PipemanRadio Interviews Ryan Oakes at Welcome To Rockville 2023

0:04 Hey, you love them too? Sure? From four see why you Wake Up America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four cy dot com. West pom Beach is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man. You know it's finally show time. Who the fuck are you say? And what to do? Really? Ain'ty use? You should really know better? Dan? It's dressy yesterday, even less today put it on display with all the other love let us. Who the fuck are you say? And what to do? Really? Ain'ty use? You should really know better? Dan? It's dressing yesterday, even lesterday put it on his platoons A pipe man here on the Adventures Man Poor c By Radio and I'm here with Ryan Oaks. Yes that Welcome to Rockville. How does it feel? It's a hot one, dude. It's like my second festival ever. And to have as many people as we did in that crowd, it was amazing and I feel very good about it. So we're off to a good start. Does that guy blow your mind? Though? Like you're playing earlier in the day, it's like early in the festival, it's only Friday, people are working, and then you have that crowd out there, it's like like a thousand people. Yeah, it was crazy, Like you didn't expect that at all, did you know? And also like I'm also in the middle of my first headline tour, so like I'm going city to city and I'm having all these kids come and it's like all hard to accept

1:36 it's real because like it's been ten years that I've been trying to do this and now it's all like unfolding and it's like super crazy to see the support that we've had. Well, you know what they say, it takes in this business. It takes twenty years to be an overnight success. Yeah, that's my favorite saying. And hopefully I'm at the overnight point. But we'll see you know. Well, you know like Metallica they did ten years of eating blowney sandwiches with no bread. So you might be there, yea, hopefully we're almost there. Yep, I really hope. So you met You're at. The next album might be You're Black, Yeah exactly. So tell her listeners who have never heard you before, don't know who you are a little bit about your music from the artist's perspective, because I hate genres. It just puts artists in a box. I like that stupid. Yeah, you know, i'd rather you describe what you think your music is or what you want people they're visual of it. Yeah, you're very forward thinking with that, because it's hard to put like a sound on it. Honestly, the goal that I'm doing right now is to kind of make my own genre.

2:34 But with that being said, we pull heavily from rock obviously, like Lincoln Park huge influence, Chester's vocals, huge influence, Shinoda's rapping, huge influence you can hear, and all my stuff. There's some songs that you can hear Mark Hoppus and like people from Blink On, you know what I mean. Like, so, I'm really just pulling from everything that's like almost nostalgic and from my childhood, but also like trying to give it the modern feel so that we can get new people on board and bring them in. It's been a journey, man, Like, we just dropped my first album the other week, and I think we almost nailed it. Like, to be brutally honest, I think we almost got there. But we have another one that's done already and it's completely there. Like Genreist, it's our own thing and we're super stoked on it. But if you need like a specific vibe, Lincoln Parky mix with Link one eighty two mixed with like eminem you know what I mean. It's like love binding all of it. Yeah, so yeah, it should be combined. You Like, I come from the time where you didn't combine shit, and we were all the gatekeepers and it was stupid. Yep, Like why not just play what you want to play instead of being locked in the box. You're an artist. You shouldn't have to think, well, I have to write it like this, yeah, you know type of thing, And so I love. What's funny about what you said, though, is you said about your own genre? Because I do a joke usually at these festivals because genres are so ridiculous now there's so many microgenres and subgenres that I always have, like bands will like, if you were to make up your own genre that only your band was in, what would it be? And I've come up with something, They've come up with some funny ones, Yeah, so what would your speak? It kind of misses the rock point. But I was actually funnily enough thinking about this

4:05 the other day, like it's starting to move in a direction that would call kind of like surf rap, like kind of like BC Boise mixed with Lincoln Parky vibes. Nice. That's where it's going. So I'm at a point where I was calling it surf rap the other day with the new stuff, and that would honestly be the closest I could get because it just feels like something you could just go on a b strink with your friends too and have some fun. Like I'm mentoring my fun era with stuff I've been trying to take myself super seriously for like ten years, and I'm trying to just enjoy things now and just have fun and keep that passion. It's going to happen, Yeah, exactly, I'm keeping the passion alive. And it's like once I started doing that stuff, something clicked in my head and it just felt like a switch one off. And I'm very much so like in my zone and element with that stuff. So that's where I'm gonna take it for sure.

4:48 Well, I like that because I'm a surfer and i like rap and I like rock and so like it all works for me. Yeah, I love that it's for everyone, honestly. Yeah, it's exciting way it should be because listen. We all have different influences, no matter listen. I'm a metal head and a punk yeah, but that doesn't mean I don't like a whole lot of other types of music. Okay, you know, I even like Kenny G. You know. So it's like the whole idea, and I come from that time, like, you can't listen to this band if you like this band exactly, you know. And it's just nobody's like that anyway. We're We're human beings that have this funnel of stuff coming into us, and we have our own choices and what we like. And for an artist to tie you up like that, I think inhibits, yea, the ability, Yeah, And in ways, I'm like, who am I to fight against an idea? I get that's a good idea, you know what I mean? Like exact, I very much found myself early stage of my career being like this doesn't sound like what I'm supposed to sound like, though, like, but it's a good idea, and I would just throw it away and then I just kind of stopped resisting. And it also feels like the newer generation is a lot more open minded to that stuff, where they're not gonna like be like you can listen to mail, which you can't listen to pop punk or like stuff like that. And it's a great time to be a musician that's all over the place but cohesive like me, because I'm very much so that and it's the best time to be doing it, I would say, So I'm in a good spot there. You go, yeah, and you know you're right because I think if you're gonna take the positive of streaming platforms for an artist, because there's a lot of negative to

6:21 it, but if you're gonna take the positive, it's the fact that you will get exposure to people that normally would never listen to your music because they're only gonna listen to their genre. But with streaming, music is created where kids don't just listen to one genre. And it's crazy because that's very much so like I kind of blew up in reverse, where like my streams blew up before my social media did, and I kind of feel like it's how like completely opposite to how it's supposed to go, Like you're supposed to get really big on social meeting it flows, but and that was because like I was dropping pop punk songs and the pop punks were finding it, and then I was dropping like link in Park songs and those kids were fining it, and then the m Andem fans were finding my rap stuff, and then they all go to your social media and they're like, oh, he kind of does everything and they're like that's kind of cool though, and they get really into it, and then everyone gets super accepting, and then that's where we've been building for ten years, and it's starting to like snowball quickly into much more success where it's like everyone just kind of understands that music itself is not going in a genre direction. It's just like you like the people in the music they make, and you might not like the last song they made, but they're gonna come with a different vibe on the next one, so it's all good. Like it's not like, say you had an album people didn't like. I don't think you flop as hard as you would because people were like, well, just check out the next one, now, you know what I mean, because they just expect something different. Well, there's a couple of examples to that I thought of while you're talking. Number one Jelly Roll. Yeah, I'm like, God, I love look at what I love him too. He's the greatest dude too, but look at what he's doing. He's like hitting it than every genre and doesn't matter. The country music explosion he's having right now is wildly impressive, Like he did not come from that. Yeah, it's super super sick to see because that's like again

7:55 validation for people like me. But we're like, yeah, maybe we won't have a number one rock album, but maybe we hibot to something else and then it just gets even bigger than we could have ever imagined. So it's like it definitely fellows my mind. It's so cool, you know. And then the other thing that comes to mine, well, and now I came up with a third one. There's a friend of mine in my town where our studios is. His name is Vanilla Ice. Okay, until I knew him, Okay, so we're friends now, But until I knew him, I was like, somebody said to me, you should have Vanilla Ice on your radios and show, and I'm like, why you know it? And it was mostly because I was a metal head and because you know, I didn't realize how much influence he still has that he you know, I was saying, oh, you know, the eighties, But then The thing is is that he also bends gen Rose, but unfortunately he did it in an earlier time where people weren't accepting anything because like his fight. I was doing one of his events, he does its live event for toys for Tatson is doing one of his events, and he's helping me take the radio stuff out of my vehicle and I have slip not blast and they starts headbanging and I've rolled my eyes at him, you know, like, really, come up.

9:13 He goes, No, you don't understand. It's my jam, dude. I love them. I helped them get signed. Yeah, that type of thing. And I think that's what today is doing, is allowing an artist like him, yeah, to be able to express those things, whereas you couldn't do it before. Yeah, dude. It's like I don't think I could exist in a different time than right now. Like if this was twenty years earlier, it would have just never happened, and maybe I would have pivoted and picked the right direction back then, you know, but like who knows. I just feel like I can't sit in a room and be like I have to make a rock song, like I have to make a rap song. I just feel like I get the idea and I get the vibe, and I'm like, this is basically coming to me for free, Like let's roll with it while we fight against this really good idea and then something good always comes from it. And that's what we've built this whole movement off of, basically well, and that brings the next point to me is like, if you're being yourself a natural and it's organic, people can tell, and that's when you're gonna make it because you're being authentic. I can tell when I see somebody performing on stage, I can totally tell whether they're just going through the emotions because of the business, which I think is early stupid. If you're gonna be in a business for the business, this is not the business. Yeah, for sure, this is the wrong one.

10:22 Like I don't even get people that do that. Yeah, you know. And then the other thing is is you know, like you can tell that they have the passion. Yeah, and if you don't have passion, again, wrong business to be in. You need to It's just like an interviews. Listen, if I interview somebody that's a metal band, they know that I'm a metal head. Yeah okay, and so they're more comfortable and it's a better interview when they watch. When they see somebody else in the press area that's not a metal head, is that they're bored, they're not talking. Yeah, and you know so bottom line is be you, be authentically you, and that's exactly who you are. Thank you. I appreciate it.

11:09 So how do we tell people how to reach you on social media? Connect you get your merch because yes, please, artists don't survive what album much out here? I tell the listeners like, they can't listen to my show unless they buy the merch. Yeah, amazing. Honestly, Ryan Oaks on everything, you'll find me Oaks has spelled oak e s not the tree. A lot of people spelled wrong, but you'll find me. I'm everywhere. I'm verified. Just click the profile on there and yeah, that's it. Nice. Any final words you want to leave our listeners with that we haven't covered yet that they know. Yeah, my debut album, wake Up just dropped last week and I'm feeling really excited about that. So check that out. And I'm on my first headline tour, so maybe I'll see some of you out there. Wow, love it? And how about you were saying before about social media? Are you doing TikTok yet? Oh? I blew up on TikTok. I'm one of those. I love it. I use it, yep, I use it. Right. Is such a great tool for artists. You know, there's people I know that if it weren't for TikTok, we wouldn't know who it's me. Yeh. That's so interestingly enough, Like my Spotify blew up like six years ago and it's been great, And then I had a whole other resurgence from TikTok like a year and a half ago, and literally that's the reason why I'm able to do my headline tours. Like all the kids on TikTok just spread it like wildfire and here we are. What's your craziest TikTok? I had some do three million, three million hits. I did one earlier this month that did six hundred thousand. So we're still moving on there and things are going, what what do you do with that got the three million hits? Dude? I'm just slip sing in my songs and they're catching. Wow, like nothing crazy, no no method to the madness, just like trying to be creative and eye

12:41 catching, but also like staying true to who you are and like people can tell if you're just trying to be someone else. So usually the first thought that comes into my head, I'm like, that's the first thought I would have, That must be who I am. Like, let's roll with that thought, and then we roll with it, and then sometimes it blows up nice. Yep, Well you definitely rock Thanks for being here and rocking. Yeah, Rockville, it was great and thanks for being on the Adventures pint Man. Thank you and thank you for having me. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pintman. I'm w for CUI Radio.