063 - Conversations with a Punk Rock Legend - Sean Snyder Interview

He started playing drums when he was 8. He joined his first band when he was 15 and in the 22 years since then, there's only been a collective year and a half of his life that he was not in a band. Talk about dedication. He loves punk rock, tattoos, Harley's and his family.

Sean Snyder is the guitarist and vocalist for the three piece rock band, It Hurts To Be Dead. His lyrics are haunting and romantic often calling upon relationships of his or his friends. Their music is melodic, beautiful, raw, wild, dark, catchy, sorrowful.

In this episode, Sean walks us through some of the highlights of his career as well as plays three new tracks from their latest album "Old Habbits and Die Hards". Tag a friend and share with your brothers and sisters.

Key Take Aways Include:

02:12 - How long have been in current band and what is your role - guest host asked question

02:49 - It Hurts To Be Dead - almost 9 years old

03:07 - Rocking since 15 years old - 22 years in

03:43 - Started playing drums at 8 years old

04:57 - 12 years into music at 20 years old

07:45 - Is Punk Rock a four letter word?

09:30 - Melody, Ferociousness, Morbid Romantic

11:45 - Latest album - Old Habits and Die Hards

12:50 - Song - Black December - Frustration about not being able to help a friend more

16:30 - Where did the name It Hurts to be Dead come from?

17:40 - Audience question - Lani - Does Sean still have Mollie Marie?

18:30 - Harley Davidson Motorcycles - Punk Rock, Tattoos, Harley's and Morbid Romance and Harley Davidsons - Conversation with a Punk Rock Legend

19:20 - Audience question - Brandon Graham - Who are biggest influences, past and present?

20:30 - in 22 years only collectively 1.5 years NOT in a band

22:00 - Fame is not a motivator, it's more about creating

24:12 - Audience question - Joe Sanchez - What's the itch you can't scratch?

25:00 - Audience question - Mike Hardison - What advice give to a younger band?

28:22 - Song - Auction - Failing relationship

34:00 - What's next for It Hurts to be Dead

34"45 - Audience question - Chris Roberson - Who would love to collaborate with?

36:16 - Audience question - Ryan Huff - Hardest part of keeping a band together - worst show ever played?

37:30 - Getting trashed dumped on them on stage

40:30 - How have dealt with failure of the years

42:34 - Does punk rock center you?

45:00 - When did start playing guitar?

45:30 - Song - Slurring My Apologies 

062 - A Life Dedicated to Rock and Roll - Brandt Holmes Interview

“Music is how I define myself. So, if I don’t have music I don’t have Brandt Holmes.”

— Brandt Holmes

In this episode, we set down with Mr. Brandt Holmes, a man who has dedicated his life to rock and roll. We examine the ups and downs of his journey, what inspired him to begin playing, words of advice he would give to a kid considering walking in his shoes, the importance of loving ourselves & much more.

Brandt also plays three brand new songs for us. He's a good friend of mine and I'm honored to shine light on the dedication of this man who is, truly - Steady Focused.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

00:55 - Song - "To Whom It May Concern"

04:28 - What Brandt is up to

05:37 - Down-Stares, how Brandt and I became intimate

06:38 - Learning to play guitar

08:28 - "When did you fall in love with performing?"

10:17 - Jr. High Bands

12:13 - 20 years of dedication - Steady Focused

15:55 - "Music is how I define myself. So if I don't have music, I don't have Brandt Holmes."

16:06 - Song - "One of These Days"

20:30 - "What do you say to a 7, 8, 15 year old who is wanting to walk the path you've taken?"

22:00 - "Set your goal and don't let anyone get in the way of it. If you want to be a rockstar you have to be willing to sacrifice everything in order to do it."

23:14 - "What inspires you?"

25:31 - "Clint Vines & the Hard Times"

26:36 - "Remember to have fun."

28:40 - "I love myself" - shout out to Tom Hendrix

31:20 - Song - "'Til the Day I Die"

Learn more:
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061 - A Conversation About Failure

Okay let's do it. Let's have a conversation about failure.

Failure is one of the greatest motivators known to human kind. It will deliver to you, the keys to a great kingdom. Failure is ALSO an abusive monster and it will stop your face into the ground.

So what’s the difference?? Mindset.

Bruce Lee tells us - Do not ask for an easy life, but ask for the strength to endure a difficult one.

The only way to success is through failure.
Elon Musk - The man who is literally altering the trajectory of human kind. Projecting us into multi-planet habitation. You know how many setbacks the Tesla company has endured? Do you know how many times Space X’ rockets have failed?

Do you know that this man literally sleeps at manufacturing plants of his companies in order to have a quicker response to problem solving and an quicker way to overcome roadblocks? 

Everyday we hit roadblocks. Everyday we have failures. Every day. It’s our perception, it’s our mindset about how we allow those to shape our destiny.

As a child - we don’t know how to talk. We don’t know how to walk. We don’t know how to ask our mother for milk. We are totally innocent. Totally dependent. And yet we learn to walk, care for ourselves, communicate.

As a child, we see the evolution through failure as natural. We see the failed attempts at walking as part of the process. We give encouragement. We give boundaries. We give support. Of course he’s not going to know how to talk right off the bat. We love. We nurture. We encourage.

But at some point during our growth, it reaches a point, we automatically expect evolution to just BAM be there. We demand of ourselves instant perfection. We demand of ourselves to totally remove a learning curve. We demand of ourselves so much and many times it can result into abuse over failing.

The alternative - do we want and easy unchallenged life? No. The joy of life is the climb. The challenge, the grind. It’s in the moments of pushing ourselves to the limits. Pushing ourselves beyond the boundaries.

The challenge is what fulfills us. The seeking. It’s about the perspective that we put upon ourselves and others.

Failures have real consequences. Failures have very real consequences. Every failure has a very real consequence. Failures suck. Failures burn. Failures… I lose clients over failures. I can lose a relationship over a failure. I’ve lost materialistic things over a failure. In extreme cases - people will die from our failures. Know that. Accept that.

Failures have very real consequences. Understand that. Know that. Take ownership of that. As we grow and evolve we seek to mitigate the loss, we seek to avoid the failures.

But understand that failures are the building blocks of success. If Edison didn’t fail 10,000 times trying to create the light bulb - he wouldn’t have created it.

Failures are a necessary part of progression and evolution. The difference is “what is my perspective.” - Because I fail, am I a failure? - Ask yourself. I say “hell no.” I will examine this failure. I will own this failure. I will examine why this failure occurred and seek to implement systems and seek to avoid a failure in the future.

Fail. Accept it. Take ownership of the failure. Don’t blame others. Do not blame others in a moment failure because I will miss a wonderful opportunity for growth. The situation has happened. Period. I can’t change that. But what I can do is accept it and learn from it. But if I blame someone else for this, then I will rob myself of the evolution of this.

Find more on Steady Focused and Simeon Hendrix:
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