Cold Open And Show Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Today's guest is a rare blend of grit, melody, and soul. He's built a career on fearless creativity, whether he's producing chart-topping artists, treading on stage, or crafting the signature sound of love and chaos. His music carries heart, swagger, and a spark that's unmistakably his. Stay with me and we'll chat with Texas own AJ Vallejo right after this.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Each week we take you behind the scenes of some of your favorite musicians and the music they created. We explore the sounds that move us to end the people who make it all out of the stuff. Remember to please subscribe, right? And leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. So whether you're a cat holding it or a iHard music fan, tune in and discover the magic behind the melody. Here is your host, Factory Fast Radio, Freddy Holy.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

AJ, what's going on, brother? It's good to see you, man. Good to see you too, man. How you doing?

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Gotta like your little setup back there together. Thank you, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah, got a got a big room here. Got the the uh piano just off camera and the the drum set and the amps and stuff. So yeah, we'll get her all done here. You you know the game all too well, right? Absolutely, man.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

I got you know, like it's not I don't even call it a man cave. I during the pandemic, I turned my garage, which you know, we park outside anyway, so I turned my garage into a kind of a a whiskey lounge, a kind of a speakeasy, you know, because you know, I don't remember it was a weird time and you'd be like, no more than 10 people can get together and all this stuff. So um all the neighbor, and we'll get into it later about how Brody Lane

Green Hall Nights And Bree Bagwell

SPEAKER_02 2:34

came about. Um, but uh yeah, I during I full blown turned it into a whiskey lounge, and you know, we had a full blown speakeasy. You had to they checked your temperature outside my door, and if you you know, if you read clean, you're you could come in and drink, and there you go. Uh and we had a jam. So I that's what that's kind of it's close to what yours is, but uh mine's more kind of red, you know, whiskey loungy. Sure. But um, yeah, dude, we all gotta have our man cave.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

There you go. There you go. Well, I I see you're uh rep and our friend Bree Bagwell there. Shout out to Bree. And uh I think you said you saw her what last night or or something.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Yeah, um my band Brody Lane played uh Green Hall uh last night, and uh we had a good time, and that's a great thing. Everybody, everybody that's off, you know, because that's the great thing about playing on a Sunday out there. Uh, you know, all the musicians coming in from the road and you know, they had their off night, they want to go. It's like service industry night for artists because like Sundays like I've been jamming all weekend and uh you know now come come home and you know I want to kick back, listen to music myself, you know, have a drink. So Juliana Rankin was there, uh uh you know, Bree, and then of course Paul Easton just got off the road with blue. So yeah, it's a whole cast of characters uh that showed up and we had a good old. Then we all ended up uh a little after party at Bree's new house with Paul and it it went a little late.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

But yeah, well I guess I guess that house uh that house is probably about walking distance from Green Hall, is it not? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yeah, it's straight up like yeah, yeah, like literally like right down the road.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Yeah, I I remember um I actually came to her the house that she was living in before and did my interview with uh a gal named season ammons uh from the from from Bree's kitchen table there uh right by Green Hall. Yeah, and then I know Paul, her and Paul were building the place, and uh yeah, so it's good to good to hear that you guys hooked up. I saw her, I guess, um two or three weeks ago at at uh Dosy Doe, had uh my friend Peyton Peyton Howey opening up for her. So I said, Well, you know, I can kill two birds with one stone, both kind of that backstage pass radio alumni, right? Go and support them both in one night, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Which was Bree and Peyton Howie played on the same night? Yeah, that's that's a solid bill.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, yeah. Peyton opened up an acoustic show for Bree, and then Brie had, you know, of course, the band there had the whole boys there.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

So well, she's one of my best friends. Uh a lot of people don't know this. Uh, you know, I guess this is great for a situation like this, but Bree and I lived together for a year. Okay. As friends, you know, not you know, uh, we're just great friends. And um, she was like, you know, I'm on the road all the time, so like I don't really need a beat. She goes, I'd honestly just put my play uh stuff in storage and like, you know, uh, you know, just kind of shower at Rachel's, you know, manager. She goes, but I need no, she goes, I gotta have a landing place. And I was like, you know what? I'm kind of the same way too, man. I have a house with kids and all that. So I was like, you know what? I didn't uh Mama Lady was like, You got too much of your crap in here, so can you get some of it out? And that's where she was trying to spend it in the garage. But I said, you know what? You know, we make decent little living. So I was like, let's just get an apartment, like we'll stay in there and put, you know, just we'll put our stuff.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

And uh, we'd have so much fun, like uh just cooking and you know, watching TV and hanging. It was it was kind of a hang, you know. And then you know, I'd go home and then I'd just go home and you know, go take my kids to the movies, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

But uh that's super cool that that worked. Yeah, that's super cool that that worked out. And you know, she's what she's one of those people, like, you know, just invited me into her home, said, Hey, here's this, here's that, here's the restroom. I'm gonna go run some errands, you and Caesan do your thing. And I'm like, wow, how cool is this? You know, it saved me from having to go get a place in New Bronfels to, you know, or the the green area to try to get all that production set up, which is not a lot, but it's still, you know, you want to you you want it someplace that you don't have to move around a lot. So super sweet chick for sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Well, I think this is uh, and we can get it all I'm sure we gonna we can get all over the place. I have a lot of stories for you, but uh a lot of love and chaos connection with Anne Bree is that before Love and Chaos was a thing. Obviously, I was performing with Kendall for many years as you know, I was backing her, I was her producer, also her as a guitar player, kind of her band director for her Kendall Beard solo career. And then that's kind of when we obviously started because we wrote I you know produced two albums or two albums, you know, we got to work well together and we a lot of that was c collab co-right stuff, and uh it was weird because like she we were starting to do stuff, and then I'm trying to see the chronological order. Oh yeah, then we had some interest going on, and then she got pregnant, which is awesome, and had she has

How Love And Chaos Got Named

SPEAKER_02 7:27

two uh lovely boys now, and uh so she was obviously, and that's the thing that sucks about a female artist. She was kind of out of you know, out of the game for a second while she had to take care of all that. So I was kind of like, I like this, I like this energy of working with a a really talented female songwriter. So I kind of like um I I reached out to my buddy Willie Braun from Reckless Kelly, and I was like, hey man, do you know I really I want to I like working with Kendall, like I'd like to work with somebody else. Do you have anybody in mind? And Willie was friends with Bree too. He was like, I got you should use you should work with Bree, you know? Yeah. So not saying that that was gonna be love and chaos, but that's kind of in my mind because I knew Kendall was gonna be out, and she just kind of was like, I just need to take a break and focus on this. So, not that Brie and me and Bree could have been love and chaos, but my first delve into that, and then of course, Kendall's like, uh, what the hell? What are y'all doing? And then she goes, I go, Well, I'm just looking to maybe do a a project, a side project with a female artist, like a duo thing. And she was she literally like threatened me. She was like, I will murder. She goes, I if you don't, if you don't do that with me after we made two albums, I'll let she go, I'll just literally kill you. So I was like, that made me realize, okay, so you so you're saying you want to do a duet thing with me. Yeah, yeah, great. So and then we kind of we bicker and fight like brother and sisters a lot at a bar, and uh, we were at a bar, and somebody goes, We're we don't even know what we were arguing about. And some guy goes, Y'all are like love and chaos, and we were like, we stopped our argument. Like we were like there's the name, that's the name. We didn't even fight, and then we we went to go Whataburger after, and we were like, What were we even arguing about?

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah, cool. That's a cool story, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

And then from that came Love and Chaos, and then uh, and then we started, then we did a show case for my friend uh Mark Neederhauser from Warner Brothers, and uh, you know, he's just a friend of ours. I go, hey man, just can you like come check out? I'm producing this gal's record. Uh she's really talented, she's from American Idol and all that stuff. And I know people roll up their eyes about that, but like that was a cool vehicle at the time. But uh he goes, Yeah, man, sure, I'm in town. Uh, so of course, my band comes, no, yeah, my band comes on first, and then her band comes on. We all do we both do a little 45-minute set. And then at the end, we come on and do two or three songs together. And then I go, hey man, what do you think about her? And and uh he goes, I like both of y'all, but he goes, That the that thing at the end that y'all did there, that's what you should do. And I was like, I don't know. We were both, he told us that uh to both of us, and we were like, does that mean like we suck separately, or like, you know? So we went, because at first she could, you know, what she really wanted, we all want as solo artists, is like for him to go, yeah, she's great. I want to sign her. You know, but and then you know, so it took us both aback a little bit when he was like, Y'all are both cool, but like that is that I would sign that. You mean so we were like okay. So we taught about it, took a little break. It was during the holidays. We came back in January to my home studio, not here, but I got a home studio that we work out of uh we wrote like, I mean, I'm not making this up, like 14 songs in like three days. So so then we sent, you know, that to him, and that that started the whole thing. Uh I've been signed to Sony with my band Vallejo, my band brothers, uh uh, you know, back in the day. Sure. I'm not a big advocate of signing to major labels because I think they're they're terrible deals all around. You know, and then the advent of th the 360 deals that they started taking once streaming showed up, and they realized they couldn't make money off of CDs or physical purchase material. And you know, so they really you know, it's because they realized streaming doesn't pay. So now they do the 360 deal where they take they take a percentage of all your likenesses. If you if Kendall went and did a Maybelline commercial and make got two million dollars off of that, they want to cut of that. So I don't, you know, to each his own, but uh then we got offered a little deal with Warner Brothers, and Kendall was like, Oh yeah,

Why Major Label Deals Bite

SPEAKER_02 11:30

we gotta do it. And I was like, let's we need to look at the deal first, you know. So it just kind of got cold because I was kind of like, hey man, we're not doing that, we're not doing that. So uh, and then I just told her, let's just try to be Indian. If we get enough traction, then you can have a little more bartering power. Yeah. The majors, but why you if you don't have traction, you're kind of at the mercy because they're they're literally, yes, do they have the power to make you bigger, make you a nationally known? Yes, but they're gonna take they're gonna take your soul.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Yeah, they're gonna sell your soul for sure. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

So like I was like, we'd be we'd be better just, you know. And the thing about my I saw that running when they ran my brother's band through Sony, you know, we've spent, I mean, this is astronom, this is crazy numbers now, but you know, we spent 700 grand making a record for Sony and Michael Barbaro, who did Appetite for Destruction, and uh, you know, Metallica Black, you know, big time hot shot. And I was like, we don't even need this guy, let's get Boom McCloud in Arlen, you know, in Austin, and let's make a record for 20 grand. I mean, yeah, no, no, no, this is the way you do it. Y'all, you know, you don't know. We gotta get this. We're gonna uh charge Michael Barbaro $300,000 to do your record, and it's gonna go against your royalties. Yeah, of course, yeah. I was like, man, who's gonna pay for cool, y'all are cool, you're gonna pay for that? No, no, you're gonna pay for that.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

No, you are, yeah. It's coming out of uh what do you make?

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh then we know we had no control over how, and of course, this is all before social media showed up. Uh I think the only thing was kind of MySpace have kind of bubbling up there, but that's really not a vehicle to you know promote music and stuff, yeah. Not not not like the social media now, like you know, a band uh virtual and unknown can go viral overnight, you know, if they pop the right video in there. So that's right. So I just that I think with you know with Kendall, I just she was ready to sign, and I was like, I'm you know, I'm not you can sign it. I'm not gonna I'm not putting my name on that. Uh so again, that was another argument that we had for a long time. Yeah, she was like really mad at me. But now in hindsight, she's you know, she's learned so much and she's gotten really, really sharp with and now she's really good with uh, you know, she's better than I am on the computers and stuff. So yeah. She's just she just she's like she goes hardcore on uh when she's way into like intuitive and she goes through the box holes and all that. That's awesome, man. And that's not me. I I get it.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

I mean it's uh you know, it it takes a certain person to be able to do all that, but you know, you've done so much over the years, AJ. You you know, you're a singer, guitarist, producer, songwriter, band leader, uh an Austin music icon kind of guy, right? You you've had uh multi-decade, you know, there's you know, you've had Vallejo, you the Brody Lane project, love and chaos. Uh when someone asks you what you do, right? How do you even start to answer that question? You know, I thought I did a lot, but you you're like on another planet from even me. And most people say, Randy, do you even sleep? You have so many damn things going on, right? But I mean, I look at all the things that you're into or that you've done over time, and I would ask you the same. How where do you even begin to tell somebody what AJ Vallejo does for a living? I don't even know, dude. That's just that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Nobody's really asked me that. They do they do ask me the one thing I get asked all the time is when do you sleep? Yeah. And I'm like, I actually do sleep, but I don't sleep, I I don't sleep more than four or five hours a day because when I do sleep eight or nine hours, then I just feel groggy.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Uh but my body, yes, is it well rested? Yeah, it's probably like thank you. But uh I just don't really work like that. Um I my body, I just sleep to get rest and other never I hit the ground running. Uh, but a lot of it had to do with my dad was uh he was a he's a culinary guy in the culinary field. He uh you know, he's a decorated culinary chef. And um when we grew up, he's uh did the catering and all that stuff for

Work Ethic, Sleep, And Family Drive

SPEAKER_02 15:30

all the elite things, uh you know, the Bush family and Bob Hope. I mean, he's talking about three or four hundred people, you know, full-blown dinner banquets with all these people, and uh, you know, so he was very hard. He I was like we were like 10, and he put us on the freaking like the green bean, the sides, you know. I'm sitting there spooning green beans like at a bot at the Bob Hope party for 300 plates. I'm like, Dad, I'm like 10. Like, yeah, why am I like I'm supposed to be playing like video games with my friends?

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Where's the child labor laws at, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Oh, Matt, he totally took full advantage of us because my mom was like, No, they you're working them too hard. Oh, I got because three boys, he's like, I'm they're gonna work. They're gonna work so we worked really hard, like we had a and I'm not saying a hard life, like it wasn't like we had a they were very loving parents, but my dad was really, really hard on us. He was he was like, I'm not gonna raise lazy. I mean, and you almost, yeah, to all they were like, it was bad, he would be in full violation. I mean, what he what he put us through as far as working, we lived out in a farm in Alabama. Uh, we lived, it's we I was raised in a Victorian mansion in El Campo. Beautiful house. We had maids and grew up kind of in a very lavish, you know, upbringing. And my dad, like, his mom passed, and uh they were raised on a farm in Key West. And uh when his mom passed, he just said, you know what, I don't want this life. I'm gonna go, we're gonna go buy a little house in Alabama and we're gonna live on the farm, we're gonna live off the land. And my mom like was about to leave him. She was like, I'm not doing that. Because she lived with maids and we were living like the high class life. And my dad was like, I'm leaving, I don't want any of this. I want to go to the beginning, which is it was shell shock for us as a family. But in hindsight, I'm grateful for it because our work ethic, all my brothers, the whole clan is uh our work ethic is crazy, but that comes from my dad. And it's funny because now he's like a little old six-year-old, you know, you know, uh 85-year-old man and he's cute. He's you know, he shaves his head, and yeah, all the girls are like, Your daddy's so cute.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

I'm like, man, screw that guy.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

He worked me to death. Yeah, like that guy put me through hell. They're like, your daddy's so sweet.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

And I'm like, that's funny, man.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

That guy put me through, but uh yeah, so I don't know any other way but to like do that. Also, you know, we're all we all have kids. We're Valejo's a huge family kind of, you know, we're family-oriented, family strong kind of thing. So I gotta feed these kids, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

We all gotta feed our kids. Totally. And you know what your dad did was he instilled a work ethic in you, even as a young kid, that you're gonna go out and you're gonna be successful, right? And I've always said that successful people don't lay in bed nine, 10, 12 hours a day. We get up and we and we do things, right? And we and we move and we shake while we can, right? And you you kind of all already walk back in time a little bit, which is which is a great segue, because I wanted to ask you what what music sounded like in the Vallejo family back, you know, you're a young kid growing up, El Campo, Alabama, right? Moving around a little bit there. But when when you're starting to enter that teen phase, what what's music sounding like to you at that time? What's what's on the playlist? Not that we even knew what a playlist was back then, but what were you what were you jamming to? What was the vibe back for you then? It was cool, man.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

It was uh, you know, we had a we're the epitome of you know, 70s child, like we had my dad had a country squire, you know, station wagon, and you know, we all sat in the back.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Wood paneling on the side? Wood paneling.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Oh yeah, man. So we would listen to what was on the radio and what would kind of move us. Uh, but the first, I don't know why, but you know, obviously the Grease movie was such a big thing, and my dad one day brought us the vinyl, the Grease soundtrack. So the first record we ever had was the Grease soundtrack.

The Sounds That Shaped AJ

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

That he bought for us. But for the most part, my dad, my mom and dad both being kind of my dad being Mexican American, my mom being Guatemalan, straight up Guatemalan. Uh, we listened to, you know, uh Herba Herbabba, Tijuana Brass, you know, uh all kinds of stuff like that. And then my emba music, which is my mom loved all that stuff. Then my dad loved like Matt King Cole. So we they grew up, of course, on the classics and stuff. And uh, yeah, so then we got the Greek soundtrack, and then Omar, my little brother, we were at some like store, and he goes, he saw an album and it had like a city, a guitar city flying over, which is Boston Don't Look Back. Sure. And we put that record on, and we was like, whoa, what is this? Game, it just I mean, I got chill with talking about like that sound, and then the way the stacking and the layering of you know, uh that that um that record, and then uh yeah, dude. And then from there, it was about the whatever we heard in the country squire. And I remember when another one Bites of Dust came on. I swore they were that was a black band. You know, it's like there's I just thought they looked like the Commodores or something. So it was a show back in the day you probably know it's that's called Solid Goal, Merrick McCoop, Rig D's. Um you're like Queen, uh, Queen is gonna play, you know, and I was like, cool, like I get and I was expected, you know, a full-on black act, you know. Sure. And here comes this guy in a mustache with a little half a microphone stand dancing around. And I was like, oh my god, it's so amazing. But it was so great, is we very we go very conservative. I knew like it was right then the first thing, you know, and this may come as cross as you know, whatever, but uh when I watched him, I was like, he's different, he's not like my dad. Like, and I don't mean that like in a gay context, I mean that in a context of this man is a different, this is he this guy is not like Alan Jackson. There's Alan Jackson and there's Freddie Mercury, yeah. And that's like this guy is a special, he's not full-blown like human. He may be an alien. Right. Because um, and that it was that's that moment when I recognized that. I was like, this is music is truly this connecting energy of like like it's more than it it's more than music to me. It's more than just going like Gree soundtrack. And then in that then I've discovered Prince, and then Prince, that was another weirdo. We call you know, I love the weirdos. My dad, we you know, uh we saw uh Kiss and I told my dad, my dad's like, you gotta go to college. And I was like, no, I'm gonna be rock star like I won't be like rock star like Kiss. My dad's like, those freaks from the makeup, and I go, Yeah, those guys. But um, yeah, and my parents didn't support when we started telling them that we that we're interested in starting a band. They uh they weren't they weren't into it. They they were my dad was my dad was kind of like the work as a guy, he was like, Okay, well if you're not gonna go to college, you gotta get out of here. You can't live here. Which that's how hardcore my dad was. And we were like, Okay. So we we took that we all left and moved into a apartment on the east side of uh of Birmingham, Alabama, which is it's a great it's a great city, but it's very um you know It's just the epitome of a southern town. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's a crazy town. But and the great, the only great thing about it was we it was across the street from a strip bar called Sammy's. And that's when we discovered, like, that was another world. We were like, my brother was like, there's a bar, because we were young kids. Sure. There's a bar across the street, and the ladies are walking around with the boobies out. And we were like, like, that what? We never heard, you know, that, but uh, that was a cool place to live there and hang out there. And uh, then we just started playing, man. We were like, man, we, you know, we have to learn how to live, you know, on our own.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

So so when did when did the band, when did the when did the boys, right? When did the boys start to say, hey, let's make this a thing? Like how how do we play together as a band, right? When did this all begin? Uh around what age?

SPEAKER_02 23:38

We uh we started around uh see, I already had a my car. I had a 66 Mustang, cherryed out, uh, you know, cool girlfriend, I ride with her. But um, I'll say so. If I had the car around then, it was about 15 or 16, 15 years old, I think, because I before I got my car. But uh, so what we do, we started, of course, we'd start playing high school backyard parties. When with the first gig we ever did was for our buddy named Eric Abernathy. And he just one of those hippie funny guys. But uh so we put we

Backyard Parties To Vallejo’s First Run

SPEAKER_02 24:11

saw how other bands were doing it, and they'll you know, people would come like, you know, there'd be if there was a hundred people in a backyard, that was pretty cool, right? So we were like, no, we went it has to be epic. So uh we we handed out these flyers that just said free beer, and it was like we put like 18 kegs, you know what I mean? Like, which is like asked, you know, there was no kegs. Right. Yeah, and it didn't even say the band or anything, like uh, and like like I should you're not two or three thousand people showed up to this thing. We were like and we'd build all the our lights. Um our light show was from uh we had pieced together, um, we we went around the neighborhood and stole, you know, we'd we'd get on each other's uh shoulders and we'd steal the floodlights out of people's houses, which is against the law, but sure. Uh that would then we fashioned that to a um, you know, we fashioned that to like a board, and that was our light show. And uh yeah. So after the Eric Abernathy party, uh overnight when I went to school, we were immediately like overnight, we were huge. And then it got around all the schools because all the others, all the other schools came. You know, you know how it is in high school, like, hey man, there's a party going over there in Thompson's word of mouth. 18 kegs, you know what I mean? And like so everybody showed up looking for the kegs, and we were like, oh, they got all drank, they're all gone. But then everybody's there already, so anyway, they're uh so yeah. After that, dude, overnight, we were like huge. And then uh we just started building from that.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

And then well who makes who makes up the uh who makes up the vallejo band? Talk to the listeners of Backstage Pass Radio, like when we talk about Vallejo, right? Like who's who's in Vallejo? These are your brothers, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Yeah, and started out as the brothers, and then uh we uh Bruce Castleberry is our guitar player. He that's we found him in in Alabama. Uh and his band, they were called Cashmere. You probably figure out what they sound like, but uh um maybe they were they were uh they were the rival band. They were they we were in Thompson High School, and uh the rival you know football team was Barry High. And he was he went to Barrie, so he had a successful band there. So we would sometimes we'd be rivals, but then other time we'd pair up and do shows which were bigger, and then uh his band was gonna broke up and uh cashmere broke up, so he was like, hey man, like can I play with y'all? And we were like, yeah, dude. Like, so Nick, that's we got that from him. So and then we moved to Texas. Uh, we were gonna move to Birmingham. No, we're gonna move to Orlando because all our buddies from like 7 Mary 3 and all those guys were there. Uh so we were gonna move there, and then our buddy Crystal Stevens, uh, she's like, she had moved to Austin. She was like, before y'all move anywhere, you'll have to come. Y'all can stay at my place. You have to come here before you make any decisions. And she goes, Y'all would be so perfect here. And so we went, immediately fell in love with the town, and I mean, we went and like loaded our stuff up and went to U-Haul, and like I mean, like two months later, we were living in Austin. So yeah, so we've taken a lot of leaps of faith. I can tell. And uh yeah, then we moved to Austin south by southwest. Uh label came and saw us, got signed to Sony. Uh we were on you know, in the studio two months later making a record for Sony.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

So yeah, I think you guys had well, was it and you correct me on the dates and if my facts are off a little bit, but was it the Amigo Amigo record back in um 2020? Was that the last uh record that Vallejo put out? Okay. Is there is there anything in the works that you can speak of for Vallejo that the the listeners of Backstage Pass Radio would want to tune in for?

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Well, I mean, I mean, I'm not we don't we don't really speak of it because we haven't made it public yet, but um speak on what you can or can't. That's fine. Yeah, I mean I can't, but like we're about pretty much we're pretty close to you know finishing the record. We don't know right, we don't know where that's gonna go. I mean, we're we're eight songs in, so I'm sure you know eight songs will you know be out. There you go. Well, that's good to hear.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

I mean, the short the short story is there's there's new stuff uh in the in the hor on the horizon that people can look forward. Yeah, it's not the end of Lay Hope for by any means.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

The thing was one, I think we got burnt out because we I mean, dude, for 30 years we were non-stop on the road, on tour, very regular uh reverse lifestyle. You know, we enjoyed the spoils of war. I mean, we there was no innocence there, and then you just kind of learn and then you grow up, and you know, one minute you're doing crazy stuff, the next, you know, you get old and the next thing minute you're like checking the you're checking the label with Tylenol bottle, seeing if the four tabs is too much. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

But yeah, well, I think I think AJ, I think some of the uh I think some of the music from Vallejo and Educate Me Here has been used on well-known TV shows, right? Has there has there been some of that? Can you speak high level about the involvement with your music and in television and and and uh basically movies or whatever, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Yeah, the one bit of advice I can tell uh and why and when you when you hear of bands doing that or artists doing that is so of course, Sony, you know, you get signed to a major, you realize there's no money there because they're gonna take it all. Um, and this is for the 360 deal because before 360 deal now, if you make any money on anything, whether commercial, blah, blah, blah they get a cut of it. This was right before that. So we uh had a buddy that do uh did a bunch of licensing for man, I do I can get you on anything like fishing shows. Uh the one that makes the coin is uh sports highlights,

Licensing Income And TV Placements

SPEAKER_02 30:05

you know, because they're ESPN has like 18 channels. So if you get your music on sports highlights for uh, you know, say a six-week, they call it a six-week bubble, and it plays on all that you get paid every time it gets you know spun on TV. Mailbox money. So ESPN, you know, they spin it a hundred times a day on 18 channels. I mean, for like half a year. So like you're just it's just mailbox money. Um, so having said that, we were like, okay, there's no money in labels. Uh, there's no money. It's hard to make money on the road because all the money you make, you gotta we got a crew guy, we got a pay for a bus, we got you know, it uh you know, you make money, but you're not getting rich. Touring is basically a promotional vehicle to get people to come to your crowd and you know connect with them. Obviously, that's how that goes. And um, but it's really hard to make money and unless you're not Taylor Swift or not like that. But uh yeah, but uh so there's no money there. So license, we were like, my buddy was like, you can make money in licensing. So we were like, at first I was like, man, I don't want to be on no commercial because I'll to me that was just like when I hear like bands I love on a commercial, I was like, oh, they sold out. Yeah, you know what I mean, like and it breaks your heart, like oh, you sold out a subway, come on now. So, but then when I saw that first check from the ESPN, I was like, You were like, I'm a bit, I'm a bit. I'm fine with this. Exactly. So um that was actually a huge form of income uh for my band. And we once we parted ways with Sony, we used that income to finance our records, and we bought studios and bought gear, and you know, this is there you go. Yeah, SPN helped me. They had a little piece of ESPN bought this piece right here. There you go. That's that's that's a byproduct. So my my suggestion to artists is to just pursue licensing because uh and to this day, you know, uh we had a show on it. There was uh the HBO show, uh you know, the guy at my agent, he goes, Hey man, they want to do your song. We had a song called Snake in the Grass, and it was 10 years old, it had been released 10 years ago. He calls up the HBO guy, calls me, he goes, Hey man, they want to use your song on uh it's this vampire show. It's these like cage, like he's just like these bayou Cajuns, they turn into vampires. He goes, It sounds stupid to me, but they want to be and he goes, It's true blood. And it turns out to be true blood, huge hit. HBO has a channel in every country in the world, sure, and you know, and then that thing gets spun and gets played over and over and over again, it's syndicated forever and make the money. So it's awesome. Licensing is the way to go. People don't talk about it, right? We talk do you have nobody talks about licensing? Yeah, it's it's a it's a it's a misfortune on you know, opportunity on a lot of artists that were like me, or like they're like, no, no, I don't want, I don't want my stuff for commercials, you know.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

So I guess that's interesting that you say that. You know, I've had a lot of artists on my show, uh regional, local, hall of fame artist, and licensing never comes up in conversation, right? Yeah, it just doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

That's why Brie Bagwell, um, she'll yeah, she'll sell, she'll sell anything, you know, and she's a good at she's good at it. Sure. They approach her because they know she has a brand, um, and she's very good at like the way she, if she believes in something, she'll pitch. You know, you see her uh she's promoting and pitching jewelry and of course clothes, which is a so smart of her because it's she's it's benefiting. They give her free clothes and boots. I mean, the perfect thing for a girl. Of course. Yeah. Um, and then uh also a little trivia thing a lot of people don't know. Uh Vallejo was the first band to be a sponsor band for Red Bull. Oh, really? I didn't know that. They would uh so there was us and maybe another band, but the other band was like, no, we don't want to do that. So we're like, we'll do it because after we we know about the money. They showed up and it was this little company, and they were like these little blue and silver cans, and they had these little Red Bull girls, and they would show up to like clubs, and then the guy would be like, We're like, What do you do? He goes, just put them on your amps and just put them everywhere. And this is how smart their campaign was. They knew that if people drank this stuff, they would like it, and because it because you know, it gives them upper, and they almost like they were like, Let's just get people hooked on it. There was no,

Red Bull Sponsorship And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_02 34:24

if you think about it, there was no heavy campaign. Red all of a sudden Red Bull shut up and everybody loved it, remember? Like, um, and that's what they did. We uh they would come to our shows and just put Red Bull all over the bars and all over the stage and all over in the front monitors, and uh yeah, and they would give us, I would have towers and towers of Red Bull in my garage, and we didn't know that you were not supposed to drink 10 of them. Like so Yeah, you have gut rot the next day, right? No, no, you're hard. Like we had to go to the ER. I was like, I I told my old lady, I was like, I I don't have a heart attack. And then and then you go to the hospital, and they're like, What's what do you what did you do? And I was like, uh drink there's this call Red Bull, and apparently they were like, This is happening in the past like six months. A lot of people were coming in because they didn't know they'd just pounding this stuff. Yeah, terribly dangerous for you. If you if you have a couple, that's what you you don't drink ten of them in a day.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

You get them down. Yeah, it's it's the equivalent of like four cups of sugar in one can or something.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

Yeah, so we were all kind of just jittery and wired out, and everybody was like, dude, you okay? Like, so I finally had to call Red Bull and go, hey man, just stop sending that stuff to my house because like we we all have we have we're addicted to Red Bull, we gotta get that stuff out. But yeah, but going back to you know, sponsorship and you know, commercials and ads, like that's been a true fortune for us because we didn't this there's a catch 22 of like okay, you don't have an investor, you don't have a label, you know, paying for everything. Like the thing that you know, producing these artists here, like some of them have investors, but for the most part, they're paying out of their pocket. Like it's not cheap to make records here. So it's like okay, then you spend 10-15 grand making a record or recording, and then now they're out of money, they don't have no money to promote it. So, like that sucks. So I I suggest an avenue, you know, it's not for everybody, but go get some licensing money, man.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, talk to me a little bit about talk talk to me a little bit about uh Brody Lane and what you have going on there.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

Yeah, uh Brody Lane, going back to that's that's good uh switch there, because going back to what I said before when I had the whiskey lounge uh during the pandemic, Brody Lane is just people there's nobody named Brody in Brody Lane. It's like Brody Lane's a street in South Austin that we all live on. And uh so that's the speakeasy, the people that would come were people that all lived down the road from us, you know. So it was our neighbors, and you know, we all lived off of Brody Lane, so it was kind of became a thing every Thursday night, you know, the place. And it was in my garage, so you know, you have 30 people in there, it's like jam-packed in there. Then uh we have a I have Baby Grand in there, I have a full-blown lights, full blown whiskey lounge, all top

Pandemic Speakeasy To Brody Lane

SPEAKER_02 37:15

show. Yeah. Um, and we just started having jams. Everybody, Brie, Martin McKinney, everybody come over, like uh, you know, because I tell Bree, she goes, Are you having like somebody told me like they went to like your house and like there was a you had like a person in there playing like piano and y'all we were in the y'all are in there playing blackjack? I go, Yeah, yeah, we got a little, it's called a whiskey lounge. And can I come? I was like, if you if you read if your temperature checks out when you walk in, you can come in, yeah. But we did, we had a person out there, and it's it was kind of weird because he had the mask and the gloves, and nope, can't come in. Oh no, man, it's just a flu. I'm oh yeah, yeah. So and it was fun. So Brody Lane was kind of like we just started jamming, and then we started jamming and writing songs, and of course I have a home studio, so I can pipe in all the microphones into my studio, and so we we just were we were recording all these parties. And we're talking about there's some great stuff there. Foul, me and Fowler. Uh, Fowler gets up and does beautiful beautiful life, Vleo song with us. I got that on, you know, I got all kinds of stuff. Uh Bolin, uh Martin McKenney, everybody's in there. Uh, and from that, we just I was like six months in, I go, man, we got we had like two albums worth of stuff. So um the world started opening up, and then uh one of the songs went to radio, uh Stuck With You, um, and got top five immediately. And then uh and then I was doing a radio interview for somebody uh uh for the radio thing, and and uh the guy goes, What's the name of your band? We have the name of the band. Uh I'm at a red light and the sign said Brody Lane. I go, Bro, Brody Lane. And then uh so I'm I'm on my way to rehearsal, and then they were like, Hey man, how did I said, Man, I just told the guy on uh on Coke FM that we're called Brody Lane, so I guess we're called Brody Lane. Nobody called me on it. They were like, they were like, you know what? It's cool because we all hate who likes making up band names, right? Yeah, it's the hardest thing, right? It's so hard. Um so they were like, yeah, cool, man. Uh so from that, you know, first top five single, second one got top five as well, and then uh we started hitting the road, and the band is just really, really solid. Um and we're all good buddies, drinking buddies, and all you know, we have a good time. So having said that, also, so Brody Lane is Brody Lane is basically Love and Chaos without Kendall. It's the same band.

SPEAKER_03 39:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Um so if it's it's Brody Lane is the same band, so that's kind of what we had, kind of you know, moving revolving doors of guys in Love and Chaos. Love and Chaos is basically her and I, and then we just got whoever we needed. And great musicians, but I was just like, I want a band that we can like, the show can get better. We're not constantly like interchanging parts. Yeah, you know, this gummer is better than this guy, and these guys play blah blah blah. So I was like, so what I suggest is of course she was like had a a hint of like, eh, screw Brody Lane, because you know that that Brody Lane to her was a a you know competitive to Love and Chaos. So I go when we why don't we just get Brody Lane? It's the same band that learns Brody Lane songs and Love and Chaos songs. We don't have to rehearse anything, just know everything. And then whenever we, you know, do Love and Chaos, it's the same thing. And if you can't do the show, Brodie Lane will

Brody Lane And Love And Chaos Format

SPEAKER_02 40:33

do it. So it's worked out really well for us like that. And uh she was hesitant about it at first, and you know, she she was very comfortable with some of the artists that we were performing with, and uh I finally got her to you know I talked her into it. And after we had a couple great shows, and she was like, Okay, I'm down. So yeah, that's cool. We've been doing that. Yeah, we've been doing that for the last three years.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

What's the uh what's the ratio b uh between like when we talk about love and chaos and you guys going and play in a show, how often is is it just you and Kendall? And how often is there a band involved? Is is it it's half and half.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

I mean, I don't know if you've seen us perform where I have the suitcase, kick drum. Have not. Yeah, kind of uh you you're familiar with Shaky Graves, he has the kick drum, he stops on it. Uh we have our duo act is really, really good. Uh I think personally I like it better because I just feel like it's me with the kick. She's got the tambourine. We just sing and I play the guitar, kind of put a lot of low in it. So it's it's kind of it sounds like a if you walked in, if you were walking in the club and you didn't see us, you'd be like, that's a band. And then you'd walk in and you'd be like, that's two people. So I think that's more impressive. Kendall, of course, feels her comfort zone is having a you know a really rocking band behind her. Um, but uh yeah, so we hit we do that, we do a duo thing, and then we do a you know a full band thing, and that's pretty much all we do. Um yeah. But I love it. I love performance, you know. Um she we have different lifestyles. She has more her lifestyle is a little more decorated. Like I'm uh so they, you know, they do their thing and we do ours. And but I would like to see us play more just right now. We're just kind of I'm doing this and yeah, she's doing that.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

So well, she was uh she was certainly a treat to get to talk to. In fact, I think she had wanted to pull you into the uh interview that I did with her back in I think it was around Christmas time, and I think you were sick or something like that. And I said, Well, yeah, I'll I'll catch back up to AJ. I'll find AJ and I'll we'll we'll you know hold my beer right, I'll get him on the show down the line. But I guess they just stumbled across you guys on, you know, just we're all in the kind of the same circles. I'm a I'm a local artist here in Cyprus, Texas, you know, northwest Houston and a lot of the a lot of mutual friendships and whatnot. And I think just through their social media pages is where I found love and chaos. And I said, oh man, they got something going on here. I like that. Let's see what we can do to get them on the show. And I love to showcase, you know, Texas artists too, right? That's kind of the thing here. So, but uh yeah, I mean, just changing gears a little bit on you. Uh wanted to talk about producing. And first of all, I think your your studio is in New Bronfels, right?

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Yeah, we're on right here on uh Canyon Lake, which is it's New Bronfels, but we're right on the edge of Canyon Lake. We're basically everybody knows where White Rider Amphitheaters, we're literally right next to it, but right here on the river. That that right there, our backyard is the river. I can like walk down there right now and really skip rocks.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

Very cool. Um, so is the river up or down right now?

SPEAKER_02 43:44

It's it's kind of perfect. It's nice and calm. It's it's not up, it's but it's not down, it's right in the middle, just calm. Sure. Um, but the other night, the other day it was it was raging the other day.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

So I think we're supposed to get a lot of rain this week, so we'll see if the any of that makes it out to the hill country, right? And uh

Grüne Studios And The River Retreat

SPEAKER_01 44:01

maybe maybe brings the water level up. But talk to me about the studio a little bit. You you know, share with the listeners the name and what you have going on there and all the good things about the place, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Oh man, I'm proud of this place. So this is our new location here uh on the river. Um, I started a studio with uh well-known comedian Steve Trevino. He's the he's the the wife, the wife language, the wife speak guy. Uh and we had a great thing over there at uh on the industrial location, which is right down the road from Bree's house. Uh literally more in the in the centralized and uh right there in green in New Bromwalls. Uh but uh so but the thing was just it was really to me just really sterile the way it was built. It was a beautiful studio. Um and then Chris. My our other partner, he's like, Man, I know you like that studio over there, but how cool would it be? You can check this location out. Uh it's really beautiful here. This is a resort that sleeps up to 10. It's a song we turned into a songwriter retreat where you that has a studio. Um people stay here. We got people just to the just left. Um you know, you live here. Like uh you would make a record, you'd live here, live on the river. Uh everything's furnished, the food, open bar, kegs, everything, any whatever you want. Uh that's cool. To accommodate the artists. We we want you to just come here and just record and be an artist. And you know, wake up, make some breakfast, get some coffee, go down to the river and you know, get yourself right with diseases. I mean, like, and just love it, you know, and then uh come back up here and work and work until you get tired. Uh you want to take a nap? Go take a nap, wake up. We'll resume like there's not the pressure of like I gotta go to my hotel, gotta check in, I gotta do this, I gotta blah blah blah. So uh that's the then they appeal to the studio. Um, so first I was like, man, I don't know, man. Uh that's you know, right on the river. People I think people just want to go float and stuff like that. But nope, I was wrong. Uh everybody loves it here, and they don't want to leave. Uh, but uh on top of that, we have you know some plaques over here. Uh we have last uh year we had three number ones come out of here. Uh we got another plaque coming up here. We got uh Love and Chaos just had our third number one. Nice right there. Yeah, and then uh uh uh Guy Vincent, one of the artists, has got uh he's a great kid. You gotta he's up and coming fast, so you might want to talk to him. He's got another, he's in the top five right now, so we're hoping for that. But I think the you know, for what it's worth, you know, those are regional milestones. It's not like we're getting a number one billboard, which is you know, obviously a big thing, but you know, to get these things is great for business because uh, you know, people are like, I want to go record where those hits are coming out of.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

We just work really hard, you know. Like once again, it goes back to working hard. Everybody's like, you know, because there's some people that are like, oh man, you know, they're you know, but uh it comes from you know, I don't care what anybody thinks, is work hard and we put out good stuff. So there you go.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

Well, is this is this is the producing the the studio is this considered the main the main work for for AJ Vallejo today, or or would you say it's 25% of what you do?

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Yeah, it's 25% because I'm also a director. I do videos, you know, doing freeze new videos. I'm a director, music video director. Uh I also work in the city, even my brother's Austin, uh, where we you know we're we are also a part of it, buddy. We uh it's called Ham, uh, which is Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, and they the city gives uh grants to the artists. If you're an Austin musician, you get uh basically free health insurance, uh, which is crazy. And it's offered from ham. And so we're I'm a ham ambassador. We have ham bassaders, and the reason for it is like I had uh, you know, I had a stint in my heart, I had a heart attack about 18 years ago. All the Red Bull, wasn't it? Yeah, all the Red Bulls. The Red Bar, the Red Bull, uh the Red Bull and the gentleman's bar across the street of the Sammy's Sammy's, right? Sammy's great you're here for that. Yeah, I'll pay attention. But um, yeah, so I was a perfect candidate, you know, for

Directing Videos And HAM Health Help

SPEAKER_02 48:17

to be like, you know, these artists, nobody thinks about that. These artists are here to entertain, and that's what I love about that's about Austin going like, you know what, the artists, they you know, it's Austin Live Music Capital of the World. The artists are the reason we're Austin Live Music Capital of the World. So they are giving us a service, so we should give them a service. Like, you know, most of them don't have money, and we're talking about, you know, you have a heart attack or you have getting a bad car wreck, and you know, you I mean, the bills pile up really fast, and we're talking about things that no artist can, I mean, we're talking about you know, half a million dollars, or mean, just you know, a hundred thousand, even ten thousand dollars. You know, that's uh so ham uh they started this thing called ham, uhliance, uh, and basically just pays for everything. There's a copay, uh medication, uh $5 copay, uh ambulance, uh ER, $100, $100 copay, just things that are affordable. And then we also have financial, and I don't say we like we, but like I'm a ambassador, but this is this is what we push. Uh um, and the great thing is if you are an awesome musician, you are 100% eligible for this benefit. Um, so I'm very invested in that. Uh also, you know, Love and Chaos, Brother Lane, and new, you know, new Leho record in the works.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

Right, that we're not gonna talk about. Uh well, you've pro you produced so many, I guess, great artists over the years, but are you picky as to the projects that you take on now? And is there a certain characteristic that you look for when somebody says, Hey man, I want to come to Green Studios and I want you to produce me? Like, how how are you scrutinizing the the people or the artists that come in? Do they have to have something magical that you're looking for? You're I'm assuming you're not taking everybody in that just walks through the door, right? Talk talk to the listeners a little bit about the selection process and what you're looking for when you produce out of Green Studios.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Well, the thing is, obviously, no another thing I do, I produce uh, you know, the regional Texas Regional Radio Awards uh as well with Dave Smith in Arlington every year. Uh so that's the perfect breeding ground to find new talent because they uh they have before the night before the awards show, they have this event called uh Future Faces, which uh all the radio people are there, and uh we get finalists, we all help pick, and there's uh we pick nine finalists, and they you know it's kind of a songwriting competition, and the winner of that thing gets to perform on the award show stage the next night. Awesome. So what's the perfect place to find amazing talent? That's one of them. Uh also I live, you know, it's you know we live here, uh not in this place, but you know, we stay here, live here, we got a place next door. Like I'm I'm living here because I love it here. Um I bounce between here and Austin. So I go out. I go out, I go to Green Hall, I go to Green Grove, I go to Grapevine, I go to and it's a beautiful uh scene here in Green and New Bromble. So it's you know, it's a mix of me going to find new talent, you know, talking to the artist, hey, you hear a great song and you want to go to them like, hey, that song that you recorded, what is that you wrote, uh the song about the whatever trees, you know. Uh have you recorded that? Uh no, I'm I'm I haven't yet. Do you want to record it? I mean, uh, and just try to be nice and you know, you don't want to be pushy, but yeah, you know, the great thing is they start, you know, we live in this world, so they start betting you. You know, I mean they're like, you know, here's my card. They go home and you're like, oh shit, producer of the year, studio of the year. Like, you know, so they're like, then they call me quick, and they're like, hey, I want to like, so it's some of that, and then it's also, of course, um, you know, the music awards getting to see that. And then also the biggest thing from any business is uh word of mouth, you know, like you know, word of mouth can uh make or break you. Okay, that's why you don't want to have you don't want to have any, you know, bad stuff come out because that it's it's fair because you can make 10 great records and nobody talks about that, but everybody talks about the one record that came out of here that's right went to crap. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

It's not my fault. That's exactly right. Well, you said it a little bit earlier, you know, uh a huge accolade for you guys last year with the T3R studio of the year 2025. That's a huge accolade. And I was wondering just kind of maybe what what do accolades like that mean to to AJ? Like, are are they important? Do you care? Like some people don't give a rat's ass, some people thrive on that. Like, what what's your take on them, right? I mean, obviously, it's awesome, it's an honor.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

Um, I don't like like I by no means like when I win stuff like that, like we're not the best, they don't make us the best studio. Just those things, it's popularity vote, and that's but I do appreciate that more people voted for me or my studio than they did others, so that means that maybe maybe we're doing something right.

SPEAKER_01 53:24

Well, I was gonna say something's happening right there, right?

SPEAKER_02 53:27

Yeah, um, but also it's weird, it you know, it sounds like whiny to say this, but it's kind of a curse and a blessing because like the blessing is that you won. The curse is now you're the best studio, so you gotta like you gotta be perfect, and if you're not even close

Finding Talent And Producer Mindset

SPEAKER_02 53:44

to perfect, then you're like you're not all that. I mean, so right. They hate it, that the the hate, uh, the haters come when you win stuff. Yeah, uh, it's uh it's almost better to be like the nominee.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

You know, um well, you know what I always say about the haters, AJ. You know, when when my show is now in 143 countries, and I've got 28 billboards that fly all over the state of Texas and Louisiana, and I'm sure there's people out there that hate the fact that the show's successful, but I always say I love my haters because that means they're always thinking about me, right? Yeah, so you got you gotta love those motherfuckers too. So let the hater hate, right? At the end of the day, man.

SPEAKER_02 54:25

I I agree, dude. And then you're right, that that's what I'm saying. You must be doing something right because someone like it bothers somebody that you're like doing good stuff. So hey man, yeah. But but yeah, going back to that, just uh that I just love that the great thing about producing because everybody's like, man, you do why don't you just play in your bands and that's not that's not enough. The great thing about this is like I get to live vicariously through these younger artists. I love God, I love just that feeling. I I like feeling their excitement because you know, because they're like, you know, this is new experiences for them, and being a part of that, something they'll always, you know, cherish, remember. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, and then just make it a great product. This guy Vincent Kid, he shows up, 19 years old, just shit's hooks. I mean, you're just like, and just raw talent. And his dad's like, I know he's, I know he's, you know, I know I'm the dad, the doting dad, but he's got something. I was like, yeah, he does. He goes, can you like can you can we can you package this for me real nice? Yeah, yeah, I got you. Uh so not only watching the excitement of him making a record, uh, but also watching it go to radio and watching it climb up the charts and watching it watching to be number one. Being like, and being able to call them, make the call yourself and be like, hi, how's your day going? Yeah, uh that's going good. Well, uh, you got number one, so yeah. So that that whole thing is being a part of that is just as a parent, you know, if somebody did that for my kids, I'd be I'd be like, I think that's cool. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 56:06

Well, I guess with all the uh, you know, you've certainly got your hand on a lot of things for sure, and that's great because it it keeps you young. Uh it it keeps you on the cutting edge of of things in general. But with all the things that you have going on, I think there's also a hot sauce line. Is this still a current thing for you, or is this a thing in the past? Talk to me about the hot sauce line. We do good stuff, dude.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

And then uh the new thing, the hot seller is uh it's called Seasoning for Dummies, which uh was just the most the not the very uh what do you call it innovative word name? I was just like, so my nephew, who's uh my brother's son, you know, they they were going to college in Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and you know, it's it's frat houses. And I go, we go there, uh, we're playing a gig, and he's yeah, Uncle AJ, you can stay at my not stay, but you can come shower at my place because we were in the van, whatever. Uh yeah, man. So we go there and I'm like trying to make something. I think we're trying to make like taco, chicken tacos. I go, y'all have any

Hot Sauce Hustle And Flavor Craft

SPEAKER_02 57:07

seasoning here? And he goes, We got they had two salt and the the the plastic ones that you they stole from McDonald's. I'm like, This is all you have here, and so I made this seasoning for dummies. I just made, you know, a seasoning that a multi-seasoner like that is just for them, like for guys like him. And uh I same thing like Red Bull. I gave them a bunch of cases of this stuff, and you know, he he passed it around to all the frats, and he called me, he was like, Uncle AJ, they all want, like, they want more. And then so I was like, I put it on the site and I go, there's a link, tell them to get more.

SPEAKER_01 57:45

Is that literally how you got into it? You were staying with your your nephew, and they didn't have anything but salt and pepper, and that's how it got started.

SPEAKER_02 57:52

So that that kind of kicked it off, and then I uh and then I the Black Reaper, which is our popular, it's black in jalapenos, it's a black hot sauce. Uh um, you can look it up on the site and all that. But uh that was the that was the first one, and that came from I was making it big batches of it for the holidays because it's everybody like, hey man, you gotta make your black hot sauce, blah blah blah. So I was like, and so I made it during the holidays and it would just go crazy fast. And then everybody was started going like, hey man, I'll I'll can you make me some of that? I'll like pay you. You mean I was like, you know, so I was like, you know, now you can commerce anything. Hey man, it's on my site, you know.

SPEAKER_01 58:34

How many, uh, how many on the line do you have? Like, how many different hot sauces do you have? Or salsa?

SPEAKER_02 58:39

Yeah, we have we have six. We have the seasoning for dominion, then we have six, and then I got another bottle here, but I just made a new one that's gonna um it's going through the whole process. Uh it's called, I don't have a really name for it, but I mean it's a green sauce with uh Serrano's, you know, uh Domatils, cilantro lime, just this amazing sauce. But uh, it's gonna be green, like G-R-U-E-N-E. I gotta figure out the name. But it's gonna be like the green, like AJ's so-and-so green sauce, but it's literally green. Like that's awesome, man. Um my daughter's like she's 13 and she's like trying to that's not good. She goes, you need you need to what'd she say? You need to call it something poison or something. You know, she comes with all these names, but yeah, that's what kind of we're in the middle of. But yeah, dude, that that's awesome, man. That's another form of income. You know, just it shows up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:29

I had this I had this cat on my show. Um he he played he was the guitarist for Guns N' Roses for uh a while, played in a band called Asia. I don't know if you remember the rock band Asia from the day. Um his name is Ron Bumblefoot Thaw, and uh just a world-renowned guitar. He's a super, super cool dude, right? And he's been on my show a couple of times, and he's big hot sauce guy, right? And uh I think he has one, I think his hottest sauce he calls it bumblefoot, right? And it's like and he's really into the whole the whole uh hot sauce thing. So uh I I forget what he said the hottest one was, but I have you ever had any of your sauces tested on like the SHU scale, like for I guess the heat index or whatever that is, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:19

I mean, we we try to keep, you know, we play with the heat indexes. Let me see if I can find the uh um and it's weird because we do have to, you know, you have to like you know write all that stuff down. But the thing that I've learned because we are you know essentially a mom-pa. You know, we're not we're not freaking, you know, whatever you call it, yeah, red dot or anything. Um, but anyway, you see right here, um, these are my hot sauces. This this is a top seller. This is called uh this is Scorpion Gold, which is uh real garlicky scorpion pepper there, and then uh so these are all of them, uh this black reaper right there. You can't really see here. Let me see. Yeah, anyway, you can look them all on the website, so they're all there. But this one right here is called this one's really hot. Uh this is called Angel of Death. Angel of Death. Okay. But uh check them out.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:12

Yeah, so um, I guess do you tell people on the website like what those different hot sauces pair best with? Like, this is for chicken, this is for, I guess you could just use it for a bowl of cereal if that's what you're into, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

I don't I really don't because uh you know people just I think people make their own decisions.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:31

Okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

There's people that eat, you know, people put there's people that put ketchup on their macaroni cheese. Like, I mean, so everybody has what we do put on there is what is in there, obviously. So people are like, oh, that's good. Like, you know, um, but um again, I'm not that I would I'm not so much say a hot sauce kind of sort. I'm just a guy that loves good food and I like hot sauce. I like the heat, the rush of the heat. Uh so I was just like, man, you know, I can make hot sauce. And the great thing about hot sauce is the turnaround, it's like it's it's it's not expensive to make. Yeah, the ingredients are like not that expensive. Expensive nothing, yeah. Yeah, and then we now, you know, uh lately we've been now we're growing, we're growing our product. So uh I'm you know, although it's it's all the way, it's literally homegrown. That's everything's grown. Yeah, because I was like, man, how can I cut the cost down even more? Like, I mean, just make my own. Yeah, uh, so that's kind of it's fun, man. Like, that's just another, I would call that a hobby. It's not really like I'm not in the hot sauce business, but uh well, it's a little source of interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

I'm definitely not losing. Yeah, that's a good thing. Well, what do you say is harder writing a hit song or creating like that perfect hot sauce? Is it is I know it's two totally different things, but is there one for you that you knock your head against the wall more with than the other?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:53

But that's funny you say that. That that question is actually kind of bloated because it's just they're the they're one and the same. It's like making the perfect hot sauce that is like it burns. You mean, and then writing the song that like burns, like you know, they're it's it's it's kind of the same thing because you're like, you know, like we're sitting there tasting this, you know, it's because it's all about you know velocity and the taste and the tone and the color and blah blah blah. Uh, you know, uh the the pH balance.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:23

I didn't know, I thought that was a a body thing, you know, like like hair shampoo, like you always heard about like the supermodels did the pH balance in the guy's like, man, we gotta get the pH balance right.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35

I go, what the on the sauce or me or uh yeah, so there's there's a lot to it, and you know, there has to be consistency and you know everything. Uh so that I think that kind of goes hand in hand with writing a song. It's like just perfecting the balance, perfecting the tone, perfecting the, you know, uh that sounds kind of cheesy, but it's really they're very similar.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:00

Yeah. Well, how do you approach the branding across, you know, you got music, you got business, you got your personal identity, the the hot sauces. Like, how do you approach the branding of all of this stuff? Like, do you do you think too much about the the the business portion of it? Are you kind of a business guy? Like, what's your thought process around it?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

Well, weird thing is I don't really think much about any of it. I just I'm just a hustle guy. Like my dad caught me. I'm I'm kind of a hustle, I'm a hustle guy, but that uh actually uh hopefully makes some smart decisions. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

Um well and that's a good you know what that's a good thing because I think what's the old acronym? Keep it simple, stupid, right? Like if you overthink things, then sometimes it's not it's kind of like a song. If you're sitting there just beating your head against the wall, it's probably not going to be that great of a song. But you know, you think about

Money, Health Scares, And Perspective

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

songs like Rich Girl from Hall and Oates. Daryl Hall said, dude, I wrote that in 10 minutes. One of the greatest songs of our time, right? And that's some of the the biggest songs are the least labor uh well when it comes to writing, and they just come to you, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:05

Yeah, for sure. Um Love and Chaos, uh, that first album came so it was so fast. Like I don't remember Kendall or I, you we couldn't tell you when we wrote that, it just just showed up. So uh that's awesome when it does that. It's awesome, right? Um, no, I mean I don't really think about the branding much, and which is probably if it's if it's gonna if there's gonna be any downfall to AJ Vallejo, it's gonna be that he's spread maybe spread himself too thin or just you know, like if I like you know, like anybody from the outside is gonna be like, if you've just concentrated on selling hot sauce, you could be a millionaire selling hot sauce. If you just concentrated on being a producer, you could be the biggest producer of the world. Like, but the thing is I don't personally care about any of that because like I don't I don't even make a million dollars making hot sauce. That'd be cool, but I have to I I have to be all this stuff has to be fed.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:01

I want to be a producer, I want to play music, I want to cook good food, I want to make hot sauce, I want to I want to play with three bands, like it's and you could beg to differ with me, AJ, but making a million dollars is probably for guys like you and I is probably not the most important thing. It's about a combination of doing what you love to do, happiness, and making a little money to live comfortably, right? I mean, the more money you make, the more people that have their hands out at the end of the day, right? So, you know, I mean, I I think there's a lot to be said for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:34

Absolutely. And you know, not you know, again, not boasting, but millions of dollars have passed through my hands. I and honestly, when I was doing the best, I was kind of like almost. like in the worst place of my life, you know, and then bro just fucking like, you know, like have a lot of money, but then just like literally like almost suicidal like you're going so crazy. Yeah, I get it. And then and then you're like, you know, you're in Cabo with 20 bucks in your name and you're like the happiest. You're like, I could die right now. You know what I mean? No, totally. So I've seen it all I've also, you know, been hit by a car. I've been I've had a heart attack. I just had a minor stroke this past year and been I was three seizures a day that I was having. I mean just a real rough life um just going through crap. So every all that that stuff's petty to me uh I just I'm really all about just living for the day.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:30

Yeah that's that's a good motto and and you know what strikes me as crazy and I and I don't know if I have the knack of finding you guys or not but I've had at least three people on my show since I started it in 2021 that have been hit by vehicles and written songs about it. It's like what in the hell is it about getting hit by cars with you guys, man? Stay out of the fucking road man but hey if it if it gets you a good song I mean what do you do right?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:00

But I'm telling you what it is we scale more of the earth than most humans do but they go work 95 they dive the same job they go to the same place they work from their homes I've been I've covered a lot more inches of the earth than most people do. So what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:17

Yeah you are you're in the line traffic the odds right the odds are way higher yes 100% yeah well I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of lump this next question I I want to be respectful of your time but I I I'll lump this for as it relates to Brody Lane um the hot sauce love and chaos vallejo just we'll lump it all into the same question but anything new and upcoming as it relates to music that you can speak of I know Vallejo you can't really speak of it. I didn't know if there's anything Brody Lane or or love and chaos that you wanted to to have the platform to speak on that the listeners could kind of oh yeah new stuff coming later on this year or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:02

But whatever you can talk about right I mean obviously we've talked a lot about I mean think about all the stuff we talked about what I've done. I mean it it's obvious things are continue there's gonna continue to be music coming out of here there's gonna be continue to be riding with all my bands uh I would like to um I would like to see more love and chaos uh presence that you know we don't know we'll figure it out uh we're we're both two different busy people but

What’s Next And Live Deep Cuts

SPEAKER_02 1:09:36

I would love to see I really truly like believe in that what we have you know so I I would like to see more love and chaos if that happens or not because Vallejo there will be there'll be more Vallejo in the new year so you know uh Brilliant Lane's awesome uh we're kind of taking a little break because I just kind of need to that you know you gotta take you gotta some stuff's gotta you gotta put some stuff on the shelf I can't juggle at all. So um right now the my my passion right now is the studio uh raising my kids which sounds you know like cheesy parent but like my kids are 13 and 16 and it's it's a it's a fun time. Yeah absolutely yeah and then I live like I said I bounce between I got a beautiful studio a beautiful house in Austin and here like I mean just you know I've only been here for six months and this is this is life changing for me like just this is yeah I mean I really love it out here um I'm gonna get up here you know I'm I'm I got some uh ribs and potatoes here and I'm gonna when we get done I'm gonna go down there you know and uh eat them on the river. There you go. I'll have to look you up when I'm in town man I'm in I'm out that way quite a bit man I'll have yeah try to set aside some time to we got a big beautiful drum room in there we got we got a we got a B room you know there's there's an isolation over there we got a B room a B or a smaller studio down there.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:59

Like I said we sleep up 10 we got bunk rooms we got yeah you can sleep up to 10 people here so the the appeal of that is to get bands we just had a band from Idaho come here and uh they they lived here for five days and made a record so that's super cool and you know I've had a couple of bands out of Louisiana on my show that are both that are both hall of fame musician or bands uh in the Louisiana music hall of fame one was LaRue the other is a band called Zebra um which is out of Louisiana but you know there's a studio in Bogaloosa called Studio in the country right and Studio in the country is where Kansas did some of their biggest hits and it's literally in Bogaloosa Louisiana in the middle of nowhere 80 I think 80 something acres there's nothing around and it's literally where people will go and just forget about life and just focus on recording like there's no nothing around like you know there's none of the distractions and the amenities right in the vicinity right so and that's what I had the other studio it's funny you say that the other studio the first location it was more in the city and it was people coming and going and a lot of distractions you know cool distractions like hey man Parker's here you want to say hey or you know it's just cool like that hey cool man good to see you that you know and then one thing is artists when they're recording especially doing like having a rough time fleshing a song out they don't want people coming in it messes the energy up when you're you're supposed to just be in there together yeah making you know making history making magic so it might the person might be the coolest chillest quietest person but the minute they enter the room the whole energy changes is now it's compromised because now there's this energy there's somebody there's somebody else in the room uh so um no that here you don't that nobody's coming out here unless unless you're coming out here so exactly well how about from from a tours or a show perspective for for any of the the uh aforementioned groups and bands like anything that that the listeners should look out for I think you guys have something coming up here in Houston at the Continental Club or something if I'm not mistaken that's that's that's something I'm putting together with uh one of my other partners uh Mike Erskine who's does erskine entertainment he's a phenomenal uh you know uh venue promoter gay promoter uh he's old school he promotes he still does all the stuff pays bands well but we had this idea where uh we're gonna do a classic revival show we're gonna do and I got my bands like I've assembled kind of a kind of a super hot group and uh we're just gonna blast through cool classic deep cut stuff like deep cut you know like good stuff you mean um you know instead of doing immigrant song by Led Zeppelin let's do Wonton you mean like you know let's let's do yeah let's do the oceans like this stuff that's like when you hear like I'm as a rock band if I saw a band kicking the renegade by sticks I'd be like I like this you mean instead of like we've got we've we've heard one to be wild totally and I'm into the deep cuts man that's that's um so yeah that's that's kind of what it's and it's not a that's not gonna be a permanent thing that's just kind of a one off just a kind of a vanity project but uh that's kind of what I got going on.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:14

If if that thing does well and we'll do maybe a couple shows uh but like I said Valle will be busy in the new year and then you know I'm just kind of I would really like to see Love and Chaos do more and we'll we'll figure that out.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:26

It'll all get figured out for sure. Well where can the uh listeners of Backstage pass radio find you on social media uh as it relates to all of the stuff you have going on where where would they go to find you?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:42

Honestly man I think there's only you know you just type in AJ Vallejo it's gonna connect you to that name is the matrix everything I do you're gonna see you're gonna see my hot sauce 11 cows everything's gonna pop up that's what I try to tell people.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:54

Because if I said if I said hey man BlueLane.com that that you know it stop it kind of stops there but if you type in aj valejo there's like everybody's like uh it's a web uh you can you can go down to foxhog and spend hours spend hours down that thing so well and let's plug uh greenstudios.com too right gr u gr-u e-n-e uh studios.com just for the people that live outside of Texas it's not grewing right so it's uh it's green so yeah great we're about to update that whole thing so please

Where To Follow And Final Support

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

check it out see where we're about we're gonna have we got there's a video there that they're about to uh put up there that shows like a kind of a quick tour a virtual tour of the studio the studio so that's something that you know I think it's important for a studio because you see studios and they just have like their page and has their gear list and yeah I think now we we live in this you know in this world people want to see movement they want to see they want absolute details it's like I don't even want to drive out there until I know what this is going what this is. Yeah save yourself some time right I mean if it doesn't check the box then why drive the new bronze at the end of the day right because one thing I can tell you is when if you come here and see what we have you're it's very few have walked out of here and been like nah everybody's like I'm when we start give me a date yeah man I'll have to I'll have to find out when when you're around and I I head out to San Antonio frequently and I'll have to stop in we'll take a picture and I'll get you to sign a guitar and uh I'll check out the digs and that that would be super cool. Yeah it'd be if and we could talk about this when we're done but I would love maybe you bring your little setup and uh maybe kind of do quick little flash interviews with these young up and coming coming kids that are here that are like I said guy Vincent is got number one Trevor Underwood I mean these kids are like 19 20 years old and they're just like I I was not making music like that when I was that would be that would be right up my alley man and I'd love to hear more about your thoughts around that uh anyway that I can give back to to you and and to the the up and coming artists there and and and still you know promote what I what I have going on here. I think it's a win-win for everybody. But yeah maybe we can arrange a a day or you can tell me what the schedule looks like in the upcoming months. Hey I'm gonna have this guy and you really want to come in and talk we just set up some time where I slip in there and set up the remote the mobile studio and get her done right yeah this is because I like this is great and you you're great you uh ask great questions and because other people are like oh so hey man so how do you you know like uh I think that would be great for them because also they're like I said they're young they haven't done a lot of interviews uh like uh but like say this guy Vincent kid we put him on a radio tour and real quick like I mean the guy was doing five interviews a day for like three days so he like when he came back he was like well versed uh yeah I mean we'd like let's do something let's talk about something like that yeah we'll do it man and and so yeah this has been super cool spending some time with you and getting to know more about all the things you have going on you know like I said I thought I had a lot of shit going on but do you you you I think I've I think I've found my uh uh the person that beat me in that category but thank thanks for everything and thanks for uh jumping on with me and did did we miss anything that you wanted to uh cover that maybe I didn't segue into for you just wanted to make sure I gave you I'm I think if anybody that's uh is listening all the way through here to the end of this interview here that pretty much lets us know that they are supporters and fans of music so all I can all I can say to anybody watching this is that we need as artists as creatives we all need your support like you've got you can't support us enough support everything you do can never support us enough because even with all the greatest uh support that's one person could give you like it's still you need like a lot we need a lot of soldiers you know uh especially with these young kids I'm okay I'll be fine like but the young art you know it that these people that listeners viewers people have the power to like make or break an artist just by liking and sharing and absolutely and they don't I don't think AJ you know what I I'll leave with this parting thought for the people that are still listening and I I think I have some pretty loyal listeners but I think so many people look past the simple things of liking and sharing things from artists. It's like oh AJ's playing here this weekend that's cool okay I'm not going so I just pass it by the the share the share of that event is the power of networking at the end of the day. And now you've taken that one thing and you've given it to another thousand or two thousand people that would have never seen that had you not shared it. So I encourage uh and I encourage people for my show sharing is probably one of the most powerful things that you guys can do to outside of just handing money to us, which we would love but we're never going to ask for money. But just a simple share means the world to guys like HA and I right it costs you nothing but literally a click of a button right literally clicks like a millisecond 100%. It's all we ask it's all we asked that's it well listen man I wish you uh great success now and in the future and keep in touch with me on on new and upcoming stuff and we'll talk offline about uh the up and comers there and and how we can work something out. But uh thanks for being here man. I really do appreciate that man appreciate you I uh I also ask the listeners to like share and subscribe to the podcast on Facebook at BackstagePass Radio Podcast on Instagram at BackstagePass Radio and on the website at backstagepassradio.com you guys make sure you take care of yourselves and one another and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of Backstagepass Radio Thank you for tuning into this episode of Backstage Pants Radio Backstage Pants Radio we hope you enjoyed this episode and gained some new insights into the world of music backstage pants radio is heard in over 80 countries and the streams continue to grow each week.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:15

If you love what you heard don't forget to subscribe rate and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback means the world to us and helps us bring you even more amazing content. So join us next time for another deep dive into the stories and sounds that create our musical landscape. Until then keep listening keep exploring and keep the function of music alive.