The Ampraid Podcast

Aaron and Josiah recap the highlights from various podcast clips from 2019.   Includes clips from Meara McLaughlin of Music Portland, Chris Young of Portland's Vortex Music Magazine, Austin Lyon's of Future Divine and Silicone Boone (and others)

A short conversation about the British Parliament and Aaron’s CLEAR understanding of exactly how British politics work    Leigh and Richard talk about building ‘the look’ of their live show   Leigh and Richard talk The Bright Expression’s future release plans    Rich talks about writing as a drummer and his specific writing process    Leigh talks about other artists that she’s inspired by    Rich and Leigh talk about musical exploration, recording without a click track, and their techniques for creation tension in their tracks     Aaron, Josiah and The Bright Expression talk about complexity and humanity, and trying to grow as human beings    Rich talks about the power of community    We all agree jointly that there’s a chance that our entire existence is just a simulation of some sort    Rich and Leigh talk about the difficulty in writing something truly honest while still being connected to the Christian music community    We play a sample of The Bright Expression’s song ‘Monochrome’

Amy Savin tells us about her first touring experience, her writing process and the process it took to make her most recent full-length record “Unveiled”.      Amy talks about the urge to quit due to the length of time it took to make a full length record    Amy talks about the possibility of self producing her next record, the writing process and the fighting the urge to compare the upcoming record to the last record project.     Aaron talks about ‘battles of the bands’ and says “There are no musical Olympics”  No one wins anything for being the ‘best band’.     Aaron makes some statements about age and a career in music    Aaron:  “Comparison is the enemy of great art, it leads you on a path away from gratitude”    Aaron, Josiah and Amy talk about the value of musical community    Amy makes some points about touring, and overcoming rejection and value of music and art

Silicone Boone tells his amazing origin story, talks about Bob Dylan's influence on his songwriting, and discusses his new album 'The Reaches' with Aaron and Josiah from Ampraid.    Silicone Boone's ex-Amish background comes into the conversation very quickly and we talk about God, aliens, music and the birth and eventual death of the universe all while discussing his new album which was over 15 years in the making.

Aaron and Bob talk about when they first met (nearly 20 years ago)    The guys talk about working together in Nashville, then moving back to Portland    Shoutout to our buddy Craig Alvin, who recently won a couple of grammy awards and also who helped Bob Gerig start writing, recording and connected him with producer Gabriel Wilson for his first full-length project.     Aaron talks about hope deferred, and common fears amongst artist types     Aaron, Josiah and Bob talk about the wildness of life and the need to pivot from your initial plan in order to embrace and be grateful for other opportunities    Bob Talks about Jackson Browne    Aaron asks about the difficulty involved in being truly honest when you are a Christian musician or worship leader    Bob talks about playing blues harmonica

The guys talk about the first year as ‘Ampraid’    Aaron and Josiah discuss Thanksgiving food choices    Aaron and Josiah discuss ‘Black Friday’    We say “Thank You’ to a lot of our clients in the past year    Shoutouts to Nate Lapeer, WRYT, John Mark McMillan, Future Divine, Paul Baloche, Strum PDX, Blackbook guitars, Revival drum shop, Portland Oregon, McMenamins and the people at The White Eagle, Katelyn Convery, Sleep Millenium, The Junebugs, Matt Grecco at The Rye Room, AJC Music, Vortex Magazine, Gabriel Wilson and all of the other clients who have supported us this year.     The guys discuss plans and hopes for the next year.

Flashback to WRYT’s first single “Ivory Tower”    Shoutout to AudioCinema in downtown Portland, Oregon for letting us take over the building for multiple video shoots last week    The guys talk about getting sick right before a show or a video shoot    The guys talk about the amount of diligence required to release musical projects    A discussion on race relations in the US, the US political climate and how it’s affected Mychael’s songwriting in the past 3 years    The Story of “Milk and Honey”, the next WRYT single    Shoutout to 1981 Inventions for their great DRV pedal    Aaron suggests altering your practice regimen to make your band more versatile and to increase the members ability to listen to one another    The guys talk about the first ‘vinyl’ that each of them ever purchased    Mychael ends by giving a sample of the upcoming single “Risk and Fear”

Aaron and Austin become best friends    The guys discuss voice memo vs. text message vs. Instagram DM  (While an ambulance siren runs through the background)     Austin talks about touring and his time with the band “I am Empire”    The gents discuss touring in vans and give some plusses and minuses  (Mostly minuses)    Josiah advises all about what he considered “the greatest licorice of all time”    Austin says we should all listen to “Talkie”, another San Jose based band    The guys discuss Gabriel Wilson’s, song-coaching, production style and  Aaron tells a childhood story about skiing together    Austin talks about the new Future Divine project and explains what lead him to start songwriting for it    Aaron loves both Rob Thomas AND Carlos Santana

Matt Gives his musical background and talks about moving from Nashville to Portland.    Matt tells a Billy Gibbons story    All 3 guys realize they once worked at Starbucks    Matt talks about his new, full-length record ‘The Magician’    The guys talk about overcoming your fears as a songwriter    Aaron talks about building trust with an artist and development    Matt talks about loving to perform live for people    Matt talks about the recording process he used on his new record.  Which includes creating songs on his iPad, using garageband, and recording them in his small apartment   Aaron talks about fearlessness

Aaron and Josiah discuss tips and tricks to consider when starting a new project or trying to improve some things involving your existing project.      When choosing a new name, consider “SEO”.  Research your chosen name, prior to committing long-term.      Have a ‘real’ email address helps you appear more pro    Aaron says “You still need a real website” and discusses why.    Streamline and simplify    Conversation about ‘smart-links’    Some thoughts on YouTube for ‘promotional’ purposes    “Build off of Facebook first”   Temper your expectations, have a plan, and take a long, long, look at your future.. Then build towards the horizon.     Aaron says something about ‘gratitude’