists and instrumentals in various genres available for songs, vlogs, blogs, podcasts, themes, TV, film, commercials, and more. Once again, that's achickwitbeatz.com. That's A-C-H-I-C-K-W-I-T-B-E-A-T-Z.com. Let's make something happen.

31:35
Thank you so much for tuning in to instrumental Intel. I am your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz. And I'm excited, thrilled, and delighted to say that I have in the virtual building with me today, Brian Keith, multi-talented, multi-hyphenate musician. So if you could let the people know a little bit about you and how you got involved in music. So my journey started a long time ago. I guess as a kid, I grew up in one of those big households that had a lot of music.

32:04
grew up listening to all the great stuff like Stax and Motown, and you know, we really did kind of have a lot of stuff in the house. Like a lot of people, I started playing in church when I was about seven, keyboard, drums, and then from there it just grew. In 1990, my mother's job, we left Memphis and moved to Cincinnati, and it was here in Cincinnati that I kind of started, you know, my professional journey.

32:32
Signed on my first recording agreement at 17. was a baby.

32:37
Wow, that's incredible. Well, right off the bat, I already know I've got to ask you about that. How did that feel to achieve that at such an early age? You know what? Looking back, you know, don't think I was, I mean, I don't really think I was truly aware. So, how it happened when we first came to Cincinnati, we landed at a church here called Good News Church of God in Christ. And at that time, there was a gentleman by the name of Bo Watson,

33:06
who is the lead singer, singer-songwriter, producer for Midnight Star. He was the music director at our church. And so by fate's hand, I just landed in the right space. And Bo was really kind of the first person to kind of put the bug in me that this could be more than just you being a church musician. So he would take me around to the studios with him. I would see up close the kind of work ethic it took to put these records together.

33:35
And then in that same church, there was a brother there. His name was Jason Slaughter. Jason Slaughter was the first person that was like, “yo, forget gospel. We're going to take this kid and do something.” And so Jason started taking me around to the different labels, and I ended up signing with an independent label that was based out of Cincinnati at the time. Back then, I just wanted to be in the studio. Didn't really, I don't think I really grasped the situation that I was in.

34:05
I was just excited to work, and I actually signed with this label as a writer and a producer first. And then, you know, I started singing and working on other projects. But yeah, it was looking back, I can appreciate all the people that, you know, were along my journey that have helped me get to where I am now. So, you know, I definitely appreciate all those people and all those individual blocks along the way. Yeah, absolutely. So.

34:32
You mentioned that you had started off with the writing and producing there. How, I guess, what did you kind of use for your inspiration, like when you started writing? If you can remember, like maybe the first song that you've ever done up until that point and all that, like how'd that kind of fall into place for you? So my original dream as a young kid, I wanted to be Barry Gordy. That was long before I was actually, you know, thinking about music as a profession.

34:59
You know, I grew up as a kid admiring Motown and admiring that story of a person who would could come in and organize all these talented people and create this great label. Yeah, would Barry Gordy when I tell people that that's kind of weird. Look, yeah, Gary. Barry Gordy was my first idol, or the first person there as a kid. I said, you know what? When I grow up, I want to have a record label like him. Right. Yeah. And then, as things would unfold,

35:29
When I got to Cincinnati, the studio that Jason Slaughter took me to, this particular record label, when I first went there, I had never actually made a record myself. I was playing keyboards and organs and all that, but I had never actually sequenced a song, right? So we're in the studio and the owners of the label, everybody's all in this control room, and the engineer says, “hey man, have you ever...

35:58
put a song together?” And I said, well, no, I haven't. He said, “well, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to press this button. You're going to hear four clicks and just play what you feel.” And that's, that's what I did. And I've been doing it for 30 years now. And so, the first two songs that I ever produced and got paid for was a brother. Uh, his name was Monty Jet, me Monty Jet. And, uh, we did a song called ‘A DJ for Two’ and another song called ‘Get Money.’

36:25
And that was it. That was really literally how it started. I just– I put those two beats together. Then, of course, this was before the digital age. I kind of came in on the backside of the analog era. But yeah, that was really the beginning. I just started with those two songs. The label from there was like, well, can you write and produce for some of our other acts, which I ultimately did. And...

36:54
Funny story, my mother, you of course, I was a church kid. My mother was a pastor, missionary. And because I was underage, they needed her permission for me to sign, right? So they told my mother that it was going to be a gospel album. So they told Mom it was going to be a gospel album. And she allowed me. Now we did actually record a gospel album, or we recorded an album,

37:24
that, and you figure this was in the era of commission and BBSCC. But so we went in the studio, we recorded this album, and it was a lot of fun, he loves me. And I don't think the word Jesus was nowhere on this record. They pushed me as close to the line as they could. And we're talking 91, 92 by this time. And yeah.

37:53
From there, ironically, once we finished the album, they started trying to shop it for bigger distribution. And they kept telling us no, because at that time, even though there was groups like Commission out there, there was not a solo, little cute R&B looking dude with an R&B sounding album. So a lot of the companies that we approached turned it down because they was like, yeah, this is a little bit too far. It's either going to be gospel or R &B.

38:21
there really wasn't a lane for that back then. so, yeah, that was kind of the beginning. After the gospel project didn't work, the label came back to me and said, hey, look, man, we got these three guys that auditioned for various roles with the label. And if you will agree to be the lead singer, then, so that was my transition to R &B. Yeah, that was the transition.

38:50
What a story, especially you mentioned that era. I'm thinking if I'm remembering this correctly, that was around the same time that a lot of R &B acts would have their last song on the album be like inspirational. Right. At the tail end of that. Yeah, I kind of forgot about that period. Like, yeah, like it really wasn't a whole lot of different directions you could go at that time. Like, yeah. Yeah. And it was still very taboo. I remember I remember

39:20
one day at church, Tuesday night Bible study and we're at church and this, the BBNCC one is one of their albums that just came out. And the teacher, she takes, she has the cassette tapers, she slams it on the table that this is evil. know, the church was very, it still very taboo to have these R &B sounding projects back then. And, you know, looking back, I said, you know what, when I see gospel artists like Tonay and Ty Tribute and some of the more

39:50
modern gospel artists today, was like, yeah, I was, was ahead of the curve. Right. You know, now of course it's hard to, the lines are blurred now, but it wasn't back then. absolutely. Okay. So first of all, I mean, you know, that's really awesome. All the things that you got to see and experience. I think one of the main things that kind of sticks out to me about what you've shared so far is your willingness to be adaptable.

40:18
to different situations when the opportunities arise. Has that kind of always been a part of your work method or did you have to kind of work at it to get there? Well, when I was a younger guy in the game, I was just so excited to be doing music. And then what I really value most about that time in my life is that I was really around some really good producers, you know, that there were people they may not be famous, but there were writers and producers that were in this label that

40:46
I was, even to this day, I still very fortunate that my early training on how to actually put records together, you I was really around some great guys and I was just so excited to learn and soak up from these people. Like I mentioned, Bo Watson, you know, he would take me to the studio with him. You you go into a studio and you see all his gold and platinum plaques all over the wall. He had so many gold and platinum plaques. I remember one time in particular,

41:14
I go to a studio and he had some that were sitting on the floor. hadn't even been opened. And I'm like, wow, man, why don't you put these up? And he was kind of like, yeah, that stuff's cool, but this is how you get there. it was just building the blocks of like, you know, these three minutes, four-minute songs take hours to put together. They take discipline. You've got to know your gear. You know, obviously I came in.

41:40
kind of at the back end of the analog age where, you know, there was pretty much still Alborgue. There were no presets, you know, primarily. So I value that. I value that I learned in that era where when you bought your module, you had to go through all two, 300 sounds to understand what you had. There was no one, couldn't push a preset button and make it do what it does. But learning that way, I think made it easier as technology started to grow for me. Yeah.

42:09
And yeah, because there was no YouTube to look up and search a quick video to figure out how stuff works. So, mean, diligence that you had to have, I was kind of messing around a little bit in music right at the cusp of that era. Like my cousin was a part of this group, so shout out to him. New York, but he was part of this group and they had like the stuff like, you talking about sequels in and out? So one day we were just kind of.

42:35
you know, messing around, he was playing the music and I was like, wait, I started writing to it and kind of started singing along. So then he had to like chop everything where it needed to be. I can't remember what kind of keyboard that was, but I was like, man, this look complicated. So yeah. You know what's crazy? We didn't really know it because that's all we had, you know? So yeah, when, you know, like I said, I came up, we had our keyboards, we were still using take,

43:04
when I first came in the game and we had modules like Planet Fat was like the popular module and Emu. We had all these new modules, but even then when you had your effects processor, there was no presets. You had to go through your processor and you knew what all your sounds were. And I'm still kind of like that. I love buttons. I love turning buttons. I definitely prefer a real console versus mixing on the screen. But yeah, I appreciate

43:34
learning in that area. like I said, once the plugins and the dolls and all that stuff started to kick in, it just made it a little easier for us because, you know, we had such a solid foundation in analog gear. So, okay. With that being said, I highly believe that there's so much value in things that are produced that way. What are some of the main differences? Like I know you said, like it's easier now, but like, as far as like the kinetic feeling, like

44:02
pressing the knobs, touching, know, like doing all that stuff. How do you feel like that affects your music as opposed to just kind of, you know, clicking and pressing, which I'm not knocking by the way, because I do it all the time. Right. Yeah. And I'm not knocking either. I've had conversations with my producer cats about this. So one, the analog era, you had to work more. Like I said, you had to know your machines. You had to know your gear, whether it would be your keyboards or your drum machines.

44:32
there was no presets. So whatever sonic sound you were going to get to, it came through trial and error. It came through you spending the time with your machines, with your mixers, with your compressors. Like I said, in those days, everything was outboard. You had to know your patch bay. You sit in these hot studios with all these wires. But it created a foundation. Then I– was a little late when...

44:58
the digital era of recording started to come, I was a bit of a dinosaur. I had NPCs and I had certain pieces of equipment, but I was still, I didn't embrace it right away. Kind of like other producers did because I was so, I don't know you want to say stuck as a word, but I was so stuck in my era. But the one thing that I will say, the doll era made things faster.

45:26
It's certainly, especially as it pertains to like placing and popping backgrounds, you know, back in those days, we were placing and popping backgrounds, but not quite the way you do now. You can just highlight it and move it. It just wasn't that way. I came up in an era in the early nineties where we were still for the most part trying to do records in one take. We was trying to do.

45:52
sing the backgrounds multiple times in the same song instead of take it like now you can just sing it one time and move it around. And so, yeah, I appreciate having both. And nowadays, of course, I appreciate it. I'm a studio one head. I use proteins and everything, but I am a, I've had this conversation. I like Studio One because I'm comfortable with it. And I think it's, I like the editing tools, but yeah.

46:20
beautiful thing about the digital age is that for people, I guess, like myself, who really know their gear, it's a lot easier to move stuff around. feel like there are certain things that I can do now with a song that I say, oh man, this would have took hours to do years ago. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's kind of funny how you say like what you're comfortable with. like we all have our favorites. Like even if we mess around with like some other

46:47
software, whatever the case is. It's like, I don't know. I'm kind of personal with this. I used to love sharing memes, joking about, you know, people making fun of other people's dogs. Like the FL Studios and all that. Yeah. You know what I find interesting about it? I remember when FL Studios first hit the scene and, you know, some of my more esteemed producer friends would be like, look, what? You know, was so taboo to be using that. Like what real producer uses that? Well, fast forward a few years later.

47:17
the ultimate goal of any working producer is to work. And so I think to once a lot of those producers that were using some of these other dogs like FL Studio start getting paid, then it wasn't so taboo. Who cares if you're a produce expert and you can't place records. So I've seen, know, so a lot of these younger generation of producers who

47:45
use different dolls. And so like, it's not, you know, I came from an era where if you didn't know protus, you, know, you weren't much of anything. Well, it's not that way today. Yeah. Like there's so much out there to choose from. And like you said, it's like, if you know your gear, so regardless of what that is, you can still make it sound great. Like I know a lot of people were upset. Um, well, I shouldn't say a lot of people, a lot of producers online were kind of complaining about, um, the time Madly was like, oh yeah, I made this on my iPad.

48:13
It's like, what difference does it make how he made it if you enjoyed it? Like, would you? Yeah. Right. And it's crazy because looking back, even in the analog days, you didn't always have the best gear. You made it work. You know what mean? Whatever you had, however you rigged it up and wired it up, you did it to produce the sound that you wanted. And that I think is a part of the love of creative music is that it's not always about having the best gear. It's about take the gear that you have.

48:42
do what you feel and if other people feel it, then it works. And so, yeah, who, you know, these producers who feel that they're better than others because they use Pro Tools or some of the other more esteemed dolls. Yeah, that time is over. Think the one thing I know, and I'm sure you know this, when you go looking for studio gear nowadays, it's just so many pieces out there. It's overwhelming. It's really overwhelming.

49:11
It really is. Yeah. And even I have a really bad habit of downloading plugins. Mm-hmm. Like trials, whatever the case is, I'm going to try it. But I still always find myself going back to my go-to's. You know, I'll tell you, I was a little late in the game. you know, when the whole plugin era started to come in, digital production.

49:37
You know, I was one of those guys, I still had all my old gear and keyboard and drum machines. And so once I really kind of got more into using plugins, it was overwhelming. Like, wow, man, it's just, I mean, you could literally just, for days, finding all these different plugins. Yeah, and, but it all boils down to what your formula is. You know, I'm one of those people too. Now I have thousands of them. I've got all these hundreds of kicks, hundreds of snares and hi-hats.

50:05
But I always land on the same four or five or six or seven or so that I like. And you cook your soup the way you cook your soup. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I love that. That's the sound bite right there. Yeah, man. Yeah. Because I tell you, it can be, it can definitely be overwhelming with all these new toys and plugins. And it's just amazing how much gear is out there. Absolutely.

50:30
You know, like you said, it's just so much to choose from. So it makes sense that people stick to whatever they kind of gravitated towards at first. Right. Right. But yeah, I mean, a lot of changes, a lot of things are way different than even how, what, in the last 20 years, we've seen like the evolution of so many things now. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, it's funny. I remember a time, seven or eight years or so years ago, when

51:00
people started having, you know, when you would see people with the studios in their bedrooms, stuff like that, and people would be like, I'm not in the studio. Well, actually, because of the advances in technology, you don't need a five, 10, 15, $20,000 studio anymore. You, you can go out and reasonably spend under $1,000 and come home with gear and sounds and be competitive. You know, it's just technology absolutely made production a lot less expensive.

51:31
Some people might argue that it made it too accessible to some because, of course, now everybody, everybody go get them a laptop and some sounds. They think they can be a producer, but I don't knock that. I believe in creativity. So yeah, let people create and let people grow in sound. But yeah, man, you can, it's funny now you see major artists on social media and

52:00
you see them working on their projects and they're usually in some corner of their bedroom or so. So it's not even taboo to not have these elaborate studios today because I think people realize, hey man, you get the right gear, the right tools. You don't need all of that. As long as the sound comes across nicely, you're doing it. Yeah. Yep. And you had said something earlier, like if people vibe to it, like I firmly believe.

52:27
that if you feel compelled to make music, it's because somebody else needs to hear it. Absolutely. As long as the people who are, what, your people that will find you, yeah, you just gotta keep doing it. Yeah, and that's the challenge today. In this sea of everybody, I just read a statistic the other day, I don't know how true it is, but they stated that on average, 250,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every day. And when you think about that, you're like, wow, man.

52:53
So, uh, where do I fit in all of this sea of people? Like how do you, how do you find your space and find your people? And I think it's, as you say, you really do have to first focus on just make good songs, make good songs, uh, engineering, make sure you've got good mixes. Let that be your priority. And from there, let your people find you, whether it's 10 people or 10,000 people, give them good music to buy. Right. Right. And I like what you said about the numbers too, because.

53:23
especially in the digital age now that social media has effectively programmed a lot of us to be looking at those numbers. So you can kind of minimize it like, okay, well, only 10 people like the song that I posted. That's 10 people. That didn't have to say anything. That didn't have to stream it. didn't, know, whatever the case may be. Like if you were out, you know, just walking outside in the street and 10 people tell you that they like your outfit, you'd be happy about that.

53:51
So I think it's like, just because it's, you know, in the computer or in your phone, people don't realize that those are actually 10 people that are supporting you. So yeah, the numbers don't matter. They needed what you had to offer and you gave it to them. And the funniest after that is in this streaming era where I think we all still trying to figure that out. If you had a hundred people who actually bought your single for a dollar, you, you're doing better than most. And so, you know,

54:20
Don't be overwhelmed with the pursuit of trying to reach the masses. Like you say, if you can just get your dedicated group of people that will buy your merch and buy your songs, that's how you build a career in music. And that's ultimately what I think most of us care to do. So, okay, you had mentioned kind of back in the beginning, some backtrack a little bit, but you moved from Memphis to Cincinnati, some big music locations.

54:50
How do you feel that those areas have specifically affected your music or your sound? They were huge. And I don't even think I realized the impact until I was much older. Of course, growing up in Memphis, you know, I grew up, you we were baptized in the history of Stax music and the blues. And like I say, my family, my grandmother had one of those long stereos. we had, you know, most of my aunts and uncles, 10 of them were

55:18
teenagers in the 50s and 60s and 70s. So by the time I came rolling along, there was every bit of two, 300 records there. Okay. And so I always valued that. Of course, growing up with my roots in gospel music theory in Memphis, Tennessee. And then when I came to Cincinnati, of course, landing where I landed, the church I landed at with Bo and some of the other musicians, it was just such an awesome time to be around so many talented musicians.

55:48
Cincinnati has such an awesome history of R&B, music. Dayton, Ohio is 30 minutes up the street from here. The city's music scenes are very linked together. A person from Dayton, Ohio will die on a hill telling you that funk music was born there, and I believe that. My belief, funk music started here in Cincinnati.

56:17
with James Brown and King Records. And then Dayton, Ohio absolutely blossomed it into what it became. Know, at one time you had the Ohio Players, had a group called Sun, you had the Daz Band, had Slaves, you had Heatwave, Midnight Star, Bootsy. All those groups were kicking around this area at the same time.

56:42
By the time I came along in the early 90s, a lot of the people from those movements, they were still around. You would see these guys all the time, the band members, were bumping to them, Catfish Collins, all these guys were still around. And so I take great pride in being from Memphis, Tennessee, musically. And certainly I take great pride in the culture of R &B, and soul music right here in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio.

57:07
I got family in both areas just for the record. yeah. Yeah. This is the, and you figure in the eighties, you you had groups like the deal, of course, Midnight Star. Uh, this has always been a hub, you know, over the years, uh, even with the record labels around that, as they were trying to move projects throughout the country, they always came through here. You know, it was always like, this was always a testing ground. And you wanted to see how the rep project was going to do from an R&B-Funk kind of standpoint, you had to test this market.

57:37
This market has always had some of the baddest musicians. know, it's just, it's always been that way. And I feel very proud to be a part of this community. Yeah. Well, that's an amazing, incredible background. I'm very saddened that this time has gone by so quickly. I know, I know. I definitely want to have you back on if you'd be down. could do a part two sometime. I'd love to. But yeah, but-

58:05
Before we close this out though, one, I wanna make sure that everybody knows where they can find you, find your music, follow you, sign up for newsletter, like whatever you got going. And then, yeah, if you have like any kind of final thoughts that you kind of wanna leave, any like advice nuggets that you wanna leave the listeners with, that'd be great too. Yeah, absolutely. So I am at B Keith Music on all music platforms. My website is bkeathmusic.com.

58:34
can always go there. I just released a new single about a month ago called Slow and Easy, which is out everywhere where you buy music. And if I was to leave a nugget with anyone, you've got to keep going. You know, if you had told me at 17 that I wouldn't be this multi-million dollar producer with 12 Bentleys outside, I would not have believed you. But life

59:03
And music is a journey and it's imperative that you first love it and then keep going. And if you truly believe you have something special, don't stop. What wonderful advice. So yeah, I definitely want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to share your story, your experience and insight. And, uh, yeah, I'm already looking forward to next time. So yeah, we definitely got to do round two again sometime.

59:28
Absolutely, and thank you for inviting me. I do appreciate it. Thank you. All right, and that's a wrap for this episode of instrumental Intel. I've been your host, music producer at Chick-Wit Beats. And once again, I want to thank you for tuning in. I'd like to thank my special guest, Brian Keith, for coming through and sharing his insight and experience. I'd like to thank my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And I'm excited to be back next week with a new episode for you. More goodness lined up and on the way. So.

59:55
Until next time you know where to find me. Tune in, tell a friend, and I'll see you then. Peace.