Mission Men: Dreams vs Reality

As the clock strikes eleven and the glow of the studio lights begins to dim, we wrap up another episode of the Mission Men Podcast, laden with laughter, revelations, and the kind of banter that only comes from years of friendship. This time around, we've unearthed the origins of our creative sparks, weaving tales from the nostalgic threads of "Back to the Future" to the rock and roll legends that strummed the chords of our hearts. We share how a summer grounding turned into a musical awakening and how dreams—both sleeping and waking—propel us toward the stars.

Pull up a chair and join our circle as we reminisce about the formative play of our youth that set the stage for a lifelong passion in cinematography and music. You'll hear how toys and video games like Minecraft were the foundations of a career behind the camera. Discover how we learned to craft our art by emulating the greats, and how mentorship from icons like Lamont Dozier shaped the melodies and stories we tell today. It's a candid look into the growth of a creative spirit, from imitation to innovation.

So, as we sign off, remember: it's not just about the tales we've told tonight, but the journey we all take. We invite you to embrace the quirks, the missteps, and the moments of brilliance that define your path. Keep chasing touchdowns in your own game of life, and tune in next time for more stories, insights, and the genuine camaraderie of the Mission Men Podcast. Until then, keep your passions ignited and your missions alive.

Credits and Info:
Hosts: Brandon Matias, Paul Wright III and John Frease
Music: Brandon Matias
Produced by: Mission Media Group
Email: info@missionmediagroup.co
Podcast Production - https://www.instagram.com/missionmediagroup.co/
Mission Men Podcast IG - @missionmenpodcast
Mission Med Podcast YT - @MissionMenPodcast
Mission Media Group IG - @missionmediagroup.co
Mission Media Group FB - https://www.facebook.com/missionmediagroup.co

Chapters

• 0:02 The Mission Men Podcast - John "Tom Brady" Flag Football Update
• 13:49 Casual Conversation About Movies and Dreams
• 17:18 Growing Up as Musical Homies
• 30:33 Evolution of Creative Passion
• 35:56 Learning Through Replication and Mentorship
• 46:20 Late Night Podcast Sign-Off

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Mission Men podcast brought to you by Mission Media Group. The Mission Men podcast, the podcast about nothing and everything. You know, just you know just a little bit between Spit it out or forever hold it within. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a great, great episode today. The boys are back in. Between Spit it out or forever hold it within. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a great, great episode today. The boys are back in town. We're recording this episode. It's so great to have you Because, for those watching and listening, we do these in four episodes At a time.

Speaker 3 0:39

Yeah, at a time right.

Speaker 1 0:40

So this is our first time back. We're excited. Yes, John, you okay. I'm just flipping my hat backwards.

Speaker 4 0:47

So the people can see my face. That made myself laugh, oh my God.

Speaker 1 0:56

All right, paul, your turn. Huh, oh, my gosh.

Speaker 4 1:03

By the way, paul, you look handsome man, oh my gosh, when does he not?

Speaker 2 1:05

you look handsome man, oh my gosh. When does he not?

Speaker 1 1:07

That's what I'm saying All the time.

Speaker 4 1:09

Well, not to me, you'd be having the fits though low-key.

Speaker 1 1:13

The fits.

Speaker 4 1:13

Yeah, you'd be having the fits. What's the fits?

Speaker 1 1:15

What's the fits Outfits?

Speaker 4 1:18

Oh, get the matching track suit the matching this you know to matching this.

Speaker 3 1:26

Come on now, you're just dressing always real good. Okay, there we go.

Speaker 1 1:27

Ladies and gentlemen, that's actually what we wanted to bring up first about this. We have a new sound effect for John, because a lot of times it kind of gets old when John just goes on his things. Doesn't get old though.

Speaker 4 1:40

Yeah, when he does that, the sound effect.

Speaker 1 1:47

We've kind of incorporated this just to kind of bring some new life into that whole kind of bit thing. So, john, this is your time. We're gonna give you like 15 seconds to talk about whatever you want. Just go random, yeah, go right now.

Speaker 4 2:00

I was walking through a pumpkin patch one day and all of a sudden I saw this kid run off the slide and and I said why don't you build with instead of cottage cheese? You need to go to the spinach route. So I at that moment took the wood from Lowe's Depot and I said that is where I draw the line, mr Crab, until you get off my front yard and we let you cook in the kitchen. For real sake.

Speaker 3 2:19

So anyways, guys, welcome back to the show.

Speaker 1 2:25

Here we go, wait, wait, wait. What's?

Speaker 4 2:27

Lowe's Depot. Lowe's Depot.

Speaker 1 2:28

Lowe's Depot. What's Lowe's Depot?

Speaker 4 2:30

Oh, Lowe's Depot. They sell bushes Okay.

Speaker 1 2:34

Okay, they're beans Guys for real. We got a great show today. I'm so random, sorry that caught me. Funny, that was great. So we're going to talk about a couple things today. First of all, I don't know if you guys have seen the episode where John talked about his flag football team, and we are doing great by the way, I'm like the.

Speaker 1 2:57

MVP. Perfect, and we're going to get into that, because we talked about that a little bit where John was going to be the star starting quarterback, where he threw 10 out of 11. It went touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.

Speaker 3 3:08

Everything was dimes.

Speaker 1 3:09

Everything was dimes, it was perfect. So we're going to dive in that to kind of catch up and see how things are going in regard. Yeah, let's catch up. And then we're going to talk about dreams a little bit.

Speaker 4 3:17

Dreams.

Speaker 1 3:18

Because we actually had a cool conversation.

Speaker 4 3:19

We did. I don't know if I want to talk about all the dreams I have.

Speaker 1 3:22

I definitely don't want to talk about your dreams, because your alive thoughts are really scary.

Speaker 3 3:31

Just imagine when you're sleeping. We don't want to, yeah.

Speaker 1 3:35

I don't want to be in that demented world at all. It's like a live Tim Burton movie.

Speaker 3 3:40

But so we're going to talk about like how.

Speaker 4 3:42

Who's Tim Burton?

Speaker 1 3:43

Exactly so we're going to talk about how. Who's Tim Burton Exactly? So. We're going to talk about how Paul and I got into our music world, and then we're going to talk to John and see kind of how he got his love for filmmaking, and then we're just going to kind of see where we all came from, because we actually had a really cool conversation.

Speaker 3 3:59

We did. We thought it'd be fun to do that on the pod.

Speaker 1 4:01

So all right, John. So last time that we talked about your flag football team again, just give us a quick recap you know just kind of what you were saying in that episode how that practice went just real quick. Just for anybody that didn't get a chance to watch that episode just real fast I mean, I don't like to compare myself, but I'm a Hall of Famer In that practice.

Speaker 4 4:25

I showed out, I put up and I did great. I had like 10. Are you guys on your phones?

Speaker 1 4:33

I'm getting the videos ready, so go ahead. So I want to make sure you guys are listening to me?

Speaker 4 4:36

We're listening. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You want to make sure that we're listening? Yes, okay, you want to make sure that we're listening? Yes, okay, all right, we're listening Anyway. So, yeah, I did great. You know, 10 out of 11 cat throws and, yeah, I did pretty good.

Speaker 1 4:51

Yeah, and you were telling us you're like the first starter.

Speaker 4 4:55

QB Starting QB Absolutely, I was very confident yeah.

Speaker 1 5:01

Yeah, so here's. The cool thing is that John was nice enough to invite me, paul, to his game.

Speaker 4 5:07

Thank you for coming. Yeah, of course it was hard to see you amongst all the fans that were also there for me.

Speaker 1 5:12

I was sworn, but I'm glad I found you. Absolutely Everybody chanted your name. It was almost like the Beatles.

Speaker 4 5:18

Yeah, I love them. That's a bad holiday. Especially when they're all booing. Great yeah, oh yeah, especially when they're all booing, right yeah.

Speaker 1 5:25

So I got to the game, paul, and I'm like, okay, great, I'm excited to see their team play. I know a bunch of the guys on the team, so I was really excited. I'm expecting John to just be ready to go.

Speaker 3 5:35

He's going to show out.

Speaker 1 5:36

Rare form Right and I found something interesting. John didn't even start.

Speaker 2 5:44

Wait a minute, john didn't even start, he was on the sidelines and I have proof.

Speaker 1 5:48

I have proof. So I have a video that I'm going to play and we'll have this play on the video for you guys and everybody. I'll play the audio as well, so that you can listen and hear. So let's do it right here. Are we starting QB tonight? Yeah, we're starting QB.

Speaker 2 6:03

You know, this guy behind me wants to play QB, but he's watching for now. I mean, he's a retired nurse, so we've got to make sure he stays clean and healthy. Okay, yeah, but yeah, big day ahead of us and I like to compare myself to Nick Bear and make sure I go hard every day.

Speaker 1 6:21

Yeah, I don't know who that is. You don't know who Nick Bear is. No, who's Nick Bear? I don't know. Okay, so are you starting QB? That's the question. That's what everybody wants to know.

Speaker 4 6:29

Am I starting QB? No, no.

Speaker 1 6:34

What so so?

Speaker 4 6:35

Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 6:36

So I'm doing an interview style with John, and then he quickly goes over to Isaac, who we'll actually be having an interview with here on an upcoming pod, and he quickly turned that down. So explain to me why he seemed like that was not going to happen.

Speaker 4 6:55

I just don't know. I mean to tell you I was distraught, speechless, heartbroken.

Speaker 3 7:00

You were heartbroken, I was heartbroken.

Speaker 4 7:02

Paul. Wow, it drove me to tears.

Speaker 3 7:11

Did you cry? No, no, of course not. Why would I do that dry tears?

Speaker 4 7:14

yeah, it drove you to dry tears, oh dry, not wet in the slightest and I was very on the bridge of crying and uh.

Speaker 2 7:20

But you know. Anyways, I carried on the bridge of crying on the verge.

Speaker 1 7:25

Thank you sorry I like the crying bridge. The crying bridge was so much better.

Speaker 4 7:30

Yes, go for it. You know they like the song.

Speaker 2 7:32

Yes, yeah, whatever song that is um anyways, yep um, but I was sad, I was like well, you know what.

Speaker 4 7:40

It's time to carry on and be a leader. You know, if I'm not gonna be on time to carry on and be a leader, if I'm not going to be on the field. I'm going to be a leader off the field. Did you ever play QB on this game? I did. I have a video.

Speaker 1 7:50

Okay, yeah, we got some videos. We got some more, so let's check out this.

Speaker 3 7:53

He plays QB.

Speaker 1 8:01

Okay, Okay. So as a starting quarterback, they're actually having you sit for a minute.

Speaker 2 8:05

Yeah, well, as a part of being a really good leader and an MVP, you have to take responsibility in your hand, and part of that is letting other people go first.

Speaker 1 8:13

Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, the first shall be last, last shall be first, right? Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 8:18

And there's a real biblical truth to that.

Speaker 1 8:20

I'll be ready over here, you know, I'll be ready over here you know Just when they need you, maybe because you're too good, maybe that's what it is.

Speaker 4 8:29

Okay, so you got the right attitude there. Yeah, yeah, great attitude. You got to adapt, and football is a big sport of adapt.

Speaker 2 8:36

Yeah.

Speaker 3 8:54

A big sport of adapt.

Speaker 1 8:55

okay, we're here, we're here, I'm serious, okay, here we go, we're back, we're back, we're back here we're back. We're back. Here we go. Are you all adapted? No, I'm adapt. Go ahead, all right.

Speaker 4 9:07

So, yeah, you know, I just had to get back into it and kind of just let you know, kind of let it, you know, roll off me a little bit, yeah, and I chose to get in the right mindset and once I got, this happens right, okay, so you're on the field, let's do a play-by-play, so you're on the field.

Speaker 1 9:29

Yep, so here he is and you're playing qb now, right?

Speaker 4 9:32

yeah, that is me with the white glove, like michael jackson. All right, so there you go. Go snap balls coming soon there's all the snap.

Speaker 1 9:38

Oh, brandon, I'm sorry, all right here.

Speaker 3 9:41

Sorry, okay, snap the ball.

Speaker 1 9:44

High in the air.

Speaker 3 9:45

High in the air and another team catches it. You threw it. It looks like an interception.

Speaker 4 9:51

Yeah, it was. It was a dot pass, though.

Speaker 2 9:54

To the other team.

Speaker 4 9:55

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 9:58

Yeah, right, right.

Speaker 3 9:59

Okay, still called it, but a good throw though Did you see the arm on me. But it still called an interception. Did you see my?

Speaker 2 10:05

arm. I did see your arm and that was impressive.

Speaker 3 10:07

Thank you, that was impressive, thank you.

Speaker 1 10:09

I'll give that part to you. You know, it actually would have been a really good play if the other team wasn't there.

Speaker 4 10:14

True.

Speaker 3 10:17

I know, and that's what I was thinking.

Speaker 4 10:18

So if they weren't there, kind of. From that moment on I I never played quarterback again all right, so for real, though.

Speaker 1 10:29

So how's the team been doing since that? That was the first game.

Speaker 3 10:33

Okay, so you guys, what's your record right now?

Speaker 4 10:35

we are. I wish we were undefeated, but you're not. We are two and three. You want to so, but here's the thing. So we are here's the deal, thank you. Uh, we are two and three. We have won two games. We have lost three games. That's what two and three means. Yeah, cool, I didn't know that, just want to make sure.

Speaker 3 10:52

On the same page, yeah right so oh how didn't I hear something about the two and three like the two wins. I heard somebody said you did win two games but you weren't at the two games.

Speaker 4 11:09

Yes, I have in fact not been there for a game that we've won yet, but there is still hope. And now some might speculate. There's a common denominator there is.

Speaker 3 11:22

So you won when you weren't there and you lose when you're there. Yeah't there?

Speaker 4 11:25

yeah, yeah yeah, you got that right, paul. All right, you got that right, so why? Do you think that is man? It's got to be isaac.

Speaker 3 11:34

He sucks so was isaac. I'm just kidding okay was isaac at the games you won uh yeah, he was, and you were not at the games you won, right.

Speaker 4 11:46

So here's the thing, though. Here's the thing we have played the top four ranked people the last four times, wow, okay out of how many teams out of eight, I believe, and so that's not bad. For our first season. We're gelling as a team. We're understanding each other, what we're good at, what we're bad at. We're really learning what I'm bad at and what I'm bad at, and then we're figuring this out. We're getting our chemistry together. Two and three, first season. Yeah, give us some luck, you know.

Speaker 4 12:20

But, we're going to get better and this next game, game.

Speaker 2 12:27

I have high hopes because we should be playing more NARPs. Like us NARPs. What are NARPs?

Speaker 4 12:30

Non-Athletic Rejected People.

Speaker 3 12:33

Did you just make that up? Maybe, the rejected part. Wow, that's good.

Speaker 1 12:40

Nice, I love that sound effect so much.

Speaker 2 12:42

That was good.

Speaker 1 12:43

Oh man. Okay, John, thanks for letting us have an update. Love the update, Thank you so stay tuned.

Speaker 4 12:48

The next game is coming up here soon and we'll have to find out how I do on the next one, I mean yeah.

Speaker 1 12:54

Yeah, oh man, that was some good laughs, Okay cool. Well, that was fun. I appreciate you letting us do that I have scored one touchdown.

Speaker 4 13:02

Let's not forget that you know what.

Speaker 3 13:04

Actually, all right, we have that I think I saw that.

Speaker 1 13:07

Let's be fair, let's be fair. John's been a really good sport, so here I'm going to rewind it just a little bit and then we'll show it in the video. John puts a juke. Oh A nice little. That was a nice little stutter. Stop, yeah, hesitation, yeah a little hezy.

Speaker 4 13:25

Here's the problem, though, with that. I can't fully take credit for that move, because I thought someone had already taken my flag so I just completely stopped because I thought I was already down. I did not, in fact, do that move on purpose. It, however, tricked the other person because of my low IQ and we scored. So you know we're growing.

Speaker 3 13:49

You heard her about the playing to the whistle. You play to the whistle.

Speaker 4 13:52

Right, you never stop. I couldn't hear. I saw red, okay.

Speaker 3 13:56

Okay, there you go so.

Speaker 2 14:02

I love you guys.

Speaker 1 14:02

I love you too, no hey, listen, we appreciate you being a good sport, we're just having fun, and it's it is important to be able to laugh at yourself and just have a good time, and that's an important skill to have and a lot of people don't have that, do not have that skill. So we appreciate you, thank you. Let us have a little bit of a laugh there.

Speaker 4 14:22

That's fun. It's a good time.

Speaker 1 14:23

Yeah Well, hey listen, you're only going to get better. You said you're actually interested in maybe starting to watch some football now, maybe to learn a little bit. So you're only going to get better from here, because you are actually a very good athlete.

Speaker 4 14:36

I joke about it. I've been watching a lot of football, especially from the UK and England.

Speaker 1 14:42

Uh-huh, yeah, isn't that a? It's soccer, soccer, but um. They call it football though.

Speaker 3 14:47

It is weird, it's soccer.

Speaker 4 14:49

Yeah, it doesn't really look like football, does it? Yeah, no, I didn't really learn anything. Fair enough, there you go All right.

Speaker 1 14:55

so we wanted to have a kind of a cool conversation just about how, um, you, um, you know, kind of how our dreams came about. And, uh, there's really, there's really no good way to segue from what we were just talking about, so I'm just going right into it.

Speaker 4 15:09

Well, it's in my dreams that I actually score a touchdown on purpose soon okay, well, there you go, there you go follow your dreams, follow your dreams into the end zone.

Speaker 1 15:17

Um, but no, we were actually having a really cool conversation. Um, just, I was telling the guys about some things that actually do you, paul, do you remember how that started?

Speaker 3 15:26

I can't remember we were texting, I think yeah, I can't remember what the how it started. I think you sent me a song and we were going back and forth with some music we were working on and oh, because it was, uh, didn't we say something about like back to the future?

Speaker 1 15:40

and then that's kind of how I said, how I there's like a video of me when I was younger Is that okay.

Speaker 3 15:45

I think I remember that yes.

Speaker 1 15:46

So for those who don't know, one of my favorite movies of all time is Back to the Future.

Speaker 3 15:51

Have you seen? Have you seen, or is it really my all-time favorite movie? Oh wait, that's your favorite of all time, all time. Are you serious?

Speaker 1 15:59

All time disconnected.

Speaker 3 16:00

for some every time it comes on television I have to watch it oh, my gosh paul.

Speaker 1 16:04

I already loved paul like a million times, but like now it's a million and two do you love me? If you do say yes, but um so I I just love that movie growing up I so have you seen that, john?

Speaker 4 16:24

have you seen back to the future a million times? No, youown Up. So have you seen that?

Speaker 1 16:26

John, have you seen Back to the Future Million times? No, you haven't. Have you seen it, maybe? Okay, it's about the high school kid.

Speaker 4 16:33

Yeah.

Speaker 1 16:34

Okay, before we say this, I need to bring this up. Paul, you were there, I supposedly. Well, I did. I butchered how I described Full House in the Full House episode.

Speaker 1 16:43

Yes, I butchered how I described Full House in the Full House episode. So I want to apologize for the person who brought that up, and they know who they are. We were in the praise team room and somebody came up to me and was like dude, you tried to describe Full House and you just butchered it. It's not even close to what it was. I'm like, yeah, you're right, you're not far off.

Speaker 4 17:02

I've seen Back to the Future a couple of them. You're not far off. I've seen Back to the Future a couple of them. How many are there in total? There's three.

Speaker 1 17:07

I've seen two of them. Okay, so tell me, I want to hear your synopsis of Back to the Future.

Speaker 4 17:11

Oh boy, I didn't really pay that much attention. We might be exposing me a little bit right now.

Speaker 2 17:15

I know. That's why I asked.

Speaker 4 17:18

It was cool, we got Marty, our boy the scientist oh hey.

Speaker 1 17:22

Marty, yeah, you know, there you go.

Speaker 4 17:23

Marty McFly Williams. I'm finna bomb this mouse to hell. Yeah, so we have Marty scientist Williams. John, pull up the meme, I'll teach these guys through the video.

Speaker 3 17:32

once I see, there you go.

Speaker 4 17:33

Marty McFly Williams.

Speaker 3 17:35

Wait, why is it Williams? What's the Williams?

Speaker 1 17:39

It's not Williams, fly, it stops oh, you guys know marty mcfly yes, yes never mind, I'll put that in post.

Speaker 4 17:46

It's a video of a kid skateboarding down a hill and he falls at the end, and it's an old meme okay, okay, so separate it back to the future. Back to back to the future. Guys are marty the scientists. Okay, uh, we got a delorean car. Uh, that's very cool. They use it to time travel. The scene I remember Is where they go back To a high school reunion or prom, maybe.

Speaker 1 18:07

High school dance, dance. Okay, that's what it was.

Speaker 4 18:10

And that's about as much as I remember.

Speaker 1 18:11

Okay.

Speaker 3 18:12

I mean, that's that works for me.

Speaker 4 18:14

Yeah, no, I'm good with that Two dudes Time traveling being homies In the DeLorean. There you go.

Speaker 1 18:19

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 4 18:19

Wow.

Speaker 1 18:19

Yeah, wow, um, yeah. So favorite movie growing up, loved it and, uh, I always wanted to be marty mcfly always, I mean like for halloween I was marty huh. Keep dreaming no, I, I agree, I, marty mcfly is like the coolest dude who's ever existed and I still that's. My goal is to be marty mcfly, and um, so I grew up just loving that movie. I mean, I literally, I literally dressed up as Marty McFly like four different times as a kid for.

Speaker 1 18:47

Halloween, you goon? Oh dude, for real. And so I was telling Paul that there was a video. There is a video of me and I don't have access to it, I don't even know if it exists anymore, but I remember watching it on VHS of me as a three-year-old kid in a diaper, on vhs of me as a three-year-old kid in a diaper. And so there's a scene, john, where he's playing, um, a song at that dance. He's, he's the guitar player and he does this whole routine and and it's so cool because he's like playing like an 80s guitar, like just ripping, shredding and then like all these people from 1950 are like what in the world 1955? And so, um. So I as a kid, I just love that scene so much that I actually like memorized the whole thing really and yeah, oh yeah. So I I like put up like a cardboard box, I set it up there, that was my amp, that I would kick over and I would, I would just, I had all the movements and everything memorized and I was like man.

Speaker 1 19:45

I wonder if that's where my love for music kind of started was from that scene in that movie, but yeah, so I got super into that. But the funny thing was I was telling Paul and you too is that no one in my family was musical.

Speaker 3 20:03

And that was remarkable for me when you said that because you're you're so talented musically speaking, production guitar the whole nine yards. You're so super talented and it was wild. We were texting and we were going back and forth and you told me the story of kind of your music beginnings yeah, and being grounded.

Speaker 1 20:22

I think you said right oh, yeah, but you have to tell the story about that. Oh, of course, of course, I'll tell you all. I will tell all, but yeah, no. So I grew up, you know, I got my first electric guitar at 11 and didn't really know what I mean. I knew chords and stuff and I played for church, but very basic, nothing challenging at all, just very, very simple. You had a good heart. I had a good heart, well, maybe, but yeah, no, I had a good heart and I was trying to learn, trying to grow, and then so, finally, it all happened between my junior and senior year of high school. I was caught making out with my girlfriend at the time.

Speaker 1 21:05

Yep, yep Sure. And so my parents, being very, very strict, grounded me for the entire summer. I mean literally from the day school was over to the day school started the next year, it was just three months of yeah, so I mean couldn't leave the house, nothing. I mean obviously I went to church and stuff like that, but you know, whatever Couldn't ground you from Jesus, no, that's true, I feel you, I've been there the groundings oof.

Speaker 4 21:37

I made a lot of mistakes when I was a teenager and I got grounded a lot for them.

Speaker 1 21:45

So I've it a lot for them. So I've, yes, getting grounded sucked, yes, and so you, you, you know, you're aware. So so it was about halfway through that, um, where my dad started feeling bad for me.

Speaker 1 21:52

So he's like, all right, well, I'm gonna like get him like a cool video or something or whatever, like you know, just to kind of help him pass the time so he got me, um, a history of rock and roll docu-series or something, wow, and it's just showing Pete Townsend of the who and Jimi Hendrix and just all these amazing great guitar players. It's like, oh, that's really really cool. But then it comes to this one guy and he's doing something and for those listening, he was using both of his hands to play on the guitar, but he wasn't using a pick, he was using it on the fretboard and he was doing something. And I'm like that is the craziest, coolest thing I've ever seen and I'm gonna learn it. And so I I got from that moment.

Speaker 1 22:38

It was almost like a, you know, like a ground zero moment where you just like you remember where you were, what you, you know what you were wearing, all that kind of stuff. And so I was there. I'm like I'm gonna learn it, I'm gonna go crazy. So this was the era, so this was in 2004, this was in 2004 two years after I was born.

Speaker 1 22:59

Oh my god, oh, wow, wow, dude. Oh my gosh, that's insane. I'm old, yeah, I'm old, yeah, I'm old too. So from that point I'm like, okay, how do I figure this out? So again, this is 2004. Youtube had just started, and so I'm like, okay, I figured out who the guy was. The guy for anybody listening who knows it was Eddie Van Halen from the band Van Halen. And again, the resources back then were not great. So what I literally did was I would find videos of him and I would literally hit the space bar and then hit the space bar real quick just to watch where his fingers were. That's amazing.

Speaker 1 23:41

And then I would just do that over and over again until I learned and I'm like, okay, because they did have tabs, at least Do you know what tabs are. Yeah, so for guitar tabs, pretty much, it's like if you're going to play something, you play on this fret, on this string, so at least you can kind of figure out where it is. But it doesn't teach you technique or timing or anything, it just shows you where the notes are being played. So I actually went to those videos and I kept hitting the space bar, I mean literally.

Speaker 1 24:08

I'd be like like that and you're learning, yeah, the licks, I'm learning the licks solos, the, so the solos and I'm watching eat where his hand's going and obviously the video this was in 1984, 1980, so the quality of the video, I mean you know the quality of video.

Speaker 3 24:25

You're talking about VSH at that time.

Speaker 1 24:27

Absolutely so. The quality is not great, so I'm just constantly just like slowing it down, because now on YouTube, you can go on there and they've got full videos where it's like okay, here's the lick.

Speaker 4 24:39

Here's what you do, all that kind of stuff, and it even categorizes the segments of the video. Exactly here's the Right.

Speaker 1 24:44

Yeah, exactly here's the right, yeah, here's the fast part, here's the slow part, or whatever. So I was constantly just doing that over and over and over again until I finally started learning it, and I just kept practicing and practicing.

Speaker 3 24:56

You tell me you did this and that was kind of at the age of 17 yeah, yeah and that's where everything started for you musically.

Speaker 1 25:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I got super.

Speaker 3 25:11

I mean, that's almost quasi-genius status for me when I think about it. That's a big statement for him to make. But here you are. You're literally learning how to play your craft from YouTube videos. Yeah right, and everything that you're doing now is because of that. If you hadn't been grounded, think about it.

Speaker 4 25:31

Right, I know you just have the drive to self-start that and learn it, yeah, which is some major props to you.

Speaker 3 25:38

That's amazing, and to see where you are now and what you're doing? Yeah, because it comes from zero lessons.

Speaker 1 25:45

Yeah, You're self-taught and family like zero.

Speaker 3 25:48

No family like same with my family there's no music person in there and are my family either. But it's amazing when you think about okay, here you are, you're self-taught, yeah, you're doing all this, and to see what you're doing now, and commercials and television and you know cues and movies, you know the music you hear and what a cue is. Is the music you hear behind right movies and television.

Speaker 1 26:10

He does so much of that stuff exceptionally well but that's amazing to think about it, that you, it's just self-taught yeah, I I mean, like you know I I was telling paul I did do like a little bit. I mean, like when I first got the guitar I got like lessons for like six months and I just kind of like this. I fizzled out. Well, I stopped playing. I was like okay, you know I don't, I don't really care for this.

Speaker 1 26:31

I'm not really learning as much as I'd like, because I mean, when you start an instrument I think you can attest to it's like uh, you know you, you want it to go fast you just want to start learning.

Speaker 1 26:41

You want to get right to the. You want to get right to the good stuff and you can't. You just can't do that. So but yeah, no, that's that's how I started learning like music theory and stuff, and because a lot of people when they learn instruments especially now it's so easy just to learn to play licks or chords but to not understand, like why you're playing those chords. So I started asking those questions like okay, why is he, why is he playing this at this point?

Speaker 1 27:06

So then in college I actually got really into the beatles like big time. So what I started doing was I would take a song per day and what I would do is I'd write down the lyrics and then over the lyrics, I'd write down the chords that they were playing and then I would write down the individual melodies of what they're actually singing over those words. And I did that every day. I did it it for the first five or six albums of the Beatles, and so I'm like all right, because I'm going to, and the reason why I chose the Beatles is because obviously they've left Pentacle yeah right.

Speaker 1 27:38

They've left a legacy that is timeless, right? So I'm like, okay, those guys did something, right? So I'm going to study them like crazy. So yeah, that's what I did. I started writing down and I'm like, and I started, seeing patterns and I'm like, oh, that's nuts.

Speaker 3 27:52

I mean, no, you know, when I tell you how crazy that is, that is, that is really crazy. I mean your journey is super crazy because I think and we were texting about this yeah, we're going. I was like my journey was completely different because, yeah, I will lessons, you know, since five years old. Yeah, lessons, lessons after lessons after lessons, going to high school playing in every band, every band, every band. Yeah, going to college for music, lessons, lessons, lessons. I think we still we kind of ended up in the same similar places. Yeah, but it's just just amazing, the two different, the two different journeys yeah um, you can.

Speaker 3 28:27

you can come from the the whole school side of things, and that's cool and you can reach the same dream, though. And that's what we were talking about where you can reach the same dream, but do it completely different.

Speaker 1 28:41

Yeah, and I think that's what's so cool, because we were comparing back and forth. It's so cool to see how God brought you along on your journey and then how I started my journey too. And I mean, here's the whole point of this thing is you get out of what you put into something right, and so I think that's what Paul learned as a kid, that's what I learned as a kid. It's like, how bad do you want it Right when it comes to your dream and what you want to do? So I, and obviously God puts that in our hearts right.

Speaker 1 29:13

And the great thing is, the really great thing is that because of Mission Media Group, because of our church and what we're involved in, what we're doing, we're able to give those gifts back to the Lord Absolutely and serve Him and help other people come to know him through our gifts that he's given us. And obviously you know there is a combination of us having to do the work right. You know there's hard work that we have to put in to grow and just like. So, john, I'd love to hear, like your story too, of kind of how you really got the love of video and because obviously you know Paul, and I Because it's similar.

Speaker 3 29:47

It is yeah.

Speaker 1 29:48

You're at the beginning stages of your, of your dream and what you're doing, but you, but you're realizing your dream right, and so I I'd love to hear how you got interested in it. And then, how did you start? Because obviously, paul, and I think just insanely high of your work and your quality. I mean, you're right there, man, it's, it's incredible work and we're blessed to work with you, but yeah, no, please. I'd love to hear your journey and your story.

Evolution of Creative Passion

Speaker 4 30:13

Well, the journey is still unfolding, it's still coming to be, but I guess if I had to put a start on it or a mark on it first, whenever I tell people how I developed this passion for what I do, uh, it kind of always seemed to go back to when I was a little kid. Uh, I would play with like legos and and um different, like action figures and stuff you know um, but instead of how normal kids like you know play with them and say Billy Joel the Dark Lord, fight, fight, hit, hit. You know all that. Billy Joel the Dark Lord.

Speaker 2 30:54

I didn't even mean to do Billy Joel the artist. Is that a singer? Billy Joel? Yeah, Billy Joel was a singer, Sorry.

Speaker 4 30:59

Turn the lights on Dark Lord.

Speaker 2 31:01

Yeah, right, right.

Speaker 3 31:02

The Dark.

Speaker 4 31:02

Lord, anyway. So that was unintentional, but I so that was unintentional, but I didn't play like that. What I did was I would just buy all these toys. Yeah, uh, shout out, grandma, because that was not my money um.

Speaker 4 31:13

I would set up those toys just in a certain way, and a look yeah and I would leave it there for like two weeks and just every once in a while go look at it again and show mom and dad, show nanny, show friends. That's all I did, wow. Never moved them, never talked or acted them out. I would just set up like a set and just be like oh, that looks cool, you know and then you were done, that was it yeah, for the next week or two weeks just leave it up yeah and then tear it down and start something again.

Speaker 4 31:42

so that was kind of like what Brandon said my, I think, my ground zero, where I kind of initially started the creative mindset there in which today, now it transpires to.

Speaker 4 31:57

I set up, looks in front of the camera, I filmed them, I take them home and I edit them and I put them together for people to watch and you sit back and I creatively saw that when I was a kid and now I kind of creatively see that now as where I am. And so I think it all stemmed from that and I think the Lord used that opportunity to kind of show me that at the beginning and then, as I got older, I stopped playing with toys, but then I went into Minecraft. This sounds so stupid. It's a millennial description isn't it?

Speaker 4 32:31

no, I get it but I went into minecraft and most people on minecraft play minecraft in what's called survival mode.

Speaker 4 32:38

Yeah, I'm trying to keep it for everybody here, but minecraft, I know I'm just so yeah, quickly explain what that means minecraft is a game that's still pretty popular, was popular a lot more a little while ago and basically you're either playing survival or creative, and in survival your goal is to survive. So you acquire wood by pickaxing at wood and collecting wood. Then you make a fireplace and you make food for your shelter. You make shelter, you have a certain lifespan, you have to make food.

Speaker 3 33:12

You survive.

Speaker 4 33:13

Then creative is you do whatever you want, you have no limitations of having to survive and you can build your own world you can.

Speaker 1 33:20

Build your own world, you can create things.

Speaker 4 33:22

But Minecraft was predominantly popular to survive and play survival mode. But I would do creative. I never mode, okay, but I would do creative. I never did survival. I would do creative to build things. So I would build all kinds of stuff the ohio state stadium, neighborhoods, houses, yeah different things. And again I would creatively place things in the right spot and make them look as professional as I could right, I was pretty good at it um, but so that was kind of through my teenage years, okay.

Speaker 4 33:49

And then later I started working at church. I did videos at church on a small level and I didn't really realize that I liked it, because the things I was doing there at first wasn't really that fun or creative.

Speaker 4 34:03

It was just to help at church, right, it was work, and then, as I progressed, the Lord really put on my heart to start doing stuff for myself and buy your own camera, try it out. Isaac, my best friend, he had a dude who was having a wedding and they're like, well, john, kind of filmed before. He could probably film your wedding and probably do it for a cheaper price than anybody else, because people charge like $12,000 for weddings now.

Speaker 1 34:28

Right right.

Speaker 4 34:33

For the videos, for the videos, for the video, yeah right. So I picked up a camera, felt like it was a lord calling me. I had lots of different people telling me to get a camera. I got a camera, filmed the wedding and then after that I kind of just fell in love with filmmaking, and I wouldn't say just videography, even though it's kind of specific. I like to call myself a cinematographer and I like cinematography which is cinematic.

Speaker 3 34:51

I call yourself a cinematographer.

Speaker 2 34:53

Yeah.

Speaker 4 34:53

I like cinematic video, which is what that word means and so, yeah, I just kind of developed a passion through it and found out the Lord really was calling me to that.

Speaker 1 35:02

So during that time, how did you start developing your skills? What was your double clicking the space bar?

Speaker 3 35:09

youtube video was it youtube? But you've studied a lot on how did you? How did you?

Speaker 4 35:15

yeah, so youtube um, but I never watched, like a lot of I never like tutorials I never watched tutorials because I hated tutorials and I hated sitting through and being patient and waiting for the answer and learning so what I did do was I just watched people's work like whether it be finished products yeah, people's movies, people's looks, people's different YouTube videos, their short films, like I studied what was the most trending, most creative looks that I was like, oh man, that looks so dope and that looks so different, Like stuff like that.

Speaker 4 35:47

I would study that, watch it on lunch break, watch it for breakfast, watch it for dinner, watch it when I'm bored. I watched it like 24 seven like consumed it Right.

Speaker 2 35:55

Right.

Speaker 4 35:56

And then through that I might not have known all the words technical solutions, you know all the operating knowledge of the camera. But then through I was able to know okay, I saw he did this, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna incorporate this shot and this shot. And then I just went out and filmed, like I filmed so much stuff.

Speaker 1 36:15

Then when I got the first camera, I just filmed like everything so when you were doing that, were you like saying oh man, I just saw this really cool shot, now I'm gonna try to go replicate it, or what was your kind of your process?

Speaker 4 36:26

yeah. Yeah, I think I never was a copy cat, uh, but I always kind of saw looks that I liked from multiple people and then kind of them together, mixed them together well, and that's really similar with how music goes, I mean I don't know about you paul.

Speaker 1 36:41

But like for me, like in my story, I found somebody that I was like oh man, I love their playing, so I'm gonna learn what they're doing and how they're doing it, and then I'm going to incorporate it into my own expression, or how I would do it, you learn from the greats and then you kind of make your own you do and I think, similar to me, you're not taught producing in college.

Speaker 3 37:06

You're not taught how to produce a record. That's not taught anywhere. Maybe some more now with the technology, they teach you a little bit more now, but back in the day, when I was in college, I mean, production wasn't actually taught and if you wanted to be a producer, it was like one of those rare things and I was the guy that bought the albums and I would read all the credits. I knew every producer and I studied these producers. So what I would do is this was before. You have to remember, this was before the age of computers. I had an eight-track reel-to-reel tape and what I would do is I would literally replicate. I'd hear a record, I'd replicate that production note for note.

Speaker 2 37:46

So, David.

Speaker 1 37:46

Foster was one of my favorite producers. I'd hear a record.

Speaker 3 37:48

I'd replicate that production note for note. So David Foster was one of my favorite producers and I would listen to whatever song it was if it was a Chaka Khan song or whatever the song was. Listen to the song and I would want to play it. I played it exactly how I heard it and I put all the parts down exactly as I heard it and I panned things exactly how I heard it and I wanted to replicate that production yeah, and that's how I learned how to produce because there was no way to.

Speaker 3 38:13

It's kind of the way I think we all have that similar story. Yeah, you know you, you know we, we feel like we've got you know these giftings and we just still know kind of how do we hone this? Because there's no way to actually learn it.

Speaker 1 38:24

Do you still have those, like you know? Oh my gosh, you like those original, real, real those real.

Speaker 3 38:30

I don't know where those reels are and I have I have dat tapes of stuff yeah yeah I would put on dat tape and I would actually that was digital audio tape back in the 80s, right, right, I would have dat tapes of.

Speaker 1 38:41

I think I may have still have some of that stuff that would be so cool to like listen to and just, you know, just to see, like, okay, I knew exactly where I was, I was learning this, I was trying to do that, like that would be so cool to like break down that would be great if I can find it.

Speaker 3 38:55

Yeah, if you can find it right, but that's but that's you know, kind of from my story from a production standpoint. That's how I actually learned how to produce and then, learning how to write music was another thing.

Speaker 3 39:05

They don't. They didn't teach you that in college, right, like how do you don't? They didn't teach you that in college, right, like how do you write a song? They didn't teach you that in college. So I was really, really fortunate when I moved to California, to um, was there for maybe a year or so, and a friend of mine, engineer, I happened to meet him. I don't know where I met him from. His name was Reggie, reggie's great, great engineer. He goes, oh you know, and that was my first computer. I had a Mac SE that had like a half a megabyte of RAM and that was like the biggest thing.

Speaker 4 39:37

Oh, my goodness A half a megabyte of RAM.

Speaker 3 39:41

Sometimes I feel like my PC has the same, though Probably does. 512k was about all I had in that thing and that was the fastest computer at the time and I started cutting my chops on sequencing and stuff.

Speaker 3 39:54

And he said oh, you need to meet my brother. You need to meet my brother. I'm like I don't know who your brother is. So he says, come, come to this address. Yeah, and I got there and he's, and I'm, I'm in this really amazing studio in encino, california, and his brother comes out. His brother, his, his brother's lamont dozier oh, so I don't know if you know who lamont dozier is, but holland dozier. Holland was the writing team for all the Motown hits in the 60s. He's the Dozier of the Holland, dozier, holland.

Speaker 1 40:23

Oh, wow, like Stop in the.

Speaker 3 40:23

Name of Love, all those songs, sugar Pie, honey Bun. He wrote all that stuff, wow. I wish so my chops as a producer and a writer would be studying under him.

Speaker 2 40:35

Yeah, and that's how that happened.

Speaker 3 40:38

I mean that kind of thing, is a little different.

Speaker 1 40:40

I mean that's. You know, that kind of thing is kind of you know it's a little different. I mean that's really cool, though, because in your journey you found someone that almost sounds like, kind of took you under your wing a little bit and was, like you know maybe not to that extent, but just like you know showing you tricks and tips.

Speaker 3 40:53

But you know what it mostly was. It wasn't showing me tricks and tips.

Speaker 1 41:01

It was was being in the room. It was being in the room, well, and that's a really cool thing because, john, in the audio industry, you know, there's some actually I should probably say there's a lot of people that are very secretive about like their, their settings. Yes, yeah, everything's a secret, everything's a secret don't steal my compressor settings or what you know, whatever outboard gear stuff so it's. It's actually cool that somebody was like open enough just to like yeah here.

Speaker 1 41:22

here's how I do it. You can just sit and watch. Yeah, that's awesome. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 4 41:26

Even you guys have mentored me a lot too and helped me develop my skills, and you know both of you have sharpened me and helped me grow and learn. So I think that's a big part of developing your passion is being around the right people.

Speaker 3 41:40

Yes.

Speaker 4 41:41

Finding the right one, connections as peers to help you practice your skill, but finding the right connection who are a little older than you to to help you, to help coach you and kind of like you said be in the setting Right.

Speaker 4 41:54

You know, like I can remember when you put me in a place where I was in a, like you know, with a crew and with like a full set for production. I had never been in that and I was like this is cool, but it helped me learn a ton. So, yeah, and connections is is very important.

Speaker 1 42:07

So Paul, I was going to ask you I think this is going to be a really cool discussion what? What is something that I mean? Obviously, there's probably a lot of people listening.

Speaker 1 42:15

Well, let's, let's be real there's not a lot of people listening, but no one listens but there are probably some people listening that may there's a few that may not be where they are or where they want to be. And again, I know I'm not where I want to be yet. I know you're not, but we're probably a little bit further along. So what's something that you I mean even to like John, where he's still got a ton of goals and things like what would you say are some like really good pieces of advice, or one piece of advice that you would give to someone that's like kind of you know they're, they're really working on their craft, they're growing, they're getting strong in their skills, and you know what would you say to them? It's don't give up don't give up.

Speaker 3 42:54

Yeah, keep going. I mean you just, keep doing it. I mean because I out of didn't out of the yeses I received, there was a whole bunch of no's.

Speaker 1 43:05

Yes, yeah, and you can't get discouraged over the no's.

Speaker 3 43:09

You got to keep going and you'll get a yes, and then you'll get another yes. And eventually the yeses will start to stack up. That's good, right, but you have to understand the no's. Oh my gosh. Oh yeah, if I had stopped at the first five no's, I would have been done with music.

Speaker 4 43:23

Yeah, yeah, you know in high school. Yeah, that's a really great. Because no?

Speaker 3 43:28

no, it was always no.

Speaker 4 43:29

That's a really great advice.

Speaker 3 43:31

Yeah, so you know the no's turn into yes's, and you just can't give up.

Speaker 1 43:35

Yeah if it's your passion, right, right, especially if you love it, it makes you happy doing it absolutely. And I would say for me, like if I had to give advice, uh, the one thing that I wish that I could go back and tell you know my younger self is right, it's all who you know I mean just relationships are key relationships and and not not only just who you know.

Speaker 1 43:57

You're right, it's a relationship is building those relationships. It's going and putting yourself out there and meeting people, and I've seen you do that. You do a great job of that, john. You really get out there. You meet people that are doing it. Hey, let's do a project together, and then all of a sudden, you do get it there.

Speaker 4 44:25

I've seen you do that a lot and I think that comes back to your gift of just coming up to people and just being hey, let me make you feel awkward, just like that. Let me make you feel awkward and let's become friends exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1 44:32

But but honestly, I mean, you know, obviously you bring a confidence to yourself that I think people are attracted to and that people can see that you're confident in who you are and everything. But yeah, that was my biggest thing was just once I started realizing that.

Speaker 1 44:47

I started going to conferences, I started going out and reaching out to people and that's where everything leads, because you're right, paul, you get a lot of no's in the beginning, and you have to have thick skin and you just have to believe in what you're doing and, obviously, if that's what the Lord's called you to do, then you can't give up you can't actually one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is Ecclesiastes 5, like 18 through 20, and it talks about how God it's the joy that God has given you, it's God's gift to us that we do something that we love for a living.

Speaker 1 45:24

I mean, it's so cool and I'm so glad I discovered this scripture because it literally makes the Lord happy for us to do our dream job.

Speaker 2 45:31

And so yeah.

Speaker 1 45:32

I totally encourage you guys to check out that scripture because that's been a huge one for me that's a great scripture, yeah so really, really cool. But yeah, no, it's so cool just to hear the different journeys and we're all at different points in that journey, but it's cool to know that I think there's some common denominators between us. There's a love for that, and then there's also God's gift. Obviously let's make that most important, but then also we have to combine it with hard work and we have to refine our hard work a lot of hard work that was a great discussion, man.

Speaker 4 46:06

Thank you, guys that was a good time.

Speaker 1 46:09

That's awesome.

Speaker 3 46:12

We were just having that discussion it was a random text exchange that we were having probably a couple weeks ago.

Speaker 4 46:20

That's a podcast which is really where this whole podcast came from, is just us conversating and we're like man, we should do a podcast and then we're like well, let's do it, but here we are. Yeah, and here I am about to close out our show yep, yes, you are, let's do it man, let's do it.

Speaker 4 46:34

Ladies and the gentlemen, thank you for watching. We love you. It is time for us to wrap this thing up and it is late at night to be honest, it is 11 o'clock pm and we need some sleep, but you need to keep hanging out with us on a regular basis because we love you. So go out for now and be mission men and women, and we look forward to seeing you on the next one. And uh, yeah, yeah, yep, goodbye.